Thanksgiving 2007: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

We spent our Thanksgiving holiday in NJ with Vivek's side of the family, and we decided to drive because we don't want to fly with Kiren again until we have to (while our trips to AR, CO, and NJ earlier this year via plane went just fine, they were still a bit of an ordeal, especially considering all of the stuff that we have to carry for him. Plus, those trips were back when he would still sleep anywhere and before he was itching to scoot and grab everything in sight; these days, I am not sure we could keep him busy/still on a plane, and he definitely would miss all sorts of naps).

First, the GOOD: We set out from MI early Wednesday morning, and our 10 hour drive between MI and NJ went extremely well. We stopped three times and had a nice, long lunch in the middle. It was actually a pretty pleasant day. Kiren took much shorter naps than normal, but he slept, which wasn't a foregone conclusion given how much trouble he has sleeping when he is not laying flat in a dark, quiet room.

The next day was Thanksgiving, and Kiren had what must have been his happiest day on earth so far! For the few weeks prior to Thanksgiving, Kiren had developed a bit of stranger anxiety; he would cry whenever anyone but me or Vivek held him. The Thursday before Thanksgiving, we took Kiren to the pediatrician, and he cried when the doctor held him, even for a few seconds (oh, he weighed in a 22 lbs., 4 oz., and he is 29 inches long -- yes, that means he is still in the 97 percentile for weight and height; the doctor joked that he looks like a 9 month old without the 9 month tricks). Well, he must have left his stranger fears in MI because he was a perfect angel all day, and he was passed from relative to relative. He giggled and smiled at everyone, and he lasted a really long time in each person's arms. And, not only that, he took several fantastic naps. Basically, he was a delightful, happy guy all day.

Okay, now for the BAD: On Sunday morning, we were planning to get up early to make the trek home. But Kiren woke up at least an hour earlier than we wanted him too; at 4:45am, he was awake and crying. We might have let him cry a bit and put himself back to sleep, but we had a 15 month old and a 2 and a half year old on either side of us...so in the interest of not awaking his cousins, we just dragged ourselves out of bed and got on the road. Things actually went quite well after that. Vivek and I were really tired, and he wasn't feeling well (we were both fighting a cold, Kiren had it first, then me, and then it was Vivek's turn, and it was at its worst for him that Sunday), but we just kept telling ourselves we'd go to bed really early to make up for it. And traffic was surprising light, and there were no construction spots or slow downs. During the drive, Kiren took a few short naps during the morning and early afternoon. But we couldn't get him to sleep after 2:00. He just wouldn't close his eyes. It wasn't too big of a deal, but you could see that he desperately needed to sleep.

Okay, now for the UGLY: The last hour of our trip was NO fun at all. Kiren wasn't crying, but he was extremely fussy. If I could have just held him, it would have been fine. Alas, he was stuck in his car seat, and he was no longer being good-natured about it. Vivek was driving, and I was in the back trying to keep Kiren entertained. I tried everything, and each toy I pulled out occupied him for about 3.5 seconds until he started fussing again. I was singing, putting in his pacifer, making funny faces, everything. He probably would have benefited from a stop, but we really, really wanted to get home. We finally arrived home around 5:00 or 5:30, and we put him to bed pretty shortly after that, as close to his normal bedtime of 7 as we could. And we EXTREMELY pleased with ourselves when we managed to get into bed by 9.

Seemingly just as we both fell asleep, though, at 10 on the dot, Kiren started screaming bloody murder. Since he usually sleeps from 7 to at least 5 without interruption, it was very jarring. It was even more jarring because we'd just gotten good and asleep. We hadn't heard him cry like that in several weeks. Nothing seemed to soothe him, either. Even though I'd fed him tons when I put him down originally, I got up and fed him 10 oz. (I had to bottle feed him because I'd just pumped before going to bed)!! And he still didn't settle back to sleep. In all, he was up from 10 to 11, when he finally fell into a fitful sleep. Then he woke up to cry for a few minutes at 2 something, 4 something, and he woke up for good around 6. Needless to say, I was not refreshed from the break when I returned to work the next day!

All in all, though, he was quite a trooper all weekend. Two 10 to 11 hour drives in 5 days, meeting lots of new people, sleeping in a new place, and sitting still for several hour stretches at a time -- that's quite a lot to ask, and he took almost all of it very well.

Baby Stuff I Love

So I am taking a page from my sister's book (well, blog, actually) because she took a couple of long comments she'd made on other blogs and turned it into a recent post. I don't comment that often (less often than I post on this blog, if you can believe that), so it was quite a feat when I left this extremely long comment on my sister's friend's blog the other day. As a bit of background, before Kiren arrived, I was pretty intimidated by all the stuff that babies require. Actually, I understood then, and I still believe, that there are very few things one NEEDS for a baby, but many items can simply make your life much, much easier. So I spent the months before Kiren's arrival trying to figure out my needs and wants and separating that from the unnecessary stuff; I was particularly concerned that I would spend money and regret buying things I didn't end up needing at all. Thankfully, I don't have very many regrets amongst my purchases -- yay!

Thus, just in case my thoughts could be helpful to anyone, here is a slightly extended version of the LONG comment I left recently:

The BEST swaddling blanket we've found is the Miracle Blanket. Yes, it is pretty expensive, but it is the ONLY blanket that would hold my houdini-boy from the beginning. He was huge, and he could break out of ANY swaddle. The problem was that if we didn’t swaddle him, he was too wiggly to sleep. SO, I highly recommend the miracle blanket, and if it works for you, you’ll need 2 (in case he poops all over the first one — he’ll need to sleep while you are washing it).

We have the diaper champ, not the genie, and I like it A LOT! I can’t smell the diapers at all, it takes a week to fill up (though my 6 mo. old is starting to eat some solid food, so this could change soon), and there are NO filters to buy, so it is much more cost-effective.

I LOVE the ergo carrier — excellent purchase, worth the money. My husband will even wear it (the same cannot be said of any of the slings, I think).

I also LOVE the bumbo. While I agree it is not a necessity, it is almost a necessity for us. My boy, even early on, loves to sit up as much as possible, and it wasn’t until recently that he could do that without some support (he still needs a pillow around him). Even though he can sit almost by himself now, we still use the Bumbo several times a day.

I really like the cotton nursing bras I got a target. I suggest avoiding the underwire completely, even if that is what you use while not nursing. The non-underwire are much more comfortable. And early on, I LOVED the gel packs that others have mentioned. I wouldn’t still be breastfeeding if I hadn’t gotten the relief offered by those gel packs early on; I definitely would have quit around week 2 due to pain. And I hear that lanolin doesn't work for everyone, but it was a lifesaver for me (the generic stuff was just fine)

I use the Medela pump, and I really like it. I have the backpack one, and so far, 6 months in, it is working beautifully. I use the Avent bottles, and those are working great too; my baby seems to really like the wide-mouth and nipple on those (although there is quite a bit of hubbub about bad plastic to read about on the internet — I have decided to stick my head in the sand for now, but if I were buying bottles now, I might choose a different brand). Oh, and I would skip the microwave sterilizer. I thought I really needed it, but I actually just need a bottle brush because we just end up handwashing bottles daily (and we don’t run the dishwasher often enough to clean them in there).

We have a few different brands of pacifiers in the house that we got as gifts, but the only ones my son will take are the soothies that the hospital gave us. Luckily, they gave us tons of those, and so we haven’t had to worry about getting more.

We don’t really use our pack-n-play much so far, except as a changing table. That might change, but for now, it is simply a bin for toys (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing).

We also don’t have a changing table; we just use his dresser with a changing pad on it upstairs and the pack ‘n play changing table downstairs.

The glider in the nursery has been excellent for our late night feeding sessions. And now that he is mr. distracted while eating, I often take him into the quiet, dark nursery and sit in the glider during the day too.

We borrowed a Graco snugride carseat from my sister-in-law, and it was fantastic before my son grew out of it (which was much sooner than most babies do due to his being extremely long); I understand the Graco SafeRide has a higher height and weight limit, so if I had had to buy this item, I probably would have gone with that one instead. We now have a Britax Marathon, which again, is pretty expensive, but this is the type of seat that he will sit in for 4 or 5 years, so spread out over that amount of time, it averages out. And it has one of the highest weight limits available. While most babies might not need that, I am afraid that my big guy just might. I didn’t want to skip this seat now just to end up buying it later. So far we are really pleased with that purchase.

I love our exersaucer, and we got a used jumperoo too. My son loves to jump, so that was a big hit earlier on, and now he loves to spin around and play with the toys in his exersaucer. Both of these fall into the category of nice to have but not necessary…and I would try to get them from craigslist or a used baby stuff store because the market is flooded with them (parents don’t want to store them, but they are in good shape because babies only use them for 5 months or a bit more).

I am extremely happy with our Peg Perego stroller; we have the P3, Pilko, or something like that. It holds all sorts of infant carriers, including the graco ones, it is really light, and it is really easy to collapse and unfold.

We have a swing we got as a gift, which is the Fisher Price Rainforest one. It is one of the few (the only?) that has batteries AND plugs into the wall. Plugging into the wall is a HUGE plus because I can't imagine how many batteries that thing would eat otherwise.

We have a fantastic noise machine that creates white noise for our little guy. If you are thinking about one of these, I will get the name of the manufacturer for ya (I think it is Dex, but I could be wrong).

We have one of the floor mats (the Baby Einstein one, though I think any of the brands would have worked fine), and that has been a great place for Kiren to play for his entire time on the earth so far. He loved looking at the hanging things early on, then he loved batting at them, and now he loves gripping them and trying to pull them closer, into his mouth, etc. And he loves the musical star that lights up and plays a song every time he creates motion. I am SICK to death of the songs (both Vivek and I can sing along all of the classical tunes over, and over, and over) but I can't argue with the results.

Oh, and finally, I learned much of this from Baby Bargains, which is a book that helps parents sort through the needs, wants, car seats, strollers, etc. I highly recommend that book; I still refer to it when I am contemplating a new purchase.

Okay, that's it, that's all I know.