Moving up

Now that CJ is here, our condo has really become too small. With the added baby gear in the living room and dining area, such as the swing, playpen, and the stroller, there is hardly any room to walk around, let alone invite others to see CJ! So, we decided to upgrade to a 4 bedroom house.

We spent a couple weeks surfing the internet and one Sunday looking at homes in San Ramon, Pleasanton, and Dublin. Jeff's coworker who lives in San Ramon mentioned that her neighbor was selling her house, which happened to fit our criteria for a house: 4 bedroom, updated kitchen and bathrooms, over 1800 sq. ft, large backyard. We ended up falling in love with that house the moment we saw it, but then found out an offer was already made on the house. We were so bummed but thought that it probably wasn't meant to be. Then Jeff's coworker mentioned that the offer didn't go through so we called our realtor to see what the news was. She told us that the first offer didn't fall through and another offer was also made by an investor. Fortunately, the sellers wanted to be sure that they sold the home to people who would appreciate and take care of the home so the investor's offer was not accepted. Boy were we ecstatic...so we made an offer on it, and even submitted our Sears family portrait to our realtor so the sellers could see who they were selling to! And what do you know, they accepted it so soon we'll be homeowners and CJ and Sammy will have a yard to play in! I guess it was meant to be!

Happy Easter!

Jeff and I took CJ to Sears Portrait Studio to take his first studio pics, as well as a family portrait. It was fun and the pics came out great! Too bad CJ got a little fussy, or we would have taken more! Check them out by clicking on the link to the left. Happy Easter everyone!

Who does CJ look like?

Most people have stated that CJ looks like his Daddy. Very few say he looks like me. So, for fun, I decided to dig for mine and Jeff's baby pics.
Does CJ look like his Mommy (top pic) or Daddy (bottom pic) as babies?

Finding Childcare

One of the worst fears a parent has is that their child is not getting the appropriate care in someone else's hands, particularly one they hardly know. I had to go back to work in another month, so it was time to start searching for that someone we can trust to watch CJ.

Jeff and I toured three different places: a daycare center and 2 home daycares. The daycare center, Kindercare, was very clean and seemed well organized, but we really didn't want to pay $387/wk, not to mention they had a wait list. We met with Ting Ting, who runs a home daycare exclusively for infants right by our house. The advantage of that place was that she would speak Mandarin to CJ so that he can learn another language that his Mommy could understand, however the disadvantage was that Jeff may not be able to communicate well with Ting Ting as she spoke minimal english. Lastly, we met with Natalie and her assistant Kim, who run a daycare inside Natalie's home in the westside of Dublin. We were greeted by many toddler boys who seemed very welcoming, social, and happy, so we both saw that as a good sign. The kids seemed to play well together, and Natalie and Kim interacted with each of them and gave them the appropriate amount of attention, but still letting them play and be kids. That seemed to be the perfect environment for a child to grow, as all I really wanted for CJ is to be happy.

So we hired Natalie and Kim! Jeff and I are so relieved that we found people we can trust to watch CJ!

Routines and Bedtime Issues

Now that CJ is about 3 months old and a month shy of going to daycare, I decided that I needed to give CJ more structure and also deal with some of his attachment and feeding "issues". Here were the four things I wanted to do:

1) Start CJ on a daily routine, particularly for naps and bedtime
2) Get CJ to fall asleep on his own instead of in our arms or while nursing
3) Get CJ used to sleeping in his crib
4) Work with CJ so he doesn't continue to be a "snacker"

Up til this point, I was reacting to his cues...he could eat and sleep when he wanted to. Unfortunately he never liked to be put down and always wanted to be in the comfort of someone's arms. This caused us to never use the crib...instead he slept in our bed at night and during the day he was either in our arms or in the swing (he also liked motion). On top of that, he would only fall asleep at night by nursing...the pacifier used to work but now all he wanted was the comfort of Mommy's breast to put him to sleep. All I could think of was how he may be problematic for someone else to take care of him!

I thought in order to start on this I needed some help so I went to our local library and picked up a couple of books. I decided to try the Baby Whisperer's E.A.S.Y. routine method: Eat, Activity, Sleep and Yourself (time for yourself while baby sleeps) as I thought that it would tackle all four tasks. Instead of allowing him to fall asleep on the breast (which was causing him to be a snacker), he was kept awake for a little while and then put to sleep on the crib by some other means besides nursing. I tried for 1 day and it was one hard day. Putting CJ to sleep by soothing him and not feeding him just didn't work, particularly because I was putting him down in his crib, which he was not used to. I even let him "cry-it-out" meaning I wouldn't go to him too soon and let him eventually fall asleep by being so tired crying. What mother could be so insensitive to let their baby fall asleep upset! After a few minutes of crying and seeing CJ's tears roll down his face, I just had to pick him up and say I'm sorry. So....back to the drawing board I go.

Who would have thought that babies have sleeping and feeding issues when that's all they do all day? Whomever came up with the expression "I slept like a baby" probably didn't ever take care of one.