4 cute kids

Scary Bed - part 2

"My bed tipped last night!" That is what I would say to my parents when I was very small when I was sick. I still sort of remember what it felt like. It seemed that one of the legs on the bed frame was shorter or broken and that the bed was constantly shaking or tipping. I'm not quite sure what made me feel that way. Was I just dizzy? Feverish? Have some sort of inner ear problem? I know it wasn't the bed because one time the "tipping" was really bothering me and I got up to tell my parents. On the way to their room I felt the whole house tipping and I fell down in the hallway.

Orange juice connoisseur

Growing up I drank orange juice every single day with breakfast. It was the frozen kind that has to be mixed with water. We often would go camping during my youth and during those trips my mom would pack small cans of orange juice with a pull-top lid, (the kind they don't make anymore). The canned orange juice tasted a lot different; so sour, horrible really. As a kid I was so used to having oj with my breakfast that I got used to the taste. When I grew up I still had such fond memories of those camping trips. I started college right after high school and I was delighted to find that the cafeteria sold orange juice in cans. The taste of it transported me back to a happier time and place. I would buy a can on my class break and bring it back to the room.
"Eww, how can you drink that?" the other students would ask me. "It's so sour!"
"I like it." I would say.
Now I have moved several times in my life, and every state or city has different stores with different brands. I have tasted many kinds of orange juice and the kind I like the best come in cans. The juice itself tastes bad, but the memories are good.

Wipe hands on pants.

Hand dryers are loud and take too long to dry your hands. In a crowded bathroom ladies sometimes have to wait to use the dryer. Using paper towels is faster and works better.

Once I was using a hand dryer that had directions printed on a metal plate on the top. The directions read:

1. Press button.
2. Place hands under dryer.
3. Rub hands briskly.

Underneath, someone had scratched into the metal:

4. Wipe hands on pants.

That was a long time ago but I still laugh when I think of it. I don't think I have ever seen a more appropriate piece of graffiti.

The pendulum - 10 years later.

My comments have requested to see the "advice" from Abe's doctor. Let me start by saying that even the doctor visits for Abe are different than they were for Ada. Now it feels more like an interrogation. These "check-ups" are actually just a barrage of questions to make sure I'm following all the current parenting rules. He begins with reminding me that Abe has to sit in a carseat and it has to be rear facing. Nevermind the fact that Abe is sitting in said carseat while he's telling me this. Then he goes on with things like:

"Does anyone smoke in your house?"
"Do you have any guns?"
"How many smoke alarms do you have?"

I've been going to this doctor for 5 years and he asks me this each time. Write it down for Pete's sake!

Then on to more personal questions that seem to try to judge my mental state.

"How do the other kids like the baby?"
"Do they help you out?"
"Are you getting any sleep?"
"How often do you get out alone with your husband?"

Then the questions actually about Abe:

"He is sleeping on his back?"
"How often does he eat?"
"How many diapers does he go through?"
"You're not feeding him any solid food, right?"

Abe's infant care sheets are actually very general compared to Ada's. There's nothing on there about not giving your baby water, however I had heard of it before he was born. It has just recently become taboo to do so. Weird how something that was recommended less than 2 years ago is now considered poison. Double weird since your body is made mostly of water. Apparently the baby could get water intoxication from having too much water and possibly die. Well so can adults! A little water never hurt anyone, and I mean that literally, 1 ounce of water!

Abe's sheet does say: "Sleeping on the back or side only, not on the stomach. However, this is a good time to work on 'tummy time', putting your child on the stomach for 5-10 minutes twice a day while awake in preparation for rolling and crawling."
I simply hate the phrase "tummy time". So you can't put your baby on it's tummy to sleep, even though it is obviously more comfortable that way. But now twice a day you have to put it on it's tummy while awake. Some babies hate "tummy time" and who could blame them? But now there are a whole line of mats and other products to get babies to tolerate "tummy time". Ridiculous. What ever happened to trusting your instinct?

There is nothing on Abe's sheet about staying out of the sun, which seems to be common knowledge now. I don't think anyone in their right mind would give a baby a sunbath nowadays.

Although I disagree with some of these new rules, all these changes are done with safety in mind and that I can support. I feel kids these days are safer now than in the past. I sometimes think I go overboard in trying to protect my kids. I don't allow them to do some of the things their friends can do and I don't feel guilty about it.

When Tommy was a baby we visited some relatives. While eating cinnamon rolls for breakfast with them one of them asked me, "Did he have some cinnamon roll?"
I looked around, "He who? You mean Tommy? He's only 4 months old!"
"Well he could gum it." was her reply. She laughed and said, "Mothers these days! So cautious!"

Indeed.

And the pendulum swings.

The following are direct quotes from information sheets given to me by Ada's doctor at her infant checkups 11 years ago.

1. Warm tap water may be offered between feedings if the baby is awake.

2. Juice may be offered if the infant does not like water.

3. Let the baby sleep on it's abdomen, back or side as it prefers.

4. Baby may sleep outdoors if weather permits.

5. Sun baths may be started at 6 weeks of age. Expose front and back each one minute and, if tolerated, increase one minute a day up to 15 minutes each back and front.

6. Do not let strangers handle your baby.

Before I became a skeptic.

When I was about 5 years old, my sister and I would play with a boy named Jeremy who lived at the corner of our street. He was the same age as my sister (about 7 years old) so they played together more often. Jeremy had a swing in his front yard, and a treehouse in the back. One day we were all playing together and I think we were playing hide and seek. I was looking for my sister and Jeremy and I was pretty sure they were in the treehouse. I climbed up the ladder and tried to push the door up, but someone was holding it closed. I could hear them laughing inside. My sister shouted "We're not in the treehouse! We're by Jeremy's swing!" I stopped pushing on the door. All logic told me they were in the treehouse, however, I listened to my sister and pictured in my mind that they really were by the swing. I happily ran to the front yard and was shocked to see the swing empty, with no one around. I ran back to the treehouse and this time they were looking over the side, laughing at me. I couldn't believe it! I went to bed that night a little wiser.