The difference between starting solids with Baby #1 and Baby #2

Baby #1. One by one, I carefully check off the biological readiness signs: at least six months old, can sit up unsupported, has lost the tongue-thrust reflex, has the pincer grasp, et cetera, et cetera. Finally, I set the stage for his first food-- I lay down a large sheet to catch any spilled food, set up the baby seat, make a special trip to the store to buy an organic avocado. Slightly mash it to the perfect consistency- not too chunky, not too pureed- set it in front of Oscar, and eagerly watch as he pokes at it. Take lots of pictures.

Baby #2. At dinner, a  few days after he turns 6 months old, I say, "Eh, close enough," and fish a carrot out of my lentil soup for him as he sits on my lap. There may or may not have been a lentil attached.

How I told Adam about Baby #2

It is not news that I got knocked up a second time. In fact, it's such old news that I'm not even pregnant anymore, and the result is going on an adorable five months in a few days.

It was exactly one year ago today when I found out that Al was on his way. I had been feeling like I was on death's door with the most violent cough/fever combination I've ever had. In fact, it took me a good four weeks to get over it. Yuck! But one year ago today, on top of the usual symptoms, I started feeling a little sick. Hmmmm, weird. And then I suddenly realized that my monthly friend hadn't visited in about 7 weeks. Uh oh, something was definitely afoot.

So I took a pregnancy test, and the darn thing showed a big, fat positive almost instantly.

In between bouts of hacking, coughing, and lying down with the chills, I slapped that test in a hand-scribbled card and presented it to an unsuspecting husband. "I got you a very spoooooky card," I said.

He should have been suspicious right there-- a supposed Halloween card from the wife who may or may not wait to get his birthday card until a couple hours before he comes home from work on his birthday? Not that that's actually happened or anything. ;-)

This was about where the recognition dawned

Adam was super happy, of course, and pleasantly surprised. Frankenstein had nothin' on me that Halloween.

*Please note that we don't really think there is anything "worse" about having kids. It's an inside joke between us. :-P

Can a family of four sleep in one bedroom?

We made the commitment to stay another year in our current two-bedroom apartment. The idea is to save money this year by living in a smaller space now so that we can think about living in a house next year. Having spent four years crammed in a dorm and then three years after that in a one-bedroom apartment (part of that with a baby!), I'm not intimidated by small living spaces. But we are presented with a unique living challenge this time around...

See, we need the second bedroom for office, crafting, and sewing business. I am all for keeping sleeping spaces for sleeping and business places for business; in our last one-bedroom apartment, everything that didn't belong in the living room area went in the bedroom, and I haaaaaaated it. Imagine trying to relax in a bedroom crammed with an overflowing theology bookshelf, a sewing machine and oodles of craft supplies, boxes of stuff that you have nowhere to store, musical instruments... you get the idea. It was madness, and everything was so mish-moshed together that the entire house felt like one slightly larger dorm room.

Like this, but with fewer pizza boxes.
(source)

So yeah, having a two-bedroom apartment is awesome! I love finally having a sanctuary devoted to peace and rest. It is consistently the cleanest room in the house, and it's usually quiet and cool.

Which is why we are seriously considering leaving our room arrangement the way it is when Baby #2 comes, and sleeping all four of us in the bedroom. Are we nuts for considering this? I just can't see clearing out the entire office to make a bedroom for the kids when A) there's nowhere to put the office, and B) we aren't ready to stop co-sleeping anyways. Right now, Oscar sleeps with us in our bed, and all three of us enjoy the arrangement immensely. So I figure, what's one more baby to the mix. :-P

If hippos can do it, anyone can.

That will be a challenge, since we're currently in a double-size bed that we can't get rid of (it's been in the family for four or five generations and is part of an heirloom bedroom set). Can you imagine, three larger-than-average people in a double bed?? We are living proof that anyone can co-sleep anywhere. Good thing we like to snuggle! So now I'm thinking of getting a twin-sized bed and shoving it up against our double bed to make a nice, big mega-bed, which we can separate if we want to later on down the road.

Luckily, we have a few more months to get all the details worked out! Has anyone ever attempted anything like this? I figure if other cultures can make a family bed work for centuries, then we have a small sliver of hope. :-)

The Name Game-- Help!

We're about 95% sure that we'll let the gender of this new baby be a surprise again. The fun part: it's a surprise! The not-so-fun part: we have to choose a boy name. Duhn duhn DUHHHHHNNNNNN...

Long-time readers of the blog may recall that Adam and I agreed on a boy name literally minutes before Oscar was born. Yes, after nine entire months looking at every name book and website, and going round and round arguing for our favorite names, we only came to an agreement when it looked like an actual baby was going to be emerging in the next few minutes. So now we have the torture task of going through the whole rigmarole again, and I'm curious to see if any of you have any good name ideas!

Pictured: not a good name idea

Here are our guidelines...

• It can not- repeat, CAN NOT- rhyme with Aiden or any of his Dr. Seuss-like compatriots: Jayden, Brayden, Cayden, Zayden, Hayden.... I forget; are people inventing new letters of the alphabet yet to make new rhyming Aiden names?

• When someone reads it, there should be no doubts about how to pronounce it.

• It shouldn't be too common, but should be a name that people are familiar with. "Distinct, but not unique" is our mantra. Oscar fit the bill perfectly.

• We prefer names that are more on the classical side, and avoid names that are too modern or too Bible-y. Some of the names we were kicking around for Oscar were William, Cyrus, Felix, Titus, Julius. (I'd still totally use Felix, but Adam says NO. Plus, I think there's a Twilight character named Felix. Not going to happen now.)

• Monosyllabic names don't work really well with our last name (it's Italian and starts with a D).

• No place names (Dallas, Paris), object names (Spirit, Falcon, Rain), surnames (Cooper, Archer, Carter, Anderson), or gender-ambiguous names (Dakota, Shannon, Quinn) 

• This isn't a requirement, but I think it's really cool that Oscar's most famous real-life counterpart is Oscar Wilde, the brilliant and witty literary genius. It would be cool to find a name for Baby D 2.0 that corresponds to an important contributor to the arts and sciences (another reason I liked Felix-- Felix Mendelssohn, anyone?). Our chosen girl name actually does that, as well. Once again, this isn't a requirement, but maybe something I should look to for inspiration!

Sheesh... with requirements like that, are you surprised we had trouble coming up with Oscar's name? I am totally not going to be surprised if we are once again forced to decide in the delivery room!

So... any ideas?

I'm Baaaaack... with a GIVEAWAY!

Well, well, well, it's been a while since I last posted. Whoops. But you'll be happy to know that I haven't spent the past few months staring at a wall or finally succeeding in burning my house down! This week, I finally started my very own Etsy shop!

And here is what I'm selling:

If you're a long-time reader of this blog, you know that I'm cuckoo for cloth feminine pads. They're economical (I haven't spent a dime on feminine products for five years now) and cute. Not to mention, they are so darn comfy compared to plastic, that I decided to cloth diaper my future kids for that reason alone.

Due to a tiny income, I had to work with a super tiny pad stash up until a couple years ago, when I woke up one day and realized, "Hey, I can sew these things for myself!" I came up with a good working pattern, refined the design after trial and error, and enjoyed awesome pads happily ever after. Fast forward to this past month: I was drowning in miles of flannel (thank you, Black Friday at JoAnn Fabrics!) and kind of wanted to make a little extra cash for myself. Since I stay at home with my toddler, I always feel a little guilty buying stuff for myself from the family coffers, so I want to help relieve that area. I woke up one day this past month and realized, "Hey, I can sew those pads I love... and sell them!"

So do be sure to stop by my Etsy store and take a look around. They are pretty cheap because a) I'm trying to get rid of all this flannel I own, and b) I want to spread the cloth pad love to folks who may not try it because of the price. One product I just put up that I loooooove is the Pad of the Month Club membership.

It's like a magazine subscription for pads! Every month, a pad will show up in your mailbox. By the end of the year, you will have a collection of day pads, night pads, and pantyliners in a variety of colors and prints. Who wouldn't look forward to their period with that?

I'm also having a sale on all pink and heart-themed pads in the store up until Valentine's Day. Here is a 4-pack for $17:

Anyways, I am so excited about my new shop that I decided to give away any two pads in stock, winner's choice! One pad is to celebrate the shop opening, the other pad is to celebrate, well...

I'm due in June, in case you were wondering. :-D



a Rafflecopter giveaway

Why we chose not to circumcise

I'm pretty libertarian when it comes to circumcision. I was a little dismayed when I heard that the city of San Francisco was trying to ban circumcision, because to me, that seems like religious discrimination. But, I do feel that choosing to circumcise needs to be an informed choice, with lots of research and forethought. I have several friends who are expecting little boys and are facing this decision themselves, so I thought maybe it would help to hear pro-intact reasons from someone who is not necessarily an "intactivist".

So why did we decide not to circumcise?

1. It's not my body. The biggest reason was that Oscar is the one who has to live with his penis-- not me. If he ever wants to get circumcised in the future, he can choose to reverse our decision-- something he could not do if he were circumcised at birth.

2. We had no religious reason to do it. We're not Jewish or Muslim, and considering that Paul devotes a chunk of Galatians to arguing why Christians shouldn't have to circumcise, we don't feel a Christian obligation to do it, either.

3. You can't mess up intact. According to this site, about 117 baby boys die each year from circumcision-related problems, usually by bleeding to death. Non-fatal circumcision complications include adhesions, crookedness, circumcision leaving the skin too tight (which can cause a lot of pain later on down the road), and partial or complete amputation.

4. Inadequate pain relief. When anyone older than an infant gets circumcised, they go under general anesthesia. Babies are too small for that, so doctors do the best that they can with local anesthetics (although, I just discovered, some doctors feel that anesthetics are too risky and slice away without any pain relief. O.M.G. Omg, omg, omg!!!! I think I'm going to be sick). Unfortunately, local anesthetics don't effectively eradicate the extreme pain a baby will feel (study). Sometimes, the baby won't cry much, which might give the illusion of no pain; however, silence can also be a sign of shock, and pain from circumcision has been known to interfere with breastfeeding and normal newborn behavior. When Oscar had his prolonged stay in the NICU, I was SO glad that we'd made the decision to keep him intact-- with all the needles and monitors he was already being assailed with, I was relieved to not be adding trauma upon trauma.

5. The cleanliness factor. The biggest reason for choosing circumcision that I hear floating around is... circumcision promotes better hygiene. It's supposedly easier to clean. Using that logic, why aren't we cutting off little girl bits, too? Having changed the diapers of both genders, I can say with confidence that female parts are much harder to clean. Girls are way more likely to get genital infections than uncircumcised boys, and yet, we don't circumcise females. So far, cleaning my intact boy has been a piece of cake-- it's just like wiping a finger. When he is older, I'll have to teach him to wash his foreskin, like I'll teach him to wash his hands. Or his ears. None of which are routinely chopped off, even though they are also burdensome body parts to clean.

Also, I doubt that it is hygienic to possibly expose an open circumcision wound to newborn pee and poop.

6. We didn't have a good reason to circumcise. There is not a single medical organization that recommends it. Insurance often doesn't cover it. Looking like peers is becoming less and less of an issue as circumcision in the U.S. declines, putting intact boys in the majority. But what about Oscar not looking like his dad? Maybe males are different, but I remember trying to look at anything BUT my mom when she was dressing. And even so, Oscar was never meant to be a carbon copy of my husband. If anything, I think this provides excellent material for teaching that having different features is A-OK!


So those are the main reasons we chose not to circumcise. I definitely respect a parent's choice to circumcise, but cutting off someone else's body part is a very serious action and needs lots of research and soul-searching before coming to a final decision about it. If you don't feel 100% right about circumcising your boy, then wait on it. You can always choose to circumcise later. I have heard plenty of stories from moms who regret circumcising, but rarely any that regret leaving their boys intact.

So there is your light Saturday reading. :-P Hope you are enjoying a beautiful fall day!

Woolly-Headed!

A few weeks ago, I got really ambitious. I was going to knit! Wool longies! On circular needles! So I jumped online and found this free longies pattern on Ravelry, which seemed to be basic enough for a knitting newbie like myself. I liked this pattern immediately because you calculate your own pattern from formulas provided, so instead of specially buying needles to suit the pattern, you make the pattern to fit the materials you have on-hand. You also make it based off your baby's measurements, so if your kid has a tiny waist or super long legs, you'll supposedly still get a perfect fit.

It sounds great, but how did they really turn out? You tell me:

You can see the preliminary swatch on the right.
For this pattern, making a swatch is absolutely vital!

The legs are little long, but the seat fits like a glove!

And then Oscar started doing an Abercrombie model pose.
I just about died.

Since I wasn't sure how these would turn out, I just bought some cheapie wool from the craft store down the road. It's not the greatest, but good for a trial run. Next time I'll invest in something a little softer and better quality. Why wool, you ask? Wool is a marvelous natural fiber that keeps the wearer warm in winter and cool in summer. It wicks moisture, and when lanolized, converts moisture into salt crystals, making this ideal as a diaper cover. Just throw it on over a fitted (like my fitted diaper cover pattern!), and you're good to go. I sewed a wool soaker from an old sweater a few months ago, and the wool/fitted combination held up to Oscar's 12-hour nights with nary a leak.

And now... I'm working on a second pair. This one is actually for Oscar's second cousin, and it's made out of some rich, soft alpaca yarn. Can't wait to see how they turn out!

Booby trapped! What low milk supply is and why you probably don't have it

I frequent a cloth diapering forum, which has a subforum for breastfeeding support. Hardly a single day goes by without someone starting a thread that goes something like this:

Subject: I have low milk supply!!!

I think I have low milk supply! I only get 2 oz. when I try to pump, and it is super discouraging. My son is nursing around the clock, he wants to eat every hour and a half for almost 30 minutes each, so I don't think he's getting enough milk. We've been giving him formula after feedings, and he guzzles it all down, so obviously he's still hungry. My breasts don't feel full, I don't think there is anything in them! He is only three weeks old and I don't want to throw in the towel yet. Help!

*********

You may be surprised to learn that nothing mentioned above is indicative of a low milk supply.

From my online research, I learned that while some women truly are physically incapable of producing enough milk, this phenomenon has a low occurrence, around 2-5%. Low milk supply is a real malady, but there are many, many women (and their doctors!) who think they have a low supply when they truly don't! And if I hadn't known better, I'm pretty sure I would have come to the same conclusion about myself. I've gone through everything described in the fake thread posting... and yet I stuck around and somehow produced enough milk to triple my baby's weight in less than a year.

If your baby is getting adequate milk, you should be able to observe the following:

• Plenty of wet and dirty diapers
• Consistent weight gain 
• Signs that baby is consuming milk when nursing-- you should hear swallowing, see their little ears moving, and perhaps notice a little milk dribbling out the corners of baby's mouth.

If these three things are happening, then rest assured that you don't have a milk supply issue. Conversely, if your child is losing weight and showing signs of dehydration, that is your clue that something is wrong. But what about all the problems in the fake message board thread above? Let's go by them one by one, but not before my big PSA.

If there is one thing I want you to get out of this post, it is this: supplementing with formula is one of the most destructive things you can do to your milk supply. The human breast is so amazingly efficient that it regulates how much milk it produces by supply and demand. Every time your baby nurses, your body releases hormones that tell it to produce more milk. Every time your baby does not nurse, your body tells itself to make less. So you can see how counterproductive it is to replace or supplement any feeding with formula!!! If you feel that your supply is dipping, you need to nurse baby MORE, not LESS, in order to tell your breasts to make more milk! Replacing feedings with formula tells your body that it doesn't need to make more milk, so then your supply drops, and then you supplement with more formula-- and before you know it, this has turned into a cycle that ultimately ends in dried-up breasts and exclusive formula-feeding. Human milk is an incredibly fatty, nutrient-dense substance, and there is absolutely nothing in formula that makes it nutritionally superior to breast milk. Unfortunately, there is a lot of ignorance among doctors about this. If your doctor tells you to supplement, run the other way and get the opinion of an ICBLC-certified lactation consultant first! When Oscar was discharged from the hospital, they sent me home with a giant can of Similac and strict instructions to supplement him "because he's so large". I never touched it, and lo and behold, Oscar grew just fine on human milk alone.

Whew. Huff. Okay, my rant is over. It's just that I see sooooo many women fall for this particular "booby trap" and destroy their breastfeeding relationship from this single piece of bad advice. But what about babies that drink a whole bottle of formula after a nursing session? I'm going to let you in on a little secret: even babies have the ability to overeat. Also, many bottle nipples have an overly easy flow that lets the milk just gush out, giving the baby two choices: guzzle it all down as it comes, or choke on it and have it streaming down their face. Many babies simply can't stop eating from the gravitational force of the milk.

Another less-than-helpful idea is that of scheduled feedings. Like adults, babies are simply hungrier more times than others. If you've ever read Oscar's birth story, you know the giant beef I have with scheduled feedings. Babies simply eat when they are hungry, and if you want the best supply and the healthiest baby possible, you will feed when he shows signs of hunger instead of waiting until the baby's scheduled 3 o'clock feeding two hours later. When people ask what Oscar's feeding schedule looks like, I just tell them that sometimes, Oscar eats once every three hours; other times, he eats three times in one hour. It all depends.  Along the same lines, resist the temptation to look at the clock during a feeding. Whether they nurse for ten minutes or forty-five is usually more of a temperament thing, not an indicator of supply.

Frequency of nursing is a bad indicator of supply. You may have times when your baby feeds endlessly around the clock, and it feels like all he wants to do do is nurse, nurse, nurse. Usually, something else is going on. A big culprit is growth spurts! The first growth spurt happens around the two-or three-week mark. This is when a lot of moms start panicking about their milk supply, like the one in the fake message-board post. Keep in mind that all this extra nursing during a growth spurt is a GOOD thing, because baby is preparing mom's breast to keep up with the caloric requirements of a larger baby! Babies can also nurse nonstop when they are teething. It helps relieve pressure on those sore gums, and having mom close is a big comfort. There can be other things in play, too. When Oscar came back from the NICU, he was practically attached to the breast for nearly two weeks. I think he just really craved his mommy's touch and needed to reconnect with me.

All I gotta say is, Thank God for Netflix.

Pumping is also not a reliable gauge of whether your baby is getting enough milk. First off, a baby is the most efficient breast-emptier out there, way better than the best industrial pump. What you get from a pump isn't necessarily all your baby can get from the breast himself. Second, breastmilk in a bottle and formula in a bottle are not the same thing. Formula is not as nutrient-dense as breastmilk; therefore you have to feed a baby a higher volume of formula than breastmilk to get the same nutritional value. This is especially true for an older baby, because human milk actually gets more fatty as a baby ages. Third, some women just don't respond well to artificial pumps. It can be more difficult to experience let-down when you're attached to an awkward plastic gadget rather than your warm, cuddly baby. I personally hardly get anything from a pump at all (we're talking less than a teaspoon), and I suspect a lot of that has to do with the emotional fallout of those first two weeks of stressful pumping around the NICU drama. Fourth, a lot of variables can affect what you get at a pump. The time of day, where you are in your fertility cycle, what kind of pump you're using, and a whole host of other factors can determine what you get at any given pumping session.

But my breasts aren't full! This one had me panicked in the early days. By six weeks, mom's milk supply is usually stabilized. The breasts have figured out  through supply-and-demand how much your baby eats every day, so they don't need to overfill. Having extremely empty-feeling breasts at the end of the day for me is a daily occurrence, and completely normal. The breasts kind of recharge themselves during the early A.M. hours, and over the course of the day, they gradually become depleted. Evening is when the breast milk stores reach an all-time low, and, of course, is usually when the baby wants to nurse the most because he's tired and crabby!

So there's my giant whale of a post about milk supply. Hope you learned something, and maybe put some fears to rest! I don't claim to be the all-knowing breastfeeding expert, but if you have questions, feel free to email me at maria.the.uncommon (at) gmail (dot) com. Kellymom.com also has some excellent resources, especially this page, and your local La Leche League group is a great way to get some face-to-face help.

Why Breastfeed? How it benefits everyone else

So, I've gone over a few reasons why breastfeeding is so healthy for babies and for moms. But guess what, the benefits don't stop there! Here are some other entities that are positively impacted by the breastfeeding relationship...

--Your wallet. Aside from the cost of optional nursing accessories, breastfeeding is absolutely free. Formula feeding for one year, however, costs between $700 and over $3,000 (source). Holey moley! I hope I get something nice for Oscar's birthday! :-D You will most likely save on medical bills, as well. Remember that antibody-laden breast milk I mentioned a couple posts ago? It is a widely-documented fact that breastfed babies do not get sick as often.

--Your husband. Guess who gets out of 3 a.m. bottle feedings?

Pictured: every night for the past year at the Downright Domicile

--Your washing machine. Exclusively breastfed babies' poop is completely water-soluble. If you are thinking of cloth diapering (and I hope you are! *wink wink*), rest assured that for those first months, cloth diapering is as easy as dumping the diapers in as-is (you don't really have to rinse or scrape or even touch them if you don't want to), run a beginning rinse to wash away the poop, and then wash as normal! It's that easy! But even if you decide not to cloth diaper, you will undoubtedly have the dreaded blowout. Now you know that you can just throw your clothes, blankets, and whatever straight in the wash.

--The Earth. Breastfeeding is probably the greenest way to get nourishment, short of going outside and eating grass. There is no factory, no packaging and bottles going to the landfill, no carbon emissions from that trip to the store for the food. Everything you need is neatly manufactured in one human body.

Now if only we could figure out how to manufacture one of these...

--The government. Our country has a lot funds tied into providing formula for low-income families and the extra medical care that often comes with formula feeding. I have seen numerous articles suggest that if every woman enrolled in the WIC program breastfed, it would save the country billions (!) in health care costs. I didn't know this until I started researching, but nearly half of all formula sales in this country are paid for by the government. Which means that every breastfeeding mother benefits...

--YOU, the taxpayer!


Well, I am plumb well benefitted out. So tomorrow, I will talk about a breastfeeding issue near and dear to my heart... low milk supply. I hope you are enjoying World Breastfeeding Week so far!

Why Breastfeed? How it benefits Moms

I am so excited to write this one! I think that when many people try to weigh the pros and cons of breast vs. formula for their baby, they forget that the mother also benefits greatly from breastfeeding! Here a few rewards that mom can expect to reap from all those 4 A.M. feedings:

--Easier weight loss. According to kellymom, you will burn 200-500 calories per day, just by sitting there and feeding your baby! Now that's my kind of a workout! Personally, I now weigh ten pounds less than I did before I got pregnant. Part of that is probably due to Sugarless 2011, but I'm sure that breastfeeding is the big factor... I figure about four more kids, and I will be ready for the runway!

Oh, God, NO!!! I take it back! I take it back!!!

--Lowered risk of breast and reproductive cancers. Dr Sears says so. (I trust his medical advice, not so much his advice concerning noodles.) And the benefits are directly proportionate to how early, how long, and how many you breastfeed. As someone with a family history of breast cancer on one side and ovarian cancer on the other side, you better believe I'm going to be nursing my kids for as long as I can get them to! ;-)

--Breastfeeding *usually* works as effective birth control. I say usually, because of course, there are the exceptions. But as long as you haven't had a period, and you are exclusively breastfeeding, you should be good to go for the first six months. Many women go even longer, up to a couple years (!) and actually have to start weaning so they can conceive again!

--Potentially more sleep! If you decide to co-sleep, and if you master the art of nursing while lying down, you are setting yourself up for a lot more sleep than the parenting norm. I haven't gotten out of bed to feed Oscar since he was 2 months old. He still wakes up a few times every night to eat, but all it takes me is latching him on and going right back to sleep.

I smell a practical joke in the works.

So now we have discussed that breastfeeding has a multitude of benefits for both baby and mom. Still not convinced? Well, guess what, the benefits of breastfeeding extend way past mother and child! Stay tuned!

Why Breastfeed? : Babies

It's World Breastfeeding Week! And I will be celebrating... by nursing the kid. And writing a few posts this week about the wonders of breastfeeding.

I totally get that some women, for various physical or emotional reasons, can't breastfeed. I'm not here to bash formula. But if this decision is still in the future for you, I strongly encourage you to try breastfeeding!

Today, let's talk about how it benefits baby. Breast milk is truly a miraculous substance, perfectly manufactured to completely fill a baby's nutritional needs for an entire year! It has been nice to not worry about whether Oscar is getting the nutrients he needs.

And believe me, this 30-pound kid is NOT starving.

One really cool thing about breast milk is that it changes to match exactly what baby needs at each point in his life. The very first newborn milk, colostrum, is highly concentrated with antibodies that help boost baby's immunity right when he's being exposed to the wonderful world of foreign pathogens; as the baby grows older, the fat content in milk gets increasingly higher to meet baby's increasing caloric needs. He may eat the same volume at one year that he did at three months, but ounce for ounce, the year-old milk has tons more fat!! Then, when it gets hot out (like it is in Virginia right now. I think I know now where Satan takes his summer vacation), breast milk actually gets more watery so that baby gets proper hydration! It is amazing how smart our bodies are!

Another absolutely wonderful feature of breast milk, and my personal favorite, is its disease-fighting properties.

Imagine that you have two of these attached to your chest.

Breast milk is chock-full of antibodies manufactured by mom. If a breastfeeding baby is exposed to a viral disease, he has a much lower chance of getting sick himself if mom is exposed, as well. Mom gets exposed = her  mature immune system quickly makes antibodies = baby receives those antibodies through nursing = baby doesn't get sick. I can personally vouch for this: in the first entire year of his life, Oscar has not gotten a single ear infection! He did get two colds this year, but he recovered pretty quickly.

So now you have the skinny fatty on breast milk itself; what else does it do for Junior? Breastfeeding is much more of a jaw workout than bottlefeeding, which aids in proper jaw and tooth formation. Breastfeeding helps with eye development because the baby feeds on both sides, as opposed to usually being just held in one particular arm to bottlefeed. Breastfed babies are less likely to have allergies and be obese later on, and more likely to score higher on IQ tests.

But you're on your own with the fashion sense.

So many moms beat themselves up for quitting nursing early, but I say, hey, ANY breastfeeding, whether it's for four weeks or four years, is an amazing gift to give your child! Especially in those early weeks, when baby is adjusting to the big, scary outside world with all its pathogens and frightening noises, breastfeeding can boost immunity, help with allergies, comfort baby, and give your child a little help towards a lifetime of health.

So maybe the question shouldn't be, "Why breastfeed?" Why NOT breastfeed? :-D


Still not convinced? Just wait until you hear about the benefits involved for mom tomorrow!




For more breastfeeding info, check out these sites:
http://www.llli.org/
http://www.kellymom.com/

An Open Letter to Dr. Sears

Dear Dr. Sears,
I would like to take issue with you about a suggestion you put in your book about babies-- appropriately, if laconically, titled The Baby Book.

Alternately titled: BUTTS!!!

I love your book and am thankful for all the times it saved my new-parent self from having full-blown panic attacks about completely normal occurrences. It's a valuable parenting resource, chock-full of wisdom!

Unfortunately, Dr. Sears, there is one piece of advice I don't consider to be very wise. In the 6-9 month chapter, you suggest in several places that a great way to stimulate baby's brain is to give them a bowl or tray of cooked spaghetti noodles and let them smoosh and poke and pinch and revel in the sensory stimulation to their heart's delight.

A food and a toy? Happy Meals will have one tough act to follow. 

Recently, I decided to give this a go. This was going to be fun! This would be new! And most of all, this would make my child a genius. I could just see him, crawling up to his baby friends. All the other babies would look at him and say, "Dude! Nice brain cells!" After which my son would adjust his monocle, harrumph, "Indubitably!" and impress the crowd with a dazzling display of pincer grasp maneuvers.

So what is my problem with this piece of advice? Well, Dr. Sears, it seems that you, and the editors, and I overlooked a little fact.

Eight-month-old babies love to put things in their mouth. And possibly eat these things.

I cooked up some noodles, placed them in a bowl before my kid, and waited for this sensory safari to begin. No sooner was the bowl on the ground, then he grabbed a giant handful and stuck it in his mouth. Okaaaaaaaay, I thought, maybe he's just mouthing it--  and then he shoveled in another handful with a giant slurp. This was no finger play! No poking and pinching and reveling in the sensory part! No, the only thing he was reveling in was the fact that his Italian genes kicked in at that moment and he couldn't shovel pasta into his little body fast enough.

We won't say which side he got that from.

I tried to get the noodles out of his mouth, but there was no way he was giving up his beloved pasta. He had already swallowed a handful of noodles, and the damage had been done. So I referenced your Baby Book to see when babies could safely start eating pasta.... 

Twelve to eighteen months?! 

So, Dr. Sears, I think you are awesome, but I'm trying to figure out how exactly it's a good idea to suggest letting grabby, chewing babies play with food- food!- that they're not even supposed to be eating for another half a year. That's like giving a ten-year-old a cigar to play with. Or a teenager a margarita. 

A sensory experience of an entirely different sort

Of course, it's ultimately my fault for blindly letting my baby play with food without bothering to check if it's actually safe for him to eat, but I'm a bit surprised that you, a seasoned health professional, would suggest an activity like this. Oh well, it turns out that Oscar didn't suffer any ill effects, and we all lived happily ever after. But I'm on to you, Dr. Sears, and your dealings with Big Noodle Companies. Now please excuse me, I have to go chase that child in the linguine bag.

Linked to Works for Me Wednesday.

Diapers, Diapers Everywhere!

Miriam over at My Country Cupboard asked if I've been sewing anything lately. I haven't been intensely working on any projects, but when I have a few minutes to spare, I make... DIAPERS!

These are fitteds, so they're not waterproof, which is perfect for EC! My mother-in-law bought me a ton of flannel on Black Friday, so I've been having a field day with all the patterns.

I made the leg warmers, too! Elizabeth at That Married Couple has a great tutorial.

These diapers are constructed with two outer layers of flannel, with an inner layer of terry cloth (old bath towels) and flannel sewn in. It's actually very absorbent!

I've been experimenting with sewing strips of terry cloth on the outside for Snappis, since flannel doesn't hold a Snappi very well. :-(

Ohhhhhh, I love all these fabrics! My personal favorite:

This next one is cool because it's reversible! The layer touching Baby D's skin is polar fleece, and there is an additional terry cloth/flannel layer inside. So he can wear it as pictured, as a fitted with a stay-dry inner layer; or he can wear it as an AIO with the polar fleece on the outside. I've always been skeptical about how well fleece works as a waterproof layer, but so far, I'm pretty impressed!

Here's the original diaper I made-- it's reversible, as well, but this is before I started adding terry cloth, so it's not that absorbent.

These have been very good at holding in the blowouts. Not a leak yet-- and Baby D has made some doozies! One thing I'm not crazy about is the fastening. These are actually one-size, with the top open for stuffing the diaper inside itself until I have a good rise length. This means that my only fastening options are pins or Snappis. If I had a plastic snap press, I'd make the rise adjustable a la bumGenius! and add some velcro.

This is a very economical way to diaper Baby D at home, but alas, I still need some diapers that won't make babysitters run screaming in the other direction-- I'd love to just hand them a stack of pockets or AIOs.  As soon as I can figure out how to do rise snaps, I'd like to try my hand at making pocket diapers. (confused by all this diaper lingo? Rachel at Silver Spoons, Paper Plates has a nice explanation of all the different diaper types)

These are pretty easy to whip up-- if Baby D allows, I can finish one in a day! So you might see more popping up here and there, because now I can never rest now until I have every single flannel print in the world. Whoops.

A Solid Approach to Solids?

On the cusp of celebrating six months with Baby D, I am increasingly asked the million-dollar question:

"Has he started solids yet?"

Short answer: No.

Long answer: I am a very lazy mother. I'm really digging this period of perpetually carrying around Baby MRE's.

Perhaps Le Petit Monsieur would like to try the Milk this evening?
Prepared fresh from the finest ingredients, and served by the chef herself! Ooh la la!

Meal planning is not my strong suit, and I'm not looking forward to actually coming up with nutritious dishes for the little guy! Also, I have better things to do than sit there and shove stuff in his mouth. I saw enough of my baby being force-fed at the NICU, thankyouverymuch.

So ideally, I don't want to start him on solids until he's ready to feed himself.

This will require

-Sitting up independently 

-Having some teeth already!!!

-Using the finger-thumb pincer grasp

 There are few other factors to the delay, as well. The diaper sprayer fell apart last week, so I'm not adequately prepared to deal with the solid poop. (The great thing about breast-fed poop [not that there's ever anything great about poop, lol]  is that it's water-soluble, so you can just throw those cloth diapers straight into the washing machine-- talk about easy! Once you start solids, however, you have to use flushable liners or spray the diapers down before washing. Sad face!) We're also moving across the country sometime next month, so the less complicated feeding Baby D is, the better! He is still growing at a ridiculous rate on milk alone, so I'm not worried about nutrition. I will not buy commercial baby food, and I hate cleaning blenders, so Baby D will need a set of chompers to puree his own food!

But when I DO start feeding him solids, I don't want to wean him completely yet. The goal is to breastfeed Baby D until at least his first birthday. However much further beyond one year is something we'll play by ear! I used to be that person that was so grossed out by the idea of toddler breastfeeding, but the more I find out about the wonderful properties of breastmilk, the more I'm in favor of keeping it in his diet as long as possible.

So that is [hopefully] my plan. I'm curious to hear other experiences or plans on introducing solids! When did/do you plan to start? It is easier with teeth? For you CDing moms: did it instantly get harder to wash those diapers?

For Your Saturday Reading Pleasure

Here are some of the great reads I've seen this week!



How to speed-peel a potato. I love it because of the hilarious background music.


Why Having a Toddler is Like Being at a Frat Party. I don't have a toddler, and I've never been to a frat party, but this made me chuckle. Be sure to check out the comments, as well!


Make homemade air fresheners!


How do coffee-shop baristas make all those swirly designs in the coffee? Here are the secrets!


You can see more good reads at Simply Staci!

Convert a short-sleeve onesie into a long-sleeve T-shirt!

I discovered a curious thing about the children's clothing industry: apparently, babies age 3-12 months aren't allowed to wear T-shirts, unless they are purchased with the coordinating pants and hoodie ensemble. I discovered this as I combed through several large stores, thinking,  I just want a dang shirt! and finding that I had three options: squeeze Baby D into a 0-3 month shirt, let him swim in a 12-month shirt, or buy the shirt/pant combo and let the pants languish in a drawer somewhere.


I chose none of the above. And you don't have to, either! You can transform a short-sleeve onesie from this:

To this:

Here's what you'll need:

-Short-sleeved onesie
-Material for the sleeves. You can use any kind of knitted material: an old t-shirt, another onesie. I just happened to have some leftover knit fabric from another project. be sure the material is stretchy. Otherwise, it will fit really weird and Junior won't be able to bend his arms!
-Long-sleeved shirt or onesie to use as a pattern


(Sorry the pictures are such poor quality. My camera is currently broken, so I'm having to take photos with my cell phone! I hope to replace these pictures eventually.)


1. Lay the long-sleeved onesie out. Lay the short-sleeved onesie on top, with the shoulder seams matching. Measure the length difference in the sleeves. Also measure the width at the top of the sleeve, and the bottom. Add one inch to the length, and 1/4 inch to both widths.

For my six-month onesie, the dimensions (after adding the additional lengths) were seven inches long by 3-3/4 inches wide, tapering down to 3-1/2 inches. 

2. Fold your sleeve material in half. You want the knitting to be running up and down the fold, not across it. That way, the sleeves will stretch the right way. Cut two sleeves on the fold using your measurements. So, after cutting, my sleeves were 7 inches long by 7-1/2 inches wide, tapering to 7 inches.

3. On the short tapered end, fold up 1/4 inch onto the wrong side and sew with a zigzag stitch. This will be the end of the sleeve.

4. Fold in half, right sides together, and sew a 1/4 inch seam with a plain old running stitch. You now have a sleeve!

5. Turn the onesie inside-out. Pin the new sleeve, inside out, onto the onesie, matching seams. (As you can see, I like to use lots of pins!) You want the new sleeve to extend past the onesie sleeve hem stitching.

6. This was hard to photograph, so bear with me! You are going to be stitching on the outside of the onesie sleeve. Position the onesie on the sewing machine just so you are stitching through the neckhole onto the right side of the sleeve, but the rest of the onesie is inside-out. Using a zigzag stitch, sew over the hem stitching on the onesie sleeve.

All right! The hard part is over! You can stop here, if you just wanted long sleeves on your onesie. But if you still want a shirt, keep reading...

7. Cut across the onesie, just above the leg holes. This may seem like a long length for a shirt, but if you cut much shorter, you'll end up with a belly shirt-- especially if your baby has a longer torso. Trust me! If you still think it's too long after it's finished, you can just fold it up once more and sew that.

8. Fold up the bottom of the shirt about 5/8 inch onto the wrong side. Sew all around with a zigzag stitch.

Congratulations, you have a new shirt!

Evidently, Baby D doesn't like orange

This is a participating post on Works for Me Wednesday. Be sure to check out all the other great ideas floating around cyberspace!