A MUCH BETTER BLOG

The other day I was working on Flickr tagging a picture of Brielle catching her very first fish. I hit the save button and got a funky error message. I hit the back button and tried again. A different weird error. I was sent to a login screen where it told me to set up a user name. I tried to access my user name, photostream and main account. My heart rate picked up and panic set in as I quickly realized that my account had vaporized……along with over 11,000 pictures of my children.

Why Flickr?

I started using Flickr when Brielle was about a year and a half old. I had been using a photo gallery that my brother set up for me. I had been using the gallery since I lived in Europe and had about three and a half years worth of pictures stored there.

I decided to transfer to Flickr because other members of my family were visiting the gallery to make fun of pictures of me and Brielle (true story). I know it sounds ridiculous and if it happened today I wouldn’t give a crap, but at the time I was still coming to terms with being thrown into poverty, moving a bunch of times, birth trauma, leaving all my friends behind and, oh yeah, that little ‘escaping with my life’ thing.

Being kicked while I was down was too much to bear. So I set up a Flickr account and only made the pics available to those would be happy to see them. Feeling like nobody was lurking in cyberspace to criticize our hair or clothes, I uploaded with impunity. I loved Flickr, sang their praises, tagged like a fool and upgraded to a paid pro account.

Then a few months ago, in a move that still baffles me, my brother transferred all the galleries to a new server but inexplicably decided not to transfer mine. This decision effectively wiped out the photo albums with Brielle’s baby pictures, my wedding pictures and my beloved Europe pictures.

My brother tried to console me by reminding me that the pictures are not deleted but just stored on the old server where I have absolutely no way of seeing them. I am not entirely clear on how that is helpful. It is the equivalent of losing all your photo albums in a fire but being reminded that the negatives are in a shoebox in the basement. I still can’t see my pictures (without a tremendous amount of time, money and effort).

This only served to reinforce my feelings that something as important as family photos should not be trusted to family but rather a corporation, with large servers, backups and the inability to eradicate an account. Or so I thought.

TOS…Wait…WHAT???
So I have been gleefully using Flickr since the fall of 2006. I have my pics in random files on a few different computers but I did not back up my Flickr account. I considered Flickr to BE the backup. Once they were on Flickr, I could breathe. They were safe. I trusted them with everything. I would sit down monthly, dump everything from my phone and camera and even from other people’s cameras and then tag my favorites, tag the people in the pics and breathe a sigh of relief until next month.

Here is where I went terribly wrong. I thought of Flickr as photo storage rather than photo sharing. Is there a difference? You bet. It probably doesn’t matter for my personal pics but I used Flickr to store about 5 or so pics for my website and store. Yes 5. Five out of 11,500. You do the math. I used Flickr for those pics because I was testing the front page design. It is just easier to upload to Flickr than send them to my site when trying out a number of pics.

Here is the deal. Every time someone would go to my homepage, Flickr would have to provide the pictures for people to see. On a worldwide scale, this could cost them tons of money if people use Flickr to host images for that purpose so it is clearly and expressly against their Terms of Service (TOS) which I simply never read. It just never even occurred to me that it would be a problem. I never thought twice about it. I loved Flickr, used them every day and totally forgot that those couple of images were still hosted there.

Once my account vaporized, I frantically Googled why an account would disappear. I figured it was a glitch on their end. I found they will delete entire accounts with no warning for a TOS violation. I thought “I don’t do any of those naughty things” but finally clicked on the TOS anyway. I emailed Flickr immediately (and other than a computer generated reply, I have not heard back). I still hadn’t even thought of the pics on my homepage and could not figure out what I did wrong. I honestly thought Flickr took offense with a breastfeeding or EC photo.

As the realization sunk in, I bawled. I stopped eating. I stopped sleeping. I laid awake all night long until about 5am and suddenly it hit me….it is those four lousy images on my home page (that gets about 900 stupid hits a month). I put them on last July and forgot they were even on Flickr. I checked the homepage in the morning and sure enough, the offending images were deleted.

I visited my blog and could still see the images of Brielle and Bianca and had read that Flickr will delete your account but the images are still accessible if you have the direct link. I breathed a sigh of relief. At least my 3.5 yrs of blogging was safe and the creme de la creme of pictures were still available.

So get this. I have my own storage on my site and store. I have nine self hosted wordpress blogs. I have a hosted ecommerce store. I can store as many pictures as I need to. I did not NEED Flickr at all but I just loved using them. I was not trying to pull one over on Flickr or get free hosting. I am not a criminal or a rule breaker (intentionally).

One email from Flickr could have saved everything. One notice. One warning. One heads up. They can’t see that I have 11,500 pictures of CHILDREN and I would probably do anything in the world to save them? I would have paid five grand to save my pics. I would have done ANYTHING. I would have stayed up for a week straight saving pics and looking for offending images.

Flickr apparently prefers the “blindside” method. They have some sort of fierce ‘zero tolerance policy’, presumably to set an example from people like me who choose to blog about it. I guess. Who the hell knows why they would not give me a chance to fix it.

Needless to say, what they did was cruel, horrible and rotten. But you know what? It is their party and they have every right to kick me out (it is not the first time I have been kicked out of a club for partying too hard) . They are my pictures but they are stored on their property. Just like you can’t store a dead body at your local storage unit, you can’t hotlink images on Flickr. Their TOS were clear as could be I am just a trusting fool who never took the time to read them. It actually makes perfect sense to me now and in all honesty I SHOULD have known better. I am not saying it serves me right, but I am saying that I don’t hold a grudge against Flickr.

Where do I go from here?
That has been the primary question on my mind. I am NOT going to go through seven years of pictures (probably 13-15,000) to create sets, tags, favorites etc. It is just NOT going to happen. I wont do one year over. I might do a month or two. Seven years? Absolutely not. Ironically, the only pictures I have access to now are the hard copy photo albums from prior to 2002.

I put such an unbelievable amount of time and effort into my online storage. All gone. Wasted time. No freaking way will I do that again.

This whole ordeal has also shaken my love for the internet monoliths to the core. Can I expect the same treatment from Google and Amazon? My livelihood? Vaporized? I can understand not trusting a relative on the west coast with a server in their garage but Google? Amazon? If my darling Flickr can turn on me this quickly….then I don’t think I can trust anyone.

I logged into my blog yesterday to see what pictures are left and I see that Flickr has deleted everything. My blog is empty. That was the final straw. I have no record of the last 7 years of my life. Gone in an instant. I feel despair, depression. I feel like giving up on everything. What next? What else will I lose that I worked so hard for?

Words have come into my head like ‘catastrophe’ ‘devastating’ ‘worst thing ever’ etc. I was hit with the enormity of what I lost and felt like the world had struck me a blow of overwhelming proportions. Then I thought, OK Sheryl….seriously….catastrophe?? I am still breathing. My children are still breathing. We are all very healthy and well. We can still smile. I have all my senses and all my limbs. I am not drowning in oil. I have clean water and food. I did not watch my child die in my arms from starvation, an earthquake, a tsunami or cancer. On a global, historic scale, my distress is absurd. Its a freaking Flickr account. How many billions of people around the world would love to have the problems that I do?

On a more personal measure, I used my standard line that I use to determine if something is “worry worthy” or not. “Will it matter in ten years?”. Actually, yes, it might. I love seeing pictures of myself as a baby and young child and I appreciate the time my parents took to put together photo albums. Now both girls are going to ask, “Why don’t you have any baby pictures of us?” I am going to have to say, “Here is the zip drive. Go for it.”

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, I have been seriously considering the possibility that the universe is screaming at me to STOP TAKING PICTURES! Just stop it. Why? Because every time I am looking into a LCD screen or my phone, I am not looking my kids in the eye. If I am holding a camera, then I am not holding their hand or a ball or a frisbee. If I am tagging, then I am not coloring or tickling or talking with my kids. I am the photographer not the actor. I am observing, not living.

I have occasionally seen pictures that Brielle has taken of me when I have a camera held up in front of my face or I am staring at the laptop on my lap. I thought with horror…”holy mackerel….is this how my kids see me?!?!” But I didn’t stop.

Every time I sit on the couch with my laptop and upload and tag pictures, I am not existing in the present, I am existing in the future, when I can look at the final pictures. When I am looking at the final pictures, I am living in the past when the event actually took place. The whole process serves to take me away from what is happening in the here and now. Even if I am working while the girls are asleep, I am taking away quality time from myself by focusing on pictures I took in the past and will look at in the future. It is an exercise in insanity.

I am a huge (HUUUGE) fan of The Four Hour Work Week. Tim Ferriss is my hero (but that is another blog post). If you are not familiar with the book, the general idea is how to automate and outsource your revenue stream to free up time for stuff that gives joy and meaning to your life. I am slowly freeing up my work time but I have still been spending a ridiculous amount of time on pictures of my kids. Do you think my little girls care if I am working on my store or tagging a picture? All they see is mommy staring at her laptop instead of doing something WITH them.

I think its time to stop. Life has given me a spanking and I didn’t like one little bit, but it was a wake up call. I think someday when my girls ask where the pictures are, I can tell them that I chose to play with them rather than point a camera at them. I think hope they will understand. There is something exciting, scary and liberating about enjoying the moment and letting it disappear into forever. I am uncomfortably attached to the concept of clinging to every moment with my girls by capturing all of it on film. I need to rethink everything and just savor the precious moments while they happen and if my friends and family want to be part of it, they should visit. Now if you will excuse me, I am going to put my laptop away and go for a Sunday stroll with my girls to have a Mimosa and feed the ducks.

Image source: Since I don’t have any images anymore, I commissioned Brielle to do the artwork for this post.

Have any of you seen the babywearing coverage on the Today Show? I have to say that the portion on the recall was impartial and very accurate. I also have to say…..LOVE the Moby, Boba and Ergo. (of course). I was a little disappointed that they didn’t show any babies in cradle hold or breastfeeding friendly positions. They also failed to cover how to safely wear a newborn. Those small observations aside, I am fairly pleased with the segment and I think it represented babywearing in a positive light.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

For anyone who has had a baby, whether you breastfeed or not, nursing pads are a must. Your body will make milk and it will leak through your clothes. I used the yucky paper things that wadded up in a corner of my bra until I just threw it across the room. I finally gave up and just changed my shirt a lot.

There are a whole new breed of stunning, designer organic nursing pads that look as great as they feel and we are delighted to offer the Posh Pads in our store as an alternative to plain white paper or cotton nursing pads.

We offer 16 unique styles from the Posh Pads line and they are all bright, cheery and eye catching. They will remind you of the the hip, stylish woman you always are, postpartum or not.

The print side is worn facing your body so you wont have crazy circles showing through your shirt. The pads are crafted from flannel, organic cotton and rayon from bamboo which is absorbent, breathable and naturally anti-bacterial.

Check them out here and as always, use code BLOG for 10% off your purchase.

We are pleased to now offer the full line of narrow neck stainless steel baby bottles from OrganicKidz in our store.

OrganicKidz Stainless bottles are the winner of a Disney iParenting Media award!

Stainless steel baby bottles are an excellent choice because they are naturally non-toxic (no BPA/Phthalates or other nastiness found in many plastic baby bottles), naturally bacteria resistant and virtually unbreakable. They are lightweight, portable and dishwasher safe.

The OrganicKidz line comes in three convenient bottle sizes and bright, yummy colors. The bottles start at $18.95 for the 4 oz size and all the bottles come with a nipple and 2 oz stainless cap. Use code BLOG at checkout for 10% off your order.

I always assumed that I would nurse Bianca until she was 2 or 3 or perhaps even older just like I did with Brielle. Bianca sort of rewrote my plans when she started popping teeth at 3 months. Her teething has been fast and furious and now, at 14 months, she has all her teeth except for her two year molars.

Early and continuous teething has been really bad for our breastfeeding relationship. I do not have the patience (or time) that I did with Brielle so if Bianca was was fussing at the boo in any way, I delatched her and set her down. In retrospect I think I probably was too quick to remove her when she was probably hungry and needed to drink. She ended up on solids early and has been happily eating all varieties of food and drinking from both a cup and a sippy cup.

Over the last few months her latch changed even more. The change was subtle but growing progressively more irritating. I couldn’t put my finger on it but I dreaded nursing her. When we would try, I would last a few seconds, holding my breath and gritting my teeth before I delatched her and took in a huge breath of relief. She would wail like her heart was breaking but seriously, it was torture. I just couldn’t take it.

If you are not a nursing mom and you want an idea of what a good and a bad latch feels like, stick your thumb in your mouth. Put it all the way in until the pad of your thumb is pressing on the roof of your mouth. Wrap your tongue under your entire thumb and pretend you are sucking honey out of your wrist. That is a good latch. Now stick your thumb in as far as your first knuckle. Wrap your teeth around both sides of your thumb and suck it back and forth quickly. That is a very, very bad latch.

Now imagine that your thumb has a zillion nerve endings and is so sensitive it can respond to a chilly room or a draft and you have an idea of how horrible a bad latch can be. With a good latch, you hardly feel a thing, with a bad one, you want to drive off a cliff.

This is how other women describe the dreaded toddler latch:

I want to cut my nipples off
I want to cut my breasts off
I grit my teeth until my jaw aches
It is like an unwanted sexual touch
Sets my teeth on edge
Like nails on a chalkboard
I am starting to dread it
I want to put my head through a brick wall

Nobody really knows for sure why a toddler’s latch will change. Some attribute it to the changing mouth size of a toddler while the breast size staying the same. Others suggest that the toddler does not fit well on a lap anymore. Others say teeth are a problem, others blame sippys and bottles. Some just think that toddlers simply develop a lazy latch because of other nutrition sources. I chalk our problems up to sippy cups more than anything. She latches on me exactly the same as a sippy cup. And it is the worst feeling you can imagine.

It hit me suddenly a few weeks ago that we had a serious problem and I was about to dry up and our nursing relationship would be lost forever. It struck me as extremely urgent and potentially tragic if I could not recover it. I want to continue breastfeeding and she desperately wants to continue to nurse. The whole development is supremely frustrating for both of us.

This is not just a daytime nursing issue. It has been affecting us around the clock. I lost my ace in the hole for sleeping. She has been waking up at all hours for the last few months, I am insanely sleep deprived. I thought it was EC related and I had been pottying her every couple hours and she was not going. Like a bolt of lightning I finally realized, she does not have to pee – she is famished.

Determined to make it work (despite the overwhelming advice to wean a 14 mo old who has trouble latching), I turned to Brielle to get my supply up. Brielle is as addicted to breastmilk as she ever was and was more than happy to oblige. She spent a few sessions a day for a few days and I seem to be back up to a high enough milk supply that I can feel it so Bianca should have plenty to drink. I also started drinking Milkmaid tea from Earth Mama Angel Baby and I noticed an increase in my supply within a few days. Most importantly, I implemented a strict no sippy rule.

It seems to be working. We went from about a 5% success rate to 60% or so. We still have plenty of times that we try, I relatch her two or three times and have to pull her off before I go bananas. Then I get screamed at which is no fun on top of the whole nursing failure. I will say however, that her latch has improved tremendously. I do not know if it is just from nursing more or using a sippy less but something is working.

I wanted to revive our breastfeeding relationship and while it appears to be resurrected, I have to wonder if I carefully considered what I wished for. I may have created a monster. Bianca is a big girl with an incredible appetite. She went from being essentially weaned to a boo addict almost overnight. She asks for it, begs for it, cries for it, lifts my shirt, feels me up and her eyes roll back in her head when her latch is good and she is getting mouthfuls of her dearest food. I may have created a monster but in the end I am incredibly grateful that the monster lives on.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Breastfeeding: If At First You Don’t Succeed (momblognetwork.com)
• Three Year Old Weans Himself Part 1 (attachmentparenting.org)
• The Breast Whisperer (nytimes.com)
• Mothers who breastfeed beyond babyhood (guardian.co.uk)

This is the trailer for a new documentary on formula feeding in America. The documentary which is in the process of filming and scheduled to wrap in April of 2010 explores the prevalence of formula feeding in North America and the health implications that follow.

According to the Formula Fed America Documentary website ,

“Why are we ignoring our natural biological function of breastfeeding? Why are doctors, who more often than not agree that breast milk is far superior to infant formula, so quick to prescribe it when a mother experiences difficulty breastfeeding? Why do we continue to sexualize the breast and stigmatize its actual and intended use? Why are there not more widely available human milk banks where a mother can go and receive that precious liquid gold for her baby rather than free cans of formula our mailboxes? If infant feeding is a choice, why are we not making an informed one? This documentary will provide an insightful look into our culture’s attitude towards the breastfeeding mother and its acceptance of infant formula.”

Thanks to Dou-la-la’s blog for the heads up on the trailer.

Las Vegas was fantastic. We got back two weeks ago but I have been so incredibly busy that this is the first chance I have had to post about it.

The flight out was a nightmare. Brielle has always been a great traveler and travel companion. She navigates airports with ease, can find the right gate and likes to chill out and people watch with me at airport restaurants. She used to either fall asleep during the flights or look out the window and enjoy the adventure.

For some reason she missed her nap the two days preceding this trip and so the flight was pretty much as horrible as it could have possibly been. It was also an evening flight that cut into her bedtime. Neither girl slept, there was a lot of crying and some screaming and tantrums involved. You get the idea. It took everything that my mom and I had in our arsenals just to make it in one piece.

We had trouble getting a cab at the airport because we did not travel with an infant carseat and then our hotel gave us a dumpster view with no wireless internet access. By the time we switched to a decent room with a pool view and wireless, it was 3am our time and the girls still hadn’t slept at all. It was really heinous. I had assumed they would sleep on the trip and I will never make that assumption again.

Everything was just great after that. The ABC Expo was wonderful. I found more organic, natural and unique products for the store than I can stock in a year. I met some of the suppliers that I currently work with and got to meet about a hundred other people.

My mom and the girls went to the entire Expo with me. Bianca had to nurse throughout the day and Brielle still just wasn’t herself. It took too long to get back and forth to the hotel so it was easier for everyone to stay close to mom (and the boo). My mom is very familiar with my product lines so she was a great resource to have along to help spot products and gather information.

The girls just loved it which really surprised me because I thought they would be bored. Since it was a convention for babies and kids, the show was a million square feet of toys, stuffed animals, kids furniture and samples. The vendors were super patient with the girls since most of them are parents themselves. They were delighted to have built in testers/models using their products for the other passerbys to see.

Bianca was a hit. Everyone loved her. She spent most of the show riding on my hip in a baby carrier but she also spent time testing products and making friends. I can’t even tell you how many vendors snapped her picture while she was using their products. We even had a photographer on the first plane ask permission to take her picture because she was being super cute.

Not only did Bianca make friends at the show, in the hotel and in every casino and on the street, but she just went nuts on the planes. The photographer on the first flight was just the beginning. Apparently she loves people and they dig her too. On the way back the women in the row in front of me asked to hold her because she kept peeking over the seat. Then, right before we landed she kept pulling away from me and looking back down the aisle toward the back of the plane. I could see the guy across the aisle a row behind me, making goo goo eyes at her. A few minutes later I glanced back and saw everyone from both sides of the plane all the way back to the bathroom leaning out making eyes at her and smiling these goofy baby smiles. She was literally working half the plane. Is she destined to be a celebrity or a politician? I was actually embarrassed (and I don’t embarrass easily) when I saw all those people looking at her. It was really shocking.

Needless to say the flight back was a dream come true. The girls played nicely, took turns having a nap and were just pleasant as could be. The only regret I have is not spending more time with Brielle at the pool and not having a better convention strategy mapped out in advance. I am already planning on attending next year so I will make sure to make some quality pool time with the girls every day.

I did not spend one penny on gambling. That was almost as notable for me as not partying till dawn. Sigh. I did listen to the music of the casino a little wistfully as we walked through the casino to find child friendly entertainment and I felt the old pull of the nightlife when darkness fell and attire suddenly changed around us. We could barely grab a bite to eat before the tantrums started kicking in though. Not this trip but someday, somehow I will get dressed up and go out again…. (and probably have a spin or two at the roulette table too)

Vegas (ABC Kids Expo) Slideshow or see ALL our Vegas pics here

Has it been 9 months already???? Bianca has been on the outside almost as long as she was on the inside. I can hardly believe it. Time has flown but it has been good time. We are having a blast.

She continues to be a fabulous baby who is loved by all. She engages strangers and cashiers when we are out and seems to love all people, especially babies (she goes nuts when she sees other babies and usually tries to poke them in the eye).

She continues to be an alert, ridiculously happy, low maintenance baby. While I consider myself exceptionally lucky, I also attribute her demeanor in part to the fact that she is 100% natural with no vaccines, chemicals or other trauma from pregnancy, birth or beyond. Anecdotal I know…..

Here is the rundown of where she is at physically and developmentally.

Appearance
Naturally I think she is the most gorgeous baby in the world (and naturally I thought the same thing of Brielle when she was a baby). It is hard to be objective when talking about your kin. Her hair is coming in fast, brown and curly at the ears. Her eyes are still blue as can be. She is holding steady at eight teeth but I can feel the bumps on her upper gum so more are on the way. Her smile lights up the room.

On top of being gorgeous (there goes proud mommy again), she is BIG. She can easily wear 2T clothes and can wear almost all of Brielle’s summer clothes and pajamas in a pinch. She can’t wear Brielle’s jeans because of length but I am pretty sure her thighs and butt are bigger than Brielle’s are right now. Add a diaper of any kind to that butt and it can actually be difficult to dress her.

I think Bianca weighed about 21 or 22 pounds the last time I weighed her and Brielle is weighing in at 32 pounds (at 4 yrs 4 mo). I don’t think it is a matter of if Bianca catches up but when.

Eating/ Breastfeeding

The girl has an appetite. Holy moly. She didn’t get it from me that’s for sure. Daddy seems to be the generous donor of the appetite/growth gene.

Brielle and I tend to eat like birds and Bianca eats like a ravenous carnivore. She loves food and needs meals multiple times a day which is kind of tough for me since Brielle and I are grazers. Needless to say, we have learned to adapt and grandma bought Bianca a high chair a few months ago which she is very happy to spend time in.

She eats anything and everything. She eats Mexican, Indian, Chinese, sandwiches, meat, raw vegetables, fruit, you name it. Obviously I cut most food into bite sized portions but she is very good at taking bites of sandwich type foods and chewing them very well. She is great in restaurants and gets right down to business.

She is fairly proficient with a spoon and fork. She knows to spear food with the fork and holds it fairly well and can usually get the food to her mouth. The spoon is a messier proposition because it usually involves a liquidy type food like yogurt but she gets a fair amount of food in her mouth. I am impressed. She can also drink from a regular glass with help. I am hoping to skip sippy cups altogether.

She is breastfeeds a lot at night but rarely during the day. She has a tendency to attack me (when nursing) while she is awake by pinching my upper arm, digging her thumbnail into me or any other way of clawing, hitting etc. I have a lot less patience for diddling and picking than I did with Brielle so I pretty much stop it immediately. 99% of the time she is trying to tell me something like she needs to go to the bathroom or has to burp and I figure that out later but I am not willing to be a pin cushion in the meantime. That means that she gets probably 75% of her breastmilk at night.

Talking/signing
Bianca has been making noises that sound an awful lot like words for a few months now. She does it most frequently with her brother’s names and the dog’s names. It happens a little bit too frequently to be written off to coincidence but I would not call it talking quite yet. Pre-talking maybe. The other day I swear on my life that she said “chicken” after I asked her if she wanted chicken. She would not repeat it for anything but I about fell over when she said it.

The words that she is saying consistently and on purpose are “mom” “da-da” “uh-oh” and my personal favorite “ow” which she uses when she is meowing back at one of the cats or addressing the cats (she calls them “ow”. She is also starting to sign a little bit. She signed “more” a couple of times and I almost cried tears of happiness.

Walking
No, she is not walking quite yet but she is standing up unsupported for longer periods of time and cruising the furniture. I have seen her stand up unsupported once and squat down unsupported once. Walking is imminent.

Babywearing
We do it EVERY.SINGLE.DAY. We simply cannot live without our slings.

EC/Diapers

The nighttime EC is not going as well as it was in the past. When she has to go she will stir, wake me up but not quite wake up herself. If I try to potty her she gets pissed (so to speak). In short, she has to go too badly to sleep, but is sleeping too soundly to go.

I either have to wake her up enough to go (which I think is really rude), let her lay there and fuss until she finally goes in a diaper (which I also think is really disrepectful) or try to cajole it out of her by nursing her while she is on a lap potty. Frankly, nothing is really effective so I am just biding time knowing that the times she can hold it through the night (which are few and far between at the moment) are growing more frequent.

On a much more positive note, the daytime EC took a tremendous turn for the better. I was having a lot of difficulty keeping her on the Baby Bjorn little potty after she started crawling. She just would not stay on it. She would crawl away and then do her business in her diaper or training pants. I was still catching the majority of poos but the percentage was going down (fast).

Then one glorious day I put her directly on the toilet with a seat insert and she stayed put! I am assuming she stays there because she cannot launch herself off the toilet and crawl away. I didn’t even bother ECing Brielle on the toilet at that age because she was so content to sit on the little potty and read or play with toys that I never saw the need to rush the toilet.

Now Bianca is doing a fair percentage of her business directly on the toilet which is so much more than I ever expected at this age. I still have to pay attention for the signs but I sense that she is getting close to communicating her need to ‘go’ either verbally or through sign language. I predict that she will be close to 100% trained by 12 months. Could be wishful thinking but time will tell.

As far as diapering goes, I still use prefolds and covers for outings although I am experimenting more with pocket diapers (Fuzzibunz) since I sell them in my store and I like to have personal experience with my products. They work great and they are a lot fuzzier on her bum.

I also relented and used sposies on a recent vacation to avoid doing frequent laundry and to also avoid having pee scented laundry smelling up the place. While the break from laundry was nice, I hated the sposies. I am totally hooked on cloth. I hated the feel on Bianca, I hated trying to pull them over her generous thighs and butt, I hated the crinkly noise they made and I just hated them. I pretty much stopped doing EC for the vacation because it was such a pain to take them down and back up again. I was very happy to get home and get natural fibers back on my baby again.

Motor skills
I don’t know where her skills are supposed to be at this age but she amazes me with her appropriate use of tools. She knows to point the remote at the TV and press the buttons, to hold the broom handle with both hands and push it along the floor and which end of the pen goes to the paper. Maybe I am just a proud mama….or maybe that is super cool for an 8 mo old to do.

She can also open the dog kennel and release the hounds.

Cosleeping

I still love sleeping with Bianca. Sometimes I look at her while she sleeps and I am just overwhelmed with emotion. I love holding her fat little body and snuggling her all night.

I am somewhat embarrassed to admit that despite the fact that she sleeps with me every single night, she sometimes starts out the night in a carseat until she wakes to nurse. I feel guilty while doing it but….well… it works and sometimes we just have just gotta do what works, AP or not.

I expect the cosleeping relationship to carry on as long as she is night nursing but I also suspect she wont stay in bed with me quite as long as Brielle did since she will graduate to sharing a room with her big sister and she gets pretty excited to spend time with Brielle anywhere, anytime.

The first 9 months have been great and I can’t wait to see what the next 9 will bring.

Yes of course I was going to blog about this. How could I not? Apparently our friends over in Spain have developed a breastfeeding doll that makes sucking noises when held up to a halter top with little flowers that represent nipples. The proximity to the flowers and the proper breastfeeding position activate a breastfeeding response in the doll.

Naturally this is creeping out people on our side of the pond for a number of reasons (none of which I understand). All I know is that anything that encourages the daughters of today (mothers of tomorrow) to hold a hungry baby to their chest rather than inserting a piece of silicone or latex in the baby’s mouth is a good thing. (more…)

World Breastfeeding Week is August 1-7, 2009. The theme for this year’s World Breastfeeding Week is breastfeeding as an integral component of emergency preparedness.

Who can forget the video footage of the mother holding her limp infant begging for help after hurricane Katrina or the female police offer who breastfed numerous children after the Chinese earthquake? Other mothers have kept their children alive for days after being stranded in the snow with breastfeeding alone. (more…)