Moving and Shaking

Zakiah is becoming a mobile baby! On Friday she started rolling from back to side and arching her back to move around the floor. If you lay her on the floor she eventually moves herself 360 degrees. She also started laughing in the last couple weeks... real giggles and squeals. The laughing is pretty contagious, usually everyone present also starts in on it.

She currently has casts on both legs up to her hips, but this doesn't seems to stop her from trying to stand and move about. With the current heat, I imagine the casts are quite hot, and our usually placid girl has been getting downright cranky. only one more week to go and she is cast free.

Zakiah and I are heading to Vancouver for a week on Wednesday. It will be a grand adventure I'm sure!

Metatarsus Varus

We took Zakiah to the specialist last Wednesday and found out she has mild Metatarsus Varus, which is in turning of the foot. It is hereditary, and my brother had it as a child. The treatment is serial casting. So on Wed the doctor placed a cast on Zakiah's left leg to the hip. She will receive several sets of casts over the next month or so. They still haven't decided on whether to cast her right foot or not, we will find out in two days when we go back to Victoria to see the specialist again.

We were not prepared for the hositility we were to encounter while out and about with her. Usually people come up to us to comment on her cuteness and to say hi to her. We noticed that people would come towards us and then see her foot and give us a look of disgust before veering away. I was close to tears by the time we got in the car after shopping in Naniamo. I was tempted to put a sign on her saying "I didn't drop my child down the stairs, she is being treated for a congenital defect". Anyways, we are finding the reaction at home in our small town much nicer... Most people ask what happened and are pretty nice. So the world isn't all bad.

Sidecar Crib

The Bed is getting a wee bit crowded, but we would like to continue to co-sleep as it makes nighttime feedings easier and Zakiah sleeps better. So we decided to make use of the un-used crib and create a "sidecar" for our bed. Here's how we did it.

1. We took the front side off the crib and attached the daybed bar for stabilization.
2. The height of both mattresses are the same when we place the crib mattress frame at the top level upside-down. This will work until she sits up and then we will have to raise the crib itself so that we can have the mattress lower in relation to the crib bars.
3.We then attached the big mattress to the crib frame with a tension strap in order to prevent bed separation.

4. We took three pool noodle boards and filled in the gap between the crib frame and mattress created when the two mattresses are pushed together. We taped the boards with duct tape and wrapped them in a bed sheet.

5. There is a gap between the pillowtop of our mattress and the crib mattress, so we placed a pool noodle in the gap. We then tried to cover the whole thing with a rug, but it bunches when sleeping, so we are looking for some other alternative. Right now we are just using a blanket covering the gap area.

First Camping Trip

So this past weekend we took Zakiah on her first camping trip. We left Friday afternoon for Ruckle Park on Saltspring Island where we were married a year ago. Upon arriving we found an awesome park improvement... raised wooden tent platforms! This made our weekend less wet and the tent more even. The first night was rather cold. Zakiah was nice and warm sleeping on my chest, but I froze and declared to Derek at 3am "I'm not staying another night!" After putting on a fleece jacket and going back to sleep warm, I changed my mind.
We spent Saturday morning at the farmers market in Ganges. Having a baby is great for your social interaction. We talked to many people curious about our baby and the carrier she was snuggled in. Zakiah slept in her wrap most of the morning, but was wide eyed and bushy-tailed in time for lunch meaning we had to trade off baby duty while the other person ate. In the afternoon, we headed up Mt Maxwell where Zakiah proceeded to scream in pain due to her early teething (Teething babies aren't fun). After nursing and some homeopathic teething meds, she fell asleep and we took in the views. Saturday night was a little warmer than Friday night and we all had a fairly ok sleep.

Sunday morning we packed up and went for a walk to the point we got married on. Zakiah slept through our family pictures. We then headed back to Vancouver Island and home.

Several things learned this camping trip:
We need a bigger tent
Put on warm clothes before the baby goes to sleep
Soothers are awesome for getting an extra hour of sleep in the morning
Teething babies and restaurants don't mix.

We are going camping again this weekend with lyndsay, Scott and baby Emma to Miracle beach. The weather is supposed to be warmer, so we are looking forward to it.