Most embarrasing moment!

Ok, my most embarrasing Mommy moment to date.

I was home for lunch feeding Gemma and when she was done she barfed it back up, all over me! Not just a little spit up, the milk waterfall from her mouth all over my body. So, after changing my clothes I was running a little late (as a silly aside, it was a day that I actually matched my socks to my outfit, and then my new outfit didn't match my socks so I even needed to change them!) So, being almost late, I ran the whole block to school just in time to pick up the kids, and ushered them down the two flights of stairs to the music room. Well, as the last kids filed into music the science teacher (Adrienne) came up to me and whispered, 'Uh, are you missing one of these?" In her hand was a breast pad she saw on the stairs!!!! Her and the other two teachers with her were giggling, and doh, I felt foolish! I must have jogged it out in my hurry to get to school.

So the moral of the story is, Breast pads and jogging don't mix!

Two Rude Things

In the words of 90's icon Michelle Tanner, 'How RUDE!'

1) Chester, Ashton, and Brennen had Gemma at Costco last week in the stroller. As Chester was looking at something and Ashton was pushing the stroller one of the demo ladies UNCLIPPED the straps and LIFTED GEMMA OUT of the stroller!!! Could you imagine if a complete stranger unhooked your baby ans picked her up??? Ashton was shocked and didn't know what to do, Chris was furious...It was so unreal.

2) I was with Gemma at Starbucks today picking up a coffee for Chris. So as I was trying to open the big door and finagle the stroller out, coffee in one hand, stroller in one hand, a lady came towards the entrance. 'Pheww', I thought, 'She's going to help me with the door'. Nope. The door is proped open with my body, and this lady sneaks around me and in through the open door. She didn't even grab it from the inside to let me finish getting out.

Things like that infuriate me!

On the plus side, I do have two positive events to add.

1) The canopy clip on the stroller was broken, and we were just dreading the potential trip it meant back to where they bought the stroller; WAYYYY across the city. Fortunately, when Chester asked at our local baby store they phoned the Combi dealer and then said 'No problem'. For 4 dollars it will be fixed in a week.

2) I sat on my glasses on Friday (note to self; the bed is not a safe place for glasses!) so I walked to a nearby glasses shop and the guy fixed it for me for free, right there. I LOVE good service, and Taiwan has excellent service.

Discovery

I was giving her a bath the other day, holding her sitting up, and she was looking at her toes and having so much fun. They kept splashing and kicking and she loved squeaking them along the bottom and sides of her plastic tub. And since she is into grabbing things she would reach down and try to grab them, but as soon as she'd get close they'd kick and jump out of the way. She probably tried for five minutes to grab those squirming appendages but no luck.

We are on day four of the medicine, and what a pain that is. I have to hold my finger in her mouth to try and squirl it around so she swallows it instead of spit it out. Even still, she gets so much on her chin and face. So my question of the day is, do doctors get how hard it is to medicate infants, and take that into consideration when they presecirbe it? Or should a mother keep trying to feed the baby until she thinks the reccomended dosage is reached? And what if they barf it out after 5 minutes? Either way, she seems to be getting better and the cold seems to be drying up.

Great minds think alike...

That's funny that mommy and daddy just posted about the same thing.

Mother Mother I am sick...

So a call to the doctor was in order. The cold I wrestled with last week has made its way from me to Chris, Ashton, & Gemma. She doesn't seem to bothered but has a phlegmy cough and snotty nose so we took her in last night just to make sure. And in true Taiwan fashion we left with half the pharmacy, so we'll see what she hacks up today. We got three different cough syrups; one for the cold, one to help the phlegm come up, and one more for something...(we did look them all up last night to make sure we knew what they were). Oh, and the four month totals are in: 6kg and 60cm. (13lbs 2 oz, 24 inches)

We had some giggles last week, and full out laughing last night, Daddy was giving her whisker rubs. So cute!

So, question of the day; How long do I have to wait now to take her for her four month immuizations since she is sick? The doctor said 2 weeks...

Sick baby

Gemma has been fighting her first cold this past week. Last week, as mentioned by my wife on her blog, started off with 3 straight days of angry baby. Nevada and I were both suffering from a cold at the time and we passed it to her. The fussiness went away but she was left with this 50-year-old-Bingo Hall-lady cough. We waited a couple of days to see if it would run it's course but it stayed. So last night Mommy took Gemma to the hospital to see a doctor and get some medicine. Now Gemma is taking her first medicine. She handles it quite well. Hopefully in a couple of days the cough will be gone. The best part is that one of the medicines has a drowsiness side effect...she's currently having a drowsy medicine nap which has afforded me the time to write this blog post.

Baby Tylenol

We cracked the baby Tylenol for the first time this week. Monday night she didn’t sleep well, and she had grouched all day for Chris. Tuesday she fussed and fussed, and when she woke up at 3:00am to eat she was so hot. So I got out the thermometer and sure enough she was at about 101F. Fortunately 3am here is 1pm at home and I got some advice from Shelen, gave her the Tylenol and she rested pretty good the rest of the night. Other than that our baby has been a star performer all week. She spent all last Saturday at Track and field day, cheering on the kids and being played with. She napped all afternoon with Mommy on Thursday when I was sooo tired. Friday night she was out at Fun Night and had a blast. Yesterday she let another mother (of a student) hold her for the whole recital, which was so great for Mommy. I love this portable age.
Funny thing this week: Now that she can hold her head up she likes to be held up in a sitting position. So when you put her in the stroller and strap her in she pushes her head forward, like she’s trying to sit up, but she can’t, and she gets really frustrated. Of course as soon as her fingers get into her mouth she forgets all about it. And on that note, all you mommy’s out there, what are your favorite toys for babies to put in their mouths? Gemma wants to put everything in her mouth. If she is laying on the floor and I’m sitting in front of her with my legs up kind of over her, she’ll try and grab my leg and pull it to her mouth. If you go in for a kiss, she’ll try and suck your lips. When I get dressed and put her on the bed, she’ll grab whatever T-shirt or pyjama is within her finger grasp, pull it to her mouth and suck on that. So I think some teething toys are in order.

Great New Pics

Click the photo below to check out the awesome new Gemma pics courtesy of our good friend Andy.

Bottle Advice

For all soon to be parents out there, here is something to consider:

When you are buying bottles and pumps do not commit to anyone brand name. I had heard lots of positive about Avent so I got the Avent pump, a tonne of Avent bottles, the different sizes of Avent nipple, the Avent sterilizer... And when I went back to work Gemma would NOT take that bottle for nothing. I had to run home at every break I had to feed her (three or four times a day) because she would not (could not) suck on that bottle. I borrowed a NUK bottle from a co worker and ...SUCCESS! And this co worker said that her baby has switched three times; she liked NUK at first, then at three motnhs changed, and then changed again at about 6 months. So my advice is to buy one or two of a few types of bottles, or borrow, until you know what your baby will like. The positive of having so many Avent bottles is that I store my milk in them in the freezer with those special caps and then don't need to mess with the special milk freezer bags. (which are super expensive here) I defrost a bottle, pour it into the NUK bottle and away we go. And because I have the Avent pump (which works great) I can only pump into Avent bottles. So watch out for that, too.

Gemma is still exclusively on breast milk, I wake her up at 7 and feed her before work, she has one bottle in the morning with Chris, I go home at noon and feed and then at 3:00 when school is done. And then at 5:30ish, 7:30ish, 10ish, 12ish, 3am ish...5am ish....

Gemma's Baby Dedication

Click the photo below to see the photoset.

Baby Dedication Pics

New Friend!

Here is Gemma's latest friend here in Taiwan, Atticus Vincent Lu (nephew of Allison and cousin of Jared). Can't you just see his little brain cells growing in that baby enistien onesie? hee hee

Here is some light reading Gemma picked up over the weekend.

Isn't she cute?

And spit bubbles....the never ending spit bubbles

twitchy

The new thing this week is crib movement. I remember when she was this little tiny bean of a thing, drowning in her crib and now she fills up more na dmore of it everyday. The game is to kick the blankets off when she wakes up, so by the time I stumble down the hallway she's been cooing and talking and kicking for a few minutes and she can get them all the way off. She even did a 90 degree rotation a few nights ago; I left her feet at the foot of the crib and when I returned hours later she had her head up at the side.

She's having trouble sleeping this week; maybe a growth spurt? She's ultra twitchy and jumpy, and eating a lot... every three hours all night long last night. Not to mention that Chris is exhausted from his travels to Australia and me working all day again... Pray for us.

Right now she is fast asleep in her snuggli. Finally, free hands! We are trying to get her more used to it and hopefully enjoy more handsfree time to come.

update...

Our vacation with Gemma was so great. Babies are wonderfully portable. She came to my meetings on Friday, slept so well in the hotel in her little bed on the floor, and was an angel on the beach. We had a little fort set up of umbrellas to keep the sun off her, her little bed out there on the sand, bathing suit on and a little kimono shirt to help against the rays. We even dipped her toes in ocean, but it was hard to do because of the waves. At one point the umbrella flipped up and sand flew everywhere, including her face. I was near panicked –my baby was covered in sand, but she didn’t cry or anything. I just wet a cloth and wiped around her eyes and face, and she was fine. Didn’t even notice, in fact. Isn’t it funny how the things that freak you out don’t even bother them?

Other developmental things: so much smiling and cooing and gaaing. She wants to communicate and spends lots of time telling stories and talking with her mouth and eyes, too. She is grabbing stuff that’s right in front of her and trying to shove it in her mouth. She loves trying to put stuff fin her mouth. I think she is bored of her soother and looking for something new. She can kick off her blankets, and push herself a little bit with her feet. (Which is making me rethink the bumper pads…She has pushed herself up till her head hits the bars…) Everything she does is so cute.

A story from yesterday…The sitter said that when they were ‘talking’ everytime she mentioned the word ‘Mommy’ and ‘Daddy’ Gemma would smile. Melts a working mother's heart.

Gemma's First Vacation

I just wanted to get on here and let you know that there will be zero to minimal posting here over the next 5 days. We're headed to the beach for a little Chinese New Year getaway. This will be Gemma's first vacation so please pray that everything will go well and our little girl will be safe. We'll be back with some pics of Gemma modeling on the beach.

Special Day

Sunday at church we had a baby dedication service. It's a time where we as parents make a commitment to God and the church that we will raise our daughter according to the principles in the Bible and do our best to teach her about Jesus and his importance. Nevada and I aren't child baptism people, meaning we think that people need to make a decision to follow God in order to become Christians rather than others making that decision for them.

When we were planning Pastor Dan and I decided that a baby dedication would fit right into the February series on relationships, today was Parent/Child day. And we set it up so that it would be during my family's visit to Taiwan. It was a good thing to have my mom and grandma there and I know they were happy to share in the experience. It was also really to cool to get pictures taken of all 4 generations together: Gemma, Me, My mom and my grandma. (Andy took pics of the day with his fancy camera and they won't be on the blog for a few days until I get them from him.)

The soother situation...

This is Nevada here; too lazy to sign out and back in with my name!

I'm not sure what all the hype is about soothers. I've heard they are 'bad' but I am not really sure why, whereas I know some reasons why they are good. Number 1 is that they are reccomended to help prevent SIDS. I read that somewhere and it came printed on a special flyer in one of Gemma's new Christmas toys. The second reason why I like the soother is that Gemma will self-soothe. When she is almost asleep and fighting it I can usually pop in the paci and she sucks herself into dreamland. We can even put her in the crib with her eyes open now and she'll happily suck on the soother till she goes to sleep. So far she is not adicted to it; sometimes she wants it and other times she just goes to sleep on her own.

And on the whole sleep thing; we never did 'adopt' a method. When she cried I picked her up, when she fell asleep in my arms I'd put her in the crib. Now, just over 2 months old, I really think she understands that a) her crib is a safe place, b) her crib is where sleeping happens, and c) she can trust her mommy and daddy to be there for her if she needs it. I totally get how being attentive encourages confidence in kids, rather than the myth of 'not letting them be spoiled'. Now Gemma goes to sleep by herself most of the time. We still rock and cuddle her until she's dozy and then pop her in the crib. The eyes open and flutter, and then she drifts off to dreamland. Babies are soo great.

Busy Baba & Baby

I'm not sure if we've ever got around to explaining the whole Baba thing. It means Grandma in Ukranian so my mom has decided she wants to be known as Baba. Anyway, it's been a busy couple days for Baba and Great Grandma. We've been out and about shopping, sight seeing and eating at some fav restaurant. Of course Gemma is always with us so many of these things she's also doing for the first time. Gemma's also had a lot of fun hanging out at home with her new family members. I do think the overstimulation has messed with the routine we were starting to get into last week. Oh well...haveing family here is worth it.

They're here!

Mom (Grandma) and Grandma (Great Grandma) arrived safely and on time in Taipei. They came out of the airport gate dressed as Christmas Presents...it was worth the wait. We got home at around 1:30 am and mom went rigth after the baby. After a few moments Gemma started crying so daddy had to step in with his special soothing tricks. She went to bed and we chatted for a while and opened a few presents. They are both happy to be back on solid ground and looking forward to exploring Taiwan, but after a few hours of sleep. Two things on the agenda tomorrow: Costco and Church. Should be fun! Well, it's 3 am so time for bed...

So tired she can't keep her eyes open

Night sleeping and other random thoughts

It looks like we may have hit the sleeping through the night stage. Sunday, Monday and Tuesday nights she has slept for at least 6 hours. Nevada informed me today that babies get to a point where they sleep for 12 hours. We're not there yet but even the 6 hours stage is helping Nevada and I to get some much needed rest.

We're trying to get in a routine of putting her down at 10-10:30 which means we hit the hay right after that. That's been a big change for me. I'm 2-3 am kind of guy but now I can't even last past midnight. My eyelids close whether I like it or not. I'm a regular Joe now, up at 7 am and off to bed at 11 pm.

Gemma has definitely hit the barfing stage. About one out of every three meals comes back up. Nevada and I both get shaken up everytime she pukes. It looks like there is so much and that she'll for sure choke or something. It dooesn't seem to bother her much though. She just explodes and continues on with whatever she's doing. One of the fun things about all the spit up is that Gemma gets to display her whole wardrobe every couple days. Gemma likes to keep daddy busy doing laundry....anything for my little girl.

Lately I've been noticing that I'm becoming pretty skilled at doing everything with one hand. Gemma is often in one arm and that leaves only one hand to work with. I can coook, do laundry, make coffee, talk on the phone and take notes, write e-mails etc. But there are things that need to get done that I can't do while holding her...namely taking a shower and going to the bathroom (#2). Any advice out there, how can I do these things without Gemma feeling abandoned?

Lastly, Baba and Great Grandma are 4 days away...we're getting so excited!