~January 2009 mamas...new thread here!~ - Page 5

[Phoenix~Mama]

Thanks for all the hair suggestions! I have to look into some of those. The problem is my actual hair can get oily and gross looking fast, but my actual scalp stays dry dry dry. it's driving me nuts.


I was conflicted about having more kids for a little while... but I know I'd really like to have at least one more... no idea when that could be though.

[babybirkel]

re: more kids....

our son is our first. before i had him, i thought i wanted like 4 or 5 kids, all like 2 years apart...and now that i have him...and i love him endlessly, don't get me wrong...i am just not sure about having another one anytime soon. DH and i are talking about TTC this summer so that they would be like 2 and a half years apart...

my sister and i are 2 years 3 months apart and she is my best friend now. i LOVE having a sister so close in age and i would love to provide that lifelong friendship to Sam...

but then i think about the logistics of having a toddler and a newborn and i just don't know. it scares me. somedays having one kid is more than i can take. so the thought of having another one so soon scares me.

but then sometimes i go to old navy and look at baby girl clothing and feel my uterus skip a beat.

re: dairy and whatnot. well it's been a week so far, and it hasn't been as difficult as i thought it would be. i don't know that it has made any improvement yet...his sleep is still pretty crappy but his eyes look better. so who knows. i will stick with it though, as i have heard it takes a while for the milk protein to leave our systems...

and he's back to loving solids again. two teeth popped through on the bottom, so i think his mouth was sore and he didn't like chewing.

birthday party...HOW IS MY BABY ALMOST A YEAR OLD? it seriously makes me want to cry! i am excited about the next stage but a little sad, too. anyway...i think we're just having a simple affair with my mom and dad and my brother and sister and their families. i'll bake a cake....anyone know any yummy dairy-free cake and frosting recipes??? we're visiting my in-laws over christmas and i think we're having a little birthday party while we are there since his birthday is only 3 weeks after christmas and they won't be able to make it to his real party.

[alaskaberry]

babybirkel--there is a great dairy-free chocolate cake in Joy of Cooking. Here's a recipe for it I found on Suite101. It's also egg-free! You use vinegar in it instead. It is sooo good. You can also top it w/ powdered sugar if you don't want to do frosting...but what's a 1st bd w/o a baby smeared with frosting, I ask you? Dairy-Free (Vegan) Chocolate Cake

[_ktg_]

Ooh that chocolate cake recipe looks delicious!

I can't believe my babe is going to be 1 so soon. It feels like yesterday I was waiting, walking malls, taking some lovely castor oil to nudge him along at 42 weeks.

With all the holiday hub-bub, I haven't even thought about what kind of party or size or anything for Sam, so babybirkel congrats on being ahead of the game!!

[Everrgreen]

Originally Posted by mclisa

what are you little ones getting for Christmas?

O is getting clothes and pj's. And I found a really neat wooden car set from etsy.

Well, I've bought a bunch of stuff . I'm not sure what is going to be for Christmas and what will be for Birthday. His big Christmas present will probably be an okiedog cheeky chick that I bought. He will get pjs and a book on Christmas Eve. The other stuff I've bought is some little musical instruments, a CD, a little wooden car ramp, and then some practical stuff (bibs, utensils, etc.) for his stocking. Oh, and I went to Ikea today and bought a few things. I know, totally overboard for a baby, but he'll only have his first Christmas once! And some of it may get saved for b-day gifts.

re birthdays: I like the idea of a Snowman theme, that someone mentioned. I've been trying to think of a theme for DS's birthday. I may steal that idea I've also been thinking of doing a winter animal theme (maybe penguins and polar bears?) We'll see...

[mamasthree]

I love catching up on this thread Our babies will be 1 soon...how can that be?! I've been singing to Emmie "You're gettin' nothing for Christmas..." lately--she is #4 and we really don't need any more baby stuff, LOL. We're getting an outdoor playset, so a gift for all the kids, really, but mostly dd3 and dd4. I did get her a new wooden toy to put in her stocking. I haven't even thought about her birthday yet...makes me feel like a bad momma .

Our first 2 girls are 20 months apart, then 6 1/2 years between dd 2 and dd 3, then dd3 and dd4 are 27 months apart. Having a toddler and infant is so demanding, but then they are so close and always have someone to play with as they grow. There is defintely a different dynamic with more spacing, there are things I like about having kids close together and there are things that seem better with longer spacing. One thing is true, however...love multiplies. Makes it so hard to feel "finished" having kids, LOL. For the most part I really feel like this is it for us, but there are times I'm not sure. If I were younger, I'd defintely have one more...

And I've definitely had feelings of resentment/frustration with the older kids, especially the 3 year old. There is a transition between the infant stage and preschooler where you are both learning to be more independent, and it can be difficult at times. Alaskaberry--great observation about the "emotional tank"--so true and a reminder to myself that though my 3 year old is growing more independent, she still needs a lot of her momma! My dh reminds me of that a lot, I should pay better attention to him!

[mclisa]

feel free to steal the snowman idea! Maybe next year I'll do penguin.

We might be to the point of weaning. He only nursed yesterday merning and wouldn't this morning. His nose was really stuffy today. I'll just keep pumping and hopefully we can get him transistioned to sippy cups soon.

[alaskaberry]

mclisa--I bet he's just not nursing cuz his nose is all stuffed-up. T doesn't like nursing when he's all stuffy either (that's when I bring out the aspirator...our fave! -not!), like most babes he's a nose-breather. So it's probably just an 'I feel sick' nursing strike. Are you planning on weaning at 12m then? Don't worry, I'm not going to jump all over you about it...Just curious.

Speaking of sippies, I can't remember when I started DS1 on them. Did anyone else start already? I've heard you can start them at 5m but I wonder if that was just bottle-fed babies. So far T drinks water from the cap of my water jar.

We trimmed the tree--finally! T spent the entire time hanging out with my younger brother...whew. I was worried he would come over and get pricked by the tree (it won't take any more water and is very dry and very sharp). He's still trying to walk and not succeeding a bit--DP works up north on the Trans-AK Pipeline, and before he left for this hitch, he said "if T tries to walk, push him over" --he wants to be there for T's first steps. I just won't tell him if T walks w/o him. We're going to pretend it's just for his daddy. As for presents, I told the gparents not to get the kids much, but I know DP's parents will completely disregard this and we'll probably get a pile of plastic junk. At least I know my family's only gotten the kids things they'll actually play with. (Case in point: we visited DP's fam first for the holidays and they had nothing for ds1 to play with--nothing. Except the TV. I could rant forever about this, but I'll shut up now!)

[MadiMamacita]

RE: sippy cups
he's had one since 6 months old when he started solids. he just drinks water out of it. he also drinks from a regular cup if we help, or a straw.

[MadiMamacita]

a question about cookies, and i guess cake, since we're almost at birthday time..

I was at a gathering the other day and another mom, who has a jan 8 baby, asked me if I wanted her to go get a christmas cookie for my DS. I said, "Oh, no thanks, he doesn't eat cookies yet." but I was pretty shocked..
we don't do grains of any kind, and I know thats not "normal" even around MDC, but do you guys give your baby cookies? not like, some kind of teething biscuit, but iced, sprinkled cookies? When I mentioned it to my mom later she laughed and said that I'm in the way super minority on this.. I know I have seen people give their infants things like kool-aid or soda in a bottle, but I thought that was just extreme..

and cake. are you all doing a real cake for b-day? we're going to do something, but I'm not eating gluten these days so it will not be a traditional cake. maybe a cheese cake.. hmm.. yum. *off to find a really good and special cheese cake recipe..*

[SarahElizabeth]

Absolutely no cookies here. He still doesn't chew food (which is getting quite worrisome - he'd eat the world if it was mashed, but lumps? Never.) so it's not really an issue for us.. Though even if he did chew, no cookies.

As for cake, I'll probably bake one.. though whether he has any or not is another matter entirely.

I hope you all had a wonderful christmas with your little ones.

[somanyjoys]

LOL about the cookie question because I am guilty of giving my Jan 8 baby an iced, sprinkled cookie the other day and pointing out that she obviously isn't my first. :-) With my older daughter, no way would I have given her a cookie -- she did have cake at her first birthday, but that was still probably the only sugar she had until she was 18 months or so (then things like grahams or animal crackers). Anyway, I am much more laid back (in good and bad ways) this time around. We will do a cake for her birthday, too, with a picture of her diving in and all.

I'll just say "Howdy" now, too. I was on the due date club but haven't had much internet time this year. Now I'm feeling really out of touch and tired and overwhelmed with this approaching toddler stage. I need other moms in the same boat to communicate with.

[Everrgreen]

No desserts here yet! Although he did have french toast for breakfast on Christmas morning, but no syrup, so I guess that really isn't dessert I do plan on baking a cake for DS to have on his first birthday, I will try and keep it as 'healthy' as I can though.

Re sippy cups - DS has one but doesn't know how to drink from it, he's never had a bottle though so maybe thats why. But he has figured out how to drink out of a regular cup, so I think I'll be giving up on the sippy!

[ainh]

Ah...I'm late to this thread!

My guy was born 1/7 and I'm getting really nostaligic now that the year mark is coming up!

The tough things for us are lack of weight gain, sleep and allergies. He has a severe wheat allergy (gets hives from just touching flour and wheat products, so I can't even bake with wheat flour in our house any more b/c some always managed to make it to the floor, of course). I think his sleep and weight issues are part and parcel of the allergy stuff. He now sleeps for about 4-6 hours in his crib and then is very wakeful with me for the rest of the night. He likes to just hang out clapping and standing and scratching his ankles when he comes to bed with me at 1 or 2 in the morning. Ugh.

The good thing is that he's pretty happy and meeting all his (non growth related) milestones. He's so scrappy and adventurous next to my shy first son.

Originally Posted by jbalsam

Had a very scary experience with tahini a few months ago -- anaphylaxis, almost stpped breathing -- so we are being very deliberate about introducing new foods, and will prob. wait a while yet for soy ,wheat, and cow's-milk based dairy. Tried goat's milk yogurt yesterday with success! But a note of caution to all: sesame is highly allergenic.

SO SORRY. My first guy had an anaphlyactic reaction to tahini at 9 months old and I too was shocked to find out what a common allergen seeds are (he turned out to be severely allergic to many seeds like sunflower and mustard, as well as all nuts, dairy and egg). Very scary stuff and it does make you cautious. I'm actually surprised how relaxed I was about introducing foods to this second baby after my bad experience...and sure enough he had super hives from his first teething biscuit and all the trauma returned.

[starling&diesel]

Yum, cookies... yep, I've given Esmé a cookie now and then. She eats everything we eat. I'm celiac, so we're gluten-free in our house. As for a birthday cake, my partner is going to make a carrot cake!

[_ktg_]

Re: Cookies - Sam has had a cookie or 2 in his lifetime, and he's snagged one and instantly put it in his mouth. They've really never been like the iced uber sugared up ones, just plain un-iced cookies (i despise icing)

Re: Sippy cups - I don't remember when we started these with jack (#1), but for Sam we've tried a couple of times with meals (he disliked a regular cup & bottle) We're not pushing it right now as he still gets bottles for BM and the sippies are only for water.

I hope everyone had or is having a wonderful holiday season! Once again the GPs overdid it, but at least they talked with us and many of the gifts were neat to inspire imagination and not battery operated or noisy!!

[MadiMamacita]

I'm gonna start us a new thread in the Toddler Years now that our babes are turning 1.

[_ktg_]

Just wanted to pop by and give a shout for its my january baby's b-day today.



HAPPY BIRTHDAY SAM!

While your birth did not have the ending I wished for, I loved every minute of it and would not change it for the world. This year you have taught me to be more peaceful and enjoy life.

Thank you so much ~ your momma