We’ve had a GREAT first Thanksgiving.  Sam was very good over at Honey’s and GP’s house, and hardly fussed at all… And she was also great when we had other company.  More pictures after the break!

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from our current, parenting related postings, to mention a review by Bruce Schneier, a internet security expert; of the book Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirky.

This book goes into how the internet has made it possible for truly ad hoc organizations to form, and then disappear with almost zero organizational cost.  This is an amazing thing, for example, the London Transport bombings, since photos and video of the event were available in an organized manner on Flickr within minutes of the event.  This is hugely dangerous when more radical groups use the very same tools to organize themselves for crimes against society.

It’s easy, but shortsighted to argue that these tools should be outlawed on the basis of the purposes to which they could be put.  People make the very same arguments with regards to firearms.  But the courts and society have repeatedly shown that, say, Smith and Wesson isn’t responsible for the murder caused by their Magnum handguns.

I was very intrigued by the review’s implications that these tools will allow for people to become far better informed decisions, and to increasingly isolate themselves from good information.

I can’t decide if this is overly complicated, but it does seem to work.  Here’s how we keep Sam semi-quiet, and ready for sleep in the late night feedings:

1) Feed her on one side for ~20-25 minutes (a pretty heavy, half feeding)

2) Feed her on the second side for 10-15 minutes

3) Change diaper, change clothes if needed, swaddle her for sleep, etc.  The goal is to take her from breast to bed immediately.

4) Feed her on the second side for ~10 minutes to calm her down and finish the feeding.

5) Burp her, and put her to bed.  Theoretically, she passes out immediately.

–Jason

Grandmothers, thumbsucking, wild hair, oh my… (more after the break)

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1.  Be calm

2.  Babies are much sturdier than they appear.  Logically I already knew this from experiences with other babies, emotionally I felt like everything I did was going to cause lasting harm… somehow.

3.  Be calm and patient

4.  Tiredness becomes a way of life.  When someone volunteers to help out with your new addition, take them up on it.  This allows you to breath, take a shower, and a nap all in one day.  I emphasis the shower and nap part.

5. Be calm, patient, and flexible

6.  Lean on your husband.  He can be a sturdy rock when the tidal wave of emotions hits you over and over again.  Yes, you can use them to cry on.  They really won’t think that you’re weak or losing your mind.

7.  Be calm, patient, flexible, and accept advice with grace

8.  Sitz baths…..so good.  If you do not know what this is, well ask your health care provider.  If you’ve done one before, you know of what I speak.

9.  Be calm, patient, flexible, accept advice with grace, and cherish your child

10. I know you are expecting a list of 10 items, but I’m tired now.

- Sandra

1) “It’s called breast feeding, not nipple feeding”.  This is important to all those upcoming mothers out there.  If you don’t get the whole thing in the child’s mouth, you’re in for a world of pain.  From the very first feeding, try to get as much of the areola in there.  The sooner the child (and you) learn good habits, the better for everyone.

2) Swings.  Swings are awesome.  For Samantha, they work FAR better than the vibration stuff in most beds/chairs.  Swings take up a lot more room though, but it seems to be far closer to what a child would want (aka: much closer to what a child experienced in womb), than a vibrating chair/pad.  Though a vibration pad has helped her to get over the ‘sleep’ line a couple of times for us.

3) Supplement.  The phrase ‘Breast is best’ is very true when it comes to the old ‘how should I feed my baby?’ question.  But there is a time to supplement.  Our pediatrician was VERY concerned after Sam had dropped 10.8% of her birth weight as of day 5.  So we started supplementing her milk with a little formula… just trying to get the amount she’s getting per feeding up to 1oz.  And that helped out a lot, both our peace of mind, and Sam to get enough nourishment.  But the good news is Sandra’s milk came in fully by Thursday, and on Friday, Sam was back up to near birth weight.

4) Swaddling.  Oh, wow.  The key to starting calming the baby down is swaddling them tightly.  Get your nurse to show you how, get some small, square blankets to do it with, and go to town.  The soft, fuzzy baby blankets don’t work… you need felt or thermal blankets to have enough ‘grab’ to stay tight.  (after swaddling, rock/bounce them a lot, while shushing loudly, and if worse comes to worst, give them a pinky finger to suck on… fingernail down towards the tongue, and freshly washed please.)

5) Practicality and flexibility are key.  If you can’t improvise, you’re in trouble.

A few more pictures of home life.

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More pictures to be seen here…

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When people describe becoming a dad… they tend to use big, transformative language.  Things like “My world changed the first instant I saw my little child”, “I’ll never be the same again”, or “All my desires shifted from myself, to the little child”.

For me, I can’t claim any ‘religious conversion’ level of personal change.  But I will say that I can do some things now that I never could before… the biggest one being quieting a baby… (however, I probably should credit the book “The Happiest Baby on the Block” I’m only half way through the book, and it’s been able to quiet down some CRAZY loud/prolonged screaming sessions.)  I have NEVER had any luck calming children down.  I’ve actually had basically zero experience with babies as is… But since Sam got here, I’ve been able to calm her down…

I’ll probably talk more about this later, but for now, we’re all trying to catch up on some sleep… so I think I’ll do that…

(but I might post some pictures first… )

–Jason

No, she doesn’t have editorial rights here yet… she needs to learn to type first, rather than just flail at things…

Sam was born on November 7th, at 5:28 PM EST.  She was 6lb, 14oz, and was 20.25 inches long.  Here are some pictures:

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