Interview With Anna Deskins

Me--Your children's book, The Adventures of Smitty looks magically. Tell us about it.
Anna--It's the story of a magical island of little creatures called Smilies and the mischievous little main character, Smitty. He's such a naughty boy. Haha! All the moms and kids I've shared it with have been giving me such a wonderful reaction. I cannot believe it. I have to tell you how excited I am to finally have a life-long dream come true. Writing The Adventures of Smitty was really about finding a story that I would want to read to my children at night. It has to be exciting but not scary so that my two daughters can go to sleep. Basically, I was looking for that perfect blend to read to my kids at night and decided, "Why not try writing my own?"

We've had a lot of changes in our life recently, so I want to make sure that when I put my daughters to sleep that they feel safe. I have short chapters because I know how busy we moms are but if you can just sacrifice 5 minutes at night reading to your kids, it makes a world of difference. Your kids will never forget it. And although we're running around the whirlwind of life, our kids grow up so fast, and that time that we'd rather finish watching what happened in our favorite soap opera instead of reading to our kids will never come again. I hope that The Adventures of Smitty and books like it help moms do exactly that.


Me--And it's only 99 cents this week. That's what I love about it. Now, You are recently divorced. How have you been able to continue writing when going through such a change?
Anna--Yes, it is by far one of the most challenging points in my life. To see a marriage you thought would last forever to not last forever was difficult for the two of us. I really learned a lot about myself and most importantly, it's brought me closer to my daughters. I think that's what really motivated me to finish this children's book no matter what. When you're going through changes in your life like this, you need something to hold on to. There's a part of you that wants to prove that you can make it, that you will be a success even if it's not with the partner you originally imagined building a life with. I had to keep writing, for my kids. I want to show them that they have to keep strong, no matter what.

We as women, as moms really need to stick together to support each other and our dreams. We're living in an age when I think we're finally realizing, although we want love, the men in our life aren't the answer to everything. We have to stand up on our own two feet and keep going. True love will happen, but until then, we have to keep moving forward. Our children depend on us and we depend on us.


Me--In addition to being a children's book author, you're also a small business owner. How do you juggle taking care of two daughters and at the same time running a business?
Anna--Yes, I am a fashion designer and have a retail store. Any type of creativity is what I'm passionate about. That's why writing The Adventures of Smitty was so important to me. Let me tell you, running a small business in today's economy isn't easy especially when raising two girls at the same time. But somehow, it seems someone's watching over me because my dreams are coming true no matter what. To have that many moms glowing about my children's book, means so much to me. And I know my girls are proud.

Me--When do you ever have time to write?
Anna--You mean, in between laundry, running a business, chasing my girls around the house, cleaning the house, and flying back and forth from Miami to New York? Haha? That's one thing I've learned, when you really want to do something, you find a way. Things fall into place if you just go for it and that's what I want to encourage all the moms who are reading this right now. Whatever your goal is, you can do it. Don't let the challenges in your personal life stop you from going for your dreams. Just go for it and it's almost magical how things fall into place.


Me--Where can we get a copy of "The Adventures of Smitty"?
Anna--Right now, it's available online by going to: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/94655 You can also visit my website: http://www.AnnaDeskins.com where you can read more about my writing process, my recommendations for other books and my own adventures in Mommyhood.

I'm so grateful for your support and the support I'm getting from so many wonderful moms who dream of writing children's books one day too. Writing The Adventures of Smitty has been such an emotional experience for me, a true journey as I was going through so many changes while writing it. It's truly been a blessing in my life. It, along with my daughters, and that guy upstairs have really pulled me through a challenging time.

Me--Thanks for the interview, Anna. And let's go out and support a fellow mom by getting a copy of The Adventures of Smitty today. I know I will!

Newborn Waking To Feeding

A good friend of mine had a baby a few days ago. She asked me how to wake her new born up to feed her. I immeadiately thought of the friends episode wham Rachel woke her baby and she screamed for hours!
But in real life and you have a new born, you sometimes do have to wake them.

I was told from my mom, who is a pediatric nurse, to wake the baby during the day and not at night for feeding. She always said the baby would wake at night if it was hungry. My kids were always a healthy regular weight and always ate fairly well.

Another friend of mine had very small children and she was told to wake them for the first few months at night.

So ask your doctor what they recommend.

But as far as how to wake them, I was always successful feeding by: unswaddling the baby, tickling their feet a little, taking them out of their nice little comfort zone. That made my children a bit more awake and they would eat.

I Am Not A Doctor

I basically received a hate mail letter tonight from a doctor who, I feel, clearly did not read my posts or personal description correctly. I am not a doctor! I have never said I was an expert! I am offering my opinion based on my own personal experiences as a parent, things I here from other parents and advices I have been given from my children's doctors. I do recall having said in verbal posts, "Ask the expert!". That's not me!

I started my blog as a reference for myself to document what I am learning and what I have learned. Some people have seemed to enjoy reading it and find some of my experiences helpful. All people are different. Different things work for them. And if even 1 person finds 1 bit of advice that I have offered based on my life helpful, then I consider my posting a blog instead of just keeping a journal a success.

So if you don't like me, that's fine.
If you think my advice based on the things that I have done stinks, so be it!

Waking At Night, around 20 Months

Both my kids did this and it took weeks to fix! This is when I started the clock that turns green with my son and I just ordered it for my daughter. My daughter just started waking up at 4am every night and telling me that she is, "Done!". She wants to get up for the day and I a, not having it. She goes to bed about 7:30 pm and thatbis not enough sleep for her, I can see she is still tired when I go in to her and she needs to sleep. She is so strong willed and stubborn that she will stay up for at least and hour yelling all done and the she falls beck to sleep untilm7:30-8am. I end umpired and annoyed!
If your baby does this, I think, based on my own experiences and the experiences of my friends, you need to just stay strong. Come up with a plan that works for you ( Ferber etc...) and stick with it. My life is stinking right now because my daughter is in the mist of this. I am spending my days pointing out everything that's green and yellow so that when the clock shows up she will get it. My son did. I pray that it works for her.

Kids change all the time and decide that they want to take control over certain situations. We as parents have to show them that we are boss and that they have to listen to our rules. Now it is sleeping when you are supposed to sleep, later it will be borrowing the car or abiding by a curfuw. It stinks! But don't give in and get up, you will have problems even longer. Don't give in and bring them in your bed, you will be creating an issue that will last even longer.

Best of luck, what doesn kill you will only make you stronger.

Speech After Ear Issues (Tubes/Fluid)

My daughter has had tubes since December of 2010. She had both ears 100% filled with fluid from the end of October 2010-December 28, 2010. When she had the fluid in her ears she was hearing very little, if at all. She gained no language skills when her ears had the fluid in them, and my pediatrician has said that she does not recomend going with fluid in the ear longer then 3 months because language development is so high at this time. My daughter got tubes on December 28, 2010 and within 2 weeks had 10 new words. The only issue that I had was many of her words that she used often, she was leaving the endings off of. And she still does this. For example, she says "mil" instead of "milk.". I finally had her evaluated for speach in May, (she was about 17 months) and the speech pathologist told me that was normal. She should continue to gain words at a rapid pace and that if I was still concerned to have her looked at in the fall at about 22 months and that would look at her progress. She has continued to learn new words but she still does not finish the same words that she did not finish before. She does not speak in sentences but in 2 word phrases. My son was speaking so well and she seems a world away.

Long story short, they are 2 different kids. I was concerned and had it check out. What's going on is not like I experienced before, but it is of a different normal and I am going to have to get used to it.

When you (the parent) are unsure about what you are seeing. Get it checked by the expert and listen to their advice. You are the best advocate for your baby and you are the only one that can help them succeed in life at this point. Just do it!

More About Tubes

I took my daughter to the ENT for a 6 month check up after her tubes. The doctor told me that her tubes were still in and looked fine. I was excited to here this. Then the doctor told me that I needed to come back in a few months for another check up, that the tubes should have fallen out by then. I was shocked to here this! He proceeded to tell me that tubes generally only last about 9 months at the longest. This was shocking news to me since I just automatically thought that we would get at lest another winter out of this set of tubes, since they were still in. Now I am quite stressed about that fact that we are heading into this winter, chances are, with no tubes. And to top it off we just got to the beach and she has another ear infection, her third since the tubes were put in.

Strep in a Baby

Babies can get step as young as 16 months old. Especially if they have an older sibling. Often parents mistake the symptoms for things like coxsackies virus.
My daughter got strep at 17 months. I thought it was teething because she had a low grade temp of 100 for three days. She was very irritable but again she is like that when teething as well. I was so surprised by this. My daughter was also up a lot at night from her throat hurting. I even thought maybe it was her ears.