I want to be included too!

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In the past few days I've been more aware of my surroundings - I like to sit facing out on people's laps and see what's going on - hey, I am part of the family too and I like to be included! On Saturday Daddy's friend Jo Jo came over and I insisted on sitting at the table for dinner with them. I had to cry and cry and cry before Mommy and Daddy finally understood that was what I wanted!

I am also trying hard to talk to Mommy and Daddy. But all that's coming out are coos and googles! Although I can come close to saying "hi" back to them! Here's a video Mommy made of me today trying to talk to her!

Yesterday Mommy also tried to pose me for some 'model' shots yesterday. Needs some work, what do you think?

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The Sleep Challenge

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This sleeping thing isn't as easy as "3 nights and it's done". Over the weekend I think we spoiled some of what we got him used to, as on Monday (yesterday) he would not stay asleep by himself for his naps. So today I am trying again; he is currently asleep in his co-sleeper. So far I've had to sooth him once.

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Why didn't they mention this in the pre-natal classes?

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I've been trying to put Connor on a 'schedule' of sorts for the past 2 days, based on the book "The Baby Whisperer" by Tracy Hogg. I had heard of this book a few years ago from friends who were having babies at the time.

Simply put, the schedule is "E.A.S.Y." - Eat, Activity, Sleep, You (time for You). By giving the baby activity after eating, this prevents the baby from associated sleeping after a feeding (and being unable to sleep unless fed). Also by keeping this E.A.S.Y. order, the parent has a much better gauge of why baby is crying. The schedule does not need to be kept to any specific time, just keep the order the same.

Aside from this scheduled routine, I have been trying to put Connor down for his daytime sleeps in his co-sleeper. I suppose they are naps but he's sleeping so much still that I don't feel they are naps. I've found that Connor likes to be swaddled lightly and then I can gently rock or pat him to sleep and lay him down super gently onto his co-sleeper.

If baby stirs or cries, you can give him a few minutes to see if he recovers himself; if not, then you should pick up baby and soothe him, then try to put baby down again. This cycle could repeat numerous times (Tracy Hogg says it could be 20, 40, or even 100 times), but luckily Connor seems to be doing okay with it (I return to soothe him less than 10 times I think, and this morning I haven't had to soothe him once! Linds can do it too and I think it makes him feel a lot more helpful with baby.

So far I think the E.A.S.Y. routine, combined with the new sleep routine, has helped greatly. Yesterday at my Mom and Baby Fitness class, Connor was able to stay laying by himself for 45 minutes! And then, because of the E.A.S.Y. routine, I knew that it was time for sleep. After a quick diaper change, I swaddled him up again, patted him a bit, and he quickly knodded off!

I wish I had read this book earlier, it would have saved me some frustrations. The book does have some annoyances, such as being written with British sayings of "luv" and "dear" all the time; as well, at times Tracy makes it sound like you've done a horrible injustice to the baby if you haven't yet been able to do certain things with the baby. But as with all books you just have to process the information yourself and decide what will or won't work for you. The book also lists the signs to look for that would indicate what is wrong with Baby, ie. hungry or just tired?, which I found handy and interesting.

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Important Simplicity crib and bassinet recalls

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So I caved in again today and had one cup of coffee this afternoon. That may explain why I am up at midnight blogging - I added some resource links to the blog. I still have to add all the shopping links.

In the last month two different Simplicity brand products were recalled - the drop side crib, and the 3-in-1 and 2-in-1 convertible bassinets. While no injuries have been reported yet for the crib, according to the US CPSC website, two babies have died from the convertible bassinets, and there are almost 1 million of these bassinets still out there! The saddest part is, the CPSC releases report the first baby died on September 29, 2007; the second died on August 21, 2008. Why did it take this long for the recall and why isn't this front page news everywhere?? I remember when I did my research on bassinets in July 2008, I did see recall information on the Simplicity website, since I was considering purchasing one of these bassinets. I am however unable to see any recall posts for this product on the CPSC site prior to August 28, 2008.

If you search the CPSC website recalls by "Simplicity", you'll see this isn't the first time Simplicity has recalled cribs. So it isn't a surprise that the CPSC reports that they are no longer in business.

Even scarier though, search by the word "crib" and see all the recalls.

This is the not-so-fun part of parenting - a million things to worry about. Our Storkcraft crib isn't on the recall list, thank goodness (not that Connor is even sleeping in it yet, though - he's still sleeping in our bed between Linds and me).

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Thermometer readings for baby

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Connor did have a slight fever last night around midnight. It took hubby Linds and I quite a while to figure out the baby thermometer. To take an underarm temperature, you have to place the thermometer lengthwise next to the body under the arm for 90 seconds. 90 seconds sure feels like forever when you are trying to find out if your baby has a fever or not! I definitely need to buy a new fancy thermometer, one that takes temperature in 4 seconds and has the auto "fever" indicator. Linds and I also debated on how to read the underarm temperature. Underarm temperature is 0.5 C less than oral temperature. The normal "high" temperature is 37.7 C orally. Connor had an underarm temp. of 38.4 C, so we figured that is 38.9 C. I think I got it right now - Linds knew what the instructions meant and I was the one that was confused.

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One-Month Shots

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I had my one-month shots today. The doctor gave me four needles, two in each thigh! The shots cover Diphtheria, Pertussis, Tetanus, Polio, Haemophilus influenzae Type b (Hib); Hepatitus B; Pneumococcal Conjugate, and Meningococcal C Conjugate. The doctor suggested I nurse during the shot, which was a good idea, it seemed to help take my mind off the pain. Sure I cried, but Mom and Dad said I did real good since I only cried after the last two needles. They gave me some infant Tylenol afterwards. The doctor's office is at the mall, so Mom put me in the Baby Bjorn carrier afterwards and I was asleep for the next couple of hours. When we got home my Mom ripped the band-aid off without warning me!

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A "good" day

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Connor had a "good" day yesterday - we were out all day and he hardly fussed at all. Probably because he did sleep all day the day before. We had lunch with my family and aunt's family, my grandmother, and the visiting grandparents, at a very noisy Chinese restaurant for Dim Sum, and then we went for a short shopping excursion on Main Street (hubby wanted to shop for LP records, that's his latest hobby). Through all this Connor didn't fuss at all. I also have finally realized that Connor must want to go to bed around 8pm, which would explain why when we went out for dinners that he was so fussy all the time.

Yesterday I was able to pump a good 5.5 ounces of milk around 9am quite easily, probably because Connor had not fed that much that morning (which was unusual). I have found it difficult to express a more 2 ounces of milk per side. For example right now I am trying to express a bottle and while the left breast cooperated, the right breast is not.

I have found the La Leche League book "The Womanly Art Of Breastfeeding" to be very helpful. It was after reading this book that I decided to let Connor sleep in our bed. This has helped me immensely - I no longer need to sit up in bed and pick Connor up and risk disturbing his sleep to boot. By laying in bed and just turning to nurse him, I am able to tend to his hunger as soon as he starts fussing. This arrangement has resulted in a much better sleep for me, even though I do end up sleeping on my side for the most part because Connor has a habit of creeping his upper body towards me and ending up on a diagonal - basically taking up a good part of the bed! Daddy still worries about possibly rolling over onto Connor or elbowing him in the head. I think he actually did elbow Connor in the head last night but Connor was in a deep sleep and it did not bother him the slightest.

OK, I will now try to express more milk for the rest of the bottle for today's outing!

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Fussy and sleeping all day

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All I did today was sleep and be fussy pretty much! I must be going through another growth spurt. I hardly even fed much through the day, even.

My Po Po (Mom's mom) put me in the Mei Tai for the first time today. We have one that Tai-Po (my Great Grandma on Mom's side) brought back from Hong Kong. It is like the ones found here: http://meitaibaby.com, http://ellaroo.com/mei-tai.php, http://www.alongfortheride.biz/mei-tai-category-s/43.htm.

Po Po put me on her back in the Mei Tai and I fell asleep like a log in it!

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Grandparents Visit from Toronto

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My Dad's parents are visiting us this week; they arrived close to midnight yesterday. The look on "Yeh Yeh" (Grandpa on Dad's side) and "Mah Mah's" (Grandma on Dad's side) faces when they saw me was priceless. Mom was very happy to see them so happy.

Yeh Yeh is a big guy, and when he holds me I fall asleep just like that, it's so comfy! That's him in the pic at the left. This morning Yeh Yeh, Mah Mah, Mom and I went out for a walk around the neighbourhood. I was strapped in to Mah Mah using the Baby Bjorn carrier that Mom bought for $20 from a Craiglister. Yeh Yeh walked Oscar (the Yorkshire Terrier). It was a beautiful Vancouver morning, blue skies and the temperature was perfect.


My Mom took me to a "Mom and Baby" fitness class (www.fit4two.ca). She did all the aerobic work while I just lay there and watched, ha ha. I lasted about 20 minutes before I decided I needed to be held. When we came home I was crying again because I couldn't fall back asleep. As soon as Yeh Yeh held me, I was pretty much asleep! Cool.

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Week 8 and hands-free blogging

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Boy, it sure took a lot longer than I thought it would to set up a blog. Well, I did have to wait for Mom to buy and install a voice-recognition software called Dragon Naturally Speaking version 10. The software lets her dictate words to the computer so that while she is holding me she can blog for me and also write e-mails hands-free! So far, she says it is working perfectly! She tried using a couple of shareware apps that use the Microsoft voice-recognition engine was "a piece of crap, it didn't recognize a single word!".

Today am beginning week eight of my life. I had a few "firsts" today. I may have had my first tantrum -- I wasn't sucking on Mom's nipple properly so she decided not to let me have it anymore. So I screamed and cried and screamed some more until my face turned red and almost purple. Even when she gave up to my little tantrum, and tried to give it back to me, I wouldn't have it. Nope she made me upset and I wasn't not going to be easily pacified.

Oh, did you notice my name is Laughlin The Fierce? When I don't get what I want, I just start screaming as loud as I can. And then the adults have to guess what the problem is -- dirty diaper? Want food? Want to sleep? The past two weeks, sometimes it's none of these. I think I'm just having a growth spurt. I weighed in yesterday at 11 lbs. 2 oz. They say I'm "growing like a weed". Read more on growth spurts: http://www.parents.com/baby/development/physical/growing-baby/

Another "first" I had today was while sitting upright and leaning forward, I turned my head left and right. She also thinks I was trying to talk and was more socially engaged. It all seemed to impress Mom!

I did want to start this blog a few weeks ago since so much is happening so fast. Little things like two days ago Mom noticed my head is bigger and as such, my original hairline looks farther back on my head, ha ha! And today she noticed little hairs are growing on my forehead where it grew bigger.

And last week Mom finally noticed that my belly button was sticking out a lot when I am crying. It turns out that I have an umbilical hernia -- no worries though, it sounds worse than it is. Here's a some info on this condition: http://www.karrifamilyclinic.com.sg/2007/07/help-doc-my-babys-belly-button-sticks.html. We went to the doctor yesterday she said my hernia didn't look that bad, and she was even able to press my belly button back in. It pops back up, but Mom felt much better seeing that was able to pop back in.

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