A day in the life of a stay at home mom

I am 23 years old and blessed with the opportunity to be a stay at home mom already! This was always my dream since I was a little girl believe it or not. I have always wanted to be a mommy! My dreams have come true and it is BETTER than I could have ever dreamed!!

Hope is 5 and a half months old now and the fun is really beginning. We co-sleep with her and all that means is she sleeps in bed with her daddy and me. People think, "woah arent you afraid you will roll on her?" You would be surprised how aware you are even in dream land. The second she squirms at all I wake up and dream feed her. Basically that means I nurse her once or twice a night when she is still half asleep. I dont do it so she will sleep longer but because shes teeny and I dont want her going all night without eating. She sleeps great and has slept great since day one with co sleeping. She always has her hand on me to know that her mommy is there :)I coudnt imagine having her away from me while we sleep. Its not for everybody, but it works very well for our family.

She wakes me up with little babbles. She never wakes up crying. She grabs my face, my hair and just stares at me. Morning time is such a beautiful moment and we just snuggle and play in bed for a half an hour or so. Then mama needs her coffee!

The rest of our day consists of nursing, nursing oh and more nursing!! She loves to nurse! She is a comfort nurser. She wont take a pacifier. As long as we are at home I really dont mind. And when we are out and about she is so fascinated with the world and looking around that she doesn't need to nurse much. So basically all day it is nurse, sleep, play. That is usually the order things go.

I only give her a few tablespoons once a day at the most of solids. Sometimes she eats most of it sometime she only eats a few bites. But she loves every food we give her. Bananas, yams, and avocado especially. All of her food made by mommy with love of course :). Okay you dont make bananas or avocado, you mash it... Mashed with love!

I seriously feel like super mom when I am able to get the kitchen, laundry and living room straightened up. But most days this doesn't get done but usually at least one. Between playing, nursing and snuggle time I honestly could care less what needs to get done. JP understands of course. Every weekend he is reminded of the hard work it takes to take care of this little angel! So basically the life of a stay at home mom is beautiful. It is like being on summer break all the time and spending the whole day with your best friend in the world who you never get tired of! Even more than that. It is just indescribable... Its a beautiful life...

Hope's 5 month check in!

Little Hope Esperanza is 5 months old!! I just cant believe how fast she is growing. Everyone said it would, but wow!! Pretty sure she is 22 weeks old?

I am still breastfeeding 99% of the time. We have introduced solids but I do firmly agree with experts it is best to compliment breast milk with solids for the first year. So in the morning I will give her a few bites of something until she turns her head. Then at night she usually eats more, but then I nurse right after. So far she has had brown rice, bananas, sweet potatoes, apples and peas. She loves bananas so I usually just mash her up a little banana and it keeps her happy :).

Her personality grows daily now instead of weakly. Shes rolling, inch worming, grabbing everything, turns to voices and noises, trying to babble to us and knows just how to have us wrapped around her little finger. She is such a delightful little girl. Things are getting fun!!

Hope's 4 Month Check In

Hope is 4 and a half months old now :). They say that the first three months of a babies life should be treated as the fourth trimester. And this month I have really started understand what they mean by that. The first three months she was dependent on sleep, nursing and a little awake time just looking around. However in the fourth month she is having double the awake time and her personality is shining through. She loves to make noise, and she hits her arms down to her side as hard as she can in excitement. She smiles a big gummy smile and giggles often throughout the day.

Her physical development has reached being able to hold herself up on her belly at a full 90 degrees. She is also rolling from tummy to back and back to tummy now. She is able to grab things out of purpose and loves to chew on them (her sophie the giraffe is her favorite). She sits up very well when supported on your lap as well.

I think the most exciting new thing is that we have started her on complimentary solids now. Research shows that it is best to wait until 6 months and I truly wanted to however I couldn't escape her signs that she was ready. She became increasingly cranky, not sleeping well, nursing so much where she was just spitting up constantly. So I talked to her pediatrician and he felt it is time to start introducing her and giving her the "full" sensation. She is 4 and a half months and it is an acceptable age. I started her on organic brown rice cereal just to get her used to some texture. And have since given her a taste of sweet potatoes which she didn't seem to really care for right now. I have been giving her bananas this week, which she really loves! It is a known fact that once you introduce solids you have started the weaning process. So therefore I am not over doing it. She is still so young and tiny she does not have a grown stomach so I know a little bit goes a long way. She only eats a few spoon fulls (baby spoon) in the morning and a little at night and it has made a world of difference in her. I still nurse her just as much, because solids before one year do not take place of a nursing session. They simply just add to it. There is more fat, carbohydrates and calories in breast milk than solid foods so it truly is her perfect source of nutrition. The solids just make her feel more content and who are we kidding, its fun! :-D

We are loving all the new adventures she is bringing into our lives. I cant wait to see what the next month brings, oh boy!!! hehe


Hopes first bite of organic brown rice cereal (mixed with mommy milk)

How and why to cloth diaper

I would like to share some simple instructions on the oldest method of diapering in the world. Cloth diapering...

I personally use the (Pre fold and Diaper Cover) system because:

1.) It is the cheapest initial investment (about 100-200 bucks per child)
2.) It is a simple and easy to wash system
3.) It is the oldest method (Upgraded)
4.) It is fun picking out the cute diaper covers!

So here we go!

This is a pre fold. All the work has been done for you as far as absorbancy. When you get your pre folds you wash and dry them 4 to 5 times to prep them. This will wash off oils, manufacturing stuff and increase their absorbancy for first use. The more you use and wash pre folds the MORE absorbent they are. This makes them great to use on future kids you have. I bought the small size of this particular brand (Imagine). Its size 7-17lbs. Hope is only about 11lbs so she will be in these for a very long time, especially if she is anything like my sisters and I as babies. I did get the next size up (one dozen medium/ 12-25lbs) just in case. When you get them they look flat, the more you wash the more they quilt up.


This is a Diaper Cover (Imagine brand). This is what you put over the pre fold to make it water proof. This will keep the absorbancy inside, not exposed to clothes. It is great for explosive newborn poops. It catches the poop. I have not had a leak once since I have started cloth diapering! I use (One Size) Diaper covers. They grow with your child making it unnecessary to buy more as your little one gets bigger. There are so many designs/prints out there, you can really have fun with these! They are addicting.


Okay so those are all you need, now here is how you do it!

1.) Lay the cover under your babies bum.


2.) Fold the pre fold in a "tri fold" Just into a strip. This triples absorbency!


3.) Fold prefold and cover up


4.) Snap the Cover (I like buttons over velcro in preparation of when she is a toddler, she wont be able to undo her diaper)


Washing instructions:

1.) When you change your babies diaper, and poop has not leaked onto the cover you can re-use and re-use the same cover until it is dirty. Take the prefold out and throw it in your "wet bag". If poop has leaked and its not easily wiped off throw the prefold AND diaper cover into your wet bag. These are specially made to hold your diapers for 2-3 days until you wash them. They contain smell which is great, just zip it closed.


2.) When you are ready to wash. Take your wet bag and pour out your diapers into the washer and throw the wet bag right in there with them. Do one short cold rinse. This will rinse all the pee down the drain. If your baby is breastfed no need to spray your diapers first, just throw them right in there too. Just like with disposables you are supposed to dump solid poop in the toilet (prevents spread of disease). Do this with cloth as well before you throw diaper in the wet bag. An optional gadget would be a diaper sprayer and its pretty nice if you want to give the dirty diapers a quick spray into the toilet before putting the diaper in the wet bag.

3.) After the cold rinse, wash your diapers and covers on a regular hot wash cycle. I use the detergent called Planet. My daughter has sensitive skin and this is hypo allergenic as well as cloth diaper safe. The only other one I would use is Tide Original. You only need to use a little detergent with cloth diapers. The hot water and rinsing/spinning does most of the work.


4.) Once they are washed, throw your pre folds in the dryer, dry them as you would normal clothes. Hang dry your covers to keep them nice. I just hang dry them on the shower curtain rod.

Thats it! So so easy. The first day takes some getting used to but once you get the hang of it (about 2-3 days) you will never want to use disposables again.

How much "stash" should I have?

1.) With the pre fold/cover system you will want about 24 pre folds and 6 diaper covers if you dont want to wash your diapers every day. I wash her diapers every two days. I recommend the "Smart fit" prefolds by Imagine. They are sold at nickisdiapers.com. They are specially made to do the tri-fold which is the easiest. No need for pins or anything. I also have two "small" wet bags for the diaper bag and always have on hand two covers and 4 pre folds for outings.

2.) You will want a wet bag or diaper pail with a liner/tote for your cloth dipes.

3.) Cloth safe detergent

Thats it! No need to buy diapers anymore. No need to buy trash bags. No trash build up. No chemical gels under babies bum and sensitive areas. Just invest 100-150 bucks and your set! You will save somewhere in the thousands for using cloth. Ive even gone as far as to use cloth wipes...

1.) Cut up old receiving blankets baby has grown out of.
2.) In a tuperware bowl mix (Warm water, coconut oil, and lavender essential oil) These are anti microbial and prevent mustiness/diaper rash.
3.) Submerge the cut up wipes, ring out water and put in the wipey warmer. Done! Throw them in your wet bag as well! You can buy already made wipes too, they wont leak little strings. I will get to that eventually, but right now that is working fine for us.

Lets not forget, this is good for our environment. Diapers are not bio-degradable. OUR diapers are still in a landfill...eew... Potty stuff belongs going down the drain, not the trash! Cloth diapered kids are known for earlier potty training because they will feel the wettness against their skin and learn to understand when they have to pee :)

THE END! If you have any questions, e-mail me JackieJimenez88@yahoo.com

Home Owners at 22 & 23! Our Story!

That's right; its official JP and I are home owners. We're sitting in our home in awe and disbelief that this finally happened. It was a long 6+ months but it was all worth it!

JP and I moved a year and a half ago due to JP's job transfer. We had about two weeks to find a place to live and we went up one weekend and saw the few places we could that fit into our budget and that would allow a dog... It was VERY slim pickings... We decided on a little unit near the beach because the owner was putting in new laminate floors and he gutted the kitchen and it was decent... We moved right in and all the problems began to pile up. Not to mention when all our stuff was in the 600 sq ft unit was uncomfortably tiny... First off our neighbors were an interesting bunch to say the least. We met a woman who had been living in there for a long time and we immediately knew she would be a piece of work to live by... We will call her Dill... lol. If you knew her name would would think that is funny. We shortly found out we were living in a Section 8 complex... We lived next door to a convicted sex offender, a meth addict, heroin addicts across the way, domestic violence in the other unit and crazy single moms screaming and cussing out their very small children... We couldn't believe it but we signed a year lease. (The sex offender moved out two months after we moved in thank the Lord...) But the drug addicts just kept coming...

We held our heads up high and decided to just push through until our lease was up and then we would start our search for a new place to rent. I always kept an eye out for an idea in our price range but quickly realized we would always be living in dumpy places for our price range. Its amazing how LITTLE $1200 a month will get you if you have a dog! When I was pregnant with Hope about 4 months along JP came in the house from work one day and said "Babe, Im going to buy us a place." I was like okay? We dont have any savings, we dont have enough time to build a savings either for a down payment. At least not for a few years? Since I was pregnant and exhausted I told him if he really wanted to do this to go for it but I wont be much help because my brain was on baby overload. Well I owe all the credit to JP. He did the research on a home loan called a USDA loan. It is a rural development loan that is targeted to stimulate the economy of rural towns with small populations. So not every town will qualify.

So JP and I qualified for a home loan and we decided to go for a short sale to get the most out of it. We knew we wanted a condo being that its a good investment for a first time buyer because when you grow out of it you can easily use it as an income property and rent it out down the line. We immediately knew the place had to be ours. We didnt have to look any further this was it for us and the process began. Because of the home loan we used we didnt have to come up with any down payment, closing costs... NOTHING. It is a 100% financing loan! All we needed was to put down an escrow deposit which was as much as one months rent. So literally we bought our house for less than $2,000... Too good to be true right? Nope its true. We closed and signed the final docs and we are getting our full escrow deposit back even! Our mortgage is LESS than our monthly rent and our place is TWICE its size and like 50+ years newer than the place we were renting... We just feel so blessed... Marriage, new baby and new house... The American DREAM!!!! Thank you Lord we owe it all to God. I have prayed and prayed and prayed for it all and it happened. SOOO happy!!! Thanks everyone for your prayers and for routing for us during this process! We will update with lots of pictures of our new home when its all set up :-D

JP is the model of someone who when they want something they go for it all the way. He never gave up! I am so blessed to have a man who fights so hard for his family and for his dreams! What motivated him was when someone told him at work, "Hey dude, you know you could be owning a home for the amount of rent you are giving to someone else every month right?" That pissed him off and pushed him right into this decision. If you have any questions about the home loan we used we can give you the info of our broker. Carpinteria qualifies by the way friends ;)!

2 Month Update!

As for JP and I at the moment we are just waiting on closing on our home which we are looking to close on the 14th according to our contract. So please keep praying for us that this will happen so we don't have to file an extension. We are so ready to get out of the apartment we are in as the people here are so crazy! Seriously I really don't understand why the owner of the complex approves these people! You would think after kicking out 3 different "families" since we have been here in just over a year that he would go for a different type of applicant? I say families because its mostly just unrelated people living in the units as roommates. Anyway, the condo we are buying is adorable and in a family oriented neighborhood in rural little Nipomo. So excited!!

Hope had her 2 month check up today and all he did was check her weight, height and went over development that we can look forward to. I know this is an extremely controversial topic but JP and I have decided not to vaccinate Hope. Looking at the risks nation wide, state wide and county wide we feel the risks of vaccines outweigh the benefits. There is history on my side of bad reactions to vaccines including my sister and myself. Unfortunately for my sister hers is neurological and Im sure my mom would have rather her had whooping cough and fought it than to have a disability her whole life... Some people have a genetic disposition in being sensitive to the mercury, aluminum and formaldehyde in vaccinations and that is the case with my family so therefore we will not be risking this with Hope. What a lucky baby no shots! Of course I am concerned with her contracting an illness but the way our life goes is we are never promised tomorrow anyways. There is more chance of children choking than contracting a deadly illness and unfortunately this happens everyday. Vaccinations are not a promise of tomorrow and they are not 100% effective. I myself have had the stupid Rubella vaccine three times in my life, I gain no immunity from the vaccine. So in summary of this topic we will live by faith and not by sight and pray for the best <3

Hope's development is right on track and beyond. She is such a strong little girl! She can hold her head up like its nobody's business and has rolled over a few times already! She is smiling all the time and totally thinks she is having conversations with us. Its so adorable. We will make sure to get that on camera soon. I bought an iphone so I will be loading a lot of videos...haha watch out.

The crunchiness just keeps evolving lol... I am so miss granola mom and I have no clue how this happened. I guess I just like to keep things all natural and old school. It just makes sense to me. I have decided I am going to cloth diaper Hope. Not just because disposables are incredibly wasteful in every single way imaginable but because she has very sensitive skin! She rashes very easily and the materials of disposables are not helping at all. Not to mention in rare cases can cause TSS
(Toxic Shock Syndrome)... very scary stuff in those things. So I figure hey lets save literally thousands of $$$ be eco-friendly, get rid of toxic risk to her and buy the insanely ADORABLE cloth diapers for her little toosh. I can tell I am going to get addicted to buying these things they make them SO cute its ridiculous. They are so beneficial in so many ways and even lead to your children potty training far earlier than when they use disposables. You can even pass them down to any future kiddos you have! I would have started earlier but we have to use on site laundry which is so expensive and a hassle getting quarters all the time. But soon we will be in our home with laundry!! EEEK cant wait! The other thing is I am now preparing to make her baby food from scratch! I want to control exactly what goes into her belly by me buying it, washing it, cooking and pureeing it. All 100% Organic of course. Being a stay at home mom I am blessed with having the time to do these things and I am very thankful and feel blessed every day.

I just love being a mom so much I never knew it could be so amazing. My life just makes so much sense and feels so complete when I wake up and see her big beautiful eyes just staring at me. She is such a good baby. She sleeps great. She usually goes to sleep for the night around 10 sometimes 11 and will sleep all the way until 5 or 6AM. The great thing about breastfeeding is not having to get us out of bed to make a bottle. I just feed her right in bed and we fall back asleep. We usually sleep until 9 or 10! Im getting far more sleep than when I was pregnant even! JP and I are having a blast in this new chapter of our lives! I am so excited to see what these coming months will bring forth for our little family. I pray that it will be ALL good things <3!!!

Baby Blues and the Stress of the First Few Weeks

Hope is doing fabulous. She is growing right on track and hitting her milestones. She is yet to laugh when she is conscious lol... Meaning yes...She laughs in her sleep! lol. It amazes me that she is having a dream that vivid. I wonder what on earth she could be dreaming that would make her laugh!! Love it... She is definitely smiling at us now for sure. When JP came home from work he picked her up and she gave him the biggest smile ever! Everything she does just amazes me.

It is so true, in my case at least, that having a child has changed my life forever. Every thought I have, plan I make, my future dreams and all my interests revolve around her. Its just amazing the 180 life makes once you birth your own flesh and blood. Its just something you cant understand until you have your kids... Nobody can prepare you.

I do want to call attention to something that was really hard for me to talk about after I had her... There is something that commonly happens after you have a baby called "baby blues." I guess about 85% of women experience this and its most likely due to the sudden drop in hormones after giving birth. I'm not talking about postpartum depression as that is a much more severe case which often requires medication. For me the baby blues lasted for about a week and a half. After I had her (im talking about birth) I didn't cry or feel an overwhelming sense of joy. I was more in shock and disbelief. Not to mention after a 24 hour labor with 16 hours of painful active labor and then pushing for almost an hour I was exhausted to say the least. Once the adrenaline and oxytocin rush of hormones hit, she was already taken away from me and getting a bath and diaper etc. These are important hormones for the immediate bonding experience. Then there were so many visitors, of course all loved ones. So everyone was holding her and I was literally stuck in the hospital bed. Giving birth for me was like completing a triathlon that I never even trained for. I was beat up bad.

Once all the visitors left that night and it was just JP, Hope and I; I finally was able to really take a look at her. I remember thinking she is the most beautiful person I have ever seen in my life. But there was still a hint of disbelief lingering that maybe this was all a dream. A lot of the disbelief I experienced in pregnancy. "Is there really a baby in there?"

She was born at 9:43AM and by about 10:00PM which normally JP and I would be getting ready for bed which we really needed after the long day and night of labor; Hope started screaming her little head off. JP and I had not been around a newborn for over a decade and had no clue what to do. There was no nursery at the hospital so the nurses couldn't give us a break to get some rest. Breastfeeding was so new for me and not going great either. I remember thinking "oh my gosh what did we do... Are we ready for this?" Then the guilt set in. "Oh no, I'm a bad mom already..." Then all these fears started creeping in. The fear of SIDS...ugh. So I literally couldn't close my eyes because I was so afraid and checking her breathing constantly. By about 4AM I asked the nurse what to do about our sleep situation. She wouldn't sleep in her little rolly bed thingy and she hates being swaddled. I told her all she wants to do is sleep with me on my chest. Is this safe? And thankfully God sent me a nurse that said "yes, it is just fine if you do it safely and to trust your motherly instincts." So I caught about 2 hours of sleep and felt like a new woman with just that little bit of rest.

I still cant say I was completely comfortable with her sleeping with me in the hospital bed, so I just couldn't wait to get home and get some sleep. Well surprise surprise, Hope doesn't like to sleep in her co-sleeper bassinet either... Well what do we do, crap! JP and I decided that we would just have to take shifts at night. I would get some sleep at 7:30PM-12:00AM (waking up to breastfeed of course though) and he would sleep the rest of the night til 4AM or 5AM. This just didn't work and it was so awful and we did this for about three days at home. I was so upset and just didn't know what to do anymore... The lack of sleep wasn't making the baby blues any easier to get past.

I would say by about the 4th day home I said screw it, she is coming to bed with me. JP was in bed sleeping for his shift and I crawled into bed with her in my arm and we slept great and I never looked back. I felt a little guilty because I wasn't sure it was safe but then I did a ton of research. On Dr. Sears site he goes far into depth on co sleeping and its benefits. The major benefit being that it actually REDUCES SIDS... No kidding. Mom acts as a pace maker for baby and will subconsciously bring baby out of a too deep of sleep. Once I caught up on sleep and felt more comfortable with co sleeping and breastfeeding I could feel the baby blues becoming more and more non existent every day. The first week the thought of JP going back to work killed me... I couldn't take the thought of him leaving me alone with the baby. But by the second week i got the hang of being a mom and I was about ready to open the door myself for him to go back to work, haha! Bless his heart he was so helpful but I was ready to have the house to myself again lol.

I'm sharing this because I believe moms shouldn't have to be silent about their feelings. This is a normal occurrence in a new parents experience and there is nothing to be ashamed of. Its not always going to be rainbows and butterfly's for every mom. Not every mom is going to cry and feel overwhelming happiness after birthing their baby. Sometimes it takes a little bit of getting to know your baby and that is just fine. I think if more moms accepted this as a reality and as a normal process that there wouldn't be as many Casey Anthony's out there. Maybe moms like her felt like they failed from the first day and never got past it? Maybe they were suffering postpartum depression even and never recognized they needed immediate help. This doesn't excuse what they did at all, but it could be the beginning of where the problem started.

Being a mom is a job and just like there is grace when you are training for a new job out in the world, there is just that for your new job at motherhood. And then once you get the hang of it there is no looking back. Every day is better and easier than the last. Every day the love for your child grows more and more even when you don't think it is possible to love them any more than you do!! <3 So moral of my blog is, to talk about your feelings in every situation you are in! You are never alone in anything you are feeling.