November Chat Thread! - Page 2 « Back to Group Discussions

[Tizzy]

I have to say, this age is pretty cool.

Gilbert only has eyes for me and just chatters and coos away with huge smiles whenever he catches my eye.

^^ obviously his name is Gilbert and we've gotten some mixed reactions.  My family has been quite positive, considering that it's my deceased grandfather's name. He was called Bert, but we've been calling Gilbert "Gil".  Or Gillyweed. Or Gilby. Or Gilburp

There has been equal reference to Gil from Anne of Green Gables, as well as Gilbert Grape. But most of our generation doesn't know about Gilbert Grape so it's okay.

He's really turning a corner with independence, like right now he's currently sleeping in my bed and I'm not laying beside him! 

He is definitely NOT a fan of the Bumbo, anyone else?

[CCoello]

I agree that this is an awesome age. Armie is laughing and smiling all the time, will amuse himself for 10-20 minutes at a time with hanging toys, is always glad to see Mommy...

He actually likes the Bumbo, for a few minutes at a time. I think balancing is still exhausting, so we do it in short bursts.

[mtngirl81]

Ahhh how do you mommies have time to type on here, hah. The beast, as we affectionally call her, is currently napping so i'm stealing a few mins to update... As you guys were talking about tummy time.. Miss Kenzie loves it until she wants to move forward then the ultimate 'Hulk Smash' comes out and she freaks the eff out. One of thse days she'll realize she CAN move forward :-) Usually lasts about 15-20 mins on tummy if she has stuff to look at or if i'm down at her level and chatting away with her.  She's a fan of telling us stories about her day ;-)  so cute.. 

As for the name reactions, a lot of people seem to like it (Kenzie)  and say it's adorable.  Some have thought her name really is "Mackenzie" but alas, it is not.

Lilytiger - Piper was our 2nd choice for a name! :-)

Anyone out there have a hardcore thumbsucker?  Miss K is totally in love with her thumb and it is so red and bumpy from being damp all the time and her knawing.  I'm constantly trying to get her to use the soother (never thought i'd be one of those.... i was so dead against using one) instead of her thumb to prevent the redness..   No such luck yet. 

[Sol_y_Paz]

Love the nickname Gillyweed due to the HP reference.  Love HP!

Not a huge fan of the bumbo yet, is OK for a couple minutes in it.  Like CCoello said.  

DS found his thumb and likes it.  I started handing him toys instead and it seems to be working most of the time.  He is a fan of these types in particular

http://www.douglascuddletoy.com/products/category/563.1.1.1.26181.23927.0.0.0

[monkeyscience]

Trying the new mobile posting for the first time...and none of my words are showing up in the box. Hmm...hit reply and now they are.

As far as names, we picked a very traditional Biblical name. I've gotten a couple of compliments and no negative reactions I can think of.

Baby Bird has just this week gotten very in to batting at a toy I dangled from the ceiling fan chain. (we don't have one of the fancy play mats) Just tonight, he grabbed and held the toy a couple of times.

He still LOVES his hands, and has gotten pretty good at getting his hands/wrists in his mouth to chew and suck on. Pacifier is still not an option due to his sucking issues, but we had his tongue and lip ties clipped Friday, so we will see!

[mtngirl81]

Monkeyscience - how was the tongue tie clippig procedure? did it take a while to heal? was your babe super fussy for the following couple days?  The reason I'm asking is my daughter might need this done (getting a second opinion first)... 

[monkeyscience]

The procedure was over so fast it was a blur. But yes, he was fussier for the rest of that day and the next. Not constantly fussing, but fussier than normal. I probably should have given him more Tylenol than the one dose he got a few hours after the procedure. The doc claims it doesn't bother them and they don't need it, but I call crap in that.

[sallyrae17]

I had my son's frenulum clipped about 2 days after he was born and I didn't notice anything at all. He cried for a second and then I breastfed him and that was that. He was definitely younger than 3 months, though. The "surgery" honestly takes two minutes and I don't think it hurts very much. Mtngirl - I would go for it if I were you. It makes such a difference in breastfeeding!

[monkeyscience]

sally - Yeah, I'm guessing the age thing makes a big difference. And he did calm down once he breastfed for a minute, but getting him on the breast was not easy!

I haven't really noticed a difference in his nursing, but we weren't having issues with that. Haven't tried a bottle again except very briefly the day of the procedure. Pacifier has gone marginally better since. He does have 3 months of improper sucking to overcome, though.

[Veritas Vitae]

Oh, Monkey, I meant to follow up about the Q/Baby Bird resemblance, I'm so curious now to see what Baby Bird looks like.  I knew B had maternal family in Texas, and he and Q both look like his mom, but it wasn't in Houston.  For a second I wondered if they might be cousins.

Boots, I'm laughing about "little Miss. Serious Pants Quinn." When we had to come up with a name we picked Quinn right after the gender reveal u/s, we just felt like she was a Quinn.

[monkeyscience]

Recent pic of Baby Bird:

Though he looks weird to me in this pic - I guess it's the camera angle, or maybe the hat. I'm not really "from" Texas, so probably we aren't related. Though my husband has far-flung cousins I know nothing about, so I guess it's always possible...

[mtngirl81]

Sally-rae -  I'm really wondering if this is why i was having such a hell time with breastfeeding.  No one checked her tongue tie at the hospital at all, even when I complained about it hurting.  Nurses just shrugged it off as a new mom pain and that I'd have to suck it up. Had her 2 week appointment iwth the doctor. The doc didn't say anything or check for it.  Fast forward to her 8 week appointment (she was 10 weeks at the time as the doctor cancelled due to a delivery) and Doctor's like 'oh, she has a tongue tie. she needs that clipped'   Just makes me wonder WHY NOW?  I already ended up pumping after 2.5 weeks of extreme pain and meltdowns and constant nursing. I was seriously losing my sanity and the only thing that helped was to STOP breastfeeding and pump/bottle feed her.  I think I'm just one of those people that really don't like being touched all-the-time, though.  We're waiting for the surgeon who does these procedures to call and get Miss K in for a 2nd opinion... Just annoyed that it's after all this time and she could have had it done a couple days after birth. 

*shakes fist at the backwards town i live in*

[iixivboots]

Lyle is kind of an upper-lip tucker and sometimes i wonder if he has an upper lip tie. I am going to go see this pediatrician who is also a LC if I can get an appointment with her soon. It's kind of weird because I'm looking at switching right at his well baby 4 month, but I want to see if I like her before I get all the records transferred and we're vaxing so that, too. hm. But hopefully she'll check for lip/tongue ties. Nursing hasn't been too painful but sometimes I am more sore than others.

I also love Gillyweed because of HP, we are huge HP fans!

You guys, today was amazing. I slept until noon (with nursing/napping involved) , got up and went to the park with my mom's group, it was sunny and 72. I just feel so lucky to have this time with my baby and am moving past the anxiety and fear of leaving my teaching job. He was relatively well behaved the whole time :) Except we still haven't been able to nurse in public with me just sitting on the ground like we often are at the parks, etc. Sigh. It will come in time. I also have a great mom's group which makes sure I get out of the house.

Huz, Lyle and I are trying to walk 30 miles this month. So far we're at 10.3.

I have an interview tomorrow for a position reviewing teaching candidates. It's a weekend job, which is pretty sweet! And it's just one day each weekend, so not sacrificing all the time with DH.

Monkey, Baby Bird is a cutie!

Hope everyone is well!

[monkeyscience]

boots - Thanks. :) And in Baby Bird's case, at least, his lip tie was SUPER obvious, once the speech pathologist pulled his upper lip up. So you might be able to look at Lyle and check. Glad you're feeling good about your time with your baby!

Oh, about tummy time - we've been setting him with his chest on a rice sock (one we used for heat while I was in labor - a tube sock full of rice), and it has made a HUGE difference. We can now do 3.5 minutes at a time with minimal fussing. It's more supportive than a rolled blanket, but not as massive as the Boppy. Maybe I'll try to get a picture next time.

[LilyTiger]

I found an awesome playmat my SIL gave me (I had conveniently put it away while nesting and forgot about it) that has a little mini boppy attachment thing that supports her and then a little mirror she can look at while she's in that position and fun stuff to play with.  It's helping a lot.  The rice sock would work just as well though.  Great idea!!!

[Veritas Vitae]

Monkey, baby bird is so cute and sooo long!  He does look similar to Q as well.

On another note, how long is everyone's baby sleeping?  It seems to me like Quinn is sleeping most of the day.

[andaluza]

I haven't had a chance to post lately, but I am loving reading along with everyone's progress and milestones. Things are going pretty well here, I am maintaining a good balance and finally getting dh to take some initiative on his own. He loves spending time with M and they get along great, don't get me wrong, but he just always seems to be a little clueless about what to do and when. 

I am getting a little anxious about our trip to Spain for the holidays. We have one layover in Madrid that was supposed to be less than 2 hours but is now closer to 6 because of changed flights (airline cancelled our initial flight so we are on the next one) and I keep thinking that it is going to be absolutely dreadful. M is great traveling in the car, and has never been inconsolable in public (just hungry crying once in a while) but we have not done any trips longer than an hour. Anyone with international traveling experience at about 4 months?

Originally Posted by Veritas Vitae 

On another note, how long is everyone's baby sleeping?  It seems to me like Quinn is sleeping most of the day.

Wow, you are so lucky with a baby that sleeps during the day! M will fall asleep briefly after nursing during the day, but wakes up as soon as I try to put him anywhere to sleep. He sleeps willingly in the co-sleeper at night, though. Sometimes he will fall asleep in his bouncy chair while I am doing stuff around the house during the day, but always manages to wake up right when I try to settle in to do work on the computer. He sleeps gloriously when we leave the house, though!? I can get some hours of work done at the mall (so funny that I have to go to the mall cafes to work, but at least they have dedicated nursing rooms) or a local book warehouse cafe. It needs to be a place where I can stroll around a bit first if he doesn't conk out in the car. Most of my time at home is spent taking him on trips from room to room with running commentary lately when I don't go out, since he requests a lot of stimulation.  I wish I didn't have to leave the house with all that it involves in order to get work done, though.

Oh. and another question...M goes to sleep fine swaddled in a woombie at night, but wakes himself up by lifting and slamming his legs and also moving his arms frenetically about 3 hours or so after initially falling asleep. I feed/change diaper, but from then on I have to manually settle him with soothing stroking his arms or legs and if that doesn't work, bring him into the bed. He didn't do this before (he'd wake up, feed, go back down easy) but this has been going on for the past few weeks (still only waking 2-3x/night). Is this early onset of the 4 month sleep disruption or were we just really lucky before?

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving planned!

[CCoello]

Armie sleeps most of the morning in his swing if we let him. If we have an activity like a walk or library time he will be awake for the activity and then take a nap. If we don't have a morning activity, he will sleep through the morning then be awake all afternoon. He often, but not always, has a nap in late afternoon - which I use to cook dinner or prep for easy cooking later. Around 8pm he gets tired for the night, and sleeps in his swing. When we go to bed (10-11pm) we take him with us and he sleeps in bed with us, waking 3-8 times in the night to feed and 1-3 diaper changes. DH wakes up around 7am, and plays with him or transfers him to the swing, and I get my best sleep of the night alone in the bed (with the cuddly dog) between 7-9am.

How about everyone else?

[iixivboots]

His sleep pattern is pretty reliable, but we do have off days where he won't go back to sleep after waking up for his morning feeding, or where he wakes up in the middle of the night to feed. He sleeps in a pack n play by our bed currently and I think we're going to be moving his crib into our room next weekend.

Between 12 and 2 a.m. -- goes down for the night

Between 5:30-7:30 a.m. -- wakes up for a feed, usually back to sleep right after

Between 10 and 11 a.m. - wakes up for the day

Usually takes 2-3 one or two hours naps during the day/early evening. These naps are either in his podster (baby beanbag type thing) on our bed, or more recently, passed out on my boob and I try to nap with him, or sneak away and let him sleep in the big bed by himself with no pillows, etc.

Now that I write it out it doesn't seem so awful. Ha. His colic is better, but he still goes down late. Sometimes he is fussy before we put him down for the night.

Things I've noticed lately:

Kicking way more and wiggling around in the bassinet.

Having bad dreams that I can usually soothe him out of by shushing him (since I'm right next to him)

His pooping has slowed to once per 36-48 hours.

He tolerates tummy time MUCH better. He's not the world's biggest fan, but will do up to 5 mins; he hated it so much before and would just lay and scream and never try to lift his head or push up. We're a little more hopeful we won't be carrying him around until he's 40 now. ;)

Edited by iixivboots - 11/17/12 at 4:03pm

[LilyTiger]

We just got (politely) reprimanded by a nanny interviewee that Piper doesn't have much of a schedule.  Poo.  She's reasonably consistent though.

Wakes up anywhere from 9:30 to 11

Goes down for morning nap 1 to 1.5 hours after waking

Has an afternoon nap anywhere from 2 to 4

Evening nap (4 or so)

Gets ready for bed at 8, actually goes to sleep between 9 and 11

(She wakes up 1 to 2 times during the night to feed, but it varies between two hours after she goes down and four hours.  Kind of random.)

Our problem is that we don't have schedules.  We have very flexible work schedules and we like to go out to dinner or for drinks, hauling baby along with us.  She's very chill, so it's never been a problem, but maybe we have to start staying in more so she can go down to bed consistently.  I don't know.  We do dinner a lot with my family and DH's family and it seems too bad to not be able to do that stuff because she has to be home and in bed at a specific time.  I guess I was hoping this would be like my dogs, who everyone assured us needed a strict schedule, but instead are completely chill and do whatever whenever because we raised them that way.  In Piper's case though, I think a more consistent schedule would probably help.  She was pretty cranky at dinner the other day.

Boots, Piper's pooping has slowed down too.  Is that a thing?  I didn't know it changed much.  She now goes maybe once a day, sometimes every other day.  She's also definitely more kicky at night, thus my moving her to the bassinet.