Bottle Warmer

This is a pretty effective bottle warmer, though it has a totally inconvenient filling system.

What is with this weird precision water measuring test tube? (its like it came out of a science lab or something) What is with this completely arbitrary 1 - 10 numbering scheme? Why not use millilitres, cc, teaspoons, or seconds' worth of steam?

Trying to put in exactly 4 units of water in the tube is so annoying. It is so easy to go over the limit.

Sometimes, if I'm not heating the exact amount I've measured out for the bottle warmer, I just use a bit of boiling water in a mug instead. Its faster than trying to figure out how many units of water I'll need for various amounts of milk.

Allen.

Sent wirelessly from my BlackBerry.

Peeling a Kiwi

Where the spoon fits

Given that peeling Kiwis is not something I commonly do, I didn't know exactly how to do it. I always knew it was with a spoon, but I didn't know what else was involved. So I cut the Kiwi lengthwise in half, and then the ends off. I wedged the spoon between the skin and the flesh and scraped the flesh out, worked out okay. I guess I should have checked the hundreds of how-to instructions that are available on the net, but when you're already up to your elbows with kitchen stuff, its hard to clean up and then go look it up. :P

What a curvaceous beauty!

Kiwis and more kiwis

P.s. the white stem part in the middle is hard to eat. :P

Baby Connor

Maybe I should get Photoshop...

Here's a pic of Connor. Just a few things to say for now, since it's only been a week or so:

• there is a lot of food and bottle preparation involved
  
• there is a lot of diaper changing involved
  
• there is very little sleep involved

One interesting thing I didn't know is that babies can drink from cups. During the first few days when Kathy was still in the low output colostrum stage, we supplemented Connor with formula from a medicine cup. The cup was a suggestion from the nurse at the hospital. The amount was so small (and frequent) that bottles would have been a pain to use. We're talking teaspoons (like 10-20cc) at a roughly hourly feeding

Cup feeding without spilling takes a bit of skill and practice for both you and the baby. The trick seems to be touching the liquid level to the baby's upper lip, while keeping the bottom curve of the cup pressed closely enough to bottom lip and tongue to prevent spillage, without pressing so hard that baby can't sip. It's what we do when we drink, if you have ever had to hold a cup to someone else's mouth so they can have a drink, you'll sort of know what I mean. The only difference is that the baby doesn't know to keep his lower lip touching the cup, so you have to do that.

The same trick seems to apply to bottle feeding too - if you keep the bottom round of the nipple touching his lower lip, you get a seal and don't get any spill. (unless you feed him so fast that he regurgitates something) The last day or two, I haven't even needed to tuck a napkin under his chin.

Anyways, I'm using up precious sleep time so I'm off.

Allen.