The Results

O.M.G....

I lovelovelove the Hippie Store. Love it!

We arrive in this store in downtown Cincinnati, and I am struck first by its boho charm. And they have a smallish section of the store specifically for natural parenting. I am sort of discouraged by this at first, because the area really is small. But as I start to browse, it is very, very crammed with anything you could need. On the shelf directly across from some adorable organic baby tees is my Mother's Milk tea. And Fenugreek. And Blessed Thistle. And another tea called Milkmaid Tea (which I bought just to try). And neat rows of organic, green baby lotions and soaps and oils. And eco-friendly diaper detergents. Supplies to make your own baby food. Green baby toys. Diaper bags. An entire rack of carriers (should've bought my Moby there as they have too many cute colors!). They had a bECO Butterfly 2 and a bECO Gemini on display and I tried both on. Both were comfortable, but the only Gemini patterns they had were very feminine, which just would not do, considering that I am mainly buying this so John can get in on the fun of babywearing also. The Butterfly 2 had some more patterns and colors that would work, and so I performed the ultimate test: getting Zach out of the carseat and trying it. And he screamed and screamed. His short little legs were just in too awkward a position. So I moved onto the Ergo. And it was comfortable for both John and I with minimal adjustment. So in goes Zach. And I love the way is positions him. Sitting instead of curled up like the Moby does. My only complaint is that it was too wide for his hips and so forward-facing didn't work so well. But as soon as we turned him to where he was facing me, all was right with his world and he leaned his head on my chest and looked around in amazement. We found a winner, and after perusing the cloth diapers, and picking up some teething pads to go on the Ergo straps, we were off to the checkout.

Of course this is where I made an ass of myself. Well, not really. John had picked out a camel color in the carrier, but thought it would show dirt too easily, so we picked up a chocolate brown one instead. Well, at the checkout, I noticed that the darker color was $40 more. Really?

"But this one's organic.", stressed Hippie Chick #1.
"Sooooooo worth it!" stressed Hippie Chick #2.

So this is where I blurted out to John, "Here, take this and get the cheaper non-organic one!"

Gasp! The horror!
Don't I care about Mother Earth? They looked at me like I had 2 heads. And when it came time to finish the transaction, they asked to put me on their mailing list, so I gave them the info. Later, in the car, John told me I shouldn't have. "They're gonna hunt you down because you didn't buy the organic one!" Ha!

So on the cloth diapering front: I am a tactile person. I hate shopping on line. I like to gaze and feel and compare. So the lookng at diapers that I have been doing online just hasn't done the trick. But there, at the Hippie Store, they have them all: Thirsties, BumGenius, Flip, GroBaby...Fitteds, prefolds, biodegradeable inserts, flushable inserts, fabric inserts. In organic and non-organic, bleached and unbleached. Gah! And the rainbow of cute colors and prints! Zach will forever be pants-less so I can show off his cute diapers!
I managed to talk John into this endeavor. But I explained All-in-Ones to him, which function closest to disposables, are the most user-friendly, but also the most expensive. I really think we are going to go with the BumGenius AIO's, because after such a huge investment (about $25 per diaper x 24 or so diapers if we wash every other day , plus sprayer, wetbags, pail, laundering supplies, cloth wipes and spray, inserts.....) I like that they will grow with Zach and will last him through toilet learning.

But we didn't buy any yet. (Insert bummed look here!)
We are going through a major hassle in our house, so I couldn't just thunk down that huge wad of cash just yet. (see next post!) Plus I got seriously confused. Soakers? Doublers? What the hell? It's like some secret language that I cannot decipher. And so I am going to schlep my happy arse to a cloth-diapering workshop that the Hippie Store puts on before I make such a huge investment. I'm already dreading it: my loafer-clad feet, designer jeans, and expensive handbag next to their birkies, broomskirts, and hemp totes. But oh well.

Call Him Carlos

So thanks to B, I have been wanting a new carrier aside from the Moby because the grown-up man in my life refuses to use the Moby wrap. Actually, he's scared sh*tless of the thing. I remember when I took it out of its box and unravelled it, and he looked at me and thought that I got a defective one. I mean, where are the buckles and straps and such??? And I was sort of scared at first, too. But I got used to it. He refuses to try. And he is the one home with Zachy-Poo while I'm off being Working Mother for 12 hours at a time. So I want to try a bEco, but they are sort of pricey. I wanted some sort of trial run first.

So I find an el cheapo soft-structured carrier that was given to me by a coworker when it was discovered that Zach was to be Zach and not Amelia (that was to be our girl name). And I was fooling with it,figuring out what strap goes where before I strap my child into it, when John ripped it out of my hands and donned it himself. And we put Zach in together. And Zach loved it just as much as the Moby. So much, in fact, that he fell asleep. So John had no choice but to keep him there. I mean, who wakes a sleeping baby???? So we go outside to watch Ev play, and there stands my husband, baby strapped to his front. And I thought immediately of this:

Ha! hahahaha. Because my husband is kind of chubby. And because we have watched this movie so many damned times and I laugh until it hurts each and every time. (Really not so funny when I was pregnant and contracting and had to pee all of the time!) And because I started picturing Zach's chubby little face in a pair of BluBlockers. And I thought of little Carlos.

So now I have to buy the bEco, I think.

Moby'd

I don't know why, but John refuses to use the Moby Wrap with Zach. He calls it our papoose, and laughs everytime I use it. This is strange to me. Zach and I both love it. We get to be close and snuggly while I have hands available for other tasks. And Zach gets the warm fuzzies he needs. It's hard to believe my baby boy is almost 2 months old. He still acts very much the newborn, and it's no wonder why. His true adjusted age is just a little past 3 weeks. So really, he still needs this. I originally bought the wrap, well, because it was cheap. I wanted a baby carrier that will be flexible as he grows, but didn't want to spend huge amounts of money until I knew for a fact that Zach would like it. The $45 for the Moby was just right. Wow! I'm so glad I picked it. Yesterday, he was having a fussy spell and nothing would fix it. After nursing him (well, really just a quick snack for him, as he fell asleep in my arms), he curled up in a ball in the wrap and drifted off to sleep, as seen above. Fussiness cured.

Hiding Out

I was going to blog about how I am being selfish today. I insisted on getting my shower, and escaped to my room, to the computer , with my Lean Pocket and a bottle of water. Selfish Mommy. But then Zach started to fuss, and I ended up nursing him with a towel still wrapped around my head. Then I realized that it is really hot outside, where Evan is playing, and so I insisted on him coming inside to get some water. But in that process, I realized how trashed his room is, and so the battle ensued. Then Zach started to fuss again.

Now? The Lean Pocket is cold, the bottle of water is warm, I am wearing Zach in our Moby Wrap, and fighting with Evan that microwave popcorn is not a proper lunch. My original intent was to hide out here, ignoring the vast array of household chores I could be doing. I think I just needed a mental health break. What I am getting is something in between the break I wanted and sheer chaos that could have been. Zach is drifting off to sleep in the Moby, his small baby-lotion-scented head tucked warmly under my chin. Evan is doing whatever it is that Evan, well, does. I am left wondering if I should surrender the fantasy and just wash the damned dishes or vacuum or something.

Such is life.

Don't Take Directions From the Kid and Other Lessons

The way our day started today was not very noteworthy: errands and housework all day. After we were finished, Evan wanted to go to the park, so we packed a cooler full of cold drinks and off we went. Or so we thought...
He didn't want to go to the park in our neighborhood, but rather a large park where his school had their track and field day. Neither of us adults had ever been there, but he insisted he knew where it was and started to tell us how to get there. He sounded like he knew what he was talking about,and Evan is usually pretty good with these things, so we trusted him.
Somehow, we ended up on this narrow, roughly paved road that runs parallel to the Ohio River. And the houses we passed looked horribly unkempt, so we were hesitant to ask for directions from anyone. I thought of sure that we were going to plummet to our deaths as my new-ish car teetered on the edge of the road, at which point there was a violently steep drop. But Northern Kentucky is a hodge-podge of small communities, so we knew we would eventually find something that looked familiar, and kept going. Well, we ended up in the seediest looking area that had me reaching for the door locks by habit, forgetting that my car locks automatically when the spped picks up to 20 mph. So we kept making turns, hoping to end up in familiar territory, but instead kept ending up in this same little town. At some point, we even passed a waste water treatment facility that stank so badly that Evan exclaimed, "Is it a POOP factory??? I smell POOP!" Needless to say, by the time we ended up home again, we were all cracking up with laughter, having never been to this mystery park.
So other than NOT trusting my eldest with directions, what else have I learned this week?
Immunizations can be evil! At Zach's well-child appointment this past Friday, I asked about all of the pertussis stuff I have been hearing about lately. I haven't worked in some time, and wondered if there was something I had missed. The discussion turned to when I had my last pertussis vaccine. Well, other than flu shots (including H1N1), Hepatiitis B (Hmmmm I handle blood, so that one was work-related), and tetanus, I haven't had any vaccines since I was a teenager. Well it turns out that they actually recommend a dose of the equivalent of a DTaP vax for adults every so many years. And to protect Zach and Evan from this re-emergence of pertussis, considering the line of work I am in, our family doc wanted me to get one. Okay, no biggie. Ha!
I was fine. I didn't even flinch and was even actively involved in a convo with the doctor when I got the injection. The trouble wasn't until later that night. Violent chills. I just could not get warm. I was covered in every heavy blanket we have in the house. The next morning,I checked my temperature because I was starting to sweat like one does when a fever is breaking: 102.8. And that was while the fever was breaking. Then came the body aches all over. I wanted nothing more than to soak in a warm bath, but since my uterus still has a relatively large wound in it that is still in the stages of healing, I am not allowed to do anything that could get anything in the plumbing down there--no sex, tampon, baths, swimming, etc. So I had to suck it up without my bath. It took 2 days to return to normal, and I truthfully am still not there because I have this enormous knot in my arm that itches and is horribly sore. And the area gets bigger by the day. Oh well, such is life. But Iwill think long and hard before I ever let them give me that again.
Pregnancy cured my modesty! I was horribly modest. I went years and years without a Pap because I couldn't run the risk of running into a doctor at work who had seen my vajayjay. And through the ordeal of my pregnancy, I was terribly picky about the nurses I allowed to check my cervix. Nobody I worked with was allowed to do it, so basically, only day-shifters were permitted. Finally, one night, a night shifter had to. From that point on, she was the only one, because the damage had already been done with her. Then, when Zach was born, and I was breastfeeding, I came dangerously close to hurting a friend's feelings because I would turn down her help with breastfeeding because I couldn't stand the thought of a friend holding my boob for me as I maneauvered Zach around my incision and tried to get him latched on properly. Yet when the lactation consultant would check on me during her rounds, I would need all sorts of guidance and admitted that it was because my nurse was a friend that I was denying help. She actually went back to my friend and told her I needed a different nurse, and my friend came back to me, crushed. That is how bad it is.
So yesterday, I go back to the store to get my supply of nursing bras. I was having trouble finding ones with a good fit. My usual size just wasn't working. So there I am, in the fitting room in shorts and a bra. My belly looks like a deflated balloon from the pregnancy and c-section. And in walks the saleslady. And you know what? I didn't give a damn by this point. The result? I ended up leaving with 8 beautifully-fitting bras because I had the expertise of someone who does it for a living. I think my pregnancy did it. Because the old me would have shrieked in horror at the thought. Am I cured?
I am an Expert Babywearer! We went to Babies'R'Us yesterday for some Zach essentials. I also wanted to look at some non-essentials too, as they had some good deals advertised in their mailer. I really wanted a baby carrier. I was looking at the Baby Bjorn one, but have read all of the stuff about the versatility of other ones. So I see the Moby Wrap. And I had a 15% Off coupon. So I figured, eh, why not? I was kind of afraid to try it. I took it out of its cover to wash it and was dismayed to find the horrendously long strip of fabric and nothing else. No buckles, straps, snaps. And I am supposed to wrap this around myself in a way that will secure my baby? I doubted my skills, and pictured the trip to the ER for Zach's skull fracture that would undoubtedly result. But nope! I did it! And Zach loved it. There he was, curled up in a ball against my chest like he loves, and he actually fell asleep while I did laundry, washed dishes,vacuumed, and even ate lunch. So now I am feeling all smug about it. Ha!
Good friends are fabulous! Well, okay, this is not news. But as we were about to head to Babies'R'Us, I stopped by to drop something off for a friend, and I mentioned where we were headed. I also mentioned that we needed diapers and they had somegood deals going on, so I planned on stocking up for when we run out of newborn diapers or Zach outgrows them and is into a size 1. Well, this friend happens to be affiliated with a home for single moms. (She is nameless because I am not sure if she would be in hot water over what she did.) Apparently they were overrun with size 1 diapers. And wipes. I ended up leaving there with the equivalent of 4 cases of size 1 diapers and 2 cases (not refills! CASES! ) of baby wipes. And they are the brand we use, too! Thank You, Friend!