Public Service Announcement

Advice I Should Have Followed
(A)  Make and freeze meals.  Because take-out every night is not going to help shed the baby blab.  And it's hard to cook when baby has a violent reaction to being put down.

(B) Don't buy too many newborn sized diapers.  Bitty was a little peanut of a baby when she was born.  I read that babies gain about an ounce a day, so I did the math and and purchased three boxes of newborn diapers, thinking that would be about a month's supply or so.  Then she promptly gained nearly three pounds in the subsequent two weeks.  I made it through half of one of those boxes.

And Advice That I Am Following . . .
This one comes from Sarah.  "Eventually, you just need to forget about what you read in books and what everyone else says and just do what works for you."  Well said.

Lessons I've Learned
(A) Change the baby's diaper before feeding.  When baby is milk drunk after a feeding, it's not a good time to change her.  She wakes up screaming.  Duh, I know.

This baby is milk drunk

(B)  Take videos of the cute moments immediately!  When Bitty was born, her cry was adorable.  It was a twittering little whimper that melted your heart.  Mark and I remarked that it was so precious, we almost didn't mind when she cried.  She soon found her voice and her cry quickly evolved into blood-curdling shrieks.  I miss her little whimper.

(C)  Keep replacement batteries on hand.  Finally, Bitty is starting to be able to entertain herself.  Fifteen minutes on the play mat, ten minutes in the bouncer.  The MVP of baby gear is the swing.  Sometimes she will sleep in it for a glorious three hours (on a good day).  The swing has been my savior.  It single-handedly is the reason that I am able to write this blog, for example.  It's the reason our house is not at risk to be condemned from filth and the dogs can actually get fed and taken out.  So you can imagine the dilemma the day that the batteries ran out, and I did not have replacements.  It was not pretty.

The Truth About Babies
(A)  Babies are supposed to sleep all of the time.  They can only handle an hour, maybe two, in an alert state before they need a nap.  This is not true.  Sophie can stay up for five fussy, agitated hours at a time.  This has been the case since she was three weeks old.  There is no reason for an infant to be awake for five straight hours.  Go to sleep, child.

(B)  You may know Baby's Breath as a wispy, light perennial.  It is delicate and refreshing.  However, real baby's breath is anything but.  It's stinky.  It either smells like sour milk, or some weird formula-derived odor. To make matters worse, oral hygiene is not easy with a newborn.  Whenever I try to wipe Bitty's gums and tongue with a wet washcloth, she just tries to suck the water out of the cloth.  And her breath still stinks.

Baby's Breath--the good kind

(C)  Baby poo is not supposed to smell until they begin solid foods.  This is also not true.  But Bitty likes to trick us.  She actually does not poo all that often.  Only a few times a week, to tell the truth.  We only think that she has poo'd.  This is because what she lacks in poo, she makes up for in toots.  That girl rips 'em like you wouldn't believe.  Sometimes I can't tell whether it's the dogs or the baby.

This has been a public service announcement from Yours Truly.  Thank you.