“Don’t use the white grape juice container in the fridge,” what he means is: “Don’t use the white grape juice container in the fridge.” NOT: “Pour two ounces of homemade mint syrup (which I am storing in an old juice bottle) into Wonderboy’s fruit yogurt smoothie before you realize you are in fact pouring mint syrup and not white grape juice.”
Plain yogurt + fruit juice + mint syrup = UGH, in my book. Wonderboy didn’t seem to mind, though.
You know how I feel about baby toes, so the banner of Rebecca’s new blog caught my eye (and melted my heart) at once. Babylove is a celebration of all things baby, and after perusing its inaugural posts about babywearing and cosleeping, I can see that Rebecca is a kindred spirit.
My mention of baby slings yesterday brought this question from a reader:
Do you have any tips for how to wear a baby? I have never been able to get slings to work. When my first three were tiny, they would just scream if I put them in a sling, and they all got so big so fast that I couldn’t carry them in front carriers very long; they just *weighed* too much. Ditto for backpacks as they got older. I can’t really wear both twins at the same time in a sling (mine are 6 mos old), but if there are more children in the future, it’d be nice to know how to do the sling!
I have used the same Over the Shoulder Baby Holder with all five of my little ones (the bairn is snuggled in hers at this very moment—see somewhat grainy photo I have just snapped). I also have a rebozo—a long, lightweight cotton shawl—that I like for very hot summer days. I knot the shawl over my shoulder and slip the baby into the pouch. But for newborns I prefer my OTSBH. I wear it backward at first so that the shoulder pad is in front, under baby’s head. The first few times I use it with a newborn, I always nurse the baby immediately after putting her in the sling. She falls asleep that way and then I walk around a little bit to accustom her to the feel of riding nestled close to my body.
Proper fit is crucial. When Jane was born, I borrowed a sling my neighbor wasn’t using, and though I got several months of use out of it before I bought my own, I later realized that it had been too big for me and the baby hung too low. One reason I like the Over the Shoulder Baby Holder brand so much is that they offered a petite size which is just right for my shrimpy frame and keeps baby snuggled right by my heart.
However, the front-cradle position is only one way to wear a baby in a sling. The position I like best and find most useful is the hip carry. This doesn’t work for newborns, of course; the baby must be old enough to hold her head up. To moms whose newborns didn’t take to the sling, I would offer this advice: try again when they’re four or five months old. By that time, you’re toting the baby around on your hip most of the time anyway. The sling lets you do it with your hands free. I’ve slung my babies on my hip all the way through toddlerhood. Jane went through chemo in the hospital in hers.
To Angel, who asked the question above, I would suggest trying your six-month-olds in the hip carry (one at a time, of course) and see if they like that better than they did newborn cradle position. With twins, I’m sure you of all people could use a free hand!
For more sling advice: Danielle Bean just surveyed her readers about the best brand, and there’s a thread going at Real Learning as well.
UPDATE: Be sure to click on comments for more babywearing tips from a helpful reader!
Tags: family, parenting, babies, babywearing
“MOMMY!!!!!!! You know that little pink ball I found at the park? It just exploded EVERYWHERE!”
I am nursing a four-day-old: I can’t exactly spring up and rush to the scene of this alleged explosion. Scott hears and comes thundering. Even more alarming than Rose’s outcry is my husband’s quiet “Ohhhh no.”
Seems that little pink ball was a paintball.
Fortunately, the explosion—and an explosion it was indeed—occurred in the bathroom. Rose had just finished washing her newfound treasure and was drying it with the hand towel.
I keep having little flashes of what might have been (the sofa, the carpet, the drapes, the children). Scott will see me shudder and know at a glance what I’m thinking.
“I know,” he’ll say. “Suppose it had happened in the car?”
Talk about dodging a (little pink) bullet.
If you are five…
…and your grandmother puts a snapped-off tulip in a cup of water on the counter, painstakingly fill the cup with spoonfuls of dirt because “I thought if I planted it, it would keep growing.”
If you are seven…
…almost (but only almost) step on a snake as long as your little brother.
…get stung under the chin by a wasp.
If you are ten…
…recall a passage from that scintillating classic, All About Weeds
If you are any of the above…
…watch a Bill Nye the Science Guy and then recreate the solar system on the floor of your bedroom, using various stuffed animals to represent the planets.
Thank you all so much for your notes and well wishes. We came home from the hospital yesterday but naturally it has taken me a while to get to the computer. Our newest darling is currently slumbering in Grandma’s arms. Poor Grandma had to wait all day for her turn—this little sister is much in demand, and there are many arms to hold her!
Everything went very well during and after the delivery, and we are so happy to have her home. Official details: born 9:12 a.m. on April 14th, 8 lbs 3 oz, 21 inches. Looks exactly like Rose, just as the sonogram indicated.
I am somewhat tortured by the whole blog alias thing—seems so strange not to be shouting her name from the blogtops! And really, I have no idea what to call her here. Jane picked her name (in honor of Jane of Lantern Hill) and Rose, Beanie, and Wonderboy all grew into theirs. I suppose we’ll just give the baby a little time to grow an alias of her own. Ah, the demands technology places upon mere infants these days…
Anyway, thanks so much to all who wrote me, prayed for us, thought of us over the past few days. It has been lovely to sit down to all these warm and thoughtful notes. I wish I could show her off to you all in person!
And Alice, thanks for passing on the news as it broke!
Today’s the day. Water broke 1 a.m. Alice will have news when there is news to be had!
It seems I got the concepts of “on” and “off” confused while videotaping the neighborhood Easter egg hunt…Every time I thought I was turning the camera on to record, I was actually turning it off, and vice versa. Wound up with no footage at all of adorable children peering under bushes, but quite a lot footage of things upside down behind me—mostly neighbors’ bottoms. This ought to make me popular at the next homeowners’ meeting.
According to Beanie, five years old:
"Those people who believed in lots of gods and didn’t have any shirts."