You're dealing with teething HOW?? With WHAT??

Jude is what I like to call a "violent teether".  Most babies teeth gradually, sprouting one and then another right behind it or even two at the same time, then they get a bit of a reprieve before cutting another couple of teeth and so on.  But, since this is Jude we're talking about, we all know that he is anything but textbook (and I'm okay with that!).  Jude first cut his two bottom teeth simultaneously around five months.  No sooner had the bottom two broke through the surface that his top FOUR- yes FOUR- main teeth came crashing through the gums.  Oh my goodness, even looking at the huge white bulges in his mouth before they cut through the skin made me cringe.  He is now only missing four teeth out of his mouth.  That's it.  The kid even has his molars already.  Anyways, whatever is painful for Jude is in turn painful for us.  I actually think I can safely blame our 10 months of extreme night waking/night nursing/napping/okay, just general sleep issues partly on teething.  Hell, when I was dancing 8 hours a day and 7 days a week, I woke up hourly too since dancers really feel the pain when their bodies start to unwind at night. 
How did I counteract the pain of Jude's teething?  Well, there's the usual quick fix in Tylenol (it's crap, by the way) and Infant Motrin.  Infant Motrin does work wonders.  However, I think it's been safely established in this blog that I'm a total hippy when it comes to things like this so I felt there had to be something a little more natural out there to help (and something that also doesn't wreak havoc on your liver and kidneys when given chronically or in high doses).  I looked into and used Hyland's Teething Tablets.  They work incredibly well.  However- one of the ingredients in them is Belladonna, which in high amounts is toxic to humans.  Now, in teething tablets it's in fractions of fractions of fractions of traces of amounts so that part actually didn't concern me.  What concerns me is that with all homeopathic products, it is not regulated by the FDA, therefore, what if for some reason, one bottle didn't have the correct concentration or what if the stuff, even in the tiniest of amounts truly isn't safe?  I did use it and have positive things to say about teething tablets, but I still felt there was SOMETHING better out there.

Cold teethers?  Sure, I bet they work.  Jude looked at me like I was insane when I tried to encourage him to bite on them and then proceeded to chuck them on the floor.  Good idea in theory, not so good in reality.  He relieved quite a bit of pain by gnawing on his crib when he would go in there while we were getting ready for work in the mornings and also the occasional bite he would take out of my shoulder.  Frozen fruit in mesh feeders was another outstanding idea.....for someone else's kid.  Jude acted like I was trying to poison him when trying to get him to suck on one of those.

Okay, so long story short:  Modern day pain reliever meds- used when it got really, really bad, like the couple days before the awful, swollen bulge became a little white line on the surface.  Homeopathic teething tablets- worked amazingly well, but only in short increments of time and I had concerns on the whole FDA bit of it (PS- why doesn't the FDA monitor herbs and such.  After all, they are powerful medicines.  I digress)  Teethers or cold of any kind- no dice.

Then, I hear about a little resin called amber.  More accurately, I started to educate myself on traditional beaded amber necklaces imported from the Baltic region that are a non-invasive and side-effect free remedy for the pain and complications of teething, such as lack of appetite, upset tummies, earache, fevers and colds.  This is information I got from Ghaia Herbs website, but it correlates with all other sources I've read on amber. 

Currently, there are two different theories that attempt to explain how wearing amber on the skin can have a soothing and calming effect on teething babies and toddlers.  One theory suggests that when amber is worn on the skin, the skin's warmth releases miniscule amounts of healing oils from the amber which are then absorbed via the skin into the bloodstream. Amber's anti-inflammatory and therapeutic properties are also recognized by allopathic medicine. In Austria, Switzerland and Germany, you will find amber teething necklaces sold in local pharmacies. Pharmacists and doctors have long known about the healing properties of amber which include calmative, analgesic, antispasmodic, expectorant, and febrifuge (anti-fever) functions.   A second theory is based on scientific findings which have shown that amber is electromagnetically alive and therefore charged with a significant amount of organic energy. Its special attribute is the fact that it is electronegative. Wearing amber produces negative ionisation on the skin's surface. This, in turn, has a positive influence on the human body. The negative ions assist in the in the prevention of illness. These health-promoting effects apply to babies, children and adults alike.  It is possible that the soothing and calming effect of amber teething necklaces, which has been empirically observed, is based on a combination of the factors listed above.

Total hippy crap, right?

I sort of thought that too.  But then I remember that I do have some major hippy tendancies, and those hippy tendencies told me to trust my gut and give up all of the modern medicine fertility treatments and rely on homeopathic remedies and acupuncture and four months later my body actually worked correctly, and Jude was created.  So, I bought a necklace since Jude is working on his upper and lower fangs or eyeteeth or whatever they are called and they seem to be a bit brutal.

Um, it works.  Like, it works REALLY well.  Sure, he's fussy and will occasionally stuff his fist in his mouth and howl for a few seconds, but overall, he just doesn't seem to be in pain like he was last week before we tried this.   

I believe in it.  I believe in a world where modern medicine and homeopathic medicine can coexist and break down the walls surrounding supposed mysteries in science.  It helped me with Jude and it's helping Jude with his teeth and I'm curious to see how much more I can explore and utilize these types of things for my family in the future.  I know enough that I'm not just going to read the back of a bottle of herbs and blindly start taking them to treat something.  Every decision I've made has been thoroughly researched (come on, you all know me, I research things to death before taking a plunge) and I've talked to professionals.  Herbs are just as powerful, if not moreso, than drugs on the market.  And since they aren't FDA approved, there just isn't the hours of research associated with these medicines that I think there should be, both for safety of the consumer and also for the sheer knowledge we could gain since we just don't know everything they are capable of.  Hell, the cure for cancer could be growing in our backyard!

Anyways, yeah, teething necklaces (and bracelets and anklets) are incredible.  I recommend them to everyone, seriously.  Even if you're not crunchy like yours truly, just try having your sweet little one rock it for the fashion statement part since they come in all sorts of colors.  :)

Cute, right?

We survived!

I'm happy to report that our first day of cloth diapering went extremely well!  In fact, it went so well that I'm angry that I didn't try this sooner and let fear get the better of me.  Granted, we used pockets and fitteds for the entire day as I wanted to send the prefolds through one more wash and dry cycle.  I'm still a little intimidated by prefolds with snappis, but I'm sure it will be just like the others.  The only mistake I did make was forget that a fitted diaper wasn't a pocket (I was distracted by the striped skulls on the front) and forgot to put a cover over it.  Luckily, I noticed some dampness on the front of Jude's onesie before any huge mishaps occurred.

Daycare will be the next hurdle.  If you are thinking of cloth diapering and you send your child to daycare fulltime, you will have to check with the daycare provider to ensure they will be on board.  Oh, a tip I learned in regards to that:  make sure to talk to them in person with a pocket or AIO diaper in hand.  Most people when they hear the word "cloth diaper", the image of complicated cloth folding and big bulky diaper pins comes to mind (myself included before I knew better!).  Once they see that cloth diapering can be just as easy as disposables, most will go along with it with no complaints.  I didn't have an issue since the director of our daycare center said that many parents over the years had cloth diapered.  The only thing we needed to do was bring in a diaper pail to leave there and also a new wetbag everyday.  Then we would just transport the dipes to and from daycare in that.  We still have some disposables to use up at daycare, but will probably start with the cloth this week there as well!  We won't mess around with sending the prefolds there, only pockets and AIOs.  So far, so good!

In other news that is un-cloth diaper related, we are in the midst of trying to plan Jude's 1st birthday party which is occurring in a month.  My baby will be one year old in ONE MONTH??  It seems impossible.  It makes me sad and happy all at the same time.  I know it is stated over and over, time and again, but it really does go by so fast.  That's why I love to keep this blog- if only to remember the little things.

Here we go!

My first cloth diaper purchases are all ready to go!  I currently have about one day's worth of dipes.  So far, I have an assortment since we're not sure what diaper(s) is going to work best for Jude.  Another amazing bonus of cloth diapering is the resale value.  Anything that doesn't work out for us we can always resell at a diaper swap or Craigslist.  Score! 

Here is what we have so far:  Bumgenius 3.0 (light blue), Fuzzi Bunz pocket (red), Happy Heinys pocket (butter), Thirsties Duo (mango), Thirsties cover (green), a Rumparooz G2 pocket (monsters), Monkey Snuggles fitted (skull stripe), and a Monkey Snuggles overnight (chocolate chip cookies).

 
I also got 8 organic prefolds with snappis to try out.  There's no turning back now! 

I spent all of tonight prepping the diapers for our first official day of cloth diapering Jude tomorrow.  The biggest time consumer was prepping the prefolds.  I boiled them for about half an hour and then ran them through several wash and dry cycles in order to get maximum absorbency once they are on the little boy's bum.

Wish us luck!

And the cloth diapering journey begins...

Well readers, we're doing it.  We are jumping right in to cloth diapering starting this weekend.  Oh, first and foremost, a HUGE thank you to my friend Hannah over at The Swoboda Family for schooling me in all my newbie questions in regards to cloth diapering.  Hannah and I went to high school together ten years ago (yikes!).  I was looking at pictures on facebook of her ADORABLE (no seriously, this kid is something else) daughter and saw that she loved to babywear like we did so we started talking about fun baby stuff! She is a clothdiapering guru and I'm sure I'll be bugging her for many more weeks until I get this thing down.  Anyways, where was I?

Yesterday was an important day.

I received my first fluffy mail!  That's right, the 'fluff' I speak of was none other than my first cloth diaper order!  I've been stalking Jillian's Drawers for some time now and finally made the plunge.  I ordered a three pack of different brands of pocket diapers: A Bumgenius 3.0, a Happy Heinys, and a Fuzzibunz.  They are just so stinking cute. 

I've been frustrated in that the only cloth diaper store that is closest to me is 60 miles away.  Ugh.  My city has a huge need for a cloth diapering store.  Lo and behold, I found a couple who operates a cloth diapering boutique out of their home and they have an awesome selection online!  So, I spent my lunch yesterday eating Whole Foods to go food and shopping on their website, Top to Bottom Baby Boutique. I know it's local so I wasn't expecing a huge selection, but oh my gosh- their selection surprised me and I, in typical Erin fashion, went nuts.  A dipe with stripes and skulls on it and overnight cloth diaper with chocolate chip cookies all over it?  Yes, please!  I'm going to pick up my new stash later this afternoon.  Expect a post tonight or this weekend that will be photo-heavy.

If you would've told me a few years ago I would be THIS excited about cloth diapers, I would've told you that you were nuts.  Now it looks like I'm the one who is nuts.

What kind of mom are you?

I was thinking the other day about all the planning that goes on once you find out you are having a baby. If you had asked me to describe the sort of mother I planned on being before Jude got here, the following description would probably sum it up best: Stroller walking, disposable diaper using, crib sleeping, breastfeeding for up to 6 months at the most, caffeine drinking, still maintaining somewhat of a social calendar, working mama. It wasn't a conscious thing, I didn't research anything, yet, I think I'm the complete opposite of all of that and it all just happened naturally.



Stroller: I will say we use it now more than we ever have previously. For at least the first 6 months, Jude was one of those babies that didn’t want to be put down. At all. End of the world to be out of my (or anyone’s arms). I’ve heard all my life that carrying a baby around too much will “spoil” him and I guess I believed that. But, once he was here and in my arms, I knew that this couldn’t be true. How can you spoil a child by holding him close to your heart rather than constantly at a distance? Why did holding him feel so much more natural to me than putting him in a stroller or playpen while I went about my business? In my gut, I felt that this wasn’t true in regards to Jude. So I held him. All the time. I invested in wraps and slings to help lessen the load, but for the first 6-8 months, he was attached to me (literally) constantly. And it WORKED! Jude loved being strapped to me or Phil all the time. He was always happy and smiling and content. Whether I was loading the dishwasher, shopping for groceries, or taking a walk around the block, it was good to be Jude. Once Jude learned to crawl a couple of months ago, it felt as though our babywearing chapter started to close just a little bit. I still pop him in a sling when he is having a clingy moment or I just need to carry him somewhere since he can’t walk yet. But with the crawling milestone, it is as if he is happy with a little independence and loves to explore his surroundings while not attached to me (though he prefers to have me within eyesight). So in our experience, babywearing Jude constantly in the beginning helped him to trust that the world was not a scary place as long as he was in mom or dad’s arms. I feel he took that experience and is now anxious to touch and see and hear the happenings going on around him. Maybe the opposite is true for other babies, I guess we’ll find out if/when we have another!


Disposable Diapers: I’ll admit I’m still on the fence about this one. We use gDiapers when not at daycare and Pampers for daycare. Before Jude, I thought cloth diapering meant squares of cloth with big ole diaper pins. Um, no. Cloth diapers now are pretty much the coolest things ever. And what’s cuter than a big fluffy cloth diapered baby butt? Um, nothing! Anyways, since this whole Pampers-causes-chemical-burns-and-rashes-on-babies-investigation, I’m really wondering why the hell I’m not asking more questions as to what is IN disposables? I don’t know, the whole thing makes me nervous. I’ve ordered the cloth diaper trial from Jillian’s Drawers and I’m sure I’ll be posting about our cloth diapering adventures soon! I’m kind of excited!


Cribs: Babies sleep in cribs, right? That’s what they do. There aren’t any other options. At least that’s what I thought before I got pregnant. When we started to get the nursery all set up, I was adamant about getting the perfect crib. And we found it, all right. It was beautiful and everything I imagined. Majestic and dark wood and perfection. So we bought it, took it home, and got it (after much cursing on my husband’s part) set up. That’s when I got uneasy. The nursery is the sitting room off of our master bedroom, and therefore, it was ideal. Jude would be sleeping literally ten feet away from me. I wouldn’t even need a monitor at night since I would hear him cry. As his due date approached, I started to feel more and more uncomfortable with him sleeping in another room, but pushed those thoughts aside. Then, the little mister was here, we brought him home, and it was bedtime. What if he stopped breathing? What if someone broke in his window and we were sleeping so heavily we didn’t even hear and they STOLE him? What if the cat somehow opens his door and decides to sleep right on his face? (Hey, when you’re post-partum and experiencing a severe hormonal fluctuation, ANY scenario you come up with in your head is totally plausible!) So, we set the pack and play up right next to the bed on my side, inches from me. The Mama Bear instincts in me woke up at even the slightest sound or movement he made. Jude was also the baby that was up pretty much every hour for the first four months, then every 2-3 hours for the two months after that. So bedding close to each other made things a lot easier. When Jude wanted to eat, I would just pull him in bed with me and doze while he nursed. We are now to the point where we realized that Jude sleeps better for the first half of the night in his crib. So, after about 8 months of non-use, we are now using the crib! Jude goes to bed for the first half of the night and wakes up around 1 am. I go in to his nursery, where I see him standing up in his crib with his arms outstretched for me. I grab him and take him in to our bed for the other half of the night. We have plans to stop the semi-cosleeping before 18 months. I just really love it. As a working mom, I cherish every second I can spend with him- even if it is sleeping. There really is nothing like a chubby finger stroking my face or a warm little arm encircling my neck in the middle of the night.


Breastfeeding: “Breast is best” is the classic mantra one hears constantly while preparing for baby. With that knowledge, I knew I wanted to breastfeed. I figured I would give it my best shot and if it worked out, great! I planned on weaning around six months and then going to formula, thinking it would be much more convenient at that time. I’ll be honest, the first four weeks of breastfeeding were pure hell. We had latch issues you wouldn’t believe. He would get frustrated, I would cry. I would get frustrated, he would cry. My nipples were cracking, splitting, bleeding. Everytime he latched, I felt razor blades. How could something so natural be anything but?? But with the difficulty came a sense of intense determination. We were going to get this and we weren’t going to let each other give up. So I talked to a lactation consultant and went to La Leche League meetings. Then, it clicked. I’ll never forget the nursing session that changed it all. He latched on and started audibly gulping. Wait, I didn’t feel like my nipple was being sawed off! Oh my gosh, did I just feel my milk letting down? Am I experiencing that euphoria that comes with the rush of oxytocin with the letdown? Is that my baby all blissed out and drowsy? Is that actually milk pooling out of his mouth? EUREEKA!!! From then on, I was hooked on nursing. We were a great team and there was NO WAY I was quitting at six months after all this hard work. So we kept plugging away and here we are, almost eleven months later and still going strong. My supply has really plummeted lately, but he’s also nursing less as he takes in more solids. In about six weeks, we’ll start whole milk. I’m sure I’ll be obsessing over this next chapter very soon, so stay tuned.  (Oh yeah, the caffeine part ties in here too. Before I was pregnant, I would seriously knock back like 5 diet sodas a day-gross. Once I was pregnant, I would have a Coke or so a day. I pretty much quit caffeine shortly after having Jude since I thought it might have something to do with his sleep issues. Unfortunately, it didn’t help. But I still stopped it. I’m slowly adding a coffee to my diet in the mornings now that Jude isn’t nursing as much. God, that stuff rocks.)


Social calendar: None to speak of. I’ll touch briefly on this, but I feel the need to address it in a post of its own someday soon. I am horrible at balancing “me” time with motherhood. I think if I were a stay at home mom I would be much better about this. Since I work 40+ hours a week, I CRAVE time with my baby. If I have to spend extra time away from him, I am overwhelmed with guilt. Big time. How can I be away from my baby 8 hours a day and then tack on another few hours? This pretty much rules out any dates with my husband. We’ve gone on a couple, but nothing extravagant like spending a whole night away from him. Recently, I’ve gone out with girlfriends for dinner and drinks, but only after Jude goes to bed and I’m home before his first night waking. This is something I need to work on, although I’m not quite sure how I can get over the guilt I carry around with me that daycare spends more time with my son during the week than I do.


So there it is. I’m pretty much a complete oxymoron of the mom I thought I was going to be. The “stroller walking, disposable diaper using, crib sleeping, breastfeeding for up to 6 months at the most, caffeine drinking, still maintaining somewhat of a social calendar, working mama” in my head became the “babywearing, maybe cloth diapering, semi-cosleeping, extended breastfeeding, non-caffeine drinking, no social calendar to speak of working mama” instead.


I suppose there are a few morals to this post I’m probably failing at getting across. The first is that you really can’t plan what kind of mom you’ll be ahead of time. The second time is that it’s never okay to judge someone else’s parenting choices since there are reasons behind those choices that you just can’t know. We all do what is best for our babies since each baby is such a beautiful individual. And that, my friends, is what makes parenthood so truly incredible.

Happy Earth Day!

I love this day, I really do.  It's usually nice out and the world smells of rain and renewal.  I remember as a kid, we would always plant a tree or some flowers or something to commemorate.  While I thought about doing some planting today, I opted not, seeing as the weather in Nebraska this time of year is insane and I really just don't feel comfortable doing any planting before Mother's Day.  I've been burned too many times thinking there was no way a frost would fall.

My two favorite boys and I ran our Saturday morning errand to Babies R Us for some organic baby food (yay sale!) and then to Once Upon A Child for some gently used toys and clothes.  I adore that place.  We got Jude three pairs of Gap pants, a pair of Nautica overalls, a ball popper toy that he fell in love with at his friend Avery's house, a crib toy that plays music and nature sounds, and some baby window shades for the car for $45 total.  You can't beat that.  And I felt somewhat Earth friendly given the holiday and buying used.

Jude checking out the new toy. 

There's that camera again.

Wait, the balls come out of this thing?!?

I'll just take them over here.

And chew on them.

Well, I thought $6.50 was a good deal on this toy, but apparently I just got overpriced toy balls for Jude to chew on instead.

And to think, we actually were considering spending $40 on this crib toy, when we found a used one for $10!

Baby cold/ear infection = penguin humidifier is having to work some overtime in the nursery.

And apparently, this is waaaay cooler than a toy that tosses balls in the air and makes them speed down ramps.

Score on organic baby food today.  That's right, I don't make my own....I had every intention...no freezer space because it's full of breastmilk...don't judge me...another post to come on that hairy subject.

Kickin' it with the hubs on the back patio after the Judester went to bed.

A Lucky Bucket lager for him.  A glass of Relax Riesling for me.

Mason performing his whirling dervish on a spring night.

Leif panting per usual in the cool grass.  He spent the day at the groomer losing 20 pounds of hair.  Handsome boy, huh?

Baby monitor is blessedly silent.  For now.

Yes, please take my picture.  Sans makeup.  After a night of Jude wakings.  In bad light.  And make me promise to put it on my blog if I am putting one of you on there. Thanks.

The tree in the backyard that blooms once a year for about five minutes.

Okay, I didn't take this photo.  The hubs did, that's why it rocks.  Showoff.

He says "Ball"!

That's right.  He doesn't say "Mama" and the jury is still out on the word "Dada" (although Phil claims he's saying "Dad", it sounds more like "Datttt" and he says it to everything whether its his father, the dog, or the blinds in his room).  I thought I first heard him say "ball" ("bah") in church on Sunday.  He has this book that associates things with animals and on the first page shows a picture of a brightly colored ball.  The moment he saw the page he said "BAH!".  I thought maybe it was a coincidence and he didn't say it again when I showed him the page a few minutes later.  This afternoon, we were playing up in his room and one of his favorite toys is one of those cheap large plastic bouncy balls you see in giant bins in the grocery store for $1.79.  I'm sure it's manufactured in China using every questionable chemical known to man, but he just loves it so much.  Actually, now that I think about it, maybe I should search for a more earth-friendly, non chemical-laden one seeing as how he also loves to put his mouth all over it. ::cringe:: Anyways, he's learned that if he rolls it back to you, you roll it back to him and so on, and he just gets such a kick out of it.  I brought the ball down from the shelf to play with it and he grinned and said "BAH!  BAH!" excitedly.  Now, I wonder where the word "Mama" will be on this list.  Whenever I encourage him to say it, he looks at me like I'm crazy and then says "Datttt".  Sigh.