How long can you hold your breath?

I can hold mine for a minute before gasping for air. Peanut seems to be able to hold his for about 5 second. Sound strange that I know this?

Yep — this is his new game that he plays with himself… holding his breath!

This game seems to have replaced the rolling over game, as he hasn’t done that in a while. He is also starting to demand to sit up at times,which is funny, as currently, I can balance him for about 2 seconds before he topples over. So, I found a short term remedy — 

Looks like I got him mid-blink! Ah, well, he’s still so very, very cute.

Utterly amazing….

I’ll put text first, so that if you are bothered by the fact that the picture is of a baby’s hand, reaching from his mother’s uterus during surgery, you can read, and skip the picture. But I think the picture is worth a great deal.

I know many will dispute this idea: even an embryo, before it is a fetus, is a person. The words embryo, fetus are like the words infant, child, teenager… it denotes a stage of life. But neither label denies the fact that at each stage, this little being is a person. We might doubt this, some do. But consider, it just might be a person — do you want to make the assumption that it isn’t and turn out to be wrong?

Here’s the story behind the picture —

A picture began circulating in November. It should be “The Picture of the Year,” or perhaps, “Picture of the Decade.” It won’t be. In fact, unless you obtained a copy of the U.S. paper which published it, you probably would never have seen it.

The picture is that of a 21-week-old unborn baby named Samuel Alexander Armas, who is being operated on by surgeon named Joseph Bruner. The baby was diagnosed with spina bifida and would not survive if removed from his mother’s womb. Little Samuel’s mother, Julie Armas, is an obstetrics nurse in Atlanta. She knew of Dr. Bruner’s remarkable surgical procedure. Practicing at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, he performs these special operations while the baby is still in the womb.

During the procedure, the doctor removes the uterus via C-section and makes a small incision to operate on the baby. As Dr. Bruner completed the surgery on Samuel, the little guy reached his tiny, but fully developed hand through the incision and firmly grasped the surgeon’s finger. Dr. Bruner was reported as saying that when his finger was grasped, it was the most emotional moment of his life, and that for an instant during the procedure he was just frozen, totally immobile.

The photograph captures this amazing event with perfect clarity. The editors titled the picture, “Hand of Hope.” The text explaining the picture begins, “The tiny hand of 21-week-old fetus Samuel Alexander Armas emerges from the mother’s uterus to grasp the finger of Dr. Joseph Bruner as if thanking the doctor for the gift of life.”

Little Samuel’s mother said they “wept for days” when they saw the picture. She said, “The photo reminds us pregnancy isn’t about disability or an illness, it’s about a little person” Samuel was born in perfect health, the operation 100 percent successful. Now see the actual picture, and it is awesome…incredible….and hey, pass it on! The world needs to see this one!

 

Babies and diapers

Diapers are, generally, a necessary part of taking care of a baby. Common knowledge. And I venture into the world of cloth diapers, because I think they are better for baby, better for the wallet and better for environment. But they can be frustrating.

All my pocket diapers (where you stuff an absorbent insert into the middle) started repelling moisture. The pockets I’d made are, apparently, made of a fleece that repels moisture — that was/is my bad for buying that fleece; but I hadn’t thought to check such things in the store. But when even my commercially made (and handed down) pockets started repelling, I knew I was doing something wrong. Detergent? Likely. Added oxygen cleaner? Perhaps. So, I tried stripping them.  I washed them with dish detergent, scrubbed them in the sink by hand, which should cut through any residue — hopefully. We shall see! Strangely, not had any of these issues with the flats or prefolds. And thus I begin my quest to find a new detergent.

Those with more cloth diaper-fu than I, any thoughts?

As for baby, we are slowly figuring it all out. My big, looming question at the moment is about falling asleep on your own.  Is this a taught skill, or one that develops on its own at some point? At what point, or age, can this skill be taught, or does it develop? I know I’ve got a few readers who have raised several children, that, I’m assuming, can all fall asleep on their own.  By “on their own”, I mean no rocking, nursing or being held. Use of a lovey, blanket, paci, or other aid doesn’t count in my book, because it does require the presence of mommy or daddy.  Fellow mothers, have you any thoughts, advice, or wisdom you might offer me?

Big questions today. Some days are just like that 😛

Babies, diapers and projects

I’m finally feeling like I have the time and energy to live beyond merely feeding and diaper changing; its a nice feeling.

Diaper update:
I’ve not gotten any more diapers made, but with the slew that we have from the hospital, diaper tree and gifts, we are set for another 2 weeks or so. Nonetheless, we have played with our cloth diapers and tried them out. Even with the kissuluves, size 0, it results in the monster bum, though the onsie will still close around it.  As for the one size that my friend Liz has made (and I’ve been working on), I can get them small enough, but the little guy is soooooo skinny it takes some doing.

To be a true one-size, I think we’d need to make our velcro tabs two sided so they can overlap and still attach. Otherwise, it seems to work great.

In other diaper news, about a month ago, I purchased the e-book from allaboutclothdiapers.com. I read through part of it, and wondered if I’d paid too much. But today, I went directly to the “washing” section, read and have a plan.Totally worth the money, if only for that section. Sure I could of done the research via google, but with a newborn dominating my time, and recovering from a c-section (which going well, I think), it was worth the price to just open the document and read — no research required.

Sewing:

Of all prep that I did for having a baby, I didn’t acquire much in the way of nursing clothing. So, I’m converting a few tank tops into nursing tops… 

I’ve sewn ribbon from the shoulder strap to the underarm, added a button and cut the pieces apart. 

Babies —

Took me 2 hours to write this post, the little guy refuses to let me put him down, is fussy-fussy, and we have a guest over. Of course, we have a guest, and baby Samuel gets cranky. Ah, breaks my heart trying to figure out how to comfort him, tonight seems to be somewhat solved, but we will see.  We’d hoped to make it church tomorrow, but we will see how tonight goes. Luckily, the past few nights have been good — solid 3 hours at a time. Can’t ask more than that from the little man.