Dealing With Baby Colic

A great deal was written about baby colic in the past 100 years. Every baby parenting book or website has a section about colic. But every new mother will still go through this period in her own way. I am hearing a lot from mothers that colic was the hardest part of the first year. I was so petrified to face colic from my son that when it actually came I was a bit surprised that when it was all over I just said "And that was all?"
So, if you don't want to be stressed over colic comprehend this:

What is Baby Colic? Ok colic really has nothing to do with baby tummy. Somebody 100 years ago thought so and named this phenomenon this way. But actually, colic is not physical, but emotional state. It is a state when baby cry for no apparent reason. I knew this when noticed that my baby boy - and yes, apparently boys have heavier colics than girls - was having colic outside of food pattern. Colic always starts at the same time of the day, usually in the evening. In our case it started at around 8 pm. Colic usually lasts upto 4 hours. In our case it was always over by 11 pm. But get this, our boy didn't always ate at 7 or 7:30, his eating schedule varied in the first 3 months. He would start crying at 8 and keep crying till 11.

Why Baby Colic Happens? I think it happens because babies become more aware of outside surroundings and more aware of when is day and when is night. They start developing a routine before long sleep. My mother instinct says that they also need to develop their lungs and yell for a bit. Remember they don't yet talk or do anything physical, they need a way of exercising their vocals and breathing. You will notice that your baby does not actually cry (with tears), your baby actually just yells. He does not turn purple (when there is pain they often do) and the facial features don't contract in the same way as when they are in pain. But often after this exercise they are sweaty.

How to Deal with Colic? Once you realize that there is no pain involved, just really a bad mood or need to exercise  you will automatically have easier time dealing with it. No need to start giving your child medicine or try to feed him if he just ate. No need to give him any gripe water or massage his tummy going crazy. What you can do is just be there with your baby and near your baby to help him realize that you are helping him. If you can't take it any longer you can leave the room as long as it's not dark. I was literally doing my things near him while he was yelling. A wonder happened when we got him an automatic swing. His yelling time was cut in a half and he fell asleep faster. When we got a swing, he was already 6 weeks old, so that could have coincided with the colic going away naturally. But if you plan to get a swing, get it earlier than later, you will get a good use of it from first days.

Baby Delivery Positions. Comprehensive List.

Since young age when watching how women deliver babies in Hollywood movies I always wondered why they are always lying down on the bed. When I got pregnant luckily there was plenty of information available to explore all options. And here what they are:

- Standing. I talked to a few women who delivered a baby while standing and leaning over a bed. In this position baby weight will gravitate down and speed delivery process. It is however one of the challenging positions physically because you need to stand thought out entire pushing stage. Pushing can take anywhere from 5 minutes to 3-4 hours. I did meet one woman who said she pushed for 3 hours and was standing the entire time. There are few videos on YouTube demonstrating the experience. Most famous video is from "Business of Being Born" film. Disadvantage is that you can't have an epidural with this position because epidural will completely paralyze or at minimum waken your legs.

- On knees while facing a back of the bed. Most of delivery beds nowadays incline and transform into a high back chair. If you like standing position but are concerned with ability to handle it for a long time, consider kneeling. You would be able to sit down between pushing and take short rests. Similar to standing, the main advantage of this position is that baby will gravitate down speeding up the delivery process. Mobile (partial) epidural would be an option for this position.

- Sitting up while holding the rope. In some countries (ex. Germany) birthing suites have a rope connected to the ceiling above the bed. Delivering woman would sit up or squat and hold the rope for better balance. Holding onto a rope would also help managing pain. Since you will be in upright position, baby will also gravitate down and hopefully will speed up the grand entry. Full epidural should be no problem for this position, given that someone will be at your back supporting you.

- Squatting. This was a position that I delivered my baby in. When you squat your pelvis opens up by 30% to accommodate your weight and balance your body in the air. If you have a big baby and or small pelvis this is recommended position. Not only you will allow for more room for the baby you will also take advantage of gravity phenomenon to help baby make smooth entry to the world. In addition you may have easier time pushing as when you squat pelvic floor muscles naturally activate as squatting has historically been pooping position for humans. If you can't push for some reason, try squatting to at least activate pelvic floor muscles. I had mobile epidural and had no problem squatting. I was able to lean back onto the bed and take short rests between pushing. In hospital where I gave birth, North York General in Toronto, the bed had a squatting bar, so I didn't need anyone to help me. Once contraction came, I just reached over to a bar to lift myself off the bed to a squatting position. Otherwise your husband or a nurse should be able to help you if bar is not available. Disadvantage of this position is that full epidural would not be an option as you need good control over your legs. Also, your baby may come out fast which may result in more tearing. Squatting is the most popular baby delivery position among African tribes. I chose this position because I wanted to avoid instruments at all costs and thought that baby will have easier time to come out. I pushed for 20 minutes what appeared effortlessly. I didn't even sweat.

- All Fours. This is one of the best positions to give birth from what I read if you want to avoid tearing. When you are on all fours (like a cat standing on your arms and knees), baby weight pushes in opposite direction from Perineum. This creates less strain on Perineum where most of tears occur. In fact from what I read many women who delivered in this position didn't have any tearing at all! This position is an option when you have full epidural. You can lean over the wall, or have someone hold you. This position was also reported as one of the most comfortable for women who had no pain drugs, aka non-medicated birth.

- Lying on the Side. This is not very common position for delivery but happens depending on circumstances. Full epidural is no problem for this position given that someone will hold you leg in the air. This position was found comfortable for some women who had unmanageable pain. Rolling onto a side can help managing pain as your may release some of the muscles and compressed veins. Also, if you have a very fast delivery, lying on the side can slow things down a bit to help avoid or minimize tearing.

- In the Bathtub. In bathtub you can take several positions while pushing and thus find the most comfortable one for you. There is no concern of you tripping or falling over and there is no concern of baby slipping off anyones hands. Of course epidural would not be an option for bathtub, but bathtub is chosen by women who want to have home birth anyways. There are lots of YouTube movies demonstrating bathtub birth and they all look quite serene.

- Lying on Your Back. Most of women in North America deliver in this position. Reportedly this position is prefered by doctors. Most of delivery beds incline a bit so woman can grab her own knees while pushing, but her back will be more or less horizontal. Doctor will be sitting on a chair with full control over the situation. This is also one of the most common positions for women who have an epidural. It is considered the safest position with epidural and would be recommended for that reason. For many women who had no epidural and can't manage pain well, lying was also a preferred position as more muscles are relaxed causing less strain on abdominal and transverse muscles. This is the least natural position however for the baby.

How Much Milk a 3 Month Should Eat in a Day

Right now my son is 3.5 months old. Up until last few weeks he has been eating my breast milk exclusively. He was gaining weight and grew long - all according to the textbook. But suddenly, at exactly 3 months I started noticing that he wanted to eat more frequently - every 2, 1.5 hours instead of usual 3. He was getting more nervous and just looking unhappy soon after meals. I didn't think twice and offered my baby a formula substitute after each breastfeeding session. And what a difference! He was happy right a way and ever since even sleeps 8-9 hours at night.
I don't have any less milk than before and went through every single suggestion trying to increase milk supply. I tried:
- pumping after each feeding session and in between
- fenugreek pills
- domperidone pills
- nursing tea
- drinking more water

Nothing helped me. My milk supply remained the same. If I waited for 3 hours I would get 3-4 oz of milk depending on what time of day it is. During evening I got less milk and in the morning I had the most. But as it turned out, my boy needs at least 7 oz per feeding.

I went to forums and asked other moms of 3 month old how much he eats. It turned out that my boy was not even the hungriest one. While on average 3 months old boy would eat 6 oz, it was not unusual to see some babies eating 8-9 oz.

According to doctor recommendation baby should eat amount of milk according to this mathematical calculation: Baby weight, pounds x 2.5 = oz per day.
So for example, your baby is 10 pounds, he should eat at least 25 oz a day. My boy is now 12 pounds and he wants to eat 7 oz x 6 times a day = 42 oz, which is 12 oz more than recommended. Ends up calculation is a myth!

I was reluctant to feed him formula and was turning into what some people would call "breastfeeding nazi" starving my boy for the sake of organic food. Eventually common sense took over. We are not in a third world - baby does not need to suffer from hunger. If you have lots of milk, consider yourself lucky. Not only you will save $300 - this is what I spend on 3 months supply of formula until my boy will start eating solids. You will also feed your baby fully organic, fresh meal. But I had no choice.

Myth Debunked. Heidi Klum Did Not Lose Post pregnancy Weight in 3 Weeks

Lately the topic of celebrities losing post-pregnancy weight became so popular that a week does not go by without Yahoo and such posting pictures of various celebrities and models with their before and after pictures. To date I have not seen one article being specific about how much each celebrity actually weighted before pregnancy, after pregnancy and when exactly they got back to their initial weight. Just today there is another artcile popped out on Yahoo that is actually called "New Celeb Mom Bodies Normal and Not"

All of this creates very negative effect on young moms - like me, who just had a baby and last thing they want to worry is beating some celebrity record. When I read comments to such articles I feel very sorry for such moms because I know - we very very much worry about our bodies and about the fact that it takes time to regain at least some of the prior glory.

Not even one article goes by without mentioning Heidi Klum losing all her baby weight in a week. Ok, here is when I decided to do some research to debunk this myth. It didn't take long. Let's just get facts straight: It took Heidi 2 months - 8 weeks to look perfect again. Just watch this video:

Topic first raised during Oprah show. In the end of this video Oprah mentions that it was 2 months after giving birth when Heidi Klum modeled for Victoria's Secret runway show. 2 months is 8 weeks. Not 1 or 2 or 3. It was 8 weeks. No questions she looked gorgeous. Absolutely stunning! But there is no information that she lost all her weight. She never said that she lost all the weight. Media made it up.

But the show was put together by professionals. Heidi opened the show, she came out first. She was alone on the stage with huge wings behind her back. Wings created an optical illusion making her look tinier than she actually was.

If you look at this photo (sorry for the quality, couldn't find a better one), you will see Heidi Klum as compared to Karolina Kurkova show appeared next. Karolina was two times thinner than Heidi. Given that Heidi is a model it is safe to assume that she was of a similar size to Kurkova before getting pregnant.

On this photo you can see Heidi's tummy was very flat, arms and legs skinny. But her hips were very wide. I bet she did not try to fit in her skinny jeans even 8 weeks after giving birth. I bet she didn't try to wear flexi belt over her hips to artificially collapse her pelvis to pre-birth size.

She took her time girlies. And so should you. She ate little and exercised a lot - something she admitted to Oprah during the interview. Also, to make belly flat visually, if you don't eat for a day, yours will flatten too.

It's been exactly 3 months since I have given birth to my baby cutie little boy. My hips still have 2 inches to lose. I still have 7 kg ( about 15 pounds), half of my pregnancy weight to lose. Other than playing tennis twice a week I did not do any exercise. I eat one extra meal (lunch) a day than before pregnancy to keep my milk supply. Before I skipped lunch all together. Do I worry about going back to normal? Hell yes. But I don't have a doubt that with enough time, correct diet and exercise I will be back to pre-pregnancy. Heidi Klum is for sure my idol in this topic because she did it 4 times, but she didn't do it in 3 weeks.

Mobile Epidural. My Experience

When I was pregnant I explored both non medicated and medicated delivery methods. There was no question whether I want vaginal or c-section because in Canada this is not a choice in many cases. C-sections are only allowed when there is medical reason to do so.

But there is a choice whether you want to have medications to deal with pain or not. I watched the movie "The Business of Being Born" and talked to many people who delivered in hospital with epidural, in hospital without epidural and people who delivered at home with midwife. I meet with many people during the day for my job and picking up a conversation about baby delivery was easy. I talked to over 400 women hearing all their stories. Out of probably 400 people I talked to no one ever said that they did not like an epidural. In fact many said that it was the most wonderful thing ever happened to them during birth and they could really enjoy birth of their baby in a completely pain free environment.

But my problem was that I wanted to deliver in squatting position and with classical epidural you can't move your body and only delivery position available to you is lying down. Then I read online about mobile epidural and asked my doctor about it.

My doctor was very supportive about the idea and said that I have to request it at the hospital. If I just ask for epidural anesthesiologist will assume I want the full force epidural and that is what I will get. I have to be very specific about the fact that I want mobile version of epidural. In fact I would be lucky if doctor dealing with me will know about it. Apparently not all anesthesiologists like to administer this type. So this is what I did. Once I entered the hospital in labor (in my case it was rather close to delivery after 36 hours of labor) first thing I did I asked for mobile epidural. To my surprise a nurse had no idea what I meant. I said that my doctor mentioned it and that I have to ask anesthesiologist for it specifically. It got to a point when nurse had to call my doctor and ask her what I meant. My doctor clarified something on the phone and while she was on the way to a hospital anesthesiologist came. He knew what I meant! Yey! He said that it is such epidural type that will not paralyze me completely. I may feel some pain but it will be more bearable. He said that I could potentially get out of bed and walk, but of course, it is not recommended.

He was very skillful and I didn't even feel a needle in my spine. About 5 minutes after he did it I felt no pain at all. I felt that I was in heaven. But surprisingly I could lift my legs and lift myself up in a sitting position. When my doctor came for a delivery she asked for a squatting bar to be installed on my bed. It is a bar that goes in front of you, so you can put your hands on it and lift yourself forward and up.

Also because the drug is not as strong as with standard epidural I did not feel cold afterwards. Some people are describing that they have very strong shivers for a few minutes after they got a needle. No such a thing in my case.

When I was pushing I could feel pressure in my butt - this was a contraction. When contraction came I lifted myself up and pushed. Once contraction stopped I laid back in bed waiting for the next one. No pain whatsoever! I felt strength in my legs to be able to squat for a few minutes at a time, and if needed I felt like I could handle good 10 minutes in such position at a time. I pushed for about 30 minutes very slowly to avoid tearing. When my baby came out, I could not believe it was over because I had so much strength in me that I could easily go for another hour.

I highly recommend mobile epidural. Not only it will free you from pain, it will also avoid common complications with standard epidural when woman is so sedated that can't she feel her muscles to push. If you can't push doc will have to use tools - something to avoid at all costs. Girls go for mobile epidural!

Breast Milk Pumping Shocks and Myths

When I first tried pumping I was shocked how painful it was. I was just wondering how anyone can do it. But it ended that it was all matter of skill and experience. Buying a pump was another shocker as reviews on Toys R Us website proven to me being wrong.

So here is what I learned over time:

Manual Pump is Faster

Manual breast pump is two times faster than electrical one. This is because electrical works according to preset speed and manual you can pump as fast as you want. If you care for speed, go for manual. Your hand may be a bit tired first few times, but trust me after a few such exercises you won't even feel you worked.

Expensive Pump Does Not Mean Better

You go to the store and see Medela electric pump set selling for $400 and wonder what exactly it can do to you for that much money? Right on the same shelf you see First Years Breastflow for $50. First Years worked for me just fine. I liked how simple the inside mechanism was and milk did not get wasted in cracks and being trapped between many parts. I have Phillips Avent manual pump which costed the same as First Years electric and it was no better at all. In fact it hurt as hell first few times until I figured to press on the handle only half way through. Milk came out fine but because the suction was not as strong it didn't hurt. Read manuals carefully - they explain ways of dealing with pain. But interestingly cheap First Years did not cause any pain. It has a wider opening around the nipple and suction is very gentle.
Other problems with expensive Avent pump were:

- Bottle part fell off during pumping. The way they designed the screwing mechanism for holding the bottle just wasn't good enough to hold it in the air. While I pumped for 10-15 minutes the bottle would quietly unscrew and fall. Imagine all the frustration over spitting all the milk!

- Pump falls toward when placed on the table. This is another serious design defect with this pump. If you put it on the table the whole thing will fall towards because the pumping part is heavier than the bottle underneath it. Basically you can't leave the pump standing, you have to separate the bottle right away. Not convenient. Very often you are not in position to just run towards the fridge. Or you may want to keep pumping later - you can't with Avent.

I Keep Pumping and Milk is Not Coming

This was another shocker in the beginning. I didn't know that you need to pump for a few minutes in vain until milk starts coming. It makes sense - otherwise your breasts would be leaking if you are not pumping. So be patient. Also once milk stopped coming it does not mean that's all. There is normally a second let down. Again keep pumping and you will see after a few suctions a second portion will appear.

There is Less Milk in the Evening

It is true there is less milk in the evening and your baby may ask to eat more frequently towards late afternoon. But milk is more concentrated. It makes sense as more concentrated milk will keep babies going for longer without flushing into a diaper to make them sleep comfortably at night.

You Can't Mix Milk From Different Pump Sessions

Whoever said this is wrong. I mix milk all the time. As I pump during the day I will be adding new milk to the one in the fridge. Towards end of day I will have one full bottle. It is unimaginable to have 4 bottles 1 oz each. One tip - make sure to shake the bottle after you added newly pumped milk. It will blend with cold one making it more uniform. My baby never complained.

Back Pain Cure During Pregnancy

Many women complain about back pain during early months of their pregnancy. Even though I was very active before getting pregnant and quite well stretched, back pain did not omit me. At about 6 weeks into pregnancy I started to develop very nasty pulling feelings in the lower back. It got to the point that I could not lift myself up from bed upfront - had to roll over. I found the way to make the pain go away withing minutes.

This was the time when I purchased book by Julie Tupler about pregnancy fitness. Book is quite interesting as it opens your eyes in diastasis recti - belly muscle separation. Julie Tupler is worlds most famous expert on how to deal with the condition post-partum. But there was one excersize in this book that particularly helped me with the back pain. Julie Tupler calls it Belly Dancing.
Here it is:
Stand on your feet, knees slightly bent.
Lean forward and put your arms on the knees to support your painful back.
Move pelvis forward.
Hold for 10 seconds or so.
Move your pelvis back to original position.
Repeat.

The lower back pain is caused by stretching the Tranversus abdominals muscle to accommodate growing belly. Since the muscle wraps around your sides from belly to the spine it pulls from the back and you feel pain.

What this exercise does to you is stretching the transversus muscle even more - in advance so to speak, and pain disappears.
For me the pain was gone that very same evening I tried the exercise. Whenever the pain was reappearing I just stood up, did the few belly dances and pain retracted for good.

What was your back pain pregnancy experience?