I am so slack at this blogging but the last 15 near 16 weeks my time has been taken up by caring for our most prized possession, Jaz!!!! Since Jaz has been born I have been counting the weeks down, first it was 6 weeks, then it was 12 weeks. Rumour has it that the first 6-12 weeks can be the hardest, hence the counting down the weeks. I found that each week got better and better, I think for me the first 4-6 weeks were the hard yards. Here is my list of my favourite things that I found helpful being a first time mum:-
1. cooled boiled water - The first 3 weeks I found the feeding very stressful. By the 3rd week I had a decision to make, do I continue to feed Jaz the breast milk I could express and formula feed the remainder or do I throw in the towel and hope for better luck next time with Doyle No.2? Craig and I made the call to quit pumping and 100% formula feed. Then it was trying to work out the amount of milk Jaz requires without feeding her too much, as mentioned in my last blog I had done this on a few occasions which then made her bring it all up. So week 3 I learnt my first favourite thing which my dad said for me to try. Jaz had a period of where she would cry from about 11am til about 5pm, this went on for 3 days, so you could imagine by the 3rd day I was ready to trade Jaz in :-), surprisingly I stayed calm and patient (very unusual for me). So on this day I was very excited to see Craig and dad walk through the door, we went through the 3 things that could be upsetting her 1. hunger, 2. wind or 3. wet nappy. I said that I had done all 3 but nothing seem to suffice her, dad said have you tried more food, I said no I had given her the amount she should be having and that I was reluctant to give her more due to her bringing it all up. Dad then suggested that I give her a small amount of cooled boiled water and that will give me an indication if she was hungry. He hit the nail on the head, Jaz was hungry, she guzzled it down. We increased her bottles and from then on she was one happy little girl, YAY no more crying.....for now. I also found that cooled boiled water was good for wind. I would give her 30ml when she was grizzly and it always seemed to work.
2. Sleeping bag/swaddle - Also on the 3rd week I wanted to work out how I could get Jaz to sleep without getting into habits that later could be something I wish I hadn't started. I found during this week Jaz started to move more, which made wrapping her a pain. I would get her to sleep then I would wrap her put her down, then within 5 minutes she would be awake again and arms waving around. My sister in-law Kate had given me a couple of these sleeping bags and my boss Lisa had also mentioned to me during my pregnancy that she loved them. I whipped it out, zipped Jaz up and put her back down, and if she woke back up and flung the arms around I didn't have to go back in and re-wrap her because she couldn't get out. At times she would have a little grizzle but you get to know the cries. I use 2 types of sleeping bags, the EgroPouch http://www.ergopouch.com.au/index.html and Love to Dream http://www.lovetodream.com.au/index.htm
3. Baby Love by Robin Barker - At week 4 I thought I had it all worked out, I knew babies....boy was I wrong when week 5 came around and mum had gone home. It's so true when parents tell you that you think you have it all sorted then there is a change which completely changes what you did last week or even the day before. I was against reading any baby books because there are so many out there and my thoughts are that babies don't come with instruction manuals and what might have worked for one mum might not for another. I was visiting my cousin Sheree and she said for me to read this book, I was a bit reluctant to take it but then thought why not, I have nothing to lose. So week 5 was another grizzly week and Jaz had been bringing up her bottles again, my thoughts instantly were it's the formula. We started Jaz on the S-26 which I think most of us all were brought up on then I changed to the NAN H.A Pro Gold as Jaz had regurgitated on the S-26. I have since learnt that the S-26 was fine it was due to me feeding her to much. Anyway I thought I'll change her formula again, which I really didn't want to do as you worry with all these changes (i.e. breast milk, breast milk + formula, change in formula) what is it doing to her stomach, probably nothing but my thoughts are she is still developing and if you cause damage during this development that could potentially lead to health problems in the future. So I thought before I go changing I will see if there was any information in this book, which there was. Robin advised that it was perfectly normal for all babies breast fed or formula fed to regurgitate, however it is far less common in breast fed babies. There are formula's available for regurgitation but if I were to change to these types of formula's it could lead to constipation but for piece of mind you can try this and see how your baby goes. That there sold me on this book, "for piece of mind", which to me she is providing you with her thoughts but at the same time she is also saying do what you feel you should do. I started reading more and more of this book, mainly on wind and sleeping and on each topic Robin provides you with a list of things to try but again it's basically what ever works for you. I still refer to this book when there is a change in Jaz or she seems unsettled.
4. Dunstan Baby Language - Also at week 5 I had 4 days of crying, this time it was wind which I had never considered before and still didn't at this stage as I was so certain that Jaz didn't get wind she burped after every feed, "wrong", yes Jaz does get wind even though she has burped!!! Poor Jaz endured some upsetting times because I thought I knew what was wrong, and yes you should go by your instincts but sometimes they are not always right anyhow we learn from this, no wonder we have nicknamed Jaz our experimental child :-)!!! Jaz has our good friend Gina to thank who sent us a copy of the Dunstan Baby Language DVD (we both have baby girls weeks apart, Jaz was due a month before Chloe but Chloe decided to come 6 weeks early). The Dunstan Baby Language identifies what each cry means (i.e. hunger, need to burp, sleepy, wind or uncomfortable which could be a number of things, change of nappy, change of position, change of hands, hot or cold) and also shows you different techniques of how to get rid of wind, which really helped. You do need to watch it a few times to know which sounds to listen for. We found once we worked out Jaz's different cries it really did work. Craig had to go to Townsville for a week, so it was Jaz and I for a couple of nights til we could fly to Townsville to meet up. The first night on our own I was so proud of myself, I had put Jaz down for the night, an hour later she woke, I once would have shoved a bottle in her mouth to settle her back down, which of course at times would lead to her bringing it back up, but after watching the Dunstan Baby Language (I sound like one of those shopping shows) I acted on the sound I could hear the most which was "Eairh", this meant she had wind. So I went in used one of the techniques to bring up wind, she burped and went straight back to sleep. For the first time since Jaz was born I felt like I knew what to do and I did it at a time there was no-one around to assist if I needed.
2. Sleeping bag/swaddle - Also on the 3rd week I wanted to work out how I could get Jaz to sleep without getting into habits that later could be something I wish I hadn't started. I found during this week Jaz started to move more, which made wrapping her a pain. I would get her to sleep then I would wrap her put her down, then within 5 minutes she would be awake again and arms waving around. My sister in-law Kate had given me a couple of these sleeping bags and my boss Lisa had also mentioned to me during my pregnancy that she loved them. I whipped it out, zipped Jaz up and put her back down, and if she woke back up and flung the arms around I didn't have to go back in and re-wrap her because she couldn't get out. At times she would have a little grizzle but you get to know the cries. I use 2 types of sleeping bags, the EgroPouch http://www.ergopouch.com.au/index.html and Love to Dream http://www.lovetodream.com.au/index.htm
3. Baby Love by Robin Barker - At week 4 I thought I had it all worked out, I knew babies....boy was I wrong when week 5 came around and mum had gone home. It's so true when parents tell you that you think you have it all sorted then there is a change which completely changes what you did last week or even the day before. I was against reading any baby books because there are so many out there and my thoughts are that babies don't come with instruction manuals and what might have worked for one mum might not for another. I was visiting my cousin Sheree and she said for me to read this book, I was a bit reluctant to take it but then thought why not, I have nothing to lose. So week 5 was another grizzly week and Jaz had been bringing up her bottles again, my thoughts instantly were it's the formula. We started Jaz on the S-26 which I think most of us all were brought up on then I changed to the NAN H.A Pro Gold as Jaz had regurgitated on the S-26. I have since learnt that the S-26 was fine it was due to me feeding her to much. Anyway I thought I'll change her formula again, which I really didn't want to do as you worry with all these changes (i.e. breast milk, breast milk + formula, change in formula) what is it doing to her stomach, probably nothing but my thoughts are she is still developing and if you cause damage during this development that could potentially lead to health problems in the future. So I thought before I go changing I will see if there was any information in this book, which there was. Robin advised that it was perfectly normal for all babies breast fed or formula fed to regurgitate, however it is far less common in breast fed babies. There are formula's available for regurgitation but if I were to change to these types of formula's it could lead to constipation but for piece of mind you can try this and see how your baby goes. That there sold me on this book, "for piece of mind", which to me she is providing you with her thoughts but at the same time she is also saying do what you feel you should do. I started reading more and more of this book, mainly on wind and sleeping and on each topic Robin provides you with a list of things to try but again it's basically what ever works for you. I still refer to this book when there is a change in Jaz or she seems unsettled.
4. Dunstan Baby Language - Also at week 5 I had 4 days of crying, this time it was wind which I had never considered before and still didn't at this stage as I was so certain that Jaz didn't get wind she burped after every feed, "wrong", yes Jaz does get wind even though she has burped!!! Poor Jaz endured some upsetting times because I thought I knew what was wrong, and yes you should go by your instincts but sometimes they are not always right anyhow we learn from this, no wonder we have nicknamed Jaz our experimental child :-)!!! Jaz has our good friend Gina to thank who sent us a copy of the Dunstan Baby Language DVD (we both have baby girls weeks apart, Jaz was due a month before Chloe but Chloe decided to come 6 weeks early). The Dunstan Baby Language identifies what each cry means (i.e. hunger, need to burp, sleepy, wind or uncomfortable which could be a number of things, change of nappy, change of position, change of hands, hot or cold) and also shows you different techniques of how to get rid of wind, which really helped. You do need to watch it a few times to know which sounds to listen for. We found once we worked out Jaz's different cries it really did work. Craig had to go to Townsville for a week, so it was Jaz and I for a couple of nights til we could fly to Townsville to meet up. The first night on our own I was so proud of myself, I had put Jaz down for the night, an hour later she woke, I once would have shoved a bottle in her mouth to settle her back down, which of course at times would lead to her bringing it back up, but after watching the Dunstan Baby Language (I sound like one of those shopping shows) I acted on the sound I could hear the most which was "Eairh", this meant she had wind. So I went in used one of the techniques to bring up wind, she burped and went straight back to sleep. For the first time since Jaz was born I felt like I knew what to do and I did it at a time there was no-one around to assist if I needed.
I'm sure as Jaz gets older I will find more "favourite things" but these 4 were my favourite things during the first 3 months of her life.
