I thought by the second time around, I would quit being so anxious and uptight about every little thing. I'm definitely more laid back, having gone through this all once before not so long ago, but one thing still stresses me out to no end: the baby's sleep.

For the first 7 weeks of his life, I stressed about when he would start sleeping longer stretches at night. I re-read all of my many baby sleep books, trying to re-educate… Read More

Oh, where has my style gone?

It's true. The darkest stories of my fashion history belong to The Nursing Ages. First of all, nursing probably means you are still larger than you used to be and most of your clothes don't fit (or don't fit right). Second of all, you need easy access to the nursing targets, creating fashion requirements hard to satisfy with clothes that actually look nice.

Requirements:

• Camoflauge large body
• Easy nursing access, preferably without too much unbuttoning and hiking

… Read More

We made a big mistake when Jolie was little. Okay, multiple mistakes, but in terms of introducing the bottle to her, we goofed.

Knowing I would eventually have to return to work at the end of maternity leave, I wanted to introduce the bottle early. Some of my baby books suggested waiting 4-6 weeks, after breastfeeding was firmly established. Another suggested waiting no more than 3 weeks to avoid babies balking at their beloved method of feeding being usurped. We decided to… Read More

When I was four or five, I fell off the back end of a slide. In my mind, I was towering above the ground, having climbed to a very top of the steps, before falling, face-down, to the ground. Luckily, I wasn't seriously hurt. Nothing was broken and no stitches required, but I did hurt my lip. On my bottom lip I can still feel the small knot of scar tissue in the center, remnants of my trauma. An apparently permanent memento… Read More

Now that Jolie is almost 3, she has started to be invited to friends' birthday parties more often. Now, it's a much bigger deal since she can really appreciate the finer points of a birthday party, namely, cake. Boy, does our girl love cake. Whenever we tell her that a birthday party is coming up, she's all about the cake and, preferably, a chocolate cake.

I have to admit, I've been just as excited about these parties for a different reason… Read More

A few weeks ago, I dug out the old breast pump*. I had developed a nice freezer stash of frozen breastmilk the last time I did this, and I wanted to do it again. For one, I wanted a ready supply in case of emergency: illness requiring certain medications or something like that. Also, since breastmilk keeps in the freezer for 2-3 months, it wasn't too early to start banking in case I needed extra when I started back at… Read More