Bye Bye Blocked Tear Duct

At around 1 week old my son’s left eye was constantly watery and crusty. Sometimes when he’d wake up in the morning his eye would be so crusted that he would have difficulty even opening it. Having a midwife at the time I paged her with my concerns. She confirmed that my little man had a blocked tear duct. She told me not to worry and that is a common condition in newborns and that it would eventually clear up on its own. I was happy to learn that his eye was not infected. Although, blocked tear ducts usually clear up on their own my midwife offered a few suggestions on how to speed up the process. I was told to gently massage his nasal bridge and to clean the eye throughout the day with warm water and a cotton ball. She also said to squirt breastmilk in his eye during feedings.

After talking to my midwife about my son’s blocked tear duct and doing my own research I was ready to start treating his eye. Each morning when my son would wake up I’d get a fresh pot of water boiled. I would wait until the water was warm and test it each time with a thermometer. Once the water was just right I’d wash my hands and soak a cotton ball in the water. If his eye was really crusty at the time I’d hold the wet cotton ball over his eye to loosen up the mucus before wiping. Then I’d take another cotton ball, dip it in the water and wipe the inner part of his eye to the other part. I repeated this process until the gunk was all gone using a new cotton ball each time. I was always very diligent about cleaning his eye properly and safely as I never wanted it to get infected. On occasion, I would also express a drop of milk in his eye. When I did this I would put the milk in his eye first, I’d let it stay in there for a minute or so, and then I would begin cleaning it with the boiled water and cotton balls. Sometimes I’d massage his tear duct as well. To do this I just used my washed index finger and placed my finger on the side of his nose and move it upwards towards the corner of his eye.

One month later (on my birthday to be exact), this huge ball of gunk came out of his eye. I cleaned it right away and that was it. All of the gunk just needed to come out to unclog his tear duct. I am so thankful that I don’t have to clean a goopy eye anymore. I am more thankful though that my son did not need surgery to open up the duct.

I hope that my post is able to help you open up your child’s block tear duct.

Doctor Vs. Midwife

When it comes to pregnancy there are several choices we need to make. One being choosing between a Doctor or a Midwife. In the end your decision comes down to what's best for you and your family, there is simply no right or wrong answer. My husband and I decided that we would have a midwife and deliver in a hospital. It was an amazing experience. However, in the future we may try for a home birth.

I decided to write this post to share with everyone my midwife experience. It was interesting to learn in my prenatal class how many expectant parents did not know about Midwives. My husband and I knew we wanted a midwife before we even became pregnant. For us – we wanted to be in charge of our birthing decisions and heard that with having a midwife you are less likely to have medical interventions. We loved how midwives are huge advocates for natural births. We also wanted to guarantee that we'd have someone knowledgeable to help us through the labour process. We loved the fact that midwives have 4 years of university training in labour and delivery. We also loved the fact that midwives come visit you at home after the baby is born for 6 weeks of follow-up care. Finally, watching The Business of Being Born solidified our reason for choosing a midwife.

After getting accepted by the Midwifery Care of Peel and Halton Hills we were even more excited about our decision because of all the other perks associated with their care.  Some of which being: having regular prenatal appointments that lasted around 30-45 minutes per visit, having 24/7 access to your midwives via a paging system, and the amazing breastfeeding support. It was such a relief knowing that our midwife was just a phone call away especially during the whole labour process. I could have not imagined my labour process going any better. I truly believe that having a midwife really helped ensure that my birthing plan was followed through.

Having a Midwife is truly an amazing opportunity that we are fortunate to have covered by OHIP in Canada. If you are considering choosing a Midwife, please contact them as soon as you find out that you are pregnant. There are not many Midwives out there and they are becoming more popular. I contacted them literally right after I peed on that stick.

Whether you choose a Doctor or a Midwife you are in for an amazing and unforgettable experience. Good Luck!

Interesting Read

Myths of Midwifery 

Baby Bargains the Baby Bible

Once I told friends that my hubby and I were going to start trying for a baby, I was getting a lot of advice on what to register for and what not to register for. When it came to registering for baby items I had absolutely not idea where to being. The thought of it all was so overwhelming.

Once we were officially expecting we headed over to Yonkers, NY for a baptism. I was 14 weeks pregnant at the time. At the Baptism celebration I was lucky to be sitting with a new mom and a soon-to-be mom. The soon-to-be mom was further along then I was and already had gotten her registry completed. I expressed that we didn’t start our registry yet since we had not idea which products or brands to select. She then told me about the book Baby Bargains by Denise and Alan Fields. She told us this book was her bible and that we needed to pick up a copy. Soon after the Baptism we headed over to Barnes and Noble and picked up the book. This was honestly the best tip we received when we were expecting. Every parent-to-be should definitely buy this book.

Baby Bargains is the number 1 best-selling guide to baby gear. The book offers reviews and ratings for every baby brand that you can think of, from strollers to bottles and anything in between. The best part of the book is the rating system: good, better, and best. We are ones to do our own research but this book has done it all for us.

On our drive back home from Yonkers, NY (10 hours with all the pee breaks) my husband got a head start on reading the book. We were out registering the next weekend with the book in hand. We thought it was best to bring the book along and scan everything that got rated best. Our whole registry was filled with products featured in the book. We were able to finish our whole registry in one morning. We were confident in all of the products we selected and felt like the whole process was finally a piece of cake!

The Front Snap Onesie

While I was pregnant I started reading Secrets of the Baby Whisperer by Tracey Hogg. For those of you who don’t know the book, it is about learning how to get your baby to Eat, Play, and Sleep on schedule so that You can end up with a little bit of time for yourself (E.A.S.Y). The book also guides parents on how to interpret what your baby is communicating by differentiating their cries. You can also identify which type of temperament your baby is. My little one is definitely a textbook baby.

Well anyways, you’re probably wondering how the heck this post relates to the title The Front Snap Onesie. In the book Tracey spends a couple of paragraphs on dressing your baby. Out of the whole book those two paragraphs were the most beneficial to me. She simply states that when you put a onesie over your babies’ head their head flops all over the place because of their size in relation to the rest of their body. So she then suggests that parents shouldn’t buy shirts that go over a baby’s head and to buy shirts with snaps in the front. I totally never thought about buying onesies like this and thought that her idea was absolutely genius (and I still do).

Since I hadn’t had my baby shower yet at the time and didn’t have any onesies my new mission was to find these snap front ones. After searching around at a couple of stores I finally found them at Walmart. I ended up buying all of the newborn and 0-3 month ones since I didn’t know how big my little prince would be at birth. I quickly called my sister who was also pregnant at the time with her first and told her about the onesies. We ended up going to Walmart together and when she saw them she was like “Eww, those are so ugly” and didn’t end up buying them. Little did she know that her little princess would be wearing these exact same onesies for the first 3 months (and counting) of her life. As Tracey would say “always go for ease and convenience rather than style.”

My husband and I till this day only use these onesies when we dress our son. We never had to deal with a getting dressed battle thus far. This was definitely one of our best baby finds – and being under $5 each is the cherry on top.

Take a look at my niece and son rocking their front snap onesies. Can you say baby swag?

Cloth Diaper Fever

My husband and I never really thought about cloth diapering our son until going to our first baby show. Seeing them at the baby show and talking to some of the creators got us curious. The first thing we did when we got home was Google. Our top two reasons for choosing the cloth diaper route was saving thousands of dollars and it being a much more natural way of diapering. We decided to start cloth diapering our son at 1 month. We wanted to give us some time to adjust to our new life with baby without overwhelming ourselves.

As for washing them, family and friends advised us that we were crazy and that we’d only do it for a couple of months before we gave up. One thing we learned about having a baby is that you’re always doing laundry. What is one more load every 2 days? Since I am also exclusively breastfeeding my son’s liquid bowel movements do not need to be sprayed before washing them. I just throw them in and let the machine work its magic.

We’ve been cloth diapering for 2 months now and love it. Have you considered cloth diapering?

Babies Rock!...Stink Doesn't - Rockin' Green Soap is the mom's choice for clean cloth diapers and sensitive skin.

Goodbye Harmful Chemicals and Toxins

As soon as my husband and I decided to expand our family, I started seriously considering every product that I put on my skin.  I began looking into the brands that I have been using for years and was shocked to find out that these trusted brands contain harmful chemicals and toxins. Once I realized what I was putting on my skin I went on a cleaning frenzy and threw mountains of products out. With no shampoos, conditioners, lotions and cleaning products left I happy to find natural and safer alternatives for my growing family.

Since I had a fulltime job and became pregnant on my first try, I did not have endless hours to read every product’s ingredients. To help me rebuild my supply up again I used and still use till this day two amazing Apps: GoodGuide and SkinDeep.

All you do is download the Apps and start scanning the barcode of various products (household, personal and baby products). Once you scan the barcode you are able to access the product's rating. Products can be scanned at home or in the store. It's crazy how many products you will find that are filled with harmful chemicals and toxins.

Happy Scanning!


Interesting Reads

Be Careful of "Green" Cleaning Products as they May Not Be Very Green