Thursday, August 18, 2011

Newborn Waking To Feeding

A good friend of mine had a baby a few days ago. She asked me how to wake her new born up to feed her. I immeadiately thought of the friends episode wham Rachel woke her baby and she screamed for hours!
But in real life and you have a new born, you sometimes do have to wake them.

I was told from my mom, who is a pediatric nurse, to wake the baby during the day and not at night for feeding. She always said the baby would wake at night if it was hungry. My kids were always a healthy regular weight and always ate fairly well.

Another friend of mine had very small children and she was told to wake them for the first few months at night.

So ask your doctor what they recommend.

But as far as how to wake them, I was always successful feeding by: unswaddling the baby, tickling their feet a little, taking them out of their nice little comfort zone. That made my children a bit more awake and they would eat.

I Am Not A Doctor

I basically received a hate mail letter tonight from a doctor who, I feel, clearly did not read my posts or personal description correctly. I am not a doctor! I have never said I was an expert! I am offering my opinion based on my own personal experiences as a parent, things I here from other parents and advices I have been given from my children's doctors. I do recall having said in verbal posts, "Ask the expert!". That's not me!

I started my blog as a reference for myself to document what I am learning and what I have learned. Some people have seemed to enjoy reading it and find some of my experiences helpful. All people are different. Different things work for them. And if even 1 person finds 1 bit of advice that I have offered based on my life helpful, then I consider my posting a blog instead of just keeping a journal a success.

So if you don't like me, that's fine.
If you think my advice based on the things that I have done stinks, so be it!

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Waking At Night, around 20 Months

Both my kids did this and it took weeks to fix! This is when I started the clock that turns green with my son and I just ordered it for my daughter. My daughter just started waking up at 4am every night and telling me that she is, "Done!". She wants to get up for the day and I a, not having it. She goes to bed about 7:30 pm and thatbis not enough sleep for her, I can see she is still tired when I go in to her and she needs to sleep. She is so strong willed and stubborn that she will stay up for at least and hour yelling all done and the she falls beck to sleep untilm7:30-8am. I end umpired and annoyed!
If your baby does this, I think, based on my own experiences and the experiences of my friends, you need to just stay strong. Come up with a plan that works for you ( Ferber etc...) and stick with it. My life is stinking right now because my daughter is in the mist of this. I am spending my days pointing out everything that's green and yellow so that when the clock shows up she will get it. My son did. I pray that it works for her.

Kids change all the time and decide that they want to take control over certain situations. We as parents have to show them that we are boss and that they have to listen to our rules. Now it is sleeping when you are supposed to sleep, later it will be borrowing the car or abiding by a curfuw. It stinks! But don't give in and get up, you will have problems even longer. Don't give in and bring them in your bed, you will be creating an issue that will last even longer.

Best of luck, what doesn kill you will only make you stronger.

Speech After Ear Issues (Tubes/Fluid)

My daughter has had tubes since December of 2010. She had both ears 100% filled with fluid from the end of October 2010-December 28, 2010. When she had the fluid in her ears she was hearing very little, if at all. She gained no language skills when her ears had the fluid in them, and my pediatrician has said that she does not recomend going with fluid in the ear longer then 3 months because language development is so high at this time. My daughter got tubes on December 28, 2010 and within 2 weeks had 10 new words. The only issue that I had was many of her words that she used often, she was leaving the endings off of. And she still does this. For example, she says "mil" instead of "milk.". I finally had her evaluated for speach in May, (she was about 17 months) and the speech pathologist told me that was normal. She should continue to gain words at a rapid pace and that if I was still concerned to have her looked at in the fall at about 22 months and that would look at her progress. She has continued to learn new words but she still does not finish the same words that she did not finish before. She does not speak in sentences but in 2 word phrases. My son was speaking so well and she seems a world away.

Long story short, they are 2 different kids. I was concerned and had it check out. What's going on is not like I experienced before, but it is of a different normal and I am going to have to get used to it.

When you (the parent) are unsure about what you are seeing. Get it checked by the expert and listen to their advice. You are the best advocate for your baby and you are the only one that can help them succeed in life at this point. Just do it!

More About Tubes

I took my daughter to the ENT for a 6 month check up after her tubes. The doctor told me that her tubes were still in and looked fine. I was excited to here this. Then the doctor told me that I needed to come back in a few months for another check up, that the tubes should have fallen out by then. I was shocked to here this! He proceeded to tell me that tubes generally only last about 9 months at the longest. This was shocking news to me since I just automatically thought that we would get at lest another winter out of this set of tubes, since they were still in. Now I am quite stressed about that fact that we are heading into this winter, chances are, with no tubes. And to top it off we just got to the beach and she has another ear infection, her third since the tubes were put in.