The Mom Crowd

As many of you know, our family is adopting a child through Reece’s Rainbow and a while ago, The Mom Crowd hosted a raffle to help bring another child from Reece’s Rainbow home.  You can catch up with this beautiful family and their new daughter, Addison {AKA: Nika} at their family blog.  Is that enough “hyperlinking” for ya?

I wanted to take a moment to share with you about Reece’s Rainbow and their mission.  Reece’s Rainbow is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to raise awareness regarding the plight of children with Down syndrome in foreign orphanages and their availability to be adopted, to raise adoption grants for waiting children, to seek out adoptive families for these children, to help adopting families during their adoption process with fund raising opportunities and paperwork assistance {and emotional support-I threw that one in!}, to provide humanitarian aid to foreign orphanages, to facilitate support groups for birth parents of children with Down syndrome to help decrease the number of children placed in orphanages, and to enact social change abroad about children with Down syndrome and other special needs through the testimony of adoption.

In 2006, Reece’s Rainbow expanded from an outreach program for families with children with Down syndrome in Atlanta to an organization promoting international adoption of children with Down syndrome.   In the short two years since beginning this new focus, over 120 children with Down syndrome and other special needs have found forever families with the help of Reece’s Rainbow. As of June 2008, they have dispersed over $86,000 to adopting families and have waiting children with substantial grants ready for their prospective parents.  Many orphans around the world are not receiving adequate nutrition and health care.  In Eastern European and other countries, orphans with Down syndrome are commonly transferred to mental institutions if they are not adopted by the age of four. After they are transferred, most die within the first year from lack of basic care.

There is a special way you can help Reece’s Rainbow fulfill their mission.  Every year, Reece’s Rainbow hosts a Christmas Angel Tree Project.  Right now, you can see every child with Down syndrome waiting for a family through Reece’s Rainbow and sponsor one or more of them for Christmas.  With every $35 donation, you will receive a special ornament with a picture of the child you are sponsoring for Christmas.  Will you consider sponsoring an orphan with Down syndrome this Christmas?  In order to receive an ornament, donations must be received by December 15th.  Please visit their site today and help bring an orphan home for Christmas!

My post about sex while pregnant has been published over at BettyConfidential.com. So far everyone is giving it a rating of 5 stars. When I looked it up and showed it to my husband this morning, he noticed that my face was bright red. I am writing about s-e-x on the web. So maybe I am like the Carrie Bradshaw of motherhood like the Fox News reporter said. Except my Carrie is married and has only had sex with one guy, but like her, sex can be like a fairytale (except when I am pregnant!) Check out the article here.

I saw in my sidebar here at The Mom Crowd the title  “Body image issues during pregnancy” under the More from BlogHer section. Morra Aarons Mele published a post titled “Pregnant, fat” over at Blogher.com. I had to go read it.  I have been having my own body image issues with my second pregnancy.

With my first I was excited and proud to show off my belly. I worked in an office and proudly wore my heals and dressed up all the way up until the very end. This time I am at home and don’t really have to impress or look cute for anyone. I am casual everyday in my new skecher tennis shoes with no laces. So I don’t feel like I take as much pride in the way I look this second time around.

As a result of my horrible morning sickness and strict gestational diabetes (GD) diet I only gained 25 pounds with my first pregnancy. I felt back to normal and lost it all within 9 months of having Annabelle. Another reason why I am not truly motivated to keep my weight down this pregnancy is because I know that the weight comes off pretty easily after the baby comes.

Since I found out I was pregnant and knowing that I might have gestational diabetes again I have been allowing myself to eat whatever I want. Bring on the cake, pie, cookies, and brownies.  I have tried to ease up on the sweets since Thanksgiving, but not as much as I should. Tomorrow I take my first test to determine if I have GD again. In a way I am completely okay if I have it, because it will help me be super strict with my diet. The only downside is that if I can’t control it with diet and need insulin, then I can’t birth at the birth center I have been attending.

I have let myself go and I feel huge this pregnancy. I already mentioned how I don’t really feel up for sex very much lately and this certainly does not help. I have no energy and I feel fat. I am afraid to get on the scale. Okay, maybe I will just for you guys. I am back from standing on the scale. I have gained 23 pounds and I am only 26 weeks pregnant. ugh. (That is only 2 pounds away from what I gained total the last time I was pregnant.)

It also doesn’t help that strangers and people mention how huge I already am. They don’t believe me when I tell them that I still have three months to go. One person and her mother insisted up and down that I was further along than I think. Really, I know when the first date of my last period is. So not only do I feel huge, other people like to confirm that I am.

I don’t have any helpful solutions for making myself or anyone else feel better about their body while they are pregnant. My only hope is to slow down my weight gain and look forward to when I have my body back to work it all off.

Did you have any body image issues while you were pregnant? Did you really feel fine and happy to be round or did you look forward to having your body back?

Earlier this week, McKenna gave excellent tips for giving gifts to your kids’ teachers.  It got me thinking about this time of year and how special gift giving can be.  Now that Black Friday is behind us and the holiday season is here, I’m getting things ready for the grandparents.

This is the second year that my sisters-in-law and I put together a calendar with pictures of our children for Grandmom.  There are four grandchildren, so we each selected three pictures of our children, giving us 12 for the year.  I ordered the calendar through winkflash.com, and with shipping included, each of us only had to put in $7!  Last year, the debut calendar was a huge hit, so I know this will be a tradition for years to come.  

Of course, photo calendars are just the tip of the iceberg; all the major photo processing sites offer great gifts using special pictures of your choice.  I have purchased magnets and coasters using special pictures as well.  Playing cards and jigsaw puzzles are also a cool idea.  If you prefer to go a bit more straightforward, a photo album or framed picture is always a hit.  In these penny-pinching times, I have gone for these gift ideas more than once.  I’m also fond of framing the kids’ artwork, but I’ll only do this as a gift idea sparingly.

What other ideas do you have for grandparent gifts?

I am not a morning person.  I love to sleep.  The lack of sleep that comes with having children is probably my biggest personal challenge (and sacrifice)–well, that and staying calm when the children are not listening to directions–but that is a whole other topic. We prefer to have our kids go to bed on the earlier end (oldest and middle child with no nap=b/t 6:45 and 7, with nap= 8:30 or maybe 9, baby=b/t 6:30 and 7:00).  We parental units like to enjoy some sit in front of the tv time to decompress quality time together.  The unfortunate problem with this is that our kids tend to get up early and when they get up TOO early–it is often way before the chickens are stirring from their coops.  Like before 6am.  Anytime before 6:30 is too early in my book–7:00 is perfect.

When we moved the oldest and middle child to the same room this summer we ran into some problems.  They either accidently or purposely woke each other up.  Middle child had a habit of pooping around 6 a.m. in his diaper.  Rolling around in poo and smelling up the room probably woke up oldest child.  Before we moved older child into middle child’s room, middle child would hang out in bed for a long time quietly talking or resting and would get up when he heard others up.  Older child loves people so when he wakes up wants to be around ANYone and EVERYone.  No leisure time in bed for him. You can see how this could be a problem with room sharing.

4 and 5 year olds don’t always understand that waking up their siblings can be a very selfish thing to do–not to mention it can really make mommy’s day miserable. Especially if she is dealing with 2 children who did not get the right number of hours of sleep.  More whining and fighting anyone? We recently took out their lamp on their nightstand because one brother (I’m sure you can guess who) would decide to turn it on when he woke up–didn’t matter what time in the morning, and didn’t matter if other brother was sleeping. And trying to explain that other brother was whinier, grumpier and less pleasant to be around didn’t phase him.  Grrrrrrr!  And of course the lamp lighter brother had the biggest attitude about going back to bed. So what do you do when your kid gets up at the crack and refuses or “can’t” (aka WON’T) go back to bed for sleep or rest?

We have tried several things, some worked better than others:

1. A few years ago, we put a lamp on a timer so older child would know when it was okay to get up and out of bed.  It seemed to work for a while but then he figured out how to mess with the timer and/or unplug it so we stopped being consistent with it.

2. We have finagled with bedtimes to see if that helps.  We love the book, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, and have moved some bedtimes up earlier so they would sleep later.  Counterintuitive I know, but it does work.  Overtired children are more likely to wake up more often in the middle of the night and wake up early.  Have you ever noticed that when you have a late night out your kids wake up at their same ol’ time or EARLIER?  I am always hopeful they will sleep in–but I keep reminding myself that when they become teenagers and hibernate in their rooms sleeping through the mornings on the weekends I’ll get to really get to sleep in myself.

3. Patiently (keyword: patiently) leading them back to bed to rest until mommy or daddy come get them.  It may only be enough time for some slight dozing or snuggling on the parental end but at least I am cozy in bed and not starting my day yet.  I have had my fair share of mornings being grumpy, mad mommy insisting they go back to bed but that only makes it WORSE–they resist more and I get all riled up so I’m definitely NOT getting any more sleep.  I’m too busy kicking myself for getting frustrated and trying to tell the adrenaline to shut off.

4. Teach them about time with a digital clock.  This is obviously better for older kids but it has been working a little at our house.  We had a special “training session” where I taught the kids how to get out of bed, open and shut their bedroom door quietly so they wouldn’t disturb the other person sleeping.  We practiced getting out of bed and using “quiet feet” (we have wood floors on 3 of the 4 levels in our house so it often feels like we live inside a drum) several times. They had a lot of fun with it.  I also have been going over with them almost daily that when the clock says “6:0_, 6:1_, 6:2_, 6:3_” then it is too early to get up and out of bed.  They can lay in bed quietly (and we practiced several examples of what is NOT quiet) and then come out when the clock says “6:4_”.   They can say it verbally back to me but when it comes down to practice they are still a little sketchy about it.  Sometimes they forget to look at the clock, sometimes they read the numbers in the wrong direction–I mean they are 4 and 5 so of course it is going to take them a while to get it down.  They have surprisingly had a lot of fun with all this training and are proud of themselves when they get it right.  It still seems like they wake up at the same time more often than not. We have also been working on teaching about time with an analog clock just to help them with time in general.

5. I haven’t tried this one yet, but I just saw a little blurb in Parents Magazine about it and I am seriously considering ordering one.  A Good Nite Lite was designed by a dad whose kid kept getting up at 5am. He designed the night light to glow like a sun when it is daytime and okay to get out of bed, and like a moon to show that it is still nighttime and to stay in bed.  It costs $35 bucks which might be worth it for some extra sleep.

I realize that this post is geared for older kids in big beds, not babies.  That is a different post that maybe I’ll write about another time.  I have some experience in babies that get up too early too.

So, what do you do when your kids wake up too early?  What has worked for you?  What has been the biggest disaster?