For our third FHE we decided to finish learning the basics about taking care of baby. We also decided it was probably time to figure out how to bathe our sweet little girl. Dallas and I read two different websites. One was extremely basic and the other had about three detailed pages describing what to do, including the need to have a different wash cloth for every one of baby's appendages. We decided to try and do something in the middle. That day Emma had begun to emit an unpleasant smell and we thought a bath would take care of it. However, as we took off her onesie, we realized the smell came from her belly button, which was also oozing a yellow goop.
We were a bit concerned so I decided to check google and find out what this could possibly mean. The sites I read caused Dallas and I to become alarmed. They said that if the belly button smelled and oozed a yellow color, it could be infected and it could be extremely dangerous. To be safe, we then called the hotline for our pediatrician (by then it was 9:00 p.m.). After listening to our situation, the nurse suggested we take Emma to the ER. Now we were really worried. Throughout this whole ordeal, Emma was smiling and looking around and seeming like all was well. Because of that, I felt kind of silly taking her to the ER. Also, I didn't feel like the ER was the place I wanted to take a week old baby. We decided to call Jason. After describing the situation and sending Jason some pictures we decided all would be well for the night and we would take Emma to our pediatrician first thing in the morning. By then...FHE was over. That belly button ordeal sucked up anything else we were going to do for the night.
The next morning Dallas and I hustled to the pediatrician. Emma still seemed happy and calm, but her belly button still smelled pretty bad. When we arrived, the nurse directed us to undress Emma so that she was just wearing her diaper. We took off her onesie and voila! The dried up part of her belly button had fallen off! The doctor came in and said she looked great and all was well. He also explained that there are times when the smell and ooze can mean the button has gotten infected and that can be super dangerous. However, if that were so, we would have seen red lines and other stuff around her belly button. I tell you this story partly so that a) if this ever happens to one of your kids, you realize it could be just fine and b) you realize that Dallas and I are very new at this parent thing and might occasionally overreact. But, hey, we figure it's always better to super safe and cautious.
For our fourth FHE we wrote in baby's book and also worked on our family contract. It used to be our marriage contract, but now that we have little Emma, it was time for it to become a family contract. Dallas and I first worked on this before we were married and included things such as maintaining a plentiful chocolate milk supply, practicing safety when running or driving, and not buying food in the airpot. We have decided that we will revisit these contracts every year and update them as we have more kiddos. There were some things that we changed from our marriage contract to our family. For example, since I have done so well with making food other than apples and carrots, we felt we could take that off the list. And since now we have Emma, Dallas had to add to his contract that he would teach her as much math as she could stomach, and other such things. You can read the updated family contract here.
Well, that finishes up our FHEs for the month of January. It was fun getting to focus on baby. I had wanted one of our FHEs to include getting CPR certified and other helpful things like that. We will hopefully still do that. If you can think of anything else we should be doing to help us be good parents to baby Emma, we are open for suggestions :)
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