So this is what they're talking about...

When parents are around their friends without children, they tend to romanticize what family life is really like. I guess this is nature's way of making sure that we continue the species.

When parents are around new parents, they tell you all of the horrible things you never wanted to know about raising children.


Well screw that, I'm not going to candy coat this for anyone. You need to know what you're up against.

For the last few days, Alyssa has had a sour stomach and there isn't a whole lot that we can do about it. We've tried Karo syrup, rice water, and now we're going to get some "Gripe Water" from the pharmacy to see if that helps. In the meantime, I've been trying to relieve as much of the pain as possible through massage and the use of teething tablets. For those of you that don't know, teething tablets are meant to dissolve under your tongue or in water and are made from chamomile and belladonna. They help the baby relax so that they are not in so much pain and can sleep. I have started taking these myself and I must say, they are fabulous.

Last night I got to see two of my best friends for a little bit and shortly after they left I had my most horrific moment as a new mom. Worse than when she rolled off the couch. Worse than when she almost choked on her bottle during the airplane ride (Oh, I'm back home with my parents, I'll explain that later) and much worse than when I dropped Cool Whip in her mouth.

With her tummy troubles, Alyssa hasn't been able to poop normally for about a week. She was doing okay until a few days ago when she went from 3 messy diapers a day down to one or less. She still has lots of wet diapers so she isn't getting dehydrated, but her bowels aren't moving as well as they should. The doc said not to worry until it's been 5 days with no movement. Kay.

Last night after my friends left, she finally pooped for the first time that day. I was so proud of her and I was excited to change her diaper and go to bed. (Yeah, you can tell I'm a mom. 'Yay, you went poopie!!!') I laid her down on a changing pad on my air mattress, then took her diaper off. Wow, that was a lot of poop. I wiped her down and reached over to get the new diaper. She started to go again. Quickly, I covered her up with the old diaper so she could finish up. When she was done, I unhooked the diaper and started wiping her up again. Just before Before I was able to get the new diaper in place she started going again.

I wasn't able to cover her up as quickly as before.

My stomach hasn't been that awesome lately either, and I almost threw up on my baby.

I raced to get her cleaned up and get a new diaper on so that I could clean everything up. I moved her to another changing pad right next to me so that I could keep poop from getting all over the comforter since it was already on me and her clothes. Then she started crying. A lot. I made sure that she was completely clean, got her in a new outfit and tried to put her in the swing while I cleaned up the mess. I ended up using 2 diapers and 3 changing pads and one extra outfit. She wouldn't stop crying and I was afraid that she was going to wake my mom up (she had to go to work in the morning afterall) and I started crying myself. Apparently, I was calling out "I need help" while in tears and trying to calm Alyssa.

Mom came to the rescue.

I threw away all the diapers and changing pads, then went to the bathroom to scrub her clothes. Once I was confident that nothing would stain, I threw the clothes in the washing machine and had a cigarette while mom calmed Alyssa down.

After I was positive that all of the poop had been cleaned up, I sat down and talked to mom for a little bit. Once Alyssa was asleep, I laid down with her so that we could go to bed. That's when she got really mad. I could hear her stomach bubbling and I would have given anything to be able to make it stop, but I don't have magic powers so I just had to let her cry. I held her and rocked her and tried every "get rid of gas" treatment that I know. After a while, the bubbling stopped and the massage put her to sleep. That was at 3 am. Mom went to bed and I crashed.

Something we tried must have worked because she slept until 7 or so this morning and only woke up because she wanted to nurse. I latched her on and went back to sleep. When she was done I woke up, burped her, and laid her back down. Since then she has slept for most of the day.

Sadly, now I can't sleep.