Slings, Wraps, and Other Contraptions

I am continually surprised by how many comments I receive from strangers when they see me wearing John in my various wraps and slings. It strikes me that this is probably a combination of the fact that many mothers these days do not carry their babies much and, when they do, they must have much stronger arms than do I because I get exhausted very quickly when carrying John "free hand."

The comments and questions can be funny. One cashier asked me, "So . . . is that a thing to carry babies?" I looked down at John in my wrap and pondered how to answer, but ended up just saying, "Yes." Then in Lexington, our kind waiter remarked to me that I reminded him of the mothers in his home country of Africa. Another day while shopping in Costco, an older gentleman came rushing up to me and said, without preamble or warmth, "Where did you get your . . . papoose?" I warmly told him what it was called and where he could get it, at which point he relaxed and told me with great excitement that his first grandchild has just been born several days before.

I've noticed that men have almost never commented on my baby carriers (probably because I look like a weirdo), but innumerable mothers have come up to me and said that how I was carrying my baby looked so easy. What is that? Where can I get one? One woman saw me and lost sight of me in the crowd at the Keeneland race track. Later she spotted me and ran up to me, so as not to lose me again, gushing about how she had to know what I was wearing. She had to get one. The most memorable comment so far, I think, was from a woman who asked what I was wearing and where she could get it, not so that she could carry her toddler but so that she could carry her four-pound dog "who really likes me to carry him around."

Being able to wear John makes my life so much easier, even with the price of the physical work of carrying around his weight. With John in a sling, I have learned how to shop for groceries, cook meals, vacuum and do various housework, work at my computer, and walk for exercise, among other tasks. Meanwhile, I love to see John in the state of quiet alertness a sling induces, which is so good for his learning. This morning as I vacuumed, I thought about how some babies are quite afraid of that big sound, but if John is in my sling he just watches the vacuum quietly and happily. And I know that is not because he's a generally passive, placid baby!

Meanwhile, John is already enjoying time "on his own two feet." At times in the past five months, I felt like I'd be carrying John forever, but he spends a little more time out of slings and wraps each day. He loves his play mat and can spend a good 10-15 minutes at a stretch in tummy time now and he likes sitting on my lap at the kitchen table while I eat. But being on mama's body is still his favorite place!

Home, Sweet Home

We're home from abroad! The normally six-hour drive from Lexington to Atlanta was eight hours with John. There was a lot of screaming. Toward the end, Chris and I were quiet, grumpy, and stony faced. It really wears on a person when there's just nothing left to do but listen to the baby scream!

Last night, Grandmom and Pop-pops came over for dinner. As we had just come home the night before, the refrigerator remained bare. They were the best kind of dinner guests: they planned the meal, bought the groceries, cooked the food, and cleaned up!



Thanks for the new outfit, Grandmom!

I think I've finally mastered the hip hold in my Moby wrap and John is old enough to sit that way. This position allows me to do housework more easily than when John is on my front and it is cooler because of less fabric being wrapped around my torso. I sure do look forward to when John can be positioned on my back!

For John being on my back, I'm also looking into the Ergo baby carrier, which is much easier to get on and off than any fabric wrap and is great for older babies and children even up to age three or so.

Corrupting Our Son Already

Well, we've taken our infant son to the tracks. What kind of parents does that make us?! Hopefully not too bad, as Keeneland has a reputation for being home to the best of the best horses.

Here is a photo of us dropping off our car at valet parking.

We tried to enter through the doorway by valet parking and, while Chris was speaking to the ticket agent, Neil and I remarked on the exquisitely dressed visitors and the gentle breezes blowing Chanel No. 5 in our direction. The ticket agent directed the three of us around the corner to the General Entrance. There, the hoi polloi jostled for their three-dollar tickets. The sartorial choices were decidedly more base. I noticed one couple in the crowd dressed beautifully and just as I thought to myself, "It is nice to see regular folk dressed so well," the ticket agent directed them back around the corner to the Wealthy People's Entrance. I laughed!

I certainly felt out of place as I galumphed in my flat-soled shoes, my baby tied around me like a peasant woman, my plain cotton shirt wrinkly. What's a mama to do?

First we watched as the stable boys paraded the horses through a courtyard. Betters had one last chance to see the horses' moods before placing their wagers.

Right before the race, the horses in that race are walked slowly along the track to the starting gate.

A bell is rung and the horses are off! We could watch the horses running live, also watch them on a giant television screen, and watch a computerized cartoon version of them in order to see most clearly which number horses were where.

In the first race, I was surprised to find myself caught up in the excitement. One horse (call him No. 2) began in first place and stayed in first place for half the race. I thought, "This is boring. No. 2 is just going to be in first place till the end, when he'll win." But No. 2 was all speed and no power, so he quickly tired. Half way through the race, he suddenly dropped back to second place, third, fourth . . . till he was last of 12 horses for the second half of the race! Ultimately, he ended eleventh of twelve.


Neil and I stayed for only two races, then left Chris to join his coworkers in the company box with its air conditioning, hors oeuvres, and wine. On our way out, I walked past some jockeys leaving the track. Without exaggeration, I probably weigh almost twice what those little men weigh.

Exploring Lexington

Grampa Neil has joined us for our visit to Lexington! We're having a great time exploring the city while Chris works during the day.


We've seen so many beautiful pastoral scenes of cows and horses. One day as we drove along a country road that was rising up onto a small crest, we saw two young stallions play fighting--exquisite! I wish John were old enough to be excited by what he is seeing!

Neil and I had lunch at a real country cafe, with everything deep fried and a salad of iceberg and cheddar cheese. Good times, good times.

The little towns surrounding Lexington are so darling, we can hardly stand it!

Sunday in California

On Sunday after Mass, we visited with my mother's family, including Aunt Stella . . .


. . . Grandpa Baldwin (John's great grandpa! notice that all three of us have the same nose) . . .

. . . (Great) Grandma Camie . . .

. . . and my mom!
After lunch with family, we went to a picnic at my parish in Fr. Berg's honor. About 500 people attended, the food was fabulous, the boys played dodge ball, the girls ran relay races, and a wonderful time was had by all!

Saturday in California

Our flight to California last Saturday went smoothly. We were on the road before the sun rose and sweet John slept a lot along the journey.


Once on the ground, we had lunch with my stepfather, then drove straight to my home parish where we visited with various friends, including my beautiful maid of honor Amy:

Our purpose in visiting California again so soon was to be there for Fr. John Berg's visit. He was my catechist and he holds a fond place in my heart.

Fr. Berg played dodge ball with the Altar Guild boys, as he is famous for doing! The boys didn't mind the slight sprinkling rain at all.

In the evening, we had a gourmet pizza dinner with my dad, Lynn, my sister and her husband, and my niece. And I can't believe I forgot to take any photos!

Hear Ye, Hear Ye! God Blesses Again!

Now that our parents have been told, we are pleased to announce publicly that we are expecting another baby!


**Note: We had to make our own Big Brother onesie with iron-on letters because we couldn't find any at hospital gift shops in sizes smaller than 2T!

I am pregnant and think I am due in late December, but won't have an estimated due date until I have a dating ultrasound in early May. John will narrowly miss having a true Irish twin by a couple of weeks! (However, I still count myself a member of the Mamas of Irish Twins club because John was born three weeks early so gestationally these kids are Irish twins.)

Of course, there are biological reasons explaining my being pregnant so soon after John was born--blah, blah, blah--but here are the Top 5 Reasons I Think I Am Pregnant:

1. Recently I had purchased a bunch of post-maternity clothing.


2. Only a few weeks earlier, I finally felt like I wasn't drowning daily and began getting dinner on the table most nights. Housecleaning is still rarely being accomplished.


3. God was listening on March 18 when I commented on my friend Sarah's blog, "I can hardly wait until John has a sibling to be cute with!"


4. The Feast of the Annunciation--fittingly enough--occurred, which is almost exactly when I conceived last year and this year.


5. God wants to show His glory by using me--a very weak and faulty vessel--to do something I don't feel strong enough to do.

Now it is my privilege to brag about both of our kids! While John has been learning to be more social, the physical movements required for crawling, how to coordinate his two hands, John's tiny sibling:

• Is already a boy or girl.


• Has a heart which has been beating since five weeks' gestational age (around day 21) and is now pumping blood.


• Has arm and leg buds, lungs, a brain, a nervous system, eye lenses, and a functioning pancreas.

I think I'm probably six weeks' pregnant, so the little one is 1/17th of an inch long!

On the Road Again

We're heading to California again, this time for an entire 45 hours! I am so excited! Below is John in our suitcase:

John has not reliably found his thumb yet, but he often sucks on his pointer finger, as seen above.

John's Play Progress

This morning I went on a nature walk with my friend Shannon and her daughter Elyse. I wore my new wrap, which is still in progress. I like the knit fabric because it is cornflower blue to match John (a boy) and is covered in an embroidered floral design to match me (a girl). I have cut the wrap, but not yet hemmed the edges as I try it out and see how it feels. I had to taper the tails more severely and, after the below photo was taken, realized that I could wrap the fabric around my waist a second time instead of having such a large, unsightly knot.


When I got home, I gave John some tummy time and set three toys in front of him to entice him to reach. While I was doing some chores, he reached forward and grabbed his duckie toy to stick it in his mouth. It's a new accomplishment that he can grab a toy when he's on his stomach, already using his hands to hold up his torso.

Then I rolled John onto his back and left toys on either side of him. He grabbed both at once!

You can see that John is ever closer to rolling over back to front:

I stepped away to grab a few more bites of my baby-interrupted lunch and change over the laundry. I noticed John had become very quiet except for occasional happy noises. When I peeked back at him, I saw he was completely zoning out in front of the television, which I had turned on during the daytime for the first time in weeks. It was creepy. Chris and I had already reduced our cable subscription to the network channels only, but we both think that any cable subscription is in its last days in this household.

In related television news . . . Chris and I both get monthly "blow money" from our family budget, which we can spend any old way we want. Chris teases me because I save up my money, month after month. Well, I just blew a lot on a video collection, which I never do. I'm so excited about my new BBC-produced Jane Austen Collection (Sense & Sensibility, Emma, Persuasion, Mansfield Park, Pride & Prejudice, Northanger Abbey). Twenty-two straight hours of subtle British humor and drama!

Fun Morning Times

This morning Chris tried to capture evidence of the crazy fun John has each morning and night when I change his clothes and we have a kissing and tickling fest. Now John starts laughing as soon as I begin unbuttoning his clothing because he knows what is coming! Unfortunately, John saw Chris with the camera and would only give the faintest of smiles.


In our continuing health kick, last night I made quinoa (which really is tasty and has 16-20% protein!), collard greens with tomatoes and a bit of grated sharp, white cheddar on top, a pork chop (for C.), and a hockey puck for me. And this morning for breakfast I had the yummiest quesadilla: tortilla filled with quinoa, sharp, white cheddar, and fried egg!

[[Note: I am not surprised that Blogger's spellcheck does not recognize quinoa, but quesadilla?! I thought that word had long since entered our English lexicon!]]

A Particularly Messy Couple of Days

These are all normal baby happenings, but I've been very busy with chores and these fun, little moments have occurred in just a couple of days, so I've been feeling a bit tired!

One day John pooped five times in one day (usually it's once) then vomited four times in an hour. I was in the midst of a fun project when John became sick and, as I realized it wasn't going to be just one spit-up, I thought, "Oh, so this is what I'll be doing with my evening." It was an interesting detached moment, like mild surprise, that I thought I'd be doing one thing when really I'd be doing another. I was pleased with myself that I didn't become too disappointed.

That evening, I managed to change John's outfit and my shirt between each vomiting episode (because I was being so "efficient"), so I created an entire load of laundry in an hour. Poor Baby John was so tired, he would fall asleep between episodes, then wake up because he was vomiting again. Then I was too worried to leave John lying down in his sleep, so I put him in his sling and let him sleep there while I rocked in the glider for an hour. Don't worry, he was fine at the end of it all!

John has bonked his forehead twice this week, probably because he's becoming more and more mobile. Neither was at all dangerous, but these were his first head bonks and startled him into wailing and big, sloppy tears. Of course, I would rather my head be bonked one hundred times than he have his head bonked once!

This morning, John had a diaper blow-out while sitting in my lap. Then while changing him, he managed to get his foot covered in the stuff and to get some on his face--who knows how--which I only discovered dried much later. When he was all clean but still naked, he peed all over before I could catch it. Oh, and then there was the incident perhaps last week when John peed all over his own face and into his eyes during his diaper change before I could catch it! John didn't seem to mind at all and thought it was quite funny.

Being a mama is full of new experiences and learning how to live in the moment and be detached from my Grand Plans.

Collard Greens Make Me a Southerner

We're on a bit of a health kick (for us) at the moment, so last night we had lentil soup, collard greens and rice, and chicken breast for dinner. We had so much iron coursing through our oxygenated veins that we even took a 1.5-mile walk after dinner.

I like to think I look even more "fashionable" than usual when I wear my sling without the baby in it. Ha ha! But, seriously, I think other mamas who use the 15-foot-long Moby wrap will agree that it is a hassle to take on and off when the baby might be popping in and out of it all day.

A Million Dollar View

John is asleep in my sling on my chest as I do some office work, so this is my view:

Look at that perfectly round, rosy cheek! You can see that John's head is resting on my upper right arm, so I took the photo awkwardly with my left hand.

John is growing sweeter every day. When he sees me coming, he squinches up his whole body and starts laughing. He gets so excited with happiness at his daddy or me that he buries his head in my chest. When we're riding in the van with me in the backseat, I put my hand on John's body and he holds on to it as he falls asleep. And in the middle of the night, he reaches out his hand while half asleep with his eyes closed in order to find me; then he lays his hand on me and settles himself.

The One-Pound Diaper

I a new, big fan of Huggies Overnights. Before my friend Shannon gave me half a dozen to try, John was in a new phase of leaking through his diapers every night, so I had to do a middle-of-the-night change each night, which always risking awakening the baby enough that I'd actually have to work to get John back asleep. No good!

These Overnights keep John dry. This morning, I weighed his pee-soaked diaper on my postal scale: 11.1 ounces! That's nearly a pound!

Unfortunately, these Overnights are elusive. My friend Shannon had to visit two stores to find hers. I've already visited two stores and have yet to find them in John's size three. But after nearly a week without overnight diaper changes, I am determined to find them, by hook or by crook!

Home from the Mountains

We are home from the LLL conference!

First, let me apologize for our camera, which is suddenly taking blurry photos. We have not yet figured out why.

The visit to the north Georgia mountains was lovely. It was nippy at night in the lodge, so little John slept wearing his cozy hat:

At the conference, we ran into familiar faces: my local LLL chapter leader and several group members, our lactation consultant Anne, and my doula Guina (photo below):

John had a super fun time playing with Daddy throughout the weekend:

Our little family toodled around the Swiss-German-esque town of Helen . . .

. . . and enjoyed an authentic dinner of German small plates.



While in town, I visited the wonderful store, Jolly's Toys, and designed a Noah's Ark pegboard for John! It reminded me of a little pegboard I had as a child. The store sells pegboards of various shapes, letters in many colors, and the animals. I can hardly wait to see little John old enough to toddle over to the wall and grab his coat off of his own peg!



And here is a bonus (self-taken) photo just to show John's latest pastime: When riding in my Moby wrap, he clamps onto the side and chews to his heart's content, leaving a big and growing wet patch in the fabric.

Sewed My First Wrap

I am posting this while my honeybee is crashed out for his first morning nap:




Yesterday, I witnessed two feats of strength while John was having tummy time (but couldn't capture either on film). When I first set him down, he had his knees tucked under, so for a moment, he held himself up with his forearms and knees as the only points of contact with the ground. Then later, he pushed himself up on his tippy toes, so his toes and forearms were the only points of contact. Proto-crawling!

This morning, John was having a smiling, giggle-fest in bed, so I thought it was a great moment to snap some photos. Of course, as soon as he saw the camera, the only smile to be found was on the frog on his pajamas:

Some tickling with my left hand while snapping a photo with my right hand caught this:

Look at that new two-handed manipulation!

Last, I am excited to announce that I have sewn my own Moby wrap! As some mamas know, slings and wraps can be addicting. Who can have only one? Each style is useful for a different purpose and then a lady needs many colors and fabrics to match her wardrobe. This is a light sable-colored cotton gauze wrap for the heat of summer. I made quite a few mistakes, but it functions and that's what counts for now! Better than the baby clothing patterns and fabric I have from before John was born, still in the Joann's bag, under my sewing table . . .

Today, our little family is off to the La Leche League of Georgia's 28th Annual Breastfeeding and Parenting Conference in Helen. I'm currently the librarian of our local chapter and I'm pursuing the training possibly to become a chapter co-leader!

John Chewing His Teething Ring

We caught some video of John chewing his teething ring, which Chris had hung from his play mat. John chews this refrigerated duckie-shaped ring with more passion than anything else and you can hear him making a guttural sound while doing so (satisfaction? pursuit? frustration?).

We used our digital camera's video feature (instead of our actual video camera), so we apologize for the "Blair Witch Project" dark effect.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8060495862150090037

John's Second Easter

Last year on Easter we found out that I was pregnant with John, so this is really his second Easter. Below, John sits with his and Daddy's Easter basket, finally getting to hold his very own Easter egg.


Mommy did not receive an Easter basket from the Bunny, but Grandmom and Pop-Pops gave John an Easter basket containing a chocolate bunny. There was really only one way John could have his chocolate bunny and that was if Mama ate it for him. What choice did I have? So, I got "my" Easter treat after all!

After Mass, we went to a family gathering where John and I helped hide Easter eggs for his four older cousins.




Last year on Easter, John was about two weeks old in the womb, this year he is just learning how to laugh and grab things, and next year he'll be toddling along, finding his own Easter eggs!