Am I hearing things? I think I am....

Can you hear her crying?  I can!

Ever since we had Magnolia and brought this little bundle joy home, I've heard a baby crying.  Lots of it. 
Magnolia cries a lot, or at least she did until 6 months of age; but even when she's not actually crying, I can still hear her.  Do other mom's have this?   There are days where I can barely get the crying out of my head and I wonder; am I going a little crazy?   Am I going to hear phantom baby cries for the rest of my life? 
Not only do I hear her cry, but I hear her laugh, I hear the musical toys playing and I hear her squealing.  The other night, her musical toy kept playing over and over as I sat downstairs as I was relaxing on the couch, and I couldn't understand why my husband was not turning to toy off, surely it was annoying him too?!  Finally, I went upstairs and quickly realized, there is no toy playing music, I'm just hearing things again. 

Monthly Milestone Photos

A few months ago I found this idea from a blogger on pinterest; take a good photo of your child and add all of their monthly milestones to it!  I loved the idea, mostly because it's easy and fun to make.  I found the idea when Magnolia was 4 months old, and created a photo for each month, even though it was hard to find photos that offered space to type.  For her 6 month birthday I did a photo shoot (basically dressed her in something cute and took a bunch of photos), chose one that I liked that offered space to type, and then waited until the end of the month to fill it in.  Magnolia will be turning 7 months old on the 5th (where did the time go?) and I'll do another photo shoot for her pretty soon.  I hope to create a frame for all of the photos, maybe for a year, or maybe longer; we'll see...

Things NOT to say to a new mother

Fussy baby Magnolia -- can you hear her?

While I was pregnant, I blogged frequently about how many people feel the need to force their opinions on you about pregnancy, health and babies; and I had hoped it would go away once the baby was here, but how wrong I was!  No matter what, people feel the need to open their mouths and comment on everything about baby.  I have had a few encounters that left me feeling very upset and sad.  But first, I should mention that Magnolia was a colicky baby, the definition of colic means that a baby cries more than 3 times per week for more than 3 hours at a time, for more than 3 weeks.  Check, check, check.  Yup, colic!   Magnolia would cry for HOURS on end, no matter what we did for her, nurse, rock, walk, drive, stroller, carrier, soothe, etc etc etc...nothing worked!  She just kept crying.  So as a frustrated mama, I would mention this to people; who would respond with, "whats wrong with your baby?"  Which, of course, never makes any mother feel good.  You begin to think, what IS wrong with my baby?  Why is she so fussy?  I began to look for things that were wrong, does her stomach hurt, is she scared; we spent a LOT of money on alternative therapies for her to make her stop crying, cranio-sacral therapy, naturopathic medicine, numerous homeopathic remedies, trips and phone calls to the doctor, to the midwives, to my mom, my husband, in tears...why won't she stop crying?  But she did, finally.  At 5 months, she chilled out and went from being the biggest fusser to being only mildly fussy.  What was wrong with her?  Nothing.  

I'm back!

I'm back!  Well, sort of.  My blog is back, and that is good news, but my website is still missing a web host (any suggestions?) and then the actual time to transfer it (anyone want to send me some spare time?) and then I'll be fully back.  For now, I am just happy to be back to blogging because I missed it so much.  Let me update you with all the on-goings of life in the very short time Magnolia is napping. 
First, I have been very busy as a mama, Magnolia is now 6.5 months old and I can't believe so much time has flown by!  Every parent always says 'they grow up so fast' and I always nodded my head, not really fully understanding what every parent meant, until now.  

Magnolia is such a blessing, she is a feisty, determined, smart little girl that keeps me on my toes all the time!  The last 6 months have been the hardest of my life, but also the most rewarding.  Much more on this to come.  

Following up on baby sleep schedule and new etsy items!

I finally got another chance to blog, something that I have been thinking about for weeks since my last post!  Since then, I have gotten a little more organized; I have been writing down Magnolia's schedule on a calender tool that I found, cozi.com, and she has been a little more regular with her sleep schedule, but nothing definitive.  She takes a morning nap, afternoon nap, and a bunch of catnaps in between.  While she doesn't go down for rest at the same time each day;  I am hoping that we can work toward that in the future so that I can have some predictable work time.
The calender tool that I found is called Cozi (www.cozi.com); it just so happens that it's the same tool that Josh and I have been using for our grocery list for the past 6 months, and I decided to try to use it for everything else too.  While its not ideal for what I need, it is the best that I can find so far.  I am able to use the calender tool to write down Magnolia's daily naps, feedings and other information; cozi also has a shopping list where I jot down groceries and other items that we need and it interfaces with Josh's email so that he logs in and sees what is on the list and can add his own items.  The calender also has a  "to do" list that we use for what needs to be done around the house and there is even a 'meal list' where you can save recipes that you enjoy.  The downfalls are that the recipes don't show up as images, just links, and the calender doesn't interface with other social media tools.  However, while its not perfect, its usable and that is what I am looking for right now.

Getting organized as a WAHM (work at home mom)

It's been a long time since I posted here and I sure do miss blogging!  Magnolia is now 3 months old, she went from being this teeny little infant who only slept, ate and cried; who now interacts, smiles, plays and is much more entertaining.   Its amazing to watch her grow and change each day, but I am starting to feel a little frazzled with our daily routine, or lack of one.   Because we don't have a routine, I think it makes it harder to get things done; for instance, I really miss blogging and I always have lots to say, but no time to write!  Maybe working toward a schedule will help me find time for blogging and keeping my posts shorter and more to the point will help me to be able to post weekly,  along with scheduling time to do other things during the day.  Right now, I struggle with trying to get my contract work in, have quality time with Magnolia, getting my craft on, social media networking, blogging and other daily chores like cooking and cleaning.  With all this to do each day, you can see how easy it is to become overwhelmed, plus being a new mom isn't an easy task in and of itself.  My goal; to get into a routine that allows some flexibility but also specifies time for my crafts, networking, blogging, working and of course spending quality time with Magnolia.  I have always had visions of having an online calender like outlook, plotting my weekly routine and implelmenting it, even before having a baby this is what I wanted to do, but never accomplished doing.  However, I am going to make a real effort this time and hopefully it will pay off and I can change my day into a routine that works for both Magnolia and I.

My Birth Story

The Birth of Magnolia:
Sharing this birth story is very hard for me, because I have a birth sotry that I didn't want, I wanted to deliver at our local birth center Mountain Midwifery Center (MMC) but was unable to due to unexpected circumstances.  Being an MMC client, a transfer to the hospital is a dirty word, it’s the last thing in the world you want, and it’s the worst thing possible; at least in my mind. But maybe sharing this will help me heal mentally because I don’t know how to stop grieving for the birth that I had always wanted. I know this is very long and if you get through this whole story, I thank you for reading it.  My story actually starts way back in the year 2000; I was in college and got very interested in midwifery when I was in my junior year. I took many midwifery classes and I knew that if I were to have children someday, I would not have them in a hospital setting. When Josh and I started trying to have a baby, I did some research to find a place to deliver outside of the hospital and came across the Mountain Midwifery Birth Center.

I read birth stories on their blog and loved them, the staff seemed great and the classes they required were exactly what I wanted to learn about during my pregnancy.  I knew we had found the right place to deliver our child. In Feb, 2011, we found out that we were pregnant and I scheduled our orientation at the birth center.