Photo: Autumn Leaves

Bits and Pieces

I can not believe Tristan is a month old. He is, of course, solely breastfed, cloth diapered, co-sleep happy, no-vax, etc. The past few weeks he’s started smiling, especially at his older brother. Both of my boys are going through a growth spurt, I’ve taken to calling Danny, “the walking wounded”, because he is starting to trip over his feet so much it seems!

The photos were shot from my Blackberry.

I feel… guilty in a sense, at least blogging wise, because I don’t have much to say lately that isn’t “attachment parenting” related and I don’t think I have many readers in that area. I would love to ramble on and on about how much we love our diapers or our new Moby wrap, but doubt that would be of interest to anyone.

Anyway onto other things, I recently got a GoogleWave account and was wondering if you had one, what you thought of it, and to share your contact info so I can add you! I still haven’t had time to sit down and play with it, I need to watch all the tutorial videos I’m sure.

Also, feel free to share some of your new favorite reads in the comments, I need new blogs to read while nursing the wee one!

Autumn Leaf

Recipe: Moist & Fluffy Pumpkin Pancakes

Ingredients

• 3 3/4 C all-purpose flour
• 6 TBSP sugar
• 2 TBSP baking powder
• 1 1/2 TSP cinnamon
• 1 TSP allspice
• 1 TSP salt (I use kosher salt)
• 3 1/2 C milk
• 1 1/2 C pumpkin puree
• 6 TBSP melted butter
• 3 large eggs

Directions
Stir/whisk all the dry ingredients in a bowl (flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, allspice, and salt). In a separate bowl stir/whisk the milk, pumpkin, melted butter, and eggs. Gently pour the wet bowl into the dry, and stir JUST until there’s no obvious chunks of flour. You want lumps, lumps equal pancake perfection.

Grease a skillet or griddle (I use bacon grease yum) and heat over medium heat (approx 300 degrees on a griddle): pour in 1/4 cup batter for each pancake. Cook the nummy pancakes about 3 minutes per side, I use a timer. This makes a billion pancakes which is great because they warm up easily.

Thoughts on Babywearing & the Moby Wrap

When I was pregnant with my oldest son, Daniel, I always wanted to “wear” him.

I never got the chance due to his bio-father, instead I simply carried him in my arms… EVERYWHERE. I never minded it although at times I wish I had BOTH hands free… to even just type like I’m doing now! I never EVER wanted to be one of those “baby bucket” parents. I feel that car seats are meant for the car, not as a makeshift parent or sleeping area. Besides, babies are meant to be held and snuggled!

With Tristan however, I really wanted a wrap or carrier, after researching it I decided upon the Moby Wrap as my first wrap (I am also interested in woven wraps, would appreciate any suggestions/thoughts in the comments, and yes I am a member of The Baby Wearer lol.)

I sent Keith over to New Mother, New Baby which is a local store that sells the wrap, the owner was kind enough to stay open late for him as traffic was ultra congested at the time. He purchased me the red wrap which is an awesome color.

The learning curve has been a bit difficult for me, the top rail of the cummerbund never seems tight enough, although the wrap is secure, it always bothers me (this is specifically related to the front pocket wrap cross carry hold). I’ve expanded, just as of today even, to teaching myself to breastfeed in the wrap, and to do the front wrap cross carry hold which I find to be a bit easier/faster to do actually.

I am very pleased with our Moby Wrap, not only is the color of the wrap pretty (I was worried when Keith told me he purchased red, that it would be tomato red or tacky red, instead it’s an autumny maple red!), but I like having the ability to do different holds, it’s soft and snuggly for the baby, and it’s one-size fit’s all so it can fit me and also fit Keith (who is over 6ft tall).

So I am curious, do you babywear? Why/why not? If you do, what are/is your favorite type of carrier and why? Where is your favorite store to purchase from?

I am so interested in the responses!!

Breastfeeding: 6wks : Lots of Photos and Reflections

Today we hit a breastfeeding milestone, 6 weeks of Tristan having nothing but my breastmilk to nourish and sustain him. Now keep in mind, I am sleep deprived as I write this.

It’s interesting for me considering I breastfed my oldest son from birth until he self weaned after he turned 4yrs old. I’ve gone back and re-read all my archives, not only did I sound like a typical blogger at the time heh, but even then I was passionate about breastfeeding and the benefits for both me and my son.

With Tristan we did encounter some issues for the first 3 weeks, mainly that he was a very chill/sleepy baby so he would fall asleep at the breast as soon as he would latch, it caused many worries for me as I had zero issues breastfeeding my first son. Thankfully after week 3 and two visits to a lactation consultant (who loved our BumGenius cloth diapers, and said we were the first parents to use cloth diapers in all her 10+ yrs working as a LC!), he has “woken up” if you will, and we’ve had no further issues.

I do feel a large part of my breastfeeding “success” is that formula/bottles were never an option in my mind. As with my first, I made sure we did not have any artificial nipples in the home, did not purchase formula (which NEVER crossed my mind even when I was pregnant with my first son), and I’ve always had a “this will work no matter what I have to do” attitude.

I also did not let anyone’s opinions affect me. I could care less if my family, friends, hell my boyfriend, supported me in my choice. Granted it’s nice to have that emotional support I’m sure, but at the end of the day it’s a relationship between my child and myself. One worth fighting for.

I remember the nurses being judgmental and downright rude to me as I nursed Tristan. I had almost every single nurse act surprised and even angry that I did not have sore nipples or breasts from letting my newborn nurse as much as he wanted/needed to. I had one nurse (that I “fired”) verbally attack me for letting him stay at the breast for 3 hours one afternoon. That it wasn’t “normal”. I had many nurses try to get me to leave him in the nursery… for no reason at all. I of course declined, and after a certain point, not so politely.

When I had Daniel, the nurses made it their personal goal to try and talk me into giving him formula, one even tried to sneak a bottle into my baby without my knowledge or consent, if it wasn’t for my twin sister noticing and stopping it, who knows what could have happened. I had one night nurse try to tell me that it was ok to give formula because it would be given through an oral syringe, so that made it “ok” in her eyes.

In both cases, no one had a valid reason of why they were so disturbed that I was breastfeeding my new baby. In both cases I did not have one single nurse that was happy to see me breastfeeding.

I do realize I tend to judge, and I am harsh, to those who formula feed by CHOICE. Very few people have a valid reason to not breastfeed. Most of the reasons are selfish, misguided, lazy, or they cave into pressure from those around them to give their babies a dead powdered (possibly recalled) substance filled with corn syrup, oils, powdered vitamins, etc.

I also realize some people that make the CHOICE to formula feed, do so out of ignorance. How many times have we all heard mother’s say they chose to feed their infants formula because the baby was “so hungry!” around 2 weeks, 3 months, etc. It hurts me that simply because their baby was going through a growth spurt, instead of RESEARCHING it, instead of reaching out to their local LLL or LC, they instead cram a bottle of potentially harmful material into their babies mouths.

It’s NOT NORMAL that we have to have LAWS in place to be able to nourish our babies the way our bodies are set up to do. We have milk ducts for a reason.

Now granted I may come across a bit harsh and I fully expect that I will offend/upset someone with my thoughts and opinions. I am not going to apologize for that. Generally those who FEEL attacked, are actually feeling guilty or not confident in their parental choice for feeding their child.

On the other hand, those who have a valid medical reason (of course trying to get donated breastmilk first), should have the ability to use formula to feed their child.

I’ve gotten a bit off track here, suffice to say I plan on breastfeeding Tristan until he self-weans, just like his big brother did, there is absolutely no reason why I would do it any differently.

Wordless Wednesday #1

Grocery Shopping/Meal Planning

Do you do weekly meal plans? If so, mind sharing your process? Keith and I are going to start meal planning as it will help us organize our food money more efficiently but also eliminate the hours long process of “What’s for dinner?” that drives us INSANE. Also, what is typically on your weekly/bi-weekly grocery list? Do you have a semi-frequent rotation of specific meals? I would appreciate any advice, links to helpful websites, etc!

Thoughts of Autumn & General Ramblings

Autumn has always been a time of reflection for me. Perhaps it stems from my birthday being in October or the way everything seems to slow down.

More and more I am trying to work on being a better person, a better mother, a better girlfriend. I’ve spent the past year pretty much in bed due to pregnancy complications, then recovering from the emergency repeat c-section, and lately because there’s nothing better than laying with the baby and nursing him (I get rewarded with sleepy, milky smiles!).

I’ve also been trying to get more one-on-one time with Daniel, I realize it must have been so hard on him to see me go through a difficult pregnancy, labor, and the c-section recovery. We play a LOT of Uno, try to go to the park (the weather lately is very rainy and cold), watch movies together (with popcorn), etc.

I can’t wait until Spring, when the baby is a bit older, the weather is nicer, and I should be 100% healed physically from the c-section. I’m not used to being stuck at home all the time. I am trying my best to suck it up and get out more often, just to take photos again. I am hoping to eventually get a membership either to the Brookfield Zoo or the Chicago Botanic Gardens. I think Daniel would enjoy the zoo more though.

Autumn also brings out the fanatical cleaning, organizing, decorating side of me. I am hoping to have the bathroom and bedrooms painted by January if possible, any affordable paint brand suggestions? I’ve been hoarding links from Real Simple in hopes of gaining some fresh ideas on how to decorate. I really would love a room with green accents and a room with blue accents. I am also on the hunt on how to display photos WITHOUT the use of a frame. Do you have any free or super cheap decorating/renovating ideas?

I am also working on managing our food budget a bit better, I took a lot of the advice on the entry, Grocery Shopping/Meal Planning and here is the super long list of our planned meals in no particular order. I will do my best to blog the recipes!

• Moist and Fluffy Pumpkin Pancakes with Bacon
• Thanksgiving Dinner
• Homemade Pizza
• Hamburgers w/Sweet Potato Fries
• Lasagna
• Chili and Cornbread
• Chicken and Dumplings
• Avocado Corn Salad w/ Beef Enchiladas
• Taco Salad
• Southwestern Pasta
• Quick Gumbo
• Creamy Roasted Garlic Potato Soup
• French Onion Soup and Salad
• Meatloaf w/Mashed Potatoes
• Slow-cooker Beef Stew w/Biscuits
• Southwestern Salmon w/Avocado Corn Salad
• Spaghetti and Meatballs
• Pumpkin Tortilla Soup
• Beef Stir-fry

Lastly, I am testing out a “footer” in my RSS feed, if you are reading this entry via that feed, I would appreciate your feedback if it is a welcome addition or too distracting. I also added a sidebar to the left of the entries and changed it to display three entries at a time. Let me know if these changes are positive or negative to you!

Wordless Wednesday #2