The term eruption is a good one to describe teeth coming in. Especially the molars of a toddler – he’s erupting all over the place. When we were at the dentist last week, she commented that he had one just peeking through the gum and another one working on it, so we might be in for a bad week. I smugly thought, ‘ha! my kids don’t complain – the first I noticed Isabelle’s tooth was when it bit into my finger!” I should know better [...]

Further to my post about cross-nursing, it’s been a topic of crazy hot discussion these days. In the typical way that these things go, some of the conversations are going to extremes. One such discussion went something like this:T: “Well, if you’d breastfeed another woman’s baby, what about another animal?”Me: “Uh… well, most animals are pretty good at nursing their own babies and there are artificial formulas made up especially for various species.” (feeling suddenly very protective of my nipples!)T: “Ok, but you’re stuck in [...]

The big story this week about breastfeeding that a major study has confirmed that breastfed babies have higher IQs and that duration and intensity of breastfeeding have a cumulative positive effect. I’m happy for the researchers and that it got lots of press, but it’s not exactly breaking news, folks. The story that seems to be missed in all this is how mothers in the study were supported and the dramatic difference it made in breastfeeding rates. By using the Baby-Friendly Initiative model combining appropriate [...]

You are what you eat, but are they?

Add about 1/3 to the normal time it takes to complete a trip. For example, we drove to Boston to visit friends when Isabelle was 5 months old. The trip normally took us a leisurely 8 hours pre-baby; with baby, it was a solid 12 hours. If possible, try to have one parent sitting in the back seat with the kid(s). Try to plan your departure for a time when baby isn’t asleep – that way you get some “play” time, then (hopefully) a nap [...]

I woke up this morning with a weird feeling I hadn’t had since I was a kid – my eyes felt like they had sand in them and my left eye was so goopy it was almost sealed shut. (Hey, you don’t want to hear this stuff, go read a blog about garden gnomes: mothering involves a lot of fluids), Pink eye… ewww! And, of course, Thomas is still sick and so am I, so the thought of hauling both the children into the car [...]

Ah, the spring cold…. an annual event ’round here where we don’t do a lot of sickness (warnings about the onslaught pre-school would bring haven’t panned out, yet). But the good news is that it’s a spring cold and the tide is turning on all this snow. It starts with a visit to the home of friends we affectionately call the Petri Dishes. Their home is warm and welcoming – and apparently, chock full of pathogens because a runny nose always follows a visit. Then, [...]