Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Milk Pistols

This one goes out to my girl MB:



If you can't understand the lyrics, go to http://eclectech.co.uk/milkpistols.php and play the video there--it's subtitled!

Friday, May 23, 2008

Count your blessings

When we started thinking about trying to conceive last year, I stumbled across a pregnancy website and found myself reading and posting to messageboards talking to other women trying to conceive. When I got pregnant, I joined my "Due Date Club" messageboard on the site--a place for women due in February 2008 to post questions and concerns and discuss the joys of (and the not-so-fun stuff about!) pregnancy. We have women from all over the country, and many from around the world. Single moms, first-time moms, veteran moms. Everybody had a unique situation, but we were brought together by the unique experience of pregnancy and motherhood

Over the past year the women on the board have gotten to know each other, and have supported each other through difficult pregnancy symptoms, scary prenatal testing, amusing bodily emissions issues, childbirth, and the amazing transformation into mothers of beautiful babies.

The internet is an interesting place. I've perused other messageboards where people get clique-y, nasty, judgemental, and argumentative. But, my messageboard friends always agreed that the Feb '08 board was special in that we didn't see much of the negative. Despite differing backgrounds and views, we found ourselves in an incredibly supportive environment, even if it was filled with people we only knew through keystrokes and photographs.

One of the women on my board found out during her pregnancy that her baby boy, Lincoln, would be born with Down Syndrome. It was her first pregnancy, and she and her husband were beyond excited to meet the little boy they called their "precious gift" before he was even born. She went through a lot of testing during her pregnancy that involved driving to a faraway hospital and spending weeks at a time away from home. When Lincoln was born, she posted pictures of her beautiful baby boy and we all admired her for her strength and joy in the face of difficulty.

Last week, Lincoln got sick and ended up in the hospital. His situation was critical, and the doctors could not figure out what was causing his decline. His mom posted updates to the board regularly and she got an outpouring of support. We all agreed that the problems we were used to posting about on the board--leaky diapers, babies not sleeping through the night, holding on to those extra pregnancy pounds--seemed silly and selfish when we knew of a mom who was by her baby's bedside in the NICU praying for him to get better.

Early yesterday morning, baby Lincoln passed away. He was only a few weeks older than Maia. I can't even begin to imagine what it must be like to lose a baby, and my heart breaks for her and her husband.

I am not the most patient Mom in the world, but the next time I get frustrated by a few minutes of crying, I hope to remind myself how lucky I am to have a beautiful, healthy baby, and that there are moms out there who would give anything to hear their babies' cries again but never will.

Thursday, May 08, 2008

Mommy Meetups

Being a new mom and also new to our area, I've been thinking how it would be nice to get involved with a mom's group. But for some reason, it seems that 99% of the mom's groups out there are targeted at stay-at-home moms. Even the parent & child classes (like the mom & baby yoga class I've been going to during my maternity leave) all seem to be scheduled on weekdays, and are thereby geared towards SAHMs. Nothing against SAHMs--I'd love to be one if I could--but what about the rest of us? We may work during the week but that doesn't mean we aren't seeking out opportunities to meet other moms or to participate in parent/baby activities.

Today I was checking out the "Holistic Moms Network" (HMN) website. They have a chapter near me, and they meet in the evening. Sounds great! But honestly, I'm not sure I would fit in. I'm slowly trying to live "greener" and eliminate nasty chemicals from the food and products in our home--I mean, jeez, I've been to the newly-opened Whole Foods like 7 times in the past 2 weeks! (Ah, the joys of having a nearby Whole Foods, that's a topic for another day.) But, I have chosen to have my child vaccinated (the horror!), and while I haven't set any firm limits on how long I will breastfeed or co-sleep, I find breastfeeding 3-year olds a little creepy and I'm pretty sure Maia will be sleeping in her own room by the time she's 6 months old. I would also not be able to sit straight-faced through any meetings about optimizing one's aura. I'm not kidding, but the local HMN's next meeting topic is "Alkalize and Ph Balancing". I am not even sure what that's supposed to mean. It conjures up images of zit-cream commercials but I'm pretty sure I'm off-base there. So what do you think, should I check it out?

Thursday, May 01, 2008


Maia was cranky when we tried taking pictures of her with Daddy's tattoos. We're going to try it again sometime.

I heard about this book called "Mommy Has A Tattoo". It's supposed to teach kids that tattoos aren't scary.


I would probably add a page that says "except for tattoos on people's *faces* (unless you're in an exotic country where it's a cultural thing, of course)".