The Past Two Years: Part five

March, 2010, I got the dreadful mastitis. My daughter was 8 months old. She had four teeth by this time and had apparently bitten me. This coupled with a lazy latch are what I think brought on the mastitis. It really is a terrible thing and if you think there is even the slightest chance you will get then, please, get off your feet and take care of yourself! The pain was so great that I was having to take vicodin just to feed her. For some reason, I don't know why, I ended up with mastitis again two week later. I ate a lot of raw garlic when I had the infection and continued to take a clove a day for about a month.

You can see the redness here. Almost my entire breast was infected.

The story of my son's birth. Part one

I did a guest post at CFPN! The rest of the story will be posted next week :)

So Thankful!

8) Sleeping babies.
9) Working husband.
10) My broom.
11) A quite home.
12) My brother's advice.
13) Comfortable running shoes.
14) Cloudy days.

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8) Sleeping bambini.
9) marito di lavoro.
10) La mia scopa.
11) Una casa abbastanza.
12) consigli di mio fratello.
13) Scarpe comode corsa.
14) giorni nuvoloso.

The Past Two Years: Part four

With this great California weather we got to go hang out the laundry in February!

This is one of my favorite videos. She's such a doll!

Cloth Diaper Blog Hop!!

The Past Two Years: Part three

Most of our free time was spent hanging out with the chickens. Romeo, Donna, Daria and Cienna.

And taking walks. My dear husband wore her most of the time. He's such a great baby wearin' daddy!

10 things never to say to a stay-at-home Mom

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I got them from a friend, thought you might enjoy them as well. :)

 

1. When the kids are older, do you think you'll get a real job?

2. How June Cleaver of you!

3. Oh, so you don't work?

4. Since you have extra time on your hands, could you whip up a few dozen brownies for the bake sale tomorrow?

5. All day with your kids? I can't even imagine.

6. I'm jealous. I wish my husband were rich so I wouldn't have to work either.

7. What do you do all day, anyway?

8. I'm sure you're not the only one who's ever wasted money on a college degree.

9. That explains why your son is so clingy!

10. Weird. I assumed your house would be superclean.

The Past Two Years: Part two

In July 2009 Cosette came out of my belly and into our lives. You can find the story of her birth HERE.

This is my favorite breastfeeding picture I have with her.

So Thankful!

To keep a gracious spirit I am listing a few things I am thankful for every Thursday. Want to join me?

1) Jesus, my Lord.
2) My husband.
3) My children.
4) My momma.
5) My family.
6) Encouraging friends.
7) A place to call home.

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Per mantenere uno spirito gentile io sono messa un paio di cose sono grato per ogni Giovedi. Vuoi venire con me?

1) Gesù, mio Signore.
2) Il mio marito.
3) I miei figli.
4) La mia mamma.
5) La mia famiglia.
6) Incoraggiare gli amici.
7) Un luogo da chiamare casa.

The Past Two Years: Part one

Since I have been mostly missing in action (aside from the random post here and there) for the last two years I thought it would be a good idea to do a few update posts. For today I have a few maternity pictures from when I was pregnant with Cosette. The pictures were taken by my friend, Melanie, and edited by my husband.

 

Learning Italian

My daughter (22 months) and I are learning Italian together, if you couldn't tell by the translation on the bottom of my previous post ;) We are using a version of Rosetta Stone that is about 7 years old, so it's not the newest version which I hear is pretty darn cool. It's going well and the words seem to be sticking in my head a lot better than the last time I tried to learn.

Our studying goes like this, we go through the first part of the lesson once or twice. This is the part of the lesson where something is described and you pick the out the picture that matches. Since she can't read or write yet this is all she has to do. We usually do this while we drink our tea in the morning. After the lesson I look up cartoons in Italian on Youtube.

I am also using the words I know mixed in our daily conversions. For example, instead of saying "come sit at the table", I'll say "come sit at le tavelo." I know the grammar isn't correct but I figure I'm just working on the vocabulary right now and as we advance in the lessons I'll get better at randomly saying things that are grammatically correct.

For further study, for me, I continue and finish the lessons on my own while she's napping. Also, I find that it helps to keep me motivated to have blogs in Italian that I follow. I'm really liking Le Frufru and Little Emma English Home. Because I'm following these blogs I am finding Google Translate to be quite helpful.

And for some fun, here is a picture of my daughter's sand covered toes when we went to the beach last year.

How do you choose a baby name?

One of the hardest things for us is choosing the perfect name for our babies. Both of them were at least two days old before we were able to settle on a name. All the names that I had thought I would use before I got married I either don't like any more or my husband doesn't like them, so finding names has proved to be a lot harder than I thought it would be. But I do have one tip. Choose a theme. By doing this you narrow down your choices so it's not quite as overwhelming. There are countless themes you can choose from. The theme that we settled on is classic literature. Our daughter's name is from Les Miserables (Cosette) and our son's name is from King Arthur (Arthur). So, here are some themes you can choose from:

Literature
Shakespeare
Same first letter (all kids starting with c, etc)
Nationality (Italian, French, German etc)
Family names
Biblical
Historical (my brother's daughters are all named after British royalty and his sons after preachers)
Virtues

There are tons more, but this ought to get you started!

ps. I've done a couple guest posts on the CFPN's blog here and here


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Una delle cose più difficili per noi è scegliere il nome perfetto per i nostri bambini. Entrambi erano almeno due giorni prima siamo stati in grado di risolvere su un nome. Tutti i nomi che avevo pensato che mi sarebbe usare prima mi sono sposato io o non mi piace più o mio marito non le piace, così la ricerca di nomi ha dimostrato di essere molto più difficile di quanto pensassi che fosse. Ma io sono una punta. Scegli un tema. In questo modo a limitare giù le vostre scelte in modo che non è così schiacciante. Ci sono innumerevoli i temi si possono scegliere. Il tema che abbiamo scelto è la letteratura classica. Nome di nostra figlia è da Les Miserables (Cosette) e il nome di nostro figlio è tratto da King Arthur (Arthur). Così, qui sono alcuni temi è possibile scegliere tra:

Letteratura
Shakespeare
Stessa prima lettera (tutti i bambini che iniziano con c, ecc)
Nazionalità (italiano, francese, tedesco etc)
Famiglia nomi
Biblico
Storico (figlie di mio fratello sono tutti nomi reale inglese e ai suoi figli dopo predicatori)
Virtù

Ci sono tonnellate di più, ma questo dovrebbe iniziare!

ps. Ho fatto un paio di guest post sul blog del CFPN qui e qui

Interview with Christian Family Planning Network founder

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Sure! My name is Stephanie. I'm a 25 year old Bible College graduate. I've been a work-at-home-wife since June of 2008. The CFPN is my full-time job! My husband, Daniel, and I have been married for three years. We used the Fertility Awareness Method to avoid pregnancy for our first year of marriage, and have been waiting for child #1 since then.

What is the purpose of the Christian Family Planning Network (CFPN)?
The purpose of the CFPN is to educate engaged and married Christians about their options for birth control beyond artificial or hormonal contraceptives. We hope to overturn the common misconception that all natural birth control methods are the Rhythm Method of decades past.

How is this purpose accomplished?
Primarily through our message board. We have a vibrant community where women from all walks of life, and all theological perspectives, can come together and support each other in their decision to not use hormonal birth control. Some of our members join the community while still on the Pill, or the Shot, or the Ring. In situations like this, members of the community who have been in their shoes will come alongside and support them, answer their questions, and encourage them that they are doing a good thing!

Many of the women on our “Avoiding Pregnancy” forum have been using natural methods their entire marriage. Some of our long-term members have avoided pregnancy for up to four years, before deciding to try to conceive their first child. Now some of those members have given birth to their first child and are avoiding again with FAM or NFP postpartum!

In addition to supporting women who are avoiding pregnancy, we also have forums and buddy groups for women who are trying to conceive, are dealing with infertility, are pregnant, or parenting. We encourage all of our new members to join a buddy group and to plug into the community where they need support.

Our first online course began in January. The first section is FC101A: Just the Basics, and teaches people how to begin charting their fertility signs so that they can know when to avoid or abstain, or have sex if they're trying to conceive. FC101B: Beyond the Basics covers more advanced charting techniques, like what to do if your temperature or cervical fluid sign is unreliable, if you're not ovulating, or if you're post-partum. FC101B also covers the effect that exercise, nutrition and lunaception (moonlight) affects your cycle.

Why did you decide to start the CFPN?
Back in summer of 2007, when I was engaged, I joined a secular site that promotes the Fertility Awareness Method. I noticed that there were a few other summer brides asking similar questions to me. We wanted to know what to expect on our wedding night as we were all virgins and new at this whole charting and being married thing! So, I started a "buddy group", which is a small group of women who are all interested in the same thing. This gave us our own place to ask our questions of each other and get answers. Throughout the summer, our group grew in number, as the 2008 brides began to get engaged and research their options, and circumstances of the 2007 brides began to change.

In the spring of 2008, we split the original buddy group into three groups: 2007 brides, 2008 brides and those who were trying to get pregnant, or were already pregnant. By the Christmas of 2008 we had enough babies born that we started a parenting buddy group. About that point, the administration of the website we were on made a decision to support a pro-choice view of emergency contraception. I had been thinking that we needed to move our network of buddy groups (at this point we had about 50 women) to our own website for a few months, and it seemed like a really good time to do it!

January 17, 2009 was the first day we were on our own website. We stayed there for a few months, but we quickly realized that we were no longer the "Engaged & Newlywed Network". In order to change our name, we had to change our URL. So, the moderators decided that we would pay for our own hosting and our own domain, and we became the Christian Family Planning Network on May 15, 2009 at our current URL. As our name changed from one site to the next, so did our purpose, and that's how we got to where we are today!

Who can join the CFPN?
Anyone who is interested in learning about how a woman's natural fertility cycle works! This means men, women, young, old, dating, engaged, married, etc. You do not need to be a Christian or agree to our Statement of Faith to be a member, but all our leaders do hold to our Statement of Faith. Christian values such as marriage between only a man and woman, abstinence before marriage, and the sanctity of life are all upheld by our leaders, and we do hold those in high regard on the message board as well.

For women who are not engaged or married, we have a section of our message board called "Just Curious". This is for people who are not engaged or married, who are "just curious" about what their bodies are doing. We encourage them to participate there, and in the off-topic parts of the board, but ask that they refrain from joining the buddy groups for people who are actively using (or planning to use) the method in a marriage relationship until they are engaged.

Fitted Cloth Diaper Sewing Tutorial

I cut the pattern out on a fold to make sure it's symmetrical. I cut two flannel pieces for the inside and one jersey (tee shirt material) for the outside.




I sew them right sides together.



Leave an opening at the top so you can turn it right side out when your done.




Mark where you want the elastic to go on the legs and across the back. Cut elastic about 1/2 the length of where you want it.



I use a clear elastic, I've read that it lasts longer.



I sew the elastic to the seam allowance. Zig zag stitch the end of the elastic on to the diaper. Then stretch it tight and zig zag over the elastic to keep it in place. Yes, I do end up sewing into the elastic it's self.



This is what it looks like when the elastic is all sewn in but before it's turned.




Clip the corners.



Turn it right side out and sew a top stitch on the top/front to close it. And you're done!



Inside of the finished diaper.



Finished diaper folded. I use a snappi to keep it closed.




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I have made some with more of an inner soaker material but since they take so much longer to dry I like to do them like this and just lay in the extra absorbent insert. The ones that I have sewn the inserts into I just use those cheap prefolds that you get a target that most people use as burp rags.

And I should add that the flannel I used is from extra receiving blankets (I have over 20!) and the outside tie dyed material was a top bed sheet. I've heard that you can use jean and it makes for a great night time diaper because of it's absorbency. Old tee shirts work well too.

Chicks and Baby

We got four little chickies about 4 weeks ago. Two of them were about a week old when we got them and two were between 3 and 4 weeks as far as we can tell. I kinda hope one of them is a rooster, if not then I hope to get a rooster sometime this summer or fall so he can keep an eye on the girls for me ;) Cody has been working on the coop for me, just making it out of scrap wood so it may take a few weeks just to get everything they way it needs to be. It'll be a small coop, about 2'x4', maybe a little bigger but it's plenty of space for our four chickens.

I've been researching milk goats recently too, not that I want any right now, but they are something I might want to consider for the future, especially given my sensitivity to some cow milk products.

Aparently my baby has turned head down, which is good, she's quite the wiggler so I hope she stays that way. I'm getting a little anxious to meet her. I'm 36 weeks today so I only have a month to go and I know I shouldn't hope for her to come too early since I still have so much that needs to be done.

Moving This Weekend!

We're moving this weekend. I'm really excited because the house we are moving into is an old (built in the 40's or so) farm house. It's small and cute and just the right size for us :)

I really hope we don't have to move for a while after this.

It's a Girl!!!

A week or so before the sonogram my husband decided that he wants to find out the sex of the baby. It didn't matter either way for me. Anyway, it looks like we're having a girl! We were kind of anticipating a boy so it was a slight shock, took about two minutes to get used to the idea ;) But now we're pretty much excited for our new little girl to arrive. All the cute things to make her. I've been thinking that I'd like to have a Holly Hobbie theme for her, it would be so cute!

Oh and since I mentioned making stuff for her, yesterday I made my first diaper. It turned out so cute. I'm not sure if I want to use it as a pocket diaper or just a cover though. It'll work either way. I'll post a couple pictures of it soon.

Dehydration..

I can't believe how much it effects me now. I used to be able to just drink a couple glasses of water a day and, for the most part, be fine. But now, I had two days where I slowed down my water intake (not on purpose) and I felt awful today :( I felt almost fluish. So I had myself a gatorade and now I'm feeling better, but geesh, I guess I better make sure I drink enough from now on. Ughh.

Oh, about my doctors appointment.. I didn't have to walk, my mother-in-law took me and even came in with me and was able to hear the babies heartbeat! Nothing really exciting happened other than that I need to make sure I eat enough and am gaining weight, but that's pretty much it.

I scheduled my sonogram for the 18th. It's pretty much to check and make sure the baby is the right size, they might check for something else, but I'm not sure what. Mu husband and I decided that we want to wait to find out the sex of our baby, so we wont be finding that out at this sonogram. Also, and this could change things a little bit, my husband was listening to the radio and heard that there could be potential risks to the babies health. So he's now a little hesitant in getting any unecessary sonograms. I told him to decide if he wants to go ahead with this one and say we don't need or want to have any more, or tell them that we just don't want any sonograms period. I'll get back to you when I find out what we're going to do.

Tomorrow's appointment and some diapers

My first doctors appointment is tomorrow. I'm not sure what all they are going to do with me. If it's mostly paper work or if I have to get blood work done too. They'll probably want to do as much as they can seeing as how I'm already half way through this pregnancy and this is my first appointment.

It's been raining here everyday for the last few days, which is good, I just hope that it's not raining too hard tomorrow when I have to go to the appointment since I'll be walking. I'm sure if it's pouring my father-in-law would be able to drop me off, but it'd be nice to walk, I need the exercise. My husband said it might take me an hour to walk there, so I might leave a little bit earlier than that just because of the lovely pregnancy symptom of having shortness of breath.


Now about the cloth diapers.
I need to start a list of the things I need and want for diapering so I don't forget. I usually do a lot of research then kinda forget about it then research it all over again when it's time to actually get it done, so I'll try to be more organized this time :P I'll probably just repost the list when I update it too.

1. Diapers (I hope to make most of them but we'll see how that goes, and at least a couple are coming from a friend)
2. Diaper Covers (at least 3, I hear Thirsties are a good brand)
3. Diaper Pail (whatever trash can we can get)
4. Diaper Pail Liner (I'd like two, so there's a clean one and one being used in the pail, they get washed with the diapers)
5. Cloth Wipes (not sure how many I need but I'm pretty sure I can just make them)
6. Wipes Solution (just as long as I figure out a recipe for this I should be ok)
7. Potty Pail (I really really want to make sure we get this)
8. Laundry Detergent (apparently you can't use just any ol' soap, I've heard good things about Simply Clean and it's pretty cheap)
9. Pail Freshner (it's not necessary but I'm sure my husband would approve :))
10. Snappi (almost a must when using prefolds and you only need 3 or so)
11. Rash/Nipple cream (Lansinoh is supposed to be the thing to have on hand when breast feeding and apparently makes a good rash cream when using cloth diapers because it washes right out in warm water unlike many popular brands)
12. An organizing system (I'm not sure what I want in this because I don't know how much room we'll have. I've seen some really nice arrangments people have done with their changing tables, though I've never used one and thought they were kind of useless, always just changed the diaper on the floor. Oh well, well see, I'll just have to research it later.)

This is all I can think of right now. I'm a little bit afraid to add up the prices of all this, hopefully we get some of it as gifts. Pretty much all of the big stuff is being given to us, hand-me-downs from my brother and sister-in-law, and I didn't really register for a lot knowing that people will buy that stuff anyway, I may as well let them pick out the outfit, right?

The Coming Attraction

Ok, so it's been a while and lot has happened. For one, we have moved twice in search of work and, oddly enough, my husband finally (after 7 months of looking) got two full time jobs in the area where you'd least expect it. It's a small county and a commuter area, most of the people here commute one to two hours away. So it is totally God's blessing that he was able to get these jobs, both of which are a quick 20 minute drive from the house.

And two, probably the thing that will most change our lives is that we found out that we are pregnant! We conceived just one month after our wedding day. Quite the surprise but totally welcome, it did take us a few days to get past the shock though, ;) . Currently I am 20 weeks along and have 20 weeks to go. I remember a few months ago thinking that it would be such a long time before I ever got to this point but now I'm here and seems like it has gone by so fast! Along with the pregnancy came a lot of changes in my body, like everything having to do with eating. I had bad morning sickness until 12 weeks and here at 20 weeks it seems to have settled down to the point where I haven't gotten sick in 3 or 4 days, which is really nice. Also, I have to eat every two hours or so which is really hard for me since I have a bad habit of only eating when I remember to, once or twice a day. I guess God is getting me ready for having to feed the baby every couple of hours :P

There's more I could say but I'm getting hungry, so I better go eat something! :)