May mamas- time for updates!

Wow, pulling up to standing! Very cool!

Liam is doing well. He is such a happy, mellow baby most of the time. At his 4 month visit over a month ago he weighed 16.5 lbs, and was 25.25" so I'm guessing he's close to 18lbs now (he had been gaining approx. 1.5lbs a month). His favorite activity is blowing raspberries--he does it all the time and finds it hysterical. He's creeping, but mostly backwards or in circles, and is happy to play on his tummy now (does mini pushups). This from the baby who used to SCREAM on his tummy!

What else...no teeth here, but definitely teething. He chews on everything--especially our knuckles. He's been sitting unassisted for almost a month (no, not continuously!), which is the cutest thing to see. He loves our dogs, pets them and grabs their ears and they are very tolerant of him. His eyes light up and he grins when the dogs come near him to give him kisses!

He easily rolls from front to back, but hasn't gone back to front yet. I started back to work last month and he's doing well taking a couple bottles of ebm from his dad during the day, but still likes to wait for me (hey, guess he's a boob man) so he eats several times at night. Naps/nighttime sleeping are going ok, but he is definitely going through a phase where he wants to be awake to see what's going on. So he often fights sleep even when he's exhausted.

That's all I can think of right now. He's just such a joy, so happy and sweet.

Hope everyone's May babies are doing great!!

Wow- sounds like Liam is doing great- glad to hear he is such a happy guy.

I did forget all about the raspberries. Maggie started them about a month ago and actually just leaned forward to give me one on my (thankfully closed) eye. It is too funny to hear them do this!

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Well, yeah, but also and and . What am I going to do with a possibly walking 8 month old? I have a friend whose baby walked at 6 1/2 months and the thought of that terrifies me!

Oh, I also forgot to mention her temper. When she doesn't get what she wants, she starts panting, which then makes her cough. Little goofball.

Waiting to hear about the rest of the May babies....

Lauren is getting so big! I can't belive she just turned 5 months old! She can sit for about 10 seconds before falling and she likes tummy time now but not for too long. She laughs at her sister all the time and she just has the cutest gummy smile!

Caroline is a very content baby. We have seen her roll in both directions, but most of the time she's content to stay however you put her so she doesn't bother. She has one of those dealies you hang toys from and lay the baby under and she loves it. She turns herself around in circles on her back under it. Her favorite thing lately is to shake the living daylights out of anything you give her to see if it will make noise. She loves every kind of rattle.
She's one of those babies that will latch on to anything that touches her mouth, so usually at night I flip the dim headboard light on for a second to latch her on. Now, however, she immediately pulls off to look around if I turn the light on. Then if I can coax her to latch back on, she yanks off as soon as I turn the light off. One night we did this about 8 times in a row. Eventually I started giggling, and then she was so excited it was quite a while before I could talk her into nursing back to sleep. Now I've learned to latch her on safely even in pitch black so we can both stay nearly asleep.
I'm enjoying her so much, maybe even more so since my older ones are so busy and non-babyish now. I wish she'd stay little longer, though!

Interesting! My little boy was born May 28/03. He's such a cutie. He's BIG! He's EBF though so I hope it's okay - at his last checkup (3 1/2 weeks ago!), he was 20 pounds and 26 inches! He just started the raspberries and screeching and babbling for fun. He doesn't roll over a lot yet but he does touch his toes and I've seen stretching for things. He will go from side to tummy but not a complete roll. I think he's kind of high energy - he gets on his tummy, holds his head up and swings his legs up and down so hard - I think he's going to crawl!! He gets inside of his Exersaucer and jumps up and down like it's a trampoline! I've noticed lately he sees his toys and books when they are not near him and looks at them, looks at me and sticks out his hands. He is definitely noticing a lot more going on in the world.

And, I think he's taking after mommy - M o o d y! He smiles and laughs a lot and then suddenly bursts into tears. If he gets scared or upset when tired, he will cry so hard he turns red and coughs. I can calm him down easily but sometimes I have problems when my MIL is involved (that's a whole other thread).
I think he may have a temper, if it's possible to know. He gets frustrated and bangs things and grunts a lot! Or, he just cries. Then seconds later, he is all smiles again when the situation has changed.

I'm enjoying him so much! I just can't believe how much I love my little boy!

I love these updates It's so much fun to hear how all of Ollies birth buddies are doing

Ollie is doing great he's my fat baby lol, 5 1/2 months and almost 19lbs! I just find it so cool and hilarious Shiah was 19lbs at a year, he's wearing clothes she was walking around it
He is such a happy content little guy, all smiles and cuddles. He's rolling all over the place, he's still doing the army crawl thing and just yesterday starting sitting up on his own though he's not 100% stable yet. He LOVES!!!! his big sister and the two of them share some sort of language/joke or something it's so neat to watch. He'll babble and shriek at Shiah and she'll tell me he needs milk or cuddles lol. Every morning we all wake up Shiah gives Ollie a kiss and says "I love my Ollie" then they both lay in bed and giggle and giggle well I get ready for the day. If Ollie cries at all during the day she will run to him and dance or play peek a boo with him so he'll be happy till I can get there. I just can't beleive how wonderful life is right now. I'm so lucky.
Right now Seth is in the middle of several interviews for a better job which is exciting. If he gets this job we'll get to look for a house!
I'm so glad to hear everyone's doing well.

XM how are you liking being at home?

Anneliese is growing faster than a weed! She was last weighed and measured a month ago and was 19 pounds 7 ounces and 28.5 inches tall. No teeth yet but she's been working very hard on getting them. She loves to talk and will try to carry on a conversation with you taking turns to talk. She rolls tummy to back and back to tummy in both directions and can sit on her own. She will roll all the way across the room if she sees her favorite toy. She likes to sit and play with her toys now instead of being on her tummy. She's trying to get up on her hands and knees but hasn't figured out how to get both ends of the ground at the same time yet. She loves to stand and will hold onto the coffee table and stand on her own but doesn't pull herself up yet. She also loves to play onteh bed and giggle giggle giggle. She has the greatest grin, I just love it! And kisses, how could I forget the kisses. She loves to give big, wet, open mouth kisses (with tongue sometimes, eek!) and hugs to almost everyone she sees. It's cutest when she gives them to other babies. She saw her first cat the other day and laughed the moment she saw it. There may be a cat in our future We met with a plastic surgeon last month but her was a creep that does mostly noses and boobs so we're working on finding a new one.

Hi mamas!

After a month at home, I don't know how I was able to return from my maternity leave to FT work when ds was 6wks! : I love being a SAHM... wasn't sure I would (have never been very domestic, lol) but I definitely do. It's been so healing for me to immerse myself in just being his mama without having to worry about our next seperation. I am planning on starting a WAHM business as soon as I can put ds down long enough (read- till my mom comes over to hold him for me, lol) to unpack my fabric stash (I majored in fashion design).

Ezra is still CONSTANTLY in arms so getting anything done is a real challenge! But I figure for now at least that as long as the dipes are washed, Mike and I have clothes to wear, there's clean dishes, and the kitchen is tidy enough to make dinner then I am having a productive day! DS is the King of Marathon Nursing, so I spend hours every day in the Boobie Chair while he chomps, naps... then chomps some more. Mind you, he's not biting me (yet ) but he latches on with such a flourish that you can almost see the vintage Batman-style pop-up caption "CHOMP!" :LOL

Sometimes it's really fustrating to not be able to *do* things, but I know that soon enough he'll be less intensive and I'll miss the hours-long nursings Honestly, the mess bothers me more then Mike... anyone else in the same boat? I just cannot form coherent thought when our home is a mess!

As far as skills he is working on... he has perfected rolling over as a form of locomotion, is sitting up unassisted, scoots, stands on our laps, and has a lightning fast reach! He guestures for what he wants (often, it's me, lol). He seems to be on the verge of crawling... he was rocking back and forth on his hands and knees yesterday He loves to 'talk' and gets annoyed if he is interrupted... he actually communicates very well for someone who has no 'real' words, usually we can figure out what he's trying to 'say'. He LOVES anything techy (cellphone, etc) and has actually reconfigured some settings on our computer when I let him try out the keyboard. Mike scolded me for letting him play on it because he's tired of having to do a system restore every night :LOL cool part of this is that Ezra made the screen fonts several points larger and easier to read for Mama

He also tends to pant when he doesn't get what he wants (like the computer, lol)... it's hard not to laugh, he's just too funny! It's like his warning sound, like we have 60 seconds to honor his demands before he unleashes his wrath upon us

We are so smitten with him! What a magical guy! He is so aware, and when he smiles his whole face lights up. Even people who don't like kids love him! Our friend Josh was up a few weeks ago, and must have said, "you know, for a baby, he's pretty cute!", "most babies look stupid, but he really looks smart!", and "I wouldn't mind having a baby if it was cool like Ezra" a dozen times! He saw that ds was high-needs and voiced the opinion that if everyone held their babies as much as we do, they'd cry less and be more enjoyable. Is it just me, or are some of you suprised by the unexpected supporters of your parenting style? It was pretty funny, to us at least, that Josh was so charmed by our little man.

Right now he is working on those first teeth, not too horribly miserable, but drooling like a mad dog for sure. We LOVE Hyland's teething gel, but haven't tried the tabs... would love to hear an opinion from a mama who's used both. I'm going to miss his gummy smiles they are just too cute! It's hard to beleive that this time last year he was but a tiny passenger, and now he is our resident Benevolent Dictator

Last week I took Ezra in to my mom's office so she could show him off a little. She was literally beaming as she took him to all of her pals' offices, it was great. So many of her co-workers shared her excitement in becoming a grandma when I was pregnant with Xiola, and supported her in her sorrow when we lost our daughter... for them to get to meet Ezra really brought things full circle. We'll probably go again in a few more weeks.

I am so happy to hear that everyone else's babes are doing well! Janessa, Shiah and Ollie sound adorable! I hope Ezra and his next sibling get along as well. ChiknGirl, my good friend April (hotmamacita here on MDC) is hosting some kind of barter-potluck thing with Seamamas (which I keep forgetting to join, lol) and has invited me to come with ds to meet the group. She's up in Bothell, which is probably 45 minutes from you at least, but perhaps if you do come up we'll get a chance to meet.

XM

hope you all don't mind me jumping in here - i just found this site and forum!

ben was born on may 27th -- at 4 months, he was over 16 lbs. and 27.5" long -- he's lean and mean!

he's has been rolling over (front to back; hasn't gone the other way yet) for over a month, and he loves to stand and look around. he has the best giggle and a beautiful toothless smile! getting better with tummy time, and is almost sitting up.

he is such a joy! he makes everything better. he makes life, in general, better! we can't wait to give him a brother or sister (or more)!

thanks for letting me post!

Can I join to?
DS was born 5/17/03 at 6 1/2 pounds. Daniel has changed SO MUCH. He's always been very alert and aware of his surroundings, and for the first 2 1/2 - 3 months was very high needs and cried a lot and was difficult to calm once he had started. Now he giggles and talks and blows raspberries and kisses our cheeks all the time. He also likes to "hang" upside down. (He'll lie on our lap and arch his back until his head just comes off our knees) At 5 months he was 18.2 pounds, probably about 26 inches long/tall.

He's rolled over about 12 times (both ways about a month ago) but prefers to just lay on his back and observe the world. LOVES watching the dogs and cat and petting them. Bangs on the fish tank while watching the fish, watches out the van window and appears to at least somewhat enjoy a car ride every once in a while. He too latches on with a freciousity that is almost scary! I had hickies all over my boobs (lol) from his middle of the night comando attacks, but that's gotten better over the last week.

I love waking to him starting to stretch just as he's waking up, then he starts to coo a little and will finally look at me, deep in my eyes and then smile one of those priceless toothy grins that just lights up his entire face and goes straight to the bottom of my heart.

It's amazing that this time last year I hadn't even felt "Beanie" move yet and now, here he is cooing and standing on Papa's lap while I write this.

Thanks for sharing, this was fun!

Hi
Welcome Em and Kara You are most welcome to join in
XM I'm glad your enjoying being home so much . I know what you mean about the mess it drives me NUTS. Seth I swear is to good for me on a bad day he will come home clean the kitchen cook dinner help with the kids get us all to bed and clean the living room up after we are sleeping. On a great day the house is mostly clean no ones screaming and Seth can play with the kids well I cook. Sometimes the planets align perfectly and the house is clean everyones happy and dinners ready when he gets home.
Generally though the house is a mess when Seth gets home but everyones mostly happy and one of us cooks one plays with the kids. Then before bed the whole family picks up the living room and kitchen, then snack then bed. I found once we started the rule that toys etc are picked up before bed our days go so much easier and I don't feel so overwhelmed. It really only takes 10 minutes and yet makes such a big difference in my outlook the next day. Of course the reality is that it took my hmmmm a year and a half of Shiah's life to figure this out and put it into play. The rule in our house is the kids needs come first we won't remember if the house was clean today 10 years down the road but I will remember forever Shiah telling me that Ollie should pee on my head cause it would be funny lol
last thing from your post, hylands teething gel is all we have used since the tablets contain lactose so I can't compare but we have been very happy with the gel. We also really like Chamomile Calm by herbs for kids for it can really save the day on those I'm miserable, can't sleep but am overtired kinda days
Take care all and keep up the updates I love them
Janessa

I'm glad to hear all the May babies are doing well. I love hearing about Maggie's "month-mates."

Maggie is crawling like crazy all over the place, and the standing continues. Today, she actually cruised along the length of my husband who was laying on the floor. Yikes! I fear she will be walking sooner than I am prepared for. Today we moved all the furniture around and Maggie-proofed the family room. She is just too precocious- it scares me how much she does. At times I wish she would just slow down and be a little baby who rests more, etc. But, then again, when her new meds slowed her down a bit for the first week, I hated it. It would be one things if she was that way naturally, but to have her be drugged into submission, well, YUCK! But she adjusted to them and is pretty much her same old self.

Any May babies eating solids yet? Maggie is still EBF, and will be for at leat 2-4 weeks more, even though she seems ready for them (sits up, shows great interest in us eating, tries to get our food into her mouth, no tongue thrust, almost has the pincer grasp perfected, etc. Her med is thickish like baby food, and she gets spoon-fed it, and does great.) She will go to the pediatrician in two weeks and I will then discuss allergies with him. (He is great, BTW. He co-slept, recommended it, and is knowledgable enough about breastfeeding that he was aware of the peanut/breastfeeding study shortly after it was published. Now if they could just get the nurses in his office to be the same way- one told me eating pb was fine and to let Maggie CIO. NOT!) He implied that Maggie was at higher risk for allergies so I won't do anything until at least then. I am thinking avocados, pears, and plums to start. Are any of you planning on making your own food?

Looking forward to hearing more, so start bragging about your perfect babes!!!

We're not ready for solids yet here (although everyone I know seems to be obsessed with when my babe is going to eat "real" food.) I've always made my own baby food, though, for my other kids. We usually start with single fruits and veggies, like bananas, squash, apples, pears, sweet potato. The fruits I generally steam, then mash up. Bananas we just mash, avocado just scoop out and mash. Squash or sweet potato can be microwaved. For my littler babies I mash things up, but as they get older I just steam and then let the baby have pieces to mush up and eat. I also bake chicken breast in apple juice until it's very soft, then shred with a fork for my older babies.
I'm really enjoying this last bit of exclusive breastfeeding with what is probably my last child. Life is so much easier this way! She does show a lot of interest in our food, though, and usually I now have to nurse her and eat with one hand since she's irritated by me eating in front of her!
This week she learned to sit alone, a few days before she turned 5 mos. Now she loves to sit with a pile of toys and play. She's chewing her toys like crazy, but I don't see any teeth yet.
My favorite new thing is that she interrupts herself nursing to play with me. She thinks its funny to latch on for a few seconds, then pull off and giggle. She tries to stick her fingers in my mouth and giggles. She thinks it's so funny she gets me going, to. She's such a happy person, I can't wait to get home every day to be with her. I just wish she'd stay little for just a while longer.

Hi
Ollie wants to move so badly, in the last few weeks it's like he forgot how to army crawl like he was doing before and now is just going backwards and pissing him self off. He gets all over the place. He's just figuring out how to balance himself sitting up for a week or so now though I still don't trust him without the boppy or me to catch him. He's way to brave so different from Shiah she didn't even try anything until she could do it perfectly. I think Ollie is going to be a throw himself in and think about how to swim after the fact kinda kid lol
I don't think we're anywhere near food yet, Shiah didn't want to even try solids till about 10 months and didn't really eat like a meal until 14 months or so. Ollie I think will probably eat sooner then that but still not for awhile. When he does though he will eat foods that I make, we are pretty cautious with solids because of severe allergies in my family so it's one thing at a time for a week before trying something new. We started with sweet potatoes with Shiah but she reacted to them so I will probably start with something different for Ollie. If you plan on making your own baby food (which is really easy by the way ) I really recommend Super Baby Foods shoot I forget the authors name Ruth something. Some of her advice I think is a little outdated been awhile since I read it but there are tonnes of good information on when to introduce what food and how to prepare them. I particularly found it helpful since I didn't grow up will all the variaty there is in the states so had no idea how to tell if a mango, or avacado etc was ripe or how to eat it. She also has some really good cereal reciepes that Shiah still loves and they are so good for her.
Janessa

I definitely plan on making Maggie's food. I will probably buy Super Food as well as Cathe's book. I don't WANT to give Maggie any food yet- I may hold off for a couple more months. But I don't know if Maggie will tolerate it. She REALLY seems to want to eat and actually loves her medicine now. We will see how the whole thing plays out.

Janessa, Maggie is a no-fear baby, too. It is scary!!!

Hi everyone!

I've been so busy I haven't been to the board in almost a month!

Ozaiis is keeping me super busy. He's not a fussy baby but is definitely high needs. Doesn't like to play alone, prefers for me to be holding him or playing with him - which is fine, but doesn't allow me to get much done.
DH is on a week's vacation right now and we spent the last two days cleaning the apt. from top to bottom.

Ozaiis is such a joy. He is full of giggles and smiles and silly noises. The other day he was laughing at the cats, who were chasing each other around. He loves to try and grab their tails. The kittens won't go near him, but Sabbath loves him and will let him pull on him and yank and never gets upset at all.. simply walks away when he's had enough.

Drooling like crazy, CRAZY, but no teeth yet. We're thinking there might be one soon though.
He's been sitting up for over a month now. I only remember this because we got pictures taken a month ago and he sat alone for them. If he reaches too far over to the side and falls over, he will put his arm out when I reach for it to pull him up. It's so cute. When he's sitting and gets mad at something (usually a toy out of reach, or if he's bored) he will repeatedly slap his hand lightly on his leg.

He did figure out how to roll both ways (almost rolled off the couch today), but prefers to attempt crawling. He mostly scoots backwards and gets frustrated, so we're dealing with a crankypants lately. He's got the hang of being on all fours and rocking, but hasn't figured out how to move one limb at a time yet, so all four come out from under him at the same time and he flaps around and gets upset. I can't wait for him to start crawling and stop getting frustrated at his inability to do so. He is able to go back and forth from sitting to a crawling position though, that helps him move a bit.
Whenever he wants up, he puts his arms up and says 'mmmmmmmummmmmmmummmmm'. He also does that if he's upset and DH is holding him.

I don't know how much he weighs or how long he is. I need to check again. We haven't been to the ped since August I think, maybe June. I did weigh him on Oct. 3 and he was about 18.5 lbs. 25" or so. (was 8lbs 6oz, 20" at birth)

He finally got his first bottle of EBM. DH has been wanting to feed him forEVER (his daughter was FF by him and that's how they bonded), and I pumped like crazy so we could go out for halloween, and Ozaiis wouldn't take a bottle from his 'surrogate' grandma (friend's mom), but took one from DH yesterday.

We've been dealing with awful eye infections, averaging 1.5 a month. Massaging his tear ducts frequently, but he may have to have them opened.
He's also tongue-tied, but I'm not worried about it as he makes noises a lot and it doesn't seem to bother him, but we will keep an eye on it as he begins talking.