Weekly thread, Aug 8-15

[jenfl]

Wow, our DDC just keeps on keeping on!

Sounds like lots of rough sleep out there. Four month sleep regressions, maybe? Sprout did slightly better last night, even though he woke 3 times before midnight (usually he conks until 1-2am). He just wakes up screaming and squirming -- seems like gas, but I don't know why it's hitting him now. I can't figure anything that's changed. Hoping today is less grumpy-baby than yesterday.

In good news -- I've been up 15 minutes past our house's normal wake-up time and both kids are still sleeping!

Wait..... I hear Sprout sounds.....

[GreenTeaGinger61]

After puking on me twice, R slept really great through the night. I however had RLS so wasn't able to get to sleep until the wee hours of the morning. I hate that. She seems better this morning. Poop is still greenish though. Right now she's chewing on both hands She's not really into nursing though...I'm pumping because I know her appetite will return and I want to make sure there's milk there. Our first nursing strike!

We're going to be working on getting her a bottle this week. Dh has kindly agreed to take her for a five hour stretch on Tuesdays so that I can sit in on a class my post-adviser is teaching. I really really hope we can get her to take a bottle. We had my son give her one the other day and she actually tried which is a step.

[Knitting Mama]

Cecilia slept decently last night, thank all the powers that be. I was getting so worn out every day.

[crazyeight]

i don't know what to think. R has been waking up every 3ish hours to eat. there are three different things i'm thinking.
A.) 4 month sleep regression/growing whatever he IS learning how to sit/balance and really get those hands working (i can see he's working and making leaps every couple of days)
B.) i did check out of the hospital anemic and had lost a lot of blood considering this IS life threatening my body may just not want to make enough milk for him to sleep through the night cause it takes more energy that it needs to devote to making new red blood cells so that i don't die. therefore R is getting enough to eat just not enough to sleep through the night.
C.) he's getting the to point that he needs something more filling in his tummy and my milk just isn't going to cut it.

this has been going on since i left the hospital so its been about 2 weeks. i am EXHAUSTED and although every 3 hours doesn't seem that bad its more about that i have to stay on my side to sleep and i am in a LOT of pain and can't wake up enough to even put him back in his crib cause i'm so tired!

R calls yawn...must go

[triony]

GTG Sorry to hear about Rowena's illness. How sad. When T is really tired and upset, he tries to smile for me, too. Very sweet.

Danielle I'm sorry, I totally hear ya on the waking up to eat. I know this won't make you feel any better, but I'd give a lot for 3 hour stretches right now
T has been a bit early on everything so far, could he be early on the 4 month sleep regression? I'd hope so, but it's been going on for a while..
I think the reason I'm stressing so much about it is that I keep reading these posts in LWAB where people are still having this problem at 15 months and later. I should stop reading those, huh? DH is doing a good job with T today, yay!

[GreenTeaGinger61]

Danielle: I'm really worried about you! Is there another hospital you can go to?

Tri: Just keeping telling yourself that every baby is different. I'm guessing that those who kids start sleeping more just don't post about it as much kwim? I've noticed on that one those kind of general boards people mostly post to release stress as opposed to celebrate something. My son was never a great sleeper but even his crappy sleep at 15 months was so much better than it was at four month. Plus you do reach a point where whatever is just the new normal. You're doing a great job

R seems much better today but she's still got the neon green poop. I know it's not my diet because I have added nothing new in the last few weeks. But at least she's not coughing and throwing up. She's also nursing again (thankfully as I think I have a plugged duct).

I even got to go to WW I've lost 12 pounds since joining in June. Yay. Of course I still have a LONG way to go but it's nice to see the scale going down instead of up.

[bubbamummy]

GTG im also doing WW. Just started this week, so far loving it! Love the extra points I get since im nursing

I hate to type this but Molly is a great sleeper - sorry guys she sleeps from around 8pm until 10 when I feed her. Then 10pm - 3am then 3am-7am. She then feeds again and sleeps until around 10am ish which would be SO great if my toddler didnt wake up ready for the day at 6am

1 week until we leave for England woohoo!!

[smeisnotapirate]

NAOMI HAS A TOOTH.

Holy crap. It broke through yesterday. I'm hoping to get a picture of it. This girl is the SWEETEST teether. Amazing. With DS we had weeks of throwing up, screaming, chewing, drooling. Nomi just stopped taking a pacifier. That's it. If I hadn't had her chewing on my knuckle yesterday, I never would have known.

NUTS.

[snoopy5386]

Ericka - Hope your Ex comes to his senses soon

Jen - hope your solo weekend is going better

Pepper and Ginger - hope your girls are feeling better now

Sara - yay!!

We had a rough night's sleep last night too - down at 9:30, up at 11:30, 1:30, 4:30, 6, 8:30 and finally up at 10. But she was in the cosleeper in our room instead of in our crib since we had guests sleeping in her room. Hoping for better tonight.

So, apparently Kelsey has huge separation anxiety already? We thought it was just DH that she hated but it was the same with my IL's this weekend. Basically she is totally fine with another person holding her until she is *NOT*. She'll sit with DH, or my MIL or SFIL for a period of time - could be 5 mins, could be an hour, where she is happy as a clam. Then out of the blue she goes into meltdown mode in 5 seconds flat and there is no bringing her back. She screams and screams and cries in a way I've never heard her cry under any other circumstances. She isn't hungry or wet or tired. She just wants me. Literally within seconds of being handed to me she immediately calms down and goes back to being happy as a clam as long as I am holding her. Good thing I am a SAHM then, but still Mommy likes to go places alone sometimes, you know? I guess that isn't happening for a while.....

We had the in laws here this weekend which is always nice. DH and SFIL spent 5 hours on Saturday assembling a new computer desk. Soooo glad SFIL was here for that one, and I didn't have to touch that project at all.
It was MIL's bday so for her gift we went to Sears and had a photo done of them with the two girls. That was fun - trying to get DD1 to smile and stay looking at the camera while also trying to get DD2 to look at the camera, not drool, not suck on her fingers and maybe smile and of course getting the grandparents to look good too.

Found out the car accident I had the other day is going to cost us more than $800!!!
We decided not to report it to our insurance company and just pay for the damages out of pocket. We had a claim last year and they raised our rates by more than 20%, I know they'll raise them more this time and I'm afraid if we have "a real accident" and have to make a 3rd claim that they'll drop us, so we are going to keep this one off the books. Still sucks so much and I can't believe I did something so stupid!

[dogretro]

Ericka, if I were you, I would take the file you bought down to the judge and seek to have it stated that the girlfriend is not to be present at the visits or else the visits need to be supervised by a third party. If she needs to have supervised visits w/ her own children, then she needs to be supervised around your child. And your ex does not count as supervision b/c he is not neutral. I do believe that file will convince a judge & if not, then you need to keep pushing for it with all of your might. Have you shown the file to your ex? He has a right to know the unbiased truth about his gf as she may have only told him parts of her story.

DD2 sleeps pretty well. She was sttn in her crib for a bit, but is now full time in our bed. She has gotten to be too restless to sleep long enough in her crib, plus it is in the room across the hall that she shares w/ dd1. I cannot go in there several times a night to settle dd2 & risk waking dd1. I would like for her to move out again, but I will need to wait for this blip to pass. She can now roll from back to front, always to her right. No laughter yet, but she has been THISCLOSE now for weeks!!! I keep startling her, making goofy noises, and tickling her. I have gotten maybe one or two laughs, but nothing I would consider consistent enough to be "real". Oh, and she now can (and does) make those annoying baby goat/creaky door whining noises all the time now. Like she knows that life can offer so much more, so it deserves a whiny teen-aged soundtrack, doncha think?

[OneWithTwo]

Well I did confront her dad about things...I was going to act like I didn't know, but he pushes my buttons...
OF COURSE everyone else are liars. His gf's stbxh lied, the judge is stupid and lied too, attorney's lied..everyone else is a liar and is wrong but them. He said I have it all wrong and it's not what it seems..yeah dude, you are dating a chick who has been institutionalized not only once, but TWICE. Only special people are institutionalized that stupid judge

So we went down or up? to see my stepdad yesterday. He is camping for the whole month and fishing...I thought we would try out camping. He has one of those campers that go on truck beds..yeah right, 5 of us. Me and the kids slept on the table bed..NO WAY. never again. Throw in a tossing turning kicking 4yr old, screaming 6m old and pumping?!? what was I thinking!?! no way. I have to be done pumping and I need bigger..more comfortable. Throw in the fact it was raining and cold. no way.
However, I did explore a part of OR and WA I never have before. We went through Astoria OR(Goonies filmed there) and over into WA to Long Beach..where people were fascinated with Jake the Alligator Man..half alligator half man. I guess I didn't get it? it was so fake! We did get to drive onto the beach, something I have never been able to do at the beaches I normally go. Weirdest way to go though..we went up through WA crossed over into OR back over into WA.

So who has ATT? Do they have good customer service?

[jenfl]

I hate the 4 month sleep regression.

That is all.

[loveneverfails]

I think the mods must have forgot about us, or maybe they have just resigned themselves to the fact that they can't stop our love!!!!



I'm making my 2 year old his Epic Nutella Cake Of Win! This promises to be awesome. Cake is in the oven, and I will be decorating it this afternoon. Chocolate hazelnut for the win!

[ivymae]

I thought I updated here yesterday?! Fail. I wrote out a response but must not have hit "submit".

I feel for you mamas who are having a rough time with sleep. Becky is my magic baby, who slept from 9pm to 6am last night, but my other kids were up 5 times with nightmares, potty breaks, and just a general need to be naughty. I think with each child I have, the fact that they are born who they are is solidified.

Ericka - ugh. What a creepy situation. Just keep building your case. Record as much as you can, so you can work with an attorney. Since she lives in the home, you do have a case against her having contact (I think if she was just a GF, it would be harder to prove that her contact would be negative). Your ex has proven that he has a propensity towards unhealthy relationships, so even if he breaks with the current GF, having a parenting plan in place is probably going to be necessary in the future.


Kids are fighting. , maybe real update later.

[nikirj]

E went through a week or so where sleep wasn't so great, and is back to her normal self now (slept 10-6 last night). Growth spurt or something, I suppose. She is VERY interested in food but I'm very stubborn about her not getting any yet, although I do let her drink water from a sippy cup.

My crappiest sleeper is now a 5yo that hates getting up before 10am. Sleep happens eventually.

[rhiOrion]

A sippy cup, ay?

I wonder if that would have been a good thing to try this past couple of weeks when L had a stuffy nose and was refusing the bottle at daycare.

Any type you like best for little babies?

[Peace+Hope]

charlie took a nap longer than an hour yesterday for the first time in at LEAST a month! he's down for his first one today, i'm wondering how long it will be...

he hasn't had any regression at night, sleeping longer and longer stretches, so far. though he did have a wiggly time this morning b/n 6 and 7. he didn't want to eat, didn't want to wake up, but couldn't be settled. of course eventually he calmed and fell into a deep sleep. by that point i was wide awake of course .

sme, you mentioned vomit and teething. i guess i forgot that is a symptom. charlie is drooling more lately though not a lot imo, maybe the drool he swallows is unsettling in his tummy? he is definitely spitting up a lot more than he has yet. weird.

SO happy for anyone who's baby sleeps well at any time! i too have found the more i focus on trying to get charlie to sleep, the more stressful it is for me. i have to go with what his body seems to need. the times i've been most frustrated as a mom have been when i'm trying to put him to sleep and he's not into it. not worth the struggle, because he seems to get what he needs on his own cues, so far.

[nikirj]

Sippy cups: Nah, I just used one of the ones we had laying around from the last kid . I have really fast-flow breastmilk going on, so I didn't think it would be a problem that the cup I used doesn't have a valve (you tip it, it trickles out a little slower than a hot-beverage top would). Sure enough, she loves it. She does get a little wet though. I googled but didn't find the cup we used, which isn't really surprising since it's about 5 years old. It's probably toxic somehow or another, but the super-safe ones we have make kids suck too hard to get anything.

[loveneverfails]

I am the best mommy in the world, evar. My 2 year old is the happiest 2 year old, anywhere, ever.

Witness the epic cake of epicness, Nutella, Ferrero Roche, and WIN! It's for his 2nd birthday. Kid loves Nutella.

[Carita]

omg - i feel the tooth almost poking through - like a couple days away from breaking. and its a fang!!! who else got teeth this early? i think my son was 4.5 mo for his first...