Posted by SuperADDMom on April 26, 2005
Everyone thinks that when you become parents you start making friends with other people with kids because you can’t go out with your single friends like you used to. They say it is because you no longer have time for the dinner parties and friday night movies and discussing it at the coffeeshop until 4 am afterwards. But that is not the truth.
Parents seek out other parents as friends once they BECOME parents, because thereafter your life revolves around poop.
They ( babies) gotta poop. so, you gotta talk about it. “Did he just poop”, “it smells like it?” “No?” “OMG baby you SMELLLLL!!!!!!!!!” (waving hand in the general direction of the child’s bottom.) “It was just gas?” “He takes AFTER YOU!!!” “Did he finally poop?” “Yes?” “How’s the poop?” “A lot of poop?” “The color of the poop?” “The baby pooped yesterday!” “Honey, come and look at this poop the baby did!” “It’s poop day today!”…
Your friend has a kid close but younger in age to your kid and you start comparing the poop or giving poop advice. “Wait until he starts eating SOLID FOOD!” “OMG Stinky poop?!?!”, “You’ll be thankful for the good ole breastfeeding days, let me tell ya!!” “Oh my son’s poop was bigger then that!!!” “One time, my daughter pooped in a resturant and it slid out the diaper onto the highchair and all over the floor!!!” “We never went out on poop day again!!!” (True story, BTW. My poor BIL never went back to that resturant! Don’t buy Walmart brand disposable diapers, and yes I use them on occasion to go out, beats carrying peepee cloth dipes around in my bag in the hot car)
Now, I know some comediam already said this and probably much funnier than I am saying it ( me thinks it was Paul Reiser perhaps? I dunno), but it is true, and you cannot stop, and you don’t stop either. It has been 4 years and I talk about poop every day! more then once a day!!!
You know your a parent when…. someone asks what you did today and you answer, “Oh the baby had the best poop today!!!I had to even give him a bath!He was covered in it”
My son is a baby who gives me such stories to tell. My daughter now 4 yo, also has given me such stories to bore my fellow poop talking parent friends ( see “poop parade” blog entry in archives)
So, for whatever reason, my children only poop every couple of days.Seems to be their schedule, not a problem, just them.
When my daughter was a baby I could tell when her poop day was about to arrive. She’d get cranky and fart all day being gassy, and then WHAM, on day 5 like clock work, the titanic of diaper loads. She’d have the greatest sleep after her poop day too!
So, naturally when my son was born and he started to exhibit the same type of pooping pattern I started paying attention, figuring I could figure him out as easily if not easier, after all I have 4 years of poop experience under my belt, a few more years and I could be the baby poop wisperer.
NOPE, I thought today was going to be poop day, but he suprised me 20 hours early and pooped last night just before midnight. He was the usuall gassy bum, and crabby self, he wanted to be comforted, so between nursings he sucked on a soother ocassionaly dipped in some corn syprup ( don’t even email me OK, have children as gassy and smelly as mine with terrible tummy aches and then come back and tell me that corn sypup is bad), it helps sooth his stomach and you can’t feed them gripe water all day long or let him nurse all day long , I’d be as big as Dolly Parton with engorgement for supply and demand!)
Though I cannot figure out his exact days yet ( or perhaps he won’t have a certian number of days as my daughter did, I do know his pattern when he is about to poop. A cranky day or two, filled with pockets of green gassy air whafting from his diaper from the farts, vigerous sucking on the breast most of the day, corn sypuped soother and gripe water in between.
If is he farting at a rate of about 1 every 5 minutes, We are getting close to the zero hour. If I give him gripe water with 1 every 5 minutes on poop day and then he has two “boobs” ( nurse full on both sides), he’ll likely poop within a half hour sititng in my arms while being burped.
He caught me off guard yesterday and when I went to change his wet diaper I got a poo suprise!
I had to even give him a bath!He was covered in it!!
Not the same poop day, but all smiles after a poo a week ago or so.
Posted by SuperADDMom on March 17, 2005
We just got home from seeing the Robots movie, and it was cute, I really enjoyed it… anyway DD is on the couch playing with the baby and she stuck her ear in his face and he started to suck on it (he’s 6 weeks today). She laughed and told me he was silly, I asked her why she did that and she said she was trying to hear what he was saying.
When I asked her what he was saying she replied in a small voice for the baby
“I want a bagel”
LOL
Posted by SuperADDMom on February 7, 2005
Since the birth of our son, someone said to me:
“I was glad to see that you weren’t unassisted this time, not because I disagree with it but because of (your husband’s) illness and (your 4-year-old). I thought about it before the birth but didn’t want to say anything then.”
This is my response to their email about it, that revealed to me some of my feelings on the birth that I am still trying to sift through:
We had decided to hire a midwife that would be hands off so we could decide on what we wanted based on how DH was feeling the day the baby came. We had not planned to call them for the birth because DH was feeling pretty good (for him, in other words was not out on his feet) and adrenaline can do wonders in the time of need, but I had a prenatal appointment with them and they showed up with a student in tow (who was NOT supposed to be at my birth because I had not met her in advance). Based on my progress over the 40 plus hours prior, they stayed and prepared for a birth based on where I was in the contractions, etc. Had I not had a set appointment that day I probably would not have called them at all until very close to or after our new son was born so they could check him over. We felt they were here for far too long. It just got uncomfortable.
Obviously, I have a lot of feelings about the birth I am still contemplating, due to the newness of it all – but I was glad they were there for verbal support during the pushing. This new baby was bigger by half again as our first, and this labour was that much more intense as well – it was very intense with all back labour.
Not that DH was not great emotional support, but he was so busy catching and holding me as I pushed that the extra encouragement just when I thought I could not do it anymore was very helpful. DH did an amazing job even with his illness, though he is paying for his expulsion of energy and adrenaline now with some symptoms being more
pronounced than usual along with his extreme tiredness and pain (he has more
short term memory loss, speech is more impaired, and balance is very off). He doesn’t care though, he’d do it all over again. He did most of the work at the birth (other than my job), then he had to rest, and relaxed with the baby while the midwives “helped me” post-partum (by helped I mean, in part, told me that I was taking too long to deliver a placenta, which was exasperating and stressfull and annoying).
Still, as great as they were emotionally, and as good as the overall experience was, in retrospect unassisted is *OUR* best option. There are “interventions” and “management” that midwives cannot help but do that just bother *us* too much. Birth is not a managed event like a concert, it is free flowing… and hubby found that he often had someone “in his bloody way”. A midwife can be as hands off and sitting in the corner of the room being silent even, and it STILL changes the dynamic of the birth for the couple.
I had my neighbour here to be with our daughter regardless of any midwife in attendance, and that was the best decision I ever made, especially my choice of person. She was everything I anticipated and could have asked for, and more 
She is a great friend and this experience has only confirmed and strengthened the friendship. She is the only person I trust my kids with, even over some of my own family members.
No matter how much midwives believe in the naturalness of birth, they cannot help it… they are trained to watch for any variations from “normal” and “treat it”. Sometimes it feels like they spend their time looking for a problem to fix, rather than waiting to see if one appears and dealing with it then. This, for us, isn’t dealing with things perceptively and intuitively, and runs against our beliefs. It also caused us some unneeded aggravated feelings with this birth and there was a definite “anxiety” vibe they radiated even though things were fine.
I can say with some assurance that this is our last planned child, and that I will likely not be birthing anymore – 8+ months of tiring and sicky pregnancy feelings, along with caring for DH and two kids would be hard to do for me, so we are feeling quite finished. But, if we were ever blessed with another child unexpectedly, we will likely be going unassisted in the birth for sure.
Posted by SuperADDMom on
Yeah. More. Doesn’t it bug you when people have new babies?
Auntie and Uncle come for a visit and bring presents, too!
Big Sister finds out she will have to wait to babysit until she is 12.
Dozey Toesies
Boy meets Bird. Boy loses bird. Bird goes back in cage for poopin’ on Mommy.
Hey Dad, Cool Camera!
Hi Mommy, can I make faces with you?
Mama kisses, pucker up!
Posted by SuperADDMom on February 6, 2005
By popular demand! Ok, well, not really… but here are pictures from the first 3 days of the life of our family’s new addition:
50 mins old, posing with his big sister
4 hours new and slinging out with Daddy
Uncle J visits at 5 hours of age, his first family visitor
Thinker Jr. and only 12 hours post-womb
Bright eyed & Bushy Tailed at 21 hrs new
Meeting Nana
23 hours and Sis & Bro ham it up again
New PolarBear Outfit @ 46 hours old, I wonder who picked that out? Note that it was bought on his first short trip (to Wal-Mart the evening before at a day old)
Snoozing after 54 hrs on the outside
Sweats and Tees Already and only 3 days & 8 hours old
Naps are good
Mommy catches a biiiiiiiiiiiiig streeeeeeeeeeeeeetch
And a sleepy tango to say goodnight…
Hope you like. All pop large in new windows, or they should if your pop-up blocker doesn’t try to stuff them. Its amazing how much personality he is already showing, some comes through in these pictures.
Posted by SuperADDMom on February 5, 2005
Its just too cute an expression not to post.
Posted by SuperADDMom on February 4, 2005
Written by “The Mundane One”
Here is a short picture summary of the birth of our new son on February 2nd, 2005. No freaking out allowed, if you do you’ll be sent to the principal’s office. All pictures will pop large versions in new windows. Before I go any further, I want to be sure to thank our neighbour, Sonya, who was amazing through the whole process – she took care of our daughter while her Mommy and Daddy were very busy, and it would not have been the same (if not impossible) without her. Mom went into early labour on Monday evening, dilating to 5 cm almost right away and then stayed there with baby slightly asynclitic and resting around the pubic symphysis. Active labour picked up on Wednesday afternoon. The water broke at 3:45 pm Eastern, and that’s about where we begin…
Mom makes her best pushy face… baby is moving down but much slower than her first baby who was born 3 weeks sooner, so she is working hard. It is 4:26 pm.
A brief moment of rest as the last contraction ends, but more are coming – one almost on top of the other. Mom says, “I am never doing this again!” She is certain she makes sure that everyone present knows it, as well as the neighbours and anyone who may have been passing by in a vehicle on the highway 2 kilometres away. Big sister watches, wishing she could jump in the pool while the midwife twiddles her thumbs patiently.
Our daughter decides she wants to be a 4-year-old Lamaze Coach. “Its OK, Mommy, you can do it,” she says as she massages her Mommy’s arm since Daddy is a bit busy providing perineal support and trying to make sure baby’s head is still moving down. It is 4:31 pm.
The baby is out! And IT’S A BOY! It is now 4:38 pm. Big sister takes her first look at a new baby brother while the midwife reaches in to check his APGAR score (1 minute was 8, 5 minutes was 9, for those who may have been curious).
At 4:44 pm, Mom looks down and she and Daddy officially name their son. They’ve had names picked out for a long, long time and waited for this moment to find out which one they would use – the boy one or the girl one. No one wants to look in the pool any more.
Big sister gets in close and observes how he has such a cute, tiny nose. Little brother is only 16 minutes old right now, but everyone is in love with him. Mom has already forgotten how much work she just did, at least for the moment.
We wait for the cord to stop pulsing, making sure baby gets everything he needs from Mom before sending him into the world to survive on his own. After 20 minutes, at around 4:59 pm, it stops pulsing, so with big sister checking his work closely, Daddy clamps it with a plastic cord clamp and a haemostat…
…then big sister has her biggest moment: she cuts the cord to separate baby from Mommy. This is no token cut like often done in hospitals, this is the real thing, the first cut, and she does a great job! She has been waiting to do this for the last 2 days. It is now 5:00 pm.
Then, she finally gets to admire her work at 5:34 pm – baby is 56 minutes old and she can finally hold him now that he is all checked over and not attached to Mom any more. Ever had a 4-year-old beg for a toy in the store? Well, imagine that only with wanting to hold a baby.
At about 1 hour 45 minutes old, baby boy rests on Mommy’s chest. He was supposed to nurse to stimulate oxytocin and make the placenta come faster. He opts for a nap instead, so Mommy has to do it on her own – and she does, about 15 minutes later at 6:38pm.
So, we find out he weighs 4000 grams or 8 lbs 13 oz, and he is 51 cm or 20 inches long. Done with the day’s work, everyone tries to rest a little. Mommy gets hungry at 10:45 pm, though and only 6 hours after delivering a baby, she drives off to get everyone McDonald’s with the neighbour and daughter in tow. Daddy and new baby pass out on couch, because only Mommy is a real superhero.
When I came home from McDonald's I found my two men sleeping on the couch, having a little father son, bonding moment.
