Happiest baby on the block

I've been devouring this book. I had seen it before but wasn't attracted to the title which I thought was kinda cliche. I don't know why. 

I like where this Karp is going with the happy baby moves. It's along my line of thought for how baby should be loved - dont let baby cry, sooth baby, the fourth trimester etc. 

I realized that I'd been applying some of the stuff in the book already. I'd been wearing Meili and nursing on demand (the fifth 'S'). I'd also been putting her on her side and stomach as she is so much calmer than when in her back. And I jiggle or swing her if she's really worked up.

After reading the book I added two more weapons to my arsenal - Swaddle and, Shush. 

I learnt that baby's hearing is muted in the first few months because of fluid in the ear. And womb sounds are up to 90 decibels! So I'd needed to be much louder in my shushing to be effective. 

When Meili started crying in the car today. I turned the music on full blast. It didn't work. But when I added loud shushing she stopped immediately! One gets dizzy shushing after a while. Fortunately she had passed out in five minutes so I was good!

So pleased with myself. 

Oh and swaddling works too!

Britax Marathon Car Seat for Crying Baby?

I guess my Meili is a car seat snob. 

Today I buckled her little tushie into the Britax Marathon convertible car seat. This is the Rolls Royce of car seats. It's so comfy and plush and luxurious. Gosh I'd wanna sit in it if I could fit! Unfortunate it only goes to like 80 lbs.  

Anyway I digress. She cried. To be fair, she did last 5 minutes before crying. But yeah she didn't like this cowmooflage seat for whatever reason. 

It's a good thing I only paid $15 for the chance to try it out. Gotta like Craigslist for that. It's still got a year or two left before it expires, so Meili could still change her mind about it.   

 

But I've got something exciting to share. Next post.

Biogaia Protectis Drops: Day 4

Happpyyyy. 

Meili has been happy and comfy and thusly so is the mama. 

Her tummy seems to have settled and she isn't farting and tooting a mile a minute now. She has again slept well all night, waking only to feed. 

So I'm sold on this product. Heck it's not a product it's a miracle sent from god! :)

If anything changes i will be sure to update. 

Here's hopefully the last of Meili's colic. 

Flatfold Diaper plus Snappi and Diaper Cover: Bombproof!

Well not quite ha! 

But it works great for most part. It's easy, and the flatfolds dry so fast under the sun. I do a load every other day and have been throwing the rinsed poopy diapers in with our laundry. It doesn't take long to hang them out and fold them. Maybe half hour each load for a total of two hours a week. 

It feels good knowing I am not putting an additional 40+ disposable diapers into some landfill every week. And saving us a chunk of change every month too. 

Tiny Love Jungle Gym

Scored a play yard mat for $5 on Craigslist. 

Meili tolerates it. She isn't much into batting the hanging toys yet. She just lays there with a patient expression on her face that seems to say "ok ma, you can pick me up now".

Leaky Gut in Breastfeeding Mom: Milk Gives Baby Colic?

I've been reading up a bit about how partially digested proteins can make their way through mom's leaky gut into her bloodstream and into her breastmilk then causing tummy troubles in baby whose immature digestive system can't handle those kinda things. 

Since I'm not out of the woods yet with my relapse, it figures I may have a leaky gut - as in past relapses where I become sensitive to gluten and dairy. So I'm cutting out these two foods for now. Already it seems Meili is doing better. 

Here she is praying that grandma will play with her. How to resist that puppy dog look? :)

Biogaia Protectis drops: day 3

Ok yesterday I spoke too soon. After an entire day of being happy, Meili started crying and fussing from 6 PM for about three hours. 

I will blame my diet. I had deer liver in rice wine and ginger around 1pm. 

Like yesterday I did give her more drops in the evening. And also the powder probiotic. 

She slept so soundly in the night. From 10 pm all the way to 4 pm. And then after her feed all the way to 9 am. 

Dear god thank you. 

She's been great all day. She still wants to be held but she's not in obvious discomfort or pain. 

Here she is doing her morning calisthenics. 

Cloth Diapering with Flat Fold Diapers is Easy

And therapeutic too. 

Meili is napping and I am folding diapers on our handy diaper folding station. 

I folded so many as a teenager, thanks to my kid bro and sis who are 15 and 22 years younger than I am. You'd think I would be sick of them. But it actually relaxes me. 

I love the fleece Bummis reusable liners paired with the flatfolds. I tried the Bumkins flushable diaper liners too and they are really good for catching most of the poopy messes, but end up being too expensive - a $8 pack of 100 liners lasts maybe two weeks only. 

Biogaia Protectis Drops Day 2: Happier Baby!

Meili slept a solid two hours in the afternoon after taking those drops yesterday. And she hardly fussed or looked uncomfortable the evening. So much less farting too. I did give her three more drops in the evening. She slept at 10 pm - a little later than her usual 9 pm bedtime probably because of her long afternoon nap - and was comfortable enough to sleep through most of the night without me having to pick her up and soothe her. The tummy sleeping has continued to help. If she fussed, patting her on her back soothed her enough for her to fall back to sleep. 

I am so happy! 

I'm still giving her the Garden of Life raw probiotics and I'm sure that is helping her colicky tummy too. Wonder if the effects are longer lasting or if I will have to keep giving these probiotics forever :)

Here's a pic of baby Meili happy as mama is. 

Biogaia Protectis Baby Probiotic Drops: Day 1

So instead of paying $50 for this on amazon, I found them for $30 at Walgreens. Apparently Gerber has acquired sole distributorship of these drops in the USA since June 2013 and they are now sold as Gerber Soothe something or other, which is (during this transition) impossible to find and costs twice more. 

I grabbed the last two bottles on the shelf, in my state of kiasuness. From the forums, this might be smart because all over the US now there are desperate parents searching in vain for Biogaia while their colicky babies cry and suffer. 

I gave her five drops immediately. In the car. This bottle is tiny. 5 ml is supposed to last 30 days but I doubt it will. 

She ate them ok. I stuck my finger in her mouth and let her suck on it so she would get more down. The sunflower oil tastes pretty good. 

Maybe I can culture this probiotic in my own expressed breast milk. When I got the IV antibiotics for Strep B during delivery, I think that's where this problem started. What if I don't have this bacteria in me anymore? If I eat it then my own body could be a factory producing this good stuff for Meili. Right?

So far not much change and even if there is it could be due to my cutting out dairy and wheat starting yesterday. I'll keep you posted!

Baby Meili Hates Her Car Seat Rides

I thought Meili would be the kinda baby that would sleep in cars. And we would be driving around to get her calm and sleeping. 

No such luck. She seems to have developed a hearty dislike for car rides. Which due to her inconsolable heart rending cries have made me desperate to find a solution to her car seat aversion. Otherwise I'm just gonna stay home. It's too stressful to drive with her now!

I tried a few things so far, with more in the works. Here's my report: Fail. 

 

I printed out a huge pic of myself so Meili could look at her mommy and know she is not alone. Meili isn't so easily deceived. She cried.  

I padded the car seat where her bum and back are so she would be more comfy - I know I know that apparently voids the warranty because these pads aren't supposed to be used that way but I just wanted to try something. She didn't approve of the padding, I think. I don't know. She cried. 

I hung a bunch of toys for her to amuse herself with. I think this may have helped distract her enough to not cry for about 5 minutes. Then she cried. 

So that's 5 minutes of golden silence of the 1.5 hours on the road today. I'll take it. :)

Stay tuned for my next update: The Quest For The Car Seat 

Baby Meili Doesn't Make Milk Cheese

I can't help comparing Meili to other babies. 

First off, Sylvis is the same age, but weighs 16 lbs to Meili's 10 lbs. 

Then, yesterday we hung out with baby Penny and she weighs 14 lbs. She was born three weeks after Meili and weighed 6 lbs at birth.

Baby Penny makes milk cheese. Her chin consists of rolls of baby fat. Her thighs are so chubby it would make any parent cry. 

Now why doesn't Meili have that chubbiness? She's just loooong. I guess I shouldn't complain which I am not, but I'm just worried that she's not getting enough food in her. We struggled to get her to finish 2 ounces and here baby Penny her junior downs 4 ounces with no drama. 

I'm not a petite Asian and I certainly can eat, so I don't know where Meili is getting this from. 

Ah well. 

Here she is looking happy and I think healthy too. 

Unnecessary immunization: Diphteria, Tetanus & Rotavirus

Why would Meili need these immunizations? Tetanus? It's not like she's gonna be stepping on a rusty nail anytime soon. Erm, she hasn't started walking yet. Diphtheria? The last reported case was in 2003 and it supposed to be given to school age kids, which is when kids could potentially spread this airborne contagion to other kids. Meili isn't signed up for school last time I checked. Her schedule for socials and play dates is kinda sparse too, thanks to our rural location. And rotavirus? Spread through feces. Right. She does regularly play with poop of other babies so I see where she might need this. Not. 

I feel bad having subjected her to these things. Maybe they were unnecessary. 

Hydrocortisone Safe While Breast Feeding?

I got an online consult from Dr Tom Hale at infantrisk.com - an organization that deals with drug transfer to breastmilk.

At high doses of hydrocortisone for long periods of time, baby would need monitored by the pediatrician for growth. 

Otherwise hydrocortisone is safe for breastfeeding. It transfers poorly to breast milk. 

This information was very reassuring. It was HUGE. My overall stress level has come down big time as I'm back to breastfeeding Meili and don't have to stay up to pump now. Getting plenty of sleep, which has my body finally responding well to the meds. 

I'm on a moderately high dose of this corticosteroid at the moment. Anything above 80 mg a day is high and I was on that for four days. Currently at 60 mg in three doses, and tapering slowly. 

I also tweaked the time of dosing based on an article I read a week and a half ago. So I take half the dose first thing in the morning (should be between 6-8 am), then a quarter in the afternoon (1-2 pm) and the last quarter as late as possible at night (10 pm right before I sleep). 

Here's the link to the article on which I based the dosing.

http://ec.europa.eu/health/documents/community-register/2011/20111103110069/anx_110069_en.pdf

Syiok Sendiri

Meili seems to have really taken to her Boppy. She 'shiok sendiri' here. 

She let me finish my breakfast while we had some heart to heart babble-coos on the topic of her digestive system functions. 

Love mornings. 

Men Don't Know How To Hold Babies

Had a few friends over for Spencer's birthday lunch the other day. 

Everyone had a turn holding baby Meili. The ladies looked a lot more comfortable doing that and so did Meili. 

Not so much the guys. Meili has a face palm with Brad holding her. 'What are you doing Brad?' she seems to be saying. 

Extreme Post Partum Depression or Temporary Insanity? Mom Maims NippleChomping Baby

This morning I saw a horrible pic of a baby who had his face stabbed 90 times by his mom. His crime? Biting her nipple while breastfeeding.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2360263/Baby-stabbed-90-times-scissors-Chinese-mother-bit-breastfeeding-him.html

The baby at eight months looks chubby and well fed, any mom would have been proud of that esp Chinese moms and I wonder what caused her to snap like that - well aside from being a homeless single parent dumpster diving to survive, and breastfeeding a (.) biter.

Rotavirus Oral Vaccine: Baby Diarrhea, Farting & Tummy Pains

Okay so Meili had her Hep B and Dtap jabs and the peppermint flavored rotavirus vaccine orally two days ago. And her fever broke last night after a few hours of fussing. I thought that was the end of it, but I was wrong. 

She wouldn't be put down for most of today. She was in such discomfort. I carried her in the K'tan all day. She would sleep fitfully, not really have an appetite to eat, and cry inconsolably, punctuated by very loud farts. 

It's the end of the day now. Same thing. I just read the side effects of this rotavirus vaccine - diarrhea and vomiting, flatulence and stomach upset. Sigh! I feel so bad that we inflicted this live virus onto baby Meili. 

Here she is passed out from exhaustion after a bout of crying. 

So sorry my poor baby. 

Update 12 am: her adult-proportioned farts and accompanying cries have dissipated into intermittent bum-gurglings and she seems to be sleeping through these. Poor darling. 

Baby Loves Boppy

Meili can only tolerate ten minutes in her bouncy, longer if she's fast asleep when put in. 

This morning I put her in the Boppy and she surprised me by staying in there for close to half an hour. I guess she likes it!

Baby's 8 week Immunizations: Spread Them Out

I asked the pediatrician if we could spread out her shots so she wouldn't be triple slammed in one go - a bit too much for her tiny body to take, in my opinion. So today Meili got her Dtap and Hep B in her thigh. And peppermint flavored rotavirus in her mouth. 

She didn't cry too much, surprisingly. My boob pacified her quite easily. 

She's 24 inches long - a whole two inches in the last month - which puts her in the 97th percentile for length. And her weight is 10 lbs, which is 12 ounces over two weeks. An ounce a day!

 

After that traumatic experience, we went for some retail therapy at Walmart and Goodwill. 

Meili helps Sue man the cash register at Goodwill

(Meili was passed out the rest of the day and super fussy that evening. She went to bed early and slept mostly through with fits of crying. Also ran a temperature for a few hours but was back to normal by morning.)

$6 Hands Free Breast Pumping Bra from Walmart

I looked at all the DIY options for hands free pumping bras and felt they weren't gonna work for me even if they cost next to nothing. Using rubber or elastic hair band ties looped around the nursing bra clasp, to hold the things in place wouldn't work because I don't normally wear a bra. And I most certainly wasn't about to cut a hole in my beloved sports bras to fashion a DIY pump bra. Least of all actually shell out $40 for one of those hands free pumping bras. 

Quite by accident I thought of using my nursing bra to hold the shields in place. Apparently a bunch of other mommies already do that ha!

So now I can blog this post with both hands :)

Running while pregnant rocks baby to sleep

And now whenever I hit the trails in the park, baby Meili falls asleep immediately! There's no waking this bub! So much for the planned family photo shoot ha!

Happy Independence Day!

Enfamil Baby Formula: Scary Stainless Steel Corrosive

I used the handle of my Stainless steel spoon to stir up the lumps in the Enfamil sample sachet for baby. An hour later to my shock my stainless steel spoon at discolored really really bad. Makes you wonder what it is that goes into these baby formulas.... 

I know for sure breastmilk doesn't do that. 

 

Rooting & Homing in on Boob: Baby Instinct

I'm laying in bed, post-pump and drained breast ready for baby to comfort suck to sleep. 

I'm on my side, my floppy belly against her little round tummy. Warm skin on skin. 

Her arms flail about, reaching for me. She likes being within arm's reach. 

After a while I hear her licking and smacking her lips. I guess she senses that The Boob is near (it's a few inches above her). 

She squirms and wriggles closer to me. And starts nuzzling and licking my belly. 

That tickles haha.

She gets a little frustrated as she roots around, scooting a little higher every time she pushes backward with her legs. 

Closer to Mama's boob. 

Her little grunts of frustration make me laugh out loud. I love watching her. 

I make no move to help her. She can do this just fine by herself. 

She is almost frantic by the time she reaches my breast. Her head bobbles back and forth comically as her gaping mouth mouths my nipple. 

She gets a good fix. And.... 

WHAM, latches right on with deadly precision. 

She suckles like she means it - forcefully and greedily, all the while looking at me. For a few minutes anyway. 

Then she closes her eyes and settles into a leisurely comfort suck. She's full after all, having had her bottle not long ago. She soon falls into that trembly jaw sucking rhythm and I know she's nearly asleep. I'm relaxed and sleepy too. 

This is one of the most special moments of my day. The time spent with her like this. 

Perfect. Just perfect.