My Geek Baby

I never thought Indie’s first airplane trip would be out of the country but that’s how it worked out. After talking with a colleague who has taken his small kids on planes we decided to go to…Panama with Kim and her family. Our first airplane trip was really to see Jake’s family over Christmas but an ear infection kept us home. So after getting passports, kid-sized luggage, and finding out the ins and outs of car seats once we arrived, we went for it! And it was SO WORTH IT. For a lot of reasons.

1) It’s fun to travel in a big crazy group.
2) We enjoyed HOT summer weather in February.
3) We overcame our fear of traveling with our toddler on an airplane.

The flight was so early, but that worked out to our benefit because she napped on the plane and later, on a hammock.

I was ready for a few things like not having a crib in the room. We decided to sleep like sardines for the week. One thing I hadn’t anticipated — no bathtubs in two of the places we stayed. So we did a sponge bath/shower combo although she’s kind of afraid of the shower. Eventually I filled the bathroom sink with bubbles and dunked her bottom. One morning when I left the breakfast table to take a shower she announced to everyone that “Mommy was going to put her butt in the bubbles.” It makes sense that a country in a very hot climate people aren’t soaking in the bathtub.

Although kids crave routine, they get bored easily. But I didn’t observe too much of that. We did a new activity each day, so there was always something new to look at. When she got tired, she napped in stroller and slept through a few meals that way. I’m eager to try the different foods in the area where I travel but when traveling with kids, it’s sometimes just worth it to go with what you know. We struggled to order a Happy Meal in Spanish but managed to get some pollo nuggets at Mickey Ds.

But what a beautiful country. We started out at the Gamboa Rainforest Resort and did a few local tours; the Panama Canal, the historic part of the city (with brand new ice cream shop!) and logged many hours in and around the pool. That was key to keeping the kiddos entertained and helped to tire them out.

A few days later we drove to Pedasi and stayed at Casita Margarita. Read the Evoy and Evoy blog for more details.

I didn’t think I’d write about the Pavlik harness Indie wore for several months, but now that her hips are in good shape I think it might be useful for other parents.

On day one in the hospital her pediatrician diagnosed her with hip dysplasia and wanted us to triple diaper her so her hip didn’t come loose from the socket. We were told to get to an orthopedic specialist immediately. I had never heard of this condition except in dogs. My friend’s beautiful white Great Pyranees had this condition and walked on three legs (and quite well, actually).

So I panicked. Does this mean my new daughter won’t crawl, won’t have two legs of the same length, WON”T WALK? Egads. She was barely in this new world and already I was preparing for the worst. (this is very much like me).

Also, I was recovering from a c-section, so going from one hospital in a wheel chair to walking through the halls of a children’s hospital, in jake’s slippers because I was still full of IV fluid and my shoes didn’t fit, foggy from all the pain meds, and terrified that someone might BREATHE near my newborn was enough to send me sailing clear off the edge. Because it’s a children’s hospital I saw clowns walk by the door of the room I was holed-up in away from the germy BREATHERS, but was afraid one might pop his head in and I would have FREAKED and possibly PUNCHED A CLOWN. I’m not a fan of clowns anyway but especially on that day…

But fast-forward to meeting the good doctor who prescribed the Pavlik harness and the orthopedic doc who we visited for many months to see how Indie was improving. Greatly! Yes, it was a hassle because this device had to be worn 23 hours per day and kept her in what I call a “cowboy stance”. Ok fine, she wasn’t crawling yet anyway. And by the time she WAS crawling, the harness was almost a faint memory.

Last week we had a final xray of her hips and they are growing beautifully. She had been walking since 11 months and now at 2 years is quite the runner. Without the harness, she could have grown up fine but may have had very early arthritis in the hips, possibly requiring surgery. Because we kept that thing on day and night and she grew normally, this is not something we need to worry about anymore.

Also, our usually energetic doctor was yawning through our visit. He’d just returned from Haiti and spent a week in surgery after surgery putting people back together. His story REALLY put this whole experience into perspective. Yes, we were freaked out for a few months and had lots of follow up visits, but nothing compares to what’s going on in Haiti. For this whole experience I’m again grateful for the reminder: keep it in perspective…

Indie started calling us “Guys” recently. We’re having dinner and I tell her that the carrots on her plate look deslish. “I know, guys!” she said. What? Guys? We were Mama and Papa for a few months, which morphed into MaPa and sometimes Pommy, now we’re just guys.

Not knowing how quickly she’d pick up language, we started with sign language but by the time we all got the hang of it, she was saying the word “More” when and signaling when she wants more, so there’s no mistaking it. Now we’re in translation phase, and even sometimes I’m not sure what she’s saying.

We were topping dinner with shredded cheese one day and she started calling it “burgers” and we couldn’t figure it out. But last week when she said “I have burgers I need a nakin” I realized that she needed a tissue. Nakin=napkin in our house. Oh! I can only guess that someone at daycare was calling cheese boogers and they probably fell on the floor laughing as kids are prone to do when they think they made a naughty joke.

A friend at work remembered her early elementary school bus days when the kids were daring each other to say bad words and she said, “I know what the F word is!” And they gathered around and she whispered, “Fart” with pride that she knew something they didn’t. But of course, the kids erupted into laughter…at her.

More things Indie is saying:

Finish coffee..
Finish coffee, Mister Papa!
Get off couch.
Dance with me!
That’s Mine!
Come on running.
Tickle Tickle Mommy Sue
(in response to Tickle Tickle Indie Sue)

Words she can’t quite say but sure sounds cute trying:

Coconut sounds like “Cookie Butt”
Cracker sounds like “Quacker”
Flip Flops sound like “Fwip Fwops”

She’s also started addressing us as a single unit, MaPa.

I said in an earlier post that we wouldn’t have a photo montage of the chicken pox girls, but here we are, healing nicely after a few weeks post-pox. Readers wouldn’t stand for it - the lack of blog coverage on this topic. Well here you go.

Ok, one more.

In other health-related news, we went ahead and replaced our baby bottles with BPA-free bottles, made by the same manufacturer. I will say though that these bottles with their weird little straw inserts to help elminate gas bubbles do am amazing job. Indira has barely spit up on us, so I’m glad the company replaced them so quickly. Bisphenol-A has been in the news lately as the FDA is looking into the possible long-term effects of this hormone-like chemical. Some reports say that the chemical could be leached into baby formula that is stored in cans. Other reports stated that the dangerous chemicals are released when the bottle is heated in the microwave, which NO PARENT SHOULD DO, or in boiling water (also a NO NO). Why no microwave? Think about the last time you popped a frozen lasagna in the microwave and when it was “done” cooking, part of it was still frozen and part was burning hot. Same goes for the content inside microwaved bottles. Just use hot water from the tap. Much safer.

According the FDA: “At this time, FDA is not recommending that anyone discontinue using products that contain BPA while we continue our risk assessment process. However, concerned consumers should know that several alternatives to polycarbonate baby bottles exist, including glass baby bottles.”

It’s in question, and I feel better to be safe than sorry.

Here’s a link to the National Toxicology Program looking into this issue.

The Centers for Disease Control released a report last week stating that the rates of breastfeeding are at an all time high. Factors cited include a cultural shift and education as helping to increase the number of breastfeeding mommas. But another blog from the Wall St. Journal took a closer look at longterm breastfeeding numbers. So it looks like the numbers of women trying to breastfeed are up, but the CDC’s goal of 50 percent of babies being breastfeed exclusively by age six months has not been met. It’s closer to 30 percent. One of the reasons cited for not trying breastfeeding at all are the numbers of women who have C-sections, and due to the recovery period, their babies are whisked away and fed formula while in the hospital. I had a c-section but also requested “rooming in” where the baby was kept with me almost every minute, being taken to the nursery only for routine newborn testing. I admit it was a struggle–not to breastfeed, my baby took to it right away–but to stay awake during the early days when sleep was all that I longed for. Also as I said in an earlier post, my milk didn’t come in as quickly as we had hoped and the baby was on the borderline of losing more than the normal amount of weight. So we supplemented with formula by day five and have continued to do so, even though I’m also nursing her most of the time. I want to keep doing it because of the health benefits it provides. The baby is getting antibodies from me that help fight illness and in some cases diseases later in life, like some types cancer, the CDC says. That being said, there are also plenty of people who are healthy who were formula-fed, including me. Admittedly, breastfeeding is hard to get into the swing of in the early days when every atom in your body hurts and breastfeeding is another physically painful experience. But if you can make it past that first week or two, your body will amazingly adapt. I think Indira is doing pretty well. She’s doubled her birth weight and grown several inches already! See for yourself.

It’s for hard for anyone, especially moms to think about how many in the world are not getting enough to eat. Today’s Washington Post published a huge article about the many causes of rising food prices around the world; gas prices, increased export taxes, heat waves, droughts and economic changes that have changed the types of food that people eat. This confluence of factors has many effects, including rice export restrictions. I was surprised to hear on the news that big box stores were limiting the amount of rice that people could buy. Never in my lifetime have I ever heard of such restrictions in the United States . It seems like something my grandmother would have referenced from the Depression. Of course back then people were trying to feed their families by the week, not store up their basements full of items like a bomb shelter.

The Washington Post also lists places where people can go to help others who are hungry. Let’s give up our expensive coffees this week and donate a few dollars. I’m not just preaching here. I donated today to America’s Second Harvest. How to help:

U.N World Food Program helps provide food to Sudan’s Darfur region
www.wfp.org

Or give to a local food pantry in the United States
America’s Second Harvest
http://www.secondharvest.org/

We are experiencing so many firsts and milestones but I didn’t realize they would happening all at once. Two words, readers. Chicken Pox. Yes, we are afflicted with the itchy virus. Apparently I’m the one person who escaped childhood without getting chicken pox. My four older siblings had it before I was born. I missed it. And then a vaccine to prevent it was created, which I didn’t learn about until I was pregnant. Indira and I were slated to get the vaccine soon (for me, once I was done nursing). But we think we may have caught it from someone with shingles (the same virus that causes chicken pox).

So here’s your public service announcement. If you’re not sure you had the chicken pox, get some blood taken at your next doc appt. For the AARP-set reading this blog, there’s also a vaccine for shingles.

No, there’s no photo montage of this…

In an earlier post (Sept. 15) I wrote about Sophie Currier’s struggle to complete her medical final exam due to time constraints — she had to go to court and won more time to pump breast milk during the nine-hour test. A Massachusetts appeals court judge ruled in her favor yesterday.

“Ms. Currier said the ruling was a boon ‘for nursing mothers who are trying to juggle family obligations and further their careers’” a NY Times article reported.

Go Sophie!

Exercise guidelines according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists:

Avoid the following during the second and third trimester:

Basketball
Soccer
In-line Skating
Downhill Skiing
Horseback Riding
Ice Hockey
Gymnastics
Racquet sports

Also out as soon as you find out you’re carrying a mini me:
Scuba Diving

I’m guessing hang gliding is also out for now…