Clean Your Play Pen

Now that we have two kids, we thought it would be nice to be able to keep the newborn in the play pen while I'm playing with the older one. Plus, this keeps the younger one safe from the older one when I have to leave the room for a minute (such as to go to the bathroom). 

Our play pen was kept at our cabin for our older child to sleep in when we stayed there. However, we never really got around to cleaning our cabin (or staying overnight) so our play pen stayed there just getting dirty. Plus, it was a used play pen to begin with and long story short, this thing was probably really dirty and we just didn't know it. None of it was visible dirt. As far as we knew, our daughter never pooped in it or even spit up on it. 

As part of my nesting (even postpartum. Does postpartum nesting exist?), I decided to clean it. I found this idea and found it worked wonders! I'm sorry I don't have pictures to show you because my husband did all the work (c sections are great excuses to get your husband to do things for you) but our bathtub looked like the before and after pictures in the link. At first we thought maybe, just maybe, it was dye or something from the play pen itself because ours has a brown theme. But after draining the tub, we found all this grit and residue. Definitely not just dye! 

Gross to think we had our child stay in that filth but hopefully it somehow wasn't that dirty back when we actually used it! I will also mention that to get the play pen out of the tub and onto our back deck to dry in the sun is hard work. David said it was quite heavy. Our play pen is by no means light to start out with but to add water to that, it probably weighed as much as a baby elephant! Okay that may be an exaggeration and David had no problem carrying it but I am not convinced I would've been able to carry it through our entire upstairs, down the stairs, through the entire downstairs, and out to the deck without complaining at least a little bit (or taking rest breaks along the way). 

I highly recommend you do this if you at all think your play pen could be harboring filth like ours. Now I wonder if you can use this method for other things like strollers or car seat covers. 

Fly Tape

Before we went to the hospital for the birth of our son, we had a fruit fly problem in our kitchen. We thought that fly tape would be the easiest way to get rid of them so we bought a bunch. As David is putting it up, the tack breaks and I just happened to be leaning under him at the same time for access to the sink. Of course, this means the tape fell in my hair! Now it's not quite as gross as it could've been because at least it was a new strip so no flies were on it but still. This stuff is unbelievably sticky. Picture Winnie-the-Pooh's hand after he reaches into his "hunny" pot. It's a big mess.

So my hair is plastered to my forehead where it hit me and I'm both laughing at crying at this whole situation. Then as I'm googling how to get it out of my hair, I feel as though the fruit flies are attracted to me. None are even flying around my head and I wasn't in the kitchen but I just felt like now that the glue was in my hair, what was to stop them from getting stuck to me? This is really starting to freak me out.

I finally found the answer to get the glue out (thank goodness!). You wash your hair like you normally would but you use baby oil instead of shampoo. Good thing I have a baby or I may not have this on hand! Well, that worked but then I couldn't get the baby oil out of my hair. It was just way too oily. I had washed it once with shampoo in the shower after the oil but then I had to give up because I was ready for bed (gross, I know). The next day, I tried dry shampoo since that is supposed to be good at soaking up oils. I'm not sure that did anything. It took about 3 more washes in the shower before I finally felt clean again.

So long story short, if you ever get fly tape glue in your hair (and hopefully you don't because it's really not a pleasant experience), try baby oil.

Recovery From a C-Section

My first child was born via c-section because she was breech. They ended up over-numbing me and it took almost an entire day for me to feel all the way to my toes. The hospital stay was pretty rough. They did have me up and moving once I had full feeling back and that first time on my feet was intense pain that I could barely handle. However, the nurses said I was doing well because I wasn't fainting, dizzy, shaky, or screaming.

I am glad my husband stayed overnight in the hospital with me because I was completely helpless when it came to taking care of the baby. I could barely hold her (due to the only "natural" position putting pressure on my incision and floppy, sore belly), I couldn't get up to get her or change her diaper, I needed help getting the hang of breastfeeding (unrelated to the surgery), and I couldn't put her back in her Tupperware for sleep (what we called her bassinet because that's what they look like).

When I got home, my mom was here and waited on me hand and foot. I basically lived in my bedroom because stairs were an impossibility for about a week so I was unable to come down for meals and such. We even had a card table set up in the bedroom for us to eat our meals. My husband was a great help (as was my mom of course!) and I don't know what I would've done without them. I was unable to retrieve my baby from her crib down the hall when she called at night, I wasn't comfortable standing long enough to change a diaper, and doing any sort of activity for myself (even as simple as showering) was a luxury I no longer had. (This is just talking about the pain and recovery, not the change from having a newborn too).

After a week and a half, I was actually able to move around more and feel like a person again. Keep in mind, this was actually fast according to the drs. I had no complications and passed my six week post partum check up.

That was 19 months ago.

On the 19th of August, I had a repeat c-section for my second child. I felt more during surgery but I think it was easier going because my body and I knew what to expect. I still had that intense pain the first time they had me up and walking and my walks around the maternity ward were very slow going. However, by the second day, my bed was hurting me enough (mostly just sore from not moving much and the spacing between where the bed goes up and down for your top and bottom half was digging into my back) that I felt encouraged to get up and move around more. The more you can move around, the better but definitely don't push yourself.

When we got home, I didn't live in my bedroom quite as much. I mostly stayed downstairs and just went up for bedtime but even then, I was moving more than I did the first time around. I still took it easy when it came to baby duties and per doctor's orders (with all c-sections and probably all deliveries), I can't pick up my first born because she weighs over 15 pounds. So this time, rather than everyone taking care of me, everyone is taking care of my older daughter so I can try to take care of my newborn. I can only imagine how hard life will be now that my mom has left for home and soon my husband will be back to work.

It's only been a week but I basically feel like myself. I just have to really take it easy and not strain myself. I have noticed a burning sensation in one of my hips and when I called the doctor about it, she said it is probably a nerve that got pinched in my inside stitches. Ouch! So because of that, I am a little less mobile than I think I would be otherwise (it's actually quite painful but thankfully, it comes and goes).

In general, I have heard that the second c-section is easier than the first and other than having to take care of your first child on top of it, I think people are right. I haven't had any serious complications and I'm doing much better than I expected. Even in the hospital, everyone commented on how well I was doing (I was especially happy to hear this from the people who were there the first time around so they can compare). But I have also had a lot of help at the hospital and at home and I am not afraid to say I can't do something or ask for help with it because of the surgery. I can't stress enough that you shouldn't push yourself by any means. If you are recovering slower, take the time you need.

Of course, a VBAC is much less recovery and I had been rooting for one with this second baby but it just didn't turn out that way.

Dijon Maple Syrup Chicken

I had a package of boneless, skinless chicken thighs to use up (from Ruby's Pantry!) and I was running out of creative things to do with them. Chicken always seems so ordinary to me. Maybe I don't branch out enough. Anyway, I scoured Pinterest looking for a new idea and found this recipe. It is absolutely amazing! My husband and mom rated this a 10/10! There is only one or two other recipes my husband has ever rated that high so you know has to be good chicken!

I followed the recipe to a T because the opening disclaimers really scared me. I wanted this to turn out right. I used an 8x8 pan, double lined with tin foil. I went to the store special for Dijon mustard. I used the very last of our homemade maple syrup. And it turned out just like the author said it would!

The chicken was very easy to prepare with minimal prep work. I was surprised how long it bakes in the oven for but I suppose that gives you time to make the side dishes. (I served this with mashed potatoes. I will admit that after looking at our potatoes and deciding they should probably just be thrown away, I used boxed mashed potatoes. I did add in extra cheese and a big handful of chopped spinach to help them though. This was also a huge success! It was also an easy way to add in more vegetables).

I tried to do the corn starch mixed into the gravy to make the thicker gravy but my corn starch just clumped up. I'm not really sure why but this chicken was so good without the sauce that I don't think I missed it (but maybe I just don't know what I was missing!).

I will definitely make this recipe again but because store bought real maple syrup is so expensive, I guess I have to wait til spring again to get more from our trees.

How to Wash Stuffed Animals

My little girl takes a stuffed animal with her just about everywhere. It's not always the same one but I do admit, her favorite is a dalmatian. As I'm sure you realize, dalmatians are white and show dirt quite quickly. She is also in the phase where she pretends to feed her stuffed animals, but sometimes this results in them getting food on their faces. Because of this (and because kids will always be dirty and make messes), there comes a time that their stuffed animals need to be washed.

For the ones that are washing machine safe, I always assumed this was the easiest method. You put them in cold water, gentle or hand wash cycle, and just put in a dab of detergent (if any). I've been told to NEVER put stuffed animals in the dryer. NO setting seems to be safe for them, even the "fluff" with the no heat. It apparently makes them crunchy. Enough angry parents had commented on the washing machine post (on a different blog) saying the animals come back crunchy and just not right that I got scared off of doing it and always hang dry them. (They hang by their ears in the laundry room on the clothesline until it's sunny enough to put them on the back deck. The sun works much faster than the clothesline).

The problem with that method is that I only have to wash about 3 animals. The rest aren't safe. 3 animals doesn't come close to equaling a load and my washing machine doesn't have a small load cycle (this actually really bothers me but what can you do?). So it's a big waste of water and time in my book.

Last night, it finally came to me (per my mom's suggestion). I was taking a bubble bath (my due date is tomorrow and bathes are definitely the way I feel most comfortable. They solve everything from itchy, stretched out skin to restless feet to sore, aching muscles!) and my little girl wanted a bath too. She came in with me (for the first time ever. She normally bathes by herself but who can deny such a cutie a bath??) It was then suggested, knowing how dirty Doggie (her favorite) was, that Doggie takes a bath too. Little Girl LOVED this idea, especially because she got to help with the washing. Long story short (sorry this post is already so long), Doggie took a bubble bath with us. Then we laid him out in the sun to dry and he not only got clean (minimal scrubbing required. I just used my hands) but he also smells like a delicious bubble bath! I don't think I'll ever put another stuffed animal in the washing machine again!

Of course, you have to be willing to share your bathwater with a dirty animal but at least you aren't wasting any water in the process. I guess I might not do it if he was muddy or something like that but he was just regular wear-n-tear dirty.