So, how are things going?

[noteworthy]

Wow, quiet around here these days.... missing hopping online and all the excitement and anticipation of August.

So, what's new?

Jules is growing so fast. She is smiling and we can get her to giggle on occasion. She is a very serious baby who likes to watch the world around her. Definitely an observer.
She sleeps through the night occasionally. Not every night, but some. We are all getting more sleep. She is nursing great and I had to stop pumping every day because I was running out of room in the deep freeze. She loves to be in the sling and see everything that is happening with us. I have a deep attachment to her and I think it is because I have grown as a parent and as a person. i am much more AP with her then I was with the others and have formed some pretty strong opinions. I hope to exclusively breast feed her until she is a year old.

Loosing the weight ever so slowly. Trying now to make healthy choices and eat smart. Still hungry all the time. I guess it is the nursing.

She is such a gift. I have been thinking back to 1 year ago when I found out. Wow! I was shocked. now, I can't imagine life without.

I started my fourth semester of nursing school. 15 weeks til graduation. I am so psyched. Also, looks like I have a job lined up for afterwards. Our family life has become nice and stable. We are all just breathing that sigh of relief.

So, here is what is amazing. I still want another baby. That would make 4. I am so glad that we didn't choose to do anything permanent. We'll see. But the thought is there.

Hope all is well with all of you Sept ddc mamas!

drop in and say hi!

[nichole]

yes losing like a pound a week.

teething here. the baby lived in his sling today.

i didnt realize how hard it would be to go from two to one.

he is awesome. i kinda enjoy night nursing. he is so peaceful then! he can scoot and roll across the room.

[maciascl]

Stuffy nose

Rhys always seems to have a stuffy nose anymore. I am pretty sure it is just a result of the cold & very dry weather we are having combined with the heater being on alot. I do saline drops & then use the nasal aspirator, but it doesn't work too well. Aside from a humdifier, which we are trying to use, and a steamy bathroom, which isn't always convienent, what works? I've even tried using the drops & hopeing he'll sneeze it out once it's lose, but that doesn't work either. I am out of ideas!!

Opps I thought I was makeing a seperate post

[noteworthy]

Jules has a chronic stuffy nose too. Those nasal passages are just sooo small. Any little irritation and they clog right up.

[bohemama]

Lainey was four months yesterday! She's pretty close to sitting up by herself. She can do it for a few moments at a time now. She loves the exersaucer thingy while I'm cooking dinner because she gets to do her very favorite thing...standing!! This girl loves to stand and wants to do it all the time. She can pull herself up to standing while holding onto our fingers. So cute. She's a very physical baby and anything that makes her bounce or move quickly will get her laughing. She started blowing raspberries the other day and making kissing noises. I love it. The one thing that she started doing recently that I don't like is biting while nursing. She doesn't do it very often but when she does it HURTS! I've been able to go to grocery store twice by myself by leaving some pumped bm and dh will feed it to her with a cup. We figured out she loves drinking out of a cup because she kept reaching for ours while we were drinking and holding her. She's very interested in our food too, but we haven't given her anything to eat yet. Not for a while. I have let her suck on a carrot and an apple slice (while I was holding it) and she liked that. She's also quite a talker. I can't wait to see the new things she'll be doing in the next couple of months. I'm pretty sure she'll be crawling soon as she's already scooting around on her tummy.

[dakotamidnight]

trinity is still teething - boy I wish they'd come thru already!

She's starting to crawl - and if you hold her she will walk a few steps. She's so mellow most of the time - except when her teeth are hurting. She's very fascinated with her leapfrog alphabug - she makes it sing the abc song over and over.

Her 4 month checkup is on the 26th - I'll post back again with weights & stuff. Right now we think she's around 13 lbs.

I'm on WW to lose the weight - so far it's working if I stick to it.

[crazyeight]

wow everyones doing so great...and everyones so motiveated!
ayla is doing well. we are at 16.5 lbs or so. she only just rolled from tummy to back last week....and hasn't done it since! : she is grabbing her toys and knows that waving her hands around makes stuff jingle. its also kinda funny cause i think she understands that i understand that when she waves her hands around she wants more..kisses, funny noises, rasberries etc. she is sitting really well just not able to balance side to side.

she was really fussy a few days ago and i thought it was teeth but now shes a little better. she was able to go to sleep "by herself" in her bed but now won't and also only took the paci for 2 weeks and then stopped. this child confuzzles me!

i actually have stopped slinging her b/c my back was out ALL the time and when i stopped it finally is staying much better than it was. plus she is a much happier baby now than she was. i am glad i did it when i could.

things are definatly harder with 2 than one! though i swear the 3 1/2-4 month mark was a big turning point!

i keep thinking...what if... about pregnancy. i would love being pg again but i know i can't handle another..nor can our budget. i keep wondering if my moodiness is pg, if my lack of appetite, my tiredness...what if. i don't think i could be but its on my mind on lot!

[nichole]

yes they are confusing aren't they?

ds1 could crawl before he could sit up. i wonder if isaac will be like that? every day i think about giving him some solids just b/c he seems like he wants some. but i heard they are less likely to be sick the longer you ebf and we haven't vax yet. so we will wait until six months old and sitting up.

i tried giving him a sippy of ebf just to see and he was like no way mom hehe.

[quinbearzmama]

I can't believe it's been over a year since I found out we were expecting little Arabella. Time goes by too fast. She will be 4 months next week- wow, I feel like it was yesterday that I was waiting for her to make her entrance into the world. She is such a mellow baby- exactly like my pregnancy. She sleeps like a champ at night in our bed...but recently, she has made it known that she is only interested sleeping in my arms or my Storch sling for her naps. Now, she never really slept anywhere else so I shouldn't be surprised when I try to put her down for a nap and she wakes right up. Oh well- DS was the same way and since they are only this young for such a short time, I really don't mind.

She shows no interest in rolling over...at all My son was a really active baby and always hit those physical milestones early- Arabella is definitely on her own timetable. She loves time in her exersaucer- loves to kick and jump and stand. Lots of smiles, lots of coos- she's a very easy baby. Which I have to admit, I'm so glad I had the "easy" baby second- my first was and continues to be a very early riser, not a super sleeper; he wasn't difficult by any means, but this one just seems easier.

We hope to have a third someday, but right now I feel like I have my hands full with two. Maybe in a year or two we'll revisit...In the meantime, I'm loving life at home, watching my two amazing children grow with each day that passes. We definitely have our challenging moments, but overall life is very good.

[qjraven8]

i miss all you mamas!!

felix also doesnt seem real interested in rolling ... he rolled really early more than once from tummy to back but hasnt since. he does scoot a bit while on his tummy playing and he loves his excersaucer as well as he prefers to be upright - unless im hanging him upside down which he also loves - he's been pulling up to standing position with the slightest help for a while too. we get lots of giggles and laughs from him as he loves to be tickled and grandma makes great faces that get good laughs too. now he loves bathtime .. dont know if anyone remembers but he HATED it for the first couple months!! he's generally in a great mood, is very social and loves people. he grabs at toys and once has ahold has a great grip and of course everything goes right to the mouth. cant tell for sure if he's teething ... LOTS of drool, but we've been dealing with thrush for at least three months, prob more : and i think that factors into it, but really that's the only hard issue we've been dealing with so far ... other than me having to work. he's already crying frequently when i leave to go to work makes me feel horrible but its something i have to do (at the same time makes me feel ) this week has been horrible for that too, we've had a lot of sickness at work and i've HAD to work 16hrs of ot within 6days : i actually told my boss the next time i got mandated to work ot i would take a "write-up" instead cuz i just cant be away from ds so much! anyway at least i get a three day weekend coming up and i'm spending every minute with my favorite person in the whole world ... i'm constantly amazed that i love him more every moment that passes ....

well, shower time while he's still napping!!

[Nonie's mom]

It is so nice to hear about what other babies are doing. I know that everyone developes at a different pace but it is nice to know what to look forward to. Nonie is the very last September baby but she is holding her own. She is well over 16 pounds and is growing out of her clothes way too fast!
Her most recent amazing achievement happened last night two times. I wake at her every movement and I was feeling her wiggle. I opened my eyes and to my amazement she was on her tummy wiggling toward me with her head up and bobbing around trying to find my nipple. I was so excited that I woke my dh to tell him. She did it one more time in the night. She usually fusses and I wiggle toward her and facilitate the latch and let her be but she was all for doing it herself.
We have gotten her to giggle a couple of times and holy cow I nearly broke my face from smiling so big. She was so cute!!! She smiles constantly and at anybody. We think that she knows her name because she smiles when she hears it. We don't have any teeth coming in but she has been drooling something fierce for at least a month. One of her favorite things is to drool and then make farty noises in order to share her spit with everyone. She loves to swing her arm around to knock things about. She bumps the powder over all the time during diaper changes. Speaking of diaper changes, she has a pretty bad case of diaper rash for the first time. I put bm on it and rash ointment and we have been bathing her in warm water. It came on so quickly but it seems to be getting better. She got it just in time for her 4 month ped visit!!!
As far as crawling goes, she has got it all down except for her front half. She can move her legs but the only thing she accomplishes is getting her little bottom higher in the air. She can't figure out the whole arm thing. She still loves her johnny jumper. We were given one of those saucer things and it was next to her jumper. She kept ramming her jumper into it to make one of the pieces on it rattle. Her newest noise, so to speake, is a scream. She does two things to get what she wants. She fusses to be fed. She screams to be put down for a nap. These aren't screams mixed in with crying. She just screams.....and then screams again....and then again...and again...until I take her upstairs and lay her down for a nap. I find it pretty funny until my ear is right by her mouth...OUCH!
Man, oh man I love being a mommie way more than I ever thought I would!!!!!