Last Thursday, when I arrived at school to pick up the boys before the long weekend, Leif was wearing a hot pink skirt over his pants. They'd done some dress-up for Easter and he hadn't taken off the skirt yet. When I commented on it ("I love your pink skirt!"), he seemed pleased and proud, then continued to...
Family
The Baby Sleep Situation
Sorry for my brief hiatus from this space. As you may already know or might have guessed, life with a newborn is no joke. While we're actually getting along quite well as a new family of five, it's still hard. Zoë sleeps well once she finally settles into a good sleep but only if I stay...
Great Parenting Books That Don't Make Me Feel Like a Shitty Mother
I have to admit: I'm a fairly confident parent. Not confident that I do everything perfectly, or that every decision I make is Right, or that I couldn't possibly be raising my children any better, but confident that I'm mostly doing the best that I can do and that my children are emotionally and physically healthy. I generally trust my...
Using My Superpower: Donating Breastmilk
The closest thing I have to a superpower is lactating. Making food that another human can eat—and thrive on—from my own flesh (well, technically my blood) has always been and always will be absolutely miraculous to me. And like any true superpower, I can use it for the highest good: saving lives.
Baby Girl Gets a Name!
Baby girl is three weeks old today, which makes it high time for her to get a name! We've been having a hard time making a decision, as our final contenders all seemed to fit. But, after three weeks of delaying and trying out the finalists, and then a couple days of calling her just one of...
A Great Thing Sweden Does For New Babies (and Their Families)
I remember the first time we went to the pediatrician when August, our first, was born. It was within the first week of leaving the hospital, and it was our first excursion out of the house with the baby. It took us at least thirty minutes to get ready—we had to pack the diaper bag, get...
What's the Deal With Cutting the Cord?
I'm curious—did you (or your partner, husband, baby's father, baby's other mother, etc.) cut the umbilical cord after you delivered the baby? It seems to be this momentous things that fathers (or one of the aforementioned others) are supposed to do. With all three of our children's births, James was handed the scissors at the appropriate time...
Some Thoughts on the Postpartum Period
Little Bing-Bong is ten days old today. We've been home for eight of those, adjusting to life as a new family of five—mostly this means adjusting to being the mother of a newborn again. I was inspired by this post on one of my favorite blogs, Reading My Tea Leaves, to share with you what this...
Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!
As you might have guessed, my silence this last week has been due to the fact that the baby has arrived! In fact, she came just a few hours after I published my last post.
Alternative (and Free) Souvenir Ideas
Slipping away to some exotic or culturally rich location for a vacation is wonderful; bringing home souvenirs from that vacation, which jog travel memories and help the vacation last longer in your mind, is also wonderful. But that doesn't mean you have to stop at those kitschy, overstuffed bric-a-brac shops and pony up for some mass-produced (and questionably...