Ike Thursday, Sep 11 2008

It’s funny, but first hurricane I ever remember occurring is the same first hurricane The Husband remembers.  He had to evacuate from it, and it drove north over 1000 miles to dump seemingly endless rain on me.  I remember asking my teacher about the rain and she told me it was the remnants of Hurricane Gilbert.  We were both eight.

Ike is on his way right now.  I’m not particularly worried, a Category 3 isn’t enough to make us do more than hunker down in the apartment.  (The daredevil in me wants to drive down to Galveston to see it.)

But I do have to get two dwellings in order for the imminent storm, solo, while caring for a baby just 7 weeks old.  Solo because The Husband’s school district didn’t want to have to cancel tonight’s big football game unless they had to, so they have declined to close school today, and they might not close tomorrow.  I hope their enrollment numbers suck for the next two days.

I’ll cope, but I’ve got work to do and I can’t vouch for my internet access from, say, Saturday into next week.

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Babywearing – the Aftermath Thursday, Sep 11 2008

The meeting was okay.  There weren’t a lot of women there, about 5 total including myself.  And they were nice.  I got some help getting GeekBaby into a pouch and combined with experiments on Sunday, I can carry him in the Hotsling.  But he’s awfully crammed in there.

I tried a ring sling, and it was okay.  There was too much fabric to really get a good feel for using it – when I had GeekBaby snug, the tail reached the floor.  And then I tried a mei tai, and i was in love.  He felt like he barely weighed anything, and I could wear him on my tummy or my back.

The downside is that new carriers aren’t cheap, so I’ve decided to make my own.  Most of the ones for sale are made by WAHMs anyway, so it’s doable.  I’ve got a couple yards of linen and some rings on the way for two ring slings, but I’m looking for the perfect fabrics for a mei tai, and thinking about how to best put it together.

But the babywearing meeting did acquaint me with one other thing, something that I suspected would be true and fortified myself against:

Other moms are scary.  It was 1st grade all over again.

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Walking My Baby Wednesday, Sep 10 2008

Every night I try to go out and walk my baby.  No, not on a leash.

On good nights (or bad, depends how you look at it) we can do two miles around the apartment complex.  I take him either in the sling, or wrapped with severe snugness to my tummy.  I wait for dusk or later, so it’s not so oppressively hot (it’s only 28C right now), and I remember to wear my sneakers (I did the first two mile walk in my flip flops and regretted it the next day.)

I do this because dusk is his fussy hour.  He doesn’t always have a fussy period in the evenings, and a long walk doesn’t always solve it.  But it usually helps, and that’s enough for me.  What’s more…

I like it.

I’ve always hated going out and doing endless laps around the apartment complex.  In the summer it’s hot and humid.  In the winter it’s damp and unpleasant.  It’s always boring.  If I’m going to walk, I need to be going somewhere.  But while my objections still hold, I like walking with GeekBaby.  It’s just nice to be outside, walking, with his little snoozing body snuggled up to me in the sling.

Before he was born, I joked that I would never want to put him down.  Now I’m faced with a baby that doesn’t like being put down either, a heavy baby, who is gassy and likes to be upright.  He clings to my shoulder like a little monkey.  And I desperately don’t want to put him down.  But I need to eat.  The cooking and washing up need to get done.  And the laundry, especially those cloth diapers.  Trash needs to be taken out.  We have visitors to see the new baby, so the public areas of the apartment need to be navigable, bare minimum.  I have paperwork to file and am shamefully behind on thank you notes.  (And blog posts.)  I still have the hem embroidery of the baptismal gown to finish.

None of which I can do with GeekBaby snuggled, blissfully, obliviously, onto my shoulder or against my breast.

…I’m not all that sure I care.

(This post was written over the past three days, because it was typed one handed, the other was busy holding the baby.  QED.)

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My arms are about to drop off… Saturday, Sep 6 2008

Since my inability to put GeekBaby down without horror and tears is really on my mind lately, I might as well talk about babywearing.  At present, he’s snoozing peacefully in my lap, but as I know that any attempt to put him in crib or bouncy chair will result in bloodshed (mine, I really need to trim his nails) I have a little while to use both hands to type.  This is a luxury in and of itself.

That he doesn’t like to be put down is really putting it mildly.  He is happy to be held and carried.  Put him in a sling or a wrap, and he goes right to sleep.  At least he did, until he outgrew every babywearing device I own.

I know they say that slings, etc. are sized to the wearer, not the baby, and he “can’t” outgrow them… but he did.  He’s too long to fit in my pouch sling in cradle carry, but doesn’t have the head and neck control to sit upright in it.  Too bad, because I love that pouch sling.

And he was always too heavy for the Moby Wrap.  I’ve worked out an alternate method of wrapping, where the fabric crosses and goes under his legs and bum in front to add support, but I wouldn’t do anything vigorous with him up there.  And The Husband literally needs to tie GeekBaby onto me to get him snuggly wrapped enough, I can’t do it alone.

So where to next in babywearing?  I don’t mind wearing him, though he is a little chunky monkey of a baby.  He obviously prefers to keep me under his thumb where he can keep an eye on me and keep me out of trouble.  But I’ve run out of available options, and I can’t afford to go out and buy carrier after carrier in the hopes that the next one will work.

On Monday I’m attending a local babywearing group.  It’s an opportunity to visit with local moms, and try out various carriers.  I’m interested in mei tai’s and ring slings especially, because I could save a bundle by making my own.  We’ll see how it goes.

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Determined Saturday, Sep 6 2008

I am determined to get a post up today.  (This one doesn’t count.)

GeekBaby wants to be held all the time… and screams bloody murder when he realizes I’ve put him down.  Truth be told, I don’t want to put him down, but the laundry and dishes, at bare minimum, need to be done.  Plus he’s very heavy and has grown out of all my babywearing devices at the moment, so it would be a relief to put him down… but he won’t permit it.

This makes typing difficult, thus the lack of posts.  There’s so much running around in my brain that I want to write about, but haven’t gotten around to writing.  It’s one thing to hunt and peck out a tweet with one hand, another to try and write something profound here.

Profundity has never been my strong point anyway.  I do like using big words, though.

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