Gasey is classy

After my daughter's ten day stint in the NICU (which sucked by the way) I learned two extremely valuable lessons that I would like to share with you:

1. There is such a thing as too much information, especially when your child is in the NICU. I thought that information was power, and it can be in a lot of cases, but when your baby is in the NICU and the doctors are working to figure out what the problem is, it is best to just take things day by day. Because I am a planner and totally type-A, I wanted to know what the long term plan was and that often forced people, like doctors and nurses to surmise about things pertaining to my daughter, which often had the negative effect of completely freaking me out. The medical staff felt obligated to tell me something since I was so pushy and demanding about knowing the big picture and that often meant they read into situations and offered their opinions about things that were the worst case scenario, instead of medically proven facts. So in short, if you ever have a child in the NICU, take it one day at a time. Wake up every day with the sole intention of learning what happened in your infant's life that day; don't worry about the next day or the next week, you will make yourself crazy and they will come soon enough.

2. While my daughter was in the NICU, a baby nurse told me that if you alternate between patting your child's back and rubbing it, it is easier to expel gas in the form of a burp or a fart. This makes the infant happier and it reduces gas build-up and spit-up.

I have tried this method of burping on my daughter and it DOES work so give it a try.