Is my baby High Needs?

Sometimes it seems as if nothing I do helps. He cries and cries, the volume approaches a scream at times. His little face turns red and his body gets stiff. He kicks and squirms, and there are tears! Real baby tears. A crying baby makes my heart hurt. I try nursing to comfort him, but he just jerks and pulls away. Holding him and talking to him doesn't help either. There are a few things thankfully that do help, such as walking around with him....ok perhaps the word few was overestimating things. Walking is just about the only thing that works without fail. Even wearing him in my baby carrier only works if I'm up moving around.

Without fail, every night when my husband and I try to sit down for dinner, the screaming starts. I'm not a superwoman, sometimes I feel truly ready to just give up and put him in his swing and let him cry it out. I just can't do it, though. I can't sit and listen to him need me and not go and at least try to comfort him however futile my efforts may be. Last night my dear husband made us a steak and sauted mushrooms dinner. Halfway through I just got up and held the baby and nursed standing while Brad finished his dinner. Then I sat down and ate my cold steak :( I know I feel kind of sorry for myself as this happens a lot, but I'm the mother now and I guess sacrifices must be made.

It's been particularly bad the last few days and I've almost felt at my wits end. I've yelled at my husband which helps nothing. I know that, but I get so frazzled by the baby's constant crying. I went looking for answers on the internet the other day and found that 3 months of age is prime time for a growth spurt. I broke down in tears after reading that, thankful that this may end in a few days and I'll have a happy baby. The thing is, sometimes he is happy! The few times a day he's happy he knows how to show it. He smiles up a storm, coos and lets out huge giggles. I love these moments and I hope for more of them.

I also found some really helpful information on high needs babies by Dr. Robert Sears. The Sears' also have a book titled, The Fussy Baby Book : Parenting Your High-Need Child From Birth to Age Five. I'm thinking of buying it because it seems as if this article was written specifically for Braden. Some of the key points that really struck a cord with me were:

High need infants tend to be full-time tummy-thumpers and bladder- kickers, as if telling the world even before they're born that they need more space.

Boy was he ever! Man I thought he was gonna kick right out of my ribcage some nights. Not fun, ha! I had no idea what was coming.

They stiffen their limbs and arch their backs when you try to hold them, and they are frequently seen doing back dives in your lap, turning breastfeeding into a gymnastic event.

This drives me up the wall sometimes. I thought that nursing was supposed to be a peaceful loving thing, but sometimes Braden fights it! He squirms, arches his back, tries to kick himself off my lap. I feel bad "forcing" him to nurse but he needs to eat and he needs to sleep and this is really my only way of helping him do those things.

Woe to the parent who offers baby the rattle when he is expecting a breast. He will let you know quickly and loudly that you've misread his cues.

Tell me about it. Heaven forbid I try to change his diaper after a nap when he wants to eat...or try to hold him in my lap when he wants attention and to play. Sometimes just figuring out exactly what it is he wants is a trial. Often, I don't get it right and I'm left with my crying, red, upset baby.

After all, isn't a contented baby the hallmark of effective mothering? Wrong! There will be days when you nurse, rock, walk, drive, wear, and try every comforting technique known to man or woman, and nothing will work. Don't take this as a sign of failure. You do the best you can, and the rest is up to the baby. You have not failed as a mother even if your baby is miserable much of the time.

Thank God! Honestly, yes I was feeling like a little bit of a failure. I co-sleep with him, I breastfeed frequently and on demand, I play with him as much as I can and he still has periods of uncontrolled screaming. Just about the only thing in this article that doesn't really fit my baby is the poor sleep habits. He sleeps great which is a small miracle I give credit to co-sleeping for. I am so glad that I am not alone. Thank you Dr. Sears!

Here is something very similar to a comment my husband made a little while back. He said that it was as if Braden only had "off" and "on". There is either super happy smiling giggling baby, or super upset crying, kicking baby.

When he is happy, he is the happiest baby around, but when he is angry he is the worst baby around. He is still that way, sunshine and smiles, anger and daggers. He has no middle emotion.

So here I am, with my potentially "high needs" baby. I'm doing the best I can trying to parent him, to make him understand that I will be there for him when he is upset and I will always pick him up when he falls. I truly believe that being an attachment parenting mommy for this little guy is going to help be his safety net. He will be able to grow and be an outgoing, driven happy little guy because he knows his mommy loves him.


Do you have a high needs baby?
What tips and tricks have you learned?
What are they like as older children?

My Attachment Parenting Blog

Earth Hour is Tonight

Are you game?

http://www7.earthhourus.org/

People and places across the globe today are turning off their lights for one hour (8-9pm local time) in a symbolic move to promote efforts to curb global warming. Sydney has already begun. The Australian Earth Hour chief executive has said "I'm putting my neck on the line but my hope is that we top 100 million people."

Google has gotten on board with a black page today and the phrase, "We've turned the lights out. Now it's your turn". Also, for those looking to do a little bit extra all the time, there's Blackle, a Google search engine who's background is black all the time.

Our family plans to cut out as much electric use as we can. In addition to turning off our lights, we will turn off and unplug our computers, an event that hasn't occurred since we moved in here. We will also unplug appliances and electronics.

What are your plans for Earth Hour 2008?

My Attachment Parenting Blog

Changes to the website

Or my fickle mind...


In an effort to make things a little more streamlined and search friendly, I have changed the site name and URL. It is now Attached at the Hip instead of MommyMe and the address is http://attachmentparentingmommy.blogspot.com instead of http://mybradsandme.blogspot.com.

Thanks for stopping by!

My Attachment Parenting Blog

HBV Vaccinations - Informed choice?

This was sent to me by e-mail from my former doula, Sabbath Davies.


On January 31st, the French authorities opened an investigation into the practices of two pharmaceutical companies - Glaxo SmithKline and Sanofi Pasteur. At the same time, a French judge began an investigation for manslaughter against Sanofi Pasteur¹.

The investigations are centered around a campaign by the two companies to vaccinate children against Hepatitis B (HBV) between 1994 and 1998. There have been allegations that the companies did not fully disclose the side effects of the vaccine. During this period of time, nearly two thirds of the French public, and routinely all newborn babies, were given the HBV vaccine.

What is particularly surprising is that while this action was reported on February 1st 2008 on Reuters, a search of both the BBC and the CNN websites did not show that it was being reported at all. Why is it that employees from two of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies are being investigated for manslaughter but there is no mention of it on these websites?

What do we know about HBV and the vaccination for this disease? First, we know that HBV is a blood borne virus. It can only be contracted through sexual intercourse and blood transmission. This means that a newborn baby or a child is at extremely low risk of contracting the disease unless they are having a blood transfusion in a country where blood is not routinely tested for viruses, or their mother is positive for Hepatitis B.

Secondly, we know that, for low risk groups, the vaccine does not appear to provide long term protection. In one study it was found that only 1 in 10 children aged 5-7, who had been vaccinated at birth, still had antibodies against HBV².

Thirdly, we know that 90% of people exposed to HBV will develop an acute infection and then recover after a few months, while for the remaining 10% they will have chronic HBV and become carriers. 15-20% of those with chronic HBV will die of complications associated with the disease. This means that for every 100 people who are infected with HBV, 90 will recover, 10 will become chronic HBV carriers, and 1-3 people will die of HBV related complications.

Finally, we do not know what the true risk of contracting HBV is for any particular individual. Certain practices significantly increase the risk of acquiring the disease such as intravenous drug use, unprotected sex and blood transfusions if the blood is not tested for HBV. However, for a healthy, non-drug user, who is not having unprotected sex, we do not know the risk. The overall risk within the population of the USA is 5%. This is a skewed statistic though since it includes prostitutes and drug users who are at significantly increased risk, and infants who are at almost no risk.

It will be interesting to follow this case and see how it proceeds. Will pharmaceutical companies be held accountable for injury and death that the families involved believe were caused by the vaccine? Or will it be determined that there is no evidence that the vaccine is unsafe?

References

1. French judges probe firms over vaccinations, Reuters, Online: http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssHealthcareNews/idUSL01..., retrieved February 5th 2008.
2. Petersen, K.M. et al., 2004. Duration of Hepatitis B Immunity in Low Risk Children Receiving Hepatitis B Vaccinations from Birth. Journal of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, 23(7),650-655.

My Attachment Parenting Blog

Extended Breastfeeding

Overcoming the views of societal "norms" and what's best for your growing baby


A mom on my birth board asked this morning if it was ok to give her 18 month old bottles of her breastmilk. She was concerned about the "effects of breastmilk on toddler's bowels". It seemed quite strange to me that someone could not know that human milk is the best milk for human babies regardless of age. Yes, an 18 month old is still very much a baby. I went searching for a link to provide her showing that major world health organizations recommend breastfeeding until at least two years of age, and that the benefits last well beyond that. The UNICEF link states

Optimal breastfeeding practices include exclusive breastfeeding (breastmilk with no other foods or liquids) for the first six months of life, followed by breastmilk and complementary foods (solid or semi-solid foods) from about six months of age on, and continued breastfeeding for up to at least two years of age while receiving complementary foods.

"At least two years of age" That's a 24 month minimum that a child should be receiving mother's milk.

When I hear about doctors telling moms to wean so the baby will eat more solid food, I always want to ask them (the docs) what foods they had in mind as being nutritionally and immunologically superior to breast milk -- I mean, are we talking about hot-dogs here?

The benefits of nursing a toddler are many. Nursing toddlers have been shown to have fewer allergies, are sick less often, be better socially adjusted, and are smarter. Breastmilk is far superior to cows milk nutritionally for babies of this age as well. In the second year (12-23 months) 448ml (about 15oz) of breastmilk provides:

• 29% of energy requirements
• 43% of protein requirements
• 36% of calcium requirements
• 75% of vitamin A requirements
• 76% of folate requirements
  
• 94% of vitamin B12 requirements
• 60% of vitamin C requirements

It is normal to breastfeed a toddler. It is the natural way to sooth hurt feelings, to promote a sense of security and attachment. According to Elizabeth Baldwin author of "Extended breastfeeding and the law" "Meeting a child's dependency needs is the key to helping that child achieve independence. And children outgrow these needs according to their own unique timetable." Children who achieve independence at their own pace are more secure in that independence then children forced into independence prematurely.

Here is an article you may find interesting. It is by Katherine Dettwyler, PhD, Professor of Anthropology at Texas A&M. She studied our closest primate relatives to form a conclusions on when the "natural" age for humans to wean would be. According to her research, 2.5 to 7 years would be optimal time for us to wean.

And as always Kellymom has some great information for us: http://www.kellymom.com/bf/bfextended/ebf-links.html

My Attachment Parenting Blog

Happy 3 month Birthday!!

13 weeks/ 3 months
24.5"
14lbs

Braden is three months old today. He's becoming more interactive, which is a blast, but he's still as cranky as ever. No end to the mysterious colic yet. Developmentally he is "talking" to us when we talk to him. You can tell he's trying to force sound out of his little throat. He mimics aahh sounds when you make them at him. He's beginning to giggle, he makes this cute "hee hee hee" sound while grinning really huge. He has found his hands and loves to suck on them. He's not grabbing at things yet, but maybe soon. He also shows no signs of learning to roll yet, not sure when that's supposed to happen. I'm looking forward to him growing just a little more and being able to really enjoy playing with me.

My Attachment Parenting Blog

Nightly re-cap

Brad and I have decided to buy bikes so we can go out and exercise together. Biking will be good for us because there are baby trailer attachments you can buy, so when we go out to trails we can tow the little man right along with us! I thinks it's gonna be a blast, 'bout darn time I start getting my squishy ass back into shape.

While we were out shopping for them today, I wore Braden in my K'tan. He's a happy, peaceful baby while he's in there and I just love it. I washed it the other day and it shrank a little, which is great. It keeps him snugger to me and it's easier to breastfeed that way. While we were in the bike shop, this nice man with four of his children with him smiled at me which made me feel good. That's so much nicer than the "what the hell" looks I got at the mall when we went to have lunch afterwards. You'd think I was beating my child instead of wearing him cuddled up close and happy. People are weird.

You may have noticed the site has a new look. I'm pretty pleased with it as I made it myself with the Minima template base. I'm still fine tuning a lot of stuff and plan on adding some things in the near future, but I'm happy with my progress. I owe a lot of my learning to Annie over at BlogU. I feel kinda like I've graduated the BlogU college of design having made my own template. Thanks Annie!

My Attachment Parenting Blog

Nightly ..errr well kinda... re-cap

We're not gonna let a little thing like time of day stop us, now are we?

I've made a new years resolution. Yes I'm late, I know this. I am going to be a great home-maker. I'm going to be Martha freakin' Stewart! Ok, maybe not that much, but I do want to start taking better care of the house. I'd like to stay on top of the laundry so our bedroom doesn't always look like WW3. I'd like to vacuum the carpet more than once in a blue moon. I'd like to make sure there's always a clean bowl for cereal in the mornings instead of thinking "Damnit, all the dishes are dirty, oh well lets have a chocolate bar for breakfast". Oh and the other thing, I want to learn to cook! Yes I'm a 24 year old woman who hasn't ever cooked a decent meal in her life. I've baked desserts, and I can work a microwave like nobody's business, but I've never looked up recipes and went to the grocery store with a list and cooked a great home-made meal. I want to!

Do any of you readers have any suggestions or websites that can turn a kitchen newb like myself into Betty Crocker? Know any great ways to organize a home-cleaning schedule? If so I'd love to hear from you!

In other news, we finished Season 3 of Lost. HOLY CRAP BATMAN! What kind of cop-out was that last episode? This whole season seamed to have just been a mash-up of different random ideas the writers had with no real direction to it. What happened to the cool shit like Hugo's numbers and the button? Ehh...maybe Season 4 will be better? We usually wait til a season is out on DVD then watch it all at once, but we're mighty tempted to watch it in High Def on the computer, apparently you can see the episodes that are already out that way...


Did you know that babies get super cranky when you don't let them take naps during the day? Brad had to go on post to get his insulin prescription refilled. We went after the babies first nap thinking we'd have plenty of time to grab lunch on post, get his meds, and come home. Well, the pharmacy had an un-godly two hour wait. I didn't even get to sit with Brad til they called his number. Braden was already tired and cranky and was causing the entire waiting room to stare at us because he was crying. I had to go sit by myself in the car for an hour and a half with a screaming baby. Yeah that was a blast, let me tell ya. After it was finally over, we did stop by the marine aquarium store so Braden could get a look at all the fishes and stuff. He really loves his daddy's little nano-aquarium so we figured he'd get a kick out of seeing some of the bigger stuff and he did. It was cute.

That's all for now. If there's anything you'd like to see me write about, let me know.

My Attachment Parenting Blog

Breastfeeding vs Formula

I'll say up front that I am a lactivist (breastfeeding activist). This does not mean that I condemn formula feeding mothers, it just means that I 100% believe that breastmilk is far superior to formula, and I want that fact acknowledged. If people don't continue to promote breastfeeding, the formula companies advertising dollars will mean another generation raised on artificial foods and that's frightening. Babies who are fed formula are at much higher risk for an assortment of ailments including allergies, cancer, diabetes, and infections.

Pediatricians spend much time frightening parents with something like a 1 in 100,000 combined risk from vaccine-preventable diseases when parents question the utility and safety of vaccines. “Would you want to risk the life of your child?” they demand. Yet these very same professionals offer formula samples with the other hand – when the magnitude of health risks associated with the use of formula is 500 times greater.

I have heard the phrase over and over and over again that formula is "just as good" "just as healthy an alternative". It is not! Here is an fantastic article summarizing Dr Linda Folden Palmer's research study "The deadly influence of formula in America". Well worth the read for anyone wanting detailed statistics fully cited and backed by research.

Based on the current U.S. infant death rate of 6.7 and an average breastfeeding rate of 50%, the American infant mortality rate would climb to 9.4 if all infants were formula-fed and would drop to 4.7 if all were breastfed.

The phrase "Breast is Best" has been thrown around liberally to the point no one really pays it much attention anymore. They pay lip service to breastfeeding, all the while still assuming that formula is a low risk alternative. Many parents are well aware of issues such as car seat safety and sleep positioning, but don't realize that breastfeeding is more than "just another neutral lifestyle decision". The AAP (Academy of American Pediatrics) puts its squarely into the same importance rating as those other measures.

Parenting is all about making choices and weighing risks and benefits. Many parents need to make the riskier choice of formula feeding in order to balance other factors that benefit the family. Yet some parents who have lost their children, possibly based on pediatric advice condoning or encouraging formula-feeding, would surely wish that they had been informed of the very real risks related to using formula.

Links:
http://www.aap.org/breastfeeding/
Journal of the American Medical Association
http://www.kellymom.com/newman/risks_of_formula_08-02.html

My Attachment Parenting Blog

Nightly re-cap

Hmmm lets see....

1. My baby is so fussy we nicknamed him Heinrich
   
2. Bumgenious cloth diapers are the shiz
3. Lost on Blue Ray disc is hawtness

That is all.

My Attachment Parenting Blog

The Vaccine Debate

Braden is almost three months old. He hasn't been to his two month well-baby check-up yet. Why?

Vaccinations is why.

The decisions to be made about vaccinate/don't vaccinate, or maybe to only selective or delay vaccinations are a little daunting. There is so much information out there, it's a little scary being faced with the task of sorting through it all and coming to any kind of rational conclusion. My first instinct was, "If there is this much controversy over it, they can't be worth it. I'm just not going to vaccinate at all". I brought up the subject to my husband a few weeks before Braden turned two months, and he seemed all gung-ho about just following Dr's orders and getting all the vaccines on time. This terrified me. My husband has the benefit of college debate classes when it comes to discussing things like this, and sometimes I feel he uses that against me and I can't really hold my own. He told me the burden of "proof" was on me because I wanted to go against doctor's orders. So my reaction was to be passively aggressive and simply not make the Dr's appointments, not mention it anymore, and hope he forgot about it.

Well that worked for a little while, but yesterday he brought the issue back up. He wanted to know why I hadn't made the appointment because I hadn't been able to bring him enough proof that vaccines were bad. I had to put my foot down as my child's mother and tell him that no, the burden of proof was on him. I would absolutely not be blindly vaccinating my child. This forced him into really sitting down with me, discussing his fears about diseases (his aunt was paralyzed from polio) and I feel we really got a good handle on the issue. I am now in the process of ironing out our selective/delayed schedule.


Here is a link to the CDC's recommended infant vaccine schedule.

I would like for Braden to only get one shot at a time, and never any combination vaccines.

• We will not be doing Hepatitis B until he is nearing teenage years.
  
• We will not get the DTaP series. We will get the Pertussis single vax on time, delay the Tetanus until he is mobile, and we are not sure about the Diphtheria portion yet.
• I am not sure about the HiB yet, I will have to look more into the meningitis risk.
  
• We will do the polio vaccine, but still not sure when. Will probably delay.
• We will not be getting the pneumococcal, I feel he is not at risk and my breastmilk protects him better than a vaccine from ear infections.

All the rest are not an issue until he is one so I have a little time left.

If anyone is interested, here are two of the sites that I found very helpful in my search for information:
http://insidevaccines.com/wordpress/
MDC Vaccination Archives

My Attachment Parenting Blog

Co-sleeping is beautiful

Before I became a mother, I remember sitting in my living room. My husband and I were meeting with our Doula and she was talking to us about future parenting decisions. She asked us if we would co-sleep. I remember my husband and I looked at each other with funny expressions on our faces and we both said, "Ehh, no we don't want him in our bed. He has a room and a crib upstairs". Well, fastforward to our stay at the hospital after giving birth and you will find a beautiful sleeping baby curled up next to his momma on the bed. The hospital staff thought it was charming.

Now at home, almost three months old, he has never spent a night away from his mother. I love co-sleeping with my baby. I love lying next to him and feeling his soft skin against mine. I love listening to him breath. This morning I spent an entire hour just looking at him and adoring him. It took everything I had not to stroke his little face and head and wake him up to kiss him.

Before becoming a mother, I could never have imagined how selfless and giving I could be to another little being. For as long as he wants, he's got a spot next to mommy in the bed :)

My Attachment Parenting Blog

Nightly re-cap

Nothing much to write today. We're about to have dinner and watch Episode 4 of Star Wars because I've never seen the original trilogy.

A bunch of pics from the last couple days:

My Attachment Parenting Blog

Nightly re-cap

My diapers came! yay :) I prewashed the covers and inserts, they're in the dryer now. I'll use them first thing in the morning, I can't wait. They're plain, but cute, and very practical.

Didn't do a lot today. Worked more on the blogger template I started. Don't know what to call it, but you can see my progress so far here.(UPDATE! That link is to my test blog. What you see here now is what I was working on) CSS code is kind of fun to learn and just a little addicting to my OCD side.

It's past Braden and I's bedtime, but Brad and I had a late dinner and the baby has been passed out to ShopVac noise in his swing for the past hour. I didn't want to wake him up. My left boob is hard as rock and ginormous right now. For some reason, in the past few days my milk supply has skyrocketed and I can only feed off one side for a few hours to make sure Braden gets hindmilk. That means my other side is getting engorged and just a little painful. Ouch. Hope this doesn't last too long.

We're off to bed, cya on the flip side. Remind me I need to pay the bills tomorrow, will ya?

My Attachment Parenting Blog

Nightly re-cap

My diapers get here tomorrow yay! We had a little bit of confusion about the tracking number, but it's all good. I'm pretty excited. I'll be sure to take lots of photos to show you how cute he is in them. The other thing I'd like to get to go with them is some Babylegs. How adorable would matching those and a cloth diaper be?

Braden was cranky cranky all day yesterday and barely slept, so it was no suprise that he conked out at night and slept 6 hours straight. After he ate he slept another 4. After we got up for the day, he took another 4 hour nap. Craziness. I actually started to worry about him for a minute but he was fine.

We got our first couple discs of Lost Season 3 in the mail today. We watched all 8 episodes, lol. We're addicted to that show. It's so nice to be able to watch it in one big stretch without all the commercials and the week wait. We have to put these two discs back in the mail tomorrow so they'll send us the next couple, they should get here Monday, I can't wait.

I started a new blog to mess around with. I called it Aspirations because I'm only going to put up stuff about "what I want to be when I grow up". I have a lot of interests and hobby's that I would like to learn more about, so I'm gonna post about it there. The blog itself is one of my goals. I'm trying to take the default Minima template and make my own look completely from "scratch". I love tweaking code, it's the OCD in me. I also like photography, and photoshop editing so I'll be putting up some of that. I'd love to be better at taking photos, right now I'm a complete amateur. One of my other goals is to write. I love to write, and I really would like to make myself find the time to do some creative short stories. Surprisingly enough, the last thing on my list of wants is to be a great homemaker. Seriously. I'd love to make grocery lists with a purpose and plan meals, and keep the house in tip-top shape. Right now it's a disaster lol. Oh well, I'm young, I have time to get it all together.

Whelp, that's it for now, g'night!

My Attachment Parenting Blog

Beauty

A gorgeous art spread by Peter Gasser, showing the natural beauty of mothers, children and breastfeeding. Worth a look.

My Attachment Parenting Blog

I'm a Blog-U student!

So in my search for a pretty blogger template for this blog, I stumbled upon this Blue Dust template by Annie. I loved the label cloud and the soft lavender and brown colors. After setting up my new look, I went to browse the rest of her site. It is a wealth of information on different ways to customize your blog, add unique little touches and greatly improve both the look and function of blogger. So far some of the things I have learned to do are a Peak-a-Boo Navbar, Double Vision Titles, Expand/Collapse Navigation Elements, Pullquotes, Post Signatures, and Add a Comment Image. I'm having a blast learning all this and there are so many more tricks out there.

Check her out, it's so worth the time.

My Attachment Parenting Blog

Nightly re-cap

Baby in arms nursing, just about ready for bed so this is gonna be short.

We had a lovely morning with a smiling coo-ing baby in the bed with us. That's fast becoming my favorite part of the day, laying there and talking and giggling with him.

In the afternoon, we all went to Cabella's (Brad's idea). There were tasty burgers and onion rings for lunch, live fishes in a cave aquarium to look at, and oodles of stuffed trophy animals and fish. Sea lions are huge strange creatures.

Nothin' else to report, so g'night!

My Attachment Parenting Blog

As promised

Here are all the pictures from the past few days...

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BabyCenter Sig Round 2

I don't think .gif files animate here on blogger, but this is my updated babycenter signature. I think it's adorable. Jamie Lynn over at VIP Signatures (check the blinkie in the column on the right) made it for me. I made my blinkies :) And I don't know what that little thing between them is but I found it and it's ridiculously adorable so I'm keeping it!

If you have a spare moment head on over to VIP and vote for my sig (#5) for animated siggy of the week!

Word on the street is BBC is doing away with siggies in the near future and that makes me *sadpanda* indeed.

edit: Ha, they do blink. Mmm....blinkie...

My Attachment Parenting Blog

Nightly re-cap

In an effort to post more, I am going to institute a nightly re-cap of my days, however boring they may be. So have fun reading my inane ramblings.

To catch up on the last few days...

Braden has been doing better on the fussy front the past couple of nights. Last night he only cried during dinner, and today he's napped and been a peaceful happy baby for the most part. He's napping right now as a matter of fact. I hope he keeps this up, he's a much sweeter baby when he's happy. Maybe the probiotics I gave him for a week helped, who knows. We also discovered a new trick to tummy time, which up until now he has hated with a fiery passion. I fold up a blanket and put it under his upper body and lay him on the ground and he seems to really like it. He'll stay down there looking around and smiling for a few minutes before he turns into crankenstein. It's cute. Oh wait, yeah, we also got projectile vomit for the first time ever today. He and his daddy were sitting looking at the fish tank when outta nowhere Braden just unleashes the contents of his stomach. Half digested milk was everywhere. Brad was kinda a big baby about it, funny stuff.

"
Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog's Tails,
That's what Little Boys are Made of!
"

I just bought a pack of 18 Bumgenious 3.0 OS cloth diapers, they should be here sometime next week and I am sooo excited! These things are stupid cute and I love that I won't have to keep wasting money on disposables. I'm pretty excited to build a stash of cloth, and hope to acquire just a few of the nicer really cute embroidered custom ones for special occasions. If you been looking for gift ideas there it was *hint hint* :P

I started carrying Braden in a new way in my Baby K'tan. I think it's called the adventure hold. He faces outwards so he can see what's happening in the world and he really loves it. I love this darn carrier, seriously the best $50 I've spent in a long time. On a related note, I love wearing him out when we go grocery shopping and run other errands, he can breastfeed while he's in there and it keeps him happy and content and me hands free. It's so great.

Brad and I are doing well. Just hanging out and having lazy days for the most part. It's pretty nice. We find ourselves a bit snippy with each other on occasion, but I forgive us. Who doesn't have a little extra stress with a new baby in the house.

I've been spending my free time playing around with my photo editing software. I finished up a really cute one yesterday. It's a little boy wild west wanted poster theme. I think it's cute and it was really fun to make. I also made one for my friend Sabbath and her cute-tastic little Autumn.

I have some pics to show off , but blogger is being a butt, so they will have to come later. Maybe tomorrow.

My Attachment Parenting Blog

More Adorableness!

I know, I know, I'm a photo whore...I can't help it he's so cute!!

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Too much?

A few days ago we were cleaning up the front office, I was walking around and comforting the baby and Brad pulls out the ShopVac from the garage. As soon as he turned it on, it was like magic, instant calm baby. So we turned it off. The crying started back up. Turn it on. Happy baby.
So Brad records the sound and has it as a playable .mp3 on his desktop, and that's works well enough for a couple of days. But then we discover that he can't really be on the computer at the same time it's playing and that's a no go :P Our geeky selves spend entirely too much time on the web. So we pull out an old speaker system from the garage (who doesn't have tons of spare computer parts hanging around?) and hook up an mp3 player to it. Hey that works great! But how to get the noise right at the babies ear level.....Brad zipties the speaker to the swing...great now my baby can go deaf from constant ShopVac noise.
My husband is a Geek. He went through all this just to have continous white noise for the baby. Braden may be the only baby in the world to have a soundsystem on his swing. Why not just play the shopvac all the time, you ask...Well, I have no idea, ask my husband!

Too much white noise can't hurt him......can it?

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