I thought when I had a baby I would no longer have to worry about being stylish. I figured people would think I had my act together if my hair were even brushed and I actually had on makeup.
But I realized recently, there's a whole new game once you have a baby. Your baby must become the stylish one. Or unstylish, in our case. I learned this recently as I visited an upscale mall during the day to walk around somewhere indoors.
So we drive to this mall, mainly because it's rather ritzy and I know I can't afford anything there. I started looking around, and realized the kids were rather smartly dressed. I saw lots of cute corduroy overalls, perky jeans and even some dresses. Some of the kids were older, but a few were babies.
I looked down at my little one as she ate her bottle in the food court. She was sporting a cotton long sleeved shirt, knit pants and a no-nonsense onesie - all from Babies R Us probably - and all looking a bit disheveled as she dribbled formula down her chin. The other kids clothes were likely either from Gymboree or the even-more expensive alternative, Nordstrom's. Even Saks Fifth Avenue has baby clothes. Saks!
Now, my daughter has a few onesies from Nordstrom's, courtesy of her generous great-aunt. And, I have to say, the clothes are pretty darned cute. But when they grow out of them within a month, I'm not about to spend double on an outfit.
Although, I did spend $25 at Target for an Ohio State track suit and onesie - so I suppose it all depends on your priorities. But the bottom line is, I'd rather my baby be happy than to be super trendy. And if she's happy in her knit pants and cotton onesies, then once again, I'm happy.
Friday, October 5, 2007
Can you read your baby?
I read something once (can't remember where, and therefore there will be no source - some journalism, eh?) about how mothers really can't tell why their baby is crying. They told researchers they could tell between hungry cries and wet cries, etc., but when put to the test, they really couldn't.
They tested women who worked in hospital nurseries, too, and they also failed to guess correctly more than half the time.
I'm not sure if I know all my baby's cries all the time, but I'm getting pretty darned good at figuring it out quickly, I must brag. But the key is more knowing the last time they ate, last time you changed a diaper, etc. If I came into it cold, without knowing the baby or any of those things, I wouldn't have a clue.
My little bug does have a different cry for when she's hungry, though. It starts off as more of a warning. It's a short 'wah,' followed by a pouty lip. Most of the time I just say 'aw, isn't that a cute cry,' forgetting it's about to lead to WWIII if I don't get on the ball.
The next cry is waaahhh, followed by more pouty lips. This sends me flying into the kitchen to start a bottle. On occasion I think I have more time before the meltdown, and try to stretch it out so I can finish something. This is usually a huge mistake.
By the time I have finished what I'm doing, the cries have escalated first to WAAAAAHHHHH to gutteral screams accompanied by red face and choking. Too late. Then you have to calm her down, because there's no way she'll eat like that.
So most of my time is spent trying to watch her closely and read her so I catch her at either wah, waaahhh, or WAAAAAHHHHH. A happy baby equals a happy momma!
They tested women who worked in hospital nurseries, too, and they also failed to guess correctly more than half the time.
I'm not sure if I know all my baby's cries all the time, but I'm getting pretty darned good at figuring it out quickly, I must brag. But the key is more knowing the last time they ate, last time you changed a diaper, etc. If I came into it cold, without knowing the baby or any of those things, I wouldn't have a clue.
My little bug does have a different cry for when she's hungry, though. It starts off as more of a warning. It's a short 'wah,' followed by a pouty lip. Most of the time I just say 'aw, isn't that a cute cry,' forgetting it's about to lead to WWIII if I don't get on the ball.
The next cry is waaahhh, followed by more pouty lips. This sends me flying into the kitchen to start a bottle. On occasion I think I have more time before the meltdown, and try to stretch it out so I can finish something. This is usually a huge mistake.
By the time I have finished what I'm doing, the cries have escalated first to WAAAAAHHHHH to gutteral screams accompanied by red face and choking. Too late. Then you have to calm her down, because there's no way she'll eat like that.
So most of my time is spent trying to watch her closely and read her so I catch her at either wah, waaahhh, or WAAAAAHHHHH. A happy baby equals a happy momma!
I have a floppy-headed baby
OK, so everyone has a floppy-headed baby. That's nothing new, at least in the beginning. But my child has a rather small head (10th percentile!), so it doesn't fit in the head support that came with our car seat.
This is a particularly cruel punishment for her and for me. I sit and watch her start out a car ride perfectly fine, with her head held high. Well, as most babies do, she starts to fall asleep. Then the head slowly bobs down. She valiantly pulls it up again, fighting sleep. Soon, she can't fight any more and there goes the head, flopped down and to the side.
There is no perfect baby gadget to solve this problem. I now am the proud owner of a Snuzzler, which is supposed to support their punkin' heads. And it does pretty well. But no amount of "snuzzling" is going to keep her head up if she falls asleep and it flops down. It's the great baby mystery - how to keep their heads up.
A cashier at Babies R Us had a great idea. Someone should make a headband with velcro on the back that attaches to the carseat, keeping their head pulled back. That way, it's a bit more flexible. I think it's brilliant, and someone should design it and make millions of dollars.
And please make it before I have my next child, so I don't have to go through this torture again!
This is a particularly cruel punishment for her and for me. I sit and watch her start out a car ride perfectly fine, with her head held high. Well, as most babies do, she starts to fall asleep. Then the head slowly bobs down. She valiantly pulls it up again, fighting sleep. Soon, she can't fight any more and there goes the head, flopped down and to the side.
There is no perfect baby gadget to solve this problem. I now am the proud owner of a Snuzzler, which is supposed to support their punkin' heads. And it does pretty well. But no amount of "snuzzling" is going to keep her head up if she falls asleep and it flops down. It's the great baby mystery - how to keep their heads up.
A cashier at Babies R Us had a great idea. Someone should make a headband with velcro on the back that attaches to the carseat, keeping their head pulled back. That way, it's a bit more flexible. I think it's brilliant, and someone should design it and make millions of dollars.
And please make it before I have my next child, so I don't have to go through this torture again!
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
The things for which no one can prepare you
There are certain things in life for which no one can prepare you. This morning, my little bug woke up at 6:30 a.m. after sleeping through the night. In celebration of this occasion, I look back on how unprepared I was.
No one can prepare you for the amount you will not sleep in the very beginning. I used to complain when I was pregnant about how terribly I slept the night before, waking up in the middle of the night to make a trek to the bathroom.
And yet, there would always be wry smiles from women who already had kids. And I thought, 'why are they laughing at me like that?' It's because they knew I had a shock in store.
It started in the hospital, when they would wake me every hour to check my vitals, even in the middle of the night. We sent out precious baby to the nursery at night so we could "sleep," but they kept bringing her back in!
I don't know what I was thinking before I had the baby. It was an utter shock for me to find out we had to feed her every three hours. I just thought parents didn't get sleep at night because their babies cried. Well, yeah, they cry because they're hungry every three hours or less.
Also, no one can prepare you for how much you will worry and the level of anxiety you'll feel in the beginning, thinking everything you do is wrong and that you'll ruin your baby for life. It's a painful and humbling feeling, especially for someone who is normally very confident in just about everything she does.
And to end on a good note, no one can prepare you for how much you will love you're child. You may not be IN love with him or her right away (due to the crying and the pooping and the nerves and such), but you will surely love that little pea pod and do whatever is necessary to protect him or her. You'll sit for hours, staring at your baby, wondering how you could have created life out of nothing, and why you were so blessed.
No one can prepare you for the amount you will not sleep in the very beginning. I used to complain when I was pregnant about how terribly I slept the night before, waking up in the middle of the night to make a trek to the bathroom.
And yet, there would always be wry smiles from women who already had kids. And I thought, 'why are they laughing at me like that?' It's because they knew I had a shock in store.
It started in the hospital, when they would wake me every hour to check my vitals, even in the middle of the night. We sent out precious baby to the nursery at night so we could "sleep," but they kept bringing her back in!
I don't know what I was thinking before I had the baby. It was an utter shock for me to find out we had to feed her every three hours. I just thought parents didn't get sleep at night because their babies cried. Well, yeah, they cry because they're hungry every three hours or less.
Also, no one can prepare you for how much you will worry and the level of anxiety you'll feel in the beginning, thinking everything you do is wrong and that you'll ruin your baby for life. It's a painful and humbling feeling, especially for someone who is normally very confident in just about everything she does.
And to end on a good note, no one can prepare you for how much you will love you're child. You may not be IN love with him or her right away (due to the crying and the pooping and the nerves and such), but you will surely love that little pea pod and do whatever is necessary to protect him or her. You'll sit for hours, staring at your baby, wondering how you could have created life out of nothing, and why you were so blessed.
Monday, October 1, 2007
My little unstoppable pea pod
I just read a story saying how dangerous it was to put your baby on their back to sleep. Well, it sorta said that. Of course, every new parent knows you HAVE to put your child on their back to sleep to prevent Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).
Being a first-time mom, I would hang my baby from a sling attached to the ceiling if they told me it would prevent SIDS. I'm scared witless of walking in her room at night to find ... I can't even write it. You know what I'm saying.
Anyway, this story talked about all the bad things that are happening now that parents are putting babies on their back to sleep. Essentially, their heads can flatten out if they spend too much time that way, and it can cause problems with their spines and hips. As if we parents didn't have enough to worry about.
But the end of the story is what really got me. They said to put the baby on their back and turn their head one way one night, and to the other side the next night. I have to laugh. I laugh at you, so-called experts. My baby doesn't even stay in the same ZIP code in her crib at night, not less with her head turned the same way. I come in, and she's at the other side of the crib, facing the other direction. And yet I never see her move like that when I'm in the room.
She must wait and the get the all-clear from her mobile teddy bear buddies (maybe the monkey is a spy, maybe that's his purpose!), and then start squirming. I hear lots of noise on the baby monitor, but as soon as I open the door, she's fast asleep, still as a log - and still swaddled. That's the amazing part, she can do all this while swaddled.
She's a stealthy one, my little Houdini of a pea pod.
Being a first-time mom, I would hang my baby from a sling attached to the ceiling if they told me it would prevent SIDS. I'm scared witless of walking in her room at night to find ... I can't even write it. You know what I'm saying.
Anyway, this story talked about all the bad things that are happening now that parents are putting babies on their back to sleep. Essentially, their heads can flatten out if they spend too much time that way, and it can cause problems with their spines and hips. As if we parents didn't have enough to worry about.
But the end of the story is what really got me. They said to put the baby on their back and turn their head one way one night, and to the other side the next night. I have to laugh. I laugh at you, so-called experts. My baby doesn't even stay in the same ZIP code in her crib at night, not less with her head turned the same way. I come in, and she's at the other side of the crib, facing the other direction. And yet I never see her move like that when I'm in the room.
She must wait and the get the all-clear from her mobile teddy bear buddies (maybe the monkey is a spy, maybe that's his purpose!), and then start squirming. I hear lots of noise on the baby monitor, but as soon as I open the door, she's fast asleep, still as a log - and still swaddled. That's the amazing part, she can do all this while swaddled.
She's a stealthy one, my little Houdini of a pea pod.
Sunday, September 30, 2007
One for the expecting moms
There were a couple of things I didn't know about the actual birthing process, or didn't fully appreciate until I was in the middle of it all.
First of all, I hate to be graphic (actually, no I don't - I love the shock value of it all) if you have a natural birth, you will more than likely poo on the table. I'm not saying it to be gross, I'm saying it because I was grateful when another mom told me like it was.
Yeah it's all pretty when it's on ER or Grey's Anatomy. But birthing ain't pretty. Fortunately, I had a C-section, so I couldn't see any of it. But if you do it the other way, it's pretty messy. First, if you happen to be one of the lucky 13 percent whose water breaks, the gross starts early.
It goes downhill from there. You rush to the hospital, and you immediately don a designer blue gown that gaps in the back, so you're showing your money maker to anyone who walks behind you.
There's a lot of grunting and moaning, and possibly even some screaming of obscenities. We skipped that part.
Then, if you're one of the many who make it to a natural delivery, you begin to push. Well, if you think about it, you're pushing really hard. And lots of things tend to come out of your body when you're pushing really hard. It's just a fact of life, but it's one I'm glad someone had told me ahead of time so I would have been prepared.
And finally, when the baby arrives, it's not all nice and normal-looking like on ER or Grey's Anatomy. Once again, pretty messy. It's covered in goo, and it's head is all misshaped, like a little alien baby. Sometimes they're blue or purple.
Even my baby was a bit of a mess when she arrived via C-section. I heard the doctor say, 'oh look, she's coming out peeing and pooping.' Lovely imagery - as I'm opened up on the table. Let's hope they cleaned all that up before sewing me up.
But you know what? None of it matters. Because all you're waiting to hear is that precious cry that signals my baby's doing just fine. And after that, all the gross in the world doesn't register.
First of all, I hate to be graphic (actually, no I don't - I love the shock value of it all) if you have a natural birth, you will more than likely poo on the table. I'm not saying it to be gross, I'm saying it because I was grateful when another mom told me like it was.
Yeah it's all pretty when it's on ER or Grey's Anatomy. But birthing ain't pretty. Fortunately, I had a C-section, so I couldn't see any of it. But if you do it the other way, it's pretty messy. First, if you happen to be one of the lucky 13 percent whose water breaks, the gross starts early.
It goes downhill from there. You rush to the hospital, and you immediately don a designer blue gown that gaps in the back, so you're showing your money maker to anyone who walks behind you.
There's a lot of grunting and moaning, and possibly even some screaming of obscenities. We skipped that part.
Then, if you're one of the many who make it to a natural delivery, you begin to push. Well, if you think about it, you're pushing really hard. And lots of things tend to come out of your body when you're pushing really hard. It's just a fact of life, but it's one I'm glad someone had told me ahead of time so I would have been prepared.
And finally, when the baby arrives, it's not all nice and normal-looking like on ER or Grey's Anatomy. Once again, pretty messy. It's covered in goo, and it's head is all misshaped, like a little alien baby. Sometimes they're blue or purple.
Even my baby was a bit of a mess when she arrived via C-section. I heard the doctor say, 'oh look, she's coming out peeing and pooping.' Lovely imagery - as I'm opened up on the table. Let's hope they cleaned all that up before sewing me up.
But you know what? None of it matters. Because all you're waiting to hear is that precious cry that signals my baby's doing just fine. And after that, all the gross in the world doesn't register.
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