Drunken Milk Face

After Palesa nurses, she makes this face of pure milked-out bliss.  She is either completely asleep or incredibly dozy, and her signature drunken milk face makes me laugh every time.

Elimination Communication... it is not potty training, but she goes in a "potty"

I guess I never imagined I would be one of those kind of mothers.  You know, home birthing, breastfeeding, cloth diapering, co-sleeping kind of mothers.  Well, we are all that and more.  Since Palesa was about 4 days old, we've been casually working on elimination communication.  I'm not an expert on this, but the concept is that by paying attention to the baby's cues as well as timing, you "offer" them an alternative to going to the bathroom in their diaper because no person, adult or infant, truly wants to be sitting in their own waste.

So, after nursing Palesa, we remove her diaper, and I hold her against my chest, butt dangling over some sort of tupperware container.  Every time we have "offered" her a container, she has gone to the bathroom.  I am making my best efforts to do this with her once a day, usually after her afternoon nursing session.

Babies go through a ton of diapers.  For cloth diapering, that means a lot of laundry.  Two days this week, we were out and about and missed the opportunity to do this with her, and she had two big blowouts (which means an outfit change in addition to a diaper change).  So, if we're able to catch her bathroom activities once a day and save one diaper, that really adds up. She's certainly not "potty trained" or anything, but it amazes me to think that even an itty-bitty newborn baby can go to the bathroom in a "toilet."

Nature's best

 

Palesa is a great little eater.  

Nipple Confusion

Last night Osei went to kiss and nuzzle with Palesa, and he realized that she may be hungry.  Yes, she is sucking on his nose.  Personally, I usually just give her my pinky finger when she wants to suck but not necessarily nurse.

Nine Days- these pictures are for the grandparents

Before bed, we dressed Palesa in a nightgown and then swaddled her tightly in a receiving blanket.  Somehow, when I unwrapped her, she had one arm out of the sleeve, and the other arm through the key-hole opening in the neck.

Occupy the Bedroom

Palesa asleep on the scale before being weighed by midwives today.  7 pounds, 5 ounces.  Our girl is growing like a champion!

Baby Food from the New Yorker

Though I'm not at this stage in my life yet, I came across a very interesting article in the New Yorker by Jill Lapore about the politics of the breast pump.  It poses quite a question about making workplaces friendly for working mothers (luxurious lactation room?) and asks which is more important, the mother or the milk?  Should a women take 20 minute breaks to express her milk or leave the office an hour earlier to feed her baby formula?  

One of my "adopted mothers" is a childbirth educator, so I tend to send her articles like these that I come across.  This is definitely a topic I consider important, as this will likely impact me eventually too.