Chat Thread: Jan 9 - Someone Starts a New One - Page 4

[~pi]

Beautiful baby: Same as others, my response is usually something like, "Thanks, we like him," or, "Yep, we've decided to keep him. I hear they are tough to put back, anyway."

Rolling, rolling, rolling: We had one good roll a while back (in which he ground his face into our bath mat) and then nothing. Today, he apparently woke up with the goal of mastering this rolling thing. I've just put a big blanket on the floor next to me and he is rolling like mad. He does back to front, hangs out for a bit, and then needs help to flip back.

Grabbing: Yes on this as well. I put his gym (this one) out on the blanket this morning, and he grabbed onto the red ring and couldn't figure out how to let go. I feel a little bad about laughing at him, but it was pretty dang funny. ("Help! My arm is stuck!!" "Uh, kid, let go of the ring.") He also got quite the fistful of my mom's hair last night.

Which brings me to ... awkward conversations: My mom is going to be living with us part time now, i.e., one or two nights a week. She got a job in the city and will telecommute some of the time, but needs to be in the office at least a couple of days a week. It is wonderful that she got a job, I'm thrilled that we will see her more often, and we are happy to help out by providing her with a place to stay. However, I need to figure out how to talk to her about a few things. There are things that I just don't worry about when we don't see someone all that often. For example, I swear, she bathes in perfume. She doesn't do it so much on vacation, so it's never been a huge problem before, but she has always worn heavy perfume to work, and it's going to be a serious problem for us. Both DH and I had headaches from it last night. Gah. I need to figure out how to discuss that with her.

Leiahs, congrats to your DH on the job! Sorry they didn't make a better offer, but that's great about the benefits.

starling, that's a lot of laundry change!

[LaBruja]

Beth: hugs. Just hugs.

beautiful baby: like others have said, I usually respond with a variation on the "Oh yes, we just decided yesterday to keep her!" theme.

rolling: she's not really rolling much yet...if she's on her back she'll roll to her side or tummy, but she won't roll from her tummy yet. Honestly, I think she's just too fat.

grabbing: Like crazy! She regularly rips handfuls of hair out of my head, and will hold and shake and chew on her Winnie-the-Pooh doll too. Her grasp isn't perfect yet though so she drops him frequently, and the second he falls she becomes incandescent with rage. I filmed it yesterday just so I could show DH because I thought it was so funny.

emma: good news about the insurance! Sorry it is all such a pain, but thank goodness you'll be covered retroactively.

[Katico]

Solids:  I was just thinking the same - that it is coming up so soon!  I can't wait, I loved introducing DD1 to solids - we did baby led weaning and looooove it.  
 

Books: I can't believe you have time to read, not_telling!!

"She's so beautiful!" I always end up saying something like "we think so!"  but then it always feels awkward for some reason.  So I try to just say 'thank you' because I really don't want to talk to people, haha

Leiahs:  Sucks about the job offer :(  Frustrating to be bumped up out of one bracket but not enough to save any significant amount!  It's hard to pay rent when you know the money could go into a house, I know!

Photos: Thank you all for the input!! Lifeguard, I like the idea of printing them off 12x12 so you can add in other bits and bobs if you want but it would still be much less bulk to store!

Photos with two children  Does anyone worry about printing/books for two kids or do you just figure they'll just split them up somehow when you're gone?

Laundry: You know, that's one thing I was forgetting - I am washing my own clothes much more often with the spit up etc.  Plus, the sheets and towels that come with nighttime accidents potty training.  I think I will be getting some cloth training pants of some sort for her...it's just too much!!!

The thought of carrying laundry out to a shared/pay laundry makes me want to weep.  Kudos to you, Starling

padraigs: aren't the the best?!  I got a pair for DD1 and she wears them day and night.  I am definitely getting a pair for Claire, socks are useless.  They are absolutely worth every cent and I'm so impressed with how well they wash.  I would normally knit slippers for them but they are slippery and tend to wear out in the sole even if you felt them.

Pi:  Ugh to awkward conversations, but do it!  I bet you won't be the only ones to benefit - there are probably people she encounters every day that suffer from her perfume too.  My mother is severely sensitive to scents and it's so hard to get people to understand their scents are toxic.  Growing up in a scent free house, it shocks me how many layers of perfume and scents people use  every day in every product!

Originally Posted by LaBruja 

 Her grasp isn't perfect yet though so she drops him frequently, and the second he falls she becomes incandescent with rage. 

 

[livacreature]

Solids: I'm so excited about this.  DD is showing interest in food (she usually is being held when we eat, if we don't pay attention she will try licking stuff...the other day she stuck her hand in a spicy vinegar basedbbq sauce and had it in her mouth before I could stop her.  Laughed her little head off), so by six months, I think we will be introducing things.  I've had to stop DH from accidentially on purpose putting things in her grasp...

Rolling: She was at it a lot before the harness, but now during her hour of harness free time doesn't do it.  Her motor skills have gone down since she hasn't been able to use them, but i hear they regain them quickly.

Grabbing: In the past few days, she has discovered her love of an obnoxious looking diamond shaped ring rattle by mom bought her.  If she isn't holding it, we sure as hell better be shaking it or all hell breaks loose.  I think I am going to develop carpel tunnel if she keeps it up. 

Today I feel a sense of balance that I haven't honestly felt since I started back to work.  I was woken by baby giggles, which is much nicer than baby crying.  I had time for tea while I read the news.  I cleaned out our fireplace since we removed the gaslogs (they didn't work and were disconnected from the gas).  I played with the baby.  I chatted with my next door neighbor who thinks my kid's name is Laura, despite spelling it for her. ;)  I put dinned together and it will be ready when I get home.  I got to work and felt productive.  I didn't feel like one thing or the other was being dropped or sacrificed.  I didn't feel like I was juggling, I felt like I was balancing.

[not_telling]

3 1/2 year old for sale.  Seriously.

Rolling: I remember this with DS...all these similarly aged babies rolling and not him for the longest time.  Um, DD is not rolling anywhere yet.  She can scooch, though.

Books: I mostly read at bedtime and during DS's naps.  When DS was a baby I didn't read at bedtime because we needed to have lights out/quiet while he nursed to sleep and then to keep him asleep.  I've always read before bed (since I learned to read) and that was really hard for me and also I think contributed to insomnia.  This time around I'm finding that I can read in bed while DD nurses and while she dozes because it's usually pretty easy to get her re-settled and asleep after I turn out my light.

Padraigs - Ooo, those are very very cute!  We've been doing pretty ok with two pairs of socks we have, but our booties have been coming off too easily.  Today I remembered a pair of booties we have from DS that I thought might fit DD now.  They always stayed on DS really well.  My friend got them for DS in Guatemala while she and her husband were in the process of adopting a child.  A year after that child finally came home with them to the U.S. my friend died unexpectedly.  Actually, as I type this I'm realizing that tomorrow is the 2 year anniversary of her death.  She was a wonderful mother and friend and teacher, and I'm so glad I have little things like booties that she thought to get for my little baby while so many things were going on in her life.

Perfume - I hope your mom responds well, pi.  My MIL and GMIL tend to be perfumey and then DD (and DS) smells for days. 

And now I'm off to dinner downstairs.

Any takers for that 3 1/2 year old?

[tank]

The perfume thing reminds me of my grandmother.  When I stayed with my cousin a couple of years ago she told me that she had told my grandmother recently that if she wore a specific perfume (because she pours it on) that she is not allowed in her house.  Not in a mean way but in a funny way.  My grandmother lived nearby so was always just showing up smelling up the house. 

[RosemaryS-F]

I'm home. So nice to see my DH.

Laundry: I have lots of diapers and washer/dryer in the bathroom, which makes it very easy. I do one big load a week! I do sposies at night because I end up all pee wet otherwise. Then one load of whites and one big one of colors weekly (we re-wear also. I rarely wash my jeans. I buy them on the tight side and they relax into wonderfulness but not saggy butt. They are good quality.) I have a clean laundry basket for every family member and one for household linens. I sort everyone's laundry before folding it and take it to our rooms or dresser spots (there's a dirty basket in each room, but we mostly undress in the bathroom, so in go most things next to the washer.) I'm not fabulous at fold/put away. Things definitely linger a few days, and some weeks, they never get in the drawers. Before the baby, yes, but now, no.

photo books: my poor children. That's all I have to say.

[lifeguard]

starling - I am loving the mental image of your dd!

clothing - oh my, we are drowning in clothes here. My fluctuating weight (& dh's recently) doesn't help with this, but we also just seem to constantly get given more hand me downs. Dd has a ridiculous amount of clothing that has never been worn - we were given 4 Christmas dresses - she wore one for 10 minutes for the picture - sigh. I need to be more ruthless in getting rid of stuff.

pi - can you make a joke with your mom about the perfume? Or maybe a discussion in general about how a lot of places are going scent-free.

labruja - the hair grabbing - eek. I have long & very curly hair & baby fingers get hopelessly tangled in it.

katico - oh my, I do NOT look forward to solids - it makes life so much more complicated, although with ds already eating maybe I won't find feeding dd to take so much thought. For the albums I am simply making family albums - they can fight over them once I'm gone - or simply make copies I guess.

livacreature - yeah for balance!!!

not_telling - I'm a bedtime reader too - I realllly struggle to fall asleep without it even if I'm exhausted.

afm - sleep is a wonderful, wonderful thing. We've settled into a pattern here & I'm now pretty consistently getting around 8 hours at night!!!! Dd wakes up to bf 1-3 times so that is not bad at all. Feeling so much more optimistic.

[StephandOwen]

Reading along, but wanted to ask.... any other babies consistently dry all night? Kai is freaking me out with this! It's been about 3 solid weeks of dry diapers all night, every night. He goes to sleep around 11pm every night (with a diaper change right before that, usually poop). He sleeps all night until around 7, 8 or sometimes even 9am without waking at all. When he does wake up his diaper is always dry. Not a drop of pee after 9ish hours! Usually he'll eat and have a big pee within 45 minutes of being awake. At first I thought maybe he just wasn't drinking enough, but he nurses plenty, growing great, soft spot isn't sunken, etc. No signs of dehydration at all. During the day he fusses as soon as he pees so is changed immediately. He's probably a prime candidate for EC if I wasn't so lazy   But I've never heard of a baby staying dry all night so this is totally weird to me. I thought it was a fluke the first couple times, but it's been weeks of staying dry all night.

[emmaegbert]

I too have to read a few minutes before I sleep, even if I am falling asleep doing it.

I am not looking forward to solids, particularly, but I did find feeding the second easier and I assume the third will be so too. I entirely skipped "baby food" and just fed her stuff she could self-feed or bites/licks of our food. Plus b/c she wanted to be like her brother... it was more of a social experience for her.

I'm exhausted tonight and at wits end with my middle child. She is still awake and its 10:30. its awful. I am feeling completely trapped by bedtime right now (hence on the computer, trying to remain sane). I guess she just can't nap anymore, without at nap she is asleep between 6:45 and 7:15. DH has to leave for work at 6:30am so at this point there are less than 8 hours before he has to walk out the door-- let alone get a decent amount of sleep. At least her screaming isn't waking up the baby or her older brother (at least not yet...)

[lifeguard]

steph - that's awesome! Even if you are not into ec I think I might still try to pee him in the morning when you first get up - I bet you find some success.

emma - those late nights are awful. Ds was up until just after 10:30 here too - he didn't nap today so I'm not sure why he was awake so late. It really cuts into my evening though!

[emmaegbert]

Steph- I second lifeguard. why not stick Kai on the potty after he gets up?

my second was consistently dry at night for many months, like 3m-9m or so, and since we did EC I actually had her sleep diaperless. then she started wetting again so diapers went back on for a while. they she was dry almost all the time from about 14m until her sister was born 11.5 weeks ago ;) This baby has been dry about once a week in the mornings. So, I don't think its unheard of. There is a hormone that actually prevents us from peeing in our deep sleep- maybe it just means he gets a lot of great sleep! (once I started EC I noticed it was totally true- the babies are slightly roused- wiggling about- when they seemingly pee in their sleep).

[cbeclipse]

Trying to catch up here while Landon naps.....

Laundry- Dp does all the laundry. He usually does it twice a week, about 2 loads each time. I don't have a washer/dryer here in my apartment, but there is a laundry room for my apartment building that he uses.

Rolling- Landon isn't rolling over at all. He loves laying on his back, and sometimes will roll a little to his side. Haven't really done any tummy time with him. Tried it once and he hated it.

Books- I haven't read anything lately. I use to love to read, but since I got pregnant I have yet to read a book. I have a big stack of books that I want to read but just haven't.

Solids- This scares me! lol Not sure what route I want to go with it. So many people are excited to start rice cereal at 4 months, but I'm not that into it. What should I tell my pediatrician about why I don't want to do it? lol Not sure if I'm going to make my own baby food, or just kind of let him eat what we are eating in small small pieces. Thoughts?

Grabbing- He has been grabbing my hair at random times. He has discovered his hands and doesn't keep them out of his mouth! They are always shoved in there when he is laying on the floor.

Laughing- He has laughed a few times, but smiles all the time.

Afm- things are going okay. I'm still feeling very overwhelmed by everything, but maybe getting use to it a little. I have Landon on a "loose" schedule for eating. He is still nursing, but getting a bottle at set times. I needed to get some kind of schedule/structure with my day. With working and being out and about a lot I was going crazy not ever knowing what to expect and plan for. I am really sad about breastfeeding not happening like i wanted it to, but trying to accept that I just wasn't making enough milk for him. I think that things in the beginning were screwed up and we just got off to a bad start. He wasn't latching in the hospital, then he had to stay there without me because of his jaundice, and no-one was really there to help me out with it. If I could do it over again I would change everything, but I can't.

We want to get Landon some new toys this weekend, what toys do you love? I went to look at toys this past weekend and it was so overwhelming. I didn't know what to get. Most of the toys were loud and annoying.

I would also love to start a bedtime routine with him. I will have to figure what I want the routine to be like. Something simple.

[livacreature]

Dropping in to say, hell has no fury like a baby woken up before she is ready.  Geez, forgive me for interrupting your ELEVEN HOURS so we could take daddy to woke, miss.   

[emmaegbert]

chelsea: take a look at the baby led weaning stuff some time and see what you think. you can certainly tell your ped you prefer to wait until around 6m or Landon is showing clear signs of readiness (if I recall that includes; baby can sit unassisted, has developed a good pincer grip, no tongue-thrust reflex to food in his mouth, and actively grabbing at food). And then let the ped give you feeding schedule at the 6m appointment if she wants, say thanks, and do what you want for the next 3 months. If your child is healthy and growing normally and hitting developmental targets, then there really shouldn't be a lot of concern about his nutrition. Rice cereal is way less nutritious than breastmilk or formula- there is nothing in there other than iron that your baby "needs" and iron can come in other ways. (iron rich foods, supplement, in the formula). I tried more baby food with my first and he just wasn't into it. When he got teeth (at 11.5 m) he really go into "real" food and we just fed him table food from then on. With my second, I honestly didn't bother at all with baby food. Of course, I was already feeding a kid... so I just gave her some of that stuff- soft fruits, yogurt, oatmeal, overcooked rice, eggs, avocado, beans, etc. Whatever seemed interesting to her. She ate or didn't eat and we didn't sweat it. We didn't really do official BLW (some of my friends did). LUckily for me, my first pediatrician told me "first foods are culturally determined" and that she could give me a schedule if I wanted but really just introduce things slowly, avoid choking hazards, and don't replace breastmilk/formula with other drinks until they are at least 1. Seriously that was her total medical advice.

and... after seeing and hearing about this with so many moms... I think the biggest "risk" of normal newborn jaundice (not jaundice caused by a more serious problem, of course)  is that it means the babies end up not getting off to a good start nursing. grrr. (my first was hospitalized for it... luckily they roomed me in with him but still it was stressful and not an optimal first week of motherhood for me or life for him).

[cbeclipse]

livacreature- 11 hours!!?! That is awesome. I dream of Landon sleeping that long.

emmaegbert- Yes, I will look into baby lead weaning. I think that's more the route I want to go.

Gas- Landon farts all the time. Like, sometimes it's non-stop. When he is nursing he arches his back and pops off me all the time when he farts. Anything I can do to help him out? I feel bad, I think that sometimes it bothers him, he seems frustrated.

[AKislandgirl]

We did baby led weaning with our first too. It is great and she is a great eater now. I went with the phrase, "until they are one, its just for fun". She nibbled here or there for quite some time and then starting "eating' at closer to 9-10 months I think. She loved mouthing fruit! Certain things were bigger hits then others of course. It worked well for us and we'll go that route again. I need to learn if I should introduce certain foods later though due to DD1 have allergies though.

[Amy May]

We just got back from 5 days in NYC visiting close friends and DH's family.  Now we're back into the mayhem of packing.  I have been reading a bit on my phone, but it is really hard to post.  So I am way behind in posting.  However...

Leihs, I am glad for you that your DH was made permanent, but I'm sorry it wasn't a great offer.

Steph- so glad to hear your father is doing better.  That must have been so scary and stressful, and I hope he continues to improve.

Issues with landlord are still, well, issues.  She came back and said she wanted us to pay 2 of the four months remaining rent, and a month of heating.  We told her that we won't be doing that- she has been in violation of state law etc, and that we also expect our security deposit back.  It would cost her upwards of 20-30K to de-lead our house, so it REALLY is in her best interest financially to just let us go!  But, she has decided to sell the house ASAP.  Right now, we can't even walk through our house, but tomorrow there is a group showing from 4:30-6:30.  I don't know how that is going to go.  Instead of waiting just 1 more week until we are gone and the apartment is clean, she wants to show it immediately.  Normally, I am really anal about taking out the trash when it is full, or vacuuming or cleaning up, but I am definitely not going to stress out for the sake of a showing! In fact, I think the trash and dishes can wait until Friday!  (I know, I'm being kind of passive aggressive, which I acknowledge, but we still live here...)  Our place is a mess, and it will stay that way!

Palesa has rolled from tummy to back twice.  Last night she propped herself up sitting.  She was leaning forward, but balanced and didn't topple.  That was pretty cool.  

Okay, more later.  Once again, I truly love that we have such an active DDC still (even though it makes it hard to keep up with everything when I get busy for a few days!!!)

[StephandOwen]

Baby toys- This snail is, hands down, Kai's favorite toy. It does play music, but I don't find it as annoying as some other toys. He has this ball that he likes. This is his high chair toy (he sits in the high chair during dinner most nights) and he likes it a lot too.

Solids- The plan was to wait until 6 months, but we might start at 5 months if he's interested. We'll see. We will do home-made food instead of jars.

Rolling- nothing going on over here, but I'm in no hurry for a mobile baby

Laundry- I do all laundry on Fridays. Usually it's 4-5 loads per week. All get folded/hung and put away by Saturday afternoon.

Laughing- none here, but plenty of smiles

not_telling- I'll trade you your 3 1/2 year old for my 8 year old. I should warn you, though, that he came home from school today with a note saying he told the student special ed teacher she was "annoying", kicked the regular special ed teacher, ran away from her, laid down in the middle of the hallway and refused to move, met with the assistant principal and then locked himself in the bathroom (and ended up crawling under the door because he didn't want to touch the "disgusting" door.... as if the floor was any cleaner ). Ahem... yeah, I'm more than willing to trade for a 3 1/2 year old

[lifeguard]

solids - we do baby led weaning as well. I do not enjoy spoon feeding a baby at all but this way I can give them some food & enjoy my own meal.

baby toys - ds really didn't care about toys at all. Dd is showing a little more interest but there still is nothing in particular I would recommend at this point. Mostly they just seem to like colour.