I'm so outraged I can't even forward an email properly, so here's a cut-and-paste of what the automatically generated "forward the message on" thing is when you sign the online petition... I'm flabbergasted by this!
****end Ahmie's actual ability to write about this sanely & without profanity****
I just signed a petition in response to the recent Supreme Court ruling that was a huge blow to equal pay for equal work, and I hope you will too.
THE LOWDOWN ON THE ISSUE & PETITION LINK: The Supreme Court just told Lilly Ledbetter, a 60-year old "fiery mother of two," that even though, for years, she was paid between 15% and 40% less than her male counterparts on the management team (a fact she learned late in her 19 year career), she could not make a claim of workplace discrimination. Why couldn't she make a claim? Lily Ledbetter learned about the pay discrepancies too late. The court ruled that claims must be made within 180 days after the pay is set. But how many of us know what our co-workers make? In fact, it's illegal to ask in many states.
Justice Ruth Ginsburg wrote the dissenting opinion for the 5-to-4 decision, and in it she asked Congress to overturn the ruling and clarify the intent of the law. Several Congressional leaders are already stepping forward to counter this outrage by drafting new fair-minded legislation. Let's get behind them so they can pass this legislation immediately.
SIGN THE PETITION & PASS IT ON: Tell Congress, "We Need Equal Pay for Equal Work--it is good law, make it enforceable!":
Sign the petition and then pass it on to friends so we can build support for the Congressional leaders who are stepping forward to right this wrong. Frankly, they need our help--because as the Washington Post reports, business groups, such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, are applauding this dangerous, short-sighted ruling.
CITIZEN VOICES ARE CRUCIAL: Citizen voices are going to be crucial to giving leaders the "political capital" they require to fix this problem. Here's what several of the key leaders who are fighting for us have to say about the ruling:
"Yesterday's Supreme Court decision reflects a poor understanding of the real problems with long-term pay discrimination," said Senator Harkin. "Most new employees feel less comfortable challenging their salaries, and it is very difficult to determine when pay discrimination begins. Furthermore, a small pay gap tends to widen over time, only becoming noticeable when there is systemic discrimination over a period of years. I look forward to working with my Senate colleagues to ensure every worker receives the paycheck he or she deserves."
"Unless Congress Acts, this Supreme Court ruling will have far-reaching implications for women, and will gravely limit the rights of employees who have suffered pay discrimination based on their race, sex, religion or national origin. All Americans deserve equal pay for equal work and it is our responsibility to get this right," said Senator Clinton.
"This week's Supreme Court decision sends a dangerous message about the value of pay equity in this country. It is unacceptable that women and others would be limited in their opportunities to stand up for themselves and for their families. I am proud to team up with my colleagues to right this wrong," said Senator Mikulski.
"As Justice Ginsburg suggests, the ball has now fallen into Congress' court and we intend to address this ruling," said Representative George Miller (D-CA), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee. "The Supreme Court's narrow decision makes it more difficult for workers to stand up for their basic civil rights at work and that is unacceptable."
*Don't forget to sign the petition and pass it along to friends and family as well. Let's support the Congressional leaders who are coming forward to right this wrong. Sign on here
Best - The MomsRising Team
p.s. Have you experienced workplace discrimination? What happened? Share your story and experiences at: http://www.momsrising.org/node/536
p.p.s. Want to read more about it? Here are some good articles:
- Washington Post
- CNN Money
- New York Times
Thank you!
(note: edited by Ahmie to make the links clickable and to keep them from stretching the screen)
Thursday, May 31, 2007
8 things about me
Ok, so Jennifer (the Lactivist) tagged me... serves me right for posting comments on her blog that rival the comments on this thing I guess ;)
I have no idea if I can actually come up with 8 things that every single person who regularly reads this blog doesn't already know... And given how long I've been online (14 years as of sometime in June), it's frightening how much information about me is already available online, especially for those who know my pre-marriage name(s) and the various online aliases I've used over the years.
I'll give it my best shot...
1. I aspire to learn carpentry and car repair. I'm ashamed of how little mechanical skills I actually have in the "real world usefulness" category. Somehow having mad skillz at crochet, photography, baking, and lactating just don't seem enough some days - probably because I fully expect Liam to break houses and cars and need to be able to fix them.
2. I can't deal with music on an extended basis, my skin starts to crawl if I have to hear music for more than a couple hours, even if it's music I like.
3. I feel an overwhelming sense of joy when I watch someone enjoying something I've created (see "mad skillz" of #1). It's an emotional/physiological high about equal to that of nursing Liam when he was tiny and new and didn't try to break my nose.
4. I want to go skydiving or at least hang-gliding. But not over water (not afraid of water, just really don't like the smell of large bodies of water).
5. Sometimes I feel an overwhelming sense of longing for specific people I'm really not sure I ever want my children to be around. These specific people are not good for my own mental health either. I still miss them desperately sometimes. Hint: several of them are in my wedding album.
6. I am terribly addicted to television. As much as I can't stand music for extended periods of time, I have trouble sleeping without noise and light changes. This is a really bad habit but it's worsened with the frequent bathroom wakings followed by insomnia I'm currently experiencing in the pregnancy. It doesn't really matter what's on (as long as it's not music or violence), but I need SOMETHING to distract my ticking brain at 3am when I'm trying to settle for the 4th time that night. Audiobooks aren't working at this point but I'm trying to go back to them instead (they're a little TOO interesting).
7. I realized at a church service recently that I'm more afraid of losing my memories of my children than of losing them physically. I think I could cope better (not well, but better in some sense) with losing a child (terrifying, horrible thought that it is) than I could with realizing that I was losing my memories of them and facing not recognizing them at all, as I watched my great-grandmother go through. Someone said at least I wouldn't realize that I was forgetting, but from having been around people in early stages of dementia, I do think that the majority of them realize that they are losing it. The thought terrifies me more than anything. I'm trying hard not to cry.
8. Which brings up the other thing about Ahmie that doesn't come up much I guess... I HATE crying (not other's crying, my own). The feeling of prickling tears behind my eyelids infuriates me, partially because I know that I'll likely wind up with a sinus and ear infection if I don't reign it in, as well as the "beaten by a professional boxer" feeling I'm physically left with for days afterwards, and partially because of the mental weakness and vulnerability others perceive in it. The strength of my mind is the thing about myself that I most admire, and it's too easily dismissed when I start crying. I don't discourage crying in others, nor see them as weak when they cry (I do try to comfort anyone I perceive to be in emotional distress, tears or no). I also get really pissed off and lose respect for anyone who DOES treat me as mentally weak or vulnerable when I'm upset and it's one of the few things someone can do to *me* to get on my bad side (I'm more likely to get pissed off at people for things they do to others and shrug off things - at least eventually - that they've done to me). Tears limit my ability to be pro-active... I think that's what it boils down to.
So, how many of those did you folks who actually read this thing already know? Is ANY of it new information???
I tag Sabrina because she's been talking about others instead of herself, Clare because she's a great person even when Willow isn't around, and Garvin because - shesh - it's been nearly a YEAR since the guy's posted on his blog! COME ON!
Serena, I didn't tag you because I can't remember the link to your blog ;) I'll ask you for it next chance i remember, or post it in the comments and consider yourself tagged too!
I have no idea if I can actually come up with 8 things that every single person who regularly reads this blog doesn't already know... And given how long I've been online (14 years as of sometime in June), it's frightening how much information about me is already available online, especially for those who know my pre-marriage name(s) and the various online aliases I've used over the years.
I'll give it my best shot...
1. I aspire to learn carpentry and car repair. I'm ashamed of how little mechanical skills I actually have in the "real world usefulness" category. Somehow having mad skillz at crochet, photography, baking, and lactating just don't seem enough some days - probably because I fully expect Liam to break houses and cars and need to be able to fix them.
2. I can't deal with music on an extended basis, my skin starts to crawl if I have to hear music for more than a couple hours, even if it's music I like.
3. I feel an overwhelming sense of joy when I watch someone enjoying something I've created (see "mad skillz" of #1). It's an emotional/physiological high about equal to that of nursing Liam when he was tiny and new and didn't try to break my nose.
4. I want to go skydiving or at least hang-gliding. But not over water (not afraid of water, just really don't like the smell of large bodies of water).
5. Sometimes I feel an overwhelming sense of longing for specific people I'm really not sure I ever want my children to be around. These specific people are not good for my own mental health either. I still miss them desperately sometimes. Hint: several of them are in my wedding album.
6. I am terribly addicted to television. As much as I can't stand music for extended periods of time, I have trouble sleeping without noise and light changes. This is a really bad habit but it's worsened with the frequent bathroom wakings followed by insomnia I'm currently experiencing in the pregnancy. It doesn't really matter what's on (as long as it's not music or violence), but I need SOMETHING to distract my ticking brain at 3am when I'm trying to settle for the 4th time that night. Audiobooks aren't working at this point but I'm trying to go back to them instead (they're a little TOO interesting).
7. I realized at a church service recently that I'm more afraid of losing my memories of my children than of losing them physically. I think I could cope better (not well, but better in some sense) with losing a child (terrifying, horrible thought that it is) than I could with realizing that I was losing my memories of them and facing not recognizing them at all, as I watched my great-grandmother go through. Someone said at least I wouldn't realize that I was forgetting, but from having been around people in early stages of dementia, I do think that the majority of them realize that they are losing it. The thought terrifies me more than anything. I'm trying hard not to cry.
8. Which brings up the other thing about Ahmie that doesn't come up much I guess... I HATE crying (not other's crying, my own). The feeling of prickling tears behind my eyelids infuriates me, partially because I know that I'll likely wind up with a sinus and ear infection if I don't reign it in, as well as the "beaten by a professional boxer" feeling I'm physically left with for days afterwards, and partially because of the mental weakness and vulnerability others perceive in it. The strength of my mind is the thing about myself that I most admire, and it's too easily dismissed when I start crying. I don't discourage crying in others, nor see them as weak when they cry (I do try to comfort anyone I perceive to be in emotional distress, tears or no). I also get really pissed off and lose respect for anyone who DOES treat me as mentally weak or vulnerable when I'm upset and it's one of the few things someone can do to *me* to get on my bad side (I'm more likely to get pissed off at people for things they do to others and shrug off things - at least eventually - that they've done to me). Tears limit my ability to be pro-active... I think that's what it boils down to.
So, how many of those did you folks who actually read this thing already know? Is ANY of it new information???
I tag Sabrina because she's been talking about others instead of herself, Clare because she's a great person even when Willow isn't around, and Garvin because - shesh - it's been nearly a YEAR since the guy's posted on his blog! COME ON!
Serena, I didn't tag you because I can't remember the link to your blog ;) I'll ask you for it next chance i remember, or post it in the comments and consider yourself tagged too!
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Why I hate trying to delegate work...
Ugh. So I tried to delegate some of the "job" (entirely volunteer) of getting podcasts up for my church to someone that was suggested by one of the office staff members. I'm trying VERY HARD to be patient and not blow up at this person, which the pregnancy hormones and frustration with being alone with a toddler with approximately 300 times my energy level NOT helping maintain my cool even when the temperature DOES stay below 75 degrees... I had specifically asked this person to follow the steps in the tutorial I created (I even did a long and short version of the tutorial in case people involved were total beginners or a bit more experienced). Apparently all that the person retained was "this is the username and password, log in and click the words create content then audio" - the files that are getting created are NOT being named according to the naming conventions I specified (which enables them to be sorted by the date of service instead of whatever random order the files were actually created - it's too easy to have a stack of CDs get out of order when they get backlogged, which of course they did as soon as I tried to job share... I'd been getting them created and uploaded before I left the building before this, then none got created for over a MONTH because the CDs kept disappearing so I couldn't do it myself... *headdesk* *headdesk *headdesk*). The URL Path isn't getting set to ANYTHING so the URL winds up being something random instead of something the office staff who upload the text of the sermons to the main church website can predict and incorporate easily into their workflow. And the title line's been being changed instead of leaving it to the code that I had inserted to take the information from the ID3 tags.
Classic case of RTFM, and since in this case *I* created the "FM" in question, I'm fuming. But it's "just" a volunteer thing, so I can't get mad, right? Grr.... *I* am doing this as a volunteer... donating space on my own server, paid for the domain name registration myself (it's totally separate from the main church website, over which I have zero control), I took the time to create the instructions and try to organize it to be user-friendly (for the end-users, uploaders, and office staff)... and it got ignored by the first person to agree to help. I created all this so that if I get totally distracted with the new baby, I can hand the job off to someone else and trust that it will be done similarly to how I'd been doing it for continuity of the users (mind you, some of these download counts are already indicating that about 1/4th of the number of people showing up on an average Sunday are also listening online - we generally have ~200 people on a Sunday morning and a lot of the download counts are over 50, it's only been online since January and I think it wasn't even mentioned in the church newsletter until April... plus the download counts get reset when I mess with the back-end stuff sometimes).
So... what do I do? I'm trying to gently get through to this person that it needs to be standardized for several reasons, but I'm not sure it's getting through. I'm trying to remember if it was this past Sunday or the Sunday before that we spoke during coffee hour, but the other person hasn't taken the initiative to go in and edit the parts that they did wrong yet, so I'm trying to fix it up since I was working on some back-end stuff anyway (while waiting for Liam to snooze so I can work on the other computer where I'm doing some graphic manipulation that's sitting in a partially finished state - love that ctrl-s key combination). I'm not the most diplomatic person by nature, and I've been known to totally steamroller people when I get going, so I'm trying not to piss this person off so much that they decide they don't want to do it at ALL, but at the same time, I'd rather no one else was messing with it if they're not going to do it in a way that actually saves my having to redo it all anyway, ya know? *sigh*
Well, for those readers who DON'T actually go to church with me (or who missed those Sundays) at least one of the services I delivered is up on the website here...notice the standardized URL with the date of the service . I may be a narcissist and upload the others later if I feel like it, I really should probably be working on my own photography website more (I plan to advertise for portrait customers toward the end of summer, if we get the the attic studio set up enough for people to come here at least some of the time). My hosting company increased the storage and bandwidth drastically (from 5gb storage and I think 100gb transfer per month to 200gb storage and I think 2000gb transfer per month, as well as dropping the yearly subscription price by $5) so I'm feeling some momentum to actually accomplish stuff on the sites... I've been uploading pictures to yeungs.us, working on getting Garvin's family tree (which is all in Chinese, of course) uploaded so the extended family all have access to it, but that's been not working for some reason.
Liam's asking for apple juice, gotta go.
Classic case of RTFM, and since in this case *I* created the "FM" in question, I'm fuming. But it's "just" a volunteer thing, so I can't get mad, right? Grr.... *I* am doing this as a volunteer... donating space on my own server, paid for the domain name registration myself (it's totally separate from the main church website, over which I have zero control), I took the time to create the instructions and try to organize it to be user-friendly (for the end-users, uploaders, and office staff)... and it got ignored by the first person to agree to help. I created all this so that if I get totally distracted with the new baby, I can hand the job off to someone else and trust that it will be done similarly to how I'd been doing it for continuity of the users (mind you, some of these download counts are already indicating that about 1/4th of the number of people showing up on an average Sunday are also listening online - we generally have ~200 people on a Sunday morning and a lot of the download counts are over 50, it's only been online since January and I think it wasn't even mentioned in the church newsletter until April... plus the download counts get reset when I mess with the back-end stuff sometimes).
So... what do I do? I'm trying to gently get through to this person that it needs to be standardized for several reasons, but I'm not sure it's getting through. I'm trying to remember if it was this past Sunday or the Sunday before that we spoke during coffee hour, but the other person hasn't taken the initiative to go in and edit the parts that they did wrong yet, so I'm trying to fix it up since I was working on some back-end stuff anyway (while waiting for Liam to snooze so I can work on the other computer where I'm doing some graphic manipulation that's sitting in a partially finished state - love that ctrl-s key combination). I'm not the most diplomatic person by nature, and I've been known to totally steamroller people when I get going, so I'm trying not to piss this person off so much that they decide they don't want to do it at ALL, but at the same time, I'd rather no one else was messing with it if they're not going to do it in a way that actually saves my having to redo it all anyway, ya know? *sigh*
Well, for those readers who DON'T actually go to church with me (or who missed those Sundays) at least one of the services I delivered is up on the website here...
Liam's asking for apple juice, gotta go.
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Kudos to Target for being supportive of breastfeeding
I wanted to make this a separate post from the "baby stuff" one before, this is something that makes me so happy I'm actually tearing up a bit at the minute after having called Target's help line (for lack of another appropriate looking number) to say thanks directly. For once, I've found some major marketing from a large company that actually supports breastfeeding, mirroring their "actions" with their words/press releases... in fact, considering that particular press release said that women are welcome to breastfeed "discreetly" in their stores, I'd say this is actually even more progress since that press release (this part of the post has been edited).
As I mentioned in my last post, I created a Target registry for the Piglet. I don't remember them doing this when I was pregnant with Liam (though there was a LOT going on then so I may just have forgot), but this time around they handed me this really well printed full-color THICK catalog of baby gear with reminders of the "important" stuff to include on the registry. I got something similar from Babies R Us too, pretty standard. I shoved it into the bag of the few household items I'd picked up and took it home, intending to just let Liam look at the pictures of babies and such.
Well, I actually sat down and looked at it, and color me impressed. The first checklist in the catalog focuses on nursery stuff (crib, mattress, bedding, etc etc etc), but right there fourth from the bottom the Ahmie happiness starts: nursing pillow. Hmm. Cool to call it that instead of just "baby support pillow" or something a little more neutral. Moving on, two page full-color artistic spread of Boppy pillows on page 31, they say "feeding" without distinguishing which kind (and yes, Boppy pillows are wonderful for bottlefeeders too! They're one of my favorite baby items). Still happy Ahmie. A few pages down on pg 34 is that little padded "keep the comforter off the newborn" Close & Secure Sleeper, which makes nervous parents more comfortable with co-sleeping (which also helps with early breastfeeding) mixed in with the crib mattresses and such. Ok, flipping on... first time I spot a bottle, page 39 (also has a pacifier) mixed in with a bunch of baby clothes. No big, they're pretty ubiquitous in our culture, and plenty of breastfeeders have bottles also "just in case" or for when Mom's away (we have a stockpile, barely touched since Liam hated bottles). Another bottle isn't pictured until page 65, when it's used to illustrate a possible use of one of the pockets of a "behind the carseat" organizer (also shows a stuffed toy and a few other items in there). In the meantime, I have seen several happy looking children (with more racial diversity than you're likely to see outside of one of the big cities on the coast - the four parent/child pairs on page 55's baby carrier page has a Caucasian mom/baby, an Asian mom/baby, a medium complexion mom/baby that I think are Latinas, and an African-American DAD/baby - double kudos for showing an actively involved daddy, tho I do wish they had a little more sling and carrier style diversity... Mama really wants an Ergo but they're not available on any of the places I've seen baby registries, and the sling shown doesn't look terribly comfortable for mom... none of them are as easy for breastfeeding as a plain old ring sling, that's for sure). Oh, and mixed in with those happy, racially diverse children, there have been at least 3 sippy cups I've spotted between bottles... in other words, in a BABY registry, I've seen more sippy cups than bottles by the time I'm about halfway through the catalog. It gets better. Another little bottle is mixed in at the bottom of "stuff that fell out of the diaper bag" spread on pg 66 (understandable reference there), an inexplicable pacifier amongst a very creative display of what looks like playing cards showing off the "matching sets" (to show how you can have your play yard, stroller, carseat, baby swing, and high chair all color/pattern coordinate)... then it's on to baby toys, more pictures of happy pre-solids age racially diverse babies and a total lack of bottles in the pictures!
Another bottle isn't shown until pg 88, and in pride of place above the bottles is a (manual) breastpump. Yes, there are containers of formula on the same page (four of them, in fact, including two single-feeding bottles of Nestle Good Start Supreme), but the breastpump is sitting ON TOP of them, one of the formula bottles is on it's side... psychologically it conveys the idea that pumped milk is superior! In the checklist for the section, breast pump and nursing accessories are listed. formula is not!
It's here in the feeding section that I get really impressed. For starters try to help with picking bottles for people who plan to switch-feed (breast and bottle feeders) with sticking the Avent Naturally bottle in there (Avent claims that their silicone nipple mimics the shape and feel of the breast, which I don't entirely believe - Liam actually seemed to dislike silicone nipples and Avent and Playtex nipple shapes aren't all that different... most breasts I've seen are more shaped like the old-fashioned Playtex nipples than these over-rounded-edge ones they're selling now, but I don't have any memorable experiences of trying to nurse off a breast to compare nursing off a bottle with, maybe we can get a better product review from Liam someday). Following the two page spread of bottles is a two page spread of formulas (2 per page), pg 94 i a cluster of Nestle Good Start's various packaging (including showing how a bottle nipple fits directly on the probably 4oz bottles in the first picture that had the breastpump on top) and there's a powdered formula dispenser advertised with the bottles on page 95. Page 96 is the Enfamil spread,pg 98 is the Similac spread (including the Organic one front and center), various cute bibs with a bottle laying on one on the opposite page, then a 2 page spread of pacifiers (and I know plenty of breastfeeding moms that use those... Liam wouldn't use them consistantly until he was teething but boy did I wish he'd take one sometimes!).. then we're at the breastpumps. A page of "natural feeding 101" on page 102 gives an overview the different styles of pumps (single vs. double, manual vs. electric), the facing page has Medela supplies (including in pride of place the favorite pump of many of my nursing friends, the Medela Lug...er... Pump in Style at the standard price of $250, and the new Medela Swing that actually has me intrigued, but not intrigued enough to spend $150 when I have other pumps that I know work for me already). Turn the page and you get a two-page spread of Avent pumps, the manual ISIS on the left and the motorized ISIS iQ Uno and iQ Duo on the right), along with breast pads, microwave sterilizer, Avent-brand bottles and another inexplicable pacifier *shrug*. Next page has the pump that I actually own - it's rebranded by Lansinoh, but that's the Ameda Purely Yours in a different color (I bought mine off the lactation consultant when Liam was born) along with more storage supplies, creams and nursing pads, with the Evenflo Comfort Select dual on the opposite page (I haven't looked at it in more than 2 years but I *think* the other pump I bought was the single-side version of that pump, once I figured out I was doing most of my pumping while nursing on the other side and having the motor attached was easier to deal with than juggling baby, touch-the-breast pump bits, and motor somewhere off to the side usually on the floor). Next page is the Playtex double electric pump, with the First Years models (a double electric and a manual) on the facing page, then we're on to the diapering section.
So did you catch it? It's hard to keep count, I know, but tabulating the above that means that branded formula appeared on six pages (seven pages if you count the formula dispensor - it has powder in the chamber but no brand indicated), including the first picture that had the pump on top of the formula). Breastpumps appeared (including the first picture with the formula and the drawn illustrations of the differences between pumps) on NINE PAGES! They actually gave more "screen time" to breastpumps than they did to formula manufacturers! OH MY GOODNESS THIS IS PROGRESS! Yes, there are lots of pictures of bottles with white liquid in them, but the only time that you KNOW it's formula in there are in the two pictures that have a label on them (forgot to mention that Enfamil had their single-serve bottles pictured too). For all we know (and especially since I'm a photographer myself), it could be diluted white glue in the bottles (that's what they usually use in the pictures on cereal boxes, in case you didn't know - real milk isn't high enough viscosity to hold the "pose").
The cherry on top? In 125+ pages, there's not a SINGLE IMAGE of a baby and a bottle on the same PAGE, much less of a baby drinking from a bottle.
We've come a long way, babies.
Next step, I'd love to see a picture of a mom actually USING one of the nursing pillows, in one of the gliders they sell, with baby's face snuggled to her chest, shirt tucked in for modesty is fine (heck, that's how *I* nurse at home to minimize the blood loss from little nails!). Which just made something else occur to me - even tho I've seen them for sale in the stores, those silly nursing cape things to "discreetly nurse" weren't advertised in the book! Oh, and they could start carrying non-pajama nursing tops... and advertise nursing bras in the catalog too... those would be nice additions ;)
Feel the same way? Here's the number I called to say thank you (it's the registry help line, couldn't find another more appropriate number and the lady said she's able to send the message along easily - they're so happy to get compliments instead of complaints, it makes a Customer Service Rep's day, I speak from experience here). The number is 800-888-9333, select baby registries (I think 2 in the prompt) then 0 for an operator. They'll ask you specifics about whose registry when you're first connected to a human, but you can probably just tell them that you're calling with a general compliment about their registry process or something (I did tell them my name and let them look up my registry since I have one currently). The more compliments they get, the more likely they are to keep up the good work and even take further steps!
As I mentioned in my last post, I created a Target registry for the Piglet. I don't remember them doing this when I was pregnant with Liam (though there was a LOT going on then so I may just have forgot), but this time around they handed me this really well printed full-color THICK catalog of baby gear with reminders of the "important" stuff to include on the registry. I got something similar from Babies R Us too, pretty standard. I shoved it into the bag of the few household items I'd picked up and took it home, intending to just let Liam look at the pictures of babies and such.
Well, I actually sat down and looked at it, and color me impressed. The first checklist in the catalog focuses on nursery stuff (crib, mattress, bedding, etc etc etc), but right there fourth from the bottom the Ahmie happiness starts: nursing pillow. Hmm. Cool to call it that instead of just "baby support pillow" or something a little more neutral. Moving on, two page full-color artistic spread of Boppy pillows on page 31, they say "feeding" without distinguishing which kind (and yes, Boppy pillows are wonderful for bottlefeeders too! They're one of my favorite baby items). Still happy Ahmie. A few pages down on pg 34 is that little padded "keep the comforter off the newborn" Close & Secure Sleeper, which makes nervous parents more comfortable with co-sleeping (which also helps with early breastfeeding) mixed in with the crib mattresses and such. Ok, flipping on... first time I spot a bottle, page 39 (also has a pacifier) mixed in with a bunch of baby clothes. No big, they're pretty ubiquitous in our culture, and plenty of breastfeeders have bottles also "just in case" or for when Mom's away (we have a stockpile, barely touched since Liam hated bottles). Another bottle isn't pictured until page 65, when it's used to illustrate a possible use of one of the pockets of a "behind the carseat" organizer (also shows a stuffed toy and a few other items in there). In the meantime, I have seen several happy looking children (with more racial diversity than you're likely to see outside of one of the big cities on the coast - the four parent/child pairs on page 55's baby carrier page has a Caucasian mom/baby, an Asian mom/baby, a medium complexion mom/baby that I think are Latinas, and an African-American DAD/baby - double kudos for showing an actively involved daddy, tho I do wish they had a little more sling and carrier style diversity... Mama really wants an Ergo but they're not available on any of the places I've seen baby registries, and the sling shown doesn't look terribly comfortable for mom... none of them are as easy for breastfeeding as a plain old ring sling, that's for sure). Oh, and mixed in with those happy, racially diverse children, there have been at least 3 sippy cups I've spotted between bottles... in other words, in a BABY registry, I've seen more sippy cups than bottles by the time I'm about halfway through the catalog. It gets better. Another little bottle is mixed in at the bottom of "stuff that fell out of the diaper bag" spread on pg 66 (understandable reference there), an inexplicable pacifier amongst a very creative display of what looks like playing cards showing off the "matching sets" (to show how you can have your play yard, stroller, carseat, baby swing, and high chair all color/pattern coordinate)... then it's on to baby toys, more pictures of happy pre-solids age racially diverse babies and a total lack of bottles in the pictures!
Another bottle isn't shown until pg 88, and in pride of place above the bottles is a (manual) breastpump. Yes, there are containers of formula on the same page (four of them, in fact, including two single-feeding bottles of Nestle Good Start Supreme), but the breastpump is sitting ON TOP of them, one of the formula bottles is on it's side... psychologically it conveys the idea that pumped milk is superior! In the checklist for the section, breast pump and nursing accessories are listed. formula is not!
It's here in the feeding section that I get really impressed. For starters try to help with picking bottles for people who plan to switch-feed (breast and bottle feeders) with sticking the Avent Naturally bottle in there (Avent claims that their silicone nipple mimics the shape and feel of the breast, which I don't entirely believe - Liam actually seemed to dislike silicone nipples and Avent and Playtex nipple shapes aren't all that different... most breasts I've seen are more shaped like the old-fashioned Playtex nipples than these over-rounded-edge ones they're selling now, but I don't have any memorable experiences of trying to nurse off a breast to compare nursing off a bottle with, maybe we can get a better product review from Liam someday). Following the two page spread of bottles is a two page spread of formulas (2 per page), pg 94 i a cluster of Nestle Good Start's various packaging (including showing how a bottle nipple fits directly on the probably 4oz bottles in the first picture that had the breastpump on top) and there's a powdered formula dispenser advertised with the bottles on page 95. Page 96 is the Enfamil spread,pg 98 is the Similac spread (including the Organic one front and center), various cute bibs with a bottle laying on one on the opposite page, then a 2 page spread of pacifiers (and I know plenty of breastfeeding moms that use those... Liam wouldn't use them consistantly until he was teething but boy did I wish he'd take one sometimes!).. then we're at the breastpumps. A page of "natural feeding 101" on page 102 gives an overview the different styles of pumps (single vs. double, manual vs. electric), the facing page has Medela supplies (including in pride of place the favorite pump of many of my nursing friends, the Medela Lug...er... Pump in Style at the standard price of $250, and the new Medela Swing that actually has me intrigued, but not intrigued enough to spend $150 when I have other pumps that I know work for me already). Turn the page and you get a two-page spread of Avent pumps, the manual ISIS on the left and the motorized ISIS iQ Uno and iQ Duo on the right), along with breast pads, microwave sterilizer, Avent-brand bottles and another inexplicable pacifier *shrug*. Next page has the pump that I actually own - it's rebranded by Lansinoh, but that's the Ameda Purely Yours in a different color (I bought mine off the lactation consultant when Liam was born) along with more storage supplies, creams and nursing pads, with the Evenflo Comfort Select dual on the opposite page (I haven't looked at it in more than 2 years but I *think* the other pump I bought was the single-side version of that pump, once I figured out I was doing most of my pumping while nursing on the other side and having the motor attached was easier to deal with than juggling baby, touch-the-breast pump bits, and motor somewhere off to the side usually on the floor). Next page is the Playtex double electric pump, with the First Years models (a double electric and a manual) on the facing page, then we're on to the diapering section.
So did you catch it? It's hard to keep count, I know, but tabulating the above that means that branded formula appeared on six pages (seven pages if you count the formula dispensor - it has powder in the chamber but no brand indicated), including the first picture that had the pump on top of the formula). Breastpumps appeared (including the first picture with the formula and the drawn illustrations of the differences between pumps) on NINE PAGES! They actually gave more "screen time" to breastpumps than they did to formula manufacturers! OH MY GOODNESS THIS IS PROGRESS! Yes, there are lots of pictures of bottles with white liquid in them, but the only time that you KNOW it's formula in there are in the two pictures that have a label on them (forgot to mention that Enfamil had their single-serve bottles pictured too). For all we know (and especially since I'm a photographer myself), it could be diluted white glue in the bottles (that's what they usually use in the pictures on cereal boxes, in case you didn't know - real milk isn't high enough viscosity to hold the "pose").
The cherry on top? In 125+ pages, there's not a SINGLE IMAGE of a baby and a bottle on the same PAGE, much less of a baby drinking from a bottle.
We've come a long way, babies.
Next step, I'd love to see a picture of a mom actually USING one of the nursing pillows, in one of the gliders they sell, with baby's face snuggled to her chest, shirt tucked in for modesty is fine (heck, that's how *I* nurse at home to minimize the blood loss from little nails!). Which just made something else occur to me - even tho I've seen them for sale in the stores, those silly nursing cape things to "discreetly nurse" weren't advertised in the book! Oh, and they could start carrying non-pajama nursing tops... and advertise nursing bras in the catalog too... those would be nice additions ;)
Feel the same way? Here's the number I called to say thank you (it's the registry help line, couldn't find another more appropriate number and the lady said she's able to send the message along easily - they're so happy to get compliments instead of complaints, it makes a Customer Service Rep's day, I speak from experience here). The number is 800-888-9333, select baby registries (I think 2 in the prompt) then 0 for an operator. They'll ask you specifics about whose registry when you're first connected to a human, but you can probably just tell them that you're calling with a general compliment about their registry process or something (I did tell them my name and let them look up my registry since I have one currently). The more compliments they get, the more likely they are to keep up the good work and even take further steps!
Friday, May 25, 2007
Pregnancy stuff
Well, Clare's creating a Blessingway for me based upon a book our family doctor lent us (Clare sees the same doctor, we love you Dr. Jenny - you're so cool!). As she's been telling folks about it (it's the afternoon of June 2nd at our place - if you know where I live, are reading this, and didn't get an invite, consider yourself invited - not that many people actually read this thing!) they've been asking about gifts. I had explicitly said that I don't expect gifts in the traditional "baby shower" sense, but apparently people REALLY like shopping for babies so I broke down and did a baby registry. Then I did two more. So if you're wondering what kind of things we actually need for this second baby, you can find the registries on Babies R Us, Target, and Amazon.com. The thing that really got me to make the registries wasn't so much expecting people to get things for us, but because BRU and Target both give 10% off items you purchase for yourself off the registry around when the baby is born, and Amazon is having a special going on until the 31st that if you create a registry with 15 or more items and keep it there for at least 2 weeks, they'll send you a coupon code for 25% off one item shipped from Amazon.com. Since they also have the best price by at least $30 on the swing we'd like for downstairs, and free shipping (and no sales tax since they're not in Ohio), I'm planning to use the coupon for that and basically get it half off MSRP. It'll probably be what the baby sits in while I eat dinner, at least while it's small (because eating with a sling on, while possible, isn't fun to do on a daily basis). We have a similar (though more brightly colored) version of that swing that I got at a garage sale when Liam was small and it was the only swing he'd consistently tolerate for more than 5min (frequently he'd start fussing and I'd switch it to swing the other way - front-back or side-to-side - and the change in direction would buy me a few more minutes to finish the dishes or something).
If you want a fun guessing game to play, go check out the Target registry and try to figure out how the items relate to the baby/birth. I swear they all do ;) Even the toilet seat. Seriously, if anyone is feeling a little Fred & George Weasley moment coming on, I really would like the toilet seat as a gift. And not just because of the glee I'd take writing into the baby book in the "gifts received" section!
Clare asked me if I'm afraid of anything with this pregnancy... honestly, in the traditional "what if" list, there's really nothing that has me worried. I'm convinced that anything that might happen in this pregnancy wouldn't have been prevented by my going a different route (well, ok, I *could* be eating better... I had more than 3 servings of ice cream yesterday because the temperature was close to 90 and Garvin's not got the window AC installed yet.. then I had a plain donut and a half for breakfast this morning... urg). The whole home or hospital thing really doesn't factor into it, and the decision to birth at home has nothing to do with my needle phobia (tho it's nice to not even have to worry about someone running interference with the hospital staff this time around). It's really based upon logical conclusions (not even really emotions, tho they factor in) that home is the best place for a healthy mother to birth a healthy baby. My tumbleblog has links to the online research I've done, plus I've done a lot of "paper reading"... there is no conclusive evidence anywhere that birthing at a hospital is safer for moms or babies (the research that says otherwise counts as "intentional home births" babies born in cabs on the way to the hospital and teenagers who give birth at prom and put their babies in the dumpster - no, I'm not kidding, they just looked at birth certificate data that indicated the location of birth and the mom/baby's condition when the certificate data was submitted, it's a really horribly designed piece of "research").
Really, the only thing that I'm REALLY afraid of is going into labor and having no one available to watch Liam. My father-in-law is NOT an option (his lack of childcare skills and a few other concerns prevent me from fully relaxing when he's taking care of Liam - I only ask him to watch Liam when there is no other option, but if I can't relax enough to *nap* while he's watching the child downstairs because I'm too wound up, how am I supposed to *birth* if he's the only one watching Liam?). My real deepest fear with this pregnancy is that I'll go into precipitous (translation: fast) labor before school is out, home alone with Liam and my father-in-law, and wind up calling 911 just to have ANYONE ELSE to deal with Liam while I birth the baby (I'd sooner catch it myself with paramedics in attendance than go into a germy ambulance to a germy hospital and have to lay flat on my back on a germy gurney). As long as Garvin's home, I can climb in the tub and slow down labor the same way I did with Liam when the CNM was busy with other patients (I swear, I would have birthed within an hour or so of arriving at the Loudoun Birthing Inn if she'd stayed in the room, and the only thing that held off the dialation was being in the tub) until the midwife, grandmothers, and other invited guests arrive to help with things. None of the currently "yes, please I'd like to be there" folks is more than a 30min drive and all have cell phones (Sabrina, do you want to be called since obviously Kathryn and I no longer run the risk of laboring within days of each other? Not sure I'd be able to hold off for you to get here if I labor as quick after it becomes conclusively labor since 2nd babies usually go quicker than first, but I'd love to have you present again if you want to be).
That's really the only thing that worries me. Not shoulder dystocia (way to resolve that=get mama to change positions), not cord around the neck (summersault the baby out through the cord, don't cut the cord until after the placenta is born so the baby gets extra oxygenated blood), not even cord prolapse (which considering how low this baby is riding already, it's unlikely to be an issue, especially since no one will be breaking my water early for me... but if it DID happen somehow, elevate my butt and get me the 3 blocks to the hospital) or placental abruption (can happen just as easily in the hospital, in fact with pitocin it's more likely and pitocin isn't administered in homebirths). We're litterally 5 minutes, door to door, from the hospital - I'd be there faster than the doctor would be, and if we suspected any SERIOUS problems we'd call so they'd be getting ready while we were on our way there. Maternal hemorrage is extremely unlikely in an intervention-free birth (especially when no one messes with the umbilical cord until after the placenta is born and baby starts breastfeeding immediately), but same issue that we could be at the hospital in plenty of time for them to deal with it if the first steps (abdominal massage, compression, etc) weren't immediately effective, and the "first aid" for it can be continued while I'm in the minivan on the way to the hospital anyway.
Really, I'm not feeling afraid of issues that are just birth related... I'm worried about issues that I face because I'm a stay-at-home mom to a toddler, and I don't know my neighbors as well as I think I should. These issues are resolvable, and I plan to work on getting to know my neighbors better in the next week, so I can ask them to help in case I *do* go into labor while home alone. Then I really will be pretty much fearless about this pregnancy/birth. I think a lot of people that I tell that I'm absolutely not afraid of giving birth think I'm either ignorant of all the things that "can go wrong" or that I'm planning to get an epidural as soon as I'm 3cm dialated or something. Others hear I'm planning a homebirth and assume that I'm doing it based upon touchy-feely/anti-establishment "reasons" and occassionally try to talk me out of it (not kidding) for the "sake of the baby" or say "don't be a martyr" (those ones only happen when Liam isn't underfoot demanding Mama's attention, as when he's underfoot it's really easy to point out that I've already done this unmedicated once). I'm truly more comfortable with the idea of an unassisted (meaning: no midwife present, not entirely alone!) birth than I am with a hospital birth in my situation. If we really do wind up having 5 kids (which is the number *I* think I want, Garvin says 3), I wouldn't be suprised if at least one of them wound up arriving before the midwife did, intentionally or not. Main problem is the difficulty of seeing what I'm doing and Garvin not being entirely sure of what he's doing (tho that'll change after this birth - sometimes he listens TOO well to me, I *ment* I didn't want him staring at my crotch and forgetting the rest of me existed when Liam was born, not that he wasn't allowed to so much as GLANCE DOWN as our child emerged from my body!).
Now if it would just go back to temps in the upper 60s/lower 70s... *pant* And I think I've consumed too much calcium, keep getting a shin splint in my left leg and it's sending pain all the way up to the groin on that side... not fun. But also not necessarily 100% pregnancy related.
If you want a fun guessing game to play, go check out the Target registry and try to figure out how the items relate to the baby/birth. I swear they all do ;) Even the toilet seat. Seriously, if anyone is feeling a little Fred & George Weasley moment coming on, I really would like the toilet seat as a gift. And not just because of the glee I'd take writing into the baby book in the "gifts received" section!
Clare asked me if I'm afraid of anything with this pregnancy... honestly, in the traditional "what if" list, there's really nothing that has me worried. I'm convinced that anything that might happen in this pregnancy wouldn't have been prevented by my going a different route (well, ok, I *could* be eating better... I had more than 3 servings of ice cream yesterday because the temperature was close to 90 and Garvin's not got the window AC installed yet.. then I had a plain donut and a half for breakfast this morning... urg). The whole home or hospital thing really doesn't factor into it, and the decision to birth at home has nothing to do with my needle phobia (tho it's nice to not even have to worry about someone running interference with the hospital staff this time around). It's really based upon logical conclusions (not even really emotions, tho they factor in) that home is the best place for a healthy mother to birth a healthy baby. My tumbleblog has links to the online research I've done, plus I've done a lot of "paper reading"... there is no conclusive evidence anywhere that birthing at a hospital is safer for moms or babies (the research that says otherwise counts as "intentional home births" babies born in cabs on the way to the hospital and teenagers who give birth at prom and put their babies in the dumpster - no, I'm not kidding, they just looked at birth certificate data that indicated the location of birth and the mom/baby's condition when the certificate data was submitted, it's a really horribly designed piece of "research").
Really, the only thing that I'm REALLY afraid of is going into labor and having no one available to watch Liam. My father-in-law is NOT an option (his lack of childcare skills and a few other concerns prevent me from fully relaxing when he's taking care of Liam - I only ask him to watch Liam when there is no other option, but if I can't relax enough to *nap* while he's watching the child downstairs because I'm too wound up, how am I supposed to *birth* if he's the only one watching Liam?). My real deepest fear with this pregnancy is that I'll go into precipitous (translation: fast) labor before school is out, home alone with Liam and my father-in-law, and wind up calling 911 just to have ANYONE ELSE to deal with Liam while I birth the baby (I'd sooner catch it myself with paramedics in attendance than go into a germy ambulance to a germy hospital and have to lay flat on my back on a germy gurney). As long as Garvin's home, I can climb in the tub and slow down labor the same way I did with Liam when the CNM was busy with other patients (I swear, I would have birthed within an hour or so of arriving at the Loudoun Birthing Inn if she'd stayed in the room, and the only thing that held off the dialation was being in the tub) until the midwife, grandmothers, and other invited guests arrive to help with things. None of the currently "yes, please I'd like to be there" folks is more than a 30min drive and all have cell phones (Sabrina, do you want to be called since obviously Kathryn and I no longer run the risk of laboring within days of each other? Not sure I'd be able to hold off for you to get here if I labor as quick after it becomes conclusively labor since 2nd babies usually go quicker than first, but I'd love to have you present again if you want to be).
That's really the only thing that worries me. Not shoulder dystocia (way to resolve that=get mama to change positions), not cord around the neck (summersault the baby out through the cord, don't cut the cord until after the placenta is born so the baby gets extra oxygenated blood), not even cord prolapse (which considering how low this baby is riding already, it's unlikely to be an issue, especially since no one will be breaking my water early for me... but if it DID happen somehow, elevate my butt and get me the 3 blocks to the hospital) or placental abruption (can happen just as easily in the hospital, in fact with pitocin it's more likely and pitocin isn't administered in homebirths). We're litterally 5 minutes, door to door, from the hospital - I'd be there faster than the doctor would be, and if we suspected any SERIOUS problems we'd call so they'd be getting ready while we were on our way there. Maternal hemorrage is extremely unlikely in an intervention-free birth (especially when no one messes with the umbilical cord until after the placenta is born and baby starts breastfeeding immediately), but same issue that we could be at the hospital in plenty of time for them to deal with it if the first steps (abdominal massage, compression, etc) weren't immediately effective, and the "first aid" for it can be continued while I'm in the minivan on the way to the hospital anyway.
Really, I'm not feeling afraid of issues that are just birth related... I'm worried about issues that I face because I'm a stay-at-home mom to a toddler, and I don't know my neighbors as well as I think I should. These issues are resolvable, and I plan to work on getting to know my neighbors better in the next week, so I can ask them to help in case I *do* go into labor while home alone. Then I really will be pretty much fearless about this pregnancy/birth. I think a lot of people that I tell that I'm absolutely not afraid of giving birth think I'm either ignorant of all the things that "can go wrong" or that I'm planning to get an epidural as soon as I'm 3cm dialated or something. Others hear I'm planning a homebirth and assume that I'm doing it based upon touchy-feely/anti-establishment "reasons" and occassionally try to talk me out of it (not kidding) for the "sake of the baby" or say "don't be a martyr" (those ones only happen when Liam isn't underfoot demanding Mama's attention, as when he's underfoot it's really easy to point out that I've already done this unmedicated once). I'm truly more comfortable with the idea of an unassisted (meaning: no midwife present, not entirely alone!) birth than I am with a hospital birth in my situation. If we really do wind up having 5 kids (which is the number *I* think I want, Garvin says 3), I wouldn't be suprised if at least one of them wound up arriving before the midwife did, intentionally or not. Main problem is the difficulty of seeing what I'm doing and Garvin not being entirely sure of what he's doing (tho that'll change after this birth - sometimes he listens TOO well to me, I *ment* I didn't want him staring at my crotch and forgetting the rest of me existed when Liam was born, not that he wasn't allowed to so much as GLANCE DOWN as our child emerged from my body!).
Now if it would just go back to temps in the upper 60s/lower 70s... *pant* And I think I've consumed too much calcium, keep getting a shin splint in my left leg and it's sending pain all the way up to the groin on that side... not fun. But also not necessarily 100% pregnancy related.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
NJ Gov's new "wear a seatbelt" PSA
You can for yourself see it off the Office of the Governor website
All I can say, ironic that the quote is "Nothing is more important than the safety and security of our citizens..."
Yeah, that's why he was driving 91 miles an hour down the freeway, because the safety of the citizens is the most important thing to him. The seatbelt could have saved him some pain, but how about discouraging people from driving recklessly in the first place?!? He could have KILLED A WHOLE FAMILY driving that recklessly! Not so much as a "my bad" about the speed he was going in that PSA. Dude should have lost his license perminantly - not like it would have been that big a deal for someone who can afford to be a Driving Miss Daisy, but still.
Grr.
All I can say, ironic that the quote is "Nothing is more important than the safety and security of our citizens..."
Yeah, that's why he was driving 91 miles an hour down the freeway, because the safety of the citizens is the most important thing to him. The seatbelt could have saved him some pain, but how about discouraging people from driving recklessly in the first place?!? He could have KILLED A WHOLE FAMILY driving that recklessly! Not so much as a "my bad" about the speed he was going in that PSA. Dude should have lost his license perminantly - not like it would have been that big a deal for someone who can afford to be a Driving Miss Daisy, but still.
Grr.
Monday, May 21, 2007
I want to slap Carly Simon
Sorry, just as I hit "publish" on that one, the song that makes me CRINGE EVERY TIME came on in the Piglet Movie. Did Carly Simon NEVER HAVE CHILDREN?!? NO IT IS NOT A MOTHER'S INTUITION TO WASH HER BABY AND CLEAN THE #$*&ING HOUSE!
How the hell could a woman of her generation (early boomer) ever bring herself to sing such demeaning rubbish in her "crone years"? Seriously, it doesn't sound like she's singing with a gun pressed to her head.
For what it's worth, it's THIS mother's intuition to NOT wash the baby so damn much. Bad for the baby's skin and BABIES DON'T STINK. Toddlers do sometimes, and rinsing off the mud is a good idea, but seriously the whole "scrub behind the ears" (yes it's in the song) thing... what's the point? When was the last time a kid got sick with e. coli because *gasp* mama didn't wash behind his ears? Wash the hands, wash the feet, wash the really stinky bits. The part behind the ears - damnit, that's the part that smells the BEST! Leave it ALONE unless the kid's been playing in something that requires washing it off! AAACK!
How the hell could a woman of her generation (early boomer) ever bring herself to sing such demeaning rubbish in her "crone years"? Seriously, it doesn't sound like she's singing with a gun pressed to her head.
For what it's worth, it's THIS mother's intuition to NOT wash the baby so damn much. Bad for the baby's skin and BABIES DON'T STINK. Toddlers do sometimes, and rinsing off the mud is a good idea, but seriously the whole "scrub behind the ears" (yes it's in the song) thing... what's the point? When was the last time a kid got sick with e. coli because *gasp* mama didn't wash behind his ears? Wash the hands, wash the feet, wash the really stinky bits. The part behind the ears - damnit, that's the part that smells the BEST! Leave it ALONE unless the kid's been playing in something that requires washing it off! AAACK!
No, I'm not always as calm as I sound over the phone
Didn't want this to be in the same post as saying welcome to the baby, even tho it's triggered this post directly. Now that he's out and from the sounds of it healthier than they even expected while Kathryn was laboring, I can let my breath out a little... Yes, Sabrina, I was containing my impulse to go spaz and I hid it from you because I knew you didn't need the extra stress, but someone due almost exactly when I am going into labor has/had me a little freaked out - in ways that are entirely MY issues and not anything to do with what Kathryn's family was dealing with. No, that DOESN'T mean you shouldn't have called me, I just tapped into my other supportive friends here (THANK YOU SERENA AND CLARE!!!!!!) and of course, Ravenclaw that I am, research research researched issues. The fact that we're planning a homebirth makes premature/preterm labor a bigger deal than for someone who had been planning a hospital birth all along - if this baby comes before June 9th (the day after school is out and when I am "officially" 36 weeks), it'll "have to" be in the hospital. I was watching Liam's birth video (finally figured out where it was on the computer - in a completely logical place that required I used the system search to find it of course) and while able to see that it was a really good hospital birth, there were so many unnecessary things that happened during it (including the nurse-midwife's verbal play-by-play commentary - yes, dearheart, I do have nerve endings that are firing just fine since they're not medicated, I know the head is out, if you don't want the rest of the baby flying out at warp speed and doing a bunjee jump toward the floor please shut your mouth, get your hands in position and STOP DISTRACTING ME! --- then the TWO times the suctioned him even tho he was crying quite lustily and not a gurgle to be heard, nice and pick, and BOTH times it interrupted him as he was just about to nurse... the fact that there were more strangers in the room than people I knew [5 hospital nurses vs. the CNM, my hubby, and my 2 friends], the big bright light they turned on in my face and having to rush to put plastic under my butt and move the bed/chair AGAIN right in the last few pushes... none of this was for my or Liam's benefit and it was REALLY annoying). As good as it was, as compared to the American standard of birth told via TLC's a Baby Story, it was still so disrupted and manipulated. The only way I'm letting that happen again is if there is a real medical indication (such as premature labor, or signs that the baby or I need closer monitoring). Yes, I'm going to pre-register at the hospital and make sure they have all the records accessible just in case, but I'm doing everything in my power to avoid going there. And I'm still freaking out about Garvin being more than 30 minutes away from me. And I'm having mild panic attacks about going into labor (early or on time or late!), being alone in the house with Liam and not being able to reach ANYONE on the phone to help except the 911 operator. I really need to get to know my new neighbors better. I swear, I'd catch the baby myself if the paramedics could hold Liam back from climbing on me while I pushed if there was no other medical reason to be at the hosptial, but the idea of birthing ALONE with the 3yo ANYWHERE (hospital or home or whatever) has me bugging out. Damn pregnancy hormones.
In other news, pictures from Liam's birthday party Saturday are up on our photos website (link at right). He and the other 2 kids that went to the movie (via the public transit train, no less) did REALLY well at the movie. I actually had less audio/focus difficulties than I did when Clare, Bryan, Garvin and I went to see Ghost Rider (when some old lady behind us kept saying "what'd he say?" every 2 minutes and "is he still the ghost rider" in between, totally disregarding the death glares I kept shooting her way). The movie is cute, but the plot is much less solid than the prior two movies. I do really like the resolution of the movie, and the kick-butt princess part is by far the best part of the movie (it comes near the end, of course). Large (diet) movie soda + popcorn + 8mos pregnant = very surprised that I made it through the movie without mad-dash to the bathroom (which was upstairs and on the other side of the lobby - eek!). Really proud of my son making it through his first feature-length in-theater film without running circles around the seats. He hadn't been into a theater since Goblet of Fire (I took him to a "Mommy & Me" screening of it with a friend), the last movie he'd SAT through in a theater was Shrek 2, funny enough (he was a couple months old at the time and incapable of independant locomotion - that helped). We may actually take him to see Order of the Phoenix the second time we see it in the theater (must see it without toddler distraction the first time, hopefully I'll have a newborn distracting me by then tho as it comes out a week after I'm due... I WILL see it opening day even if I'm still pregnant tho!).
In the last week (including yesterday) I actually broke down and created baby registries at Babies R Us and Target too, in case any of my dear readers are curious. The Target one should be extra amusing to look at - yes, every item on there DOES directly benefit the baby, you get to guess how... Especially since there's a toilet seat on the registry. I'm not joking, I'd actually really like to receive that particular item as a gift, and I'd put every single thing on both registries to use. At least at this point, every item is directly related to this birth/baby. Since I found out Target also does what Babies R Us does (which I didn't know about when I was pregnant with Liam but Clare says they did it when she did her wedding and baby registries) and gives the registry-maker 10% off items they purchase themselves after the "event" that they didn't receive as gifts, I may add a few more items that are less baby-related, but they are housewarming type things. In other words, don't be surprised to see power tools and adult-sized towels get added. Other things the baby could actually use are soft leather shoes (I found two pairs at Target yesterday that I could scan, but more would be nice) in solid neutral colors (cream, black, browns especially) - I didn't figure out the use of infant shoes until Liam was over 6mo and got really dilligent in his I-will-remove-these-socks efforts, but given that I'm now going to be outnumbered by kiddos while Garvin's at school (and Liam's enough to keep 5 adults busy and distracted at once all by himself), it makes sense to try to keep feet covered on colder days and such. Robeez is a good (if pricy) brand - the all-leather sandals Liam wore were that brand and the soles wore better than the ones from Target that I got him. Aside from the plain ones, this pair of course really caught my eye. I think the harliquin ones were Starchild shoes - that's a UK website, not finding a US one (I bought them off of a local mom who resells them. This particular pair off their website would likely be very popular with Garvin since he loved the 50% mommy 50% daddy outfit Liam had when he was tiny so much (and *I* like that the "50% mum" is on the RIGHT shoe ;) LOL). Too bad it's international shipping, not sure what the monetary conversion rate is right now. I'd be tempted to get them myself, even with international shipping and a less favorable exchange rate. We also stumbled upon what in the US is called "gdiapers" and I'm fascinated - this looks like a REAL eco-friendly diapering alternative because it minimizes washing (which is why in real examinations of the enviornmental impact, cloth diapers don't come out much ahead of disposables) and the "disposable" part is flushable/compostable. Very cool stuff. And it means if I forget the darn thing in the diaper bag after a change, it's not nearly as likely to be a problem as a full-cloth diaper (this was the major barrier to even really attempting cloth when Liam was small, I'd leave things in the diaper bag for a month at a stretch and that would be BAD with a dirty cloth diaper!) - the non-disposable part that can come in contact with pee/poop is supposed to air-dry in 10 minutes, and it's small enough to stick that bit in my pocket instead of the diaper bag or clip it to my purse or something while it dries if I need to rinse it out in a public bathroom instead of falling into the bowels of our "kiddos" backpack (ah, the unmentioned joys of breastfeeding and not needing an insulated obviously baby-specific diaper bag).
Piglet Movie is not distracting Liam anymore at the minute, better stop typing.
In other news, pictures from Liam's birthday party Saturday are up on our photos website (link at right). He and the other 2 kids that went to the movie (via the public transit train, no less) did REALLY well at the movie. I actually had less audio/focus difficulties than I did when Clare, Bryan, Garvin and I went to see Ghost Rider (when some old lady behind us kept saying "what'd he say?" every 2 minutes and "is he still the ghost rider" in between, totally disregarding the death glares I kept shooting her way). The movie is cute, but the plot is much less solid than the prior two movies. I do really like the resolution of the movie, and the kick-butt princess part is by far the best part of the movie (it comes near the end, of course). Large (diet) movie soda + popcorn + 8mos pregnant = very surprised that I made it through the movie without mad-dash to the bathroom (which was upstairs and on the other side of the lobby - eek!). Really proud of my son making it through his first feature-length in-theater film without running circles around the seats. He hadn't been into a theater since Goblet of Fire (I took him to a "Mommy & Me" screening of it with a friend), the last movie he'd SAT through in a theater was Shrek 2, funny enough (he was a couple months old at the time and incapable of independant locomotion - that helped). We may actually take him to see Order of the Phoenix the second time we see it in the theater (must see it without toddler distraction the first time, hopefully I'll have a newborn distracting me by then tho as it comes out a week after I'm due... I WILL see it opening day even if I'm still pregnant tho!).
In the last week (including yesterday) I actually broke down and created baby registries at Babies R Us and Target too, in case any of my dear readers are curious. The Target one should be extra amusing to look at - yes, every item on there DOES directly benefit the baby, you get to guess how... Especially since there's a toilet seat on the registry. I'm not joking, I'd actually really like to receive that particular item as a gift, and I'd put every single thing on both registries to use. At least at this point, every item is directly related to this birth/baby. Since I found out Target also does what Babies R Us does (which I didn't know about when I was pregnant with Liam but Clare says they did it when she did her wedding and baby registries) and gives the registry-maker 10% off items they purchase themselves after the "event" that they didn't receive as gifts, I may add a few more items that are less baby-related, but they are housewarming type things. In other words, don't be surprised to see power tools and adult-sized towels get added. Other things the baby could actually use are soft leather shoes (I found two pairs at Target yesterday that I could scan, but more would be nice) in solid neutral colors (cream, black, browns especially) - I didn't figure out the use of infant shoes until Liam was over 6mo and got really dilligent in his I-will-remove-these-socks efforts, but given that I'm now going to be outnumbered by kiddos while Garvin's at school (and Liam's enough to keep 5 adults busy and distracted at once all by himself), it makes sense to try to keep feet covered on colder days and such. Robeez is a good (if pricy) brand - the all-leather sandals Liam wore were that brand and the soles wore better than the ones from Target that I got him. Aside from the plain ones, this pair of course really caught my eye. I think the harliquin ones were Starchild shoes - that's a UK website, not finding a US one (I bought them off of a local mom who resells them. This particular pair off their website would likely be very popular with Garvin since he loved the 50% mommy 50% daddy outfit Liam had when he was tiny so much (and *I* like that the "50% mum" is on the RIGHT shoe ;) LOL). Too bad it's international shipping, not sure what the monetary conversion rate is right now. I'd be tempted to get them myself, even with international shipping and a less favorable exchange rate. We also stumbled upon what in the US is called "gdiapers" and I'm fascinated - this looks like a REAL eco-friendly diapering alternative because it minimizes washing (which is why in real examinations of the enviornmental impact, cloth diapers don't come out much ahead of disposables) and the "disposable" part is flushable/compostable. Very cool stuff. And it means if I forget the darn thing in the diaper bag after a change, it's not nearly as likely to be a problem as a full-cloth diaper (this was the major barrier to even really attempting cloth when Liam was small, I'd leave things in the diaper bag for a month at a stretch and that would be BAD with a dirty cloth diaper!) - the non-disposable part that can come in contact with pee/poop is supposed to air-dry in 10 minutes, and it's small enough to stick that bit in my pocket instead of the diaper bag or clip it to my purse or something while it dries if I need to rinse it out in a public bathroom instead of falling into the bowels of our "kiddos" backpack (ah, the unmentioned joys of breastfeeding and not needing an insulated obviously baby-specific diaper bag).
Piglet Movie is not distracting Liam anymore at the minute, better stop typing.
The sunflower blanket baby is here
Hmm... hopefully that was one of the things Sabrina remembered to take for her sister in the rush! Welcome to the outer world, little Tyler James I hope you like your blanket :) He came a bit early - Kathryn was due about a week before I am.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Out of the mouths of babes
My own my... the language explosion provides endless hours of amusement. Liam has become much more verbally adept in the last couple months, and the following are some excerpts of conversations we've had...
~~~~~~~~~~~
On Easter morning (when we woke up to over a foot of lake-effect snow), Garvin said he had to go shovel the driveway again (he'd shoveled 3 or 4 times while it was snowing the day before). Liam and I were at the breakfast table at the time. Liam turned to my tummy and said "Jiu-Jai come out Mama tummy help Liam shovel". It was the longest phrase he had uttered up to that point (still one of the longest). Apparently this fetus is expected to pull its own weight with household chores as soon as it vacates my uterus. He repeats this phrase almost daily, probably because it almost always makes me laugh. For a while, he kept saying it directly into my belly button.
~~~~~~~~~~~
On Mother's Day, instead of a card, I had the following before-church conversation with Liam while in the bathroom:
Me: Liam, time to pee potty.
Liam: Liam play penis?
Me: Fine, play penis AFTER pee potty, let Mama wipe first.
Liam pees in the toilet, lets me wipe him off, then very cheerfully asks: Liam play penis?
Me: yes, you can explore your penis for a minute but we have to get to church
Liam: Liam play penis church?
Me: No, do NOT play with your penis at church.
Liam: [big sigh] FINE. Liam no play penis church. Liam play penis home. [walks out of bathroom looking mildly dejected]
This is made a bit more amusing by the fact that our church starts "Our Whole Lives" (sex education based upon our principles) in Kindergarten... Liam isn't yet THREE. My kid is advanced ;) Clare is thrilled, of course [sarcasm], that he taught Willow that boys have penises. In their house, girls have "girlie bits". Ah, the joys of not being a hermit, right?
~~~~~ fast forward to a few minutes ago~~~~~~~
Garvin and Liam are play with Duplo blocks on the floor. Garvin, being a science teacher and techie wannabe, defaults to "geek" setting generally (see post below of what he left on the computer screen the other day). Liam is building "castles" (random tower stacks). Garvin built a Windows OS pointer, pretty much to scale if Liam were a desktop icon. Liam was so enthusiastic about this that he immediately broke it, of course. Garvin made a dejected face, Liam said "Sorry Daddy." Then Liam handed the blocks back to Garvin and said, loud and clear enough that I'm glad the neighbors aren't TOO close now that the windows are open "Daddy make porn!"... he meant POINTER... really, he meant POINTER...
Let's just hope he doesn't repeat THAT phrase while ignoring the "no playing with your penis in church" rule we discussed earlier.
~~~~~~~~~~~
On Easter morning (when we woke up to over a foot of lake-effect snow), Garvin said he had to go shovel the driveway again (he'd shoveled 3 or 4 times while it was snowing the day before). Liam and I were at the breakfast table at the time. Liam turned to my tummy and said "Jiu-Jai come out Mama tummy help Liam shovel". It was the longest phrase he had uttered up to that point (still one of the longest). Apparently this fetus is expected to pull its own weight with household chores as soon as it vacates my uterus. He repeats this phrase almost daily, probably because it almost always makes me laugh. For a while, he kept saying it directly into my belly button.
~~~~~~~~~~~
On Mother's Day, instead of a card, I had the following before-church conversation with Liam while in the bathroom:
Me: Liam, time to pee potty.
Liam: Liam play penis?
Me: Fine, play penis AFTER pee potty, let Mama wipe first.
Liam pees in the toilet, lets me wipe him off, then very cheerfully asks: Liam play penis?
Me: yes, you can explore your penis for a minute but we have to get to church
Liam: Liam play penis church?
Me: No, do NOT play with your penis at church.
Liam: [big sigh] FINE. Liam no play penis church. Liam play penis home. [walks out of bathroom looking mildly dejected]
This is made a bit more amusing by the fact that our church starts "Our Whole Lives" (sex education based upon our principles) in Kindergarten... Liam isn't yet THREE. My kid is advanced ;) Clare is thrilled, of course [sarcasm], that he taught Willow that boys have penises. In their house, girls have "girlie bits". Ah, the joys of not being a hermit, right?
~~~~~ fast forward to a few minutes ago~~~~~~~
Garvin and Liam are play with Duplo blocks on the floor. Garvin, being a science teacher and techie wannabe, defaults to "geek" setting generally (see post below of what he left on the computer screen the other day). Liam is building "castles" (random tower stacks). Garvin built a Windows OS pointer, pretty much to scale if Liam were a desktop icon. Liam was so enthusiastic about this that he immediately broke it, of course. Garvin made a dejected face, Liam said "Sorry Daddy." Then Liam handed the blocks back to Garvin and said, loud and clear enough that I'm glad the neighbors aren't TOO close now that the windows are open "Daddy make porn!"... he meant POINTER... really, he meant POINTER...
Let's just hope he doesn't repeat THAT phrase while ignoring the "no playing with your penis in church" rule we discussed earlier.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
gotta love the random stuff left open on the computer
Came into the playroom this morning to find a picture of
this pie pan open on my computer. Cute.
Really tired today but trying to get things accomplished around kiddo(s) (going to be having at least one other kiddo here today while her mom has an appointment, possibly a second if our little friend we shared our pink eye with flames up too much for the childcare folks, she was here yesterday). I've managed to get photos transfered to the photo website (and corrected the link in the sidebar at right). And thought I'd post one that Garvin took of me on Mother's Day here for blog reader amusement...
I swear, I don't think I look that huge in the mirror... no wonder people keep treating me like I'm about to have a little bungee jumper hanging between my legs whenever I make a waddle-sprint to the bathroom!
Oh, and some other amusements, I've finally signed up for a YouTube account, my screenname is Dragonmama2Monkey. There are 2 short videos of Liam up there (one is pretty cruddy as it was with my cell phone's video camera).
this pie pan open on my computer. Cute.
Really tired today but trying to get things accomplished around kiddo(s) (going to be having at least one other kiddo here today while her mom has an appointment, possibly a second if our little friend we shared our pink eye with flames up too much for the childcare folks, she was here yesterday). I've managed to get photos transfered to the photo website (and corrected the link in the sidebar at right). And thought I'd post one that Garvin took of me on Mother's Day here for blog reader amusement...
I swear, I don't think I look that huge in the mirror... no wonder people keep treating me like I'm about to have a little bungee jumper hanging between my legs whenever I make a waddle-sprint to the bathroom!
Oh, and some other amusements, I've finally signed up for a YouTube account, my screenname is Dragonmama2Monkey. There are 2 short videos of Liam up there (one is pretty cruddy as it was with my cell phone's video camera).
Thursday, May 03, 2007
History of artificial baby feeding
This topic seems to come up with unnerving frequency among the lactivist community, and there is a lot of misinformation going out about how long artificial baby feeding has been going on - most people think it's a post-WWII societal issue, hand-in-hand with the increase in births occurring in hospitals. Yes, it increased then and breastfeeding rates dropped, but we also have better statistics across social classes in the 20th century. Furthering the misperception that breastfeeding was the way ALL babies were fed prior to the 20th century keeps us from looking at this important factor in infant and maternal mortality rates of our foremothers. Only the wealthy could generally afford a true full-time wet nurse (to the detriment of that woman's own nursling, supposing she hadn't already weaned her baby, since it doesn't seem common to allow the wet nurse to bring her own infant along on the job and tandem nurse the two), though informal cross-nursing (nursing mothers sharing the "duty" of feeding their infants so that one could go do something else for a while) has been going on most likely since before we evolved into humans (it's a common primate practice when there are 2 or more lactating females available to care for the infants).
Lack of breastfeeding, especially in the first few days, is detrimental to the mother in many ways - the act of IMMEDIATELY breastfeeding after birth encourages uterine contractions that help prevent hemorrhage, helps shrink the uterus quickly, encourages the ongoing release of hormones to facilitate bonding, relieve pain and promote rest via continued release of ocytocin, and on and on. There are "traditional" societies even today that discourage women from feeding their newborns their colostrum, believing it to be worthless until the "real milk" comes in, and proscribe waiting 5 days before feeding the infant from the breast, substituting various alternatives (many of which contain honey) to keep the baby hydrated instead. This was (and still is) common practice in parts of India. What effect does this have on infant mortality? Maternal hemorrhage? Successful initiation of breastfeeding, when the baby has been allowed to feed from a non-breast for the first 5 days? Doesn't take much to figure out the effect on all these rates might be, especially now when "modern alternatives" are so widely available and socially acceptable. But when women hand off their babies to be fed other than at their own breasts from birth, they increase both the infant and maternal rates of early postpartum complications. And when new mothers aren't supported in their efforts and struggles to nurse their newborns, they're set up for depression over their supposed "failure" - a failure that is more due to our society than anything to do with the mother. Pushing women to not nurse openly and publicly places further barriers to the natural learning of how to accomplish the task in those first early days, as much as lack of availability of profession lactation consultants (not that both groups don't sometimes give misguided or downright wrong advice - it happens, but I believe it's less likely than misinformation coming from anyone without firsthand experience at nursing, regardless of gender).
Before the 20th century we can just make presumptions based mostly upon bodies in cemeteries/mummies/etc about how many babies died at which ages in which social classes (death records are not nearly as common for anyone below upper middle class prior to the industrial revolution, especially outside of urban centers). Not the best data collection method by any stretch of the imagination. Some of these early deaths do include clues as to infant feeding method (ancients tended to bury feeding containers with the infants that weren't breastfed). There are surviving medical advice documents from ancient times that talk about when infants should be weaned, how often they should be fed, etc. So it's not just modern morons encouraging mothers to put their babies on feeding schedules, to watch the clock instead of the baby. They have a long, sordid history of giving this shoddy advice - surprising that it's mostly from males who were probably not even nearby when their own children were being nursed.
Artificial infant feeding is much MUCH older than 50 years. The Sears catalog from 1897 contained at least 8 different brands of artificial baby milk. There are infant feeding artifacts left over from the ancient Greeks. Wet nursing wasn't the only way a baby would survive, but it definitely gave the kid a better chance of survival (in the Victorian era only 20% of infants made it to their 2nd birthday, one wonders how many of those deaths were due to not being breastfed combined with other factors of Victorian life). These are facts that I've researched in the past when people have tried to tell me how dangerous childbearing is because our ancestors DIED in childbirth. I point out that sanitation has never been as good as it is now and a great many of the "ancestors" who were well off enough to get their statistics recorded (not mine, I'm of peasant stock!) were handing off their babies to be fed elsewhere so they could get pregnant again ASAP (and deplete their bodies' nutrient supplies, not letting their uterus have a rest, etc etc etc - the risks of frequent, rapid-fire childbearing are well known to anyone who has dealt with breeding any species of mammal). Of course, young mothers did die, for various reasons (not all associated directly with childbirth) and other ways of feeding their infant if no other lactating woman was nearby had to be devised. Our ancient ancestors were ingenious, just as we are. The infant found in the group of bodies called the Cherchen Mummies has an artificial infant feeder buried with it, the baby has been dead for 3,000 years. The family is presumed to be nomads (they have Caucasian features though they died in China) and it's postulated that the mother died before the infant did.
Here are some online references:
early infant feeders - http://www.babybottle-museum.co.uk/the%20early%20feeders.htm
Ted Greiner's Breastfeeding History - http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/Spa/3156/history.htm (hate using Geocities references but it's the version available online)
An article about Cherchen mummies - http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20060828/ai_n1669651
Oops.. I think my sociology degree is showing ;) Darnit I want to go to graduate school already! *sigh* Kids first, academia later.
Lack of breastfeeding, especially in the first few days, is detrimental to the mother in many ways - the act of IMMEDIATELY breastfeeding after birth encourages uterine contractions that help prevent hemorrhage, helps shrink the uterus quickly, encourages the ongoing release of hormones to facilitate bonding, relieve pain and promote rest via continued release of ocytocin, and on and on. There are "traditional" societies even today that discourage women from feeding their newborns their colostrum, believing it to be worthless until the "real milk" comes in, and proscribe waiting 5 days before feeding the infant from the breast, substituting various alternatives (many of which contain honey) to keep the baby hydrated instead. This was (and still is) common practice in parts of India. What effect does this have on infant mortality? Maternal hemorrhage? Successful initiation of breastfeeding, when the baby has been allowed to feed from a non-breast for the first 5 days? Doesn't take much to figure out the effect on all these rates might be, especially now when "modern alternatives" are so widely available and socially acceptable. But when women hand off their babies to be fed other than at their own breasts from birth, they increase both the infant and maternal rates of early postpartum complications. And when new mothers aren't supported in their efforts and struggles to nurse their newborns, they're set up for depression over their supposed "failure" - a failure that is more due to our society than anything to do with the mother. Pushing women to not nurse openly and publicly places further barriers to the natural learning of how to accomplish the task in those first early days, as much as lack of availability of profession lactation consultants (not that both groups don't sometimes give misguided or downright wrong advice - it happens, but I believe it's less likely than misinformation coming from anyone without firsthand experience at nursing, regardless of gender).
Before the 20th century we can just make presumptions based mostly upon bodies in cemeteries/mummies/etc about how many babies died at which ages in which social classes (death records are not nearly as common for anyone below upper middle class prior to the industrial revolution, especially outside of urban centers). Not the best data collection method by any stretch of the imagination. Some of these early deaths do include clues as to infant feeding method (ancients tended to bury feeding containers with the infants that weren't breastfed). There are surviving medical advice documents from ancient times that talk about when infants should be weaned, how often they should be fed, etc. So it's not just modern morons encouraging mothers to put their babies on feeding schedules, to watch the clock instead of the baby. They have a long, sordid history of giving this shoddy advice - surprising that it's mostly from males who were probably not even nearby when their own children were being nursed.
Artificial infant feeding is much MUCH older than 50 years. The Sears catalog from 1897 contained at least 8 different brands of artificial baby milk. There are infant feeding artifacts left over from the ancient Greeks. Wet nursing wasn't the only way a baby would survive, but it definitely gave the kid a better chance of survival (in the Victorian era only 20% of infants made it to their 2nd birthday, one wonders how many of those deaths were due to not being breastfed combined with other factors of Victorian life). These are facts that I've researched in the past when people have tried to tell me how dangerous childbearing is because our ancestors DIED in childbirth. I point out that sanitation has never been as good as it is now and a great many of the "ancestors" who were well off enough to get their statistics recorded (not mine, I'm of peasant stock!) were handing off their babies to be fed elsewhere so they could get pregnant again ASAP (and deplete their bodies' nutrient supplies, not letting their uterus have a rest, etc etc etc - the risks of frequent, rapid-fire childbearing are well known to anyone who has dealt with breeding any species of mammal). Of course, young mothers did die, for various reasons (not all associated directly with childbirth) and other ways of feeding their infant if no other lactating woman was nearby had to be devised. Our ancient ancestors were ingenious, just as we are. The infant found in the group of bodies called the Cherchen Mummies has an artificial infant feeder buried with it, the baby has been dead for 3,000 years. The family is presumed to be nomads (they have Caucasian features though they died in China) and it's postulated that the mother died before the infant did.
Here are some online references:
early infant feeders - http://www.babybottle-museum.co.uk/the%20early%20feeders.htm
Ted Greiner's Breastfeeding History - http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/Spa/3156/history.htm (hate using Geocities references but it's the version available online)
An article about Cherchen mummies - http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20060828/ai_n1669651
Oops.. I think my sociology degree is showing ;) Darnit I want to go to graduate school already! *sigh* Kids first, academia later.
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