I would never ever claim to be an expert on babies. Yes, I have some experience, but I make so many mistakes that I could never pretend to know more than the next person. That being said, I do have two small tips that I believe are worth sharing with the world. Who knows, maybe these little nuggets of (what I deem to be) wisdom will help another baby momma struggling to answer two of life's important questions.
1. How the heck do you clip a baby's fingernails without catching their little skin?
2. How the heck do you get a baby to sleep through the night?
It took me 6 babies to finally figure out how to clip fingernails without clipping tender skin too. (I'm a very slow learner, people.) When little Zo (now 7) was born, I tried to clip her amazingly long nails and ended up clipping her skin too. Made me feel absolutely terrible. I'll never forget that experience. Luckily, she has long since forgiven me. However, it made me very queasy about trying again. This lead to many scratched faces until I tried something new with baby #6. (Lucky boy!)
What I do now is instead of positioning the clippers parallel to the baby's nail, I position the clippers perpendicular to the nail. I make one vertical clip in the center of each nail. Then, I peel away both sides of the nail with my fingers. This prevents me from catching any skin and makes the whole procedure much less scary for me and less painful for baby.
Sleeping through the night....every newborn parent's dream. Yes, I think that it is possible before the child is 6 months old. In fact, I developed a theory that I tested on two of my babies with wonderful results. Keep in mind, however, that my babies are freakishly large (the smallest was 7 lbs 8 oz) and quite healthy. I don't have any doctor's orders telling me to feed my child ever 2 hours and I've never dealt with a preemie.
My theory is that a baby needs a certain number of calories in a day. The baby's body internally regulates this need. Meaning, once a baby reaches its proscribed calories for the day, he no longer feels the desire to eat. So what I do is I try to feed the baby as much as possible during the day. I don't let him nap for longer than 2-3 hours without waking him to eat. Anytime he fusses, I feed him. During the day, I'm an on-demand nurser. Sometimes, when the baby is very new, I'm feeding hourly. (Somewhat exhausting, but worth it when I get a good night's sleep!) When nighttime rolls around, I feed him one last time, then I let him sleep as long as he desires. Using this method, Q slept through the night at 3 months and Wy slept through the night at 2 months. (From 7 PM to 6 AM is my definition of "sleeping through the night.") They could be anomalies, but two in a row gives me some confidence in my theory.
Again, I'd like to reiterate that I'm not an expert, but I thought that perhaps some sleepy scared-to-clip mother might get something out of this post.
If these tips do help, it would mean a lot of me if you let me know. (Plus, it would give my set-calorie-theory more credibility.)
Happy Clipping and Snoozing!
xoxo
Bethany
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| A picture of me taken in 1976 |
1. How the heck do you clip a baby's fingernails without catching their little skin?
2. How the heck do you get a baby to sleep through the night?
It took me 6 babies to finally figure out how to clip fingernails without clipping tender skin too. (I'm a very slow learner, people.) When little Zo (now 7) was born, I tried to clip her amazingly long nails and ended up clipping her skin too. Made me feel absolutely terrible. I'll never forget that experience. Luckily, she has long since forgiven me. However, it made me very queasy about trying again. This lead to many scratched faces until I tried something new with baby #6. (Lucky boy!)
What I do now is instead of positioning the clippers parallel to the baby's nail, I position the clippers perpendicular to the nail. I make one vertical clip in the center of each nail. Then, I peel away both sides of the nail with my fingers. This prevents me from catching any skin and makes the whole procedure much less scary for me and less painful for baby.
Sleeping through the night....every newborn parent's dream. Yes, I think that it is possible before the child is 6 months old. In fact, I developed a theory that I tested on two of my babies with wonderful results. Keep in mind, however, that my babies are freakishly large (the smallest was 7 lbs 8 oz) and quite healthy. I don't have any doctor's orders telling me to feed my child ever 2 hours and I've never dealt with a preemie.
My theory is that a baby needs a certain number of calories in a day. The baby's body internally regulates this need. Meaning, once a baby reaches its proscribed calories for the day, he no longer feels the desire to eat. So what I do is I try to feed the baby as much as possible during the day. I don't let him nap for longer than 2-3 hours without waking him to eat. Anytime he fusses, I feed him. During the day, I'm an on-demand nurser. Sometimes, when the baby is very new, I'm feeding hourly. (Somewhat exhausting, but worth it when I get a good night's sleep!) When nighttime rolls around, I feed him one last time, then I let him sleep as long as he desires. Using this method, Q slept through the night at 3 months and Wy slept through the night at 2 months. (From 7 PM to 6 AM is my definition of "sleeping through the night.") They could be anomalies, but two in a row gives me some confidence in my theory.
Again, I'd like to reiterate that I'm not an expert, but I thought that perhaps some sleepy scared-to-clip mother might get something out of this post.
If these tips do help, it would mean a lot of me if you let me know. (Plus, it would give my set-calorie-theory more credibility.)
Happy Clipping and Snoozing!
xoxo
Bethany
4 comments:
I would concur with your eating theory. My oldest (who is now 13...gulp) , was starving because I couldn't produce enough milk...nursing every 45 min for 45 mins each side. As soon as we supplemented with formula, he started sleeping through the night. I had 2 more similar experiences except we didn't wait 6 weeks to figure it out.
I have never had a problem with cutting the kids nails...but Adam was 8lbs 6oz when he was born and HUNGRY all the time... I finally got the hint and started feeding him more at bedtime! lol! :):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):)
Great tip with the nails! I *always* make Jeff cut the kids' (and babies') nails because I am terrified of hurting them. :)
Most of my babies haven't had trouble sleeping through the night but they were large and the last 3 were on formula. Plus, for my sanity, I only feed on demand for the first 2-3 months and after that I get them on a schedule.
Love the ideas even though we're past that stage now! :)
I wish the sleeping issue worked for me. I was an on demand nurser, stuffing those babies all day, every moment. Nope, all woke up all night long until nearly 2 years old. All really large babies. bummer for me. Maybe it is why I still fall into depressions. I. Am. Tired.
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