Cradle cap is basically a nice name for baby dandruff, a common "problem" with infants that isn't really a problem other than cosmetically. It definitely bothers mom more than baby! :)
However, since it was something that happened fairly severely with both of my children, and someone told me a great way to treat it, I thought I'd share my info. There are pricy kits you can buy to treat it, or some places/people say to put baby oil on it, but I have found a much better remedy. Baby oil (the mineral oil in it) is actually rather bad for your baby and I don't recommend using it on them at all. Burt's Bees Baby Bee products are great, and they have apricot oil that they sell that is a much better alternative for oil on your baby. It can be used if you want an oil to massage your baby with too.
Anyway, I use the apricot oil on my baby's scalp, pretty lavishly, and rub it in really well. Then I use a soft baby brush to brush the scaly skin off, then give her a bath and wash her hair. It works wonderfully! Just wanted to share this helpful tip of advice a mom passed on to me!
Monday, February 26, 2007
Thoughts on Breastfeeding
Sorry its been a little while since I've put a new post on here. While I want to do several different posts about breastfeeding, each with a different angle and a variety of information, I am going to start with one on the mental aspect of breastfeeding, as requested by a reader.
Many of you probably know the physical advantages for your baby and yourself from breastfeeding (but I will still write about that is a later blog I'm sure). There are so many physical benefits, and there are also so many emotional benefits for your baby and yourself. So, I think when mentally preparing for breastfeeding, it is very helpful to remember these benefits. But let me try to address the question a little more thoroughly.
While I think most women feel kind of funny about the idea of breastfeeding, after you've been doing it for a little while, it starts to feel so natural. You have to just be prepared to give yourself time to adjust to it. At first it may seem strange to have your baby sucking milk from you, but after a little while, it seems so normal. So, probably the first step is to begin to mentally prepare for the fact that this IS a normal process our bodies were designed for. One of the problems in our society is how sexualized breasts have become. Here is an interesting fact for you: when I studied abroad in Kenya, one of our African professors explained to us how in America, it is the lower half of women's bodies that are socially acceptable to reveal. However, in Africa, it is the upper half that is okay to reveal, because a woman's breasts are mostly meant for breastfeeding there, and they are not as sexualized. After breastfeeding, I now realize how much more right on they are with that!
Another thing about breastfeeding that's important to mentally prepare for is to realize that while it is a very natural process, it doesn't usually come naturally for everyone. It actually takes time for both mom and baby to learn, which is why I am convinced that God designed it where your milk doesn't come in until the third day or so, giving you and baby time to learn without dealing with lots of milk spraying everywhere! (After birth, you just have colostrum for the first few days, the thick yellow stuff that is full of nutrients but comes out much slower). So, during this time of learning, part of what is happening is the mental adjustment of recognizing that your baby is still dependent on you for their survival through the form of food. But it is such a huge blessing, because you realize that you can give your baby the food that is perfect for them, already processed and digested through you, and given back to them in a form that is just what they need with exactly the nutrients, antibodies, vitamins, hormones, etc. that they need. So all that to say, that I think part of the mental preparation is to recognize the blessing it is to be able to feed your baby in this way that is so good for both them and you physically, emotionally, and even spiritually.
Many of you probably know the physical advantages for your baby and yourself from breastfeeding (but I will still write about that is a later blog I'm sure). There are so many physical benefits, and there are also so many emotional benefits for your baby and yourself. So, I think when mentally preparing for breastfeeding, it is very helpful to remember these benefits. But let me try to address the question a little more thoroughly.
While I think most women feel kind of funny about the idea of breastfeeding, after you've been doing it for a little while, it starts to feel so natural. You have to just be prepared to give yourself time to adjust to it. At first it may seem strange to have your baby sucking milk from you, but after a little while, it seems so normal. So, probably the first step is to begin to mentally prepare for the fact that this IS a normal process our bodies were designed for. One of the problems in our society is how sexualized breasts have become. Here is an interesting fact for you: when I studied abroad in Kenya, one of our African professors explained to us how in America, it is the lower half of women's bodies that are socially acceptable to reveal. However, in Africa, it is the upper half that is okay to reveal, because a woman's breasts are mostly meant for breastfeeding there, and they are not as sexualized. After breastfeeding, I now realize how much more right on they are with that!
Another thing about breastfeeding that's important to mentally prepare for is to realize that while it is a very natural process, it doesn't usually come naturally for everyone. It actually takes time for both mom and baby to learn, which is why I am convinced that God designed it where your milk doesn't come in until the third day or so, giving you and baby time to learn without dealing with lots of milk spraying everywhere! (After birth, you just have colostrum for the first few days, the thick yellow stuff that is full of nutrients but comes out much slower). So, during this time of learning, part of what is happening is the mental adjustment of recognizing that your baby is still dependent on you for their survival through the form of food. But it is such a huge blessing, because you realize that you can give your baby the food that is perfect for them, already processed and digested through you, and given back to them in a form that is just what they need with exactly the nutrients, antibodies, vitamins, hormones, etc. that they need. So all that to say, that I think part of the mental preparation is to recognize the blessing it is to be able to feed your baby in this way that is so good for both them and you physically, emotionally, and even spiritually.
Friday, February 23, 2007
Recommended Reading List
Here are some of my favorite pregnancy & baby books I thought I would recommend.
These two books are by the Sears doctors, a husband and wife who have 7 children (I think), and have a whole series of books. These two books are two of the most thorough pregnancy and baby books I have found. They are also the people who developed the term "attachment parenting," which I don't follow meticulously, but it is interesting and helpful to read their ideas. Also, these books have great medical information and are just really thorough all around.
These two books by the same author are some of the easiest to read that I've found. They are set up very differently than other books, and they are broken down into small increments easy for reading. They also have lots of useful information.
This book is full of useful information for taking care of baby. Its more entertaining reading as the author writes from personal experience (she is a professional "baby whisperer" who works with new moms in the LA area). She talks about everything from breastfeeding to distinguishing baby's different cries. I highly recommend it for pregnant women or new moms.
These two books are by the Sears doctors, a husband and wife who have 7 children (I think), and have a whole series of books. These two books are two of the most thorough pregnancy and baby books I have found. They are also the people who developed the term "attachment parenting," which I don't follow meticulously, but it is interesting and helpful to read their ideas. Also, these books have great medical information and are just really thorough all around.
These two books by the same author are some of the easiest to read that I've found. They are set up very differently than other books, and they are broken down into small increments easy for reading. They also have lots of useful information.
This book is full of useful information for taking care of baby. Its more entertaining reading as the author writes from personal experience (she is a professional "baby whisperer" who works with new moms in the LA area). She talks about everything from breastfeeding to distinguishing baby's different cries. I highly recommend it for pregnant women or new moms.
Monday, February 19, 2007
Capturing the Memories & Organizing Your Photographs
Many moms find themselves with shoe boxes and storage containers full of photographs that they are going to organize when they get around to it. Then, the next thing you know, their kids are all grown up and the pictures are still sitting in dozens of unorganized boxes. And by this time, the task is way too daunting to even know where to begin.
I told myself when I had my first baby that I was not going to let that happen to me. And fortunately, I haven't! Of course, in the digital days we live in, it is a lot easier for us to keep our photos organized. If we don't want boxes full of unorganized photographs, all we have to do is never print any! But of course, that's not much fun either (and then we just end up with CDs full of pictures instead of shoe boxes full).
So, here's my 5 step guide to how to keep all those pictures you take organized. But first, a few tips for capturing those memories in the first place!
*I recommend having a digital camera and a small, lightweight digital video camera.
*Keep these out and accesible for those adorable moments you want to capture. If your camera is put away in a drawer somewhere, you'll usually miss the moment you wanted to get.
*Keep them fully charged and with plenty of available space on the memory card or video tape.
*A friend of mine gets her video camera out once a month to video her kids so that she has regular intervals of their growth and childhood captured.
*Keep your video times short, because when you're watching them later, it can get pretty boring watching your baby coo for 10 minutes. It is more fun seeing that for a minute, then seeing the next phase of them a month later for a few minutes, and so on and so forth.
*Label everything! (I usually label things based on age, not date, so I don't have to calculate how old my children were in April of 2006.)
Okay, so my 5 step guide to keeping your photos organized!
1. Get Snapfish & download Snapfish Picture Mover
2. Plug in your digital camera every so often or when the memory card is full and download the pictures onto Snapfish
3. Make a back-up CD of them all & label it. Keep them all together in a CD case.
4. Order the pictures you want to put in an album from Snapfish (and delete the pictures off your camera)
5. As soon as you get the pictures in the mail, put them in an album! Don't wait, or you'll end up with too many and they'll be hard to put in order.
Following these steps has made my photo album production and organization of pictures so much easier! I hope it works for you too!
I told myself when I had my first baby that I was not going to let that happen to me. And fortunately, I haven't! Of course, in the digital days we live in, it is a lot easier for us to keep our photos organized. If we don't want boxes full of unorganized photographs, all we have to do is never print any! But of course, that's not much fun either (and then we just end up with CDs full of pictures instead of shoe boxes full).
So, here's my 5 step guide to how to keep all those pictures you take organized. But first, a few tips for capturing those memories in the first place!
*I recommend having a digital camera and a small, lightweight digital video camera.
*Keep these out and accesible for those adorable moments you want to capture. If your camera is put away in a drawer somewhere, you'll usually miss the moment you wanted to get.
*Keep them fully charged and with plenty of available space on the memory card or video tape.
*A friend of mine gets her video camera out once a month to video her kids so that she has regular intervals of their growth and childhood captured.
*Keep your video times short, because when you're watching them later, it can get pretty boring watching your baby coo for 10 minutes. It is more fun seeing that for a minute, then seeing the next phase of them a month later for a few minutes, and so on and so forth.
*Label everything! (I usually label things based on age, not date, so I don't have to calculate how old my children were in April of 2006.)
Okay, so my 5 step guide to keeping your photos organized!
1. Get Snapfish & download Snapfish Picture Mover
2. Plug in your digital camera every so often or when the memory card is full and download the pictures onto Snapfish
3. Make a back-up CD of them all & label it. Keep them all together in a CD case.
4. Order the pictures you want to put in an album from Snapfish (and delete the pictures off your camera)
5. As soon as you get the pictures in the mail, put them in an album! Don't wait, or you'll end up with too many and they'll be hard to put in order.
Following these steps has made my photo album production and organization of pictures so much easier! I hope it works for you too!
Friday, February 16, 2007
"Cherish These Moments"
Every now and then I want to write a blog reflecting on the blessing and joy of motherhood. On Valentine's Day my husband and I had a romantic evening away just the two of us...oh, make that three of us (breastfeeding baby in tow). While it started out rough, with a crying screaming baby because mom wasn't smart enough to realize that getting her first four vaccinations should NOT take place on Valentine's Day, it brightened soon after. Baby stopped crying...after some prayer...and we had a pleasant drive to a beautiful place - Westmont College, my alma-mater, where we took a lovely stroll through the amazing flora of the hills of Montecito, California. I had prayed that God would give us "surprise blessings" during the evening, and we had our first one soon after stepping out of the car into Westmont. As we were walking down the path, we spotted Ben Patterson, the campus pastor and our friend. We stopped to say hi, and he ended up praying a blessing over our little Hannah Hope, and speaking some words of wisdom to us.
He told us to "cherish these moments, because they are precious and they go so quickly." Its not like I never think about how quickly my children will grow up, because I see it happening everyday before my eyes. But something about him saying it the way he did, at that moment in my life, struck me. It could have been the screaming and crying we had just recovered from, or the frantic rushing to get out of the house with baby and all her belongings in tow, or the several dirty diapers I had just changed that made that moment such a stunning contrast to everything else in my life. But whatever it was, it struck me. In the midst of all the chaos, all the crying, all the diapers, all the rushing from this to that, we must stop...and remember the precious and sacred moments we are living in, the moments of caring for these little gifts, these helpless, adorable, innocent (or not so innocent) children that we've been given. We must cherish these moments, because they will be gone much more quickly than I think we realize. We joke about how it will be only tomorrow when we are sending them off to college, or watching them walk down the aisle...but something tells me, when we are doing these things, it will feel like only yesterday that we were holding them in our arms or changing their diaper. And we will probably shed a small tear, remembering the treasured moments of when they were so little, small, and precious.
And so as we find ourselves today in the moments of life, full of both the treasured and the terrifying, the holy and the hectic, let us remember to often pause and reflect on how precious these moments really are...because, whether we like it or not, they will indeed go by so fast.
He told us to "cherish these moments, because they are precious and they go so quickly." Its not like I never think about how quickly my children will grow up, because I see it happening everyday before my eyes. But something about him saying it the way he did, at that moment in my life, struck me. It could have been the screaming and crying we had just recovered from, or the frantic rushing to get out of the house with baby and all her belongings in tow, or the several dirty diapers I had just changed that made that moment such a stunning contrast to everything else in my life. But whatever it was, it struck me. In the midst of all the chaos, all the crying, all the diapers, all the rushing from this to that, we must stop...and remember the precious and sacred moments we are living in, the moments of caring for these little gifts, these helpless, adorable, innocent (or not so innocent) children that we've been given. We must cherish these moments, because they will be gone much more quickly than I think we realize. We joke about how it will be only tomorrow when we are sending them off to college, or watching them walk down the aisle...but something tells me, when we are doing these things, it will feel like only yesterday that we were holding them in our arms or changing their diaper. And we will probably shed a small tear, remembering the treasured moments of when they were so little, small, and precious.
And so as we find ourselves today in the moments of life, full of both the treasured and the terrifying, the holy and the hectic, let us remember to often pause and reflect on how precious these moments really are...because, whether we like it or not, they will indeed go by so fast.
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Why Every Boy Should Have a Dog (preferably a Golden Retriever)!
Great photo ops! And it is like having a brother to play with all the time that doesn't require as much work and supervision for mom!
A play partner to keep your son occupied in those morning hours when you really just want to keep sleeping!
It is so entertaining to see how excited your son gets over the littlest things relating to the "vuh-vuh" (a derivative of woof-woof, the term he gives to every dog he sees). Feeding the "vuh-vuh" treats is an ultimate favorite!And the best reason to have a Golden Retriever is that your son can do pretty much anything to the dog and the dog will never fight back! (although we highly recommend teaching your child to NOT hit, pull at, jump on, sit on, stomp on, etc. the dog)
Highchair Help
Feeding baby is one of the most adventuresome endeavors a mother can undertake. Here are some helpful hints for the journey!
First of all, I DON'T recommend buying a highchair until your baby is six months old or older, because you won't use it those first six months, and it takes up a lot of space. Also, if you have a small kitchen or just want to be more efficient with your money and space, there are several other "highchair" options that are very helpful.
First of all, I DON'T recommend buying a highchair until your baby is six months old or older, because you won't use it those first six months, and it takes up a lot of space. Also, if you have a small kitchen or just want to be more efficient with your money and space, there are several other "highchair" options that are very helpful.
Third of all, I highly recommend bibs made by Bumkins (I also use their diaper covers), because they are waterproof, easy to clean, and dry very quickly. They make a variety of sizes too. Here are some bibs that are a pretty good size...bigger bibs are better because they cover more of your baby to protect their clothes.
And here's a little trick in case any of you get a stubborn bib-wearer like I had on my hands for a number of months... Samuel used to always rip his bib off as soon as I put it on him, so I started using bibs made of cloth that had ties sewed on the neck part so you tied it on instead of velcroing it on. You can actually sew ties onto these Bumkin bibs if you want as well.
When you're out to eat, be sure to take plenty of wipes to use, and this product has been so helpful for us. When your baby is at the age of eating off the table, but won't leave a plate or bowl alone, this little helper is great! You can have a clean surface to place their food directly on.
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