Being Sara

Xander continues to do well at day care, and I continue to miss him every day.  At the end of the day at day care, all of the kids are usually playing in one room.  It’s usually pretty loud as the older children are full of energy, and parents are coming in and out.  I often find Xander crying in one of the care provider’s arms.  I think the noise and bustle is a little too much for him.
Yesterday I was later than usual picking him up, and by the time I got in the car to go get him, I was surprised at how much I missed my boy, and how excited I was to see him.  When I got there, he was indeed crying while one of the women held him.  As soon as Xander heard my voice, he turned towards me.  Although I was still pretty cold from being outside, I picked him up and gave him a big hug.  He immediately started to smile and giggle.  I took him into another room to get him buckled into his car seat, and continued to kiss his face and talk to him, and the giggling continued.  Even when I buckled him in (which he usually hates) he laughed at me.

I was pleasantly surprised by Xander’s reaction.  This was the first day that he was clearly happy to see me.  His good mood continued in the car and at home.  We had a wonderful afternoon, and it just hit me that Xander actually loves me back - of course he knows who I am, and like to see me, but his reaction yesterday showed me that I’m more than just a care provider now, and what an amazing realization that was!

baby, babies, infant, infants, parent, parenting, parents, baby care, day care providers

Well, it has taken me a while to warm up to the idea of day care - and I would still much prefer to stay home with Xander if I had the choice.  However, there are some nice things about having Xander in day care.  His routine is much easier for the care providers to set than it is for me (I’m assuming that’s because of the lengthy experience they have caring for kids…).  When Xander needed his nose suctioned out every hour and before feedings while he had his cold, I got to drop him off at day care, and then they were the ones who had to make him cry with the suction, not me (yay!)

I’m sure it’s not a new concept, and probably most day cares do this, but I love the little “Infant Gram” we get every afternoon.  The Infant Gram tells us how many diapers Xander went through and when, how much he ate and when, and when and how long he slept for during the day.  They also note Xander’s overall demeanor for the day (whether he was cheerful, content or fussy).  So, instead of asking the care providers how he was, I have a more detailed report of how Xander’s day went.  It makes figuring out when to feed and change him when we get home much easier, and since I’m a little obsessive, I’ve saved all the Infant Grams so far, so we can look back and see how Xander has been doing the past few weeks.

I read lots of guides and suggestions about how to choose a good day care provider.  Since I live in a pretty rural area, I didn’t have much of a choice, and when looking for someone who would care for an infant, the pool becomes even smaller.  I think that many guides overlook the fact that many families need to be practical and consider things such as proximity to home or work, cost, and availability.  I also think that some sort of written communication between parents and care providers is quite helpful, such as an Infant Gram.  Our day care also asks that we send Xander with a little note in the morning detailing when his diaper was changed last, when he ate last, and when he woke up that morning.  It’s a little more work for us, but I like to think that it ultimately provides better care for my kid.

baby, babies, infant, infants, day care, day care provider

I don’t know how many other parents experience this, but Xander hates “tummy time”. Developmentally most places say he should be able to do a little baby push up, and maybe even roll over one way by now. But every time I put Xander onto his tummy, he just cries. He can lift his head, but mostly he just flails his arms, and cries, face down. I have tried everything I can think of - we’ve got different mats with interesting things on them - one even has water with some colorful animals in it. I’ve tried rolling up a receiving blanket and putting that under his chest so that his face isn’t planted into the ground. I’ve tried laying next to him so that he can see me, or putting him on a couch or chair and sitting underneath him so he can see me. I’ve tried flipping him over after diaper changes, but then the changing table that he used to love started to make him cry whenever I put him on it, so I stopped that. So, I’m out of ideas.

Monday when we took Xander for his 4 month checkup, I asked our pediatrician about it. He asked us to put Xander on his tummy on the examination table, and I was certain that Xander would let out a wail as soon as we put him down. Instead, Xander simply picked his head up, pushed up with his arms and smiled at the doctor. He stayed on his tummy for almost five minutes without complaint! Xander was particularly fascinated with the disposable pad that was on the examination table, so we took one home, hoping that this would entertain him. So, the next day I put the disposable pad onto the changing table (as close to an examination table as you’ll find in my house) and plopped Xander down onto the pad, expecting that he would “perform” as he did the day before. Instead, he began to cry almost immediately. I let him huff for a few moments before picking him up, and frustrated, gave up on “tummy time” for the day. I am entirely out of ideas, and now I’m starting to worry that our kid won’t ever learn to roll over or crawl because he can’t stand to be on his stomach. He doesn’t even like lying on his stomach on me or his father anymore (we used to be able to get in some faux “tummy time” that way in the first 2 months). So, if anyone has any suggestions, I would love to hear them, because I’m out of ideas

babies, baby, baby development, developmental milestones, infant, infant development, infants, rolling over, tummy time

My friend Chloe recently asked me about my diaper review, and in my Diaper Bag Review, I promised to comment on diapers when I had finally decided on a brand. Xander has now grown from the newborn swaddler diapers in size 2 diapers! In poundage, this is almost double birth weight - from diapers that hold an 8 lb newborn to diapers that contain a 15 lb baby. Throughout the four months, Zach and I have sampled a number of diaper brands. We kept going back to the Huggies diapers.

There are a few features that Huggies has that the other brands don’t. My favorite feature is the elasticity of Huggies. The tabs that attach the back of the diaper to the front of the diaper are stretchy, so they fasten near the middle of the diaper, about at the belly button. It feels like there is a tighter, more secure closure this way, instead of the tabs on diapers such as Luvs or Pampers, which fasten closer to a baby’s hips.

Next is the “leak lock” feature that Huggies loves to advertise. Around the legs of the diaper, there are two layers, one inner blue layer (the “leak lock”) and an outer white layer, the actual outside of the diaper. When you put a diaper on, you just have to make sure that the legs of the diaper are pulled out, ensuring that the inner “leak lock” layer can hold everything inside.

The Luvs diaper has a blue leak lock strip on it, but you have to make sure that you’ve got the strip higher than the leaky baby parts, or else the baby will leak right out of the top of the diaper (I’m assuming this isn’t as much of an issue for little girls. Pampers doesn’t seem to have any blue leak stuff on the insides of their diapers…

Finally, the quality of the material used is generally nicer. The Huggies diapers are soft, and feel almost like cloth, where the other brands tend to be more stiff and plastic feeling. Huggies has been put to the test, and we have had far fewer leaks with Xander in Huggies diaper. This diaper has shown that it can handle 8+ hours worth of containment without leaks. The other diapers can sometimes meet that mark, but not as consistently. So, as Xander grows into bigger and bigger diapers, we will be buying Huggies, and not any other brand.

It should be noted that different diapers work better on some kids than on others. For example, we have a friend who has 2 children - with one baby they were able to use the generic WalMart brand diapers without any problems. The other baby needed name brand diapers to survive without leaks. So, I cannot say that Huggies would work great with any kid, but with our kid, it is definitely the diaper that won our contest.

On a side note, we have found that we start to experience more leakage as Xander starts to outgrow the diaper. It’s sort of a subtle change, and it’s not like you get a notice that it’s time to buy the next size diaper. It took us about a week of frustration and lots of leaks and outfit changes before we realized that we needed to upgrade from Newborn to size 1. We’ve recently started putting Xander in size 2’s, and that transition was much smoother, since we were aware of the signs. None of the other mothers I know (my mother, my mother-in-law and my sister-in-law) and talk with frequently warned me about this, so I wanted to pass on this little tidbit of information. Since my mother and mother-in-law used cloth diapers, I’m guessing they didn’t have as much experience with the disposable kinds. Don’t expect a review on cloth diapers anytime soon - I definitely don’t have the energy or dedication to use cloth diapers!

babies, baby, diaper, diapers, Huggies, infant, infants, Luvs, Pampers

Xander came down with his first cold this week. It was awful. We dropped Xander off for his first full day of day care on Tuesday. When I picked him up Tuesday afternoon, he was completely congested. Of course he didn’t catch the cold and display symptoms all in the same day, it was just ironic timing. On Tuesday night we tried to get Xander to sleep in his bassinet, but he just cried, and cried. Eventually we brought him into bed with us - Zach and I had to work the next day, so we really needed to get some sleep. Unfortunately, Xander slept in 15 minute increments for the entire night. Needless to say, by the next morning all three of us were exhausted. Wednesday night brought the same sleeping arrangement. Zach and I agreed to take shifts - Zach slept in the nursery by himself for the first part of the night, and then he got up with Xander, and I slept in the nursery. Sometime around 1am, I discovered that by propping Xander into an almost sitting position, he slept much better! Of course, this seems like common sense now, and I kick myself for not figuring it out earlier. We all feel horribly congested when we’ve got a head cold, and the congestion eases some when we’re upright. When we lay down to sleep, the pressure in our heads gets worse, and we can’t breathe through our noses, etc. The same with babies (duh!) so when we started sitting Xander up to sleep, he began to sleep much better. By Thursday night we were able to get him to sleep for about a 5 hour stretch (what a relief!) He still isn’t sleeping great, and we haven’t been able to talk him into getting back into the bassinet, but I’m hopeful that once this cold passes we’ll be able to get back to normal.

I should also note that I did bring Xander to see his doctor on Thursday to make sure he didn’t have an ear infection (he’s fine - just a head cold). Our pediatrician’s office suggested that we suction out Xander’s nose about every hour, and before feedings, and that we use saline drops to help loosen the mucus. This seems to help quite a bit during the day (our day care provider got to be the “lucky” one to do most of this work). We also use a humidifier in the bedroom, which the pediatrician also suggested, and it seems to help some as well. However, sleeping upright was really the key to getting any sort of significant sleep.

baby, babies, infant, infants, baby cold, infant cold, child cold, cold relief, baby cold relief