To reiterate: letting Child-1 use the toilet is brilliant because I only need to wipe once. To refresh my memory of exactly how brilliant, we had a nappy blowout – one of the first since switching to cloth. Cleaning up was “messy” (to put it mildly). Bet you can’t wait to hear more :P
As I shared, I’ve stopped noticing where I am when nursing. When Child-1 is fussy, I try to nurse her; the only relevance of the environment is whether it is comfortable to nurse there. Which is how I ended up nursing at church.
There’s lots and lots I’m trying to write about, but I’m continually being side-tracked (ask Dad how many tabs on average are open in my browser…) The more difficult posts are still not ready to be posted, *grrr*, but I want to share my excitement over yesterday’s* pottying.
*Now two days ago. I was nearly done with the post when Child-1 cried for me, and didn’t let me go until past midnight. Sigh.
This isn’t the first time Child-1 had dairy. She’s had tastes and licks and bites before. Twice the skin around her mouth turned red: once after eating a stick of cheddar, once after eating a fistful of cottage cheese. I’ve been avoiding it ever since.
As I’m on the subject of cloth nappies (or the lack thereof), and my mother needed some information on the topic from me, I figured I’d kill two birds with one stone and make a blog post of it: How do you “do” cloth nappies?
A great resource, with lots of hints and great instructions on folding or fitting nappies, is The Nappy Lady. Kittykins also has some great advice to help you get started and sort out what’s what. Or keep reading for Levikha’s take on real nappies.
In order to get the info my mom wanted out there, I’m going to write this the wrong way around: Today I’ll take a look at what’s out there (locally) and give some advice on how to go about buying it [Warning: this is a long post]; Next time I’ll tell you why cloth is a sensible and easy alternative to disposables.
Our electricity was still not working properly this morning. And there’s more than feeding your infant to worry about for a modern parent. Modern society is perhaps not very well geared towards dealing with babies in emergencies. I imagine in the past, when a tiger or a band of robbers threatened, you could just drop everything and run – baby was probably already tied onto your back, and you didn’t have to worry about the crib or the bottle or the stroller or the nappies…
Our power was off for 24 hours. It’s still going off intermittently – I managed to make a cup of tea last time before it went off again. My phone batteries were all dead, I had to prepare for work by candlelight last night, I couldn’t work on my computer all day, lunch was cold leftovers and supper was takeaways: in short, it’s been frustrating.
Yesterday we took my grandmother out for lunch. At one point, when Child-1 was clearly feeling tired and hungry, I sat her on my lap and started nursing. My grandmother, noticing how quiet Child-1 suddenly became, asked my mother if I was putting her to sleep. “No, she’s drinking,” my mother replied. “Oh! Oh dear!” she exclaimed, “Just like that? But… don’t you want to cover up with a blanket?”
During the past month Child-1 hadn’t picked up any weight, and even though I expected it (because she had been sick for the ten days before we measured her), I still felt a pang of doubt and worry.
Knowing that growth charts are based on the growth of formula-fed babies (and very likely formula-fed babies who started solids at 3 or 4 months), I set out to find data on breastfed babies. It wasn’t very hard to do: the WHO released new growth charts based on extensive research in 2006. As expected, there’s a marked difference – in fact, exactly what I’ve been seeing with Child-1. She started off growing faster than the trend line predicted, but slowed down around six months and was dipping below the line by nine months. From now on, I’m plotting her growth on these charts!
In spite of the charts, I was still a bit worried about how much (or rather, how little) Child-1 was (not) eating. She still nurses a lot, so theoretically I understand that she’s getting enough nutrition – but is she really? There’s been a few times – I can count them on my one hand – when she ate so much that I was astounded. Most often, however, she takes a nibble out of the apple, spits the chunk out, and that’s it; or she smears the porridge all over the tray; or she waves the piece of fish in the air like a conductor; or she squishes the banana through her fingers and giggles.
In Baby-Led Weaning, they repeatedly say that there’s no need to be concerned as long as your child is still drinking a lot of milk, and that it’s important to let go of your expectations of how much a child should be eating by a certain age. It’s really only now that I understand that.
On Sunday we spent some time with the grandparents and other family. Child-1 behaved much like usual: she took a few bites out of a plum, waved it around, let it roll onto the floor; she sucked on a piece of steak; she grasped five pieces of biltong [beef jerky] in her hands and gnawed on one; she drank lots of water, spilled even more on her clothes, and enjoyed the sound her teeth made on the glass. Everybody commented on how much she was eating.
That was something I needed to hear! To me it felt like she wasn’t eating anything. Everybody else noticed that she was. I guess it’s one of those cases of not noticing the gradual change happening right under your nose. The family helped me to realise (with more than my head) that she’s doing fine and having a great time with food.
Did you ever feel worried about your child’s growth / eating habits / nutrtition? Was there something someone said that reassured you that you were doing fine? Please share it with us!
I attended a cousin’s baby shower three weeks ago; she’s going to be a second time mom. I felt a little bit sorry for her. Second time mothers have a pretty good idea what they want for their baby: e.g. babygrowers ["onesies"] with poppers down both legs / babygrowers with zips / vests and leggings / cute princess outfits. They know which products they want to use for bathing and changing nappies. So when they make a list with the exact brand of cream on, and they get some randomly different cream, I feel a bit sorry for them.
