Sometimes...

You gotta set the baby down when doing the laundry. ; )

Niiiiiiiiice!

I used to take the following medication for my crazy allergy to cold. The doc said I could take it during the pregnancy, but I decided not to...just in case.

Thank goodness, eh?

From the Guardian...
FDA probes suicide risk in Merck's Singulair

By Susan Heavey
WASHINGTON, March 27 (Reuters) - U.S. health regulators are probing a possible connection between Merck & Co Inc's blockbuster Singulair asthma drug and suicidal behavior in adults and children, the Food and Drug Administration said on Thursday.

The FDA said it is reviewing the issue after receiving reports of mood and behavior changes, suicidal thinking and suicide in patients who took the drug, which is used to treat stuffy nose, sneezing and other allergy symptoms, as well as asthma.

No definite link to the drug has been established and the agency did not say how many post-marketing reports it had received. Merck declined to say how many reports had been submitted, but said they involved both adults and children.

While Merck earlier noted the behavioral risk on Singulair's drug label, the FDA said it asked the company to evaluate its data for more information. The agency said its review would take up to nine months to complete.

Hee hee!

The big feet on these outfits crack me up!

Grrrrrrr!

The NY Times has a story about how the freebie baby formula offered at hospitals actually reduces the number of women who breastfeed.

Apparently, that seemingly generous offer by the formula companies just preys on the poor, desperate moms who are at the end of their ropes with breastfeeding. Let's face it: breastfeeding can be really difficult and confusing in the beginning. I can see why many moms give up.

The hospital staff also tried to seduce me with free formula. I took it (just in case I couldn't physically breastfeed) but told my mom to hide it. Thank goodness I never caved!

Here's the story...

Formula Freebies Cut Breastfeeding Time
The benefits of breast milk are well known, and national health programs encourage

But hospitals actually undermine efforts to encourage breastfeeding by including free formula in the care packages they give mothers and babies as they leave the hospital, according to a study last month in The American Journal of Public Health.
Researchers surveyed about 3,900 Oregon women who had babies in 2000 and 2001. Among those who were breastfeeding when they left the hospital, more than two-thirds said they had received hospital care packages containing formula.

But the care packages had a dramatic impact on patterns of breastfeeding. Women who received the packs were 39 percent more likely to stop exclusive breastfeeding at 10 weeks or sooner than those who didn’t receive free formula, according to the report.

“The distribution of these packs to new mothers at hospitals is part of a longstanding marketing campaign by infant formula manufacturers and implies hospital and staff endorsement of infant formula,'’ wrote the study authors. “Commercial hospital discharge pack distribution should be reconsidered in light of its negative impact on exclusive breastfeeding.'’

According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, although about 74 percent of American women try breastfeeding, only 11 percent end up breastfeeding exclusively for at least six months.

Remembering the old days

Whoo hoo. Shopping at Home Depot!

The color of success!

After several thwarted attempts, I actually used my green bags at Kroger -- and on one of the busiest shopping days of the year!!! The bagger didn't know what to do with them so I helped her bag.

And I even got a "bag credit" for using them -- five cents a sack.

Big Baby

M. had her second doctor's visit yesterday, and she weighed (whoo hoo!) ten pounds!

Or, as my dad said, "As big as a sack of potatoes but more than a gallon of milk."

Madeleine, the explorer

I come up with some crazy stories when M. is awake and active. (Parents, I've learned, do some really sil-leeeeee things to keep their babies occupied. Right, parents? You know what I'm talking about.)

Today's story was how M. and I were two explorers in the Galapagos. We discovered this new species -- a cross between a blue-footed Booby (which is a real bird), a caterpillar and a rattlesnake. I, of course, was afraid of it, but M. is fearless so she pulled it from the underbrush to study its bones and fascinating blue feet. (You can see said caterpillar-rattlesnake-blue-footed bird hiding in the brush in the above photo.)


Naturally, thanks to M.'s ingenuity, we become famous in this first explorer series. There's much more to the story, but I'll have to tell you some other time. We've got more exploring to do.

First stroller ride!

Boo hoo!

M was bigtime disappointed in the 'cuse yesterday!

Go green!

These are our new grocery bags. To learn more, go to www.greenbag.info, or to purchase, go to treecitydiapers.com

The art of multi-tasking

We read the New Yorker aloud while we feed!

Ready Set Bumbo!

I sooooooo wish we had thought of this!

Date night!

Patrick and I tried a new wine bar in the D.

Tulips from the hubby!

Hopefully it's a sign of spring!

Poor Addy!

We took back the changing table (which became a default bed for the cats) so Addy adopted the new cable box as his next sleeping quarters.

Two things caused us to move the cable box: 1) I started to worry about the box giving the poor little guy cancer since he slept on it about 14 hours a day (must've been warm and cozy) and 2) he and the box took a giant tumble off the TV stand one day. I don't know how it happened, but I looked up one afternoon and saw what looked like a blurry black and white avalanche as the cable box cascaded over the edge of the TV stand, and four little white cat paws scrambled to grasp on to anything locked down.

Now Addy sleeps in a standard cardboard box on the TV stand. No worries. He seems to be fine.

:)

Maddie's got the hiccups...again!

In this video debut, Madeleine shows her tremendous hiccuping abilities while my parents try to coax her to show her other skills. Watch and be amazed!

First class...

M. and I had our first class together. This one is a four-week class on infant massage. Some of the benefits are that the massage techniques help a baby sleep and also work to conquer indigestion and fussiness. My mom and I tried some of the leg massages on Madeleine after we got home, and she seemed to love it.

My favorite part is the bonding. I loved rubbing the balls of her little feet, toes and leg muscles and watching her grow calmer with each stroke. Massage also takes our skin-to-skin contact beyond the rapid-fire diaper changes (and the tender -- yet busy -- moments of breastfeeding) and allows us both to just enjoy each other's touch. During the brief massages, I have time to marvel at her growth and process all the little changes taking place on her wee body -- the increasing pudginess in her cheeks and neck, the growth of her eyelashes, the extended time her eyes seem to be able to focus, the new cooing sounds she makes. And what a joy to feel her soft newborn skin in my hands!

An added bonus is that the massages calm me, too, to take a few minutes to connect with my baby during these days that turn out to be incredibly busy and quite tiring.


Next week: tummy massages.


From askdrsears.com

WHY MASSAGE
Besides the fact that it is just plain fun to touch your baby, infant massage helps babies grow and develop better. Other cultures highly value touch to help babies grow. In some Eastern societies a mother is reprimanded if she doesn't give her baby a daily massage. One of the most exciting areas of research is the connection between touch and growth. Touched babies thrive, and here's why.

Touch stimulates growth-promoting substances
Healthcare providers have long known that babies who are touched a lot grow better, and now there is research to back up this observation. There seems to be a biological connection between stroking, massaging, and grooming infants and their growth. Touch stimulates growth-promoting hormones and increases the enzymes that make the cells of the vital organs more responsive to the growth-promoting effects of these hormones. For example, premature infants in a "grower nursery," where they can gain needed weight, showed 47 percent more weight gain when they received extra touch.

Animal researchers have recognized the connection between a mother animal's licking her offspring and how well her babies grow. When newborn pups were deprived of their mother's frequent licking (equivalent to infant massage), the level of growth hormone decreased, and the pups stopped growing. Even injecting growth hormone into the untouched pups would not cause them to grow. Only when the mother animal's touching and licking were restarted did the pups resume their growth.

...Touch promotes brain growth
Not only is touch good for the body, it's good for the mind. Studies show that newborns receiving extra touch display enhanced neurological development. Why this smart connection? Researchers believe that touch promotes the growth of myelin, the insulating material around nerves that makes nerve impulses travel faster.

Touch improves digestion
Babies receiving extra touch show enhanced secretion of digestive hormones. Researchers believe that this is another reason that touched infants grow better. It seems that touch makes the babies' digestive system more efficient. Babies with colic caused by the irritable colon syndrome may have less trouble in the colon when massaged frequently.

Touch improves behavior
Research shows babies receiving extra touch become better organized. They sleep better at night, fuss less during the day, and relate better to caregivers' interactions. Touch settles babies. Massage can be a wonderful tool for helping your baby go to sleep at night.

Touch promotes baby's self-esteem
Being on the receiving end of loving hands helps babies develop a feel for their body parts by learning which areas of the body are most sensitive and which need relaxing. Being touched gives value to a person, like an adult feeling "touched" by the remarks of a friend.

Touch helps parents
A daily massage helps you to get in touch with your whole baby, to read her body language, and to learn her cues. Giving your baby the right touch is just one more step up the ladder of learning about your baby. Infant massage is especially valuable for the parent and infant who had a slow start – for example, when separated by a medical complication. Massage helps parent and baby reconnect. For the slow-start mother who doesn't feel naturally "motherly" toward her newborn, massage is the extra spark to ignite the fire. Likewise for the slow-to-warm-up baby, massage helps break down the barrier so that the uncuddly baby begins to enjoy being touched – and the parents get used to touching their baby.

Several employed mothers in our practice use an evening infant massage as a tool to help them reconnect with their baby after being away for the day. This special touch enables them to tune into baby and tune out their work as they reenter home life.

For dads who are novices at caring for babies, massage is a hands-on course in baby handling. Also, it's important for baby to get used to dad's touch as well as mom's. Babies thrive on different strokes.

High-need babies have tense muscles that need help relaxing. Every baby needs lots of touching. High-need babies need more (of course!). There is no touch more soothing than that of skin on skin, although for some babies, skin- to-skin contact can actually be stimulating, so you have to proceed with caution. Infants who spend time in neonatal intensive care units after birth tend to have a high need for pleasant touch, since so much of the touching they experienced in the hospital was painful. Some very sensitive high-need babies – dubbed "uncuddly babies" – actually pull away from being touched because they find it threatening or overstimulating. In this case, a routine of careful, gentle touches can gradually accustom this baby to being handled and will help him eventually enjoy touching.

For more, go here...

Never too early...

... To start the college fund. This bank from my cousin is a great start. Patrick plunked the first quarter in yesterday.

Day or night?

M. sleeps when she feels like it. That's that!

Hey, 4 a.m... long time no see.

M. is still a night owl on half the nights. That means I am reacquainting myself with hours of the night I haven't seen regularly since college.

Hello, 3:30 a.m. How ya been?

Hey, 4:30. Who invited you?

Umm, 6 a.m., I don't think I asked you over. Go away.

What? 7:30 a.m. wants to stop by, too? Well, clearly I can't say no. Let's just get up and have a party. Break out the fancy rattles. Pop in some John Coltrane. Grab the Jazz ABC book so we can do this right.

I am also reacquainting myself with naps which, being the busybody that I am, I kind of hate. But as they say: sleep when baby sleeps.

Something new, however, is sleeping in until 1 p.m. (like today) after M. finally goes to sleep or my parents take her upstairs for a few hours. (Living with the folks has its perks.)

Watching a husband become a father...

Wow!

I love my husband -- that's a given, but it's something totally different and phenomenal to love your husband as a father.

I am amazed by the tender moments Patrick spends with the baby.

I knew from their first conversation at the hospital (when he talked to her about where we live, why Syracuse b-ball is having such a bad season, how she got her last name, and the fact that we have a puppy at home named Phoebe who is going to be her best friend) that he was going to be a great dad.

I sit in awe sometimes as I watch him nimbly change and clean cloth diapers (yes, we're still happily using cloth, you naysayers), rock and jiggle her until she's content when she's crying for seemingly no reason, warm a bottle and feed her at 3 a.m. when I'm way too tired to wake for another feeding, or just sit with her and read her the paper (see above).

Actually, I even knew when she was in the womb that he would make a great daddy. See, while I had trouble even picturing the baby, Patrick was constantly telling me about these little moments when he'd envision their future together. My favorite one was when he told me he pictured the day when they would sit together at one of those little tables with the wee chairs, having an imaginary tea party and drinking cups o' nothin'.

Ha! Cups o' nothin'. I don't want to rush any of these days, but I cannot wait until the day they are sitting down at M.'s little table drinking cups o' nothin'.