Nourishment.

We seem to be thinking more about the foods we eat lately. We have always tried to maintain a healthy diet for ourselves and the children but certain health issues have forced us to look more at our eating habits and to find alternatives. As already mentioned Heather appears to be dairy intolerant, affected by the foods I eat via the breastmilk. So I have not consumed any dairy or egg products since new years eve. There has been a dramatic reduction in the amount of vomiting and discomfort Heather suffers with so I'm pleased I finally made the change from a vegetarian to a vegan diet. Although there the added environmental and ethical reasons which have continually challenged me over the years, but when added to the health of your child and ultimately yourself then the solution was obvious wasn't it? And now I'm a month into the new diet and I am really enjoying experimenting with new foods and ways of cooking.
Helen has also been concerned about her health for a few months now and we have finally come to realise that she has IBS. So her diet was fairly healthy, mostly vegetarian with an occasional urge for some form of meat, usually chicken or sausage. But she has removed all meat from her diet and reduced her dairy intake (although not entirely) and she is reaping the benefits. Her flare-ups are becoming more widespaced and less bothersome.
And we have finally managed to kick Owen's cravings for pure apple juice and he is now drinking more water and cold fruit tea's, although only in sips as he doesn't quite have the taste for them yet.

This is both John and my own favourite snack at the moment - rice cakes spread with marmite and Pure cheese substitute spread and topped with sprouted seeds. Yes even John is changing his eating habits!


Inventing dairy free sugar free cakes - flour, eggs, Pure spread and agave syrup with lots of leftover chopped cherries:


Getting back into the baking fresh bread each morning habit - Spelt loaf and spelt rolls for lunch:


Carrot soup served the only way the boys in this house will eat their blended soups - extra thick:


The finished cherry cakes for after lunch, gone in a flash so must have been good:


Even playtime revolves around food - homemade playdough, coloured pink for Sophies enjoyment:

And finally a great charity shop find - books on vegan nutrition and eliminating toxins from the food we eat:

Oh dear!

So I went to make lunch and asked Owen, Cain and Sophie, who has been with us since Sunday, to go upstairs to tidy the toys and wash their hands. They appeared at the table soon after and we sat to eat. Owen and Cain soon wandered off and I sat and chatted with Sophie. I kept glancing at her and thinking something wasn't quite right. But I wasn't sure what? And then I realised, this is what I was so slow at seeing:



Do you see how short part of her hair is? Well it wasn't that short 20 minutes earlier! Further questions revealed that Sophie had been to the hairdressers in the bathroom, as staffed by Cain and equipped with a pair of nail scissors he had found in Jen's room, he had given Sophie a lovely new haircut! Oh why did he have to chop through the front section, at least the back could have been disguised a little, but the whole fringe..............No chance! Especially as Sophie only recently had her first haircut after having only a fine layer of very slow growing hair until she was almost three.
It's the bad books for me now........

Lifecycles.

Do you remember this? Well we kept this little caterpillar, fed him, watched him grow a little. Then one day we noticed a change - he had a red shell beginning to enclose his body. A day or two later and he was hidden with a red scaly covering. So we kept him in the corner of the living room, wondering at what was happening inside the shell. And two days ago we looked inside the bowl to discover this:




He had emerged from his cocoon as a beautiful moth. No idea what kind he is......anyone help with that one? But Owen and Cain are fascinated. He has disappeared now, no idea where, but his empty shell remains as the boys wonder if will come back for it some time.

These funny little people.

I think Cain must have been inspired by this lovely blog and all the shadow shots. He had a great time standing on the dining table and watching his bum dancing in shadow on the pantry door.


Heather isn't too keen on this weaning lark:


Cain thinks this bed might be a touch too small:


A big toothless grin:


And finding her toes:

Nappy free.

We've talked about having our babies nappy free in the past, even had a part time nappy free baby with Cain, but never been brave enough to commit entirely to the idea of not using nappies for our little one. And besides cloth nappies are perfectly good aren't they, health wise and environmentally? Or so I thought. But then wouldn't no nappies at all be even better? Well Heather has her own ideas. She absolutely hates having a nappy on. No matter what type - terry, bamboo, cotton, shaped, prefold, p.u. wraps, wool wraps, all of them. She hates them! From being tiny she wriggled and squirmed at changed time, far more than any baby I have known. She would be so unsettled with the nappy on and fidget and complain the second she got it dirty, calming down immediately she was laid on the changing pad. So within a couple of weeks of being born we were having nappy free periods which have gradually lengthened until nappy off times were longer than nappy on times, and progressing until nappy off times were all day long. But we were far more weary of being nappy free at night time. Until the night that Heathers reflux meant that she vomited four times in only two hours requiring the same number of full bedding changes. So we thought if we're going to be up and down changing sick covered clothes and bedding then we might as well do away with the nappy too. In fact the thought of cleaning a small wet area seemed easy after needing to clean copious amounts of vomit. Poo wasn't really a worry, Heather has set times for pooing and during the night just isn't the time.
We still need to make that final leap of faith though, to stop wearing nappies entirely. Going out of the house still means wrapping her up in a nappy before any other clothing. And when we return there's lots of coats to remove, drinks to make, boys to settle before I get chance to remove the nappy. And by then it's usually soiled. And her bum has usually reddened. And then I wonder why I missed the signs. But then I'm not great at spotting the signs anyway. Some mama's know when their little one needs to go, they spot telltale signs, grunting, grimaces, mood changes. I don't spot these things. I have no doubt she tries to send signals but invariably I miss them due to being otherwise occupied. I know the times she goes which makes being nappy free fairly easy and clean when at home. Within a few minutes of waking, just after nursing, after her bath, all times when I am with her and so should be able to notice other signs but I don't. She just smiles whilst I hold her and does what she needs. Unless her smile is the sign? No, don't think so. And the fact that she has reflux both helps and hinders the process. She grimaces and reddens and fidgets when she has wind so I take her to the toilet and sometimes she'll do something, other times it's wind and yet other times she just needs a good burp. But this means that I am only spotting the signs that she needs to eliminate wind, that I'm seeing her discomfort which isn't necessarily caused by the need to poo. Therefore I miss other more subtle signs that she is about to wee or poo. And so being useless at spotting the signs I always use a nappy for out and about. And I always regret it when I get home. I wish I was brave enough to take that leap of faith and trust Heather to let me know she needed to eliminate, but I'm not. Maybe soon.........

Vegan diet.

I really don't like the whole idea of new years resolutions, it generally just means setting myself up for a fall, but this year I decided that the new year would be a good time to overhaul my diet. I haven't eaten meat, fish or poultry since I was 14 so over 24 years, but have decided that I no longer want to eat dairy or eggs either. There are many reasons for this, my health, Heathers health, the animals health......... Now I don't have a lot of dairy, preferring soya milk for cereals and cooking, and soya alternatives to custard and cream. I do like cheese though and have yet to find a decent alternative. And eggs are so hard to avoid, especially for someone who likes their cakes and biscuits like I do! I did have a spell of avoiding dairy soon after Heather was born but wasn't really strict about it, still eating cheese on occasion and using milk in tea. But this time I have been very strict with myself. Which actually hasn't been as hard as I thought it would be. So it's two weeks into the new year and so far I haven't had any dairy or eggs at all. The only real problem was with tea which I did drink quite a lot of, although I had managed to reduce it down to 3-4 cups of tea a day at most. I really don't like non cow's milk in tea and so I only really had one option.......stop drinking tea. So I've been drinking lots of fruit teas, Rocks organic juice and cinnamon tea.
The benefits of the new diet are already making themselves known. The most apparent difference to me is that I have lost 7lbs in weight since 1st January without having to reduce the amount of food I eat. Not that I'm bothered about losing the weight but I suppose I do have a little of the post baby weight to lose. I did have a really difficult few days at first where I felt irritable and lethargic, not helped by the mastitis I had last weekend, but the past few days I seem to have rediscovered my energy and enthusiasm and am currently feeling that life is pretty good, despite the obstacles I keep finding in my way.
It is possible though that these changes could also have been helped by the changes in Heather. In the past week the vomiting has lessened considerably and she hasn't vomited in three days now. The wind in her tummy also seems to becoming tolerable and although she still wakes in the night screaming in pain until she can bring her wind through, these wakenings are less often and seem less stressful for her. In fact for the last two nights she has had a sleep block of three hours on both nights. The rest of the night has still been composed of 30 minute naps, quick feeds, some pain and fidgeting, but so much better than it was before. I know I mentioned before that I tried a dairy free diet to help Heathers reflux but now I think I should have been absolutely strict. It really seems to have made the difference. As Heather still isn't showing much interest in foods then a dairy free diet isn't a concern for her at the moment but I am going to have to be careful to check what she eats once she does become interested in food. I know this is all supposition at the moment and that it could be just a coincidence and that her reflux is settling due to her age rather than the dietary change but I am really not willing to change things to find out. We'll just see how things go.
Now if only I could find a good recipe book filled with low/no sugar vegan desserts........

This past week.

This toy has been played with a lot:



Owen has camped:


Cain has camped:



Heather has been sitting for longer periods:


Apple is a lot different to milk: