I was totally overwhelmed with my family and friends' generosity when Elena was born. We received so many gifts that we hardly needed to buy anything aside from diapers for months. In fact, the first piece of clothing we bought her was a cute little coat at 6 months old, and the frugal part of me even felt like we probably didn't *need* to buy it.
One of the best gifts we got was from my high school friend Nick Melfi. Nick has been living in Australia for a bit now, and he put together a package including a couple of books complete with the corresponding stuffed animals (one about a wombat and the other a dancing kangaroo), a kangaroo t-shirt, a bottle of Shiraz for us, and the magical CD/DVD of Justine Clarke. Justine, as Songs to Make you Smile is known around our house, is a really cute DVD with kids' songs, and it has become integral to my sanity.
I am obsessive about certain things, and I don't think it really came to light until Elena was born. Now that I think about it, my baby OCD started when I was pregnant and making my registry. I started reading about BPA and its proven vs. theoretical health risks, and luckily there are tons of BPA-free bottles, milk storage bags, pacifiers, teething rings, etc. (Yay capitalism! Make money off of moms' fears!) I got stumped on Sassy's links, though--there was no mention of BPA, and I knew that they'd be going straight to Elena's mouth. After literally hours of searching on this particular product, I just sucked it up and added it to the registry. But we invested in a mega-expensive organic mattress (which doesn't get used as she sleeps with us in our infant-death-trap memory foam bed) and organic cotton sheets. After her diaper rash got worse with Desitin, I made my own diaper salve (okay, so it helped that the recipe fell into my lap at an herb workshop). I made all of Elena's baby food from organic fruits/veggies/grains (unless the pesticide load is REALLY low), and she NEVER got even a drop of formula. I bought the Carlson's vitamin D drops (great product! Which I can never remember to spike her food with!) since I always advise parents to give a multivitamin if just for the vitamin D (Poly-Vi-Sol was disgusting and stained her clothes the couple of times I tried it). I've avoided dairy and meats freak me out due to hormones and antibiotics and the odd outbreak of E. coli and such. We switched to cloth diapers around 8ish months because I started to have terrible guilt about the volume of waste our household was producing.
I might have a problem, as you can see from the sheer volume of links I've included above, if not from the content itself. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no more than 1-2 hours of television daily for kids, but they also don't recommend ANY television time before the age of 2. So we sat on Justine for a while, figuratively speaking. I don't really know why I popped her in one day, but it's such a cute video, and Elena loved it. And still does. She's been roaring like a dinosaur for a while now, and has started singing some of the other songs. And it is sometimes the only way I can get myself ready for work in the mornings before I need to drop her off at daycare. Okay, so I just had her watch Justine so I could blog--maybe that is an abuse of the DVD, but I really don't care since I've been up before 6 am both days this weekend (though that is more of a function of Josh's alarm for work waking her up). I need a break!
Justine, however, was certainly a gateway drug. I soon logged on to pbskids.org and we were watching Clifford clips on the laptop. When I got my iPad, the absence of Flash capabilities led to YouTube, but that was okay because we discovered lots of awesome Sesame Street songs. But now she can turn the iPad on, unlock it, and I think soon she will know to click on the little TV icon; she already knows to push the triangular "play" button if the video is taking too long to start on its own. I am hoping that we are choosing wisely, and Josh has said that he will be testing her on her knowledge of the circulatory system once she is officially of school age thanks to They Might Be Giants. Since some studies say that quantity of programming isn't necessarily to blame so much as the quantity of commercials for low-quality processed foods that litter television, I think videos are not that bad.
Anyway, I'm glad we are limiting screen time somewhat, but I do worry that she doesn't get enough sleep because of this scary article: Shortened Nighttime Sleep Duration in Early Life and Subsequent Childhood Obesity. Essentially, beginning in infancy shortened nighttime sleep puts your kid at risk for being fat, and nap time won't help to reduce that risk. Yikes. I have the number 11 hours burned in my brain after hearing about the study on the radio, but I didn't go back and check before posting the link. Seeing as how we don't walk through the door until after 6 pm some evenings, and need to be out the door before 7:30 am if I am working in the morning, I think Elena might be screwed in that department.
At least I've tried to limit the other risk factors?
I had to laugh, Jessie. (Sorry!) You are a fabulous momma just because you care enough to research and freak out. I think you'll find yourself a little more laid back when Elena's baby sister arrives. By number four, you may even let them eat a spilled snack off the playground wood chips.
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