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    No, it doesn’t all fit in your mouth

    November 28th, 2008

    G has taken to not only licking his fists, but seeing just how much of them he can shove in his mouth. Sometimes he tries to stick them in so deep I worry he’ll gag himself… except that his facial expressions are so funny to observe, as he does it, that I rarely stop him. Besides, he’s gotta find his own limits, right?

    It’s pretty cute and hilarious to watch. See for yourself!

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAd_RUBvsFM]

    Occasionally he’ll raise both hands to his mouth, lick one, then the other, then try to get both in there to give them equal time. All this while his eyes kinda criss-cross as he tries to watch them go in. I’ve been trying to take video of this, but I’m never fast enough with the camera to get it.

    Yeah, good times! Only bad side effect to this are what his hands smell like after awhile. Lets just say that it’s a little fresh in those little tight fists, and wipes these days are coming in handy on more than just his rear.


    I can’t believe I keep falling for this

    November 27th, 2008

    Every year we brine our Turkey Day bird. I put it in breast-side down overnight and then the next day we rotate it.

    Today I kinda forgot, so as I was showering and thinking about the rest of my dinner prep I panicked. S came in to check in on me, w/ G strapped in the carrier so I asked:

    “Hon, would you mind please flipping the bird?”

    I’ll give you one guess S’ gesture response at this point.

    “Fine! I meant the other bird.”

    As he was laughing S proceeded to repeat the same gesture with his other hand.

    “The third bird.”

    Finally having a partner in crime, S decided that it’s a good idea to transition to G’s little hands. Yeah, good luck prying those boxing fists open, buddy!

    “Go flip the turkey please!”

    At this point S headed out murmuring “I love that we do this every year!” Yep. Apparently I fall for this every year, and every year I forget. So this is now my mental note: next year ask to flip the “turkey”, not just a generic “bird”.

    Oh, and Happy Turkey Day!


    More Video from the Flip

    November 23rd, 2008

    Post by S

    I spent the afternoon trying to edit the video from our Flip Video camera. I’m still on the fence about this camera. It’s small, super easy to use, but very limited. They’ve tried to make it so easy to use that you can’t do much with the video. But I tried to put together clips from the different videos we took over the last week. I think from now on, I’ll try taking the raw files from the camera and editing them in a different program.

    But for now here are some clips of G:

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teopoWzLBDU]


    Bedtime progress report

    November 23rd, 2008

    Ok, day 2 of new bedtime routine. It’s hard, but it’s working [knock on wood].

    G’s on his second day of “no boob ’till z’s”, and being placed in his crib before his eyes are shut. Yesterday we started off with a fair amount of crying, but it was my fault for rushing it through (hey, I’ve always said that patience is not a virtue of mine). S’s rescued bed-time last night, so we’ve been trying his cuddle-and-bounce-to-calm approach before G gets in the crib.

    So we’re 2 for 2. I hope it lasts, although I know not every night will be easy or successful. I just hope that the days that this works will outnumber the days that it doesn’t. I’m also hopeful that by mid-December evening bedtime will be more settled and I can start working on the day-time nap adjustment.

    Did I mention this whole parenting thing is hard and tricky?


    Trixie for Data Junkie Parents

    November 22nd, 2008

    Post by S

    What happens when two data loving geeks have a baby? They start tracking stuff – feedings, diaper changes, naps. Maybe it gives us the false sense of control.

    We started logging in the hospital. Initially we just logged diapers and nursing – something the nurses asked us to do. As soon as we got home from the hospital, A quickly updated the hospital tracking sheet to a much more detailed and structured Excel sheet. We used it for a few days before a Nestie recommended we check out Trixie Tracker. It’s a web app for doing just what we were doing, except it does a whole lot more and does it better.

    After the 14 day trial, we quickly signed up for the Premium service and started down the path of collecting data on G.

    Trixie is a robust app and the main developer/owner is super responsive to questions and suggestions. It seems to be a labor of love for him. And it turns out we’re not the only set of data loving parents! If you are interested, take the tour on the Trixie site. The Trixie site does a much better job of showing off the features than I can do.

    It’s not just about collecting data, it really does make our lives easier. Any new parent knows your mind turns to jello – I can’t remember anything these days. So trying to remember when the last diaper change was or how long G slept last night or when we last fed wasn’t possible. Now we just check our Trixie page – which we have constantly open on a laptop in the nursery or we can pull up on our mobile phones. The Trixie site looks sweet on A’s new iPhone.

    It’s pretty cool to see trends in sleep patterns (does that just scream geek?). There were times when we ‘thought’ G had napped more one day than he had done on a previous day — only to find out our guess was totally wrong. Trying to get an accurate assessment was fruitless. We just went to the Sleep Chart; here is a sample from our last week.

    image

    Having the log also helps in the middle of the night when one of us gets up. We can tell what’s happened while we were sleeping when the other got up with him. Knowing when he was fed, changed, and awake brings a level of sanity to an otherwise crazy life. And a side benefit is that I can check out Trixie from work and get a glimpse into how G’s day is going. We can also print out pages to take to the doc appointments if needed. Trixie allows you to track a lot of stuff but we’re only tracking: Diapers, Sleep, Bottles, Nursing, and Pumping.

    I know this level of data collection isn’t for everyone, but you may be surprised how much it helps. Give it a try.

    So what’s G’s data tells us? Here’s the diaper summary! 545 diapers since we started tracking! I’m glad we’re doing cloth otherwise I may feel the need to translate the diaper count to dollars.

    image

    imageSleep: G’s about average on his total hours of sleep. You can see above that his night time sleep patterns aren’t too bad either and that we’ve tried to make his night bedtime a little earlier over the last week.

    Before you freak out and think we let the data dictate what we do — don’t. We do the tracking and it helps with the hour to hour stuff. Then we occasionally step back and take a look at the charts to see if we can gain any perspective.

    Sometimes it is just like looking at pictures – it’s hard to believe it’s been 3 months gone by and the charts from that time bring back memories (mostly of sleepless nights).


    Reconditioning starts … now

    November 21st, 2008

    For awhile now we’ve hit a groove to how G goes to bed.

    At 8pm he gets walked up to his room, I turn on the night light, the white noise machine, we change his diaper, and swaddle him in. Then he and I sit down in the glider and he eats… until he falls asleep. After a few minutes I carefully and slowly move him to his crib doing the “Sleep, baby, sleep!” chant silently in my head. On a good night he doesn’t even stir when his head hits the mattress, and on bad nights he wakes up immediately, starts crying and we have to repeat the eat-sleep-move-chant steps over and over again until he stays down.

    This has been working well for us for the last while, but it’s time for a change.

    G’s onto me. He’s come to recognize what works for him and any change to this plan (like just putting him straight into the crib) just won’t do. Change produces whimpering, whimpering escalates to crying, and then we’re WAY far away from a calm and sleepy baby. That paired with a tired mommy equals boob in mouth and G ultimately getting his way.

    The issue is that this isn’t really sustainable and I’m not doing any service to my child. He’s not learning how to fall asleep on his own, and in a few weeks when location awareness starts to kick in, I don’t want him freaking out over waking up in a way different than how he went to sleep.

    So, my resolution, starting this week-end is to put him in his crib when he’s not fully asleep. Yes, this will surely wake him up again, and there will be crying, but we’ve gotta make it work.

    I also want him to get used to napping in a crib during the day too. Right now he takes his nap in the swing, swaddled, with the blow-drier running next to him, with the occasional blanket over his head to block out anything interesting to look at. Yeah, it’s an elaborate setup, and that’s the problem — I fear I’ve turned him into a picky baby and our day care is going to hate me for it.

    So yeah, we’ve got some serious retraining ahead of us. If you see me with dark circles under my eyes walking around like a zombie for awhile… this is why.


    Foto… er Video… Friday

    November 20th, 2008

    We’re trying something new this week. Video!

    Here’s proof that G has the coolest baby smile ever

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVfD7yyMics]


    Couch potato in training

    November 18th, 2008

    G likes to watch TV!

    Yes, this is a little embarrassing to admit of my 2.5 month old, but the colorful images coming from our big ole’ TV just mesmerize him.

    His favorite channel? The Food network. At least there’s some “education” coming out of that one, but I can see it now: next year G will be sitting on the couch, Al Bundy style, with a big bag of Cherios in hand.

    He likes to be held by one of us, while sitting and bouncing on the exercise ball, facing the TV. At least one of us is kinda getting some exercise ;p

    Hmn … I wonder how he’d like going to the movies?


    Our little swimmer

    November 17th, 2008

    I’ve never been comfortable around water. Showers and jaccuzi’s sure, but pools and open water, not so much. I’m not a strong swimmer, hate water up my nose and I’m not crazy about participating in activities that make me part of the food chain.

    S on the other hand was a life-guard and has scuba-diving licenses up the wazoo.

    I wish for G to be more like his dad, so… on Saturday we took G for his first swim class.

    The class was kind of neat: you sing swimming adaptations to popular songs, such as the “Hokey Pokey”, and get the kids acclimated to the idea that they need to flap their arms and legs around in the water.

    It was heated to 92 degrees so it was pretty much a big bath-tub. G didn’t get much of the arm/leg motion going, but he seemed to enjoy it… mostly. He would go between splashy “fun” face and crying “get me out of here” face.

    All in all though, I’d say it was a good first try. We’ll certainly go frequently, but we won’t be making it a weekly activity just yet. We will be enjoying some splash-time in our own bath-tub though 🙂


    The next stage of stroller fun

    November 15th, 2008

    I’m really glad we waited on getting a stroller until G was born. Our little Snap’N Go stroller (thank you Dave and Tracy) has served us well: it’s gotten us to our destinations, and most importantly has made me figure out what features are important to me. In the two months of pushing G around I realized I wanted:
    – a good turn radius
    – sturdy and big rubber wheels
    – cushy ride for G
    – light enough for me to place in car on my own
    – an easy break mechanism

    From the above I realized that what encompassed the above best is a tri-wheel stroller.

    From my research, I fell in love with the Quinny Buzz. Unfortunately after a store visit, S didn’t quite share my stroller crush. Instead he favored the Baby Jogger City Elite. The battle was on: BJ vs. Quinny:

    vs. 

    Alas I didn’t win. We got the Baby Jogger. Somehow my “It looks so cool!” argument didn’t go very far. I’m sad a bit, but excited that G has a new set of wheels. We’re going to go and test it out tomorrow.

    While in the store today we saw another couple shopping for a stroller. They were in there with their little one who couldn’t have been much older than G. They were there with their (what looked like pretty new) stroller system. Obviously they couldn’t have been loving it all that much since they were already looking to replace it. Although it sucks (for them) that they have to spend more money, they made me feel pretty good in waiting it out.

    So yey for new wheels!