Speed Oiling Party

I won a bottle of Orange at the party!

Friday night, while my husband was out of town, I went to an oiling party.  Ok, that sounds way dirtier than it actually was.  A friend of mine hosted a “Speed Oiling” party.  It’s like speed dating, but instead of meeting guys, we “met” essential oils.  I had a great time and definitely came away with lots of new knowledge.

The way the party worked was that there were six different stations and we were supposed to have ten minutes at each station to learn about various uses for the essential oils.  I think we actually spent closer to 15 minutes at each station, but that allowed us to go even more in depth into each subject.

The stations were:

1) Seed to Seal:  We learned about the Young Living Premium Starter Kit (which is the one I have) and about how Young Living owns the entire process – from when the seeds are planted through when the plants are harvested and distilled into the oils and the oils are sealed in the bottles. Key tip learned: rub Valor on the big toe to help with snoring (Aaron has been snoring a lot lately).

2) Babies & Kids: We learned tips and recipes for using the oils around young children.  They had a sample eczema cream, much like the one I made a couple weeks ago.  The biggest tip when using oils with babies or kids is to be sure to dilute the oils if you are using topically.  I tend to dilute the oils even for use on adults, if nothing else, to make them last longer.  Key tip learned: rubbing Peace & Calming and Valor behind a kid’s ears to help them sleep.

3) Pain management:  At this station we discussed various pain management techniques.  The ladies running this station also had a HUGE assortment of oils that we could smell just to see what they smelled like.  Some smelled great (grapefruit) and others smelled not so great (oregano).  Key tip learned: PanAway is like Icy Hot and more. (I have now used it not only for sore muscles, but also to get rid of a sinus headache.)

4) Back to School: My kids aren’t in school yet, but they are in daycare, where the toddlers are germ incubators.  I may not have had to pay attention to the anti-lice recipe, but I did pay attention to the ways to avoid the germs that will inevitably come home with the kids from incubating in my house (and by extension in me and my husband). Key tip learned: Make your own antibacterial spray using Thieves and water.

5) Supplements made by Young Living: I don’t remember the actual name of this station.  Basically it focused on additional supplements that Young Living makes.  There’s one for “ladies of a certain age” that the woman running the station loved.  I’m not even close to that age, so it wasn’t all that relevant to me.  They did discuss Ningxia Red, an energy supplement drink.  I received some samples of this in the kit and they let people take a sip of it at this station, but since I am breastfeeding and avoiding anything with caffeine or that has the same effects as caffeine, I decided to pass.

6) Sleep: The last station I went to was about sleep. With a 3 month old at home, I am definitely in desperate need of sleep.  But I will admit, that since it was the last station of the night, I was also a little sleepy and don’t remember a lot of what we discussed.  We did get to sample a sleep cream made with lavender, lemon, coconut oil and some other oil that I don’t remember.  Maybe it was cedar?  I don’t know, all I know is that it smelled delicious!

Biggest takeaway of the night: The magic trio of Lavender, Peppermint and Lemon.  This is known as the “allergy trio,” but it can be used for any type of congestion.  The day after the party, Guinevere had a runny/stuffy nose, so I decided to try this trio out.  I’m still paranoid about putting the oils undiluted on my babies, so I mixed a few tablespoons of coconut oil with 1-2 drops of each oil and then put it on Guinevere behind her ears and on her feet.  Within a couple hours, her nose cleared up.  The next day Aaron came home from a business trip with a runny nose and we tried it out on him (still diluted, but less so) and by mid-morning, I noticed he wasn’t sniffling anymore!  He’s still a skeptic, so he thinks it was either the shower he took or the oils . . . but he’s taken plenty of showers with a runny nose before and the shower didn’t kill those runny noses.

I’m having so much fun playing around with my oils.  The more I learn, the happier I am that I went ahead and invested in my kit.  Be warned, I absolutely plan on more blog posts sharing all that I have learned.  Do you have any fun oil tips?  Have you tried any of the tips I learned at the party?  Did they work for you?

The Importance of Naps

Have you ever heard the Samuel L. Jackson rendition of “Go the F&^k to Sleep”?  If not, here it is.  Go ahead, watch/listen . . . I’ll wait. (btw, this video is not safe for work or children . . . unless those children/workplaces have dirty mouths already) (also, the real audio starts at 1:00, up until then it’s just intro)

The first time I ever saw this video (pre-Guinevere), I laughed a little and thought it was mildly amusing, but I didn’t really get it.  Fast-forward to now and I have had those exact thoughts more times than I can count.  Granted, we still haven’t hit the point where G requests nighttime drinks and teddy bears, nor can she get out of bed by herself yet, but the sentiment is the same with a baby.  Every time I say to Guinevere, “please go to sleep,” Sam Jackson’s voice creeps into my head!

My darling Guinevere has never been a good napper.  It wasn’t until we put her in daycare and then followed daycare’s nap schedule that we could even get her to nap remotely regularly.  She’s been (mostly) sleeping through the night since she was about 3-4 months, so the lack of naps wasn’t that big a deal.  I’d trade daytime naps for nighttime sleep any day.  But occasionally the lack of sleep rears its ugly head.  Christmas time was bad – she screamed for about an hour every time we tried to put her to bed.

I realized yesterday that naptime is not just important for babies – it’s also important for parents!  Yesterday Guinevere did NOT want to nap.  I’m not quite sure why.  I had some errands to run in the morning, which ran into her normal morning naptime.  I figured she would probably fall asleep in the carrier and get her nap that way.  Nope.  She was wide-awake the whole time!  So then I thought she’d probably fall asleep in the car on the way home.  No.  She babbled the entire way home.  By the time we got home, it was lunchtime.  So I made us some sandwiches (she at an entire ½ sandwich, btw!) and then let her play for a bit.  Then I decided to attempt to put her down for an afternoon nap.  She wanted NOTHING to do with an afternoon nap either!  She screamed for almost 10 minutes, and then she calmed down and babbled to herself for about 10 minutes.  Then she started crying again.  So I just got her up.

Once I had finally given up on all hope of her taking a nap, I put her down on the floor for some tummy time.  We played a bit and then I had to step out of the room to change the laundry.  When I got back, she had finally fallen asleep . . . at 5pm . . . on the floor.  Oh well, the quiet was nice – even if it only lasted half an hour.

Guinevere's one and only nap for the day.

I was so exhausted by the end of the day!  Aaron is shooting all weekend, so I was the only one home with her all day.  I didn’t even get to shower because I was planning on showering during one of her naps.  Seriously, I don’t know how 50’s housewives did it.  How do you take care of a kid, clean the house, cook, and do it all in heels, a dress and pearls?  I bet they didn’t.  I bet they had days where their husband walked in the door, and there were screaming children with snotty noses, a messy house, and a wife who just desperately needs a shower too.

The Perfect Working Mommy Night

I finally had what I envision as “the perfect working mommy night” and wanted to document it because it may never happen again.  The irony, of course, is that I had today off work, but Guinevere still went to daycare, so it counts as a “working mommy” night to me even though I didn’t go to work.

I picked G up from daycare at the normal time.  She was super smiley and adorable when I got there, which made me really happy because the last couple time I’ve picked her up, she’s been a cranky-pants.  I’m guessing she had a lot of fun at daycare today.  Aaron and I were both super sick over the weekend (either food poisoning or stomach bug, not sure which), so I’m sure we were pretty boring to be around for the past two days, and daycare was much more fun in comparison.  I didn’t really start feeling back to myself until about noon today, so I’m actually really glad that I had today off work and G had daycare!

When we got home, Guinevere and I played in her room.  I sat her down on the floor with her big stuffed dog, Eric, behind her (just in case she fell backwards) and just let her play and explore.  She’s sitting so well now!  I was even able to leave the room to briefly get dinner started and when I got back, she was still happily playing with her toys.  I think she’s getting close to army-style crawling.  I put her on her tummy and put her toys in front of her and she started swaying and attempting to move her legs.  She just hasn’t quite got the coordination down yet.  Then she gets frustrated and starts doing the “Superman” (both arms and legs up in the air).

Sitting in her room.

After playtime, we ate dinner together.  I gave up on the whole puree thing for tonight.  She seems to like feeding herself much better than me spoon-feeding her.  So I gave her some puffs to eat while I finished making dinner.  Then I gave her some food off my plate: broccoli, zucchini, cauliflower, chicken, and a piece of biscuit.  She seemed to love it all – though, she loved the broccoli and zucchini the most.  

Chompin' on broccoli.

Then I gave G bath.  She laughed and giggled the whole time.  It’s the first time since she was a newborn that she seems to really have enjoyed the bath.  I was singing to her, and she started “singing” back.  Of course, it helped that I was really just humming “da da da, lalala” – so it wasn’t hard for her to repeat it.

After bath time, I gave her her final feeding of the night.  She drifted off into that beautiful “milk drunk” dream state . . . for about five minutes.  Then I put her in her sleepsack and read to her.  I attempted to read a book about puppies in Spanish, and then followed it up with “Goodnight Moon.”  Then I sang her a couple songs and put her to bed. 

Normally that part is the worst part – this is when I leave her in her room and set the timer for 10 minutes and wait for her to wail herself to sleep (which seems to usually take 8 ½ minutes lately). But tonight, I heard one cry as I left her room, but by the time I got to the monitor to turn it on, she was asleep!  I was able to clean up from dinner and type this blog and will still be able to go to bed at a decent hour!  And that is what I consider a perfect night. :)

Mommy moments

Now that Guinevere has been in our lives for over half a year (is it ridiculous that I’m already starting to plan her first birthday in my head?), I just wanted to share some of my favorite moments of being a mom.

1.     That moment first in the morning when I walk in Guinevere's room and she rubs her eyes and recognizes me. Her face breaks into a huge smile and her eyes say, "Oh it's you!!! I'm so glad you're here!"  It warms my heart every time.  I love that she now recognizes me and seems to prefer my presence (or Aaron’s) to anyone else (sometimes too much so - she can get very fussy if I leave the room for too long now, but I guess there are worse problems to have).

2.     That moment when Guinevere falls asleep during her last feed of the day.  She's so beautiful and peaceful.  And I know that moment will not last long.  My baby is not one that you can nurse to sleep.  She falls asleep while eating, yes.  But the moment you pick her up to move her, she wakes up.  Sometimes she remains drowsy enough to go back to sleep - most of the time, she wakes up wide awake, no matter how sleepy she was before, and does NOT want to go to bed.  This is one big reason why our bedtime routine involves story time after feeding and before bed, which brings me to my next favorite moment . . . 

Milk drunk.

3.     Bed time stories.  One of the things I've always looked forward to about being a mom was reading to my kid at bedtime.  I will admit that I was a little disappointed the first couple times I tried to read to Guinevere.  She squirmed and fussed and did not seem to enjoy it . . . granted, she was only about 3 weeks at the time.  Now she really seems to enjoy it. She smiles as I turn the pages – and even turns the pages herself sometimes.  She definitely has favorite books.  Right now, her favorites are "The Napping House" and "The Hungry Caterpillar."  She also seems to like it when I read some French nursery rhymes to her - she looks up and me and stares at my face while I'm reading.

Reading her favorite "The Napping House."

4.     Watching my baby learn to eat.  As you know from my last post, we are now introducing Guinevere to the world of food.  So far she's a pretty good eater.  She seems to prefer the finger foods to the purees, which is fine with me.  But probably the most magical moment thus far has been watching her eat and love veggies!  Her favorites are cucumber and broccoli.  One of the best moments was last week when I gave her banana for the first time.  She had a piece of banana in one hand and a piece of broccoli in the other. She tasted both, contemplated them for a bit and then starting voraciously gnawing on the broccoli and dropped the banana.

Eating broccoli.

5.     Listening to her "talk" to herself.  Her "vocabulary" now includes several consonants.  She loves to say, “dada.”  I’m sure she doesn’t know what it means yet, but it’s still really cute to hear, and of course, Aaron LOVES it.  No “m” sounds yet, though, which means no “mama” yet. Every time she says “dada,” I say “Very good!  Now can you say mama?  MmmmaMmmma.”  She’ll stare at my mouth with a slightly amused, incredulous look that seems to say, “Mommy, you’re silly, of course I can’t say that yet.  But I would like to figure out the mechanics of it.” She’ll get there eventually.

Guinevere at 10 weeks

I never realized how much fun a two month old could be! Guinevere smiles and coos and is generally much more responsive and alert than in the early newborn phase.  I’m actively trying to memorize the way my adorably cuddly baby feels in my arms because I know she won’t be this small for long.  She’s now officially out of newborn clothes (though there are still a few that fit her), and fitting the 0-3 month clothes perfectly.

I think we’re to a point where we are starting to get into a pattern with sleeping . . . hopefully it continues.  I’ve found that we have the best results when we bathe her and put her in her sleeper after whatever feeding is closest to 6 or 7pm.  If we don’t do that, then we run the risk that she will fall asleep for the night and still be in whatever onesie she was in all day.  She was never a fan of swaddling, but she definitely sleeps better in a sleeper, with her arms and legs covered, than in a onesie where her arms and legs are exposed.

Guinevere doesn’t have a set bedtime, but seems to fall asleep naturally sometime between 8-9pm.  Anytime I try to purposely put her down by a specific time, it backfires on me.  She’ll get fussy and stay up and I’ll get frustrated.  Since I’m still on maternity leave, there’s no urgency in putting her down by a specific time.  Letting her fall asleep on her own terms so far seems to be the least stressful way of doing things, and if she follows her current natural bed time schedule, that will work out fine for when I go back to work next month.  The last two nights, Aaron and I actually had a little bit of grown up time after we put her to sleep.  Now if only I could stay awake past 9:30 . . .

She tends to wake up around 3 or 4am for an early morning feeding.  However, night before last she actually slept the entire night – from 9pm-5am!  Then she made up for it last night, waking up for feedings at 1am and 5am.  But honestly, I’d rather her do that than the 3 or 4am feeding, if for no other reason than it’s really hard to tell her smiley, happy face to go back to sleep.  She almost always wakes up with a huge smile on her face.

Smiley, happy Guinevere at 4am.

I think my favorite part of this age, though, is that Guinevere is not mobile yet.  I can set her down on her play gym and leave the room for half a second and she’s still in the same place when I get back.  She’s old enough now that she doesn’t freak out if we go 5 minutes without holding her (most of the time); in fact, she kind of likes looking around whatever room she’s in and exploring it with her eyes.  I am very cognizant that this will not last forever, and am trying to enjoy it as much as possible while I can.  Yesterday, I was able to lay her down on our bed while I vacuumed and cleaned the room.  It was amazing!  She loves laying on our bed while I fold laundry around her.  She’ll stare at the ceiling fan or make faces and smile at me or “talk” to me.  I love talking to her!  You can see her studying my mouth moving as I’m talking, and see in her eyes that she’s trying to figure out how to do it too.  Then she’ll open up her mouth and experiment with various vowel sounds.

How I get my laundry done these days.

It’s so fun watching her find new things to stare at!  I put her down for a nap in her crib the other day, and she looked up at the mobile that has been above her crib since day one, but she truly saw it for the first time.  It was amazing to see her discover it!  She now likes to have “conversations” with the stuffed Shamu on her play gym.  She’s also discovered the mirror.  Babies and mirrors are a great combination! When Guinevere catches her reflection in the mirror, she is fascinated.  She stares and smiles and gets excited.   I’m excited to see her grow up and learn new things, but I am definitely enjoying this age.

Guinevere staring at herself in the mirror.