boom boom
Rohan's new word is "boom"
everytime something hits the ground, he says, "boom"
everytime I say the word "boom," he says, "boom"
and yesterday after letting out a fart, he said, "boom."
holy crap! neal's a dad
Rohan turned one!
Rohan's new word is "boom"
I swear that Rohan is browsing the web when no one is watching him. Somehow he must be transporting himself out of his crib and in front of the computer to see what I've posted. The very same day I posted about his improved sleep -- Rohan fell off the wagon.
The latest gap to my last post is on order of 4 months. That's nearly 1/3 of Rohan's life. Its like saying I went 8 years without writing a paper...well i guess I did if you include the first 8 years of my life. How many papers does a 2nd grader write?
Anyways - I thought I would write about the many many things that have happened over the last 4-5 months. First things...Sleep.
In one of my last posts before the radio silence, I wrote about buying a book called, "The No Cry Sleep Solution." A highly rated book -- we looked to it to save our sanity and our kid. Rohan was waking up every 2-3 hours no matter what we tried. So we tried the book. And we tried...and we tried. It did provide some nuggets of very helpful information, but ultimately didn't get us to the 6-8 hours of uninterrupted sleep we longed for. Things we did learn from the book:
But for whatever reason - Rohan just didn't respond very well to the soft approach championed by the book. But we persevered. For a while, we just slept on the floor with him. Since our bed isn't big enough to keep us all comfortable, we just made up a bed on the floor. That worked...for a bit
But it wasn't getting us any closer to where we wanted to be. And he wasn't showing any real improvement -- if anything he was getting more accustomed to having us nearby.
Throughout it all - a number of people proposed and swear by the "cry it out." If anything I was the most reluctant to go down that path. Having read too much Dr. Sears and Elizabeth Pantley -- I had visions of Rohan growing up to be a mass murderer.
As we tried to get Rohan comfortable in the crib by himself, the video monitor helped a lot -- We had experimented with giving him a bunch of pacifiers to self soothe himself if necessary. What generally happened was that he kicked them out of his crib when he pulled himself up. So we had to kick the pacifier habit before starting down the "cry it out" path...
So in March we tried it. And it wasn't easy...At all.
But over about 5 days or so, he started to get it. The bouts of crying diminished and we all actually started sleeping much better.
No questions that Dad had a much softer heart than mom and if it had been entirely up to Dad - Rohan would probably still be waking up every 2-3 hours. As it is, he is generally sleeping 8-9 hours without a whimper. Unfortunately the video monitor reached the end of its line (fell down the stairs), but now that he is sleeping well, we don't really need it.
With whatever he learned in jersey, rohan suddenly started crawling. A light seemed to go off in his head! He suddenly realized how to coordinate his arms with his legs and off to the races he went!
Over the past weekend we ventured out to the other coast on a combined work and family visit trip. Rohan had a chance to see some of my cousins and aunts and L had a chance to spend some quality face time in the office.
The munchkin started solids a little while ago so the link Seshu sent me was more relevant than expected. An NYT piece about great toys included a bit about a food grinder. While we haven't got the grinder yet, it does look like a nice thing to have.
Months ago, i wrote about our search for the perfect baby crib, ultimately we ended up settling on a convertible crib from Ragazzi. While I have to admit that the crib looks really nice, the key feature of many other cribs is one I actually wish we had right now.
Thanksgiving was a blast ! Rohan's grandparents (my parents) and his uncle (my brother) were in town to help avoid us schleping through airports on the busy travel days of the year.
Holy crap...how long has it been since i've posted? I'm surprised blogger hasn't pulled the plug. Anyways, i've been AWOL for a number of reasons:
However, i also realized that my purpose for starting this thing was two fold and i'm failing on both counts. It was a way for me to share my experiences with others but at the same time, keep a diary / living record of life with Rohan. The blog has been a great way for me to document for posterity all his little achievements as well as my own emergence into fatherhood. To that end, here are all the things that have happened since i actually posted last:
'whew...i'm sure there are other things...but i'll try to post those on a more regular basis....
given the copious amounts of drool that end up all over rohan, his clothes, my glasses, his toys, etc. it is no wonder that he isn't a huge baby. How could any person gain weight when they loose 10 lbs a day in drool?
Based on the symptoms of Rohan’s cold, we started to believe that he might have developed an ear infection. Besides the constant ear tugging -- which could be attributed to a number of things -- he was very irritable at night and whenever we laid him down.
Owing to the very short Eustachian tube of an infant and the fact that it is nearly horizontal in reference to the ear and mouth -- kids ears get infected fairly easily. The tube gets blocked and as a result the fluid cannot drain. Consequently an infection develops behind the ear drum. As the infection worsens, the pain increases behind the drum and makes everyone’s lives a lot more painful.
With all the discussion surrounding intelligent design these days (I'm convinced it is the flying spaghetti monster) it begs the question of what was he/she/it thinking when this system was developed. If I were going to design something of the like -- i might make it less susceptible to infection. Why not give the newborn some instinct on how to prevent it from happening, alleviate the pain, or just communicate what is going on? much like a dolphin knows how to breathe and swim when born – why are humans unable to clear their eustachian tubes? Oh well…maybe Darwin was right…
Nevertheless, we took a trip to our friendly (backup) doctor who confirmed that it was in fact a mild infection. Score one for our library of resources – though we could have made the diagnosis at home if we had that little ear flashlight thing....But then he waffled. Between making us believe that it should go away on its own in a few days, he also gave us a prescription for an antibiotic. Sooooo...what to do? wait for it to clear on its own? or start the kid on drugs early. We are electing to wait it out...Undoubtedly; many sleepless nights lay in store...
When pressed on the question of the follow up visit, said doctor stated that it did not really matter provided he is coming back for his next round of shots anyway…umm, okay. Needless to say, the backup doc is not on our list of ones to recommend or visit again.
It was difficult making sense of the world over the last month. Between the massive hurricane that left one of my favorite cities under water and the discovery that my aunt has an advanced stage of stomach cancer....I'm left wondering what gives.
We visited a new temple in the area over the weekend. It is an unusual set up as it contains idols from most of the world religions (Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism, Buddhism, and Christianity) with the notable exception of Islam. Obviously I was not part of that decision, so I have no introspection on the background -- I only found the exclusion odd. And of course the Christian representation is actually of Mary and not Jesus.
Nevertheless, as I'm sitting there, I find myself wondering what set of spiritual values will I be able to instill in Rohan. Though my parents did their best to give me a core set of beliefs, they aren't necessarily how I live my day to day as I've drifted more towards Buddhism. Still I do not wear my religion on my sleeve and foresee a difficult road in the future of conveying religious beliefs to Rohan. Never mind my own difficulties with the subject, but Rohan's mom has a slightly differing set of beliefs.
How do parents with differing beleifs instill any set of values in their kids without trying to teach them both? Is the usual rule of thumb just to let the more religious parent pass on their beliefs?
Ultimately, I want him to make his own choice. A choice based on education and actual understanding of other religions such that he can choose his own path. At the end of the day if he wants to practice all or none, it should be up to him.
Lucky for the kid, he caught my cold leading into last weekend. Even luckier still is that he has no idea that he can breathe through his nose or how to blow it clean. So...that means every so often while sleeping, he'll struggle to get air and ultimately wakes up and starts crying. So in his parents will come to soothe him and restart the process. Needless to say that the renewed lack of sleep was the key reason for lack of postings on the blog.
As a result...the kid, who could at one point sleep for 6 - 7 hour stretches, now wakes every two to three. Just when L and I were developing a routine around him, he ups and changes things. To be expected I suppose.
The cold has been interesting. It started with him getting scared every time I started coughing my brains out. Then he started acting like he was mimicking my cough -- like it was a form of communication. Turns out it was a predecessor of him developing the same cold. I have to admit that the book from Dr. Sears has been very helpful in identifying his symptoms and things we could do to help him out. The AAP book had some high level information, but Dr. Sears is far more detailed.
From the book, we realized that we need to help the munchkin clean out his nose with the wonderfully popular nose sucker thingy. It isn't hard to imagine why Rohan is afraid of it -- it looks like it could suck out his brains. Actually I wonder how adults would react to their boogers sucked out with a giant bulb...
Before Rohan was born, we did what everyone does and bought a video camera with the hopes and intent of documenting all of Rohan's life and milestones.
so the web crawlers at the mighty google have indexed this site...that means the little search bar up top will actually pull relevant stuff from this blog.
remarkably...i'm not talking about my own.
I've quickly come to the realization that there are lots and lots of fathers (and mothers, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, etc) writing about newborn babies. Here are some of my favorites (so far...). Hopefully i won't loose too many of my faithful readers....
In case you want to speak to someone who knows what they are talking about...i got this care of the Mr. Dad's newsletter
http://www.bemboszoo.com/Bembo
he pooped.
Rohan withered under the duress of his second set of four successive shots. Coincidentally it was on the same day as his four month birthday. For the most part he did okay...serious amount of crying accompanied by a face turning beet red.
Over the weekend he was pretty irritated, the "how could you let them do that to me again," expression was always on his face. A little feverish here and there, but otherwise okay. By the end of the long weekend, he had actually pulled off his own band-aid. Of course he probably pulled it off more since it was something his hand grabbed hold of than because he thought it was the macho thing to do.
One thing of note...this was our first trip to our new doctor. Unfortunately we did not come back as impressed as we probably should have. Though we had been out to see the facility and it came highly recommended by a number of people, the fact that they still use paper records and an old fashioned balance scale (vs. digital so the kid isn't sitting there naked forever) came as a bit of a surprise. In the end, the doctor was very nice and did assuage our latest concerns while the nurse did a good job jabbing Rohan's legs, so all is okay.
Coming across the popvssoda web page recently got me thinking a lot about the regional differences in how we were raised and to a greater extent how we will raise our kids.
more than a couple months ago, i blogged about our video baby monitor. At the time, I found that we were getting interference from everything (900 mHz phone, wi-fi, neighbors, etc) which made the video aspect of it almost irrelavant.
It is a bit of an understatement to say that we don't have time to do a lot of the things that we used to...To that end, here is a list of expenses for things of little value:
Rohan's nails grow faster than weeds and have developed an unusual ability to simultaneously sharpen themselves. The telltale signs that it's been too long since his last manicurist visit are the tiny little scabs on his face, his ears, legs, arms, etc. Normally, we try to file them every few days, yet he still manages to scratch his face, his legs, and even us. If only he weren't so fussy during the process. Thus far, we've been completely unsuccessful with the clippers and are relying on a nail file.
I was able to get Rohan to giggle on demand! By pinching his cheeks and tickling his belly -- rohan squeeked out a giggle. Of course as soon as i pulled out the video camera, he stopped...
or in terms of babies...If your baby turns himself over and neither the dad nor the mom see it, did it really happen?
The temperature out here has been all over the place....Cool morning, blistering afternoons and hot evenings. For a baby who can't change his clothes, or even tell us how the weather is affecting him, it is proving problematic.