Friday, June 08, 2001

Last night, Mia woke up at 4AM. I didn't hear her initially. When I looked at the clock, I was surprised. Mia had been sleeping up to 6:30AM for almost two weeks. I was getting used to it.

Tonight, Mia was being fussy in getting to bed. In fact, Jenn is trying to feed her again.

"Sleepless nights" isn't the problem. It's being made to sleep on her schedule, wake on her schedule that's frustrating. Disciplining a child for sleep shouldn't start until six months, and I can't wait to do this.
posted by Rick Umali 10:54 PM

Thursday, June 07, 2001

Mia had her first drink of formula today. She seemed to drink it with the usual gusto, but didn't finish her bottle. I'll see what happens with the formula bottle tomorrow.
posted by Rick Umali 10:31 PM

Wednesday, June 06, 2001

At the pediatrician's, Mia weighed in at 10 pounds, 15 ounces (almost 11 pounds!). Her length is 22.5 inches.

Mia also received her first dosage of Tylenol. The doctor suggested this because Mia was to receive four vaccination shots, one containing tetanus, which is typically painful, even after the initial shot (it feels like a bruise). The Tylenol was administered by a dropper. The concetrated Tylenol had grape flavor, which is the first 'flavor' Mia's ever tasted.

The pediatrician reassured us that the protruding belly button was nothing to worry about. In fact, she had seen much longer protrusions. Over the next six to twelve months, this will go away. As for the drooling, it's most likely caused by Mia just not knowing what to do with all the saliva. Teeth won't come in until around the fourth month.

The doctor also approved of our using formula. Somehow, we had a canister of Enfamil already, and Jenn made two four ounce bottles for tomorrow. The formula will ultimately replace pumping breast milk.
posted by Rick Umali 10:20 PM

Tuesday, June 05, 2001

Tomorrow, Mia takes another visit to the pediatrician. I'll be asking about Mia's belly button, which protrudes quite noticeably. I'll also ask whether Mia may be getting teeth, since she's been drooling a little more frequently.
posted by Rick Umali 10:43 PM

This afternoon, Mia and family visited our next door neighbors, Karen and Steve. They have a little baby girl named Isabella, who is eight months old. Watching Isabella in action was fantastic. She had just learned to crawl the past week. She has some teeth now, and she is able to sit up, and grab, and bang things. While we were with them, she picked up a ring of keys, and stared curiously, before tentatively gnawing on them. I marvelled at all of her abilities. Isabella is a preview of things to come, since she's six months older than Mia.

Karen pointed us to One Step Ahead, yet another baby catalog, and showed us some of the items they bought to make life easier with a more active baby.

It was fun to sit on their lawn as two young couples with babies. Mia quietly observed Isabella's antics, while we traded ideas on child rearing. They took pictures of the little ones, something we'll look back on no doubt.
posted by Rick Umali 10:40 PM

Monday, June 04, 2001

My younger brother Ron finally met Mia yesterday and today. He came up for a visit with my parents. He will be the godfather.

As family visits go, this was relatively painless. Ron held Mia a few times, but once again, my mother kept Mia practically to herself. As I write this, Mia is asleep, exhausted from all the attention, I'm sure.
posted by Rick Umali 10:50 PM