....it's not easy being green! I try my best so here's a list of ways I am and am not green.

Ways I am green
* We use environmentally friendly/biodegradeable cleaning products almost exclusively. My kitchen, floors and furniture are all cleaned with products like Citra - solve and Murphy's oil soap (which was 'green' before it was cool). There are a few exceptions to this rule: I use swiffer's to dust and every few months I have to break down and use one of those bad for you bad for the environment shower foamer mildew remover jobbies. Because the 'green' way to scrub away all that crap takes too much elbow grease and sadly isn't as effective.

* We recycle what we can, and are very good about giving away our gently used stuff on free-cycle or to the thrift shop

* We walk a lot of places or use public transport. Yes, we drive more than most New Yorkers but we definitely offset our driving by taking public transport most places.

* We buy in bulk. Giant containers of laundry detergent; dish soap; mayo, you name it. If they sell a giant container of it at cost-co and I use it, chances are I buy it in bulk.

* As far as baby care, I use chlorine free baby wipes from 7th generation, although these are not biodegradable. Neither are the scratchy brown chlorine free 7th gen. diapers (which I don't use). All of her products like lotion and baby wash are also all naturally. Aside from the environment I don't really want to wash my baby in stuff that contains parabens and Laureth-sulfates among other scary ingredients.

* Diapers can really go into both categories. I am thinking of giving the g-diapers a try again since her poops are not so, uh, explosive but for now I'm using Huggie's Natural Care which are made from organic cotton (but are probably bleached and definitely are not biodegradable). They are however less plasticky then regular diapers, but they still do result in lots and lots of garbage.

* When I do laundry I never use the dryer. Actually I am kind of forced into this because we don't have a dryer in our apartment and there isn't one in our buildings laundry area. But still, it's green. We have a drying rack and also a laundry line out our back window.

*Ivy's stuff - we tried really hard not to nuts with a ton of gear. We bought some of the nursery furniture from a baby consignment shop, and a lot of her toys are cloth and wood. I plan on keeping a lot of stuff for the next baby and have been giving the stuff we're not keeping to my friend with new babies.

*We use reusable shopping bags when we can and re-use our plastic bags for tiny trash bags.

Ways I am not Green

* See above about the diapers. Mountains and mountains of trash are created weekly from one little baby.

* My personal care products. Aside from a few token Burt's Bee's products, and some organic shower gel and body lotion my mom gave me, most of my health and beauty aids are not in any way shape or form green. They are laden with chemicals and not biodegradable.

* I don't use environmentally friendly laundry products either. I tried some, but most of these things contain lavender, which I can't stand. Also, I don't feel like they clean as well.

*Oh my god, batteries. The bouncy chair alone has consumed so many batteries it's insanity. But I can't seem to find any re-chargeable D batteries (that's what the chair uses). I have kept the past few batches until I can find a place to recycle them.

*Oh, and the car we drive? It's a '63 Buick Skylark. Not exactly fuel efficient.


So actually, when I look at the list it doesn't seem SO BAD. I'm sure I'm "greener" than most but I think i still have a long way to go. What's your biggest 'green' downfall?

I'm not sure anyone out there can know exactly how I feel, but I am completely, utterly in love with CVS. And not CVS in general, but a very specific CVS. That would be the CVS on 9th Street in Park Slope Brooklyn.

I'm not sure exactly why, but there are 2 very good reasons for this love affair. The first, is it's open 24 hours. While we haven't had to use this perk just yet, for some reason it comforts me to know, should I suddenly run out of diapers at 3 am, I can go there. Should the baby need a prescription filled at 4 am, I can go there. The second reason is, it has a parking lot. Yes, this matters and I'll tell you why. We live on 40th Street. This CVS is on 9 Street. That's 31 blocks away and I can tell you right now we never walk or take the subway there. So the parking lot makes us very happy. Not to mention there is also an HSBC (our bank) and a grocery store right on the block, so we can go into CVS for one thing and not feel bad about parking there while we bank and pick up some groceries. These kinds of things matter!

While this specific branch of CVS isn't very big and doesn't stock as much fun stuff as the brand new Duane Reade in Sunset Park, for some reason it has totally won over my heart. And then I singed up for the CVS extra care rewards card, and all of a sudden I'm getting coupons for $ off my whole purchase. It's 2% cash back on ALL of your purchases - even prescriptions! And I can go online and print coupons for things i actually use like toilet paper and diapers. That little tag on my key chain is getting me something. And now I can also refill prescriptions online- not to mention the fact there's also a CVS 3 blocks from my office, so if I feel like stopping by on my way home, it's easy and on my way to the train.

I'm not sure exactly when I started to get excited about these little details but there it is. ANd I love you CVS.

As you know from reading this blog, I have a very big baby. So big in fact that about a month ago we noticed she was sucking down her bottles like it was nobodies business. When we asked her Dr, he said we could introduce solids at this point since it seemed like she needed to start getting her calories from a variety of foods, not just breastmilk and formula. So we started with Rice Cereal. Earth's Best organic rice cereal to be exact and boy was she ready. I had been letting her 'play' with her little baby spoon a few times, so the first time went amazingly smooth. After the first few spoon fulls she was opening her mouth like a little bird waiting for that cereal.

That was about a month ago and since then we have tried bananas, sweet potato and apple puree. The banana didn't go so well at first, but once we figured out we have to let them get very soft (and sweet) and NOT mix them with any kind of breast milk or formula she was all about the 'nana. The sweet potato didn't go so well either, and we are still working on this one (there's an icecube tray of pureed sweet potato in our freezer right now waiting for her).

Today we tried pureed apple and boy did she LOVE it. Not that I thought she wouldn't but I wasn't expecting such an enthusiastic response. After a few spoon fulls she actually grabbed the spoon from me and shoved it into her mouth. A bit of the puree had dropped down onto her and she picked it up and put it in her mouth. No kidding this child was crazy about apple. I wonder if this has anything to do with the fact that during the early stages of my pregnancy I was crazy about all things apple.

I can't wait to expand her palate. I'm excited for both avocado and peas, although I'm not sure these are as palatable as the apple and banana. But we'll see. The funniest thing about her "eating" food now is that when we eat food she watches us so intently and opens and closes her mouth like "Oh hi mom can you just spoon some of that tuna salad in here? Thanks"

On the flip side, there is of course the poop factor. Yeah, I'm gonna go there. Because you know we have to deal with it. When she went on her 'poop strike' a few months ago the pediatrician said we could give her some diluted juice to help, and we did, and boy did it help. So you can imagine the effect that these new fruits have on her. Not to mention the, er, consistency of what comes out. I'll leave you with these thoughts but I just hope this one potty trains early. Oh God potty training .

This was the first Haloween I can remeber that i didn't dress up or have a Jack O'Lantern. But I guess life has been a little crazy lately. But it didn't matter because I had a litte chilli pepper with me!



This pic is actually from our morning photo shoot. That evening my mom and I took Ivy to the Park Slope Childrens Halloween Parade, which ended up being a lot more fun that I thought. there were giant floats and puppets and the whole thing ended with a steel pan band! Oh and Chuck Schumer was there! He was the public option for healthcare. He's not dead!! (That's what he said anyway)

I will post some more pictures when I have a chance to downlaod the camera, but I did want to get a Halloween post with her costume before, you know, Thanksgiving.

I think I am getting schooled for bragging all the time about what a good sleeper Ivy is. And I had bragging rights because she was a good sleeper. I think going to bed at 9-ish and sleeping until 7-ish is considered good. She hasn't woken up for a middle of the night feeding since she was like a month and half old.

Lately it seems that all this talk of a 'good sleeper' has come back to bite me in the ass. For the past week, it seems that getting her to sleep at her 'bedtime' is becoming harder and harder. Last night she didn't go to sleep until midnight! I was yawning and wanting to go to sleep and she was wailing away because, well, she was tired. A few nights before that when bedtime rolled around she wanted to laugh and play and giggle the night away.

She still has been more often than not going to bed at her normal time, and sleeping through the night. Here and there she'll wake up at odd times, but she doesn't usually stay awake for long. A few nights ago I woke up and heard her cooing away in the cosleeper at 3 am, but she put herself back to sleep with no intervention from me.

As soon as we fix the door to the nursery we are going to start putting her to bed in the crib. Right now we can't do this because the door can be easily pushed open by the cats and Frank thinks the crib is his bed. Hopefully this transition goes well.

But I have picked up one hell of a bad habit since returning to work post baby. It's the diet coke habit. One could actually point the finger at caffeine in general but I don't feel so bad about the cups of coffee I consume while at work. But the diet coke kills me. It's gross! I don't know why I feel the need every afternoon to crack one open, but there it is. I hate the taste of aspartamine but for some reason crave diet coke like clockwork.

My justification goes like this: we all need a little afternoon pick me up. Since I have a cup of morning coffee I just don't want it later in the day. A can of regular coke has way too much sugar, so enter it's evil diet counterpart.

I guess I shouldn't feel so bad about it. I mean it's not like I'm smoking cigarettes or partaking in the desk gin mid-day. It's just a little fake sweetener, it never hurt anyone. Right? Right!?!?

I am dying to post here all about Miami and Ivy's first adventures in the great big ocean, but to do so requires pictures and since both my camera AND computer are now broken this will not be happening anytime soon.

So I'll post instead about music. We love music in our household. My parents exposed me to a wide variety of music growing up, everything from classical to classic rock. Jon is the same so needless to say baby Ivy is exposed to a wide variety of tunes. She was, after all, born to Bob Marley.

After reading about it on Bebehblog, I got the Rockabye baby Lullaby renditions of Metallica CD. This is probably the only "kids" music we have on file right now.It's so great - totally soothing for Ivy and Jon and I have the best time trying to figure out just which Metallica song we are listening too.

Ivy has a playlist of reggae she falls asleep to almost every night. It contains awesome mellow songs like "Ketchy Shuby" by Peter Tosh which I LOVE to sing to her,"Hush Darling" by Gregory Issacs; "Young Generation" by Desmond Dekker and "Mellow Mood" by Bob Marley which is like a lullaby anyway ("Quiet is the night....please...turn out the light....I'll play your favorite song...darling...we can rock it all night long darling...'coz I've got love darling...love sweet love darling"). Sure, as she gets older I may want to rethink lulling her to sleep with "legalize it" by Peter Tosh, but for now nothing puts her to sleep faster than some soothing reggae.

But she's not just a tiny rasta in training. She loves the Beatles (Hi, Octopus's Garden, Piggies and Rocky Raccoon), The Ramones, and the O'Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack. Our daytime playlist contains everything from Billy Idol ("Dancing with Myself") to Beyonce and she's been known to sing along to "D'yer Mak'er" by Led Zeppelin (Oh, oh oh oh oh oh...)

And you can adapt just about anything to a silly song for baby. Case in point "Come on Eileen" which I change to "Come on Ivy, oh I think you should sleep, 'coz I know that you're tired so come on Ivy...look at those eyes, oh they're starting to droop, so come on Ivy"

So, until she's ready for whatever tween sensation Disney is pushing on the children (God help us) she's pretty content to Rock out with Mom and Dad.

Going back to work and having an incredibly limited amount of my old work clothing to wear has made me feel like I want to start getting bitten by the fitness bug. Also adding to this: the fact that I am going to Miami, a beach place and will still be wearing my maternity bathing suit (It's not that bad I just haven't been motivated enough to go buy a new suit and there is no way in HELL that I would try to wear one of my older suits)

However, there are several obstacles to this, the most prominent of which is my time. As in, I don't have any of it to dedicate to working out the way I used to. See, long before I got preggo there was a time when I was pretty fit. My gym (crunch) offered a wide variety of great classes, and I was an avid yogi with a weekly dose of something hard core like either an ultimate conditioning class, or something way crazy like cardio tai box or yoga ride - which was 45 minuted of beginner spin with 45 minutes of yoga following. I peppered that with a few days of cardio on the machines or circuit training.

But, several months before I got preggo I got lazy and was paying crunch alot of money for a little workout there. In the early stages of pregnancy I tried working out, but as I chronicled here, I was so damn tired that even 20 minutes on the treadmill was too much. SO I froze my membership (until December actually).

But the problem with the old routine is that there were very specific classes at exact times. These days I am lucky to get out the door at a set time even when I plan for 2 hours of getting ready. I think I should get a medal for just getting to work at the required time every morning!

And also, there's childcare while I am working out. Maybe I could get to the gym once or twice a week, but not the 3-4 times a week I was used to. Unless I get up super early in the am (like 5 am), but that's just crazytalk.

Now, you may read this and think I am just making excuses for being lazy, but I'm not!! I do have long walks with the baby at least 3 times a week, which is good.

Tonight I decided I'd give Wii Fit a try. I yelled several times at the set up " I just had a freaking baby" as it took in my height and weight and told me my BMI makes me obese, and my Wii fit age is 41. Yeah, what? 10 years older than I am Did I mention I just had a freaking baby?

The workout itself was kind of annoying and I can't wait until I 'unlock' the part where I can do an actual continuous workout instead of isolated strength training or yoga. I did have tons of fun with the hula hoop game, and believe it or not my old obese ass* actually worked up a sweat. The Wii cyber trainer they give you is weird and annoyhing and repeats herself a lot. I also feel like some of the excerise might be weird to do on that little balance board -but we'll seee.

Since the Wii fit is at home I can work in (out) when it's convenient to me which is a big bonus I guess. I gave myself a reasonable 'goal' to be healthy according to Wii, so we'll see how I do.

*hahahaha I crack myself up

In a few weeks, Jon, Ivy and I will be going to Miami for this. Yes, this means taking the baby for her first plane ride. I had the choice of purchasing a seat for Ivy that I could strap her car seat base into and have her travel that way. Since we waited until the last possible minute to book though, we chose not to do that. If the flight isn't fully booked we will get a seat next to an empty seat, but if it is, then it's infant in arms for us. Although, to keep me rational I am going to have her strapped to my chest in the ergo baby carrier. I've been carrying her around the house in it so she can get used to long periods of time in it. We are seeing her pediatrician so I'll ask him for any tips and suggestions for flying with the baby.

It's not so much the flight that is bothering me as it is the stuff I am going to have to travel with and how the heck am I going to get it all there - especially since I'm sure we will have to pay for every bag we check.We are going to be in sunny Florida for a week. And there's so much stuff! A week with no washing machine!

It's hard enough to go away for a few days. I am packing the entire back of the car when we go see my mom for just a weekend. And the real challenge is, some of the things I can just throw in the back of the car are not as easy when it's air travel we're talking about. I guess we will have to do without the bouncy chair for a week. How can Ivy go an entire week without her beloved bouncy chair? I guess we may have to figure out how to dismantle and pack it. But the bags can't be too heavy or else the airline will charge the shit out of us! And we still have to bring our stuff for the week. Did I mention no washing machine? I guess I am going to have to find a lundremat or something because I'm not sure the three of us (or Ivy and I at least) can go for a week with no laundrey.

But it should be fun and I'm looking forward to a week near the beach! Even if it's going to be drastically different than my last beach vacation in Florida!

Starting last week I have been going back to work on a not really full time basis. I spend most of the day in the office on the 2 week days that Jon is off, and for now, on the days he works I go in early and work until 12:30. Then I go downtown and meet him at the tattoo shop, where we do "the handoff" with Ivy. After I pick her up, I usually head back to Brooklyn, and try to do some work from home. I say try because since this routine has started, my little girl has become one seriously fussy baby in the afternoons. Luckily, most of what I do is emailing, so it doesn't matter if she's crying in the background.

Being back at the office has been ok. The hardest thing is trying to fit in my pumping schedule while trying to get as much done as I can in the short time I'm there. My boss has been away so I've been using his office which is hilarious to me. One of my co-workers had a baby a month before me, so she set up one of the unused offices (with a locking door) as a pumping room which I'll have to start using now that my boss is back in town.

It's nice to see all my coworkers, and today Jon dropped the baby off at the office so everyone could meet her and talk in really high-pitched voices to her. I guess the hardest thing for me (and probably Ivy) is being away from the baby. I miss all our cuddle time, and since I'm usually already up and getting ready when she gets up, Jon handles her first am feeding and gets her when she's the most pleasant. I'm also kinda pissed I can't watch Days of Our Lives anymore (shut up).

I am also finding that not as much is getting done. Actually, let me correct that: the little that was getting done when I was home is now no longer getting done. So basically, nothing is getting done. Jon does great with cleaning and laundrey on his days off, but the rest of the week the place is in the shit can.

Another challenge is my wardrobe. My maternity clothes are getting too big, and also, they're mostly summer things but I'm not yet fitting into my old stuff (or even close for that matter). I have one pair of pre-pregnancy jeans that fit, and a few shirts but that's it. I suppose I should just break down and buy new work wear in bigger sizes, as drawstring pants and loose t-shirts are not really office appropriate.

It's not that pleasant taking her home on the subway either. There's an elevator at the stop nears Jon's work but not at our home stop in Brooklyn so that means carrying my 15 + pound baby and the 17 pound stroller up the stairs, not to mention all the crap I carry around for me and the baby. And nobody ever offers help! Actually once this old guy offered help but I had just seen him drinking whiskey on the train (at 1 in the afternoon!) so I told him I was fine, thanks.

Hopefully soon we can figure out some kind of schedule that doesn't involve 3 days of this, but for now, Ivy is a commuter. She's the classic New Yorker too - she sleeps! I guess soon I'll have to get her a tiny iPod :D

So Breastfeeding never worked out the way I hoped. It was a combination of latching problems, which I solved with the use of a nipple shield, and the fact that Ivy is a lazy nurser. She snacks! Like, she'd spend 20 minutes nursing, fall asleep or otherwise become disinterested, and then 20 minutes later would be hungry again.

I'd been pumping and giving her bottles so we eventually just fell into a pattern of bottle feeding pumped breastmilk with the occasional formula bottle thrown in there. I just felt like when I was trying to nurse her exclusively I constantly had her attached to me. Now I'm back to work and it's been like a month since I've even tried to nurse her. I suppose I could have tried harder to stick with it, not offering bottles and getting her to nurse constantly until she "got" it. Shoulda, woulda, coulda didn't .

I'm not super down about it, the most important thing to me was that she got breastmilk because of all the benefits, and we're accomplishing this. Yes, it is sort of a pain in the ass to be pumping all the time, and don't even get me started on waiting to warm up a bottle that's been stored in the fridge while Ivy wails away in hunger. Not to mention the cleaning and sterilizing bottles or making sure I have enough milk with me when we go somewhere.

But all in all, everyone's happy. Ivy certainly isn't having any problems growing. I don't feel like I cheated her out of an important thing - she's getting breastmilk, growing like crazy, hasn't gotten sick or an ear infection and now daddy and other family get to feed her while mommy goes off to relax.

Today was Ivy's 2 month checkup , even though she's 2 and 1/2 months now her initial appointment was the day my dad was admitted to the hospital. I almost fell over when she got weighed and weighed in at.....are you ready for this?

15 pounds 4 ounces

Yeah, um my infant is a giant. She's 25 inches long and I don't remember what her head measured but I can guarantee it was just as big as the rest of her. The Dr. actually said "WOW! She's off the charts!" When he came in. He then said that she was healthy and didn't want us to worry that she was headed for obesity. I told him how much she eats and everything. She's right on target developmentally, and he even commented on how strong she was when he was testing her whatever by pulling her up by her arms. He was surprised when I said she sleeps through the night and even commented that "Now you can enjoy her" since we're all well rested (What?). When we asked about starting solids he said "With this one you can probably start around 4 months - though if you want you can wait until 6 months".

Then came the immunizations. No, I am not one of those crazy people who think vaccines = autism and for my childs sake, not to mention the sake of other children she'll be exposed to we are getting her vaccinated for everything. She got 3 shots today and had to drink something for Rotavirus. The shots, of course were combined for a whole bunch of stuff I won't remember but what stuck out was Hep B, Pertussis, and Polio. As soon as the first jab was over she started to scream her little head off. By the time the third one was done she was totally red and completely upset. I cuddled her and soother her, though she continued to cry while we strapped her back into her car seat and snapped it into the stroller. By the time we got to the elevator she was smiling again. She was so pleasant in fact that we stopped and had bagel for breakfast on the way home. When we got home, she fell asleep.

I thought to myself that she was handling this well. Perhaps a little too well. Once she woke from her little nap she began to wail. And Wail, and wail. The kind of crying that makes her whole body turn red and the funny gurgling noises come from her throat because she's crying so hard she's gurgling her spit.

Lucky for me she's been sleeping most of the day, though when she wakes up it's back to wailing. She gets so upset she can barely eat, although she has eaten her normal amount of times so far (Hey she's got to maintain her figure!)

We went for a walk and although she didn't sleep much she didn't wail too much either. Until we began our final ascent up the hill home. Then she cried so hard all my neighbors looked at me like "What the fuck are you doing to that baby?" Except for the other mothers - they kind of gave me a sympathetic look. I should have just hung a little sign on her stroller that say "I got immunizations today".

I'm not sure how to start this. For the past week and a 1/2 my father has been in the ICU. He went into the ER early last Wednesday with chest pain (I know) and was initially diagnosed with pneumonia. Which compared to now seems so easy to treat. But no. It's somehow morphed into an infection in his blood AND lungs and to him being hooked up to a ventilator and a feeding tube and pretty much in critical condition. We rushed down Wednesday after we heard and have pretty much been living at my moms since.

It's been hard in a million ways, but one of the hardest, as a new parent is the feeling that I never ever want my precious little girl to have to deal with what I am dealing with now. I never want her to have to see me hooked up to a million tubes and machines and I never want her to have to feel, from day to day from minute to minute that she may loose a parent. It makes me want to get into the best shape of my life so that nothing can possibly ever go wrong. Then I realize this is impossible because even if I do everything in my control to ensure her parents perfect health, there are so many things beyond my control that can land me in a hospital bed and land her in the position I am in right now.

Although we've brought all of her stuff here like the bouncy chair and everything she loves from home, I know she can sense the stress and sadness that is coursing through me, her dad, her Grandma and her Auntie. She hasn't been her champion self soothing self when going to sleep, and she's generally been fussier than usual. I've been putting in long hours at the hospital and she's probably not used to being away from me for so long (and I'm not used to being away from her for that long either!!) I cannot express to you how fucking good it feels to cuddle my little girl after a long visit at the hospital.

A few days ago, I needed a break so I didn't go to the hospital at all, and spent the day with Jon and Ivy. We took a long walk that afternoon, and on the way back, she needed a diaper change. As I was changing her and powdering her up, Jon came up behind us and started to tell me I wasn't putting enough powder on her. So he started to shake more powder on her, and just then she laughed her first laugh. And of course, it made us laugh. And the she laughed some more like she knew this is just what I needed. It was so insanely well timed on her part it's like her little baby brain thought "Jeez mom's been so down lately let me just do something I've never done before that happens to be super cute in order to cheer her up".

*As an update, when I started this post last week my dad was in worse condition than he is now. While the Dr's caution us that he is still in critical condition, he has been stabilizing and making major improvements, like keeping his blood pressure up on a reduced amount of meds and he is responding more to us. Please keep us in your thoughts and send your positive vibrations our way*

Well my 5 year old mac G4 powerbook has up and died. And by died I mean the screen went completely grey the other day and when I restarted it all I got was a little folder with a ? On it. I looked up some tech support on the apple website usong my iPod but none of their tricks worked. This really gets my goat for 2 reasons. The first is we recently invested a few hundred $'s to upgrade the memory and OS. The second is my maternity leave is over in a few weeks (waaahhh!) And I want to be able to work from home sometimes but this is impossible with just my blackberry (which I am using to type this post). We are going into the city on Thursday for various things and are going to take it to tekserve to see what they say. Hopefully at the very least they can save Ivy's baby pictures!!

Anyway we had a lovely morning at Long Beach today. We got there super early since we figured we'd rather spend some time outside before the noon time heat wave kicked in. It was really lovely probably about 10 degrees cooler than Brooklyn so we had a nice relaxing am outside as opposed to being holed up inside with the AC on. Now I have a nice tan and a very content sleeping baby! Making the most out of my final days of maternity leave!

A while ago I stumbled on Cafe mom - an iVillage like website for moms (I think I actually saw someone on the Today show promoting it). I decided to give it a whirl and created a username so I could sign in and check out some of the message boards. I thought I might even post, share this here blog and actually get some advice. Ha!

What I actually found are a bunch of crazy rambling judgey weirdos*. Dude, no, seriously. It works kind of like facebook but with most of the interaction happening on the message boards. People have these 'signatures' that they can leave on the end of their posts and replies. Some are just one of those cute Lilypie ticker things saying how pregnant they are or how old their baby is, but some people feel the need to have some sort of collage of pictures of them with their husbands and kids and it will say, in fancy glitter text something to the effect of "Wife of Joe Schmo and loving mom to so and so". Sometimes they also feel the need to tell their life story. No Joke! These people literally post PARAGRAPHS with their views on everything from Crying it out (or, in message board speak CIO - seriously everything has an abbreviation like that), to delaying solids to their baby's poop or their views on abortion. Some even add non-mom related thing like they support the Iraq war. I'm not kidding! In a freaking signature that appears EVERY TIME you post or respond to someone in a message board. Not like, on their profile page or anything. Like you need to know this information in order to read their response.

Also, the advice people give and the blatant disregard for facts people seem to have- mostly in the BFing group (see what I did there?) is pure insanity. Like, this woman wrote a post and she was obviously having a lot of problems feeding her baby and was considering supplementing with formula. She wrote something like "well my baby isn't gaining weight and I figured supplementing with formula would help and after all formula never killed anyone LOL" and people freaked the fuck out in response to her. Someone actually wrote "Yes, formula has killed babies - even in this country and it has been linked to other problems like childhood obesity and even cancer." Uh, okay lady. I just hope this poor woman who was having the issue and considered supplementing got some advice from some real life rational people.

There's also this woman who is a lactation 'counselor' by hobby (not a certified lactation consultant) and consistently responds to people posts with gems of wisdom like "Your Dr. is WRONG I would find a new one" or "IGNORE the growth charts you baby is doing just fine" or "Find a NEW lactation consultant this one obviously doesn't know what she's talking about". I mean really lady? Are you going to be that irresponsible by posting this shit to someone who is already probably distraught over the troubles they are having. You're probably just making it worse by telling them that their trusted medical professional is wrong and they should find a new one. I just hope the women who are seeking out advice know to take what these people post with a big grain of salt.

I thought I might actually be able to use this to connect with other moms and get some legitimate advice but so far not so much. I even joined a Brooklyn moms group but most of the posts are people selling their used baby gear or promoting their over-priced granola mommy classes/ services. Kind of like the Sunset Park parents yahoo group I joined, although this one IS a little more useful and some posts actually are about the things I am looking for like activities for moms and kids and community info.

Now, don't get me wrong - there is nothing wrong with sharing (or over sharing as in the case of some of the posts on this here blog) things on the internet. I mean, I have internet 'friends' that i made posting as a commenter on Jezebel and other blogs. I know that this here blog is 'out there' and anyone can come and read my rambling posts about baby poop and bouncy chairs but I do not feel the need to overrun message boards with my own brand of crazy I guess. Also: how do these moms have time for all these posts? I started writing this last night and have been interrupted about 50 times and even had to throw in the towel and go to bed last night before I go finish this, not to mention the dishes, laundry, etc. I can barely read or comment on any of my favorite blogs anymore let alone jump onto a message board to tell like 5 different people that their Dr's are wrong and their baby will get fat and possibly die if they even bring a container of formula into their house.

*please note I am not writing off EVERYONE on Cafe mom as crazy judgey and weird, but seriously? go read it for yourselves. Mostly the breastfeeding group but kind of everywhere.

Yesterday was 7 weeks since Ivy was born. Every day, I marvel at the fact that we made her. I mean, just looking at her, it's pretty obvious that she is mine and Jon's child, but it's still mind blowing that this perfect little being grew inside me.

She is really starting to develop, going from a newborn who sleeps a lot and cries sometimes to an active little baby with a huge personality. Her party trick of the week is to imitate her dad when he smacks his lips, opening and closing his mouth. It is so cute to watch them go back and forth. She is also starting to really vocalize more, making aaaa and mmmm sounds as opposed to just sounds. And the smiles! I think she is beginning to get the hang of having a 'conversation' with smiles. She usually greets us with a huge one when she wakes up in the morning.

Speaking of waking up, she has been, for now, consistently sleeping at least 6 -7 hours through the night. Occasionally she'll wake up in the middle of the night, or get up earlier than usual, but even then she goes back to sleep pretty quickly. She has her long naps throughout the day, but spends more 'awake' time with us.

I also noticed that she is just beginning to purposely grab at things beyond her reflex to just grasp something that brushes her palm. She'll grab at Jon's bangles or chain when he's holding her. When she's on her tummy time mat, which has some toys connected to it by those little plastic links, she will grab at the links and shake them. I've also seen her grab at a few of her rattles and the little barking dog that hangs in her stroller. I think when she swats at the toys that hang from her play gym and bouncy chair toy bar it's still just an 'accident' but she's definitely working towards some hand - eye coordination.

She loves going places and the car ride especially. Her walks in the park in the stroller are also a favorite. This weekend she's going to have her first trip to the beach - we got her a little 'sun dome' tent that's SPF 50 to keep her sun and sand free and I'm sure she's going to have a good time. Here's a picture of her at the 68th Street pier watching Daddy fish (or try to fish with a broken arm)




It has been such an amazing journey so far and I cannot wait to continue it - although I am going to cherish these early moments as I know it won't be long until she's starting high school.

Really? They make this shit? GUCCI makes baby gear? Really ugly, stupid, overpriced baby gear. This goes beyond ugly $1200 Stokke strollers, which I guess you could almost convince yourself was worth the money because hey, everyone needs a stroller.

But an $895 baby carrier? Really? And I bet that shit is NOT friendly to your back either. It's just covered in the Gucci logo. And that's all that matters! It only cost like 8 times what the super comfy Ergo baby carrier does. And like 80 times what the uber-awesome Maya Ring Sling does. But it's got a logo plastered all over it!

Even more ridiculous? Gucci baby shoes. Yes for only $195 your baby, who doesn't actually need to wear shoes can rock Gucci shoes. Sad part about this is I think I have actually seen these on someones baby before.

Look, if you're going to spend this much money on something because it's Gucci, why not spend it on a handbag? Because at least this is something you might get more use out of than a baby carrier or baby shoes. If you must spend this kind of money on something related to your baby at least get the Gucci diaper bag. Though I've been pretty happy using the free diaper bag the formula company gave me at the hospital (though I could use something a bit bigger but the price was right on this one).

But seriously? All of this stuff is just about as "necessary" as $250 Designer maternity jeans. Oh and Gucci thinks so highly of your child that on their website this is all listed under a section called "Baby & Pet" Yep. Your baby gear is right up there with designer dog leashes, dog carriers, and dog beds. Because, hey, baby, dog, these little things are just extensions of yourself and your status and you must show everyone how fashionable you are and how much money you have by paying exorbitant amounts of money on stupid crap for them.

The most ridiculous part of this is that I found it linked on a blog called "Mom's need answers" (which I foolishly clicked on through a facebook ad). And after perusing some of the so called "answers" moms need, it seems it is only a blog about stuff you should buy. There is a forum I guess where you may find actual answers but I was too disgusted by the blog to read on.

Since we've had a baby in the house I have learned to do everything fast.

Quick! The baby's asleep and she might only stay asleep for the next 15 minutes. Jon watch her while I get in the shower! Forget about leg shaving and shampooing your hair!! Just get as clean as you can in 5 minutes.

Hurry! Eat your dinner while it's still hot and she's relatively quiet and in her bouncy chair. Eat it all before the fussing turns into full blown crying!! No kidding. I have scarfed down entire meals in about 10 minutes. Probably not great for the digestive system but at least I got it while it's hot. I've also gotten a new appreciation for cold food. And then there was this evening when we were eating one of my favorite things - a whole grilled fish. You cannot rush this or else you'll end up with bones in your throat. So we just ignored the crying towards the end of the meal. Hey I wouldn't be a very good mom if I was incapacitated due to choking on fish bones.

Then there are the late night/ early morning feedings where even the baby appreciates doing things fast. She eats, burps and by the time I'm done changing her she is fast asleep.

The only things these days that don't happen in warp speed happen to be enjoying time with my little baby. I could stare at her while she sleeps for hours that is, if I don't fall asleep myself doing so. I can sit around and make funny noises at her forever just to see one of her little smiles. I can hold her and rock her and sing Bob Marley songs for ages just so she feels content. Basically, the only things I'm not rushing these days is time with my precious little one.

When we first brought Ivy home and she was all new and freaked out by being out of the womb, we used to swaddle her ever night before we put her to sleep. There are these great blankets made by Kiddopottamus called 'swaddle me' which have velcro tabs and a little pouch at the bottom for baby's legs - they basically do the swaddling for you. (Disclaimer: Jon is an expert at wrapping her in a swaddle with a regular blanket. When I do it she immediately pops out and is flailing her arms and legs about). As she got older and the weather got hotter, we stopped this practice and she would fall asleep on her own just fine.

Yesterday, she hardly slept during the day. Usually she'll nap after she gets up and eats for a while and then for several hours in the afternoon. She also without fail will fall asleep in her stroller when we got for afternoon walks. But not yesterday - she slept maybe for like 3 hours total and since it was raining and shitty out no walk to put her to sleep. SO by the evening we had one very fussy baby on our hands. We got her to nap a bit and then at about 9 gave her a bath, which is another sure fire way to send her off to dreamland. After her bath she ate and then was very gassy, so she didn't actually fall into a good sleep until about 11:30. Since it was kind of chilly last night and she was so fussy I thought a good swaddle was in order.

SO I strapped her in the blankie and laid her down. And she slept. And slept. And slept until 6 am and actually it was more like 7 when she finally got up. Yes, my internal body clock woke up at 6 and was all "Time to feed the baby" and was shocked to discover she was sound asleep. I mean sound too - she was not cooing or moving around like she normally does when she's lightly sleeping. Homegirl was out . Jon woke up and couldn't believe it. I asked him if her diaper had leaked in the night he said " I don't think so but I'm not about to wake her up to find out". We are in a transition of sizes with the disposables we use and lately she's been waking up in a mess - but not last night! Her too small newborn size diaper actually held it in for this wonderful sleep last night. So he got up and made tea and I rolled over and slept for another 45 minutes.

I cannot tell you how magical this 6 1/2 hours of sleep was after an especially rough day and the past few night of no more than 3 consecutive hours of sleep at a time. Not to mention she looked so cute in her little swaddle - like a little caterpillar. I wanted to take a picture but wasn't about to stick a camera in her face at 7 am, I thought it might be nice of me to get her fed before she properly woke up and got aggro about the fact she hadn't eaten for 6 1/2 hours. Oh and our next size up diapers were delivered today by diapers.com so no more messy nights.

There's a list of things that have happened since I had the baby that have been awesome which I would like to celebrate here:

• The complete flood of love and joy I feel every time I look into Ivy's eyes. Also, watching her sleep. I don't know why but I can stare at her endlessly while she sleeps. That is, unless I fall asleep myself. Sleeping babies have that effect on me. And then there's the laundry list of cute things she does which I would have to write a whole separate blog post about.


• I can see my ankle bones again and appear to have normal sized feet! I can wear shoes that are not flip flops and my flip flops fit properly!!


• I have been able to have a cocktail and or/ a beer/ glass of wine. Trust me that this is more magical than you can imagine. The cocktail more than the beer or wine because I did allow myself the occasional glass of wine or beer here and there during the pregnancy. And don't worry I make sure I have hours worth of pumped breast milk or formula for the baby when this happens.


• I can socialize and not feel the need to complain about my swollen feet, aching back, sciatica, or any other ailment that plagued me during my pregnancy. I also don't have to talk about the impending birth and answer a bunch of questions about things like epidurals. Now everyone just wants to know the birth story and the weight of the baby when she was born!


• My body is no longer open territory for strangers to talk to me about / project their pregnancy tales onto/ judge me for doing X while 9 months pregnant/ ask me stupid questions or questions that are none of their damn business. Now they just judge my parenting skills! Luckily, on the latter it is usually done silently (or I haven't yet experienced the mouthy person who feels the need to tell me that I really shouldn't have my one month old baby on the boardwalk at Coney Island)


• I actually looked forward to getting weighed at my Dr's appointment yesterday. And with good reason as I lost more weight than I expected in this first month - I know, I know - most of it was probably baby related and water weight but I am excited to be close to what I weighed when I first got pregnant. Especially since I gained so much. My Dr. actually cracked me up when she told me what my weight was in the beginning and said i was close to it and I asked "Then how come my jeans don't fit yet?" (Yes, I DID try my old jeans on) and she replied" Well, you know the weight you put on shifts around and settles in different places you know."

There are, of course, a few things that have happened since I'm not pregnant anymore that I have not been so jazzed about:

• I'm still wearing maternity clothes. While I have definitely retired some of the more tent like attire, I don't fit into my old summer clothes and can't/ don't want to spend $ on new clothes. Luckily, some of the summer maternity stuff I bought is kind of not so maternity-ish. I have 3 pairs of capris that just have a small elastic waist band and a drawstring. So it's not like I'm still wearing pants with a huge belly panel on them (not that I actually bought any of these).


• Changing the litter box again (this is due to Jon's broken arm)


• Riding the subway (ok I know I rode the subway to work throughout my pregnancy but for like over a month I haven't had to go anywhere on the subway and it was gloooorious)


• Experiencing complete and utter exhaustion while the baby does not want to sleep, eat, burp, or stop crying


• Trying to remember to talk about non-baby related things to my friends that don't have kids. Because I'm pretty certain while they may find my poop tales hilarious they are probably not so entertained by things like how great diapers.com is or which baby wipes I like the best. Plus I don't want to be like these people.


• Thinking about going back to work. I'm kind of 50/50 about this. While I do sort of miss my job (Did I just say that!?!) the thought of leaving her for a day breaks my heart. I'm glad I don't have to confront this for another 5 or so weeks, and I will start back slow so it doesn't end up being 40 hours a week away from her.


• Finally, though it hasn't happened yet, I'm not looking forward to getting my period again!