Sleep Training

Sleep training is a very sensitive subject. Some agree with it, some don't, and some just do it not because they like it, but as a means to an end. I am in the third group. Tonight, we are sleep training our newest member, and it has been just as dreaded as the first time we did it.

The sad face of sleep deprivation! I feel terrible every time I see this picture!

Our first, Caylen, had major sleep issues from the beginning, which resulted in major sleep deprivation by the time we did sleep training at 8 months. I swore then that instead of battling the frustrations and sleepless nights sleep deprivation brings, I would do sleep training earlier, if it truly needed to be done. Well, this time around, our boy has been a pretty good sleeper. Compared to his sister, at least. His biggest issues are that 1.) he refuses to sleep on any flat surface and 2.) he has a bad habit of waking up at 3-4 AM and not going back to sleep. Until 8AM. Which wouldn't be too bad if he was an only child and I stayed at home with him-- we could just go back to sleep together! But, that's not the case, is it? Not only do we have an older child, she is in school and I have to take her at 7:45 AM, which is about the time he wants to zonk back out. Which, of course, doesn't work-- this results in a fussy baby who is overtired and cranky pretty much all day. He is gradually getting worse and worse with his irregular napping patterns and cranky disposition around dinner time, 6 PM, which is just too early for him to go to bed! Not to mention, the rock n play that he sleeps in is much too small for him, and he has almost fallen out of it, so that is reason enough to move him to the crib. So, tonight is the first night. It is going much better than it did with Caylen, mostly since we are in a bigger house now that doesn't simply echo with the baby's cries. Hopefully he will surrender to slumber quickly so we can all breathe easier.....!

 After one of our long nights......

By the way, the book we are using is Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Weissbluth. With Caylen, we used Sleeping Through the Night, and honestly I recommend the HSHHC, since it is much more in depth about sleep patterns, the effects of sleep deprivation, and what to expect for babies of different ages.






I will give an update soon on our progress!

Our Meal Planning/Grocery Shopping Routine

Grocery shopping, and meal planning, are one of my most favorite things about being a stay at home mom. I love to try new recipes, and I love to grocery shop. Also, I love to organize. So, I thought I would share with you my wonderfully efficient way of meal planning and grocery shopping. Also, a little couponing. :)

I grocery shop on Thursday, which is pay day for us. On the day before, Wednesday, I look for coupons. I use the Ibotta Iphone app and coupons.com. Now, I do love coupons, but honestly I don't use that many because 1. we eat a Paleo diet, and 2. we live in a small town that only has a weekly paper. However, I do usually find at least one coupon a week for something that we need, thankfully. So, I gather my coupons, and my grocery list, and head out to Ingles to shop!

I keep my grocery list on my phone, on the Evernote app. I have a 4 week meal plan, which I update regularly, whether I am switching out recipes for better ones or updating recipes for summer, winter, etc. So, consequently, I have a grocery list for each week already planned out, according to the recipes that are assigned for that week. If I need extra items or additional things, I have a separate list, usually a very short one, in my notes that I can refer to. I love that I can just pull up the list already made up for that week, as soon as I get to the grocery store and do my shopping right away, instead of taking an hour plus per week to plan my meals and grocery list!

This week, since our oldest peanut has started pre-k, which is from 8-2:30 every weekday, I of course have to plan lunches for her as well. Since we eat a Paleo-style diet, it is not as simple as a PB&J with chips every day. Which of course, given the option, I would not choose for her anyway. I might choose it for myself, since I loooove PB&J, but I wouldn't make it for her.
Anyway....... her lunches are a bit complicated. We don't eat bread, chips, crackers, cookies, etc. All those wonderful portable things that so often find their way into lunchboxes, so I have to be crafty. This means I made up a Lunch Meal Plan for her way back in the summer, since I was up all night one night, worrying what I would possibly make for her lunch that would: a) be good, b) be portable, and c) not beg for other children to make fun of her 'weird lunch.' You know that kid in school who always had the odd, stinky food that everyone made fun of? Well, I thankfully wasn't that kid, but one of my friends was. She was a vegetarian, and she would always bring weird vegetarian food to school. Like tofurky. Or hummus-- before it was cool. Well, I didn't want my peanut to be that kid, not yet anyway. I mean, I need to get her off to a good start! She is only in pre-k for goodness sakes!
So, back to my original point....
The lunch meal plan. I thought I would come up with about 5 different choices for a lunch entree, then 5 veggie choices, then 5 fruit choices. At the beginning of each week, I ask peanut what she wants for lunch that week. She picks 2 from each list, and I buy those things, prepare them, pack them, and she gets a variety of good lunches for the week. This week it was apple chicken sausage, a gluten free waffle sandwich (I know, not Paleo, but she's a kid! She only had it one day this week anyway), mushrooms and frozen peas, and strawberries and blueberries. For next week, she picked cubed chicken and ham rollups with spinach and green pepper, tomatoes, and applesauce and frozen berries. Not so bad, eh? Peanut didn't think so either-- she apparently liked her lunches this week. That 's what she told me at least....

So, all in all, I guess I wanted to just jot down what things worked for us as far as meal planning and organization go, so if this helps anyone, or is just merely entertaining, than it has served its purpose. Well, actually its purpose was just for me to jot it down for memory's sake.....

Long Time, No See!

Long time, no see! I haven't written in about 2 years I guess, so there's no time like the present, right? A lot has happened since the last time I wrote! We were attempting to adopt from Russia, which was exciting, but that all fell through, just the way it was meant to. We also looked into adopting domestically, but that didn't work out either. So, we just gave up on trying. I tried the Paleo diet to lose a few pounds......

and, then we got pregnant with this sweetie!
Ezekiel James, born Sunday, January 20th at 5:15 PM, at home.

So, then fast forward about 6 and a half more months, and we are here:

Yep, that is 6 month old baby Zeke, taking a bath in the sink! Isn't he a sweetheart? I definitely think so, but I am a little biased. ;) Oh, and Caylen started pre-k this year-- here she is:

She is definitely loving school! I sure do miss her though. She is beginning to read already, which is wonderful, of course. I did a lot of work with her on letters and their sounds, beginning at age 2. She knows quite a few sight words, but we are currently working on sounding out words. She hasn't quite grasped it yet, but she is doing great. I am so proud of her, and I know she will do a great job this year! Going to the CEC last year definitely helped-- we plan to start Zeke there when he turns 2.

Speaking of Zekey.....

Zeke has 2 teeth already, the bottom 2, and he is currently working on his top 2 teeth. This is all new to me, nursing a baby with teeth, since Caylen got her first 2 teeth just a couple of weeks before she turned 1. I weaned her about a month after her first birthday, so nursing her with teeth was a very brief period. He is sitting up like a champ, eating like nobody's business, and trying to become mobile, which he can wait just a little longer for that! :)
He still sleeps in the Rock n' Play, which is not something I am proud of, but apparently, (trust me we have tried) he won't sleep anywhere else for longer than a 2 hour stretch at a time. Even if he's with us in the bed. Oh well! If there is one thing I have learned in this journey of parenting, it is to ditch the guilt for the things you can't change! We tried to get him to sleep in the crib for quite a while, from the very beginning in fact, but 2 sleep deprived, irritable, annoyed, did I mention tired, parents decided that sleeping in the rock n' play wasn't so bad after all...... Choose your battles!

I am still a happy stay at home mom, which I love and I value, despite the loneliness and monotony.  It definitely helps to have a parent staying at home, taking care of the kiddos while the other spouse works. a lot. at not only one job that takes more than 40 hours a week, but also being a part-time EMT. It's alright though! I get a gym membership out of it! I really do love staying at home though-- I find it has been the best fit for our family and it is a very hard job, but it's also a very important one.

That's about all for now, hopefully I will write again sooner than 2 years from now!

Upcoming Fundraisers!

I will be quick with this post, but I want to make 2 fundraiser events known. November 18th and 19th we will have an indoor yard sale at our house, with everything from Christmas decorations to baby clothes! It starts at 7 AM and we will be in our sunroom with heat!!

The second event, which coincides with the yard sale and continues on until February 1st, is a raffle. We are raffling a Joovy ScooterX2 double stroller in lime green. Raffle tickets are $5 a for 1 or or 3 for $12. This is a high end stroller, valued at over $230! Definitely don't miss the chance to win this awesome stroller!

Here are a few pics of what it actually looks like, color and all:

That is all for now-- I hope to hear from you all soon!

International or Domestic?

International or domestic adoption. For a while, my husband and I debated this subject. He was in favor of domestic, but I felt led towards international.
Personally, I believe either one is a great choice, but I do believe it is a personal choice, as to which one is better for your family. The 2 processes are alike, yet they are quite different. We looked into both options, so we are familiar with domestic adoption as well.  As for the process of a domestic adoption, there are quite a few different ways of going about it. With international adoption, you can either go private or through an agency, but it is definitely recommended to go through an agency, due to the complicated requirements of the US and the adoptive country. We, of course, are going through a great agency, which is imperative with international adoption, especially in Russia. There are many things that can go wrong, so you always want to have an experienced, reliable agency to take care of things.
Unfortunately, there can be some tension between those who choose to adopt internationally and those who adopt domestically. To me, we are on the same team, but we just go about it differently. Also, as I said earlier, each family has to make that decision for themselves since they are both so unique. I am definitely not opposed to adopting domestically, it just didn't happen to be the route we felt we wanted to go. I know some people might say that we should adopt from our own country, to take care of our own orphans first. However, God created all of us equally and the orphans in the US are just as deserving as the orphans abroad-- whether it is in Russia, Ethiopia, China, wherever. When we started this process, we were open to adopt from wherever God led us-- we looked into domestic, we almost went with Ethiopia, but ultimately God led us back to Russia.  Keeping with America World's view on adoption, adoption by design, adoption is not Plan B for us. It is God's Plan A for our life. God has designed for our child to be born in Russia, and that is where we will go!

"This is the Great Adventure!"

Just a Little Discouraged!

Hello All! Today's post is not about any particular adoption details, but it is just something I have been struggling with lately. I don't know exactly what caused it to come about, but I have just felt so discouraged, which is terrible since we have only began our journey.  Lately, I feel so discouraged that I just want to throw up my hands and just say, "I Quit!!" But, then I am reminded that we have been called to something much higher than that.

I work as an independent consultant to (hopefully) help foot some of the many expenses we are about to, and already have, encountered. It is merely an experiment, to see if it works. If God wants me to do this to help with the costs, then there is no stopping Him. However, if He has something else in mind, then I am okay with knowing that I will have to pick up and move on to whatever the next 'thing' is.  I am unsure, especially this early in the game, of whether or not this is 'it,' but it has been a rough road, let me tell you. I haven't even been doing it for very long, either! It seems like all the 'friends' I had before I began seem to run for the hills when I mention the company, or doing a show. It is like they think I am perpetually trying to sell them something and can't see beyond the fact that I am a salesperson, to raise money for our adoption, no less. There is much more to me than this job, and I am just doing what I need to do so we can fulfill what God has called us to do! If people don't like what I sell (that is perfectly fine-- just don't be rude about it) then they can tastefully decline, for whatever reason, I understand. It just really hurts when people avoid me, for whatever reason!  Believe me, I would prefer to have a job where I don't have to be the dreaded salesperson, but in this economy, and I know that is part of it (no sense in being rude, though, people!), there are really no jobs to be had. So, I am doing what I can to contribute to our adoption fund by being a consultant. I am willing to try anything in order for us to be able to go to Russia and bring our son home! So, believe me, if that means selling whatever it is, I am going to be doing it! And, hopefully, something that I sell will appeal to you! :)

I really do hate being negative, and this is part of why I wrote this post. I wanted to get out all the negativity and be able to put a perspective on things-- to be able to focus on the positive things that are happening and block out the negative. There have definitely been people who have showed an interest and have supported us in our venture, and I am so grateful to those people who are willing to stick by us and support us any way they can; whether it is by prayer, verbal support/encouragement, or donations. To those people who have showed their support, I have been so moved to their outpouring of love, and I am so grateful for that! I really do feel blessed to have those people in my life; I just pray I can learn to focus on the positive, encouraging ones and be able to keep moving forward, on our path God has laid out for us.

Please keep us in your prayers, as always, but in particular this week since we are all seeming to experience a high degree of discouragement and negativity. This is not the last of our discouraging times; there will be many more! We just need to keep our eyes on the prize.....
 Thanks for your support

Details!

So, since last post was just a brief overview, I figured I would throw in some details now that Cay-Cay is asleep. And I can actually think. 3's are so much fun, but definitely mentally exhausting!
Anywho-- details. Of our adoption.
We have picked an agency, of course, and that is basically what we did back in April. We put in a deposit and application to America World Adoption Agency, or AWAA, and their website is here. You can find all kinds of great things there-- I know, I am there everyday! They have a blog as well, which tells about their different happenings for all of their programs. You can also look at all the different countries and programs they offer. They also have great resources for different cultures, financing adoption, and adoption stories. So, if you are thinking about adoption yourself, visit this site! It is truly great.
As for the details of our process, we are of course waiting to pay the program fee to get this going. After that is our homestudy and an approximate wait time of 4 months to a referral! This is very fast, and hopefully it will go quickly for us as well. After we get a referral, we will make our first trip to Russia to meet our little one and accept the referral. Then, about a few months later, we will go back to bring him home! Once again, this is just a basic outline of what happens-- trust me there are many more complicated details....!  We hope to be able to start our home study by January, the Lord willing, so with this time line, hopefully we can bring our little boy home by next Christmas! We are taking every single step in prayer, and if you are reading this, I request that you would keep us in your prayers as well. We need lots of support from friends, family, and church, so there is no such thing as having too much help! If you are interested in helping with our adoption, whether with fundraising, prayer, or in any other way, let me know! I would love to hear from you.
My email is allisonburkhead@gmail.com.

Thanks Everyone!