The first month of life: necessary things

Here is a list of things that were useful to me in the first month.


Clothes

· Bodies. Very comfortable things they are. We have bought bodies with snaps. By the way, snaps are much more comfortable, than buttons, particularly those ones with backlash so that there are no fasteners on a tummy and on a back.

· Overalls with snaps on the shoulders and on the bottom. It is very comfortable to change pampers: we unsnap it on the bottom, wash the baby and then quickly clasp. The child has no even time to become too cold. In the first weeks of life while thermoregulation is not adjusted yet overcooling is dangerous.

· Baby's undershirts on fasteners. We dressed them on the body, when the baby was not in diapers.

· Crowlers

· Socks

· Diapers. First time it is better to swaddle the kiddy – he (she) is more at his (her) ease and more warm. Some time later the kid will show you by itself that it wants more freedom and you’ll start getting on clothes on it. By the way, when it’s warm you can use baby's undershirts without fasteners for swaddling. We had 5 thin and five flannel diapers from beginning, then mum bought in addition some more and they were not out of place.

· A bath towel, a cap, a woolen scarf - to turn the baby for a walk.

Stuff

· A little bath and a bath-rack.

· Bathing set - a warm towel for wiping a baby dry after bathing is the most comfortable thing.

· Sleeping bag - I used it only once when having a walk with the daughter and then convert it into a covering on a swaddling table.

· Baby carriage. In the winter it’s not comfortable to walk in sling. Sling presupposes a free position for the child, and a baby packed in diapers is not in free position by definition.

· Sling. It’s very comfortable to use it inside. It is even possible to do

housekeeping with a baby in sling.

· Overlays for gathering milk. First time when a hyperlactation is they just rescue us inserted into a brassiere. By the way, at that time a brassiere for breast- feeding is of much service.

· Linings for a breast. They are helpful when milk flows out.

· Small bottles. I collect decanted milk in them and freeze it.

· A dummy. I’ve already written about it.

Pampers, disposable diapers, a children's cream, powder, Blackstonia

and hydrogen peroxide will also be at use.

It seems that I’ve forgotten nothing.





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Lactation and the size of breast

As a matter of fact breast-feeding is very pleasant and natural. But there are some moments that it is important to know to avoid problems.


I know from my own experience, that it is necessary to listen to those around you less and to pay more attention to your own feelings. What has occurred?

I have read a lot of articles and realized that it is necessarily for the baby to receive both forepart and back-part milk; therefore a breast should be sucked dry. Even if the baby does not suck a breast "up to the end" it is necessary to give it once again for following feeding. Has begun I to do so (I’ve got a lot of milk)… and it has turned out, that I gave the right breast much more often the left one.

All in all one morning I wake up and saw in the mirror, that my right breast was of the fourth size and the left – of the second size and there was practically no milk in it. The sight was much far from pleasant!

My way of solving a problem

The end of this story was happy, otherwise I would not write . My breasts are already equal. To make them identical, I had to give the left breast more often than the right one, and draw off the left breast even after having nursed the baby from the right. Everything has settled into shape for two days. The main thing is - to watch that there was no stagnation of milk in the breast, from which you nurse less,

Now I pay much attention to alternation with breasts.

Such sort of warning for everybody.





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Slingomammas

Small comment of slings.

During pregnancy I have been precisely assured, that I would carry my kidling only in sling. The first month I did, and then it became very heavy to me. Having searched at forums, I decided, that it would be easier with ERGO baby Carrier, than with sling, and started searching for it. And so, after having contacts on different forums I have drawn very interesting conclusions


Well, first of all I was somehow confused with too much cocky tone of slingo mammas at the general forums. I even nearly extended the discontent to all slingomammas.

Then by chance I have come across association of slingomammas on LJ and I liked it. I read the posts, all the occupants seemed to me very amicable, none of them picked a fight and atmosphere was pleasant.

By and large slingomammas - these are mums that just as all other mums love their kids. With only one difference - they carry them in sling. And often suffer from those around them response.

I myself have noticed, that when I was walking with sling, I was stared at by all around just as at “the public enemy” and as soon as I started walking with a carriage – nobody paid attention to me, people took me in as a "sane" mum.

All in all, I’m going to get ERGO baby Carrier or some of the kind soon, and become again slingomamma!







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Breastfeeding: the abstract

Putting on weight

There are norms of rising of weight for children on artificial feeding. Children who are fed exclusively at the breast and on demand type put on weight individually, from 200 to 500 grammes a week. These are norms the CART. In this case it is necessary to support on personal sensations of mum, indices of baby’s maturity and its general condition.

Quantity of milk

If to feed the child on demand, milk should be enough. It is exactly so much milk, how much it is necessary for the child.

Quality of milk

Concerning the content of fat in milk and the presence of nutrients in him: in its structure maternal milk is ideal for the child. Anything else till 6 months it is not necessary to the child. Milk cannot be innutritious, "low-fat" even if mum starves. The female organism is arranged in such a way, that the child will receive substances necessary for it in any variant unless it is not fed “on hours” - usually at such ‘punctual’ scheme by three months milk vanishes and a mix has to be entered.

Fat content of milk

There is forpart and backpart milk: the forpart one is just like water, the backpart is dense and fat. If the breastfeeding is organized correctly the child would receive both kinds of milk.

There are recommendations, norms and standards of the CART, and they are checked up personally in practice.






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To swaddle or not to swaddle a baby?

I consider it essential to swaddle a baby up to a certain age. And here are my arguments.

Why is it necessary to swaddle?

In a tummy baby was in an uterus - it was in a free pose but compressed enough by a bubble. Besides, it was in the warm. From this, in my opinion, follows, that after a birth for smoother accustoming to new environment for the small person, it should be swaddled - so it will be in the warm, and it will be compressed.

But there is a nuance, and it consists in a free pose - arms are folded on its chest, feet are free.

My experience

I swaddled my daughter in the first and second months of her life, and I continue to do it now from time to time, but now I see, that necessity for it is becoming less. Now I do it more like for convenience and warmth. I undress my baby’s bottom for doing her little business, and it demands possibility of fast undressing. For example, to take off thin crawlers and two diapers from the baby is much faster, than to take off knitted trousers. The difference in behavior of the swaddled child and the child dressed free is evident. In the first case the baby is cheerful and quiet in the second - it is excited and cannot fall asleep.

Somebody or others’ babies lay quietly without diapers. My personal experience has shown the opposite. Moreover - there is the essential moment: for all that there is an experience of generations. Babies were always swaddled in diapers, but not dressed in crawlers . Probably there were certain reasons for this.

How do you think?

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Pregnancy calendar - the first month

In the first month of pregnancy 80% of women do not know if it is pregnancy for sure yet. After all one thing is to plan, another – to know precisely.

The first month of pregnancy - symptoms
There are certain symptoms of pregnancy which can appear already on the first month. It may be feeling of weight in stomach, and many other things. There may be no symptoms at all – everything is individual for each woman. Therefore it is possible to determine pregnancy precisely only having made pregnancy test.

The first month of a life
In the first month of a life the child is strictly speaking not the child yet, it is an embryo. The cell from which the future child will grow is sharing and growing. Then it ties to the mother. This process is called implantation. After that, the embryo starts to grow and develop actively, the placenta starts to grow, there is an attachment to it by means of an umbilical cord.

The first month of pregnancy - sex
Sex in the first month of pregnancy is not forbidden. The only thing that it is necessary to remember - the reasonable care. If you had abortions on early terms - refrain from sex in the first month. So you will save up a life to the child and nerves to yourselves. Besides, the organism of each woman knows very well what is possible and what is not – just listen to it. When sex is possible, there is a desire, and on the contrary. Listen to yourself.

The first month of pregnancy - food
It is necessary to refuse from sharp dishes, fried food, flour. Probably, you suffer from the toxicosis. If so, you perfectly know yourself, what food it is possible for you. For example I could not eat carrots. Naturally, it is necessary to refuse from alcohol. Though say, that on the first month alcohol is still possible, as the child yet does not receive a food from a parent organism, and grows at the expense of nutrients which have collected his cell. But I would not risk.

Weight increase - the first month
Increases in weight is strictly individual indicator. On the first month the increase can be caused by overeating or hormonal changes in an organism. The kid is still absolutely tiny and weighs almost nothing (few milligram’s), therefore it cannot cause neither an increase in weight, nor tummy increase.

Flu and cold- the first months of pregnancy
On the first month of pregnancy the rule «all or anything» operates. Therefore if you have caught flu or respiratory disease on the first month of pregnancy and have not lost the pregnancy, you can not worry about possible pathologies of future baby - if it has survived, everything will be alright with him.

Happy pregnancy!




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Weight increases during pregnancy

It’s an interesting and exciting question - how much extra weight it is normal to add during pregnancy?

The norm, in my opinion, - in general is a fragile thing which can not be given an accurate definition. The normal increase in weight during pregnancy is considered to be 10-15 kg. And there are even norms of weight increase by trimesters:

• in the first trimester – not more than 2 kilogram’s,
  
• in the second – not more than 6 kilogram’s
  
• in the third – not more than 7 kilogram’s.

This classification seems to me a little farfetched for these reasons: to speak about norms of an increase weight, it is necessary to define an initial norm of weight.
Here on this site there are some ways of definition of weight.

As far as I know, such understanding is standard:
Normal Weight = Height in cm - 100.

That is, if you are 165 cm in height, your normal weight it is considered 65. If to express it in sizes it turns out approximately 48-50. As for me, it is too much.

I am 167 height and I think optimum weight for me (that is at which I feel comfortably and me anything does not press me anywhere) is 52-54 kilogram’s, that approximately corresponds 42-44 clothing size. And at transition to 44th size I already start to feel fat, it is unpleasant to say shortly.

For this reason a question arises: is it possible to speak about an identical increase in weight during pregnancy for women of 42th and 50th the size?

Certainly, I cannot do active exercises and go on an a good diet on a week, that’s why I’m getting some extra weight. For my 34 weeks I’ve got extra 8.5 kilos. My doctor considers that it is too much. But I think it’s strictly individual.

Every woman is unique and you don’t have to correspond any norms.




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