Something Besides Books for a Bit

Now that the Reading Challenge is over, I realized I haven't really written about anything other than books for the last several posts, while I started this blog intended to share some family moments as well. In case I didn't mention, I have a 3-month-old son, Sam, whose favorite pastimes of the moment are eating, smiling, sleeping, pooping, and puking on me :P He is very cute in my opinion, so the more disgusting aspects of motherhood are tempered by his normally sweet face. He is becoming a very big boy - 24 inches long at his 2 month check and now tipping the scales at around 15 pounds. At birth he was 7 pounds 7 ounces and 21 inches long. The comment I get most frequently when showing him off is "look at all that hair!" It is just now starting to fall out, but there's still quite a bit. He's not anywhere near the recommended age for the exersaucer he's pictured in here, but we put him in it to see what he would do last week and he screamed when we tried to take him out. He seemed determined to grab one of those dangly toys, but his motor skills just aren't there yet. He seemed to have fun though.

We are currently breastfeeding and cloth diapering, which are both decisions I made based on health and cost. We have not had to buy formula or diapers at all, although we did have to supplement with formula a bit at first since I had a c-section and my milk was very slow coming in. The hospital gave us 3 free diaper bags and quite a bit of formula samples. A lot of breastfeeding sites tell people not to take the samples or "success packs" because they think it will sabotage breastfeeding, but I think more education and support for new mothers would be more likely to keep new mothers from giving up. Even though I had difficulties the first month, I am a stubborn enough person that once I decide to do something, there is very little that can change my mind. Sam has now been formula-free for a week and the 2 weeks before that he was only getting 1 oz a night before bed. After the first night I didn't supplement and he slept his regular 4-5 hours for the first stretch, I haven't gone back.

I have been very pleased with our cloth diapers, which many people in my immediate environment were very skeptical about before Sam's birth. I would tell people of my intention to use cloth and they would laugh and say, "sure you will." I know the image everyone had in their heads consisted of the Gerber white cloth diapers that require pins and covers, rather than the bumGenius one-size I planned to use. I had to start out slowly building our stash, but by the time he was 6 weeks old, we were cloth all the way. I have 8 bumGenius, 8 Haute Pockets (velcro), one Mommy's Touch (velcro), and 1 Happy Heiny (had to have the cow print:) They are all one-size diapers designed to fit Sam till he's 35 pounds. Hopefully they will last all the way till he's potty-trained. I invested a little over $300 in the whole stash, including cloth wipes and a diaper pail liner (using a regular flip-top garbage can) and should save at least $600 this first year by not having to buy disposable diapers/wipes.

Hannah, my step-daughter, is also a big part of my life. She is 9 years old and I have been helping raise her since she was 4. Recently, we have started arguing quite a bit, which I makes me sad. I asked her the other day why she had to argue with me about everything and she said, "Because you're usually wrong. And sometimes I just want to argue." I try to be as honest with her as I can and have explained to her that I want to have a good time with her, but when she's giving me attitude and arguing, it makes me not even want to talk with her. I'm hoping this is just a phase that will pass soon. I know she is under some stress with having a new baby brother, changing schools this fall, and her mother still being in South Carolina (she's been gone since last January [2007] and Hannah's only seen her about 5 times since then) and having a new baby sister on the way with her mom in August. One minute she'll tell me I'm the best mother in the world and the next she's giving me the evil eye. *sigh* In the grocery story today I didn't want to get strawberries even though they were on sale because all they had were the mutant baseball-sized strawberries that I don't think taste very good, but she really wanted them so I got them so she could see for herself. I made a comment about her thinking I didn't know what I was talking about and she said that she just needed to find things out for herself sometimes. My mother used to tell me "One day I hope you have a child just like you, then you'll understand!" For not actually sharing any genetic material, Hannah is so like me it's scary.