Bundh on the Bung

Maxine is constipated. No other way to put it. The girl has not poo'd for 9 days now. Yes, I have called her doctor. This is actually the second long stretch of what we like to call "The Bundh on the Bung" (Bundh means "strike" in Nepali). The first time lasted 8 days. I called the doctor and spoke with his nurse. She told me that it is normal for some breastfed babies to go for long periods without a bowel movement. She said I should go home and put a tiny thermometer in her butt and see if I felt any solid poo... WHAT??? Um, YOU put the tiny thermometer in a 5 month old baby's butt, lady! Like, I want to deal with that - yeah, I have done that to dogs when I was at the humane society but I will not do this to my daughter. Imagine the trauma! Talk about crying for 45 minutes. So, the nurse offered me an alternative. I can mix Dark Karo Syrup in water and that should help. So, I went home and figured I would discuss our option (notice it is not plural). That night she poo'd her first post-solid food poo. Whew! It stank! I didn't realize that consistency, color, and SMELL change with the introduction of solid foods. It smells so bad that I would consider breastfeeding until she is potty trained just to avoid having to touch it again... too late, though. She is permanently altered. Anyway, so, now the Bundh on the Bung has lasted 9 days and we are going to try the Dark Karo Syrup and I am going to try eating more fiber. I'll keep you posted...



In other news... Drum roll... Maxine has now added mashed bananas, mashed peas, mashed pears and rice cereal to her diet! Ben and I were so excited to introduce solids and were convinced that all of her tracking our forks from plate to mouth and grabbing at our food were signs that she was ready for the leap into new flavors and solid poo! We got her all dressed up in a cutie-patootie outfit, mashed some bananas (thanks for the masher Gurungs!), and put her in her new high chair. We got out the camera because, of course, this is what she has been waiting for and it will be ground shaking. I mean, she will be so happy! Above is the photo of her being fed for the first time (other than breastmilk)... one word can describe this event: "anticlimatic". She actually cringed and then gave us a look that VERY OBVIOUSLY said, "What is that and why the HELL did you give that to me?" We thought that maybe she just doesn't like bananas... but we have since learned that she pretty much reacts that way to everything we have given her. Pears had the most positive-like response. Luckily, no tears over any of the foods. Just good old-fashioned rejection. She just sort of avoids the spoon and looks at us like, "You totally don't understand. I want mom's beer. Not this crap." - she does like to smell my beer and always reaches for the bottle and tries to put her mouth on the top... scary and we can all worry now about what Ben and I have in store for ourselves.



Finally, we have started "sleep training". The idea of this is to teach her how to fall asleep unassisted (i.e. not on the boob). I am hesitant to say we are using the Ferber method even though many have told us we are. I prefer to call it "The Broadman Method" after my pediatrician friend that told me about it. She is Maxine's good friend "Nicola's" mom. So, we have started a "routine". Nica's mom told me that the first two nights the average baby will cry for 45 minutes, 3rd night 20 minutes and then they sleep. So, I feed Maxine then when she is relaxed but not asleep we put her in her sleep sack and read her a book. Then we put her in her bed and say sweet things to her (important to try and say the same things to her so she associates them with time for sleep) and then leave. Then, if she cries, we let her cry for 5 minutes and then can go in and say sweet things to her - never pick her up. So, the first two nights she cried for exactly 45 minutes. Really... exactly 45 minutes. Then the 3rd night 10 minutes. Now she may cry for less than 5 minutes or not at all. It is hard but I think that, in the long run, it will be helpful because she will know how to sleep on her own.