tasty hands

Rohan's newest fascination is with his hands. He stares at them constantly and more often than not, crams at least one into his mouth. So far, he's only been able to get about three fingers into his mouth at a time. Better yet is when he reaches down his throat so far that he makes himself gag....

Sometimes it is one hand, sometimes both.....either way, he ends up with drool on his face, on his hands, and invariably on his clothes.

The best part is to look at his fingers every so often and see them all wrinkled as if he had sat in a long bath....What a goofball...

screwed up clocks

With all the moving through time zones...Rohan's internal clock is baffled. First we moved 2 hours west....then we moved another hour west to an area where the sun stays out till 9. Needless to say...His body keeps telling him to go to sleep while his mind is saying "why...the sun is still out."

In Colorado he was doing a great job of sleeping nearly 7 hours at a stretch...Crash out around 8 PM (or 10 PM his time), then be out till 3 AM. The first time this happened we woke him up to be sure everything was okay :-). But he stuck to the schedule pretty well while we were out there and we started to believe that we had a baby that could successfully "sleep through the night." (allowing of course for his screwed up internal clock).

Then we got out to Oregon and he's back to sleeping for about 4-5 hours. The question then is....was it the air in Colorado?

new car smell

almost as good as the new baby smell....

Once we knew we were moving, we knew we were going to have to get a newer car. Two cars with upwards of 100k miles and both over 10 years of age did not sit too well -- especially since one of them was running upwards of $500 in repair bills every 6 months. So....which car to buy?

My first inclination was to try my best to ensconce L and Rohan in as much metal as possible. That led to one obvious choice -- the Hummer. Buuuuut, seeing as how we can't afford 10 gallons of gasoline every time i need groceries, we needed something that is actually practical.

After trying to change a diaper in a regular four door car, the appeal of a minivan was front and center. Not being ready to completely capitulate to the suburban-yuppie stereotype, we looked for something else still. Enter the sport wagon. Actually Mazda (Mazda 5) has a pretty nice looking car coming out that would have probably fit the bill exactly, but not wanting to wait that long nor wanting to buy the first year models, we dug a bit deeper....

My only two requirements were that the car must have side impact airbags and ABS (images of a giant SUV T-boning the car ran rampant through my mind). Not too many cars in the used car market have those options -- well at least not ones that get more than 25 miles to the gallon. We zeroed in on the Toyota Matrix, the Mazda 3, and the Subaru Forester..... Both are options on the Mazda and Toyota, and ABS is standard on the Subaru (but side airbags weren't available)...So, down to two cars. Priced about the same, the Mazda is actually a pretty good deal - bigger engine, more standard options, sportier feel....But not a toyota. Besides the Matrix actually felt a bit bigger.

Ultimately settling on the Matrix, we then got stuck with finding one that actually had those options. Leveraging the 'net...I got pretty good pricing on the car we wanted, but by the time we came out to buy, the car was all gone. The only one available with said options was located about 250 miles away and we ended up with our fourth color choice, black (after dark blue, light blue, and grey), but it does look nice.

pro-photogs

Succumbing to the "free 8x10 picture" coupons flooding our mailbox, mom, baby and i ventured down to our local Target while in Colorado. Of course you can get the same coupons from their web site.

Not that i would ever consider a target photographer a "pro" by any stretch of the imagination, but we did a least subject Rohan to a number of differing poses before he finally decided he had enough. And far be it for technology to let us down, but after the first 45 minute session, the memory card of their camera got fried and we were asked to come back and redo the shoot. The 25% discount they offered was nice, but when you really weren't planning on spending all that much money to begin with.....

Anyways...Day two of the "Rohan 2.5 Month Baby Shoot" went pretty well. Definitely better shots this time around and we caved and will soon own about $75 worth of "pro" pictures from Target. Oh well -- they actually were much better than 90% of the stuff we took around the house -- but then again, our lighting and backgrounds suck. On the upside we did discover a number of cute poses to subject Rohan to on our own :-).

too many hands

Not enough baby....

Time spent in Colorado as a stopover on our move out West was fun. Rohan enjoyed re-acquainting himself with my family. I guess it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise that he had completely forgotten meeting them during his first two weeks life.

Nevertheless with 3 grandparents, 2 parents, and one uncle -- it was a bit of a challenge ensuring everyone got equal access to the baby. Not to mention the fact that this parent, knowing he was going to start a new job that puts him outside of the house from 8 - 5 / 6 ish (vs. the previous arrangement where he was in the house all the time), wanted to maximize his baby time too.

After a rough start things settled down. Though practically everyone we meet tells us to enjoy the brief snippets of time that L and I have to ourselves when the grandparents are watching the baby - it can be difficult to let go. Rohan does new things almost daily - and I hate missing them. But the again, the next 20 years are going to be filled with a gazillion milestones, and I have to realize that I'll miss some, but probably see the most important ones....

where have I been?

The last couple of weeks have been a blur...mom and the baby took off early (as i posted before) as i stuck around and awaited the movers. We all spent a couple of weeks at the grand 'rents house before i headed out to our new home out west to await said movers.

Baby and mom arrived over the weekend and i started the new job earlier today....Lots more to write in a bit...just need to let the dust settle....

My flying baby

Rohan arrived safe and sound in CO with mom. Luckily he was only flying one way, so buying the ticket for him wasn't too expensive. Actually the infant fare was 50% of the adult fare (plus a stupid $10 service fee for buying it over the phone...of course you can't buy an infant fare online, but we won't dwell on that).

Nevertheless, I've been told he was quite the angel on the flight. Didn't cry too much and slept for a fair amount of it. He did have to be changed a couple of times between the flights and the airport time, but did okay with that too.

of course, there are a few more pictures on his website.

Baby's first flight

Rohan is taking his first flight today -- but without me. His mom and gradmother are accompanying him on his first journey into the skies, while I handle the last details of the move.

Given that Rohan hates the bottle, and he should be suckling on something during and pressurization and de-pressurization to help equalize his ears, it could be interesting. Though there is little chance of any damage to his ears if they don't clear right away -- everyone elses ears may need some adjusting if he's wailing in pain.

Nevertheless, the best part of this upcoming flight is the seating arrangement. Wonderful US Air set Rohan three rows in front of mom and gradma. We did buy him his own seat only to have it end up nowhere near mom. I doubt anyone will hesitate to switch seats with him though....

night time experiments

When Rohan came home from the hospital, he was getting up every 2 hours or so, feeding for about 10-15, and then soothed to bed for another 10 - 15. Thus leaving his parents (more his mom) with nice 1.5 hour sleep breaks -- at most....Well, things have improved -- a little bit.

We have started to make a conscious effort to improve his sleeping habits. Though he is still below the 11 lbs. magic number (the What to Expect the First Year postulation that an 11 lbs. baby can withstand an 8 hour stretch without feeding), we are trying to stretch out the time between feedings.

Initially, whenever Rohan awoke in the middle of the night, we assumed it was to feed. Turns out that many times he wakes up just to look around, grunt and snort a little, then fall back to sleep. So we let him wake up and figure out what he wants now -- provided he's not crying. Just before he starts crying we'll get him out of the cradle to feed. This alone has stretched the feeding intervals to 3 - 4 hours. A couple of those and you actually get a decent night of sleep.

We're also encouraging Rohan to start sleeping on his own. Though this has proved to be less successful than the above, it is slowly starting to work. A clear difference in opinion exists between Dr. Sears (Attachment Parenting - pretty much the Indian way of doing things) and virtually everyone else. Dr. Sears and most Indian parents would prefer that you rock, soothe, carry the baby to sleep every night in your arms and then put them in their cradle / crib. Which we've been doing for the last 9 weeks or so.

But an amazing thing happened one night around week 6. Rohan was lying on our bed, keeping himself occupied and then just fell asleep on his own. To me, it makes sense that babies learn to do it at some point -- it seems to me that it would calm them a bit when they wake in the middle of the night and don't see the parent that put them to bed. Nevertheless, it doesn't work all the time or even most of the time.

Sneaky baby that Rohan is becoming, when deposited in his cradle before he wants to sleep - he just amps up his whimpering once he's in the cradle till he's picked up. It is pretty hard to ignore him as he is on the edge of crying and there might be something wrong....However, usually 8 seconds after being picked up, he falls asleep in our arms. Back in the cradle he goes.....

hmmm

Just when you think you're comfortable with a decision, you see the following in the WSJ

Study Says Circumcision Reduces AIDS Risk by 70%
In a potentially major breakthrough in the campaign against AIDS, French and South African researchers have apparently found that male circumcision reduces by about 70% the risk that men will contract HIV through intercourse with infected women.

Other than abstinence and safer sex, almost nothing has been proved to reduce the sexual spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. World-wide, the major route of HIV transmission for many years has been heterosexual sex.

Vaccine developers have said they would consider an AIDS vaccine with just 30% efficacy useful. But so far, no effective vaccine against the disease has been developed, leaving AIDS workers desperate for another tool to help them stem the tide of new infections, estimated at almost five million last year.

The circumcision findings were so dramatic that the data and safety monitoring board overseeing the research halted the study in February, about nine months before it would have been completed, on the grounds that it would be immoral to proceed without offering the uncircumcised control group the opportunity to undergo the procedure. While men were directly protected from infection by circumcision, women could benefit indirectly because circumcision would reduce the chances their partners would be HIV-positive.

Researchers in the field have been aware of the study's basic findings, but they haven't been published, so most experts haven't evaluated them. The British medical journal the Lancet decided against publishing the study, but for reasons unrelated to the data and scientific content, according to people familiar with the matter. Lancet officials, following standard policy at the journal, refused to comment on why the study was turned down.

The fact that an independent board ordered the study halted is considered a strong sign that the science is sound. Bertran Auvert, the French researcher who headed the trial, declined to discuss the findings but is expected to present them later this month at an International AIDS Society conference in Brazil.

shooting pain

For me and him...though probably more for Rohan....

Rohan got his first set of shots yesterday. Four shots -- two into each leg covering:

• DPT (diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus) shot
• Hib (Haemophilus influenza type B) shot
• hepatitis B shot
• polio shot
• pneumococcal (PCV7) shot

The Hib and Hep B were combined into one i think...My inability to fully recall what Rohan got injected with points out two things...my failing memory and my overwhelming trust in doctors and the practice of medicine. They tell us, "these are the shots your baby needs to get," we say, "okay."

Rohan was quite the trooper during the shots....his face turned beet red and he let loose with the loudest scream we've heard yet...but calmed down within a couple of minutes following the last shot.

Once we got home, he did great for about 5 hours, then the pain set in and he went ballistic. Well, ballistic to his parents who have never seen him cry for more than 5 minutes at a stretch (yes yes, we are very lucky). We gave him a little baby tylenol (on the advice of the nurses) for the pain, and he eventually calmed down....We've been excessively nice to him for the past day too -- no bottle,

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When one stops to think about what the kid is getting injected with at such a young age...it is a bit disturbing....The chances of a baby catching Hep B, unless the mother is infected, is around zero.

Oh well, what's done is done. We did have the wherewithal to double check that the vaccines did not contain thimerosal which is a mercury based preservative. The FDA asked the manufacturers to phase its use out in 1999, but there is a strong beleif throughout the web that thimersol is linked to the explosive rise in autism. The medical community and drug manufacturers call the increase a conincidence and point out that doctors are diagnosing more than in the past. Nevertheless, we, luckily, don't have to deal with that right now....by the time we get to the MMR, it could be a different story.