Alan's 2 Month Statistics

Alan is 2 months old!  

We can't imagine time going by this quickly, but he's growing.  We went to the pediatrician for his 2 month check-up and aside from the 5 immunizations he received he came away with these stats:

Weight - 9.2oz (10-25th percentile)

Length - 22.75 (50th%)

Head - 15.25 (25th%)

On Knowing Your Child

A friend once said to me that there is no automatic love when your child is born.  They are, after all, strangers.  

My relationship with Alan has taken time to develop, and as his father I understand that when it comes to bonding I come second in line to Mom.  But about a week ago we had a breakthrough.  As some of you know, I like Phish....the band.  A more true statement would be I loved Phish and spent a great deal of my 20's seeing them live and listening to them in the comfort of my car an/or home.  But last week, Alan and I were wining down the day and I had him tightly swaddled and we were bouncing away on our exercise ball when a Phish tune came over the iPod, "Stash" to be specific.  (A side note: this particular version of "Stash" has what Rolling Stone Magazine considers to be one of the Top 100 guitar solos of all time and is found on the album "A Live One"). 

 

As the song wore on, Alan began to drift away to sleep.  Its hard to describe my feelings about the situation but I'm sure parents have these moments, just not with Phish.  I got the usual chills when the guitar would reach those great heights and with my son's warm, tired body against me I just melted.  I had that 'wow' moment that I'll always remember.  I met my son that day, all thanks to my old friends Phish.

Parenting Revelation #5:

If you want to see withdrawal take hold of a person you could either watch Celebrity Rehab, or have you child wait an extra half-hour for Mom to get home.

Parenting Just Got A Whole Lot More Expensive

Alan is off soy, Mom is off dairy products, he's been put on medication for reflux...but his crying spells are still pretty intense.  But lucky for me, a client of Good Neighbor Pet Sitting happens to be a pediatrician.  While talking doggy care, we breached the Alan subject.  One of the things that we still don't know much about is how much food Alan actually gets while breast feeding, so hunger could be a reason for his sleeplessness and/or fussiness.  But supplements to mothers milk have always been of interest to me for when Angie goes back to work anyway, for emergency situations if anything else, so my client suggested Nutramigen.  Nutramigen is hypoallergenic and very expensive.  From what I can see, it costs almost $10 more per can on average.  And for people that weren't intending on formula before Alan was born, its a rude awakening.

Weekdays with Alan: Sneak Peek

I've started building Weekdays with Alan, the new website that will eventually replace Inside Offside (footballchronicles.blogspot.com).  Click on the link below and have a look for yourself, and tell us what you think.  Soon the web address will be www.weekdayswithalan.com

http://web.mac.com/aabraira

You Know You're a Parent When:

A poop is a huge deal.  

Alan had us worried, we’ve changed so much about his diet (Mom’s diet) that he got a little backed up.   So, one day without a poop became 4 days and we were looking into ways of ‘encouraging’ a movement. (The mere fact that this is a blog subject makes me feel a bit too ‘fatherly’)

But today, Angie hit the high notes and declared a Eureka! moment from the changing table, thus ending the what must have been uncomfortable time that Alan has been having.  A poop made my day...

Good Neighbor Pet Sitting & Son

As some of you may  know, I started a pet care business here in The Woodlands area when we returned home from Wales called Good Neighbor Pet Sitting.  I started the business when we found out Angie was pregnant with Alan, and it was formed with the knowledge that I could continue the business and be a stay-at-home Dad.  Now that Alan has arrived, and it being mere days before Angie returns to work, I thought it would be as good a time as any to get Alan out and start walking some dogs.  So when one of my first clients, Sam (pictured above), came calling I knew it would be the ideal situation for us.  Sam is a sweet little dog with a quiet disposition that just loves to walk, he's one of the best clients I have.

Here's how it went down as I worked a 7 week old into my work schedule:

12.35pm: Alan is pulled from his sound asleep position on the couch and placed (swaddle and all) in the car seat.

12.36-12.55pm: Alan remains sound asleep in the car seat until we get to Sam's house, where I remove him from the car seat and place him in the Baby Bjorn child carrier.  He's still asleep.

12.55-1.20pm: We Walk Sam through his normal routes, all the while staying comfortably asleep.

1.20pm: Alan is removed from the Baby Bjorn and placed back in the car seat, where he promptly starts crying.

1.20-1.40pm: A very loud car ride ends with a reunion with Mom, from whom he gets some much-deserved nourishment.

Not a bad start to things, but it can pretty much only go downhill from here.  Oh, and we have a preliminary agreement that Alan makes 5%.  He's not such a good negotiator, yet.

What About Fenugreek?

Alan has had his fair share of issues, and high on the list is laziness.  It was diagnosed in the NICU and continues today, he's just not a good eater.  That being said, he spends a lot of time eating, but just doesn't make the most of it.  A suggestion from a lactation consultant led us to a spice called fenugreek, or as I like to call it: 'fen·u·stink' or 'fen·u·reak'.  It is said to increase the supply of mothers milk, but such benefits come at a cost.  Commonly used in curries, fenugreek smells just like it says, a curry spice, a pungent curry spice.  And it emanates.  It increases the milk supply by increasing sweat production and although Alan is benefitting, Angie, and those in close enough proximity, are suffering.  Needless to say, curry is not on this weeks menu. 

The Changing Face Of Inside Offside

Since this is no longer a "football chronicle" as it was intended to be when I started this blog (see The Hypocrisy of UEFA), I've decided to change the web address, and perhaps even the name of "footballchronicles.blogspot.com" and "Inside Offside".  So stay tuned for the upcoming changes.  There will be a re-direct feature for the new web address so you won't get lost along the way.

Parenting Revelation #4:

A 2 minute discussion with your pediatrician can lead to wonderful things and reassure you that parenting, although difficult, is not a new undocumented experience for human beings.

What A Difference!

Alan (knock on wood) has had his best days yet, and a 180º turnaround from these first early weeks.  The elimination of milk from Mom's diet, medication to help ease any reflux issues, along with the supplementing of Mother's Milk with soy-based formula has worked wonders.  And just in time, too.  We just had a weekend full of activity and old friends (our friend Sydney is pictured above with Alan), during which Alan was a mere shell of his normal, fussy self.  We couldn't be happier to see him more comfortable and less irritated.  We hope these changes in his routines will be the beginnings of a much happier Alan and the beginnings of a much more enjoyable experience for Mom and Dad. 

Awesomeness Looms Large In Austin

I am so very proud to announce that my very good friend Matthew has finalized the deal with his long-term girlfriend Tami (echemm, not pictured above) and the two will be married later this year.  To try and describe my friendship with Matthew within the confines of this bloggosphere would be a complete injustice, but friendships that have comprised as much as 75% of ones entire life can do that.  So congrats for now, Matthew, lets get to celebrating. 

Now That's Worth Blogging About

We love our Pediatrician.  She's a great influence on our parenting and a great advocate for the ways her patients and their parents wished they could raise their children.  We took Alan in for a check on a small lump on the back of his head, not an uncommon thing on Robert's side of the family, and came out having had a in-depth conversation about Alan's fussiness.  He was in rare form at the office that day and our doctor was quick to alert us to some possible problems.  Firstly, she doesn't believe in colic.  Second, she narrowed his fussiness to one or both of these: an allergic reaction to cow's milk found in Angie's day-to-day diet and/or infant acid-reflux.  

We did a run of tests and they came back positive for the milk allergy.  The reflux is still to be determined.  I guess you could say we're relieved, but as a friend of ours put it, "the hits keep coming".  We're happy there could be a simple solution to make him happier and more comfortable, but he can't catch a break.  So we've gone milk-less in Angie's intake and put him on some medication to help with acid-reflux.  One way or another we're closer to putting more smiles on Alan's face and helping him get more sleep.

Mom, Alan, and One Of His Favorite Noises: Chimes

Alan and the Soft Green Frog

Alan Finds Hair, Pulls Hair, Realizes It Hurts

Parenting Revelation #3

Whoever coined the phrase "Babies just eat, sleep and poop." is wrong.

Is Swaddling Selfish?  Or Even Humane?

*The following are the opinions of Robert, not Angie.

My least favorite part of parenting has to be swaddling.  Is it necessary? Absolutely.  Is it fun to do? Absolutely not.  Lets face facts: Alan has busy hands, period.  If left to sleep on his own it wouldn't happen, he must be swaddled if sleeping on his back.  But it doesn't seem right to me.  When swaddled, he does quiet down, so I guess you could say it works.  But is he silent out of shock?  Is he saying to himself, "I have on very good authority that people committed for treatment of mental disorders are treated better than this.  Even Brittany Spears has a free hand to down her hourly Caramel Macchiato."  

But what to do? Nothing I guess, no sleep for him means no sleep for us, and in the end we can justify it by human beings not being able to remember this period of our lives.  But as long as we're justifying cruelty, on however a minor level, can someone figure out a device or mild adhesive that helps keep pacifiers in mouths?

Product Updates

We've been home about one calendar month since Alan was born.  We've been using myriad baby-specific devices and methods learned from word-of-mouth, books and intuition during that time, and wanted to give you a look inside at what we consider useful or not so useful tools of the trade.  We were very lucky to start with a great deal of help from friends and family and have had little need to purchase anything other than what we already had to satisfy Alan's needs.

• Diapers (gDiapers, etc.) - Alan was born too small (and remains too small) for the smallest of the gDiaper line.  Its a disappointing fact that they don't make models small enough to fit babies that don't weigh at least 8lbs.  Instead of the gDiapers during this period, we've used Pampers Swaddlers (newborn size), and have found very little problems with them.  Other than not being able to recycle them , they have no downside thus far.  


• Wipes - From the start, we've used our own wipes that we've made ourselves and have found the product rewarding to make and very easy to use.  The only downside is portability, the container size is just too big to carry around.  Alternatively, we've used the hospital-issue wipes when traveling with Alan until we can find another way to tote the homemade version. 
  


• Baby Bjorn - We use both the Baby Bjorn front-facing infant carrier and Baby Bjorn 1-2-3 Baby Sitter.  We find them to be very useful and Alan seems to like them both.  They're good for soothing and for sitting around when he is wakeful.  We also use the Baby Bjorn diaper bag, but since we haven't used it on anything other than trips to the pediatrician and other very short trips, we'll reserve our opinion until we take an extended journey.


• Baby Swing - Not the most popular item so far, the baby swing.  The only speed we've used is the minimum and it has worked but a few times to extend a nap or to calm Alan.  If anything, the baby swing is an agitator at this point, but we'll wait until he's a little older to make a final assessment of its usefulness.


• The Pilates Ball - One baby item disguised as workout equipment that will forever change our view on workout equipment.  The pilates ball is the single most useful tool in the house.  It is Alan's favorite place to calm down.  We simply don't know what we would do without it.


• The Noise Machine - A friend of ours gave us a sound machine, one with sounds such as 'babbling brook', 'white noise', and 'waves crashing' (among others) has been a big help as well.  A little noise in the room can go a long way to help get to sleep and stay asleep. The only problem is when it stops after about an hour; the silence can give Alan a shock in his sleep and could wake him up, foiling the time it took to get him down in the first place.


• The Kick and Play Floor Gym (as shown in a previous video post) - The floor gym is a nice way to get the day started for Alan.  He spends the first 10-20 wakeful minutes of the day in it and seems to enjoy it.  The mirror especially gets a lot of attention.  Its even been known to produce a smile or two.

There are other things we look forward to using, like the running stroller, but until he gets a little bigger we'll have to wait.