Growth Spurt

Aydin is turning six weeks old tonight. She has been celebrating by having a mean growth spurt. How does a new mother know that her child is having a growth spurt? Immune to sleep, the baby becomes a Mini-Terminator at the breast, demanding frequent feedings (read: every hour) and near constant-contact (I'm not one to complain about that!). The downside: she frets and fusses just to prove to her mother that she could go colicky at any moment. Her cries go from zero to a hundred decibels in just under three seconds. When she does sleep, she snatches her zzz's in short, sharp shocks that translate into zero downtime for mom. (Thou shalt not nap, get dressed, take a shower, or eat a bowl of split pea soup.) How has mom dealt with the now 48-hour growth spurt? I'll put it in the form of a multiple choice question. Does she a) huff it out until dad comes home?; b) slap on some Bose noise-cancelling headphone?; c) put some AC/DC on the radio and bounce the baby to oblivion?; or d) slap the lil' un in a baby carrier and get on with the bizness of being mom?

The answer is and always will be d.

So what is the Ergo, anyway? (Come stroll the streets of Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, and you will witness them in great abundance. There's nothing quite so sociologically absurd as observing a baby trend unfurl, tsunami-esque, here in "America's First Suburb," otherwise known as the Land of the Bugaboo...) Apologies: I rant. So what is the Ergo? A backpack-ish carrier with super-comfy straps and a waist belt to help distribute the little one's weight ergonomically, it's actually too good a product to avoid its use (even if you do hate conforming to the masses). This leads me to an impromptu baby product comparison moment. Please bear with me:

1) The Baby Bjorn. The Bjorn earns points for its ease of use (where would we be without it on those outings when Aydin tires of being in the stroller and has chosen to let us know about it???) and its ability to induce a narcoleptic-type slumber in our little nugget. We opted for the "breathable fabric" model, since the regular Bjorn really traps sweat. But, the Bjorn has two downsides: 1) it's really ugly and goes with none of your clothes (unless you're wearing cargo shorts and Tevas) and 2) it really strains the shoulders with not-so-extended use (read: 15 minutes).

2) Ergo: Also aesthetically challenged but not so much so as the Bjorn. There's a slightly better array of colors (black, maroon, cornflower blue, and the abysmal khaki); not so with the Infant Insert (teal or beige). My only complaint so far concerns the Infant Insert contraption. Aydin just seems sort of crammed in there, her body contorted into a twisted half-sitting formation. Sometimes it's impossible to get her in there in a way that doesn't jab her knee into my flabby gut. She doesn't like being placed in it, either. Once she's there, though, she's oooooouuuuuuttttt. Like, snoring and making adorable cooing noises out. This mystifies me, too, because her face is right there at food source level (normally too enticing a location for comfortable snoozing) and still she naps! Brilliant.

3) I just sucked it up and purchased a Moby Wrap in fetching navy. (I know. I'm sorry, honey. I just felt I needed more infant-wearing options in my life right now...) I was tempted by all the pretty textiles of the Didymos wrap but just couldn't get over the conceptual leap of spending $180 on what amounts to a yard or two of fabric. Oh, I guess you get an instructional DVD too. That actually causes me to revise the "pros" of the Bjorn: one doesn't have to watch a friggin movie to learn how to use the dang thing! Anyway, we'll post a review of the product once we start wearing it. (Note to hubbie: I was able to save a few bucks by option for standard shipping...)

Enough already. I'm hungry, Aydin's hungry. We've got to tear ourselves away from the blog. Here I thought I was going to be blog-averse, but really, it's like talking to myself but with pictures!

Speaking of which...

A post isn't a post without a cute picture or three. Look how congenial she is when she's about to eat!



Here's one from yesterday. I'm embarrassed to admit this, but I subjected Aydin to a little game of Dress Up. (I know, she's a living, breathing baby, not a baby doll!) It's extra cruel, considering how much she dislikes having clothes put on her. But I needed to know where we stood on the whole "NB" sized clothing in our wardrobe, especially those she hasn't actually worn yet. So we busted out the outfit she was supposed to wear home from the hospital but didn't (because mom was way too tired and sore and overheated and anxious to vacate NYU Medical Center to give two flips about a cute outfit):