The fourth week and getting a shot....

Just about a couple of weeks ago, three of us went to our family doctor for Erin's 2-month checkup. As usual, a nurse weighted my daughter and did all the paperwork. After a while, our doctor came in and started talking about my daughter. She let us know that Erin gained over 5 pounds, so she was now over 11 pounds (about 5 kilograms). That's why I felt she was heavy whenever I washed her.

She showed us a chart to make sure that Erin was absolutely growing in good shape. My wife was so proud of feeding my daughter, and started talking about how hard she was for breastfeeding. I have heard of it more than 100 times so far, so I tried to ignore it.

While both of us were arguing, our big project for the day finally started. In fact, we went to our doctor to get a vaccination shot for Erin, not for fighting about the breastfeeding issue. Of course, Erin was laughing because she never knew what would happen to her in 5 minutes.

Few minutes later, our nurse, who weighted my daughter, came in again with two scary shots and a bottle called an oral shot. There are technically so many kinds of vaccination shots for an infant, so I do not remember all their names because we are still far away from getting them (NONE OF MY BUSINESS YET!!!).

After getting a couple of shots, our doctor began to talk about several side effects of vacciantion shots. Also, she asked us not to be upset although my daughter would be sick for a while at night. When we were on the way back home, we bought an infant Tylenol called Acetaminophen. Fortunately, she looked just normal and cried only for few hours which was endurable for both of us (we already got used to her crying). Even, I did not use the Tylenol I bought. It was the waste of money (I cannot return it because I already opened it), but I really appreciate that she is OK.

The third week and washing my daughter....

Washing a baby will be a tough job for every parents, and still it is for both of my wife and me. My daughter, Erin, was such a small baby. She was less than 7 pounds when she was born. Thus, I and my wife were afraid of washing the lovely small creature by the time we came back home. Of course, I have observed once that my nurse washed my baby at the hospital, and it looked easy, but I was totally wrong.

I vividly remember how I washed my daughter for the first time. Before washing her, my wife played a video from Youtude to show me how others do that job. I watched  the video a couple of times, and finally I started putting her into a bathtub. Unlike our expectation, she was calm and even seemed to enjoy that moment (I was too much proud of it). Thus, I was almost able to complete the work without having any trouble.

However, a crazy thing happened to me at the end of the process. That is, she pooped in a bathtub, then she started crying. I was really upset at that moment, but my wife just started laughing at me. In fact, I agreed that moment was funny as you can expect, so I also laughed a lot. From the first bath for my daughter, I always try to be careful with my baby whenever I wash her because nobody knows when she poops to me again. Be careful with your baby in the future!!!

Here are several things from my own experience to be considered for washing an infant:

• Not too hot water, but comfortably warm (between 90~100 F) if you feel water is not hot for you, babies feel the same.
• Hold a baby's neck firmly not to allow a baby to move
• Block a baby's both side ears
• Give a baby something such as  a soft cloth to hold with his/her hands (sometimes, it doesn't work)  
• Don't be upset whatever happens to you, even pooping!!!! 

The second week and a horrible memory.... That is, colic.

Colic is such a word that I hate. I have never heard about the word and thought that it makes me crazy before being a father. Of course, our nurse talked about it before we came back home from the hospital, but I did not really pay attention to it because I thought my daughter would be healthy enough.

Our baby has been healthy since she was born, and now she does not get any pain for her stomach anymore, but colic had botheredmy baby for a while regardless of her health.

I and my wife were really upset when we observed our daughter's colic for the first time. According to my daughter's family doctor, colic is something that causes a baby cry for a couple of hours or more without any reason at night. Isn't it crazy? Normally, that does not cause any serious problem for a baby; however that does for their parents sometimes. Some lucky parents do not experience the horrible moment of colic
because not every infants get this.

Unfortunately, I and my wife were not lucky parents in terms of experienceing my daughter's colic. I do not remember the exact date of the night when my lovely daughter got colic, but I am sure that three of us were having a pretty good time at that night. All of a sudden, my daughter, Erin, started crying, and I thought she would stop very soon because babies cry whenever they want, but I was so naive. She seriously cried almost
straight three hours, and she finally stopped right before I decided to go to emergency. Since that time, Erin
had colic for about a week every night.

Of course, I and my wife became exhausted whenever she got colic; I do not want to remember the time never ever again, but it was a good experience for us because we are plannig to have our
second baby near in the future.