WIC Wednesday #1: Introduction

WIC is a government program that promotes a healthy eating lifestyle by providing nutritious foods, information on healthy eating, and breastfeeding/infant formula advice to low income mothers (pregnant, postpartum and breastfeeding), infants and children (up to age 5). That's where the name comes from: Women Infant Children. Depending on the state, the food you get can differ slightly. To qualify for this program, you need to make below a certain income. To find out if your family qualifies, please check on the WIC website.

Living in Arizona, this is currently what we get each month, divided into 4 checks:

36 oz of cereal (About 2 boxes)
1 lb dry beans or 64 oz canned beans
3 lb cheese
2 dozen eggs
30 oz canned tuna or salmon
2 64oz containers of juice or 3 12oz frozen juice
9 half gallons of soymilk (you can opt to get cow milk as well)
16 oz grains (bread, brown rice or tortilla)
18 oz peanut butter
$10 worth of any combination of fruits or veggies (fresh or frozen)

Trying to save money and eat healthy, this program has really helped our family out. I found that while looking for recipes, it's really hard to find a gathered place that has delicious recipes that you can make using WIC items. Hence, I have decided to start WIC Wednesdays. Every Wednesday, I'll post a tried and approved recipe that I made. These recipes will not be entirely based on WIC food products only. That's not the point of the program. These recipes will be based of how using WIC food can be used in creative ways to make healthy eating fun and delicious.

Directory:
Pineapple Chicken (Freezer Friendly)

Toy Review! Infantino Grow-with-me Activity Gym and Ball Pit

We recently received the Infantino Grow-with-me Activity Gym and Ball Pit as a gift from one of Hubby's uncles. Might I say, coolest toy ever!

picture from Amazon.com

Baby Turtle is 2.5 months old. She fits across the diameter of the play mat perfectly right now. She absolutely loves the hanging sea creatures, especially the red crab and orange fish. We even do tummy time on this mat and she loves to look at the colorful animals printed. Every single time she's played with it so far has resulted in her sleeping out of exhaustion! A guaranteed hour of nap time, leaving me time to run around the house doing chores or relax.

I like this activity mat because of how colorful and full of patterns it is. Baby Turtle is never bored playing with it. There's always a new pattern to look at. Even the animals have different features. The crab has a baby mirror on one side and a tummy pattern on the other. The orange fish has crinkly fins and a textured loop beneath it. The purple octopus doubles as a rattle and has colorful ribbon tentacles. Lastly, the starfish is made of a crinkly material and has a hanging blue plastic star.

I try and rotate the animals so that she's not looking at the same one all the time. She loves grabbing the starfish toy. I wish there was another toy that had a dangling piece for her to grab, so I could put them on both sides of her.

Overall, this play mat is a great toy to have. At this stage (laying down and tummy time) there is plenty for Baby Turtle to look at. I will definitely have to add an update once she can sit and use the ball pit!

Passed out Baby Turtle

Passed out Baby Turtle and Hubby

What's in my Hospital Bag?

Ah, the main bulk of the whole packing for the hospital. I packed a total of three bags: the diaper bag, clothing bag, and misc bag. On top of that, there's the pillows that wouldnt fit in a bag. And of course, the carseat (which i dont have a picture of soley because it's outside in the car and with the temps already hitting 90 at 930 am, I've deemed it too hot to go outside :P)

First up is the clothing bag. I managed to fit Hubs and my clothes into one medium sized duffel bag. This is of course, assuming that we only stay for one night at most.

 

The magical duffel bag

I degsinated this little pocket for this one chapstick. I've read
EVERYWHERE that chapstick is the one thing that moms
forget to pack and desperately need while birthing. Putting it
in this pocket will make it easy for hubs to find while I'm
screaming bloody mary lol.

A wetbag for laundry and cheap underwear for the post-partum
bleeding. I bought this 7 pack for I think 5 bucks or so. I won't be
feeling too butthurt if I have to toss them ;)

Fuzzy socks with rubber non-slip blobs at the bottom.

A large fluffy towel. I've read that the hospital ones are a bit
small and on the thin side. I like my towels big and fluffy lol

Hub's clothing pile. He has swimming trucks, an extra t-shirt,
lounging pants, boxers and socks. He loves loves loves his
green socks. In all seriousness, he only wears white socks when
he has to wear his PT uniform.

Pajamas for me. I have a night gown on top, for after birth, and
a pair of yoga pants and large t-shirt for before birth.

Super soft silky robe.

Two maxi dresses for going home/recieving visitors if we have
any come by.

Sleep nursing bras. The left is a Lamaze and the right is a
Motherhood Maternity.

A normal nursing bra.

The second bag that I packed has EVERYTHING else. Tolietries, food, paperwork. I stuffed it all into this poor Target bag lol. Everything inside is organized into smaller bags. The last thing I need is to be in the middle of a contraction and Hubs asking me where something is lol. I'm trying to prevent potential labor induced murder while I try and give birth.

The poor Target bag!

Stuffed to the brim!

The food stash plus two waters

(Clockwise from the top left) Blue Diamond Wasabi flavored
almonds, A baggie full of Cliff bars and honey sticks (I heard
this is a great source of energy while birthing), banana chips,
3 gopicnic lunch packs (I LOVE these lunch packs. They are like
a meal for me, moreso a snack for Hubs. That's why he gets 2 lol),
and lastly, Monsters for Hubs.

Dental Hygine Kit

Lots of travel sized dental care products :)

One of those rice/bean filled pillows, for relaxation purposes.

A baggie of maxi-pads. I know the hospital gives them, but I
brought some incase they were uncomforable for me.

Mini wet bag filled with mama cloths I bought from
Kelly's Closet

 

For those who don't know, mama cloths are resuable cloth
pads. I know it sounds kinda gross, but thinking about it, I
figured I'd give it a try. I mean, we wash clothes when there's
period leaks. What's a designated pad going to hurt?

 

A folder with paperwork, Bradley
workbooks and pamplets.

The bag of hygine :)

Just travel sized body wash/shampoo/conditioner and a mini
loofah.

A bag of misc stuff. I'll divide it into groups that make sense

Relaxation: eye mask, lavender massage oil and anti-stress
cream for the temples.

Misc tolietries: facial wipes, meds for the Hubs, deodarent,
lotion, face moisturizer and Q-tips.

New Mama Bottom Spray. This is for...soothing down there
after birth. I've read about numerous moms that rave about how
this spray really really helps.

Hair! Who can forget about hair!

The third bag is the diaper bag, but that's it's own post. You can read about my Diaper Bag [Hospital Edition] here!

The last bit that we have packed pillows. I have a Boppy pillow to help with nursing and two regular pillows. I like fluffy pillows and I want to avoid discomfort with flat hospital pillows. Plus the pop of color should be a moral booster (and prevent the hospital from taking my pillows!) The things that we'll be bringing that aren't packed are my camera (and it's charger!), our phone chargers and laptop. Is it kinda dorky that i plan on bringing Frozen and playing "Let it Go" while I deliver? I think it would be a good moral booster but Hubs begs to differ.