I'm a Grandma!!!!
01-03-2010, 10:20 PM
#311
Super Member
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Central Washington State
Posts: 5,997
My mother, who could absolutely not teach me a thing, ;) taught me all sorts of things about babies and child rearing.
She is the one who taught me how to identify with the difference between being in the womb and the harsh realities of the world, and how to appreciate "culture shock".
Mom taught me to lay the babies on their sides, alternating the side I put them down on, so that their heads wouldn't flatten out ... for some reason it was very important.
Then, when the baby could squirm away from the blankets I put behind them to hold them on their sides, it was time to consider laying them on their tummies. However! I didn't do that until I was sure they could lift their heads up off the mattress and turn their heads from side to side ... usually two or three weeks, depending on how much time we had spent playing with them and exercising them.
And, mom taught me how to not be too upset by the crying because that is the only vocabulary a baby has. <g> And, always check the basics - - does the baby need a dry diaper?
When people talk about putting a baby in bed on their back, I remember when #2DD was a newborn (five days old) ... I had put her in the crate on her back because I was going to go get something. I walked back into the room just in time to see a volcano of vomit coming up over the crate! and, of course, baby is laying in the crate sputtering and choking! (that was enough to convince me that on the back was NOT the place to be if you are a helpless baby or a turtle ... or a sheep <g>)
Anyway, the vomiting was pretty bad, so I took her back to the hospital, saying: This baby is defective!
The DR was looking at me and stroking the top of the baby's head and then looking at me again ... finally, he says: Are you breastfeeding this baby?
of course!
He waited for a bit more and very slowly says: Have you ever considered "wet nursing"?
I didn't bat an eyelash! "Of course! But, I don't know any babies needing breast milk ... and, beside, I smoke, so no hospital would let me near it!"
The DR is REALLY trying to think of something, and he keeps looking at the baby and then looking at me.
Finally, he just plunges in: Well, you see, it is like this. You have enough milk for about three kids there, and you seem to be trying to cram it all into this one little baby. Do you time the nursings?
"Well, no, but it isn't like I am a newcomer to the process, you know."
"Time it, like the books tell you to do."
No ... the baby will quit nursing when she is full ..
DR says, "NO! She will NOT! She is too little and she will suck as long as there is something in her mouth! (That is when I learned that babies like to suck and some babies like to suck but don't necessarily have to be having food while doing it -- thank God for pacifiers! <g>)
So, DR sent me home with the baby and I learned that projectile vomiting usually indicates too much food! LOL
somewhere in there, he also suggested that I was the adult in this situation and I was the only one who could control what the baby ingested - - and, I was the one who was SUPPOSED to know what to or not to do!
(so much for my being an expert! LOL)
She is the one who taught me how to identify with the difference between being in the womb and the harsh realities of the world, and how to appreciate "culture shock".
Mom taught me to lay the babies on their sides, alternating the side I put them down on, so that their heads wouldn't flatten out ... for some reason it was very important.
Then, when the baby could squirm away from the blankets I put behind them to hold them on their sides, it was time to consider laying them on their tummies. However! I didn't do that until I was sure they could lift their heads up off the mattress and turn their heads from side to side ... usually two or three weeks, depending on how much time we had spent playing with them and exercising them.
And, mom taught me how to not be too upset by the crying because that is the only vocabulary a baby has. <g> And, always check the basics - - does the baby need a dry diaper?
When people talk about putting a baby in bed on their back, I remember when #2DD was a newborn (five days old) ... I had put her in the crate on her back because I was going to go get something. I walked back into the room just in time to see a volcano of vomit coming up over the crate! and, of course, baby is laying in the crate sputtering and choking! (that was enough to convince me that on the back was NOT the place to be if you are a helpless baby or a turtle ... or a sheep <g>)
Anyway, the vomiting was pretty bad, so I took her back to the hospital, saying: This baby is defective!
The DR was looking at me and stroking the top of the baby's head and then looking at me again ... finally, he says: Are you breastfeeding this baby?
of course!
He waited for a bit more and very slowly says: Have you ever considered "wet nursing"?
I didn't bat an eyelash! "Of course! But, I don't know any babies needing breast milk ... and, beside, I smoke, so no hospital would let me near it!"
The DR is REALLY trying to think of something, and he keeps looking at the baby and then looking at me.
Finally, he just plunges in: Well, you see, it is like this. You have enough milk for about three kids there, and you seem to be trying to cram it all into this one little baby. Do you time the nursings?
"Well, no, but it isn't like I am a newcomer to the process, you know."
"Time it, like the books tell you to do."
No ... the baby will quit nursing when she is full ..
DR says, "NO! She will NOT! She is too little and she will suck as long as there is something in her mouth! (That is when I learned that babies like to suck and some babies like to suck but don't necessarily have to be having food while doing it -- thank God for pacifiers! <g>)
So, DR sent me home with the baby and I learned that projectile vomiting usually indicates too much food! LOL
somewhere in there, he also suggested that I was the adult in this situation and I was the only one who could control what the baby ingested - - and, I was the one who was SUPPOSED to know what to or not to do!
(so much for my being an expert! LOL)
01-04-2010, 05:12 AM
#312
Super Member
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: North Carolina
Posts: 1,063
Great picture Terri!!! Olivia looks very content sleeping with gram. I had trouble with my first not sleeping when we got home (at least not at night in the cradle) Figured out it WAS the lights (or lack of them). He was used to the lights in the hospital, you know they never turned them off, so put a lamp at the head of his cradle, turned on low and BEHOLD ~~ HE SLEPT!!!
01-04-2010, 06:47 AM
#317
Super Member
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Tied up in Thread
Posts: 5,109
Aaaaaawwwww how cuuuuuuuuuuuuuuute!!!! Don't you just want to snuggle wuggle her widdew facey-wayey!!!!
You two look adorable together! Hey, when are you going back home??!!! We miss you around here!
You two look adorable together! Hey, when are you going back home??!!! We miss you around here!
01-04-2010, 08:16 AM
#318
Super Member
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: chicago, IL
Posts: 9,589
So glad to see a picture of you with little Olivia...how about one with both arms full??? we don't mean to be a pain, but we do need fixes...with this cold weather, we can't go out too much looking for new fabric to stroke....sooooooo, we want to see more babies.....too bad we don't have smell-o-vision...ahhh that new baby smellll........
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