Is There Doctor in the House?

When my mom brought Panorama to the hospital to visit new baby Prospector, she had Panorama bring her doctor kit. I never would have thought of it, but it turned out to be a stroke of genius. Going through an “exam” on the new baby gave her a way to interact with him instead of just staring at him. It made her feel like an important big sister, gave us all something to talk about and made for some seriously cute photographs.

Click here to view more photos from this set.

Why Cloth Diapers? Why BabyKicks?

When I was pregnant with my daughter four years ago, I had grand ideas of being an Earth Mama. I was going to breastfeed, cosleep and use cloth diapers. Then I had the baby and realized that you had to be sitting down to breastfeed, cosleeping meant the baby was actually in your bed, and cloth diapers needed to be washed!

I snapped into reality a little, but I still wanted the best for Panorama. So I figured out how to breastfeed without becoming chained to the rocking chair. And I discovered that she liked sleeping in her crib. The cloth diapers thing eluded me a bit.

I couldn’t figure out how to fold and pin a traditional cloth diaper. I guess I could have asked my Mom, but we GenXers don’t believe that the Baby Boomers can teach us anything. The parenting class at the hospital didn’t cover it… So I tried something called an “All In One” Cloth diaper that looked kinda like a disposable and had velcro tabs. It was made out of cotton and a thin plastic shell.

As much as the “All In One” diaper seemed like a good idea, I never really got into the groove. I had to force myself to use them. My husband wouldn’t use them. I never had enough for a full load and the pail began to stink. They were just a bit too leaky. Just a bit too soggy. Just not quite right. Then, Panorama went to daycare part time, and it was harder than ever to use them.

But I hated seeing that giant bag of trash at the end of the driveway. I spending money every week on disposable diapers when I knew there must be SOMETHING I was missing with my cloth diaper experience.

When I had Prospector this year, I was determined to do it better. I was going to be at home more this time. I’ll admit- my primary goal here is to save some cash. But I also like the idea of making less trash, spending less on gas while running out to buy diapers, and keeping my baby’s exposure to harsh chemicals to a minimum.

I found BabyKicks through close friends who run it as a family business. It seemed interesting- hemp is a better fabric for cloth diapering. The inserts and pre-folds are made right here in my hometown. I could use the inserts with my old “All In Ones”, and there were some new designs coming soon. I decided to put them all through their paces.

This blog will chronicle my experience with BabyKicks as well as post some fun things as we go.

Learn a little more at About Me.

Navel: Missing in Action

This is a little story I wrote a about a year after having Panorama. It can also be seen on Helium.

After having my baby, one of the most difficult things to get over was the loss of my belly button.

I had a baby last year. Within 4 weeks of giving birth, I was the same weight that I was the day I took the pregnancy test. Don’t be too impressed- I was quite overweight when I got pregnant. Many women have to gain “padding weight”. This is the weight that your body wants to hide in special corners of your body in case you run into famine during the gestation period. This is the weight that women find difficult to lose after giving birth. I already had this padding, so my body didn’t need to make any extra. The only weight I gained was baby, baby swimming medium, and some extra blood volume.For the most part, my body appears to be behaving similarly to pre-pregnancy. Perhaps my chest is a bit larger and maybe not as high, but no major changes. My stomach skin has a different texture and some stretchmark shadows but I don’t really notice.

The only change that bothers me is my belly button.I have always had an “inny”. Not only was it an inny, but if you looked inside of it, it was twisted so tight that you could not see the end of it. Some people have belly buttons that when you look in them you can see the back wall of stomach skin. Mine was a black hole. For all I knew, it continued deep into my insides. It was a vortex. A tornado. Who knows what happened to lint and dust and toothpicks that got caught in my bellybutton.

About 8.5 months into my pregnancy, my entire abdomen really stretched. It was like trying to put a condom on a basketball. I could almost watch the skin being challenged to the point where it couldn’t give anymore and a lightening bolt-like stretchmark would appear like faultlines in an earthquake.

It was all very cool until the area of stretch approached my navel and I helplessly watched my personal hole-to-china become distorted. it was pulled in all directions. I could actually watch it slowly unravel itself. The skin that became exposed in small increments was purple, timid, virgin skin that hadn’t ever seen the light of day. It was skin that was created and twisted long before my own birth. It seemed to be squinting. Then, one day, I woke up, looked at my belly button and I could see the back wall.This was mind blowing to me. It was like meeting God. Maybe you always were pretty sure he was there, but now, here He is. Looking at you.

After the birth, the stomach quickly deflated, but the navel never retwisted itself. I thought maybe it would be like a spiral phone cord- you take the phone off of the hook and let it spin itself loose, but inevitably it becomes twisted up again.

Apparently this is not the case with belly buttons.I had my annual exam with my OB/GYN the other day and when he asked me if I had any concerns and if I was feeling back to normal, I lied and said everything was great.

I just didn’t think he would understand. Nor do I think there is any treatment.

Perhaps when he does my next c-section he can reach in there and give it a few turns.

Tags: bellybutton, fun, story