Sh*t Will Drive You Nuts!!

(Seriously, how do people blog all the time?)

So. Let's do a quick roundup on my parenting skills.

-Wiping bebe's ass with anti-freeze
-Diapering with chlorine and other nasty chemical-y things in disposable diapers
-Using a changing pad with vinyl covering, apparently all chemical-y (Used, actually. Replaced that with an organic thing for $100.)
-Didn't know there was a "no screens for babies" rule
-While trying to figure out why there is a no screens rule, discovered that putting your baby on the floor with some music playing is also bad

Really. How are you supposed to, I don't know, do ANYthing while your baby is awake besides feed him, play and read to him? I love feeding and playing with and reading to my baby. But I love eating, taking a shower once or twice a week, going to the bathroom, sometimes having to make a phone call or send an email. Oh yeah, I was reading the sleep book again (Weissbluth), probably a mistake because by pretty much all accounts "it ain't broke" so I don't know why I feel the need to go fixin' it, but anyway. He said something about how we (selfishly) keep our children from the sleep they need because we run errands on the weekends. What WORLD does he live in? Yeah, sometimes I need to go out to, I don't know, run my household on the weekend. It's called grocery shopping and buying clothes, diapers, and other toxic necessities for my child. More on this and the list above at some later date or never.

So I'm feeling a little insecure in my parenting these days. But we all lived, right? Gotta go pick up my baby from his perch in front of TV now. (Joke. Do not email me about that.)

Next post will have a more professional focus: adventures in breast pumping!

Dream Feeding

Wow. It's, like, really hard to work full time and have a newborn at home and write blog posts.

So I discovered that the "dream feed," the real one that I talked about not working at all for me actually worked. One morning I woke up at 7 and wanted to finish feeding the baby since at 4 or 5 he only fed on one side. The other breast was full and leaking by 7, so I got him out of the bassinet without his waking up. He started sucking and after 5-10 minutes went back to the bassinet without waking up!

The next time I tried the dream feed, bebe was sleeping in his car seat at midnight after a long (sleepless) afternoon and evening with my in-laws. He didn't wake up when I pulled him out of the car seat and starting sucking. Hard. After a bit I put him down to swaddle and he was still sleeping peacefully. But then I thought in order to stay asleep he would need a burp. And a diaper change. It had been four hours since his last change and I thought maybe he smelled a little bad. Yeah, the diaper...had one pee in it, maybe. The baby? Now wide awake. Whoops.

OK the next time I tried. He fell asleep at 4 or 5:00 feeding after one breast. We did the other dream feed for an hour, and I woke up thinking maybe he would dream feed for real. I offered my other breast and he choked on it. At least he didn't wake up.