I'm making a new years resolution to blog more in the next year. I want to really document every day life with our little munchkin. It seems like he changes every single day and I really want to make sure I don't miss any of it! The good and the bad, the highs and lows! I also have quite a few friends having babies in the next few months so thought it might be fun and helpful if they happen to be experiencing some of the same things!
I'm just going to start off my resolution by adding some highs/lows/learning moments of the last few weeks:
- Baby Vomit
- How do you tell the difference between baby vomit and baby spit up?? Well, when you're sitting in the waiting room at the doctor's office waiting to be seen because your little one is hardly keeping anything down, look out. It comes like a flowing river. That doesn't stop. Until it's all over him, you, and the waiting room. This, of course, is followed by most people in the waiting room quickly turning away pretending that they totally missed what just happened, even though you're soaking wet and so is your kid, and so is the floor. Then there's the people who really want to try help, but there's not much they can do, and even more who just look at you with, "been there, done that" empathetic faces when your little munchkin starts screaming the worst cry you've ever heard because he got so scared of what just happened. Took everything not to break down and cry myself. Ugh.
- Baby Diarrhea
- I won't spend as much time or go into as much detail on this topic, but it's nasty. It's even more nasty when it accompanied the tummy virus that caused the vomitting. It smells worse than anything you've ever smelled in your entire life, and then some. Like, probably just put these individual diapers right in plastic grocery bags and into the garbage to try save the diaper genie from the smell. If your baby has this for too many days, don't be afraid to ask your dr about using Pedialyte. Our doctor told us to give him Pedialyte for 24 hours in place of his formula to try calm his tummy down. It did a really great job of it, and we were able to introduce his formula back to him in half formula half pedialyte bottles right after that. There's no nutritional value to it, but when nothing else is staying in, it was the best route to go to keep him hydrated.
- Diapers
- Don't go the cheap route for bedtime diapers. Off-brand diapers are great during the day and when they're having frequent diaper changes, but I definitely recommend a good Pampers Swaddler at night time when baby sleeps all night long. Otherwise, you wake up to a completely pee-smelling baby because they ended up leaking out the back of their diaper and are now soaking wet! Good morning, mom, hope you have time to give me a bath! :)
- Bath Time
- Even though it's harder on the knees, once they start splashing, move that baby tub to the real tub!!! I thought we'd be just fine keeping it in the sink because it was so much easier. Then came the splashing. ALL over the kitchen, and myself. He LOVES to splash, so now we put his tub in the "big boy tub" and he can splash all he wants!
- Crib sheets/mattress pad
- This kinda goes along with the vomit/diaper bullet, but make sure you have at least 2 of each of these items, and make sure one is clean at all times!
- Laundry
- Buy Dreft. And try to convince your husband that you have to use it FOREVER on your baby clothes. It just smells SO wonderful and makes folding all of those little teeny tiny outfits and socks that much more enjoyable! We bought Tide Free and Gentle to just wash all of our clothes in, but I'm having a real tough time letting go of the Dreft.
- Advocating
- I'll try not to get too fired up when typing this, but when we were at the dr last, he had us get a new prescription for Corbin's reflux. So, brought it to the pharmacy (it was Friday) and they told me it would be ready on Monday. So, Monday came and I gave them until the end of the work day and went there and they're like, "oh, it didn't get ordered. Do you want us to try something else?" Um....do I look like an F(*&ing doctor?? You've had all day to figure this out with the dr's office, or CALL ME and I'll call the dr's office. Well, they'd have it on Tuesday. Ok, so, called before I went there on Tuesday. "Oh, sorry, we can't fill it until your dr fills out the prior authorization for your insurance, so check back at the end of the week." Um, EXCUSE ME?? We needed this on FRIDAY. So, I asked if I could get it without insurance and they said they still didn't even have it. SO they tried blaming it on the dr's office. I was so fed up by the time I went to the pharmacy on THURSDAY and they said they didn't have it again. This was by far the rudest I have ever been to another person and the most I've yelled at another person in public, but my little boy need this medication!! Finally sent Tim in to pick it up a WEEK later.
- Sleep!
- It's a beautiful thing. Especially when it happens ALLLLL night long! I'm not going to say any more about it because I don't want to jinx it!
- Video Monitor
- It's never been a necessity in my book, but now that I have one, I can't imagine what I ever did without it! We did just fine with just the sound monitor, of course, but this just brings things to a whole new level. Mostly because I get to watch him sleep and it's SO FLIPPIN CUTE! :) Besides that, it really is nice to just be able to check on him without having to actually go into his room and risk waking him up.
I could really go on for days with all of the things we've learned in the last few weeks, but I'll save those for the next time! HAPPY NEW YEARS EVE and HAPPY 2014!!!!
