Josie, only seven days since my last post about the bean, has turned a whopping six weeks old today. Well done bean!
She has had a few bad bouts of baby gas in the past few days. While on a call with a friend, and fellow gassy baby mother, Hannah, she had mentioned that they had to "fart" the baby once in a while to help relieve the, um, discomfort. I laughed at her foolishness, and thought silently of how thankful I was that our baby had the good sense to be gas free. That is until last Saturday night. The bean was up very late and quite cranky. Nothing would sooth her, and her wee belly felt bloated. I dared to mention that, maybe, our perfect little baby, our little darling girl, might be having a bout of the vapors. Tam looked over at me and said, "Don't tell me how to do it, it sickens me." Well, she didn't say that exactly. She may have said, "She just might be." I can read between the lines. After another hour of fussing, Tam's bloodshot eyes turned to me and spoke louder than words, "Please shove this little bundle of joy out the window so I can sleep." I started towards the open window, and then paused and said, "Let's try 'farting' her." "What?" she replied. "Hannah had mentioned that we could help relieve gas by 'farting' her." At this point in the early morning hours I could have suggesting shooting the bean out of a cannon, and Tam would of went along with it. I explained what a farting would entail, and she agreed, "Let's give her a good old fashioned 'farting'."
Farting 101: To fart a baby, as our baby farting friend instructed, you lay them on their back and lift their legs up towards their belly. You hold them there for a moment. You then let their legs down, and repeat. You continue this exercise until the baby relieves their, um, discomfort.
We began the "farting" procedure. Honestly, we were both skeptical. We weren't convinced that the bean had gas, and even if she did, would this so called "farting" actually work? We lifted. Held. Released. Repeated. We eventually began to feel foolish, and when I was about to give up, "Toot." We laughed. I wondered if we could make her toot again. She did, "TOOOOT!!!" We laughed until tears of joy ran down our faces. We had made the baby fart, and it was the most wonderful sound that we had ever heard. After a short while, the bean was fast asleep, followed moments later by mom and dad. We sleep throughout the night with the sweet sounds of baby farts echoing in our dreams.
There was love all around
But I never heard it singing
No I never heard it at all
Till there was you
