Category Archives: Parenting

Our Nightly Routine and I’m Inventing a Water Swaddle

03/05/2014 R.C. Liley 9 Comments

Since the main purpose of this blog is capture the journey of raising Avery, I want to lay out our current nightly routine. Avery is 3 1/2 months old now, and I’m sure this routine won’t last, so it will be fun to look back and read one day.

Kelley (Going Mom) usually gets home around 5-6pm with her bag of breast milk bottles she pumped and eager to see her daughter. Depending how the day went for Avery and me, she might still be asleep in her crib, asleep with me in a chair, asleep in the baby carrier (attached to me), screaming anywhere around the house, or just keeping calm and hanging out with dad. Most of the time, it’s one of the sleep options, but you never know.

There will be a fruit and veggie smoothie I made waiting for Kelley to have to hold her over until dinner. I usually unpack her lunch bag and pack the next day’s lunch that I prepared her ready to take in the morning. The main goal is to take most of the load off of Kelley so she can spend some quality time with Avery. Kelley will get into comfortable clothes and wash her face while I ~~hide in a corner~~ attempt to entertain Avery.

Entertaining Avery at this age means making click noises and weird facial expressions or showing her cards with animals. We also put her in her Baby Einstein jumper, but that only lasts ten minutes at the most. If we have the time, Kelley and I will talk about the day while playing with Avery. If short on time, Kelley will hold her while I cook Kelley’s dinner which right now is some form of a Grilled Goat Cheese Sandwich and salad or tomato soup.

I normally have a salad with a lot of steamed veggies and egg whites, salmon, or chicken that I’ve prepared earlier in the day and ready to eat later. Most of my daily food intake is at night and had been for years now. It works thus far and I love being able to sit down and enjoy my big meal at night. Of course, Avery might have other plans, but it’s not too frequent, yet…….

Kelley will then hand Avery over as I serve her dinner. It’s close to bath and bed time at this point, and we’re usually searching for anything to keep Avery from being fussy. Right now, the almighty vacuum saves the night! While Kelley eats, I will strap Avery in our carrier and proceed to vacuum the house. With our dog, Abby, always rolling in the grass and tracking it in and me making a mess in the kitchen, a daily vacuum never hurts. Once done, I will find things to put up or just have Avery stand on my stomach and lift her up and down. Doing this is good for at least one smile and is most certainly worth it!

Once Kelley is finished, it’s time for the bath! Kelley gets the water ready and I get Avery ready. Every time I lay Avery on the changing table, she will eek out at least one more smile as she gets undressed; never fails. I carry over to the tub once ready and lay her in the baby bath chair. At this point, she usually pees and Kelley will have to drain and re-fill the bath. But we are happy to do so because Avery simply loves being in the bath and has yet to really cry when in the tub.

Just tonight, Kelley made the observation that we’ve been taking longer with each bath lately just because she’s happy. Every time we take Avery out of the tub, she’s a screaming mess the rest of the time! So really, we are more than happy to prolong the nightly bath however we can. We’ll typically just splash her with water for a few minutes after everything is done and she cares not one bit.

Which bring me to the water swaddle. Yep, I want to invent one. Since letting a baby sleep in the tub is frowned upon, and we can’t just sit and splash Avery all night, there must be an alternative. All you need is to take something like this water blanket I found via Google search and transform it into a swaddle of some sort.

Maybe the Woobmie would be a good design template where water could flow throughout while the baby is snuggly zipped in the middle. It could be called the Water Woombie (patent pending*)! Hell, I’d kinda like that for myself, but with freedom to move my arms though…

Would it be safe? Nope. And that’s why I really won’t invent the Water Woombie, but it’s a fun thought. Seriously, our muscles tighten in fear every time I lift Avery out of the tub to be dried off.

Back to the routine. Kelley will rub coconut oil all over our screaming baby and put a new cloth diaper (yes, we do cloth diapering and love it!) on for the night. Once she’s dressed, I’ll swaddle Avery using a cloth strip to hold down her arms and then her Woombie. Keeping those arms from going to her face has been the key to a longer, better sleep; for all of us.

From there, Kelley will feed Avery one last time and rock her to sleep. Kelley usually falls asleep for a couple hours herself. With my freedom, I finally take a shower for the day and sit down with my salad and protein smoothie I made earlier. After that, I enjoy low fat cottage cheese and a lot of plain, non-fat Greek yogurt with frozen blueberries. Peanut butter is usually involved too. Great way to end the day.

I’m not sure how long we’ll keep this routine, but for now, it mostly works and we’ll keep at it as long as possible.

*Patent not really pending

Do you have a certain routine to get your kiddos to bed?
Do your kids love or hate the bath?

Parenting

Our Bear Came Out of Hibernation

03/03/2014 R.C. Liley 5 Comments

Thanks to the below freezing cold here in Texas, we had to bring out the bear for our walk today. I don’t have a problem with the bear, just the reason we have to bring it out.

I love putting Avery in this thing, I just want to pick her up and hug her tight (but enough to breathe) forever! Just look….

She didn’t mind being stuffed in her bear suit and the Baby Bjorn (really need a better carrier and can’t decide on the Ergo, Boba, or Onya) with my winter jacket zipped over her, she just chewed on my coat for a while and finally fell asleep. I find it hard to stop walking if she’s still sleeping, so after a quick pee break at the house, I journeyed back outside to “bear” the weather. See what I did there? Ha.

Seriously, no more pictures... — Seriously, no more pictures…

Today was going pretty well until later in the afternoon when Avery started having bad gas and screaming fits. I know it was gas since she was busting out burps and farts that put me to shame! I feel it has to do with how she takes the bottle sometimes and I’m trying to make sure she gets as little air gulped in as possible. But with a squirmy baby, this is not an easy task.

After nap time in her crib was disrupted, I ended up holding her in the rocking chair until she fell asleep again. She was in and out along with the audible gas passing through our poor baby, but at least she got a little more rest.

Once Kelley got home, she took her and was able to feed her the good stuff sans bottle, which helped with the gas problem. I also gave her some Tummy Calm which I’m not sure if it helps or not, but it doesn’t make things worse.

So, I guess Monday’s can suck for the At-Home crew just as much as the working force! It’s Monday night as I write this and we’re hoping for a peaceful, gas-free night. Crossing fingers!

Have you ever used Tummy Calm or another homeopathic for your baby?
How’s the weather in your area? Do you like it hot or cold? I’m a heat lover way more than a cold lover; let me sweat!

Parenting

Ninja Turtle Puzzles at G-ma’s

03/02/2014 R.C. Liley 5 Comments

If weather here could talk, it would’ve said “Screw you, suckers!” this weekend. Saturday’s high was in the low 80’s and beautiful for our drive down to G-ma’s. Then, the very next day and we’re in the single digits! Thank you, Texas weather, for teasing us with 2 wonderful days of gorgeous weather and then WHAM!, we’re slipping on ice as we step outside.

Weather aside, we had a pretty good visit at G-ma’s. Avery wasn’t quite the outstanding baby I asked for in our conversation the day before, but she did flash us some smiles and let G-ma hold and feed her.

The only time Avery visited G-ma’s house was at 5 weeks old. Now that she’s 15 weeks old and aware of her surroundings, we think she was a little overwhelmed and got upset as night came around. One minute Avery was enjoying her time with Kelley and my mom (G-ma), and the next minute she bursts into crying.

Avery showing her Liley lip curl with G-ma

Of course, we never really know what makes a baby burst into the cutest yet nerve racking ball of tears, but we do our best to act like we do. We’ll say “Oh, it’s just colic.”, or “She probably has a dirty diaper.” Or maybe it’s because we missed a spot while dusting the mantle! Hell, babies just cry sometimes because that’s what they do. Yes, it sucks, and yes, I also try and make my own diagnosis for screaming baby syndrome.

Kelley and Avery chillin at G-ma's — Kelley and Avery chillin at G-ma’s

Although, Avery’s outburst was something abnormal for her at that time, so it just seems fitting to say it was from being a different environment. She carried on for a good hour as we passed her around like a hot potato trying different “techniques” (i.e. the same damn thing we all do with a crying baby, make weird sounds in her face and offer a boob or bottle while sniffing her diaper), until Kelley was finally able to soothe her to sleep. Oh yes, miracle boob strikes again!

Since Avery was sleeping in the room next to the living room, we kept the T.V. off for a while to make sure she was in a deep sleep.

Crap! What do we do with no T.V., you ask? What any normal group of adults would do….. We had drinks and put together 3 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) puzzles, of course!

Drinking and cartoon puzzles is where it's at! — Drinking and cartoon puzzles is where it’s at!

Growing up, I was a huge TMNT fan like most boys around that time. I remember my mom bringing me to Toys R’ Us if I had a good report card to let me pick out a TMNT toy. Lately, since we had Avery, I’ve been turning back into a kid again and have been hoping my TMNT toys were stowed away somewhere at my mom’s. I was determined to find something from my past when we visited.

Not long after we arrived, I was on the hunt for my childhood toys. After rummaging through the house and attic, I only came up with 3 Ninja Turtle Puzzles covered in dust. It was apparent that the original owner (me) didn’t do a good job at putting the right pieces back in the box, so we made a night of putting the puzzles together.

As I’ve mentioned in a past post, puzzles mean a lot to Kelley and me, and I thoroughly enjoyed the evening with her and my mom as we worked on these together.

We eventually retired into the living room and Avery slept better than expected through most of the night. We woke up in a seemingly different state with freezing rain and blistering winds so coffee was a given before we were going to do anything else. After a cup of coffee (three for me), we visited a little longer while Avery had a Cliff’s Notes version of her usual morning nap, and then we trekked our way back home in the cold.

Overall, we had a pleasant visit with my mom and hopefully next time Avery will be familiar with her surroundings and not transform into a ~~wicked terror~~ cute little crying baby. But if she does, I’m sure it will just be because she’s colicky….. 🙂