DIY Better than your Leading Brand Laundry Detergent

Back in November my husband and I bought our first house.  We crunched the numbers and decided it was time to stop pouring our money into someone else's rental property.  While we have the money to own a home, there are a lot of unexpected expenses that come up when owning a home ie needing a new toilet when you accidentally break the tank while trying to fix it.  Yeah that just happened!  My dad was trying to adjust the handle for me to stop the toilet from running after being flushed.  It seems as though we cranked it one too many times!  Needless to say, I have a brand new shiny throne!  It flushes great by the way... Anyway, we took another look at the budget to see how we could save some money.  I found I could make my own laundry detergent for around .07/ load!  I know this may seem extreme to some, but to me it is so worth it!  My clothes not only smell amazing, the colors seem brighter, the whites seem whiter, and the smell amazing for weeks!  Oh,  did I mention it is great for HE washing machines too! Aside from the money savings, the best part about this laundry recipe is that there is no grating soap involved, nor do you need to store a 5 gallon bucket of laundry detergent somewhere. My recipe was originally inspired by The Everyday Cheapskate. Check out her tutorial for a variation!

You will need the following ingredients:

Empty 1 gallon jug

$3.92 Borax 3/4 cup

$9.47 Oxi Clean Versatile Stain Remover 1-2 scoops

$3.24 Arm & Hammer Washing Soda 3/4 cup

$3.28 Dawn Original Blue Dish Washing Soap 3/4 cup

$8- $10 Lemon or Lavender Essential Oil 10-20 drops

(All of these ingredients can be found at your local Wal-Mart in the Laundry aisle)

If you lost count, that is a total of $27.91! These ingredients will make approximatley 4 gallons of laundry detergent. That makes each gallon cost about $6.97.  I typically do about 1-2 loads of laundry a day and 1 gallon last me  around 3 months or 90 days making each load cost around .07!!!!!

So here is how you do it!!!
1) Heat up some water, so it is really hot. I usually heat m water in my tea kettle.
2) Measure out all of your powder ingredients- Oxi Clean, Borax, &Washing soda- and put them in your          gallon jug
3) Put some hot water in the gallon jug, enough to cover your powder ingredients and SHAKE, SHAKE, SHAKE! You want the powdered ingredients to "disolve" and mix well in the water.

Excuse my mess around it....

4) Add water almost to the top of your jug leaving room for your dawn dish soap.
5) Add the desired amount of essential oil. Although lavender has some amazing uses, I use it to make my clothes smell amazing.
6) Stir or shake before each use- Add 1/4 cup to each load of laundry

I keep my detergent in a glass beverage dispenser and I use a paint stick to stir before each use!

How to make easy "Peasy" home made baby food

Now that my son is getting to an age where he can start sampling solids, I'm having a blast making him dinner! Not only is it way easier and quicker than you can imagine, it is the best thing for him. I have been breastfeeding him to ensure he doesn't get anything extra he doesn't need, so why should his table foods be any different? I know there are no preservatives, added sugar, juices, acid, etc. If that isn't enough to convince you to give it a try, how about the fact that it is a fraction of the cost of the store bought junk!

This afternoon I made sweet potatoes, apple sauce, and carrots in a little over an hour using my Baby Brezza.

 It is a small investment, about $99,  but think of the money you will save! I've also heard from other parents they have continued to use it even when the children grow out of the baby food stage. You can use it to make those expensive fruit pouches,$1.49 each, using the Infantino Fresh Squeezed Squeeze Station.

The combinations you can make are endless and you can stop telling your child they are too expensive. The cost to make you own pouch of food is probably about .30ea!






So this is how simple it is!

Peel the potato

Chop the potato

Add water to the tank & put potatoes in the steam and blender. Press the steam + blend button. The time guidlelines are in the manual. For sweet potatoes it is 25 minutes.

In 25 minutes when the potatoes are cooked, the machine will automatically puree' it for you.

Let it cool and it is ready to eat. It is that easy! In 25 minutes I had fresh sweet potatoes for my son. You can add more water or breast milk to the puree' to get it to the consistency you want. Right out of the blender it is usually perfect, but once it sits in the fridge it thickens up a bit. This yields approximately 1 cup of food. It cost me .80 to make it. I will freeze more than half of it for later. You can freeze the extra in ice cube trays and take one out as needed. The ice cube trays make the perfect size for mixing foods once you know your baby doesn't have an allergy. An ice cube of peas and carrots or bannana and apples...the combinations are endless!!!

Happy baby food making!!

Day 2 of Challenge: no-cry sleep solution

Day 2 of Challenge No cry Sleep Solution

Yesterday was definitely not easy on our new sleep routine. I had to leave the house to get some work done and drop food of to a friend going through a difficult time. With that being said, we were out of our house for our second and third nap. I timed our road time around his nap time. My son sleeps very well in the car. It is practically hypnotizing to him. As soon as we get going he crashes. His naps weren’t quality but none the less we got them into our day! Even though we had some challenges, we saw success at night time.

Our second night of sleep training was as follows:

Time Awake	How put back to sleep	Time Asleep
7:32pm He went to bed
10:50pm	Gave him his pacifier and rocked him	10:52pm
12:30am	Nursed him and he slept with mom until good and asleep	1:33
3:30am	Nursed him and gave him his pacifier	3:52

Total times he woke up: 3

Total time he spent awake: approximately 44minutes

  This is a huge change even from the first night I charted. This may not be permanent but it sure is promising! I feel like success is mine!!  For a child his age, 5 months, he is expected to get up at night 2-3 times. Technically speaking he slept “through the night!” I had a totally different baby this morning. One that was well rested and ready to play. I was a totally different mommy too! While I had a lot of success last night, my journey and challenge isn't over yet. With babies one night might be good while another awful. The goal is to get him in a routine to sleep "through the night" most nights. Another part of the goal is also to help him be able to fall asleep on his own. I love rocking my son to sleep as much as the next mother, but at 3am I love it just a little less.

  His mobile for his bed came in the mail yesterday, so today we worked on spending some play time in his crib. This is to help him feel safe when he wakes up and finds himself in his crib. Think about it, he falls asleep in his mom’s loving arms and wakes up to find himself in a crib. As Elizabeth Pantley put it in her book the no-cry sleep solution, “Imagine this. You fall asleep in your nice, warm, comfy bed with your favorite pillow and your soft blanket…what if you woke up to find yourself sleeping on the kitchen floor without blankets or a pillow? Could you simply turn over and go back to sleep?” Giving him some familiar things like the mobile and a lovie might help ease his anxiety when he wakes up at night.

*The link I attached to Elizabeth Pantley's book today has links to print off sleep logs.

To cry it out or not to cry it out? That is the question!

    When your baby isn’t sleeping, do you let him “cry it out?” At 5 months old it sure seems as though my son should be sleeping "through the night." How do I make that happen? I’ve had many people tell me I just need to put him in the crib, close the door, and let him “cry it out.” It just seemed so wrong on so many levels! I just kept thinking my baby’s cry is designed to let his parents know he needs something. His cry could be signaling a number of things: exhaustion, fear, pain, hunger, panic. I can only imagine his thought might be, “Mommy, where are you? I need you! Why aren’t you coming to help me? I’m scared! I don’t feel safe.” Whatever the reason for the cry, I’m not okay with letting my helpless 5 month old cry it out. Sleep is very important to babies, but there MUST be a better solution.  The good news is, there is! My sister recommended a book called the no-cry sleep solution by Elizabeth Pantley. 

    Elizabeth Pantley is a mother of four and writes not only as a researched expert, but also as an experienced mother of four. The book is designed to educate the parents on safe sleeping, how babies sleep, normal sleep patterns, required hours of sleep, realistic sleep expectations, and how to teach your baby to adjust his circadian rhythm.  The secret is creating a routine. The book is exquisite, because she allows each parent to create her own sleep plan based on your baby. Although I believe this is an effective way to sleep train your baby, it will take time.If your baby takes a long time to fall asleep, wakes up frequently, takes cat naps, and you both need your rest, I highly recommend getting this book! It is a quick read and it can't hurt to try right! 

We have started our first day of sleep training, so I will keep you posted on our success. Our first night was as follows:

Time Awake	How put back to sleep	Time Asleep
7:00pm He went to bed
8:54pm	Rocked, walked, layed with him, and finally let in to nursing him	9:29
11:00pm	Gave him his pacifier	11:10
11:19pm	Gave him his pacifier, patted him	11:25
11:30pm	Gave him his pacifier, and rocked him standing up for a minute	11:31
2:00am	He cried but was still asleep
3:17am	He was ready to eat	3:40
5:50am	He was ready to eat again	6:20

Total times he woke up: 7

Total time he spent awake: approximately 1.5hours

* I am not being paid to promote this book in any way! This is the best thing I have found to help me and my son get better sleep.

Why is something so natural so difficult?

God gave women many amazing gifts. One of them being the ability to grow another human being. Another being the ability to feed our babies with breast feeding. Something so natural seems like it would be so easy. Why is it so difficult to get started?

While formula is a way to feed our babies, it's goal is to mimic breast milk. I was determined to succeed at breastfeeding. Our bodies are designed to know how much milk to produce by the frequency our baby nurses and the milk "maturity" changes based on our baby's suck. Not only is breast milk the perfect "formula" for your baby, it is FREE! 

Aside from knowing the benefactors of breastfeeding, I wanted to quit a million times!

Between the epidural and medication I was given for my c-section, my son was very sleepy. He was not wanting to nurse. I was stressing out, because he would sleep for hours and wake up hungry but he still didn't want to be put to the breast.  I was hand compressing the colostrum onto a spoon to feed my son, because he flat out refused the breast.  After the lactation consultant worked with me, she gave me a nipple shield (which became another nightmare), because I didn't have much for the baby to latch. I used the nipple shield for 3 months. I thought I would never wean him from it. The lactation consultant failed to tell me how to properly use the shield. The baby became dependent on the shield. If you HAVE to use a nipple shield, which I don't recommend in any case, you should ALWAYS offer the breast first. If the baby refuses the breast, use the shield. Once he starts nursing good, try to remove the shield and re-latch the baby.

  I felt very overwhelmed and desperately wanted to quit. I felt as if no other breastfeeding mom must know of the difficulty I was going through. I was hormonal! Newsflash, every new mother goes through this! You are not alone! You wonder if the baby is getting enough, you are counting all the dirty diapers to make sure it is enough, you are weighing the baby to make sure he is gaining and not losing, but I think if we could just relax not only would our milk production increase but the baby would relax and nurse. I was very blessed and had A LOT of family support. My husband was very understanding of my hormones. He kept reminding me of how much I wanted to breastfeed and he how I would regret quitting.

I don't think there is enough information and help out there for women who need help with breastfeeding. Some of my recommendations are as follows:

1) As awkward as it may seem, have your physician check your nipples to be sure they aren't flat.
2) If you have flat nipples, I recommend wearing breast shells about 3 weeks before delivery. and using the breast pump to draw the nipples out more for the baby. Ask your physician when it is safe to use the breast pump. It can be linked to bringing on labor.
3) Remember it takes time for a first time mother and a baby to get to know each other and figure out how to breastfeed.
4) No question is stupid! Ask the nurses and lactation consultants everything while you are at the hospital!
5) A Boppy isn't necessary, but it sure makes it easier in the beginning. It is also great for propping the baby, tummy time, and sitting up as the baby gets older.
6) The baby's latch is very important, but I think sometimes we stress so much about the proper hold and latch we can't relax. As you and the baby get used to each other, a lot of those issues will resolve themselves. Your baby is trying to learn how to breath, eat, swallow, suck, etc. Give yourselves a break!
7) Be sure to change your breast pads often enough. You should never put a wet breast pad back to the breast. This can cause a yeast infection, which is hard to resolve. It often becomes a vicious cycle of baby to mom giving it to one another.
8) Drink water like it is your new job. Without water you can't produce milk.
9) Rest when your baby sleeps. Rest is also an essential ingredient to making breast milk. It is also the hardest thing to do when you have a new baby. Accept help when it is offered! 
10) The first 6 weeks are the hardest! After that you should be on easy street. Don't give up on something that is so good for you and your baby! Did you know breastfeeding reduces your risks of breast cancer? 

I hope that sharing my experience will help at least one of you! If you have any questions, feel free to ask me. I'm not an expert, but experience and failure are our best teachers!