Da der Kleine aber Hitzeausschlag im Windelbereich bekam haben wir für den Sommer umgestellt. Bis jetzt klappt es ganz gut und er findet das Wickeln lustig. Mal sehen wie das wird.

Eine Frage bleibt mir noch: Was mache ich mit den nassen Windeln? In den Wäschekorb kann ich sie ja schlecht tun und zum Trocknen im Haus will ich sie auch ungern haben. Irgendwelche praktischen Erfahrungen die mir weiterhelfen?

      The race had several partners; namely, Dr. Scholl's for her, Nivea body lotion, Wheat Thins, Hint (a water company), Dashing Divas (a nail salon), George's Shoe Repair, and of course, the March of Dimes.

       Kelly Ripa had been saying for months that she could so win this race; it was interesting to see her waiver this morning.  She expressed fear that she would break something...I think she was more concerned about breaking her ankle than she was about breaking the heel of her shoe!  I am sure that more than one foot doctor had concerns about this race being promoted.  As far as I know, there were no serious injuries.  The show had everyone sign a form releasing the show from any liability I am sure. 

        Regardless of the concerns for the racer's well-being...the race was a success raising money for the March of Dimes which raises money to help prevent birth defects.  It is a very worthy cause.  You can donate to the March of Dimes by going to one of two websites:  http://www.marchofdimes.com/ or http://bventertainment.go.com/tv/buenavista/regisandkelly/special/highheel/index.html

At my previous job, I watched several coworkers go through pregnancies.  A couple told stories of feelings, or downright supernatural experiences, that told them the gender of their babies in advance.  I never thought that would be me...  But during my first ultrasound I had a moment where it felt clear to me that the baby was a boy.  I tried to ignore it, but I had difficulty thinking of the baby any other way.  So I thought, maybe this is what everyone talked about.

I was wrong.

Matt, on the other hand, was right.

Yesterday morning, Matt called me and said that he had had a dream the night before.  Now, I don't doubt that Matt dreams from time to time, but unlike me who will sometimes wake up and tell him, "You have no idea what trouble you got into last night," he never talks about them. 

He said he had dreamed he was working in the front yard and saw a little blond girl waving to him from the front door.  When he went into the house looking for her, no one was there.  Matt also being the concrete type (well, literally on that one) didn't put much stock into it until later in the morning, when he started to wonder.

Turns out his intuition is better than mine.

We are indeed expecting a baby girl. 

All seems to look good as far as health.  To my best count in the monochromatic blur that is an ultrasound, she appears to have ten fingers and ten toes.  Oh, I have proof of part of that.

That's a baby foot.  We did see the other one too.

I'm relieved to know that she seems to be doing okay in there.  Also, that with the recent additions to our little family, us girls are about to even the score in the Daeda family gender wars.  I was previously far outmatched with Matt and two male cats, but with a new female puppy and daddy's little girl on the way, the men are about to meet their match.  ;)

And someday I hope my daughter will forgive me for thinking she was my son.

I have always admired Jewelry that has a thoughtful meaning. I came across these Hand Stamped Birthday necklaces and just fell in love. They are hand stamped with your child's Name and Birthday! You can purchase them in Sterling Silver or Copper. For an added touch, you can add special charms like butterflies and stars.

I will definitely be purchasing this after my little one arrives to show off how proud I am!

Circle of Sentiments Hand Stamped Birthday Necklace

Clayberry Cottage designed this whimsical hand painted ceramic Pottery Purse Piggy Bank. It can be personalized with a first name and year to perfect the decor in your little girl's nursery. They offer several colors and styles. This is a perfect gift for your little girl or for a baby shower!

Clayberry Cottage Hand Painted Ceramic Button Rose Purse Bank

Like I said, I do appreciate the military for giving us such a great FREE gift, but what's the point of enduring all of the needle pricks, dildo cams, sperm cups, and ejaculate rooms if the Drs. aren't really invested in what they do, and how they treat patients. Everytime I go in there, I can tell that they really don't care that they hold our hopes and dreams in their latex gloves. To them, we're just part of the good or bad statistics, not a husband and wife who are fearful, hopeful, worried and desperate for a child of our own. They never allow any time for questions, hell they barely make eye contact with me. Maybe all of this has been the reason that I haven't wanted to go back. Of course I'm terrified of the possibility that I could leave that clinic even more broken than I went in, and without a child. But those are doubts, and I can not let those doubts in. We have too much to lose in this and I can't wrap my mind around not having biological child. But the way that they treat us, and they things that they do to show us that they don't care is what really adds to everything. I'm sure the lovely Dr. prego that was very nice is out on maternity leave since it's been like 3 months since I've been there. McDreamy probably won't be there either. That means I'm left with one asshole after another. Lord I can only hope.

I'm trying to be optimistic about this whole thing. I really am. All I keep focusing on is my baby's face. I think of the names I've picked, the colors that we chose for a nursery, I walk by baby clothes and try not to buy anything, hell sounds crazy, but I've already thought about what bottles we would use. All that's missing is our baby. I'm not as scared as I was last month, which has to be a good sign. I can't say that I'm completely prepared, but at least I didn't break into a hysterics when she came last night. It was like, ok she's here, get tampons, go for a walk and start clearing calendars. I guess that means I'm back in the trying for a baby race. Good luck to us all. I'll be hoping for BFPs for all of us

They are sending our stuff off to the state office.  Once the state has received that it takes about a week for us to becoming licensed foster parents.  Now the wait for a baby begins!

Yesterday, I found out that my ex-girlfriend (we were together for over 4 years) and her new girlfriend are 3-months pregnant. We haven’t spoken hardly at all in the two years it’s been since we split up, but she wanted me to know. Thank you.

When she told me, my stomach fell and my heart seized up. Tingly limbs and fuzzy vision. You know the feeling...

I was surprised to be overwhelmed with feelings of loss and confusion and betrayal and also RELIEF. Relief that I don't have to be that person for her... relieved that I have not been absorbed into her ultra-domestic vision of the future (it was always a point of contention between us.) And yet… it’s like my story... our story has been usurped or hijacked. A long, twisting, shared narrative with the last chapter residing somewhere else, separate from me... in anther book far away. Or as an addendum in some lifestyle magazine for which I am not a subscriber. We used to think/talk about kids... but for me it was so far away... a distant, vague musing. A fantastical concept that I would indulge and entertain occasionally. But for her, it was real. For her, it IS real.

So what are those feelings that arise when we realize that other people, i.e. people who have hurt us, people we were once very intimate with, have whole, complete, forward moving lives outside of us and our reality? Why is that such a jarring realization every time? When we broke up two years ago, I unconsciously put her into some kind of freeze frame and deposited the “static she” into my experiential archives. She was as close to “ceasing to exist” as my mind would rationally permit me to believe. Of course I missed her and mourned our separation, but she had become reduced to that version of herself; reduced to that moment in time. My life, my trajectory continued, while hers was fixed in some kind of holding pattern. To think of her as separate and dynamic… to think of her as moving on without me in the frame, was far too painful I suppose. Post break-up/divorce… my ex had become my own personal artifact, a relic from my past. A cardboard character in one of my cathartic recountings. But this news… this fretful “baby” news has reanimated my vision of her. She has bled outside the static lines I have drawn for her and I am surprised by how this new, very tangible, very corporeal reminder of her actual aliveness (and her offspring's aliveness!) is having such an emotional impact on me.

I don’t want to be with her – that was blatantly clear a long time ago. I barely even think about her anymore. And miss her even less -- (this may or may not be true, depending on the day you are asking me.) And I certainly don’t want to be having her baby… yikes! But still, some kind of untenable feeling of loss is here, engulfing me.

At this point, it's not even about the loss of her specifically or the residual feelings of abandonment instigated by our divorce… rather, I am acutely re-feeling the loss of "partner", the loss of a shared "future tense". I let myself go there, to those places with her and in my young naive mind, just being able to get to those precipices was enough to guarantee that everything would last... and come to some kind of predetermined fruition. (Sometimes I delude myself into thinking that if you work hard enough at something, then it is sure to succeed. "Success" of course, meaning that life takes the specific form you envision... a.ka. control.) It’s hard to invest in those ideas, in that kind of intimacy… to be willing to co-create those concepts with someone, only to watch them dissolve and then be realized with someone else. Its like I want a claim on her future tense because for so long it was intrinsic to my future tense. These are the things that are hard to let go of… even now… years later.

Yet, I truly am aspiring to sympathetic joy. Trying to take pleasure in knowing that she is potentially happy. I am.... But even now, there is still evidence of where our identities are entangled (in my head). It is so difficult, in and out of love, to see someone as something complete unto oneself. Something whole and separate. Something with autonomous agency outside of my own will or preference. I don’t want to be with her… but some base part in me doesn’t want her to be with anyone else -- it's the old cliche. I want the copyright on her. A patent. A contract. A will or a deed. Something. Something that names me sole proprietor of her life decisions, her future, my memories of her/us and my constructed version of her. And my version of her is NOT having a baby with someone else, only 2 years after being with me… the ultimate love of her life. No, she should still be devastated. Ahem, excuse me…. it is hard to be told that life does actually continue after me. It puts a dent in my ego's self-preserving delusions. Puts a damper on the idea that I am the center of the universe. Right? Am I totally crazy and juvenile?! Is any of this resonating with you? At all? Or is my relationship to relationship suspiciously stuck in junior high?

I could go on and on about this... the micro of it... the macro of it (what does it mean when queers decide to give birth to babies?) etc.... I could, but I won't. Mostly I just wanted to articulate the strange psychological paralysis that occurs when someone leaves our life. How static memory runs parallel to dynamic "reality"... and how reality then informs/inflects memory. How things can hurt, even when it doesn't really make any sense for them to.

Love,

cassmaster P

Further it's costing me my back to be honest. Having about 9 kilo hanging in front of me with straps on my back. This and the combination of work and stress are very bad for my back. and giving me backaches.

The solution was finding the old bike seat what I used for my son. So we first installed it on daddy's bike, to see how she was holding up in the back. She was strapped in with a 3 point belt and a hip belt.

She found it very interesting on the back of the bike, now she can see all new things. Very interesting was apparently a fast moving ground under her, cause the first time she looked down a lot.

Oh and she doesn't like big bumps. :mrgreen:

They eat you up inside.  Hollow you out.  There's nothing you can say to set the secret free, not a parable, not even the truth, because when it comes out, when you can finally tell someone, it's not the truth anymore, it's just something that happened a long time ago.

Shhhh, come here and I'll tell you the real secret.  At some point?  You became the thing you were trying so desperately to hide from everyone.  It's who you are now.  You're the truth.  That's not a compliment.

And for lots of bucks, no doubt.  I know Jamie Lynn must be proud of her new issue, and she's kinda cute for a baby only a month into forming her big-wide-world-life.   But I must say, I really would've preferred to do the wedding shower before the baby gifts.  I suppose that's the acceptable order right now - adolescent career, baby, magazine cover, high school diploma or GED (your pick), and - well, we'll see.

It's good that the child (and by child, I mean Jamie Lynn - babies having babies) has a large family unit down in Louisiana.  In-laws can be a supporting help when it comes to raising your babies.  Heck, maybe they'll even help finish raising Jamie Lynn.  Now that would be a good thing!  Um - I think.

So since I've already thrown the combination baby and wedding shower, today we'll be working on the baby gifts. I'm thinking something cute, cuddly and awfully clever, like a Pig in a Blanket!

   Seriously!  This little piggy comes in a soft, fleecy blanket and little Maddie Briann can bundle up and snuggle at the same time!

  Or, in keeping with the whole farm theme (after all, I believe the new parents have a barn on their Louisiana homestead) - how about Mother Goose?  She comes with her own, zipped up set of snuggly little critters and matching soft, furry nursery rhyme books, just perfect for a quick good night read.  Heck, Maddie can even snuggle with the little books!  An early love of books might lead her into becoming a great author in her later life?  (I'm looking to break the family-business dynasty here - maybe launch it into a more noble profession?  Something a little more dignified than a career publicizing your family dysfunctions for the world to enjoy?)

So there you have it.  A couple of good gift suggestions, and please do wish the new mother well.  Even though the magazine is named OK, it's not OK for babies to have babies.  It makes the whole baby-raising process harder.  Little Jamie Lynn Spears will be growing up right alongside Miss Maddie Briann.  God bless and good wishes to both.

And please remember to Celebrate Something Everyday!  Even if it confuses you a bit.....

A Quick Baby-raising Tip for Jamie Lynn Spears and Maddie Briann

Even though you probably have oodles of money and very possibly a nanny to help out, here's an old tip from my Baby-raising days: 

You can buy applesauce in a jar, but it's been processed and revamped and probably has only a trace of the original apple vitamin goodness left to offer.  Here's a better idea - buy a good juicy Gala or Fuiji apple at the store (or orchard, if you have one nearby), wash extremely well, cut in half.  Get out your baby spoon and gently scrape the surface of the cut apple insides, forming your own applesauce.  Feed to Maddie, when she's ready, in small amounts and give her the benefits of the fruit right from the source!  Works well with fully ripe pears as well!

Excellant titre de Nelly feat Pharrell. Bon beat, bon flow.

BABY

PHARRELL WILLIAMS AND NELLY

Vattenvana ger bättre förutsättningar att lära sig simma och då många skolor inte har längre simskola i schemat, är detta en bra grund. Jag vet att min dotter kommer att hänga på Eriksdalsbadet som jag gjorde när jag var barn. Men njut så länge Ni kan med er baby och upplev sann, ren glädje.

with me he was, in the army now he is..

ahh, so it's gonna be something different again, or is it going to be back to the original state?

not too sure how it would be like not seeing the boyf for a whole 2 weeks and 2 days.

looking at it on a brighter side, i can have more time at home and laze like before.

baby, you are missed already. ):

Ray & Yuki and Bubba & I took Jolie on her first trip to the zoo this afternoon!  It was the perfect day to be out and about.  While we were there, we saw all sorts of fun exhibits, though I'm sure us big kids had more fun than she did.

We saw polar bears, beluga whales, elephants and these darling things called tapirs:

It was a tiring day for Jolie but everyone helped take care of her (and she's not light).  Thank you!

We had a lot of laughs today.  When can we go again??

why do you play with my life, baby?
you enter and leave my presence as if my heart were an airport
and you have stocked up on frequent flier miles.
why do you play with my life, baby
as if i were a joyful infant
anxiously awaiting your face, your touch, your care?
i am not a toy, i am not a fly outfit,
i am not that old favorite pair of sneaks in the back of your closet
that you pull out from time to time because you miss them.
i am a woman. i have needs
which don't include riding on your every whim,
hanging on to your every word,
adjusting to your every mood,
answering your every call,
accepting all of your mistakes.
i am no fool, at least not anymore.
i refuse to stay stagnant, to allow my heart to jump
when you decide to pick up the phone and check on me.
my life is worth so much more than an "I miss you" every three months or so.
my life is worth love, companionship, acceptance, encouragement, sacrifice,
love, love, and love
not your poor excuses for life, for your mishaps in the past
that to you were just slips but to me stabs.
go play with someone else's life or better yet your own.
look in the mirror and put yourself down,
neglect you, lie to yourself, require and demand too much of yourself,
take up all of your own time, ruin your own credit, cheat on yourself,
get locked up and visit yourself every weekend,
disappoint yourself, ignore yourself,
insult yourself and make yourself cry and then
after you've done all that
ask you to get back with you and see what the answer is.
play with your own life, baby
cuz mine is too serious for that.
it's much too precious for me to get involved in your haphazard games
so despite all you have done, i will love you but from a distance
but
you cannot play with my life, baby.

Nicole Kidman, 41, gave birth early Monday to a baby girl, Sunday Rose Kidman Urban. The Urban family has decided to raise Sunday Rose in Nashville, Tennessee.

"When you look at Nicole and Keith, they seem to be at ease in Nashville. Especially Nicole seems to embrace the city," observed Dina Sansing, entertainment director for Us Weekly magazine.

"It seems the perfect place to have the child there because they do seem so happy there," Sansing said.

With the couple also owning homes in Los Angeles and Australia, there was conjecture about where the baby would be born. But in recent weeks as the Oscar-winning actress was spotted attending yoga classes and shopping near her home, it became apparent she intended to stay put. Urban confirmed it in a Saturday concert here when he dedicated his hit Better Half to his "very, very, very, very, very pregnant wife."

Matthew McConaughey's longtime model girlfriend, Camila Alves, has given birth to the couple's first child, a 7-pound, 4-ounce boy.

Alves, 24, gave birth Monday night in California and named the child Levi, McConaughey's publicist, Alan Nierob, said in an e-mail Tuesday to The Associated Press.

The 38-year-old actor announced that Alves was pregnant in a posting on his Web site in January.

"Camila and I were side by side the entire time," McConaughey told OK! Magazine. "We are both tired and elated, and are so happy to have created the greatest miracle in the world -- having a child and making a family."

]]> http://tanialeclerc.wordpress.com/?p=170 Wed, 09 Jul 2008 04:40:14 +0000 tanialeclerc http://tanialeclerc.wordpress.com/?p=170 Today I made a dozen diapers. I am so pleased with how they turned out. They are just simple prefolds made out of white flannel but it feels so nice to have made them myself (& so cheaply I might add). Ok - so the stitching is not perfect (why is sewing in a straight line on the machine so challenging somedays?) & the finished edges scream homemade, but hey, the baby is just going to poop on them right?

Next I need to put them through a hot water wash so they shrink slightly & fluff up. I'm nervous they will fall apart when I do so!

Unfortunately the fabric didn't make as many diapers as I originally had figured out (where did my math skills go) so I will have to get back to the store to buy several more metres to make another dozen. Those, combined with the 9 I bought a consignment shop (brand new!), will give me 33 diapers - hopefully enough to allow me to wash every 2 or 3 days.

I was going to post pictures but really 2 stacks of white cloth diapers is pretty unexciting.