Moving

So I haven't posted for a while and am not sure when I will start back up again, but I've moved the blog to Wordpress. The new address is http://newportlanddaddy.wordpress.com.

Traveling for work

I'm traveling for work this weekend/first part of the week. I've been missing my family, but not too much until I just saw a Huggies commercial. We use cloth diapers, but Huggies has finally done something right...I got just the tiniest but misty-eyed. Weird

Sick Baby....Sick Mama...

I have not envied my wife this week. Sairshe is at the tail end of a cold she's had all week. Casey is also at the tail end of a cold. I've been totally slammed at work and have had to work long days. It is not a happy household, though things were better yesterday and should be today as well.
Apparently, babies can get upwards of ten colds in their first year, but I don't think any will be as bad as this week was. (At least I hope not.)
What makes this harder is that you can't give babies cold medicine. You can run a humidifier in the room, but no decongestant vapor in it. There's no such thing as baby Sudafed or at least you don't use it with a 4 month old. Babies can't blow their noses for something like a year. So this is what I have done.
Used a saline solution and bulb syringe to remove snot...Sairshe hates that.
Held her a lot.
Slept on the couch propped up so Sairshe can sleep upright.
At least she's been sleeping a lot.
Yeah...and...that's pretty much all I've got to say about that.

Visits and sleep

So first, about sleep. We considered ourselves pretty lucky. Sairshe slept through the night pretty early (not too early and there is such a thing). Well before 3 months, we were getting a good night's rest. Then we went to California for Labor day. Her sleep habits fell apart. She woke up more at night and napped even less than she did before. (She never really napped well to begin with, but we'll take good sleep at night over naps any day.)
We made some discoveries and some things were pointed out to us while in CA. First of all, she has been drooling a lot and sucking/biting on fingers or anything else she gets in her mouth...duh, teething. It's early for teething, but certainly not unheard of. We've since found some good ways to deal with that, including Hyland's Homeopathic Teething Tablets. I was skeptical, but they work well.
We have also been reading a lot. During a late night crying fit, I read the section in Healthy Sleep Habits, Healthy Child that discusses sleep "regression" around 3-4 months old. The book makes some good points, but doesn't work with our parenting styles. Still, there was good discussion about naps every few hours and creating a good calm environment for sleep. Even better was this article Casey found that argues against the existence of sleep "regressions". It argues, instead, that these events coincide with developmental milestones and little baby brains are working out new skills at this time. It makes a lot of sense and after a minor milestone, she has slept better, just not as good as before.
Finally, we reinstated the nighttime routine. About half an hour before her stated bedtime, we change her into her sleepy clothes, change her diaper and put the fleece liner in, wash her face, and Casey nurses her while I softly play the guitar. The only nights we can't do that are Tuesdays when we have home community, but six nights a week is good. We are hopeful that this routine will help a lot.

Okay, on to some pictures. We went to California for labor day to visit my parents and Casey's mom's side of the family.
Here she is with her grandpa. My dad always seems a little uncomfortable holding her. It's kind of funny. I think he'll be more comfortable with her when she's older.










My Aunt Lori was visiting from Las Vegas.













And with my mom and Casey in Cotati, CA. I had already come back up to Portland since I had to work, but Casey and Sairshe stayed a few extra days.

















And that's it for the pictures. Next posting I'll try to talk more about swim class and, perhaps, a father's early thoughts about the Portland Public Schools and his concerns. (See that's funny because I started to refer to myself in the third person.)

Another Swim Video

After this dive, Sesame pretty much lost it and was crying quite a bit for the last 15 min of class. It took lots of daddy magic to keep her happy after that.

It's been way too long

I had these grand ideas that I would write something every week for this blog. Well, reality has struck. I hardly have time to think about writing, much less actually do so. I think it will get better, but I don't know how regular I'll be. Anyway, I thought I'd post a video today. We've taken Sesame to swimming lessons the last two weeks and she really enjoys it. Apparently, there are a lot of reflexes that can be used to teach her how to swim at such a young age. (She is 11 1/2 weeks old right now.) So, the following video is from her swim class yesterday. There's a bit of swimming and a big finish at the end.

A picture

So. Here's a new picture of our little girl. It's a week or so ago. Casey took a bunch of pictures in our bedroom when the light was perfect. I really like this one. She shows so much interest and wonder in, well, she's not really looking at anything.