September 2004 Mamas February Thread - Page 13

[MamaAcorn]

Savannah, you're doing a great job sewing! I'm so impressed.

Jen, I can so relate to having a spouse that doesn't get up with the baby! I was thinking about the last time that dh got up with the boys to let me sleep in and realized that it was long before Jackson was born!

I like my Bummis SWW too. I haven't had any problems with them, except that the smalls no longer fit, so I finally had to break down and buy a medium. I love my one lonely wool cover too! I want/need more. I'm trying to wait for natural babies to restock the sugarpeas med wool since I have a gc there from Christmas, but I don't know how much longer I can wait with the way Jackson is growing.

I had fun at the diapering party over the weekend. I saw lots of beautiful diapers! All the wool was amazing! And it was so cool to meet Chrissy, Lilah, and Noah.

Dh is doing well. He wrote me an e-mail to me on Friday that addressed all of my concerns about things around here lately and his depression and literally brought tears (of happiness) to my eyes. It was soo reassurring! It gives me so much hope.

Well, gotta get in the shower now. Happy Valentine's Day!!!!

[msrog]

Pam, I'm so glad to hear your dh is tackling his depression. Good for him!

Thanks for your compliments on my sewing babysteps.

Almamiel, I know what you mean about life taking a turn, seeming to make you stick your foot in your mouth! I did the very same thing. Now I've done it all -- stay home, work from home, work part time away from home, work full time away from home -- and I can't judge anyone for how they must live.

[sistermama]

Happy V-Day! We had muffins with candles this morning and sang Happy Valentines to Us - Jack LOVES blowing out candles, as I'm sure most kids do! I made him a really cute heart pattern sock doll that I'll post pics of later and I got him a little heart of candy. He and I are making a heart cake this afternoon for dh and then I'm making a "fancy" dinner for all of us. I will celebrate just about anything - makes childhood so fun!

Here's a link to all the announcements I've done so far, with several new ones. The last one in the slide show I just did for a baby blessing / dedication so I'm going to do one for Lucy's baby blessing as well. I wouldn't have thought of it, but let me know if anyone wants one for a christening, etc. I also thought they would be cute for a first birthday - or actually any birthday. I'll always design them free for September mamas!

[wardermom]

This isn't one of our better Valentine's days. We have to bury one of our hamster friends today. He got a big tumor in his cheek pouch quite quickly. He was 2yo Mika's hamster, Teddy Bear.
Dh is very depressed these days. Big financial problems. He won't get help though, and it's so hard. I've gotten to the point where I just want to shout "Get over it and deal with things.", not very sensitive I know. I'm usually understanding about it, but it's just too much when I'm feeling overwhelmed myself right now. I don't know.

[Mama Bear]

Those announcements are beautiful!!! You are SO talented. My SIL designed our birth annoucement (she's a graphic artist/Art Director). We actually only just sent them out with our Christmas cards in December!!! : Oh well...better late than never...:LOL

Savannah - love the sewing pics! They look pretty good to me - I could never do that. I am going to try to learn to knit and make my own soakers. Maybe if I get good, i'll sell them. I might need some 'testers' - but I don't think it'll be anytime soon....

s - to all you mamas dealing with difficult situations! You are in my thoughts and prayers!

Happy Valentine's Day

[veganbaby]

Very nice birth annoucements! Very beautiful

This whole breastfeeding is quite frustrating. I had a breakdown yeserrday and started crying. Desi is such a slow gainer. I need to stop weighing her so often and stop worrying. I don't think she is going to double her birthweight by 6 months. It seems like she is getting enough milk with her wet diapers and BMs. She is growing in lenght and in head. She just isn't gaining in weight much. She is gaining like an ounce a week. This started after her 4 month appointment. I don't know if I should get a SNS or not. Any suggestions?

[Mama Bear]

Don't know if this helps or not, but if Desi's very active she might just be burning off calories. If she's growing and having enough wet/solied diapers I don't know if I would worry too much. Plus, the charts here in the US are mainly based on ff white babies. Your baby is bf and asian. IMO - She is going to have a different growth pattern. Hang in there. If she's not losing weight and gaining, even if its slow, I think that's great and don't be so hard on yourself!

[bendmom]

Veganbaby- was she born early? Every time we bring Bryn in they always point out that he is in a lower percentile for weight. At the school fundraiser the other night there was a couple from Shri Lanka and they had a five month old son too. He was maybe half the size of Bryn, but healthy and bf, and Bryn is small.

Anyone else frustrated w/ V.day?

[JenInMpls]

Originally Posted by bendmom

Anyone else frustrated w/ V.day?

If Jo asks me one more time what i want for valentine's day, I'm going to

We went to the chiropractor this am and Tristan did *not* like her using the activator (clicky thing they use to adjust vertebrae in kids and fragile folks instead of torsion) on his back, he cried like crazy. I'm thinking we may not do that again.

Cynthia, I personally think you should scrap that scale. My friend's son was always off the charts on the low end and he's just a lean, lanky guy. Never was pudgy. And I agree that the Asian ancestry must influence her size. If it really gets to be a concern for you, find a lactation consultant *who is really truly pro-breastfeeding* (many seem to be really anxious to jump to formula), perhaps through your local LLL.

OK, time to myself, ought to do something with it.

xo, j.

[leomom]

Hi everyone!

Savannah, I think your dipes look sooo cool! You are so talented.

Sarah, I would for you to design a birthday invitation for Kate! Also, dh's 30th birthday is in July and I'm thinking of throwing him a surprise party. If you want to branch out, I'd love you to design something for that, also. Maybe using a childhood picture of his or something?

Cynthia, I agree that you should get rid of that scale. As long as her diapers are fine, I wouldn't worry at all! I have to constantly remind myself to not compare Kate with other babies. It can drive you crazy.

Wardermom, sorry about your hamster and your husband. We are feeling the strains of money as dh just changed jobs. This too will pass, right?

Speaking of things passing, Kate is now waking up every hour or two to nurse at night...has been for 3 weeks and I am exhausted. I'm really starting to resent the whole thing. And that makes me feel awful.

[TudoBem]

Sarah, your announcements are so beautiful! We have such talented September moms!

[msrog]

Hugs, Melanie! We are here for you.

Mama Bear, my birth announcements went out with the Christmas cards, too.

Leomom, William has been nursing every 1-2 hours at night for a couple of weeks now, too. I HATE IT! Just wanted to let you know that I feel your pain.

Cynthia, I've not heard you mention Desi being extra crabby or "colicky". If she's not crying, IMO, she's not starving. I hope you will stop worrying, and just enjoy your sweet petite little girl.

We don't really make a lot of fuss about holidays. In fact, the sewing machine repair cost about $15 more than expected, so I told dh not to buy me anything. But he still brought home a chocolate rose, big stinker. Nicolas and I made him a quick card. No big deal. In fact, he's asleep in bed now, after pulling an all-nighter yesterday.

Sistermama, your announcements are great. Could you send me the file of mine so I can make prints of it? Thanks.

[veganbaby]

Thanks mamas. I'll try not to worry. I need to put the scale away so I don't get tempted to weigh her. She gets grumpy sometimes, but she doesn't act like she is straving or anything.

Stacey~ I hope that Kate will give you some sleep soon. There was a few nights a few weeks ago where Desi wanted to wake up every half hour! I was so tired that week.

[hjohnson]

Cynthia, I don't think David will have doubled his birth weight by 6 months either. He is 13lbs 11 oz right now and he is 5 months old. He was 8lbs 4oz at birth. He is a slow gainer as well. He has another 2 pounds and 5 ounces to go and I don't see that happening in a month. He is a happy baby though.

[Cuddlemama]

It's good to be back!

Our vacation was fun, but home is so much more convenient and comfortable when you have three little ones to take care of every day.

It was quite a shock to the system to leave the Florida sunshine and return to our freezing Upstate NY winter.

Anna is doing so well, and growing up so fast. Once I finally recovered (well, mostly, I still have bad days) from my formula-supplimenting guilt and realized that I should do whatever is best for her growth, things got alot easier at feeding times around here. Anna nurses 4 times daily now and takes 3 bottles of formula (6 ounces each). So, basically she gets a little more than half of her nutrition from formula.

Our ped asked us nicely to start her on soilds because of her FTT (failure to thrive) back at 4 months, and she's doing wonderfully with table foods. We're not big jarred food people. She eats variations of whatever we're eating.

I was in major doubt about the solids issue, but it has definately helped her to get back into the growth curve. She's at 13 pounds now, which is more than double her birth weight. She's just over 5 and a half months now, so that's still very small for her age, but not for her own PERSONAL curve.

Anna is a perpetual motion machine. I had hoped that her small size would mean she would be a BIT slower to start being mobile than her older sibs were (both were walkers by 8-9 months and running by 10-11 months). Right now, Annie can do a mean backwards crawl across an entire room and, if given the time and space, will army crawl forward for 15-20 feet as well. She loves to roll, too.

We're enjoying this phase of her babyhood. She's happy, bright, engaging and loves to laugh with us and talk to anyone who will listen.

I've missed all of you. Can't wait to catch up on everything I've missed, but I know it will take forever since I also have 6 suitcases full of "stuff" to unpack, sort, wash, fold and put away.

~L

[msrog]

Originally Posted by Cuddlemama

I also have 6 suitcases full of "stuff" to unpack, sort, wash, fold and put away.

~L

:

[veganbaby]

WB Cuddlemama! Glad to hear that Anna is doing well. Desi isn't even 13 lbs yet. She is still under 11 lbs. But she is also following her own growth curve as well. Good luck with unpacking.

[Cuddlemama]

Yeah, I know!

That's what you get when you take a 16 day vacation with a very pack-ratty husband and three children under 5, one of whom is still in cloth diapers full time and another who is not night-trained.

We went down with 3 suitcases full of clothing and one of diapers plus one of food. (Dave's parents can't do that many days of American food without freaking out, so we had to pack the stuff to make a few Chinese meals). We cleared out most of the food suitcase, but filled it back up with stuff we bought on the trip, plus an additional suitcase full of souvenirs as well. We're not typically big vacation-gift buyers but this trip had a celebration of Emily and Nate's birthdays, the Chinese New Year, and Mardi Gras all rolled up into one time period so we ended up with a large accumulation of gifts from other people as well as our own purchases.

~L

[Cuddlemama]

Originally Posted by veganbaby

WB Cuddlemama! Glad to hear that Anna is doing well. Desi isn't even 13 lbs yet. She is still under 11 lbs. But she is also following her own growth curve as well. Good luck with unpacking.

Anna gained 3 pounds in a little over a month. She was barely 10 pounds at 4 months. In the past 6 weeks, she shot up about 2 inches in length and gained that 3 pounds that will, HOPEFULLY, convince the peds to take the FTT diagnosis off her charts.

~L

[leomom]

Kate is just now 13 pounds, too. She's in the 25%, whatever that's worth, but her pedi. says she's gaining fine.

BUT WHEN WILL SHE SLEEP???????????????????????????? :