Happy Thanksgiving!

Hopefully everyone had a great thanksgiving and was loaded down with turkey and trimmings. This was a very eventful thanksgiving for us. Despite this being the first year for us to house the family dinner (30+ people) our daughter had a fun time with a case of the runs. Poor thing was miserable but was such a trooper through the whole thing. She started to get it Tuesday and it lasted through today (hopefully). The roughest part for us was that we just recently upgraded her from size 2 diapers to size 3. So, even though she fits the size 3 diapers she was leaking quite a bit through them. Many diapers, change of clothes, and laundry loads later she recovered.

The most interesting thing about her having this bad case of the bowels was that her attitude didn't change drastically. She would have some crabby moments but for the most part she was still a playful and hungry infant. Most of our discoveries of her ruined clothes was while she was playing amungst her toys. Which this meant that toys needed to be disinfected too.

All in all it made for a fun week of running smelly clothes to the laundry but I did happen to learn a few things and I'll share them.

First, always keep a bottle of shout or something to treat the stains near the changing table. This alone saved all of her clothes from being ruined for good.

Don't sweat having to do loads and loads of laundry. As much as it was a bummer to do a miniature load like that it also saved her outfits from stains and smells.

Diaper genie, Diaper genie. This thing is a miracle. It saved the house from smelling like a restroom stall. If you don't have one of these get one! They're a life saver!

Hopefully she is through this and we will go back to our old routine of less diapers and less frequent laundry runs.

See you all next time!

How much should a 9 month old baby sleep?

Now that my little one is 9 months old I did some research to see if she was in the norm for her age and her sleep patterns.

Typically we put her to bed at around nine o'clock everynight and she typically will sleep till 9 the next morning if we don't wake her. Since me and my wife work through the week we wake her up around seven in the morning. So, a typical evening sleep routine is 10 hours.

Her naps are a little different and depends alot on her mood, appetite, and surroundings. In an ideal setting she'll have two to three naps a day averaging about an hour to an hour and a half a piece. There are some days that she sleeps longer and others where she gets in little power naps.

With knowing her pattern I did some research and found that the typical 9-12 month old should be sleeping anywhere between 10-14 hours at night. Also, they should be having at least 2 naps a day averaging an hour or more. The biggest hurdle that most parents have (especially those who breast feed) is night time feedings. There are some techniques that one can use to help wean your little one off of the bottle or breast at night. I'll cover these in a future article.

Also, from personal experience you have to balance keeping a calm atmosphere that is conducive to your baby sleeping and not putting too large a damper on your daily activities. When she was a newborn we always walked on egg shells around the house. It made for some very painful naps when the slightest noise happened. At the guidance of my wife we made the commitment to slowly re-conform to our older day time habits while getting her to sleep. At first we had to do the 'no-no' things like letting her sleep on us or using a bottle to put her to sleep. As we weaned her off these things she's grown into a pretty heavy sleeper. A perfect case in point happened in september. We took her to the county fair and she slept through the whole demolition derby! So don't let anyone tell you that your baby has to sleep in perfect silence!

I hope you found this helpful. If you wish for me to elaborate on anything by all means let me know!

Little Miss Independant

Good afternoon on this fine november day! I thought I'd do a small blip on something I've learned as a father of a little girl. As she has grown I've noticed that she tends to change moods ALOT! (shes a female right? *GRIN*) What really made me realize how she can be was this morning. Typically she likes to be on her own. Playing on the floor doing her own thing. Then other times you can't set her down. Today she was all that rolled into one. As a beginning father I used to find this so frustrating but as time has gone on I've learned a way to deal with it.

You have to understand as a father or even a parent that you have to expect that you will get little time to do the things you want to do. It sucks but accept it. Once I moved on from the fact that I couldn't play on the computer or do the fun things I like to do it became so less frustrating. Its a small piece of advice but believe me you'll get alot of mileage out of this.

Well she's waking from her nap so I must head out for now. Till next time...

LeapFrog Learn & Groove Alphabet Drum Review

Here is another priceless toy for my little one. We actually got this as a hand-me-down from my wife's sister. My niece is about a year and a half older than our little one so it works out tremendously with toys and clothes. When she first gave this toy to us she was only a few months old so it sat around not getting much attention for awhile. Once she was looking at things and noticing the different colors we introduced this and we would tap it so she could see the colors.

Now that she is older and more active she pounds on everything (coffee tables, dogs, daddy's head). So this is a huge blessing because it gives her an outlet for the physical beatings *grin*. Also, me and the wife are HUGE leapfrog fans. I almost would recommend about all their toys but that is another post. The sensitivity is really good. It is pretty stable and doesn't roll around too much. The only drawback for us has been that it can be loud at times. However we usually break it out when we are doing baby-family playtime. I recommend the Learn & Groove for all active babies.

The great thing about this toy is that you can change it to music, alphabet, & dance along. The toy only takes about 3 AA batteries and they do last awhile. This definately is a go & get for your little one. My niece played with this up until she gave it to us as a gift so this has some lasting toy appeal.