60 posts tagged “baby”

My little baby isn't so little! She had a check up today at the doctor. She's 21 days old, we were last in at 6 days old. She gained 25oz in 15 days! She's grown 2 1/4" inches since birth! She's now 80th percentile for weight, 95th for length, and 85th for head circumference. This is quite the change from her brother, who (except for his birth weight) has always been below the 50th percentile for weight and up until the last 6 months or so has been 40th percentile for height. My little girl just loves to eat, so I suppose that makes sense, but it's still a shock to me, who is used to having a smaller baby.

I started having contractions around 5:30pm Monday. I only felt them in my lower back and lower abdomen and they were completely bearable. They felt just like the braxton hicks contractions I had been having for 5+ weeks, only with some lower back tightening. I knew that could mean back labor, so I kept in mind that it could be the real thing, but mostly ignored them.

I started timing contractions around 9:30pm. After an hour, I could see that they were mostly about a minute long but varied in frequency--anywhere from 3-7 minutes apart, bouncing around. During this time, I finished packing what I needed in the hospital bag and made some cookies for the nurses.

I actually called L&D, not to see if I should come in, but if they thought it might be early labor. I figured they'd know! The nurse said that it probably was. I asked her if I should get my son to his grandparents. She said it couldn't hurt, and worst case, I'd sleep all night, wake up and realize it wasn't really labor, and get my son in the morning. So my husband took our son to his parents and I decided to try to sleep. I think this was around 11pm.

Only I couldn't sleep. Which is funny, because I was normally tired all the time. I've heard that women get a burst of energy right before labor. So I had another clue that it might be it. Because of this energy, I wasn't able to get to sleep, even though I could still ignore the contractions.

During the night, they started picking up slightly in intensity, but not really in frequency. Around 1am, I decided that they were strong enough that it was probably the real deal. I wanted to wait a bit, because they were still bearable. Around 1:30 I had one that seemed to meet the "can't walk or talk through it" limit that the doctor told me would signal needing to go in. So I told my husband it was time to go.

Around 2am we arrived at the hospital and I was 6-7cm. I was told that if I wanted an epidural, I had to ask then, because it takes a while to get the IV for fluids placed and get the anesthesiologist there. Since things were completely bearable, despite the fact that I was having back labor, I decided I would go natural.

Around 4am, I was checked and was 8-9cm. Within half an hour, I was exhausted. I hadn't had any sleep that night, and was starting to fall asleep between contractions. I decided to have them break my water so that I could get to pushing before I was too tired. The doctor came and broke my water. There was heavy meconium staining in the water. So there went my plan to catch my baby. With meconium in the water, they want to keep the baby as quiet as possible so that they can suction and check for meconium in the throat before the baby cries and pulls it into her lungs. So the new plan was that she would be placed on my tummy, have her cord clamped right away, brought to the warmer where NICU nurses would suction and check her.

 

My sweet baby girl at home

She was brought to the NICU and tests were run. She had low hemoglobin levels and needed a blood transfusion. As of right now, we don't know why her hemoglobin levels were so low. She had to get 48 hours of antibiotics because of the meconium. Wednesday night she was able to nurse for the first time and has been nursing like a champ. Thursday around noon, she got to come home.

Recovery has been great. Some parts might be better from pushing for only 7 minutes compared to the 2.5 I did with my son. Some might be because of the lack of epidural--at least the immediate recovery. Because of this, I'm not sure if I would get an epidural again or if I would try without again--despite telling my husband that I never wanted to go without one again. Afterall, the 7 minutes of agony were shorter than the bad recovery time that can be blamed on the epidural.

Just an update that I had my baby girl earlier this week. She had a rough start and had to be in the NICU for two days. But we're home now and baby and I are both doing great!

I'll post more details later, when I'm doing doing a midnight feeding.

Over at Baby Cheapskate, she posted a list of Top 10 Most Useless Baby Items. I disagree with 3 of the top ten! So I was thinking, if I had to do it again, and could only get 15 items over $15 to use in the first year, what would I get? I put the price limit on to exclude things like bottles, clothing, diapers, etc.

1. Convertible Car Seat. Many babies outgrow the infant carseats before they are big enough to face forward, so you wind up having to get a convertible one anyway.
2.  Baby Carrier. I wore my son when he was too little to sit in the shopping cart by himself. When he was really little, he'd fall asleep almost immediately upon being put in it. We still use it for hikes where we can't use a stroller and he'd get tired too quickly. I got a Moby D wrap, because of it's versatility. I wound up not using it in positions other than a standard front or back carry. I think I'd get a Mei Tai style carrier. They tend to be more expensive, but they're also easier and quicker to put on.
3. Stroller. They do have their usefulness, even if you have a baby carrier. Particularly when you are going to the zoo or some other place where you want your child to be able to see things without having to peer over your shoulder.
4. Portable Crib. AKA a pack-n-play. This is useful to me because of traveling. I go to visit my mom a few times a year, so it would make no sense for her to own a crib for such occasions. I also don't think I would trust the cribs that some hotels have available.
5. Crib & Mattress. I'm counting this as one, even though it's technically two items.
6. A Comfortable Chair for the Nursery. Preferably one that rocks or glides. Great for nursing in the middle of the night, great for soothing a fussy baby. Get one that goes with the rest of the decor in your house, because you most likely won't have a need for a nursery forever.
7. Boppy Pillow. It makes multitasking/hands-free breastfeeding so much easier. I would eat, read, or work on the computer while nursing.
8. Breast Pump. I did a lot of pumping in the beginning because of some breast feeding problems we were having (in order to keep my supply up while giving myself a chance to heal). Even if you don't plan to go back to work, it is useful to be able to pump to relieve engorgement or to be able to go out on a date without baby.
   
9. Bottle Sterilizer. Did you know that your dishwasher does not sterilize? I got a cheap(er) microwave style sterilizer.  I battled thrush (one of the many breast feeding issues) and had to sterilize pumps, bottles, pacifiers, and anything else that touched my nipples or the baby's mouth. I wasn't about to boil water for 15-20 minutes every time I fed him. This could obviously be put off unless you develop a need to sterilize things (a premature baby, a baby with immune issues, or thrush all being good reasons).
   
10. Food Mill or Hand Blender. I made my son's food, so I found this very valuable. You obviously wouldn't need it if you don't plan to make your own baby food.
    
11. High Chair or Booster Seat. We got a portable booster seat that attaches to your existing chairs. Mostly because it takes up way less space than a traditional high chair. We wound up getting a high chair from my work for free that is a smaller one. The benefit of an actual high chair over the booster seat is that you can have your child sit in an actual high chair before they can sit up. We'd put our son in the high chair during dinner time before he ate solids, just so that he could be with us.
12. Diaper Pail. With one caveat--once your child is eating solids, their poop will smell. You can't expect the pail to contain all of that smell. I dump solid waste into the toilet because I use cloth diapers. If I didn't use cloth, a diaper pail would become a bucket of poop. You may just want to frequently take the trash out at that point if you aren't going to dump solids.
13. Changing Pad. I have a big one with contoured sides and I put it on a dresser that I already owned. I'm pretty sure that the sides have helped keep him from rolling off. My guy is a little too long for it now, but I don't want to have to get down onto the floor to change him all the time--partly because he would run off in the middle of the change if he had that opportunity. I'm going to be sad when I finally have to stop using the changing pad.
14. Hanging Diaper Stacker. We hung a hook on the wall to hang the stacker on. The prefold diapers I use fit perfectly in it, and it lets me easily see if my diaper supply is running low so I can start diaper laundry. If I were using disposables, it might be less useful, but still think that having a place to store diapers in a way that you can see if you're running low would be useful. And then you can toss the plastic bag that the disposables come in. I know that if I had a bag of diapers laying around, that my son would take all of the diapers out and decide that the bag was a toy.
15. Diaper Bag. I'm not one to have lots of purses or bags, so I have one large enough to use for a day long outing and use it for any outing longer than an hour.
    

I found a food that Wiggle Worm won't eat: Scrambled Eggs.

This kid will eat anything. Chili, raw onion, quinoa, tuna melts. But scrambled eggs? Nope. I put a bit in his mouth, he made this half hearted cry, and pulled it out.

My son doesn't talk much. He can say "da-da", but almost everything he likes or wants is "da-da", be it dad, mom, a dog, or the tiger at the zoo. But one thing he can do is make car noises. Give him a toy car, and he'll push it and go "Brrrrrr". It must just be something boys are born knowing how to do.

Birthday Cupcake

My little Wiggle Worm is one-year-old today. We had a mini party for him yesterday (The Husband, myself, my mom, and my step-dad). He seemed very confused when we all sang him happy birthday. And at first didn't know what to do with the cupcake we put on his tray (it's much larger than any other food stuff we've given him).

He put his hand in the frosting, and squished it between his fingers. It look a little bit of help from our parts to get him to realize it was food. He didn't seem overly excited about it, like one might expect. After he finished the edible parts of the cupcake (he had more fun crumbling than eating), Grandpa gave him some corn on the cob. He loved that. More so than the cupcake, it seemed. Go figure.

My guy has had a few colds (runny nose with most, a cough maybe once or twice). He had a very mild flu. Ear infection in both ears at the same time. But today was a sick baby first. He threw up. All over his crib during his morning nap. He was covered, head to toe, in vomit. So I gave him a bath and called the nurse line while I was getting him dressed. During that phone call, he threw up again.

So I'm on directions to only nurse him for the next 3-4 hours. And to be sure to not overfed him and make his tummy too full. He's sitting on my lap, sucking his thumb and kicking my arm. At least he's not acting sick.  

I mentioned in the comments of my last entry that Wiggle Worm had decided to boycott all non-pureed foods. Well, the other day, he seemed really interested in the leftover Spanish rice that I was eating for lunch. So I gave him some. And he loved it. More than bananas. He kept lunging forward and grunting/whining/squealing that he wanted more.

There was a repeat performance the next day with the pasta I was eating. And then last night with the tortilla pie we had for dinner. And then today with the stuffed green pepper I had for lunch. He ate ground beef! He hadn't eaten that before, he always spit it out as non-food. I'm now going to have to prepare larger portions of food for lunch and dinner, because it looks like Wiggle Worm is eating with the family now!

Wiggle Worm has been slow to talk. If he sees a baby, and I say to him, "Say 'Baby'", he's make out something that sounds like "baby". And sometimes I can get him to say "bababe" for "Bubbles". But that's about all he would do. Well, he was sitting happily on my lap just now, saying all sorts of d-sound syllables. So I said to him, "Say 'Dada'" and he did! Repeatedly! So I went to get the phone, all the while he is saying "dada, dada, dada" and I called The Husband. And of course, as soon as I dialed, he stopped. And he wouldn't say it for my husband to hear. Hopefully when Daddy comes home from work, he'll get excited enough to say it again.

So last week was a sick week. My husband had the flu and I had a cold. And of course Wiggle Worm had to get both of them from us. He had flu symptoms this weekend. He seemed to be doing better on Monday (at least his fever was gone), but then he got a horrible cough. This morning I noticed he was warm and took his temperature. It was back up. So because of the fever combined with the congested sounding cough, we brought him to the doctor today.

His lungs sound good, so it's not pneumonia. But he has an ear infection. In both ears. Poor little guy. So he's on antibiotics now. Hopefully he'll start feeling better soon. You just have to feel sorry for a sick baby. They probably feel awful and have no idea why. And then they wonder why mom and dad aren't doing anything other than poking them with thermometers and squirting funny tasting liquid into their mouth.