Cowgirl Up!: 2015

What a way to come back to the blogging world!

A huge thank you to Baby Bjorn for sponsoring this first contest and for giving such an incredible prize.

The program used to select the winner is called Random Picker and each entry was put into this program and the computer program generates the winner. When I started the blog almost 4 years ago I was putting slips of paper into a hat, but we are way more legit now!

Baby Carrier One • Brown/Black • Mesh

A huge congratulations to our Winner- Joseph Wright! Joseph wrote that the person who is his "Power of Two" is his wife Regina.

Selected project: Cowgirl Up Baby bjorn

The project is already locked.

Prize ID	Public Info	Private Info	Random Sorting ID	Weight
1: baby bjorn	Joseph Wright		0C75229E-FBCA-4210-9709-49931584DF77

Joseph, please email me your full address and Baby Bjorn will mail the carrier directly to your home!

Thank you to everyone who took the time to read the entry, to enter the contest and to share your own "Power of Two" with me.

In just two weeks we will be celebrating 3/21, which in our world is World Down Syndrome Day.

Image result for world down syndrome day 2015

Part of celebrating World Down Syndrome Day is promoting Random Acts of Kindness.

Maybe you can find an opportunity in the next two weeks to do a random act of kindness! Think about doing one in honor of someone you know who has Down syndrome.

Coming up next on the blog are topics including, "Is There a Poltergeist In Our House?" and "Would You Move to a New School District for Your Child?".

Thank you again to Baby Bjorn for this wonderful giveaway!

If you are a child of the 80's/90's you may remember the Indigo Girls song "Power of Two". It always stood out in my mind because it was such a testament to how life's challenges are much more manageable when shared. When halved.

The line in the song goes, "Multiply life by the power of two."

I'm from a family of three siblings and Tom grew up in a family of five brothers. We had initially decided we would probably like three to four children of our own, but each pregnancy brought its own unique challenges. After Joey was born he required a lot of extra care and ultimately seven different surgeries. We wanted the kids to all be about two years apart, but life has its own way of working things out. At one point we thought we would wait until Joey started walking to try for one more baby. With amazing timing, Joey started walking right around when he turned 4 in August last year and the next month his baby sister, Lucille Evelyn was born.

After Joey was born we questioned whether we had the energy and even the ability to have another child. He is an incredible and amazing little boy and to help him become the best person he can possibly be takes a lot of time and effort. There were many factors we thought about before trying for a third baby. We had lived in the world of children with disabilities and we now knew the reality of what can happen. We had spent nights in hospitals, hours in waiting rooms, minutes counting down the time until his next procedure would be over. What if another baby would also have a heart defect? Could we handle another pregnancy filled with endless doctors' appointments and ultrasounds? Could we do this all again?

At the end of the day we just had to have faith that whatever would happen we would do our best no matter the circumstances.

This is where the power of two came in. Part of having another baby was to provide another sibling to both Tommy and to Joey. A sibling to help Tommy some day when Tom and I are no longer around. A sibling who might just take a tiny bit of the attention away from Joey in a completely healthy way. We thought a third child in our family would be wonderful for both boys. Someone to share the life decisions with Tommy and therefore multiply life by the power of two.

Little Lucy is herself quite a tiny little fighter. I remember going into surgery for a ruptured appendix almost a year ago in April when I was pregnant with her. I asked one of the OR nurses, "You're going to monitor her during the surgery, right?"

Their answer?

"No. This is an emergency surgery. We will check her before and after."

And then I was out as the anesthesia kicked in. I will never forget that moment nor the two days leading up to it when I thought surely that if I was having so much pain it must be that I was losing the baby.

Miraculously, she was fine through it all. Through surgery, CAT scans, MRI's, crazy doses of pain medication and antibiotics- she was fine.

We are one grateful, grateful family.

So! Life with three kids. WOW!

It is a lot, but it's amazing. We haven't really slowed down for a minute. Some days I wish we would so I could clean up the house more and be more on top of things, but since the day Lucy arrived it has been non-stop action. So much so, that she is now 5 months old and I am finally back to blogging.

I'm super excited about being back because part of the big comeback is a new header on the blog featuring all three kids- photos are by the talented Nat. The new header design is by the Little Blue Deer Design. The owner over at Little Blue, Shari, is a delight to work with and I love her designs.

The other super, super exciting thing is that with this first post back I am offering a FREE GIVEAWAY of the latest and greatest Baby Bjorn Baby Carrier One!

Our wonderful friends at Baby Bjorn contacted me and to win your own Baby Bjorn Baby Carrier One, all you need to do is to leave a comment in the comments section sometime during the next 5 days and we will have a random drawing for a winner!

For us, part of being able to be on the go with the kids is being able to carry them with the Baby Bjorn. I have not one, but two Baby Bjorn carriers that I used with the boys and mine are at least 6 years old.

Have things changed! The new Baby Carrier One can work as a front or back baby carrier. It also has cushioning in the waist band and instead of putting your arms through it like the old ones it fits over your head. The first time I tried it I did not even read the directions and I threw it in the car with me and Lucy as we raced down to run Buddy Up Tennis.

What is Buddy Up Tennis? It's an awesome adaptive tennis program for people ages 5 and up who have Down syndrome. It is one of the main volunteer activities I have made a priority to keep participating in even though it is nuts with three little ones. I am so, so passionate about fitness for individuals with Down syndrome and for the opportunity for people with Down syndrome to have a variety of social and active opportunities, so this is the one thing I have committed to making happen no matter how difficult it might be at times to stay organized and to get to. If you are interested in your child participating in Buddy Up Tennis, or if you would like to volunteer, please send me an email at akron@buddyuptennis.com. I am the Athlete Coordinator for the Akron Chapter and we love all our athletes and our volunteers.

Not reading the directions for the new Baby Bjorn carrier was not my best idea, but with the help of a couple of moms who were also at Buddy Up Tennis, we were able to figure it all out and Lucy was quickly facing out and watching all of the action in no time.

The updated version also has the option of a baby cover, which actually clips onto the Baby Bjorn. This is great because my old method was just stuffing a blanket into the front of it. I honestly did not think that there was much that Baby Bjorn could have done to improve on the carrier, but they really have. I'm so, so excited for this opportunity to give one away to a Cowgirl Up reader! These are valued at over $150 and they are awesome.

We actually use a number of the Baby Bjorn products and they are such great quality. We have one of their stools in each bathroom for the kids. We have one of their potty chairs (that's going to be our next major adventure with Super Joe) and one of their baby seats and Lucy loves bouncing in it an playing with the little wooden toys.