What Do You Want To See Here?

This is a safety blog....or that was the original intention anyway. So I'm planning on doing a post about picking out a car seat, finding a bottle your breast fed baby will take, and more about our sleep saga. So there's 3 things, but what do you my readers want to know more about. I'm also want to learn more about high fructose corn syrup.

I do baby wear and will probably look at some other carriers as Nicholas gets older. We did cloth diaper up until a month or so ago, so I can share some info about that too.

Those are my ideas, but what I want to know is what interests you. Please leave your ideas as a comment.

Thanks!!!

Whew it's been awhile

So I figured I should actually do something with this blog. Things have been crazy around here. That happens with a baby. Nicholas is teething, he really needs to add more to the 2 teeth he has. And we're also working on getting him to sleep in his own bed. We've started solid foods with Nicholas and oh was he ready for them. He's also outgrowing his infant car seat, so we're now waiting on his convertible car seat to arrive (tomorrow hopefully).

So here's what we're doing for the teeth. We're giving him teethers. He really likes these Playtex ones we got from the Easter Bunny. They are the right size for him to hold on too and really go to town while chewing to his hearts content. We also give him teething rings that stay in the fridge so he has something cold to chew on. Next I give him Hyland's teething tablets and teething gel. Nicholas opens up wide when he sees I've got the tablets. I didn't want to give him the numbing gel because I was worried about it numbing his epiglottis(the flap that covers the wind pipe when you swallow). I worry that it will get numb and he could choke. The teething tablets and gel have eliminated that worry. We also give him Tylenol to help ease the pain, especially at night if he can't seem to get settled.

On to the sleeping issue---we co-slept for awhile, but it was killing my back. So we moved Nicholas' crib into his room. And he still slept with us. When we planned to start he was working on his first teeth and the 2 of us had a cold. So I waited for the teeth to come in and the colds to clear up. While I was waiting, I read "The No Cry Sleep Solution" by Elizabeth Pantley. One of my Mamasphere friends passed it along to me--Thanks Heather! It's a very gentle way to teach your child to sleep on their own and through the night. You can even use it if you want to continue co-sleeping and just have your child sleep through the night. The first night we were thinking it was going to be worse than what it actually was. Brandon(my hubby) slept on the couch so he would be fresh the next day. We decided to start on a Friday night, so I would have his help the next day. I did our night time routine, nursed him and put him down. Nicholas was in bed around 8. It takes about an hour to get him completely settled and relaxed some nights. Every time he woke, I went to him. I would rock him or nurse him depending on how long it had been since he last ate. The first night went ok---I did bring him to bed with me around 5 am that first night because I just couldn't get him to settle back down into the crib. The next night was better. Since then, we've had some rough nights and some better ones. The method has you do nap and sleep logs every 10 days to evaluate your progress and what you need to change. It's time for us to do it and again. I'll keep you posted on how things go.

Nothing really to report on the solid foods front. Bananas have got to be the easiest baby food to make. Peel and mash or put in blender on puree. Then pour into an ice cube tray and freeze. I keep the banana cubes in air tight freezer bags and take out what I need. I've given Nicholas some commercial baby bananas after giving him the homemade ones. He doesn't seem to care for the store bought kind. The ones I made do smell and taste better though. I'm going to give making more foods for him a whirl.

And the last thing---the car seat. Well this really should be a post all it's own. There's so much that goes into choosing a car seat. So I'll make the car seat selection into it's own blog. Stay tuned...

Introduction

Well, I figured I'd start this blog off with a little bit about me and what I intend to be the purpose of my blog.

My name is Susan. First and foremost, I'm a mom and wife. Second I'm a Child Passenger Safety Tech (CPST for short). I'm passionate about keeping my son safe. And with that passion came a desire to help keep other children safe. I look for products that will be useful in our everyday life, but are also safe for my son.

My son, Nicholas, is 5 months old. I consider myself a pretty mainstream parent, but I don't want to do anything that will put my son's health and safety in jeopardy. To accomplish that goal, I breastfeed, delay his vaccines, use as many BPA free products as I can and attempt to keep other toxins away from him. I'm not perfect, but I do my best for Nicholas.

I'm hoping this blog will be a place for me to share the things that we do and use. Hopefully our experiences will help you make choices that work for your family.