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The Day Things Got Better
Baby Bug got her first real bath in a baby bathtub today. I’ve been a horrible mom. I’ve only been washing her face and I’ve only given her one real sponge bath since she’s been born. To tell you the truth, I was terrified of immersing her in water. I don’t know what I’d do wrong but I guess I was just afraid I wouldn’t know what to do at all. It’s very hard to hold her squirming little body and wash in between all the many folds and creases. I think I was just intimidated. So I just let her be dirty.
Today my mom and sister-in-law and nieces came in to visit for the day. I took advantage of their willingness to help with the baby and got some lessons on how to wash Baby Bug properly. Boy did I learn some things! I had no idea she was so dirty! There was old dried stinky milk in the creases of her neck and I had no idea! My SIL was very thorough and probably washed ten layers of dead skin off Baby Bug. She is a much cleaner baby now. But more importantly, I feel a lot less afraid of the baby bathtub. It actually seemed pretty easy and Baby Bug actually liked the warm water. She only squealed a little bit.
I think today was a turning point.
First of all, Baby Bug was an angel baby all day long. We didn’t have one badger baby episode. Not one!
Second, we went to Target and I finally bought a nursing bra. Oh. My. Goodness! What a difference! I am so much more comfortable. I don’t know why I’ve been squishing myself in to my old bras all this time. Life got a zillion times better today. It is much easier to nurse with the proper bra. I thought I was too cool for those snappy things that fold down. I was wrong. They are so much better than the old way of just pushing my bra up and letting it cut off the circulation to my boob.
Thirdly, Toby bought some baby saline drops and giving Baby Bug a drop in her nose before nursing does wonders for the awful snorking sound that she used to make. No more sputtering and gaging. Phew!
Fourthly, I bought some new pajamas at Target. I didn’t even try them on. I just bought larges. I never used to wear large, but I have a mom body now. I put them on tonight and they fit perfectly! It feels so good to wear pajamas that aren’t stained with milk and aren’t a t-shirt and sweats out of Toby’s closet. It feels so good to match again.
I think I can do this mom thing.
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Asian Persuasion
I have a nursing chair. It’s actually the old sad chair with a sheet over it. We were going to recover it but that ended up being 800 bucks and I opted to spend my well-earned money on the bugaboo stroller instead. Then I ordered a slipcover online. That was a big mistake. When they say “fits all size wingback chairs”, they lie. The slipcover was a nice color but it looked awful. It looked worse than the sheet that looks pretty bad. I sent it back. It was sloppy and hung loosely over parts that didn’t exist. I hate mail-order stuff sometimes.
My “nursing chair” happens to be positioned right next to a sliding glass door that opens out onto our patio. The same patio that is the entryway to our house. Imagine me sitting there, boob exposed, gazing off into the distance, perhaps watching some birds fly by, and then the UPS man shows up! Hello! Exposed Boob! UPS man! Aaaack! Quick grab whatever you can grab to cover yourself and the adorable sputtering baby!!!
So that left me with a conundrum. When I’m not the one-handed-nursing-bandit multi-tasking at the computer, I like to sit in my nursing chair and enjoy the view out the sliding glass door. Sometimes I even open the door and let the breeze keep Baby Bug awake (as she has a habit of falling asleep mid-feeding and cold air sometimes brings her back from the dead). BUT this doesn’t work when unexpected visitors come up the stairs. I had to think of something. Curtains wouldn’t work because the sliding glass door is the only window in Baby Bug’s room. I NEED light. Without natural light, I will shrivel up and die. I thought and I thought and I thought until I came up with a brilliant solution!
Rice paper!
I can make my sliding glass door like a shoji screen! It lets the light in, keeps the spying eyes out and it’s pretty and zen-ish! I love shoji screens! I hopped online and ordered some rice paper from this fantabulous website (so much better than the stupid art store that never has anything in stock that I’m looking for) and four days later, Viola! I have rice paper on my sliding glass door.
It’s not perfect. Toby hasn’t said whether he likes it or not, which usually means he doesn’t. And I admit it looks a little hokey pokey from the outside looking in, but it works. It works fabulously. The UPS guy sees nothing but paper! While I can sit close to it and look right through. I love gazing through it. Everything looks pretty through soft rice paper flower holes. It makes me feel calm and peaceful and Baby Bug loves it too. She stares at it constantly, pulling my nipple sideways painfully in the process.
Maybe you’re wondering what all those other pictures in the slideshow have to do with my nursing chair and the rice-papered sliding glass door. Well, it’s this: I have a lot of Asian-inspired things! I seem to collect them without meaning to. I never even really realized it until today. Though my mom would probably tell you otherwise because I’m always itching to go to Chinatown to buy my nieces silk pajamas. I cannot wait to get Baby Bug some. She’ll be so cute!
I must have been Chinese in another life. I do love orange special chicken!
