SortaCrunchy

SortaCrunchy Recommends: Wearing the new baby (and beyond)

I'm feeling babywearing vibes from all over today!

First of all, I saw this post at Adventures in Babywearing wherein Stephanie has created a fab babywearing bloggers blogroll.  Next, I got an email from the wonderful company that started me out in wearing Baby Dacey - Lucky Baby.  (Who wants 10% off a new Lucky Baby sling?  Enter code LUCKY17 at checkout and voila!  10% off your next purchase today through March!)  Thirdly, my sister was telling me about her friend whose three week old son cries and cries unless she is holding him.  Oh my yes, do I know what that is like.  I told my sister her friend needs to get herself  sling!

All of this serves as motivation for me to finally publish a post I've been meaning to get written since my friend Megan (FriedOkra) asked me for my recommendations a while back.  A long while back.  Sorry, Megan!

Megan's question:
I need your ponderous, careful input about slings vs. wraps for newborns. What have you used and why? CAN one really get the right sling/wrap and learn how to NURSE baby in one? Ever?

I don't know about ponderous or careful, but I am always more than happy to share my experiences!  I wrote a bit about my general babywearing recommendations back in November, but wearing the newborn is an art in and of itself.

I didn't know about babywearing (beyond the Snugli) until D was about five or six months old, so I don't have a ton of newborn babywearing experience.  I have been wearing AJ since she was born, and I will be happy to share what worked for us in the earliest days and weeks - a ring sling.  My personal favorite is my Chicken Scratch ring sling, but there are a ton of wonderfully made and gorgeous unpadded ring slings on the market.

I like ring slings because they are infinitely adjustable and versatile.  I wore AJ in the tummy-to-tummy hold when she was a newborn and switched to the hip carry when she was six or eight weeks old.  A ring sling should last you on into toddlerhood, making it a great buy if you can only afford to have one carrier in your stash.

As far as nursing a baby in a sling?  Well, I've never been able to, but I also have oversupply issues combined with overactive letdown in the first six weeks of breastfeeding.  I have heard tell of plenty of mamas who have been able to nurse their babies while wearing them.  I'm just not one of them.  I would bet perusing the archives at TheBabyWearer forums would be helpful to anyone wanting to get tips on how to do this.  Also, I bet the mamas at your local La Leche League or Attachment Parenting International meetings would be able to give hands-on help.

Megan asked what I have used, so that's my recommendation based on actual experience.  There are many, many women who love a lightweight wrap for newborns.  The Moby is a particularly popular choice.  I've never worn a wrap, mostly because all the fabric is a little intimidating to me.  Wrap fans tend to really, really love their wraps, so there's got to be something to that.  Honestly, if I didn't already have a mei tai, I would have probably preferred a wrap.  My mei tai allows me to be totally hands-free, and I would imagine a wrap is the same way.  I think it is particularly important to have something you feel good about needing to do very few adjustments with your carrier if you have more than one child in your care.  The only drawback to a lightweight wrap is eventually baby will be too heavy to wear in it, so you'll have to choose a new carrier.  (and when I say lightweight, I am not thinking of the super gorgeous, heavy duty, woven wraps like Storchs and Didys!)

If you are able to get more than one carrier, I cannot tell you enough how much I love our Ergo.  Unfortunately, I hear rumblings that Ergo's business practices have not been so great lately (particularly to work-at-home parent businesses), so my glowing review of the Ergo is a little hesitant now, but I seriously could not survive these days without ours.  AJ spends a lot of time riding on my back in it around the house.  It makes my life so. much. easier.  There are lots of soft-structured carriers (also known in some places as buckle carriers) on the market today.  Here's a sampling at Attached to Baby: Buckle Baby Carriers.  (Personally, I am drooling over the Beco Butterfly!)  A buckle carrier is definitely a carrier that will take you far past infancy, so if you have some extra money in the budget or a doting grandma-to-be who wants to indulge you, I highly recommend one of these type carriers.

I'd love to hear from ya'll!  What was your favorite baby carrier for the newborn stage?  Did you find it was a good carrier for beyond infancy?  I'm always looking to increase my babywearing knowledge.  Please share!

SortaCrunchy Q&A #3 - Choosing a baby carrier

I need more coffee, ya'll. Or more sleep. Somethin. I am so sluggish these days! I feel awful that I am not making my bloggy rounds to see what everyone is up to this fine week. I am just plum worn out. I hope to be up for more socializing very soon . . .

In the meantime, my next SortaCrunchy question is from Elle of A Complete Thought. (VERY insightful and informative writer, by the way. I highly suggest you check her out!) She asks, "I was a baby wearer as well. I loved the soothing aspect for both mama and baby. What benefits would you discuss with a new mama debating whether to Bjorn or sling?"

It's funny, just this very morning at playgroup day at the gym, a mama asked me this question!

Let me start by saying that babywearing is one of those practices that I was sorta forced into by my lovely high needs oldest daughter. She just would not lay in that stinkin' infant car seat (we call it the bucket) while I grocery shopped, and it all it took was one trip through the aisles with her precariously clutched against my chest with one hand while I dragged the cart with the other for me to decide I had to find a better solution. I had registered for a Bjorn, but never received one. I'm a (wo)man of means by no means, so I had to settle for a cheaper knock-off. It worked okay . . . for about a month. Then my shoulders started to ache within fifteen minutes of wearing Jabba the Baby (D weighed fourteen and a half pounds at two months and eighteen pounds at four months!), and by the time I had made my rounds through the grocery store, I would be close to tears.

Again, I knew I had to find a better solution. By sheer chance miracle, I saw a post on my mommy message board about Lucky Baby pouch slings. By this time, D was five months old and could easily ride on my hip, so I ordered one, and my love for babywearing began!

To get back to Elle's question, the biggest benefit, in my opinion, to choosing a non-structured carrier instead of a Bjorn-style carrier is that you will be lucky to get six months of wear out of a Bjorn. A non-structured carrier (pouch sling, mei tai, wrap, ring sling, or soft structured carrier) will take you well into toddlerhood. I was wearing D in our Ergo right up until I got pregnant with AJ. Certainly, any new mama may want to choose the more mainstream and widely available Bjorn and it will work fine while the baby is little. But if she is already planning to spend close to $100 on a carrier (or someone is buying one for her), I highly recommend researching non-structured carriers as an alternative.

(Side note - there are some concerns about structured carriers having some negative impacts on a baby's development or possibly contributing to hip dysplasia, but this would generally only happen if baby were worn for hours on end for several months in such a carrier. Interestingly, there is evidence that a non-structured carrier will contribute positively to a baby's developing spine as is evidenced by this article.)

My personal recommendations, you ask? I will tell you my two very, very favorites are the above-mentioned Ergo and our Mei Tai Baby. Neither of my girls have liked be worn in the cradle carry which is a popular way to wear newborns in a pouch (like Lucky Baby or Hotsling) or ring sling (like Maya Wrap or Taylor Made). Both the Ergo and Mei Tai Baby allow me to wear them upright which is the three of us seem to prefer. I prefer the Mei Tai Baby over the many other makers of mei tai carriers because 1)it has the adjustable bottom which makes it easier to wear newborns and 2) you have the option of ordering one with removable panels so when you tire of the print, you can switch the panel out for a totally new look! So, those are my favorites, but there is great big (overwhelming) world of choices out there.

Again, returning to Elle's question, here's what I would advise a friend who is looking into buying a carrier and wants to go a different route from a Bjorn. (JB and KM, this is for you!)

1) Register for an account at TheBabywearer.com. Once you have registered there, you have access to the plethora of carrier listings and reviews. HUGE help.

2) Sign up for a Paypal account. If you decide to buy a brand new carrier and want to shop from a parent-owned business, there are some who can only accept payments from credit cards through Paypal. You can link your Paypal account to your checking account as well which works out nicely if you are paying cash for your new carrier.

If you decide you want to buy a used carrier, you will most likely need a Paypal account to pay the seller. More on that in a second.

3) Start browsing stores that sell carriers. There are many. Many. Many. Attached to Baby is a great resource. Fox Den Lane is another good one. Then there's Mamas Milk.

Readers - where do you like to shop for carriers? Who would you suggest?

Browsing these stores will give you a good idea of what style of carrier you might like and how much they run brand new. If you are buying new, then you may just find the carrier of your dreams while you are window shopping one day!

4) I have only purchased a few of our slings brand new. I am a bargain hunter and hate to pay retail when I can find it for less somewhere. Two places you can shop for gently used slings are Ebay and the For Sale or Trade Forum at thebabywearer. Ebay - ehhhh. I am not a good Ebay shopper and never seem to get quite as good of a deal as I think I am going to. If you are a good Ebayer, maybe you will have more luck than I have had. I prefer the FSOT forum.

5) If you are shopping the FSOT forum, it may be intimidating at first because most every listing will use abbreviations. What you can do is use the "search forum" feature to search only for the specific carrier you are looking for (for example, do a search in that forum for "hotsling").

If you are going to buy from FSOT, make sure to read through the stickied post called "FSOT rules and helpful hints."

Speaking of abbreviating, I should wrap this up. (Get it? Wrap?)

Here's a neat blog I just stumbled across as I was preparing this post - will have to check it out: The Baby Carrier

Would love to hear from anyone who wants to share their babywearing favorites! I am always up for some babywearing chit-chat!

Labels: attachment parenting, baby, babywearing, NaBloPoMo

Our Delayed Vaccination Schedule

IMPORTANT UPDATE AS OF APRIL 20th, 2008

This month, I finally purchased Dr. Bob Sears' The Vaccine Book: Making the Right Decision for Your Child. I can say with absolute confidence this is a book every parent should have in their library. It is decidedly pro-vaccine, so if you tend to lean towards not vaccinating, it may cause you some concern. But if even you are not vaccinating your children, this book may give you some insights into the decision-making process of parents who do vaccinate. If you tend to lean towards vaccinating but have concerns over the CDC schedule and/or vaccine ingredients, I believe you will find this book to be immensely helpful.

Having said that, I am updating our original selective/delayed vaccine schedule below based on what I now know having read The Vaccine Book. For example, I did not realize that now (2008) all the major vaccines are now mercury-free. (There is still trace amounts of mercury in some brands of the flu shot.) Therefore, I have removed the "mercury-free" label that I had put in front of each of vaccine names. Additionally, I am switching the order of the measles and mumps vaccines. Originally, I had measles at 15 months and mumps at 39 months. Now, I will do mumps at 15 months and measles at 39 months. I still feel comfortable with delaying the Prevnar (Pc) vaccine, but please bear in mind that my babies are exclusively breastfed and not in group daycare situations. Dr. Sears feels that young babies should be receiving this vaccine, so please remember that your circumstances may warrant this one earlier than I have it scheduled.

I have received so many emails and comments from parents who are trying to make this hugely important decision for their children. I appreciate each email and comment and try to respond quickly and accurately as often as possible. I want to stress that this schedule is one that is best for our family, for my child. Every family has a unique set of circumstances that are made up of your family's medical history, your geographic location, and your access to doctors (and evidently, insurance coverages) that are open to alternate approaches to vaccines. All of that is to say that while my schedule may be a good starting point for you in creating your own schedule, please know that it is by no means a definitive selective/delayed schedule. You alone can make the best choice for your child.

************************************************************************************ 

This morning, I took AJ in for a well-baby check, and it reminded me that this might be a good time to share the delayed vaccination schedule we have come up with for her. This schedule is based on Dr. Stephanie Cave's What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Children's Vaccinations (shout out to my friend KM for passing this on to me!!).

Here is our schedule:

Hep B
Delay until the year before starting school, although we may consider starting the series as early as two and half if we are considering preschool at the time.

Hib
4 mo, 6 mo, 8 mo, 17 mo

IPV
4 mo, 6 mo, 8 mo, 17 mo (booster at 4 years)

DtaP
5 mo, 7 mo, 9 mo, 15 or 18 mo (booster at 4 years)

Pneumococcal (PREVNAR)one dose at age 2

Varicela (Varivax)
Age four, if at all

MMR
Mumps – 15 mo
Rubella – 27 mo
Measles – 39 mo
Booster – age 5

Now, some physicians will tell you that you cannot get the MMR separated. This was a huge area of concern for me as my youngest sister had a reaction to the MMR vaccine that resulted in her having both epilepsy (now outgrown) and Asperger Syndrome. I did just a little digging in the Delayed Vaccinations forum at MDC, and found this information:

Dr. Stephanie Cave is an advocate for children being immunized with three separate doses instead of the MMR combined. Reportedly, she asked for American Medicine (wholesale pharmaceutical company) to carry these immunizations. The owners of American Medicine are Mark and Bridgette Schexnayder who are also pharmacists.

The pharmaceutical company of these three separate immunizations is Merck.

American Medicine will need the following from your doctor:
Doctor’s prescription with the child’s name
Copy of Doctor’s license
Have your doctor fax this to 225-924-0249.

You will then pay American Medicine (225-924-0247) and they will overnight the immunizations to your doctor. You will have to pay the overnight shipping fee due to the medicine needing to be refrigerated.

Make sure you ask for the expiration dates so that you will know ahead of time and for your records.

September 2007- Cost is appx. $119 (for all 3) plus shipping/handling (+-$20.)

I called the company and talked to Bridgette Schexnayder today. She said the $119 is for all three vaccinations which they overnight to your doctor's office at one time. She said the vaccines are currently on backorder, but they should be receiving a new shipment next month (Dec 07). She also said the vaccines will have about eighteen months until they expire. If that is the case, we will have to reevaluate and adjust when AJ gets each of these three vaccines as I currently have them spaced over a longer time period than eighteen months.

Another MDC member posted that Johnson Drug will also send you the separate vaccines. I have not personally contacted them to verify this information, but I wanted to share it as well. This MDC member stated that to order from Johnson Drug, you need a prescription from your pediatrician and to expect to pay about $40 per vaccine.

Anyone else have a delayed vaccination schedule you want to share? I would love to read what other people are choosing. Post in the comments or share it on your blog and let me know so I can check it out!

READ THIS POST IN ITS ORIGINAL FORM ON MY OLD BLOGGER SITE - COMPLETE WITH ALL COMMENTS!

Bit O' Crunchy, October 19: Homemade Baby Food

First of all, I need to make an introduction. This morning I shared with my in-town community of friends for the first time ever about my little home on the web. These friends of mine - awesome, amazing, wonderful, loving . . . I could go on and on. I love them to pieces! I have been hesitant to tell them about this little ol' blog, but the word is out now. So in-town friends, meet my online friends! I think everyone is going to get along just famously.

Last week, seattlebags asked if I had ever shared my own experience in using veggie purees, etc., in making homemade baby food. I got to looking back through the archives, and as a matter of fact, I have not. I guess D was far enough past the baby food stage when I started blogging for real that I just never thought to write about it here.

When D was five months old or so, one of my friends lent me her copy of Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron. Seeing as how I am always on the lookout for ways to pinch a penny, the idea of saving money on baby food by making it myself had me hooked from the beginning. Ms. Yaron takes the idea of homemade baby food beyond the draw of frugality and explains how in making your own baby food, you have absolute control over what you are allowing to enter your tender young baby's system. She advocates organic eating whenever possible, although you don't have to if that won't work with your budget.

Ms. Yaron's book is a wealth of information. So much information, in fact, that I got kind of overstimulated when I tried to really read through it. It made my (self-diagnosed) ADD act up in a big way. Some mommy board friends of mine pointed me in the direction of wholesomebabyfood.com - which, by the way, is even more user-friendly now than it was two years ago when I first found this helpful site.

These two resources were really all I needed to make almost all of D's baby food! (Yes, I do admit to buying jarred baby food for trips out of town because I am lazy like that . . .) But really, it was quite easy. Buy your fresh (or even frozen) fruits and veggies, get a rice/vegetable steamer, dig out the old blender, and locate those never-used-before ice cube trays in the back of the cabinet and you are all set!

One more site to check out . . . On Wednesday, Melissa (of Melissa Garrett ~ a writer's woolgatherings) posted her great success with one of Jessica Seinfeld's Deceptively Delicious recipes. In that post, she makes mention of Mush - a new(ish) blog devoted to "All baby food recipes. All the time." If you want to get fancy with all of this baby food makin,' check their recipes for things like Mango and Fresh Apricot Puree, Butternut Squash Risotto, and California Chicken. Sounds fab, right? A heckuva lot better than decidedly unappetizing jarred version of Turkey Rice and Garden Vegetables or the decidedly unhealthy corn dogs a la Kids' Cuisine (not that I would know anything about preparing one of those for D! Oh no, I've just heard that such things exist . . .).

So that's your Bit O' Crunchy for the week. Good eats!

Labels: baby, Bit O' Crunchy, food, recipe

Good stuff

I have thought and pondered for the past 24 hours on a clever, witty post title for today. You can see about how well my brain is operating right now!

Anyway, these are thirteen things that make me happy these days:

1) My Avent Isis breast pump

2) Lansinoh ultra thin breast/nursing pads (yeah, the wool ones didn't work out as well as I had hoped)

3) Lansinoh cleanse and condition wipes for the breastfed baby

4) Mei Tai Baby

5) Ultimate Swaddling Blanket (pink mod circles!)

6) Short hair

7) Halloween costumes

8) Pink (the color, not the singer . . . although I am sure she is quite lovely, too)

9) The Tyra Banks show (never watched it until I was up with AJ and found our local Fox station shows last week's episodes at three a.m. She's great company at that hour!)

10) Best nursing bra ever

11) Mums (fall!)

12) My artist

13) Baby smiles

Don't forget to come by tomorrow for the return of Bit O' Crunchy giveaway!

Labels: Thursday Thirteen

Bit O' Crunchy, August 10th: WHOLE FOODS AND GOOD EATS

It's summertime and not only is the livin' easy, but it's also that time of year when your local farmers' market is brimming with all kinds of fresh-from-the-earth goodness. But if you grew up in a family like mine where a salad consists of a head of iceburg lettuce hacked into sorta bite-sized pieces, then it might be a little overwhelming to know what to do with foods that you know are good for you, but you don't know how to prepare.

For today's Bit O' Crunchy, I wanted to spotlight a few of my favorite go-to sites for all things whole food.

One of the most useful sites I have come across is The World's Healthiest Foods. This non-profit organization has collected an immense amount of information on choosing, preparing, and enjoying whole foods. The Healthiest Foods List is an exhaustive listing of "health-promoting foods" that allows you to discover in just one click the growing season, health benefits, shopping tips, recipes, and preparation ideas for 130 whole foods. Amazing! They also have recipes of the week, food of the week, and condition-specific health-promoting menu plans.

Another SortaCrunchy fave is VegWeb. I have been using this website for recipe ideas for over a year. Tons and tons of recipes with helpful reviews! Perfect for anyone who wants to dabble in vegetarian meal planning but isn't quite ready to invest in a new library of cookbooks.

Finally, I wanted to introduce you to Carrien at the real food revolution. This bloggin' mom has just started her real foods blog and it promises to have lots of practical, budget-friendly, and kid-approved ideas on how to get healthy, whole foods into the tummies you love best.

I would love to hear from you on what your favorite whole foods and healthy eating resources are! What whole and healthy foods have you been enjoying this summer?

Labels: Bit O' Crunchy, food, general natural family living, recipe

Bit O' Crunchy, July 27th: CLOTH WIPES

Welcome, gentle readers, to the First Ever installment of Bit O' Crunchy! Thank you to everyone who voted and helped me decide on what to name my natural living spotlight of the week. Bit O'Crunchy won by the skin of its teeth - and this was much to my delight as it was always my favorite choice anyway.

This week, I want to talk about cloth wipes.

Lisa at Full Circle Baby helped me start my cloth diapering stash (and subsequent obsession) when D was about eight months old. She did an amazing job of introducing all things cloth to me, and I remember her saying in passing that not only did she use cloth diapers, she also used cloth wipes. It made sense, you see, to just be able to toss the used cloth wipes in with the used cloth dipes in the wet bag instead of having to fish used disposable wipes out of the diaper clean-up and throw them away in the trash. I thought, "hmmmmmm, yes, sounds like a good idea, but I am going to stay with my trusty Huggies wipes. Cloth wipes sound a bit . . . complicated."

Some months later, it occurred to me (as I was fishing a poopy-covered Huggies wipe out of a poopy-covered cloth diaper) that, indeed, there might be an easier way to do this. It was also around this time that I had begun to buy many of our diapers from Work At Home Moms who nearly always threw in a sweet little cloth wipe with the new dipe as a thank-you-for-ordering bonus. I gathered these sweet little wipes and found some recipes for homemade wipe solutions, and I haven't ever looked back. Even when I got pregnant and D was in sposie dipes much of the time, I still used our cloth wipes because I love them so much.

Here's the thing: which is more effective in cleaning up a spill on your kitchen counter - a soaking wet paper towel or a dampish-dry bar towel? I will reach for the bar towel every time. Think back to when your babe was a wee little one and you reached for a burp rag to wipe up that sweet little cherubic face after a feeding. Would you have rather grabbed a chemical-soaked "cloth-like" paper towel or a soft, cotton-y actual cloth?

Now, how and when do we use baby wipes? On the most tender of skin on our most tender of treasures to clean up some very unpleasant stuff. If you think about it, cloth wipes just make good common (crunchy) sense. Effective clean-up, no harsh chemicals, and nice and soft on a baby's bum!

Cloth wipes - what you need to know:

1) You can purchase fun and funky cloth wipes through many WAHM venues. Here's just a sampling:
Hyena Cart Stores - ClothDiaperMama, The Rosa Mariposa, goodmama (at The Muses congo)
Etsy Stores - Craft Monkey, countryclothcreations, slingsandsacks
Again, that is just a sample of the many, many WAHMs who carry cloth wipes.

2) Cloth wipes are easy to make yourself! If you aren't up for sewing, you can easily use bargain-priced baby washcloths.

3) Wipe solutions are also easy to make or can be purchased. If you make your own, you can customize it to your child's unique needs (sensitive skin, eczema, etc.).

4) Cloth wipes can be laundered with your cloth diapers. Even if yours isn't a cloth diapering home, you can still use cloth wipes. Just gather your wipes and run them through a cold rinse, hot wash with regular detergent, and hot cycle in the dryer (or hang on the line). Easy peasy!

5) I love cloth wipes for the same reason I love cloth diapers - good for the planet, good for the pocketbook, and good for baby's skin.

Bring on the questions and comments!

Labels: Bit O' Crunchy, cloth diapering, general natural family living

Dog Days of Summer Bloggy Giveaway!

DETAILS - I am not so good with them. I will close comments for entry at 7 am on Friday, July 27th. Winner will be drawn around 9 am on Friday morning. Best of luck! Thanks for stopping by!

Hooray! The day has arrived to kick-off Shannon's Dog Days of Summer Bloggy Giveaway!

I am excited to offer to you the chance to do a little shopping at one of my favorite natural products companies - Northern Essence! Northern Essence is a Work At Home Mom business that creates and carries all kinds of great natural products. Stuff for moms, stuff for babes, even stuff for the man in your life! The winner of my giveaway will choose up to $15 in products from Northern Essence, email me your order, and I will place the order for you so I can cover shipping. Your order will come shipped directly to you. Giveaway offer open to residents of the USA and Canada.

To enter, simply leave a comment on this post. I will randomly select a winner on Friday, July 27th. Good luck! Happy Giveaway Week!

Labels: blogging, contests