I'm the MOM!

This comedienne sings all about a mom's job. Sound is a necessity.

Click on the link below and enjoy!

The Mom

Our new family

This is harder than I ever thought it would be. Being a mom to an infant and a toddler at the same time has taken me for a wild ride! I've never been this tired! My house has never been so messy. We eat take out more than I care to admit and Isaiah watches way more TV than I ever thought I'd let him.

It's been a struggle, since finding out that Lily was born with thrush. She and I were both infected with Candida because I was on antibiotics (for strep throat) during my pregnancy and delivery. This caused an imbalance of bad bacteria in my body and was passed on to my Lily (probably through breast milk). We at first thought it was a very severe case of GERD (reflux) because Lily was straining and moaning all the time. Poor Lily was colicky and uncomfortable all the time. We treated her for reflux, but it didn't seem to help much. Then the infant Chiropractor I took her to immediately diagnosed her with thrush. She was right on because once we started treating the thrush she got better exponentially. Unfortunately though, she also has reflux! So now she is being treated for both.

Treatment for the thrush involves taking lots of probiotics. Since I am breastfeeding her, I am taking them too, along with restrictions on my diet. Candida is a nasty thing, and antibiotics are to blame! Did you know antibiotics literally means anti LIFE?!? I'll think twice next time a doctor prescribes them for my family.

To make matters worse, Isaiah got thrush too! He was treated with antibiotics for a sinus infection, and ended up with a sore tongue. So he's on probiotics too. 3/4 of our family are infected with Candida! NASTY! Did you know that as much as 75% of people have Candida don't even know it? Candida is the cause of many ailments, including mood swings, eczema, acne and sugar cravings! At least we know it and are treating it, otherwise we would be absolutely miserable.

Other than that, life is all about adjusting to our new family. It's hard, but I know we are in the trenches of our family revolution right now and it will not always be this way. Despite how hard it is, I am glad I had 2 kids close together. We have our good days and we have our bad days. Yesterday we went to Sea World and had a great day! Isaiah loves it there and can't wait to see Shampoo again! It's so funny- he's always called Shamu "Shampoo".

It's just crazy because both my little ones are so needy in totally different ways. Isaiah is attention starved because he is used to having our 100% loving attention all the time. He was our only child for 2 and a half years! All of the sudden it has stopped and we're always preoccupied. Then a lot of the attention he does get is negative- like "don't scream so loud," or "be gentle with her". My poor little boy has been so emotional lately and I know it is a cry for attention and a reflection of our parenting. Mommy and Daddy are not happy and energetic like they used to be, now they are always tired and always busy doing something. Dave said the other day, "Man if I new it was going to be like this, I would have neglected him more in the beginning -that way he'd be used to it!" Okay that sounds worse than it was meant to be! So we have been making a conscious effort to giving him more positive attention and being genuinely interested in what he's doing. I have also let his routine go out the window since Lily's been born and I need to remember that kids thrive on a routine. So I need to get back to that for him.

Lily is a fiesty little girl. She had it rough in the womb and has had a rough few first months of life because of the thrush and the reflux. We had a hard time in the beginning because she was bottle fed in the NICU for 2 weeks and when she came home she didn't want anything to do with the real thing. So I had to pump and then feed her every 3 hours. I had never been so sleep deprived in my life! But one weekend when Dave was going to be out of town, I decided to go cold turkey on the bottle and I was determined to get us breastfeeding! She finally did and now, she almost turns her nose up to the bottle! That was the hardest thing, but praise the Lord I am feeding her like God intended! And feed her I do. Sometimes I feel like I feed her nonstop all day long. Not only that, she won't have anything to do with a pacifier so, that too is me- human pacifier.

My girl is strong like me. She'll let you know when she needs something and by golly she won't take no for an answer. No Babywise for this one! I tried really had to put her on a routine like Isaiah (he slept 12 hours through the night at 10 weeks and has until very recently). I just can't seem to get her on a routine at all. She is so resistant to the eat play sleep routine. It's more like eat, eat, eat and eat again. I think a lot of it has to do with her circumstances and also our circumstances as a family. We still have to get out for Isaiah's sake (he's got lots of energy) and she's so portable right now, it's too easy to just stick her in the sling and go!

Lily has just started to coo and smile and show her personality! Every time I look into those gorgeous hazel eyes, I feel so much love, for she is the girl of my dreams. You know, the one I dreamt about as a girl myself. She's my miracle girl and I look forward to everything we'll experience together.

It is quite a phenomenon that Lily has light eyes since Dave and I both have dark brown eyes. But when I was younger I would daydream about having a girl with light eyes. We still don't know if this is her true color. The doctor says it may take up to 9 months for her true eye color to show. But she also has very light skin and light hair. Sometimes we wonder if we got the right baby from the NICU!

So despite all my griping and being grumpy, I really am overwhelmed with happiness because I know that God has blessed me beyond my wildest dreams! I can't believe I have an amazing, intelligent little boy and a sweet and strong baby girl. I don't deserve such a wonderful husband who has also been an incredible father through it all. We are not rich in money by any means, but we are very rich in His blessings!

Saving Money

I haven't blogged for awhile and am not feeling particularly interested in writing about these crazy times with a newborn and toddler yet, so I decided to do a "meme" which is much like a theme in the blogger world. If you are reading this, you are obliged to post this meme on your blog (with your own answers of course)!

15 things I do to save money:

1. I breastfeed- pretty much all day long! I couldn't even imagine how many cans of formula we'd go through if Lily didn't breastfeed! At any given moment you can call me on the phone and 50% of the time if you ask what I'm doing, I'm breastfeeding! I think I may have been a cow in a former life! I have stores of pumped milk in my deep freezer in the garage, and I soak through my shirts on a regular basis. Seriously, my girls have a mind of their own- they tingle when they "hear" any baby cry, or even a cat meowing. Isn't motherhood glamorous?

2. I use fatwallet.com and upromise.com and get cash back on EVERYTHING I buy online. And I'm a huge sucker for free shipping! With the cost of gas these days, free shipping saves me time and money!

3. I buy used. Yes, I will go to a resale store and I'm not ashamed! Especially since baby clothes get worn once or twice and then get outgrown. You can also sell to resale stores too, so sometimes I make money!

4. I don't splurge. I don't think I own 1 brand name designer item. Not that I don't desire them, just that I can't bring myself to spend $300 on something that I can get for $30.

5. I shop at Costco. Sometimes this can be dangerous and you actually end up spending more than you need to... Costco is an evil, evil place.

6. I don't go to the movies. This is not by choice however. It's so sad, I don't even know what's playing these days.

7. I buy ahead of time. If there's a really good deal on shoes or clothes for the kids, I buy their size for now and the next size up for next year.

8. I buy generic. Kirkland brand diapers and Target brand wipes are awesome!

9. We use compact flouresent lightbulbs at our house. Cuts your energy bill in half.

10. I don't take care of myself enough. Not something I'm proud of and I would like to work on this! But yeah, I haven't had a pedicure or manicure since Isaiah was born and only get my haircut about once a year. It's pathetic and I'm planning on taking much better care of myself this year.

11. I sell on ebay. Actually need to start doing this again, because one man's trash is another man's treasure.

12. I HUNT bargains. I am not satisfied until I find the absolute lowest price and will spend hours looking for it.

13. I use energy efficient appliances. I LOVE my LG front loading washing machine!

14. We eat $1 fish tacos at Rubios on Tuesdays.

15. I don't buy socks! Okay I couldn't think of a 15, but I live in San Diego and I wear flipflops almost all year round! I save on socks right!?

So... what do you do?