Les & David's Blog: Month One Lessons

Where has the time gone? Amelia is 1-month old now, but it seems like she has been with us for much longer already. In fact, I can't seem to remember Leslie just being pregnant. We've only been at this new crib for 2 months, but the way it looks now, it's like we've been here for years. In reality, the past few weeks have been simply a blur, with diaper changes, feedings, and staying at home watching reruns of Jersey Shore and Inception (which is one of the best movies ever made).

That said, this past month has also been a great period of learning to be parents. Not only is baby growing like a weed, but both Leslie and I are coming into our own as caretakers. Time waits for no one, and babies definitely don't wait for parents to grow up....it's learn as you go, and learn fast you must.

So here's a breakdown of a few things we're learned so far:

1) Feeding
Babies love to eat. They'll eat when they're hungry, tired, or just bored. (Actually, it's not much different than guys.) But Amelia has gotten her internal clock going to wake up every 2-3 hours to get some food. She's even gotten to the point that Les can't carry Amelia without her trying to nurse...she knows her scent and will instinctively go down to get some juice. We tried to experiment with putting the milk on my neck (like cologne) to see if she'll follow me, but test results are inconclusive.

2) Diapers
Another big one is changing diapers. Amelia goes through a diaper every hour or so, and they get so soaked that I wonder if she's blown a gasket somewhere. It's mind-boggling that a tiny thing like her can completely saturate a thick piece of cloth. (Yes, cloth...we're going the green, environmentally-friendly route with cloth diapers instead of disposable ones. They are working out ok so far, but the whole contraption gives Amelia a pretty urban-sized booty).

We've also gotten into this thing called Elimination Communication, or "EC", which is an eloquent term for "pooping in the sink". Basically, when you change the baby's diaper, you take her to the sink, hold her backwards against your chest, and let her release all their glory into the sink while making grunting noises. The theory is that the baby will become used to going doody into the sink, rather than into their diaper. So far, it's actually working, and for the past 3 weeks, she hasn't had a pooped diaper. But I think she just likes to poop into the sink and watch it wash down the drain.

3) Bathtime
Some babies love bathtime; some seem like it's a torture event. We got this nice Fisher Price baby bath that has all these bells and whistles on it; this is a first-class bath compared to what we had as babies. It even has a lifted wash area to keep the baby out of the dirty water...how thoughtful! Look at the picture, it even has little toys and looks so nonthreatening. Aww!

What we saw:

What she saw:

Suffice to say, that was the first and last time we used that pad.

Fortunately, now she actually likes bathtime. She likes to sit back in the baby tub and let us soap and wash her down in the warm water. This may be a problem when she gets older as only luxury spa's will do that for you.

4) Dress-up Time
I think baby clothes are basically a super-profitable racket that caters to a parent's subconscious obsession to dress their baby in a bunch of cute outfits as much as possible before they quickly outgrow them....and take an obscene amount of pictures to post on Facebook as much as humanly possible. Guilty as charged.

We're come to a point where Amelia is growing so fast now, we have about a period of about 1-2 weeks before she outgrows them. In fact, a lot of the baby clothes we have are from my sister, where most were still brand new since her baby outgrew them before she could even take off the tags.

So, sorry Amelia. You will be cursed with multitudes of embarrassing photos of you in various cat, bear, bunny outfits as a baby, and will find most of them online somewhere on the internet for the next 50+ years. Good luck running for political office.

5) Doctor visits
There probably isn't one thing more traumatic for a baby than a visit to the doctors. Nothing can change their mood from pure joy and happiness to utter anger and more anger in a split second.

Before doctor visit: