I have always had allergies, and I’ve tried to combat the problem any way I can without having to take medications for it. If you’re a reader of my blog you probably know I hate taking medicine unless I absolutely have to. When I was in the hospital after my c-section the doctors were actually fussing at me because I wanted to get off the pain med drip as soon as I could.

Anywho, one of my biggest allergy triggers is dust. Hubby has to dust our house because when I come in contact with dust I tend to break out in hives. Because of dust mites I end up washing our pillows weekly, and I was vacuuming the mattress once a month until I starting using a mattress cover that I can wash with our bedding. I’ve also been using pillow cases that are supposed to be hypoallergenic, but they haven’t seemed to help.

That’s why I was extremely excited when I read about the Healthy Dreams Germ-Fighter Pillow from National Allergy. These are a type of allergy pillow with a bio filter that fights mold growth and mite allergen. Normal pillows grow mold and trap mite allergen, so you breathe it in while you sleep. An added benefit is that the Healthy Dreams Germ-Fighter Pillow also stops the growth of germs that cause colds and flu.

Since I’m breastfeeding I’ve been bed sharing with Elliana if she wakes up in the middle of the night for a feeding. I’m always concerned about what kind of germs she could be picking up from things like our bedding and pillows, so germ fighting is a benefit I can greatly use. She did get some flu protection since I had both the flu and H1N1 shots while I was pregnant, but she can’t have her own shots until she’s 6 months old. I have to try to protect her from germs as much as possible.

I may just have to order me some of these pillows as soon as I have the cash to do so because I can see exactly how great they would be for us. Just the thought of not having to add 3 extra loads of laundry each week to wash our pillows is reason enough for me!

Check out the following video from The Today Show if you’re not too scared to find out exactly what really is hiding in your pillow! They grew bacteria in Petri dishes from pillows!

It’s music to my ears right now.  A certain little baby is taking a nap, so I’ve been running around getting as much housework as possible done.  I don’t expect her to be out too long, but this puts her on schedule for another nap right about the time Hubby gets home from work.  Maybe that means she’ll sleep while we’re shopping.

Yep, we have to go to town yet again tonight.  Hubby called and said somehow he got a big hole in the bottom of his boot today at work, so we’ve got to get him a new pair.  Maybe while we’re out I’ll check out what that store carries as their top diet pills. Hubby didn’t find any last night that he wanted to try, and since I’m not going to use them I’m not buying any without him with me.

I need to buy a bag of socks for the baby, too.  I realized yesterday she has maybe 3 pair of socks that fit her right now.  She’s got big ‘ole feet, so the socks that should fit her right now are all too small.  I pulled out the 3 pair of 6-9 month socks I have, and those fit her pretty well.  My poor child.  She’s going to be stuck with clodhoppers like me!  I figured she would since we both have pretty big feet.  Oh well.

I think I’ll jump off here and get some cooking done while she’s asleep.  I figure if I get to work I can get a chicken parm bake in the oven before she wakes up.  It should be done right in time for Hubby to get home from work.

I’m kind of surprised we got quite a bit of shopping done today without having to find a sitter for the baby.  We’ve been kind of afraid of taking her out and about with us.  Part of it is because we’re still trying to protect her from the germs that are out there.  We know she needs to be exposed to some germs to build her immune system, but with H1N1 all around us it’s best to keep her away from huge crowds. 

The other part of it is I think we’re still afraid of taking her out in public and having her scream the whole time.  Maybe it’s that we don’t want people to look at us and think we’re bad parents?  There are so many people out there who automatically assume the worst and give you those dirty looks when your child cries out.  Those are the people that make you feel like absolute dirt for disturbing them in public.  Those are the people I’d like to kick in the teeth.well them and the people who park in the handicapped spots without a tag or a sticker (saw one today outside Big Lots).

We got over our fears, and we took her out shopping with us for most of the day.  We started with a trip to the antiques store in town where Santa was visiting.  After having her scream the whole time last week we wanted to try again hoping we’d get good photos this time.  I didn’t want her baby’s first Christmas photo to be a big screaming face.

Boy am I glad we tried again, too, because this time Santa actually looks like Santa.  Last week’s Santa was so scary looking I would have screamed, too, and his suit was definitely a cheap crappy one.  This week’s Santa was as close to the real deal as you can get, and my little angel was sound asleep which made for a good photo.

After getting the Santa pic we headed out to finally do some Christmas shopping.  We started at Tractor Supply where we got her a Christmas stocking so big we could fit 10 babies in it.  Then we headed to Walmart for a couple items we needed before doing most of our Shopping at Big Lots.  We finished the day at Family Dollar before heading back home with at least half our shopping list done. 

I think I knocked out gifts for both my parents, Hubby’s Mom, and Hubby’s sisters.  Now I just need to find something for my sis and her new Hubby, my stepmom, my step brother (it’s weird saying that now that my dad eloped), Joe, and my grandparents.  I know what I’m getting Hubby’s dad, but I need to get it ordered this week.  Everyone else is getting handmade goodies since I just can’t afford to go all out on presents this year.  At least it looks like I may actually have my shopping done before Christmas Eve.  If that happens it’ll be the first time in many years I haven’t spent Christmas Eve trying to pick up last minute presents in CVS before they close!

Brrr it’s cold out there!  I didn’t want to have to go out in the cold tonight, but I had no choice.  Sometimes you just need to go to the grocery store for the essentials.  After sitting in front of the wood stove snuggled up with the baby all day it was hard dragging myself out into that cold air, but since I already had to go out we decided to go pickup dinner, too. 

I had my mom come over to stay with Elliana so we didn’t have to take her out in the cold, and I’m glad I did.  I can’t imagine taking her out on a night like this.  Plus I’m still trying to keep her away from the germs in big places like the grocery store and stuff.

After hitting up the grocery store and CVS I feel like we looked at everything under the sun except kitchen faucets. I hadn’t exactly planned on going to CVS tonight either, but I needed to pick up a can of formula for the little one. We decided to switch the formula we’re supplementing with from Similac to Nestle Good Start, so I thought I’d grab a can at the grocery store tonight. I thought wrong!

Either Ingles doesn’t sell any powdered formula or it was covered with an invisibility shield. I looked all over that freakin’ store, and all I could find was the liquid premixed stuff on the small little baby isle. On top of that the only liquid Nestle Good Start was the soy kind. I seriously couldn’t believe the grocery store of all places didn’t have formula! I ended up having to pay outrageous prices to get it at CVS. I guess I’ll have to break down and pick some up at Walmart since it’s $5 cheaper there.

Now I’m just glad we’re in for the night where it’s nice and warm again.  The baby is asleep in her bouncy seat, and I’m about to curl up on the couch where it’s nice and cozy with Hubby while we watch Notorious.