Thankful for poop!
November 5th, 2009 | 
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Poop. To poop. Pooping. Hard. Small. Round. Oval. Smushy. Smeared. All poops I have been a witness to. My personal favorite is Smushy. Smushy poo is a good poo. It’s not constipated, and it’s not a prune juice poo! My least favorite is Smeared poo. This poo basically means she pooped in her jumper and it either went all the way up her back, or all the way down her leg and requires a bath.
Poop. You are thinking, why on earth is this lady talking about poop! haha well if you have a CDH baby- you know exactly why I am talking about poop. For our babies to poop- is one of our (their) greatest feats! We sit after surgery and wait and wait and wonder when will my baby poop? Is her tummy and bowels in the right place, did surgery really go as well as they thought? When will she poop? It’s funny, as I read my journal from being at the NICU- pooping was the main topic for a long time. K didn’t poop instantly, it took a couple of days. I don’t even need to read my journal to remember how I felt that day. The very first day she pooped after surgery was amazing. It was like, yes, my baby is ok. (which doesn’t always work that way- but we were very lucky and it did.)
Now some of you may think this post is not G rated, but really- it’s a babies poop! And us CDH parents pray for poop! I don’t know about you, but I still pray K poops and it’s a good poop. She is often constipated and I feel AWFUL when that happens to her. So I pray for poop, easy poop, smushy poop!
Just about 20 min ago we had a smeared poop. I was on the phone while K was in her jumper, and she pooped. It went down the leg and it was just awful. She flails all over the place so she got it on her hands, leg, foot, back… it was just gross! 
So needless to say her bath was a little earlier today. But that is what made me remember- this is fantastic to clean up. I often worry she won’t poop, and when she does, I’m worried it’ll be a small round ball that she pushed real hard for!
So to go with a thanksgiving theme- I’m thankful for smushy and sometimes smeared poop!
I remember at the NICU- she didn’t really poop much. I would remember Charlie (who was breastfed and I know had an easier time pooping because of it) always pooped, big time! haha It was always so funny! But I was always so jealous because I just wanted K to poop! But I totally understand why it was different! I just always worried she wasn’t pooping because something was wrong, I swear the nurses at Crouse must really have hated me! I was annoying! lol
It was the same with crying. (a little off topic) But when K was intubated, I prayed to be able to hear her little cry some day. I remember telling Patty that most parents prayed their kid would stop crying, but I always prayed to hear it! Different I know- with normal babies, and now that K is fine, I sometimes wish I could get her to stop as well… but when she is hysterical, it makes me thank my lucky stars because she is hysterical… and hey at least she is exercising those lung! I try to see the bright side of everything because it was too long ago that there wasn’t a real bright side. It wasn’t too long ago K was laying paralyzed in a warmer attempting to get better. So I have to remember every step of the process and be thankful I have her to cry and poop!
And please- share your experience with poop! I love hearing other stories. I love reading your comments! It brightens my day!
Posted in Random
HMMM… poop. What can I add? Well, I remember Dakota’s first poop in the hospital. I was very excited about it. I looked at the nurse and said, “that means everything’s working right?” She just smiled and said yes. Then Dr. Kays came by and I remember proudly exclaiming “She pooped!”. Dr. Kays said “Yay” kind of in a way that he was making fun of me, but he was smiling. We did not have a problem with it until about two weeks before Dakota went home. She went from pooping once a day, like clockwork, to going once every three to four days. And it looked like it was bothering her not to go, because she was always bearing down (making the feeing process even more difficult because it would distract her). I brought this up to every nurse and doctor I saw, but they all said the same thing … she is on breast milk, which the babies body easily absorbs so it is very normal to a breast milk fed baby to only poop once a week. Well, it still bothered Dakota and me (although she was never constipated and it was always smushy, she just seemed like she wanted to poop). I was told not to worry unless it had been a week … and it got very close sometimes. Just another thing to worry about.
Anyways, once Dakota started eating solids she began pooping (smushy poop) every day. The doctor’s were right. I don’t even worry about it anymore … except those gross times when like Kate said, she is in the jumper or walker and it runs all the way up her back ruining her clothes! Oh well .. the joys of motherhood. At least I don’t have to worry about it anymore. Like Forrest Gump said, “one less thing.”
I LOVE this! Who knew that Poop would consume so much of our lives? It’s insane at how fixated we need to be with poop! HA!
Thank you Kate, for shedding some light on the subject…it’s something you never thought you’d pay attention to until you have a CDH baby! Great info for the CDH Newbies…and a wonderful laugh for the rest of us!
Sheryl
“He called the ’shit’ poop!” ~Billy Madison
Alaina had to have prune juice and was constipated all the time…and Alyssa– OI! But I know it isn’t the same…I was just excited to relate a LITTLE bit on the topic. I have the reflux and the poop issues with my girls, but I can easily search for a solution, or just comfort them through their discomfort… I cannot imagine the worries parents of CDH babies… I mean, even teething pain..my solution to my sister was Motrin… apparently, Motrin is not an option for Miss Kayla because of the other drugs she had recently been taking in the NICU… sheesh.. kudos to you!! KUDOS
Neither of my babies had/have CDH– but I still cheered/cheer when they pooped/poo!