Down Time

Of all the things that really work my nerves, staying in the house all day is the biggest. I'm so stir crazy being home with Luna, the dog, and the cat for up to a week straight. My days consist of entertaining, feeding, and changing Luna, then cleaning and cooking, then repeat the Luna steps. My mind can't handle the lack of stimulation.

Since I can't go to school or get a job, I found a way to keep my mind sharp. I will be working towards a handful of certifications that I can study for from home. My first will be for Wildlife Rehabilitation. The next will be WPF (a pc application). If I can, I'd like to renew my Veterinary Assistant certification so I would need to contact my old SCTI teacher and ask about that. After that, I'm sure I can get others.

The Full Force of Cloth Diapering!

I'd just like to take a moment to talk about cloth diapering and help the mothers out there who are thinking of starting on this adventure.

It's messy.
It's confusing.
It's gross.
It's hard work.
And it is the biggest money saver next to breastfeeding.

Daniel and I have spent about $100 on our cloth diapers (plus, we received some very thoughtful gifts) and we honestly do not need to spend another penny on them. What we have will last Luna until she is completely potty trained, and that is a fantastic feeling. No more buying packs and packs of diapers, we're set. We have night time diapers and day time diapers. the day time ones convert into training pants later on and the night time ones can be used as swim diapers. It's all very nifty.

I went into this with the intention of using prefolds (thick cloth rectangles with thicker cloth in the middle to absorb) and waterproof covers.  I was going to fold the prefolds into a diaper shape and use a snappi (where safety pins use to be used, snappis do the same thing with no risk of poking the baby) to hold it together, and then cover the whole thing with a cover. It was working for a while but there is a certain age where small prefolds are too small, and mediums are too big. That's where Luna is now. Another issue with this plan is that the prefold gets SOAKED in 2 hours. That wet diaper is wrapped around her up to her belly button and that is as uncomfortable as hell.

What I've moved to now is folding the prefold so the the not as thick parts are on top of the thick part, making it super absorbent, and just laying it in the cover. The problem with THIS method is poop. Laying the prefold in there, it's squished up by her legs. When she poops, it does get on the prefold, but it also FILLS the cover. It's water proof, so it's held in there, but then you have to really wash the prefolds instead of just wiping them down like all the advertisements say you can do. On THAT matter, you can wipe clean the cover but that won't help with the urine smell after a certain point. I don't advise moms to wash those covers often cause I've noticed it screwing up the elastic around the leg holes. I just hang mine outside to air out for a day. It works.

After a few nights, I realized that Luna was a heavy wetter. She would wake up in the middle of the night completely soaked to the point of leaking out of her diaper and onto her bassinet. After reading reviews, we bought some Pocket Diapers. They have a water proof / leak proof cover and the inside has a pocket made of this material that repels liquid. The inserts that go into the pockets are a micro fiber that is super absorbent. I use both of the inserts at night and Luna sleeps through the night. With these diapers, she has slept through the night since a month old. Beat that. She has only pooped in them once, but for some reason that is beyond me, it did not stain. It's like the poop never happened. Amazing.

That brings me to what to do with a dirty diaper. With most mothers I ask, their diaper routine is pretty predictable. They change the diaper, if there is poop they rinse it off, then the diaper goes into a pail. Laundry is done every other day. Since I'm crazy, I got myself into a routine that I made up myself (before finding out how most people do this). It all stems from me not wanting to do laundry several times a week. It waists money and... I just hate laundry. You cant put a wet diaper into a pail and leave it there for a week. Even my dog wouldn't go near that smelly death bin. So I increase the gross factor to allow myself the luxury of once a week laundry.

Here is my, self-invented, pretty gross, once a week laundry, cloth diapering routine.
Change the diaper. Take cloth diaper into bathroom and rinse thoroughly (cold water for poop to keep away stains, hot water for urine). Wring out diaper. Hang diaper outside to dry. Put dry diaper in laundry bag. Do laundry once a week and use your regular wash cycle. Cold/warm is what I do.

There it is. Yes, it's considerably longer than the average way, but if you're doing cloth diapering to save money, doing laundry every other day is going to be sucking up all that money you didn't spend on disposables.

Sore Gums

Little Luna is teething. She's only three months old and I was hoping this wouldn't happen for a few more months, but we aren't that lucky. Since getting pregnant (and being bombarded by "alternative parenting" and other such things) I've been trying to find the best course of action for teething pain.
I believe I have found it. DISTRACTION.
It works at all ages and infants are no different. I know her gums are sore, I can tell from her cries that don't go away with a hug or the boob and from her grabbing her cheek. It's not constant though.
The first day was mostly drooling and chewing on her hands. The next morning there was crying and the chewing had gotten worse. I had made plans so we got in the car and drove to Sarasota to visit a friend of mine. Luna was so entertained at my friend's house, she didn't show any signs of teething pain.
The next day was spent out and about and, again, the pain stopped when she had something to put her attention on.
Today was a bit different. I wanted to make sure she was entertained throughout the day, and it worked until about an hour ago. I ran out of things to do with her. It's not my fault, she has decided that naps just are not her thing anymore so i have to stretch my normal routine with her out as long as I can. Inevitably, I run out of ideas. No sooner were we sitting calmly in the rocking chair with just soft music playing when the teething pains struck with the rage of the seven hells. There was screaming, drooling, spitting, and flailing. My coos, snuggles, attempts to feed, and trying to give her the teething rings and contraptions were all for not and, in the end, she fell asleep in my arms, tear-stained and exhausted.
Tomorrow, I will be better prepared.

Luna Jade Castiglione

After our epic adventure in WWOOFing, we’ve made a spot for ourselves in Venice, Florida. Our happy family of three has grown to five. Myself, Daniel, Annabelle, our cat Bartholomew, and our newest addition Luna; our beautiful baby girl.  Yes, I said BABY! It’s been a busy time and I havnt updated in a long time.

As soon as I rolled out of bed, April 8^th, I was hit with little contractions, most of with I didn’t even notice unless I pressed on my stomach and found it hard. I told Daniel and we started to get excited. I was able to time them at 10 minutes apart and since they didn’t hurt like I’d been expecting them to, we went to Starbucks. While we were getting our coffee on, I texted my high school friend, Jill, and told her my contractions had started. She said hers had started too.

By 1:30PM, nothing had changed. Daniel gathered up his things for work and told me to keep him updated and call if anything happens. For a good hour everything was normal and then the pains in my back started. Laying in bed, skyping with my friend Maggy, I timed the few seconds worth of uncomfortable pressure in my back and got to 6 or 7 minutes apart before I decided to call the birthing center. We made a plan to wait until contractions were 3 – 5 minutes apart and lasting a full minute before heading to the center. There still wasn’t any “pain”, just discomfort, so I felt pretty confident about the whole process. This was going to be a piece of cake.

At 9:45 I called Daniel and told him to be home by 10. I had hit 3 minutes apart and we still needed to get to the center with was a half hour away. He was home at exactly 10 and we grabbed our pre-packed bags of supplies and piled into the car. Daniel brought up that we hadn’t eaten any dinner and I needed fuel to get through the rest of the labor. After a brief argument, I caved and we stopped at McDonalds. In the drive through, getting my McNuggets, the pain appeared and the contractions in my back made my back arch. I started to worry if we would get to center in time.

We got to the center at 11:30PM and met with my midwife, Harmony. The contractions got steadily stronger and I spent the next two hours pacing the birthing center and holding onto Daniel for dear life every time a contraction hit. I desperately needed water and at some point drinking wasn’t enough and I begged to take a shower, just to feel the water and try to calm down. I made it up the stairs and leaned in the doorway of the bathroom. I knew instantly that this had been an awful idea. My vision started to go and my skin got cold. I told them I was going to faint and my midwives rushed to help. One gave me a cup of juice and the other brought over a large, bouncy, exercise ball for me to sit on. I managed to hang on to consciousness and after a few more contractions the decision was made to not take a shower and get me back downstairs and into the bed. Since things were progressing nicely, we figured that I should try and get some sleep to be rested for when the pushing starts.

I laid there on the bed, Daniel spooning me to keep me comfortable through the contractions. I knew sleep was NOT going to happen but laying there on my side did give me some rest. I don’t know how much time passed but at some point everything changed and the contractions turned into a clenching. My body had started pushing and there was no stopping it. The midwives came in saying they heard some pushing in that last…. Uh, noise I was making.

They started filling the birthing tub and telling me it was time to sit up. I was told to sit up and move to the edge of the bed, and then they could help me straight into the tub. Every part of me wanted to stay laying down, I felt like something was going to happen if I sat up. I was right. I got up and scooted to the edge of the bed and my water broke. I instantly made a break for the tub. The water was almost too hot but it didn’t matter, it was exactly where I wanted to be. I leaned back and tried to zone my mind out and just let my body take over but it doesn’t quite work that way. I did manage to stay as relaxed as I could, focused on what I was doing and constantly asking for water and gulping it down through a little bendy straw. Only a few minutes passed but it felt so much longer.

Finally, at 2:30 AM on April 9, 2013, Luna Jade Castiglione was born into her daddy’s arms. She weighed 6lbs 13oz.