Sometimes all I do is wash

Most nights my husband comes home after the nasty daily commute and says

"So what did you get up to today?"

and my answer is inevitably "washing". I feel like that's my answer day after day sometimes!

Don't get me wrong I am not complaining, some of that washing is nappies and I wouldn't change that for the world (post coming one day about my love of  cloth nappies) and every time I hear the rainwater tank pump kick in for the washing machine I am happy knowing we are doing our bit.

So today's post is about a few little old fashioned things I find useful, sharing is after all one of the reasons I started this blog, so it's about time I did that!

So what are my favourite baby related laundry things so far?

Old fashioned 'clothes hanger things'
So I'm not ally sure what you call them but you can see them in the (not very good) picture below.

This might give you too much of an insight into my little personality quirks, but it drove me nuts hanging baby socks out with adult sized pegs! It was just ridiculous. So I started looking for baby sized pegs. Then I remembered these things from when I was a kid. I found a couple in the local bargain store and haven't looked back. I even put them into all my baby shower / new baby presents now.

As you can see the pegs are nice and small for bubs clothes and socks. The white one is great for all the 'single' things like socks, mittens, cloth wipes etc. and the blue one does the pants, singlets and bibs.

The best thing is that the are portable, so we take them with us on holidays and we never have to worry if the will be somewhere to dry Little Miss's clothes.

Woollen hangers
Still on the old fashioned theme, has anyone else used these wool hangers? My mum has one that must be 30+ years old. She bought my sister and I one when we moved out of home and I've carried it from house to house with me. I have used it for the odd delicate or woollen item over time but I never really appreciated its usefulness until now.

They look like this in the packet (and cost about $4):

and then like this on the line, these are Matilda's knitted cardi's hanging out to dry:

So in case you cant see - it has a hook on either end and one in the middle. For adult clothing you simply thread the arms through and have the middle hook poking thorough the neck. For Matilda's clothing I do the same but have one tiny cardi / jumper on each arm space.

They are great for all of that delicate woollen and crochet clothing little ones get and for anything that will drop out of shape if hung up with a peg.

Well they are my two favourite laundry items at the moment. I of course love my nappy buckets for Matilda's super cute cloth nappies and frankly I quite love my laundry, which we built just before Matilda arrived.

The last thing on my recommendation list for today is... a rainwater tank! I couldn't possibly talk about doing the washing without mentioning that all of our water for washing comes from our tank (rain permitting). That means that we leaving the precious treated drinking water for uses more appropriate (our toilets are also flushed with rainwater).

Here is my beloved rainwater tank, which is located right next to my clothesline!

Have a great Friday!

What a beautiful blog post

I love this post from Latte Mum A letter to my pregnant self, such a lovely way to reflect on the first nine months of her little boys life.

We are coming up to the same nine month mark in the next few weeks, it's hard to believe that we will have had Matilda with us as long as I was pregnant at that stage.  That's an amazing thought to me, those early pregnant days seem like a world away now.

Babies certainly turn life on its head and its worth every minute!

Quick tips - things we have done since birth

There are a few things we did with Matilda right from day one that are now appearing to be really handy - I have no evidence these work (other than what I see at home) and maybe it's all just part of normal development but here's my first few tips for things to do from day one.

Play music for bed time
Even in the hospital we has the iPod and a speaker. Each time we put Matilda down we popped on some soothing music. It doesn't have to be special 'baby sleeping' music just something we would like to sleep to - actually much of it was what we put on every night for ourselves (including while I was pregnant).

Now whenever Matilda goes to bed we put the music on, it seems to help her know it's bed time and we have very few issues with her nodding off. Of course if she is upset we cuddle and calm her, even nurse her to sleep on upset nights but most of the time bedtime is calm and happy for all of us.

For the record our favourites, for this purpose, are Olivia Newton John's Grace and Gratitude; Miten and Deva Premal's Songs for the Inner Lover (this one has our wedding waltz on it... awww) and the Music for Dreaming Cd's. There are a few others, like the U2 Rockabye Baby which are also great.

Count the buttons on their clothes
I have no idea why we started this one, but ever since she was born we would count the press studs as we did up her clothing. I think we thought it was a good way to introduce counting and let her know what we were doing - it soon became a habit, even Nana did it.

Who knows if it will have any effect on her counting ability but what it has done is provide a way to calm the ever active eight month old when she fights getting dressed.

I'm told they all go through a stage where they hate getting dressed / undressed, so when Matilda is really protesting I go back to counting those press studs. She seems to remember that it means it's almost over and, if I am quick enough, we get dressed without too much fuss.

I figure there's no harm in it and if it helps later on all the better!

Tell them which arm / leg is going into their clothes
Again, something else we did without thinking about it other than maybe considering it was good for her to know what was happening. Whenever we dressed her we would say "right arm in, pull it through" etc etc (We even had a silly little song for it).

Now I have no idea if she knows her left and right, or I'd this is normal or not but when we dress her now she will pull her arms though the clothing without thinking about it. It makes dressing her so easy!

So that's my tips for this morning. I hope everyone is having a great day!

Rant: When will we keep an open mind on natural alternatives??

Look, most people who know me will agree - I'm a bit of a hippy at heart. I'm quite happy to admit that.

If there is a natural alternative / option for to help Matilda I will give it a go. Don't get me wrong, I am not going to give just anything a go but if it is safe then why shouldn't we avoid the medical alternatives and keep them for the serious occasions?

I have been discussing this with some of the other Mums around me lately with the bubs all having a fever at one stage or another. The general advice we all get is to give them paracetamol or ibuprofen at the first sign of a temperature and to keep administering until the fever is gone.

But what if the temperature is the body's natural way of fighting the infection? Aren't we just extending the illness by putting it off? Now don't get me wrong, there is a limit - if they are in real pain, need sleep or if the temp is getting really high then of course I will give her some. I just wont do it as soon as she gets a little warm.

Teething is another area where everyone says "medicate, medicate, medicate" so when I noticed the Woolworths Baby Club promoting an article regarding the natural alternatives for teething relief I was intrigued and then really disappointed.

The article was written by Dr Ginni Mansberg, who I often enjoy watching on morning TV. I must admit that should have been a warning sign as I have rarely seen her 'approve' of alternatives (for example coconut oil) but still I went in blindly hopeful.

But there it was, every alternative was canned. What annoys me the most is that often it was canned because there was no evidence it worked - there is also no evidence it doesn't work!

Now, I am not saying we should all rely on the alternatives mentioned, I agree that putting lemon in a teething babies mouth seems quite cruel! But if so many of the mothers in her surgery swear by amber necklaces maybe, just maybe there is something in it??

As for frozen fruit, sure you have to be careful but for those bubs following the baby led weaning principles, a frozen piece of fruit or veg shouldn't be an issue. And surely that's better than sticking it in a mesh feeding bag and adding yet more plastic to their little bodies??

Well that's my rant for this Wednesday afternoon. I think the lesson in all of this is I should stick to my natural parenting sites and not the multinationals who are more concerned in selling more products I don't need!

Energised?? Did I ask you to spike my drink?

Sooooo annoyed - I'm not usually a soft drink drinker but yesterday it was hot, i was thirsty and so I decided to grab one out of the fridge. Now usually I would have a good old ginger beer but there was a mountain dew in there so I grabbed it for a change. 

A couple of sips in I decided it wasn't really what I wanted after all (should have stuck with water!) and I put it aside. 

Later in it caught my eye - not because I wanted to drink it but because I wondered what it meant by 'energised' 

To my horror I discovered that Mountain Dew now contained caffeine! And not just a little bit, I had basically had a few sips of an energy drink!  

It even comes with a warning that pregnant and lactating women should not drink. 

I am so cranky! I don't even drink coffee while feeding Matilda, what gives a soft drink company the right to spike my drink with caffeine and then not warn me when it's purchased.

So that's my rant. Next time I'll be checking the label before I drink!