Extended Rear-Facing Baby

B has NEVER enjoyed her carseat. From day 1. . . literally. First trip home from the hospital she screamed bloddy murder while I tried to calm her as best as I could by trying to get her to suck on my pinkie finger (didn't work, BTW). I was already looking forward to her 1st birthday so that I would flip her carseat around, in hopes that the new view might keep her happy longer.

You might've heard I'm a babycenter adict. Well, I started seeing posts about "ERF" or Extended-Rear Facing when my birth group was nearing the one-year mark. Honestly, I just dismissed it at first and thought, "Isabelle is more comfortable facing forward - her legs are smooched when she is rear-facing and there is nothing for her to look at!" At the time, the AAP reccomendation was to have your child rear- facing until 20 pounds and 1 year old. As soon as I hit that minimum, I made the switch.

Then, the American Academy of Pediatrics changed the policy just a few weeks ago. The new reccomendation is to keep toddlers in rear-facing seats until age 2, or until they reach the maxiumum height and weight for their seat. So then I decided to do some research.

Turns out, children under age 2 are 75% less likely to die or be severely injured in a crash if they are riding rear-facing. When a child is rear-facing, the seat does a better job of supporting the head, neck and spine in a crash, because it distribute the force of the collision over the entire body. In a foward-facing crash, it causes the infants head and neck to be flung forward unsupported. Because a child's head is 25% of their body mass (where-as an adults is closer to 6%), massive amounts of force is applied to the neck when their head is pulled forward in a crash. The body is held back from the straps, which cause stretching of even breaking of the spinal cord. They call it "internal decapitation". YIKES! I was previously worried about her legs getting smushed or broken. . . then when I read a slogan from another mom that said, "Rear-facing cast-it. Foward-facing casket" I was very quick to flip that seat back around!

I was also surprised to hear that many children are more comfortable rear-facing anyways. Think about how a child is in everyday play. Do

they sit with their legs straight out in front of them? Nope - not usually! When they sit on the couch, do they purposely sit so their legs dangle over the edge. Not so much. Sitting with their legs folded up is what is comfortable to them. And IF we were by chance hit in the rear, severe rear crashes only account for 4% of crashes. And there isn't even a SINGLE documented case of a children's legs, hips, etc being injured due to extended rear-facing. And even if there were, I would rather go to the hopsital with a broken femur than a damaged, irreparable severed spinal cord.

Watch this video!!

I have an easy baby!

I've had many people tell me that the first baby is always easy, that way you'll have more. It's the second one you have to worry about. I know a few moms who may disagree with that statement, but if it's true for me. . . Number two is going to be a little hellion.

B was pretty easy from day 1. Well. . . once I got her out, at least! First, I was so worried about breastfeeding. After hearing horror story after horror story, I was more than just intimidated. Coming from a family of breast-feeders, I thought, "But what if it doesn't work for me?! They'll think I'm a bad mother!" "What if my milk never comes in? What if she won't latch?" Obviously, it was a little irrational. . . but who said anything was rational about pregnancy? Much to my surprise (and joy), B latched on almost immediately, and breastfeeding seemed to come much more naturally than I anticipated. She was easy.

I also was horrified about how well she would sleep -- or NOT sleep, rather. I pictured myself pacing the floors at all hours of the night with a screaming, tired, restless infant. I never had that special "mommy jiggle", so I imagined that I would be unable to ever soothe my baby. Luckily, Nana was 7 min up the road. . . so I figured if worse came to worse, I could call her when I was in need to the magic baby cha-cha her and my sister seem to have perfected. B surprised me again. I can count all of our really bad nights on one hand. . . and really. . . they weren't even THAT bad. She was never crying inconsolably and was always able to soothe back to sleep rather easily. She was sleeping through the night by the time she was 6 weeks and 2 days old. Of course her sleep took a dramatic dip when she started teething around 5 1/2 months. . . but still. . . it was never nearly as bad as I'd imagined. Once again, she was easy.

She's the most care-free, relaxed, content baby I've ever seen. And did I mention how much this girl loves to smile? Or give kisses? Or laugh? Or share whatever it is she has at the moment? She's happy playing by herself, with other kids, or with any other adult. She warms up very easily to just about anyone. One day, I remember going over to my moms house when she was 8 weeks old. I was just sitting with her on the couch and she fell asleep on her own. No nursing, no rocking, no singing. Just happily sitting there and thought, "Hmmm. . . I'm tired. I think I'll close my eyes and go to sleep." How easy is that?! It was pretty easy to take her over to my sisters house and work on a project. She would play contently on the floor and watch us from afar. And she's still pretty much that way now. Today, we had a shower for my brother and sister-in-law. It was during her nap, so missed her nap and it was over 3 hours past nap time. A few grunts let us know she was tired, and she was perfectly fine letting her Great-Grandma take her and put her to sleep on her shoulder. Easy.

I'm sure that 95% of it is just nature. She's just naturally a really really really good baby. But of course, I'd like to think at least a small part of it is not nature, but NURTURE. Lee and I are blessed on both sides with very loving, nurturing, and caring families. And we feel very strongly that she is loved unconditionally , that all of her needs are met, and I'm being more and more of an attached parent than I ever thought I would be. What I used to view as a very rigid, selfless, exhausting parenting style is now what seems so instinctive and practical to me. So I'd like to think that she's just so happy, so content, so "easy" because she knows she has nothing to worry about. We are there when she needs us, we will give her whatever she needs, but she doesn't ALWAYS need it!

So yeah. . . I feel pretty blessed. I would feel immensely blessed no matter if she was a high needs baby, a baby with special needs, a baby that fussed at me every minute of the day. . . she absolutely the most amazing thing that's ever happened to me and my life will never be the same. Being a mother is amazing.

Shower woes

Feeling like I need to rewind and document more funny baby stories. So here we go.

Sometime around January B and I started showering together at night. Bending over the bath tub was back-breaking and she was no longer content to sit and her exersaucer and play while I showered in the morning, so this was the easiest solution. She LOVES showering with momma. Anyways. . .

So we did our regular routine and when we finished, B was happily playing with her shower toys so I stepped out and finished drying off and getting dressed and let her do her own thing. I've learned to NEVER interrupt a happy baby. After maybe 5 or 10 minutes, she decided she was finished and came clamoring out of the shower. I got her dressed and ready for bed, and we went on with our evening.

The next morning, Lee wakes up to get ready for work and complains that our bathroom sinks. I think he's blaming it on me changing B's diaper in there before we shower and somewhat dismiss it :) (Whatever honey, I'm not going to stop getting B ready in our bathroom because you don't want diapers in here. Comes with the territory, right?) He opens up the shower and finds a cute little B poo waiting for him. Haha, apparently she left the present for daddy the night before when she was "finishing up" and I missed it. Whoops!!

Nothing like a baby turd in the morning!

Babies are funny

Every morning while I get ready, Isabelle toodles around and intermittently watches Sesame Street, reads books, plays with toys, and finds other fun things to do in the room with mommy. So yesterday, she was watching me put on my makeup, and I handed her a makeup brush to play with, like I have many other mornings. She usually uses it like a phone, or mimics me in the full-length mirror, or tries to tickle me with it. I continue doing my thing while she runs off with my brush and look over 5 minutes later to find my little miss cleaning out the toilet bowl with my powder brush. GREEEAT. . . She always makes me smile!! (Disclaimer - yes, I realize this picture is NOT my baby)

Adventures in Fuzzi-Butts

The funniest part about cloth diapering is the crazy names they come up with. FuzziBunz, BumGenious, Econobum, Bummis, Bumkins, Thirsties, Cutiepoops, Pooters, Bumware Extreme, Rumparooz. . . the list is practically endless. We are about 3 weeks into our cloth diapering adventure. Here's our status:

First off, I never knew there were so many options when it came to cloth diapers. I mean, besides all of the BRANDS, there are so many different styles. Cloth diapering today is not what is used to be. We've come a long way from the old fashioned folded, pinned, and plastic covered diapers. Not to mention evolutions in washing machines and other fansy tools to make cloth diapering for the most part, pretty easy. Today's cloth diapers are elasticized, waterproof and breathable, and manageable with velcro-like closures or snaps. Did I mention they are absolutely adorable? I'm going mostly with the pocket diapers, which are basically just like a diaper shell that you stuff w/ an insert (the absorbent material). We have one AIO (all-in-one) which is just what it says, an all-in-one. Just like a 'sposie (disposable) but you don't throw it away. The downside is it takes longer to dry. . . Then we have 2 prefolds, which are the old fashioned kind that your mom/grandma probably used were you have to use pins -- but now they have a fantsy thing called a snappi that makes it easier (we have one of those, too). So the prefold then has to be covered if you want to stay dry, so we have one cover. Then I made 1 prefold into a fitted, and made 2 other fitted diaper a-la-sewing machine. So technically, we have 12 diapers. I haven't purchased any duos, flats, fitteds, or AI2s.

So WHY go cloth? Well, they #1 they are cheaper. I spent around $900 the first year for diapers for B (About $15/week for a box of 'sposies. . . sometimes I could make it almost 2 weeks). So I would probably spend somewhere between $2,000-$3,000 by the time she is potty trained. I was and would be spending my hard earned money on what is essentially garbage. And once she's potty trained, those diapers are GONE. In comparison, so far I've spent about $120 in cloth diapers -- I expect I'll probably buy many more and spend somewhere around $300-$500. I just saved myself AT LEAST $1,000. Not to mention, these cloth diapers can be used for one or more successive children, doubling or tripling (even quadrupling -- wink wink hubby) our savings. Now that's something to get excited about.

#2 They are healthier for B! I know. . . that sounds so crunchy of me. I really don't think 'sposies are all that bad, and so far, I'm still using them at night until I take that plunge (I'm worried about leaks). I DO know that Pampers Baby Dry gave B a rash b/c of the chemicals used to keep her "dry". Same thing happened to my sisters boys. And when you look up info, there do seem to be some serious concerns about the toxic chemicals that they use in 'sposies that allow SOME parents to go ALL DAY before changing their little one (especially low income families that can't afford diapers. . . if only they would go cloth!). Dioxin, Tributyl-tin, and sodium polyacrylate are just a few of the chemicals used and found in disposable diapers. If you really want the nitty gritty, go here, but basically -- they are all toxins.

#3 They are healthier for our mother. Earth. :) 80% of the US uses disposables, which adds up to about 18 billion diapers per year. That is literally TONS of plastic and hundreds of thousands of trees that are wasted for manufacturing these neatly wrapped packages of excrement, which will become entombed in a landfill for several hundred years. And lets not even talk about that urine and feces possibly leaching into the ground and contaminating our ground water supply. I know I sound like a giant extremist tree hugger, but admit it -- that's gross! Not something I want to contribute to, if at all possible.

So three weeks in and I'm actually kind of loving it. It's rather addicting. I feel good about myself for saving our family money and doing what is healthiest for B and for the planet. I just keep those happy thoughts in my mind while I'm emptying the smelly cloth bum covers into the washer and it really doesn't seem so bad. Not to mention, I'm always caught up on laundry now, so hubs isn't complaining for not having work shirts clean 30 minutes before he leaves for work!

<----The traditional prefolds and cover (I tured 1 prefold into a fitted
<----my Bumkins All-In-One

<----My alvababy's :) Love them

I'm sold - the Lituanian rocks work!

Ok - I'm an admitted babycenter adict. Not only do I obsess over posting in the cloth diaper, attachment parenting, and February 2010 Toasted and Crunchy group, but I am also the proud owner of the "No Cry Sleep Solution" group. Yep. . . BBC is my guilty pleasure where I can do to talk about my DD STTN, exBF, practicing UP, AP, CD, BLW, NCSS. If YKWIM. And don't even mention it to DH. :)

So I'm not really sure which board led me to it, but I came across the the magic of the Amber Teething necklace. Probably from a fellow crunchy mom, I'm not sure -- either way I was tired of drugging poor B with Ibuprofen, Motrin, Tylenol, and/or Oragel every night and thought I'd give it a go. Courtesy eBay, I found a cheap necklace from Lithuania. . . shipped it on accident to my old house, and finally received it Thursday, probably about 5 weeks after the first order. I was sceptical, but hopeful.

So what's the deal with this Amber teething necklace? Apparently, Baltic amber serves as an analgesic to alleviate teething pain and assist with the typical side effects such as restlessness, drooling, and irritability. It is an organic substance, a "fossil resign" produced by pine trees. It is made up of 3-8% succinic acid, a scientifically examied medical substance used in contemporary medicine. Amber historically and scientifically accelerates our natural immune systems ability to heal wounds and reduces inflammation in the ears, throat, stomach, and respiratory system. So according to what they say, no tablets, medications, or pastes can compete with this amber. See more here.

So, we are on day 4. All I know, is B is definitely gnawing less, and last night was a record sleep night; 13 hours w/o waking and she napped for 2.5 hours. She had been sleeping great for awhile, but now that her top molars are making their debut, she's been waking once or twice every night to "nurse" (or gnaw) and finally drift off to dreamland after 30-45 min. I blame the teeth for everything. . . . But I'd say it's definitely looking good for the necklace.

Welcome to my life!

Anyone who knows me knows I'm a pretty passionate person. Or emotional. Maybe even a little bit crazy at times :) Life is crazy - I don't really know where to start with blogging since I feel like I'm at least a year behind. 5 if I would've started when I got married, 10 if I would've started when I started pursing my dream-job, 14 if I would've started at the time I was just starting to even figure out WHO I am in the first place. Man, life goes by fast, doesn't it?!

So, let's just start from here. Day 1.

So if you're on this blog now -- you know me. You know my family, my baby, my profession (s?). For the most part, what I stand for (whatever that means!). If you want to dive deeper into that which is me. . . I guess I'll see you back here soon!!