Weekly Chat May 17-24

[lizsky]

I miss these and thought I'd start another thread. I'm not sure exactly what people want to share, but I'll give it a try.

Baby's Age: Laura is 10 weeks old!
Baby's Sleep: Generally improving. She usually gets one 4-5 hour stretch every night. Naps are hard, but I've been doing a routine with nursing, swaddling, and rocking and that seems to help.
Mommy's Sleep: If I can get my life together so that I'm in bed at 8pm when she goes down, I get enough sleep...its hard to make that happen though!
New things baby is doing: Smiling at me without me smiling first, new grunts and coos, grabbing with a little more accuracy.
Work, Family, Life: I'm flying across the country with Laura again this week. (We also flew at 4 weeks- my FIL is dying). I'm really not excited about the travel, but I know that it will mean a lot to my inlaws. I'm working from home PT until August- not sure how I'm even going to find time to do this though, as I'm constantly nursing and soothing! Maybe she'll eventually take better naps!

[SilverFish]

i'll join in:

baby's age: tziporah is about 3 months old... 12 weeks exactly
sleep: GOOD! haha... i fully expected to have a bad sleeper, but she does really well most nights. once in a while we'll have a 9 or 10 hour stretch, but most often she wakes at 3 ish, and early mornings are still chock a block full of nursing, which is not fun for me(not an early morning person!). but i just tend to stay in bed through her 1st morning nap, so i generally feel pretty well rested by the time we get up.
new things: smiling like crazy and the beginnings of laughter! she's a 35 weeker, so we're still seeing a few delays in some motor skills and interaction (she's only JUST started to really react to our faces and "talk"). she's pretty strong though... stands and sits with support, pushes up when on her tummy.
Life: she is so laid-back! i get a lot done because she's pretty happy to lie in her crib or on the floor and stare at random things. she falls asleep as soon as she's in a carrier, so i don't wear her around the house, or she'd spend the whole day fast asleep! but it's useful when i go out. the next few months are full of friends visiting... every weekend nearly! and we're going camping in june too.

[catchthewind]

Baby's Age: She's just over 9 weeks now.
Baby's Sleep: Normally we're in bed for the night between 9 or 10 (she's often asleep earlier than that, but she naps in our arms still). She often will sleep until 1 or 2, and there have even been a few 6 or 7 hour stretches already. My older DD was a good sleeper as a newborn though and hit that 4 month period before she started waking every 2 hours (for over a year), so I'm not necessarily expecting her to stay such a good sleeper.
Mommy's Sleep: Because I have two who still wake at night, and can't nap during the day (the toddler doesn't nap), I'm definitely more tired this time around. My older DD just recently decided she wants to sleep in her own room, which is great, but the side effect is she's actually waking more at night and wanting to nurse still, so I'm getting up with her and with the baby. I'm okay with it, I know it's temporary, but it's taking a bit of a toll in the sleep department. We really need to put up a blackout blind in my ODD's room so she's not up at 7am every morning. (I've been bringing her into our room, which has one, and sometimes can get her back to sleep, though Fiona tends to wake around 7:30 or 8 for the day anyway. She doesn't sleep in like ODD and I always used to!)
New things baby is doing: Smiling, "talking", interacting with her big sister, reacting to faces.
Work, Family, Life: I'm lucky to be a SAHM. We tend to go for daily walks outside and I've been getting lots of gardening done. We are talking about getting a kitten or a cat soonish, but not sure how our current cat would react. (He's super friendly and loveable, so I think he'd be okay and would enjoy the playmate, but on the other hand I'd hate for a new cat to cause him to withdraw.)

[Right of Passage]

Baby's Age: Bram is 9 weeks and 2 days, ha, I never kept track of how many weeks my kids were until my third
Baby's Sleep: Indeed, he sleeps. He might wake up once a night to nurse, other than that he's sleeping through the night. Naps are usualy in a carrier.
Mommy's Sleep: Can't complain!
New things baby is doing: Other than growing like a weed? Holding things, rolling back to front and front to back, doing baby push ups, working on his hand to mouth skils with toys, "talking," big smiles that melt my heart, laughing
Work, Family, Life: Happy to be a SAHM, working on midwifery education with AAMI and LOVING IT. I have a midwifery conference this weekend with the colorado midwives association and Ina May will be there

I'm loving the oxytocin and prolactin, I'm so in love with my family right now. My 2.5 y/o has rotavirus so I can't wait for that to be over.

I encapsulted my placenta yesterday. Uh...not much else is going on!

[lizsky]

Silverfish and Right of Passage, I'm so happy for you guys that you have great sleepers! Thats wonderful!

Catchthewind, thats so nice that you are spending so much time outdoors. I'd like to get outside more, but Laura hates being worn. But maybe I can try just laying her on a blanket. Hoping it works!

[Right of Passage]

I have a few questions for everyone!

How are you handling it? How has your family acclimated to this wonderful new addition?

For those breastfeeding, how's it going?

What is everyone doing for eliminations, diapers? disposables? diaper free?

[catchthewind]

Originally Posted by Right of Passage

How are you handling it? How has your family acclimated to this wonderful new addition?

So far, I love having two. Meredith is still handling it fairly well, though she has been nursing a lot and still is a bit clingy to me. She loves her little sister though and likes to play with her and try to entertain her.

For those breastfeeding, how's it going?

Great! The OAL and oversupply problems I had last time are so much easier this time. I think partly because of the toddler also nursing, and partly because I was expecting it and took steps right from the beginning to make it easier on myself. I have been feeling a bit touched out lately, I think because Meredith is also nursing a lot (she's had a cold and was teething), and I feel bad because I've been trying to put her off, which I think makes her want to nurse more, which makes me more touched out, and then I put her off even more...

What is everyone doing for eliminations, diapers? disposables? diaper free?

We're doing EC, but Fiona is often diaperless at home and most days only goes through one or two diapers the entire day, even when we're out and about. I only have 15 prefolds for her, but I do diaper laundry every 3 days (sometimes 4 if I forget) and usually only then because I don't like it sitting longer than that. Nights have been a bit harder lately because I am so tired I often take a long time to wake up and by then she's peed already, but we still have some nights that she's dry all night too.

[magrat]

Baby's Age: Graham is 10 weeks
Baby's Sleep: Awesome. My daughter was a horrible sleeper, but Graham slept a bit over 9 hours straight last night! Has has been doing 7 hours followed by 3 for the past week. He naps too.
Mommy's Sleep: Better than I have for a very very long time, in a big part thanks to the awesome bladder control I developed during pregnancy (nothing like having to hold your pelvic floor muscles constantly because a baby is resting on your bladder). I actually slept 7 hours straight the other night, it's probably been over 4 years since I've done that.
New things baby is doing: I think everything he does right now is new He's lifting his head pretty high, smiling lots and kicking and hitting at toys.
Work, Family, Life: Trying to mentally prepare for flying to England with a 3 year old and a 4 month old and staying with my MIL for three weeks. I really really hope the kids manage to sleep.
diapers Disposables. I feel pretty bad about it because did cloth with DD, but I just haven't managed to do it this time. So many reasons for and against, but the disposables are winning right now.
breastfeeding Going great, no problems. I'm pumping for donation and have over 250 oz in the freezer so far!
acclimating Much easier than I thought it would be. I'm actually getting back into my life already, cooking and cleaning and going to play dates. He's a much easier baby than DD was. So far anyway!

[ciga]

baby's age 8 weeks on thursday

baby's sleep with the exception of a couple night where we got 5-6 straight hours he's on a 3-4 hour schedule

mama's sleep when I can get my life in order enough to nap during the day it is pretty decent

new things baby is doing oh my lord! so much smiling! I'm loving it

work family life It has been nearly impossible to find time to get into my jewelry studio to fill orders (ha, I should be doing it now but I'm technically eating dinner while typing). That has been hard. My husband seems really stressed and bummed that he can't spend more time at home with us. So, we're really thinking seriously about starting our own bakery so we can work as a family more. Most nights I actually manage to get a good meal cooked, so that is lovely.

diapering cloth, mostly prefolds and wool covers. we tried out some sposies on our vacation last week and i sware they were cooking his privates. It made me a little nervous.

breastfeeding no complaints. we've been doing great

acclimating I'm still healing so that is always on my mind but in general I feel like I'm doing okay. DH and I are completely ridiculously in love with this boy. I love being a mama. He's amazing and I love watching him. I feel so lucky that I'm able to be home with him to watch all these changes.

[cocoanib]

Baby's Age: 9 wks tomorrow
Baby's Sleep: Good. Naps during the day. Sometimes long, sometimes small cat naps. Sleeps good at night. Most of the time she's up only a couple of times for diaper change adn nursing, then back to sleep. A couple nights a weeks she will be stiring many times a night with lot's of nursing and soothing.
Mommy's Sleep: I don't really nap in the day, since going back to work. I work evenings and like to try and get things done while she's napping before I go to work. When I get home, we spend a couple hours together before heading to bed. This happens between 1030 and 12 most nights.
New things baby is doing: Trying to talk up a storm! Trying to scoot around. reaching out for things. My DH just called me here at work and said she pulled the cord on her activity set adn made it sing. He says it may have been an accident, but she held on and pulled it a couple times beofre letting go.
Work, Family, Life: Getting back in the swing of things as far as a normal type life stuff. Life is good!

[cocoanib]

Originally Posted by Right of Passage

I have a few questions for everyone!

How are you handling it? How has your family acclimated to this wonderful new addition?
I'm loving life with my DD! Family loves her and is trying to make an effort to see her whenever they can. That's actually been an adjustment for me, because I like my alone time. Since having her there has been alot more family visits and such. I understand though, because she is growing so fast and they just want to love up on her as much as possible. I have to socialize with peole a bit more than usual.

For those breastfeeding, how's it going? Whew! I feel like I'm out of the woods now. I went through raw nips, thrush, mastitis and neuritis. Battled with engorgement and oversupply. Things are so much better now. Sometimes I don't even feel her latch on and pumping at work is going well.

What is everyone doing for eliminations, diapers? disposables? diaper free?

We are cloth diapering and love it. We even do cloth when were out. We have started some elimination comm. with her, but we're not pressuring ourselves or her to be right on all the time.
We have some diaper free times just to air out her little but and give her some freedom, but most time she's in diapers.

[lizsky]

.

Originally Posted by Right of Passage

I have a few questions for everyone!

How are you handling it? How has your family acclimated to this wonderful new addition?
Laura is my first and all the grandparents were very excited. She's my ILs only grandchild, and FIL has terminal cancer so there's extra pressure on us to visit them often- I want to for their sake, but its hard on Laura and on DH and I to take 6 hour flights on a regular basis, and stay in someone else's space. Our next flight is this friday and I'm kindof dreading it

For those breastfeeding, how's it going?
Better! Had raw bleeding nipples and latch challenges at first but this has all cleared up

What is everyone doing for eliminations, diapers? disposables? diaper free?
Started out cloth diapering part-time with a cloth diaper trial. Am now clothdiapering full time with 18 pocket dipes. I do laundry all the time, but I don't really mind- somehow its more fun to launder cute diapers than adult clothes!

[Right of Passage]

This thread has brought a giant smile to my face. Thank you.

I'll answer my questions too!

Acclimating: It feels good, a missing piece to the puzzle. DS2 had a harder transition but is now doing just great. DS1 was fine with it all along. I'm of course in love, as is DH and our extended family

Breastfeeding: Going great. I had DS2 weaned until he got hit with rotavirus now it's tandem again but I finally feel out of that adjustment period and it feels right!

Eliminating/Diapers: I wanted to do EC for a little while but felt overwhlemed. We're doing just fine with CDing, I had to buy tide after reading about stripping and stink issues finally tide solved it.

[wendy1163]

Baby's Age:Cora is eight and a half weeks
Baby's Sleep: doing great. four hour stretches at night, starting to be awake much more during the day.
Mommy's Sleep: awesome. really. once we figured out sidelying nursing, we were golden. not that I am expecting it to last or anything
New things baby is doing: miles of smiles, especially when ds is around her. just starting to grip things.
Work, Family, Life: dh and I just took a job at a group home so we will be together as a family so much more now. it is a week on/week off schedule, which is pretty awesome. we've done the job before but now we have two kids of our own. with six group home kids...makes my head spin a bit. but overall it means way more time together and more travel and both of those ideas make me happy. oh, and I turn thirty in two weeks, so I am supposed to be deciding how I want to celebrate
diapers cloth prefolds through a diaper service. love it.
breastfeeding supply is evening out, and I will be so very glad when I stop leaking. wet tshirts are soooo overrated
acclimatingdh has had a really hard time get used to having two, mostly because work pulls him away from us so often. but now we have this new job (staring in a month or so) so he is focusing on that light at the end of the tunnel. ds has been incredible, so thankful for that.

[beautifulnm]

Baby's Age: 9 weeks and some change
Baby's Sleep: Weird. We were doing so good but now he's conking out at like 7:30-8pm after some fussiness.. then he gets up at 10:30-11pm for a bottle, then at 3am he's up and wants to play! I've had to swaddle him the past two nights
Mommy's Sleep: Mommy's what? On the weekend we sleep in. The first half of the week we get up at like 630.. the second half he's at daycare by 6, I am in the canoe by 615... Those days I actually feel better than the 630. Maybe if I start paddling everyday..
New things baby is doing: he laughed in his sleep! I gave him his last bottle before putting him down and he fell asleep.. while I was still holding him he fell asleep and a couple minutes later he was smiling and laughing! I want to know what a two month old dreams about that's so hilarious.
Work, Family, Life: We visited papa in Seattle which was nice, he did great on the flight unlike me with a bad ear ache.. We're back in Hawaii now, I'm back to work and he's back to daycare. I'm getting ready for the HNL Marathon in December and paddling again. Papa will come visit in August or September, can't wait