Stop Licking That!!

Suggestions welcome/encouraged!

At about six months (maybe before) Abby had an obsession with putting things in her mouth - toys, coins, food, fingers... everything.  It is an age-apropriate method of learning for an infant.  They do a better job of using their five senses to learn about things around them than we do - I assume my desk tastes like dust and plastic, so I don't try to taste or smell it - I rely on touch and sight.

Abby has seemingly reverted to some sort of tasting/licking stage.  Some things are adorable, like when she licks a blueberry before eating it.  Licking her clean feet after bath time was cute, too.

Some things are a little weird, like the freezer in our basement and our fridge upstairs - maybe she was licking each to see if they were the same or different.  (She didn't report her findings to me, but probably has a journal somewhere!)

Some things that she has licked are just disgusting - including our dog and, even worse, a piece of wood at Wendy's on Sunday afternoon.  Just.Disgusting.  I had to run through her high chair and over another chair to get her off of it.  If you've never been to a Wendy's - it was the wooden fram between the old smoking section and the old non-smoking section.  It's about a foot wide and she loves to run a circle and climb over it.  Fun game - gross twist to it.

Our particular Wendy's is not the cleanest thing around, so there were jokes about spots and blisters that would show up in the afternoon, and we were relieved that they did not!

Help!  How do I break her of this new game?  I don't want to create a punishment necessarily, but this is one situation that I would like to stop before it goes too far... 

Some Attention on Dad Labs!

Umm.... My daughter is going to be very unhappy with me one day. At least it is MY name mentioned, and not hers...

(Warning - very Poopy conversation. Both gross and funny. Do not watch while dining!)



Watch more hillarious parenting over at DadLabs.com!

Yummy Yummy, What's that in Your Tummy?

It's........

Dog Food!

I'm sure that I'm a bad father for putting this on the internet, but Abby got her first taste of dog food on Saturday. We always assume that Rusty (dog) finishes his food, mostly because he's begging for more within seconds. Abby enjoys the sound of her fingernails on the metal dish.

We heard fingernails in the dish and happiness.
Then we hear nothing. Calm.
Calm seems to breed worry at this stage (for the rest of her existence?)
Anny got up from the living room to see Abby chewing on something....something from Rusty's bowl.
By the time we got to her she had swallowed.

Just.
Gross.

Baby Food Warning!!

When introducing new fruits and vegetables to your baby......

Never follow Carrots with Prunes.

Follow up joke:
What's grosser than gross?

You guess!

Raw Behind

Had to schedule an extra pediatrician appointment for Abby on Friday because of a bad rash on her behind. When we talked to the day care folks they were unsure if it was just a rash or a yeast infection. (by the way, want to mess up a guy, use the term "yeast infection.") Thankfully it was not that bad.

Turns out that she just has a very bad diaper rash. Probably has something to do with the new food that we had been feeding her, but there is no way to be sure. We got a perscription for a better diaper cream, and it has helped tremendously already.

We have also been told to not wipe her backside until things have cleared up. When she needs to be clean, we need to run her under water - it keeps the rash from being irritated more. (I could give more details about how we're doing that, but will not!)

Oh yeah, and we've moved to a different food - applesauce. Nothing in the world less harsh than applesauce!

She did get weighed and is at 19 pounds.

As an update, she is not yet crawling, but gets a little closer everyday. Her favorite game is to empty her toy basket one toy at a time, so I think motivation of the toy basket being out of reach will start being used this week. Yes, I realize that I must be crazy to want her to be mobile! Remember, though, that I'm the one that wants her to start talking!

We think she is beginning to understand some sign language (milk) because she sure get's excited. Honestly, though, I can't tell if it's our saying "milk?" or the sign. I'm interested about the whole process of learning signing though!

I spoke too soon

Not even 24 hours after this post, I was following Abby and Rob's lead with my own stomach issues. Luckily, it didn't last long because we have had far too much to do.

Abby got to see her first high school homecoming football game. Unfortunately, we forgot to bring her a hat and her cheeks got a little pink from being outside so much. Oh, and we lost...

Abby, Rob and I have also had the requisite head cold for the beginning of the school year. So we have learned how much Abby hates the bulb to remove snot. I have explained that I will stop using it as soon as she learns to blow her nose... she and I are still trying to figure out how soon she can learn to do this.

Now we are preparing for Abby's baptism. So many people love her: Nana and Grampa are coming from Wyoming, uncle, aunt and two cousins are coming from St. Louis, Rob's dad is coming from Florida, Gramma and her husband are coming from North Carolina, Great Gramps and great aunt are coming from Delaware, great aunt and great uncle from Virgina, aunt from Virginia and of course, all the local friends and relatives. We will pack our house for a reception and pack the church Sunday morning.

Abby is going to wear her great grampa's baptismal gown. Since he died this summer soon after she was born, I am very excited that it fits her and thankful that so many people will be here to share this occasion.

Sick Baby Update 3

Abby is through with her virus, but her eating is still off. Two ounces here and there, but rarely keeping to her normal schedule.

The update, though, is that she gave it to me. That's one of the big problems with taking immunosuppresants - I can get sick pretty easily.

No more sickness updates - I am going to grab another nap. Ugh.

Sick Baby Update 2

She looked and felt really good all night last night. Then we woke up this morning...

After her first solid poo (see previous post), she has definitely made up for it since 5 this morning. She has not slept a wink since then, a very long stretch for her. She's had ten ounces of the pedialyte and it seems that her body has regulated itself to push is straight through.

I long for the smell of baby poo again. This is our first diarrhea bout, and it's disgusting. Not hard to clean up. Actually, easier to clean up. But the smell....

Since a lot of you are non-parents I will not try to compare it to anything, and I'll leave it right where it is.

We have bravely given her some more regular formula about 20 minutes ago. We'll take her to the farmers market and hope that it stays down.

Sick Baby Update 1

Okay - I'm home with Abby today. She kept down the pedialyte that we gave her through the night. This morning we thought we should give formula a try, and after four ounce of that it came back at us. She's now just doing the fun drink for the next day and a half, no formula for our little one.

You're right, by the way, to think that baby puke on your feet is not the way to start the day. Anny is a trooper, for she was the one holding Abby.

I changed a stinky diaper only to find a robins egg of poop. Yup, first solid poop. (for those of you without kids, first solid poop typically happens after you start feeding them solid foods.) Perfect little egg of poop, but still kind of freaky when I'm used to true baby poo.

Anny headed off to school and Abby and I have been spending time together. Mostly it's been getting her to eat, then encouraging her to sleep. When a baby does not want to sleep, they won't sleep! That meant that we played on the playmat, sat in the bumbo and really just hoped that she would not throw up on me again.

We did have to make a run to Target as I realized that we were running out of the fun drink. She fell asleep in the sling pretty quickly, so a trip for Pedialyte cost me $50 because I made four trips around the store. She was happy and I could walk for a while. Win win.

The only pedialyte that Target had is the "artificially fruit flavored" orange flavor. The only flavors she has ever had are breast milk and formula. She was taken aback by the sweet flavor. She got the hang of it, and is now napping.

She's truly happy through all of this. She smiles and chats while she's awake. We are slated to go out tonight to a viewing (like funeral viewing). If she's still happy when it's time to go, we'll go. If not, we will put in a call to send our condolences this time.

I hear crying. Update later.

Sick Baby

Anny has back to school night tonight and I get Abby all to myself.

Of course this is the first time that I get a call saying that she's sick. Threw up all over the day care teacher. One other child was sick earlier this week, but we thought we had skipped it. That appears to not be the case.

I immediately left work, leaving behind a consultant that needed a ride to the train station, to get to school. By the time I got there, Anny already had Abby. We walked around the school a little and gave her two ounce of pedialyte, as directed by the doc's office.

She threw that up as we got to the car.

Once we got home Abby took down four more ounces and is now sleeping.

She is still happy, just not well. No fever. Smiley. Abby. Just threw up a few times.

We'll see how she is when she wakes up. Hopefully the pedialyte will stay down. I'll keep you posted.....

Travelling with infants: more poo

Babies will poo in the most inconvenient places. The airplane was just the beginning.


After sleeping a few hours in my cousins house in southern Iowa, we drove further north to see my grandmother in the nursing home before attending my grandfather's memorial service. Upon arriving at the nursing home, we realized that my 6 month old niece had not only blown out of her diaper onto her cute dress, but also onto the carseat. Poo Number 1.


We spent some time with gramma and took photos and then headed to the church where the women's group had made our family lunch. Abby also ate and immediately filled her diaper. Poo Number 2.


As she often does, Abby had a second go-around. Thank goodness Rob was holding her and sat near an exit during the memorial service. Poo Number 3.


After the service the women's group had a reception for us during which my niece has a second go-around messing up the second cute outfit and ended up wearing her 3 1/2 year old sister's outfit (much too big of course). Poo Number 4.


On Sunday afternoon, my brother had arranged for our family to have professional photos taken. All dressed up, we took several of the entire family and then decided we should have some of just the three little girls. As Abby "posed" for these photos she filled another diaper (luckily grunting and smiling look about the same for babies). Poo Number 5.


Rob changed all of Abby's poopy diapers this weekend - he is definitely the best daddy a little girl (or her momma) could ask for.

Adventures of a One Week Old

Wow have we had some adventures in the last couple of days! The doctor's appointment was just the beginning....

It was insanely hot on Tuesday, so we kept cool in the house. We took a day or so to completely eliminate bottles from Abby's diet. While we were at the hospital, she was showing signs of being Jaundiced. Because of that, they gave us some Similac in bottles to keep her extra hydrated. It's much easier to eat from a bottle than from a breast. The doctor told us explicitly on Monday - no more bottles! It took some convincing, but we've got Abby on board now.

Wednesday was nice out, so we obviously chose to go to the mall! Just a quick trip into the real world to get a couple of things we need. While Anny was trying on a new shirt, Abby got fussy and began to smell.... Yep. With mommy and Nana tied up, it was time for a poopy diaper change! Having left the diaper bag in the car, I whisked her away to change said daiper. Yum.

I did enjoy walking around the mall with her in our sling. I kept hearing "aw, how cute" from folks old enough to know there was a baby on my belly. Stupid teenagers, though, did not realize what it was, so I had to keep her head protected in the pet store.

Here is a picture from yesterday. I call it Yeah dad, that's my smelly diaper for you!

From Abigail

And that's just some of what we have done this week!

Abby's BIRTH Day

The following is narrated by both Anny and Rob. Anny is in bold and Rob is in italics. Enjoy...


Collectively we feel like we can piece together the events that led up to Abigail's birth. Gory details will be minimal.

You all know that we had scheduled an induction for Tuesday, June 12th. We wanted to be sure that Anny's mom, Carol, had a chance to arrive from Casper, Wyoming. When we picked her up from the airport, we were all relieved. I have been preparing, but we both knew that having Carol there would make it a little bit easier.

As it seems to go with all scheduled baby-events, Abby did not want to wait it out for medical intervention.

At about 3 in the morning on the 12th, Anny began to have some contractions. Knowing that I needed some more sleep to be productive the rest of the day, Anny didn't wake me up until about 4:30. When Carol came upstairs in the morning, we had some breakfast before heading to the hospital.


Contractions are always depicted as terrible pains that cause a woman to double over and yell. What they don't tell you is that contractions begin as menstrual cramps... uncomfortable and annoying but nothing that requires yelps of pain.


We had pre-registered at the hospital six weeks in advance to avoid any unnecessary delays if we needed to make a quick trip. Since we had planned this one, it just happened to be one less thing that we had to do. We walked in (with a pillow, three bags and enough snacks to last for a long long time!) and were shown pretty quickly to the laboring room.


Once we set up shop - magazines and water for everyone - we played a waiting game. As with most hospital procedures, they asked us to come in at 7:30 with no intention of getting things started until 9 or so. This meant that we had some time to catch up with Carol and go through our last minute mental checklists. Everything being in order, we talked awkwardly for a while until it was time for the drip to begin.

While "waiting" as Rob puts it, I was still experiencing contractions. They were manageable and I was more troubled by the pelvic exams. After one of these exams, I told the nurse that I felt something wet trickling down my leg. She tested it with a little strip of paper (like for a litmus test) and said that my water broke. No gush in an embarrassing place, and come to find out, my water probably broke earlier but was such a slow drip I had no idea.



Because my contractions were still very irregular, they began a drip of pitocin. Now I have friends who have been induced with pitocin and they remain in labor for hours while their cervix slowly dilates. I had a very different experience with pitocin; luckily, I had a wonderful nurse. After beginning the drip, she watched the monitor (and me) as I worked through a SIX MINUTE CONTRACTION. At which point, she said that was enough and turned it off completely.



Yeah, it was a bit weird to be able to see the seismic activity of contractions on the computer monitor next to the bed. I tried not to anticipate too much, but wanted to warn Anny that things were going up or down. Feeling of control or of participation I guess.


Unfortunately, we lost the greatest nurse in WAH to a C-section she had to assist and were stuck with a substitute who did not have the best bedside manner. The greatest nurse in WAH, however, returned in time to help me through transition and the real work of labor, pushing.


I believe one of the explanations for why labor is so difficult (aside from the pain of course), is that there's little way to know how long it is going to last. I was recently talking to a friend who has also recently had her first child and explained it like this: If you are running a marathon, you have a specific distance and approximate time limit; but in labor no one can tell you 30 contractions and five hours. It may speed up and progress quickly only to stall at 7 cm with no progress for several hours. During the delivery, there's visible progress and an estimate for the actual delivery which doctors and nurses are very good at coaching, but labor itself does not progress linearly.


So as the doctor and nurse prepared for Abby's delivery, my world became very small. It was just me and pushing. The doctor gave instructions from "down there" and I know that Rob was holding one foot while my mother had the other one. With each contraction I was to push to the count of ten three times - the first couple pushes, too many people were counting (nurse, Mom, Rob). It was mom's loud voice that finally won and continued counting for the remainder of the pushes, although the nurse took over holding my foot. Throughout all of this, I don't really remember anything else going on around me, just voices and pushing.

The sequence of events are a little fuzzy, but I remember also needing a catheter. I had tried a couple times, unsuccessfully, to use a bed pan during labor, but I don't know how anyone pees in one of those things particularly at 9 months pregnant. So my bladder was still fairly full; the contractions and position of the baby were just preventing an easy release.

I remember the catheter. It was weird because....oh wait. We're keeping the gross stuff to a minimum. Let's just say I could hear her bladder empty. Weird.

I do not understand anyone who wants a home-birth for the simple reason that someone has to clean up that mess. Hospitals have all the right tarps and absorbent materials to make this super easy - Rob can probably describe these better since I really did not see much them.

Again - There are things I will take to the grave with me. If you would like real details in this regard to prepare yourself for your own birth experience, drop me an email.

I'll save the description of the sensations of giving birth for those who REALLY want to know, but there's a reason women don't often share this information.


At some point, the doctor did give me an episiotomy, but I have no idea when. I had signed a waiver when I was checked in explaining that the doctor would do this if she felt it necessary without consulting me. Remember, I had no anesthesia, but it wasn't until the doctor told me that I knew of the episiotomy. I felt nothing - she did, however, give me a local anesthetic to stitch me up.

I swore that I did not want any part of seeing Abby actually come out. I don't have a strong stomach for things like that. At some point, though, I realized that this was MY birth experience too, and I should take some pride in what my wife was doing to bring our precious baby into this world. Bottom line, it's not as gross as some of the previously mentioned sights.

I did stick to my guns about not cutting the umbilical cord. Let someone else do that. The cord on that kid was enormous. I thought it was small and dark, but this was thick and very white. I'm glad that it was there, just not something I feel like I should be doing, cutting away at my wife and daughter at the same time.

The other annoyance that is not often mentioned is that you still have to deliver the placenta after the baby arrives. I was watching the nurse clean up Abby, wanting more than anything to hold her, and my mother commented that Abby's toes were not webbed like mine are, as the doctor massaged my belly to help the final contractions expel the placenta.

No, Abby's toes are not webbed like two pairs of Anny's, but they were curled up really far.

It really was an amazing sight to see Abby getting cleaned up and realizing that I got to hold her first. I didn't cry, but I was certainly moved. (Doesn't mean crying is bad, just couldn't do it.) I made sure to keep reassuring Anny that things went amazingly well and that the worst of it was over. We got to hold Abby almost right away.

She was taken away for her APGAR testing, which she passed with 9's (of 10) both times. They also did hearing tests and warmed her up for a while.

Gramps and Pam drove home from the beach that morning and were holding Abby within an hour of her birth. It was a truly awe inspiring sight.

Truth be told, we're posting this as Abby has just turned four months old and backdated to the date and aproximate time Abby was born. I think this post is long enough. If you have questions or notice that something is missing, please email us offline.

Baby Class Five: Push, but DON'T Push

Last night we had our class that included "mock labor." There was an involved story about waking up to contractions (not waking Rob) and doing some breathing. now practice breathing.

Now contractions are a little stronger.... practice breathing with the four count.

Now you've gotten to the hospital because contractions are x minutes apart and last for x seconds.... practice breathing the next count. (I think it's two. Seems like natural progression.)

You get the picture! When we got to the "Now push, but don't push" part, Anny just had to hold her breath for an eight count, then let it go. I asked if the teacher ever had someone actually push during the practice stuff and induce their own labor. I was assured that it had not happened on her watch!

The entire mock labor lasted about 20 minutes. We were told nicely "okay, when it really happens it will be more like 14 hours, but that was easy, right?!"

The other big thing we did was go over all of the immediately-after-birth procedures and such.
Here's the ice pack that we use. Pass it around.
Here's the wonderful mesh panties you always hear about. Pass them around.
Here's what Tucks medicated pads look like. Pass them around.
Here's the massive maxi pad product that you will use. And you will appreciate it. Pass it around.

Sounds like fun.

Doctors appointment earlier this week said that measurements are right on track, so the earlier week-and-a-half-ahead is not the case anymore. Doesn't have to go back for two weeks to that office.

Another ultrasound today. Hopefully we'll get better pictures this time to share!

Baby Class: Bonus Classes!

This weekend we got TWO bonus baby (oriented) classes!

Saturday we toured the RIGHT hospital, but could not see any of the L&D or postpartum rooms because they were either in use or not cleaned from the prior use. We did get to see the nursery and hear about some of the procedures specific to our hospital. They told us that we should call mid-week and have a tour with one of the nurses to see the rooms. I don't think we'll be doing this.

Major downside that they reminded us of: it's a vegetarian hospital! I have had surgery there before and been subject to the "sloppy joe" that they serve, but every time that I leave, I forget. They will do meat meals for patients that require it, but you can't buy any meat from the cafeteria, which is where I will get my food from. Definately not planning on any "chicken tenders" or anything like that. I think I'll bring my own pizza or something....

Don't get me wrong, I respect the fact that we have chosen to use a faith-based hospital system and that part of their belief structure is being vegetarian. I'm just gonne have a sour face every time I remember that my "sausage" is not from a pig!

The other class was on Breastfeeding. Neither of us got much from it, as it was mostly taught and not conversational. I did see more nipples than I ever needed to, and have no desire to see boobs for a long while. (It will pass, I'm sure. I'm still a guy!)

The grossest part was that the teacher circulated a page with different types of poo on it. IN COLOR! I won't describe here, but if you have a strong stomach, you're welcome to visit HERE to see some examples. Yum. At least the pics on the linked site don't have baby-boys-bulging-boys.

That's all the baby classes I could handle for the weekend, so we're off until Thursday and our mock-labor!