Babywearing!

OR: I tie, buckle and sling my baby from my body!

Remember this post?

I still stand by what I said, although it was a little harsh about Bjorns.... However, the more I read of people's accounts with them the more I'm glad I've never bought one. I find that often when I am wearing Trixie around other moms with little babies they'll make some comment that they've tried wearing their babies, but the babies didn't like it. So, naturally, I'll ask which carrier they used and their answer is always either a Bjorn or a Snuggli.

le sigh.

Since my last post I have not been blessed with the blue daisy Didymos, I guess Adam didn't get the hint that well! I have bought a Beco Butterfly though, which some people might say is the same as a Bjorn, but it's soooo not. The Beco does have a panel between you and your baby, which I find to be annoying, but it's small and still gives me lots of contact with Trixie. It's also to have the panel there because it makes putting the baby into a back carry really easy.

The Beco also differs from a Bjorn in how it sits the baby. In a Bjorn the baby sits on it's crotch, which is hard on the baby's hips, pelvis and spine (do a Google search if you don't believe me), whereas in a Beco (or Pikklo, Ergo, Jet Pack, etc.) the baby sits on their bum, which is much better for the baby's hips. Laura at the Portable Baby explains this better (and explains why facing out isn't good for a baby).

I've also recently bought a Baby Hawk, which is a great carrier. Trixie fell asleep in it with in a couple minutes of trying it on for the first time, which lets me know that it's a great purchase for us. I'll try to post some pictures of us using it. The Baby Hawk is really easy to put on, it just ties to your body with straps. You can wear your baby on your back with it, although it does take a little practice.

I use my New Native pouch a lot in the carrier rotation, Trixie either lays in it in the cradle hold, which isn't her favourite, or she sits cross legged. She's so cute in the pouch with just her little head poking out. (thanks Regan for the picture!) I also use the pouch to do a hip carry, although Trixie is a little small for this and my pouch is a little big on me. I covet a size 2 or 3 Didymos to use like a Rebozo for a hip carry. It is really quite amazing what you can do with a piece of fabric!

And so concludes my recent forays into one of my new favourite things: Babywearing! (Trixie gives Babywearing a gummy, drooly smile)

Edited to add,
here is an old article (from the 90s) about how some carriers are bad for a baby's spine. At the top of the article it has a disclaimer: "an upright carrier should hold your baby the way your arms would, e.g., facing you with legs in a frog-like, spread-squat position with the baby's weight supported across the buttocks and thighs"

I tie my baby to my body.

Before I had Trixie I knew about this baby wearing thing, but since I've had her I've fallen absolutely in love with baby wearing. My article of choice is a wrap, so really I do tie Trixie to my body.

In all honestly I've become a bit of a baby wearing snob. I don't much consider it baby wearing if someone is using a bjorn or other mass marketed devise like that. (I'm sure I'll get yelled at for saying that.) I don't consider it baby wearing because there is so much engineering between you and your baby. In the bjorn there is a padded panel that separates you from your baby, where as if you use a wrap you are tummy to tummy with your baby, almost becoming one with your baby. Also I've heard more complains about bjorns than any other carrier, how they are really uncomfortable and how the baby isn't well supported and such. In a wrap a baby is really well supported, and it's comfortable for them. Trixie just curls herself up around my body and snuggles in and often sleeps when I wear her.

Wearing Trixie has also helped me to recover from my c-section and helped to strengthen my abs and back after pregnancy. At my first hard workout back after having her I didn't have any pain when I was working my abs, I totally attribute this to wearing Trixie so much. It's a great work out regime. My muscles are strengthening as she grows, so she isn't too heavy for me. I suspect I'll be able to wear her well into her toddlerhood.

Also baby wearing is so convenient. I can go places with Trixie that I wouldn't be able to take her in a stroller. Shopping is easier since I don't have to worry about lugging a car seat around or dealing with a stroller and a basket as I shop. I just wear Trixie and I go. I have both hands free and she sleeps. And as an added bonus all sorts of people stop to compliment me on Trixie and how cute she is and how she looks so comfortable. Sometimes I feel like such a celebrity in the grocery store in the middle of the day, all of the little old blue hairs stopping me to coo at my baby. It's good for Trixie too when there are a lot of strangers around. She's free to interact with them and feel confident because I am right there, or if she is overwhelmed she can nuzzle into the wrap and hide away from everyone.

While I love wearing Trixie in a Moby, I'm finding that it's a really hot wrap, and with summer breathing down our necks I want something a little lighter. I bought a solar veil wrap and it's nice, but I want this. They are the Rolls Royces of wraps, and they're sturdy and light. I think that the blue one with the daisies is the prettiest. (hint hint Adam... )

hee hee hee.

(okay maybe this post was just a not so subtle ploy to convince Adam that I need the didy, although I do stand by everything I've said.)

It will grow flowers....

Adam may have been right....

I'm a hippy.

Today my midwife came over to pick up her birth pool and give us a receipt and I sent my placenta home with her. Initially I asked for it from the hospital because I wanted to encapsulate it, but since I needed stupid drugs I can't use it, so it's just been taking up space in my freezer. She said that she would take it home and use it in her garden, which makes me happy that it isn't just going to get thrown out. But that's not what makes me a hippy. As I was pulling it from the freezer I peeked into the outer bag and thanked it.
Yes, Internets I thanked my placenta. And the scary part is I didn't realize I had done it until I handed the bag over and realized that I thanked it.
I know that some people highly regard their placentas and some hold special ceremonies or other rituals to thank their placentas for what they've done. But I didn't know I was one of those people. I guess I am.

I think I need to go and buy some birkenstocks now... I wonder if they make baby ones too?

Ohhh that waskally blogger!

My absence can be explained, I promise. Apparently the people we use the host our page was moving something or changing somehow and it wasn't letting me upload my entries. But now I see that it has allowed it, so I'm back! To be fair it wasn't blogger, but I can't remember the name of the host. So there.

Nothing much is new here.
I've had some fun health stuff. After a perfect pregnancy I've been plagued with high blood pressure. There has been lots of talk of pre-eclampsia, which is hella scary! But it looks like it's not that, perhaps pregnancy induced hypertension? I don't know. Yesterday at the midwife appointment it was perfect and normal, but when I take it today it's scary high. I'm almost inclined to think that it's my blood pressure cuff, with a little hypertension mixed in. So we did have to make the trek to the hospital when I had a really scary reading but all was well, and I was discharged on house arrest. Not quite bed rest, but could be soon.
Sucky deal!
I still might be able to have a home birth, which we all know I really want. But if I have to have a hospital birth so I don't die, I'll go to the hospital. And then I'll try for a home birth with the next one.
I've been seeing an acupuncturist to try and bring my blood pressure down. It's strange to lay there when you know there are multiple needles sticking out of you. But if it works I'm not going to stop. Poor Adam is having troubles accepting that acupuncture could work. I'm really making him look beyond what he's accustomed to regarding science and such with this pregnancy. But he's willing to, and I love him for it.
My doctor had me do a 24 hour urine test. Which is gross and no one wants to hear about it, but have you ever wondered how much you pee in a whole day? It's crazy. So to do the test you pee in a cup and pour it in a big ol' jug. I nearly filled two 3- litre jugs! Dude that's a lot of pee! Hee hee, then poor Adam had to carry it into the hospital, after all I was going there assuming that I was about to die with my freaky high blood pressure, carrying 5 litres of liquid wasn't good for me.
So there have been my last few days summed up, oh and I have a killer cold.
To recap,
high blood pressure, not sure why
sometimes normal blood pressure, confusing
needles all over, funny
jug o' pee, gross, yet amusing
nasty cold, evil, but expected (this is what my body does when I'm stressed)

Happy Hump Day!

UGH

Today is an ugh kinda day. Adam and I had to get up at the horrible ungodly hour of 8am. Which I know will have some people rolling their eyes, I roll them too, when I read that. But I wake every hour to pee, and don't go back to sleep quickly, so 8am is hell! Oi. How did I ever hold down a normal job?
I have no clue.
So anyhow today was an early day because we were interviewing a slew of midwives. Up until today we'd interviewed one, and she was nice, eccentric and I would have been fine with her, but I really want someone I just click with. Today I found that clicky person, and so did Adam, but it's not the same person. However Adam's person is my second choice.
Adam and I do agree though, that we do not want a midwife who will wave incense around me and chant hippy stuff. I'd be liable to drown her in the birthing tub, then labour around her floating corpse. (that's a horrible image....) Okay I promise I won't drown my midwife, but we don't want any crystals being brought into the whole birth experience. I want someone like me, who's a lot of no nonsense and will tell me, straight up, what I need to know. (I'm not saying that I'm no nonsense.... I'm sure I have lots of nonsense....) So it's a hard choice. We'll see what happens.
There was lots of talk of doulas, and we're on the fence. Adam's convinced that he can do it without one, but I worry that it will be a lot of work for him to support me all by himself. Having family step in isn't an option at all for me since our family is in Canada and I wouldn't feel comfortable with any family flitting around me during my birth (or really for the first week after she's born). We might consider a student doula since we don't need an advocate in a hospital since we're not going to one, and if we do have to be transferred the midwife would step into the position as doula at the hospital. In any case it's another decision.
I do wish this was all cut and dry. It's unfortunate that pregnancy and birth is so medicalized now and that we don't have access to more natural births in our lives. What I'm trying to say is that if both Adam and I had seen several births in our lives this would be a cut and dry decision for us, we would have a lot more of an idea of what we want. However we're not privy to that in our culture and I'm going on my gut instincts that this is what I need and Adam has to rely on that too, even though his gut isn't quite there yet. (although he's making strides and is still the only person who's allowed to have doubts)
In any case we're going ahead with it. And in 12-17 weeks I should have a lovely birth story for you, ending with me birthing at home or being transferred to a hospital, but still happy that I tried it my way. I guess really all that matters is that I'm comfortable (with my birth choice), which is totally selfish, but I feel that my comfort level directly impacts my baby, and I truly believe that this is the best choice for her.
Golly I can't wait to show everyone pictures of her.
I bet she's going to be 6ish pounds and a cue ball! I can't wait to see what colour her eyes will be (when the pigment comes in) or if she will have my nail beds or Adam's.
We shall soon see.

Jesus Camp.

Adam and I watched Jesus Camp last night. I'm not sure why I like to torture myself with documentaries that I KNOW will send me into a tizzy. And yet, I do, it's like I'm some sort of sadist/ masochist freak (because I also made Adam watch it.) Throughout the movie we'd look at each other wide eyed and shocked that people think like the people on the show did.
So to recap, the movie followed a couple of kids and their families who are Evangelical Christians as they prepared to go to a summer bible camp. The camp claims to prepare the children to be "dedicated Christian soldiers in God's army", and to teach them how to take America back for Christ.
I know WTF! Soldiers? Soldiers! These were children, pre teen children at the oldest, talking politics, bashing other (christian) religions and praising George W. Bush. The pastor, Becky Fischer explained that there are Muslim camps that teach children how to use guns and hand grenades, to justify brainwashing the children in her church and ultimately the camp. I'm not sure if there are Muslim camps that teach children this, in addition to being prepared to lay down their lives like Becky says, but to use that as a basis for her camps is wrong, in my opinion. Granted she doesn't have the kids using guns and other weapons, but to try to model a camp after something so grotesque is scary, even if it is just in name.
During one scene, one of the leaders at the camp brings out a life sized cutout of Bushy-Busherkins and they have the children pray to him, begging him to choose a good superior judge. They prayed for him to continue to lead the country as well as he already has. I sighed out loud at this scene. (I only sighed because I was getting numb and it wasn't the worst of them all.) Children shouldn't get involved in politics, they should be worried about child things. It was a scene that really evidenced how these children were having their childhoods robbed from them. It was sad.
There was another scene where a particularly brainwashed child was commenting how there are dead churches. The ones where the worshippers sit quietly and pray quietly. She mimicked them making her voice drone and robotic chanting something like 'We worship you God...'. I was disturbed by this scene because she's 9, and yet she has this hatred for other Christian sects, hatred for other people. When I was 9, I had no idea that there were other religions, nor did I care, because I thought everyone was the same, and I was happy with that thought.
That same girl would preach to other random strangers, and there was a scene where she gave a book to a random girl in a bowling ally, telling the stranger that God told her to do it. Her parents were proud, the stranger was befuddled. I worry that someday that little girl will approach someone and the stranger won't politely thank her, that stranger may get offended, perhaps hurting her. And yet her parents encourage her to do this. I wondered to myself what I would have done. After my initial shock, I think I would just tell her I wasn't interested and to have a nice day. Then I would stare daggers at her parents for allowing their daughter to be so brash.
There was another girl in the movie. She was 10 and liked to dance. She commented that she will only dance to Christian Rock, and that she sometimes danced for the flesh, but it was wrong and she shouldn't. She should only dance to proclaim her faith. She's 10. 10! So wrong. During the movie there were several close ups of this little girl crying during a lively prayer. She seemed to really get involved and always ended up crying. I wonder, if God loved her so much, and her him, why does she cry so much? Why is she encouraged to cry? There was one scene where she spilled 3-4 big tears and she looked right into the camera, then quickly away. Aware that she was being filmed, like she was making sure that her tears weren't wasted. Again, a freaky loss of innocence.
The last boy I need to mention was about 9 or 10; he had a bad haircut, but that isn't the issue, although it did bare mentioning, it was that bad. He liked to preach and was often given the opportunity. He told Ted Haggard that he particularly liked to preach about faith. Ted asked him if people liked to listen to him and the kid said yes. To which Ted asked if it was because he was a cute kid, or because he has good content? Then Ted told him to keep it up and rely on his cuteness and that by the time he was 30 his content will come. The kid was a little taken aback, and Ted was smug. This exchange solidified my dislike for Ted, I thought it was mean spirited. I don't think a child should preach, but who was Ted to tell him he wasn't good. Anyhow this is neither here nor there. This child was almost militant in his beliefs. A conversation was filmed of him and his mom during one of their home school lessons regarding evolution. The boy said it was stupid, and doesn't understand how people could believe it and not creationism. (The whole movie seemed to really lack in the whole science department, clearly no engineers are being turned into soldiers.) The mother also asked him about global warming and he explained (I'm sure he was just regurgitating) that it's not true, that the mean global temperature has only gone up 0.6 degrees in 10 years, and that isn't anything to worry about. (To which I commented that 0.6 degrees in 10 years, when it's been stable for millions is a lot, anyhow I digress.) I was saddened by the whole scene. Science is important, and yet, he is missing out. The movie said that 70 or 75% of the home schooled kids in America are Evangelical Christians. That's a lot of science not being taught.
Finally there was a lot of anti abortion talk. What I found interesting is that the leader was showing the kids what a 7 week embryo looks like, it was about 5X too big. Clearly someone missed a science lesson, or 400. Anyhow the kids were all given plastic embryos, there was much crying and loud praying. I rolled my eyes. I have strong convictions about abortion, and they seem to be the exact opposite of what these kids are being taught. I had to look away. Children should not be involved in politics. But this abortion talk is for another entry, on another day.
Anyhow the movie was interesting. If you're as liberal as I am, it's scary. Becky even commented that really liberal liberals should be scared. I'm not so much scared by her, I'm disgusted, and I pity these children. Ted commented that the Evangelicals make up so much of the population that they can sway a vote, that scares me a little.
Little liberal me, with a blog and a argumentative nature.

Decisions (edited)

I haven't made it a secret that Adam and I really want to have a baby. So along with our discussions on timing, names and nursery options we've also discussed other more hippy topics. Like co-sleeping, babywearing, breastfeeding and circumcision. For the record I am pro on the first three and vehemently oppose circumcision.
Did you know that when the doctor circumcises a baby, the baby is strapped down onto a board? Then when the doctor starts he has to rip the foreskin off of the baby's penis! The foreskin is attached to the baby like your fingernail is attached to your fingernail bed. It's not until the child is older does it start to detach.
Like reading up on what kind of a stroller I want, I've also researched circumcisions, and I'm glad I'm not a boy! I've read a lot of the arguments that parents give as to why they get them. My favourites are: It's cleaner. So I wonder if the parents have ever heard of soap, and how it's used. Furthermore the majority of the men in the world aren't circumcised and they're still clean. Another argument is that a circumcised male is more protected against AIDS. To which I reply-- condoms. (I've read both sides of this argument, so say it increases the odds and other say it doesn't)
Anyhow here's a website about circumcision and some of the techniques used. Look at the pictures (they're gory, be warned) and then if you're a woman be thankful you are, if you're going to have kids, vow never to do that to your baby boy, and if you're a man who has been circumcised, I'm truly sorry. Finally if you're an uncircumcised man, count yourself lucky!


Edited to add...
Jenny, I know that you did not want to be controversial, and I'm glad that you left a comment. It's nice to read an honest, educated comment. I understand that doctors are gentle and not tearing away at a baby. Ripping was a bad verb for me to use. This whole rant was the product of people just not understanding what really happens when they agree to a circumcision, or agreeing to one without even thinking of the other option.
I was going to add a little anecdote and didn't, but here it is.
When I was in England I worked for a Jewish family and the mother explained to me in hushed tones that her son was a little different "down there". She went on to explain that she didn't want me to be shocked and that although she didn't really practice her religion she wanted to make sure her son went to the private Jewish schools in the area. She seemed, to me, a little ashamed that she had to have her son circumcised. I explained to her that it's quite common in Canada and assured her that I had seen a circumcised penis; she was relieved, telling me that it wasn't as common in the UK. I didn't think much of it then, but I had just moved to England and was still reeling that I was actually there. Later I thought about it and learning that it's not widely done in England made the UK seem so much more prosh to me. Fast forward to now, when I really need to consider it, and reading what I have, I've developed strong opinions. I also wanted to have a link to that website 'cause I am sure that there will be people who would question me on my decision.

Now, is it okay or is it not okay to pierce a baby girl's ears before she can decide for herself?