By: hamson on March 1, 2013
3/1/2013:
Last weekend I did a search on juice cleanses because they are all the rage right now. I found way too much stuff so I narrowed it down to “juice cleanse san diego” this was much easier to work with and I found Ritual Wellness which had good reviews and locations all over for me to pick up the juices (save on shipping costs).
I spent all of 15 minutes on the web site before deciding “yep I’m doing this.”
All I needed to know from the company in specific was the quality of their product and it’s all fruit, veggies, organic, vegan, raw… blah blah blah.
Good enough for me. As I told my friend, I’m not a big proponent of “cleanses” and “detoxes” for the body really, I’m of the general opinion that the body is pretty awesome and takes care of that stuff on its own. Though I do see merit in a cleanse helping the overall health of the body. My main goal with this is as much mental as physical. Attempting to get over the “psychological need to always eat” and for 3 days not have to worry at all about when and what I am eating. So I ordered the cleanse and let’s begin!
Day 1:
Day 1 went well. I had my first drink just after 8am. I was pleasantly surprised by the taste. The first sip was…. different and I perceived it as no good…. but by the third sip, it is as if my taste buds adapted and it was rather refreshing. I even liked it! I drink the bottles relatively slow. Its 16oz of juice and I take about 20-30 minutes to finish. I felt good about how it was starting.
About the time when my stomach started feeling slightly hungry , I noticed it was 10am and time for my next juice.
The bulk of the juices are green and consist of: spinach, kale, romaine, celery, cucumber and a green apple(thank goodness for that!).
Juice 1 of the day also adds lemon to that. But Juice 2 and 5 are just the plain green. So I drank my juice, this time being less fearful of the taste, no problem.
This morning plans led me to a hike at Torrey Pines. We didn’t go fast but did 45 minutes up the hill and down the trail to the beach. It was no problem.
Again, no sooner than my stomach started piping up, I noticed 2 hours had passed and it was 12:10 and time for the 3rd drink. By now I’m actually kind of liking this stuff. However drink #3 is that green juice, but has ginger in it. Ginger is super strong and not my favorite (which is weird because I thought I liked it) I feel very healthy drinking all this green and I am peeing so often its getting in the way!
I grabbed Drink #4 as I was leaving the house to pick up the kids. My first “different” drink of the cleanse. Strangely enough, this drink isn’t new to me. This is the “lemonade” drink basically the exact same as another detox: The Master Cleanse (which I tried long ago but didn’t complete). This drink consists of alkaline & ionized water, lemon, cayenne and raw agave. There was LOTS of cayenne and I wondered if I would be able to finish it. Its really important to shake this drink or you’re left with a big pile of the spice on the bottom of the bottle (not a good gulp!)
Now comes the time of day when I do my snacking! I have the boys home from school, they need their snacks and I am a huge fan of apples and pb or cheese, crackers and cheese and all the kid stuff like cheeze its and fishies! I wanted to eat their snacks as I was serving it to them (about 3:15) but I didn’t. I wanted to eat their snacks as I was clearing dishes and cups. But I didn’t.
It occurred to me, I wasn’t hungry. Not even a little bit. I just wanted to eat what they had. so we went outside. But here’s the thing… I wanted to eat. I just kept thinking of what I wanted to eat. BUT I WASN’T HUNGRY!!! It was the weirdest feeling/realization. At 4pm i wondered why the heck I was doing this juice thing and thought about eating, but, how lame is that. Not only did I want to finish the cleanse that I started and paid for, but this mental need/want to eat was the EXACT thing I am trying to overcome!!! So I went in and grabbed bottle number 5. Back to basic greens, nothing added.
It was strange to me how comforting the juice felt. After wanting so badly to eat and not knowing if I could stick with it… I took a sip, and just felt better. Yes. I could do it. I wanted to do it. And I wasn’t hungry. I wasn’t tired. So far I feel unaffected by the cleanse (except for the number of trips to pee).
Dinner time for the family I decided to do something very easy… frozen lasagna. Its italian sausage lasagna which I don’t like even a little bit. But let me tell you, this lasagna smelled like it came right out of an Italian restaurant oven! I felt like I was trying to inhale it. After making plates, I let Norm take over and I left the kitchen. I was about to start my last bottle.
Bottle #6: way different from anything that I have ever had. Its important to note that the texture of my food/drink really makes a different for me. There are foods that I think have an okay flavor but I don’t like that they are too chewy or grainy or whatever….
This drink they call “mylk” and it consists of raw cashews, alkaline & ionized water, cinnamon, nutmeg, raw agave, and vanilla. The flavor was actually very sweet, almost like a desert (the smell of warm bread pudding kept coming to mind). It should have been great, but the texture. Oh man, I couldn’t get over it. I had to force it down to the very last sip! It was the cashews. They were all ground up but you could feel them. I tried to imagine that I had crunched and chewed them up by myself but I didn’t, and they felt pre-chewed! Ick. Flavor, good. Texture, horrid! I’m kind of dreading it for tonight.
I ended the evening with a BodyRock 12 minute workout and basic pilates routine. After the workout it was steam and shower and bedtime. Never did I feel hungry.
DAY 2:
I woke up today a tad hungry but I don’t think much more than I do on other days. I didn’t feel different.
I was expecting a tough day and, thankfully, that just didn’t happen to me. I felt no negative effects (though I wouldn’t say I’m over flowing with positive effects either) from this cleanse. The day was even a bit easier because I knew what to expect out of the drinks. I knew what tastes were coming and I had more trust that the company knew what it was doing after my first day 
I kept on the same schedule starting at 8am. AJ wasn’t in school today so we organized toys and played outside and somewhere in there I drank bottle #2. But by 11:30 I was going to put AJ down for a nap and join him. We watched part of a show and then went to bed and I woke up and I didn’t get out of bed until 1:45. At 2pm I realized I had only had 2 bottles and grabbed #3. I didn’t feel hungry and was doing good on any cravings to eat. I felt good and rested. But that did put me a tad ‘behind’ the rest of the day. I had bottle number 4 at 3:30, not because I was starving yet, but because after making the kids snacks I did kind of want to eat them. Plus I didn’t want to be super late on the last bottle of the day. I started making the kids dinner at 5pm and felt a bit of hunger set in with the smells of Tyler’s enchilada reheating. I made them their dinner and then sat down with them at the table with bottle number 5. Once I was drinking my bottle, it didn’t feel hard sitting with them while they were eating… though when I cleared AJs plate there was some bean and cheese burrito left and it did take a lot for me not to take any bites!!! Norm came home and I told him he was on his own as I didn’t think I could cook food and so he made himself dinner. He sauteed onions and Oh My Gosh did they smell SO good. Like mouth watering. I left the kitchen. We put the kids to bed and wanted to do a workout but I hadn’t had my last drink and didn’t want to be super late with it so we postponed the workout for about 20 minutes while we finished a basketball game on TV while folding laundry. The cashew mylk was still a bit hard for me to drink. It tasted better, but still didn’t care for the texture. Less than 30 minutes later I was done and we started our workout. I made it through the same workout from Day 1, BodyRock 12 minute and then pilates. We got in the steam, showered and off to bed. I was tired by the end of the night but not overly and I never felt hungry which was good.
DAY 3:
Day 3 has been interesting. I started the morning with my glass of lemon water and then had a workout with my trainer. It was a much harder workout than I have done in some time but I got through it and felt really wonderful when it was over. My workout was from 7 to 8am and then it was get the kids to school so I didn’t actually start my first juice until after 8:30am, and then I was working on the computer so it took me until 10am to finish it. From here, I’ve been taking 180 degree turns. My feeling after Juice #1 was that I wished I had done a longer cleanse. I felt good and happy could see progress in my mental struggles with eating so I wanted to have more time to overcome them. Just before 11am, I started getting a head ache. Not horrible, just minor throbbing, right around the temples. So I grabbed juice number two and got out of the house. Drinking the juice did help and I did some errands and picked up AJ and the head ache kind of became off and on. One of my errands was getting food for Post-Cleanse. I did some web searches on what to eat and Ritual Wellness also sent me an email about it. There seems to be a consensus…ease in to foods. I got stuff for fruit for breakfasts, broth based soups, and veggies. All sounded so good.
At this point I’m not feeling hunger or anything else other than the headache. I had juice number 3 and went back to doing finances. It was around 2pm when I noticed I had a tiny bit left of juice number 2 and I wasn’t hungry… but I also wasn’t satisfied. I wanted to go in the kitchen and look for something. I didn’t. I picked up the kids and (when I gave my two youngest their school reward of 1 gummy worm and 2 gummy bears, I realized that I didn’t want to eat the candy at all. Well, that wasn’t true. I did want to chew on the gummy bears, but I didn’t WANT gummy bears. That is kind of big for me. I wonder if all these days I’ve just popped a few because they were there. We got home 2:50pm and my head ache had turned from minor throbbing to full head ache. Was it the workout this morning? Calories? Water? I’m not sure but all I knew was I wanted to be done with the juices and find something that would stop my head from pounding. I wanted food. I did. Not just to chew, but I felt hungry. I wanted to eat. To make matters worse the kids wanted a snack. I cut up apples and cheese and put cheeze its on their plates and all I wanted was the apples and cheese. (I really had no interest in the crackers.) I wanted that apple. How bad could an apple be? Its in my juices anyway… I stood in the kitchen and contemplated what I should do, what I could eat. I grabbed juice number 4 – the spicy lemonade and drank a few huge gulps. Took the bottle out of the kitchen and finished it in about 10 minutes.
By 4pm my headache was still there but I was not hungry, I didn’t feel a need to eat and I was SO glad that I stuck with my final day.
We were having dinner at a friends house so at 4:30pm I packed up my two final bottles in a little cooler and we headed out. I still had a bit of a head ache when we arrived at the house just before 5pm. We started playing and chatting and I grabbed my drink at 5:15. More playing, talking, hanging out. The group ordered In and Out which smelled DELICIOUS but I was surprisingly fine with the fact that I wasn’t eating it. Even when Jessica brought out frozen chocolate chip cookies for the kids for dessert my first second instinct was… I want a cookie, and then, I decided I was fine without it. I drank my final bottle of the cleans at 7:20pm and it was the easiest time I had drinking the drink. I noticed the texture, and I still didn’t like it, but it wasn’t grossing me out anymore and I didn’t have to consciously gulp it down. At 8:45pm I realized I don’t have a head ache at all and I can’t remember having one since I arrived at our friends house at 5pm. Now I’m turning in for the night and feel really great about completing this cleanse.
By: teri on December 29, 2012
12-29-2012
The Children’s Museum in Palm Desert had a dog statue in front with a name tag reading ‘R. Hero’ and Jaxon asked what the ‘R’ stood for. Tyler responded, ‘Arf!’
After explaining to Tyler and Jaxon that calling people fat is not nice, Tyler suggests we use ‘wide’ instead. The boys spend the next few minutes discussing Tyler’s ‘wide’ head, Dad’s ‘wide’ feet and Mom’s ‘wide’… shoulder brace.
Other cute things were said, we did not record them.
11-9-2011
I picked up Ty from school. On the car ride home:
Ty: Everyone in the world is different.
Mom: That’s true. We are all different.
Ty: But what if there was another boy, with a big round head, and these shoes (pointing at feet), and the same tall as me…. well he wouldn’t be different at all. He’d be me.
11-8-2011
We’ve been doing a lot of “letters” in our house lately. Ty is working on his letters in school, Jax is learning to read, and AJ loves letter factory and making the sounds. Every Friday Ty has his share day and they bring something from home starting with whatever letter they are working on that week. Ty goes around the house asking what letter stuff he wants to take in starts with.
Today he ran in and said, “Mom, for T week I can take in me.”
5-21-2011
Ty successfully abandoned his pacifier when the dentist asked him and so he got a new toy yesterday. He chose a giant AT-AT. Today going down for his nap, he turned to me and said, “I want to buy a real AT-AT. That would be the coolest thing ever.”
5-20-2011
A favorite game on the freeway for Ty and Jax is to point out Transformers they see (Sports cars are usually Jazz, everything yellow is bumble bee, cops are barricade, all trucks are Optimus Prime, etc) . As we drove past the temple, Ty spotted and called out an Optimus Prime. Jax responded, “The Temple is even better than Optimus Prime.” (The San Diego Temple looks like it could transform into something pretty sweet.)
3-16-2011
Ty found a long hair in the shower and declared that he does not like hair.
Ty: Well. I like my hair. And Jaxon’s hair. And your (Dad’s) hair. And AJ’s hair. <Long pause> When mommy gonna be a boy?
10-6-2010
Jaxon: Autumn is just a fancy word for fall. You use it at parties.
8-1-2010
Today in sacrament meeting Teri was sitting in between Jaxon and Tyler (Norm was in the hall with a sleeping AJ). During sacrament Tyler kept tabs on the bread (loudly) telling how far away it was and when it was going to come to us. He did the same with the water. Then as the kids walked away he said, “What they gonna bring me next?” I told him that was it, bread and water. “Why just bread and water? They should bring something good like pizza with sausage.”
7-30-2010
Jaxon playing cards on the floor. “Mom look, its me versus nobody. I’m probably winning.”
7/7/2010
Sitting at lunch Jaxon starts telling Tyler about how great he’s eating, “Tyler, you are doing a great job on that sandwich. Its gonna help you grow big and strong.”
Jaxon looks down to eat his own lunch, meanwhile Tyler is looking at Jaxon holding up his hand. Jaxon didn’t turn back fast enough and Tyler says, “Hey Jax, you gonna give me five or what?”
4-23-2010
Jaxon reading one of his books. He tries to guess the words based on the picture rather than reading them. Norm tells Jaxon that he needs to look at the letters and sound them out. Jax replies, “Stop. You’re making me lose my mind.”
2-14-2010
Jaxon and Norm are discussing the onions in the garden. Norm tells Jax that he has no idea how to know when onions are ready to be picked and that they’ll have to ask Lola because she’s a good gardner. Jaxon responds that he knows someone who’s an even better gardner than Lola. Norm asks who and Jaxon says, “I’ll give you a hint, he created me. It’s Jesus! He’s the best gardner.”
Tonight, Jaxon said family prayer, part of his prayer: “And make sure that me, Jaxon, the one that’s saying the prayer, get’s his owie better. And make sure he sleeps well so that he doesn’t get six. I mean sick.”
2-4-2010
(A.M) Jaxon: Mom, I love Baby AJ a lot. I want to get him a really special cake for his birthday. What does he like? Mom, I’ll just pick for him, and then I’ll help him eat it.
(P.M) Jaxon was given a new game from Eryn. Norm read him the card and said they could open it and play. Jaxon was so excited he said, “Oh boy, I sure hope this game comes with ingredients.”
(He meant instructions for those of you who couldn’t figure that out)
<2-3-2010>
Tyler was trying unsuccessfully to open a nutri-grain bar, so Norm asked him if he needed help.
Tyler: No fanks. Me good.
<Mid October 2009>
Jaxon has been sick and had a fever and during breakfast Norm told him about the white blood cells in his body and how they fight inside him to beat the sickness and the fever is a good thing because it tells us that “his guys” are fighting. Jaxon asked how many guys he had fighting and Norm told him there were lots and lots and we had to help them by drinking lots of liquids and resting. (I only caught the tail end of this conversation).
That afternoon Jaxon was coughing and he turned to me and said, “Mom, I think my guys are losing.”
<9-12-2009> (approximately)
I got Tyler up out of his crib after we had the AC on over night and he tried to describe cotton mouth to me.
Tyler, pointing at his mouth: Yuck. I ate yadybug.
<7-26-2009>
Jaxon: Did you know that there’s something under God?
Norm: Really?
Jaxon: Yeah. And it’s invisible!
Norm: Is it one nation?
Jaxon: How did you know?
(Apparently, they are learning the pledge of allegiance in school.)
<Updated 7-20-2009 approx>
Norm and Teri, in Toys R Us, discuss the new set of X-Men toys which include the Blob. Jaxon asks which one is ‘The Blob’ and when we point him out, says, “That Chunky Monkey’s name is the Blob?!?”
<Updated 7-11-2009>
Jaxon noticing his mother’s post delivery tummy: Momma, why is your belly still flumpy?
Jaxon explaining his days actions to his father: I wasn’t a very good boy today, but let me tell you why.
<Updated 6-14-2009>
Jaxon (while going to the bathroom before getting in bed): Can I play one video game?
Norm: Not right now.
Jaxon: Oh, man. You just ruined my whole day.
Norm: Excuse me?
Jaxon: At least, you didn’t ruin my whole life.
<Updated 5-30-2009>
Jaxon explaining to Adam how some numbers look similar: ’5 is just like 2. Except its 5.’
<Updated 5-26-2009>
We’re going to keep this post alive for a while, updating it and changing the date when we add to it. These will be brief moments in our lives, little things that Jax or Tyler do and say that make us laugh. And yesterday, we got two from Jaxon.
When I was putting him in the car before we drove up to Uncle Karl’s, Jax leaned into my arm and kissed it and said, ‘I love you more than I can count. And I can count to like 25.’
On the way home from Uncle Karl’s, Jaxon asked me, ‘What comes before 7?’ ’6,’ I told him. ‘Ok. What comes after 7?’ ’8′ ‘Ok. I’m thinking of a number between 6 and 8. Can you guess it?’ This had teri and I in stitches for about 10 minutes.
<Some earlier gems that we don’t remember the date>
Norm was talking to Jaxon about breakfast and Norm put his plate in front of the wrong chair. Jaxon said, ‘Not there, stupid.’ Norm replied, a little surprised, ‘Excuse me?’ Jaxon responded, “It’s spanish for ‘No, Thank you.’”
By: teri on September 3, 2010
I’m done. Last night, before we went to Back to School Night I had a cup of orange juice. When we got home, I made myself a salad with romaine lettuce, leftover chicken and Light Cheese Fantastico Dressing and I also I finished off the tiny bit of caprese salad that we had in the fridge.
In addition to that, I found a leftover chocolate bar from my nutrisystem food and I ate that. It was so yummy.
I know many people were, lets just go with hesitant, about my taking part in the Master Cleanse. I appreciate the support even though you didn’t think I should be doing it.
I have to say, I really liked it. I did. I don’t know if what I wanted to have happen actually happened. I can’t see inside my body and check to see if my bits and pieces are all shinny. But, I feel good. I am happy to have done it and I am now ready for my next step, which will hopefully be the diet I am on for the rest of my life.
I started in on Tosca Reno’s The Eat-Clean Diet Recharged (already reading the Eat-Clean Diet) and I’m pretty pumped about the possibilities. I talked with Norm a bit about this this morning and I have talked with Jessica about it in the past, as a mom, you are “in control” of so many things… the kids, schedules, the house, but you actually _have_ control of just about nothing. Very often even when you make workouts a priority, something comes up that you can’t ignore (i.e. kids).
But what you put in your mouth, the food that you choose to eat, that is 100% in your control. I believe that. I can control that and no one else is to blame but myself. That is one of the things I like about Tosca’s book, she gives tip after tip on how to take control and keep it. And that is what I hope to do.
As far as numbers go, from the Master Cleanse, I can give you what my scale tells me. I don’t think it means much since more than likely it was water loss, but you can have it anyway. On Monday morning I was 129.8lbs, 21.2%BF, Tummy 31.8″, Bellybutton 30.4″ and Hips 37.5″.
This morning I was 126lbs, 21.4%BF, T 31.5″, BB 29.8″, H 37.5″.
(and Lorri, my BF scale is anywhere from 2-4% lower than my actual, or when I get dunked.)
More than hoping I can keep off the weight, I hope this cleanse, physically but also mentally, will give me a clean start. By that I mean, physically I hope my body has no cravings inside (for sweet type things) and no pre-formed habit that it must eat snacks in the afternoon, etc.
Mentally, I hope I realize what my body is capable of. After my dinner Sunday night, I ate nothing until 4:30pm on Thursday. I drank a lemonade concoction, and I felt good. Energetic, happy, capable. If nothing else, I hope what I just did shows myself, that I can… whatever it is… I can.
By: teri on September 2, 2010
Day 4 – 9/2/2010:
What am I doing now? I’m not so sure.
Last night wasn’t so great. We went to bed early but I had trouble falling asleep as my tummy was growling. Like full tiger growling. I didn’t “feel” hungry, but I sure heard my stomach asking for something and I could tell it was empty. Once I fell asleep I was fine and I didn’t wake up starving or anything like that.
I made the decision not to do the salt water flush anymore but I’m half considering doing it one more time or at least starting to drink the herbal laxative tea at night like they say. The first two days, immediately following the salt water I went to the bathroom numerous times, but each day, I didn’t go any more in the afternoon or evening.
Yesterday, I don’t think I went at all. I mean, I have to pee all the time, but… no waste is coming out.
Isn’t the purpose to clean out all the (literally) crap? Norm said, if, in fact it is like flushing out pipes, there is a finite amount of stuff that is in there. Theoretically, once it is cleaned out, if no more solid junk is going in it should be good.
So I’m wondering, am I good? Did I clean myself out? That is why I’m thinking of doing one more flush, just to check out what comes out. (gross I know)
As for right now I’m chugging along like usual. AJ woke up just after 6am so I started early.
Drink #1 at 6:15am.
Drink #2 at 7:30am.
Drink #3 at 9am.
Drink #4 at 10:05am.
Drink #5 at 11:10am. Food Food Food. That is all I can think about and that is why I made my drink and walked out of Ty and AJ sitting in the kitchen eating lunch. I was fine, felt fine, and then I started making the boys lunch. Standing in front of the refrigerator while Tyler is checking out “what me wants” I see the leftover homemade pizza, the cut up watermelon and clean grapes, even the pasta with homemade sauce looks good in there. Sauteed Veggies. String Cheese. Oh my gosh I want food.
After less than a minute in front of the refrigerator Ty decided he wanted “your noodle and vegetables from the cold one.” Which is my Yakisoba noodle bowl and I figured that was perfect because AJ likes that too.
But it smelled so good. Cutting it up and dishing it into their bowls….
I really don’t want to quit because I’m hungry in the middle of making food for the kids. It just seems, well, like the wrong reason. I said it the first day, making and being around food while trying to do something like this is self torture.
Sitting here at the computer, my stomach feels fine again. Not that I don’t want food if I start thinking about it, but I don’t feel like I need food anymore. Just have to stay out of the kitchen!
Drink #6 at 12:30. Ty was down for his nap and AJ and I were hanging in the family room and I’ve mostly decided I would be stopping today or tomorrow but I made my drink anyway.
Drink #7 at 2:10 just before going to pick up Jaxon.
Okay, its official, I’m tapering off. I was on the phone with Jessica chatting about this whole “thing” I’ve gotten myself into and basically decided that I was done. We talked about how the book describes for you to eat once you’ve finished. (which is pretty crazy actually because it calls for OJ for 2 days after and then on the 3rd day OJ in the morning followed by fruit and salad for lunch and dinner and THEN you are ready to eat again.)
Maybe its because I haven’t even been on it for a full 4 days, but I feel completely normal, like I could eat anything. Having said that, I’m not really sure if my insides feel that way, so I figure I’ll ease into it.
I went to get myself a cup of OJ, but instead found the leftover watermelon. I couldn’t help it. Its mostly water anyway right
At about 4:30, I ate the watermelon. YUM.
Now, I think I will have that cup of OJ and maybe a salad or something tonight and then start my clean eating tomorrow!
By: teri on September 1, 2010
Day 3 – 9/1/2010:
I didn’t do the Sea Salt Flush this morning because Marcus came for our workouts and I wanted my stomach to be on track.
I made drink #1 at 6:40am just before my workout.
I made drink #2 at 8:20 after my workout.
Its now 9:40 and I feel really good, not hungry at all, but I’m gonna go make another drink just to try and keep up and on schedule.
Drink #3 at 10am.
AJ didn’t go down for a morning nap like I thought so we decided to head out for a quick trip to the store. When I bought stuff for this I only got one jar of the maple syrup and on my last drink I finished it so if I wanted to keep going I needed more.
We just got home and I made drink #4 at 11:30 and when I am done with it I will put the boys down for a nap and hopefully I will take one too.
Boys went down and then I did and got a nap from 12:20 until 1:30 when my someone picking up the neighbor kids sat outside on the driveway and honked over and over. Then yelled. The nap was done at that point 
Drink #5 at 1:30.
I don’t feel hungry yet. So far I still feel good. This is better than yesterday, so we’ll see if the hunger pains come in the afternoon.
I made drink #6 before I left to pick up Jaxon (at 2:25). We headed off to do errands and didn’t return home until after 4:30.
What I have noticed today, has not been hunger pains like yesterday, but instead a very dull head ache. It came and went a few times between 3pm and 5pmand my guess was it was a “food headache”.
I made drink #7 while I started cooking dinner and didn’t end up finishing it until 5:30.
Making the food I didn’t feel starving, but I did want to eat. It smelled good and I could tell I was hungry even though I wasn’t having hunger pains. I made myself drink #8 when we all sat down for dinner at 6:15. Pasta, salad, bread, watermelon and caprese salad, for everyone else, and a lemonade drink for me! My choice I know.
I finished the drink and almost immediately made myself drink #9.
The kids went down, I’ve been on the computer and now, at 8:25pm I made my final drink of the day, drink #10 and I’m taking the drink and my book and going to bed.
I feel good and I’m happy about that. I sure hope what I want to be happening actually is, it will make it all worth it.
By: teri on September 1, 2010
Morning Thoughts on Day 3- 9/1/2010:
Low and behold, there is a day three to this madness. Yesterday I really wasn’t sure if I was going to continue or not. I got hungry more often than I was happy about. The drinks helped, but sometimes as soon as 30 minutes after I had finished the drink I felt hungry again. My effort to drink more drinks went pretty well. I got to 9 drinks which is, of course, significantly better than a 4, but still not the goal amount. Maybe I need to be better about making a drink as soon as I get hungry no matter how quickly after the last one it is.
In my hungered state, I questioned what I was doing. I have read the informational booklet on The Master Cleanse and there are a lot of things in there that I really like. There are also a ton of things in there that I think are crap. I told Norm, one of the problems when you don’t believe in everything, is that it can make you wonder about what you do believe in. (I’m not gonna take that to the next level of conversation but keep it right here about the detox) How do I know that they stuff they say, the stuff that I like, is real? How do I know that it is doing what I want it to be doing?
Tony sent me a great article from a “Dr. Andrew Weil. He is a harvard MD and the granfather basically of the integrative medicine program which is a combination of western and holistic medicine.” Tony was a tad concerned about the Sea Salt Flush that I was doing so just wanted me to read something from a “legit” doctor.
*smile*
It was very informative actually and I liked everything he said. One of the things that stuck out in this article for both Norm and I is “In evaluating claims for flushes and other cleansing regimes, be aware that the body does a pretty good job of cleansing and purifying itself. If you focus on good nutrition, regular exercise, and other healthy habits, you won’t feel the need to do this sort of thing.”
I believe this. In fact, this is what I am counting on. Live a healthy lifestyle and everything else will fall into place.
My purpose with this cleanse, is essentially a starting block. No, its even before the starting block, its my eraser in an attempt to make a clean slate.
I am an emotional eater. You can tell if I am having a rough day with the kids based on what I am eating. I am a bored eater. If there is nothing better to do I find food and eat. What I wonder is if I have trained myself, my body, to “need” food around that 3pm time when all I want to do is snack. If all the refined sugar that I have been eating has been making me crave more…. I want to wipe that away. This cleanse, what I want it to do for me, is wash out physically and mentally those habits, toxins, whatever, so that I can start a healthy clean eating lifestyle.
Thats what I want. What I don’t really know, is if this Master Cleanse will even do that.
Yesterday when I told Norm I was hungry and I didn’t know what to do, he asked how I was feeling besides that.
Truth is, I feel great. Lots of energy, I’ve never felt lethargic or emotional or anything that you may think could be a side effect. And of course I’m hungry…. I’m not eating. I love food and so the drink over and over gets a little boring. Maybe that is why I don’t jump to make it.
I don’t know if what I am doing is working towards the purposes that I want, but I feel confident that I am not doing any damage to myself either.
I don’t want to quit just because I am hungry. This morning I did a full workout with Marcus. We did boxing and some weights. I felt good. I still feel good. I did my Sculpt Yoga class Monday night. I felt good then too. I don’t mind quitting if there are negative side effects or I stop feeling good, in fact, I will quit in those cases, but I don’t want to stop just because. I’d like to play this thing out and see if, by chance, it does do what it says it will. What I hope it will.
So…. lets start with Day 3!
By: teri on August 31, 2010
DAY 2- 8/31/2010:
I made an effort to start everything a little earlier today in an effort to get in more drinks.
I drank my quart of salt water about 7:30 and before 8am I was in the bathroom. Having never done this before, I’m not sure how it progresses and what to look for in terms of it “working” and “being successful”, but I would say that based on yesterday versus today, something is going well. (More detail than that gets pretty specific and gross so I’m gonna leave it at that)
I was drinking my first drink around 8:15 because I was thirsty and feeling a bit parched (probably from the salt water as Norm has explained it to me) and this time I didn’t sip. I drank. Not guzzled, but… its only 10 ounces, so I drank it… normal (for me). It took me all of 5 minutes to drink it.
Drink #2 @ 9:30. Again, not sipping, but drinking.
Its 10am right now and I feel good. Full energy, not hungry and no stomach issues. Lets hope I can maintain the feeling.
Around 10:30 I tell I was getting hungry. But AJ was asleep and I was on the computer and wanted to get a few more things done before he woke up so I didn’t respond to my tummy.
Just before 11 I made Tyler lunch and at that time I made myself my 3rd lemonade drink.
I definitely feel more hungry today. Its only 11:30 and I’ve wanted food a few times where yesterday it happened twice all day. The book says to make yourself the drink whenever you are hungry and it does help. I feel fine now but wonder how long before I feel hungry again. I wonder if the pepper has anything to do with hunger. My insides feel a bit hot, all down my throat and into my stomach and its a good distraction actually.
I made Drink #4 at 1pm and drank it by 1:06.
I had to go and pick up Jaxon and we left at 2:20 so just before I left I made Drink #5. I took it with me and drank it over the course of the next 40 minutes, drinking my last sip just before 3pm.
Its now only 3:15pm and I am hungry. I just told Norm, I dont’ feel tired or lathargic… but I’m hungry today and I wasn’t yesterday. I don’t really know what to do. They say if you are hungry make another drink… so I’ll try that.
Drink #6 at 3:30. More guzzled than drank. Its 4pm and I don’t feel hungry right now.
We got in the pool about 4:15 and by 4:30 my tummy was hungry again. Boo. We kept swimming until 5pm when I got out to make dinner (homemade pizza) for the boys. I made myself a lemonade and had drink #7 at 5:15pm. I’ll tell you, making food when you are hungry… good food, is rough. It took all my will power to not pop little pieces of cheese and when the pizza was done and I was cutting it up, oh man. Drink 7 took me a long time to drink as I was rolling out dough and such so I didn’t finish it until about 6pm. Now the whole family is eating and I came over here to complain (and to not smell the pizza). I’ll make another drink I guess.
Drink #8 at 6:15pm. We put the kids down for bed just after 7pm and I made myself Drink #9 and went into the family room, plopped on the couch to watch my Monday night taped shows. I was going to make another drink at 8pm but I didn’t really want one so I just watched the second show and we went to bed at 9.
Let’s see if there is a day 3.
By: teri on August 31, 2010
I’m doing it. Day 1 was actually yesterday.
After much reading, talking and thinking about a detox cleanse I chose The Master Cleanse by Stanley Burroughs. Its slang name is The Lemonade Diet, but that is the last time you will hear me call it that because I don’t think it should be used that way and that is certainly not my focus. My cousin does some detox cleanses, liquid fasts, etc from a box where you take pills and follow instructions, but for my own reasons, I was looking for something without pills.
My goal is to clean out my insides and start fresh with healthy living and clean eating.
The recommendation for this cleanse is 10 days but we’ll see how many I actually do. You make yourself a drink that has water, lemon juice, (Grade A Dark) Maple Syrup and some cayenne pepper. They would like you to drink this concoction 12 times during the day. Each drink has about 110 calories (so if you are doing what they say you get just over 1300 calories a day). In addition, to help aid detoxification of your body, you can take an herbal laxative tea in the night and morning and the first thing you do when you wake up is drink a quart (YES a quart!) of water mixed with uniodized sea salt. (I’ll get to that in a minute)
The purpose is to eliminate the waste and toxins in you body.
I bought the book (pamphlet really) years ago but never did it because, well, its a bit intense. Now I’ve decided I’m going to give it a go. Norm and I have talked about it and the negatives and what we need to watch out for and, with his blessing, I am proceeding with caution.
DAY 1 – 8/30/2010:
I woke up and decided today was the day to start. It was around 8am when I made my quart of salt water and started drinking. Oh my yuck! That is really all I can say. This, by far, is the worst part. By the time I got to the end of the glass I was afraid I was gonna puke. My stomach was not happy. It didn’t take long for it to start “working” and over the next 2 hours I went to the bathroom 5 times. My stomach settled pretty quickly after I didn’t need to go anymore and I started with my first “lemonade” at 11am.
I have to say, its not bad. I mean, I wouldn’t order it at a restaurant, but its fine. The pepper is not my because it is this sweet drink and then you get all that spicy. Plus if you aren’t constantly stirring it, the pepper goes to the bottom so your last few swigs are heavy with cayenne pepper.
I didn’t drink it fast, I more sipped so didn’t finish the glass for about 30 minutes. Then we had stuff to do and I even tried to nap while the kids were napping (which didn’t work because they woke up) so I didn’t drink another drink until 1:45pm.
We left our house for errands just before 3pm and I should have made another drink then, but I didn’t feel thirsty or hungry so I didn’t. While we were out there was a time in the car when I could feel my tummy growling, but it passed faster than I expected.
We got home around 5pm and I made myself another drink right then while I made dinner.
I left the house for yoga at 6:20 and I didn’t have another drink until I got home at 8:15.
So, I only got in 4 drinks the whole day. I’m not happy about that. That is under 500 calories and I know 1)its not healthy and 2)I can’t sustain that for any length of time. If the yuckiest part is the salt water, I think the hardest part will be getting in all the drinks.
Besides the time in the car when my stomach was growling, I had a hard time while making the boys lunch. As I made sandwiches and cleaned grapes, I soooooo wanted to eat them. Ty’s PB&J looked super yummy to me! It was healthy food and I battled a bit inside…. “come on, its good for you food, you can eat that,” “just grapes… fruit is natural sugars and blah blah blah”. But I didn’t. I really want to give this thing a go and see how I feel and if there are physical and/or mental effects.
Last night I got home from yoga and felt great. And while I almost always feel great after yoga, I was happy to see that my energy levels were high, my stomach was happy, and I felt….. normal, and good. I decided not to drink the herbal laxative tea because, based on what happened this morning with the salt water, I didn’t really think I needed to “loosen” things up any more.
My goal for Day 2 is to drink more “lemonades.”
By: teri on January 13, 2010
Just like I hoped, we are improving.
AJ stayed up until I fed him at 8:30 (though the last 20-30 minutes he was all but falling asleep without constant distraction).
He was asleep and then put in the crib at 8:50.
The first time he made a peep was 2am! 5 hours of straight sleep is a big improvement.
And that wasn’t the only improvement, at 2am when he started crying (not sure what it is about 2am but that is when he wakes up and cries every night) he only went for 25 minutes! -If your keeping track, which of course I am, Sunday he cried from 2-3:30am, Monday he cried from 2-3/3:15am, so 25 minutes was great.
He was pretty loud and I went in at 2 to give him a pacifier but it didn’t help and he cried hard and constant after I left so I went back in at 2:08. I didn’t pick him up but I shushed him, rubbed his tummy and arms, etc. to get him calm. I left a few minutes later and he cried pretty much immediately but I left him this time knowing that he was okay. I went back in at 2:20 and the pacifier was still in his mouth so I left again and he stopped by 2:25. yea!
He woke up once more at 3:30 but a quick pacifier in the mouth got him back to sleep.
At 4:45 he started crying and at this point I wasn’t sure if I should let him go (Tuesday morning he got up at 5:45) or if he was ready to be awake. I started by saying I am aiming for him to sleep from 9-5 right now, so I got up with him and he was awake and we had a good morning.
Yea for things getting better!
By: teri on January 12, 2010
So I started off that last post saying that today had been a good day and then I proceeded to tell you about the last few days and nights leading up to today. And last night was good and it deserved its story told, however, the good day I had today was what I started thinking about.
Jaxon had school so was gone from 9-2. Ty was not whinny at all (until books at bedtime) so that makes him really fun to be around.
AJ woke up at 5:45, ate, ate cereal and then happily played in the piano seat until about 7:40. At that time he got fussy and had to be moved every few minutes to a new activity until Norm just put him to sleep.
He slept from 8-9.
Ate 9:30 and then he, Tyler and I went outside and played in the front side yard until almost 11am. We came in Ty jumped on the couch and AJ laid next to me on the couch, happily, until about 11:20 when he got fussy.
So I declared it nap time. Both boys went down easily at 11:30. I talked to Norm and did some computer stuff, showered and got in bed with AJ at 12:30. We slept until 1:44 when I looked at my watch and jumped out of bed since we have to pick up Jax at 2pm (I didn’t think AJ would sleep that long!).
We got Jax and I fed AJ, then gave him solids and we all stayed inside until about 3:30 when the big boys were getting on each others nerves, or maybe just their yelling and fighting were getting on my nerves, so we took Jaxon out in the front to find all the pine cones we collected that morning. This time I put AJ in the bjorn because my bicep was tired from this mornings playtime.
AJ loves being in that thing. He loved watching his brothers. We collected more pine cones, rocks, “climbed” the tree, played in the maze of bushes we have in the front and ended on the front lawn playing “Duck Duck Chicken” and chasing each other all around. We came in as it got a bit colder around 4:45 and got out puzzles and everyone played puzzles.
Just before 5pm AJ started getting fussy so I wrapped him, rocked him (took about 3 minutes) and he went down for a nap. It wasn’t as long as I would have liked, he woke at 5:35 but he was still calm and stayed in the bouncy for another 15 minutes while I was making dinner.
Norm got home at 6pm and I fed AJ and then we ate and they big boys went down at 7pm and now Norm has been holding AJ, who was a bit fussy but the pacifier fixed, since then as I have been writing all this stuff.
It was a good day, it is still being a good day. I’ll go give Norm a break now and hopefully AJ will stay awake for another 30 minutes or so, want to eat again and then we’ll go to bed. Lets hope the night is another good one.
By: teri on January 12, 2010
Today has been a great day. We’re making some changes around here and so far they feel really good.
We made the decision Sunday that we can’t, well, that we don’t want to continue the way we are doing things. AJ is attached to me. And we can’t blame him, I am basically practicing attached style parenting. I sleep in the same bed with him and since the doctor said he may do well with a bit more food, I have been feeding him a lot more. While I love that he knows and loves me, I don’t like that I walk out of the room and he cries just because he can’t see me. Even when Norm is holding him!
He still hasn’t been sleeping well and I don’t have a lot of confidence in him being full so I will feed him at night and he still has minor tummy issues, so now, with the addition of solid foods, he is having a hard time pooping. He isn’t constipated, he just isn’t processing and digesting so it hurts him when he poops. So of course that makes me feel bad and if he is crying and his tummy is tight I wonder if he is in pain. Blah Blah Blah, there is always something right?
Well, we figured we need to start trying new things. Our first attempt is to back up a bit. Instead of putting him down at 7pm and wondering if he hungry and feeding him in the middle of the night and then having him wake up at 4am and be bummed that he is up so early, we are going to try to put him down later. Like we should have done when he was younger. Like what we did with the other boys. Now the goal is to let him take a nap in the late afternoon and then have him up and feed him one last time at 9pm and then put him down. I am comfortable expecting him to go from 9-5 without eating. So we are trying to start there and if we can get sleep from 9-5 that would be a gigantic success. Then hopefully we’ll pull back that 9pm to earlier and stretch that 5am to later. But that is getting ahead.
So Sunday night I moved out of his room and we put him in the crib. My secondary reason for doing this now is he very clearly is learning about his surroundings and what things mean. He knows if we put our arms out that we are going to pick him up. he knows if I put him in his little chair with a tray and his bib and stuff that he is going to get food, etc. I want him to know that his crib is where he sleeps. That is important to me.
Sunday was not the best night. We had dinner at a friends house and he slept in Norm’s arms from 6pm through the transfer into the car until we got home at 8pm. We couldn’t keep him up after that because he was very tired so I fed him at 8:30 and put him down. I think I went in and gave him his pacifier 2 or 3 times before 12:30am (and it worked and he went back to sleep for some amount of time). At 12:30 the pacifier didn’t work and he continued fussing and crying and I fed him at 12:50am. He went back down and about 2am he started crying again. It was pretty loud and his diaper was full so I changed him, rocked him a bit, gave him his pacifier and put him back. Kept crying loud off and on, mostly on, until 3:35am. I tried to stay out of the room as much as possible but if he cried without any lulls for any more than 15 minutes I went in. I probably went in 3-4 times trying to help. At 3:35 I picked him up and rocked him to sleep because the crying wasn’t working for me right then. He was back in his crib at 3:50 but that only lasted until about 4:15am so I went back in picked him up sat in the chair and (oops) I fell asleep with him on my chest. We slept like that until 5:15. At 5:30 I fed him and we were both up. (Though I was still really tired so I went back to sleep after Norm got up).
So not great right. But Monday we knew the plan and he took an early nap (around 8am) but really short (15 mins) and so we played and he was ready for a nap at 11. We went to Costco in the afternoon and he was great, but he fell asleep on the ride home (3:30) and slept while I took in the groceries (which of course I chose to let him do) which ended up being close to 30 minutes. So at 5pm when I wanted him to take a nap he wasn’t ready. He was nice and calm, but not sleepy. He ended up falling asleep at 6:15pm and sleeping until 7pm. But again, at 7 when he woke up he wasn’t happy, he was still tired. (Changing a kids schedule sucks) We forced him awake but holding him, bouncing him, having him watch the fish, we took him in the shower and we still didn’t last until 9pm. At 8:15 he was done so we gave up, fed him and put him down.
And last night we had a pretty good night. One way I know it was pretty good is that I don’t remember the exact times that I had to get up. Most likely it means it was quick and I didn’t have to wake all the way up to take care of it. I know I went in and gave him his pacifier two times before the crying at 2am. Oh, once was at 11:42pm because I remember thinking “so much for him sleeping longer with the later bedtime.” At 2am he started crying. It was loud and it was sad. I gave him his pacifier and even with it in his mouth he was crying. He also has been scooting himself to the top of the crib and one time he got his head under the bumper (the ties came off). I pulled him back to the center and gave him the pacifier. Nothing really helped. He basically cried for an hour. But at 3 I didn’t move him back to the middle I left him with his head on the top and just gave him the pacifier hoping he’d have no where to go. He was quiet for about 20 minutes and then started crying. I went in, saw the pacifier was still in his mouth, he looked fine so I walked right out. Got in bed and about 5 minutes later, he stopped. Just sudden stop. I almost went back in to make sure he was okay but didn’t want to mess it up. The next time I heard him was at 5:45am! I had just slept from 3:25am to 5:45am! I haven’t done that in months!
It wasn’t a perfect night, but the crying was better than the night before and so was the sleep. Small improvements is all I’m looking for at this point. And if we can continue making those small improvements than I will be good to go. This morning I didn’t even go back to bed when Norm came out. I didn’t need to. In fact, I did a p90X workout. Pretty great right?
By: teri on January 6, 2010
So last night I stayed up and worked in the office. I have been neglecting some duties because it is hard to find time during the day to sit down at my desk and computer.
If the boys are awake they don’t last too long with me at the desk. Tyler does sometimes because I can get him to color and if I allow Jaxon to play on a computer he would last hours, but AJ not so much. But when AJ has his afternoon nap I try to line up Tyler’s nap too and then I always have to make those decisions to make. IF, both boys go down for a nap, I now have some time. I can sit at the computer, do housework, maybe get in a workout or nap.
AJ is still not sleeping all that well and so lately I’ve been going for naps if all possible (though unfortunately it hasn’t been real possible because their naps aren’t lining up).
So my desk has been piled high with alua finances which includes bills that need to be paid, checks that need to be recorded and then deposited, bank statements that need to be reconciled and some general catch up. I also have all our personal finances dating back to the end of November. The receipts are no longer able to stack on my desk so they are overflowing in a monster pile. I have a new laptop that Norm got me weeks ago, maybe a month, that is sitting on my desk waiting for files to be copied over so I can use it and then I have all the miscellaneous crap like photos, Jaxon’s numerous drawings, and whatever else makes it to my desk. It stressed me just going in there.
So last night I decided to take a bit more control. The boys were all in bed and I had time to myself so I sat down to start. I figured I would still be able to get some sleep and I didn’t have to stay up two nights in a row and I always get to sleep in after I hand of AJ so it shouldn’t be such a big production.
Well, I did make a nice big dent into my desk duties. Alua finances are almost taken care of and I did some straightening up so it doesn’t look so overwhelming.
BUT, here are the things I did not consider.
I stayed up after I was done with my desk for the night to pump which took an extra 30 minutes.
Tuesday night is Norm’s WOW night so he is up late (and where he would usually easily take AJ at 6am so I can go back to sleep, on Tuesdays he doesn’t go to bed until midnight, so he’s tired and not awake Wednesday mornings) and we shouldn’t both be up late on the same night while AJ isn’t sleeping.
In addition to his late night, he has a dentist appointment this morning at 8am, so he’ll need to leave the house around 7:40am which doesn’t give me my usual morning nap anyway.
So there is the start of my bad decision.
We also have plans tonight and most likely will be out of the house until about 9pm so I can’t put AJ down at 7:30 and go to sleep with him early. More bad planning.
And the most unfortunate part for me is AJ’s night. I went to bed just after 11pm. I think the last time I saw the clock it was 11:13pm.
AJ started crying at 1:06am and continued until 3:23am. During that 2 hour period he would cry, with his pacifier still in his mouth, for only a few seconds up to at most a minute, every few minutes. I got two or three 10-20 minute lulls where I thought he fell asleep, and I probably did, but the sadness started again. I fed him in there hoping it would help but it didn’t. Once he fell asleep after 3am he went until 5:10 so that was nice. I got 2 hours and then another 2 hours.
I’m tired.
By: teri on December 26, 2009
So I wrote this email to a friend about how things were going and afterward I decided it was something I’d probably want to remember and so turned it into a post.
We’ve had an interesting last few days. At the beginning of the week I was having trouble feeding AJ on one side. It really hurt but I didn’t think much of it, just cringed through the pain. But it kept getting worse and the night of the 23rd I had a really bad night.
Besides the fact that AJ woke up 4 or 5 times and I was tired, I was also getting really bad chills. I was bundled in the blankets and at one point I got up and put on socks and my fuzzy robe and then got under all the blankets and I was still freezing. I couldn’t stop shivering. I had a bad headache and AJ wouldn’t sleep and feeding him hurt so much. At 5:30am Christmas Eve morning Norm took AJ from me so I could sleep. I tried and slept a little, but my head was pounding so hard and I was so cold that I couldn’t focus or relax. Norm took all the boys shopping so I could rest and I turned on the steam shower to warm up. With that and some tylenol I was feeling a bit better but not much.
We went to my parents in the afternoon thinking at least they could help Norm and play with the boys and I could rest some more. While we were there I told my mom how I was feeling and she watched me start crying from the pain while I was feeding AJ. She recognized the symptoms, knew something wasn’t right and sent Norm and I to the emergency room for Mastitis.
We spent 3 hours Christmas Eve afternoon at the hospital, but she was right. I did have it. They gave me antibiotics that I started that night and Norm kept AJ for the night so I could rest. Unfortunately I had another night filled with chills and headaches and I felt just as bad Christmas morning. But as the drugs started kicking in I got better. By late morning I was feeling a lot less pain in the side that was infected and by about 2 or 3pm my headaches could be cleared by some Tylenol. It has now been 48 hours and I think I’m 99% better. Thank goodness for antibiotics!
On the downside. The night that Norm stayed with AJ (Christmas Eve), had him up at 3:30am. He didn’t go back to bed and so was tired Christmas day. He took a nap at my parents house before the rest of the family got there but he started down a sicky path then. Last night he was coughing and tired and out of it so I sent him to bed and put the boys down. He got a good nights rest but he needed more than that because he’s been off all day today too. He took another nap today and I sent him to bed early tonight but I’m not real hopeful that he will be better tomorrow. When he gets sick it has a tendency to linger.
Thankfully, our little boys haven’t caught anything (not that they could catch what I had 
so that is good. Tomorrow we’ll go to church in the morning and then have a restful afternoon playing with the plethora of new toys that came for Christmas!
Not quite that last few days that we had in mind, but it sure has been interesting!
I have to go back to the doctors on Monday, not the emergency room but my own OB, so they can verify there is no abscess (but I’m pretty sure there is not). Anyway, we’re waiting to see how our health is.
Now I’m off to bed. AJ has been asleep for a little over an hour so I have to catch up. Hopefully he’ll sleep until at least 2am, like he did last night. Thats good for him. We are going to start him on solids in the next day or two and I’m crossing my fingers that it will help him have a full tummy and in turn sleep better. But we’ll see.
By: teri on October 27, 2009
Its that time again…
But first, here’s why I love keeping records. We’ve been telling everyone who asks “How’s AJ doing?” that he is wonderful blah blah blah, but he doesn’t sleep well like his brothers did. We go on to say that we were really blessed with Tyler because “the kid just slept” and we didn’t have to do anything about it. Both Norm and I have told people that.
Well, we have come to that point where we are going to attempt to teach AJ how to sleep. We’ve come to grips with the fact that it isn’t his bowels that are keeping him from sleeping or the caffeine I was drinking or any other exterior excuse. We were both stalling because we have this feeling that AJ is going to be a screamer and we aren’t looking forward to letting him cry. But two nights ago when he woke up crying and we tried to comfort him the only thing that got him to stop crying is when I turned on a light and put him in a sitting position. He immediately stopped crying, his eyes popped open and all was good. Except the fact that it was 1am and not time to be awake. It was then that I made the impulsive decision that it was time to teach him when we sleep. (But I’ll get to that in another post)
Back to the part about records.
After two nights of partial crying we decided we needed a plan of attack and some ground rules because I find it is easier if we have these things figured out before they happen at 2am when all we want to do is sleep so we give in to whatever is easiest to make that happen. I wanted to pull out any records I had of Jaxon’s and Tyler’s nights so we could take a look at what we did and how they progressed and such. Tonight I brought out what I wrote about Tyler. All that “we never had to teach Tyler anything, he just slept” stuff…. total crap! I have written down started at 4 weeks old us putting him in his crib and him crying a bit. Now granted, it wasn’t a lot of crying and he did sleep for large chunks (which AJ does not) but it didn’t just happen. The records for Tyler go from mid July to mid Aug and then stop. Then, in Nov 2007, they start up again. The top of the paper says “Its time to teach you to sleep” and each night there is a detailed account of what happened. Cry, pat, put paci in, sleep, wake, cry, rock, etc, etc. The nights we had with him sound exactly like AJ is right now.
The beauty of that is 1)how we don’t remember those nights for Tyler at all and can reasonably assume we’ll forget our current sleepless nights with AJ and 2)AJ can become just as great as a sleeper as both Tyler and Jaxon. Those records give me hope that sleep is in my future, and I definitely need that hope.
By: teri on October 27, 2009
This morning Tyler, AJ and I were hanging around the house waiting for some people to come over. Just before 10am I started feeding AJ and Tyler was playing around me and going in and out to the backyard. He brought in a ball covered with dirt and I asked him to take it outside. He said no. I told him I didn’t want it inside because it was going to get everything dirty. He said no. Instead of asking again, I told him in a pretty stern voice to take the ball outside (keep in mind that I am in a chair with AJ attached so I am not the most mobile). Tyler turned his body away from me took dirt off the ball and threw it on the ground to which I gasped and said “TYLER!” At that he turned back toward me, dropped the ball got an “I’m about to cry” look on his face and turned and walked down the hall.
So I finished feeding AJ, changed his diaper and realized Tyler hadn’t come back and it was very quiet. I went down towards the bedrooms to look for him. He wasn’t in the workout room or the toy room. He wasn’t playing at all. He had crawled up in his bed, put a pacifier in his mouth, pulled up a blanket, and fell asleep.
So his nap today was from about 10:15 to 12.
I guess that is an added benefit to his big boy bed.
By: teri on October 23, 2009
10/21/2009:
Ate 6:30am
Nap 9-9:45am in car/ wrapped in boppy
(Happy Wake)
Ate 10:45am
Nap 11:40-1:20pm in crib
woke fussy, pacifier back in, stayed in crib until 1:30 and started screaming.
Couldn’t calm..
fed on one side @ 1:45 before picking up Jax
(Happy wake – being held, in bumbo, on floor/couch. Started falling asleep in mom’s arms)
Nap 4:10-5:15 in PnP (cried once during gave pacifier)
Quiet wake time in Bumbo until 6, swing until 6:30. Held. Started crying/fussy 6:40.
Took to Bath
Ate on one side 7pm.
Books, boys to bed
Fed again 7:25pm.
In Crib 7:55pm asleep, wrapped, no pacifier
(Good luck!)
Cries at 2:10am – attempted to put pacifier in – but kept fussing
Fed 2:15am – rewrapped, back in crib
Cries at 4:20, pacifier in – Cry again 4:24 – Dad in.
Tried to rock to sleep, ended up putting on bed with some light, talked yourself to sleep.
Awake 5:15am Daddy got up with you.
10/22/2009:
Ate 6am
Fell right back to sleep, put on bed until 8am
Wake time in bumbo, swing, cry hard in car (9:10-9:45am).
Ate 9:50am
(Happy wake on chair, held, little fussy around 10:45, wrapped but didn’t sleep, unwrapped, POOPED)
Asleep in arms 11:20 – wrap, put in car seat 11:50, cried at home 12:30, picked up, rocked to sleep, kept in arms: in and out of sleep. In Pack in Play at 2:05
Ate 2:20pm
Happy wake time on floor mat, bumbo seat outside.
Nap (rocked) at 4:20 – 5pm on couch, rocked until 5:30
Ate 5:50pm
Wake time in piano seat, held. Fussy and tired 7.
Fed again 7:10.
In crib 7:45pm already asleep.
By: teri on October 22, 2009
Finally! This act deserves a story just because it was such a long time coming!
We were at Lorri’s house and AJ was in the little bouncy chair while we were working out. He was happy but starting to get tired. I picked him up and thought I smelled a little something so I took a peak and I saw brown. I started singing and praising him and giving him kisses as I went to change him. Lorri asked what the ruckus was about and I told him how he hadn’t pooped since the 9th, 14 days. She asked if I remembered when Atlanta did something like that and Tia Jani simulated her anus with a Qtip. (which I didn’t)
Anyway, I changed him but it wasn’t as big as I thought it would be. The diaper wasn’t full. So, with what Lorri said in mind I took a wipe on my finger and just did little soft circles right around the hole. A tiny squirt came out. I wiped, did it again, another squirt. Lorri told me to stop wiping in mid poop but I told her I didn’t want to wipe poop around his butt as I was making circles and there had to be more.
I was right.
One more little ring around the rosey and out it came. I would say conservatively there was about 3 cups of poop in the consistency of a milkshake. Lorri had to get me reinforcements because it started to overflow the diaper.
Yea! Aren’t you glad I shared the whole story with you and not just that he pooped!
By: teri on October 21, 2009
AJ is not like his brother’s when it comes to sleeping and we are feeling it. We’ve blamed all sorts of things on AJs lack of sleep. Our current issue is the fact that AJ is not pooping. As a baby you couldn’t change a diaper without there being something in there, now its so infrequent I find myself wishing for him to have a blowout. It has been 12 days since he pooped and it just so happens that he slept pretty well right around that last time. As days passed he slept less and we blamed his bowels.
Its almost always been his tummy that we blame. For awhile we blamed the things that I was eating so I stopped eating delicious things on his behalf. Then we thought it was the caffeine I was consuming so I stopped drinking soda (boo). But about two days ago Norm and I acknowledged the fact that it may just be time to teach AJ how to sleep.
Unfortunately that could involve crying. Based on what we know of AJ so far, it could involve LOTS of crying and we are not eager to start that.
So the first thing I am trying is to make sure his days and nights are balanced. Meaning that he is awake a good portion of the day so that he can sleep at night. I’m happy to say that last night was the first good sleep we got in, well, in about 9 days. We’ve been tired!
Two nights ago (10/19/2009) was horrible and he didn’t sleep much so it wasn’t a big surprise that he was tired yesterday.
10/20/2009:
I got a bit worried when he slept from about 10:30am (after eating) until about 3pm with a few wake ups in and out of the car, a wake up to eat and about 20 minutes of me caring him around. I figured if I let him sleep that much we were in for another rough night.
After he ate at 3pm we had great wake time until around 4:40 when he started getting a bit fussy. I tried to put him down for a nap but at 5:30 when Daddy got home I was still trying. Dad got you to sleep but you only stayed asleep for about 20 minutes and then you were miserable. We held you and dealt with it.
At 7pm I fed you on one side and you were pretty happy. We read books and put the other boys to bed at 7:30 and then you and I sat and watched TV. You got fussy around 7:40 so I fed you on the other side and put you in bed around 8pm.
At 11pm you cried and needed a pacifier put in (which Daddy did)
Then you went back to bed all the way until 3:15am.
(WooHoo… I went to bed when you did at 8pm so I got 7 hours of sleep with only two interruptions (Ty fell out of his bed and yelped a bit around 1am)
The second WONDERFUL part of last night is after your 3am feeding, you went back down and slept all the way until 6:30am!
That was a good night for us. Lately you have been up and ready to be awake by 4am.
By: teri on October 21, 2009
Introduction:
I have kept pretty detailed records of my children. Norm likes to joke about how I can tell you how many times Jaxon pooped for the first 3 months of his life. Looking back, many of the records that I kept are useless, though at the time I didn’t think so. With Tyler I got a little smarter and didn’t keep track of certain things and I also got more practical about being precise, well, actually, about not being precise. I realized that looking back I didn’t need to know down to the minute or even really the day of most things. Just a general time frame. When someone asks when your kids got their teeth or did “fill in the blank” I find that if you are in the correct month that is usually sufficient.
Unfortunately, with Tyler I lot so many things slip by. You wouldn’t think it would be so hard to make note of something when it happens but for some reason it just is. I lie in bed and write stuff about their days in my head and tell myself that tomorrow I will do it, but I don’t. And then tomorrow turns into days and weeks away and I forget what it is or when it actually happened.
So I am going to attempt to change that. Right now with AJ I am still keeping track of his eating during the night (yes, I’m still feeding him in the middle of the night) and since he isn’t sleeping much I’d like to keep track of his naps during the day and just his overall schedule so we can make it right and get some consistency around here.
To be honest, I like records in general. I have budget records dating back to 2001 and I could tell you how much we spent in our “grocery” category for any month. Not that any of that matters, but it is kind of cool to look back on stuff like that… and usually laugh.
I love keeping track of my workouts and weight measurements.
All these things I do for certain periods of time and then stop for no apparent reason and then try to start again.
I’d like to make a change for all of it.
There is something about writing things down on paper. I’m not entirely sure of what it is, but I like it. I like having a book that I can write in. Ideally, I’d have one for each subject. Jaxon, Tyler, AJ, myself, workout, etc. But truth is, I’m a much faster typer than I am a writer and on the computer it is always legible. Plus, most likely it will be longer lasting.
So I figured it makes sense to use our web site. I think of it as our Photo Journal, but we’ve made some posts in the past and it already is cool looking back on it. So wish me luck. And if you are reading these things and you don’t see anything for a awhile tell me to get on it! Let’s start with AJ.
By: teri on July 3, 2009
What can I say? A lot actually.
How much do you want to hear? Well, that I have no idea. But this will be a full account, partially for those who want to read it, but mostly for my own record. Most likely I’ll print this out and put it in his baby book. For those of you don’t want so much information, skim read.
Proceeding Days (and weeks)
Starting at the completion of 36 weeks Dr appointments change to once a week and the doctor checks the cervix for dilation. (It’s a 0-10 scale, 10 being “complete”)
At 36 weeks Teri was 1cm dilated.
At 37 weeks Teri was 1.5cm dilated.
At 38 weeks Teri was still 1.5cm dilated.
At 39 weeks Teri was STILL 1.5cm dilated.
Of course each time the Dr added that it doesn’t really mean much, it could happen at any moment. I was 3 days early with Jaxon and 6 days early with Tyler so even though I tried not to expect it, I really did think I would come early. At the 39 week appointment Dr. Salzetti reemphasized that for 2nd, 3rd and beyond pregnancies, they are very flexible on inducing labor. Up to 1 week before the due date to 2 weeks after the due date they are willing to make it happen at any time. The decision is 100% up to the parents but he thought 1 week late was plenty and preferred to make it happen. So we checked his schedule at the hospital and scheduled an induction for the following Friday, 3 days after the due date. The date made him comfortable and it worked nicely with Norm’s work schedule, plus Salzetti said we wouldn’t be held to it if we change our minds.
At 40 weeks 1 day, I had my last doctor appointment and was dilated to a 2.5-3cm. Yea, progress! Salzetti again said, “it could happen at any time” and I kindly reminded him he has been saying that since 36 weeks.
As far as contractions… I had been getting Braxton hicks for weeks along with a few actual contractions thrown in there but the contractions I got were so different than what I experienced with Tyler I wasn’t really sure what was happening or what they were.
We stayed at my parent’s house Thursday night thinking it would be easier for the boys and closer for us to get to the hospital. It would have been great if we got a good night sleep and were well rested to go in on Friday but neither one slept much past 2am. Turns out we were both still working on a name.
The Labor
We arrived at Scripps La Jolla hospital at 7am for the induction. We got put in (what the nurses say is) the most coveted corner room which was huge. We started on paper work right away and got introduced to our main nurse (Rachael) and our helper nurse (Julie).
At 8am, I got my IV put in. It took two tries and we felt really bad because I think we inadvertently put too much pressure on Rachael. We told stories about how horrible my IV was with Jaxon and how much it hurt the whole time. Then we mentioned how with Tyler it was golden and all being equal we’d prefer that. It isn’t a small tube they put in there and on her first try she stuck it in and it “hit a wall” and couldn’t go in all the way. She tried to maneuver it in there (which was unpleasant) and was apologizing the whole time. Then she just had to pull it out and start again. Only, she didn’t start again. She went over to the other nurse and asked her to do it. Turned out great for me, the other nurse was a little older and way more experienced. The second try went in as good as I could have hoped.
They started pumping “sugar free Gatorade” in me and then at 8:30 they started the pitocin. Dr. Salzetti said contractions would start coming and after they had and I got my epidural he would break my bag of waters and we’d keep moving along. My body reacted extremely well to the pitocin and by 8:45 the contractions started regularly, like every 2 minutes. They pain level at first was low. About a 2 (based on the Universal Pain Assessment Chart) but started increasing to about a 3 around 9:15 and at 10am it was at a 4. At this time the nurse asked about my epidural and after chatting about when is a good time and why we decided to ask for it right then, thinking it may take awhile for it to be ready.
The anestheologist came in almost immediately and at 10:20 I was getting my epidural. Once that happened, the nurses said they would be around and we just had to wait.
It was at this point that we pulled out our scrap sheet of names and started discussing what we would name this baby. A joke throughout the last few weeks has been that he is holding out for a name. He didn’t want some default name given to him so he was waiting until we figured it out and then he would come. This was our current task. Norm was facing the monitors that displayed my information, like contractions, so every once in awhile I’d ask if something was happening because I could kind of feel something though it wasn’t painful. He would tell me if it was the start or the end of a contraction and how “strong” it measured. For the next hour and half we played the name game and if I could tell or not that I was having contractions.
At 11:50am, we settled on AJ, Andrew John, as our third son’s name.
GO TIME
It was about 5 minutes after that that I asked Norm what the monitor was doing. He said it was a contraction and it was a big one. He asked how I was feeling. I said this one feels different from the others. It is really low and I can feel pressure right on my pelvic bone. (When you have an epidural there is a button to give yourself more medication if needed. We asked them to start out low, which they usually do I think, so that I am not completely numb. Rachael just asked that we let her know before upping the dose so she could check me). I thought maybe I just needed some more drugs, so we waited for another one. The next one came a minute later and… well, it hurt a bit. It was super low. Again, Norm asked how and what I was feeling. I said, “I… I want to push; I feel the urge to push.” He got up and stood by me, gave me his hand and said, “please don’t. let’s call the nurse.” For some (very dumb) reason I didn’t really want to, the last time Rachael checked me, around 11:15, she had me at a 3. (Though, her measurements and Dr. Salzetti’s measurements were different. She had me at a 1 (on a very painful, up to her shoulder check) when Dr. Salzetti had me at a 2-3 so… maybe since in her mind I had moved to a 3 I could have been a 4 or 5… who knows.) Anyway, on the next contraction I had to grab onto the bedside, along with gripping Norm’s hand so at just before 12pm we did call the nurse. Calling the nurse is like talking on the intercom so when they asked if they could help us we just said we’d like to talk to Rachael about my contractions and possibly upping the epidural medication. They told us Rachael had just gone to lunch but the nurse there would come right in. When we told Cindy, a new nurse that we met briefly during the epidural, that my contractions were hurting more and made me want to push she said she would check me before giving me more medication. With a small chuckle after checking, she said, “hon, you want to push because you are complete and it is time to push. Hold on though and I’ll get the doctor.” So as it turns out “not pushing” is extremely difficult. Luckily for us, when they want or need to, nurses move fast. Plus Dr. Salzetti had just gotten out of the OR and was on his way in anyway to check on me and break my bag of waters to “speed things along.” Turns out the bag of waters, which had not popped yet, was bulging out and must have been quite a site because two nurses did a double take (which was kind of funny to watch in my very vulnerable, very exposed state). (You can ask Norm about that if you want, he got a full view)
By 12:04 Dr. Salzetti was all suited up, including a mask, and ready to go. He broke the bag of waters and said to start pushing. During each contraction we try to do 3 pushes and on contraction #1 the babies head crowned and Dr. Salzetti said, “1 or 2 more contractions and we’ll have a baby” to which Norm responded, “I choose 1.” Contraction #2 came and by push #3 the babies head was all the way out. The cord was completely wrapped around the baby (which is very common) so the Dr. unraveled him and then, according to Norm, as soon as the cord was off, his eyes popped wide open. No noise yet, but wide open eyes. After that, Dr. Salzetti had me push the rest of the baby out, not really during a contraction, just when he was done unwrapping and de-snotifying (that is the technical term btw) him.
At 12:13pm, AJ was out and declared born.
By: teri on July 1, 2009
I’m still pregnant so this baby is officially past due. The due date was yesterday, June 30.
While I told myself over and over again that being late was a real possibility, I never actually believed it. I was early with both Jaxon and Tyler and I just figured I would be with this baby too.
The good news is I won’t stay pregnant much longer. As Dr. Salzetti so eloquently put it this afternoon, if the baby doesn’t come on his own tonight or tomorrow, he’s getting evicted on Friday.
I had my 40 week 1 day appointment this afternoon and my body has actually started to progress all on its own which is a good sign. Since week 36 I have been dilated to a 1 or 1.5cm and remained there, but today I measured at a 2.5-3cm. While that doesn’t mean that I am going to come before my scheduled induction on Friday morning, it does make me happy that at least my body is heading in that direction.
So hopefully, the next time you hear from me, I’ll be sans baby in the belly. Most likely we’ll give an update from the hospital so check back.
By: norm on June 21, 2009
A brief story with one of the small reasons I love my dad:
At some point in high school, a group of friends and I built a potato gun. One weekend night, we took the gun and a sack of potatoes out behind the high school and blasted away. Being somewhat geeky, we did not attempt to damage anything (Except for the poor, unsuspecting potatoes), but we did shoot a couple straight up into the air and timed them from launch until splat down. I took our times home with me.
When I got home (most likely around 1am or so after a typical late night visit to Dennys), my dad was still up watching something on tv. I told him about the gun and the potato launches and our times. He immediately stopped watching tv, got a scratch piece of paper and pencil and sat down with me and started doing physics. With no internet or book to help with formulas and no calculator to help with math, he calculated the initial velocity of our cannon. Then, he calculated the maximum length we could shoot a potato. By the end of the night, I had information on which yard line we could stand on and shoot a potato through the uprights for a potato-field-goal.
I certainly owe a lot of who I am to my father (the good stuff, mostly). I don’t say it often but I love him very much and appreciate the influence and example he has been to me throughout my life.
And, I’m boning up on my newtonian physics for the day Jax or Tyler comes home with potato entrails splattered on his shoes and some measurements.
By: norm on June 13, 2009
Jaxon and I went to see Up this morning. The theater had about 8 groups composed almost identically to ours (a father or grandfather and a 3-5 year old boy) equally distributed around the room. We bought tickets all in line together, then got in line for the child’s deal concession thingy. (A moment of undeserved parental pride, my kid was the only one who did not get soda with his popcorn).
The movie was more mature than I anticipated (themes of failed dreams, death and dead-beat dad), but I liked it. Jax got scared at parts, though really liked when the good guys triumphed (even temporarily). When he was scared, he would turn to me and say that he just wanted to go home or that he missed his mother. But, a few M&Ms would get us through the scary parts and back to the fun.
Not surprisingly, Jaxon’s favorite part of the entire experience was the huge poster of Optimus Prime and Bumblebee we saw walking out of the theater. I guess I could’ve saved $25 and just checked out the poster.
By: teri on June 5, 2009
Not all that often do I feel (what I think is) the holy spirit. In primary we talk about the holy ghost with the kids all the time. We ask them what it is and what it feels like. The standard answer is “a peaceful feeling,” “a warm feeling around your heart,” etc. It doesn’t have to be quiet around you to “feel” something, though I’m fairly certain that is something else we mention to the kids… it can be very quiet or subtle so you have to listen or pay attention.
These days there is really nothing quiet about my life. Even when there are no tears, or screaming, or fighting or calling out to me for something, the daily noise kids make is… loud. And in those few moments when I am not around a child, my own thoughts are so loud that there is nothing left to hear. “When is this baby coming?,” “what the heck are we going to name him?,” “why didn’t I keep up on the kids baby books?,” blah blah blah blah blah. Its constant.
But every once in awhile, I get that small moment of peace.
Tonight we were driving home from dinner at the Kuletos. The kids were okay over there, but loud as we just talked about, and by the end Tyler just broke down so in the car he was a little bit sad. He found his pacifier so that helped calm him and Jaxon was sucking on his thumb, head slumped over as if he were about to fall asleep.
We turned left onto San Dieguito Rd and as we were coming down the hill into Fairbanks view in the sky was just lit up. The weather here has been wacky the last few days with thunder and lightening, then some sun, then rain again. So all the clouds right above us were dark like rain clouds. The whole foreground of the sky was a dark gray. But behind those clouds, off in the distance, was a bright blue sky and a shining sun. You couldn’t see the sun because is was hidden behind the clouds but that is what made it so beautiful. There was this bright, glowing light lining all these dark clouds and the light was radiating off of them. It reminded me a little of a picture Eric took in New Zealand that we all loved so much. I only got to see it for about 10 seconds before I drove down the hill out of sight but in that brief time the same thought process comes over me. First it is just a “wow, look at that, that’s beautiful,” then a “there must be a God to know how to create something like that” thought, then, no thoughts… just peace.
For me it feels like my heart and my head just took a long deep breath at the same time.
Then we pulled home and it was back to “Did we get here before Daddy? We won. I want to open my door. Mommy, don’t open the door, I’m gonna do it. I want Daddy to get me out, you get Tyler…..”
And the peaceful feeling is gone.
Family life is full of major and minor crises -- the ups and downs of health, success and failure in career, marriage, and divorce -- and all kinds of characters. It is tied to places and events and histories. With all of these felt details, life etches itself into memory and personality. It's difficult to imagine anything more nourishing to the soul.
