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.