A Baby's Prayer

Here's a poem that was in the card we got from Aunt Phyllis that I wanted to share with you.

A Baby's Prayer

Dear Lord, I am so little. Still, I’m not sure why I’m here.
I know I am a child of Yours; that much is all that’s clear.
I do not have the words, as yet, to tell these ones nearby
That I’m homesick for Your presence, Lord,
And so, sometimes, I cry.
For I’ve so lately come from You to tarry here awhile
That Heaven’s light still clings around
The corners of my smile.
Give them eyes to see it, Lord. Bless them as they do.

And help them raise me knowing I’m a precious trust from You.

C'mon Mom!

Hi everyone!  I just wanted to make a quick post to apologize for not posting in a while.  I have a bunch of half-done posts and I am going to sign off of this one to finish at least a few of them today.  

With Christmas coming, I found myself busier than I have been since Dominic arrived.  This is quite ironic, since I have felt busier than ever before in my whole life since he arrived (yet feeling like I am accomplishing very very little and virtually nothing on my todo list such as thank-you notes for all your amazing and thoughtful gifts for Dominic as well as publishing blog entries!)

Anyway, I will get to the posts now.  Just wanted to say thank you for your patience and hang in there for some new news!  --Love Maggie

Winter Solstice

Before Dominic was born, I thought I should pack in as much real estate work as I could, figuring that once he was born I would be "just sitting around the house" and able to do all sorts of things. HAHAHAHA.

On December 7, my friend who is writing the blog that inspired me to write this one did an explanation of her day and how hard it is to get stuff done with the new baby. She started out saying "Let's say I sleep 10 hours a day." And then went about telling how the remaining 14 hours were spent.. 7 hours of feeding, 4 hours of diapering and educating baby, which leaves 3 hours for eating and hygiene. 0 hours for anything else.

When I read that, I could relate pretty well, but I couldn't believe she worked in 10 HOURS of sleep! I was sleeping only about 4 hours and still not accomplishing much. My big achievement was completing the entire humungous stack of Dominic's and my laundry that piles up due to being spitup on. My mom kept telling me to "sleep when he sleeps", but I couldn't resist the temptation to stay awake to wrap a Christmas present, change the cat box, or actually brush my teeth.

On the night between December 20 and December 21 - the longest night of the year, the Winter Solstice - Eddie and I decided to try letting Dominic sleep in his own room in his big crib. He had been sleeping longer in his bassinette (and growing longer in his bassinette), and Eddie had read in the "What to Expect" book that babies can benefit from being in their own room so the parents don't turn a small stir into a full-blown wakeup. So we decided to give it a try.

And on the VERY FIRST NIGHT...

Dominic slept 12 hours !!!

Of course, I didn't sleep a single minute that night.   Here's a picture of what I did...

I stared at the monitor for 12 hours non-stop.  I kept nudging Eddie and asking him if it looked like Dominic was breathing.  He would mumble that he was sure everything was fine and I should go to sleep.  Every now and then Dominic would stir and I would be both relieved and concerned he might wake up.  He didn't.

Here is how the cupcake looked in the morning after 12 hours of sleep.  Sooo happy!  (There will be no pictures of Mama from that morning.  Can you say "crow's feet"?)

Christmas Joy

Here are some images from Dominic's first Christmas:

"Candy canes and icicles,

music and Christmas lights.

Giving gifts to ones we love

is our heart's delight,

for God so loved the

 world that He gave his only Son

that we might have the gift of love

every day and not just one.

We have Christmas joy in our hearts to stay.

Not once a year, but every day.

We have Christmas joy, the gift that never ends.

Love keeps on giving, keeps on living here within."

Dominic in church watching his cousins sing in the Christmas Eve service.  Cousin Kaylin had a solo on "Silent Night".
Dominic after the church service - matching with his cousins but apparently eager to sleep so Santa will come!

Waking up Christmas morning with a smile!

Christmas day at Nano & Nana's house.  

From Head to Toe

As I'm sitting here feeding Dominic, I always notice these little details about him.  I mean, he's laying there in my lap, and I do so enjoy this time I have to just study every inch of him.  So I thought I'd share with you what I see starting with the very top of his head to the very tip of his toes.

He has lots of medium brown hair on his head, and a natural "part" on his left side (our right in photos).  Even though he is losing his hair, he still has quite a bit.  His scalp is mostly really soft, but there is a patch about 3 inches wide starting from the hairline on his forehead back to where his natural part ends where his scalp is covered with thick flaky skin someone told me is called "cradle cap".  It's not very noticeable, especially right after he takes a bath and is really clean.  People who have noticed it tell me that his is not as bad as most.  I don't worry about it. As the flakes come off, they take little clumps of hair with them, so he might be bald on top for a little while when it's all over.

Over his left ear you can see where I have cut his hair.  The hair there used to hang over the top of his ear, so I figured he wouldn't miss it if I cut a little to put in his baby book.  It wasn't really his "first haircut".. just a little lock of hair so we'll be able to look back at this first fine baby hair and remember.

His ears are a lot bigger than they were when he was born, but they still lay pretty flat against his head.  They stay pretty clean although with all the growing, I have to use a Qtip to brush away some of the molted skin about once a week.

His eyes and eyebrows look so much like Daddy's!  Above his left eyebrow is a vertical line of pink that somedays you don't notice but other days looks like a scratch.  Dr. Pellman says that is a birthmark, as well as the pink scratched-looking section on his right eyelid.  With as much as he pokes his fingers in his eyes while sucking his thumb, he occasionally has a real poke mark in addition to the birthmarks, so I try to keep his nails very short.  

We debated keeping hand mitts on him (Dr. Pellman says we have to be careful he doesn't scratch his cornea), but with the thumb being such an important element in the sleep-all-night schedule, we opted to forgo the mitts at night.  Believe it or not, a couple of drops of breastmilk on a scratch or poke mark moistens them and heals them up in no time!  This stuff is better than neosporin, which you couldn't put on an eyelid anyway.  Just another amazing breastmilk fact!

Dominic definitely has at least one dimple.  We see the one on his left cheek almost every time he smiles now, which is - thank God - quite a bit!  His nose and mouth... it's debatable whether they are Eddie's or from my side of the family.  I think his mouth looks a lot like my brother, Dominic's Uncle John.  But the dimple definitely comes from Daddy.

He doesn't have any millia (tiny white dots like baby whiteheads) on his face any more, but there are one or two left on his arms.  I remember he used to have one or two on a couple of fingers at the cuticle line, but those are gone too.  His face does still have a couple of minor "baby acne" bumps (I bet they'd go away faster if my diet was healthier - the new year's resolutions ought to help there), but overall the skin on his face is really soft and smooth.  Fine little hairs grow all the way down where a sideburn would be.  I think he will have thick hair like Daddy's but it doesn't look (yet) like it will be as dark.

Many of the pictures on the blog look like Dominic doesn't have much of a neck, but he really does.  I work hard at keeping patooey (my word for spitup) cleaned out of there!  When he is in a sitting up position, his head tends to compact into his shoulders, but laying down you can see he loves to stretch his head up and show off his nice (clean) neck.

I have already noticed his shoulders are becoming broader.  When I feed him, he rests on his side on this doughnut-shaped pillow I got at the family shower from Frank & Yumiko Lee called "My Breast Friend".. haha.  Now that he is growing, I sometimes have to put a folded cloth under his head because the distance from his shoulder to the side of his cheek is far enough that, if resting on the feeding pillow without additional support, his head will tilt uncomfortably.  Sometimes during the day feedings I don't put the cloth so Dominic is forced to work his neck muscles to stay in his most comfortable feeding position.

His hands, in my opinion, are still larger than I would expect relative to his overall size.  I guess that might come from me, as I have pretty long fingers.  The knuckles on the backs of his hands are dimpled, and the skin is amaaaaazingly soft.  His nails grow quickly, and the nail beds are really pink as well as the skin of his fingers just around his nails is particularl

y brown - a characteristic from his latin heritage.  He still occasionally keeps his hands in very tight fists, although that limits thumb access, plus he is much more likely to hold them in a more relaxed, open position.

He has a nice, round belly!  Definitely a good eater!  His belly button - can't tell if it is exactly an "innie" or an "outie" - is still a bit dark and bruised-looking, but I'm sure it will continue to change color as it heals.  His thighs are thick and chubby cute, and are covered with rolls and rolls of skin.  All those rolls of extra skin will likely come in handy if his legs are going to grow to match his giant feet.  From day 1 the little newborn socks have not fit him.  We'd put them on just to try to keep his feet warm and the heels would never go much further than halfway from his toes to his heel.  His big toe is longer than the other toes on both feet.  Will it stay that way or will his second toe eventually be longer like on my feet?  Only time will tell!

He has dry patches on his knees and elbows.  I put baby oil on them when I change him, but it doesn't seem to make much of a difference.  Hmm I bet breastmilk would fix that...  Mental note to try it.

His dark olive complexion is not as dark as Daddy but not as light as Mama.  He looks best in dark colors, and although  I bet he is not likely to sunburn easily when he is older, we still keep a little fisherman's hat on him when we go out on a sunny day (which are most days in California). When I hold him naked, his behind has little dimples like cellulite but they don't show up when he's laying down.  He hasn't had a single occurrence of diaper rash (yet?), and I attribute that to Dr, Pellman's advice to "slop on the Vaseline" (he says petrolium jelly is better than any dedicated diaper rash product), my friend Michelle Garofolo's advice to air-dry his tooshie after wet-wiping and before diapering it, and my mom's advice to change him immediately when I notice he's wet.  We've definitely moved on to a size 2 diaper.

So that is our little tu tu (as in "you you" in Spanish) as he is today.  Maybe next post I will put some comparison pictures so you can see how he has grown.

Bye for now, and thank you again for reading!

FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions

How old is Dominic now?
11 weeks 2 days today (December 12)

Do you have him on a schedule?
No. Kay Gregg, an RN who we've been seeing for 'lactation consultation' has coached us to just feed him on demand and assures us he will get on a schedule himself.

Is he sleeping through the night? (or Are you getting any sleep?)
Remarkably, Kay is right! Just last Sunday the 9th, he went to sleep at 8pm and didn't wake up to eat again until 4am. That's 8 hours! The "What to Expect the First Year" book says that even on the longest-sleeping nights, breastfed babies might have to wake up once in the middle of the night to eat (i.e. 4am), but I think that might just be God's way of keeping Mom's boobs from exploding.

We have had a couple of nights of last-feeding-around-midnight and next feeding after 5am. So we are actually doing very well in the sleep department. I try to nap every couple of days in the middle of the day with Dominic. Those of you who know me from before Baby D, you know that I had the sleeping habits of Dracula anyway... so this lifestyle suits me ok. One tough factor, though, is that Dominic wakes up at 6:30am just about every day and is up for the day. Dracula is trying to learn to "do" mornings.

I have one request of you readers.. does anyone recommend a good under-eye-dark-circle coverup product? ;-)

Does he take a pacifier?
As I mentioned in an earlier post, Auntie Karla has been most successful getting our little cupcake to take a pacifier. Gram has also had moderate success. For most of the rest of us, he may keep it in for 30 seconds, and for that you pretty much have to apply light pressure to get it to stay in. Then he tries to spit it out but he doesn't fuss or cry much about it.

The good news (bad news?) is that he has found his thumb! This has just happened in the past week. I have started an entry about that and will add video and post it soon.

You look great (a.k.a. Have you lost all your baby weight yet?)
Well, today I weighed exactly the same amount as before I got pregnant with Dominic. The bad news is that I hadn't lost all the weight from the earlier miscarriage when this pregnancy started. So bottom line is that I still have a ways to go. I can fit in some of my pre-pregnancy "fat clothes" though. Which is good because the maternity clothes are all a bit big around the waist.

How's breastfeeding going?
Even though I have had a few hurdles, a few days of soreness, a few days of engorgement, a few days of leaking, I totally love breastfeeding. I know for sure I haven't had as many challenges as most, and even on my sorest day, I haven't experienced any "wounds".

I mentioned I've been seeing this lactation consultant, Kay Gregg. Whenever we visit her, she weighs Dominic with nothing on but a clean diaper. Then I feed him and then she weighs him again to see how many ounces of milk he is getting. Crazy huh? The very first time Kay ever measured how much Dominic was drinking, he took only two-tenths of an ounce! That was when he was not even 3 full days old yet. I haven't been to Kay for a while to measure what he's doing now, but I would guess it's about 3 ounces each feeding.

I try to pump some every day, so I have a little supply going of breastmilk for babysitting days. This also helps with the worry I have from one day to the next that I'm either not producing enough or producing too much. I have to be careful not to pump longer than 5 or 8 minutes, because if I go for 10, then the next day I am walking around with two 10-pound rocks where I used to have boobs. It's amazing how God has this supply-and-demand thing coordinated so perfectly!

I hope we can continue for the one year that is recommended for Dominic's healthiest start. A friend of mine has managed to continue a bit past that with just one feeding a day right before bed, and I think that sounds great to me. Maybe I can continue that until he is 1.5 or so. (Don't worry, I won't be one of those people who's still breastfeeding their kindergartener!)

What size diaper is he using now?
We are just transitioning him to size 2. 2 already! Ouch. Being 8lbs and 4oz at birth, though, meant he wasn't in the size N (newborn) for long. Although it feels like he wasn't in the size 1's for long either.

Are you going to give him formula/bottles so you can go out?
You may remember, from an earlier post, a picture of Gram (my mom) giving him his first full bottle. Since then, we have given him about one bottle per week and he has taken to bottle feeding very well.

I have been out one night with my girlfriends when Daddy and Gram watched/fed him, once out with Gram and some friends to a Christmas thing when Granddaddy took care of him and later that same day to an after-party for a USC football game (with Daddy) when Gram & Granddaddy came to our house to finish the babysitting here (this was due to a power outtage at their house that day), and just today (December 12), I went to a Realtor holiday charity thing and Daddy took Dominic to Nana & Nano's house (his parents).

We aren't doing any formula yet, though, and I'm glad we haven't had to. So far, the only things that have passed his lips are breastmilk and a couple of milligrams of "cherry flavored" baby Tylenol from the day after his shots. Once during a day of particularly out-of-control spit up, I allllllllmost gave him some of the tummy drops, but I held out and we haven't had to try them yet.

When can I babysit? :-)
Dominic is blessed with so much great family who a) love him enough to give up their afternoon or evening to watch him, and b) love me enough to encourage me to get out of the house for an adult activity now and then. Truthfully, while I have enjoyed my moments "out", I really do miss Dominic. But I know that not only are the babysitters probably enjoying themselves (maybe more than I can when I'm away from him), it's probably also good for his development to be separated from me for a while. boo hoo!

I know I have been guilty of letting him sleep on my lap or in my arms when I probably should be putting him down in his crib so he learns that's where sleeping takes place. Sorry but I can't resist now and then!

It has taken me a couple of days to get to finishing this entry, so now it's 12:14am on 12/14, and later today a group of us will be seeing the Radio City Rockettes' Christmas show. Nana is planning to come to the house to hang out with Daddy for that babysitting job.

Do you have any nicknames for Dominic?
Of course! Cupcake, sweet pea, cachetes (pronounced ka-CHE-tess, meaning "big cheeks" in Spanish), big boy, big D, precious angel, mister man, angel boy, and a slew of other names as the inspiration hits us.

Gram calls him sweet plum, peanut blossom, and other things. Nana and Nano call him poo-poos or poops, but somehow it works. For some reason, my dad (Granddaddy) wants to call him Dewey. He says he had a sweet friend in gradeschool named Dewey, and with initials like DEU, it seems appropriate. Ok.. I guess. :-)

Oh, you meant like do we have a short version of Dominic that we call him? No. We call him Dominic. But some of our friends are saying they are going to call him Dom or Nick. Personally, I'd rather him be called Don or Donny before Dom or Nick, but people are going to call him whatever they are. Some people say it will be hard for him to spell his whole name on his early papers because there are so many letters... and hard with both an m and an n. But I bet he learns it quickly. Or maybe he will just write Don, which is what his great-grandfather was called, after whom he got his name.

(When) Are you going back to work?
Technically, I sort of am doing some work (admittedly not much since my mom and Eddie work on my real estate team and both are picking up the slack and working double duty so I can be with Dominic.) Eddie has taken over my out-with-the-customer roles like open houses and buyer showings, and I have begun to do the things he was doing before... things that can be done in front a computer at home such as setting up our newsletter and other paperwork or vendor interactions. Don't count on me being out with customers until after Christmas, and even then probably not so much that I'm away from Dominic too much.

I've heard from so many parents that these first years are soo precious and soo critical (and soo fleeting) that I'm hoping to be mostly present until Dominic starts school. My mom watched other people's kids, washed other people's windows and laundry, and sold Avon to be able to be with my brother and me during our before-school years, and I know it meant a lot to me. She became a Realtor for a lot of reasons, but one was because she wanted a schedule flexible enough to be there for our bake sales, concerts, games, recitals, and award ceremonies. If I can be half the mom she is, wow... that will be great.

Is he ______ yet?

talking? No words yet but he makes so many different sounds and so often (and carefully studies when the rest of us talk to him) that I bet he will talk early.

getting much 'tummy time'? Any of you who have had a baby probably in the past decade probably have heard this phrase. If your children are older, maybe not. That's because doctors noticed a 40% decline in SIDS (sudden infant death syndrom) deaths when they started instructing parents to make sure their babies sleep on their backs and not on their stomachs, and due to this, a conscious effort must be made to put babies their tummies during waking time to develop their neck and arm muscles and a sense of the-world-from-another-perspective.

That said, Dominic hasn't had much tummy time because he doesn't really like it. Just in the past couple of days, I have decided it's time to make one of those adult decisions and do it anyway even though he cries because it's important for his development. I am already noticing that he cries less each time, so I hope there will be a time when he likes it after all.

rolling over? No sign of this yet.

eating solids? You read above that he is strictly on breastmilk now. Our pediatrician, Dr. Pellman, is recommending to stick with that exclusively until 6 months.

crawling? Actually, in these past couple of days of forced tummy time, during Dominic's ranting and raving, he has managed to scoot himself quite a distance forward.. probably 12 inches in 5 minutes, mainly just by kicking his feet/knees. He still has a long way to go in the upper body department, though, before anyone could call it crawling.

solving quadratic equations? No, not yet~! But we are speaking Spanish to him from time to time, so I hope he is picking some of that up. I plan to put English and Spanish labels on everything soon ("door/puerta") which if it doesn't help him, it will at least help me remember my Spanish vocabulary.. haha!

How IS he?
He's an absolute peach and the love of our lives! Most days, he is really happy, sleeps about half the time and vocalizes and studies the other half. Some days, he fusses and/or sleeps a lot. Yesterday (actually 12/13, since it has taken me 2 days to finish this), he actually cried out in what seemed like pain a few times. Eddie thinks it is bad dreams but I'm hoping it's pain from growing. Nobody wants to think your little baby has anything in his little mind that would give him a bad dream so early in life (if ever, right?)

How is Eddie?
Eddie is the best husband and dad he could be. He reads the books; he changes diapers; he cuddles Dominic and tells him "cariños", which is Spanish for those lovey-dovey little adoring names and conversations you have with someone you love. "Mi corazon, mi cielo... senior cachetes" is an example... that means "my heart, my heaven... mister chubby cheeks". And Eddie takes great care of us. He rubs cream on my feet, brings me a bottle of water, puts up with my feeble attempts at wife-ing, and makes it possible for me to be home.

I hope those of you reading this blog will post comments when you think of them on these posts, and then I can have a new set of FAQ's to answer another day. Thank you again for visiting!

Eureka!!

"I found it"

Uh oh! Looks like Dominic finally figured out that the fist he's been trying to suck on for the past week has some appendages that fit quite nicely in his mouth. Yesterday (December 7 - Pearl Harbor Day - coincidence?) he finally got the thumb, and Daddy and I were afraid he was going to suck it right off his hand! 

The picture at left is dated 12/20, and Dominic is wearing the cutest elf outfit given to him by Auntie Lisa and Uncle Rob Carpentier (ok they are really cousins).  The behind has a trap door that says "B'Jolly"... cuuuute!

Here's some video too. 

Hanging Out in the Park

Monday, 12/3, after making it in to REMAX and back for our company tree-decorating day, Dominic and I decided to take the stroller to the park to finally say hello to the cluster of a dozen or so nannies that gather at lunchtime with a gaggle of kids at the park about 100 yards from our house. The red circle is our house and the red X in the park (when viewed this small looks more like a red blob) is the nanny hangout spot.


We walked near the cluster of nannies and I spread out a blanket on the grass. Some of the nannies looked my way but didn't say hello. Then I took Dominic out of the stroller and put him on the blanket and right away many of the nannies smiled and seemed to warm up a bit. One of them asked me how old he was, and when I said "diez semanas hoy" (ten weeks today), they decided maybe I wasn't so bad after all. Of course, that brought on a flurry of rapid Spanish, which I am not fluent enough to follow at native speed. I learned a couple of names and look forward to seeing them again (and practicing some more Spanish) in the days ahead.

Dominic enjoyed touching grass for the first time.

Here is a picture of Dominic and me on the blanket, and another one of Dominic's view from his vantage point on the blanket. Doesn't he look handsome in his collared shirt (from the tree-decorating party)? Don't I look like I need a little more sleep? Haha.