Poop - the lesser of the evils?

Yes, poop, if I have to choose I choose poop!!! Let me give the scenario and your options...

It is 3:00am and you just finished a feeding, the burping went well and of course the little one has received their dose of Mylecon. You begin to sway the baby on their side, while swaddled and you continously shhh baby (yes 4/5 of the 5 Ss). Baby goes to sleep, limp in your arms in fact, so you slowly place baby into the bassinet/crib. Fingers always crossed that she will stay asleep, but knowing full well that as soon as your head hits the pillow one of three things will happen:

1. Eyes open and are as alert as ever

2. Hiccups begin

3. She poops

Well, I have to say that the eyes opening is the worst. I am tired at 3:00am and my patience is shot. Eyes opening has the potential of causes hours of further swaying and shhhing. Mattingly loves to be swaddled when she is asleep but absolutely HATES it if she is awake. I tried to lay on my pillow in the hopes that she will fall asleep on her own, but my little Hercules will kick and pull at her arms. I hear groans from the bassinet as if she is an olympic weightlifter and than the inevitable, the velcro on the swaddle begins to tear. I can't help but laugh at how ridiculous this is. Just go to sleep! But no, she either burts through the swaddle or realizes that she can't and begins to scream. I then must remove her from the swaddle and begin the Ss until she is asleep enough for a re-swaddle. This process can take hours so I would certainly say that eyes opening is the worst.

Hiccups frustrated me at first. They begin about 5 minutes after Mattingly is snug as a bug in her bassinet. They cause her to spit up a bit and of course they wake her up. The good news is that I have a 50% chance that she will fall back asleep on her own after the hiccups have run their course. But, I also have a 50% chance that these hiccups wake her up for good and I am back to square 1. So I lay in bed, listening to the hiccups and trying not to get to comfortable since I know full well that I may need to jump out of bed to avoid her screaming for too long and waking my husband who has to work in the morning. What I like about the hiccups is that 50% chance!

The last scenario is a big stinky poop. I was not sure what to do about this at first. Changing the diaper seems like the 'good parent' thing to do, but this involves unswaddling and a diaper change often wakes her up. Not changing her diaper seems like the 'bad parent' thing to do. Leaving your child sleep in their own poop and of course she could wake up screaming about the poop any minute did not seem like a good option. So, at first I changed her everytime, and then one night I was just too tired to deal with it. I think I sort of hoped that she would start screaming about the dirty diaper and wake up her dad and he could change her. Yes, this sounded like a good plan to me! Miraculously though she seems quite content to have a poopy diaper and did not wake up again for several hours, which was on schedule with her feeding time anyway. So now I leave her alone and have found that the pooping itself helps her tummy and helps her to sleep more soundly.

So I choose poop and I choose to leave my precious little girl with a poopy diaper until she directs me otherwise.

Feeding Fun

The initial challenges of breastfeeding included the 'latching' concept and how to hold her for the best digestive angle. The we move onto keeping her latched and keeping her awake during each feeding. We finally got this all under control and thought we were down to just figuring out a schedule. Until yesterday... Miss fussy decided she wanted nothing to do with traditional feeding methods and instead she wanted to throw herself off of me and as the milk continued to flow from my body she would put her hands all through it so that her hands were covered in milk. She would then put her hands in her mouth as the way to get the milk. Well, this did not work very well and made quite a mess. It has been a challenge getting her back on track but today has gone well so far. Hopefully she does not get any new fun feeding ideas!

Stinky Diapers

To breastfeed or not to breatfeed... that is the question asked by many expecting mothers and unless the decision is made for you due to medical reasons, most mothers begin by weighing the pros and cons. One of the many pros that everyone tells you is that the poop doesn't smell if you breastfeed. Well, I would like for everyone to clarify the word "smell". I am breastfeeding and I must say that those diapers are stinky! When I brought this up to someone who continued to mention how great it was that they don't smell her response scared me... just wait until she starts eating regular food!!! WHAT - apparantly the diaper is going to be 10 times as stinky as it is now and I am suppose to enjoy this 'mild smell' while it lasts. Jeez.