No 'poo? Woo!

I'm at a full week of zero sulfate hair care and my early results are AWESOME!  My hair isn't greasy or oily, and it is crazy soft.  Basically, I brew one bag of chamomile tea in one cup of boiling water and then stir in one tablespoon and one teensy squirt of lavender castile soap.  After it cools, I wash like I normally would and rinse it out.  Then I condition with one tablespoon of apple cider vinegar in one cup of cool water.  My hairs is silky and much less frizzy.  It smells nice, like lavender, but I also use a boar bristle brush with a few drops of sweet orange essential oil on it.

Chicken Soup Where Are You?

When I'm sick things just don't run quite as well. T.G. manfully steps in and does all he can to make it easier and to look out for everyone, but when the mama is taken out by illness the whole household goes a bit wonky. Obligingly I try to stay healthy as much as possible, but this time not only am I feeling crummy, but Little Guy is sporting a faucet nose as well. We are doing a lot of hanging out in our pajamas, napping, cuddling together, and watching Peep and the Big Wide World.
On the whole I have had worse colds, and I know this one will pass, but it is still pretty lame at the moment. And then on top of me feeling sick our refrigerator stopped working right. Now all our perishables are living on the back porch in big coolers, which means my neighbors get to see my sniffling pj clad self several times a day as I go in and out for milk, lunch, etc. Thankfully it is so cold out, otherwise I don't know what we would do. We're working on getting a new fridge and the weather is allowing us to find exactly what we need for a good price. This is no small mercy with the way L.G. and I go through milk. Speaking of L.G. he began referring to the computer as 'Mac' on Monday. I love that kid. He is currently obsessed with farm animals and there is often mooing, quacking, and baaing coming from him all day long. He is the most amazing blessing in our life. We can both be tired, worn out, and crabby - but five minutes of L.G. walking around his room alternately singing and mooing would put anyone in a good mood. I'm relishing the one on one time I get with him, because I know soon it will be at a premium. We've been working hard to prepare him for the arrival of a sibling in March, but I'm just not sure how much he understands. Today he and I looked at a book with photographs of a pregnant mommy's tummy growing and a drawing of a baby inside that tummy to try to explain what I meant when I said his sister is in my own round belly. He was interested and happily turned pages watching the development of a child in the womb and then of a newborn infant - but then everything fell apart because he got to the page showing how to bathe a baby which featured a rubber duck.
All I can say is that I'm pretty sure L.G. is hoping his sister will actually be a duck. Sigh.
However, this might come in handy. A few months ago T.G.'s cousin's wife suggested getting L.G. a small present when the baby arrives and giving it to him at the hospital when he comes to visit with the understanding that it is a present from his sister. Apparently they did this with their son, and it really smoothed the transition. I may need to look into a duck or farm related present for L.G., because I have a feeling her advice will turn out to be golden.

Hooray! Hooray! Hooray!

My darling In-Laws have gotten us a second video monitor for our impending princess!!! YES!!!
I would write more about how totally awesome this is, but I promised T.G. that I would only be fifteen more minutes before I came to bed and I'm pretty sure I'm at that limit now. LOL!
Anyway, HOORAY!!! Visual baby monitoring goodness!!!

Feeling kinda dumb

I've been Ebaying now for something like ten years. In that whole time I've always had good experiences with both buying and selling items. Everything that I bought always arrived as described, I am a careful and conscientious seller, and I have perfect feedback.
Then last week I bought a dress for the new baby. The woman had a good feedback score and she described the dress as having no rips, tears, or stains of any kind. She did note that since she buys and resells baby clothes, she can't always be sure they come from a smoke free home, but she launders them all first just in case.
Um.
Yeah, here's where things got all wonky and I ended up feeling stupid.
I won the auction, paid for the dress, and then it didn't ship right away like she said it would in her Ebay ad. This led me to start reading all her feedback as I began to get that nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach. Her bad feedback all said the same things - item not as described, came with stains on it, had tears, smelled terribly of smoke...etc.
Her good feedback even had quite a few people that complained of a very strong cigarette odor.
Now I really started to get nervous, but I was trying to remain positive.
The dress arrived today and you could smell cigarette smoke ALL OVER the shipping bag. (it was one of those thin, plasticky expedited shipping bags, not a paper shipping envelope) Then when I opened the bag, the smell of cigarettes was so bad my eyes watered. T.G.'s description of how the dress smelled was "Ew! It's like she wiped it on a bar floor!"
Personally I thought it smelled more like she used it to clean ashtrays, but as I didn't have a panel of experts on hand I can't tell you for sure who was right. What I can tell you is that I strongly suspect the woman herself is the smoker, and the comment she made about the dress possibly being from a non-smoke free home was baloney. T.G. suspected that too, especially since the outside of the bag and shipping label both REEKED of smoke. If that was where the problems ended I would have just dealt with it. There are ways to get cigarette stench out of clothes, and I would have just employed them. But that wasn't where the problems ended.
Clearly visible on the front of the dress were yellow stains. They were all over. An inspection of the back of the dress was no better. It had even bigger stains. It was hardly in the condition the woman advertised it as being in. Not only that, but it appeared she was aware of the stains and had tried to do something about them, because there was either stain remover or detergent residue on the front of the dress. The residue was so thick in parts that the fabric was stiff, sticky, and somewhat bluish in color. Now this is all supposition, but she's the one who says she launders stuff before she sends it out. My guess is that she coated it in tide or some similar blue colored detergent, let it sit for a few hours, and then gave it a swirl around in the washing machine or the sink. The reason why it smelled like smoke so badly is because she's the smoker. Otherwise why would the outside of the bag and the label be coated in cigarette smell? And why would a laundered dress stink of an ashtray? Pft. I'm not buying her story about possible previous owners who smoked. Someone had smoked around that dress and envelope recently, and I don't claim to be Sherlock Holmes, but I'd be willing to bet on her being the culprit.
The end result of this was me feeling all deflated and dumb. T.G. was indignant for me, but all I could think was that I had bought this wrecked dress and it was so embarrassing. I've never run into an unethical seller on Ebay before, the experience sort of squashed me flat.
So I emailed her and told her about the stains. I requested a full refund and told her that I would be happy to return the dress if she prepaid the shipping charges. She did not email me back, but did refund my total cost.
Now I'm bit confused. Do I keep the dress? Do I look into how much it would be to ship it back and email her with that cost and ask if she wants me to return it? She didn't answer the previous email, just refunded the money and her account says she does not do returns, but I feel weird keeping a dress that has been refunded.
Ugh the whole experience is really leaving a bad taste in my mouth. I'm all...blargh.

Loose ends

I'm having one of those days where I can't seem to find my equilibrium. I'm all moody and bored and argumentative. In fact, I don't even want to be around me right now. Everything seems like too much and everyone seems annoying. I overslept and we missed church, it is too cold to go for a walk so the dogs didn't get out, and I can't eat or breathe because the baby has decided to inhabit my upper torso.
I hate days like this.
I bet T.G. hates them too as he lives with me. Sigh.

We went out earlier because I was feeling all house-bound and insane and going out sort of made it worse because I realized everything outside the house was as lame as everything inside the house.

There's no reason for me to feel so blah. I got all the Christmas stuff safely stowed away, I have new fabric to work with, I made Little Guy a squirrel toy that he loves, AND we got a new TV. It should be a good day, but I'm a hormonal pregnant mess. I truly cannot wait to have this baby and get over myself already.

I think I'm going to go sit in the baby's room and look at the peachy pink walls and cute ruffly dresses and just try to relax. BEFORE I turn into an utter harpy of evil. Meh.

Crafty Nesting

I've found that not only did my nesting instinct kick in early this time around, but it manifested in a near obsession with sewing things for our little tummy kicker and the impending tummy kickers of some friends. Since all the patterns I found were free and available online, I decided to share them so my other favorite crafty girls, and mamas could use them too. :) In no particular order, here they are:

Lambkin: http://www.patternbee.com/FREELAMBKIN.html
I LOVE Lambkin. I made mine with a soft rose print fabric and stuck a big fat jingle bell inside to give it a rattle sound. It was a bit time consuming to make because it is all hand-sewn, but completely worth it. I didn't put a face on my lamb as I wanted it as safe as possible for that baby and also because the rose fabric was embellishment enough for my taste.

Wendy Bird: http://www.lollychops.com/lollychops/2008/10/wendy-the-bird---free-pattern.html
Wendy Bird is really easy to make, and turns out to be this adorable, pobby, charming little bird. They'd make great rattles or baby toys, as long as you are careful what you use for eyes. They also make great Christmas ornaments and chubby little birds for a handmade mobile.

Sophisticated bird mobile: http://www.spoolsewing.com/blog/2008/05/16/bird-mobile/
I made these birds as a mobile for the baby's room. They come out EXACTLY how they look in the pictures and are a snap to make. I am a huge fan.

Chubby Pillow Owl: http://ashbyfamilyblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/easy-owl-pattern-and-tutorial-win-one.html
I made two of these for my friend who is having twins. They are fabulous in fresh, mod fabrics and make a nice size owl to use as a pillow or a softie. Great pattern.

Tiny Felt Owls: http://juicy-bits.typepad.com/juicy_bits/2009/12/131-give-a-hoot-for-the-holidays.html
These are awesome, but very time consuming. They don't look it, but putting on all the little face bits takes a while. They are small and lightweight and make awesome ornaments and mobiles.

Baby stuff

Here we are in December with only about three short months to go before a brand new person enters our household. The room that shall be hers is still the room that I am typing up this blog in. Read: Office/Computer/Bill Writing Room. We are still in need of a bigger house, but have put that on the back burner for the time being. There is just so much to do in our lives currently that we couldn't devote the time and energy needed when trying to pick a new domicile responsibly. Thus, we are here making it work. So we've got a new nursery set, new baby bedding, new baby clothes, and are acquiring other various new baby necessities and not so necessities. (Don't take the word 'New' too literally. It merely means new to us, not brandy spankin' new in most cases.) So this made me think of a few bits of baby wisdom and other things that I learned from the past 18 months with Little Guy.

Stuff that wasn't a necessity, but that I adore and am glad I had:
1. A video baby monitor. This was a present from T.G.'s parents and it was the most amazing thing ever. I could watch Little Guy while he slept and know he was breathing and safe. There is nothing like peace of mind when you have an infant. I still use it because I love it and he is a total monkey that I enjoy keeping an eye on to ensure his safety. Plus he has a tendency to wake up and put on a whole show with singing and dancing in his crib and it is better than anything they've got on TV.
2. A wipe warmer. Ok, this is not even close to a necessity, but we got it for free second-hand and there is nothing like putting a warm wipe on a baby's butt at 3AM as opposed to a freezing cold one that will make them all screamy and wakeful. Currently it is not plugged in and I use it only because it is heavy enough that when I pull a wipe out, even the very last wipe, the box stays put instead of coming along for the ride. Again, totally free, warm baby butt, stationary - this equals a win in my book.
3. A microwave bottle sterilizer. This is an amazing invention and I adore it. It's about ten times easier than boiling bottles and nuks and whatever else needs to be sterilized.

Stuff they told us at the hospital that was nonsense:
1. Don't use a wipe if the baby just pees. Um...right, and are all those nurses going to show up at my house in the middle of the night when the baby is sore from not having pee wiped off his skin? I thought not. This was terrible advice. I'm so glad I thought they were nitwits and did not follow it, as people I knew who did had constant rashes on their baby's undercarriages.

2. Don't use diaper lotion on the baby's bottom, or powder after a diaper change. Once again, these people are not going to show up at your house when your child develops a yeast infection around their little rear because they had nothing to protect them from chafing or moisture after a diaper change. It took me one rash to realize they were morons and to start using cream on Little Guy after he pooed. I found an all natural cream that worked great for him, and we've used it ever since with no problems. If I fail to put some cream on, he will begin to get red and sore within a few hours. Powder works too, but it is harder to control where it goes.

3. Stop breast feeding after ten minutes and put the baby on the other breast. Yeah. Right. And then your baby will only get the foremilk and become the Unhappy Hungry Crying Machine. Babies are actually born knowing how to breastfeed. It's amazing. Once I stopped doing the regimented hospital boob nazi version of breastfeeding and let him nurse until he felt he'd emptied the breast completely I had a happy full baby and a contented non-frantic self. I must give a giant shout out to my friend Nickel here because she bought me the La Leche book and without it I would have lost my mind. That book is invaluable if you are breastfeeding.

4. Give a sick, jaundiced baby in the NICU inoculations. Um, no. I shall not. I shall wait until said baby is better before clogging up his system with more stuff. It's not like I was running him all around town and visiting billions of people. I kept him home, I made sure everyone used soap and hand sanitizer, and I waited until he was better. Currently he is up to date on all shots, and I feel like we did the right thing, and that is all that matters. When you have a baby that almost dies and is given a drug to stop their immune system from functioning, you tend to be a bit protective. This is fine. You are the parent. It is your baby, you do what you need to do. Actually 'It is your baby, do what you need to do' is good advice for any parent. Nobody knows your baby like you do. Not everyone's methods, rules, and ideas will work for you. Find your own best way to do things. :)

Great advice I received:
1. If the baby's feet are warm, the baby is warm. Ice cold feet on a baby usually mean you don't have enough layers on them. A chilly rear really means they aren't warm enough.
2. If you give a baby assurance, love, and support you are not spoiling them.
3. Bland baby food is a waste of money, and unnecessary. Feed them what you are eating. Little Guy loves hot salsa, spicy Indian curry, and will try pretty much any type of food. We let him try things from our plates as soon as he showed interest in doing so.
4. Nuks are for naps and bedtime. This was genius advice. Not all kids are pacifier kids, but Little Guy is and he knows when the Nuk comes out it means sleep. This doesn't mean I'm totally inflexible. We use it for some other situations where he needs extra comfort, but he is not allowed to wander around the house mindlessly toting a Nuk in his face.
5. As I just sort of pointed out, don't be inflexible. Stuff will not always go to plan and that is ok. Just be the best parent you can be and love your child with all your heart and things will work out.
6. Make God a part of their life from the beginning. This was the all-time best advice ever. Thanks, mom. :)

Anyway, that is the stuff that is rolling around in my head right now. I'm sure I have a lot more to learn, and there are many people who could add so much to any of these lists. In fact, feel free to add your own thoughts in the comments if you want. I can always benefit from more mommy advice.