Part 5 (1/2)
FOR THE MOTHER.
All the old sheets in the house. Rubber sheet, double width. A square of rubber sheeting single width. An old comforter.
[Footnote: When the Kelly pad is used for the delivery, the old comfortable, the blankets and the single width rubber sheet need not be provided.]Two or three old blankets. Fountain syringe. Paper basin. Towels ad libitum. Six or seven night dresses, three of them old. Unders.h.i.+rts, if worn in bed, 4 (large). Bandages, 6. Cheese cloth, 10 yards. Absorbent cotton, 2 lbs. A large flannel sacque, or a nightingale. Soft unbleached muslin, 2 or 3 yards. Colgate's fumigating wafers, I box. Bedpan, I.
Layettes can be purchased at any good department store, but many expectant mothers prefer to make all the clothes for the little one. These lists are for the benefit of these mothers.
These look, perhaps, like two very formidable lists, but a second glance will convince any one that all these articles are absolutely necessary, and none of them are expensive.
The slips should be made very plainly. The material may be as fine as can be bought, but beyond a few tucks about the yoke, and a little lace or fine embroidery about neck and sleeves, should be perfectly plain. The dresses, of course, are somewhat more elaborate, but the fas.h.i.+on now decrees that infant's clothing shall be perfectly plain, and a most sensible fas.h.i.+on it is.
Pinning blankets are open all down the front, and are usually made in the shops with a broad band of stiff white muslin, which shows that the people who made them never tried to dress a baby. The band should be of flannel or coa.r.s.e linen many times washed so that it may be soft, and the pins will go through many folds of it. Flannel skirts are usually made of two breadths of flannel, and are more or less embroidered. These are not left open, except just enough to make the dressing easy. s.h.i.+rts are made so well in stores that few people care to knit them. They should always be high in the neck and long sleeved, and it is better to get two sizes, as, if the baby is small, it never can be comfortable in a large s.h.i.+rt that does not fit.
The four flannel bands should be 6 inches wide by 17 or 18 long, torn the length way of the flannel and left just as torn. Not hemmed or ornamented in any way. No hemming or st.i.tching can be so fine that it will not mark the baby's flesh. Besides this, if you have these plain bands and find they are several inches too big, nothing is easier than tearing off a strip and making them fit. If the child has a very large, round abdomen, they can be made to fit over it nicely by taking two little tucks on the lower edge, about half an inch from the middle of the band, and letting the tucks run up about an inch or a little more, tapering it off gradually.
When these are discarded and the Jersey made bands are put on, always put them on the baby feet first, as it is hard to get them over the shoulders.
The very best material for the first small diapers is old, soft table damask. The better the quality, the softer it will be; be sure they are exactly square. Nothing is more trying, in a small way, than to get a diaper that cannot be folded true. These should be made double and the edges turned in and sewed around. By the time the baby has outgrown them they will be fit only for the rag- bag, and may be thrown aside. The second size diaper, also the third should be many times washed to make them soft enough for use. These may be used at first folded eight times and put under the baby next the damask diaper, between that and the pinning blanket, and will often save the nurse the trouble of changing the baby's clothing, because it is wet through. In this way they will get more was.h.i.+ngs and be softer when you have to use them next the baby's skin.
Cotton flannel, with a good nap and not a very close web, is very good also and can be used instead of the damask where that cannot be procured. Put it on with the nap next the skin. It is an excellent absorbent.
The baby should have at least one little (rather flat) hair pillow, covered on one side with blue or pink silk, on the other with plain white over the ticking. The prettiest pillow cases I ever saw were made of broad hemmed pocket handkerchiefs. Two sewed neatly together round three edges, and on the fourth b.u.t.ton holes for mother-of-pearl studs. The handkerchiefs may be fine or not, embroidered or plain, and may have lace sewed on the edge, but they can't help being pretty, and the embroidery will never be in the middle. I shall never forget my pity for one poor little mite I saw once, who, on waking from his sleep, was discovered to have the print of an embroidered S on his cheek. It had been worked in the centre of the little pillow case by some loving but ignorant hands. When the baby uses the pillow, let him sleep on the white side; at other times turn up the colored side and the pink or blue will show very prettily through the linen. If you let the child sleep on the colored side he may, most likely will, vomit some sour milk on it, sooner or later, and the beauty of your pillow will be gone.
If the regular little crib blankets are thought too expensive, a very good subst.i.tute may be made from white eiderdown cloth, which is warm, soft, and not at all costly.
The gold safety pins are intended for the final pinning of the dress in the front and in the back. Of course any little ornamental baby pin answers the purpose just as well, and, indeed, an ordinary safety pin will do should no other be at hand.
The little box of equal parts of borax and sugar should not be forgotten. Mix the two very thoroughly, and if any little white aphthous spots appear on baby's lips, tongue or cheeks, apply a little of this mixture several times a day, and they will probably all be gone by night. Put it on very carefully with the tip of your finger slightly moistened so that some of the powder will adhere. Examine the baby's mouth every day for these spots. They are likely to appear any time after ten days or two weeks, and are more often seen in weak children, or those who are fed by a bottle. If the spots appear on a child who is taking the breast, the nipples are very apt to be sore. Much care, therefore, must be exercised in this matter.
Sachets are a real luxury in the drawers of the baby's bureau.
Atkinson's sachets are the best, though Colgate's violet is very delicate and pleasant. Put one or two amongst the little s.h.i.+rts, and some among the knitted blankets, but mostly have them in the dresses, and be sure when you take out a clean dress, or slip, to take the sachet and slide it into the neck of the slip that will be worn tomorrow. Nothing can be more attractive than a clean, sweetly smelling baby, and, _per contra_, nothing is more disgusting than a wet, sour, cold, crying baby. If he be wet and sour he will surely have cold feet and hands, and as surely will he cry. Poor little thing! It is his only way of expressing his opinion of the state of his toilette.
It is very pretty, when the baby is fresh and clean, and has on a fine slip with lace edging the sleeves, to tie around the wrist, outside of the sleeve, a piece of pink or blue ribbon. Make a nice little bow and let the lace fall over the fat little hands, like a frill. Be careful not to tie the ribbon too tight, and keep it clean. If it becomes soiled or wet, take it off directly.
A lap protector is made by covering a piece of rubber cloth about 14 inches square with several thicknesses of old blanket. To cover this have some slips like pillow cases, of linen or cotton, plain or fancy, as the lady may have time or money. Slip the ”protector”
in its case, and lay it on your own, or any one else's, lap who wishes to hold the baby, and it perfectly protects from all wetting.
TABLE FOR ESTIMATING THE PROBABLE DURATION OF PREGNANCY
Two hundred and eighty days, forty weeks, ten lunar months, or nine calendar months are here estimated as the usual duration of pregnancy (the actual computed average being 276-2/3 days). The exact day of conception (_not_ the fertile coition), can never be accurately determined; the only date from which conception can be dated, and the probable confinement day predicted with some chance of certainty, is the first day of the last menstrual flow, adding to this one week (seven days) for the average duration of the flow (with a few days lee-way). We count nine calendar months forward, and have the approximate date of the expected confinement. The most ready method is to add seven days to the first day of the last menstrual flow, count back three months, and add one year, when we have the future date when, or about when, delivery may be expected.
An _exact_ estimate is but guess work; errors of one or two weeks either way may be made by the most experienced, as in cases where conception occurred shortly before the next menstrual period, which did not then appear.
The present table is constructed on the above principle, the second column representing the day of quickening, nineteen weeks after the beginning of the last menstruation, with seven days added; and the third column still twenty weeks later. The date of quickening is still more variable than that of delivery, from one to four weeks.
Intermediate dates may be fixed by adding the necessary number of days to each column. Thus, for Jan. 11th, the second column should read 31st of May, and the third column, October 18th, and so on.
Beginning of last Quickening. Confinement. Menstruation.
Jan. 1st.........May 20th.........Oct. 8th.
Feb. 1st.........June 20th.........Nov. 8th.