For My Utah Readers...

Utah Infertility Awareness. They have an event coming up on April 24th. If you're struggling to get pregnant or just want more info this would be a great thing to attend. Check out their site for more info and a program line-up. (Thanks for passing on the info Shelley!)

Pizza with Secret Sauce

The more I involve Little Miss in the cooking process the better she is about eating food - specifically healthy food. So, last night we made homemade mini pizzas. This is super simple and cheap.

The crust is made of Rhodes Rolls. I buy them in bulk at Sam's Club - one roll equals one mini pizza. Let the rolls rise like normal. But instead of cooking them, flatten them out into 5 inch circles. Throw on your favorite toppings and bake for 12 minutes...so good!

Too add a healthy spin I took our favorite pizza sauce and added pureed cauliflower. I love using cauliflower puree. It is super versatile because it takes on the flavor of pretty much anything you pair it with.

*Pureed Cauliflower: steam fresh cauliflower, puree it in your food processor with a little water and freeze! I do a few bags that are 1/2 cup and a few that are 1 cup. To thaw the puree quickly - place sealed freezer bag in bowl of hot water while prepping other food.

No pictures of the finished pizzas - we were so hungry I forgot!

Breast Is Best: Cup Feeding

After sharing my experience with the NICU nurses giving Little Miss a bottle when I asked them not to, I received this email from a reader...

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Barb-

Hey, just saw your blog and read your post on breast feeding. I enjoyed reading it as I am a new mom and have been breastfeeding 100%. My experience wasn't peaches and cream but my son and I have discovered ways to make it more comfortable for both of us.

I did want you (and any of your readers) to know about cup feeding. I am currently living in Singapore with my husband and heard about cup feeding through a coworker. The hospital staff here will bottle feed unless you request cup feeding. It's great because it eliminates nipple confusion.
Essentially they take a medicine cup and feed them directly from the cup. If your milk is coming in they use that or formula if your milk hasn't come in yet. It's incredible to see these tiny babies just drinking away!

You have to watch so they don't choke or let it all dribble out of their mouth but it really doesn't take any longer for the nurses then if they use the bottle. My son was born 6 weeks early and his suckling reflex wasn't strong enough to breastfeed. He spent sometime in the special care nursery and they cup fed him the entire time.
It took 2 days before my milk really started coming so before that they would just mix whatever milk I could pump out with the formula. After a few days I would come and try to breast feed him and then we would supplement with the cup.

By 4 months he has tripled his weight from 4 lbs to 13.5 lbs! Anyway. I've attached some photos as I feel that explains cup feeding better than words. I don't know if any of the hospitals in the states offer this but it's an option and even if they say your child needs milk right away it DOES NOT have to be from a bottle!
I'm grateful for all the blessings of modern day healthcare (my husband is a doctor) but I do feel the medical professionals often push their opinion/experience as what you MUST do when there are other options out there and we either don't know or are too timid to say what we want.

Hope this helps. Feel free to ask any other questions.

Cheers,

Chelsea
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Thank you so much for the info Chelsea!! I'd never heard of cup feeding before and had to pass on the info. I love the pictures too - such a cute little guy, and it really does help to convey what cup feeding is.

Other posts in this series:

• Breast Is Best: My Experience

• Breast Is Best: The Research

• Breast Is Best: How hard could it be? Hard!
  

Maternity Monday

My friend Ashley over at A Daily Dose of Dieting is preggo and into nutrition. Her site is fabulous and I've been a follower from the beginning. But since she became pregnant she's been featuring a Maternity Monday post every week, how to be healthy and pregnant. I love it!

She has great information. So...this Monday while I'm still trying to recover from a computer meltdown last week - head on over to her site and check out the archives for Maternity Monday. Also - she's celebrating one year of blogging fun - so enter her drawing!

A Slightly Healthier Easter

Instead of filling your...


...with this...

...try filling it with an assortment of this...


My mother-in-law bought all the grandkids favorite cereal and is mixing them together to make a fun snack assortment inside the Easter Eggs. Love it!

We'll also be eating a lot of "rabbit" food - carrots and celery with dip. Have a great Easter!!

Silk Tie Easter Eggs

I love these Easter Eggs...beautiful. And different. This isn't exactly a kid friendly project - at least not for my toddler - but it would be fun for slightly older kids to help.

You'll need 100% silk ties from the thrift store, an old pillowcase or lightweight light colored material (got mine at the thrift store too), some string or twist ties, and scissors.

These two were my favorite ties. Love the elephants.

First deconstruct the ties carefully, salvage just the silk material.

Then wrap your eggs as tight as possible without breaking the egg (right side of the material touching the surface of the eggs). Then wrap again with the pillowcase material.

Place gently in a pot, cover eggs with water and add 1/4 cup vinegar. Then turn the heat on. Once the water starts boiling, time them for 20 min. Check periodically for floaters - and push them back down again. Remove from water and let cool and dry till damp.

I was impatient so I gave my eggs more airflow so they'd cool faster by placing my cooling rack over my sink and a paper towel underneath to catch drips.

Some of my favorites...

I love how the paisley ties turned out!



I got this idea from Our Best Bites. A few silk ties from the thrift store and voila!

Click here for full instructions and more pictures from Our Best Bites. Oh, and they're not edible! The dye on silk ties is not FDA approved, who knows where it's from - so don't try it! I'm going to find some cute white ceramic egg cups and display mine.

Virus...

Woke up this morning to a computer that would not stay on long enough to do anything. I just don't think it's fair for a virus to latch itself onto my computer when it's uninvited.

So...instead of posting pictures of amazing Easter eggs today - you'll hopefully see them tomorrow. My husband is trying to fix my computer right now...too bad his laptop doesn't have the Easter egg pictures on it...Oh, well. Tomorrow!

Meanwhile - I have amazing readers! (that's you) I've been receiving some great emails lately - full of awesome information I can't wait to pass on to the rest of you!! Thank you for the support. And thank you for being willing to email me your experiences. Love it. Keep the info coming!