More Milk Please!...Extended Nursing?

I have never really had an issue with low milk supply...except toward the end of the day. I hear that's pretty normal but I always feel guilty watching my babies work extra hard for every last little drop before I put them down for the night. I find myself tempted sometimes to give them a bottle just to help satisfy them (knowing full well that doing so is a complete contraindication to my overall supply)

Today a friend of mine offered me some "Organic Mother's milk" tea...as a kind gesture during a play date at her house...and she sent me home with a handful of teabags. I gratefully accepted and did not think anything of it again until my infant gulped herself to sleep tonight. (for the first time in months I might add!) I had a full supply of milk this evening, with nothing different done other than a cup of this yummy tea around 1pm this afternoon.

I must say that I am still skeptical...could one cup really work such magic??? I will have another cup tomorrow afternoon around the same time and see if still yields the same results.

On the topic of nursing, I have put a lot of thought into the "how long??" question. I feel my first two quit me long before I was truly ready. Max was almost 14 months and Katy was 13 months when they moved on to the sippy cup and left me high and dry...I felt myself really missing the experience.

It always seems to be a tough topic to share with most. There are so many strong opinions on whats really best...and when to say "enough is enough". One comment I've heard often as a spectator is. "that's disgusting, when they can pull your shirt up and get it themselves...its time to call it quits!"

WHY???? It makes it hard for a woman to have this extended and completely natural experience with her child when almost everyone who encounters you doing it will shun you like a child molester. Not even close people!

I am not a nipple Nazi and certainly respect that mothers have there personal cutoffs. I for one don't have a set number in my head for when I will wean my child and I embrace being able to hold on to that special nurturing tool for as long as I can. And I hope to find acceptance as I go on this nursing journey.

Do you have a nursing cutoff? If so, please tell me why :)

"You want me to come over and do what??????"

LOL... no no no...its not what you think. So I have a fab friend who I am blessed to have living right across the street from me. She is mostly mainstream, but is very open to alternatives and new ideas. Anyway, I get a cryptic phone message from her the other day that she needed help with this "ear coning thing..."...huh... Sure that this was certainly blog material, I brought over my camera to document the event.

So she had heard from a friend that "ear coning" or "ear candling" was a very effective and natural way of getting rid of the swimmers ear problem that she had been suffering from. It involves using ear candles (hollow tubes of beeswax coated fabric about 12" long), fire and oil drops...normally you'd pay up to $75 from a homeopathic doctor to get this treatment done...but of course she thought ...my crazy friend Becky would be happy to do this procedure for me. She was right.... :)

One site states "The benefits include, improved hearing, vision, taste, smell, balance and sharpened mental ability. Ear candling helps to detoxify the sinus, lymph congestion, sore throat, earache, swimmers ear, chronic headaches and even allergies. Every body is different, yet candling is a therapy that adults, children, and even animals can benefit from. All who experience candling agree it is safe, soothing, relaxing, painless, and non-invasive."

STEP 1: trim the ear candle to fit the ear canal.

STEP 2: light the broad end of the ear candle and plug the narrow end of the hollow candle with my finger until a vacuum is created pulling smoke down and out the bottom of the ear candle.

STEP 3: Insert the candle into a plate to protect the person from wax burns.

STEP 4: Insert the candle snugly into their ear and hold there until the candle is about 3/4 of the way done burning.

STEP 5: Apply a couple drops of the ear oil.

We finished both ears in about 30mins... She said that she could hear better and felt a huge difference right away. It was easy to do with the help of someone else, the only thing that would have made it more fun would have been marshmallows and Graham crackers...lol.

When it was all done, we were grossly curious to see what this procedure pulled out of her head.... YUCK!!!!!!!!!!!! I AM a good friend LOL :)

RingSling Help

I wanted to post this quick video for a fellow babywearer on http://www.thebabywearer.com/ with a ringsling question. She had a question about where the baby's head should be in relation to the metal rings. I thought I could help because I had issues with Max in a ringsling when he was a newborn...I could never get the rings to not bang his little noggin AND keep him high enough in the sling so that he wasn't buried. So anyway, this is how I ended up resolving the issue.

The Bewitching Hour...Woolly Bear Village!

So I know that anyone who has children understand what the "bewitching hour" is. That late afternoon, early evening 4-6ish crazy hour. Last night was exceptionally manic in my house...and I happened to have my camera handy to document the event.



Amongst the craziness, we had fun with our homemade woolly bear village. The kids had a blast naming all of the caterpillars and drawing a little town for them to crawl around on. Amazing we have not had any woolly bear accidents...all are alive and well.

Kitty Guilt

So, I am feeling really bad about this...but...we have to get rid of Terry the cat. We got him about 3 months ago as an older kitten at the SPCA he is a super fun loving and playful cat, but he has started Peeing on EVERYTHING in the house...EVERYTHING! OM goodness I am going out of my mind trying to clean things that have been marked by him (cat pee is so nasty smelling if you don't own a cat have have never had the opportunity to put your face into something that has been graced by a cat shower)...and some of the things were so saturated I've had to throw them out. I'm not a materialistic person and I am not attached to my things, but I am practical and doing an extra 2 loads of laundry everyday to keep the stink of kitty ammonia down to below tear level is beyond my sane capacity. I am taking him back to the SPCA tomorrow...I am sure he will find a good home and I know they have a high adopt rate and a very low kill rate. I wish I could say that they were no kill.... they told us that if we had a problem with them that we must bring Terry back to them. The true guilt is coming from the fact that we have adopted out 2 other cats that had the same problem in the last 2 years... I had to think that there might still be the smell of OLD cat urine on certain things in the house to cause the perpetual behavior problem...but he is peeing on brand new and clean items. I dunno, I think that cat adoption is out of the question for us for quite sometime after this.

What am I going to tell Max and Katy?????? My heart breaks to think of how disappointed they are going to be.

wordless wednesday

This is my first picture with just myself and the three monkeys. Its terrible, I had to bribe them to give me a smooch for the picture...they were really in a nasty mood...lol.

Wolly Bear Winter

I have never noticed caterpillars out at this time of year...apparently these little fuzzy brown and black caterpillars come out at this time of year every year to feed and then hibernate for the winter. My husband informed me that these little guys are like the ground hogs of winter to farmers and people who believe in old wives tales.


One expert states "According to the Old Farmer's Almanac, the longer the middle brown band, the milder and shorter the coming winter; the shorter the brown band, the longer and more severe winter will be."


I never knew that... cute huh? Anyway, so Max has this little woolly bear habitat that he's been toting around everywhere.... we used an old UTZ pretzel container and drilled some holes in the top and he took his caterpillar to preschool for show and tell....(I love it, that's the kind of stuff I remember doing as a kid.) We went to pick up "aimee goat" milk today and they were everywhere at the farm...so now we have a woolly bear village thriving at our house. (at least I hope they are thriving)

So according to this caterpillar its going to be a short mild winter. THANK THE LORD!!!! I don't know if I will survive a rough winter.

Chocolate Lollipop love

New Signature Bundleboo's are in!!!

Please don't call the SPCA or CPS on me... I swear this is not abuse...LOL...Max does look like a raggamuffin today :)

They will be listed on the site soon...if you must have now please feel free to email me with your order request.

All Jazzed up!

Katy is the most animated toddler I have ever known... I had to get a clip of her cardancing and lip singing on the way to Nana's yesterday for trick or treating...soooo funny.

What a corny family picture... I love dressing the kids up :) (BTW...my husband is not in costume :)