Teething

We're teething over here. I say we because it's a whole family experience. It's impacting every aspect of our lives and it sucks. It's not terrible terrible but it's not fun either. The worst part about it is that I find myself questioning if each new or changed behavior is teething. Teething is such a joke. I feel so bad for my little guy. Luckily he's still pretty happy, well, mostly happy. He's ready for his teeth to pop through so he can bite me.

OK, so what are the signs of teething?
drool. But that can mean they are getting teeth right now, or sometime in the next 6 months right? Not really definitive.
putting everything in their mouth (hands, toys, etc). Don't babies do this anyhow? This seems like it could be developmental as well as a sign of teething, not really definitive either.
being fussy. Um, babies get fussy sometimes. It could be for a variety of reasons (teething included). Still not definitive.
diaper rash. Can happen for any number of reasons.

The only definitive ways to know if it's really teething that I can tell are these - red, puffy gums with a white spot of pressure or teeth. We have the red gums with the white spots of pressure so where are the freaking teeth? It's getting old. I'm ready for them to get here already. We have days of fussy baby and then days of happy baby, we have days filled with drool, days with less drool, no diaper rash, and everything is in Q's mouth. We have red angry gums and still no teeth. Do you get the point? NO TEETH!

Our two newest teething remedies are an amber teething necklace and a mesh feeder with ice cubes of frozen breastmilk. They both seem to be helping actually. Other things we've tried include - cold wet washcloths to chew on, Boiron Camilia and Hyland's Teething Tablets, those cool ring toys you put in the fridge, our knuckles :)

What else can we try?

Water Color Wall Art

I've been in a constant state of redecoration around our house and I was looking for something new for Q's room. I ran across a pretty watercolor someone did and it inspired me to make this personalized art for his room.

Supplies:
watercolors (no need for anything too fancy)
watercolor paper (watercolors really look better on actual watercolor paper I've discovered)
simple picture frames
x-acto knife
glue stick
pencil stencil
letters or computer print out of letters


I quickly (during naptime) did some simple abstract watercolors. I tried to fill up the entire sheet of paper and use as many different colors as possible. I had a blast mixing colors and using different ratios of paint to water to get lighter shades and more bleeding together (which looked very cool) After the paintings had dried (the next naptime) I used some letters I had printed out off the computer to trace the outline on the back of the watercolor. I cut out each letter, used the glue stick to glue it onto a piece of white paper and stuck those babies in some frames.

Voila! Cheap, cute, waldorfy, personalized wall art!

I was very happy with how they turned out and I just love any excuse to play with watercolors.

Aren't they beautiful?

Decision Making is Hard

Moms make a lot of decisions. I would say parents make a lot of decision, but, well - In the many discussions B and I had before Q was born we talked about my role as a stay at home mom. One thing we talked about was while B is obviously a parent and involved in all major decision making, there would be a lot of decision making that I would make while he wasn't around. Small things of course but big things too - nap schedules, buying baby stuff, etc. We agreed that as a stay at home mom it would fall to me to keep up to date on important baby related information - health info and all sorts of other stuff. This means I read all the books and then pass on the info, links, or the post-it marked books to B. If you know me you know how much it kills me to have to do all this reading about baby stuff (sarcasmsarcasm). I've been thinking that I'd like to post some book reviews here on my blog because I've read some interesting books that I'd love to recommend (and warn against!). I've been thinking about information tonight; where parents get it, what they do with it, and what information to trust and follow. I find myself being a little bit of a hypocrite on certain things and I wanted to explore that and find my way. I find parenting to be a very windy path and a good chance for some self exploration and I hope to flesh some my own self exploration out here on my blog. Feel free to critique or comment as you wish.
The thing about me being a hypocrite - I noticed this today, well, this particular thing - I was talking to B, making some point about developmental milestones, and I heard myself say "the AAP, the WHO, and LLL all agree that..." but I also know that I don't follow a lot of guidelines given by these organizations because I think of them as outdated, incorrect, or otherwise not worthy of following. Let me qualify that by saying that there are a number of things these organizations recommend that pediatricians themselves do not agree with AND these organizations rarely agree with each other on specific issues.
I feel like a hypocrite because I use those organizations to support some of my choices and I rail against these organizations for their stance on other choices I make happily. I can't have it both ways, but I choose to anyhow.

The one thing that's indisputable in decision making is what works for you (given that you're not actual harming yourself or your child obviously). But then again some people would think you are harming your child for something as simple as... I don't know, but something simple.

I've been spending time with a variety of moms lately and I love being around people who make such different decisions than I do, I like to find out why they do what they do. Not in a critical way, but because it makes me examine myself and it usually makes me go to google and do some more research on something. It would be easy for one (like me) to alienate themselves by being very high and mighty about their decisions and preaching about how wrong people are for doing something. But who am I to talk? I know I'm not doing everything "right". Heck, I'm not even doing everything the way I want to be doing it, but everyday I try to do it better than the day before. I'm trying to move towards my idea of "right" which is obviously different from everyone elses (as it should be).

I have very strong opinions about how my children should be born and raised, but I recognize that not everyone feels the way I do (how boring would that be?) and I honestly appreciate it (for the most part). I'm really trying to make well informed decisions. I don't want to be someone who tells someone else what to do or why what they are doing is wrong just because it's not the decisions I made. But I'll be the first to hand you a book to educate yourself, which is not to say that if you are educated you would make the same decision I would. I like that even more. I love it when I find someone who read the same book I did and came out with a completely different take on things - its fascinating and it usually makes me go re-read the book and get lots more information than I had before.

Education is probably the thing I feel most strongly about. I try to respect any decision that is well educated. I think as a parent it is an incredible disservice to our children to follow pediatrician and government recommendations blindly. When I do follow someones suggest I want to follow with my eyes wide open, reading and trying to understand as much as I can.

Speaking of which, what is UP with pediatricians wackadoodle recommendations lately? I feel like I have read a million and one stories recently about pediatricians saying the most bizarre things and giving all sorts of parenting advice opposed to medical advice. That would make me bonkers!

I think the two things I feel most strongly about as a parent are these: educate yourself and trust (and follow) your intuition. I'm working on both of those.

Thank you for reading these late night ramblings.

Oh, and please recommend your favorite books to me!

A Funny Story

We're trying to be consistent with dinnertime, having it together at the table before Q's bedtime. The bedtime thing is the tricky part usually since he goes to bed at 7:30 and I have to be on the ball to have dinner ready by 6:30. It doesn't always happen. But the other night at dinner (at the table) B and I were talking about how much he watches us and takes his cues from us. B made a comment about us having a civilized meal and Q growing up with that (one of things B values about his childhood) - I of course had to make it into a joke and so I started acting really silly and manner-less. I was talking loudly with my mouth full of food and generally being very exaggerated for Q's benefit. Well Q-man didn't appreciate it at all and he pouted out his lower lip and after a few chin quivering moment he let out a howl that made his Papa jump up and pick him up out of his bumbo chair where he was having dinner with us. He calmed down immediately for his dad and gave me a dirty look and wouldn't come near me without crying for a while. Apparently he does not think it's funny when his Momma has no manners. The whole situation was quite funny though (in hindsight of course).

Buttons

It's been hot these past couple days so we've been trying to spend time outside in the early mornings. Yesterday while I watched Q work on his backwards crawling on the blanket out back, I sat and organized my buttons. When I was in highschool I thought it would be cool to have a button collection. It never amounted to anything besides buying a couple gallon bags of buttons at a flea market and then carrying them around with me for the next 10 years. Seriously, I have shipped this bag of buttons across the ocean twice in my craft supplies. It's finally time to do something with them. But what?

Meal Plan Monday

Last friday I did a big 'back of the cabinet' grocery shop where I stocked up on things like dry beans, pasta, rice, canned tomatoes, frozen proteins, etc.. So we're starting the month in a good place for lots of yummy meals. Yesterday we went and picked lots of veggies at my dad's house (corn, squash, tomatoes, basil, peppers, cucumbers). I just got the baby to sleep and clipped my coupons and I'm ready to make my meal plan.

Monday - Pesto pasta with spring veggies. Corn and heirloom tomato salad

Tuesday - chicken + spinach burritos

Wednesday - garbanzo bean "burgers" and whatever veggies are left from dads

Thursday - chicken bake with stuffing - corn, peas, carrots

Friday - grill night - blue cheese burgers and veggie kabobs

World Breastfeeding Week

Happy World Breastfeeding Week!

I'm visiting my in-law's this weekend and was talking with my mother in law and my husband about what a special gift I'm giving my son by breastfeeding him. I've been thinking a lot about the argument that most people (myself included) use to 'justify' (not in the bad way) their behavior. The '...and they're okay' argument. Like 'I let my baby cry-it-out and they're okay', or 'we never used carseats in my day and we're okay' - that type of thing. A lot of people I know were formula fed as infants, my mom was one of those babies raised on condensed milk and karo syrup and yes, she's okay. But how freaking cool is it that my husband and I were both breastfed through our toddler years. Especially since we were both preemies. I nursed until 3 and my husband until 4. That's much longer than most kids then and more than most kids now as well.I am eternally grateful to both my mother and mother in law for that and for what a strong immune system that gave us and with all those antibodies and good bonding that we're now able to pass on to our son. I feel lucky to be able to stay home with him, bond with him and feed him from my body. Of all the legacies to pass on to him, I'm very proud of this one. 

Breastfeeding has not been easy for me. A number of people marvel at how good I'm doing - being a mom, breastfeeding, handling all this change that has taken place, etc. It's a little flattering but it's also completely false. Really not true. I wouldn't say I'm doing bad or anything but I'm somewhere in the gray area. Aren't we all really? Breastfeeding has been hard. Pain, cracked nipples, a bad latch, engorgement, leaking, leaking, leaking, plugged ducts, plugged ducts, and yet another plugged duct, nursing strike, low supply, over supply - everyday is a new challenge. I'm feeling my way through it one day at a time and I won't even pretend to have an answer for how to fix any of those things. For me, parenting (breastfeeding included) is a lot of trial and error. A list of good telephone numbers helps a lot too. I couldn't have gotten this far with breastfeeding without La Leche League and the wonderful leaders of my group, my mom, my mother in law, my sister in laws, and Ellen and Nancy (lactation consultants). I can't even keep track of the phone calls I made through my tears for help. Oh yea, the other thing I've learned about parenting so far is how to ask for help. I do that a lot.