Weekly thread, Aug 1-8

[jenfl]

No eviction notice yet, yea!

Sprout turned 4 months yesterday and still has only rolled once in either direction -- and that was more of an accident than anything. So far, he's following in his sister's footprints re: physical aptitude -- or lack thereof. Oh, well. That's what you get from long lineages of geeks on both sides.

[Knitting Mama]

Cece has started to tell stories and makes the funniest sounds. Sorry for the crummy quality; I took the video with my phone at 11 pm last night when a certain someone was supposed to be sleeping!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVaeufvpOO8

[rhiOrion]

Ooops, I missed the new thread. I'll repost what I said on last week's.

I am going to make sure to check in here more often again. I do think about you ladies a lot & have really enjoyed sharing this journey together! I know that some of you did the bead swap. I'll have to look and see if the thread saying who gave what bead is still available. If you did the swap, which bead did you send? I sent the flat red ones that kind of look like hearts. They made me think of hearts & they also looked like placentas. My beads are still sitting in a bowl on our china cabinet w/ the little card that says, "Believe, Breath, Birth". I'm still not sure what I am going to do w/ them. I know I'm saving them for dd2 & I'd like to make them into something for her. What have you done w/ yours?

Mine are on some thread. My friend went to the gift shop at the hospital and bought the thread and threaded them for me while I was in labor. They sat on the little rolling table the whole time. I am not sure what to do with them, either. But, you've given me the good idea that they should belong to DD. I am planning, when she turns one, to buy a nice ring or necklace or something for her, to put in a safe deposit box for when she turns 16 (or 18, or something). My mom did that for me, and I love it. Maybe I'll do something similar with the birth beads, but for more like her 10th birthday or something. Sometime when she'll be old enough to sort of understand, but young enough to think some beads are a cool gift! For now I think I'll put them in her baby book (it has a pocket for trinkets).

AFM- L is still asleep. at 11:30. I think she's finally sleeping off her cold. The last couple of nights have been rough with her popping off of my nipple because she can't breathe, and then trying to latch back on, over and over. And both nights she's gotten to the point where she was panicking because she couldn't breathe. Watching my four month old panic is NOT fun. Night before last I sat with her in the bathroom with the shower on hot steaming it up. And then suctioned her nose, which made her ANGRY. This morning I just sent DH for the snot sucker bulb and that seemed to do the trick. After all that, she could finally breathe, so she fell back asleep and let me sleep until 10:30, and now she's still asleep. I hope she's finally feeling better.

Last night I went out for fun without L for the first time. The MDC mamas from our area had a moms' night out. They had it at a restaurant near my house specifically so I could go. I didn't want to go too far away. It was a BLAST. Good beer, good fun.

ETA: DogRetro- I sent the round bead that is blue frosted with little circles of unfrosted. Someone else sent the same bead, too. I sent mine because I had wanted a star bead for my user name, but couldn't fine one, so I chose that one because it reminded me of earth.

[nikirj]

Jen, Elaina hasn't been rolling either. By accident once. I just figure it gives me more time to put off putting a rail on my bed.

My wonderful sleeper has had three crappy nights in a row. She'll have a drawn out going-to-sleep phase (where she'll be "asleep" but not enough that I can get out of bed) for about 2 hours, sleep about 4 hours, wake to nurse, and spend the rest of the night half-asleep and kicking/wiggling/burrowing her head. I am hoping she's had a digestion issue or something and we'll return to out-like-a-light-at-10pm tonight.

The big kids have been out of town for three days and she really misses them. We went over to a friend's house and she was SO EXCITED to see their kids. I must be really boring! OK, not really, I'm actually really glad she's attached to lots of people, because it makes my job much easier.

[nikirj]

Re: birth beads - I've been given quite a lot of jewelry. Right now I've got thumbtacks in the wall behind my dresser and have just draped it all over those. I don't really wear jewelry, but some of it is really gorgeous, and I like it out where I can see it. I plan to string the beads and add them to my collection.

[smeisnotapirate]

Whoops, forgot about new thread too! I'm hoping to turn DD's beads you gave us into a wind chime to hang in her room.

My midwife is having a Summer Potluck for all her homebirthing families so we can meet each other and snuggle babies. I'm so excited, and happy it's not on a Saturday!

[nikirj]

Sounds like fun Rhi! I haven't been out without E yet; not really, anyway. DH is game, but I would like to wait until E is predictable enough that I can nurse her and leave for a few hours. Right now, when she wants to nurse she is impossible to distract, and I just don't want to do that to him if I don't have to. I took her with me on a mama's night earlier this week.

[rhiOrion]

annnnd, she's awake. at 12:45! crazy!

that is the one good thing about daycare- she has learned to be more predictable- plus she'll take a bottle.

she actually slept the whole time i was gone, though.

she's in a good mood after all that sleep!

[jenfl]

I've made little runs to Target without Sprout, but last week was my first extended seperation. We had a friend from college visiting for a while, so one night I tucked Sprout into bed and left DH alone in the house with the kids for a few hours (Nugget sleeps all night, Sprout doesn't wake up until around 1am). We went to the beach at the Polynesian Resort at Disney World and watched the Magic Kingdom fireworks across the lagoon. So fun!

[jsh7809]

OK, guys, help me solve this one. DD has been getting more and more "flappy" with arms and legs when I'm trying to get her to fall asleep, and less inclined to tolerate being swaddled. So last night I tried having her fall asleep unswaddled, and she went right out at 8:15, a half hour or so early. But then: up at 9, crying and flapping. For the next hour DH and I traded off helping her fall asleep by giving her our pinkies to suck on (that's how she needs to sleep most times, has been for months). But every single time she would wake herself up by thrashing or trying to suck on her hands. Argh! So we tried reswaddling her and she freaked out.
Finally I got in bed with her since I wanted to sleep too. She was obviously so tired, and mostly asleep, but still kept flailing around, trying to get those hands in her mouth. I had to squish her close and give her my fingers to suck on allll freaking night long. Sometimes she would fall asleep enough for me to take the finger out, but she would always start flailing again a half hour or so later, and we'd have to repeat it. I swear I thought I would smother her she wanted to be so close to my armpit/ boob/ finger in mouth/ etc!
Around 2am I tried putting her back in her crib after feeding her, which usually works no problem. Shortly after, she woke up again, thrashing. I tried putting her on her stomach, and she seemed to finally settle! But it didn't last for long - she started wailing and I had to bring her back in bed with me and continue the pinky/ boob/ cuddling treatment till she woke up, somewhat early, at 6am-ish.
After we changed her at 6, I gave her some of that Chamomila homeopathic/ hyland's stuff and she seemed to calm down, enough to go back to sleep till 8, anyway. But I am just wondering what on earth this could be? I would suspect teething, since she seemed to calm down a bit when I rubbed her gums, but she has no other symptoms of that at all, except for trying to shove everything in her mouth. I think she just wants to have her fingers in her mouth to suck on to fall asleep to, but she STILL can't do it when she's tired. ARGH!
Any advice? I guess I could keep working with her to let me swaddle her, or have her sleep on her tummy, or try the Chamomila stuff more proactively. She didn't seem to be in pain but was just whiny and needed something in her mouth all night long.
My sad secret is that I'm terrified that the Paxil I'm on is doing this. I don't know why I would think that, since the science says that although a small amount gets in the milk, something about the "metabolites" means that the babies don't get it in their blood. But, still, it's a newer thing in MY system and this is a newer behavior for her. I'm scared because the Paxil is helping my PPD and I don't want another roadblock...
Probably just normal almost-4-months behavior, right? Like, she needs to "practice" getting her fingers in her mouth all night suddenly? And her arms and legs flail around like they're live wires cause she's basically "finding" all of that?

I'm not sure if it's sleep regression cause SHE doesn't seem to really wake up that much more, just keeps waking me up!

[nikirj]

Jess, will she do blankets? How about a weighted blanket? Sometimes they just need to feel that pressure so that their limbs can move - but not too freely - to feel secure.

[jenfl]

Jess -- Sounds rough! Have you tried a paci lately? If she really wants to suck, that might help, if she'll take it.... I don't have a lot of help about the flailing, b/c Sprout sleeps on his stomach which makes it easy for him to be still AND find his fingers.

AFM -- Sprout found his feet yesterday, and still today he keeps rolling onto his side to get closer to them and get a better look.

[jsh7809]

Jen, that sounds so cute!

I think I'll keep working with her to sleep on her stomach, that seemed to help for a little while (until she woke up and was too tired and upset to roll over). Not sure if a weighted blanket would work, normally my hand on her belly calms her but that wasn't working last night either.
And she still won't take a paci! I try and try, all kinds, all the time. Nope. I think she's going to be one of those babies that likes to chew on the sides of one as long as she can hold it in her own hand but not suck on it to fall asleep. I'm telling myself that'll be a good thing in the long run when she will be able to self soothe...

She is obviously exhausted but just took her regular 1/2 hour nap. I was hoping we'd at least get an extra long one out of that rough night! Silly baby.

[rhiOrion]

Jess, how about if you put her on her sides? L sometimes ends up on her side anyhow when she's trying to suck on her hands.

Speaking of L- just rolled! From front-to-back and then back-to-front within just a few minutes!

She figured out the front to back thing easily. But the back-to-front was cute. She figured out that if she pulled her knees in she could throw herself onto her side, but she couldn't get over her arm to get to her stomach.

I left the room and told DH about how babies always seem to roll when no one is looking. I walked back in the room and she was on her stomach!

[Knitting Mama]

I can't remember, Jess, had you tried swaddling her with one hand out the neck so she could suck on her own fingers?

Cece won't take pacis either. Anymore I don't care, but I truly wished she did back when the carseat was such a nightmare. Thank all the powers that be she has mostly outgrown that!

[GreenTeaGinger61]

Rowena hasn't rolled at all yet. She's not a big fan of being laid down. She prefers to be in her jumper (upright) or standing on my lap (again upright). She likes to see what's going on with the kids. I'm not worried. With Umberto, I was such a mess worrying about every milestone. With Rowena I don't even know what she's "supposed" to be doing

We've been having great sleep nights. She pretty much sleeps through the night. Of course naps are more complicated and she hates being put down. So my house is still a mess! She did lay down for about an hour today which is hopefully a trend as opposed to a freak incident.

And my friend cut me a deal. I'm buying a pink McClaren Quest and an awesome Mai Tai off her. Can't wait. And she's letting me use a bunch of covers that she plans to resell when I'm done!

[rhiOrion]

We've having an explosion of gross motor skills today. She's turned over several more times.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pi...4845&ref=album

She can happily sit like that for 10-20 seconds at a time. She also likes to stand for about the same length of time. She holds on to my thumbs with minimal assistance from me (I move my hands around to help keep her balanced, but she's holding on to me, not the other way around)

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/...4845&ref=album

I bought a set of those foam puzzle pieces that make a floor mat this weekend. I'm loving it. I'm learning all of these things that L can do that I was unaware of!

[snoopy5386]

Originally Posted by jenfl

I've made little runs to Target without Sprout, but last week was my first extended seperation. We had a friend from college visiting for a while, so one night I tucked Sprout into bed and left DH alone in the house with the kids for a few hours (Nugget sleeps all night, Sprout doesn't wake up until around 1am). We went to the beach at the Polynesian Resort at Disney World and watched the Magic Kingdom fireworks across the lagoon. So fun!

Sigh, Jen, can I come live next door? I am sooooo jealous of your proximity to WDW.

[snoopy5386]

Jess - we seem to be going through the same thing here. Kelsey is definitely fighting the swaddle more and is being more mobile at night. I'm still keeping her swaddled for now, but I definitely get the impression she'd rather have her arms out to such on her hands. But like your little one, she's not quite coordinated enough yet. She did find her thumb while on her playmat this afternoon though! But I keep thinking, how is she going to learn to suck her thumb at sleep times if I'm always swaddling her at sleep times. We haven't tried the pacifier in a while, but just tonight as I was trying to get her down and she was sort of asleep but not quite and wanting to suck but not really wanting milk that I need to find the pacifier and give it another try.

Aimee - yay on outgrowing the carseat screaming, we are not quite there yet. She does fine if I'm in the back with her and can nurse/coo/smile at her/hand her toys. While I'm driving is another story - I keep flinging toys back there are her and she keeps dropping them and getting mad. We'll be attempting a roadtrip sans DH at the end of the month, wish me luck!

GTG - Kelsey sounds a lot like Rowena. I get lots of protests when she is on the floor. She is getting close to rolling back to belly, but nowhere near belly to back. Morgan didn't roll until she was 5 months and not with any frequency until closer to 9 months so we're right on track here.

[dogretro]

Aimee, that was a cute video. DD2 will tell you her life story if you start talking to her. We are all v verbal people in this family.

No rolling here yet, either & no laughing. I'm trying so hard every day to get dd2 to laugh, but nothing. DD1 learned how to roll at some point, but she never did it repeatedly. It was like once she knew she could do it, that was enough for her.

I keep thinking I want to sew my beads onto a small lovey blanket for dd2, but I know that is a dumb idea b/c she could chew them off. She and dd1 both wear silver necklaces w/ their first initial on them (these ones: http://www.loveivy.com/scpt/main/ite...e=cnlkit-D995A ) & if she didn't, I would make the beads into a necklace for her to wear.