Hygene for Infants

Fun with the Moby Wrap

Ashley has really enjoyed carrying Kendra around in our new Moby wrap. It must seem just like a womb because Kendra goes immediately to sleep any time we put her in it. And apparently it's just as comfortable as can be


It's so cute peering in through the cracks in the cloth to see her sleeping peacefully, and it created an opportunity for us to solve one of the big problems Kendra has been having: face scratching. It turns out that baby fingernails are very sharp and Kendra tends to scratch her face quite enthusiastically when nursing and at other times. Bad girl. We have the cutest little fingernail clippers.

I was really close to finding the clippings and saving them for her book of remembrance, but then I remembered that Ashley has issues even with saving first haircuts. The clippings were pretty microscopic anyway.

The Trials of Burping

Kendra sometimes takes her time at it, but overall she's a good little eater. However, every time she eats, she must also be burped. Ashley is very patient with burping, and can do it for a very long time. I tend to get frustrated with it. I can understand taking a long time to lull a child into sleep, and I understand the need for a short burping session, but how about taking a long time to burp a child and resulting only in her going to sleep?

Ashley thinks I'm impatient with the burping, but if she falls asleep on me, I am inclined to put her to bed. She wakes up in a while because of the gas in her stomach, and then is much more burpable.

It turns out that a large proportion of the times that Kenda has woken up in the night, she just needs a little burp. Since she is highly resistant to burping after meals, this was something that was actually pretty hard to figure out. For the longest time we thought she was just hungry or perhaps had acid reflux. Nope, just a bit burpy.


Baby-Calming, a Relaxing Past Time all can Enjoy

While I may not have the fortitude for marathon burp sessions, I do enjoy calming Kendra through more conventional techniques, and interacting with her as she coos herself to sleep

We both do, actually

Although sometimes it's not quite clear who is soothing who to sleep


First Bath

Today we gave Kendra her official first bath. We learned quickly that if the water it too cold, she really doesn't like it.


Luckily it doesn't take long to warm the water in our little bathtub


Umbilical Cord

You may notice in these bath pictures that her umbilical cord has come off. Well, more like it got pulled off when it accidentally snagged mommy's clothing. It was a very traumatizing experience for everyone except Kendra. We've been hating on that ugly, scratchy umbilical cord for some time, but when it came off in that manner the skin underneath bled just a little and Ashley and I spent some time weeping and wailing and gnashing our teeth. From what I can tell, though, Kendra didn't even know it happened and hasn't cared a snoot. That was the only patch of un-cuteness on her and now she's just adorable. And apparently this is the right time for umbilical cords to fall off anyway, but it was still a bit frightening for mommy and daddy.

Our Week

This Tuesday we will hit two weeks with Kendra. These last couple of weeks have been just so full of wonderful firsts. We are loving every minute of it, even those minutes when we realize our time has also also been full of lasts, like the last time we can stay up late together and still get a long, solid, night's sleep.

We normally would post more frequently with all the activity and very picture-worthy stuff going on around here, but we are really tired people. It turns out that waking up every 2-3 hours 24 hours a day is not the most natural schedule for adults. Sorry to anyone who we haven't called or emailed back. We do love and remember you...we are just new parents perpetually running in emergency mode and with a low tank of gas. We're a little on the burned out side, it's a nice kind of burned out.