Being Sara

I think that the one thing people always say when they find out you’re having a baby is that your world is going to change, nothing will ever be the same, etc.  Of course, no one really talks about what is going to change, and since you’ve heard this same statement 20 times that week, you simply nod your head and say yes it will…  So, I’ve got some more detailed thoughts on things that change once you have a new little person in hour house.  These are of course only examples, and I’m sure there are plenty of things that I’ve forgotten or not yet discovered

1. Topics of discussion.   Pre-baby Zach and I talked about work, our respective family and friends, books and movies we were interested in, our blogs, and news in general.  Post-baby our focus has changed somewhat.  We still talk about those other things, but the discussion is primarily focused on Xander – how much he ate that day, how fussy he’s been, how often he pooped, and anything exceptionally cute or impressive he did.  Our friend Dan told us that once we’ve got an hour without talking about poop we will have reached a milestone.  At first I thought that was silly, until I realized he was right – it’s hard to go an hour without talking about it!

2. It doesn’t take much to get you excited.  Pre-baby Zach and I were pretty mellow people – we didn’t get easily excited.   Post-baby even the smallest events are worthy of celebration (for example, Xander sleeping through the night two nights in a row and we’re ready to break out the party hats!)

3. Your world becomes so much smaller.   Suddenly world politics and national news become far less interesting.  Instead of spending time following the news, we spend time following our son’s development.  When he can consistently put his hand in his mouth, or sleep through the night, these things seem far more newsworthy.

4. The stuff in your house expands exponentially.  Pre-baby Zach and I had tons of stuff – we are constantly shifting things around, trying to organize better, and eventually sift out the things that we no longer use.  It seems that Xander, in his 3 months on this earth, has managed to accumulate almost as much stuff as both Zach and I have in our combined 54 years on this earth.  I’m not quite sure how this happens, but things just seem to magically accumulate until you look around and suddenly there isn’t a single room in our house that does not have something baby related in it.  It’s quite an amazing phenomena.

5. Caution.  Pre-baby I was a fairly cautious person, though I didn’t really worry too much about my personal safety.  I always wore my seatbelt, and did my best to eat healthy, etc., but thoughts of mortality rarely crossed my mind.  Now, when I’m driving I worry about getting hurt or dying, not for my own sake, but because I have this little person at home who needs me.  So, my reasons for being extra cautious are not for my own benefit but for my son’s.

6. A shift in priorities.  Pre-baby, our two cats were the focus in the house.  At night our routine always included a few hours of cuddle time with the cats.  Post-baby, I find the cats to be much more annoying.  It’s not that they interfere with Xander – in fact they hardly acknowledge that even exists.  It’s just that I don’t have as much time for them, and their antics that used to seem funny and cute, now just seem to make more work.  I still love them, and enjoy spending time with them, but they are no longer the number one priority in the house.

So many things do change, but some things have stayed the same – Zach and I are still able to discuss what’s going on at work, and watch some television that we enjoy, and go out and do things (though it does take more effort to get packed up to go these days…)  Some of the changes take some time to adjust to, and others seem to happen naturally without much effort.  Sometimes I do miss parts of my pre-baby life, but then I look at my son, and remember all of the things that I have gained, and that pre-baby life doesn’t seem so important anymore.

baby, babies, infant, infants, life changes, baby changes, parents, parenting, mothers

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Our sleepy, happy baby has started to change a bit in the past week or so – he has started crying and fussing more often, and sometimes goes from completely happy to completely freaking out in mere seconds. We haven’t entirely figured out the cause of this change, though we suspect that he may have started teething.

Teething already you say? That’s what we said too. So, we did some research. “The Manual” (What To Expect in the First Year), BabyCenter and PregnancyWeekly all describe excessive drooling as one of the first signs of teething, along with fussiness and sometimes crying for food and then spitting out the bottle or nipple when it’s offered. So, the drooling that we thought was weird last week, and the confusion over whether or not he’s hungry that was starting to worry me all seem to fit into this puzzle. When I first suggested this to Zach, he ran his fingers over Xander’s gums. We can’t feel any little teeth there yet, but Xander seemed pretty happy to have someone touching his gums – all three sources suggest running a clean finger over a baby’s gums to relieve the discomfort, so it seemed like our suspicions have been confirmed – our little guy is growing awfully quickly, and maybe even a little faster than I’m ready for!

baby development, baby teeth, infant dental care, infant development, teething, teething symptoms

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I don’t know if it was the busy party, or recovery from a cold, but Xander finally slept through the night! We know it is possible! Zach and I went to an office Christmas party Monday night. Xander was of course Mr. Popularity. Everyone wanted to hold him. Once the first lady scooped him up, Zach and I didn’t hold him for the rest of the party – he got passed from one person to the next and everyone was eager to cuddle with this adorable, snuggly little baby. By the time we left around 9pm, Xander was asleep in his car seat. When we got home, Zach and I watched television for about an hour, and we didn’t move Xander – didn’t even unbuckle him because he was still fast asleep. At 10pm, we went to bed, and Xander didn’t even begin to twitch until about 5am. Even then, he dozed until almost 6am when I got up to feed him! It was amazing and incredibly exciting for us sleepy parents, and now I’m afraid he won’t do that again until he’s 6 years old (hehe).

On a side note, I changed Xander’s diaper just before we left for the party around 6pm, and didn’t change it again until 12 hours later at 6am. 12 hours and that one diaper absorbed an amazing amount of urine – Xander’s onesie has just barely started to get wet which I thought was quite impressive! That was a Huggie’s brand diaper. We’ve now sampled Luvs, Huggies and Pampers. After a little more sampling I plan to write a diaper review, but right now, I’m pretty impressed with Huggie’s absorption rate!

baby sleep, diapers, huggies, infant sleep, sleep challenges, sleep problems, sleeping through the night

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I’ve had a few months to use and form opinions on a large number baby products. One of the most important items in a new baby’s home is a diaper bag. There are a zillion and one different diaper bags to choose from, so how do new parents find the right bag? And, what do you put into that bag once you’ve found the one for you?

First, the bag. Like I said, there are tons out there to choose from, and a lot of the decision has to do with personal style. I ended up with the “deluxe tote” from Little Company. I found this bag at Target for $50.00. This bag has a lot of excellent features – a removable changing pad, a thermal bottle carrier that attaches to the side of the bag, cell phone and pacifier pockets on the outside of the bag, and a zippered clear pocket on the inside where you can store wet clothes. If I were to purchase a bag now though, I think I would look for something a little larger, as we are always stuffing that bag full – when you need to pack diapers, wipes, 2 extra sets of clothes, pacifiers, bottles, water, formula, burp cloths and maybe a toy or two. Target has an excellent selection of diaper bags online. The local store I went to didn’t have as many, but that might have been specific to that store.

So, the things inside the diaper bag. I have found the small travel cases for wipes to be very handy. We’ve used one from Pampers and one from Huggies. I like that the Pampers one had a push and release top. I like that the Huggies one can fit a few more wipes inside. These are small plastic cases that hold about 20 wipes or so – perfect for day trips. As for the wipes themselves, I like the thickness of the Huggies wipe – it doesn’t feel like the pee is going to soak all the way through the wipe and onto you. The Huggies wipes are also quilted which is nice. However, the travel wipes are folded in a way that is almost impossible to get them out of the container. They aren’t folded together so that one pops up following the one that you pull out. Instead you have to feel around for the seam somewhere in the middle of the container, and I find that I often nearly rip the wipe trying to get it out. The Pampers wipes are not at thick or nice feeling, but they do come out much more easily.

Clothing doesn’t need much of a review – there’s just too much. I will say though, that I love the Carter’s tag-less outfits. One suggestion we got before Xander arrived was to cut the tags out of his outfits so they wouldn’t irritate the back of his sensitive little neck. This sounded logical, so when I washed all of his outfits I got at my baby shower, I started to cut out the tags, until I realized that I didn’t know what size the outfits were without the tags (oops) so the tag-less became my new favorites.

I think that babies pretty much choose their favorite bottles and pacifiers. We had decided pre-baby that we wanted to use silicone nipples and pacifiers versus the latex, as the latex seems to break down faster. Our baby let us know around 1 month the kind of pacifiers he preferred. He likes the ones that have a flat bottom instead of the oval shape all around. Nuk from Gerber makes a nice one. Our favorites though are the Evenflo Vizion Pacifiers. They have the shape that Xander likes, and a soft foam backing so that he doesn’t get that red mark around his mouth after using a pacifier. They come in a little container and have covers for the nipples, which I like quite a bit (keeps them cleaner).

As for bottles, Xander didn’t really seem to have a preference exactly, but he seems to suck better with Avent bottles. There are lots of bottles who advertise that they reduce colic, etc., but since Xander has never had a problem with that, I can’t speak to which bottles might actually do that. We initially purchased a few 4 ounce bottles, and then realized that it made a lot more sense to buy the larger bottles since we can use them when Xander starts drinking more than 4 ounces in a feeding, and they are actually more comfortable to hold. So, I would recommend buying the larger bottles, and then you just have to purchase replacement nipples as the baby gets older and better at sucking.

For a while we had a tiny bottle of Purell hand sanitizer in the bag as well – quite handy for those diaper changes on the go.  Recently I discovered some hand sanitizer I like much better.  It’s moisturizing and scented, and my new favorite diaper bag product.  It’s from Caren.  I found it in a hotel gift shop, but they’ve got a good online store.  I think that Purell has become sort of the kleenex of the hand-sanitizing world.  It’s the one product that you see everywhere, and we sometimes forget that other companies make hand sanitizers as well.  At any rate, if you ever get a chance you should pick up some of this – I think it’s far superior to the Purell brand.
We are still sampling diapers, so I’m not quite ready to write a review of them yet. However, I am impressed that a Huggies diaper (size 1) was able to hold almost 12 hours worth of urine when Xander slept through the night, so at this point, they are a pretty exciting diaper in our house

Avent, baby supplies, baby wipes, bottles, diaper bags, diapers, Evenflo, Huggies, pacifiers, Pampers, Purell, Caren, hand sanitizer

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So, BabyCenter’s weekly bulletin this week discussed baby sign language.  Zach and I had discussed whether or not we wanted to do this with our baby when I was pregnant.  At first glance, this seems like a pretty exciting idea.  All the experts and literature, even Wikipedia sing it’s praises – babies become less frustrated, have fewer tantrums, develop a special bond with their parents, etc.

I have only seen one family who has actually taught their child sign language.  After meeting that little girl, Zach and I decided that we would not teach our kid sign language before he could speak.  This little girl is three years old and has a verbal vocabulary of about 20 words.  She just recently started putting two or three words together.  Although she is three, she appears much younger because she can’t really speak – when she points and says “dog” or “ball” she looks like she’s just a year old, or perhaps developmentally delayed.  I don’t think there is any developmental concerns with this child – she just doesn’t speak.  Since she is able to get her needs met by signing, she has not bothered to learn speech yet.
This may be an isolated case, and I’m sure there are parents out there with positive experiences in infant sign language.  I find it fascinating however, that no one ever discusses the other side – any negative ramifications to teaching your child to sign.  How are parents supposed to make an informed decision when only one side of the issue is presented?  I also wonder about making life too easy – from minimizing frustration as an infant, to not using red pens because it might hurt a child’s feelings to outlawing “tag” because it’s a chase game and one child gets pick on to be “it”.

Sometimes it seems like we spend a great deal of time and effort protecting our children from everything that might upset them.  If we do that, then how will they learn to handle things that truly upset them as adults?  If a baby learns to sign, and that minimizes his or her frustration, then how is that baby going to handle frustration as a toddler or small child?  When do we teach our children how to handle life if we are always shielding them from it?

Maybe baby sign language is the way to go, maybe kids do develop more enriched communication that way, but children have survived for plenty of years without it and still manage to communicate their needs pretty well.   Lots of literature says that kids will learn to roll over faster if you put them on their stomachs because they don’t necessarily enjoy “tummy time” and are motivated to get onto their backs.  Why doesn’t the same logic apply to speech?  Won’t kids learn to speak sooner if they have the motivation to do so?
baby sign language, infant sign language, infant speech, baby speech, infant development, baby development, baby talk, sign language, signing with baby

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