Prettiness and a Plug
I just won one of these necklaces (and some other fun stuff) from LeAnna at Thoughts and Whatnots.
They’re made by Becky Strahle. I’m not getting paid or anything to tell you this, but you should definitely check out her Etsy shop, Farmgirl Paints. The necklaces are cute, reasonably priced, and customizable. She also sells keychains and paintings.
Maybe someday I’ll have my own giveaway. I like when giveaways feel personal and don’t require you to do a bunch of promotion for extra entries. 
(I’m just lazy that way.) It’d be fun to bless you one of you with a gift, though. We’ll see…
I hope you all have a great weekend. Remember to keep your eyes on the Gift who makes all other gifts pale in comparison.
A Little Interview With My Readers
I’m passing the proverbial microphone over to you, friends (Eugene Meltsner, anyone?). I did this a long time ago… I found that post through my new random post feature on the sidebar. It’s fun.
So for a lighthearted end to my blogging week, I’m going to ask you three questions. I’d love to hear your answers!
- What is one thing on your to-do list that you’ve been needing to get done forever but still haven’t? (I love this question!)
- What are you looking forward to this weekend?
- (A little more in-depth…) If you consider yourself a Christian, will you give us the short-answer version of how you became one? If not, can you let me know why not?
I’ll be the first commenter. Happy Friday!
Sweet Summer Smoothies
Mmm… I love a refreshing smoothie on a hot summer day. It almost rivals a fragrant cup of coffee on a cold morning. Besides being delicious, smoothies are healthy, filling, and relatively inexpensive. (I sound like a smoothie commercial. But it’s true!)
So I thought I would 1) share my non-scientific, inexact, uncomplicated smoothie “recipe,” and 2) ask what you put in your smoothies, because a lot of you are probably more creative than I am. I know people who put spinach in their smoothies. Now I love spinach, but I just haven’t been brave enough to try that yet.
Without further ado, here’s how I make a smoothie:
- Get out your handy-dandy blender.
- Add 1 banana.
- Put a handful of berries in. I use frozen berries from Walmart because they’re cheap and they help make the smoothie cold. This week I’m using raspberries.
- Add about 3/4 cup yogurt. I’ve never measured, but that sounds about right. I use lowfat vanilla yogurt.
- Pour in about 1 cup milk. Again, I’ve never measured. I try to err on the side of using less milk rather than too much, because I like my smoothie a little thick. You can always add more if the mixture isn’t blending well.
- Put the lid on and blend.
- While the blender is on, add 4 ice cubes one by one.
- Voila! Pour into a glass and enjoy. Makes 1 big serving or 2 smaller ones.
Okay, it’s your turn… if you’re a smoothie-maker, how do you do it? I’d love to hear. Meanwhile, I’m finishing mine.
You ask, I’ll answer. {with a link-up!}
I thought it would be fun to lighten the mood around here a little with a question-and-answer post. I saw one of these posts on another random blog and it reminded me of mine from a couple years ago.
It’ll work a little differently this time. I’ll respond to each individual question using the threaded reply feature. So come back to this post for my answers.
Go ahead, ask me anything. (Within reason. The requisite disclaimer: I reserve the right to not answer any question at my own discretion, if I deem it inappropriate, yada yada and etc.)
And just to make it more of a community thing, I’m adding a link-up. If you write your own question-and-answer post, you can come back and add your link (please link directly to the post, not to the front page of your blog).
Note: I don’t know how to make the links appear in the actual post instead of in the pop-up window. But if you click the Mister Linky button, you’ll see the linked posts.
Ask away, friends!
Hope Road on Facebook
If you like our little community here, would you pretty please become a fan? (As soon as I have 25 fans, I can reserve my username… which would be lovely. Edit: Reached that goal; thank you!)
It’d be especially helpful if you don’t read via RSS. That way you can get my updates in your news feed.
But either way, I’d love to see you there!
P.S. I also added a badge to my sidebar… feel free to use it on your blog if you like picture links!
Oh, Baby[wise]: Finale
Today I’m concluding my series on Babywise. (Be sure to start with the intro, part 1, and part 2.) I’m sharing other baby wisdom I’ve learned, and some final thoughts.
Chronicles of a Babywise Mom is a seemingly exhaustive resource on babyhood. The author writes about many methods besides Babywise – including those from books like Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child and The Baby Whisperer. Some of her advice is really helpful even if you’ve never heard of Babywise. From her blog and other reading and real-life moms, these are some of the ideas that have helped me the most:
- Having a simple routine before naps and bed to calm Christian and help him transition into sleepy mode;
- As I mentioned before, spreading out a feeding over half an hour or an hour, instead of assuming he is done when he stops the first time;
- Nursing him to sleep if he needs it or if I’m not sure he’s full - but not making a habit out of it; making sure he can fall asleep without it;
- Paying attention to how long he’s been awake and his tired cues, so I can put him down before he’s overtired.
I have found that while trying to “do” Babywise, reading about it, and talking about it on message boards, I can easily get caught up in it. I can miss the joy of being a new mother. But more than that, I can spend more time listening to what people I don’t even know tell me about child-raising, than I do reading the Word of God and paying attention to the wise people He’s placed in my life. That’s where real baby-wisdom comes from.
Being a mother doesn’t come with a formula or handy list of what to do when. I don’t want to immerse my mind in methodology and problem-solving, rather than thinking about the Lord, and relying on Him for wisdom and grace. I don’t want to approach Christian’s baby months as a problem to be solved, or as an inconvenience for me… as difficult as those middle-of-the-night feedings are! I don’t want to always hear Babywise in my head, telling me the rules. I want to hear the Word of God in my head!
Practical advice is still helpful. I’m not going to toss the baby out with the bathwater… haha. I like to read books and magazines and get helpful ideas. But at the same time, I am learning not to care so much about what I read, but to take what’s helpful for us and enjoy Christian’s baby days as much as I can!
Please share your thoughts in the comment section!
Oh, Baby[wise]: Part 2
Welcome to part 2 of my series on Babywise (also see the intro and part 1). In part 1 I shared things I disagree with in Babywise. Today’s post is about things I don’t disagree with and things I like.
I phrased that purposefully, because what I don’t disagree with in Babywise is cry-it-out. But I don’t like it, and I don’t think it’s discussed helpfully in the book. (See part 1 for more about that.)
This is completely a personal opinion: I think a little crying before sleep is okay, for the purpose of teaching your baby to soothe herself. I tried it when Christian was a newborn – just laying him down and letting him fuss for awhile, but it didn’t “work” and I felt bad because he was so young. I was determined not to do it anymore, but by the time he was 6 weeks old, he was eating frequently, but still cried himself to sleep even if I was holding him.
Finally, we decided to let him cry it out before naps, and within a couple of days there was a huge difference. He usually just fusses a few minutes before his naps now. I did not do cry-it-out because I wanted to follow Babywise. It was the decision we made as parents. So I don’t disagree with this tenet of the book, but it’s not my favorite part, for sure!
Now, onto some Babywise ideas that I actually agree with!
Eat/wake/sleep. This is a very helpful routine, and it’s recommended by sources other than Babywise, too. It helps dissociate eating from sleeping, so Baby won’t become dependent on food to sleep. It also allows Baby to be well-rested and full during his awake time, so he can enjoy it. It also provides a consistent, predictable routine, which I think is very healthy.
[There are two problems with it, though. One is that you assume Baby's not going to be hungry again because he started out the cycle with a feeding. But sometimes he needs to be fed again a few minutes later to really get that full tummy. The other problem is short naps - Baby is supposed to dutifully sleep until it's "time" to eat again, but trust me, most babies don't naturally like to take 2-hour naps 3 times a day. This makes it very difficult to follow the Babywise schedule!]
Feeding times. It was helpful starting to out to have a general idea for how many feedings Christian should have in a day. Of course, I could have gotten this information from other sources, but Babywise does have it too. From the time he was born, I have made sure to feed him at least every 3 hours during the day, to help him differentiate night and day, which he was able to do very quickly. Of course, this is a maximum time – Christian was more of an every-2-hour eater for a long time.
Full feedings. I also appreciate the book’s emphasis on doing your best to get in full feedings from day one. This helps ensure Baby has a full tummy and doesn’t need to snack all day long. Of course, Babywise is completely anti-snacking, which I don’t think is entirely realistic – don’t we adults like to snack too? But I think the concept of feeding more at one sitting so you can feed a little less often during the day is generally a good one.
Your thoughts? Come back tomorrow, and I’ll finish out the series with some other baby wisdom that has helped me, and a few concluding thoughts.
Oh, Baby[wise]: Part 1
Welcome to part 1 of my Babywise series (read the intro here). Today I’m discussing things I don’t like about Babywise.
Nutrition: The emphasis in Babywise is on sleep, not nutrition. Those two priorities are reversed. (I’m not saying this is the intention of the authors, but I believe this is how it comes across.) The first priority for a baby is food! Especially with a breastfed baby, making sure that s/he is not hungry is extremely important, because unless you’re pumping, there’s no external marker for how much Baby is eating.
Babywise emphasizes sleep and scheduling, but the danger is that parents will assume Baby is not hungry because “it’s not time” for him to eat yet. This is what can lead to that oh-so-scary phrase “failure to thrive.” Updated editions of Babywise do include an entire chapter on “Monitoring Your Baby’s Growth,” which is good.
But there is very little information or emphasis placed on outlying factors such as differences between individual babies, differences in mothers’ milk supplies, growth spurts, etc. For some babies, every 2.5-3 hours is just not enough. Others do well eating every 3 hours from the very beginning. There is no one-size-fits-all.
Comfort: It’s also assumed that you should never nurse your baby for comfort or nurse her to sleep (unless, of course, you’re on an airplane or in another situation where she might disturb those around you). I just don’t want to be that strict with my baby. If he’s teething and in pain, I want to comfort him. I think that’s part of the gift of breastfeeding. And sometimes I do nurse him to sleep, although I’ve tried hard not to make a habit of it for his own sake!
Breastfeeding: Babywise does not give adequate advice on breastfeeding, but the way it is written seems to say, “This is all you, a nursing mom, need to know.” Breastfeeding is far more complex than the book makes it out to be.
Parenting style: It masquerades as “the” way to parent – if you don’t do it this way, your child will be one of those “attached,” clingy, fussy, awake-all-night babies. But isn’t that just natural baby behavior? Of course we are responsible to train our babies, but not beyond their maturity level. I think the book can get into parents’ heads and make them afraid to parent any other way, lest they do it “wrong.”
Scheduling: If you’re a type-A, organized person, it may be hard to manage the whole “scheduling” idea – i.e., it may drive you crazy before it helps you. I think it may cause parents to be frustrated with their babies because they’re not meeting prescribed milestones “on time” or doing things “the right way.”
Exclusivity: Babywise seems to say that your baby will never sleep through the night unless you follow its instructions. But many babies sleep through the night without this routine. The book also says that most Babywise babies will sleep through the night by 12 weeks old, and that the remaining few will experience some night crying… automatically assuming that you’re going to leave your baby to cry in the middle of the night instead of feeding him, just because he’s now “old enough.”
Crying it out: The book is casual about letting your baby cry it out before naps and at bedtime. I think any cry-it-out method needs to be put into practice carefully and very responsibly. The authors seem to think crying it out will work for every baby, and that it is parents’ only option for having a peaceful home.
What are your thoughts, especially if you’ve read and/or used Babywise?
In spite of these points, I don’t think Babywise is all bad, and I’ll be saying more about that in part 2 of this series, coming up on Thursday. Stay tuned!
Oh, Baby[wise]: Intro
I’m Anna. I’m a first-time mom, and I read Babywise.
If you’re not a parent, you might have no idea what I’m talking about. On Becoming Babywise, by Gary Ezzo and Robert Bucknam, is essentially a guide for parents to put their babies on a “parent-led schedule,” with the goal of getting them to sleep through the night at a younger-than-average age. The general idea in the beginning is to have the baby on an eat/wake/sleep cycle of about 2.5 to 3 hours from the start of one feeding to the start of the next.
Of course, this is incredibly controversial, especially since the AAP recommends on-demand feeding and has condemned Babywise in the past. Using a schedule as Babywise recommends has even been linked to failure to thrive in some babies. There are many opinions on why this is the case. Hyper-scheduling is when the parent sets a feeding time in stone and does not budge from it, not taking into account the baby’s hungry cues. Babywise does tell the parent to feed a hungry baby, regardless of the schedule, but it is still regarded as a dubious, if not outright harmful, system by many.
However, the book’s enormous popularity and “success” stories have made it highly accessible, especially, I think, to young first-time moms with a religious background. The Ezzos have a Christian background, and Babywise is the secular version of their Christian curriculum on child-raising, called Growing Kids God’s Way. (Note: The only material from the Ezzos that I’ve read is Babywise, so while I do have opinions on what I’ve heard about their other material, I’ll refrain from commenting since it’s all hearsay to me.)
My son is only 3 months old, and I’m not an expert on baby-raising or Babywise. I’ve been trying to use its routine since he was born, and it’s been somewhat helpful to have a general structure, even on days when we have no specific structure at all. But I’ve been thinking about the whole thing a lot lately, and I want to share my thoughts about it in a mini-series.
Part 1, coming this Tuesday, will deal with things I don’t like about Babywise. Part 2 will address things I don’t disagree with, and things I do like about it. In part 3, I’ll talk about other concepts that have helped me and finish up with some concluding thoughts.
If you have any experience with Babywise, please feel free to share it in the comments section!
Awards and Postscripts
It’s a lovely Tuesday. (I feel like I’ve used the word lovely a lot on my blog lately. Maybe it’s replacing my former favorite, poignant. [My husband says I used to use that one all. the. time.])
Anywho, I have several things on my mind to share with you today.
Blogging responsibly: I haven’t forgotten about my blogging responsibly badge idea. I actually designed it already. I am just trying to figure out the best way to set it up with everyone’s links. I would like to let everyone who uses it link to a page or post on their own blog delineating their personal guidelines for blogging. Let me know if you have any ideas! (Ironically, I am writing this post before some other things I need to be doing.)
Vacation: A.J., Christian, and I are leaving for Ohio on Saturday! I am so excited. This is the first time I’ve been home since January 2009. I can’t wait to introduce Christian to my dad, who hasn’t met him yet. I can’t wait to see my sisters – two of whom only seen once since I moved, and that was on my wedding day, so it wasn’t exactly quality time. I can’t wait to see the church family I grew up with. I can’t wait to see my Ohio fields and woods again. I am hoping I will have enough time to get a few posts written and scheduled for while I am gone.
Awards: I have recently been given two blog awards, and as a good little blogger I am going to pass them along.
Callie gave me the Humphrey Bogart award… definitely the most unique award I’ve ever been given! The rules are to state where I want to be in 10 years, and to pass it on to 10 other bloggers. (Although I agree with Callie, pass it on to however many you want!)
In 10 years, I would like to be mama of a few more adorable children. I would like to be supporting my husband in whatever ministry he is involved in. I would like to be much more self-controlled, joyful, and disciplined than I am now. And I would like to be homeschooling my children. Here are the 10 bloggers I’m passing the reward along to:
- Cheyenne at These Are a Few of My Favorite Things
- Sarah at Sarah’s Wanderings
- Kaylene at Face Value
- Leanna at Thoughts ‘n’ Whatnots
- Traci at Ordinary Inspirations
- Katy at 110% Surrendered?
- Natalie at Scribbles ‘n’ Things
- Elizabeth at Study Quiet
- Elisabeth at Hope Scribbles
- Page at Crazy Joy
Elisabeth gave me the Pure in Heart award. I can only hope that I do write with purity of heart… I know that it’s not always so! I am supposed to pass this one along to five bloggers. Here they are:
- Reeve at A Poured Out Life
- Jennifer at Planted By Streams
- Raechel at Finding My Feet
- Susanna at Mommy, Inc.
- Talitha at Godward
Hope you enjoyed this post of randomness this morning. I’m off to take care of my little one.
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