Fun At Home

Today was supposed to be the first day my son tried daycare.

My daycare provider, LC, phoned me last night to inform me her five-year-old has come down with the flu and suggested my son stay home.

Yippee. (Yippee to my son staying home, not a child caught the flu.)

While I am sure my son will be OK with playing all day, Mommy wasn’t ready to lose her little guy, not even for four hours.

While I had made lots of plans to occupy the time, I really wasn’t looking forward to not being constantly around my little guy.

So while a small part of me was sad that I couldn’t develop pictures, the rest of me was excited that I could instead read, play with blocks, cuddle and enjoy my son as he explores his world.

Hand-me-Down Some Clothing

My sister-in-law showed up for Thanksgiving Sunday in a new-to-her top. She received it from her 75-year-old coworker, D, who has fabulous tastes, and shops at Le Chateau, The Gap and other trendy stores. Good for D. And great for LC, whose wardrobe always has new pieces in it.

My question is why can’t I have a D?

My stepdaughter would say it’s because I am a giant. (I am sure she means that lovingly but as she also called me tone deaf and told me I had a large rump I could be mistaken.)

AD is right somewhat, however. My legs are on the long side, but I do have a petit-sized top half.

Unfortunately, as blog readers will know, I don’t have a chest, which means no hand-me-downs, or even borrowing, from her, which is sad because there is no shortage of clothing to chose from.

The lack of a chest also means no hand-me-downs from my sister-in-law, my brother-in-law’s girlfriend or anyone else I know.

Maybe one day I will have my own D or maybe I will become so fashion savvy and have lots of money, that I will be D. You just never know.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

May your turkey be so big that you are eating leftovers for the next week.

Lisa

Extended Maternity Leave

Our maternity leave should be longer.

While I appreciate I won’t get any sympathy from the likes of my mom, who had to quit her job when she was pregnant with my older brother; those from Holland who get only six weeks of maternity leave; or those from the States who get an equally short time to spend with their newborns, I still think Canadians should get a longer maternity leave.

Particularly now that doctors, healthcare workers and moms have returned to the idea that “breast is best.”

“They” say that you should breastfeed your baby until he is one year old. Wonderful. I agree.

However, if you are as unfortunate as I and you have to return to work, how can you feed on demand until your child is one when you have to go back when your child is one?

Should you quit breastfeeding cold turkey? Pump at work? Or, as I am attempting to do, wean prior to the first birthday?

My best friend JM, who has been doing daycare for years and who has two children of her own, said I don’t have to worry about weaning my son from his daily feeds prior to going back to work. She told me babies, or toddlers as he will be in a couple short weeks, are clever creatures.

He is not going to look to daycare provider, LC, for breast milk. And he won’t miss it because I am not there tempting him with it. She said I should be more concerned about weaning him at night, not for his sake but for my own.

While that did put my mind at ease, I still want to help my son learn to fall asleep on his own, without nursing. I want to make his transition to daycare as easy and stress-free as possible - for him anyway.

So if my maternity leave was say ... two years or even a year and a half, I could nurse until he was one and have him weaned before having to head back to work.

Disposable Troubles Part 2

The disposable diaper situation continues.

Before BM and JW responded to my Trouble With Disposables blog, I purchased Huggies active brand of diapers in Size 5. My son soaked through that variety in less than three hours. Those diapers went back.

As Huggies was sending some coupons in the mail, and I couldn’t find either the Supremes or the Overnights as was suggested by my followers, I decided to hold off purchasing any more diapers.

Instead, I have been putting two Size 3 Pampers overnights on my son. Sometimes he soaks through both, sometimes he doesn’t. And most time, his nursing/drinking habits are the same.

While waiting for the Huggies coupons to arrive, I received an email from the Pampers team letting me know the following:

“Babies can outgrow the absorbency of a diaper before they outgrow the fit. Your son may be ready to move into the next size diaper for added absorbency and protection. The weight ranges on our packages overlap and are only meant to be guidelines for fit. Other things you might consider are:

- Baby's age
- Eating and drinking habits
- Mobility
- Baby's build (for example, a slim child may fit in a Size 2, but may need the extra protection of a Size 3).

“If the leakage is just overnight, you may want to move up in size just for nighttime. With the right size, we're sure our diaper's absorbent padding, leg leak barriers, and snug fit will help keep your baby dry, day and night.”

However, neither Pampers nor Huggies recommended a type of diaper so I am hoping to try the overnight variety of Huggies, in Size 5, and if that doesn’t work, try Size 5overnights for Pampers. And if that doesn’t work, I may put a cloth diaper over top of the disposable and hope for the best.

The search continues.

Year Of Love

It’s been almost a year since our little guy has joined our family. A year of love.

My maternity leave is coming to a close and my heart is breaking at the thought of leaving my little guy, missing his first moments and watching his discoveries.

What fun it has been. From the moment he was laid near my face to now, sitting on my lap, trying to get the keyboard to do his own writing, my world has revolved around my baby boy blue.

I have less than a month to soak in every aspect of this wonderful little guy who is showing he is as strong willed as the rest of the family, who can do things by himself, but who isn’t afraid to ask for help and is always willing to provide wonderful hugs.

His laughter is contagious, his happiness shines in his eyes and even his ‘Oh-my-goodness-my-life-is-tough’-head-on-the-ground-I-am-so-upset pose is awfully cute.

So while I am grudgingly going back to work, I have to wonder how anything can be as important as motherhood. Or as exciting.

Safety First

Well, I asked for it and I finally got it.

The safety gates are up at my house, helping to prevent our son from falling down the two sets of stairs that are in our house.

Unfortunately, it does give our house that jail-like feeling, which is helped by our son, who grabs hold of the bars and shakes them.

It has also created a hazard for my already-accident-prone stepdaughter. Of course it doesn’t help that she is now trying to climb over the gates rather than opening and closing them.

The reason? She says she has a hard time getting them closed. I do understand. With my benign tremour, I, too, have a hard time closing the stupid things, however, I think it is more difficult to leap over the gates than to take the time to open and close them properly.

It must be hard for AD as well as I hear a lot of “Omphs” and “Ahhhhhs” as her short legs don’t carry her all the way over.

The safety latches have also been troublesome.

You hear a lot of cursing as we yank on the cupboard doors, expecting them to open the whole way only to catch on the latch and open an inch or two.

Oh yes, we are baby proofed, or as much as we can do in our house, and no one is happy.