It's a long road

Breastfeeding two children.  The tot is nursing before bed now as the only nursing session.  I'm just not handling the tandem thing as I was hoping.  I get fairly agitated with it and tot also likes to use teeth quite frequently.  However weaning is not going to happen without a fight on his part because he's so stubborn about keeping the nursing.  I think what I'm going to try tonight is putting on my headphones and listening to some music while I nurse him so that I can take away some of the irritation I feel with nursing him which is the sound of him nursing when he's actively doing it.  This is so hard because I really feel so conflicted.  Nursing has been such a great thing for him but at the same time it's also something I'm not enjoying and maybe that's because of the amount of stress we're currently under and also trying to make sure baby is ok and happy at the same time as well. The hubs gets his quality time in with her at that point and plenty of snuggles which he always enjoys.  He also falls asleep with her fairly quickly so it's hard to get him up to go to bed and hand her over. 

Tot is also not feeling so hot today so I'm guessing there may be an extra session in there as well.  So, the get-sick-child-better instincts will kick in and hopefully give tot whatever antibodies he needs to feel better and keep baby protected as well.  I will say though that after two and a half years I have finally gotten the pinching to stop on tot's part while nursing.  After several months of telling him it hurts and that he's done if he doesn't stop and offering him my hand to hold onto instead, which has turned into my holding onto him completely, we've been mostly pinch free for about a month.  So that is a success!  Happy feeding!

And the winner is....

Wilma!

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Edited to Add:  I've sent you an email.  Please respond within 48 hours to claim your prize or I will move on and draw another winner.  :-)

Earth Week Giveaway

I'm celebrating a couple things right now.  It's Earth Week and I'd like to do something for that.  My family has had some good news recently in the job department.  And I've been going through some changes myself and a lot of reflection.  With all of that I'm changing the look of my blog and I'm going to be adding some new changes to it over the next few months.  I'm always happy to hear ideas if you have any.  And with the changes I'm hoping to do a couple things.  One of the things being is to bring awareness on a couple issues.  The other is something I'll share at a later time once I get the idea fully mapped out.  I'm also hoping to be able to voice ideas here on our upcoming move later this year and how to really become more ecologically friendly when we get where we're going since we've fallen to the wayside a bit being where we are. 

Here is the giveaway though....

A pair of cloth diaper inserts from SweetBottoms. One overnight hemp insert and one regular insert.  The overnight insert is two layers but can be folded to give 8 layers of protection.  The regular insert is two layers and can be used just for that extra bit of absorption in your baby's diaper when you need it.

There are a couple ways to enter the drawing: 

Become a follower of my blog and post a comment here on how you and your family are becoming more green and what your plans are for Earth Day.

Post about the giveaway on a board where you frequent and post the link in a separate comment.

Post about the giveaway on a social site you frequent like Facebook or Twitter and post a link for that as well.

So, that's three separate entries to try and win this pair of inserts.

A winner will be drawn on Monday, April 26, at noon.  Please be sure to check back then for the winner and also to make sure there is a way I can get in touch with you if you are the winner.  I had trouble on my last giveaway with that.  So, I can't stress that enough.  Shipping is to the US only.  And I will be doing some other giveaways in the following months as well.  :-)

It's Earth Week

I won't be doing as much to celebrate this year because of living situations.  But, I am planning on doing a giveaway to at least celebrate.  I will decide in the next day of what the giveaway will be.  It will be a slightly selfish way to do things because I am also planning a move at the end of the year across the country and I need to lighten the load here.  I am still holding stock of some hemp inserts and fabric even and I'd like to draw more business in thed long run.  I'd also very much like earn more readers to my little slice of the blogging world as I continue to write more.  I'd love to see more comments and what others are interested in for both the blog and my shop.  I have a lot of ideas but often forget to keep writing instruments nearby so I can actually act upon them when I sit down for a few minutes.

I will update most likely tomorrow to see what I'd like to do to celebrate.  I consider cloth diapering as part of being green.  I'm not filling a landfill.  I know that the washing of the diapers opens up the debate to some on that not being as green either.  But, I'm already doing laundry.  CD's (Cloth Diapers) are my only load of hot aside from towels.  The diapers are now in rotation with two children and when I am done using them they will go onto someone else for more loving.  Anyway, stay tuned to see what the giveaway is.  Have a great night!

Orange Curry Shrimp

2 cups cooked brown rice cooked with:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon dried parsley

Then in a pan:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 medium onion, chopped however you prefer
1 lb of shrimp (I used the small precooked-deveined-no-tail-guys this time)
1 1/2 TBSP curry powder
1 TBSP Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup fresh squeezed orange juice (I use the juice from the two oranges I zested...so really every bit of juice you get out of that is what you use)
orange zest from 2 oranges


Heat oil in a medium skillet over medium heat, and stir in the onion until it has sweated. Mix curry powder, Worcestershire sauce, 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup of the OJ into the skillet. Bring to a boil and let cook 3-5 minutes on medium high to let the flavors come together. Reduce heat, and simmer about 10 minutes until some of the water reduces. Stir in the orange zest and shrimp and continue cooking for 3-5 minutes depending on size of shrimp to heat or cook if using raw shrimp. Mix in the rice to serve. Garnish with more parsley and segmented orange slices if desired. Very tasty.

As always, adjust seasonings to your taste. We love the taste of curry. I recommend getting a good one that has more than just the three ingredients of coriander, fenugreek and pepper in it. We use one that we picked up from Whole Foods. But McCormick makes a decent curry if you get the one in the plastic jar surprisingly. The one in the glass jar only has three main ingredients and really is a huge disappointment.  The great thing about this recipe is that is an easy step into Eastern foods.  I'm sure it can be further modified to really get a true Indian flavor, but I don't have anyone that can show me more of how to authentically cook that way.  So, I just experiment.  Enjoy!

Repairing BumGenius Elastics

I've been meaning to make this post for a long time but, well...procrastination got in the way. I know there is a tutorial on Diaperswappers.com but I get a virus every time I visit that site and hubs is tired of running AV software on my computer. So, for those of you that have the fear of that site as I do then this is for you. And by the way, I'd love to visit the site without worrying about viruses because I have diapers to trade and am looking for a very specific diaper as well, but it's just not going to happen until I can go on there more than half the time without getting one.

If you're handy enough with a seam ripper and a sewing machine you can do this in about an hour for both legs. Add in the back and it's probably two hours from start to finish. The reason for that I've noticed is that the back elastic seems to have been caught in the sewing process so you generally have to open the entire casing, sew it back down then put your elastic through and close it up. And I am offering this service as of right now on my etsy shop for those that aren't inclined to sew or don't have a machine. But, that's another story.

So here it is without further adieu....

Step 1)
Take the diaper you want to repair the leg elastic of. On the outside of the diaper at the start of the leg curve/casing gently rip of the seam for about an inch on each end of the legs going towards the crotch.



Step 2)
When you turn the diaper inside out you should be able to see where you've opened up and some of the elastic showing as well. This will be what you're working with.



Step 3)
Cut your new elastic to about 4 1/2 inches long. (The diaperswappers posting I believe says that from the back of a ballpoint pen to the bottom of the cap is the length needed. I have a toddler who loves pens and I have no idea where he hides them or the caps.) Thread a hand needle with some thread. I used a bright color thread for this. And keep a small crochet hook on hand just in case your current diaper elastic breaks.



Step 4)
Take the threaded hand needle and sew the end of your new elastic to the end of your old elastic. Once you've done that you can gently pull the old elastic on the other end of the leg to bring through the new elastic. Make sure you don't pull too far or you'll lose the new elastic from where you started.



Step 4.5)
If the old elastic breaks while pulling to bring through the new elastic use your small crochet hook to help bring the new elastic through. What I did was use the length of old elastic still sewn to me new elastic. I sewed another piece of thread to the old elastic to make a loop I could grab with on the hook. I then gently pulled that through and kept on with business.



Step 5)
Turn your diaper inside out and sew the casing shut on where you started to pull through the elastic. A tip so you don't lose your elastic doing this is to actually lightly hand sew the ends of the elastic to the strip of serging inside the diaper. I don't do that because it is a pain in the butt and my hand needles don't like doing it. So I half turn the diaper inside out to start the one end and slowly make my way down the crotch of the casing to the other opening making sure I don't catch any other part of the diaper in the machine. I slowly sew down the casing line until I get to the other open end and then sew that shut as well making sure I have all of my new elastic up to where I'm sewing.

TIP: Use a size 10 needle in your machine along with good 100% polyester thread. I am using Gutterman now after mistakenly using Coats & Clark which for some reason caused wicking on me. I use Coats & Clark for other things, but not on my diapers.



Step 6)
Sit back and admire your like new leg elastic....then get cracking on the other side if it needs to be done. Don't forget to throw the diaper in the dryer to make sure the PUL seals around the thread.




Now, if you need to repair the waist elastic at the back... I don't have pics but can take some next time I do one. It's almost the same thing. You have to open up the seams (make sure the elastic wasn't sewn into the casing which usually is fairly obvious I've noticed) and have 5" (I'm still figuring this one out but 5 isn't too bad) of new elastic. Do your pull through and sew shut.

One more hint with your diapers.... Every now and then turn the diaper tabs inside out and clean them out. You'd be surprised at the amount of lint and nastiness that gets stuck in there! Enjoy!

There's no more butter!

I miss butter. I love butter. Butter is my very good friend. I use it in baking/cooking and on bread or toast. Since that is a no go right now I need something for my bread and butter or garlic bread cravings. And I'm also lacking fat in my diet to some degree because I don't eat much meat and now I have no dairy in it. So needless to say some days this past week I've felt a little funky mentally. I got it in my head that I really wanted some Italian bread one night last week. And hubs who really does try to come to the craving rescue went along with helping me figure out what would work. My solution to this was to make dipping oil. You know...the stuff you get served in really good Italian restaurants. This turned out pretty good although I'm still trying to debate the flavors I want when I grow tired of this combo. But, it has garlic in it so I don't know if that will happen. I might have to try and roast the garlic just a wee bit some time to see how that flavor is.

1/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 small cloves garlic minced very fine
1/2 tsp Italian seasoning blend
pinch of crushed red pepper flakes

Mix all of these together and let sit for an hour before serving up for dipping. The flavors come together and you'll be fighting everyone else for it. Not the best picture but I was being pulled on by a toddler who wanted very badly to help.

Reusable Nursing Pads

So, I have heard wonderful things about Artsy Fartsy Foo Foo Milk Maids. These are waterproof nursing pads that are phenomenal. A friend gave me a pair last week as a gift which I've been lucky enough to try. I had originally been using the cotton ones from Dr. Browns which are completely worthless if you have a forceful letdown. I leak through them in seconds and since I'm a jeans an tee shirt kind of gal I had huge wet spots on my shirts. You have to have luck and agility on your side to snag a pair of these when she stocks and it is very well worth it. I have been too slow to snag a pair up because my internet connection always seems to go down right as I add them to my cart.

So, a few weeks ago I got tired of the leaking and having to keep my moby wrap on me even without the baby in there while in public. I decided to try my hand at making my own reusable waterproof nursing pads. Granted they do work. I used leftover PUL, hemp fleece and some flannel to make mine. They are not pretty by any means nor are they perfect circles like the Milk Maids. But, they did work and I now have two pairs of nursing pads in rotation. I have a pair of the Milk Maids and a pair of my own.

I originally had two pairs of my own but my wonderful hubs lost the first pair I made and I can't find them anywhere. So, someone at the laundromat probably looked at them and couldn't figure out what they were and trashed them. So my hard work went to pot. I used a pair of the Dr. Brown's as my template and just figured it out from there. From this, I have learned I can't sew circles any better than I can draw them. It's not easy! And to leave the sewing of circles to the professionals....for now. I have some things I'd like to sew that are circles but nursing pads are not on my list unless I'm in dire straights as I had been these past few weeks. For now if I need more I'm going to keep stalking Hyena Cart and I know I'll pick some up one of these next few stockings since I can start anticipating when the internet is going down here. That's a story all in itself though. Here's my feeble attempt so you can have the comparison. ;-)

Unpaper Towels

I made these for a friend because she's been so wonderful these past few months in helping me out with the kids. The time I put in on these which was actually two rounds of serging because I had timing issues with my machine and needed to take it in for servicing and I bought cheap thread....a mistake I'll never make again for sure! So, after all the trouble of getting these done for her I finally gave them to her. She loved them and already has mulitple uses for them in her home. I didn't think to take a picture of the back which is just ivory colored terry. I'll have to remember for the future. For my friend I just cut out 12x12 squares in the two fabrics and then serged them together. They are the perfect size for her kitchen and needs.

Now I just have to make the set for us to use and I already have the fabric picked out as a little bit of happiness for the hubs. He has a thing for chili peppers so I picked out chili pepper fabric. Now just to get the time to cut them so I can serge them up.

Got Bread?

So, after looking at a lot of bread in the bread aisle I can't seem to find a sandwich bread to enjoy when I want a sandwich. And being this past weekend had a holiday in it I of course had to have egg salad since I took the time to dye eggs with my over-excited toddler. So, I took the ten minutes to add ingredients to my bread machine to make some bread. I took the recipe from my Oster Expressbake breadmaker book and made it as follows:

1.5Lb. Loaf

1 cup water
2 TBSP coconut oil
3 TBSP almond milk (I think you can try this with any other milk like hemp or oat if you're nut allergic)
1 1/2 tsp. salt
3 cups bread flour
1 TBSP sugar
2 tsp active dry yeast

Directions:
Add measured liquid ingredients to pan.
Add measured dry ingredients to pan, except yeast.
Form a well in the flour and add yeast. (This machine says for the yeast to never touch the liquid while you're working with it)
Put pan in the machine and select the basic setting, crust color (I did medium) and the start button.

It does taste good. I think next time I need to warm up the coconut oil before adding it though because a little bit of it did clump up in one area. The bread does taste good though which is really the point of the end result.

I'm going dairy free for awhile

So I had been watching while my poor baby has been really gassy, uncomfortable, mucousy and rashy. I spoke to the pediatrician about it because it seemed to coincide with when I had dairy loaded meals or she got a nightly bottle. The doctor agreed with trying an elimination diet for a month to see if this would help. It's been a week of checking packages of everything I'm eating. I can honestly say that I did not realize how much that milk is in. I eat a lot of cheese and chocolate and bread. These things are pretty much all on the no go list now. I have to really search for dark chocolate that doesn't have milk solids in it. Luckily I found some at Trader Joe's and it's good but still doesn't quite hit the sweet tooth spot. As for bread for sandwiches...forget it! I have to make my own. Luckily I got a bread machine for Christmas. Today will be my first attempt making bread with almond milk. I'll let you know how it goes. So, I'm still mourning the loss of a huge part of my diet. On the positive side sweet baby is already starting to look less rashy and diaper changes are not as rancid and sickening. That is a definite upside. And breastfeeding is so important to me that losing the ability to eat some of my favorite foods is worth it for the baby to feel better. But you can be guaranteed that the day I'm no longer nursing or baby doesn't have any issues I'm having a donut or some peanut butter cups or a big Greek salad with extra feta. Until then I'll just dream of the foods I miss and hope to see continued progress of weight gain and overall health for her and myself. And I'll come up with ways to make the most of the new menu as I try to mangle my way through it.