Changing time – Disposable Changing Pads

Published on January 19, 2010 in Baby Care. 1 Comment

When it comes to changing time, you are juggling wipes or cotton, diaper cream, clothes, the baby reaching for everything, and then it happens…

Baby decides to pee right in the middle of it all while the diaper is off! Now you have to wipe up, change the baby’s clothes and when you’re done, wipe and wash the changing pad.

This was what we were doing on an almost daily basis with Alex until we happened upon a great idea.

When we were in the hospital right after Alex was born, the hospital had blue absorbent pads that were thin plastic on one side and cotton on the other. They were meant to go on the bed to absorb any fluids that leaked.

We thought these would be ideal for the baby changing table. We went on the hunt and found them for sale online. We bought a case of them and Continue reading ‘Changing time – Disposable Changing Pads’

3 month baby checkup – 25th percentile growth??

Published on June 15, 2009 in Baby Care. 0 Comments Tags: .

measuringtapeWe took Alex to the doctor for her three month checkup. He looked her over and announced that she was perfect all around and totally normal. He then measures her head diameter and height and weight.

The doctor then pulls out a chart and looks up what percentile the baby falls into. He announces that she is in the 50th percentile for head size and the 25th percentile for height and weight at 3 months (11 pounds 14 oz and 22 and 5/8 inches tall).

She was also in the 25th percentile for her 2 month checkup and although the doctor said there was nothing to worry about Continue reading ’3 month baby checkup – 25th percentile growth??’

What Do Your Baby’s Cries Mean?

Published on June 15, 2009 in Baby Care. 0 Comments Tags: .

dunstan babyMy wife came home recently with a DVD under her arm. She said it can tell you what your baby’s cries mean and can help you understand what the baby needs to be happy and stop crying.

My first thought is that this is some hippy touchy feely crap that is either going to be nonsense and incredibly boring or just complete garbage. I figured if there was any truth to any of it, we’d have heard about it by now since people have been writing  books and teaching baby classes forever.

Well, I was to be proven wrong.

The DVD sat on top of the TV for a week or two. My wife would mention that we should watch it from time to time, but I would always find something – anything else to do to avoid having to suffer through it.

Finally, wifey adamantly declares one day that we are watching it and that’s it. I reluctantly pop it into the DVD player and we watch.

The DVD starts by telling the story of the woman who made it. Basically, she discovered as a kid that she has a photographic memory for sounds. When she had a baby, she started to see patterns in the different cries her baby let out. She was then able to further identify the cries by noting what made the baby happy for each particular cry.

She found that all babies have at least five distinct cries for things such as hunger, tired, burp me, Continue reading ‘What Do Your Baby’s Cries Mean?’

Baby Alex sticks her legs through crib slats

Published on June 7, 2009 in Baby Gear. 1 Comment Tags: , , .

mesh bumperI woke up the other morning and went to check on baby Alex as usual. Well, there was a suprise that day. She had somehow rotated herself ninety degrees so her feet were pointing toward the side of the crib and had wiggled herself down until her legs were sticking through the crib slats.

I don’t just mean her legs were sticking through a little, I mean all the way to her thighs. At first I was kind of freaked out about it, but when I checked on her, I realized that she was fine and had not hurt herself.

When I mentioned it to my wife, she said “Oh yeah! I forgot to tell you, she did that yesterday too”. Now, I know the baby didn’t hurt herself since the slats were far enough apart, not to cut off her circulation or anything like that, but I was still worried that she would eventually hurt herself.

It then suddenly occurred to me why people put bumpers in cribs. We didn’t have any bumpers since the doctor and the Infant CPR class we took said they are dangerous due to suffocation possibilities. So now I was stumped. I needed bumpers, but am hyper protective of little Alexandria and I wasn’t Continue reading ‘Baby Alex sticks her legs through crib slats’

Baby Alex sleeps through the night at 2.5 months!

Published on May 21, 2009 in Alex. 0 Comments Tags: .

alex sleepingWell, today was an awesome day. Wifey and I woke up and looked at each other. We both assumed that the baby must have woken up during the night and that the other one of us must have taken care of her.

Wifey looks at me and says “what time did you get up with Alex?” I replied, “I didn’t”. We both went in to check on her and there she was, just starting to stir and looking content.

I don’t know what, if anything, suddenly changed, but our current routine (and one we plan to keep) is to put her to bed around 8pm. Our little ritual is to change her diaper, put her in a night gown, and then feed her. We start around 7:15pm or 7:30pm and finish by about 8pm.

Once feeding is over, we bring her to her crib, sing twinkle twinkle little star to her and kiss her good night. We then tuck her under her blanket (which is tightly tucked into the sides of the mattress to avoid going over her face) and turn on her mobile. If she wants it, we give her a pacifier. She usually falls asleep within a few minutes.

We go to bed around 11pm, so we’ll wake up the baby about a half hour before Continue reading ‘Baby Alex sleeps through the night at 2.5 months!’

Switching from Similac Advanced to Sensitive Formula

Published on May 8, 2009 in Baby Care. 4 Comments Tags: , .

similac
My wife has always hated Alexandria getting fussy from gas or what she suspects may be an upset tummy caused by her Similac Advance Formula. I have never really been convinced that there was a big problem.

If the baby was fussy, it would normally not be for more than about 15 or 20 minutes once or twice a day. The fussiness would usually end with a fart and a suddenly relaxed baby.

On one occasion, my wife was very concerned about how much the baby seemed to be straining. Realizing that we had a doctor’s appointment the next day, I grabbed our digital camera that can make short movie clips and filmed exactly what the baby was doing. I put the movie on my laptop and brought it to the doctor the next day.

Upon seeing the clip of the baby straining the doctor looked up and us and said “isn’t technology great?”. We replied, yes… do you see a problem? He thinks for a second and promptly replies “I’m not Continue reading ‘Switching from Similac Advanced to Sensitive Formula’

Pregnancy: Making a delivery room “Go” bag

Published on April 3, 2009 in Pregnancy. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , , .

too much luggageOne topic that came up during our Lamaze class was preparing a “Go Bag” or duffel bag with everything we’d need for the delivery. You will end up with two different bags. One for delivery and one for your hospital stay after delivery. Considering that the delivery is generally the shortest period of your hospital stay, your delivery bag will be somewhat small and have basics.

Don’t make the same mistake I did. When my wife went into labor barely eight months into our pregnancy, I had to run around the house like a madman on a scavenger hunt trying to find everything we’d need. You should put your go bag together four to six weeks before your due date at the latest.

Luckily, my wife had written down a list of items to take. Had I not had that list, I would have been twice as lost.

The whole purpose of the bag is to have essentials and comfort items “JUST” for the delivery room. Your hospital bag will probably be much bigger and should be left in the car when you go to the hospital until after the baby is born.

Delivery rooms aren’t very large and there isn’t Continue reading ‘Pregnancy: Making a delivery room “Go” bag’

Help prevent SIDs with a movement sensor

Published on March 23, 2009 in Baby Gear. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Up to nine children die from SIDs per day in the United States. One can interpret this as either a positive considering that since there are tens of thousands of babies born each year, statistically the odds of your baby dying from SIDs is very low. Unfortunately, if you are one of those affected, the statistics mean nothing.

Children are generally considered to be at highest risk of dying of SIDs between birth and one year of age. Cases of SIDs have been reported in children as old as two years, but this seems to be rare.

I decided I wasn’t willing to take the risk. A friend of ours had a  baby a few months before us. They had looked into the topic of SIDs and found several products that looked promising.

The product I and our friends both settled on is an infant motion monitor. It works by sensing the baby’s smallest movements from breathing and all other body movements. As long as the baby is breathing, it will flash a green light. If it doesn’t detect movement for 20 seconds or if movement slows to less than 10 movements per minute, a loud alarm sounds.

We bought the HiSense BabySense V Infant Movement Monitor from Continue reading ‘Help prevent SIDs with a movement sensor’

Train your infant to sleep through the night

Published on March 20, 2009 in Baby Care. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

babycryI’ve spoken to many parents to say that their child sleeps through the night easily and others who say getting the child to sleep in the first place is next to impossible and getting her to sleep through the night IS impossible.

I’ve been looking into the topic myself as I refuse to believe that there isn’t a way to get an infant into a routine.

Most of my research has shown that there is a system.

First off, don’t bother trying to get your infant into a routine any earlier than two to three months old. They’re just too young and don’t have any clue what is goining on. They are not self aware enough to get into a system until close to three months.

We got a preview of what was to come as my wife’s sister had a baby girl 9 months before Alexandria’s due date. Things didn’t go well for my sister-in-law and her husband. Her parents came in from out of town to help with the new baby. The problem was that they came for 6 months.

Upon their arrival, her parents decided their sole reason for being there was to keep the baby happy at all costs and that the baby should never cry. They did and outstanding job if that was their goal. The moment the baby w0uld utter a peep, they would go running to her side. They would be on top of her and talking or singing or playing with her every waking moment of the day until the baby would go to sleep for the night. They would hold and rock the baby to sleep.

This went on for 6 months straight. By the time the grandparents left and went home, they had completely convinced the baby Continue reading ‘Train your infant to sleep through the night’

How to get sleep with a newborn

Published on March 19, 2009 in Baby Care. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Before Alexandria was even born, my wife and I often discussed how we were going to deal with the topic of sleeping since the one thing everyone with kids can agree on is that sleep becomes a luxury when the newborn comes home.

tiredSince my wife’s sister had a baby 8 months before Alex was born, we had an idea of what to expect. My sister in law and her husband, started out by keeping the baby in their bedroom. Every time the baby would wake up and cry, both of them would get woken up and both would be up until the baby went back to sleep, even though only one of them was actually changing or feeding her.

While this is very noble and full of camaraderie, I am completely against it. The two of them both looked like zombies for months.

Wifey and I talked about it and decided the best approach for us to try is for us to split up. Since my company allowed me to take a couple of months off after the baby was born to help my wife, we were able to get more creative than we would have been had I needed to go back to work right away.

Since we had converted our guest room into the baby’s room, we already had a bed in there. Instead of both of us getting up all night, Continue reading ‘How to get sleep with a newborn’