nov/dec 02 mamas continue....others welcome to join in the fun - Page 6

[ekblad9]

Jackson prefers to nurse but when he does eat he LOVES Annie's Mac and Cheese. He also really likes grapes, apple, carrots, and yogurt. Whenever the freezer opens he freaks out for ice cream. And he's taken to really freaking out when he sees the coffee pot! I don't get it. I only use it about twice/week and of course I've never given him any. So I have to sneak to drink my coffee now.:LOL

[village idiot]

Dd likes almost any pasta in any form, including spaghetti, Annies mac and cheese, and tossed with flaxseed oil and parm cheese, apples, apricots, peas, corn, and pizza.

She doesn't really care too much for meat and doesn't eat breakfast very well. I've racked my brain for different ideas for her breakfast but am in a rut. I've tried banana bread, french toast, scrambled eggs, pancakes, dried cereal, yogurt.

She will eat some of all of the above but not very much. Dinner is her big meal. In desperation, I have given her corn one morning for breakfast and leftover spaghetti another morning. : I also gave her leftover pizza recently.

I always have at least one thing at each meal that I know she will eat. I also know that it is ok for her to eat corn or spaghetti at breakfast but it still feels a little funny, yk? And I want her to at least be exposed to these other foods.

I do wish she'd eat more and I worry about her iron, vit d, calcium intakes.

[village idiot]

Oooops also meant to say that dd still nurses plenty. Don't know how many times a day but i'd estimate between 7 and 10. She is also trying to cut some stubborn molars that just will not break through.

[katmainomad]

oceano has been with us for 1 full year today!! yay

Liliana, how is ECing going? we have been part-day ecing since 7 months (usually in the morning and only at home now that we are in a cold climate). i think solids are messing up catching poops these days (he's less regular), but pees go pretty well when we do it based on timing or him crying if he really has to go.

we have been down to 1 nap a day (or sometimes unfortunately none...rarely) for a couple of months. for us that has not changed night time patterns, but his one nap is very irregular. he's very distractable and doesn't want to miss anything, so if i try to get him down before he is ready he just crawls off the futon and finds something to play with. as i've said i'm somehow ok with the night nursing...i think he gets most of his calories then which is ok by me. i am inspired by all of you to try and regularize that one nap though!

he still eats less than 1% solids. he is interested whenever i eat and i give him some of it, but he eats a bit then gets bored and goes to do something else. he likes vegetables and beans and grains but fruit is only sometimes acceptable.

he is getting so much more entertaining every day! he says up (ahhhhhh-p) and dog (usually dah, but sometimes with a 'g') today he showed a preference in reading material for the first time...i had a pile of 4 books and picked up the top one to read, but he reached over and picked up the one he wanted, then grabbed it again when we were done and i was going to move on. he danced (bounced on his knees) while i read which is something he has only done to music before.
ok, time for bed

[Liliana]

Our success with EC is mixed. She rarely signals, doesn't mind being wet and often objects to being changed/taken to the potty. However, she knows what the potty is for (that's part of the problem changing a wet diaper, she is thinking "but I already went Mom".) and will go if she needs to once she's there. Every so often she asks for a potty trip and needs it and it all seems worth it.

[lilmiss'mama]

village idiot- an idea if you're worried about vitamins...give your dd a vitamin supplement. My dd (14 months) takes one, because sometimes i feel like the only thing she is eating is pasta. I have yet to find a vegetable that she will eat. My dd takes a tsp. of a liquid vitamin that i got at Wild Oats. She can drink it plain or have it mixed in with a drink. I am also going to see if she will drink a little spirulina mixed into tomato juice or something. Wheatgrass mixed in with some type of juice is an idea as well.

[DecemberSun]

RE: food

Since we have a 14 month old son, and an 11 month old foster DD, we're trying all kinds of different foods to keep everyone happy, and healthy.

For breakfast we usually do Cheerios and bananas, or some other soft fruit like peaches, watermelon, cantaloupe, mango, papaya, pears, etc. They also like Kix and Mother's Peanut Butter Bumpers. Then, they have their respective boob or bottle to take a nap. They usually don't eat lunch or dinner, just one late afternoon meal. They both love cheese and cottage cheese. They love sauteed squash, steamed broccoli, carrots and cauliflower. Living in Arizona, they eat a lot of refried beans and rice. Of course baked potatoes and cous cous are favorites too. They eat sausage, chicken, pork chops, fish- no problems with meat. They have snacks out all day on the coffee table- usually pretxel sticks, Goldfish, Teddy Grahams, animal crackers, etc. They also love to naw on slices of apple and raw carrot. That's all I can think of for now...

Zach is obsessed with cans and bottles. We can't have a beer or soda in the same room as he is, or he will attack it! He has been banging things lately- banging blocks on the table, banging maraccas on Julianna's head, banging his car on the kitchen floor. He likes the noise, I guess... But it's giving me a headache!

[kerc]

ya'll I have been out of the loop for a week or so. But I've been missing you.

We have had a crazy series of events.
1. I totaled our tin can -- that would be our 1990 Honda
2. We got 24 inches of snow in 24 hours
3. We got a new furnace (no heat for all day).
4. It was -20 when I woke up today
5. this morning I locked my daughter and my keys in my car in her DCP's driveway. (see #4. luckily the car was running and now everyone is fine).


whew. snow is fun though.


I can totally relate to the "book" idea. I had read and read in books and here on MDC about how everyone has these slings and little babies sleep and nurse, etc. Not my baby. I had one of those colicky type babies...who never lets you put her down and can only sleep with her head in contact with mom's armpit. I was so unprepared for that it was ridiculous. I spent months thinking I was just not cut out to be a mom and was so fried my hair was standing on end. Only now that we are out of the difficult stage do I realize that not every kid is the same and my kid isn't perfect, but man is she fun now.

Instead of a cling-magnet who cries if someone other than mom says her name, I now have a clever little explorer who helps herself to pretzels from the pantry and learns how to open all kinds of things. She loves to play with other people now. What a difference a year makes.

Anyhow, rambling here. We did have to make Erin CIO in her crib. I was totally getting no sleep, I was a mess, Erin was getting no sleep, dh was getting no sleep. She wimpered herself to sleep for a handful of nights and now usually leaps towards the crib when we take her in there. She slept more at 11 months that first night in the crib than she EVER had (13 hours in a row!). But I was afraid to admit it to even you Nov/Dec mamas because I thought I had somehow failed. It wasn't my first, second or third choice of a method, but the final straw before losing my mind.


Eating...she eats everything and anything. Favorites of ours are bananas and oatmeal hardtack (imagine an oatmeal cracker/shortbready kind of thing).

Ok done rambling and back to work. Welcome to the new mamas.

[katmainomad]

kidsatheart, i was wondering if you might have any suggestions on how to deal with two babies that need a nap, based on your experience. i have my 12 month old and occasionally will watch my friend's 10 mo old during the day. ds goes down on the boob, and is a very active distractible baby. friend's ds, a more mellow baby, naps after a bottle of very watered down juice (though don't worry, fellow ap-ers, he is bf when mom is with him). well, my ds trying to get his bottle and him jealous of my ds' nursing means we haven't been very successfull at naps the one time i've watched him so far. i had 2 very cranky children until i managed to get friend's ds to conk out, my son never did, but did nurse quietly once the other boy was asleep. i was so tempted to gain permission to nurse both of them, but i intuit that my friend wouldn't want this intimacy with her son to be infringed on, so i won't follow up on that possibility. major props to all you moms with more than one to watch over!

liliana - actually your description of ec-ing sounds like it fits us too as my non-ecing friends tell me - at least our babes are ahead of the game by knowing what a toilet is for (though oceano will rarely sit on the toilet or his bb now, so we use the sink and bathtub a lot!)

[Liliana]

When I was watching a friend's baby the best way to deal with naps was to go for a walk. (This is only helpful if the climate is mild enough I guess). I had one in the sling and one in the stroller and often one would fall asleep while we were out. (Who was where and who fell asleep varied.) The challege was to put the sleeping kid down without the other one feeling ignored and screaming and waking up other.

Gloria's current favorite foods are Cheerios, nori, frozen peas, baby cereal, and homemade baked goods. It's hard to get her to eat fruit, but I try not to worry, since that's all that some toddlers will eat. Also, I can bake it into muffins and she will eat them. It's hard to predict which vegetables she will like any given day, but if I can cook mixed vegetables for us at dinner, she picks what she wants (often off my plate).

[majazama]

food for 13 month old

My baby is a little piggy when it comes to food. If you know anything about ayurveda, she is VERY pitta..... can eat and eat and eat.... etc. It's been hard to keep it all organized, as I was moving over the past few weeks, and now I'm home and there's no food here, except dried and canned foods. So she's eaten some things that I'm not proud of lately. When I make myself something, I have to make pretty much double to share it with her. I'm trying not to give her too much salt, and no sugar, and that is hard, especially when she's hungry... NOW! I give her mostly organic foods, and I have to remember to cook things ahead of time... (note to self) I've got pregnancy-brain so I forget that she needs to eat too.

When my life is back in order, I plan to feed her some squash, sweet potatoes, and lots of other veggies. As of now, it's noodles and peas. I'm too hard on myself, I think, it's not that bad for her, compared to what some people feed their babies!

Trying my best.

Hope all these amazing nov/dec 02 babies are doing excellently. They must be special if we are the only ones to continue our thread in the toddler forum!!!

[lilyka]

Oh Kerc - you do what you gotta do. i totally understand. Dd "whimpers herself to sleep eerynight. We came upon it quite by accident really but she sleeps so much better than she used to and if it costs us 2-3 minutes of crying then so be it. i remember how much trouble you were having with the whole sleep thing. I am so glad things are looking up in the sleep arena. Doesn't that just help everywhere else.

My second dd was a lot like yours. I had to be laying inthis totally uncomfortable position with her propped just right. Other wise, screaming fits of horror!!! from the time she was about 4 months she was surviving on 8-9 hours of sleep a day. Not healthy. Finally when she was two we just put her to bed and told her to go to sleep. I couldn't go on. And what a difference that made. It took her a couple of nights and she is still by far my worst sleeper but within a week she went to sleeping 14-16 hours a day!!! and man o man she was an entirely different child. It was glorious I tell ya!

Anyhoo, were you totally freaking when your looked your poor babe in the car. it was cold here, not -20 but cold (I htink it was about -10) and we cancled everything. My dh went to work but only becaudse he had stuff to get done. ooone came in and he told his employees to stay home. We own a bike shop. No one gives a second thought to biking while there is this much snow on the ground and it is this clod outside.

What happened to your car? Is everyone OK?

[kerc]

yes, sleep for everyone makes ALL the difference. Don't get me wrong, we still have nights when she's not tired or something, but overall....WAYYYYY better. AND she grew 4 inches and gained 10lbs in the 4 months since we've done it. I think she was too tired to gain weight. And tiredness is probably part of the reason I wasn't making enough milk.

In exchange for CIO we decided to re-institute a very strict routine (we'd tried it before from the No-cry s.s) and an earlier bedtime. and we have a rigid nap one too. So we are a slave to bedtime around here, but makes the waking hours much more pleasant. My non-mom friends can't understand why I can never do anything at 630 pm, but I'm busy putting my baby to sleep.

Anyhow we are all really happy right now and she wakes up with this cute little smile every morning, comes to bed to nurse for a bit and then if it is too early to get up for real, dh takes her and snuggles her on the couch back to sleep.

car -- I was driving out of town, which means up a huge hill on an interstate. There was lake effect snow falling (light fluffy stuff) and I just slid -- at 40 mph. Lost control of car, spun around and hit the rear corner of the car on the guardrail. No one was with me Thank Goodness. and like I said I was traveling well below the speed limit.

baby in car -- I was FREAKING out and freezing my tail off trying to do something. Luckily she was totally fine and we had left it running. She just played with her socks and slippers and laughed at mom and dad.

bike shop...i've been meaning to tell you that I bought the charriot carrier stroller I asked about last spring. It is defintiely a jack of all trades master of none. Great for skiing - except that you have to put it together each time or have a van. Good for jogging in cold weather bc it is like a burley, but it is too big for the trunk of the car with the wheels on it. Biking -- easy to attach, but the burley is a better trailer IMO and you can't get an infant seat in the chariot. But for the 550 we paid for all 3, not a bad deal.

enough

[lilyka]

[lilyka]

Hey yhanks for the update on the chariot. Right after you asked about it dh came home with a brochure and asked if we should carry it. I don't think we are. I will have to let him read your post. He actually came here and searched for what people were saying about bikes and trailers because he thought the ladies here would kave good opinions.

funny you should mention the whole weight thing. I was just looking through a box of pictures (tell me why I didn't relize I had never put the pictures from LIlys 1st b-day in her baby book?) and holy crap she was skinny. Probably not overly so but compared to my other two chunksters she was skin and bones. L0oking back she did grow a lot right after she started sleeping through the night. I am sure her lack of sleep was a contributing factor to her thinness (certainly isn't in her jenes :LOL ) Just to give you an idea of how tiny she is, she is almost 4 and her and Ava wear the same size clothes on occasion and if Lily were still in diapers they would be in the same size. Weird for me. Funny thing is that lily was, by a long shot, my biggest baby at birth. Almost 10 pounds.

Ava is slimming down finally. She still hasn't gained any weight since her nine month check and may even be down a few ounces but has definitely gone up a few inches. We willl hav to go down a size in diapers probably withour next pack.

I am a wreck today. My period started after 23 months without it and then before that I had only had a couple after the previous 23 months (With both Lilyka and Ava I was 14 months post partum almost to the day - at least something in my life is regular) but I feel like I am going to bust out sobbing any second. i am not sure if it just hormones or if it that yeaterday was the last day in my life I wil be in the post partum sort of place. It may sound silly but those days, that period free period of time is almost Holy. ya know. Yeah, must be hormones :LOL :LOL Oh and I have this awful headache!!!! Well gotta run. I am suposed to be packing. but instead I am here.

[Sleepymama]

Hey, I'm still wading through all the posts but wanted to join in. My DS was born Xmas eve '02 and I am a graduate student currently avoiding school and staying at home w/him. Although he can only take a couple of steps he is DEFINITELY a toddler!! Tantrums-R-us, for sure! He is very active, a bundle of energy. He never stops moving! He has always been a spirited HN type of baby, but is getting better about playing near me on the floor instead of being held all the time. And we are in the process of nightweaning and doing some gentle sleep stuff--he used to wake up 10x a night, now he's down to 3-5x. I'll take what I can get!

He was born with a congenital heart defect and has had 2 surgeries but is doing fine now, although he's pretty small for his age and barely on the charts. He didn't eat solid food until 11-12 months and is now just starting table foods. (He has had some oral aversion problems).

I am glad to find other mamas with babes (I guess I should say toddlers!) the same age! We CD, cosleep, yadda yadda. DS "got" me an ergo carrier for my birthday and it is a lifesaver! Even though he's small 20lbs is still too much for one shoulder

Forgot to add link to a couple pics of my Schnoog:
http://www.snapfish.com/share/p=8642...569/l=23202512
from his 1st birthday.

[rebx]

Welcome to the thread, Sleepymama (and ALL the other "new" mamas!)

kerc, I'm glad you survived your crazy week with no one the worse for wear (well, except for your car - bummer!). You'll get no judgement on CIO from me. When I think of CIO, I picture a baby crying alone for hours, for nights on end - It sounds like your version was much less traumatic for everyone. If Erin is that excited to get into her crib each night, it sounds like she's happy with the new bedtime routine, too. I don't think that comes even close to failure!

I'm loving all of the new photos being posted...We've grown a bumper crop of beautiful children!

Ava made me cry today, in a good way. She woke up from her nap, grabbed her favorite book (Hush Little Baby by Sylvia Long), handed it to me and starting doing the "more" sign. I sang-read it once, and when I got to the end, Ava signed "more, more!". As I was singing it to her again, she was smiling and looking into my eyes, then suddenly lunged over and hugged me tight. She's given me tons of hugs (she's a dedicated snuggler), but this one felt different - like it was an intentional act of love.

Uh - OH! We're in the middle of a wind storm, and the power is starting to flicker, so I've got to turn this computer off NOW.

[kerc]

welcome steph. your baby is darn cute. and we have the same highchair.

I'm a phd student in geology...

[Sleepymama]

Kristin, how are you managing grad school and the babe? I am a phd student too, in history, and I'm supposed to be writing my dissertation right now. I did my research while pregnant and have sections of several chapters, but it takes so much concentration that I just don't have. DS has been so high maintenance this year with his surgeries and the HN "hold me all the time" and the waking up every 45 minutes that I just can't manage. I really need to finish though, so we can move on! DH wants to be a SAHD as soon as I can get a teaching position that pays enough and offers benefits.

[kerc]

how do we do it?...daycare 20 hrs a week. we have a great dcp that i love and fully trust. Not ideal, but what is ideal about trying to have a life and a baby at the same time.

I work in the morning while dd is at day care and then I work again sometimes at night while dd is sleeping. I often found that if i try to think about work during naps I end up ticked off that dd isn't napping. So i do household stuff during that time.

dh is a history student too (he's abd at the univ of n carolina -ch). He has been trying to write now for two years. I think he will finish this fall? he's teaching two on-line community college courses in american history on top of writing. hence the slow process. plus his advisor is 1000 miles away. ah well.