J-Baby’s Neighborhood

Happy Holidays!

Team Vox
4 days ago
9 comments

Happy Holidays to you, your family, friends and neighbors from all of us at Vox.
See you in 2010!

Well, with some very helpful advice from our pediatrician, and a multi-fronted, concerted effort by Getalife and myself, it looks like we've been able to take a significant edge off the colic. Here's what we've done so far:

1. Accept that Colic Happens, and try to make the best of it.

2. The first step is getting the colicky episodes during the day, not during the night, when they are 100 times more painful for everyone. This has required keeping the Little Miss awake for a good period of time in the morning and in the afternoon. Generally speaking, she is up with us from about 7-9 every morning, given the hubbub of getting ReRe off to school and Getalife off to work. Then we do the eat, awake, sleep thing until the evening, when we give her a bath and get her good and awake for a while, then she has managed to sleep for 3-4 hour stints through the night. She's still up to feed a few times, but no major crying jags. Knock wood.

3. Don't forget, she might be crying for another reason. It turns out that she is much more sensitive to wet diapers than ReRe was, so we're changing her much more frequently, and she seems to appreciate it.

4. I've also realized that she eats in little spurts, and I have to let her take a few little breaks during each feed, and not assume that she's done because she's stopped eating. This has meant that she is fuller longer, and the feedings have been spaced out more.

5. I also decided to give some Colic medication a try. For whatever reason (can't really remember) I decided to try Infacol, which is a suspension of Simethicone, which basically just breaks up small bubbles into bigger bubbles, which percolate up and let the baby burp easier. It is given three times a day, and it has been working very well. We saw results (i.e BUUUUURRRPP) very quickly, which was great.

So, we're all getting more sleep, and able to spend more time with a baby who is happy to be awake, and becoming more and more fun to play with. Let's hope this lasts!!!

Tea, Earl Grey. Hot.

Wil
Dec 11, 2009
2 comments

Tea, Earl Grey. Hot., originally uploaded by Theremina.

My friend Meredith haz my mug.

Oi. Colic.

margotinto
Nov 30, 2009
4 comments

so. Wow. This is Colic. It's one of those things you hope is just an urban myth. Then it moves in with your new baby, and wow, is it real. Our little lady currently has two modes: asleep and pissed. When she's asleep, all is well. When she is awake, she's crying almost all of the time. I'm trying to time her feedings to be at least 2.5-3 hours apart, so that I'm only feeding her when she's actually hungry, and not when she just needs to be pacified. When I overfeed her, predictably, it comes back up on my shoulder. The only time she sleeps for extended periods is when she is strapped to me in the most excellent sling my brother gave me (un porte-bebe de Maman Kangourou), at which time she can log three of four hours of sleep. Otherwise, she pretty much refuses to sleep in any sustained way. I saw the pediatrician earlier this week for a scheduled check-up, and she gave me some very helpful advice, which I had not heard anywhere else. Unlike all the books and devices that promise to help you get rid of colic (not that I've been reading, I've digressed to a pre-literate stage) she basically said that colic happens, and the best we can do is try to get her awake, and getting all her colicky needs to cry and scream met while I don't mind being awake, and then hopefully she will sleep during the night (not through the night, just during the night). We had had a few bad nights where she was up crying and inconsolable from 3am onward. One night I finally just strapped her into the sling and slept sitting up on the couch. She did sleep for three hours then, but the doctor and I agree this was both unsustainable and dangerous. We came up with a plan to shift this awake time to the day time, with the use of gentle means of keeping her awake, such as giving her a bath. The most difficult part of any plan, of course, is carrying it through, and I find myself letting her sleep just for the peace and quiet. I'm going to let her sleep another half an hour, and then wake her for a feed, and then give her a bath if she doesn't stay awake, and then let her do her crying and screaming while I indulge in some mindless TV.

Speaking of being pre-literate, I have found "Say Yes to the Dress" to be a perfect show for me - absolutely no plot or character development (shockingly, the flamboyant guy in the pink tie is a wedding dress designer) and just pretty pictures of pretty ladies in pretty dresses. Its like Teletubbies for adults.

CSI: D&D

Wil
Nov 24, 2009
Post a comment

CSI: D&D, originally uploaded by WilWheaton.

This is a little gallows humor that I whipped up and sent to Scott Kurtz and my friends at Penny Arcade when we all knew that Aeofel was dead, but couldn't tell anyone else in the world.

Exciting News from Six Apart (and the YouTube Conduit is Fixed)

Team Vox
Nov 17, 2009
49 comments

First, we're happy to announce that the team has identified and fixed the issue with the YouTube conduit; you can now find and add videos from YouTube to your library and posts. As always, thanks for your patience!

The other news we have today is about a new addition to the Six Apart family: TypePad Micro, a new free level of TypePad that is streamlined for microblogging. We see a new form of blogging emerging that lives between the quick status updates of Twitter and Facebook and the long-form posts of "classic" blogging; TypePad Micro is designed to meet that need. You can read more about TypePad Micro in Chris Alden's post on the Everything TypePad blog.

TypePad Micro

10 comments

A lot of the new capabilities we've added to TypePad this year were actually inspired by some of the best things about Vox: favoriting, member profiles, a dashboard to follow other bloggers, and easy ways to post content from other social media sites. But the things that make Vox different from TypePad are still there: Vox has always been -- and still is -- the best place for "friends and family" blogging, where you're in control over who sees what. TypePad, on the other hand, is built for the blogger who wants, no, craves, attention.

Do you have a passion or interest you want to share with people beyond your Vox neighborhood? If so, we'd love it if you tried out TypePad Micro. Maybe you've always wanted to start that obsessive blog that's just about waffle restaurants. Or want a place to share videos of your favorite band (Jonas Brothers, anyone? Anyone? ...). TypePad Micro's great for those topic-specific blogs. Take it for a spin and let us know what you think.

On the Vox front, our designers are working on some cool new themes (coming soon!). We'd also love to hear your thoughts about where we should take Vox in the coming year. What are the key things you'd like to see for Vox? If you've had a chance to use TypePad this year, what are the features there that we should bring over to Vox? And, if you're thinking big thoughts, how could we connect the Vox and TypePad communities in order to bring together bloggers and their shared passions? Your feedback is really important to us, so please leave a comment here, or shoot me a message.

And again, thanks for your patience as we found and fixed the YouTube bug!

~ daisy

COMMENTS ARE NOW CLOSED. If you have a suggestion, please send it directly to me. Thanks!

YouTube Conduit

Team Vox
Nov 16, 2009
20 comments

As many of you have noticed, the YouTube Conduit is not working. I am so sorry about this; I know how frustrating it is.

The team is looking into how to get this fixed and I will update you as soon as I hear something. In the meantime, not all is lost... There is a work-around for posting videos.

When you're in the Compose Screen, just click on "embed." Ignore the fact that it says "Widget" before everything because you can definitely use this to embed videos as well. You'll just need to input the embed code from the video, enter a title (if you want) and hit OK.

It might not show up perfectly in your compose screen, but when you hit "Save," your video should appear just the way you wanted it to.

Hopefully this will allow you to keep posting videos while we figure out what's happening on our end.

As always, thanks for your patience.

~daisy