And I Thought I Had Nothing to Write ...

I'm so relieved that Kelly is feeling less stressed and her blood pressure has returned to normal after a weekend of having Clint at home! I know it meant a lot to her that he took the weekend off. I'm sure he needed some downtime too after working almost constantly.

As for Kelly's concerns, I know that things will work out for the best for her and Clint, as well as Eleanor! As my good friend Barb, said, becoming a mom (or dad) is an awesome responsibility. And when you want to be the best, and do the best, like Kelly and Clint, there can be a lot of hard choices to make. I know one thing for sure: They'll both be the best parents little Eleanor could ever want!

BABY INFO

I always get such interesting information on birth, breastfeeding and babies from Lactnet. Today I saw a link for a great article, Kangaroo Mother Care. It starts out like this:

"The very best environment for a baby to grow and thrive, is the mother's body," says Dr Nils Bergman, a doctor specializing in Kangaroo Mother Care in South Africa. "When placed skin-to-skin on the mother's chest, the baby receives warmth, protection and food, and its brain can develop optimally. Not feeding the baby often enough and leaving it to sleep alone after a feed can result in the baby getting colic", he adds. "The mother's skin is the baby's natural environment, and both physically and emotionally the healthiest place for the baby to be".

In the article, Dr. Nils Bergman says that during baby's first eight weeks, skin-to-skin contact is essential and the most important stimulant for development of the brain.

Parents know how hard it is to ignore a baby's piercing cry and that's for a good reason: Your baby really needs you to develop properly. It's always cool to find science backing what many moms already know.


MY BABY PROJECTS

I'm almost done putting the Velcro closures on the baby kimono shirt I made yesterday. Kelly said that she'd like me to teach her how to sew when I visit so she can make Eleanor a little shirt. The hand sewing part was easy and I think it probably is a good project to get started on. What's challenging for me is figuring out what finishing touches would be needed if you were to market this shirt on etsy. I'm not thrilled with the Velcro. Snaps would probably be better.

I recently finished a cute little lovey rag blanket for Eleanor with patches I had left from making her flannel burp cloths. It's nice and soft and around 14"x14" so it's easy to tuck in a diaper bag. I still need to run it through the washer and dryer to fringe all the edges. It should look even better once that's done. I'm really happy with the way the colors look together.


The other Eleanor project I'm working on was intended to be a rag baby quilt. (A rag quilt is done differently than other, sewing wrong sides, rather than right sides together. Then the seam allowance is carefully snipped (A LOT) and then washed until it frays, like the edges of the burp cloths.) I decided instead to turn it into a lap pad because I wasn't thrilled with the color combo. I'll probably post a pic in the next few days as I get most of it done.

SHOPPING

I went to a couple of thrift stores yesterday and found a few cute little outfits. (Dad thought "ADO" in the ADORED Gap shirt was Spanish for red!!)
Kelly, I wish you could see them in person right now. So cute! The shirt in front, which is the largest size I bought (12 months I think), is the sweetest with little colored chicks and colored fuzzy yarn on the chicks and at the neck. The pink and peach outfits could be worn by Eleanor right after birth.