Being a mom-The best and the worst

Being a mom is hard work. It's the hardest job I have ever had BUT it is also the most rewarding job in the world. I have never once complained about my new job. I wanted it so much and it's everything I expected and sometimes unexpected too. I never expected to love someone this much. I knew I would love my baby before she was here but I never could have imagined how much I would love her. I knew I would be more selfless once she arrived, but I continue to be in awe of how much I am happily willing to give up every day if it means she is happy. Do I miss sleeping in on the weekends? Sure. But I would never trade it for what I have now: unlimited snuggling on the weekends! Do I miss being able to hop in the car and run errands all by myself? Sometimes. But now I get to watch my daughter take in the world wherever we go and enjoy every minute of it. This kid LOVES Wegmans! The point is that for every thing I will miss about my old life, there are 100 more reasons I love my life as a mom.

The best part of being a mom is knowing you are needed always. 

Feeling that little hand creep up to find your finger and hold on tight. Seeing that little face search for you in a room and see it light up with joy. Hearing that little giggle because whatever you did was absolutely hilarious to that sweet little bundle of love.

But the worst part?

...is watching your child go through what we endured this weekend. There is nothing scarier and nothing that hurts more than when your baby is sick. Except when your baby is sick AND has to go through a ton of medical procedures.

Little miss was doing fine. Earlier in the week we had her at Children's for a GI to look at her tummy. She's been spitting up more than normal and has developed some eczema, so the doctors have been trying to rule out a few things. Thankfully she doesn't have reflux or any other terrible stomach condition! This summer  next week! we will see an allergist to rule out a possible food or environmental allergy...did you know that eczema is more often than not caused by an allergy or sensitivity? But otherwise she got a clean bill of health because other than the spitting up she is still gaining weight and is the happiest baby around.

Friday evening she went to sleep at her normal time and was fine. Around 2 am she woke up crying. Sometimes she does this and I usually help her find her binky or pull her out of her co-sleeper and in bed with me and she goes right to sleep. She will either stay there with me or I will put her back in her co-sleeper once she's out. Well as I held her I realized she was burning up (score +1 for co-sleeping!) so I used the temporal thermometer to take her temperature. If you don't have one of these, GET ONE! It's a lifesaver. Want to take your child's temperature while they are sleeping? No problem! Such a wonderful invention! Her temperature was 101. Not too high, but enough that she was uncomfortable. I chalked it up to teething, because let's face it, at ten months this kid really needs some teeth soon! She was still pretty fussy though, so I gave her some Motrin to help her get some rest. She eventually calmed down and slept in my arms all night.

I woke up around 7 am and realized she wasn't up yet...not like her at all. She usually wakes between 5:30 and 6 to eat. I took her temperature and it was 101 still. The Motrin hadn't brought it down. She was sleeping soundly though, so I just held her and waited for her to wake up. Around 7:30 she woke up and waned to nurse. After she ate she fell back asleep until 10:00 am! When she woke up she was really lethargic and fussy...not at all like herself. I changed her and took her temp and it was 102.5. High enough to call the doctor who sent us to urgent care. They didn't open until noon, but we wanted to be the first ones in so we got there around 11:45 and walked in as soon as they unlocked the doors.

I normally wouldn't be so freaked out by a fever...after all in the past little miss has had fevers and has played and laughed right through them. I knew this was different because she was NOT herself. She was clinging to me and crying for no reason. And was SO sleepy. Once they got her admitted they took her temperature and it was 105.8. Tell me that isn't the scariest thing you have ever heard. In a 17 pound infant that fever scared me more than I have ever been scared. In that moment I went into survival mode. Thankfully the nurses were extremely calm and kept me feeling that way too. A high dose of Tylenol was administered and then we were brought to a patient room. I will say that Pediatric Urgent Care is phenomenal. If you live in the Buffalo area and your child is sick I highly recommend there over an ER. Comfortable rooms to wait in with beds and cribs, TVs, books for the kids, coffee, and the staff is wonderful.

What came next was about two hours of attempting to get a pic line in to get a blood draw and give IV fluids, a catheter, and more attempts at getting a blood draw. It was awful. My poor baby just cried and cried and there was nothing I could do because they had to find out what was wrong. I felt like the absolute worst mom in the world knowing she was going through all that. I know it was necessary to find out what was wrong, but still it was heart-wrenching.

Finally we found out that what was bothering my little one was a bacterial infection. Her white blood cell count was extremely high. She received a high dose of antibiotics with the directive to return on Sunday to get another dose. Finally, finally after several hours we got to go home. I spent the rest of the day and evening on the couch holding my baby in my arms. She was exhausted and drained and was not having any part of being put down. And because I'm her mama I put everything else aside and held her all night because that's what she needed.

After a horrible weekend my little one is finally starting to feel better. She's playing and laughing but is still very clingy. She's still not back to normal but she is getting there. I have been on edge for three days watching her every move just praying that she will get better.

This has definitely been the worst part of being a mom. Knowing your little one is sick and in pain and there's literally nothing you can do. There is nothing else about this job that compares to the fear and pain you feel for your child in that moment. But I think it makes you a better mom. When you feel that way it shows you how strong you can be. In that horrifying and scary moment you become someone you never thought you could be-a strong and unwavering spirit for your child.

So I embrace the good and the bad, and as hard as it is, I accept the hard parts because it makes me the mom I want to be. I am learning to be strong and fight for whatever my child needs because of those fleeting moments of fear.

And I am thankful for that.

Love and Laughs (and lots of prayers too),

Danielle

 

Friday Favorites: Produce Bags

Ok ok I know I already posted a little bit about these here but I am so in love with them that I just HAD to do a Friday Favorites about them!

Produce bags ROCK!!!

Whenever I go shopping I always bring my reusables, but it always bothered me that I had to put my produce in those plastic bags. It seemed counterproductive and so wasteful. Not to mention who knows what kind of chemicals are seeping into my fruits and veggies from the yucky plastic! Even when I went to the farmer's market they would use plastic bags because what else could they use?

Enter the produce bags.

They're made of almost a mesh like material that allows the produce to breathe (makes sense, since the plastic DOESN'T!) and they have a drawstring to close. They are a pretty good size too. As you saw from last week's post, that's a bag of avocados, a bag of cilantro, a bag with a giant yam, and a bag of lemons and limes. I did not buy enough the first time and was very sad that I couldn't put my bananas in one, but I figured they'd be ok on their own. I was kicking myself for only buying four of them!

So then I went back to Target and of course they were gone. If you ever want anything from the $1 section at Target buy it IMMEDIATELY. Because if you change your mind and go back it will almost always be gone forever. Which is very sad. So my trip to Target ended the way every trip to Target ends...I left without the produce bags but with $50 worth of stuff I had no intention of buying. I cannot be the only person that this happens to.


Then today I had to go to the Target on Transit near Maple and lo and behold there they were, like a beacon in the night.

 

A whole stack of them!!! I will have you know I was not at Target to buy these but I ended up with 5 more because you can never have enough of these! Now my lemons and limes can each have their own bag! The yams and regular potatoes don't have to share! Even the bananas can have a bag! No more cold bananas! 

I hope you can find these at Target in the $1 section nearest you. However, if they are gone you can always get them for a very reasonable price on Amazon. It is definitely worth the price. Think about how much waste is created by bags for produce. I really wish that more people would understand how important it is to use reusable bags when they go grocery shopping. And I sometimes forget my bags! I am not a perfect resuable bag user, but I always recycle them after I use them. The important thing is to do your best to remember to bring your reusables and now include your produce bags too! I keep my reusables hanging on the door that we leave from, and keep the extra produce bags inside those bags. That way I always remember to grab them when I head to the market.

I hope you will try to make this small change in your shopping and storing produce routine! 

Oh! I bet you are wondering how they work at keeping my fruits and veggies fresh? Check out my limes and lemons after a week! Still fresh, still firm, and no soft spots! So I give these two thumbs up! I hope you will too!

Do you use resuable produce bags already? What do you think of them? 

Happy Memorial Day to all!

Love and Laughs,

Danielle

"Green" thoughts for a Saturday night

I'm back! It feels like I have been gone forever!

That was a tough few weeks! I must apologize to my loyal readers for disappearing, but such is life sometimes!

I wasn't able to post at all in the past week and a half or so because our computer cord sparked and melted right before my eyes-so I was computer-less. $86.95 later I am back online and not too happy with apple for not recalling my faulty cord.  I am just thankful that it happened when we were home. I don't even want to think about what might have happened if we weren't here!

I know I missed Friday favorites so I will make it up to all of you next week with a really good one :) In the meantime here are some fun musings I feel like my readers can appreciate as much as I do!

Last night as we were cleaning the house (I know, what an exciting Friday night hubs and I had!) hubs came in the dining room where I was going through stacks of mail to recycle and he told me that we didn't even fill up one full bag of garbage this week! We didn't have to put the garbage out because we only had half a bag. Do you know how exciting that is for me? We have really been trying hard to reduce our waste in a lot of ways. We're not using paper towels anymore, I upcycled some old curtains into cloth napkins, we recycle everything we possibly can down to the toilet paper rolls and yogurt containers, and we even found biodegradable sponges! So I think we are doing pretty good at reducing our carbon footprint. That made me really happy! I also chuckled because our recycling bin is completely full every week, sometimes to the point where I have to set some aside for the following week. Now that is progress!

Speaking of reducing our carbon footprint, about a week ago I was talking to one of the parents of one of my first graders and she told me that they went to the beach the week before. She said that her son insisted on spending half the afternoon picking up trash on the beach! He said "Mrs. N. would be SO sad to see all this litter on the beach...what if it gets in the water?" I guess I may have made an impression! Another parent told me that her little girl was very concerned about recycling now, and insisted that they not throw out anything that could be recycled. Another little girl in my glass came to school all excited because her mom bought her reusable containers for her lunch box to use instead of ziploc bags. These are SIX YEAR OLDS!!! And on Friday at an assembly I was so proud because our school ran an essay contest for each grade level asking them to write about some way to help take care of our planet. A little boy from my class wrote an essay about recycling and he won first place for first grade! I was so proud of him! And what was even cooler for me was that two other students that won first place were in my class the past two years. I guess I must really drive home how important it is to take care of the earth with my little firsties! Not to mention they turn into such good writers under my tutelage apparently :) It just goes to show that whatever you say to kids REALLY gets taken to heart. They may not seem like it sometimes but they ARE listening! And how amazing is it that these kids care so much at such a young age. Think about all the good they will do throughout their lives if we keep teaching them about reducing their carbon footprint!

Farmer's Market season is really starting to get into full swing. My little miss and I headed out to the opening day of the Williamsville farmer's market today which was so much fun. I strapped her into the k'tan and we enjoyed sampling homemade organic cookies, fudge, cheeses, and more. We got some delicious, fresh lettuce and tomatoes, organic dog treats for my pups, and I even got some oatmeal and almond olive oil soap from bath & bliss, a local company that makes natural products. And I also was able to finally try out my new produce bags! I did as much shopping as I could at the market, then we headed over to Wegman's where we finished up. What a great way to reduce the use of plastics while still keeping your produce fresh! I got these at Target in the dollar section and am kicking myself for not grabbing more! Lord knows they will most likely be gone when I go back! I love love love reducing the amount of waste we bring into the house and these bags really help us accomplish that!

Finally, I have to say that I am so excited because some things are brewing over here at The Good Life. I don't want to give away too much before we are ready to unveil but I will tell you that you will love what is coming! So keep your eye on the blog and also on our facebook page for the latest news!

Love and Laughs,

Danielle

Friday Favorites: CJs Butter

So as I was sitting here enjoying my PB Brownie Dough ice cream straight from the carton and watching The Goonies on ABC Family (yes, you read that right) I realized it's Friday!

So I owe my loyal readers a post. I promised, and I am sticking with it!

I decided that I wanted to write about one of my favorite body products today: CJs BUTTer

CJs BUTTer is an amazing, amazing lotion/cream. Although I feel like it's not really a lotion, because it goes on thicker like a salve, but it's not really a salve....I am not explaining it well. Here's a picture of the inside of a tub:

It goes on a little thick but not sticky. A little greasy but when you rub it in your skin is SO soft! It comes in SO many yummy scents and REAL essential oils are used in most of them.

I discovered CJs because I was looking for a cloth diaper safe cream for Little Miss months before she was born. A friend of mine swore by it as her cloth diaper cream, and cream for everything else because her little guy has severe allergies to nuts, dairy, eggs, etc. and she needed something that would be safe to use on his eczema. She let me try some of hers in the Sweet Orange scent and I was hooked!

I immediately hopped on the CJs website to order some and I was overwhelmed with choices of scents. I had no idea what I wanted, especially since I didn't know which ones I would like and lo and behold this must be a common predicament because they have a sampler pack! I ordered a whole bunch I wanted to try and let me tell you that this stuff lasts forever! I ordered the sampler pack last summer and I still have some little pots left! I have since purchased big tubs of it but I stash the little pots everywhere just in case I need some!

In our home we have used CJs for a variety of things such as:

• cloth diaper cream
• eczema
• dry skin
• hangnails
• cracked heels
• baby acne
• scars
• itchy pregnant belly
• dry elbows
• cuticles
• tame frizz
• chapped baby cheeks
• hand cream

When I was pregnant my stomach itched a lot and  my hands and feet were really dry and cracked. I used this stuff every day and not only did it help relieve and heal my ailments, but I never got any stretch marks! That for me was an amazing feat and I definitely attribute it to the CJs.

As you know from this post, when you use cloth diapers you can't use regular creams because they can ruin your diapers and that it not something you want to do! So CJs is a great option because it is multipurpose. You have it in the house and can use it for everything! Can you do that with desitin? I didn't think so! Not to mention that you don't want to use chemicals on your baby's sensitive skin!

CJs is all natural. You know what's in it? According to the website:

"The only ingredients in original BUTTer are shea butter, olive oil, coconut oil, lanolin, beeswax, cocoa butter, Vitamin E (derived from soy), and gluten-free colloidal oatmeal. The CJ's BUTTer® Stick has the same ingredients, except there is no lanolin and the proportions are different. We also have a 'BUTTer PLUS formula', which comes only in unscented and contains no lanolin or oatmeal and includes sesame and neem oils which have skin protection, healing and antifungal properties. Our spritz contains coconut oil, olive oil, castor oil and vitamin E. Again, the spritz PLUS includes sesame and neem oils in addition to the previous ingredients. Our vegan formula contains just shea butter, cocoa butter and sesame oil and can only be scented with essential oils...unscented is always available, too. Fragrance or essential oils are only added if you choose to have it scented (those listed under All Natural scents are essential oils, the others are fragrance oils. We don't have ingredients for fragrances, as that is proprietary information and the manufacturer is not required to disclose them. They are all phlalate free, though.)"

Awesome! Completely natural and free from yucky chemicals. And it's a family owned company which I love supporting! Thankfully I can now get it locally at fresh & fluffy as well, so I don't even have to pay shipping. Plus, Steph always keeps lots of scents in stock! 

We also use the CJs BUTTer stick for daycare and the diaper bag. It's like a glue stick and it is SO easy and convenient. The daycare loves it! And it is so nice to have a stick in my diaper bag so I don't have to dig into a tub of it when on the go. Love the convenience!

Another product we use is the CJs carcass cleaner and we use it as wipes solution for our cloth wipes. We use a squirt or two of carcass cleaner and a squirt of baby oil and some water and just pour it into the wipes warmer. It smells great and I love knowing I am using all natural products on my little one! You can also use the carcass cleaner for body wash! It's not just for babies!

They have all sorts of other products too like lip balm, creamy lotion, cleaners, bug banisher, etc. Check out the website for lots of all natural products for the whole family!

Some scents I especially love are oatmeal, milk, & honey, lullaby baby lotion, blueberry crumble, mango, sugar, & mint, lavender and tea tree, and my pixie pie. But there are tons more! There are even scents especially for men! Definitely a whole line of products to love! And remember the big tubs last a LONG time. To put it in perspective: My daughter was born 9 months ago and I have only gone through one 12 oz. tub, and one 8 oz. pot. We change her diaper several times daily and use it every time we change her. We also use the butter for all the ailments I listed above and it STILL lasts forever! So that shows you how far a tub can go! You only need a little to go a long way!

So check out CJs BUTTer products and let me know what you think! And don't forget to "like" my new facebook page, "The Good Life!" Thanks for reading!

Love and Laughs,

Danielle