Well the hot topic at our house is teaching our 4.5 year old to wipe his bottom. He is one of those kids who loves napkins and keeping his hands clean. He gardens in mittens. How do you teach him? I have thought about bribery, uh incentives. He is a great kid, but he is resisting on this point and who can blame him. Maybe I should get one of those japanese toilets that does it all for you? Maybe that is not in this weeks budget?
We got him to poop in the toilet by letting him watch the inner workings of the toilet if he used it. He never made a mistake because he so wanted to watch the water. I am now very knowledgable about the inner workings on the toilet because of all of his "What is that?" questions. For a while our favourite book was the "Home How-To" especially the plumbing section. But, unfortunately, he is over that now.
I am not even sure what technique to use. Do you reach from the back or through the legs? I am afraid to do a web search incase I find out other things that I don't want to know about.
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
IndiGestion
I am up again with indigestion. I have no idea what is causing my problem. I try to go to bed and I cannot sleep because of gas pressure. I experience it as pains in my legs. I can sometimes sleep in my reclining chair, but not tonight. I am going to a specialist in September, but I am not hopeful. I think that it might be yeast. I know that I am yeasty and I have had yeast infections in my breast for both of my children. I have taken Maalox, but it has not helped yet. I don't want to try too much as I am still a nursing mother.
Recently my youngest started to eat more and nurse less. We are now on the 3 to 5 nursings a day. He is now really getting around. I have not yet childproofed everything. I am going to have to do it soon. My 4 year old would love to help me. He loves to do anything with tools. He is fascinated with anything mechanical and loves to study the process of how things work.
Maybe we will have an early nap tomorrow?
Recently my youngest started to eat more and nurse less. We are now on the 3 to 5 nursings a day. He is now really getting around. I have not yet childproofed everything. I am going to have to do it soon. My 4 year old would love to help me. He loves to do anything with tools. He is fascinated with anything mechanical and loves to study the process of how things work.
Maybe we will have an early nap tomorrow?
Sunday, August 13, 2006
Back from a Vacation
Well, we are back from a vacation. We had my mother's cottage for a week. It was nice, but my husband didn't enjoy it much. The cottage is on Georgian bay and has a stone beach. My husband wants sand. I admit that the rocks are not as easy to get around on. M also got a big dose of two small kids out of their routine. Now I have nothing to complain about. I have two great kids, but overexcite them, a different routine and you can expect to have some issues.
I insisted on some naps and everyone got better almost at once. Me included.
It was nice to get away and the price was right. M said that he was going to book a vacation somewhere else, but he didn't get around to it. He works way too much. We are certainly stuck in the trap of choosing money over time. Now to be fair, he had no idea when he took the job that it would be 70+ hours each week. He cannot quit before 2 years or we owe the relocation expenses. So we have another year of sucking it up.
I wish there was another choice.
I insisted on some naps and everyone got better almost at once. Me included.
It was nice to get away and the price was right. M said that he was going to book a vacation somewhere else, but he didn't get around to it. He works way too much. We are certainly stuck in the trap of choosing money over time. Now to be fair, he had no idea when he took the job that it would be 70+ hours each week. He cannot quit before 2 years or we owe the relocation expenses. So we have another year of sucking it up.
I wish there was another choice.
Sunday, August 06, 2006
Natural Childbirth
I recently had a conversation that made me feel bad. I was talking to a woman who also had a new baby. I told her that yes, I had done natural childbirth for both children. I used hypnobirthing techniques of Marie Mongan. She talked about how she tried to do it for the second child, but was not able to. She had a look of wistful disappointment. It so often seems that we measure ourselves against this "perfect mother" and fail.
For my first son, I was induced because my blood pressure was up. So I was rested and the hynobirthing worked really well. I had practiced the techniques for 30 minutes a day for 3 months. I was READY! I have other medical issues and drug allergies. I was petrified to have any medical intervention. I have the Factor Five Leiden problem and I am allergic to iodine too. The body may look okay on the outside but it does not work as well on the inside. The nice thing about being induced is that you get your own doctor. At 6 am they started pitocin. They broke my water at about 9 am and he was born at 12:03 pm. I had about 6 hours of labour. It was able to stay with the technique for the whole time. He was born in the US in a great hospital.
For my second son, I started labour spontaneously about midnight and I was exhausted. The labour went really slowly. I was at 3 cm for about 12 hours, even after they broke my water. My son was born at 3:15 pm the next afternoon. I did not find it as easy, well easy is the wrong word. Labour is more like drowning than you might ever want to experience. My second labour was not as controlled as the first one. I struggled more at the end. I felt less in control. Though, that feeling of panic usually means you are almost done. I have to say that the Canadian hospital had great people, but looked more like a cheap motel compared to the US. I also did not have my own doctor, which is worrying for someone who has a complex medical history. I still felt bad for a long time afterwards because I had not been able to stay with it. I was not as calm with the second birth.
Of course, the whole point of this is to get a healthy baby. I got my healthy baby each time. Why do we have to do it perfectly? Why do we want to? The drugs don't hurt the baby any more. And yet, the look on that other Mother's face, like she had missed something important because she had not been able to go naturally.
Why do we even call it natural childbirth? Natural is a word that has no meaning. The opposite is either supernatural or unnatural? Here I am Volupto, the superhero, using my supernatural powers to push babies out of a vagina. More powerful than a speeding tricycle, able to leap tall breast pumps in a single bound!
For my first son, I was induced because my blood pressure was up. So I was rested and the hynobirthing worked really well. I had practiced the techniques for 30 minutes a day for 3 months. I was READY! I have other medical issues and drug allergies. I was petrified to have any medical intervention. I have the Factor Five Leiden problem and I am allergic to iodine too. The body may look okay on the outside but it does not work as well on the inside. The nice thing about being induced is that you get your own doctor. At 6 am they started pitocin. They broke my water at about 9 am and he was born at 12:03 pm. I had about 6 hours of labour. It was able to stay with the technique for the whole time. He was born in the US in a great hospital.
For my second son, I started labour spontaneously about midnight and I was exhausted. The labour went really slowly. I was at 3 cm for about 12 hours, even after they broke my water. My son was born at 3:15 pm the next afternoon. I did not find it as easy, well easy is the wrong word. Labour is more like drowning than you might ever want to experience. My second labour was not as controlled as the first one. I struggled more at the end. I felt less in control. Though, that feeling of panic usually means you are almost done. I have to say that the Canadian hospital had great people, but looked more like a cheap motel compared to the US. I also did not have my own doctor, which is worrying for someone who has a complex medical history. I still felt bad for a long time afterwards because I had not been able to stay with it. I was not as calm with the second birth.
Of course, the whole point of this is to get a healthy baby. I got my healthy baby each time. Why do we have to do it perfectly? Why do we want to? The drugs don't hurt the baby any more. And yet, the look on that other Mother's face, like she had missed something important because she had not been able to go naturally.
Why do we even call it natural childbirth? Natural is a word that has no meaning. The opposite is either supernatural or unnatural? Here I am Volupto, the superhero, using my supernatural powers to push babies out of a vagina. More powerful than a speeding tricycle, able to leap tall breast pumps in a single bound!
Saturday, August 05, 2006
New Start
Well I have been thinking about doing this for a long time. I think that I have something to say and so here goes. I am one of the older Moms. I had a long struggle with Infertility (10 years), but now I have two boys. I worked part-time with my first son but right now I am a stay-at-home Mom. My boys are 4.5 years and 8 months.
Okay, we are currently living in Markham, which is Toronto to those far away and the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) to the locals. I have lived in Arizona and Oregon. Loved Oregon and not so much for Arizona. We can talk about that later if you like. It has been a hard move. We wanted to come back to Canada to raise our kids so that they would feel Canadian. I loved our friends in the US, but Bush, well let's just say I think that he is pretty much satan himself.
Anyway, we ended up moving back to Canada when I was 6 months pregnant. I had a miserable pregnancy. I was sick as a dog and I had a full body rash for months. We lived in a Hotel for 3 months, a trailer for 2 weeks before we moved into our current house. It is hard to reach out and find new friends as a new Mom with 2 small kids. My family is 3,000 miles closer than it was, but they are still a good hours drive away. I have a great husband and a happy marriage but he works like a dog. It is a trap that so many of us fall into. He makes more and so he ends up being unable to quit. I would love to find a way around it, but it is so hard. I will probably go back to work when I stop breast feeding.
In this blog I want to talk about parenting, life and just reach out. So feel free to reach back.
Okay, we are currently living in Markham, which is Toronto to those far away and the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) to the locals. I have lived in Arizona and Oregon. Loved Oregon and not so much for Arizona. We can talk about that later if you like. It has been a hard move. We wanted to come back to Canada to raise our kids so that they would feel Canadian. I loved our friends in the US, but Bush, well let's just say I think that he is pretty much satan himself.
Anyway, we ended up moving back to Canada when I was 6 months pregnant. I had a miserable pregnancy. I was sick as a dog and I had a full body rash for months. We lived in a Hotel for 3 months, a trailer for 2 weeks before we moved into our current house. It is hard to reach out and find new friends as a new Mom with 2 small kids. My family is 3,000 miles closer than it was, but they are still a good hours drive away. I have a great husband and a happy marriage but he works like a dog. It is a trap that so many of us fall into. He makes more and so he ends up being unable to quit. I would love to find a way around it, but it is so hard. I will probably go back to work when I stop breast feeding.
In this blog I want to talk about parenting, life and just reach out. So feel free to reach back.
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