Just Another Ordinary Miracle: Becoming a Little More Canadian

From the management: We're going to start posting on a more regular basis, instead of the once-a-week thing. I end up composing blog posts in my head on sleepless nights during the week then forgetting everything on Monday. We promise at least one Zain fix a week (however, those of you who've read my blogs before know that overkill is actually the more likely scenario). Thanks for reading!

We're making a little progress figuring out the mysteries of Zain. Nighttime at least has become pretty regular. He usually just wakes up once for a nice, tidy snack and then is back to sleep. His mommies thank him for this. Daytime, on the other hand, is a work in progress. Shif noted today that he's basically become our little guinea pig. We're charting his schedule, and we're trying various little experiments on him. We're trying to find the right combination of eating, playing, and sleeping that produces a happy, satiated, not overstimulated, not understimulated boy. We don't have it quite down yet, but there's been progress.

We've figured out that he likes to be full of milk. Especially at night. So we've basically been stuffing him full before he goes to sleep. Shif's milk supply has mostly been able to keep up. She started pumping a few weeks ago, so we usually have a bottle in the fridge that we can give him if he needs a top-up. He's taken it quite well and hasn't suffered from the dreaded "nipple confusion." He still loves the booby.

We did have to resort to supplementing with a little bit of formula a few times last week. It's been really important to us to follow the "breast is best" mantra since it makes him so much less likely to have allergies and asthma. Shif unfortunately has those traits to pass on and she also had a lot of food allergies when she was a kid, so we'd like to do what we can to make sure Zain doesn't have the same issues. But a little formula was better than letting the poor guy starve. He's not a fan of the formula, though. He drank it, but he was a bit of a diva about its temperature and he made a lot of dramatic faces demonstrating his feelings about this inferior product. We tried mixing half formula and half breastmilk (we called it "mormula") and it seemed to fool him nicely.

Obviously getting enough milk

Zain continues to get cuter (our assessment) every day. He's still super-alert and curious, as he has been since Day 1. He got a new mobile for his crib this week and he loves it.

He's also getting more cuddly. He'll hold onto your shoulder when you carry him. And he seems to sometimes just want a little cuddle for comfort, which is new. The other day we were in a store and he started melting down a bit. I picked him up out of the stroller and held him. He (seemingly) intentionally just snuggled his little head in under my chin and rested on my chest and calmed down. It's possible I melted into a little puddle right there in the middle of Babies R Us. :-)

We applied for Zain's passport this week. We'll be heading south of the border for American Thanksgiving in a few weeks. Zain has a grandpa and grandma and some aunts, uncles, and cousins he needs to meet! Getting the passport picture was an experience. The photographer first had me try to hold him up with my hand inside his sweater and Zain sitting on a little box. She quickly decided to go to Plan B - a piece of white poster board on the floor. So, in this picture, he's actually lying on the floor, with three adults hovering over him trying to keep him from crying and get him to look at the camera. It took probably 50 pictures before we got this one. The passport should be here in a couple weeks and then we're off on a road trip.

His wardrobe choice was kind of coincidental - they said to have him wear something dark and that's his only dark sweater. But very appropriate. We'll have to find something else for his US passport in a few months!

Random Zain: