Wow

Has it really been almost two months? I always heard that time flies when you have a baby. Now I believe it.

The changes we've seen in just the last two months have been astounding. Here's a quick update on "big doings" since August:

• Juliet went from sleeping in my arms (in a chair) to sleeping in her carseat (which we put in the crib) to *GASP* sleeping in the crib itself. This past weekend, she actually slept until 8 on Saturday and 7:30 on Sunday.
  
• She's been rolling over onto her stomach (and back onto her back) since mid-September.
• E went back to work three days a week (plus two half-days at home), and it's been going well.
• We've been through the first two rounds of Dr. Sears' revised vaccination schedule (with the third to come in a couple days)
• We went to Southwest Harbor for our first family weekend away and Juliet was amazing.
• Getting her to take a bottle was a chore for a long time (many hours spent in front of "It's a Big, Big World" waiting patiently for her to stop playing with the bottle and start eating in earnest), but by now she's an old pro.
• It's looking more and more like there may be some teeth bubbling below the surface: lots of drooling, chewing on everything, etc. I'm sure it's just a matter of time.

There's so much more, but I'll save that for another day. And I'll try to be better about updates.

Stuck with stuff we didn't want

There used to be a time when you could receive baby clothes or accessories that you didn't want from Babies R Us and simply return it for store credit - even without a receipt.

Those days, I learned firsthand the other day, are over. Last week, Juliet received some overalls and a jacket that just aren't our style from a somewhat distant relative. No problem, we thought, we'll just exchange them for bottles or something else that we actually need.

I was informed by the polite young woman at the service desk that Babies R Us has switched to a "no returns without a receipt" policy. Unless it's something from a registry or if you can produce the purchasing credit card, you can only exchange your unwanted item for the same item, either in a different color or size. So we now have said clothing in a smaller size. And we still don't want it. What a waste of nearly $30.

The former (very liberal) policy was a main reason that so many people registered at Babies R Us. I have to wonder if this new policy will affect the store's popularity.

The moral of the story is this: be firm with your family (especially the distant relatives) about including a receipt when they give you a gift. After all, if they really care about you and your little one, they'll want you to have something you want.

Reflux redux?

An article in the July 22 Wall Street Journal about the colic/acid reflux conundrum in infants hit close to home.

Earlier this month, Juliet spent four nights in the hospital for observation after we woke to find her very pale two mornings. Her breathing was shallow and as soon as we woke her, she turned back to a nice healthy pink shade. Tests eliminated all the really nasty stuff, leaving acid reflux or normal infant apnea as potential causes. Acid reflux seemed like the most likely cause, since it would also explain the reason why she can't/won't sleep on her own on her back.

We brought her home with a prescription for Zantac and an apnea monitor, neither of which has impressed me. The apnea monitor blares as loudly as a smoke detector in the middle of the night - even when we can clearly see that she's breathing.

After a week of Zantac, Juliet was miserable the other day (irritability, headaches, nausea and cramping are among the side effects), so after calling the doctor, we stopped giving it to her, which was fine with me. Giving the strong minty liquid to her with a syringe twice a day was hard on her, but it was worse for my wife and me.

I'm happy to report that in the first full day off the Zantac, Juliet sucked a pacifier with gusto and took a bottle from me for the first time.

As for the sleeping, we'll work on that next.

The tactile sleeper

So after six weeks home from the hospital (where does the time go?), we've finally gotten into a rhythm. It's not ideal but it works. Juliet eats around 7 p.m. and again at 9:30-ish. After the later feeding, I take her and she sleeps - on my chest. During this time, I try to get some sleep, but it's not always possible. She wakes around 1 a.m. to be changed and fed, then she'll sleep in the bassinet on her stroller (I'm so glad we spent the time, energy and money on that Cariboo bassinet, which she hates) until 4 or 5.

It seems that in being absolutely opposed to Ferberizing (a fancy word for letting your baby "cry it out") her, we've created a monster: A tactile sleeper. She won't fall asleep unless someone is holding her and she rarely stays asleep unless, you guessed it, someone is holding her.

We've read the Baby Whisperer books and have a strategy for breaking this cycle, which seems to be working. This morning, E left Juliet alone with me while she went to a doctor's appointment. I was able to swaddle Juliet (thank god for the Kiddopotamus SwaddleMe). I then got her to take a pacifier (which she only started doing yesterday) and put her down in the stroller, where she promptly fell asleep on her own.

Granted, she only slept for about 45 minutes, but we'll take those baby steps and be happy with them.

Ask Dr. Sears

In our quest to make sure we're not exposing our baby to any more chemicals and substances than we can avoid, we bought The Vaccine Book by Dr. Robert Sears. In it, he lays out the pros and cons for every vaccine babies need and allows the parents to make their own informed decisions.

As a result, we presented our pediatrician with an alternate vaccination schedule, and she was very receptive to it. Which is good.

From reading the book, we discovered Dr. Sears' website, askdrsears.com. There he takes the same approach he has applied to vaccines and provides reasoned and well-thought-out advice for parents - devoid of all the wives' tales and urban myths that are so prevalent online. (Google "fussy baby" and you'll either be amazed or scared at the wide variety of advice you'll find - some of it contradictory).

As a result, whenever we have a question, Dr. Sears' site has become our go-to resource (the A-Z index alone is priceless). Already he's helped us get tackle nighttime fussiness, the question of co-sleeping and much more.

Got a question about your baby? Ask Dr. Sears.

Sleep

Here we are, just over five weeks into our daughter's life, and we're finding that sleep is still our most precious commodity. When she's this young, it's hard to do, but somehow we've managed to set a "loosey-goosey" schedule. Never mind that we don't go to bed until midnight or 1 a.m. Or that we now consider six hours of sleep to be a full night. We wouldn't trade the experience for anything.

Everyone has advice, mainly "Sleep when the baby sleeps." That's great in theory, but it's not all that practical or entirely possible. Someone has to make dinner, do the laundry, load and unload the dishwasher, etc. Plus, it's hard to resist just staring at her when she's sleeping - both out of adoration and anxiety. So we figured out what we needed to do to get by and so far, it's working.

Early on, we had some long nights when Juliet was fussy, but that was mostly because of a growth spurt she was going through (around three weeks). Apparently, she's due for another around six weeks, but we're not worried. Having been through it before, I'm confident we can weather this next storm that may or may not be brewing.

The best advice I can give is to be patient. You'll get used to the reduction in your sleep. It took me a while to get beyond utter exhaustion and helplessness, but I've learned to remain calm while the baby is crying. And that makes a world of difference.

Instincts

Before our baby was born, I had changed fewer than a handful of diapers in my entire life. So when the nurse handed me a diaper in the nursery about an hour after my daughter was born, I was intimidated.

But I tried anyway and found that putting on a diaper isn't all that hard. The same went for putting clothes on a wriggling baby (and this kid can wriggle with the best of them).

In that first hour and a half of her life, when it was just her and me in the nursery, I learned a valuable lesson that would be the best advice I could give any first-time parent: "Trust your instincts. They're better than you think they are."