Summertime, vacation time!
May 13, 2012

Summertime, vacation time!

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Ah summertime!  School is getting out for the summer and we are all planning for vacations.  My favorite summertime place to be is the beach.  The moment my toes touch the sand and I smell the salty ocean air, nothing else matters.  It is my happy place.  I love that my girls have adopted my love of the beach as well.  My 3 year old asks me every few days if we can go to the ocean. I hate telling her no, but the three hour drive straight east to reach the sand & waves means we would get there, walk to the ocean, and then drive home to pick up her big sister from school. Not exactly my idea of a fun beach trip.

Last summer we were planning our vacation last minute between work trips for my husband and school starting for my oldest. It was quite a challenge.  We had 3 criteria.  It had to be driveable, wherever we stayed had to have 2 bedrooms & a kitchen, and it had to be near the beach.

I spent hours looking for beach rental homes that were in our price range, and my husband got to work on hotels.  I came back with very little within our price range, and he found the Ocean Beach Club in Virginia Beach.

 My top tips for vacationing with kids: 

Always have a game plan, even if you don’t stick to it 100%.  We had a list of places we wanted to go and things we wanted to do.  We also made sure to plan at least 1 – 2 days with nothing to do but hang around the beach and the pool.  One of our favorite parts of traveling is seeing what the city we are visiting has to offer.  We generally start with the reciprocal agreements our children’s museum, zoo, and science center have where we are going.  We have found that having memberships  here keep us occupied at home, and it makes vacation cheaper!

Have access to easy food.  This is why we chose a hotel with a kitchen.  Kids need a snack?  Pull a yogurt out of the fridge instead of searching for a 7-11.  Having a stash of food that we could pull out at a moment’s notice made the process of being away from home without my kitchen & pantry so much easier.

Make sure sleeping arrangements are comfortable. Who wants to fight with the kids to go to sleep in their bed while you try to watch TV and relax at their bed time? Our hotel room was a suite, so the girls had their room and we had ours.  We’ve also enjoyed renting houses.  The last time we tried sharing a single room it was  challenging to get our oldest to sleep while I nursed the baby to sleep and we tried to enjoy some adult down time.

Relax & Enjoy. Plan fun activities for everyone, but don’t over plan.  Make sure to enjoy the downtime with your family.  It’s so precious and most of us are so busy in our normal day to day lives that we don’t get that downtime to truly relax & enjoy.

 

We loved that Virginia Beach has a playground on the sand.  It was just a few blocks from our hotel and we took the girls down there to play every night before bed.  It meant we were bringing home two sandy little girls, but it meant we were brining home two TIRED little girls, which helped to counter balance the excitement of a new place and the vacation.

There are also a lot of family friendly things to do in and around Virginia beach, we had our share of adventures. We spent one day at the zoo in Norfolk.  Of course, it was pretty empty since there had been an earthquake earlier in the day, and some of the animals were playing it safe, but we still had a blast!

We played the obligatory beach vacation round of miniature golf, and we enjoyed walking around the town and exploring new places. We also had a blast at the Virginia Living Museum on our way home.

To sum it up, our vacation was loosely planned with some fun activities for all of us and plenty of downtime to just enjoy our family and relax.  We had a great time in Virginia Beach and will absolutely keep it in mind for this year when we’re looking for a quick get away with the kids.  Make sure to like the Virginia Beach Facebook Page to keep up to date on their promotions, and check out their website for more info.

 

What was your favorite family vacation with the little ones? What are you looking forward to this summer?  

 

I wrote this blog post while participating in the SocialMoms and Virginia Beach blogging program. For more information on how you can participate, click here. The opinions about our vacation are all my own.
Filed Under: Motherhood, Product Reviews ·
Are You Mom Enough?
May 10, 2012

Are You Mom Enough?

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I’ve seen that line all around the internet today, and I have to say, it makes me upset.  I’m sure by now you’ve seen the newest cover of Time Magazine and you’ve heard lots of commentary on their piece on Attachement Parenting, Bill & Martha Sears, and the cover photo of a mom breastfeeding her toddler.

I’ll be clear by saying that the parenting mechanisms that work for my family may not be what works best for yours, and I fully accept that.  I don’t expect every family to fit the same mold.  What I do expect is that we can respect each other.

I know many moms who make choices that are different from mine, and they do it with the intention of doing the best that they can for their child and what works for their family.  Telling ANY mom that she isn’t ‘mom enough’ is an awful thing.

This is where the ‘Mommy Wars’ start and why they continue.  Because we allow sensationalist headlines to take a hold of us.  We allow the media to say that if you don’t breastfeed your three year old you’re not mom enough (for the record, both of my girls nursed beyond their 3rd birthday, but I won’t judge you if yours didn’t).

Listen moms, you ARE mom enough, and you don’t need Time Magazine or anyone else to tell you that.  You need to trust your instincts, you need to research the things that are important to you, and you need to do the best you can with the information and resources available to you.  For every single one of us that means different things, and that’s ok.  You do what’s best for your family, and I’ll do what’s best for mine.  Let’s stop judging one another for doing things differently and let’s make sure we don’t allow the ‘Mommy Wars’ to continue.  Let’s support each other and help each other.  THAT shows that you’re ‘mom enough.’

Filed Under: Breastfeeding, Motherhood ·
Guest Post: The Whys and Ways Of Nursing While Pregnant
May 7, 2012

Guest Post: The Whys and Ways Of Nursing While Pregnant

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This is part 1 of a 2 part series on breastfeeding while pregnant.  Today you’ll hear from guest blogger Carrie Willard about her experience and expertise with breastfeeding during pregnancy.  Check back next week to hear from Katy about her experience.

At the moment, I’m 23 weeks pregnant. My 21 month old daughter is also still breastfeeding several times a day. This isn’t the first time I’ve nursed through a pregnancy, and it wasn’t an accident that snuck up on me. I quite intended to continue breastfeeding my toddler while pregnant with her younger sibling. This is the fourth time I’ve done so. Why would a mom choose to breastfeeding during a pregnancy? What are some of the common difficulties and how can they be overcome? What if the toddler doesn’t wean by the time the new baby arrives? These are some of the common questions that surround this topic.

 

For starters, nursing a toddler has many benefits.

Those benefits continue even if the mother becomes pregnant with a new baby. Some of these benefits are: the ability to calm a toddler when life is getting frustrating for him or her, naptime and bedtime made easier, and of course the health and immunity benefits of breastmilk are important for the ever more mobile toddler.

In addition, there are a few unique benefits for the newly pregnant mom.

Many of us experience what could be referred to as “bone crushing” fatigue in our first trimester. Add morning sickness to the mix and it’s no picnic enduring those first weeks. Some moms feel that nursing is a godsend, since at least for those times, their toddler will slow down and relax for a bit. No worries about the little one getting into trouble while you get a little afternoon shut eye. Some women say that breastfeeding helps mitigate their experience of nausea. I’m not sure about that, but I did find that being able to put my feet up several times a day while parenting an active toddler was definitely a plus, as well as the peace of mind that came from continuing to provide a toddler with mom’s milk during a period of illness.

That doesn’t mean that nursing through a pregnancy is always a picnic.

For many, sore nipples are severe during the first trimester of pregnancy, and sometimes later. I certainly experienced this, however I noticed that my nipples were sore whether the baby nursed or not. Even my shirt rubbing against me or the stream of water in the shower hurt. Incidentally my nipples often felt LESS painful after a nursing session.

Careful attention to latch and positioning are paramount at this time.

Toddlers (and let’s face it, us moms too!) often get lax about these two important issues once breastfeeding is “old hat”. Toddlers tend to want to watch everything that’s going on instead of getting down to business. Don’t allow your toddler to lie on his or her back, insist they get “tummy to tummy”, and take a wide mouthful of nipple instead of latching on to the end and “sliding” up. Some moms find that using a moisturizer like olive oil or purified lanolin really help soreness. The good news is that soreness will likely pass.

In the meantime it is perfectly copasetic to tell your toddler that you are sore, and that you need to limit the time or frequency of nursing.

Toddlers are usually accepting of “other mothering” in the form of snacks or drinks, rocking, playing, reading stories, etc. You can also try distraction, avoiding your regular nursing spot or changing your routine. My “morning” sickness was severe at night, so my husband began rocking our little one to sleep. She was quite accepting of this arrangement and my husband now looks forward to this special time with her.

Having no room left in your lap and nursing-induced contractions are common issues late in pregnancy. I never felt that the latter was a problem. “Practice” contractions are likely harmless (unless you’re having a high risk pregnancy, in which case you would probably have already weaned). They can get tiring however, so some of the aforementioned techniques may be in order.

What if your toddler doesn’t wean before your new baby is born?

Toddlers differ in their response to the inevitable changes in mom’s milk supply. It’s common for the milk to slow down considerably at some point in the pregnancy. Some toddlers wean in response to this change,but some don’t. For many nursing isn’t about the milk so much as the comfort that comes from sucking and being close to mom. Some babies will notice and comment on the change if they’re highly verbal or sensitive.

If your little one continues to nurse until their new sibling arrives, you may find yourself in the small but proud camp of women who are “tandem nursing”, meaning they are nursing two babies who are siblings but not twins! That’s a topic for another blog post.

Carrie is a mom of 5 (with one bun in the oven) breastfed babies. Not all at the same time, of course! She blogs about breastfeeding (and being a hot mama!) at http://www.sexynursingbra.com.
Filed Under: Blog, Breastfeeding, Pregnancy ·
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