Monday, August 31, 2009

Newborn diaper log


You probably need to log the babies' "output," at least for a little while. This is something they do in the hospital for all babies to make sure they're getting what they need.

We called it the diaper log; pictured is the one we used.  Across the top it says that the doctor wants eight or more wet diapers daily; the number of BMs (bowel movements) varies. Once again, we had to report this to the pediatrician daily until the babies were gaining well enough.

The columns are:  Day/Date; Approximate Time; Which Child?; Wet?; BM?; Color.

This is all probably particularly gross to people who haven't had newborns before.  Apologies.

Keep in mind that their expected output will change as they grow older. You won't always go through diapers this fast.  I recall averaging 15 diapers a day total in these newborn days.  By about three months we were averaging 11 diapers a day total.

Each baby would be changed before feeding; the information would be logged.  After feeding, we'd check the diaper and change and log if necessary.  You might be able to save time/diapers by just changing after, but then you aren't really getting an accurate number of wets and BMs. Once we weren't really worried about their output anymore, we switched to changing them when they seemed to need it.

Finally, most people know that boys can "spray."  Be forewarned -- girls can, too.  Beyond that, my singleton sprayed BMs.  Once that happened, I changed his diaper only when I had a receiving blanket covering my shirt.

Thus concludes one of the grossest blog entries I'll have.

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