Recently in motherhood tips Category

Over the summer I read a small article on things parents can do to help with kindergarten readiness. Granted, River still had two full years before Kindergarten--having missed the September 1st cut-off by a small trio of months. I still had plenty of time. Still, being me, I picked a few things to work on. Before the end of the summer, I wanted River writing his name. It took a bit longer, but now he can do that. I also knew that he had no cutting skills. He didn't even know how to hold a pair of scissors. I'd never thought to teach him how to use scissors! And I wasn't sure what was the best way to go about it without both of us getting frustrated and throwing up our hands in defeat. 

• Salt water soaks after each feed for 10 or more minutes and each time you are in pain.
• Salt soaks before feds (if you can manage) to loosen scabs and soften wound
• Limit nursing but do not let yourself get engorged. (I dropped to nursing Sage on that side every other feed and now, only when it feels full. Engorgement makes the wound worse. I have been assured I can balance out the milk production between sides after I am healed)
• Polysporin put on rarely (helps fight infection but traps moisture)
• Air exposure (I have not worn anything over my infected breast for days now)

So....still working my way through a "A Gathering Storm" between reading the last couple graphic novels of "Strangers in Paradise". It has not been a productive last couple weeks for reading in this household.

Instead, I will share with you River's current favorites and their benefits to pre-readers.

1. The Cat in the Hat-- rhythmic phrases and rhyming words encourage early literacy by drawing attention to word sounds. Repeated readings encourage early literacy by teaching children concepts of print through book interaction. Child memorization of favorite books is a good step towards learning to read, instilling confidence and love towards books.

Nothing beats The Cat in the Hat. We usually read it at least once a day. River can read the entire thing to himself. He doesn't get every single word right, but the bulk of it--yes. I can leave off the last words and he can "fill in the blanks".

2. Nursery Rhymes-- Nursery rhymes are a great way to teach children word sounds. River can now tell me what sound "p" makes. Thank you Peter Piper and Peter picks a peck of pickled peppers!

I have been looking for a nursery rhymes book that River would enjoy. The one we had, he had no interest in. I think this is because many rhymes were fit onto each page. In this version, there is one nursery rhyme per page with a drawing about that particular rhyme. He loves it. He loves it so much I went out and bought us a copy out of getting it from the library and renewing it several times before returning. He can repeat many of the rhymes to himself. Also, they make a great distraction when out and about since he can request his favorites and I can rattle them off without the book. Yes, you'll memorize them too.

3. Green Eggs and Ham-- Dr. Seuss is obviously the man. This is River's second favorite Seuss book. He likes to dance through the part after the dude eats the food and likes it. This is another library book I had to go out and buy a copy of. Books are, hands down, his favorite toys.



4. My Truck is Stuck-- Want to get your child interested in reading? Appealing to their interests are one way. We borrow and buy a lot of books about Elmo and a lot of books about trucks, cars, and construction vechiles. This was by far River's favorite in the heavy machinery category.

5. Are You my Mother?-- River loves to read this one to me. Eastman books, bearing the Dr. Suess logo, are built for early readers. They use a lot of repetition and easy words. He likes almost every Eastman book we get. This is by far his favorite. He gets 95% of it right reading it a loud via memorization. He even gets intonation correct sounding scared or shocked or sad. It is also very cute to hear his say, "Where is my Mod-der?!"

  
What were you favorite books as a child? Which books do you end up reading over and over again to your children? We are always looking for recommendations!

Jason and I were totally ignorant about choosing our insurance. Can you believe that only since moving down here have we been properly insured? Jason chose a plan that was affordable for us and offered some of the best coverage. I'm not even pretending to know what I am talking about here (as I said, ignorant). Our current plan is local, which means we get a choice of so many hospitals in the area for any treatments or special needs we might have.

We missed our ability to switch insurances by a mere week when I found out I was pregnant. So we were stuck with what we had. This knocked out coverage for a home birth, the closest birth center and the hospital that actually allowed water births in our local area. I was sorely disappointed.

I called my insurance and just resigned myself to wherever they sent me. Turns out I was automatically popped into a large city hospital. The OB I saw twice was pretty amazing. Very funny and laid back. Young and a mother of triplets. You have to respect a woman that raised three infants at one time, who jokes about vaginal ultrasounds and talks to your baby on the ultrasound screen calling it a "little monkey". I did really like her. I think I could of worked with her, but the practice contained eight OBs on two day delivery rotations. I wouldn't necessarily get the one I liked for L&D.

During my second appointment I asked so many questions about supported natural birth at her hospital that I think I started trailing into her "getting her hackles up" zone. Her answers were nose-on politically correct without actually assuring me of anything at all. I summed it up to the following, "Sure, you can come in wanting this this and that, but what happens will happen. We respect your wishes, but the doctor has the final say." Turns out this hospital has about a 50% surgical rate for deliveries. Yikes!

I went to some local mommy message boards over at yahoo groups and asked other women for their opinions between this hospital and my other option. I got input from women that delivered at one or the other or even both. Also, some insights from a doula.

My choice was made. I was going to transfer to the closer hospital that is literally a ten minute trip down the road. A small(er) hospital that employs two midwives. My insurance allowed a referral to one of those midwifes, the one I hear amazing things about, and I went on a tour asking all those pointed questions again.

I felt more confident that the new hospital was better prepared to support what I wanted. I heard things like, "Well, if you want to do that, I suggest you work with midwife H. She's into all that alternate stuff."

Just what I wanted to hear!

Plus there will be no hour plus car ride (through freezing rain and stuck behind a slow plow) while in labor to the hospital and no 40 minute trip home in crotch pain while sitting on a boppy.

If you are pregnant or planning to be pregnant, explore you L&D options. Go on free hospital tours, do your research, ask questions, and best of all tap the strongest resource, other mothers. Birth can be wonderful or traumatizing (or a little bit of both). It should be done in a place you feel comfortable with support that works with what you want.

It's never too early to start looking. Trust me, those nine months go fast and even faster the second time around!

One good thing to look forward to about being pregnant now is that Jason's tax return is forthcoming and we can buy up the baby items we will need without feeling like out wallets are hemorrhaging. There are a few rather hefty investments we need to make for number two, though the sheer amount of items we will need is much smaller than what we needed (or thought we needed) for River. I kept almost everything of River's for number two.

A car seat, of course, is on the list. With River we just had a 5 point car seat to save money and ended up borrowing an infant car seat when the realities of an infant in a huge car seat struck home. It really is nice to be able to carry the car seat inside when baby is sleeping instead of having to manipulate a baby out of the car seat. Also, bundling the car seat instead of a infant is much better. So this time we're going to use the infant car seat and then buy a bigger one when needed. That initial infant car seat will cost us up to $100.

Diapers are by far the largest baby related investment, but in the end should save us money. I'm going to do things a bit different this time around. River's diapers are still usable but our supply needs to be freshened and increased for number two. Partly because his diapers are worn, partly because River could still be using them himself, and partly because we have never diapered a younger baby and younger babies just need a lot more diapers.

I buy most of my cloth diapers and other natural diapering accessories from Cotton Babies. They have great customer service and free shipping on big orders.

For River we used 26 bumGenius 3.0 diapers. I love them, I do. But after a year + the velcro gets worn and this starts to happen in the wash.

It's called diaper chains. I just find is extremely annoying. Plus bumgenius is made with microfibers that tend to get mighty stinky. You can bleach them once a month but after awhile the stink just seems to hang around and unlike all other cloth diapers, the manufacturers of bumGenius say not to use vinegar, baking soda or sold remedies like Bak-out to remove odor. Once your child pees, you know since he smells like a skunk and bleaching only removes the odor for so long before it returns. I don't dare bleach more than once a month!

Since we are starting with cloth from day one this time around, I need a more durable diaper to see us through Bean's diapering days. So instead of Velcro, I want to invest in a diaper very similar to bumGenius but with snaps. Snaps will make it a bit harder to shut the diaper, of course (particularly with a wiggling baby), but I have hopes that they will survive a bit longer than Velcro.

We're going to invest in Fuzzi Bunz One-Size.


One-Size diapers, by the way, are diapers that adjust in size to fit your baby from newborn to toddler. They tend to be more expensive, but you never need to buy any other diapers. And by expensive I mean $215 for 12 diapers!

So to help us keep the cost down I think I am going to 50/50 these diapers with cheaper prefolds and covers, plus continue to use our old diapers as long as they will last. I can get more prefolds (cloth that is pinned and then covered with a waterproof outer diaper)  for far far less than a one-size diaper. About $60 for 15 changes. Of course, I will have to buy more about halfway through diapering bean as he or she grows. Still $120 is still a great deal less  than $215, wouldn't you say? And even though prefolds covers will have velcro, they won't need to last so long since they are sized. Meaning the velcro should last as long as Bean is in them.

I am buying Indian prefolds for the softness and price. $1.50 per diaper.

And then Thirsties Duo Wraps because unlike most covers, they only have two sizes instead of four. So I will need less of them and thus, spend less money.


None of these estimates include other accessories like a diaper sprayer (to clean diapers), a new wet bag (to store dirty diapers in) and cloth wipes (I have never used them before).

In the long run, our investments should save us a heap of money but to start out, the price is somewhat daunting!

If you are a first time mom, you might become frantic every time your baby runs a fever. Normal response, trust me.

I've heard tell of those three and four year olds that could read. I myself was not one of them. From what I can recall, I learned to read along with the bulk of kids. At one point, I went to reading in a different classroom be it because I was behind or advanced--I don't know now. In second grade when I moved in the middle of the school year and (perhaps due to this or my late birthday in October) my new teacher suggested I be held back a year, a repeat in her classroom, and my mother readily agreed. I enjoyed repeating second grade. I was blessed with a wonderful teacher who not only really ignited my love of reading, but also encouraged me to write my first book. I have not stopping writing or reading voraciously since. 

Yes, you read. Modeling a love of books encourages your child to pick a book up himself. Show your child how you use reading to function/that it has a functional use--reading circulars at the grocery store, signs on the street, text on the side of a construction vehicle. The same goes for writing-- write grocery lists in front of him or send out holiday cards. It is as easy as saying, "Mommy is writing out the food we need to buy. This word is cookie!"

While working in a kindergarten classroom I was assigned an assessment by my college professor to test students understanding of print. We were given a book and sat one on one with a student and asked them some of the following questions, "Where is the front of the book? Where is the back? Can you turn to the first page? Can you show me a word? A letter? A period? A question mark? How do you know what is happening on this page?" 

Can you believe there were students who didn't know how to hold a book or turn the pages from right to left? Children who were read to before school knew these things. They know that sentences began at the left and run to the write. They knew what a word was as opposed to a letter. So if you see your one year old sitting on the floor flipping through a book correctly than know you have already taught them a basic reading concept! 

Let there be words! Books for your child that he can access whenever he wishes, paper and pens (parental advisement until they learn not to write on the wall), and labels. Let him make that connection that words are part of the day to day and have applicable meaning!

Quick decorations with labels. I might ask River, "Can you find the letter W?" or "What is this?" and as he tells me, I will point to the word he is saying.

We go to the library once a week and check out an average of about 15 books. Some of the books are kept in the bedroom to read before nap time and bedtime. Some are kept in the living room to read throughout the day and for River to look through. It spices up the library each week, though I still end up reading The Cat and the Hat at least once a day.

If I am writing, River writes too. I let him use my pens even. He had a mini chalk board and a magnet board. Sometimes we sit and have mini lessons where I write words he wants me to or I write words and say them letter by letter and ask him what he thinks it is. Or I write a word and ask him to tell me the letters. I have recently begun writing while holding his hand under mine so he can feel how it is to make letters. He gets a kick out of it. If he scribbles something I ask him what word he is writing. 

read to your child every day. Before bedtime is a great time to read. 

River's reading corner

Ask you child to tell you what they see on the cover of the book. Pause during reading to check for comprehension or to just get the child involved. Sometimes I pause to explain what the picture is showing. After you are done reading you can ask the child to tell you what the book was about or if they liked it. Of course, very young children won't be able to say much, but you might be surprised. At least, it will get them thinking and get you into the habit of making reading aloud an active, learning experience. 

River is obsessed with fire trucks and construction vehicles. You bet we read about those things a lot. When he was very young we focused on animals (mostly cats) and mommies, daddies and babies. The things he understood. You'll find that very young children have longer attention spans for book content that is relevant to their own little lives. As they learn more language you can use books to teach them about things that they have no prior knowledge of. 

You might be tired of reading The Cat in The Hat for the third time in one day, but repeated reading is very beneficial to children. And yes, they might memorize the entire book. This is not truly reading, but it does make them feel good about themselves and you shouldn't tell them otherwise. 

sing it,  talk about it, practice letter identification. Currently, River can identify most of the letters of the alphabet. We'll keep playing name that letter until he knows them all easily and then I will begin to talk about the sounds the letters make. For now, we "read" only in upper case letters and I only write upper case letters for him. They are two different languages to little children. The first time I came across a child who could read, but could not read in cursive, I was astounded. You forget how different these forms of our alphabet are!

Great alphabet book by Eric Carle

Nursery rhythms and songs are great aids in encouraging early literacy. Easy, entertaining, and especially useful for long car rides.