Avery is 5 months old (and 3 days)

It's crazy how time flies - 5 months with our sweet pea has gone by so quickly and she's grown so much!

Avery is becoming more and more aware of her surroundings each day - especially with her puppy-brother, Auto. She really wants to get him - he should probably prepare himself for when she becomes mobile!

She can sit up on her own, although she's still not entirely stable. She's so easy going though, that even if she face-plants, she just lies there quietly under someone helps her back up (it's pretty funny, actually). 

Avery WAS sleeping through the night...until she turned 4 months old. Now she wakes up once per night and needs a bottle. 

The first half of the night is spent in her crib in her own room, the second half of the night (after her bottle) is spent in our room in her rocker. 

As far as her bedtime routine - still reading a story and taking a bottle and rocking her to sleep. Crying it out is just not an option for us, and I really believe that this is why we have such a happy little girl. 

Baby drool is a big part of our life right now - Avery really just has unlimited amounts of it and can't keep it in her mouth! No teething going on yet, just lots of drool. 

Avery is the proud owner of an exersaucer and loves the freedom it gives her to stand and play on her own.

Her tongue is out almost all the time! We keep telling her that she's gonna regret sticking it out so much once she's gets some teeth in her mouth.

Still on formula only. Since we are planning on skipping rice cereal and puréed foods and doing baby led weaning, we are waiting until Avery shows signs of being ready to eat: sitting up on her own, grasping things well, showing an interest in food, etc. she's just not quite there yet...but soon will be!

Avery is still just a peanut - wearing 3 month clothing and only some 3-6 month sizes. 

She's been sleeping on her tummy lately. This made us really nervous at first, but she seems to be just fine with it. 

Rolling over is taking some time - Avery's only done it a handful of times, and can only tolerate being on her belly (awake) for about 10 minutes or so...she would rather be sitting up or standing (with help of course).

Avery loves to scratch things! I think she likes the sound it makes. She scratches couches, pillows, counter tops, everything!

Avery loves to laugh at Auto!

She knows who mommy and daddy are and smiles when we enter a room.

Avery LOVES cell phones!

Avery and mommy are still loving baby wearing - we often cook dinner hooked together!

Our happy baby is such a blessing - can't wait to see what this month brings! 

(Fall colors and pumpkins are PERFECT timing for 6 month photos!)

treat yoself

So, I have officially become a hippie. Again. Yesterday. And I'm really excited about it.

After struggling with these first few periods postpartum, I've finally taken some action. I bought the Diva Cup. And I'm in LOVE. 

Back story: I gave birth vaginally almost 5 months ago. My baby was teeny, but she seems to have effed some stuff up on her way out anyway. Like, how do you not even completely fill a tampon but still bleed past it anyway?! I don't really know, but it happened. I've gotten really sick and tired of constantly running to the bathroom to save my pants from looking like I just stabbed myself in the vag. 

I read about the Diva Cup a whole ago on a few different natural living websites and it has gotten really great reviews. I don't know why it's taken me so long to actually purchase one (probably I'm just lazy). 

The Diva Cup is a reusable menstrual cup. Yes, you stick it up your vag. Yes, you have to dump/wash it out. Yes, you reuse it over and over again (cue all the "ewwww that's so nasty," "I could never do that," "it's disgusting," "you have to put your hand up there?!" and all the other comments that I know are going though some of your minds). 

You know what? If you're comfortable with your own body, then this kind of thing really shouldn't seem problematic to you (but that's another topic, entirely). 

Here's all the pluses to the Diva Cup:

You know that "schlump" feeling when you gush blood onto a pad? There's none of that.

You know the uncomfortable feeling of pulling out a tampon that isn't filled up? Gone.

The feeling of an overloaded tampon falling out? Nada.

Wearing a diaper pad to bed? No way.

You can wear the Diva Cup for UP TO 12 HOURS. Do you know what you can do in 12 hours without having to worry about bleeding everywhere? Sleep. And other stuff too.

You spend $40 once and then you don't have to buy tampons and pads and panty liners ever again. 

It comes with a cute little bag to put it in after your period is over.

It's earth friendly!

It's toilet friendly (because you don't need to flush any used tampons, ya know?)!

Your dog won't be able to trail chewed up bloody pad through the house again (you're lying if you say this has never happened to you)!

You can't feel the darn thing once it's positioned correctly.

Ok, I admit it takes a few practice tries to get it right, but to me, that is a hell of a lot better than feeling nasty on my period. 

So, yeah. I'm in love. 

And if you know what's good for you, you will go get one of these thingies for yourself.

Treat yoself - you and your vag deserve it.

pulling for results (hopefully)

Oil pulling. Have you heard of it? I had a few times here and there on natural living blogs, but never seriously considered trying it. Until last week.

My tooth was hurting a little bit. I opened my mouth and looked in the mirror. I'm pretty sure I have like, 3 small cavities. I don't think I've ever had a cavity before. I also haven't been to the dentist in like 4 years (hangs head in shame). 

I was browsing Facebook the same day that I found those little black spots and saw that one of my Facebook friends was starting to oil pull. And I thought, "ok, maybe I should give this a go." Then I saw this blog post http://trinaholden.com/healing-cavities-a-true-weve-done-it-story/

and decided that maybe this could really help 

me out.

I'm using coconut oil and I have to admit that 

unless you melt your oil prior to putting it in 

your mouth, it's kinda gross.

You have to chew the oil to melt it...it's weird. 

Anyway, you swish the oil in your mouth for 15-

20 minutes (in the morning, before brushing).

And don't spit coconut oil down the sink or it 

will clog when it cools down!

You can use pretty much any oil, but I've heard 

that coconut tastes the best and olive oil can

 leave a yellow film on your teeth, and nobody 

wants that.

Also, don't swallow the oil! It's pulling out all the

 yucky toxins and bacteria from your mouth and

 you don't want to ingest that...gross!

So lets hope this works! I should get Seth to try 

it out too...he really needs to jump on my 

healthy living bandwagon.

Avery is 4 months old!

It's been a third of a year. Can you believe it?! Baby girl is still so teeny...I can't believe she's 4 months old!

Avery is still a peanut: 12 lbs 3 oz (25th percentile) and 24 in long (50th percentile). And she got more shots today (we cried together).

Avery is always smiling and happy! She wakes up at 5 am with the biggest smile on her face and it makes my day, every day.

She laughs! It's so cute! Laughing gives her hiccups, which makes her laugh harder. Things that make Avery laugh: saying boo!, her puppy-brother, Auto, daddy fake laughing, kisses from her piggy and monkey toys, and when mommy tips her backwards.

Avery is a big flirt. She will smile and bat her lashes - and it works. Everyone is in love with her.

Avery went to urgent care for the first time on August 9 - her left eye got red, puffy and leaky so we thought there was something in it. She had a blocked tear duct, so nothing serious, but we have some eye drops. Her eye was better by 2 days later.

We have switched to "big girl bottles" because Avery is sometimes eating 6 oz of formula and her little bottles only hold 4 or 5 oz. 

Cloth diapers are still working great! We do need to get some more though...

I've put away almost all of the newborn sized clothing. Except for a few things, Avery is able to wear most 0-3 month and 3 month sizes. She's still such a little peanut. 

Gramma and Grampa Ash bought Avery an exersaucer for their house - and she loves it! The toys are easy for her to play with because they are stationary and she gets to do her favorite thing - stand!

Oh yeah, standing is Avery's favorite thing to do. She can even take steps (being held of course). We are in trouble.

Avery has discovered that technology is a wonderful thing - she loves our phones! She loves to watch videos of herself, cartoons and music videos.

Um, Avery loves the Miley Cyrus song, "we can't stop" and also loves the creepy, skanky video that goes along with it. Oops. 

We have installed Avery's "big girl" carseats - all in ones. She still uses the infant carrier but having multiple carseats makes it a bit easier when we are dropping off and picking her up at Gramma's house every day. Is it weird that it makes me teary to see her not in her infant car seat?

Avery loves mommy's hair - when she is tired or frustrated, she likes to grab a big handful and rub her face with it. 

 

Avery loves faces - she will lay her little hands so sweetly on your face...then proceed to rip off your skin with her razor blade nails.

To soothe herself or help herself fall asleep, she pats or rubs mommy's arm - I love it.

Avery's bedtime routine is still going really well, but she has started going to bed earlier - around 7:30 pm, and sleeps through the night (unless she wants her paci, then we just get up to give it to her and she goes right back to sleep). 

Most mornings, Avery gets to snuggle in bed with us for a bit - she will wake up, then go right back out as soon as she is between mommy and daddy. It makes for some pretty sweet Sunday mornings :)

Auto still doesn't really like his sister...hopefully he comes around soon.

starting slow and starchy

So, here's the deal:

I think about 2 years ago (?) I tried to be vegan. It lasted about 3 months. I didn't do it right. I mean, I'm sure there's not a right or wrong way to live a healthy and compassionate life, but I didn't go about doing it the right way for me. I tried making separate meals for Seth and I (he is an omnivore), I got over-ambitious, and I bought a lot of meat substitutes, etc. instead of focusing on healthy, whole foods. I also didn't have a real personal reason for adopting the vegan lifestyle other than it seemed to be the right thing to do. 

Well, I've grown up since then and I've now decided to give it another go: I will not create a food rift between myself and my husband - dinner will be vegan meals that he will enjoy or that he can easily add meat/dairy to; I have a good reason - polycystic kidney disease with a future transplant and a diagnosis of gestational diabetes makes me at higher risk for the disease; I know better - meat/dairy subs are ok, but not the healthiest - healthy, whole foods are the way to go; oh, and a video of freed dairy cows running and rolling around like puppies, yeah.

I'm planning on taking this slow rather than jumping right in - cold-turkey vegan is hard. If I allow myself the space for small setbacks, I think I will be more successful in the end. I'm also more educated this time though, so it may be easier to avoid those setbacks. 

This week is the first (of hopefully many) weeks of vegan meal planning for dinners (I only needed very minor adjustments to my food that I bring to work). To start, I made a meal plan of all things that I felt confident that Seth would enjoy. He is supportive of my choices but he's also very picky so in order to eat healthy together, I need to do lots of research and recipe altering. 

Our first all vegan dinner was a success! I chose a recipe that incorporated 2 of Seth's favorite foods: potatoes and bell peppers.

Here's the link to the inspiration for our dinner:

http://cookingstoned.tv/recipe/mashed-potato-stuffed-bell-peppers/

I obviously altered the recipe for the mashed

 taters so that they would be vegan.

Mashed Potato Stuffed Peppers

3 lbs Yukon gold potatoes (I have leftover mashed taters for later in the week now!)

3 large bell peppers 

4 green onions, thinly chopped

1/2 cup unsweetened plain almond milk (at room temp)

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 tbs nutritional yeast (optional, as it really didn't add flavor, you could add more I guess)

1 tsp powdered thyme

2 tsp garlic powder

Fake bacon bits (I think most are vegan)

Salt and pepper to taste 

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. 

Cuts tops off peppers and remove insides and seeds.

Place peppers in a baking dish and bake for about 20 mins, or until wilting and slightly browned.

While peppers are baking, cut potatoes into quarters, leaving the skins on.

Add potatoes to a pot and cover with water. Boil until a fork can pass through a chink of potato easily.

Drain potatoes and return to pot.

Mash first with a masher, then whip with a hand mixer.

When your potatoes are almost at your desired consistency, add all other ingredients besides peppers and finish whipping.

Fill each pepper with mashed potato mixture.

Bake another 10-15 minutes or until potatoes are slightly browning.

If you would like cheese, I think melty cheese on top would be divine :)

Enjoy!