Some time ago I wrote a popular post about a newborn doll I bought at Kmart that is a perfect and affordable fetal model to use for childbirth classes. Unfortunately, Baby Sasha had a horrible run-in with mice in the closet and is now permanently disfigured 😦

We tried everything to remove these stains and nothing worked at all. Not even one bit. While I suppose I could still use her with her new “birthmark,” I’ve read that educators need to be very careful with the unintentional messages sent by their birthing class props—i.e. never jerk the placenta out of the knitted uterus, don’t hold the fetal model between your knees or drop it on the floor, and don’t throw the uterus down when you’re done with it. If you’ve done your job properly and used your props effectively, they’ve become associated in the clients’ minds with the “real thing” and the manner in which you handle these props sends unconscious signals to the clients about these items in their own lives. So, I don’t want their “baby” to emerge from the uterus “flawed” in this striking way.

I did discover that her little hat still tidily covers the mark on her head and she is restored to looking cute again:

I sent my husband on a mission to Kmart to replace my beloved baby and alas, there were none to be found. Luckily, Kmart.com came to the rescue and I was able to order not one, but two, new little cuties!

The replacement newborn isn’t quite as cute as my original and doesn’t look quite as realistic (Mark says they’re identical and the old doll is just dirtier). Close comparison did reveal that their eyes are different colors, original Sasha’s being a better, darker newborn blue and new baby’s being lighter and more gray.

Alaina has an obsession with dolls and she wants to take all of these babies from me. She also gets very stressed by trying to carry all three at once and keeps dropping at least one. She staggers around making kind of a panting sound and sort of whine-moaning for aid. The night the new dolls arrived she insisted on falling asleep with all of them, but the stress of trying to hold them all at once while also nursing, kept her awake for over an hour. She kept wanting them to get to nurse on the other side and actually acting a little panicky that they couldn’t all nurse on the same side.

Sorry, Alaina! Mine!