Raising a child in the City of Angels

I never wrote what living here, in Los Angeles, meant for me as a mom and for Bryce as my baby.
I remember the day I went to the American consulate in Bucharest to ask for a tourist visa. Without knowing it that day would change my life forever.
And then November 28th came, another day that would change my life: the day I would board on a plane that would take me to NY :my first stop in the States. I just loved NY ' cause it was so American but in the same time so European: big tall buildings, traffic, lots of traffic, thousands of people in the streets, Central Park, Manhattan, Ellis Island,the Empire State building, such an adventure..oh...and the weather....windy and chilly not so much different than the one I left behind thousand miles away.
There were four days of love and wonder in the streets.
At the beginning of December, we flew towards Los Angeles: my future home, but who would have known back then?
Oh...Los Angeles....I could see the blue sky, the sun, the palm trees....60 and something degrees ( that's like around 20 degrees in C), and remember it is winter. We went to the beach and to all these exotic places to the Caitlin island where he proposed...for a moment there life was just a fairy tale and then the chock...I'm gonna leave here...this would be my home...but wait...: I don't have my family ( my mom, my dad, my sister), my friends, my job....I don't know this town, these highways are too large, I need a new driving license, you can not do much if you don't have a car ( the city is literarily HUGE) and I don't like the food, I miss the "ciorba" and "sarmale" and all the Romanian flavors.
So, my soul was torn. I had an amazing fiance, the man of my dreams but I was supposed to compromise so much to be with him. Was it worth it?
Looking back I can answer: YES, EVERYTHING WAS WORTH IT!!!!!!! And I'm so happy that I just followed my heart.
Below, I will just list in no particular order some of the reasons I love leaving in this city and that why it doesn't compare with living in Romania:
- people are polite in traffic: no unnecessary honking, no dirty words, no obscene signs;
- drivers do not cut in front of you, each of the driver will stay in his lane;
- you will never see cars parked all over the place, in fact even the smallest shop has parking spots for its clients;
- every store has a ramp for handicapped persons/strollers;
- every store has a family room where you can nurse or change your baby or at least a changing table in the ladies room;
- smoking is not allowed in any public places, not restaurants, not clubs, no where; you can take your baby with you in the restaurant without hesitation; I was a big time smoker in Romania, I quit smoking 2 years ago as the laws of the city helped me a lot;
- pet owners are not allowed to walk with their animals on the street without having them on the leash; there are special places, called dog parks where dogs can wonder and play freely under the owner supervision;
- you can jog on the street, by yourself or with whomever you want without being afraid that somebody would honk at you, yelled at you etc;
- you go in the doctor office and you're actually treated as a human being, you can have an opinion, you are heard, you are respected as a person;
- people respect your own personal space, they don't touch your baby if they don't ask for permission, they don't make comments about how you should raise your kids;
- people are kind, polite and respectful; they open the door for an expectant mother, a mother with a baby, an old person or for whomever in need;
- people are generous, they just donate the stuff they don't use to other people that could use it; you can see cars staying in lines at the donation centers;
I don't want to mislead my readers in believing that I leave in the perfect place as there is not such thing on planet Earth. Living in a big city as Los Angeles is both pleasant and unpleasant, there is also a lot of bad stuff happening, high criminality and gang fighting in certain areas.
So far, every time I walked out the door with my son, my hubby and my dog I've encountered only pleasant situations.
That's what living in the City of Angels means for me.

BRYCE and the process of sleeping

I thought of writing this post especially because I'm really interested in how his sleep patterns will develop as well as as a testimony for our future kids.
From the first day we brought Bryce home from the hospital we realized more and more each day what an interested person he is and also a very determined, kinda of independent one, if you will; I know it's a strange concept for babies but this is the feeling that we get as the days go by and it just becomes stronger and stronger.
He just had a way of teaching me how to trust him and as crazy as it sounds, being a first time mom, I just followed it.
These are some examples:
- when I've started giving him formula, I was afraid I would overfed him; Bryce never drunk more than he needed, he would push away the bottle or just turned his head;
- when I swaddled him at night, I remembered he was already 4 months and half and still doing it and thinking if it was ok, reading about it, until one night when he just wiggled until I've let him free and he fell asleep and never swaddled him again;
What about his sleep?
You read and hear all kind of stuff about it; people are giving you advices: "Oh, he's 6 months old and he doesn't sleep all night long? Do you give him a bottle of cereals before he goes to sleep? bla, bla, bla". I generally don't listen to these kind of talks; I strongly believe every baby is different and that is very hard to set up a general rule especially when it comes to sleep;
So, how does my baby sleep at six months of age?
During daytime, he's a 3 hours napper: meaning that every 3 hours he needs to go back to sleep, no matter what.
So:
-if he wakes up @ 7:00 am he will go back to the nap morning @ around 10:00 am;
-if he wakes up @ 8:00 am he will go back to the nap morning @ around 11:00 am;
This morning nap usually lasts for about 45 minutes to 1 hour.
The lunch nap is happening 3 hours after the above hours, so:
- at around 1:00 -2:00 pm and it is the longest one and lasts for about 1- 2 hours
The afternoon nap is the shortest one, around 30-45 minutes, usually around 5:00 pm.
Now, at night, I'm still a little bit confused, as I don't seem to see any kind of pattern or maybe there is one and because I'm too sleepy I don't see it.:) So, usually he goes to bed @ around 7:30-8:00 pm. He sleeps for about 3 hours, wakes up, eats, goes back to sleep and after that, as he sleeps in between us, he pretty much wakes up, I would say every 2 hours, eats, goes back to sleep. There are some random nights where he just wakes up like wide awake and has an appetite for playing and talking.
So, having said that, I'm left wondering: should I trust my baby in the matter of sleep as well? I guess, I should. Because, as unpleasant as it is for us at night, putting all the hours together, he does sleep around 12-14 hours a day. He does not look sleep deprived, he's totally full of energy and well rested.
And just to end in an optimistic note, I've read this article in "The American baby" magazine, saying that in the first year of life baby schedule changes so much in so many different ways that it's hard to get in a routine so parents should not feel frustrated about it.
But, I MUST ADMIT I LOOK FORWARD TO LONG HOURS SLEEPING NIGHTS. :)