15 October

From the 109th Congress in the U.S., H. Con. Res. 222, passed 25 July, 2007:

Whereas each year, approximately one million pregnancies in the United States end in miscarriage, stillbirth, or the death of a newborn baby;

Whereas it is a great tragedy to lose the life of a child;

Whereas babies sometimes live within or outside their mothers' wombs for only a short period of time;

Whereas even the shortest lives are still valuable, and the grief of those who mourn the loss of these lives should not be trivialized;

Whereas during the past two years, Governors of all 50 States have signed proclamations designating October 15 as Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day;

Whereas the legislatures of the States of Arkansas, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, New York, Rhode Island, and South Dakota have passed concurrent resolutions recognizing October 15 of each year, as Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day;

Whereas the observance of Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day may provide validation to those who have lost a baby through miscarriage, stillbirth, or other complications;

Whereas recognizing Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day will provide the people of the United States with an opportunity to increase their understanding of the great tragedy involved in the deaths of unborn and newborn babies;

Whereas Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day would enable the people of the United States to consider how, as individuals and communities, they can meet the needs of bereaved mothers, fathers, and family members, and work to prevent the causes of these deaths; and

Whereas October 15, 2005 would be an appropriate day to observe National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That the Congress--

(1) supports the goals and ideals of National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day;

and

(2) requests that the President issue a proclamation calling upon the people of the United States to observe such day with appropriate programs and activities.

Canadians in Ontario, please visit Perinatal Bereavement Services of Ontario for information about their campaign to have 15 October recognized as Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day in Ontario.

Please take a moment at 7 p.m. in your time zone on the evening of 15 October and light a candle for one hour. The goal is to have a wave of light passing through, to mark for just a short time the lives of such tiny beings who touched so many people very deeply.

Stored up rants

Apparently this has caused quite a furore among the more rabid lactivists. Apparently a onesie that could be a reference to racecar technology is being taken as a subversive plot to - gasp! - promote something other than breastfeeding. Which of course, if you'll remember, everyone can do, and if you can't - well, you just didn't try hard enough. The onesie is a conspiracy, a promotion tool for formula companies that will outright stop people from breastfeeding... Because they want their baby to look cool in an Old Navy onesie.

Some are even calling for a boycott of Old Navy.

Pause, for a moment, and ponder that no one is calling for a boycott on the basis that this onesie was likely made in a sweatshop on the labour of kiddies (who may or may not have been breastfed).

Funny that I don't see anyone complaining about the sexualization of young children with "Boob Man" slogans on onesies. No, that's funny and acceptable, and readily available.

I wonder if they get this steamed about bottle-shaped "Baby on Board" signs for cars?

No. For the most part, the minivan folks with those signs in the window use it as an excuse to drive like even bigger jerks. I guess they have boycotts to get to.

Tell me, does logic seep out when one breastfeeds? No?

Anyway, we all know that breastfeeding is better in the short- and longer-term, but I am so finished with the aggressive, judgemental mommies whose comments regarding formula-feeding sometimes border on abusive and are at minimum often passive-aggressive. I can only hope they are teaching their children better than to judge and abuse others without understanding the many shades that contribute to a choice.

Make a new bandwagon. Instead of slagging people for formula feeding, and complaining about Old Navy's logos, why don't you use this energy to start lobbying for coverage of lactation consultants and breastfeeding education and support under private and public insurance plans? Breastfeeding can help prevent many common health concerns - most of which are huge burdens on our public healthcare. So, help a momma out - help get all of us the tools that many women cannot afford, in order to make more women successful at breastfeeding.

We like cloth diapers at our house. It's been six months since we bought disposables. I have part of a packet left that are hilariously tiny... Hilarious, but they do make me sad, with their tininess.

And to be clear, we like cloth diapers for a few reasons:

1. We never run out of diapers. We're conscious of how many clean ones we have left, in a way that we were not conscious of the diaper stock when we were blindly grabbing a 'sposie from a package during Leah's first four weeks or so.
2. They are cheaper than 'sposies. Our initial stash cost about $250. We've since spent a little more on nighttime diapers. A week's supply of diapers for us was running at least $20. You do the math. You're all set, if you can limit yourself to your initial stash and not keep getting pulled in by the cuteness.
3. Leah has never had a diaper rash (knock wood).
4. Leah does not smell like pee in her cloth diapers.
5. We're not buying something just to throw it away and add to the massive piles of garbage upon which we'll all tread and build our homes before too long.

These are, however, not for everyone.

Anyway, Cotton Babies, makers of BumGenius, Flip (our favourites) and Econobum have come out with new prints on their 4.0 and all-in-one versions. There was a lot of hype about the "reveal" and I was initially disappointed that I wouldn't be able to get Flip covers in the allegedly fun new prints.

Then I saw the prints. And their video reveal.

A few thoughts...

First, the prints are ugly. There's no way around it. I don't even know what the heck the print is even of. (If you can see it, please do share.) There appear to be semi-identifiable eyes throughout the prints (which I find slightly more disturbing than birds). And they all look the same to me. The colours are just... Anyway.

They have named each "design": Concrete Jungle, Jet Setter, Free Spirit, Retail Therapy and Eiffel Tower. The "collection" is called Tiny Socialite.

At this point the stream of consciousness is nearly exploding in my head.

Clearly, they are marketing this to the yummy-mummy yuppie types who are, I suppose, increasingly purchasing BumGenius products in tony baby boutiques in hip neighbourhoods. That's all I can fathom, based on the names of these things. And the fact that Cotton Babies refers to this as a "collection". I know Cotton Babies wants to make money, but this has kind of taken the whole point of cloth diapers - as a way to be more self-reliant rather than consumer-driven - to a different level.

The artist is likely not a mother. Really, you want to make diapering more exciting? I can't get exicted about poo, no matter what it's wrapped up in. Fail.

You imagined or used as your muses jet-setting, disco babies with little "fros"? Tiny socialites, you say? All I can picture is some sort of baby-esque Real Housewives scenario. Famous for having money and doing nothing. Or not having money, as it were. That, or an airport scene from a Jackie Collins book, with rich babies and their LV luggage...

This is almost as bad as the Huggies jean-print diaper commercials.

Now, this is a bull, so here's a really cute baby. And some horses. And the milkhouse at Mom and Dad's.