1) Wow… she’s slept pretty well.

2) OMG! IS SHE ALIVE????!?!?!!?!!?!eleven!!!

3) Turn on the monitor!

4) <wait>

5) Look! She wiggled… she’s alive!

6) Wow… she slept for more than 8 hours…

7) I can get used to that…

–Jason

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

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.

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

Week 38 of the pregnancy: We’re told that Sandra is at 3cm.  So Samantha could come at any time, and that’s just fine by the OB.

Week 39 of the pregnancy: Still at 3cm.  Our Duela tells us that almost all of her clients go early.  We’re still at 3cm, so life’s good.

Week 40 of the pregnancy:  Sandra is having contractions, so we go to the hospital.  They send us home, still at 3cm.  Doctor schedules and induction for the end of week 41.

Week 41, day before induction: Sandra’s again having contractions, this time, even while lying down, but they’re not to the magical 5-1-1 mark… 5 minutes appart, lasting for 1 minute, and sustained for 1 hour, while you’re trying to stop them (by lying down, taking hot showers/baths/etc).

One way or another, Hurricane Samantha will decend upon our lives in the next 24-36 hours, and life will be different.  I don’t know how… I have no visibility into that cauldron of diapers and baby wipes, and cooing sounds… I’ve never spent time around newborns (at least in the 30 years since my sister was one).

So now, we wait.

I was struck by an idea the other day on how to teach pre-teens and teenagers about some of the give and take in finances. Note: this is not a cure-all, just an exercise.

Figure out how much money it costs to take the whole family out to eat, and plan on doing that once a week, for a month.

Set it up with the child that they will be given $x per week, and most likely, their pupils will form dollar signs, just like in the cartoons. But tell them that there’s a string attached. They have to pay for the entire family to go out to eat, and they get anything left over.

What I’m hoping for is to teach the kids about the give and take of finances, but just in one dimension: Should people have coke to drink, or just water? Filet or a side salad?

–Jason

UPDATE: My sister asked about the child smart enough to ask “So, would cooking ramen for the family count as providing them a meal?” First off, that kid probably doesn’t need this particular lesson. Second off, I’d cut the deal short after just one week…