Life with a Babe (Come join in!)

[starlein26]

So I have a baby who only sleeps if she's being held (and often it has to be by me) which is so different than my son. She can be in deep sleep...and I put her down and she'll be awake within 2 minutes. My arms are SO tired. We're thinking of buying a swing to see if she'll sleep in that (since she enjoys sleeping in the car...the motion I guess.) But if she doesn't like it..we're stuck with a huge contraption that cost us too much...what to do.
She's adorable though.

And I have about 20 pounds to lose still, which for some reason is bugging me because with the holidays around the corner and it getting dark so early...I have a feeling it'll take me a while. Wah. I wish the effects of pregnancy weren't cummulative. My stomach is a mess and my thighs are huge...

Enough of my complaining, how are you guys?

[LavenderMae]

My baby is such a wonderful baby! He is the most laid back little guy. My dd (first born) was really high needs, she only slept if she was on the boob. When I had my 2nd , ds1, I asked my dh if he thought something was wrong with him because he didn't cry a lot and I could put him down when he was asleep. My dh laughed and said no he is the "normal" one (he didn't mean that negative about our dd at all, if you've had a high needs baby you probably get it).
Anyway, I fall more in love with my little guy every day! But I will say even laid back babies still require a lot of energy and I am pretty darn tired/sleep deprived. I also can't get any house work done, good thing I hate house work anyway.
I have 40 lbs to lose. The holidays won't be very conducive to me shedding them. Oh well. My stomach is so flabby this time and I can tell it won't be going back to "normal" (which wasn't flat or taut by any means). Oh and my boobs are huge this time. When I look in the mirror I'm like WOW I have some big'uns. Same goes for my butt though.

[PuppyFluffer]

Starlein, we have the same type of baby, except mine will sleep on anyone. I keep saying she needs a warm body and a heartbeat. I need to teach the dog to do a long down/stay and lay her on him. Only kidding folks!

She sleeps great, waking only to nurse about 3 times a night. I sneak in a quick diaper change and off to sleep we go. We co-sleep so it's such a brief waking that I don't feel sleep deprived.

Older dd is great with her little sister. She's so loving and sweet. It is nice to see.

Dh works out of town some and it's more challenging getting two to bed solo when I can't lay the baby down for more than a few minutes without her squawking. We're making it work out. I end up wearing her alot in the sling. I can't wait til she can hold her head up and I can get her in the Ergo in the back carry position. It will make life a lot easier but that is months away.

[starlein26]

Anyone else wanna chat?

[leurMaman]

I'm with you on the 20 lbs! I have no idea how much I've lost or have left to lose, but I know I gained 35 total and don't fit into my prepreggo clothes. We are going to Hawaii in the spring - so that is extra incentive for me to lose the weight. Ack.

My little one is pretty good - but my toddler is having a hard time. Today was the first time he went down for a nap without screaming and crying. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he'll get better. Baby has been quite easy until now - I can tell that she's starting to have more complex emotions and needs, so we'll see what she is like in a week or two!

Good to see how you other moms are doing!

[OMama]

We are trying to figure out if DS has reflux, food intolerances (to what I'm eating), colic, or is just a higher needs baby than DD was. It is worse at night. I was up literally every hour last night. I'm really tired. DD is having a hard time adjusting too. She regularly tries to hurt her new brother now. It makes for a really long, stressful day. She has started biting her own arm now as well. Definitely makes me feel like the world's worst mother! I am trying to give both of them as much attention as I can. Did I mention I am really tired? I know we'll get through this . . . I'm just in the thick of it right now.

The good news is that otherwise my little man is doing great. He is gaining weight and looking more and more "baby" like. We love him so much! I wish I could just sit and hold and look at him more often. Today he is 1 month old! Happy One Month B-day baby!

[Sleeky_Meerkat]

My little one is awesome most of the time. He loves, loves, loves being held all the time, which is fine by me, until I have to actually DO something else...like shower or go to the bathroom. We are co-sleeping right now because he just won't sleep anywhere else other than right next to me.

Adjusting to being a FTM as well as a new SAHM is difficult, but I am starting to get the hang of things. It's only been less than a month since he was born, so I figure that's not too bad. I love being home taking care of him and hope that we can extend my staying at home for longer than planned. We planned on me going back to work part-time around Feb, but I really would rather be a full time SAHM. I need to look into jobs that I could do at home.

As for weight loss, I gained 30 pounds during my pregnancy and have lost all of it already! I wasn't even trying! I fit into some of my pre-pregnancy clothes, others are a weird fit still-- it seems things have shifted around even though I'm the same weight!

[deleria]

Jackson is a very iffy baby. I'm pretty sure he has some mild-ish reflux going on, but not enough that it warrants any medication or additional trips to the doctor. Sadly, I had to cut caffeine out of my diet. We're on day three and I've seen a big difference. He's still puking up a storm, but he doesn't seem nearly as uncomfortable anymore. More.. normal? It's nice.

He very rarely sleeps on anything but a warm body, but I can sometimes sneak him into DS2's old car seat, which isn't a flat-back position and seems to be more comfortable for him. It allows me to get things done for the other two kiddoes, who, while I wouldn't say are 'neglected', are certainly missing some mommy time lately.

'They' say it takes six weeks to get into a new routine with babe. I'm finding that the case here, too. It's not overwhelming, but it's certainly a challenge to juggle three kids. I'm fortunate that the older two are 4 (as of yesterday!) and 10 (in about two weeks from now) because they're fairly independent in many ways. Still, they need their mama!

[Peony]

My house has been loads of fun lately. It looks like DH and DD1 have pertussis, so I've basicially kicked them out to grandma's house for the week until we get the results back and know for sure. Which makes life very interesting. DD1 had never spent more then 2 hours away from me until this year, nothing close to a night away. DD2 has to be held every single second so being all by myself means I'm struggling to hold a screaming baby and wash my face at the same time. I usually can only get her in my moby or sling when she is asleep. Plus I'm freaking out that DD2 and I are going to get pertussis, I have no symptoms, she has been sneezing some so who knows. DH is the one who came home with it, he actually had before dd2 was born, despite going to urgent care 3 times and bringing dd1 along, no one dxed it until dd1 started vomiting every time she coughed. :

Yeah, dd2 finally fell asleep, we've been up most of the night, I'm so tired, off for a hopefully very long nap.

[Peony]

I'm back, I have officially given up on taking a nap today. Poor dd2, her tummy is bothering her again, she'll sleep 15-20 minutes then wake up screaming, just long enough for me to get all comfy, and almost alseep and then get woken up again. It's really weird not having dd1 here, this definately is not helping us attempt to get into a routine. I am SOO looking forward to six months from now when dd2 can ride on my back, sit up, etc...so I can have my hands free for 30 seconds to feed myself.

On a postive note, when dd2 is crying from gas, she is a mellow baby. I can tell that later on, she is going to be much easier then dd1 was.

[Sleeky_Meerkat]

I've given up on a nap today too. Collin is just so fussy this afternoon!! I really need a nap too...I can feel a migrane starting. I've had problems with migranes since I delivered. Since I didn't have an epidural, my doc says it's the flux of hormones, which I agree with, but I wish it would equalize already! Migranes and taking care of a newborn do not mix.

DF has his night class tonight. He has classes Tue & Thurs. It makes for really long days for both of us since he doesn't get home till about 8:30.

Has anyone heard of a sacral dimple? It's a little dimple right above the baby's buttocks. Someone on another BB mentioned that their DC had one and they needed to get an ultrasound to see if it's closed. I'm all worried now because Collin has one of these, and being a FTM I just thought that EVERY BABY had one and it was normal.

[swampwitch]

We're totally in love with our little man but definately we are suffering from all the adjustments that a baby brings. We are in our 30s and have been together 9 years, so we had a very well established groove and not having a groove is hard to cope with.
His feedings are starting to space out a little bit, but I still feel like my existence is solely to be a human milk machine. Nights are really hard b/c he cluster feeds from 10 or 11 until about 2 or 3, then I'll get about 3 hours of sleep, another feeding (which I wake up for b/c my boobs are so full they feel about to burst), then 2 or 3 more hours before the day gets started.
I'm finally getting comfortable with the lack of routine, but this weekend (Thanksgiving weekend) has been really hard. The traveling has really screwed up the groove we had finally gotten going and I've HAD it with "helpful" relatives and "helpful" comments.