Learning To Not Rush To Bedtime

Many days bedtime seems to be the prize. If I can get to bedtime I've accomplished something. If the kids and I are still in one piece and they are asleep, I've made it. Sound familiar at all?

Sometimes I get so busy, so self consumed that I forget my children are to be enjoyed. After I've reached that "prize" of the end of the day I often feel guilty. How much of me did the kids get today? Did I enjoy them? Did I simply rush them through the day hoping for the least amount of hiccups until The clock finally said 7:30? Did I love on them... did I enjoy them?
I'm challenging my husband and I (and you!) to make sure we are enjoying our kids. That we don't make parenting a burden. That we fully experience the joy that our children are. Sure, it isn't jump up and down fun all of the time, and that's okay. It's okay if some days bedtime can't come a moment too soon. Days like that are bound to happen. But I have felt convicted lately about not being fully engaged enough to appreciate the kids. 
Maybe I would be less tired if I played on the floor a little more with them. Maybe I would be less stressed if I laughed at them when they splashed in the tub. Maybe I would feel more happiness if I embraced being asked for yet another story at bedtime. Maybe, just maybe, I won't look back on this time, sad that they have grown up, if I take the time to appreciate them being this age, while they are this age. 
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Halo Sleep Sack

Fall has finally arrived here in Indiana, and it looks like we're going to be headed straight to winter rather quickly. We live in an older home and my kids' rooms never feel quite warm enough. Wes has outgrown the option of swaddling and with him only being 8 months old I don't feel comfortable giving him a blanket yet. I LOVED the Halo swaddle that the hospital sent us home with because I felt like he could stay warm but be safe at the same time. We could never get a tight enough swaddle on him with just a blanket and he was always breaking free (stinking escape artist). There was no way for him to break free from the Halo swaddle (take that Houdini!).

Did you know that Halo makes sleep sacks for older kids?? I seriously had no idea that they made products for older children. I mean, did you know?! When I was contact by them about featuring their product on my blog I was so surprised that they had a product for my older infant. I just assumed they were just in the swaddle market. 
This is what they look like:

Image from Halo's website

Basically it's a blanket they can wear. They can't get tangled up in it and they can't suffocate themselves with it. 

Safe sleep has always been a biggie with me. I've never been one to load my kids' crib up with blankets and stuffed animals. Here are some safe sleep tips straight from Halo:

HALO Innovation’s SleepSack® wearable blankets have become the standard for hospital nurseries and parents alike. In fact, 1,000 hospital nurseries use the HALO SleepSack Swaddle instead of blankets through the HALO Safer Way to Sleep Initiative. HALO Innovations also offers free Safe Sleep Practices kits to childbirth educators to help further the cause of SIDS prevention.

ALWAYS

• Place baby to sleep on his or her back at naptime and at night time.
• Use a crib that meets current safety standards with a firm mattress that fits snuggly and is covered with only a tight-fitting crib sheet.
• Remove all soft bedding and toys from your baby’s sleep area (this includes loose blankets, bumpers, pillows and positioners). The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests using a wearable blanket instead of loose blankets to keep your baby warm.
• Offer a pacifier when putting baby to sleep. If breastfeeding, introduce pacifier after one month or after breastfeeding has been established.
• Breastfeed, if possible, but when finished, put your baby back to sleep in his or her separate safe sleep area alongside your bed.

NEVER

• Never put your baby to sleep on any soft surface
• Never dress your baby too warmly for sleep; keep room temperature 68-72 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Never allow anyone to smoke around your baby or take your baby into a room or car where someone has recently smoked.

Halo is actually donating $1 to SIDS awareness for every new "like" they get on their Facebook page during the month of October. I love when companies show support to a great cause! 

How cute is this rocket design? 

Aside from how cute it is, my absolute favorite thing about it is that the zipper starts at the top and zips down. There are so many baby clothes (mostly pjs) that my kids can access the zipper pull and chew on it and I absolutely hate it. With this, that isn't possible. Oh my goodness the fleece is so soft as well!

You can purchase any of the Halo sleep products directly from their website or from target.com and amazon.com

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Spark of Amber Review and Giveaway!

Hey there! If you are a mom (or dad) of a teething child you probably have heard of amber teething necklaces. Spark of Amber kindly provided one for us to try out and I'm excited to share our experience with you! If you haven't heard of Amber necklaces let me allow Spark of Amber to tell you a little bit about them. 
Spark of Amber:

Baltic Amber is a fossilized resin. Europeans greatly prize this beautiful stone for its claimed 100% natural anti-inflammatory, pain relieving, and calming properties. The healing oils of the Baltic Amber are said to relieve teething pain, tame baby’s irritability and relieve inflammation in the throat, ear, and stomach. 

The necklace I received can be found here. It is a great length and fits both our 7 month old and our 2 year old. The pieces are nice and smooth and has not irritated their skin, which is something I was a bit worried about because both our children have very sensitive skin.  Safety! As parent's we're always thinking about our kid's safety right? When I received our necklace I was very glad to see that it is knotted between each and every bead, which means if for some reason it breaks they won't be all over the floor as a choking hazard. If it broke, only one bead would come loose - at the place where the string broke.

They are cute! My daughter has not really had an experience with jewelry yet so I wasn't sure if she would tug at it or be annoyed with it on. I was surprised when she didn't even seem to notice it was on. It's a cute fashion accessory for her even without regard to the beads doing their job. I was even more worried that my 7 month old would tug at it and was a tad worried he'd yank it off and break it. It's long enough on him that I can slip it under his shirt (which is actually ideal so the beads contact more of his skin) and he forgets all about it. 
I wasn't sure how a yellow necklace would look on a boy but I think it works! For the most part though he has been wearing it under his shirt to give more contact with the skin (except for the pictures) so if that is a concern for you wearing it under the shirt makes it virtually unseen. 

So does it work? Well Wes hasn't really been teething this week (or maybe he has and the necklace has helped??) so it's hard to say. I was quite skeptical but I had a headache the other day and decided to put the necklace in my fist to see if it helped and my headache went away pretty quickly. Placebo affect? Maybe, but it can't hurt so next time I get a headache I'll be trying it again! 

** These necklaces are not intended to be chewed on and they are not intended to be worn while sleeping for safety reasons**
Wes had just woken up from a nap and was still a little sleepy when I was taking pictures :)

Giveaway time! Spark of Amber is giving away a teething necklace to one of my readers. Use the widget below to enter. 
a Rafflecopter giveaway
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You Win Some, You Lose Some

Sometimes I totally rock a trip out by myself with both kiddos. I'm completely put together, the kids are behaved and people stop and compliment how cute and well behaved they are and I leave the store feeling great. Sometimes it goes less than stellar and I fall flat on my face into a mud puddle (figuratively but nothing would have surprised me today). Today I wanted to go pick up some seeds and starters for our garden because I'm wanting to plant tonight. I should have known not to attempt it based on the amount of crying, spit up and chocolate smears (yes chocolate, at 9am...) on my furniture this morning. I went anyways. 
I first went to Big R (a local farm kind of store, think Farm and Fleet, though that might be a local store too?) and between Wes screaming and Norah putting every herb starter she could find on the wagon that I thought she should pull around, I decided to abandon that plan and head to Walmart where I could use an actual cart and maybe it would go better. While in lawn and garden (outside) Norah was determined to open every seed packet (thankfully she was not successful), Wesley was still crying and Norah set off the Jeep's alarm which took me 2-3 minutes to shut off since we were a decent distance from it (no clue how she got it to go off from where we were). After I got it shut off and the crowd disappeared from the Jeep, seriously it was like they flocked to see why it was beeping, I proceeded to abandon that plan as well. 

If I had the inclination to have taken a picture of us
this morning it probably would have looked a little something like this...
Source

I'll be going back out alone tonight. You win some, you lose some I suppose. 
Oh, and I think the little mister is teething. 
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One Month Old! (Yesterday...)

Our guy was officially one month old yesterday. I meant to make this post yesterday but apparently we were too busy partying and I didn't get a chance to :) 
It feels like forever since I was in the hospital almost as if it never happened. It feels like Wesley has always been a part of our family and our family routine. Yet I still can't believe he is already a month old. I read something online (which always means it is 100% true right?) that said babies are medically a newborn for 28 days and after that they are considered an infant. Going by that he is no longer considered a newborn, which is crazy. He still fits in his newborn clothes though so I can't be too sad yet ;)
So far Norah and Wesley have been completely opposite babies. Even strange things like Norah being smaller weight wise but she outgrew newborn clothes at this point and Wesley still fits in them just fine. The way they nurse is different, including the frequency and duration being very different from each other. Wesley in general is a lot more high needs/maintenance and all around more dramatic than Norah ever was. I'm not entirely sure what that means we have in store for us, yikes! Norah took forever to lift her head on her own (seriously she was a few months old before she did) but Wesley is already hard a work with that. Norah never cared much about a dirty diaper (and actually she still doesn't, which I worry will make potty training hard...) but Wesley lets you know that he's ready for a dry butt - in fact the kid won't eat unless he has a total fresh diaper it seems. I can understand that though ;) Norah was always content just sitting around in her bouncer and preferred to not be held all that much, she never was much of a snuggler as an infant. Wesley on the other hand is a great snuggle bug! I love it! Except it can be a bit tough to snuggle him when it's just me at home when I'm chasing after a certain adorable 21 month old that I know. 
It's amazing to me that they can be so completely different. Even in their complete differentness (hm newly created word via me?) they are both equally perfect. I'm so excited to see them grow together and all of the adventures we have coming our way :)

One month old and pretty stinking awesome. 

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Avery

I came across a blog yesterday about a little girl named Avery. Avery was diagnosed with SMA, which is something I had never heard of. You can find out more about it here. Seeing as I just had a baby and went through all of the tests I thought was offered to me, you would think I would have heard of this disease before. It causes more deaths in babies than any other genetic disease, and yet for some reason it was never mentioned at any of my appointments as something worth checking to see if the husband or I were carriers. Type 1 SMA (which is the type Avery was diagnosed with) presents itself sometime prior to 6 months but Type 2 can sometimes not present itself until the child is 18 months. 

Avery's blog has been all about her getting to do as many things as possible in her life as with her type of SMA it isn't likely to live past 18 months. Her parent's also started the blog with the hope of getting more awareness about SMA. Avery's parents have apparently done a good job - if you google "Avery" it is the fourth thing that comes up (after a few well known companies). 

Unfortunately Avery suddenly passed away yesterday. 

Her father posted this picture on her blog that they took of
her only 20 minutes before she passed.  Look at that smile
Isn't  she beautiful?? 

  It's interesting how someone you don't know and have only known about for 24 hours can affect you. It breaks my heart for this little girl and her family. It reminds me how blessed I am that I currently have a healthy little girl. I am so incredibly grateful for the fact that we haven't had to go through what that family has gone though. I can't imagine there being a greater pain than to out live your child. 

  I know it isn't much but I wanted to do my part in sharing Avery's story and about SMA. If I had known about SMA prior to having Norah I would have certainly asked it be included in the genetic testing I had done so that if Matt and I both happened to be carriers we could have researched how to prepare for our child to possibly have SMA. 

You can find Avery's blog here: www.averycan.blogspot.com 

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