Earth Babies Blog

Archive for the ‘General’ Category

Change Meaning and Definition

(v. t.) A passing from one phase to another; as, a change of the moon.
(v. t.) To alter; to make different; to cause to pass from one state to another; as, to change the position, character, or appearance of a thing; to change the countenance.
(v. i.) To be altered; to undergo variation; as, men sometimes change for the better.
(v. t.) Any variation or alteration; a passing from one state or form to another; as, a change of countenance; a change of habits or principles.

How do you handle change, does it throw you, excite you, simply take it in your stride?

I don’t do well with change. My gut reaction to any change is to fight it with everything i have till I can fight no more and then i will accept and move on – makes no sense why not just skip the fight part!?

Change makes me feel unhappy and unsettled (even if the change is in fact a good one). Some people find my reaction to change specifically positive change difficult to understand (aversion to negative change is kind of acceptable) – but merely the fact that because something around me has changed means that I HAVE to change how i do or relate to things and this is what is unsettling. I did not ask for the change, hardly ever expect the change and yet with no warning, request or support I am meant to accept it and go with it.

I think I am getting better about change though as I have in the past few years had quite a bit of practice.

My little family is again on the brink of change – we will be moving sometime in the new year. The glitch is I don’t know where too – we are still waiting to see where hub will work next and the chances of it being here are minimal. Despite not knowing where the change will take us I am a little excited about it.

But I have come to realise that though this kind of change does not upset me like it used to other change still knocks me spinning. A friend of mine has in the last months gone through many changes in her immediate circumstances and the roll-over of these changes though I have tried my best to be supportive have thrown me and I have realised I have been fighting them trying to keep things as they were because it is what I know and feel safest with rather than simply accepting and moving along with them. They are not bad changes simply things that were to me unexpected and different. I had let the years of knowing her create a little box and the idea of that box changing form threw me – I and others I think need to let go, forget, accept and love.

I lLike these quotes and tips (if you follow the link to next page) on dealing with change and stress – think I need to remind myself of these.

“Of all the rights of women, the greatest is to be a mother.”
Lin Yutang

(got this by email a long time ago)

Drooling: How teething babies wash their chins.

Dumbwaiter: One who asks if the kids would care to order dessert.

Family planning: The art of spacing your children the proper distance apart to keep you on the edge of financial disaster

Feedback: The inevitable result when the baby doesn’t appreciate the strained carrots.

Full name: What you call your child when you’re mad at him.

Grandparents: The people who think your children are wonderful even though they’re sure you’re not raising them right.

Hearsay: What toddlers do when anyone mutters a dirty word.

Impregnable: A woman whose memory of labour is still vivid.

Independent: How we want our children to be as long as they do everything we say.

Look out: What it’s too late for your child to do by the time you scream it.

Prenatal: When your life was still somewhat your own.

Prepared childbirth: A contradiction in terms.

Puddle: A small body of water that draws other small bodies wearing dry shoes into it.

Show off: A child who is more talented than yours.

Sterilize: What you do to your first baby’s pacifier by boiling it and to your last baby’s pacifier by blowing on it.

Storeroom: The distance required between the supermarket aisles so that children in shopping carts can’t quite reach anything.

Temper tantrums: What you should keep to a minimum so as to not upset the children.

Top bunk: Where you should never put a child wearing Superman jammies.

Two-minute warning: When the baby’s face turns red and she begins to make those familiar grunting noises.

Verbal: Able to whine in words

Whodunit: None of the kids that live in your house.

Whoops: An exclamation that translates roughly into “get a sponge.”

On Saturday past Sally and I thought it would be fun to take part in the 5km Walk against Breast Cancer held at the Johannesburg Zoo.

We pre-registered, I thought this would make things easier in terms of just being able to show your registration papers and going in vs standing in lines to pay on the day. And I have to admit the promise of a goodie bag for pre-registrations also appealed. (Ironically it would have been much less stress and faster to have simply paid on the day)

We took our kids (brave Sally took 4 – her own and 2 friends) with because it was at the zoo, would be a fun family day out (I had done the same distance with the kids before at the Pretoria zoo so knew it was doable as the animals kept the kids entertained and motivated) and we would be supporting a worthwhile and close to home cause. I kindly invited husband dear along as it was going to be nice to do as a family …. bliss.

Sadly the reality fell a bit short of our ideas and intentions. There were 1000’s on 1000’s of people that attended. We got stuck in very slow traffic around the zoo, ended up after lots of driving around having to park 3 blocks away on a pavement and walk to the registration area.

Sally was already in the lines to get their entry tickets and bags (thanks to her beautiful pink hair, we found them in the masses quite easily). The sign in process had been divided into groups according to your surnames and Sally was right at the back of an incredibly long 3 person deep line for A-D’s.

We pushed, maneuvered and probably pissed people off with our 2 kids and a pram through the aimless milling crowds to first go to the toilet (desperation called) before searching for the end of the line of our own long line of 3 people deep j-l group. Thankfully our line was not as long as Sally’s and we were well ahead of her.

More than an hour+ later – about a half hour past the walks starting time; after some crying and moaning (mostly by the children) and a placating sucker each for breakfast we got to the front of the line to pick up our little pink tickets, have our names checked off their list and get our goodie bags which basically were Avon & Justine Marketing material, an old edition of Shape magazine and a T-shirt each (not even in the size requested in the preregistration) we were done – amazingly at the same time as Sally.

Once inside we realised that the walk did not even take place within the relative safety of the zoo but was actually out on the road, we decided that we had done our part (the hardest part) for charity and were going to simply take the kids around the zoo than torture them further – they were already tired and miserable a 5km walk would not go down well.
The kids had fun in the end, was a nice enough morning BUT next year I will pay my fee and NOT go to the walk. Maybe when my children are all grown up and out of the house I will brave that experience again.

Breast Cancer Walk at the Zoo Fail
Female to Female

Today I was given a compliment, one of those I want to remind myself of often over the years to come as it was positive, lifted my spirits and is the first ambiguous compliment that i have received that had a more positive than negative effect on me.

This got me to thinking of how children don’t at first seem to need compliments to validate themselves, this only comes later as society pressures, disappointments and failure cause self doubt to creep in.

If I tell my children they are beautiful, so very clever, handsome, special, gorgeous they accept it as if it is a given there is no modesty just a simple “Ya I know!” … I love this about them and sometimes wish as adults we could maintain that same sense of self love.

The compliment I received today was from Laura (Harassed Mom) who said ‘I am like an unopened jewellery box’ … nice hey Ü! Thanks Laura it is honestly going to be that little sentence I say to myself when I feel self doubt as just the idea puts a smile on my face and a lift in my spirits.

How important is it to you as a South African consumer that products you buy are made in South Africa? Imports are often a lot cheaper but how much extra are people willing to pay to support industry in South Africa or is price the bottom line? These questions have been going around in my head as we once again face this dilemma ourselves as we source fabric for our nappies.

We try as far as possible to make Earth Babies as South African as possible and to support other businesses here in South Africa. It has not always been easy and especially with the fabric we use to make our nappies it has been hard to keep it local, but we did find a SA weaver and were proud that our nappies are made start to finish in SA. But even this might be a thing of the past soon as very few local weavers survive at the moment and most fabric is imported. Price and ultimately if these small weavers close might force us to import which is sad.

Please fill in our poll as I would love to see what motivates you when buying.

I did not have a good night last night, thus the topic on my mind. It seems sleep is one of the main things that parents obsess about. My husband is currently working away from home and when we chat, our sleep from the previous night is one of the first topics of conversation – me being envious of his 3 nights a week un-child interrupted sleep and his I suppose being envious of us all sleeping in HIS bed (there is no bed like home they say).

I am one of those parents other new parents hate when they ask – “So when did they start sleeping through?” (the most common question asked by and of new parents).
Both my babies were absolute angels and slept ‘through’ (a solid 8-10 hours a night from about 6 weeks).
Rafe would go to sleep at about 11pm and sleep till 7am then wake for a feed and then we would sleep together till about 9am (Heaven, a well rested mom).
Kara would go to sleep at about 7pm (great some quality adult time not too late could be had), and sleep till around 4am then wake for a feed and then we would nap till about 6am – also good a nice earlier start to the day. Life with babies was all good.

BUT here is the twist in the tail. Both my children started waking more often the older they got – so where we got great sleep before, we are now getting very interrupted and sometimes little sleep … it is all a process though. I may moan about it, be grouchy on some days and have hissy-fits some nights when Kara decides at 2am we must get up now, but it is not something I would specifically try and change. They have their reasons for waking and needing to be close and if we give them what they need now maybe by 20+ they will be able to sleep on their own … or find a new bedpartner to kick awake.

We have some great articles on our site regarding sleep solutions – FAQ’s regarding sleep provided by Erica Neser and a range from the No Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley so if sleeplessness is really getting you down and you need some perspective and tips on how to improve things read these as a starting point.

Erica Neser is a South African author of Sleep Guide for Babies and Toddlers – I read her first release which was a slim guide, very easy to read for a sleep deprived mom and I got through it in a night. I liked it as it gave me immediate answers and also put into perspective that it was me (pre the 6 week onward sleep bliss) that had a sleep problem and not my baby. She touches on all the sleep solution approaches out there – some i personally would not use or encourage – but she does approach them all with the focus of being gentle, realistic and loving towards your baby which I liked.

Erica Neser Sleep Guide

Elizabeth Pantley is the author of a wonderful range of ‘No Cry’ parenting books – specifically The No Cry Sleep Solution – loved this book though I did read it when I no longer felt I had a problem and was not feeling so sleep deprived – it is a bit of a longer read but an approach to ’sleep training’ that i feel happy with and recommend this approach above all others when asked.

Elizabeth Pantley's No Cry Sleep Solution

I was asked to be Great Expectations Spring Day show last week. For those who don’t know the show it is a parenting show presented by Samantha Cowen. They wanted a mom who had walked the talk on all things natural, and while I am far from the perfect eco mom I agreed to go and talk about natural parenting and try to be green.

Surprisingly I was not even nearly as nervous on the day as I thought I would be. Once you get there it is off to make up. Wow I had more make up plastered on my face that day than I even had at my wedding. I was not even going to ask if the make up was natural or organic as I feared that I already knew the answer but I guess for one day it was not going to kill me. It felt so weird and when I watched myself of the show I can see in talking how conscious I was of the layer on my face. Once the hair was straightened and they declared us all pretty enough it was off to the set.

There are a few read through practices and we got to ask questions and figure out how it would all work. By the time it actually started it was all quite relaxed and we were having a good laugh.

Sam Cowen the GE presenter asked me how I landed up as a green parenting expert and I guess the answer is that it is a slow process. I started with researching natural birth and then came across other natural and more eco friendly idea. I started adding things as I went along. This is really the point I want to stress to people when it come to all things green. It is not that you have to change everything at once but rather that it is a process of adding things one at a time that you think you can manage and once you have one thing sorted and are used to the changes then you can look for more things to change.

I have been so encouraged by the positive response that natural and green parenting is getting here in South Africa. When I started Earth Babies 5 years ago people thought the idea of cloth nappies and natural parenting was quite mad, but at the last natural and organic show we did in June the response was over whelming. I was think we would really have to try drag people into the stall to hear about cloth nappies but in stead people were flock to us, they had heard about this new kind of nappy and wanted to know more. The change in attitude just to nappies was very very encouraging. And now being asked to be on a fairly mainstream parenting show has really left me with Great Expectation that an eco revolution is here!

I am chronically disorganised and make the excuse of having PBS (porridge brain syndrome) which I honestly dont think is really an excuse, I have a real problem remembering things since having had children. I used to be pretty organised and had a great memory, now I sometimes have to take a little think time to remember what my own name is =oP.

The area I struggle most in is keeping track of all my “to do’s”, I have tried lists, diaries, cell phone reminders, outlook calender, a family wall calender and my biggest problem is I forget to go back and check them, update them or I am out when something comes up and I dont have them with me to check or write in – and of course I lose the scrap of paper I scribbled on at the time so never carry it across to the ‘official’ organiser of the moment.

The idea of a diary is great but when you are juggling children, bags, parcels etc etc carrying a book around and “faint” actually having to take it out to read or write in is impossible. What i really need it a little recorder that I can just say the date and activity and it slots it into the correct place and reminds me for 3 days in advance of the event – that way I dont actually have to still go and write/type it in somewhere, orcheck it daily …. or maybe a walk beside me assistant lol  – if only.

My other problem is the passage of time – it is just flying by, for some reason my week just starts and the next day (or so it seems) it is week-end again. By the time I find the list/diary/note I have misplaced 3 weeks have passed and all my notes are again void. (My losing thing in my own home is another story – as I said chronically disorganised).

So how do you do it??

anyway today a friend showed me this online family diary – lovely application have a look. I know it will not specifically work for me as I will still forget to update it, but maybe it will be of use to some of you more organised than me individuals Ü. What i really like is it is a family diary which can be used by all of you so you can keep track of each others comings and goings.

Free Online Family Calender

As part of running a website and company like ours is that I do a lot of reading and browsing around the web. Sometimes there are ideas you come across that just feel right. This is what Baby Led Solids was like for me.

Starting solids was a nightmare with my daughter, she was not interested and would projectile vomit it across the room if you got more than one or two spoons in. She never really started eating much before 1 and even then has always been a fussy eater. So I was dreading solids the second time around. Until I came across this article
it is really well worth a read.

I tried it with my son and it was so much less stress and hassle, no blending mushy food, no spooning slop into their mouths. The basic idea is that you let the baby feed themselves and they regulate what and how much they choose to eat. It makes use of their natural curiosity, ability to mimic and desire to learn.

I used to just put a variety of whatever we were eating on Caleb’s tray and let him try it and play with it and generally learn as he went along. His favourites were Broccoli, breadsticks with humous, banana and pizza. He has always eaten well even from the beginning and is very independent when it comes to his food.

DOs and DON’Ts for baby-led introduction of solids from the afore mentioned article

* DO offer your baby the chance to participate whenever anyone else in the family is eating. You can begin to do this as soon as he shows an interest in watching you, although he is unlikely to be ready to put food in his mouth until he is about six months.
* DO ensure that your baby is supported in an upright position while he is experimenting with food. In the early days you can sit him on your lap, facing the table. Once he is beginning to show skill at picking food up he will almost certainly be mature enough to sit, with minimal support, in a high chair.
* DO start by offering foods that are baby-fist-sized, preferably chip-shaped (i.e., with a ‘handle’). As far as possible, and provided they are suitable, offer him the same foods that you are eating, so that he feels part of what is going on.
* DO offer a variety of foods. There is no need to limit your baby’s experience with food any more than you do with toys.
* DON’T hurry your baby. Allow him to direct the pace of what he is doing. In particular, don’t be tempted to ‘help’ him by putting things in his mouth for him.
* DON’T expect your baby to eat any food on the first few occasions. Once he has discovered that these new toys taste nice, he will begin to chew and, later, to swallow.
* DON’T expect a young baby to eat all of each piece of food at first – remember that he won’t yet have developed the ability to get at food which is inside his fist.
* DO try rejected foods again later – babies often change their minds and later accept foods they originally turned down.
* DON’T leave your baby on his own with food.
* DON’T offer foods which present an obvious danger, such as peanuts.
* DON’T offer ‘fast’ foods, ready meals or foods that have added salt or sugar.
* DO offer water from a cup but don’t worry if your baby shows no interest in it. A breastfed baby, in particular, is likely to continue for some time to get all the drinks he needs from the breast.
* DO be prepared for the mess! A clean plastic sheet on the floor under the high chair will protect your carpet and make clearing up easier. It will also enable you to give back foods that have been dropped, so that less is wasted. (You will be pleasantly surprised at how quickly your baby learns to eat with very little mess!)
* DO continue to allow your baby to breastfeed whenever he wants, for as long as he wants. Expect his breastfeedingfeeding pattern to change as he starts to eat more solid foods.
* If you have a family history of food intolerance, allergy or digestive problems, DO discuss this method of weaning with your health advisers before embarking on it.
* Finally, DO enjoy watching your baby learn about food – and develop his skills with his hands and mouth in the process!

Hi and welcome to our first blog post. While we realize that there is a lot of information already available on our website we wanted a more interactive plateform answer some of the most commonly asked questions and to get comments on topics close to our hearts. This blog will also feature my (Sally’s) journey to becoming a greener parent, with all its challenges and triumphs.