Ponderizing Parenting

I have been working on my patience as a mom. My little girls have such sweet, innocent spirits and I don't want to break them by yelling at them all day long. I want to try to always have the spirit with me, even when they have dumped all my q-tips out and covered them with soap :). I heard a quote somewhere that "It takes 5 minutes to clean up spilled milk, but a lot longer to heal a broken heart". I am totally summarizing there and could be way off, but you get what I mean! Whenever I do lose my patience I immediately regret it and know that it did nothing but hurt and not help.

Last week I did my first ponderizing patience scripture you can see here.

This week the scripture I chose is:

Moroni 7:45
And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

I love this scripture for more than just parenting. This will help me be a better wife! This will help me be a better friend, sister, daughter, and just person in general.

Also I like how "charity" is female :)

What scripture are you ponderizing this week?

How To Prepare Your Child For A New Sibling

When I found out I was pregnant with my second child, I was thrilled! I had been able to conceive so much faster with my second than with my first so I was also a little shocked. Then I became worried. How could I do this to my little girl? She would no longer be the center of our universe! She wouldn't get my undivided attention!

As you can see, she wasn't exactly thrilled ;)

But then I remembered how wonderful it is to have brothers and sisters. I don't know what I'd do without them! Giving your child a sibling is the greatest gift you can ever give them. They have a best friend for life. Someone to rely on after you are gone.

I was still scared. How was she going to handle this? How could I prepare her? My daughter still seemed like a baby to me. How was she going to be a big sister?

So of course I started researching. I turned to the internet and read oodles of articles and blog posts like this one. I went to my library and checked out every  book they had about being a big sister or having a new baby. My favorite books are: I'm a Big Sister by Joanna Cole (They also have I'm a Big Brother), Waiting for Baby and My New Baby by Rachel Fuller, The Berenstain Bears New Baby by Stan Berenstain,  The New Baby by Mercer Mayer, The Baby is Here!(Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, Julius, and  The Baby of the World by Kevin Henkes (the girl in that is even named Lily!).

She took her research seriously.

      

We constantly talked about how there was a baby inside mommy's tummy and that Lily gets to be a big sister. We would have her kiss my tummy and give the baby hugs and gentle pats. We would say we were thankful for the new baby in mommy's tummy during prayers and ask that it would be healthy and safe and pretty soon she was saying the same thing in her prayers.

The baby's ultrasound pictures hung on our fridge and Lily would always blow kisses at them. We showed her old ultrasound pictures of her when she was in mommy's tummy too.

We watched every show there was about being a big brother or sister.Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood Season 2 is the best. My little girl still watches it all the time and sings some of the songs to herself when she is frustrated, "When a baby makes things different, find a way to make things fun!" or "There's time for you, and baby too," or my favorite "I really love our baby".

A couple months before the baby was due we bought Lily a "big girl bed" and moved her crib into the baby's room. She loved it and it helped her feel more grown up.

We showed her pictures and videos of when she was in Mommy's tummy and when she was born and just a  little, tiny baby and how soon we would have a baby just like that to love, hold, kiss and snuggle.

We constantly reassured her that we loved her so much and that we were excited for her to be a big helper and how exciting it was that she was "growing up on the inside and outside." (thanks Daniel Tiger ha ha)

We got her her own baby doll to take care of. I bought a little toy doctor's kit on Amazon along with a few other little treats and wrapped it in a present and put it in my hospital bag to take with me. When Lily visited us at the hospital we gave the gift to her and told her it was from the baby because she loved her big sister so much. Then when the nurses came into take my blood pressure she could do the same thing to her daddy with her kit.

When we got home from the hospital we tried to make sure that my husband and I each spent some one-on-one time with her every day and gave her some personal attention and extra love. I think that prevented a lot of behavior problems. Luckily my husband had a couple weeks before he had to go back to work that he could really be our older daughter's best friend and give her lots of extra attention. We let her hold the baby (with our help) as much as she wanted to. We gave her little tasks to make her feel like she was helping like "go get a diaper, or a wipe, or a burp cloth or blanket, go get her binky. throw this diaper away, go get a baby toy"  etc. Her other job still to this day is to turn on and off the little sound machine in the baby's room and the big box fan in the hall.

My daughter did have some regression. She started wanting binkies all the time when she hadn't taken them since she was 3 months old. She wanted bottles. She wanted to be a baby too. So we just got rid of all the binkies when my baby no longer wanted them at 3 months as well. Then we got rid of all the bottles when my baby turned 1. I didn't think those things were the end of the world. I'm sure I could have been more strict and gotten rid of the bottles or binkies sooner. I decided to pick my battles :).

It has been so fun and amazing to see the sweet relationship between my daughters develop. They love each other so much and as my older daughter is always saying "are best friends" and then she tries to sit back to back with Lucy. She says she is Elsa, and Lucy is Anna, and they are best sisters and best friends forever! Lily has been really patient and sweet with her even when Lucy pulls her hair.I'm so glad my girls have each other and I hope their sweet relationship continues to grow

I hope this helps! How did you guys prepare your kids for a new baby?

Fun Fall and Halloween Books to Read With Your Kids!

When I was teaching 3rd grade, one of my favorite parts of the day was read aloud time and I know it was a favorite time for my students as well, I always did it for 20 minutes right after lunch. The students would gather on the carpet by my rocking chair. I usually read a chapter or two from a chapter book I was reading but occasionally we'd read picture books as well between chapter books. This has carried over into motherhood. One of the favorite parts of my day is reading to my little girls and they love it too! Lily would let me read books to her all day if my voice would last that long.

Here are some suggestions of some of my favorite Halloween books. I do not own all these books! We get some from the library or just go to the Halloween section of the store at Walmart or Target and read the books they have there :).

I'll start with younger kids and work my way up to what I would read to my 3rd graders:

Some books specific to Fall for little kids are I Love Fall by /Alison Inches, We're Going on a Leaf Hunt by Steve Metzger, Peppa's Windy Fall Day, Fall by Roger Pridy, Leaf Man by Lois Elhert, Fall Mixed Up by  Bob Raczka.

     

5 Little Pumpkins is another fun read. This books is great because its from a song so you can sing it while you read it but you don't have to. My piano students play this song so I know the tune well haha. I like how it teaches ordinal numbers (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th) and counting.  If you click on the Pete the Cat one there is a video with it on Amazon with the music and the words.We like Pete the Cat Five Little Pumpkins by James Dean since the cat looks like our kitty and just this normal Five Little Pumpkins by Dan Yaccarino.



Some other good counting Halloween books are One, Two. . . Boo!, Ten Timid Ghosts, 10 Trick-or-Treaters, Seven Orange Pumpkins, Too Many Monsters!

    

Some other books you can sing to that are great are this Halloween version of Wheels on the Bus  called The Spooky Wheels on the Bus and then my little girl loves this Fall one called There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves that goes to the tune of "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly" and also the Halloween one of There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Bat. She has these for every holiday and some other themes too. They are pretty cute.

  

Some ABC Halloween Books to read to your littles are Halloween ABC, A,B,C's Halloween, Halloween Alphabet ZYX, H Is For Haunted House.

   

Some other fun picture books to read to your preschool and up aged kids are:  Happy Halloween, Little Critter and Trick-or-Treat Little Critter by Mercer Mayer, Splat the Cat and the Pumpkin-Picking Plan and Splat the Cat What Was That? by Rob Scotton, Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson, The Night Before Halloween by Natasha Wing, Spookie Pookie by Sandra Boynton, The Berenstain Bears Trick or Treat by Stan Berenstain.

   '

My little girl loves Curious George, Daniel Tiger, Clifford,  and Micky Mouse Clubhouse so its fun to read books with her favorite characters in them:

   
Margie Palatini is one of my favorite picture book authors. She has 3 books about Gritch the Witch that are hilarious. Piggie Pie is the first one and then there is Broom Mates and Zoom Broom. None of them are about Halloween, but the main character is a witch so we'll count it :). I read these to my preschooler all the time but I also read them to my 3rd graders and they loved them and understood a lot of the references better.

  

For my 3rd Graders I would also read How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin? by Margarate Mcnamara and 2 x 2 = Boo! by Loreen Leedy to them during math.

 

And we would read these Scary Stories to Tell In The Dark by Alvin Schwartz I used to read as a kid. The scarecrow one still gives me nightmares! We would turn the light off and use flashlights. It was pretty spooky! I guess they have new updated covers and its cheaper!



My favorite chapter book to read at Halloween time to my students was called Bunnicula: A Rabbit Tale of Mystery by Deborah and James Howe. We would be studying mysteries during Halloween time so it went along great with that and the book is hilarious.



 I also loved reading The Witches by Roald Dahl. It was always fun to come dressed as the kind of witch he described during the chapter where the boys Grandma tells him what witches looked like. I would keep scratching my head as if wearing a wig, eat a blue sucker before hand so it looks like you have blue spit. Refuse to take off your shoes so they don't see that you have no toes, wear gloves, and keep wrinkling your nose and saying, "Does it smell like Dog's Droppings in here?". If you've read the book you'll get it ;)


They also loved the book called Goblins in the Castle by Bruce Coville. Its not really Halloween themed, but there are goblins in it :). It is hilarious too and has some spooky parts.



And of course my students and I always loved reading the first book in the Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. BEST BOOKS EVER! I can't wait to read them with my girls! Its something I dream about :).


Now go to the library, the store, or just buy some of these books online and get reading with your kids! HAPPY READING!

How To Increase Your Milk Supply (While Nursing)

 With both of my girls I was constantly worried about my milk supply while nursing. I am well endowed in the boob department so I always assumed that meant I'd have plenty of milk. More storage space, right? Not exactly how that works it turns out :).

When both of my girls were just tiny newborns I didn't have enough milk to meet with their needs. So instead of letting them starve to death while waiting for my milk to increase I employed this method:

Step 1: Nurse Baby on both sides for about 10-15 minutes.

Step 2: Give your baby to somebody else (your husband, mom, sister, friend) to feed a bottle of either previously pumped breast milk or formula.

Step 3: While your baby is taking a bottle from somebody else, you have to pump for 10 minutes.

Step 4: Save milk you pumped in the fridge for baby to drink later!

I had to do this for about 2 weeks until I had enough milk. Such a pain, I know! But it was worth it! You know you have plenty of milk for your baby when your baby is too full for the bottle after nursing and has plenty of wet and dirty diapers every day. Later on if you feel a drop in your milk supply you can do this method again but probably only need to do it once or twice a day to help amp up your milk production.



Sometimes at night if I didn't want to wake anybody up to help me I would just feed the baby the bottle myself after nursing her and then after putting the baby back in bed I would pump.

 Some other things that help your milk supply:

Fenugreek Supplement (I just bought mine at Good Earth)



Drinking a ton of water! I would drink a large glass before nursing, and then a large glass right after as well besides other times during the day. If you don't like the taste of normal water get a water bottle that you can infuse lemon, limes, or other fruits into to get a yummy flavor.

Eat lots of almonds, berries, leafy greens, oatmeal and make sure you are eating enough in general! You need 500 extra calories to make milk.

To have a richer, creamier milk have at least a Tablespoon of coconut oil or olive oil a day. You can have it over popcorn. Its yummy!

Get plenty of rest. If you notice a drop in your milk, take it easy for a few days having a "Nursing Vacations" where you just eat, sleep, lay in bed and nurse as much as you can.

Our very own Holly Jensen took this picture of me with my baby :)

And Here I am with the same baby a couple months later. She's purely breastfed and perfectly healthy.
Our own Nicole Stoker took this photo :)

With my first baby she was born so tiny and small her mouth had a hard time latching on for the first few months. I had to use a nipple shield to almost act as a straw to help her nurse. I had to take the shield with me everywhere so I would recommend the case!


Make sure to take care of your nipples. Use Lansinoh to help them not crack and let your boobs air dry a little bit after nursing and pumping if you can. It really will help!