Poop Chronicles

Yes, yes, this is really a blog post about plain, good ol' poop! Why might you ask? Well, first of all I am a nurse - we delight in all manner of bodily functions. And now I am a mommy, and mommies delight in any and all accomplishments of their kids. And what is a bigger accomplishment then poop for a baby? I mean eating and sleeping come pretty naturally, without much effort on their part. But poop? Well, poop requires some hard work on their part... and on mommy and daddy's part too!:)

So to start off, my milk didn't come in until Ellie was nearly 5 days old. We were having to do supplemental feedings with formula - icky nasty formula - and a feeding tube. She was definitely NOT a fan. She was so tiny and sleepy, making feedings a bit of a challenge to complete. She didn't eat much at all those first few days. Therefore, she had an extremely hard time passing her meconium. I wish we had a picture/video of Jared's facial expression and reactions to seeing balloons of tar being expelled from his little girl!

Monday morning, milk arrived, and Ellie ate like a starving child... which she kind of was. That morning was our first appointment with the pediatrician. We got mommy, daddy, and baby all dressed and ready to go in plenty of time to make it to the doctor. As soon as we put Ellie into her carseat, I heard the bowel rumble and saw the look of blessedly sweet contentment come across her face. We decided to just wait to change her at the doctors office, as it was just minutes away from our house. This was the first true poopy diaper her daddy had ever witnessed, and he nearly hit the floor when I unfastened the tabs and pulled the diaper back to examine the contents. The nursing staff at the office got quite a laugh out of it.

We had to go back to the pediatrician Wednesday to have silver nitrate applied to her cord site as it was having some premature separation. Once the site got all cleaned up, we ran to the store to pick up a few baby necessities. While we were there we heard the tell tale sounds and saw the same look come across her face. No worries, we would be home soon. And really, how much poo could a child the size of a bake potato really produce. Let me answer that question for you -  a lot!


Ellie had been dressed in this precious white preemie gown, her Aunt Brenna got her.

We got home to discover an overflowing diaper of poop... up to her chest and shoulder blades. And yes, that previously cleaned umbilical area caked in bowel goo! UGH

When I was first shopping for Ellie's clothes, and people would asked me what I liked, I was all about the sweet little layette gowns. I loved them... and still do! As long as you don't have a blow out to contend with. Pulling poop saturated clothes over your infant's head is just messy business, no matter how much of pro you are.

The above poop adventure was supposed to be Jared's first dirty diaper changing experience, but being the incredible wife I am, I went ahead and took care of it myself, and allowed him to just assist. And let's face it, if the roles had been reversed I would have been left with a whole heck of a lot more mess to clean up!

As luck would have it, I did record the first Daddy-Changing-Dirty-Diaper episode, and here it is for your viewing pleasure!:)

 

After this, pooping just became another routine event at our house. You fed Ellie - she pooped. You put Ellie to sleep - she pooped. You played with Ellie - she pooped. But nothing traumatic or destructive. Until the wee hours of January 31 (thank goodness for the new face.book timeline - makes it very easy to browse back through statuses to figure out when things actually happened!) She waited until after midnight feeding to have her biggest blow out to date. Up the back, down the legs, and puddled in the feet of her sleepers. 

Let's go a head and just state the fact that having been a mom for only a little over 2 weeks, I was a wee bit sleep deprived. Therefore, please with hold your judging when I state that I might have only bathed my daughter with wet wipes, and waited for the light of day before immersing her in actual water. 

Later the morning, before the bath that should have occurred hours ago (but remember, we aren't judging here) I was changing her first diaper of the normal morning hours. As I was cleaning her, I heard a suspicious sound but didn't see any following results. Uh, lucky me, we dodged a bullet. About 3.5 seconds later, I feel something cold on my check, and absentmindedly touched it with the back of my hand. No bullet dodged - pooped in the face! Wet wipes to the rescue yet again. Yes, that is correct, no shower until hours later. I did bathe my child before bathing myself. I am just that kind of mom - ha!:)

Ok, so the poop chronicles are drawing to an end, I promise!   

Around 5-6 weeks, Ellie went through a growth spurt, as most babies do. She ate every 1.5-2.5 hours during the day. Breast milk has very little waste, so while some breast fed babies poop every feeding, or more, other breast fed babies can go quite a long time between stools, once their body's GI systems mature in their digesting processes. This usually happens about the time they go through a growth spurt, often times causing constipation. We had about 10 days of this. 

I tried every all-natural remedy there was, but none of them worked. Finally, we gave into using suppositories. They worked like magic, within 15-30 minutes.

One evening, Ellie was particularly uncomfortable having gone days without the content this post is all about. I had a hair appointment around 7:30pm, so Ellie and Jared were just going to have Daddy-Daughter night. Being the sweet wife I am, I didn't want to leave him with a screaming baby - daddies just don't handle crying babies like mommies do - so I gave her another suppository, around 5:30, thinking that would be plenty of time for it to works its magic. Wrong! It still hadn't taken effect by the time I had to leave, so both Jared and I offered up silent prayers the results would hold off until I returned.

I came home from my appointment to find both daddy and daughter lying exhaustedly on the couch, looking like they just made it through the war zone. Jared was shirtless and Ellie was naked down to her diaper. There were poop covered clothes on the floor, as well as poop covered towels (adult sized towels, ya'll!) all over the house. Evidently, the suppository decided to work its magic while Jared was giving Ellie a bottle... and the results were massive. 

I like to think it was a bonding moment for the two of them... although I think her daddy may still be a bit traumatized...

In closing, as soon as we finished bathing her the other night, Ellie kindly waited until I had her diaper on and half her pajamas before having another blow out. Huge, large, massive does not even begin to describe this mess. I held her by her arm pits over our bathtub while Jared hosed her off with our hand held shower head. And lucky for you, we got a few pictures.:)

The grunting begins...

 pooping is just hard wok, ya'll

 Thank you, Jesus, sweet blessed relief

 For some reason mommy wouldn't hold me close any more...

Getting ready for bath#2 of the night, within 10 minutes of each other 

And there you have it folks - Poop Chronicles from the Ross Household. Time will tell if this is the first of many installments... or not.:)