Right now, I am reading several books on sleep training so that I can compare approaches and decide which I want to follow. Just in case our baby has sleep issues down the road. Like, ten months from now down the road. As I said, I need to be prepared.
I've read some good things, but I've also read some really dumb things. Here are a few of my favorites:
1. These are the two most common cravings among pregnant women:
33% crave chocolate
20% crave sweets of some sort
Well, luckily for us pregnant ladies, Your Pregnancy, Week by Week has a recommendation for combating these sweet cravings. The authors write, "When you crave something sweet, eat a cherry tomato or some broccoli pieces to help curb your sweet tooth." Really? Seriously? A tomato and some broccoli are supposed to take my mind off of a giant hot fudge brownie sundae topped with Oreos and whipped cream and rainbow sprinkles? Riiiiight. If this has ever worked for you, please let me know. Dumb.
2. And that reminds me, there is the issue of weight distribution during pregnancy. Here is a typical breakdown for a woman who gains 30 pounds during pregnancy:
7.5 lbs. is baby
1.5 lbs. is placenta
4 lbs. in increased fluid volume, and another
4 lbs. in increased blood volume
And then, two pounds each can be attributed to the mother's uterus, big boobs, and the amniotic fluid, for a total of 6 pounds.
The rest of the weight? Oh, the books account for that as maternal stores; also known as, all the fat you've packed on to your hips and ass. I cringe every time I read the words maternal stores. No need to sugar coat it (pun intended), just label those extra lbs. for what they are. Cottage Cheese. Dumb Dumb.
3. There is no shortage of unnecessary PC-ness found in the baby genre. Take Dr. Sears, for example, who coined the term "high needs baby." Ech, this one drives me crazy, too. To me, this is of the same caliber as referring to an old person as "chronologically gifted," and incompetence as "unique proficience." Why not just keep it literal? Fussy baby! High-maintenance baby! I know that Dr. Sears has a devoted following, especially in regard to this issue, and I don't intend to offend anyone; my husband, for one, is convinced that if Bitty's temperment resembles that of her mother's she will surely be a fussy, demanding little creature. If this is the case, you will never hear me refer to her as high needs. High-maintenance, yes. Screaming, blithering la creatura, maybe. But not a high needs baby. That's just dumb.
4. A website I recently encountered listed some interesting facts about babies that are likely unknown to most people. This one caught my eye: Babies and toddlers are, pound for pound, stronger than oxen. Oxen? Who uses THAT word anymore? I think the only place I've heard anyone even utter the word oxen was on an episode of "Little House on the Prarie." Is that really the best comparison that they could come up with? Now think about this amazing baby-strength fact and look at this picture and tell me that isn't a weird visual.
If this is truly the case, then shouldn't babies be "pulling their own weight," so to speak, around the house a bit more? Dumb.5. I guess this one might not be characterized as "dumb," but it is kind of weird to think about. At 19 weeks gestation, the female fetus has already produced 6 million eggs in her ovaries, though by the time she is born she will only have about 4 million. My first thought was, "Wow, that's a lot of eggs." And secondly, "what happens to the other 2 million in utero?" Seriously though, where did they go? Are they in my belly? Weird. I relayed this interesting piece of info to Mark, who immediately covered his ears insisting that he did NOT want to hear about the ovaries and eggs of his unborn daughter. Fair enough.
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