Take that, Sealy!

Just like Hallmark inventing Valentine’s Day, Heather and I have always held the belief that "sleep" was something mattress companies invented as a way to increase their profits. Although we tried and tried, we couldn't think of a way to get back at those greedy corporations, especially the one that makes their mattresses from "materials originally invented by NASA".

Luckily, we think Ashlyn has developed the perfect solution. Colic! Yes, Colic. From 11pm to 3am, she makes sure that nobody in our house gets sleep. Take that, Sleep Number! Ashlyn has an appointment with her Doctor tomorrow; we'll cross our fingers that it's something other than Colic so that we can fix it.

On a happier note, Ashlyn is smiling more. Unfortunately, she stops as soon as I turn on the camera. I'll keep trying though, and I'll post a new video as soon as I can film it. She's also starting to get more control of her hands. On several occasions we've seen her push her pacifier back in front of her mouth, and then grab it to shove it in. This is behavior that we want to encourage, the sooner she can gain motor skills the better. Those resumes won't fill out themselves.

Gobble gobble!

This year we have much to be thankful for.  Rick made it through surgery and is recovering well, John and Kristen are safe overseas (추수 감사절!), and of course we have a healthy happy baby girl.  Due to her sleeping schedule, I'm personally thankful that I was able to play half a season last night of NCAA 2008 on the PS3.  There's nothing like beating Oklahoma at 3am!

From our family to yours, Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

A common theme...

The central focus around our house lately has been sleep. This isn't to say we haven't been interested in sleep until now, but so far we have been concentrating on feeding, changing, cleaning, soothing, etc. Now that we have an idea of how to keep her alive, we're starting to concentrate more on us. For the parents out there, you already know that something as simple as sleep is never that simple. We didn't know this going in; apparently they left that piece of information off the brochure.

We've had a lot of advice on sleep. Books, friends, co-workers, and the Internet have all chimed in with their various bits of wisdom. We picked the pieces out that made the most sense to us, and tried the following things:

1. We keep her in the living room during the day with the lights on and TV on. We put her in the nursery at night so she knows the difference between nighttime sleep and daytime naps.
2. A nighttime routine of bath, sleeper, and food has been implemented. This is usually followed by two parents saying silent prayers.
3. We bought a noise machine that plays soothing sounds and put it in her nursery so that it can help relax her at night. It can play eight different sounds, but we chose ocean waves. We chose ocean waves because we like the sound, and it also has the unique quality of being the default sound when you turn the machine on.
4. We swaddle just her legs at night. She doesn't like her arms being restricted, but she seems to be fine with us wrapping her legs.

We think this is starting to work. We had the best night so far this week.. She went to bed at 9. She woke up three times for feedings but went back to bed each time right after and with no binky. We know she can do it, now we just need to keep up the pattern so that we can get some sleep on a more regular basis.

Wish us luck.

Lesson learned...

Okay, so I learned an important rule of blogging. As a result of what I learned, I will no longer post about something good until AFTER it actually happens. Ashlyn, sensing that I had posted about her going to sleep at a normal time, woke up within minutes of the blog post and kept us up until the wee hours of the morning.

That's alright; I'm still counting it as a victory, albeit a small one. She fell asleep in her nursery, at a time when we wanted, and that was a first. She's almost doing it now, which is a second. And no, this doesn't violate my rule because I'm not saying she's asleep, or that she'll stay asleep. I'm just saying that she's in her room and she's not trying to wake up the neighbors.

So there's hope for a brighter future, it just may take awhile to get there.

I hope I'm not jinxing myself...

As I type this something miraculous is happening in the Flinn household. Ashlyn is sleeping. At 10pm. When we WANT her to sleep. This is the first time Ashlyn has decided to go to sleep before 1am. And in her crib no less.

No, this is not how we dress Ashlyn for bedtime; this is just a picture of her sleeping in a hoodie after a trip to the store with mom. If you think I’m getting anywhere near Ashlyn with a camera right now, you’re crazy. We're going to sleep.

Happy Birthday Gramdpa!

Okay, so I know this is almost a week late.  Grandpa Flinn's birthday was this past weekend, but you'd be amazed how difficult it is to teach a five week old child how to bake a cake.  We gave up, so all Grandpa gets is a Little Debbie snack cake which she can't even eat because she has no teeth.  Oh well.  Happy birthday all the same!

... what?

With an infant there are good nights and bad nights. Last night was not a good night; Ashlyn was up until 4:30 in the morning alternating between wanting food and crying so hard she looked like an angry tomato.

We tried everything we could think of to calm her. We took her for a drive, read to her, sang to her, played the guitar for her, banged our heads against the wall for her, pleaded with her, and finally she went to sleep. But you know what? As I sit here at work, bleary eyed despite having drunk enough coffee to fill a medium sized wading pool, all I want is to go home, sit on the couch next to Heather, and hold my daughter.

I’ve laughed with her. I’ve cried with her. I’ve held her on my chest while she slept and felt more content than I can ever remember feeling. But this is the first time I’ve truly felt like a father… to know what it’s like to love someone so strongly even when they push you to exhaustion.


To myself in 13 years, try to remember this feeling when she’s a teenager.

It's never too early to make friends...

Ashlyn has reached the nine pound mark, which means she has moved away from newborn diapers.  Unfortunately, bigger diapers don't necessarily mean fewer diapers; it just means that our diaper budget needs to be increased.  On a side note, if anyone has contacts in the US Senate, can you ask them to add a diaper provision to the health plan?  Yes, I realize that this will bump up the 10 year cost from 1.2 trillion to 2.1 trillion dollars, but it's a small price to pay for baby poo.

Back to the weight..  Ashlyn now weighs as much as our cat.  Kitty, happy that she's no longer the only small nine pound mammal in the house, was happy to be a pillow for a few minutes.

This is a picture of Ashlyn smiling, but it kind of looks like she's about to cry.  I don't have a fancy story to wrap around this, I just like the picture and wanted to share it.

Hungry babies make for tired mothers...

It seems like we're on the tail end of a growth spurt.  Essentially this means that we have spent the last 3-4 days with a baby who wanted to eat almost non-stop.  To use a visual metaphor:

Fortunately, we seem to be past it and hope to get back to a regular schedule.  I use the term "regular" very loosely of course.  Calling her schedule "regular" is like calling Tono Romo's passing "consistent". 

For those non-Cowboys fans out there, let me quote a recent Dallas Morning News article:  "These days, Romo is consistently inconsistent, a huge problem for a team with high expectations that hasn't won a playoff game since 1996."

What I learned in my first month as a father..

Happy one month birthday Ashlyn!

In this installment, I want to share eleven things that I've learned in my first month of being a father. You'll have to forgive me if any of the following sounds like a Hallmark card. It's hard to do this kind of thing without coming across a little on the cheesy side.

1. The mother is everything to the child, the father is just a curiosity. You can't let it bother you though, mom needs a husband more than the kid needs a father. Later, dad is going to be needed too.
2. If she smiles, you can bet she's not smiling at you. That's ok, it's still beautiful to see.
3. You can never hold her too much.
4. She may be a girl, but that doesn't mean you can let your guard down when changing diapers.
5. Your definition of a "lifetime supply" of baby wipes will quickly change.
6. It's amazing how many people will share in the joy of your child, even if you've never met them.
7. I'm not sure if you can truly appreciate your parents, especially your mother, until you you're a parent too.
8. You can look at the same picture on your office desk 50 times a day, and never get tired of it.
9. Sleep is over-rated.
10. If you thought your wife was strong before, wait until you see her as a mother.
11. It's possible for someone to enter your life and immediately change everything about it. She'll take away your time, make you cry in frustration, keep you from sleeping, and make your entire day revolve around her. She'll do it without asking, and she won't give you the slightest thanks for it. Despite this, it's possible to love her in a way that you never thought possible. Every second, of every day.

Thanks again to everyone who's supported us over the past month. It means more to Heather, Ashlyn, and myself than words can say.

Little piggy gains weight...

Today was Ashlyn's one month visit to the pediatrician to get weighed in. She's now at 8 lbs, 12 oz. This means she's gaining weight a little slower than the average baby, but it's definitely not for a lack of eating. At night she wants to eat pretty much non-stop, which Heather is incredibly happy about*.

Also, for grandma wolf and anyone else interested, I figured out how to post comments. If you want to comment on a particularly witty blog post, click on the "# comments" link at the top right of the blog post. When the next screen comes up, put in your comment. In the drop down box, choose Name/URL. This will bring up a little box, just put in your name (or whatever you want to put) in the Name field and click Continue (you don't need to put anything to the URL field). Then click Post Comment to submit it. Please remember that anything you say can, and probably will, be read by Ashlyn at some point in her life.

And finally, tomorrow marks one month since our little Ashlyn came into this world. Since it’s my daughter, I’m going to let myself be a sucker for things like this. Expect a “What I learned in my first month as a father…” post sometime tomorrow evening.

*Emotions don’t always come through that well on a blog, but this is most definitely Sarcasm. See that capital “S” I used? That’s the level of sarcasm I’m talking about here.

Six years and counting...

Grandma and Grandpa Wolf were kind enough to babysit so that Heather and I could get out and enjoy a nice dinner for our six year anniversary.  If you've never been to Kirby's Steakhouse in Southlake, it's worth a visit.  I highly recommend the Pepper steak; in fact I believe that this steak is one of the reasons that God invented cows.

Thanks so much to the grandparents, we had a great evening.  And most of all, thank you Heather for giving me the best six years of my life.

We filmed two episodes of the Bobblehead, so here's episode two.  Enjoy!

Bobblehead - Episode 2