Mixture

It's very strange to have a mixture of emotions as I have now. I'm feeling the loss of my dad, but at the same time, I still get joy out of my baby; it hasn't really tempered that. I don't feel that guilty admitting it, as I think my dad would have wanted me to savor this newborn-baby time with Henry. On that note, I'd like to lighten the mood around here with a list of products that have become even more useful than I expected:

• My Brest Friend: first recommended to me by Jodi. This thing has saved my back, literally. Before buying it, I had upper back pain that eclipsed even my c-section incision pain.
• Multi-purpose waterproof lap pads: another Jodi recommendation. These are excellent to put over the changing pad, and they're great for possible accidents while co-sleeping (which I hadn't wanted to do, but we're in survival mode, so oh well).
• Hotslings. I heard they had them at Target, so I got one. Henry and I love it, so I got one more. We don't have an infant carrier (one of the ones with a handle that attaches onto a car seat), so when we've gone out with Henry, I've carried him in it. (Fun fact: my mom carried me in a sling too, especially on days I had to have shots at the doctor. She said I wouldn't let her put me down after I'd had a shot, so she'd have to carry me in a sling the rest of that day.)
• Baby t-shirts (not onesies). The day after tomorrow, Henry will be three weeks old, and his umbilical cord stump STILL has not fallen off. I want to keep letting air get to it, so t-shirts that don't go all the way over his belly button have been indispensable.

I never really saw myself as one of those mothers who adheres to the following constellation: breastfeeding, co-sleeping, baby wearing, home birthing, home schooling, cloth diapering, anti-circumcision, anti-vaccination. But so far I'm almost halfway there. I'd like to do cloth diapering, but I haven't yet been able to find plastic outer pants in Henry's size. (For the record, I'm very PRO-vaccination, we did have H. circ'ed, and I wouldn't want to try a home birth myself.)