Saturday, February 27, 2010

Bottle Bootcamp!

Little miss has been rejecting the bottle for the past couple of months. I am breastfeeding Sadie... but when I want to go on a date with my hubby, have some time on my own, or go back to work I need my bambino to take pumped milk from the bottle.

I first gave her a bottle at 3 weeks, and she took it so well this first time. But since then...it's been a battle (fought with snuggles, gentle urging, and every product available on the market, of course). She chokes on most bottles' nipples. We tried Advent, Green to Grow, Evenflow, Playtex Drop-ins...nothing worked. Her resistance has been quite a challenge. Mark has given it to her when I've been gone, and she's cried and cried, unwilling to take milk from a bottle. Let me remind you, this is the same milk she gets from me. She usually has waited until I returned, and then has breastfed ferociously. In Tahoe we tried putting sugar water on the nipple...and this worked for 1 feeding (after hours of crying)-- when it was new and interesting. Then she went back to rejecting all bottles, even yummy bottles coated in sugar water. Lately, I have tried to give the bottle to her after feedings, when she's not even hungry, so she can get used to the silicone nipple. All these attempts have been futile.

So today was the day--Bottle Bootcamp. I left the house from 9:30am-5:30pm, the longest I've been away from Sadie (I missed her so!). The goal was for Mark to get her to take the bottle contentedly. I bought a new bottle for the occasion, The First Years' Breast Flow bottle. It's made for breastfed babies to go back and forth between mom and bottle without confusion. I spotted it at Target this week, so I thought I'd give it a try. It worked!!! Yeah!!! Sadie fussed a little today, but didn't cry and cry, and she took 7-8 ounces from this bottle (before she took only a half of an ounce to 2 ounces after a lot of tears). I'm so glad we found something that works for our little sadie. She had a great day with dad too! Lots of bonding time!!
Thank You Breastflow!!! Kisses after a long day!

And smiles after a long day, too! That's impressive.


Thanks dad for being patient with me! Love, Sadie



.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Crinkle Paper

Little miss has had a fun week!
Sadie's moving a lot (arching her back, kicking her legs), reaching for objects a ton (as previously reported), following me with her eyes if I walk across the room, sucking her lips (see video), laughing a lot, and smiling all day long.
Sadie has a new BFF- crinkle paper (Thanks Aunt Gin!). I tried to get her interested in this when it first arrived in the mail, but she ignored it. Now she tries to jam it in her mouth...definitely a fav.
See for yourself...she's one fun gal!!
(btw...I don't know why the videos are showing up black, but they should work fine!)



Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Yesterday

Sadie began the afternoon with a lot of energy, as displayed in the tremendous workout on the video posted below. She love love loves her toys--now abandoning "boring" activities like the swing, for a more interactive repertoire.

A little later, her cousin and aunt came for a visit. As you can see, she was quite exhausted at that point in the day. Minutes before this video was shot she was playing Ring Around the Rosy with her cousin, and minutes after she was sound asleep. The sweet kiss from Cousin M helped send her off to nap land. There's so much to do when you're a 3-month-old! Life gets tiring.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Tahoe Snow Fun

We had a great weekend! We went with our good friends, Anne and Lon, up to Lon's parent's house in Tahoe for the long weekend. It was a great way to get away to celebrate our 6th wedding anniversary (yeah!) and hang out with friends. Anne and Lon have a new baby too! She was born just 5 weeks after Sadie. So, when conflicting nap times allowed, we got out of the house and went for a lovely walk. We had fun watching the Olympics, playing games, making a ton of roasted veggies, tending to our babies' needs, etc... Good times!

Sadie is thinking: what are my parents doing to me?
Twinsies!

Big smiles from Sadie!


At Lake Tahoe's snow beach








Thursday, February 11, 2010

3 Months Old Tomorrow!


Making a silly face:
Below: Sadie making out with her toy. If it's fabric-- she'll find a way to suck on it.








Sadie has discovered her toys today. It's really fun to watch her development skyrocket.

Storytime

This is one of our favorite times of the day---storytime before bed. Sadie matches our cadence with her cooing, and smiles and laughs at the books too. We love it when she holds our hand or arm as we read. Such a precious little girl.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

A Slew of Firsts

Here's a first captured on video! Sadie grabbed and clutched a toy on the playmat for the first time. Very fun!


Dad would also want me to mention that she went to her first basketball game last night-- a Wilson Prep girls' game.

On a sad note, on the way to the basketball game, she got in her first minor car accident. We got bumped from behind at a slow-down on the freeway. But, luckily, she didn't wake up-- so we think she's okay. We couldn't spot any damage to the car. I just got a big scratch on my leg because I made a sudden movement.

And, she slept for 9.5 hours straight for the first time last night. She went from 8pm-6:30am without a feeding (10.5 hours)...impressive little miss!!! She's now back down for more morning sleep, usually getting up 3 hours after the 6ish feeding. She tends to get 12-15 hours of night sleep, with a feeding or two in between. I have a little sleeping machine. Grandma Ruff calls her Sleeping Sadie. I was told by a doctor that babies sleep through the night at 15 pounds (their tummies get big enough to hold the food they need for the night). We haven't weighed her in a month, so she may be getting close to 15 lbs - she sure feels heavy. I do appreciate her sleep habits; I know I'm lucky. And, I know she's probably going to have a sibling that doesn't sleep at all.

Friday, February 5, 2010

On "Precious"

Excerpt from today's NYTimes op-ed...

Op-Ed Contributor
Fade to White
By ISHMAEL REED
Published:
February 4, 2010
Oakland, Calif.

JUDGING from the mail I’ve received, the conversations I’ve had and all
that I’ve read, the responses to “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by
Sapphire” fall largely along racial lines.
Among black men and women, there is widespread revulsion and anger over the Oscar-nominated film about an illiterate, obese black teenager who has two children by her father. The author Jill Nelson wrote: “I don’t eat at the table of self-hatred, inferiority or victimization. I haven’t bought into notions of rampant black pathology or embraced the overwrought, dishonest and black-people-hating pseudo-analysis too often passing as post-racial cold hard truths.” One black radio broadcaster said
that he felt under psychological assault for two hours. So did I.

The blacks who are enraged by “Precious” have probably figured out that
this film wasn’t meant for them. It was the enthusiastic response from white
audiences and critics that culminated in the film being nominated for six
Oscars by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, an outfit
whose 43 governors are all white and whose membership in terms of
diversity is about 40 years behind Mississippi. In fact, the director,
Lee Daniels, said that the honor would bring even more “middle-class white Americans” to his film.

...

It’s no surprise either that white critics — eight out of the nine comments
used on the publicity Web site for “Precious” were from white men and women —
maintain that the movie is worthwhile because, through the efforts of a teacher,
this girl begins her first awkward efforts at writing.

Redemption through learning the ways of white culture is an old Hollywood theme. D. W. Griffith produced a series of movies in which Chinese,
Indians and blacks were lifted from savagery through assimilation. A more recent
example of climbing out of the ghetto through assimilation is “Dangerous Minds,” where black and Latino students are rescued by a curriculum that doesn’t include a single black or Latino writer.


By the movie’s end, Precious may be pushing toward literacy. But she is
jobless, saddled with two children, one of whom has Down syndrome, and
she’s learned that she has AIDS.
Some redemption.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/05/opinion/05reed.html
I haven't seen the movie, but I was interested by Reed's commentary. I hadn't realized that the African American community were angered by this movie. Makes sense. It reminds me of my friend--- She was in the Ethnic Studies program at UC Berkeley. A liberal school, I'm sure we can all agree to that? And a very respected program. You would think they would read from a diversity of sources...let all voices take part in the conversation. Umm, no. She was frustrated that they only studied white male's theories on ethnicity, etc... At Berkeley! I was shocked. Why must the white way be THE way?
Has anyone seen the movie? Care to share your thoughts?
Just food for thought to start out your weekend.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Skills


The talented little Sadie scooched (is this a word?) her way around the crib last night. This was taken at 5:15am...after she had slept for a blissful 9 hours!!! We didn't swaddle her arms, which meant she could suck on her hand to pacify herself (possibly why she slept longer?)...it also meant that she was able to use her arm strength to rotate 150 degrees in her crib...the crib bars stopped her from doing a complete 180. She looks pretty happy about it too!

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Burka Baby...

Burka Baby-- I was wondering why Sadie had been sleeping so long this afternoon (she had a 3 hour nap)...only to discover that she was super cozy with the swaddle over her face. I don't know if you can tell in this shot, but she was also sucking on her fist. This is a new trend for Sadie in the past couple weeks-- having any blanket or cloth in her mouth or covering her face. The suffocation factor worries me. But don't worry-- I checked that she was breathing before I took this, and uncovered her face after. It was just too funny not to document it.
Hello world! I just got up from my nap and I'm ready to play!



Here's a video of Sadie sucking on her new giraffe blanket. She loves to suck on this as she's going to sleep in her carseat:



Talking with Mom, sucking a cloth...and being cute:

Monday, February 1, 2010

A Little While, by Edwidge Danicat

I was just reading The New Yorker: The Talk of the Town while I ate breakfast. Danicat, a Haitian and well-known author, shares family stories and reflects on the earthquake. I like what she has to say.
An Excerpt from... A Little While, by Edwidge Danicat

The day that Maxo’s remains were found, the call came with some degree of excitement. At least he would not rest permanently in the rubble. At least he would not go into a mass grave. Somehow, though, I sense that he would not have minded. Everyone is being robbed of rituals, he might have said, why not me?
By the time Maxo’s body was uncovered, cell phones were finally working again, bringing a flurry of desperate voices. One cousin had an open gash in her head that was still bleeding. Another had a broken back and had gone to three field hospitals trying to get it X-rayed. Another was sleeping outside her house and was terribly thirsty. One child had been so traumatized that she lost her voice. An in-law had no blood-pressure medicine. Most had not eaten for days. There were friends and family members whose entire towns had been destroyed, and dozens from whom we have had no word at all.
Everyone sounded eerily calm on the phone. No one was screaming. No one was crying. No one said “Why me?” or “We’re cursed.” Even as the aftershocks kept coming, they’d say, “The ground is shaking again,” as though this had become a normal occurrence. They inquired about family members outside Haiti: an elderly relative, a baby, my one-year-old daughter.
I cried and apologized. “I’m sorry I can’t be with you,” I said. “If not for the baby—”
My nearly six-foot-tall twenty-two-year-old cousin—the beauty queen we nicknamed Naomi Campbell—who says that she is hungry and has been sleeping in bushes with dead bodies nearby, stops me.
“Don’t cry,” she says. “That’s life.”
“No, it’s not life,” I say. “Or it should not be.”
“It is,” she insists. “That’s what it is. And life, like death, lasts only yon ti moman.” Only a little while.


Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2010/02/01/100201taco_talk_danticat#ixzz0eIwkpbO8