A Bugs Life.

Six Months.

Adelaide has reached 6 months. She started off 5 lbs 13 oz and has now reached a whopping 17 pounds! Life is slowly getting crazier as she is becoming more independent. In the past month, so much has happened. It seems that when babies start to learn things, it's like a domino effect. She's becoming such a person now, full blown personality with more of an understanding on how things work. Incredible hand eye coordination. Eating food. Teething like mad (her bottom middle left tooth should make it's debut soon!) Rolling around. Sitting up. Pulling herself up to stand. Talking her own language. She's doing all the things a 6 month old should do but she has the temper of a two year old! It's the Bays/Horton temper and boy is it fierce. She can reach this crazy high pitch when she screams that make you cringe. When she first learned to scream, she thought it was funny. We did not encourage it, ever! But she still laughed. It's awful. She just wants to be heard I guess, lol.

She is SO in to music. Music anything and she just stares and takes it all in. Sometimes she'll sing with me when I sing to her. Her favourite is when Julian plays the guitar for her. I reckon she'll be very musical. There are some incredibly talented people on Julian's side! They can sing and play instruments, so you can imagine Christmas time is especially fun! You may have heard of Jodi King or Jenn Mierau and of course, lets not forget Hot Live Guys. My side of the family are the dancers. Can't really carry a tune, but LOVE music and LOVE to show off their moves.
Here, listen to Julian play Beirut for Adelaide while you finish reading!

Adelaide is starting to become independent. She likes to put her own soother in her mouth. She likes to hold her own bottle when I give her water. She grabs the spoon and tries to feed herself at meals. She's getting pretty good at feeding herself a biscuit. We're a fan of Farley's Rusks. Sometimes she'll have one mixed with breastmilk and bananas for breakfast. But she likes just eating the biscuits. They dissolve easily and they must feel great on her sore gums.

Introducing her to food is so fun! So far, she hasn't snubbed anything. She's had rice, banana, apple, pear, prune, avocado, pumpkin, peas, and sweet potato. I've also introduced her to cinnamon. I get recipes and ideas from http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/. I find it weird that in our culture we introduce the most constipated foods first. It's hard on their wee digestive systems. Bug LOVES sweet potatoes, but they also constipate her really bad. Good thing she loves prunes! I am looking forward to the next couple weeks when we're gonna start adding new things to the menu and spice it up a bit! Just because we're Canadian, doesn't mean we gotta feed her that way!

With all the changes going on in her diet and her teething roller coaster ride, she's become more susceptible to diaper rashes. So she is experiencing her first one. It sucks. The moment I noticed it I knew it was yeast related. Most diaper rashes are. It's bright red and raised. It started off patchy. So right away I upped my intake of Acidophilus to 4 capsules a day from 2 and I break open a capsule and give Adelaide the powder inside with some food or water once in the morning and once in the evening. I was using Penaten Cream at first but surprisingly that didn't work. A friend of mine got me a jar of Sudocrem and that seems to be working and giving Bug some relief. We also spend the day naked which gives us plenty of opportunities to use the potty. And at night I put her cloth diaper on really loose so moisture doesn't get trapped. Hopefully it won't be around that much longer. For more info on how to get rid of a yeast rash click HERE.

Now that Adelaide is sitting up and rolling over and pulling herself to stand I have to start baby proofing because it won't be long before she's on the go and into everything she shouldn't be. This is when things start getting really fun! lol. This is when you lose that last bit of baby weight!

5 Months.

"You and Me". One of Bugs favourite songs. I have an Ipod Touch so a couple times a week when we're laying in bed in the morning, I'll play a some youtube videos for her. This song is a good one to play when she's a little cranky. She calms down almost instantly.
And, "I Love My Hair" makes Bug smile and giggle. It's a great song.

I love Sesame Street!
http://www.sesamestreet.org/
We don't have cable or anything and we don't really watch the TV unless we watch a boxset and that only happens when Bugs in bed at night. (Right now we're finishing up Battlestar Galactica, the newer series!) So she rarely gets exposed to TV except when we watch a couple videos here and there on the ITouch or when we get together with friends some Saturdays to watch Hockey Night in Canada. She LOVES hockey! I am not sure how I feel about TV, but it's obvious to me that if she was to be exposed to the Tube, then only watch very small doses. And of course be careful what you expose their wee minds to. For instance...when I first started showing Bug the video clips on YouTube, we watched a couple Baby Einstein videos I found...she was enthralled, but they were boring. So I searched for a variety of them. Here's one we watched:

It was at about 2:43 when I realized that this really wasn't for kids. And the title didn't say "not for kids" at that time. But from the beginning of the video I was a little weirded out. Oops, lol.
Anyway, five months is fun. She's "talking" more, her vocabulary is quite something! She has learned to scream and will just do it because she can. She thinks it's funny. I hope this ends soon, lol. She's so giggly and really fun to interact with! She's a really tiny person with likes and dislikes. She is SO close to sitting up on her own. And she just wants to stand and jump all the time. She can roll over to one side only with a disposable diaper on because the cloth diapers are a bit bulkier, ha ha ha. Two teeth are about to make their debut any day now! And as of 2 days ago, we introduced her to food. Rice cereal, apples and breast milk. She seems to love it.

We decided it was time because she was waking more frequently at night time for milk. Like 5 times a night! Now she wakes up for 2 or 3 quick top ups between 7pm and 8am. Much better. Now I am excited for her to get to eat what we eat. Since we have the Cadillac of all food processors we'll be making our own baby food! I am thinking about getting a table at a farmers market this summer so I can sell jars of it, along with all the baby attire I make! I'll keep you posted!


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"Oh say, cute boots!"

I was up VERY late last night learning a new crochet pattern. Sometimes I find that crocheting can be addictive...very addictive, especially when I learn a new pattern. It's exciting. So I say, when you are feeling inspired, no matter when that may be, take advantage of it.


I have 2 pairs of these warm boots available which you can find in both my online shops:
http://www.heatherbays.etsy.com/
OR
http://www.heatherbays.artfire.com/


They both measure 4 inches long, which is a size 2. They also have vintage decorative buttons on the sides from the button collection I inherited from my grandmother. Well, I gotta clean my place, then go grocery shopping (restock for baking, so stay tuned) and then I can return to crocheting! YES!
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Natural vs Robots.

I have reached 33 weeks! I haven't taken any new photos this week, but this photo is from last week. I have been busy with other things like making soups and freezing them to prepare for when time will be scarce with a new baby. I have been busy crocheting and visiting with family and friends. Just making a life here in a new big city. So far I am loving it. People are so kind in Toronto. This city is so well run. The transportation system is the next best thing to a teleporter! And most of all, I was able to get a midwife no problem. So, we are prepared/preparing for the big day which could come in as little as 4 weeks. I am "full-term" on November 8th, so anytime after that! Yikes.
I have pretty much finished that book 'Birthing From Within' and I think it was the most helpful out of all the books I have read. It made me feel so much better about a lot of things. Giving birth to a baby is something women have been doing since the beginning of time...but this is MY first time and it's kinda scary. This book helped me realize what I was so afraid of and it turns out, I was just afraid of the whole western birthing experience. Going to a hospital, being poked and prodded by random doctors or nurses, hoping there is a private room and if not, sharing your personal space at such a vulnerable time with complete strangers. Not having nearly as many choices, such as eating and drinking during labour, not having the option of birthing in a pool/tub, when to cut the chord, not forcing the placenta out, being pressured for drugs and possible interference with tools or even a C-Section so the doctor can get home in time for dinner. You become so limited. I know doctors are useful when it comes to birthing high risk babies, but if there is no risk, then why chance the hospital where most babies are born doped up on drugs. I suppose if that's where you feel most comfortable, then the hospital is a great choice for you, but why have an OB/GYN or doctor when you can have a Midwife?! Midwives are obviously HIGHLY educated and know more about normal natural births then a doctor. Some nurses have never even seen a natural birth! YIKES! So, though many people think I am "brave" for having a homebirth, I think women who birth in hospitals are brave. I certainly feel more at home and comfortable and safe in my own home.
I know that Canada and the USA are a little different, but they aren't THAT much different when it comes to birthing techniques. I watched the movie 'The Business of Being Born'. It's a little aggressive like "Sicko", but if you are expecting a baby or know someone that is expecting a baby, this is something that is worth your time!! Watch it on YouTube (if you can find it) or rent it or buy it. But watch it!!! Educating yourself on your rights and options is so worth your time so you can make your birthing experience a magical one instead of a terrifying stressful one. They bring up things like the domino effect of taking drugs for pain and how it can actually complicate your birth WAY more. They talk about unnecessary C-Sections. Did you know that in New York 1 out of 3 births are done by C-Section?! They have these things called "Designer Births" where you book yourself in around your due date (sometimes earlier if you don't wanna get too big to avoid stretch marks), then they induce you, slice you open, remove your baby who obviously wasn't ready to come out yet and then while they have you open on the table, they do a quick tummy tuck and ta-da! You have given birth to your beautiful baby. EFFING SICK!! It's just scary how far removed we are from our natural animalistic instincts. Have we forgotten that we are animals too? There is one doctor from Europe in the documentary who is passionate about natural births and he talks about "love hormones". These hormones are produced and released when pushing your baby out naturally. If you and your baby are drugged up, or if you have a surgical birth, your bodies natural abilities are blocked and confused. That being said, you are more likely to have a much harder time during postpartum with depression, healing and you increase the chance of infections. I understand that SOME people need drugs and interference to save their baby and/or themselves, but with something like 90% of our population taking part in these new birthing techniques, it seems crazy to me! I can't believe that some advice I have been given time and time again is "take the drugs!" What kind of advice is that? They say that "if you can give birth to a baby, then you can do anything"...well, does that apply to women who opt for a pain-free birth, or a "designer birth"? I guess maybe, but I will admit...I am less impressed. If you NEED it, that's one thing, but if you don't, why interfere with something that our bodies have been doing since the beginning of time? There are consequences. I wonder what will happen if we keep going down this path? In time maybe we'll have smaller pelvic bones because we won't be using them to birth anymore, or the complete loss of certain hormones or the ability to naturally go in to labour? Or maybe women will take back control of their own bodies!
I think the bottom line is...educate yourself, find out the pros and cons and have your baby where ever you feel comfortable and stress-free. Just know what you want so you don't get pressured in to something that's not right for you.