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How to ease the pain of Teething
Some baby’s are born with teeth, thank goodness none of mine were otherwise I would have opted not to breastfeed.
The first thing I notice when my kids started to teeth was their little cheeks turning rosy and they started to chew and slobber on everything. Some of the side effect of teething include: low grade fever, diaper rash, diarrhea, running nose, not sleeping, ear infections, mouthing everything they get their hands on and slobbering.
- Use Tylenol to help with pain and fever
- Teething ring: I like using the fresh food teething feeder. I will put an ice-cube, popsicle or even frozen peas inside to help alleviate the pain and give them something rewarding to chew on.
- Numbing medicine. I haven’t had great luck with these but when baby doesn’t feel good its worth trying anything.
4 Natural Remedies for a Cough,Cold, and/or Congestion
Cough/Cold/Congestion
- Humidifier – I keep it running year round. Also, I put a couple drops of eucalyptus oil in the water which helps baby breath.
- Steam – I have taken lot of showers with my kids. The steam helps the cough, cold and congestions PLUS it makes them feel better having that time with mommy or daddy.
- Elevate baby’s head. I’ve had my kids sleep in their bouncy seat and I also have one side of their crib slightly propped to keep their head elevated when they sleep.
- Saline water – a few drops of room temperature saline water in the nose will help break up the phlegm. Give the water a few minutes to soak in the nose and then use the bulb syringe to suck out the mucus.
Sleeping Tips
Sleeping tips:
- When new baby’s get home they will sleep a lot for the few couple of weeks, make sure you spend time keeping your baby awake during the day so the bulk of his sleep time is at night.
- Put a flat pillow or blanket under one end of the mattress of the baby bed. This helps elevate the baby’s head and helps them breath. *If you notice they do this in the hospital.
- Feed baby when they wake up and put them to bed when they are starting to get sleepy. This is really important to do to establish good sleeping patterns.
- Create a relaxing bed time routine. Bathing, massage, snuggle time with mommy, ect.
Post-partum a Brief Visit to “Crazy Town”
This is a tough few months after you have baby. You are exhausted, your body is trying to recover from being torn end from end, your boobs hurt and are leaking, your emotions are taking a roller coaster, your body looks like a bomb went off, you currently have porn-star boobs on loan and no matter how sensitive your husband is they won’t be able to make things better. I spent these months medicating with cookies. My “me” time was spent strolling the aisle of the grocery store so much like during my pregnancy food was becoming a good friend. I would attempt to eat a dozen cookies on the 3 mile trip back home from the grocery store. I think I thought if there wasn’t any evidence of the cookies then the cookies never happened. Needless to say I gained weighted after I gave birth. I didn’t recognize how bad I felt but in hindsight I was having a brief visit to crazy town.
- You will cry for no reason for a few months. Don’t be afraid to tell someone. Take the medication if offered.
- Drink lots of water, eat healthy food, and sleep whenever you get a chance.
- If someone offers to help use them. Dinners, Laundry, Cleaning, Walking the dog, ect
- Try to get out every day. Take a walk and get some fresh air.
- Buy yourself some post-partum cloths. Yes, its depressing to be shopping for big girls cloths that aren’t maternity but you will feel better being out of maternity cloths and your husband will appreciate you not raiding his closet. I have a story about this but will share later.
Birth and Hospital Guide
- Yes, get the epidural. It took several tries to get the epidural in correctly but once it was in it was a great relief. My husband said after the epidural it was like a really nice “date” for the two of us. We took a nap, talked and watch some TV together. Maybe the best quality time we’ve had together since the birth of our first child. Be warned you will have to get a catheter to prevent you from peeing all over yourself. Also, getting an epidural doesn’t mean you will be pain-free. It only helps dull the pain.
- Pushing. When its time to push pretend like you are taking an enormous poop. Sounds gross but that is essentially what you need to do AND most likely in addition to giving birth to a beautiful baby you may also give birth to a small poopy. Birth isn’t exactly as beautiful as everyone claims.
- There are several things that will go on after the baby comes out. While the baby is getting cleaned up and measured you will be giving birth to placenta and your doctor will be stitching you up. This is probably a good segment to talk about a few things you can do to help with the impending damage that will occur to your vajayjay.
- Kegle exercises. These are important before and after you have the baby.
- Perineum massage. You can do this starting 6 weeks before baby is due and can also request that the doctor administer during birth. Essentially the doctor will massage the vaginal opening while you are pushing to help relax the muscle and help the skin stretch naturally. I did this with both kids and had very little damage with the first and no stitches for the second.
- To tear or an episiotomy neither choice is appealing. I always talked with my doctors prior to birth to let them know my preference in regards to how I would like my vaginal birth to go. My feelings are that I would rather tear naturally than to have a doctor prematurely cut me but this is something that everyone has an opinion on so I would suggest doing some research, talk it over with your doctor and decide before you go to the hospital what you’d like to do.
- Keep on ice pack on your vajayjay for the first 24 hours after birth.
- If needed ask for some sort of numbing spray for your vajayjay region. Yes, it exists.
- Use a bottle of warm water to spray on your vajayjay when you are using the toilet. These make things a little less painful and it helps reduce the risk of infection.
- Allow the nursing staff to take the baby to allow you to rest. YOU NEED YOUR REST.
- Take the pain killers offered
- Take the laxatives offered
- Use the lactation specialist. They are very helpful!
- The hospital will probably put you in a nursing gown. If possible, snag it for use at home. It is ugly BUT it does the job.
- You will bleed heavily for almost 2 weeks. Plan accordingly.
- Ask the nursing staff to show you how to use the bulb syringe “booger sucker outer”. The baby will be congested for the first few days and this is helpful.
- If you plan to do a circumcision on baby ask to do this before you go home.