Babywearing and Breastfeeding in a SaYa

I think I was more emotional now that Ava turned 18 months old compared when she turned one. Lol. I wonder why. Maybe because we are also celebrating some of the milestones she did at 6 months or maybe because it's Mother's Day. Or most likely, one of those times when I can't help but think that my baby's growing up so fast. #nanaysentiments

Breastfeeding while babywearing my 18m.o. darling daughter. 

So one result of my senti moment, I posted a photo of Ava breastfeeding while I wore her in our much loved SaYa carrier. And the beautiful Miss Buding, took notice and asked if I could make a simple video tutorial. I just love sharing and learning to and from other moms so I told her that I'll surely make one. And this is also my Mother's Day gift to my fellow babywearing Mamas. :)

Celebrating One Year of BLW

It was exactly on Ava's 6th month celebration when we introduced her to solids. Her first food was avocado. That was one year ago already.

When we started out with the whole parenting thing, we were basically relying on our doctors, parents and siblings for advises. That meant doing everything the traditional way. As we adjusted a few months later, we began to have a better understanding that we are already building a family of our own. I, particularly, wanted to break from my family's norm of raising up kids. Don't get me wrong, I am forever grateful to my parents and I respect my siblings' decisions in raising up their own kids. It's just that I think, our generations have evolved immensely and there are significant information that we didn't know back then that we know now. That's where our choice for Attachment Parenting (AP) came in.

Our Darling Daughter's Birth Story

As our toddler turns 18 months old today, I would like to finally share the story of her birth.

October 30, 2012 | Wednesday. It was two weeks before my due date. I was sitting outside my OB's clinic after my office, waiting for Cholo and for my turn to be checked. Ava, like the impatient baby that she is, was kicking and somersaulting like an olympic gold medalist inside my tummy. I was not complaining because any movement was always a good indication for us during that time. Cholo arrived around 7pm and not too long after, it was our turn to be checked. During the ultrasound, our OB told me that she can't seem to scan any movements, apparently Ava fell asleep right before we went inside. She instructed me to turn to my left side so we can wake Ava up. Still scanning, our OB told me that she's gonna send me to the ER if she didn't see any movements so we can have a stress test. A few minutes later, Ava twitched. What a good girl! :) My cervix was also checked via IE, I was already 1cm dilated. But we were allowed to go home since I was not experiencing any contractions yet.

After our checkup, while having our dinner, Mr. T and I were even talking about the possibility of Ava being born on November 1. And we thought we were just kidding. I still have a little blood discharge when we got home, thinking it was from my IE earlier, I went about my nightly routine and prepared to rest for the night. My discharge, though small in amount, seemed to be more than just an effect of my IE so we decided to message our OB. She immediately instructed us to proceed to the ER to be checked. So I took a bath (because if this was really it, who knows when's the next time I'd be able to get a full bath. :P), got our stuff ready and went straight to the ER. When we got to the hospital, the residents immediately checked on my cervix. I was admitted at around 11pm, 3cm dilated. It was a long night.

Back to Basics with a Twist

One year of cloth diapering, we have 35 cloth diapers in rotation, plus boosters and extra inserts and other cloth diaper accessories. And oh, we're still expecting a fluffy mail coming in soon. No, that wasn't bragging. If you've been into the whole cloth diapering community, you'll know that that's the average number for an ideal stash.

Let me share our cloth diapering story. :)

We were typical new parents when Ava came along, we had problems with breastfeeding, we were bickering because of exhaustion from the lack of sleep and other typical issues. Getting myself together after the CS operation, taking care of a newborn without a Yaya, going back to work and managing my milk supply were just some of the things we had to overcome. After a couple of months, we eventually got our rhythm as parents and things started getting easier. That's also the time when I found ways how we can go about the whole new world of parenting.

The answer: Fellow parents, especially Mothers, with newborns and toddlers alike from different online communities. One of them was the MCNP Facebook Group.

Before I gave birth to Ava, I've been reading a lot about cloth diapers but the whole thing seemed to be a little too overwhelming with all the do's and don't's so we decided to just skip the whole thing and go for disposables. We were buying a disposable diaper that was 14Php a piece that only lasted for a maximum of 4 hours depending on whether Ava's gonna poop on a new one or not. After a couple of months, we downgraded to a brand that's a little cheaper but still at 10Php a piece. Apparently, the bigger the size the more expensive it becomes. It was about the same time last year, summer time, and the heat was as bad as what we are experiencing right now. And that, is an instant recipe for baby bum rashes. Ava was five months then. Luckily, an Expo Mom was happening that time and we were able to get 3 cloth diapers for trial. A week later, we were exclusively cloth diapering Ava. And as they say, the rest was history. :)

Summer Time is Travel Time

It's summer time and it goes without saying that family trips are also here. For first time parents like us, travelling with a toddler could be a great challenge. Not that we have been travelling, but I've been thinking about it and thought about ways of how we'll manage when the time comes.

Just recently, we were able to travel and visit my parents in Nueva Ecija. It's usually a 3-4-hour-drive from Manila via NLEX, but it seemed like everybody was headed the same way. It took as 6 hours. Our fambam's first time to travel with Ava the toddler that long.

Luckily, our little happy belle didn't seem to bother the long drive. And it also helped that we brought some stuff that kept her busy.


Here's my take on what you can do while travelling with your toddler:

Carseats

The use of carseats in our country is not as strict compared to others. I am also guilty of this, most of the time, we're good with Ava just sitting on my lap either in the front passenger seat or at the back. But I think we should all practice safe travelling especially when we are with our children. Make sure they are all buckled up comfortable and secured. Unlucky for us, we just realized that our darling daughter already outgrew her infant car seat. So we had to take her out from it and just settle at the backseat while Mr. T drove carefully. That's why we're already looking at getting front-facing carseats so the next time we go for a long drive, Ava is already safely buckled up. :)

Left: Ava in her infant car seat. Right: Britax Front-Facing Car Seat.

Mama Goes Shopping

Now, I truly believe that "Shopping is a girl's best friend." And I also found out how it starts and who's to blame - the Mothers. Hahah! I'm raising my hand here.

Having a baby girl is like having a life-size doll. I remember how I used to play with Barbie dolls and paper dolls. I learned how to sew in grade school because of them barbies. But I enjoyed playing with paper dolls more because I get to easily cut and draw different clothes. Now, I get to dress up a real doll! :)

So I'd like to share with you my favorite brands and shops where I get most of our stuff, not only for babies but also including breastfeeding accessories and other Mama stuff. I included the items we got  and love from them that are totally noteworthy. Here we go.. :)

Wrap Baby Wrap

UPDATE: Make sure you do a lot of research first when making a DIY wrap. After this post, I was able to learn more about DIY wraps. You can search Babywearing Philippines in Facebook to learn more.

I've been a baby wearing Mama ever since I became a mother to my beautiful toddler. She's almost 17 months old already, so that's about 16 months of baby wearing. :)

We got our very first baby pouch from the Mommy Mundo Christmas Bazaar back in 2012. Ava was barely a month old then and we braved the Christmas bazaar season in Powerplant. Amongst the baby carriers that we saw, I fell in love with the simplicity of Indigobaby's Baby Pouch. It was also a good decision to get the pouch right after I gave birth instead of ordering online because I was able to check the correct size for me and Ava. Apparently, if I followed the size chart, I would've gotten a wrong size. It is always best to try the (sized) carriers first before getting them because a wrong size can be uncomfortable and can make or break your baby wearing journey. We were yayaless during our first couple of months with Ava and I was doing household chores while attending to my newborn. Those include breastfeeding, cooking, cleaning and washing baby clothes. I don't think I would've survived if not for baby wearing. I guess I rubbed off some of my love for baby wearing to Mr. T because a few months later, we got an Ergo Sport for him thanks to our sponsor (aka Grandpa). It's a Soft Structured Carrier (SSC) with lots of buckles and straps, it was really perfect for him. Then I became a member of the online Facebook community called Filipino Association of Babywearers (FAB) and oh boy! Hahah! Fellow baby wearing parents with different types of carriers sharing tips and helping each other which made me learn a lot. That resulted to me getting another carrier called Saya. It's a hybrid type which is a lot lighter than Ergo since it is only made of very lightweight fabric.

Left to Right: 1 m.o. Ava in our very first Indigobaby Pouch | Ergobaby Sport at 5 mos. |
Our second Indigobaby Pouch at 5 mos. | Happy to be in our Saya at 7 mos.

Recently, I joined an international Babywearing DIY Advice and Support group and was so amazed with all the projects that the other moms were doing. So I decided to try and make our own that both Mr. T and I can use which is the wrap type.

Before I share with you a simple tutorial let me just remind you that you should always consider your baby's safety before making your own baby carrier. I figured a wrap is the safest type to do since it does not consist a lot of straps and buckles that require sewing which, when done incorrectly, can tear and cause accident to you and your baby. So please do your research first.