12 weeks?

Tomorrow will be Ezekiel's 12 week birthday! My time truly has flown by during this maternity leave! Everyone is doing great over here in the Coffey house. Elijah is still loving on his little brother like crazy, he has his naughty moments to and we do time outs when that happens. He doesn't like that but it seems to work and calm him down. I'm waiting on a book to come into the library to read, "The Strong Willed Child" by James Dobson, I hope to get some insight on how to deal with Eli's strong willed nature. Ezekiel is doing great also. He sleeps about 6-8 hours a night usually from 11-6 or 7. Which is so wonderful! He is still eating like a pro and growing like crazy. I like the fact that he is 12 weeks old and has not had a single bottle yet! Makes me feel proud of myself for sticking to nursing when it was getting hard. It saves a lot of money too! Both boys are still in cloth diapers. I don't think I will ever go back to disposables. As a matter of fact I'm about ready to sell off the 2 packs of size one diapers and 3 packs of size 2 diapers I had gotten while still pregnant with Zeke! Make some money off them and buy some more cloth diapers. Eli seems to be really interested in the potty to lately. He always tells me as soon as he goes poopy because he wants to be changed (even though he fights the changing like crazy). He also loves to just sit on his little potty and tries to go on it as well. Its so funny to watch.

David and I also have some very exciting things going on in our lives. I was supposed to go back to work on Monday because my maternity leave would be over, however, David was offered a position at ISD Corp. as an Information Technology Engineer which will allow me to be a stay at home mom! This is truly a huge blessing that we have been praying about and are so excited for this opportunity that has been given to both of us.

2 Months Alreay!

We went in on Friday for Ezekiels 2 month check up (9 weeks old) and he is a growing boy! He weighed in at 12 pounds, 14 ounces and was 23 inches long. The doctor was very pleased, especially since it took him 3 weeks to get back to his birth weight. We asked about him spitting up and she said not to worry about that either since he was gaining weight so well. Elijah is doing well also. He still loves to hold Zekey when ever we let him. He always checks on him and asks where he is first thing in the morning when he wakes up. We have both boys in cloth diapers full time and that is going great. It has helped with Elijah's scratching on his bottom. Only 3 weeks until I have to go back to work...bummer!

New Blog

Hey everyone, I started up a new blog...dont worry I will try and keep this one up and running with the family items. My new blog is about cloth diapering. I hope to get a lot of followers and be able to get some items from companies to do reviews on. A lot of times they also give an extra item for me to give away to a lucky reader! Head on over to Cloth Diaper Addiction and become a follower. Even if you don't cloth diaper yourself it will be a fun site to follow. I hope to include lots of other items about parenting and motherhood and the joys of having children. You can also 'like' me on facebook under cloth diaper addiction. The more the merrier! I hope you 'like' and 'follow' me!

Here we go...

Things are going great over here in the Coffey house hold. David had been doing a lot of work in various gardens around the county...Dale and Joys, My Mom and Dads, and our own (we just have a few buckets of strawberries and raspberries). The gardens are looking great and I can't wait until we have fresh produce to munch on.

Im still doing good. Im enjoying the summer off with my two little guys. There is never a dull moment! I signed Elijah and I up for a laptime session at the library once a weeks. We have only had it once so far but it seemed to go well. Zeke slept through the whole thing thankfully. I also got both boys signed up for the summer reading program and we are reading away. It will only be week two when we go back this week and Im pretty sure Elijah has read enough books to finish level one! (There are only two levels) He loves to read and have us read to him. Tonight he actually fell asleep in his bed while reading his book. It was too cute! Elijah is also learning his ABC's and numbers. We usually do them both a couple of times a day and I will find him counting his cars and tractors randomly while playing...not always in the correct order but with numbers non the less! Its so cute to see him growing and learning more and more each day. We have decided to offically switch Elijah over cloth diapers full time. Im hoping to go this week to ecobuns to pick his out. The ones Im getting for him are nice because they can fit newborn up to toddler so they fit both Zeke and Elijah so that when we get Eli potty trained we can use the diapers on Zeke! Eli seems to have a big interest in the potty lately. Whenever we do a diaper change he wants to sit on his potty. I hope that he potty trains early then we will only have one in diapers. I have heard that putting kids in cloth helps them to potty train fast so we shall see.

Ezekiel is doing really good as well. He is growing like crazy and is getting so long! We haven't had a weight cheek for a few weeks so we don't have an official weight to share. He is still nursing really well but he seems to have a problem with spit up. We can sometimes get him to burp but not to often. He spits up quite a bit like Elijah did. Elijah had reflux and Im wondering if Zeke has it to. With Eli we put a little bit of cereal in his bottle to help keep it in and that worked but with nursing you can't really add cereal to thicken it up. We have his 2 month check up next week and we will find out what his weight is, length is, and what we can do for his spitting up. Zeke can often times be found laughing and smiling in his sleep and its to precious. He is sleeping well through the night...about 6-7 hours before waking up to eat. He is still cloth diapered full time for the most part. We occasionally will use disposables mainly because we have a lot to use up. I will probably just sell what we dont use.

Picture time:
Elijah had to try out our new double stroller as soon as daddy finished putting it together. He claimed the front seat and started reading his books!

Ezekiel loves to sleep on his belly...back to sleep i know... I only put him on his tummy during the day when I am awake and right there by him to keep an eye on him. I do love the little butt in the air though!
Ezekiel and Elijah have matching diapers. They are the Thirsties duo diaper cover in blackbird print. I love this cover a lot however you have to use a prefold with it which isn't hard...unless you are trying to put it on a very squirmy wiggly 1 1/2 year old who hates being changes. But i do manage to get it on him somehow. lol

Elijah caught reading Daddys 'funnies' as we call them. He loves the comics just like his daddy. He usually will pick out and name all the trucks, tractors, cars, and fire trucks that he sees in them.

Free Coupons

I have the following coupons available. If you are interested please email me at kristina(at)thecoffeycan(dot)com NO SPAM! Please be willing to send a SASE or arrange a local pick up

$1.00 off any Gentle Naturals Product ex 6-30-10
$5.00 off any Gerber GoodStart 2 Formula ex 11-10-10
.55 cents off any two boxes Gerber infant cereal
(2) .75 cents off 3 4-pcaks or 3 32ounce bottles of Gerber Juice ex 8-15-10
$3.00 off any Huggies Pure and Natural diapers ex 6-30-10
$1.00 off Huggies little swimmers sun care product ex 6-30-10
(3) $2.00 off Huggies Pull Ups ex 6-30-10
$1.00 off pull ups wipes ex 6-30-10
(4) .75 cents off Gerber ultra-thin nursing pads ex 6-15-10
(2) $5.00 off any Enfagrow Premium or next step formula ex 6-30-10
(2) $1.00 off any pampers cruisers ex 8-31-10

Diaper Giveaways

I've been reading a lot of blogs lately about cloth diapering because that is what is on my mind. A lot of blogs have give aways and will pick a person to win a cloth diaper. Here is one blog I found that is giving away the Thristies diaper cover (duo wrap) which is what I am using and LOVE! So I wanted to share the blog with those of you who actually read this blog. Check it out!

www.thebudgetmommy.com

they also have lots of other neat deals and reviews of lots of great products.


here is the direct link:

http://www.thebudgetmommy.com/home/2010/5/17/thirsties-duo-wrap-insert-tiny-bubbles-giveaway.html

Cloth Diapering and Nursing

After much researching and debate David and I decided to give cloth diapering a try. This was a hard decision to make because I didn't want to have a baby wearing a huge bulky diaper and honestly, shaking a poopy diaper above a toilet does not seem that appealing to me. (and it still doesn't) We are hoping this will get us one step closer to allowing me to be a stay at home mom by helping us save some money. I have been keeping track of the amount of diapers used since Ezekiel was born. We used around 190 newborn diapers and around 100 size one diapers in a mere 4 and a half weeks! Now granted I did get great deals on those diapers and didn't pay full price for any of them, but I don't know if I will always be able to get the good deals in the future. So anyways we are taking the great adventure and are trying out cloth diapers. There is a local company in town called ecobuns (ecobuns.com). It is ran out of a ladys home and she has great insight on all the items she sells. Dana (SIL) and I went over to her house one day and she gave us a mini diapering class and explained all the in's and out's of cloth diapering. She showed us all the different types of diapers and how they worked and shared the pros and cons of each kind. We ended up being there for almost two hours going over things and trying to decide what way we wanted to go with for our diapers. I ended up buying prefolds and covers and Dana got AIO (all in one) diapers. So far we both love our diapers and have purchased more. I will still be using disposables for long days away from home and when we go camping just because we don't have the supply needed to make it through the longer periods. Here is a picture of my covers I purchased:
There is a new way of cleaning off poopy diapers too, Its a sprayer that hooks to your toilet. It is kind of like the sprayer that is in your sink but it is hooked to the water behind your toilet and you can spray off the poo into the toilet rather than having to shake it out and worry about dropping the diaper into the toilet. However they run kind of high as far as price goes so Willy (BIL) is making a home made one for about half the price for Dana and I to have on our toilets.

Zeke looks great in his diapers by the way...okay he doesn't like to get his diaper changes that much so that is why he is mad in the picture with the blue diaper cover on.


Elijah is still using disposable diapers at this point. We wanted to see how it goes first with Zeke and then make the decision to switch over with Eli or not. I might buy a couple of nice AIO's for him at night though instead of buying overnight diapers. Here is a picture of Eli because he is a cutie pie too! Did I mention he loves his fruit!
Switching topics now...

While browsing blogs today I came across one that I was able to relate to as a nursing mom. After I had Elijah I tried nursing and it didn't work out. He lost weight and didn't gain it back the way he should have so we had to start supplementing and it just kind of went down the drain from there. He ended up completely on formula. This time around with Zeke nursing is going really well, even though it took him 3 weeks to get back up to his birth weight. He latches on well and eats for a long period of time. I have to admit there are times when I just wish he was formula fed, it gets tricky when you have a 20 month old getting jealous and decides to jump, bite, kick etc, while you are nursing and knows you can't put him in time out or give him vinegar for biting because you are in the middle of a feeding. Hopefully this will calm down after a while. So back to the blog I had mentioned. The lady wrote about nursing in public and overcoming her fears of doing so. The article can be found at: http://www.theclothdiaperwhisperer.com/2010/05/overcoming-fears-of-nursing-in-public.html This really hit home for me because I am just like she was. It is uncomfortable going out in public and having to nurse the baby. But I find myself gradually working up my nerves and becoming more comfortable with it. At first I was locking myself away from family and friends to go and feed Zeke, and I would miss out on 20-30 minutes of conversation and time with them. I enjoy spending time with people...I don't enjoy spending time alone by myself, locked away in a room. So I am gradually overcoming my fears and am starting to nurse more in 'public' I should say more around family while using a nursing cover. It is hard though to make sure Zeke is latched on and keeps latched on while hidden under the cover but eventually over time as he gets old he will hopefully start to get the hang of latching himself on with out a bunch of help from me and this will become even more enjoyable.
I do have to say that I am proud of the fact that Ezekiel has never had a bottle at one month old and Im pretty sure he won't get one for a while because things are going really good for us. I have pumped once, more to help ease some pain, and that milk is probably going to need to get tossed out.

And to end the post...Elijah is such a great big brother to Ezekiel. He always asks " Hold me?" when he wants to hold Zekey. He will sit so good on the couch and hold him, he will look at him and talk to him and give him so many kisses. Its the most precious thing in the world.

Way over due!

We have been super busy here the last two months getting ready for the new baby and then having the new baby. But I finally have time to update and hope to do so more frequently now that things have calmed down for us.

On April 23 we went in for our scheduled c-section (we were hoping I would go into labor on my own so I could do a VBAC but that didn't happen) we went in at 8 am and the section was schedule for 9. We didn't know what we were having so we were very excited at this point. Finally around 9:20 we heard that the baby had a ton of dark hair, which is way different from what Elijah had when he was born, then at 9:26 we heard the cry of our new little baby and David looked over the sheet to tell me that we had another baby boy! Ezekiel Henry! He weighed in at 9 pounds 4 ounces and was 21 inches long. He was a big baby and the doc said I probably wouldn't have been able to have him naturally if I would have gone into labor on my own. David was able to cut the cord and bring him over to me to see. I got to see him for a couple minutes then they went upstairs with the nurse. I went back into recovery for not quite an hour and was brought back upstairs to my room. Shortly after being in there Dr. Worpel came in and talked to David and I and told us that Ezekiel had wet lungs. Normally when you labor and deliver naturally most of that fluid gets pushed out of the babys body and because Ezekiel was a c-section he didn't have that chance to get that stuff out. So he was put on oxygen right away to help his heavy breathing and she said it could take 12-24 hours to clear up his lungs and then he would be able to come into the room with me and I would be able to hold him. They said if I started feeling better then they would wheel me down to the nursery to see him. Finally after 7 hours the nurse came in and told us that his levels were back where they needed to be and he could come down to our room and I would finally be able to hold him. He was put on limited holding (only mommy and daddy) until the next afternoon. They had to tube feed him once and then they bottle fed him for his second feeding and he did well with that so they let me nurse him for his third feeding and he has been nursing since then. No bottles yet! When we left the hospital he weighed in at 8.10 and 4 days later was still at the same weight so we had to go in for a weight check at 2 week and he was 8.12. He only gained 2 ounces in a week and was still below his birth weight. We go in on Monday for his 3 week check up and will see how he is with weight gain. Hopefully it has gone up enough that I don't have to supplement and give him a bottle. He seems to latch on well and will eat for 20-30 mins every 2-3 hours.

Elijah loves being a big brother and is always wanting to hold Zekey and hug and kiss him. The first thing he does every morning after I get him out of his room is run into mommy and daddys room to check on Zeke. He is starting to want to pick him up out of his bouncy seat and swing so I have to keep and extra close eye on him with that.

I'm feeling quite well since having the c-section. I can get around really well and I am no longer sore. I can even fit back into my pre-pregnancy jeans! We are hoping that over the next couple of months we can figure out some way for me to be able to be a stay at home mom.

Week two and three of couponing

Week Two: This was Meijer band week with the sales which means that most of the items on sale were meijer brand and you can't really get coupons for that stuff. However they did have the Buy 10 for $10 get on free so I did get some good deals that way. Week two I spent $63.24 and saved 32.19 Not to bad for it being Meijer week.

Week Three: This week was kind of a last minute shopping trip. Elijah has a double ear infection so I figured while I was at the store I might as well do my grocery shopping while I was there. I only had about an hour to put together my list and gather my coupons but I dont think I did to bad. Here is what I got:


They had a lot of good deals this week. Bread was buy one get 2 free! Plus I had a .55 cent coupon so it was even cheaper. It was 2.99 a loaf but I got three loaves for $2.44 a total of .81 cents a piece! They also had the Jacks pizza that is uaully $3.33 each and I got them for $1.09 each. I spent $6.20 on grapes but they were cheap for $1.24 a pound and my boys and myself love to munch on them. Cream cheese was probably my best deal. I bought 4. They usually would be $6.96 for 4 of them but I paid$3.00 for 4 of them! Shredded Cheese I got 6 bags for $1.16 a piece and we love cheese over here so its a good deal! There were a lot of other good deals that didn't make it on my list so Im probably going to head back over there some time this week to pick up those few missing items.
Total spent tonight: $67.85
Total Saved: $54.67

The 'Pantry'

Now that we have started couponing our pantry is starting to change looks. This is the picture I took the first week I started: (two weeks ago)

This is what it looks like today. There is so much stuff in there! And I'm sure it will continue to grow which means more cleaning it out. The games on the top shelf need to be moved to the large storage closet.