Category Archives: Family

Newborns: Here’s What To Expect In Their First Months Of Life

Newborns- Here’s What To Expect In Their First Months Of Life (1)What To Expect When Taking Care Of Newborns

Taking care of newborns is both difficult and rewarding. You can feel the warmth emanating from their fragile bodies that gives you a sense of love, joy, and fulfillment. On the other hand, taking care of a baby can be very tiring, especially when you’re deprived of needed sleep and rest.

Baby Jaundice

The baby can have yellowish skin or jaundice as a result of their immature bodies. The condition is caused by an increased level of bilirubin in the blood and it occurs between the 3rd and 5th day of life. Most cases resolve on their own and for some, it can be treated by sun exposure.

Jaundice can be potentially dangerous if left untreated because it could affect the brain. Moreover, always check your baby’s stool. It should be black for the first few days and yellow thereafter. If the stool turns clay-colored or white, it could suggest a biliary obstruction, which is dangerous for newborns.

Baby Sleep

Newborn babies sleep a lot. For first time parents, expect your baby to sleep approximately 16 to 17 hours a day, waking up regularly for feedings. They feed every two to three hours, depending on when they’re bodies need to eat next.

Breastfed babies wake up more frequently because they digest breast milk faster. On the other hand, formula-fed babies feel fuller making them sleep longer between feedings. There also sounds that babies produce during sleep.

Baby grunting at night could signal a gastroesophageal reflux or GERD. It’s the backwash of milk and tummy acids against the esophageal lining. Normally, in adults, there are valves that prevent regurgitation. However, since newborns are still developing much of their body systems, these valves are still immature.

Baby reflux can be prevented by anti-reflux medicines, letting the baby stay upright to keep the milk down and burping the baby.

Baby Startle Reflex

You’ve managed to put the baby to sleep. As you lay her down in the bed or her crib, she suddenly screams and moves her arms high in a motion to protect her body. This is called the Moro or startle reflex. It’s a normal thing in newborns until they’re 4 to 5 months.
However, this reflex is something that wakes them up every now and then. One of the best ways to deal with it is to swaddle the baby. Swaddling helps prevent a full blown reflex that could awaken or even frighten the infant. When the babies are swaddled, they feel secure and safe, just like when they were still inside your womb.

Conclusion

Having a newborn is fulfilling but can be a very tiring experience. When taking care of infants, mothers know it’s important to feed the baby on demand. Moreover, while they are recovering from childbirth, mothers should sleep as much as possible.

Asking for help from your partner, family members or friends will help make this transition time easier on your healing body. Try to sleep in-between feedings, too. This will prevent exhaustion and fatigue among new mothers, which could eventually affect their health.


Stacy Belk is a mom-of-two, nurse and a loving wife. She loves to write about the life of parents and their babies. It gives her much fulfillment to help other mothers, especially first-timers, in caring for their little ones. Check her blog at Mom Woot.

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A Day of Fun at the Rochester Museum & Science Center

**My family did receive tickets to the RMSC, but all opinions are my own.**

Wow, guys! It has been ages since I last wrote on Baby Doodah. I looked at my last post and that was back on 8/3/15. Seriously!

We’ve had a busy, fun summer, life has been absolutely grand and my business is growing quite steadily. I’m happy! 🙂

A quick sidenote, before I get into the real reason that I am writing today, I am shifting blogging gears. As I mentioned, I haven’t been blogging here, and honestly I haven’t written a blog post anywhere in quite some time, but I am starting a new blog, a self-branded blog – JillianOKeefe.com. If you do happen to pop over there, don’t expect much, it is still DEEP in the works. But, I’ve been talking about doing it for awhile and I finally put my talking into ACTION!

Now, onto the real reason why I’m writing. 🙂

A Day of Fun at the Rochester Museum & Science Center

Recently we were invited by RMSC to come visit their facilities. Rochester is only an hour away, so it’s fun to make a day trip out of activities like this. So, we packed up and headed out bright and early. We wanted to get there right about when they were opening, so that we could really get to see what the museum had to offer.

We were concerned that it would get so busy that Emmett wouldn’t be able to enjoy himself. However, now I can honestly say that we had no reason to worry. That isn’t because it wasn’t busy, there were plenty of people there, but because there is SO MUCH to do.

If one area was crowded, Emmett could just bop on over to something else.

Emmett was stoked, and the second we were checked-in he was off to the Adventure Zone Exhibit. Man, did he have a blast. Emmett has always had a thing for water – He loves playing with it and in it, so he spent a good deal of time playing with the mock-up of the Erie Canal lock. I have to be honest, though, my pictures from that day aren’t the greatest… my child does NOT stand still for long. 🙂

RMSC VisitWe spent a good deal of time in the Adventure Zone, because there was oodles of hands on things for Emmett to take part in. There was a model roller coaster for him to watch, a climbing trail that took you up to an area near the ceiling (Emmett wasn’t brave enough for this), a pulley lift, a rock climbing wall, and a really cool tool that showed how clouds worked. It was a ton of fun!

After that we made our way upstairs where Science on a Sphere takes place. It was really neat to watch the different videos that appeared on the sphere.

This picture doesn’t do the sphere justice, but I thought it was pretty cute, with my little guy’s head.

RMSC 2

Once done with the sphere, we headed onto the ENERGIZE exhibit, which was MY personal favorite. Everything was hands on, but there were so many different activities to explore. I feel like we spent a good majority of our time in this room. They have bicycles set up that you peddle and light up different light bulbs. They had a harp that was “magic,” different ways to transmit sound using lasers, seriously so much more!

RMSC 3 RMSC 4

One exhibit that is fantastic, but where we didn’t spend a lot of time, is the Inventor Center. The goal is to engineer different types of vehicles and then harness the wind tunnels to make it move. Emmett was kind of bored in here, but it wasn’t because of the room, simply because of his age (3). A child 5+ would truly enjoy this room and all that it offers!

An exhibit that I really thought would be a hit with Emmett was the Under Construction: Building Careers, one. But, he just wasn’t into. Honestly, I think that’s because he was getting tired and wanted to nap, which he did as soon as we hit the road. Anyway, the Under Construction exhibit has all sorts of different tools you can use to build with, bricks and a giant crane – some really awesome stuff!

We had a really amazing time and we were all pretty worn out by the time we left for the day.

So, if you’re in the Western NY area and are looking for something fun to do, especially now that the colder temps are on the way, you should definitely take the time to visit the Rochester Museum & Science Center. It is WELL worth it!

**A special thank you to RMSC and Dixon Schwabl for generously supplying us with an amazing afternoon, spent as a family.

 

A Little Bit of This and Little Bit of That – an Update

It’s been awhile since I did a post where I just updated you on some of the things in my life, and thought today would be a perfect day to do one of these. Also, please stick around till the very end, I’m going to be introducing my newest sponsor! 🙂

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Potty Training in a Weekend – Success!

If you recall, a week and a half (or so) ago, I had written that I was going to be venturing into the potty training territory with Emmett. I was SUUPER nervous, but he was showing signs that he was ready, and it’s not fair for me to hold him back because of my worries, or because I don’t want him to grow up. 😉

Since, it’s been about 13 days, I wanted to provide you with an update on how things are going. I’m sure you’ve all been dying to hear more about my son’s potty habits, right!? 😛 (PS: This is a long post, but I hope you’ll stick around.)

Did We Succeed?

In a word, YES! Emmett is officially potty trained, but please know that it was not easy.

We followed the method that Becky Mansfield writes about in her book, Potty Train in a Weekend. The book is great! She goes into incredible detail about things like how many potty chairs you should have (yes, you should probably have more than one, if you follow this method), which potty chairs she prefers, and then what to look for as you begin your journey.

Emmett’s my first child, so I was clueless, however, after reading Becky’s book, I felt VERY prepared.

So here’s how it went…

We started on a Friday… The second I heard Emmett start to stir in his room, I went in to get him up and out of his diaper. I plopped him on his little stand alone potty chair (we love this potty), and he kind of just sat there for maybe a minute, and stared at me. He knew it was a potty chair, but not what to really do in it.

After a bit of him sitting there, I declared it breakfast time. Now, he was bare bottomed all day, and actually in the book, she recommends them being completely naked. However, we live in Buffalo and it’s chilly, so he had a long sleeved, tight fitting shirt on, and warm socks. You need to be able to see when they start to pee, so that you can rush them onto the potty. This is critical on the first day!

Friday was hard. We couldn’t leave the house, because I needed to watch him, so that I could rush him to the potty as soon as he started to pee. We pulled out every possible toy we could think of.

By 11 am, he still hadn’t peed, in the potty or anywhere else. I was starting to think he was holding it in, or resisting potty training. (I was feeding him loads of fluids, too.) Around 11:30, I noticed him start to leak a bit, I picked him up and immediately put him on the potty and told him to “Go Pee.” He did it! He went pee pee on the potty!

This was our song after the first time peeing on the potty!!Continue Reading

100+ Tips for Breastfeeding Success

Breastfeeding a newborn, can be one of the most difficult things that you do, but there has NEVER been something more worth it in your life!

In the beginning, you’re unsure of what you’re doing, your child knows what to do, but may not latch correctly, which can lead to painful, cracked nipples, or your child under-eating. However, there ARE ways to overcome this, and still have 100% success for you and for your child.

The BEST piece of advice that I can give you, is DO NOT GIVE UP! Yes, things may be difficult, and you might have times in the beginning where you are exhausted and want sleep, but don’t quit. It DOES get easier, and eventually, it is the most amazing time spent with your child. That time is just for you and your baby, no one else can have that… think about how special that is! Think of the bonds that will be built. 🙂

Side note: One thing, that I think is incredibly important to mention – My intention when writing this is not to criticize a mom who chose to formula feed, but to encourage those moms who are struggling with breastfeeding. 

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New Feature: My Son is Crying because…

If you’ve ever had a toddler, you know how tantrums can ensue from just about anything!

Emmett recently entered the freak out, about anything phase, of toddler-hood. We’ll be going along perfectly happy, when all of a sudden it hits… the TANTRUM-MONSTER.

Dun dun dunnnnn…

Some of his tantrums are just so funny, and actually take quite a lot of work to not laugh. I was expecting this, people write about the terrible, tanrumy twos all the time, but I had no idea exactly what I was in for.

It is because of these tantrums that I wanted to start a new series on my blog – My Son is Crying because… 🙂 I’m sure you’ve seen the pretty popular site, Reasons My Son is Crying, well I want to take a spin and add a similar idea to my blog. I’m telling you, some these are pretty funny!

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Happy 500 Posts!

Holy moley! Baby Doodah has hit the BIG 500!?!

You read that correctly, folks! I hit 500 posts late last week, which means it is time to celebrate…. 😀

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