Noelle has found her hands and is now voraciously tasting them. And of course, perfect timing, Rob has come down with a cold. A winning combo! Needless to say, I am now manically not touching Rob before touching Noelle and wiping her hands frequently. It is quite cute to see how happy sucking on her hands/fingers makes her. It's got to beat accidental bonking of herself in the face.
I'm actually afraid that her sudden dramatic increase in mouthing and drooling is a sign that she is teething. I thought that it was way too early but no, the baby bible says although the average age of the first tooth is 5 months, some come in as early as 3 months (and Noelle just turned 10 weeks yesterday). *sigh* I guess we will kiss the relatively quiet nights goodbye then. In preparation, I ordered a bunch of teethers for her. I've got a feeling that once we actually go into baby stores with her, we will go (more) nuts with buying stuff for her. She is going to be one spoiled little girl. =P
Noelle is now also quite mobile in her bed. About 2 weeks ago, she started inching herself up or down along the bed. I would be puzzled when I went to get her after her naps cuz she'd be a foot farther away from where I left her. She is now also twirling herself in circles and we frequently find her at a diagonal. So, we've thus taken away the swaddle and blankets, dutifully following what the baby books recommend. She now sleeps in a "sleep sack"- it literally is a sack that zippers up the front. Useful.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Friday, April 17, 2009
T minus 2 weeks and a day
...until return to work and placing Noelle into a daycare. Double dread. Well, I'm actually looking forward to seeing my friends at work and the kids I work with but I'm not looking forward to leaving my Noelle in a daycare. She has become increasingly aware of me and Rob in the past few weeks and seeing how upset she gets when I leave the room or how happy she is when I go to her when she first wakes up in her crib makes me feel extremely guilty about the eminent separation. I think I'm going to be one of those parents who will be plastered outside the daycare's door desperately waiting for their child to calm down before leaving. Argh.
At the same time though, I know that I am not one of those women who could be happy as a stay at home mom. I get cabin fever way too much. And although I do love watching how cute she is when she eats or coos at the mobile while I change her, the unending repetition of change baby, feed baby, burp baby, and let baby sleep on me/try to wrestle her into the crib makes me a bit kooky, too. I both love and get crazy by the baby routine, if that makes any sense.
I also wonder how the heck I'm going to adjust to going back to work after a 3 month break. Probably shell shock is what I'm going to get. Hopefully, none of the kids I treat have become biters or whatnot in the intervening time...
At the same time though, I know that I am not one of those women who could be happy as a stay at home mom. I get cabin fever way too much. And although I do love watching how cute she is when she eats or coos at the mobile while I change her, the unending repetition of change baby, feed baby, burp baby, and let baby sleep on me/try to wrestle her into the crib makes me a bit kooky, too. I both love and get crazy by the baby routine, if that makes any sense.
I also wonder how the heck I'm going to adjust to going back to work after a 3 month break. Probably shell shock is what I'm going to get. Hopefully, none of the kids I treat have become biters or whatnot in the intervening time...
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Old generation vs. new generation
Various relatives have stopped by in recent weeks to visit Noelle and my nephew and we've gotten all sorts of "interesting" advice to do with Noelle. While I know they mean well (at least I hope so), some of their comments smart, infuriate, or just plain don't make any sense.
During the first few weeks when I was going slightly (okay, maybe a lot) insane what with my sleep deprivation and stress over raising a newborn, some relatives oh so helpfully told me over and over that my newborn cried cuz I wasn't feeding her enough. Way to support a new mother who was stressed already about breastfeeding! Whoohoo! To this day, that is still my parent's and relatives' first suggestion if Noelle makes the slightest peep. Hard for them to accept but Rob and I do actually feed our child. =P And we can prove it as she is now in the 60th percentile for her age in weight! It's still a bit annoying to hear.
"Wah!"
"You don't feed her enough! You should feed her now! That's why she cries!"
"You don't say? I thought she was on a monthly feeding schedule like those African elephants who live in the desert!"
Lately, it has come to my relatives' attention that Noelle's hair is sorta funny in the back- it looks like its patchy in certain spots but it's actually just matted down oddly from sleeping on her back. I have noticed it but that doesn't stop them from constantly commenting on it with worried brow and clucks of disapproval. What do they expect me to do? Have her sleep on her face? There! That way her hair won't get mussed up! Bleah.
My personal favorite advice was to do with pigs feet. Yes, pigs feet. In Chinese lore, a recovering new mom should eat plenty of pigs feet cooked in ginger. It reportedly helps with recovery and/or builds up your breastmilk production. Eh, I was willing to try it. And I did. I found out that while I could stomach the meat a bit, I could not get used to the fat. Not my kind of texture. So I politely told the relatives. They kept giving me more. It got to the point where I had to tell them bluntly that the texture unfortunately made me nauseous. Their advice? Just let myself throw up after eating it. ???? Great- promotion of bulimia! Awesome!
Many also do not approve of our having her in her own room. There are many reasons for it but ultimately, that is our decision and I wish they would respect that. Besides, she's in the room RIGHT NEXT TO OURS with both of our doors wide open. Add to that my child's healthy set of lungs and I have no problem whatsoever with hearing her when she wakes at night. We also have a monitor. We still get the disbelieving looks when told she sleeps in her own room. *sigh*
Oh well, all the above advice came from a good place.
During the first few weeks when I was going slightly (okay, maybe a lot) insane what with my sleep deprivation and stress over raising a newborn, some relatives oh so helpfully told me over and over that my newborn cried cuz I wasn't feeding her enough. Way to support a new mother who was stressed already about breastfeeding! Whoohoo! To this day, that is still my parent's and relatives' first suggestion if Noelle makes the slightest peep. Hard for them to accept but Rob and I do actually feed our child. =P And we can prove it as she is now in the 60th percentile for her age in weight! It's still a bit annoying to hear.
"Wah!"
"You don't feed her enough! You should feed her now! That's why she cries!"
"You don't say? I thought she was on a monthly feeding schedule like those African elephants who live in the desert!"
Lately, it has come to my relatives' attention that Noelle's hair is sorta funny in the back- it looks like its patchy in certain spots but it's actually just matted down oddly from sleeping on her back. I have noticed it but that doesn't stop them from constantly commenting on it with worried brow and clucks of disapproval. What do they expect me to do? Have her sleep on her face? There! That way her hair won't get mussed up! Bleah.
My personal favorite advice was to do with pigs feet. Yes, pigs feet. In Chinese lore, a recovering new mom should eat plenty of pigs feet cooked in ginger. It reportedly helps with recovery and/or builds up your breastmilk production. Eh, I was willing to try it. And I did. I found out that while I could stomach the meat a bit, I could not get used to the fat. Not my kind of texture. So I politely told the relatives. They kept giving me more. It got to the point where I had to tell them bluntly that the texture unfortunately made me nauseous. Their advice? Just let myself throw up after eating it. ???? Great- promotion of bulimia! Awesome!
Many also do not approve of our having her in her own room. There are many reasons for it but ultimately, that is our decision and I wish they would respect that. Besides, she's in the room RIGHT NEXT TO OURS with both of our doors wide open. Add to that my child's healthy set of lungs and I have no problem whatsoever with hearing her when she wakes at night. We also have a monitor. We still get the disbelieving looks when told she sleeps in her own room. *sigh*
Oh well, all the above advice came from a good place.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Settling in
This weekend, Rob put together the new dresser from IKEA in her room and I hung up a personalized blanket that one of our friends got for Noelle over her bed (oooh...tapestry!). I also ordered some butterfly decals to stick onto the black dresser as part of my attempt to make her room more child-like.
Noelle was mostly content for the majority of the 3-day weekend which I'm really happy about cuz not only does it make it a happier time for all when she's not screaming her head off, I really want Rob to have more time with her when she's not cranky. (Unfortunately, by the time he gets home most nights, she's at her most fussiest of the day). We still need to finish trimming her fingernails though. It's been recommended for us to do it when she's asleep but we tend to run away and use her sleep time to get all sorts of other things done so by now, she has talons enclosed in her mittens. =P
We tried bathing her in a baby tub within the bathroom tub again and it was a stressful time for all (again). Poor Noelle looked frightened most of the time and she kept staring right at me as if checking for reassurance. I think this girl is due for only spongebaths until the summer when I won't worry about the temperature of the room as much. At least her head control is decent now with only a few incidents of head bashing now and then (she'll hold her head upright nicely and then be overcome with the weight and bash her head right into the sides of OUR heads, thus prompting much "ow!"s all around). She's also quite heavy now...she was 11 lb 2 oz when measured last Tuesday at the doctor's and my arms definitely feel it. Who needs exercise when I got my own little Buddha/free weight?
I also ordered labels that we will need to cover all her things with when she goes to daycare.
Heh, I even got dogtags with her name on it for her backpack. Something tells me that I'm going to bankrupt myself buying cutesy things for her.
Noelle was mostly content for the majority of the 3-day weekend which I'm really happy about cuz not only does it make it a happier time for all when she's not screaming her head off, I really want Rob to have more time with her when she's not cranky. (Unfortunately, by the time he gets home most nights, she's at her most fussiest of the day). We still need to finish trimming her fingernails though. It's been recommended for us to do it when she's asleep but we tend to run away and use her sleep time to get all sorts of other things done so by now, she has talons enclosed in her mittens. =P
We tried bathing her in a baby tub within the bathroom tub again and it was a stressful time for all (again). Poor Noelle looked frightened most of the time and she kept staring right at me as if checking for reassurance. I think this girl is due for only spongebaths until the summer when I won't worry about the temperature of the room as much. At least her head control is decent now with only a few incidents of head bashing now and then (she'll hold her head upright nicely and then be overcome with the weight and bash her head right into the sides of OUR heads, thus prompting much "ow!"s all around). She's also quite heavy now...she was 11 lb 2 oz when measured last Tuesday at the doctor's and my arms definitely feel it. Who needs exercise when I got my own little Buddha/free weight?
I also ordered labels that we will need to cover all her things with when she goes to daycare.
Heh, I even got dogtags with her name on it for her backpack. Something tells me that I'm going to bankrupt myself buying cutesy things for her.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Who's training who?
We went to the pediatrician yesterday for yet another round of vaccinations and the doctor mentioned that Noelle is now old enough for us to start training her to fall asleep on her own or to at least fall back asleep on her own when she wakes up in her crib. I thought, why not? Let's give it a try during her afternoon naps. As usual, she woke and cried a few minutes after I placed her in her crib asleep. This time, I went in and placed her pacifier in her mouth and left after "reassuring her" with a pat and soothing sounds (as the books say to do- yeah yeah, I'm trying everything.). Repeat about 6 times. Meanwhile, she was getting more and more upset until finally I gave in since hell, she wasn't falling asleep anymore anyways. Not with her full throttle shrieking, complete with her mouth wide open and tongue vibrating in the middle just like in a cartoon. However, it took longer than usual to calm her down...almost as if she was punishing me for leaving her crying for so long. Hmm...is she doing "positive punishment" (introducing a consequence to decrease an undesired behavior- in this case, my leaving her in her crib) on me, as the psych terms go? Great, my 2 month old is doing psych techniques on me. I'm getting trained. Woof.
Monday, April 6, 2009
Big weekend
My sweetie definitely smiled at me!!! Instead of the fleeting did-she-just-smile-at-me-or-were-her-lip-muscles-just=twitching", Noelle spent several minutes today smiling and cooing back at me! WHOOHOO!!!! SHE ACTUALLY LIKES ME!!!
So, Rob and I went to Ikea on Saturday to order a bunch of heavily needed furniture. If we could have, we would have just ordered on-line (on-line shopping- a new mom's best friend/enemy) but due to a strange quirk, only certain colors of certain furniture were available and since we would like our stuff in the apartment to match at least somewhat, we had to go in person. Plus, I like the $1 hot dogs and frozen yogurt cones. Yum yum.
Usually only Rob gets aggravated in big, crowded stores but that day, I was also clawing the walls as we were meandering through the various displays. We had no choice but to pretty much go through the entire store cuz we had no idea where the specific wardrobe sets/home organization boxes that we wanted were. So, although this was probably the shortest Ikea visit I've ever done, it felt way too long as we were stuck behind really sloooooow walkers. Dude, you people are New Yorkers...shouldn't you be walking fast???
We picked out a much needed extra chest of drawers for Rob and one for Noelle. To match the already existing 5x5 boxed shelving unit in her room, her chest is also black. Lest we be accused of rooming our child in a too adult looking room, we added splashes of color by adding red doors and red/blue organization boxes to the shelving unit. When I first announced my pregnancy, a couple of people had asked if I was going to paint our daughter's room in pastels/add Princess or other girly decals/put up frilly curtains. The answer was and still is no. I'm not really a girly-girl and the typical ultra girly rooms never appealed to me. I figure, her toys and a few well placed pictures will provide the splashes of color announcing that it's a little girl's room. So far, not that many decorative touches up yet (aside from her THREE mobiles) but I figure that we will frame and put up drawings that she does when she gets a bit older.
On Sunday, we took her to meet her great grandmother for the first time. She spent most of that day being adored by various family members. Always nice. Maybe all that extra attention kick started the smiles. All I know is, I'm loving it!!!
So, Rob and I went to Ikea on Saturday to order a bunch of heavily needed furniture. If we could have, we would have just ordered on-line (on-line shopping- a new mom's best friend/enemy) but due to a strange quirk, only certain colors of certain furniture were available and since we would like our stuff in the apartment to match at least somewhat, we had to go in person. Plus, I like the $1 hot dogs and frozen yogurt cones. Yum yum.
Usually only Rob gets aggravated in big, crowded stores but that day, I was also clawing the walls as we were meandering through the various displays. We had no choice but to pretty much go through the entire store cuz we had no idea where the specific wardrobe sets/home organization boxes that we wanted were. So, although this was probably the shortest Ikea visit I've ever done, it felt way too long as we were stuck behind really sloooooow walkers. Dude, you people are New Yorkers...shouldn't you be walking fast???
We picked out a much needed extra chest of drawers for Rob and one for Noelle. To match the already existing 5x5 boxed shelving unit in her room, her chest is also black. Lest we be accused of rooming our child in a too adult looking room, we added splashes of color by adding red doors and red/blue organization boxes to the shelving unit. When I first announced my pregnancy, a couple of people had asked if I was going to paint our daughter's room in pastels/add Princess or other girly decals/put up frilly curtains. The answer was and still is no. I'm not really a girly-girl and the typical ultra girly rooms never appealed to me. I figure, her toys and a few well placed pictures will provide the splashes of color announcing that it's a little girl's room. So far, not that many decorative touches up yet (aside from her THREE mobiles) but I figure that we will frame and put up drawings that she does when she gets a bit older.
On Sunday, we took her to meet her great grandmother for the first time. She spent most of that day being adored by various family members. Always nice. Maybe all that extra attention kick started the smiles. All I know is, I'm loving it!!!
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Bath time...cue scary music
Nothing is quite as scary as trying to handle a soap slippery infant during bath time. Sponge baths, we've got pat. Bathing her in an actual baby bath tub...still quite scary. We've never hated our teeny tiny and cold bathroom more. So far, we've only given her a "bath" (as opposed to a sponge bath, lest you think we keep her grimy) three times. Two of those times, it required a team effort with lots of running around and renegotiating ourselves around the awkward space that is our bathroom. The one time I did it myself, it was a poop emergency (read "Miscellaneous" post) and it was a frantic affair where I was worried the whole time that it was too cold in the room and I switched mid-bath from trying to hold her up in the bathtub to just using the bathroom sink, worried the whole time about her head colliding with the faucet or her catching a cold. She did look cutely confused with a furrowed brow the whole time though.
I can't wait until her head control is perfect so that we have 1 less thing to worry about during bath time. Heh, she's getting good practice with head control everyday as I burp her while sitting on the couch- she spends most of that time trying to hold her head up (or back) to look at the picture frames on the living room wall. Go me for selecting such high contrast photo frames to our white walls. Apparently, they are perfect visuals for newborns. And a big thanks to Stef! For recommending the black/white shapes mobile. Noelle absolutely loves it...we hung it over her diaper changing table and seriously, the girl is happy to lie there and coo at her mobile for 1/2 an hour. I'm actually sorta jealous...that mobile makes her more happy than me at this point. =P
I can't wait until her head control is perfect so that we have 1 less thing to worry about during bath time. Heh, she's getting good practice with head control everyday as I burp her while sitting on the couch- she spends most of that time trying to hold her head up (or back) to look at the picture frames on the living room wall. Go me for selecting such high contrast photo frames to our white walls. Apparently, they are perfect visuals for newborns. And a big thanks to Stef! For recommending the black/white shapes mobile. Noelle absolutely loves it...we hung it over her diaper changing table and seriously, the girl is happy to lie there and coo at her mobile for 1/2 an hour. I'm actually sorta jealous...that mobile makes her more happy than me at this point. =P
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Waiting for the good stuff
Noelle passed the 6 week mark almost 2 weeks ago (the 6 week mark being important as it marks the social smile milestone) and while I "think" she smiled at me that week, this vague active smile is still rare. I still haven't seen the adorable big smile and chuckle she does in her sleep while she is awake yet. Maybe she's still practicing? Maybe she's like her mama and will practice something to death before she will unveil it. Well, I hope she gets to it soon...hopefully before she graduates from college. I keep grinning at her like a maniac, hoping for a big smile in return. I mostly get an unsettling stare. Still, she definitely does interactive cooing now and is more aware of my presence. Over the weekend, Rob was trying his hardest to get her attention while she was in the bouncer but she was tracking me wherever I went in the room and she actually looked happy when I went to pick her up from the bouncer. Yay! Acknowledgment of our bond! Or at least, memory of the face looming over her most days. =P
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