I love Christmas....like really LOVE it. I love the family time, and the songs in church, and pulling out the nativity and the lights around the house - I love thinking of presents that will really make someone feel special(hopefully) and taking the time to slow down and appreciate our lives and family around us. And this year I am SO excited to share that with Carlee who probably won't even notice at 10 months...but I can't wait to see her little face with all the wrapping paper she will get:)
So, in the Christmas mood last night, I whipped up some cards to sell or give out myself...we shall see:)
So recently I've met a new group of women - the majority of them who are big on 'wearing' their babies:) We had just a simple buckle carrier and I never really thought much of it, we didn't use it too much and I never really felt like it looked very comfy for her even if she did sleep well in it being so close to us.
Well, after meeting these women I was intrigued by all the options, and not too surprised to hear that a lot of the common carriers are in fact bad for the hips of babes - some even recalled. And since 'wearing' the baby at a young age can encourage a good milk supply, I would be inclined to use it with baby #2 someday when we try to overcome this dumb PCOS thing;)
What I was stunned by was that the cost of some of the name brands were $50 or more depending on the type of carrier. Well, I found someone who made their own 'moby' online and sold it for 10 bucks...my sister is testing it out with her newbie right now and I think my girl is probably a bit big for that now anyways...but I do like the looks of ring slings for their ease of use on the go.
So then...next trip to the 2nd hand store, I found a nice strong piece of material for 6 bucks, picked up a couple of harness rings at the hardware store for 4 dollars(can also be bought online at slingrings.com) and got to work. Since my sewing machine is on the fritz I pulled out the iron and some hemming tap, folded the material down the middle and cut it to about 2.5 meters. I'm about 5'6 and that gives me lots of extra material to work with. And here we go:
So for those Canadians on here, you may have heard that over the air signals are changing from analogue to digital like the states did back a couple of years.... Well, we don't have cable right now and I HATE the idea of paying such inflated prices for tv....so I've been researching the last few months on what we will do when the change happens.
This week, they started switching over and I started having fun! I debated getting a new outdoor antenna to ensure we could get some usa channels since we'd be switching anyways, then I thought, wellllll, maybe I can diy it!! And then I did...
I dragged my husband off the couch and forced him to help me make this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWQhlmJTMzw
And of course took no pictures but it worked fine, not much better than our rabbit ears really....then I thought, let's move it up to the attic and it started coming in much clearer on the analogue.
Then I finally figured out how to get the digital signal on our tv and found, nope, not much coming in from buffalo, a couple christian channels but that was it:( Then I went to thesource and picked up a video amplifier for 30 bucks hoping it would do the trick to get those extra channels in....and sure enough. A couple minutes .later we went from 8ish channels to 21 channels!
Total cost? Under 40 dollars and a very happy girl here...way better than 40 bucks a month, minimum!! Going from about 4 channels to 21? I don't even know what to do with myself:)
Anyone else get creative with the transition?
Ps. my girl is almost crawling!!
Taken at iSMILE studios
In an effort to give my body a break and feed it healthy foods I have been looking into eating more gluten free foods when I can...I'm not strict with it but am introducing some foods into my diet. So, my first gluten free loaf of bread was created yesterday!
It was about this time two years ago that I decided to prepare to go off BC by getting my butt in gear and educating myself in how to treat my PCOS naturally. Check out this site if you have never heard of pcos: http://pcosdiva.com. Knowing that if I wasn't successful there was a chance we would deal with infertility was a pretty good motivator for me so I changed my diet, starting taking Apple Cider Vinegar daily to stabilize my blood sugar levels, and took up an aerobic class once a week.... And it worked! I dropped around 15 lbs or so and when I went off my BC my cycles were about 40 days rather than the previous 90! Much improved:)
Nothing feels better than having that goal and succeeding, even getting pregnant very soon after going off BC and having a wonderful pregnancy and delivery...only to find out that pcos was still plaguing me! Little did I know that my syndrome affected my milk supply, and since I was unaware this was a symptom, I did nothing beforehand to combat it and was unable to fully breastfeed- we do half/half with formula but I can say I'm proud of fighting for all that I have(pumping for a month and going on herbs/drugs) BUT had I known during pregnancy it was an issue I would have been able to do a lot more and possibly had more success. I was fairly sad and embarrassed by my inability to completely provide for Carlee for the first couple of months and really paid no attention to what my diet and postpartum life was doing to my body and now - five months postpartum - my pcos is back full force!
Now, I feel I am back right where I was two years ago physically...you know, except now I have a baby to cheer me up:) But nevertheless, I am about 15-20 lbs from where my cycles returned to normal last time and has get to have a period since delivery...and so the journey starts again! I find its harder not to snack when I'm home throughout the day but am ready to start getting down to business again! Now, any friends reading this...your job is to yell 'NO' anytime I reach for my beloved chips;)
Thanks for listening guys, any thoughts, encouragement or advice is very welcome!
Hey there followers,
Is there anyone left?? I am having SO much fun being home with my little girl and keeping up to date here has fallen aside unfortunately! The LO is now five months old! She rolls, she sits, she 'talks', she is too cute!
