Mommy do This! Mommy do That!

Do you ever get tired of all the opposing words of advice you get as a mother.

One person says, "Lay them on their side." Another person says, "Lay them on their back."

One person says, "Start solids at 4 months." Another person says, "Wait until six months!"

I mean it really is quite the headache isn't it? Then to top it all off I spew my advice here :)

The best advice I can give for dealing with advice givers is have an advice filter.

The funny thing about all the advice is no matter how much you take and leave you're going to have take and leave a whole different set with each new child.

The twins were easy going babies. They're feedings were truly amazing. Even as newborns you could practically set a clock by them- every 3 to 4 hours on the dot. Then after they drank their bottle you would burp them, change them and lay them down and they would fall asleep.

The new baby, however, is a much different story. You feed him, burp him, feed him, burp him, change him, feed him and burp him. It can go on and on. His feedings will last for an hour or more sometimes. Then to top it off he's ultra sensitive. The regular formula gives him gas he can't pass. The sensitive gives him gas, but he can pass it. The soy gives him gas, he can pass it and it makes him spit up.

Along with that there's the bottle's and the nipples. Regular old bottles don't do the trick. And you can't just snag any old nipple. So far the Ventaire or Drop In's system- both from playtex- are the best. And you have to make sure you get a slow flow nipple or the gas and the fussiness is even worse.

When you finally get through a feeding you have to find the right position for him to sleep on. This position usually involves the Boppy and he usually has to be on his tummy. I know those are both "No no's" for sleeping, but I'm just trying to get through a day here. Usually I can manage to get him to sleep, but it's only for an hour or two and then he's up fussing again. Yes, no matter how much he eats,- sometimes 6 oz- he's up again within a 2 hours. This seems very unusual to me for a formula fed baby. But our conclusion- and the doctors too- is that he is getting gas pains and wakes up out of discomfort and thinks he needs to eat.

Oh and then there is the "How much should he eat" clause. Newborns are supposed to eat 2-4 oz every 3-4 hours or so. With the twins we would up their ounces if they started to wake up sooner then usual. But I heard that that was a big "no" and the amount our twins were eating by 2 months was way too much. But then you hear that, "Newborns are smart and they only eat as much as they need. They'll stop when they're full." Well I thought I'd try to keep this baby to the 2-4 limit to see if it helped anything. I threw that towel in pretty quick. Of course, it doesn't really matter because how much he eats changes with each feeding.

So here I am with my ultra sensitive and very demanding child thinking, "What on Earth do I try now?" I'm looking things up on the internet and asking doctors. We're rotating hips, rubbing tummies, bending legs and doing the football hold. It's almost like starting completely over.

The twins were so simple in a way. I didn't really have to search out or ask advice because we didn't run into many road blocks we couldn't get around ourselves. But the baby is taking me on a whole different ride. I'm now thinking, "I now understand why babies are so hard! If I would have had you first we definitely wouldn't have gotten pregnant again so soon." This, I hear, is a typical statement of mothers.

I must remember that, with parenting, there is right, there is wrong and then there is a whole bunch of gray. There's more then one way to raise a child, so I'll take the advice I need and do what I feel I have to do.