Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Mothers of the Year

The word of the week in our house is sleep.  Oh wait, that was last week.  No, this week too - but this time, it's a good thing.  He's sleeping!!!  We had two nights last week where Zain slept 8 straight hours, and most nights lately he's only woken up once, around 3:00 or 4:00 a.m. for a feed.  Life is suddenly much more happy for all of us!  To what do we attribute this rapid change of conditions?  Well, two things... first, we think he wasn't getting enough milk for his growing little self.  And because he wasn't getting enough nutrition, he wasn't sleeping well, so he was tired, and he didn't have enough energy for aerobic breastfeeding sessions.  So it was all an ugly cycle that led to a hungry and tired and whiny (and occasionally screamy) little baby.  Luckily, Shif's milk production has finally started keeping pace with demand in the past week or so.  

Second, we think we weren't swaddling him tight enough at night.  He sleeps really well when he's very tightly bundled up and his overactive little arms can't cause him trouble.  But, befitting his future career as a linebacker, he's very strong these days.  Our wussy swaddles were no match for those flailing appendages.  If there's any room for movement in his swaddle at all, he'll try to bust out of it.  Then, the combination of the effort to bust out and his wayward arms flying all over the place totally wakes him up.  So the key is to get him strapped down nice and tight.  We used specially made swaddle blankets when he was younger (oh so long ago), but he developed a passionate hatred for the sound of the velcro closures being readied.  So we went to homemade swaddles in receiving blankets, where you're basically just relying on his body weight to hold down the last tail of the blanket.  Despite his hefty size (10 lb, 14 oz last week), he could usually still worm his way out.  As we neared our wits end, I jokingly suggested we use duct tape.  And as we even further neared our wits end, it became less of a joke.  :-)  We are fully expecting to receive our Mother of the Year awards any day now - yes, we duct tape our child to sleep! And it WORKS! 
Okay, don't get excited and call CAS. It's not like we're wrapping him in tape. Just a little piece!

While the duct tape was out, Shif created this MacGyver Mobile over the pack 'n play. 
 

So our lives this week have been significantly better than they were last week.  Last week when we were trying to figure out why nothing seemed to make him happy, we invented the acronym NFI.  It became the frequent answer to questions like do you think he's hungry?, do you think he's tired?,  do you think we're ruining him forever?  N stands for no, I stands for idea, and F stands for a word we won't be able to say out loud much longer.  Let's just say it was they were frustrating times. 

Big news this week has been the arrival of more smiles and laughs!  Not tons of them, but we get a few every day.  It's so much fun to get some happy little feedback from Zain.  The highlight of this past week was a visit by my sister Lorna and niece Maya from Ohio.  They were thrilled to finally get to meet the little guy.  Maya was especially intrigued by this new type of creature.  She was very helpful in calming Zain down when he was upset and entertaining him when he was awake.

A smile for Maya
 



Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Now is Not the Time to Give Up Caffeine

Sleep is the word of the week in our house.  Zain has decided that 20 minutes is the proper length for a sleep session, day or night.  And he's decided that in between those sleeps, fussing and crying is the appropriate state of being.  This is exactly what we were looking for in an infant!  His reflux seems to be better this week, whether due to new strategies for keeping him upright (he's been sleeping in his jiggle chair instead of his flat cradle) or Shif's diet changes or blind luck.  But now something else seems to be bothering him.  Take your pick of reasons - not enough milk, too much milk, swaddle too tight, swaddle too loose, too quiet, too loud...  We're re-consulting all the baby books and Shif has googled every message board in sight.  (Shif and I have somehow managed to completely switch personalities since Zain was born.  She is now the over-analyzer, over-researcher, and over-worrier, and I'm more laissez-faire.)  The conclusion - after some pumping experiments, it seems like he might not be getting enough milk. So we're trying a few things to keep the supply up to keep his tummy full.  The last two days seem to be much better, so we may have hit on some good combination.
Do I look underfed to you?
One of Zain's favourite fussiness-control measures - the Superboy!
Milk drunk


Our baby boy is growing up!  And that means he's now much more aware of his surroundings.  And he wants to look around and take it all in.  All the time.  Even when he's exhausted and should be sleeping!  We've actually taken to putting a burp cloth over his eyes sometimes when we're walking or rocking him to sleep to minimize distractions!  
Not just a fashion statement
Up close and personal during tummy time
When he is in a good mood, he's a lot of fun to be around (as Shif said yesterday, "He's so content when he's content").   Smiles and even little laughs are appearing.  He's making lots of eye contact, and he can be very cuddly.  On the other hand, his emotional range is growing in the other direction, too - he's getting better at expressing his tiny infant rage.  New levels of screaming have been reached, he occasionally grabs a handful of shirt, and he has developed a perfect little pout. 

We've started reading to him.  His favourite book so far (okay, maybe Mommy's favourite) is a hand-me-down from his cousin Maya, Barnyard Dance.  Today, Shif was switching the radio back and forth from classical to jazz and explaining the concept of syncopation to him. :-)   (Don't get the idea that we are total yup parents, however.  The radio is normally on Virgin Radio and Zain's favourite to dance to is Rihanna.  Okay, again, maybe Mommy's favourite...)
This is something new - awake in the carrier

Grandma W works her magic

The big event of this past week was a visit by my mom and grandma, so Zain got some quality time with two of his grandmothers.  They definitely brought some baby-calming mojo with them. The greatest benefit to us was those blissful hours when we could turn over the little guy to the grandmas and get some sleep!  It was also really fun to hear stories of babies past.  Another nice side effect was the cooking of some delicious farm-girl food.  Since most of Shif's protein sources are currently off-limits, she's eating meat right now, so she got to share in the splendour of Mom's roast beef and Grandma's chicken and noodles. 

Four generations (and Shif)

Despite the lack of sleep, life is always interesting.  It still amazes us that this tiny person trusts us so much.  And there's always something amusing happening that keeps us from wallowing in crying-induced misery.  Last week it was the midnight poop cannon. The other day it was me struggling to find the best grip for a long walk carrying the car seat.  We usually have him in the carrier for walks, so we don't have to carry the car seat more than from the car to the house, and my biceps haven't kept pace with his weight gain.  But if  you've ever had dinner Saturday night in Greektown, you know you won't be parking close to the restaurant.  So poor Zain got to experience "Mommy's circus ride" on the way back to the car before Shif clued me in - just hang it in your elbow.... Lesson learned.
Hanging out with Cousin Naeem, who still thinks Zain is kind of boring

Missy was visiting from Ohio and came by to meet Zain and his hand-socks

Monday, October 11, 2010

An Action-Packed Week

Hello! This is Shif writing instead of Jen for a change! It has truly been a very action-packed week so far. Zain had his one-month birthday and everyday is showing off new skills he is picking up! This week he discovered that he can grab his feet! It's awfully cute watching him try to do that. Unfortunately this tends to occur during diaper changes and he sometimes misses and ends up putting his fingers and/or feet into some messy diaper goo instead...but it's a mention-worthy milestone no less! :-)

He is definitely becoming more alert and active everyday. He spends more time awake these days (still not tons of time though). His favourite activities involve staring at sharply contrasting colours - particularly looking at the blue wall through his white crib, or staring at the ceiling fan. He enjoys looking at his mommies too!! He has gotten much stronger with his neck - we practice tummy time everyday - and he is really able to lift his head up high and hold it for a while.
Working the neck muscles
When on his belly he also moves his arms and legs in a crawling-like fashion - he seems to know what the right thing to do is...now he just needs to wait a few months for his muscles to catch up so these motions actually create some forward movement! We love the little babbling noises that come from him now too - little vowel sounds mainly but he has also started making some "goo" and "ungah" sounds too! Here's a little video of him playing this morning:


Our week began on a bit of a tough note with Jen still being sick and Zain having some tough days with his reflux and fussiness. My mom thankfully stayed with us for a couple days to help us out. But by mid-week things were back to normal again - Zain was a happy and content fellow and Jen was healthy and well! We went out shopping a couple times to buy Zain some warmer clothes for the cool weather, visited my grandma, went out for lunch, took a hike in a conservation area just northwest of the city, had some visits from Jen's friends from work, visited High Park, and enjoyed a lovely thanksgiving meal at my sister's house.

Getting bundled up is exhausting

A family pic on the hiking trails at Terra Cotta

Striped cousins


Wednesday, October 6, 2010

The Long Week

Sorry we're a little late, everyone.  It's been a looong week.  Two major things causing disruptions this week - the continued search for the reflux cure and me (Jen) getting sick.  I had a wicked bout of food poisoning Wednesday and I'm still recovering from the aftereffects.  We were lucky that Shif's mom was here Wednesday night when I got sick, because for that night I needed more care than the baby did and I was glad to have Shif around.  The hardest thing to deal with in the aftermath was that we weren't sure if it was food poisoning or a stomach flu, so just in case it was flu, I couldn't be around Zain.  After two days or so, baby withdrawal was pretty severe!  :-(  I've still been having a lot of trouble in the last few days (some of you may recall my history with dehydration and pictures of Shif giving me an IV in India!), so it's been hard for me to pull my weight with baby duty.  So, Shifi has really had to pick up the slack, on top of the already grueling life of breastfeeder for a baby linebacker.


 Things may be looking up, though. I'm feeling quite a bit better today and we also tried giving Zain a bottle of pumped milk today and he took to the bottle fine (and back to the breast fine afterwards).  So, I am currently sitting in the nursery on the first night shift, with 2 ounces of liquid gold next to me.  Shif is hoping she can get a luxurious 4 straight hours of sleep out of it - it would be the first time since the day before she went into labour!


The reflux issue continues to kind of consume us....  We've tried all sorts of things - raising the head of his cradle, sleeping him in his jiggle chair, pacifier, changing the way he feeds.  Shif has also eliminated all elements of joy from her diet in case it's an allergy issue - no dairy, no soy, no citrus or sour food, no spicy food.  I think there are like three things left that she can eat.  Dairy (whey) and soy (soybean oil, soy protein isolate) are hiding in everything.  And she's a vegetarian, so life without soy has been interesting, too.  There seems to be some improvement.  He is gagging, choking, and sputtering less when we put him flat on his back (so fun to listen to your baby do that!).  But he still wakes up a lot.  Day and night.  So... it's been a long week.

He sometimes follows objects now. 
On the positive side, Zain remains the cutest baby ever.  :-)  He's growing.  No problem there.  We visited the midwife tonight and he's now 9 lb, 11 oz.  We had to go shopping for new footy sleepers yesterday because he's too long for several of the ones he's been wearing.  He's very alert and loves to look around.  We've gotten a few little smiles out of him, too.  He also loves to be naked.  :-)

Sorry for the short post.  Back next week, hopefully healthy, with more.


Claudette was visiting from Sioux Lookout and very happy to meet Zain