Snow

Yes, I threw Marsi in the snow today.  It was funny.  She didn't like being on her back, but when she was sitting or walking through it, she had fun.

I was taking pictures of her last night and she was being silly.  This is her first front flip from off of the ottoman in our front room...oops.  At least she laughed after it and wasn't hurt at all.

Differences in Sunbaby diapers

I bought Sunbaby diapers before they were sized.  Those are represented here by the Hello Kitty diaper.  When Marsi was starting to grow out of those, I bought the size 2 diaper.  That is represented by the black with white bird print.  I took these pictures for a friend who only has the presized diapers and I wanted to share here.

The prefold in the back is for size comparison.  I used the prefolds in both diapers.  

This picture shows both diapers in their biggest positions.

This picture shows both diapers in the medium positions.  You can see by the bottom of the prefold how much it folds up on that setting.

This picture has both of them on the smallest setting.  Again, the bottom edge of the prefold shows how much it folds up on that setting.

This next one surprised me a little bit. This is the size 2 diaper on the smallest setting and the presized diaper on the largest setting.  They are the same size. 

Marsi grew out of the Hello Kitty diaper when she was right around 10 months old or so.  She still has plenty of room to grow in the size 2 diapers.

Here is a bonus picture of Marsi in her Christmas jammies with her favorite Christmas gift.

Random Pictures

Things are going really well in our home.  We are healthy and happy.  With winter and Christmas, it means that there are awesome winter clothes.  I wanted to share some of those with you.

She is a beauty.

Christmas jammies and her big gut :)

Baby leggings that I made from knee socks.  Was perfect for this shirt.

This baby loves her daddy.  He loves this baby.  They are so cute together.

Genealogy

Endrit's maternal grandfather passed away this last week.  This spurred me into thinking about Endrit's genealogy.  So, I got onto Family Search and started to add in the information that Endrit knew.  As of right now, there is 1 ancestor that I could start temple work for. I am printing out some pages to add his aunts and uncles and any information that his mom and dad know before we go on to searching through the archives in Albania.  It is actually pretty exhilarating   In a year, we are going to go through the temple for all the ordinances for his maternal grandparents.  It will be a great day.

Eye Surgery

Marsi had her second surgery.  This one was very simple.  It only took 15 minutes.

  I have to say that scrubs are so cute.  The open back is cute.

Marsi thinks getting into things is fun.

yay x-box!

Am I in trouble for playing with the controller?

All done!

Mommy had to do everything on her own today.

Our doctor was pretty awesome too.

Another surgery

At least this one is really minor compared to heart surgery.  Marsi has had a blocked eye duct her whole life.  We tried to open it but, it wouldn't open naturally.  It is kind of ironic to me that a duct had to close in hear heart and now we are forcing one open in her eye...but I digress.

Tomorrow is her surgery.  I have to go back to the same hospital, the same surgery area, and walk past cardiology.  Needless to say, I am having a bit of PTSD.  Through priesthood blessings, Marsi has been promised to be whole and healthy after surgery.  I know this to be true.  It won't help me in the starving 13 month old fight before surgery.

12:45 pm.

Living Planet Aquarium

Today was free admission day to our local aquarium.  I tried to get people to go with me, but Monday mornings are hard to get people.  Regardless of being just me, I braved the crowds and took Marsi.  I am so glad I did, because she LOVED it!
 

Cake Smash

Family Pictures

Yet again, my awesome cousin, Maggie McBride, took our pictures.

Halloween

This was the first Halloween that I really had fun with Marsi.  Last year, we took her to the doctor...

One of my friends commented that Marsi kinda looked like Pebbles, and I ran with that.  I made Marsi's costume, the main part of Endrit's costume, and my mother in law made my costume and finished Endrit's.  It was SO much fun!  We didn't go anywhere on Halloween, but we were cute for pictures. :)

Endrit's parents got Marsi a lady bug costume too.

27

I am now 27 years old.  It isn't that exciting. Just another year.  It is my second birthday with Marsi.

Job Offer for Endrit?

Things have been happening at lightning speed.  We will most likely be moving before the end of the year!  W.O.W. We found this out last Thursday afternoon.  This is pretty confusing, so forgive me.

It is so fast because of the situation.  This is a postdoctoral position at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, CO.  They had a candidate that was supposed to graduate with a PhD in December.  That fell through so the spot was open.  They needed to find someone with similar qualifications, available, and willing to write a research proposal before a November 1 deadline.  Well, they sent out a communication tree to department heads of different schools to send to professors, to send to students.  You understand.  Well, Endrit's current boss, sent him the email and Endrit expressed his interest.  Before the end of the day, Endrit was writing the proposal.

Now it has been 4 days and he is sending in the full application.  Pray that the committee accepts his proposal so that he will officially have the job.  I am pretty excited about this!

A year old!

Marsi is a whole year old!

11 months!

Wow...1 month away from a whole year old!  I am one of the luckiest mothers.  

New accomplishments

It sometimes amazes me what Marsi is able to do.  She always seems advanced to me.  Today was no different.  My mother in law is making my Halloween costume so we were over there.  They had an animal book and I was pointing out all of the kitties.  There was one on each page of the book.  After going through the book a few times, I asked Marsi where the kitty was.  She pointed to it!!!!  I turned the page asked and she pointed to the kitty again!!!  It was amazing!

She also is getting much better at pronouncing her meow.  It has sounded like "Mo" for a long time.  She is starting to add the W.  We are going to be working on adding the E sound when she gets the W on the end really well.

Also, today Marsi asked for a meal.  It was cute.  Her word for food is "num num".  Probably because I would always say num num while she was eating.  She just walked up to me, patted me on my leg and said "num num".

It seems like she goes through learning spurts and this is definitely one of them!  I am so proud of her!

A Better Explanation

I figured out that there were some people that really didn't understand the pictures that I posted of Marsi's surgery.  I have decided to explain things a bit further with better graphic representation.

First, I want to show you why the heart murmur wasn't seen as worrisome until 4 months of age.

These are her growth charts.  I know that my doctor has never talked about a BMI for age chart.  Well, that is really the only chart that shows any drop in growth and a potential problem.  She was growing so great!!!  All the charts except the BMI chart look like a perfectly normal baby!  (Yay mommy's milk!)

It was just that the murmur got harsh and was still there at 4 months.  We went to the cardiologist within a few days.  At the cardiologist, we got an x-ray and an echo.  The echo showed the PDA...Not necessarily a massive concern, but needed taken care of.  Then we saw what was REALLY concerning.  How big her heart had gotten.

Yes, the oval is around the heart.  It was huge.  Because of this x-ray, something had to be done, and done fast.  Through what I can only say was divine revelation for Endrit and I, we decided on surgery rather than a catheter procedure.

It was the best decision that we made.  The catheter procedure wouldn't have worked.  The PDA was WAY too big to ever have been closed via catheter.  (Just for a comparison I know someone who's daughter had the catheter procedure done to close a PDA at 3 years old.  Marsi wouldn't have lived to 3 years old...probably not even 1 with the size of hers.)

Here is proof of how massive the duct was...

The sutures are the 2 small lines at the top right of the heart.  The clip is the whiter part under the sutures.  The line added on the right picture is the length of the PDA.  The surgeon was even surprised at how big it was.

I hope that cleared more things up.  It is something that Marsi will learn about as she gets older.  I want her to know that it makes her more of a miracle and extremely special.

The last picture I would like to put on is one that I took of her tonight.  In all honesty, if I didn't know that she had surgery, I wouldn't notice the scar on her back.

(Don't look at my horrible cloth diapering.  I am practicing the old fashioned way of putting on a prefold with a snappi and I am not good at it yet.)

Five

This is going to be a sad post, so, if you want to skip this one...no worries.

This time last year I was majorly pregnant and very excited for my baby girl to be born.  This time 2 years ago I was sad.  I was depressed.  I had just miscarried my second pregnancy and was pregnant again just to miscarry again.  I didn't know that I would go through it 2 more times after that.

Now that I am a full time mom to a beautiful little girl, I have time to really think about what happened 2 years ago.  It was a horrible time.

I was teaching my first year in my own classroom.  The principal decided to focus on everything I was doing wrong.  The vice principal died and one of the students was shot and killed by another student.  And I had 4 miscarriages in a row.  It sucked.  Then wen I was finally staying pregnant, I was super sick, pre term labor and on bed rest. I would never repeat those few months of my own choice.

I grew tons from it.  It gave me experiences that make motherhood a blessing and a miracle.  I try my hardest to think of the positive things that came from it.  I know I hug Marsi a little closer and have a little more patience with her antics because of what I went through to get her (and keep her healthy after she was born).

So, that is my mope post.  I would probably expect it to come around yearly.  Those few months have shaped me into part of the person I am now.

When used for good

I have been thinking a lot about how much my life would be different without the internet.  A ton of my parenting strategies and style come from internet research.  I got the confidence to labor and try to give birth at a birthing center with midwives.  I got the courage to do cloth diapering...and the knowledge to help me tweak the way I use them so I didn't give up.  I learned about developmental leaps and teething causing fussiness.  I learned about wraps and how to make and use them.

I have a wonderful support group of ladies that I experienced pregnancy, labor and parenthood with.  I owe a lot of my sanity to them.

Needless to say, when used for good, the internet is awesome!!!  Beyond research, I was able to catch up on Dr. Who.  That is pretty awesome too.

It is amazing to realize the scope of everything there is to learn on the internet.  Want a conference talk, search LDS.org for it.  Want to share it with friends, Facebook.  Pictures to Grandma and Grandpa, Photobucket, Facebook and email.  Need to help someone with computer problems, Team Viewer.  Want to video chat, Skype/Google chat.

It is definitely something that I enjoy.  I know that there is just as much bad on the internet as well.  I am really glad I have no desire whatsoever to enter that realm.

I was just thinking about this today.  I am very grateful for the internet for sure!

Fasting/Prayer request

So, with it being fast Sunday at the congregations of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, I would like to ask for a group fast.  Endrit needs a more permanent job.  He graduated almost a year ago and has been very lucky to get a short term post doctoral internship with the University of Utah, but that ends very soon.

We hope and pray that everyone can fast and pray that Endrit will be able to get a long term position to be able to support our family.  I am grateful that I am able, and willing to work to support our family, but Endrit really would like to get a job in the field that he spent 10 years of higher education to get his PhD; understandably!

Thank you for all of your love and support so far!

Veggies/eating schedule of a 10 month old

As a researcher and wanting Marsi to be the healthiest/happiest little kid out there, I spent a lot of my pregnancy and her life researching things.  I didn't buy any parenting books or things like that.  It was more of a "how should I introduce" this or that thing.  One of those things was solid foods.  I decided that baby lead weaning wasn't for us and decided on purees and cereal.

One of the best things that I decided to do because of a suggestion was to exclusively introduce Marsi to veggies for a while before she ever got any fruit.  To this day Marsi will eat at least double the veggies than she does fruit.  I always offer veggies first.  She loves her veggies.  I also decided that rice cereal wasn't for her either.  There were things that she liked, but I decided it wasn't substantial enough.

Every morning I eat a bowl of oatmeal, so I decided to introduce Marsi to a breakfast of oatmeal and breast milk.

She loves her breakfast!  It is usually 3 oz of milk mixed with 1/3 multigrain and 2/3 oatmeal cereal. (I added the multigrain for texture a week ago.) After that she eats about 1/2 jar of pureed fruit.

She gets a little bit of water from her sippy after breakfast.  2-3 hours later she has her first 7 oz bottle of pumped milk with a snack of a few yogurt bits and puffs right before her nap.

When she wakes from her nap, it is almost lunch time.  She plays for a bit and then asks to eat in her own little way.

For lunch she gets a veggie jar and about 1/4 jar of fruit.  She also gets her sippy of some water at this time too.

She takes her afternoon nap after she plays for a few more hours.  Right before her nap time, she gets the 2nd 7 oz bottle of pumped milk and goes to sleep.

When she wakes up, she drinks a little bit from her sippy and plays for about an hour before dinner.  Dinner is also a veggie jar and 1/4 jar of fruit.

She plays for a few hours until it is 7:30 pm.  Every night at that time Daddy takes her to bathe and she gets ready for bed.  She then gets her last 7 oz bottle of pumped milk right before she goes to sleep.

This didn't include all the stuff she mooches off of Endrit and I when we are eating at different times than her.  She gets quite a bit of stuff from us, but it varies day by day.  These are the constant things she gets!

My cloth diaper laundry routine

I have been asked by a couple of people to write down my specific cloth diaper laundry routine.  First off, this is the washer we have.  It is a Frigidaire washer.  It does NOT have a pre-soak option.  It has 3 different wash options (hot, warm, cold) and only has cold rinses.  

I use 2 cycles for a load of diapers.  With my washer, I can wash all my diapers at the same time.  I believe it is about 30 diaper covers/pocket diapers, 34 prefolds and 4 microfiber inserts with each load.

For the first cycle I switch my washer to a single rinse Cold/Cold cycle.  I put in about a teaspoon of Oxi Clean.

I then let it go through the whole wash rinse cycle even spinning it completely out at the end.

I then set it up to a Hot/Cold cycle and flip the switch for an extra rinse.  I put in a tablespoon of Ecos Free and Clear detergent.  I LOVE this detergent and use it on Marsi's clothes too.

Once it goes through the Hot wash and 2 cold rinses, the diapers are completely clean.  

It may be weird for some to hear, but I have NEVER stripped my diapers.  Ever... If it starts to get ammonia stink when she pees on it I add in a cup of distilled white vinegar to the first rinse of the second cycle.  It completely gets the stink out and we are on our way.

It really is very simple to do the laundry.   I dry the prefolds on hot in the dryer on the towel setting with my wool dryer balls.  The covers sometimes go in the dryer, sometimes on the line.  I haven't had any wicking issues with drying them in the dryer. 

I have Econobum, Sunbaby, Blueberry, and Flip diapers.  I also have the regular 4x6x4 Chinese cotton prefolds from Cottonbabies. Some of my Sunbaby diapers came with a microfiber insert that I use to double stuff her night time diapers with a prefold as well in a Flip cover.

So, that is my routine!