The Totally Blah Post

Part of me feels bad for writing this post, because it is a whining post. PK is a happy and healthy little baby. The hubby is a wonderful dad who splits everything 50/50 and is a total doting husband. And yet, on some days, I feel like my life sucks. I get into this horrible rut where I'm just absolutely horrid to be around. I snap at the hubby - the nicer his is, the snappier I get. I also end up feeling absolutely overwhelmed by having to care for PK.

So why do I feel this way? I guess some days, I just find it difficult to be a mom. My mom comes by two times a week to help out, but it's still a lot of work, and she's out the door by 3pm for her long commute home. There are days when I just can't wait until 5:30pm when I get the call from the hubby saying that he's heading home. That's when I finally get my break from childcare and can take some time to myself. He's more than happy to take PK for an hour while I do whatever, and I'm grateful for that, but I still find myself getting annoyed with him.

The return to work is looming, and the daycare situation in Toronto is total crap. We actually got pulled off of 2 daycare waiting lists because we didn't check in with them in the last year. I swear that there's this entire daycare rulebook that we're just not aware of. I feel a bit annoyed with my career. This June will mark 8 years since my university graduation, and I don't like where I am career-wise. I feel like it's one step forward and two steps backward. I made a lateral move to my current job almost 2 years ago and took a paycut, but with a promise for lots of room to grow and great benefits. I had a great thing going before PK was born, but then I went on mat-leave. Momentum changed. I've changed. Where will I fit into the workforce as a working mom? This unknown is just stressing me out.

Also, I was sick a couple of weeks ago, which meant that we ended up missing our regular mom and baby activities out of respect for the other moms and babies. This meant that we missed music class and the mommy group meeting. I hadn't been to a mommy group meeting for about a month, and I guess it was taking its toll on me. While all of these activities are good for PK, they are also good for me because they give me a chance to connect with other momms and to socialize with other adults. While PK is oodles of fun, it does get tiring to just talk to a baby all day.

I guess the real zinger of this whole being a mom thing was the way that my relationship with the hubby has changed. When we got married, it was this crazy passionate love. I still love the hubby. He's still my best friend. He's still the only person in the world who gets me. And yet, things are so different now. We're like zombies trying to get through life and trying to raise a baby at the same time. Before PK was born, we did everything together. Now, we have to split off sometimes, in the interest of time. For example, I've stayed home with PK a couple of times while he went out grocery shopping.

On the social front, I've gone out a couple of times with my sis while the hubby looked after PK, but I've always felt guilty. After all, I was out and he was home with PK. I never used to go out at night without him. Sure, we've gone out a couple of times in the evening thanks to grandparent babysitting services, but it's different from before. Our conversations were centered around PK. How's she doing? Isn't she cute? Look at what she learned this week. When PK spent her first night away from home on Valentine's day, that was the first time where we actually got some genuine couple alone-time where PK was a minor part of our evening.

This week has been a little less of a bummer week, as I finally got back into my mom and baby activities. I may have also found a light at the end of the tunnel as far as the whole daycare thing is concerned (stay tuned on that). I have no idea what awaits me at work. It still scares the crap out of me.

I know that this is a difficult transition time - going from 2 to 3 is no small feat, especially when the extra body is totally dependent on you for everything. I also know that there are people out there who have it way worse than me, so I should be more grateful.

A New Work-Out

Last month I bought myself a balance dome, and it has been great for developing abdominal strength. I still use it quite a bit, but I'm always looking for something new to shake up the work-out routine. A couple of weeks back, I thought of getting a hula-hoop to kick up the ab workout a notch. Today, I finally got around to getting one - at Toys R Us! It only cost about $3. I tried it out as soon as I got home.

I might have used a hula-hoop as a kid, but that was a long time ago. As a 29-year-old picking up a hula-hoop for the first time in probably 20 years or so, it was both awkward and frustrating. I finally did get the hang of it, and I did get the super-awesome workout that I'd envisioned. It brought back so many memories from my childhood! I even re-discovered another great little workout (though when you're a kid, you probably don't think of it as a workout) - using the hula-hoop as a skipping rope. If you're a girl reading this, you probably know what I'm talking about; it's a bit hard to describe without a visual aid.

I'm sure I look like a total dork with my hula-hoop, but oh well. You can't win 'em all, can you? After doing some Googling this evening, I found out that there are actual work-out hula-hoops. They are special, heavy-duty, weighted hula-hoops, and they even come with accompanying workout videos. Go figure.

I may someday get myself a fancy workout hula-hoop, but for now, I'm perfectly happy with my blue kiddie hula-hoop.

Dinnertime

Up until last week, we were in the habit of putting PK to bed before we actually sat down to dinner. With PK going to bed anywhere between 8 and 8:30pm, this meant a late dinner, even when all we at were leftovers. On nights when we cook, we don't sit down to dinner until after 10pm. Even though it was a late dinner, it was nice. It was our quiet time, and we'd usually put on some music in the kitchen and play a few games of backgammon before turning in for the night. Unfortunately, eating late just makes me feel icky because it's way too close to bedtime, and plus a slower metabolism at night can promote weight gain.

Now we sit down to dinner anywhere between 6:30pm and 6:45pm, WITH PK. It's a bit hectic because the hubby feeds PK her purée while I eat my food. By the time he starts eating his food, I'm already done eating. Still, it's nice to sit down as a family at the end of the day, and it's nice to eat dinner early. When I was growing up, my family never sat down to a meal together, except when we went out to restaurants. It's all different now that I'm all grown up.

Solids Update

Apart from the first day, PK's introduction to solids has gone remarkably well. I seriously thought that she would be a fussy eater, but she's far from that. To date, PK has now tried sweet potatoes, carrots, butternut squash, peas, apples, pears, and oatmeal.

As I mentioned before, I first started with sweet potato purée for 5 days. Then I switched over to carrot purée for another 5 days. After that, I got a bit impatient and decided to make a combo purée - sweet potatoes, carrots, and butternut squash. PK looooooooooooooved it. In fact, she couldn't get enough of it. When either the hubby or I sit down to feed her, she can get so excited that she starts licking her bib in between spoonfulls. It's freaking hillarious!

A couple of days after introducing the sweet potato/carrot/butternut squash purée, I decided to increase her intake of solids from one meal per day, to two meals per day. This went over very well. She couldn't seem to get enough of the stuff. I did this for another two or three days before I decided to mix things up a bit by introducing baby oatmeal. The oatmeal went over very well. The funny thing is that when I first fed PK oatmeal, the box said that a normal serving was 5 tbsps, yet recommended 1 tbsp for starters. I started with 3 tbsps, and that wasn't enough. Now I give her 7 tbsps of baby oatmeal, and I'm sure that I could easily add more, and she'd gobble it all up. Now we've gotten in the habit of feeding her oatmeal at around lunchtime, and puréed veggies at around dinnertime. I may eventually shift the oatmeal to an earlier time and move the veggies to lunchtime and do puréed fruits at dinnertime. That may still be a few weeks away, however.

Now, I did mention that I introduced apples and pears to PK. I tried giving apples to PK when I was still giving her just the carrot purée. I gave it to her by cutting an apple in half and using a spoon to scrape some apple from the exposed half. That did not go over very well, and I think I know why. First of all, I bought a honeycrisp apple, which is a type of apple that I really like. Unfortunately, it's a bit sour. PK doesn't like sour. Secondly, feeding her scraped apple might work when she's a bit older, but not now, when she's still used to relatively runny purées. I think that next time I re-introduce apples, I'll be sure to pick a sweeter apple, and I'll probably boil the apple first and use my little food processor to chop it up, instead of scraping it with a spoon.

Pears didn't go over too well either. My mom decided out of the blue one day that PK needed to try pears (to go hand-in-hand with the prune juice to combat constipation), so she bought PK some Gerber pear purée. I have a feeling that PK disliked the pear purée because she was expecting a bottle and got purée instead. At this point, her purées and oatmeal meals aren't supposed to replace bottle feeds, because she just doesn't get enough, and, in the case of her purées, they are so runny that they're not filling just yet. So, the lesson learned here is that at this stage, milk/formula first, because that's their primary source of nutrition. Feeding a baby solids before milk/formula at this stage is like trying to play with them when they're hungry. It's a totally futile activity. I'll probably re-introduce pears in a couple more weeks, and I will make my own purée instead of using the store-bought stuff.

I introduced peas to PK this evening. Actually, it was a pea and butternut squash purée. I figured that mixing peas with something that she's already tried before would probably increase the likelihood of her liking the peas. So much for that theory. She really didn't like the peas. As soon as they went in her mouth, she'd spit them back out. It's too bad, because I made 6 or 7 servings of the stuff, and it's all sitting in my freezer right now. That being said, I think I may know why the peas weren't too well-received.

Today we went out with the hubby's parents and grandmother for lunch, so we brought along some oatmeal for PK in order to keep to her schedule. She was enjoying the oatmeal very much. Unfortunately, she got her little hands onto the bowl from which we were feeding it, and flung it onto the floor. Bye bye oatmeal. She wasn't too happy about that, and neither was I, but what could we do. I felt bad that she didn't get her full oatmeal fix, so at dinnertime, I gave her some oatmeal (reduced serving), AND I decided to introduce the pea/butternut squash purée after she finished her oatmeal. I think that doing so might have contributed to this dislike for peas. She basically went from eating something she knew and liked (oatmeal) to eating something new and unfamiliar, and with a weird consistency (pea/butternut squash purée). The new purée was slightly thicker and a bit chunkier than what she was used to. I couldn't help it on the chunks - peas don't seem to purée as well as I'd like. I know, silly me. I changed too many variables. I'm going to try for the peas/butternut squash combo again tomorrow at dinnertime again, but this time, I'll stick to giving her oatmeal just at lunchtime.

My purées are still relatively watery, but I'm slowly working my way up to a slightly thicker consistency. I also continue mixing in the prune juice. I find that even with the prune juice, however, PK still has trouble pooing on days when she starts on a new food, so we are having to resort to the glycerine suppositories every once in a while. At least it's related to diet change.

Lessons Learned:
1. Don't change too many variables
2. Change purée consistency gradually
3. Work your way up to more sour tastes, since they can be pretty strong and shocking for a baby

All in all, PK's introduction to solids has gone well, and in spite of rejecting a few foods here and there, she does seem to be embracing the overall experience. Now, if only I could figure out how to avoid getting food goop all over her neck and her clothes.

Little Multi-Tasker

PK is currently sitting in my lap, chugging away at a bottle. Instead of lying flat, however, she is turned toward me, as she has found my clothes a source of amusement while she eats. She's currently scratching away at my shirt while she gets those last few drops of formula from her bottle. Oh, and did I mention that she's also pooing at the same time? Gulp, scratch, grunt. What a symphony! She's certainly quite the little multi-tasker - just like her mom!
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PK's Baptism

Before PK was born, I had already decided that she would not be baptized. I am, after all, an atheist. Although the hubby is religious (though non-church-going), having PK baptized didn't seem to be a big deal to him, so that was an easy sell. The way I look at it, we would still expose her to Christianity, and if it tickled her fancy one day, she could join the church. No biggie.

When PK was about a month old, my grandmother had mailed a care package full of clothes for PK, all the way from Brazil. Among these clothes was a white dress, intended to be used at PK's baptism. When I first got it, I was a tad bit annoyed that my grandmother had bought such a dress for PK, since I'd already told her that I didn't plan on having PK baptized. Everything changed when my grandmother died in October of 2008. My whole world crumbled. My grandmother meant a lot to me. I cried a lot over her death. I still do. I try not to think about it too much, because otherwise, it just makes me sad.

My grandmother's greatest wish was to have PK baptized, so I vowed after my grandmother's death, that I would have PK baptized. I didn't know how I'd ever go about it, but I would get it done, and PK would wear the lovely white dress that my grandmother had gotten her.

Finding a church to baptize PK proved to be a bit difficult. I was brought up in the Catholic Church, but I knew that it would be almost impossible to baptize her as a Catholic. For one thing, the hubby and I were married in the Presbyterian Church. Also, I never did the sacrament of confirmation. Knowing how nit-picky the Catholic Church is when it comes to these things, I knew how utterly impossible it would be. No loss there, really. The Catholic church in my parents' neighborhood is positively snotty and uptight, and I certainly had no plans to join a Catholic parish in my own neighborhood. (Atheist, remember?)

The first thing I tried was the chapel where the hubby and I got married. We were married at a Presbyterian chapel at the University. The minister who married us wasn't affiliated with the the chapel per se, but he was a Presbyterian minister. In fact, he was the minister at my in-laws' church. I was hoping that perhaps we could swing a baptism at that same chapel, performed by the same minister. I called up the church, and after playing phone tag for several weeks, found out that they don't do baptisms at that chapel. A baptism is typically done as part of a Sunday church service, the point being to welcome the child into the congregation. Arrgh...so many rules! According to chapel officials, they ONLY do weddings at that chapel. They won't even make exceptions to do baptisms sans church service. Though apparently I wasn't the only one who had inquired about such a service, they would do no such thing.

Honestly, all I wanted was a quickie, drive-through-style baptism. A few words here, some water there, and then done. Clearly, that wasn't to be.

The next thing I tried was another Presbyterian church that I knew of, that was in my neighborhood. I figured that the Presbyterian Church would be a bit less restrictive than the Catholic Church in terms of pre-requisites. Plus the hubby is loosely-affiliated with the Presbyterian Church, so I figured, what the heck. So that didn't quite pan out either. After playing phone tag with this church, I found out that in order to be baptized at the church, we needed to be members of the congregation, or at least have parents who were part of that congregation. Otherwise, we would have to take some course and be officially made part of the congregation. Holy complicated, Batman!

Onto Plan C. Really, I should've just tried this in the first place. I contacted the minister who married us directly. Unlike the other places, I did NOT have to play phone tag in order to get a hold of him! He actually remembered me, and was extremely warm and receptive on the phone. In fact, he was absolutely delighted that I was asking him to perform PK's baptism. He took down our address and mailed us a pamphlet with baptism FAQs. We also made arrangements for him to come to our house to discuss details of the service and to meet PK.

He came to our house on a day where we'd had a HUGE snowstorm, all the way from the suburbs. He had parked his car at Finch station and subwayed down. Still, that is by no means an easy journey on a snowy winter day. Our meeting lasted about an hour. We got to discuss details of the service, and he got to meet PK. He was very good with her.

I have to say that initially, the hubby wasn't fully on-board with the whole baptism thing. To him, it was a nice-to-have, but he didn't fully comprehend why an atheist, of all people, was so adamant about having a baptism for our daughter.

The funny thing is, I think the hubby really got into it as he started explaining to the minister just why we were having PK baptized. He even told the minister about the baptism gown that my grandmother had sent over from Brazil. The minister loved hearing about these details, and said that he would try to incorporate these facts into the service.

PK was baptized on Sunday, February 15th, 2009 in the Presbyterian Church. That day also coincided with the one-year anniversary of my great-aunt, my maternal grandmother's sister. She was a very special person in my life, and was like having another grandmother around. The service was quite lovely. The minister made special mention of my grandmother and my great-aunt, and even threw in the part about the significance of the dress that PK was wearing.

Although the Presbyterian Church doesn't recognize god-parents per se, you can still technically have them. I asked my sister and her husband to be PK's god-parents. My sister is a pretty devout Catholic, and my brother-in-law is Jewish. It's a very interesting combination, but they respect each other's religious beliefs. I told the minister beforehand that my brother-in-law is Jewish, but he had no issues with that. In fact, he said more or less that Christians and Jews are part of the same extended family.

PK was extremely well-behaved through it all. When we got called up to the podium, the hubby was holding her, standing beside the minister. She kept on grabbing at the minister's notes as he read them out. When he took her in his arms to pour water over her forehead, she didn't even flinch. I guess those swimming lessons are paying off! Afterwards, a member of the congregation walked PK around, which PK seemed to enjoy very much. Everyone in the congregation was absolutely smitten with her. She was positively angelic.

Afterwards, she was returned to me, and by the time we returned to our seats, she was fast asleep. She remained asleep for the rest of the service. I'd never been to a Presbyterian service before, but I have to tell you that it was MUCH less drone-ish than a Catholic mass. Catholic masses are absolutely BORING. They basically consist of sitting down, standing up, sitting down, listening to the preist saying some God-fearing homily, standing up, kneeling, blindly reciting passages, standing up, sitting down, kneeling some more, going for communion, kneeling, standing up, sitting down...you get the picture.

At the end of the service, the entire congregation gathered together for some coffee, cookies, and banana bread. It was a small congregation turnout that day, but it had this wonderful sense of family. After this entire experience, I would hate for us to just disappear from a congregation that was so welcoming. It would seem like we were using them. I suggested to the hubby that we show up for Sunday service every once in a while. For me, I still remain an atheist, but I loved the sense of community that this congregation fostered. Popping in once in a while will give PK exposure to her dad's religion, which is only fair. Besides, I think it's nice for PK to be exposed to such a nice environment when we live in such a cruel and cold world.

A Much-Needed Break

I am very much against celebrating Valentine's Day. In my opinion, it's a stupid Hallmark Holiday that was created to break up couples (way too many girls expecting to be treated like goddesses by their significant others, while the significant others stress and spend way too much money on this one day) or to make singles feel inferior. And yet, February 14th, 2009 was an important day for the hubby and me. It was the day when PK spent the night at my parents' place while the hubby and I took a much-needed evening to ourselves. It was PK's first night away from home since she was born, and our first true night to ourselves since she was born.

The hubby and I have been married for a little over 5.5 years, and we've enjoyed a great marriage thus far. As with all couples, we've had our ups and downs, but we've always come out on top. That being said, the dynamics of our relationship definitely changed after PK was born. Before she was born, we could focus solely on our relationship. After she was born, however, it was all about PK. Feeding PK. Making sure that PK was happy. Putting PK to bed. Buying clothes for PK. We got so caught up with taking care of PK, that we didn't really take care of ourselves.

Someone once told me that relationships are like gardens. You need to nurture the garden, otherwise all of the plants will die. I didn't really think much of that back then. I had the whole "love conquers all" mentality. Now I know better. When you have a baby, your focus shifts, and caring for that relationship garden is more important than ever. Otherwise, once your child is all grown up, you wake up one morning only to realize that the person you're married to is a complete stranger, even though you've been together for 20-odd years.

That's why Valentine's Day this year was so important. We were able to take some time to focus on us, and us alone. We didn't do all that much that evening - we just caught a movie and then went out to dinner. It was by no means the most exciting date I ever went on, but it was perhaps the most important date that I ever went on. For the first time in six months, we truly had some time to reconnect. We were reminded of what it was like before PK had arrived.

Don't get me wrong - PK is a tremendous source of joy in our lives. I just don't want her to be the ONLY source of joy in our lives.

The Wonders of Prune Juice

Although PK LOVES pureed carrots, they made her pretty constipated. Fortunately she didn't end up with hard, dry pooh pellets or anything, but she was definitely having a hard time getting it out. We had to resort to glycerine suppositories a couple of times, and, although they're "natural", they're not exactly a long-term solution to the problem and can cause dependency issues in the long-run.

Enter the prune. Prunes were my best friends during my pregnancy, and now that PK was on solids, I figured that I could get PK started on prunes on Sunday, after we had to use a second glycerine suppository in 3 days. I bought some prunes to puree, but fearing that PK would hate them, I also bought some prune juice to give to her in a bottle. The prune juice in a bottle thing didn't work. She HATED it. The face she made when she tried the prune juice was of absolute disgust. I don't blame her. Prune juice tastes like pooh-barf. I have many traumatic memories of being forced to drink prune juice as a kid. The very thought of it makes me shudder. Bleh!

So what to do? If she didn't like the prune juice, she certainly wouldn't be very sold on pureed prunes. Then the hubby suggested mixing a bit of prune juice in with her pureed food. Well, that certainly did the trick. She didn't notice the pruney flavor in her pureed carrots AND she ended up getting a poop out later. We've been mixing about a half a teaspoonful of prune juice with her pureed food since Sunday, and it works without fail!

Hoorray for prunes in all their disgusting yet powerful might!
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One of Those Weeks

This week has been rough. Although we've been having a pretty good run with the introduction of solids, everything else has been out of whack. It all began with PK's 6-month visit to the pediatrician on Monday. As part of the visit, PK got her 6-month shots. That included one shot to each leg (DPT and another vaccine), and the optional rotavirus vaccine. This would be the last dose for the rotavirus vaccine.

As usual, PK was weighed and measured. She now weighs 6.6kg and measures 67cm. She is still on the 75th-percentile for length and head circumference, and 25th-percentile on weight. Overall the appointment went quite well - except for the part where PK got jabbed once on each leg. At her 2-month and 4-month checkup, I had the pediatrician give her the rotavirus vaccine after the leg jabs, since the rotavirus vaccine is oral and seemed to calm her down. Not this time. After the leg jabs, PK was frantic. She was inconsolable. She refused to take the rotavirus vaccine. It ended up in her mouth, but I don't even know if she swallowed it. Her face was all red, and she just screamed and screamed and screamed, refusing to take a bottle. I'm just thankful that my mom was there with me, so that she could calm PK down while I asked the doctor a list of questions which had been piling up over the past 2 months.

By the time we left the doctor's office, PK was significantly calmer. She fell asleep in her stroller. When she did wake up, she looked around quietly. She was very mellow. Unlike her 4-month shots, she didn't freak out that night, so we didn't need to give her any Tempra. That was a relief, since I'm not a big fan of giving any medicine to babies unless I really really need to.

Although it appeared that PK had gotten over her shots, she was awfully fussy the rest of the week. For one thing, Monday night, Tuesday night, and Wednesday night, PK kept waking up between 3 and 4am for a feed. This was a huge surprise for us, since she hasn't been doing that since November. Wednesday night was particularly bad, because she woke up at 10:30pm, and again at 4am. While Thursday night didn't have any actual wake-ups, we did have to run up to her room at various points in the night to put her soother when she started moaning through the monitor. No diaper changes were required, but it is quite exhausting to run up and down stairs to get to and from her room at various points in the night.

To top it all off, PK appears to have a bit of a cold. Knock on wood here, but it seems to be mild - it's mainly just an occasional cough, but I think it's enough to affect her eating habits. As an aside, I think she caught this cold because people kept showing up sick (and/or with their sick babies) to music class. Since the babies share instruments, it was inevitable that PK would eventually catch someone's cold. To top it all off, I also have a cold. And I am a VERY grumpy person when I'm sick.

Anyway, I digress. Thursday was rough for feeding. She just didn't want to take all of her bottles. We normally give her between 200 and 220ml when she first wakes up and then between 160 and 180ml throughout the day. She ends up taking 5 bottles in total each day. On Thursday, she still had her 5 bottles, but she never wanted the entire bottle. She'd start each bottle off with lots of gusto, and then would stop when there were 60ml left. Most of the time, I'd manage to get her to finish off the bottle, though it would sometimes take me 2 hours of alterating between playing with her and offering her the bottle. Other times, I'd be left with 60ml of formula in the bottle, and there was no way that she was taking it.

Friday was a slightly better feeding day - she took all of the formula in her bottles, though it did still take some coaxing to get her to take the last 60ml. I don't know what the deal is with the last 60ml. Uncanny! I did get really worried at one point early in the day, however, when I noticed that PK wasn't peeing as much as she usually does. She had 2 completely dry diapers out of 4 diaper changes. And out of the two wet diapers, one wasn't very wet. Naturally, I was a bit worried about dehydration, especially since she had been really fussy about taking her bottles the day before. Fortunately, the problem seemed to have corrected itself, so I didn't have to call the pediatrician or anything.

For a while there, I was starting to think that PK's bottle fussiness was a result of teething. I know, I've said this many, many, many times, and yet, no teeth! She kept swishing the nipple over her gums, and she kept biting on her wooden toys, so the signs did point to teething. That might even explain her so-called "cold". But no teeth yet, so I was probably wrong...AGAIN!

PK ended up only having 4 bottles in total on Friday. This was partly due to the fact that she slept right through one of her feeds. She had an extra-long 2.5-hour nap, which RARELY ever happens. Since PK had such a nice, restful nap, she was quite playful afterwards. Unfortunately she had a total meltdown in the evening due to some nasty constipation. A glycerine suppository saved the day, and after a late-day assisted poop, a bath, a bottle, and a good burp PK went down for the night in a very peaceful manner. I just hope that she sleeps through until 7 or 8am so that we can catch up on some much-needed sleep tonight.

Introducing...Solids!

Along with celebrating PK's 6-month birthday last week, we also celebrated an important milestone that day: the introduction of solids! I was originally going to wait until February 9th to introduce solids, since that was the day we were seeing PK's pediatrician for her 6-month check-up, but I got so freaking excited that I just went ahead with it on the 6th.

If you had asked me a while back about what I'd have PK try out first, I would've told you rice cereal. That seems to be the norm for introducing solids. But then I attended a seminar at Whole Foods on introducing solids, which put a different slant on things. The lady running the seminar was from a company called Sprout Right. They hold classes on preparing home-made baby food. The seminar she did at Whole Foods was just an hour long and was more of an info session. She did, however have us all try some home-made sweet potato and home-made carrot purée, and compare them to a few ready-made organic baby food brands. All I can say is YUCK to the ready-made stuff. One brand (I wish I could remember what it was) actually looked more like jelly than purée. Nasty! Anyway, the lady running the seminar was a big believer in starting with the fruits and veggies first, and that this whole single-grain cereal business was overrated, especially rice cereal, which could cause some serious constipation. I can't say that I was fully convinced by what she was saying right off the bat. After all, shouldn't doctors know more about this stuff? What kind of background did she have?

I also talked to my mom about how she introduced solids to me as a baby. Well, back then, there was none of this business of introducing one food at a time. When I was a baby, she just took a bunch of veggies, boiled them until they were soft, and puréed them. A nutritionist giving a talk to my mommy group said that you don't introduce fruits first because it causes babies to develop a sweet tooth.

Whoa! Talk about information overload! EVERYONE has an opinion on this thing. So who's right? I honestly don't know who's right, but I decided to go with my gut on this one. I decided to do away with the rice cereal bit (or grains, for that matter - I can do those later), and start with sweet potatoes.

Preparation was simple. Just peel the sweet potato, cut it up into small pieces, and boil it (use filtered water) until soft. Then stick it in a blender (I used one of those little food processors), making sure to add enough water - you don't want the purée to be too thick. We'd gotten a set of those freezer cubes for baby food for Christmas, so after I made my batch of sweet potato, I put the purée into the cubes, and stuffed them into the freezer. My first batch of puréed sweet potato was a bit thicker compared to the last batch (my food processor is REALLY small, so I had to do this in batches), and was very much like the home-made stuff that I'd tried at the Whole Foods seminar. My later batches turned out quite watery (more like sweet potato juice) because I got impatient towards the end and just wanted to finish making this stuff already. In all, I ended up with 8 full cubes of purée. In hindsight, I probably should've filled them halfway, since the cubes are awfully large and PK is still awfully small.

Besides freezing the batch of sweet potato, I also got to test some out right away on PK. Feeding her solids for the first time was an absolutely hillarious experience for me. My mom was on-hand to help, and she fed PK while I got it on video. The video consists of PK making funny faces at the food while I laugh hysterically. She was NOT impressed, and I'm pretty sure that any sweet potato that actually went into her mouth didn't stay there very long. In hindsight, I think that her dislike for that batch of sweet potato might have been the result of two major factors. First, my mom thought that the sweet potato purée was a bit bland, so she had me add some salt. I added it only to the batch that I was feeding to PK at that moment. I think that I added too much salt. Second, the purée might have been a bit too thick for PK. She is, after all, used to taking formula, which is much much runnier. The runny batch of sweet potato that I'd just made would come in handy after all!

I am happy to report that day 2 of feeding sweet potato purée to PK went much better than the first day. Although most of it still did end up all over her face and bib, she did eat some of it. Day 3 was even more successful. So much so that PK actually looked EXCITED as we brought the spoon towards her mouth. We got some AWESOME photos of her eating that day.

We did the sweet potato thing for 5 days. By the end of it, PK even developed a taste for the thicker batch. The next thing I tried out was puréed carrots. You prepare these the same way as the sweet potatoes. The carrots went over VERY well. I actually think that she likes them even more than she likes the sweet potatoes. The only problem is that it seems that the carrots caused some constipation, which made PK REALLY REALLY cranky on Friday evening. Actually, cranky is an understatement. She had a full-on tantrum. Poor thing, though. She was in some serious pain, and we ended up having to use a glycerine supository to help her get her poop out. Those things have saved us on more than one occasion. Though the suppositories worked out this time, we need to make sure that she can get that poop out without the aid of the supositories. The funny thing is that I'd started with carrots on Wednesday, and she pooped TWICE on Thursday. Friday, however, was another story, and she was not happy. I wonder if I can get her to start drinking some prune juice to help things move along.

So all in all the introduction of solids went much better than I thought it would be. I was seriously afraid that PK would end up being a super-fussy eater. Of course, that can all change in a flash...

Confessions of a Germophobe

Okay, I admit it - I'm a germophobe. I always have my Purell on hand. I probably became more of a germophobe after the whole SARS thing here in Toronto, and also during my pregnancy, when I caught THREE colds in row. I was determined not to get sick again during my pregnancy (I wound up catching a cold days before PK was born, but at least that was mild), so I loaded up on the Purell and OJ.

After PK was born, I was all paranoid about germs. She was so young and so fragile that I was afraid of her catching a cold. (She wound up catching my pre-delivery cold. I actually managed to pass that cold on to my mom, my sis, the hubby, and PK. Fortunately, it was a really mild - albeit VERY contagious - cold.) I get really paranoid about fallen soothers, people touching PK's hands (I still do...I find strangers touching baby hands to be obnoxious), and people coughing around PK (the rain cover is always over the stroller on the subway). Now that PK is very interactive, I want to make sure that she plays with other babies. Unfortunately, it's that time of year when EVERYONE is sick, so babies playing with each other and sharing toys means sick baby and sleep-deprived mommy. I've got a bit of a conundrum.

The other thing that kind of icks me out is the fact that at storytime and in music class, we all sit on the floor with our babies. Now that PK sits on her own, I want to plop her on the floor, but I don't want her sitting directly on the icky floor, touching its germy surface with her cute little hands. So I opted for a compromise. I put her on the floor on her changepad, where she can sit or lie down, and I don't worry (as much) about the icky germs.

Fortunately, I've come to my senses. I've come to realize in the last week that putting PK on a changepad on the floor, while slightly more hygenic, create a social island of isolation around PK. It singles her out as a prissy, anti-social baby - neither of which apply to her. I've come to the conclusion that I just need to suck up this germ aversion and let PK sit on the floor and share toys with other babies. The other babies seem to be doing just fine in this germy environment (hell, it's probably even good for them!) and their moms are probably less high-strung.

Okay, so it took me a while to come to this conclusion, but better late than never, right?

PK at Six Months

I've been meaning to write up a post on all of the wonderful things that PK had done at the age of 5 months, and now, next thing I know, she's six months old! So I guess this post will be two months' worth of updates. Here goes:

1. Sitting Up
As of January 26th, 2009, PK was able to sit up on her own. I have to admit that I was starting to have my doubts on whether or not this would ever happen, because she seemed to be more interested in lying down or practicing standing than in actually sitting up. Whenever we tried to get her into a sitting position, she'd always push backward, either to get to a lying position or to a standing position. What can I say...the girl knows what she wants! Still, we tried to prop her up in a sitting position as much as possible. The real breakthrough came around two weeks ago, when we realized that PK was really into remote controls (or anything with buttons, for that matter). Not only that, we realized that if we put her in a sitting position and put the remote in front of her, instead of leaning back, she'd actually lean forward! I found out that PK's tastes weren't just limited to things with buttons. She has a set of cups that she really likes that would also make her lunge forward, as well as her good old buddy, Bear-Pig, her plush blocks, and her plush balls.

Well, that was just the little nudge that she needed to realize that she could sit up on her own. And when she finally did it, she realized that she actually liked it! In the beginning, she'd sit up for just a few short minu
tes at a time. Now, most of her playtime is spent with her sitting in front of me, playing with her various toys. It's great. I think that she enjoys it to, because it opens up a whole new perspective for her.

2. Standing Up
PK has gotten really good at supporting her own body weight in a standing up position. While she can't stand up on her own just yet, I have managed to get her to stand on her own while holding the edge of her crib (with my arms hovering around her waist to catch her when she loses her balance). She has managed to stay in that position for several minutes. That's not an easy task for a little munchkin, especially one standing on a mattress. She has even gotten so bold as to try supporting herself with one hand, and has also tried moving her hands along the railing while trying to stay up. Yesterday the hubby had her standing on the floor, leaning against the glider ottoman in her room. She managed to do that for a whole 15 minutes while banging away on the ottoman with one of her hands.

3. Tummy Time
I was told by all of my mommy friends that at around 5 or 6 months, their babies, who weren't terribly font of tummy time just one day decided that they liked being on their tummies. I waited for that day in anticipation. And waited. And waited. I am still waiting. I have come to the conclusion that PK does NOT like tummy time. Sure, I still try to put her on her tummy, but the first thing she does when I put her on her tummy is to groan or giggle or squeal, and try to roll over. She's successful about 97% of the time. I've tried to entice her to stay on her tummy by putting a favorite toy in front of her, but she'll have none of that. Although I've seen her roll over on both her left and right side, she rolls over on her left side 99% of the time. When she does attempt to roll over on her right, she is unsuccessful the first time, gets annoyed, and proceeds to roll over on her left.

One new skill that she has picked up in the last week is the ability to move her arm out of the way on the side she's rolling over. For example, if she tried rolling over and her arms were up near her head, most of the time, she would successfully roll over onto her back. If, however, her arms were on her sides when she attempted to roll over, they'd get in the way, and she'd wind up getting annoyed that she couldn't roll over and was still on hher tummy. Well, last week, she finally learned how to move her arms out of the way so that she could roll over. It was interesting to watch how this progressed. The first time she did it took a long time. We just stood her watching her squirm and cry while trying to roll over with her arm in the way. And then, she had her eureeka moment when she moved her arm out of the way and rolled over. So we tried it again. Squirm, cry, move arm, roll over. And again. Pretty soon, moving the arm out of the way was just second-nature to her, and away she went. How cool is that?

She still hasn't managed to roll over from her back to her front, though I really think that she can do it. She manages to get her legs up vertically, and swing them from side-to-side with a fair bit of momentum. She can definitely roll onto her side, especially when there's a toy that she really really wants, that's just within reach. That's always fun to watch.

4. Language Development
PK's language development seems to go in waves. I remember when she was 3 or 4 months old, she seemed to be pretty chatty. She tried to make all sorts of different sounds, and I'd even at one point heard a "la" and a "da". At one point, she was making some cool sounds that sounded like random chatter in the morning. That was so much fun to listen to over the monitor! And then it stopped. She went through a bit of a mute phase.

Right after Christmas she really got into buzzing her lips. That lasted for about one week. Then she went through a squealing phase. She loved squealing - she sounded like a little pteradactyl. I loved squealing back at her to see if she's reply. She did reply back, but I don't know if it's because she was talking to me, or just doing her own thing. I think that that phase lasted for 3 weeks, maybe. Then she went through an "ahhhh, brrrrrr" phase. It was freaking hillarious. Unfortunately, I realize that I never got that on video. I guess I was to enthralled with the sound to think of recording it. Silly me.

Now she's gone through a bit of a mute phase again, with the occasional little sound. She is, however, experimenting with a bit of a whimper, which she seems to do when she's a bit subdued, like right before a nap.

I worry sometimes that she isn't very chatty. I always ask other moms in my mommy group about language development with their kids, to see if I should be worrying about PK. The thing that gets me is that PK doesn't often look up at me. She's usually in her own little world of play, and as much as I try to get her attention, she just sits there and does her thing. She'll occasionally look up, say, if I make a funny sound (one that really gets her is when I say "Erthie nerthie nerthie nerthie" in a really dorky voice), if I sing her a familiar song (such as "Old MacDonald" or "The Wheels on the Bus"), or if I wave around a toy that she likes and is interested in playing with. Otherwise, with her head always looking down at her toys, it's hard for her to look at me while I point things out like "ball", "block", "frog", and "cow".

I wonder if this detachment is normal at this age, or if it's the initial stages of something like autism peeking through. Maybe I'm just freaking out prematurely, but I will mention this to PK's pediatrician when I see her next week.

5. Favorite Toys
Some of PK's favorite toys these days are removes, phones, watches (the watch thing started just last week), rings (she LOVES my engagement ring - again, started liking that last week), and hair. She'll grab at my hair any chance she gets. Last week at swimming, class was running 15 minutes late. The hubby took her last week, and was standing around with her by the pool while waiting for class to start. While she was quite calm while waiting for class (THAT was a pleasant surprise), she did distract herself by a) watching people in the pool and b) yanking at the hubby's chest hair. This makes me think of the early weeks of PK's life when she was exclusively breast-feeding and would get her hand up the sleeve in the hubby's T-shirt and yank on his armpit hair in an attempt to get some attention. Crafty little thing!

PK also loves her Exer-Saucer that my sis and her hubby gave her for Christmas. It has taken her a month or so to really warm up to it and play with ALL of the toys on there. In the beginning, she had one or two toys that she liked to play with. Now, however, she just loves everything, and even rotates herself while in her seat to play with different toys. Very cool to watch!

She's also a big fan of her Baby Einstein piano which she got for Christmas. We keep that on her high chair, along with a little spin toy which seems to amuse her. She's really gotten into the piano lately. I think she has realized that banging on the keys makes noise. Now, she bangs on them with such conviction!

Another favorite of hers is Chiquita Banana. Chiquita is a plush banana with colorful crinkle peels and mirrored rattle feet. We hang Chiquita on the slats of the blinds in her room. She is strategically placed right beside her changepad so that PK is distracted while we change her. The main reason why we placed her was to encourage development of her right arm. We figured that having a toy to her right as we changed her would entice her to use her right arm a little more. It definitely helped. While Chiquita has always been a source of amusement for PK, she has REALLY taken to her little banana and just about rolls off the changepad to play with Chiquita. Fortunately for us, PK only makes it onto her side (see above), so poopy diaper changes aren't as nightmare-ish as they could be!

6. Sleep
PK is still not that much of a napper, but she still averages 8-10 hours of uninterrupted sleep (no feedings while sleepy, no wake-ups, nothing) every night. I'd rather have that, than have her nap more through the day. Her best naps still seem to be in the stroller. I guess she likes the bumpy ride! I will, however, on occasion, get a good nap from her at home. I try to keep home naptime consistent every day - not in terms of timing, but more in terms of having a naptime routine going.

I can usually tell she's tired because she starts rubbing her eyes incessantly. Sometimes she'll even be a bit lethargic (the other day she was sitting pretty limply on her high chair). When I start getting the nap cues from her, I change her diaper, put her into her naptime grobag (yes, we have a "special" naptime one), put her into her crib, and sit beside her crib on an exercise ball while I read to her. She always looks over at me while I read, so I always have the book's pages turned to her so that she can see the pictures. One minute, she's wide-awake. The next, her eyes just close, and she's fast asleep. I could sit there for hours, watching her, but then I wouldn't have any time to myself, would I?

If I'm lucky, she'll nap for one hour. If I'm REALLY lucky, she'll nap for 2 hours (that has happened on occasion - it happens for sure in the stroller, but hardly ever at home). The amount of time she naps is usually a function of how tired she is, how wet her diaper is, and how close it is to her next bottle. The first and third factors seem to be most important. All of that standing practice and sitting tires her out, so sometimes, no matter how close to her bottle she is, if she's pooped, she'll just sleep and sleep and sleep. Other times, if she's tired but not THAT tired, she'll naturally wake up when it's time for her next bottle. So it's really a matter of timing it just perfectly. I especially try to get to the timing just right when we go for walks, to make sure that I don't deprive her of playtime. I don't want to go out for a walk with her if she's just woken up from a nap, since I know that more often than not, she'll fall asleep in the stroller.

When she does nap at home, I try to get a workout in, usually for her afternoon nap. During her morning nap, I use the time to drag my ass out of bed, brush my teeth, and look presentable before she starts screaming for her next bottle.

7. Hands
I've been really impressed by how good PK has gotten with her hands. Maybe part of it has to do with all of that practice that the hubby did with her way back at 4 months on getting her to use her right hand (she used to only want to do things with her left). She's got a set of colored cups that fit one inside the other, and she LOVES pulling them out. You can tell that her hand use is still a bit awkward, but she definitely has a decent grip on those cups. One really cool thing that she does with her hands is object transfer. She's been doing that for a few months now - probably since month 4 or so - and she's definitely gotten pretty good at it.

PK has 3 plush balls that she likes to play with, though, since they're plush, she likes to grab them by pinching the fabric (no, she isn't doing the pincer grip just yet), or by grabbing the tags. She is slowly discovering that the roll, and on occasion has even swatted them away.

A while back, I bought PK a set of percussion instruments, and every day I take them out and let her play with them. I have to be careful because I don't know if the finish on the wood is baby-friendly, so I have to yank them out of her hands if she puts them to her mouth. She especially likes putting her maracas into her mouth to lick them like a lollipop! She's still not THAT much into the instruments, but she does manage to keep a bit of attention on them. It's getting better with time, so I just need to be patient. She has a little tambourine which, most of the time, she grabs and tosses. Sometimes, however, if I put it in front of her, she'll bang on it with her left hand. She can bang on stuff with her right, but her preference does seem to be her left (I'll have to ask the pediatrician about this next week). She also shakes around her sleigh bells for a bit before tossing them, and ditto with her maracas. While I've tried getting her to hold both sleigh bells or both maracas (one in each hand, of course), she'll do that very briefly before tossing one of them and grabbing at the other with both hands. I guess we'll have to work on that one.

I guess we've had an eventful couple of months, haven't we?

Six Months Ago

Six months ago today, PK came into the world. She was just a day early, but the labor fast (4 hours or so!), and before I knew it, there she was. Tiny, fragile, and all ours. Six months ago today, I didn't know if I could do this parenting thing - I still have my doubts some days. Even so, it has been an incredible journey, watching this little person grow and develop. Seeing her smile for the first time, seeing her first pouty face, changing her first diaper, taking her to swimming class for the first time, and seeing her sit up on her own for the first time all tell me that this was worth it. Best of all, I've had the love and support from my family, especially the hubby, who truly shares everything 50/50, and my mom, who just oozes love for little PK.

I love you, PK. Just don't grow up too fast.
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That Pesky Work Thing

PK will be 6 months old on Friday. I don't know where the time has gone, but here we are. As my loyal readers of PK on the Way and PK Land (yes, THIS blog!) may recall, my original "master" plan was to be on mat-leave for 6 months, work part-time (2-3 days per week) for 6 months, and then return to work full-time. Yup. That was the plan.

Even though under the original plan I'd be working part-time until early August, I still feel that I'd miss so many important and exciting PK milestones! Sure, my mom would be looking after PK on days when I'd be at work, but she'd get to see all of these cool PK milestones and I'd be at work, not seeing them for myself. And now, my master plan has changed.

Just for the record, I DO plan on returning to work. Many of my friends (mostly guys) keep asking me if I'll be returning to work full-time now that PK is around. I probably shouldn't feel this way, but I find that question to be insulting. Why wouldn't I return to work? I NEED to return to work - it's important to me. That's not to say that stay-at-home-moms don't have a difficult job. Their job is worse than mine will ever be. Over-worked, under-paid, and under-appreciated. Just freaking great. My mom was a stay-at-home mom. I have the utmost respect for her. At the same time, I didn't go through 4 years of university and 7 years of building a career to just drop it all. (For the record, my mom has a university degree too, but then had me and never had a chance to work since she chose to stay home to raise my sister and me.)

So going back to work is a definite yes. It's just a matter of when. Do I take the full year of mat-leave, returning to full-time work in early August? Or do I return to work in April or May, working part-time until the end of August, and return to work full-time thereafter? I'm leaning towards the latter. All I know is that my original plan isn't flying.

At any rate, the day I return to work is fast approaching, and it's making me nervous. What do I do about child-care once I'm back at work full-time? The hubby has put us on several daycare waiting lists, and has been following up with them. Even still, TWO daycares have managed to either lose our application or spontaneously remove us from the list. WTF? That aside, do I want PK to go to daycare? How do I know that she'll be properly stimulated in daycare? I guess to determine that, we'll need to go on daycare tours and ask lots of questions.

The other option is to go with a nanny. My sister-in-law has a nanny for her two kids, and likes the nanny just fine. But nannies are whole other set of problems. How do I know that I can trust the nanny? How do I know that the nanny won't snatch PK away? How do I know that the nanny will be hygenic enough around PK. Simple things like, does she wash her hands after she goes to the washroom? Sounds dumb, but I really don't want PK picking up more germs than she needs to (says the germophobe).

But then again, the nanny might be a good option. I can continue sending PK to storytime. I can continue sending PK to music lessons. That way she gets to interact with other kids her age. I don't have to pull PK out of bed early in the morning to drag her to daycare, where she'll probably catch a cold all the freaking time. (And make me sick too - did I mention that I'm REALLLY cranky when I get sick? Arrgh...decisions, decisions!

Besides, daycare, I worry about my career. My boss has hired somebody to replace me on my team while I'm on leave. When I get back, he'll still be there. My team is all junior devs, and I was the most senior one there. Everyone looked up to me. I was being groomed for a promotion. It was going really well. Upon my return, there will be TWO of us senior devs. What happens to my grooming? Is there really room for two of us? Sure, it's always good to have two experienced techies on a team. We can certainly learn from each other. That part will be good. But I worry that there may be competition.

I had lunch with my boss a few weeks ago, and asked how I'd fit in with the team since the other guy would still be there. He said it would be good to have two senior devs on board. Yup, freaking great. But I got a strange vibe from him which led me to believe that I was being groomed no more. Paranoia? Perhaps...But how do I politely ask my boss, "Hey, do you think I'll still get that promotion now that you've got this other senior guy here?" without sounding like a total turd? I'll let you know if I ever figure that one out.

Yup, all I know is that I'll be returning to work. I don't know how I'll make it work, but I will. Somehow. Tons of people seem to manage, so I should too.

G-Diaper Update

Locating Medium/Large G-Diaper Refills has continued to be unsuccessful. While we could probably just purchase them online (and likely pay some sort of hefty cross-border tax and/or shipping fee - whee!), I am now a bit weary about the whole thing, after stumbling upon this. Naturally, I take everything that I read on the Internet with a grain of salt, but I daresay that this person's arguments do make sense. Her main points being the following:

1. The Flushable Inserts

- They are made of paper, which comes from trees, which are NOT sustainable (they take 20 years+ before they can be harvested).

- Flushing the inserts down the toilet uses a considerable amount of water. I actually stopped flushing them down the toilet because I felt guilty about wasting that much water with each diaper change. I figured it would eventually end up biodegrading in some landfill anyway. That and I was seriously afraid of clogging up my toilet. I don't clean toilets. If you think I'm joking, one time at my parents' place, the toilet in my bathroom was clogged, and I put a sign on the toilet that said "Out of Order" and called my mom to unclog it.

- They are bleached. Need I say more?

2. The Cotton Pants

- According to the article, the cotton industry uses a ton of pesticides, and according to the author, the G-Diaper folks don't appear to be using any of the organic cotton in their pants.

3. The Nylon Liner

- The author says that the nylon covers stain easily and can't be re-used for that long as a result. I don't really care about that part. Nobody is going to be looking inside PK's nylon covers for pooh stains. I guess the real question is whether or not the nylon covers are made of recycled plastic. I honestly don't know. I'm guessing no, though.

Food for thought, isn't it? Her arguments definitely do make sense.

So it looks like it's back to square one on the diaper thing. Honestly, I've been itching to try the cloth diaper thing. A lot of my mom friends use the G-Diaper covers (cotton pant plus nylon covers) and just insert a regular cloth diaper in lieu of the disposable insert. I've already bought the G-Diaper cotton pants and nylon liners, so I might as well put them to good use. Besides, I figure that as long as it's on a day when PK has already pooped, then we're good to go. She normally poops in the mornings, so it's pretty predictable. Unfortunately, there are days when she either skips a poop, has a late poop, or has a double-poop. I guess the double-poop days would be a little more annoying to deal with, but the no poop or late poop days might just mean we use disposables. Unfortunately, the hubby isn't too keen on the idea of washing our own. I might just go ahead and try this anyway. It's not like he ever does the laundry. Ahahahaha...that'll be the day! And I'm not too keen on the cloth diaper service. Since the diapers are shared, they need to be cleaned with nasty chemicals. That and the fact that there's a guy dropping off new diapers and picking up soiled diapers probably doesn't make this a very environmentally-sustainable option.

For now, however, we are trying a slightly more earth-friendly disposable option by going with Seventh Generation disposable diapers. We actually use many of their products at home: dish soap, dishwashing liquid, laundry detergent, tissues, and diaper wipes. (Our toilet paper and paper towels are also from green brands, but we don't use the ones from Seventh Generation since they are more expensive.)

Seventh Generation diapers are a little more earth-friendly than say, your Papmpers and Huggies of the world, so I don't feel quite as guilty when using them. That's not to say that they're perfect. They ARE disposables, after all, and they do still use that absorbent gel stuff (BTW, they absorb just as well as Pampers). At the same time, I figure that if I AM going to use disposables, I might as well use these.

We actually did start off on Seventh Generation disposable diapers when PK was born, but then stopped using them when someone bought us a pack of Pampers and we got hooked on those. The fact that they had a high back compared to the Seventh Generation newborn diapers was a big plus, since in those days, PK had massive, runny poops. The Pampers also had a pee indicator on the outside of the diaper, which, to new parents was a huge plus. We've been using Pampers ever since (for nighttime and while we go out - G-Diapers for home use). On another note, Huggies SUCK! They leak out the sides. The hubby got pooped on once when PK was a couple of months old and was wearing newborn Huggies. We soon gave up on those. We decided to try the Seventh Generation disposable diapers again last week. We were running out of Gs and wanted a somewhat eco-friendly alternative for daytime use (we weren't convinced at the time that the Seventh Generation diapers were as absorbent), and that's what got us back on that bandwagon.

One note on the Seventh Generation baby wipes. First off, they are the best diaper wipes we have encountered so far. They aren't totally soaking wet compared to other brands (like Life, Huggies, and even Whole Foods' 365 brand), they are chlorine-free, AND, most importantly, they don't stick to each other when dispensed!!! Yes, it sounds silly, but this is pretty damned important when you want to grab ONE wipe, versus 5 at a time.

So there you have it. My uncensored take on diapers. Hopefully I'll have the guts to go cloth. We'll see how that little experiment goes, if it ever does take off.