We're back after road trips and birthday celebrations. DD's vocabulary has tripled and she seems so pleased to communicate. We're hearing baby and bunny with their signs a lot today.
Now on to the bedroom. Since her first night home, DD has been in my room. Tonight will be her third night in her own bedroom. So far so good.
We're back after road trips and birthday celebrations. DD's vocabulary has tripled and she seems so pleased to communicate. We're hearing baby and bunny with their signs a lot today.
Now on to the bedroom. Since her first night home, DD has been in my room. Tonight will be her third night in her own bedroom. So far so good.
We're back after road trips and birthday celebrations. DD's vocabulary has tripled and she seems so pleased to communicate. We're hearing baby and bunny with their signs a lot today.
Now on to the bedroom. Since her first night home, DD has been in my room. Tonight will be her third night in her own bedroom. So far so good.
Dear daughter is sleeping in a cloth diaper right now. She's been sleeping 9 hours and waking with a dry diaper, so I thought I'd make her comfortable in a cloth diaper and maybe, just maybe, I won't have to wash it!
Still working with the G diapers in the day. I've developed a system that works with the rhythm of our day. Biodegradeable disposables in the morning when she pees the most. G diapers starting with the first nap of the day. Now cloth diaper at night--well we'll see.
DD has even been happily peeing in a baby bjorn little potty in the morning. I'm more reluctant to go out in the morning, but I'm not much of a morning person anyways.
Gaining courage
We seem to be getting the hang of things together. Had to pick up big sister from school today. Baby sister was in the middle of a nap. I mustered my courage, picked her up, put her in the stroller, and headed off for school. She protested, but I kept walking hoping that she was just upset about waking up from her nap too early. Sure enough, she was asleep by the end of the first block.
I've come up with a euphemism for the baby's napping style: day time co-sleeping. It also helps me better justify her napping style to myself. She sleeps nursing, on my lap, for a couple hours each day. While it doesn't let me get things done around the house, it ensures that she'll have at least one good nap a day. Sleep is something I prize for myself and it seems to be a cure all AND it's a happy baby maker.
I have successfully put her down for a nap in her crib before. We got out of the habit when she started teething and when we were traveling for the holidays. There's no heat upstairs in the bedrooms and it was warmer for me to keep her close.
I also have my laptop on a t.v. tray and I have access to the world via wireless card. I can read. I can surf. These moments are key to my mommy sanity and keeping my sense of self. Plus, I'm still attentive to her. She doesn't like Mama on the computer.
Then there's the co-sleeping issue. Dear husband recommended against co-sleeping from the beginning. I agreed because I didn't look forward to sharing the same battle for the bed as my cousin. My cousin's boys are just beginning school now. They're the ones that gave me the idea of sharing the family bed. It sounded so nice--and it still does. Then comes the battle of disolving the family bed.
If she weren't able to sleep in her crib at night, I would reconsider the daytime napping. So now I get the co-sleeping, but I don't lose out on sleep.
Wherever she sleeps, I can still have a banana. A treat for me since the baby doesn't allow me when she's awake. She loves bananas and it's tough not to indulge a happy good-mood baby.
100 degree weather will take its toll on you. It was just two days, but it feels like it's been a couple weeks. It's now much different caring for myself and a baby. The two days contained wet washcloth on the head games, baby in just a diaper runaround time, dump water all over mama, and don't feel guilt about the air conditioner on for hours at a time.
Fear ran through my mind. I thought of global warming--although I understand that we will actually feel the affects of global cooling before warming, but I can't remember where I read that--and thought of diapers and pollution.
Today was about mama, and what an action-packed day it was. Went to the playground, met with top officials of Parks and Recreation about pesticide use in town, walked and chatted with a fellow mom, and posed for a novice photographer.
Allowed Daddy to take care of dear daughter at bedtime while I went out. He almost got her to sleep. Came to the rescue although I don't know if that was best overall, but it seemed to be the best answer for both Daddy and baby.
Still trying the g diaper. They still don't work as well as pampers. I feel for dear daughter as they don't seem like they'd be comfortable, more so when wet. Why am I using them? The guilt of diapers. Disposable diapers seem to me to be one of the worst habits the Western world has put to the planet.
I'm not a very committed environmentalist, but I read the news and I think forward. I can delay instant gratification for the greater good. I like that about myself. In my household, we've switched to fluorescent light bulbs, we separate our trash into recycling bins, we reuse containers, and we avoid waste. I'm social and think about my part of the social contract. I want to delay landfill problems and I want to help suggest workarounds to so much waste.
I am well aware of the impact of bandwagons. I've seen several times over that if I jump on one, many are sure to follow. G diapers need improvements. I'm already thinking of some to send on to the manufacturers.
I don't believe in an easy way out, but if it presents itself, I'll take it. Dear daughter seemed to be signaling to me when she needed to use the toilet and she seems to be happy enough using a toilet instead of a diaper. Outgrowing diapers earlier is the easiest step--if dear daughter is into it. The g diaper may help encourage her to use the toilet. So far, she's willing to let me know with a hissing sound when the g diaper is wet!
Our g diapers arrived!
My conscience has been bothering me about my use of pampers on dear daughter. I've been trying to cut down on diaper use using a toilet and "elimination communication". She's been letting me know when she needs to poop, but for pee, it's just not the same.
I found that I needed something that wouldn't work as well as Pampers. The problem is that they do their job really well. They're super absorbent and they don't ever feel wet. They just get really heavy. She is basically oblivious to her own peeing, which is not going to help her get out of diapers--ever--and it really won't help the planet.
Well, g diapers certainly don't work as well as Pampers. After one pee they feel wet to the touch. After a few diapers, I gave her a choice of Pampers or g diaper and, she chose Pampers. Now, keep in mind that Pampers have cartoons and this particular g diaper was a lovely sherbet orange color. Lovely to me, but maybe not dear daughter. The g diaper also has tiny buttons that made and indentation on her skin.
I am not giving up! The g diapers are flushable and compostable. I'll be throwing them away because I don't trust our Victorian era house's plumbing. They decompose in 50 to 150 days. Compare that to the 500 years it takes for diapers!
It's going to cost 2-3 times more. Pampers really do their job and I've been using them successfully for months. I am still going to try getting away from disposables.
Went to see a friend's house-in-progress yesterday. Saw a dying rattlesnake in addition to the house. Glad it was discovered quickly and glad I was with another outside-friendly person. It was much larger than the Massassaga Rattlesnakes we used to find in Colorado.
Note: the photo to the right is NOT a rattlesnake. I don't run with the sort that would pick up a poisonous or otherwise dangerous snake.
