Fame is rot; daughters are the thing.
Letters to Everly.
Just a short note to you today, Dovie. My mind feels so scattered this week. Inside of me, the sweet moments of being your mother and Brent’s wife are mixed with worry for what this world holds for you as you grow up. Currently, there is a catastrophic oil spill in the gulf and I’ve felt an overwhelming sadness as I’ve followed the stories of two children this week who have lost their battles with cancer.
Oh how I wish I had the power to protect you from everything. I wish I was strong enough to fight off every physical harm and smart enough to cure any ailment that may find you.
I wish my love for you was enough to keep it all away.
Even with all of the tools and technology of this modern world, often the only thing that brings me comfort is prayer. I have asked God more times than I can count to please let you grow to be a very old lady, to let your heart experience the same kind of love I feel for you, and maybe, if possible, let your father and I be around long enough to see those things happen.
Sometimes on this journey called motherhood, the only thing that keeps me from feeling so incredibly small is putting my faith in something BIG.
Love,
Your mom
1 pound shredded, cooked chicken
1 whole large peeled tomato, mashed
1 (10 ounce) can enchilada sauce
1 medium onion, chopped
1 jalepeno chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 (14.5 ounce) can chicken broth or (4 cups of water and 4 chicken boullion cubes)
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 bay leaf
1 hand full chopped cilantro
tortilla chips or tostadas
Directions
Place uncooked chicken, uncooked whole unpeeled, unmashed tomatoes, enchilada sauce, onion, jalapenos, and garlic into a slow cooker. Pour in water and or chicken broth, and season with cumin, chili powder, salt, pepper, and bay leaf. Stir in cilantro. Cover, and cook on Low setting for 6 to 8 hours or on High setting for 3 to 4 hours.
After 6 hours (on High) or 3 hours (on low) take the chicken and tomato. Shred the chicken. Peel and mash the tomato. Put them back in the crock pot and cook remainder of time.
You can crumb the chips up and put them in the soup. I also put sour cream, cheddar cheese, and sliced avacodo in mine. It’s also recommended with a slice of lime.
It is delicious. I modified a recipe that used a lot of can goods. We like to eat fresh produce and aren’t big on canned stuff for the most part. You can use a can of mashed tomatoes. You can also use a can of green chilis instead of the jalapeno. Don’t be scared of the jalapeno though. It adds just the right amount of spice and we even leave the seeds in!!! Yummy yummy. It’s a good recipe to make earlier in the day if your not going to have time to make dinner at night. We are actually making it for dinner tonight. It will make you want to lick the bowl.
Oh no bag slings.
Alongside may reports from, and then postmortems of, the NIH VBAC conference, another big story in the news that created much reverberation in response was the CSPC warning against slings, due to some very unfortunate deaths by suffocation. Alas, the warning neglects to explain that only ONE TYPE of sling is to blame here, a kind that many babywearers have been pointing out is not really a sling at all: the bag-style sling.
Tons of parents have been speaking out about this, pointing out that NOT ALL SLINGS ARE CREATED EQUAL, and it is not only unfair, but blatantly irresponsible, that they are all being lumped together by the CSPC. As Justine of State of the Heart Parenting points out:
The Infantino Sling Rider is the one responsible for 7 deaths in 11 years, from improper sling use. However, for the 10 year time period between 1995-2005, there were 22 stroller-related deaths for children under the age of 5 reported to CPSC. A majority of these deaths involved suffocation, entrapment or positional asphyxiation of an infant. 3x the amount of death in less time. Where are the anti-stroller crusaders?
[And] the leading item that injures and kills babies? INFANT CAR SEATS AND CARRIERS (and that EXCLUDES automobile accident related incidents). 7 deaths in 11 years from slings…meanwhile 182 children were KILLED by improper carseat/carrier use in only 2 years. And 65 infants died from CRIB related accidents.
By all means, let’s please include warnings that your sling is a parenting tool, not a replacement for common sense and observation…but saying that no one should ever use a sling is NOT a reasonable recommendation on the part of the CPSC.
Anyway, on with the show: Katie Glynn from A Child’s Garden in Northhampton, MA recorded this video, demonstrating the do’s and don’ts of sling positioning, including an explanation of the hazards of bag “slings”.
I also found this site very clear and helpful. Here’s a great visual:
YES YES YES:
A THOUSAND TIMES NO:
Note: Most veteran babywearers point out that an upright carry is both the safest and the most beneficial, but one can use the “cradle” position with care and attention making sure baby is NOT chin-to-chest in the dreaded C position. This is illustrated in the top left of the first picture. It’s wonderful to be able to nurse in a sling as you go about your business. (Many babywearing experts recommend that once nursing is finished, baby is gently returned to an upright position.)
Be sure to check out the page itself; they spell out the safety points of proper ring sling positioning and the pitfalls of bag slings. They also include a gallery at the bottom of the most dangerous kinds of bag slings. Here’s a picture of the worst culprit of all the bag-style pseudoslings, the Infantino:
Now. This is pure opinion on my part, but there’s something about all these slings, not just the most notorious Infantino, that bother me, aside from the deeply flawed design. It seems to me that these areinauthentic slings at the core. What the heck do I mean by that vagueness? My gut feeling is that these particular brands were created in a response to a trend, without much if any real research, and without a fundamental belief in babywearing as a practice. I don’t think Eddie Bauer executives happened to be reading Dr. Sears and decided to start promoting attachment parenting tools; I don’t think Boppy was out for anything more than another product in a different aisle of Babies R Us. I think these companies saw a growing number of consumers purchasing Maya ring slings and Mei Tais and Moby wraps, not to mention the burgeoning legions of WAHMs putting their own lovingly created wares up on etsy, and they decided to try to get in on the action.
If I’m right - and again, it’s just conjecture on my part - well, it’s not the most nefarious thing in the world. (It’s not like they’re Nestle. Wink wink.) I can’t really blame them for their bottom-line motivation. I mean, that’s just business. But it falls as ever to the consumer to do their homework and make educated choices. Slings of any kind, not just the ones with the riskiest designs, can be misused - as can strollers, cribs, and car seats, as Justine pointed out. Babywearing is a fantastic lifestyle choice for those to whom it resonates, and the carriers themselves are tools, to be used with mindfulness and love. It’d be a screaming hot shame if this slipshod media coverage deters some parents from doing something that’s not only highly beneficial but also has the potential to make their lives just plain so much easier.
I wanted to share this blog and specifically this post… http://dou-la-la.blogspot.com/2010/03/weekend-movie-bag-bag-slings-plus.html I also copy and pasted for your viewing pleasure.
Winona Tansy Allen
March 12th, 2010-3:34am
7 pounds 4 ounces & 20 inches
This is her story. Thursday, March 11th, I woke up feeling a little crampy. It was basically a feeling that I desperately needed to have a bowel movement. I kept trying but nothing happened. It was quite strange considering I hadn’t had any constipation the entire pregnancy. I didn’t think much else of it.
I had an appointment with my midwife at 2pm. When I got there I took my urine test. This time there was a result that had never been there before. There was blood in my urine. My midwife said that was a good sign. She did her usual exam on the baby and me. While she was doing the exam she said I had a small contraction but I didn’t feel it. My midwife also did not want me to get my hopes up so she made light of all of the symptoms of the day, saying “It could be early signs of labor but its too soon to tell.” I left the appointment full of hope!!
At 3:30 pm we pulled into our garage and I felt my first contraction. It spread over my lower back and lasted about 15 seconds. I stopped in my tracks until it was gone, still unsure of whether it was a contraction or not.
When Jake got home from work, I told him about the appointment and the pains I was having in my back. I thought they must be contractions because they were coming and going in waves. We decided to take a walk around the neighborhood. I called my midwife to let her know that I might be having contractions. They were 20 seconds long every 7 minutes. Nothing to be alarmed about. She advised me to go home and lie down.
I took a bath, had a glass of wine and layed down. I had dinner with the family and around 9 o’clock, Jake and I went to bed. At about 11:30pm I woke Jake up because I could no longer try to sleep. I asked him to start timing my contractions again. The next contraction was one minute, twelve seconds and they were coming every five minutes. I took another bath and we decided that we would call our midwife in an hour.
Everything continued to progress so we called our doula and our midwife and they headed our way. My contractions progressed very quickly. When our doula arrived I was in full blown labor with back to back contractions. The hypnobirthing was NOT working. I could not sit still or relax. I paced from my bedroom to the livingroom and moaned a constant note (opera style). I tried to get a break but the contractions weren’t allowing it.
My midwife arrived around 2 am. She began to set everything up and checked my cervix. I was already dialated to 8 cm. The only thing standing between me and our beautiful baby girl was my water sac. I continued to walk and push.
They suggested that I sit on the birthing stool and start pushing. I worked as hard as I could hoping that my water would break. The sac started to come out and my midwife asked if she could break it. ”Pleeeeeeaaaaaase!!,” I screamed. She told me the baby’s head was right behind it. I pushed a few more times and her little head full of hair emerged. And then, there she was. It was so surreal. Life. We had created life in a beautiful little package. A head full of dark hair and beautiful lips. She was and is perfect.
They sat her right on my chest and moved me to the bed where she immediately rooted and latched to my nipple. So easy. So hungry. Jake and I were in awe at the beautiful little person we had made together with our love. Today she is 11 days old and I’m obviously still amazed at how much of a gift she is to us. I wouldn’t have changed a thing about her birth.
This is her story through the eyes of our Doula, Shawna.
http://tie-dyeddoula.blogspot.com/2010/03/peacea-birth-story.html
We believe that every woman has within her the power to call upon her natural instincts to bring about the best possible birthing for her baby and herself.
HypnoBirthing®- The Mongan Method - is a unique method of relaxed, natural childbirth education, enhanced by self-hypnosis techniques. HypnoBirthing® provides the missing link that allows women to use their natural instincts to bring about a safer, easier, more comfortable birthing. Emphasis is placed on pregnancy and childbirth, as well as on pre-birth parenting and the consciousness of the pre-born baby. As a birthing method, HypnoBirthing® is as new as tomorrow and as old as ancient times. It is presented in a series of five, 2 1/2-hour classes or four, 3-hour classes.
Oh, the life of a pregnant woman.: Plan Toys →
Plan Toys; An amazing eco-friendly toy store.
Founded in 1981 as a pioneer in using replenishable rubber wood to make wooden toys.
“PlanToys practices the “Three R’s” of green living: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. Our manufacturing processes are designed to reduce waste and save energy. We…
Home Births Rise in U.S. And It’s Not Because of Ricki Lake →
I recently posted a blog about home births and found this article to be insightful and encouraging.
Why use disposable diapers?
Cloth diapers are no longer a thing of the past. There is more to the cloth diapers than a flat piece of material and diaper pins. Disposable diapers are the status quo but cloth diapers are making a huge comeback and for VERY good reasons. Many people have completely missed the evolution that cloth diapers have made over the last fifteen years. They come in many different patters, materials, and with velcro and snaps. The real question that parents should ask themselves is “why use disposables?”
Save Money!!!
As a general rule, it is almost always cheaper to reuse than to buy new every time. This is no different with cloth diapers. Most parents go through 6 to 8 thousand diapers per child, from birth to about age three. If we take an average of what those diapers cost, that equates to betwen 2000 and 3000 dollars per baby. WHOA!!! Once those children are potty trained those diapers are gone. They cannot be re-used. So a huge chunk of money has gone to buying garbage. Comparatively, enough cloth diapers to last for three years will generally cost about 5 hundred dollars. That is about a 2000 dollar savings. AND these diapers can be reused AGAIN for a second child so your savings then doubles!! Yes, of course cloth diapers come with the costs of electricity, water, and detergents. It usually means an extra three loads of laundry a week, but i think the that those extra costs still put you at considerably lower than disposable diapers.
The cloth diapers that we will be using are actually hand-me-downs from a friend. If you don’t mind using “used” cloth diapers you can even purchase them for much cheaper on ebay. These are the cloth diapers that we will use. http://www.crickettsdiapers.com/ I love them and they are so soft.
Healthier!!
Every parents wants what’s best for their child. There are TOXIC chemicals found in disposable diapers!! Dioxin, which has been shown to cause cancer, liver damage, birth defects, genetic damage, and skin diseases, is caused by the process of bleaching the paper of disposable diapers. Dioxin is listed by the EPA as the most toxic of cancer related chemicals and it is found in diapers!!! Disposable diapers also contain Tributyl-tin; a toxic pollutant known to cause hormonal problems in humans and animals. They also contain sodium polyacrylate. It is what causes the super absorbency in disposable diapers. Sodium polyacrylate was removed from tampons because of its link to toxic shock syndrome. Studies have also been done to show that chemicals found in disposable diapers can cause respiratory problems in children and have been linked to asthma. Cloth diapers, however, are free of these many chemicals.
Better for the Environment!!!
Eighty percent of all diapering is done with disposable diapers, according to the Sustainability Institute. That breaks down to about 18 billion diapers per year in just the United States alone!!! They require thousands of tons of plastic and hundreds of thousands of trees to manufacture. After just a few hours of use, these diapers are trucked away to landfills. Neatly folded packages of excrement entombed for several hundred years. There is nothing “disposable” about these diapers. They will haunt us for centuries to come. Also the urine and feces found in these diapers are possibly contaminating our water supply. When you weigh out all of the damage these disposable diapers are doing to our beautiful planet, is hard to believe that washing cloth diapers could ever be considered inconvenient. They are rewarding investments all around.
They are Surprisingly Convenient !!
The options available today prove that cloth diapering doesn’t have to be inconvenient. Cloth diapers nowadays are fitted with elastic in the legs and back area and have easy hook and loop closures or snaps. Many different fabric choices and absorbency levels allow parents to choose the best diapering system for the individual needs of their child. It just can’t get any easier. There is no time like the present to make a firm commitment to your child, to your pocket book, and to your planet.
A great website that has a lot of information about different kinds of cloth diapers is http://www.kellyscloset.com/. Also a blog all about cloth diapers… http://www.theclothdiaperwhisperer.com/ 
I will post more on my adventures in cloth diapering. I will be learning as I go!!
