Friday, August 17, 2012

Infant Care 101

So on Wednesday we headed off to Infant Care, a class offered through our hospital but done at the local Destination Maternity. They have a room where they do prenatal yoga and other classes (I'm on to them -- get preggos in there and then suddenly BAM they just have to have that dress over there!). The instructor was a very nice L&D nurse who had also run our orientation class at the hospital. She ran through basics, like what to expect right after the baby (or babies) is born, feeding, bathing, etc.

We were handed a blanket and a diaper. A very tiny diaper. I can't believe how small they will be... We managed to wrangle our teddy bear into it, although I'm pretty sure he'll be leaking everywhere soon. His legs were just a bit too fat, I think. In any event, we had better luck at swaddling. Blue had us practice that one a few times and I think we're pretty darned good at it now. Of course, I just registered for swaddling sleep sacks, so we'll see how much real swaddling we do. I'm nervous that with just a blanket the babies will get it loose and then suffocate on it. I need blankets with velcro or something. Which is probably how the sleep sacks work, actually.

The bathing lesson boiled down to "don't burn the baby" and "clean their butt last." Both pieces of excellent advice!

And she mentioned this nifty contraption for diapering a baby boy that just cracks me up.





That is a PeePee TeePee. You can figure out the rest yourselves.


My only complaint is that I wish she'd spoken more about getting babies on a feeding schedule, whether to wake them to feed them, etc. But I figured my questions were more twin-specific and so would be a waste of time for other students. Time to get reading my twin books I guess!!!
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5 comments:

  1. Kiara BuechlerAugust 17, 2012 at 5:09 PM

    Rule Number 1: Never wake a sleeping baby!
    ;-) Well, at least not one that is gaining weight just fine. My son got himself on a feeding schedule right away, every 1.5 hours for the first few weeks, then every two hours for a few weeks after that. Eventually he stretched it out to every three or four. Most babies will let you know when they need to eat.

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    1. Red and BlueAugust 20, 2012 at 9:18 AM

      My only concern is that I would feed Baby A, get that one back to sleep, get myself back to sleep, and fifteen minutes later Baby B is awake and needing to be fed. So if one wakes up needing food/change, I will wake the other. I WILL get them both on the same schedule if it kills me lol.

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    2. UnknownAugust 22, 2012 at 2:45 PM

      For the most part I agree with "Never wake a sleeping baby", but you can't always do that with multiples. Keeping my triplets on the same feeding schedule was the only way I got any sleep the first few months. I would "dream feed" one or two of them to keep everyone on the same schedule.

      Oh, and the PeePee TeePee didn't work so well for us. It was easier to keep a small wash cloth or two on the changing table to toss over the nibblets.

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    3. Red and BlueAugust 22, 2012 at 2:57 PM

      Yeah I would think a cloth would be easier (and cheaper) than the teepee. Just was amused that existed! Any other useful nuggets to share from one multiples mom to another?

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  2. KristenAugust 21, 2012 at 1:07 PM

    There's a couple having twins in my childbirth class and I find the twin specific questions really interesting. So while they are of no use to me, I really don't mind them asking questions in class!
    Your comments about the leaky teddy diaper had me laughing!

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