Mommy and Sweet Pea

How do you go green with your baby's clothes? Just like with everything else, reduce, reuse, and recycle! Yes, babies need lots of clothes unless you do laundry every day. Sometimes Sweet Pea goes through three or four outfits in a day, depending on whether we play outside, and whether she feeds herself or not. However, there are a several ways to maintain a complete wardrobe while still meeting your goals for living green: Buy used. In my town, there are lots of consignment shops that specialize in childrens clothing and accessories. One of them even has a sale every month with boxes and boxes of clothes that are only $.25 per item. Then there's always Goodwill or whatever sells used in your area. This is a really cheap way to get a lot of clothes, and they often have very little wear, especially in the smallest sizes since kids grow so quickly. I have bought items with the original tags still on them! In addition, check craigslist or your local yard sales. Share with f...

Have you ever wondered how many mothers in your area are breastfeeding? The CDC now has a state-by-state report that shows percentages of mothers breastfeeding at birth, three months, six months, and a year. Oregon, where I live, is in the top ten for every stage, according to my preliminary reading of the report. Only one state, Vermont, has more mothers breastfeeding at one year (38.4%), than Oregon (37%). Of course, breastfeeding is not the only way, or even necessarily the most important, to promote the health of babies, and there are people who have real issues preventing them from successfully breastfeeding, even if they want to. However, we do know that breastfeeding is very healthy for moms and babies and that many people who want to breastfeed don't get adequate support or information to enable them to stick with it. The CDC explains the purpose of the report: "Throughout your community, everyone plays a role in fostering breastfeeding. When health care profession...

6:40 wake up, eat breakfast, pack lunch, get dressed 7:15 leave my house 7:40 arrive at school (work) 9:15 begin teaching 12:15 to 12:45 lunch break 3:20 school ends 3:45 leave school 4:10 arrive home (on Monday, Tueday, and Friday) OR 4:25 arrive at Sweet Pea's grandma's house to pick her up (Wednesday and Thursday) nurse Sweet Pea check email, bank accounts, appointments, etc. online unload the dishwasher, start a load of laundry, sweep, etc. take a walk with Sweet Pea and Glen 6:30 start dinner 7:30ish Average arrives home from work (Tuesday - Thursday) and we eat dinner 8:00 watch a little TV, wash dishes, etc. 9:00 Sweet Pea takes a bath and gets ready for bed 9:30 nursing, rocking, etc. 10:00ish Sweet Pea falls asleep shower plan next day's outfit clean and pack breast pump supplies fold and put away laundry, etc. 11:15 go to bed and start it all again in the morning Average has taken over quite a few of the household duties now that he is ho...

This blog post is for the Cloth Diaper Bloggers Carnival VII, from Cloth Diapering Bloggers (Ning network) and Dirty Diaper Laundry . We started using cloth diapers on Sweet Pea from day one. She was born at home, and I had all my diapers prepped (you need to pre-wash them a few times) and folded and ready to go. We didn't even buy any disposables, so it was easy to just jump right into cloth! We started out with a stash of about two dozen small Chinese prefolds , four extra-small Thirsties covers , a couple of assorted other covers, two newborn Kissaluvs fitteds , two newborn Little Beetle fitteds , and three extra-small Thirsties all-in-ones . It took less than a week to get confident with the prefolds and they wash and dry so easily compared to other diaper options. We mostly used them with a twist fold and a snappi to hold the diaper together. Thirsties XS have a lower spot in the front rise to accommodate the cord stump, and the Kissaluvs have a snap-down spot in fr...

Years ago I became obsessed with reading birth stories. I found hundreds online and I would read a few every day. I loved learning about all the different experiences, the different “normals” for people, and getting a peek into one of the most important times in a human life. Reading these birth stories was part of what inspired me to become a doula . After I gave birth to Sweet Pea, I wrote nearly three pages detailing the whole event and my feelings about everything that happened, and I have told my birth story many times. However, for me, the birth was a private event, and I don't think I want to share it with the world wide web in its entirety. I will share that it was a challenging, joyous, and powerful experience for me, and leave you with these facts: Our baby was born Thursday, February 26, at home in the water. She weighed 8 pounds, 4.5 ounces, and was 22.5 inches long. Her heartbeat was checked regularly with a Doppler throughout labor, and I had one blood pres...