Babies, culture, and customs

I have learned a lot more about Honduran culture with having babies this time around - shows me how many more Honduran friends we have now than we did 2 years ago when Maddy was born. Some of the 'rules' of having babies are kinda funny to us seeing things through North American eyes - but I'm sure that some of our customs are very odd to them as well. But I thought I'd share some:

* Dad's don't go to the hospital for the labor and delivery - either the woman labors alone or she brings in a female friend to help her through it.
* In the public hospitals (cost: free) you are supposed to bring in all that you need - sheets, towels, pads, diapers, etc etc.
* When birthing the baby you put a red ribbon wrapped around your belly - this is so the baby doesn't get the 'evil eye' when they come out. Then from birth on, the baby then wears a red bracelet which also wards off the evil eye. The Evil Eye is what they believe can cause sickness and even death and happens when someone - usually an older person gives them a dirty look that has 'powers'.
* The 40 days after the baby is born the mom doesn't do anything! She is 'very weak' and anything could cause her long term harm on her body - so no cooking or cleaning, no watching tv (could damage your vision later on), basically the mom is confined to her bed for 40 days and helps take care of the baby but a lot of the baby watching is taken over by female relatives that come over for the 40 days or the mom and babe is moved to a relatives house to be cared for. And also the food diet of the mom is different - the mom is only allowed to eat tortillas, cheese, and mountain chocolate (made from sugar cane). Beyond these 3 foods, no other food is allowed for those 40 days or it could damage the mom or the baby.
* Mom and Baby do not leave the house until those 40 days are over!

Those are the big ones! As you can guess, I've been chewed out a lot for not following these rules - especially that i've been out of the house with the baby (a lot) already and Ali is only 12 days old!

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Maddy has decided that this is a good week to potty train! so we have the potty chair in the living room and she's been basically naked all week - only with clothes when we leave the house. She is making no pee mistakes but unfortunately #2 has been a different story - she goes outside :).   But it's been amazing because we haven't put any pressure on it at all, just made it available. so it's great! we'll see how it continues.

Alessandra is growing so fast and changing so quickly! tomorrow she turns 2 weeks old. She is a pretty easy baby - as far as newborns go - she sleeps a lot, eats well, and most of her awake time is spent with her happily looking around and taking in the world. The last couple days she's been more fussy so I think I must have eaten something that has given her gas as that's all we can figure. She sleeps with us and does well - waking up every 2 to 3 hours to eat, but then goes right back to sleep (except for the occasional 3-5am awake time.)