Posts made in September, 2008

New Theme

Posted by Michelle on Sep 30, 2008 in Site Admin | 0 comments

Just an admin note — I’ve changed themes to one that I think better suits me. Sadly, the theme’s desk is SO much cleaner than my own And I only WISH I had an iPhone.

Reviews: Mommy Necklaces

Posted by Michelle on Sep 29, 2008 in Reviews | 0 comments

Around 4 or 5 months old, The Little Empress developed the endearing annoying habit of scratching me with her fingernails as she nursed. I hoped that she would simply grow out of it. Weeks later, her habit had only gotten worse as she got even more distractible at the boob. My boobs were looking like they’d picked a fight with a feral cat and lost. The Hubster ™ was pretty alarmed at the high pitched screams that I’d let out whenever The Little Empress scratched me while she nursed. Telling a baby “no” that doesn’t understand language yet doesn’t help neither did grabbing her hand. If anything, she thought it was a game and tried even harder to scratch me.

At my wits end, I consulted some other nursing mothers who suggested getting a nursing necklace for her to twiddle while she nursed. I looked around online and boughtfrom MommyNecklaces.com which is a WAHM-run nursing necklace maker. It arrived about a week after I ordered it and we immediately began to use it.

The necklace I ordered (the Lemon Drop Necklace) is part of the “Posh Donut” designs and sells for $22.99. It is 20″ long and features and immovable smooth donut shaped bead. The Posh Donut designs are recommended for babies that like to grip. All in all, I’d say my daughter and I like this necklace quite a bit though not as a nursing necklace. At 20″ long, the necklace doesn’t dangle down far enough for my daughter to reach it easily so she still tends to grab at me (ouch!) while nursing. it is far more useful when I’m babywearing or carrying my daughter than when I’m nursing. She loves to grip onto it while she’s being carried either in my arms on in a baby carrier. She loves the donut portion most of all and teethes on that regularly.

I’m still on the fence as to whether or not I’ll buy more nursing necklaces. Nursing necklaces are a definitely a “nice to have” if you have a baby that loves to pinch and you’re at your wits end trying to nurse without feeling like a pincushion but are by no means a “must have”.

Ranging from $22.99 to $28.99, the nursing necklaces at Mommy Necklaces are nice but the price is a bit steep for income strapped SAHM-types like myself. If you’ve got extra income and a twiddler, I’d definitely recommend buying from Mommy Necklaces for their style and construction. My advice would be to be sure you’re getting a length that is appropriate for your baby.

Cloth Diaper Newbies – Prelude

Posted by Michelle on Sep 28, 2008 in Reviews | 0 comments

Cloth diapering was something I considered to be only for the truly crunchy mamas. Given that I have lived most of my life in the Bay Area, truly crunchy mamas to me are vegan, eco-loving PETA members who wear only all natural, organic hemp clothing and eschew shoes. Of which I saw plenty when I attended SFSU and worked in Berkeley. This is a gross generalization, of course. THEY are truly crunchy. Me? Not so much.

Anyway, when I first got pregnant, we were living in an apartment with a nasty coin operated laundry room. Cloth diapers were completely out of the question for our own sanity’s sake.

Six months and god knows how many diapers later, as a SAHM and wanting to cut our expenses, I decided to take another look at cloth diapering. I quickly discovered that cloth diapering has a similar alphabet soup as babywearing. AIO, AI2, BG, FB, UCPF, woolies…. what the hell?

I took some time to sort through the acronyms and crunch the numbers. I decided that I’d spend about a month’s worth of disposables for a few diapers to evaluate via DiaperSwappers and Banana Peel Diapers, a Bay Area-based WAHM AP online shop.

From the mamas on DiaperSwappers I got a small, once-used Fuzzi Bunz diaper as well as an unused
Bum Genius All-in-One. From Banana Peel Diapers, I got a starter set of Fuzzi Bunz – 2 small, 1 medium. After some more reading, I decided to also order a dozen prefolds with Thirsties diaper covers.

As of right now, I have four pairs of Fuzzi Bunz with inserts and the one Bum Genius. Reviews forthcoming! For now, check out The Little Empress modeling a pair of her Fuzzi Bunz.

Breakfast Battle

Posted by Michelle on Sep 25, 2008 in Parenting | 0 comments

Part of the reason we call her The Little Empress is because she is, in fact, little compared to other babies her age. At 6 months old, she tips the scale at 12lbs, 11oz. Our family doctor isn’t worried. He’s seen her since birth and though she’s at the very bottom of the growth curve, she’s consistently growing at the same rate. Thank god for doctors that understand and accept that some babies are just smaller in general and don’t need to be at the top of the growth curve!

We’ve always followed TLE’s cues on when to eat and when not to eat. When she began nursing every 2 hours again (including at night), we introduced her to solids. First it was just her evening meal but I’ve been trying to get her at least 2 meals a day which doesn’t always happen. Our doctor suggested bumping her up to three meals a day. Okay, breakfast, lunch and dinner. We could do that.

Today was the first day of breakfast and TLE was having none of this nonesense. Bananas and rice? “Those are dinner time food, Mama,” she would have said, if she could talk. Instead it came out more like, “Waaah! Waah! Waaaaaaaah!” while banana would dribble down her chin and tears down her cheeks.

I gave up and finally presented her royal highness with her breakfast of choice: boob. Which she’s had every hour since she’s been awake which tells me that she probably would do well to have a solid breakfast with a boob to top her off but of course The Little Empress dictates all. *sigh*

Whatcha eating, mommy?

Posted by Michelle on Sep 24, 2008 in Life, Parenting | 0 comments

While I look forward to the day that The Little Empress utters her first words, I DREAD the day that she’ll realize that her mommy is a big, fat hypocrite. If I’m lucky, she’ll just realize that I’m big and fat and, being my daughter, she’ll love me anyway because a Big Fat Mommy ™ means big squishy hugs forever and ever.

But I digress.

As I was wandering the aisles of the grocery store today — something I try not to do without a list, or at the very least a gameplan, for both sanity and budget sake — a few things found their way into my cart without my realizing it until I found myself at the check out. One of my rules of thumb when it comes to shopping frugally is to never buy anything that I can make myself. This usually saves me from most prepackaged food although it was designed to keep me away from my best friend/nemesis: cookies. I can make most any cookie that I desire with the notable exception of graham crackers, Oreos and Pims. Graham crackers I consider to be a healthful (although not as satisfying) subsitute for a chocolate chip cookie while I falt out believe that Oreos and Pims are food groups in an of themselves.

What my “not buy anything I can make myself” does not save me from are things like potato chips. I tend not to buy salty snacks as a rule because like that commercial says, once I pop, I can’t stop. I’ve made entire cans of Pringles go missing in a matter of moments.

So there I was at the check out aisle, congratulating myself on a shopping trip well done when I spied quite a few things that weren’t on the list including Pringles and a bunch of sugary drinks. I’d gotten used to drinking non-sugared beverages while I was pregnant thanks to gestational diabetes and had told myself that I’d keep drinking them after I gave birth. Of course, the first thing I asked for after TLE made her appearance was a Frapuccino. Resolve? I have none.

But today, I saw my shopping cart in a new light. It was a shopping cart filled with hypocrisy. Here I am, busting my ass to give my daughter the best start in life by breastfeeding on demand and by making her baby food. And while I refuse to give her formula (and she refuses it as well; she doesn’t like the taste), I’ll gladly stuff myself full of artificially sweetened god knows what.

There will come a time when she’s no longer nursing and I’m no longer hovering over her with a spoon full of freshly made by mama baby food. And when that time comes, she’s going to be looking to ME as her example. Baby see, baby do. And if Mommy is stuffing herself full of Taco Bell and Pepsi, why can’t she?

I realized that I have to be the good example. All the fresh food, fresh lunch programs at school aren’t going to do a damn if I feed her good food while Mommy eats the Bad Stuff ™. Because kids always want to imitate their parents and right now, I’m not the best parent to imitate.