Heather's Handmade Life

Babies and beverages

Posted on March 8, 2011 by Heather Laura Clarke

I have been thinking a lot lately about babies and beverages.

The liquids they drink in this crucial first year seems to be one of the most CONSTANT things we think about and talk about, doesn’t it? Breast milk, formula, juice, water, cow’s milk, blah blah blah. There’s always something to debate, something to fuss over, something to wonder if you should be doing/trying/stopping.

When Baby Boy was first born, breastfeeding basically consumed my entire life. No joke, it did. It was difficult and painful and nonstop, then just painful and nonstop, and then it was just nonstop. For months. It’s still a part of my life now, sure, but it’s definitely not my sole focus these days. He nurses. He drinks pumped bottles. He drinks it out of cups. It’s all good.

Since Baby Boy was born in early June, we had a hot, long summer before us. ~~My mom~~ Some people were convinced we should be giving him water to drink, since it was so sweltering outside. We agonized over it, but didn’t give him water (in little rations) until he was three months old or so, for fear the Breastfeeding Police would have us arrested. I was terrified giving him water before then would fill up his teeny tummy and he’s have no appetite for breast milk and God help us now! These days? He has all the water he wants. I make sure there’s always a sippycup of water on the floor when we’re playing. He loves it. It’s all good.

The juice thing was fairly low-key. When he was around six or seven months old, I noticed cans of apple juice in the grocery store and thought, hmm, sounds good. It’s fruit, after all. I started giving him watered-down apple juice sometimes at meals. I was SURE I was giving him the best treat and being the nicest mommy ever, but surprisingly, he didn’t like it. He made faces at the sourness and barely drank it. Then last month, a friend told me juice — even the totally pure nothing-added apple juice I bought — has no nutritional value and babies should stick with water or milk. He didn’t even like it yet, so it was easy to stop immediately. No juice for him, anymore. No biggie. It’s all good.

But cow’s milk! Now THIS has been an ordeal. Now that Baby Boy is nine months old — practically a teenager! — he is technically allowed to have it. I was a whole bundle of back-and-forth over this. Darling Husband is lactose-intolerant, so what is Baby Boy is, too? Oh, but milk is so good and I love it, and it’s so healthy! Oh, but what if it upsets his stomach? But I bet he’ll love it! Blahhhh!

I really had no idea, so yesterday, at his nine-month appointment, I broached the subject with Family Doctor.

ME: So now that he’s nine months old, he can have cow’s milk, right?
FAMILY DOCTOR: Uh, well, yes. He can.
ME: I’ve been wondering if we should give it to him, because Darling Husband’s lactose intolerant …?
FAMILY DOCTOR: Oh, OK. Yes, I mean, he may not be.
ME: Yeah, so should we just try?
FAMILY DOCTOR: Well, it could cause gas, and his stools may become more loose …
ME: Oh … well, does it have any nutritional value to him?
FAMILY DOCTOR: … He doesn’t really need it, no. He’s gaining weight fine …
ME: So … I guess if it won’t really benefit him, and it could cause all those issues, then … maybe we won’t give it to him yet?
FAMILY DOCTOR: It’s your call, but no, he doesn’t really need it.
ME: Huh … OK then.

Now I still have no idea. I guess we are going to wait, though. I was sure it must be a healthy thing for babies to start drinking when they were nine months old, but the sounds of “gas” and “loose stools” …? Um, no thank you. We’ll pass for now.

Our baby in review: His Ninth Month

Posted on March 7, 2011 by Heather Laura Clarke

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Baby Boy is nine months old. He’s officially been on the outside longer than he was on the inside. He is less than three months away from being a one-year-old.

Vital stats: At his six-month appointment, he was 19 lbs. We just got back from his nine-month appointment, and he was 20.4 lbs (and 28 inches long) — 50% percentile for both. Not a huge increase, but he’s right on track, which is good. Gone are the days when he was always in the 90% for weight, but I suppose a very active toddler-like baby doesn’t pack on the pounds quite as quickly as when he was a little potato-like baby nestled in my arms.

Milestones: He now stands completely unassisted all the time, but isn’t making any moves towards taking a step on his own. When he hands onto furniture, he flies around the room — just hasn’t seemed to make the connection yet between standing and cruising. He’s constantly getting into things, and loves to flush the toilet, play with toilet paper, explore cupboards, and pull things off shelves — he even scaled the barely-slanted wall of the bathtub like a little spidermonkey. He claps his hands, which is the cutest thing ever. It’s more of a hand-washing motion, which makes it even cuter. He waves at people through the window, either by pressing him hand against the glass and opening and closing his fist, or by banging on it.

Teeth: None! We met a baby at the movies last week who was only a month older and had six teeth. I have pretty much made peace with the fact that he may go straight to dentures.

Speech: Nothing yet, except for still crying “Mamaaaaaa!” from his crib. He makes sounds and yells, but no actual words.

Baby-proofing: I have started closing doors at lot lately. It’s just easier. We spend most of our time in the living room, dining room/kitchen, and his bedroom, so those rooms are babyproofed. He always goes for the select areas that aren’t, of course, like the computer. Darling Husband wants to buy those plastic “cage” walls, but I said no way. They’re fug.

What he’s been eating: Three meals a day, plus cereal at bedtime. His culinary experience was incredible this month — he tried so many new things! New foods this month were smoothies, baby pancakes, noodles with butter, grated cheese, grilled cheese sandwich bites, pasta shells with homemade veggie sauce, pasta shells with homemade cheese sauce, peas, whole-wheat toast bites, rice with mixed veggies, cheese tortellini, baby yogurt, homemade broccoli and cheese soup, and soda crackers. I owe his expanded palate to the fact that in my mind, eight months sounded way older than seven months, so I was more willing to give him different foods.

How we’ve been sleeping: He was still up about three times a night during his ninth month. He went to bed at 8 p.m., and was typically up for feedings around 10:30 p.m., 2 a.m., and 5 a.m., and got up for the day between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. I think the tide is turning, though, during his tenth month — stay tuned.

Diapering: Even though I still love cloth diapers — and even bought two new ones this month! — we started using disposable diapers at night only during the last few days of his ninth month. The cloth just can’t combat nighttime leaks, unfortunately, and we think it might be causing his frequent waking.

Playing: We’re still going back and forth between his two “stations” in the living room — “Toy Corner” with all the loud, battery-powered stuff, and his toy basket across the room with his books, balls, and stuffed toys. He’s gotten even more hooked on books this past month, and loves when I read to him. His favourite is Baby Boo, and he also likes his touch-and-learn books that have textures on the pages. He loves sitting in the empty tub and playing with bath toys, and pulling the books and toys off the shelves in his room. We also started listening to more music — including a great CD of bible songs — and dancing around to the music.

Things that surprised me: How he totally gets what’s going on, even though he can’t fully express himself yet. He picks up his toy phone and holds it to his ear, even though I’d never actually done that with his play phone. He turns the pages in his board books when I read to him — sometimes I say “Next page!” if he forgets. He gets frustrated when I close the doors to the bedrooms and bathrooms, and tries to open them. He really seems to understand what “No” means — both listening to it and saying it by shaking his head. When I’m spoon-feeding him and he starts to struggle, I ask him if he wants more. If he shakes his head no, I respect that and stop feeding him.

Things that have made me melt: When he squeezes me around the neck in a hug, and presses his fat little hands on my face and gives me a sloppy, open-mouth kiss. He puts so much feeling into his hugs and kisses. When I read the first line of his favourite book (“Wakey waaaaaakey, sleep baby!”), his whole face lights up and he giggles. When I nurse him and look down at what a big boy he’s becoming. When I lie him on the floor and do the clock stretch or This Little Piggie and he laughs hysterically. We have so much fun together, and it’s just going by way too fast.

Pampers, I owe you one …

Posted on March 7, 2011 by Heather Laura Clarke

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I hate admitting defeat — or admitting I’m wrong — but …

… Damn it, Pampers, I owe you an apology.

Yes, you are thin. Yes, you have a funny powder-y smell. Yes, you are covered with prints of licensed characters. Yes, you feel like a paper napkin to someone who is used to the thick, protective goodness of a cloth diaper.

But you know what? You do hold lots of pee. I’ll give you that.

We stopped using cloth diapers and used Pampers exclusively on Friday, for about a 24-hour period. Baby Boy had a wicked-awful diaper rash and was sick/teething, so I caved for two good reasons.

Using disposables temporarily meant I could cake on lots of diaper cream (can’t do that with cloth, because it affects the absorbency), and it might help him sleep longer — very important, since I was sick and exhausted.

The cream cleared up his rash beautifully, but he didn’t sleep any better — although, in Pampers’ defense, he was a snotty mess and probably couldn’t sleep well, regardless of what was on his butt. I was really crappy (pardon the pun) at using disposables, though. I changed them way to often, out of habit, and sometimes one side would come apart.

I made an abrupt switch back to cloth first thing Saturday morning after waking up to a poo explosion. It had leaked out the leg-holes and into his sleeper, and I was totally grossed out. “Hear ye, hear ye! I hate ye disposables!” I had cried, fumbling for the bumGenius as fast as I could. “I pronounce thee done! Banished!”

I decided to put Baby Boy back in a disposable on Saturday night, though. He was feeling better, and I had been impressed by how the Pampers had held pee. Maybe they really would help him sleep better?

He did.

On Saturday night, I think he had two stretches of almost five hours. Unheard of in this household! Last night, we put him to bed at 8 p.m., and he was only up once in the night — 1:30 a.m. — and awoke at 6 a.m. for “first breakfast.” I nursed him, put him back to bed — all while NOT CHANGING HIS DIAPER — and he woke up cheerfully at 8 a.m.

Um. Wowee.

So Pampers, I do apologize. I judged you. I scorned your cost. I talked smack about you behind your back. I even glared at you in the aisles of the drugstore. But you seem to be proving yourself worthy.

What’s that? You want me to admit I was wrong? Weeeeeeell, fine. I regret that I was so stubborn. I regret that I was so devoted to cloth (and its cuteness, yay!) that I didn’t open myself out to more options. I was stupidly clinging to the notion that if I could just stick it out with the cloth then I could say I had never bought a pack of disposable diapers, and really, who the hell cares? No one.

We’ll still use cloth during the day, because we do love it — and because I still haven’t forgiven you for that nasty blow-out — but I reluctantly admit that we will probably continue to use Pampers for overnight.

Because getting some sleep? Yeah, that is pretty much priceless.

When you’re too sick to blog more than random, disjointed sentences …

Posted on March 4, 2011 by Heather Laura Clarke

Poor baby

Posted on March 4, 2011 by Heather Laura Clarke

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Something is up with my poor baby.

He’s been MISERABLE all day. I have no idea if he has a cold, or is teething, or is having a reaction to a new food (baby-friendly yogurt), or a combination of some of those. No idea!

This parenting gig would be much easier if he could talk. Not necessarily because I’d be able to do anything differently, but because I hate the “not knowing.”

His symptoms are putting him in a very sad state: runny nose, coughing, wicked-awful diaper rash, crankiness.

Reasons I think he could have a cold:

His nose is running like crazy
He’s coughing
He spit up twice today (Or is it throwing up? Who knows?)
My throat feels kind of sore — maybe we both have something?
Excessively cranky

Reasons I think he could be teething:

His, ah, “nose-running” is clear (apparently only yellow or green means “sick”?)
He could be coughing on excess saliva (another apparent teething thing)
He has no interest in eating, except for gumming frozen watermelon rinds
He never gets diaper rash, and this one is absolutely horrible and painful-looking
Excessively cranky

It has been an extremely rough day, with minimal napping and lots of crying and No-Mommy-you-can’t-put-me-down-for-even-a-second-ness. I creamed his poor red bum, gave him some Infant Tylenol at bedtime and he is blessedly sleeping now. For how long is anyone’s guess (hint: don’t guess very long).

Just for fun …

Teething or just a cold? Place your bets!survey software