mommapalooza

Kissing Babies ...

The last time Canada had a Federal election, Chris and I both voted. Madeline was there, too - I was in early labour on June 28, 2004. We're heading back to the polls on January 23, 2005. Way too soon - our current government is only one day older than Madeline, and she's just eighteen months old!  She'll be in my thoughts for this upcoming election, too. One of the big issues is childcare.

There is a shortage of daycare spaces in most parts of Canada, and for certain in Calgary. The current government has taken some big steps in the short amount of time they've been in power to increase funding for more daycare spaces, and they're pledging to continue to do so if they're re-elected. The party that's (unfortunately) popular in my part of the country has taken another approach. They figure that only spending money on daycare spots is penalizing families who do not seek outside care for their children - families like ours. They're proposing to give each family in Canada $100 every month for each child in their household, whether the children are cared for at home or in a daycare setting. You'd think that I'd be swayed by this, being a stay-at-home mom at the present time.

But I'm not. How is $100/month supposed to help me when I resume working and need to send Madeline to daycare? Am I supposed to use my $1200/year to bribe the daycare centre to move her to the front of the waiting list?  Bah!

The Naughty List: An Open Letter

Dear Other Mom at the Haysboro Clinic on December 15:

Thank you for snatching the bead maze off of the child-size table and setting it on the floor for your baby to play with. I can't imagine that my daughter spent five minutes figuring out how to climb into one of the wee chairs at the table in order to play with that bead maze, even though the bead maze is supposed to be a permanent fixture on the table. I'm sure she wanted to sit at the table so that she could quietly contemplate and was glad that you took away the toy.

Cheers and many lumps of coal,

~ Laura

Waiting Room

I never really let myself get stressed out about the state of the heathcare system before Madeline came along, but now I can be frequently heard growling about it.  There aren't enough pediatricians in Calgary, so instead Madeline is under the care of a family physician. Except, there are shortages of family docs, too. It seems that one has to be healthy to get in to see the doctor - everytime that Madeline has been sick and I'd like her doctor to see her in a timely fashion, the doctor is booked up for the next 4 or 5 days.  How dysfunctional is that?  A person has to know that they're going to sick in advance ...

In case anyone is wondering why I'm grumping, Madeline has had a bad cough for the last five days. But no fever today, so that's good. Still running around like the Energizer Bunny.

Baby in a Bubble

Yesterday evening, Chris had an early soccer game, so Madeline and I tagged along to watch him play. I thought I was prepared - I brought a light snack for her,  a drink, a few books, a ball, and some citronella lotion as she's too young for insect repellants containing DEET and Calgary has a wicked mosquito problem at the moment. The lotion seemed to work well enough, too - I haven't seen a single bump on her while I have several new ones where I forgot to apply the lotion. Then one of my friends from a parenting forum pointed out that the Canadian Pediatrics Society warns against using citronella and lavender oils on babies, and doesn't say why! Argh! I'd love know! I am beginning to feel like we might as well keep Madeline in bubble until she's older and can use sunscreen and bug repellant with wild abandon. It's not like she's exposed to the elements constantly, but it's frustrating. I'd be tempted to try rubbing her with a dryer sheet - I've heard tales of those keeping the skeeters at bay - but dryer sheets and fabric softener are also no-nos for babies because of fire retardency!

stay little forever

There is so much about Madeline that is toddler-ish now that it's becoming harder to find the baby in her. Sometimes when she's nursing I can remember her at three months. When she nods off in my arms in the wee hours of the morning I can look down at her face and it's the same one that I've been gazing at for nearly a year.  But those moments are getting rarer!

I've been contemplating the changes and new choices that being one year-old brings. She'll be old enough (not sure if she's heavy enough yet, though) to turn her carseat forward-facing. It's safer if we leave her rear-facing, but I kind of wonder if flipping the seat makes sense because she'll be happier to sit in it. Madeline will also be old enough to have a blanket in her crib. She's nearly out-grown the sleepsack I made for her before she was born. Do I actually put a blanket over her in her crib (hmm ... do I believe it will stay on her all night?), or should I make a larger sleepsack?  Is it uncool to sleep in a sleepsack when you're one?  We finished off another box of baby oatmeal, and I tried out regular grown-up oatmeal for a few breakfasts with her. She hated the stuff. I didn't know if it was okay to keep her on the baby cereal longer ... I envisioned her becoming an addict and still eating baby cereal when she's three!  Finally I realized that the nutrition chapter in my toddler book recommends staying with the baby cereal because it's full of extra nutrients, and I'm glad that I can feel good about at least one decision!

Wanted: Self-Maintaining Baby

Apparently, my daughter doesn't mind spending prolonged periods of time in a wet diaper, even a wet cloth diaper. We're come to this conclusion because Madeline hates diaper changes. She screams blue murder and will try any sort of contortion to evade our efforts to clean her bum.  When both Chris and I are working on the diaper change, it's not so bad, but when it's just me here at home, the struggle wears me out mentally. Bah!

SA(H)M-I-AM

Yesterday was my last day of maternity leave.  I don't have a job to return to, as my company wasn't doing very well in the energy business and obliterated 90% of their marketing depart (which I was a member of) in May 2004.  I elected to go on mat leave early and take my package this year.  That's not really how things are supposed to happen here in Canada - technically, they're supposed to have a job for me. I mistakenly thought that I would qualify for Employment Insurance benefits once I am offically unemployed (which would be Tuesday) because surely there would have been something to protect parents whose employers don't fulfill their obligations for employees returning from leave. But there isn't. I'm kind of bummed out about that. It's really odd - I'm completely fine with not returning to my former employer because I hadn't been happy with my job for about ten months before I went on leave, but I'm annoyed about the EI benefits.  I hate the feeling that I'm contributing nothing to the household yet continuing to be a user of things that cost money, and I don't like the pressure I now feel to find a new job. Chris and I both agree that something part-time would be ideal for the three of us, but I don't honestly see a lot of that in corporate Calgary. 

Do no harm ...

One of the things that I was not prepared for in terms of parenthood was how political the topic of childhood vaccinations has become of late. I don't think that my folks gave it a second thought when I was a kid - they merely trotted me off to the community health clinic and let some evil nurse jab my arm with wild abandon!  Now it seems that a lot of thought must go into this decision, weighing the pros of immunizing against certain things against the cons of the complications that those immunizations *may* bring later down the line.

Madeline did get the recommended immunizations at two, four, and six months.  I think that they were diptheria, tetnus, pertussis, pneumococcal conjugate, and meningococcal conjugate. Hep A isn't administered in Alberta until a person is ten years old, or thereabouts.  My reasoning for taking her for the vaccinations was that while I don't feel that they are necessary here in Canada, it is likely that we will be traveling or living elsewhere in the future (like a 3rd world country) where these diseases are more common. And frankly, meningitis scares the crap out of me, anyway. There usually is an outbreak here in Alberta each year.

According to the Calgary Health Authority immunization schedule, the one-year vaxes are MMR and varicella.  I am secretly hoping that Madeline gets a case of natural chickenpox in the near future so that I can forgo the varicella with confidence that I'm not creating a bigger problem down the road. MMR - I don't know. All of the news media are taking about the rubella outbreak in Ontario, and it's beginning to spook me - more than I thought this stuff could!

Am I or Aren't I???

Well, it's been a blast, but my maternity leave comes to an end in five weeks. I am assuming that if my employer has anything to offer me in terms of another position, they would have let me know by now so that I would have adequate time to arrange childcare for Madeline ... Don't really think it would be funny to be offered something (besides my severance package) at the last minute!

Water on the Brain

Last Sunday, we took Madeline to the community pool for the first time.  To capture this *first*, I bought one of those water-proof disaposable cameras, and we had a blast taking photos of Madeline happily standing in the kiddie pool, splashing away at the puddles on the ledge, and laughing as the waves from the main pool crashed over her feet.  I took the camera in to London Drugs for developing, and was kind of sad to see that our memories came out totally dark and grainy. There was a note tucked in the photos saying "you didn't use a flash". Duh.  Did the camera that you took the film out of have a flash, Mr. Photo Technician? 

Thinking about taking one of our 35 mm cameras to the pool next time ...