Survived the Semester

We have successfully completed a semester from HELL at our house. Michael and I have both been in graduate school, working, raising a baby AND looking for full time jobs. I am proud to say that we have made it together and have BOTH found full time salary positions. Not only have we gotten jobs, but we are relocating our family closer to my job in Dallas and finding a new Montessori School for Stirling to attend.

The year 2010 has been full of sadness, trials, happiness and now success. I want to thank all of our friends who have supported us and shown us what true friendship really means. Without the family and friends we have, we could not have had the success with finding jobs and raising Stirling this year. I look forward to the crazy days ahead and am so ready for Christmas and the New Year!

Standing all by Himself

Today we went to spend a few hours with my cousin and his son who is about to be three years old (Stirling and Vincent are EXACTLY 2 years apart in age). While Vince was coloring, Stirling was STANDING next to me although I had no idea he was standing all by himself due to the fact that I was watching Vince color his little heart out. The only reason I had any clue Stirling was standing was because Michael said, "Jessie, look Stirling is standing!" I was so excited to see him wobble but keep his balance, my motherly instinct must have hit me because I immediately picked him up because it looked as if he was about to fall (I naturally did not want him to get startled and cry). I cannot believe our baby is 10-months-old and so close to walking! Watch out world, Stirling is about to start walking!

Garage Sale

Since I got a new job and we are putting the house on the market soon, we decided to have a garage sale to get rid of the "things" that we do not need around the house. It has taken about two weeks to declutter most of the house and figure out what to sell and/or donate. In preparation for the sale, my friend Becca helped me declutter and motivate me to declutter (I am so thankful she was there to help me realize that I do not need so many "things" in my house and life). Finally it was time to prepare for the sale. I posted thrice on Craigslist about the sale and bought bright poster board to write garage sale and have arrows pointing in the sales direction (Michael did the poster prep) My friends even joined in on our sale with items and clothing and even toys they no longer needed. At last, Saturday morning was here and it was time to sell, sell, sell!  After about an hour or so, only a few people had come to the garage sale, but slowly we began to get customers and items began to sell! Five hours later the garage sale was complete.

We walked away 65 dollars richer and my friends 35 dollars richer AND donated the rest of our items to Denton County Friends of the Family.

I would say that the garage sale was a success and the house looks a million times better without so many "things"

A Poo Update

So Stirling has been using his potty for a few months now. I always dread having to clean a poopy potty but Michael insists that when we hear him grunt, we must put him on his potty, therefore, I have agreed to do so. Well, since Stirling has been eating more solid foods, especially bananas, green beans and black beans.... his poo has been more like "big boy poo", which is much less gross than the pile of grossness it was before. The past few days poor Stirling has been a grunting machine to where he even turns red trying to get his poo out (funny yes, but you can tell he is really trying hard to go potty). At first, I was unsure why he was grunting, holding his breath and turning so red all of a sudden... and then realized "big boy poo" was in his potty. I do not know why I am so interested in the fact that he goes to the potty on his froggy potty or even why I love the fact that he is poo-ing in it, but I am so proud of him for sitting on his potty and using the restroom; I honestly think that this will lead to an easy transition into full-fledged potty training when he is a bit older. OH HOW TALKING ABOUT POO NEVER GETS OLD...

Stung by a WASP!

Stirling and I had just gotten back from a much need and very enjoyable walk around the neighborhood. After walks Stirling is in a wonderful mood. The two of us were just in the living room(Stirling playing with his toys and I was on the computer) when all of a sudden Stirling lets out a very loud and very upsetting scream. I was startled as to why he was suddenly devastated and quickly tried to figure out what had gone wrong. I look to my left and see a wasp just walking on the carpet. All I could think about was that Michael was gone teaching his class and what to do  if Stirling were to be allergic! I proceeded to figure out where he could have been stung while trying to kill the wasp about 5 times and then I just covered it with Stirling's frooggy potty... to have Michael deal with the wasp when he got home. I finally found the spot where the wasp had stung my sweet baby boy, his inner thigh. Thank the Lord he got stung on a fatty part of his body, and it turned out Stirling was just wanting his bottle and to be held. I am so glad he was not allergic to the wasp!!

It Has Been A VERY LONG WEEK

We have had such a long week with Stirling teething, Michael being sick and having two exams to study for myself. I want to thank echinacea and vitamin D for helping Stirling and I stay well during this past week. I usually give Stirling his vitamin D daily to help his immune system while at daycare. Since teething, Stirling has become VERY attached to his mommy, which has made it almost impossible for me to get anything done around the house one handed; therefore, I decided it was time to buy another baby carrier for Stirling. I decided that he must be able to be carried on my back, which led me to looking into purchasing a BabyHawk. I had looked at the mei tai before, but was hesitant, so this time I decided to contact the company to see if I was not too small for the babyhawk. I was informed that the Oh Snap! would possibly be too big, but the mei tai was right up my alley. Michael agreed that we could buy it and my mom helped me pick the exact colors with the help of Michael's opinion. I went with Pumpkin straps and two super cute designs(the babyhawk I purchased is reversible). After a very long week, the babyhawk has arrive and Stirling is the happiest he has been in a very long time! I am so pleased that Stirling is sooo happy while in the back carry! Perfect end to a difficult week!

Our Daycare is supportive of the ULTIMATE recycling when it comes to diapers!!

Today was Michael's first official day of graduate school as a teaching assistant and was Stirling's first day of daycare!

After finding out that Michael will not be home until 9pm (starting today) at least three days a week, and I will be working 20 hours as well as taking two graduate courses, we came to the conclusion that day care was a must at this point in our lives. In other words.... I have been stressing for about a week now about a daycare that we feel Stirling would be well taken care of during the day. Well, after countless hours on the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services website, we decided to enroll Stirling in Hilltop Montessori School.

Before making the decision, one of our friends child attends the school and we know they love it, we also looked on the CPS website and made a visit ourselves. We asked a variety of questions, such as how often do they clean and what products are used, how are children released as they are picked up, etc. A major question was about cloth diapering since I have been cloth diapering for a few months part-time. The director was very accepting of cloth diapering Stirling, and I just had to simply show her how his diapers worked, which took about 2 minutes. I am overjoyed that the daycare is accepting and supportive of my choice to have him in cloth throughout the day!

Michael and I went to pick Stirling up from his first day, and we even got a compliment on how the Bum Genius 4.0 diapers make cloth diapering easy. I am even more thrilled that they find the system simple and Stirling can climb, crawl and walk around in his cloth diapers during his time at Hilltop Montessori!

BUSY DAY

Today was a very busy day in the Shephard household. Since the both of us will be going to graduate school this semester and working, we have TONS to do around the house before Monday. Today we decided to FINALLY tackle the piles of clean laundry. After about an hour of hanging and ironing clothes, almost all of the clean laundry is put away, but we still have about three loads of laundry to clean (I HATE LAUNDRY, which doesn't help that we have twice as much with a baby).

We also decided to clean, rearrange Stirling's room and closet. Let me tell you, that child has more clothes than me! His room looks amazing and is more open with how we rearranged the furniture. I am super excited about the change.

Not only did we do laundry and rearrange the baby's room, I decided that I was going to make and store some baby food today while Stirling took an unexpected three hour nap. I made some banana with a hint of ginger, carrots and applesauce to freeze. I am just preparing for when school starts back up and we have less time to prepare food for the baby. I mixed all of his food with some breast milk instead of water to help preserve the food! Since I made some food today, I did put a bit in the fridge, so for dinner we decided to give Stirling his own bowl with some banana and see what he did. HE HAD A BLAST... a very messy one at that. But it was so cute to see his feel the texture and slowly eat the banana on his own. This is going to be what we do for dinner from now on, I think because it gave us some time to eat and kept Stirling occupied and involved at the dinner table. Yes, this is messy, but I think it will end up being worth while, especially so he can learn and explore about new foods and textures.

Oh BOY!

So today I embarked on the adventure of watching our friend's baby Si while also being in charge of Stirling for the morning. LET ME TELL YOU the boys are amazing babies, but it was such tough work watching the two of them together for four hours. Strategically having to plan everything was quite the task. When one cried, the other would cry louder or when I would hold Si then Stirling would want to be held. I had a blast, but I was exhausted! I am so thankful that the boys are awesome babies and cannot wait for them to grow-up together. I did realize from this morning that Stirling needs to be more exposed to other children; he is not quite use to the sharing of his toys concept. On the same note, it was interesting to see that Stirling knows which toys are his and which ones were Simons and to see his reaction to when Si took his toy (Stirling would immediately grab the toy from Si to play with it) vs. when Si was playing with a toy they had brought from home (Stirling would not mind one bit and carry on with his toys).

On another note, I am so proud of Stirling, BUT grossed myself out in the process. Today marks the FIRST day Stirling has gone poo in his big boy potty!!! I am so excited, but I think next time he is going to have to go in the big potty, because I nearly could not hold in my breakfast afterwords. I dread having to clean a poo poo potty again.

Milestone, Milestone, Milestone!

Apparently six months is a big month for Stirling when it comes to milestones. In the past two weeks he has begun to crawl, although he is using mostly his upper strength rather than also using his legs. Not only has Stirling begun to crawl, but he has learned to pull himself up to stand. We met with the doctor today, and even he was impressed with how well Stirling was sitting up on his own and even more impressed when we told him he could pull himself up on his own.

We have been practicing diaper- free for the past few weeks, and I am proud to say that Stirling LOVES his froggy potty and has gone to the bathroom on his potty every morning after he wakes up and randomly after naps. It is so fun to see him smiling when I make the potty sign in sign language while he is on his potty. I cannot wait until he correlates the two and begins to sign potty back!

Diaper-Free day 1

I have been interested in the different ways in which parents educate and teach their children about the potty and have the time to finally implement my preferred way to teach Stirling about the potty! I have been ultimately inspired by a book called Diaper Free... I know for most this sounds absolutely crazy, but it is such an amazing book about Elimination Communication.

After becoming completely inspired by this book, I too have faith that together Shep and I can choose a more natural approach to "potty training"(I HATE the word train, because we train our animals and teach our children, but that is an entirely different post) It is amazing that without even knowing much about EC, I already practice some of the tools mentioned by Ingrid Bauer. It is amazing how just a simple instinct is part of educating your child about elimination communication.

So, today I had the energy and the extra oomph to begin the elimination communication process. I decided to slowly being this process and Stirling was diaper- free crawling around our living room for about 20 minutes. We had his froggy potty in the room, immediately Stirling was VERY curious about the potty. We embraced this curiosity and put him on the potty and talked to him about the potty, but no elimination occurred. But I still got a feeling of success, because he was happy to be sitting on the potty and continued to show interest in the potty. For the next few weeks, I am slowly going to let him go for longer periods of diaper-freeness and better learn his signals, body language and timing! I cannot wait for this insane adventure we are about to embrace. I am sure there will be some hilarious stories to come.

Thank you all for your support, I am sure this is not something many of you understand or even really knew was possible! I am determined to have our baby be toilet independent before 2!

6 Months and counting

STIRLING is SIX months old, and I CANNOT BELIEVE IT! A week ago our sweet baby boy turned 6 months and we are so very thankful for a healthy and handsome boy. 

Since Stirling is now six months, this means I have started to put him in cloth diapers. I wanted to cloth diaper him from day one, but I knew it would be too much for me to handle and told myself that at six months we would begin to cloth diaper throughout the night and then slowly go from there. So far he has slept two nights in his BumGenius 4.0 cloth diapers and I AM LOVING IT! Not only is Stirling now a night-time cloth diaper baby, we got him some babylegs because he is beginning to crawl! I remember seeing the babylegs when I was pregnant and thought they were such a great find, so I waited until now and splurged by buying two different designs (trains and union jack) 

Since Stirling is beginning to eat solid foods.. I started off this week with trying a pureed peach and breast milk... I thought it was a great idea BUT Stirling is not too fond of the peach... so now we are going to try the avocado again. Since I am making his food, naturally I need storage for his food! I have been doing loads and loads of research/ review reading and figured I would try the kinderville brand storage cups. I thought these looked awesome because of everyone's reviews and also because they are not plastic (trying to not support petroleum products as much as possible). I received them in the mail today!!! They are much bigger than I had expected, but I think I will enjoy using them. I also got these really nice little glass storage rectangles made by innobaby. I actually had no idea they would be glass, but I think I am going to have to splurge on buying more of these after my next paycheck, mainly because I love the locking lids! Last but not least, we finally found a store that sold Sophie the giraffe!!! Words cannot describe how hard I have been trying to find this 100% rubber teething giraffe for the baby! I just want to say that Baby Bliss in Southlake is one of the best stores I have been to in ages ( I have a weird obsession with wooden toys, and they had loads of them... SO EXCITED for when we can purchase some more wooden toys for Stirling!). 

Well, enough about my crazy money spending this past week, but I feel that Michael, Stirling and I will all benefit from these purchases. I cannot wait until Stirling starts crawling, but am not looking forward to rearranging everything in the living room to be baby safe.  

GOODNIGHT ALL!

My Heart's Leading

Over these past three weeks while I have been taking three graduate classes, I have not had much time but I have had an hour drive to and from the Fort Worth Health Science Center to think. I have come to realize and understand much of attachment parenting. Although I may not agree with some of the stuff, I have realized that naturally I do practice certain aspects of attachment parenting. I believe that this is just possibly a motherly instinct. What really tugs at my heart is that society's techniques in relation to raising a child, especially an infant veers away from what is natural to us all compassion and the gift of parenthood. A parent and their child have a natural bond, I mean how else would a baby be able to pick your breast milk over other breast milk if there was not a strong natural connection. I feel as if society is not encouraging us, as parents, to get to know our child and their needs. 

Today I was told something so offensive I almost cannot believe there are people out there who think this... I was told that holding and cuddling a baby "too much" can be a form of child abuse... HOW ON EARTH CAN TENDING TO THE NEEDS OF YOUR CHILD BE CHILD ABUSE, last time I heard, CPS has never gone into a home of a loving parent and taken their child away... where has compassion gone?! Obviously out the window for someone who believes that you can hold a baby too much. Getting out of my soap box, I just have to say some children are naturally more dependent and some naturally more independent, hence why a parent should get to know the needs of their child, but to think that no child should be held and put a limit on loving a baby is just absurd and very offensive in my opinion. 

All in all, my only wish is that parents trust themselves and listen to their hearts and instincts when raising their children. It takes work to create a healthy home for your child, so why not first begin with trusting the parenting instincts you were naturally given. 

P.S. If you are interested in a book that supports, inspires and educates you, please please please read Attached at the Heart: 8 Proven Parenting Principles for Raising Connected and Compassionate Children by Barbara Nicholson and Lysa Parker or give this book to a momma at the next baby shower you attend! 

Introducing Avocado, not Cereal

I know that many people have been trying to almost force me into introducing Stirling cereal, but something inside me just does not feel comfortable with this decision. I would much rather introduce our child to food that he can enjoy the taste rather than start him on something that  is practically tasteless. Stirling is still breast-fed,so I really see no need for the added nutrients that cereal has...

In all, introducing food to a baby within their first year is not for nutrition, it is for the simple introduction of textures, tastes, and smells of healthy food. In my opinion, this cannot be done if he is getting cereal.

After knowing what I wanted for Stirling, I decided to search for something that also agreed with my opinion and even educated me on how to introduce healthy foods within the first year without the use of cereal. I stumbled upon a book called, Baby-Led Weaning by Gill Rapley and Tracey Murkett.  I think this is a great start to the way we want Stirling to be introduced to food; I think I am going to be using my own variation of baby-led weaning, but I am excited to finally introduce food into Stirling's diet!!

Oh The Veggies and Fruits One Can Juice!

I have been looking into getting a juicer for a few months now, mainly to make fruit juice for Stirling, so I can avoid the sugar-infused store bought juice. My parents knew that I had been talking about juicing and gave us a juicer for my birthday last week.  I finally found some time to test it out after the USA vs Ghana match. After reading the manuel and the recipe booklets, I decided it was time to begin juicing!

Michael and I have been discussing what we should do to detox and I think I have found our answer... THE JACK LALANNE JUICER!  As I have learned this past week, you can make practically all meals with just a juicer and fruit and/or vegetables. Who knew you could use the pulp from a potato and an apple to make potato apple pancakes?! or make different combinations of vinaigrettes!

My first go with the juicer went extremely well. The first combination of fruits I tried was organic blueberries, 1 nectarine, and 1 orange. This combination made a small glass of fruit juice, the flavor was absolutely delightful (I had thought it would be a bit foamy, but these fruits did not make any foam). I then tried a combination of 2 plums and 1 peach. Honestly, it was not as tasty as the first fruit combination due to the tartness of the plums.

 I am finding that I actually enjoy juicing and found myself searching through the fridge trying to find other juice-able items... we had an avocado in the fridge, but you cannot juice them. Sad.

I am excited to go to the store to buy more things to juice! I think I am going to mix cabbage and kale with some strawberries and blueberries next.

Homegrown

I have been wanting to attend farmers' markets for a while mainly because I want our family to reap the benefits of healthier and tastier food. Not only this, but we will be supporting local farmers and sustainable agriculture through the money we spend.

So...

Today we scheduled time and went to the Frisco Farmers' Market for the first time at 8am!! I woke up Michael this morning anxious to attend our first farmers market together, and what does he say..."Why do farmers markets start so early?" I laughed and agreed, although I was VERY exhausted since I had been awake with Stirling for an hour prior to waking Michael. We left the house just after 7am, which was exactly when we had planned to leave (I felt a sense of accomplishment as for it is difficult to leave on time to anything with a five-month-old).

After we had found shade to park, we proceeded to walk towards the farmers market with our reusable pink shopping bag (feminine style is as necessity when you are outnumbered by all the Shephard men!) At the market we found grass fed and grass finished meats (just what we had been looking for) fresh strawberrys, fresh peaches and shrimp scampi pasta(absolutely delicious). I was impressed with our selection, and we decided that would do until next weekend when we attend the Denton County Farmers' Market. 

We have been completely satisfied with the taste of the produce we have purchased at the farmers' market, and I cannot wait to attend farmers' markets on a regular basis! Maybe we will find an occasional creepy crawly in our cabbage... 

The First SIX Months

It all began one year ago from May 14, 2009 when we found out we were pregnant and having a child. The emotions we felt were undescribable, but we knew we wanted to create a healthy lifestyle for each other and as a family; therefore, we took the unsual route and decided to get my prenatal care from Inanna Birthing Center. Inanna was the PERFECT choice for us to choose this free-standing full service birthing center! Throughout my pregnancy, I was always comfortable with the women at the birthing center with Michael always by my side. Our journey to a healthy pregnancy involved me working out every Friday beginning at about 8 weeks pregnant and eating as healthy as possible, although I do LOVE french fries. I believe being involved with Inanna and meeting the women I met was definitaly where my desire to embark on a  more conscious lifestyle began.

After 9 hormonal months, it was FINALLY time for Michael and I to attempt to encourage the birth of our baby. Michael was due to leave the day before my due date. Since I was already 4-5 cm dilated and 100% effaced, the midwives tried their hardest (which was VERY uncomfortable) to narturally get labor started. After two long, hard days of trying to start labor, our baby was still not wanting to enter this world. It came time for us to decide whether or not we should just get a c-section; it was one of the hardest decisions of our lives (Michael proved his love for me and showed self-lessness). We ultimitally decided to not voluntarilly get a c-section becuase of all I had worked for throughout my pregnancy and my desire to give birth naturally. Michael left the next morning, not knowing when our baby would be born or what our child would look like. It was another hard decision for Michael to leave, but we again, did what was best for our family.

Five days after Michael had left, it was "the" day, our baby decided he was ready to meet his family! I was full of about every emotion humanly capable, but knew strength. prayer and trust were what was going to get me through natural birth. I wrote the birth story of our baby for Michael to read in a letter I had written him. Here it is for all who had not gotten the chance to read it or who are just interested (NOTE:READ AT YOUR OWN RISK, BIRTH IS NOT FOR THOSE WHO GET GROSSED OUT...p.s. guys this may include you):

On the morning of Tuesday Jan. 19, I began to get contractions and pains that were in my cervix. I then thought that today would be the day the baby would be born (I text messaged mu doula to give her a heads up and told a few other people), oh boy, was I correct. I had to go to Dallas with my mom to send Shep my birth certificate to the OCS Administration. As this was going on, I basically went though A LOT of pain. As my mom and I were on our way home from Dallas, I proceeded to call the Birthing Center to let them know about my pain, and they told me to come on in for a check up. After waiting about an hour, I finally got a check up and was 6cm dilated and 100%effaced... The midwife said it was time to break my water to start the strong contractions. I text messaged a few people and among those were Jenna (who took off work and flew in from Houston and was here by 2:30pm) and Bria (who took off work to come to support me at the birth). We decided to head back around 4pm to break my water; my water was not broken until I think around 7pm... We (Jenna, Bria, Doula, My mom and My Dad) were basically walking around the TWU campus and ate sandwiches as we were waiting for the midwife to break my water. We proceeded to break my water and there was quite the amount! Everything was going great, and I was contracting pretty hard. I was laying on my side at first and then began to walk the pain off and then decided to labor on the birthing ball (like and exercise ball). As I was contracting, the midwife would be checking Stirling's heartbeat... when I was on the ball, his heart rate dropped from about 120 beats per minute to about 80. The midwife warned me if this happened during another contraction, we need to be closely monitored at the hospital. Well, his heart beat once again dropped as I was contracting. I had to lay on my side to recover his heart rate and then the midwife called the hospital to tell them we were on our way and to prepare for us while also calling the doctor.  At first the midwife was not too worried but then she decided I must take an ambulance to the hospital because she had a feeling and would rather be too safe. So the EMT men (Bria and my mom said they were very good looking) came and got me, as the midwife literally rushed them to rush me to the hospital. As i was in the ambulance, Jenna was riding in the front and I was in the back getting an IV and emergency oxygen for the baby as they began to as me all those typical questions.. age? first baby? when are your contractions? and timing the contractions. I then got to the hospital and was hooked up to a baby monitor where his heart was dropping to 60 beats per minute as I was contracting. They began to put me in many different positions and then on my hands and knees while bending down to get the baby relief from being on my pelvis. Since the baby was not getting any stronger and could not survive a vaginal birth (all within I think about 5 minutes). I was literally given a shot to totally stop my contractions and was rushed into the operating room... My parents and Bria had just arrived to the hospital and were told I was already prepping for surgery. I was in the surgical room with I think about 7 nurses who were prepping me. They could not take my blood fast enough and began to clean my stomach and put warm cloths on me to keep me warm because my adrenaline was RUSHING and I was shivering and could not stop. I then remember the nice anesthesiologist woman talking to me and telling me to breathe and that I was getting put to sleep although she really wanted to give me a spinal, but there was no time. The doctor looked over the sheet and told me that he would see me when the surgery was over... (everything took about maybe 20 minutes) DO NOT REMEMBER ANYTHING after I woke up... minus the following: I remember the nurse coming up to me and showing me the baby and telling me he came out screaming with poop all on him and he was beautiful and i gave him a kiss. I was then asked a million questions that I could not answer because of the emergency c-section. I was told later that there was a NICU room ready for the baby when he arrived and a team of nurses waiting... he ended up being PERFECT and did not need any special attention (I thank the midwife and the doctor for this). Then I arrived in my room to find Shep's mom (my wonderful mother-in-law), her friend(Joanne), my mom, my dad, Bria and Jenna ALL waiting for me to wake up and to be able to hold our new bundle of joy! Now we are at home and I am slowly recovering, Shep knows we are safe and cannot wait to meet his son!!

Our Beautiful Baby Boy is 18 1/2 inches long... 6 pounds 11 oz.. born at 9:04 pm on Jan. 19, 2010

Five long weeks after Stirling was born, Michael decided to give up his dream and focus on our family. Seeing Michael and Stirling meet was the most brilliant thing I have seen; there was an instant connection, in which they have been inseparable since. 

Our new focus is creating a healthy atmosphere for our family and to give Stirling all opportunities to have a WONDERFUL life (beginning with breast milk and lots of hugs and kisses). Michael and I are SUPER busy juggling our masters degree courses, work, exercise, home-cooked meals, spending time with one another, ect. 

Since Michael claims he has "struck gold" with Stirling, I have decided to continue the health of our family and child through adding a more conscious lifestyle into the mix. Here goes our journey! I am excited to see where this journey will lead us!