Spit-up, Nannies, and what we've learned so far after 6 weeks of parenting

Click here for more pics from weeks 5 and 6.

Update from the house of Daisy McDaid, Week 6

Spit-Up

Unfortunately our spit-up has progressed to GER, or infant reflux. It's almost every feeding now. Ok, so it's EVERY feeding and sometimes an hour after, but we're just getting better at keeping her at the right angle to hold it in. So off to the pediatricians again this past Thursday. I swear, we're we're really chill, calm parents (hey, I negotiated a green poop incident with nothing more than a quick Google search!) but the little lady seems insistent on throwing curve-balls at us at least once a week.

Our pediatrician is also pretty chill and non-interventionist but she is a tad worried about two things: (1) the fact that she only put on one ounce in the past week (whereas it had been 16ozs in 10 days before) and (2) the potential for the acid in the consistent spit-up/puke harming her esophagus (yes, just like in that commercial for the purple pill) and discouraging her from feeding more. (You know, she remembers it hurts after every feeding so she gets fussy even before she feeds... the viscious cycle we want to avoid.) So, we've been prescribed Zantac to neutralize all that tummy acid. Unfortunately there really is nothing on the market to stop newborns spitting up/puking - aparently nobody yet considers this important enough to invest in medical research over, say, cancer - so all we can do is cover our shoulders, laps, and furniture with receiving blankets, have a soft flannel in-hand for facial wipe-up, keep her at 45 degrees, and practice our lightening-fast reactions to catch it when all-else fails.

The downside of this is that I tend to always smell like sour milk. Oh well, the things we do for love.

Nannies

Less than one week left until Nanny (with a capital "n") arrives back in the U.S., but in the meantime we have hired a nanny (with a small "n") to look after our little Daisy 2 days a week. Unbelievably this is less expensive than sending her out to daycare AND we don't have to deal with all the bugs and viruses that tend to get passed around in those places.

Our nanny is called Brandy and she previously nannied for three kids but was laid-off because the mother was laid-off from Intel (the trickle-down effect of the economy at work first-hand.) She lives literally just around the corner (2 mins by car) and has an adorable 7 month old daughter called Lizzie who she would be bringing with her, which I think will be great for Daisy as she gets older and needs another baby to interact with and learn from. She'll be with us 2-days a week here in our house while I work upstairs. Meanwhile my Mum (aka: Nanny) will take Daisy for the other 3 days (and that's the LEAST amount of time she would accept!)

Which brings me to the end of my maternity leave. My official date for return is now June 4th, as set by me. The 4th is a Thursday, which gives me two days to catch-up with what's going on, get a feeling for how the heck I'm going to be a mommy AND work, and then a weekend to panic about it all before I go back full-boar on Monday. I can't believe 8 weeks has almost passed, it seems like, in a blink of an eye. It's gone SO FAST and yet, at the same time, I'm ready to move back into some semblance of reality. I ADORE Daisy but mommy needs her mental stimulation. Of course, it's all made so much easier for me by the fact that I do work from home and can have her cared for here; it's not like she'll be gone for the day, I can just come downstairs whenever I want to see her and will be on-hand if Mum or Brandy have questions or need assistance.

But don't write me off yet. The first act of my return will be to submit two vacation requests, the first for Labor Day week (when we have a wedding to attend in SoCal) and the second for Christmas/New Year. I'll be using some of my Paid Family Leave (or Baby Bonding time) for this.

What we've learned so far about parenthood

Hubby and I have made a number of amusing observations about our new life in the last six weeks and so we wrote them down on the back of an envelope over the last couple of days to share with you.

• Whenever you're sitting down with her, it doesn't matter how well you've padded out your seat you always need just one extra pillow.
• The drink you prepared and put on the side table is always just out of reach.
• The spit-up cloth is never in the right spot and/or cannot usually be found at the opportune moment.
• There's not enough... of anything: bottles, pumping supplies, blankets, towels, time...
• There is ALWAYS laundry.
• Between the consistent laundry, the increased use of dishwasher and the need to keep baby's room cool, our electricity bill will never be the same again.
• No amount of Oxyclean can get out some poop stains.
• Some residue poop stain becomes acceptable on your clothing at some point.
• Even if you had the time to shower, it doesn't matter because, by lunchtime, you're a cornicopia of poop, spit-up, and expressed breast milk.
• There is no such thing as one outfit a day - for you OR her.
• Ironically, doing dishes and laundry while your husband/wife watches the baby is now considered a "break".
• Facebook IS your social life.
• Where before you never had time to read and respond to all your emails, now you're watching your computer, desperately waiting for your friends to contact you.
• Monday is the same as Friday. There is little excitement about Saturday.
• Coffee NEVER tasted so good.
• Bed NEVER felt so delicious.
• Fast food salads are considered nutritious eating.
• The TV always seems too loud (although we resist the temptation to turn it down too much and tiptoe around the house.)
• The dogs (or should I say FRANKIE) always bark just as the baby is drifting off into sleep.
• When you get home, take the garbage out. Yes, every day. (This was Hubby's primary input.)
  
• 8pm feels like midnight. 7am feels like 3am. Time is an alien construct.
• Any phrase can be turned into a song. Any commercial jingle can be adapted to a Daisy song. IE: "Yipee kayay, mini sirloin Daisies!" (I kid you not.)
• You do, at some point, start to wonder if all those vampire flicks and tv-shows you watch in the afternoon with her will eventually penetrate her psyche and result in the need for a shrink later in life.

Otherwise, life as a parent is becoming more the norm and less of a shock to the system. The best time of day is the morning when she is just fed and super happy. Daisy has begun to smile more often and make happy gurgly noises when you talk and sing to her, and definitely has gained an interest in brightly colored items, like the plush sunflower that hangs over her head when she's getting her diaper changed.

Even though she didn't gain much weight in the past week, we can definitely see that she is getting bigger, especially in the car seat because we have to keep moving up the infant cradle to fit her in. More than anything she is super long, especially when I look at her compared to her friend, Mackenzie, who was born 2 days later. She is all arms and legs, which can make her hard to hold sometimes; while many babies at her age are just a ball of flesh you can cradle, this kid likes her long limbs to be dangling and moving all the time. She also has crazy-good control of her head and neck for her age, which means she tends to move that around, frantically, in unison with those arms and legs. Although her control is not SO great, so she'll lose it when you're least expecting it, resulting in some scary head bobbing incidents.

Other little Daisy quirks we have noticed are that she has loooong fingers (a piano player perhaps?) and monkey toes (meaning they can grip your finger almost as good as her hand!) She loves to go out and about with her momma and will typically sleep best in the loudest, craziest places. She likes the car but, if nobody's in the back with her to replace the binkie, will cry at stoplights, resulting in mommy crossing some dubious yellows when really desperate.

Her nicknames so far are: Munchkin, Munchkinator, Daisy Poopy-Pants, Daisy Farty-Pants, The Pukester, Sweetie-Pea, My Little Minx, and Little Girl.

Thanks for keeping up-to-date with Ms. Daisy this week. Over and out!