September 04 Mommas -- Gobble Gobble November is here! - Page 6

[jilly]

Yay! Welcome Carl!

meg, for some reason yesterday I was thinking "I'll bet Meg has had her baby now" the other night, so its funny, because you had. I hope Carl gets less grumpy once your milk comes in. Andrew was not happy anywhere but in my or Dave's arms even in the hospital, and when he was about a week and a half and I was having my third visit with the health nurse (usually you get one home visit unless there's problems) she said "You child has a very high sucking need. His latch is find. Give him a soother before you burn out." So I wouldn't feel guilty.

Jen -- no suggestions here. that is the one sleep problem we haven't had.

well, I'm visiting at my friends' house, so I should go. I just wanted to pop in and say hi. Jill

[MommyofPunkiePie]

Happy Turkey Day to all!!!

[JenInMpls]

Originally Posted by StacyL

Jen - my recommendation: a toddler bed. In his own room.

Um... easier said than done. We only have a 2 br house and the room that is to become our bedroom is nowhere near ready for the shift.

We figured out what it was, though - after a good night's sleep last night (10.5 hours pretty straight through) I noticed a little bit of new whiteness behind his first molars. Both of his bottom 2nd molars are poking through halfway now. I had been keeping tabs on them, but I swear, 2 days ago there was nothing.

We had such a lovely thanksgiving with both of our moms and two friends; I have never had such good conversation on a thanksgiving before. We didn't have food overkill, we didn't stuff ourselves eating, and most of the dishes are actually done. Only bummer thing about the day is that T didn't get outside at all. Hope we can make up for it tomorrow. We are doing our traditional tree-getting and tree-trimming tomorrow and I am hoping to start our Christmas season with a little less franticness than our world seems to have at this time. My cousin, for instance, went to bed early tonight in order to get up at 4:30 to go shopping when the stores open at 5. Why?!! :

Hope you all had great days with friends and families.

[Yo Becca]

We had a lovely Thanksgiving too. I did lots of prep work the 2 days before, and picked the Turkey up (if you read about my oven on my blog, you know why I didn't bake my own) from the restaurant the morning of thanksgiving. I leisurely assembled and baked dishes while Robin napped. Then 2 of my new mom friends came over in the afternoon with Robin's little friends, and they played, we talked, a little more cooking was done. Of course, no one in China has the day off, so when Clint and our neighbors came home from work, we had a really nice dinner. a total of 11 adults, 5 children, and 3 tables! It was my first time hosting it, and it was lots of fun. And it was at least one person's very FIRST Thanksgiving. I was so glad I planned well enough to not be stressing over cooking all afternoon. TOnight all the neighbors cam over and we did it all again - and now the turkey carcass is on the oven for soup!

Jen - ah, teething. That explains a lot, huh. I'm jealous of your tree trimming! I think we're getting a pine bonzai tree, and I've already gotten 2 poinsettas. I think that's all the decorating that will be happening here.

Meg, Kristen, Anna, Stacy and Liz - hope you had lovely holidays with your new family members (anybody I left out?)

So...I guess we're coming back to the US now to have the baby. Not sure when we're coming or how long we're staying or what to do about school for Robin here in Shanghai or whether the hospital here will refund us the 30,000rmb ($3,500, clint's work's cash) we've already paid for my delivery here or what this will mean for my plans to come back to the US over the summer or whether my mom will be compensated for having to cancel the plane ticket she already bought to come help when the baby comes... But I do know that Clint has totally agreed to a homebirth and a midwife has agreed to take us on so late and with so many travel uncertainties, so I am focussing on how excited I am about that. Now I have to convince him that birthing in a fishy pool won't mean we have to re-floor the kitchen. His biggest homebirth fear: leaky kiddie pool.

[jilly]

Oh yeah. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Hope you guys have a great holiday.

I've just started thinking about Christmas here, but apparently dh just got my gift yesterday (I'm visiting my friends in Nipawin), and I can have it when I get home. Or not.

[Yo Becca]

NOT!! What fun is getting your Christmas present on some random Monday (or whenever you get back)?

[midwestmeg]

His biggest homebirth fear: leaky kiddie pool.

Becca; what a roller coster with your birth plans.... to you. That would be such a drag; I'm so glad you've got it figured out. You'll love home birthing in the water. I am committed to our birth situation (b/c Greg LOVES it), but I do find it a super drag to have to travel somewhere while I'm in labor. I think that water birthing at home with a mw would be perfect.

Jen; those blasted molars!: I hope T keeps sleeping well now for you. Where to put people in a small house is always interesting.

Molars: Celia's been snotting for about a month now while she gets hers in. She has also become a sleep-freak; but I think her issues are related to Greg and I being away and all of the change over the last two months. She and Greg are sleeping in our room, Carl and I are in the guest room. I'll move back when Carl has some sleep patterns and she has gotten used to the noise of him- AND when I'm ready to deal with parenting her at night also. Right now I'm just not up for it!

Thanks for all the congrats! Carl has evened out but he does love being in arms during the day. Thats okay because I know how to sling and I have my mom to help me.

The only thing with Carl that's got me a liiittle concerned is the fact he kept failng his newborn hearing test at the clinic. I watched them do it and I think it's just because the little hearing sensor doesn't really fit in his ears well enough, but then I had the mw look into his ear canals and she said 'hmmm, red and swollen, can't really see in them; I've never seen that before!' Great. So we'll see how they look at his two week check. I am thinking it's just from the way he birthed or lived in the womb for the last nine months.... but if they are swollen that might be part of why he really rests better sitting up. I broke down yesterday and napped him in his carseat... : I've always been so against using the car seat anywhere but the car.

Becca; thanksgiving at your place sounds fun!! What a good time. And Jen; why do people shop at 4 AM?!! Crazy. My mom thought I was kidding when I told her what people here do the day after thanksgiving.

Jilly; Thanks for the reassurance on the nuk. Carl now has a few small pacifiers of his own waiting for me if I need them... but he seems to be doing okay now. Really, the issue is that Greg and I are very good pacifier parents. We love them!

Kristen; for thrush (which I can already feel us growing....) I use clotrimazole cream for my nipples; putting it on every time after I nurse. I also used nystatin for Cecilia; but it was hard to really 'cure' the thrush b/c she used a nuk. So mostly I settled for keeping myself comfortable and Cecilia's mouth looking okay. Boiling nuks (or replacing them) plus the cream seemed to keep it at bay. Thrush stinks, sorry you have it!

BUT sounds like your new one is doing well with the family. I must say I thought of you when I pushed Carl out and muttered "I'm adopting the next two..." I promised myself I wouldn't forget that feeling, but you know, I'm already thinking how great our third baby will be. Gotta love those great nursing hormones!!

[AugustineM]

Happy Late Thanksgiving, all! We had fun here with family and a couple that just moved here from Kentucky and their son who is Thor's age. It was a nice day with naps and lots of good food and games. Then this morning we went to the holiday parade. We rushed out of here at 8am and rode a bus downtown and watched for over an hour. Thor loved the bus ride and the parade, of course. Then we got lost trying to find our bus back and ended up running around the windy streets for 45 minutes. We were funny -- Anna on my front, Thor on Tony's back, both of them smiling and red faced. At least everyone was happy!

Megan & Kristin -- The clotrimazole cream has been helping me. It seems like we just have a very mild, stubborn case of thrush. It hasn't gotten bad again... and Anna barely has a patch in her mouth. Every once in a while I just get itchy and notice my nips are a little red. It's not bad enough to do anything drastic, but I've been doing that cream, probiotics for both of us, and olive oil on my nips when they seem dry. I read somewhere that olive oil makes it so yeast can't breath. It feels soothing, too. Of course I haven't been good about staying away from sugar. It's the holidays!

A funny thing -- do your kids cry when you sing sad songs? Thor cries when I sing "You are my sunshine." I mean he bursts into tears with big tears coming down his face. Then yesterday I sang him Frosty the Snowman. Not a sad song, particularly. I sang about two minutes of it and I looked over and his eyes were full of tears and he started sobbing! I felt so bad. Then I just mentioned it to Tony and Thor started crying again! I remember being very sensitive as a child... I wonder if that's just it. Now randomly he will say, "Thor no like Frosty Snowman. No."

Becca -- I guess in some ways it will be nice to be at home to have your baby. I think I'd feel more relaxed and willing.

Meg -- I totally know what you feel about those nursing hormones & feelings of a next baby. I felt that way so strongly (Like, I MUST have another baby!!!) after Anna was born. It was strange and I felt weird about it, like, Am I crazy?? Now I still feel like I want to have a third, but I think about it less and I know it will be a good 2-3 years before we start seriously thinking about it. And it depends on finances, of course...

Happy weekend everyone!

[Mama Bear]

Originally Posted by midwestmeg

The only thing with Carl that's got me a liiittle concerned is the fact he kept failng his newborn hearing test at the clinic. I watched them do it and I think it's just because the little hearing sensor doesn't really fit in his ears well enough, but then I had the mw look into his ear canals and she said 'hmmm, red and swollen, can't really see in them; I've never seen that before!' Great. So we'll see how they look at his two week check. I am thinking it's just from the way he birthed or lived in the womb for the last nine months....

Ds failed his hearing tests several times when he was a newborn. Mostly b/c he was so interested in everything around him - he was very distracted. My dh was with him when it was done and he said all the bright lights had to be turned off and the doors shut and then they finally got a good reading. I wouldn't worry about it too much.

Jen - glad to hear T got some good sleep. Hopefully now that his molars are popping through he'll get back into the groove.

Becca - I am sorry for all the cr@p you are going through with the birthing plans and all. I am glad that you have found a mw - that is awesome!!!

Singing - can't say that ds cries, but sometimes he does yell "all done mama" : I don't think my singing is *that* bad...

I am off to enjoy the last of my apple tart before my dh or FIL gets it....:

[Yo Becca]

Meg: RE - carseat napping/sleeping - Studies show it's not harmful to babies' growth or hips or anything. I considered it when Robin was having such awful reflux. B/c it allows them to sleep safely in a semi-upright position, lots of GERD moms sleep their kids in carseat. Don't feel bad if it helps him rest - it won't hurt him. I think Savannah's twins slept in their carseats for months. I hope the hearing test is resolved at his next check-up.

The 4 am shopping thing is a mystery to me. MIL does it on the day after Thanksgiving for items if she has a list and knows they are on special - but she's an early riser and her goal is to be in, out and home by 7-8 am. It works for her - she usually actually beats the crowd. But it sounds like torture to me. Robin's playgroup buddies and us mamas went to ToysRUs the day after - the very first one opened in Shanghai the weekend before. It's small and has a somewhat different selection than the US stores, but it has baby stuff that is otherwise really hard to find and really over priced in Shanghai. But Robin had been down to 3 sippy cups with only 1 valve between them, and I was hoping to pick up a few extra - but the non-spill playtex ones are over $8 for 1 here! A co-worker of Clint's was kind enough to go buy a pack of 2 in the US and send them with some extra valves when another employee flew over - but they are Disney Princess cups :Puke I'd rather handwash the ones we have every day than give them to her.

Augs - the parade sounds like so much fun! What a lovely holiday experience. Robin never cries when I sing, although I usually don't pick sad songs (trying to cheer her up usually) - but she does sometimes get really opinionated - No mama! Diff'rent song! Not that one! When she gets that into her head, I never sing the right one. What song do you want me to sing? - "boga boga song" - she comes up with some nonsense song. It doesn't help that Clint sings her songs I don't know, and he does it quietly in her ear - then she wants me to sing them and I don't know the words! He also gets her hooked on odd things - like right now her favorite song is "The Pirates WHo Don't Do Anything" by Reliant K, a poppy punk song that's loud and fast.

[AugustineM]

Meg -- Thor napped in his carseat for months from about age 5 mo-1year. It was one of those removable bucket ones. I figured out it was the ONLY place he would nap. And it had to be next to the fishtank, which was loud and bubbly. I swear, it was a lifesaver for me!! He would take reliable, good, 2 hour naps there. If I tried laying him on the bed he'd be up in 20 minutes. I say if it works, go for it!! I'm going to be trying it with Anna here soon because she's starting to get those 15 minute naps and then bang, wide awake, when she's really still very tired... grrrr....

[Yo Becca]

Ahh... this is some good parenting:
Clint is currently watching professional wrestling with RObin. I think he's overjoyed to find it on our Phillipino satellite service. Just overheard: "Can you say Rey Mysterio?" "Rey Mys-we-wio" "Cay you say Kurt Angle?" "Kurt Angle" "Good!"

We had an impromptu playdate today with one of RObin's little friends. He's 22 months and is pretty much completely non-verbal. His mom signs with him and he uses a good number of signs, which is great, but we've spent a good bit of time with him and he only has 2-4 words that are articulated enough to be understood (like "eeze" for please and "ama" for mama). Otherwise, he either just signs or makes inarticulate sounds. He also has a few other signs that he may have sensory or stimulation issues. But I do NOT know the mom well enough to bring any of this up or ask her if she has any concerns. Actually, I know her well enough to get the feeling she would take any comment, no matter how well-intentioned or gentle, as an insult. SHe is very proud of his signs, as she should be b/c she has really dedicated herself to teaching them. But it seems that he needs help developing verbally, and he's being done no favors to neglect his verbal development, plus the other issues. It's so hard to bite my tongue and not suggest a professional evaluation. We live near each other, and the kids play together well (she likes him to play with RObin b/c she's the most gentle of the kids in our group - she worries the other kids "hurt his feelings," even though they are just playing normally - and he does tend to play alone and isolate himself from the playgroup. She encourages this a bit, making a big deal of any "toy sharing" conflict or accidental injury - she admits to being very overprotective). So I foresee a lot of tongue biting in my future...

Hope all is well with everybody.

[JenInMpls]

My MIL has gone home



:

[Yo Becca]

You know, I THOUGHT you had a pretty...bad relationship with her. But I didn't want to mention it since you seemed to be having such a family-friendly Thanksgiving. Glad you are liberated from her company!!:

[AugustineM]

Jen: I know EXACTLY how you feel.

Well we just got about 6 inches of snow here and it stuck. It's fun.

Becca -- Yep, along with Thor's totally exploding vocabulary of everyday words, he also now can recognize by sight every star wars character. : This includes "Boba Fat," "Chew BAH kuh," "Han Slolo," and "Darth Saber." It's slightly embarassing. Especially when he called our neighbor "han slolo" today.

[msrog]

Hi from Arizona. I guess I missed a month or two. Too busy to even notice I wasn't getting the updates, oops...

Seems I missed a birth or two, and Becca's arrival in China. Congrats!

The twins are ultra adorable and at the same time, aggravating little pills. LOL. They seem so grown up lately, like little kids instead of babies. Sigh.

On that note, I am feeling ready to be pregnant again. So maybe it will happen soon. I started charting again, since I have bizarre, irregular, practically nonexistent periods and am hoping to find some pattern. Though here it is, day 50 on my first chart, and I think I just ovulated at a perfect time when we would have "caught" it... So maybe I'll end up needing to wait another 2 years before deciphering my mysterious cycles, LOL.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all. I'm determined to love my in-laws to death. So we had a pleasant day with them. OH! And last night DH and I went out to eat in honor of our 12th anniversary. I even put on my princess wedding dress for him. (Um, no, we weren't able to get the zipper up at the back. LOL)

[banana girl]

Hey Mamas!

Welcome little Carl!!! Meg, I'm so glad to hear you are all doing so well! Enjoy your babymoon and let yourself be in the moment... it passes so fast!

Jasper is 8 weeks old already! I can't believe how fast it has gone! He weighs 11 pounds!! such a little piggy! He has the sweetest little rolls of fat on his neck and thighs. He has begun smiling alot and watches me ALL the time. I swear he follows me with his eyes everywhere I go, When I look up to check on him, he's looking right at me. He's very patient and calm, i can't believe what he puts up with from Mielle... She's always crawling on him and kissing him and whacking him with stuff (to get my attention.. little stinker!) I swear I am telling her to "give him space" more than anything else. It's ridiculous!

I seem to be doing better, as far as the post partum blues goes.. I've been getting out more often and feel like I've turned a corner. It is still very challenging, but I actually have found time to knit a little bit and read a book last week... so things must be getting better!
I met a mother recently who has a baby younger than mine and was able to offer her advice and support... it felt good to be "helping" someone more needy than myself. Her stupid doctor actually told her he didn't think her breastmilk had enough fat in it and she should supplement with formula! grrrr. The baby is really small, but is gaining weight, albeit slowly... I just hated hearing that she was questioning her body's ability to feed her child! I encouraged her to trust in her body, but added that she should listen to her gut, if something was wrong with the baby, her gut would let her know... maybe formula would make the difference but it is a decision she should make, not her husband, and not her doctor... she's the mama, she knows her baby best.

Thanksgiving was good, the best part was spending time with Jerome, he was home a couple days and got lots of sleep. We all enjoyed spending quality time with him, he's such a special and wonderful person. Mielle just adores him and misses him terribly when he's gone so much on the weekends. We won't get much time with him again till Christmas, oh well.

Becca ~ I am so sorry to hear that things are up in the air again about your birth plans.... but it sounds like you guys are making the best of a bad situation and I hope you manage to arrange a homebirth (mine were both awesome!) Have you asked the midwife you spoke with about a birth pool.. it was included at no additional cost for both of my kids births. I know a kiddee pool could work, but the ridgid sides of the pools i used were really helpfull. i clutched them pretty hard.

i don't remember who said it, but i must say that pushing isn't a drag... Pushing feels good! It's transition that sucks... the vomitting, diahrea and crazy miserable contractions... yikes! I LOVE pushing. It's so powerfula nd amazing and.... active. Finally accomplishing something. Feeling the baby moving forward, getting closer... YES!

Ok. well It's time to pack my kids up and go home...
love to all and happy mothering!

[JenInMpls]

My MIL is hard to be around. She smells bad, and her breath smells of decay. She has a lot of facial hair including a small beard and a mustache, and she does not grow them to make a statement; she just doesn't take care of herself. She hasn't been to the dentist since our wedding, which was in 2001. She wheezes and we are afraid that she has emphysema. Every time I sat T down to eat, she came over to the table and expected to be fed, too. She never offered to help with dishes or anything else, she merely stood in the doorway and watched me do them. Obviously my joy in doing the dishes showed so much that she didn't want to take away my fun. : My mom had to cajole her into helping with the dishes on Thanksgiving. On Saturday she made a rude remark about T having too many toys, and how when they wanted to get my dp a toy when she was little, they went to the toy store, picked the one that fit best into their budget and that they liked the best, and then they bought one. Yahoo. Whoopee for you. (She was making a remark about the fact that we have 4 wooden push toys which came to us through various routes.) We get the majority of T's toys at the thrift store and he doesn't have nearly as many toys as he could. If she wasn't waiting to be fed or watching me do dishes or making judgements about my cooking, she was sitting on the couch.

It is hard to put on my good face for 5 days. 3 days would have been just about right but she hadn't been here since Christmas last year and so wanted to maximize her time here.

Thanksgiving was actually very good - it was when we ran out of places to go and things to do that things got difficult, and taking her grandson to the playground isn't her idea of what you do on vacation for fun.

We needed our house back. We have a small house, and there was never a moment alone with each other, because her mom was always there in the living room, she was staying in the guest room so that felt uncomfortable going in there to hang out, and when we had time to talk, T was asleep in the bedroom. I suppose we could have taken off and left her in charge while T was sleeping and gone somewhere, but we felt like we basically had this interloper in our house. Hanging out with her was not relaxing and mellow, like it is at my sister's. There you can just sit all day and read and drink coffee and do crosswords or sudokus and everyone's chill. When my MIL is here it is hard to relax for some reason.

And that is why we are glad she has gone. And j says that from now on, she stays in a hotel or the b&b that her aunt found when she was up here last. Perhaps by next year this time we will have T's room ready and be moved into the guest room so there will be no place for her to stay in the house. (For other guests we will probably happily blow up the air mattress in the living room.)

Anyway. Anna, you sound really happy. Ashley, hope you're enjoying being snowbound. Savannah, happy anniversary. Becca, don't bite your tongue off. Meg, hope that kid gives you some peace and the hearing test goes well soon. To all: night night xo j

ps: new photo essay on my blog if you're up for a little laughter. LEAVE COMMENTS!

[jilly]

Oh, what a week we're having! Its been between - 25 and - 30 C with the wind chill around here (I don't know what that is F, but its below 0), which would be okay if it wasn't that half of it is WIND. Cold, biting, prarie wind, which drives me mad. And this complaint is coming from someone who grew up on the shores of Lake Superior! And we have about a foot of snow already. We truly are having a ridiculous year. We went straight from late summer to winter with no fall whatsoever, and its been miserably cold and snowy for 2 weeks now. Andrew and I were going stir crazy, then I decided to risk going to our friends' house for a playday even though they had all just had colds and now, guess what? We all have colds! Andrew's is particularly bad because (***TMI Alert***) he refuses to allow his nose to run or to spit or cough up phlem (sp?), so he just stays badly congested forever, until he just throws up all the yuk plus everything he ate recently. Its lovely. And he's so congested that, of course, he can't sleep even with the humidifier on and vapo-rub and tea with honey . . . etc, etc. : So its been a lovely week. Plus dh had his monthly board meeting, and it always takes him about a week to recover after them, so he's grumpy too. And I'm just getting really pregnant, so I'm obviously grumpy, but attempting to maintain my composure for the sake of sanity in our household! SOMEONE must stay happy and together around here, I tell you! Its just unfair that it has to be me when I'm the one thats pregnant.

Okay, rant over. On the bright side, my friend gave me this great MEC one piece snow suit that we just tried on Andrew today and it fits him perfectly and is super snuggly and warm. But he will tear his mittens off and then tear off anyting put over his mouth and nose, so we can't take him out to play right now becuase its just too cold without something to mediate between his sick little lungs and the winter air. But it is a great snowsuit.

Also, Andrew's language has exploded yet again. He is now regularly and competently using contractions, prepositions, articles, the whole deal, and almost always speaks in complete, adult-like sentences. Since he has that all figured out, he's now gone onto non-existent words and word play. For instance, yesterday he was saying "I cough. I am having coffee". Its quite funny and cute. Except when MIL was here she kept correcting him. the same with object transformation -- he would come in carrying his blue bat, saying it was a blue whale, and she would say, "No, Andrew. That is a BAT" (in very clear, baby's just learning to talk pronunciation). And I'd have to say "He knows that, Mom. He's pretending its a whale because we have a book with blue whales". So I have now learned why dh is completely devoid of any imagination whatsoever -- its because it was thoroughly drilled out of him from a young age.

Oh, yes, I said no more rants, didn't I? Also, aside from this week because he was sick, he has FINALLY started going off with people at church for short periods of time, and saying hi to the people that have said hi to him every Sun. for the last two years, and playing at playgroup instead of just being attatched to my leg. Its very exciting.

[AugustineM]

Jilly -- Your post is funny -- it soooo sounds like the pregnant mother of a toddler. Reminds me of when I was really pg and dealing with crabby Thor!

I hope the wind calms down soon! (And the colds...)