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Wednesday, 11 February 2009

Crankster

Little boy of mine is currently sleeping, which means that I can finally think. Today was a day of one 45-minute nap and lots of whining. It's been an exhausting day and so many times today I felt myself slipping into this stuck place of impatience and aggression. My buttons are pushed by this kid like nobody has ever been able to before. I get so frustrated when I have said "Please eat your sandwich" fifteen times with no response and then begging for raisins begins. I even had to ask him not to chew on the remote today. This child is no longer a teething baby who doesn't know any better. Come on. Gimme a little something for my 27 months of love, devotion, and discipline... tell me it's not for nothing! I sound like a broken record and I even grit my teeth.
Not a pretty day on the whole, and I know that I must be stressed out already to not be dealing with this as well as I could be. I realized recently that to be the perfect disciplinarian I have to be well-rested, well fed, healthy, not distracted, and so on. Basically, it will rarely be the ideal time to deal with a toddler on the verge of a tantrum, so I'll just have to do it on the fly. And that will have to be good enough.

Monday, 09 February 2009

I'm Soooo Tired, I Haven't Slept A Wink...

Okay, maybe I did sleep about 6 uninterrupted hours, but I couldn't resist the old Beatles line as a lead in. I am tired, in fact, and it turns out this pregnancy is more work than the last, or at least more work than I remember. Unfortunately this time around I have much more consistent morning wake up calls in the form of my son yelling from his crib, "Mom? Mama! Daddy, you come upstairs? Daaa-ddy!" Thankfully it's usually Daddy himself that retrieves or at least quiets the boy, and I can drift off for 15 minutes at a clip in between the banging of dishes and the hollering of seemingly constant requests to watch Curious George.

Dear Husband and I take turns waking and fixing the lil dude's breakfast, while the other gets to doze for about an hour, sometimes a lot more, depending on the wake up time. It used to be fine, and while I dreaded my turn I also was able to motor through it without much complaint. But now, both days seem equally, frustratingly dreadful.

Why in the world is it so hard to sleep when you're pregnant? When you have an infant you expect to be sleep deprived. But now? I have 25 weeks or so for my body to truly prepare for waking every two or so hours, and this seems unnecessary. When I sleep, I have vivid, crazy dreams, and when I wake, it takes me 25 minutes sometimes just to get back to sleep. I kinda hate this part. Sleep is one of those things everyone tells you to get a lot of while you're pregnant, since baby building is so tiring on your body. And yet, these hormones prevent deep, long slumber from taking shape on a regular basis. So not fair.

I think I should go take a nap, and resolve to retire earlier from now on. But I have made that resolution before and it's just plain not fun and doesn't happen the way it should. I need to just do it. Just go to bed. Ah, bed. Sounds good right now, anyway.

Friday, 06 February 2009

The Impact of Cloth Diapers

One of my passions these days is Cloth Diapering and all things related. I love the way cloth looks on my little boy, and I love the prospect of itty bitty cloth diaper on my womb-baby. I like my routine of washing cloth diapers, I love buying a new diaper here or there in a fun print that makes my day. I love getting "fluffy mail," these diapers that I've ordered online and are handmade and hand sent to our family. I even love changing these diapers, from one soft, fluffy bum wrap to another. It's great.

I also am familiar with that "do good" feeling that cloth diaperers feel. The impact of disposable diapers on the environment is truly frightening, since they wind up clogging our landfills for years. Each family that chooses to use cloth diapers reduces their solid waste by one ton each year. Worse, disposable diaper users often throw feces into the garbage instead of flushing it down the toilet, where it belongs. Consider this. Parents I know remove the disposable, poopy diaper from the baby's bottom, toss the soiled wipes into the diaper, wrap it up onto iteslf, and then, then, tie it up in a plastic bag. This then goes into a garbage pail with our other trash, and is put curbside for pickup or taken to the dump. Ew. Do I even need to elucidate how wrong that is? If disposable diaper users would even just toss poo into the toilet prior to disposing of the diaper, we would be eliminating that unsanitary practice of leaving feces in with household garbage.

If you're considering the environmental impact of cloth diapers, you're in good company. The argument I hear from eco-savvy parents who still refuse to go cloth is that the washing of the diapers is worse for the environment than the tossing of disposables. I find that equation so misleading. We know that disposable EVERYTHING is worse than reusable anything. Cloth napkins, dishtowels, and dishes have already replaced paper equivalents and nobody is complaining about the impact of washing these. You wash your clothes, you wash pots and pans; if you're concerned about the environment you get creative about using less water when you do it. You install low-flow showerheads, HE appliances, and you turn off the water when you brush.

Increasing confusion are the disposable diaper companies that are putting big money behind making sure that nobody thinks disposables are bad. Read this article by Peggy O'Mara about the fight to get the truth out in spite of Proctor & Gamble and other companies trying to cloud the issue. Also for your consideration, the use of toxic chemicals like dioxin in disposable diapers, right up against baby's skin. The use of bleach in manufacturing these diapers is just one more environmentally UNfriendly way sposies present themselves to parents and babies.

I could go on and on about the benefits, but this has all been written before. Be careful where you get your information, though. Our print media is quite tied-up with parent company advertising, so it's hard to get the real deal. Please keep an open mind and look for yourself. You might just find yourself as interested as I am with what goes on your baby's bum.

Wednesday, 04 February 2009

Two Hearts Beating in One Body

Hi Blog-readers! Are there even any of you out there? I intended to make my blog an interesting place to stop by and learn a bit about some natural mothering, some cranky mom-rants, and some general observations about our lovely culture for families, but I'm a ball-dropper. I wish that somehow by pointing this out maybe I'll be more inspired to make it right. Anyway, on with the post.

So I'm 14 weeks pregnant. All is going well as far as the apparent health of the baby and my overall well-being. I'm finding mothering a toddler while battling that First Trimester Blah a little bit challenging, but it's getting better. Generally my son is high-spirited and demanding, so I've had to try to keep up with him (level with him, that is) a little bit more while I'm feeling low energy. His behavior is vacillating between adorable, tolerable, and downright naughty, but think that's par for the course at his age anyway. Daddy has really kept up well and has increased his share of the work without much complaint, so we're making it okay.

Nausea is mostly gone but the new bother is heartburn. I'm not one that suffers heartburn in "normal" life, but I certainly have had my fair share over the past week or two. Not sure what the culprit is exactly but my big fear is that this will be an ongoing symptom. It could be temporary and that's what I'm hoping, so we'll just have to see. It's really uncomfortable and just really frustrating because I thought I'd be feeling great by now. *sigh* There will be better days.

I haven't been able to keep myself from buying baby things- already! I know, I really thought I could reign it in until we at least found out the sex of the baby, but no. I had to open the paypal account to take care of some things for big brother and wound up fighting myself over a few newborn diapers and losing, big time. The damage has been slight so far, but it will be noticeable when I'm done! The way I see it, I'm snagging some deals as I see them instead of just making a big, fearful purchase at full price in June or July. Picking away at a shopping list instead of having a spree. It's all good when it's baby stuff!

Hearing a little heart beating at over 150 beats per minute, from my abdomen, is an amazing thing. I love it. I love when a midwife can find it the instant she sticks the Doppler on my tummy. I love that to her it's a daily activity, like washing her hands, and yet it's still amazing. And to me, of course, it's mystifying and special, like a little window in to see how he or she is doing. I think the bonding is starting already. My tummy is blossoming, and while I'm not thrilled with that in-between way that my clothes are fitting, I am so truly happy that this is what I'm doing with my life right now. Creating another life.

Currently
Readeez Volume One
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Sunday, 18 January 2009

Pregnant Again!

This is a long-delayed entry, but I didn't want to regret writing something and feel even worse about it. Now that things are progressing I can officially announce that I'm pregnant. I'm so happy, and so is my husband. My son doesn't really have a clue at this point, which is fine. We'll explain things to him when he's a little older and I'm actually growing some massive tummy.

I'm twelve weeks along now and feeling alright. No matter how much you reflected on a previous pregnancy, though, it's still a surprise to feel all those sensations of early pregnancy again. Nausea was certainly not fleeting, but has subsided at this point, which is so wonderful. I'm tired and low-energy a lot of the day but generally things are fine at this point. We're expecting our little one the first week of August and plan to find out whether we're having a boy or a girl in about 7 weeks. We decided last pregnancy that it's a surprise whether you know at 20 weeks or 40, so we'll be making plans to know the sex of the baby.

It turns out that the book Taking Charge of Your Fertility is incredibly helpful. The month that I read that book (or parts, anyhow) was the month that we conceived, and the month that I KNEW I had conceived before I even took a pregnancy test at home, because I was charting my temperatures. It was clear to me by 10 days past ovulation, and I took a test that early and confirmed my suspicions. If you want to get pregnant in your time, read this book. If you DON'T want to get pregnant by accident, read this book. It is indispensable information that every woman should have about her own body and its reproductive capabilities. I can't believe how ill-informed, or at least under-informed, we are as women about our bodies. It's a shame, really.

More on my life as a pregnant lady soon.

Currently
Taking Charge of Your Fertility, 10th Anniversary Edition: The Definitive Guide to Natural Birth Control, Pregnancy Achievement, and Reproductive Health
By Toni Weschler
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