Baby Blanket
We live in Western New York, so this time of year, it starts to get really cold. We had our first snow on October 1st. That being the case, we wrap Baby J. in two layers of pajamas each night. Even with the heat going all night, it still gets really cold. The pajamas alone aren't enough. So at the last pediatrician's visit, we asked if there was any reason we couldn't give her a blanket. All the books say wait until they're a year and a half before giving them a blanket. That seemed pretty ridiculous to us. Baby J. is an extremely active baby. And even though she sleeps for long stretches at a time, she's a light sleeper. The pediatrician said we were ok to give her a blanket, and we have.
It's made a big difference. Baby J. stays warm all night. She doesn't wake as often. A lot of the books will say that because your baby has never had a blanket or a pillow, they don't know what they're missing. But I think Baby J. knew. She loves blankets. And though we don't give her a pillow, whenever she's playing with us in the morning in our big bed, she usually rests her head on the pillow and gets a huge smile on her face. Babies aren't stupid. I think they know that blankets and pillows sure beat pajamas and a flat surface alone.
When it's cold outside, I've got the month of May.
Well, I guess you'll say, what can make me feel this way?
My girl...
D.
Baby Pancakes
Baby J. searching for more pancake
Baby J. keeps impressing me with what foods she loves right away. She tried pancakes tonight, and at first, I thought she wasn't into them. I gave her little pieces she could chew, and she just kept looking at them funny, and then tossing them over her shoulder. My wife said, "Give her a big piece and see what she does." Baby J. took a half pancake, and she devoured it. She gobbled it up. She tore it apart, and she ate every little piece. I guess she just doesn't like being given little pieces. She wants the whole pie.
Today was a lot better than the crummy day we had yesterday. We looked it up, and apparently, EVERYONE complains about Sears' photo studio. I guess they have this policy where if the people working there make sales of less than $150 repeatedly, they are fired. I'm starting to understand why the woman we had kept pushing everything down our throats and tried to tell us our coupons weren't valid. What a way to run a business. Has Sears ever considered that maybe, just maybe, they should consider their customers? Maybe if they weren't so pushy and conniving, I might have been willing to spend more money. Maybe if they hadn't rushed us through and given us so few pictures to choose from, I might have had more pictures I wanted to actually purchase.
It isn't rocket science.
Tip of the day: Take your own pictures and have them printed for cheap. Save yourself a lot of money and torment.
D.
Taking Turns with Baby
Oops, looks like I fell asleep during my turn
My wife and I have adopted a simple system of taking turns. One morning, I'll get a little extra sleep, while she gives the baby the bottle. The next morning, I'll let her sleep some more. One night, I'll handle the bath. The next night, she will. If my wife put the baby down for her last nap, then I'll handle getting her down that night.
We found from way back at the beginning that this was the only way we could really handle things. When Baby J. had her nights and days mixed up, we would take turns, staying up all night long with Baby J. We'd give the other 2-3 hours of sleep, before we'd hand the baby over. It was better than one of us having to stay up all night, and it was the only way to deal with a reflux baby, who had a terrible bout of colic (she liked to scream and cry for hours, and the only effective response to this, was to stay up the entire time rocking her).
I bring it up, because I know some people who never get to take turns, some people who are with the baby all day while their spouse is at work. And then, when the spouse gets home, they don't get relief, they're still taking care of the baby, giving the bath, getting him/her down for sleep. I don't know how it's done. I couldn't do it. I know how exhausting Daddy Daughter Days are and those usually don't last more than 8 hrs before my wife comes back into the picture to help out. If I had 24 hr long Daddy Daughter Days 7 days a week, I'm sure I'd be clinically insane by now. So, for those who do it, how do you do it? How do you keep from going insane?
D.
How to Get Baby to Sleep Through the Night
Baby J. Dressed for Bedtime
Are you having trouble getting your baby to sleep through the night? How many hours is he or she sleeping at night, before waking up? How much sleep are you getting yourself? For us, we were lucky at first. Baby J. naturally fell into a pattern of sleeping through the night at around 4 months of age. We didn't have to do anything. No tricks. No special bedtime routines. It was like we were suddenly gifted with a great sleeper (after a couple rough months of always waking up due to reflux).
Then, Baby J.'s first tooth came at around 5 months. While she was teething, we weren't expecting her to sleep too well. Teething leaves babies in a general state of wakefulness, and we weren't surprised when she went from sleeping through the night to waking up every couple hours, crying and needing to be held. After the tooth was finished coming out, we kind of expected Baby J. to return to her original sleep pattern.
She didn't.
In fact, she continued sleeping as though she were teething. She must have grown accustomed to being picked up and held every couple hours, and tooth or no tooth, she wasn't about to stop on our account. After a few days of this, two cranky, exhausted parents decided something had to be done.
Don't Forget the Bath Right Before Bed
There are a few schools of thought on getting your baby to sleep through the night. There's the all-out "cry it out" method, where you plunk the little one into his/her crib, leave the room, and see them again in the morning. Some people say this utterly cruel, and you should never treat a baby in this fashion. Despite not using this exact method, I don't agree with those people. Your kid will be just fine if you let them cry it out. They'll be perfectly happy the next day. You know what your child needs more than being picked up and coddled all the time? They need a good night's rest. And crying it out isn't something that takes months and months, it takes three days tops. So, if you're considering this method, don't think you're the worst parent in the world, you're simply doing you and your baby something good that's going to (after three days most likely) get both of you a lot more rest.
The method we did try was a modification of the "cry it out" method. It's pretty simple. You put your baby in the crib. Pat them for about a minute, say "good night", and then you leave the room. They will cry. They will bawl. They will scream. This is perfectly normal. Come back in five minutes, lay them down (if they're like Baby J. and they've been standing and pulling at the crib like its a prison cage), pat them for about a minute, shush them, say "good night", and then leave. This time, wait ten minutes before coming back. Keep doubling your time. Unless you have an incredible stubborn baby, they'll probably figure out after two or three times of being laid back into their crib, patted and wished a "good night" that it's time they slept. This method isn't quite as effective as the traditional "cry it out", but it gets fast results. It only took us three days before Baby J. got the big picture and went down immediately without any more fussing. Now, she sleeps 12 hours each night from 7pm to 7am.
Remember, the most important rule is, once your baby has entered the crib for the night, he/she does NOT come back out until morning. Unless they have a giant soiled diaper or there is clearly something wrong with the child, resist the temptation to pick him/her up. Getting picked up will only encourage them to cry and fuss more the next time you put them down. The second night we tried this, I made the mistake of picking up Baby J. She cried and screamed after I put her down for four hours, because she was so convinced I'd pick her up again.
Here are some other tips for getting your baby ready at night:
- Set a bed time. Preferably make it around 6:30pm to 7:30pm. If you make your baby wait too long to go to bed, they will get overtired. And an overtired baby is actually much harder to get to sleep than a well rested baby. Sometimes, Baby J. sleeps the longest when she's taken a nap an hour or so before her bed time. It keeps her fresh, and she's less cranky for the long night.
- Make bedtime as routine as possible. It's a good idea to give him/her a bath right before bed time every night. Put lotion on after the bath. Dress them up in some warm pajamas, and then give them a bottle while you read to them (reading is so important, even at this early stage, don't forget it). For older babies with teeth, brush their teeth after they have finished with their bottle. If they absolutely need some sort of comfort, and they're old enough, give them some water (but don't keep giving them breast milk or formula, it will encourage them to stay up).
- Not really a bedtime tip, but make sure your baby gets naps. A couple of naps a day will mean your baby will be less tired by evening time. This also makes everything easier, like mealtime. A baby should be getting 2-3 hours of nap time a day. Some babies don't let you know when they're tired, so try to set roughly fixed times as to when your baby should be napping such as an hour after breakfast or an hour after lunch; the more routine the naps are, the more likely he/she will go down at those designated nap times.
Remember too, you may have to "reteach" your baby to sleep through the night after certain episodes that affect their sleeping pattern, such as teething, a cold, the flu, etc.
That's all I can think of right now. Hmm, let me know if you have any further tips that might help people that read this post.
D.
Hip Dysplasia
Baby J. in her Superhero Costume
Whenever I've told anyone about Baby J.'s hip dysplasia as a newborn, I'm usually met with one of two responses, either, "What the heck is hip dysplasia?" or "Oh, I had that as a kid." I was actually surprised to learn it was more common than I thought. For those who don't know, the easiest way to explain it is that the femur (the thigh bone) doesn't quite fit right into the hip joint, either because the hip joint is too large (and hasn't finished closing around the femur), or the hip joint and the femur just aren't really lining up.
Examples of Hip Dysplasia
Baby J. had the problem that her hip joint was too large and not finished growing correctly around the femur (pretty much what you see in example C on the left). As a result, she had to wear a Pavlik harness, which is this ugly thing that wraps around her shoulders, hips and feet in order to keep the legs positioned in such a way that the hip can form correctly around the femur. To make ourselves feel better about the awful contraption she was forced to wear, we often referred to it as her "superhero costume". She was lucky though, some cases of hip dysplasia are so severe that the child has to be in traction for a period of time (I could only imagine how well that would have went with a baby that constantly wants to move).
After only about a month of wearing the harness, Baby J. was able to have it off for short periods of time, and then after a few more visits to her hip doctor, she was able to lose the harness at all. I won't go into much detail, but we had a lot of issues with our hip doctor; he kept trying to bilk us out of more money, even after Baby J.'s hips were completely healed. Despite three separate ultrasounds that all showed her hips were perfectly fine, despite nurses and her own pediatrician saying the hips were fine, and despite the hip doctor himself admitting that her hips were now perfectly normal, he kept trying to us to return for more and more visits. We eventually put our foot down and said enough was enough. It was a waste of money, and clearly the hip doctor was trying to keep a steady $300 paycheck from our health care provider for the five minute sessions he had wherein he simply said, "Hips look fine. Come back in three months." I know I'm ranting and completely getting off target here, but some doctors really infuriate me.
So, anyway, back to topic, I'm curious if any readers have any kids with hip dysplasia, and if so, how severe is it? My wife had it as a baby, and her case was far worse than Baby J.'s; she was forced to wear a Pavlik harness for about a year. And if you can't already imagine, those harnesses are extremely uncomfortable, hard to put on, harder yet to clean up, and an all around pain in our collective rear.
D.
