johncsnider

Post-Partum: My Dream Freezer image: Southern Living I am counting the days until my baby decides to arrive. In the past two months, I have tried to overcook meals when I could. Half of my freezer is now filled with yogurt containers filled with leftovers and ziplock bags of veggie burgers and marinated chicken. A quarter of the freezer of it is now filled with frozen Trader Joes food that my husband had a blast buying last weekend. We usually don't buy pre-made foods but I am predicting that I may not want to eat my own cooking and that restaurant delivery gets old after a while. It will be nice to have a variety at my finger tips. During my past pregnancies I was not so concerned about stocking up food. Thankfully, my mom visited to help with the transition of each birth. It is the time AFTER she leaves that I plan for. For baby #1, it was only my husband and I who had to eat and we didn't care if we ate the same food for days. For baby #2, we left the country so soon after g...

The placenta of baby #2 I had heard of people eating their placenta after birth. Supposedly it is extremely common around the world and has been done for eons BUT it seemed weird and extreme! So the thought did not cross my mind (although my doula had suggested it) for baby #1. By the time I was pregnant with baby #2 I had learned about all of the positive benefits of consuming your placenta post-partum. It is really a miracle substance that prevents postpartum depression, stabilizes hormones and keeps your vitamins and minerals in balance. My midwife highly recommended it since I had been anemic and since my life was going to be extremely busy. Not only was I about to take a newborn home to a household with a 2 year old BUT, I was moving 2.5 weeks after the baby was born and leaving the country with the family the day after the move. It was a busy time in life. I heard about having my placenta encapsulated and that felt like a method that I could deal with. Popping a pill is easy. I...

My method: a prefold diaper in a cover. image: www.omahababystore.com The main reason why I love cloth diapering is that I love knowing that my baby's diapers are not going to sit in the landfill! The way that I wash diapers once a week is ABSOLUTELY more environmentally sound than disposable diapers. Of course it is also nice to know that my little one's skin does not have the carcinogenic bleaches and chemicals rubbing against her sensitive genitals. Both of my kids were out of daytime diapers at 18 months and I attribute this to them "feeling" wet in their cotton cloth diapers (and some reading that I had done about early potty training). Act I: The Diaper Service When my first baby was born in our little NYC apartment (no washer/dryer), we used a diaper service for the first 6 months. It seemed nice because we didn't have to deal with the laundry or the up front investment of diapers. The diaper service only used the prefold style of diapers pictured above. On...

Your caregiver will probably want you to pack a hospital bag at least a month before you are due in case that you go into early labor. Yes this is helpful but I always feel that the extra time is for me to keep adding things that I "forgot" to add in the original packing.  These are my essentials for a hospital/birthing center birth: Your birth gear - aromatherapy, music player, birthing ball, etc. I didn't use any of this stuff. During my first birth, my doula brought it all but my future births were too short and I enjoyed chatting with my husband and mom in between contractions. Plastic flip-flops - these are great during labor and during the showers post-partum. Slippers or slipper socks - some facilities give these out. If you are a cold foot person, these will be convenient for you. Lanolin - your facilities may give this out so ask during your hospital tour. You put a very small amount on like lip balm after each of your nursings to prevent your nipples from being ...

We all spent years and years in school to essentially learn how to survive in the real world.  Many people went to specialized schools or universities to get an even more specialized education.  Most of us did not learn a thing about raising children and how they develop.  When I was first pregnant, I was overwhelmed with the fact that I knew nothing about raising kids or changing diapers.  There is a lot that parents SHOULD know before they bring the baby home from the hospital. Yes there are 45 minute parenting workshops at the hospital but they tell you little more than how to change a diaper, bathe the child, and not hit or shake your child. You may have family that are willing to help and be a wealth of information but I highly suggest reading books on different methods and determine what YOUR parenting style will be.  If you don't educate yourself then you are blindly sending your child down a path that molds their future. These are the books that I found...