Mom Blog and Baby Blog | Baby Bunching

is baby bunching right for you?

We recently ran across this radio podcast from Pregtastic about Baby Bunching. We're super excited to hear Dr. Frederick Johnson, Chief of Pediatrics at Sharp Mary Birch, talk about Baby Bunching with his own five kids.  He talks with a group of pregnant panelists talking about the pros and cons of kids close in age, as well as some tips for having kids in rapid succession.  All things we've shared on this site, but it's fun to hear it coming from a medical expert.

 

outdated baby myths, baby bunching style

We ran across this article yesterday about the 14 most outdated pieces of baby advice. Of course, being a parent of children well beyond 'babies,' we had to check in to see what we had or hadn't done in this list. Funny the difference 16 months can make!

We're going to give you the Baby Bunching version of this this list.

Myth: Infants need to be bathed every day.
The Baby Bunching truth: Ha! The more kids you have close in age the less you want to bathe them. Everyday. We have one friend with 4 bunched kids and #4 was lucky to get a bath once a week. Wipe them down with a cloth and their good. It's the older ones that need the bath.

Myth: Babies sleep best in a room that's silent and dark.
The Baby Bunching truth: Good luck with that. It wasn't until baby #2 that we invested in the sound machine just to drown the noise out from Big Baby.  

Myth: When infants are running a high temperature, rub them down with alcohol to lower their fever.
The Baby Bunching truth:We are unfamilar with this one. We say stick with Tyenol when appropriate.

Myth: Letting your little one stand or bounce in your lap can cause bowlegs later on.
The Baby Bunching truth:Also never heard of this, but we bet you'll let baby #2 in the Jumperoo/Megasaucer WAY earlier than you let the first one!

Myth: Listening to classical music will raise your baby's IQ.
The Baby Bunching truth:We bet this actually soothes everyone so while it may not raise anyone's IQ it will make feeding your Bunch a much more enjoyable experience. Really!

Myth: Let your baby cry it out; if you pick her up whenever she's wailing, you'll spoil her.
The Baby Bunching truth: It won't spoil him/her but it will be the new norm. Everyone must learn to wait.

Myth: Babies should be woken up in the night to have a wet diaper changed.
The Baby Bunching truth: No!!!! Let sleeping babies sleep.

Myth: It's dangerous to immunize your infant if he has a cold or a low-grade fever.
The Baby Bunching truth: Go with the doctor's rec on this. If you have gotten everyone to a check up that includes a shot and you can get it with a cold, just get it so you don't have to drag everyone back.

Myth: Never apply sunscreen to an infant under 6 months of age.
The Baby Bunching truth: Unless you have kids that are 2 and older we're guessing the pool will be a major chore so it won't matter much on this. one. If you do have older kids, then you already know they will be along for the ride no matter what. Sit under the umbrella.

Myth: During the first month of a baby's life, it's critical that all baby bottles and nipples be sterilized.
The Baby Bunching truth: Nah, just wash them with soap and water.

Myth: The safest way to put an infant to sleep is on her stomach.
The Baby Bunching truth: As a mother to one tummy sleeper, we say try your best to get your babe on his back and then after that.....you're on your own.

Myth: Putting rice cereal in your infant's bottle will help him sleep.
The Baby Bunching truth: This just sounds gross, but we know that infants shouldn't have solid food until 4-6 months. Then we all pray your babes are sleeping better.

Myth: It's critical to keep your baby on a strict feeding schedule.
The Baby Bunching truth:If you're OCD like we are, perhaps you did this the first time around. The second time's a charm and realized feeding has no schedule so if they are crying and cranky, pop 'em on a boob.

Myth: Infants need hard-soled shoes to protect their delicate toes and keep their feet properly aligned.
The Baby Bunching truth: Nope, barefoot is best. Who has time to find shoes!

the connection between (lack of) sleep and "baby brain"

A recently released study confirms what we moms have long known - that the "baby brain" attributed to sleep deprivation is a very, very real thing.  Although the study was conducted with frequently-woken mice, sleep researchers say that it's not too big of a leap to extend the findings to humans, who experience a mental fog that undermines our ability to think clearly when we have not gotten enough sleep.

When my oldest was born, I remember being shocked at how little sleep I required to function. Those first few weeks of wakings every 1-3 hours were brutal, but I was lucky that each of my little ones fell into decent 4-hour stretches by about one month.  For the most part, I found that if was able to get 5 consecutive hours of sleep and a gallon of caffeine a day, I was good to go.  Sure, I'd get tired, but when the occasional bout of infant illness or teething tossed me back into 2-hour sleep cycles, I was once again grateful for the pathetic 5-hour stretch.

As it turned out, becoming a mom has changed my sleep cycle permanently.  Never a "night owl", I found that I was able to stay up later post-baby and now my most productive hours are between 8 pm (once the kids are down) and 1 am.  As a hyper Type-A personality, I've frequently felt that sleeping, along with eating, are two of life's biggest time wasters, so I was thrilled to discover that the (lack of) sleep training I received from having 3 babies in 5 years has translated to increased productivity. I can now function on 5 hours of sleep a night instead of 8, a time savings that translates into an extra 21 hours a week!  I can do this for exactly 3 consecutive weeks - and then I crash.  

Instead of cluing in to how BAD this is for my body, I'm content to function in 3-week cycles for the sake of squeezing more work, volunteering, blogging (sometimes), and chores into my days.  Never mind the fact that my memory for details is shot, half the time I call my kids by each other's names, and I can frequently be found driving down my street with a forgotten travel coffee mug on the roof of my van.  To each their own, I say.

How has becoming a mom changed your sleep needs, for better or for worse?

new crib regulations

Recalls are important. Obviously we want our children to be safe from products that could cause our tots harm, but I had to giggle at this latest article about the latest crib recalls and recommendation to use only fixed-sided cribs.

For those of you who no longer have kids in cribs or those of you who are using your heirloom cribs that all three of your kids slept in just fine, the latest thinking is that drop-side cribs are harmful. Now, I will admit that I never used the drop side for my kids except at certain stages. When they are super little the mattress was up high enough that it wasn't needed. When they were older any rattling of the crib after I got them fed, swaddled and soothed startled them so once I heaved them over we just left things as well. And oops....I will admit to even forgetting to not lifting the railing back up as they got older. And, yes, this prompted the discovery of how to jump ship.

I think of all the ways we, our parents and grandparents slept as kids. Probably many of your grandparents started out in a drawer somewhere. Our kids are now in cribs not near windows (mini blinds), without blankets (suffocation), not near wires/monitors, no bumpers (OK, we all ignored that one!), sleeping on their backs in a crib that forces parents to hurl themselves over or throw baby in. I'm starting to think perhaps the drawer is the better and maybe even safer option.

What do you think about this latest recall?

what will your bunch remember?

One of the most frequent questions we are asked (besides questions regarding sleep, eating, strollers and gear) is about how to get Big Baby ready for Little Baby. There are a million and one books and tips out there for getting a child who is less than 2 ready for the next sibling. But really we must admit a two quick things on that matter 1) nothing will really prepare anyone in the household for what is about to ensue 2) your Big Baby will never remember life without Little Baby in it.

So where am I going with this post, you might ask. Well, as I flipped through my Wall Street Journal this morning an article about our earliest memories as kids caught my eye.  According to this, most people can't recall anything that happened before the age of 3 or 4. (It probably makes sense as I can't, but still makes me a bit sad.) Not only will your Big Baby never remember life without Little Baby, but apparently all the other activities that send us spinning in so many directions and the memories we try to create for our kids, could go MIA as well.

Here's what the WSJ article said:  

Researchers asked 140 children, aged between 4 and 13, to describe their three earliest memories, and repeated the exercise two years later with the same children. On average, the 50 youngest children, aged 4 to 6 during the first interview, recalled events from when they were barely 2 years old, as verified by their parents. When they were interviewed two years later, only five of those 50 children mentioned the same earliest memory. By contrast, 22 of the 61 children who were 10 to 13 at the first interview were able to mention the same earliest memory when they were interviewed again two years later.

The article isn't all gloom and doom, but it did provide prospective and definitely made me want to drive home some of the big event s and take more photos to help create the memory later in life.

I know there is more to daily parenting than just trying to make them remember kindergarten field day when they are 18. Obviously, we are rearing children and everything along the way is cumulative and they grow from the experiences, as do we. They may not remember that field day, but they will remember for a few years what happened and that I was there. And that creates of sense of self and a sense of who we as parents. But I must admit the article did just make me slump down a bit in my seat to think that from this amazing weekend we had just had filled with festivals, parties and the pool, each of my child might possibly remember one iota of the weekend (if that at all because I took no photos.)

We'd love to hear your reaction on this article and what you do to help create memories for your kids.

new car seat advice: waving from behind

This just in from yesterday--the AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics) now recommends that children should be rear-facing in their car seats until age 2. This puts a whole new spin for us Bunchers since it means our Bunch is now facing backwards, and we can just have to hope and pray that they are behaving themselves back there.  No more looking back in the rear view mirror to catch those toddler smiles; now it might just be some bobbing heads with a few toys flying back and forth. Good times.

This is not new for me since our early Bunching days were in spent in Sweden where their kids ride rear facing until age 3 or even 4! The car seats are made differently and stabilized in ways that look like they also might be drilling for oil while restraining your kids. (Now that's a fun concept.) I often wondered how my Baby Bunching neighbor did it with both kids facing that way. How do you know what trouble your toddler's up to. Well, they also can put their kids rear-facing in the front seat (air bag disabled) so that eliminates that issue. I couldn't go this route because my Britax car seat at the time wouldn't allow for a child over a certain height to be rear facing. Here is a good resource for what they do in other countries.

This is only guidance and not a law set in place, but here's the scoop on why:

One-year-olds are five times less likely to be injured in a crash if they are in a rear-facing car seat than a forward-facing seat, according to a 2007 analysis of five years of U.S. crash data. Toddlers have relatively large heads and small necks. In a front-facing car seat, the force of a crash can jerk the child's head causing spinal cord injuries. [We admit it's kind of hard to argue with that.]

Car seats have recommended weights printed on them. If a 1-year-old outweighs the recommendation of an infant seat, parents should switch to a different rear-facing car seat that accommodates the heavier weight until they turn 2, the pediatricians group says.

We're curious what you think about this new recommendation. Do your kids like to face backwards? Are their legs scrunched up? Is this something you'll do or will you address the issue on a child-by-child basis?

*photo credit: Carseat.se--Rear Facing for a Safer Future.

is your car booster recommended?

Think car booster seats are all the same? Think again. I just ran across some useful information this morning from the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety with their list of those booster seats that are Best Bets for your kids (and those that are not).

Now, we understand you may not be to this point yet since some of you are deciding on a second car seat or trying to fit a third car seat in the car, but at some point you're all doing the infamous car seat shuffle so this bit of information is good to have on hand.

What I find interesting is by the time you're to the booster phase, the actual booster isn't doing the restraining, the belt is. The booster is merely helping position the belt and your child so that in the event of a crash, the seat belt actually does its job and won't strangle him or hurt her belly.

I will admit my youngest is in our oldest and apparently a not-recommended booster seat: The Safety First Alpha Omega, which was fine when my kids were little, but I HATE as a booster now. And I hate the booster for the exact reasons they state in the article. The belt fits too close to her neck. We have since moved it to the car we use the least.

Take a look over the list before you buy. Do consider, as they recommend, that it's about the fit in your car and for your kid. We know being in your car is already challeging what with sippy cups flying, kids crying and loading/unloading everyone, but please make sure it's always as safe as possible.

is your juice box safe?

Logged on yesterday morning and found a story about how 85% of fruit drinks cound contain high levels of lead. Can I just say, I'm finding it a little hard to believe these days to shop anywhere? And if you missed the story about flame retardant clothing, you might want to read that one, too. Thought that Spiderman PJs smell and feel strange. Yeah, you're right to think so.

Cribs, carseats, carriers, toys, clothing, medicine, food all being recalled for this and that. But a juice box? C'mon people! Lead?! You're taking away the simple things and things bought from a store (Whole Food and Trader Joes) that I trust. Really, where can I go next? Sometimes I feel like it would be safer to just move off to some deserted island and hunt my own meat, grow all my veggies and sew my clothes. (Ok, I don't sew, but if I was on a deserted island I could totally learn.)

Just in case you missed many of the recalled baby items in the past year, here's a reminder. Curious about what you all think about the latest of "bad" news on juice.

time change: falling back into a different routine

We're over at the Washington Times Communities this week talking about the recent time change and what we love and hate about it being dark so early. Ok, we know Day Light Savings ended a few weeks ago now, but we're still adjusting. Are you? Let us know how.