Adventures in Mommyhood- weeks 13 and 14

A lot of moms don’t notice these details but Shammy was conceived during the last week a year ago, how is that for TMI?

This installment of my blog is late because the days where I would normally write were busy beyond words.  The last week was very action packed and special, the weekend specially was non-stop for poor Shammy which was such a trooper through all of the chaos.

He got to meet his cousin that is only a few weeks younger, he had his blessing ceremony on his 3 month birthday and celebrated his first Halloween.

His blessing ceremony was short and simply but very symbolic and special to me, he cried through most of it from the over stimulation and promptly fell asleep immediately after it ended.  We were blessed by the presence of close friends and family and Shammy was showered with lovely gifts, many of which we needed and as a result we are now able to cloth diaper full time.  No more sposies in this house!

Shammy also got to celebrate his first Halloween, we took him Trick or Treating and its amazing how everyone would say “here’s a lollipop, something that you can actually eat”, WTF?  I wonder how many ignorant parents actually give their 3 month old baby a lollipop.

Over a week ago Shammy weighed in at 12.5 pounds, this was not a scientific assessment as I just got on the scale with and without him and did the math.  He doesn’t have a doctor’s appointment until the end of November and his last weigh in had been in September so I wanted to have an October figure.

It’s amazing how people expect breastfed baby to weigh the same as formula fed babies.  Formula babies tend to gain weight faster for various reasons but primarily because they barely lose any weight during the first days of life so they don’t have the same “catch-up” period.  A breastfed baby’s growth is not linear and does catch up to formula babies during the second half of the first year.  He is right on track according to WHO’s growth chart for breastfed babies, I don’t have a length measurement so I couldn’t fully compare.

What is growing really fast are his nails, I find myself trimming them every other day and he still manages to scratch his face or my chest.

A person on the internet commented about Shammy having “Gerber cheeks”, I corrected her and told her that he has “boobie cheeks” and her response was “oh, so what does he eat?”  ::facepalm::

On the teething front, the miracle remedy, Hyland’s Teething tablets were recalled less than a week after we started using them.  It was a voluntary recall and after researching the reports I don’t feel like Shammy was in any kind of danger but we stopped using them as a precaution.  We tried using an alternate brand with the same ingredients and it majorly sucked, it brought no relief whatsoever so we ended up ordering an amber teething necklace that seems to be helping quite a bit.

Speaking of necklaces, having a baby is interfering with my ability to wear necklaces as Shammy has more than once hit his forehead on my pendant he leans on to my chest with enthusiasm.  I don’t mind, I can wear them again in a few years…

Shammy has gotten way too big for his Arm’s Reach Cosleeper but I was nowhere near being ready to have him move to another room, I was ready to move myself to his room if necessary.  So after discussing it with hubby we agreed to move his crib to our bedroom for extended co-sleeping.  Our house features narrow doors and hallway so the crib was not coming out whole.  When I become obsessed with something I don’t rest until it’s done.  While hubby entertained Shammy I single-handedly disassembled, relocated and reassembled the crib.  All in time for Shammy’s bedtime.

I am very happy about this and even though I wish that I could cuddle and sleep with him all night, I feel good knowing that I can watch him sleep from bed and be within easy reach.

Today I got to pack up the Arm’s Reach co-sleeper, the latest reminder that I don’t have a newborn anymore. ::sniff::

It’s amazing how quickly he is growing.  The other day we had a home visit to learn infant massage and the instructor was impressed at how advanced he is for a 3 month old.  She made several comments along the lines of “in a few weeks he will start to ….” and we would respond “he has already been doing that for xx weeks!”.

The other day he blew me away when I put my phone to his ear when I was talking to hubby, upon hearing his father’s voice he would normally smile but this time he did one better and added a very clear and audible “hello” on the phone, too freaking cute.

Shortly after receiving the Baby K’Tan carrier that I won, I wore Shammy to vote.  I made sure that he was facing out and he helped me vote by touching the ballot and holding the marker as I circled the votes.  He got his very own “I voted early” sticker.

Now that I’m able to cloth diaper full time I have also been using cloth wipes, they work much better than disposable wipes I must say.  I don’t have enough wipes yet so instead of buying some I plan to use some of the extra receiving blankets that we have and no longer need and cutting them into wipes, I don’t know how to serge so I may have some fraying but they will still get the job done.

Speaking of cloth diapers, I discovered that Mommy’s Touch has come up with a jean like diaper cover, I WANT!!!  and then there’s the camo one…. disposables are so boring compared to this!

On my current cloth diapering stash I’m using Bumgenius 4.0 for nights and outings, I don’t have enough of them for full time diapering so during the day at home I’m using Bumkins countour diapers and assorted covers including Thirsties Duo, Mommy’s Touch one size and several WAHM covers.

I find myself making a conscious effort not to be a breastfeeding nazi, I apply the live and let live philosophy but the hard part is not automatically sounding like a salesperson when talking about it.  I seem to have developed a windex mentality in regards to breastmilk (think of the father in the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding).  Have a rash?  put some breastmilk on it, runny nose?  put some breastmilk on it.  Eczema?  put some breastmilk on it.  Pink eye?  put some breastmilk on it…. and so on and so forth.  I have made a habit of putting breastmilk on the scratches that Shammy gets on his face and it dramatically speeds up the healing.

And why not? breastmilk is so amazing that it makes cancer cells commit suicide!

Indonesia has passed a law making it mandatory to breastfeed for 6 months and applying hefty penalties if someone (including the mother, doctor, etc) interferes.  As much as I want to get behind this, the law is not without its flaws.

I’m sure there are stipulations for the 2-4 percent of women who physically cannot breastfeed and they include in this law protection for women who have to work, so that’s not an issue. Telling women they absolutely have to breastfeed while not providing them with adequate education and support is setting them up to fail. Even with their three month’s paid maternity leave, their breastfeeding education is even worse than ours in the US with less people to turn to in case of problems.  you have to teach people how to do something before you can expect people to actually do it right.

But it is still a step in the right direction!

Elimination communication is starting to work without much effort.  Shammy is now getting into the habit of peeing during every diaper free time, saving me one diaper change.  I’m also learning his poop patterns although I haven’t yet tried the potty on that one.

This week I plan to starting teaching him sign language for basic things like milk, sleep, bath, etc.  We’ll see how that goes…