Hello Puggie,
Some of the new cloth nappies / diapers I ordered have arrived.
And I reckon you look pretty cute in them..
OMG WTH is it with TLAs and MCNs???? August 6, 2009
Hi Oscar,
today is more of a little rant. Rather than a little story.
I’ve been meaning to write to you about the complexities of nappies / diapers, the confusing choices about them, and about what your dad, you and I are doing with respect to them. I’ll get to that. But for today, I’m going to keep it brief (you’re not sleeping well – just seems to be 15 minute cat-naps at the most, so my writing time is limited) and just complain about how hard it is to actually read about, research, get opinions on, and generally make a decision about nappies / diapers!
Why! Because of all the goddam three letter acronyms (TLAs) that are just peppered through discussions on cloth nappies / diapers. “OMG WTH is it with TLAs and MCNs????”
OMG * Oh my God
WTH * What the Hell
TLA * Three Letter Acronym
MCN * Modern Cloth Nappy
MCD * Modern Cloth Diaper
My background in IT and telecoms is actually paying off: notorious for TLAs and undecipherable jargon, the part of my brain that deals with such palaver is getting a right royal workout. However nappy / diaper research is worse than the TLAs in the telecoms industry – not only do you have to have TLAs for every bit and bob to do with a nappy / diaper, when you converse on forums and the like it seems you also need TLAs for each and every family member. I was going ok while I was pregnant – I seemed to be able to navigate the forums I looked at by some guesswork (which I occasionally got wrong, but the general idea was ok)…. To give the uninitiated an idea of what kind of crap TLAs are used, check out the acronyms listed on a baby forum here in Australia. A few examples:
- DH – Dear Husband
- DF – Dear Fiance
- DS – Dear Son
- DD – Dear Daughter
Getting the idea? Those in your family are Dear… Except for the following people:
- MIL – Mother in Law
- FIL – Father in Law
- SO – significant Other (apparently for if you’re just dating someone, obviously they haven’t quite made the “Dear” grade yet)
Mmmm.. I see a slight bias or bent to these TLAs already.
Anyway, those ones aren’t too hard to guess at, though why the hell anyone would want to continually refer to their partner as DH or whatever, it beats me. I can think of lots of others that could have been used instead given the content of what some of the people were writing about their partners: LAMF*** being one of them. Or perhaps just SGRPP****. Ok, I admit, now I’m just starting to make them up. And I’m getting sidetracked by a rant about the mundane nature of and painfully horrific posts that you find on lots of baby and mum and pregnancy sites (though some of it is great, its just the full spectrum of the population and their problems – better than Dr Phil any day – you can write back!).
So, on top of the already long list of acronyms needed to get through the posts on the mummy/mommy and baby general forums, the nappy / diaper forums take it to a whole new level! And the sites of the nappy / diaper makers seem to go there too – really using the acronyms all over the shop (so to speak) making it almost impossible for a NRAIM (nappy-related-acronym-illiterate-mum) like myself to even attempt to PURCHASE anything in the right size shape or colour. My advice to all nappy / diaper sites: KISS*****. Yeah, they teach that one in my MBA****** course.
Again for the uninitiated, you can read a list of the commonly used nappy-related (diaper-related) terms on an Australian nappy-centric forum (yes, that is if you can pull yourself off the floor and believe that there really is that much to discuss about nappies / diapers- if you see this forum, you’ll see that for some people, it really is endless, though I shouldn’t be surprised, the internet is full of little nooks and crannies with all sorts of people talking in minute detail about all sorts of topics)… Some more examples:
- MCN – Modern Cloth Nappy; progressing to
- AI1 – All-in-One
- AI2 – All-in-Two (is this a misnomer??)
- BV – Bamboo Velour (mmm! This sounds like something you’d find in a nightclub, could be fun)
- … the list goes on…
And perhaps my favourite from this bunch in the discussion:
- AF – “Aunt Flo”
WTF*******?? Even after reading the words behind this acronym I’m lost. Are you wondering like me why people are suddenly referring to Aunt Flo? Is it some kind of Australian-Queensland related thing where people have taken the term to refer to a stereotypical pumpkin-scone baking aunt based on the infamously corrupt Queensland Premier Joh Bjelke Petersen‘s wife Flo – famous for her pumpkin scones? That was my first thought on reading the translation . But no, get further and you’ll find that it is in fact a euphemism for the menstrual period. Hence the “flow”. See – it really does go too far, an acronym for a euphemism that is pretty out-there in the first place. My suspicions that people just post on the forums using the acronyms without really knowing what they mean at all were confirmed on reading further into the thread:
“I also use AF all the time and often wondered what it meant. Thanks”
Remind me not to start posting on these forums about my nappies / diapers and using terms and abbreviations that I really don’t know what they mean. Otherwise I might end up saying something I regret.
P.S. My new task is to memorise at least one of the general abbreviations every day.
****Sexist, gender-role-pandering pansie
One week old and Oscar is your name-o. June 28, 2009
Hello Little Oscar! (you’re 8 days old today)
oscar snuggle time on day three. 23/06/2009
Welcome to the world again. Well, the world outside my womb that is. I’m suffering from sleep deprivation, sore boobs (cracked, grazed and mastitis-ised – erk) but otherwise great – I love you lots and have been spending hours staring at you each day. I’m really glad that you came out through my VJJ without the need for any drugs, or other medical intervention (apart from a few stiches afterwards): I can’t imagine the last week and coping with all that your dad and I have had to learn on top of recovering from major surgery etc. So! All good. I went for a walk today with your dad and you – a short one, but one nonetheless, and we’ve managed to get you in the car and out of the house every day to pop out and do something. Tiring, but makes me feel like I’m not totally beholden to your needs 24/7 and makes it all just a bit more copable.
Anyway, life is rather hectic and so I’ve only just managed today to look at some of the photos we took of you in the first few days and pull a few out to share with some people….
I also need to sit down and find the time to finish writing your birth story while its still fresh in my mind. Might have to be in short-attention-span installments… Will try to get to that too…
So here they are: some shots of us getting ready for you to arrive and then a few from your first few days: Photos of Oscar
Summary of today is that you’re the best thing ever and you’re gorgeous and I am really glad that the lactation consultant showed me how to feed lying down yesterday. I can’t believe they didn’t show / talk about that at the hospital. Ahh. You like it to. You are currently milk-drunk and hanging out with your dad and aunt 3 & T on the verandah.
Love you
mum
you’re on the way June 20, 2009
Good morning little speckle!
I’m very excited – you’re on your way. I woke up this morning at about 4:30 am with a very (in my mind) distinct “pop, , pop” feeling and sound. I was lying in the lower bunk of a bed at the place where P&J were getting married, with your Dad above me in a bunk and J (an obstetrician friend) sleeping in the same room. I remember thinking at the time, oh, that’s a bit strange. I think I recalled that you’d given me a few very strong kicks when I’d been trying to sleep a bit before. I was obviously half-asleep, because I just lay there for a minute (or what seemed like a minute), thinking ‘oh, well if that was my mucus plug then surely I should be able to feel something. Mm.. Maybe I’m just imagining it or dreaming’, when suddenly I felt a bit of a trickle in my pants and by the time I got up and made it the 1.5 m to the bathroom I had a rather large gush of water running down my legs and all over the bathroom floor. I think I just took my pjs off and stared at the water for a few minutes. I wasn’t sure what to do – part of me wanted to just go back to bed and not wake anyone up, cause I figured that it would be a while before you came. It felt pretty weird, cause I guess I just never thought of my waters breaking but not really being in labour. I was always expecting that would happen later – when I saw your aunt 2 be born my mum was in labour for a long time and then her waters were broken, and the video we watched at antenatal classes the woman’s waters broke right before the second stage.I shook myself out of that, and woke up your dad, telling him “I think my waters just broke”.
Anyway, of course J woke up too, checked with us that it was all the right colour and I felt fine etc. I had a quick shower and shoved some clothes on and pushed everything that was laying around into our bags, and we headed out to the car. We threw everything in the car, appropriated a few towels from the place we were staying so that I could sit on them (for some reason your dad thought I didn’t have any pads packed and I just didn’t even think of it) and then drove off into the darkness, just around 5am. Your dad looked a bit shakey as we negotiated the roads around the back of Uki in a very hard rain. It was a bit foggy too. But we made it to Murwillumbah, where we stopped so your dad could phone the hospital (we were out of range until then) and grab something to eat.
While your dad was in the store and on the phone, I walked up and down the street, thinking, “this is weird”. I’d started to have contractions in the car. Well, what I guessed were contractions. I had been trying to describe them to your dad – I managed to tell him they were just little bands of tension that started down low and worked their way up to just over my pubic bone, with occasssional jabs up further around my belly-button height. They started and stopped in the car journey. What was consistent was the leaking, which felt good each time it happened, like the pressure that had built up was being released. I could tell I was having mild contractions as this is what generally made more leaking happen.
We continued up the road as the sky lightened and we ran into more cars along the way. I put the radio on and we bopped along to some music and chatted. I was having weird thoughts about all sorts of things. We stopped at a service station and I enjoyed peeing immensely.
… this is getting hard to type (its 11:04 am…)… I seem to be having contractions every 5 minutes and they are a bit engaging.
…later at 12:15…
yes, the contractions are getting a bit stronger. And your dad has been timing them. Hopefully they won’t stop and start. They are pretty engaging when they occur now, and they hurt a little bit. You are wriggling down there a little bit. I was lying down on my side when a big one came before and it was horrible. I panicked a little bit, cause I knew I couldn’t get up. But after it finished I reminded myself that it just lasts for 30 seconds or so, and really isn’t that bad. just need to change positions. Lying on my side wasn’t great. Standing up is ok, but when the contractions come now I’m asking your dad to help me, and I am putting my hands around his neck while he rubs my sacrum. That is more tolerable, and is more comfortable as I have somewhere to rest my head. I’ve just tried one on the fitball, where I’m sitting at my desk typing to you. This feels good moving around between contractions, but as soon as it started I really didn’t want any movement at all. I just wanted to be still. So you dad sat behind me and tried to get me to relax my mouth.
….. End of ability to write…
-
- re-organising between mild contractions
-
- oops – a contraction on the fitball. I was writing on the blog about the morning so far…
-
- Dad gets nesting and cleans the floors
You're engaged June 19, 2009
Hello speckle!
Well, we are finally in the car and on our way to p & j’s wedding in northern nsw…. It’s been a bit of a manic day, on which I ( to your dad’s dismay) have been fuelled almost entirely by an array of amazing sugary treats that your aunt 2 brought over for my birthday this morning.
So, we headed in to see the doctor this morning for a quick check on you. And you’re all good: your head is down further, in fact you’re engaged! Locked on in… And walking around today I can tell, it feels like you’re wriggling around so you can come out soon. You’ve officially got 6 days to go, but as the dr pointed out today, that could still mean you want to hang out in there for a few more weeks.. He asked if we wanted to get you to come out – as he said it can take a week to 10 days to organize an induction with the hospital. We said we were happy to let you try to work yourself out in your own time. Which he is all fine with too, I think until you’re around two weeks after expected. In which case he might encourage us to get you to come out with some artificial hormones… But I’m hoping the raspberry leaf tea and some acupuncture will give you the right cues..
Anyway, perhaps now cause we’re going three hours from the hospital you can hang upside down in there for a few more days??
Love you
Mum
Ps. My blood pressure still is totally good.
bathing on the deck! yay for your dad :) June 16, 2009
Hello Little Speck!
Well, you know what happened last night, ’cause you got right in on the action too. Yes, that’s right. We got to have a bath at home! YAAAAAYYYYY!!!
As you know, our bathroom at home, while lovely, doesn’t have a bathtub, just a shower. And I really LOVE my baths. So anyway, yesterday your dad got it in his head that I needed a bath (I have been moaning every day about how much I feel like just lying in the bath after having one each day when we went away the weekend before last). And he has been thinking about it – we’ve had fantasies about building a bath house in the garden. And we’ve been thinking about how to cheaply renovate our bathroom and put one in… But all take time and money and are relatively complicated.
But yesterday, your Dad got inspired and all I heard him say as he ran out the door in the morning while I was on the phone for work was something about building me a bath. He returned a number of hours later with some stuff on the roof of the car, and continued to make sawing, hammering and drilling noises into the night. And then, at about 8:30 pm, it was done! My own little bath filled with hot steaming water on our back deck. The steam rising off it into the night, the possoms in the tree beside it looking on in interest. ….
So.. I got in! Check it out:
you and I in the bath – its small but we just fit!
Looking out to the left of the deck you can see the tops of the city buildings, and the way I’m facing in the photo above across the back yard and through to the trees in the neighbourhood…
bathing with a view out across the trees
See! Pretty cool I think…
my bath
full recline – see its a little small, but perfect for the back corner of the deck….
So we will be soaking every day from now on.
Thanks G for the old bathtub. Yay for your dad. He is amazing.
love mum
-r
The view from where I’m lying June 14, 2009
Hello Speck!
I thought as I lay in bed this morning that I’d share with you what it feels like to be carrying you around at this stage. Its not something I can readily describe, so a photo is going to have to suffice.
So: This is what you look like to me when I’m lying in bed…
the view of your home from my perspective – i can still see my toes, just!
Somewhat like a beached whale, you have to agree…
mmm..
love you
mum
eating and waiting… June 12, 2009
Hello Little Baby Speck!
Well, its freezing this morning. I have my computer in bed with me and am working from there. We went out yesterday and bought two new oil heaters after plugging in our old one to absolutely zero effect the day before (I think the move back from Sydney finally killed it). And so I have the heater we bought for your room in our room this morning and I’m under the covers too. Brrrr. Apparently its five degress. Very cold for a draughty queenslander. Your dad and I are both a little worried at how cold our house is going to be when you arrive home … (BTW Week 38 today! Week 38… I never thought it would come around).
Slept badly again last night. Woke at 3 am and didn’t get back to sleep until around 5:30… Then got woken this morning at 6:30 by the gas workmen right outside our bedroom window digging a big hole in our yard and discussing how cold it was last night / this morning and how many Bundy and Cokes they managed to consume in the car trip home last night because the traffic was bad. Aaagh.. You weren’t impressed either – there was some kicking down there and I interpreted it as “pissed off”. Much more violent and quick than your normal movement.
Yesterday had a spurt of energy and decided to get some things done. Hence the heater-buying. Also managed to inspire myself to cook biscuits. See – still having total cravings for sweet food. Weird. Anyway, I was inspired to biscuits after looking through the Australian Women’s Weekly biscuit cookbook. Its a book that my Grandmother gave me when I was 12 years old. I only just got it back from your Aunt R the other day – I must have loaned it to her a few years ago… I’m really glad I got it back – I thought it was just packed away in one of the multitude of boxes we have yet to look in – stored under the house from before we moved to Sydney. Its sentimental. Anyway, I’ve got it and I have good memories of cooking the biscuits. Hopefully something we can do together when you get bigger – I’ve had some practice with F as she and I used to cook them all the time when we lived next door to each other…
monte carlos – yum!
Yep, so yesterday I did the monte carlos. And damn, do they taste good if I do say so myself. I say so myself. They taste good. Full of sugar. Yum.
Today is a work day. Looking forward to the weekend 🙂
love you
mum
the car is now baby-ready. come on down anytime. June 10, 2009
Hello Speck,
Quick note to let you know that your dad went out to the QLD Ambulance today and got the carseat that we’ve hired installed. So the car is now A-OK and ready for you to come on down and join us anytime.
your car seat
I got detailed instructions from your dad on how to put the seat in and out with you in it. There are lots of steps. But I’m sure we’ll get there. Another step closer to being ready for your arrival.
What else? Well, you definitely liked yogababy yoga last night. It was a class focussing on trying to give your baby the chance to move around and get in the optimal position for birth if it wasn’t quite there when you went into labour, and a few things about relaxation etc. You were active all through the class, after we got home, and all night. You’ve been moving around down in there and trying to get yourself into a slighly new position I’d say. Your kicking has moved slightly from being on my left side at the top, to now in the centre, or even a bit to the right. I’ve switched totally to using the fitball when working at the desk and watching TV – normal seats just make me really creaky and stiff when I try to get out of them now.
baby capsule installation
And your dad and I both dreamed about me going into labour the night before last. Your dad is getting more and more excited as the time comes closer.
love you
mum
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