Burn Baby Burn!

I'm sure all us mom's have encountered the lovely butt burns. I know we've had our fair share of baboon butts around here. I thought a post on ideas about what to do when the awful diaper rash comes around would be useful for us all.

The inspiration actually came from a friends facebook post. I learned that a lot of people out there have a lot of good ideas about what to do for diaper rash. So I thought I'd share some of our remedies and, if you'd like, you can share some of yours :)

*I always thought a burned bum was the result of not changing the diaper soon enough. But I've learned that changes in diet, and even teething, can cause their little bums to turn a bright shade of red. If the rash is severe and has been around for a few days my husband and I start to talk about what foods may be the cause.

*One trick that works really great for us is Baby Oil Gel. My friend introduced us to this. She even gave us the remainder of one of her bottles- my little boy's whole bottom half was red at the time. If clears up the rash great, but for some reason the bottle always looses itself in our house.

*My mom has always used Neosporin. They have some that numbs the pain, and this is usually our second best option.

*As for diaper creams, the only one I'd swear by is Lansinoh- Desitin and Butt Paste don't seem to do much for us, but they are there if nothing else is available. Unfortunately I can not find Lansinoh anywhere in any store. The only bit I got was a sample from somewhere. It worked great though. Oh, and my friend just gave me one, that is called Comforts for Baby, that she says works great!

*A couple times we have let the boys crawl around bare bummed. Letting their bums air out is supposed to help. I have to warn you though they peed and pooped on the floor when we did.

I think that does it for my ideas. The only other thing we do is give them Tylenol. If anyone has any other helpful tips please share!

The Joy of Toys!

This is a video of my children actually playing with a toy that was purchased in a store for them.

But why is it that more often then not they find more joy in made up toys- like a rolled up piece of aluminum foil, hangers in a laundry basket, pop cans, silverware, the curtains, etc.- then in the real toys?

And even with all the made up toys and store bought toys in the world they still just want to play with the remote, the computer or your cell phone- and old, used and retired versions of all these objects just do not cut it.

STAINED!

I am so tired of the battle with stains in this house. They are on my clothes, my husbands clothes and, of course, the twins clothes. I'm always frantically ripping off their clothing, the second a food that may stain falls on them, just to try and avoid soaking, rewashing, soaking again and finally taking it to my mom as I admit defeat.

It used to be so easy. Spit up? I'd pull out the Spray n' Wash. Grease spots? I'd pull out the Goof Off and the Spray n' Wash. Whites were not so white anymore? time for a soak in bleach. But now there are all these different kinds of food and juices. And lets not forget the dirt and grass stains. I try to lightly bleach things but it always gets ruined. I finally got a bleach pen, but I seem to be using it all the time and on the same clothes.

The worst is when you get all the laundry done, you sit down to fold and low and behold half the clothes are stained. Next thing I know I'm pulling out the 409, Simple Green, Spot Shot, That Amazing cleaner- I bought so the sales man would just leave already- and I'm scrubbing and soaking in the bathroom sink trying desperately to get those stains out. And seriously, why can't I ever pull a solid dark colored, cotton knit tee out of the dryer without finding a grease spot on it?

Then after all this I find I've fed the boys a whole messy lunch and neglected, once again, to put bibs on.

Some stains I can handle. If they play outside and get in the dirt it usually doesn't bother me. I just throw the boys in the tub, scrub the clothes with dish soap and throw them in the tub along with the boys. But it's the stains up by the collars, or the random grease spots that are starting to drive me crazy.

It's Enough to Drive you Crazy if You Let it

I've posted about working before, but back then it was a debate about whether or not I wanted to quit. I really thought I'd enjoy being a working mom, but the truth is the same as it was back then: I want to be at home. Now I really have no choice. My job is the only source of income- aside from a weekly babysitting check and occasional plasma donations. I work myself to the bone, and I see very little of my paycheck. In fact I don't even see my paycheck because its just enough to cover our house payment and a few bills. Naturally you can see why this song jumped into my head as I thought about writing this post.


Don't get me wrong, the teacher I work under is wonderful and very understanding. She's a great boss and puts up with me strolling in late because I couldn't pull my tired little pregnant butt out of bed. But even so work leads to an exhaustion that almost leaves me in tears weekly. Luckily working for a school means I only have 3 weeks left, but that also leaves me and my family without an income as far as we know. But even so I can't help but count the days down until I am done- I am actually crossing off the days on a calender.

Not only is the job pushing me to my physical limit, but it interferes greatly with the peace in my home. I go crazy because I can't maintain my home, my kids get confused when mommy is home for a week of Spring Break and then suddenly gone again and I get so tired I can't spend quality time with them when I am home.

I think the worst was last week. I work in a class with autistic children. There is me, 2 other aides and the teacher. Well one aide had to be out for surgery, and a lack of subs left us down one person. This normally isn't a huge problem until my little boy- who is also a bit of a momma's boy- got sick. He would be fine with my husband, but at the same time he really needed his mom. But what could I do? I could not possibly imagine how my fellow employees would be able to manage without me, and my child wasn't so ill that I absolutely had to stay home with him. But it didn't make choosing work over him any easier. Then the weekend rolls around and I'm looking forward to spending the day with my boys, but as I try to shower away that strange icky feeling that had I soon realize I'm sicker then a dog, and I'm on the phone with my mom- my husband has a Saturday class- simply stating, "I need help!"

My day with my boys is now a day of a liquid diet that won't stay down, contractions on top of it all and body aches and cramps that left me on the floor in the fetal position. My husband now has to pull children, that just want to play mom, off of her for obvious reasons. The boys go to bed, and I cry because my day with them is lost. I wanted to just play with them and let them crawl all over me, but I couldn't and it broke my heart.

There is a time and a place when I think a working mom can add extra balance to a home, but working for me is not adding balance to any of our lives right now. Obviously being pregnant and overly emotional doesn't help the situation much either. At least work is almost finished. And I'm trusting that the Lord will provide a way for us to survive when it is finished.

Food for Thought

I've noticed that most of my baby invested time is spent thinking about what foods they can eat, and how easy it will be to feed those foods to them. Along with that there are some other tricks to baby's eating habits- especially in the diaper changing area. These are some things I've noticed with my boys that I thought I'd share for fun!

-We started solids- and by solids I mean baby cereal and fruit purees- a little early (3 months or so) around here. We first tried cereal, then fruit- which its actually recommended that you do veggies first- and then veggies. Feeding the boys veggies became extra stressful. I told my mom that I knew they needed a well rounded diet, but they just cried the whole time I fed it to them, and then they would be fussy for the rest of the night. They were fine with fruits however. Well my mom told me just to hold off on veggies for now. That they would probably take to them when they were older. Low and behold and 6 months they were eating green beans and peas like they were candy. They love them now!

-My boys have a sweet tooth. I tried just mixing their baby cereal with water, but they wouldn't take it. Juice was the only way they'd accept the cereal food offering. If there wasn't juice around we'd use water and sugar. Before there 6 month miraculous likening of veggies, we had to mix those with fruit, or with sweeter veggies like yams, in order for them to touch the stuff.

-Finger foods are a mom's best friend- along with juice boxes after your child learns to use a straw. At about 7 months a friend introduced me to the wonderful world of finger foods. It's a little messy at first, but once you incorporate it into your daily routine it is wonderful.

-I really enjoyed getting to bring new foods into my boys' diet, but it has its consequences. There's always an adjustment period were you get burned bums and strange bathroom cycles. This can often mean that mom and dad are once again up in the middle of the night with a child who used to sleep peacefully till morning. But at least its not permanent.

-I was way excited to start feeding the boys regular milk. One: because formula is so expensive. And two: because regular milk is slightly easier then formula. Well the transition wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. We had to mix their milk with formula, and we would slowly try to lessen the formula part of the mix. Then when we thought we had them just on milk they would refuse their bottles and we'd have to start over. We have them on just milk now, but we still have to warm it up- they've always been picky about the temperature. Now we're trying to slowly make it cooler and cooler. This transition also led to burned bums and pooping in the middle of the night.

-Along with finger foods and juice boxes I just discovered a new best friend: Animal crackers. Mostly because they make a good healthy snack, and they are dirt cheap. Cereals are wonderful too. Our boys like fruit loops a lot, but they can interfere with the diaper changing too- by interfere I mean they change it to very weird and bright colors. Oh, graham crackers are great too!

-We love our juice around here. It has it's place that's for sure. We usually water it down to keep them from getting the runs, but I've noticed that juice boxes don't cause us much trouble in that area. One thing I have noticed about juice is that the extra liquid can lead to a baby peeing out of his diaper in the middle of the night. Now we just try to change them closer to bedtime, or try to not give them juice close to bedtime.