7 Quick Takes Friday-All about the baby

1. This is going to sound weird, but, I ALMOST like the smell of baby poop. Not from an 8 month old baby eating solid foods, but that newborn, nothing but breastmilk sort of cheesy yellow poop. Admit it, you’ve smelled way worse. There’s something almost comforting, familiar and fond about it.

2. I haven’t got cloth diapers yet, though everyone tells me to get Fuzzibunz, and by everyone I mean the moms I know who have cloth diapered a lot of babies recently. They had me at “washes the easiest” and “leaks the least”. Anyway, in the meantime I have been using disposables, and let me just tell you, I will never buy Pampers swaddlers again. They got all filled up with these gross little gel balls filled with pee that would build up inside of the diaper and then fall out and make a mess all over the place. They were nasty to wipe up and I’m not even sure I want to know what they are exactly. I switched to Huggies Supreme. They don’t have gross bubbles, and they can go several hours through the night without leaking. Bonus.

3. I posted about how I make my own baby wipes this week. It was going to be a quick take, but then it got long enough to be a stand alone post. So I published it already and I’ll just link to it instead for those who want to know how to make them. Or at least, how I make them. They don’t take much time at all.


Here’s my super awesome recipe.

4.

Photo by Andreas Levers

I use olive oil in my wipes. Actually, I use olive oil for pretty much everything, from washing my own face, taking care of diaper rashes, curing cradle cap, to baby’s first bath and as a moisturizer for baby skin… you’re getting the idea. Olive oil has the same ph as human skin. It is a natural moisturizer and cleanser, it dissolves sebum gently and naturally. I’ve seen family members with really bad acne have it clear up remarkably using olive oil. Once I heard about using it for cradle cap I never had scaly headed babies again.

After our babies are born we lay them out on a mat and rub them down head to toe with olive oil and wipe it away. It’s great for that dry flaky newborn skin and cleans them off gently. After baths I’ll rub them down with olive oil again to moisturize. Yeah, I sound like a freak, but it works for me.

5.

I have completely won the newborn lottery. He is so peaceful. Even awake he’s usually content. In fact, in the past 2 weeks since he’s been born I’ve lost less sleep with him than with his 3 older siblings. They got the flu last week and kept me awake several nights catching vomit, while he slept through them. They wake up in the middle of the night yelling for mommy or wetting the bed and needing a bath and the bedding changed, one, after the other, after the other, all. night. long.

6. I find it funny how people exclaim about how I’m out and around with a newborn already. (I mean, the first few days after giving birth, yes. But it doesn’t take me all that long to recover. I think having a natural birth has something to do with that.) Once my body has recovered sufficiently getting out and about with a newborn is the least of my worries. He doesn’t wander off and get filthy 30 seconds before we have to walk out the door, or collapse in despair at the grocery store when I refuse to buy coveted item X, or torment his sister in the car until she screams in frustration, or lose his shoes in the back yard. The worst he can do is a blowout diaper just as we head out, and I can deal with that. It takes less time than finding an errant sandal. Ask me how I know.

When I talk to people with 1 who are in awe of the number 4 I’m sure to remind them that I didn’t start out this way. I got them one at a time to build up my endurance. The surest sign that I have gotten stronger is this. If Aaron had taken off to do something fun and left me alone with our oldest all day when he was a baby I would have been furious, and overwhelmed. Now, If he were to take the oldest 3 away for a day and leave me alone at home with the baby I would view that as a vacation.

7. No one tells you, when you’re expecting your first child, about how messy your body will get after the baby is born. I mean, there’s the blood, that’s one thing, but there’s also the milk dripping everywhere, and the hormonal hot flashes in the middle of the night that have you wake up drenched in sweat, and milk, and maybe blood. It was a total shock to me the first time.

I am, of course, a little more accustomed to it this time, but some things still surprise me. Last night while I was sitting at my computer, baby safely away in his bed, recently nursed, I noticed suddenly, as cold drips landed on my arm, that I’d soaked my pajama shirt in milk somehow. I couldn’t figure out why I would be squirting milk so vigorously right after nursing until I realized… I’d been looking through photos of the older kids when they were smaller, Little as a baby, the Boy and Girl as toddlers. I responded to them hormonally the same last night as I would have 4-5 years ago when they were that little. What can I say? Want milk?

More quick takes at conversion diary.