how to protect that shoulder

nobody told me how much laundry i would have to do as a new mom… this is only like 2 days worth of laundry — i think it was 4 loads total.

 

laundry for me + laundry or hubby + laundry for baby + extra laundry for me that baby spit up on + many many burp cloths.

in a given day, i usually go though a few burping-clothing-protectors and at least one shirt.  i dont know why i dont just safety pin a cloth on my shoulder at all times, it really would probably save me a lot of time and effort.

speaking of burping cloths, Bella Boo Boo has a bit of reflux, so she spits up all the time.  the standard itty bitty terry burp cloths that are sold do not do the trick.  i love you Babies R Us, but these babies are too small for Bella.

 

they are so small, you can barely even see them on the computer.  so, if baby has lots of reflux, i recommend either using receiving blankets (you can never have too many of those, they come in handy for soooo many things.  receiving blankets and washcloths) or cloth diapers.  if they’re good enough for diapers, they’ll hold plenty of spit.  that was my mama’s secret.  but Gerber must have already heard the secret, because they make these beauties that double as burp cloths and cloth diapers… and they come in pretty colors.  where were these when i was registering?

 

 

Read Full Post »

Hush Little Baby… Don’t You Cry

That's spit up on my shoulder

Little Bella has had her share of colicky episodes so far, and with the doctor’s suggestion to use Mylicon to reduce her gassiness — things have been looking up. Everything was looking up — she was less gassy — which led to less crying. But in the last couple of days her spit up has been gradually increasing to full on vomit. Today was probably the most worrisome day we’ve had in the last 8 weeks of her little bitty life.

At first, she didn’t appear to be very concerned.. she was a little fussy and then, blah. Blah all over my chest. She seemed to settle down, smile at herself in the mirror and then all of a sudden blahhhh again. All over my freshly cleaned chest. Within the next hour, I washed off at least three times outside of two t-shirt changes. Whoaa, Bella. But still, she seemed contented.

I leafed through my library of baby books… told me not to be alarmed (yet) and to try and feed her for about five minutes every two hours. But she kept spitting up, and I grew increasingly worried/frustrated/tearful/sad/you know the deal.

And then the poor dear started getting hungry and crying more beause of it. Four and a half hours later I am in freak-out-time-to-call-the-doctor-mode. Improperly timed, of course, at 9 pm Sunday night. The nurse puts me on a Pedialyte feeding schedule every five minutes for four hours.

It has worn both of us out. She only stayed awake for about 2.5 hours before knocking herself out. Not sure whether to wake her… I’m sure she’s much happier now in her deep slumber.

Read Full Post »