Lara’s Blog | Extremely Nappies

And then the planets aligned…

Posted on June 9, 2010 by lara

Ever had one of those days where it seems like the planets are out of alignment? A simple task becomes an epic journey of cascading obstacles, and despite your best efforts, you seem to go nowhere until the planets align? Today was like that.

I had my 18 week morphology scan, and had struggled to get an appointment. I had struggled to get someone to come along for moral and practical support, which I’d need especially as I had my toddler with me. I struggled to get a park and find money for the meter, but that was all cool, because at the last minute 2 friends came along with kids in tow so there was 3 adults, 3 kids, and it was all kind of fun.

I gave my referral letter the reception, at which point it became clear that the name on the request form was wrong. Completely wrong. So legally, they explained, they couldn’t do the scan. Lets call the hospital and get them to correct it, I suggested. They gave me 2 phone numbers to call on my mobile. Both numbers were engaged, continually, so after 10 minutes of trying I asked them to try faxing with a cover letter to explain. They did this, but there was no response from the hospital. Time was ticking away, the kids were running rampant, but things were still ok.

“What if I get my GP to do it?” Good idea, they concurred, so I called. The receptionist at my GP’s clinic said they’d do it. I relaxed. The clinic called back with a few questions, which culminated in the news that they couldn’t do it unless I came in to see the doctor first. That was clearly impossible, so I said I’d keep trying the hospital. It was still engaged. I called my GP again to see what number they had for the antenatal unit, and they gave me a different number. I called and got through!

I was finally on the line with the hospital who could hopefully fix the name on the referral so i could go for my scan! I was happy. “Please hold the line” they said, so i waited. And waited. After 10 minutes on hold I was despairing that I’d ever get to speak to anyone, to even find out if they could fix it. The parking meter was about to run out, the kids were running out of food, and my phone wasn’t going to last much longer. Reception wouldn’t let me use their phone, and i just felt so defeated that I started to cry.

The receptionist offered me tissues, made some enquiries behind the scenes, and let me use the phone. This time I got through straight away and spoke to a person who said they’d received the fax and were sending it now with the correct patient details. I was ecstatic! It was an hour late, but the scan was going to happen. We moved the cars and sat down to wait with a new sense of optimism.

After a while I checked with reception but the fax hadn’t come through. It seemed the hospital was trying to send the fax on the phone line. I looked at the fax letter they’d sent the hospital and noticed they’d supplied the phone number by mistake. The receptionist was embarrassed and apologetic; she agreed to call them back to correct it. She was put on hold for 10 minutes. Lets fax them to fix it, I said; she was now being very helpful. After a while they informed me they’d go ahead with the scan, as the referral was imminent.

I was going to get my scan! True to their word, I was called in 10 minutes later although the referral still hadn’t arrived. One friend took the kids outside for a walk, the other friend came in with me to see the baby.

Baby was moving and measuring well, it was such a relief! The measurements indicated the baby would be 19 weeks 2 days gestation, which was exactly my count, although officially I’m only 18 weeks since they changed my dates. The scan went perfectly well and was over in 30 minutes. Afterwards, I heard the receptionist on the phone to the hospital explaining that there was some problem with their fax machine, so could they please email the referral. It still hadn’t arrived! But I was done, the planets had aligned.

In the toilets I met another girl, trying unsuccessfully to put her nose ring back in. She was having one of those days too, as the machine supposed to x-ray her wasn’t working. She’d had to take a taxi there, removed her jewelry and now her nose had closed up. She tried and tried, but couldn’t get the nose ring back in. The machine was unfixable, so she had to reschedule her x-ray. I guess the planets were out of alignment for many of us today.

Posted in Random, up-the-duff | 3 Comments

Remodeling clothes

Posted on June 5, 2010 by lara

As my belly gets bigger, my clothes get tighter. Last 2 pregnancies my jeans fit right up to the end, but I’m barely halfway along this time and already nothing fits! So I’ve been remodeling clothes. This is a pair of pants with the top cut off, and sewn in its place is the bottom of a tank top as a fold down waist band. Comfy!

Up-cycling rocks!

My friend is a great up-cycler – she turns trash into treasure. I’m inspired by her creations: jumpers have shrunk and become baby pants, adult gloves and scarves. I’m really going to have to get cutting and sewing!

Posted in crafty, up-the-duff | 2 Comments

Nappies on a budget.

Posted on June 3, 2010 by lara

How to afford a set of cloth nappies when you’re on a budget? Someone wrote to me recently about being able to afford cloth nappies. They really liked my designs and absolutely wanted to put their baby in cloth, but didn’t want to spend $30 on a nappy. I can relate: I felt like this too when I first started. Although I knew it would save thousands in the long run, it still felt like a lot of money to set up a full-time stash of cloth nappies. So here are some tips on how to save money while building your stash.

Just buy the shell.

You can buy Extremely Nappies without the inserts, and stuff them yourself. Plain PUL would cost you $20, patterned ones $22. You could stuff them with old hand towels, or a less bulky option is to get some cheap microfiber towels and fold them in 3. You can always buy bamboo boosters later for $4 if you need to.

Have a baby-shower.

Everyone always brings presents to a baby shower (even if you tell them not to). If you ask for Extremely Nappies as gifts, you can get a full set of nappies from your closest friends. They’d spend the same money on the cute little suits anyway, which might only get worn a few times. The gift of a nappy is a gift that keeps giving: they’ll be used every day for years and save you money.

Old-fashioned terry toweling squares.

I started out with terry squares, and persevered until their limitations drove me to find something better (limitations such as they don’t last overnight after a certain age, leakage onto all the clothes…etc). Sometimes you can pick up terry squares at op-shops for dirt cheap, which is better than buying them new as cotton is such an environmentally damaging crop. You’ll need to learn to fold them into shape, and to carefully use a nappy pin or snappy to hold them on. You’ll also need to invest in waterproof covers for these.

Sell your stash at the end

Modern cloth nappies have good resale value. You can also buy secondhand nappies: on some brands you’ll have to replace the elastic and Velcro, but if you’re handy with a sewing machine and are prepared to get a few duds that can’t be repaired, buying second hand is a good way to get started for less.

Posted in Random | 2 Comments

Matching bibs ‘n nappies

Posted on May 30, 2010 by lara

My friend gave me a challenge: can I do matching bibs? I said I’d give it a try, and here is the result. Bibs aren’t really my thing, but for those who are really into co-ordination and accessorising, this is for you. I’m making the bibs out of left over material, so I can only match the nappies where the off-cuts are big enough.

I’m recycling scraps into something useful and diverting this material from landfill, so I guess its a worthwhile endeavor. If there’s a design in which you’d like a matching bib, just ask. They’ll be $10 each.

Posted in crafty | 1 Comment

Love your job

Posted on May 26, 2010 by lara

I was talking to some people at a party last week (yes i went to a party, a proper grown up one with a band!) and we got talking about jobs. Not “what do you do?” but more like, “what have you done?” People are SO interesting! This one girl used to worked in a battery egg farm, which sounds like hell on earth: she only lasted 3 days"; apparently she wasn’t a career employee. Thank god for that.

I was a professional audience member

I was once a “clapper” in the TV studios of Hollywood. That’s right people, those game show and talk show audiences are PAID to be there. $5.25 an hour, at least that was the rate when i did it. There’s a warm-up-guy directing applause and throwing chocolates to get cheers. I did a show called Battle of the Sexes – where we’d have to cheer if the girls answered a question, no matter how stupid and sexist it was. I did a talk show hosted by Cybill Shepherd, featuring Ricky Lake. We had to act really excited and chant “Go Ricky”.

I did a Judge Judy where we had to be really serious and well-presented. At the time, I had a face full of piercings and semi-shaved head with 3 brightly coloured snakes weaving around my head. The producers said i could participate if i wore a wig and lost the metal, so I had one hour to transform myself. I sprinted off to Hollywood Boulevard and into a wig shop. My budget stretched to $5, an in the bargain bin was a $5 brown afro. Perfect. I ran up the street to a tattoo/piercing studio where luckily, i knew the piercer, so he was happy to use his tools to remove my facial jewelry. I got back just in time, naked faced but bouncy haired. The producers shook their heads at me, but said i could come in if i pinned the hair down. So someone pinned my afro flat, and i got be in the audience of Judge Judy.

Guinness World Records was a show that sounded like fun. One contestant was a woman who hung upside down in gravity boots shooting clay pigeons which were being fired at her. Another was a man who immersed himself in ice for as long as possible. He was motionless in his perspex tube while we sat there going “oooh” and “ahhhhh” for nearly an hour. When the medic finally called for it to end, we broke into a spontaneous standing ovation: we stood and clapped for 5 minutes because our bums had gone to sleep!

I was a pedicab driver in London

There was a motley bunch of international travelers who worked like this. We’d each hire a bicycle taxi for the night and trawl the streets of the West End looking for passengers till morning. I got a lot of business just because i was small and female: people didn’t believe I’d have the strength to ride a bike with several heavy passengers on the back. So I’d challenge them to get on and find out. My legs were really strong, and I knew the best routes to avoid the hills. I’d even tell them to get off and push if necessary. Business was good when the pubs emptied out. Pedicab driving paid well: I made more money doing that job than any other, before or since.

Working as a WAHM

Now I’m a Work At Home Mum. Extremely Nappies is more of a hobby than a business. I only make about 5 nappies a week, and the pay is terrible. But it lets me be creative and productive whilst looking after the kids. Raising children can leave a huge ecological footprint, but by using and advocating reusable nappies, I can do my part to reduce this. This job leaves me time to play with the kids, to cook, to jog and to blog. Sometimes I even do housework (but not very often). It’s a pretty good job most days.

I’d love to hear what interesting jobs other people have done… have your say in comments.

Posted in Random | 2 Comments

Cravings

Posted on May 16, 2010 by lara

I’ve been having full-on chocolate cravings lately. This occurred to me yesterday as I scoured the health food store for a suitable healthy chocolate hit. I was reading the ingredients on various chocolate products with a vegan chocolate bar half crammed in my mouth when the grinning shop assistant asked me, “Are you having a craving?” It was obvious. I had a packet of Leda Choculence (vegan timtams) in my other hand. But my mission was a difficult one.

I’d raided the health food aisle of the supermarket already, which is where I got the now half-consumed chocolate bar (Goji antiOx bars – a bit like a healthy vegan cherry ripe). The supermarket suddenly doesn’t sell chocolate soy icecream anymore, and I forgot to look for fairtrade dark chocolate in the confectionary aisle.

Cravings in other cultures

Its quite common for pregnant women in Indonesia to crave rujak – a traditional fruit salad in sweet chili syrup. It’s sold by mobile vendors at morning markets or along the roadside until lunchtime. Pregnant women often send their husbands out to find them rujak in the evening, or middle of the night, when there’s none to be found. The hapless husband will get on his motorbike, trawl the streets and night markets to no avail, and eventually end up buying the sour mango, chili and palm sugar and attempt to make it himself. He’ll return home with his hard earned prize, at which point, his wife might say she doesn’t want rujak now, she wants something else.

When I was pregnant in Indonesia 5 years ago, I craved durien (a spikey smelly fruit with a reputation for raising blood pressure and causing intoxication). I was lucky enough to live in Medan where there is durien all year round, at excellent prices. It’s not exactly recommended eating for pregnant women, but as long as I didn’t eat too much, it was allowed. Pregnant women tend to get what they want.

My hubby and I would ride our motorbike to a late night roadside stall where the balmy air was thick with the pungent scent of durien. We’d sit on the stools provided, wash our hands in the hand bowls, and men with thick gloves and big knives would cut us open a durien from the huge piles surrounding us. The yellow flesh inside is sweet and creamy, yet kind of garlicy too. Each time you finish a fruit, another is opened for you. It’s easy to eat alot. If you eat too much, it gives you head spins.

Killer chocolate mudcake

Back to today, with my chocolate craving still in full swing, I decided to make cupcakes. I know a recipe that uses molasses, prunes and tofu, cocoa, wholemeal flour and spices. It has hardly any oil or cane sugar, yet makes moist, dense, rich chocolate cupcakes. They’re iced in the middle with chocolate cream made from soft tofu, cocoa and agave. I’m off to bake killer chocolate mud cupcakes.

Posted in feed me, health-nut, up-the-duff | 3 Comments

Happy Mother’s Day

Posted on May 9, 2010 by lara

I’ve been a mum for 4 years, and have an impressive array of handmade bookmarks to show for Mother’s Days past. This year, my big boy made me a colourful beaded necklace at kindy. Its awesome, and every time i wear it, he tells me I look beautiful.

Today was exciting for another reason too- I was running the Mother’s Day Classic Fun Run. For 2 months I’ve been sort of training to prepare for the 8 km run. I say sort of, because in all my runs, I never quite made it to the 8 km mark. So now the day was here, how would I go in the race?

Would I even wake up in time? As luck would have it, the whole house was awake at stupid’o’clock so hubby and the kids dropped me at the venue. I was all prepared to take the bus, but this was way better. I kissed goodbye to my little darlings and headed for the start line.

It was a gorgeous sunny morning, and the place was buzzing. I was excited. My belly is now the size of a basketball, so i didn’t feel the need to write on my back “i’m pregnant, that’s my excuse”. I know that running in pregnancy is perfectly fine as long as I keep well hydrated and don’t thrash myself. I figured I’d sip water all morning and just run slowly: I’ve always been a slow runner anyway.

I queued up to pee before we were due to start, but 10 mins later, as we were amassed at the starting line, I wanted to pee again. Too late: the race began. And so I began the 2010 Mother’s Day Classic 8km Fun Run with a full bladder. One of the joys of pregnancy is a regular need to pee. All that “keeping hydrated” was making it worse.

The run took us on a scenic route of sun-lit boulevards and traffic-free streets. The crowd surged along, only slightly faster than me. It felt good to be part of it, as if a collective high was pushing us on. We moved as one, the mass of our bodies like a snake, slithering down the path toward the water. I wanted to enjoy the buzz of it, to feel the sun on my neck and the fresh morning air on my skin, but i was distracted by a recurring thought, “I really need to pee”.

As we passed the halfway mark (and second water point) there was a toilet in the park. I saw one lone runner break from the pack and duck in. “I can hold on” said my brain, as i ran past. I regretted that decision 5 minutes later. On we ran: my bladder was uncomfortable but the rest of me felt great. The route was amazingly beautiful: we went along the river, beside the park, through the wide empty streets and towards the finish line. All the way i was thinking, “there’s a toilet at the end, not far now to a toilet”.

As the finish line drew near, everyone began speeding up (except me). As we rounded the last bend there was cheering from the crowds. Then suddenly, we’d finished. A man next to me checked his watch and declared “48 minutes”. There was timing chips to return (what were they for?) and fruit to receive, show bag to collect and somewhere, off in the distance, was toilets. Instead of darting through the crowd yelling “get out of my way, I need to pee”, I was pleasantly distracted by the revelry and handouts. I grabbed some fruit and went in search of water. I saw the toilets in front of me but my brain said, “Nah, I’ll go later”.

Posted in health-nut, up-the-duff | Tagged mother's day, running | 1 Comment

Cooking kudos

Posted on April 30, 2010 by lara

“You’re a good cooker, Mummy”, said my 4 yr old today, as I whipped up cinnamon- banana thick shake. He’s easily impressed, and I’m easily gratified; it’s a good arrangement. I love to cook, and I especially love it when there’s an appreciative audience.

One day’s kitchen play produced a veritable feast: creamy hummus, vege-chicken fried rice, mustard-vinaigrette potato salad and chickpea burgers. And muffins!

Healthy muffins: disguising vegies as cake.

I figure anyone can make cakes and muffins yummy, but the challenge is to make them nutritious AND delicious. No sugar and white flour for my kids!

Continue reading →

Posted in feed me, health-nut | Tagged cooking, food, hummus, kids, muffins, vegie burgers | 1 Comment

Running Free

Posted on April 23, 2010 by lara

I love running! I love the wind in my hair, the slow rhythm of my breath, the absence of everything except being in my body while my mind is free to roam. While I’m pounding the streets, I’m free. There’s no demands on me, nothing else I should be doing, no distractions.

This year started well: each night about 6pm, my feet found my running shoes, and took me out the door without my mind ever being consulted. Continue reading →

Posted in health-nut, up-the-duff | Tagged fun run., jogging, pregnancy, training | 1 Comment

Getting fat

Posted on April 19, 2010 by lara

At last! I have a little belly. In one week my stomach went from FLAT to “she just swallowed a rugby ball”; my belly button turned inside out, and my boobs jumped a cup size. Not only have I started to look pregnant, but I’m actually feeling pregnant instead of just sick. I also waddle a bit and feel hungry a lot.

13 weeks pregnant

Today is the first trimester scan, which means I’ll get evidence that there truly is a baby growing in there. Up till now the only proof was 2 lines on a stick, and the important one was a pink line – isn’t that unfair when I’ve got 2 boys already! I mean my first thought was GIRL instead of baby, thus tricking me to expect a girl, although I’ve always said the 3rd one is sure to be a boy.

So off i go the hospital with my bottle of water and full bladder… I wasn’t sure if i needed a full bladder but the girls on facebook said I would. Turns out you can have too full a bladder. The sonographer told me to empty it. She’d been prodding and poking my belly for half an hour at that point, trying to get the baby to change positions, so i was relieved to be told to relieve myself!

Decoding the Matrix

The whole scan took about an hour. Seeing the baby on the screen has always been difficult for me- I can never make out body parts… but in the time i was there something shifted. It was like I was looking at the matrix as code, then suddenly it came into focus and i could see the baby from all different angles. Ultrasound images are like Magic Eye pictures: all it takes is an hour of viewing.

Results of the scan were good. Really really good. Baby has the right amount of limbs and heads and everything’s in the right place. The only suprise was the gestational age- they changed it from 13 weeks to less than 12, based on size. I’m very sure of my dates, so i figure Baby is just a little small. This would be coz I haven’t been eating enough. Morning sickness was full on. So they docked me 8 days pregnancy for losing weight.

Posted in health-nut, up-the-duff | 3 Comments

What else can i make?

Posted on April 18, 2010 by lara

Sometimes when i try to make something new, it turns out pretty lame so I give up and go back to making nappies. I’m good at nappies! But this time I succeeded: I made breast pads: soft comfortable, washable ones! I hate those scratchy paper disposable ones. So here’s what i did. Continue reading →

Posted in crafty | 1 Comment

shiny and new

Posted on April 17, 2010 by lara

Oh my god, i have a website. Not a just a slot among of thousands in an online shopping mall, but my own proper site with my own domain name. COOL!

I’m a bit excited – these last few days of getting it happening and learning to drive it have been INTENSE! But we did it (using the term “we” generously because i pretty much did nothing).

The driving force behind this website has been Ali – website creator extraordinaire. Check out his site: www.becauseyouloveit.com.au. His undying patience and amazing generosity means that this impossible dream is now a reality! Big thanks to you Ali… when you have babies I’ll make you a full set of customised, super funky Extremely Nappies.

Yay! Mummy has a website.

Posted in Random | 3 Comments