Paul & Jenn's Adventures

Photo by: healingdream When it was time for me to go back to work, Micah was 4 months old and I wanted him to be safe and well cared for. After all, daycare is comforting since they are usually licensed, and many eyes are watching. But I didn't like the 4-1 baby to caretaker ratio that applies for all babies under 18 months old. Since I was going to work part-time, we decided that hiring a nanny was the best option for us. But how to find someone we trust? Having someone work in home can be a bit intimidating to say the least. Will she be honest and trustworthy? Will she treat my child like her own? Will she be experienced enough to make the right judgement calls? Fortunately, we had fantastic experiences with the nannies we've worked with. Here are the steps we took to identify and build relationships with our awesome nannies: Use a site like Sittercity or Care.com to browse nanny profiles. Sign up and contact nannies you are interested in, about 1 month before you ne...

Ever wish there were training classes on how to be parents? How about take classes, get a degree, and then getting to know everything there is to know on how to be perfect a parent? If only that were true... While no class can possibly prepare you for every situation, having some basic framework and skills sure help! Our good friends recommended some fantastic parenting material that's a joy to go through. We will share them here with you! Keep in mind, we are still working through these so we will be coming back with updates often. Also, we would be interested to hear about your reactions to the material and any recommendations you'd like to share. So please leave comments! The Village Church Parenting Class - The series is divided up to 6 one hour sections, and taught by Jeff and Jennifer Wilkin of The Village Church in Texas. The class is based on the Christian faith, but you don't have to be Christian to appreciate the learning points. Applicable to children ages 9...

Micah's First Month Book During Micah's first month, we took lots of pictures of him, sleeping, yawning, on his tummy... you name it. Soon we had more pictures than we knew what to do with. Then came the idea of making a book using these pictures that's similar to a story book! We thought it would be fun for us to keep and to show it to him when he gets older; it turned out that it's a hit with the grandparents too! Click here to preview the book! We had a good experience with using Blurb for our wedding guest book (filled with our engagement pictures), we also made a book of pictures from our wedding day . Now I need to disclose upfront that we are an Blurb affiliate, and that we did receive a free book as part of a promotion. But honestly, even there wasn't a free book offer, we would have used Blurb to create our book anyway. Keep reading to find out how you can win a FREE Blurb book ($75 value)!

We are all for using cloth diapers, economically and sustainability wise, it just works out. But there are times when disposables come in real handy. For long trips and overnight, we use disposable because it's easy and absorbent. I know some folks use cloth exclusively, but I just didn't feel like lugging around dirty cloth diapers! Cloth works really well for us at home, but when we are out for 3-4 hours at a time, it can be hard to find a place to change the baby. Since disposables are more absorbent, baby is ok not being changed for a bit longer than if he had cloth. Now we've tried lots of brands of disposable diapers including Pampers, Huggies, Seventh Generation, the best one we found and settled on is Nature Babycare by Naty. Micah has never had diaper rash in these diapers and rarely has blow-outs. Since Micah reached 4 months old, we started not changing him in the middle of the night. He now lasts from 11pm to 7am in one diaper without any problems. Yay for sl...

Today Micah and I went on a spontaneous trip to visit a friend from church at St. Mary's hospital. We also stopped by the Childbirth Center there to say hi to the nurses and deliver a birth announcement card. I guess the announcement part was totally unnecessary since they were the first ones to find out, but I think they appreciate getting the card anyway. The nurses who helped us give birth were not there when we visited, but the other folks were delighted to see the now grown up (5 months!) Micah and will pass the card on. The visit led me to remember our birth experience and how lucky we were to have found such supportive hospital staff who were sensitive to our needs.  Everyday, there are thousands of babies and moms who are not treated with evidence based care in this country. (Check out the movie section of this blog for a trailer of The Business of Being Born.) One way to make your wishes known is by writing a birth plan such as the one below. It's not so much a ...

Debra is a fantastic physical therapist specializing in pregnancy and postpartum fitness in the Capital Region. I had the pleasure of taking her prenatal exercise class when I was pregnant with Micah. Besides learning great exercises and feeling relaxed after each class, I also made great connections with other women in the class. I started to get sciatica in one hip starting at about 20 weeks pregnant, and after one private session with Debra, the pain nearly disappeared instantly. I've been recommending her class to all my pregnant friends ever since. In this interview Debra shares a bit about her own motherhood experience and offers practical tips for all expecting and postpartum moms. Enjoy! How did you get interested in physical therapy and decide to pursue it as a career? Growing up I was a dancer, so I was always interested in exercise and how the body worked.  Originally, when I went to PT school, my goal was to work with professional dancers.  After graduation, ...

Moms are no doubt amazing at taking on the main role of child-rearing in most families. Our bodies change to accommodate the growing child, produce milk after the child is born, and survive on minimal hours of sleep. And dads just donate the sperm and are done with it? However, after millions of years of evolution, dads are still around, and for good reasons beyond just the sperm. Let's give credit where credit is due. Ladies, remember these reasons next time the toilet seat is left up and appreciate all the things dads do that are often taken for granted! Mowing and watering the lawn, weed-wacking action, trimming bushes and any renegade plant-life in the yards. Squishing or evacuating spiders, ants, mosquitos, and any unwelcome guests Taking out the trash and compost material Doing odd jobs around the house like fixing a leaky faucet, painting a wall, or installing a 3-way light switch Playing with the baby so mom can take a nap or take a shower Fixing the computer when th...

This is the last part of my birth story, but really it's the beginning of the story of our life with our baby. It took me a while to finish this post because I feel like is not coming to an end yet and it has already been almost 5 months after Micah was born! It's still hard to believe that we have a baby on our hands now, although it seems like we've had him forever. Becoming a mom has been an incredibly transforming experience. Although I never felt I was missing anything, after Micah was born, I feel a new completeness and contentment that I never knew I could have. Holding him in my arms, even though he's heavy at times, truly makes me feel that it was all worth it, and excited at the same time at what the future holds. Now let me flashback to the Saturday night in March right after Micah's birth. Having Milk When Micah was born, he was slippery and wet, warm and cuddly, and vivacious! The first night he slept a lot which allowed us to get rested too. We bre...

While breastfeeding is natural, free, and so easy once mom and baby gets the hang of it, the first few weeks can be extremely frustrating for new moms. I read the books and even went to a breastfeeding class so I thought I was prepared. Boy, was I in for a surprise! A wise mom once told me, if you can breastfeed for 2 weeks, you can breastfeed for 2 years. I think its absolutely true, the first couple weeks were really rough. Although moms and babies are naturally equipped with everything they need to successfully breastfeed, these few items that really helped me cope during those early days and beyond. 1. Medela Hand Pump After my milk came in a couple days after birth, my boobs were so engorged I thought they were going to explode. My doula told me that it wouldn't be helpful to pump because pumping would increase my milk supply and make me even more engorged. She recommended cold compresses between feedings to help calm the engorgement and hot compresses right before and duri...

Since we've had Micah, I've gotten a good work out everyday from holding and carrying him. He gained about a pound a week in the first two months, so each day was a new challenge. I would wake up with sore arms, chest, back, and even my finger tips hurt. I knew I wanted to use some kind of baby carrier even before Micah was born, but we hadn't bought anything since he was 3 weeks early. We heard great things about the ERGO Carrier , but we hadn't bought the Ergo by the time he was 2 months old because we thought he was still too small and not enough head control. We did get a Maya wrap ring sling which came with a DVD that shows different ways to use it. The videos made it look so easy, but but it was a lot harder when came to using it myself. It wasn't until I went to a Capital Region Slingbabies meeting that I learned I should put the wrap through the laundry a few times to make the fabric more slippery, therefore easier to adjust. I tried a bunch of differen...

When I was a baby, my parents used cloth diapers for me because that was all we had at the time in China. It was laborious to hand wash, hang dry, and fold. Nowadays, it's the norm to use disposables here in the US as well as cities in China. With the convenience, also comes a significant strain on the environment. We throw away about 18 billion diapers per year, and it's the single most common consumer item found in landfills. The environmental proposition for cloth diapering is a strong one, but I will save that topic for a future post. Today I will compare for you cloth diapering to disposable diapers from a purely economic perspective for the average family. Does it really save money to use cloth? Let's look at a few case studies. Disposables diapers: Cost $1387.00 for 2 years Newborn Pampers 30% off from Amazon Mom + Subscribe and Save: $0.19 per diaper Assume 10 diapers per day $0.19 per diaper X 10 diapers per day = $1.90 per day $1.90 per day X 365 per year =...

I first starting shopping at Amazon.com in college getting deals on textbooks online. Who would have thought that I would be ordering everything from diapers and wipes, to DVD player and organic pesticide. I love the Amazon Mom program, it's truly amazing.

1. Eco Straw Cup It was always a challenge for me to to remember to stay hydrated even before I was pregnant. And since staying hydrated is the number one reason for pre-term labor , it was even more important for me to stay on top of my water in-take. It took effort to remember to drink water periodically during the hussle and bussle of the work day, and it was a pain to carry around a heavy water bottle everywhere I go. This double-wall insulated cup keep my water cool and looks cool too. The best part is that I can take little sips without having to unscrew a lid and lift up the bottle to my mouth to take a gulp. I know it sounds really lazy, but I was amazed at how much more water I was drinking without even trying with this cup. I also like to flavor my water with a fresh slice of lemon. With this cup, I didn't have to worry about it clunking on my face if I had used a stainless steel bottle instead.

Jenn: My water broke early with no contractions at 6am on Thursday March 3rd. I woke up and found the bed under me was wet, and felt like I was peeing, but couldn't control it. It wasn't a big gush or anything dramatic, just a slow trickle. The first thing we did was to call our doula, who was getting ready to attend an all-day seminar on breastfeeding. She had told us earlier that this was the only week that she would not be available during the day time. She wanted to stop by with her amniotic fluid test kit to confirm if it's in fact my water that had broken, but as she got on her way, she quickly realized that there's no way she would be able to make it to our house, and then to Albany with rush hour traffic and get to her class on time. She did mention that amniotic fluid should be basic, so we applied our chemistry skills. I had these big pads under me in bed by now, and once in a while, there would be a bit of fluid leaking out making a little puddle. We used ou...

Jenn: Our birth story really started with our pregnancy story. Like most of my girlfriends as I was growing up, I was terrified of giving birth. The thought of having a baby was almost subconsciously taboo from all the abstinence education from school, then soon I was married and it seemed like everyone around us was suddenly having babies. It seemed unreal that it was now "OK" to be pregnant, and even somewhat enviable. I found out I was pregnant 3 days before I was leaving for a business trip to China in July of 2010. Paul: We had just gotten our brand new Simmons World Class king size mattress from mattress.com on June 16, and I am pretty sure it was the sperms from those first few nights that did the trick.  By July 17 (week 4), Jenn started to have regular night time wakings to pee.  Another week passed and Jenn started to have an extremely heightened sense of smell.  I used to smell things before she does, but now she can detect smells that even I didn't notice. ...

1. It's Free! Formula feeding can cost between $1500 to $2000 in baby's first year. We do spend a bit more on food bills because I need more calories and nutrients to breastfeed, but pretty much negligible since I'm eating about the same diet as when I was pregnant. 2. It's Always Ready No need to measure out formula or warm bottles. When baby needs food, the breast is always available as long as I'm home. If I know I'm going to be out, I pump some milk ahead of time. I also keep a store of frozen breast milk just in case as well. When baby travels with me, I don't have to worry about bringing bottles and formula. I can't help but bring my breasts and milk with me where-ever we go and it's always at the right temperature too.

1. Play-yard with changing station We got our play-yard ( Graco pack 'n play ) used from a co-worker for $15, and we are so glad we did. It came with a change station attachment and little compartments for holding diapers, diaper rash cream, nail clippers, and a built in compartment for wipes. Some parents use the play-yard as a bed for the baby, and we probably eventually will too, but for the first month, we used the "bed" area to store everything from extra clothes, diapers, burp cloths, cloth diapers, etc. The play-yard is a great investment since when the baby gets older, he can use it as a crib and a play pen. It's also collapsible and semi-easily movable from room to room. Graco is the preferred brand for play-yards, and it can last easily up to a few years! Many parents tell me that it's worth it even if you buy new.

Micah is so brave! Yesterday, he got two shots, one in each leg, at 11am. He cried of course with each shot, (one was Dtap and the other was Hepatitis B) but he was better after nursing a bit in the doctor's office. Both he and I took a nap after coming home and I asked Paul to get infant Tylenol as the Doctor recommended. It's interesting though that apparently it's hard to find infant Tylenol now (does anyone know why?), so he got the generic verion instead, which should work the same though. It was $8 (!) kind of expensive for a small bottle. Paul also found that the closest CVS closed down due to renovation, so he had to go to a different one.

Our baby boy was born on March 5th, 2011 at St. Mary's hospital in Troy, NY. He was 6 lbs. 6 oz. at birth, and 18.5 inches long. See link below for pictures from his first month. He is 2 months old now, and almost 14 lbs.! So far he has been gaining about 1 lb per week, which is faster than average (they say 1/2 oz. to 1 oz. per day is average). His weight is between 75 and 90th percentile for his age now. Tomorrow we will go to his 2 month pediatrician check up, and we will get some more official numbers. He is also getting his 2 months vaccines, which are DTap and Hep B, the Doc says he might need infant Tylenol, so we are a bit nervous about that. The book my Mom is reading says that he will have reaction after 12 hours, and it will last about 24 hours. We will see how he does.