Burp Baby Burp

When it's just family around, Daddy may let loose a burp or two right at the dinner table. I know it's kinda rude (even if it is just family), but the way I look at it, I'm helping Kaylani. Mommy disagrees with me of course, but if you really think about it, burping after eating is exactly what we need Kaylani to learn. And since burping Kaylani has been taking longer and longer, it can't hurt to show her the way, right?

Kaylani's never been the best burper. Even when she was first born, it would take us several minutes to get a good burp out of her after she nursed or took a bottle (you know, back when she used to take the bottle). It didn't matter if we did the sit and burp, the over the shoulder and burp, the airplane burp, or the give her Mylicon and burp because there wasn't any special way we could get her to burp quickly. Sometimes she wouldn't burp until Daddy took her, and sometimes she wouldn't burp until she went with Mommy. But now, neither of us seem to have the magic touch.

They say breastfed babies don't need to burp as much as bottle fed babies because there's less air involved. That'd be comforting if breastfed babies didn't have to burp at all. At least then we wouldn't worry if she was okay because she didn't burp. Instead, we are always left with some uncertainty if she'll be alright when she doesn't burp. Is she going to wake up in an hour because she didn't burp? Is she going to spit up instead of burp once we put her down? Do we really have to wake her up to burp her since she probably won't burp anyways?

I'm not even sure at what age we can stop burping her. Sometimes she'll burp on her own just sitting there (like she did right now). Does that mean she can control her own gas? I doubt it since I know certain 33 year olds that can't control their own gas. Mommy just burped herself while she was nursing Kaylani, so unless she wants to be a hypocrite, I think Daddy just got the green light to keep burping at the dinner table (even though she claims it's different because we're not at the dinner table). But hey, Daddy's little girl has to learn somehow, right?

Drumming to my own beat

Whenever it's Daddy's turn to feed Kaylani, or to burp Kaylani, or just to hold her and glide with her in her room while she falls asleep, my mind wanders. Never in my life have I been given so much time to hear my own thoughts, and it's kinda nice, and kinda strange all at the same time. The nice part is that I do get a lot of thinking done, usually about how beautfiul my little girl is, or how great of a life I have, and also about what I have to do next. The strange part is sometimes my mind wanders, and I have no idea how I got from thought A to thought Z.

More often that not, a song pops into my head and gets stuck there. I start to sing along in my head, sometimes hum out loud, and very rarely, I'll sing so Kaylani can hear me. But something else happens at the same time. I find myself tapping along to the beat. And usually, it's when I'm burping Kaylani. All of a sudden my slow steady patting of Kaylani's back turns into a drum solo from whatever random song is in my head.

Earlier today, the song in my head was Old McDonald Had a Farm. First off, I have no idea why that song was in my head since we don't listen to that song (or many children's songs in general yet). Whatever it was, it was in my head, and it stuck there. Pat...pat...pat...pat turned into:

*Pat pat pat pat pat pat pat*....e-i-e-i-o.
And *pat pat pat pat pat pat pat*...e-i-e-i-o
With a *pat pat* here and a *pat pat* there
Here a *pat*, there a *pat*, everywhere a *pat pat*
*Pat pat pat pat pat pat pat pat*, e-i-e-i-ooooooooooo!

And yes, I actually sang the non-*pat* parts to Kaylani. After that went on for about 10 minutes, I stopped and couldn't figure out what I was doing or why I was doing it. It's like I was sleep patting. I'm actually just glad it's children's songs that pop into my head. Can you imagine what would happen to Kaylani if the music from Stomp popped into my head?

It's funny what having a baby does to your head. It sure makes you do some crazy things. Maybe it's the sleep deprivation (although we're sleeping pretty well), or maybe it's just a change in lifestyles now. I may just have to accept the fact that I'm going to *pat* along from now on. Shouldn't be a problem, at least until Kaylani can burp herself. Then I hope I grow out of this phase, otherwise someone's going to be awfully offended when I keep patting them.