- You can feel babies' lymph nodes behind their ears. When I first kept feeling them, I thought Myla had enlarged veins or had some type of worm living in her head. The lymph nodes are squishy and they move when you touch them. Yeah, I was freaking out a little bit. Thank you Google for putting my mind at ease. Well, actually my mom said something about them but I couldn't understand what she was saying haha.
- How you don't have to check to see if your baby is still alive and breathing. Okay, I've heard of moms constantly checking to see if their baby is still breathing, especially with their first babies, but I didn't think I would be one of them. I read in the handbook the hospital sent me home with to only be worried if the baby's lips are blue, but for some reason I still have to stick my pointer finger under her nose to feel if there is actually air going in and out of there.
- Myla is still healthy and not brain damaged after connecting her soft spot to my chin. This actually happened just last night. I was trying to burp her but she was being wiggly. It's happened before but not hard enough like last night where it sort of left a little dent (don't worry, the dent is gone!). And yes, I was freaking out. Robert assured me that she was fine, especially since she wasn't crying or acting like it hurt. Of course I then had to pull up Google to see what other moms have said to make me feel better.
- Said soft spot pulses. It kinda creeps me out, but I learned it pulses to the beat of the baby's heart.
- Newborns can shoot poop out their butts like water guns shoot out water. And I'm not talking about the dinky little Dollar Store guns that shoot out pin sized streams of water. I learned this when Myla was only a couple of weeks old while I was changing her. She decided she wanted to go poop in the middle of me switching out the old diaper for a new one, and I was shot. Want to know what else I learned from this experience? I was not as disgusted by having poop splattered all over my shirt as I thought I would be.
- Along with the above point, newborns like to poop and/or pee right after you put a new diaper on them. And sometimes they do this 3+ consecutive times in a row. I'm pretty sure Myla thinks, "Thanks mom, I wanted to go more in a new diaper instead of this old one! But let me go pee in this one first, then I want you to change me into a new one before I go poop. But I'll only poop some of it out because I want to poop the other half in another clean diaper."
- Babies have to learn how to burp. I thought this came to them naturally, with the help of a few pats on the back, of course. False. I'm pretty sure I spend more time trying to burp Myla than feeding her. She has gotten better as she has gotten older, but I didn't know that burping was hard for her. I mean, when I feel a gas bubble and just let it out. For her she grunts and groans like she has to poop, but then only a burp comes out.
- Babies have to get used to eating. And what I mean by that is that when babies are drinking milk as fresh newborns, they are still trying to figure out how much is enough to satisfy them. I learned this when Myla was like a week old and she decided to projectile vomit her meal because she drank too much. Yes, that freaked me out. Thank you again, Google. You really do have the answers don't you?
- How scary and sad it is to see your baby sick. This week Myla experienced (and is still experiencing) her first cold. I understand how scary it would be if something serious is going on, but I didn't think it'd be so hard seeing Myla with a simple cold. I've experienced many colds in my lifetime to know that usually they're not a big deal, but for some reason it still scares me seeing this tiny baby go through one.
- Babies have unusually large pot bellies. I was beginning to wonder if Myla was being malnourished because she seriously has a belly like those African children who don't get enough nutrients. My dad said my siblings and I all had bellies like that and that it's normal.
- Some newborns don't take pacifiers. I assumed all babies liked sucking on pacifiers to soothe themselves, but not Myla. She either gags or cries more when I try to give her a pacifier. She's beginning to do alright with the pacifier the hospital sends home with you, but she still won't really take one. So for now I have learned other ways to soothe her. Mostly letting her listen to really loud white noise seems to do the trick.
- Check your baby's hands often. For some reason, gunk magically gets in between her fingers, even when she is swaddled like a burrito with her hands strapped down. Mostly this gunk consists of sweat and fabric fibers, but it still boggles my mind how they (the fabric fibers) get there.
- Have a fully charged phone or a long book to read when breastfeeding (I don't know how it is with bottle feeding) because some feeding sessions can take forever!
- They tell you to take naps when your baby does, but what they don't tell you is that your baby has a 6th sense. At least I'm pretty sure they do. They can somehow sense when your head hits the pillow and they decide that they actually want to be awake. Maybe Myla just wants a zombie for a mom?
- You look like a hobo 24/7. Make-up? What's that? And I'm pretty sure I've stayed in my pajamas all week long... for a few weeks...
Also, I know that Google isn't always the best source for information, but it sure has helped on occasion :)
