I found it!
Remember when I mentioned the chemicals that compose the "gel" in disposable diapers that make them SUPER-absorbant? I had been concerned and wondering what that was for years!! I found it! It's just obvious that it's chemicals- nothing like that occurs naturally that I know of! So here's the info.
I don't think I'm over-the-top in any of my lifestyle choices (organics, eliminating chemicals, etc)... I think I'm being prudent and actually getting back to the way things should be, and used to be. And I'm not 100% successful at any of these feats, but I try! The most common sentiment I encounter is that we all consumed/used these products and we're all fine. I'm not negating that, but some products have also evolved as companies try to "improve" their effectiveness... cleansers that work faster with less scrubbing, etc. In this case, the diapers *have* changed. We were all either cloth-diapered or put in disposables that may have been bleached (?) but they didn't have the gel crystals for absorbancy. Those are fairly new. And they sit, soaked, against our babies skin in the most vulnerable of places. Have you ever changed a diaper that was so wet that the get had come out and is all over the baby? I don't like it!!
Sorry for all the "informational" posts lately! I'm just getting my home ready for baby a bit, and having fun doing research- finding more natural cleaning products, etc. I LOVE the Charlie's Soap All-purpose cleaner, we use it for EVERYthing! (Also love the laundry detergent.) Trying different things to get rid of ants. Haven't found anything great yet, any ideas? (I'm using Dr Bronner's Peppermint Soap right now... works for a few days but not much longer.)
Okay, I better get going. I really want to get to church today- even though Jake has been fussy for THREE days!!! I hope he feels better today. We're going to head to the farmers market afterward- he loves going there. (Well, I DO! And he likes looking around and trying to sneak produce into his stroller! lol I can pretend that I'm going for him, but mommy really wants to go!)
7 comments:
Hey there, thanks for leaving a message on my blog! Yay, I love when new people stop by! Oh my gosh, from reading your blog, we have a LOT in common. Where do I start? My kids are the same age difference as yours will be! I am a fellow believer and cloth-diapering, farmers market shopping, natural product using, crunchy mama too. ;) And I'm an aspiring knitter. I just bought my first supplies online. I have no idea what I'm doing. I haven't done anything 'crafty' like sewing or cross-stitching since I was a teenager. Maybe I'll have to ask you some tips later on.
My daughter was due on 7/13/06, but was born 2 months early after a car accident, so technically in my mind I go by her due date since that is where she is at developmentally, so she is almost the same 'age' as your son! If you have any woes or worries about having 2 babies close together, I'm all ears. I've been there and I'm still there! It was crazy early on, and pretty much every day still, :) but looking back I can't imagine my life without either of my babies. They are so precious to me.
Another thing we have in common, and one of the most important--southern California! I went to grad school just outside of LA. I am still kicking myself to this day that I left California, and I have been begging my hubby to move back there for 5 years now!
Anyway, thanks for your comments and yes I am rambling... oh yes, and your son is an absolute cutie. Congratulations on the new baby on the way too!
God bless you!
Suzi
P.S. Sorry, I don't know your name! :( And I am soon to be 29 too (this coming week).
Hi Suzi! Happy Birthday! Mine was at the end of August! (Virgos!) We DO have a lot in common! And dancing too, I think? (ballet, modern)... though I haven't danced regularly in 5 yrs!!! (Since I got married... is that a bad omen!? haha j/k I think the getting-a-job had a lot more to do with it! lol)
I'm not sure I can help you on the knitting front though! lol I tried to teach myself needle knitting, but abandoned the feat when I discovered loom knitting. (quicker/easier for a beginner imo, but less versatility with what you can create.) I haven't done any since last Christmas (when I got 'knitted-out' from making all the gifts)... I'm getting ready to make a pair of longies for my bebe though & am sooo excited to get started again!
About our 2 babies close together... believe me, I went through some woes & worries!! I might be calling upon you for some support, since you're offering! I know I can use all the tips that I can get! I met one mama who had the same... said her newborn LIVED in the wrap & doesn't know how she would've survived without it! I have quite a few carriers (slings, mai tai, etc), but I'm gonna get another stretchy, ultra-supportive, body-hugging wrap.
I'm glad I ran into you! We'll have to keep in touch-- I liked browsing your blog- lots of good info & links! McDoncalds one just makes me sick! Esp the fact that it is totally marketed to children! I read somewhere recently that kids preferred the taste of a hamburger when it came in mcdonalds wrapping- taken even farther, they preferred the taste of carrots when it came in mcdonalds wrapping. now I'm not sure I got the details all correctly, but you get the point. If I run across the post/blog again, I'll pass it along.
Okay fussy baby! Thnx for the note! -Megan
I can't stand taking off a 'sposie that is so wet that those little polymers are all over the poor bebe's bottom. :( One of the many reasons I wuvs my cloth! :)
Hey, we're actually only about twenty minutes apart, distance-wise... so funny! Feel free to email me (link is on my sidebar) and we'll have to get in touch.
Hi Megan,
Thanks for writing back! How crazy, I haven't danced either since before I got married, 5 years ago too! Our anniversary is in November. So technically it will be 5 years then. What are the odds though? Yeah, I love ballet, modern, African, belly dance, anything really! I was on the worship dance team in college, both in Boston and in Kenya. The last time I really danced was for Hip Hop, African, and belly dance classes I took while I still lived out in Cali. I miss it so much (both dancing AND Cali). :)
I had a Maya Wrap with my 1st baby, but really I carried him around all the time anyway so I only used it when going out. Now, for my 2nd, oh my goodness, she LIVED in her Mei Tai. We also co-sleep and she to this day cries more often than not when I put her down, so I either carry her or put her in the Mei Tai. The Mei Tai was and is my lifesaver! And SO is co-sleeping! My son was still waking up at night after my daughter was born. It was horrible when they BOTH woke up at the same time at night and BOTH wanted to nurse. That's the worst feeling in the world as a mother--knowing that both of my babies need me at the same time. But at least my daughter sleeps with me and could nurse when she wanted and we could drift off to sleep. My son also slept with me before my daughter was born. At least I got a decent amount of sleep over the past few years...sometimes.
Basically I think with 2 babies so close together, "Attachment Parenting has saved my life!" I even have a draft of a post for my blog with that title that I have been meaning to post FOREVER. I think I will go back and edit it and post it. Hopefully you and other mamas in similar situations will benefit from it. Seriously though, co-sleeping and babywearing...I think I would have lost my mind without those two simple things, *especially* after the birth of baby #2!!
Oh yes, and I heard about how kids prefer food in McDonald's wrappers, but I too couldn't remember where I found it. I believe there was even a 20/20 episode once where they offered a kid a rock wrapped in a fun wrapper or a sticker or something, and asked him if he wanted that or a banana or some fruit of some sort. The kid picked the rock! I think every kid they tested wanted to EAT the rock! I couldn't believe it.
Working for a food company, the marketing toward children is criminal to me, especially for children's cereals...I know the garbage in mainstream cereals because I worked on those product specs, among many others. It's about the furthest from living whole raw food you can get. The food scientists who develop the very products the company churns out into the marketplace will NOT eat the products themselves or feed it to their children! How frightening is that about the average packaged 'food' that is sitting on a grocery store shelf? It has basically been created in a lab by someone who won't feed it to their own children. It's food created by scientists, not nutritionists. That in itself is absolutely terrifying.
Ok, off my soapbox. What area of Cali do you live in? I used to live in Whittier, outside of LA, went to grad school at Biola in La Mirada, and took classes at Fuller Seminary in Pasadena. I miss Cali SOOOOOO much... enjoy the weather on my behalf as I begin to freeze up here in Chicago in a couple o' months. :)
When is your baby due?
Take care!
Suzi
Suzi- I can't post a comment on ur blog for some reason! Hopefully you get this! That's pretty scarey, about the foods produced by scientists. I've never quite thought of it that way! It's so hard as Jake is starting to develop tastes and refuse things he used to like! I'm finding myself feeding him more of the things I wanted to avoid because that's what he loves. (pastas, tons of cheese, and ...ahem... canned green beans (sodium free, but still, not fresh!), AHHH!) I just keep making him the good stuff but have the other things as backup because half the time he refuses to eat what we're eating! It makes me sad, & I'm thinking about doing some major research to find some new things I've never tried and recipes, to see if hopefully he'll like it. New veggies, maybe some tofu, I don't know!
Anyways, I'm in San Clemente. My husband & I grew up in San Diego. I went to college at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, and then finished at Point Loma Nazarene University In SD. When we got married we moved to LA (Beverly Hills) and lived there a year, and then settled in our home here. We love being close to the beach, and we're halfway between Kevin's work & our families, so it's a good compromise between the two. (Though I still think we're too far from family!) Sometimes I want to move out-of-state so we can afford to live on a one-person-income (hubbys, of course!), but I am grateful that we have a home & I only have to work 2 days per week. Our house is going to feel a lot smaller as the kids grow up, being a two bedroom, 950 sq.ft. though! I just know we're working so hard and pouring all of it into the house, when we could be working less and spending more time together as a family. Hubby's hard to convince, and we are so blessed that I'm not complaining! I would probably be in your boat, missing cali so badly and begging to go back! lol (And esp family.)
Anyways, gotta run but sorry I couldn't write back more!
Hey Megan,
Thanks for writing me back! How cool that you went to Westmont! When I lived in Cali, my sister flew out to LA and we drove up the coast to where my other sister lived in Oakland. We stopped at Westmont just to see the campus and drive around. It was BEAUTIFUL. My friends and I used to hang at the pier in Santa Barabara while in grad school too. Love the view, the ocean, the downtown, the mountains, everything! What in the world am I doing in the middle of the country where it's flat with no ocean, no mountains, & cold weather? God only knows...
I went to a fellow "Consortium" school in college--Gordon College in Massachusetts. One semester my roommate was even on Consortium from Westmont! For grad school I went to Biola University in La Mirada, CA. Have you heard of it? It's another Christian college. When I applied for colleges, I remember I wanted to go to Westmont or Biola solely because they were in California, but ended up at Gordon because of the program I wanted to do at the time (Early Childhood Education or Marine Biology--but it changed to Bible & Missions). I vowed that I'd be in California for grad school and it happened! (I did Intercultural Studies/Anthropology/Missiology).
I hear you about wanting to live on one income vs. the location in which you are living. It's tough. We have a house and I don't work. Our house is very small in comparison to SO many houses in the area, and it's older. But we love it. It's "us." If we move to a bigger place, I for sure would have to work, and with 2 toddlers, that would be insane. There's no way I would want to put my kids in daycare. I'm their mommy and I will raise my own children, even in a small, 50+ year old ranch house! :)
We could've moved to San Francisco any time we wanted in the last 3 years cuz my husband travels out there for work. We just had to say the word and they would move us. But...family is here and the big question would be whether we could actually afford to live there. Likewise, we could have moved to New York last year for his job, but housing was crazy. So, we're staying in Chicago (for now). :) One day I swear we will get back to Cali!
When is your due date? You must be ready to meet baby #2 (a boy?) in the next couple weeks, right?
I forgot what books I recommended to you, but someone just last night recommended Spiritual Midwifery and anything by Ina May Gaskin at our Holistic Moms Network meeting. It is an awesome group. You should check out if there is a chapter near where you live! La Leche League & Attachment Parenting are also awesome groups too and have chapters everywhere.
I also wanted to enourage you with feeding your son. It's HARD especially when their tastes start changing and what they used to eat so ravenously suddenly gets spit out or they refuse to eat it altogether. I try to get my 2 1/2 year old involved in dinner so he gets excited about what he's eating. He gets to go out to the garden and pick the tomatoes he'll be eating for dinner. I let him pour the rice, couscous, or quinoa into the pot when I cook it. I let him toss chopped veggies into the pot when I make a curry. I am very rigid and strict when it comes to food. I tend to keep things routine, to give him the same things a lot of the time--most of which is fresh/raw veggies/fruit. I am even one of those uptight crazy, mistrusting moms who packs up her kid's food and brings it everywhere, even to other people's houses! Having worked in the food industry in Minnesota and also for a nutritionist in Los Angeles, I know that the average American family meal consists of genetically modified grains, non-organic (pesticide-laden) produce, and hormone/antibiotic riddled meat. I can't stomach that AT ALL. I figure my children will eat what I feed them because they don't know what it's like to eat the typical American packaged, processed food. I wasn't always like this. I used to be oblivious, unaware of what lurks in our food supply. But I guess when I became a mom, I went from slightly cautious to paranoid. Sometimes it drives people like my hubby or my parents crazy, but I figure I only get one chance to start out on a clean slate with my children. And the earlier you start, the easier it will be. That's not to say my kids have totally eaten everything I've given them. HA! But my son now knows foods that are "good for you" because I tell him they will help him grow big and strong. And chances are, he'll start to eat what I've given him. It may take him forever to eat, but he eventually does it. Although I don't know what I'd do if he was exposed to foods in other environments. I shudder to think. I guess I'm happy in my own little bubble, trying to feed them as best as I know how. But it's tough, especially as their tastes change. My kids love spicy food and that's usually what I make anyway, but my son has recently wanted salt on EVERYTHING. So what do I do? Lay off the salt when I eat. I realized he was watching me put salt on everything. Doh! Now I don't even bring the salt shaker to the table. Problem solved (for now, at least). And behold, mommy doesn't eat nearly as much salt as she used to! Woo hoo!
Another thing, people ask me why I don't feed my kids milk or juice. Um, I'll stick to water and breastmilk, thanks! And I only drink water myself, so I'm thankful my kids watch what I do and are avid water drinkers too. I won't go into the whole milk & juice issues, as I have strong opinions on them (surprise, surprise)...
Ok, I've probably bored you to tears!!!!! Sorry!!
Talk to you later!
Suzi
Blessings to you!!
Suzi
By the way, when did you go to Westmont? I know a few people who went there...
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