Who are we?

Me: Working mom, Alma, wife. I never wanted kids, never wanted to get married, never wanted a white picket fence, never wanted to live out in the ‘burbs (i still dont technically). Pretty much the typical crunchy hippie who is ruining American and her children. We follow Attachment Parenting and are happy to do so.  I along with a few other moms help start Babywearing International a non profit for babywearing education and currently serve on the board.  I am also co-leader of the Houston babywearers (yes that is a picture of me on the front page wearing Kate) and Moderator on MotheringDotCommunity (MDC).

Mike: My own version of the american dream. Small town-motorcycle-cowboy-working-class-hero-dad  all rolled up into a tight little package of fun. We have been together many years and met at work. This is why companies have rules against in-office romances. Wonderful dad and very eco-friendly. He supports and preaches about our lifestyle to others. He is an avid babywearer and lactivist.

Katherine: Super kate, our first born, little girl born Dec 2006, crazy and beautiful and fun.  Being homeschooled and will continue to be until further notice. She is my fire cracker, and my moral police sometimes.

Calvin: Shake and Bake, beautiful boy born August 08. He is my chill pill ninja baby. Quiet and sweet.

Gloria: Our nanny and a second mother to Super Kate, she helps keep me sane and takes care of the monsters while I work outside of the home. She is a family friend and she is a firm beleiver of AP parenting. My husband and I both have to work because we are not rolling in the dough and she takes care of our kids wonderfully.

Nana and Paux Paux: Mike’s parents, they are the happily married for a million years couple, they live in a small town in east texas.

Mama Connie and Pawpaw: Alma’s parents. First generation immigrants from Mexico who raised their children in the United States

Quincy: Poodle dog

Chiquita: Chihuahua dog

I will add more as is needed but for now this is it.

If you missed the last post here, I discussed what happens during the first year of life as an infant… and why they dont sleep well… making us as parents not sleep well either.

Of course it would be nice that after the 12th month of life someone pushed a button hidden in their spleen and all of a sudden they were sleeping 8 – 10 hours a night. It would also be nice if I could finish perfecting my teleportation device but alas… neither of those seems to be likely.

Actually some would argue that after the first year, it only gets worse for a while.

Some would argue that at this age a child should be fully expected to sleep through the night and that not doing so is a direct result of bad parenting. Obviously something that can be fixed with a few nights of Ferberizing.  Why are we still dealing with this no sleep problem? We must be doing something wrong…

Except no, that is not the case.

During this second year they really start hitting some major milestones. One of them one that will last you for the next year or so even. Which one?

Talking. Yep.. when those first words start flowing their minds start racing. They start making connections between words and people, between words and actions… between words and getting what they want!  They start off with one word or two… then they make short phrases… then we move onto 3-5 word sentences. Before you know it they are articulating why they do not need to go to bed yet and how it is detrimental to their inner child for you to force them to eat spinach.

This one is a biggie because it takes a long time to really get communications skills as a toddler/infant. They do not wake up one morning speaking to you and doing the New York Time crossword puzzle.  This is gradual so of course the sleepless nights that come from it may be many.

You know what other thing really keeps kids awake? Especially if you dont do it right… solids.

For those parents who think that starting a kiddo on solids at 4 months is going to help them sleep through the night. Please think again. When your child is not ready for solids all that solids do is make their tummy act up. Which doesnt let them sleep.   As most kids over a year old will be on some type of solid food, it is important to make sure that you do not overload them with new foods at all once… but instead gradually introduce new foods. Food exploration especially in the beginning is basically about that… exploration. It is about trying out textures and tastes.. not really nourishment per se.  Self feeding is a big milestone for some kids. Since we really had ours start self feeding from the beginning it wasnt a big deal at all.

Really, anything new that they do is a real big deal for their minds/bodies. Going up the steps… big milestone.  Learning to scribble while holding a crayon.. milestone. Peekaboo, pretend, stacking… milestone, milestone… and milestone.

Then of course in this year is when the tantrums start gearing up. Why? Because they cannot communicate what they want and they do not understand quite yet self control.  They are pure id if you want to put it in psychological terms. So while they learn to express themselves and while they learn self control their minds are going full steam ahead into these milestones… and sometimes they simply cannot stop.

My daughter has fitfull sleep for a while when she is working on a new project in her mind. She works it out a great deal in her sleep, she even talks a bit about it.  I can tell when she is trying to piece together pieces of something because she is fixated on it. She does not want to go to bed until it is over and she does not want to let go until it is all done.

Then when they sleep they pass out in weird places like this one above… he is asleep on a beanbag upside down with his legs in the air… oh man if he wasnt so cute all of this would be much harder. 🙂

There is no magic cure for sleeping and there is no magic cure for anything that is child related that would work on all kids… but put yourselves in their shoes. Their little shoes are busy and full of excitement, this is why they need you the most.

Actually, “Oh Hell!!” would be more like it.

As parents, sleep is one of those things that we never get enough of, are always talking about, and are always looking for more of.  Even parents of kids who can be considered “good sleepers” have their moments when they wonder if they will ever get a good night sleep again. Usually these time periods can be predicted if you look at when milestones are being met and when growth spurts are happening.

Right now Calvin is in the middle of growing molars and mastering speech. This obviously means no sleep for us and nursing non stop.

Between having two kids in two years and having them both be crappy sleepers (though I thank my lucky stars that Calvin is much better than Kate was) I have become a master as blaming their crappy sleep (and my crappy sleep) on one of the three things mentioned above. Honestly they are all pretty much related, milestone achievements can lead to sleep regressions… growth spurts can lead to more nursing which = no sleep for me. All in all a clusterf*** of exhaustion for all of us.

When Kate was born I was pretty sure that her cluster feeding was just a product of her being the spawn of satan or me having to pay for some bad karma that I racked up when I was young and stupid… or something of the sorts.  Of course I later found out that those first few weeks babies go through a ton of growth spurts. No wonder we are all exausted! But think about it, if you know how bad it is to watch these spurts from the sidelines… can you imagine how exhausting it would be to actually be having those spurts? Think about it.

7-10 days, 2-3 weeks, 4-6 weeks, 3 months, 4 months, 6 months and 9 months (more or less).

This is when Kellymom says that growth spurts happen. So lets say that you are a baby who just went from being inside of a warm womb, to being ejected out into this world and all of the sounds, smells, and sights that come with it… then just when you start settling down you have this huge growth spurt. You have to eat and eat!!! Nothing can satisfy you, you are antsy, you body is doing things left and right… and you have no idea why. Then you are ok for a day or two.. maybe a week. All of a sudden, there we are again!! Eating while you are growing and growing while you are eating… and this goes on almost non stop for roughly 3-4 months. If it exhausts you to think about doubling your weight in 3-4 months, and learning to see things, and making noises, and learning to nurse, and trying to exercise those muscles that you will need to walk, crawl, and run… can you imagine actually doing it?

Really, our tiredness is nothing compared to what they go through in such a short time.

Unfortunately, during these growth spurts many mothers decide that they are not producing enough milk and start supplementing. During these times when their babies need the best nourishment the most… they give up.  Why? I think it is a lack of understanding of what growth spurts are, and what cluster feeding is really… kids are supposed to do cluseterfeed. They are supposed to feed all day and all night. This does not mean that your are defective. This does not mean that your breasts dont work. Why? Because breastmilk production is supply and demand. If your child needs more, they will nurse more… and you will make more… and it will keep going like that until your supply is regulated to be what your child needs. I do understand though, being exhausted already because of the lack of sleep and then having to deal with a baby who just wants to be attached to you like a milk tick… it can be hell for sure.

Just when you think that you have the growth spurts down and that your child will give you a break… the milestones start to hit you one by one.

One of the first ones that my kids really battled with was rolling over. My kids were born holding their head up so they started trying to roll over just about immediately, this really kept them awake at night. It didnt help that it was compounded with teething as well. My kids both had teeth at 3-4 months making the 3-5 month period pretty much unbearable.

For many kids sitting up on their own is a big milestone that really keeps them up at night.  For mine it wasnt that bad, or maybe because we had such awful beginnings this didnt seem as big a deal.

Around the four month is also when the “four month sleep regression” starts.  If you think about it, it does make sense though… kids have a great deal to process on a daily basis. They are learning and observing, so it is obvious that their sleep will be troubled until they are at a comfortable place in their minds… which wont happen for a good while.

After this it may seem like you are getting a break… if teething doesnt rear it’s ugly head… but then you reach 7-9 months and we start standing up, cruising, and walking. For most kids at this age the teeth are really bothering them and their minds are even starting to process things like words and commands. They can understand languages and they recognize their parents, maybe they can even say “mama” and “dada”. Processing language and more motor skills does a real number on infants.  This 8 month sleep regression that many parents experience is the point where many parents consider starting to sleep train or letting their child cry it out. They feel that since their child is older it should be expected to have them self soothe and that CIO is a good tactic.

Again, let’s look at this from the POV of an infant. You are learning and experiencing new things and your body is doing it’s own thing… you have no idea what is going on but one of the few things that you DO know is that you have two people who look after you and you have seen them every day of your life. Then one day, they are not there… and you need them and you cry… and you have no idea why they are not there anymore. So in the midst of all of these new and exhausting events going on through your life… you are alone. Yes, it is only for a few minutes… this is what the books and some of your friends might say. It isnt for very long… it isnt forever. But answer me this.. how does the child know this?  They have no concept of time yet and they do not understand why for 15 minutes you were not there.

This wraps up the detail of the first year of torture that as new parents we are put through.  I cant give you a solution s to how to make your child sleep, nobody really can… and if they promise that they can they lie. However, I can do this… I can tell you that you are not a failure… that your child is normal… and that this too shall pass.

I will write more about what comes after the first year next.  No, the hell does not end yet… but yes you do get a bit of a break.

I think it is good hygiene for women to shave their armpits

This might seem like it has little to do with parenting but trust me. It does.

As a growing girl I was told by my peers that having hair on my body was considered gross. Boys told me about it and girls mocked me for not wanting to shave. Of course being an impressionable young thing I did give in and started shaving my legs, armpits, and other regions which I had been told needed it.

The older I got the more I realized that I really did not have a reason to shave.  It seems like people have been removing body hair for many reasons through out the years. The Egyptians apparently did it for “cleanliness” and to avoid mites, lice and to keep cool. It seems that they are credited for having invented body sugaring which is still used today by many who are seeking depilation treatments. Some people remove their hair for religious reasons at different points in their life, and I know that in biblical times hair removal was used for many reasons.

In Deutoronomy 21: 12 hair removal is used as a mean to control and humble women. In 1st Corinthians 11: 5 and 6 it speaks of women who have not been humble enough to cover their heads when necessary and how they must be shorn. This gives a really interesting view as to how shaving is used today in my eyes. Is shaving being used as a way to keep women humble? I could go on… but I wont.

Removal of hair is not really convenient, can be downright painful, and is quite expensive.  Marketers spend millions of dollars advertising razors that dont leave bumps, waxes that promise longer lasting results, and showing us pictures of long cellulite free legs in short shorts without a single stray hair present.  These pictures promise us that we too can reach that level of happiness with our lives and with the way that our bodies look in teeny weeny bikinis. The perfectly manicured toes and tanned legs tell us that we too can look this good…. if we just shave our legs with their products. Hair removal is quite serious business folks.

How did this all start?

It seems like history likes to point at this ad as the start of all of the ruckus.  One day this ad showed up in Harper’s Bazaar in May of 1915… and the sales of razors grew. They havent looked back since. The advertisers haven’t looked back either…

With ads that say things like “for faultless grooming” and that make underarm hair seem like it is a disease they we hope nobody gets, it is no wonder that shaving has become the important part of grooming in women’s lives that it currently is. It is said that women spend 60 days of their life removing unwanted body hair and that is a great deal of time.  Too much time if you ask me… especially since we have no real reason to have to remove our body hair other than marketers and society telling us that we should.

If someone wants to remove their body hair by all means, do so… but my job as a mother is to make sure that my children know that it is their choice. It is not mandated by some higher power that body hair be removed and it is not something that they should do to fit into society… it is just an expectation, and a flawed one at that. While I understand that it is not some new idea that hairless = beautiful it doesnt make it ok to keep the flawed expectation up.

Even questions like these on a popular website for Q&A when it is asked if women should shave their armpits the answer is

But is there really any proof that it is not good hygene to leave hair alone?

As a parent, how will this discussion be brought up in your household? Iwill fully disclose my history of shaving and how I phased certain parts of it own. I still chose to shave on occassion but this summer I basically spent it razor free and quite enjoyed it. I go back and forth depending on how I feel but hope to one day really just not ever go back.  I sometimes do fall prey to peer pressure and feeling like I have to shave to be feminine and womanly.  We are constantly bombarded with the informationt hat it is necessary. I saw an ad recently that showed how shaving their legs was a rite of passage that women needed to go through when they hit puberty and how it was a bonding thing between mother and daughter. I can think of a lot of things that I can use to bond with my daughter and I do not believe that in our family starting my daughter off in a ritual that has no business existing in the first place will be one of them.

Recently I was blessed with the ability to donate breastmilk to a baby girl who was in need. Her mother was trying hard to get her the nourishment that she needed but there are cases in which women cannot produce enough milk for their babies. They are rare and many times they can be helped by doing things like making sure the latch is good, taking supplements to enhance production (like teas and herbs) and a few other things.

Many nursing mothers know about fenugreek and domperidone, they make lactation cookies and have oatmeal for breakfast. Yet at times even with all of the trying in the world some women cannot and will never make enough milk for their children. It may be due to PCOS, it may be due to other hormonal issues, or due to damaged breast tissue… there are a few reasons but the end result is that breastfeeding is not possible or not enough to feed your baby.

What do you do then?

In the case of the mother above she put out a plea to the local parenting groups and found a host of mothers willing to donate milk to her child.  She put out the plea in the early part of the day and got many responses. After work her husband did the rounds with their little cooler and collected breastmilk from the donors to take to his wee one.  This went on until the mother was able to regulate her supply and get a permanent source of milk for her child. This mother will never be able to make enough milk to feed her daughter but she will never go hungry.

I felt incredibly honored to donate milk to this family and the rest of us who did felt this way as well. It is said that children who nurse from the same mother are considered brothers and sisters.  If this is so my children have a large sibling pool that will most likely continue to grow. I have cross nursed other friend’s children at their request and would do so again if ever the need arose.

There was a great article on this a while back that here is a link to it. This article interviews two mothers, Sarah and Morgan and asks them about their own nursing relationship with each other’s children. I am honored to say that I know both of these women personally and that they could not have picked a better set of women to give cross nursing a good name.  It was on Good Morning America and posted on other websites as well. When the article came out it got mixed reactions.  Many said “ewww” and were amazed at this idea. This poll on LilSugar shows an overwhelming respose of “hell no” when asked the question of cross nursing.

Have we all forgot about how popular wet nurses were? In older times (before formula) wet nurses were what people used when they could not breastfeed their child. It was not gross or inappropriate like it is considered now. Why have we changed our minds so much?

Well obviously it is no longer as necessary thanks to the availability of formula…  But is formula really the next best thing to not breastfeeding your child? Well honestly no, it isnt… formula is last in the line of what is best for a child.

1) Mother’s Breastmilk from the breast

2) Mother’s Expressed Breastmilk from a bottle

3)Donated Breastmilk from someone else

4) Formula

This is the heirarchy of infant feeding, yet for some reason we like to jump from 1 to 4 at the first sign of a problem.

People who are against cross nusing or donating breastmilk say that it is because it is not safe. Yes, it is possible to get diseases like syphilis, hepatitis, and even HIV through breastmilk but as I know my friends and have for a long time I am comfortable saying that we are free of these diseases and that I am not worried about that honestly.

If you do not have a large group of friends to call upon when your baby needs it, where do you go?

These is this great organization called MilkShare

This can help mothers get in contact with others who can fit each other’s need. If you have milk to give, go on there. If you need milk, get on there as well!

There are milk banks available as well if you feel the need to get it from a place that has the milk pasteurized and screened for your baby’s protection. There is one in Austin that I am aware of but not one in Houston, though ig you have milk in Houston you can donate it to the milkbank by dropping it off at Women’s hospital in the Med Center.

I wish that the practice of cross nusing and wet nursing was a more popular one because as we know, breastfeeding is better for children so if a child can get it… it doesnt matter if it is from its mother or not, as long as the baby gets it. 🙂

Last night I was at an event where it was mostly natural minded moms, hippie moms if you will.  An hour into our get together one of the infants got hungry and as we all usually do the mom sat down and plopped out the boob to nurse her child.  Another baby got jealous and wanted some boobs too, so that mom sat down to nurse except when she did she pulled out a blanket to cover herself.

I have to admit that I just sat and stared. I wouldnt have stared if she has just popped out the boob because to me this is normal… but covering one’s self with a blanket? That is NOT normal in my book. I asked a friend of mine who says that she covers up occassionally why she did it and her answer was that she thought that church was appropriate so that she was not a distraction to those at church.

I guess my question now is, how is a mother feeding her child a distraction?

There is a huge constant debate as to whether breastfeeding in public is lewd or not… on whether it should be legal or even protected. The most common things that are said to breastfeeding mothers are “Can you please cover up” and “Can you please go to the bathroom”.

Hooter hiders, or other covers are really just sending out the message that breastfeeding should be hidden and is somehow indecent. Who can blame people for thinking that?  Even people like Barbara Walters are more than happy to say how breastfeeding makes them uncomfortable and how wierd it is.

Who can forget last year when Barbara Walters relayed a derogatory anecdote about witnessing a woman breast-feeding on an airplane? “It made me very nervous,” Walters said on the May 17, 2005 airing of the ABC talk show, “The View.” “She didn’t cover the baby with a blanket. It made us uncomfortable.” Co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck, who was nursing her daughter at the time, went even further adding she was “uncomfortable breast-feeding in general.”

Why are we asked to cover up or hide? Mostly it is because of the children. People do not want their children exposed to our bear luscious breasts because their eyes might explode into their brains or something. So I say that we start our own campaign to hide bottle feeding.

Bottles are a part of our culture so much that most dolls come with them.  At baby showers some of the most popular decorations are bottles and pacifiers. One of the most popular gifts for new mothers apart from diapers… are bottles. We are inundated with propaganda about bottlefeeding on a regular basis. When do you see a baby breastfeeding on tv? in a movie? in a magazine ad? It is as often as you see bottlefeeding? How about at all? I am personally offended by being surrounded by bottles. I do not want my children to grow up thinking that you are supposed to feed a baby with a bottle unless it is completely necessary. Who can I go to when I see a bottle feeding mother to complain? Of course all of this is said with tongue placed firmly in cheek, but my main point stands. Breastfeeding is just that… feeding… with a breast.  If bottle feeding does not get harassment, breastfeeding should not either.

This is why people use cover ups for nursing. Eventhough some people might say that they are for breastfeeding and that they are for families the sight of a woman nursing her child is too much for many and as a result mothers react by hiding. I think we need to make breastfeeding the norm. There was an excellent article on Mothering called “Breastfeeding in the Lang of Ghengis Kahn” that really struck a chord with me when I read it.  In this culture they would never think of having a law to protect breastfeeding because it would not even be necessary. While I am glad that we have laws to protect us… I am sad that they were needed.

This week is the date of the Breastfeeding Challenge. We will be having it at the BIRTH Fair this Saturday and I am helping with organizing it. I think that things like this are necessary until we get to a point where breastfeeding in our culture is the norm. Where mothers are not harrassed and where motheres are not being told or being made to feel like they should hide or cover up when nursing their child.

To begin with I will readily admit that to me abstinence only education is an oxymoron. Teens have sex outside of marriage, there is ample proof of this and there really is very little that parents can do about this. Yes it is a good idea to teach teens that waiting until you are ready but expecting them to listen to you? That is another story.

I live in Texas where our abstinence ed program is obviously not working. We have one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the country (which happens to have one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the first world) and we have the highest rate of teens having more than ONE baby. Thankfully it seems like some places in the state are doing away with AO Sex Ed and moving to a more realistic approach to the topic.

The Washington Post had an article about how those virgin promise rings do not work and really it was pretty much common sense that they didnt, there did not need to be an article or study done on it. As a women who grew up religious with AO Ed. I can tell you that it doesnt work. Many of my friends and my friend’s siblings did end up pregnant before marriage and I firmly believe that many of them could have been avoided if we just knew how the hell to NOT get pregnant. Yet in our religion sex is evil unless it is done under the sanction of the church so we like to pretend that it does not happen. This is how I know that right now we have a 14 year old pregnant at my old church, with the dad being another 14 year old. Sad indeed. I will actually admit that I was having sex and did not know how babies came out of a woman. My ignorance in the topic was pretty bad and it was not until I got on the internet that I found out the truth about the birds and the bees. I was well into high school at that point.

Science agrees with me.  The APA says that Comprehensive Sex Ed is better at helping stop the spread of diseases like HIV.

The research on adolescents’ sexual behavior shows that comprehensive sexuality education programs that discuss the appropriate use of condoms do not accelerate sexual experiences. On the contrary, evidence suggests that such programs actually increase the number of adolescents who abstain from sex and also delay the onset of first sexual intercourse.

Knowledge is power.

With Kate we are taking a very open route. She knows how babies come out, she has seen the videos and was there when I was in labor with her brother. She know that daddies put babies inside of mommies and is not ashamed of asking if she has questions. I would like to keep it that way. My hopes are that my children do not grow up with the ignorance that I did and have to find out much later than they should have how to protect themselves. My hopes are that my kids can ask me anything and are comfortable with their bodies and with themselves.

We have started discussing with Kate about things that you do in private and how those are important to keep in your own room. She knows that nobody should touch right now unless it is a doctor or a parent. She is fully aware of the fact that her brother and her are different and has asked why that is so. We have explained in words that are appropriate for her age and that are honest about the differences and hope that as she grows older she will not be ashamed to ask more if we are not already giving her the education that she needs.

Religion is what many AO Ed. programs are based on and I believe that since religion should have no place in schools we should not have to have our tax dollars pay for these useless programs. Unfortunately, we are paying for them.

I am against abstinence only education because it is insulting to the children involved. It is not realistic. It is useless. It is also outright dangerous, because it allows us to put our children at greater risk for diseases and unwanted pregnancies. I firmly believe that it also makes it so that our children are more vulnerable to sexual predators.  While there is no full proof defense against abuse, education can be a great tool for our children. Our children depend on us to help them navigate through the world. I am against abstinence only education at the end of the day for no other reason than because sex is not shameful and our children should be taught how to enjoy it and how to be safe while doing so. Sex is part of human nature and part of life. Our society needs to get over the idea that sex is dirty and our children should be shielded from it, after all… how did they get here?

Kate loves helping me cook… but honestly at times she gets in the way because I may be doing things that are dangerous like chopping or frying. At times I make things especially for her to be able to help me with today was one of them.

I made banana bread. Banana bread required mashed up bananas and what better way to mash them up than by hand? My 2 year old believes that banana mushing is necessary for a complete and healthy preschooler life and I tend to agree with her. Yes it usually means that I have mashed bananas in the living room, kitchen, and sometimes my hair… yes it means that half of the bananas dont end up in the bread… and yes it means that I spend the rest of the day cleaning banana goo from her body. Yes… it is worth it. Not just to see how happy she is but to eat the end results!

Banana loaves

This was the end result today. Four little banana loaves that were full of nuts, bananas, raisins, and love.

Many things piss me off, I am sure you are all familiar with that by now… but fewer things piss me off than the expectation that a woman should be the sole caregiver of the children while the father “brings home the bacon” (this saying offends me for many other reasons too by the way). I work at at a firm that has very qualified and educated people but is mostly male driven. Yesterday one came in for an interview for a new position and when they left one of our consultants said,

“What a waste, he spent the last decade of his life raising his child isntead of moving up in the world. Now he will have to start over again at barely above journeyman salary. This would not have happened if his wife would have done the child rearing like she should have.”

Needless to say I completely lost it on him. This family was obviously not suffering, the wife had a good career and the father chose to stay home for the benefit of his son. His son is doing wonderfully and is old enough to not need Dad there as much so he has decided to go back to work.  How is spending time raising your child a “waste”? This goes for both men and women. When educated women leave the workforce to care for their children people often say that they are wasting their degrees.  Somehow we have decided that raising childen has no value, or at least not the value of a career.

How did we get to this point?

So today is the start of International Babywearing Week 2009!!

To help kick start the celebrations and of course educate on the subject I went on the Whole Mother Show this morning at 6:30 am with the host Pat Jones who is a local Houston midwife and founder of the BIRTH and the BIRTH Fair .

Here is the link to listen to my interview. I am not a great speaker but I do know about babywearing enough to talk about it for 25 minutes. 🙂

We started our babywearing journey when Kate was a newborn. She needed to be held and I needed to be able to get up to eat/pee/etc. She still is my child who needs me the most and we have this special bond. We lay in bed in the mornings and just stare at each other and smile as our eyes get ready to start the day.  She is and always will be our little girl.

first babywearing picture

This is our first picture of us babywearing her. You can see my tassled hair and the exhaustion in my eyes.

staring

There she was, tiny and scared. She was technically “overdue” but she was only 6 and a half pounds which makes me think that our dates were off. Thank goodness that I did not consider 40 weeks to be an eviction date for her as I really shudder to think of how teeny she would have been if I had done that… and possibly even sick.  We first wore her in a Moby Wrap because she wanted to be upright and did not like to be laying down. She also preferred to be tummy to tummy with me.  To me it also made it easier to nurse. She really did everything in the carrier at that point, she napped, explored, smiled, pooped, peed… I was thankful for good cloth diapers that protected me from her explosions.

I find this picture really interesting because she still looks like that when she falls asleep on us. Except for having more hair and being so tall that she doesnt fit through doors anymore easily when being carried laying down…

As she got older back carries really got to be our favorites. She could look around and be almost free and so could I. Yet she was still with me.

As she got older babywearing became a sort of security blanket for her. Her source of comfort. Except instead of her being comforted by a toy, or a blanket, or a pacifier she was being comforted by me.  This made it easier so that I did not have to carry around a comfort device because being worn was all she needed. After a while it didnt even have to be me doing the wearing because since others wore her too she became comfortable with Mike, my mother, even Mike’s father wearing her.

Is there anything cuter and sweeter than a babywearing grandpa? I dont think so. Nope, I dont.

I cannot say enough about how wonderful babywearing has been for us. If you need help babywearing please contact a local babywearers chapter. You can find them on yahoo groups and on MotheringDotCommunity’s finding your tribe section. Just go to your local area and ask!

A worn baby, is a happy baby.

So since it is the weekend I am going to blog about something that is not quite so serious… well maybe it isnt serious to many but to others it may be.

Today we went to the store and saw these:

Taco set

This is a set for people making tacos. Seems innocent enough right?

Except not… this is what is included in the taco set.

taco holders?

Forgive the pic quality please this was taken with my camera phone… but anyways.. taco holders?

Seriously?

How are these necessary? And talk about a uni-tasker!!!   Why do people need little contraptions that hold their tacos up for them? Isn’t that what your hands are for? TWO HANDS for TWO TACOS!

If you see another use for this please email me or drop me a line. Until then I shall keep using my hands to hold up my tacos.