Mommin' It Up!

January 31, 2011January 29, 2011

Vapo-love

A couple of months ago, I got an email from the folks at Vicks – a press release about how to fight the flu. I didn’t feel like there was any reason for me to spontaneously write about the flu, but I emailed back and said, “If you ever have any opportunities with VapoRub, give me a shout, because I looooooooooove VapoRub.” Ok, maybe I didn’t say it in those *exact* words, but that was the gist. I have a nostalgic, emotional attachment to VapoRub, and it is one of my favorite “feel-better” products when I am sick, or my kids are sick! I love the stuff!

So when that opportunity did present itself, and Vicks asked me to be part of their Blogger Brigade, I was more than happy to say yes. Because this is a product I have loved since I was a little kid.

I love the smell (which it turns out, is a combination of Camphor, Menthol, and Eucalyptus Oil), I even love the feel (I can’t get behind the cream version. I like the original, petroleum-jelly-like version!), and I love the effect it has of opening your airways and soothing your cough. When I was a kid, my mom rubbed VapoRub on my brothers and I when we were sick and I guess that memory conjures up warm and fuzzy feelings of Mom’s TLC for me. When I was telling my mom about this post, I told her I was excited to work with Vicks because VapoRub is a product I just LOVE. And she said, “Oh, I love it too! It brings back such good memories of a warm Vicks-soaked flannel cloth pinned to my PJs when I was sick as a kid.”

See, my mom passed down the VapoRub-love to me, and I fully intend to pass it on to my kiddos. I started out using Vicks BabyRub on them when they got their first colds, and I still use it on them today (and yes, I DO already have some BabyRub ready for Jonah). In my experience, it really works to soothe coughs and open airways!

If you have Vapo-love like I do, you’ll be happy to know that yesterday Vicks VapoRub launched a brand-new Facebook page! You can check it out here and you’ll find helpful tips, advice, and news on how to keep the whole family healthy, as well as family-friendly cold and cough information and a forum for discussions so readers can add their own tips and seek advice from others!

Do you have an Vicks VapoRub stories? I’d love to hear them in the comments! And the Vicks folks would love to hear them on VapoRub’s Facebook wall. Share the Vapo-love!

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I am being compensated as a member of the Vicks Blogger Brigade. My honest, slightly obsessive opinions about VapoRub are all my own!

January 10, 2011

Rough Mornings

Sam’s been at a new school since the first of November, and while for the most part everything is going great, ever since we’ve been back from Christmas break, he’s been having a rough time at drop off. He’s such a creature of habit that when there’s a slight change in routine, which there’s bound to be, he is not a fan. In the mornings and afternoons, a lot of times his class will merge with the class across the hall, because there aren’t a ton of kids there. He does NOT like that at all. And if that merge takes place in the morning and I’m not dropping him off in his regular classroom? It’s bad.

He doesn’t cry, he doesn’t pitch a fit… he just doesn’t want me to leave. He clings to my leg. His lip quivers. And though he moves past it pretty quickly, I’m having a hard time doing the same.

It’s not the way to start the day, for either one of us.

I’m not sure what to do, though, other than to ride it out. However, I am open for suggestions. Any words of wisdom from the other moms out there?

January 5, 2011January 4, 2011

The first rough day

Yesterday was my first rough day with baby Jonah. There have been rough nights, but mostly he has been really easy during the day. Yesterday? Not so much! Even with Joshua in school all day and Sophie in preschool all morning, AND my mom there to help me all day, I had my hands more than full with a super-fussy, unhappy boy. He had really never been like that before and I was at a loss for what to do for him!

After a couple diaper changes I ascertained that his lack of poop was probably the problem. Kiddo had something he was trying to work out and while up ’til yesterday he had been a super pooper, he just couldn’t make it happen.

So I held him and nursed him and swaddled him and rocked him. My mom held him and rocked him. He slept fitfully off and on, waking to wail and cry again. It was exhausting. I got out my Sleepy Wrap and figured out how to get him in it in the late afternoon. That helped for awhile. Then around 5, he had a really good nursing session and sometime soon after that, he made a magic poop! Ok, I don’t really think it was magical, but it made him happy! And then an hour or so later he made another one. I have never been so happy about poop in my life. Except for maybe when Sophie finally decided to start pooping on the potty.

But anyhoo. It was a long, long day of frustration and exhaustion for both of us. Again, I would not have survived without my mom there. I literally did NOTHING all day but take care of the baby and read a million books to Sophie while I held him. That is all that could be accomplished. And it left me totally spent.

I love my sweet baby boy, but I am looking forward to where we’ll be 10 weeks from now…at least to where I hope we’ll be!