6 Month Newsletter

Dear My Little Love, Beatrix;
Today you are both 26 weeks old and 6 calander months old. It was so monumental to have both of these milestones on the same day, that we had to throw a party in your honour! You had a great time being held by all of your friends, but mostly I will use any reason to have a party in your honour. I think you're such a great little person that I have this desire to show you off whenever I can (and cooking for a big group of people is always amusing for me).
Your 6th month was a crazy one for you, full of pre-moving. (which is not a technical term at all, but works for us.) You are able to sit up supported, either leaning against a pillow or leaning forwards on your hands. I find that you are the happiest when you are sitting or standing and laying is no longer an option for you. You are still a champion stander and are getting more and more sturdy. Some days you are a little daredevil and you will just hang on to the ottoman or table with just one hand, opting to flail the other one around telling some outrageous story. (probably of how your daddy put a diaper on all haphazardly and you managed to get poo all over him.)
I think you are close to crawling (hense the pre- moving) you spin on your tummy when you are playing. It's like I've driven a stake through your back and out your belly button into the floor and you spin on it on the spot. It's really amusing to watch how you maneouver yourself. I can tell that you are getting fustrated and want so badly to be much more mobile, and for your own good I do my best to not always move a toy to you or you to the toy, just so you can practice being more mobile.
You've taken to your activity centre like a pro and can turn around in it really well. Your favourite toy on the activity centre is a noise maker which is a circle of 5 buttons. You've learned that if you pound on a button 4 times it will say the word in english, make the noise of the animal, say the word in spanish then sing the song. You love the songs, your face will light up when you finally make it sing. I've also been making your vibrating chair sing, just to see you glow with happiness from hearing the music. Often I will just make it sing and you will play somewhere else, not in the chair, but you do love the music. So far I've noticed that Twinkle Twinkle is your favourite song, followed closley by The Grand Ol' Duke of York. (complete with going up and down the hills.) If anyone were to sit outside of our house on any given day they would think I was crazy with how much singing I do to you, always really off key and often with crazy made up words to made up songs. Daddy has said in the past that I always have a strange soundtrack playing in my head and now having you has given me legitamate reason to unleash the soundtrack into the universe. Hopefully I haven't and won't have harmed you with my crazy songs, but rather will inspire you to love laungage like I do.
Just before your 6 month birthday I broke down and introduced solids to you. Your first food was frozen wild blueberries and they were a big hit. I gave them to you in a little mesh bag and you devoured them once you figured out how to work the bag. Your second food was avacado, and I just gave you a quarter of a whole avacado and let you "bite" off pieces yourself. It was really interesting to watch you bite a piece, move it around in your mouth and then spit it out. I know that some people wouldn't agree with me skipping all of the purreed and strained foods and letting you go straight to chunks, but it makes sense to me. And you haven't choked at all. If a piece of food is too big for you to deal with, you spit it out, then I will break it up and give you the smaller pieces. I am doing this based on some research I've done on self feeding and it's so facinating to me to see how you naturally know what to do with food and know instinctivly not to choke. The article said that you would naturally move the food forwards in your mouth, not back, and you do. So at this time, you are experimenting with food, playing with it, tasting it and mostly spitting it out. If you swallow some, great, if not, I am okay with it. Mostly I want you to have a healthy relationship with food. I want you to eat when you are hungry and know what your body is saying, so to that end I won't push you. I'll follow what you want and I will never give you the same serving over and over until you eat it. More than anything I want you to love fruits and vegetables, and your Daddy promises to help me to cultivate that love into you, even though he hates veggies himself.
Trixie I am so excited to see what the next month brings, but I mourn as well, for my little baby who is growing up so fast and becoming so independant. I long for the days when I would just hold you all day and stare at your beautiful face, whereas now you aren't as cuddly and would much rather be on the go. I still stare at your beautiful face, trying to make out what you will look like when you are older, and noticing how much it has changed already.

Babywearing!

OR: I tie, buckle and sling my baby from my body!

Remember this post?

I still stand by what I said, although it was a little harsh about Bjorns.... However, the more I read of people's accounts with them the more I'm glad I've never bought one. I find that often when I am wearing Trixie around other moms with little babies they'll make some comment that they've tried wearing their babies, but the babies didn't like it. So, naturally, I'll ask which carrier they used and their answer is always either a Bjorn or a Snuggli.

le sigh.

Since my last post I have not been blessed with the blue daisy Didymos, I guess Adam didn't get the hint that well! I have bought a Beco Butterfly though, which some people might say is the same as a Bjorn, but it's soooo not. The Beco does have a panel between you and your baby, which I find to be annoying, but it's small and still gives me lots of contact with Trixie. It's also to have the panel there because it makes putting the baby into a back carry really easy.

The Beco also differs from a Bjorn in how it sits the baby. In a Bjorn the baby sits on it's crotch, which is hard on the baby's hips, pelvis and spine (do a Google search if you don't believe me), whereas in a Beco (or Pikklo, Ergo, Jet Pack, etc.) the baby sits on their bum, which is much better for the baby's hips. Laura at the Portable Baby explains this better (and explains why facing out isn't good for a baby).

I've also recently bought a Baby Hawk, which is a great carrier. Trixie fell asleep in it with in a couple minutes of trying it on for the first time, which lets me know that it's a great purchase for us. I'll try to post some pictures of us using it. The Baby Hawk is really easy to put on, it just ties to your body with straps. You can wear your baby on your back with it, although it does take a little practice.

I use my New Native pouch a lot in the carrier rotation, Trixie either lays in it in the cradle hold, which isn't her favourite, or she sits cross legged. She's so cute in the pouch with just her little head poking out. (thanks Regan for the picture!) I also use the pouch to do a hip carry, although Trixie is a little small for this and my pouch is a little big on me. I covet a size 2 or 3 Didymos to use like a Rebozo for a hip carry. It is really quite amazing what you can do with a piece of fabric!

And so concludes my recent forays into one of my new favourite things: Babywearing! (Trixie gives Babywearing a gummy, drooly smile)

Edited to add,
here is an old article (from the 90s) about how some carriers are bad for a baby's spine. At the top of the article it has a disclaimer: "an upright carrier should hold your baby the way your arms would, e.g., facing you with legs in a frog-like, spread-squat position with the baby's weight supported across the buttocks and thighs"

C-Sections suck!

Remember this? My famous last words in an attempt to be an optimist were, "Hopefully it isn't anything serious..."; and so... I should have let my inner pessimist out to play!
Okay it's not that bad, but I do have to go in for another surgery, this time a little more complicated one involving scissors. Which makes me remember this post; especially this line: "I'm pretty sure security is tight so no scissors were admitted without my approval...", and now I have to admit some scissors! (And a camera and a little vacuum!) Sounds like a great way to spend an afternoon, doesn't it?
Okay so why do c-sections suck? The infertility doctor figures that the crazy amounts of scarring I have are related to my c-section! Now please explain to me again why people willingly sign up for these? And, seriously if I hear to avoid tearing I might whip down my pants and show them my ugly c-section scar!

Okay lets talk about my uterus since I've told the internets everything else.
A normal uterus is like a triangle standing on it's point with the wide part at the top. My uterus looks like a heart. The top is rounded out from scar tissue and there is something in the middle making it heart shaped, could be a polyp or just a lot of scarring, the doctor isn't quite sure at this time. We know that the scarring is related to the c-section and pregnancy because we have images from April 2007 of my uterus and it was a perfect triangle, and now it's not. The scarring is in a strange place since the slicing and dicing for baby extraction is done at the bottom of the uterus, but apparently it's still all related.
So it looks like that this is the birth that keeps on giving! (answer me again, why do people sign up for c-sections?*)


*I mean elective c-sections, not emergency ones. I know that I am being a little harsh for judging people for not wanting small tears in their perineum instead opting for a 6 inch gash across their bikini line, but it doesn't make any sense to me at all.