I once had a friend that said, "Babies kinda put themselves on a schedule."
I have also heard, "All babies ever do is eat, sleep and poop."
I had to have 5 babies to finally get one baby that makes the above statements true.
This is what my first 4 babies were like...
Baby number one, she would not sleep unless she was on my or Pa's chest, listening to our heart beat.
She didn't want anything to do with breast milk.
She was constipated. She would go for a week and a half to 2 weeks before having a bowel movement.
She would not go to sleep at night, she was one that would not go to sleep any earlier than 11:00 pm.
But she sure did melt our hearts.
I once had a friend that said, "Don't worry about nursing when you have a boy, boys love boobs."
Our second baby,
When he was born the room filled with a spirit of humility.
He was so chunky.
We were able to put him down a little when sleeping.
But while awake he had to be in our arms.
Emma had to grow up quickly, we couldn't hold her as much anymore.
David would not sleep at night away from us.
He also had problems pooping. It was about every week to two weeks.
He could nurse, he loved it so much that I became his pacifier. He was so cute, from the time he was just little he would latch on and his eyes would start rolling up and you could see that he was in heaven with good milk! He is the same today at age 7, you can always tell what foods he likes.
Every time we would have a baby our goal would be, keep the baby in their own bed!
Baby number three...
She didn't like to be put down.
She had the same poop problem as the other two, the doctor once said, "we are at def con 4 right now."
It took some work to get her to nurse but she figured it out.
I wish I had some good advice that I could have tried with this one.
Here is some advice from me, from what I have learned from baby number four.
"If you are going to wait to have a baby for more than 2 years, then be sure that you are very firm with the last baby. Don't get lazy, make sure they listen, enforce what you say. Don't look at them like they are the baby and they don't understand. They understand! Be sure to get that kid out of your bed by the time they are 2 and no later."
This baby number four, came into our lives knowing what he wanted.
He was tongue tied, he could nurse only at the expense of his poor mama who would be in tears or close to tears when he would latch on.
He had issues pooping and like the others we gave him karo syrup water, and suppositories.
Like I said he knew what he wanted and he wanted to be close to us. But by this point we just figured that is what babies do.
He broke his collar bone when he was born so he liked sleeping away from us, until he healed then he would sleep with us as he does now at age 3 1/2.
I learned how to hold him with one arm and do everything else with the other. I probably learned this way before him though. I just came to learn that that is how it is when one has a baby. I think he was two and a half when our bishop said, "It sure is nice to see him walking on his own." Guess it's hard for me to let them grow up. Lesson learned!!
My mother once told me, "let the older children try out the babies stuff, let them be a part of the baby so they will like him."
Very wise advice. I have only had a couple of times where the kids tell me anything that might suggest that they don't like the baby anymore.
Abby once said, "Mom, you don't care about us anymore. You only care about the baby. Why don't you do anything with us?" We sat and read books together right after that.
Jacob said yesterday, "Mom, I don't like that baby anymore. Will you come play cars with me?"
I think it was David that said, "It is good when the baby sleeps, then you have time for us."
Emma really hasn't said much.
Ya know, it's the little things that really matter.
Baby number five...
He poops... it may not be a lot but it is once every other day to every third day.
He nurses... he latched on faster than any of my others. The only time that he really struggled was after I gave him 2 ounces of formula in the hospital, but once he figured it out again he was great!
I can put him down while he is awake... he is so content, I can walk away and take a shower. What freedom this gives me! Of course all of his needs must be met first.
He sleeps... during the day he will sleep for 3 to 4 hours at a time. And I don't have to hold him.
He will sleep on his back or tummy. He sleeps at night. He likes to go to bed around 8:30 or 9:00. He wakes up during the night but he goes right back to sleep. He can sleep in his crib, he can also nurse while I am sleeping.
I worry about saying all of this, my recent change of luck may change back. That would be soooo sad.
The only hardship right now with him is that it appears and it feels like his tongue is tied. I hope to get that fixed soon. Other than that I feel like I have a perfect baby. I just can't say that too loud.
