Icebox house, breastfeeding, and other clothing adventures

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Tuesday I woke up to a cold house. In the morning I blew it off as a cold snap outside that my furnace would soon compensate for, but a couple hours later it was still cold. Our house is a tri-level and each floor has its own temperature zone that varies about five to ten degrees from the floor below or above. I usually hang out on the third floor since it’s always the warmest. I went downstairs to try overriding the energy saver thermostat thing but nothing happened, and damn was it frickin’ cold down there! The thermostat read 60 degrees (Fahrenheit), but I really don’t think it was even that warm. Sophia was fussy all day and wouldn’t let me put her down anywhere because every surface was cold. She didn’t take any naps ans wouldn’t sleep even though she was wearing three layers and I was holding her. By two o’clock I had enough and had realized that I had not heard the furnace kick on once through the whole day.

I called Kurt at work a little ticked off because I thought he had programmed some funky cold temperature only comfortable to him and anyone used to living in a medieval castle. “How the hell do you change the temperature on this thing?” He gave me the instructions, but that was exactly what I had tried earlier. He asked me to check the circuit breaker. I was frustrated holding a phone in one hand and fussy monkey baby in the other, so I was too impatient to try and cipher the scrawl on the panel from twenty-seven years ago. “I have one thing to do and I’ll come right home.” He said. He’s so sweet (sometimes). In the mean time I wondered where we would stay if the furnace needed to be replaced, and oh god that would be another expense on a house we want to move out of soon!

It turned out to be the circuit breaker – the house warmed up, and Sophia slept all evening. Amazingly, I was still able to get her to bed at her usual 10pm that night. Unfortunately, morning wakeup came early on Wednesday. That’s ok, I can play zombie mom. It’s my own fault for staying up late to play with blog stuff. Actually, I got quite a bit done on Wednesday morning. I even had a shower by 9am. At ten I called a friend to explain some blog things to her (I helped her with a WordPress blog that I will more formally present once she has a little more to read – in the mean time if anyone in the Seattle are needs an event coordinator let me know ;-) ).

My friend and I went out to lunch a couple hours later and I woke up my napping baby to go from the car to the restaurant. I didn’t think it was a big deal since she usually goes back to sleep easily when I’m carrying/holding her. Sophia was great up until my food arrived and she decided she was hungry as well. Up until this point, I haven’t even attempted feeding her in public. I usually take her to the car if I need to feed her; it just seems more private that way. What’s odd is that before having a baby I had no problem flashing my little booblets around. Somehow feeding my baby seems like a private thing almost like going to the bathroom but a lot less disgusting. It’s either that or it’s because my previous booblets seemed harmless where as my new super-sized milk producing machines could put an eye out. I don’t know. Either way I haven’t mastered the technique necessary for private feeding and I made this my first attempt. It didn’t go well. I think I managed the privacy part well, but apparently, Sophia can’t find my nipple in the dark. I took the shrieking monster and my baby-blanket-covered-self outside to the car while my friend had my food boxed up for me (thank you). Sophia stopped screaming the minute I left the restaurant. I don’t know if it was the cold air, she liked that I was walking, or if the busy favorite lunch spot was just too loud for her to concentrate on eating. She happily ate in the quiet car and fell asleep.

I drove to a park, finished my lunch and then went to the store. I went to the store to buy a Christmas gift (which I did get), but I also bought a cute Christmas-y red suit for Sophia. She now has two Christmas outfits. Later in the day I found out Kurt almost bought the same outfit when he stopped at the same store after work. :P She has him so wrapped around her little finger. The day I posted the photo on this Wordless Wednesday he came home and told me he didn’t get any work done because he spent the whole day staring at her.

When Sophia and I got home, I fed her again while she made coffee percolating sounds in her pants. Time to change the baby – OHMYGOD – she shit herself up to her nipples – literally! Usually when she has a blowout, I’m able to roll her onesie up in a way that no poop touches her face as I pull it over her head – no such luck this time. Thankfully her onesie jumped on that bomb and contained the bulk of it. I didn’t notice right away but apparently my clothes weren’t spared from all of the fallout, and now for our unscheduled baby bath accompanied by blood curdling screams. For the first month or so of her life Sophia screamed bloody murder if you changed her diaper, but didn’t mind baths at all – that’s not the case now. Now it’s the reverse for both.

I got her dressed, re-dressed myself and fed her again. She fell asleep just before dad got home, and was completely out for four hours! I took a little nap too because I knew there would be little sleep for me later! I’m new, but I’m not completely daft.

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Baby giggles

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Sophia laughed for the first time today. I’ve heard her laugh in her sleep a couple of times, but this is the first time she did it awake. I was singing the little nursery rhyme “patty-cake” to her. Anyone that has heard my singing-like attempts knows why she started laughing. The little shit. I know I know, it’s a nursery rhyme and not a song. You see, that’s just how bad it really is, and I can’t ever remember the words to anything! Kurt SHUT UP!

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Grapefruit Seed Extract

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In case you’re not part of the “dirty hippy vegan” club as Kurt calls it, GSE or Grapefruit Seed Extract is this wildly popular “natural” do it all medication/supplement, household cleaner, fruit and vegetable wash, and food and cosmetic preservative. Does that sound odd and maybe a little scary to anyone else?

I discovered GSE though researching parrot diet and nutrition. One thing that kept coming up in bird forums, books, and web sites was using GSE for sprouting to reduce risk of mold and for cleaning their cage because birds are very sensitive to the chemical products many use. I’ve noticed GSE all over the place since my initial search, and because of what I’ve found out about it, that makes me twitch. Some brands of GSE apparently are truly Grapefruit Seed Extract, and they do none of the above listed tasks any better than water. Other brands however, are not what they seem. I’m not saying that ingesting them will kill or maim. It might not even make people sick if used in the diluted amounts recommended by manufacturers as a vegetable wash, but if your goal is to reduce your exposure to chemicals, I’m afraid you may have been duped. Just to be on the safe side I would not add GSE to pet foods, take it as a pregnant woman nor feed it to an infant, but that’s just me.

From the National Center for Biotechnology Information’s site, 1999 tests that revealed preservatives:

Aspects of the antimicrobial efficacy of grapefruit seed extract and its relation to preservative substances contained.

Institute of Pharmacy, Ernst Moritz Arndt University, Greifswald, Germany.

The antimicrobial efficacy as well as the content of preservative agents of six commercially available grapefruit seed extracts were examined. Five of the six extracts showed a high growth inhibiting activity against the test germs Bacillus subtilis SBUG 14, Micrococcus flavus SBUG 16, Staphylococcus aureus SBUG 11, Serratia marcescens SBUG 9, Escherichia coli SBUG 17, Proteus mirabilis SBUG 47, and Candida maltosa SBUG 700. In all of the antimicrobial active grapefruit seed extracts, the preservative benzethonium chloride was detected by thin layer chromatography. Additionally, three extracts contained the preserving substances triclosan and methyl parabene. In only one of the grapefruit seed extracts tested no preservative agent was found. However, with this extract as well as with several self-made extracts from seed and juiceless pulp of grapefruits (Citrus paradisi) no antimicrobial activity could be detected (standard serial broth dilution assay, agar diffusion test). Thus, it is concluded that the potent as well as nearly universal antimicrobial activity being attributed to grapefruit seed extract is merely due to the synthetic preservative agents contained within. Natural products with antimicrobial activity do not appear to be present.

From the United States Department of Agriculture’s site (bold text is my emphasis):


Identification of Benzalkonium Chloride in Commercial Grapefruit Seed Extracts

Submitted to: Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Date: August 12, 2005
Citation: Takeoka, G.R., Dao, L.T., Wong, R.Y., Harden, L.A. 2005. Identification of Benzalkonium Chloride in Commercial Grapefruit Seed Extracts. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. 53:7630-7636.

“In this study we identified a new synthetic adulterant, benzalkonium chloride, in commercial GSE samples. This ingredient is a synthetic antimicrobial agent that is widely used in cleaning and disinfection agents. The presence of benzalkonium chloride in a commercial product designated for internal and external use by humans is troubling in light of its toxicity and allergenicity.”

From the Food and Drug Administration’s site (bold text is my emphasis):

Analysis and Evaluation of Preventive Control Measures for the Control and
Reduction/Elimination of Microbial Hazards on Fresh and Fresh-Cut Produce

Chapter VI

Microbiological Safety of Controlled and Modified Atmosphere Packaging of Fresh and Fresh-Cut Produce

“Antimicrobial compounds have also been used with traditional films such as low-density polyethylene (LDPE); for example, the fungicide Imazalil (IM) and the antimicrobial grapefruit seed extract (GFSE) have recently been used with bell peppers and lettuce, respectively (Miller and others 1984; Han 2000)…”

“…Lee and others (1998) investigated the ability of GFSE with LDPE films to inhibit growth of E. coli, Staphylocuccus aureus, molds, yeasts, and lactic acid bacteria, using the plate disk test. Films containing 1.0% GFSE in LDPE film inhibited E. coli and S. aureus as demonstrated by a clear zone; however, molds, yeasts and lactic acid bacteria were unaffected…”

“…Grapefruit seed extract is reported to be inhibitory to a number of human pathogens. There has been evidence, however, that any antibacterial activity of commercial preparations is due to the various preservative agents (triclosan, methyl parabene, benzethonium chloride) contained within the product. Researchers have found that products not containing any preservatives and several self-made preparations had no antimicrobial activity (Woedtke and others 1999). In the aforementioned study by Lee and others (1998), the composition of the GFSE incorporated in the film was not discussed or examined. It is obvious that if pure GFSE is to be used, its antimicrobial properties will have to be fully investigated. If the active antimicrobial ingredients in commercial GFSE preparations are preserving agents, they may be better targets for investigation.”

From the National Center for Biotechnology Information’s site, 2006 tests that again revealed preservatives:

Development and validation of an HPLC/UV/MS method for simultaneous determination of 18 preservatives in grapefruit seed extract.

Institute of Pharmacy, University of Innsbruck, Innrain 52, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria. markus.ganzera@uibk.ac.at

Grapefruit seed extracts are used in cosmetics, food supplements, and pesticides because of their antimicrobial properties, but suspicions about the true nature of the active compounds arose when synthetic disinfectants such as benzethonium or benzalkonium chloride were found in commercial products. The HPLC method presented herein allows the quality assessment (qualitative and quantitative) of these products for the first time. On the basis of a standard mixture of 18 preservatives most relevant for food and grapefruit products, a method was developed allowing the baseline separation of all compounds within 40 min. Optimum results were obtained with a C-8 stationary phase and a solvent system comprising aqueous trifluoroacetic acid, acetonitrile, and 2-propanol. The assay was fully validated and shown to be sensitive (LOD < or= 12.1 ng on-column), accurate (recovery rates > or = 96.1%), repeatable (sigma(rel) < or = 3.5%), precise (intra-day variation < or = 4.5%, interday variation < or = 4.1%), and rugged. Without any modifications the method could be adopted for LC-MS experiments, where the compounds of interest were directly assignable in positive ESI mode. The quantitative results of several products for ecofarming confirmed previous studies, as seven out of nine specimens were adulterated with preservatives in varying composition. The samples either contained benzethonium chloride (2.5-176.9 mg/mL) or benzalkonium chloride (138.2-236.3 mg/mL), together with smaller amounts of 4-hydroxybenzoic acid esters, benzoic acid, and salicylic acid.

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The great diaper war

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In case you didn’t notice, in my apparently shocking baby squeezins diaper post, the great cloth verses disposable diaper war is over and Kurt won out. The issues I brought up in favor of cloth diapers were less diaper rash, faster potty training, and the use of Sodium polyacrylate in disposables. Kurt wanted the ease diapering that comes with disposables and he was thoroughly disgusted with the idea of washing dirty diapers in the washing machine.

The non-issues were:

Environmental – I’m not at all convinced that cloth is anymore environmentally friendly than disposables. Yes, you can use it repeatedly for multiple children but it still has to be manufactured, often using bleached cotton. Polyesters are also used in newer brands of cloth diapers to wick the wetness away from baby, and water and detergent is consumed to wash them. No matter what brand is used detergents are not as friendly to the environment and soap, but soap cannot be used on diapers as it reduces absorbency because it leaves a film that overtime can also cause odors to linger. Cloth diapers also require a cover – usually plastic.

Disposable diapers, obviously manufactured, use wood pulp from trees specifically grown for diaper purposes. So toss aside the deforestation argument. They have a plastic outer layer and collect in landfills. But landfills are changing and they aren’t all as evil as they once were.

Waste Management to tap landfill methane
Garbage hauler to spend $400 million to turn greenhouse gas into power
updated 8:26 a.m. PT, Wed., June. 27, 2007

Waste Management Inc., the nation’s largest garbage hauler and landfill operator, plans to spend roughly $400 million over the next five years building facilities at 60 landfills to convert methane gas to electricity, its most ambitious renewable energy project to date.

Financial – We are not in a financially strapped type of situation. If we were, I would not have been looking at Fuzzi Bunz and Kissaluvs as my main cloth diapering choices. While I did want to do cloth diapers, I also wanted it to be just as easy to change as disposables. For the true economic diapering, the prefold cloth diapers are the award winners. They cost about $1.50 to $2.50 depending on size and fabric type. About 36 diapers and 6 to 8 pairs of plastic pants in three sizes and you’re pretty much all set. Unfortunately, they leak on a much more regular basis than then disposable “blow out”. Depending on how I ultimately went about things my totals would have been somewhere between $750 and $950 and that doesn’t include cloth wipes, and washable dirty diaper bags. The brand of disposables that we chose would cost about $1100 over the course of two and a half years ($29.99 for a box of 234 – rounds up to thirteen cents a diaper, twelve diapers a day for two and a half years). We don’t use twelve a day and the bigger she gets the fewer she uses per day. Fewer diapers come in the box as she goes up in size though so it may even out my padded number.

The Issues I had for cloth/against disposable diapers:

Faster potty training – I don’t have any valid evidence that cloth diapers would lead to faster potty training, but because cloth doesn’t have the wetness wicking powers that the super absorbent disposable diapers do I added faster potty training to my list of benefits with the assumption that most babies wouldn’t want to sit in their own filth. I have heard of many toddlers that could really care less if their pants are wet and/or poopy and will continue happily playing until someone tells them they stink and wrestles them to the ground for a diaper change, so going cloth might simply be adding more work without any benefit in that arena. I hope that my kiddo isn’t one of those.

Diaper rash – Cloth or disposable, no matter how a baby is diapered they’re going to get diaper rash sometime during their diapered years simply because they’re in a diaper. I know this, and I have not found a single piece of credible information that can say for certain that one type of diaper will without a doubt cause fewer rashes on my baby. I was just hoping that with cloth, maybe we would have less rash problems than with disposable. Based on my scouring of the internet I’ve found that the best ways to avoid diaper rash aside from letting the little one run around nekkid (it is good to let them air out a bit, but I prefer not to clean urine and feces off the couch, floor, etc.) is to change her right after she goes. This is the problem I have because there are times that she lets out one more little fart. It’s so little it hardly justifies another change regardless of the type of diaper. The other thing is nighttime. She sleeps for four hours at a time and I’m not about to wake her up to do a diaper check every hour just to make sure it’s dry. At least in disposables it’s wicked away from her skin.

Many sites say that if cloth diapers are used that it’s best to use a cover made of a breathable material and not plastic to “let air circulate”. That’s fine, there are also waterproof pants that are made of “pul” (polyurethane laminate) that are very popular in the cloth diapering community. Seems odd to me to have a community based on the way one diapers their baby but oh well. I also think it’s funny that pul seems to be regarded as a better choice than plastic when both are waterproof and I don’t think either is a breathable material. There are also wool covers, but that seems like it would be too bulky for daytime use, and too hot for indoor summertime use.

Sodium polyacrylate – Up to this point, all issues and non-issues either come to a draw or lean a little more towards the disposable diaper. The one thing that hands down leans towards cloth is the fact that ALL disposable diapers use sodium polyacrylate for super absorbency. sodium polyacrylate is the same stuff that causes Toxic Shock Syndrome in women that wear tampons and don’t change them frequently enough. As I’ve said before, I know there is a difference between the internal use of tampons and the external use of diapers. I have not found incidents where a baby has died or become sick due to the sodium polycrylate in disposable diapers. I know it’s an unrealistic fear, but I still don’t like the idea of sodium polyacrylate in my baby’s diapers. So why are we using disposable diapers despite my fear? Number one, because I know it’s an unrealistic fear and number two, because Kurt said, “I want you to be able to spend time with your daughter instead of cleaning diapers all the time.” He really hits below the belt doesn’t he?

So we are using Costco’s Kirkland brand diapers and their wipes. We went with a store brand diaper not because it’s cheaper but because they don’t add all the dyes and perfumes. I’m really happy with their wipes too because they’re thick, made with cotton, and alcohol-free.

We did use cloth wipes for the first month because in the class we took about newborn care said not to use commercial wipes for the first month. They said that for the first month that the baby’s skin is adjusting to the new waterless environment and to simply use a damp cloth for wiping. I’ve heard that it’s good to go back to damp cloth wipes during diaper rashes as well.

A couple good links for further diaper debate reading…
Among the Earth Baby Set, Disposable Diapers Are Back, By MICHAEL SPECTER, Published: October 23, 1992.
Revisiting the Diaper Debate

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Three Wishes

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Last year on December 25th I received my monthly sign that I was not pregnant. Merry frickin’ Christmas to me after trying to concieve for a year and a half! I gave up. The next day I bought tickets so Kurt and I could celebrate our eighth anniversary in Vegas. I gave up on the, “but what if I get pregnant and I won’t be able to enjoy it cause I’ll be so tired” crap. When our anniversary rolled around I was pregnant. I was so tired I took a nap in our room in the pyramid at the Luxor immediately after we arrived. That same night we had tickets to see Penn & Teller. I was still so sleepy that people must have thought I was stoned. I did eat really well while we were there. I just had to avoid certain areas of the buffet tables.

This year December 25th can’t be ruined, monthly cycle or not. This year December 25th will be Sophia’s third month birthday and Kurt’s mom, sister, and niece will be coming from Michigan to see her.

The only two wishes I’ve ever had have both finally come true. In 2005 I went to Europe and in 2007 I have a baby. This year (just recently really) I have a third wish (aside from the obvious wanting to talk Kurt into doing the baby thing one more time in a couple years), but I haven’t decided the details on this wish. I have a friend that recently had her heart crushed. I know she felt like this one was “THE ONE”, so I’m not sure if I should wish that he come to his senses and tell her what she wants to hear (Not because it is what she wants to hear, but because he means it and finally knows it) or that she finds someone else soon and when they fall in love he will recognize it.

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Death before alcohol

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I’ve been having a craving to try my hand at making bread pudding. I have a recipe that calls for brandy. Not having any brandy on hand I went to the grocery store yesterday. In Washington state beer and wine are sold at grocery stores whereas hard liquor is sold at liquor stores. There wasn’t any at the store I usually do my shopping at so I went to one that I know has a much bigger selection. I thought since brandy is derived from wine that it would be in a grocery store, but no I have to do a separate trip to the liquor store. I didn’t go. Why? Because on the door of every store is a sticker that says, “must be 21″. Yes, I’m well over 21, but Sophia isn’t. I can’t just leave her in the car even if it’s “just for a second”. I don’t know if I would be allowed in with her or not, but didn’t want to make a separate trip and pull her out of the car just to find out I either need to send Kurt after work or go by myself after Kurt gets home. I just don’t feel like – gawd I’m not myself after having a kid – I don’t feel like testing the limits. Alcohol laws are so fucked up!

Today on the news they said a judge ruled that a fourteen year old Jehovah’s Witness boy with leukemia could refuse a blood transfusion that could save his life.

Mount Vernon boy dies after refusing blood transfusion
NEWS UPDATE Nov, 29, 2007

SEATTLE — A few hours after a Mount Vernon judge ruled that a 14-year-old Jehovah’s Witness sick with leukemia had the right to refuse a blood transfusion, even though that refusal might kill him, the boy died in a Seattle hospital.

As Kurt pointed out while we watched the news tonight, this boy was basically granted the right to die for religious reasons, which is fine. It’s part of our freedom, but if this same boy sought to have a bottle of brandy for religious reasons, it would be denied. Much like the eighteen to twenty year olds that sign their life away to serve and protect this country, they’re old enough to die but not old enough to dull the pain. But unlike the military enlistees this fourteen year old can’t even legally have sex. If he had consensual sex with an adult that adult would be charged with statutory rape. But he can choose to opt out of medical treatment that could save his life at age fourteen.

Earlier Wednesday, Skagit County Superior Court Judge John Meyer denied a motion by the state to force the boy to have a blood transfusion. The judge said the eighth-grader knows “he’s basically giving himself a death sentence.”

Doctors diagnosed the boy with leukemia in early November and began treating him with chemotherapy at Children’s Hospital, but stopped a week ago because his blood count was too low, the Skagit Valley Herald reported. The boy refused the transfusion on religious grounds.

However, his birth parents, Lindberg Sr. and Rachel Wherry, who do not have custody and flew from Boise, Idaho, to be at the hearing, believed their son should have had the transfusion and suggested he had been unduly influenced by his legal guardian, his aunt Dianna Mincin, who is also a Jehovah’s Witness.

Mincin has declined to talk about the case.

The boy’s father told the P-I the ruling shocked him but after visiting his son later in the day Wednesday, he decided not to appeal. He said doctors told him Wednesday evening that the boy, unconscious since Tuesday, had likely suffered brain damage.

Several friends of Lindberg and of his parents attended Wednesday’s hearing, and some ran out crying when the judge announced his decision.

“Dennis does present himself as a very mature man. But he really is just a child trying to please the adults around him,” said Jan Curry, whose daughter, Morgan, is his friend.

With the transfusions and other treatment, the boy had been give a 70 percent chance of surviving the next five years, the judge said in court, based on what the boy’s doctors told him.

Still, the judge said his decision was based strictly on facts.

“I don’t believe Dennis’ decision is the result of any coercion. He is mature and understands the consequences of his decision,” Meyer said during Wednesday’s hearing. “I don’t think Dennis is trying to commit suicide. This isn’t something Dennis just came upon, and he believes with the transfusion he would be unclean and unworthy.”

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Special double duty poop day

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This morning Sophia sat on my lap facing me with her feet up kicking at my chest stopping momentarily to let out a wet squishy fart. Her farts usually come in twos or threes so I waited for – yep there it went right on cue. I waited ten more minutes to make sure. Ok time to change the baby. Lift her up and…oh crap looks like I get to change my pants too. I guess white onesies aren’t the only ones susceptible to blowouts. Pink Elmo onesies may also be shit on.

I changed the baby and figured since I have to change my clothes I may as well take a shower at that time, but first I’ll let the dogs outside. Now from time to time I feel guilty that we only allow the dogs in our tiled basement. Today turned out to not be one of those days. I went downstairs to find that one of the dogs left me a wonderfully smelly surprise, and it wasn’t very easy to clean up because it wasn’t horribly solid.

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