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Monday, 08 June 2009
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Super Baby Food book review and giveaway
Attention to anyone who will ever need to feed a baby or child: get this book! I was given a copy of Super Baby Food, by Ruth Yaron, after my daughter was born. My cousin had heard such great things about it at her mom's group that she thought I might enjoy it as well and bought it for me. The term "enjoyment" doesn't do justice, though. "Need" would be much more suitable.
Super Baby Food is one book that you should absolutely have in your library. It's pretty hefty, covering every topic from timelines for introducing foods to your baby and nutrition tables for baby-sized portions, to safe cleaning alternatives and ideas for parties, crafts, and games! I have read and re-read this book, finding new and valuable information each time. This is the only book I have found that gives clear instructions as to:- when to introduce particular foods (including month-to-month schedules)
- how to prepare, store, and serve your own baby foods (with money and time saving tips)
- how to introduce solid foods while still maintaining a nursing schedule
- how to kill mice and other pests using only natural ingredients...(that's a joke, but it really is in the book)
- the reasons behind all of this advice!
The style that Ruth writes with is easy to understand, dusted with humor, and full of researched information. I appreciate it from the practical standpoint of a mother, and also the medical standpoint of a paramedic. Every parent or caretaker of babies through toddlers needs this book. It is your one stop shop for knowing everything about feeding your child. Your baby is worth knowing the how, what, when, and why of eating. It's hard being away from my baby while I'm working, but it's a lot easier knowing that I'm providing good food for her.Enter here win your own copy of this book!
What questions do you have about feeding your baby?
- when to introduce particular foods (including month-to-month schedules)
Monday, 18 May 2009
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Working-Mommy-Guilt
“A mother’s love for her child is like nothing else in the world. It knows no law, no pity, it dares all things and crushes down remorselessly all that stands in its path.”– Agatha Christie
Hi, my name is Rachel and I suffer from Working-Mommy-Guilt (WMG). Yes, I need a support group. No, there isn't one available...but even admitting that sentence through the anonymity of cyberspace makes me feel shakey inside. Sometimes, my WMG is really bad, like on Sunday after I've worked the last 6 days and am about to go back for 5 or 6 more. I honestly have a mental breakdown on those Sundays; I am overcome by my guilt at feeling like I do nothing well, and then that guilt manifests itself as self-hatred. In those moments, I truly despise my own being to its core. I feel like I'm not protecting my daughter when I let other people watch her. I feel like a bad mama when her pediatrician asks questions that I don't know the answer to, but that any mama who's home with her baby every day would know. I feel like I have no control over anything. WMG is not a nice place to be, friends.
I have bad dreams involving my daughter being taken away by well meaning people, and me just standing there watching, knowing the whole time that she is supposed to be in my arms and that I wasn't supposed to let her go. I've dreamt that she's said her first word and taken her first step while at her Grandma's house. In real life, I whisper to her every morning that I love her, will miss her so terribly throughout the day, and that I'm sorry I have to leave her. And I also add that she is NOT allowed to do any growing up until after 4pm when I'm home again!
I am, however, comforted by the fact that God has a purpose for my life including what's going on right now. I take courage in knowing that this won't be forever and that I can take steps towards change. I'm learning to love my husband more each day, seeing his relationship with our daughter grow and flourish because he's able to spend so much time with her. It still hurts, though, and it remains impossibly hard to see myself in the way that I should.
Where are the other women who suffer from WMG? What causes yours? Is there a cure?
Visit my full blog at http://LifeMoreSimply.blogspot.com
Sunday, 17 May 2009
Monday, 11 May 2009
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10 Ways to Save Time By Green Living
Too often, time is the cruncher that drives some mamas away from living more simply (okay, so that was a hidden pun; for those who are unfamiliar with the term, “crunchy” is often used to mean “natural” or “green”). Here are ten ways that I actually save time over one week by green living.
1) Remember that money = time! A penny saved is a penny that I don’t have to earn, which means more time spent with my family. Reusing means that you don’t have to re-buy something.
2) We reuse bath towels three or more times before washing them. Benefits? Saving on the wear of the towel, energy to heat the water, less water and soap for washing…and LESS TIME doing laundry. If it takes me 20 minutes to complete a load of laundry (gathering, putting in washer, transferring to dryer, taking upstairs, folding, putting away), that’s a savings of 40 minutes.3) Pocket Change cloth diapers. They are designed with a pocket that is open on both ends, allowing the liner to agitate out of the diaper during washing. All you have to do is throw the used diaper in the pail, then dump the pail into the washing machine. Benefits? NO TIME involved in separating diapers! 10 seconds x 10 diapers a day = almost 12 minutes.
4) Cloth diapers in general. Not only is it definitely better for the environment, my pocket book, and my baby’s skin, but it really does save me time. It takes me a lot more time to go shopping than it does to wash a load of laundry, and this also means less garbage for me to package up and lug out to the curb (at least an extra 5 minutes) every Friday morning. Sleep is of the essence for any new mama, believe me. Let’s say that I usually bought diapers with other things and only had to run out “separate” once in a while…It’d be about a total of 22 minutes.5) Turning off lights when I leave a room. Corny, I know, but think about it: if I turn the lights off when I leave the room, I save money and energy, and I also don’t have to walk back through the house before going to bed to turn them off. Savings of approximately 4 minutes a day = 28 minutes a week.6) I prepare batches of food for Amara all at once and then freeze the portions in ice cube trays to use later. Generally, I cook the food, throw it in the blender with some milk, spoon into the trays, freeze, pop out and wrap or bag. This may take 15 minutes total for an entire month’s worth of food, depending on what I’m making. Benefits? No cleaning of jars, bad stuff into my baby’s body, or wasting of food. Also less recyclables that I have to bring to the curb every Friday. This equals about 7 minutes a week, once I subtract the time I might spend cleaning the food containers from my own method.7) Instead of putting my baby on the floor, I put her on a blanket on the floor. For now, this means I don’t have to vacuum every day because I can just shake the blanket out when we’re done. Dare I admit this, but we only vacuum about once every three or four weeks (yikes). If she was on the floor, I would want to vacuum every day. Even if we’re only talking about one room, this saves on the life of the vacuum, the energy and money to provide the electricity, less noise pollution (even if only in the house!) and about 8 minutes a day (considering the time spent setting up the vacuum, vacuuming, and putting it away). A total of 42 minutes a week if I only vacuum once a month. Yes, we do take our shoes off when we’re home, so our floors really aren’t gross, just not something I would put my daughter who’s prone to eat the carpet down on it.8) My daughter gets a bath one time a week instead of every day. Most of the time, I just pop her in the shower with me, wash her up, and hand her off to her dad. From undressing her to re-dressing her, this takes about 15 minutes. If she got a bath every day, it’d be in our big bath tub. The whole process would waste a LOT of water, soap, heat, and time. To be exact, 25 minutes a day. Savings? 160 minutes a week.9) When I cook, I make double batches and freeze one. It’s healthier to eat at home, we all know, but with this method, it’s a lot easier, too. Only one set of dishes to clean (great for saving on energy, soap, and water), and half the time spent cooking. We eat the leftovers for lunch, so that takes care of lunches, too (I won’t calculate that time, though). This equals a grand total of 210 minutes a week. At least.10) Breastfeeding. I think everyone who’s ever heard of milk knows the great qualities--amazing health benefits for mama and baby as well as saving a TON of money (with formula easily being $25/powdered can which I’m told by coworkers lasts them only two or three days), but it saves me a tremendous amount of time, too. Some people may say, hey, but you have to pump at work! Well guess what, that’s “free” time! It legally has to be provided to me, and I’m actually able to continue working while pumping at my current job. In all, it saves time in the following ways: no shopping for it, no cleaning off diapers during the time when I was exclusively breast feeding (as the solids are okay to put right into the washer), no prepping bottles, no getting up during the night (breastfeeding allows you the beautiful option of bed sharing). If we’re ONLY talking about the nighttime here, we still save a lot of time. Amara still eats three times a night. I usually only have to wake up long enough to pull her over to me and make sure the blankets and such allow for a safe nursing time. Granted, what you can get away with will vary from family to family. If this equals 15 minutes a night, I’m saving myself at least 420 minutes a week compared to bottle feeding.
That’s a total of 941 minutes a week, or 15 hours and 41 minutes! By living more simply in just 9 ways, I am saving myself the equivalent in time of a part time job, leaving MORE time for those precious baby kisses and giggles.What "green" thing do you do that saves time?Visit my full blog about working mamas and natural living at: http://LifeMoreSimply.blogspot.com
Tuesday, 05 May 2009
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Natural Birth Q & A
Six months ago today, I gave birth to my first child. She is a delight and I often revisit that beautiful day in my mind. I used hypnobirthing as my birthing method and had an all natural-no drugs-minimal medical monitering-water birth. I was able to catch my own baby and bring her up to me, sharing her first moments in this world by kissing her and singing to her of how much I loved her.
Since bearing a child, I have been asked a lot of questions by people. Both men and women have asked questions, a lot of them repeats. In an attempt to educate the public, I am sharing the most popular ones and my responses with you. This may be TMI for some people, so be forewarned.- What did it feel like? As though my body was trying to turn itself inside out.
- Did it hurt, for real? Yes. I was able to sleep through the first part, and then relax myself through the second part when things started getting intense. During "transition," though, things were crazy. It wasn't the most painful thing I've ever felt, but it was the most intense thing I've ever felt. It just takes over your whole body. The most painful part was actually tearing, but the worst pain was the pressure in my legs during the whole thing because it was the most annoying of all the "pain". I recommend practicing deep relaxation before childbirth. I didn't scream, but I did groan loudly while pushing and I did have tremors from the pain during contractions.
- Would you do it without drugs again? Absolutely. I still wouldn't dream of using drugs during natural childbirth.
- What about tearing? The water helps a lot, and pushing slowly. I only tore a little bit, first degree. It stung, though!
- What does it feel like afterwards? First off, you still look 5 months pregnant after the kid comes out. It feels like all of your guts have no pressure on them and are just bumping around so you have a stomach ache and feel like throwing up. Putting pressure around your mid section helps. Also, the unterine cramping afterwards sucks, especially while nursing. I took Tylonal and Advil for this.
- Bleeding? This was an FYI for me: you bleed for up to 6 weeks after childbirth. After researching, I found out that this is from the area where the placenta was attached. Nursing and not doing strenuous activities helps speed up the healing process.
- Does it hurt to pee afterwards? It didn't for me, but I'm told that it does if you tear in the perinial area (between the vagina and anus) (which I didn't).
- How is sex afterwards? Let's just say that being "too loose" after childbirth is a MYTH. Some internal muscle tone is gone so I guess that's looser but that can be "fixed" by kegal exercises (or so I'm told). I was woried about this though, so I did some Internet research prior to any attempts at sex and found that some women really have a terrible time with this including internal things becoming external . Yikes. Be encouraged that not all women have problems--don't be worried like I was.
- What about pregnancy side effects afterwards? Well, I haven't thrown up, had heartburn, had leg cramps, or been nearly as tired since giving birth.
- Getting back into shape: I feel like the unlucky one among women with this. I look at other new moms and they looks awesome. Me? I lost about 26 lbs. during the first 3 weeks and have struggled ever since. That whole "you burn 500 extra calories a day by nursing" doesn't help me any. I'm six months post partum and still have 12 pounds to go. *sigh*
Childbirth is something that one would think is a horrendous, abnormal and scary situation that women unfortunately find themselves in--if you watch mainstream television! Let me correct your thinking and assure you that the media is wrong. Childbirth is natural and amazing. Intense, yes. Impossible? No. Be unafraid and instead, embrace the most incredible experience that you will ever have.
What have your natural births been like?
- What did it feel like? As though my body was trying to turn itself inside out.
mrsEast
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- Name: mrsEast
- Gender: Female
- Member Since: 8/8/2008
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About Me
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I am a mother and a wife. A woman who is strong and unafraid. A woman who works hard to supply for her family, while her heart desparately yearns to instead be home with them. I am a coordinator of activities at a Day Habilitation program, a paramedic for a county ambulance, and a volunteer firefighter. More importantly, I am woman who is in love with her Creator and trusts him with her future. I may go to work 5 or 6 days a week, but I'm also a semi-crunchy, breastfeeding, bed sharing, cloth diapering, natural parenting lady who's in love with my baby and desires to live life a little more simply.
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