Essential {Oils} for your Health

Let's talk about oils.
You are probably thinking "you are a RD, what do you know about essential oils?!"
You would be correct. I don't know much. However, I am learning a lot along the way.

Check out my "other" blog the RD Files to see what I am learning.
It helped clear up my sinus infection in 2 days and helps my daughter{who never sleeps or goes to bed well} and me for that matter SLEEP!!!!

Because I am turning into one of "those" moms. :)

Sleep is for Losers {Guest Post}

Sleep is for Losers
written by: Leighton Olivia Newton John.

Have your parents ever tried to put you to bed and you laid there wide awake and bored? And if you listen closely you can hear them making snacks and most likely having a party. Do you hear that? That's laughter! Why would there be laughter at this hour?! Mommy, told me it was bedtime. Then why on earth is she and daddy still up? It's interesting. As I lay here pondering how they could possible have any fun without my jubilant presence, I have devised a plan to infiltrate their party and take notes. I realize the risks and consequences I face compiling this research for my fellow bedtime little people, but if I can crack the bedtime code we all win.

Below is a list of excuses I have compiled that have allowed me "permission," or so I deemed, to vacate my bed and spy on the parents.

{Daddy I need water}
The subject brings me a glass of water. Decided to implement tactic two after he leaves.
{Daddy you didn't bring me kitchen water.}
He brings me back kitchen water.
{Daddy I need 2 ice cubes in it.}

While these tactics were effective for me to monitor the subject, it quickly turned against me. Don't worry it won't get me down tomorrow is another night...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here are a list of questions to ask to prolong the bedtime process. I run through these nightly.

1. What are we doing tomorrow?
2. What are you looking at?
3. What are you doing tomorrow?
4. Can we go to the pool tomorrow?
Will the water be cold? Will my friends be there? Why won't my friends be there? What are they doing tomorrow?
Can we go to the library? Why? I need new books. Can I get a DVD at the library? How about a bookmark? Am I going to get a new {free reading program book} book?
Can I wear...
5. I need some chapstick.
I need some itch medicine for my {non-existent} bug bite.
You didn't turn my music on. My music is too quiet....my music is too loud. Can I sleep with my music by my pillow? Why? {START CRYING}
6.Can you leave the hall light on? Leave my door open.
7. You forgot to turn on my night light.
8. Where is Toby {our dog}, I need him to sleep with me. {Push Toby off the bed to make it look like he escaped, go downstairs} Toby escaped. I need Tobias.
9. Daddy I heard something? I think it is an alligator in my room.
10. You didn't turn on my ceiling fan.
11. I need more water.
12. Daddy what are you having for a snack tonight?
13. How do zoo animals get water daddy?
14. But I need a hug and a kiss from mommy.
Now I need a hug and a kiss from daddy.
And last but certainly not least exclaim "BUT I CAN'T SLEEP!"

Along the way be sure to break down into uncontrollable sobs and fits of rage to make it clear that life is completely unfair and you are being treated poorly. This easily kills 20 minutes of the bed time process.

While I have gotten in trouble countless times for my research; I have found it all to be worth it. My parents are utterly confused as to what my true reasons and motivations are. Those reasons will not be disclosed at this time as my research shall continue. I will continue to update my fellow bedtime haters with new ploys and tactics as I implement more in the future. I will not be deterred, much to my parent's dismay.

And that my friends is how it is done!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I wish, as her mother, I could say that she is embellishing these tactics, that it really isn't that bad. It is. Matter of fact this is FAR from the comprehensive list daddy goes through on a nightly basis. Lucky for her mommy is gone most evenings and is unable to put her to bed. Mommy is far less kind than daddy. So yes, this happens every.single.night in our home.

Until next time.

Word{less} Wednesday

Fell asleep reading to her baby JuJu.
Precious.

Milkaholic down.

Sleep Training.

I finally bit the bullet and am going to sleep train Micah.
Micah is a terrible sleeper at night. I have been putting him down at 630p and he would sleep until 1030p, take a bottle and usually sleep until 630a. Worked for me. Then he decided he needed to wake up at 1030p-230a-630a, taking a bottle at each time.

I started searching for ideas. For crying out loud he was 10 months old this needs to stop. I tried cry it out, that never seemed to work as he would cry for over an hour and that is/was my limit. Then I found this website The Baby Sleep Site. I had never seen anything like it. I don't have time for books and this was straight and to the point. I realized a month ago he was not on a schedule and that was effecting his sleep. Duh. I had Lo on a solid schedule by 6 months.

While the schedule has helped with nap time, it hasn't really helped with night time. Part of it is my fault. I have several excuses I use to allow Micah not to sleep through the night.

1. He is starving. Thanks to all his spitting up issues, I told myself he "needed" to eat over night to "survive."
2. I was afraid his crying would wake Lo. It never has thus far, but I figured him crying over an hour would test my luck.
3. I.am.exhausted. He would wake up at 230a, if I let him cry for an hour I was up listening to it for an hour, getting mad and stirred up over his nighttime wakings. Then I would give in, go get his bottle, change and feed him (15-20m process) lay him back down and then toss and turn myself for another1-2 hours. By the time I fell back to sleep my husband's alarm was going off. This was miserable, so when he woke I cut out the "middle man" aka crying it out and just jumped to what worked: feeding him.

However, this past week I finally decided that all my "excuses" are bogus and I need to fix this NOW! I received the email from the site about how crying can lead to babies sleeping through the night. It was just what I needed to hear!

1. He is not starving--it is a crutch to fall back to sleep. {because there have been a few night this month he has slept 12/13 hours fine!}
2. If he wakes Lo I will deal with it, but that has yet to ever be the case in 11m.
3. I have been running on 4-5 hours of broken sleep per night since his birth what can it hurt to have a few more under my belt?

I was committed to this. Even if it meant he cried for 3 hours straight I was NOT going to feed him. He was going to learn to put himself back to sleep! End of story. We are now on day 3 and while he has woke up each night between the hours of 230a-4a he has successfully put himself back to sleep in under an hour! Hip Hip Hooray! And he is sleeping until 7a! I am still waiting for him to sleep all night with NO wakings. But thus far we have success. Matter of fact on night 3 he didn't even cry out at 1030p like he usually does. So here is hoping by Christmas he sleep through the night soundly. Scratch walking I will take sleeping through the night instead!

A Good Night's Sleep.

It is amazing what a good night's sleep does for you. I don't even remember the last time I have slept through the night. Pre-pregnancy with Micah maybe?! Anyway Friday I was battling the early stages of a migraine and felt terrible. I decided once I got Micah in bed around 7-730ish I would go to bed too and I did. Micah must have known his momma needed some rest because the first time he got up was at 6a the next morning! Chad said he woke up at 10p and cried for 20minutes, but I must have been in a coma because I didn't hear a peep. HA!

A good night's rest brought to you courtesy of Micah.

When I awoke the next morning I have never felt so refreshed and energized. I felt like taking on the world, but my house was a good place to start. HA!

I started off the morning baking mini banana muffins with both kids. Normally, I would wait and just do it with Lo, but with all my energy thought I could take it on with both kids help!


Lo got this baking kit for Christmas and I am just now getting around to using it with her. We had fun and they were delicious.

While the muffins were baking I took on my next task. Organizing my recipes. Am I the only one who rips recipes out of magazines and then throws them in their recipe book cupboard?!

Not a dramatization, a true before pic of the mess. HA!

This was my first recipe book I got when Chad and I were to be married. It was from working in a hospital kitchen. Needless to say it became a recipe catch all. IT was time for some organization. Seldom do I even use recipes, so not sure why I have all of these, but on the rare occasion I can't remember the recipe or my Rachel Ray measurements come out wrong... it is nice to be able to find it in a timely manner without a hundred pages come dumping on my head.

I also got laundry done.
Caught Lo's scrapbook up through March. {post to come}
Finished Micah's mobile for his room. {post to come}
And even just relaxed some.
Bliss.

Then on Sunday morning I got another full nights sleep and woke up to this:

I love seeing God's fingerprint.

On another note here is our first Mommy School project: {A Bird feeder}
Lo was so proud. And as soon as it was hung she started shouting: "Here birds, come and get it!"
So far no birds, but we did have a squirrel attempt to steal our food. Hopefully when the fall comes they will come to our bird feeder.

As for last night. Micah was up by 2a (he got 7.5 hours) so for him that is sleeping through the night. He has learned to sit up in his crib and I think he was scared. But then after nursing he fell right back to sleep until morning. {645a}.
Not going to count my chickens, but just hoping after 32 weeks he will FINALLY start sleeping through the night by my standards. {12 hours!}

Wordless Wednesday {Almost}

Does that not make your heart want to explode?

Movin' on UP!

Leighton is moving on up...literally! She has been pulling up on me and Chad for days...well today during one of her non naps I sneaked in to check on her and found her trying to pull up in her crib, which cracked me up. Then during non nap number two I found this:

(I wanted to upload the video of her doing it...but it wouldn't load?!? :( so you will have to settle for pics!)
She is pretty PROUD of herself to say the least! HA!

Then she did it again for daddy when he got home...we wanted to watch her do it, was pretty funny! Oh the things babies figure out, they are smarter than we give them credit for!

Oy! She is just growing up way too fast! But I love every second of it and so blessed to be able to be home to witness all these firsts.


P.S. She IS napping a lot better...and took a great morning nap, but you can't "learn" things if you are constantly sleeping. HA!

New Mama's Corner

Hey this is for all you new momma's out there! Sometimes in the midst of telling the world all about the great things our sweet little ones are doing we forget to share some of the things we learn along the road to motherhood that can save a new mama panic or frustrations OR simply make her feel like she is not the only way that does crazy things.
There is a blog I stumbled upon months ago called New Mama's Corner. I found it when I was googling for breastfeeding help and fell in love with her blog. It is full of all sorts of great tips and advice that I LOVE reading! We have become blogging "friends" if you will (at least I think we have) since we have never met in real life. Our daughters seem to share very similar stories and are 6 months apart exactly and they are both named Olivia! So of course we felt we had tons in common. Anyway you can read her "horror" story about blankets in cribs here. I share this because this very SAME THING happened to me a few months ago (almost verbatim, see we have bunches in common ;) ).

the poodle blanket lovey is all she is allowed to sleep with now!
only because it is barely a blanket and it can't be wrapped around her head.

I thought Lo could sleep with a blanket covering her up in her crib. I figured she might be cold. She has since birth been able to lift her head up and move it side to side. In my mind that equals they are capable of getting out from underneath a blanket and won't suffocate themselves. Now I know babies will let you know if they are in "danger" by crying, but I had had enough of the crying in the middle of the night and was going to let her cry it out. (note she was about 18 weeks at this point?!) But as I laid there waiting for her to go to sleep the cry just sounded weird and muffled...I continued to lay there, but something kept nagging me to go check on her...finally, begrudgingly, I might add, I got up to check on her. To my HORROR she had wrapped her blanket around her head like a turban so tight I can't believe she could even cry! Well, I yanked her out of that crib so fast and just held and rocked and nursed her apologizing over and over for being a "bad mommy!" SO needless to say she no longer sleeps with a blanket in her crib and will be sleeping in sleepsack this winter.
Hopefully our stories will help you avoid this panic. And if you all have stories about things you learned the hard way and want to share feel free to share them! I wish I would have told the story sooner and maybe it could have helped!

And because I like to have pics on my blog here is my sweet little angel!

Please HELP!

Ok so we all know my girl Lo is a TERRIBLE sleeper!! But she is getting better at night...at least now we are up to 8-9 hours straight. Unfortunately this is b/w 630pm-330am/4ooam. I SERIOUSLY do not mind this at all, yeah, sure I wish she went to bed a little later ie 730/8oopm, but I will take it! Our bedtime routine and the fact that she is nearing 6 months is working like a charm (everyone please take this moment to knock on wood!).

Anyway it is NAP HELP I require! It doesn't really matter where I put her for naps (ie swing or her bed) neither really does the trick for longer than 30-40 minutes. I am trying to transition her out of the swing and to her bed for obvious reasons. I even put up black out curtains in her room to make it darker for nap time thinking that would work...so far no luck!

I REALLY REALLY need some suggestions! And I REALLY REALLY need her to nap better. It is important for several reasons
1. My/Chad's sanity
2. Her health (poor sleep habits, poor health status...)
3. So she can be the happy fun baby we know she is deep inside and so we can enjoy that happy fun baby!

Thanks in advance for making this face happy all the time!

The War on Sleep

Today is day 2 on the "War on Sleep!" It has been a rough day and it is only 4:00p!

Battle "Morning Nap" went well...she actually took a whole 1 hour nap! That my friends is AMAZING for my little 10 minute napper! And even squeezed in another 30 minute nap! However, the tides quickly shifted once the afternoon nap approached!

Battle "Afternoon Nap" went horribly a rye! I tried to trick her into nap time by nursing her in my bed in hopes she would fall asleep...she knows mommy too well, she wasn't going to fall for that trick, no matter how tired she was! We screamed and laid quietly off and on for 1.5 hours!! (Mostly screaming) I stayed strong, continuing to soothe her...but alas there was not going to be a nap in our near future! So I surrendered this battle, gave in nursed and played with her, until she re-exhibited signs of sleep! Ha! I caught her yawning and rubbing her eyes. Straight to the swing (while this is a cheap battle move and should only be pulled out as a last resort) she went, where she peacefully slept for 30 minutes! Another small victory, in this war...I shall take it!

I foresee that the troops aka ME, will not be pulled out anytime soon! I will take on each battle fiercely and I will WIN! Her sleep (and mine) is far to valuable to give up on!

Now onto Battle Sleep through the night....

More to come!

Baby Steps

This weekend was a big weekend for me. I left Lo in the care of her Grandma Rachel while I attended a movie! It was so hard for me to leave her. I haven't been away from her ever for longer than maybe 45 minutes while I ran to the store. Plus, she still refuses a bottle so I really feel tied to her. I was secretly hoping that she would take a bottle while I was gone but no such luck. However, it was fun to be baby free for those few short hours with my husband! I really needed that time even though most of it I spent worrying and torn...but remember baby steps!
Then on Sunday I put her in our church nursery so for once I could be apart of church. Usually once the "light show" and music is over, Lo is done! And then I spend the rest of it out in the lobby! Plus, there was no where for me to go to nurse her except the bathroom and quite frankly I was tired of dragging a chair into the handicap stall with my arms full of a baby and diaper bag! Again dropping her off was hard, but I knew I was just a few feet away if they needed me! I was hoping that maybe they could be successful in getting her to take a bottle, but again no such luck and at the very end of service my number flashed up on the screen! But at least they have an area back there for me to nurse in...no more going to the bathroom! Honestly this was my whole purpose in taking her to the nursery! Re-con! I am fairly new to this church and don't know all the ins and outs yet!
So while it was tough to leave her it is important to my sanity to get out WITH my husband! (or grown-ups).

I have also discovered this book called Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child and while it is wordy and has a lot of scientific facts in it, it is helping understand how important her sleep is (it is NOT FOR THE WEAK) and how to reclaim it! So I am currently on a mission to get her to sleep better! So far it is going well. I have managed to get her to take naps (short ones) outside of her swing!!! That is a HUGE achievement in itself! So again baby steps!

Sadly these are seriously the ONLY pics I have of her sleeping!!
Why? B/c she NEVER IS SLEEPING!

Nothing is more precious than a baby sleeping! I shall keep you posted on how it goes, and I am ALWAYS open to suggestions!

Sleep is for the Weak!

(sorry don't know how to "turn" the picture)

My mother-in-law bought this onesie for us before we even knew if we were having a boy or girl or even chosen a name. When I got it I thought to myself "hahaha, that is funny...but won't be TRUE! Babies do sleep..." Oh how VERY naive I was and perhaps jinxed myself with that thought! Because while it is true that babies sleep it could NOT be further from the truth when it comes to Leighton! Maybe I drank too much coffee while pregnant who knows, or maybe she is like her daddy who can get by on just a good night's sleep either way mommy is TIRED!

I thought I had made a break through with her sleeping through the night last week but instead she just was taunting me! We have now reverted WAY back, it is like having a brand new newborn again. One that has to be nursed every 1.5-2 hours! Then once 9am rolls around we are up for the day! It absolutely astounds me. Then when daddy gets home we are SUPER fussy b/c we are SUPER tired! (That statement really goes for both Lo and me!)

I am up for suggestions if anyone has any! Part of the problem is she is a snacker and as a breastfeeding mom it is hard to know how much milk she IS getting, so when she does doze off it doesn't last long b/c she gets hungry again. (and please don't suggest a bottle, because she REFUSES bottles! Chad tries and tries but after 30 minutes she eventually gets what she wants...mommy!)


Here's hoping for some sleep! :)

The Magic of...

The Magic of Digital Cameras:
Look how big my baby girl is! I was going through her pics last nite and stumbled upon her growth! It makes me a little sad that she is getting so big so fast and time is whizzing by, but it is also such a joy to watch her grow up and discover new things.

Bath time at 2 weeks! Not really enjoying it much either!!


Bath time at 8 weeks an LOVING it! It is like she is a WHOLE other baby!



The Magic of Cinderella:
We also got to both go to our first prom!
Well not really we just got to go inside and see all the decor and watch all the pretty girls walk the "red carpet" on their way in. Mostly we went over on saturday to help Aunt Meg get all dolled up for prom! She looked absolutely beautiful and so grown up!

Meg with her date and friends!



The Magic of a Good Night's Sleep:
And finally the big news is Leighton is sleeping through the night! Friday April 17th was the big day or night I should say. I have to confess that by 6am i had to get up and make sure she was still alive. Which is the first time I think I worried about that since she was born. Plus, I thought I was going to die if she didn't wake up soon and help mommy out! ( If you are a breastfeeding mommy you will understand, your baby sleeping through the night is a blessing and a curse for the first several nights!)

There is no magic in going to the doctor...the magic is in the drugs! :)
Tomorrow is the big 2 month doctor visit to get shots! :( I think it may be a long evening! I am sure that will be a blog story in its self!