The Big Poop

(Yes this blog post is about poop - if you are uneasy, stop reading right now)



I worked as a certified nurse's assistant for six years in high school and through college. I am not a reserved person when it comes to stories about bodily functions. Keep that in mind and let me also warn you that motherhood does nothing to discourage/reduce discussions about poop, pee, vomit, and the like.

Claire has never had issues with digestion. She has always been a very good pooper. She always wets the appropriate amount of diapers and such. (You keep track of the strangest things when you have a baby, or work in a hospital). About the middle of last week Claire started to become a little fussy. I chalked it up to teething, or a developmental, or cognitive milestone...at first. About the third day I started to brainstorm all of the things that could be wrong with and/or bothering her. I started to think about naps - was she sleepy, skills - was she doing something new, and then I started to think about her bowels.

Claire normally has a nice soft poop (or two) every two or three days, so I hadn't really thought about when she had last pooped until she had been fussy for a couple of days. The longer I thought about it the more worried I became. I couldn't remember the last time she had pooped. I don't change every diaper, so I waited until I talked to Jared. He hadn't seen a poopy diaper in a few days either. Then I started to fret about constipation. I "Googled" constipation in infants. I read at least two articles all about poop consistency and regularity and settled on the fact that Claire was probably constipated.

I have an acquaintance (we went to high school together and both recently had babies) who recently dealt with a constipated infant and after reading her blog post about suppositories I started to get a little nervous. I looked at causes and suggested treatments and decided to start with the things I could do at home by myself before getting too worked up.

Claire has just recently started eating solid foods on a more regular basis and some of those are definitely culprits in the constipation game, so I decided to try less rice cereal and more fruits and veggies. I even made some applesauce (it is supposed to help loosen bowels--is it gross that I know this). I started giving Claire some water in addition to her breastmilk, applesauce, oatmeal, peas, green beans, etc. (You are supposed to encourage extra fluids).

I had also read something about applying pressure to the abdomen about three finger-widths below the belly button, so I tried it. Claire made some faces and grunting noises, so I checked her diaper. (You should probably know that I had been checking her diaper every ten minutes since feeding her the applesauce and water.) She had pooped! Unfortunately it confirmed my suspicions. It was the tiniest, hardest little poop I had ever seen (come out of Claire, I worked at a hospital remember!). Poor Claire.

Now I knew what was bothering her and I wasn't sure what else to do to alleviate her suffering. Luckily I didn't have to worry for too long because pretty soon there was more grunting and more strained facial expressions. Claire and I took a trip to the changing table and she had the biggest, craziest looking poop I have seen in a good long while (I am trying to resist the urge of explicitly describing every aspect of the poop). Let's just say Claire had to feel better after getting all of that out of her system.

I cannot believe how invested I am in the bowel movements of such a tiny human. It is weird...yes, but it is motherhood. Claire didn't poop today - the giant poop happened a day ago. I am anxiously awaiting a regular poop tomorrow, so I can quit worrying about her bowels (temporarily)...wish us luck.