What I Learned about Taking Care of Curly Baby Hair

Little Wiggles lovely hair

My little girl was born with curly hair. Much to my dismay and initial pleasure. I have weird wavy hair that has no idea what it wants to be. "Should I be straight today? wavy? I know! I'll be really irritating and be both!" Um, no thank you hair, I'll take one or the other, thanks.

Anyway, the point is I have no idea how to take care of curly hair. This was not a problem until recently. Before Wiggles' hair was just cute little swirls. perfectly lovely. But lately, oh my, look out! When she wakes up it's a total mess. And her frizz is out of control. I thought that I just needed to wash it. This just made it worse, which I will explain later. So, being the google-aholic that I am I began to research (seriously, I spend hours researching things. I have lists of things that I want to remember to google when I get home. The iphone is a blessing and a curse because I now can google anywhere. Seriously, it's a sickness). What I found I can distill into 5 practically biblical rules about curly hair care.

See those crazy curls? 

Daddy like to run his fingers through them so she always has a poof.

1. No shampoo, like ever. So evidently curly hair is way more delicate than regular straight hair. It is way more dry and brittle which is why it gets so frizzy. It breaks and gets split ends. The culprit? Sulfates. These nasty curl killing chemicals dry out curly (and normal) hair even more. So I was actually hurting instead of helping by washing it all the time. Turns out I only need to wash Wiggles' hair once a week. at the most. The rest of the bath times in the week should be conditioner only. This is so couterintuative to me. If I were to use just conditioner on my hair I just might have grease dripping into my eyebrows by the end of the day. But like I said, curly hair is way dryer than mine. So there you go.

2. Condition, condition, condition. Use all kids of conditioner and use it often. wash with a wash out, finish with a leave in and detangle in the morning and during the day with a spray. The more moisture the better and the more defined the curl.

3. No Brushes, rarely combs, only fingers and only when wet. NEVER dry. This one I think I knew. but brushing breaks the hair and it's even worse when it's dry. This leads to frizz. It is also good news for moms. No more wrestling and wrangling small screaming children and subjecting them to cranial torture. What you do is get a wide-toothed comb or use your fingers and practically drown your child in conditioner. Then you gently, starting at the bottom and working your way up, brush out the knots. Rinse and re-comb. If you must re-comb when it's dry (say in the morning when your child wakes up looking like a child of the 70's) wet with water or spray conditioner until damp and use comb and fingers to reshape the curls.

4. Hands off! Once your child's hair is set and wet leave it alone! Let it dry before you touch it and even then don't touch it unless you absolutely must. And even then I can't think of a reason to touch dry curly hair. See rule 3.

5. Get it cut and styled professionally starting at the beginning. I know it seems rediculous to get a baby's hair cut by a specialist, but if it's curly I hear it makes all the difference. They even have really cute kids salons with cool seats and stylists who specialize in cutting kids hair. Ask them specifically if they have experience cutting curly hair.

Some of these rules I haven't tried yet, but I'll keep you informed. There are also curl products designed for kids. There are two brands on my wishlist at the moment. Curly Q and also It's a curl. I have found that many of the products and advice on the market are for "ethnic" hair. That is deffinately not my white pastey baby. She and I are about as fair as they come. So some of the products might be too heavy for her fine hair. Again. I'll keep you informed.

How Co-sleeping Saved My Marraige

I don't know what it is about first time parents, but it seems as though everyone I talk to has a colicy baby for their first. Maybe the tiny bundles can sense our insicurity and inneptitude and they are just as worried as we are. But I'll tell you what, the first four months of Wiggles' life were long to put it mildly.

Wiggles spent the first three weeks of her existance sleeping all day and then waking up every 20 minutes all... night... long... She would scream from about 4:00pm till 9:00pm and then crash for a little. But starting at around 11:00 she would get restless. It is extremely stressfull having a baby who doesn't sleep at all. I will never forget standing in our basement bedroom (we're staying with inlaws right now. More on that later) having an argument in sobs and hisses for the sixth night in a row with my poor exhausted husband both of us in tears when we should have been sleeping for another 20 minutes. That was the last straw. This "conversation" if you want to call it that, began our co-sleeping journey. It is the first moment that I felt like a momma bear. "I'm going to do what I know is best for my family! And to you-know-where with anyone who dissaproves!" The next day Hubby went out and bought a "co-sleeper."

Our co-sleeper

Believe me, this was not a decision I made lightly. I did research that day. I looked up every rule there is for co-sleeping safely. I researched different ways and methods. And do you know what I found? 1. people have VERY strong opinions about co-sleeping. I knew for example that my parents would freak out when I told them she was sleeping in the death trap that is a queen bed. And 2. co-sleeping is really common. something like 68% of all families practice some form of co-sleeping.

For us it was a God-send, literally. the first night Wiggles slept next to me she slept for 5 hours straight. I actually woke up in the middle of the night worried about her. Since that night she has slep next to us. And slept soundly (mostly). Now that we have co-slept for a little while both Hubby and I really love it. It is so cozy to have our little family all snuggled together. It feels safe, cozy, dare I say, nautural? We liked it so much that when she started to outgrow her little co-sleeper I researched co-sleeping with bigger babies. We ended up sidecarring her crib to pur bed. Now she has her own space and I have my bed back. She still wakes up about once a night and (shhh don't tell) she does sleep right next to me for the rest of the night. I can absolutely see us co-sleeping until Wiggles is 1 1/2-2 years old. And our next little one will sleep in the co-sleeper from day one. Oh yeah, and added bonus, night time feedings are so much easier! I don't even have to wake up Hubby! Although, Wiggles is a noisy eater so that doesn't me he does sleep through her night time snack...

I guess the take away from this is do what is best for your family. As long as it's safe, remember it's your family. You know what's best for them. God gave you Momma instincts. Use them.

'Cause she's beautiful and I can.

An Introduction

First let me say that I am not bloggin to be famous, nor am I blogging to bear my soul to the world. At this point I'm just writing as a sort of online scrapbook. I'm sort of crafty, but scrapbooking has always eluded me. I have no patience for it.

I guess I should start with the cast of characters. First there's me. I am a wife, mother and teacher. Hopefully in that order. Then there's hubby. The wonderful husband and father who takes excellent care of us and is way too hard on himself. Last and certainly not least is my little wiggels. She's the most recent addition to our family; a lovely, sweet, busy and loud 5 month old girl. 

My little family

So welcome to our life it has it's up and certainly it's downs, but thats what God gave us!