Marcus and Sophia painting this morning

Sophia's Birthday Dress

I once heard it said that when it comes to parenting the days are long, but the years are short.  I find that saying especially true when it comes to my own journey through parenting.

On April 17th, 2010 my little baby girl will be turning two.  I can't believe that is happening so soon.  It seems like just yesterday I was holding her in my arms at the hospital.

Sophia is very aware that she is having a birthday.  She is most excited to have a cake with candles on it,  and of course, presents!  She told me the other day that she wants a Winnie the Pooh party and a pink scooter for her birthday.  (Marcus has a red scooter that she has been coveting for quite some time.  So I think that is where the idea came from.)  

For her birthday, I sewed her a Winnie the Pooh dress to wear to her party.  I call the dress Pooh in Patchwork.  ;)

The skirt of the dress is a patchwork print of Classic Winnie the Pooh scense, yellow, light blue, and plaid.  (This is a modification to the original pattern.)  I also added a ruffle to the bottom.

Sophia likes the dresses twirl factor and rates it "two pacifiers up!"  Here you can see her extenstive twirl testing process. 




Pattern Review:  The dress by designer Sandi Henderson and her Portebello Pixie boutique patterns.  (This is the Party Dress from the Analise pattern.)  I can't rave enough about all things Sandi Henderson.  Her fabrics are gorgeous and her patterns are the best out there.  Period.

Why are her patterns the best?  Well, everything about them is top notch.   The instructions are very well written and in FULL color.  (Love that!)  She also has all of the steps fully illustrated which is great for us sewers who like to cheat and not actually read the instructions.  Her pattern features full size pieces (LOVE that!) and the pattern is printed on nice, thick paper which is easily traced.  She also has tons of full color inspiration photos which show various samples of dresses and skirts sewn with this pattern.  (I love that too!) 

This dress has a very cute back option that is finished by a sweet little bow.  Very creative design, and I think it makes a perfect dress for a little girl.  She can wear it with a long sleeve short in the winter.  And on hot summer days, she can wear it as a jumper.



Most of all, I hope our little girl knows how much we love her.  It has been a wonderful two years with our baby.

God Hates These Chairs!

We stored some outdoor furniture on our deck over the winter. One of the chairs was stored upside down. When I turned it over, I realized that the arm rests were deformed and warped from the ice inside of it.  


Marcus and I had the following conversation-  

Marcus: Mommy, what happened to our chair? 

Me: Well, somehow water got inside of our chair when it rained. Then, over the winter the water froze and turned into ice. When water freezes it expands which means it gets bigger. And when it expanded, it caused the chair to change shape.  

Marcus: (stares at the chair for a second thinking) Why did God do that to our chair? God must really hate these chairs! i know, maybe that chair is bad.

I didn't expect to get into a deep philosophical conversation about lawn furniture...but you never know where the conversation will go when you are talking to a three year old. For now, we will all be avoiding the "bad" chair. ;)

The Robin Apron

Here is another apron I made.  I call this the Robin Apron because it reminds me of the colors you would see in a Robin's nest.

 The apron is fully reversable and has straps that are long enough to be tied in the front or the back.

The colors are a light blue with a deep chocolate brown. 

The front is a gorgeous blue and brown damask.  It is a very traditional print, but still modern and fun because of the colors. 










The reverse side is a matching blue and brown stripe fabric.  It is very flattering on and can make even me look taller.

In this picture you can see what the straps look like when tied in the front.  

Ginger Blossom Apron

Here is another apron I sewed for a friend of mine.  I really like this apron.   I think the fabric is gorgeous and the colors make me smile every time I look at it.

The apron is fully reversible and should last her for generations.   I also made the straps extra long.  I like this for practicality reasons because you can tie it in the front OR the back.

My friend choose all of the fabrics...and lets be honest, the fabrics MAKE this apron.  I think wearing this apron would make you feel pretty whether you were changing diapers or knee deep in dirty dishes and laundry! 

The front fabric (called breeze lei) also has special meaning to my friend since she one of her babies was born in Hawaii.  I hope that every time she looks at it, it reminds her of that beautiful state.

Fabric Information: The front main fabric is called "Ginger Tile Breeze"  The back is in a fabric called "Breeze Lei".  And the straps and bodice outline is in "Breeze Vintage Dots".

Thanks for looking!

Our St. Patrick's Day Outfits

One of the great things about being a sewing mama is the ability to run down into your sewing room and emerge with some new clothes.  It has gotten me out of many of binds in the past. 

Such was the case for me on the Eve of St. Patrick's day.  I realized that the kids didn't have anything to wear that was green late that night.  And I said to myself, "No child of mine is going without green on St. Patrick's day!"  So, I set to work making them some outfits to wear the next day.

Luckily I have yards and yards of various leprechaun & clover fabric that my mother gave to me.  (It was suppose to be an Irish quilt for my uncle's two new babies.  Yet the fabric is still sitting uncut and my uncles "babies" are well into elementary school.  So my mom gave the fabric to me.  (Don't worry Patrick and Josie, there is still plenty left for the quilts if she ever gets them finished.)

I didn't want to be up all night sewing these, so I used two fairly simple patterns to make a shirt and jumper for Sophia. 

The main fabric has pictures of various leprechauns doing leprechaun-like things such as dancing, playing the harp, and looking for gold.  The jumper for Sophia is lined in a coordinating clover fabric (which you can barely see in these photos). 

The Jumper was from Butterwick 5439 - View D





And the shirt was from Simplicity 2907- View D (Marcus did not want to stop playing and have his picture taken!  So this is the only photo I have that is not a blur of movement.)


And of course, Mommy, Daddy, and Grandma celebrated the day with some green beer and corned beef and cabbage.  It was a very good day indeed!

The Risks of NOT Breastfeeding?

I recently read an article from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill entitled The Risks of Not Breastfeeding for Mothers and Infants. Like numerous other articles on the subject, the report discussed some of the many benefits to breastfeeding for both mother and child:

For infants, not being breastfed is associated with an increased incidence of infectious morbidity, as well as elevated risks of childhood obesity, type 1 and type 2 diabetes, leukemia, and sudden infant death syndrome. For mothers, failure to breastfeed is associated with an increased incidence of premenopausal breast cancer, ovarian cancer, retained gestational weight gain, type 2 diabetes, myocardial infarction, and the metabolic syndrome.

None of this is new information. Numerous other similar articles and research can be found to support the above statements. What surprised me about the article was the very specific language used in the article. Phrases such as "the risk of formula feeding" are found throughout this article. The authors explain their choice of words here:

Public health campaigns and medical literature have traditionally described the “benefits of breastfeeding,” comparing health outcomes among breastfed infants against a reference group of formula-fed infants. Although mathematically synonymous with reporting the “risk of not breastfeeding,” this approach implicitly defines formula feeding as the norm. As several authors have noted,^7–9 this subtle distinction impacts public perceptions of infant feeding. If “breast is best,” then formula is implicitly “good” or “normal.” This distinction was underscored by national survey data showing that, in 2003, whereas 74.3% of US residents disagreed with the statement: “Infant formula is as good as breast milk,” just 24.4% agreed with the statement: “Feeding a baby formula instead of breast milk increases the chance the baby will get sick.”¹⁰
These distinctions appear to influence parents’ feeding decisions. In 2002, the Ad Council conducted focus groups to develop the National Breastfeeding Awareness Campaign, targeted at reproductive-aged women who would not normally breastfeed. They found that women who were advised about the “benefits of breastfeeding” viewed lactation as a “bonus,” like a multivitamin, that was helpful but not essential for infant health. Women responded differently when the same data were presented as the “risk of not breastfeeding,” and they were far more likely to say that they would breastfeed their infants. Given these findings, this review will present differences in health outcomes as risks of formula feeding, using breastfeeding mother-infant dyads as the referent group.
I quite agree with this point of view. Many mothers are under the assumption that formula feeding is the "normal" thing to do. How many new mothers have not even attempted to breastfeed their babies because they think of the practice as being something odd? We all know that "breast is best" but formula feeding is pretty good...right? Not so say the authors who point out that there are significant risks to formula feeding.

We live in such a "politically correct" nation that people seem to fear offending others above all else. Even doctors and researches seem to feel the need to sugar coat information for fear of offending new mothers. Doctors seem unwilling to admit that there are risks to formula feeding because they don't want to offend mothers who use formula. I am not saying that mothers who formula feed should be made to feel guilty. But I am saying that researches and doctors should not be shy about giving women the facts they need so that they can make informed choices.

We live in one of the richest nations on the planet. Yet the US is home to some of the unhealthiest kids in the world. That doesn't seem to make sense to me. Why are our children so unhealthy compared to other developed nations? Could it have something to do with the fact that breastfeeding in the US is still not the norm?

The article also talked about the role of hospitals and obstetricians in helping women to breastfeed successfully. Basically the conclusions were that hospitals and obstetricians are not doing enough to help women breastfeed. Research tells us that the vast majority of women are capable of producing more than enough milk for their babies and nurse their babies with no issues. And this makes sense. How else would our species have survived for this long if that was not the case. However, poor advice and lack of information seem to sabotage many women's attempts at breastfeeding. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, 73.9% of new mothers initiate breastfeeding when their babies are newborns. However, only 13.6% are exclusively breastfeeding at 6 months as suggested by the American Academy of Pediatrics. (The American Academy of Pediatrics, who has some of the most conservative breastfeeding recommendations around, recommends "exclusive breastfeeding for approximately the first six months and support for breastfeeding for the first year and beyond as long as mutually desired by mother and child.")

So why are so many mother's "failing" at following these recommendations? I agree with the author that much of it has to do with lack of support from health care professionals. I saw this from my own personal experiences having a child. Where I delivered my children, the lack of knowledge from the nurses and staff about breastfeeding was both shocking and shameful. I overheard many nurses and lactation consultants suggesting that breastfed babies only need to be fed every four hours just like bottle fed babies. I overheard them repeatedly trying to supplement breastfed babies with formula. All of these efforts, while well intentioned, are sure fire ways to sabotage a new nursing mother's supply. Milk is made on a supply and demand basis. If you take away the demand (by separating the baby from the mother, putting the baby on an unnatural feeding schedule, or taking away the babies desire to nurse by feeding them in other ways) you will then of course affect the mother's supply.

So where can a mother find good advice on breastfeeding? Well, until things change in this country, much of the initiative has to be taken by the mother. Here are some good sources on breastfeeding information-

Online Sources:
1) http://www.kellymom.com/ See specifically this information here.
2) http://www.llli.org/

Great Books: