Choosing a mattress for long term health for your children - My Green Mattress Review

Sleep. The final frontier for parents, right? We strive for sleep for our children and ourselves pretty much from day one. I don't remember ever being so obsessed over the thought of sleep before becoming a parent! Coordinating nap times, bed times, coping with your own interrupted sleep that can last for years, dissecting why your child isn't sleeping the same way as they did last week. It. is. exhausting.

As our two girls are growing older we have begun to consider how we are going to adapt their bedroom from being toddler-focused to more a forward, long term set up.  From the time that my second daughter was night weaned and no longer bedsharing with my husband and I, she has been sharing a bedroom with her older sister. Each girl had her own cute toddler sized bed. We knew that we wanted the sisters to continue to share a bedroom but graduating them to twin or full sized bed frames would occupy too much space for their bedroom. Thankfully we scored an amazing deal at our local furniture store for a floor model twin-over-full bunk bed frame and we snatched it up right away!

To give you a short background on where we are coming from; we bedshare with each of our children until they are night-weaned at about 18 - 24 months. Our first two children were girls and we excitedly helped them embrace this special relationship by sharing a bedroom. When we purchased the new bunk bed, we naturally we expected our older daughter (Penny) to want to take the top bunk. But as it turned out our 3 year old (Ruby) was the better candidate because she sleeps through the whole night and never leaves her bed. It's always been that way! Penny is still a night waker; which we've concluded is because of her primary love language: physical touch. The girl still very much loves her snuggles and works diligently throughout the night to sneak into our bed for more! Towards the end of my last pregnancy we set goals for her to find ways to cope with this need; giving her need a name ("the snuggle tank"), with increased snuggles at the end of the day and self-gauging her needs. But we had to draw the boundary for how much time she sleeps in our bed in preparation for our bed-sharing time with Baby Brother whenever he arrives. It's been a slow and gentle process that we are hoping will make more sense to her when her brother arrives and she can tangibly see- there just isn't a whole lot of room for 4 people in our bed as well as it's just not going to be very restful sleep for ANYONE.

In the wake of purchasing the new bed frame that we intend for the girls to use until they move out, we also knew that an equally (if not more) important decision was what type of mattress they would sleep on. Why would it matter? Consider that this piece of furniture will be in contact with your child for usually over 10 hours a day for over 10 years (the average lifespan of a mattress). Not only is comfort a key factor, but the material needs to be as well! There is a broad range of mattress styles, thicknesses, material choices and price points available on the market and it's important to understand how to balance those in the best way for your family.

When I started doing research for new mattresses for our children I started with a wide cast net - what is the least expensive but most readily available option? What kind of mattress does this provide? What kind of product is offered at the opposite end of the spectrum? What do my friends recommend? What are the online reviews? Does it have springs, is it entirely foam, or a combination? Why would material choice matter; comfortable is comfortable, right?

It turns out no; not all mattresses are created equal! No surprise, the quality of materials and the type of comfort you are looking for play a huge role in the price of the product. There are tons of options available at both ends of all the factors one would want to consider.

Long term studies are still being conducted on the effects of the use of memory foam and other petroleum products in the sleeping space. One can't argue that the costs are lower, they are easier to manufacture and memory foam is comfortable. The use of flame retardants in mattresses and childrens clothing has also been shown to be toxic; with several of just as effective non-synthetic options to consider. But because many modern manufacturing practices focus on the bottom dollar rather than the well being of their customer, I am wary of how the use of certain products will affect myself or my family over the course of our lives. This is why I research as much as possible if I am given a choice in a product and opt for responsibly sourced materials and manufacturing practices.

My main goal for choosing a quality, safe sleep mattress for the long term use by my daughters was that it was made from natural materials and did not use memory foam.  Memory foam has become a very popular choice in mattresses; in fact it's quite difficult to find any mattress, especially childrens mattresses to be without it.

This is how we discovered My Green Mattress. Their Pure Echo mattresses are made with GOTS certified organic cotton and wool. No petroleum based memory foam that off gas and emit VOCs that are dangerous for developing systems. The coils keep the mattress soft yet firm without the need of foam to make it more comfortable.

The mattresses arrived tightly rolled up, also in an effort to be more eco friendly and save on shipping space and costs.

Well, this may be the biggest piece of fluffy mail I have received! One of our two @MygreenMattress have arrived! #mygreenmattress #natural #organic #organiccotton #organicmattress

A post shared by Bianca @ The Pierogie Mama (@thepierogiemama) on Jun 1, 2017 at 11:14am PDT

We unrolled them and expected to have an air out period to get the manufacturing smells or any other scents to dissipate before having our children sleep on them (this is called "off gassing"). There were no obvious odors, but we gave them a day to relax and the following morning I put them onto our brand new bunk beds.

The girls were both so excited for their new big bed. Both bunks have been the source of hours of imaginary play and a quiet nook to snuggle or read. Since Holden's arrival, there has been a night or two that my husband slept with either girl that needed some extra snuggles. I've even crawled into bed with each of the girls, when the whole house is asleep, to catch up on snuggles that I have been missing from them while I've been focusing on the new baby.  Even in being accustomed to a very soft and forgiving memory foam mattress, the Pure Echo mattress is still very comfortable to an adult. Best of all, I know my kids can safely sleep on them for years to come.

Learn more about My Green Mattresses and why you should consider them when purchasing mattresses for your family's long term health.

Disclosure: Thank you, My Green Mattress, for facilitating this review! 

I received product in exchange for my honest opinion. No other compensation was provided. 

All photography and opinions are my own. 

Transitioning Siblings to Sharing a Room + Naturepedic Love

Thank you to Naturepedic of sponsoring today's blog post 

and providing an organic crib mattress for Ruby to transition to her "big girl bed" in! 

Check out our experience below and see why Naturepedic is our #1 choice. 

Just about 2 years ago I shared my story of how we transitioned our daughter from co-sleeping to independently sleeping in her own room, in a toddler bed. Today I'm excited to share the follow up story of the transition of having the sisters share a room!

Safe bed sharing just makes life easy for us; from the first night of welcoming both of our daughters to the world we have slept with our baby in our bed. It encourages on demand night nursing and it is simply how I am the most comfortable sleeping with my children. But all great things must come to an end and shortly before Ruby's 2nd birthday we decided that it was time to transition her to a toddler bed in the same room as her 4 year old sister, Penny.

This was nerve wracking - why make changes to a well working machine? Everyone was getting *almost* a full night's rest and undoubtedly a change as dramatic no longer sleeping with mom and dad every night would turn everything on its head. What if Ruby doesn't take to sleeping in her own bed, what if she cries a lot and that also wakes up Penny? How do I coordinate putting the kids down at the same time? What if Penny isn't quiet enough for Ruby to fall asleep? All of these questions, and more, weakened my resolve. But we finally did it and let me share a few of my tips below.

Tips to make the transition smoother for moving a cosleeping toddler into sharing a room with her preschool aged sibling:

• Have a solid night time routine that includes some wind down time in the bedroom, such as getting dressed in pajamas, snuggling and reading to your children. The more time you spend with you children in their bedroom they will realize that this is comfortable and safe space. Allow the younger child to play in the room during the day and practice getting in and out of their new bed.  At night time we dim the lights in the room for about 5-10 minutes before lights out time, this also allows them to have a visual queue that it's time for bed. 
• Carrying over a few creature habits: Ruby always fell asleep to the sound of our Sleep Sheep, and recently I had introduced a classical music CD to Penny when she was having trouble falling asleep. We combined those two white noise factors for both of the girls' combined bed times so that both of them still were listening to their familiar night time noises. I also slept with her new sheets on our family bed for a few nights to help transfer the familiar scent.
• Night weaning: Ruby was night weaned for about 3 weeks. We still nursed during the day, but my gentle weaning process with both girls starts with night weaning at about 18 months and took about 2 months to have both of us fully committed to milk free nights. We helped this transition by nursing more frequently during the day and longer before bed and nap time. I chose to continue to nurse her through this transition because it's another source of comfort that helped her recognize this as a safe sleep space.
• We payed very special attention to the lighting in the bedroom; from the main bedroom light and lamp down to what electronic devices emit a small light on their power button or display. Take a piece of blue painter's tape to cover button lights if they seem to be a distraction to your child. 
• As with any childrens room, ensure that you have child safe window treatments.
• Finally - the most important thing - the bed! Am I right?

Because children can spend upwards of 16 hours a day in their bed, it's really important to be aware of what kind of mattress they are sleeping on. We have specifically chosen Naturepedic mattresses for our children because of their high level of commitment to quality and intentional sourcing of products that are the best for our bodies while adhering to safety standards. 

Why would you need or want an organic mattress? Recent studies have shown that the flame retardants in both mattresses and sleepware ending up in our bodies, and it's not good. I am already mindful of the foods and products that we use in order to lessen the impact of unnatural chemicals, so including the one product that my child will spend the most time using (her mattress) made sense to me to make sure that it didn't have those harmful chemicals in them. But there are still federal requirements for fire safety in mattresses so Naturepedic took a close look at how to still have their mattresses be fire safe but not use the harmful fire retardant chemicals that other mattress companies rely on. Organic cotton is less flammable than the traditional polyurithane foam found in most mattresses. Polyurithane foam, though inexpensive, is highly flammable and therefore needs to be treated with flame retardants. Through innovative design, Naturepedic has created mattresses that are natural and safe for our bodies and meet Federal and State flammability requirements. Naturepedic mattresses are also made in the USA!

We received Naturepedic's Ultra Breathable 2-Stage Organic Crib Mattress for Ruby.  Penny has been sleeping on the Naturepedic Organic Cotton Deluxe Crib Mattress for 2 years and I was excited to see what the difference was between the two models. Ruby has been successfully transitioned for about 2 months and we have been really happy with the quality of the mattress. Unlike most other children's waterproof mattresses, Naturepedic childrens mattresses aren't NOISY! No scritchy-scratchy noises as your baby moves around at night or when you stealthily ninja out of the room. The mattress is a two-stage mattress so one side if firm enough for safe sleep for an infant and when baby gets older you can flip it to the softer toddler side. Both sides, however, are very comfortable. This is coming from the mom who has slept on the mattress with her transitioning two year old on more than one occasion! This model of mattress also includes a breathable, washable cover and is unbelievably lightweight. 

Because we get the rare opportunity to compare two Naturepedic mattresses side by side, I wanted to include some of the differences that you'll find between the brand new Ultra Breathable 2-Stage Organic Crib Mattress versus the Organic Cotton Deluxe Crib Mattress that we've had for 2 years. 

Both are two stage mattresses with a firm "infant" side and a softer "toddler" size. They are made from the same quality organic materials and do not use harmful flame retardant chemicals.  

• The Deluxe Crib Mattress has inner springs, the Ultra Breathable uses wavesupport™ technology. I personally do not see a difference in comfort between the two though. 
• The Ultra Breathable mattress comes with a removable washable cover and weighs less (thanks to the wavesupport™ technology).

All in all, we love Naturepedic mattresses not only for their quality and commitment to healthy ingredients for the whole family, but also because they are truly comfortable mattresses that my children love to sleep on!

Find them:

Naturepedic mattresses online

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Disclosure: I received product, free of charge, in exchange for my honest review. No other compensation was provided. However, I would not be giving this product 5 stars 

if I didn't absolutely love them too!

My Summer Check List with a Strider Bike Review and Giveaway!

Friends - I am 88% to my goal of fundraising $500 to benefit cancer research for Jimmy Fund Walk and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Read more about why this event is important to me and please consider making a donation - no matter how small!
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I love sharing reviews and giveaways via blog hops and this month I'm participating in the
 Keeping Cool in the Sun Giveaway Hop hosted by Lindsey Blogs and Viva Veltoro.

I'm joining a group of bloggers that are sharing awesome products that help keep you cool in the sun. After reading my review, scroll to the bottom and find the other participating blogs and don't miss the amazing Grand Prize from our Hosts - a Step2 WonderBall Fun House!

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Do you have a summer check off list? Now that we are out of the infant stage with Ruby, I am looking forward to getting to do more activities that get both girls active and enjoying the warm weather. I can't believe that it's the middle of July already! I remember like 2 weeks ago feeling "wow, how can it be June? But clearly it was already mid-June...I digress. So without further adieu, here's my summer check list.


1. Gather fresh local produce whenever we can.
We've already gotten a huge amount of strawberries and blueberries stored in the freezer! I love u-pick farms and our area boasts a ton of organic or no-spray family owned farms. This week our town is having our first farmer market grand opening and I am really looking forward to seeing it! It's very important to me to have a connection with where my food comes from and I want my daughters to see it too. I want them to see those imperfect plums with blemishes that are just as yummy (heck, usually MORE yummy!) than those perfect ones at the store. Seeing fruit that comes straight from the grower and that hasn't gone through the homogenized sorting process from the grocer is a big part of that.

2. Go camping.
This summer we are experimenting with GLAMping in our 'new to us' tent trailer. It was a really cheap find on craigslist last summer and is very rough around the edges, but it sure beats sleeping on an air mattress with 2 adults and 2 kids. Oh and the dog. It just keeps everything contained so much better than a tent does. But just to make sure y'all know that I am legit; I did grow up camping in a tent so I know what I'm leaving behind. ;)

3. Watch a movie under the stars.
Our town sets up kid movie nights at our local park on Fridays in August, which was a lot of fun last year. This year I've got plans to host our own movie night under the starts for the family too! It'll be a fun night of s'mores, cousin time and sleeping outside (in a tent!).

4. Teach Penny how to ride a bike.
Finding a bike, of any kind, for Penny to ride has been really difficult. She has a 13.5" inseam, and not too many bicycles fit her. We've gone through a ton of different trikes and balance bikes but none seemed to fit her. Then we finally got our hands on a Strider Bike!

Strider Bike has always been "the name" that stuck out in my head for balance bikes. The inventor designed these bikes to solve the problem that I've had this whole time - children's bikes just tend to be too heavy, cumbersome and complicated.

Strider Bikes are "balance bikes," which means the child builds confidence in learning how to ride a bike by balancing with their feet on the ground rather than learning how to balance and pedal at the same time.  Strider Bikes remove the drivetrain and let the kid build their confidence by first walking with their feet and then graduating to gliding. Once they have the balance part down they will be more comfortable learning how to pedal.

We had the opportunity to try out the Strider 12 Sport. Penny chose it in blue because she wanted it to be an "Elsa Bike." From the time of opening the package to getting her on the bike was less than 10 minutes. Wanna know why? Because you don't need any tools for assembly and adjustment on this bike! Woo hoo!

The Strider 12 Sport uses quick release clamps on the seat and handle bars. This made it very easy to make quick adjustments when Penny was first starting out and I was trying to find the right height for her to be comfortable using the bike. The tires are made from an EVA polymer and will never go flat and are light weight.

In the evenings we've been enjoying walking on the walking path that goes behind our house. It's been the perfect place for Penny to gain confidence with her Strider because we don't have to worry about her getting too close to the road. The path is paved and mostly flat and just a short walk away from a playground - so when she needs a mental break from the bike, we just pop over to the playground and then encourage her to ride the bike home again.

It's take a few tries to get her to become comfortable with the bike, but slowly and surely she is starting to take longer strides and I bet before the end of the summer she'll be gliding like a pro.

One of my favorite parts about the quick release clamps for adjustment is that it makes it so easy to share this bike between siblings. Miss Ruby, who is a whopping 16 months old, wants to be just like her 3 year old sister. So if Penny gets a ride on the bike, you bet Ruby thinks she is getting one too! I guess you're never too young, right? ;)

Enter to win your own Strider 12 Sport (MSRP $119) in the giveaway widget below!

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Disclosure: I received product in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own. So Easy Being Green, Viva Veltoro, and the Keeping Cool in the Sun participating bloggers are not responsible for sponsors who do not fulfill prize obligations.

Catch the Moment: Week 17

A picture a day, for one year.

 So many things to love about this picture. I'm not a huge Mariner's fan, I mean - I'm from Seattle, have lived here most of my life and I will go to a game for the food and company. There, I said it. However, the grandparents are sports fans so every once in a while I oblige and send them a picture like this one. But seriously, when did my baby grow up? She's wearing K-Swiss sneaks, for gosh sakes.

 These are a few of my beautiful sister in laws. We celebrated a couple birthdays at the local trampoline park, which ended with two glamorous injuries (including yours truly) thanks for a moms vs. dads dodgeball. Yes, on trampolines. It's a long story, but basically an 11 year old sprained my ankle and it was so awesome because the next morning we flew out for our trip to Dallas! Yay! Because babywearing 2 kids and hauling a stroller with carseats and carry ons isn't hard enough to do; we needed to add a sprained ankle into the mix to make it interesting.

 Our trip to Dallas was flight #2 in the last year with both kids - and we have our third trip planned in December to fly across "The Pond" to see my parents over Christmas. Our first trip was to Long Beach in October, which was a mere 2 hour flight from Seattle. Seattle to Dallas is about a 4 hour flight, so we learned a few more lessons about how to fly efficiently and sanely with two littles. One huge travel tip came from That Mama Gretchen, who had recently flown to Texas with her littles too, and that was to put the ticketed non-lap child in their carseat for the flight. Penny was comfortable and calm for the flight. She's used to sitting in her car seat for sometimes hours at a time, so this wasn't that different. Miss Ruby, on the other hand.. well, she was a wiggly 15 month old who wasn't allowed to adventure like she wanted to. Again..more lessons were learned, but this was the exciting start for our super fun week in Dallas, which I will share more full details with you soon!

 Due to that (im)perfectly timed sprained ankle, I had to take it easy for the first part of our trip. But that wasn't going to stop me from taking the girls up to the infinity pool at the Omni hotel. How did I manage a 3 year old and a 1 year old in the water, by myself? Babywearing, of course. 

 Ok, I seriously lucked out on the hotel's restaurant. Texas Spice rocks my socks. The breakfast buffet was to die for. My glutinous, eager fingers made this photo come out embarassingly blurry, but what you'll find on that plate are eggs, breakfast potatoes, breakfast veggies, bacon, bread pudding, rice pudding and waay up there at the top were blueberries and raspberries. Why don't I just eat like this every day??

 More poor quality, but this was taken with a cell phone in a pretty much pitch black room so you'll forgive me. Both girls nap for 2 hours in the middle of the day and I was very thankful for their flexibility in our routine. I wasn't sure how it was going to go down with putting them to sleep in our hotel room each day, but it worked perfectly. Watching them sleep together on the bed made me dream more about them one day sharing their bedroom and perhaps even trying out sibling co-sleeping if that suits either of them. 

This picture won't do it justice but I hope you can get a good look. This is a pano of the view from the Giants of The Savannah view point at the Dallas Zoo. I actually ended up visiting the Dallas Zoo on two separate days because there was so much to see on the first day that we didn't get through everything. Thankfully I have an annual membership at the Woodland Park Zoo, which gave me reciprocal membership benefits of discount tickets. Zoos are kind of my thing (here's a list of zoos I've visited), so keep an eye out for what we thought of the Dallas Zoo. 

Catch the moment archives

These aren't on Instagram, but most others are!

Catch the Moment: Week 13

A picture a day, for one year.

 Our local craft store brings in bunnies for the kids to take pictures with for Easter. All proceeds to to the Behind the Badge Foundation too! How awesome. They had about a dozen bunnies to choose from, and all were so sweet and docile. Penny wanted the "small baby bunny with pink eyes."

 The big girl got her face painted for the first time. A year ago, there was no way she was letting a stranger touch her face. I am so proud of her bravery. And she is so stinkin cute!

 Penny and daddy made Frozen Easter Eggs. Frozen as in the movie, not literally frozen.

 I snagged an awesome deal of 40 pounds for $18 of Golden Delicious apples, straight from the grower. Wow! Well, this meant a week of apple inspired meals.. but I am not complaining! Here's two: Crockpot Applesauce and Polish Apple Pancakes.

 I sneak my snacks in the kitchen when I think the kids aren't paying attention. This time I was discovered. I ended up being nice and sharing my goat cheese, fig-orange jam and poppyseed crackers with this pitiful face.

 My parents separated and divorced over the course of my teens. I don't have many stories that tell about their love, but on the morning of my 16th birthday I visited my dad and he told me one of the sweetest stories I've ever heard. After my birth my dad picked a gorgeous bunch of lilacs for my mom to fill her room with their beautiful fragrance. On that day, he decided that he would do the same for me when I turned 16. Last year my husband planted a lilac bush in our front yard for my Mother's Day gift too.

Another counter top treat discovered. This was our third apple treat of the week, Polish Apple Cake (jablecznik). My mom makes it the best, but she was nice enough to freeze some dough for another time and left it in my freezer. This week I've been missing her and it was a perfect pick me up. My version doesn't really stand up to hers, but it was a good shot.

Catch the moment archives

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Catch the moment: Week 13 (and some extras?)

Somehow I got off on my counting. I don't know. So today you get some bonus pictures! Woo hoo!

 The most precious jewels around a mother's neck are her children's arms.

 This is quite possibly the most beautiful rise that I've gotten out of my home made bread.

 A mini heat wave in March in Washington means it's like 60 degrees. So out comes the sprinkler!

 Another warm weather activity..side walk chalk! And three cheers for Ruby finally being ok with being put on the ground outside. Only if there's chalk that she can taste, color with and put into the bucket.

 Miss E turned 4 and we came over for a Princess / Easter egg hunt birthday party. What a blessing this friendship has been to Penny.

 I snagged my niece and nephew for the day while their parents and my husband did some renovating. We drove to grandma and grandpa's house. Having two rear facing kids, two forward facing kids and a 3rd row makes life so much easier! They all just entertained each other.

 My naptime project for the last week was clearing out the garden beds on the front and side of the house, which had been neglected for a LONG time by the previous owners. All of the extra grass and weeds went to my chickens, who have been on lock down from free ranging because quite frankly, I would prefer for my kids to not step in chicken poop when they're running around in the grass during our gorgeous weather ;) When the rain returns, the girls will be let out again.

 We've making use of our fabulous RadioFlyer Wagon (review!) and Penny insisted to pull Ruby around. Fine by me! We made a quick Buy Nothing Project delivery to our neighbor.

 This is the science project of my life. Why do some egg dye colors make bubbles on the egg shell?

It was a hard, hard day. So hard. One of the hardest days of my mothering career. Nothing went right, my voice was raised too often and too many tears were shed by all three of us. So I pulled out one of my favorite dinners to console myself.. and I didn't care if anyone else liked it either. Thanks, The Kitchn, for Spaghetti alla Carbonara. 

Catch the moment archives

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Catch the moment: Week 12

 More sleeping babies. I just can't get enough!

Penny makes sleep look so good! 

Things had gotten quiet, except for some crinkling, crunching and giggling. Penny had stolen Pirate Booty from her snack drawer and brought it over to Ruby to share. I couldn't even get mad, it was just too cute.

Sometimes you just gotta have some homemade strawberry shortcake! 

Penny's like "I'm going to make you an offer you can't refuse" and Ruby's like "bring it."  

We call this our "Washougal Breakfast" because we typically had this on Saturday mornings, pre-kids and just laid in bed until 10a with our dogs. Toast, a fried egg, avocado and hot sauce. These days I'll cycle it in on a weekend breakfast and the memories of carefree days, our first home, first renovation and "simpler times" comes flooding in. And then Penny sticks her finger in the hot sauce and proclaims "TOO SPICY!" Wouldn't trade it for a second.

Catch up on previous weeks: 

Catch the moment archives

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