I know I’ve probably said this before, but Isaac and Ian
have been like night and day in terms of their personalities and our parenting experiences
with them. Two major hurtles we’ve had
to overcome with Ian had to do with him pooping and sleeping lol. From the jump Isaac was on it when it came to
pooping regularly and we thought the same would apply to Ian, but you know what
happens when you assume. At the hospital
Ian was pooping out meconium (baby’s first poop which is black and sticky like
tar) regularly, like 2-3 times per day while there. We thought this would set the stage for his
waste cycle, well boy were we wrong!
When we got home for the first three months all was normal, he would
poop every day or every other day and there was no offensive odor or anything
like that, which is typical for breastfed babies. Then all of a sudden it’s like a switch flipped
because his dirty diapers started becoming less frequent, he would have, as I
like to call them, fart blossoms in his diaper (aka little “sharts” lol) and he would pass stinky gas. He would also grunt like he was trying to
push something out or twist around like he was having gas pains. Whenever he did this regularly we could expect
a dirty diaper within a day or two.
However, it started to worry me because the time in between started to
grow farther and farther apart. I did my
research and saw that other mommies were having similar experiences with their
exclusively breastfed babies and oddly enough around the 3 month mark.
I thought okay, I’m going to ride this out with my little
guy because he was still acting like the happy baby that he is, still feeding,
still gaining weight, still growing, still having wet diapers. It wasn’t until a week passed and then 10
days that I was like enough is enough and called his pediatrician. I was advised by the nurse to perform a
rectal stimulation on him to see if that would help. I was like huh, say what?? You want me to do what?? She told me to put a little Vaseline on the
tip of the rectal thermometer and to just stick metal tip in and make circular
motions for approximately 5 minutes. I was like omg I don’t know if I can do this
to my child, so of course I asked Jon if he could do it lol. I tried to play it off like yeah she told me
to have you do a rectal stimulation, so when you get home from work I’ll help
you. See, I tried to make it seem like
he didn’t have a choice and he had to do it lol. He was like, “She really told you to do
that? Wait, she said I have to do
this? Nah Love, I’ll let you handle
that. He needs his mommy for that.” I thought he would fall for it, but he knows
my tricks by now lol!
I had to mommy up and get this done for the sake of my son’s
bowels, but I was like dang, 5 minutes, what the heck?! What baby stays still for you to do this and
what if poop starts spraying out or something??
You best believe I had a bunch of wipes, towels, changing pads and
diapers on deck when I decided to start the process. The whole time I was
singing to him, making up crazy songs to distract him and myself from this
mess. After I did the deed I waited and
nothing happened. I gave it until the
next morning and called his pediatrician to take him in that day to get checked
out. It was day 11 of no poop. When I took him in they checked his tummy by
feeling it and listening to it and noted that everything was normal. He still had his happy demeanor and wasn’t
running a temperature or anything like that.
The nurse decided that she would do a rectal stimulation on him so I had
to go through seeing that done to my son yet again. The good thing is that it actually worked
this time! He went not even 2 minutes
after and I know he felt much better, and so did I! I was advised that if he still did not have
consistent bowel movements to try giving him 2 oz. of baby apple juice or pear
juice, max of 4 oz. a day to see if that would help.
I went home and after 4/5 days of not pooping I decided to
try the juice. I gave him pear juice after his
breastfeeding and nada, nothing happened.
I was beyond concerned at this point.
It was now day 7 and luckily he had a checkup with his pediatrician that
day. I told him that the juice had not
been working, so he suggested prune juice mixed with apple juice, 1 oz. of
each, max of 4 oz. total a day. But
first he wanted me to give him half of a glycerin suppository and then start
the juice, almost like a reset. I had to cut it in half and insert it in his
bum. All I kept thinking is why why,
poor baby, but I sucked it up and went into action. After inserting that suppository, I promise
after 1 minute he had a major poop explosion.
When I say major, I mean it got all the way up to his hair! I was thinking what kind of force did he use
to have the poo fly all the way up there?!
I know he felt much better because afterwards he gave me the sweetest smile
and giggle. Bath immediately followed
lol.
The next day I decided to start him on his prune and apple
juice regiment after breastfeeding and praise God it worked! He started pooping every other day and his
longest stretch of not going was 3 days.
Also, and I don’t know what it is, but every time this boy was in his car
seat he would go. We don’t know if it
was the vibrations of the car or what, but we would get nervous because without
fail it would be an explosion. And tell
me why it would happen every single Sunday right before church?? On the ride to church we would suddenly smell
buttered popcorn (that’s what it reminded me of lol) and knew what we had to
look forward to. After the 2nd
time we learned our lesson and made sure to bring a change of nice church
clothes for him and us and a whole container of wipes. I was cleaning him and changing him every
morning in our church parking lot while Jon would take Isaac to his Sunday
school class and then come back to assist me.
As a taller person at 5’10, bending over for at least 5-10 min in the
heat with heels on and my legs shaking uncontrollably from standing in a squat
position was beyond painful. Forget pure
barre that day! I remember an older
couple looking at me and laughing one morning because I was talking to myself
and Ian basically giving myself a pep talk saying, “The devil is a liar! Girl you can do this, just hang in there,
hurry it up, you got this!”
I handled
Ian’s business and let me tell you I wouldn’t have had it any other way because
my baby was pooing and that’s all I cared about. Whenever, wherever bring it! Also, once he started consuming foods in addition
to his predominantly breast milk régime at 6 months, he began going regularly
without the aid of any juice. He presently
goes about 2-3 times a day and is our happy healthy baby boy, something I will
never take for granted!
Next time I’ll discuss our family’s current sleeping
situation with two little guys.
