I got to spend time talking with a best friend today on the topic of what we learn from our babies... It is such an amazing time of personal growth! These have been my major areas of personal development since Lucy.
1. Mom guts. I did not know how hard it would be to stand up for myself on some of my parenting choices so far. I know some people are super secure in their decisions, but I've always been a people-pleaser and with babies...you just can't please everyone! It has been challenging for me to be confident in my decisions and just to trust what I believe is best without getting a gold star from anyone else. My mom guts have grown a ton since Lucy came along.
2. Giving up control (of my schedule). My life is not so much about me anymore. And that is so strange. It is odd to go from being the boss of my time 100% of the time to having so much of my time revolve around tiny person and her needs and nap schedules. It is strange to have to leave a party early because she will need to go to sleep. It is still weird to me sometimes that I must account for her naps and cannot just go out all day with no regard for this.
3. Body Image. In the immediate post-partum phase, I was amazed at how quickly my body recovered. That was not what I had expected. Not that I put a lot of stock in the scale, but I actually weighed less than I did pre-pregnancy. As nursing ramped up, I was STARVING, and I ate EVERYTHING. My body set-point adjusted up and I'm now the heaviest I've ever been in life. My sister says I look very earthy. Haha! Anyway, it is such a cliche that breastfeeding makes the weight fall right off...but the exact opposite has been my experience! So once again, expectations play a huge role. It has been a really wonderful time to examine my thoughts and feelings surrounding my body image and self-worth. I have found Maddy Moon, Summer Innamen, and a whole bunch of other body-positive ladies that are so awesome and inspiring and helping me to love my body and all the amazing things it does for me. It's an area of growth that I'm really enjoying exploring and letting go in. Maddy Moon says we are not put on this earth to be skinny! How true...I am fuller of love than I've ever been in my entire life and just having a blast with all this stuff.
Alright. The end for today!
Thursday, March 10, 2016
Monday, March 7, 2016
Nutrition; ALL THE FOODS
I can't eat all the foods. It is so overwhelming, all the things to try to get in for ideal fertility, pregnancy, breastfeeding, postpartum. I have seen multiple people express the sentiment about the WAPF pregnancy diet reccs being just TOO MUCH food.
Is super vegetable/fiber diversity a good thing for the gut microbes or an overwhelming thing? (Recently found this fascinating article : http://vegetablepharm.blogspot.com/2015/06/this-is-your-gut-on-potatoes.html - only potatoes = more gut diversity ... I think Mr. Cooling Inflammation blog man would agree with this... but not many others do?? Most thinking says MORE fiber diversity).
Anyway, there's only so much time in a day, and there's SO MUCH food in America. I find myself really appreciating simple reccs like Aglaee Jacobs' (7 superfoods for moms: http://radicatanutrition.com/new-free-ebook-7-superfoods-for-supermoms/) - Or Nina Planck's 'Real Food for Mother and Baby' . I can do this!
Is super vegetable/fiber diversity a good thing for the gut microbes or an overwhelming thing? (Recently found this fascinating article : http://vegetablepharm.blogspot.com/2015/06/this-is-your-gut-on-potatoes.html - only potatoes = more gut diversity ... I think Mr. Cooling Inflammation blog man would agree with this... but not many others do?? Most thinking says MORE fiber diversity).
Anyway, there's only so much time in a day, and there's SO MUCH food in America. I find myself really appreciating simple reccs like Aglaee Jacobs' (7 superfoods for moms: http://radicatanutrition.com/new-free-ebook-7-superfoods-for-supermoms/) - Or Nina Planck's 'Real Food for Mother and Baby' . I can do this!
Sunday, March 6, 2016
All the Sleep Books and The FAMILY BED (5 months old)
I wrote this sometime in November I suppose... It is March now, we are still family-bed-ing!
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This week, I made the major mistake of checking out all the sleep books from the library. I guess I did it because Lucy is almost 5 months, and I just don't see her transitioning out of our bed at 6 months... I hyper-projected into the future and got myself all unnecessarily worried.
As I skimmed through the books, I felt increasingly guilty. Wondering if I am depriving her by not "giving her the ability to self-soothe." Anyway...I got some bolstering by talking my aunt, my mom, a co-sleeping friend, and reading this awesome book. Basically, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"..."do whatever works for you!" I LOVE the family bed. As with so many other things in new momhood, I just need to grow my cajones and own it!!
Also, reading baby sleep books is BORING....About as boring as reading online blogs about cloth diapers... Why do I do this to myself?!
When we went the pediatrician for Lucy's 4 month check-up, I told her we were bed-sharing. She bed-shared with her kids to about 15 and 18 months too, so this didn't phase her. We didn't have to have any conversations about supposed SIDS risks or how to make is safer.
Anyway, I asked her what she would recommend as far as transitioning them out of bed. She said that she wished she had started some sort of sleep training earlier with hers, but that there are really no magic bullets when it comes to learning how to sleep - kids are ALL different (seems to be a major theme in all aspects of parenting). So, sadly, there's no single book that will just tell me exactly what's best to do. Ultimately, she said she took a weekend to CIO with each of her kids..."it sounds like you're torturing them, but it works." She still said that she thinks co-sleeping through about 15 or 18 months is great because it helps them get all the nurture they need through teething times and major movement developments.
This is definitely another issue where it seems to come down to putting your own oxygen mask on first... so honoring whatever sleep system helps everyone to get the most sleep most comfortably.
It is working for now, and I know what resources I like if we decide she needs to go!
-----------------------
This week, I made the major mistake of checking out all the sleep books from the library. I guess I did it because Lucy is almost 5 months, and I just don't see her transitioning out of our bed at 6 months... I hyper-projected into the future and got myself all unnecessarily worried.
As I skimmed through the books, I felt increasingly guilty. Wondering if I am depriving her by not "giving her the ability to self-soothe." Anyway...I got some bolstering by talking my aunt, my mom, a co-sleeping friend, and reading this awesome book. Basically, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"..."do whatever works for you!" I LOVE the family bed. As with so many other things in new momhood, I just need to grow my cajones and own it!!
Also, reading baby sleep books is BORING....About as boring as reading online blogs about cloth diapers... Why do I do this to myself?!
When we went the pediatrician for Lucy's 4 month check-up, I told her we were bed-sharing. She bed-shared with her kids to about 15 and 18 months too, so this didn't phase her. We didn't have to have any conversations about supposed SIDS risks or how to make is safer.
Anyway, I asked her what she would recommend as far as transitioning them out of bed. She said that she wished she had started some sort of sleep training earlier with hers, but that there are really no magic bullets when it comes to learning how to sleep - kids are ALL different (seems to be a major theme in all aspects of parenting). So, sadly, there's no single book that will just tell me exactly what's best to do. Ultimately, she said she took a weekend to CIO with each of her kids..."it sounds like you're torturing them, but it works." She still said that she thinks co-sleeping through about 15 or 18 months is great because it helps them get all the nurture they need through teething times and major movement developments.
This is definitely another issue where it seems to come down to putting your own oxygen mask on first... so honoring whatever sleep system helps everyone to get the most sleep most comfortably.
It is working for now, and I know what resources I like if we decide she needs to go!
Thursday, March 3, 2016
Happiness at 3AM
I just finished reading Gretchen Rubin's "The Happiness Project." Found it super enjoyable. Her writing really resonates with me.
Thinking about it a lot with respect to my relationships with Josh and Lucy. ... And parenting especially.
Applying it at 3AM (perhaps the most ungodly hour...babies must know this...) when she wakes up. I can either feel the complete oppressive weight of my tired being and wonder "WHY is she awake NOW." Or I can ruminate on how lucky I am to be her mom, how wonderfully snuggly and cuddly she is, how much I love nursing her...and if she's going to be past the point of sleep, we can get up and play with books or toys (and I can have tea) for an hour before going back to bed and sleeping in. It really makes me appreciate that THIS IS IT. (The years are short, the days are long). I am so glad she is here, and sometimes it is totally exhausting, but I wouldn't have it any other way.
Thinking about it a lot with respect to my relationships with Josh and Lucy. ... And parenting especially.
Applying it at 3AM (perhaps the most ungodly hour...babies must know this...) when she wakes up. I can either feel the complete oppressive weight of my tired being and wonder "WHY is she awake NOW." Or I can ruminate on how lucky I am to be her mom, how wonderfully snuggly and cuddly she is, how much I love nursing her...and if she's going to be past the point of sleep, we can get up and play with books or toys (and I can have tea) for an hour before going back to bed and sleeping in. It really makes me appreciate that THIS IS IT. (The years are short, the days are long). I am so glad she is here, and sometimes it is totally exhausting, but I wouldn't have it any other way.
Microbes in the Placenta
That's right, it's not sterile. The microbial profile of the placenta seems to overlap most closely with that of mom's mouth. WHAT?! How are mouth microbes getting to the placenta?
Through the blood! It's called hematogenous spread.
Hematogenous spread; and how Fetal immune cells (T-regs) learn to recognize mom's microbiome.
Here's a lovely diagram showing bacterial, viral, and fungal populations and comparing them in pre-term vs term babies.
A super simplified diagram of connection between mom's biome and baby's.
A scary diagram showing some negative side effects of damaged microbiota.
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