Hibernate Blog

You ever look up and realize that you’ve been going, I mean really going, for as long as you can remember?

Between kindergarten graduations, potty training and giving birth, to logo updating and website redesigns, we have been busy around the clock. Just last week we just sent designs for new collateral materials to the printer so that we could have them to Christina Hudson at Peas & Honey in time for the show in the second week of July. Later this summer we’ll have another run done for the ABC Kids Expo. Throw all of these things together with new offices, new retailers and new countries (in the UK we sell “nappy caddies”), it can be easy to forget how it all began.

Crying, lots and lots of crying. Mostly baby, but maybe a little mom.

These wonderful baskets with their appealing colors and fanciful patterns? They started as a solution, a weapon in the fight against colic and chaos. It was one woman throwing down the gauntlet, refusing to succumb to the staggering futility that can threaten to squelch everything as a baby cries inconsolably. She looked around as her murmurs and her kisses did nothing to quell the cries. What she realized was that if she couldn’t fix it, she could ease it.

The things that prolonged a crying jag, or the things that exacerbated an already fussy baby needed to be eliminated.

Diapers - check!

Wipes - check!

Diaper rash cream - check!

Burp cloths, gas drops, tissue - check, check, check!

No more searching, no more struggling, never again would she stretch and disturb a finally quiet baby. The diaper caddy was born and every day after she used it.

Until last week. We spoke in hushed tones as Fin napped:

“Nate made it through the night.” She told me proudly.

“Really? That’s incredible.” I gushed.

“I know, but you know what? Benny is super excited and I’m kind of sad.” Then she was quiet.

The milestone rocked me, her last baby was finished with diapers and the product that she invented single-handedly would no longer be a necessity for her family. Her daughter will use a caddy for hair ties and Barbie clothes, maybe Nate will use one for Matchbox cars, but never again will Melissa use her caddy for diapers. She’ll continue to improve it and promote it, but from here on out she’ll be producer and not consumer.

Holding Finley in my arms and thinking of the two caddies at home, stuffed to overflow with 3’s and 6’s, I felt a lump in my throat knowing that the day will come for me too. One day my babies will be out of diapers, kids. I looked at Melissa across a room filled with baskets and liners and sketches with new ideas and I smiled. The legacy of Melissa’s babies will live forever in these caddies. The diapers that she brought in, no longer needed in her house, will come to mine. We are linked, Melissa and I, as we journey ahead watching our babies become children and as our product takes flight.

Lift your head up from all that you are racing to complete and go have a moment with your baby, whether he’s in diapers, or whether she is practicing on the potty. Live in this moment.

Another day, another way…to use your caddy.

Having kids is a constant reminder that we each have our own way of doing things, this is particularly strong when you watch two kids take one item and use it to totally different effect.

My girls like to drive. Briar is more of a leisurely Sunday driver.

Ave feels the need for speed. And safety.

Ever tried to get things done, I am mean really getting things done, while working from home in the company of a breastfeeding infant, a 2 year old with a broken leg and a project loving three and a half year old?
No?
Really?
Well, if you haven’t occasion to run to the DMV at noon on the eve of a holiday weekend, this is the next best way to slowly lose it. I kid.

Last week I had several things I very much wanted (and needed) to get done in conjunction with the launch of the redesigned SaraBear website. I knew that I would need to be aggressive in my activity planning to keep the girls a) less aware of the unrelenting Adirondack humidity and b) relatively out of my hair in order to cross some things off of my list. I knew that my greatest chance of success lay in my successful choreography of a project that would put the big girls in plain sight of the littlest girl.

Successful projects when working from home, in my experience, tend to involve the weaving of said project into your work. Now, even though my girls can steer a mouse through iTunes and sing their abc’s, they have not yet mastered HTML, helping was out of the question. Parking them in front of the tv or computer, while occasionally effective, always leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Taking my laptop outside fails as the glare from the sun is too intense and the dirt that Avery gets into and the water that Briar splashes in, put the baby and my computer in peril. Sigh.

Looking at my mountain of things that I take to and from the office each day I spied my research, magazines. A collage? No, that would mean 2 projects rather than 1. It needed to involve both girls and, quite honestly as much structure (read: less choices) as possible to allow more “project-doing” and less bickering. I grabbed a magazine and sought inspiration, it came in the form of water-colored sketches of women in Real Simple, a magazine that I love for its reassurance that everyone is really just trying to figure it out the “it” being managing work, family and organization.

I quickly snipped the heads off the illustrations as the wheels in my head turned, we’d make a garden.

No pipe cleaners…Cardboard from the discarded Huggies box could be stems.

No pots…The diaper caddy could house the garden.

No activity…once finished they could “water” the garden and “pick” the flowers.



I alternately wrapped green construction paper around strips of cardboard while oohing and ahhing over the faces the girls picked and drafted a press release for Eve Gumpel at WomenEntrepreneur.com. The nature of the project allowed for little fingers to assist with positioning and taping and for little sisters to watch while kicking and gurgling.



Now, I may not have found a way to change the world, but I did find a way to get three kids to pass an afternoon without screaming, crying or fighting, while I managed to get things done. All in all, for this working mom, it was a pretty perfect little world for a little while.


A job well done.

I passed a woman at Lowe’s yesterday. Judging by her familiar slow stride and slightly pained expression, she must have been close to her due date. I felt her take in the spectacle that is shopping with three children under 4, I wore Fin on my chest and pushed Briar and Avery in a cart filled to Seussian proportions. When our eyes met we smiled and as we passed I chuckled aloud, “Hang in there,” and she laughed back.

There is an inherent magic for me in pregnancy and this particular encounter reminded me of another magical day.

******

This morning brought the first frost of the season. Walking to the car, the sight of my breath surprised me and the suddenness of the cold made my eyes water. I started the car and as the defroster ran I scraped the windows, my fingertips throbbing before long. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the curtains in our living room fluttering, the girls running in circles around the chair as Sean sipped his coffee. I tried to bite back sorrow, I wanted to run back inside, sink back into the blurred lens wonder of our early morning routine.

Driving to work I took a different route than usual. I was at a traffic light stewing, the roads were nearly empty and my thoughts were consumed by what I was missing. Two cars ahead of me I saw a white Subaru exactly like our own. The light turned green and I stepped lightly on the gas. The road began to curve and I saw the license plate on the Subaru: MIDWFE. I recognized it as belonging to one of the midwives from my doctor’s practice.

I smiled thinking about our two incredible deliveries, returning to the room Briar was delivered in to welcome Avery, and having our doctor with us both times. I remembered Sean taking my hand, music playing in the background, and dancing me through contractions. I put my hand on my belly and smiled, Sean was home with our girls and I was headed to work with our next baby. I moved through another light and watched MIDWFE up ahead. It occurred to me that she might be heading to work, off to stand beside another woman, coaching her, holding her hand and using her voice and warm eyes to guide her from expecting to embracing.

As the red light on the right side of her car began to blink I teared up. She turned into the hospital parking lot and made her way to another new life. Once that baby is placed in her mama’s arms they’ll ring a bell, patients will ask what the sound is and the nurses, so often drawn and cold, will brighten, “That’s a baby!” they’ll chirp and for a moment nothing will matter but the knowledge that a new life has begun, and that somehow the miracle has been shared.

I arrived at work feeling as if I’d been dusted with a little bit of magic.

Welcome to the world, baby.

Because this is a family blog of sorts, I am not using another word in the title of this post that would be oh, so much more appropriate and satisfying. The reality is that despite the miraculous nature of bringing home a baby and living those first weeks and months, life goes on.

Things happens, circumstances change.

Last Saturday, on the eve of Father’s Day, one dad spent several hours at the ER. A milestone! Baby’s first fracture, not the littlest baby, but still a baby, still in diapers. And so it was on Monday that we took our two year old to the orthopedist to have a cast put on - purple and waterproof! She was a champ and we told her so as we made our way from the doctor’s office.

At home life continued, with an infant to care for, an immobile two year old to entertain and a jealous 3.5 year old to contend with.



For a sleepy mom with work to do, well, it was a lot. Between snacks and juice refills, playtime and clean-up, it was almost all I could do to keep track of my own glasses. I cannot stress enough how helpful it has been to have one place for the size 6 and size 2 Huggies necessary for my two babies.

There is also a pocket holding the never-fails-to-get-a-princess-loving-toddler-to-smile fuchsia fatale nail polish. Even at the moments when it has felt as if I might lose my mind, the truth is I have had peace of mind.

Now, if I could just figure out how to manage the toy clutter and laundry…