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Your privacy is a PRIMARY consideration of AskDrSears.com. Your e-mail address is used ONLY by AskDrSears.com for the purpose of announcing news, events and special offers available only AskDrSears.com registered users. WEEK TWO - FEBRUARY 2002
Feb. 28 - Super Dad
After your first baby, it's nice to just relax and hang out at home for a week or two and enjoy the baby. I remember doing this nine years ago. But WOW! What a difference it is this time around. Now we have two older kids to take care of, a house and office to run, baseball practice, gymnastics, school, you name it. It's tough to make myself slow down, sit on the couch with my feet up, and hold my new baby boy for a while. Balance this with trying to be a dad for my other two boys, a husband, handyman around the house, and doctor. I guess you just do the best you can, and face the fact that you are going to have to put in a lot of extra time in all these areas for a few weeks.
Mar. 1 - Thank God for Mother-in-laws
I never thought I'd say this, but boy am I glad my mother-in-law is staying with us! I bet she never thought I'd say it, either. I don't know what we would do without her. She was only supposed to stay for about a week, but as the day approached for her to leave, I suddenly realized I would have to cook dinner (I maybe could handle that), do the dishes (eesh!), do the laundry (I was close to tears), and a million other things. I asked my wife to beg her to stay. Thankfully she is going to hang out for a few extra days. After that, I don't know what I'll do.
Mar. 2 - The hurl factor
It never fails. Just when you think you are going to leave the house on time to take your newborn to his one-week check up, one of two things is guaranteed to happen: 1. the biggest spit up he has ever had to date, or 2. the biggest, leakiest poopy diaper he has ever had. I suppose I should be thankful that it was the first choice today, and not the second. We had just put Joshua in the car seat (both of us were proud that we were leaving on time) when blllllaaaaahhhhhhh! His last few meals came pouring out of his mouth and covered both him and the car seat. Ten minutes later, with a clean baby and a clean car seat, we managed to leave without any further incident. Now I know why almost every single one of my patients are 15 minutes late for their newborn or one-month check up. Take home message - PLAN TO LEAVE A HALF HOUR EARLY FOR EVERYTHING IN THE FIRST MONTH. Maybe that way you just might only be a few minutes late to wherever you are going.
Mar. 3 - Creating bad habits?
Some new parents tell me in the office that they don't want to breastfeed their baby to sleep because they don't want the baby to become dependent on this. This kind of sounds reasonable. After all, everyone wants a baby that will fall asleep peacefully on their own. My wife, however, feels differently. She doesn't mind nursing Joshua to sleep. In fact, she insists on it. She likes the bonding and closeness. This is what we have done with all our kids so far. What about a year from now when he has gotten so used to it that he won't fall asleep without the breast? Well, that's ok. My wife is up for that. I guess it all has to do with what your expectations are for the future. On one hand, if, in a year from now, you want a baby that is independent at night, then you might think twice about nursing down to sleep at this point. If, on the other hand, you are okay with a prolonged nighttime attachment, then creating this closeness from day one is just fine. Our expectations are that Joshua will nurse to sleep for a couple years, then need to be rocked to sleep, then patted down to sleep. When he is four or five, we might even need to sit with him as he falls asleep. Heck, my 5 and 9 year old like me to sit in their room while they fall asleep at night. I'm fine with this. I just grab a flashlight and a good book, and enjoy a nice quiet half hour of reading. This is simply what we expected it would be like, and I am guessing it will be like this for Joshua too. So, are we creating a habit by nursing down to sleep? Yes, we probably are. Is this a BAD habit? It depends on what your expectations are. For us, the answer is no. We are just creating closeness. That's what attachment parenting is all about.
Mar. 4 - We have a "car baby"!!!!!!!
As Cheryl and I put the baby into the car seat today to go to the store, he (naturally) started to squirm and fuss. Flashbacks of our last two babies screaming as we frantically drove places went through my mind. I remembered my frustration as a one-hour drive would turn into a three-hour drive because we would have to pull over and nurse the baby every 15 minutes (not that that helped - they would just start screaming again when we put them back in the seat). Many of you know exactly what I'm talking about.Well, behold! A miracle occurred. As I started the car and began to pull away, Joshua immediately quieted down. He fell asleep a few minutes later. My wife exclaimed, "Oh my gosh, we have a car baby!" He slept while we were at the store, and then woke up hungry when we put him back in the car seat. We had a decision to make - do we nurse him here in the parking lot? Or do we go for the 15-minute drive home and hope he makes it. We went for the quick drive home, and sure enough, he fell asleep almost right away! We definitely have a car baby!
Mar. 5 - That annoying little stuffy nose
5:30 A.M. I wake up to this little sniffing sound next to me. "Oh," I thought, "Joshua's awake. Well, Cheryl will wake up and nurse him." (I know, I'm such a helpful husband.) Joshua keeps snuffing and squirming away next to me. His tiny little nose was congested, and he was having a hard time settling back down. Well, for the next hour he squirmed and snuffed, and neither Cheryl nor I got any more sleep. It really sounded pretty bad, and here we were without a blue bulb syringe (I know the first place I'm going to in the morning - the drug store).
Now I know why parents complain to me that their infant is so congested and can't sleep through it. It really is annoying!
Mar. 6 - Diaper changing duty
With all our kids, Cheryl and I have had this deal. She changes all (or most) of the baby's diapers, and when they are potty trained I wipe their bottoms after they use the bathroom. Hey, Cheryl is fine with it! And I'm certainly not going to point out that I am getting off way easy! Of course, I change a diaper or two (each week) to be helpful.
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