We're visiting the other set of grandparents this week, so both posting and sleep have been sparse. The good news is, I have so many links saved up from last week that I have plenty to inundate you with.
- "Fetal Positions and Yoga", a guest post by Debra Flashenberg of Prenatal Yoga Center for Bellies and Babies: As someone who previously had a 42-hour labor that was probably partially due to malpositioning, I'm going to store away these yoga ideas for encouraging a good position.
- "Sewing Frenzy" from Fleeting Moments: This is an encouraging and inspiring article about how to fit projects into life with kids instead of trying always to find ways to do them apart from kids. I know I've also had to adjust how much private, undistracted time I "need" to work on my passions and hobbies. For instance, right now I'm nursing and taking breaks to make decorations with the little guy and watch football with the fam.
- "Unjobbing: What It Is and What It Isn’t" from TheOrganicSister: On letting go of obligation, competition, and external measures of worth, whether working or not, being an entrepreneur or working for someone else.
- "Around the Green Parenting Web: Hyland’s Homeopathic Teething Tablet Recall to Lead in Juice" from Eco Child's Play: A round-up piece itself with several links I found interesting. The ones not mentioned in the title are the problems with synthetic chewing gum, another case of youth-centric discrimination, and the dubious idea of advertising on school lockers.
- "A booby-trapped breastfeeding prize", a guest post by Jill from Baby Rabies at PhD in Parenting: A mother who announced she was breastfeeding at her four-week checkup gets a prize pack — from Nestlé.
- "Little Known Black History Fact: The Fultz Quads" from Blacktating:
Really interesting and sad true story of spontaneous quadruplets born to sharecroppers in the 1940s — on the intersection of poverty and class, celebrity of the freak-show variety, and corporate sponsorship by a formula company — and how that turned out for these four girls. Their story reminds me a lot of the equally sad story of the Dionne quintuplets. It makes you wonder what life is going to be like for the high-order multiples whose parents have made them into reality TV stars now.
- "Praise" from Swistle: Nail, meet hammer.
"There is not a lot of positive feedback for people who exercise but do not as a result of it become thin and 'fit.' The reaction at first is HIGHLY FAVORABLE ('Oh good, you're finally working on that problem!') but if the weight doesn't come off, the reaction can be aptly described as 'Um, points for trying, I guess?'"
- "The IRS and Breast Pumps" from Mama Knows Breast: Breast pumps are not allowed as flexible spending expenses, despite the health benefits to breastmilk and breastfeeding.
- "Do ‘Plus Sized’ And ‘Mommy’ Go Hand-In-Hand?" from Mommy News and Views Blog : Helpful and empathetic tips on finding nursing clothes for plus sizes.
- "Did my birth experience set me up to fail at breastfeeding?" also from Blacktating: This is from the Carnival of Breastfeeding, which I found out about right before the deadline and then totally missed. I really connected with this article about how routine hospital practices, even ones not explicitly associated with breastfeeding, can undermine a new mama and baby's breastfeeding success. Elita discusses, for instance, scolding over keeping the baby swaddled rather than letting him be skin to skin, taking him away for heelsticks and sneaking formula to him at every test out of sight, and not acknowledging that IV fluids during birth can inflate birth weight, thus making an initial loss of weight (completely normal in newborns) seem more drastic. I had similar frustrations in my hospital experience and hope this time we can homebirth and have a really good chance to get started right.
- "Boys will be Boys?" from Strocel.com: I've been thinking about this a lot, too, as the mother of a boy who can't get enough of trucks and trains and planes and robots and pirates — but then who also will spin around joyously in a pink ballet dress and murmur sweetness to his baby doll. How much of boy vs. girl is nurture and how much nature? And will we ever know?
- "Signing Games To Play With Your Baby" from Happy Mothering: I love these easy ways to work signing games into your everyday life, and make learning signs fun for the kids involved. I've been working on reincorporating signing into my interactions with Mikko. It's so easy to let it drop once they can talk, but I find he really enjoys signing and wants to learn (or relearn) them, and he still remembers so much from our baby signing days. I realized I want Mikko to be able to sign with me to his new baby sibling when the time comes, so might as well keep the skill current!
- "Thinking Beyond the Bjorn: Considerations in Choosing a Baby Carrier" from Becoming Mamas: Deconstructing the popular Baby Björn with its crotch-dangling setup and suggesting some more naturally positioned alternatives that are more comfortable (for both parent and child!).
- "The Many Benefits of Extended Breastfeeding" from Dagmar's momsense: On an open discussion about breastfeeding past infancy, and the joy of being able to nurse (literally) a sick child back to health.
- If you missed it, Natural Parents Network has officially launched! We've got original content, fabulous giveaways, supportive forums, an extensive NP blogroll, and a rocking Facebook and Twitter community. Join us!
- I have more giveaways than you can shake a stick at. I dare you to try shaking a stick at these!
- You can win Prima Princessa Presents: Swan Lake DVD from Prima Princessa if you enter at Hobo Mama Reviews
by Wednesday, November 10. This is a Region 1 DVD appropriate for U.S. and Canada, though I'm willing to send it farther afield if you're sure it will play for you. Jump and twirl along with your tiny dancer!
- "My Brest Friend breastfeeding prize kit" from My Brest Friend: This $155 prize
pack features their patented flat nursing pillow, a travel pillow with all the features of the original but that inflates and deflates for easy take-along comfort, a nursing cover, a wooden nursing stool to help your posture even more, and breastfeeding supplements, including a multi, fish oil, and fenugreek. I know, right?! Contest is open to U.S. and ends November 23.
- "Giggle Junction I Spy Bag": This is part of my WILL TRAVEL special event, in which I present ideas to keep little ones amused in planes, trains,
automobiles, or in-laws' houses. Check out these home-sewn toys from from Giggle Junction on Etsy. The designs on the flannel pillow are adorable, and there's a see-through window that feature thirty miniature items hidden among the plastic pellets inside for your little discoverers to seek out. Contest has been opened WORLDWIDE and closes November 30, perfect for Christmas travel or holiday gifts.
- "Glitterful Felt Stories story + flannel travel board" from
GlitterfulFeltStories.com: This is also part of WILL TRAVEL. A tactile and visual way to encourage literacy and play acting, these felt story characters that stick to a roll-up travel board are custom made with attention and adorableness. Contest is open to the U.S. and ends December 1.
- You can win Prima Princessa Presents: Swan Lake DVD from Prima Princessa if you enter at Hobo Mama Reviews
You can find more shared items during the week at my public Google Reader recommendations feed.
Check out Authentic Parenting, Baby Dust Diaries (on hiatus), Maman A Droit, Navelgazing, pocket.buddha, Breastfeeding Moms Unite!, Enjoy Birth, A Domesticated Woman's Adventures, and This Adventure Life for more Sunday Surfing! (If you also participate in a regular link list, whether on Sunday or not, let me know and I'll add your link.)
Feel free to add your recommendations in the comments. Happy reading!
I'm Lauren Wayne, writer and natural parent. I embrace attached parenting with an emphasis toward green living. 
5 comments:
Thanks for the double linkage. I hope you get your home birth this time, I am looking forward to hearing about it! We are hoping for a home birth next time too (whenever that may be). I think that doctors and hospitals need to realize that if they don't wake up and start giving us what we want, we WILL leave in droves. Instead of blocking midwives and home births, they should try and learn from midwives and incorporate their model of care into obstetrics.
Thanks for the unjobbing link. It seems you have Surfers I don't have... Strange. Yet I haven't the time to look into it
I'm surfing now!
Thanks so much for mentioning my sewing post! It's something I'm working on... thanks for the inspiration by having the "balance" theme for the Carnival last month.
And all of these posts look phenomenal. I'm not supposed to be browsing so much, but I think I'll make an exception after the kiddos are in bed.
Well, I think that doctors and hospitals need to realize that if they don't wake up and start giving us what we want, we WILL leave in droves.
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