Nov~Dec 2002 tots - Page 8

[lilmiss'mama]

punkprincessmama- Scarlett has been hitting me lately and I remember Revina doing it too. I'll just be holding her and out of no where, smack, right in the face. What I have been doing is telling her not to hit mama, it hurts. Then I take her hand and show her how to touch gentle. If she does it again I put her down. I am not sure what else to do.

What causes toxemia? How does it effect you?

[ekblad9]

Jackson so loves the park. Now that it's nice weather he wants to be outside all day long. He loves the slides, the swings, the whole thing. He really did not like being outside last summer so I'm happy he's enjoying it now.

[DecemberSun]

hjohnson, I had to get Mag Sulfate too. It didn't effect me as badly as I've heard it can. I did get really flushed and hot, and my arm hurt where the med came through the IV, but there wasn't much I could do. Suffer through the Mag or have a baby at 30 weeks, I chose to suffer LOL. I've heard major horror stories from Mag Sulfate, though, so I feel lucky!

Zach hits too. He hits the dogs, his foster sisters, me, and whatever is close to him when he's mad. I have no idea where he got it, either. No one else hits anyone in our house, so : ??? I'm glad I'm not the only one who has a hitter LOL. I do the same thing as someone else said- I grab his hand, tell him "No, hitting is not nice" and show him how to be gentle.

He has really shown improvement on his attitude and temper tantrums these past few days. We have been really strict with him, not letting him get out of control. We're trying to get a handle on his behavior before it gets out of hand, and I'm actually pleasantly surprised that it seems to be working!

[tea olive]

well for my kids, hitting is also a gesture of love if they are happy with it. they had no reference that it is a "mean" thing until we told them. with my rough boys i ideally draw the line at blood or tear inspiring pain.......really though, the verbal skills will help much with the hitting and other frustrations. generally that is a direction we aim for, from physical to verbal. these babies are still very little though, and lack the impulse control to do much else. personally i recommend ignoring most of the hitting. over here the more fuss we make about negative behaviours, the more it becomes part of the communication dynamic and gets in the way of love.

rachel/brayg, hope you and owen are resting. these are the moments mammas are made of, that remind us of our vulnerability and responsibility, and move us towards being experts about ourselves and our children. you were able to act rationally, make an informed decision, and deal with the situation. it is a wonderful thing.

i was talking to dh the other day and remembering that 16 months is when my kids turn feisty, or "skippetty" is another term we use to describe the seeming ornery behavior. it definitely is related to the fact that they know they are not part of mamma anymore. i'd have to crack open the penelope leach book for more details......or maybe i don't want to remember......

[tea olive]

alright, i just looked at penelope leach's your baby and child and read the introduction to the toddler, from one year to two and half. i highly recommend reading it, since it is just too darned long for me to copy it.....

[Mona]

soon to be birthing mamas-
i just wrote my birth story and submitted it for publication. while writing it i realized that other then during meditation, it is one of the few 8 hour streches where i was purely in the moment. despite it being my first and being at home 30 minutes from the nearest hospital, despite the fact that my midwife was snow bound at her house for more then half of my labor, despite all the new ness and not knowing what was going on , i stayed in the moment each second, and never worried. what an amazing occurance. birthing is what our bodies are made to do, and that is amazing in itself.
water- i spent some time in our bath tub- the first few hours. but it was too small for my big belly and i had back pain to boot so found more solace in squating, dancing, ect.

hitting- dd has been hitting and torturing the cat for months. i tell her "soft" and show her, using my own hand and then her hand. i also tell her that she is hurting the cat,and "ouch". she also hits dh and i with things sometimes. i tell her that we don't hit pepole with things. (ok, we don't hit people at all in this house :LOL)
i often have to remove her from the cat, and remove the item from her hand. it seems like a slow process.....:

dd has been doing this interesting thing lately. she lays down on her tummy on the floor. she sometimes does it when she is a bit frustrated. and occassionally she does it more violently as a mini tantrum. i think she is trying to ground her energies and calm herself.

have a wonderful day mamas!

[eilonwy]

I had Mag Sulfate with Eli, too; they started the line after I started swelling up like a balloon & spilling protien in my urine (during labor!). I had a siezure as I was delivering EliBean and had to stay on the magnesium for 24 hours after he was born. They kept telling me not to eat, but I basically threw a fit and one of the nurses snuck in a meal for me in the middle of the night. . Later, when I went to visit EliBean the NICU nurses remarked that I was very alert considering the magnesium. I whispered that the secret was *food*; yeah, you can feel like a limp dishrag on magnesium, but eating some real food can do a lot for your equilibrium!

Toxemia is the old-fashioned name for preecclampsia, if I recall correctly; they're exactly the same thing. No one knows what causes it, but they do know that it's most common in primiparas (fist time mothers), people carrying multiples, overweight women, diabetics (gestational or otherwise), and women with high blood pressure before they get pregnant.

Eli has mostly stopped hitting; every now and then he'll get excited and do it, but we remind him to be gentle and he understands that pretty well.

[kerc]

toxemia ---> isn't it supposed to help reduce your risk if you eat enough protein?

my baby brag for the day -- yesterday we went out in the woods with a mama friend and her two kiddos. They were making maple syrup over a wood fire. It was sooo fun. They had cut down some trees to make a small trout pond and hadn't yet cleared them. So imagine mud bog with trees for a 3.5 yr old to play balance beam on. My own child (here's the baby brag) spent the day just picking up mud, squeezing it and putting it back down. then doing the same with everything out there -- twigs, leaves, etc. It was darn fun. Then she fell asleep on the way home and SLEPT FOR 14 HRS STRAIGHT!!!!!!

I told my dh as i left this morning for work that we were going to go out and I was going to "run" her again today. Kind of kidding, but she had fun, I had fun and she slept great!

and this mama is a friend who's more of an aquaintaince. She just casually invited E and I to come out for the syruping at the last minute. I went on a whim, had a VERY fun time. Turns out that we are on a reasonably like mind when it comes to parenting. Her dh is a prof at the univ. i attend (in physics -- I'm in geology), so I've never really pursued the friendship much because, well, it was a kinda weird/awkward thing. But maybe i should...I could use some more mama friends. I was soooo happy to find out that her 3 yo doesn't have a favorite TV show, that she's still nursing her 14mo (and he hasn't had cow's milk, cause well she didn't think he needed it) and it was really fun to be with someone who didn't freak out when I let my kiddo play in the mud.

[DecemberSun]

First of all, a to brayg for the "Tylenol story". Sheesh, I feel like a real heal- Zach's had Tylenol AND Motrin already. Not to mention his ocassional Albuterol syrup and Xopenex SVNs for his asthma, and the Prednisone and antibiotics he got when he had RSV, pneumonia, and bilateral ear infections... (I guess since both my parents, four aunts, and an uncle are all RNs, and I finished all my pre-req's for the nursing program before Zach came along, I'm more inclined to just give them some medicine when I think they need it. Just me...)

casina- thanx for the insight on hitting. It makes sense, since Zach hits the dogs even when he seems happy and excited to be petting them. Maybe it's just his "pat of excitement" .

kerc- that's so awesome that you found someone you can get together with. I need to broaden my horizons and find some more IRL friends, too. It's so hard to find friends who aren't fully mainstream in their parenting. Of course, I don't have anything against these mamas, but it's clear to both of us after we meet once that we won't be calling each other again. It's sad, it's like a date that doesn't work out, LOL...

I know toxemia is a condititon with your blood, and it can be genetic. Very scarey thing.

They never really discovered why I had preterm labor, so I have no idea if it will happen again. When I went in for my first Pap at 18, the NP told me my uterus was slightly tipped to the left, and I've read that a mishapen uterus can cause preterm labor after the baby gets to a certain size. That scares me about getting pregnant again...

[hjohnson]

They put me on Mag Sulfate because when I went in for my weekly visit, my BP was up at 146/110. They told me you are having this baby! I also had spilled some protein into my urine and I was quite swollen. My liver enzymes were elevated as well and they thought that it was going to develop into HELLP Syndrome. I didn't have the Hemolysis or Low Platelets though. After my son was born, it took 3 weeks for my liver enzymes to go back to normal and it took me BP 3 months to stabilize. I had Gestational Diabetes as well.

So far with this pregnancy, my blood sugars haven't tested high and my BP is in normal ranges. My OB is watching me like a hawk though. One advantage I have is that I am 10 pounds lighter going into this pregnancy than I was with the first.

Christopher doesn't hit as much as he throws things when he is mad. We are working on it but it is tough. We are trying to teach him the word "gentle" especially since we have cats and it is definitely working. If we say "gentle" he will pat the cats instead of hitting them.

[Brayg]

rachel/brayg, hope you and owen are resting. these are the moments mammas are made of, that remind us of our vulnerability and responsibility, and move us towards being experts about ourselves and our children. you were able to act rationally, make an informed decision, and deal with the situation. it is a wonderful thing.

Thanks Casina. He came to bed w/me again last night (we are not cosleepers--my kids don't do it well and I don't do it well). He woke at 2am, nursed, and cried when I tried to put him back to bed. The fact that he and I both need some sleep made me bring him to bed w/me. He and I both slept amazingly well. At 16 months, though, I am NOT going to start cosleeping, but it's a sweet moment anyway. :*)

He's quite the crank though. Can't blame him, but it's wearing on me. Dh is working between 80-90 hours/week right now, so I'm kind of going it alone right now. Trying my best...don't know how single mamas do it. Wow.

He looks like he's been beat up though. I was vacuuming this morning in Jacob's room and I didn't know he'd come in there and Wham! Right into his forehead and it knocked him over. He's got a lovely goose-egg on his forehead now. Add to that some sort of rashy red-patch that developed under his eye late yesterday (I really hope it just has something to do w/the virus and not something else) and he looks pretty rough.

I see little tiny bumps on his chest/belly and back. They aren't raised yet, but look like the start of something. I was almost hoping they'd be chicken pox, but I think it also has something to do w/the cocksackie virus as well.

Other than that, it's beautiful here--in the 70s (not bad for Minnesota, eh?) and sunny. We have been still walking up to get Jacob from school. Figured the sun and fresh air would be good for Owen. He doesn't complain, so that's good.

[Brayg]

Then she fell asleep on the way home and SLEPT FOR 14 HRS STRAIGHT!!!!!!

Wow!

First of all, a to brayg for the "Tylenol story". Sheesh, I feel like a real heal- Zach's had Tylenol AND Motrin already. Not to mention his ocassional Albuterol syrup and Xopenex SVNs for his asthma, and the Prednisone and antibiotics he got when he had RSV, pneumonia, and bilateral ear infections...

Oh, I didn't mean to make anyone feel bad! We do what we have to. I just wasn't sure how I felt, kwim? I've read so much about not messing with an immune system at work that I was scared. With Jacob, it was so different. I didn't think twice about giving him meds. (I should have, but didn't) I just didn't want to go against my beliefs about healthcare but was stuck trying to figure out what was the best for Owen. What it came down to was that he needed relief, so that's why I did it and I don't regret it either.

[Mona]

Brayg - did you find out what ds has? poor guy, and poor mama. s
right after dd got over roseola, she started teething again. it seems like it is always something :LOL we used baby advil a few times at night after her fever left for lymph discomfort from the roseola, and a few times at night for teething pains, although not yet this time around. i too dislike it, but when nothing else works, her misery is just too hard to handle.... ykwim?

[Brayg]

They dx'd him w/Coxsackie virus. Anyone here have experience with it? I'm concerned about the red patch under his eye and those little tiny bumps on his trunk as well.

I think his throat hurts him still (although he eats and drinks just fine). He had the blisters on his throat.

[*solsticemama*]

Reading over the recent posts I am so struck by the quality of Love that is inherent in being a mama. I'm not talking love arising out of emotion, more Love without subject or object. I mean, gosh, seizures, awful drugs, various medical conditions not to mention LABOR & BIRTH ITSELF and still the mothering heart beats on, still we make an offering of our bodies, become an accomodation, a yielding. What could be more miraculous than a woman's body in birth? We are all buddhas in that moment.

blessings mamas

[eilonwy]

Originally posted by Brayg
They dx'd him w/Coxsackie virus. Anyone here have experience with it? I'm concerned about the red patch under his eye and those little tiny bumps on his trunk as well.

I think his throat hurts him still (although he eats and drinks just fine). He had the blisters on his throat.

I'm pretty sure those tiny red bumps are consistant with coxsakie virus.

And now I have to go dress my EliBean and get going! :LOL

[Brayg]

I'm pretty sure those tiny red bumps are consistant with coxsakie virus.

Thanks. I figured as much, but you just never know. In the midst of all this, he cut 4 molars. Yay :

[hjohnson]

Originally posted by *solsticemama*
Reading over the recent posts I am so struck by the quality of Love that is inherent in being a mama. I'm not talking love arising out of emotion, more Love without subject or object. I mean, gosh, seizures, awful drugs, various medical conditions not to mention LABOR & BIRTH ITSELF and still the mothering heart beats on, still we make an offering of our bodies, become an accomodation, a yielding. What could be more miraculous than a woman's body in birth? We are all buddhas in that moment.

blessings mamas

I'll tell you I was real nervous about getting pregnant again but I wanted more kids and I wanted to make sure DS has a sibling. I think this is going to be my last pregnancy though. DH and I are talking about adopting after this because there are children out there that need a home and family.

[kerc]

i think my post got lost....

anyone want to join me in celebrating tv free week? I even talked DH into it. He's a news freak and is having surgery (minor) on tuesday. But he agreed and we both think it will help us end the winter-induced tv creep-up (watching more and more and it becomes background noise).www.tvturnoff.org has more info.

[Mona]

I'm there! :LOL of course we don't have television in this house, in that we get no channels.