Snug-A-Bug-Blog

A few years ago, I had a friend whose Granddaughter was learning sign language to help her communicate before she could speak.At the time I thought it was strange, but before I became pregnant I heard about more parents who were teaching their hearing children sign language. It made sense, babies and toddlers are unable to speak but understand language and often become frustrated at their inability to get what they want.

Many people who have tried teaching their babies to sign and say that it really helps with the terrible two’s. As toddlers they are less frustrated because they can communicate with their caregivers and get what they need and want.While I was pregnant I started to look into different programs and books to help you teach your baby signs. Joseph Garcia’s Sign with your Baby seemed to be the best. It comes with a book, DVD (you can get a VHS video if you still haven’t made the plunge to DVD but I have to ask why?), and a reference card. You can find used copies on eBay. I read the book when Georgia was about 4 months old, and I tried using a few signs with her like milk, eat, and more. I quickly got bored and slowly stopped doing the signs.

Last week Jay decided to throw the DVD in the player to watch. It was very cute all these babies doing signs and the parents seemed happy with the results. The nice thing about the DVD is that you could see how to actually do the signs. So we decided to try again. It suggests the signs “milk”, “more”, and “eat”. We also decided to try dog, drink and water.

After about 4 days, Georgia was in here high chair eating strawberries. She finished what she had been eating and it looked like she was signing “more”. So I gave her a few more, when she was done, she signaled more again. It was very exciting that she learned that quickly and she looked so proud of her new language.

You can get a variety of books and flashcards to help teach your baby how to sign:

SIGN with your BABY Complete Learning Kit: US DVD Version, Book, Training Video (DVD), Quick Reference Guide

Baby Signs: How to Talk with Your Baby Before Your Baby Can Talk, New Edition

Has anyone else tried signing with their baby?

Tags: baby, parenting, motherhood, signing with your baby, ASL, Joseph Garcia, communicating with your baby

Posted on Thursday, September 7th, 2006 at 10:00 am

One of the best books that I read while pregnant to prepare for labour was Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth.The book is divided into 2 sections, the first is full of positive birth stories, the second is tips and advice to make labour easier.

Ina May Gaskin is America’s foremost midwife and has compiled a lot of information tips and advice to help get you through labour without intervention.

While I was going through labour, the chapter “Let Your Monkey Do It” carried me through, I let my body do what it had to and followed its cues as to how to make the labour easier.

My labour was easy. It lasted only 6 hours and I had no medications or interventions. It was the labour and delivery I wanted. Both my husband’s support (and back massage), and the information from the book helped to get me through the labour the way I wanted. I highly recommend it for anyone wanting a natural medication free birth.

Tell me what books or tips helped you through labour?

Tags: labour, labor, pregnancy, childbirth, midwife, natural, parenting, motherhood, medical

Posted on Monday, September 4th, 2006 at 10:20 pm

I was happy to discover that Baby Center has started a Canadian version of their site. While I was pregnant I used their UK site.

The Baby Center lets you put in your due date or babies birthday and they send you weekly updates about the stage in the pregnancy or the developmental stage your baby is at. They also have advice and support for those trying to get pregnant.

As well they have a forum so you can “meet up” with other Mom’s and Mom’s to be.

Posted on Wednesday, August 30th, 2006 at 12:40 pm

Before Georgia was born, my husband Jay and I decided to use cloth diapers instead of disposables.

I didn’t like the idea of throwing all that plastic into a landfill and the chemicals used to make diapers white—not to mention having those chemicals up against my baby’s skin all day.

As I started to look into cloth diapers I could not believe the cost difference. Although cloth diapers are expensive in the beginning, I think we have spent about $600-700, that is much less than the costs of disposables. The cost I have read are about $2000/year!

While researching the different cloth diaper manufacturers, I was pleasantly surprised a lot of the companies are Canadian. The two spots we have bought diapers from are The Baby Marketplace and Mother-ease. I loved the way the MJ fitted diapers looked and they have worked very well. The air-flow covers by Mother-ease do not leak. We had used Bummis diaper covers at first and found that they leaked, I am not sure if it was us or the wraps themselves. Luckily I was able to sell them on eBay .

I must admit we have used some disposable diapers. It just seems like to much work to bring cloth diapers with us when we are away from home, not to mention carrying the dirty diapers around with us. There are some diapers that are chlorine free, Seventh Generation. They seem to work better than huggies and pampers with no leaks, although because of their taupe colour and lack of cartoon characters they do attract attention.

Overall I would have to say I am happy with our decision to use cloth diapers as our primary diapering. Laundering them isn’t much work, an extra load every other day. Cloth diapers today are not the same as years ago no folding or pins, they have been replaced by snaps and Velcro.

The one item I need to recommend for all cloth diaper users is the gamma seal lids for your diaper pail. The lid screws onto standard 5 gallon buckets (the kind used for paint or pickles) and no smell comes out, but when you open it watch out. You can get them at The Baby Marketplace and Lee Valley.

Tags: cloth diapers, diaper pails, diaper covers, gamma seal, mother-ease, the baby marketplace, bummis, seventh generation, lee valley, baby

Posted on Friday, August 25th, 2006 at 5:30 am