Monthly Archives for July 2006

Park Pictures and an Observation

Ruby, Steve, and I attended the 30th birthday / “Thank God Andreas isn’t dead” party on Saturday at Seward Park. (The latter is a reference to a recent bike accident.) An acquaintance of mine from Jobster, Ben, was quite taken with Ruby and snapped a ton of pictures. He posted the best ones on his flickr account.

Here’s one of my favorites:

I also wanted to note that I’ve been astounded lately at Ruby’s patience. We’re discovering that she often just lies awake in bed after waking up, rather than calling for us right away. She’ll just lay there and look around at the patterned fabrics (sarong, stripey thing on ceiling) and think her thoughts. Sometimes she’ll occupy herself by trying to catch hold of her feet. She can do this for a long time before getting bored.

Sitting Ruby

We’re suffering through a heat wave in Seattle right now, but Ruby’s holding up pretty well.  We’re spending a lot of time holed up in the basement where it’s cool, and the air conditioner keeps her bedroom bearable at night.

A few days ago we tried Ruby in her booster seat, and to our pleasure we discovered that she’s perfectly comfortable in it!  This means she can join us for some civilized chatter at the dinner table.  She also enjoys having toys in front of her on the tray.

Ruby in her booster seat

We used this new skill to good advantage at a restaurant last night, where we had her sitting in a high chair for a little while.  The restaurant high chairs are still much too big, so I need to keep a hand on her to make sure she doesn’t slide out, but at least it keeps her out of our laps when we’ve got hot food.

Not Every Whim…

Not every whim

Unlike Steve, I have already been trying out some discipline with Ruby. She’s developed an unpleasant habit during nursing where she writhes and turns away. Not only is it annoying and time-consuming, it leads to sore nipples for me. At best, she squirms a bit during feedings. At worst, she arches her back and cries as well. Weirdly, she always turns her head away to the right. I don’t know why.

I’m not sure of the cause. Possibly she’s impatient for me to let down. Possibly she picked up some bad habits from bottle-feeding (where the bottle followed her mouth around as she turned her head; Steve has now stopped this). In order to stop the problem, I have unsuccessfully tried:

– Feeding with her and I both lying down
– Feeding with her lying down and me sitting up
– Feeding with both of us sitting up
– Feeding while I stand and jiggle her
– Feeding while I bounce on the yoga ball (a moderately successful tactic)
– Facing her to a blank white wall to minimize distraction
– Holding her hand to calm her inner jitters
– Holding her body tightly so she can’t move easily
– Taking her off for a minute after she turns away
– Saying “No” in a firm voice

Today I tried a more martial-arts-inspired approach: use the enemy’s energy and momentum against them. While feeding her (in the standard position), I turned her body so her head was ALREADY turned to the right. This really seemed to help. If she turned her head, it only went a little bit, and she didn’t break the connection. She also seemed calmer. I’ll have to give this approach a few more tries to see if it’s a winner.

It’s hard trying to enforce discipline on an infant who not only doesn’t speak, but can’t even understand me very well. I suppose it is a good warm-up for the terrible twos.

State of the Baby, Addendum

I had a few things to add:

  • You can tell the seriousness of Ruby’s crying by the expression on her face. When it’s serious, her face looks sadder and her lower lip curls in.
  • Ruby is often quiet. Despite all the noises she makes (described in the previous entry), I’d say that she’s quiet at least half the time she’s awake. When I picture her, I picture her just looking silently at the world.
  • We’ve made the transition from putting Ruby in sleepers all the time, to putting her in real outfits most of the time. Granted, she’s still wearing pretty comfortable/easy stuff, generally one-piece things like creepers or overalls with a onesie.
  • When you carry Ruby upright so that she’s looking over your shoulder (facing backwards), she usually puts her near hand around your neck and holds on. It’s very endearing.

State of the Baby

Ruby is 4 months and 2 days old.  This is what she is like:

  • She weighs about 13.5 lbs, and is about 23 inches long.
  • Her eyes are still blue, but the area near the pupil is getting some greenish/brownish spots, and she’s got a darker ring around the outside of her iris like her mother.
  • Her hair is coming in blond.  It’s still very short, but she’s getting some decent fur on the top of her head.  The back of her head is still bald from lying on her back.
  • Her skin is fairly clear, although she has a constant rash around her neck (from drooling) and on the back of her knees (from heat?)  The back of her head where it rests on the ground usually has a rash as well.  She gets the occasional pimple, too.
  • A typical day, which never really happens, goes something like this:
    • wake up around 6:30a
    • eat
    • nap for an hour around 8:30a
    • eat
    • nap for a half hour around noon
    • eat
    • eat some more
    • nap for around 45 minutes around 4:30p
    • eat
    • nap for about 30 minutes around 7:30p
    • eat
    • back to sleep at 8:30p
  • She’s usually excited to see us, especially right after waking up, and waves her arms and kicks her legs with a big smile on her face
  • Sometimes, she’ll just watch us with no expression on her face.  Just watching.
  • She’s friendly with strangers and will usually smile at people she meets.
  • She still uses her soother, but more often than not she’s sucking on her fists, fingers, or thumbs.  The soother is really only important when she’s upset or trying to go to sleep.
  • She’ll bite down on my fingers if I put them in her mouth, although not with as much gusto as a few weeks ago.
  • She gets really cranky when she gets tired, which makes bedtime kind of a pain.  Also, reading bedtime stories is not any fun because she’s fussy and squirmy.
  • She’s enjoying tummy time more.  If she’s in a good mood (especially if she’s naked!) then she’ll spend 10 minutes or more on her stomach — usually just sucking on her hand or the floor.  She can lift her head up to 90 degrees, but doesn’t hold it there very often.  She does a lot of “airplaning”, where she’ll lift her head, arms, and legs off the ground and just be on her stomach, and wiggle around.  Sometimes her struggling will slowly spin her around in a circle, but she doesn’t turn around intentionally.
  • She can turn from her stomach to her back and from her back to her stomach, but it’s still a very rare occurrence.
  • She has a lot of frantic energy in her hands — her hands are often grabbing at each other, or will squeeze my fingers if they’re within range. 
  • Her favorite toy is still her O-ball, but she’s getting better at grasping things and holding them longer.  She can’t really use her fingers to hold onto things, but she can use her hands to pull things into her body.  Everything must eventually go into her mouth or it is not interesting.
  • She’s just started to become interested in the textures of things.  She’ll scratch at interesting fabrics (especially nylon) with her fingernails, or rub my skin with the tips of her fingers.
  • She likes to go for walks.  I carry her in the sling and she’ll sit and watch the world go by for several hours.  She likes to look at leaves, people, anything.  We’ve taken her to the zoo but animals don’t hold much interest for her.  Fish tanks are much more interesting.  But she does enjoy walking around the zoo, looking at everything but the animals.
  • Sometimes I’ll take her grocery shopping and put her in the cheap baby seat that comes attached to some of the grocery carts.  She’ll enjoy watching the world roll by, or sometimes she’ll just watch me, and usually she’ll be sucking on a hand.
  • I take her jogging every other day.  She’s occassionally not too happy about going into the jogging stroller, depending on her mood, but she’ll settle down and enjoy the ride after 5 minutes or so.  Sometimes we’ll need to stop part way through the run to give her the soother or just smile at her.  She usually sleeps for most of the run.  We just put the stiff padded backrest back into the jogging stroller so she’s now sitting much more upright when we’re running. 
  • She likes to listen to me play the piano, but only for about 10 minutes before she wants some attention.
  • Things that make her smile: seeing us right after waking up, squeezing her butt, stroking her chest, making lip-smacking sounds, smiling at her, tickling her feet, whistling “what do you do with a drunken sailor”.
  • When she’s really happy she’ll do a kind of guffaw.  I’ve only seen a sustained laugh or giggle twice.  This is where she’ll make a happy noise, inhale, and make another happy noise.  If she strings two or more happy noises together, then I call it laughing.
  • When she’s in a good mood, she’ll stick her tongue out.  Sometimes she’ll have her tongue out about be licking the space between her thumb and forefinger.
  • She’s got a very distinct “hello, is there anybody there?” cry that she uses first thing in the morning, or if she wants some attention on her play blanket (for example, if she’s tired of listening to Billy Joel’s greatest hits on the piano).  It’s kind of like a yell every 5 or 10 seconds. 
  • The most common noise she makes is a straining grunt.  She especially does this if she’s a little cranky and standing up.
  • When she’s really upset, she’ll cry.  It sounds like a throaty “waaaa….”.   The more upset she is, the shorter and more frequent the “waaa”s are.
  • She’s started making a high-pitched shriek every now and then as part of her attempts at conversation.  We’re going to do what we can to discourage this noise.
  • When she’s feeling talkative, she says “ooo” and “aaa”.  Not too many consonants are mixed in.
  • She loves to be naked.  She usually spends a half an hour a day without clothes (or diaper!), either outside in the shade if it’s warm, or inside on her play blanket.  With her diaper off she can grab her toes.
  • We’re now using fuzzi bunz for diapers, and we’re really happy with them.  We change her diaper about six times a day.  She usually has one big runny poop every day or two.
  • She drools a lot and usually smells like baby cheese.  She’ll spit up small amounts of cheese a few times a day.  We bathe her every other day.
  • She’ll eat anywhere from 3oz to 7oz at a time from the bottle.  We have no idea how much she eats directly from the breast.  Right now, a “meal” is anything more than 4oz, and a “snack” is anything less than that.  She’s eating breast milk exclusively.
  • She’s started to notice the TV and will turn her head to watch it if it’s near her view.  We don’t want really want her to watch any TV at this point, so we try to point her away from the TV if we can, or turn it off and do something else if she’s too interested in it.
  • Categorized in life

Odds and Ends

I don’t have the time to write very often, so here’s a roundup of my thoughts.

Happy Canada Day! To celebrate, we will be filling out Ruby’s Canadian citizenship papers so she can be a properly documented dual citizen.

Yesterday’s vaccinations didn’t seem to have much effect on Ruby’s mood or sleep, but they made her hoarse. It made me realize that she does have her own voice, because I notice now that it sounds different.

After much trial and error, I’ve determined that the “baby spatula” method of transferring a sleeping baby to her crib doesn’t work. Usually, Ruby falls asleep in my arms, so I have to put her down without waking her. The “baby spatula” is where you put your hands flat under the baby, so they can slip right out after you put her down. The problem with that is that on the way down, she’s not very well supported, and so is likely to startle awake. My new method is to bend down into her crib while holding her in my arms. Then, I let go of her feet (easy). Then, I use my free hand to support her head as I gently slide my arm out from under her head and shoulders. It usually works.

Ruby is very charming. Almost without fail, she’ll smile when she meets a new person. We were at a party last night, and she was happy and smiling the whole time (when she wasn’t asleep). She also performed her circus trick a couple of times.

During the week, I’m the one who gets Ruby when she wakes up in the morning (because I have to go to work afterwards). She’s always super smiley and happy, and often wakes up without crying. It makes such a great start to my day to have about 45 minutes of happy Ruby first thing. After she’s fed and changed, I take her into our room and she cuddles with Steve while I get ready for work.