Being Sara

As I was driving to work this morning, I was thinking that I don’t pause to appreciate all that I have often enough.  Sure, on cold, windy nights I snuggle down in my bed and think about how grateful I am to have a nice warm house, and a toasty husband and baby to snuggle up to, but I don’t often remember how lucky I am to have such a wonderful husband and father to my child.  Of course he has his flaws, but in the grand scheme of things, he’s pretty amazing.  And we’ve got a nice house, in a relatively quiet town.  We both work in town, and only have the need for one car most days.  My job is great.  I love what I do, and it’s flexible enough that I can take time to do family stuff whenever I need it (like taking Xander to see his doctor yesterday morning).  I have a beautiful son, who may present us with plenty of challenges, but at the end of the day, he’s a pretty easy baby, and so very easy to love.  Zach and I both have wonderfully supportive families who we talk to and visit on a regular basis.  So when I sit back and take stock of my life, I realize how lucky I really am.  Sure, it took lots and lots of hard work to get here, and we’re not done yet, there is lots and lots of work to be done, but the family that I’ve built, and the family that I inherited make all of that work so much more enjoyable.

I also noticed this morning that stepping back to take a look at the big picture made me a whole lot less stressed about the amount of workI need to squeeze into the next two days.  So, I hope everyone who reads this post takes a moment to think about what is wonderful in their lives.

baby, babies, parent, parenting

We recently purchased a walker for Xander. Many experts say walkers are dangerous, or can hinder development. We considered all of the risk factors, and decided that despite the warnings, a walker was definitely a must for our house. In researching walkers, it was a challenge to find one that was something we thought Xander would enjoy, and something that was in our price range. I did a lot of searching online, and eventually settled on a Safety 1st walker from Target - the “Grip ‘n Go Folding Walker.” This walker has nice colors, some attached toys and a tray where you could place another toy. The tray is also see through, so Xander will eventually be able to see his feet moving down below (once his feet reach the ground…)

There are essentially 2 safety factors - first, that babies can easily tumble down stairs in a walker. In our house a walker would never be near any stairs, and is always on the first floor, so there is no tumbling concern for us. Second, is that babies are able to reach things and pull things down onto themselves. As with most baby entertainment centers, you’re not supposed to leave your child unsupervised (regular common sense). Since we mostly use the walker while we’re in the kitchen cooking, or in the living room while we’re playing, the lack of supervision also isn’t an issue.

As for developmental concerns, the experts say that you should not leave a baby in a walker for more than 1/2 an hour at a time, as babies need time to wiggle and move around unrestricted in order to learn how to move on their own. Since Xander only tolerates the walker for about 20 minutes at a time, there is no concern there yet either. Overall, we’ve been very happy with our walker - Xander seems to enjoy it as well. And, every parent I’ve talked to who has had a walker raves about how much their children loved them. I think as long as you are aware of the risks and concerns, walkers can be very fun and liberating toys.

<tags>babies, baby, baby development, exersaucer, infant, infants, walker, walkers</tags>

Xander is now officially 5 months old.  It feels like just a few weeks ago we were bringing him home from the hospital.  At the same time, those first sleepless nights feel so far away.  But when I say “my son is 5 months old” out loud, I’m shocked at how old he is.  For the past week or so Xander has begun to sit on his own - froggie style with his hands as support.  He can only stay this way for about a minute or so, but it’s a sign of independence - soon he won’t need me or Zach to sit and see things, he’ll be able to do that on his own.  I’m excited by this milestone, and also saddened.  I suppose this mixture of emotions is something that I will struggle with for a while - happiness and excitement at my son’s development, and sad that each new development will foster more independence - not that I want to encourage a dependent child - independence is something that both Zach and I feel strongly is a good trait to teach our child, but that doesn’t make it any less heart wrenching as Xander grows up.

baby, babies, baby development, infant development, parent, parents, parenting, growing up

So, I’m a few days late, but luckily having a baby affords me a few days leeway. Since Zach is out of town, and we ended up with about a foot and a half of snow, Valentine’s Day was pretty low key this year. Zach did send some beautiful flowers, so he gets a check plus for Valentine’s Day effort. Xander is having his Valentine’s Day party at day care today. I don’t think he’s going to be overly excited about it, but we did have to make Valentine’s Day cards for all 25 children in the day care from Xander. I was surprised that we were getting started with these events so early, but apparently the other children enjoy getting cards from everyone. They also made a card from Xander to Zach and me. It is absolutely adorable, with his hand prints on either side of a big picture of him smiling. I was initially pretty nervous and sad about putting Xander in a day care (as you could probably tell from earlier posts), but as far as day cares go, I’m entirely happy with this one - and I love the little touches like the card! So, hopefully everyone had an enjoyable Valentine’s Day, wherever you were, and whoever you were with!

babies, baby, day care, infant, infants, parent, parenting, valentine’s day

So, Zach is out of town this week, leaving Xander and me at home. We are lucky enough to have some wonderful friends who have been around to help out this week. I must say that I have a whole new respect for single parents - it’s so much harder to do this stuff by yourself! So for a few of the nights I’ve had Xander all to myself, which seems like it would be nice, except that those nights Xander decided it would be fun to wake up around 11:30 pm or 12:00 am to play. So, I explained to Xander that we could play a game called “Let Mommy Sleep”. Unfortunately Xander doesn’t seem to enjoy that game yet, so we’ve had some sleepy time challenges this week. I think we are both looking forward to Zach coming home on Saturday. If anyone has any suggestions on how to get Xander interested in the Let Mommy Sleep game, I’d love to hear them!

babies, baby, baby sleep, infant, infant sleep, infants, parent, parenting, single parent, sleeping through the night