#PalmoliveFreshInfusions Dish Soap from Influenster

You know you're old when you get excited about dish soap. But seriously, let's talk about this stuff. When I found out I qualified for another shipment from Influenster, I think I jumped for joy (again).

Admittedly, I'm a bit of a dish soap snob and you'll usually only find Palmolive or Dawn on my counter top, so I was really excited to review the Palmolive Fresh Infusions soap.

Palmolive designed these three with the freshest scents in mind and let me tell you, they are delicious - Ginger White Tea, Lemon Thyme and Lime Basil. The bottle is sleek and pretty, not bulky and awkward like the usual from other dish soaps.

Unlike some soap options, the Fresh Infusions doesn't dry out your skin and actually leave my hands feeling nice and soft! It develops a great lather and a little goes a long way, even on the toughest, dirtiest dishes.

Best part? They are available at stores like Target and Walmart for only $2.99! It's worth the buy if you're looking for a great smelling new product!

Have you tried this product yet? Would you be interested in trying it?

(I was given this product to review, though received no compensation. All opinions are my own.)

Why I chose to be a crazy person and go for a med-free VBAC

Childbirth is an incredibly intimate experience and no labor will ever be the same. Thank God.

After Gabriel's birth experience, I felt an enormous load of guilt around the choices I made. Sure, I had a baby, of course he was amazing, and thank goodness, he was healthy. But throughout my first pregnancy, I set certain expectations for myself, expected a certain amount of...willpower? I didn't follow my plan and I felt that deviating played a large role in why it ended as it did.

There's no question that I had no idea what to expect, but I am also very competitive. I'm the girl who used to pester her coach after basketball games on the rides home and ask him to go over everything she did wrong so she could improve. 

I felt like this - my child's birth - demanded the utmost dedication. And I knew my body could handle it. So when I went into labor and handled the contractions on my own at home for 12 hours, I thought, oookay, this is nothing. 

But then they kicked into high gear and fear started to creep in. Fear of failure. Fear of pain. Fear that I had no idea what the hell I was getting myself into and so I cried for an epidural. Sat for a gut-wrenching 2 hours with contractions ripping through my body while the needle guy took his sweet ass time to get to my room. (Which, by the way, they checked my dilation as soon as he was done and I was at a NINE)

I had done extensive research as far as pain intervention and the possibilities that these interventions could yield. There's this thing called the cascade of interventions, which basically states that by choosing one "intervention," let's say an induction by pitocin, you are more likely to have other interventions such as pain medication, forceps, or a c-section. Did you know that c-sections have risen from 4.5% of births in 1965 to 32% in 2010? Uhhhbuuuh?

Basically you could consider me another one of those statistics. I won't share the details here because I've vaguely done that already but just know it took a long time for me to come to terms with some of the guilt and negative feelings I had towards the actual birthing experience with Gabriel.

So, at my first appointment with my midwife with my second pregnancy, I explained that I intended to have a natural VBAC. She doubted my abilities, attempted to bring up rupture stats and pain thresholds and myriad reasons why there was a chance this wouldn't work out. I had done my homework, I had answers too. 

I was and still am convinced that had I not already had an epidural with Gabriel, I would not have been giving a c-section. I truly believe that they would have tried other methods of getting the cord unwrapped. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm not, we'll never know, but I knew when I found out I was pregnant for a second time that I would never go through surgery like that again.

I also believe that probably had the first experience not ended in surgery, the chance of me wanting an epidural with my second may have been higher.

When my midwife continued to doubt me, I stopped seeing her at the urging of my doula and found someone who would be supportive of my choice to birth my baby without any pain medication. Surprisingly, it was an MD at Kaiser who really showed belief in me.

You see, I wanted to make my experience the best and safest for ME and for my BABY. Everyone has their own idea of what they are comfortable with and for me, I was not going to give anyone any excuse to cut me open. If it was to happen, I wanted it to be extremely inconvenient. 

Luckily, after about 8 hours of labor and a lot of willpower, I did it. It was empowering.

There are many people who have safely and easily had an epidural and then go on to have a safe and easy delivery. That's awesome. More power to you and I wish my first would have ended that way so my second could have been blissfully pain-less (less pain, not the absence of [=). I don't feel like I'm any better or any worse for having done it without meds. Although I'm not going to lie, I swear I could have moved mountains or cured world hunger or whatever that day. I felt pretty freaking awesome. I felt vindicated.

What was your labor experience like? Was it everything you thought and hoped it would be?

Some things I have totally dropped the ball on

Call it a lack of inspiration, call it a lack of time...whatever it is, I've been kind of, absent? I haven't been sleeping well, up at crack of dawn with Jonas, so to make up for it I've been going to bed early and skipping my blogging time.

I have at least 7 half-written posts in my queue...

-How I met my husband part 5 - that time I accidentally told Adrian I loved him
-Pictures from the Cattle Call Rodeo
-Jonas' 10 month post
-Pictures and post about our yearly tamale-making tradition
-Why I chose a natural birth
-We should take it easy on ourselves (women are so hard on themselves!)
-A new DIY project

So yeah...I'm thinking tonight I'll try to start knocking some out and we'll have one by tomorrow...maybe.

How are you all doing? I'm missing my blog reading/writing and need to get into a good routine again!

Oh, just fyi, go enter the birthday giveaway that I'm a part of going on over at Lena B, Actually. Lots of really great prizes to win!!

What makes your bedtime routine special?

Like millions of households across the world, bedtime is kind of like gearing up for the big game...every single night. I pretty much start thinking about bedtime as soon as I start dinner.

I know it's coming, like a freight train, it's coming full speed ahead and I'm standing frozen in the tracks like a deer in headlights or a car stuck on the...

...bed times...that's what I was talking about. Routines, yes.

So anyway, on bad days, the onslaught of the bedtime routine can be fear-inducing. Cold sweats. The shakes. Need-a-glass-of-wine-the-second-these-beasts-rest-their-little-heads.

But the good days, I'm all about those. For us, we start the second dinner is over. Boys get in the bath together and play. Jonas comes out first, diapers and jammies and snuggles and nursing for about 20 minutes then into the crib he goes and out for the night. 

Meanwhile, I've either beckoned Gabriel to climb out (or threatened him, depending on what kind of day it is) and he's usually snuggled up in his jammies next to us watching Jake or Team Umizoomi. Once Jonas goes to sleep, we'll snuggle or I'll pick up the kitchen while he hangs with dad for a bit.

Here's where the fun begins.

This is really my favorite part. 

After we've convinced Gabriel that it is indeed bedtime and that he has to go to his room, he and I get under the covers and read 2-3 books, sing 4-5 songs, say some prayers and begin the questions game.

I promise you that you will not regret doing this with your child because it is the sweetest, most hilarious thing ever. 

     "What's your favorite color horse?"

     -purple

     "What's your favorite place?"

     -Circle Target

     "What kind of animals do you want someday?"

     -peacocks

    "Who is your favorite person?"

     -my dad. (me:) whaaat?? (him:) Oh, no, I mean you!

I love hearing about the world from his perspective, learning about the little things that he picks up on a day to day basis and getting a glimpse into that sponge-y brain of his. 

What are your children's bedtime routines like?

Do you have a favorite part or something that makes it extra special?

Hard work: outdoor landscaping in progress

Gabriel loves to do "hard work" as he calls it and when you have a new house that needs a heap load done to it, he has plenty to keep him entertained.

This weekend we spent organizing the last loads of stuff from our old house. I donated another 2 boxes of miscellaneous baby stuff, 2 bags of Adrian's old clothes and a bunch of hideous shoes that I've been holding onto for years. 

We have laundry list a mile long of things that need to be done, both inside and out, so when my father-in-law offered to tear down some old trees and move dirt around, we were so happy!

In the process, we ended up being out of water for several hours because he accidentally ripped up a pipe. Oops!



Thankfully, my jack-of-all-trades husband saved the day and replaced the pipe. And really muddied himself in the process.

Dirt was piled up and smoothed out in the front yard to make way for what hopefully will be a beautiful turnaround driveway, lined by railroad ties and surrounded by grass. I wish I would have gotten better before photos of the dead trees in the front that lined the property. It looks a million times better now!

If all goes as planned, we're going to put in the grass seed sometime in the next few weeks. This happens to be the best time to work on your grass here in the Valley so we should have some green out there soon.

Adrian and my FIL spend the entire day, minus church, outside on Sunday to make sure the front was ready to start landscaping. Thanks, honey!

I did super important things like laundry, organizing my crafting supplies and rearranging our walk-in closet.

We're hoping that in the next month or two we can look into getting the house painted on the exterior and possibly the interior as well!

The boys had fun playing in the dirt, watching the cars pass by and playing/crawling around.

It doesn't seem like a whole lot, but this will be the foundation of everything that is done in the front yard! I can't wait for the future of our home and to share more updates in the next few months as we make our house a home.

What did you do this weekend?