the don'ts and don'ts of curing baby hiccups

Baby hiccups are a plague to both babies and parents.  They are adult sized hiccups that wrack their tiny little bodies for minutes at a time.  They keep babies and parents awake with their noisy squeaks.  Here are some don'ts to consider when trying to cure your baby's hiccups.

1.)  Don't leave your baby in a hallway and then jump out of a random door trying to scare your baby.  It's not a good idea.

2.)  Don't make your baby drink from bottle or breast upside down.  This will likely cause any and everything your baby ingests to come out his or her nose.

3.)  Don't put a packet of sugar under your baby's tongue.  Even if it does work to cure the hiccups, your baby would probably be awake for days after ingesting all that sugar.  It's not worth it.

4.)  Don't try to make your baby hold his or her breath.  This would likely confuse the baby and make them think you're trying to kill them.  You'll lose all the trust you've built up with your baby over the previous weeks or months.

5.)  Don't make your baby breathe into a paper bag.  This would also likely confuse the baby.

The best thing to do when your baby has the hiccups is to hold them, rub their back and wait them out.  They'll stop soon.

week 1.5

1.) sleep smiles are the best

This is the first day that Ed has gone back to work.  He wasn't looking forward to it and neither was I.  I was very nervous about staying home with Ted alone.  We're lucky he's so good right now.  He's hardly ever fussy and sleeps a ton.  I know this can't last forever, but I'm going to enjoy it while it does!

2.) look at those feet!

I'm scared to take him out by myself.  Ed and I took him to Target last week and he got a little fussy in the store, but we'd come prepared with a bottle and were able to quiet him.  He mostly just slept in his car seat and showed off his monkey toes.  (see pic 2, right)

We've been sharing the night duties pretty well, but now that Ed has gone back to work, I feel like I need to do more (or all of them), at least some nights so he can sleep.  So far I feel pretty well rested since we've been sharing.  Obviously not as well as if I was getting eight straight uninterrupted hours, but I've been able to piece together between five and seven hours a night (and part of the morning. Possibly also the afternoon).  We're incredibly lucky he's not a cat napper and most often sleeps for large chunks of time.

3.) neither one looks all that happy about this

 Bailey is still adjusting.  She vacillates between being completely indifferent to the baby, to being super interested.  She'll walk by the rock n' play and peek in to see if he's in there and sometimes lies with her head on the rocker portion of it.  Sunny just lies down wherever Sunny wants, never mind where Ted is.  I can't even talk about Poppy bird.  With all the stress of our new addition, her squawking is driving me crazy.  I can feel it in my teeth.  She spends most of her time outside or in the spare room, which I do feel bad about.


All in all the first week and a half has gone pretty well.  I'm not as stressed and freaked out as I thought I would be, plus I'm getting more sleep than I thought I would (which was none.  I thought I'd get none).

4.) rare awake time in the rock n' play

He's here!

A few days late, but Teddy arrived at 6:02pm on Wednesday, August 6th.  He was 21 inches long and 8 lbs 3 oz.  He was sort of a big boy!  He's perfect!  After 33 hours of labor, I only ended up pushing for about 20 minutes.  Once he decided it was time, he barreled out of there like he was on fire!  I also have to say that the epidural was the most amazing thing I've ever experienced.  After sixteen hours of contractions, it was a very welcomed procedure.

Ted had some glucose issues at first and almost had to go to the NICU.  I cried when they told me that.  It got down to 31 at one point which is really low.  We tried some high calorie formula which worked to keep his sugar out of the danger zone.  Then after that he had some bilirubin issues and subsequent jaundice.  We had appointments with the pediatrician on both Saturday and Sunday.  Sunday it started to go down, so we were in the clear and didn't have to have the lights.  A home nurse came and weighed him today and he is already back up to his birth weight!

Since we've been home he basically sleeps all the time, unless he's eating or during the dreaded diaper change. He does a lot of sleep smiling and likes sleeping on one of our chests.

Ed seems completely smitten, as am I.  The animals seem to be adjusting pretty well.  Both seemed completely confused about the whole situation at first.  (Bird not so much).  Sunny refuses to be ignored and will curl up on our lap or Ed's chest beside Teddy at any given opportunity.  Bailey seems resigned to her status as second favorite.  We're trying to give them plenty of attention so they don't feel resentful.

ok I'm 40 weeks... where is he?

This is how the past month or so has gone for me:

Week 36: Doc says, "If he comes now, that'll be fine!" I think, Yeah, but 37 weeks is term and mom's at the beach.  Better to wait.

Week 37: Ok, he can totally come now.  I'm fine with that!  Besides I'm having all these contractions, they should be doing something.

Week 38:  Hmm.  Ok, another week to cook, that's fine.  But seriously, any time now would be good!

  

Week 39:  This week for sure.  Doc says she thinks I should go before the due date anyway.  He'll be here soon!  

Week 40:  Overdue!  I'm going to start charging rent.  Get out, get out, get out! 

At least I know it'll be this week for sure...

ok baby, your room is all ready!

I finished the nursery today, insofar as I went through the last few boxes of lovely hand-me-downs and put away all the bigger boy clothes.  I organized some things and put away the freshly washed diapers.  I only need to hang a few things on the walls and his room will be ready!  Not that he'll be using it at first.  We're going to keep him in our room for a while.  I'm not sure how long though.

I had my 39 week doctor's appointment yesterday and saw the final doctor in the practice that I hadn't met.  She seemed alright.  She was friendly enough and knowledgeable, though she kept me waiting in the exam room for an hour and 20 minutes with no pants on, sweltering. There is only one doctor at my practice that I don't really care for.  I'm hoping she's not the one on call when I go into labor!  Everything is checking out ok and Ted's weighing in at 7 lbs 7 oz as of now.  I was relieved to hear that, even though I know they're not always incredibly accurate.

the crib set I ordered off amazon and took 3 months to get here!

I got a few more ultrasound pictures,which I'm not posting because as he gets bigger and more squished, the pictures get worse and worse.  His eyes are open in this one and with the 3D imaging they look like empty, vacant holes.  Creepy.  He does have very smushy cheeks though!

So the stage is set.  We're only waiting on the main character to arrive!

"He's gonna be a big boy!" :-/

a little late at 38 weeks

So here we are at 39 weeks!  Only one week until my due date and 1.5 weeks until they take him if he continues to be stubborn and won't come on his own.  (With the gestational diabetes they won't let me get to 41 or 42 weeks like people with normal pregnancies.)  I'd like to avoid an induction for the simple fact that there is a much higher chance of having a C-section at the end of it.  It would be ideal if he decided to come on his own.  Maybe tomorrow after my last day of work?  Are you listening, kid?

Yes, I am starting my leave a teeny bit early.  My doctor thinks I'll go before my due date which is any day now.  I also like the thought of having a concrete leave date instead of leaving it up in the air.  I have plenty of things to do before he comes, so having a few extra days or a week to do things will be nice.

I'm still having contractions - some that hurt and some that are just tight and uncomfortable, but not painful.  The problem is they never get regular, thus they never go anywhere.  I have an ultrasound on Tuesday, so we'll see how big he's gotten.  The prenatal nurse on the phone freaked me out a little this past week when I told her that he was 6.2 pounds at 35 weeks.  She goes, "Oh, he's gonna be a big boy!"  Hmmm.  Not very reassuring, I'd say.

if you don't want to hear me complain, for heaven's sake don't read this

This cute picture negates all my complaining.

As I'm sure all women who've been pregnant can tell you, the ninth month of pregnancy is no joke.  In fact, though everyone thinks that pregnancy lasts only nine months, they're in fact, wrong.  It's actually 40 weeks which if you go by the average 4 weeks per month, adds up to ten months.  If you're super lucky, you'll go over 40 weeks!  I'm not sure about this, but I think I've been pregnant for at least 15 months.  It could be as much as two years.  My baby may have the same gestational period of an elephant baby, which is about 669 days.  What I wouldn't give to be pregnant like a dog whose gestational period is 63 days.  Think about that.  Two months pregnant and BAM.  Baby.  Of course with a dog, it'd be babies, probably 12 or so.  I don't know about all that.

I still have so much to do and absolutely zero energy to do it.  I have two loads of laundry to wash and dry and an additional two to put away from last weekend.  I have to organize the baby's room with all the wonderful gifts we received from the baby showers.  I should take a stab at cleaning, but who am I kidding?

In addition to this, I just feel bad.  I know two weeks ago Ted was 6.2 pounds and with the average weight gain of 0.5 pounds per week, he should weigh in around 7 pounds at this point.  I'm not sure this is accurate.  He must be at least 25 pounds.  I can't bend over because his butt (I assume, since he's appropriately head down) presses into my ribs.  His head turns on my bladder.  He feels very heavy.  Also, I've been having Braxton Hicks contractions for a few weeks now - well for a long time, but in the past few weeks they hurt!  Every time they start I wonder if this time is it.  And every time it isn't.  I go to sleep with a heating pad stuffed into my pajama bottoms.

I'm sure none of this is news to women who've done this - for many, many lifetimes women have done this.  And multiple times each!  I'm also sure that being pregnant and dealing with older children must be an absolute treat because they can't be ignored until you feel like dealing with them like I can with cleaning the kitchen.

Also, I have to add in here that Eddie does help me and offer to help me a lot.  I'm not doing everything alone.  He has been very understanding of my physical discomfort and always asks, "What can I do?"  He also lined the mattress with an old shower curtain and some towels yesterday morning when I was timing contractions while lying in bed.  Protect the new mattress at all costs! 

That's my rant for now.  Stay tuned...