What is a normal Night?

Its been tough putting Emma to sleep. A lot of the issues are from us jumping at her waking, as my wife put it, 'it breaks my heart to hear her cry.' She would say that she couldn't be heartless and now even today, or tonight as I'm writing this, we are suffering.

Experts and other parents have said that wee just need them to cry it out, but its just not that simple when it's your first. We should have listened and now we have a little girl that's almost 17 months old that still doesn't sleep through the night, but a hand full of times a month. We developed a bad habit in our child, we own that, but we are struggling to have normal nights.

What is a normal night? To us, its a crying baby at 1am, then again at 6am. I've started staying awake until she wakes up the 1st time so that my wife can get a good nights rest. Then she wakes up at 5 and Emma wakes at 5:30-ish.

I suppose it's better than it had been. When used to wake at 11pm then again last 1am and stay awake until 3am-ish. I'm thankful we have moved from that, but we just can't seem to find that sweet spot that'll get her full nights rest going forward. With another one on the way, we can't keep this up and something has to change. Can anyone offer some helpful advise? We are thinking it's teething, and are giving her some Tylenol, but she is still waking.

HELP!

Some simple signs. Video

I hope you enjoy this 1st video.

The signs that are shown are:
Orange
Cookie
Banana
Orange
More
and both baby sign and baby Spanish
Done
Food

If there are other signs that you want to see next time, please feel free post them in the comments section of the video or this post. You can also e-mail me at the247daddy@gmail.com

Almost Witnessed

Just a story today, but a lesson leaned, none the less.

Emma and I hopped out of the shower and we go to her room to get her diapered and clothed. Then, as we are coming out of the hallway towards the formal dining room the doorbell rings.

I'm in a towel! And, to make things better, my daughter decides she wants to play a game of pull off the towel! The front door is just before the dining room and the only way to get to my clothes is to cross the dining room and go past the door, that happens to have a glass designed window, so you can see in if you are looking and to top it off, I had the good sense to open the window that is next to the door opened and there were 2 people at the door, one dangerously close to the window!

I paused for a bit. Good they weren't peeking. (side note: its rude to peek into someone's home! Have we forgotten this?) Just as the guy starts moving towards the window on the door I dash across and make it to the other side. I'll start taking my clothes with me to the shower from now on. Have you ever been caught in a similar situation?

Baby Signlanguage Part 2

Though the "food" and "done" were great, teaching her "more" was extremely useful. She could apply it to drink or bottle, Playing outside or even, as she like to do, "more" Curious George. 

I taught her this by doing the sign while saying the word and then give her the food. It only took a few days and she had 3 very useful words that she could sign.

Needless to say "cookie" was simple for her. I must say, in my experience, that teaching her "cookie" and "banana" so close to each other was a negative.  She now does a "half cookie" and "half banana" for both of them and it has been tough to correct and to be honest,  it hasn't been corrected and she's already 16months.

On Saturday I'll post a vlog of how to sign:
Apple
Orange
More
Food
Done
Cookie
Banana

Along with how I said the words in Spanish so that, if you chose to, you can use these simplified versions of the words.

If there is a word you would like to see please leave it in the comments section, and I'd be more than happy to have them added in another vlog.

The Power of Prayer

I have a faint memory. I'm standing in a pew with my parents and I'm holding my dad's hand. I'm looking around and he squeezes mine it to remind me that were are in the middle of praying. I close my eyes and return to my prayers. I can't say when that happened, but I know that it did happen.

I also remember my mom. Telling me, reminding me that GOD is a GOD that listens and that he's with you and listening to you wherever you go and that you can pray no matter where you are.

I may have fallen away from faith when I got older,but even in my darkest times I never forgot. Those memories and that wisdom was always there, I was just afraid to use it and afraid that I had veered so far off the course that, 'How could GOD ever want me back?' That's literally what I thought and when I felt alone and in the dark. I wanted to be protected and wanted to have peace, but why would GOD want someone like me?

Now that I am older and I have actually read the Bible, I found in John 3:16 it says that 'GOD so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, and who so believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.' It wasn't just for the people with clean backgrounds, or the pastors or the people that spent their lives in church. It was for everyone. I know that people were praying for my salvation and because of prayer I was able to come to the Father and be forgiven of my sins and the burdens of my past and all of my sins were placed on Jesus when he died at the cross. That was his point in coming to Earth as a man and the entire point of him dying on the cross. To save and to free us from the sins that bound us.

A great joy I have as a parent is that before we eat and before we go to bed and randomly throughout the day, Emma loves to grab our hands a bow her head and she just waits. I don't know if she's praying in her mind or not, but I do know that she's waiting on me to lead in prayer. We can't start eating until we've prayed. I hope and prayer is that she learn from my mistake, and that she never have to feel the loneliness and unrest of being away from the Prince of Peace. I my hope and prayer is that she never forgets.

Baby Signlanguage part 1

When I first heard of this,  my wife used to work at a daycare,  I was blown away. Then I saw the movie that had it and was like,  'I can do that!' So I decided that when the baby was old enough I would teach her some sign language.

She was around 4mo old when she learned "done", and I used a trick I had learned from helping raise my niece, Lauren now 13, and was able too teach my daughter to sign done using an ESL and Spanish combination.

I'm not an expert at Spanish, in fact I only know a hand full of words, but growing up, the words I knew, like caca for poop and moco for booger, I thought they were English.

First is "bah". I can't spell it and I'm not sure if that's the correct way to spell it, but I do know its like saying "done" and through repetition I was able to help her begin her communication.  2nd was "food". I would say, "Bah-pah" which I learned as food, although I'm sure it means potatoes,  and did the sign for food. Sure it took a while, but getting to know that she was hungry and when she was done was a giant leap in a direction that changed the difficulty of being a stay at home.

Have you ever taught your child/children to sign? What was the first word they picked up and how old?

To cloth, or not to cloth diaper?

That is a question isn't it? One that seems daunting, but when thinking about weather or not to use cloth diapers the costs might need to be considered along with the time and the hassle.

We'll start with hassle. Believe it or not, not very many stores carry cloth diapers and even less still, they carry good absorbent type that'll actually do the job and less still if you don't want chemicals to touch you baby's skin. Not to mention the fact that you have to clean them yourselves! (Note: you're supposed to clean the disposable as well, but no one does. At the very least, the big stuff)

The initial cost for 2 dozen Indian pre-folds (there are Chinese pre-folds as well) and 4 covers and a couple all-in-one's was around $200. Then, there is the type of detergent you have to use. It's not just anything you have at home already or you want them to smell like, it has to be non-scented as it can cause some rashes. To add on you have to also change them when they are wet...

GASP! Your child can't walk around with a 10lbs diaper to strengthen their legs? No. The younger kids you can get away with 2 tinkles, but as they get bigger so does their ability to urinate and I don't have to tell you!

With all these negatives is it worth it? The diaper leaks, the constant changing, the soaking the dirty diapers in water, the wet clothes, both you and baby, and the expensive , are they worth the hassle?

Lets look at disposable

They are quick and convenient.  You don't have to clean them and you baby doesn't have a giant bottom because of the cloth and unlike the cloth you don't have to wash them.

But, like the cloth you still get leaks, there are "guaranteed not to leak" markings on the box and yet they still leak. Worst still this was the expensive brand and yet they still leak. You go through multiple brands to find the one that is going to fit and just when you finally discover it, your baby grows and you get to start all over again.

The cost is low, but when you take in the costs of having the proper brand and size and you have to buy 2 to 3 boxes every month at $30 a box, it adds up quickly.Not to mention that if you decide, "Oh, I'll buy in bulk. That'll out smart them!" the baby decides he/she wants to out grow them and then they leak because of that as well!

We have used both and have found that at night,  the disposable work for us as well as when out, but at home the cloth win it. It's not that much of a hassle when they are wet, just change them, and I'm home. If I need more I just have to wash them. We use the covers no matter where we go (not to mention this has saved us from being covered when a diaper EXPLOSION occurs). This formula works for us, what works for you? Do you do some kind of combination or are you a hardcore "clother" with a "stash"?

I will be sharing my experience with baby sign language and what did and didn't work. Hope you check it out.

No Bathroom break

Its 2am and you're half way asleep as you're putting the baby back to sleep from waking up. She's almost out and you know that if you hold out for just a little longer you can finally go back to bed...

Then, for some reason you bladder kicks into 5th gear and screams at you, "Go to the bathroom!" Now you're perspiring and you can't hold it any more. You want to put the baby down, but you know it's just a little too soon. You didn't have to go before they woke, and you didn't have to go 2 minutes ago, but now? Why now?

Am I the only person that has this happen or is there anyone else?

Who, what, why, huh?

Hello,
I'm not perfect, no one is, and I am far from it. Some of you, moms, may be thinking why would I listen to some man that is taking care of his kids, nothing he does is spectacular, or unique and you're right. I'm just a regular guy that happens to be with my daughter, soon to be 2 daughters, 24/7.

I write this blog for 3 reasons to:

     1. Glean wisdom from others that have gone on before me and have done a spectacular job
     2. Keep track of what i have done and what did and didn't work and
     3. Help others that are getting started so they can learn about my successes, but mostly my failures in hopes you, and I, don't repeat them.

I get frustrated as much as the next person and I wake the baby up because I tripped over something and sometimes the crying is more than I can take and I have to pray so that I don't go crazy, but it's part of the journey that we go through as parents. I'll talk about my experiences and what I found worked best for me in hopes they might work for you.

My name is Michael Hernandez, and welcome to my journey. I hope you stick around, we could learn something from each other.