World Breastfeeding Day

by Lucy4 on 08.02.2008

Yesterday, August 1st, was World Breastfeeding Day. I did not go out and breastfeed the world but I did attend a celebration in Austin City Hall. I am a member of the Austin Milk Bank group since I am a donor and they invited us so I thought I would go out and show my support for boobs and babies. There was a long line for the freebies and when we finally got close to the table, they told the people in front of us that they ran out of shirts! Dang it! We did enjoy some free Amy’s ice cream and some lemonade and it gave me a good reason to go downtown and eat with Andy during his lunch time.

Here is a picture of Sean and I in line for the free shirts. We’re such chumps!

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Cute Overload

by Lucy4 on 07.30.2008

Sailor Suit on Ebay: $12

Shipping and handling: $6

These pictures: Priceless

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Starting solids

by Lucy4 on 07.29.2008

Almost a month ago, we started Sean on solids. He was showing signs that he was ready by trying to grab the food from our plates whenever we ate. We also hoped it would increase his weight. Our pediatrician recommended rice cereal because most babies are not allergic to it but in my Le Leche League meetings, they recommend avocado, bananas, and sweet potatoes. The pediatrician stance is to start with bland then slowly introduce sweet so babies will not get a sweet tooth and will reject other nutritional yet not sweet foods such as broccoli. Le Leche says to introduce semi-sweet foods to provide a smooth transition from breastmilk into eating solids because breastmilk is somewhat sweet. They are not big fans of rice cereal because it’s empty calories without much nutritional benefits.

What we ended up doing was getting Earth’s Best Whole Grain rice cereal because it’s all about the whole grains these days and mixing it with fruit. He did not like it a bit. He would either spit it out or close his mouth and we would have to trick him by making him laugh then pushing a spoonful into him. He would actually start crying and it was not the fun that pictures of babies with food all over their faces would have you believe.

We kept it up and just this week, he started to open his mouth and eating and not just eating but eating with gusto. It’s such a great change. It’s fun to feed him now and hopefully, this will help with his weight gain. He’s still mainly breastfed and I just feed him once a day but any ounce will help with this little guy. Though on a bad note, his poopy diapers are now incredibly stinky. Breastmilk poop smells like leaves to me but solid foods smells like well, poop.

Here are the before and after pictures. From his first feedings:

And now with wild abandonment:

That’s my boy!

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Baby Sign Language

by Lucy4 on 07.24.2008

Now that Sean is 6 months old, I have been trying to use more baby sign language with him. Even though they say babies do not start signing back until at least 9 months, it’s always good to start a little earlier. Baby sign language is good for the time when they understand that gestures can communicate ideas yet they are not physically able to produce words (about nine to thirty months old).

Some people think that teaching babies sign language would inhibit their speech production but it’s the opposite. Children who are taught sign language actually speak sooner and have a wider vocabulary by age 2 and beyond.

We know babies are able to communicate from birth by crying, fussing, rubbing their eyes and ears, etc. Some of these things are automatic while others they slowly figure out as they grow older. At 5 months, when Sean was tired of being in his exersaucer, he would be fussy and then raise his hands up so we would pick him up. He then started doing this in his crib and when sitting on the floor. When he wants to be breastfed, he would start pulling on my shirt. When we pick him up, we would hold our hands out then say, “Up!”, and when I nursed him I would make the milk sign which is like a thumbs up with the other fingers opening and closing (like milking a cow) and say, “Milk!”

I was a little nervous when I first started signing to Sean because I didn’t know American Sign Language but I have been reading this book called Baby Signs and they reassured me by pointing out that the objective of baby signing is to be able to communicate with your child. So if there is a sign that your child cannot make, simplify it. Also, some words might be more prevalent in your home than other homes like rice in Asian households. In addition, let’s say Sean and I go to an aquarium and he is very fascinated by the manatees and wants to know everything about them. Now how the heck do you sign the word manatee? Well, don’t fret, just make a sign up and as long as you and your child understands what the sign means, that’s all that matters.

Different books suggests different first signs to teach. This one recommends: hat (hand on head), bird (flap arms), flower (wrinkle nose as if smelling a flower), fish (open close kissy lips), and more (tap one finger into the palm of the other hand or bring fingers closer). Other books recommend more useful words such as milk, eat (hand to mouth), bed (hands folded as in prayer under tilted head), Mommy (thumb on chin), Daddy (thumb on forehead), ball (fingers together making a shape of a ball) etc. I’ve been using milk, book (open palms pinkies touching, open and close hands), thank you (hand to chin then away towards other person), , dog (pat side of leg) which works because when I do it, the dog already comes running, and a couple others.

There are some great books, flashcards, and youtube videos on the subject. I haven’t gotten the cards yet but might next time I am at a book store. Stay tuned because if I am consistent, I can start having Sean start doing these baby tricks when we have visitors. Right now, he can just sit up, crawl, and look cute.

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No More Background TV

by Lucy4 on 07.23.2008

As if giving cable wasn’t good enough, I recently read this article that says that having background television noise on while your child is playing actually reduces their play time by 5%! Even if the show is a newscast and the child is not watching it, just having it on distracts them from focusing on the activity at hand.

If you saw videos of Sean when he was a newborn, you will notice that the television was usually on in the background. I have cut my television watching in half but still watched a couple of hours of TV a day rationalizing it by saying that what I am watching was not interesting to the baby and so does not count towards the no TV for babies philosophy Andy and I had decided on when I was pregnant. Now with this study, I will cut that amount again. I know I can stay away from the TV now but once there are new Lost and Heroes episodes, I will be off the wagon again.

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Sean’s new hobby

by Lucy4 on 07.20.2008

Once Sean was able to sit up by himself, he had been able to play independently with a toy for at least 15 minutes. Sometimes, more. During this time, I can supervise him and do some chores around the house or have a meal. But recently, he has been very unfocused and would only be entertained with a toy for a couple minutes before he cries to be picked up. That is, until we found out that he loves to rummage.

I have been putting his small toys into this blue bin downstairs and while sitting with him on the floor deciding which toy to give him, I noticed that he loves to go through the bin and take things out. He would look in the bin, choose a toy, take it out, play with it for a minute, then just place it on the floor and repeat. He can spend a while doing this and when the bin is light enough, he pours everything out. I would take his hand and show him how to drop the items back in, naming them as we go along. I am hoping in time, he will automatically clean up after making a mess. A valuable lesson I have yet to master myself.

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Sean Crawls!

by Lucy4 on 07.15.2008

This weekend Sean has officially started crawling! He had been inching, lunging, and rolling to get around but today he has mastered the art of the crawl.

Sorry about the Blair Witch-esque style of the video. I think Andy was just too excited that Sean was able to finally get around effectively.

Another milestone was that he was able to push himself from the crawling position to the sitting position. It came out of nowhere so we didn’t film that but we did film the subsequent attempt at trying to get back to a crawling position from a seated position.

We have been bothering him to sit up from the laying down position again but he has not repeated that feat yet. I know this kind of stuff happens all the time but this crawling thing is like the lunar landing to us. There are other videos of him practicing his crawling on our picasaweb page if you just can’t get enough of the Seanmeister.

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Wake me when it’s one year

by butterbean on 07.09.2008

Yesterday I turned 6 months. Man, did it suck. In the morning I had a doctor’s appointment. I was in the 50% - 75% for height, 50% for my head circumference, and 10% for weight. I have to come in again in a few weeks to get a weigh-in to see if I need additional supplements. I’ve been drinking as much as I can. I’m like that hot dog champ from Japan who eats a lot yet is still very skinny.

But that wasn’t the worse of it. I also got five shots into my thighs. So my mom was holding me down and then I felt something in my leg. It took me a while but I realized that I was in excruciating pain and I started howling. My mom and the nurse were actually laughing at my anguish just because I had a delayed response to the shots. The nurse was on the third shot when I started wailing so they thought I was just faking it or something but I wasn’t. Man, adults can be so mean! Let me see how you handle five shots in the thigh!

A couple of hours later, I had a low grade fever which made me cranky all day. But to add insult to injury, the old folks dragged me to the market in the evening. The next thing I knew they started playing Never Gonna Give You Up by Rick Astley over the loudspeaker. Great, to commemorate the first six months of my existence on the outside, I get Rickrolled. Yeah, happy half year to me indeed.

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New Camera

by Lucy4 on 06.28.2008

Glorious day! I got a new camera! We already have two other digital cameras but they are those small touristy cameras that can fit in your pant pocket. After envying other parents’ flickr pages, I decided to invest in a good camera. Our limit was $500 and after talking to my pal, Kevin, we decided on a Canon EOS Rebel XT. They have newer versions that we couldn’t afford so we thought we could find a good used one on ebay or craigslist. Before we went that route, we dropped by a great photography store in Austin called Precision because we heard they sell used cameras. We were in luck they had one for $350 and after getting the nifty-50 lens for it and the memory card, everything came out to be $496. Sweeet!

We’ve taken so many beautiful pictures of him with the camera. With the old camera, there was a long pause after taking a picture before I could take the next. With this camera, I feel like a paparazzi taking pictures left and right. Also, I love how I don’t have to use the flash indoors and it gives his skin a nice warm tone.

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Mai’s portrait of our family

by butterbean on 06.25.2008

My cousin, Mai, drew this cool picture of my family.

I think I am unhappy in the picture because I am stuck inside a hamburger.

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