No, this is post is not going to be about the merits of a viral zombie horde as a opposed to the more traditional undead legions. It is instead going to glance over the first 28 days of my daughters life, what I learned, or more likely, what I think I learned.
Day 1: I told myself I wouldn't look. I remember the video in high school it was like horror porn. As excited as I was to meet my unborn child, I didn't think I could bring myself to watch 'all' of the action. I maintained eye contact with my wife as soon as the pushing started, but when the nurse said "There's the head daddy!" I just had to look and from that point I couldn't take my eyes off of her. It was amazing. As a friend of mine said about childbirth "it really makes you understand the word AWEsome."
Day 5: We finally got her home after some extra time under the anti-Jaundice lights. What a horrible experience to see your newborn on monitors wearing goofy goggles and crying. The nurses were great whenever we were there to visit and feed her, so at least there was that, but it was great to finally get her home. What did I learn that first day? POOP can spray. I lifted her legs to clean her up while changing a diaper and KABOOM! Poop on my shirt at a good 18 inches away. I didn't know whether to be disgusted or proud...Turns out thankful was the right emotion, that poop could have gone anywhere.
Day 10: Good God...Who knew that a baby could cry so much? You did, didn't you? Why didn't you tell me? It seemed upon our first few trips to the doctor's office our little one was what you'd call a "High Maintenance Baby," but on the fifth trip they decided that maybe our little HMB actually had some acid reflux issues. After a late night trip to the world's shadiest 24hr pharmacy we started dosing the meds. It didn't work immediately, but by the end of the second day, she was much more calm. Whew! problem solved.
Day 20: Ok, she may not be having reflux issues after all (although I still think she is). She is much more consolable when she gets fussy and now she only really gets fussy when she's tired or hungry, like babies are supposed to. I think we cured her. Sleep is the latest battle we've been fighting. I received a great tip from a buddy at work. RUN THE VACUUM. It was a last resort thing, but we eventually broke down and turned the vacuum on. Wouldn't you know it, that girl passed right out. I love running the Vacuum!
Day 28: I'll be 30 in a couple of days, and she'll be 1 month old. I hate running the vacuum, but she needs it to sleep. Fortunately, we've hit a compromise. I've created a CD of our running vacuum and play it on a continuous loop through our CD player. Keeps her unconscious in between meals and keeps us mostly asleep. My greatest idea ever! She's changed so much in 4 weeks, she looks and acts like a completely different baby. I almost forget what it was like to be in the hospital with her.
The only thing I can say now is that it's been a month and Daddy's Tired...
14 comments:
LOL. Sounds like you've learned a lot. Don't worry, there's still more to learn. And wait until they become teenagers... muahahaha...
you're doing great.
Ahh the memories of when my son was just a month. It gets much more fun and much more challenging.
:D
First off: CONGRATS!
Second. you are getting it right...no doubt...;-) Kudos
Darn tired here still , and it's been 3 years ;-)
That definitely brings me back. White noise is great. We bought a number of tracks of iTunes and the one she loved was the vacuum. Put me to sleep too.
Now all she wants to do is play with the vacuum. Next up, learning how to clean ;)
Keep it up.
Congratulations on the baby! I never heard of the vacuum thing but if someone told me repeatedly punching myself in the face would make the baby sleep I would do it. We are approaching 7 months and I am still exhausted. It is not nearly as bad as the firth 3 or 4 months but a good nights sleep is still hard to come by.
Thanks, added yours too ;-)
By the way, we had a small, neck massager, (the kind that cradles the neck, with a fabric cover) plugged it in, put it right against a leg of the crib...worked beautifully!
Great start, looking forward to reading more. Congrats on the new arrival.
Hey man, thanks for stopping by my blog and adding me to your roll. I just added you to mine because I love your stuff. Great post here. I swear, I feel like I'm reading the story of my own baby. I had the exact same experiences with a HMB. The vacuum idea is a terrific one and the fact that you made a CD is brilliant. What worked for us is The Happiest Baby on the Block and the 5 S's. With the vacuum you have the one of the "S's" already taken care of for sure. Also, if the baby is crying, just give the bottle or boob (which ever you guys are using) and if that doesn't work then you pretty much know they need a change. Congrats on the new member of the fam!
Enjoy this time as much as you can. They don't stay newborns for very long at all. Soon she will smile at you and laugh (about 2 weeks longer). You can sleep when you're dead.
That is so funny, and very similar to how it went with us and our daughter. She is now 2, and we dealt a lot with collic during the first 9 weeks. We now have our second child- a baby boy, and he sleeps much better. We found that with both of them, when my wife eats/drinks dairy products they get very fussy (breast fed babies). Our Pediatrician helped us find that out. Also- I like the vaccum looped CD. We use a humidifier, no water in the bucket, just the loud fan. Whatever works, right? -Jason
I remember that poop. Lovely.
I wonder if that vaccum thing will work on a 2 year old.
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