Kat's Profile

My in-laws use a large floor vase. It's decorative even when it's empty. We use the laundry sink.

I have a few hands-off books, too: Where The Wild Things Are, and The Little Mole Who Knew It Was None Of His Business. There would be more except that hardback children's books are astoundingly expensive.

Where You Came From sounds like just the kind of story my 4-year old would love. Will have to hunt around for it on our next trip to the bookstore. Thanks!

I thought this was common knowledge: http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/home/article-1261423-details/Ikea catalogue beats the Bible/article.do The numbers talk about annual distribution, thought. If we're talking all time distribution, then of course the Bible, having been published long before flat-packed furniture was conceived of, would win.

I do like the concept of the chart, though. My son would be quite happy just to get stickers or stamps. I read the comments on the original post, and someone suggested having a family treat when the chore chart reaches a certain number of stars. That's something I'd consider doing.

We've used a cheap messenger bag from Target and it hasn't been a problem, but we haven't taken the kids on long-haul flights yet. As for pockets, it might be a good idea that have fasteners, to ensure nothing falls out if you store the bag underneath the seat in front of you. It's incredibly frustrating trying to find small baby items in an airplane. Good luck on your trip!

ginapueblo, I appreciate you clarifying what you said. The science on breasfeeding is, from my understanding, not all that clear. None of my sibilings or I was breastfed and we're quite healthy. My kids were/are all breastfed--two had allergies, one didn't. One ended up with rickets as a direct result of my breasfeeding exclusively for 6 months. To me, the science behind breastfeeding isn't clear at all. Lifelong health implications? Give me a break. I have yet to read a rigorously reviewed scientific paper that proves this.

Maybe it's different where I live, but breastfeeding is so heavily promoted in hospitals here in Australia that it can be very frustrating when a mother wants to bottlefeed, as happened with a few mothers of twins that I've spoken with. One of my midwives gave lip service to supporting my formula top-ups but was quite happy not to help me. That's not the kind of support I expect from a medical professional after having explained to her what I was choosing to do.

The problem with thinking of bottlefeeding as a simple choice is that it ignores other factors such as the mother's state of mind, her milk supply, her health, available support, etc. Just because breastfeeding is not impossible doesn't mean choosing the bottle is somehow inherently wrong. And saying something like "really chooses" implies that most bottlefeeding mothers have not exercised free choice or have made an inferior choice for some reason. I'm not immune to it all, by the way. I have low bone density and I'm still breastfeeding twin girls with the help of multi-vitamins. How is that a "superior" choice?

As for biological norms, there are many biological norms that we're quite happy to do without, and much medical intervention that we welcome without half as much judgment as some of the procedures done on women giving birth. Biological norms are clearly not always superior, judging by the amount of time and money we devote to battling numerous biologically normal diseases.

Which is all rather off-topic.

So, back to the original post. Has someone actually read the book? I really would like to hear feedback on the content to see if it's worth buying for pregnant friends. A couple of comments upthread suggest that the book does offer some useful advice. I'm also interested to know if the info is only for mothers in the US.

grb, it's interesting that you found that blog post biased, because the first thing I tell my friends about labour is that it hurts like hell. Like, the worst pain you can imagine, multiplied by 10. Then I tell them I went through one labour with minimal pain relief and I endured more pain than even I thought I was capable of. I don't think telling women about the pain is necessarily a bad thing. Of course, after I had my twins, I also tell them that the epidural is like 5-star labour, even if I'm not entirely convinced I'd ask for it again given the choice. Personally, I know if I hadn't mentally prepared for the pain the first time, I probably would have given up after, oh, 10 minutes. I don't think it's so bad to tell women about the positive effects of pain relief as long as they're well aware of the negative aspects. Because if there were a miracle analgesic with NO negative side effects, there wouldn't be such an outcry over pain relief.

Also, the bit you considered superlative and judgmental, while I agree that it sounds like sales hyperbole, I like the term "medically-savvy". Because, let's face it, most of her readers will be giving birth in a hospital, and even if they go in planning to have the most intervention-free birth possible, things may well go awry, and it helps to have thought of their options beforehand.

I do think many women feel guilty when they have a high intervention labour. When women from my mother's group shared their labour stories, it was very obvious that everyone who ended up with emergency C-sections and epidurals made it a point to justify why they had to go through the procedure. There was much less of that in my twin parenting class reunion where everyone had approached childbirth with very few assumptions about the ideal birth.

I just saw this in a magazine and thought, That would make a lovely feature at AT!

I must admit that education is the last thing on my mind when I plonk my kids in front of the TV (although I do filter what they watch). It's more for distraction. Having said that, they do learn quite a few things from the educational programs. I wouldn't put a TV or a computer in their room.

I do wonder about the studies showing that children who watch a lot of TV have trouble adjusting to kindergarten/early school. Has anyone studied whether or not these kids just learn a different way (i.e. visually, in short bursts) and therefore can't relate to traditional teaching methods?

As a mother of twins, having the babies share a cot for as long as possible made it easier to get things done quickly. Eventually, they started annoying each other and it became a safety or sleep issue, we we had no choice but to separate them. I'm actually thinking of putting them back into one cot because I'm wondering if they'll sleep better with another warm body beside them.