Learning to Walk at Seven Months!

So just as suddenly as she decided to crawl at six months, Kahlan has decided she’s ready to rock her kicks and get verticle. In the span of a very excited week she has mastered the up-on-knees crawl, pulling herself up to stand on anything she can grasp and is cruzing down the sides of furniture as well as testing short free standing sessions.

We talked about getting her one of those rolling walking toys but after further investigation decided against them for a few reasons. 1)They are too light for her to pull herself up with, she justs takes them down with her whopping 20lb girth and 2)They roll TOO easy. So much so, that had she managed the standing manuever she likely would end in a face planting finale. So, the hubby came up with an idea that now seems so obviously perfect I feel like a stooge not thinking of it sooner myself.

He tossed a full laundry basket down and away she went. It’s the perfect hight, has round edges for chewing and is smooth enough on the bottom to scoot when pushed but not take off. Best of all, when the munchkin does take a wobbly nose dive (which is already getting less often) it’s into a harmless pile of clean clothes.

Bonus: “Oh I just CAN’T put the clothes away honey, what would she use to walk with?”

Brilliant…

Tags: laundry basket, walking

Handmade Gifts – Can’t Buy Me Love

While anyone can buy a gift, and there are certainly plenty of things a new baby needs, there is a specialness to handmade items that just can’t be purchased. When someone chooses a gift it can be with little thought, but to make something takes a dedication of time that is priceless. Though we are grateful for everything we were given, these handmade pieces have a special place reserved in our baby memory box. They may even be passed on one day to our grandchildren and become heirlooom pieces for the next generation:
1. Crochet Cupcake hat from Uncle Alex.
2. Crochet baby gown made for Grama Diana by her Grama and now passed down five generations.
3. Knit button up sweater with matching booties from my buddy Marilyn.
4. Patchwork Baby Quilt from Matt at Bullseye and family.
5. Wood and Fabric wall art for the nursery from Uncle Alex and Katherine.

Tags: baby gifts, handmade

Breastfeeding Benefits Mom and Baby – Reduces Heart Disease!

I’m quickly becoming, not only a breastfeeding mommy myself, but also a huge breastfeeding advocate to others. The more I learn from my endless reading and Google-ing, the more I feel I need to get the message out there —

Breastfeeding ROCKS!

There is no question that breast milk is infinitely better for your baby than formula. I’m truly not trying to make formula users feel bad. I completely understand that circumstances for each mommy are different and each of us needs to feel confident in our own choices for our children. However, the facts are the facts. And the truth is, breast milk is especially designed by nature to be the perfect food. No pharmaceutical company can recreate the lasting benefits of sharing your immune system and love with your infant. On top of that, really people, do babies need High Fructose Corn Syrup? Why is that even in there, and often the second ingredient! You might as well fill bottles with soda pop…

Besides all the great benefits to baby — Immune system boost, reduced illness, enhanced cognitive development etc. — A new study shows there are significant health benefits to Mom. In fact, this article from Diabetes Health details a recent study that found breastfeeding reduced the occurrence of metabolic syndrome, a precursor to type 2 diabetes. In the study, they found that women who breast fed one to five months reduced the likelyhood of developing the disease 39%. If that’s not good enough, breastfeeding more than nine months jumps that to 56%! That’s more than half, just for doing something that your body naturally does, how great is that?

Sing to Baby, even if your tune deaf…

If there’s one thing that keeps Kahlan happy while I pack her around the house doing chores, it’s singing. I can sing song nonsense all day and she smiles, laughs and squeals in delight. However, for the sake of sanity and maintaining my grown up vocabulary skills, I decided I needed more material. You can only sing “You are my Sunshine” so many times…

My google hunt brought me this little depository of every kiddie song I could ever want to learn, Bus Songs is a parents vocal chord dream! Not only is it FREE, a huge plus for me, but it’s easy to navigate. The site is easy on the eyes as well as a breeze to surf. There are even video clips for those of us rhyme deaf parents that need examples.

If your singing yourself dry with the same old kiddie tunes, check it out!

Tags: baby, nursery rhymes, sing, song

Natural Cradle Cap Treatments

At about four weeks old, Kahlan started getting some tiny spots of flaky stuff on her scalp. In the beginning they were minor and small, however by six weeks the flakes covered her little scalp no matter how often we did or didn’t wash her hair.

After a bit of Google-ing and a visit to the pediatrician it was official, Kahlan had developed cradle cap. Cradle Cap is a flaky dandruff like condition of the scalp that is relatively common in infants. It doesn’t cause any harm, she didn’t even seem to notice, but hours of nursing and staring at the scaly flakes was driving me nutty.

The pediatrician recommended a product called Mustela. After checking it’s ingredients on CosmeticsDatabase.com for toxicity concerns, I found it’s high 7 out of 10 was unacceptable… So now what?

Being overly aware of environmental contaminants and the risks of all the chemicals we humans tend to put in and on our bodies, I wanted to find something both effective and more natural. Firstly, I read that rubbing a bit of Extra Virgin Olive Oil on the afflicted scalp, letting it sit for 5 minutes and then washing it out, would break up the offending flakes allowing them to be brushed out. After trying this method a few times I did find it effective in removing the scales. However, the heavy oil was difficult to wash out and left her hair greasy and smelling like an Italian restaurant.

During the last trimester of my pregnancy I had purchased a bottle of Motherlove Birth & Baby Oil to use for perineal massage. The oil is made from certified organic apricot oil and lavender. It worked great during pregnancy for a belly oil, perineal massage and any dry skin. I had even used it a few times on Kahlan for infant massage. One day, on a whim, I was reading the label and noticed it listed treating cradle cap as a suggested use.

Knowing it was already safe and natural, rating a nice “0″ on Cosmetics Database, I decided to try it out at her next bath. Following the same routine as with the olive oil, I rubbed it in, washed it out and brushed her hair dry, waiting to see the result. Being a lighter, thinner oil, it was much easier to rinse out. The apricot oil worked as well as the olive oil, leaving her scalp moisturized and flake free. Even better, she now smelled clean and sweet with hints of apricot and lavender, without looking like a greaser!

If your unhappy dealing with your infants cradle cap using the recommended cleansers too, I highly recommend trying Motherlove. If you decide it doesn’t give you the results your after, it still makes a wonderful massage oil.

Tags: cradle cap, Motherlove, Mustela, Olive Oil

Raising an iKid

My iPhone Landing Page... Where my Day Begins

I’m raising my newborn from my iPhone. Sound peculiar? I’m a self proclaimed “Mac”, my husband is “PC”, but we have both been iPhone fans, he earlier having discovered it’s many advantages for on-call work as a network administrator, and I more recently. After having finally given up on my long time “antique”, once the buttons fell off 5 years after purchase, and making the leap to iPhone this summer, I quickly fell in love with it’s many features. Now that I’m an urban chic Mac Momma, I don’t just “love” my iPhone, I would DIE without it. Here are a few of my most used preloaded features. As time goes on I will share and review the many third party apps that are making this momma productive in the wee hours of the nursing night.

iCal
Everyone wants to see the new baby, Dr’s and Nurses are scheduling follow-ups left and right and wasn’t I supposed to do something today? With all the new chaos surrounding a baby iCal keeps me organized and stress free so I can use those precious sleep deprived brain cells to nurture my little girl instead of wondering if I remembered everything I needed to do today or when the next visitor was showing up.

iPod / iTunes
Obviously, music right? But wait there’s more! I have a few of my favorite baby care videos loaded for those late night “what was that burping technique again?” moments and a number of baby specific play lists. An all classical list for our quiet time feedings and a few more upbeat sing along picks for daytime. Last, but not least, I downloaded some white-noise tracks. I have nature tracks as well as the basic fans and static. I keep these on a separate play list for the munchkins fussy moments. Works every time!

Camera / Photos
I don’t just take pictures with my phone. I’m using it to document, journalistic style, my little ones every moment and sharing it. The built in 3 megapixel camera on the 3GS is more than sufficient for posting on my blog or Facebook (more to come on running a baby blog from an iPhone). Combined with a few photo editing iApps like Photoshop Mobile, the need to wait to plug in at home is no more. We instantly post for our friends and family to share in the fun. In addition to the photo ops, I’ve built a special album of CPR and First-Aid instructions scanned and saved as JPGs. I keep this album synced so I have all the necessary visual reference on the go, at my thumbs, for any emergency.

Next time I’ll be reviewing my favorite iPhone baby tracker — Total Baby!

Tags: gadgets, iphone, parenting, tech

You CAN birth naturally!

I work for a large company so “had” to go the hospital route or pay out of pocket. Additionally, some minor risk factors made my husband (and I’ll admit myself) a bit leery of going 100% natural in home, which, based on statistics and great books/films such as “Birthing from Within” and “The Business of Being Born” is the ONLY way to avoid an intervention. Even many home births still involve at least an IV. I’m here to tell you, I did it. I fought the system and won an entirely 100% natural birth in a hospital environment, with nothing more than the support of my husband and wonderful Doula Kath Axline! My beautiful daughter was born 09/30/09 and is asleep in my arms as I write this now, in the wee hours, from my phone. I’ve had so many people already ask me how I managed it, that I’ve decided to try writing my story and getting it out to the world. If my story inspires or empowers just one mother to succeed in the same way I have, it will be worth it. I started this blog and am slowly getting pieces up, the complete story to come soon. Know that it can be difficult to achieve in this country, but that it’s worth it, it CAN be done. Believe in your strength and ability as a woman to birth!

Transition - Not more pain, just more often

End of transition, about 10 min from starting to push!

1.5 Hours later...Houston we have a BABY!!!

Protect the first moments and hold your baby skin to skin, you never get them back

That's it? Piece of CAKE! Wait... is there cake? Someone please feed the mommy...

Our Doula Kath

Tags: medical intervention, natural birth, unmedicated

Baby Wearing – The Sleepy Wrap Review

This has been an amazing week with our new little one chock-O-block full of the sweetest faces, warmest snuggles and a heart bursting with love for what must be the most easy nature baby ever. I think Daddy’s tree huggin Greatfull Dead lifestyle has contributed to making one chill little baby burrito!

By far though my greatest discovery this week has been the discovery of the art of baby wearing. I found this great soft carrier called a Sleepy Wrap at a consignment shop, Baby to Baby, while prego. We had already bought a traditional front carrier for daddy to haul a bit bigger munchkin on hiking trips, but this thing looked so soft and womb like for a brand new newborn that mommy was intrigued. After the clerk graciously gave us a demonstration of how to origami tie the stretchy contraption on and I could feel the comfort of not having straps, buckles or anything else to cause pressure points, I was sold.

BEST Baby thing we have purchased!!!

As you can see, the munchkin is well snuggled and content. Mommy and Daddy get to go out and about for tons of fun while baby stays snug as a bug at only 1 week old

Oh and one more plus for the nursing mother: if you stick baby in facing the next boob you can easily and discreetly maneuver them inside for a quick feeding if you were out longer than you had thought!

The Sleepy Wrap – Never Leave home without it!!!

Tags: baby wearing, Sleepy Wrap, travel