Ring! Ring!

My mom had a series of baby development journals for each month of the first year of life.  They were cutting edge research for 1973 and apparently my mom valued them greatly. My dad found most of them for me and I've been reading them.  Surely there are many things one could not do to a baby these days, but there is actually a lot of interesting information.  They are always quite advanced in terms of what they say a baby can do.  For example, the ten month journal says that your baby is probably racing you to the phone and beating you to it, answering and babbling into the phone.  Now that doesn't seem likely for a ten month old, but besides that, I realized that Neko will have such a different relation to the phone than we did.  For one, it is not in the same place ever, it is much less obvious when we are on the phone and we so rarely talk on it.  She thinks it is just for pressing.  She is much more attracted to blackberries than to iPhones as they have buttons.  Regis had the clever idea to recycle old technology into working baby toys, with different software for babies.  So clever.

Nursing past one year

The plan had been to nurse on demand for one year and then just nurse in the morning and evening as long as I can, expecting to about Neko's second birthday.  But, now I'm not sure.  I like never having to worry too much, for example if she doesn't eat much for a day or so or if she only eats O's and maybe doesn't eat vegetables for a few days.  I don't want to give her cow's milk, but don't particularly want to give her too much soy milk or rice milk either.  And nursing is sort of the answer to all of life's problems with a baby, particularly if you need to do something like fly cross country.  So I'm not sure.  There are a lot of people who nurse for two years and I'd like to ask them why, what they found to be the benefit.  I do hate to bare the looks and disgust of everyone as I know I will endure if I'm nursing an 18 month old.  I could always nurse through Christmas, so 15 1/2 months. That would take me through three more flying vacations.

Sex

I debated whether to write this as aren't I falling into that reveal too much on the Internet problem?  But sex after having a baby is something people should probably share so other people don't think they are weird.  Unless I'm weird, in which case . . . I don't know.  But, lactation hormones are the opposite physically of sex hormones, so at least in my case I'm not quite as excited or ready as I might normally be.  All of that is not to mention the fact that you are incredibly sleep deprived and have a creature on you touching you and sucking out your liquids 24 hours a day. Being touched by someone else and spilling liquids is like the last thing that appeals to me most of the time.  For me often when my husband proposes it (especially when he was on crutches and I was the family galley slave) my first thought is like, "add it to the list." Just put it on the list of chores that I have to perform to keep the household running.  Things are a bit better now as Neko sleeps a teeny bit more, like 5-6 hours in the first bout and nursing is a bit less wet and dramatic.  So this was more a post based on the lowest points, but I thought it was important to share, so people realize they aren't alone if they are less than thrilled with the prospect of sex at times in the first year of having a baby.

Flying with Baby

Well, traveling with Neko has gotten considerably more difficult.  She is so much more mobile on the plane.  We were flying from New York to Vancouver and spent an hour on the tarmac before takeoff.  Around five hours in I almost screamed, "Are we there yet?" at Regis.  The nice thing is, for her it is a normal day just without naps. But she is so active it isn't like she is couped up so at least I don't feel badly about that.  But for us it is so much harder.  She doesn't let you read or have earplugs in or eat or drink so you are sort of stuck wrestling her the entire trip. She did sleep like 40 minutes.  I watched Date Night though which was funnyish.  Tina Fey had a funny part where she said she didn't want to leave her husband for another man, she just sometimes imagines being alone.  Like being in a hotel room with AC and a sprite and a chance to eat her lunch with no one touching her.  I could totally relate yesterday. I think Morrissey nursed like 55 times yesterday!  I was going to lose it.

Almost One

I can't believe it.  It's a few days shy of her 11 month birthday and I'm already getting sad about her first birthday.  This will be her last "month" birthday.  It has gone so fast.  The first three months seemed long, but since then it has just flown by.  I remember my dog's first birthday and everything has just accelerated since then.  I was sad after July 4th because I realized that that was her last "first" holiday (besides Bastille Day).  The last time we could enjoy the fact that it was her first time.  Not that she cares, nor will she remember until about her 4th time, but still.  I can't believe that this will be the only time in my life I get to spend a year alone with a baby with nothing else to do.  Although that hasn't always sat so well with me, it is such a privilege to have gotten to spend just about every waking (and non) moment with her watching this amazing development.

Time Passes

I wish I could freeze this evening.  We had a cookout at Regis's parents house in Baltimore.  Regis's mom, Mimi to Neko, was raising her up in the air and she is such a little baby; soon she won't be.  As Mimi said to Neko's two cute cousins, the next time they see her she may be walking.  This time when she is a cute, crawling, bald baby will be gone.  The two boys, 13 and 11, went up with Mimi to give Neko her bath and get her all ready for bed.  The listened to everything Mimi said about how to change her diaper and get her ready for bed and gave her such attention and love.  She is such a lucky baby to have so much support and love.  In the drawers were some of her newborn things and I just never thought time would pass so quickly.  I hope I can appreciate it enough. 

All-In-One Cloth Diapers

So I found a source on Ebay that sells AIO cloth diapers and they were only about $5 a diaper versus like $18-21 for the more famous brands.  They came from China so may be made for children by children.  They seem to be in usage no different from the paper diapers.  They have yet to leak. She doesn't need to be changed more frequently and when I change her they seem dry on the part that touches her so liquid must soak up in the insert.  I did a wash and dry just regular and everything was easy. I ordered 16 plus the 2 I had and we probably went 4-5 days this way.  I just throw the poopy ones in a bag.  They are a bit bulky, but in summer she can just wear them as pants as they are so cute!