My Mom Tries Real Hard

I have decided to put together some information I have learned either through my own blunders, through others or from reading. I would like to continue to, every few months, keep this same title and add more nuggets of information as I continue to learn as a first time mom. I think I have taken Jack's temperature at least 100 times and I am always second guessing what I am doing, so this is to help other moms not feel alone in their paranoia. I do try very hard to do what is best, but I do make mistakes. The good news it that Jackson doesn't know the difference, at least not yet.

SHOTS--Prior to taking Jackson to get his shots, his doctor suggested I give him Infant Tylenol. I was reading Parent magazine and one of the articles suggested that following his shots to breast feed him to help soothe him. Both of these suggestions were very helpful and he came through his 8 week shots without too much distress. However, I did have one blunder. About 4-5 hours after his shots I put him in the bath. The nurse suggested that either moist heat with a wash cloth or a bath would help soothe his legs and that worked very well. It is part of our bath time routine to put lotion on after his bath...don't do that! The lotion stings at the injection sites and he just screamed. It did help to get a cold cloth and wipe the lotion off the injection sites, but it was a little trauma.

NO POOP--Apparently a baby can go for a couple days without pooping. Jack's doctor said that as long as he is peeing normally it is okay not to poop. She also said that anything from runny to very soft is normal.

CLOGGED MILK DUCTS--I have run into a problem of having clogged milk ducts. If you ever have clogged ducts you will know because your breast will hurt so bad! It aches and is sore to even the lightest touch like a really bad bruise. This can be rectified in 1-2 days by placing some heat on it. One thing I have found helps me is if I heat the sore area of my breast and then feed Jack. I did speak to my lactation specialist and she suggested taking lecithin. This is supposed to decrease the "stickiness" of the milk and prevent clogged ducts. She said to dose it as labeled on the bottle.

DECREASED MILK PRODUCTION--After my clogged ducts I did notice that my milk production had deceased and it was not bouncing back after about a week. My lactation specialist suggested taking Fenugreek and this seems to have helped a lot. She said to just follow the directions on the bottle and my production would come back in 1-2 weeks.

NAPPING--I was noticing in his napping routine that he was napping much longer and more soundly if I would hold him versus putting him in his bassinet. If I laid him in his bassinet he would only sleep for 15-30 minutes as compared to 1-2 hours if I held him. My concern with this is that when at day care there won't be someone to hold him for his entire nap. I asked his physician about it and she said that since he was going to day care that I should start practicing putting him down to sleep. She said that it was okay if he only had short naps because he would eventually get tired enough to sleep for longer times.

STUFFY NOSE--Here in Utah the air is very dry and Jackson was waking in the morning with a stuffy nose. It was not runny, but just a congestion...he snorted a lot. I called the doctor's office and they asked if he had a fever which he did not, they asked if he seemed uncomfortable or pulled at his ears and he did not. She felt that it could be just the dry air and suggested running a humidifier at night. In order to relieve the congestion they had me buy some saline drops and put a couple of drops in each nostril and then use the aspirator (the blue ball from the hospital). When I did it the first time he did not mind it hardly at all and then I spoke to our friend John who asked if I put my finger over one nostril while I sucked the other...of course I had not. He said it will feel like you are sucking his brain out. If you don't plug on of the nostrils then you end up just sucking from one side to the other and not getting up into his sinus. While this was more uncomfortable for him, it worked much better. I would suggest having someone help hold the baby's head...at least the first time, they tend to rotate from side to side to try to get away from the sucker.

RUNNY EYES--Jackson's eye was tearing and at one point it was oozing thickly causing him to wake with is eye sealed shut. The eyeball itself wasn't red and the goo was only a light yellowish color and mostly clear and teary. The doctor said this was a clogged tear duct. She said that I should run my ring finger from the medial side of his eye (nose side) to the outside several times and repeat this three times a day. We are still working on getting it cleared up, but it is getting better.

I guess that is it for now...I have droned on way too much! I know there will be more to come.