I asked for an epidural as soon as I felt the first contraction LOL. I said "Oooh, I felt that one! Where's the epidural guy?" LOL. And the anesthesiologist was quick about getting to me. Loved my epi both times.

We have all of our books in our school room. I love buying the kids new books. We have them on shelves and in baskets for easy access.

I had both my babies by induction (due to low fluid both times). I don't know it any other way. All I know was that is was easy and I didn't feel a thing LOL. With my first baby they began pitocin around 7:45 AM and I didn't have her till 6 PM. So that one was about 10 hours (about 15 or 20 minutes of pushing). With my second baby they began pitocin around 8 AM and I had her right after 1 PM. So that was around 5 hours....and about 15 minutes of pushing. I have nothing but good things to say about being induced. No stress, no rushing to the hospital, no pain.

Wow! We get most of ours at Wal Mart for $1 per bag of 12. I'd never pay $7.50 for them.

Sometimes. It really just varies. One thing I love about homeschooling is that I CAN serve them a hot, healthy (or healthier anyways) lunch. Our hot lunches usually include: grilled cheese....whole wheat, non HFC bread with organic cheese quesadillas...whole wheat tortillas with organic cheese organic pasta (whole wheat) with marinara sauce mac-n-cheese organic hot dogs organic pizza chicken nuggets ham steaks "Cold lunches" are more along the lines of: meat boats (cubed ham dipped in ranch dressing) squirrel wedges (mixture of organic nuts, blended and finely chopped, mixed with Nutella, natural peanut butter, and a bit of honey, smothered between two whole wheat tortilla shells and cut into wedges) peanut butter and jelly sandwich (with organic ingredients and whole wheat bread) Lunchable Jr (not the greatest, but they like them occasionally) ham/cheese roll up on whole wheat tortilla Then I serve it with a healthy side such as yogurt, fresh fruit, graham crackers, applesauce, etc. I feel better when I can serve my kids a healthy lunch.....and a variety of things as well. Just wanted to clarify.....I hate cooking, despise cooking, loathe cooking......so our hot lunches are ones that take about 10 to 15 minutes or less to prepare.

We love them here! Both my girls probably have 150 or so each. They are a cheap fad so that's a plus. And it provides the girls with something to organize, relate to each other with, interact with others (both my girls are extremely shy so trading helps them), etc. Most mornings when my girls wake up, they pull out their silly bands, spread them out, and sit down together on the floor and trade them with each other.....despite the fact that they've seen each others bands hundreds of times LOL. I love to see them so excited when they get one they've really wanted and I love to watch my 6 year old organize and re-ogranize them. She has a binder with baseball card holders and has organized them into pockets according to what type she has.

Has she had a Rocephin shot? My doctor said that's the "big" antibiotic that they use to knock things out.

Depends on which kind it is. There's demodectic and sarcoptic mange. We just found out our little Jack Russell/Chihuahua has demodectic mange. It is genetic, non contagious, and brought on by stress. It can be treated and will usually not return. We are in the process of her having weekly dips with a strong solution that kills the mites. After six weeks we will have her skin tested again to see if they are still there. It is costing us less than normal since my sister is a vet tech and is doing the dips herself (her vet allowed it) so we just had to pay for the skin test, the bottle of shampoo (around $60) and another skin test at the end. Sarcoptic mange is very contagious (and it sounds like what the kittens might have since all of them have it). It can spread to other animals and even people. It is called scabies in people. This mange is worse than the other kind since it can cause swelling, itching, infection, etc. I think it is more difficult to treat too.

Here :D

The silence is amazing, isn't it? LOL!

I wonder if my 6 year old DD would like this? She usually prefers animated movies....and we haven't read the books yet.

I don't do socks....ever. All socks go into a laundry basket in the laundry room. If you want socks, you get them yourself. I have better things to do than sort socks and try to find their matches. :D

Another vote for Infant Swim Resource. They are EXCELLENT. Pricey, but so worth it. My dd's went through ISR last summer when they were 2 and 5. Both were afraid of getting their faces wet. After the six weeks of lessons, I had two little fish on my hands.

I just recently designated a school room. We'll begin using it soon....I just did it a few weeks ago so we haven't used it during the school year yet. At first I wasn't going to make one. I figured we'd just end up at the kitchen table anyways. But DD was constantly distracted. She'd see her little sister playing in the living room, there were toys sitting around the house, she'd want food from the kitchen while doing school....everything was just so much of a distraction. So I decided to make our smallest bedroom into a school room. It used to be a guest bedroom that was rarely used. I'm not going to allow toys into the school room....at all. If DD3 wants to join us in the school room then that is fine, but no toys allowed. She can color in there, do lacing cards, etc. And we only eat in the kitchen so I wont have to worry about food distractions. Hopefully this will all work out well. And also someone mentioned something about cleaning....I won't have to look at toys scattered around the room and think about putting them away, or worry about the dishes in the sink, etc.

Wow....just wow. I don't even understand how someone could do that to a baby. And not just once, but over and over and over for all of her short little life. They are not people, they are scum.

Ours is about 15 to 18 minutes away.

I've heard plastic is toxic....but in what ways? I let my kids eat off of those divided plates. Are those toxic? Should we only eat off of glass plates? And how about cups? I can't see giving my kids a glass cup to carry around. Are the BPA free cups safe or is there other chemicals in them that are just as harmful? I've stopped heating things up in plastic containers in the microwave. I know that is dangerous. I always put it on a glass plate or bowl now. But what about carrying sandwiches in those plastic sandwich carriers? How would I carry a sandwich around if we didn't use those? It is never ending LOL.

Receipts??? RECEIPTS???? http://www.comcast.net/news/newswrap/5787131/studyreceiptscouldbeharmfultoyourhealth/ I'm trying to eat healthier, switch most of our foods to organic, buy meats that are hormone free, use deodorants that are free of chemicals, use greener cleaning products, and now....receipts are harmful to our health??? I give up....sometimes I wonder if knowledge really is power?

I get annoyed when people do this. I just don't respond. In fact, in my original listing I have begun putting "Please do not ask me to call you. I work through email only."

DD3 LOVES Nutella! For breakfast she will sometimes eat graham sticks dipped in Nutella. I tell myself that it is healthy because it is hazlenuts LOL :tongue_smilie:. Wonder if she's like these cookies?

Exactly LOL! For four years, pre-kids, we used the same blanket. Usually I'd wake up freezing cold and he'd have the blanket all wrapped around him. I'd pull and tug and yank and finally get just a little bit of the blanket around me. When we began co-sleeping with our newborn DD, I used a seperate blanket so it would not be pulled over the top of her by DH or I. Umm, hello, why in the world did I not think of it before??!! Now we use seperate blankets all the time.

She is so creative! I never could have thought of all those different poses!

I'm one of those who think "whatever works for you" is what you should go with. If you can keep your marriage strong and sleep in seperate beds, then go for it. If you can't, then sleep together. People have different needs. During the 10 years we've been married, DH and I have slept apart and together. The apart didn't come until after we had our second child. We were co-sleeping with two kiddos then, sleep is important, and the bed was getting crowded. So the kids and I slept in a king bed for a while and DH took our queen. It was fine. Ideal? Maybe not, but it worked for us for that time in our lives. Some people really dislike co-sleeping with their children. For me, I couldn't stand sleeping apart from them. It really is a bonding experience. There's nothing sweeter than cuddling your sleeping child as they sleep. And it's just for a season. As long as your marriage is strong and you can keep it that way, then you do whatever works for your family during the time being.

It does seem extreme for growing pains. I know that I had growing pains as a child and even as a teen. It really hurt and the only thing that would take it away was medicine....if I just tried to wait it out, it got continuosly worse. But my leg pain usually happened during the night. DD6 has growing pains sometimes. She does end up in tears sometimes....but as with me, hers is usually at night, or in the morning just after waking up.

I agree....I don't like the tall ones either. We have one of those in our school room but I don't particularly like it. That's why we used the shorter ones....and also so that I can set stuff up on top of them.