First set of shots of week 9

The Best Gift Of All

This week Nathan is becoming more and more  interactive. I am really enjoying our short bursts of play time. He likes to look in the mirror. We also sing, dance, talk and imitate each other's facial expressions. Having a baby is starting to get more and more fun. As far as other milestones go, he is drooling a lot and can hold his head up. He's also gripping onto things as I put them into his hands.

As far as sleep goes, we are no longer bed sharing. He is now sleeping in his pack and play at night. I have also started to transition him into sleep training. By transitioning, I mean that I'm starting off by having him not fall asleep in a human's arms. When he's starting to nod off, I put him in his crib or pack and play. Most of the time, I put on some white noise to help soothe him, but there's been a few times when he does not need it and will fall asleep on his own. I'm going to keep this up until Christmas. In the new year, I will start sleep training him.

Every week, we attend a class at the birthing center called "Baby Love." It's basically a group of moms and their babies. We share frustrations, thoughts, and ideas while we massage our babies. The lady who teaches the class is really cool and each week she brings some signs to teach us. (Sign language) One thing I've learned so far is "just put some breast milk on it." Apparently, breast milk has antiseptic properties and is good for baby acne, cradle cap, cuts and stuffy noses. When I first heard about it, I thought it was a bit hokey, but sure enough, when I put the stuff on his baby acne, it was gone in about 2 days. Now, I'm working on his cradle cap and have seen significant improvements already.

Everyday, Nathan is a bit fussy from around 4:00 to around 7:00 pm. Around that time, we go on a walk. So far, everyday this week when I run into this old chinese lady, Nathan is crying or fussing. She always looks into his stroller and says "ay-yo" and walks off. She must think I'm a horrible mom. Other than this "witching hour" when he does not sleep and just whimpers, Nathan is a great baby.

Since Nathan was born, I've been trying to speak strictly Chinese to him. For awhile, I was failing miserably because I would forget and resort back to English. Well, this week I've done a better job and pretty much have spoken Chinese to him all week. I really hope this works and we can raise a bilingual (even trilingual) child.

Monday, he received his first round of shots. He handled it as well as a baby could and I handled it well too. I've heard of parents bawling, or feeling bad, but I had no such feelings and kind of feel guilty about it. This time, he had no reactions to the shots. His next round of shots will be in 2 months, so I hope he will have no reactions as well.

The meet and greets of 8 Weeks

Photo Credit: Michael Steiner

This week has been an exciting one for our little Nathan. First of all, he endured a long 6 hour car ride to Plano, and then he had a chance to meet a bunch of new friends.

The picture to the left is of my group of friends from high school. We started out as 6 band nerds, and over the years, we've lost and found loved ones, most of us got married, and a few of us have popped out some little ones. We had a get together over the Thanksgiving break and got a chance to catch up and have our little ones meet. It was truly a special event. Probably one of the highlights of my year. I hope we can do this more often. It will be neat to take the same picture over the years to see how the babies have grown (and how we have aged).

Nathan is getting to be so big! When I woke up one morning this week, I could have sworn that he had grown a bunch during the night. No big smiles yet, but more often, I am seeing little grins coming from his little mouth.

Steve and I are both better (from having colds) and we sure are glad that Nathan didn't catch any of our colds.

Also, how could I forget to mention that earlier this "week" my friends from Paredes (the school I used to teach at) came over to meet Nathan. We ended up having a potluck dinner and had a good time visiting with each other.

As far as sleeping goes, Nathan is mostly sleeping for 3 hour stretches, although he is sneaking in one four hour session each night...which is great for mommy. In a couple of days, Nathan will go in for his 2 month check up and....shots.

Trailor Food, Movie Theaters, and Sick Parents

Zilker Park Walk

Yay! We made it past the 6 weeks growth spurt and we are well on our way to week 7. This week was a tough one, although it didn't start out too tough. Steve's parents came to visit this past weekend so we had a chance to sneak out for our first date night since Nathan was born. The date night was very romantic. We had planned on trying out the new brick-and-mortar Gourdoughs (a gourmet doughnut shop on steroids) for dinner and then going to watch wreck-it-ralph. Well, the directions to the restaurant took us instead to the original Gourdoughs, which is in a trailer food park. So we braved the chilly night and shared 3 tacos from a taco stand and a mother clucker doughnut.
I don't know if it was the ambient lighting of the trailer park, or that it was just that long since we've had a date night, but I felt tingly feelings from back when we were dating. So, overall, we really enjoyed our time together, but at the end of the night, we looked forward to seeing our little honey bun again.

The next day, I felt cold all day. We went out to lunch with the parents, and when I got home, I was having chills, felt exhausted and a bit nauseous. I decided to take a quick nap. 30 minutes later, I hear the garage door open and suddenly Steve comes home. He was feeling sick too, but his symptoms were sinus pressure and drippy nose. We got everyone's temperature and I was the only one with a fever of 102.

We slept through the afternoon and I was dreading the night. How could we possibly take care of a baby when both of us are sick? And if I had the flu, it was going to be a tough week. But most importantly, how do we keep Nathan from getting sick?

There were times that night where I thought that I could not go on any longer. That I would just put him in his crib and go to sleep myself. My body was sore all over and I was exhausted. The feeling was almost worse than labor. Then, the sun came up and it all seemed a bit better. I expected to wake up sniffly, but my airwaves were still clear. I really had no symptoms, but my fever still lingered at 100 degrees. It turns out that I had the stomach virus. Perhaps it was something I ate. But I am thankful that it was just that.

This week really made me realize how different our lives have changed now that our little guy is in our life.

The Growth Spurt of Week 6

I can hardly believe it, but Nathan's been with us for 6 weeks already! The time sure flies by so quickly. I took him in to his 6 week check up and he's gained 2 pounds (from his birth weight) already. If you count his lowest weight after birth, it's almost 3 pounds. He's also grown about 3 inches since birth. It's scary to imagine how some babies are his size when they are born. I simply can't imagine Nathan fitting inside of me at his current size/weight.

Nathan peeking out from the Balboa Baby sling.

He's on the tail end of a growth spurt period. A few days ago, he was a ravenous baby, wanting to nurse every hour to hour and a half. It was exhausting, to say the least. The nights were the worse. But, I think he's starting to get back to his normal 3 hour feedings and he's sleeping more regularly and I can get things done while he's napping.

As far as sleep goes, I can get about 7-8 hours of sleep a night. I nurse Nathan one final time around 10 and I go to sleep. He usually wakes up every 3 hours for a feeding, with one feeding lasting a bit longer because he just won't go to sleep. When I get frustrated, Steve takes over and Nathan is asleep in 20 minutes. I've learned to just wake Steve up if he's been up for more than an hour. (Instead of trying for 3 hours). I have also tried gripe water with Nathan for his colicky periods at night. I feel like it seems to help with his gas.

He's sleeping now, and I'm hoping he can sleep for awhile since apparently more sleep correlates to more growth. Many of the baby books says that babies will start to sleep for longer stretches at about 6 weeks. I'm not seeing it yet, but I sure hope it comes soon. I guess with a larger capacity digestive system, he can go longer without having to feed. Come on, growth spurt!

After being a mom for 6 weeks, I am starting to feel more confident about my mothering abilities. I feel like I am closer to him as he is starting to respond to stimulus and I can decipher his many cues and behaviors.

A few tentative plans right now for after Thanksgiving:
1. Attend a baby swimming/water class with Nathan. The ladies in my baby love class told me about this bathtime babies class where they teach babies how to be more comfortable in the water.

2. Start sleep training. I have decided to go with the pick-up and put down method. Right now Nathan is co-sleeping with us in the bed. After Thanksgiving, I am going to start to train him to go to sleep on his own in the pack'n'play bassinet. When he is able to sleep a full 8 hours, and able to start to crawl/roll over, I will transition him to his crib.

2 Weeks Photo Shoot

Week 5...One month!

Check out the little guy! He's starting to get chubby little cheeks! This picture was taken this morning when he wasn't cranky. It's been a pretty rough week. I now know how important it is for babies to sleep. For the past few days, our schedule has been thrown off a bit, causing Nathan to not sleep for more than 10 minute stretches at a time. We didn't really understand how a baby could be tired and not go to sleep. Also, I was getting a bit stressed out about trying to sleep train him (putting him down right before he dozes off) and failing miserably.Today has been the first time this week I have been able to sit down, eat lunch, and have some time to myself.

Well, turns out that until 2-3 months, it is ok for him to fall asleep in my arms. So, I guess I will start to sleep train him when the new year rolls around. I'm still a bit torn about what sleep training method I will use. My instinct tells me to go with the PD/PU method (Put down/pick up) where you put the baby down as they are drowsy and pick them up when they start to cry. However, the easier and thus more enticing method, the one my mom used on me, was the Ferber method, AKA the cry-it-out method. I'm curious about what others have done and how their kids turned out. My mom Ferberized, and while I'm not the most confident person, and I have some issues with separation, I think I turned out ok. I guess we still have a few weeks to figure this out.

Nathan is about 8 and a half pounds now, we are actually tracking his growth on the Wii. I even created a little baby Mii for him.

Cloth diapering is going well. Right now, he's a bit small for the one-size pocket diapers, but I think my favorite system is the prefolds with the Thirsties duo snap covers. I find that they are less bulky and they have a leak guard that keeps the mess down. I found that we were having to hand wash the covers between diaper washes, so I ordered another 2 diaper covers today. I wonder if these will still be my favorites when he is a bit bigger.

Night time sleep is alright. I have found that because I now can anticipate him getting up every 3 hours, the interrupted sleep is not bad. Since Nathan is feeding more efficiently, our feeding sessions are now down to 20-30 minutes as opposed to 45-50 minutes last week. I need to do a better job burping him, because sometimes I'll put him down, lay down, and a few minutes later, he wakes up crying because of gas. I think we also have a good system that we started last night and I ended up getting at least 7 hours of sleep. After bathing and feeding him, I would pass him off to Steve at around 10, when I would go to sleep. Steve puts him to sleep and is done for the night. I wake up at around 2 and 5 to feed him (one of the feedings almost always requires me to walk around the house to get him to sleep, and the other one, he goes straight to sleep after he eats) and then I wake up around 8 in the morning for good.

I guess that's it for now. I'm headed off to tidy up the house a bit and perhaps get a short power nap in before he wakes up. He's been asleep for 2 hours!