Vomit

On Monday night, I came down with a case of food poisoning. Most likely a norovirus from eating a salad I had bought. Four bouts of vomiting followed along with chills and a slight fever. After a few hours of being yelled at by the wife to go to the emergency room, I finally complied.

I’m going to digress a bit here because I’ve got a great story about vomiting that I want to tell. Back in ancient Rome, the Romans loved their toga parties and the food that came along with them. These parties usually lasted for days, and because they didn’t want to stop the partying on account of a full stomach, the Romans would force themselves to throw-up so they could eat more.

Well, many years ago, when I was still a strapping young lad, I went with some friends to a made-to-order, all-you-can-eat sushi buffet. We had overestimated how much we could actually finish and ended up with a lot of leftovers. Fearing that the management would get mad and demand us to pay for the wasted food, I thought back to my little Roman fact and did what any respectable Roman would have done in my situation. I went to the bathroom, forced myself to throw-up all the sushi I had already eaten, went back to our table, and dutifully finished every last bit of sushi, much to the relief of my friends.

Back on topic, the whole reason I bring up my food poisoning is because the following day, the baby has a fever herself, runny nose, and diarrhea. (This is her first actual cold! Actually, can this be considered a cold?) At first, I didn’t think food poisoning could be contagious, but it turns out that I’m wrong. While the norovirus is contagious, it is usually transmitted when the stricken vomits and the virus is aerosolized by the flushing of the toilet. And since I did throw-up four times at home, this is most likely what happened. The good thing is that the norovirus will usually run its course in about 24 to 48 hours.

While at the doctor’s, the wife also mentioned our baby’s tooth growing a bit crooked. I had noticed this a few days ago, and pointed it out to her. The wife, in typical fashion, went into panic mode, and started looking up what could be done about it.

I told her it wasn’t a big deal. Baby teeth fall out. And even if the permanent teeth are crooked, braces can easily fix the problem. But that may be just too long of a wait for her, as can be seen in the following excerpt from our conversation.

Jessie: Hey, I just saw online that babies can get braces, too.
Me: Why the heck would we get braces for our baby?
Jessie: You just don’t care about our baby!!
Me: Wha-??

Logic has obviously been thrown out the window. And it’s my job to go and fetch it back. Thankfully, the doctor agreed with me and said that crooked baby teeth aren’t a big deal and that it’s more important for the baby to be healthy. I’ll say an 'amen,' to that!

On a totally unrelated note, the wife doesn't have much of a sense of humor these days, but I thought this comment from last weekend was pretty good.

(Preparing to hang out with a mom and her daughter whom we randomly met while applying for a passport for Caitlyn.)

Me: You need to hurry up or we’re going to be late. You don’t want to give her a bad first impression.
Jessie: In that case, maybe I shouldn’t bring you along. 

I'm on top of the world!

Giddy-up!

 

Say, "Ahhh!"

Hrmm...

 

Hooray for spring!

No! I'm not taking another bite!

 

Ok, fine. Just one more bite!

Look at the doggie!

 

What are you thinking about?

Riding a panda

 

UFO!

Rub, a dub, dub

 

I love bath time!

I kiss you, Lion.

 

Look at my two front teeth!

Let me out of this cage!

Sleep Woes

Given the number of restless nights the baby has previously been having, I decided to see if there was anything that might help give her a better night’s sleep.

I’ve read that most babies have a biological clock that’s preset for an early bedtime, around 6:30-7:00 p.m. When you work around this time, babies tend to fall asleep more easily and stay asleep longer. But as with most people living in the real world, this obviously isn’t the most ideal schedule for us. If we were to put the baby to sleep at 6:30, I would only see Caitlyn for a total of one hour every day during the week. And we’d have even less of a life than we already have.

I believe that 8 o’clock is the ideal sleep time for our baby and for us to work around. It’s not too early and it’s not too late either. This is also the time when she starts rubbing her eyes and will fall asleep quickly when put down.

However, for the past two months or so, Caitlyn has been going to sleep around 9 o’clock, waking up a few times during the night, and getting up at 8 the next morning. The main reason for this change is that when my parents were here, she’d want to stay up longer to play with them. And now that we’ve moved further away from the in-laws, coming back home from dinner at their house takes a bit longer.

Last Thursday, when we didn’t go to the in-laws, I insisted on putting Caitlyn to bed at 8 o’clock to see how she would respond. Not surprisingly, she didn’t fuss as much that night and slept in a bit later. But the wife wasn’t thoroughly convinced and because we came home later the next few nights, I couldn’t continue my experiment. This resulted in a later bedtime for Caitlyn, and in my opinion, not as good a night’s rest.

Finally on Sunday through last night, I was able to put her down to sleep around 8 o’clock again, and lo and behold, she's only been waking up once for a feeding and doesn’t wake up until 9 in the morning. As an added bonus, she started drinking 210 ml of formula instead of her usual 180 ml. A miracle you say? A coincidence? I think not.

Even the wife had to admit that the baby did sleep better by going to bed earlier. And as everybody knows, a well-rested baby means a happy baby. And a happy baby means a happy mommy. And a happy mommy means an extremely relieved daddy.

Yes, an 8 o’clock bedtime means we can’t stay out as late as the wife would like to when hanging out with people or eating, but I think the pros definitely outweigh the cons.

I'm a big girl now!

Can I grab the elephant and stand at the same time?

Teething

Teething in babies can occur as early as 3 months or as late as 12 months, though the first teeth typically appear between 6-9 months. Interestingly enough, teeth don’t actually cut through the gums, but instead, are allowed to poke through when the body releases chemicals that cause some gum cells to die and separate.

Symptoms of teething usually begin 3 to 5 days before the tooth actually shows, and disappear as soon as the tooth breaks skin. Common symptoms include drooling, fussiness, crying, restless nights, refusal to eat or drink, and elevated temperatures.

I noticed Caitlyn first tooth beginning to show when she turned 9 months just a few days ago. This would probably explain her change in behavior and habits. Multiply her usual fussiness by about two or three and add in a hearty helping of tossing and turning turning sleep time, and it’s no wonder the wife was nearly at her breaking point this weekend from taking care of the baby.

With her energy and patience all sapped away, I should have known to pick my words around her more carefully, but foresight is not exactly my strong suit. Had I done so, I probably wouldn’t have been unceremoniously shooed out the door like I was Sunday afternoon. I decided to use this time to give the wife a break and took the baby with me to do some shopping at the local hypermarket.

When I told the wife I was leaving with Caitlyn, she just scoffed and didn’t believe I had the balls to take the baby out by myself. After all, this would be my first attempt to actually take the baby anywhere in the car by myself for an extended period of time. Who knew what kind of nightmarish hell she could wreak without the wife there to lend a helping hand. Well, the joke was on her because this guy’s got balls the size of grapefruits!

Not only did I manage to get Caitlyn into her car seat without a peep (no small feat), I was able to drive to the hypermarket without her crying (an even bigger feat), put her in the baby carrier without a sound (just as big a feat), walk around the store without any whining (am I dreaming?), put her back in the car seat with a fuss (I must be dreaming), and brought her home safe and sound.

That’s two entire hours without a single whine, cry, or sound from her. Two hours, people! I'm not sure you guys really understand exactly how big a deal this is, but it's probably right up there with Columbus discovering America.

To our baby, two hours without making a single sound is like eternity times a million. She deserves some sort of award or recognition for this feat. When I went home and proudly told the wife about this monumental achievement, she just ignored me, probably because she was still a bit annoyed at me. But inside, I’m sure she was secretly jealous and wondering why she couldn’t take the baby anywhere without crying or fussing. The answer’s quite simple, actually. There can be only one baby expert in a family.

I noticed the other day that it seems other teeth are about to pop up soon, so this fussing and restlessness could carry on a bit longer. Having all 20 teeth come in doesn’t occur until several years later. Does that mean we have to endure this for another 3 or 4 years? If so, I might need to glue my mouth shut to keep myself out of trouble with the wife. 

Easy as 1, 2, 3

The past two weeks or so have been busy packing and unpacking boxes as we made the move to our new apartment. 25 big boxes to be exact. 25 big boxes that were all packed and unpacked by yours truly. This will be my fifth time moving in five years and hopefully the sixth time will be the last. The wife is tired of being a vagabond as well and we’ve been talking about buying our own place.

This is good news because that means I can finally do some serious decorating to our daughter’s room. We’ve been holding off on doing anything major because it wouldn’t be worth it if we’re just going to be moving again. I’ve already begun looking at different ideas and color schemes, and it comes as no surprise that the wife and I are already butting heads on what exactly constitutes good taste.

In the end, we reached a compromise. She promised that I could decorate Caitlyn’s room however I pleased if I let her decorate the rest of the house. That’s a tempting offer, but what about my Batcave that I was planning? Can I still have that?

Besides having lots of boxes to unpack, moving to a new place also means having to make new friends. Thankfully, having a baby makes the usually awkward process as simple as 1, 2, 3. You just head to the nearest park, sit there with your baby, and chances are, another mommy will approach you and start asking about your baby. Voilà! You have a new friend.

The other day, we went to the park and I saw another mom with her baby there. I confidently told the wife that I was going to go and make friends with her. She just laughed and went off to get lunch for us, leaving me by myself with my little wingbaby.

Following my aforementioned technique, I nonchalantly played with Caitlyn on the bouncy spring horse next to the mommy, and sure enough, after a few minutes, she started asking how old our baby was and the usual slew of questions that usually follow. Soon, we had a nice little conversation going just as the wife was coming back with our lunch. Like I said, easy as 1, 2, 3. 

On your mark, get set, go!

Catch the ball!

 

Bubbles are scary!

Pop the bubbles!

 

Climbing up the ramp

Whee!

 

Reach for the sky

Kisses from Mommy