Introducing…the Baby-Bidet!

While responding to a friend’s request for new-baby stories, I remembered a story I thought I might as well share here, too. (To be perfectly honest, after writing it up for her blog, I though, geeze, that took a while. I should put it on my own blog, too, and get some mileage from it there, as well.)

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When N was around a month old, she stopped pooping regularly. She would eat, and eat and eat and eat and not poop. By the third day of not pooping, she would start to get fussy. By the fourth day, she was inconsolable. Mercifully, by the fifth or sixth day she would squirm and scream and unleash a quantity of poop that would sufficiently fertilize a moderately sized garden. It would easily escape the confines of the feeble diaper, and spread itself over every surface within the vicinity. The good news is that after swabbing the decks, we would have a happy baby again, until about day five as the process repeated.

One of N’s poop vacations ended while Brenda was out at her yoga class. I was left to tackle the mountain of watery dung alone, and was caught off guard. You see, I usually fulfilled the role of first mate, providing wipes, paper towels, gas-masks, and a fresh diaper to the captain. These were uncharted waters for me.

I peeled back the poop-soaked diaper, and immediately jammed it back on her bum, reeling from the shock of the smell. I reluctantly pulled back the diaper again, and stared at the thick layer of mustard-like paste that coated her poop deck.

I removed the diaper and held up N’s legs, suspending her above the poop. I stared at the wipes, sitting just to the left of N’s change table, firmly enclosed in the plastic case that keeps them from drying out. The plastic case just within reach. The plastic case that takes two hands to open.

N was now flailing a bit in response to the bum-freedom she was experiencing, and in danger of squirming back into the poopy mess. Ignoring the wipes, with my free hand I cradled the back of her neck, and carried her poop soaked body to the sink. I used my elbow to turn on the tap, and let the water pressure do the cleaning that I couldn’t. The poop washed down the drain, and she was clean again.

We used the baby-bidet a few times after that, when N’s poop was especially explosive. While I haven’t started marketing the baby-bidet for mass consumption, I do recommend it as a quick cleanup method for especially nasty, sticky poops!

Two-faced…

I feel like my life is split into two totally separate parts — Work-time and Dad-time. At work, from about 8-4, I am busy planning to implement a project-based model for grade 9 next year, team-teaching an interdisciplinary business project, as well as all of the other fun stuff that comes with teaching (meetings, meetings, and meetings). At home, I do my best to make the most of the 4-6 hours a day I get to spend with Norah. This involves giving B some time for herself. I try to be home in time to put Norah down for her late afternoon/early evening nap, and then aim to spend most of her waking time playing with her before the bedtime routine begins. I feed her a bottle, and put her down in her crib, and B and I have an hour or two of time together before going to bed.
However, things come up that totally throw a wrench in this routine. And, because I am the one working outside of the home, I am inevitably the cause of those things. Take next week, for example. Next week, I am in San Francisco leading a team of teachers on site visits of schools that embrace inquiry and project-based learning. That means for 4 long days, B gets no break from Norah. B gets no time for herself. And Teaching doesn’t get to see Norah. Or B. He stays in a hotel near the waterfront, tours cool schools, and eats at restaurants. All the while, missing the heck out of B & Norah. And wishing he was at home, watching Norah change and grow, and giving B a few minutes of sanity. At least this is a temporary thing — four days that will pass. And thank goodness for skype…I wonder if Norah will recognize my face and voice?

A parenting conversation…

While B stood comforting a somewhat fussy Norah who was eagerly watching me mix 3oz of breast milk with 2oz of formula, the following exchange took place:

B: Oh, Norah… so fussy… I should just give you a cloth to suck on every time you’re like this. You’d like that, wouldn’t you?
Teaching: What could be wrong with that?
B: She might fill up on cloth water.
Teaching: Norah, did you spoil your supper by snacking on cloth water again? What did your mom and I tell you about that?
B: She also might get threads from the cloth stuck in her teeth…
Teaching: …
B: …
Teaching: You know she has no teeth, right?

Feeding Norah…

I’ve been slacking off on posting about Norah, I know. It is not for a lack of love for the girl! She is amazingly adorable. I’m not sure anyone who doesn’t have kids can understand the love that pours out when you hold your child…

Norah is learning to fall asleep on her own, and has been a very quick study (much like her dad, I assure you.) During the night, when she wakes up hungry after her 4 to 6 hours of sleep, I prepare a bottle of breast milk mixed with formula, and pick her up, cradle her in my arms, feeding her while rocking gently in the rocking chair. I cannot resist bending down and kissing her sweet little head as she feeds. After not doing any of the feeding for the first 3 months, I cherish this time together with her. After she finishes her bottle, I make sure she has burped, and gently put her back down in her crib, one final kiss on the head as I wish her a good night. She goes back to sleep without even crying.

After returning to bed after a feeding much like the one described above, the following exchange took place.

B: You sure do like to kiss that girl, don’t you?

Teaching: Yes. Of course.

B: Do you know how many times you kissed her during that 15 minute feed?

Teaching: (knowing full well the answer…or the approximate answer) I don’t know. 10?

B: 84.

Teaching: Oh.

B: I know you love her, but those kisses stimulate her, and wake her up.

Teaching: Oh yeah, I never thought of that. But can you blame me?

B: Of course not. I kiss her head all day while you’re at work.

My funny…

It has been noted by some of my family members, friends, and colleagues that since Norah came into my life, my funny seems to have disappeared. Seriously. I used to be funny. Now, not so much. However, after Norah went to sleep on her own for a second night in a row before 8:30, the following exchange took place, causing me to believe that perhaps my funny is coming back with the extra sleep I’ve been getting:

Teaching and B work together, making lunches for tomorrow. Teaching cuts into a firm green pepper.

Teaching: These are nice green peppers.

B: I’m glad you didn’t buy the mean ones.

Teaching: I would never do that again. Do you know how long it took me to have all the cards in my wallet reissued?

Okay, maybe you had to be there…or maybe it was only funny because of our sleep deprived state.

Where have all the posts gone?

Blogging is kind of like exercise or flossing — the longer you go without doing it, the harder it is to start again. By the way, I haven’t exercised or flossed since N was born, either. However, if this snow ever melts, I will be biking to work again…

So, where to start?

Well, we’re in survival mode on the home front. N is a sweet, wonderful baby, but she gets bad gas, and this causes her not to sleep, and this causes her to cry, and this causes us not to sleep. Luckily, I have a fantastic partner who is so understanding and accommodating — we tag team N at night, making sure that at least one of us gets a decent(ish) sleep. For example, last night B stayed up holding N as she fussily slept from 9 to 1am, allowing me four hours of uninterrupted bed-sleep (to let you know how much sleep we’re getting, when I woke up at 1, my body thought it was done sleeping for the night and was wide awake!) I took over at 1, and stayed up with fussing N until 5:30 (B fed her around 3 maybe? It’s a bit fuzzy) when she calmed enough that I got another hour and a half with her on my chest sleeping until 7. However, we keep telling ourselves that every day it is getting better. And it will.

I am really looking forward to next weekend, when we have a dinner party, and the following weekend, when we have a wedding, because we will be leaving N with her Grandma Honey one night, and Grandma and Papa the other — we’ll get to spend hours together! B has been pumping like a mad-woman to save up enough frozen breast-milk to allow us this luxurious time. In addition, the 8th is the last class of my last grad class (if that makes sense.) Sure, I still have a thesis to propose and write, but that will be on my own time…I have three years left to finish it.

On the work front, next weekend will be great because the Hip Hop project I’m coordinating will have come to a close with two shows — one Thursday night at a local club, and Friday afternoon at the school. Especially exciting is that we have 160 students from a three suburban high schools coming to Friday’s show – it’ll be a great chance for our students to debunk some myths about their school and neighbourhood. Also, on Monday W-5 is coming to do a spot on the neighbourhood, and will interview me and the students about the project-based learning we’re doing at the school — nice exposure!

Alright, there’s a stab at a blog post — hope it gets me back on the horse. More later.

Am I part hamster?

Teaching: I just want to hug her and kiss her and hold her.

Baby Mama: I know, I know.

Teaching: I could just eat her up! What does that mean?

Baby Mama: That she smells good. And you’re part hamster.

My new teacher

Well, I haven’t written in a while – since January 20th, actually. And for good reason – it was on January 21st that my world changed forever – and for the better, I must say!

Norah Kate joined us at 7:05 pm, after 26 long hours of labour. (And if I think they were long, imagine how long they were for the woman who gave birth to this 9 pound baby!) Everyone is doing well, and we’re adjusting to life with a baby. I am back at work (reluctantly) and trying to spend as much of my time outside of work holding Norah. My wife has been wonderfully supportive and I can’t imagine a better partner for this adventure.

So, here she is – my new teacher!

Adventures…

In April, 2005, we were packing up our 850 sq. foot house, selling our cars, and compacting our combined 50 years of life in Canada into one 8’ X 6’ storage space and 8 suitcases which would accompany us in our move to Cambodia. Though we were unaware of the changes that would happen in our lives because of that move, we knew that things would never be the same. And they haven’t been – we now have friends all over the world, have traveled more than we ever thought we would, eaten things we never thought we would, and lived for two years in a part of the world that we had very limited knowledge of prior to the move.

I liken the situation we currently are in to the move to Cambodia. Any day (or hour, or minute) now, we will have a baby, and life will never be the same. We can’t say specifically how, but we can be sure it will never be the same. And, like our move to Cambodia, we can’t wait. What an adventure.

Cloth Diapers

It is no surprise to any regular reader of this blog that we’re having a baby. Well, more to the point, my wife is. I am cheerleading. It will also come as no surprise to regular readers that we are interested in minimizing our babies exposure to the toxic chemicals regularly contained in many of the daily-use products required for raising a baby. For example, our crib has a non-toxic finish, and our bamboo flooring in non-gassing.

As the baby could come anytime now, we’ve spent some considerable time this week looking into cloth diapers. I know there are studies saying not to use cloth for environmental reasons — this one, for example.  I won’t get into the whole debate – others have done much of that! Instead, I’ll share with you what I’ve found in my research, and what we’ve decided to do for now…

If you are set on using disposables, there is good news — you can still do so without having such a negative environmental impact. Check out Nature Care Diapers, disposables that are compostible, and made from GM-free corn – not plastic! Another option is the Seventh Generation diapers, which are also chemical-free, but not compostable. The gDiaper is marketed as an option for mothers not willing to commit to cloth, but looking to drop a smaller load in the garbage can (or toilet): they have a compostible insert that can be flushed. However, they may be too good to be true – the city of Vancouver completed a study on the impact of flushing the insert after the gDiaper was released in North America. Also, the liners contain some of the same harsh chemicals as plastic-based disposables (and if I could find the site I found the other day, I’d link to it!) If that doesn’t turn you off, consider that the cost of the liners (around 40 cents each) is the same as a Seventh Generation diaper, and is almost 5 cents more expensive than the Nature Care. As such, we have some Nature Care disposables on hand for when we are going out, however, we are going to try to use cloth.

Before deciding what to buy (and try) we consulted with my mother (who used cloth just 29 years ago on me), my sister (who started using cloth a couple years ago, and will start all over again in a couple months) and my sister-in-law (who is using cloth right now.)  We took everything they said, processed it, threw it out, considered it again, threw it out again, and then decided what to do.

We considered pre-folds – these are essentially diapers that are an absorbent cotton, hemp, or bamboo liner, that you “prefold” before you put them on the baby, and are held in place by pins (sometimes) and a plasticy, though not always plastic, liner (always).  The advantage of pre-folds is that they dry very quickly, and are less expensive than other cloth diapers to purchase. As we investigated, we found that if you buy organic prefolds, they aren’t all that cheap – around $10 each – compared to non-organic, which can be as cheap as $1.50 or $2.00 each. This brings the cost of using them up substantially, as over the non-potty-trained years a child will require 3 sizes of prefolds (though I read that the smaller prefolds make great dishcloths when they no longer fit…)

The complete opposite of the prefold is the “all-in-one” – this is essentially a cloth diaper that you use like a disposable, except for the whole “dispose” part. It is a multi-layered cloth diaper that goes on like a disposable, and the whole thing gets thrown into the wash after being used (and after the parent scrapes the doo doo off, of course.) We considered the Bum Genius Organic (these diapers come with great names) — however, with a diaper of this girth (it is also a one-size diaper – more on that later) to launder and dry the entire thing every poo poo or pee pee would consume a lot of energy and water. My sister-in-law noted that the all-in-ones she bought took a long time to dry. In terms of cost, this option would be more than pre-folds to start, as well as launder.

The middle-ground of these two types is the pocket diaper — this is similar to an all-in-one, but has a removable pad that takes the brunt of your baby’s gastrointestinal force, and is removed to launder, allowing it to dry more quickly. Swaddlebess has a partially-organic pocket diaper that we inherited a few of — however, when looking into the cost of small, mediums, and larges, we were a bit taken aback.

At this point, we went back and considered the prefolds again – we were given a couple of those, as well. In the end, we ordered some of the Econappi, which is a pocket diaper with an insert that can also have an additional layer of absorbency added in on top (like you would with a prefold). Also, it is a one-size diaper (like the Bum Genius) which means that the size of the diaper can be adjusted using snaps — both claim to work for babies from 7 to 35 pounds (we’ll see, I suppose…) We figure the Econappi is a good compromise, and will give it, along with our inherited and gifted diapers, a try. Worst case scenario, we buy something different. Stay tuned for more of the messy details!