Jun 15, 2009 Babywearing, Mothering
Losing baby fat when you have a new baby is tough. Lack of sleep, eating on the run, and the demands of your tiny new boss can be overwhelming. Who has time to exercise? This new mom workout can really help - and give you some extra free time as well.
I love the Lullaby Exercise program from Chicks-n-Chickens. The set comes with a DVD and a CD, so you can use it anywhere in the house. I use my laptop on a dresser to watch the DVD where I am about to put Eva down for a nap.
You can use a sling, mei tai or just hold your baby in your arms while you sway, stretch and burn off calories. You can lose the baby fat and still have a little me time. The soothing music and gentle lyrics combined with your comforting touch help you dance your little one to sleep. Once they are asleep, you can indulge in a little “me” time with a book, a real meal, a nap or whatever else you need to do. Your baby is asleep, you have gotten in your workout for the day, and you have a few minutes to yourself!
Obviously, you need to check with your doctor before beginning any exercise program.
You can read more about the Lullaby Exercise program at Little for Now.
Jun 9, 2009 Cloth Diapers, WAHM
I almost forgot! The Giggle Guide, a new online resource for retailers, wrote a nice little article about my business this week. A lot of people ask me about what it is like to own a cloth diaper business. When I tell them it is one of the hardest jobs I’ve ever had, I don’t think they believe me. I suspect they think I am just trying to discourage competition. Honestly, this is a challenging business. It is NOT easy money by any stretch of the imagination, and it is not a fast path to riches. After more than 3 years in business, I am just starting to see the rewards. You just can’t expect to make enough to pay the bills during the first year or two while growing a retail business in almost any field. I’ve seen estimates that you can expect to take 5 years for a retail business to make a profit. In online retail, it is a bit faster, but not fast enough to replace the money you made in your pre-kid day job during the first couple of years.
The article does a great job of covering why it is challenging and why I also love doing it.
Check out this article about my cloth diaper business.
Jun 9, 2009 Cloth Diapers
Had to share this picture of my little froggie faced girl in her BumGenius cloth diaper and BumGenius leg warmers. This color is actually called Grasshopper, not the darker green Ribbit, but it looks so cute! I think she looks like a frog when she smiles because of her big sparkly eyes and her big cheeks. She just learned to crawl and has discovered the joy of pulling herself up to reach things that were previously out of reach. Suddenly, nothing is safe and that is just the way she likes it.
Mamas Froggie Girl - BumGenius
Eva’s vocabulary is growing fast. So far she says: bread, bottle, diaper, Grandma, Daddy, Mama (only when she is mad!), ball, yes (nods her head and says “sssss”), and a few other words. She just got tooth number 3, with tooth number 4 on it’s way soon.
I have to admit we are still really enjoying cloth diapering. Eva still has not worn a single disposable since she was still in the hospital. I just need to find time to sew some more medium diapers for her. I have so many tester diapers now, you’d think I have enough, but I really want to make her some more all in ones like the happy face diaper on my Twitter account. So far those are my favorites.
The BumGenius diapers still fit her really well, though we are on the largest snap setting now. She is so long and thin. She was sick for three whole weeks (can we say sleep deprivation!) but now that she is feeling better she is eating like a horse. Last month she would only eat a few tablespoons of food a day. Suddenly she is eating 4 ounces at a sitting 3 times a day. I need to get my baby food site working.
This week I have been sidetracked working on a diaper cake site. http://www.diapercakebakery.com.
I have too many web sites, but I keep finding cool stuff to make sites about.
May 10, 2009 Mothering, Uncategorized
Good Morning Mama!
Who needs breakfast in bed? I have a blue-green eyed alarm clock that blows kisses when she wakes me each morning. Just now she interrupted her exploration of her toys, the tag in the back of her discarded pajamas and the headboard to squirm over and give me a hug. This is one sweet baby and I am one lucky mama. If you are a mama - be sure to take a moment today to reflect on how lucky you are to be a mama.
This is my first Mother’s Day as a mama. Last year I was pregnant, but had just passed my first trimester and I was still so scared that all the cramping, bleeding and throwing up would hurt my unborn baby. I am still amazed each day to see this active, inquisitive little girl who made me a mom. Being a mom is not easy. We’ve had cold after cold, food allergies that cause tummy aches and even bleeding, sleepless nights, months of fussy teething, biting, pulling hair, and all of the other not-so-fun parts of parenting. Through it all, the sight of her smile reminds me that this adventure is one of the greatest on earth.
The gift of the infertility I struggled with all those years is that it is a constant reminder of how lucky I am to be a mom. Last Sunday, I sat in church next to my own mother, her oxygen tank at her side helping to keep her breathing. In her lap, my little girl happily played with a tiny doll that was once mine. I was reminded again how lucky I am to have my mother still here with us - and how amazing it is to be a mama too.
No matter how your day goes, be sure to take a moment today to reflect on how lucky you are to be a mama. You have the most important job on the planet. You are creating the future with every diaper changed, every fever soothed, every question answered. Your every action will be scrutinized, every statement challenged, every choice second-guessed. You’ll go to bed tired and wake up exhausted. You’ll be lucky to eat an uninterrupted meal. You’ll wonder many days how you can do all that is required of you.
Motherhood is not for the faint of heart, but benefits are unmatched. The job comes with unlimited smiles, as many hugs as you can fit into a day, and the reward of knowing that you hold the future in your heart.
Jan 28, 2009 Cloth Diapers
So soft on the tushie!
Had to share how cute Eva is in her new Drybees Gone Natural bamboo diaper. It was tough getting this pic though cause she keeps rolling onto her back when I put her down on her stomach. I managed to catch her mid-roll!
I love bamboo diapers because they are so soft and absorbent. I just got these in stock today, so I haven’t really field-tested it yet, but they look awesome. Nice and thick where it is needed but trim fitting overall. The fold out soakers mean fast drying. This is good, since I have no patience for any diaper that won’t dry fast.
As you can see, she finds this bamboo diaper very comfy!
Jan 27, 2009 Eating
I have been feeding Eva a few bites of this and that every few days for about a month now. I finally decided to gather some appropriate first foods type baby edibles to be ready as she starts wanting more food. I’ve made homemade baby food before, so this is an easy one for me. A quick trip to the store turned up a jar of baby carrots, and grown-up cans of unsweetened canned peaches and unsalted peas and unsalted green beans (all much cheaper than baby food). I also grabbed a six pack of organic applesauce cups. These are marketed to kids, but the only difference between the baby and kids stuff is the price and the size of the package.
While Eva won’t be eating a whole 4 ounce container of apple sauce, I figured it was still cheaper than jars of baby food. I’ll keep one in the diaper bag so I always have something to give her. I’ll finish off anything she won’t eat.
All told I got probably 2 months of baby food for about $6 or so. I’ll run the grown up stuff through the mini food processor, then freeze it in portion sizes. The experts say not to make your own baby carrots, beets, or spinach since they can have too many nitrates in them and the baby food people already test for that. So, that is why I got the more expensive pureed carrots rather than making my own from real carrots.
Eva has been cranky the last few days because she has another cold (two in four months is probably average, but still tiresome). She can’t sleep because her nose is stuffy and her throat is sore. So, for 3 nights she has been up every hour or so all night. Last night was better, but she is tired. So, for the extra vitamin A I decided to try her on carrots before her nap today. I mixed up a little batch of rice cereal with carrots. Didn’t taste too bad to me. Eva had a different opinion.
Guess who is not overly fond of carrots? Guess who can blow food out of her mouth now? Guess who covered mommy in carrot pox?
They say you need to try a kid on a new food 7-11 times before they will decide they like it. Good thing, cause I have a whole jar of carrots to use up now!
I managed to shovel enough of it in enough times that I think some actually we down. My little chipmunk was holding it in her mouth to avoid swallowing, so what came out was bigger than what went in. Finally, I started to sing to her in the hope of distracting her - or torturing her into compliance, depending on your view of my singing ability.
To the tune of the Yellow Brick Road song from the Wizard of Oz:
Swallow, swallow, swallow! Swallow the orange carrot stuff!
Swallow, swallow, swallow! Swallow the orange carrot stuff!
She laughed. Then blew more carrot pox on me.
Jan 24, 2009 Mothering
I am reading Elizabeth Pantley’s book The No-Cry Sleep Solution: Gentle Ways to Help Your Baby Sleep Through the Night
. I love Pantley’s books since she actually works with a group of moms to test ideas. She doesn’t just throw out theories about what “should” work. Just started it, but I am hoping it will help with Eva’s refusal or inability to sleep between 10 PM and 1 AM. I can’t really complain too much about her sleep habits since she sleeps really well once I get her down to sleep, it is the 3 hours of tossing and turning, fussing, and generally being a very tired baby that wears me down. I just finished reading The Lull-A-Baby Sleep Plan: The Soothing, Superfast Way to Help Your New Baby Sleep Through the Night…and Prevent Sleep Problems Before They Develop
, but I found very little there that is useful for Eva. The Lull a Baby plan basically suggests that kids will go to sleep on their own if given the opportunity and skills. What she is leaving out, though, is that the baby has to WANT to sleep to go to sleep willingly. My daughter takes after her mother and she thinks that sleep is a real bore. So, like me, she avoids it.
She naps well during the day so far, but I also have a copy of the No Cry Nap Solution. I figure I’ll read that soon since I know she won’t be napping so easily forever.
Pantley also wrote the The No-Cry Potty Training Solution: Gentle Ways to Help Your Child Say Good-Bye to Diapers (Pantley)
and the The No-Cry Discipline Solution: Gentle Ways to Encourage Good Behavior Without Whining, Tantrums, and Tears (Pantley)
. I found both books to be very helpful and realistic. The Discipline Solution is really well done. She addresses discipline problems for kids of several different ages, not just toddlers or just older kids. Pantley is a well-known attachment parenting advocate and her books have been praised by many attachment parenting experts including Dr. Sears.
Jan 15, 2009 Cloth Diapers
Rocky Mountain Diapers one size diapers are super cute. Part of the fun of my line of work is the review products I get to try. Often, I like the product so much I end up carrying it in my store as well as writing about it. Rocky Mountain Diapers one size diapers are no exception. While I do not currently sell them, I plan to start carrying them soon. They are very cute and very well made. They are fairly new on the scene and I had not heard much about them until Tracie, the owner of RMD, contacted me to ask if I would review her diapers. I was intrigued and quickly agreed to try them. What Tracie didn’t know is I just love trying new diapers!
Rocky Mountain Diapers one size pocket diaper offers adjustable leg elastic so you get a one size diaper without the bulk in the front like front-snap-down one size diapers. The elastic inside the leg casings offers 4 different snap settings to take your baby from X-Small (5 pounds or so) through Large (30 pounds). To adjust the diaper, you just reach inside the pocket opening and pull up the elastic. Then snap the elastic at the setting you prefer. No need to adjust the settings until your baby grows into the next size.
This arrangement makes it easy to fit these diapers on even a very small newborn with a snug fit around the legs and no added bulk in the front, but may be less convenient if you are using the same diapers on more than one size child at the same time. The leg casings create a ruffled effect on the legs when set on smaller sizes. The smaller the size setting, the more ruffly the legs.
Because these are pocket diapers, you can add absorbency as needed for your baby. The outer layer is waterproof polyurethane laminate (PUL) and the inside stay-dry lining is buttery soft suedecloth. You do not need a separate cover, though you will need to buy pocket diaper inserts. The pocket opening is inside the back of the diaper just below the waist elastic.
Rocky Mountain Diapers come in a handful of cute colors with contrasting suedecloth inner lining colors. I love suedecloth lined diapers because they feel dryer inside than fleece diapers and they resist staining better than other stay-dry diaper linings. The suedecloth inside is cuddly soft! My model is wearing a pink grapefruit Rocky Mountain Diapers one size with lemon suedecloth inside.
Learn More about Rocky Mountain Diapers
Jan 12, 2009 Mothering
Ah, those sweet memories of babyhood with one bad mama! This week Eva mastered several new skills. Rolling over in both directions, holding a toy with both hands, shoving things into our mouth, screaming like a Banshee to get what we want, and spitting it all out when we don’t. The latter comes in especially handy when mommy gives us that herbal “Please, for the love of all that is holy, go to sleep!” chamomile tummy stuff. We have decided it tastes icky.
Real funny mom! The old fleece pants on slick painted wood trick!
She also mastered the art of blindly reaching around her and grabbing whatever soft thing her hand lands on - then stuffing it in her mouth. A good mommy makes sure there is nothing within reach that does not belong in her mouth. A bad mommy laughs when she tries to get the cat’s tail in her mouth (the cat has NO sense of humor!) A good mommy also makes sure the diaper she removes is out of reach of tiny hands (even a bad mommy puts a stop to that one!).
She likes soft things, but won’t hold hard toys for more than a few seconds. My mom thinks that is a self-preservation instinct. Eva vigorously punches herself in the face several times an hour-always followed by a shocked look in my direction. I think she wants to know why her bad mommy lets her hit herself. I can see why not wanting to hold hard toys yet might be an instinct. Punching yourself in the face repeatedly is no fun. Punching yourself in the face repeatedly while holding something hard could have evolutionary implications.
Before she was born, I swore that nothing but breast milk would touch her lips until she was 6 months old. Being the bad mother, I introduced her to organic rice cereal mixed with breast milk last week, at 3 months. It does seem to help her tummy and she liked it. She actually giggled when I gave her the first few bites. She even took the spoon away from me and shoved it in her own mouth. A few days later I tried mixing rice cereal with soy formula since I was in a hurry and out of expressed milk. She learned to spit. A lot.
This stuff tastes WAY better than the cat!
Much more came out after each bite than I put in. Kinda like a horrific reneactment of the loaves and fishes. She smiled and cood and spit out every bite in triplicate. I finally dumped the remainder of the cereal down the drain. There was no way she was eating it. Fine, no cereal until I get a chance to pump again. Well, now she knows food comes in plates and bowls and that it is good stuff when not mixed with nasty soy formula.
So, again, being a bad mother, I let her taste a tiny bit of potato when we went out to eat and she started lunging for my plate. Seemed harmless, potatoes are bland and they are a vegetable! No one I know is allergic to potatoes (unless you count the fact that they make me break out in fat!).
She liked it. Swallowed it. Asked for more. Got it. Swallowed it. Shrieked indignantly when I suggested she had had enough for her little tummy to try this new food. What we had there was a failure to communicate -and a lot of people looking at me like mine was the only kid in the place making any noise. Guess who got more potato? Great, now I am the bad mommy indulging her kid’s every whim. Just “Please, for the love of all that is holy, do not scream in the restaurant!”
Jan 10, 2009 Cloth Diapers, WAHM
In case you haven’t heard me begging for people to pay attention to the unintended consequences of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA), I’m gonna say it again. This law is intended to protect kids from lead and some other dangers - what it does is go so far overboard that it is going to put thousands of kid-related businesses out of business.
Thousands of small businesses that create simple, SAFE items like handmade toys, cloth diapers, baby slings, and unique baby clothing are going to be forced to test and retest products already known to be safe. As the law is written, I have to test every single type of product I make - even if the only difference is in sizing.
If I make 3 different size diapers from the same bolt of fabric and the same color snaps, I will be required to test all three sizes - even though the materials are exactly the same in each diaper! Even more bizarre, I have to test these products even though the manufacturer of the fabric and the manufacturer of the snaps have already completed these tests. And the next business has to test those exact same materials again, since my results don’t help them at all. This does not make kids safer, it only makes it impossible for very small businesses to keep their doors open.
How expensive is this testing? While I have seen estimates all over the map, one of my colleagues shared her test estimates. She uses the exact same materials I do for making my pocket diapers. Both the maker of the waterproof fabric and the maker of the snaps have already tested them for lead and found NONE. The testing lab wants 6 of each size and color of diaper from her. Her diapers come in 3 sizes and 14 colors. That is 252 diapers that will be destroyed for testing. Then, they want to test front and back snaps (made from the same plastic), and each of the fabrics and the thread and elastic. End result? $58,800 plus the loss of 252 diapers all to prove that the fabric and snaps we already know to be safe is still safe - and those tests will need to be run by every other diaper maker who uses the same safe materials. There are hundreds of us using these same materials. Stupid is the nicest word that comes to mind. This does not help make kids safer, it only limits choices in the marketplace and it is going to make everything a lot more expensive.
What can you do? In addition to writing to Congress and the CPSC (Consumer Product Safety Commission) you can vote at Change.org by January 15. Click here to vote. While the voting mentions the handmade toy manufacturers, the end result will help all of us. Toy manufacturers will be hit the hardest on February 10, but all of us will feel this by Augut when the final parts of the rule go into place.
For information about how to contact Congress and the CPSC, along with suggestions for what to say, go to WAHM Solutions (my business blog).
