Today was the last day of swim class for the current session. We will be moving on to the next session, but Daphne still doesn’t particularly like being dipped underwater, but she’s getting the hang of not trying to sit up in her backfloat.

Daphne has been working on all kinds of things of late. But if I try to think of it in terms of “milestones” on some silly chart, it just doesn’t make sense. She’s been able to sit on her own for a while, but we still have pillows behind her since she occasionally forgets that there is effort involved in sitting up. She’s started “eating” solid foods, but there is significant question as to how much goes in. It doesn’t seem like you can ever “check off” any milestone except in retrospect.

Her big accomplishment seems to be the ability to draw blood with her tiny little finger nails clawing my neck while nursing. That or smacking me in the chin or trying to grab onto my teeth. Ah well.

I’m sick, so our relatively uneventful Thanksgiving will now be totally uneventful. But there is likely to still be snow, and perhaps we can get Daphne to play in it again.

For my birthday, I received a gift card to REI, which I promptly spent on warm clothing and a fleece bunting for Daphne which may be the most adorable piece of winter wear I’ve ever seen. It certainly has kept her warm enough on walks with our mid-20F days, as long as she’s sufficiently dressed underneath it.

We are on day… (think: Wednesday night, Thurs, Fri, Sat, Sun, do the math)… day five of Daphne’s cold.  She’s less “clear snot running down the nose” and more “hack, snorg, gack”.  This has become our new work: snorgy.  And if you’ve ever had a head cold, you know exactly what I mean.  It’s frustrating, because she breaths better if she’s upright (duh!), and would sleep with me holding her in the glider the first two days of her cold, but now pitches a fit if I sit down with her in the glider when it’s bed/naptime.  My butt doesn’t even have to touch the seatpan and she’s off.  And, of course, with a baby cold, she starts crying, then she gets snorgier, then she starts coughing, then she starts doing that gasping coughing thing because she’s so worked up.  (This occurs both quickly, and is something she normally doesn’t do.  So I have little built in tolerance for it.)

I’m so thankful it took six months for her to get her first real cold; she at least as figured out mouth breathing.  And I’m thankful she’s still nursing pretty much exclusively (outside of an apple slice here and a sweet potato fry there) so that she’s getting antibodies from me.  But I’m not so thankful that now Jason and I are sick as well.  Or that, apparently, baby colds can last two weeks.  Two weeks?!  TWO weeks?!!!  I’m getting pretty crappy sleep here and it’s going to go on for two weeks?!?!  And the two weeks when I have three days of teacher training, four days off, and four days of teacher training back to back?  Bleh.

Fortunately, in the time between her waking up and trying to start putting her down to sleep, she’s generally pretty darn happy.  She’s loving going for walks (in the stroller, due to the rain and not yet figuring out our full rain system in the backpack); I imagine the cold air is helping her breath better.  She’s loving her baths (started splashing with her hands yesterday).  She’s nursing like crazy (more medicine, please).  And her diaper rash is improving.  Now if only we can teach her to not compulsively rub her eyes when she’s tired and unswaddled!

With yoga teacher training, growth spurts, and various classes, it’s been two months since I last posted a baby-blog update, and I wish I hadn’t waited so long.  Daphne turned 6months old last Wednesday and had her six month shots and doctor’s appointment on Friday (15lb 12oz, 26.25″) and did well with those.  The sleeping issues had been going fairly well for a while, then she hit a growth spurt that started with wonky sleep, then required lots of food, and has continued with the inability to stay asleep for a full nap or go to sleep at an even semi reasonable time at night.

On the other hand, she is starting to sit up by herself, and due to the need for lots of diaper free time for a persistent (but relatively mild) diaper rash, she’s getting the idea of using the potty.  In the past few days, she’s even started trying to vocalize with other sounds.

Looking back on everything, I can now say that, if I had to do it all over again, I probably would not do the yoga teacher training I’m taking at this time.  Being away from Daphne and Jason for the vast majority of every other weekend, having to try to make it to various classes at a studio that’s 30-60 minutes away (depending on traffic), and trying to get all the homework done between sessions is just draining.  I do think there is something that it has added to my time as a new parent – time away, a perspective on patience and self-awareness, and a chance to practice something I love – but I am looking forward to it being finished and not feeling quite so cramped for time.

And, hopefully, I can get back to blogging more often so that I’m not missing two month stretches at a time.  While I feel that I have gotten a good opportunity and space for being present for the growth that Daphne has shown during that time, it would be nice to have the time to record some of the highlights and reflect on it.

5 Things For Which I Am Grateful

1. Tea – again.  The ritual of sitting down, with myself or with friends, for a cup of tea.  Time is slowed for the length of a cup.
2. Daphne’s swim class was canceled today.  I love the class, but I like being sufficiently well slept for happiness.
3. Jason’s creative brain.  He made a huge “spider” crawling out of our tree onto our front bush for Halloween.  When he gets an idea, he makes it happen.
4. Fleece blankets and down comforters, because winter is cold, and I like to be warm.
5. Winter.  I don’t care about big seasonal differences, but the fresh, chilly air is nice (once I get used to it 😉 ).

Contemplate the Current World Crises

The ACOG (American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists) just submitted a competing potential piece of legislation to congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard’s submitted legislature regarding maternal care.  While the later addresses use of evidence based medicine in a culturally competent way, the former just calls for studying more of why there are cultural/ethnic differences in outcomes.  The ACOG is even, in it’s press releases, saying that they don’t like legislature that doubts them.

According to Dr. Waldman it is unacceptable because a) it promotes “the wholesale adoption of delivery models that have not yet been proven safe and effective, including doula support, group prenatal care, and home-birth,” and b) it “questions ob-gyns’ ability, compared to certified nurse-midwives, family physicians, and certified professional midwives, to deliver care that supports physiologic birth.”  —The Unnecessarian: A Tale of Two MOMS

I find it simply so frustrating that there continues to be – on a large scale, anyway – such holding on to old, “easiest for me” ways when the evidence is contrary.  Exactly what I can do about it is an interesting question.  It’s hard to shift the views of a large, established, slow moving organization of elites.  They don’t want to change and don’t recognize outside persuasion to do so.  Becoming involved in the political level is interesting, but, I suspect, ultimately frustrating, as working against the perceived experts generally doesn’t go well.  But being involved at the grass roots level, informing the women who ultimately play a large (if they so choose) role in the process may be the way to go for me.

Six Questions

1. How has yoga changed my life?  I’m not entirely sure how to answer this question, as I have discovered that I don’t really know how to evaluate what my life would be with different choices.  It’s not so much the “what” as the “how”.  Every decision we make gives us a different experience which informs the rest of our lives in some fashion.  Good experiences and bad alike, they all have the potential to change us in some way.  Perhaps yoga has made me more receptive to utilizing that potential.
2. How is teaching connected to your path/destiny?  I like to share what I know and what I love.  Perhaps as a way of connecting with people in an environment that feels safe for me, it is a way to give to others the space to investigate something I’ve found that I think is wonderful.
3. What is your motivation as a teacher?  The “oh!  that’s interesting” moment when a student puts something together in their head and/or in their body and makes some discovery – small or large – that is the impetus for exploration in themselves.  Even if it doesn’t necessarily lead to anything, seeing people make that exploration is incredibly rewarding.
4. What do I have to offer that is unique?  My slightly socially awkward and nerdy personality that has utmost confidence that there is a little nerd in everyone.
5. Who am I?  Another question I don’t know how to answer.  I wouldn’t say that I “AM” my job or whatnot, but I think that I would say that I “AM” a mom.  The nurturing instinct that has been able to manifest more fully really is a part of not only what I am, but how I think and act.  I might have to say the same thing about being an engineer, but I’m not sure on that yet.
6. How do I give my gifts to the world?  Clumsily, but that’s just my way.

5 Things For Which I Am Grateful

1. Technology – particularly my phone. While it can sometimes tether me and be a source of aggravation, it keeps me connected to the people I want to stay connected with. It lets me keep track of things I need to in a way that is easy for me, so that I have less worry.  And it lets me record life events even if I’m otherwise unprepared. It helps me simplify a life that could be more complicated.
2. Fall rain – smells wonderful, returns lawns to green, marks the changing of the seasons, and doesn’t keep me inside.
3. Times when Daphne is asleep, so that I don’t have consistent demands on my time.
4. Times when Daphne is awake, because she’s got an awesome smile and is amazing to watch/interact with.
5. Wool socks, to keep my toes toasty warm.

Contemplate the Current World Crises

As I continue to mostly ignore the news, I am remaining mostly blissfully unaware of the big crises in the world, but catch glimpses of them here and there.  While I don’t want to stick my head in the sand, there are times when it’s really nice to disengage and avoid being overwhelmed by all the things we can find out about in the world!

Six Questions

1. How has yoga changed my life?
2. How is teaching connected to your path/destiny?
3. What is your motivation as a teacher?
4. What do I have to offer that is unique?
5. Who am I?
6. How do I give my gifts to the world?

I had no intention of introducing solid foods this early, but Daphne not only has great head control, and sits fairly well in her Bumbo, but she’s been showing a LOT of interest in our food. So, partly out of Jason’s prompting, by following her prompts, she got her first real attempt at playing with real food yesterday.

Months ago, before we were born, we decided to try baby led weaning when it came time to introduce solids. The basic idea is that introducing solids is not about feeding, but rather all about curiosity. And a baby can generally manage what she feeds herself if she is the one who feeds herself. So, no putting parent putting food in her mouth. No purees to be “sucked”. Give the baby a wedge of food that she can grab and explore on her own. Of course it’s not fair to start off by giving her something that her toothless mouth could never handle – like a raw carrot – but something like a ripe pear. Which is what Daphne’s first food was.

We had finished eating dinner, and she was showing interest throughout the whole thing. So I had Jason get her a spoon to play with. (In baby led weaning, you do use spoons, but for them to feed themselves, not for putting food in their mouths for them.) She grabbed the proper end of the spoon, and with surprising little difficulty, got the spoon into her mouth as a fun toy. So I hemmed and hawed, then grabbed a pear out of the fridge, cut a slice so it would make a nice wedge, peeled it, and held it in front of her. You can watch the rest: