For first time parents, from a first time parent, 4 months down the line, part 2

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rushingjohn

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Part 1: For first time parents, from a first time parent, 4 months down the line

Part 3: For first time parents, from a first time parent, 4 months down the line

I had some more input that I didn't get a chance to mention.

CRYING

My wife has been able to identify the 5 different sounds. I'm still learning it.
Oprah special - 5 different sounds/cries babies make

GAS PAINS

There are gas drops you can give kids. Mylicon, Little Tummys, or the store brand are all amazingly effective. I stocked up at Shoprite when they had a sale.

The amazingly simple/obvious/stupid trick to giving any medicine to a baby is to put it in the baby's month, then quickly give them the pacifier. It seems obvious in hindsight, but not when the poor kid is crying.

For the first couple months we pretty much added Mylicon to every bottle.

Sunscreen

According to our pediatrician (YMMV), there's only one brand of sunscreen that you can use on a baby. You should still keep them out of the sun, but just in case, Blue Lizard Australian Sunscreen is safe for babies. I obviously linked to Amazon, but check your local drugstore. It's not as cheap as others though, so shop around.

NAPPING/SLEEPING

Don't try to ensure silence and darkness for the baby's sleep time. You will not always have this ideal, and unreasonable to try to maintain it. Kids will learn to nap through noises quite well. We often have the TV going, and when a nap does happy, she sleeps through it.

Also, swaddling is grand. You would think it's not great for a person to be so wrapped up, but they really sleep much better. We never could get our daughters hands to stay swaddled. If hands are free, make sure you cover them somehow. Those nails are super sharp and can cut up the baby's face.

The trends you start when the baby is young will last. My wife wouldn't put our infant down. Months later, the little brat (just kidding) won't nap for long periods of time unless held. And good luck putting her down in her pack n play.

It will be painful, but get them used to napping solo now. (If you want them to nap solo.)

DAYCARE

I could devote a whole single entry to this. Trust your gut. If it doesn't feel right, abandon ship. Be sure to check how long teachers have been there. One thing that struck a positive note was the teacher asking how we want to be notified of "firsts." Some parents have horrible guilt about using daycare, so the teacher said that if she feels the baby will do something "walk, crawl, etc," she will say that she thinks the baby is close. Which could also be the case, that she really is close.

COLDS/FEVERS

When the teeth started cutting, the temperature spiked a bit. This is normal. Also, be aware that temporal thermometers can under-measure fevers. All the docs/hospitals we went to told us the same. Rectal seems to be the most accurate measure. We still rely on the temporal thermometer to get a general baseline. But when we see 102, we make sure we're on guard.

Snot sucking - Bulb syringes for clogged noses are a bit dangerous. They fill with mold. The trend, is these Snot Suckers. My wife loves it. It does a great job, but you have to realize that you're not sucking snot into your mouth. There's a sponge.
 
@rushingjohn Read both the guides, great stuff (if not slightly intimidating) thank you for taking the time to post!

What's YMMV?

Did you try manually warming the bottle? How did it go?

When you mentioned flatheads I figured you meant to keep a screwdriver handy for putting things together, or if the kid gets uppity (I jest, I jest) but you mean the baby's head becomes flat? Is that normal?
 
@bagzpakd YMMV - your mileage may vary. Meaning, your doc may feel differently.

Warming the bottle. We did it manually, and it was a lot of "warm the bottle, test. Then heat or cool as needed." It is not bad, but wasted time in my opinion. With the warmer, I hit the button, then change a diaper and dress her while the bottle warms to the right temp.

It's a luxury, but $30-$40 well spent, in my opinion.

Flathead is a real thing. I've seen kids with special helmets from too much time on their back and not enough tummy time. (Very rare)

Still, our doc mentioned that our girls head was getting a little flat, so with tummy time and the noggin nest, it's rounded out.
 
@rushingjohn I have 2 questions for you because our lease will be up right when baby is about 4 months old.
  1. How do you manage the day to day? When do you get to sleep? Are you relying on outside help?
  2. Related, if you have a 2 story home or apartment, would you consider moving to a 1 story? Are you just too exhausted to deal with moving right now or have things eased up a bit by the 4th month?
 
@harryh Actually, our situations aren't too far apart. Our lease will be up when our girl is about 8 months.

As for sleeping- we get about 7-8 hours a night of sleep, but naps are a bit tougher. My wife is still home, but will be going back to work soon.

Honestly, we are able to get that solid sleep (And have since she was a 2 weeks old) because we used a formula bottle at night. You may have read that my wife can't produce enough milk for exclusive BF, but even if she could, we would still use formula at night. Solid sleep makes for better parents, in my opinion.

As for the 2 story house - we have a split level which gives us the best of both worlds. We would easily go to a 2 story house. My wife doesn't like 2 story as much, but hasn't said no. The space is more important I think.

Moving isn't as tough as you may think. It's a matter of help. Movers or friends... But someone or several someone's should take turns with the baby while the others work.
 
@rushingjohn Thanks for the thoughts.

7-8 hours of continuous sleep seems miraculous at this point! So it sounds like your daughter goes to bed with a bottle and can just nurse at it through the night if necessary? Or is it that formula encourages sleep?

We have a 2 story condo now but going up and down the steps while pregnant is already exhausting.
 
@harryh From my experience and talking to others, the formula is what makes the full night of sleep possible.

I know many who are exclusive BF, an they often have to get up in the night.
Formula is thicker so the baby sleeps longer.

My personal stance is that you have to do what's best for parents and baby. There are those who will rail on you if you use formula, bottle, whatever.

I've talked to people who use formula only before bed.

Do what's best for you, the baby, and her mom.
 
@rushingjohn Gas drops (and other sorts of baby medications) come in bottles with eyedroppers. Which is okay, but if the dosage is less than a full dropper it's a PITA to "feel" how much to squeeze to get the right amount in there, and it gets all gunked up on the outside of the dropper because the whole thing goes in the mouth... Yuck.

We just discovered that the RiteAid brand gas drops come with a syringe, rather than an eyedropper, and the bottle has a syringe filler lid. SO much easier than the dropper! Try it out--we'll stick with them for that.
 
@jamesandrewsmith46 I do agree. The eye droppers can be a pain to measure. We got the feel of it pretty quick, but still, I think I'd prefer the syringe option.

We do clean the dropper after its in her mouth, but I see your point.
 
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