Burp burp!

Any new parent will eventually have to learn how to burp their baby. What a life to be a baby, eh? Burp as much as you want and people are happy! If I did that at home continuously Mummy A would have strong words with me. It’s very important that he does burp though – they get very agitated if they don’t….trust me when i say you don’t want an unburped baby nearby….

There seem to be no pattern as to when Baby A will burp – some feeds he does and some feeds he doesn’t. When he does, it’s the most satisfying thing ever (for him as well as us)…when he doesn’t we convince ourselves he will throw up at any moment. And again, sometimes he vomits, sometimes he doesn’t. Luckily he is not too bad – we know one baby which vomits at every other feed!

We’ve had to use a few techniques to burp Baby A, which seem to work most of the time:

Sit down, straight back

This was the one they taught us at the hospital and to be fair it is still the best way, as Baby A demonstrates in the picture.* I’ve found it helps to make sure Baby A’s back is straight when i burp him this way.

I have a habit of rubbing his back whilst sitting him up to help the burp. Apparently I rub his back a little bit too hard as Mummy A complained that all his sleepsuits are bobbling on the back!

Over the shoulder

This is quite a common one to use – you put his body against yours with his head resting on your shoulder, facing backwards.

I sometimes lift him higher so his stomach is on my shoulder, but be warned, he’s thrown up over a few t-shirts when I’ve done this (Actually I’ve noticed recently that a lot of my t-shirts have small white milk stains where he’s drooled on my right shoulder).

 

On the back

We sometimes put him on his back on the changing mat. This doesn’t really make him burp but sometimes when you pick him up after a while he lets rip very quickly.

….I have to say my son’s standard of burping puts mine to shame – imagine drinking fizzy water all the time and you get an idea! I never knew babies could burp so loudly.

 *We don’t normally sit him on a table to burp him – although it always seems to work for my mother-in-law! Also, if he pukes, at least it won’t go over your clothes….

Incidentally for those that are interested, here are a few resources for burping techniques

Day of disaster no.2

Today was a bad day….a really bad day. This time was definitely in the “disaster” category, I’ve got to say. What could be worse than projectile poo going all over your clothes, you may ask?

Well, let me give you a rundown of the factors which made it worse:

• Things started badly. Baby A did a wee. Nothing wrong with that and fortunately he had a nappy on. Unfortunately the nappy leaked. Also unfortunately, my brother in law was holding him at the time – it soaked right through his t-shirt.
• In the evening he did a poo. A really big poo. Unfortunately it was at someone else’s house (always more stressful and embarrassing when not at home).
• His poo was green. Not friendly lime green, but mashed spinach, avocado and bogey green.
• His poo was too watery so harder to manage.
• There was so much volume that his nappy couldn’t cope.
• The poo went everywhere. His vest, his legs, his arms, his back….everywhere.
• His poo went on my hand. That’s right, it made PHYSICAL CONTACT with my skin….I need to go wash my hands again.
• Cleaning him up was a real mission and we ended up using, like, two dozen baby wipes. At least last time it was fairly solid and therefore easier to clean – this stuff just seemed to spread.
• Just to top it off, he threw up again in the early hours of the morning. It actually went over Mummy A’s face…

If you have already read “Day of Disaster“, you might get a sense of deja vu. A pee, messy poo and vomit…one after the other. I hope this isn’t a pattern he’s developing.

I’m told this is quite common, so I’m sure I will get used to it, but we’ve never seen it so messy and it made us panic. A friend told me her boy did a similar poo whilst on a flight. She had no clothes readily available and had to wrap him in a towel for the rest of the trip. At least this wasn’t as bad as that.

Anyway, I’m off to wash my hands again.

Feed me now! (part 2)

I’ve found it really tough to feed Baby A sometimes. The other day he was crying and screaming for about 10 minutes every time i brought the bottle near his mouth. I don’t get it – he is definitely hungry, but he just doesn’t want me to feed him (more on that later).

Even when he has calmed down, it’s no better. He has a habit of falling asleep half way through the feed, at which point it takes ages to get him to finish the bottle. I find myself resorting to all sorts of tricks sometimes, but all of them are pretty much hit and miss.

I used to tickle his feet to get a reaction and that worked…for a while. Now I don’t think he is ticklish anymore.

I tried flicking his ear. Doesn’t work anymore. Pinching his nose? Nope, that’s useless as well now. Flicking his nostrils annoys him but doesn’t always work. I actually even tried pulling his trousers down in the hope the cold air would wake him up a bit. No chance.

Then we hit upon it the other day: we wet some cotton wool with cold water and stuck it on his neck. That really made him jump, and he started sucking on the bottle furiously! Let’s hope he doesn’t get used to this one…..

It’s bath time!

So, I’ve talked about feeding, sleeping, toilet habits (which I’ve covered a few too many times…I’m becoming obsessed), but I’ve missed one of the most important parts of Baby’s A day: bath time!

Baby A’s first bath was the day after he was born, at the hospital. One of the nurses showed us how to do it all (thank you!) and it was really helpful, especially as he was such a little thing. He was relatively calm though.

Once we took him home though and gave him his bath by ourselves for the first time…boy, did he scream! He absolutely hated it. He cried all the way through, probably from the shock of the water more than anything else. It was probably a bit cold as well – this was our fault ‘cos we relied too much on those bath thermometers you can get. They tell you the ideal temperature, but to be honest the water felt freezing!

He’s calmed down a lot since and enjoys his bath now. I say “enjoy” but we’re only guessing – he just doesn’t react when he’s in the water – no crying, no smiling…nothing. What he DOES do whenever we put him in the bath is pee. A lot. We were caught unprepared a few times and he made a bit of a mess.* He also farts – it’s really cute though ‘cos all you see is an eruption of bubbles in the water!

* Sorry, I just can’t help myself. Even on a different topic i still have to mention his toilet habits!

Yet another injection

I was about to post this to my Bulletin Board but didn’t want it to become a page about Baby A’s health problems. Not to say he has any real health problems mind you.

But yes….he had to have two more injections today for diptheria and…..er….sorry, forgotten the other stuff. He’s such a weedy little thing that they gave the injection in his thighs rather than his arms. He did not like it one bit – there’s a surprise.

I feel cruel with all these injections he has to have, but we are doing it for his benefit after all. The injections have made him a bit uneasy today, but hopefully he will recover quickly. I hate seeing him this uncomfortable – he hasn’t slept properly all day….this is exactly what happened when he had his last injections. This time we’ve decided to give him medicine though – let’s hope it works.

Feed me now!

Well, Baby A’s feeding patterns appear to be getting better, although we are still a little concerned that he is not eating enough. A few weeks back he was feeding every 3 hours – he still does this but now he will sleep for about a 5 hour stretch at night. Incidentally Baby A is 12 weeks today and I should mention that my baby group did say that he would sleep better after about 3 months. They really know their stuff!

Although we worry about whether he is feeding enough, he has been gaining weight. We watched some of the video footage of him a few days after he was born, and we can definitely tell he is getting bigger.

It’s weird to think that the first few weeks we were feeding him about an ounce of milk every hour on the hour. It was knackering! You would finish the feed, sleep for half an hour, then wake up to do it all again…..This is where I have issues with the hospitals though (again!) – it would have been good to have a bit of advice about how often to feed and how to go about establishing a routine. We thought feeding every hour was normal!

He can still be a right pain to feed sometimes. At times he is an angel and has his milk, although he is so slow it is rare to finish within 40 minutes. When he plays up though, he tends to do one of two things: Fall asleep (or pretend to?) so he doesn’t have to suck the bottle; or move around like crazy and start crying.

It’s made things pretty tough on occasion, believe me. Because he takes so long to feed, you feel like you are in an endless cycle where all you are doing is feeding him, changing his nappy, putting him to sleep – and then doing it all again in the next hour or so….

I just realised the above paragraph is virtually identical to the third paragraph. Even though his feed times have increased, it is still the same…..or maybe I will never be happy until he is eating like a normal person!

Drinking problem

I found this and thought it was pretty funny. Very loosely child related I know!