some thoughts about dmitri
rob and i plan to put Dimitrious down as his name on the birth certificate. we are still totally undecided on spelling we prefer to spell Dmitri that way but no one else does. we are thinking when he is old enough that he asks how to spell his name we will tell him he gets to decide because there are lots of ways.
Dmitri does things that newborns normally do not do but slightly older babies do and we suspect this is related to his saying inside a little longer than he may have needed. the cutest thing he does is laugh in his sleep. the first time i saw it i was a little shocked so i looked up newborns laughing and found out about a japanese study showing that newborns as young as 17 days are known to laugh in their sleep. had he come closer to his estimated due date he would have been past 17 days the first tme i saw him laugh in his sleep. less cute stuff he does is all the step crawl things at night time. he has been making nights very hard for rob and me but we are getting better at dealing with it. last night rob looked up all the behavior stuff we have been experiencing and found a lot of threads on the mothering forum about 3 week olds going through this and one thread about 2 week olds doing this.
dmitri is extremely strong so he manages to get out of swaddles easily but he sometimes is unable to sleep unless swaddled. swaddling is strange because it feels wrong to wrap a baby up so tight he can hardly move but many babies find it very comforting. for almost all of his existence he has lived in fluid and had a limited amount of space to move so being born can be a shock to their nervous system. he is not used to moving his arm and not hitting the wall of my uterus. he is not used to gravity or this whole needing to eat and then digest his food. for as long as he can remember he had a constant source of food that and it never needed his tummy to digest it. he may also have some food sensitivity meaning his body might be unhappy with things i eat in which case i need to find out what those things are and stop eating them. right now i am not even vegetarian. after he was born i was lacking in iron and started craving liver so i have had liver and eggs almost every day and you know your body needs iron when liver tastes like the yummiest food in the world. i do plan to go back to being vegan i kind of want to take my time though in case he has sensitivity to soy i feel like the longer i take to introduce soy into my diet (i have had some but am thinking i may stop having any) the better a chance he will be able to digest soy with no trouble. soy allergies are related to peanut allergies which can become life threatening but the big thing for me is i love soy products and want him to be able to love and eat all the soy he wants when he is older. i hate milk and i like some cheese but can happily live without cheese so while i don't want him to have any food issues i am less likely to eliminate dairy as soon as soy. before i try the elimination diet to see if that helps him sleep i need to get a better understanding of what the diet is and what foods i will be able to eat. i need to recover a little more first.
one of the coolest things about dmitri being born is that now rob gets to interact with him and it is so amazing to watch rob bloom in his way. rob is the most amazing father ever. he is so gentle and so loving and i am so grateful that he agrees with me on wanting to do attachment parenting and having dmitri feeling safe and loved be such a high priority. rob is getting really good at carrying dmitri around the house in the moby wrap and he does it topless so they get skin to skin contact and that is so healthy and good for them. watching them bond has been a real joy for me.
i don't plan to post many photos of him here but for anyone wanting to see lots of photos of him go make yourself a flickr account. or if you already have one just tell me your name on flickr so i can add you to a group and show you some photos of him. i am paranoid about having photos available publicly. he will wake up soon to eat and i am not supposed to sit up much and have been doing so to much already. it is effecting my healing in a way that is not so good
Dmitri does things that newborns normally do not do but slightly older babies do and we suspect this is related to his saying inside a little longer than he may have needed. the cutest thing he does is laugh in his sleep. the first time i saw it i was a little shocked so i looked up newborns laughing and found out about a japanese study showing that newborns as young as 17 days are known to laugh in their sleep. had he come closer to his estimated due date he would have been past 17 days the first tme i saw him laugh in his sleep. less cute stuff he does is all the step crawl things at night time. he has been making nights very hard for rob and me but we are getting better at dealing with it. last night rob looked up all the behavior stuff we have been experiencing and found a lot of threads on the mothering forum about 3 week olds going through this and one thread about 2 week olds doing this.
dmitri is extremely strong so he manages to get out of swaddles easily but he sometimes is unable to sleep unless swaddled. swaddling is strange because it feels wrong to wrap a baby up so tight he can hardly move but many babies find it very comforting. for almost all of his existence he has lived in fluid and had a limited amount of space to move so being born can be a shock to their nervous system. he is not used to moving his arm and not hitting the wall of my uterus. he is not used to gravity or this whole needing to eat and then digest his food. for as long as he can remember he had a constant source of food that and it never needed his tummy to digest it. he may also have some food sensitivity meaning his body might be unhappy with things i eat in which case i need to find out what those things are and stop eating them. right now i am not even vegetarian. after he was born i was lacking in iron and started craving liver so i have had liver and eggs almost every day and you know your body needs iron when liver tastes like the yummiest food in the world. i do plan to go back to being vegan i kind of want to take my time though in case he has sensitivity to soy i feel like the longer i take to introduce soy into my diet (i have had some but am thinking i may stop having any) the better a chance he will be able to digest soy with no trouble. soy allergies are related to peanut allergies which can become life threatening but the big thing for me is i love soy products and want him to be able to love and eat all the soy he wants when he is older. i hate milk and i like some cheese but can happily live without cheese so while i don't want him to have any food issues i am less likely to eliminate dairy as soon as soy. before i try the elimination diet to see if that helps him sleep i need to get a better understanding of what the diet is and what foods i will be able to eat. i need to recover a little more first.
one of the coolest things about dmitri being born is that now rob gets to interact with him and it is so amazing to watch rob bloom in his way. rob is the most amazing father ever. he is so gentle and so loving and i am so grateful that he agrees with me on wanting to do attachment parenting and having dmitri feeling safe and loved be such a high priority. rob is getting really good at carrying dmitri around the house in the moby wrap and he does it topless so they get skin to skin contact and that is so healthy and good for them. watching them bond has been a real joy for me.
i don't plan to post many photos of him here but for anyone wanting to see lots of photos of him go make yourself a flickr account. or if you already have one just tell me your name on flickr so i can add you to a group and show you some photos of him. i am paranoid about having photos available publicly. he will wake up soon to eat and i am not supposed to sit up much and have been doing so to much already. it is effecting my healing in a way that is not so good