I've Moved!!

The time has come to make the move... please join me at

www.surviving-chaos.com

I look forward to seeing everyone there and hope all starts to get rolling quickly!

building takes time...time takes....

Oh darn what is that called again? Oh right...patience.... patience is one thing I can have lots of for certain things and little for others. Work is continuing on the new site and I hope its ready to launch soon. I've been in contact with new companies and working on setting up reviews for when we launch also! In the mean time I'm going to keep posting here. I have the patience to build and work my way through that. I, however, do not have the patience to wait to begin writing again. So the question now comes to you the reader. Would you prefer to see me continue to write here while we wait for the other site to get ready, or should I keep writing but save it all so we have a bunch ready at launch time? I'm looking forward to hear what everyone feels will work best!

Starting of fresh

With the idea of wanting to start over again, I have decided it would be good to start fresh again also! Please watch in the coming days for a new site to be launched!! Excited to have everyone follow and let me know what they think!

Here I am

A while ago I intended to get back into the swing of all thing blogging. Then life got in the way and blogging stayed put on hold. It's been a while and a lot of life changes have happened. And here I am, ready to get back into it. This time I'm not letting things get in the way! Watch for upcoming updates!!

Also - what are peoples opinions of me switching to my own domain?

Getting back at it

I was just looking through everything and realized how long it has been since I last posted. So much has happened in the last few months and I guess life sort of got ahead of the blogging. Expect to see some updates and new reviews to come!!

Newborn Diaper Rental Kit

Shortly after finding out we were expecting, BF and I decided we wanted to try cloth diapering. I spend A LOT of time researching and deciding on what kind I wanted to try and what I felt would work (or wouldn't work for us). During one of my many days researching I stumbled upon a post from Earth Crunchy Mama stating she had 'Newborn Rental Kit' and she wanted to test it out with a few moms. This sounded great to me. It would give me the option to try a few different brands of diapers without making a huge commitment. I immediately sent Jenn at Earth Crunchy Mama an email to get more information. We spent a couple days sending emails back and forth trying to figure out what the best way to set up the package would be. As I had never cloth diapered before I had a LOT of questions. We set up my kit to include: 


1 wet bag
1 pail liner
1 bag of RnG detergent
1 package of cloth wipes
fleece liners
and an assortment of diapers including GroVia, bumGenius, FuzziBuns, prefolds and Thirsty covers


I paid a deposit of $125 to start this and the package was set to be shipped two weeks before my due date. I had been in touch with them and had an agreement that if lil miss came early we would get the package sent earlier. I used the package for 2 months and it had a rental fee of $15.00/month. When I was ready to return my package I sent them an email and they got me all set up to send my stuff back and let me know what was left over from my deposit (deposit subtract monthly rental fee subtract any extras I chose to keep) so that I could use for in store credit. In my case I feel in love with some diapers and we are considering having another so we chose to keep a couple of the favorites for the next baby.

I am VERY happy with this program and would recommend it to anyone. I have already decided that when the time comes for another one, we will be doing this program again. I loved that Jenn was able to answer my questions and never seemed annoyed, even after my millionth email lol. There were a few small snags through out the program as I was their first Canadian to try this program. But this never changed my opinion. She was always in touch and I knew exactly what was going on at all times.

Rumparooz Lil Joey's Review

Right before Aaraiha was born I was approached by Rhonda from   Sweet Lil Dimples Baby Shop to see if I wanted to try Rumparooz Lil Joey's. I thought I'd give it a try as they sure did look cute. She sent me two of the white ones and both BF and I thought they were adorable and really really soft. I ended up buying a red one and a ladder print one to add to my collection before she was born! We started using cloth when Aaraiha was about 1.5 weeks old. We were nervous to start with the meconium poops so waited a bit. We LOVED the Lil Joey's. Aaraiha was about 8lbs when we started using them on her and they went until 12lbs 4oz before we needed to retire them. We had a few different newborn diapers in our stash but our Lil Joey's were always our go to diaper! We loved the double gussets in the legs, and the snap down for umbilical cord was really nice as well. They do take a little longer to dry as they are all-in-one but we didn't mind. They can be bought in Rhonda's store. They come in packs of two for 29.95 with the option of snaps or aplix. When the time comes to add another little one to our family I will be making sure to add more Lil Joey's to our stash!!

Sorry...Life got ahead of me

So in meaning to catch up - I have to admit life got a head of me. Aaraiha is now 3 months. I'm back to work and prepping to get back to school. And somewhere along the line I thought that opening a co-op group would be a great idea! I plan to get some more thorough updates up this week as well as some of my reviews that should have been done a long time ago.
To come later this week: Lil Joey's, and my Newborn Rental Kit.

Alva Sneak Peak Review

I like my current Alva's but when I found out the have come out with a new design that includes double gusset and double snaps I knew I HAD to try it! There isn't a whole lot of selection right now - but that's ok I found one I like and it's been ordered. In the mean time I stumbled across a review done by Midnight Mommy make sure you check it out and enter her draw! Hopefully mine will get here soon so I can do a review of my own!

Do you cloth?

As a lot of my upcoming reviews involve the new (to me) world of cloth. I thought I'd write up a quick intro. Although Aaraiha is my 4th baby - she is the first one I've used cloth diapers with. 

With cloth diapers we also use cloth wipes and I've started with Mama Cloth (pads) and Mama Milk Cloth (nursing pads). Now that we've been doing it for 6 weeks, I honestly have no clue why I didn't start it back when I had twins. Ok I'll be honest, the whole idea of cloth then scared me. I mean you really have to wash that stuff? LOL And the pins - don't you end up stabbing yourself or the baby? That just sounds like so much work. Who needs MORE work when you have twins to worry about? 

Well after my boys were too old to consider cloth for (they were then potty trained lol) I started hearing more people talk about this wonderful world of cloth. Yep I'll admit I thought they were nuts. But then I started realizing it wasn't as scary as I thought. There were all these different styles of diapers (none of which included the scary pins!), and a lot of them were really cute! So that peaked my interest. The idea of washing them no longer bothered me. After dealing with blow outs from disposables and having a boy who was a puker as an infant. It doesn't seem to phase you anymore when you have to wash a dirty diaper lol. And honestly I don't mind doing laundry. If it would fold itself and put itself away I'd be doing really good. But the job of actually doing it isn't so bad. Where I am living now I do have my own washer and dryer so that's not an expense. And the bonus is that heat/water is included in my rent so I don't have to worry about that as an expense (unless we ever decide to move). When I considered the price of disposables in our small town or the fact of having to drive half an hour to get diapers at a reasonable price - it just seemed more budget friendly to purchase cloth. Then we started the journey of what 'style' do we want. When I was pregnant we thought for sure we wanted prefolds/covers with maybe a couple pockets. That has changed now that she's here. But it's been a fun experience along the way. 

With cloth diapers we brought in cloth wipes. To me it just made sense if I'm washing cloth diapers I might as well use cloth wipes and that way they can all go into the wet bag and through the wash cycle, instead of having to put the diaper in the wet bag and finding a garbage for disposable wipes. Plus again having to buy disposable wipes all the time seemed a hassle. I love the wipes! They not only get used as bum wipes but hand wipes and burp wipes and drool catchers lol.


Mama cloth and Mama Milk Cloth came after the diapers and wipes did. It just wasn't something I had thought about at first. Until towards the end of the pregnancy I was attempting to find nursing pads that were 100% latex free - guess what they don't exists. I managed to find one box in my entire pregnancy. So that brought in a need to go re-usable so that I could avoid the irritation of my latex allergy. That made me consider the idea of Mama cloth as I was sure the same issue would happen with finding latex free disposable pads. I bought a package of disposable pads to use post pardem that used to be latex free (from previous pregnancies) and thought I would slowly add to my mama cloth collection as needed. Well only a few days PP I realized that the pads I had were not latex free. Trust me that is not something you want to learn the hard way. That started my mama cloth collection. 


As my reviews go on I will continue to share my journey. Feel free to ask any questions as we go along.

Getting back into the swing of things!!

Baby Aaraiha is now 5 weeks old and we're finally getting into the swing of things around here! I know I have been neglecting my blog and I'm sorry. I really hope to get it up and going over the next couple weeks. There are a lot of reviews coming up as I have had a few things on route while I was expecting and a few baby thing waiting on baby A's arrival. Now that she's here there is a lot of catching up to do. Keep your eyes open for the following:

Soap Nuts
Baby Wipes
Cloth diapers (few different kids)
Newborn Cloth Diaper Rentals
Baby Trend Stroller/Car Seat
Wool Dryer Balls
Cloth Diapering Book

and more!! I'm quiet excited to get everything going again!

Get out of my room!!

What are the rules in your house when it comes to bedrooms? Currently DS#1 and #3 share a room. DS#2 has his own room. And Lil DD is in with us. The boys like their own space sometimes. They don't always want another person in their room. We've had it set that they aren't to be in our room either. We have a lock on the door for when no one is in there (to keep out unsupervised hands). When we are in our room they do try to come in often but are often reminded to stay out. Throughout the day we are not in there often unless we are a) changing or b) one of us is napping/working with DD. We do not need someone crawling all over us during those times. 


So what's the rules in your house?

Are you ever frazzled?

It may seem like a weird question to some - but there is a slight reasoning behind it to me. Today on Facebook I posted - "is getting back into the swing of things - it all starts with being frazzled by noon lol" and didn't think much of it. I just went a to read the comments a little while ago and noticed someone had thought this ment it was a bad day. I had never really looked at frazzled meaning a bad day - around here that is normal. 


So does it happen to you? Is it normal or is it not that frequent? Personally I look at it as I am a blended mom to seven. Four of which are currently four years old and younger (one only a newborn). I will be returning to work (on a casual basis) shortly and 99% of the time take on way to much - and enjoy the chaos. Frazzled is normal and welcome. The fact that I made it to noon before getting frazzled - yep it's a good day !! LOL. 


If the person who made this comment is currently reading - please do not think I was offended or anything along those lines. It really gave me a different perspective to look at my status. I like that. 

And she's here!!

After I thought this day would never come, Little Miss has decided to join our family!! Aaraiha (pronounced a-rae-ah) Ryland Hope was born on Tuesday August 2nd at 11:55pm. She weighed in at a nice 7lbs 9oz and was 19.75 inches long. She is a very content and quiet baby (unless your changing her bum). 

Now onto the birth story for those who have asked for it. For some this may be a little of 'to much information' so feel free to stop reading if that is the case. Otherwise feel free to join us on our journey of Little Aaraiha's arrival. 


On Monday evening I was pretty sure my water had broken. It wasn't the movie style gush that everyone talks about (or you see on movies) but more so just a constant trickle. Bf and I went for a walk in the evening in hopes to get things started. And although I had a couple instances of minor gush's nothing was really starting. It seemed as though little A was quiet happy where she was as I could feel her moving around as normal. I decided to call it a night and see what happened. 

Come morning I'm still leaking, but no contractions. No cramping, no signs of anything happening at all to be honest. So decided to call the midwife and see what we should do. I was told that for most people labor will start within 24 hours of water breaking... but I should probably get checked and make sure it is my water and we can discuss what to do from there. I knew I couldn't get in 'right away' but would be able to later in the afternoon. The midwife assured me that coming to the clinic around end of day would be good and call if anything changed in the mean time. So what does a mom do when she finds out that there could be inducing in her near future. Well she packs the last minute things, makes arrangements to get into town and then goes out for lunch! Lol looking back it seems kind of funny now, but at the time all I could think was I want a good meal in me before we get this show on the road. So after lunch with a co-worker I got her to drop me off at the midwife office where BF met me. It was a bit of a sit and wait time while she finished up some appointments but it gave us a bit of time to talk and decide a bit before hand what we want and how we feel about things. Soon enough our Midwife brings us in and does a check to confirm that yes my water has broken. She does a cervix check and I'm already 3-4cm so I agree to let her stretch and sweep. Now we have to make a choice. Normally it is recommended that you induce after 24 hours as the possibility of infection can increase. But she is open to us waiting overnight if we want. We had already decided lets get this show on the road and start an induction. The midwife said she'd have to call and get an order for the medication, and she thought we should go for supper and that would give her a little bit to get a bite in herself and get everything ready. So off for supper we went. Yes I had just ate lunch, but a small snack worked. And we grabbed a few munchies for in the hospital and off for the induction. During this time I wasn't sure if I should be excited or nervous. But I knew things were soon about to change!


We got to the hospital shortly after 7 and it felt so weird walking in with all our stuff and being able to register and not be in a rush, not trying to walk through contractions. Once I got registered and into the room I got changed into a gown and bf got our stuff put away and organized. The midwife started an iv - which took a few attempts. For some reason I don't get IV's very well. And by 7:40pm the iv had started with the oxy. It didn't take long for contractions to start. But when they did they weren't strong at first. I was joking around with everyone and not really that uncomfortable until about 10pm. At that point I knew things were going to get moving quickly. By 10:30 I had informed Bf he needed to call in my other labor coach or she wasn't going to make it. She is a nurse in the hospital but wasn't due to be off work until 11:30pm. Fortunatly her co-workers like her and she was able to get out early and run over to be able to witness everything with us. By the time Bf hung up the phone I was demanding drugs lol. I knew going into this I would probably want the gas so I wasn't surprised at all (nor was BF) when all I could say through contractions was 'give me drugs' lol. The midwife was quiet co-operative in getting the gas set up for me and letting me use that while I tried a couple different possitions. Thought of standing up - that didn't last long lol. Then tried hands and knees which actually lasted much longer then I expected. Until finally the midwife asked how I felt and it was like a light bulb went off I need to push. So she check and said I'm 9cm but there is a small lip. Lets try moving around a bit and see what we can do to get rid of that lip. So we tried with BF behind me that worked for a bit - but not really long. Back onto my hands and knees I went it seemed to be the best position. I remember screaming through contractions and pushing a little through them. They were getting stronger but I still didn't think she was moving much. Finally the midwife said no more gas just try pushing through lets see if we can get her moving. I agreed but under MY terms lol I was not letting go of my gas. At this point I had the tube disconnected so no gas was actually coming to it, and the mask piece had come off so I couldn't actually use it - but you were not taking the medal piece out of my hand I don't care who you think you are. So with that settled we started pushing. I thought for sure she was never coming out. The mw recommended me moving to my side to see if that would help as it was obvious that although hands and knees were more comfortable it was defiantly not bringing her here any faster. So onto my side I went. Through each contraction I pushed. And squirmed and pushed and squirmed and finally we felt progress!! She was born with me half on my side half on my back (really weird to explain) but it worked! It felt like forever but she was here!! She got plopped on my stomach and I was so overwhelmed I had no idea what to do with her I just stared at her and held her for a while. Once the cord stopped pulsing BF cut it and we moved her into a better position for me to hold her and see her while everything else finished up. 


It was an amazing experience. I was so glad my second labor coach actually got to be there this time. She has been with me through my previous pregnancies as well. The first pregnancy she was able to be there for the labor but was unable to be there for the actual delivery. The second pregnancy she missed altogether. So this was the first time she got to be there with me to the end and it ment the world to me to have the extra support. Don't get me wrong BF did a great job figuring out what I needed and doing it for me (I was not good at stating what I did want - just at what I didn't. Ie: don't rub and shut up lol) She was able to do other things like grab ice chunks for me or help me get my gown off when I decided it was too hot to wear it but I couldn't get the words out. I must say as much as the gas was a necessity for me - that stuff tastes horrid. 


One moment I remember and can laugh at now - although at the time was sure I was going to hurt someone was towards the end I was laying half on my side half on my back - she was getting ready to crown and along comes a strong contraction. Since I had been on my hands/knees for so long just previously I felt the need to stretch out through this contraction. So legs straight out with my ankles cross I stretched. It felt right so that was what I was doing. BF being the thoughtful one he was states "you realize if you cross your legs she can't get you" which was politely and loudly answered with SHUT UP lol. 


I had some issues with iron levels going into this so I stayed on the iv overnight although after a couple hours it was able to be turned off. We just left it hooked up in case there was any further issues.


I feel everything went very well and am very happy with how things turned out. Switching to a midwife late in the pregnancy was the best decision I could have made!

Heat Wave

Anyone else enjoying (or maybe enjoying isn't the word) a heat wave about now? It is currently 38c (100.4f) with the humid-ex and I feel like I'm dying. We've kept everything closed up tight during the day which has helped a bit. And the a/c is on in the bedroom but it doesn't work for the rest of the house. It does mean I do get a decent sleep (when baby allows) but makes the day a little rough. What do you do to pass time in the heat?

Laundry Mission!

Today I'm on a laundry mission!! Anyone ever have those times where they realized they have fallen WAY behind on laundry? At 4am last night when I couldn't fall back to sleep, I realized this is completely me lol. When BF moved in a couple weeks ago we agreed to wash all cloths he brought over so they were clean and he can decide what he wanted to keep and what we could donate. Well that ment A LOT of laundry landed in my basement. I have slowly been picking away at it, and mixing in what else needed to be done regularly around the house at the same time. And now that the boys are here for the week we have extra laundry needing to be done. Especially since my youngest son likes to change at least his shirt (some times his whole outfit) minimum 3 times a day. So this morning I thought I should take advantage of them being in daycare and get an early start on laundry. Once I got down stairs I realized that there isn't as much left of BF's stuff as I thought. So my goal is to get as much laundry put through today (and yes that includes folding and putting away). I have pushed through two loads so far and am working on folding everything (plus the three loads that needed to be folded that were pushed through this weekend). I'm hoping I can be caught up on bf's laundry by tonight or tomorrow. And then I can catch up on the house hold stuff tomorrow (as we already have a half load of boys cloths ready to go through - which won't take long to go to a full load). Then maybe just maybe I can get all bedding done this week as well and be fully caught up by Friday!! If all this works then the fun stuff starts. I have a lot of cloth diaper stuff that needs to be stripped (second hand) or prepped (new) that I want to get working on this weekend. I have some cloth diaper stuff that is on route that I hope makes it here for the weekend. If not I'm sure I have enough here that I can start with what I have and do the rest when it arrives. 


What's your laundry routine?

Enjoying Summer

Summer has finally showed up here!! We are having more then one day at a time with good temperatures and sunny skies. What are you doing to enjoy your summer? We took the boys to the spray pad yesterday and today I set up the sprinkler in the yard. Both of these worked well for me as they got to run and play in the water to cool off and I got to sit by and watch without too much effort which means relaxing was able to happen.

Home Organization - Week 3 - Teaser

Week three article is posted here! This week we check back with week 2's goals as well as start into lists. Please let me know what you think. I'm waiting on a bit more participation before I do a giveaway but still have one in mind for those who want to participate in the weekly goals.

Baby Gourmet Mail Day!!

Yesterday was a great mail day!! I had gone to the post office expecting a few parcels to start showing up soon. There is still a bit of a delay thanks to the Canada Post situation but they are starting to come in. Next thing I know the post lady is bringing me a very large box. I didn't remember ordering anything of that size but was quiet excited! I brought it home to see that it was the prize we won on the Father's Day giveaway from Definition of a Wife!! I was very surprised to see what all it entailed. There was a picnic basket with 6 packages for each stage (6months, stage 2, stage 3) of their baby food from Baby Gourmet!! I can't wait to be able to try it out. I think I'll be sharing the stage 2 and 3's with a friend just as my little one won't quiet be at that stage for a while to come. But the basket is amazing! Of course I didn't think to take pictures of the lovely packaging before digging right in, but I did manage to snag a few this morning before I put them all away.

HAPPY CANADA DAY!!

What's everyone's Canada Day (or Canada weekend plans)??? We have had a lazy morning as the boys all slept in! They are anxiously waiting for lunch which is cooking. And then as promised we are going outside to play bubbles. They also have the rest of Gnomeo and Juliette to watch so we can do that during quiet time. By then I am beginning to think it will be time for them to clean up and go to their dads as this is the start of his week. 


For us after the boys go we have nothing planned today. I'm really hoping to relax tonight. Tomorrow and Sunday there are things going on with BF's family that we are to go to. Hoping to get my hospital bags packed before hand (as they are an hour away) and then enjoy the weekend. It would be nice at some point to get some extra relaxing in too!!