Hands Free baby

I'm so grateful that God has brought this pregnancy to the halfway point! Since we aren't planning to have another ultrasound (we had one at 7 weeks to verify viability of the pregnancy before we told family), we will be finding out the gender of this baby...at birth ;-)

Yesterday I had a lovely time in the afternoon with my mom & sister sorting out baby clothes I've gathered and packed over the years. We sorted clothes and picked out a couple of blankets and three outfits each.

Sorting though all these memories (I mean, clothes) reminded me of when I first became a "mamma" over 6 years ago.

Even though Gracie was my first, I was grateful for the baby sling and the option of multitasking motherhood LOL. Now as I contemplate what life will be like with three kids, I'm even more excited about having my sling.

My mom made this one from a pattern we bought online. Since then, I have added several others just for the love of pretty fabric :-) If you are mom (or planning to be) I highly suggest you get a sling. It takes a little time to get used to it, but so worth it!

Love,

I'm spending more money, I feel like junk and you say I'm getting better?

Ever been addicted to caffeine? It's delicious, isn't it? I was soooooo in love with Dr. Pepper that I had a t-shirt. I loved iced coffees from my favorite local spot - Coffee Underground. Ahhh, the days.

When we began walking down the path of natural living I expected to feel better, be less sick and lose weight. I did..... eventually.

One thing that is curious about natural stuff is: You feel worse, before you feel better. It's true, if you stop drinking sodas, you will get a headache. As you stop putting in the refined processes stuff and eating real food, you will probably feel yucky.

This weekend we took a mini-vacation and stayed a night at Great Wolf Lodge. We tried to make fairly good choices but after a weekend of visiting family, wedding food and a night at Great Wolf with random available restaurant food - I felt interestingly okay......til I got home.

Less than 24 hours after coming home to homemade cereal, fresh milk and organic veggies - I was a digestive wreck. My body was been "releasing toxins" all night.

So if you are on the first steps to less processed, real food -- be prepared. If you feel yucky for a bit - congratulations - it's working!

Love,

Oh for the want of a healthy home...

My sweet husband made a discovery this week. He just finished this AWESOME computer desk for me and the girls. I'll share a picture very soon (I'm re-working the whole den and I just drug a futon in front of it. So it is not picture-ready yet. :-)

So back to the discovery - I have been loving the ability to redo furniture with zero-VOC paint I can get at Lowes (Olympic). So Pete is researching a safe stain for the top of this table. The wood grain is so lovely, neither of us have the heart to paint over it. So in his research, he finds a site that is pretty critical of zero-VOC paints. [Here it is.]

Not to be swayed by one site (and a site that sells paint), we pressed on. Pete contacted Olympic directly and asked for their MSDS sheets (a government required detail of the ingredients of products). Indeed, the chemicals were present. He even spoke to a representative who was very nice, but stated, "We cannot guarantee that these chemicals are not present in the paint - it is a part of the processing the product." Honesty - that was cool.

Unfortunately that left me feeling a little "creatively inhibited." As you see in the photo, I have projects waiting for some colorful expression. I mean, I'm pregnant after all and this nesting thing is very, very real.

But again Pete brings me back. He reminded me of our choices. We spend less money on movies (aside: we went to see Toy Story 3 yesterday, but I had two free tickets. Before TS3, I think it has been maybe 2 years since we saw one?).

But life is about choices. Pete reminded me that we can choose to spend money on more expensive (truly non-toxic) paint so I can continue to nest and create. We'll just adjust other areas. I appreciate that ;-) So what kind of paint are we headed for? Don't know quite yet. We're still researching the best alternative.

Also - We'll be doing some mattress wrapping in the next week. I'm excited to share the pictures and how it all went. If you missed my last post, definitely read it and share it with your pregnant friends ;-)

Love,

Eight Babies die every night of SIDS - just in the U.S.

It hurts to know that on average, eight babies die every night from SIDS.

I am on a mission to make as many people as possible aware of the danger. SIDS is largely preventable! I have so much compassion for families that has lost babies to this shocking "unexplainable" death. It is for that reason that I share that SIDS is largely explainable AND preventable!

I have read pages and pages of research on this. Those experts that refute the studies have very little to stand on compared the avalanche of science that show a link to SIDS deaths and the chemical composition of our mattresses.

Simply summed up, the fire retardant chemicals create a chemical reaction to normally harmless fungi that puts a layer of heavy gas that "sits" on the top of the mattress. Physiologically adults are not susceptible. However, SIDS is the leading cause of death among infants over one month old.

We buy life insurance, we put up baby gates, we get immunizations (well, some of us LOL), we try to minimize any risk of hurt or death. We choose to spend money with hope - the hope that our efforts will see fruit. Wrapping a crib mattress is about $25. Is that a good investment?

In New Zealand, where all this "stuff" was nationally promoted, mattress wrapping was publicized as much as "Back to Sleep" here in the U.S. Results? Since 1994, tens of thousands of babies in New Zealand have slept on properly wrapped mattresses. Of those properly wrapped, there have been ZERO deaths to SIDS. Not everyone wraps in NZ, but of those that do, that is 100% effective. My baby gate doesn't promise that. My immunization documentation certainly doesn't promise that. Is it worth $25? It certainly is to us.

Love,

What next?
Why aren't you hearing this from your doctor, etc.?
Where you can buy a wrap for baby mattress...
Where you can buy a wrap for an adult mattress...
How to wrap your own mattress (instructions - scroll halfway down)
Heavy research - Cause of SIDS
What we have done in our home (an inventory of all our beds :-)