While this is hard to do, I’ve tried. When she said to not give my son certain foods until he was such and such an age, I didn’t. Color me floored when she told me that I could give him strawberries at his 9 month check up. This was a surprise to me because she was so strong on my first son not having any strawberries until he was over a year.

So what changed? I wasn’t given a reason as to why there was this change, just that it had. These changing standards are confusing to any parent, not just a new parent.

So what has the knowledge of changing standards taught me? Well, it’s that I take what the doctor says as guidelines, guidelines that can be followed either loosely or to the letter. The fact is that the medical profession is constantly learning about our babies, what effects them and why. While it is confusing, it’s important to remember to listen to the doctor, as they have the most current information available!

Carrots were the first on the list, as you should start kids on veggies before fruits. Babies will like fruit because of the sweetness, so it may make it harder when it comes time for veggies if that’s all they know.

Well today my little one was looking so sad at the lunch table, eyeing his brothers food, that I decided to pull out the fresh food feeder and see how he did with a banana. They are just mesh pouches that allow babies to suck on the food without risk of any choking at all.

He loved it. Of course he didn’t really understand what he was doing, just that whatever he was sucking on was tasting good. Anyhow, I would recommend trying them if you have a wee one ready for food!

The creators of Your Baby Can Read might be on to something. Now I don’t think it’s their program, but it’s the science behind the program. Infants have thousands of pathways in their brain being formed at very high rates, which is the time that they are learning and absorbing. That being said, it would follow that the time when they are the most “sponge like” would be when they are very little.

While I wouldn’t go so far as to say that getting my 5 month to read his own bedtime story is even something I’d want, I would like to have him be able to express himself as early as possible. I’ve used baby signing with my older boy and he still uses it (usually when his mouth is to full to actually talk).

Reading to your baby does more than increase their IQ and communication skills, it increases the bond and security your baby has with you. It will be interesting to see if this takes off and we get some kids reading whole books before their second birthdays…

Since this is my second child, it doesn’t bother me at all, but guess what…it used to. With my first son, there came a point where the same comments were made. He had large rolls of fat on him, I look at pictures now and am amazed. But when people made comments, it truly worried me.

Was I feeding him too much, was he just a really large baby, was I doing something wrong. Now I view it much differently. Having a chubby baby, in my humble view point, is a wonderful thing!

As long as a baby stays within the acceptable limits of weight (set only by your pediatrician), then there isn’t much to worry about. The extra weight can also be a help if your child gets sick, as children tend to lose weight when they are ill.

So now when people comment on my chubby baby I just comment back, “Ya, isn’t it beautiful!”

We’ve been waiting to see if our new bundle of joy would end up with colic like his brother. So far he doesn’t, and we are very grateful. But my husband is now in the habit of saying our new one is spoiled. Most of the time when he cries, which isn’t very often, he just wants to be held. I’m fine with this, but my husband says we are spoiling him. I keep telling him you can’t spoil a newborn, but he disagrees. So I decided to research it and see if you really can spoil them…

Under the age of six months experts say that you can’t spoil a newborn, as they can’t understand the cause and effect of actions. When they cry, it’s because they truly need something. They need to be fed, or changed, they are to hot or to cold, they might be tired and overstimulated or yes, they could just need to be held.

After the age of six months you can let your little one do more for themselves, such as self-soothe. They definitely need to be able to learn that trick, or your days and nights will be harder than they need to be.

So am I spoiling him by picking him up at 4 weeks? No. And no one should feel guilty for picking up their child at such a young age. I’m going to go pick him up now, in fact, just because I can!

First of all, our son didn’t think he was real. He would just point and say baby. But when he decided to start grabbing the baby, we knew we had to work with him on his gentle nature. Our son has no gentle nature so we have been working with him constantly on being gentle and not trying to rip his toes off.

In addition, we think our son has become somewhat protective of his brother. He is very worried about where his baby is, and always trys to share. This has led to numerous attempts to throw cars at his brother while he snoozes in his bassinnet. We’ve definiely had to become more diligent on that front.

The kicker came today when the kids and I returned home from breakfast. We came in the door, my seven year old went and sat down at the kitchen table, arguing as usual with me. The 22 month old started playing with his cars and my sleeping newborn was happily in dreamland, still strapped in his car seat on the floor. As I argued with my daughter I walked over to the couch to pick up some laundry that had to be washed for the baby. When I walked back, my toddler was pointing at the baby’s car seat, saying baby. He had flipped the baby’s carseat upside down, the poor sleeping baby was upside down, dangling from his secure harness. No harm was done to the baby, just my heart as I almost had a heart attack.

The lesson? Never turn your back, even for one second. From that point on, the newborn was in a sling on my side or the toddler was no where to be found. Ugh!

Well, we had thought he was coming last Tuesday, only to hear it was just bad Braxton Hicks. We then canceled our next prenatal appointment in anticipation of an induction on Monday. The doctor had originally said she would induce me on Friday, but I was one day shy of the required 39 weeks so she moved it to the following Monday.

That wasn’t the news we wanted to hear! I was quite saddened by this, as I kept thinking I was in labor and the wait was over. I wanted to go into labor at a certain time so my doctor could deliver me, but the closer it got to the end of the week the more my hopes for that were fading.

On Friday morning I woke up about two am to go to the bathroom and even thought to myself “Wow, I feel pretty good. All my pain is pretty much gone, there’’s no way this baby is coming soon.”

At 4:30 that same morning I was awoken by a POP and knowing by the results that my water had broken. I was very excited, as was my husband. The day had arrived. After taking a quick shower and getting Grandpa over to our house to watch our other two children, my mother, husband and I took off for the hospital. Actually, we stopped at McDonalds to grab a quick bite, as I knew they wouldn’t get me anything at the hospital.

After waddling into the hospital at 6am, we were on our way. I was having some contractions, but nothing impressive at all. They started Pitocin right away and the contractions started coming more frequently. We all expected the baby to be born fast, as my son was born very quickly after I was admitted. Your second is supposed to be faster, so we all had bets around noon or so, even my nurse.

At around 9am, the nurse came in and let me know that if I wanted an Epidural, I had better get it now. The anesthesiologist would be in a scheduled C-section from 10-11, so if my contractions picked up there would be no relief for a while. I wasn’t keen on getting it so early, so I told her I’d let her know. The second she walked out I started having some harder contractions and had my husband go hunt her down and let her know that we’d get the epidural as soon as they could administer it.

I’m not scared of needles, so I wasn’t to worried about the epidural. My last one, the only thing I remember is that I had the mother of all contractions when they were putting it in, horrible pain. This time was a little different. I could handle the contractions, but the medicine going in was another story. That was horrible this time. I wish I could sugar coat it so someone who finds this page through a google search on epidurals wouldn’t freak out, but I really can’t. It hurt like hell. I was mad at the anesthesiologist, that is, until the medicine kicked in.

Once the medicine kicked in, I couldn’t feel any pain. I could feel the pressure of the contraction but there was no pain associated with it. I was very happy with the results. That was about 9:45am.

From that point forward, it was a waiting game. By noon I was 5cm and 80% effaced. It was moving much slower than anyone expected. They turned the pitocin up constantly it seemed until we hit about 16 out of 20. That’s when things started turning south. The baby wasn’t handling the contractions well, his heartbeat kept dipping pretty low. At 7 cm and 90%, they decided to give me a shot and stop my contractions.

The second they gave me the shot, the contractions stopped. My son was no longer in any distress,
his heart rate was now normal and steady.

I was happy he was ok again, but my labor had been brought to a stand still. After about an hour, tthe doctor gave the ok to start labor back up. The pitocin was cranked up every 15 minutes or so, starting at the lowest setting.

Slowly, labor progressed again. I was waiting for the “pressure”, the need to push. I kept thinking it was coming so the nurse kept checking. 8cm, 90%, it was stuck there. A little while later she checked me again and I was at 9cm. Finally we were close. She went to go call the doctor when an alarm went off in the room. My husband rushed to go get the nurse, turns out my epidural was out of medicine!! Are you kidding me!!! I’ve been in labor all day, no one thought to check the epidural?
So the nurse told my husband there was 2 hours left on the medicine and not to worry…

That’s when they hit…the medicine didn’t have 2 hours left, it was out and I could tell by the contractions that were coming. That baby was sure as hell coming out. The nurse quickly checked me again and I was ready to push, the doctor wasn’t there yet. Medicine gone, me yelling in pain, baby coming, no doctor. Then the anesthesiologist came in quickly and gave me some medicine. Thank god! The medicine worked quickly and the crazy labor pain went away as my lower body was numbed.

In came the doctor, she set up and I began to push. About 5 pushes and my baby boy was born. I heard his cry and cried. He was perfect. 7 lbs, 7oz, 20 inches. It seemed like eternity until they gave him to me to hold. He was just perfect.

More updates later, but I thought I’d get this posted so people know where I’ve been. I’m blogging as he sleeps soundly (as soundly as you can with a 2 yr old screaming).

When I had my first baby, I didn’t want to be away from him, not for a second. In the hospital I wouldn’t let them take him out of the room, even when I was so exhausted I couldn’t see straight. I get home from the hospital and was taken aback by having to breastfeed him every hour and a half, and then I wouldn’t go to sleep when he did. I would try to clean, or cook, or eat. At night, I slept with my hand on him in his bassinet so I could make sure he was breathing.

I shouldn’t have been surprised when I had a case of the baby blues that was rather intense, I’m still impressed that it was as bad as it was. It never occurred to me that not getting enough sleep would have anything to do with the baby blues. I just never put the two together. So what can you do?

Effects of sleep deprivation include:
- Irritability
- Inability to concentrate
- Lowered immune system
- Mood swings (crying being one)
- Inability to deal with stress of any kind
- Decreased appetite

These are just a few of the signs, but couple that with the stress and uncertainty of a new baby and the crying that comes along with the little package and you’ve got a recipe for some bad times.

So what can you do to help avoid this?

Eat Right – I know it sounds bad, I mean you just had a baby, you deserve some Krispy Cremes. I’m with you there, but there’s nothing that can sap your energy quicker than high starch, high fat, high calorie foods. Try to eat right and you’ll see the difference. I usually have a veggie drink as my afternoon snack. I juice some carrots, broccoli, spinach and whatever else sounds good. I slam that drink and I immediately can feel a boost of energy. It’s great for when I’m feel sapped and lethargic.

Accept Help – Ya, sure. This one is so hard for me. I never want any help from anyone because I’m capable of doing everything myself! Of course that has led to some crazy, frustrating times where I end up crying while ripping my hair out. Sometimes you need help. If someone offers, you may just want to take them up on it. I’m hoping this time around I’ll accept enough help so I can get some sleep at some point. Swallow your pride and accept assistance. If you’re bottle feeding, it’s time for daddy to step up to the plate and help, so get some sleep!

Forced Hygiene – I laugh as I write this, but it’s true. I went from getting up early every morning, jumping in the shower, blow drying my hair, putting makeup on and dressing well to suddenly having a baby. Then everything stopped. I would take a shower about, oh, once every three days. Sweats were perfectly acceptable. My hair didn’t see a blow dryer for at least six months straight and a braid was my idea of “doing” my hair. It’s actually recommended that you do your regular hygiene routine, even if you have to force yourself to. It helps with not only your smell (lol), but your outlook and in turn your energy level.

Those are just three things to help out and get you some extra energy or Z’s. You’re baby comes first but remember (as I forget constantly) that you are the primary caregiver and if you don’t take care of yourself then how can you take care of your baby?

My son came down with a runny nose just this morning and in talking about with my mother she told me not to use Vicks VapoRub on him. With the fact that you can no longer give kids any medicine, we have been using Vicks BabyRub on our son when he gets a cold. So what’s the difference and is there a risk?

Well, with anything there is a risk, but here’s the low down. A study was conducted to see if Vicks VapoRub had a negative effect on infants and toddlers after an infant was observed with breathing problems after the parents administered it to the child. The study was conducted on animals, where they found that indeed, Vicks VapoRub did have a negative effect on breathing, due to an increase in mucus. As with any cold, the increase in mucus can lead to problems breathing and respiratory problems.

Vicks responded by saying that Vicks VaporRub is safe when used as directed. Many good points were pointed out, such as the fact that the rub is truly an over the counter medication, and in being that it shouldn’t be used in children under the age of 6 anyways.

We have used Vicks BabyRub, which is a non-medicated formula that contains aloe vera and fragrances of eucalyptus, rosemary, and lavender. Even though this is not a medicine, per say, it seems to work on our son, as it calms him and helps him go to sleep. It’s kind of like him getting lavender lotion after a bath. So from what I can tell the BabyRub is fine to continue to use.

As for the VapoRub, I would have a hard time using this on my children at all. I know how strong this stuff is for adults, I can only imagine what it would do for an infant or toddler. Not only that, but noses get irritated. I can’t even think about the pain that putting VapoRub on an irritated nose would cause for a baby.

Just to be safe, just lay off the VapoRub for the kiddos, it just seems like there is no real advantage to using it anyways.

Well it’s a small room, the smallest of all the bedrooms. Now we have our crib, a toddler bed, a changing table and a dresser. Not to mention TONS of toys. Once the room is painted, we are going to try and organize it so there is as much room as possible for the boys to play in (really only our 2 year old, as the baby won’t be playing for a very long time).

One big challenge we’ll have is space. Their bedroom is a converted loft with no closet. They have one dresser to share between them and way to many clothes for each to fit comfortably in there. We’ll need to get industrial clamps to anchor it to the wall, as our son is getting more and more rambunctious. So storage is a big issue.

But honestly, we have everything for the baby already, so it should be a fairly easy transition. The baby won’t be sleeping in that room for quite a while anyhow. We’ll have time to make any changes.

That’s our project today, I’ll let you know how it turns out!