Best4Future: DD’s baby blog since conception!


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August 12, 2008

From sleepless bunny to sleeping beauty

Category: Baby growing, From Mommy, first year – mommy – 12:29 pm

“Still sleeping? It is already 3:00am!” I said to myself, “DD has slept for five hours and skipped one meal. Should I wake her up or not?”

Yes, DD can sleep five hours straight at night now. She has transferred from a sleepless energizer bunny to a sleeping beauty.

But it took her an entire whole month to reach this change. I remembered DD was so fussy since her third day that M and I had to turns to rock her, walk with her, and tried everything to calm her down. She was just like an energizer bunny, full of energy while wearing both of us down!

During the first month, usually beginning in the late morning, DD began her crying spells. She closed her eyes tightly, turned her beautiful face into madly red, opened her cute little mouth widely, cried, sometimes screamed, for hours. Occasionally this ordeal could last a whole day and until 3 or 4 AM the next morning.

M and I had to take turns gulping our food, running to the bathroom, stealing a nap, or did anything we needed to do in a hurry.

In order to put her to sleep, we invented or discovered all kinds of tricks. Each time after I developed a new trick, she quickly identified it. A seesaw battle of tricking and anti-tricking kept going between us… (see Tricking vs. anti-tricking)

When DD finally dozed away—after what seemed like hours of nursing, rocking, walking, talking and lullabying as well as using all kinds of tricks, I waited for five minutes until she was in deep sleep, then I rose slowly and moved cautiously to the crib, lifted her over the edge of the crib, descended her perilously to the mattress below.

Slowly I released the hand under her bottom, then with my breath held I carefully withdrew another hand below her neck. The success was so close that I could almost taste it. However, when I was about to leave, she woke up and began to cry. I picked up and started all over. Sometimes it took six rounds to finally put her down.

Even after she finally fell into sleep (thank goodness!), she was so alert that a light sound or noise would easily woke her up. I had to tiptoe around the house, talk softly, cook, eat or do other household chores quietly. Since she could wake up any time, my mind quickly figured out things I had to do, things I needed to do but I could wait for a while, and things I could postpone until M was back home. Then I run up and down and finished those important things swiftly. I felt like being in a battlefield. Every minute when she was out was too precious to squander.

DD made her longest fussy record on the last weekend of her fourth week. The agony began at 11:00 AM on Saturday morning, lasted the whole day and then stopped at 3 AM Sunday morning. And then it repeated on Sunday and finished at 4 AM of Monday morning.

Ironically, this longest fussy weekend turned to be the turning point of her transferal from a sleepless energizer bunny to a sleeping beauty.

Since week 5, I noticed my consolation time to put her to sleep gradually became shorter and shorter. She also slept longer and longer between two feeding times, especially during daytime. Sometimes she even fell into sleep before the ending of the feeding. When I moved her to the crib, she didn’t wake up!

I began to have more time to cook and eat my lunch, go to bathroom, clean my breasts or finish doing those necessary things. Since I had been used to running up and down to do things in a rush, when I suddenly had time to spare, I didn’t know what to do! The first time after I finished my lunch without being interrupted, I felt at loss: now what to do?

Soon things seemed to go from one extreme to anther. DD began to drift off before finishing nursing. Sometimes she held my nipples and nodded out. Sometimes after she finished one breast, I put her aside, switched the nursing pillow to anther side and turned to her, she was already out.

Beginning week 7, DD began to sleep long hours, ranging from 4-6, at night. She also stopped crying each time when she woke up. Instead she played by herself, suck her fingers, or sometimes cooing to herself.

At first I congratulated myself about all these changes, then I began to worry that she didn’t get enough milk, since she slept too much!

Dear readers, did your baby experience the same change in his/her first few months? Welcome to tell us the story about your baby!

August 10, 2008

Froggy princess

Category: From Mommy, first year – mommy – 3:14 pm

I think DD’s previous life must be a cute little froggy. I call her froggy princess.

She likes crooking her two legs when she sleeps. When she is frustrated, she kicks her legs into the air, strongly and persistently. When she wants to get away from my holding, she kicks her legs against my body and sprints out straight forward. She also has a lovely full tummy, like all other healthy babies.

A cute little froggy!

I have to be very careful with her. When she pushes her legs against my tummy and suddenly shoots out, I must quickly identify her intention and extend my arms along with her. In this way she would not drop off my hands or be out of my control.

“Froggy princess, please stopping doing this and hurt yourself.” I keep telling her. But she keeps ignoring my warnings and still does her way. What can I do? She is a baby and a froggy princess…

August 7, 2008

Million-diaper baby

Category: From Mommy, first year – mommy – 1:14 pm

Of course DD is not a million-diaper baby, otherwise M and I will go broke (imaging using one million diapers for the first few years of life?)

But DD does consume a lot of diapers. Definitely she can be called a thousand-diaper baby.

Let’s do a simple math here:

Normally children can start toilet training between 15-30 months of age. Assume DD will learn to use the potty at the age of 18 months, then the total number of diapers she will consume will be 8212.5.

8212.5 diapers! How much they cost?

The cost of one box of 92 diapers is $23.99. Again, to make it easy, assume the cost is $25 for every 100 diapers, how much for 8212.5 diapers?

It will be $2053.125 for one and half years supply of diapers!

What does this mean? It means solely on diapers we have to spend $114.0625 monthly or $28.515625 weekly for 18 months!

Maybe $28.515625 a week on diapers doesn’t sound too bad. However, diaper is not the only thing we buy for baby. We need to buy infant crib, crib Mattress, fitted crib sheets, blankets, changing table, baby monitor, nursing pillows, baby wears (bodysuits, booties/socks, caps, seasonal outerwear, and etc), diaper bag, infant car seat, convertible car seat, infant carrier or sling, umbrella stroller, play yard, swing, breast pump, nursing accessories (pads, cream, storage bags), diaper rash cream, infant bathtub, baby shampoo and wash, thermometer, and much much more (see Baby checklist).

Overall, having baby is expensive! But there are things that money cannot buy! For us DD is the most precious one in the world. We enjoy having her and providing everything she needs for her…