Babu, Babu, oh how I love you

How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43)

by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. 

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height 

My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight 

For the ends of being and ideal grace. 

I love thee to the level of every day's 

Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light. 

I love thee freely, as men strive for right. 

I love thee purely, as they turn from praise. 

I love thee with the passion put to use 

In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith. 

I love thee with a love I seemed to lose 

With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath, 

Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose, 

I shall but love thee better after death.

Review: Plan Toys Water Blocks

We love many prodcuts from Plan Toys and these Plan Toys Water Blocks are no exception.  My son has enjoyed these since about 4 months old, when he was able to roll over and look through the colorful water sandwiched between the plastic plexi panels.  Surrounding this plastic piece is a very smooth non-toxic, sustainably grown rubberwood with rounded corners that are very tactile and pleasing to the touch.  

There are six blocks in the set: three domes and three squares, one of each in primary colors red, blue, and yellow.  They are slightly heavy so smaller babies can't manipulate them as well, but are great for slightly older babies and toddlers to play with hands-on.  We love stacking them in with our block collection! You can balance the domes to make underpasses, or atop the squares to make architectural structures.  If you layer blue and yellow, they will show green in the sunlight!  

In fact if you place these in the path of sunlight they create a beautiful stained glass type relfection.  I'll have to add a photo of that when I get a chance. At the moment my son loves looking through them!

They are so pretty I like to keep one or two out dispalyed in his play area.

The squares measure about 4 x 4 inches and the domes about 5.5 wide and 2.7 inches tall.

Review: Haba's Lilli Doll

We received Haba's adorable 12 inch tall Lilli doll (from Oompa Toys) which is part of the Lotta and Friends Collection of Haba cloth dolls.
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I love Haba toys and was not disappointed in the details, quality, or the fun factor which the Oompa website indicated we'd find with Lilli.  

Lilli is the little sister of the Haba doll Lotta, and she has a well crafted, easy to remove skirt, shirt, pinafore, socks, shoes, and hairband which is designed to be large enough so your child can use it, too!  

Lilli and Lotta picked strawberries in their grandmother's garden, and Lilli is so excited for the strawberry cake they bake together that she puts on her special strawberry dress for the occasion.  Luckily, for your own strawberry eaters, this entire doll is machine washable.  Just to test, I washed and air dried Lilli and not only did she air dry quickly, the doll looked just brand new.

My 18 month old son was able to remove only a few of the clothes himself and I needed to help with the rest. However, I love that this doll that can grow with him and he’ll eventually be able to engage in creative play with her.  The shoes are latched with a soft but strong velcro.  The only thing I noticed was that the eyes on our doll were slightly smaller and less expressive than in some photos I'd seen, but it didn't seem to bother my son.

Lilli is well made from soft but sturdy cloth, she can do the splits, stand and sit if propped up. She has ears and a belly button.  Her hair is soft but when pulled very hard, does not come out. The packaging is an upright box with a view inside to Lilli through a plastic panel.  The doll is full of features and the price point, while expensive, seems fair for what you get.  

I would definitely recommend any of the dolls in this collection and I think that the clothing for the similarly sized dolls is also interchangeable, and some have additional accessories available.  This doll is ready to cuddle with in bed, or take on a road trip to grandma's as your special companion!

How to make a vintage baby photo in three simple steps

 I love vintage and antique photographs and decided to try and make my 4 month old look straight out of the 1940s.  I selected a photo that had a simple background and focused on his face--something which captured his bright-eyed expression.

To create a vintage look was very easy--only three steps and it can be done in any photo editing software.  Two free programs are Picasa (download only) and Picmonkey (online only you have to pay for their premium features)

Step 1: This is the image out of the camera.  Dark.  I used an auto contrast and fooled around with highlights to get it a little brighter.

Step 2: Now that's better.  After brightening things up I selected a little white "vignette" border to put the focus on his face.  In Picasa this is found under "vignette" and then you change the color to white, and in Picmonkey the option is under Effects--> Frost.  I then selected Infared Film and it suddenly made him look like a vintage photograph from the 1940's!  I'd tried the black and white but it left his face too flat.  This one emphasized his expression.

You can play around to get the look you want, especially depending on the skin tone of your baby.  My baby is very fair and this method worked well.  You can also add a white border, and in Picmonkey I love the premium "Craft" borders.  Go have fun!




  

Home Water Birth!

Our darling son was born at 9pm on a dark and stormy St. Patrick's Day.  He entered this world after a bolt of lighting and a loud thunderclap!  I had the windows open and the cool, fresh wind was blowing in and carried my birthing howls through the wild air.

My water broke in a gush 24 hours before that, and I spent most of the night sleeping through early labor. It wasn't until around 10am that the pain really geared up.  I wasn't able to use the tub until active labor because my water broke before labor, and sometimes a cozy warm tub will slow labor down.  The result might have been that I'd have to be transferred to a hospital for fear of infection.

 Luckily by evening I was dilated enough to jump in the water--the tub was a blessing!  My brother just asked if our tub was green on account of St. Patrick's Day!  I bought a separate tub liner, so that it was hygienic to reuse the midwife's tub. We bought a hose that is supposedly free of lead, BPA, etc., and connected it to our sink via an adapter in order to fill up the tub.  To empty the tub we used a pump that dumped into the bathtub and then threw away the liner which contained the rest of the residue.

The active labor was less painful (but more vocal) than the early labor. We felt so lucky we were able to have him born into the water in our own home with the help of our midwife Dr. Gleisner. I'd always envisioned giving birth at home in a tub and it was such a satisfying experience (despite the pain). 

Later that night we all bundled off to our bedroom and slept pretty much through the next day.

Here is my husband curled up with S on the night he was born.

Since then I've been completely and utterly exhausted!!  Walking and sitting hurt--a lot.  Husband is doing a good job of helping to take care of everyone.  We are currently working on nursing (around the clock) and sleeping and getting to know each other. We are so grateful for all of the support and love shown to us by our family and friends.  I'm frustrated I haven't been able to respond to everyone but hopefully in time I will be able to.

More details, please!!  OK!  I had an app for my iPod that timed my contractions.  That was helpful, because during a contraction I pretty much just was engulfed into my own world--almost like a trance.  Time basically stood still and everything outside of myself became irrelevant.  I would say contractions started out like waves on the shore.  As labor progressed, they grew in size until I could anticipate being pulled under and they eventually became like giant tsunamis!

 Kanagawa-Oki Nami-Ura^?, "Under a Wave off Kanagawa" by Hokusai,1830

Contractions were bearable until about mid-afternoon as I neared the next phase of labor.  My husband and midwife had to put enormous pressure on different areas of my hips and back in order to make the pain bearable.  I tried to move out of the bedroom between contractions and I literally just could not get further than the door--to which I grabbed onto the door handle and begged for mercy.  Yes, it hurt!!  Once in the bathroom, I ripped the toilet paper roll holder off the wall by accident.  I also slammed the door in my midwife's face and told her to leave me alone when she asked how I was doing!

Then, something changed.  My pelvis started doing sort of an "Elvis" forward thrust.  This was the baby entering the birth canal.  This signaled to me a shift in labor and entering into a new "phase".  While I still required pressure to the hips, I was able to get into the tub and that helped the pain immensely.  For some reason I became extremely vocal, even though there was no direct feeling of pain.  I call it my "Monica Seles" phase of labor, due to the loud grunting cries during each contraction--it's more like a giant muscular effort of the uterus and the effort that went into that than any sort of localization of pain.

I tried a few positions in the tub but ended up giving birth with my legs up and in a semi-sitting sort of position.  I don't remember pushing at all; I think I was concerned about putting pressure on the baby!  That was silly, because my midwife had been monitoring his heart rate with a Doppler and it remained strong and steady in the 150s throughout labor!  He did come out with the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck, which Dr. Gleisner quickly unwrapped before she handed him to me on my chest.  He looked right up into my face with his amazing, dark little eyes!

The only push I remember doing was the final push.  I felt the baby crowning and an enormous, stabbing pain at the top of the opening.  I felt down, and could feel his soft head and hair flowing in the water!  Don't be afraid to reach down and feel!  I was so surprised at how squishy his head was, and how soft the hair.  I really had no choice but to push and damn did that hurt!  I did tear, and had to have a few stitches.  I wonder how much worse it might have been if I hadn't been in the water.

I should mention in the middle of the whole thing my husband had to use a fishnet to get some fecal matter out of the water!  Unpleasant, but he was a real trooper.  He scooped it out immediately so it wouldn't be a concern for contamination of the tub.  During labor, I also yelled at him to get me apple juice.  I didn't stare dreamily into his eyes, or have him pat my hair, or any of those things I'd read about.  I did yell at him and my midwife to tell me I was doing a good job and to coach me a little bit more, because it turned out I needed that and found it helpful!  So: don't feel bad if you yell at your spouse, but maybe apologize for it afterward!

After bonding with him for a good long while on my chest (and having of course already closed the windows and turned on the heat!), I was helped out of the tub, umbilical cord attached, and put on the sofa.  There we lingered a little while longer before cutting the cord.  My husband and I really weren't interested in doing that--I was afraid it might hurt, even!  I didn't feel anything and the midwife did a clamping sort of action and attached a little band to it, instead of those giant bam-bam things you see at the hospital.

Then, I birthed the placenta.  It was like birthing a giant, warm, squishy squid.  My midwife made sure there were no pieces left behind, and then gave me a few local shots in the vagina before stitching me up.  It was not that great.

 As a side note: We saved the placenta and put it in the freezer since I wasn't sure what I'd want to do with it.  I declined the offer for placenta encapsulation--that just was not for me.  I thought about planting a placenta tree, but then though--what if the tree died?  what if we had to move and couldn't take it with us?  Was there symbolism in that?  I didn't want to worry.  It ended up being in my freezer for close to one year before I finally just threw it away!  Originally the idea of my organ rotting in the trash was pretty gross, but at that point I really didn't care.

After I was stitched up Dr. Gleisner started checking the baby (it is possible she did this before stitching me up, I don't recall)--she weighed him in this cute hanging sling device, checking his reflexes, measured his giant head, etc.  While this was going on I was given one of the frozen fruit pops I had prepared in advance, because I was pretty exhausted and while not actively starving, I definitely needed to refuel.  My husband put on the baby's first cloth diaper, and got him dressed.  The midwife then handed him to me and we gave breastfeeding a go!

I honestly do not remember if he nursed at all, but I think he did a little bit.  He latched on with no problems, and I know I'd already started leaking colostrum a few weeks before birth so he had a least a little bit of something.  It then all sort of became a blur.  We swaddled the baby, and all got into bed together and went to sleep.  My uterus had just run a marathon, and I cannot imaging how bad I'd have felt if I had not had the chance to sleep through early labor.  I'd also made sure to eat something right after my water broke so I would have the energy during labor because I knew I wouldn't be eating much.

Newborns sleep really well for the first week--I had to make an effort to get him to nurse and he did turn a tiny bit yellow.  Luckily he gained weight in the first week and rapidly grew!  I had a slight blip with nursing, but I'll post about my post v partum experiences later.

I'll also try to do a post with more information about how we prepared the house for the home birth, and how I tried to prepare mentally.

*This post was originally published in 2012, but I revised it in 2014

I'm planning another home water birth for my second child who is due in September 2014.

Why We Use Newborn Sized Cloth Diapers!

Within minutes after birth my son is in his first cloth diaper.  You can see his umbilical cord is clearing the cover.  The cover is a Prorap newborn size, which has a dip for the area.  He is 8.5 lbs 22.75 inches long.

     I am an advocate of using newborn sized cloth diapers.  This post is just to convince you of their greatness, not to discuss the different styles of newborn diapers, etc., which I'll do soon.

     I knew without hesitation I was going to cloth diaper from birth so I invested in a small number of newborn sized diapers.  With the birth of my second baby this September, I purchased a full supply of newborn sized diapers since I know how much I enjoyed it the first time around. 

 Here are the basics about newborn sized cloth diapers:

*  they fit better than all-in-one diapers, and therefore better contain leaks

*  they fit better around the umbilical cord stump to allow for healing in the early days

*  because they fit better, they are generally easier to put on a tiny newborn

*  while they can be an expensive investment, given they usually only fit for the first few months, the above reasons prove their worth and the short-term usage usually leads to fairly good resale/reuse value--plus, you can always use a service that provides a newborn sized cloth diaper.  Or, you can also simply put disposable (biodegradable) inserts into a newborn size diaper shell if you want to go a middle road.

     As far as "types" of newborn sized diapers I'm talking about--these usually include newborn sized all-in-ones, prefolds, and contour/fitted diapers. If you are new to cloth diapering, check out my breakdown of these types here: (put link here when it's ready!).  Larger flats or adjustable folding style diapers can be folded down to size, but they, too, are often a bit on the bulky side so I'm not including them. 

Above you can see the difference in the newborn sized (bottom row) compared to the larger sized/one-sized fitted diapers.  On the left is Kissaluvs' organic cotton/hemp snap fitted diaper, which has a newborn cord dip snap-down; and on the right is a discontinued (but beloved in our house) Imse Vimse terry cloth contour diaper, which is secured with a snappy--but has no newborn cord snap-down. These all need covers to be waterproof.  We used newborn sized waterproof covers as well as wool covers.

Why not just use one-size diapers, which are "supposed" to fit from birth to underwear?  

     Newborns have tiny legs and itty-bitty bodies, especially in the first few weeks.  One sized diapers often don't get small enough for diapering from birth. Even if they fit, they are usually super bulky and are ill-fitting so prone to leaks.  When you are exhausted and changing 20 diapers per day, the last thing you want to deal with is leaking.   I also credit much of the success I had with my wool covers to the absorbant, fitted diapers I used which helped keep messes from leaking out.  

     Newborn diapers for use from birth--before the cord has healed--should have a good umbilical cord dip, or a way to adequately fold down material so it's not too bulky, to allow for healing in the early days.  Even once the umbilical stump falls off, the area is still very delicate so you want to keep it clear.  Most one-size diapers don't have an umbilical cord dip, or one that's good enough for very small babies.

Above is the Kissaluvs' newborn fitted organic cotton/hemp diaper with the umbilical cord snap in place.  Notice that while the Kissaluvs has this snap down, the Imse Vimse newborn does not, so you cannot use it until the cord has healed.  Not all newborn sized diapers are created equal.

     Ease of dressing and diapering a newborn is important to your sanity. After what feels like the 50th diaper change, at 3am, the last thing you want to be doing is fumbling around with adjusting an ill-fitting too-large diaper or having to change an entire outfit and sheet set because of a leak.  

Other considerations: 

    You might have heard about meconium, the tar-sticky black newborns poo out in the first few days or week, and that it doesn't wash out of cloth diapers.  I did not find this to be true at all!  We just threw them into the wash right away and they all came out clean.  We used a little organic olive oil on his tush and that helped wipe it off his skin.

     As a side note to using organic olive oil--and other oils like coconut works just as well--we used a wonderful herbal healing powder on his cord site that really helped it heal quickly, despite taking him in the bathtub with me every other day after birth! It's called Wish Garden Cord Care.

  http://www.confidentbeginnings.com/store/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=190

Concerns about purchasing newborn sized diapers:

The expense!! We probably spent nearly the same amount of money on our newborn stash, which we used for about two months, as we did on our larger diapers which he has been wearing for the past year.  But with no regrets!

(put link here for other newborn cloth diaper posts--several to come!)