Queer, Pregnant, and Parenting--February and March 2013! - Page 25

[escher]

Oh Seraf, what a hard time. I hope that the big kids feel all better soon, and that you're able to find a way to secure your car. Your examples of yes or no questions with Shay are hilarious. Our little guy loves questions like that too, although like Shay he sometimes says no when he means yes.

Carmen: I'm glad that the US lab is ok with you bringing your DD. I've heard too that doubling times up to 72 hours are ok, but I don't like that the doublings time increased so dramatically. We'll get results from the fourth beta this afternoon. Our first ultrasound isn't until April 2. I hope at some point I can feel more secure about this pregnancy. I think the things that frustrate our son are usually about him lacking control. He hates when we take things from him (i.e. things he is trying to drop in the toilet), or don't let him have things that we have (i.e. sharp knives), or when he can't reach things (i.e. the hot stove). It's good to remember that acknowledging and naming emotions may sometimes be enough.

Granite: I think you're lucky that betas aren't the norm where you are. I'm so glad that telling your boss went well!

Welcome back, Baby.fatty! I remember when you were here a few years ago. Congratulations on your BFP! There are a lot of queer people with babies due in November!

Easttowest: Congratulations on being 2/3 of the way through!

Knitting: I'm glad that everything looked good at your appointment. You're doing a great job baking those babies!

[seraf]

Escher, those are legitimate reasons to be frustrated. We do a lot of trading. "That knife is sharp, I'll use that one and you can use this butter knife." O's first word was knife and he had a little wooden handled pâté spreader that was his knife. Another recent conversation, "Stop! All done! Yuck! Pee-pees go in the toilet, if you need water for painting, I'll give you water in a cup." Ewww.

I forgot to tell y'all the funniest part of being robbed. They only ransacked the front of the house. I'm not sure if they left because they got spooked or because there's a tarantula in the hallway to the back bedrooms. I didn't think of it, but the officer who took the report was afraid to walk by the spider tank. Also, the missing car key has been located! We were installing a kill switch when it turned up. Lol.

[seraf]

S2 has a fun new sound.

A has been working on learning to ride a bike. S is really excited about cycling. He has been saying "Eee" as please for everything so we made up a bicycle sign and this was just after we installed a baby seat on Sara's bike. He's excited to go and use his new sign.

Edited by seraf - 3/22/13 at 1:40pm

[esenbee2]

seraf -being stolen from sucks a lot!  We just discovered a few weeks ago that the ex-girlfriend of our friend who is staying with us wiped us out of ALL of the blurays and dvds.  About $1100 worth.  Homeowners deductible is $1000, so not worth it there.  We called a police over to do a report, but basically just wanted to get out doing one and told us to do a civil claim at the courthouse.  Who has time for that?  It burns me so bad that she pretty much gets to get away with stealing from us...  What upsets me most is all of DD's movies stolen.  And the ones that we never even watched yet.  I think I would feel worse though if there a break-in.  I would be scared to be in my own house.

[mrsandmrs]

oh sera, you are due for some peace and quiet. sorry to hear about barfing on top of burglary. i hope you have a very boring, quiet weekend. 

[bigfoot]

W&H - your DS's accent sounds pretty adorable. And wow, 32 weeks!

Carmen - I hope moving isn't treating you too bad. Mrs. jokes that we're going to be buried in the backyard here. I would love a bigger house someday, but oh man, moving. Hang in there.

Seraf - so sorry about the burglary. I am a dispatcher so I talk to people all the time who go through this and I still can't imagine how violating and terrible it would be to go through.

E2W - how exciting to get started on the nursery! Congrats on 2/3 done!

baby.fatty - Welcome back and hurray for more November babies!

Tigers - 34 weeks! You are so close. I hope they stick in there a few more weeks with minimal discomfort. 

Granite - I'm so glad to hear your work announcement went well. I am interested to see how they do at coming up with a protocol for your work. What an awesome job. 

Escher - I also have read that doubling time is in the normal range and I hope you got some reassurance with your next test.

I can't believe how many babies are getting close to being born, and how many more BFPs are on the way over! I feel like I need to go over and count the roster or something. Hurray!

AFU - we had a pretty boring 16 week appointment. The doc found two heartbeats immediately (they must be getting bigger!) and DW's urine was normal, so they had us in and out of there pretty quickly. We scheduled our big ultrasound for somewhere between 18 + 19 weeks, so that is exciting. We are meeting with doulas and I met with a midwife to help me with lactation induction so I've started the protocol! Now if I can just remember to take pills four times a day. Other than that, I can't believe how fast time is flying by. I have been working a lot and made a big dent in projects around the house like cleaning the garage. Oh, and I felt a baby kick from the outside, which was rather unexpected but thrilling!

[seraf]

S&B, wow. Bad houseguest's ex! Hopefully someone comes to their senses and your movies are recovered.

Bigfoot and Mrs, yay for big kicks and great heartbeats.

Escher, did you get your last beta? And I have to correct myself, when I caught S with a big sharp knife last night I said, "Thank you! You found my knife!" And he smiled and puffed up and handed it over without fuss. Had he not, I would have offered a trade like I mentioned before. Also, when he has something that I need to take to prevent injury and he won't hand it over willingly (glass or the wrong end of a knife back when he would grab the wrong end of a knife), I hold his wrist from behind and put my thumb on the back of his wrist so it puts a little pressure on the tendons that uncurl his fingers.

[escher]

Hi Everyone,

Seraf: You're such a good toddler mom. I wish that you lived closer to me so that I could see you in action. I'm so glad that you found the missing car key! And I love Soren's new sound and Shay's new sign.

Bigfoot: Hooray for a boring 16-week appointment and for baby kicks! Good luck with the lactation induction.

AFM: Last beta looked good (43 hour doubling time), so we're all done with betas now! We'll have an ultrasound on April 2 (6 weeks 3 days), then another one about a week later to hopefully see the heartbeat.

[seraf]

Escher, yay for a good beta! And have I ever told you how delightfully southern you seem from up here? I said I pry knives and glass out of my kids' hands and you still found something nice to say. I'm mostly kidding. It would be great if we lived closer together. I'm sure our boys would have fun when S isn't trying to clobber your little guy. There's always video chat. You could see my crazy boys and lax parenting. Like this.

Standing on the counter, playing with the cool toaster.

[Sphinxy]

Hi Everyone! I'm back from vacation and I've tried to keep up while I was gone, sorry if I miss anyone. 

Seraf, I'm so sorry to hear about the break-in. Sounds like you are handling it really well. Never had that experience myself and can't imagine. 

Sounds like we have lots of good news about pregnancies moving along nicely, congrats escher, granite, mrs&mrs, bigfoot, and east2west!

Well, in many ways my trip was exactly what I needed, lots of fun and relaxation, but today I am paying the price. After a long flight yesterday, more sun and walking than usual over the last week, I was so exhausted I could barely walk last night. Went to sleep with shivers even though I was buried in blankets (no fever), woke up nauseous, and vomited up my yogurt breakfast in the shower.  Today I am 12 weeks according to my LMP, and I have my first puking incident now? I thought things were supposed to be getting better! I have subsisted all day on about a dozen saltine crackers and an english muffin with a little strawberry jam, and I've spent the last 2 hours trying to make it through a cup of chicken noodle soup. Just feeling sorry for myself today I guess Nuchal scan on Monday...

[onemommyonemama]

sphinky - sounds a bit like heat exhaustion. ive had it many times. make sure you keep well hydrated :) sorry you aren't feeling well!!!
 

WOW~! welcome to all the new BFPs! Its so awesome!!!

Escher - so glad the betas are done with and all looks well :) !

afm - Sage turned one this week. It is great but also had moments of 'she's not a baby anymore'. S loves to climb - leave the room for a minute and she is hunched on top of a toy parking garage like a little squirrel. or she's standing on a table. scaling the window. the piano... something in her loves to climb. she doesn't seem to have gravitational fears. I'm bolting everything to the walls :)

my first is a careful perfectionist. leave the room and she would still be sitting there reading or trying to perfect a puzzle... this is new for me. sage is not interested in stillness for the most part.

I'm excited for spring - we still have snow and its cold here. I want to get these little ones out playing - and get sage to the parks where she can get her climbing urges out.

[planet]

Seraf, love the tips on toddler negotiation!  And I'm glad to hear that your house is guarded by tarantulas!  That makes me feel much better.

Congratulations to all of you pregnant folk who are experiencing healthy heartbeats and kicks!  On bagels and cream cheese (a little late in the game, I know): it's pretty much all I ate through the first trimester.  Acupuncturist said that craving carbs meant I was lacking in protein, but all I could handle was more bagels.

Sphinxy, I didn't puke til 14 weeks...but I still enjoyed the 2nd trimester!  I'm so glad you had a good trip, and i'm sorry you're feeling crappy now.  Hope you feel better SOON!

Esenbee, that is really nuts about the DVD stealing.  What?!  Hope you get it all worked out soon.

OneMommy, I can't believe Sage is one already!!!  She sounds so lively and fun.  I hope you have an amazing time celebrating her and reflecting on her first year. :-)

AFU...I mentioned here and on FB that we are hoping to make some transitions with Wylie's sleep situation, but we haven't changed hardly anything yet!  He has become a FIERCE resister of sleep at bedtime.  We start bedtime around 6-7pm usually and it is usually 9ish before he is ACTUALLY asleep (after a bunch of rounds of him sleeping for short periods of time then waking up super upset).  I nurse, papa bounces and rocks him, we take turns, it goes on forever!  We tried to give up on swaddling and we were like, never mind, this guy really needs it still!  We haven't stopped using the Rock n Play, either.  Try to lay him on a bed and he just wakes up immediately, unless I am right there to nurse him.  Since I'm not willing to lay in the dark for hours nursing him so he will nap or go to bed (I tried that for awhile and just got too bored; it wasn't good for me psychologically!), we are somewhat confused about how to move forward, but are talking about it and hope to make baby steps towards a more "normal" sleep situation. ("Normal" in this case would mean putting W to bed in the bedroom so that we could have some quiet evening time to ourselves before we go to bed.  Currently, we are spending our evenings in dim lighting with white noise playing, as we are putting him to bed in the living room with us, and when he is finally asleep we watch a movie with headphones in!) A friend came over at bedtime and commented that we are living like "cave people." :-)

[seraf]

Sphinxy, yuck. Maybe it's just a stomach bug?

OMOM, happy birthday! Ugh on the climbing. Firstborns just seem to be more careful. All subsequent children are nuts by comparison.

Planet, is he just a crank at 7? My babies go to bed at 8 when the kids aren't home and 9:30 when they are. I would rather have sanity than a sleeping baby, Sara prefers the sleeping baby. She lays them down early and often when I'm not home. I just feed them an extra snack and let them play when they party later. They will stay down solidly after 9:30 so we have grown up time then. *coughI'mnotadvocatingthisbutmybabiesnapped betterwithapillowovertheirbelliesandlegs ortuckedundertheirlegscough*

[onemommyonemama]

seraf - Shay looks so big! yeah. sage is a little nuts. but in a fun way. she doesn't get hurt all that often, so that is good (so far).

planet - What does a day of sleep look like for Wylie? wake up, naps, etc... what is his mood usually like throughout the day.

How long is he sleeping between wake ups at the beginning of the night? Sage had a couple annoying wake ups between 8-12pm for a period of time (9-11 months). She was teething and also i think having separaiton anxiety. the nights i was in bed she didn't wake up at all. or settled back easily. anyways - sounds tough :) We spent a night looking back at old video and photos from the year of sage growing on her birthday :) it was nice. though it made me a bit baby sick too...

[Cananny]

Hello

Seaf.. So sorry to hear of the break in .

Onemom..I cant believe S is a year old! 

Esher.. congrats on good Betas!

Knitting.. you are very close!! Cant wait to see your little ones!

Planet.. hope u guys find a good sleeping solution..

Sorry I cant keep up...But Hi to everyone else

AFU..our babies are ONE month old already.. and all are home.. Gage finally joined us on wends.. I am so happy to be not going back and forth to the NICU but it was a little bittersweet to leave all our nurses.. 

I am still working on getting milk.. and I am soo soo lucky to have a few moms ( THANK YOU PLANET for your donation) to pump milk for us.. so the boys are getting some good milk from their milk donor mamas!

[outdoorsy]

So sorry to hear about the break-in, seraf!

Cananny - Yay for all three at home! Cute pic!

[planet]

Cananmy, it is my pleasure! I hope to send some more next time your friend sends a package! Wylie refusing bottles = extra milk! Adorable picture!

Onemommy, Wylie sleeps pretty well at night once he finally settles in! He wakes to nurse and sleep nurses for most of the night. Around 5am ish he starts kicking and thrashing and can't settle even with nursing, so dp takes him, changes his diaper, and soothes him back to sleep. He wakes up anywhere between 6ish and 8 (when we are really lucky!), then throughout the day he can really only handle being awake for 2-3 hrs at a time. it makes it hard to schedule anything, but when I don't help him nap every couple hours it really throws him off. He gets crabby and also doesn't sleep as well at night. So we try to respect his sleep needs and put him down (or go for a walk) every two hrs. Bedtime is generally the only time he resists sleep so urgently. Last night he screamed bloody murder for 20 mins before he finally conked out. Thanks for listening! :-) glad you celebrated so sweetly.

[baby.fatty]

Hey y'all, I'm still trying to get caught up and figure out who's who around here these days.  Thanks for welcoming me back!

Cananmy, that is SO MUCH CUTE FOR ONE PHOTO.  So glad everyone is at home.

Planet, I have a lot of sympathy.  My DS has been a crappy sleeper from day 1, though his particular brand of crappy sleeping is going down easily + plentiful waking + up well before dawn.  My only suggestion is on the sitting-in-a-dark-room problem - do you have a baby bucket type car seat where you can try to bounce him to sleep in the car seat (just set it on the ball), then move the seat+sleeping baby into your other room?

Sphinxy, sorry about your barf... I felt nauseous until 17 weeks and never barfed, but then barfed a bunch in my 3rd trimester (??) when I was preggo with DS1.  

AFM, I made my first set of OB appts.  I delivered with a hospital midwife group with #1, but I ended up with a c-section.  My old midwife group is now defunct, and there are seriously no more midwife groups in my area that take both my insurance and VBAC patients!  So, OB it is -  this doc is supposed to be VBAC friendly but I'm not sure about the OB experience in general.  Also, we have a 1-week vacation planned in 2 weeks, before the doctor wants to see me for my 1st appointment (I leave town at 6.5 weeks).  I'm a little antsy about going on this trip - we are going to be on a cruise for a few days, then in Puerto Rico for a few days - and I'm nervous both about being nauseous and something going wrong while away.  Any thoughts?

[starling&diesel]

Cananny ... You are now in possession of so much cuteness it's unreal!
baby.fatty ... WELCOME BACK, MAMA!!!
Seraf ... That SUCKS about the break-in.
planet: I still lie down with our 4- and 1 yr old. My iPhone is my friend. I have a flashlight app that I can read by. And I get caught up on emails, etc. Or I can listen to podcasts. I don't mind lying down for a while if it's relaxing for me. DP can't put them to bed without falling askeep, so if I'm home I always do bedtimes. I try to remind myself that the early years go fast and soon enough they won't want me in the room at all.

[carmen358]

planet, much like starling, I still lay down with DD every night too. I have always found it much less frustrating to just lay there (reading or online when she was younger) for awhile than getting worked up about her not falling asleep on her own - which I did a whole lot of too. We did eventually get our evenings back but then I got pregnant again and I usually fall asleep before DD does now lol I think my DP secretly like her evenings to herself now 

omom, happy first birthday to Sage!! That went by quickly! I have no advice for you raising a climber...a friend's daughter was similar, turn your back for a minute and she'd be up on a bookshelf or something....crazy! I think your idea to just channel it to safe places is a great idea. Do you have any indoor play gyms to go to before the weather gets better?

sphinxy, how was your NT scan yesterday? Sorry to hear you are getting sick...are you sure it's not a stomach flu??

escher, congrats on the more positive beta 

baby.fatty, sorry I don't have much advice for travelling right now....I would have mixed feelings travelling that early but if something were to happen or if you got really sick I would imagine they have a doctor on the boat? Will you be having an u/s before you go?

cananny, I'm glad you are enjoying your boys! They are adorable!

Afm: I'm off to the midwife this afternoon - DD and DP are coming with me this time. I'm just anxious to hear the heartbeat again. I didn't feel baby much yesterday but she or he is making up for it this morning! DD had her follow up appointment at the hospital yesterday and is in tip top shape and we can ditch the last puffer thing she was still having twice a day - yay! And I'm still feeling good too so nothing exciting to report.