Weekly thread, Aug 8-15 - Page 3

[rhiOrion]

I'm not sure what we're going to do yet. We have a really tall bed. Even if we took it off the frame it would be sort of tall. And under our bed has some crucial storage.

Hrmmm.

If it really becomes a problem, I might put the side back on the crib, and just keep the crib right up against the bed.

[OneWithTwo]

Originally Posted by rhiOrion

I'm not sure what we're going to do yet. We have a really tall bed. Even if we took it off the frame it would be sort of tall. And under our bed has some crucial storage.

Hrmmm.

If it really becomes a problem, I might put the side back on the crib, and just keep the crib right up against the bed.

I have this same issue -my bed is so high I use a step stool to get in. I take it off the bed frame and I lose crucial storage and the mattresses are still high
to be honest, campbell slept in bed with me for 3yrs and never started falling out till she was 2.5-3, which is why she went to her own bed and I am a single mom with just us in the bed.

[OneWithTwo]

jennings is 6 months old

[rolenta]

I haven't posted anything in ages, but last week we went on vacation. We spent a lot of it in an RV, some in a hotel, and camped in a tent, too. The whole time, I just co-slept with Naomi. Let me tell you, co-sleeping with no mattress on the ground in a sleeping bag is really, really uncomfortable. Sometimes i just had her in the bucket seat or stroller, too, like when we were out at the beach.

When I didn't want to co-sleep, I just had her on the floor in a safe spot. At the hotel, between the bed and the wall was the perfect size, and there was no "under the bed" to roll under.

No way could I leave Naomi on a bed by herself or near anything she could hurt herself on. She's been rolling tummy to back since she was a week old and rolling back to front for about a month, not to mention she scoots all over the place on her back and belly.

We did fine, but if I had to do it again, I probably would have gotten a little travel bed, like this: LINK or that peapod thing, which would have been awesome on the beach!

Here's an article I found which has a lot of options:
http://www.travelswithbaby.com/gear/travel_beds.htm

[jenfl]

Feeling kinda bummed today. Nothing huge, just little things. Like being so sick of summer and being stuck inside. DD acting so very 3. Having no luck finding local moms of preschoolers-not-in-preschool who want to meet up. Sprout taking 30 minute naps then being exhausted 90 minutes later.

Well, there are moms. There's a whole co-op forming soon. But they're about 30-45 minutes away, and there's no way Sprout will tolerate that drive well. Which gets me to the main thing that's bothering me today.

For 4 1/2 months, I've been his sole source of nutrition. Yea breastfeeding and all that. But he still will not take a bottle. Or cup. Or sippy. Or SNS. Frozen milk or fresh milk.

I know there are moms on mothering here who think I should be willing (and happy!) to dedicate myself to my kids for 6+ months to feed them, that I shouldn't need anyone else to take that on. I know, because they've replied to some of my threads.

But I have a husband who's more than willing and very capable of caring for Sprout. I have my daughter who I'd LOVE to have one-on-one time with for even a few hours. There's moms meetings and playgroups in the other part of town that's just a bit too far away for me to comfortably take Sprout.

It's a relatively small thing, compared to what some of y'all are handling. And if I had a choice between Sprout rejecting the bottle and him loving the bottle and rejecting the breast, well, this is the better of the two.

It just seems to be the straw that breaks the camel's back today. Or sends the camel into a funk. Whichever.

[rhiOrion]

Aww, jen, I feel so bad for you on the bottle front. For the first few months of L's life I had no interest in leaving her ever even more a minute (though I did go to the store a few times). But now that I'm back at work I suppose I've gotten used to it. I still try not to leave her often, since my time with her is so limited now. But I must say that I really enjoyed my moms' night out with my local MDC mamas the other night. And this weekend DH and I had a date for our anniversary while my aunt (who is the head nurse for the health department, but also didn't circ her second son, has mentioned she would have considered a homebirth, talked about how lucky I am to have the birth center, etc, so I knew she'd take good care of her) and uncle babysat. It felt weird, but still nice. Basically, I'm saying that I totally get where you're coming from. I know that some people are completely happy to never be apart from their kids, but having a little break or, maybe more importantly, the POSSIBILITY of a break, is nice.

Here's a question... what do moms who formula feed (whether by choice or necessity) do when their baby absolutely refuses the bottle? You don't hear about babies starving because they won't take a bottle, but yet lots of people formula feed.

I just had never considered that question until just now.

Ugh, I'm exhausted. This week has been so exhausting to me and I have no idea why. I don't feel like anything has changed in my schedule. The only thing I can think of is that I ran out of vitamin D supplements.

[crazyeight]

i think the exhaustion is hitting a lot of us. how long does the 4 month regression last? i was SOOO optimistic last night cause r slept the "right" way and i thought i was going to be able to get him to go into the deep sleep and STAY that way but no....20 minutes after he lays down and sleeps (and i lay down) he woke up...which is even worse than his naps! not to mention that i was getting into that blissed out point when you are asleep and really relaxing. set the tone for the whole darn night....i was up about 7 times from 11 to 7:30 this morning and the best sleep was from 6:30 to 7:30... i am seriously considering giving a bottle of formula at night to just see if it's just needing to nurse vs actually being hungry/me not filling him up with my milk.

we are driving to NV on friday (we leave early early in the morn) to take the stepkids back to their moms. i really hope r will deal with it ok. i am taking the portable dvd player for r to watch some baby einstien and the van has a dvd player for the big kids.

oh and i had another nightmare last night. i am soooo sick of having these nightmares about him being taken from me or hurt or any other number of horrible things. i am pretty sure my fear of loosing him keeps contributing to this but i don't know how to make my subconsious just leave that little painful knowledge alone!

[ivymae]

Cosleeping with a mobile baby: we did the floor bed for a while with DD1, but it killed our backs, so with DD2 we tried sidecar-ing a crib (good for keeping them from rolling off accidentally, but doesn't keep them from bailing on purpose), using a side rail (took up part of our bed, and baby liked to stand up holding on to it, and dive over) and then eventually we put a toddler bed next to our bed (good for transitioning baby out of your bed, AND is at least softer than the floor if they roll off your bed).

Jen -

[Carita]

co-sleeping. we started at about 6 mo putting him into his crib first then going to bed with him. so he never had any alone time on the bed. he always woke up before us.

I am TIRED too. 4 mo regression you say?? not to mention the teething. I am feeling a very sharp point barely still beneath the gum.

jen - ((hugs)) on the bottle thing. look at the bright side, only 6 weeks left til solids!

well my update is the same as you alls - tired and my baby is teething. 'nuff said!

[Peace+Hope]

thanks for the replies about traveling and sleeping. my main concern is daytimes, because we will not be in the room where charlie will be napping, while he is napping. i think i might just break down and get a travel crib of some kind. i had hoped to avoid it.

ivy, did you put your girls to sleep for naps on the floor when you'd be out of the room? any way to contain them with pillows and such that seemed safe?

i know, i know, it's uber-$$$, but the baby bjorn doesn't have any chemical treatments. it's 11 lbs and really fast to set up. phil and ted's is only 5lbs, but it looks like setting up a tent and it has a UV treatment on it. and i don't think i'd like charlie sleeping directly on nylon...

what would they treat something with so that it is UV protected?

jenfl, . certainly we all have our reasons for doing what we do and want to do! i can especially imagine wanting to leave the baby if i had an older child, as you describe. does he freak out or can he be comforted and forget about wanting to eat? early on i had appointments that made me be away a few times (long acupuncture sessions) and my husband did fine with charlie.

[laughingfox]

P+H- We stayed with our ILs for a family reunion for 4 days, and I just kept DD2 on me or DH all the time. She sleeps well in the sling, even when stuff's going on, so it worked out pretty well for us.
There were 2 or 3 times when I took a nap with her, too, because I was really tired.
What about a bouncy? Will he sleep in one of those?

What I'd heard was that the hard spouts with valves are bad not only for sugar-coating the teeth, but that sucking on a plastic spout messes with the soft palate since it pushes up against it. Without the valve, it's more like drinking, and less like sucking, so there's no pressure on the palate/teeth, and it's not a big deal.

Jen- s

Originally Posted by rhiOrion

Here's a question... what do moms who formula feed (whether by choice or necessity) do when their baby absolutely refuses the bottle? You don't hear about babies starving because they won't take a bottle, but yet lots of people formula feed.

I just had never considered that question until just now.

I think that if they get bottlefed soon after birth, their sucking reflex just makes them suck on whatever's given. Then their sucking patterns develop around the artificial nipples before they get a chance to reject them.
DD refused the SNS, cup feeding, and one kind of bottle before I found something she'd finally take. (MAM is the brand she takes, btw, Jen, if that helps.)

[laughingfox]

Originally Posted by Peace+Hope

i know, i know, it's uber-$$$, but the baby bjorn doesn't have any chemical treatments. it's 11 lbs and really fast to set up.

That was fun to watch, but IMO, it's only worth $300 if it makes your baby fall asleep in 21 seconds.

Are you going to be staying with relatives for the reunion? Even if your pack and play is heavy and a pain to set up, it won't be a hassle if you only have to set it up once.

[jenfl]

P+H -- if you're only doing this irregularly, what about looking for a kids resale store in or near your destination, buying a PnP (I've never been in a store that didn't have one), and then selling it back after?

[GreenTeaGinger61]

Count me in the no sleep club. R's wonderful sleep patterns have disappeared of late. She's up most of the night, grunting, nursing and sometimes ready to play. No more longish naps either. I was thinking of the what do you do when they nap and was like "Well she only naps for about five minutes on the boob so no need to worry about where to lay her."

And that really is my answer. When she does nap without me it is in the middle of our bed. She's not even close to rolling plus I hear her very well in our apartment. With any peep, I'm right there. This is what I've always done and none of my babies have fallen off the bed. If I was in our old house, I would have to do something different since it was bigger. Now if she refuses to sleep away from me, I try to get her down in her bouncy seat or I wear her. But really at this point she only sleeps on me so....


Dh is gone tonight and I'm actually kind of happy about it. He's dreading his new job, getting upset that his summer is almost over and that he won't see the kids, etc, and it's making unbearable. He got all upset last night because the older kids refused to play a game with him. I love that he loves the kids but sometimes I wish he'd chill a bit. So anyway a friend needed someone to ride to Atlanta with her to see Arcade Fire and Spoon. He loves them but was all hesitant. I made him go. I hope it mellows him out a bit. I had friends over which freaked out R so she was cranky all afternoon. Now she's chilling and I'm hoping for a nice chilled evening

[jsh7809]

I'm scared that what we're experiencing isn't ACTUALLY the 4 month regression, because she's only 16.5 weeks, and it's more about her muscles turning on and flailing around all night (so that my sleep is cruddy - hers seems great!)... no teething stuff yet, aside from drooling and shoving things in her mouth. So who knows; I'm just trying to take it night by night.
That said, last night I had freakin' INSOMNIA on top of the wiggly baby. Oy. DH is going to try to take her tonight so we'll see if he can soothe her or if she's just going to cry till I take her again.
Though, I have to say, right now, she's hanging out in her crib, just talking and "singing" and trying to grab her feet and put her fingers in her mouth. She's wearing a frilly onesie and striped baby legs and a bright yellow cloth diaper. She's 14 pounds of the cutest thing I have ever seen!!

Anyone else feel like their kid is practically doubling in size overnight?!

[Peace+Hope]

Originally Posted by laughingfox

That was fun to watch, but IMO, it's only worth $300 if it makes your baby fall asleep in 21 seconds.

Are you going to be staying with relatives for the reunion? Even if your pack and play is heavy and a pain to set up, it won't be a hassle if you only have to set it up once.

and flying with it . very good point about putting it up just once though!

i can borrow a PnP, they are just so heavy... and we're flying w/ the carseat too... baby, carseat, PnP, our (very little) luggage sounds like a lot.

gtg, i go in at charlie's first peep too, but we're going to be staying at a big house w/ at least 10 people. otherwise, i think i'd do what you do.

jsh, the developmental milestones are based on 4weeks=1month. i was just at the PT with charlie, and that's how it worked. so, 16 weeks IS 4 months, and considering all the timelines are averages anyway, it wouldn't be unusual for a baby to be early with some milestones and late with others...

[ivymae]

Have you looked into renting a carseat/PnP when you get there? http://www.baby-equipment-rental.com/

[Carita]

or is there anyone at your destination that has a PnP to borrow? I was lucky once and avoided a carseat that way.

Sooo - I went and got my teeth cleaned today (and now I am eating a bowl of ice cream with m&ms LOL). They talked to me about replacing my amalgam fillings with composite and when they checked w/insurance they found it'll only cost about $75/tooth (2), so I am going to go ahead and go back next week for that. Also, I asked about the meds and nursing and they said it was all okay. In addition, the hygenist (dr -hygenist husband and wife team, so cute) was talking about how BFing is the best thing we can do for baby teeth and palate development and went on and on about he movie Babies and about how great the end was and the babies from africa were fed for so long. I said I BFed for 2 years (well really more, but not as often) and she was practically gushing over how great that was! definitely going back there!!! My mom set me up there - this is a new satellite branch for them and it is IMPOSSIBLE to find dental care here, so I was so lucky! the hygenist knew my mom immediately and the receptionist has a son that's a sophomore at my new college.

[GreenTeaGinger61]

One Thousand Posts!!!! And I checked back on my blog to see when I found out we were expecting...and it was August 12th! Of course I'm all teared up because those blog entries were all about hope and joy. And here she is a year later, a fat little delish on my lap.http://greenteaginger.blogspot.com/2...hday-post.html

I forgot to rant about my in-laws. My MIL decided it was her duty to tell Dh that we needed to stop having children. They proceed to lecture us about how we don't do family vacations (we SAVE up so that we can go to Mexico every couple of years which is one big family vacation if you ask me), we don't drive newer cars (read expensive and nice), and we don't own a house. She refused to listen when dh said we don't want those things. Basically it was like we were a couple of irresponsible teens. I am trying to chill about it but it just annoys me. She NEVER asks about Rowena and only sometimes about the girls. The whole family fawns over ds so not a surprise but it still hurts. Grrr...

[sew_crafty_girl]

What a crappy week. DH got the flu so we had to cancel camping,lose our $$ for that and dissapoint the kids. Weather has been crummy. Today found out my old insurance won't cover DHs last crown so that's $700. And today is the kicker. Thought we had better check all the kids before I send mine back to dads and my son has nits now. So DH combed my hair, which I was due for and I have tons more nits and lice still.