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We had quite the evening with Miss Mazie. « »
She’s been really colicky some nights starting at around 6 and going to 10 or sometimes even 12. It’s not every night, but once in a while she’s SO TIRED but just won’t let go. She’s also having some pretty bad gas. Sometimes when she passes a bubble, she screams. Again, not every time, but often enough that it just must be really hard for her. She’s just so new that she’s still getting used to her body. It does some weird stuff!
We’re well on our way out of Mazie’s newborn days. She’s smiling, crossing her eyes as she tries to focus on farther and farther objects, she chatters and has
little bla-bla conversations with us, and is starting to be more alert during the day. She still takes a lot of naps, though. I think this colic stuff is on its way out. In the meantime, though, she has a couple of things that soothe her. One is a vibrating chair that she got from Olin’s mom and dad. Tonight she was crying and crying and Nate put her on that and she immediately stopped. Like someone flipped a switch. I bet Aaron and Margi are going to want this one back!
She also likes her swing. 
She didn’t like the chair or swing at first, because she really preferred to be held all the time. But now being held all the time is too boring…so she wants to go to one or the other. She laughs and chatters away in her swing. It’s really cute.
One other thing she really likes is her stretchy sling. 
It’s made out of the kind of fabric that you can buy in the fabric store to ring t-shirts or to use as cuffs on something made out of t-shirt material. It’s heavier than t-shirt. ANYWAY…it’s almost guaranteed that she’ll fall asleep if I put her in there and start a load of laundry. I’ve got several variations on this…pouches, ring sling, wraps, hybrids of those…it’s almost as addictive as sewing diapers. The different ones are good for different moods and situations. It’s easy to make your own and there are tons of web forums about it. My favorite is thebabywearer.com.
Speaking of diapers, I just finished a batch of 4. It’s not a lot compared to what I had time to sew pre-Mazer, but I really like how these came out:
Some of the fabrics are directional the wrong way, but I got more cuts out of them this way.
They’re so soft inside!
They’re made using the Chloe Toes sewing pattern.
The outers are DIY (do-it-yourself)cotton woven PUL(polyurethane laminate), the inners are dyed velour, and I dyed the FOE(fold-over elastic). They all have 2 hidden layers of cotton sherpa and the soakers are 2 layers of microfiber towel.
I got some excellent advice from Chloe Toes owner/designer, Catharine Decker:
*make sure you use 100% polyester thread
*polyester pul wicks less than cotton, but many use
cotton with success
*keep the soaker layer out of contact with the edges
of the diaper and binding within the crotch area;
wicking occurs by contact, with wetness travelling
along the adjacent fibers, so your soaker should be
narrower than the full crotch width (the pattern is
designed this way) to minimize wicking contact
*make sure your inner layer wicks fast if you have a
wicking layer against baby’s skin
*consider using a very fast-absorbing fabric for the
layer of soaker closest to baby’s skin (so wetness
absorbs quickly and doesn’t have time to pool and soak
at the crotch) I like microfiber, but others prefer
other fabrics
*include at least one layer of something that really
distributes wetness well in your soaker (so that
wetness spreads out through the whole diaper instead
of being wet just in the “wet zones” and dry
elsewhere) Again I like microfiber for this
*include at least one layer of something that really
locks in wetness well and doesn’t tend to experience
“compression leaking” (where it holds a lot of wetness
but the wetness easily squeezes out when baby sits or
moves) I like hemp for this
*if you have a very heavy wetter or need a
long-holding diaper for overnights, etc, consider
using a waterproofing spray applied in several light
coats to the outside of the diaper (information on
this is included in the pattern)
Having all this spelled out for m was so helpful. Like when starting to knit, I knew there were certain things to do…like using wicking layers, don’t let the soaker touch the edge, etc., but understanding WHY is really helpful.
…and I love how my diapers came out!
Thanks to Joy’s suggestion, I’m trying to get some shots of Mazie’s sweaters as she wears them…
(click to see them)
Also…thanks to Ainsley for the note today!
This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 18th, 2008 at 1:27 am and is filed under Uncategorized, Book Talk, press. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
7 Responses to “We had quite the evening with Miss Mazie.”
For the gas, nothing works better than Mylicon. We used even store brands (Wal-Mart, Target, etc) and the Wal-Mart brand comes in a non-staining formula. We added it to almost every bottle for a while. Then the gas went away (our son’s system got used to the milk and formula). We would also have a “fussy time” around 6 in the evening. I found that walking him around and giving him a change of scenery helped. Just a little advice from one mom to another! Enjoy these days…they pass all too soon!
*smiileee*
mazie is such a cute baby, makes me wann ahave MORE
(no, not really ;D)
best wishes, Eva
Wow, thanks for all the great soaker info. i definitely will be making/using them the next time around…. i can reciprocate with the colic advice too. Tigerlily used to get that way between 4-7pm every evening( for a few months). The only thing she liked was facing outwards in her snuggly carrier, then walking around the block over and over, and because of the time of the evening the cars were just putting on their headlights, there was something soothing to her about watching the cars/lights/cool air. She loved being outside and not too bundled up, her little arms and legs sticking out- warm in the middle, but cool everywhere else. By the time we had walked around the block about 5-10 times and came inside, it had passed and all was well. Also, I’m sure someone has asked you this, but i’ll throw it out, she could be sensitive to something in your diet if you breast feed. i ate artichoke dip one night, and my poor son!! he was miserable with gas that night. The other thing he couldn’t take was me drinking chamomile tea, i have allergies, and chamomile is goldenrod family i found out later, so he probably was sensitive to that too! All the crazy things i never thought about….the other thing i WISH someone had told me about was drinking fluoride water when you’re pregers can strengthen the baby ’s teeth later. Had NO idea. We just got fluoridated H2O here in S. Ca. so kids teeth should get better. oxox, juliblue
Cute diapers! Miss Mazie looks adorable in all her lovely sweaters!
My oldest son had colic from the time he was 3 weeks old until he was about 6 months old. Usually from about 5 until 10 or 12 at night. Although sometimes during the day, too. We tried everything and the only one we found to work was Baby’s Bliss Gripe Water. They have a website you can order off, and it also lists drug stores you can buy it in.
If you are nursing sweet Ms Maize, drink a cup (or more) of Fennel tea everyday. My L&D nurse was a lactation consultant for the LLL and she highly advised this to prevent colic. I did this with my boys and it worked great & the 2 times I forgot to have my tea, the screamed!!! It’ll help your digestion too!
If you’re nursing, pay attention to what you’ve eaten earlier in the day and possibly the day before Maizy has her colicky days. My Amber had a really rough time when I ate cucumbers!