Ep. 73: The Struggle Is Real: Giving Medicine to a Baby

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Laura Birek: Welcome to Big Fat Positive with Shanna and Laura. This week we have our weekly check-ins. We have our special segment, They Said What?!, where people offer their 2 cents on infant sizeism and gender norms and we close with our weekly BFPs and BFNs. Let’s get to it.

[Music]

Laura Birek: Hey, everyone. Welcome to episode 73. Hi, Shanna.

Shanna Micko: Hey.

Laura Birek: Hey. How old is your baby? Tell us what you’ve been doing lately.

Shanna Micko: She’s 10 months, two weeks and all week I have been trying to take care of a sick baby.

Laura Birek: Oh, poor, CeCe.

Shanna Micko: I know. I took her to the doctor because of this lingering cough. I think you did a similar thing, right? Your baby was just coughing forever and so you’re like, well, I should go check on this cough and I took her in and he looks in her ear and same thing with you, he was like, “Oh, she has an ear infection.” I was like, what?

Laura Birek: That sucks, man.

Shanna Micko: Yeah, I did not know. She wasn’t really exhibiting signs of ear infection. So she had that and then he listened to her lungs and he was like, “Oh yeah, she also has bronchitis.”

Laura Birek: Oh, baby.

Shanna Micko: Oh my gosh. Poor thing. So in the office he’s like, “We should try doing a breathing treatment for her bronchitis.” They bring in this big machine and this little cup that like expels… What’s in a breathing treatment inhaler? Prednisone or?

Laura Birek: Yeah, probably. Probably some kind of steroid.

Shanna Micko: Something like that. So we had to stand there and put this thing right by her nose for 10 minutes so she could breathe in this steam. Thank goodness Steve came with me to this appointment, because I don’t know how I would’ve held her because they didn’t want to strap it on her face because they’re like, “There’s no way she’s going to keep a mask on her face for 10 minutes,” so just hold it in front of her.

Laura Birek: Oh, boy.

Shanna Micko: I know. So I was like, I’m going to just play a cartoon or something on my phone. I played like little kids music videos and so that was like frustrating and then he was like, “Okay.” After that he’s like, “That worked well. So what I want you to do at home is give her medicine for the ear infection, which was Augmentin. It doesn’t taste very good so she probably won’t like it, so I’ll give you a little bit extra.” I was like, good, God.

Laura Birek: Great.

Shanna Micko: Amoxicillin usually at least tastes like bubble gum or something, so the kids like it. So I knew I had that coming and then he is like, “And continue this breathing treatment, but you can just do it with an inhaler.” But there’s a contraption I had to get to get her to take an inhaler. So this week has been crazy. Of course, she hates the Augmentin and I have to give her five milliliters of it.

Laura Birek: That’s a lot.

Shanna Micko: I know. I try squirting it in her mouth and she gags, throws up, refuses to take it. I’m like, “Oh God, what do we do?” He was like, “I don’t really suggest putting it in formula, because some of it might stick on the edge of the bottle and blah, blah.” I can’t put it in stuff. I didn’t know what to do. I ended up getting like a smaller syringe and sticking it towards the back corner of her mouth and plunging it in and she’s screaming and crying and I just felt like I was torturing her.

Laura Birek: That’s awful.

Shanna Micko: I read online. Someone’s like, “Mix it with grape juice,” and I tried that and she got one width of it and was just like, nope, and refused it.

Laura Birek: I know what this is.

Shanna Micko: Yeah, it’s very pungent. This stuff is horrible. I was kind of feeling pissed that he just didn’t give me Amoxicillin.

Laura Birek: For real.

Shanna Micko: So annoying. I have to do that twice a day and then this inhaler…

Laura Birek: Oh my God. How do you get a baby to use an inhaler?

Shanna Micko: So there is the inhaler, but you have this contraption.

Laura Birek: It’s like a normal inhaler that you think of like for asthma, right? Like a little push down on the top. That type of thing?

Shanna Micko: Yes.

Laura Birek: Okay.

Shanna Micko: What came with it was a baby inhaler chamber. I stick the inhaler into this chamber and then stick this long chamber onto her face. It has like a medical oxygen face mask looking thing and I’m supposed to push the inhaler. The inhaler aerosol goes into this chamber and then she’s supposed to breathe in five times into this face mask to get the aerosol from the chamber and then I have to do it again. So she does it five more breaths. She’s twisting and turning and this is after I force some Augmentin down her throat. I’m just like, oh my God, honey. I’m so sorry.

Laura Birek: Poor you. Poor baby. Oh my God, are you counting the breaths? Is she crying?

Shanna Micko: Yes, she’s crying when at least breaths coming in and out.

Laura Birek: Oh, she’s probably taking deep breaths at least.

Shanna Micko: But she’s a silent crier so she’ll hold her breath and cry.

Laura Birek: Oh, no. That’s the worst. So heartbreaking when they silent cry.

Shanna Micko: Also, they don’t breathe when they silent cry. So I have to hold the thing on her face extra-long while she’s silent crying. It’s so freaking ridiculous. I’m like, is any of this working? Is she even getting her medicine? So this is what we are doing this week. 

I just don’t know how I’m going to improve this situation.

Laura Birek: How long do you have to do it all together?

Shanna Micko: 10 days.

Laura Birek: Jesus fucking Christ.

Shanna Micko: The inhaler thing I’m supposed to do three times a day. Luckily, she’s in good spirits otherwise. So I’m lucky for that. It wasn’t such a horrible ear infection that she has a fever yet or anything. That’s my only check-in this week.

Laura Birek: That’s a lot.

Shanna Micko: Yes, it is. I feel just exhausted and if anyone has any tips for getting a baby to take shitastic medicine, I need to know, please.

Laura Birek: Oh my gosh, yes. I’ve only ever had to give him like delicious medicine and he loves it. It’s like ibuprofen and Tylenol and amoxicillin and he’s just like, more please. Oh, it’s gone. I would like some more. I feel like your doctor needs some feedback on this. I feel like you might be like, hey, so thank you for providing me medical care. Just so you know, this treatment sucks.

Shanna Micko: Totally. Next time if he tries to prescribe Augmentin, I’m going to say, is there any way we cannot do that?

Laura Birek: Because we got amoxicillin for the ear infection, but I bet the Augmentin was for her lungs a bit too maybe.

Shanna Micko: Yes, it might have been, because of the combination of the conditions. I’m sure he made a decision based on what was going on and I appreciate that. But it’s definitely made my life tricky.

Laura Birek: Oh, boy. My baby has taken his delicious medicine really well so far, but I feel like I understand a little bit because I have had extensive experience medicating cats.

Shanna Micko: Oh, yes.

Laura Birek: I had an old lady cat who has passed since, but she was pretty sick at her final years and I loved her, Molly. She was my little sweet old cat.

Shanna Micko: I loved Molly.

Laura Birek: Molly was the sweetest cat and she just had the cutest tiny little paws and I loved that cat and so I had to give her a lot of medicine many times. She was little and she was very delicate, but man, when you tried to give her a freaking pill, she turned into like a street cat. 

You literally had to watch yourself, because you would be at risk of just figuring a scar. It would require multiple people. I finally figured out that the pill pockets worked for her.

Shanna Micko: Oh, thank goodness. That’s good.

Laura Birek: Yeah, but it was awful and then at some point they wanted me to start giving her subcutaneous fluids when she was really old and sick. I was like, you want me at home to stick a needle under my cat’s skin and leave it there for 10 minutes?

Shanna Micko: Oh my word.

Laura Birek: Thankfully, we never had to do it. The one time I had a friend come over and do it and then she was just too sick, but I understand the having a being in your lap who will not do what you say.

Shanna Micko: I think it’s just a natural instinct to just turn your head to the side hard this way, that way, this way, that way and resist. So nature resistance. That’s my week and I’ll give updates next week if we figure anything out: how to make this easier. But what about you, Laura? How are you guys doing and how old is your baby?

Laura Birek: My baby is nine months, two weeks. We’re good. I’m all better from food poisoning, thankfully.

Shanna Micko: Good.

Laura Birek: That sucked, but it only sucked briefly, thankfully. So what we are dealing with is the baby has I think three or four teeth coming in right now.

Shanna Micko: All at once?

Laura Birek: All at once. It’s hard to tell because he won’t really let me poke around in his little mouth. But when he smiles and laughs, there’s like white. You can see the white: the ones that are the incisors. The ones that are next to your front teeth. So the top two are for sure coming in and then I can’t tell if there’s one or two coming in on the bottom.

Shanna Micko: Oh, wow.

Laura Birek: But this has made sleeping I think a little more difficult. But the thing is, I’m not sure if it’s the teething or it’s like a sleep regression, because I’ve heard that there is a sleep regression sometime between 8 and 10 months. Did you experience anything like that?

Shanna Micko: Yeah, did I talk about it on the show or did I just Google it and deal with it on my own?

Laura Birek: I don’t remember. I haven’t been sleeping as much because of this dang sleep regression/teething. So I don’t remember right now. Okay. 

Well, so I’ve heard that there’s definitely sleep regression, but everything online is like 8 months, 9 months, 10 months. So I’m like, what is it? Is it really the regression? Or he’s I think just getting into a leap, so I know they say that those are sort of the same thing: cognitive leap sleep to sleep regressions. But the reason I think it’s a sleep regression/cognitive leap rather than just his teeth coming in is a) ibuprofen doesn’t seem to make a difference. But more importantly, there was one night where he was just not sleeping. He was like being a newborn again. Every two hours he was up and fussing and at some point, I think it was like 4:00 a.m. I finally just gave in and I went in and I was like, I’m going to co-sleep with you tonight, which we never.

Shanna Micko: Did you crawl into the crib?

Laura Birek: I did. I wrapped myself around him. We have a futon in the nursery, which is proving to be very useful. So I picked him out of the crib and I’m like cuddling him and I’m trying to lie down with him on my chest and at first he was kind of liking it. He was kind of resting his head on my shoulder and I was doing some aggressive rocking and shushing and singing and whatever, but from like 4:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m., he put his head down and then he’d pick his head up and he’d look around and just laugh at things.

Shanna Micko: What?

Laura Birek: The room is really dark, but still once you get your eyes adjusted, you can see things. So he’d look up at the guitars on the wall and put his little hand up pointing at it and just laugh. I still have a shoe organizer. You know one of those over the door shoe organizers? 

I have it full of yarn. He really likes it.

Shanna Micko: Yes, of course you do.

Laura Birek: It’s actually a great way to store yarn, by the way, if anyone’s looking for a way. It’s clear. So you can see all your yarn, but you can sort of keep it organized. Anyway, this is a leftover from when the nursery was my office/craft room. But now it’s just still there, but he loves looking at it. So I’m trying to hold him and get him to sleep and he just picks his head up like a seal and laughs at the yarn. I’m like, dude, you need to go to sleep.

Shanna Micko: He’s so ready to party in the middle of the night. Either the ghosts have returned or he’s having some inside jokes with them.

Laura Birek: Maybe. He needs to let me in on the joke. The joke is Laura’s not sleeping. Hilarious.

Shanna Micko: Jokes on you, Laura.

Laura Birek: Hopefully, this fixes itself soon. We try to be strong with the sleep training, but there are just some nights where it’s like, fuck it. You got to do what you got to do.

Shanna Micko: Definitely.

Laura Birek: But that’s what’s going on for us right now and then the other quick little thing we did this week is we did a family photo shoot, like a professional one.

Shanna Micko: Ooh, fun. I have not done a single one of those and I’ve been a mom for almost four years, so I’m proud of you.

Laura Birek: I don’t know if we’ve talked about the gauntlet that is May for Corey, but May is Mother’s Day, my birthday, his mother’s birthday, and our wedding anniversary and so when it got to Mother’s Day, Corey was sort of like, fuck, not only do I have to get something for my mom. Now I have to get something for you. He wanted to. He was like, “I got to get you something nice for your first mother’s day,” and I was like, “Stop. I know what I want. Can I just tell you what I want?” He was like, “Yes.” I was like, “I want you to get us a family photo shoot.”

Shanna Micko: Perfect.

Laura Birek: He was like, “Okay,” and then it took a while, but it actually turns out it was good because the baby is at a perfect age for adorable photo shoots because he can sit up and interact and he’s just hilarious. He thought it was hilarious. We were out in this park that had a bunch of, I think there were oak trees, so there were a bunch of like fallen leaves, which you don’t see a lot in Los Angeles, right?

Shanna Micko: No.

Laura Birek: But it was very fall. It was very autumn and so he was sitting there and he kept picking up a leaf and he would bring it up to his mouth and you’d be like, “Uh, uh.” Then he’d laugh like he knew he was playing a game, so then he would like do it again and he’d be like, “Uh, uh, uh,” and we’d be like, “Uh,” and then he would laugh and of course, they have to be amazing photos, because he was so fucking cute.

Shanna Micko: Aww, that’s awesome.

Laura Birek: I can’t wait to see them and I think we’re going to be that family that sends out the holiday cards this year.

Shanna Micko: All right. Do it. You do it.

Laura Birek: Do you guys do that?

Shanna Micko: Nope. We do not. What gave it away?

Laura Birek: Because I was thinking like, if you do, I’ve never gotten one and that’s rude.

Shanna Micko: Yes, I do. I send it to everyone except you.

Laura Birek: But also, I’m of two minds about it. One, I’m like, it’s a waste of money and paper. On the other hand, I love seeing other people’s cute little babies on the holiday cards. So I don’t know.

Shanna Micko: I have never felt motivated to do it. I think it’s because it’s the age of social media and we see each other’s kids so much on social media. This is not to shit on anyone who’s ever sent me a card for Christmas because I enjoy seeing it too. But I guess just for me personally, I never felt like, oh, well, everyone who sees my baby already digitally needs to also see my baby on paper. I’ve never gotten around to it, but maybe I will this year. Who knows? Laura, I’m open.

Laura Birek: I love that you’re open minded. Again, I’m conflicted because I’m also like, Marie Condo would say don’t do it. There’s also that obligation, like, how long do you keep the Christmas cards or the holiday cards and where do you put them? I actually still have our friend Jen’s that she sent like three years ago because it was actually really cute. Maybe I’ll copy this. It was like an ornament shape and it had a little hanging ribbon on it and I hung it up on some fake flowers that I have in a vase and it’s still there. I’m looking at it right now.

Shanna Micko: Oh my God, that is so cute. Marie Condo would shame the shit out of you for this. I’m just kidding. She’s not actually that mean.

Laura Birek: It sparks joy, damn it.

Shanna Micko: Well, there you go. Okay.

Laura Birek: Sparks the shit out of my joy.

Shanna Micko: What sparks my joy is throwing shit away.

Laura Birek: Oh, yeah.

Shanna Micko: So I have no problem throwing those things away at the end of the season. Sorry. Oh my God, I’m shitting on everyone’s Christmas joy with cards. I’m sorry.

Laura Birek: No, I think it’s fair.

Shanna Micko: I look forward to receiving your family card, Laura.

Laura Birek: You can throw mine away whenever you want and I think throwing them away at the end of the season is totally fair. I think that’s expected protocol.

Shanna Micko: Yeah.

Laura Birek: Okay. Now that we’ve cleared that up important information, well, we’d love to hear from y’all what you do for holiday cards if you do them or not. But in the meantime, should we take a break?

Shanna Micko: Let’s do it.

[Music]

Shanna Micko: We’re back and we have one of our favorite special segments, They Said What?! where we report on the interesting, maybe offensive, hilarious, jaw dropping things that people have said to us about our babies or parenting or anything related to this world. Laura, I’m dying to hear what you have.

Laura Birek: So recently I had to go to a follow up for that GI doctor. Remember I had that upper endoscopy I talked about it.

Shanna Micko: Yes.

Laura Birek: So I just had to go to the follow-up. Turns out everything’s fine.

Shanna Micko: Good.

Laura Birek: I have heartburn: shock. But I decided to take my baby with me to the follow up because first of all, since I’m trying to use up all my free healthcare, my deductible maxed out in healthcare for the year, I’ve been making a lot of appointments and I don’t want to have to get a babysitter for every single one. I was like, it’s a follow up. I go into the doctor’s office, she’s going to tell me whether things are okay or not and I feel like she probably would’ve called me if there was something really wrong. So I was like, everything’s probably fine so I can just bring my baby with me. Hopefully, he’ll be okay. It’s walking distance from my house.

Shanna Micko: I think a lot of moms bring babies to appointments. I don’t think it’s that weird.

Laura Birek: That’s good. Well, I was a little worried because all your stories about bringing CeCe to appointments haven’t been too reassuring.

Shanna Micko: But I haven’t reported on the ones where she is a big hit and everyone loves her and she giggles and laughs.

Laura Birek: That’s true. That’s probably more often than not. But yeah, it turns out he was totally fine. He was totally charming and everyone loved him and that is not what this story is about. The story is about, there was a woman in the waiting room who decided she needed to chat with me and usually I’m very happy to chat with strangers. I’m kind of one of those people who’s like, tell me your life story. I love to hear it. So I was talking to this woman in the gastroenterologist waiting room and she was of course just fawning over the baby and she was like, cooing at him and trying peek a boo and stuff and then she turns to me and she says, “He’s going to make a lot of girls cry someday.”

Shanna Micko: What?

Laura Birek: I was just like, “Hopefully not.” I know that’s a way people try to say he’s good looking, right?

Shanna Micko: Yeah, like a heartbreaker.

Laura Birek: Which is also a weird ass term. I hope not. Okay. To be fair, a lot of times we don’t have control over whether people like us and whether we like them back and whatnot. But God, I hope I’m going to teach him to treat his romantic partners and just everyone with respect and also maybe not girls. Maybe boys. Who knows who he’s going to make cry in the future anyway?

Shanna Micko: I think part of that statement, not saying that I support the statement, I totally get why it’s like, ugh, because it makes so many assumptions. But it’s less that he’s going to do things to hurt other people’s feelings, but more that like so many people are going to have crushes on him. He can’t be with everybody or maybe he can. Maybe this is an anti-polyamorous state.

Laura Birek: See, you found another thing to be mad about. Yes, I understand the basics of the statement. Am I being too hard on this lady? I just feel like there’s so many other things you can say about a baby.

Shanna Micko: It’s just such a go-to cliché thing to say about a cute baby boy. If anything, I think it’s uncreative.

Laura Birek: Yes.

Shanna Micko: I took her for being uncreative in this situation.

Laura Birek: Thank you. I will say she did say something else that I feel like is related and also a little bit like, what? Which is a little bit later, she confided in me. She’s like, “You know I thought he was a girl at first, because he has such a sweet face.” I’m like, lady, you got all those gender stereotypes just rolling out.

Shanna Micko: She’s just holding on, gripping on tight to her gender stereotypes.

Laura Birek: Oh my God, because baby boys don’t have sweet faces?

Shanna Micko: They have like, grizzly aggressive faces.

Laura Birek: Ugly faces?

Shanna Micko: Angry, mean. I’m trying to think of what is the opposite of sweet.

Laura Birek: Sour.

Shanna Micko: Sourpuss face boys.

Laura Birek: Sometimes he does have a sour face and it’s really cute.

Shanna Micko: Well, he looks like a boy in those moments, I guess.

Laura Birek: Yes.

Shanna Micko: That’s really bizarre.

Laura Birek: I’m kind of a chatty person, but I definitely wasn’t sure how to respond to a lot of these statements.

Shanna Micko: My go-to is always, “Oh, mm-hmm.”

Laura Birek: Good one. I’m going to steal that.

Shanna Micko: Keep that one in your back pocket, okay?

Laura Birek: For me, it’s like pretending I get a text.

Shanna Micko: Oh, good.

Laura Birek: Excuse me.

Shanna Micko: That’s good. That reminds me of the time when I wanted to avoid my neighbors. I was walking up to my apartment complex and I saw a couple neighbors I didn’t want to talk to and so I put my cell phone up to my ear and pretended I was talking to someone and then the phone rang in my hand as I was walking by those people.

Laura Birek: You got owned by your fault.

Shanna Micko: I did. It was just like the universe and karma kicking me in the butt for that.

Laura Birek: I’m guilty of doing that when I have to walk into Trader Joe’s. There’s always people.

Shanna Micko: I know exactly what you’re talking about, the petitioners or whatever.

Laura Birek: It’s like I want to support your cause probably, but I also have shit to do.

Shanna Micko: Well, they want to take a lot of time to talk about stuff and it’s like, no, no, no, no. I don’t have that time.

Laura Birek: I’m here because I need my delicious packaged foods and I need to get out in and out. It is good to have a baby because now instead of having to pretend I’m on the phone, I just start talking to the baby and I’m like, really? As I’m strolling in, I’m just like, oh, you really need to. I don’t even know what we’re talking about, but we are in an intense conversation.

Shanna Micko: Your diaper is so full of poop right now. Good strategies.

Laura Birek: Anyway, so have you had to employ your look recently? See, I need practice. What have people said to you?

Shanna Micko: So I’ve gotten this a few times now. Now that CeCe is 9, 10 months getting chunkier, she’s so big.

Laura Birek: Oh, jeez.

Shanna Micko: She’s such a big baby from strangers. That’s the first thing they say about her and at first it’s like, yeah, she’s big and it’s not even like she is chunky, roly cute. Roly poly is just big. I don’t know what they think she’s a baby Paul Bunyan or what? I don’t know. It’s really weird to me. So I was in the grocery store the other day and I was pushing CeCe in her stroller, the Chicco Key Fit one that you pop in. It’s like an infant car seat and she does look really big in that one because she’s just gotten bigger.

Laura Birek: Like they do.

Shanna Micko: I was walking in. This woman’s like, “So cute. He’s so big.” I’m like, Okay. Here we go again and she called him a he, which is fine. But this time I was like, “Yeah, because she’s in this little car seat. She just looks so big.” She said, “Nope, nope. I’m a nurse. He is a big baby.”

Laura Birek: What the hell?

Shanna Micko: Wasn’t listening to me whatsoever. Didn’t even know that I called my baby a girl and I was like, “Yeah, yeah. Well, she is 80th percentile.”

Laura Birek: She must not have had a sweet face at the time.

Shanna Micko: No.

Laura Birek: She must have been making a sour expression.

Shanna Micko: Yeah, I have that sourpuss face baby tricking everyone into thinking she’s a boy, which feeds into this. Then another time I was walking the baby in a different stroller, a more giant sized stroller. So it’s not like she’s taking up the whole thing. We walk by some lady and she’s like, “Hi, gordito,” which in Spanish means little fat boy.

Laura Birek: Yeah.

Shanna Micko: I’m just like, everyone thinks my baby is a little fat boy.

Laura Birek: She is adorably round, but she doesn’t strike me as huge. 

I will say I went to one My Gym class once and there was a baby there who was not big in weight, but was so fucking tall. I went with my mom to this class and we were just like, that baby is huge and then we thought he must be like 15 months or something: nine months. He was at least I want to say like six, seven inches taller than my baby. He was huge and we were both in shock. So the point is I’ve seen some big babies is what I’m trying to say and CeCe doesn’t strike me as out of the realm of normal baby. She’s just a cute baby. That’s weird.

Shanna Micko: Thank you. She’s 55th percentile for height, so she really is not a giant. Even still with the My Gym mom, would the first thing you do go up to that mom and say, oh, your baby’s so big?

Laura Birek: No, but my mom would.

Shanna Micko: You know what? The funny thing is Elle was even chunkier as a baby than CeCe. I have pictures of her at this age and she has like bread rolls on her arm.

Laura Birek: Yes.

Shanna Micko: Rolls of fat on her arm. It’s so cute. But it’s just like, CeCe has not achieved that level of chubbiness, but yet she’s the one getting all these comments. So it’s very interesting and I’m usually not too irritated by it. I’m like, “Uh-huh.” But the fact that this lady was just like, “No, no, I’m a nurse. I know that he is a big baby.” That’s when I was just like, okay. Bye.

Laura Birek: Oh, is that how you do it?

Shanna Micko: It’s mm-hmm.

Laura Birek: Maybe I should just record you saying it and have it on my phone.

Shanna Micko: Just play it. People are weird.

Laura Birek: People be weird. This segment brought you by people be weird. Anyway, I got to practice your response. But in the meantime, should we take a break?

Shanna Micko: Yes.

Laura Birek: And come back with our BFPs and BFNs.

Shanna Micko: Let’s do it.

[Music]

Laura Birek: We’re back. We close every episode with our big fat positives or big fat negatives of the week. Shanna, do you have a BFP or a BFN for us?

Shanna Micko: BFP.

Laura Birek: What? Tell us about it.

Shanna Micko: So I have talked before about one of my favorite types of bibs. Those are BIB-ONs.

Laura Birek: Oh, yeah.

Shanna Micko: Those giant bibs that cover everything.

Laura Birek: I just ordered extra of those.

Shanna Micko: Yeah, me too. I really love those, but I have also come to love and this is my BFP this week, the bibs with the little pouch at the bottom that catch all of the crumbs and everything that they inevitably drop. Like once you start finger foods, you can catch a whole second meal in these bibs with pouches. It’s amazing. So we have a couple. We have one that’s Tommee Tippee that is great and then there’s another one that a mom in my mom’s group created called Babito and it’s really cute. They have really cool neutral colors to choose from and it’s really soft silicone and it’s very comfortable on her. So I really love that one. It’s so cute also to see her too like after she’s eaten, she looks down in the little pouch and realizes she has seconds, like digs her little hand in and pulls out like noodles and just muches away from whatever’s left in there.

Laura Birek: Man, I wish I had like a secret seconds pouch that I could hit up after most dinners.

Shanna Micko: I know, right? Or a dude with a mustache. He gets his flavor saver just little extra little munchies.

Laura Birek: Sounds so gross to me.

Shanna Micko: It really is.

Laura Birek: Oh, God. Just the term flavor saver.

Shanna Micko: I love that. It’s so hilarious.

Laura Birek: Yes.

Shanna Micko: The things that breed in men’s facial hair. So I really have been enjoying those.

Laura Birek: Yeah, we have a couple of those too and I really like the ones that are the really soft silicone because when you’re pulled up to a table with the baby, you want it to be able to move with the baby and be comfortable on the neck. We got gifted a few that were really stiff like plastic and the neck are sort of like plastic beads. That’s how you cinch it onto their neck and I should just throw them away because every time I try to use them it’s just looks uncomfortable and the little like bowl sits out more than the soft silicone ones. But I don’t know, I just find them really clunky and weird. So I think I need to invest in a few more of the soft ones, because we only have one of the really soft ones and I use it but then they get dirty and then we forget to clean it and you know how that goes.

Shanna Micko: Well, the cool thing is that you can stick them in the dishwasher too.

Laura Birek: That is a big bonus. The one we have says, “Crazy cat baby,” on it and it’s actually very cute. That’s so perfect. I love that.

Shanna Micko: That’s my BFP for the week. What about you?

Laura Birek: I also have a BFP.

Shanna Micko: Yay.

Laura Birek: So mine is a thing that I actually learned about through my friend, Keri, who we interviewed way back then, the pharmacist, and it is the Fox & Finn Silicone Teething Necklace. So it’s a long necklace. It says it has a 14 inch drop. I got it on Amazon, like everything.

Shanna Micko: Doesn’t that come down to his knees?

Laura Birek: No, it’s not for him. It’s for you.

Shanna Micko: I’m just kidding.

Laura Birek: No, actually I think a lot of people have that mistaken impression because there are those amber teething necklaces that you put on the baby. But this is one you wear around your neck and then when you’re carrying the baby around, either in your carrier or just on your hip, which is what I do most of the time now, they can pick it up and it’s made of these big beads. This particular one is these sort of abstract diamond shapes alternating with little beads and they’re on a really, really strong silk rope so that it doesn’t break. Then each one of the beads is nodded on either side, so even if it does break, the beads won’t come off. So it’s not a choking hazard and they can just pick it up and gnaw on it and it’s awesome for babies who are sprouting three to four teeth like mine is. They think it’s kind of a fun. It’s bright colored. But the best part of it I should mention is that it doesn’t look like a teething necklace.

Shanna Micko: I was going to say, does it look good or does it look like this gaudy thing your great grandma would wear or something?

Laura Birek: Maybe my great grandma would wear it, but I think it looks good. The one I have is teal and gray and looks very modern. I feel like you think about teething necklaces and you think about one big piece or something like a big pendant or something and this is just like a beaded necklace basically. I’ll post pictures of it and I’ll post a link to it for sure on our website so you can find it. The one I have is teal and I don’t see it available right now, but you can look online. There’s a bunch of different styles you can find. You don’t have to get the one I got. There’s a lot of actually cute teething necklaces, which is great because I feel like a generation ago that didn’t exist.

Shanna Micko: No, I don’t wear necklaces anymore because the day I did, CeCe chewed on. It was just like a long necklace from Target and she chewed on it so much that it ended up breaking and she got like a little piece in her mouth. That’s scary and I shouldn’t do that. So I should get something like that instead. That’s a great idea.

Laura Birek: For me, it’s actually useful during nursing too because if I wear it, it sort of just falls right in front of him and he’ll like play with it instead of, his favorite thing is to play with my nose while he’s nursing. He just reaches his little hand up and he just has to like feel around my nose. Lots of times little fingers end up up my nose and I have to like fish them out. So it solves that problem at least for a little bit.

Shanna Micko: That’s good.

Laura Birek: So Fox & Finn. The one I have is called Sophia: the Sophia Silicone Teething Necklace.

Shanna Micko: Very fancy. Awesome. Well, thanks for sharing. That’s cool. If you guys have any BFPs that you want to share with us or BFNs, hey, we’re here to listen. If you want to tell us what you do with your holiday cards or you have a real good, They Said What?! we want to hear it. So please reach out. Laura, how can everyone reach us?

Laura Birek: We are on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter at BFP Podcast. We also have a Facebook community group. Just search for Big Fat Positive Community. It’s a closed group, so you have to request to join, but I will add you and you can join in on the awesome conversations we’re having there. It’s really a great, great group of people. I love our community.

Shanna Micko: Me too.

Laura Birek: We also have a website, bigfatpositivepodcast.com. You can also reach us by emailing [email protected]

Shanna Micko: Big Fat Positive is produced by Laura Birek, Shanna Micko and Steve Yager. See you next time.

Laura Birek: Bye.

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