False Teeth

Well, there's a disappointment. What we thought was the beginning of a new tooth, and the source of all that drooling, was actually an Epstein's Pearl, which are "whitish-yellow cysts that form on the gums and roof of the mouth in a newborn baby" and "can be seen in approximately 80% of newborns." (These tiny growths are harmless and will disappear on their own after a couple of weeks.) While the doctor was looking at Baby's wailing and wide open mouth, she pointed out that the Epstein's Pearl wasn't the only growth in there: Baby also had Deciduous teeth in the lower gum, also known as "baby teeth." This time it was unmistakable - faint white outlines of two bottom front teeth emerging through the gumline.

"It's okay - I don't bite."

There once was a lobster named Louie.
His life was as a toy that was chewy.

During boiled water sterilization
Louie wasn't really a crustacean

And ended up not boiled but gooey.

Short in the Tooth

Babies start teething most commonly between 4 and 7 months. Baby must be in a rush to be sharing some White Castle with Daddy, cause his first tooth is already coming in, at 4 months and a week.

Mommy first spotted it last week. I hadn't any idea, but the first clue should have been the buckets of drool suddenly dripping down his jowls. There has been some irritability as of late, but that could be associated with being over tired, as Baby doesn't like to sleep much. (When you have parents as fun as us, I don't blame him.) The most common signs, from BabyCenter.com:

• Drooling
• Gum swelling and sensitivity
• Biting behavior
• Refusing food
• Sleep problems

For easy ways to sooth the pain from tiny teeth growing through the gum line, give baby something to bite on, that's soft and firm. Teething rings, especially filled with gel or liquid, and chilled, are the most common remedies. For an even simpler method, just rub your finger gently over baby's gums. Our doctor recommended Baby Orajel, if the pain got bad. (Follow that link for the official Orajel site, and some good, general teething information.)

Here's Baby with what will probably be his best friend over the next few months:

"For what I'm going through, that Crave Case better be as good
as Daddy says it is..."

Olympic Feat

Like many Olympiads, certain individuals will spend a fraction of their waking lives training for a skill they're born with, sharpening it to razor perfection with the help of their coach.

Some say skills like these an individual is born with; some say they can only be taught. But at that precise moment when that skill is mastered (and successfully caught on tape), it is a momentous occasion for the coach and athlete.

Game Time

At around three or four months of age, babies begin to try to talk, learn their own name, and recognize people. At this crucial period of development, it's imperative to hold regular conversations with your baby, call them by their name whenever you speak to them, and expose them to lots of people. Like "Tummy Time, " there should be a daily ritual where you dedicate a slot of time to one aspect of development. For example, a dedicated "Story Time," where you expose your baby to colorful story books while you read to him, or a "Game Time" after an afternoon nap for something simple like Peek-A-Boo.

One activity Baby and I like to play is "Movie Time," where Baby re-enacts famous movie scenes, and I guess what movies they're from. Here are a few he tried out on me this past week; see if you can guess what movies he's acting out:

a) "Arrrrrrrgggghhhhhhh!!!"

b) "Adriaaaaaaan!"

c) "That's not a knife. That's a knife."

Answers below:

A) Alien

B) Rocky

C) Crocodile Dundee

He's getting pretty good at this game. I should probably be cutting back on his "Extended Cable TV Time."

Hands On

Baby turned four months old as of yesterday. He's been sleeping through the night for over a month now, but since he falls asleep between 6 and 7 pm, that means I don't see him when I get home after work. So my new sleep schedule is to get up an hour before I normally do so I can hang with Baby and also feed him, to eventually ween him onto the bottle.

So yesterday morning, like most mornings, I sit in the rocking chair and give him his bottle. I cradle his head in the crook of my left arm, and hold his bottle with my right. This time, he grabbed my pointer finger with his right hand, and the my pinky with his left hand. And then, my ear started to itch. Having both hands occupied, I twitched my head in an attempt to scratch my ear with my shoulder. That was only making it worse. I wiggled my right hand free from Baby's Kung Fu grip, balancing the bottle on my forearm, while contorting my neck to get my ear within reach of my fingers. To my surprise, his little hands squeezed the side of his bottle, and he was actually holding the bottle all by himself. I pulled my right arm entirely free, and yes, Baby was now an independent!

Immediately, I imagined all the things I could do with my free hand: I could scratch my other ear, and even my head, maybe my leg. I could eat a sandwich with my free hand, or snap my fingers, or press some buttons. At this point, Baby was kind of looking at me and my flailing right arm in a funny way, and was too distracted by my gesticulations to drink. So I resumed holding his bottle and decided to save my aspirations for another day.

This morning, I tried it again, just in case that self sufficient feeding was a fluke, and Baby again held his bottle on his own. I was smart this time and got my camera. But by the time I positioned it, he refused to hold the bottle again. So imagine what you see below without my hand, and you can imagine what new feat he had accomplished for his birthday.

" Hold on... why do I need to hold the bottle by myself again?"

Thinking A Head

We walked out of our last visit to the Pediatrician with Baby's latest measurements. It's funny how one's baby is always being compared to the rest of the babies in America. That's probably something we continue doing as adults, but our doctors stopped reminding us of how above or below average we were while we were too young to be psychologically scarred by this information. So according to the charts, our boy is a taller than average (25" long, 75th-90th percentile), average weighing (13.5 pounds, 50th percentile), with a below average head (40 cm, 25th percentile).

Speaking of his tiny head, our biggest concern so far is Baby's case of plagiocephaly, or more commonly known as flat head syndrome. Our boy was used to leaning to one side when he was born, and with the insistence of sleeping on his back to combat SIDS, there was little we could do to keep his soft baby skull from being indented by gravity.

The Pediatrician referred us to a "Noggin Nest,"which looks like a really soft hemorrhoid pillow for your head. Having the baby sleep on this velvet donut allows the pressure on the back of his head to be more evenly distributed, ensuring a round-headed baby once more!