Pregnancy Week 16

Prefolds...they aren't so bad after all!

Sorry about my messy look!

It's just as easy, I mean you probably have a few extra steps. But you don't really need all the extras to be successful at cloth diapering. I promise!

-Jess

Why I've been MIA

My laptop is old and needs a new keyboard apparently.
The letter "m" will not work and the "." gets stuck. I might post a few things with my phone, but I fear it might turn out not the way I want it too.
Just letting y'all know why I've been absent. If you follow me on YouTube then you'll get a ton more updates.

How Crunchy Are You? TAG

Crunchy A.K.A Hippy ;)

I actually enjoyed doing this TAG and I would love to hear and/or see what other moms answers are. There will be NO arguing/debating at who's right or wrong. How we choose to take care of our kids and ourselves is our own decision. The way that we each live our lives are all unique and different and do the best we can the way we know how too. This is a no judging, no negative attitude zone! :)

Enjoy!

1.)Will/did you have a natural child birth?

2.) Will/are you breastfeeding? For how long?

3.)Will/are you co-sleeping or bed-sharing?

4.)Will/are you baby wearing?

5.)Will/are you eating an organic, natural lifestyle?

6.)If you have a boy will/have you chosen to circumcise?

7.)Will/are you choosing to cloth diaper?

8.)Do/will you choose to vaccinate your child(ren)?

9.)Do/will you use natural forms of birth control?

10.)Do/will you choose to home school your child(ren)?

I'm probably about 50/50 on most of these.

What are your answers? I would love to hear them! Details and all! ;)

Our Regrets

I have been cleaning my house, but while I have been doing that, I have been doing SO much thinking about how I have been cleaning up my life, and although my blog is leaning towards having a more simpler life, I feel like I have not been living up to it. 

I feel bad and I"m sorry for that!

I have been debating on whether or not to write about this, but this is my life, my journal, me. 

Here is our story, our regrets, our mistakes.

When Ben and I first got married we lived BIG, with very little money. Not the best thing to do. Our first large credit card purchase together was a laptop. Not a crappy one though, if and when we buy technology equipment we don't go for the off-brand as you may call it.

Go big or go home, Ben always says said.

Well that $2,000 credit card purchase over time turned into more and more. I did put a little on there for the wedding, but it was only about $400 the rest came out of my own money that I have been saving.

Ben and I always talk about how we wish that we could go back and do things differently. We say that a lot! This is why I am making this post. I'm tired of the regret.

We are already kinda living cheap. We live in a townhome/apartment paying only $600 a month, all we pay for is electric. We don't have cable, we only have internet with Netflix. Sometimes I can get a good signal on my box and I can watch A t.v show without static interruption, we only get about 3 maybe 4 channels on a good day. We take advantage of the state benefits, SNAP, WIC, OHP, and food boxes. We don't feel bad doing this because 1.) We fall under the state guidelines for help(I am always honest about how much we make) 2.) We have always(and always will) paid our taxes! Last year was our biggest tax break because of Josiah. The years before, we would get hardly anything back, sometimes we would owe! The money that we do get usually goes straight towards first--things we need around the house. Then--to debt even that doesn't go very far.

Our largest debt that we have(but doesn't have interest tacked to it) is Ben's restitution.

(more on this in another post)

(He is OK with me posting this and is thinking about writing a little something from his childhood experience)

When I first married him he had just a little under $30,000 (it was over this amount when I met him) owed to the state. We have it on a set system to pay only $150 a month. It's not much, but when you can put that $150 toward savings, it adds up!

The last bill that I got is now down to about $16,000. We have worked our butts off to get to this point.

However, we still have a long ways to go!

We honestly don't pay much for living, we just pay a lot into debt. We saw things that we wanted and we bought them without thought. 

The advice that we give to newly weds is to live simply, work to put money aside into saving, when you have a stable, good-paying job, then live big! Pay cash for everything, don't use credit cards. There are other ways to build credit. You really want that new T.V and you don't have your own money to pay for it? 

Save up for it!

Yeah, yeah, that's some talk for someone who is in debt.

But this is what Ben and I have learned. Our most recent debt purchase is my car which was way back in January of 2011. Before Josiah was born! I really wanted a safer larger family car. It took me weeks to find the perfect car and although we didn't pay cash for it, it is the only big thing that I don't regret purchasing with my husband.

I'm not going to tell you exactly how much debt that Ben and I have, but it is way more than the $16,000 mentioned. We don't struggle every month like we used to anymore. We watch where our money is going. The little things that I do to help my family has been somewhat of help. Cloth diapers, homemade household products, second hand shopping, coupon clipping, etc.

We are very grateful for friends and family that help us out so much! Just about a month ago we got an A.C for free! That has been amazing with this HOT Pacific Northwest weather we are having. 

For Ben's birthday he got some money and a Best Buy gift card from both his parents and mine. He was able to get some nice new clothes. We get free-babysitting when Ben and I just need some time alone. Girl friends of mine are generous enough to let me borrow some of their maternity clothes for this pregnancy.

We are so blessed!

Some of you may ask, but what about the baby on the way?

Yes, I have thought that too. We were given so many things with Josiah that we honestly aren't that concerned. You really don't need 3/4 of the stuff that people say that you "need". We have all the essentials and if we absolutely NEED it, we will have the money for it. For as of right now, we don't need anything. I mean if it's a girl, then yes, girl clothes are helpful, but hey, she can wear some of her brother's clothes, right? ;)

That's where this thought came into place. While I was cleaning out Josiah's closet I noticed all the things that we spent money on, but I didn't really use them. I had a lot of doubles, and large amounts of one item. Most given to me by the very generous friends that I have.

Now its in a box, ready to go to a lady who is due here in a couple of months with her first baby boy. 

All the unnecessary baby stuff that I'm getting rid of is just the beginning of cleaning out my closet. :)

I'm excited to not only make a little more room in my little home, but I'm excited to fill it with nice things that I  can use over and over again. Things that may not be brand new but still are in good working order for the years to come.

This is what's been going on and I just wanted to let you all know my thoughts for the day.

Thanks for reading. :)

-Jess

VEDA Day 12

Every Sunday after church I make my way over to my parents house where Trader Joe's nearly expired food is gone through, and used for people in need.

There is so much that God has blessed this little ministry with, I am able to take a few pieces of food home with me, a big help to us at times!
Healthier choice food boxes are made, and delivered to some homes too.
This is what my Sunday's look like!

Co-Sleeping: Change of Heart?

I think so!

So I did talk about this in my Youtube video, but I just wanted to have it in my blog to have more specific details on the matter.

Co-Sleeping with Josiah:

Yes, we slept in the same room till he was rolling over. When he started doing that, we moved him from his bassinet to his crib so that he had more room to "roll". He never really slept with us, the first couple of weeks he slept on mine or Ben's chest on and off and after that he was fine and slept by himself in the bassinet beside me. I didn't bedshare with him because 

a.) I did what society told me that's what I was suppose to do with my baby 

and 

b.) I didn't know what the heck I was doing!

I honestly think that if I would have done my research and asked questions I probably would've have succeeded with a lot of things. I regret some of the things that I did(and didn't do) with Josiah. 

But all in all I'm glad that he is healthy and alive today!

I'm so happy that I get to try again, I know more of what I am doing now. I feel more confident than ever with this baby. I'm not scared like I was the first time around. I'm reading and watching and doing and experimenting. I'm choosing to do things that I didn't do the first time. I'm doing what is comfortable for me. 

Co-Sleeping with #2:

More like Bed sharing! I'm still trying to convince my husband,(which I'm slowly succeeding at!)he still doesn't quite understand the benefits of it all. But that's OK, I'm a patient woman, and I will continually try to point out the facts to him. Facts are big to this guy! :) My thoughts on this now is that your baby has been inside of you for 9+ months, that's all it has known! Why put that poor little newborn in a bed all by itself? Let's just say that mom and baby, aren't going to get as much sleep as nature planned. 

But I had the hardest time breastfeeding Josiah, my thought then was, why should I always have to be the one up in the night every 2 hours? Little did I know that if I bed shared with the little guy, it would've have made breastfeeding at night 100xs better! Instead of getting up out of my bed, picking him up, get situated, get boob out, then feed. I could have just(let's just say it cause its true) plop boob out, then feed. I could still be half asleep(but aware), while feeding little Josiah.

Like I said, before I had no idea. Now? Bring it on!

Here is another good reason to bed share

Now what momma doesn't want to wake up to that every morning?

This was about March, but it was still so cold that we all camped upstairs by the fireplace where it was nice and warm. We didn't sleep altogether on the air mattress, but when i woke up to make breakfast, I set my little man down right next to my hubby. I love this picture. :)

The only issue that I have with bed sharing is the room. We only have a queen size bed and just with Ben and I needing our own space, its close to fine. But there is a solution that I found(actually my friend Jessica posted) that may work. I just gotta put the hubby to work about a few weeks before LO is born. 

It'll be perfect and I can't wait for the experience.

My blogger friend Kayla did an excellent post on her view on Co-Sleeping and the facts.

I copied a list of the benefits of co-sleeping,(hope you don't mind K)but check her blog out! 

She's got some awesome views on topics that I'm going to be using with #2!

• Mother's can react better and quicker to their baby.  As in, they can sense when their baby is waking more easily and quicker and can get them settled back down and back to sleep.  If the baby is in another room, the baby has to wake up more fully to be able to cry louder to wake up the mother, which then can take longer to settle the baby back down and get him/her back to sleep.

• Nighttime bonding makes for more independent children.  Research has shown that babies that co-sleep are more independent and have higher self-esteem than solitary sleepers because they have secure attachments to their parents.

• Feeding is easier.  It encourages breastfeeding.  It's so easy to just roll over and feed your child.  Neither the mother or baby has to fully wake up, which makes falling back asleep that much easier.  The studies show that co-sleeping babies want to eat about 3 times as often as solitary sleepers during the night, but because of not having to get out of bed or fully wake up, co-sleeping moms have reported better and longer sleep than those who have to get out of bed.  (I can 100% attest to this!)

• The working father gets to have snuggle time and extra bonding with his child, when he doesn't get a lot of time during the day for it. 

• Co-sleeping can reduce the risk of SIDS because the baby is hearing the mother's breathing rhythm and her carbon dioxide breath encourages deeper breaths from the baby.

• Stress hormones are lower in both the mother and baby, which helps promote healthy growth.

• They grow up actually more independent from their peers.

• They perform better in school, have higher self-esteem and fewer health problems.

• Co-sleeping is commonplace in 2/3^rd’s of the world. 

• Co-sleeping children have fewer nightmares and fewer nighttime disturbances.

• Although there are risks of co-sleeping (blankets, getting trapped in between the bed and headboard), there are also plenty of risks that come with babies sleeping in their own crib also.  (Crib safety recalls are anything but rare.) 

Thanks for reading!

-Jess