Blogging Casually and Baby Wearing

Baby E and I are 9 weeks postpartum, and things are going very well! We have a great routine—and by routine, I mean, he gives me clues about when he needs what and I try to interpret them. He’s such a cruise-y baby—and he loves to snuggle. I hit the jackpot with him. He’s really smiling it up lately too, which makes me feel good—I realize he has nothing to compare me to, but I like it that he thinks I’m so funny. Of course, he often smiles like a maniac at the blinking lights on his play mat too, but…

We’ve been out walking. What I have FINALLY figured out is that the stroller does not really work for us right now. It’s too hot during the day to walk (and too sunny), so we go out early in the morning. Unfortunately, the sidewalks here are awful and the time we’re walking is also the time most people are leaving the marina to go to work. It’s too chaotic for us.

The solution that is really working for us is to put baby in the carrier (I have tried lots of these, and the Beco Gemini is my fave—he loves it too). The Moby wrap is ok, but he doesn’t like it as much because we kind of end up smushed together and it gets too hot (I could be putting it on incorrectly too—maybe I’m doing it too tight). We also have this ErgoBaby, but he won’t be big enough for that for a few more months (we have an insert for infants, but it’s like a mini down sleeping bag—WAY too hot).

I put a little blanket under his knees—he likes to kick his feet while we walk and his bare knees rub on the waist band of the carrier (it’s too hot for pants!). E would let me carry him all day long (but it’s too hot!). I like wearing him—I just have to figure out how to pick things up off the floor without bending at the waist or squatting in a way that hurts my knees—I’m getting good at using my feet to do all kinds of things!

I’m not focusing on my photos (or my hair) right now (In my defense, this pic was at 7am). Which brings up something else—I need a break from blogging with a huge purpose. I don’t have time—I am teaching an extra class right now, taking an aromatherapy certification course, and …I mostly want to cuddle with Baby E (oh, and I also need to cook and clean and wash diapers occasionally). I’ve contemplated over and over what I should do — ditch the blog, or try and force myself to blog with a “point,” or just go a bit casual for now. I’m not totally sure yet what I’ll do ultimately, but I’m going to try and keep posting for now (I think).

Mom and Matthew visited for a week–we had so much fun, even though E and I were a little boring. I’ve never met a 10 year-old who was so helpful and positive and tolerant of a baby… he really helped E work on his smiling skills too. Not to mention… he also steam mopped my floors three times (not out of boredom–out of desire to help and find something useful to do while the baby napped). I made sure to tell him all the cute stuff he did when he was a baby—he was my first baby in a lot of ways (I will admit I had no idea what I was doing then, but he seems to not have been messed up from it!).

I made these for my Mom, but she was too busy doing all my chores and left before she ate any of them. I used regular sized muffin wrappers–they’re huge, which is good, but… I ate two yesterday.  PB Cups

 

I’ve been dabbling a lot in essential oils. I love the idea of using them for …everything… rather than having to look to conventional medicine and products. At the same time, I realize that the oils can be as potent as drugs, and it’s a big responsibility to share info about them. I also want to be very confident in what I’m doing before I use them on Baby E. So far, I’ve mostly been diffusing oils around the baby (rather than putting anything on his skin). I did dilute some lavender in coconut oil (1 drop per tablespoon) and put it on a red mark on his skin that was caused by a bandaid the doctor put on him. (That was about 20 minutes ago, so I’ll have to let you know later if it helped).

I’ll admit, I’m a bit obsessed with oils—I love Young Living because of the system they have set up for ordering. I can order things each month with discounts, and then I get free promotional items too (this month I got White Fir, Eucalyptus Blue, and Peppermint). You won’t get any pressure from me to order anything, but if you’re interested in learning more or discussing oils for health and wellness, join my essential oils facebook group—I’ll post mostly about oils there. We talk about homemade deodorant (that works) and cool stuff like that.

Gotta go play baby! I’ll post about my postpartum experience soon–it has been interesting, for sure!