July 2010 Babes! What's your newborn up to?

[megincl]

Thought I'd start a thread here....

What's life with a babe like for you?

[tarasattva]

We're closing in on six weeks and we seem to be in the middle of a growth spurt (up every 1.5 - 2 hrs last night - 5 times! usually he's only up twice).

He's awake a lot more these days and that's both wonderful and exhausting.

Unfortunately I've had antibiotics for severe mastitis (spent a day in the hospital getting iv antibiotics) and it's completely messed up his gut. Even probiotics twice a day aren't doing the trick so we've got a lot of gas/colic/hysterical crying which is breaking my heart (and my sanity).

But he is beautiful and big (9# 5oz at birth, 11# 12oz at 5 weeks) and wonderful.

Big sis has been great - the only issue so far is keeping her from getting him out of the swing to carry him around the house.

[Surfacing]

Hi Gals!

It's so sweet to see dd1 enjoying her baby brother, and I've really let her take the reigns with diapering him at times, bringing little outfits for him to change in to. She likes to hold him, and talk to him. She is someone who can quiet/calm ds's crying besides me. It really warms my heart to see her love for him and to see his adoration of her (even though he's only 4 wks old, it's apparent)!

Life is tough for my 2 y.o. but she FINALLY is showing glimmers of adjusting. :

Ds is so delicious and yummy. He's building chubbiness and is soooo cute. He's developed some bad habits nursing, but is still nursing well and gaining well.

I'm tired.

[somegirl99]

Thanks for the thread!

I can't believe how much DS has grown, he started at 6 lbs 3oz and at 4 weeks he no longer fits the newborn clothes or prefolds. He's all cute and chubby. His next appointment is in a week, very curious to find out how much he weighs.

He has more awake time now but doesn't seem to be sleeping for longer stretches. I came down with a head cold yesterday (I hardly ever got sick until I got pregnant, boo) and nursing and calming him during violent bouts of sneezing is challenging. Tired here too.

[Terrilein]

We've just got past the one month mark. Things are still quite the rollercoaster here. Healthwise I'm a total wreck. The household is also suffering. Otherwise, everyone is ok. We also just started cloth diapering yesterday. A friend of mine gave me her stash and I wanted to see if ds was big enough for them yet (they're kinda AIO's). Well, around the tummy they fit fine, but the legs have huge gaps that I'm not sure he'll ever fill! So I'm tired of using sposies and bought a used set of tie-on dipes on ebay (got so lucky finding them) and we've been using them with the liners from the AIO's. So far so good! Even DP is managing very well! Yeah!

[Surfacing]

My guy still fits some of his NB clothes at 4 weeks. Eek! (insert what is I'm sure, needless worry)

Good to hear baby is growing well, Somegirl!

Terri - what brand are the tie ons you got on ebay?

[Terrilein]

Originally Posted by Surfacing

Terri - what brand are the tie ons you got on ebay?

I have no idea. I just saw that they we're tie-ons and in pretty good shape so I just nabbed them! In Germany they're probably Disana or Lotties. I'm sure there are other brands, but those are the ones I hear of the most.

[majazama]

nak.. my nb is doing great.. smiling at us lots but has fussy times. is starting to prefer me, aside from the nursing. seems to need lots of movement and distraction to keep him happy.. hes a boy indeed. he likes to practice standing and can hold his head up pretty good already. strong little boy, just like his sisters.

he soaks his diapers CONSTANTLY. like he pees twice every 30 min. or more so i think hes probably getting enough milk, lol. EC is hard when baby pees SO MUCH.

he has baby acne, which i really am trying to get rid of. i wash his face everyday a few times, with just water. And has the cradle cap starting, and i can't help but pick at it. what do you do for cradle cap[?

what baby products do you use for diaper rash and batheing? i didn't want to use anything, but find that this kid is pretty oily and is always getting covered in milk/spitup/sweat/pee.. yk

[majazama]

Originally Posted by Surfacing

My guy still fits some of his NB clothes at 4 weeks. Eek! (insert what is I'm sure, needless worry)

so does my guy.. everyone is different.

tso k

[nmelanson]

DS2 will be 4 weeks tomorrow; he is growing fast, as in gained 13oz last week. What a difference from DS1! He started off at 8lbs 3oz, went down to 7lbs 6oz on day 3 and as of Friday was up to 9lbs 13oz! He's mostly getting bigger overall, not chubby.
He has some periods of quiet wakefulness but mostly just likes to sleep and eat. He's terribly gassy and doesn't poop regularly (making him grumpy most of the time when he is awake). On our first midwife home visit the midwife said that you know a baby's gaining if they have 2-3 poops the size of a loonie (Canadian $1 coin) daily -- well, he doesn't poop daily, but he definitely empties his whole piggy bank at the same time when he does!!! Tarasattva, now that I read your post, I wonder if this is happening because of the antibiotics I had for GBS during labour? I hadn't had antibiotics since I was nine years old before that! I'm getting some infant probiotics tomorrow.
DS1 3.5 years has been a handful - gets into everything and is not listening AT ALL! I know it's because he's bored and it's hard for us to do anything/go out for long because of how much DS2 nurses. I feel bad. However, DS1 does love DS2 to pieces - he doesn't seem to be blaming all the trouble he's getting in on baby brother (thank goodness). I think he'll be a very caring and doting big brother. I love my boys.

Majazama, I want to attempt to EC too, but DS2 pees almost constantly too! Also, since he doesn't have a poop schedule either, it is next to impossible at this point.

[somegirl99]

Another pee machine here, and we wanted to do EC as well. At this point I am just trying to make the cue sounds when he happens to pee during changing.

He absolutely hates to be wet, which is a challenge right now, but I'm hoping that will come in handy later on when we are really trying EC. We have 3 dozen prefolds and are doing diaper laundry daily.

majazama, for diaper rash we are using CJ's BUTTer and it works great and is CD-friendly. It got great reviews at diaperpin.com. We have the stick and it is really easy to use. http://www.cjsewingroom.com/?p=327

[Terrilein]

Majazamama - I use Weleda products for bottom rashes. As for the cradle c(r)ap, dd had that for the longest time. I would massage oil lightly over the areas and then use a soft brush or very carefully comb the areas to loosen up the junk. Then I'd shampoo her head. Oil dissolves oil so it worked really well for us. When she was older and had hair I had to wash her hair like 3 times - drying it inbetween or else it wouldn't work to get the oil out of her hair. If we couldn't get the washing's done in one day (she hated getting her hair washed) then she looked like she had attacked a tub of vaseline. At that age, it would be age appropriate behavior.

[megincl]

Originally Posted by majazama

nak.. my nb is doing great.. smiling at us lots but has fussy times. is starting to prefer me, aside from the nursing. seems to need lots of movement and distraction to keep him happy.. hes a boy indeed. he likes to practice standing and can hold his head up pretty good already. strong little boy, just like his sisters.

well, our girl is similar -- needing lots of movement and distraction to stay happy, so I'll assert it's not just a gendered thing! Sometimes doing all of that "work" is tiring, I'll admit. Maybe can we please just get 10 plain old calm minutes?

On the flip side, she's an amazing sleeper at night and is doing great with nursing, bottles (my wife, the gestational parent) is back at work already (ugh!), etc.

Best of all, 7yo big brother is amazing with Wy!

Really loving hearing what everyone else has to share.

(and if anyone has a babe with suspected reflux, we do too, and I'd love to hear what you're trying to do to help!)

[matthia]

Originally Posted by majazama

nak.. my nb is doing great.. smiling at us lots but has fussy times. is starting to prefer me, aside from the nursing. seems to need lots of movement and distraction to keep him happy.. hes a boy indeed. he likes to practice standing and can hold his head up pretty good already. strong little boy, just like his sisters.

he soaks his diapers CONSTANTLY. like he pees twice every 30 min. or more so i think hes probably getting enough milk, lol. EC is hard when baby pees SO MUCH.

he has baby acne, which i really am trying to get rid of. i wash his face everyday a few times, with just water. And has the cradle cap starting, and i can't help but pick at it. what do you do for cradle cap[?

what baby products do you use for diaper rash and batheing? i didn't want to use anything, but find that this kid is pretty oily and is always getting covered in milk/spitup/sweat/pee.. yk

This sounds EXACTLY like us! except my lo doesn't smile a ton yet, or at least not what I think of as real smiles, just lots of little sleep smiles...

And I totally hear you on the EC with a leaky baby. I have three dozen flats (I'm using CD as back-up full-time) and I have to do diaper laundry about every 30 hours or so... So far, I'm just trying to catch the ones I can time, like after he feeds (even if he peed during the feeding) and often when he starts to fuss he needs to go so I sometimes manage to catch that one too.

I haven't tried it yet but I have a friend who used a really soft bristled toothbrush in the bath for cradle cap. As for products, we use Dr. Bronner's Baby Mild soap in the bath when he's especially smelly. It literally has like 5 ingrediants and it's made from saponified coconut and olive oils, hemp oil and jojoba oil...totally biodegradable and organic.

[expat-mama]

DS started at 4.06 kg and is now 5.2 kg - I thought he was gaining too slowly (annoying nurses at the doc's office told me so, too) but it seems he is doing ok compared to other breastfed babies here! He has TONS of wet dipes a day as well and some GIGANTIC poos...like a mustard explosion once a day in addition to a couple of fart poops.

Originally Posted by majazama

he has baby acne, which i really am trying to get rid of. i wash his face everyday a few times, with just water. And has the cradle cap starting, and i can't help but pick at it. what do you do for cradle cap[?

what baby products do you use for diaper rash and batheing? i didn't want to use anything, but find that this kid is pretty oily and is always getting covered in milk/spitup/sweat/pee.. yk

DS has had baby acne for almost 2 weeks now- I think it's finally going away. Too bad he will have it in his passport and citizenship photos. We use a few tiny squirts of diluted Dr. Bronner's in his bath and thankfully have had no diaper rash at all! We had a little redness around the bum hole for a couple days and put some Hugo Naturals Shea diaper cream on it.

One thing that grosses me out are the morning eye crusties DS gets. Big green eye boogers- sometimes one of his eyes is crusted shut! I clean them and do the massage for clogged tear ducts as well as squirt some breast milk in there, but we have had these eye boogers pretty much since he was born. Hope those will go away soon.

Originally Posted by somegirl99

Thanks for the thread!
He has more awake time now but doesn't seem to be sleeping for longer stretches. I came down with a head cold yesterday (I hardly ever got sick until I got pregnant, boo) and nursing and calming him during violent bouts of sneezing is challenging. Tired here too.

Hope you feel better soon! I'm so scared of getting sick or hurt now with DS depending on me... it must be hard!
We have more awake time too and no longer sleep stretches too.
I don't know if DS needs to sleep more during the day- how much does a 5 week old need to sleep? He'll probably nap for 3 hours total per day and then at night we all are in bed for 8-9 hours with wakings to nurse and change dipes. Doesn't seem like enough for me OR him.

DS is getting to be too cute- cuter each day it seems. He crinkles his nose when he smiles and for the biggest smiles these giant dimples appear in his fat little cheeks. He makes some really cool sounds too and follows us around with his eyes and head. He is getting bigger but not really fat/chubby- just BIG. He still fits into NB orange GMD prefolds, but just barely and with fanning out all the corners to meet with a snappy. The yellow size still seem too big though. He has outgrown NB size in clothing (starting with his FEET- they stopped fitting into footed sleepers at 2 weeks!) and is fully into 0-3 months, I don't think for much longer either. It's all going so fast!

[megincl]

Carseats.

Babe hates being in one. I think she senses it even before she's in. She screams the entire time. Ugh. It is heart wrenching and nerve wracking.

Any hints? I'm feeling a bit trapped as I'm facing life of not going anywhere that I can't walk....(aside from dropping off DS at school, which will prove to be harrowing, potentially).

Help!

[expat-mama]

Originally Posted by megincl

Carseats.

Babe hates being in one. I think she senses it even before she's in. She screams the entire time. Ugh. It is heart wrenching and nerve wracking.

Any hints? I'm feeling a bit trapped as I'm facing life of not going anywhere that I can't walk....(aside from dropping off DS at school, which will prove to be harrowing, potentially).

Help!

We had this problem for a couple of days until I started covering DS's carseat with a light flannel so he can only see out the sides. He hated the street lights going by him at night especially, but it helps in the day time too. He gets upset as soon as the carseat is in the car, but calms right down when I cover it up. Now he really doesn't mind the car at all and just falls right to sleep instead of screaming bloody murder all the time.

Oh- we have him in a bucket seat with a sun canopy on it, so it's easy to drape a flannel over it. I dunno what you'd do in a convertible if that's what you've got.

[somegirl99]

Originally Posted by expat-mama

Hope you feel better soon! I'm so scared of getting sick or hurt now with DS depending on me... it must be hard!

Thanks! Starting to feel better...it's hard to get healthy without enough rest but I've been trying to overload myself with fluids and dug out my neti pot too.

Glad to hear your DS is gaining well!

megincl, good luck with the carseat, that sounds tough.

[Terrilein]

Originally Posted by expat-mama

One thing that grosses me out are the morning eye crusties DS gets. Big green eye boogers- sometimes one of his eyes is crusted shut! I clean them and do the massage for clogged tear ducts as well as squirt some breast milk in there, but we have had these eye boogers pretty much since he was born. Hope those will go away soon.

DS had a clogged tear duct, too. In the hospital they said I could use breastmilk on it, but my mw actually told me NOT to for clogged tear ducts. She said it could actually make things worse. She had us use a saline solution from the pharmacy to clean up ds's eye whenever it started getting nasty during the day as well as the massage. It cleared up within days.
And yeah, the baby acne isn't too cool, either. DS looks a lot better, but he's still got 3 big pimples on his little face.
Otherwise, he's cute and he's growing and he's heavy. I need to get him weighed again. I'm sure he put on another pound or two. Yeah! Breastmilk!

[MummaLitt]

We had a scare 2 weeks ago when the PA called to inform us that her Newborn Screening came back with one mutation for Cystic Fibrosis. The PA had no further information for us and we had to wait 24 hours before we could talk to/see our Pedi. Had a sweat test last Thursday and the results came back almost immediately that she was fine. She's just a carrier of a CF mutation which just means she needs to be cautious when she starts having babies. She will have to either know that her partner is not a carrier or they'll have to have him tested since if he is a carrier then they'd have a 25% chance of having a baby with CF.

Sam is growing fast. Started at 9lbs 2oz (dropped to 8lbs 8oz) and at 4wks was 11lbs 2oz. She's a nursing champ. So strong too. She loves to look around and use her legs - standing, kicking, trying to "crawl".

She's totally different then DS. DS needed to be held all the time. I would spend countless hours sitting in the glider with him sleeping in my lap or in my arms. I can put Sam down in the bouncy seat and she'll fall asleep on her own.

DS used me as a pacifier all the time. Sam - if she isn't eating, she doesn't want the boob near her face.

We're currently dealing with a pretty serious case of heat rash all over her face and head. Pretty sure it's from when we went camping this past weekend and my stepmom made me cover her with a blanket while she was nursing. It's not at red and angry looking anymore but it's still kinda dry and bumpy.

Such a good sleeper too. STTN for the mostpart. We co-sleep so it's hard to say how much she wakes up. DS wakes me up more then she does and he's in his own room most of the night.