Haven's first game is pretty simple. She sticks out her tongue waiting for someone to touch it. She really likes this game.
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Friday, February 16, 2007
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Sleeping Patterns
Most agree that the biggest challenge for new parents is not the reduced amount of sleep, but the unpredictability of sleeping time versus awake time. In the womb, fetuses are nocturnal and, upon birth, we *hope* that they will quickly adapt to our preferred sleeping patterns.
Haven sleeps much less than the average infant, but her circadian rhythms adapted to sleeping at night relatively quickly. At two months, she is routinely waking up just once in the middle of the night for a feeding.
The figures below show the dramatic change in Haven's sleeping pattern from the first to second month. The time of day is on the horizontal axis. Each point represents a time that Haven fell asleep. And, on the vertical axis is the number of hours that she slept. So, the ideal pattern is for Haven to have her longest sleeps when they start in the evening, and to also sleep for a long time after her night feeding (if she has one). That would mean that the dots on the right side of the Figures should be the highest. If her time of sleep is completely unrelated to the time of day, then the dots would be high or low at all times of day.
Here is the graph for her first month of life. It shows a slight tendency to sleep longer in the evenings than during the day, but not reliably:
And here is the graph for her second month of life. The difference is dramatic. She definitely figured out to sleep longer at night, especially the first sleep of the night - starting between 9pm and midnight. This is very good for our health!
Saturday, February 3, 2007
Haven Book Library
Haven's family and friends like to give her books. This is what she has and plans to read when she understands that she is alive and has an interest in stories (alphabetical by book title):
Aaaarrgghh. Spider! - Lydia Monks
An Egg is Quiet - Dianna Aston & Sylvia Long
Barnyard Dance - Boynton
Big Bad Bruce - Peet
Big Red Barn - Brown and Bond
Birds - Jeunesse, Delafosse, and Mettler
Boy in the Drawer, The - Robert Munsch & Martchenko
Cat in the Hat, The - Dr. Seuss
Charlotte's Web - E. B. White
Counting Toes - DK
Dancing with Degas - Merberg and Bober
Dear Zoo - Campbell
Each Peach Pear Plum - Ahlberg
Eating the Alphabet - Ehlert
Foot Book, The - Dr. Seuss
Good Night, Gorilla - Rathmann and Putnam
Goodnight Moon - Brown and Hurd
Green Eggs and Ham - Dr. Seuss
Grouchy Ladybug, The - Eric Carle
Guess How Much I Love You - McBratney and Jeram
Hop On Pop - Dr. Seuss
Horton Hatches the Egg - Dr. Seuss
How the Grinch Stole Christmas - Dr. Seuss
Hush, little baby - DK
I Have To Go! - Robert Munsch & Martchenko
I Love You Forever - Robert Munsch & McGraw
I Will Hold you 'til you Sleep - Zuckerman and Muth
If you give a mouse a cookie - Numeroff and Bond
In the Night Kitchen - Sendak
Ladybird, The - Jeunesse and de Bourgoing
Little Engine that Could, The - Piper and Long
Lorax, The - Dr. Seuss
Lost in the Woods - Sams and Stoick
Madeline - Ludwig Bemelmans
My First Mother Goose - McCue
Oh, the Places You'll Go - Dr. Seuss
Olivia - Ian Falconer
On the day you were born - Frasier
One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish - Dr. Seuss
One Some Many - Jocelyn and Slaughter
Over Under - Jocelyn and Slaughter
Paperbag Princess, The - Robert Munsch & Martchenko
Polar Express, The - Chris Van Allsburg
Professor Wormbog in Search for the Zipperupm-A-Zoo - Mayer
Runaway Bunny, The - Brown and Hurd
Stephanie's Ponytail - Robert Munsch & Martchenko
Story of Ferdinand, The - Leaf and Lawson
That's not my puppy... - Watt and Wells
There's Something There! - Mayer
Thomas' Snowsuit - Robert Munsch & Martchenko
Time for Bed - Fox and Dyer
Time of Wonder - McCloskey
Touch and Feel Farm - DK
Unwitting Wisdom - Ward
Very Busy Spider, The - Eric Carle
Very Hungry Caterpillar, The - Eric Carle
Very Lonely Firefly, The - Eric Carle
We're Going on a Bear Hunt - Rosen and Oxenbury
Where the Wild Things Are - Sendak
Winnie the Pooh - A. A. Milne
Wind in the Willows, The - Grahame and Moore
You are my miracle - Cusiman Love and Ichikawa
A new skill: Holding stuff
Now eight weeks old, Haven has acquired the ability to hold something in her hand. In order to achieve this skill, her parents must pry open her hand and shove something in it. It is a skill nonetheless. Up next, realizing that she is holding something in her hand.
Mastering the Toy Attack
At seven weeks, Haven's skill of attending and trying to strike a hanging toy are notably improved. Still lacking is the ability to hit the toy consistently. Her arm movements are unpredictable. The thinking process appears to be pretty simple: See toy. Want toy. Swing arm. Repeat.