November 05 Mamas~ August chit chat - Page 9

[MelW]

Good to hear from you, Helen. Life must be very busy, take care.

We are one week away from moving day, and Neela is also helping as babies of this age do. We are crazily trying to see everyone before we leave the country, which leaves not as much time as we should have to pack and do everything else :

[DreamsInDigital]

Oh Helen
I wish you speedy healing, be gentle with yourself mama.

[Alycia04]

Hey!

I'm kind of a sporadic visitor here, but want more interaction with fellow mama's of the ap nature

Skyla is our babe, she just turned 9 months on the 17th, and like many here, I have no idea where the time went! She's going up and down stairs, walking along everything, standing alone! It seems like she's still supposed to be the tiny, helpless baby I napped and fed with all day...sigh.

I can't remember the mam's name who's babe cut an eye tooth....shoot...but I was wondering if it was a slow process. I've seen all 4 come and disappear several times, for several months now. I was just wondering if this is a similar situation.

Her weight gain is finally slowing down. She was gaining 2+ pounds a month for a while there, but now it's been 4, 5 oz. But at 23lbs. 4 oz, I'm not worried at all And she's 30 inches long...my baby is a solid lil' tree.

How do you guys look at eachother's pictures? Geez, this was waaaay longer than I anticipated!

[MamaFern]

love to you helen.

[spughy]

for you, Helen.

I'm back in Victoria now where it is WARM and lovely and there are no annoying bad dogs. There is only the dulcet tones of... a jackhammer on the road right outside our place at 7:30 AM. You can't have everything, right? The city has thoughtfully made us a charming moat outside our house; all that is missing is a drawbridge. So none of us can get in and out of our driveways, although there is a flimsy plywood gangplank (for lack of a better term) that small children are enjoying jumping on.

I seem to be having some success getting Rowan to sleep earlier. The night we came back we went to bed at 9 and last night she was completely passed out by 8:30 - and she slept until midnight, then until 4. This, I can totally deal with. Once I get her down to 8 I will go to bed with her for a week or so, and if she's still sleeping for 3 or 4 hours after she goes down I will try to get her to bed without me going to bed at the same time. (This is MY version of sleep training. Ezzo can kiss my - well, never mind.)

QofC - thanks for posting those stats. I am eagerly anticipating Rowans WBV next week and it sounds like she is pretty much the same size as Ellie. Last time I measured her she was only 26" but I'm sure she has grown taller since then (because of the way her clothes are (or aren't fitting) and I put her on the scale when we got home she was a bit too wiggly but I think it said 19lbs. If that's the 60th percentile, that's a big jump from her 6 month visit when she was only in the 25th percentile! Greedy little bug

Gotta go get me some fresh veggies now. Later kids!

[MamaFern]

well is official .. im NOT pregnant. yay for me! i mean.. im actually kinda sad but relieved as well.. its just not the right time to have another baby

so our big project this week is to lay laminate flooring. ive never done it but how hard can it be right? i look forward to having ngaio fall on something a little less hard than concrete.

and in other news.. im going to be doing in home daycare for a few other babies.. im hoping it will work out. we will see.. im kinda excited and kinda freaked out.. but oh well i love kids and they love me too.

[jillybeans]

mamafern...glad to hear that things worked out for you. I've considered doing daycare for a few babes too. But I'm scared that dd won't get as much attention....how are you dealing with this?

[Alycia04]

Mama fern,

Laying laminate is really easy. It's like putting together a giant puzzle. Good luck!

[spiritmomma]

Fern: Good luck with the daycare adventure. Let us know how it turns out. I have been thinking of taking on one more child or maybe 2 once Isa is just a little bit older. But I wasn't sure if the $ would be worth the effort or worth the distraction from enjoying my only child. If it works out well, I'd LOVE to hear about it for encouragment!

[mama naturale]

I have heard some ppl mentioning EC.
I only discovered modern cloth now I have read aboout Ec I am intrigued.
Do you think it is too late for my baby - he is 10mths next week.?

[s_kristina]

Originally Posted by Alycia04

I can't remember the mam's name who's babe cut an eye tooth....shoot...but I was wondering if it was a slow process. I've seen all 4 come and disappear several times, for several months now. I was just wondering if this is a similar situation.

That would be my little teething monster LOL He has only had one tooth that has come and gone and it was on the front bottom. The rest have just slowly appeared although not in anything like a "normal" pattern. I was talking with my mom about that and her brother got his teeth in an odd manner too so I guess it runs in the family. Poor little dude certainly has the ears that come from my mom's side of the family so why not get the funny teething habits too. The one eye tooth that is through the gums is just sitting there at the moment with just a small point through. He is obviously still working on plenty of teeth as he likes to pretend to bite to get everyone's attention.

It is looking like Ernesto (currently tropical storm) is going to plow right over top of us so it's a good chance we are going to end up without power at some point tomorrow. We are just going to hope and pray it stays at a tropical storm like they are saying now and doesn't manage to get back up to hurricane status.

[MelW]

I hope you guys are okay, Kristina. Take care and update when you can.

I'm getting close to packed and ready to move on Thursday. Neela has been a super napper this past week, which really helps. I'll probably be offline for a while, but will check in when we arrive in Oregon (and get internet service again )

[Awaken]

See, Mel, my hopes and dreams for Neela to have a good nap week so you could pack and get ready to move worked! LOL

Kristina- I hope you're all ok and the storm does not cause any damage! I'll be thinking of you and watching the news about Ernesto.

[spiritmomma]

Originally Posted by mama naturale

Do you think it is too late for my baby - he is 10mths next week.?

I don't think it's EVER too late, but it is more difficult for older babies. Difficult meaning it may take a little longer for the change to occur, not difficult meaning it won't work or it will be a struggle. The main thing about EC is patience, and listening to your baby. NOT DIAPER FREE in the least amount of time possible... Ykwim?
Check out these resources:

Diapering Forum: Elimination Communication

and www.diaperfree.org

Good Luck!

[flyingspaghettimama]

I agree with Spiritmomma, although it really wasn't the struggle that some lead you to believe. In many cultures (according to that diaper free baby book) they start later than birth or a few months old. We started at 8 months, he's just turned 9 months, and we have fairly dry days and no poop misses. It's been awesome.

In the first month, I would start out with just "catching" right after naps and nighttime. So, FSB is starting to wake up, and then I put him on his baby bjorn little potty, and he goes. And I make the "pss" noise, so he gets used to that. We also look for him pooping (usually he goes off to hide) and put him on the potty right away. We face him away from us so he feels like he has some privacy still.

We use toddler training pants (doubled) and a plastic cover to cover (!) our misses. He hates diapers, so that's what works for us.

I would definitely work up to the peeing outside and peeing in the public restrooms. We've gotten that down only in the past week.

[barcelona]

sending my love to you, helen, also.

and what a busy group of moms we are!

i, too, am interested in starting EC, though i realize i'm very late. i have read the website, and it seems that we could give it a go, though, and that it IS possible.

we live in nyc, and don't have a washer and dryer, so we have opted to use sposies. i am always contemplating changing to cloth, but the logistics are overwhelming (going to laundromat...near impossible!...and the services are SO expensive). but, if we are ECing, it seems very important to use cloth, and perhaps, if we are having success with EC, the amount of diapers would be much less and perhaps somehow feasible. i'm overwhelmed, though, with all the cloth diapers i am finding online and don't know where to start. i'd like to start small, to see if this will work for us. can anyone recommend what to start with, in terms of both dipes and covers??

thanks a million!!!

soon time to start the september thread. hard to believe.

finley took three steps yesterday then fell into his father's lap! but it seems he still has quite a while til he'll be really walking...but he's obviously thinking about it. it is such a joy watching him grow and learn and discover the world.

[jillybeans]

barcelona: start small w/ prefolds. They are cheap! Buy a couple of snappis, make a couple of wool covers out of old sweaters, and you are set to go.

[flyingspaghettimama]

Yeah, but snappis are a total PITA if you want to EC. I think the easiest to use with EC is fuzzibunz-type diapers. You can slip them on and off, but you don't have a cleanup on aisle 7 if you've got a miss.

I don't know how big your boy is, Barcelona, but I love the toddler training underwear (avail. at target, k-mart, etc), covered with a plastic diaper cover. They do have to be about 20 lbs for the underwear to fit. They wouldn't be such a pain to wash at the laundromat either - very packable.

I hear you on using disposables in the city. When we used a laundromat (with our first) we always used disposables. I wonder what NYC women did back in the 50s? Did they do them in the sink? Did they just take loads and loads to the laundromat? I do have friends who do EC and disposables though. It's just harder to tell if you miss something.

[spiritmomma]

Originally Posted by FlyingSpaghettiMama

don't know how big your boy is, Barcelona, but I love the toddler training underwear (avail. at target, k-mart, etc), covered with a plastic diaper cover. They do have to be about 20 lbs for the underwear to fit. They wouldn't be such a pain to wash at the laundromat either - very packable.

I agree. My chunky punky Isa is 20lbs and fits into the Gerber cloth trainers quite easily. We use them alone when at home and with a diaper cover (I prefer wool to plastic, but plastic or polar fleece is much cheaper) when out in the world.

If you are the crafty type, you can make longies from sweater sleeves, scouring thrift stores for 100% wool. They are super cheap, look adorable, and work really, really well. They also breath and are cooler (meaning more breathably temperature cool) than plastic pants or even polar fleece covers.
Check out this forum for some ideas: MDC forum

[mama naturale]

Thanks for that info and the links.
I have been taking it easy so no rush - I realise its not like tt. My boy who is 3 1/2 is just been tt - well he has been unwell since he was a year old. I just took his pull ups away from him and he has been in undies ever since. No accidents today (started 4 days a go) so I am rapt. It made me think what i am doing with my boy I could do with my baby. My baby hates wearing a nappy so i have had him without as much as possible. The weather has been great so we spend time outside and he is free! I try to ''pee the baby', but nada! He jsut thinks its amusing. I just take him outside near a tree. My boy says "He is a baby - he can't go to the toilet - put his nappy on!" But now he is getting used to it and asks me if he can wee near the tree too.
So no success yet but I aint giving up. I think about doing less washing and that helps! I have been washing a lot of clothes because my boy tt. plus cloth nappies. When my baby is inside I just have a prefold and flats handy but nada. its just al;l been when the nappy is on! At least I can see he doesn't wee much!
I like this feeling that I am getting to know my baby through EC. He prefers not to co-sleep (!?) so I like this.
He is sleeping through the night in his portacot - its great. He east more than his big bro and sis. Costing us a fortune. He loves his Dad. Just learnt to say Mama which is nice. So he now says Dada, Lala (sis), Hello (and waves too!) and Mama At long last.