Mom Hacks for Newborn Baths and Brushing Teeth – Ep. 146
April 19, 2021
Listen Now:
In the segment “What the Hack?” Shanna and Laura share their favorite mom hacks, including the best way to give a newborn a bath, a super trick to get your toddler to cooperate while brushing teeth and more! Also, Laura reports on her six-week postpartum checkup at the OBGYN and on her newborn’s first developmental leap, and Shanna is shocked to discover what her girls had been up to when she was in a Zoom meeting. Finally, they reveal their BFPs and BFNs for the week. Shanna’s toddler is 2 years old, and Laura’s toddler is 2 years old. Laura’s baby is 6 weeks old.
This episode’s show notes – https://bigfatpositivepodcast.com/ep-146/ | Get social – Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/bfppodcast/ | Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/groups/bigfatpositivepodcast/ | Email – [email protected] | Our mom-tested ultimate baby registry list – https://bigfatpositivepodcast.com/registry/
Show Notes:
- "Found" by Salina Yoon* Shanna and her toddler love this adorable board book about a bear who finds a lost bunny.
- "Not Quite Narwhal" by Jesse Sima* Laura and her toddler love this beautifully illustrated book about a unicorn who thinks he's a narwhal.
- "Daddy Honk Honk!" by Rosalinde Bonnet* Laura's bonus BFP this week is this cute book about an arctic fox who adopts a baby goose.
(*denotes affiliate link)
This episode's sponsors:
Whisker Litter-Robot
Litter-Robot is the world’s best automatic self-cleaning litter box. And just for listening to Big Fat Positive, you can save an extra $50 on bundles! Just use BFP at checkout.
Once Upon a Dance
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Episode Transcript
Laura
Welcome to Big Fat Positive with Shanna and Laura. This week we have our weekly check-ins, we have our special segment, What the Hack, where we tell you how dangling and hiding can help you win at momming, and we close with our BFPs and BFNs for the week. Let's get started! Hey everyone, welcome to the show. This is episode 146. Hello, Shanna. Hello. Hello, hello. Hi. So let's just jump right in. I need to hear about your week, what's going on with you and your family.
Shanna
All right. Well, let's get to it. Here's something I was going to tell you about. Okay, so the other day I had a meeting.
Sweet segue, right? I'm so smooth. Yes, please tell. Yes. So the other day I had a work meeting. You know, I work from home and I often have meetings that I need to do on Zoom. And the girls were playing in CeCe's room and I was like, oh no, I'm running late to my meeting. So I dart off into my meeting and I send Steve a text saying, I hopped into a meeting, girls are playing in CeCe's room. That's what I said. And the meeting is going along, blah, blah, blah, about two thirds of the way through the meeting. I look out the window because I kind of face my backyard window when I'm working. And I see them playing out in the backyard and I'm like, oh, that's great. Like you took them outside to get some air and, you know, sunshine and stuff. That's awesome. And the meeting ends about 30, 35 minutes later. And I head outside to check in on everybody.
And I see the girls playing in the sandbox. Cici has the hose. The water's on. She's spraying water everywhere. That's a favorite pastime here as well. Oh, God, yes. So obsessed with the hose. And I'm like, hey girls, where's daddy? I don't know. They're like, I'm like, oh, where's grandma? Because sometimes grandma will step in and watch. I don't know. I was like, are you guys out here unsupervised? And Elle is like, yeah. I'm like. How long have you been unsupervised? And like there's just no answer because they're in playing into sand and they don't give a crap about what I'm worried about at this moment. And like the pieces start coming together for me and I'm like, oh my God, they, I think they have been playing unsupervised the entire time I was in the meeting because I checked my phone and I noticed that Steve has not responded to that text I sent him.
I can tell he hasn't looked at it yet. I'm like, oh my God, like no one has been watching them for 30 minutes. Oh my god. And I know they've been outside for a portion of that type. Like, what have they been doing? So I messaged Steve. I'm like, dude, where are you? The girls are out here playing by themselves. What's going on? He's like, I don't know. I thought they were playing in ZZ's room. And I was like, yeah, alone. And I told you I had to go to meetings. He's like, well, I don't always get my messages right away. I'm like, well, I was running late to the meeting. I couldn't stop by and tell you. So it was just a massive miscommunication on our part.
He didn't know I was in a meeting because he didn't get the message and I didn't have time to tell him in person You know, it's just like this weird work from home Twilight Zone thing where just all the messages get missed and so I was like I had to piece together what happened There's half hour where they had no adults watching them and luckily I have the wise camera running in CECE's room.
Laura
So you could review the footage.
Shanna
Yeah, I could review the footage. At first I thought they had been outside alone for a long time, which I'm not really keen on because, you know, there's gardening tools and of course hoses and what like it's just it's not set up for unsupervised play. No, not really her room a little bit better. So I'm like looking at the camera and turns out they were playing in there by themselves for about 20 minutes. And I watched them get into CECE's crib. Both of them were in there. I watched L go out of the room into the bathroom, get the bathroom stool, like a little step stool. She brought it in, put it in the crib and was teaching CECE how to use the stool to climb out of the crib.
This is so much worse than I could have imagined because you know I'm like desperate for this kid to stay in the crib now back into it and she's like teaching her how to climb out of it and all this stuff and she climbed out and that's when that's after 20 minutes they figured out how to get out of that crib and went out back and just turned on the hose and started making mud. Troublemakers. Troublemakers. You had the best 30 minutes of your life. Enjoy it because you're on lockdown now, kids. Not gonna let that happen again.
Laura
Yeah. You know, I have to say I've had a lot of situations with Corey where it's like a similar thing. I'll send a text and that, oh, for instance, last night I was editing the podcast, okay? And I was in the ADU in our office in the back. It's like separate. And the baby Sebastian was, I guess, starting to cry, right? And like, he was due for feeding within the hour. I wasn't sure, you know, it's not feeding on demand. So you don't know if he's going to feed in two hours or three hours after the last feeding. So I thought I had time to edit the podcast. Hori sends me a text and he's like, he's stirring. And I write back, I was like, oh, okay, is he awake? Do you need me to come in? And then nothing. No response for five minutes. I was like, oh, shit, I better go in. So I come in and I was like, did you get my text? And he's like, oh, no, I wasn't looking at my phone. I was like, dude.
Shanna
We need to communicate better. Yes, we're so used to messages being received immediately. I don't know. I feel like I always have my phone on me. But it's not true, really. I mean, there are times when I set it down or I'm in a meeting, I'm not really looking at it. So I guess I got to realize that that's not a surefire way to communicate. Eyeball to eyeball. That's the only 100% surefire way to get that message across.
Laura
Or, you know, you could have a thumbs up if someone sees the text and gives the acknowledgement. That is fine, but yeah. Well, I'm glad they're okay. Can you remind people how old they are too? Because some people might think you're worried about like a 10 and 12 year old playing by themselves.
Shanna
Yes, Ella's five and CeCe's two. She's like two and three months now. Yeah, yeah.
Laura
Well, I'm glad they had fun and nothing was destroyed and they didn't get injured.
Shanna
Yes, I will say that CeCe tried to use the stool method again a couple times after that. Like just, you know, I would notice her toddle into the bathroom, grab the stool and kind of try to wedge it into her. her crib, because it's a folding stool, right? You can fold it flat and stick it through the slats. And I'm like, no, just I've got to put the stop on that. Like absolutely no stools in the crib ever. Mommy and daddy help you out of that crib. And I think I got the message through. We haven't had any more issues since then. Yeah.
Laura
Yeah, we actually had to take the pillow out of Augie's crib because one day he was like upset about something, which I'm, you know, it's upset about something during a nap. and he was standing on the pillow and it created just enough extra height for him that he toppled over and I was standing right next to him. He was mad that he couldn't close the blinds again. This is what he was mad about. He was like, Aki, do it! Aki, do it! And I'm like, you already did it. The blinds are closed, but he was reaching for them, you know? And because he was standing on that pillow, which is a toddler pillow, but still it gave him just enough height and he flipped like over and I caught him. He would have been bad.
Shanna
Yeah.
Laura
So we had to take the pillow out because anything that adds extra height, you know, is going to make the crib unsafe for him. And I think it scared the living daylights out of him. So now he doesn't try to reach like that anymore. Thank goodness. That's good.
Shanna
That's good. They have the capability of learning, which is good. Now, my girl has so much stuff in her crib. I'm glad she hasn't figured out how to use that stuff as step stool. She's got a pretty large blanket, a pillow. She has tons of stuffed animals in there. Really, she could stack a lot of that up and get out of there, I bet.
Laura
Just don't let Elle find out she has all that stuff that could turn into a A staircase. She'll teach her all the things she can do.
Shanna
Oh, man. So yeah, that's that. What about you guys? What's going on with you over there? Okay.
Laura
Oh, okay. Well, the baby Sebastian, he's six weeks and my toddler, Augie, he's 26 months still, two years and two months. Yeah, so that means I am six weeks postpartum. So I got to have my visit with my doctor this week. Oh, that's right. And I thought it would go well because I was feeling pretty good. Like I've been feeling really quite good. My bleeding stopped and I don't really have pain anymore where I had the tear. So I went in and it was confirmed. He said everything looked great and I could resume normal activities. It's so funny. My doctor is great. He gave me the same talk when I had Augie. at my six weeks postpartum visit, he was like, okay, you're free to resume all normal activity. You can lift things, you can have sex, you can do whatever you want.
He's like, but if you don't wanna do any of that, you can tell your husband that your doctor said that you are on strict, no lifting, no sex, whatever you want until you see him next because you should go at your own pace. And he's like, I love him so much. I never thought I'd love a male OB like this, but like, I just love him. He's so fantastic. And I was like, he was like, I will have your back. You can say that your doctor is stopping you. And I was like, oh, that's sweet, but also I don't need to lie. I don't need to lie to Corey.
But I appreciate that because there probably are people in relationships where they feel like people have expectations on them, relationships with their spouse or with their mother or something who thinks like, okay, it's six weeks postpartum, ready to bounce back and do everything that you used to be able to do. And even though you're cleared for activity, it doesn't mean that everything's the same or you're not fucking exhausted. Yeah, so I love my doctor for that. He's fantastic. He is, he is. And one thing that I was surprised to see when I went to my appointment was that the waiting room was full of spouses and partners. Oh, so partners are allowed back into visits? Apparently. So for people who are listening later down the line, we are still in the midst of our coronavirus pandemic. And the whole time I was pregnant, you could not bring another person into the office with you.
So I had to record on my phone video of all my sonograms and stuff. And to be fair, Corey wouldn't have been able to come with me because we needed someone to watch Augie. But in theory, we could have gotten a babysitter to watch Augie or he might have been in preschool and Corey could have come with me. Right. But it wasn't allowed. So when I came in for this visit, I guess because the numbers are down so much in LA County, it was back to being allowed. And it was kind of bittersweet for me to see, actually. Like I was surprised at my reaction to it because I saw a woman and her partner and they were like facetiming with their family and they were crying like happy tears and stuff. And I was just like, oh, I never, you know, I never got that with this pregnancy. And it really makes me feel for people who went through what I went through, but for their first pregnancy.
Because, you know, second pregnancy, I'm like, I've done all this before. I know what all these visits are, it's fine. But for your first pregnancy, you really want to share it. And that must have been so, so hard. If you're listening, listeners, and you had to go through your whole pregnancy without having your partner there, I'm so sorry. And I feel, yeah. So, but I'm happy for them because I don't want everyone to have to suffer like we suffered, right? Yeah. So, yeah. So that's back to normal, which is nice. That's good. Yeah. So, okay, let's talk about the baby. He's going through his first leap according to Wonder Weeks. Remember leaps? You love the leaps. Barely.
Yes. And I can tell he's sort of waking up and, you know, he's starting to be more interactive. He really likes this play gym I have for him, like this arch that goes over a quilt or whatever with hanging dangling wooden things. He likes to lie in his back and he's trying to bat at them and stuff. It's really, really sweet. So it's kind of fun to see him start being interactive in more intentional all the way. Yeah. That's awesome. Is he doing tummy time? He is. He actually enjoys it. He doesn't mind it. He almost fell asleep the other day doing tummy time. And he's really strong. He's turning his head both ways. I'm just so proud of him. So the only thing about tummy time and floor time is that Augie likes to come help. Like anytime I put Sebastian down, Augie's like, want to sit with baby brother, want to kiss baby brother. And then he helps by taking all of his toys away from him.
Shanna
Oh, that's so helpful.
Laura
Yeah, so thankfully the baby doesn't mind so much, but no, it does make me feel bad. We had this the play gym. We have a different one that's like full of soft cloth toys, thankfully, because Augie came over and he was like ripping them all off the thing. It was like, I'll take the way I'll take the, you know, he took every toy and they ran off with it and poor Sebastian was just lying there with an arch over him and nothing dangling.
Shanna
He's like, what's so cool about this thing?
Laura
Yeah, right. Anyway, but it's fun. It's very it's very cute to watch a little baby go through the same thing. You know, then the first time you do it, everything's so new and you don't know what to expect with development. And now I'm remembering this stuff as it comes up. And it's really fun to have that experience of being able to go through it again. But this time with a little experience like I don't know about you. I look back at videos of Augie from when he was really, really little, like a newborn or even like six months and babbling at me. And now because I know his facial expression so well and his personality, I can tell he was really trying to like actually communicate something with me. And at the time, I just thought it was cute little babbling. Like I didn't really understand that how much he understood.
Shanna
Mm-hmm. That's amazing.
Laura
And now I can see it this time around. I don't know Sebastian's personality as well, but I know that I think we don't give babies enough credit, especially the first time around. And so I'm trying to make sure I give him credit this time and be like, you are trying to reach for that toy. You are trying to talk to me in your own little way. Oh, that's so cool. I think it's cute. Um, and then let's see toddler update. Boy. I don't want to belabor. I don't want to belabor this. We're still having a bit of a nap regression. However, it's better this week because we have become consistent and kind of gone back to sleep trading. So our new plan, I think I talked about it briefly last week. Did I? I don't remember. Yeah. I'm like, I'm getting no sleep. I don't remember, but. So the plan was that we were going to like
Tell him exactly what to expect and stick to it be consistent because we thought our inconsistency was making things worse because we would like be worried that he was all emotionally distressed about the new brother showing up so. When he be crying in his crib after we put him down we go back in and try to comfort him and we do it like five times. because we didn't want him to be stressed and blame the baby, blah, blah, blah. Now we're like, okay, we're gonna read one book, we're gonna sing two songs, we're gonna give you two hugs and then we're out the door and we're not coming back. And that's actually been working. The first night he screamed and screamed and screamed for like 10 minutes and then he just went to bed. And then the next night it was like one minute of screaming.
And then the next night he screamed until we closed the door and then he was like, oh, I guess this is pointless.
Shanna
Oh, interesting. So you're doing this at night because you mentioned naps.
Laura
Oh, yeah. Sorry. It's both. It's both. His nighttime sleep has been fine, but he's been protesting like crazy. So yeah, it's for both. But for the naps, this has actually worked to get him to sleep, it seems.
Shanna
Mm-hmm.
Laura
The problem is between all his delays, I mean, he's just the master of delays. First, he needs to potty, then he needs to read another book, then he wants to close the window, then he wants to do this, then he needs to turn the light on, then he needs to turn the light off, and then he needs to turn the light off again. It's just one thing after another. And that combined with the freaking time change that just happened. Oh, yes. He is now sleeping for his nap from like 2.30 to like 4.30 or 5 o'clock every day.
Shanna
Oh, my God. When does he even go to bed then at night? Like 8.30. Like it's terrible. Oh, fuck that. Shut it down, Laura. Shut it down.
Laura
We're trying. We're trying. But it's like, it's this thing where it's like, We've also decided we're gonna make sure he has two hours of quiet time in his crib for his nap no matter what, right? That's what we're telling him. You don't have to sleep, but you're gonna be in here for two hours, right? And we'll get him in the crib at one, and then he'll fall asleep at two or two thirty, and then it's like, well, shit. Am I going to wake him up a half hour after he fell asleep when he hasn't been napping for a week? And this is my only time at selfish because I don't want to wake him up either. So yeah, it's a fucking mess.
Shanna
Oh man, that is such a mess. Oh my God, I'm the person that wakes up the kids if they nap too long. So I'm like stressing out hearing this. But I mean, I understand why you guys are doing it if he hasn't been napping at all lately. And now he is. It's like you're just grateful to get what you can get.
Laura
Exactly. What is your cutoff? Is there like an amount of time they sleep or is it like an hour? Three. Three o'clock. Three p.m. If they're still asleep, you wake them up at three. Got it.
Shanna
Yeah. And by them, I mean CeCe. Oh, yeah, of course.
Laura
What time is your bedtime or what time is her bedtime? Seven okay seven and seven thirty. Okay. All right Maybe I need to start doing that because I don't know it's a mess But then he wakes up and he's so happy and it's just like oh see sleeping.
Shanna
It's glorious Yeah, maybe he'll get hooked on sleeping again when he realizes how great it is Why don't these kids understand how great sleeping is that's what I want to know My kid loves it so much that she wakes up cranky every single time, because she's not sleeping anymore. So that's one reason I wake her up too. It's like, well, she's going to wake up cranky if she wakes up by herself. She's going to wake up cranky if I wake her up. So what the heck?
Laura
Might as well just nib it in the bud. Yeah. All right. But yeah. So we are napping again. Consistency is working, but it is consistently late.
Shanna
I bet that'll get better soon. I hope so. Yeah, just inch it back down.
Laura
Yeah, I'm just going to do that thing that you're supposed to do before the time change where you like move it up every 15 minutes every day for like four days or whatever, or 10 minutes every day for five days.
Shanna
Who actually does that though? I mean, honestly, I don't know. Do people do that? I stopped doing that after the kid was like a year old.
Laura
I'm sure people do. I just I can't I don't have that like fine of a tuned of a nap time anyway. You know what I mean? Like it's all give or take a half hour anyway, depending on how much delay there is. So maybe it's just my personality.
Shanna
But well, daylight savings always sneaks up on me, too. It's like, wait, what? That's like tomorrow. Oh, fuck.
Laura
Well, I hope we get rid of it. Anyway, anyway, should we move on? Yeah, I think we need to move on to our special segment. Let's do it. OK.
Shanna
We're back and this week's special segment is what the hack where we share the mom hacks that we have come up with lately. Laura, you are up first. And I assume you've got some fantastic newborn mom hacks to share with us. Am I correct?
Laura
Yes, I have been collecting these as they come up because there's so much I forgot. And then as I've run into problems, I have remembered all these little techniques. So I've been taking notes. Ooh. But first, I actually want to share a mom hack for moms for us. Oh, excellent. OK, so this could be controversial because I'm going to frame it as a way for you to get more self-care in your life. but it also involves cleaning, so it's not the most feminist thing, but stay with me, okay? My hack, if you need some me time and you love taking showers, bring a Mr. Clean magic eraser into the shower with you, okay? Nothing says me time like mr clean here's why it's not as pathetic as it sounds so we all need to clean our showers right eventually like it needs to happen and the grout gets dirty and I don't know I have a white tile in my shower so that gets all kinds of like weird smudges on it.
And the magic eraser is, I don't know, it's probably toxic and terrible, but I freaking love the thing. I'm sure you do too, because I feel like I know you well enough that this is the type of thing you would like.
Shanna
Oh yeah, love it. Great for getting crayons off the wall when kids drawn in the wall.
Laura
Yes, yes. I don't know how it works. It really is magic. You just wet it down and you rub the wall and it gets clean. So I realized if I brought it into the shower, I could not only take a nice long hot shower by myself, but also get something done. And it also kind of fulfills a compulsive need to find, like scrub things clean. So it seems fun to me. It's not like anyone was like, you need to clean the shower today. But I was just like, look, two for one, get a nice long hot shower by yourself and get the shower clean, win-win. Totally.
Shanna
Well, it's certainly better than standing clothed in a shower cleaning it. I mean, I hate cleaning the shower and the tub. Oh my God, it's the worst.
Laura
Because your knees get all wet, right? With like, who knows what bathroom cleaner? Exactly. Obviously, you probably shouldn't do this with caustic bathroom cleaner, but the magic razor, you can be like naked and getting your warm, massaging, shower head action on your back while you scrub. There you go. Add a glass of wine and you're set. I know this totally sounds like one of those ads you'd see in like a 1950s women's magazine. There's like women love Hoover vacuums or whatever. It makes them happy, but look, this is where I'm at right now.
Shanna
Take pleasure where you can find it. The magic eraser is awesome. I love it. Elle loves it, too. She's discovered the beauty of the magic eraser. I can get her to clean stuff with it, too. Nice. So introduce it to your little one as soon as you can. Good idea.
Laura
OK. But anyway, that's my first mom hack.
Shanna
Awesome.
Laura
What about you? What do you have for us?
Shanna
So I have discovered that under the bed storage bins, do you know what I'm talking about? They're big but they're kind of flat, like maybe six inches high and you can put clothes in them for a different season or whatever and shove it under your bed. Yeah. We had a couple of these lying around our garage and I brought it in as, first of all, as a sensory bin. It's like I put kinetic sand in them one time. So first of all, they're great for sensory bins, right? For the kids playing in stuff. And then also after we were done with that, I threw a bunch of toys in them and then just shoved it under the couch and it was a perfect storage solution for the living room for getting toys out of the way, like hidden away and just somewhere neat and clean. And I love this solution and I wanted to share it. That's amazing.
Laura
I've been meaning to do a toy culling, get them all out of the living room and start to rotate them more. So this is a good idea.
Shanna
Yes, of course, this means you have to have a couch that's raised up off the ground. Both of mine are. I know that some go all the way to the ground. But if you do have one and you're looking to have some toys on hand in the living room, but you don't want to see them all the time, just stick them in one of these bad boys and zip it under the couch and you're all good.
Laura
Half the reason we got a new bed, when we did recently, you know, I talked about it on the podcast. One half was because we wanted a king size bed. The other half was we wanted a bed frame that was high enough to put under bed storage bins under. Because it's such a loss. We had a low profile bed or whatever last time, and it was three inches high. You couldn't fit anything under it. It's so much lost space.
Shanna
True.
Laura
Yeah, so I'm all about those underbed storage bins now. Love them.
Shanna
All right, what do you got for us?
Laura
Okay, so my next hack is actually newborn related. It's perfect for little tiny babies fresh from the hospital and it's called the swaddle bath. Have you heard of it?
Shanna
No, no idea.
Laura
Okay, so when I brought Augie home from the hospital two years ago, the first time I tried to give him a bath, I had one of these like plastic bath thingamabobs that you put on top of the sink and you fill it up. It's a perfectly fine baby bath, but he hated it, hated it, hated it, hated it. And I didn't know what to do about it and I was kind of stressed about it, never wanting to give him a bath because he screamed and screamed and screamed. And then my friend Teresa, who was a guest on the show very early on, she's the midwife, who came on our show she taught me about the swaddle bath technique and is revolutionized how i give newborns and small babies baths i started it about two months into augies life but now with sebastian.
I started it from day one, the minute I could give him a proper bath when his umbilical cord stump fell off, because that's when you can finally give them a real bath. I started it with him, and it's a game changer. Okay, so here's the basics. You can Google it, but here's how we do it. So you get a muslin blanket or receiving blanket. This is actually perfect for those receiving blankets that are too small to actually uses a blanket and you don't really know what their point is but you don't get rid of them because someone gave them to your shower and you feel bad about throwing them away. Okay, so you take one of these receiving blankets, you put it down, you put your baby down, you undress them, you take off their diaper and then you wrap them in the blanket so it opens to the front and what you have is like you have four corners of the blanket, right?
So each corner goes over one limb. like a blanket does, right? So you have sort of a little wrapped up envelope of a baby. So the baby is nice and warm and then you bring it over to your bathtub and you put the baby into the bath with the blanket on them already, okay? So they never get exposed to the cold air. And then you have like a cup or a scoop or something and you scoop the warm water over them while they're still wrapped up in the blanket so that the nice warm water stays on the blanket, stays on the skin. And so they're cold, because they get scared and cold with the cold air hitting the wet skin, right? So they're completely wrapped up, swaddled up. It's not a true swaddle, obviously. Their arms aren't completely tight in or anything. And then what you do is you just peel back one corner wash each limb separately.
And then when you're done washing that limb, you just put it back on so that they're never more than like one limb exposed at a time.
Shanna
Wait, are they submerged in water or just like sitting in an empty tub? I'm confused.
Laura
Well, the way I do it, I have this bathtub that has like a sling in it so that they're a little like basically like their little butts and backs are in the water, but they're not fully submerged. Does that make sense? Right.
Shanna
I remember that.
Laura
Yeah. If you have, because I think that the way newborns are, they have to be reclined so much that you can't really have more than like an inch or two of water. So no matter what their chests are going to be exposed to the air. So that's what we do.
Shanna
I see.
Laura
It's worked so well. Actually, I'm going to send you a picture because it's actually the cutest thing too. That's the other benefit is that it's the cutest thing ever. Okay. So I'm sending you the picture.
Shanna
Okay.
Laura
Oh, that does look cozy. Right. I mean, he's just so snuggly. He's so happy in this picture. He's actually sleeping because he's so comfortable. Wow. He looks so cozy. So there's one more step I forgot to mention, which is before you get the baby in the bath, you have to lay out your exit strategy for a better word. So a lot of people have these hooded baby towels, which is what I have. But that's not enough. They get cold, those get wet and cold. So what you have to do is I do this on my kitchen island. First, you put out a very warm blanket, like a big fuzzy blanket or like a nice thick blanket, not just a muslin one. You want like a good baby blanket. And then you put the baby hooded towel on top of that.
So the minute you're done with the bath and you like want to rinse them off with fresh water, you can instantly pick them up, scooch them right over and double wrap them so that they're nicely bundled up. I'm going to send you a picture of him double bundled after his bath. And it's also very sweet. But the double bundle after is actually pretty important too.
Shanna
Aw, lucky baby so bundled and warm.
Laura
And he's snuggling with the cat. Yeah, that helps. Yes. So the swaddle bath. If your baby is not liking their baths, do what I say or just Google it. It's probably helpful to see a visual. And I'll post pictures of this on our social media so you can see.
Shanna
Yeah.
Laura
Yeah. All right. That is another hack. Shanna, do you have another one for us?
Shanna
I do. My next one is a teeth brushing hack that works on both of my kids. So when they are resistant to me brushing, because I let them brush most of the time, and then I will just kind of grab the brush and get in there and do a better scrub down, you know, but they don't always want me to do that. I do a thing where I say, wait a minute, is that a little penguin I see back there? on your back tooth? I gotta get it, I gotta get it. And they're like, oh, penguin and hand me their toothbrush. And for some reason, they're like really into the idea of me like capturing penguins or lions or whatever animal of the day is back in their teeth with the toothbrush. So once I do that, they let me have the toothbrush and I can like brush back there and I'm like, okay, I got that one. Oh, let me see the other side. Oh my gosh, there's a lion.
And I get the little lion and they're laughing and opening their mouth and letting me go in and brush every single tooth. which is a miracle. I don't know why this works, but they love it.
Laura
That is genius. I'm actually going to try that tonight because we have the hardest time. It's the same. It's like, ah, you do it. And he grabs his toothbrush and then I'm like, OK, say, ah, let me see. Let me see those molars. It never works. So I'm going to try this and report back because. Okay. That's genius. Yeah.
Shanna
Yeah. Try it. I'm curious to see. And then my other tooth brushing hack is more simple. It's just have a lot of different toothpaste on hand and let them choose which one. We've got bubblegum flavor. We've got a Moana one. We've got minty. And really my kids, 95% of the time just choose mint. Like they just choose adult. toothpaste, but they love having that autonomy over what toothpaste they get to choose. I can see that. And that begets cooperation, which is always a good thing in the bathroom.
Laura
For sure. I'm going to have to get more toothpaste. We just have the one.
Shanna
Ah, yes. Stock up, stock up. So that was a quick one. Do you have another one for us?
Laura
I do. Okay. So this is a thing I've actually never tried, but I'm planning on it, but I just heard about it and I wanted to share, which is, do you know about dangle pumping? No, what in the world? So I learned about this from the Milk Minute podcast. We actually recently were guests on the Milk Minute podcast and I love the show and I've been listening to it. It's a really great evidence-based breastfeeding podcast. And they talked about dangle pumping or dangle feeding and I had never heard of it. And so I had to Google it immediately. And it's something that I guess people do a lot of if they have a clogged duct. So the idea is that you can use gravity to help you unclog a plugged duct. So literally you're dangling your breast over like the side of a chair or whatever you can do to get it hanging straight down with the nipple pointing towards the ground.
when you're nursing or pumping. But it actually can help you pump more, apparently. Really? One of the hosts of Milk Minute, and I can't remember which one it was, said that she always would do it at the end of her pumping session because she could get way more out by dangle pumping. So I'm going to try that. I'm only pumping once every couple of days right now, just if I have to replace a feed. But I'm going to try it so maybe I can build up my stash.
Shanna
Yeah. Well, that's genius. I wish I would have known about that, although I feel like I would have felt very silly in that position. But if it means more milk, I think I might have gone for it.
Laura
I feel like there's a lot of people who go to extreme lengths to pump more, you know? And this is just a different position. You can do it. It sounds like it could be messy, depending on what your pump situation is. So you have to be really careful. True. But yeah, dangle pumping. Give it a try. Good to know. I'm going to. I'll check back in. Maybe we'll do a loose ends and I'll tell you if I tried it and how it works. Yes, yes. Okay, but my boobs are upright right now because I want to hear your next hack. No dangling. I mean, they dangle in a different way, but let's be honest.
Shanna
Dangling boobs. Good content. Love it. All right. So mine is something I just came up with because I was having a problem while potty training CECE back when we were doing that is her little potty did not have a place for toilet paper. And that was driving me nuts because I would pick up her potty and bring it with us outside or in this room or that room. And I always have to be like, where's the toilet paper? You know, I couldn't keep track of it. And so my hack was to make my own toilet paper holder on her little potty. So I got some packaging tape. and a chopstick. But you could also use a pencil or whatever is like the right length and skinny width to do this. I taped it on there. I did it upright so that the toilet paper roll could just sit right on top. And then it traveled with us wherever we went. And I felt like a genius for that. That is very smart. I like it.
I will say we have a new potty now that a different style and it has its own toilet paper holder on it, which is also genius, but a lot of them don't have anything like this. So I just made my own.
Laura
You know, I'm wondering if this is because it's kind of like male centric because I have to admit we don't really use toilet paper. We either use like wet wipes or nothing because with boys they pee and they don't really have to wipe. It's the dangling. We're back on the dangling.
Shanna
Dangling. Now I know what I'm going to name this episode.
Laura
I don't know.
Shanna
Something to do with dangling. Maybe not.
Laura
Something to do with dangling. But yeah, that could see that being a problem because obviously girls, I know, I need toilet paper.
Shanna
Yeah. And part of potty training is teaching her how to use toilet paper and how to wipe. You know, it's part of the Daniel Tiger song. If you have to go potty, how does it? If you have to go potty stop and go right away, flush and wash and beyond your way. You know what? Nope. They don't even talk about wiping. Never mind. That's also male centric. You know what? Now that I think about it, the girls, when they watch that, they both go, why doesn't anyone wipe? Why isn't Daniel wiping? I'm like, I don't know.
Laura
It's the patriarchy in action, Jana.
Shanna
Yes. The patriarchy is alive and well on Daniel Tiger. Poor Daniel Tiger. Poor Daniel Tiger.
Laura
Doesn't the mom tiger not have a name?
Shanna
I don't think either of the parents have a name. Fair, fair. But the dad does not wear pants.
Laura
I like Donald Duck.
Shanna
Yeah, and neither does Daniel, but the mom wears a full outfit, a dress, of course. She needs to be put together. Yes, yes, she does for all that housework. All right. You have another one for us?
Laura
Yes. Okay. So I read about this in the New York Times. This is another thing I haven't tried, but I aspire to try. So there was an article at the end of last year, December 24th, and it was titled, The Tiny Victories That Got Parents Through 2020. The subtitle was, It's Been a Rough Year, Let's Celebrate the Little Winds. And I thought it was a very sweet little article about all the nice things that happened. And I took a note of this because I was like, oh, this is really smart. One of the little anecdotes was from a woman named Janice A. Clear from Brooklyn, New York. And here's what she said. She said, I was fed up with trying to figure out which tiny socks belong to my one year old versus my four year old. So now the baby only has striped socks and the older kid has solid colored socks. The older kids socks are handed down to her cousin.
So striped socks for one kid and solid for the other. I can see this being super helpful going forward.
Shanna
Yes. Yes. I already kind of have that problem. And I just hate socks trying to find matches anyway. So I just bought Cece all white socks. So she has all white socks and then Elle has whatever combo of whatever pattern socks she had.
Laura
So yeah, I like that. I think that's a great idea. Sock sizing is super confusing, too, because we'll get out some socks and try to shove them on my guys' feet. And it's awful. And we're like, oh, these are for six-month-olds. But when they're all shrunk down, it's hard to tell, right? There's such a small size difference when they're not on a foot. Yes. I think I'm going to implement this once Sebastian gets into sock-wearing territory.
Shanna
That's smart. I like it. Yeah. Okay.
Laura
Do you have another one for us?
Shanna
Yes. I have one more. And this is a mealtime hack that I love to use. I love to hide things in pasta sauce, like vegetables and meat and stuff. But the key is to use elbow macaroni or some other small macaroni. Because when you chop up the meat, like if you chop up ham or whatever and vegetables, and then put in the sauce and with the elbow macaroni it all just looks like one big chunky dish and they can't tell the difference between anything and they eat it all. So my hack is to hide vegetables and meat if you want to into elbow macaroni pasta.
Laura
because it gets sucked into the hole, basically. And so they end up actually eating it as opposed to just eating the pasta and the sauce falling off of it.
Shanna
No, it all just becomes camouflaged with the red sauce because the macaroni is a certain size. And when they take a scoop, everything just is on that one scoop. I get it. I put all that stuff in a spaghetti with like long stringy noodles. Well, they're not going to eat the vegetables that are along with that. They're going to pick out the long noodles because it's very obvious the difference, you know, what they like is the pasta. They don't like the other stuff. So everything is the same size, consistency, little chunks and, you know, throw a marinara on there and boom it all. It's like just one big bite. It's almost like a chili in a way. A pasta chili.
Laura
Yeah that's that's very smart because we use like penne or rotini but you're right a lot of sauce gets left. in the bowl. So OK, I'm going to do that next time. I'm going to add that to my Instacart.
Shanna
Yeah, it's good stuff.
Laura
Cool. All right. So that's all I have. What about you? You know what? I actually have a bunch of really tiny newborn ones. Not the newborns are tiny, but the hacks are also tiny. So I was thinking maybe we could take a break and we could come back and I could just do them rapid fire real quick. All right. Just impart my knowledge after the break. I think that would be great. Let's do it. OK.
Shanna
We are back and Laura's got some rapid fire newborn mom hacks for us. Laura, I can't wait to hear what you've got. Lay it on us.
Laura
Okay. So these are all things I've realized recently because I have a six week old, obviously. So the first thing I realized, this happened like three days postpartum. I had one awful night with the baby where I had to change his clothes like five times until I remembered this hack, which is get a freaking bib on the baby before anything else. All right. Of course you don't leave the bib on them while they're sleeping in their bassinet.
Shanna
So you had to change clothes because of spit up, not because of like poop.
Laura
Yes, because of spit up. Sorry, it should have been clearer. My first was a happy spitter. This one's a happy spitter, actually a little bit less. But you get the bib on. So let's say they need a change of outfit because they've had a blowout or they did get spit up on their clothes. When you're changing their clothes, put the bib on, then put the new clothes on, right? Because for me, I forgot about that and I would get the whole outfit off, put the whole new outfit on, go to grab the bib, turn back around and see that he had spit up all over his shoulder already.
Shanna
Oh no. Okay. Okay. I see where you're going here. Smart.
Laura
There's a bib on the baby at all times, except for sleeping. Okay. That's the first one. The next one is related to spit up as well, which is a lot of us have breastfeeding pillows, right? I had the breast friend. I really liked people have boppies. And it tends to encourage, I think it's like the cross cradle position I think is what it's called, where they're just lying in front of you on their side basically in nursing, which is what my preferred nursing position is. But I realized what I need to do was angle the breastfeeding pillow just a little bit so that the baby's butt is down like lower than its head while you're nursing so that they don't end up with as much spit up.
Shanna
Yes. I remember doing that too. Smart. So angle that baby's butt down while you're feeding them.
Laura
It's a lot easier when you're bottle feeding because it's sort of more natural to have them at an angle. But when they're breastfeeding, it's just very easy to not do that. So that was something I was reminded of. Final spit up related one. If you have one of these breastfeeding pillows that has a like cloth cover over it, first get a second cover. You're going to need it, right? The other thing I discovered is that I use these sort of waterproof, they're like, they're essentially puppy pads, right? They're the medical disposable pads that like on the back have a bit of plastic and on the top it's like a absorbent thing. It's like a bed pad.
Like a pee pad. Puppy pee pad. Yeah, like a pee pad. It's just like a puppy pee pad, but it's like a medical pee pad, right? I buy them in bulk and that's what I use for diaper changes and whatnot. They're really great for on-the-go diaper changes. Not great for the environment. Sorry, environment. It's my bad. But anyway, so I have these things and I realized that a really great way to protect your breastfeeding pillow is you put one of those under the cover. So between the foam and the cover, you put one of these waterproof pads so that when the baby spits up all over it, you don't have it soak all the way through to the inner lining, which is kind of yucky. So smart. That's that tip. That's the last bit up related one.
Shanna
Okay.
Laura
I have just one more newborn tip. And this is a diaper rash related. My tip is after you've cleaned the baby's butt with a wipe and if you have a boy cover up the penis, you blow on the baby's butt before you put the new diaper on. You want that butt to be dry. You're going to end up with diaper rash if you have a moist butt. And a lot of people say like try to have diaper free time and try to, you know, do all this stuff and they try to sell you all kinds of creams. I use Boudreaux's butt paste as a butt cream. I use it all the time. But before I put the butt paste on, I blow on his little butt. and get his skin nice and dry and that clears up so much diaper rash. It's amazing.
Shanna
Yes, that skin has got to be dry. I used to just use a tissue, grab a tissue and blot it dry. I like your method. I like your method. No trash.
Laura
I don't know. I mean, it might be a little weird, but you really definitely have to cover the penis if you have a boy because you could get sprayed right in the face.
Shanna
Oh, that's why. I was wondering why you needed to do that. Yeah, you have two girls. No penis knowledge here.
That's what she said. What?
Laura
I don't know, that doesn't really work, but I had to say it. But anyway, those were my rapid fire things I've discovered or rediscovered recently. That's been really helpful in the newborn phase. So hopefully, hopefully some of you are pregnant and listening and like taking notes. So you don't have to suffer through diaper rash and spit up covered breastfeeding pillows like I did. Yes. Well, thank you for sharing. Those are awesome. Always. But anyway, that's it for me. Should we move on to our BFPs and BFNs? Yeah, let's do it.
Okay, so we close every show with our big fat positives or big fat negatives of the week. Shanna, what do you have for us this week? A BFP or a BFN?
Shanna
I have a BFP. Yay. Yay. It's a board book that Cece has been loving lately. And we've had it in our library for a while because our friend Jen gave it to Elle actually for her birthday a few years ago. And that book is called Found. And it's written by Selena Yoon. And it is so cute. I loved it when she got it for Elle way back in the day. And we've just rediscovered it recently. Like Cece's gotten hooked on it. I mentioned last week, I think, that she's been getting more into books and what's on the pages and really curious about them and requesting to read books over and over. And this is really one of them that she loves. She loves talking about what's on every page and inspects everything. And it's about a little bear who comes across a lost toy bunny, like a little stuffed bunny, and tries to find the owner for the bunny and puts found posters everywhere.
Like found bunny, like, if you're the owner, contact me. and just searching high and low for the bunny, but of course falling in love with the bunny along the way and finds the owner of the bunny. And I will let you figure out how the rest of the book goes when you get it yourself if you do. I won't spoil it for anyone. But it's just so cute. I love the illustrations. They're really adorable. The story is good. And Cici loves it. So I just really wanted to talk about that book.
Laura
Oh, that's really cute. How is it like longer than your average toddler book? Is it more engaging?
Shanna
It has a story with a beginning, middle and end, which is, you know, a lot more than a lot of toddler books, which are just like red ball, purple triangle, you know, just naming objects or just random little rhymes that don't add up to much story wise. So that's what I really love about it as a story. And it's a board book. So, you know, it's like typical 10 pages. Maybe. Yeah. It's very simple.
Laura
I guess that was sort of the question behind the question is like, yeah, because I'm sort of tired of the Sandra Boynton-esque books. They're great for younger toddlers, I think, and for babies. But we've gotten to the point where we really need a story. to stay engaged. So yeah, I mean, that's not entirely true. He'll still look at his books that are just pictures of trucks with the names of the trucks underneath it. He'll look at that for an hour, but I need a story in my book. So.
Shanna
Yeah. And CeCe is just naturally showing more interest in books with stories. One thing she really loves doing is going into Elle's room and picking books off of her bookshelf now. So paper books, bigger books, books with more complicated stories are all on her radar now. So it's really fun. And this book is a nice in-between. It's not a baby book. It's not a five-year-old book. It's just a really sweet, perfect book for a two to three-year-old, I think.
Laura
That's great. I'm going to have to look it up.
Shanna
Found by what's the author's name again? Selena Yoon, Y-O-O-N. Yeah. All right. What do you got for us?
Laura
You know what's funny? I have a book too. It's a book week. Mine's a BFP, I should say. It could have been a BFN, I guess, but no, it's a BFP. Cool. So this is a book that I actually got from the library. They're doing curbside pickup and I've been trying to order books and it's hard because, you know, you can't browse and just pick books off the shelf. So I've been trying to find recommendations and this is one that the library actually recommended to me. And it's called Not Quite Narwhal. Do you have that one? Oh, yes, we own that one. It's wonderful. It's so great. And I know it came out in 2017, so it's not like a new book, but it's by a woman named Jesse Seema. And it's just the cutest little book. I absolutely love it. The illustrations are just so pleasant and adorable.
So it's about a little unicorn that's born under the sea and thinks he's a narwhal until he ends up above land and sees other unicorns. And then he's torn between being a unicorn or being a narwhal. And it's just a very sweet little story. And what's really great about it in our house is that the final page. The story isn't, you know, I feel like I'm not spoiling anything for anyone. You know, he finds out he can sort of be both. He can be a narwhal and a unicorn. He can play with both of his friend groups and they have this huge spread on the last page where the narwhals are like in the water on the beach and the unicorns are on the sand and everyone's playing with each other. And there is so much to look at and talk about on that page that it's just been really great for vocabulary and just holding interest. You know, Augie will just be like, I want to look at the beach.
And then you will go to the beach and he'll be like, what's that? And I'll be like, that's a unicorn. buried under sand in the shape of a narwhal. What's that? That's a bonfire. What's that? They're playing beach volleyball. You know, it's just one thing after another. There's so much detail on it. So I really, really like not quite narwhal.
Shanna
That's so fun. I remember being a kid and loving books that had big spreads like that with lots of little details to discover. So I think it's so, so cool that our kids are into that kind of thing too.
Laura
And I'm really starting to understand sort of the psychology or reasoning why a lot of these books are like they are because I can see how my toddler interacts with it now. At first, I kind of, aesthetically, I'm kind of the kind of person who likes, you know the book Press Here, you know that one, where it's like, you have a dot on the page and you press it and then the next page there's like two dots and there's like, press the other dot. And it's very minimalist. Sort of intellectually and aesthetically, I like books like that that are really simple. But now I see why a book like Not Quite Narwhal, which has a big spread at the end, is really just more engaging for little brains because there's so much to look at and keep them interested. Totally. It also reminds me of, have we talked about the book Daddy Honk Honk? No, I don't even know that one. I'll add that as my little BFP.
So this is a bonus BFP, I guess. It's called Daddy Honk Honk. And it's by Rosalind Bonnet. It also came out in 2017, but it's also kind of got the same color scheme, really kind of pastel-y, very just pleasant colors. And it's about a arctic fox who inadvertently adopts a little goose, a baby goose. And the little goose follows him around saying, Daddy Hong Kong, Daddy Hong Kong, And it goes around to all the arctic animals trying to see how he can learn to be a dad. And it's just really cute. And it ends with a big spread of all the animals watching the northern lights. And it's just so beautiful and such a sweet little story. So Daddy Hong Kong will be my bonus BFP.
Shanna
Oh, awesome. I'll have to check that one out. But that's it for me. All right. And I guess that's it for the episode. Yeah, so let's wrap it up. All right. Listeners, we would love to hear from you. If you have any BFPs, any mom hacks, we want to hear them. Laura, where can they reach us?
Laura
We are on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook at BFPpodcast. We also have a website, BigBatPositivePodcast.com. You can send us an email and you can always include a voice memo in that email to contact at BigBatPositivePodcast.com. Finally, join our Facebook community group. Search Big Fat Positive Community. Request to join because it's a private group. Answer the two membership questions and we will send you right through to all the really amazing and beautiful conversations we're having in there.
Shanna
If you love our show, please rate and review us wherever you listen to podcasts. And spread the word. Let your friends know about BFP. Our show is produced by Laura Birek, Shanna Micko, and Steve Yager. Thanks for listening, everyone. Bye. Bye.