Organic Pouch Sling Giveaway for International Babywearing Week!

I'm a really avid babywearer and would love to see more babies being worn. So, in honor of International Babywearing Week this week (September 21-28), I'm doing our first ever giveaway -- a CF Organic Pouch Sling. This sling is a (now sold out) Sage Smoke 100% organic colorgrown cotton in size medium (25"). It features both light leg padding and a handy outside pocket (good for your phone, wallet, spare diaper, or toy).

If you'd like to be entered to win this sling, all you have to do is visit Continuum Family and make a comment back here about what you think our most unique/interesting product is.

You can get bonus entries for:

• posting about this giveaway on Facebook with a link to this post and Continuum Family
• blogging about this giveaway with a link to this post and Continuum Family

Giveaway closes September 28 at 11:59 PM PST.

Parenting… a Radical, Political Act

On a day recently when I was questioning my decision of 6 years ago to quit the office 9-5 and become a stay-at-home/work-at-home mom, a link to this article found it's way into my inbox. I felt immediately re-inspired...

The only thing I would add is: “Each time I take my baby to the potty and put reusable cloth on his bum I am sticking it to the disposable diaper industry and feeling good about minimizing my contribution to the landfill”.

Which Training Pants for EC?

Jane in Australia writes:

Hi,

I would love to order some of your training pants for my 10 month old daughter, Alice, and wanted to see which ones you would recommend - I haven't used training pants before, but was wanting some to hold one wee when we're out, and so not to wet Alice's clothes, but not too extra absorbant that I won't be able to tell if she's done a wee or not?

Thanks for your help,

Jane

For training pants, it's a bit of a trade off -- if you want something that won't wet outside clothing then you need to get ones with a waterproof (PUL) outer, yet these ones make it difficult to tell if they have gone without checking inside the pants. However, something that you will be able to see or feel easily that she has gone will likely wet the outer clothing to some degree. Training pants with a PUL layer inside give you the best of both worlds -- they generally won't wet outer clothing unless they're left on for a bit. Yet you should be able to feel them and see that she's gone. I would recommend going with bamboo training pants, as they are more absorbent than cotton. In particular, my CF Side Snap Trainers in bamboo, with optional PUL layer inside and bamboo velour inner are a very absorbent option. And I've just added some cute print outer options in bamboo interlock. I will also soon be getting some solid color outers in bamboo french terry.

Another good choice if you want a pull up option would be the EcoNix by BongoBaby. These have bamboo velour and inner PUL layer on the soaker section, although the body is cotton (organic).

In general, I recommend going with a side snap trainer unless you and your baby are fairly consistent with catching poops. ;)

Cooperative Games a Hit at Our House

Whenever my six-year-old daughter has a playdate at our house, one thing that invariably comes out at some point are the cooperative board games. We have several of the Family Pastimes games and have spent some great quality family time playing them. It is so nice to play a game where no one has to be the loser and everyone is working together towards a common goal. And it's so encouraging to see her and her friends choose to play these quality games over other activities.


We've recently restocked these games in our store with all the best-selling ones (Princess, Caves and Claws, Secret Door) and added a couple of new ones that we've recently been playing and enjoying (Ogres and Elves, Dark and Dangerous Skies).

EC Gift from Japan

I was touched and absolutely thrilled to receive this gift in the mail the other day:


It was from three of my Japanese customers -- a ceramic chamber pot and lid. In case you can't read the card, it says:

Dear Deirdre,

Hi. We hope you and your baby Malcolm are spending the sweet and intimate time! This chamber pot is a gift from the three of us. We find it extremely helpful in ECing baby boys :). Good luck!
Sincerely yours,
Keiko, Chiharu and Maiko from Japan
P.S. We love your hand-sewn baby gears. Thank you always.

I am really loving this pot! It is perfect for nighttime pottying. It is so much more stable than the plastic ones (no worry about spilling the potty contents all over the bed in the dark) but it's not that heavy. And, it is perfect for pottying a boy because it is deep enough that I can lower his bum right down inside without touching bottom and he doesn't pee over the top! :)

I will definitely be getting some of these for my store in the near future. They will be a great alternative to the plastic potty.

EC in Brazil

Tamara H. wrote:

Congratulations to your beautiful baby! I'm so glad I found your shop. I'm a German midwife living in Brazil and I'm looking forward to showing your things at Brazil's first and only EC group that I'm leading.

Warm wishes,
Tamara
http://www.slingando.com/

I'm so glad you found our shop too, Tamara! I love that my EC products are making their way around the world. Although I've had some go to Chile, these will be the first ones going to Brazil.


Tamara has chosen a great selection of EC trainers and undies to show parents interested in EC. I will be most interested to hear how her talk goes. For now, I must get back to sewing, before baby wakes... :)

New Member of Continuum-Family!

We are thrilled to announce that our baby boy, Malcolm, was born on January 3, 2009 at 11:05 a.m. weighing in at 8 lbs 10 oz and measuring 21 inches long.

This was our third home birth and we are so glad that we were able to be all together, with his two older sisters (Madeline, 5.5 and Zara, 3) on hand for the last 10 minutes to see him arrive.




Here's Malcolm at one day old, snuggling up with his two sisters:



It's still pretty much business as usual at Continuum Family, but we are estimating that custom orders (most items from our CF line, especially pouch slings and baby clothing) will be about 3 weeks from date of order to date of ship for the rest of January.