weather wars

spring is a funny time of year
people will boast or groan day to day as the temp fluctuates
i think that's the thing about spring
there's no consistency

the only thing we know for sure is summer will come

but the up and down see saw 10 degrees up, then 15 then down 5, makes it all a bit messy

i guess this was sparked by looking at the weather network and seeing that tomorrow will be 6 degrees colder than today but 14 degrees warmer by the weekend.

temperamental temperatures

excellent story on preemies and human milk

the drop in rates of nec were of particular interest in the hospital used in the story
as well as the stats that any former nicu mom knows - way less preemies go home on human milk than their full term counterparts

april showers

bring october babies?

i haven't written in a while
mostly because i have been so nauseated and so exhausted
and now - 14 weeks pregnant

i am starting to get little gaps here and there where i don't feel hungover

i've done acupuncture
and homeopathic remedies

all in an effort to feel a little better
and hopefully soon
as it's been a long time coming since i last felt well

turmeric - not just for curries anymore

A brief rundown on this yummy spice...turmeric!

- may pack more healing power than any other spice
- aspirin of Asia, where it has been used for centuries in Ayurvedic medicine to heal wounds and treat inflammatory illnesses like arthritis
- contains curcumin, a compound that is both a powerful anti-inflammatory and an antioxidant. - non-toxic.
- curcumin might help prevent and treat Alzheimer's disease and cancer. Teams at UCLA, Harvard and in Japan subsequently discovered that curcumin might fight Alzheimer's in several ways.
- curcumin may help fight many cancers - 40 animal studies that suggest curcumin may have a strong protective effect against common cancers such as breast, colon, lung, prostate and skin.

about 1/4tsp a day is considered completely safe - to do list for 2009!

interesting read on children and sleeping through the night

it's no secret that we are co-sleepers around here...and sleeping through the night is very hit and miss. during our vacation, c slept through all but 2 nights (a record) but i think it was out of sheer exhaustion from all the time outdoors.

anyhow, a really interesting article...
http://www.kathydettwyler.org/detsleepthrough.html

and a few of the highlights from the article...

"Human children are designed (whether you believe by millions of years of evolution, or by God, it doesn't matter) -- to nurse *very* frequently, based on the composition of the milk of the species, the fact that all higher primates (Primates are the zoological Order to which humans belong, higher primates include monkeys and apes) keep their offspring in the mother's arms or on her back for several years, the size of the young child's stomach, the rapidity with which breast milk is digested, the need for an almost constant source of nutrients to grow that huge brain (in humans, especially), and so on."

"Human children are designed to be sleeping with their parents. The sense of touch is the most important sense to primates, along with sight. Young primates are carried on their mother's body and sleep with her for years after birth, often until well after weaning. The expected pattern is for mother and child to sleep together, and for child to be able to nurse whenever they want during the night. Normal, healthy, breastfed and co-sleeping children do not sleep "through the night" (say 7-9 hours at a stretch) until they are 3-4 years old, and no longer need night nursing. I repeat -- this is NORMAL and HEALTHY."

february flies

back from vacation and it is already heading toward the end of february...yikes.

tomorrow is the last day of winterlude and dh and c and i will likely be heading to the kid's park for fun on the ice slides.