Saturday, October 29, 2011

Income idea...

Softiemaker


This person takes children's drawings and turns them into stuffed animals. GENIUS and I will be stealing that idea as soon as Luca gets a little older. I love sewing but hate using a pattern...I also love coming up with creative solutions for problems and working with my hands in a 3-D format. I could have a ton of fun (I loved making the critters I made for Luca) and do it cheaply, using scraps and recycled materials... I'm getting ahead of myself. Those of you I know with kids could get some free critters so I can get some practice! As soon as I start getting sleep again, I'm breaking out the sewing machine...

Thoughts on food...

I'm an extreme purist when it comes to food. My ultimate dream is to grow and raise 100% of the food I eat. In the meantime, I try my best to eat as if I'm doing that already.

I am nowhere NEAR that right now. Taking care of a tiny baby and not sleeping has made me forget to eat most of the time, and therefore accept what anyone places in front of me the rest of the time. I'm paying for it now... I just realized that my baby is congested and rubbing his face all the time because he is allergic to dairy protein, and I need to cut it out of my diet. I had been doing that for two weeks when I accidentally ate some cheese, and then my diet went out the window. He has been crying for two days now, non-stop, WRITHING with gas pain and hardly able to breathe through his own snot (which he keeps gagging on as it drips down his throat).

Bellow are my admittedly extremist views. Do not be offended by my insanity, please.

I became a pretty serious sugar addict in high school, and I am still paying for that today with a weak immune system and a lazy pancreas. It's still easy for me to backslide into my dependance (my mom made a tray of brownies last weekend, and I must have eaten 6 brownies a day until the whole tray was gone). In my case (as in the case with many addicts), there is no such thing as moderation and I just have to go cold turkey or live with my problem forever. Most people I know are sugar addicts as well, they just don't know it because they can't admit it to themselves or they don't see why they should. I don't want Luca to end up an addict, or worse, an addict who has no idea he is addicted. Also, I learned from nannying that if you have sugar in the house (much like television) that's all the kids will ask for all the time and you will end up using it as a bargaining tool to get them to do normal things like read a book or go outside. Kids don't need sugar or TV and both are addictive (and both produce behaviors I do not want to deal with as a parent), so I'm banning both of them.

In my mind, there is no such thing as poison "in moderation". In my experience, cutting kids off from junk doesn't make them want it more, since you can't want what you've never had. Also, there is a big difference between banning something "BECAUSE I SAID SO" and banning things for positive reasons that the whole family can get behind. If you treat your kids with respect in regards to the boundaries you set for them, they're a lot more likely to respect those boundaries.

When I think about how I want to raise Luca in regards to food, these are the things that come to mind:

1) During his first two years, ONLY WHOLE FOODS (nothing that comes in a package) and mostly local foods (definitely the first foods he eats will have to be straight from the farmer's market).

2) ZERO sugar until age 4. Only occasional honey or maple syrup (not in big amounts you would put on waffles, just a teaspoon to sweeten oatmeal, for example). Baked goods can only be consumed after 4 if I make them myself at home, with said small amounts of either maple syrup or honey. Molasses is also fine.

3) ZERO fast food. ZERO. EVER. That includes most restaurant foods. Luckily we live in an area where there is plenty of high quality food to be found in restaurants!

4) ZERO caffeine, artificial ingredients, artificial colors, etc. Not even at birthday parties (I will bake him approved cupcakes and bring them with us, so he doesn't feel left out). Not even on holidays (that's right, no trick-or-treating). Traditions of our culture based around junk will be replaced with family activities involving the outdoors, charity, or great literature ("Sleepy Hollow", anyone?).

5) After he goes through puberty, he can start making some of his own food choices. But I will not allow any junk food in the house and we will not eat out as a family at regular restaurants.

AND THEN WE WILL ALL LIVE HAPPILY EVER AFTER.

Friday, October 28, 2011

11 weeks

So many changes this week... he now laughs directly after we interact with him, rather than there being a 15 second delay. I can also lay him down on the floor or elsewhere and he will be happy for several minutes (WOOHOO). Yesterday, I was talking to him on the floor and my mom walked in the room... he turned his head to see who had come in. He had never done anything like that! It also looks like he can move his hands with slightly more intention... he has tried to rub his eyes a few times. His cradle cap is finally flaking off. Last night he slept TWO 4 hour stretches (I think?? I was too tired to pay much attention) but I don't fell well rested because he still woke me up often with his squirmy fussing (FAKE hunger signs?? grrr).

In the spirit of the fact that NO ONE sees enough breastfeeding, here is a video of Luca comfort sucking while he sleeps. Comfort sucking is different than hunger sucking... I should take a video of him hunger sucking for contrast. When they drink because they are hungry, the gulps are bigger and faster, there are no long breaks (their eyes may or may not be open), and the pauses in between sucks happen while the mouth is open (which is when they swallow). After 15-20 minutes of sucking, their brain releases a hormone (CCK) that tells them to go to sleep. This is one reason why pacifiers interfere with breastfeeding... they trick the baby's brain into thinking he's already full and it's time to go to bed. You can see from the force of his suck why it HURTS SO BAD in the beginning!

The second 30 seconds of the video is him being cute in his wool suit. I am really obsessed with wool lately. I really want to get some sheep and a spinning wheel and a loom and just become a little old lady who makes stuff.



Elimination Communication is going well... it's still only part time, but the day before yesterday I only used like 2 diapers all day long! My record is one diaper.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

On a roll!

He rolled over! He was on his back and excitedly flipping his legs all over, and then he flipped them WAY over and turned himself over. WOAH! Before, he turned from his belly to his back by falling over but... this was more intentional and involved some real muscle coordination. Woohoo! (time to get that guard rail up on the bed)

Regrets

I'm kind of feeling like an idiot for giving him Colic Calm. I feel like I probably damaged his gut flora permanently, and I should have just listened when people told me to wait it out and that it was normal for him to fuss. I was just so tried, and so miserable, and he seemed so miserable... I would have bought anything marketed to help (and I did). I feel like an idiot and like I have grossly violated his exclusive breastfeeding relationship with me.

I can already think of a hundred things I will do differently with the next baby (if I survive this one). It occurred to me that if Obama isn't re-elected next year, some bozo might actually succeed in repealing Obamacare... meaning I won't be able to afford to give birth again for a long time. Did you know medicare has a cap of $1300? Does that mean all poor people have like $10,000 in debt per child??

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Vaccines

He got poked on Thursday morning... he screamed pretty loud but only for about ten seconds. He got Pc and DTaP. The day after Thanksgiving he gets Hib, then Dec 13th more dtap and pc, and then on in that pattern until he is 6 months old.

He just slept a lot the day after (Fri) but he held his poop the whole time. Saturday he finally pooped, and I took him to the Ross's house for a couple hours. By 7pm he was fussing so we took him home. He then screamed for an hour, no matter what we did or offered, and fell asleep at about 9:30pm. He woke up to nurse at 12:30. He woke up to scream for another hour at 2am. I dreamed I learned I was pregnant again and then just laid on the floor screaming and crying. Then he woke up every hour until 9am, fussing but refusing to nurse more than ten seconds and rubbing his face repeatedly on the bed. Maybe the vaccines made him itchy??

I really wish they kept data on the prevalence and severity of these diseases in different groups, because I have a feeling that my breastfed and not-in-daycare baby probably doesn't need all this crap!!

In good news:

10 weeks
10 weeks

I got a long, thick woven wrap, used, from an online forum called The Baby Wearer. It's by far the most comfortable babywearing device I have tried.

in his new woven wrap

He has finally cut back on the nursing. He feeds are much shorter and he hasn't fed every hour for a week now. Now if he would just sleep longer...

He has started using his little baby potty :)

I think I have decided that my favorite cloth diapering system is cotton prefolds (with thin hemp doublers at night) snappied under a wool cover. The wool shorties are extremely leakproof, breathable, and adorable (can be worn as pants or under clothes, and come as "longies" as well). The Bum Genius pocket diapers leak. The plastic covers are not as comfy for him. The all-in-ones don't wash and dry well. The g-diapers don't hardly work at all. The fitted and contour diapers just don't fit as well, causing my covers to get dirty more than is necessary.

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Date Night

We took him out on a date last night... the nice thing about your husband working at a movie theater is that you can bring your baby, and if he fusses or you get tired, you can leave without feeling like you wasted your money! So we got to see about one hour of a really good movie on Mozart's family traveling around Europe.

We also had the BEST BURGER at Bull City Burger and Brewery. It was the special... it had goat cheese, some sort of potato pepper patty, local lettuce, grass fed beef, some kind of green sauce that tasted like avocado but was actually sour cream and something else... only $10 for a grass fed patty with the works, not bad! Their fries are really amazing too... crispy and so flavorful. They have an option for fries fried in duck fat!

Downtown Durham is really becoming a lovely place.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

9.5 weeks... fuss fuss fuss

He just pooped for the 5th or 6th time today.... and he took a 5 hour nap and woke up in a GREAT mood. I think his digestive tract is finally maturing a little bit.

Tuesday was HELL though. He had his regular checkup that morning, which was kind of lucky because he had just caught my cold so we didn't have to worry about whether or not to take him in to get him checked out. Since we were both sick, neither of us had gotten any sleep and he just screamed through the whole appointment (and we were late so we missed our appointment and had to wait over an hour). We came home and Ash watched the baby (thank god he didn't have anywhere to go that day) and I just slept and slept. I woke up feeling much better but... it was such a miserable experience. Last night he also stayed awake crying for several hours. It really saddens me to say things like "I AM NEVER HAVING ANOTHER BABY", but it really did get to that point several times this week.

Of course, a good day like today makes you forget all about it.

I have found other moms online who also have very fussy babies... it helps to hear from them that it won't last forever (in fact most of them said by 12-14 weeks they were fine). One person had triplets and TWO of them were colicky. So there's some perspective for ya.

Saturday, October 8, 2011

8.5 weeks

Yesterday we took him to the bank and grocery store... AND HE DID NOT SCREAM ONCE. And for the past 3 days in a row he has slept in his swing for 10-15 minutes. He will also let me sit in a chair while he is in the sling (are the days of pacing ending??). Lights at the end of the tunnel? Everyone says it gets better starting a 3 months (12 weeks)... so I'm in the home stretch. He will be 14 weeks when we take him to Charleston, so I hope he's a happy baby by then.

I woke up with a cold this morning. Boy, I bet it will be fun trying to heal from a cold while NOT SLEEPING!

I took some pics of Luca's favorite things to look at, turned them black and white, and blurred them. I give you...
The World as Luca Sees It:

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I don't know what it is about the Dock Street poster above his changing table (last picture), but anytime he is laying there and looks up at it, he gets SO excited! He smiles and talks to it and kicks his legs with delight.

His Grandma Sharon is visiting this week (Ash's mom).
grandma

8 weeks

8 weeks

8 weeks