Motherhood, 2 months on...
Sleepless nights, nappies & a lot of crying!
Welcome to motherhood; where the sleep is less, the crying is more & the nappies and wipes turn into a mountain. When a person says 'oh congratulations, it's amazing being a parent' they are slightly glazing over it. They're trying not to scare you. You can also get the few that say 'oh, well your time will be limited, sleep when baby sleeps' or 'oh mine was a nightmare at night, but s/he's so worth it'...Utter bullshit.I'm calling them out on it - because it's all a false portrayal of parenthood.
It's damn near impossible to sleep when the baby sleeps, mainly because you want to have half hour of quiet time to actually be able to think or even grab a bite to eat. Personally I get my cleaning done when Quinn is asleep, she loves the sounds of a hoover so that's a bonus - it keeps her quiet.
While yes the child was a nightmare, they often say it's worth it because by that point they grow out of their silly routines and you get to see them as an independent person rather than a baby who needs you all the time. I have no doubts that Quinn will be worth the sleepless nights, but experiencing it all for myself is a whole other situation. Those people will always say the good over the bad - it's a typical human thing to do, but why always sugar coat it!?
Quinn loves noise and lights and to be held before she sleeps. It's so beyond annoying. She did at one point sleep properly & had naps, but that went straight out the window by Christmas time. She was constantly held by others so when it came to nighttime - that's all she wanted.
When it was just me and her for the 1st couple of days when Kurt went back to work - we had our neat routine and it worked out fine, soon as others come along and they held her, they would pass her to me when she was crying and say 'oh you don't want to constantly pick her up when she cries'.. That's the thing, as long as I checked on her and made sure she was comfy, clothed, changed and fed I would leave her be and she slept fine. It's when they wanted to hold her while still asleep the problem started. As cute as she is - you just gotta leave her be - it puts a burden on me to deal with her when she won't go down on her own anymore!
She would sleep for a 20 min nap when she was pretty bad - while being held. As soon as you went to lay her on her back in her Moses basket she would scream and cry!
10 mins maximum to cry it out unless something was wrong. The protocol is check her temperature - covers on or off or be swaddled tighter, check her nappy, see if she needs a feed & if she wants to be held.
I would never wish upon a parent to have a baby with colic, I heard that's bad news, for both of you & often mothers and babies need intervention on ways to help calm them down - god forbid if you left the mother with a screaming child for hours on end - eventually they'll snap and the worry of shaken baby syndrome becomes apparent. If that were ever to happen - the anger, I mean, remember to check on the child if they need anything, if they are just crying and cannot be consoled at all, and it's stressing you out there's only a select few ways to deal with it yourself;
- Take the baby for a drive or walk - the fresh air is good for you both.
- Try a bath - if that has worked in the past.
- Close the door, make sure baby is safe & go have a quiet time to yourself - even if it's half an hour.
The refresh of your mind will make it easier to deal with the situation at hand.
Even though Quinn is 2 months old, we've found that lights, and noise - white noise or music helps, she loves and finds it comforting to be in her pram for a walk for an hour or 2 & she didn't like being bathed until she was 6 weeks old, she did enjoy having a clean nappy and being in clean clothes, after that we swaddle her and rock her to sleep or offer her my breast - most of the time she will "dreamfeed" (to fall asleep or feed while asleep)
As for the nappies - Pampers seems to be the best so far & thankfully she doesn't have particularly sensitive skin like I do, so any wipes are fine on her. We've noticed that since sometimes she'll want to be bottle fed with ready-made milk her poop is so different from the times she's been solely breastfed - that's normal. Smelly and sometimes so gross, but that's okay. Just have to make sure she's not in pain or discomfort and that the texture isn't lumpy - that would mean a check on google and if it's not right then it's a phone call to the health visitor/doctor.
We've enjoyed watching her grow and change. Her personality and and features are also changing - day by day. You don't always get the parenting thing down 100% correct. I'm sure no matter how many kids you have, you don't always do what is best or even what others do - but that's okay. You can't have an amazing child or be the best at caring for a child, it's never easy & sometimes people glorify things way too much.
We've enjoyed watching her grow and change. Her personality and and features are also changing - day by day. You don't always get the parenting thing down 100% correct. I'm sure no matter how many kids you have, you don't always do what is best or even what others do - but that's okay. You can't have an amazing child or be the best at caring for a child, it's never easy & sometimes people glorify things way too much.
Be honest, how many times have you gone into the bathroom to cry, or needed 10 minutes down time? or really needed someone else to hold your child because you've had enough.
If you know someone who's about to have a baby or recently had a baby - remember not to make it sound too good - tell them the bad bits too and don't hesitate to offer advice, and not just the stuff everyone tells you, tell them the tips you've found out on your own - the new parent will surely appreciate the rough and ready approach! I know I would have!
Quinn did well at her 8week check up & immunizations. 1 in each leg & 1 oral vaccine - she did NOT like any of those. I'm so glad my mum came with me, I didn't know really what to expect or how long it would take or even how to hold her while she was being checked. It's kinda annoying how people don't want to talk details about this stuff... For us, it was a 20 minute session. A health adviser/pediatrician asked routine questions; place of birth, date of birth, how I delivered she then checked baby's weight and length. Asked me about the birth, how it went and she also asked how I was feeding and then told me to go into the DR's room to have the injections in. The DR asked me about any illnesses in the family, checked her head, hips and limbs for anything. My mum held Quinn up to her chest & slightly over her shoulder & was asked to pull Quinn's leg tight for each injection - Poor baby didn't want to be restrained! While this was going on another woman with her baby had the same questions asked in the same room we were in, in the beginning, they tend to do more than one baby at a time to be efficient because they have up to 8 babies in a day to vaccinate and there's usually only 1 day they do this on. After the injections were administered I went off into a quiet room and fed Quinn - with all the crying and being naked and man-handled she really wanted to comfort feed. Once I finished feeding her, she had a new clean nappy on and we left the DR's with a prescription for infant Calpol. Babies can get irritable, or very sleepy and have a slight temperature so Calpol is prescribed to lessen the effects of the injections - as babis can't tell you what's wrong you need to be extra tentative to their needs, they may be more clingy and upset than usual or may need feeding a little more if breast feeding.
Quinn didn't like the Calpol in her mouth, she didn't like the taste or texture! She ended up comforting and cuddling me for the rest of the day after the DR's visit and had plenty of naps. She didn't want to go too far away from me and she was especially restless at night, for 3 nights on the trot. I was a very tired mummy! Luckily, my sister and mum came over on alternate days to keep me company & hold her when I needed a break, a shower and catch up on my much needed sleep!
How did your children fair at the vaccination visit? Any tips for other mothers?
Next thing to conquer as a parent, time keeping skills and a routine! It's put me out so badly with getting things done since having my baby, I also have developed the infamous 'baby brain' - I can't remember what I was doing until I've started doing something else or end up forgetting what people have said to me! Much to my family's amusement!
Thanks for reading this extremely long blog post - I'll try not to leave it so long next time before I post again! But... When do I really have the spare time?!
~Ellie xoxox
If you know someone who's about to have a baby or recently had a baby - remember not to make it sound too good - tell them the bad bits too and don't hesitate to offer advice, and not just the stuff everyone tells you, tell them the tips you've found out on your own - the new parent will surely appreciate the rough and ready approach! I know I would have!
Quinn did well at her 8week check up & immunizations. 1 in each leg & 1 oral vaccine - she did NOT like any of those. I'm so glad my mum came with me, I didn't know really what to expect or how long it would take or even how to hold her while she was being checked. It's kinda annoying how people don't want to talk details about this stuff... For us, it was a 20 minute session. A health adviser/pediatrician asked routine questions; place of birth, date of birth, how I delivered she then checked baby's weight and length. Asked me about the birth, how it went and she also asked how I was feeding and then told me to go into the DR's room to have the injections in. The DR asked me about any illnesses in the family, checked her head, hips and limbs for anything. My mum held Quinn up to her chest & slightly over her shoulder & was asked to pull Quinn's leg tight for each injection - Poor baby didn't want to be restrained! While this was going on another woman with her baby had the same questions asked in the same room we were in, in the beginning, they tend to do more than one baby at a time to be efficient because they have up to 8 babies in a day to vaccinate and there's usually only 1 day they do this on. After the injections were administered I went off into a quiet room and fed Quinn - with all the crying and being naked and man-handled she really wanted to comfort feed. Once I finished feeding her, she had a new clean nappy on and we left the DR's with a prescription for infant Calpol. Babies can get irritable, or very sleepy and have a slight temperature so Calpol is prescribed to lessen the effects of the injections - as babis can't tell you what's wrong you need to be extra tentative to their needs, they may be more clingy and upset than usual or may need feeding a little more if breast feeding.
Quinn didn't like the Calpol in her mouth, she didn't like the taste or texture! She ended up comforting and cuddling me for the rest of the day after the DR's visit and had plenty of naps. She didn't want to go too far away from me and she was especially restless at night, for 3 nights on the trot. I was a very tired mummy! Luckily, my sister and mum came over on alternate days to keep me company & hold her when I needed a break, a shower and catch up on my much needed sleep!
How did your children fair at the vaccination visit? Any tips for other mothers?
Next thing to conquer as a parent, time keeping skills and a routine! It's put me out so badly with getting things done since having my baby, I also have developed the infamous 'baby brain' - I can't remember what I was doing until I've started doing something else or end up forgetting what people have said to me! Much to my family's amusement!
Thanks for reading this extremely long blog post - I'll try not to leave it so long next time before I post again! But... When do I really have the spare time?!
~Ellie xoxox
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