Its the little things
I do my fair share of complaining about things—annoyingly close-minded people, poorly-wrought governmental policies, humanity’s collective disregard for their own health or that of the planet they live on—but for a moment I would like to point out some of the things crossing my path that I am currently rather pleased about (in no particular order).
1. Seeing my cervix. Today I went for my 6 week post-partum checkup at the midwifery where I did my prenatal care with El Gato, and after I had my uterus poked and my ovaries felt up, I was offered a mirror so that I could look at my own cervix. This was pretty neat, since even though I had spent countless hours on my back with someone else peeking at it, I had never seen it myself. This is even more astounding when you consider that I am familiar with the Boston Women’s Health Collective and I even own a few copies of Our Bodies, Ourselves. That aside, my cervix is kind of pretty….in a dewy, futuristic landscape kind of way.
2. Getting El Gato to nurse in a wrap carrier. This was HUGE. Since he is getting older and is sleeping less zombie-like for hours on end, I have had many moments recently where he wakes up before a task is completed, leaving me holding him with one aching arm while the other attempts to load the rest of the giant mound of groceries into the cart, throw the diapers into the dryer, type out a response to a developer at work, or finish cooking the food on the stove. Having him nurse relatively sanely in a carrier that leaves my hands both free is a big relief.
3. Pulling O’s first tooth out for her. She is kind of young (5) to be losing her first tooth, at least for our kids, and this one was only coming out because the tooth under it had pushed up and around the back of the baby one, causing a painful crowding that made it difficult for her to eat. I have a semi-strict policy of not yanking teeth out until they are hanging by a thread, but I made an exception in this case. It was all sweet and tiny, a really adorable tooth. Now that damn tooth fairy just has to remember to come tonight….
4. Hemp oil and hemp seeds. I have been eating these constantly since giving birth to El Gato. I drink hemp oil in my own version of Tibetan chai (they use clarified yak butter), put it in smoothies, in oatmeal, and on salad. Hemp seeds go in just about everything. If we could run away from academia and be hemp farmers, I would do it in an instant.
5. Cloth diapers that really work. Since I worked on a big project early in the year, I was able to use the slight rise in income to purchase some high-quality cloth diapers. Even though I still got many of them second hand via online auction, I was able to invest properly in them this time around, and as a result, we have no rashes or leaks, and all the prefolds that El Gato just grew out of I have up on an auction site to sell right now. We are making our money back already with the initial bids, which is also something that never happened before when we used cloth because we bought cheaper diapers and they went through more kids since the middle kids–Muse, Dream, Bean, and O–were all really close together. In case you were wondering, we use mostly prefolds and wool covers, but mix it up with some poly snap and velcro covers, a few flat diapers, a whole bunch of tie-style knitted diapers, some fitted diapers that were gifts, and two pocket-styles that were hand-me-downs. It might seem silly to get so excited or particular about cloth diapers, but since I spend a good portion of my existence changing them, folding them, washing them, or buying new ones, getting the right kind is incredibly important. Since we co-sleep, not waking up wet is a really big deal too, which invests us further in making night-time leak free. We have already spent way less than we would have on disposables as well, and you certainly can’t re-sell disposables when you are through.
6. My exercise ball/birth ball office chair. I bought this after much hemming and hawing and searching auction sites when I was pregnant with El Gato because I have to spend a significant amount of my day sitting, which caused unbearable back pain. Sitting on it not only engaged El Gato in my pelvis and made birth really easy, it has strengthened my back and helped me to recover over the past 6 weeks. I still use it, and since El Gato became accustomed to the bouncing motion while in utero, he now is soothed by being worn in a carrier while I bounce on it while working.
7. Figuring out how to re-work my thesis. This has been a huge thorn in my side, because I am running out of time. In a few quarters, my funding dries up, and if I don’t have my thesis written by then, I have to start paying a lot of money out of pocket. This millstone hanging around my neck had not spurred creativity yet, but somehow all the thoughts I have been having on the global Occupation movements have smushed into the Zapatistas and Engaged Buddhism, and while talking to the receptionist at the midwifery today who had the misfortune of asking a grad student what they were researching, I think I finally have found a way to articulate what I am looking at.
What are some of your favorite little things?
