I did it. I wrote, illustrated, designed, and now published a book. If you’ve wondered why the baby updates have been few and far between, well here you have it. I’m a (self)published author!

Natural Mommie

Oh, and a big shout out to Boon for making awesome BPA free baby gear!

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.

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!

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!!!