Adalyn's first 4th of July

Adalyn had a lot of firsts last week.

She had her first big trip in the car, her first vacation at my parents' cabin, her first time swimming in the lake my grandparents live on, and her first time seeing fireworks.

Whew...it was a busy weekend...

I was very nervous about our trip up to the cabin. Adalyn can barely handle a 30 minute trip over to my parents' house. This was a 3 hour car ride...

Ready to go!

She did amazingly well. Just like everything that girl does... :)

After about 40 minutes in the car, she fell asleep. We were about an hour and a half from the cabin when we stopped to eat, diaper change, etc., and then on the road again!

Adalyn was ready to be out of the car when we were about 30 minutes away from the cabin, and she was very vocal about her opposition to being in the car seat.

Finally, we arrived. 

She did a great job being away from home for 3 days. We swam in the lake (well, dipped her toes in--it's a cold lake, even in July...), we spent the day in town shopping, played at the park, and of course, watch the fireworks on the 4th. 

Enjoying the lake.

 Adalyn loved the fireworks...okay, okay, so we really could not tell how she felt about the fireworks. 

Her facial expression did not change the entire time.

Even after the fireworks...

We thought maybe she was a little tired during the fireworks...but then she went back to the cabin and told Grandma all about them.

It was a great little vacation, even with the crazy amount of mosquitoes. P.S. My awesome homemade insect repellent was not so awesome. Back to the drawing board with that one...

Adalyn and Mommy enjoying the fireworks.

 Sidebar:

 

Adayln has also had a diaper rash for some time. We have no idea why it will not go away. We have questioned every possibility. Yeast infection? Heat rash? Allergy? 

It doesn't look like what a typical yeast infection is described to look like. I thought maybe it was a food allergy, but again, it doesn't look like how it is described. I think it is probably a heat rash. It has been quite warm lately, and the poor girl had what looked like hives on her tummy. :( She has also been trying to itch the rash. 

Normal diaper creams do not work for her. In fact, any diaper cream with zinc oxide in it only makes the rash worse. Other creams and Aquaphor have not helped, so we have been using cornstarch powder. It seems to be working well. We also put a pause on using cloth diapers, and have been using disposable diapers until we can get rid of the rash. 

If it does not go away soon, we will be taking a trip to the doctor to hopefully get rid of the darn rash.

Anyway...

 

Adalyn did a great job riding back home. In fact, she was awake for about 30 minutes, and then slept the entire way home. 

I absolutely believe that it was the little fan that we purchased while we were at the cabin, and had blowing on her during the ride home.

The night we got home, we went to a neighboring town's festival for more fireworks. 

More fireworks!

Still have no idea how she feels about them...

It was a great weekend, and we feel so blessed to have such a wonderful little girl. We are very excited to celebrate more firsts for Adalyn!

Homemade laundry soap

On my escapade to be greener and save money, I decided to make my own laundry soap. 

I actually found this recipe here. I made mine without the Borax and used baking soda instead.

Essentially, this is how I made the liquid detergent: 

3/4 cup Dr. Bronner's Liquid Castile Soap 
             (I used the baby kind)
1/2 cup Washing Soda
1/2 cup Baking Soda (or Borax)

The recipe also called for 20-50 drops of lavender essential oil, but I chose to do without because Adalyn and I have pretty sensitive skin (and Adalyn got a rash from lavender essential oil in her cloth wipe solution), so unscented works great for us. 

Fill a 2 gallon bucket with a few inches of hot water (I used a mop bucket). 
Add the washing soda, and stir to dissolve. 
Add the baking soda, and stir to dissolve. 
Add the Dr. Bronner's, and stir to dissolve. 
Finally, fill the rest of the bucket (up to 2 gallons) with hot water.

I stored mine in an old detergent container. The large Tide ones with the spout work really well, and then you don't have to store the detergent in multiple containers.

I also made one (found from here) specifically for cloth diapers:

1 cup Washing Soda
1 cup Baking Soda (the recipe from here calls for Borax)
1/2 cup OxiClean Free or Baby (I used Baby)

I used an old ice cream bucket to store this detergent. 
To fill it up, I would just add the ingredients like the recipe calls for. I would repeat the recipe until the bucket was filled.

I have been using this recipe for about a month now, and I have to say, it works really well! Jon does say that he thinks the cloth diaper detergent (powder) works better than the regular detergent (liquid). I think I will try making powder stuff next time (using the bar soap of Dr. Bronner's instead of the liquid soap), and see if it might work better.

The cloth diaper detergent gets the job done, and almost always the cloth diapers come out of the wash without any staining. If there is any staining on the diapers, I will hang them out on the line in the sun. This is a great way to bleach out stains! 

Okay, to be fair, I hang them out on the line even if they are not stained. This is because our home does not have a washer or dryer. Yeah, not fun, especially when using cloth diapers!!! 

Before we started cloth diapering, we would just do our laundry at either my parents' house or Jon's parents' house. Yeah, they are pretty awesome like that. 

Now that we are using cloth diapers, we need to do laundry much more often. Without a dryer, I have to wash cloth diapers on a daily basis to keep enough clean (and dry!) ones in rotation. 

We invested in the Wonder Washer. 

It is definitely worth the money! No, it doesn't have a rinse cycle, so I end up having to change out the water four times, and you cannot fit a large amount of diapers in it, but it sure beats having to hand wash! It also gets the diapers a lot cleaner than hand washing. Jon also will use the washer if he needs to clean any work shirts before we get over to one of our parents' houses to do laundry. 

The Wonder Washer and cloth diaper detergent. We have to put a towel under the washer because it sometimes splashes and gets the floor wet...

We. CANNOT. Wait. To have a home. WITH. A washer. AND. Dryer...

When I use the Wonder Washer for the cloth diapers, I do four cycles, at fifteen minutes each. The first is with cold water and the cloth diaper detergent. The second is with hot water and the cloth diaper detergent. The third is with warm water and white vinegar. The final cycle is with just warm water. I also rinse out the diapers in warm water after, just to be sure they have been rinsed clean of any remaining detergent. 

That reminds me, I need to switch out the water for the load of diapers in the wash...

That's all!

Homemade cleaning wipes

So, on my escapade to become a slightly crunchy mama, I decided that I would try making my own cleaning wipes. 

Pre-crunchy mama loooved Lysol disinfectant wipes for cleaning. I am a naturally messy person when cooking, so having wipe for a quick clean after cooking is so nice. Recently, I did some research on the products I use. I was not happy with what I found on the disinfectant wipes. So, I decided to make my own!

I have seen recipes for homemade baby wipes using paper towel, so I figured why not use it for this?

My homemade cleaning wipes

I cut a roll of paper towel in half. I would recommend splurging on the paper towel, and getting the nice thick stuff. I got some cheaper store brand stuff and found that the paper towel gets pretty thin, so I end up using more at one time.

I mixed Dr. Bronner's Liquid Castile Soap (unscented baby--I purchased mine at Target) with tea tree oil, lavender, and distilled water. I did not use specific measuring for the ingredients, but I think i was something close to this:

1-2 tsp Dr. Bronner's Liquid Castile Soap

3-4 drops tea tree oil

3-4  drops lavender

4 cups distilled water

Left side=my mess, Right side=cleaned with the homemade wipes! 
No joke, I am this messy after only one time using the stove...

I used an old (clean) coffee container--it actually fit pretty well. I took out the cardboard part in the middle of the paper towel and put the paper towel in the coffee container. I poured the mixture over the paper towel and let it soak in. 

Voila! Very easy to make! And very good for clean-ups too!

Yay! Clean stove after messy me cooked dinner!

Update: I made another batch of the cleaning wipes. This time, I used sweet orange essential oil instead of lavender. It works great!! And it smells great too! I still had my other half of the paper towel from the first batch, so I will update later when I make more with a higher quality paper towel. :)

Sick :(

A few nights ago, Adalyn got sick.

:(

And Mom got scared...

Poor sick girl finally fell asleep on Daddy's chest.

It would have been easier if she had a cold, or maybe had been older, but when a four-month-old baby is vomiting...it gets scary real fast.

Even now, we have no idea why she was vomiting, but she would get so red in the face and looked so miserable, I could barely stand it.

The first few times she was sick, we just thought she had eaten too much (this girl is going through a major growth spurt and seriously ate like three times within three or four hours...), or that she had gotten sick because she kept sticking her fingers in her mouth and was gagging herself. 

Then, she kept getting sick, even after there was nothing left in her stomach, and she no longer had her hands in her mouth. So Mom called the doctor and the doctor (well nurse) said...A nurse will call you back....

YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME?!?!

It was five minutes later, Adalyn was still getting sick, and I was calling the birthing center. She at least called over to the nurse to ask what was going on, and why I hadn't been called back yet. 

When I finally spoke to the nurse, she didn't seem too worried about it, because Adalyn didn't have a fever, she could still move her arms and legs, no bulging soft spot, etc., etc., etc. 

So, we had to watch her for the night...No sleep for Mom and Dad. 

Adalyn finally fell asleep around 10 pm. The poor girl was so exhausted, she wouldn't even suck on a bottle filled with a little bit of Pedialyte. She woke up again around midnight (and so did Dad). We used a syringe to get her to drink some of the Pedialyte. She did much better this time.

Side note--Mom here really needs to find that recipe for homemade Pedialyte. I have heard that it is much cheaper to make, and much healthier too.

Back asleep again until 2 am...Mom and Dad slept this time because she had not been vomiting the last time she woke. Adalyn literally did not leave our sides, in fact she slept on one of our chests the entire night...

At 2 am, Adalyn was starting to act more like herself again. She was moving around more and woke up with this attitude like, "Hey guys! What's up? I am starved!"

The problem was that the nurse told us to only give her 1-2 tsp of Pedialyte every five minutes for the first four hours after she stopped vomiting, followed by 2-4 tsp every five minutes for four hours after that. And no breastfeeding.

When Adalyn is hungry and does not get fed, she gets mad. Really, really mad...

Yeah..., Adalyn received a bottle with an ounce of Pedialyte really quick. 

The poor thing had been through so much already, that I couldn't stand to deny her having more liquids. I was a bit afraid that it would be too much for her and that she might vomit again, but she held it down well. 

She woke again at 4 am, hungry, so we gave her a few more ounces of Pedialyte before she fell asleep again. Finally, at 6 am, when she woke, I was allowed to breastfeed her again. 

The following day, Adalyn acted like her normal self; She was happy, playing with her toys, singing and talking. 

"B" is for "Better!" As in, "Adalyn is feeling better!"

We are so incredibly happy that she is feeling better now. 

And that Mom and Dad have not gotten sick...yet...

Bath and Sleep Update

I am happy to say that after a long two weeks, things seem to be getting better with Adalyn. :D A very sleep-deprived Mom and Dad are so incredibly thankful...

A well-rested and drooling baby makes for a happy baby--and Mom and Dad.

Last night was the first night in a long time that bath time actually went pretty well. Before, we used to play with toys, etc. and leave bath time as one of the last things that we do before bedtime. Last night, we took a bath right away after she woke up from her late afternoon nap and had eaten. This seemed to work soooo much better. I think when we used the previous system, Adalyn was just way too tired to enjoy her bath time. This is a schedule we will definitely have to stick with.

I also enjoy that we are starting to get a really good bed time schedule set with Adalyn. On nights that we take a bath, Adalyn will wake up from her last nap of the day and eat (we stick to the eat, play, sleep schedule for all of her naps during the day--it works really well). 

After she eats, Adalyn will take her bath. After the bath (there were no tears last night!!!), we will play. This is also generally when the music comes on and we will sing and dance--okay, so for Adalyn dancing means me standing her up and wiggling her hips, but it is still cute. :) 

After play time, we will go to her room and read some stories. Adalyn generally lets me know when she is getting too tired by rubbing her eyes and yawning. Then, we turn on the lullaby music and I will have Adalyn snuggled up in my arms while I rock her in the glider for a little while. I will lay her down in her crib, sleepy, but not asleep. 

Depending on how tired and relaxed Adalyn is really determines whether or not she will start crying at this point...

On days that we do not have a bath--every other day, we will keep the same schedule, except during bath time we try to do a massage. If Adalyn is too tired, she absolutely does not enjoy having a massage. Most of the time, she really enjoys it. 

Of course, when Dad is home and not at work, he will join us with bedtime. He has had a lot of evening work shifts, as well as the camp counselor training on weekends, so he has missed many bedtimes in the past few weeks. Needless to say, he really cannot wait until this summer when he will have a normal work schedule and will be home in the evening.

Last night, I did not think bedtime would go very well. Adalyn woke up about four times between 7:45 pm and 10:30 pm. She was hungry at 10:30 (and Dad got home around that time, so he got to snuggle with her for a little while after she ate). Surprisingly, Dad was able to put her down in her crib without a single fuss. She woke up a few times after that, but generally fussed for a minute or so and was able to put herself back to sleep. She didn't wake up until 4:45 am....Hallelujah! 

Adalyn is always eating, so of course she was hungry at 4:45, but who cares, she slept for more than an hour at a time!!

Jon and I didn't go to bed until after 1 am...oops. But I can definitely say, after a few weeks of Adalyn waking up every hour, those couple of hours that I got to sleep before she woke up felt AMAZING!

:)

Bath time and bedtime

Our day with Adalyn is pretty routine at this point. We follow the eat, play, sleep routine, and it seems to work well for us. Recently, Adalyn has not been sleeping very well, her nap times have been cut very short, and she cries hysterically after bath time.

What happened to the babe that loved bath time?

Adalyn did go through some really bad cradle cap, which made bath time much less fun. I think the soap was too strong, and it was drying on her already sensitive scalp. Her skin seems to be pretty sensitive and easy to dry out, so I have stopped using any form of bubble bath. We use Aveeno baby wash on her, but it still does not seem to help.

Even though we have the cradle cap under control, for the most part, she still cries during bath time. We have even stopped using the infant tub and started filling up the whole tub for bath time. One of us will get in the tub with her and help her sit up while she plays with her toys. Adalyn generally likes the part where she gets to play with the toys...She loves chewing on her rubber duckies.

I thought some possible reasons why she might be crying were that she was cold or that she was mad because she did not want to get out of the bathtub. I used to take her out of the bathroom, in her towel, and to her room, where I would put pajamas on her--which is another story: not only is she already upset, but then I try to put clothing on her, which, for some reason, she absolutely hates.

Anyway, so now I steam up the bathroom with the shower prior to bath time, I keep the door closed and have my robe shoved down at the bottom of the door to keep the heat in. I start to drain the tub while we are still in it, so that she doesn't realize as quickly that bath time is over. I turn the shower back on after we get out of the tub, and I get her pajamas on in the bathroom. If she isn't too tired at the end of bath time, I will give her a massage.

Although this has helped a bit, I still seem to have a crabby baby afterward.

**As a side note, I realize that turning on the shower so much is a waste of water, but I figure that because Mom no longer gets to shower as often as she used to, we are using just as much water as we were pre-baby. :) 

And then there is bedtime...

What happened to the babe that loved to sleep?

I did read that at this age, babies are going through a lot more development and are starting to notice everything around them, which makes babies not want to sleep...Who could blame Adalyn? She has a lot of really awesome toys and books!

This week has been especially stressful now that she is no longer sleeping as well because Jon has been working the closing shift almost every night, which leaves Mom to be the lone bedtime enforcer...

Not only does Adalyn not want to go to bed at night, which leads her to cry, and cry, and cry, but she also does not sleep as long as she used to. The idea of "cry it out" has some very mixed feelings by others. I am still on the fence about the idea. Yes, she does need to learn how to fall asleep by herself, but it is so incredibly difficult to listen to her cry so hard and whimper as she falls asleep. :(

Before, Adalyn would generally fall asleep somewhere between 7 and 8 pm--depending on what time she woke up that day, and what time she took her naps during the day. Ugh...and nap time... She used to sleep for 1-2 hours, sometimes even 3 hours. Now her naps tend to run about 30 minutes, with a longer 1-2 hour nap in the morning.

Anyway, so bed time...She would generally sleep from 7 or 8 pm until 1 or 2 am and need to have a feeding. Lately, she has been waking up earlier and earlier. Tonight, she fell asleep a little before 8 pm. It wasn't even 9 pm and she was already crying. Generally, we are able to get Adalyn to fall back asleep (if she isn't hungry) by giving her a pacifier. Now, she will not even take a pacifier and will just cry and cry.

I might add, Adalyn has also recently begun to roll over from her back to her stomach. (Yay for Adalyn, not-so-much-yay for Mom and Dad). When she is upset, she rolls onto her stomach. I have read that it is fine for babies to sleep on their stomachs once they have learned how to roll there on their own. The only problem is that most of the time she gets one arm trapped under her body and cries even more.

Well, my dearest Adalyn, I love you so much, and I would do anything for you. I would even give you the shirt off my back---No, literally. I gave her the shirt off my back tonight, and she feel asleep.

When she woke up after not even having slept an hour tonight, I tried to soothe her while she was in her crib. This did not work whatsoever, so I finally picked her up and rocked her in the glider for a little bit. She immediately snuggled into my chest and fell asleep--the same girl who was hysterically crying a minute ago.

Then, I remembered something I had read...

I was trying to find ideas on how to get Adalyn to fall asleep a few nights ago. There was a woman that had commented that she would put her shirt in with her baby at night because the baby would sleep better having Mom's scent close to him.

Maybe this is the reason why Adalyn fell asleep so quickly in my arms tonight? So, I layed her back in her crib. She, of course, immediately woke up and started to fuss. I pulled off my shirt and laid it on her like a blanket (we have always used blankets with Adalyn--we know that many doctors recommend that you do not do this, but she would never sleep in just a sleep sack. She would only fall asleep with the blanket). Wouldn't you know it, she fell right to sleep.

To be fair, it has only been like a half hour since she fell asleep, but hopefully it works.

Mom=1
Bed time crying=too many to count 

**Update-yeah, that didn't work...ugh. She slept until about 11 pm and was up crying again. Back to the drawing board with this one.

Mom=0
Bed time crying=too many to count + 1  

Just another day at the Howard residence

Well, today was quite a stressful day. We have been having issues with the realty agency that has been trying to sell this house. I think it would bother me less if it were actually our house that we were trying to sell...instead we are renting the place.

We have dealt with our landlords trying to sell this place ever since we moved in, over three years ago, but this year has definitely been the worst. It is like the realty agency finally decided to go full-force with their showings this year. We have dealt with multiple showings in any given week, agents who don't take off their shoes and tramp through our home on a rainy day, failure to give 24-hour notice of a showing, agents who show up even without our permission, and the company calling late at night to schedule a showing--even after they have been told multiple times not to call after 7 pm...

Well, of course today was another reason for them to show how little they care about other people. After a conversation with the real estate agent yesterday, it was agreed upon that the inspection for today would start in the other unit (we are in a duplex). We explained that we had a four-month-old baby that we couldn't take out of the house for four hours like they had wanted. We were told that it would be alright if we left once the inspector came to our unit, sometime around 10 am.

At 8:30 this morning, I received a phone call complaining that we were still in the unit...Gee Mr. Realtor, thank you so much for letting the inspector know that we would be in our home until he was ready to inspect our unit...Oh, and also, thank you sooooooooo very much for not notifying us of the actual time that the house would be inspected! Don't worry, it's only five hours now, not four...Oh and you absolutely cannot be in your home during the inspection. Now, this might be common knowledge for people who are used to having inspections, but in our case, it is not.

I am still boiling over their complete disrespect. Of course, it won't matter anyway. Either the people interested in purchasing the house will have realized today that there needs to be way too much work done on the house to be worth the price (the place was built in the 1920's...I'm pretty sure it is the same electric wiring throughout the house...Come on...) and we will have to deal with the continuing charade of rude realtors tramping through our home, or they will purchase the house, jack up the rent (we got really lucky to be living in this large of a place for the amount we pay), and we will be forced to move.

.....My rant for the day.

On a lighter note, I have to admit how incredibly surprised and happy I have been today by Adalyn. Normally, when her schedule is disrupted so much (especially her nap), she becomes VERY crabby. She didn't even cry when putting her in her car seat to go shopping--this is very big, because even when she is well-rested, she still hates being put in her car seat. This is definitely one proud momma. A day that was already stressful to begin with could have been easily made more stressful had Adalyn been upset and crying. Thank you, Adalyn... :)

After a stressful day and a good nap, Adalyn has one of her many great conversations with her finger puppet (Princess Puppet, as I call her)--finger in the puppet, not required.

Mother's Day

Tomorrow is my very first Mother's Day as a mommy. Jon has to do some training tomorrow to become a camp counselor (bad timing, but definitely not his choice). I am looking forward to sleeping in--Jon will play with Adalyn when she wakes up in the morning, not having to change any diapers (before Jon has to leave for the training, anyway), breakfast made for me, and spending the entire day with the beautiful little being that made me become a mom. :)

 I am so grateful for every day that I have with Adalyn and Jon, and tomorrow will be a reminder of how lucky I to have so many special people in my life. My Mother's Day gift was a jogging stroller, which hopefully tomorrow will not be too cold to take out for a stroll--May in Wisconsin, anyone?

Adalyn chilling in the new jogging stroller as we head out for a walk.

 I also got a little something special from Adalyn as well. Okay, so I had to help make my gift, but I will still cherish it forever. :)

Made using a tile, acrylic paint, and Sharpies. We did this at our Baby and Me group at the local Hospital. It only took a few tries to get this squirmy baby to put down a good footprint...

I still haven't decided what exactly we will do tomorrow, but I am sure Adalyn and I can find something fun to do.