Queer, Pregnant, and Parenting! November, December, and January 2013!!! - Page 2

[onemommyonemama]

Ooh fun! Thanks Knitting! and HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHAY!

Name/Username? Onemommyonemama

Who is in your family? Me (29), DP (36), DD1/Zo (3.5), DD2/ Sage (7 months)

What pronouns do you and your family members use? all she right now.

If you already have kids, tell us two interesting things about each of them.

Zo tells stories out loud much of the day that have (in my opinion) pretty solid characters and story line, but too many references to poop. She likes playing alone outdoors creating intricate rock sculptures - one of which she has now spent 5 months, and a total of who knows how many hours on.

Sage communicates with us until we get it. She taught us how to EC when she was a newborn. She learns signs with haste. She can't crawl but she almost swims across the floor using her arm strength and sliding her body. She seems like she is hungry for tools to talk and move and get on with it already... but with all that growin is peaceful and content.

If you work outside the home (or inside the home at something other than parenting), what do you do? I work for a non-profit program where young adults live overseas for months/a year in a community affected by economic poverty. I train and debreif participants, support them while they are away, do office work, etc. My wife is a high school math teacher.

If you stay home with your kids, what do your days tend to look like? Right now my wife and I are both at home. She took the leave, and I work from home part time. Next month she will be teaching part time - so our days tend to look like:

am - DP with children, they generally play outside or go to the library/ I work in the office upstairs.

afternoon - DP goes to work, I hang out with Z and S, they both nap for an hour or so, then we create food or art until DP gets home.

Some mornings I skip work and we do something together.

What are your favorite things to do when you're not working/doing the grunt work of parenting?

I love food and cooking - and all things involved. I garden, I like to make my own pasta, I can and dehydrate. I like making bread.

I love being outdoors preferably somewhere beautiful. I bike/hike/ski/snowboard.

I love creating - mostly right now I have a bit of time to sew, I create art and promotional materials for my work and a few non-profits, I create with food. If I had more time and space I love painting, drawing and sculpture.

I love social justice movements and communities.

I like hardware stores, fixing things, finding a great deal on something we need, and I have my dad's love of buying new tools even though I don't have a project to use them on... yet.

[mami2mami]

                                       HAPPY BIRTHDAY

                                                                                       SHAY!!!

                                          

[wishin'&hopin']

Happy Birthday Shay!  And, congrat's momses on surviving his first year (especially the bits of it that involve two infants!)!!!!  

I'll fill out the questions later...we have had a day at our house.  DS  just was evaluated for speech and he's going to need some pretty intensive speech therapy (the kind of speech therapy that makes me wonder if I need to get him an ID with his name on it because saying his own name may not happen for a while...what he refers to himself as does not resemble his name AT ALL)  I'm kind of freaking out.  It's an articulation disorder--and basically he is going to be learning to speak English the way I would have to learn to speak Hebrew--beginning with the individual sounds of each and every letter.  No cognitive, behavioral (other than ya know, being 2.5) or receptive language issues at all--JUST expressive.  Sigh.  I think I'm going to sign up for the donor sibling registry run by our sperm bank to see if anyone else who used our donor is having speech issues...

[seraf]

Wishin' that's pretty intense. I hope it is not as hard of a road as it looks like from here.

I don't expect you to tell us his name, but it makes me curious. Ari couldn't pronounce her name until she was almost 6 and Osha called her "baby" for her first couple of years because he couldn't pronounce her name.

[lisedea]

Wishin'--I am sorry you are freaking out. I am glad you caught it so early and are getting intervention right away! That will make a big difference.

[DesertSunsets]

Happy Birthday, Shay!!! 

Wishin', I'm sorry your son is having difficulties.  I'm sure with involved, caring, loving parents he will do fine.  If you need anything, we're all here to help!  

Name/Username?  DesertSunsets 

Who is in your family?  me (Ashleigh) 26, DW (Teri) 26, and DD (Everleigh) 9 weeks

What pronouns do you and your family members use? Everyone's a she, for right now at least! 

If you already have kids, tell us two interesting things about each of them.  Ever is a doppelganger for my DW when she was a baby (which thrills me to no end), and has quite the love affair with fans and the birch trees on her bedroom wall.  

If you work outside the home (or inside the home at something other than parenting), what do you do?  I'm a histotechnologist in a dermatopathology lab... which is a couple of big words that mean I process skin samples sent from dermatologists.  DW is a technical director at a performing arts theatre for the University of Arizona.  

What are your favorite things to do when you're not working/doing the grunt work of parenting?  I love reading, painting, working in ceramics, dabbling in stained glass, and writing.  Not necessarily in that order! 

Also, thanks Tigers for the brand new thread!  I noticed on the first page though that my username is listed incorrectly, could you fix it to say DesertSunsets? Thank you!

[wishin'&hopin']

Thanks folks, he WILL be fine.  It's just seeming like such a huge task to get him there at the moment :)  I first brought up some concerns at his 12 month appt...and everyone kept saying that he'd be fine.  He does say lots of stuff...it's just really hard to understand him.  And, now that I know what's going on with his speech I'm seeing things that I thought were just normal things--he says "no" with an inquisitive tone when you ask him questions, which is actually his work around to avoid having to say words he just can't say; and with words like water he says "wa wa" not because he's little and adorable, but because he can't say the word properly.  He uses TONS of sound effects (some of which are wildly impressive) combined with gesture and the words he uses (usually understandable in context) to communicate with us.  But as his circle gets bigger it's harder b/c other folk don't understand most of it.  

[seraf]

Wishin, what did you notice at 12 months?

[wishin'&hopin']

Mostly that he didn't seem to use as many different sounds as other babies and didn't seem to imitate us as much as other babies his age.  Part of what is great, and part of the reason early intervention didn't catch it (he was screened at 2 and passed the screening) is that he's really smart and has no receptive or cognitive difficulties.  It's really a muscle/brain communication thing apparently--so he's going to have to be trained to use those muscles that his brain is having a hard time coordinating.  

[seraf]

Wishin, wow. I'm glad you got it figured out when you did.

Not to make light of the situation, but have you read Gerald McBoingBoing?

How is everyone else? Does anyone have great Thanksgiving plans?

Kate and Nos, you're next! How are you feeling?

[Mizyellow]

Wishin: Is it apraxia? Several of the kids that I work with have apraxia and I might be able to send you some great resources. 

[KnittingTigers]

I just want to send out some special thoughts/prayers/light for NZmomof2. As many of you have read in the other post, she and her family lost their beautiful son Theo, who was born still at 18 weeks. Anna, if you're reading this, you are in our thoughts, and we are sending you our love.

For now, I have moved you to "recovering from a loss." Let me know if you would like to be placed elsewhere, or if there is some way that you would like us to honor Theo on the front post.

 

[cordelia15]

Hi all! Just popping on to say hi. I will come back and answer questions later but just got back home after leaving for several days bc of lack of heat, water, power from effected of hurricane sandy. Glad to be home but exhausted. Thankful though that that is all we lost, so many folks around here have it so much worse. Love reading about everyone's stories though and will share mine soon!

[easttowest]

Glad to hear you and your family are ok, Cordelia. We are traveling to NJ this week and are thankful the in-laws are fine, too, and finally have power back.

Best wishes to everyone else affected by Sandy.
Edited by easttowest - 11/4/12 at 10:19am

[wishin'&hopin']

Mizyellow--he's a bit young for diagnosis but at the moment we are all kind of assuming apraxia.  If it is apraxia it is fairly mild...

NZmom--lots of thoughts for all of you as you grieve.

Cordelia--glad to hear you are all okay.

[KnittingTigers]

Originally Posted by seraf 

How is everyone else? Does anyone have great Thanksgiving plans?

YES! We are going to a conference in Puerto Rico the week before Thanksgiving, and then staying til the Friday after T-day. My mom and sis are coming, and for the second week we'll all be renting an apartment by the beach together. I cannot fricken wait.

[prettyisa]

Wishin--I'm sorry your boy is going to need the therapy--but I'm glad you've got a plan in place to help him get through it! That's got to be frustrating for all of you.

Cordelia--Glad you are safe! I can't believe everything I've been seeing about the aftermath of the storm. It makes me want to cry pretty much every time it comes on the news. I hope you have been able to get some rest and that things will be more or less back to normal soon!

AFM--We're trying to come to terms with the fact that Edie isn't that into food. She'll occasionally put something in her mouth if we hand it to her, but if I try to put anything in there she pukes. Instantly. Before I'm even sure it's touched her lips. So baby led weaning it is, for sure, since that's no fun for anyone! But even when she's got her hands in the food she doesn't seem too excited about trying it. And, adding to the reticence all around, her diapers instantly changed on us, too. Poor little thing gets all miserable when she has to poo, and ended up with her first diaper rash in months, to boot! That's pretty much cleared up, but we're having a hard time getting excited about food since no part of it seems to be enjoyable for her. Any suggestions for making it a better transition? She's seemed ok with banana, acorn squash, and sweet potato, wouldn't touch applesauce or carrots, and apparently they're managing to feed her oatmeal at daycare, but she's not happy about it there, either.

We'll be in south florida for thanksgiving, meeting my mother in law's new mini horse pony, Cooper. I am very excited to see how big a mini horse pony is, and to possibly take some ridiculous pictures....

[CascadiaMama]

Isa - have you tried firmer foods? Like a lightly steamed stalk of broccoli, or wedges of roasted sweet potato? I think some little ones don't appreciate the texture of banana, avocado, applesauuce, and other 'mushy' foods. Alex's first foods were steak and broccoli, no joke. He just recently (at 15 months) started to appreciate banana and applesauce.

[seraf]

Isa, Soren is pretty solidly not eating yet, too. We have toys tied to his highchair tray. He has the puking reaction, too. He will take a tiny bit of purée on his lips but he doesn't eat more than a teaspoon total and the tip of the spoon is basically just dipped in the food, so there's hardly any on there. Honestly, milk is more nutritionally dense than anything he could be eating at this stage, so I'm not worried about it. My older kids didn't eat much for nourishment until around a year ("Under one, just for fun" is something I've heard plenty). Shay, gigantor, is the only one who really ate meals before a year.

Besides all that, apple slices make him pretty happy. He doesn't swallow much, but he loves the flavor and the hand/mouth coordination. He has no teeth yet, and can't sit independently, so he's pretty obviously not ready for solids but he likes the social aspect of sitting at the table and we like to eat with two hands. Shay does feed him all the time, but he just gums the offerings (apple, potato chip, roasted sweet potato).

[onemommyonemama]

dd1 didn't get into food for a long while either. she never got into purees. she never ate very much when we fed her with a spoon. she very much was about feeding herself when the time came. we did stress a lot about it at the time because I didn't know about baby led weaning, first year for fun, etc... (we didn't have this awesome group)

hope you aren't worried. really nothing to worry about at all. just keep offering and doing what you are doing.

we did find some success ploping mounds of oatmeal or other cereals, etc in front of z on her tray. z ate pretty well this way using her whole hand and smearing it on her face.  i think from 6-8 months though we mainly kept offering different things, and she wasn't interested beyond a couple spoonfuls. she really got into food around 1 year, but was still picky until 2 years.

we also like puffed rice. it is a challenge to pick up with pincer, and z loved playing with them while we tried to feed her something else.