DJ Baby Myrah

Every time we try to take a selfie, she makes a horrible face as though I am torturing her.

This is actually Myrah's very first photo ever, taken 25 minutes after her birth.  She has changed so much in 3 weeks!

Sleeping last night

Waiting to FaceTime with Aunt Ally and cousins Maevey and Caeden (this is also Pooping Face)

DJ Baby Myrah rocking out to Papa Jon's tunes.

 Myrah loves mowing the lawn and vacuuming (or, at least she tolerates me doing those things more than any other task!).  A friend loaned us a book, "The Happiest Baby on the Block" by Dr. Harvey Karp, which theorizes that human babies (in the interest of fitting through the birth canal) are born 3 months before they are ready and so he talks about the first 3 months of a newborn's life as the fourth trimester.  They still have huge leaps of development to make, but also present is a calming reflex which Karp explains how it can be activated with some combination of  his shtick, the 5 S's.  One of those being Shushing, or emulating the loud white noise present in the womb... So, it follows that of course wee babies are calmed by deep rumbling white noise, like lawnmowers and vacuums.  At any rate, it's a great book and I don't want to go much further into it, but if you have a newborn I highly recommend it (the only downfall being the fairly blatant selling by Karp of a $1200 USD newborn sleep aid, called the "Smart Sleeper".  Fortunately you can have a baby without all the gadgets!)

So, after realizing how helpful white noise is in calming Myrah, it follows that Jon was upstairs DJing and she was downstairs fussing, and I thought, "Hey... Why don't they hang out together so I can get something done?".  I warned Jon that he may be interrupted, but for the most part she's pretty happy so long as she's in sight of one of us.  Plus, it means he gets to DJ more often guilt-free, because he's also baby-caring.  Win-win!

Myrah's other favourite activities right now include flailing on a mat on the floor, cuddling with Mom and Dad in bed in the mornings, baby wearing in the wrap, visiting Grandma and Grandpa, and swinging in her Graco swing/chair.  She gets the hiccups multiple times a day and doesn't usually seem too bothered by them, unless she is hungry and wants to keep eating.  She eats lots and tends to eat a few times within a short period of time and then sleep for 2-3 hours after.  Partly I am reluctant to feed her too much at once, after a few epic and frustrating spit ups (one being while she was inside the wrap), so she eats a while, burps, and then we wait to see if she's still actually hungry or will doze off with her pacifier. 

Jon changes the majority of diapers, and we have just switched last week to using the cloth diapers which were so graciously provided by my super supportive amazing friend Kara (who also brought me her wrap last week, and baby-wearing made a huge difference!).  We used disposable while her umbilical cord stump was still attached, as they recommend that, but I HATED all the waste we were creating... Sometimes she'd pee in the new diaper as it was being changed and so two would be soiled at one changing.  We live in the country and all our garbage that can't be recycled or burned needs to be hauled to the dump, so creating large amounts of waste is a hassle.  We don't have the greatest septic, but it can handle an even load and much more than what we as 2 had been putting on it, so even if we now do a load every 2 days that's much preferable to creating a bunch of garbage that has to be stored in the garage and then hauled to the dump in the short windows of time they are open (and the opposite direction for where we normally travel). 

At any rate, I was also worried that for as much as I value the ethics of cloth diapering, that I wouldn't like the results or be able to deal with the hassle.  This is only day 3 or 4, but I actually love it!  Unlike the disposable diapers, the cloth ones don't wick away as much of the moisture and so she seems to notice more when she's wet, and we definitely change her more often... But, it doesn't come with soul-crushing guilt as the garbage fills with complete and utter waste!  I don't mind changing her more often and neither does Jon. The poo stays put for the most part.  (These diapers are an outer cover with an absorbent inner part that gets changed out. When the cover gets dirty, or daily, we switch).

Plus, the cloth diapers are super cute!

Both Jon and I were talking about how funny she looks when naked... Basically a big stomach and head with tiny little appendages.  So, the diaper is a big part of her overall "look".  Now she looks like a crunchy granola baby.  At any rate, we're not militant about anything and so plan to do a bit of both.  I anticipate that the disposable diapers will be much handier when we are out and about, but cloth is definitely easier at home.  Not that it can't be done-- and kudos to those who do exclusively cloth diapering-- we just have to balance what is practical and possible within our realm.

On that note: My tolerance for others "don't-ing" and "can't-ing" and "shouldn't-ing" has always been, and is especially very low right now!  It's shocking to me that people who I barely know will look at me and my 2-week old baby and tell me how they exclusively only breastfed and that's the only way a real mother would do it.  Or, they'll tell me I'm doing too much for someone who had a baby 2 weeks ago... As though we had the exact same pregnancy, labour, and post-partum experience.  Believe me, I know when I have done too much, and I know my limits.  For me, doing nothing but baby care in a day is a waste of a day, I feel MUCH better when I can see something that I accomplished (For instance, on Wednesday I mowed the lawn and picked asparagus and nettles.  On Thursday it rained and Jon went to town, so I vacuumed all the floors on the main floor of the house and mopped them, and when Jon got home I planted lettuce.  On Saturday I detail cleaned the interior of the car and the van, a long-needed task that I was thrilled to accomplish, on top of making soup and pizza.  Baby care is great, but it's not a be-all-end-all for me in terms of having a successful day-- my mental health depends on more going on than that. 

Everyone is different, and "a great challenge of life (according to mine & Jon's favorite astrophysicist, Neil DeGrasse Tyson): Knowing enough to think you are right, but not knowing enough to know you are wrong."  Realize that everyone is different and has a different experience and different goals, and that projecting your opinion as though it is fact just makes me realize how little I care about your small-minded perspective.  (That being said, as usual, my blog readers are different than the people in the world I am frustrated with... So consider this harmless venting, unless you've ever told me that your way is the only way!).

I would be in horrible shape if I had to face day after day alone at home with Myrah.  I love her to pieces, but being able to pass her off to Jon or Mom occasionally is critical to this working for me.  I can totally see why some women suffer post-partum depression, I'm certain I would be struggling with it as well if Jon weren't home!  My biggest aspiration in life was not to be a mother, though it is definitely an important life role and I take it seriously.  Just like I don't want to be a farm wife, I want to be out where the action is happening and be an important part of it.  If all I did all day was cook for the man farmers I would be greatly unhappy.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with that, but it just doesn't work for me personally.

Some new FAQs and Answers:

Why is she never wearing clothes?
We've tried putting clothes on her, and have to when she is in transit, and she hates it.  Grandma and Grandpa's house is warm and she would get over there and scream differently than she ever does at home (our house is usually around 17 - 18*C), and we finally realized it's the clothes!  She refuses to let us put a blanket over her during the day, and will grunt and fuss and kick it off if we do.  Same with socks (good thing I have 47 pairs, lol!).  At night we swaddle her with a very light cotton muslin wrap, which she tolerates but is often very warm when I wake up to feed her.  Her thermostat's stuck on hot!

How is she sleeping?
Jon is shocked at how much he is able to sleep through the night.  I however, wake multiple times, sometimes just to stick her soother back in and gain another hour of sleep.  She's really quite good considering she is under 3 weeks old.  I tend to go to bed around 10 pm and if she's not awake then she'll usually wake around then for a feeding and then be good until about 2 - 3 am.  After that she usually wakes again at 5 or 6, and then we always wake before her by 7 or 8 (or earlier, sometimes Jon takes her downstairs so I can sleep uninterrupted for a while).  With 10 hours in bed I am able to make it through most days feeling great and not needing to nap.  I totally could if I wanted to most days, just haven't felt the need.  The soother really helps, as sometimes she just wants to soothe herself by sucking and then I don't have to be awake quite as much!

Why aren't you posting updates on Facebook?
We use Facebook to market our farm business, and though Jon & Teri's Farming Journey Facebook page is different from Brown Sugar Produce's, it's an extension of the same thing-- farming-related, and not baby-related.  Of course, our lives are very closely tied to what we do, but there are also limits to what we are comfortable sharing. The same reason why I don't have a personal Facebook page that I use-- I am greatly tired of the transience and poor communication associated with these mediums and feel like some parts of my life just need to be private.  We are happy to share updates about Myrah and ourselves on our blog, but don't agree with pushing that content to social media where people can half-heartedly interact with it (as in, have it shoved in their face and then click a button regardless of whether they engage with it on a superficial level, or with actual interest).  She is her own person and can't consent to being on Facebook, so I'm not comfortable plastering her photos all over the place.  You can visit our blog at any time, and there is always lots of fresh photos because we are very proud parents, but you'll have to have your own actual interest guide you here!

Somebody has just woken up, so off I go...!