I really do enjoy stalking people's blogs in a non-creepy way and love how the internet has connected me to many fellow bloggers, whom I now consider good friends. Lately, however, I have been pondering whether I'm putting too much of our lives, and especially of my precious baby, too out there for the world to see. I know this sounds ridiculous because I just posted our family vacation pics on here about a minute ago. I think it started when my sister Kwan told me that a photo place in Bangkok, where my mom sent all the pictures of Chase she downloaded from our blog here to be printed, actually used one of my kid's pictures as their computer screen saver. My mom apparently was there to pick up her order and saw Chase's picture on their screen. The attendant was understandably embarrassed and my mom felt too weirded out to talk to them about it. I know it's harmless and am flattered that they think my kid is cute. It was one of those pictures that was taken in Heidelberg of her laying in a pile of beautiful fallen leaves, a rarity in the tropical Thailand. So it was probably more of a cute kid + cool and different scene combo than a creepy situation, although it's still very weird to me. But this got me wondering who else was seeing my kid's pictures and reading our blog besides the usual suspects of friends and fams. So that's the long explanation of why I put up the feed monitor, even though I really detest the thing. Sorry. I'm trying to get an idea of how to approach this without being irrationally overprotective of Chaster and just making the blog private altogether. At some point though, the Kid would probably demand that I stop talking about her pooping face and posting her naked pictures. I will shed a silent tear that day.
In other news, I fear my breastfeeding days are going to eruptively end very soon. Since Chase started back on solids, it's been a chore for me to feed her. The only time she wouldn't put up a fight is the middle-of-the-night feeding. A girl after my very own heart, she's so incredibly excited to try new things and just LOVES to eat. I became a whole lot more relaxed about feeding her solids after talking to my mom and reading about baby-led weaning. To be clear (because otherwise I'd get a frantic phone call in the middle of the night about this. Yes, I'm looking at you, MOM), I'm not trying to wean her right now. I was pretty proud of myself that we stuck with it and made it past my goal of 6 months and was aiming for a year. Then she started acting like a big girl on me and just wanted everything but milk. You should see this funny kid. If there's food anywhere within her view, the child would open her mouth and start panting like a little bird waiting to be fed. I'm still giving her puree and cereal and just started letting her feed herself a bit, too. So far, it's a freaking mess and the boys have never been happier. I would love to hear from you guys out there with the experience. What should I do?
Happy 26th Valentines Day!
5 months ago
I was feeling the same way about the internet today and started getting a little freaked out. I even considered privatizing my blog, but I think we have some nice stalkers out there that would miss it. We'll see. The site feed thing is interesting, but then I start to wonder who all these visitors are - racking my brain - who lives in Sacramento? etc. Anyways, hopefully we don't fall prey to any weirdos right?
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean about the panting, Caroline would do the same thing. You can only do so much about her nursing, and then just go with her flow. Sometimes they just go through periods of not eating/drinking very much. There was one day over the summer when AB only drank like 8oz total, it had me totally freaked out, but she made up for it later on.
Hope that helps.
I completely agree on the Big Brother aspect! You never know who is out there...and I was worried when Matt only had his flickr page. Now there's the blog! It's great for keeping in touch, but there's always the worry.
ReplyDeleteIn the meantime, I go and expose your three kids even more in our blog! If you want, I can delete - just let me know!
My cousin tried so hard to hold out on solid foods with Mason (he's the cute kid in all of Matt's latest pics). She was given a hard time from the pediatrician since Mason was only in the 10th percentile for his age to weight ratio. At 9mo he became too interested in anything and everything but boob and she was given the okay to start him on solids. He's a great eater, still small for his age. All kids are different! Give me a few months, I'll be asking for advice in this department very soon!!!
this is why my blog is "friends only". I had my blog bite a fellow IND grad in the ass. It's peace of mind for me. I feel I can use my blog as a ranting place and not fear my boss (or mother-in-law) finding it. But my reasons are different from yours. Rants vs. your child.
ReplyDeleteI hate the hassle it causes my friends who aren't on lj. The simplest thing would be to just make it private and not have to worry who else is looking. I mean everyone is curious by nature. I've looked at people's blogs who I only know because they are friends of my friends. It's human nature. Maybe we're all addicted to what others' reality is.
6 months! I know so little. I'm definitely ignorant on pregnancy. I thought 2 months was more than enough. A coworker was telling me how they can freeze the umbilical cord in case your child comes down with a disease. Using the baby's own stem cells makes it much more highly to cure the problem (but still theoretical). But she'd have to pay a monthly fee to store the umbilical cord, for who knows how long. I was blown away at hearing this. Did you have this offer?