The diaper horror story!

The Diaper Horror Story!

Since our baby was born we have had the same issues with the diapers, they leak!!!

Well, not the first weeks, but kind of after the first month, and with the first diaper size change. Of course, as I first time mom, I was not sure of when I had to change the diaper size for my baby. I tried looking it up on the internet, but I really did not find anything about it. It would mainly show information about cloth diapers, and well, we do not use those kinds, but the commercial and well-known disposable ones.

So, one of my questions on this was, how do I know it is time to change the size? Some my think, it is super easy, look at the kilograms indicated on the diapers packaging and your baby's weight. But, I have to say, it is not that easy. Plus, depending on every brand, the weight limits changes.

My baby was still between the limits of the size 1 diapers and it was time to move on to size 2, how did I know that? After many many many dirty clothes. The diapers seemed to fit ok still, but somehow it was one after the next onesie dirty with baby's poop or pee even.

I do not know how true this is, but I share with you what worked somewhat for us.

How to check for the right diaper size?

• look for the weight information on the diaper
• plus the way it fits on our baby, around the belly. 
• that is not too tight around the legs and belly
• also, your baby's size (cms/in)

As I understood, all of these points above are important to make sure you have the right size, but, most important of all, to know if the diaper works for you and you do not have the same leaking issue like us, is that the brand you are using is working for your baby.

Diaper brands

We have tried many different diaper brands, from the well know Pampers, to the store brand cheaper version.

Here a list of what we have used, what the diapers offer and what we found out after using them.

(None of these brands have paid us in any way to do any kind of testing or advertising, this is just our experience, and we want to share with you.)

• Pampers: this brand we all know, we tried the premium baby-dry diapers. According to the package, they hold up to 12 hours, have wetness indicators and keep the baby dry. Our experience: at the beginning seemed to work great, but then the leaking started. We tried changing the size to 2 and then to 3, but the leaking never stopped. It would not hold until the next morning, the pee will slip from time to time, and the poop pretty much most of the time.

•  BabyLove *DM brand: this one also offers 12 hours of protection, good with the distribution of the liquids, suction, and soft on the skin. Our experience: they are indeed good with the liquid intake, but also with some leaking (I started to wonder if maybe we were the issue or the baby), also not that soft on our baby's skin.

 

•  Lupilu *Lidl brand: This diapers also offer 12 hour protection, good with liquid absorption and soft to protect the baby's skin. Our experience: this diaper was great for us, we were so happy, because there was no more dirty clothing with poop leaking. However, to our disappointment, this diaper leaks the pee. We did not push it to the 12 hour protection, but still sometimes during changes in the middle of the night, I will have to complete undress the baby due to his clothes being wet.

• Mamia *Aldi brand: This diaper also says it has good liquid absorption, special suction canal, soft on the skin, dermatologically tested, without any extra substances or additives, protection from leakage. Our experience: so far, this is the best diaper we have tried. It does great on leakage protection, it does lasts for up to 12 hours, and its soft on the baby skin. So, finally we feel like we may have found the right diaper for our baby.

• Lillydoo: This is another diaper we are going to try, we have not yet, so there is not much I can tell you, but we have order the test package and will write a review after we are done with it.

So, we have not yet found the perfect diaper for our baby, we are still on the search, but it looks like the Aldi diapers might be the winners. It is important to try out different ones, before sticking with one brand, all brands are different and the same, but some have better marketing than others. However, the most expensive diaper is not necessarily going to be the best for your kid.

A lot of money is spent on diapers, better to choose wisely and with the most benefits!

Please let me know how your experience was!

Thanks for stopping by!

How I got my baby to sleep!

How I got my baby to sleep!

This is the million dollar question!

I started this post with one idea in mind, but since it has taken me over 2 weeks to finish it, I am changing the content and starting all over. The idea is the same, but what I wrote before was no longer relevant. Unfortunately, a baby not sleeping during the day or night, does not help to keep up with things as good as one would like to!

Any way, back to the topic. I/we have been struggling for a month with the baby not sleeping. For about 3 weeks was total nightmare, no naps during the day, very difficult to get him to sleep and during the night, no more 4-6 hours stretches of sleep, instead 2 up to 3 hours, but also every hour waking up.

Two weeks ago I started trying toys to concentrate him on falling asleep. It worked a couple of times, he will fall asleep without crying after listening to the toy for some minutes, but the nap would not last more than 45minutes. Then, this stopped working again. As I mentioned in the post before, I tried some of the sleep training things I read about. But, you know how it is, not all that you read on the internet you should do. Specially when it comes to baby sleep training. It is a VERY IMPORTANT factor to mention, that the baby should be at least 6 months old in order to start with this sleep training, specially in the cases of letting the baby cry.

In any case, I abandoned all sort of training stuff and focused on the well being of my baby and paying even closer attention to his needs and cues. Let me tell you, sometimes it does not matter how much you pay attention, you either still miss it, or its just a phase you definitely have to go through and things will settle on its own.

So, what worked for me during the day, was to help him fall asleep for the naps, there was some crying -not a lot-, but he will fall asleep after some walking around the room. Then, I found an incredible thing/tip, babies fall asleep when having a cloth over their eyes. I tried that before reading about it and by coincidence, we were at the store and he was super tired but not falling asleep. I was wearing him, but at some point I put my jacket over him and he closed his eyes in a second. So, I thought I should try that at home as well, and yes my baby fell asleep. After, I decided to look for information about this, because I was concerned that maybe that was not something good to do to the baby, but to my surprise, it was one of the tips to help them sleep.

At around 4 months, babies are taking in so many things from the world around them, developing their brain at a faster speed, that it is hard for them to just shut down and fall asleep. Reason why, this tip, together with laying them in bed before they are completely asleep, or letting them fall asleep in your arms while still (not rocking), etc. Which none of these tips work for me by the way, but the cloth over his eyes works. Of course, important to mention, when he is tired and is ready for a nap, otherwise, he fights it. This is important to pay attention to, so the baby gets his sleep when he needs it.

In any case, my baby turned 4 months now, and things are beginning to settle. I am not saying he is sleeping through the night or anything close to that, but we have established a better routine. Slowly, but steady. He wakes up at different times between 7-9am and for one and a half hours is happiness, then comes the whining and rubbing eyes, sometimes even crying and then I know its time for a nap.

During the day he eats every 3 hours approximately. So, I breastfeed him at 7am, 10am, 1pm, 4pm and 7pm when its his time to go to bed for the night.
Between these times, he plays and takes his nap. He is not taking any long naps, like before, of 2 hours. His naps go from 45min to one hour, but he is following this routing pretty much to the point. Only trouble now, is that he naps most of the time in my arms, which is not ideal, but this is helping him to get the rest he needs during the day, to have a better sleep through the night.

Speaking of sleeping at night, last night, we had again a good night sleep. I put him down to bed at 7.30pm, had some issues and woke up half an hour later, but went back to sleep until 11.30pm, I fed him and he slept until shortly before 4am, one additional feeding and back to bed until 7am.

Most likely is still no time to celebrate that everything is going to get better, but we sure are in a good path for it.

I cannot tell you that things with babies are easy, and that after reading articles and blogs from other parents, you will master your own child. But, I can tell you to be patient, ask for support from your family and anyone willing to help; and things will improve, unfortunately it can be months of the same, but it can also surprise you from one day to the next.

I just want to say, be patient with your kid, what works for others might not work for your own, give your child love, that is what he needs the most. When he cries, is not to make you upset, or not to let you sleep, or not to let you clean the house or prepare a meal; when your baby cries, is because he needs you, needs you to hold him, to care for him, to be there for him, to ease his pain, any of them or all of them. HE JUST NEEDS YOU!

This post has no answers of what to do, it just has my experience with my baby, and the hopes that things improve at some point.

Thank you for stopping by!

All your comments are welcomed!

My baby won't sleep!

My Baby Won't Sleep!

Remember my last post with the perfect 3 months milestone and sleep routine??? Well, forget about it!!! My baby has decided he no longer wants to sleep during the day... or at night! Yes! At night!!!! Mama is suffering for real now!!!

My baby, the one that so perfectly slept for the first 3 months, just completely changed his sleep patterns!

I will try to finish this post as fast as possible, before he wakes up, I hope it does not have too many mistakes, but otherwise, is almost impossible for me to write anything. For the past week it was impossible to sit down to write something; either I was trying to put him down to sleep, trying to sleep myself or falling asleep with him in my arms. My husband is a great help, however, he also goes to work everyday, so I try to use him when he is home and can spend time with the little one, but at night, the least possible amount of time. I exclusively breastfeed, so it makes no sense for me to keep him up as well. Of course, I am exhausted, but this family does not need two exhausted parents, one needs to maintain the sanity!

Anyway, back to this post. I have read many articles about baby sleeping, sleep training, and other blog posts about how many moms have achieved to have their babies' sleep from the 6, 8 or 10 week on; this, as I believe, many other moms that are not sleeping, find it very frustrating. My baby has a routine since the early weeks, but HE HAS NEVER SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT! He had, until two weeks ago, slept a maximum of 6 hours in a row, no more. I believe this can be because he is a exclusively breastfed baby? Not sure, please, if you know this, share it with me! Maybe bottle fed babies' have this advantage? My husband has suggested this by the way, to give him a bottle at night, but for me, this just means being selfish, just because now I feel tired, I want to change his feeding, do not think so.

To manage this situation, I have done the following things, some of these things were a mistake, but hey, I am learning!

• First thing, the sleeping routine for the night. This is something good to do, works for both, babies and parents. It creates a schedule for them, that helps with the sleeping through the night *not for all kids, but helps with an improvement on their night sleep*; and also gives the parents time to do their thing and to spend some time together. And even, moms can join the baby going early to bed, to take advantage of the extra sleeping hours.
• Second, read a lot about babies that do not sleep, either at night or naps. This gives you a better view on the sleeping techniques that exist for babies and possible solutions for your baby's sleeping issues and solutions, depending on their age. As well as letting you know that any baby under 6 months will have sleeping problems; and letting you know that you are not alone, even though you will find all these posts about "How I got my baby to sleep by 6, 8, 10 weeks..."
• Third, put all together into my current situation. This means, I kept on with my baby's night routine, trying to combine it with a nap routine during the day, which basically consists of observing my baby for tiredness cues and feeding him, rocking him, giving him the pacifier, until he falls asleep. Putting him into his crib for the nap time and, in the cases of him waking up before the 2 hours 'need of sleep', letting him sleep in my arms.
• Fourth, letting my baby cry. This part, I did before the third one, but it was TOTALLY WRONG! That is why is coming after, as this was one of my mistakes.
• Is very important to read a lot before trying to find a way to get your baby to sleep. Why? Because, you find tons of information about sleep training right away, specially blog posts of other parents' experiences of their baby sleeping through the night, which on one hand, make you feel even worse about your situation and second, some do not specify that sleep trainings are age related, and that if your baby is under 6 months, sleep training will not work or will worsen the situation, as the baby's brain has not reach a maturity to understand and assimilate the sleep training yet.
• I have learned, that babies between 3 to 5 months experience the so called "sleep regression", which is an important milestone on brain development and learning of sleep patterns. And this can be the cause for the baby not sleeping. Naturally, you have to rule out serious sleep conditions on your baby, but for the most part, this will be the case.
• So, after reading all these blogs and before finding all the right information, I tried letting him cry, it worked one time, he fell asleep, but for the most part, it only made it worse; and, I felt like the worst mom, after, I was not only exhausted, but also depressed, for letting my baby cry. We are not the kind of parents that let their baby cry, he barely makes a sound and we pick him up and comfort him, feed him or whatever he needs, so, doing this for a day crushed my heart. Specially, because letting your baby cry can generate so many psychological issues for the rest of his life and during this moment, tire him and his brain out, not really teach him a valuable lesson.

Bottom line, we are still struggling with him not sleeping, I am struggling keeping myself awake and at the same time, trying to have a life and keep the house in order. It is hard to do everything at the same time. So, I would say, give him all the love your heart has to give, try to calm yourself down and think this is only a phase and it will pass. Ask for help, take turns with your partner to take care of the baby and even ask grandma, grandpa for support. And ANYONE that is willing to be there for you and your baby. (I suck at this, but it is a great advice!)

A little summary on this:

• hold your baby if he needs to be held, 
• pay attention to him and his cues for when he is tired,
• important is, do not let him get overtired, about 20min over his sleep time, will get him to this point and make it harder to make him sleep.
• do whatever it takes for him to fall asleep (feed, hold, pacifier),
• when he finally sleeps, take advantage of this and sleep as well, the rest can wait!

If you have any comments, questions, complaints, suggestions, etc, please leave them down!

Thanks for stopping by and reading!

3 Months Milestone

Baby 3 Months Milestone

Our baby has reached 3 months, very exiting!
Now, we are kind of through with the newborn phase (which was sweet and so fragile), and a bit more experts on the baby’s care than when we left the hospital with him.

During this time we have mastered the “no-sleep” phase, it was not horrible, but yes totally exhausting while we adjust to it.  Baby is or was a by-the-book-kid, for these first months. He basically, eat, diaper change, sleep, and everything all over again. Although, we have been told that we got a, what Germans call “Anfängerkind”, because the crying is really minimum, even at nights and we have not complain yet. In any case, he really is a great baby, although now he is in a crying phase and just wants to be in mommy’s arms for everything. Probably he’s going through another growth spurt or teething, as he’s constantly drooling.

Part of what, I now believe, helps us as well, is that we started a bed time routine at about 6 weeks, it has created a better environment for him to sleep and for us to be able to also do other things. He’s not a baby that sleeps 12 hours through the night though, but the routine has helped to get him to sleep 6 hours in a row. Most of the days it works, not always, but in general, we are in a good path. 

The routine goes as follows:

We start at 7 (when bath is included) to 7.30 pm, at the beginning we used to change diapers, and put him into pajamas, while he had some alone time with daddy in his bedroom. After, daddy would take him to our bedroom and I would breastfeed him; once he finished and was almost asleep, I will lay him down in his bed, put him into his sleep sack and wait for him to fall asleep, put the baby monitor on, and then leave the room. Sometimes he would wake up and cry, so I would come back and give him the pacifier, and he would go back to sleep. Other times, I would have to hold him again and help him fall asleep. Some days are easier than others, but for the most part all the reading of “how to help your baby sleep” is working.

I am not pro “let the baby crying” method, I hardly let him cry to be honest. I believe is not necessary to teach the baby what he needs to learn. But all babies and parents are different, and what works for us now, may not work for everybody.

We are done at around 8pm that he is asleep, and he would continue for up to 6 hours in a row, after this, he will wake up for a night feed, and go back to sleep, but this time just for 3 hour-periods, no more. And by 7am we will have wake up and get out of bed time.

Normally our bedroom is complete dark, so to keep him calm in the morning, I open the shades for him to look around, and this gives me about 30min to shower, make breakfast or do something else before getting him out of bed and start the morning routine. Which this starts with a diaper and pajama change. After is breakfast time for mom and swing time for him, to go on with some play time with mommy. At around 10am is feeding and nap time. During the morning he naps for max. an hour, we are still working on a nap routine that helps him get better with nap time. He gets another hour at around noon. Then we have some exercise together and some more play time for him alone. At around 3pm I feed him again, and this time he has his long nap, for about 2 hours, sometimes 2 and a half. After this nap, is the time of the day when he is awake for more hours, before we start again with the bedtime routine.

Of course, in order to be able to do all this, I am staying at home for the moment. I have taken advantage of what the German social system offers, and have Elternzeit for about 18 months, and can be extended for up to 3 years. In this time I can focus on taking care of my son, until we (mainly me) are ready to take him daycare or kindergarten.

This time of staying at home is giving me the opportunity to learn everything about my son, to go through every stage and to see pretty much every "first time" of things.

Whether you are lucky, like me, and can stay at home with your little one, or you are a working mom, I just want to tell you, you are doing great! Things do not alway work out the way we want them to with the babies, specially when we are first time moms, but I believe with time we will get there. Most important at all times, is to give our babies love, even at the times where seems the most challenging, love will always help and will keep you calm and help your baby calm down as well.

We are enjoying these routine for now, we hope it lasts and improves our baby's and our own sleep.

Thanks for stopping by!!!

Please feel free to leave any comments, questions, suggestions, complaints; I am no expert of any sort, just a first time mom doing her research and wanting to share with you her experiences. The good and the not so good of this new mommy stage.