My 2 year old has too much screen time

I let my daughter play with the I-pad WAY too much, but I refuse to feel guilty about it. Here's why!

at hospital after baby sister was born

1. It's been a better teacher than me.

Since I have been busy being pregnant, working full time, or even taking care of a second child. My teaching time with Mackenzie has lacked. I was really good doing crafts with her, or teaching type activities, or even baking with her. With busy schedule, tiredness and more I haven't been able to do that. Her favorite thing to do on the Ipad is to watch "videos" (youtube), she chooses some videos that sing about colors, shapes, letters. Even the games we have downloaded for her help with those and I have seen a bigger improvement in her learning her colors, than when I was "teaching" them to her.

2. It's help her imaginative play.

Some of the "videos" she watches are the ridiculous ones where they unwrap new toys. Sometimes they play with them and create stories. I have been watching her take her "elsa and belle" dolls and mimic the play she has seen. In fact the other day Belle put Elsa down for a nap. She also loves the playdoh videos where they make things, food or new dresses for the dolls. She loves to "cook" for me or make her dolls new dresses.

3. Her vocabulary has increased.

Everyday she surprises me with a new word or phrase. Or even the new items she now knows what they are. Such as "My little pony", or garbage trucks. 

4. It's a moment of bonding.

Her and her daddy will lay in bed and watch music videos every once in awhile. She loves it, she curls up next to him and picks out videos for them to watch. He loves to expose her to some of his favorite songs. She loves to watch Star Wars (rebels) with daddy. Even us as a family, we have been watching the latest season of "Once Upon a Time" together. Since it has Elsa! It's nice to sit on the couch, snuggle and have some settle down time. 

5. It gives me a break.

It helps me to have a moment of pause, especially if the girls didn't nap at the same time. Or if I need to switch laundry loads. One day it allowed me to take a shower. Mackenzie had the Ipad and Ainsley was with me in the bathroom. I knew everything was fine, since she is glued to the screen. We took/take the Ipad to doctor appointments to keep her busy while I talk with the doctor. If Ainsley needs extra attention, I don't feel like I am neglecting Mackenzie if I let her play with the Ipad.

Now I will admit there are days where she has it way to much, and now that things are becoming more of a routine with 2 girls, I have limited the amount of time she plays with it. I also turn off the TV for a few hours a day and make sure I spend quality time with Mackenzie. If I can't give Mackenzie a huge quantity of time I want to make sure I can give her quality time. There are so many articles out there about not letting your kids have screen time, I used to feel guilty about the amount of time my daughter had in front of the TV or Ipad. I refuse to do that, it has had some benefits. Like I said I do try to reduce the amount of time, spent in front of the screen but, as long as the screen is not her parent and I am still getting in my quality time with her, I will no longer feel guilty for allowing my daughter to indulge a little. Hey, I do! Why not her too?!

Just Arrived; Ainsley Goe

Ainsley Goe made her appearance in this world 10 am, Tuesday, January 6, 2015.

Here's her story!!

Warning: it's not short!

The Friday before, the doctor scheduled me for an induction Monday January 5th, 7 am. Fridayafternoon he called me back and asked me to reschedule for Tuesday morning at 7 am. I unwillingly obliged, hoping I would go on my own over the weekend. The weekend brought a lot of emotional turmoil as I tried to induce labor on my own, the only thing I didn't try was Castor oil, after some research I deemed it unsafe for me and baby and not worth the risk. Sunday morning I skipped church due to being in such a bad emotional spot. Sunday night I realized I was worrying too much and needed some prayer support from some of my church leadership. I texted 3 people that I needed to go into labor by Monday night to avoid induction. The actual induction didn't scare me, I had to have pitocin with Mackenzie to speed up labor, I just didn't want to be induced and have a long, hard labor. One of the people I texted was our Pastor, Monday afternoon he texted and asked if I had gone into labor yet, I replied "No, but my nails are done." he laughed at that.Monday brought a lot of sitting, hanging out with my family as our last day of 3 and trying to calm my worries. Tuesday at 3 am I woke to contraction pains, I found this odd because even though I had contractions for the past few weeks, they never bothered me at night. I started timing them because they were feeling intense, they were 4 to 5 minutes apart and 45 sec to 1 min long, borderline "go to the hospital," according to google. So I opted to ignore them since I would be there in a few hours anyway. 3:30 am, I couldn't sleep due to the contractions, not the pain, just the annoyance. So I decided to get up and finish packing; standing up made my water break! I woke up Mondo, finished packing and was at the hospital by 4:30 am.

They skipped triage and put me in a room almost right away. I had to wait in the waiting room for 20 or 30 minutes, annoying! They got me set up, asked me all the questions and finally checked me. Shocked to learn I was already at a 6 and handling the pain great. I don't really remember times after this. The contractions were getting closer together and intense, I opted to have an epidural. I got that and felt great, a little TMI on top of the contractions I was having gas cramps, the epidural helped with that too. After the epidural they put in a catheter, and a few minutes after that I heard a pop and a bunch of water rush out. I thought the catheter came out, my nurse said "no, the rest of my water broke." Apparently I have 2 sacks one up top that popped at 3:30 am and second lower one. After that popped the nurse checked me, I was 100% ready to go but, baby was still high. So she told me to sit there and let the contractions "labor down" the baby. This was hard because I did have the urge to push. Finally, she called the resident OB/GYN, baby was coming out at a weird angle so while I pushed the Doctor would turn her. They gave me an oxygen mask because after pushing it would take awhile for Ainsley to recover and her heartbeat come back up. After a few pushes they made me wait again for my doctor to show up. I had to wait for about 3 contractions before I could start pushing again. Once my doctor showed up I pushed through 3 more contractions on the final push of the 3rd contraction, they told me to stop, I was confused (why stop?) and then I saw her! 5 1/2 hours after showing up at the hospital I had a baby. I was warned by my nurse, next time let them know I labor fast.

After labor, I did tear a little so they had to give me some stitches. Then they found some leftover membrane inside me. So for 1 hour after birth, I had to sit there while they dug the rest out. I probably could have gave birth without the epidural but, my doctor said that I definitely should be glad that I had the epidural now. My mom, Mackenzie, and Grandma got to come in and see Ainsley. Mackenzie was super excited. My mom took Mackenzie home and they took me and Ainsley to our new room. After we were settled in our new room, Mondo went home to be with Mackenzie and put her down for a nap. I told him to go, not knowing what was going to happen next.

Once there the nurse was concerned about Ainsley breathing very fast, she called in a resident pediatrician who thought that maybe due to the fast labor and the fact that the umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck, which was the cause of the slow heart rate return during labor, she might have some fluid still in her lungs. So, the doctor ordered chest xrays and extra labs. Then the nurse checked on me. I was bleeding way too much and had huge clots on top of it. During pregnancy I had developed a fibroid on my uterus. This was causing my uterus to not close up properly and for the clots to get stuck inside me. So they moved me and Ainsley closer to the nurse's station for constant observation. Both, the pediatrician and my doctor said this wasn't anything to be extremely worried about, just cause for extra concern. The resident OB/GYN spent some time "digging" inside me to get all the clots out and check my uterus. My uterus should have been closed up but, there was still room for 2 fingers. So, they put me on pitocin to cause contractions to close that up. With out the epidural any more, the "digging" hurt like no other. At this time I texted the same 3 people to ask for prayer again. I was simply too weak to pray on my own, I knew Mondo was praying too as I had called him to fill him in. They also gave me a shot for the bleeding, pain medicine because it was bad, extra fluid due to the amount of blood loss, and antibiotic for my positive Group Strep B and how long after birth I had been "left open". Under doctor orders every hour a nurse had to come in and push HARD, very very HARD on my uterus to get it to move down and to get the blood clots out. Ainsley had her extra labs done and they came in our room to do the chest x-rays. One nurse suggested lots of skin on skin contact with Ainsley to help us both recover and I must say it did. That evening, friends and family came to visit and I felt like a zombie. I could barely walk to the bathroom on my own. That night Mondo went home to be with Mackenzie and I was on my own to take care of Ainsley, I was thankful for the nurses. Ainsley also chose to feed all night long!!

Our view Tuesday morning

The next morning Ainsley and I both got a clean bill of health. Although, we would still have to stay for another 24 hours due to the Group Strep B and lack of anitbiotics during the quick delivery. Ainsley did have fluid in her lungs but, she worked them out on her own. I no longer had people pushing on my stomach every hour. Mondo and Mackenzie came in the morning with Cinnabon, and we got some family photos taken, our hospital has a photographer come around the rooms for a complimentary photo shoot. Although I had managed to put on makeup for the photos, I couldn't move from the bed, I hurt so bad. The rest of the day went by uneventful, Mondo and Mackenzie went home for nap, Mondo came back just him in the evening and that night Ainsley fed all night long.

Thursday morning we were discharged early and sent home. I got to take an actual nap, and spend time with Mackenzie. Although I was still in HIGH amounts of pain and my feet had swollen bigger than ever. I was told my swollen feet was due to the meds and the extra fluid they had given me. One week later and my feet are almost normal size. That evening we went as a family to Old Spaghetti Factory for a celebratory/ birthday dinner for Ainsley.  

This is my complete labor story. As I look back I realize how scary in the moment it was, I never did feel scared or worried though, that would be the peace that passes all understanding!

Mondo was my rock during this time. How he stepped up and cared for his 3 girls is beyond belief to me. I barely had to move a finger which I believe helped me recover so quick. He made sure I got lots of rest when I got home and spoiled Mackenzie so she would know just how loved she is! Words don't cover the amount of love and gratitude I have for all he has done for me and his 2 daughters the past few days.

Mackenzie is completely smitten by her little sister. You can see signs of jealousy every once in awhile during this adjustment process. Actually, I wouldn't say it's jealousy it's more of not understanding, why baby sister gets so much attention, why mom can't pay as much attention to her, and why baby sister has stuff she can't use or that she has to share.

Ainsley came home with newborn rash, most of that is gone. She was low risk for jaundice and I still haven't seen a sign of it. She eats like cray cray, doesn't like her bassinet and still has her day and night backwards. I am sure at her doctor appointment tonight we will find out that she is back to birth weight. She was 8.5 lbs at birth 21" long. When we checked out she was 7.11 lbs. Just like her sister she pictures big but, she is very tiny. We had to go buy newborn clothes just so she would have some. All I could find of Mackenzie's was 0-3 months and those swim on her.

Me, I am glad to finally be returning to myself. I have survived my first day at home by myself with the 2 girls and am looking forward to getting back into some sort of routine.

Thank you for giving me some time enjoy my new little girl and adjust to my new role as a mom of 2. I do have some more posts planned and hope to get those out soon.


Until then,
Dorinda

Mommy and Baby Favorites: 13 months

I haven't done a mommy/baby favorite blog in awhile. So, I thought I would do a new one. Here is our favorites for month 13. Can you believe Mackenzie is 13 months?

1. Bright Starts Giggle and Drop and Giraffe: She received this as a Christmas gift, (if you remember that post) and recently she has rediscovered it. It's so fun watching her play with it. She carries it all around the house and puts it in her Bumbo. It's also neat to see how smart she is. I will tell her to put the ball in his arm and she does!!

2. Baby Dolls: Aunt Amy gave Mackenzie her first cabbage patch doll for her birthday. She has other baby dolls and she loves them also!! All day long she brings them to her dad and I to snuggle them, then she takes them back.

3. Doc Mcstuffins: I could have put Disney Jr instead of Doc Mcstuffins. Every morning we turn on Disney Jr and she watches; while she eats breakfast and gets ready for the day. Doc McStuffins is her fave though.

4. Aveeno Baby Sunblock: On our recent adventure to the local water park I put this sunblock on her, and used some cheap stuff on me. I ended up getting burnt bad. Her on the other hand - nothing!! We were there for 3 hours and I forgot to reapply it on her. So great stuff!!

5. NUK finger brush and toothpaste: Every morning when I say "Mackenzie, time to brush our teeth." She comes into the bathroom, I put her on the counter and tell her to say; "AHH!". She does and it is the cutest thing!! This finger brush makes it easy to brush her teeth. Which she has 10 of now!

6. Cute Headbands: Another blogger I follow got these headbands for her daughter and I thought they were too cute!! One day I was at Walmart and found some cute blue quilters fabric for $.97. I hand stitched 2 out of that fabric. Should I do a tutorial??

7. Felt Mary-Janes: She wears these shoes everyday!! They are so easy to put on and they have a soft sole, easy for baby to walk in!!

8. Safety 1st Alpha Omega Convertible Car Seat: She has a big girl car seat now, well at least when she's in daddy's car. In my car we still use the infant one. This car seat is backwards rated to 40 lbs and will go through all of the next stages.

9. Mini Frozen Pancakes: She has these pretty much every morning. Take 3 out and microwave for 45 seconds. Breakfast is ready!!

10. Waterpark: We have a water park just 4 blocks away from us. She loves it!! Except when she is too close to the big bucket and it dumps on us.

There is our current favorites. Should I do a tutorial on the headband?? It's super easy!!

Mommy love,

Dorinda

10 Month Mommy/Baby Favorites

I can't believe Little Miss is now 10 months!! Her first birthday is coming up!! Yes, I have started the planning her party, when she was born recently!!

That will be coming up in a later post.

Here are our latest favorites

1. Go Ga Ga Squeeky Teeter: This toy was in baby's Easter basket, much like sophie the giraffe, but for a cheaper price!! She loves it!! Bonus: the squeaky noise drives the dog crazy!!

2. Playskool Walk and Ride: Found used at a local consignment shop! She loves this toy!! Either standing or to ride on. She is able to climb on and off and push it backwards, hasn't figured out forwards yet. Walking, here we come!!!

3. Ikea Momma and baby fox: My Baby's My love for foxes took over when I saw these. Luckily she loves them too. Little one is called Shox, our love for our local arena football team and mascot. We have yet to name the momma one. Any ideas?

4. Red Solo Cup: Try not to sing! But we like to party with these, haha!! Favorite game to stack them and knock down our towers. Who knew these could be such a great toy besides just college game fun!! (See video below)

5. Vicks Vapor Humidifier: Dealing with a sick baby, NO FUN!! I do think this helps get over it sooner, along with lots of love and prayer!! Used everyday at nap time and bed time!!

6. Saline Nose Spray: Another thing that helped with a sicky baby. Odd facts: baby can't breathe through their mouth, so stuffy nose NO GOOD! We used this 2x a day before bed and first thing in the morning. According to the Doc don't use more than that, or else nose dries out and same problem all over again. I have heard of the Nose Sucker but I cannot get over the concept of sucking up the boogeys, no matter how much of a guarantee that they will not go in your mouth.

7. Disposable bibs: Never leave home with out these!! Found at our dollar store in a 6 pack.

8.I Home: Used nightly to help baby sleep, we downloaded instrumental praise and worship songs. Even I love listening to it!

9. Colored Skinnies: Have you seen a baby in skinny jeans?! Too cute!! We got these on our trip in Seattle!!

10. Plaid Mary Jane Socks: Given to her by her bestie for valentines day. These cute socks add a pop of fun to any outfit!!

Well, there you have it another month older and new things to endure! We got over our first cold and have 3 more teeth popping to make our tooth count up to 5! Whoo hoo!! 

Do you find these posts helpful??

As promised, cute video of a cute baby saying oh no!!

See you next week,

Dorinda

5 month mommy and baby favorites

I just realized I have a 5 month old on my hands!! It's hard to believe she has only been here for 5 months, she fits into our lives so nicely, it's like we have had her forever!!

Happy 5 months!!

This is my favorite time of year!! There's so much excitement preparing for the upcoming holidays, more time with family and friends, blessing others, the colors, the clothes, everyone is in a better mood (generally), the shopping, the sales, the activities, so much, I could go on and on!! 

We took Mackenzie to the pumpkin patch!! 

      

We even carved pumpkins with her, I let her feel all the guts. I will post pictures of our pumpkins later!!

Baby update at our last doctors appointment we were 12.25 lbs, and 23.5". Doctor said to start baby food and juice, which surprised me! We have had apple juice, baby oatmeal and sweet potatoes, she loves eating food!! We are very close to sitting up, I think it's more or less impatience with sitting up. She can't reach her toys when she sits up, so she's not interested. We aren't crawling yet instead we crawl in a circle until we are parallel to whatever object she wants and then she rolls towards it! I think that's pretty smart!! We have learned how to growl, and make a scrunchy face. Making her laugh is really hard, she's a lot like daddy, very even tempered and chill.  No teething yet, we did have a weekend of major movement, poor baby! The past 5 months have been a blast, I look forward to the next few, watching her experience her first snowfall, Christmas and more.

Our newest facial expression!

Well, here are some of our 5 month favorites!!

1. Graco Splash Exersaucer; A friend gave me this one, and we are in love!! It gives my arms a break, and she thinks she is so big!!

2. Catchable bubbles; We love bubbles in general but these ones float and more come out at a time.

3. Boppy; We even have this cover!! Since she isn't quite sitting up, this helps keep her balanced.

4. Baby Monitor; Another friend gave us ours, it's an older one then the one pictured. It's also very basic, but it's so sensitive that I can hear her breathing.

5. Pinterest; This has been my baby info source. From baby teething timeline to baby food recipes and so much more.

6. Bumpo; I know this was recently recalled but, we only use it to feed her. So we are sitting right with her to make sure she doesn't fall out. Also since the high chair is still a little big for us, this works great.

7. Taggie; She doesn't go to sleep without it. She loves to play with ribbons as her eyes drift off to dreamland.

8. Infantino carrier; She is such a wiggle worm, that the car seat bugs her. The carrier is nice to have while shopping, I also liked it at the pumpkin patch.

9. Orthodontic pacifiers; We have been using the 6 to 18 month size since she was only 2 months. These are the only ones she has ever liked.

10. Books; We read to her all the time. She also loves to look at books even if we aren't reading. We joined Everyday Moments Baby book club, so far we really like it!!

I think my next blog post will be fall baby fashion. Let me know what you think??

Baby Room!

So lots of people have been asking and it is finally finished! Everyone gets to see baby's room!! I know she's 4 months old, I should have had it done a long time ago! But hey, she won't know any different!! I won't make you wait any longer. Here is the room...... (warning this blog has lots of pictures and is long!)

 Here is my favorite view. This chair in the corner is my favorite!!

I kept the color scheme gray, black, white, with pink accents. With having neutral colors I was able to add lots of shades of pink to keep it girly. I love that this room will be easier for her to grow in, not much changes needed as she ages.

This is the view as you walk in, I will show more details down below. The super cute under bed storage container is from Ikea. It matches her toy chest that you will see in another shot. A lot of the self-made decorations doubled as decorations at my baby shower.

 This shot is from the same spot but higher so you can see the ceiling.

Chandelier: Ikea

 The color is a little off but, this is the view from standing by the shelves seen in above pictures.

Small picture frames are from a yard sale, I got them for 25 cents each, I just spray painted them white. Mirror in the center is another yard sale find that I also spray painted white. I did get spray paint on the mirror but, Goo Gone took it off no problem!! The white one in the left hand corner is a picture of a tree a friend drew, and then at my baby shower everyone put their pink thumbprints as leaves, for my guestbook. The one far right is a bulletin from our church that features Mackenzie as a super hero!!

Dresser: Kmart

These shots are her closet. Look at all those shoes!! The closet organizer again is from Ikea, I was given a cute pink one that I loved!! Unfortunately, it was to small but I used the drawer from that one in the white on to keep her bottoms organized.

Crib: Graco, gift from my parents

Curtains: Ikea

Night stand: Ikea

Light: gift

Luggage Toy Chest: Ikea

Zebra rug: My mom and I made (HERE is a link to make your own. We free handed our instead of printing the stencil.)

Pin Wheels: I made

Picture: Gift

Black Rocker was my husband's and brings back great memories of my bestie (sis-in-law) and I buying it Black Friday and sneaking it into hers and my husbands (we weren't married at the time, I don't think we were even dating?) small apartment.  

 Here are some of the details I love.

Top photo: shelves are from Ikea. Paper banner, flower roses, letter "M" I made. Flower roses were made out of bible pages, the letter "M" I cut it out of the crib cardboard and wrapped in pink yarn. The Eiffel tower on the wall was a gift. The football is a game winning Shock football my husband caught!

Left photo: Cute montage of tissue paper pom poms, tulle pom poms, and paper lanterns

Right Photo: the coat hook is a yard sale find.

One Last shot of the crib!!

I absolutely love this room. I just go in here and sit. It's so calming and relaxing.

I hope you enjoyed the view into our nursery. What is your favorite room in your house?

Mommy and Baby Favorites

#1 Boudreaux’s Butt Paste

A friend gave this to me at my baby shower, swearing it was the best stuff out there. I agree!! When Mackenzie got an irritated bottom during her first 2 weeks of life I started to use it and it cleared up in less than a day. Now I rub some onto her butt every night before bed and she hasn’t had an irritated butt since.

#2 Muslin Swaddling Blanket

Another gift from a friend that lives in Oklahoma. At 3 weeks old Mackenzie stopped sleeping as well as she used to, her constant wiggling would wake her up. So I started swaddling her, but found this hard to do with her receiving blankets and with it being June plus her running warm in her sleep I worried she would get too hot. Then in the mail, I received my answer, thin swaddling blankets. These ones are made elegant baby and are 48” by 48”. You could easily buy printed muslin (I found some at Hancock fabric), cut it to size and hem the sides to keep from fraying or use fray check.

#3 Supernatural Childbirth by Jackie Mize

Although this is mostly for during pregnancy there are some great prayers for fear and doubt in here as well. I read this book weekly while I was pregnant; I think sometimes doctors are just there to create fear in your life (I know they really aren’t). I liked turning to this book to remind myself that there is nothing to fear and God is always by my side. I buy this book for all my friends as soon as I find out that they are pregnant.

#4 Netflix, Huluplus, DVR, and smartphone.

I decided to combine all these into one since they kind of fit into one description to keep my sanity! On my smartphone I created a playlist for my baby with soft music and worship songs that I played for her while in my tummy. I still play those for her while she is sleeping. I also use my smartphone to read books while breastfeeding (another great idea from a friend). Hulu, Netflix and DVR gives me stuff to watch while up late at night with a sleepless baby, or during the day while baby is sleeping.

#5 Baby Trend Car Seat and Stroller

I love the triangle handle on my car seat. It makes it a lot easier to carry, and hand off when daddy needs to carry her. I also love my stroller, since the weather was mostly nice while on my maternity leave I was able to meet up with a friend and go for walks. This is a great way to get the much needed adult interaction and get in a workout, since my doctor won’t let me get back in the gym yet.

Although there is more items I can share that are mine and baby’s favorites. These are a few of the ones that helped me keep my sanity during my maternity leave. 

What are some of your favorite baby items?