Milk Please, Mommy

Connect Four

2009-08-09T12:43:00.002-04:00

I'm happy to report that we are now a family of four. Ben was born on August 5th, and it's already as though he's been here always.

His was a relatively short, uncomplicated labour, and he was born at home, just as I'd hoped for. He was almost a full pound heavier than my daughter, weighing in at 8 lbs 13 oz, and he's taken to nursing as though he's in training for the breastfeeding Olympics, so I doubt that his weight will be a worry for us.

Thus far, he's a dream baby. He sleeps when he's not eating, and cries when he's hungry or needs a diaper change. Occasionally, he'll stay away for awhile and look around curiously. When he's awake, he's alert and content. Secretly, I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop.

We're going to take a couple of weeks to welcome him and just enjoy the sensation of being four instead of three, so any orders placed at www.nursingnecklace.com will not be processed until the 24th of August.

And now, some photos!

Ben on day two

Ben and his big sister - doesn't she look proud?

the countdown begins

2009-07-13T21:03:00.005-04:00

Our magical transformation from family of three to family of four is looming - three weeks and two days until my due date, which means that he could come pretty much at any time, or not until the 20th of August.

The woman who taught our childbirth prep class when we were expecting the Monkey was trying to explain to the partners in the class how mentally and emotionally trying this particular part of pregnancy could be for those of us in the full-uterus set. She likened it to knowing that at some point in the very near future, you were going to break your arm. You wouldn't know when or how it would happen, but you could be certain that it would hurt, and that the circumstances surrounding it could be very public and embarrassing. That particular analogy has stuck with me all this time, and as I reach the point where it applies to me again, it just keeps popping back into my mind.

I find myself thinking tangentially most of the time, and I can't say that it's not weird or gross. [1]. Mostly though, I find myself contingency planning just in case my water breaks .... now. Or now. Or now. Who to call, how to get home in soggy pants - and then I wonder if that's what you do if you're planning a home birth - do you just go home, all drippy and stinky? Walk? Take the bus? Call a cab? Call Andrew and then sit for an hour, wafting Eau d'Amniotic Fluid and waiting for him to come from work to pick me up? (I didn't have to deal with this with the Monkey - my midwife had to break my water for me. Had I known, I would have seen about a dozen movies in the theatre in that last couple of weeks, but I was paralyzed at the thought of having my water break in public.[2])

Anyway. Other than the rapidly-mounting anxiety, the vicious heartburn that just won't go away, my fears over how our family dynamic will change and how the Monkey will react to her little brother when he's more than just an abstract idea, the mood swings, my almost complete lack of preparedness, the searing pain as the Stowaway stabs me directly in the cervix with his tiny knitting needle fingers and my inability to sleep for more than a couple of hours at a time, I'm doing really well. I spent part of last night sorting tiny little clothes, and marvelling at their size, and at the fact that there's a little person in my belly who will fit into them, and into our family. I'm excited. And nervous. And excited. And hungry. But mostly excited.

[1] Things that have crossed my mind, in no particular order:
- can your water break before you lose your mucous plug?
- does the Shoppers in my neighbourhood carry plastic sheets, so I don't have to layer my bed with IKEA shower curtains that crinkle irritatingly every time I roll over in the night? I really like my feather bed.
- would live-blogging labour be too gross? Would it be more entertaining than old CSI reruns or playing Ratchet & Clank?
- are the pushing parts of labour that much worse than the contraction parts if you don't have an epidural to make everything all shiny and wonderful and to help you forget that a strange man is pulling a baby out of your body with an enormous pair of tweezers?
- how many times will the midwife let me vomit before we go to the hospital? And do I have a pail somewhere for that?
- will she take one look at my slap-dash attempts at housekeeping and declare our apartment too germ-ridden for a home birth?

[2] Other things that are different this pregnancy:
- I ate bacon and sandwich meat and didn't feel bad about it
- I haven't yet accidentally eaten a liqueur-filled chocolate and then spent the next three months convinced that my baby would have FAS and it would be all my fault.
- I painted my fingernails twice and did feel a smidge guilty. Nail polish has formaldehyde in it that can cross into your blood stream and kill your baby!
- this baby is STILL moving around like a bull in a china shop - the Monkey was much too big to move by this point.
- I thought I was under-slept then. I think about that now and laugh and laugh.
- I've been ready for it to be over for at least a month now. I remember being content with it right up until week 41 with the Monkey.
- I haven't stayed at a hotel at the same time as a convention for parents of blind and deaf children, and therefore have only had moderately crippling anxiety about this baby being born with either of those problems.
- my "nesting instinct" is less about making everything pretty and more about making everything relatively clean, where relatively means that you probably still want to keep your shoes on, just in case.

still here, just gearing up for baby

2009-07-01T12:56:00.003-04:00

I have a lengthy catch-up post planned for my upcoming pre-baby vacation, but until that happens, have a look at this FANTASTIC blog post about breastfeeding and the support (or lack thereof) that society gives to breastfeeding mothers. (I think that the blogger is in Australia, but the sentiments expressed are still so relevant to those of us in North America.)

Hoyden About Town: Gone Too Far?

(Check out the comments too - they're pretty great!)

A new necklace option, and sleep training - night 4

2009-04-08T21:54:00.002-04:00

Bedtime tonight was even better than last night, with the monkey only needing to be reminded once that she's supposed to lie down during story time. We read the usual number of stories (4) which I'm thinking is one too many, as she was really good for the first three, and only needed reminding during the last one. She was also visibly sleepy, which is a first and is awesome.

We started talking tonight about how she's a big girl, and how when we come back from Grandma's on Sunday, the exercise ball will be all gone. I'm going to try to have this talk with her at nap time and bed time every night between now and then to get her used to the idea - she's much better with new and/or uncomfortable situations when she knows what's going to happen in advance. I'm still anticipating hours of unhappiness once the ball is gone - it's the only way she knows how to fall asleep, and she's pretty strong-willed. I'm actually going to deflate the ball and put it away though, so we'll have to figure out together how to make it work.

Anyway. She went right to sleep at 8:15 after only five minutes of bouncing, and is still asleep now, at almost 11 - unheard of. She normally wakes at least twice before I go to bed.

Now, on to something new and exciting: a whole new necklace option! The Custom Semi-Precious Nursing Necklace! Semi-precious stones are beautiful and are great for nursing necklaces! And there are so many different kinds to choose from! Now you can design your own meaningful and lovely necklace, complete with our special safety bead and super-strong spectra-fiber cord. If you think that the necklace pictured on the page is familiar, that's because it's our Winter To Spring necklace - we have a couple of orders on deck for Custom Semi-Precious necklaces, but until they're finished, the Winter to Spring necklace is doing double-duty.

So that's it for tonight. I'm off to bed early for once - I think I've earned it! Have a great Easter!

(don't) bounce with me

2009-04-07T20:14:00.005-04:00

Tonight is night three of our new sleep routine for the monkey, and so far, I'm not sure how it's going.

A little backstory: when the monkey was very small, we determined that bouncing her on an exercise ball was the easiest and most reliable way to put her to sleep at night. Since it seemed foolhardy to change something that worked so well, I've spent anywhere from 5 to 95 minutes pretty much every night since bouncing her on an exercise ball to put her to sleep. (The 95 minute nights were entirely due to stomach problems or illness - she's generally a pretty easy baby to put to sleep.)

Lately, however, I've been noticing that my burgeoning belly (and boy, is it big for 23 weeks!) is making the bedtime bouncing more difficult. I'm shorter of breath, and it's been taking longer at night to get her to sleep. (This was actually due to an ear infection that was practically asymptomatic, and now that she's on antibiotics for it, it's much better.) I also realized that if my labour with this pregnancy goes anything like the last one did, it would be several weeks before I'd be able to bounce her to sleep. Given that everyone I've spoken to about having two babies under two has stressed the importance of routine for the older child, I decided that we'd be better off changing her bedtime routine NOW, while we still have four months to make it stick.

Our old routine looked like this: change into jammies with mommy, bedtime stories with daddy (and she was free to run around and sit on the floor with us during this part), night-night to the toys and the outside world with mommy, bottle of formula with mommy, bedtime songs and bouncing on the ball with mommy until asleep, and then into bed.

The main problem with this routine is that it's never given the monkey any mechanism to go from wide awake to drowsy on her own. She just doesn't know how to do it. I learned too late that babies work out how to do that between 3 and 6 months, so by the time we were ready to start sleep training, she was much too old - once your baby can get out of bed on her own, there's just no keeping her there short of duct tape, and that's just inhumane. Anyway.

We're reworking her bedtime routine with two goals in mind:

1) In a few weeks, Andrew will be taking over her bedtime routine, in order to prepare for the few weeks post-labour when I'm just not up to it. We'd rather this not be a big shock for her.

2) We'd really like for her to learn how to put herself to sleep on her own, or with minimal assistance from us.

To that end, this is what our current arrangement looks like: jammies with mommy, night-night to the toys and outside world with mommy and daddy, bedtime stories with mommy and daddy ONLY if the monkey is lying down in her bed, bottle of formula in bed with mommy lying down beside her, bedtime songs with mommy. If, once the songs are happening she asks more than 3 times to be bounced on the ball, I do it, because if I outright refuse her, she'll get so worked up over it that we lose any sleepiness we've gained in the preceding steps.

Tonight was night 3, and while she still asked to be bounced on the ball, she was much much better at staying in bed during stories - she only tried to stand up 3 times, and it was during a boring story. This is a definite improvement over the last two nights, where it was a real struggle to keep her in bed at all. I've also found that, while I do still have to bounce her to sleep, it's taken much much less time than it was before. My hope is that over the next few weeks, the time we can get her to stay in her bed will extend, while the time on the ball gets shorter, until she falls asleep in bed on her own.

What do you think? Is this totally off-base? Are we crazy to think that this will work? Andrew's aware that he may very well have to bounce her himself once he takes over, but we'd both rather he not have to do that. Any tips or tricks? HELP!!

Hang in there - summer's coming!

2009-04-04T00:25:00.004-04:00

To celebrate the fact that summer is just a few weeks away, we here at Milk Please, Mommy have designed a new necklace that reminds us of lounging pool-side, with a cool plate of watermelon close at hand - the Juicy Watermelon Nursing Necklace!

Double-stranded in pinks and greens and accented with black "seeds", the Juicy Watermelon Nursing Necklace offers twice as many fun, textured beads to keep your little nursling entertained, and the additional strand makes for great grabbing! Your baby will enjoy making the sliding beads move, and feeling the smoothness of the vintage "watermelons" that we've used as the focal point for this necklace.

Check it out today at Milk Please, Mommy!

A frenzy of new reminder bracelets!

2009-03-29T22:50:00.002-04:00

It's month-end here at Milk Please, Mommy, and that means only one thing - procrastination! Who wants to do the books when there are reminder bracelets to be designed? So, in the spirit of "why do today what we can do during the next daddy-daughter day", we're proud to present to you our newest Milk Please, Mommy reminder bracelets!

Kissed by Fire Reminder Bracelet

A Jumble of Blue Reminder Bracelet

Yellow Splash Reminder Bracelet

A Jumble of Purple Reminder Bracelet

Black and Silver Reminder Bracelet

a great contest! (plus a new custom necklace)

2009-03-28T00:02:00.004-04:00

Firstly, if you're a mom or mom-to-be and you haven't signed up for the savvymom.ca newsletter, check it out! It's full of great tips, articles, news and product reviews for people with kids all across Canada.

Secondly, I'm happy to announce that the day has finally arrived when we can tell you that Milk Please Mommy has a necklace included in the Savvy Mom 2009 Dream Baby Shower Contest! You may remember the Winter To Spring semi-precious necklace we posted about a few weeks ago.

This is your chance to win this fantastic necklace and bracelet set, along with some other really awesome prizes. You can find all of the details here! Don't wait! Check it out!

Thirdly, we've got a new custom necklace for you tonight - we're calling it the Extrasensory Rainbow necklace. The customer was looking for a rainbow spectrum necklace that also incorporated the chunky, textured beads of the extrasensory exploration necklace, and this was the end result:

I'm really pleased with the way this one turned out, and may include it as a regular necklace! We'll shortly be adding the black and white necklace with the animal beads to our regular roster as well, as it's garnered some really great attention, and should function really well as a transition necklace between the infant and toddler selections.

So there you have it. Tonight, an update. Tomorrow, the zoo!

A new custom necklace!

2009-03-22T17:56:00.002-04:00

We put this necklace together for a customer who really liked the high contrast of the black and white newborn necklaces, but wanted to add a splash of colour and some fun animal beads. This was the end result, and we're all quite happy with it!

A return to the plague house

2009-03-09T13:54:00.007-04:00

The monkey has been sick since Monday with what I suspect is another go-round at that ugly norovirus bug that she had back in January. So far, it looks like a lighter dose than she had last time (I've only done two loads of laundry, compared to the 12 or 13 I did last time) but it's enough to keep us in the house and away from contact with other people, which leads to a mildly crazy mommy. And, all of that Mommy/Monkey time has been making me nervous. I was really lucky last time, and managed to avoid catching it. I'm only hoping that my luck will continue hold this time.

In other news, well, there's lots of news!

Milk Please, Mommy is taking part in a still-secret-for-a-few-days contest where you could win this semi-precious nursing necklace and reminder bracelet set:

It's our new Winter to Spring necklace and reminder bracelet. Made with green aventurine, white jade and rose quartz, it's the perfect combination of both winter and spring and functional and pretty. Stay tuned for more details on how you can win this lovely set!

We're also adding new reminder bracelets, and have a couple of new ones up on the site. Hopefully, once the monkey's stomach settles down a little more, I'll be able to get back at it - I have ideas for lots!

Also in the "once the monkey is feeling better" pile, we're going to be having a special sale! Our brand new (but hopefully annual!) "One of A Kind, End of the Line" sale will be happening in the next few weeks! Almost all of the necklaces I sell are created and strung when you order them, to ensure that you get the very best selection from my bead inventory, but I do have some necklaces that are strung and just hanging around my office. (The monkey likes to wear them all at the same time like Mr. T.) While I hate to deprive the monkey of the hours of fun she gets from wearing every necklace in the house, I'd much rather they find a home with someone who will use them for their intended purpose, instead of having them inadvertently become a permanent early-warning toddler alarm system for our cat.

So, another thing to keep your eyes peeled for! Some truly great necklaces at fantastic prices! It'll all be happening at www.nursingnecklace.com.

PS Don't forget to check out our Facebook page to keep up to date on Milk Please, Mommy news as it happens!

Overheard this morning...

2009-02-15T10:14:00.002-05:00

My husband, talking to the monkey while I was trying to catch some extra sleep:

"See that girl with the crown and the wings? She's a fairy. The fairy of... um... making dust bunnies appear from under the couch. It's not a great job as fairy jobs go, but she's in line for a promotion soon. She's hoping to become the fairy who sometimes makes lost socks reappear. It's a much better job. She'll get a pay raise and a company wand. She's very excited."

...and now you know why I love him.

No one wins when you're playing musical beds

2009-02-09T23:49:00.003-05:00

It's been a week of worse than normal sleep here - the monkey has always had GI issues that cause frequent sleep interruptions, but at the moment, she's cutting two bottom molars and that's wreaking holy havoc on her sleep patterns.

So we play musical beds. I'm a big fan of co-sleeping, but my husband isn't, mostly because when the monkey sleeps in the middle, he usually ends up getting either a head or two feet in the stomach repeatedly throughout the night. Although I have a bed rail, I'm not comfortable with putting her on the outside, since I worry that she'll get stuck between the mattress and the rail. (That's really ridiculous, since she's 22 lbs and two feet tall, but allow me my idiosyncrasies.) I also feel like I should be getting her used to sleeping in her own bed, so that's where she starts out every night.

She stays in her bed until usually sometime between 1 and 2 in the morning, when her stomach starts to hurt too much for me to easily coax her back to sleep. At that point, I bring her out to the living room, and we bed down on the futon (that I've pulled out and made up into a bed earlier in the evening). She sleeps quite well there, usually waking only once to eat, and this is when I get my longest stretch of sleep - sometimes up to four hours in one go!

Then, sometime around 6 am, my husband gets up and comes out to the living room to do his mysterious "getting ready for work" things. (Even when I didn't have a baby and was working at my former job, I was never up early enough to figure out how it takes him an hour and a half to get ready for work, when I could roll out of bed 30 minutes before I had to leave and be showered, dressed, with make-up on, and standing at the bus stop on time.) At that point, I pick up the sleeping monkey (oh so carefully) and take her into our room to spend another two hours sleeping in the most comfortable bed in the house.

I've been assured that there will come a day when she sleeps through the night all on her own, and that no one ever needs to take their mom to college with them to sing them to sleep. I'm also very aware that this period in her life is so short and so precious, and that, while motherhood seems to be a long lesson in letting go, I have a unique opportunity to hang on to for a little while longer, so I'm not complaining. Mostly, I'm just recording the craziness for posterity.

And now it's 12:15, and I've just given the monkey her midnight feeding, so I'm going to take myself off to my (wonderful, comfortable, snuggly, cozy, soft, warm, heavenly) bed to try for that magical hour or two of sleep before she needs me again. And who knows? Tonight might be the night that she surprises me and sleeps through. A girl can dream, can't she?

New design at Milk Please, Mommy!

2009-02-05T14:58:00.002-05:00

We have a new design up at www.nursingnecklace.com - the Ocean Colours nursing necklace!

Calming blue and green water tones are offset by the bright jewel tones of fish, dolphins and whales. Fun sliding beads and lots of textured beads promise to keep little fingers entertained while you're nursing. As always, this nursing necklace features our break-away safety bead and Spectra-fiber cord to make it as safe as possible for you and your baby.

This necklace is also available with a custom name or message to make it that much more meaningful to you and your little nursling! Check it out at www.nursingnecklace.com!

A new custom necklace and a new facebook group!

2009-01-31T22:16:00.006-05:00

It's been a busy Saturday here at Milk Please, Mommy, and as a result, we're thrilled to announce a new Milk Please, Mommy facebook group! We'll be using this group to announce events and contests, and to show off some of our new designs, so be sure to add us!

Speaking of new designs, we've got a new custom sibling necklace design, as ordered by Danielle Gardner of Philosophers Walk.

I just love the deep cherry and jade tones of this necklace, and the safari animals are a fun counterpoint to the delicate flower beads.

A detail of some of the animal and flower beads - I think the giraffe is my favourite.

Hope you're all having a great weekend!

You get what you need (whether you want it or not).

2009-01-29T10:09:00.008-05:00

We're on an enforced rest-day here, as I seem to have misplaced my house keys. I've looked everywhere for them, three times, but they have yet to turn up. It's all for the best - my midwife gave me the gears last week about doing too much and not taking care of myself, so a day at home to rest and regroup is probably the best thing I can do for myself. (Well, the best thing short of a whirlwind trip to Hawaii for some beach-lounging, but if a day in my jammies at home is what the universe is offering me, I'll take it!) Edited to add: I found my keys. They were a coat pocket that I had checked quite literally at least six times over the past 24 hours. I think I really was meant to stay home today.

In other "the universe is listening" news, I received an email last night that Elizabeth Pantley has released a new book on napping called "The No-Cry Nap Solution:  Guaranteed Gentle Ways to Solve All Your Naptime Problems". When the monkey was having so much trouble at bedtime, I bought "The No-Cry Sleep Solution", and it helped us immensely, so I'm really keen to get my hands on a copy of this latest book. At the moment, our nap-time is golden: we have a reasonably firm nap-time, and the monkey and I nap together almost every day (except when we're out too close to nap time and she punks out on me and falls asleep in the stroller or the sling). She sleeps for about an hour and half, giving me half an hour to read or write in bed, and then an hour to nap myself. I find our naps just as essential to my day as they are to hers. I'm interested, however, to see how that will change when we have another baby to consider.

I was talking yesterday, however, with some of the other moms in my neighbourhood playgroup, and the subject of naps was a popular discussion - from the 3-month old who will only sleep in his swing and the 8-month old who sometimes just doesn't want to nap to my monkey who sleeps brilliantly if I'm beside her, but will only nap for half an hour if she's alone in her crib, it seems that most of the moms I know are constantly seeking better naps for their babies.

Here's a short excerpt from "The No-Cry Nap Solution:  Guaranteed Gentle Ways to Solve All Your Naptime Problems" that explains why naps are so important. I particularly like this bit, as it mentions the importance of us grown-ups taking naps too. Have you had a nap today?

The Volcano Effect: Why Skipping a Nap Results in Meltdown
By Elizabeth Pantley, Author of The No-Cry Nap Solution

From the moment your child wakes in the morning he is slowly using up the benefits of the previous night’s sleep. He wakes up totally refreshed, but as the hours pass, little by little, the benefits of his sleep time are used up, and an urge to return to sleep begins to build. When we catch a child at in-between stages and provide naps, we build up his reservoir of sleep-related benefits, allowing him a “fresh start” after each sleep period.

As shown on the sleep chart below, as children age, the length of time that they can stay “happily awake” increases. A newborn can only be awake one or two hours before tiredness sets in, whereas a two year old can last five to seven hours before craving some down time for a nap. When children are pushed beyond their biological awake time span without a break that’s when they become fatigued, fussy and unhappy.

Age              “Happily Awake” span of time between naps
Newborn          1 – 2 hours
6 month old         2 – 3 hours
12 month old         3 – 4 hours
18 month old         4 – 6 hours
2 year old           5 – 7 hours
3 year old           6 – 8 hours
4 year old           6 – 12 hours

As the day progresses, and the sleep pressure builds, a child becomes fussier, whinier, and less flexible. He has more crying spells, more tantrums, and less patience. He loses concentration and the ability to learn and retain new information. The scientific term for this process is “homeostatic sleep pressure” or “homeostatic sleep drive” . . . I call it The Volcano Effect. We’ve all seen the effects of this on a baby or child, as it is often as clear as watching a volcano erupt; nearly everyone has observed a fussy child and thought or said, “Someone needs a nap!”

As a child progresses through his day, his biology demands a sleep break to regroup, refresh and repair. If a child does not get this break the problem intensifies: the rumblings and tremors become an outright explosion. Without a nap break, the homeostatic pressure continues building until the end of the day, growing in intensity – like a volcano – so that a child becomes overtired, wired and unable to stop the explosion. The result is an intense bedtime battle with a cranky, overtired child, or an infant who won’t fall asleep no matter how tired you know he is.

Even more, a child who misses naps day after day builds a sleep deprivation that launches her into the volcano stage much easier and quicker. If she is missing naps and also lacking the right quality or quantity of nighttime sleep…watch out!

Newborns and young babies have a much shorter span in which their sleep pressure builds. They rapidly reach the peak of their volcano in one to three hours. This is why newborns sleep throughout the day, and why young babies require two or three or four daily naps. Over time, as a baby’s sleep cycle matures he will be able to go longer periods between sleeps. It is not until age 4 or 5 that a child is able to go happily through the entire day without a nap, and sleep research suggests that even through adulthood a mid-day nap or rest break is extremely beneficial in reducing the pressure in all human beings.

The Volcano Effect is not something reserved only for children! This biological process affects adults as well. Understanding this can help you interpret what is really going on in your home at the end of a long day, when children are fussy and parents are grumpy – resulting in a whole mountain range of volcanoes.

Sleep pressure can be exaggerated by environmental issues such as the previous poor night’s sleep, on-going sleep deprivation, or daily stress. What's more, each person’s moodiness feeds off the others, causing contagious crankiness. And then you’ll find yourself losing patience and saying to your child, “I’m sorry, honey. Mommy’s just tired right now.” (This is a very telling explanation we don’t often stop to analyze.)

This Volcano concept brings to light one more important point: Quality naps can make up for lost night sleep – but extra nighttime sleep does not make up for missed naps, due to the homeostatic sleep pressure concept. Therefore, no matter how your child sleeps at night – great sleeper or poor sleeper -- his daily naps are critically important to release the rising sleep pressure.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
This is a copyrighted excerpt from The No-Cry Nap Solution: Guaranteed Gentle Ways to Solve All Your Naptime Problems by Elizabeth Pantley. (McGraw-Hill, December 2008).

California county breastfeeding coalition launches eye-catching campaign

2009-01-26T18:22:00.004-05:00

"When breastfeeding is accepted, it won't be noticed."

This is the slogan on the various cut-outs of breastfeeding women scattered across Marin County in California. The Marin Breastfeeding Coalition launched the campaign to remind their neighbours that breastfeeding is not only a healthy and normal part of life, but also that it's protected by law in most US states. (In Canada, breastfeeding is only specifically protected by law in Ontario and British Columbia, although it's tacitly protected in the section of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms that deals with every Canadian being equal under the law, and privy to the same rights and freedoms, etc.)

The timing of this campaign is interesting given the recent kerfluffle over breastfeeding photos on Facebook, but I think it's a great idea. I've nursed my monkey in all sorts of random places, and for the most part, have felt entirely comfortable. I choose not to use a nursing cover - I think they draw more attention to what's happening underneath than just plain old discretion and a nursing top do - and have only received one dirty look in 15 months of frequent public nursing. I like to think that's because breastfeeding is more accepted here, and therefore isn't noticed.

What do you think?

Breastfeeding: Good for baby, AND good for mommy

2009-01-22T22:45:00.003-05:00

I found these articles in my inbox this morning, and thought they might be worth passing along.

Firstly, a study in Scotland shows a "significant link" between breastfeeding and a healthy BMI later in childhood. The article does go on to warn that socio-economic status might play a role in the health of these children, but the researchers themselves note that the link between breastfeeding and healthier eating habits seems to persist, exclusive of affluence or lack thereof.

And secondly, for you sciencey types: those of us who have nursed know that it's has some great benefits just for mommy, not the least of which is additional weight loss, but did you know that it seems that extended breastfeeding may prevent breast cancer? Now, I have to admit that this article lost me after the second paragraph, but the first two were exciting enough that I don't really care. I'm also not clear on where the "two years" timeline comes into it, but it makes me feel even better about my wish to nurse the Monkey until she's two.

In other news, she's over the Plague, but has picked up a head cold. I blame it on the daycare at the gym - parents bring their sick kids in all the time with little to no regard for the other kids or their families. I have a bit of a scratchy throat now too, but am socking the orange juice to both of us and keeping my fingers crossed. I intended to call Motherisk to see if ColdFX was safe to take during pregnancy, but then decided that taking nothing at all would be safer.

I had a midwife appointment yesterday, and got to hear the Bun's little heartbeat. Fwip fwip fwip fwip. My due date has been pushed back by a full week, which means that I'm not as far along as I thought, but finally, finally I'm days away from being finished the First Trimester That Wouldn't End. So that's a good thing.

And now, I'm off to bed. The midwife chided me gently about not taking enough care of myself in amongst the taking care of everyone else, so I'm going to take her advice and get some rest.

where did my sweet baby go?

2009-01-18T11:29:00.004-05:00

At some point in the last week and a half, my sweet, happy-faced, good-natured, adorable little girl was replaced in the night by a two-foot tall screaming harpie. I'm not sure exactly when it happened, but I'd like to know how to change her back.

Partly, I think, it's because as my pregnancy progresses, my milk supply is dwindling** and she's frustrated that she's not getting as much as she wants, and I'm guessing that it's also a developmental thing. I'm hoping that it's just a phase - she has the most ear-piercing screech, and she's so bullheaded (umm, I guess I'm to blame for that) that she'll scream for half an hour if thwarted over almost anything - being picked up when she wants to be down, being put down when she wants to be up, being removed from the kitchen (she's not allowed in there at all - that's where the cat eats and the recycling lives) not being allowed to flush a roll of toilet paper, etc.

I don't think she's old enough yet to understand the concept of "time out", and she's too single-minded for ignoring her to work as a tactic - she'll just continue screaming. How do you deal with a 15 month old when she starts throwing temper tantrums?

**(A resource that Cheryl suggested, and that I'm finding really useful is the book Adventures in Tandem Nursing. It's a must-have if you're even considering nursing through pregnancy or nursing two babies.)

reporting from the plague house

2009-01-14T22:20:00.002-05:00

Well, the Norwalk seems to be on its way out, much to my relief. Tonight will be number eight that I'll spend "sleeping" on the Monkey's floor, and I'm really looking forward to getting back into my own bed. The Monkey's gone just under 36 hours without throwing up, which I call blessed respite.

We spent almost all of the day either on route to, from or at the pediatrician's office. It's a lengthy story, but the short version is that I suspected that the Monkey might have a UTI after all of the other messy business, so wanted to get her in for a pee test. UTIs are scary when they go bad - they can do permanent liver and kidney damage. So off we went.

Our pediatrician (who is wonderful and fantastic and I can't praise enough) looked at her, and then one of the nurses fitted her with a tiny pee-bag under her diaper, and we headed out to the lobby to wait. And wait. And wait. I'd been sure it would be a quick thing - her overnight diaper had been wet, but her morning one hadn't, and when the doctor pulled off her late morning diaper at 11:30, it was bone-dry. She'd been nursing more frequently than usual though, and I managed to get some juice into her, so I didn't think I'd have long to wait. Boy, was I wrong.

At 1:30, conscious that it was naptime for both the Monkey and me, I gave up on the waiting, packed her up (along with a sample bottle for when she finally did pee) and took her home for naps. She woke up around 4 and I checked her again - still dry. At this point, it had been at least seven and a half hours since her last pee, and I was really starting to worry. I called the pediatrician's office again and they suggested that I take her to the hospital for a catheter, since a) they needed the sample to see what was wrong and b) their lab was closing in an hour. "But first", the nurse said, "there's one other thing you can try. Don't laugh at me and don't think I'm crazy - another mom who was in here suggested this, and swears that it works."

I hate hospitals. We planned for the Monkey to be born at home primarily because of my concerns about hospital-contracted secondary infections, so I was all ears.

The suggestion was this: rub peppermint lotion on the Monkey's feet. Given that I happened to have a bottle of peppermint foot lotion on hand, and didn't really want to subject my sweet baby to a catheterization, I had nothing to lose, and it WORKED! Within 10 minutes, she'd filled her little pee-bag.

Peppermint lotion. Who knew?

(Her dip-test came out clean, so we're waiting on lab results from the urinalysis to make sure she's okay.)

In other news, I posted my very first necklace of my own design today - the Breastfeeding is Love Valentine's Necklace. I'm really proud of it, although I really want to reshoot the photo - Andrew had the good camera with him at work so I had to fall back on my Powershot, and the flash on it is kind of crappy. It's a limited-edition, limited-time only necklace, although I might consider extending it if people like it.

So that's what's going on around here. I'm staying up too late, cleaning up gross stuff, and worrying about my baby. Pretty much par for the course.

Plague week continues

2009-01-11T13:10:00.002-05:00

The monkey is still sick, and I'm starting to worry a little bit. She's been throwing up since Wednesday evening, and now seems to have added the other end to her repertoire of yucky excretions. She's had a low-grade fever since Thursday. We've been socking the pedialyte to her, and she's been able to nurse and keep it down for the last couple of days, so it's not dire, but I don't like that it's still going on. I'm going to try to get her in to see her doctor tomorrow morning.

Her daddy has been sick since yesterday too - apparently the norovirus is going around again, and it certainly seems to fit the symptoms they both have. So far, I'm okay - I'll probably start to feel sick tomorrow morning, just in time for Andrew to go back to work.

Anyway, all of this sickness has precluded our trip to IKEA to set up my home office, which is a little bit disappointing. All of my stock arrived on Friday, and I've been just itching to unpack it all and see what wonders there are in those three big boxes, but without anywhere to put the contents, opening up and sorting through boxes of beads seems like an invitation for the monkey to try and choke herself to death. Given that I've spent the last four nights sleeping on her floor to prevent just such an occurrence, I think I'll wait a little longer. The orders I have on deck can be done once she's asleep tonight (if I can get her to bed at a decent hour - last night it was 10:30 pm before she'd go down!) and then I can close the boxes back up.

The monkey is currently clutching at my ankle and having a little cry - she's really tired, but fought sleep for the entire 45 minutes that I tried to put her down this morning. It's been 15 minutes or so, and she's had a good nursing session, so I'm going to try to put her down again.

The Big Day

2009-01-09T09:59:00.004-05:00

First, the big news: www.nursingnecklace.com is undergoing some slight renovations at the moment, and changing from Tickled Pink Designs (which belonged to your former blogger, Cheryl) to Milk Please, Mommy, my baby. At Milk Please, Mommy, we'll strive to maintain the level of excellence you've come to expect from Tickled Pink Designs products, and hope that you'll be just as happy with the change-over as we are.

Now, the introductions. My name is Jaimie, and I'm mom to a wonderful 14-month-old little girl who I'll refer to as the Monkey. We're also expecting a baby in August of this year, and we're really excited about that.

At the moment though, I'm most excited about taking over www.nursingnecklace.com. I've been making some of the necessary changes to the website over the last few days (although the Monkey's stomach flu has made that a slower process than I'd like), and Cheryl has been helping me set up passwords and accounts in all of the right places, but today is the day that the beads come - it's like the ceremonial passing of the torch. I'm so excited!!

Anyway, the Monkey is clamoring to nurse, and after all of the throwing up she's done in the last few days, I'm happy to get any fluids into her that I can. Have a great day, everyone!

Breastfeeding Makes Your Baby Smarter

2008-05-06T12:19:00.003-04:00

Recent research was published in the journal Archives of General Psychiatry that says children who are breastfed score higher on IQ tests, as well as on teacher ratings of their academic performance.
There is strong evidence that prolonged and exclusive breastfeeding improves children's cognitive development.
Click Here for full article

So if you have a very distracted nurser, and are about to give up on nursing, please try one of our necklaces. If it helps you and your baby nurse a little longer it is entirely worth it!

Straight No Chaser - 12 Days

2007-12-20T22:19:00.001-05:00

Just for Fun - Happy Holidays!

Boycotte Nestle this Halloween

2007-10-26T08:19:00.000-04:00

This Hallowe’en, as North American children head out for a night of fun and trick or treating,take a moment to remember young people in other parts of the world. As kids in Canada and the US gobble up Nestlé chocolate bars on Oct. 31st, the company will go on endangering impoverished children’s health and lives in the poor countries of this planet. I am asking that you consider not to giving out any Nestlé products this year, and encourage your neighbours and friends to do the same. I know its hard to not accept them but not buying them is a great start!

Here are a few reminders of the many reasons why it’s so important that you don’t give Nestlé your business:

Nestlé’s marketing behavour contributes to increased deaths and illnesses of babies around the world.
The World Health Organization estimates that 1.5 million infants die annually because they are not breastfed. Where water is unsafe, as it often is in poor nations, a formula-fed child is up to 25 times more likely to die as a result of diarrhoea than a breastfed child.
Despite these facts Nestlé refuses to adhere to the World Health Organization’s International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes. Nestlé tries to convince mothers in the majority world that they should feed their children Nestlé formula, even though formula feeding is often deadly, and breastmilk is free and supplies all the food a baby needs for at least six months.

For more information on the Nestlé Boycott visit http://www.infactcanada.ca/Nestle_Boycott.htm or www.babymilkaction.org.

Sesame Street - Buffy Nurses Cody

2007-10-15T08:43:00.001-04:00

Here is a link from a 1977 Sesame Street episode that will warm your heart :)

Whole Foods Natural Skin Care Podcast coverage

2007-06-26T08:33:00.001-04:00

The article covers a podcast series released by Whole Foods Market, the worlds leading natural and organic supermarket. The podcast mentioned speaks to natural ways to take care of your skin, one of the body's most vital, and often overlooked, organs. The podcast truly brings home the notion that we need to be careful of what we put on our skin.

read more | digg story

Infinity Nursing Necklace in Action!

2007-06-10T12:20:00.000-04:00

My little brother got married yesterday. The wedding was perfect - very simple and nice.
I actually got a chance to dress up a little - it's been ages! I wore my infinity nursing necklace too and got lots of compliments. It's nice to be able to still wear a nursing necklace and feel dress up too.
Evan loves the necklace and I find that it is like his "blankie". He always has a hold of it when he is a little nervous etc.
Too bad my dress was almost impossible to nurse in without being a lot indiscreet! Oh, for one of those nursing hats I talked about earlier. We tried our own version of it though.

Nursing Hat

2007-06-08T12:12:00.000-04:00

Look at this fun hat for breastfeeding babies! I love this idea. I often use Evan sun hat on his head to provide a little coverage. I like it better than a cover up. I really think a cover up is saying "look here - breastfeeding baby - don't look!" and of course everyone looks. Also, I don't want to feel obliged to cover up when my baby wants to nurse. However, at the same time if I don't have to flaunt it I would rather not - KWIM?
The designs add a little fun with messages on the top of the hat like "Au Lait Sil Vous Plait" and "Milky Way". Too cute!
Check them out at www.moboleez.com

Summer Sibling Necklace

2007-05-25T23:05:00.000-04:00

I just got the opportunity to design a fun sibling necklace and thought I would share the picture.
I do love doing the "girly" necklaces. Pink and Purple really seem to be the colour choices of todays little girls. I hope she likes it :)
It looks even better in person -very sparkly and just the thing a big sister should wear!
I think it is so special when people order the new big sister or brother a necklace too.

Business Rant

2007-05-20T23:14:00.000-04:00

Please - do not feel obliged to read this one - it is just me ranting :)
I have found out recently that a women 3 blocks from me opened a nursing necklace business! Can you believe it? I won't even mention her name.
Everyone else (as in other nursing necklace companies) out there has basically copied what I do as Tickled Pink Designs was the first to use the safety clasp. However, at least the other women lived in different cities. It is so frustrating because now she can hijack my marketing by just saying "yes, I am the women in Barrhaven who makes nursing necklaces" and people will think she is me - KWIM?
I have really worked hard over the last 3 years to raise awareness in the Ottawa area about nursing necklaces and my work so it is disappointing when someone else just jumps on the bandwagon.
Oh well - I promised myself that this would be it for my rant and then it is back to looking on the bright side of things. For instances - I get to stay home with my kids and have a lot a fun making cool nursing necklaces.

Tooth Soap

2007-05-16T08:10:00.000-04:00

It's Here. I was curious and decided to try something called Tooth Soap in my quest for better health for my teeth.
I had read recently that the glycerin commonly found in toothpastes actually coats the teeth so they can not re-mineralize properly. That seems to be the big thing we are missing these days - IMO. Re-mineralization. Our bodies were made to heal themselves. Why can everything else repair or heal and not our teeth? This question has been driving me crazy so I started to look at how our teeth re-mineralize. I found that it takes 27 washes to rinse the glycerin off of our teeth. When our teeth are coated the calcium and phosphorus in our saliva can't reach the enamel so there is no re-mineralization. Makes sense.
I looked at all of our toothpastes and they all contained glycerin - so disappointing! That led me to this product...Tooth Soap
I tried it last night and my teeth still feel super clean this morning. I will keep you posted on the results.

Today is the Day

2007-05-16T07:45:00.000-04:00

Well I have finally come to a decision on this Blog. I have been wanting to write a blog for a while - but I want to write about what I am interested in now even if it isn't related to Tickled Pink Designs. I love my business, and admit to becoming very excited about finding cool beads, but I am also interested in so many other neat (I think) things that might also interest other Moms. I have decided to share what makes out my little piece of the world go around and hope that you might enjoy some of the information too :)

Infintity Nursing Necklaces

2007-04-01T08:55:00.000-04:00

They are here! I have really been wanting to do a nursing necklace that has some of the gorgeous glass , crystal and silver beads that I use in the bracelets. Well - here it is. I have called it the Infinity Nursing Necklace" (thanks to Natasha at pinkpowersuit.com for the idea).
I know there other designs out there that are similar. However, this one comes with a twist. I have incorporated the black safety bead on the silk cord. Now you can have a gorgeous necklace and still have the safety clasp incorporated in to the design.
Like all the other nursing necklaces this one is NOT meant for babies to chew on. However, they can definitely pull it! My little guy loves to hold it up and watch all the beads sparkle.

Feeding Baby Jesus - AP style

2006-12-06T08:42:00.000-05:00

I received this on one of the lists I am on. I have shared it with my close friends and now am sharing it with you. ( I also want to be able to find it again later!)

This has me laughing out loud every time I read it. Happy Holidays!

************************************************

A friend just passed this on to me.
It is priceless!
CAUTION:
Put down your hot coffee/etc and swallow what is in your mouth before
reading any further!
For you non-Brits, Tesco is the the name of a large supermarket chain
in the UK, I am told!

Went to Abigail's school Christmas concert. Each class did a little
something followed by a song or 2.
Anyway, Ab's class did a Nativity scene, with Ab as Mary ( Grin How
proud was I?). A few mins. into their bit Ab promptly lifted her dress
& shoved baby Jesus up it. The script then wandered away from what
they'd learned & goes as follows....

Joseph: "What are you doing?"
Mary: "I'm feeding our baby"
Shepherd: "Have you got a bottle up there then?"
Mary: "Don't be silly he's having milk from my booby"
Joseph: "That's disgusting"
Mary: "No, that baby milk they have in Tescos is disgusting. My baby's
having proper milk"
Shepherd: "What's a booby?"
Mary: "Those sticky out bits ladies have"
Shepherd: "They're not boobies, they're nipples"
Mary: "No they're not, they're boobies"
Joseph: "So why can't Jesus have milk from a bottle then?"
Mary: "Because I haven't got a breast pump with me - you forgot to put
it on the donkey"
Shepherd: "Can't you ask the teacher for a bottle to feed Jesus with?"
Mary: "No because this is the best way to feed Jesus. Anyway bottles
haven't been invented yet & even if they were I've just had a baby so
if you think I'm faffing about round Tescos to buy baby milk when I
make proper milk in my boobies you can think again"

I felt a teeny bit sorry for their class teacher - she did try her
best to steer them back towards their proper lines but she was
laughing so much she didn't really stand a chance. The line about
Joseph forgetting the breast pump finished her off - she slid to the
floor & couldn't get up for laughing....

Michael's Necklace

2006-08-02T13:35:00.000-04:00

Here is one of my latest custom designs.
I really like the way it turned out. Blue for little boy, but still pretty for Mom to wear. The garnet colour is for a January baby.
I really enjoy doing the custom design work - the necklaces always seem so meaningful - such a nice keepsake!

Homeschool thoughts...

2006-08-01T13:48:00.000-04:00

I am currently obsessing about Homeschooling. Jenna is four so the question that everyone is asking is "is she going to JK in the Fall?" Here in Ontario children start Junior Kindergarten when they are four.

Actually, it seems that so many people just assume that when your child is four that they should go to school. I think four is young. We have worked so hard for me to stay home with the kids that it seems silly to send her off for 2.5 hours of school. My mother-in-law also pointed out that when you will be going to school for 15-20 years of your life you should at least get the first 5 years to stay home :)

I mentioned that I was thinking about homeschooling to a women at the park and all I got was "Oh - you're one of those". One of those? Does she mean someone who is concerned about the state of our education system? Someone who know her child and is trying to make the best descion for her as an individual? Hmmm - I think NOT! How very bold to actually say that outloud :)

I am very concerned about our education system (here in ONtario anyway). The classes are so big and I can't help but feel that my child will be just a number. Also, it seems to me that the school ssytem was designed for teh industrial age. Start or stop learning by the bell, listen to authority etc. etc. All those things you need to be a good factory worker. However, we are in the information age and I can't help but feel that there is a better way for kids to learn.

I want my kids to be able to think outside the box, think independantly but still be able to work within a team. I want them to be entrepreners - no matter what their choosen feild. I think that home schooling, especially when I am running Tickled Pink Designs, from home will be a great experience.

Ah well - enough rambling!

Anyway, I have found some great links for homeschooling or just for home learning. I thought I would post them for others to see to.

Brightly Beaming Resources
http://www.letteroftheweek.com/

School Express
http://www.schoolexpress.com/fwsindex.php

KinderStart
http://www.kinderstart.com/learningactivitiesandcrafts/index.html

Dositey Online
http://www.dositey.com/

Class Brain - JK & SK
http://www.classbrain.com/cb_pk/cb_pk.htm

ECE Teaccher's Pages
http://users.stargate.net/~cokids/teacher.html

First School
http://www.first-school.ws/

2006-03-04T13:39:00.000-05:00

I FINALLY got around to posting some of the many custom orders up the web site. Here is a picture of one of my favoutite necklaces - so girly!

Check out the custom gallery and see all the neat designs that I have done :)