Awaiting the Poop

I vaguely remember a time when I was afraid of opening one of Kaylani's diapers because it may have contained poop. It was many years ago (has it really only been less than 5 months) and it was really something I thought about and feared when I was changing her. You can't really blame me after her first poop incident, but that's besides the point. Nowadays, it's the exact opposite that happens when I open a diaper.

Ever since Kaylani started eating cereal, we've been worried that it may be causing her to be a bit constipated. We had heard stories from many of our friends that rice cereal could cause constipation, and wouldn't you know it, one week later she couldn't sleep because she was constipated. Oatmeal cereal was supposed to be better for Kaylani in that regards so we made the switch. But after Kaylani's sixth day of oatmeal, she had only pooped once for us (a poop up the back to the neck type poop, but still only once). She wasn't showing the same signs of constipation, but it was still something we were concerned about.

So for the last 4 days, we were anxiously awaiting for Kaylani to poop. Each diaper change felt like it was Christmas Eve back when I was kid, but instead of "Did Santa come yet?" it was "Did Kaylani poop yet?" And just like Christmas Eve oh so many years ago, the answer was always no. Today though, Santa did come...in the form of poop.

Mommy got the pleasure of dealing with a Kaylani poop. That sounds like I'm being sarcastic, but I'm actually not. The fact that Kaylani pooped took a load off, not only from Kaylani, but from Mommy too. It meant that we could stop worrying that Kaylani was constipated for at least a few more days. It meant that we didn't have to give Kaylani prune juice mixed with water in a sippy cup like our pediatrician recommended us to do. It meant that we didn't have to stick a thermometer in Kaylani to try and stimulate her to poop. And it meant that I didn't have to ask "did she poop?" for the last couple of diaper changes today.

Long gone are the days of being afraid of poop. I say bring the poop on! If I could find the switch for the soft serve ice cream, I'd pull it down myself. But since I can't, I guess I'll just sit back and wait for the poop to come. Hopefully it will come more regularly now because if it doesn't, I'm not sure who will be in more pain. After all, we'd be the ones who have to do all those horrible things to Kaylani to get her to poop for us. It'd be much easier if she pooped on her own now, and for the rest of her life too.

Baby's First Feeding

Today, Kaylani took one giant step forward in her development milestones and had her first taste of food ever. Her bib, clothes, chin, and neck had their first feel of food ever too, and it's probably safe to say they felt more food than Kaylani actually ate. But that was to be expected so we pressed onwards. Once the media circus was ready (video camera on tripod, camera on remote standby), we began.

For Kaylani's first food of "choice," Daddy made her a nice helping of Gerber Single Grain Cereal mixed with breastmilk. I'm not entirely convinced that I did it right since it came out pretty watery, but I followed the directions as closely as possible. So instead of the solid consistency that we were expecting, Kaylani got a semi-solid, mostly liquid, bowl of "cereal" to munch on. Or at least that's what she got to push out of her mouth.

Kaylani's been staring at us and our food at dinnertime for awhile now, so we know she's been waiting to try her own food. She even opens her mouth if she's in your lap when you're trying to eat. So it was no surprise to us that she opened her mouth real wide when we brought the spoon to her mouth for the very first time. Daddy had the honor of Kaylani's first spoonful of food, so he had a front row seat of the food going in, and then coming right back out. Spoon #2 went the same way, but I think she might have taken some of it that time.

On and on we went. Soon it was Mommy's turn and she did a bit better because she's mastered the spoon and re-spoon technique (that's where you put the food in her mouth, then quickly move the spoon back to catch the food on its way out, and do it again and again until either she's swallowed the food, or it's splattered all over her face/neck/bib that there's no more left).

Overall, I'd say she did pretty damn well for her first time with food. She had almost 2 ounces of milk mixed in with 1 tablespoon of cereal in her bowl, and she probably ate 90% of it. The other 10% got spilled down her face into her bib when we gave her what was left in the bowl just for kicks. We'll try again tomorrow at dinner, and the next day after that too with rice cereal and hopefully she'll get the hang of it sooner rather than later. I hope it's sooner, because the sooner she gets the hang of it, then the sooner we can try new and more exciting foods!

Check out pictures from our feeding adventure today, and also pictures from Puerto Rico! We had over 600 pictures to choose from, but I think I picked 60 that cover the week pretty well. And come back tomorrow for videos from Kaylani's first feeding adventure. I'm sure they'll give a much better idea of how it went!