Check the New Thread! - April 2010 Mamas - Page 4

[Dena]

Originally Posted by rhiOrion

http://i24.tinypic.com/2aj5feo.jpg

Danielle is right. You are all (sweet wonderful loveable) nuts. Reading this thread is like a breath of fresh air in my night. Careful, though, you'll scare away the new mama! (Welcome, EBBB!!)

Really hoping to have more time and post more here. (yeah, right, who am I kidding?) I miss you all!

Things are going well here. Big news is that with dh between jobs we decided to have a go at cloth diapering! I feel SO much better not seeing those big bags of dirty sposies go out the door! And it is nice not spending the $ on them either!

The other really good news is that I figured out my supply issues were due to me not getting enough water. A gallon a day seems to do the trick. Happy that at least ONE solution in my life was easy and free!

The babies are growing well. At four months, Maya was 8lbs 14oz and Hannah was 10lbs. So, roughly the size of most of y'all's newborns.

Dh being out of work is starting to get wearing. He hates being unemployed, and is starting to get surly. We are squeaking by on my income, though I am not sure how we are going to pay taxes next April, as I usually set aside some for that and it is not happening right now. Oh, well. I understand the IRS takes payment plans...

JSH - IMO, it does get better. I have always found the first six months or so the most challenging. After that, baby can sit, play with toys, and amuse herself so much more easily. Also, I am pretty well healed and my hormones seem to balance out a little.

Ericka - Yay for Jennings! That is the best news of the week!

Ivory - I am sure Becky's spit up is normal. I know Ellen used to be a little fountain. These two not so much, but what they lack in frequency they make up for in volume.

Ok, I gotta get to bed. I got nothing done today and have a full weekend ahead, including a laundry stack that is taller than I am (I am pretty short, but still...) and more clean out at my mom's condo. Yes, still. I have to do little bits because I can only work till I start crying and my brain shuts down and I have to get out of there. We are almost done, though. And then it is just the stuff in storage. Sigh.

[loveneverfails]

Dang it... we're closed.

[jenfl]

Let me be clear. I am NOT an EC'er. I'm happy for those who are, but it's just not for me.

But this morning, Sprout was grumpy and hadn't pooped. So I thought, why not, and sat him on Nugget's potty. And he peed!

Okay, question for those who've done the sibling thing before. How do you handle toy ownership? Nugget had gotten used to everything being "hers". We've kind of convinced her that her old baby toys are now for Sprout, and so she's ok with him playing with them -- although she often decides she wants to play with whatever he has. And we're trying to start using the terminology that the toys are "family toys" (except for some special ones of hers, like her Toy Story stuffed friends) for down-the-line, when they'll both be playing with the same sort of thing.

But how did (do) you do it?

[rhiOrion]

I didn't even consider that the admin could be our final post in the ddc!!!

[jenfl]

Thanks to SOMEONE (*cough*LNF*cough*) I woke up with my brain thinking in limericks.

Our old forum had such a good run;
It somehow made pregnancy fun!
But in Life with a Babe
we might seem a bit strange.
Do the admins know quite what they've done?

[snoopy5386]

wahhhh!!! we're closed. I really thought we'd still be open today....
So last night Kelsey decided 4 am was party time again, so I stuck her in the swing and she cooed and talked to herself for a while and then she fell back to sleep until 9 am!! Yay for being home with access to baby accessories! I was still probably up for an hour between listening to her coo and DH snore, but much better than being up with her for several hours. However, I still feel like I've been run over by a truck. I don't know if it is because I am sick or the cumulative sleep deprivation of the past week but I'm still so darn tired. And DH has to work this entire weekend so no sleeping in for me. I was going to go to the farmer's market this morning, but instead I think I'm going to head back to bed with Kelsey in about an hour. Our market here is on Saturday mornings and I've only made it there once this summer, I just can't get it together to be dressed and out the door before it closes at noon on Saturdays, DH almost always lets me sleep in and it is always too tempting to do so. All the good stuff is gone by 9 am anyways and that is never happening.
Today we're going back out to the railroad that we were at a couple of weeks ago - I left my beco there and they found it so we have to go pick it up. We'll do the train ride again since we are there anyways, should be fun except for the 45 min drive each way!

[loveneverfails]

Hey Jen, it could have been worse! I could have started into the sonnet form, and then we'd REALLY have been in trouble.

[Amandamanda]

i looooooooveeee all of you. seriously. best ddc ever. it was divine intervention i think that i didn't just switch over to the march ddc when i found out i wasn't due in april. because i would have been seriously missing out. subbing so i don't forget. i may not be a regular poster, but i will be reading.

I wish we could do spotlight threads now that we had our babies. or revisit the questions we were asked and see how things are post-babe.

actually i'm editing this post- it didn't seem good enough.

first a pic of me and the smiley boy
I can't believe he will be 6 months old on the 2nd. Just crazy. He is a master roller, can get up on hands and knees and rock, and i don't even want to think about how this means he will be crawling soon. still isn't anywhere close to sleeping through the night, aka he still nurses every 3 hours, but i think i will start him on rice cereal after he hits the 6 month mark and maybe he will sleep longer at night. who knows.

here is my limerick about my pregnancy haha

for an ultrasound to see if my babe was alive
i headed over to my midwife
well this is quite a surprise
she said with wide eyes
you are actually ten weeks, and not five.

or

I will miss our old ddc
where all of our posts used to be
now stuck to one thread
to say all that must be said
seems a little bit silly to me.


all i wanted was a son
after 3 girls, i surely deserved one
when the tech said "its a boy"
my heart filled with joy
now dh said he thinks we are done!

(mama side note- we're not! probably just one more though.)

okay, there- i contributed!
dang it, this is addictive.

[rhiOrion]

I think a spotlight is a great idea! But it would all have to be done within the confines of our LWAB thread, which could be a PITA.

AFM- DH is trying to finally install the lattice around our screened-in porch. It's a second floor porch and right now the a toddler could just push the screen out and fall. But the installation of said lattice is causing quite a bit of grumbling and cussing since we don't really have all the needed tools for it. We have the saw and drill, but no saw horses or 2x4s or any other way to make the lattice not be flimsy while being cut.

[Amandamanda]

oh i also wanted to say that i spend most of my MDC time over at the fitness & weight management section at the postpartum weight loss thread. come join us, if you need to of course!

[jenfl]

Amandamanda! Now that it's cooling down, want to meet at Disney sometime? Nugget's summer blackout is over.

Didn't someone else say they were coming down relatively soon?

Holy poop! Like, literally! I've caught 2 pees and a poop in the potty with hardly any effort! Man, his bottom is easier to wipe when he wasn't sitting in a poop.

[Dena]

Ok, Maya and Hannah are NOT allowed to sleep more than a couple of hours at a time today. Until now, long naps have not been a problem.

But last night I was up nursing one or the other from 2:30 to 4:00 (I actually thought I was nursing Maya that whole time and was quite surprised to get up to do a diaper change and find Hannah in my arms...) and then up again at 5:00, 7:00 and 9:00. Ugh. So. Tired. They, on the other hand, seem quite happy. No limericks from me this morning. Just figuring out how to make coffee was a challenge.

I do have to share this, though: When the babies were born, dh set up the co-sleeper, then took Maya, climbed into bed, and fell asleep snuggling her. Since then, they have been in our bed, and we eventually took the co-sleeper down. Well, every few weeks dh talks about setting up the co-sleeper again, particularly as Hannah as become a horizontal sleeper laterly and is pushing him to the edge of the bed. I have not resisted, but have not been proactive either...these are my last and I really really love having them in bed, but dh needs his sleep too. Anyway, Sunday night he finally set up the co-sleeper. The babies were already asleep, though, so they got a reprieve. Monday, he put the play mat inside it and has been using it for "floor time" for them (since we are afraid they will get stepped on on the floor). Last night I went upstairs with Hannah to find the mai tai in the co-sleeper, and Maya in the bed.

Off to get more coffee...

[Amandamanda]

Originally Posted by jenfl

Amandamanda! Now that it's cooling down, want to meet at Disney sometime? Nugget's summer blackout is over.

Didn't someone else say they were coming down relatively soon?

Holy poop! Like, literally! I've caught 2 pees and a poop in the potty with hardly any effort! Man, his bottom is easier to wipe when he wasn't sitting in a poop.

um yes! i really do. most of september is pretty busy for me, but let me know when you were thinking and maybe i can work something out. are you near celebration at all? i am taking my 2 year old to kindermusik, at heritage hall- its tuesdays at 10:30 (starting this tuesday), not sure if thats something that you or your dd would be interested in, but i'm sure there is still space. i just need to get out of the house and meet other mommas!

[jenfl]

Originally Posted by Amandamanda

um yes! i really do. most of september is pretty busy for me, but let me know when you were thinking and maybe i can work something out. are you near celebration at all? i am taking my 2 year old to kindermusik, at heritage hall- its tuesdays at 10:30 (starting this tuesday), not sure if thats something that you or your dd would be interested in, but i'm sure there is still space. i just need to get out of the house and meet other mommas!

Celebration's a bit far for us (about an hour, door-to-door); we went down there for the first time last week. We're up near Clermont.

Ah, if only I could meet other moms. North Orlando is the center of crunchiness, and it's about a 45 minute drive to get to any of the stuff. I've tried so many things to meet up with crunchy moms around here, to no avail.

[crazyeight]

Originally Posted by snoopy5386

You ladies are so funny, you crack me up. I wanna go back to our DDC, having our thread in LWAB means that now when I open LWAB, I see not only our thread to read, but a whole page of interesting looking posts that I must also open and read, thus forcing me to spend more time on the internet.

Spit up - we have lots of it over here, DH is always complaining and saying "something has got to be wrong with her". With DD1, she was on zantac for reflux, so once she was medicated, she almost never spit up, so DD2 is an adjustment for him. She's a happy spitter and I'm lazy so I haven't done any diet modifications.

Food - It is going to be a tough month and a half to get to 6 months. Kelsey seems very interested in what we are eating at mealtime. I'm going to have to pull out my bag of solid delaying tricks soon. I can't believe she is getting so big!

Ericka - hurray for breastfeeding!!!

um SHARE those tricks! no idea how to smoothly delay solids. ds started on traditional rice cereal etc (bad idea i think for him i don't think he was even ready) at 6 months (ok really he was like 5 months and 3 weeks...) dd i started around 6 months and just started plopping food in front of her and let whatever when down the hatch be her meal with BF. they weren't really clamoring at my plate though either! R is just so interested i don't know what to do!

Originally Posted by jenfl

Danielle -- You could just hold off a bit longer. It's not going to hurt him to wait another month or so until he's got the sitting part down, and it would prevent your dilemma.

AFM -- I'm up at a ridiculous hour because I had to get yet another amazingly loud tree frog off of our lanai. They're so loud they wake Sprout up! I've gotten pretty good at getting them off of there, but doing so wakes me up and I can't get back to sleep. *sigh*

i do want to hold off...i am a sucker for new things and his interest has me all excited to see what he likes etc etc etc...if he wasn't interested i wouldn't feel like i am pushing it to fast...

GO DENA!!! whats her prize?

uh and like whatever jen and amanda...go to disney have fun...we don't care... :P i've never been to disney land or world....sad i know. poor deprived child...really i was. we never went on vacations even....woe is me...

Dena~ we half cosleep...its more like i'm so exhausted i keep falling asleep and i only wake up cause the baby is looking to eat again. the nights i actually can wake up after a feed i do put R back in his crib (in our room) and i sleep very well. some nights i can just tell he is going to want to be attached to me and others he's fine sleeping by himself. so far it looks like your dh isn't going to be a hardnose about it anyways...

i don't think the admin counts as the last poster....so not fair cause its cheating!

being a baking queen today. have a brisket in the oven going nice and slow, going to make cheddar bay buscuits and also just finished some blueberry banana bread. yum! well i WAS loosing weight...

[rhiOrion]

Danielle- I have the same sleeping issues. I usually fall back asleep while she's eating, and then I wake up to her rooting around again, or sometimes to her latched on. If I can actually wake up in between I'll put her in the nap nanny and she'll sleep for hours. I figure it works for us. If I'm not waking up to put her in it, then I must be sleeping okay. What sucks is when I have to pee and I wake up and she's rooting around. Then I have to wait until she settles so I can transfer her.

Dena- We'd never had any issue with naps affecting night time sleep until the other night. She took a LONG evening nap- started at like 6:00. And we had trouble getting her to sleep and getting her to stay asleep.

Today she and I went and took at a nap at 2:00 and I woke up at 5:00 and transferred her to the nap nanny. She's still asleep at 5:15. We'll see what the evening brings. It was the first nap I'd had in a really long time and I NEEDED it. I feel so refreshed!

AND! DH got the lattice up on the screened porch! It looks awesome, and so much safer!

[rhiOrion]

Oh yeah. Re: Solids.

I am having a hard time, too. Especially since my coworker with a daughter a week to the hour younger than L has started. She's not doing that whole force feed the kid thing, but just letting her taste, and if she starts looking upset at all she stops. And she's only doing it once ever couple of days. Basically she's doing what I want to do, just a couple of months earlier.

I find I'm having a hard time being crunchy about this. There's part of me that's like "oh, she should so not be feeding that kid solids yet" And then there's part of me that is like, "that sounds fun. i wanna do it. but the crunchy people say i shouldn't. i think i'd have my semi-crunch badge revoked if i did" This is the first thing that I have felt like I'm doing just because it's what MDC says I should do. Everything else I've made my own decision. But I feel like if I don't know either way that I might as well lean towards the more conservative end (I might as well do SOMETHING conservative! )

But the whole virgin gut thing doesn't really apply already. She's had zantac and colic tabs and mylicon and gripe water and tylenol already. And we have no history of food allergy in my family.

The only reason I haven't let her taste a bit of food on my finger yet is really that I want pictures of her big first solids moment, so if I just let her taste bits off my finger now it would sort of ruin that. So I'm trying to hold out to 6 months.

I have a couple of questions. They say "sit unassisted" how unassisted do they mean? My aunt is a nurse and said that they consider it unassisted once they can put their arm out to catch themselves if they fall. But that seems more unassisted than the food thing means. She can sit unassisted for several minutes at a time- long enough to eat, for sure, especially in a booster seat. But she can't sit unsupervised. I can't walk away or she'd fall and hit her head.

And how do you know when they've lost the tongue thrust reflex or gained the pincer grasp unless you're trying solids? I don't often try to put things in her mouth or let her pick up tiny objects! She doesn't thrust the zantac out anymore, so I think the tongue thrust may be on its way out.

[jsh7809]

Wow! You guys are hilarious, and there is so much I am wanting to respond to... let's see here...

Dena - yay! Your girlies sound so cute, it's ridiculous. I've been thinking proper hydration is something I'm being lax on lately, good idea for you.

Rhi - I am feeling the same way about solids (or whatever you can call smooshed up avocado?). I"m not sure that she'd even be into it but I think it'd be cute to let her slobber on some soft foods. She can sit for a minute with her arms propping her up in that "great white ape" baby way, but not unassisted. I have the bumbo too and have been wondering about doing a teeny taste of foods. Maybe in a few weeks? I gave her a lick of a frozen peach on a 106 degree day and she was like, "huh?"

Jealous of you who live close to Disney!! Not of the heat (or tree frogs!) though.

LOVE that elephant birth stool posting, looks like that image was made for us!

I have never spoken up for myself before but, ahem, I have to say, I WAS 13 days "overdue", you know. Due date was 4/5 and date of birth 4/18. and OH did I ever feel those 13 days! Don't I get some kinda prize?? I don't want more babies so no birth stool for me - LNF is gonna need that for her additional 10+ kids - but that chocolate-nutella-hazelnut cake might do

Feeling up and down over here - when oh when will this baby sleeeep - I'm not talking about STTN, I would love to go back to the days of her nursing 2-3 times instead of 2-3 times PLUS wiggles from 2am on. DH is going out of town (to a work conference like 50 miles away, but he's not coming home in the evenings since the days are long) for 5 days and I'm nervous. We moved bedtime to 7:30ish and it does seem to be helping a little with some sleep stuff, but it also means she's awake at 6:30-7:30 instead of 9-10, and I am NOT an early bird. Anything that might help her stay asleep for more than 2 hours at a time at night is okay by me, though!

Glad to know that other people feel the first 6 months are the most challenging. I told my mom "she already wants to crawl!" and my mom said, "uh oh, that's the beginning of the end" and I almost cried. I'm looking forward to the days when she can self soothe and has mobility... girly seems so frustrated without those things!

[jenfl]

rhi -- Yeah, it's hard to wait. But you want to consider that L is showing signs of a dairy intolerance. I did a bunch of research before Sprout came because of Nugget's intolerance, and you don't want the full proteins in her gut before it's closed. Even though Sprout isn't showing any intolerance signs, I'm holding off because of my experience handling Nugget's issues.

[Dena]

Jess, re: crawling, I think it depends on your perspective. A lot of people like immobile babies cause they just lie there and are cute. In theory, anyway. Mine were always frustrated with not being able to do stuff and so would lie there screaming instead if not being held. NOT cute.

I found that once they could move, yeah, they got into stuff and so I had to do some child proofing, but they were SO much happier and would amuse themselves for much longer stretches, plus sleep better because they actually got tired out. So it was worth the (IMO tiny bit of) work to child proof. Actually, with dd1 it was easiest, since we didn't have big kid toys around. All I did was move anything toxic out of reach and put a latch on lower cabinets with cleaning supplies. And moved magazines because I didn't want them torn up. Then I gated us into the kitchen/family room and she was happy as a clam between toys and tupperware out of the kitchen cupboards.