Honouring Mothers: Angela's Story

I never wanted to be a mother.  At least that's what I told myself and my boyfriend when I was eighteen.  I mean, who would want kids right?  They're messy, loud and so needy. As an eighteen year old, I was interested in only a few things: myself (what 18 year old isn't superficial?), my friends and the bar.  Kids would not fit into this.  Lucky for me, my boyfriend agreed that we wouldn't have children.

Fast forward ten years.  We were now married (on our 10th year anniversary), but children were still not a topic of conversation in our relationship.  That is until my niece was born. I can't exactly describe the feeling I had when I first met her, but I knew when I looked at her little face, I wanted one of my own.

Now remember, my husband didn't want any children and now his wife (who he assumed was on the same page as him) was asking for a child.  It took two years to finally convince him to start having a family of our own.  Great!  So I should just go off birth control and poof!  I'll be pregnant right?  Not even close.  Month after month, I would stare at a minus sign on those pregnancy sticks.  I would look at it for a long time thinking I must have done something wrong in order for it to be a negative sign.  I thought, "Did I pee on it long enough?  Maybe if I tilt it downwards, it'd show a positive sign." Still nothing.

After one year of trying, we decided that we needed help, so a referral to the Heartland Fertility Clinic was made.  The wait times were very long so we needed to wait another five more months to get in to see a doctor.  I was stressed, but we kept trying for our baby. After trying for five more months, I was still seeing negative signs...... Until December 20, 2009- one day before our appointment with the Heartland Fertility Clinic.  We were overjoyed!  The doctor at Heartland was quite impressed that his 'job was done' and closed our file.  Nine months later, we welcomed our beautiful baby girl.

We agreed that we would only have one child.  However, two years and four months after our daughter's arrival, we welcomed her brother into the world.  He was a complete surprise to us (we'll save his story for another day) and he made our family complete.

My house is often messy (the dishes can always wait), it is VERY loud (I think we all love to hear ourselves talk) and my children are constantly asking for help with something.  And I would not want it any other way.  I am so very happy with my family and I am blessed to be a mother!

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Thank you for sharing your story, Angela! As a thank you, you have qualified to be entered to win a $20 gift certificate to our shop. As for the rest of you - you can enter too! Click here for all of the details. We hope to have our inbox [info@tinytreehuggerdiapers.com] flooded with entries - everyone has a story to tell...we'd love to hear yours!

Happy Birthday to AppleCheeks and qualify to WIN

April is AppleCheeks birthday month and they turned FIVE this year. We are proud to be one of their longest standing Manitoba retailers, as we have been carrying them since we started just four years ago.

Aren't these ladies fun!

You're going to PEE yourself with this giveaway!!

It is our BIGGEST AppleCheeks giveaway EVER.

Drum roll pleeeeease...








For every $20 spent on AppleCheeks products between April 15th and 30th you get 1 entry to WIN a Microterry Starter Kit!

This includes:
3 AppleCheeks Envelope Covers
9 Microfleece Inserts [you can also pay the difference to get bamboo instead]
1 Zippered Storage Sac
1 Set of Bamboo Wipes
Retail value - $124.50

That's not ALL! After we draw the winner of the starter kit, we will draw another name to enter to win 1 of 2 FULL TIME BOTH SIZE Kits [retail value - $850] from AppleCheeks!

So what are you waiting for? Click here for our full lineup of AppleCheeks Cloth Diapers and accessories. Don't see what you are looking for in stock? It could be on the way! Contact us to see.

Honouring Mothers: Lindsey's Story

I had always wanted to be a young mother. Being an only child, I also wanted to have LOTS of kids, at least four, preferably 6. My husband and I got married just before we turned 20, and we started trying for a baby when we were 22. The plan was perfect, go to Europe for 3 months, come back pregnant!

Before we even left for Europe things weren't right. After I stopped birth control, things just didn't return to normal. I went to the doctor several times and he advised me to wait it out. And wait we did, for an entire year. At this point I got fed up with waiting and demanded he do something about. Little did I know how much more waiting I would have to do. I got referred to a OB/GYN, had an ultrasound. They saw something funky so I got scheduled for an MRI. Everything was normal, except for a few cysts on my ovaries. I got referred to another OB/GYN who was more knowledgeable with infertility. She diagnosed me with PCOS. I tried charting, and several medications before I got referred to Heartland fertility clinic, because nothing was working. Heartland is the only fertility clinic in Manitoba, so the wait times are very long, even just to get that first appointment. Through Heartland I tried more medication and had surgery. I was now 26 and nothing had worked thus far. We finally got to sign up for our first fertility treatment, an IUI. In January 2012 I injected myself with medication and had the procedure done. In October 2012 my miracle baby boy was born, exactly 5 years after we began trying.

Infertility was a very hard road to travel. It seemed never ending. It seemed hopeless. It was filled with questions. It was filled with hurt. It seemed like everyone was getting pregnant around me with the greatest of ease. Every new pregnancy announcement was another stab in the heart. I cried A LOT.

But here I stand on the other side of infertility, and I can truly say it was all worth it. Every step in this journey lead me to my precious Tallet Reid. Being his mother is the greatest blessing in the world and I would go through all the waiting and all the hurt for him a hundred times over. It has made me a better mother. It has made me a better person.

I am thankful that I had to travel that road. It has helped me to relate to MANY other women who are struggling as I have. I think my story can give hope to those who are still in the 'waiting' period of their lives. Yes I know the waiting is long, but there is hope. There is always hope!

Lindsey

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Thank you for sharing your story, Lindsey. Very touching! Besides opening up about her experience, Lindsey has also qualified to be entered to win a $20 gift certificate to our shop. You can enter too! Click here for all of the details. We hope to have our inbox [info@tinytreehuggerdiapers.com] flooded with entries - everyone has a story to tell...we'd love to hear yours!

honoring mothers: what's YOUR story?

Chances are, the majority of you reading this are mothers.

Either mothers of grown children [maybe even having grandchildren already!] or mothers of young children or somewhere in between. Maybe you're a first-time expectant mother or you are a hopeful expectant mother. Perhaps you're even a mother waiting for your precious adopted child to be brought home.

Or maybe you're a mother at heart, still longing for your dream of a child to come true, wondering if it will ever become a reality. Maybe you suffered through a miscarriage [or two] but at one point did have life growing inside of you. Maybe you even gave birth to a child only to lose him/her in the days, weeks, months or even years that followed.

Whatever category you're in, you are a mother. A mother in action, a mother in waiting, a mother in spirit. And all of those roles are important; they all tell a story.

A couple of weeks ago I watched the movie "What to Expect When You're Expecting" [with Cameron Diaz and Jennifer Lopez] and I was impressed with the various situations that they covered in that movie. From planned pregnancies to surprise pregnancies. From adoption to fertility treatments. From easy pregnancies to really difficult pregnancies. From miscarriages to a story of multiples.

It got me thinking that every mother has their own unique story of how things came to be. There is no ONE way to become a mother. A mother with a houseful of children running around is no more of a mother than the woman who is longing for her belly to swell with child. A mother with a child who does not share her blood is no less of a mother than the woman who biologically birthed her brood. A mother can be someone with her arms full...or her arms empty.

So, what's YOUR story? With Mother's Day coming up we thought it would be interesting to honour mothers by hearing some of the different ways you have become a mother [or are hoping to]. Do you have the story of the happy and busy Mom running her home with children underfoot? Do you have a story of someone who tried for months, or even years, to get pregnant before finally getting their miracle child(ren)? Do you have a story of adoption? Are you parents of twins - or even triplets? Would you be willing to share your story of miscarriage? Some stories are definitely more difficult to tell than others. And while we don't love the fact that there are heart-breaking stories out there, we want to honor those mothers too by allowing them to tell their story. And to give the chance for healing - either for the one telling the story, or for someone else who will be reading the story.

Your story can be about your journey leading up to pregnancy [or adoption]...or it can be about your labour & delivery experience. It can be about the pain of a miscarriage or the trials of fertility treatments. It can even be about those first few weeks and months at home after baby was born.

You can email your stories to info@tinytreehuggerdiapers.com with "MOTHERHOOD BLOG POST" in the subject line and we will choose a few to feature every week on the blog from now until Mother's Day. Posts will be published at our discretion. Every post sent to us [even those not published] will be entered into a draw for a $20 gift certificate to our shop. You can choose to use this gift certificate to splurge on yourself [which of course would be well deserved!] or you can choose to bless another mother with it.

**By emailing us your stories [and pictures] you are authorizing us to use them in full or in part either during this Mother's Day feature or sometime in the future.** 

I'm a believer! [healing amber review]

After Christmas, I came down with a n-a-s-t-y cold/flu and from that stemmed an infection with my growing-in wisdom tooth - apparently things like that can happen when your resistance is lowered [who knew?]. At first I tried wearing my new amber bracelet that I got as a gift, but it wasn't long before I took it off in defeat and resorted to Advil...after Advil...after Advil [until finally going to the dentist and getting antibiotics to fight the infection]. And I was just hoping that Pam wouldn't ask me to write up a review on this popular item in her shop. Ha ha, great review huh? Don't worry...keeping reading!

Well, last week the pain from that barely-poking-through wisdom tooth started up again and I figured I'd give the healing amber another shot. After all, the pain wasn't nearly to the extent as it was the first time when even my beloved Advil could barely touch it. Maybe this would be helpful this second time around when the pain was at a more "normal" and tolerable level.

Pam strongly suggested that I keep the bracelet on ALL THE TIME for full effect, so I've done just that this week. It went on my wrist Monday morning and hasn't come off since, not for a single second.

And guess what?

It's working! Now, a lot of you who already have these bracelets/necklaces probably aren't surprised to read that. But those of you who maybe haven't tried these before might be a bit more on the skeptical side. Let me assure you - I was one of those people until this week. I mean, they're beautiful accessories, but aside from that I didn't think that they could really be that beneficial.

But I was wrong.

Towards the end of Monday [the first day wearing it], I was really wanting to take some Advil but I was determined to stick it out and allow time for the amber to "do it's thing." And it didn't take long. Three days in and I haven't had a desire to take any form of medication since that first day. Oh, the pain in the tooth isn't 100% gone - it may take the removal of said tooth for that to become a reality - but now it's nothing more than a faint [and somewhat annoying] reminder that I have a tooth coming in.

So yes...I am a believer in healing amber! Are you?

Healing amber bracelets and necklaces are available in adult and baby sizes and can help with teething pain, headaches and other things like growing pains in young children.

[Did you know that you can do a review of our products too? If you have an item from our shop that you have tried - and loved - we'd be happy to hear from you! We'd love to feature your review right here on this blog if you are willing to share! Email us at pamj at tinytreehuggerdiapers.com]

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My name is Andrea (Andi) and I have the privilege of working part-time alongside Pam to help her with "a little of this and a little of that" as she strives to bring superb customer service to all of you through her Tiny TreeHugger business.

I am a 34-year-old mostly stay-at-home mother of two girls (aged 7 and 9) and have been happily married for 11 years. I am a Pepsi-loving, game-playing, guitar-learning, Nutella-craving girl [among many other things that make me ME]. I cloth-diapered my girls when they were babies and enjoyed the cost savings as well as the feeling of helping the environment - one cloth diaper at a time.

Thanks for checking in and I'll see you again both on this blog and on Facebook!

NEW from Boba Baby Carriers!

Introducing the NEW Boba Wrap print - Stardust!
The simple design, free of buckles, straps or buttons makes it perfectly comfortable for both you and your baby, simply tie the material snug against your body and achieve a perfect fit every time.

Also the BobaAir in Blue. 
BobaAir is the lightest, sportiest baby carrier out there and we hope that this first-of-its-kind addition to your baby carrier collection will make that freedom together you have with your family even more effortless (and help spread the benefits of babywearing, too

Available and ready to ship or pickup today!

See the remainder of our Boba products by clicking here!

For the love [or hate] of laundry!

"You know it's laundry day when ________________."

If this statement looks familiar it's because Pam posted it on the Tiny TreeHugger Facebook page the other day.

I have to admit, I was surprised at the number of people who replied by saying that every day was laundry day in their house.

I have always wanted to commit to doing a load of laundry every day, keeping up with the piles rather than only trying to conquer them when they are over-flowing...and overwhelming.

But alas, laundry is the bane of my existence [even though I no longer have babies in cloth diapers to add to the loads] and it just hasn't happened yet. Everytime I look at Mount Laundry, however, I'm reminded of how good of an idea a laundry schedule actually  is! I know once I would get into the routine of it, I'm sure it would be smooth sailing. But getting started - that's the kicker!

I receive subscribed emails on a daily basis with home organizing tips [that I admit, I hardly ever actually read - and NEVER follow through on], but this one about laundry caught my attention a bit more. And I'm actually considering putting it into practice...shocking, I know!

I like how realistic this article is - which you can read here or by clicking on the photo above. It talks about 4 questions you need to ask yourself before getting started:

Question 1: How Many Loads Of Laundry Are You Responsible For In A Week?

Question 2: How Often Do You Have The Opportunity To Wash Laundry?

Question 3: What Types Of Things Need To Be Washed, And How Often?

Question 4: Do You Like Or Hate Doing Laundry?

I like all of these questions - especially the last one - as it makes you look at things realistically. There is no right or wrong way to do laundry; you have to find what works for you and your household. For example, if you hate laundry you need to decide what is the better option for you: To get it done in small doses so it doesn't seem so much at once? Or to do it all on one day to get it over with so you're not thinking of it every single day?

So how do YOU do your laundry? Daily - like several people suggested on Facebook - or do you put it off as long as possible [like me - *insert sheepish grin here*] and then get buried underneath the seemingly insurmountable task? If you are thinking of starting up a laundry schedule, I encourage you to check out this article in its entirely. It even comes with a free printable!

(And while we're on the subject of laundry - did you know that Tiny TreeHugger has many laundry products? See, we're so much more than just diapers! From Laundry Tarts Stain Removing Sticks to Rockin' Green Laundry Detergent to Baby Bear Wool Dryer Balls [no need for fabric softener or dryer sheets with these!] - we've got your laundry needs covered from start to finish!)

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My name is Andrea (Andi) and I have the privilege of working part-time alongside Pam to help her with "a little of this and a little of that" as she strives to bring superb customer service to all of you through her Tiny TreeHugger business.

I am a 34-year-old mostly stay-at-home mother of two girls (aged 7 and 9) and have been happily married for 11 years. I am a Pepsi-loving, game-playing, guitar-learning, Nutella-craving girl [among many other things that make me ME]. I cloth-diapered my girls when they were babies and enjoyed the cost savings as well as the feeling of helping the environment - one cloth diaper at a time.

Thanks for checking in and I'll see you again both on this blog and on Facebook!