Enjoying every moment in 2011 with our May 09 babies!

[OceansEve]

What do you ladies think? A thread to tide us over the whole year? or do you want to keep using last november's thread?

[Peppermint Poppies]

Good idea!

Subbing ....

[j_p_i]

Subbing too, great idea!

[Blessed_Mom]

I am here. No news to report except no aunt 'flo yet.Am getting anxious. Want to start TTC......

[j_p_i]

I have an IUD in that I'm having removed at the end of March, we'll start TTC after that. It's funny, Olivia was not the easiest babe in the world, but toddlerhood has been surprisingly smooth (knock on wood). I think up until she was 15-16 months I was like "no way am I ready for another baby!", and then it was like a little lightswitch... and now I totally have baby fever!

Blessed_Mom, even though you haven't seen AF are you sure that you aren't ovulating yet? I understand that sometimes you can ovulate without seeing AF, especially when breastfeeding? I am sure that I have AF, although with an IUD it can be really irregular and light so it was hard to tell.

[OceansEve]

jpi - total opposite here. When she was a baby I was excited at the idea of having another. I think I can officially say she is my worst toddler yet! She's wonderful when she's wonderful, but she has the worst fits of them all! Or maybe mama brain just doesn't remember how terrible the other two were  I've just signed up for races through may, I don't even want to think about getting pregnant right now. Too many things I want to do this year! I'm a little scared tho, my sisters and I usually get pregnant in pairs. I just found out one of my sisters is pregnant with twins! Hopefully the reason it's twins is to give the rest of us a break, the family is still going to get a pair of babies

[Blessed_Mom]

j-p-i the way I have heard about it is ...I will ovulate first and then a period HAS to happen to remove the "unwanted" egg some days later. Meaning yes I may ovulate and get pregnant during the very first ovulation but I don't think that all these months I have been ovulating. KWIM?

So far no period so no past ovulation but I may (please God) start ovulating anytime soon. However if I neither get pregnant nor have a period in the next 14-20 days then I haven't ovulated.

Am I right ladies?

[trauerweidchen]

Haven't been around much lately--must be chasing the toddler!--but subbing to say hi to you all. No new baby on the way here yet; I think we'll shoot for around a 3-year spacing but that's up in the air depending on my mood.

Blessed_Mom, I believe you're right; your period is your body removing the built up endometrial lining (what makes your uterus a cozy nest for your fertilized egg), so I'd think it'd be unlikely that you would ovulate and have no period, though the reverse is certainly possible. Often the first PP period is anovulatory too, I've heard, though not always. I've cycled since 9-10 mo. PP and am still nursing (including at night)--wish I could give my precocious fertility to you!

We're recovering still from a cross-country move to Boston and are ready for spring. It's hard to believe our babies are going on two already--eek!

[Peppermint Poppies]

I got my PP period back when Darcy was 18 months old. It's been more regular than it has in years. I have PCOS and don't usually ovulate at all, although I do have very light, very infrequent periods. But since my PP period, they've been heavy and every 5-6 weeks. I don't know if this means I'm ovulating or not. DH and I aren't using any birth control, but we're definitely not ready for another. Darcy is a pretty average toddler - a good mixture of sweetness, joy, and tantrums - but my nearly-4yo DS is out of control and is being evaluated for autism next week. Until we get some answers for him, I don't think I have it in me to have another baby. We're putting DS into a daycare for a day each week starting this week also, so that I have an opportunity to play with Darcy without having to deal with his meltdowns every few minutes.

Darcy had her first haircut this week. Unplanned. Not at the hairdresser. Done by a 3yo. She had a little fountain ponytail on the top of her head, and I was in the bedroom getting dressed when DS walked in holding her ponytail in his outstretched hands. I sobbed!!!! Silly, I know, it's only hair and it grows back, but she has the most adorable little ringlets and it's taken forever for her to grow hair.

[Kelly1101]

subbing

[RomanGoddess]

My babe was born on April 25 but since his due date was in May and I was in the May 2009 DDC, I'll sub.  They're at such a cute stage now.  DS is starting to have tantrums.  He gets on the floor when he can't have his way.

Anyone encouraging potty learning at this point?  We've got DS in underwear.  We'll see how it goes.

[Blessed_Mom]

I wanted to start potty training but meanwhile my baby has the "works"( cold, cough, congestion, on and off fevers) and we have had to take a backseat on that.

She also lost a pound - which makes me so sad. It takes forever to add any weight on her. She is now 23.5 pounds. Poor babe.

[Novus]

Hi, All!

We did a diaper free weekend about 3 weeks ago, just to see how much awareness he had, and he now tells us about 50% of the time before he poops & asks for the potty.  Still has no control or awareness of when he's going to pee, though, so we're still a ways off, I think.  We'll do a few more diaper free weekends in the next few months.  I wish we could just put him in underwear whenever we're home, but since we're in a fully carpeted apartment, it's not really practical right now.

So far, Luke has been such an easy baby & toddler--I fear the terrible twos are going to hit us badly, especially once we add a baby into the mix.  I'm really enjoying this age and all the cute, crazy things he says!  And it cracks me up that he refers to himself in the third person, usually as "Baby Guke." 

[Kelly1101]

Whew, we've been busy.

No potty training here yet.  With two in diapers, I figure it would be more aggravation to potty train, than it would be to just keep changing her diapers.  

Em is still very quiet.  She has lots of words and will bring them out at random times, but she does NOT talk "on command" at all-- if you ask her something like "what is this?" or "what comes next?" she will literally press her lips together and refuse to speak.  And the words that she does use are completely random... she doesn't say anything related to eating/drinking, her diaper, or commands like "up" "down" "more" etc.  It's all just odd nouns and verbs that she picks up who knows where.  She's very into articles of clothing.  She'll talk about her socks all day long.  Also likes to poke everyone (especially her baby brother) in the face and name eyes, nose, etc.  Other than that, it is a scattering of words from "turtle" to "clock" to "outside", etc.  She has her own words for a couple things, like she calls Ozzy "Ah" and calls his pacifier a "Pwa", for whatever reason.  She knows her vowels.  I have no idea why.  I have never grouped those letters together as "vowels" to her, never told her about vowels, and never emphasized them.  If anything I'd more stressed "ABC".  But no, the only letters she will say and identify are A E I O U and Y.  This seriously baffles me, I reckon it must be coincidence, though.  Favorite word is still "no."  *sigh*

She's pretty quirky.  She has a tendency towards ritualizing/obsessive-compulsive, which I definitely do as well, I wonder if that is a genetic component or something that she's picked up from me.  She is way into cleaning, rotfl.  We got her a toy broom because she is so all about the broom and sweeping.  She'll rip up paper towels and throw the pieces on the floor and sweep them up, and then grab a dishcloth from the kitchen drawer and "scrub the floors" with it.  She is constantly scouting out random floor debris-- a leaf from outside, a stray piece of food, etc-- and bringing it to me.  

Still such a water baby.  Half the time the only way I can get dinner done, is to fill up the sink with some water, put her bath toys in it, and let her stand on a chair and play in the sink while I cook.  She will play in the tub for literally hours.  If I come in the bathroom while she's in the tub (usually her dad sits in there and reads a book while she plays) and ask him "is she ready to get out?" she'll start thrashing around "no no no no no no!"  I can't wait until this summer when we can go swimming.

It's so much fun playing with her now.  She's so imaginative with her play.  She's constantly "being a cat" and imitating our cats, following them around and doing everything they do (she does the hands/feet walk like Mowgli in the jungle book when he is with the elephants-- seriously funny stuff), clawing the carpet, etc.  She is in love with Duplo blocks, we spend a lot of time building houses, especially with lots of steps-- she'll march her toys up and down the steps muttering "steps steps steps" over and over again.  Way into painting now, too, been having fun with that.  She has her own "technique" with tempura paints where she'll glob the paint on the paper with the brush, then turn the brush over and use the other end to make lines in the paint-- it actually looks pretty cool, hahaha.

We're going a bit stir-crazy, though, and so ready for winter to end.  

Pics:

Duplo time--

Playing in a big cardboard box:

Artist--

ROTFL, she crawled up in my MIL's dog's cage--

Breakfast time with baby brother:

Sweeping--

[Blessed_Mom]

Kelly, those pics are sooooo adorable!

My LO is recovering - from the cold and cough but still is very congested and throwing up pretty easily because of that.....

Not related to the babes but have all of you ladies stopped shedding hair? My PP shed is still ON and my hair has become so thin I have gone into a quasi-depression mode. Like all of a sudden I have woken up with a different landscape to my frontal hairline.

I am still nursing so I am supposed to expect this - right? OR no - you have all stopped shedding? Also...I don't have the "lots of new spiky hair coming in" happening yet. Maybe because my shed is not done with? Please shed some light everyone.

Thanks.

[Kelly1101]

Had to take Em to the ER Saturday night for croup.  Pretty scary.  She'd already woken up once and went back to sleep fine.  Then the second time, she was wheezing/gasping even when she was calm.  Tried steaming up the bathroom, walking around outside, still a lot of gasping for breath, and she had indrawing at the base of her neck every time she breathed, so I left my husband at home with Ozzy and took her in to the hospital.  We were there for three hours, fairly miserable time with all of the messing with her, including having to hold her while she was screaming and thrashing so that they could get the mask on her face for the mist treatment.  But, everyone was very nice, it straightened out her breathing, and after three hours we could go home.  I really could do without ever again having to rush my baby to the hospital at 1 am.  

[Novus]

Kelly, that does sound scary!  We haven't had any hospital trips (or even urgent doctor's visits) yet and I'm not looking forward to it when it happens.  Hope Em's feeling better now!

Re-shedding: I never stopped and then I got pregnant and now, I'm not shedding *as much.*  I still am a little though, which is odd b/c when I was pregnant with Luke, I didn't shed at all.

[Kelly1101]

Met my baby girl two years ago today, at 1:51 PM. Happy Birthday, Emma Lynne.

[Peppermint Poppies]

Happy Birthday Em

[voxana]

Hi Mamas,

My little guy was born in early May 09 and I thought this may be a good forum to post a couple questions:  How many of you have stopped nursing to sleep by now, and do you have any tips on gently getting them to fall asleep w/out breast (and w/out too much stress)?  It looks like I have to stop nursing him to sleep, even though he is very attached to it. We've nursed for every nap and every bedtime so far, but the problem is that I now have a night class twice a week, so he has been staying up too late those nights and getting over tired. Also, I'm expecting another baby in August and don't think I can be completely responsible for both children falling asleep for night and for naps. Although I am fine w/ tandem nursing.

BTW, anybody else have a situation where if your dh tries to help w/ bedtime, ds goes crazy, into uncontrollable hysterics? This is the case w/ us, and it really upsets my husband.

Okay thanks for any thoughts on this.