Questions & chat for parents of babies

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

… about your experiences, techniques, etc.

Got me an almost 4-month old baby here.

How do you personally handle the constant threat of unexpected spit-up? We keep a dozen flatfold diapers (they look like plain kitchen towels) strewn around the house at strategic spots for mopping up. I try to remember to wear one on my shoulder, but often forget, so I usually look like seagulls have a hate-on for me.

If you have long hair, how do you keep your kid from pulling it? Anyone cut it off for this reason? Or do you just keep hair-restraint devices handy all the time? Or keep it tied back 24/7?

Does your kid fart as much as mine does? Phew.

Does your child snort in the night? Ours sleeps in a co-sleeper crib in our bedroom and yes, he snorts and grunts periodically all night long. Now I understand the allure of a separate nursery with a door. Maybe soundproofing.

Does your child ever hold still? I don’t think mine does, outside of deepest sleep… my mother says I used to sit still and just look at stuff a lot when I was very small, but I’m not sure I trust her memory.

I’ve been amused to discover that my husband, who I would have thought wouldn’t care about such things, LOVES to dress our son either in mini versions of something he’d wear himself (plaid flannel shirts are a favorite) or things that are super-soft, like velour. He is also a terrible worrywart who wants to explore all possible causes and solutions for every perceived problem, including things like what shade of brown the baby’s poop is today (It’s green! Is it too green? What could be wrong?? WHAT WILL WE DO?!?!), but I expected that. What surprises you about your partner’s parenting tendencies?

Yesterday I boxed up all the clothing marked sizes Newborn through 3-6 months. This kid, who was undersized for things marked “Preemie” in his first month and only in the 5th %ile of growth, has had a three-month-long growth spurt since then and was in the 50th %ile at his last checkup. Half this stuff was never worn. The local thrift store is about to double its inventory of baby duds.

What interesting things do you keep in your diaper bag?

2

Well, my kiddo is 3 years old now, but was a prolific spitter-upper in his day. We kept him in a terrycloth (or other soft fabric) bib 24/7. The bibs saved a lot of clothes, both his and ours! We pretty much wore burpcloths whenever we were holding him, as well. There were always extras strewn about, and a couple in the diaper bag. We had a lot of them, and now he plays/snuggles with them as blankies.

3

My son, now 4, used to spit up all the time. In fact, he would usually stand up on my lap after eating, pull my shirt out and vomit directly into my bra. Funny how quickly kids learn, isn’t it? :slight_smile: We just kept rolls of paper towels and fold-up diapers around, like you. We were also careful to let a half hour pass before tummy time. My daughter hasn’t been as much of a fountain and learned to sit up on her own early, so she hasn’t caused as much staining.

As for hair - I usually wear it down except at the kids’ bedtime. Both of them like to run their fingers through it when they’re sleepy, and it’s a toy to the baby. My hair is very curly so it gets tangled around their hands. Kids being kids, they like to get untangled the easy way - by ripping their hands free. Keeping my hair up when it’s time for them to sleep has probably saved me half a head of hair.

I’m a strong advocate of doing whatever works best for you - from your sleeping arrangements, feeding, etc. Personally, breastfeeding has been a godsend, though formula has its benefits, too - as long as your kid is getting the nutrition he or she needs, that’s what matters. I love that I can feed my daughter while I’m asleep. Our son was breastfed and supplemented and feeding him used to take an hour and a half! I’d nurse him, then give him formula. I was really uncomfortable feeding him lying down, so even in the middle of the night, I would drag my sorry self out of bed to the TV room and then wonder why he wouldn’t settle down later. I’m glad I’ve finally mastered the ninja skill of side-lying.

What else? Managing both my son and my daughter at the same time by myself when she was a newborn was initially a nightmare. I didn’t trust him to do enough and expected way, way too much of myself. I still remember walking around the kitchen, making my son dinner, nursing my daughter in her sling and trying to clean up simultaneously. I tried so very hard to make my son feel all warm and fuzzy when what I really needed to do was only those things that needed to be done, one at a time, and demonstrate more patience - with myself and my son. There was no permanent scarring or anything, but I could’ve saved myself a lot of stress.

And, no - neither of my children ever hold still. When I had my son, I was told, “Oh, boys are just more active.” Then I had my daughter and found that, for us anyway, that is just not true. Neither hold still. Ever. My mom said that me and my sister were really relaxed. Maybe it was that it was ok to drink then, I don’t know - whatever it was, “relaxed” will never be used to describe my children.

4

OH the spitup. We always made sure she was on a blanket or something else that could be easily washed (unlike, say, the carpet). And tried to keep a burp cloth on our person when we were carrying her after eating, but (since I too kept forgetting) in general tried not to wear clothes that were hard to wash. (ha, stargazer – we too use the burp clothes as security blankets. When I was a baby, m mom had an experience where she left my blanket behind on a trip and I threw a fit, and I’ve decided I don’t want that to happen to me :slight_smile: )

It took us ONE month before I couldn’t take the snorting and grunting and moved the Little One to her own bedroom. We did keep the door open for a while (now we shut it, but more so that noises won’t wake her up).

I always thought my husband would be the one who was strict with things like trying to get her to sleep and that I would be the one who was all “oh, she’s crying, she needs to be held!” But it’s totally the other way around. I’m totally the strict “She’s not hungry, she can stay in her crib and cry it out” and he’s the one who really wants to go in and hold and comfort her.

5

My son hardly ever spit up. I think that was because I was cheap and kept using the little 300 ml bottles that came with my breastmilk pump to feed him. Frankly, when I saw the size of regular bottles and compared those with how tiny a baby is, I’m not surprised babies spit up as much as they do. You try and swallow an two litre bottle of milk all at once and then keep it down.

So try smaller amounts of milk, and if that means more frequent feedings, perhaps it is worth it.

6

We had two babies (they are 4 and 6 now) and one spit up quite a bit and the other one never did. For the spitter (who later became a big drooler) we kept him in a soft bib at all times.

Farting was never a problem. What do you feed your baby with? Ours were on breastmilk exclusively until after 6 months, so that might have helped with the gas. On the other hand, the poop was uncontainable. Our first, especially, would frequently poop half way up his back, well outside diaper containment. Never really figured out how he did it. We had to always keep a couple of spare shirts/onsies on hand for him.

7

My son was breastfed - I mean, at the breast, not usually from a bottle - so he got to eat as much or as little as he wanted to, and he still spit up all the dang time. From what I’ve read, it has more to do with the muscle development in their digestive tract, which is why some babies spit up a lot and some don’t, and why they usually stop spitting up by the time they’re 6-7 months old. I don’t have a cite at the moment, though - my baby books are buried under my toddler books. :slight_smile:

8

With me the spitup was mostly due to a severe problem with the milk coming out too fast while breastfeeding at around 2-3 months. A lactation consultant gave me tips to try to stem the tide, like lying on my back, but nothing worked. Eventually, around 4-5 months or so, it regulated on its own. But until then the Little One was drowning in milk every time we had feeding time – I would have spit up too if I’d been trying to drink from a fire hose like that!

9

I didn’t know that, that’s quite possible too.

As for emmaliminal’s other questions:

I generally grabbed my own hair to keep him from pulling it too hard or too far.

My son was the tallest at his birth (two weeks late) the nurse had seen in her experience of 400 babies. Now, two years later, he’s a little under the 50’th percentile. So it all evens out, I guess. :slight_smile:

Interesting things in our diaper bag? My husbands old Play Station Portable. We copied our sons favourite dvd’s on them and now have an instant pacifier. He started to like those when he was about nine months old.
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10

Skammer, I breastfeed but also supplement with formula – not sure why, but I’ve never been able to keep up with my son’s demand. It could be because of my various medical issues and medications or my age, or because he’s growing so dang fast. He gets between 1/4 and 1/2 of his calories from formula as far as I can tell. (And yes, I’ve consulted lactation consultants and my specialist OB/GYN and our pediatrician. I’m not too worried about it anymore. The pediatrician says “Whatever you’re doing is working – he’s perfect – so keep doing it.”) I don’t get much when I pump and have never leaked or had “letdown” or anything; raspberry hunter, I’m kinda jealous of your fire hose problem.

When we use a bottle, it’s 200 ml max, though sometimes he takes more than one. We usually stop halfway through for a burping.

When he spits up, it’s usually just a mouthful – but there’s rarely any warning, so that one mouthful can end up anywhere! I swear he saves it up and aims sometimes. It can be up to a couple of hours after he ate, too.

Maastricht, that’s pretty nifty, with the old Playstation. How many videos, or how long, can you put on it? I might see if I can get something like that cheaply used. My son already seems to enjoy videos of his own face, of him reacting to me or my husband talking to him, on my laptop here. (We video him frequently at request of my parents, who live a very long way away.)

11

My daughter spit up until she was a year old. At her one-year appointment, we brought it up to the pediatrician, and he said that while she should have outgrown it by that point, that the next step was scoping her esophagus and stomach, so he wanted to hold off a while. She never spit up again after leaving that appointment. It was as if she was like “Crap, that sounds awful, better avoid it by not puking anymore.” But yeah, we did what you do–kept prefolds around everywhere we went, burped her frequently, and she still spit up a lot. Some things are unavoidable, and having to change shirts when the baby pukes on you is one of those things. If it’s any consolation, you only have a few more months of it.

At that age, she farted and grunted a lot. She outgrew both by six months.

She hasn’t held still since she was a newborn. I envy parents whose toddlers can still sleep in their arms. Josie is an excellent sleeper, but only in a quiet room. We moved her to her nursery when she was about 7 months old, and I’m not sure why I didn’t do it sooner.

Nothing has really surprised me about my husband as a dad, except how quickly he took to it. I had a really awful traumatic birth, and was completely out of it on morphine for the first day of Josie’s life. One of my few memories of that day is waking up listening to him soothing her by singing “Where Did You Sleep Last Night?” to her. He’s a silly, loving, calm, and patient father.

Nothing special in the diaper bag. We kept it to the basics–diapers, wipes, a change of clothes, a blanket, a burp cloth, some pacifiers, some of those tubes of formula that you mix with water and a bottle just in case he got stuck out with her and without me and my magic boobs, and later on we replaced the formula and burp cloth with some snacky-type foods and an empty sippy. Always keep something to eat, though–you never know when you’re going to be stuck somewhere.

Best advice I can give is to get your kid on a nap/bedtime schedule and DO NOT DEVIATE from it. This will involve arranging your life around making sure your kid is in bed at a certain time, but kids that age are creatures of routine and habit.

12

My daughter spit up more than my son did. Both of them had vile spit-up since they were on soy formula. ( yes, their soiled diapers were also the stuff of Superfund Sites. :eek: ).

Cloth diapers and towels were our friends. Funny- Purell® and such did not exist back then. My hands got clean enough anyway, and the floor ( hardwood ) and furniture survived. The worst moment hands down in terms of spit-up? Here’s a ripe one:

My son had arrived a few days before and my (ex)wife was as wiped out as I was. The kid was still on Korean time so daytime was his sleep cycle and oh goodness, 2am was Party Time !! I decided to take him down to Philly to see my parents. Road Trip with the new son :slight_smile: We got into the car, he was just delighted to be road trippin’. Had his apple juice in his bottle and we were off. 5 minutes later we’re crossing the Triboro bridge. Son looks at me with a genuine look of surprise and turns to face the windshield and projectile vomits so hard that it splashed off of the dashboard. Son bursts into tears. And, does it again. And again. And again… thus indicating the emergence of a nasty tummy bug.

Road Trip canceled.

I wore my hair in a short pony tail back then. The kids lived in a Gerry backpack with canvas pouch and aluminum tubing framework. More than once I had to wash the spit up out of my hair. Eh…no big deal.

Son is 20 now. Daughter is almost 19. It just flies by…
Cartooniverse

13

Irishbaby wasn’t much of a puker- I have hundreds of unused newborn terry bibs.

My top tip bib wise is to get the bandana style ones- they came in handy for the dribbling stage of teething.
We also bought 3 semi-rigid plastic bibs (the ones with the pocket shelf thing at the bottom)- one stays in the nappy bag, one is always clean and one is always drying. Much better than laundering all those fabric bibs- you just put them in the sink/dishwasher with the dirty dishes.

My nappy bag:
nappies
wipes
changing mat
raisins
bib
sleeping suit and onesie- rarely have things got so bad that we have needed to change clothes
muslin
book
toy (was a rattle, now is anything she currently finds interesting)
spoon and pouch of baby food

I do admit that Irishbaby is particularly easy (generally speaking- see thread on tantrums) and is usually entertained enough by her surroundings not to need extra stuff. I tend to narrate everything we’re doing “see that’s a red pepper-yummy!- that’s a dead fish, Smelly!- that’s a doggy, woof!- look at that shiny silver car- this is mama’s car- let’s put you in your car seat” which keeps her amused and has helped with her vocabulary.

Irishfella is a great dad- lacking in self confidence at first, and still worries about her far more than I do, but just great with her. He does all the “running and hiding” and “throw the baby in the air” stuff much better than I do.

She grew out of pulling my hair, and went in for patting my boobs instead. Now she reaches under my arm and pats my back during feeds or cuddles. Super cute.
I am the crazy lady still breastfeeding her toddler once a day- usually when I get home from work for about 2 minutes as a sort of “is that really you mama?” thing. We finally got rid of the bedtime and wakeup feeds and found a cup she will drink from.

14

The Kidlette can sit or lie still and silent for hours (and, now that she’s older, stand; she just turned 2yo). She’ll move her head to follow whatever she’s watching or look at something else. If she makes noise it’s because she has something specific to communicate. I think of her as “The Little Field Marshal” because she’s so systematic, analytical and organized.

The Kidlet couldn’t, and can’t, stay silent unless he was deeply asleep. He’s the eldest: when he was a baby, his mother and her mother would jump on the cradle as soon as he made a noise. Often, it would just be an “hnnnghnnn” of “I may be waking up within the next half-hour”, but they would take it as a sign that Something Was Wrong and wake him up right then and there. It did not work well.

Apparently my sister in law and her brother didn’t make noise when they were babies and waking up, or at least their mother doesn’t remember that they did. Which makes it doubly strange that, when The (very silent) Kidlette joined the cast, they were worried that something was wrong with her; she’s always used sound to communicate, unlike her brother who lots of the time just happens to make sounds. Moving The Kidlette out of the cradle before she anounces that she’s ready to be moved results in a very cranky Kidlette, too. Let her wake up on her own and she’s a doll; move her before she’s ready and she won’t settle down until it’s bedtime again.

When they were in spit-up phases, they wore bibs all the time, the kind used at feeding times. When they got placed over someone’s shoulder, the bib would get flipped over to protect the shoulder in question. (Is bibs the right word? I mean the little squarish pieces of cloth tied at the neck, not the ones that are like schoolkid’s overclothes)

15

Littlest Matata is just past 6 months now, and yeah: the spit-up thing is getting old. Between that and the occasional leaky boob thing, I’ve learned to wear patterned shirts in public or when I’m expecting guests. Lots of diapers and towels and stuff around the house for burp cloths, but never one at hand when I need one. Based on prior experience, though, I look for that to taper off over the next few months…

Despite the advice of every pediatrician on the planet, I started feeding Miss Lily some solid foods (cereal first, then some veggies and fruits) when she was about 4 months old. Only a monster could have withstood her fascination with Every. Single. Bite. she saw me put in my own mouth… especially when that longing gaze was accompanied by a single, poignant drop of saliva, as she literally drooled over my breakfast or dinner. Happily, we haven’t seen any bad results of that decision, and her pediatrician voiced confidence that the baby’s fine and happy and perfect, so keep it up. Lily looooooves everything so far, except for anything with corn. I think that’s a texture thing, but any veggie puree that includes corn makes her gag.

Of course, the drawback of adding solid foods is that her diapers are now pretty lethal, but at least they’re now only once or twice a day, and solid enough that she doesn’t have those blowouts wherein she has poop up to her armpits. (Seriously, that takes talent!) But yes, she’s pretty farty these days. Which means that I don’t always have to blame the dog…

Lily is still the single happiest baby I’ve ever seen in my life. She smiles 20x more often than she cries. I’m still her favorite toy/person/font of all food and knowledge, though: She likes other people well enough, but would prefer that I hold her 24/7. And my hair is her absolute favorite toy. As soon as she’s able to get at least one handful of it, she laughs and laughs - makes her very happy… (She likes her big sister’s hair, too, which is far longer than mine, but that doesn’t make her laugh. Maybe it’s another texture thing, since my hair is very curly and “fluffy.”)

Mr. Matata surprises me a little bit, though: Lily is his first child, and he was so, so happy to become a father, but his parenting style puzzles me some. He’s a lot less hands-on than I thought he’d be. I think he’s partly not sure what he ought to be doing, and he thinks that I have some magical understanding/experience level on my side. (I keep telling him that no, I just keep trying things until something finally makes Lily happy. Sure, I have two older kids, but the things that worked with them don’t necessarily work with Lily. I’m just experienced enough to know that I have to keep trying until I find the right response for this child…) Now that she’s getting more mobile and eating more solid foods, though, maybe he’ll feel like he can “participate” more… (Plus, he’s spent the past 5 months recuperating from two knee surgeries, so he’s also getting to be more mobile. That should help!)

16

BabyWonderland is 2 months old now and is a very barfy baby - there are recieving blankets everywhere to catch his puke. Yesterday he barged down my mom’s top, the night before he slimed my husbands entire back. We call him Slimer sometimes, due to the barfing. He’s exclusivly breast fed but I have the ‘firehose boob’ issue as well so I think he gets his food a bit to fast.

He also blows out diapers like nobody’s business. His diaper bag always has at least two changes of clothes and extra blankets - I have to keep a blanket on my lap when I’m nursing lest I get baby poo blowout all over my pants.

I’m quite jealous of the folks that have/has their babies in seperate rooms to sleep. I can’t do it because I’m obsessively paranoid about SIDS. Like rediculously so. It’s not normal or healthy but there’s not much I can do about it other than trying to do all the things that are said to lower risk. I’m purchasing a rollaway bed to go in his room so I can sleep in there with him because babies who sleep in the same room as their parents have a lower risk but his crib wnt fit in hubby and my bed room and baby is just about outgrown his bassnette. Ditto for sleeping through the night - he’ll sleep more than two hours at a stretch but I won’t because I wake up every two hours to make sure he’s ok. I fret about the fact that he won’t take a pacifier at bed time because that is said to lower risk. I make my mom wash her hands, brush her teeth and chance her top befor holding him because she smokes and exposure to 2nd hand smoke increases risk. It’s really quite a drag and I feel like it’s preventing me from enjoying him when he’s small because I worry so much but I hope once we make it to four months I might chill out a bit.

His diaper bag has:
diapers
wipes
butt lotion
two or three changes of clothes
Oval drops (he gets gassy)
soothers
extra blankets
spit up cloths
toys

Mr Wonderland is a star with him doing pretty well all diaper changes and burping when he’s home . He also puts up with the fact that I’m currently sleeping in the living room on the couh with the bassinette beside me to reduce his sleep interferance and that I’m going to be sleepng inthe baby’s room for four or five or six or whatever months.

17

Jesús, alice, you sound like my sister in law. I do hope you can learn to relax soon… preferably before you drive yourself, the kid and your husband up a wall!

18

Yah. You and me both. This isn’t a fun headspace to be in.

19

The Boy is 6 now but I’m 6 months along with Boy #2 and will be revisiting those days again very soon. But Boy1 was not a spitter at all, but when he did we were stealth with burp cloths, blankets, anything we could use to catch it. I kept them balled up in my pockets and stashed in every room of the house.

I also have very long, straight hair and even when I tied it back Boy1 was a master at finding 1 or 2 loose hairs and pulling them with all his might. Tying it back into a loose bun at the base of my neck was my usual solution until he found other things to entertain himself.

Boy1 was and is a serious tooter. He would be sound asleep in his crib and would be ripping them out all night long. Now he easily battles my husband for Worst Toots on the Planet. Boys are good at tooting.

The Boy never did or does hold still. Unless he was sick, scared, or needed comforting it was always a struggle to keep him still and/or quiet for any reason. Boys Never.Stop.Moving.Ever.

It surprised me that my husband would almost be more of a worrier about the Boy than I was at times. He takes “complaints” a little more seriously than I do most of the time, maybe because I have to hear the Boy’s complaints all friggin day. Even when he was a baby he was quick to see what the baby was crying about at night or comfort him a little longer than usually necessary.

I usually kept snacks and a water bottle for myself in the diaper bag. I’d just empty a few granola bars into it every week or so and stash some water so I wouldn’t be surprised by crazy hunger/thirst all of a sudden if I was stuck somewhere with the baby.

20

Would one of those angel pad things help? You know, they set off an alarm if they stop detecting breathing.

OTOH, my boss had preemie twins and they almost gave him and his wife a heart attack because they’d just roll off the monitor sometimes which would make it go off.