Tag Archives: It’s All About the Hat

Elimination Communication

Today’s guest post is from Tophat at the bee in your bonnet. Heather is one of the few bloggers I’ve had the pleasure to meet in person and she’s just lovely. Sadly, she moved shortly after we met to a place much warmer and nicer. :-P I’ve loved reading her blog since Peanut was very young and I continue to enjoy it today. We plan on doing elimination communication with Twig and Heather has done it with both of her children. So here we go!

Elimination Communication. Big, glamorous words for “catching infant poop outside of a diaper.”

There are lots of places for information about elimination communication such as Diaper Free Baby. And while I was working on this post, Boba published, “41 reasons to go diaper free with elimination communication, no potty training required.” You can hold a baby over a sink, over a toilet, over a prefold, over a bowl, or get a cheap Ikea potty. Or use the bushes outside. That works, too. Sometimes babies potty learn early. Sometimes they don’t. Sometimes they go on a potty strike for an undisclosed amount of time. And sometimes things come up and EC is just another thing on your mind and you need to give yourself a break. All of those are ok.

And now that list probably overwhelmed some of you. Taking a baby potty? Extra work. And on one level, you’re right. But what I tell most people new to EC is this:

You’re a parent, so you know that feeling you get when it’s been a while since your baby has pooped and she’s making that face and you know it’s going to happen and it’s going to be an exploding mess? It doesn’t have to be an exploding mess! Follow that feeling, take the baby to the potty, and save that diaper. And if you were wrong, then you were wrong. And if you were right, booya!

That’s all you have to do. You don’t have to do anything more than that. Just follow your instincts. Sharpen those “something’s up” vibes. Even practicing 20 minutes a day of naked butt time will increase your sensitivity to your child’s cues. Set a timer and do no more. If you can. Because it’s hard to ignore the signals once you learn them. Plus, it’s fun!

Which leads me to my favorite part of EC: the booyas.  If it’s not being fun, then don’t do it. ECed or diapered, by the age of 16, most kids are out of diapers and it won’t matter. Have fun!

Heather with her daughter on the potty at around 6-7 months.

TopHat blogs at the bee in your bonnet about breastfeeding, birth, parenting, and whatever else is on her mind. She is an avid knitter and lives in the Bay Area where the weather is always balmy, though sometimes foggy.

At Mother’s Breast

A couple months ago I read this post from Heather at It’s All About the Hat and started jumping in my seat when I heard that I could participate in this wonderful project. Katrina from Musings of a Redhead is doing a photography project of mothers and their babes nursing. Katrina is an awesome lady that I didn’t know before I heard about her project, but now that I do, I’m really enjoying reading her blog and looking at her lovely photography. She even gave me advice about my roses! And she even had her breach baby at home just weeks ago! My kind of lady.

We did our photos in the Salt Lake City Public Library which felt very fitting because my crazed obsession for books and the fact that we nurse in that particular library quite frequently. Katrina (with then an adorably big pregnant belly) was so nice and made me feel comfortable in front of the camera. At one point, I accidentally covered Peanut’s head with the book I was “reading” and Katrina said something along the lines of “Dea, can you tell your mommy to move her book? It’s covering your face.” Come on! If someone can correctly that sweetly when I’m being klutzy me I can’t help but like them!

So if you’re in the area, you should definitely contact Katrina about participating. Even if you’re outside of the area and have some professional photos of you nursing, you can send those in too! Until then, you should go check out my pictures.

This one is my favorite. It’s Peanut and I signing “I love you” to each other.

Friday Fill-Ins

#189

FFI

And…here we go!

1. Music blasting with the windows down is my favorite way to drive.

2. More sleep is what I like first thing in the morning.

3. The first thing I said this morning was: “We don’t hit Mommy to wake her up!”.

4. Marinated chicken; it’s what’s for dinner tonight.

5. It’s all been a very stressful summer. Painting, moving, Breastfeeding Cafe, our Canadian in town (yes, we own him), then school starts again! No breaks here!

6. Blogging is what I feel like doing right now, but I shall go pick up Peanut from her Oma and Opa’s instead.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to going to the fair, tomorrow my plans include driving to Wyoming for chickens and Sunday, I want to finish cleaning the house before our very first guest staying in our new home arrives Monday!

We’ll add some fun linkage too!

Check out my photos at At Mother’s Breast (my post about them will hopefully be up tomorrow).

Look out for the post with LOTS of pictures from the Babywearing Fashion Show (also hopefully up tomorrow).

And I absolutely can not get enough of reading Heather and Kristi. Seriously, you guys should post every 20 minutes so I can read it. :-P

Where’d My Hair Go?

So I’ve been contemplating chopping all of my hair off for a while. I’ve been growing it since a month or so before I found out I was pregnant. The first book I read when I was pregnant was The Girlfriends’ Guide to Pregnancy—which by the way was very funny, but also told me that I shouldn’t try natural childbirth for my first child because I “have no idea what it feels like”—and she said something along the lines of “Don’t drastically change your hair while you’re pregnant because you’ll hate it and cry.” For some reason, I decided not to cut my hair at all. I think I got one haircut the whole time I was pregnant and it was just the ends.

Then new-mommyhood took over my life and I just didn’t care enough to change it much. I tried bangs once, but that’s about it. At some point, I decided that I would try to grow my hair to the same length it was in high school—which wasn’t really length because it was extensions—and do it all pretty again.

This is me in the day portion of my prom date (with my future husband).

Little did I know, the only reason my hair held any style was because it was more processed than Mac and Cheese (it’s the cheesiest!). So I grew my hair out and did absolutely nothing with it. The few times I did try to curl my hair, it was virtually gone within a half hour. So that’s what I get for having healthy hair? WTF Asian genes!?!

Whilst painting the new house, I dipped my ponytail into a paint bucket. No, I didn’t do it on purpose—tis the life of a klutz. I decided that it was a sign to take the plunge and I’m so happy I did!

Before:

After:

Yes, I did donate my hair to Locks of Love. I’ll forgo the picture of my headless ponytail that I sent to my husband because it kind of freaks me out.

This all coincides with the no-poo experiment. Prior to cutting my hair, I was no-poo for about two weeks. My hair was breaking off everywhere, wouldn’t do anything, and I’m tired of feeling like I’m giving myself cancer every time I walk into my bathroom. Everywhere I read recommended baking soda mixed with water as “shampoo” and apple cider vinegar as “conditioner”, but I just used baking soda because my hair doesn’t need any extra conditioning. I figured I might as well do it all and switched over to baking soda mixed with water as soap (as suggested by @victorianaaa) and honey mixed with baking soda as face wash (as suggested by TopHat).

Here are my results.

Hair: Seemed pretty much the same to be honest. I don’t wash my hair every day to begin with, so it wasn’t a huge jump for me. My plan was to shower every other day, but only wash my hair every other shower (just rinsing in water on off showers). This was working pretty well until I got the paint in my hair and stopped washing/rinsing it all together because I couldn’t even brush it and therefore got awful greasy hair. I ended up cheating on the no-poo because I accidentally left the baking soda at the new house (took it there to clean because baking soda is awesome!) and very badly needed to wash my hair before getting it cut. I started back on with the no-poo though and things are going smoothly.

Body: If anything, I would say I had less dry skin. The same day that I used regular shampoo is when I had to use regular body wash and I noticed something very, very weird. I’ve never been the person that needs daily deodorant (I know, I know, this whole post is getting overly personal) and when washing with the baking soda, I suddenly realized one day that I hadn’t put on deodorant for a long time with very little smelliness. Within 24-hours of using regular body wash I needed it again. Can anyone explain this to me?

Face: I did have more break-outs than normal, but I can’t tell you if that’s the new scrub or the fact that I am so stressed I could rip your head off with all of this buying a house, painting a house, and readying to move into a house nonsense. Either way, it feels fantastic on my face, smells great, and I never feel the need to put lotion on my face after getting out of the shower—which is something of a small miracle considering that usually if I open my mouth post-shower, pre-lotion, you can practically hear it cracking.

Any tips with the no-poo would be greatly appreciated.