I’ve wanted to get rid of my dependency on plastic bags, but didn’t really know what to use in their place. Well I’m starting to get the hang of it now. I started by buying a couple wet bags for Sophia. I put her dirty diapers in them when I’m out somewhere and no trash can is available or it’s not appropriate to toss the dirties in the can (i.e. the doctor’s office). I also use them for dirty/wet clothes. They’re great for swimming. Grocery stores are pushing their reusable bags now. I haven’t bought any, but it’s probably about time for that.
Tag Archives: doctor
Sophia’s Four-Month Birthday
Sophia’s four-month birthday was on Friday (hence the Baby Squeezins: Diaper of the Month post). At four months, this kid has great control of her head now. She can lift it up to look around weather she’s on her back or stomach, but she absolutely refuses to use her arms while on her tummy to do the half push up (oh I hope she’s not going to be like her dad – more on this at the end of this post). If I hold her hands she can repeatedly push herself from a sitting to standing position and she can also stand for longer periods of time while just holding our fingers. A couple weeks ago I bought her the new set of rattles and within the last week she has figured out that if she can’t reach them with her hands she can use her feet to bring it up to her hands. On Monday I had her propped up with the Boppy pillow and a blanket behind her in such a way that she was sitting up straight. I’ve only seen her do this once, but she actually leaned forward to the point of bending herself in half to reach for a rattle and then she actually pushed herself back to the sitting position. She still has to be propped up to sit, but never the less I was impressed that she got herself back into that position.
Tuesday Sophia had her four-month check-up. She is thirteen pounds, thirteen ounces, and twenty-five inches tall/long. Poor baby received two shots in each leg plus one oral vaccine. Her tiny little left leg now has two welts. 
The shots on the right leg didn’t swell up like the left. The doctor said we can start her on solid food anytime. He said to start with a very thin consistency cereal first, specifically rice because it’s the one thing that doesn’t cause any kind of bad reactions. She has really been eyeballing our food for the last couple of weeks, so we’ll give sold foods a shot this weekend if I can make it to the store. The doctor said to stick to baby cereals for a while then alternate with fruits and vegetables. Try each new thing for a week before adding another new item, and no eggs or meats for a while.
On Tuesday I pulled out her doorway bouncy jump toy thing. As you can tell I have no idea what to call it, but I knew little Miss Kicks-a-lot would love it.
She doesn’t like the “stationary entertainer” *eye roll* that I pulled out of the garage on Wednesday very much, but she’ll tolerate the not-a-walker for a while. She figured out how to make the yellow squeaky (by her left arm in the picture) work and she was very pleased with herself. She hit it about three times before getting board and moving on to something else.
Sophia has been able to spin herself around in the crib since she was about two months old. More recently she learned to push herself away from the edge of her bassinet/playpen/crib with her legs while she is on her back. I’ve been placing her on her tummy after diaper changes to put her pants on and while I walk away to wash my hands for the past few weeks. On Wednesday I put her on her tummy to put on her pants as usual and she spit up. I rotated her in a way that her face wouldn’t be in the spit-up if she put her head back down, but I still positioned in a way that she can watch her crib mobile while I went to wash my hands. While I was gone I heard much fussing and screaming emitting from her general direction. After finishing I went back to see that she had her legs under her body in a crawling stance and her arms spread out flat on her mattress with her head down and up against the side of the crib. She had basically done a lower body half crawl with her face sliding through her spit-up. Her hair on that side was all wet – eeeww! 
Apparently when her father was a toddler he had an aversion to using his arms as well. His family lovingly dubbed baby Kurtie “Unicorn boy” because when he would trip or otherwise begin to fall he NEVER put his arms out to prevent his head from hitting the floor. The child had a permanent bruise in the middle of his forehead.
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Baby sleep battles
Monday last week at Sophia’s doctor appointment he checked her ears and throat and all is well. Friday and Saturday were actually her worse two days although she was a little grumpy on Sunday. By Monday, all she had left of her cold was a runny nose. The doctor said that we could always give her some baby Tylenol because she can get the same achy pains adults do with their colds.
While we were in the office, we told the nurse about Sophia’s napping habits or lack thereof. There have been times the child has stayed up for 12 to 14 hours straight, or only had a couple ten-minute naps during the day. She might fall asleep when nursing but as soon as I set her down she’s wide-awake, and I’m not about to hold her ALL DAY LONG. Car rides usually work but we didn’t invest in one of those detachable infant carriers so she wakes up when the ride is over and we actually have to go in the store or back in the house.
Picture taken 12/30/2007. The non-sleeping little bastard. 
I use a front pack when I go grocery shopping that she’ll sometimes fall asleep then too, but getting back into the car wakes her up again. I know those detachable infant car seat carriers make things easier when at a restaurant and just going in and out of the car to run errand all over town without disturbing the baby, but then you have to carry the weight of the seat and the child and that gets HEAVY! I’d rather carry a 15-pound baby against my body than a 15-pound baby with a 10-pound seat by hand. Those seats can be expensive and aren’t used for very long anyway. Sophia will be able to sit up on her own in about three months (probably less) so she’ll be able to sit in restaurant highchairs and shopping carts soon besides, her lack of napping is more of a problem on the days that I stay home. – I haven’t figured that one out either.
I would wear the front pack around the house but about the only chore I can do with it on is vacuum the house and we don’t have much carpet. I’ve tried hauling laundry up and down the stairs with her in the front pack and I do ok, but I don’t think bending down to put clothes into the drier is good for my back, and folding laundry would require much longer arms. The same goes for doing dishes and loading the dishwasher with her attached to my front.
So the doctor gave us a printout that was meant to help parents get their baby to bed at night, but he said we might be able to get some tips from it for napping. Because that day Sophia had not slept at all during the day we took the opportunity to use the suggested techniques to switch her usual bedtime from 10pm to 8pm. This special technique was basically – put the kid to bed and let her cry herself to sleep. Oh GOD was it hard!
It said to develop a bedtime routine that starts about thirty minutes before bedtime and that the baby needs to associate the crib with falling sleep instead of falling asleep in my arms. She also needs to learn to calm herself to sleep without me holding her, swaying, driving, using “white noise”, standing on my head, or juggling axes lest she later learns to wake up in the middle of the night without needing to be fed and require me to juggle the axes some more.
The routine I started was to change her diaper, put her in nightclothes, close the curtains, put some of her baby things away for the night, turn on the nightlight, and offer to nurse her even if she just ate thirty minutes ago. I nursed her until she showed her usual sign of not being hungry which is to attach and detach A LOT and look up and smile at me. The looking up and smiling at me is what made the next step so incredible difficult because she was being all cute and sweet and here I am about to do something that I know she’ll hate. I put her in her crib still awake like the magic doctor sheet said to do. I kissed her and told her goodnight. She smiled and cooed. Oh why do you have to make it so difficult? I made the “goodnight” brief just like the magic doctor paper said and I left the room. She quietly entertained herself for a few minutes and then the crying, screaming and crocodile tears began. According to our directions, we were to check on the baby every five to fifteen minutes and talk softly to her without any harshness in our voices. Visits should be brief and boring. We could give her kisses, hold her hands, etc. But under no circumstances were we to pick her up (well ok maybe if there’s a fire we can pick her up). We were to only be in the room for a minute and you know that Kurt was very precise following each guideline to the letter. I pointed out that our directions gave no time limit for the whole process. I mean at what point each night do you just give in and start over the next night? Because she eats about every two hours during the day we decided if she isn’t asleep in that time I could pick her up to feed and change her. Every ten minutes we took turns to go check on her. On my turns, Kurt came with me because he didn’t trust that I wouldn’t pick her up and only stay a minute. The torture ended after an hour and a half when Sophia threw in the towel.
I didn’t follow this technique with naps because to try it four times a day would just drive me insane and I think it would just be too much. Despite me not changing anything during the day, Tuesday was a breeze. She took three good naps (each lasting about an hour) and fell asleep within thirty minutes that night. Wednesday she took three ok naps (each only lasting about 30 minutes) and took an hour and a half to fall asleep that night. Thursday was a no nap day and it took an hour and a half to get her to sleep that night. I blame Kurt for falling for the old, “I need a drink of water” routine. On one of his turns to check on Sophia, he checked to see if she was hungry by letting her use his pinky as a pacifier. He didn’t realize that’s all she was doing was using it to calm herself. I tried to nurse her and knew right away that she wasn’t actually hungry but I sat with her anyway just as much for her comfort as my own. Friday and Saturday night we only had to check on her once on each night. Sunday night she actually prompted me to check the time when she started to fall asleep while nursing – it was 7:30! Not only was she right on cue but that night she slept right through the night for NINE AND A HALF HOURS STRAIGHT!! Monday night and tonight she fell right to sleep on her own. Each night the screaming a wailing became more fussing than calling out to save her life which was nice, and with exception to Saturday she did pretty well with naps too.
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Life sucking colic
Kurt went to his first appointment with our doctor. All three of us now see the same one. It’s nice having a family doctor that knows and sees all of us, because we can give him updates on Sophia without having to make a separate appointment for her. Unless of course we describe something that he needs to look into further. Kurt told him about Sophia’s screaming sessions that seemed to have started at two weeks of age. 
She cries to the point of shear exhaustion (of us and herself) every night from about seven to eleven and sometimes one in the morning. She’ll turn beet red and cry with all her strength, complete with tears running down her face, and appears to be in excruciating pain. Before the doctor’s diagnosis I felt like the most stupidly inept first time mom because I couldn’t calm my own baby and so I cried right along with her. Kurt is able to calm her down better than I and that made me feel even more inept.
In the beginning, figured it must be something I was eating as we noticed that she would stop screaming after a good fart and then start up again minutes later. I couldn’t think of where to begin cutting things out of my diet, and in the “Feeding your Baby” class I took at the hospital the nurse made sure to state that breastfeeding moms don’t need to avoid any foods at all except on very rare occasions (caffeine and alcohol being the exceptions which need to be limited according to your doctor’s instructions). It would be just my luck that Sophia would be one of the rare ones. Because this was happening everyday, it seemed logical to me that it would be something I ate EVERYDAY and nothing came to mind. Plus it didn’t appear to be gas every time she cried with such force, so we though maybe the fartty gas was just coincidental.
Then there were the confusing growth spurt times. I had finished feeding her within the last half hour, so would try everything but that to soothe her only to feel like a complete ass for denying my baby food for thirty minutes or more while I fumbled around swaying, shushing, holding her like a football, and wrapping her in the plushest soon-to-be soaked in spit-up blankets. I know about following the threes and sixes for growth spurts (three days, six days, three weeks, etc.), but I think her highness has her own chart graphed out for how things work in the kingdom of Sophia.
We also thought that maybe I wasn’t producing enough milk since she would sometimes become very fussy when I knew she was hungry. She would latch and suckle for a bit and then unlatch and fuss, sometimes screaming. I started pumping milk and then I had so much milk that in the mornings, I was in pain and the first am feeding started to result in milk coming out of her nose. I just recently learned that had to do with oversupply and a forceful “let down”. I also learned that the laying side-by-side nursing position is probably one of the worst to use when that occurs since the milk ejection reflex will practically force it down her throat and apparently out the nose.
Two things seem to consistently calm her, car rides (those will actually put her to sleep for as long as the car is moving), and holding her while bouncing on a yoga ball. I can only bounce for so long though. Just like car rides, the minute I stop, she starts up again. Despite the classes we took that told us, “You can’t spoil a newborn” Kurt was beginning to doubt it. I don’t think it’s possible to spoil a newborn; there is a big difference between an infant is trying to tell us something and one that just wants attention. Sophia does start crying if I stop bouncing on the yoga ball, but she doesn’t stop fussing just because she has been picked up (except when she’s been fussing for a basic need like food)! Besides isn’t attention/affection a basic need as well? Anywho The motion must be doing something for her, so at least for now when she cries I’m going to do whatever I can to soothe her. Swaddling also seems to help a lot, but again, Kurt is the super star swaddling hero. So if I’m having a rough night – it’s just going to be a long night.
Now her fits of screaming red-faced rage also happen during the day. Oh lucky me. I have of course heard of colic and I have a vague idea of what that means, but I also know that sometimes babies just cry. I didn’t know about the rule of three’s for this condition:
- baby cries up to three hours a day
- baby has long crying episodes three or more days a week
- baby is between three weeks and three months old
So we weren’t entirely sure if this was just normal crying baby behavior or something else until the doctor said that it sounds like colic. It’s funny how you’re temporarily relived to hear the doctor give a diagnosis right away. At least it’s not our fault we can’t cure the crying. Then all hope is lost after a brief internet search seeking the easy fix remedy. I did find that the reason Kurt is better at calming her – he’s a frickin’ furnace and warmth on the belly is one thing our books, Pregnancy Childbirth and the Newborn: The Complete Guide suggested. Although last night I bought a hot water bottle and that did nothing for her at all. I’ve read some sites that say colicky babies only appear to be in pain but really they’re just fussy – For our case I’m going to call Bullshit! Last night between shrieks of what they say isn’t pain we clearly heard loud gurgling sounds from her belly followed by a very wet, squishy “productive” fart. Of the sites that say foods might be the cause each have their own list of things to avoid. One site listed cabbage, spicy foods, and beans. Those three particular things are the bulk and staple of EVERYTHING I eat! In my search for “the cure” I’ve found that everyone has their option about what food may cause or increase colicky reactions, and if I follow them all I’d wind up eating nothing but white rice. The only list of foods to avoid that I found credible is from the Medela site. Yep, the breast pump manufacturer.
Research has identified some possible causes for colic. One common cause is lactose overload from switching breasts before baby gets to the high fat milk. If baby is often fussy, try offering one breast at each feeding. Sometimes colic can be caused by an sensitivity to a food in mom’s diet. Rarely, babies can be allergic to a food that mother has eaten, and which may appear in minute quantities in her milk. If baby is crying due to food sensitivity, fussing will begin within a few hours of eating the offending food and may last up to 24 hours. If you can avoid the food that causes the crying, baby’s symptoms should cease within 3-7 days. The most common allergy-causing foods are cow’s milk, eggs, wheat, and peanuts. If you decide to wean to formula, it would be wise to pump frequently for 3-4 weeks so you have the option of resuming breastfeeding if baby’s colic worsens. It can take this long for a formula allergy to become apparent.
They got their food list from this study, “Effect of a Low-Allergen Maternal Diet on Colic Among Breastfed Infants: A Randomized, Controlled Trial“. Published in Pediatrics. Published online November 1, 2005 PEDIATRICS Vol. 116 No. 5 November 2005, pp. e709-e715. The same online journal published another study in 1991 dealing specifically with a protein from cow’s milk causing colic in breastfeeding babies. I only have access to the excerpt of that one, “Human Breast Milk Contains Bovine lgG. Relationship to Infant Colic?” PEDIATRICS Vol. 87 No. 4 April 1991, pp. 439-444. The only surefire proven remedy for colic that all sites agree on is time. SHIT! I hate waiting.
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Keywords and phrases
I’ve seen this done on a few blogs, so I thought I’d join in the fun. This is the list of searches that lead people to my blog during the month of August:
“heartburn potatoes” – You know when I started posting about my heartburn I expected it to come up in searches, but never with potatoes. I don’t feel like as much of a freak now. Thank you. Who ever you are.
“my mum does not want to know about my baby s birth” – Wow, that’s really sad. I’m so sorry to hear that. What’s odd is that I did the search in Google and found that the first draft of my birth plan was listed second using that phrase.
“alisha blimka”
“huntwood industries”
“huntwood discrimination”
“huntwood industries lawsuit”
“huntwood suit”
“huntwood industries court case” – Nothing funny about these SIX searches, but they were very near the top. These would all lead to my post about a woman that was fired for going against her employer’s religion and living with her boyfriend.
“why get cramp in my toes” – Why not? Seems as good a place as any to get a cramp.
“baby benadryl” – I don’t know if this person actually wants a bottle of it, but on my site it leads to a post about an irritated flight attendant.
“poker” – this person must have been REALLY bored to find my blog using just the word “poker”. The only post in which I mention that word (until this post of course) is one where I talk about how I spent my New Years Eve and I only used it once at the very end of the post.
“my first home birth” – I really don’t get this. Why would someone want to take this risk? I want doctors and nurses around me. I want to know that the baby and I will come out of this alive. Just because you’re in a hospital doesn’t mean that you have to accept all the cool drugs they offer. You can do the natural thing there and in the event that things don’t work out they will do their damnedest to make sure you and baby live. Yes, people used to give birth at home and in those days there was also a high rate of women dying during child birth and babies that didn’t make it. And why ruin your own bed and flooring with blood and other fluids – let the hospital ruin their stuff and the staff take care of the mess.
“animal boys mom” – I think in order to get where you want to go you’ll have to be more specific.
“7 foods never to eat during conceiving” – uumm I can’t think of anything you need to avoid during conception. As a matter a fact I hear alcohol is how most people get pregnant. I would avoid handling jalapeños (or anything containing capsaicin) and then handling your partner’s genitals though.
“worst pregnancy symptoms” – My worst were the taste in my mouth for the first trimester and in the third trimester definitely the heartburn!
“voyeur” – That’s it I’m investing in curtains.
“spotting and nosebleed at 10 weeks” – oh coming out at both ends, that’s no fun. I’d see a doctor about the spotting.
“are pregnancy symptoms worse at night” – The heartburn yes! When you lay down the stomach acid tend to come all the way up. Pregnancy, ahh what a magically romantic time. Oh and having to pee every 15 minutes is more annoying at night too. It interrupts the whole trying to get some sleep bit.
“pregnancy drain” – Yes, yes it is.
“bumgenius wordpress” – The only thing a cloth diaper and blogging software have in common is this search right here.
“bloody nose heartburn” – WOW, and I thought my heartburn was bad!
“panties for obese woman” – Try the special panties that Mormons are supposed to wear.
“car seat big enough for cloth diapers?” – uuumm if your child won’t fit in the car seat because of the diaper I’m guessing you have no confidence in the absorbency of cloth and have over diapered your poor baby.
“6 week burning sensation pregnancy” – I’m no doctor but it sounds like you got an STD with your pregnancy. Congratulations!
“journal of pediatrics and baby einstein video”
“journal of pediatrics baby einstein”
“journal of pediatrics baby einstein university of washington” – My thoughts on the article that prompted all these Baby Einstein searches in one word, BULLSHIT.
“foreskin blogs” – I say keep the foreskin, but really, is it THAT important? I can just picture guys all networking together blogging about their special connection with their foreskin.
“why does pregnancy make you feel like an emotional monster” – It’s called HORMONES dear.
“i am stuff and things” – I really don’t know how to respond to that. Truly you are special stuff.
“eat banana during cough” – Just try not to choke, ok?
“pregnancy pet bird safety” – Birds don’t get pregnant, they lay eggs. Didn’t your parents explain the birds and bees to you?
“woo hoo biking in calif a different animal” – Funny this search lead to my “about me” page.
“citrucel and pregnancy” – You must use it! I don’t know how I would have made it without.
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The “to do” list
Last week’s goal was to complete the goals of the previous week, which I still have not done. I did remove some of Kurt’s stuff from Sophia’s room, but it’s now sitting in the hallway. I don’t really count that as much of an accomplishment.
I also added 31 blogs that I frequently read to my side bar under the heading, “Link Love”, but there are still a few things I’d like to add/change/fix/replace.
This week’s goals are to keep on picking away at the goals of last week and to arrange the after baby shower dinner reservations, make a vet appointment for Gandalf, call the babysitting referral a coworker gave me, and make a doctor appointment for myself.
The first one I’ve already done *Yay* and no it’s not cheating cause I say it’s not.
Gandalf has quite literally chewed off (not plucked but chewed) all of the feathers from one of his wings. Because he’s shredding and not plucking and because it’s limited to just one wing I think he may have an ingrown feather or some other medical issue. It’s hard to tell with birds. I’m just hoping it’s not some emotional issue of him feeling neglected since Kurt and I have to do so much to get ready for baby because I’m sure it’ll only get worse once baby is here.
I really have no idea what questions to ask a babysitter. I already know that she does take infants, but I do need to know if she’s going to be able to take my infant when she’s six months old. I also know that she is licensed by the state and takes DSHS (not that I need that but from what I understand it means she gets inspections more often). The person that told me about this sitter says that this is the only sitter she ever took her son to and that anytime she passes by the sitter’s house her now eight-year-old son asks to visit the sitter. – I really don’t think you can get a better referral than that, but I still want to go in with some good questions.
I need to make my next doctor appointment for sometime around the 16th and after that appointment I get to see the doctor twice a month. I’m so happy and scared that the end is near. On Saturday Kurt and I went to our first Child birth Prep Class and well neither of us wanted to see THAT movie. I swear if they showed that in high schools the days of teen pregnancy would be OVER!
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Failed Test
I just got a call from my doctor’s office. I failed the glucose test and now I have to take the three-hour test. I’ve also been informed that I’m “very” anemic. How is this possible? The night before I went in for my glucose test I had lentil soup. That may as well be iron soup. I’ve never been anemic before?! I eat beans as if it’s in a food group of its very own. This has to be a mistake.
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Glucose Test
Oh isn’t that a fun implement of legal torture. Actually the taste wasn’t as bad as I was expecting, but it still made me feel ill. I don’t think it helped that my blood preasure was way up while I was at my doctor appoinment yesterday. I was thinking about a meeting I had to go to at work and I clearly wasn’t looking forward to it. They had to have me lay down for a bit before taking my blood test, but other than that everything went swimmingly. Sophia was kicking up a storm – too much sugar? The doctor put the goopy stuff on my belly so we could hear her heart rate and she kicked at it several times as if it was a target. Her heart rate was a bit faster than usual too. Typically it’s at 144, but yesterday at the appointment it was 148. The doctor didn’t seem concerned, so I guess it’s still fine. My belly is still growing, my uterus is in the right place, and I only gained two pounds since my last appointment. I’m pretty happy about that. I think it’s only because I’m not as interested in eating due to all food including COTTAGE CHEESE causing me heartburn.
I swear my stomach is noticeably growing by the hour. This morning I left for work by going through our garage that is slowly being taken over by baby things and tried to squeeze between Kurt’s motorcycle and car. When that didn’t seem to work I did what the non-pregnant me would typically do and turned sideways…that didn’t have the effect I expected. Apparently I’m a cube now.
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Birth Plan Clarification
After several emails and one comment on the blog all saying something like, “Dang you know what you want!” and “Wow that’s detailed!” I just want to say that up until two or three months ago, I had never heard of a birth plan and had no idea that I might have some of these options available to me. I haven’t gone over this plan with the doctor yet, so I don’t know if things like dim lights and wearing my own clothes will be an option. I do know from the first visit with my doctor that Cesareans are only performed if baby or I are having problems and as a “family doctor” he cannot do high-risk pregnancies. If during delivery it becomes necessary, he will have the hospital staff/doctors at hand for help.
How did I find out about birth plans? I was signed up to THREE different email newsletter things that would send me week by week information about my growing embryo / fetus and one of the three (I don’t remember which one) mentioned a birth plan. The three lists I was on were from: Baby Zone (a site my cousin told me about), Pampers (a site a friend told me about) and American Pregnancy (another site from another friend). Whichever site it was gave me some information and then I Googled birth plan, which lead me to three other sites that gave quite a bit of detail on the topic.
You’ll notice that I did a lot of cut and paste from these and kept some stuff word for word. Hey, they’re great resources, what can I say!
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Things I can’t do
On Monday I discovered two things I can no longer do. The first is getting off the couch without using my arms to help lift myself off or rolling. I tried to do this without the help of my arms and my stomach muscles (what’s left of them) felt like they were going to split. The other thing was sit in a chair with my feet on the seat and my thighs against my stomach – it simply doesn’t work. My stomach is a greedy ba$t@rd and won’t allow my legs to get that close to me.
Today I had a doctor appointment. I now weight 158 pounds. For those keeping track – I have gained 28 pounds and I’m only on week 25. How on earth does one gain 28 pounds eating fruit? The doctor took out the measuring tape and announced that my uterus was in the right spot – Well that’s just fabulous because I was worried that half of it was in my thighs and @$$.
The doctor also said that according to my ultrasound the updated due date for Sophia is September 27th.