Stupid Questions

[*Amy*]

So I have a couple of stupid questions. I thought maybe we could have a thread for all kinds of questions about any little things that don't fit into other threads.

Here are mine:

1. Speaking generally, how long will it take an average baby to reach 15 pounds?

2. How many diaper changes per day (+ night) can I expect, and does this change based on age? (Yes, I am going to do EC as well, but just want to get a general idea.)

[crsta33]

I'm not sure about the first question, but you can expect to change diapers every 2 hours or so, a little less often at night. You can expect to go through 8 - 10 dipes in 24 hours...probably closer to a dozen with cloth. And you can go longer between as they get older and "hold it" longer. When I use cloth I changed pretty much as soon as I noticed the dipe was wet, which was sometimes as often as hourly...there was a time or two she wet as soon as I put on the new dipe.

HTH

Christa

[MamaFern]

i think elwynn is an exception, but he didnt reach 15 pounds till about a year
(he actually weighed 16 LBS at a year..). he was tiny and still is.. i think most babies weigh that much at about 3-6 months :LOL

diapers... it depends on what you are using and if your baby doesnt mind being at all wet, again elwynn hated even having a damp diaper and he wouldnt poop unless he had a dry diaper, so im sure we used at least 15 a day if not more. we had a diaper service though, so it was just prefolds with bummis covers.. newborns dont really pee as much as say a year old does, but they do tend to poop often.. like everytime they nurse, some of them.. its so hard to even remember to tell you the truth.

if you use cloth you just tend to have to change them more often, because they dont obsorbe and obsorbe and stay dry to the touch like disposables...

[meagen]

dd was 15lbs 4oz at her 3 mo. appt! :LOL I think for that question, there is no answer! I'm sure there is an "average" but who wants to be average?

[DreamsInDigital]

IME, babies who are born 9lbs at birth are going to hit 15 lbs much sooner than babies who are 5, 6 or 7 lbs at birth, even though all are well within the range of normal there's no way of knowing how fast your little one is going to outgrow those diapers I know you're thinking about buying, Amy.
As far as diaper changes, some days I am changing my 2 year old every 30 minutes, and sometimes he goes 3-4 hours without wetting. It's just as variable for a baby but at our real diaper circle this weekend we heard from a mama who went through 30 prefolds a day with her newborn.

[*Amy*]

Well at least I know that buying 2 dozen infant dipes to start out with won't be *too many*!! :LOL

Thanks mamas.

[kel]

more questions

Okay, I have a silly question - Is anyone else's stomach lopsided? This baby is almost always on the right side of my belly - to the point where I look really pretty lopsided if you look closely. I can feel her feet pushing out on that side and a bottom. Even when I sleep on my left side all night, she still stays on the right. Which is fine! Just wondering if anyone else has a baby who likes one side more than the other!

[flyingspaghettimama]

kel, mine is that way too. Always right side. I do mostly sleep on my right side though, I can never get comfy on the left.

I have a stupid question: does anyone ever hear that their stomach looks "tiny?" I am not appreciating this, as the current modus operandi seems to complement women on their enormous stomachs. The rest of me is not tiny, I don't think, and people are always saying "oh your stomach looks so small to only have a month and a half to go..." I am going to talk to my midwife about it, as I have been measuring small as well, fairly consistently. Now I'm going to go have bad dreams about IUGR.

[Awaken]

LOL, my son was 15# at one year...he's 20# at almost 3...but like others have said- some babies are 15# within a couple months! It totally varies- I think the rule of thumb is that they double their birth weight (or is it triple??) by one year. Fern and I have very tiny little guys!! (Easier, though not easy, to carry around while pregnant! And we get a lot of use out of the SAME clothes!)

[gonnabeamom]

On diapes:

My diaper service warns that newborns need a lot more diapes, and suggests you start with 80/week, and then shift down as baby gets older.

On growth:
I've no idea what's normal except that it's all over the place. My Dad volunteered the slightly frightening news that my older brother was 9 pounds at birth and 18 pounds at a month!

On being lopsided,
Me too, baby's on the right. I think I feel more lopsided than I look.

On being called tiny.
I am not getting this anymore, but I got it a lot about a month ago, when I felt enormous. People tended to say it as if they were reassuring me, believing that I want to hear that I wasn't getting fat. I think the presumption is that it's what you want to hear. Also if your posture is good, that is you keep your tailbone tucked, to counter swayback, you look much smaller. Don't let it get to you, as everyone else here will attest, people are tactless!

[SonjaW]

I've been getting that I'm tiny too. I don't appreciate this either. But I am measuring normal. I REALLLY don't like it when people say "Your that far along, you need to eat more". I eat PLEANTY!

My MIL said this weekend "You just look like normal Sonja, but with a bump". Yesssss...thank you, I haven't changed into a different person. Don't these people know we are hormonal? I guess anything anyone says right now is most likely going to make me sour.

I have a silly question: Does anyone notice that people look at your belly before they look at your face. Being that I am still working EVERYONE that passes me in the office we look at my belly, then scan up to my face. It's like the are charting how big I am today.

It drives me nuts and I am going to have to remind myself to always look pregnant women in the face and stop staring at their bellies.

[flyingspaghettimama]

Originally Posted by gonnabeamom

I've no idea what's normal except that it's all over the place. My Dad volunteered the slightly frightening news that my older brother was 9 pounds at birth and 18 pounds at a month!

My first was 20 lbs at about a year and a half old. No kidding. She's a petite kid. It made sling use waaaay easy though.

[flyingspaghettimama]

Originally Posted by SonjaW

My MIL said this weekend "You just look like normal Sonja, but with a bump". Yesssss...thank you, I haven't changed into a different person. Don't these people know we are hormonal? I guess anything anyone says right now is most likely going to make me sour.

I have a silly question: Does anyone notice that people look at your belly before they look at your face. Being that I am still working EVERYONE that passes me in the office we look at my belly, then scan up to my face. It's like the are charting how big I am today.

Well...I guess it's some of one and then another - my first pregnancy, nobody could tell I was pregnant. I just looked really obese, mostly due to water gain and well, lots and lots of garbagey food. Even to myself...I gained something like 70 lbs on a fairly petite (5'3) frame. So I do appreciate that people can actually tell, even if with the small comment. Last time, I saw an old friend, and she just kept telling me how "different" I looked, and when I told her I was actually pregnant, and due in a few weeks, she looked horribly embarrassed, looked at my stomach (finally) and said, "oh, you are?!" Then we were both embarrassed.

[Awaken]

Originally Posted by SonjaW

I have a silly question: Does anyone notice that people look at your belly before they look at your face. Being that I am still working EVERYONE that passes me in the office we look at my belly, then scan up to my face. It's like the are charting how big I am today.

It drives me nuts and I am going to have to remind myself to always look pregnant women in the face and stop staring at their bellies.

Oh yes! It really makes me sensitive to how women feel when men do that to them looking at their chest then their face- not that a baby belly is the same thing, but still. People look right at my belly, then at my face, and then usually say something like 'are you expecting something?' or 'when are we due?'

On size comments- overall I think I am pretty small- large for me, but comparatively small for a 7.5 mo. pregnant woman. A patient asked me last week if I was having twins! Then another mom said today that I am absolutely tiny for being due in Nov. So who knows???? I think it all depends on what people have experienced!

[BensMom]

Ben was around 20lbs at 4 months, and he was 9'2 when he was born. He stayed big -<30 lbs around 1, <40 lbs at 2 but then finally tapered off. He is now 42 lbs at 4.5 so he just keeps growing taller and slimmer.

As far as diapers fitting, I know that some will fit longer as your babe/child leans out. Like we had some kissaluvs size 2's that fit when DS was chunky at 15 mos and he wore them till he was a lean, tall 3 yr old. I guess that is not so much the case with the babe months, but its something to think about.

[crsta33]

I do remember reading that babies generally double their birthweight by 6 months and triple it by a year. I think formula fed babies tend to gain more faster than breastfed (but not always). So, with an "average" 7.5 pounder, you could expect them to reach 15 somewhere around 6 months.

Christa

[*Amy*]

Does anyone notice that people look at your belly before they look at your face.

God, yes. But I'm used to people looking at my boobs before my face, so it's really not a whole lot different.

[memory maker]

Originally Posted by flyingspaghettimama

My first was 20 lbs at about a year and a half old. No kidding. She's a petite kid. It made sling use waaaay easy though.

my dd is almost 2 1/2 and only weighs 22 lbs now

[ozzyemm]

kel --I am due in Dec., so my baby isn't as big as yours, but I am DEFINITELY lopsided! This babe favors my left side, but sometimes is on the right. Sometimes, I am not lopsided at all, so I guess I have a "traveling tummy"

flyingspaghettimama-- I too feel "small." I am normally a 22, so now that I am pregnant I feel really self-conscious. I feel like I look like I just have a "beer gut" as opposed to being pregnant . Also, noone has complimented me on being pregnant, or asked how far along I am, even when I wear one of my pregnancy t-shirts (which I had to buy because I don't look pregnant!). I know my baby is fine growth-wise. According to ultrasound, he was 1 pound 2 oz at 22 weeks. Also, I have GD, so this babe will likely be a big guy!

[Queen of Cups]

You can find growth charts for breastfed babies at Kellymom's website. That will give you an idea of where the "average" (50th percentile) breastfed baby is at different ages. According to the charts, average boys tend to hit 15 lbs at about 4 months and average girls hit it at about 5 months. Personally, I'm starting out with 5 dozen infant prefolds, though I'm sure I could get away with only 3 dozen if I was willing to do laundry more often!

When DS was a newborn, we had to change him after every single nursing session (big poopy every single time). So, about every 2-3 hours round the clock. At least 12 diapers a day, more if DH was changing him, because DS loved to poop in the middle of a diaper change and ruin a new diaper to fluster him. It would have been funny if it hadn't happend so often in the middle of the night! By the time he was about 4-6 weeks old, we started getting 4-6 hour stretches every night and could occasionally nurse without a big poopy - so I'd say we were down to about 8/day by then.

Here's the link: growth charts