Breast feeding has been such a learning experience for me in every way. I’ll touch more in the subject later but this was a very interesting fact I learned early on which might be of interest to some. I attended Dr. Newmans’ fabu clinic in A-dot and while I was there some chick mentioned that breast fed babies don’t always poop a lot. One woman's kid - a poop record breaker - didn’t have a dump for 31 days! Apparently one of the perks of breast milk is that it is absorbed really well into the babies body and sometimes it is all used up which negates the need for the little wonder to do a pooper.
Finn tested this theory and at around 2 months just stopped pooping. At first I was alarmed but remembered this poop record breaker so I just sat back and waiting. One day, two days, three days...ok starting to worry...four days...five days...please kid poop already...six days and then on fateful day seven we experienced the poopinator. When I say there was a lot of shite, I mean there was a LOT of shite. All down the leg, all up the back, all over mommy (good times) and all over almost every surface of the change table. So if your kiddie decides to absorb most of the good old breast milk and stops pooping..better start preparing for the poopinator to emerge and keep them off the white couch...
Sunday, March 29, 2009
The Swaddle Saved my life
Until I was in the hospital hours after labour I had no idea how ‘the swaddle’ would change my life. The nurses parlayed the technique and we began to wrap Finn like a hot dog...mmm hot dogs...We fell out of the habit soon after we got home as we were struggling to remember a thousand things at once and we thought he was growing too big for it...boy was I wrong. One fateful day as I was whining to a girlfriend that he wasn’t sleeping in his bassinet very well, she asked if I had used the swaddle she gave me as a shower gift. “Um, no” I sheepishly replied as I had forgotten all about the swaddle tucked in my drawer. They are created by a company called ‘swaddle me’ and that was the changing day in my life (a la Dr. Phil). We began to swaddle and he started to really sleep well in his crib on his own - hoo ray! I mean look at how happy this mom & baby is :)
As Finn grew (at 2 months he looked as tall as a 2 year old), we knew our days were numbered on the swaddle. Then we took a trip and forgot it - how the hell did that happen Troy...I say that to my husband as he took it out the luggage and didn’t put it back in - AHHHH! So we jimmy rigged a blanket and some pins to wrap him up toasty and lasted the weekend. We eventually found they made a larger size swaddle - eureka! - and are still wrapping him like a sausage every night and every nap. He sleeps 10 hours a night normally but his teeny toes are starting to touch the ends of the blanket and it makes me sweat. Should I just cut a hole in the bottom, or resort to duct tape (ok joking child services...). We are going to start the swaddle wean in the next few weeks. Leave one arm out, then the other for a week each and see how it turns out...but to all you new moms out there - remember this...the swaddle will change your life!
As Finn grew (at 2 months he looked as tall as a 2 year old), we knew our days were numbered on the swaddle. Then we took a trip and forgot it - how the hell did that happen Troy...I say that to my husband as he took it out the luggage and didn’t put it back in - AHHHH! So we jimmy rigged a blanket and some pins to wrap him up toasty and lasted the weekend. We eventually found they made a larger size swaddle - eureka! - and are still wrapping him like a sausage every night and every nap. He sleeps 10 hours a night normally but his teeny toes are starting to touch the ends of the blanket and it makes me sweat. Should I just cut a hole in the bottom, or resort to duct tape (ok joking child services...). We are going to start the swaddle wean in the next few weeks. Leave one arm out, then the other for a week each and see how it turns out...but to all you new moms out there - remember this...the swaddle will change your life!
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Don’t be a hero
As most of you new moms do, I attended a birthing class pre-babe as I wanted to make sure I was prepared for giving birth in every way. I wanted a natural birth. I wanted to sit there with my hubby and do my breathing in all the groovy positions, and bring this little baby into the world gracefully and magically.
What I didn’t realize was that there is no class in the world that would have prepared me for what I was to experience and apparently I had an amazing birth. The nurses said I was born to have kids and that I should have 12 kids...I was a super hero at birth! A super hero who wanted her toe nails pulled off because that would be less painful then squeezing out this baby.
I started labour at midnight and went from 2 to 9 cms in an hour and a half. I had my baby in a record 4.5 hours...sounds dreamy right? Wrong. It was so ingrained in my head that natural is better and that epidurals are not necessary, and that I should be a woman and claim what is mine in this world...the ability to bear children (AHHH, light shining down from the heavens). I can’t stress this enough to all you folks out there who thinks that you are going to ‘try’ it naturally...DON’T BE A HERO. Get the epidural, take the drugs...do whatever you can to stop the pain...trust me on this.
What I didn’t realize was that there is no class in the world that would have prepared me for what I was to experience and apparently I had an amazing birth. The nurses said I was born to have kids and that I should have 12 kids...I was a super hero at birth! A super hero who wanted her toe nails pulled off because that would be less painful then squeezing out this baby.
I started labour at midnight and went from 2 to 9 cms in an hour and a half. I had my baby in a record 4.5 hours...sounds dreamy right? Wrong. It was so ingrained in my head that natural is better and that epidurals are not necessary, and that I should be a woman and claim what is mine in this world...the ability to bear children (AHHH, light shining down from the heavens). I can’t stress this enough to all you folks out there who thinks that you are going to ‘try’ it naturally...DON’T BE A HERO. Get the epidural, take the drugs...do whatever you can to stop the pain...trust me on this.
Motherhood - the largest secret club in the world
So anyone who isn’t a mom should really just stop reading because yes you will say that you know new moms have no time and that things are going to be hard. That no sleep is going to be sucky and all that jazz. But let me tell you that I thought all these things too and strangely I still didn’t seem to believe a word of it. I thought..hmmm I am sure it is hard, but I can handle it. I mean how bad can waking through the night be? I’ll be off work and I’ll be able to sleep when he sleeps during the day so I am thinking that a lot of new moms are wimps and it would be something I can handle. Heck, I even said I was going back to work after a month!
My friend coined this term for me while I chatted with her post baby...motherhood is the greatest secret club in the world. It is SO true in so many ways. For one, you will never understand sleep deprivation until you have to go through it. You will never know the fear and anxiety you have when you lay your kid down to sleep and pray they give you 2 hours of sleep. You will never understand why it takes an entire day to feed, change and put a baby to sleep while you still are sitting in your pjs. No, I can not explain this to any non-mom, you just have to wait until you pop out a little bebe and then and only then will you be a part of the club and you will sit there covered in baby puke while you watch other people have a life as you certainly do not and you will say...I really had no idea.
My friend coined this term for me while I chatted with her post baby...motherhood is the greatest secret club in the world. It is SO true in so many ways. For one, you will never understand sleep deprivation until you have to go through it. You will never know the fear and anxiety you have when you lay your kid down to sleep and pray they give you 2 hours of sleep. You will never understand why it takes an entire day to feed, change and put a baby to sleep while you still are sitting in your pjs. No, I can not explain this to any non-mom, you just have to wait until you pop out a little bebe and then and only then will you be a part of the club and you will sit there covered in baby puke while you watch other people have a life as you certainly do not and you will say...I really had no idea.
Friday, March 20, 2009
A little tidbit about me...
So ok, before any granola moms out there take a look at this and start berating me with hate emails about how motherhood is a ‘gift from god’ and breast feeding is a natural wonder...I have to say a few things. I LOVE my son, he is the light of my life and I look forward to every moment I spend with him. However, sometimes life isn’t fun and you have a bad day and you just want to vent and tell the world that you aren’t a bad mom - you just had a ‘moment’. That is what this is all about. A little spot in the world where I can tell my story and the stories of others in order to shed some light onto the myth of mommyhood and how it has transformed my life for better and for sometimes worse.
To start I have to say that I never really thought I had a mothering bone in my body. I liked babies...well the thought of babies really. I had a picture in my head of strolling down the street in my lovely ensemble that screams ‘I am a Yummy Mummy!’, with my expensive designer stroller, matching cool diaper bag, oh and my lovely 74 pound golden doodle dog prancing along my side. In real life, the image is of me barreling down the street with gym pants on, a diaper bag which although it is awesome, it won’t stay up on my shoulder as the strap is too short, and giant Clifford pulling me all over creation trying to get attention from strangers by jumping on them while I try to keep my designer stroller upright. Notice that I haven’t mentioned Finn yet, my little boy, as he is blissfully asleep in the stroller as per usual which is the only thing in my ‘vision’ that turned out to be true.
I’m going to skip the chit chat as we all know that when you have a kid you don’t have time to pee some days let alone form a cohesive sentence. What a great segway into my first story...
To start I have to say that I never really thought I had a mothering bone in my body. I liked babies...well the thought of babies really. I had a picture in my head of strolling down the street in my lovely ensemble that screams ‘I am a Yummy Mummy!’, with my expensive designer stroller, matching cool diaper bag, oh and my lovely 74 pound golden doodle dog prancing along my side. In real life, the image is of me barreling down the street with gym pants on, a diaper bag which although it is awesome, it won’t stay up on my shoulder as the strap is too short, and giant Clifford pulling me all over creation trying to get attention from strangers by jumping on them while I try to keep my designer stroller upright. Notice that I haven’t mentioned Finn yet, my little boy, as he is blissfully asleep in the stroller as per usual which is the only thing in my ‘vision’ that turned out to be true.
I’m going to skip the chit chat as we all know that when you have a kid you don’t have time to pee some days let alone form a cohesive sentence. What a great segway into my first story...
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