Babies and technology: ipod boy

I had no idea that my son ever really noticed my ipod until last weekend when he went over to my desk, stood on his tiptoes, grabbed my ipod, and proceeded to stick the earbuds into his ears (or try to). He then walked around holding the earphones to his ears and looking ridiculously cute until I turned the ipod on and then put the earphones back up to his ears - which he loved.

The only time I really wear the earphones around my son is when I take him on a long walk or run in the stroller and I will sometimes bring the ipod. Clearly he noticed! Here is a pic of him holding the earphone up to one ear. You think Apple will want to use him for their next set of advertisements, they could start marketing to a whole new set of consumers ;)

iToddler

2x Roseola

It is scary to see your baby have a fever, but after two bouts with Roseola I can say if he has to have a fever this is the one I would choose.

My son has had Roseola twice, once at about 10 months old and again at about 13 months old.
The fever got pretty high, around 103, and stayed high for 4-5 days. In general my son was acting fairly normal. The fever worried us, but we called our pediatrician who told us Roseola was going around and said the fever was a good sign that his body was fighting the infection, and unless he seemed to be in pain or discomfort we did not need to give him any medication.

There were a few nights we gave him Tylenol because he was having trouble sleeping, but in general he was his regular happy self, just with a fever. By the fifth day, just as his temperature was dropping,  I saw tiny red spots on his tummy and back, they got brighter and then disappeared over the course of maybe a day and half.

Apparently the days when a fever was considered dangerous (my mother's and grandmother's generation) have been replaced by the contemporary medical wisdom that the fever is the body's way of fighting off an infection and you should not interfere with it (of course if your baby is under six months old I think different rules apply). All things considered if your baby has to be sick this is a pretty easy illness to handle.

Memories of childbirth - the broken bed

For some reason I recently remembered one of the most stupidly grueling parts of my labor and delivery experience and I thought it would be a nice start to a series of blog posts on childbirth.

Not sure you have the patience to read my birth story all in one sitting, let's just say it's hard to summarize quickly. But a few days ago I remembered a low point. I was in miserable pain with what is known as "back labor" (I would not wish this on my worst enemy) and they had just wheeled me back into the delivery room after a scare during which they took me to the Operating Room and got ready to do an emergency c-section. Well the c-section was not necessary (big relief), but when we got back to the delivery room they found out the high-tech million dollar hospital bed I was on was broken. So they wheeled in another fancy bed and told me to climb onto it.

Should be easy right? Well I was at a point where I could barely think straight, speaking was tough, and moving was excruciating. I was about 6 cm dilated and lying down in a hospital bed with an oxygen mask, an IV in my arm, a blood pressure cuff, and heart rate monitors strapped around my belly. I started to try to move and got tangled in cords and sheets. I felt like they were asking me to climb Mount Everest, and for some reason none of the nurses seemed inclined to help me get onto the other bed. Anyway, to make a long story short it felt like it took me 20 minutes to climb from one bed onto the other bed. It probably took me five minutes and all of my concentration. Seems really funny now, but at at the time I was not so thrilled. Fortunately after that things got better and in the end my son arrived healthy and adorable!

Why having a baby who is a bad sleeper early on might be good in the long run

So here is my newest theory*:

If you have a baby who is a really bad sleeper during the first months this may actually be good in the long run, because you will be forced to address and work through sleep issues early in your child's life.

Here is the sequence of events as they happened in my family:

1. my son did not regularly sleep for more than 2 hours at a time for the first four months of his life
2. by the time he was four months old we were all so sleep deprived and miserable that we felt we had to make a big change and we did some sleep training (Ferber style)
3. a week after we started the sleep training everyone was getting so much more sleep, including my son who was happier and better rested. He started taking long naps and only waking up 1x per night
4. at 15 months old he sleeps really well for naps and sleeps through the night from 7:30pm-6:00am (apart from the occasional night when he is sick or teething) 

Now I don't know what it's like to have a young baby who is a "good sleeper", but I do know a few people with older babies who still need to coax their children to sleep each night. A case in point is a friend of mine who was still rocking her baby to sleep when he was eleven months old. Or another mom who still had to breastfeed her baby to sleep every night when he was two years old. There is nothing wrong with doing these things as long as everyone is happy doing them, but this is not always the case.

This post is not intended to encourage people to try sleep training or to criticize certain methods of getting your baby to sleep. My motto is do whatever works for your family. But I am hoping if there are people out there with young babies who are eligible for the "worst sleeper ever" prize you will see that there might be a silver lining to your situation.

At least in my case I am sure that if my son was only waking up 1x or 2x a night at four months old I would have felt no need to do sleep training. But since he was waking up on average about 4x times a night we were desperate and when he was old enough we tried the sleep training.

* As always my theories are based on limited anecdotal evidence.

Egg allergy

My poor boy is allergic to eggs, and I am hoping he will outgrow it. Apparently most kids outgrow egg allergies by the time they start school. Anyone else have experience with this? If so please leave a comment and let me know what happened.

My son has had eggs twice, once when he was 9 months old to see if he was allergic and once by accident when he was 12 months old and both times he ended up with red spots on his face wherever his skin made contact with egg. On both occasions the symptoms disappeared in about 20 minutes.

Fortunately this is a pretty mild allergic reaction, as far as allergies go. And he does not seem to be allergic to eggs in baked products (like cookies, breads, etc.). However, we have steered clear of most things containing eggs to be on the safe side.

Ground Flax-seed is a really nice alternative to egg for anyone looking to cook for someone with allergies and it is really good for you as well. All you do is mix 1 tablespoon flaxseed and 3 tablespoons water and use that to substitute for one egg.

I am still hoping my son will outgrow this allergy as I want him to be able to enjoy all the yummy eggy foods that I love.

Nursing Bras - do not make the mistake I made

Before our baby was born my husband and I went to a childbirth class which was generally pretty good except for one piece of advice the instructor gave us mamas. She said don't go buy a nursing bra now, wait until a couple weeks after the baby is born so you know what size your breasts will be when you are nursing. 


So I am sure this is great advice if you have time to go on a leisurely shopping trip looking for bras when your baby is 2 weeks old! Maybe if you have family who can babysit this would work for you, or maybe if you have one of those babies who are content to sleep in their carseat/stroller as you shop then this would work... or maybe not.


Reasons to buy a couple of nursing bras before your baby is born:

1. take it from me you do not want to spend 2 weeks trying to figure out how to nurse your baby in your old bras which are now too small
2. see above, some babies are not going to tolerate a shopping expedition at two weeks old
3. even if your baby would be happy to shop with you I am sure you have better things to do, like rest and recover from your baby's birth
4. most bras that you buy ahead or time can be returned if the size is an issue

I bought a few bras for nursing and here are my thoughts:

• Medela sleep bra - not so great, started to fray pretty quickly and very thin fabric. 
• I bought a couple bras at Target that do not have a brand name (that I can see), but worked really well.
• what worked out best for me was nursing tank tops that I bought from Target. Big busted ladies this might not be enough support for you, but for me it was perfect and I still sleep in them.

It did take me until my baby was 10 months old to realize that I could just use a large sports bra that is very stretchy as a nursing bra. It is stretchy enough to pull it up from the bottom or down from the top - and much cheaper than most official "nursing" bras.


Make sure you get some nursing pads before your baby arrives as well, leaky boobs are just no fun.


I used these fancy disposable pads by Lansinoh before I discovered that you could buy cloth/washable pads (mine are made by Nuk) which work just as well and reduce trash! I am sure crafty mamas could make their own nursing pads out of cloth. 

The panty liner trick:
In case you get in a tight spot and don't have any nursing pads on hand here is a trick I discovered. Take a panty liner cut it in half and stick it to the inside of my bra.

Extended Rear Facing Car Seats - the "Orphan Seat"

Among car seat safety experts it is common knowledge that babies and toddlers are safest staying in a  rear-facing car seat as long as possible, and an article in today's New York Times Health section tries to bring that message to a broader audience. The article states that the American Academy of Pediatrics recently announced that they advise parents to keep toddlers in a rear-facing car seat until they are at least 2 years old.

Many guidelines tell parents they can turn a car seat around to be forward facing when a child is 1 year old and weighs 20 pounds, but parents do not realize that just because they can does not mean they should. Lots of parents like the idea of turning the car seat forward facing for lots of reasons (easier getting child in and out, can see child from front seat, child seems less cramped, etc.). However, like so many other parenting decisions, the more convenient option is also the less safe option (see my post on drop-side cribs).

Rear-Facing Car Seat

Because babies have weak necks and large heads if they are in a serious accident their heads are thrown forwards and their necks can often snap. On the other hand, if they are facing the back of the car (rear-facing) the force of the accident is mostly absorbed by the car seat.

If you are trying to decide when to turn your child's car seat to forward-facing check out this video on Youtube: "The Importance of Rear-Facing" and cut to time 1:30 when they show a crash test with a forward facing and rear facing car seat.

For me the most striking passage in the NYT article is a quote from a pediatrician, Dr. Baer, who says:

“It’s a horrible term,” she said, “but E.M.T.’s call the rear-facing seat ‘the orphan seat’ because in a bad car accident, that child is often the only one who survives."

Here is some more information about the greater safety of extended rear-facing: Rear-Facing Safety
For more information see my earlier blog post on installing car seats, and advice on getting a car seat safety inspection.

Babywearing - Moby Wrap review

So I have already written about how babywearing changed my life, I thought I should review different carriers, starting with the Moby Wrap.

We heard rave reviews of the Moby wrap from friends, the instructor at our childbirth class, and even the instructor of a baby care class we took in the hospital the day after our son was born. Being cynical people my husband and I were skeptical that any product could be that revolutionary. We even joked that the company that makes these wraps must be giving these people a commission if they can sell more of them. Well we were wrong...

It does take a day or two of practice to learn how to tie the wrap around your body. The first time I saw a friend do it I thought it looked ridiculously complicated, but surprisingly after doing it two or three times it becomes second nature. However, once you master that the rest is pretty easy.

Newborns love to sleep in these wraps. My husband and I both wore our son constantly for the first three months of his life. This was the only way we could guarantee he would fall asleep.

Our preferred position for him as a newborn was the hug hold and also a variation on this where his side was against my chest rather than his tummy. We generally put him in the Moby wrap already swaddled. If he was in a really deep sleep in the Moby Wrap we often would be able to remove him from the wrap and put him down for a nap in his bouncy chair. Sometimes we just continued to wear him while he slept and we did whatever we wanted: watched movies, ate meals, cleaned the house. I also often fell asleep on the couch in a sort of semi-sitting position while my son was asleep wrapped around me. For the first few months with a newborn this was a lifesaver.

Photographing babies - why my second child will hate me

I am not planning to have a second child anytime soon. But I already know that second child will hate me because at some point he/she will discover that there are thousands of baby photos of his/her older brother and only a handful of the second child. I can completely understand why this happens. Everything your first baby does is fascinating. I think the problem is only compounded now that we have digital photography and the instant gratification it provides.

All I can say is that I am glad I was a first child (and a twin). There are plenty of photos of my babyhood!

Baby teethbrushing

My fourteen month old son used to scream bloody murder every night when we tried to brush his teeth. I am writing this post to inspire other parents who wonder if the horrendous ear splitting baby screams during teeth brushing will ever end.

He did not start out this way. He started getting teeth at about seven months and for the first few months he would let me brush them lightly with a cloth or a baby toothbrush. But along with the attitude he developed at about twelve months old he decided he did not have to tolerate this kind of invasive behavior any more. So we battled on through and tooth-brushing was literally the most difficult part of our day for a long time. But now finally it seems like the tide may have turned. However, I won't hold my breath. This could just be a phase. I know one of my husband's co-workers literally has to threaten her young children with putting them in a headlock to brush their teeth if they do not do it themselves. Things might also go downhill for us. I would not worry so much but my son has a tendency to get a visible buildup of food stuck between his bottom teeth and I do not want him to start out his life with cavities!

Here is some great advice about tooth-brushing for toddlers that do not like it (I'm guessing this represents the majority of the toddler population). This advice was passed along to me by knowledgeable parents and it has made a big difference.

1. contain that squirmy kid - try brushing teeth when they are strapped into their high-chair
2. try using that baby Orajel toothpaste that has a sort of yummy sticky sweet taste
3. use a baby toothbrush - do not use one of those rubber brushes that you stick over the end of your finger - unless you like having your fingers chomped on by very sharp toddler teeth

Use this yummy toothpaste but do not use the rubber finger brush thingy with a baby with top and bottom teeth unless you want to feel excruciating pain.

My son is still pretty cranky about the whole teeth brushing thing, but at least he doesn't wake up the whole neighborhood. He is in a good mood until I approach with the toothbrush then he throws himself forward trying to escape the highchair. Then he passively accepts his fate as I use one hand to cup his head from behind to keep him still and then use the other hand to brush his teeth.

Of course by brushing his teeth I do not mean two minutes of good solid brushing motions, or whatever it is adults are supposed to achieve. I mean about fifteen seconds of trying to make the toothbrush bristles connect with his four upper teeth and four bottom teeth while he tries to clamp his lips down to stop me. But still this is progress and now that he is no longer yelling so much I am feeling victorious.