February 09 mamas - they're not babies anymore! - Page 8

[mckittre]

starling - it wouldn't bother me to have someone take pictures, but the food thing is a little sketchy. How would they know if she was allergic to something?

Gillian - that sounds really tough. I hope you figure something out that lets you spend as much time with Royce as possible.
Katmai's also switched to mostly walking and only occasional crawling in the last week or two (though he was able to stand up without help for 3 months before he decided to walk).

Katmai's been such a trooper on this book tour - good in the car, good with new people, even happily playing with toys for a big chunk of most of the presentations (we let him wander at the front of the stage and chuck new toys at him now and then, and my husband takes him out if he gets too loud). But he picked up a lingering cough that he's had for a couple weeks now. And he's getting really tired of moving around. He starts crying every time we start to pack up now, which is so sad. Only a little bit longer, and we'll be home on Wednesday.

Katmai's starting to put his signs together into 2-word phrases now, which is really cute. His favorite is "book all-gone" after throwing the book (or a similar one with his other toys), but he also does ones like "baby eat" "dog food" etc...

[Mal85]

starling- That would all really bother me too. The food thing especially. Like mckittre said, she could have allergies they don't know about and the choking hazards! I will share food with friends' kids and family members' kids, but always after asking their parents to make sure it's okay. The pictures would bother me too. It's one thing if they're taking pictures of something and she ends up in the background, but to take her picture specifically, that's just strange.

There was a elderly woman in my town who used to come to things like prom and take pictures of people going inside. She even showed up at my boyfriend's (now husband) place of work to give him pictures she had taken of us going into prom. On my wedding day, she kept driving by where we were getting our wedding pics taken and was taking pictures of us with a disposable camera. She was the creepiest old lady. She did this to everyone in town. So, yeah, random people taking my daughter's picture would not fly with me.

[starling&diesel]

Gillian ...

And much magic and prayer for you to have an easier go of things.
I'm so sorry that things haven't gone as you dreamed they would. I predict wonderful things in your future ... guaranteed!

[alaskaberry]

Hi, my son was born in January '09...I know this is the Feb group, but do you mind if I join?

I'm a SAHM in Interior Alaska with 2 boys. T is my littlest. He spends most of his time climbing and running all over the place, trying to catch up with ds1. Whatever ds1 does, he has to do too. He isn't really talking yet, all he says is "uh oh", "milk" and "nyet"(knit?). I'm not too worried, ds1 never talked til he was 2 and then you couldn't get him to stop.

[AKislandgirl]

Welcome alaskaberry! We'd love to have you join us! It's fun to see another Alaskan too! (mckittre and I are fellow Alaskans too!)

I find it weird that random people would give Esmé food and take her picture too. Especially the food thing.

We had a rough night last night. Fiona was up for a couple of hours. Flip flopping all over the bed, not being able to sleep, even practicing her downward dog pose. Sigh. We are all a bit tired and cranky this morning. She just went down for a nap which I hope will be a long one. It's tough having 4 teeth coming at once. I keep telling myself that at least they will all be in soon. She rarely has nights like this thank goodness. I did notice this morning that I forgot to put her amber necklace on after going to the pool yesterday. I don't know if its just a coincidence or not. Maybe?

Gillian, you have been in my thoughts and prayers lately. I wish you luck to find the balance between working and or school and being with Royce as much as possible. I think it is doable. Do you have family where you are now or would you consider moving closer to family to get some support from them? You may still be able to take classes and such and leave Royce with your folks or something. I'm sure you have been thinking of all of these options. Is his dad helping financially at all? Good luck Mama!

[monkaha]

Owyn has discovered she loves to scream. It's like she's competing with herself for the loudest, most ear-piercing scream. For no reason in particular other than she likes the sound. Mommy has had a headache most days this week.

omg. here too. Especially in the bath, where it echos like crazy.

The weather here has been wonderful this weekend, and we've spent all day outside. Anthony LOVES to be outside and really puts up a fight when we have to go in. He's also really fighting every diaper change. hooray for toddlers!

[Thursday Girl]

the food thing is starnge, but as for taking pictures of esme, I find that not strange. (god i could have owrded that sentence better). People like kids, people like kids even more at an adult event when their is only 1 cute kid to be attracted by. (this could also go the other way, but she was being sweet and cute so people like her) She was a novelty. Not surprised by the pictures.

Mal as for your weird picture taking lady the only thing i could think was "wow, she must be lonely. Looking for any connection to people she can get" although I would probably be a little weirded out by it, the fact that she would seek out your husband to give the pictures to makes me think it's a connection thing not a dnagerous stalker thing.

SCREAMING/SCREECHING- hahaha I HATE this. Juniper does it. Josephine does it (in fact Juniper used to get upset when Josie did it, but at some point she decided to just join her), and Now Jewel does it to make the baby laugh and do it some more. Some days it's all I can do to not reach over and bop the older girls on the head when they do it in the house. lol.

Gillian I hope you can figure something out, can you get it in the agreement that he pays child support so you can stay home. Can't there be somethign in there stating that this was the original plan you all had when you had the baby or something? I'll be thinking of you and sneding energy that this works out well.

McKittre, so glad you are almost home.

So my oldest aksed me to change her room around, take the bunk beds apart. It is requireing a lot of work with their toys (which they have entirely too many of) we are packing up a LOT of them and storing them until we get the playroom built. They have 2 garbage bags full of dress up clothes. I feel like I should go through them and only keep the nicer stuff. I am not sure how I am going to fit 3 beds in their room when Juniper turns 2. (the plan is one room for their beds and dressers and one rrom for all their toys and books. ) I might have to scrap that plan and gve Jewel her own room or convince them to put the bunk beds back up, and then a loft bed with desks underneath. With drawers under the bed and where? (like you all can help since you haven't seen the room) I think i need to get rid of some of their clothes. there is no reason a person should have so many clothes.

which bring s me to- How many outfits,, shirts, pants, undies, pajamas, etc do you all have for each person? Do you think it's enough, too much, not enough? would you pare it down, or do you just like having so many choices?

[Mal85]

Gillian, you were on my mind all weekend, just wondering how things were going with you. I really do hope you can get something worked out. It has to be so hard realizing that the way you planned your life to go just isn't working out like you'd hoped. It's hard to change plans when it comes to something as big as being a parent. And if you aren't able to stay at home with him permanently, I hope you can peace in that as well and still find a way to make the most of your situation. Royce is always going to be your sweet boy even if things aren't the way you imagined.

We really had such a great weekend here. It's been a long time since I was able to let the stress of the week melt away on the weekend. It helped that DH helped so much with Owyn and I really got a much needed break. I spent Saturday cleaning my parents' house for them and shopping for baby shower supplies. We went to a bonfire with some friends that night and Owyn, surprisingly, fell asleep in the crib they have set up for their baby on the way and stayed there until we went home!

Sunday I helped throw a baby shower for a friend and it really was lovely. I'm so happy it came together so nicely! We made a birth necklace for the mom. I wasn't sure how that would go since I've never made jewelry before and I was in charge of the project. But it came out beautiful and everyone had a great time making it!

Now, Owyn has a cold or allergies or something, so sleep wasn't great last night. But she's in good spirits when she's awake even if her face is covered in snot!

[AKislandgirl]

Originally Posted by Thursday Girl

which bring s me to- How many outfits,, shirts, pants, undies, pajamas, etc do you all have for each person? Do you think it's enough, too much, not enough? would you pare it down, or do you just like having so many choices?

Fiona has way too many clothes. I really haven't bought much so its mostly hand me down stuff. I was feeling some obligation to keep it since people passed it down to us. I have recently come to the conclusion that this is not a good idea!! So, I'm pairing down and passing things on. For example, we mostly use wool diaper covers so I'm giving away pretty much all of the onesies except for a few really cute ones. Then when I see something I want to buy for her I feel less guilty. I'm her mom I can choose some of the clothes and not just use hand me downs!!! I actually love hand me downs but also like to be able to pick out a few things too (while I can! haha!)

Re: organzing the room. I think it sounds great to have seperate sleeping and playing rooms. Maybe you should check out apartment therepy or some other similar site for ideas of making the most of small spaces. PS. When did your girls move to their own rooms? I'm wondering how we are going to arrange our small house when Fiona gets a bedroom too.

[Everrgreen]

Thank you so much ladies for all your thoughts and prayers. We are still sharing finances, so everything is okay right now. It's just looking into the future, once we get everything legally separated. I am trying to convince him to continue supporting us until Royce starts school. Some days he is okay with it, but then he changes his mind. He's really moody. But hopefully it will work out. If I could at least stay home until Royce started school that would be wonderful. I'm also planning a move to be in the same town as my mom. It's a bigger city with more opportunities for school/work. Plus I would have my mom for support. So yeah, just lots of stuff to think about.


Royce has his first vomiting illness It started last night. I was woken up just after midnight by being vomited on. So gross! He was even vomiting after nursing, yet wanted to nurse for comfort. I kept trying to get him to sleep other ways, but he would keep waking up wanting to nurse, so I would try and nurse and then he would vomit again. Poor boy! I thought he was doing better this morning, and fed him some applesauce, but then he vomited again. I just hope he feels better soon.

[alaskaberry]

Thursday--Ds1 has more clothes than any of us. I go through the clothes about every 6 months and throw out things I haven't worn in a year (unless it has sentimental value). By "throw out" I mean donate, or take to the transfer site. Tucker gets all of Ds1's hand-me-downs. DP doesn't throw anything out...just wears it all til it falls apart.

Gillian--Try bf'ing for 15 seconds every 15 minutes, then going down in increments--30 seconds every 10 mintues, etc until he can keep something down. I hope he's feeling better.

Those slings/wraps/etc all sound pretty convenient. I'm waiting for the day when Tucker will let me put him on my back in the mei tei. He's just too big to be on my front! I also have a wrap (like a Moby, but sturdier fabric), but I haven't been using it lately because I just never think of bringing it and the mt is always in the car. Maybe I should trade them out. I've never tried a back carry with the wrap. He used to sleep in the sling all the time...gone are the days. *sniffle* Now he has to walk everywhere.

What do you guys use for outdoors shoes for your LOs? I bought some sandals for this summer (hah, summer, it's like an oxymoron up here!), but ds1 was way younger his 12m summer than Tucker is now and he just spent all his time barefoot or in the sling. Right now Tucker is still in his Padraig booties (no one is gonna want these when we're done with them!). But they are no match for the mud/snow/ice/etc of the park.

[Everrgreen]

I wanted to respond to other posts before but duty called! So I'm back

RE clothing - I have quite a bit of clothing for Royce, but I still tend to stick to the same small handful of outfits and the rest gets ignored (and actually I just went through it and put away a bunch of things that were consistently being ignored). Of the stuff he actually wears frequently he has a pair of overalls, a pair of jeans, 2 pairs of sweatpants, a few shirts, a few sweaters, a weeks worth of onesie-type undershirts, and a few different sweater jackets/other jackets. He just has one pair of shoes.
As for me (you were asking about adults too, right?), sort of the same thing, I have a lot of clothes that I never actually wear (despite going through and getting rid of stuff probably twice a year). There are some things I hang onto just incase there is an occasion I need it for. I always wear jeans, I have 3 pairs that I rotate, and probably about 10 shirts that I rotate. I'm also the type to buy a few new shirts every new season to add to what I have, but then I'll get rid of a few that I no longer wear or that are getting too worn out.
Oh and I have tons of undies (some are getting kind of old though ) and several pairs of pjs (more than I need/wear). Royce just wears t-shirts and a diaper to bed, he probably has a weeks worth of his night t-shirts.
I guess I think I would *need* at least a weeks worth of regular outfits, plus a few things for special occasions.
Wow, that got long!

Mal - That lady does sound quite creepy. Also sad, she must not have any family of her own

McKittre - you must be so looking forward to being home! I'm glad Katmai has been handling the travel so well!

Alaskaberry - Welcome!! Royce was also born in January, but he was due in February and so I got attached to this ddc. I refuse to leave There are quite a few January born babies here!

I have 2 questions:
1) Royce's talking is practically non existent. He makes similar sounds for the same object, but the sounds aren't even close to the word. For cat, he always just says 'ah', but he does make that sound everytime he sees the cat. And when we read books he points at everything and says something that sounds like 'duck'. Anyone else's babe have limited (non existent) language at this point?

2) Royce almost always wakes up cranky, crying, thrashing, etc. Does anyone know if this is a sign that his sleep isn't good or that he's having nightmares, or is it okay/normal?

[Everrgreen]

Originally Posted by alaskaberry

Gillian--Try bf'ing for 15 seconds every 15 minutes, then going down in increments--30 seconds every 10 mintues, etc until he can keep something down. I hope he's feeling better.

What do you guys use for outdoors shoes for your LOs?

Thanks for the tip He nursed, kept it down, and is sleeping now. Hopefully he keeps getting better.

As for shoes, I splurged on these for Royce and I really love them, they have a very flexible sole. I think I might get him some sandals of the same brand/style for the summer.

Has anyone else kept every single piece of clothing their LO has worn? I have I don't think I will donate any of it, I'm hoping I'll get to use it all again

[starling&diesel]

Originally Posted by Thursday Girl

which bring s me to- How many outfits,, shirts, pants, undies, pajamas, etc do you all have for each person? Do you think it's enough, too much, not enough? would you pare it down, or do you just like having so many choices?

We're pretty hard-core minimalists, so Esmé has about four outfits that fit at any given time. All pants and shirts, so that they can be worn in many combinations. She has two sets of pajamas. Once something doesn't fit any more, out it goes!

ETA: We have a lot of bigger clothes waiting in the closet for their turn. My best friend's mom buys us lots of clothes, many of which I discreetly consign without using. We're so thankful for her generosity, but some of the stuff is just too 'precious' or are onesies that don't fit her big CD bum. We've told her that onesies don't fit well, but she "can't resist the cute ones!"

Originally Posted by alaskaberry

What do you guys use for outdoors shoes for your LOs?

We have a pair of lace-up stride rites and I love, love, love them and will be looking on-line for the next size up. I'd also like a pair of sandal-type shoes from them. I am so happy with stride rites! And I love the lace-ups!

Originally Posted by Gillian28

I have 2 questions:
1) Royce's talking is practically non existent. He makes similar sounds for the same object, but the sounds aren't even close to the word. For cat, he always just says 'ah', but he does make that sound everytime he sees the cat. And when we read books he points at everything and says something that sounds like 'duck'. Anyone else's babe have limited (non existent) language at this point?

2) Royce almost always wakes up cranky, crying, thrashing, etc. Does anyone know if this is a sign that his sleep isn't good or that he's having nightmares, or is it okay/normal?

About the talking ... I've met SO many kids that haven't started using words yet. The majority, in fact. I think he's totally normal and right on track.
About the waking up, not sure. Is this in the middle of the night or in the morning when he wakes up for the day?

[Vegan Princess]

Gillian: My sister's 3 barey said anything until age 2. She is shocked by how much Makenna says. I think it's totally normal...big variation, just like everything else! I talked early so Makenna probably got that from me.

I bought a little potty and Makenna has been peeing 1-2 times each day! It's so cute! I hope this will help her understand the concept. She is far from being able to tell me before hand though.

Ok she's crying...will answer the rest later.

C

[Mal85]

Owyn has way too many clothes. My sister keeps sending bags of hand-me-downs over. But her daughter has a disorder that slows her growth down a lot, so the clothes have been worn for longer periods of time than most hand-me-downs of this size. So, I only use a few unstained, not too worn things she sends me. I went shopping for Owyn recently because we didn't get many clothes for her birthday. I bought as if I was packing for a week long vacation without laundry facilities, if that makes sense. Everything I would want to pack. Then, my MIL went out and bought some more clothes... knit shorts and t-shirts, mostly. So, yeah, we have too much now!

I'm not too picky about shoes. Again, we have several pairs of hand-me-downs. Most of the strappy sandals my sister sent our way don't stay on her feet. Her feet are long and skinny, so they just fall off. I bought her a couple pairs of summer-type shoes at Target and she has a pair of nicer white sandals for church. I'd like to get some sturdy sandals, like Keens, for her. They cost so darn much though. She does seem to wear shoes longer than clothes, so maybe it'd be worth the $40 investment, I haven't decided.

[justKate]

Gosh, where to start! Okay, selfish me, my biggest concerns first.

No talking here. We've actually regressed, I think. Basically just "mama," "baba" (daddy), and some signs: eat, milk (nurse), more, and up. All of her other sounds start with "bah" so I don't know if she means them as words or not. If she's not growing her vocab by 18 mos. I'll have her ears checked again b/c of her hx of fluid, but for now, I'm trying not to be concerned (we're 2 days shy of 14 mos.).

Shoes, ugh. We are not shoe lovers in my house. Aubrey must wear closed-toed shoes to daycare, so right now she as a pair of pink stride rites, brown target-brand, and white sandals for weekends. Velcro until she tells me it's too babyish. I hated to put her in "real" shoes, but once she was walking at school she needed them. Three pairs is really too much, I think.

Clothing--again, too much. I'm saving most of her stuff just in case, even though a lot of it is raggy because I don't know how to do laundry. I'm feeling the urge to purge my closet, so hopefully it will come soon. I wear basically dress pants and little sweaters to work; jeans & target 3/4 sleeve tees on the weekend. Sandals/flip flops. PJs at all other times. Did I mention that I love target? And PJs?

No pottying here. H#!! NO. She can't sit still for that long, although I am super tempted to buy a couple and leave them in the bathrooms, just to see what she thinks.

alaskaberry,

More to say but need to run or I'll be stuck in traffic... talk soon!

[AKislandgirl]

Shoes Fiona wears Soft Stars. We are in love with them. She has a pair with laces. The soles are super flexible but handle the always wet weather well. If I know that she isn't going to be put down outside then we do the Padraigs as well but Kodiak is just too darn wet otherwise. Can't wait till she can wear her xtratuffs though!

[starling&diesel]

Originally Posted by Mal85

She does seem to wear shoes longer than clothes, so maybe it'd be worth the $40 investment, I haven't decided.

We've had pretty good luck so far ... we found her Stride Rites on sale for 50% off because they have laces (and apparently no one wants laces anymore ...) and now I've found a pair of Stride Rites on craigslist for $15. I've also got a bid on Ebay for a pair of lace-ups in the next size up.

Oh, and a hearty welcome to you, Alaskaberry!

[Vegan Princess]

To finish up my last post. We have WAY too many clothes! And we have even more of the next size up. Two of my friends have been passing along hand me downs - one of which has clothes from two of her friends mixxed in as well. Makenna has tons of stuff she never wears. I think 99% of her clothes are hand me down. I sort of miss buying stuff for her, but I've been really happy with the stuff we've been given. Oh and I have given a few bags away to friends! I'm trying to save most of her clothes in case we have another girl. I suppose I could get rid of a good bit of it though! Not sure what I'll do if I have a boy - none of my friends really have boys. One does and she is done having babies but she has been passing all his outgrown clothes along to goodwill bc she has a tiny aparment. I guess I will have to shop if I have one...but I will be sticking more to the minimalist format like Starling. I'm impressed you've managed to keep it so thin!

So today is my first official day not taking domperidone - the medicine I took for the past year to increase my milk supply. It took me since January to wean off of it! My supply has tanked but Makenna is still a nursing fiend. I'm happy to be off of it.

Cindy