"Babymoon"!

Tomorrow and Wednesday I think Maia and I are going to embark upon a "babymoon" (hence the title of this post). I've been reading up a bit on what to do when you experience a milk supply shortage--which is something we've been dealing with on and off for three weeks or so--and many of the resources I've found suggest a "nursing vacation" or "babymoon." The idea is to do nothing for two days except hang out in PJs, read books, chill, play, and nurse. I'm going to start this tonight by feeding Maia whenever she wakes up; no more giving her the paci to see if she'll go back to sleep (we only do this when the timing of her last feeding was less than three hours before). It's strictly "nurse on cue" for the next two days, except for the brief sojurn I'll have to make out to go on a U of M Birth Center tour for work. I'm going to use all the old wives' tricks: oatmeal, "Mother's Milk" tea . . . although I don't think I can bring myself to drink lager-type beer, which is another suggestion. We'll see if this all works! I've read that a milk supply shortage is very common around three or four months, which is one reason why many women stop nursing at this time. I'm really determined to not join that crowd. Wish us luck!! Happy Babymoon to us! :)

What did we do today? Well, Maia has had shorter and more frequent naps today, so we've ventured out of the house in between her sleep periods. First, we went to Target to get the store brand coffee cream stuff--yummy! As always, we browsed through the baby stuff, too, but didn't buy anything this time. That's tough for me to do at Target, because their baby clothes are just adorable. Much less foo-foo-y than Babies-R-Us. How's that for a nonsense word? Hopefully you know what I mean; "foo-foo-y" is a quality in girls' clothes that I'm finding to be pretty pervasive. It's the "ruffles, flowers and lace on supposedly functional clothes" idea. The boys' version of "foo-foo-y" is the unavoidable presence of blue, trucks, and baseballs on clothing that has nothing to do with trucks or baseball. Now don't get me wrong: I appreciate a good onesie or pair of soft pants regardless of the decoration. And Maia certainly has her share of pink stuff with flowers on it. But because "Maia's style" right now is nonexistent and really just a baby version of my own style, I have my preferences.

(I've always thought it would be interesting to set loose some cultural studies, women's studies or sociology grad students into the baby clothing and bedding sections of Babies-R-Us. They could write some amazing stuff on gender identity, homophobia, and baby accoutrements.)

So now we're back at home and I'm drinking my decaf and writing a blog post. One last thing: parents and parents-to-be out there, let's take a moment to celebrate the wonders of SECONDHAND BABY STORES! Mom and I visited this awesome secondhand store in Haslett (near East Lansing) over the weekend and got Maia a bunch of clothes and an ExerSaucer. The ExerSaucer in particular was really fantastic, because it's brand new--the secondhand store owner had to put it together--and was sold to us at less than 50% of the original retail cost! I love it.