My Happy Baby

Thanks to Zoe, one of my mommy co-workers, for giving me this book by Dr. Karp, “Happiest Baby on the Block.”

Its premise is quite simple – your baby isn’t ready for the world when he is born, so he should be transitioned very gently by recreating the environment he was used to now that he is outside the womb.

Therefore, the 5S’s: swaddling, side-position, swinging, shushing, sucking – in that order. It explains the reasons why these seemingly random things work to turn on baby’s “calming reflex.”

I was excited to read it from cover to cover, especially when I saw the DVD in both newborn baby care and prepared childbirth classes. It’s amazing how my baby reacted to the loud shushing direct to his ear, knowing how incredibly annoying we as adults find it to be – but it does work. I swear by it.

I highly recommend this to all new parents to help you keep yourselves from pulling your hair out when baby just won’t quiet down. Learning these techniques didn’t just calm our baby – it calmed us, too.

Baby Hygiene List

In our newborn baby care class, we learned about changing baby’s diapers and giving baby a sponge bath, as far as cleaning up baby was concerned. Unfortunately, they never mentioned the other tasks involving baby’s hygiene that really took up my entire morning on a daily basis.

Cleaning the cord
It wasn’t complicated, just scary. We had to clean the surrounding area of the cord with cotton and alcohol or the alcohol wipes they gave us at the hospital three times a day until it fell off.

Bathing baby
I was told that daily bathing might dry up his skin faster, so we bathed him every other day instead. However, bathing baby took more effort and time than my own 10-minute shower, counting in how long it took to set up baby’s bathing area (part of our poor dining table) and prepare everything we will need before the actual sponge bathing.

Clipping and filing baby nails
It’s unbelievable how long they already were the day he was born! Unfortunately, they didn’t clip his nails at the hospital because it was considered “surgery” – which I thought was absurd, until I tried to clip his nails myself. It can actually be considered “surgery” with what it took to finish the procedure – a good pair of eyes, very steady hands and lots of neck endurance!

This little task seemed daunting to a new mom like me, because he had the tiniest little nails I’ve ever seen and I was so afraid I’d hurt his little fingers. But it had to be done, because tiny as they were, his nails were so sharp and he scratched himself to no end (he still does up to now). So I worked up the courage to clip his nails with those rounded scissors one day (with my mom’s support and supervision) and finally got comfortable enough to do it daily.

Digging in between fingers and toes
Who would’ve thought a baby can collect all that dirt in between his clenched fist and toes?! I certainly didn’t, but I guess because he wears mittens and socks, the fibers get stuck in between his fingers and toes, along with dead skin and sweat. No wonder his hands just started smelling like feet – eek! This called for a daily sweeping of the crevices of his hands and feet with a wet cotton swab.

Nose clean up
It never occurred to me that I’d have to decongest my baby every waking morning until the day I heard him snort - a few days after he was born. Apparently, his tiny nasal passages can collect a lot of mucous that are hard for him to sneeze out himself. So I found myself mastering what hubby and I called OBE: Operation Boogie Extraction. Armed with a trusty bulb syringe from the hospital, saline drops and some good daylight (and tissue), I suctioned my baby’s snotty little nose every single morning before I went downstairs for breakfast. How appetizing, huh?

These all eventually changed just as fast as my baby grew. But as I take a few things off my daily baby to-do list, I add a couple more.

Life with a baby is exciting indeed – nothing is ever the same, and you’ll never know what this little individual will bring to your life every single day. Except for one thing – lots of joy, especially when he is all clean and happy, because I am all happy.

As for me being all clean, umm… that’s a whole other story.

First Week Baby Battles

We were pretty calm new parents, according to my baby’s pediatrician on our baby’s first checkup. I’d say we were ducks – composed on the surface, paddling like crazy underneath.

After attending a newborn baby care class and reading a bunch of books and online references, I was pretty confident we’d take baby care in stride. Boy, was I wrong.

Battle with Time
Because baby had to be fed every 2 hours, I was literally tied to my corner of the sofa all day, because my baby would nurse for 45 minutes to an hour. I would hand him to my mom after a feeding for a diaper change (she volunteered) – another every-two-hour task.

And then there was the cleaning of his umbilical cord which had to be done 3x a day. Add this to the million other baby hygiene tasks. Hollywood celebs were no match to my baby’s high-maintenance!

Wet and poopy diapers also had to be counted for the first week to see if baby was getting enough pre-milk. This was to be reported to the doctor on his first checkup.

Battle with Fussiness
Honestly, we were blessed not to have a colicky baby. My baby didn’t fuss a lot, night or day. He was relatively easy to comfort, using Dr. Karp’s 5S’s from “Happiest Baby on the Block” -- it worked like magic. Milo didn’t like being swaddled though, and no matter how tight our swaddle was, our escape artist always managed to wiggle out of it.

A lot of holding with a little rocking, swaying and singing worked for our baby most of the time – so in this area, I had no complaints. I’m glad this was an easy one for us.

Battle with Priorities
I had to add the “taking care of me” part to baby care – something I didn’t take into consideration beforehand. How could I forget that we (especially me, because I was producing my baby’s sole nourishment) needed to eat a hearty breakfast, lunch, dinner and everything in between?

We were really lucky my mom was with us -- we took turns watching the baby, so we got to eat enough. I particularly had to remember to keep myself hydrated – to drink at least a glass of water each feeding session.

The hardest part to squeeze into the daily routine – a shower. It was hard, but not impossible, that’s why I made it a point to shower everyday, even for a few minutes. I didn’t want my baby to associate body odor with his mother (eew).

Battle with Housework
And then there were chores – cooking meals, dishes, laundry, cleaning. I’m glad my husband is a neat freak, because he would take care of whatever was left to fix up or clean while me or my mom were busy with the baby. I seriously wished we could do all the housework Harry Potter-style: everything would take care of itself with a flick of a wand (I still wish for that now).

Battle with Hormones
Oh by the way, I was supposedly “recovering” from childbirth, so I had to deal with both physical and emotional strains WHILE doing all of the above. Thank God my mom was there to take care of me while my husband was at work or doing the rest of the chores, because I know I wouldn’t have otherwise taken care of myself that well.

I knew caring for a baby was going to be a lot of work, but I completely underestimated the number of battles we had to face on a daily basis. Even my mom didn’t realize how much harder it was to do it all by ourselves, without a maid or a nanny (two things that were staples in most households back where we came from) to take care of a number of items on my list.

Luckily, we learned to roll with each punch – surviving the first week, then the first month, then the first week without my mom, and then for me, the first weeks with my husband at work. I’ve managed to get the hang of juggling things after a couple of months. I could say I already have it all under control – for now. Seeing how fast my baby is growing, I should really be ready for the next unforeseen baby battle everyday.