{DIY Heat/cold pack}

This is a "craft" {I guess you could call it that} that i have done for many years. We always had these in our house when i was younger. Its a pretty easy project! & ours are starting to get old>>

& the colors aren't all that fun. Sooo its time to make new ones! yay! 

{DIY Hot/Cold Packs}

You will need:

Fabric

Sewing machine

pins

Rice

Lavender or tea leaves

{Rice has a really.. rice smell.. when heated in the microwave, the tea or lavender cover up the smell}

Pick out some fun fabric. Cut 2 pieces to the same size. I cut mine 16x8

Turn the matching pieces so that the colorful side is facing in. Pin the edges together. 

Sew the edges with your machine.

When you sew the edges, make sure to leave a gap unsewn {Shown above}

turn your fabric right side out now, through the gap. 

Draw lines on your sewn fabric to section it off. 

Using your machine, sew where you drew each line, making sure to leave a gap at the end of each line, so that when you pour in the rice, it goes into each sectioned off piece. 

Prepare your rice& tea bags, {or lavender}.

Pour your rice into the sewn fabric, pushing it down into each section as you pour. 

& You're done!! 

For a heat pack: place in microwave for up to 2 minutes 

For a cold pack: Leave it in your freezer

They make great gifts too!

See? Easy peasy :) 

 In other news.. 

 I have a Cute & Happy baby today! 

Happy Saturday! 

{Yummy Fish tacos}

One of our favorite meals to make is Fish tacos! They are so easy & sooo delicious. 

Here is our easy recipe! 

{Fish Tacos}

I like to start with the salsa.

You will need to chop up:

about 2-3 mangos

3 small tomatoes

a cucumber

half a red onion

salt & pepper

*This salsa is not spicy at all, as you may have noticed, the flavors just compliment the fish very well!

You can add jalapenos or habaneros to the mixture if you would like for an extra kick! 

Mix all ingredients until they look like a chunky salsa.  mmmmm

For the fish, we like to use Tilapia. 

Cut your fish into strips and mix them in a bowl with your favorite spices and olive oil.

*we use salt, pepper, garlic salt, seasoning salt, pico de gallo, & cayenne pepper. 

Broil your Fish on high for about 5 minutes then turn and broil another 3-5 minutes. 

Keep an eye on your fish! You dont want to burn it!

Once your fish is done, pile it onto white corn tortillas with your mango salsa, some cabbage, cheese, sour cream, guacamole, &  a little squeeze of lime. Yum!

Poor G, no fish tacos for her! But she got lots of hugs & kisses in the process, so i think that makes it even. 

Happy Wednesday :) 

{Cloth diaper or not?}

Many of you have been emailing my personal email lately asking me about how cloth diapering is going & asking for advice. {I love hearing from you guys :) } 

Truth be told, we haven't been able to cloth diaper our little girl for a couple of reasons.

She is still pretty darn tiny. We are still using the Newborn size pampers on her and i think she will be in that size for a little while longer.

Also, her little hips are so narrow, and her legs are so straight {because she was breech} its almost impossible to get even the disposable diaper on her! Everything is so clunky. We tried using our fuzzibunz diapers on her, and quickly realized that brand is just not for her! 

*Advice: wait to purchase your cloth diapers until you actually meet your little one. Every baby is different! 

Sooooo, we are going to resell our Fuzzibunz to try & get some of the money back so we can invest into something else

{If you are interested let me know! seriously! I have all of my receipts and extra elastics and liners & everything. All Unused email me!}

We have been doing our research & have decided to test out G diapers, for our little G :) 

Have you heard of them? They're pretty neat. They are a "Hybrid" cloth diaper. Meaning they can be fully cloth, or partial... meaning you can have throw away inserts or cloth.... Does that make any sense? 

Here is a link to their site, they explain it a little better than i do :) 

This is a G diaper. 

They are more narrow then most cloth diapers so were hoping they will fit our little one.

We ordered one to try out a couple of days ago, once we try it out we will let you know what we thought!

If they do work out, we will be using cloth inserts at home & throw away ones on the go! The diaper cover will still need to be washed, of course. 

Well, G turned 5 weeks today, so crazy. She is getting so big! She sleeps so well at night {Only wakes up twice!} she has been wonderful. William and i are really enjoying being parents :) 

& we discovered that she really enjoys taking baths :) 

What a cutie! 

{one month}

{This is one of my favorite pictures of G from the hospital.}

On monday this week, this little peanut turned one month.

HAPPY ONE MONTH BIRTHDAY GIULIANA! 

You are getting so big already! 

& cuter everyday! 

{Happy Birthday Cindy}

Today is my mother in laws Birthday! 

I went to lunch today with her and a couple of her friends, it was a good time. G enjoyed it too :)

These are a couple of pics from her Birthday Last year:

{My in Laws, arent they cute??} 

{Cindy, William & me}

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CINDY! Love you!

After Lunch, G & I came home and just relaxed. 

{Someone is a Cutie Patootie}

{Well, make that a hungry cutie patootie :) }

Its been a good day! 

{Update on G}

Yesterday {Thursday} we went to Phoenix Childrens hospital to meet with a Neurosurgeon to discuss the x-rays taken of Giulianas head last week

Before meeting with the Neuro surgeon, we had to meet with the Nurse practitioner. She felt G's head and did some measurements, & from there began to discuss with us the different surgery options to correct Saggital Cranial stenosis. When she left the room, we felt really down... we had been hoping for good news.

After we met with the Nurse practitioner, we then met with the Neurosurgeon. He too felt G's little head but for a longer period of time. He poked and pushed on the different plates in her head.  Poor little G was crying hysterically! she was so upset. It was so hard to watch. He took measurements as well. After he finished his examination, he looked at us  & said "I truly dont think she has cranial stenosis". We were shocked! What a breath of fresh air!

But now we are very confused! The nurse practitioner had told us otherwise.

&  since there were 2 conflicting opinions about the diagnosis, we will go back in 4 weeks again to meet with the neurosurgeon & see how Gs head has grown in that time.

 SO we will continue to play the waiting game until then..

In other news, G Loooves this boba wrap. Seriously the best purchase we have made. It keeps her calm & close to mommy :) I love that. I was really nervous about trying it, but im so glad i did. If you dont have one, GET ONE! 

She is getting so big already! She will be one month on monday. Can you believe it? Sooo crazy! 

Will continue to post updates on G as we find things out. 

Well happy friday :) 

{Daddy date & update on G}

Today William decided that i needed a small break from G. We have been inseperable since the moment she was born! They decided to have a daddy daughter date & go look for birthday presents for me. 

I will be 21 tomorrow. Its so crazy to think.

As much as i agreed with William that i needed a small break, for some reason, it was really hard to see them go! I literally stood in the door way to our garage & cried hysterically while i watched him load her into the car! The whole time, william was laughing at me, feeling sorry for me. He kept saying "Honey. dont cry.." He will never understand :)

Although G is no longer in my belly, i still feel as though she is part of me.. so seeing her leave without me was really hard. I seriously cried for about 20 minutes after they left! & now im sitting here typing this, missing them.. wanting to cry again! ah! Hormones. 

You have to admit though, she looks super cute in her seat, how could you not miss that face? Daddy has a cute little date :) 

I swear this little peanut gets cuter & cuter everyday. 

& speaking of our little peanut, I kind of have an update on everything that has been going on. On friday night her Dr. called us back. He confirmed that her Xrays indeed showed signs of sagittal cranial stenosis. We have been in contact with Phoenix childrens hospital & will be meeting with a Neurosurgeon on Thursday to discuss the severity of the issue & our options. thats all we know until then.

Please continue to keep us all in your prayers as this is such a scary time. Our hearts break for our little girl. I am thankful though that we live so near such a wonderful hospital with some of the best Drs in the country. That brings a little bit of comfort, but still, it is scary to think of what our little one may have to go through. 

I know everything will be ok though. We have lots of family members & friends all over the place praying for the safety of our little girl. Everything happens for a reason too. Good will come from this experience :) 

Well, i'm going to finish up this post & take a little nap before my Husby & little peanut get home.

Happy Tuesday everyone :) 

{Craniosynostosis}}

Sorry friends, we have been kind of MIA lately. all for good reason though.

We're getting used to the thought of being parents! & trying to figure out G's feeding schedule. 

Aye.. nursing is like a full time job i tell ya! But im loving every minute of it :)

Today, G is 18 days old. Time goes by so fast! I feel like we cam home from the hospital just yesterday! 

She is such a good little baby and we are thoroughly enjoying her.

{Helping mom fold laundry. I love my little lovebug}

On top of just figuring out how to do this whole thing the right way, we have had a couple of things weighing heavy on our hearts.

We found out last week that G needs to have an ultrasound taken of her hips. Since she was breech, she is at high risk for hip dysplasia. If you don't know what that is, basically it means that there is a chance that her hip sockets didn't form correctly because of how she was positioned in the womb. When they pulled G out of my tummy during the Cesarean section, she was in pike postition! a perfect angle. Her legs are still pretty darn straight, rather then curled up like most babies, making it almost impossible to keep her laying on her back to sleep. also, because of how her legs are, we have been unable to use our cloth diapers. They are all too clunky & her legs are so close together. plus she is so tiny that even the newborn disposables are big on her.
 They are taking the ultrasound to make sure G will develop properly in a couple of weeks. 

a few days ago, we went to the pediatrician for her 2 week checkup. He brought another thing to our attention. 

G's head is forming in an abnormal way. This is something i have noticed the past week as i am feeding her & rubbing her sweet little head. The back of her head is kind of bulgy and the front of her head feels like the cranium plates on the sides are slightly wrapped around the front plate of her head, almost like her front plate is falling in.  He told us that there is a chance she may have Craniosynostosis, otherwise known as Cranial Stenosis. What this basically means is that the sutures in the cranium have fused, leaving no room for brain growth. We took her to get an Xray of her cranium yesterday to try & rule out this possible diagnosis. Were hoping to hear back very soon.

As you could imagine, these past 2 weeks have been very scary for us. As parents, it is so hard to hear that anything, even something small, may be wrong with your little one. 

All of the things that we are checking for have a solution, but even the solutions seem quite scary..
 We have cried & prayed a lot this week, that God will protect our sweet little girl & that all of these tests will show that there is improvement in her hips & that her head is forming ok. 

please keep us in your thoughts this week as we try to figure all of this out. We know it is all in Gods hands & whatever is meant to happen will happen. 

I just wish my heart could be calm right now.. its so hard not to worry.