Love is in the Air for Dingos! Running Mamas February Thread! - Page 43

[eksmom]

Originally Posted by MonikitaUT

RR - I'll be running on the TM tonight, electrodes et all.

There's something about that that appeals to the geek in me, like you ought to be able to hook yourself up to the treadmill and get some additional data about your run or something. :

[Shantimama]

homebirthmommy - how are you doing today? I've been thinking about you all day :

Going from one to two kids was definitely a leap over to the wild side for us, but it has been so wonderful - so good in fact, we did it again Our first two are only 18 months apart and the second two are 22 months apart so it was very wild at different times, but so very, very good. They love each other to bits (when they aren't trying to pull out each others' hair) and being an only myself, I love seeing their relationships deepen.

I went for a brisk walk today but didn't feel up to running. Right now all I can think about is going to sleep, but that isn't going to happen any time soon.

So this seven vortexes thing - is that just in the USA or is it for the whole wide world? 'Cause I can get it if it is just for the USA but not so much if 4/7 of the world's vortexes are conveniently located in the western USA.

Our local paper said today that 7 feet of snow have fallen here in 2008 - and i have been complaining that it feels like we have had very little snow this year - just a little reality check for me :

[sparkletruck]

Originally Posted by Geofizz

Family size: It can't always be nor it doesn't have to be a rational decision.

Totally agree, but on the rational side;

Starting when ds was 2 and dd1 4, they started playing together with less and less interest in me. This progressed, so that now, I have so little to do with them on that front (right now they are in the yard building something).

I think the age difference makes, well, a difference. dd1 was 2 when ds came, still in diapers, still napping. Ds is 3, no diapers and not napping, so having a baby is much easier this time (dont have to try to get someone down for a nap while baby is crying, for example). Also, because the kids are older, they understand more, so when they wake in the night (and Im frequently here on my own with 3) I can tuck them back in and lay with them for a minute, but then tell them I need to go sleep in my room with baby. The other night, older dd wanted me to stay in her bed, I didnt, and then the next morning it turned out that ds had gone to sleep in her bed with her (they share a room). They can dress themselves, get string cheese from the fridge themselves.

The sleep deprivation I could do without, and holding baby allllll the time, doing everything one handed, but like everyone has said, if you feel like your family is complete with - insert # - then it feels full, as opposed to too much. Also, being busy with the other[s] makes all the infant stuff fly by. She's already 2 mos.and I feel like she just got here. And b/c I am so grateful for her, I can shrug off the lack of sleep and other hardships b/c it will be gone soo soon.

Lastly, we knew we wanted 2-3, because we wanted them to have siblings, in part so they would have someone to play with besides us! And they do have a real bond - its beautiful to see them love each other and protect each other (like when he went to sleep with her the other night)

Anyway, dont know if that added anything to the discussion


OK, ladies, picture a dinner plate piled so high with cabbage and bacon that the pile is spilling down itself off the side of the plate onto the counter - that's what I just ate for my afternoon snack! :

[Megs_BK]

OK, I've just skimmed very quickly just to feel like I'm in touch with where y'all are at.

HBM, my heart goes out to you right now. I hope you can - or already did - take MB up on her margaritas offer. Have one for me, because I'd funnel one down your throat if I could. I'm so sorry the chips keep falling.

Po7, I've gone through horse tragedy. There is little like it in this world. It really rocked our family, but that is also because it was an avoidable accident, but I don't have time for details right now. Anyway. Your dd will heal, but it may take time.

OK, must get back to script for group presentation tomorrow. This week is definitely busy, but it is almost over. I passed yesterday's Neuro test, but I made some DUMBSH!T mistakes that I cannot believe. Seriously. For two questions IN A ROW I just filled in the wrong effing Scantron bubbles. WTF is wrong with me? That was half a grade on that test! So I got an 80%, but "earned" an 85... Oh well...

[calicocj]

I think I would have a different perspective on family size if my sister and I were closer in age - we are 8 years apart! I liked it when she was born, but never really noticed not having a sibling to play with because my temperment is very independent...

DH on the other hand has a twin - they are not close, always fought (usually ending up w/ one in the emergency room), and he hated having someone his age growing up, so he was adamant about if we did have more than one DC, that they be several years apart!

It is so funny how all of our experiences have been so varied but yet it translates into our own parenting...

the other reason I want a small family, maybe only one DC, is for : reasons

[grnmtnmama]

ran/walked 3 on the treadmill this afternoon. i have such a hard time on the stupid treadmill, hence all the walking. and i forgot my inhaler so every time i got up to speed i had trouble keeping breath. the cool part was i saw parts of two Baby Story (on TLC, y'all know i've obsessed with that show for years now, right?) and the first had a breastfeeding mom and the second a happy homebirth. such a nice change from their ususal shows.

i'm in the midst of a huge batch of soap and catching up on some work stuff.

THANK YOU to everyone for their family size comments. I like our family of 3. I like how we can go places and do things. I like how K can go to ski school now and dh and I can hang out together. I feel like i can 'do' this family.

however, i really treasure my sibling - as nutz as he is. I couldn't imagine going through life without that person who understands so fundamentally where I come from. We're 7 years apart, so it wasn't so much about playing together. Anyway, I want that for ds. He also has a very slim chance of any cousins. I'm not delusional about infants, and I'm not all that stoked on sleepless nights and crying and teething and all those things. And it would be difficult with money and timing and schedules and working and childcare and all those thing. No, this would not be an easy thing.

dh and i still need to discuss it further tonight. we had brought up the topic after last summer, but decided timing would be better for late winter IF we were to do it. and now's that time, hence the discussion.

[eksmom]

Here's a belly pic for y'all...

And it's funny how your perspective changes... I wasn't exactly happy w/ my weight and was trying to get it down when I got pregnant. But now, I'd be so happy to have this back (more for comfort/mobility than vanity, though - you know, like not having to pull my pants up 40 billion times a day ).

[babybugmama]

I've read along and I have so many thoughts....

1 vs. 2....you have to look at your life and does it feel like anyone is missing? That's how I knew E had to come...someone was missing.

Po7 - WOW !!! I have to print that workout out and give it a shot, it looks brutal!

Katherine - oooo

So I need some help....my dd is off the hook. She is not listening, being very rude, lying, deceiving (asking to take something to school I say no and find it in her cubby, when asked to put clothes away stuffing them in a hidey spot instead of putting them away, etc.). Today she was supposed to go to a celebration for school but instead had a mambo temper tantrum and had to stay home instead (and take a nap, which I hoped would help but apparently according to dh who was home with her did not). All the traditional strategies to address her behavior are not working and in fact it almost seems to be worse. Even more alarming is the fact that she has become completely and totally sugar obsessed. To the point that she was limiting her lunch intake (unbeknownst to me, this came out later with dh) so that she could eat a bunch of sugary stuff at the party. Last week she was barely eating breakfast and lying to the teacher about having a snack so the teacher would give her graham crackers.... What on earth is going on?

[Geofizz]

BBM, are you getting near the half-year mark? Also, for us, behavior like that seems to intensify in late winter. We can help with mega doses of forced outside time.

[kate~mom]

Originally Posted by calicocj

I think I would have a different perspective on family size if my sister and I were closer in age - we are 8 years apart! I liked it when she was born, but never really noticed not having a sibling to play with because my temperment is very independent...

my sister and i are 12 1/2 years apart. apparently, from a sociological perspective we are both only children. i had no problems being an only - occasionaly wishes for a sibling, but no sense of loss about not having one.

we had decided when dd was about 2 for purely practical/career purposes that she was going to be an only - but when the plan changed slightly, we had what we thought would be a perfect opening. the stars aligned and ds was born perfectly into the schedule. he is a blessing and has added so much joy to our family, but i do believe we would be just as happy as we are today with just one of our munchkins. dd was 4 when he was born, and definitely experienced a sense of loss/being second fiddle to the baby, despite our best efforts. *deciding to have a second seems to me like a double edged sword - if you wait a longer time, in order to enjoy #1s babyhood, which we did, they know the feeling of being the center of the world. if you have a sibling earlier, you don't get as much of that time with #1 alone. there have been many times when i know that i don't feel the depth of the bond with ds that i had with dd. now that they're 7 and almost 3, things are finally becoming back to normal for dd - they play together so nicely and can communicate so well - she just had a hard time understanding the irrationality of the toddler years.

[Megs_BK]

We plan for a 2nd baby after I graduate. I wish we could space them ~ 3 years apart, but I *do not* want to take a year off from school. 4 years apart will be OK and I'd rather be able to have some good time with baby #2 and slowly ease into seeing a full patient load.

And CRAP, I cannot find my gift certificate to KnitPicks! It's for $75 and I want to buy books! Plus it's just money my sister barely has, yk? And I've just lost it. Well, it's my Mom's money, too...

[MonikitaUT]

BBM - I wonder if you got her totally off of sugar for a bit if her behavior problems would stop. I have no idea if they would, but I do know from personal experience of sugar addiction that the more you eat it, the more you want to eat it and nothing else.

I ran 5.28 outside with the pup, electrodes and all. It was the perfect temp... 48! I actually got to wear my running capris that my dad got me for Christmas. Woot! And this asthma medicine actually works! Although I was still wheezing/constricted, I felt better than I have in a month.

[doctorjen]

Last night mdc would not let me post no matter what, which quite irritating. : I could read, but not post and I so wanted to get my hugs in there!

HBM - You poor, poor mama, I feel so bad for you! I hope you were able to be gentle with yourself today and I hope baby JoJo is feeling better, too.

pof7 - How sad for your dd. I'm so glad she has you to help her through it, though.

eksmom - I LOVE your belly! You look so great!

grnmtnmama - have another child if you want another child. I know that sounds goofy, but I think it's the best reason to have one. I'm an only myself, so was never sure about having more so they would have sibs, as I never felt I was missing them. I personally can't imagine my life without any of my wonderful children, but I can also fully understand the decision to have just one. I like that my kids have their own relationships with each other and have enjoyed watching those develop, but the sibling rivalry between #2 and #3 makes me absolutely nuts, too. I always wanted a big family and I enjoy infants so the baby stuff was never really a problem for me (I do sleep deprivation well!) After Caroline, though I'd not been at all sure I felt done during the pregancy even, I just knew she was it and I don't have any more kid cravings. I have been parenting my entire adult life, though (I'm 37 and had my first child at 17) and have no end in sight, and sometimes I wonder what it would be like to know that when that one child is grown, that's it!

I'm going to cut and paste the rest I wrote yesterday:
Sometimes I feel like I complain a lot here, so here are some good points to my last couple days.
My oldest dd is growing up so much. She is starting to enjoy many of the same foods, activities, movies, etc that I do, and it's so fun. Last night I picked her up from swim practice and she wanted some kind of vegetables over rice for supper, so at 8 pm the two of us fixed supper together (dh had eaten with the younger kids) and we stir-fried broccoli, bell pepper, carrots and water chestnuts with a little bit of orange/ginger glaze and ate it over rice while chatting away. Who ever thought my picky toddler would grow into a young woman who can eat veggies and rice and discuss politics with me?
I saw a dear client today who has had 3 previous pregnancy losses (and 2 healthy children.) She is pregnant again. I was unable to hear a heartbeat when I listened to her 2 weeks ago at 10 weeks, and have been worrying about her ever since. She didn't want to have an ultrasound done as whatever was going was what it was and it wouldn't change anything. She came today at 12 weeks and the second I set the doppler on her belly I heard that great thump-a-te-thump-a-te-thump-a-te and it was so wonderful to see her smile!
Saw another client who had a miscarriage in Oct as my last appt of the day. That was her first pregnancy, and she was so sad. The first time we met was when I went in the room to tell her she'd lost her baby, which is always a terrible way to meet someone. She is pregnant again, and came for a first prenatal today. She is just 8 wks and 5 days, but I decided to try to listen with doppler just in case (once in a while I get lucky and can hear that early.) It was like the baby wanted to be heard, because I thought I just faintlly heard it, and so held the doppler still for a moment, and like the baby was swimming towards us, it got gradually louder until we could clearly hear that little swishing heart beat. She and her dh both cried, and then high-fived, and overall it was a great end to my day!

[tjsmama]

Re: family size and sibling spacing...My sister is 6 years older than me. I've always wished we were closer together. I was never really friends with my sister until we were adults, and even now, we're not super close, although we are still getting closer (now that we're both moms). I was essentially an only child from junior high on, and even before then since my sister wanted nothing to do with her brat little sister when she was in high school. I will say it was kind of cool going to visit my sister when she was in college...got to hang out at some fun bars when I was only a freshman or sophomore in high school.

I was always kind of jealous of my friends growing up. Most of them had sisters who were only two years apart, and their sisters were their best friends. I always thought I wanted that spacing for my kids, until I had DS. Even if my marriage hadn't imploded, I don't think I would have been ready to start thinking about another kiddo until recently, so kids would have been at least 3 years apart.

I'm starting to accept the idea that DS may be an only. I always wanted a sib for him, and I still do, but obviously that may not be in the cards. And if it is, they're going to be much further apart than I ever thought. And that's ok. If DS turns out to be an only, I hope to ensure that he doesn't grow up feeling like he missed out.

Hope those rambling thoughts made a little sense...

[babybugmama]

See we have a 4 year difference (b/c of losses, we were trying for 3) b/t our kids and our dd really embraced ds in a magical way. And continues to do so. I think it helped that as far as ds is concerned the sun rises and sets on dd.

Monikita I gave up sugar back in January and so dd followed naturally. She still got some here and there, but very very little. And yet she seems to obsess about it, whether it's honey, maple syrup or white sugar. I'm so sad to see how her behavior has deteriorated and feel like what happened to my little girl? It's to the point when she complains of her ear hurting (and I'm taking her to the doc today) I wonder is it really or is she just wanting the sweet medicine (motrin)? Which is TERRIBLE! I hate thinking like that, but she will complain of other aches and pains hoping to get medicine like that...it's insane! It's not like I never allow her sweet things, it's just healthy sweet things...

[Shantimama]

babybugmama - I don't have any great insight or wisdom here, but I do have a dd who gets into sugar jags like that. I often buy a large bag of chocolate covered almonds when she gets like that. It satisfies er sweet craving but gets some protein into her at the same time. I also bake (or buy) some high protein bread and let her eat it with butter and jam if that what she wants. Chocolate milk or cocoa work too - but with the cocoa I add extra milk powder to boost the calcium and protein count. I don't make a fuss about it, and after a day or too I make one of her favourite meals - for her usually roast chicken and Caesar salad and load her up with protein and veggies that way. It takes a few days, but she gets back on track when I take tha approach. It is like she needs to be weaned off of sugar when that happens and teh only way I can do it is to pair every bite of sweet with protein. With me the only way to cut sugar is to go cold turkey, but that is just not possible with my dd.

[Mommabelle]

I got the root canal yesterday. It took over an hour and he's still not done. It was worse than a filling, but not totally terrible. Having said that I DO NOT want to go back, but I have to. It feels like I chewed on tin foil.

I'm heading out to a combo yoga/pilates class this morning. I'm still sore from yoga on Tuesday. I'm going to run a little on the treadmill and see how it goes.

Shanti..roast chicken and ceasar salad just sounds yummy right now!

I get really kind of mad at how much sugar people bring in to the school. On Monday the teacher brought in doughnuts and the kids each had two. And, it's always someones birthday and they bring in cupcakes and cookies. Then all the other reasons people come up with to bring junk to school. Stupid goody bags! It's all the time. It really irritates me! I've tried to say something, and there are alot of other parents who are not happy and have said something, but we always get the "your kids can choose not to have it and our kids "deserve" this. Ok, that's my rant for the day..just totally annoys me!

Our kids are 2 years apart and it was hard the first few years. I wish we had gone ahead and had more, but we went through a serious money crunch phase and I also had some PPD and thyroid out of wack. Oh well! The kids are best friends and so close.

drjen..love hearing about your daughter! So sweet!

MB..my husband likes to watch Weeds...I find it disturbing! LOL I start wondering what is going on all around me! This N. Atlanta area is quite a bit like that show!

Monika...glad you are better!

grnmtnmama....don't keep us in the dark! LOL

BBM...hugs!

[babybugmama]

hmmm pair every bite of sweet with protein. That's a interesting concept. When I went cold turkey on sugar I began eating tons and tons of protein, milk, nuts, etc. When you make high protein bread how do you do that?

Mbelle root canals suck.

[sparkletruck]

BBM - that reminds me, I read somewhere that sugar cravings are a protien deficiency, hmmm.... I should up my protien then And the protien will buffer the spike in blood sugar, so she wont be getting the same highs and lows, and maybe that helps the cravings diminish

[sparkletruck]

One more thing on the sugar front; Stevia. I use it in a lot of things that need a little sweetener, like hot chocolate, plain yogurt... I use th liquid kind .... and too much will taste bitter ..