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!