Yay Poop!

I will let you know now, there is going to be a lot of poop talk. If that makes you uncomfortable, just make sure to share the post and then move along *wink wink*

If you dread the idea of changing a diaper or having to deal with poop when your baby comes, just you wait. Some weird chemical process happens in your brain and once that baby comes, poop is like the most fascinating thing ever...seriously. Inga is almost 4 months old and every time she poops, my husband and I both yell, "Yay Poop!" and immediately both go change her. He changes her and I examine the diaper. Is that weird? We both have decided that it is partially because we want her to be happy after that hard work, but also it ultimately means she is healthy and eating. 

We have both had family and friends come up after holding her and say sarcastically, "I have some bad news, I think she pooped." That's not bad news. That's GREAT news!

If you have even an ounce of neurotic tendency like I do, you will probably be the same. When you are still in the hospital, the staff suggest keeping a log of pees and poops and eating until they can really get into a routine. We still log 4 months later and we love it. With those logs, you are always able to bring that to the doctor to show them and you are also able to keep a record of when they start changing their poop routine. When the poop routine changes, it is not really a happy day from both parties. We are anxiously waiting an explosion and Inga get's annoyed because she wants to poop. 

Your baby is going to go from having poop in almost every diaper to pooping a couple times a day and then down to once a day. Then you are going to have a day where you have to refer back to your log (see! they are awesome) and check if they even pooped today. Uh oh........not necessarily. Breastfed babies can go up to 3 days without pooping. Inga didn't poop for 5 days right when we brought her home. This is because they are getting so many nutrients from your colostrum and your initial milk, there really isn't much need to have a poop. Her body also has some serious adjusting to do. Your baby can't push their own poop out initially so they have to wait for it basically to come out. How frustrating is that?! Try going to sit on the pot, but you can't push at all. 

I can't really give any advice regarding formula fed poop since she was only on formula for about a week, but I do know that her poop was different during that week. It smells more and is darker in color. This could be because formula takes longer to digest than breastmilk. As a result, you could be feeding your baby more often if you are breastfeeding. 

One great difference between formula fed poop and breastfed poop....constipation. It would be extremely rare for a breastfed baby to get constipated. 

Breastfed poop is fascinating itself. Who knew a baby could poop out mustard yellow poop with seedy looking things in there. What are those seedy looking things? Are they baby seeds? Is that how you grow babies? Are there seeds in my milk? No idea, but at least it doesn't stink. Don't get me wrong. Breastfed poop has an aroma, but it doesn't smell bad at all and it still doesn't. 

If I could give you one bit of advice regarding babies pooping....bicycle kicks. They are the best thing since sliced bread. We do bicycle kicks and knee tucks whenever she is a bit poo fussy. I lay her on my lap and start to do bicycle kicks and then will randomly tuck her knees up into her chest. Those knee tucks will unleash farts from the depths of her bowels and make her feel so much better. Now we can do bicycle kicks/knee tucks if she is fussy and it instantly makes her happy and smiley.