being happy is important

It's nice when you can say that you are happy. Really nice. I was looking around on the internet to find some nice quotes and images to match the happiness we feel in this home.

We love Christ in this home and we love all the good He gave us. So I would like to share some scriptures here with you. All God wants is for you to be truly happy. And true happiness is so much and abundant. Life is too short to feel mediocre or just to go through life OK. You deserve the best in every way.

These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. –Jesus Christ (John 15:11-12)

I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. (Ecclesiastes 3:12)

Moreover, when God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work—this is a gift of God. (Ecclesiastes 5:19)

The precepts of the LORD are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the LORD are radiant, giving light to the eyes. (Psalm 19:8)

With love!

life anew

Since the last 3 weeks life for us Joneses has changed a bit. We have wonderful outies with Blissie to the swimmingpool. She is 6 months now so time to start the floating training. Some wonderful people came up with this for babies. Want to find out more, here is the link: http://www.babyswimming.com/DiaperDolphins.htm Our Blissie loves it and she is a true Diaper Dolphin. We mostly play in the water with her of course, we have to make it fun for her. She loves to walk in the baby pool, she dives in deeper water, she does a cute doggieswim to the surface, she loves her watertoys, she goes in the whirlpool with us and is learning to float on her back. We are guessing she will be able to float on her own by the age of 1. If it takes her longer or less long, whatever, it's her thing.

She started eating fruit and veggies. Mostly fruit, she loves warm fruit the most. Warm plum, apple, pear, ... She also likes melon, mango and bananas. We never mix up fruits together because she has to develop her tastepalate, and that is so important. All her food is made from scratch. If she has veggies or potatoes, we steam them. Eating is a joy to her. She of course still breastfeeds. Nothing better or healthier in the world. She still asks for it about 10 to 15 times a day. And, that is not a lot. That is a normal number. Breastfeeding is best done at request from your baby. Bottle feeding is totally different. You cannot compare the two. But it's amazing that the body is so perfectly designed so a mother can give her baby the best of the best. I love it, Bliss loves it and she will benefit from it for the rest of her live. The list of pro's is as long as my arm. It even goes so far, that when you breastfeed your kid for 2 years, she will be better at her homework and studying later in school. Her brain will do better with the breastmilk. Isn't that amazing. I have control over that now already and I can help her already so that she can be a great student later in life. I love it.

Blissie only knows how to eat with her mouth (no hands) so it's a learning process. At first I just let her play with her food. Let her explore what it is. Eating with a spoon is still very new. But it's going very good. She also loves to chew on a breadcrust.

Blissie has two teeth already so time to start brushing. Without toothpaste that is. We did some research and it is not neccecary until the baby is 1. Just brushing is enough for the new teeth. As long as you don't give processed food, tooth decay will not happen either. Tooth decay comes from eating processed food.

Carl & I had a wonderful date on Mothersday. We went swimming, just the two of us. It was weird to be there without Blissie. Then we had a nice dinner, and then home. The alone time was great.

Next month Carl has his vacation. That is gonna be great. Blissie will be 7 months and it's great to go out with her now. We'll probably go on a nice trip somewhere cool. It'll be fun.

Day at the beach

A few weeks ago we enjoyed a great day at the beach in Oostende. Bliss had an ok day. She experienced lots of new sights. She was really tired the next day and needed lots of rest and sleep.

Carl had a really fun time too. Look at the pictures. It was definitely the highlight of our day.

Carl loved it.

funny girl

Our Blissie is the coolest baby. She moves around all the time now since she can turn herself over. Belly to back, and from her back to her belly again. Moving forward is also no problem anymore. It won't be long untill she can crawl. So now putting her down for a nap is a bit challenging. We always put her down on her belly, She won't sleep any other way. And we here don't believe it's good to always put a baby on her back to sleep. Bliss hates that position too. And baby knows best, it's her body and she knows what she wants and what feels good. Nobody feels what she feels.

So this morning I put her down for her nap, and she didn't really agree. She was still making some cute noises. And I make a habit of it to check on her all the time untill she is asleep. And that is a good thing. Because I walked in on one of her stunts. It was so funny. She thought so too. It's high time we lower her mattress.

To her everything is an adventure. It's so wonderfull to go with her on her journey. And we're so greatful she is with us. It just gets better and better. As she is getting older week by week, the fun grows too. All her firsts are a joy to witness.

I love being a stay at home mommy. You know what, it's really simple. We have less income then we would have if I go out to work full time. But this is also very simple: It's not worth the money to give up all that Bliss and I share with each other. She and I are building up the greatest foundation of trust and love and peace, all because I stay home with her. To me that is priceless. I can breastfeed her throughout to day and that is so much more then putting food in her belly. It gives her the greates feeling of being secure and safe and she feels loved, love that no one else can give her but her parents. No bottle can ever give that. And I won't even mention all the healthbenifits and all the rest of the benefits it will give her for the rest of her life.

Yep, sometimes things do get too much for me. Sometimes I feel like I'm going nuts, or I'm tired of being stuck at home, or the crying baby just gets too much for me. And I'm always happy to have Carl home so he can hold her and take care of her. I love my breaks, a lot a lot a lot. My mom is a great babysitter and I love my short outies to the store or so. The first two to three months I basicly had no breaks. And it was so hard, BUT SO WORTH IT. Believe me, having a baby and taking care of her "full full time" is the hardest thing/job in the world. It is also the most important one in the world. And it pays of so big you have no idea. The happiness and joy she gives me all day long, no job or boss or colleage or paycheque has ever given me that.

Don't let me shock you now by saying this: I am in the process of setting up my own business, weddingphotographer. Don't worry, it's a job I can basicly do from home and that will only take me away from home one or two days a month. Plus I'll make sure those days, Carl will be able to stay home. He's her father and is just as important to Bliss as her mother. She loves him just the same. Yep I'm waiting with things untill Bliss is 6 months old. That's when we start with veggies and fruit. It's breastmilk full time the first 6 months and then we start with other foods. That is the healthiest way for her little body. We did some research and that's what it said. And she is happy and healthy.

I love being a photographer and I am so looking forward to giving people my work and giving them beautiful memories.

I love it when she naps, like right now. So I have some time to myself. I can get some me-time. Now I can write this without her distracting me and I can only sit here and feel so proud and happy that I have her in my life.

4 months old

60cm and 5,700kg - 23.62inches and 12.5lbs

My goodness, our girl is 4 months old today. It actually feels like she has been around forever.

We adore her. She is a great sleeper. And she gives these adorable noises of contentment. She chooses wisely when to give her smileys out and when to just stare at you.

Who's the cutest: Blissie of course

She loves to sit up straight now and is discovering things with her mouth. We are so blessed to have this perfect little angel in our lives.

She loves her daddy so much. He always calls me at lunch and it sometimes happens that she is crying. But then when she hears his voice, she turns quiet and listens to him talk. When he's home he is always ready to take her over from me. He is the best husband and father.

Cornbread and Chicken and Tzatziki

Guess what: I have something else to post about then baby. But as you can see, I still have to mention: baby. Ha, yep I'm a baby-addict. Good thing, cause she's also addicted to me.

Anyways, on Sunday we ate the most delicious meal. It was my first time to eat Cornbread. Cornbread is a common bread in United States cuisine, particularly associated with the South and Southwest. Carl has been talking about how he misses Cornbread for a while now. So I finally made it. It was so good. We ate it with chicken sate's and the best dip ever: Tzatziki.

We love Alan Jackson in this home. Our openingdance at our wedding 'Remember When' was also by him. This is the song though that got us all craving for cornbread and chicken.

Tzatziki is a Greek dish. It's a dip but you can also eat it as a salad. It all tasted so great together. This here below is the original recipe. But I made quite a few changes and used just what I had laying around in the fridge.

I used 2 normal big cucumbers, Soy yoghurt (delicious), garlicpowder, an onion, lemon zest and lemon juice, chilipowder and olive oil. It was so amazing with just these ingredients.

original recipe for Tzatziki
4 Lebanese cucumbers, peeled
2 cups Greek yoghurt
1/2 clove garlic, finely grated
1 small eschalot, finely grated
½ bunch dill, fronds finely chopped
1 lemon, zest finely grated
1 pinch Cayenne pepper
1 tsp Greek honey
4-5 tbs olive oil

Step 3: For the tzatziki, coarsely grate the cucumbers onto a tray covered with a clean cloth so the liquid from the cucumber can drain into the tray. Spread cucumber out evenly, season lightly with salt, cover with a clean cloth and leave for 5 minutes then roll up to extract the juice. Set drained cucumber aside. (I just used 1 kitchen cloth which worked well enough)

Step 4: Place ½ cup of the thickened yoghurt (I used 500ml) in a small bowl with the garlic, eschalot, dill, lemon zest and cayenne pepper.

Step 5: Add drained cucumber to the yoghurt mixture and stir to combine. Add olive oil and stir well. (It's also nice to not stir in the oil completely)

This food is perfect for a dinner party or to make with your kids. Fun and delicious.

Enjoy!!!

so proud

My girl finally smiles. It took her so long because she was in pain a lot. Belly cramps, reflux, ... We found a great osteopath and she gave Blissie some great homeopathic medicines and now it's much much better. The stuff she did with her little body was also amazing. Anke Bergen is a great osteopath.

She makes lots of cute noises now. I'm so proud of my girlie. She's so much fun. We can start playing fun games with her now. She likes the flying games.

She's 14 weeks and 2 days old in these pictures. I love them. Today we went to the mommy-group for the first time. It was fun. It was so nice to hear other mother's stories about their pregnancies and deliveries. And from what I heard, the water birth is so worth it. It apparently helps enormously
with easing the laborpains. I'm definitely going with that the next time. Looking forward to having another baby so much. The pregnancy not so much. But it's still worth it.

Our little girl is 12 weeks old today!

12 weeks old

Waw, our little girl is not so little anymore. She's growing fast. It's so much fun to see her grow taller and to see her become a real girl. It's way more fun to have an active girlie then to have a newborn. She is really aware of everything that goes on around her.

It's hard to get her to smile for the camera. She just stares or looks away. She will give you smilies when you play with her though. 12 weeks old today. We can't wait for the rest of her life.

so much & so little has happened

Okay, I haven't posted in like forever. Ever since mid-January our lives changed dramaticly. Weeks of bedrest and a 10day hospital stay did that. And then when Blissie finally came, it has been all baby and nothing but baby. Bliss is truly a fantastic baby. She is so strong and intelligent.

She cries a lot. That means that she just is letting us know something is up. Either she is cramping or hungry or just calling out for her mommy. She has been crying a lot though. She doesn't give untill it's fixed. There was no way of soothing her, for weeks and weeks. She has reflux. We have some great medecine now. Something homeopahtic, and safe. It works great. She still needs lots of holding though. But we understand. She was safe and warm and connected to me for 37 weeks. You can't just leave her on her own immediately ater she is born. She needs physical contact, which is also super healthy for her. And we want to give her only the best. And yes, that takes a lot of work and time. But we didn't decide to go for a baby to then not give her all of us.

Being a mom is truly the hardest job on the planet, if you do it right.

It is hard sometimes. It takes complete devotion to give your baby the best. How do mothers of more then one kid do it??? Blissie takes up all of my time, and I'm not kidding. How am I gonna do this a second time, with a second baby. How do you devide your time between your kids?

I am greatful for the internet. While I am holding Blissie, I can still feel connected to the world with my laptop right next to me. I do dream of going out a lot and having a job. How easy would that be, to drop my baby of somewhere and say goodbye to her for 8 hours. But we have made the decision for me to be a stay at home mommy even before we got married. Actually I made that decision many years ago, so did Carl when he thought of his future family. Why, because your children just need that, it is as simple as that. It is the best thing for them and for the whole family.

And when you know better you do better.

Sure, we dream of more income. Actually we really need some more income. And we are looking for something extra to do for Carl. Carl is the kind of husband that would want to work two full time jobs to support his family. Although I am a bit against that. I would also like to have him home sometimes. That is also so important. I am not a single mother. I have a husband and my baby has a father. He needs to be around, and he wants to be around. Anyways, we are still looking around for something extra that will bring some more money in, and will still allow Carl to sleep at night.

I'm looking into some homeschooling at the moment. Because going outside the house for more then an hour or two in between feeds is not possible. I would love to start up my own business. Something I can do mainly from home. When Blissie is a couple months older I'm hoping to have a more independent girl. And her Reflux problems will get better with age, so I am hopefull. She will always come first in our lives and nothing will ever interfere with that. Because nothing and no one is more important then her wellbeing.

Having a baby is the greatest and biggest blessing in our lives. Which means to us that you also spend the greatest and most time with her and do the most research you have ever done in your life to give her the best in every aspect of her life. No excuses. You look for THE BEST ways in every aspect. What is THE BEST during your labour and the birth. What do drugs really do to your body and the baby. What does giving birth on your back really do. Why is that a typical hospital birth? Are there other ways, better ways? Can you give your baby and yourself something better? Why is it important to feel the pain you feel during childbirth? And believe me, the answers are out there.

And isn't that every parents wish? To give your baby the best of the best? Well, that takes work and that takes a willingness to look for it. And it is so out there now. You can find it right here on the internet. The video "The business of being born" which you can find on YouTube is still a great eye opener.

You know, you can have faith in God and say that you follow Him. But if you have faith in God, you should also have faith in His works, His creations, in all He did, does and will do. One of His biggest creations is the woman. He created you, your body is perfectly designed for having babies. He didn't make any mistakes there. Have faith in your ability to have babies and to give birth without interference from men.

I can tell from experience that your body knows and will tell you exactly what to do and what not to do during your labour and the birth. And I can also tell you that there is no greater accomplishment you'll ever make or that will make you feel better then to trust in your own body during childbirth.

During my labour, I was in a lot of pain for hours. But because I was in my own house, where it was calm and quiet, I had some kind of peace. And strangly enough, although it hurt so much, I felt that I was designed to handle that pain. It was a weird kind of pain also. An immensely intense pain that I can't compare to any other pain. It was amazing though to eventually feel her head descending and that was a different pain all together.

I also must say that the feelings of happiness are just as great and oh, they are amazing. They beat any good feeling I ever felt in my life. I feel so proud that I gave birth the way I did and there is just no better feeling then this in the world. We hope we can do it this way with every baby that comes to us. Though we're very greatful for the great hospital and doctor that was on standby incase we needed medical help. But everything went right, just as we expected.

Two minutes after the birth I just felt ready to do it all over again. We would love to have a second baby. I can hardly wait to get pregnant again. And to do it better that time around. Maybe that will happen soon, maybe it will happen in a few years. When the time is right.

In the mean time, we're doing our best to keep Blissie safe and happy. And I am working out a way to fit a little bit of me in there without putting Bliss aside. That's my personal biggest challenge right now.

great websites

Deze website geeft enorm veel correcte uitleg over borstvoeding en doorbreekt alle fabeltjes. www.borstvoeding.com
Vroedvrouwen in Turnhout en Geel.
www.desprong.be en www.geboorte-infocentrum.be

English websites
www.biologicalnurturing.com
this one is good if you have a boy, the truth about circumcision www.circumcision.org

2010 Pregnancy-Recap

So after two miscarriages in January and March. We got pregnant again in May. And we're happy our third child decided to stay around.

We would like to share with you our experiences with gynecologists and hospitals and being pregnant.

With the first pregnancy we had an appointment for the first ultrasound at 7 weeks pregnant. We chose to go to the nearest hospital and that's all the thought we put in that choice. The doctor was cold and distent and told us to come back in a week because the baby was too small and there wasn't a heartbeat yet. So a week later we went back and while she was doing the ultrasound she just said. "The baby is dead". She went to her desk, we followed. And then she said: "lets schedule a curretage for next Friday" (operation to remove the baby). That whole week I felt horrible about having that done and it felt wrong. I had it done. But looking back on that now I should have let things happen natuarly. I am pretty sure that the operation caused the second miscarriage. Later our midwife agreed that having a curretage is usually a bad idea because your body does know how to take care of itself.
We decided to never go back to that gynecologist and that hospital. There must be better care out there.

Third pregnancy started out totally different. We decided to go with midwifes. There is a wonderful birthcentre in Geel with the best midwifes ever. http://www.geboorte-infocentrum.be/  They treat you and the pregnancy with love & care. They are so wise and teach you to listen to your body and they respect the process of being pregnant. And there you actually learn about "best ways to do something". Yes, there is a best way to deliver a baby and a not very good way.

The best way is to listen to your body and to be in a position you choose yourself. That can be any position you want. As you do some research about different positions you will find answers. There is so much correct information to be found through the internet. And then you can discuss your findings with your midwife. A great film about giving birth is "The business of being born". It's available on You Tube.

The visits with the midwifes are great. You get so much information. They give you a whole hour or longer if needed. Their advise and wisdom is priceless.

As we also need a gynecologist for ultrasounds and stuff. We chose to go to the hospital Mol this time. We hoped we'd find a better gynecologist there and better care.

But with every visit there we felt bad after. It just didn't feel like we were taken care of there. After 3 visits we decided to change gynecologists. We also learned that in the hospital in Mol, they don't give you any options on how you want to deliver your baby. It's all very one minded. And as we both felt very uncomfortable at our appointments I certainly don't want to do something big as giving birth with her there.

It is truly possible to change gynecologists if you feel you need to. It is your pregnancy and your delivery, your decision

So with the help and guidance of our midwifes we learned about a "childfriendly hospital" in Antwerp. Yes not a lot of hospitals here have the stamp "childfriendly hospital". Sint-Vincentius in Antwerp does. And let me tell you, it makes the world of difference. It is amazing here in this hospital. We found a great great gynecologist here and we feel great now. The visits with her are peaceful, informative, we feel like she has a great respect for the mothers and babies. And here they let the mother choose however she feels she wants to give birth, any position is accepted here. Our own midwifes are allowed in the delivery room, which is great. They know, really know about giving birth. So that is such a blessing.

Then, last Saturday night, Jan 15, at 34 weeks pregnant my water broke. That was a shock for both of us. How could that happen so early and all I could do was panic. But we new what to do, call the midwife. She came over straight away and calmed us down. She called the hospital and took us there. She stayed in the hospital with us and hooked me up on the monitor. I had someone to talk to about giving birth and it was great. She went home when things were ok again and since then she follows up on us and talks to the nurses and gynecologist here at the hospital. They work nicely side by side.

I have been on bedrest the past week and baby is still healthy and safe inside. This hospital is all about doing what is best for mama and baby. They know the importance of breastmilk and do all to give you the right help and that way baby is best taken care of.

If all goes well, and it is going great, I can go home on Monday. I need monotoring and tests done on me everyday, but because we have midwifes, that can be taken care of at home. All I have to do is be on bedrest, keep baby in for 2 more weeks and I can have my home delivery.

If it comes earlier then that we know we'll be in the best hospital with the best care and the best gynecologist and midwife right beside me.

I am so greatful for great medical care. It was a bit of a search but those who seek will find.

Life is good.

christmas & new year

The end of the year was great for us. I was ready to close 2010 off. It was a busy and intens year. We spend christmas and new years with close family and had a wonderful time. We did the entertaining and cooking ourselves for christmas. Busy but a succes. At new years we went to a restaurant and it was great. Next time we will have an 11 month old girly with us. We so look forward to having her with us and seeing her grow and experience all this world has to offer. She will be so loved and we will make sure she grows up nice and good. There is a lot of information out there to help you be the best parents you can be. And we love doing the research. Babies are born perfect and it's our job to not screw them up too bad. So we're keeping our eyes and ears wide open.