Tina is having a rough week

Tina was in the frank breech position while in utero.  Because of this, she has a mild case of hip dysplasia.  While it doesn't bother her now, if left untreated, she'll be prone to arthritis and other ailments as she grows older.  So we're treating it.  It means strapping her into a Pavlik harness for 6 weeks.

I hate this thing.  It makes changing her diaper and her onesie a royal pain in the ass.  You have to thread the tab of the diaper under two straps (the back looks like the front so there's a second strap on each leg that you can't see in the picture) and the onesie, well you can see the issue there.  We're really not supposed to take the darned thing off at all and she has to wear a onesie underneath it to keep it from rubbing on her.

Of course the baby that spits up almost constantly is the one we now have to figure out how to keep clean.  If the harness gets soiled, we're supposed to spot clean it while still on the baby.  We can take it off long enough to launder it about once a week, but only if we have to.  Obviously our goal is to prevent the harness or the onesie from getting spit up on it so that we don't have to change the outfit very often.  Tina now has a wardrobe of tshirts and dresses that can go on over the harness to catch spit ups.

So that was Wednesday.   She was fine all of Thursday, but Friday evening she began a hunger strike.  She just refused to eat anything.  She would scream when given the bottle and would prefer to cough and choke rather than swallow what did drip into her mouth.  We tried taking off the harness and massaging her legs in case they had fallen asleep and that was pissing her off but no change.  We tried thawing some old breastmilk in case she was pissed off at something I ate recently, no change.  The girl just wasn't eating.  

After about 12 hours, Saturday late morning, we called the doctor and they wanted to see her that afternoon.  Shortly after making the appointment, she let out an epic poo and we hoped the problem was solved.  Nope, still wouldn't eat.  

At this point, we're a little nervous about dehydration.  And I remember that with a cat I once had, when I got her she was so starved that she wouldn't eat either.  You know how when you're desperately hungry, eating kind of makes you sick?  I fear that's what's happening with Tina at this point so we get a syringe and start force feeding her a few drops.  The word "force" sounds so rough, but it's not.  We would squirt a couple of drops into her cheek or near the back of her mouth and hope some would get down her throat.  Most of it ended up oozing back out her mouth though.  

I get the girls packed up and off to the pediatrician we go.  We head back and I hear her smacking her lips like she's hungry.  So I offer her a bottle to demonstrate for the doctor how she's refusing to eat, and she slurps the thing down making me look like hysterical mommy who calls the doctor for every stupid thing.  The little jerk!  The force feeding appears to have kept her hydrated and by getting a few drops in her, we may have stimulated her appetite.

So this morning, happy baby!  She eats her breakfast and she's showing me her biggest smiles and giggles.  I decide to trim her nails since she's been clawing my cleavage for a couple of days now.  I think you know where I'm going with this.  Yup, I clipped the end of her thumb.  Smiling baby becomes screaming and crying baby, which in turn creates a crying mama, and little spots of blood are getting everywhere her thumb touches.  I don't know what to do because it's a minor cut and any kind of cleanser or antiseptic I put on it is just going to hurt and make her scream more and it will eventually end up in her mouth.  K puts a mitten over her hand and cleans up the various little blood spots on her onesie and bouncy chair.

So there she sits right now.  Harness holding her little legs in the air, mitten over one hand, sleeping with a scowl of betrayal on her face.  I'm going to eat chocolate.

Definition : Takai

A Takai - When a diaper change is so epic, you exclaim "oh my!"

One easy night

Just feel the need to record this so that when I'm frustrated later, I can look back and know that we did have one easy night.

Last night, both girls went down without a fight around 11pm and went right to sleep.  And so did we.  They didn't wake us up until 6:30am.

At just over 14 weeks, we had an easy time putting them down and a real solid night of sleep.  I really hope this is the beginning of a trend and not a crazy fluke.

And just for the hell of it, more pictures.  Because I'm a first time mom, and that's what we do.

Random Things I've Figured Out - Diaper Edition

I don't have a ton of advice about diapers, they tend to be pretty straight forward.  But here's a few odds and ends.

Cloth Diapers

We're trying to use some cloth diapers but with butts this small, it's difficult.  They are just too damned bulky for preemies.

The velcro kind fit better than the snap kind.  Most of mine are the snaps and while they look really cute, I need a good snug fit so that the Snuza alarm will be next to the skin.  Sometimes I can't get them the right amount of snug with the snaps.

If any of the cloth is peeking outside of the cover, you will have a lot of leakage.  Make sure it's all tucked in.

So far, I like the covers with kind of pockets on both ends with prefolds.  By tucking the ends of the prefold into the pocket on either end, you avoid the peeking problem.  When I was pregnant, I couldn't figure out why anyone would choose anything other than the all-in-ones, but those aren't fitting well, they take forever to dry, and if a prefold gets stained, you can easily replace it and not have to deal with all the sunning and special detergent and crap.  The kind with the pocket that's the length of the diaper - pain the ass to stuff the diaper in and make sure it's not squinching weird.  I don't even bother with the snappies when using the prefold and cover, I just tuck the prefold into the cover and put it on like a regular disposable.

Disposable Diapers

Have some.  Your babysitters will thank you.  To the environmentalists out there, the majority of the diapers causing the landfill problems are adult diapers, not baby diapers.

Fancy Schmancy = chemicals and potential diaper rash.  We've changed to the Whole Foods brand diapers and they are actually pretty cheap.  If you order by the case (300 diapers), you get 10% off.  Full price is 20 cents per diaper, so 10% off is 18 cents per diaper.

Double check that the diaper is going around the butt and that the side thing isn't going up the butt.

Diaper Rash

This has been a battle around here.  I'm not going to claim to have it figured out, but at the moment the girls seem to be clear so I'll tell you what we're doing now.  K and I are each doing something differently.  Perhaps it's the combination of the 2 methods that's working or maybe one is working and the other is being tolerated, I don't know.

Corn starch - before using this, make sure that yeast is not the issue.  If it is, corn starch will feed the yeast and make things worse.  K is wiping corn starch over the butt with a cotton ball to soak up any extra moisture.

Coconut Oil - I'm using this in place of petroleum jelly.  Apparently it has some antiseptic properties that can cure diaper rash.  I don't know if it's a cure or not, but some sort of barrier on the butt helps prevent poo from sticking, so that's how I'm using it.

Desitan - I smear this on over the coconut oil.  The combination of the two is working better than when I was using desitan alone.  It's the zinc that's the medicinal part, so the brand doesn't matter.  The stuff the doctor gave us had a 34% concentration.  I think maximum strength desitan is 40%, but I just got the generic brand and will start using that when this tube runs out.

Wipes 

To each their own on this one.  But in an attempt to get rid of chemicals, we've switched to shop towels which are basically thicker, softer paper towels.  Since I never used the peri-bottles for my own crotch cleaning, I keep them filled with water at the diaper station.  Rip a shop towel into 4, wet one and use that for basic cleaning, use another to blot the butt dry (even if you think it's dry, blot it anyway to make sure), then another one for applying the coconut oil and desitan.

Set up and Safety

EVERYTHING WITHIN REACH!  In the safety class we took, he said the most common baby injury is when the parent realizes the wipes are a few feet away and they take 3 steps to get them while the baby rolls off the counter.  If it's not within reach, pick up the baby and take it with you those 3 steps to retrieve whatever you need to retrieve.

The safety straps on the diaper changing pad are pointless.  You'll never actually bother to strap the kid in, and I would think it's more of a strangulation hazard than an actual safety measure.  Besides, if you're leaving the baby long enough that you want to strap them in, you're leaving the baby too long.

I don't know what they're called, but I got a collection of water proof cloths about the size of wash cloths.  I thought they were just small burp cloths, but they are actually for diaper changing.  Put a stack of them under the babies butt to catch the inevitable pee and poo that happens during a diaper change.  Then just toss the top one into the laundry and put the butt back down on the clean cloth underneath.  Another option is chux.  These are the pads that you probably sat on during OB appointments.  They have a million uses so I recommend getting them in bulk.  Choose the size that works best for you.

Our changing table is a dresser.  Easy to keep stuff within reach and will serve a purpose when diaper changing days are over.

Put a mobile over the changing pad.  Sometimes it distracts the baby and ends the crying.

Here's my set up.  We bought a house with a wet bar built in and as non-drinkers, never had a use for it until now.  Now we're spending a great deal of our day behind that bar.  I really like the U shape of the station because it keeps a ton of stuff within reach.

From left to right - swaddles ready to put a baby in, extra diapers, stack of chux (can't really see them) coconut oil, mobile, changing pad on top of the dresser, cloth diaper instructions on the wall, shop towels, water filled peri bottles, corn starch, a few extra products on the shelf.  Not pictured - diaper pail on the floor to the right, laundry basket goes behind the peri-bottles on the left, and a sink.

In the top drawer of the dresser.

Disposable diapers, onesies, jammies, cloth diapers.  The drawers below store more diapers and wipes, and changing pad covers.