Unprofessional Parenting

I would love to know who is in charge of designing some of the clothes that are sold for my infant. Do these people have kids? How about a little market research before mass producing a line of clothing that is designed to make my life more difficult?

One of my major complaints is an item I received as a gift for my son. It is really cute but has a fatal flaw. It is designed as a pair of PJs but I discovered recently that it doesn’t button all the way down the front like a normal pair of baby pajamas. Instead there are three decorative buttons on top and snaps by the legs for diaper changes.

The problem with this is that when my son inevitably poops/pees on these pajamas I have to pull them up over his head in order to get them off. There is something about dragging the poop covered pjs up over his head that seems so wrong.  To make matters more annoying the pjs have a collar. Very cute but totally in the way every time I have to nurse him.

Just what I needed to go with my infant - more pointless complication in my life! How about some product testing? I would be happy to do it for free and report findings before more moms are plagued by ridiculous “wardrobe malfunctions.”

Son #2 is three weeks old this week and although I was hoping to hold off a little longer it looks like I’m headed back to work. Luckily I don’t have to leave my house but it was so nice to spend the days muddling around taking care of my boys and actually getting some housework done.

I picked up a couple of Internet college courses to teach and I’ve been amazed so far at the level of participation. The students are so active that it is actually creating more work for me. Of all the complaints I can have though the “my students are participating” is probably the most promising so I won’t dwell on it too much.

Hopefully after the next few days I’ll get everything nailed down and slightly more organized so I can get back to regular posting.

For some reason I couldn’t post both “Geraldo is a jerk” clips in one message. Here is the “interview” with Ronald Cummings that Geraldo says “wasn’t pretty.” Geraldo is such a schmuck.

Geraldo scored himself two interviews recently - one with the mother of missing girl Haleigh Cummings and another confrontation with Ronald Cummings, Haleigh’s dad. In the first Haleigh’s mother accuses Ronald Cummings of being abusive to her and “possibly” to Haleigh. Feighning sympathy, Geraldo elicits stories that on the surface appear to be totally unsubstantiated rumors. Throughout the piece he never asks the most obvious question - “If you thought Ronald was potentially abusive then why would you let Haleigh live with him?
The second “interview” is Geraldo’s confrontation with Ronald Cummings who denies all the allegations. This is social vulturism at its best. Geraldo swoops in on the pretense of helping find the little girl and digs up as much dirt as he can on the family members. I don’t intent to defend Ronald Cummings here (who I know absolutely nothing about) but is this necessary or even helpful in the search to find Haleigh?

Watching these clips made me want to vomit. I guess you can take the host out of the talk show but you can’t take the sleazy and offensive rating hound out of the host.

Weissbluth, Marc M.D. Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. New York: Ballentine Books. Third Ed. 2003.

I was given this book as a gift when my first son was around 1 year old. It proved indispensable! I wish I would have had it sooner as it has solved a number of sleep problems my son had that could have been avoided if I had had this information a bit sooner.

From getting young kids to bed at night to solving wake up problems the advice has worked well for me for my older son and now I can start from the beginning with son #2. I have recommended this book to friends and family a thousand times so I thought I should post it here as well.

As a warning part of the process for correcting sleep problems in babies is potentially letting them “cry it out.” I mention it because I know some parents have strong aversions to this method as it might seem cruel (and is certainly difficult on the parents). Dr. Weissbluth does offer some alternatives for those who might have trouble with this but my experience was that letting my son cry only lasted three days and was absolutely worth it in the end. It was hard for us to listen to but our son obviously survived and I am absolutely grateful to this book for teaching me how to teach him to fall asleep by himself.

I visited our local pizza chain restaurant recently with my father-in-law and my son (2 years, 3 months old). My father-in-law wanted to order my son his own mini pizza so after we ordered I asked the cashier for a personal sized veggie pizza for my son.

“What do you want on that?” she asked. I was a little surprised by the question (my brain had already moved on to a new subject so it took me a minute to backtrack).

“Oh, umm just a vegetarian is fine,” I responded.

“With what?”

At this point I was a little confused - I had just ordered myself a veggie pizza as well and didn’t meet with this line of questioning so I wasn’t sure why she seemed to be difficult about it now. “The same thing you put on my veggie pizza, I guess” was about all I could come up with.

Her response was even weirder. “He won’t eat all that” she said, pointing to my son. “Do you want olives?”

Now I was even more confused - did she just tell me what my son wouldn’t eat? I decided to go the path of least resistance and just get the ordering over with. “How about olives, tomatoes, bell peppers, and onions?”

“I doubt he’ll eat bell peppers . . . or onions” she replied.

I’ll spare the rest of the play-by-play but we seemed to go back and forth like this for a while. By the end I was less confused but more obviously annoyed. What in the world would posses this woman (who looked all of 18 years old) to argue with me about what my son would eat? And who is she representing in this argument anyway? Is she a voice for my son or just someone bent on testing the limits of my sanity?

Ugg. By the end of it I finally got the pizza but seriously, what was the point of all that?

Just a quick post this Saturday to note that son #1 (2 years old) went all morning this morning without a single tantrum! The fits started a couple of months ago but were relatively few and far between until I left for the hospital to have son #2. The change in routine didn’t seem to suit him well and we have been dealing with it since we got back.

In truly heart-breaking form he asked me for several days after I got home if I was going back to “the other house” (for some reason this is what he called the hospital). For the three days I was gone having the c-section and recovering he apparently acted okay but hardly ate a thing. Since my return with baby brother he has been incredibly affectionate with his brother but pretty difficult with us.

Last night I was able to read him his books and put him to bed myself and this morning he was in great spirits all morning long! I know these things cycle but what a triumph to get through an entire morning without any screaming or crying craziness.

My first c-section was an emergency event after a very long and painkiller-free labor. I was given an epidural about an hour before on the promise that I could try to push one more time but if the baby’s heart rate went down again (which it did) that I would be rushed into the OR to get him out immediately.  By the time I was rushed in I was exhausted, nauseous, and about half asleep (that epidural was pretty miraculous).

I remember being half naked on a cold table, a bunch of costumed folks roaming around the room, wanting to throw up, and most overwhelmingly two really bright lights hovering over me. My husband was allowed in and at that point I fell asleep. I woke up, Kill Bill style, in a recovery room with no baby and some woman asking me if I could wiggle my big toe.

Needless to say, this most recent c-section was a little different. I had a few moments of sadness that I was outfitted in a very sterile OR getting ready to have a birth experience remarkably different than the natural one I had envisioned in my first pregnancy.  Once my son was delivered that feeling passed quickly and I was just happy to see him.

Here was the weirdest part and the most difficult to explain: When the operation was done they had to roll me from one side to another to get the mats under me to slide me to another bed. The anaesthesiologist explained that it might feel like I would fall because of the spinal block. I had no idea how accurate this was. Once they rolled me to one side I couldn’t feel anything under me at all. It was like floating and was reminiscent of my first alien abduction - I mean c-section - experience. Had he not warned me I might have freaked out and thought that I was rolling off the table.

All in all it wasn’t too bad this time. Having to stay in the hospital for two days was pretty rough and those giant staples are fairly uncomfortable but it beats the heck out of the really long labor ending in a panicked abduction.

I’ve been loosely following this so I thought I’d post the recent news. Three court judges ruled today against parents who wanted vaccine makers held liable for the possibility that the vaccines cause autism. Several studies have recently been published that support the decision but this is the first round of court cases to dismiss the possibility of a link between the MMR (Measles, Mumps & Rubella) vaccine and the development of autism.

As the video notes, there are still a few cases open that argue that other vaccines or ingredients in vaccines might lead to autism. The MMR connection though has been seen as the strongest case so far and three judges have just dismissed the connection in three separate cases.

Son #2 turns 1 week old today! Without sounding like a total cliche it is really amazing to watch an infant grow. Every day he keeps his eyes open a little longer and focuses more on what he is looking at - imagine everything in the world being totally brand new.

Son #1 seems to be handling things well. He always wants to hold the baby but has recently started to ask and then change his mind immediately when we put the baby in his lap. “Now you hold baby brother” he says. I don’t know what that’s about but at least he hasn’t tried to put a sharp stick in baby brother’s eye or anything like that.

We’ll see how things develop in that department. I wish I was naive enough to think the boys will always get along and be great friends but I already cringe at the thought that someday I might have to see them get in a fist fight over some inane, teenage angst driven altercation.

At any rate, with one week past us it’s so far so good.