weight loss during pregnancy with no morning sickness | Molar pregnancy

weight loss during pregnancy with no morning sickness

I went in for my D&C follow-up appointment this past week only to find out that this last pregnancy (that ended in a miscarriage) was a molar pregnancy. What is a molar pregnancy, you ask? I had the same question. My OBGyn gave me information from the Mayo Clinic (view it here, or Google "Molar Pregnancy Mayo Clinic"). Im going to use that source as well as What to Expect When You are Expecting by Heidi Murkoff, Arlene Eisenberg, and Sandee Hathaway (I have the third edition), the two sources I have used looking up molar pregnancy. My doctor said that sometimes Googling things leads to finding out really scary information and Ive decided that I dont need more stress (he also told me to call him if someone tells me something upsetting that I want to ask about). Im going to do my best explaining a molar pregnancy with those two sources.

There are two types of molar pregnancies: a complete molar pregnancy and a partial molar pregnancy. I had a partial molar pregnancy. What to Expect defines a complete molar pregnancy as "an abnormal mass, instead of a normal embryo, [that] forms inside the uterus after fertilization. The trophoblast-- the layer of cells that line the gestational sac-- converts into a clump of clear tapioca-like vesicles instead of the beginnings of a placenta" (pg 513). The Mayo Clinic says, "in a partial molar pregnancy, theres an abnormal embryo and possibly some normal placental tissue. The embryo begins to develop but is malformed and cant survive." What to Expect goes further and says, "if the fetus survives, it may be growth-restricted and have a variety of congenital abnormalities..." (pg 515).

What causes a molar pregnancy? To quote the Mayo Clinic:

A molar pregnancy is caused by an abnormally fertilized egg. Human cells normally contain 23 chromosomes. One chromosome in each pair comes from the father, the other from the mother. In a complete molar pregnancy, all the fertilized eggs chromosomes come from the father... In a partial molar pregnancy, the mothers chromosomes remain but the father provides two sets of chromosomes. As a result, the embryo has 69 chromosomes, instead of 46. This can happen when the fathers chromosomes are duplicated or if two sperm fertilize a single egg.

A complete molar pregnancy "can be detected as early as eight or nine weeks" on an ultrasound (Mayo Clinic). The ultrasound may show: "no embryo or fetus, no amniotic fluid, a thick cystic placenta nearly filling the uterus, ovarian cysts" (Mayo Clinic). "As the pregnancy progresses, 1 in 5 women may pass a few of these tiny vesicles... The uterus is larger than expected and feels doughy rather than firm; no fetal heartbeat can be detected. Preeclampsia... or in some cases loss of weight and other indications of increased thyroid activity, may also be seen... The ovaries may also be enlarged because of the accompanying high levels of hCG" (What to Expect, pg 513).

In a partial molar pregnancy, "an ultrasound may show: a growth-restricted fetus, low amniotic fluid, a thick cystic placenta" (Mayo Clinic). What to Expect says the signs and symptoms "are similar to those of an incomplete or missed abortion. There is usually irregular... bleeding, no fetal heartbeat, and a uterus that is either small or normal for the length of the pregnancy. Only a small percentage of women with partial molar pregnancies have an enlarged uterus, as is common in a complete molar pregnancy" (pg 515).

Both sources list some physical signs. The Mayo Clinic listed: "dark brown to bright red...bleeding during the first trimester, severe nausea and vomiting, ...passage of grape-like cysts, rarely pelvic pressure or pain." What to Expect said, "The first sign of a molar pregnancy is usually an intermittent, though sometimes continuous, brownish discharge. Frequently normal morning sickness of pregnancy becomes abnormally severe" (pg 513).

This was my fourth pregnancy; I had no spotting and normal morning sickness. I felt nauseous and tired and did not suspect that something was wrong until our first ultrasound (read my blog post "Miscarriage"). We were told we could have our dates wrong or that the pregnancy was not progressing. With regular ultrasounds and blood work, it become apparent that I was miscarrying. The diagnosis of a partial molar pregnancy was a huge surprise.

Who is at a higher risk for a molar pregnancy? According to What to Expect, molar pregnancies occur "roughly 1 in 2,000 pregnancies in the United States... more often in women over forty-five than in younger mothers" (pg 513). The Mayo Clinic says, "molar pregnancy is uncommon, occurring in about 1 in every 1,000 pregnancies." The Mayo Clinic lists the at-risk groups:

• "Maternal age. A molar pregnancy is more likely for a woman older than age 35 or younger than age 20.
• "Previous molar pregnancy. If youve had one molar pregnancy, youre more likely to have another. A repeat molar pregnancy happens, on average, in 1 to 2 out of every 100 women.
• "Some ethnic groups. Women of Southeast Asian descent appear to have a higher risk of molar pregnancy."

How do you treat a molar pregnancy? "A molar pregnancy cant continue as a normal viable pregnancy. To prevent complications, the molar tissue must be removed" (Mayo Clinic). My OBGyn explained to me that complete molar pregnancies are visible on an ultrasound, while partial molar pregnancies often appear to be regular miscarriages, as mine did. Partial molar pregnancies are frequently discovered after a D&C when the tissue removed is examined by a doctor.

I did find something interesting in What to Expect regarding partial molar pregnancies on page 515, though I am unclear as to what circumstances would lead you to discover this was happening:

If a normal fetus is born, it usually turns out that it was part of a multiple pregnancy, with the partial mole belonging to a twin that had deteriorated... If the fetus is living and appears on ultrasound to be in good condition, the pregnancy will probably be allowed to continue.

Now that you understand what a molar pregnancy is, what are the complications involved with having a molar pregnancy? "A molar pregnancy can have serious complications-- including a rare form of cancer-- and requires early treatment" (Mayo Clinic). Im going to copy the Mayo Clinics Complications section because it is very informative:

After a molar pregnancy has been removed, molar tissue may remain and continue to grow. This is called persistent gestational trophoblastic disease (GTD). It occurs in about 20% of women after a molar pregnancy-- usually after a complete mole rather than a partial mole.

One sign of persistent GTD is an elevated level of human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG)-- a pregnancy hormone-- in your blood even after the molar pregnancy has been removed. In some cases, an invasive mole penetrates deep into the middle layer of the uterine wall, which causes...bleeding. Persistent GTD can nearly always be successfully treated, most often with chemotherapy. Another treatment option is removal of the uterus (hysterectomy).

What to Expect says on pg 513:

Follow-up is important, since about 10-15% of molar pregnancies dont stop growing immediately. If blood hCG levels fail to return to normal, another D&C is performed. In the rare instances that hCG levels remain elevated after a second procedure, the physician will check for a new pregnancy or for the spread of molar tissue to the [lady parts] or lungs, which may be treated with chemotherapy. Very rarely, a molar pregnancy becomes malignant... so close medical follow-up is especially important, since this condition is very curable with early diagnosis and treatment.

How do they monitor your HCG levels? As stated, HCG is the pregnancy hormone. A negative result is a negative pregnancy test, meaning there were no HCG levels in your blood. My OBGyn wants me to come in for weekly blood tests until I have three negative tests in a row. Once that happens, he wants me to come in for monthly blood tests, again looking for negative results. If my HCG levels stay the same or go up, all of the molar matter has not been removed and we will have to look at our treatment options.

When can I get pregnant again? "Because pregnancy makes it difficult to monitor HCG levels," you are not recommended to get pregnant right away (Mayo Clinic). One of the first things my OBGyn did was write me a prescription for birth control. What to Expect says, "a new pregnancy is not recommended until hCG levels have been the same for one year" (pg 515). The Mayo Clinic says your doctor "may recommend waiting six months to one year before trying to become pregnant." My OBGyn recommended six months.

Will this affect my ability to get pregnant? According to the Mayo Clinic and What to Expect, it shouldnt. What to Expect states, "most women can have healthy babies after having a partial molar pregnancy, but since the risk of repeat exists, early ultrasound examination is important in future pregnancies to rule out that possibility" (pg 515). Mayo Clinic says, "if youve had a molar pregnancy, talk to your health care provider before conceiving again... During any subsequent pregnancies, your health care provider may do early ultrasounds to monitor your condition and offer reassurance of normal development." My OBGyn spent much time reassuring me that this should not affect our future chances of a successful pregnancy; Im very optimistic though nervous about the chance of a repeat molar pregnancy.

The rare form of cancer is called choriocarcinoma, discussed in What to Expect. "Choriocarcinoma is an extremely rare cancer related directly to pregnancy. About half the cases develop when there is a molar pregnancy..." (pg 515). It is treated with chemotherapy. "With early diagnosis and treatment, survival is the norm and fertility is unaffected, though it is deferred for two years after treatment is complete and there is no evidence of residual disease" (pg 515). My OBGyn said that in his 18 years as a practicing OBGyn he has had 1-2 molar pregnancies a year and none have turned cancerous.

The Mayo Clinic also includes a section called Coping and Support:

Losing a pregnancy is devastating. Give yourself time to grieve. Talk about your feelings and allow yourself to experience them fully. Turn to your partner, family and friends for support. If youre having trouble handling your emotions, consult your health care provider or a counselor.

Miscarriages are heartbreaking. This is our second miscarriage and it doesnt get easier. Sometimes it is very hard to hear people say, "You can try again soon." It makes me feel like Im taking the miscarriage too hard and that I shouldnt view it as losing a child. I feel like Ive lost a child that I will never get to hold. It has taken me nearly a week to digest this latest development, the molar pregnancy. I feel so frustrated that we have to wait so long before we can start trying again. Im praying hard about it because I feel so impotent. Ive had two miscarriages and one of them was a molar pregnancy. Will I have another molar pregnancy? How long will we have to wait? I dont want to rush things and risk the serious complications of a molar pregnancy, but I want to start trying as soon as possible.

Ay me! sad hours seem long.

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weight loss during pregnancy in first trimester | Why do I feed our toddlers

weight loss during pregnancy in first trimester

Today as I was scraping ANOTHER plate of food into the trash can, I thought, "Why do I even make the toddlers plates of food?" So here we go!

10 reasons why I make our toddlers plates of food:

1. I worry that they have run out of things to throw and like to supply them with materials.

2. We like to "pretend" lunch. Oh, look, here is a plate of food for you to pretend to eat! Wasnt that fun?

3. It is a habit and old habits die hard. For some reason, I just cant stop setting out a plate for each of them that I then put food on.

4. I enjoy doing dishes.

5. I enjoy scrubbing mashed sweet potatoes out of the cracks of the high chairs.

6. I enjoy the after breakfast bath to get syrup from the "pancake hats" out of their hair.

7. The dog is hungry and the only way for him to eat is bite by bite from our toddlers spoons.

8. Ive run out of things to argue with them over and I like hearing myself tell them to "just try a bite!" Try it, try it, Sam I Am...

9. You guessed it, I love doing laundry. I love pulling off smeared oatmeal shirts and getting smashed strawberry stains out of shirts.

10. We like throwing money in the trash can. Dont worry about it, kids; its just an organic cheese stick. We dont have a grocery budget or anything to worry about.

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pregnancy losing weight second trimester | Toddler Fight Club meaner and tougher

pregnancy losing weight second trimester

Last month I wrote a post about how I thought my toddler had her own little fight club thing going on.  Not in the actual fight club sense with physical violence, but, as in the film, her own little set of rules that you chose not to obey at your peril. A key rule was that her rules changed pretty frequently without her actually telling me or her dad any of them.  You can read the original toddler fight club post here. Almost as if she had read my post, my beautiful daughter has upped her game, and here for your reading pleasure are her new toddler fight club rules.   

Rule one of toddler fight club. There are many, many rules. 

Rule two of toddler fight club. These rules will change daily sometimes hourly and different people have different rules.  If you are going to blog about them mummy, I will change them again.  This is my fight club. 

Rule three of toddler fight club.  I now like not two, but three rubber ducks in my bed at bedtime.  Count them buster, 1,2,3.  And yes, I still need my penguin, a heart shaped stone and a blanket.  If any one of these said items is missing, then you can wave sleep bye-bye.

Rule four of toddler fight club.  I will trump at any given moment and then look nonchalantly at you. Yes, I am fully aware you find this embarrassing, but I am not admitting to trumping in public, its way too embarrassing.  For all intents and purposes, it was you.

Rule five of toddler fight club. I will also embarrass you at playgroup and announce in my loudest voice that the big blue lump of play dough looks like a poo I did that morning.  Its in the publics interest that they know this information. 

Do not be fooled by the tiara and wand.  This kid means business. 

Rule six of toddler fight club. Do not ever tell people about my skills. My skills are for your eyes only. I am not a performing monkey.  The minute you tell someone I can sing Frozen or Im a chatter box, I lose all power and control over my vocal chords.  And quite frankly, you look a little stupid.

Rule seven of toddler fight club. I now quite like the phrase donkey flag which I like to shout at the top of my voice whilst we are food shopping.  I have no idea what it means either.

Rule eight of toddler fight club. I must perform a five minute dance routine before bed or I cant sleep.  You let me watch Mary Poppins at Christmas and now I feel like I need to recreate Berts chimney sweep dance before bed.  Every single night. 

Rule nine of toddler fight club. If you give me a helium balloon then expect me to work out the point in any given building of the highest ceiling to floor ratio and then I will release it there.  Now please go and get it or I will cry.

Rule ten of toddler fight club. The dog is still my personal miniature pony and he shall transport me around the house whenever I feel the need. 

Ahhh, toddlers eh?! Well as Im typing its bedtime in the Laura Evelyn Bee household, so whilst I go and watch my daughter pretend to be a chimney sweep, are there any rules you think your little one would add to the list? Comments below please!  

Thank you for reading, 

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is weight loss healthy during pregnancy | Toddler beds and baby gates

is weight loss healthy during pregnancy

C holding sleeping Os hand saying, "Brother night-night!"

We just transitioned our 26-month old twins to toddler beds.

I posted a blog about the first time our twin toddlers slept in a real bed, which happened to be on a family vacation (read "Impossible"). They had actually been climbing out of PacknPlays long before that. Before they were just climbing in and out of each others PacknPlays during our visits to my parents house. The room they sleep in there has circular door knobs, not handles like where we stayed on vacation, and they didnt realize they could escape. I would just overly baby proof the room they slept in at my parents house and pray that they didnt apply this behavior once we got home to their cribs.

When we got home from our family vacation, they did make the connection that since they could climb in and out of their PacknPlays, they could climb in and out of their cribs. We had seen them try this before and we would sternly say, "No! We do not climb." This worked when they were little toddlers; as big, bad two-year olds they said, "Danger? I laugh in the face of danger-- ha, ha, ha, ha!" We knew they were climbing out of their cribs because not only would we find them in each others cribs in the morning, but we would also hear the loud THUMP! followed by the loud cry, "Mooooooomma!" We ignored it. "Climbing out of their cribs? No... they only do it occasionally. They will learn to stop," we said. Shocked we were every time we found them out of their own cribs when we walked into their room in the morning or after nap, though we found them that way every time we walked in their room. Complete and utter denial.

And then we found them "planking" on the side of their cribs. Specifically, we found O planking on the side of his and Cs crib, like a baby bridge. We could deny it no longer. This was indeed a problem.

With a heavy heart, we converted their cribs to toddler beds. They had their little Fisher Price baby tools in their bedroom helping me unscrew the sides. They helped put the screws in Ziploc bags so we wouldnt lose them. They helped make the beds and tuck their baby dolls in the bed, "See? Baby sleeps in a toddler bed. Baby doesnt climb out of bed. Baby likes staying in bed all night long and taking naps in his own bed, like is Momma tells him to. Good baby..."

While Baby may like staying in his toddler bed, C and O most definitely do not.

C sleeping behind the door in his room

It took our oldest about a week to figure out that he didnt have to stay in bed. Of course, he was about a year and a half old and thus much more obedient; our toddlers are just over two and like testing boundaries much more. However, our oldest didnt share a room with a twin brother and they are. I think it is much more tempting to crawl out of bed to see what your brother is doing when you have the freedom to do so. They crawled out of bed immediately the first night. We firmly told them, "No," and put them back to bed. I did stand outside their door and put them back to bed every time I heard them get up, regardless of how quiet they were being. I dont know if it was the sleep training-- they go to bed every night at 8 pm-- or my consistency, but they havent had too much issues with bedtime.

We did have problems with one of the toddlers waking up in the middle of the night for about the first week of toddler beds. C would wake up around midnight screaming bloody murder. Im not sure what would wake him up. The first couple nights he pointed to where the crib rail was as if he was upset it was gone. The next night or so I think he just got into the habit of waking up and having Momma tuck him back in. Realizing this, I told him, "Momma is going to tuck you in now. Im not coming back in. You need to go to bed." I gave him a kiss and let him cry. It made me sad because we havent really made them cry it out (we did 12 Hours in 12 Weeks Old: A Step-by-Step Plan for Baby Sleep Success by Suzy Giordano) and I didnt want him feeling like, "Oh, great. I dont want to be in a toddler bed and now Mommy and Daddy are abandoning me." It took him two or three nights and then the middle of the night hour long scream fest stopped. I would just go in the first time, tell him good-night and I wasnt coming back in, tuck him into bed, and then let him cry.

Before toddler beds, I was chaffing under our nap schedule. C would nap-- seriously-- from about 12 pm to 4:30 pm. If I put him down at 1 pm, he would get up around 5:30 pm, sometimes later. I was trying to push our afternoon nap back to around 2 pm so he wouldnt sleep so long (though he was then just napping from 2 pm to 6 pm or later). I felt like I was stuck at home all afternoon for him to nap between 4 and 5 hours; I wanted freedom. Oh, foolish thoughts.

After toddler beds, I wish I was stuck at home all afternoon due to a long nap. Naps evaporated-- poof! C really needs his nap. O would take a nap before the transition, anywhere between 45 minutes to 3 hours, usually at least an hour. He had some fussy afternoons after toddler beds, but C really took the cake for fussy. We are talking about full-on, clinging, screaming, flailing, breathholding temper tantrums. Over everything. E.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g. From the time he woke up in the morning to the time he went to bed. And because he was in a toddler bed, he would flail out of his bed and run to the bedroom door as soon as I laid him down; the convenient containment of a crib was gone. When he was in a crib and really needed a nap, I could lay him down, listen to him cry for a couple minutes, peek my head in, and see him sleeping soundly with his blanket shoved up his nose. Now we have this endless battle. Go in, lay him down, he screams, runs to the door, climbs over the gate, I go in, lay him down, he screams, runs to the door, climbs over the gate... Get the picture?

Oh, yes, and his twin brother then decides to join in. O may not need a nap as badly, but he is still more tired than usual. He hasnt had any down time-- a crib is great for providing a little quiet play in a familiar, safe environment-- and he wants Momma. Now. So I have O screaming at the gate down the hall for me, C screaming at the gate in his bedroom, and our oldest feeling very tired of the crying. And not only was our oldest D tired of the crying, but my husband and I were. It was a tense time for all of us, (read "Marriage").

My two other blog posts on this topic, "Keep calm and carry on" and "First time mom," help capture the essence of how crazy it has been around here. Our whole groove was thrown off. I was accustomed to having a four hour block of relative peace in the afternoon. Our preschooler was used to having some one-on-one time with Momma every afternoon, reading stories and doing a special project (usually just drawing pictures together). Laundry backed up, cooking "fancy" dinners stopped, and I felt like we were thrown into survival mode. We really were thrown off our groove.

I reached out to other moms about how they transitioned to toddler beds. I heard a lot of people say they separated their twins at naptime once they transitioned to toddler beds. This option doesnt work well for us as they cant nap in their older brothers room and our bedroom isnt exactly baby proof (it has become the catch-all of all non-baby proof things in our house-- our dressers are piled with things we dont want the babies getting their hands on). I also heard several moms say they sat in their childrens room during naptime and bedtime to make sure they went to sleep.

My hubby and I talked. How do we want to enforce bedtime and naptime? I know I dont want to sit in their room for even 10 minutes every single night when we put them to bed, or for however long it takes them to nap every afternoon. We decided on a zero tolerance policy at bedtime. If we hear them making any noise at bedtime, we go in and put them down. This has actually worked. Theyve been in their toddler beds for-- what?-- three weeks now?-- and they go to bed without problems. Naptime is a different story. We decided that we would do a quiet time policy: if they are quiet, fine. Dont care if you are napping or playing quietly, you are staying in your room until I come get you. I really think we will switch to the zero tolerance policy for naptime as well; they just arent going down for nap well.

Remember my blog post on the weird showering dilemma I had (read, "Showering")? Now I have nowhere to leave the toddlers while I shower. My boys have figured out that if you can climb out of a PacknPlay, you can climb out of your crib and if you can climb out of your crib, you can climb over a baby gate. I put them in their room and they climb over the baby gate. I put them in the playroom and they climb over the baby gate. There are only so many child-proof places that I can leave them for me to shower while they are awake. Ive taken to showering at night after they go to bed or in the morning before my hubby leaves.

This morning was different in that I had plans with the kids and needed to shower. Hubby left early and so I was left with two toddlers and preschooler to entertain while I showered. I decided to set the preschooler up in the family room with Magic School Bus and his writing notebook to copy words down. For the toddlers, I put the gate up in the playroom and told them to play while Momma took a quick shower. I think they thought I was leaving because they flipped out. I comforted them, assured them I wasnt leaving, and then brought them down the hall to their bedroom so they could see and hear me while I showered. I put them in their room with the gate up, went to turn on Magic School Bus for D, and when I came back down the hall I found two naked toddlers dashing around their bedroom. I didnt want to leave them naked as they are nowhere near potty trained and so I got new diapers, explained they need to leave their clothes on, and then got them dressed. This distressed O greatly. He screamed, "Naked! Naked! Naked!" as he pulled on his shirt. He then had an epic meltdown from which I could not recover him from. Forty-five minutes later my hubby comes home as Im trying to get C to play in the playroom while I attempt to get a screaming O to nap in his bedroom. D is now on his third or fourth episode of Magic School Bus. Hubby comes in, takes O from me, and tells me, "Ive got this. Go shower." I took a ten minute shower. Ten. Minutes. That is all I needed to get clean, children. Why does it have to be so hard sometimes?

Emptying the dressers in their bedroom

Hubby went back to work after I got out of the shower. I wanted to blow dry my hair and throw on some make up, another 10-15 minute process if Im hurrying. Didnt happen. I did some more back and forth between the playroom and the bedroom. The toddlers escaped from the playroom and tore apart the kitchen. They were having so many meltdowns and being so impossible to control that I said, "Okay! Early naptime!" I put them down for nap. They refused to stay in bed and climbed over the gate. I put them down. Again and again and again. Until finally they fell asleep. I dont know why they caved and fell asleep, but they did. This is when I decided that Momma needed a writing break and so I sat down to write this blog post. Over an hour later, I hear O yelling at the door, "Momma! Momma!" I worried that he would wake C up so I went down the hall, cracked open the door, and just stared at what I saw. C is sleeping behind the door (fully dressed with his blanket). O was standing butt naked in the middle of a disaster zone. Every drawer is emptied, the contents scattered all over the floor and piled on the chair. They pulled everything off their beds. The toy bin is upside down. Holy smokes. I lifted the naked O over the gate, closed the door, and brought him out here with me. He is now sitting at the table eating a peanut butter sandwich wearing only a diaper, big smile plastered on his face.

Not every day has gone like this since we transitioned to toddler beds. Many have though, which is why we have all been a little stressed. To get them into a routine, we stayed home for about a week and figured out a new nap schedule. This put us on the worlds worst nap schedule. As my husband wisely said, "At least they are on a nap schedule." C would go down for a nap around 10:30/11:00 am and nap until 1:00/1:30 pm. O would go down for a nap around 1:30/2:00 pm and nap until about 3:30 pm. C would then go back down for a nap around 4:00/4:30 pm and sleep until 5:30/6:00 pm. We were home rotating naps all day. Once we got them napping, we started pushing back Cs morning nap, getting it closer to Os afternoon nap. This shortened Cs second nap. Now we try to put both toddlers down around 1:30/2:00 pm. The first day we put C down at this time, he slept for over 5 hours. I think he was exhausted from lack of sleep. Now they nap for roughly 2-3 hours, still shorter than Cs pre-toddler bed nap of 4 to 4 and a half hours, but better than no nap at all.

We have also had a difference in our wake up time. In cribs, the boys went to bed for the night at 8 pm and woke up around 7:45/8:00 am. I usually got them out of their cribs around 8:15/8:30 am. Now they are waking up anywhere between 6 am and 7 am. I am not sure why so early. I suspect that O is waking up early and getting C up. I have tried to either make them wait until 7 am before I get them or for 15 minutes. For instance, if they wake up at 6 am, I dont go get them for an hour. If they wake up at 7 am, I make them wait for 15 minutes. Im *hoping* (<--fingers crossed) that I can push their wake up time to at least 7:30 am. Im not sure if it will happen or not. Even if we cant push back the wake up time, we are not waking up any earlier than 7:00 am. Momma is not a morning person.

Both toddlers climbing over the baby gate

Besides naptime, the hardest part of this whole process has been the ineffectiveness of the baby gates, now called "baby hurdles" at our house. Our garage is a baby gate graveyard. If you are looking to buy baby gates, here is a run down on how they will do when you have toddlers:

• Summer Infant Sure and Secure Extra Tall Walk Thru Gate: we own one of these. It works fine for infants, but all toddlers have to do is shake the gate really hard and it will eventually open. The more they do this, the easier it is for it to open. This gate is much more of an alarm system, really. "Oh, hear the gate? The toddlers made it through."
• Safety 1st Perfect Fit Gate: we own... three of these? Four if you count the one we left at my parents house. We bought the first two (including the one at my parents house) when our oldest was a toddler. It is the kind with the holes in it. It looks a lot like this gate, but white. The holes make it, essentially, a baby rock climbing wall and, let me tell you, they are always up for the challenge. The next two we bought were for the twins and they are the smooth fancy looking version, like in the link. The toddlers are 26-months and just deadlift themselves over this gate. They perch themselves on the top to swing their legs over and go down the other side (see above picture). That is why we call it the baby hurdle.
• Regalo Easy Step Walk Thru Gate: we own two of these. This is the only gate they havent been able to get through when locked. You press the handle down and a tab slides over it. You have to pull the red tab back to release the handle, then pull the handle up to open the gate. The two step process is hard for their little hands. It is also pressure mounted in our doorways and they havent felt bold enough to attempt climbing this one, perhaps because of the space in the bars. Regardless, l-o-v-e this gate. Downside: we frequently trap our house guests in rooms with this gate because it is trickier to open and, if you dont lock it, they can just lift the handle and walk through. I think I say "remember to lock the gate" 800 times a day.
• Carlson Extra Wide Walk Thru Gate with Pet Door: we own one of these, made by the same people who did the Regalo gate, same wonderful latch. We havent put this one up because it is too wide for our doorways in this house. I actually got this one free! Someone put it on the side of the road with a "free" sign on it and I picked it up one day on our way home from church.

The swing gates are great if you want to leave it up long term, such as the one we keep in the hallway going down to the bedrooms. They are also easier to get through when carrying an infant (or two). The pressure gates are great for doorways you wont use often, if you want to leave it up and permanently block infants and pets from entering a room. The pressure gates are also great for when company comes over and you want to block their kids from going to certain parts of your home. Ill put them up for the afternoon if I want the kids (and their parents) to know certain areas are off limits, especially when there will be lots of kids coming over, which tends to happen when you are friends with mothers of multiples. These pressure gates, though, only slow our toddlers down from going in or out of an area; they are so easy for them to climb over. Hands down, I love the Regalo swing gate.

It has been a trying phase, most definitely. I feel like we have finally reached some sort of routine, finally caught our balance and adjusted to our new schedule. It was such a sudden shift in our daily routine. In "Terrible twos," I mention that these phases of motherhood come in waves. I dont want to jinx it, but we are figuring it out and, perhaps, getting the hang of having two two-year olds in toddler beds!

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is weight loss during pregnancy dangerous | Toddler twin must haves 2yo to 3yo

is weight loss during pregnancy dangerous

Our toddlers are days away from turning three-years old which means it is time for another must-have list! :) What are the things that have made this past year with toddler twins just that much easier? I have found that as our twins get older, it is becoming much less about finding things that work for twins and more about finding things that work for having three children. Most of these things are applicable to making life easier with three young children, not twin specific.

Side note: I cant believe that my next must-have list will probably be for the youngest of four children-- newborn things again! This pregnancy is flying by; Im already in the third trimester!

1. The Aqueduck Faucet Extender

Without the Aqueduck, reaching for the water flow

With the Aqueduck, standing flat footed on the stool

Not sure what the silly face is for, but using the Aqueduck

This is seriously a parenting must-have, twins or not. I cant believe I didnt own this when our oldest was small. This makes washing little hands so.much.easier, even with a stool boosting them up. The Aqueduck moves the water flow closer to them and is easy to take on and off, which is useful when you have guests using the bathroom or if you want to bring it with you on a family vacation. I know this will be coming on our next timeshare trip.

2. Lunch containers

All these are from-- where else?-- Target

I dont have a specific lunch container that I highly recommend... Instead, this is much more about just having a lunch container that suits your needs. I love how these lunch containers from Target dont have fancy lids to open or lots of compartments to keep clean. I can take the lids off and let the boys finish their picnic lunches in their carseats. They are small enough to easily fit in their laps and hold the perfect portions for our almost three-year olds and five-year old. We pack a lot of lunches and so having containers for each of them is very useful. I also have water bottles that I refill for them and bring with us. Again, I dont have a brand that I am in love with. I tend to prefer water bottles that dont have a lot of small parts and no valves. Easy to clean is a must!

3. Thirty-One Picnic Thermal Tote

I do have a lunch pail that I absolutely love for heading out with all four of us-- me and the boys-- and the times when my husband goes out with us too: the Thirty-One Picnic Thermal Tote. I love this lunch pail. It fits us perfect for our park trips, afternoons out running errands, and when Im bringing snacks to our oldest sons little sports games. I use this thing almost every day. I can also fit my water bottle in here along with our lunches. This lunch pail is not too big and not too small. It is also soft so I can shove it underneath our stroller. The handle is adjustable so I can hang it over the handlebar of our stroller. I bought this lunch pail because I was out with one of my girlfriends and she had packed her lunch in it. I absolutely loved it and how well everything fit inside! I went home and told my Thirty-One consultant that I wanted one and promptly placed an order. :)

5. Croc-like shoes

Putting his Crocs on all by himself

Putting his Skechers on all by himself

I know what you are thinking: CROCS?! Yeah, Crocs. When you have three kids, it is really (really, really, really) annoying to help get three sets of shoes on six feet, tie six shoes, and then-- Lord forbid-- we go somewhere where they have to take their shoes off. Or their shoes get wet. So Crocs, or Croc like shoes, are just the ticket. The little boys can put their Crocs on and off by themselves. If they get wet while we are out, they dry quickly, unlike canvas sneakers. They breathe. They work like flip flops and protect their toes like sneakers. When we go to the spray park, they can wear their Crocs in the sprinklers. I let the Crocs dry and then they wear their Crocs over to the playground. Love a multi-purpose shoe! Their feet have grown again and it was time to buy shoes for this summer. A friend tipped me off to the Skechers Boys Guzman Seeperz. They have all the convenience of Crocs without that oh-so-stylish Crocs look. I loved the price tag-- I bought all 3 boys a pair at the outlet mall for just under $50 compared to one pair of Crocs at $29.99-- but for our oldest they have been a little disappointing. The shoes are still intact, but the white on the toes start chipping almost the same day we brought them home. Little kids are quite hard on play shoes, although they havent chipped near so bad for our toddlers.

6. Baby-sitter

In my blog post "0-2 year old twin must-haves," I said drop-in childcare and a baby-sitter were a must. Sadly we have moved from North Carolina to South Carolina and we no longer have a drop-in childcare place (believe me-- I have looked!). Being a military family, we move a lot. We are probably only going to be living in South Carolina for another year. When our oldest was a baby, I never had a baby-sitter I hired. I never even looked. I would ask my girlfriends in the FRG or I would reschedule whatever I had planned. My husband was always underway or working. I had a sling and our son went everywhere that I went. Having three kids with a fourth on the way changes that a little bit... I kind of need a baby-sitter for a lot of things, like my OBGyn has a no kids in the exam room policy. Actually, my last OBGyn had that policy when I was pregnant with our twins, but it was much easier to drag one fairly well-behaved toddler with me than a preschooler and two toddlers-- its slightly more distracting. Also, with three kids and our fourth on the way, we like getting out every now and then. My hubby and I want to use a baby-sitter to go birthday shopping for our toddlers. Not a very fancy date, but it sure is nice to get out without three kids in tow and chat as a couple. With a busy family, it is good for our marriage to take advantage of those little opportunities to get out by ourselves.

I know what a lot of my military wife readers are thinking, "But where do I find a baby-sitter?!" I dont really know. One of my best friends has found their baby-sitters (2 different duty stations) on sittercity.com. It is free for military families: Sittercity Military Program. My sister has even used a baby-sitting site like that, for her daughter and also to find a pet sitter for her cat. One of my really good girlfriends used to baby-sit for those sites before she had kids; I would definitely hire her to watch my kids (and I often do abandon my kids at her house-- haha!). I didnt have good luck finding a sitter on those sites when we first moved here. I get really nervous leaving our asthmatic toddler with people I dont know. Im going to have to give them a try again when we move next time; I dont know if well move somewhere with such an awesome neighborhood as we have here. I found our current sitter by word of mouth from my neighbors. I do know that I didnt just have a baby-sitter fall into our lap when we moved to South Carolina, away from our awesome baby-sitters in North Carolina. We found our baby-sitter here by asking people about baby-sitters. I messaged people. I posted jobs on baby-sitting sites. I met up with people. I actively searched for a baby-sitter and, after a couple weeks, I found the perfect match for us-- a fabulous Navy wife who also happens to have asthma (makes me much happier finding someone who understands asthma to watch our boys!). It takes patience. It is hard as a military family, moving to a new state and finding someone you trust to watch your kids, especially when you dont know anyone. Give it time. Keep looking. It can happen!

7. Our Baby Jogger City Select with a Second Seat

Well, you knew this would make the list. Read my previous blog posts about it here:

• "0-2 year old twin must-haves"
  This post includes pictures of our toddlers at two-years old using our stroller.
• "I love my stroller"
  The original post about our stroller.

Most of the time, now, I only put one seat in the stroller. There are still times when I put in both seats. Yesterday at the park I put in both seats because the boys played at the playground for an hour or two, ate lunch, and then played at the splash pad for another hour or two. I was very worried they would be tired on the way back to the car and wanted the toddlers to have somewhere to sit (at 28 weeks pregnant carrying two toddlers and all our gear isnt an option for me). A lot of times when I only have one seat in, one toddler will sit in the seat and the other toddler will sit on the foot rest. Not the best picture, but here is a picture of them doing that when we looked at Christmas lights this past December:

I put one seat in most of the time because only one of our toddlers really ever wants to ride in the stroller anymore. The other prefers walking. When baby #4 comes along, Im going to put our glider board back on our stroller. That way I will have the glider board for one toddler, a seat for the other toddler, and the infant car seat adapter for baby #4. For times when we are going to the park and hanging out for a long period of time, I love having the stroller with me to help carry all our stuff.

8. Responsibility

This is the age where our toddlers want to help with e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g. They want to help unload the dishwasher, clean the bathtub, fold the laundry, pick up toys, carry in the groceries... but they dont really want to follow through with all of it or do any of it exceptionally well (well, the way I would do it if I didnt have "help"). Today when I cleaned the bathtub, I let one of our toddlers help me scrub. No need to worry; I used baking soda to clean the tub so it was entirely safe. I just gave him an extra scrub brush. (Read "Homemade household cleaners.") In my blog post "Domestic goddess," I talk about our cleaning schedule. They love helping me clean. I give them rags to dust with and dole out small tasks for them to help with. Today I gave one of our toddlers one piece of laundry at a time to put in the laundry hamper as I folded clothes. I like encouraging them to help because Ive seen how awesome it can be-- our five-year old is an exceptionally good help. Hes even started washing dishes lately! Yeah, awesome help. Encourage it while they are interested. :)

The other thing they love is having little things that they can do by themselves. Our boys love coloring. I put the crayons and the paper on a shelf that they can reach. This took time-- we didnt start out with the crayons within reach. They have learned that if they want the privilege of using the crayons whenever they want to, they need to use them at the table. They feel like big kids getting the crayons out whenever the urge to color strikes them. Having these little independent activities that they can do by themselves helps them start understanding responsibility and following instructions. These types of things are much easier when you are delegating to the youngest age. When we had these types of responsibilities for our oldest and our twins were around 18-months, we had to set him up in an area that wasnt accessible to his younger brothers who were not old enough to understand what he was doing and why they couldnt participate. Now that they are almost three, they understand when we tell them that their older brother is working in the office and they need to stay out. We can usually distract them with an activity of their own at the kitchen table. We have designated areas for all these types of activities/responsibilities. Our office is transitioned to a KNex/Lego workspace for our oldest (right now my hubby and our five-year old are building a 3D Star Wars puzzle in there). Most of our toddlers activities are at the kitchen table so we can keep a close eye on them and make sure they get properly cleaned up when they are finished.

9. Olivers Labels Safety Wristbands

This one is identical twin specific. We bought these wristbands when our twins were born. They were much too big for newborns, but we started using them after we found our first baby-sitters in North Carolina, before our sitters could tell our identical twins apart, or when we would drop them off in a childcare situation (drop-in childcare, church nursery, etc.). These are very useful when we have new baby-sitters (our new baby-sitter here in South Carolina now can tell our boys apart) or when we have friends/neighbors watching the boys. Now that weve been making all new friends, these have been quite useful again, especially since our toddlers dont like being called by the wrong name. "That not me! That my brother!" These are also super handy when you have a lot of extended family visiting or out of town guests that arent used to interacting with your twins. Our boys have such different personalities (and look different now that they are toddlers and not newborns) that it only takes people a little while to identify them. As I said, we bought each of our boys a pack when they were born. They are turning three in a few days and we are still using the same pack. When we had family in town for a couple days, I usually just kept the same wristband on them the whole weekend. These wristbands are very durable and did well through bath times and daily wear and tear for those long weekends.

(I am avoiding saying "knowing who is who" because I seriously do hate the "who is who" game. Read my blog post "Identical brothers.")

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weight loss during pregnancy due to morning sickness | Taking it easy while pregnant with baby 4

weight loss during pregnancy due to morning sickness

I hear this all the time lately, "Take it easy."

"Just be sure to take it easy."

"Take it as easy as you can."

"You just really need to take it easy."

I am just over 30 weeks pregnant. I stay at home with our 5 and a half year old, whom we homeschool in preschool, and our 3-year old toddler twins. We have a dog. My husband is in the Navy which, of course, means we live next door to my parents (not).

How do I take it easy?

We went through this when I was pregnant with our identical twins. I was on modified bedrest and had multiple ultrasound appointments and an OB appointment each week. It was exhausting. When I was pregnant with twins, we lived in a small apartment with one toddler; I left the housework to my hubby. It was a small amount of housework and got done whenever he got around to it. (Sometimes in a frustrating amount of time.) But it all worked out.

How did I stay at home and take care of a toddler by myself every day then?

1. Netflix Instant Queue
I never had to get up to change a DVD. I could add shows to our queue from my computer and either watch them on our laptop or from our Blu-Ray player.

2. Toddler Look and Find books
I know I say this all the time, but I seriously loved these. I could sit and do these with our toddlers while I was laid out on the couch and later when I was feeding 2 newborns. There is so much to talk about in these books, from finding his favorite Disney characters to making up stories about what they are doing. These were a huge source of entertainment to us.

3. Melissa and Doug box puzzles
I love these puzzles. There are 4 puzzles in one box. He would drag this puzzle over to me and we could sit and do 4 puzzles without having to get up. We could do the puzzle on the couch because you assemble the puzzle on the lid of the box. Fantastic. We bought several of these during my pregnancy and in the early "twinfant" stages.

Things are different this time around. I dont have one toddler bumming to go to the park when I need to be resting. I cant turn on a show and take a cat nap while he plays quietly on the family room floor. As I write this blog post, Im propped up on the couch enjoying Braxton Hicks while our 3 boys bounce wildly around the playroom. Our house is always loud. Someone is always getting hurt. One day of skipping tidying up and the toys start taking over all our living spaces (a bit hazardous for me since I can barely see my feet!). So what am I doing this time around?

First of all, we have a very different living situation this time around. We dont have a small, quiet apartment to take care of. My husband is working much longer hours and when hes home he takes care of the kids and does a few small chores. He doesnt have time to do all the housework. We dont have a housekeeper helping us out like we did in North Carolina. Instead, I rely a lot on doing small tasks each day. I dont have one big day of housecleaning. We tidy as we go and I accomplish one area of housecleaning earlier in the day when my energy is at its peak. (For our cleaning schedule, check out my blog post, "Domestic goddess.") I also prioritize our house chores. I dont waste my energy doing things that dont need to be done right then or dont need to be done by me. For instance, heavier kitchen appliances that go in awkward cabinets will sit on our kitchen counter all day until my husband gets home to put them away. When I make a huge Costco run, I stack things in my vehicle so when I get home I can unload the freezer/fridge items and leave the rest for when my husband gets home. There is no need to tire myself out doing things that dont have to get done right then. These are small examples, but they add up. Sometimes I look around the house and think, "Man, we need to sweep the floors!" But we dont have company coming over and I already cleaned the bathrooms that day, so I put it off until the following day. Or, lately, I ask our oldest son if he wants to do it. Surprisingly, 9 times out of 10 he enthusiastically says yes; he absolutely loves helping his momma, as he calls it. One of the hardest things for me to do, oddly enough, is pick up toys. The constant bending over to pick up toys from the floor really inflames my round ligaments, not to mention sometimes making me very lightheaded (the joys of pregnancy-- Im anemic too, of course). I never spend time picking up toys anymore. I have the boys pick up their toys throughout the day, but my husband has them clean everything up each night when he gets home. I posted as a Facebook status the other day, "How do you guys get it all done?" My favorite response: "I dont." That really is the answer. I dont get it all done; I dont try to and I dont pretend to. I do what I can.

The number and ages of our children are also different. I was pregnant with our twins when our oldest had just turned 2-years old and then was months shy of turning 3-years old when they were born. I have been pregnant this time with a 5-year old (now 5 and a half year old) and 2.5-years old, just turned 3-years old toddler twins-- 3 kids at busy ages! While we have to sometimes, our kids go nuts staying home all day. They want to ride bikes, play outside, run in circles, and experiment. Homeschooling has been a huge blessing because we are always looking for activities. As this pregnancy has progressed, Ive set guidelines for myself when scheduling our days. I dont do activities that require walking or standing around; I must be able to sit. I dont over schedule our days (well, I really try not to... I accidentally overbooked yesterday). I stick to one or two activities, including errands and bigger chores. I have fun things for our boys to do in our front and back yard. My husband makes sure our outdoor spaces are usable for us. Hes always picking up our back porch so I can sit out there with the boys and watch them play. He keeps our garage organized so all I have to do is open up the garage and pull out our nice, sturdy folding chairs and watch the boys play. I love being able to let them run wild right outside of our house. We have tons of outdoors toys-- a water table, bikes, chalk, hose, sprinkler, scooters, every ball and sport you can think of, bubbles... They love paint brushes and buckets of water; they "paint" everything in sight. This is nice too because they can run in the house and use the restroom and I can fill up my water without having to drag everyone off of play equipment while lugging around all our stuff, like when we go to the park. I do also utilize our neighborhood parks; we pack sand toys and picnic. Sometimes this is our days outing. For the days we have to stay at the house, we have lots of indoor toys and we make sure to pick them up between activities so they stay fun, even if they can reach a lot of these themselves. We have crayons, Play Doh, puzzles, crafts... I really try to do a couple focused activities with them a day, even just helping me make granola bars, so that they arent moving from down time to down time.

Here are some of the things I have loved so far during this pregnancy:

1. Finding a homeschool playdate group
Since we are homeschooling preschool this year and starting to homeschool kindergarten next year, finding a playdate group with fellow homeschoolers has been awesome! (If you arent a homeschooling family, maybe just a mommy playdate group?) Instead of me trying to fill our calendar with things to do, I have this group of moms who are always planning something. They are always posting park meet ups, picnics, bubble playdates, information on local happenings... I love it and my kids love it. I dont go to all the playdates and Ive had to leave early a couple times, but it sure is nice to have low-key playdates outside of our house to take the kids to on our calendar!

2. Brain Quest workbooks
This is for our 5-year old. For our 3-year olds, I am using a lot of the same things I used with their older brother when I was pregnant with them. We do Look and Finds; we watch Netflix. And they are entertained. For our 5-year old... he gets bored. He wants to do something. These have been a recent purchase and Im sooooo glad we got them. We have our homeschool activities (read "Homeschooling 5-year old preschool"), but this is not for homeschool. This is just for the times that he is bumming to play a game and I want to lay on the couch because his brothers are finally quiet. He sits next to me on the couch and works on his workbook. He loves the puzzles and games. These have been very entertaining for him.

3. Well-stocked pantry
While running out of groceries wasnt a huge deal when it was my husband and I feeding a toddler,  now that we are a family of 5, I cant feed our kids just by splitting my meal with them. Eating out gets expensive, not to mention it is very inconvenient at our current duty station. It is exceedingly convenient to be able to make our meals at home (read "Family diet and family budget"). For breakfast we had English muffins, strawberries, and hard boiled eggs. We spent some time outside, came home for lunch, and I let the boys play on the back porch while they ate sandwiches, pickles, and apples. For snack we turned on a movie and picnicked on our family room floor where they had chips, almonds, and dried apricots. Since today has been such a rough pregnant day for me, I threw some tortellini in boiling water and steamed a bag of frozen veggies for dinner. Not fancy, but super easy.

4. Games
Games have been ah-maze-ing this pregnancy. We play so many games. With our 5-year old, we play the obvious preschool games: Chutes and Ladders and Candy Land. We also enjoy playing with him:

• Share a Berry
• SpongeBob Square Pants Yahtzee Junior
• Farkle
• Sorry and Sorry Sliders
• Battleship
• ThinkFun Math Dice Jr
• Uno
• 3-in-1 Jumbo Checkers

We dont play as many games with our 3-year olds. We didnt really start playing a lot of games with our oldest, like seriously play games, until he was around 3.5/4-years old. Playing with all 3 of our kids is a little crazy. We usually can get in 2, maybe 3, rounds before the toddlers are bored and our 5-year old is frustrated. With them, we recently have started playing Uno Moo-- which is actually a lot of fun and our oldest will play with his brothers, even without an adult-- and Cooties. Cooties has been more fun for us to play with the age groups, either with our 5-year old or with our 3-year olds. Our oldest wants to follow every rule and our toddlers just want to build Cooties and make them dance. A game our 3-year olds really like is when we take out their deck of cards and shuffle and deal and pass cards around. There is no rhyme or reason to this game, just holding real playing cards (one of our old decks that is now missing many cards).

5. Let it be
To quote the Beatles, "There will be an answer; let it be." Sometimes I just let it be. The kids are behaving too wildly-- but happily-- in the playroom and Im having horrible round ligament pain? Let it be. Husband called to say he was on his way home when I made steamed veggies and tortellini for dinner? Let it be. Someone knocked on the front door when Im wearing my husbands PT gear and our kitchen counter is covered in dishes? Let it be. Some of this stuff just really doesnt matter that much in the scheme of things. My house is not going to look like how it did before I got pregnant with baby #4 (which isnt how it looked before I got pregnant with babies #2 and #3... which isnt how it looked before I got pregnant with baby #1... notice a trend?). Pregnancy is a temporary state; Im not going to be pregnant forever. Yes, I will be busy when baby #4 gets here and there will be sleepless nights, but I wont be dealing with all the wonderful side effects of pregnancy (note the sarcasm). I cant do it all right now and there is no reason to do it all right now. Our house is operating under a Priority Policy-- if it must get done it will; if not, it wont. The harder side of letting it be has really been saying no. Sometimes there are things I want to do, but I know that after a day with the kids and my hubbys schedule being what it is, that it would be too much for me to go, that I wouldnt have any energy or that I would really pay for it that night with Braxton Hicks. The biggest reason I say no to things is that I know would just be exhausting for me and not fun, like if I would have to spend too much time wrangling the kids. It is what it is. I cant change whats on my plate-- my husbands schedule, our active kids, the point Im at in this pregnancy-- and so I just need to put some thought into what I say yes and no to.

6. Sisters
Ah-- gotta love family. Since we dont live anywhere near family, my sister is going to fly down and stay with us for a month, during an especially busy time in my husbands schedule, when Im even further in the third trimester and having a hard time dealing with his long hours. Im so excited to have her come down and help with the kids and make us dinner and pick up around the house-- er, I mean, Im really looking forward to her company. ;) On some of these really busy days, it is so comforting to think, "Only a couple more weeks and my sister will be here!"

So that is how Ive been taking it easy so far this pregnancy. My definition of taking it easy has evolved with each pregnancy and again this pregnancy with each trimester. Now that Im 30 weeks (home stretch!), Ive really had to put more thought into how I can take it easy with 3 kids.

What are your tips for taking it easy when pregnant, especially if you have other children?

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baby losing weight reasons | Toddler Vitamins

baby losing weight reasons

I have always been a little sceptical of vitamins.  I truly believe that you can get adequate vitamins and nutrients from a healthy and balanced diet.  I had made a very big effort when my daughter was weaning to give her a very varied diet and let her try as many different tastes and textures as possible.  But, when my little daughter turned into a gremlin toddler, it all changed. 

Welcome to the toddler diet.  One day my daughter will eat the entire plate of food like a child possessed and the next day she is too busy taking all her clothes off to eat a single mouthful.  One day she adores salmon the next she tells me its yuk and taste like socks and jam (thank you to the makers of Peppa Pig for such a lovely phrase). I have to say, I am quite strict.  If she doesnt eat what Ive cooked then she will not get anything else.  There are no alternative foods.  There is no bribery with puddings.  She either eats it or goes hungry.  I know I might sound awful, but, I really believe that if she is hungry she will eat what she is given.  If she doesnt, she isnt going to starve.  

But, I did start to worry, that on certain days when she was hardly eating anything, if she was getting the vitamins and minerals that she needed. The Department of Health actually recommend that all children under 5 years need a supplement of vitamins A,C and D (link here). As we were strolling in Boots (who I am kidding, when my daughter was tearing round the store with her mini Boots trolley), I saw these vitamin packs and thought I would give them a go.  They are for children 3 years and above and contain a range of vitamins.  They come in individual little packets of gummy bears and are also free from artificial colours, preservatives and flavours.

After trialling them for a few weeks my daughter loves these! She actually thinks they are a little treat and asks if she can have her special gummy bears if she has been good!!! I tend to let her have a packet as a morning snack with some fruit.  I still refuse alternative meals when she refuses what I have made her, but, I feel a little more comfortable that even if she doesnt eat much, she is getting the nutrients she needs everyday. There are lots of childrens vitamin products available, but you can find the ones we have tried here.

Do you give your toddler vitamins? Are they a good eater or are they like my daughter and a bit sporadic to say the least? Comments below please, and thanks for reading. 





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baby weight loss secrets | Twitteritis

baby weight loss secrets

I think I may have lost my mind. Well, OK. That might be being a little over dramatic. But I have certainly crossed over into the realms of over-thinking. I blame social media. Bloody social media. I my friends, have Twitteritis. 

I am very new to twitter, six months new to be precise, and already I have been inflicted with this paralysing condition. I never have a tweet to tweet. I have my own little mental checklist.  Is my tweet going to be funny? (I dont think Ive ever tweeted something funny for the record). Is my tweet boastful? (No-one likes a boaster). Is my tweet interesting? (No, not particularly). Hmmmm, back to the drawing board.  Oh wait, Ive got one. I think I have a good tweet. Yep, this is a good one.  Oh no, wait.  One of the 783 people I follow has just tweeted something similar. Bugger. And herein lies my problem.  By the time I have gone through my checklist, I have lost the will to tweet. 

I often see people tweeting where they are off to. And if you are jetting off to the Maldives that appears to be a good tweet. Im not by the way. Jetting off to the Maldives that is. My location tweets appear to centre around going to playgroup, and then I wonder if any of my followers would care if I am going to playgroup, its not that exotic.  On a good day there might be a juice spillage at snack time, or that time a shoe went missing. Exactly. ARGH. 

But dont think my over-thinking is focused solely on my twitter life. Oh no, I can go a few days without Instagramming too, blinded by my Instagramitis. Does the picture look right? Who wants to see a picture of the Lego house I built anyway?(It was pretty good to be fair).  What does this picture say about me? Well, the pink potty photo sorta screamed potty training whilst the picture of my daughters lunch actually read that I should be trying to regain control of the toddler thats riding the dog around the house instead of rearranging her food on a plate to snap. (For the record I do have control of my daughter 96% of the time).  And dont get me started on what filter to use.   

And thats the thing with over-thinking.  Once you start, you cant actually start the thing you are over-thinking because you are too busy thinking about it. For all its fabness, social media is loaded with the demons of comparing yourself to others, thinking what you have got to offer might not be up to par, and that annoying gremlin called self-doubt. 

But I say sod it.  Because quite frankly, lifes too bloody short. Im going to rid myself of Twitteritis and Instagramitis. Im going to tweet and snap to my hearts content about what Im actually doing (Im in the middle of painting an elephant if youre interested). I want my social media to reflect me and my daily life.  Not trying to keep up with her in the Maldives.  OK, I may not be lying on a beach with an elephant hosing me down, but being me right here and right now, is actually pretty amazing. I guess it all comes down to just being yourself. 

Happy Monday everyone and as always, thanks for reading. 

“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken", 

Oscar Wilde.

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weight loss during pregnancy due to sickness | Family diet and family budget

weight loss during pregnancy due to sickness

As a larger family, our grocery budget can be a little intense, especially as we have really tried to cut the crap out of our diet. Ive written before about how we cut out hydrogenated oils and aspartame ("The first step") and how we really try to eat at home ("Dinnertime"). Over two years has passed since I wrote those blog posts and I wanted to do a follow up. How are we doing now that we have two busy toddlers, a homeschooling preschooler, and another on the way? And, since I wrote those original posts, weve moved twice ("Across town move" and "PCS to South Carolina") and my hubby started power school--a lot has changed since we decided to undertake a new family diet!

Im happy to report that our family diet is going even better than we had anticipated! Not only have we cut out hydrogenated oils and aspartame, but weve also cut out food coloring and fast food. We stick to foods that have ingredients we can pronounce or that we know the origin/purpose of. For the processed foods we buy, we try to stick to under 10 ingredients, preferably under 5, bonus points if they are made out of ingredients we have in our own pantry (take, for instance, Cape Cod chips).

Getting to this point has required a significant shift in how we do things. I pack a lunch or snack almost every time I leave the house with the boys. This has many added bonuses. My husband would say that first and foremost this saves us money. Im not driving through Chick Fil A to pick up 3 kids meals at just over $3 each plus my meal, equaling about $20 for one meal that wont even be finished by the kids. I like it because I can control what is in the lunches I pack for our boys. I can also pack more of what I know theyll eat (fruits and veggies) and pick a protein I know theyll like more than chicken nuggets (like yogurt or peanut butter). It has been a shift because it does require preparation before we leave the house. If we are going to be out of the house for a longer amount of time, I need lunch and a snack. If I think well only be out of the house for a short while, but home for lunch, I often pack a snack anyways that keeps well (apple slices and string cheese with an ice pack). This works great because if it takes me longer than expected to get home, I have something on hand and Im not tempted to drive through anywhere on our way home. Plus, when we do get home the boys have something on their tummies so they arent fussing and whining while I pull together lunch. In my blog post "Toddler twin must haves (2yo to 3yo)," I list what we use to pack the boys lunches and my favorite lunch pail to use for me and the boys.

Packing lunches has also required that we have more food on hand at home which means staying on top of our grocery shopping. I miss how convenient it was for us to do online grocery shopping at Harris Teeter in North Carolina, but we live here in South Carolina now and dont have that luxury close by. Instead I do the bulk of our shopping at Costco and a real life grocery store. That has been another big shift for us because the entire time we lived in North Carolina, I did the bulk of our shopping online. Suddenly I find myself in South Carolina with a preschooler and toddler twins and Im figuring out how to make grocery shopping work with our hoard! We are in the groove of it now. (Though it has really made me appreciate the convenience of online grocery shopping and made me miss our old Harris Teeter even more.) To accommodate our family and cut down on the frequency of our grocery trips, the extra side-by-side fridge/freezer in our garage has really come in handy. With the aid of our extra fridge/freezer, I can pretty much limit our grocery shopping to every 2 weeks. That means that when we run to Costco, I buy the 7.5 dozen box of eggs, 3-4 gallons of milk, and 2-3 cartons of heavy cream every 2 weeks. I missed my last Costco run so my hubby actually had to pick up a carton of 18 eggs at the commissary and we have been rationing them over the past couple days. (Yes, eggs are our favorite protein!)

 

Costco is an integral part in our family grocery shopping. There are so many things that I buy there that would cost a fortune buying in smaller portions at a grocery store, even the commissary, such as nuts, dried fruits, tubs of yogurt (we buy the large tubs and then portion out from there), eggs, milk, butter, organic ground beef, fancy cheeses, and a lot of the fresh produce we buy there. I wrote before about how Costco has a lot of great organic options for a better price than grocery stores, but, even there, a lot of times I still cant squeeze it into our family budget (read "Organics vs family budget"). Ive found that the longer we stick with our family diet, the more we have been able to make room for things, like insisting on real maple syrup and not table syrup (we buy Costcos organic maple syrup).

 

And to make more room in our family grocery budget, Ive started making a lot more things from scratch. I thought that I made a lot of things before, but weve really started incorporating homemade items into our regular day to day family life. This has been a slow shift because it puts a lot more on my plate that Ive had to make room for. Yet, it all fits in, especially since we are homeschooling. We are home and I can talk to the boys while I make granola bars or have them help cook, especially our oldest who is very interested in the happenings of our kitchen. My husband and I love that we are controlling what goes into our food. Some things I started making homemade out of necessity. The cost of granola bars was becoming a substantial portion of our grocery budget. Because we cut so much of the junk out of our family diet, buying granola bars that made the grade was a much larger expense. If you read the back of the boxes of granola bars, most of them are essentially candy bars. My husband loves to bring a granola bar in his lunch for power school and I love having them as snacks for our boys or myself when Im feeling like I need a boost (oh, the joys of pregnancy!). The granola bar recipe I used to make granola bars for the kids wasnt filling enough for my hubby and Clif Bars were becoming too expensive. I found this Hearty, Homemade Granola Bar Recipe posted by Mens Health that I modify based on what is my cupboard, usually switching up what nuts I use or the dried fruits I mix in, which also gives them variety.

 

But Ive taken over making a lot of things from scratch, like pasta sauce. I have a food processor that I love (shout out to Cuisinart!) and make the Best Marinara Sauce Yet courtesy of AllRecipes.com. Ive also been making our pie crusts more and more instead of using the Trader Joe frozen pie crust like I did almost the entire first 2-years of our twins lives. Putting that food processor to use again, Ive loved Pams Pie Crust from the Pioneer Woman. We also love the Pioneer Womans Applesauce Recipe, another food processor favorite. My family is absolutely crazed for Alton Browns "Instant" Pancake Mix Recipe. Weve used a variety of mix-ins for the pancake mix; well never be buying pancake mix from the store again with a recipe that tasty (and easy)! The Pioneer Woman has so many amazing recipes on her website that whipping something up from scratch isnt intimidating anymore. For instance, this is one of my favorite oh-crap-it-is-dinnertime recipes, her Bowtie Chicken Alfredo. The other night I threw a couple frozen chicken breasts in warm water for a few minutes before dicing the mostly frozen breasts and tossing them in pan for that recipe--easy and homemade in under half an hour. I cannot recommend her cookbooks or her 16-minute meals tab on her blog enough. Her cookbooks are totally worth the money and her 16-minute meals tab is well worth the time to peruse. I own The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl and The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Food from my Frontier. Tonight I made her Mini Meatball Sandwiches. However, Ive made the recipe many times before and my pregnant self knew all I wanted was meatballs in sauce. I whipped up the meatballs in my Kitchen Aid mixer and made my marinara sauce in my food processor to pour over the top of them. We ate them with broccoli sprinkled with Parmesan. Hands down, my favorite Pioneer Woman recipe is her Comfort Meatballs. I dont know what it is about these meatballs that I just love.They really do just taste comforting. My husbands favorite recipe is her Chicken Pot Pie. We havent bought store bought chicken pot pies or meatballs in over 3 years because of the Pioneer Woman.

 

We eat the majority of our meals at home. Much like packing lunches, this takes preparation as well. I freeze most of our meat. I stock up on meat at Costco and freeze it in portions that work for most of our recipes. It is so convenient having a well-stocked meat freezer. I can flip open my cookbook and decide what sounds good-- flank steak? pork chops? chicken? I try to cook portions that will last for a family dinner and lunch the next day, both for my husband and for myself and the kids. Right now for our family of five-- a 5-year old and 2 3-year olds-- that means cooking for 6-8 people. Because buying organic, free-range meat is so expensive, I try to do several meatless recipes a week or really cut down on the amount of meat in a recipe I cook. My family never notices when I almost cut the meat in half in a lot of our regular recipes. Another one of my favorite tricks from the Pioneer Woman is to cook a large portion of meat-- like a brisket-- and then break it up into several different dishes, like what she did on her "Bulk Buys" episode of The Pioneer Woman.

 

I also utilize tricks to make things quicker for me, especially breakfast. For instance, when we make pancakes, we make big batches that will have plenty of leftovers. The last batch of pancakes we made lasted us 2 days after we made them. I just microwaved pancakes in the morning. Most mornings we have eggs or oatmeal for breakfast. I make the eggs fresh each morning, throwing some toast in and giving the boys a banana while the eggs cook. Since we dont buy instant oatmeal, I give them a banana and a glass of milk while I cook their oatmeal. When I make oatmeal, I make a huge pot. I get the water boiling first thing when I wake up (well, second after my cup of coffee). I store the leftovers in a container in the fridge. The following mornings I scoop the boys portions into their bowls, splash a little water on top, and microwave the bowls 1 or 2 at a time. I stir it up before mixing in their toppings. I either do a little sugar and milk or brown sugar and mashed banana. Sometimes Ill do strawberry spread with chopped nuts or granola on top. We also like doing "pizza toast." I toast some bread and spread yogurt on top. I chop up strawberries or bananas and lay them like "pepperonis" on the pizza. Sometimes Ill sprinkle some sort of spice on this, like ginger or cinnamon, or drizzle honey over the top. Sometimes I drop berries over the top of this. I buy the big tubs of plain Greek yogurt at Costco instead of individual cups; I use this for the yogurt I spread on their toast and to eat with mix-ins. Of all the fancy ways I mix up my yogurt, our kids prefer it drizzled with honey. And as much as they love fruit, they dont like when I drop fruit in their yogurt, just on the side of their bowls.

 

 

For us, eating healthy is not about a calorie count; it is about balance. We eat a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables. I use my Pampered Chef Apple Wedger almost everyday. We snack on fruits and veggies; we eat them raw with breakfast and lunch everyday. I actually cut them up for dinner a lot too, especially if the one dish meal I made isnt heavy in veggies. I care much more about the ingredients list than the calories to fat. We believe in moderation, portion size, and a healthy, active lifestyle. We spend a lot of time playing outside-- a lot of time. We like going to the park, taking walks, and playing around our house. When I say our family diet is much more a lifestyle, I really mean that it seeps into all aspects of our life. We dont believe in a life dependent on technology for ourselves or our kids (read "Toddler technology"). Our kids are often bored and we like it that way. Today while they were bored, our oldest took it upon himself to pull out our large coloring sheets and teach his brothers their colors. They spent 45 minutes coloring together and working together as a team; they also spent a large portion of the day playing on our back patio in costumes and doing various imaginative play throughout our house. We read them books-- real life, bound books. We try to make the best choices that we can for our family.

 

Part of that has also been shifting to making our household cleaners (read "Homemade household cleaners"). This has also been one of those decisions that has really been a blessing both to our lifestyle and our family budget. I love being able to mix up refill cleaners in my laundry room instead of having to make a trip to the store. I love that they are non-toxic. My husband absolutely loves how affordable they are. Our kids can help us clean house without worry about the chemicals they are handling.

 

We are really happy with the changes we have made as a family. When we first made this shift, I never would have believed all the things that slowly would have made their way onto my plate, like making household cleaners or all these different things from scratch all the time. There are other staples in our family diet that I would like to shift to homemade, like our bread. I have a bread maker, but every time I make bread in there, my son calls it "ugly bread." I think I may try having the bread maker knead it up and let it rise, then pour it into a bread pan and bake it in the oven. Maybe that will help make it more attractive. Id love to get rid of store bought bread. We consume so much bread and there are so many ingredients in store bought bread that I would like to cut out.

 

Something that I touched on in my blog post "Organics vs family budget" is that sometimes what we want to buy doesnt always line up with what we can afford to buy each month. I feel that we are taking steps in the right direction and that we are much further towards that right direction than I would have expected us to be when we originally started down this path. I would love for us to buy all organic, free-range meat, but that doesnt mean that we can suddenly afford that. So we buy the next best thing. I would love if we could afford to buy all organic dairy products, but, man, we cannot afford that. I would love if we could afford organic eggs again, but we are buying the 7.5 dozen box practically every 2 weeks. We would either need to cut down drastically on our egg consumption or start a special egg savings account. I do my best to avoid GMOs, but, honestly, my attempt is spotty at best. I have found that trying to buy products with recognizable ingredients has cut out a lot of the red-flag GMO products (bye-bye processed cereal!).

 

When I look at where we are now compared with when I wrote my first blog post on our family diet in October 2011, it is night and day. In another 2 years, where will be then? My mom called me the other day and told me that someone gave her a bunch of eggs from the chickens they raise. She said it reminded her of me. I would seriously love if we had fresh eggs-- not sure how military housing at each of our duty stations would feel about us throwing a chicken coup out back. (Maybe when my hubby retires...) Tonight my hubby and I were looking up peanut butter recipes for our food processor. My love of cooking has grown. I love that my husband loves the granola bars I make him and that my kids get excited when I tell them what Im making for dinner. I love when Ive had a really stressful day and I make Clodagh McKennas risotto to unwind. I cannot even begin to describe how much I love watching our oldest help his daddy make pancakes for breakfast; they are such an adorable pair! We absolutely love when our kids get excited over "real" food. We like the direction this is going in. We like the food weve been making. We like turning raw ingredients into something delicious and we love gathering together as a family to enjoy them. It was a scary first step to take, but we havent ever looked back.

 

END NOTE:

 

I do want to make a note here that we have made a very conscious effort to not be confrontational about any of our changes in our family diet. We never turn down what is offered us when we go to dinner somewhere. We do not judge other peoples choices for their family diets. We do not expect our families to conform to our diet or buy anything special for us. We have eaten the candy given to us at holidays and never make it a big deal to our kids; we even have a sweets bin in our pantry. We have tried to be very practical about these changes. I wish that it was more mainstream to eat this way; Im totally on board with Jamie Olivers Food Revolution. But we understand that not everyone feels this way or eats this way and so we have been very careful and thoughtful in our friendships and day to day life to make sure we dont isolate people with our diet changes. Im writing this blog post on something that has been a big shift for us as a family and how we made those steps.?

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