Stand and Deliver

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Cloth diapers for sale

Note: cloth diapers are sold

Ivy is done with diapers (yay! wait...sniff...but yay!).

Anyone want to buy my handmade cloth diapers? I have 23 size newborn and 23 size small. (I gave away the size M diapers in France--sorry!) I will also throw in 2 small wetbags and 8 assorted diapers (some name-brand) sizes S & M.

Dio sporting a NB size diaper

I made the NB and S diapers with the Chloe Toes AIO diaper pattern using FOE and diaper-grade hook & loop.

The diapers are all loop, so no diaper chain when you do the wash! (They close with double-sided hook tabs.) They're cut high in the back and low in the front for a perfect fit.

The absorbent insides are made of hemp fleece, hemp terry, and cotton terry. The soaker is stitched in on just one side, allowing it to wash & dry more easily. It can be folded over for extra absorbency.

Half of the diapers have appliqued Canadian maple leaves.

NB fits until 6 weeks (for the chunky babies) up to 3 months (for the skinny ones).

S fits until 6 months (chunky babies) up to a year (skinny babies).

The 8 other diapers are an assortment of name brands and a few homemade ones that have lost their elastic.

Please email me if you're interested! I can ship within the US.

Monday, August 10, 2015

The long road home

On Wednesday morning we hurried to get everyone dressed and all the suitcases in one place so we could do last-minute cleaning. We handed the keys over to the person who would be taking care of our apartment.

On our way out we said goodbye to our downstairs neighbor, who has a son Inga's age. We're going to miss them! Then I headed to the bus stop with 4 kids, 1 purse, 1 messenger bag, 4 backpacks, and my violin. Eric left a few minutes later with a friend who drove all 8 suitcases to the airport.

In our hurry, we forgot to communicate where to meet up in the airport. I was waiting in one area, Eric in another, and we almost missed our trans-Atlantic flight because we didn't find each other! At the last minute I herded all the children to a new area and found Eric.

But of course it had to be more adventuresome than that.

Out of the blue, Ivy puked all over me.

A minute later, she puked all over herself and the floor.

We couldn't do anything to clean up because we were checking in. We made it through security and got onto the airplane. Our flight sat on the tarmac for over an hour, waiting for several passengers arriving on another flight. As soon as we took off, Ivy puked again, all over me.

After the third time, I was prepared. Good thing: she puked at least 10 times on the way home.

Zari got to help the Air Canada Rouge staff serve drinks. Inga also wanted to wear one of their stylish fedoras.

Ivy took several naps.

Besides puking ten times, she was an easy traveler.

I managed to read a book.

Our late start meant we missed our next connecting flight, so we got re-routed to a different city. Our third flight was several hours later than planned. We finally got home at 1:30 am local time (7:30 am French time) and got the kids in bed an hour later.

But the fun didn't stop there. No, that would be too easy.

The next day, I came down with a nasty stomach bug. Thanks Ivy. When the puking ended, the fever started and it wiped me out for the next 36 hours.

Then Inga got it.

Then Eric.

Fun times.

We're all recovered now, but only have two days left until school starts! I thought we had until next week so it was an unpleasant surprise when I checked the school calendar.

Goodbye, France.

Saturday, August 01, 2015

Things I'm loving right now

Only four days left until we fly across the Atlantic! In between last-minute repairs and deep cleaning, I wanted to share some favorite things I bookmarked this past month:

Homebirths in Spain
Read about the struggle to access home births in Spain, including hurdles mothers have faced birthing outside the Spanish medical system.

Effect of skin to skin and breastfeeding on primary postpartum hemorrhage
This recent research investigates the effect of S2S and BF right after birth on reducing primary PPH rates and found a strong positive correlation. The paper is titled Does skin-to-skin contact and breastfeeding at birth affect the rate of primary postpartum haemorrhage: Results of a cohort study.

Upright birth support

A Scottish midwife designed an inflatable birth support called Comfortable Upright Birth that's being used around the world. Read about it here:

If you buy a CUB, the company donates a clean birth kit to mothers in developing countries. With every 5 birth kits, they include a CUB as well! So consider buying one for yourself if you are expecting or for your practice if you are a birth attendant.

Breech!

Double breech twins in the jungle
Rhonda Powell, Shawn Walker, Alison Barrett recently published an article titled Informed consent to breech birth in New Zealand in The New Zealand Medical Journal (24th July 2015, Volume 128 Number 1418).
Heads Up: The Disappearing Art of Vaginal Breech Delivery is now available on DVD for personal use, childbirth educators, public screenings and institutional use. Use promo code 'BetterBirth360' to save 15% this week.
Taking Birth Back podcast on Why Body Alignment Matters

Home Birth

OB Talks About Home Birth, Midwives And Re-Engineering U.S. Maternity Care
A family physician who delivers babies discusses her decision to have a home birth, and the controversy and fear surrounding it. Read her article titled "Amid Fears And Controversy, A Doctor Chooses A Home Birth"

Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Sisters

One of my younger sisters visited me this month. She came with her husband and left her four kids with my mom.

The two of them visited just about every museum in Nice, walked miles and miles every day, ate lots of ice cream and pastries, and enjoyed going at an adult's pace. They took a trip to visit some friends in Germany, spent a day in Paris, watched a stage of the Tour de France, and even biked up and down Mont Ventoux. Well, her husband did!

We joined my sister on a few outings, including a visit to Eze, Cap Ferrat, and Fort Alban.

Ivy didn't want to walk up the stairs. We played a game of chicken to see who would capitulate first. She won.

Friday, July 24, 2015

Countdown & car races

We're leaving in 12 days! Or rather--12 days :(

I packed two suitcases today, put a few bags & boxes in the attic, and have bags labeled "stay in France" scattered around the house.

We've been in a heat wave since the beginning of July with no cool weather in sight. Compared to summers in the midwest US, it's lovely here: sunny, around 30/31 C (high 80s F) during the day and only cooling off slightly at night to 25-27 C (high 70s F). But air conditioning is still rare in French homes, meaning that it's as hot indoors as out.

I open all the windows at night, place fans strategically, and close up in the morning. But between the unremitting sun, the warm nights, and being on the 4th floor, we are TOO HOT!

We usually go swimming late in the afternoon when the heat inside is just too uncomfortable. We cool off in the almost-too-warm water and head home a few hours later for a late dinner. We don't go out much in the morning unless it's a place with shade.

Sometimes we improvise, like this morning when we played in a nearby water spigot and then raced cars down a little drainage ditch on the rue Rosetti.

Looking down the street towards the Place Rosetti

Zari was sitting on the ground taking pictures. "Mama, you're a giant!"

Tuesday, July 07, 2015

The Freezes at the splash pad

Here's a little movie we made at the Miroir D'eau in Nice. Enjoy!

More about this area:

Old Nice is a triangle hemmed in by the sea, the Paillon River, and an enormous plateau housing a ruined medieval fortress. The Paillon was slowly covered over to make space for parks and gardens and, later on, roads and traffic circles and parking garages and bus depots. The river still flows underground.

Over the past 15 years, the city of Nice has transformed the area above the underground river. It moved several traffic arteries into underground tunnels, transformed other roadways into tram lines, created huge pedestrian squares such as the Place Masséna, and removed the hideous bus depot and parking garage.

Now the Promenade du Paillon is the jewel of the city, with parks, playgrounds, gardens, and outdoor theaters. One of our favorite places in the Promenade du Paillon is the miroir d'eau ("mirror of water"), a huge zero-depth fountain with hundreds of jets of water. In other words, a gigantic splash pad!

And in case you missed it in the last post, here's a movie of our family at the beach:

Monday, June 29, 2015

Chamonix and doppelgängers and swimming

Our school year is winding down--only one week left! Eric and I are already getting nostalgic and a bit depressed about leaving France. We fly home on August 5th and won't be back until early May next year.

At a school festival

Dio trying to pop a water balloon with a pair of scissors

Facepainting

Property managing

We found an American family to rent our apartment from the end of August until the end of April. They have three kids ages 7,9, and 12. We're hoping they will adapt well to life here. None of them speak French, but they decided to put their kids in the French public schools (private international schools were too expensive).

During the first few weeks of August when we're gone, we already have the place booked as a vacation rental. So we are really glad that everything is taken care of until we come back. Crossing our fingers, of course, that we have no emergencies!

We've had our share of emergencies back home with our various properties. Our boiler back home--almost brand new--went out during the worst cold snap this winter and didn't get replaced for 2 weeks. In our rental properties we've also had a leaking roof (fortunately, an easy repair) and a caving foundation wall (not so easy of a repair, but at least it seems to have stabilized enough that our repair people, will be working on it as soon as the rain dries up).

Chamonix

Eric drove to Chamonix, near Mont Blanc, to visit a writer's workshop. He gave a reading and had a blast meeting the authors who were teaching the workshop, including Cheryl Strayed (author of Wild, which was recently made into a movie starring Reese Witherspoon) and Pam Houston.

He used Blablacar, a ridesharing service similar to Uber, and was able to find people to ride with him both there and back. One was an artist who lives in Chamonix, and the other was a French Canadian woman. I was glad that he had company-- I always worry when he's driving long distances alone with no one to make sure he stays awake.

Meeting Ryxi

While Eric was gone, I hosted some unexpected guests. I know a shaman/earth healer named Ryxi (aka Renee Shaw in real life) and she just happened to be traveling in the Swiss/Italian Alps not too far from where Eric was. I saw her update about it on Facebook. Turns out she was planning on coming to Nice next, so I invited her and a young woman traveling with her to visit.

They stayed for 3 days, and we had great conversations about religion and the environment. They did an energy healing session on me--why not?--and both of them independently picked up on a hip injury I've had for the past year. Ryxi put a yarn "dreadlock" into Zari's hair in her favorite color, turquoise. Zari's friends love it. So yeah, good times with my new-Age doppelgänger Ryxi.

Swimming

We've been going to the beach almost every afternoon after school. Two weeks ago Eric found a GoPro Hero4 Silver on the ocean floor 60 feet below the surface. It still worked! We've been having fun playing around with the camera and documenting our everyday lives. I put together some of the footage into a little film about our family at the beach. Enjoy!

A random picture of us at church...

A day's catch from spearfishing...

Friday, June 26, 2015

Felted sweater rainbow quilt...because SCOTUS!!

I'm doing a happy dance today after hearing about the SCOTUS ruling striking down gay marriage bans. My younger brother came out a year ago and I am thrilled that he will be able to marry no matter what state he lives in.

As soon as he told me that he was gay--on my birthday!--I decided I had to make him something. I settled on a blanket made from felted wool sweaters. In rainbow colors, of course :)

Now I finally have an occasion to share these pictures:

Sunday, June 21, 2015

Two car births

I have two car births to share. The first one takes place in a moving car. (In my mind, I'm shouting, "Pull the car over! Pull over!" Having a baby en route wouldn't phase me too much...but driving 60-70 mph while having a baby would freak me out!)

Este video dando la vuelta al mundo. Esta madre iba camino a dar a luz al hospital y no pudo esperar mas y tuvo a su bebe en el auto. Increible la tranquilidad con que maneja la situacion. El milagro de la vida en video.
Posted by 106.3 Más Variedad on Monday, December 8, 2014

This next story, A mother's instinct pays off, isn't just about her roadside birth, but also about how listening to her mama instincts in the days following the birth saved her baby's life. She ends her story with this observation:

you know how people say to trust your intuition?

Seriously, do it.

There was a window of opportunity for Gabriel to get his surgery done. He got it done, only because I knew something wasn’t right and persisted.

Just because someone is wearing a badge or uniform, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t get other opinions. Paying attention to that little voice inside your head usually means you’re crazy, yes, but it can also save a life.

Read the rest here:

http://www.littlesilkwings.com.au/a-mothers-instinct-pays-off/

Thursday, June 18, 2015

August 5th

August 5th. 5.8.15. Le 5 août.

We're leaving France on August 5th and that date suddenly seems too close, too fast. I remember hitting that point during each pregnancy, when giving birth went from an impossibly far-off event to a looming reality. My to-do list still has plenty of items to check off: build a hatch for the attic, put up bars in the attic window so people can't fall out of it, install flooring in the attic, paint & install baseboards, sew curtains for Ivy's room. That list seems modest compared to what we've done already.

I've started sorting items in to bags mentally labeled keep in France, give away, and bring back home. I sold a few bags of Ivy's clothes at a consignment store around the corner called Falabrik Fabrik. The walls and ceiling are painted in bright, mis-matching colors. Racks of secondhand clothes form the periphery, inside which you can sit at one of small tables and eat a homemade lunch, or your child can sort through a trunk filled with painted wooden toys and board books. I gave away another bag of clothes to a young Muslim mother, tossing them into the passenger seat as she drove by the tram station. I still have two more bags of clothes and a bag of cloth diapers to sell or give away.

I'm leaving our umbrella stroller behind. I won it at a Lamaze conference back when Dio was little. Its wheels are starting to buckle from carting 3 children and ferrying bags overloaded with groceries. We also won't need our hiking backpack any more; Ivy either rides in the Ergo or walks.

I'm bringing home yards of fabric: heavy absinthe jacquard for curtains in Inga's room. Linen gauze to soften the south-facing French doors in our living room. More bright prints and bold weaves for decorative cushions.

I'm leaving behind most of my summer sandals. They were secondhand to begin with, and they are so worn that I want to save my precious luggage quota for something else. I'm bringing home lots of "new" clothes, all secondhand and some even snatched from our garbage station where residents have created an ad-hoc Freecycle corner.

Eric has a pile of new books that will cross the Atlantic this August: biographies of Anaïs Nin and Isadora Duncan, fictionalized accounts of Hemingway's wives, memoirs of bumbling English people moving to France to escape harried city life and living like kings isolated in their country manors. More novels and short story collections.

I'll miss my quiet afternoons with Ivy while the kids are at school.

Also all the fish that Eric catches with his spear gun

Sunday, May 31, 2015

Hike to Peillon and Peille

Five years ago, we hiked up to the perched village of Peillon with Zari (3.5) and Dio (1). It's less than 20 kilometers outside of Nice.

A week ago Saturday, we did the same hike and then tacked on a visit to Peille. Peille is a larger village built along a steep mountainside about 10 kms higher up from Peillon. One advantage of having a car!

Here are some now-and-then pictures from Peillon

Little Zari and Dio playing in a water spigot 5 years ago...

...and now all 4 kids playing in the same spigot

Little Zari playing in the fountain...

.
... and now Inga (4) playing in the fountain

Inga wanted to go in the fountain to fish out coins, but I wouldn't let her

Zari was our photographer, which is why she is in very few of the pictures!

the hike is short but steep

eating dark chocolate on the way up

pointing out landmarks to Dio

Ivy recovering from a tantrum

getting a hug from Eric

village map

Ivy being silly

trying to climb into the fountain...always following Inga's lead!

Peille

We arrived during a marriage and got to see the wedding party waiting for the couple to come out of the town hall. I really loved this village. It's picturesque like Peillon, but people actually live here so it doesn't feel completely empty like Peillon does. It looks over a vast valley and mountainside and feels like you're up in the Rocky Mountains, rather than 22 kilometers from the coast. You can see all the way to the sea.