Veganism and Babywearing

Don’t stress Babywearing as a vegan is simple! So why am i writing this post?

Well because some wraps are made from or blended with animal hair, such as Wool,Alpaca,Cashmere and Silk. They are easy to avoid if you read what the wraps are made of.

toronto island sheep by Stefan Powell

I am to understand that most of these wraps are quite popular in the babywearing world, while i admit they are beautiful looking wraps, i find them less appealing once i read what they are made of.

The good news is there are many many wraps made from Cotton,Bamboo,and even Hemp.

So with a bit of reading,you can have a beautiful wrap to keep your baby close,snuggled and safe against you. All without the use of animals! Everyone wins

Happy babywearing!

Colds,Nappies and the Big M

So we are all sick in this house apart from little miss Amelia, she has a slight snuffly nose and i am hopeful it will stay that and not turn into this horrid cold that has decided to grace our family. I have not enjoyed it at all, sick toddlers are not at all fun!

I have had fun deciding on different types of MCNs to buy this time around, and once again i have found i still lean towards Bum Genius, they were great with charlotte, i have a collection on Bum Genius Freetime all in ones, this is my first experience with all in ones and i must admit i like them they are super easy this is my favourite print.

Lovelace

And of course the pocket nappies,I am enjoying the new colours they are just great! I also have some itti bitti tuttos, they are cute little nappies and i love that the inserts have colour coordinated snaps.

I have one Rumparooz which i have not tried out yet, and two of the Ones and Twos they are cute simple nappies too.

So we have started using the MCNs finally! i forgot how much i prefer them after using disposables for awhile having to buy them so often was such a waste of money, when we could use the MCNs over and over again and save money and have less waste!

I would love to buy more but at the moment we are saving for the big M! what is the big M you ask? well we have decided to pack up and leave Sydney for the Gold Coast! yup at the end of july we are relocating our little family, it is a big move for us, and one we are looking forward too, it is much more to our liking up there, more free family things to do, and well it isn’t sydney so thats me sold!

While we are excited (and nervous) about our move, we will miss our family and friends.It will be different not having our vegan community to meet up with, our sydney vegan network is great, we enjoy spending time at the vegan parent meet ups and also the lovely people who don’t have children lucky we have the internet and social networking sites so it will be easy to stay in contact with them all.Not only do we have a great vegan network, lately i have joined in with the local babywearers, the meet ups are always fun learning different carries with wraps, and oh my some of the mummas have beautiful wraps! i have learnt so much by going to these sling meets and again have made friends. But as i said the internet and social networking sites make things like this possible i am sure we will make like minded friends again.

Speaking of babywearing i got a beautiful new wrap for mothers day! i am in love with it.

Girasol light rainbow diamond weave

Isn’t it just lovely!?

It is thin,soft and so comfortable to use. Charlotte has named it the colour wrap.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anyway enough swooning over Light Rainbow

Apart from colds,nappies,wraps and the Big M, My girls are growing! Charlotte is 3 next month! and oh my i am still getting my head around it,She is full of personality and attitude i mean even when she sleeps she has attitude or do i mean personality?

Look at that adorable face, i just love her to bits even when we are not seeing eye to eye all the time, she is stubborn and set in her ways just like mum, she is smart and funny, ok i take that back she is hilarious! Charlotte enjoys little things and reading books, food,mess and watching bugs,skirts,dresses,jeans and boots.

She is such an amazing little girl,even on the hardest of  days i still think she is amazing well most of the time :p  I love that we can smile and cuddle and it makes everything better.

She is her own little person and I wouldn’t change my Charlotte for anything!

Amelia is now 2 months old! again time goes way to fast! She is a great baby,easy and well happy.

She has been a great sleeper, and is growing bigger and stronger everyday, she is also very curious.

Loves to be worn in the wraps and carriers, loves to be around her sister and when awake she is watching charlotte play and charlotte is crazy about her.I have two adorable,healthy,happy girls i am truly so lucky

My Family is my world.

All wrapped up.

2 weeks have gone by so fast! Matthew is back at work and i am at home with both girls.

We have had some long days but mainly with charlottes emotional roller coaster of moods, we expected some kind of upsets to come along when introducing a new baby into the family, it would be crazy to expect everything to be normal and for it not to affect a little girl who for nearly 3 years has had our constant attention whenever she wanted it or needed it.

I think at the start i was so afraid to upset charlotte i gave into things i wouldn’t usually give into with her just to keep her happy, which i now think hmm maybe i shouldn’t of done that. Oh and the attitude is at a whole new level, this affects my patients a little too much for my liking, i would like to say i have been able to keep my cool, but that would be a lie, i usually end up raising my voice at her which then makes her do the same, that right there is a bit of a fail.

So to help charlotte adjust i have been trying to be as hands free as i can so that when charlotte needs something or just me i can easily focus on just her, all i can say is thank you to baby wearing! I am able to keep Amelia close to me and asleep upright when she is is throwing up a bit, So far this has worked out well our first day without matt we got housework done and even made chocolate crackles, messy fun it was. So the first day went better then i expected it too it went smoothly actually. our next step is to leave the house with just me and the girls, this step i little hesitant about so i may ease myself into that one

 

I admit that even with Charlotte i got into baby wearing for pure selfish reasons, so i could have my hands free to do what i needed to do, the bonus was that my girls get the benefits of being close to me at all times, makes for easy breastfeeding and makes for super sleeps! And on unsettled days it makes for easy mood lifters of both baby and the rest of the household, when baby is happy everyone is happy!

This is how we get through our days, and the last 2 weeks.

Amelia loves the wraps, they are an instant soother.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So everything is going well so far, with normal ups and downs in toddler world, but  we are gently working through it all with Charlotte, trying to be patient during her meltdowns and return of night terrors/waking and the crying.

It breaks my heart to see her so mentally exhausted, i am glad we are back to our normal routine again because it seems to of already improved charlottes mood swings in just one day, even with all this she just loves her little sister and is always giving her kisses and helping me at nappy changes by amusing Amelia and getting her nappies.

I think once everything settles a bit more Charlotte is going to go back to her normal Charlotte self.

 

Amelia Harriet: The Birth Story

She is here! And we couldn’t be happier so i thought i would post our birth story. And some photos

After having given birth to charlotte and not being able to enjoy her birth and ending up with a third degree tear, I was very nervous once we found out we were pregnant with our second baby.

Determined to have a better birthing experience with less damage. I started researching (pretty much straight away) how to have a natural-vaginal birth after a third degree tear, after being told we will have to discuss how I would give birth.

I soon came across a lot of other things I liked the sound of, for the birth of this baby and had amazing support from friends and family.

Matthew(husband) also wanted a better birth experience for himself. So he also read some articles and bought a copy of the book “cheers to child birth”. This helped him gain the confidence that this time he would be a better support person and also learn what he wanted and didn’t want while in labour.

So our birth plan came into place, we were to have:

• A water-birth

• No drugs

• No intervention (unless necessary)

• and everything basically the way it should be when you have a low risk pregnancy

But this is what we ended up with:

Everything we asked for and the most amazing experience ever!

I woke up around 3am Monday morning with a period-like pain and feeling a little uncomfortable. I went to the toilet and ended up having a show, I didn’t get my hopes up, since all the last week every night we had signs it could be the night, but nothing happened. So I was determined not to think I was in labour until I had contractions…

I decided to try go back to sleep but that proved impossible. I was too uncomfortable and just couldn’t get back to sleep, then I started to get cramping pains in my bottom and pelvis. I truly didn’t think these were contractions, as it was not in my stomach. Figured I should time them since they seemed to be coming around 6 mins apart, maybe this was it? So up I got again and made myself almond butter and banana on toast, dancing around the kitchen, since movement-really helped with the pain.

It got to about 4:30 and I decided ‘ok, this has to be it’, so I woke Matt up and said “I think you should get up and have something to eat, I am pretty sure I am in labour”.

I put off messaging our friend/doula Virginia, until I was certain that this was the actual labour, turns out it was

After eating my toast, I jumped in the shower to help with my ‘butt pains’ as I was still calling them.

We messaged virginia letting her know ‘yup, this is it!’ She arrived sometime after 6 or just before I am not too sure of the exacts.

My contractions became pretty intense after that time and having the support of Matt and Virginia I remained as calm as I could when I was in pain, and in between I also got to enjoy the company of miss Charlotte who had woken up at 10 to 5 that morning ( she is always up early).

We arrived at the hospital around 8-8:30am.

By now I was finding squatting or being on all fours pretty comfortable while having contractions and still movement was really a useful pain relief, which I did not expect!

Virginia made our birthing room clock free and dark so we could be comfortable and focused.

Our midwives did the usual checks in between the contractions, and then left us to do our thing, coming in and out to check progress. The midwives were also unbelievably supportive of letting me follow my body, this was a pleasant and welcomed surprise.

Virginia filled up the bath once I wasn’t finding any squatting, kneeling or movement comfortable while having contractions. So in I got. Instantly I was amazed by the feeling of being in the warm water during contractions! I was so relaxed in between them and was able to get into a slightly comfortable position during the most intense contractions, I was very vocal! I had no control over that, it was literally my mind and body making me just give into itself and get this baby out. My waters broke at 9.45am, this was the only instance I doubted I could do it. She was crowning and stayed there for a while until the next contraction. It was such a hard and intense time and I felt my mind sink and I cried “I cant do this! I am going to tear I can feel it!” Everyone in the room right then and there showed nothing but positivity and such support it got me through it and I pushed her out in three contractions.

My first sight and hold of our new baby girl was a very emotional, happy and amazing time. I could relive that moment over and over again. We delayed cord clamping and waited for my placenta to come out naturally (something I never even knew about before). I had some skin-on-skin time waiting for her to be ready for her first feed, but before she was even interested in latching, my placenta come out. We had it prepared to be taken home so we could have it encapsulated.

Matt cut the cord and had his first skin to skin contact with his new baby girl. This was such a great and very beautiful thing to see.

I was checked out. This time I only ended up with a second degree tear with no further damage, as it was all on the scar tissue from my previous birth. Even though I did end up tearing, I am still so happy with how everything went so smoothly and naturally; just like we wanted.

This really was for us, our perfect birth, our positive birth experience we deserved and prepared for. I am so glad we educated ourselves this time around to have such a beautiful experience and were blessed with the support of each other, our doula and our lovely midwives. Sutherland hospital (while the only place I have given birth) is a place where I would recommend for an all natural water birth any day.

We are now the very proud parents of two beautiful, healthy, amazing girls and we couldn’t ask for anything more.

Amelia Harriet Carwardine was officially born naturally at 10am the 19^th of march 2012.

She was 40 weeks 5 days, weighed 3.855kgs (8 pound 8) and was 50 cm long her head was 34cm.

So today Amelia is 7 days old!

We are both still doing great, recovery has been easier this time, i even managed to leave the house for a few hours on day 4 rather then 4 weeks later.

Amelia has made breast feeding pretty easy, as she took to it really well and enjoys boof as much as charlotte did.

5 Days old

Eye Spy Rainbow Rice.

 

A while ago i came across the blog Pink and Green Mama, it is full of such great ideas for kids and full of colour

For awhile i have been meaning to make the rainbow rice for an eye spy bottle, so Charlotte has something for trips in the car/train or just if she wants to play with something colourful, i have also loved the idea of sensory boxes, i just have not done it as the thought of the mess Charlotte could make with the sensory boxes scares me a lot!

Tonight we actually made all three! started off just wanting to make the bottle but had left over rice for a small version of a sensory box but very basic and no theme.

Here is how it went.

 

First i added colour to the rice, Charlotte enjoyed watching this bit and choosing what colours to do.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then had to dry them out which did not take as long as i expected.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mixed them all up before adding them into the bottle along with the bits and pieces to “spy”

We only added a few colourful things to the bottle but will maybe do a few theme ones eventually if she enjoys this one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Had to have numbers, Charlotte loves numbers!

Little pegs due to cuteness,crowns,hearts,letters,buttons!

 

Our finished bottle!

pretty colourful things to look at

Pretty cool huh!

I really hope she enjoys it, Just don’t forget to glue the lid, or you could end up with rice everywhere! which i don’t think would be much fun to clean up at all…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had a bit of rainbow rice left over and just put in in a container with some of the eye spy objects just for charlotte to feel and mix around, i did try it out playing with the rice is quite relaxing

So there it is how we spent a few minutes before dinner and after putting charlotte to sleep, she now gets to wake up to something new to play with so i am sure the morning will be full of happy faces.

 

 

37 weeks and counting

So here are some photos of my 37 week baby belly.

Ignore the exhausted look its been a muggy day.

food face charlotte

Round belly is round!

I just love this monster

 

The Unmotivated Labour Bag

Why am i calling it the unmotivated labour bag? well because i just didn’t want to pack it, i have been very unmotivated about it thats for sure. I did plan on having the ultimate bag and do a great post on what i have included. I can still do this but its not going to be as impressive

So for the actual labour itself i have packed a separate little bag so Matt and our Doula/good friend are not trying to find something amongst everything else thats pack for if i have to stay. This is what I have.

Labour Bag:

1. 2 x self heating packs.
2. 2 x tennis balls, great for massages so birth partners hands don’t get sore.
3. Snacks for myself, matt and doula incase of hunger i included, sweet williams snack size chocolates,some mints, and fruit juice poppers, plus zen soy drinks. I do plan to add dried fruit and a few others.
4. Face washers so i can have a cool washer on my face while in the water.
5. Lip balm and sukin hydrating mist toner 
6. Drink bottle for water of course
7. ipod/dock
8. Important things like medicare card/yellow card and things
9. Copy of the birth plan.
10. Comfy clothing for after birth
11. Spare pants for matt
12. Camera
13. Bath pillow

Will most likely add more if i could be bothered….

Hospital stay bag:

The usual undies,pads and things every list you will come across includes.

My added extras are.

• Peri bottle
• Notebook and pens (to write about the birth and new baby)
• Sleepwrap/bobawrap
• Favourite soy milk

I was going to pack some yummy vegan snacks but we live close enough to shops that matt will bring stuff as i need it.

I didn’t want to even think about packing the stay over bag because i don’t really want to stay away from charlotte for long so am hopeful to get out asap after birth.

So from memory and lack of sleep thats what i have packed, i could still add more if i think of it but thats the main things i needed/wanted so if baby is to decide to arrive soon i am ready! well now i am

We are now 37 weeks! The countdown is on until our new arrival is here with us, its getting pretty exciting!

Will try get some more lovely belly shots for next post

Calming the toddler

Lately Charlotte has been pretty different, harder to calm down and more mood swings then ever, to the point where everyone patience are been tested, including her own.

Charlotte isn’t a naughty toddler, which I am always grateful for, but she is a two year old finding out her boundaries and seeing what she can do to get mum and dad to react.                                                                                                        Discipline is something I am finding the hardest thing about parenting a toddler, I try to be patient and gentle, most of the time I end up yelling and feeling pretty crappy about it, due to it seems to be just showing her when someone isn’t doing something you want them to do you just yell and expect results!                                                                                Smacking is something i never want to do or teach Charlotte, I see no point in smacking a child to tell them they have done wrong, especially if they have hit you, it is telling them it’s not ok for you to hit, so to show you this i am going to hit/smack you……..

Watching Charlotte the last few days has been breaking my heart, she has been getting frustrated and you can see that she is not enjoying herself when this happens but she hasn’t been dealing with her emotions as well as she should, i am understanding she is still learning what they all mean, and i am trying my best to help her work them out by talking about why she is feeling this way, and that its ok she feels cranky.

A friend and a few other pages on Facebook linked this great post 5 healthy responses to child emotions, from this post i found the great idea of a calm down corner, which in turn lead matt and i agreeing to try this out to see if it helps, so today i went and got some new supplies that are for the calm down box only!

So here is our calm down box, living in a unit we can’t really have a corner and we made the calm down jar too, which is very pretty to watch

Calm down jar

Start of the calm down collection

Charlotte enjoying her new "when i'm feeling angry" book

 

I am looking forward to searching the blogs i linked a little more to find some more great ideas to help charlotte and us out.

 

Tv Free Toddler

We have been tv free now for months now and i have never regretted this choice, it didn’t come easy and this has been our third/forth attempt the last time we caved was in early pregnancy when i had no energy and was throwing up a lot so leaving the house was not easy, which is the sole reason tv became so handy during in this time easy entertainment!

Our reason we decided to become tv free, is this:

We are a family who loves to buy dvds and watch them every chance we have, we figured tv has some great shows for kids and kids movies are great fun to watch, like Horton Hears a Who i could watch over and over again easily!  what is the harm in letting charlotte watch tv and dvds? she loves them they keep her amused and yes sometimes she even learnt new things from shows like play school and sesame street. It made it easier for me to get things done, i am ashamed to admit i used the tv to get some time to myself and to be lazy.

But as charlotte got older we started to notice her moods were greatly affected by watching theses things, it was like she was addicted! She was getting attached to certain shows and if they finished it was the end of the world, if i turned the tv off she would become a terror, though at first i had no idea it was tv doing this i figured it was all normal for her age, but then i was becoming more aware of when she was most affected and realised it was tv making her have these mood swings she would get really emotional and have crazy tantrums over nothing, i needed to do something about it so i decided right we will cut back on tv, this didn’t work at all, charlotte did not understand why she can watch it at this time but not at another, so i completely cut it out no dvds no tv shows nothing. The first few attempts we had we at longest we lasted a month, we did notice a difference thats for sure but we couldn’t stick to it.

Then tv started to affect her sleep which had never been great, charlotte is a sleep talker its a little cute, and then she started having night terrors, at one stage we were actually quite scared she would end up hurting herself in her sleep, it got so bad we had to wake her up because she was getting to distressed and throwing herself around completely asleep.

I had had enough i knew we needed to get to the bottom off this and this time i started with the tv! and guess what after a week or so she stopped asking to watch tv, her moods became easy to handle and to read, and we have no more night terrors! in fact she sleeps through and its great.

It is hard at times and yes somedays i think i will just put a movie on for her this mainly happens if i am low on energy,patience and the weather is crap, but i am able to keep it off and i believe it for the best, we have had days where matt will put a movie on to watch and then we immediately are reminded why we no longer do this.

My tips for Tv Free Toddlers:

The first week or so is the hardest so do activities they love but you don’t usually do with them, for us that was playdoh painting and crafty things.

Once they are used to not having the tv on, have some toys set up in easy reach like blocks, books and a drawing paper.

I noticed charlottes imagination got so much better when she settled into no tv, she plays with her toys a lot more, has tea parties with them and even makes up stories, characters and what not with them, its a beautiful thing to watch.

Go outside! (i need to do this more too) before i got pregnant i would go for walks with charlotte somedays to the library, others to the park, sometimes just a walk around the grassed area our unit block has was enough. We would collect sticks and leaves and other bits and pieces she would find and then bring them home. So it helps to take a little bag for them to put there treasures in.

Play with your toddler, i spend way too much time on the computer and i find days when i give charlotte more of my attention she is delightful and we have lots of fun.

Google ideas there are lots of blogs from tv free families that have more ideas like this blog

ecoMILF: Here is the section all on tv free posts.

But i think the most important tip i can give is be realistic about it, we live in a world where tv is everywhere! children’s toys are based on tv shows, when you visit friends and family know that your child will most likely be exposed to tv. And if you fail at been tv free do not beat yourself up about it because that will only make you feel like crap.There is always tomorrow.

I have no idea if we will end up with the tv back on, in my head i would love to say hell no but we may change our minds.

Been tv free is hard these days, especially when living in a unit, but for charlotte i think she benefits from no tv.

 

Fit for a Charlotte

So first I should say happy new year I guess

But now on to my post, we have been slowly getting Charlottes bedroom together and organised, she now has shelves that i have forgotten to photograph but they are pretty, and we bought her a big girl bed that will last her a very long time!

 We call it her princess bed, and Charlotte finds it super fun to jump on

We got the bed a few months ago now and she hasn’t spent a night in it as yet, but that’s because in this place i am pretty sure we are all addicted to co sleeping, I mean whats not to enjoy about waking up to your most loved people in the world everyday to get greeted with kisses and cuddles from those who mean the world to you!

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have also decided that I will no longer be wasting so much time on the computer anymore, its too distracting and such a waste of precious time that could be spent doing other things that we actually need to do to prepare this place for another baby. Today really showed us that for sure, we got so much done and got to play with Charlotte. Matt and Charlotte even got around to painting for awhile today while i built shelves for Charlottes bedroom.

pretty fabric shelves

Ladybug shelves

These shelves were only $20 from the reject shop, I know they are not the best quality furniture but they will do the job and they also fit very well with a tight budget the fabric I already had at home so that was also handy! I have been wanting to put fabric on shelves for awhile now as I think it makes plain boring shelves look amazing and unique, much better then boring old white thats for sure.

I put together the top shelves while matt and charlotte painted, and with a big belly in the way I found it a little uncomfortable and by the end of it my back was killing me! so I left the ladybug shelves for matt to build once they had finished painting.

After that matt remembered charlotte had made him buy her a photo frame, so he looked for something to put in it and ended up going with more fabric, I have a bit of fabric in my stash and lots of fun children prints like this one.

charlotte and matts framed fabric

It ended up suiting the gold frame charlotte picked really well so we were all happy with the finished look, and it gives her toy storage shelves that something extra.

As you can see we like Toy Story toys and they deserve to be seen on display and have easy reach for play time. They are the only toys she has that get played with daily and several times a day at that, so they get to sit out for all to see rather then be thrown in a toy box.

So while Matt and Charlotte made the little frame work, I figured I would make something too, I happened to have some beautiful fabric that I have never wanted to cut up and use. I just have not been able to find that perfect project for it, so what a perfect idea I had, why not put it on a canvas and have it up for display!

adorable fabric

Now it’s no longer just sitting in my fabric stash it’s now on display in my little ladies bedroom, and I think I couldn’t have done a better project with the fabric.

fabric on a canvas

 

So that’s what we have been up to lately, I am really looking forward to what we can accomplish with our time spent better. We have a bit more organising to do before march but I now no longer feel we won’t get it done. After todays effort I realised that it feels great being creative and doing the things that you’ve been putting off for way too long.

Also with more time spent actually doing things then just reading about them, I will have more to add to my little mumma blog