Why I don't think your 18month old is bad.

Here's the thing. My son loves to pull cords out of sockets, wrap them behind his head. He insists that all of his books and toys need to be out and scattered around the living room so that he can see them all while he is awake. He climbs on everything and nothing is off limits or out of reach. He will find a way to get what he wants!

The most amazing part... He is exactly who he is supposed to be! My son is so smart! He's determined, loving, loud and perfect. 

It drives me crazy when my friends tell me how bad their 1yr old is. THEY ARE NOT! These babies are learning! I'm not saying its easy to chase around a toddler who insists on grabbing everything but he's LEARNING! My son does do things he's not supposed to and I tell him no, there are times he still does it. It's called testing boundaries. Just because mommy said no doesn't mean he doesn't want to still do it. 

Moms(and dads) stop trying to make your kids into Sloth's who just sit in front if the tv and do nothing all day! We live in a society where my generation and younger are lazy entitled know it alls... Want to know a reason why.. We TEACH them to be that way!! If you sit there and be good you can have this game and that, I'll make your food for you so you don't make a mess, here eat it quietly in front of the tv so you don't get in my way. Oh no you're throwing a fit fine watch your show mommy can't concentrate on hers anyways. This is not ok! 

We need to let our babies learn and explore! Be creative! At 10 months my son pushed his bumbo up to the buffet in my living room and stood on the arm of it so he could reach something I'd put out of the way! Was I mad? Absolutely not i was amazed that at such a young age he had the initiative to do that! 

I call my son monster. Not because he terrorizes my house and I'm at my wits end, but because he growls and laughs, he gets into things he shouldn't but cuddles and smiles. I don't mean it in a negative way it is one of his thousands of nickname. I won't call him "bad" for doing exactly what he should be doing at his age. 

I would take my rambunctious, curious, messy boy over a sit on my bum all the time boy any day. He is perfect and exactly right...

 I just wish more moms would feel that way. We need to be more encouraging. This is our future and theirs so its important we teach them the right things ❤ 

How I got sucked into cloth diapers and why I love them now

So one of my best friends has a daughter 3 months older than my little man. We are both pregnant and again she is due 3 months before I am! 

She made the decision to switch to cloth diapers. I have a lot of respect for cloth diapering moms. It's better for the environment and all that other stuff but I couldn't get past the swishing in the toilet, constant laundry, pins and all of that folding! It was not something I could bring myself to do. I thought about it for about 2 min when I was pregnant the first time and dismissed the idea. 

Well my cloth diapering BFF decided that for her baby shower she would request that since they can be so expensive and her little izzy is still wearing diapers so she needed enough for two she would request some for her baby shower an posted some websites.

I didn't think to much of it and ignore the websites for a while. Well then she posted a picture of her cute little Isabella in one of her new cloth diapers and it was one of the cutest little things I've ever seen!! Who knew?! Surly not me. It made me very curious so I decide to finally take a peek at the websites shed posted... 

Oh my goodness! They were so cute! Little Dino diapers and jungle animals. Solids and prints! I immediately wanted them for my little man! I could just picture them on his little bum. Yep... My immediate wanting to switch was 100% the way they looked. 

However I am much smarter than to spend money on something because of how it looks. I still remembered my initial no pins, folding, swishing dilemma.

Here is the best news if you are anything like me... Cloth diapers have EVOLVED! There are many different kinds but the ones I use now are the one size pocket diapers with the microfiber bamboo liners. Ah-mazing! These diapers are one piece and snap together! There are different snaps along the front so you can adjust leg width and tummy size at the time you are putting the diaper on! They have little pockets in the top and you just stick your insert in and put it on your tiny bum! So simple! For the moms that done like swishing(gross!) they sell disposable liners! These are essentially long pieces of toilet paper, but thicker, that you line the diaper with right before you put it on. When you change you baby the liner goes strait in the toilet and flushed away! These are not your moms cloth diapers! 

I bought 1 days worth to start out just to make sure I liked them before I invested a bunch of money into something I wasn't going to use. First thing I learned us that little boys tend to pee more. We found my son was leaking through. Discouraged I did some online investigation... Turns out I can just double up my inserts! Actually you can go up to 3 inserts/ diaper but we haven't found that necessary yet. Because I only had 1 days worth I was washing diapers every night... Turns out.. I didn't mind at all. I throw diapers in as soon as i put my son to bed. I flip them over and make sure to restart the dryer before bed. It is nothing out of my day. 

Next issue... Folding... What folding... It takes about 5 minutes to stuff 10 diapers and be ready to go! Even my husband who never folds laundry ever doesn't mind. It truly is not a sacrifice at all! 

I am hooked on cloth diapers and wish everyone would give them a try. I know they aren't for all but believe me when I say they are not nearly as bad and scary as most of us think.

My unsexy way of conceiving baby number two!

Was your TTC period romantic? We're you able to make it special? Was it planned or did your little miracle surprise you?

If you've read any of my previous posts you will know that my first pregnancy was 2 years in the making. After that long it was still intimate . We did have days where because of hormones and scheduled sex it seems kind of routine by we would joke and make it playful. It's very hard but important to keep it light. If you have issues TTC the best thing you can do for yourself and your partner is try and relax.

On this same note I'd like to tell you how less sexy my second pregnancy came about. 

My husband and I after quite a few discussions decided we wanted another baby. My son was 10 months at the time and we agreed that we wanted me to be able to get maternity leave again. To do that I would need to wait until I went back to work before we could start trying.

I was so excited and booked an appointment with my OB/GYN. Because of my past fertility issues I wanted to be ready for when the time came for us to get working on our newest addition! My doctor however informed me that child birth can often put your body to normal even if it wasn't before! He said that my husband and I would need to TTC for 6 months before he would look at prescribing me fertility treatments. I was both saddened and saw a little glimmer of hope that maybe just maybe I could do this on my own! 

I EBF my son for 6.5 months and then pumped for an additional 2 weeks so my first period didnt show up until shortly before my visit with my doctor. This made me scared that I might not succeed but I felt determined to try. 

By the time I went back to work I ha only had 2 periods. I noticed though that they were about every 6 weeks apart! This is a huge improvement from unpredictable 9-12 pre pregnancy. I had no guarantee they would continue on this routine but I hoped. 

Now if you have every used fertility drugs to try an conceive you were likely told to every other day baby dance from day 12-18 to ensure you had swimmers in there at time of ovulation. Well because I wasn't sure when I would finally ovate we couldn't plan that way. But we decided well if we don't know the week we would be intimate every other night until we got a BFP!!!

As someone who very much enjoys sex with my husband on a very regular basis this thought seemed amazing! 

Here is where it gets completely unromantic... My husband was working a night shift. He started work at 4pm and ended work at 2am, home by 3am.  I work days. I was up at 5am to get myself and our son ready, took him to daycare, started for at 8am was off at 4:30pm home by 6(long commute). I had just enough time to feed my son and bath him before bed with about 20 min of mommy baby time. This was exhausting. See the problem was our conflicting schedules. If you review the above you will note the only time we were both at home was from 3am-6am. The first week this was not a problem. Our every thee night rendezvous was hot! By week two it was still fun but this working mama was getting TIRED. By week 3... Ok I'm not proud but I'm pretty sure one night while half asleep I said just get in done and go shower! LOL we were still able to have sexy nights on the weekends but the weekdays were just as quick as possible so I could go back to sleep before work.

I love my husband and still don't mind being woken up for sex but every other night turned out to be way to much for me.... However... IT WORKED!!! 

After 2.5 months of trying to conceive we did! I was exhausted. It wasn't unenjoyable but i felt like I worked almost as hard in that time as I did the whole two years the first time.

I don't regret a single moment and I recommend it as a way to get pregnant! Just try as we did on the weekends to make sure that you keep some intimacy in your baby making. It's important. After your babies are grown up your partner is who you have left. Don't ever forget to make them feel important for more than just half of the chemistry in your tiny love.