november '04 mamas: april, the chelsea-stalking thread!

Chiropractc usually helps ...I know, I'm a broken record.

Anyone have thoughts on when to move from a crib to big girl bed?

I desperately need chiropractic here..wish I could afford it right now!!

No thoughts on the crib..mine doesn't sleep in one..we are a family bed family..Eli is in his own room now but Tom has to lay with him until he falls asleep still..some nights he is fine all night..other nights he comes to our room. The whole purpose of a king tempurpedic bed..more room and less stiffness LOL Sophie is still in with me and since she sleeps 6 hours straight it isn't a hardship..only time she's restless is when she is teething (she got her first molar..waiting for others) or right now sometimes with the allergies. She and I are very congested and icky with tree pollen allergies..I'm gonna buy some claritin today to see if that works because I can't do benedryl in the daytime lest I be loopy..

We've had a hard immune season here, Jenn..mostly tummy bugs..these are so darn virulent..I really do need more chiropractic but it's out of the budget just now (we're painfully constrained until a home equity line comes thru). I can't do echinacea as I'm allergic to ragweed and daisy too..no chamomile either (don't like it anyway). So..I just take vitamins and hope..this last winter does make me never want to go out again though !! I think now that I'm pulling Eli out of school after May we'll do a lot better around here.

No other updates..new pics of the kids are always at:
http://photobucket.com/albums/y17/megjobes

Hi ladies, I feel like it's been ages since I've posted to these threads. We've been insanely busy for the past few months, and I feel like an AP failure lately, thus, my avoidance of MDC. I lost ya'll a couple months back and I just would never think of looking the thread up when I was at the computer.

They've changed so much in the past couple months. I feel like Bronwynn is a big girl now. She's really starting to talk too. My older dd had all of 5 words when she turned 2. Bronwynn has mimicked 20-30 words, she only spontaneously says maybe 10 words. She asked for a hotdog a couple days ago when we went out to eat. My older dd loves hotdogs, so Bronwynn hears the word frequently. Today she asked for orange juice and then when they were watching Dora, I heard her said Hola back to the t.v. So cute!

I just moved Bronwynn and Scheeli from our room into their own room. Scheeli was sleeping in a toddler bed next to our bed and Bronwynn had always slept with us. They are now sharing a full size bed in another bedroom. However, Bronwynn usually wakes up sometime in the early morning, around 3-4 a.m. and comes into my bed. I tell her that it's okay to come sleep with mommy if she wakes up and feels like she needs me. One big benefit that has come from this, is that Scheeli is actually learning from little sister and doing the same thing. She has always been one that would just cry and cry when she wakes up, unless it's actually morning and she's ready to get up. So, they both came into my bed early this morning at different times, which I am completely okay with. As long as I can get some uninterrupted sleep half the night and I don't have to get out of bed to go get them, I'm a happy mommy.

Bronwynn is still nursing, but most days I try to limit her to nursing upon waking, once during the day sometime (that varies from day to day) and at bedtime, and of course, she still nurses half the night, at least 2-3 times after coming into my bed. I'm very tired of nursing and ready to be done, but she is far from ready to be done with it. She brings me her Boppy and signs "milk" fervently when she wants some. If I tell her no, not right now, she goes into total meltdown mode until I'm able to distract her with something else.

Well, this post is long enough, so I guess that's it from us for now. Meg, the pictures of the kids are great! Still not much hair for Sophie, huh? Oh well. I have a friend whose daughter hardly had any hair until she was 2 and then by the age of 3 she had tons of hair, down past her shoulders.

dawn, it's true, i'm due for an adjustment. it's ironic that when we feel the worst, we don't go in...but i'd hate to infect everyone there and whomever i get to watch hazel!

we're asking that big-girl bed question around here, too: i'd prefer to go straight to a twin, because one of us always lies down with her to put her to sleep, and we have half-unconsciously shifted her from her crib to this foam foldy thing we keep in her room for guests, because of not wanting to move her after she falls asleep. our main concern is that she not fall out, so i'm looking for a nice low twin and a rail. she still comes to bed with us at 3 or so, and scheelimama's post has me dreaming of the day that she can climb out of bed and come in all on her own.

meg, your kids are adorable. the big ones and the little ones! i feel like i've watched eli turn into a kid. and the knitting! those halters are amazing. i wish hazel could wear something like that before, uh, october--as it is, i'm planning my first-ever sweater for her, of alpaca, to wear during the chilly san francisco summer.

i just put her to bed in training pants and wool for the first time ever! she wakes up dry all the time, and the morning potty is becoming more and more dependable, so we'll see...

hey, any word from/about chelsea?

*jennifer

Oh how I remember how cold it is in SF in the summer!! Not the best city for halter tops for sure I really want more cold weather to use up all this wool, though. I guess I'll just make some more soakers and cotton tops. My next project will be a tank top in the round..I love knitting in the round And thank you..I just love knitting..sewing too when I get the chance..I think in there is my first peasant top, which was sinfully easy to do..I have more planned since I have a ton of fabric I inherited from someone who has decided to stop sewing..and I want desparately to embellish her hand me down overalls and shortalls from her brother with ruffles and such.

Yeah..we've had an unidentified poop bug here this week too, though I suspect that DH gave the kids straight apple juice since they both have it and the adults are OK. Today is better at least. Toilet training with Eli is becoming crazed though..he gets the idea, but removes his diaper just AFTER he does something in it and THEN goes to the potty..sigh..

Where oh Where is Chelsea??

Happy April everyone! Can you believe our kiddos are almost 18 months old? Abhi all of a sudden is not a baby anymore. She's walking, talking, and potty training! Her babysitter decided to start potty training Abhi and the other 2 kids she watches, so we are trying to be consistant at home. She has started telling us "potty" and using the sign, but it usually means she just went. She has gone pee pee on the potty for me, usually in the morning as soon as she wakes up or right after naptime. Anyone else potty training? I am new at this, so I have no idea how to do this.

Abhi finally has enough hair for pigtails, although she won't leave them in. We got her to leave them in long enough for a picture the other day....

Abhi's pigtails She looks like such a big-girl!

So, anyone heard from Chelsea? I am excited for her! I think I am next in line for baby. I am 19 weeks 3 days today. Here's a belly picture at 18 weeks.

18 week belly

I am due 08/29/06 - anyone else pregnant right now? I think Chelsea mentioned how she's not as connected to her due date club as with this one and I feel the same way. It's probably b/c I am so busy with Abhi that I don't have as much time to spend on the computer as I did when I was pregnant with her!

Hope everyone is doing well!

Quote:
SORRY SORRY SORRY SORRY!!!

My computer blew up on Saturday night, and it's been in the repair shop ever since! I so jinxed myself.......no labor here!

Just got it back yesterday, and Livi and I are in the coffee shop downloading my Netscape software so I can connect from home again. Dumb thing fried my Windows XP, internet connection software, Microsoft Money, Microsoft Office, and almost everything else important, but kept my cribbage game.

Luckily the $100 it cost me to get it fixed meant that all my pictures were saved from the last five months! First thing I did was burn them all onto CDs--I'll be smarter next time.

So yeah, don't be lighting those candles yet! Sorry to make you all stalk me, but nothin's happening with my cervix, that's for sure!! LOL!

Chelsea - Oh damn. I thought for sure you had your baby and were busy with your babymoon! Stupid computers.

Things are good here. Livi is more fun every day. She is getting her first molar, how exciting! I happened to see it when I was rolling her around the floor and she was laughing, and she actually let me stick my finger in her mouth to feel. Sure enough! It's about 1/2 way through. I was so excited and told her she was getting a big-girl tooth and she had to feel it herself.

We're sticking with the crib until it becomes a climbing danger. We're 100% weaned now, with no tears... and my child who woke every 1-2 hours at night for SIX MONTHS now goes to sleep on her own for naps and bedtime, and sleeps through the night. I'm so proud of her!

I know most of you are no where near ready to wean, but please don't judge me. It was the right time for us. I'm ready for my body to be my own again, and in my heart I felt like 17 months of nursing was enough. I do have a question, though. How soon after you've weaned does your body go back to normal? Normal cycles, hormones, etc?

Chelsea, I'm glad you let us know what is going on. I hope the home stretch treats you well

I don't have any post breastfeeding time frame for you Monica b/c my daughter self weaned when I was 3/4 months pregnant so I've been in a perpetual hormone flux. Fortunately it hasn't been an issue for me. At one point I really wanted a year of a pregnancy/nursing free body but with Ellington so attached to the breast it doesn't appear that I'm going to get that wish if I plan on conceiving early next year...I think that as a group we're pretty non judgemental and I'm always excited for people when they reach developmental milestones with their children

We have reached one in regards to our morning routine. My kids love sharing a room and have started entertaining each other in the morning which gives me an extra 20 minutes in the morning. Ellington has never tried to climb out of his crib but he has never spent this much time alone and awake in it before. Fortunately my daughter is a little anal about safety, (she once had a a certifiable breakdown when her grandmother didn't do her car seat buckles correctly) so I know one move on his part and she'll sound the alarm!

Take Care

Quote:
We started in February, and finished last week. I think my style was "Gentle Mama-Led Weaning". She was nursing 8-10 times in 24 hrs. To start with I stopped offering and would only nurse her when she asked. Then I reduced to 4: In the morning when she woke up, before her nap, before bedtime and her nightime nursing around 4:00 am.

Slowly over time I removed one feeding, then waited a few weeks, then removed one more, starting with her least favorite time to nurse. The first one I took out was the morning nursing. About a month later she took out her nightime nursing all on her own. Basically, she just started sleeping through the night. (No crying it out or any of that nonsense.)

Then about two weeks ago (that is how slowly I went) we stopped the nap time nursing. The first time she looked a little distressed and signed "nurse" at me, but I told her it was okay and she calmed right down, no crying. I then laid down on her floor next to the crib until she went to sleep. She played for a while, and a couple of times I had to say "Ssshhh." After two days of that she was ready to go to sleep on her own without me in the room.

I planned on leaving the bedtime nursing for a long time, but it was pointless because I pretty much stopped making milk. She would get nothing at all out of one breast, and about half an ounce (or less) out of the other. A couple of nights she got nothing. (No let down, no swallowing, no milk.) So after a week of trying to only nurse at night, I stopped that one and did the same routine of lying by the crib until she went to sleep for a couple of nights.

Weaned. Ta da. I read up on weaning on Kellymom, and read some weaning stories and that is how I got the knowledge of how to do it gently, slowly, and with no tears. I hope I made the right choice. But sometimes you just have to trust yourself, kwim?

This is for Dawn...
LLL of Cumming will be meeting this wed morning at 10am at the new Northside Worship Center at 2820 Brookwood Road 30041

Hugs the rest of you..molar teething fun still going on here

Quote:
Well, we aren't completely weaned yet, but we're working on it. I'm just so ready to have my body back. And, maybe I'm just really weird, but lately when she nurses, it does things to my body that isn't right. My husband has been away for 6 weeks now and I'm one that enjoys sex and my body is having a hard time not getting it. So, having a little one suck on my boob is not good right now. Okay, I know that those kind of feelings can be normal, but I don't like it one bit, so I've definetely cut down on her nursing times because of that too.

Basically, I have been doing more distracting when she asks and not offering milk. I only give it to her on a regular basis before bedtime, sometime during the night (not always if she doesn't ask for it, like last night) and always first thing in the morning. I think the middle of the night snacks will be the last to go. She's never regularly nursed to sleep, so that helps with the weaning since she's not dependent on it. She would nurse to sleep some, and I've been working very hard to limit or get rid of that all together. We read stories and then I sit with her and Scheeli and rub their backs until they go to sleep. Same for naptime. She hardly nurses during the day at all now. Only if she is not feeling well or having a particularly rough day. She does nurse back to sleep during the night and always has done that, so that will be the hardest to give up. However, last night she woke up, came into my room, crawled into bed with me and just cuddled up with me and went back to sleep without nursing. What a treat! So, I think we are definitely on the weaning track. We probably would have been weaned by now, since I also began trying to cut back on nursing back in February, but our lives have been in constant chaos for months now and we are only now settling into a consistent routine.

Mary, Bronwynn started asking to use the potty about 2 weeks ago now. The very first time she sat on it, she peed. Yippee! She has sat on it maybe a dozen more times and has yet to pee on it again, but at least she is asking. She was tugging at her pants one day and I asked if she wanted to use the potty and she went running to the bathroom. She has big sister as a role model, however. I encouraged potty use with my older one and would try to put her on the potty after waking in the morning or after naps, but never pushed it. She started potty training early, but did not finally potty train completely until 2.5 yrs and that was pretty much on her own, with just a little encouragement to give up diapers completely. My biggest advice is encourage it, don't have any expectations of them (or you will be sorely disappointed and even feel angry), and don't ever push it (or they will push the other way).

Haven't posted in a while, and I only have a second, but here is the quick update! Amelia is of course as delicious as ever. We've made a list of 70 words she uses regularly! But no walking yet! I think walking is still a month away! Meanwhile, we love talking with her -- it is so much fun. I think the cutest has to be when someone sneezes and she says, "bess you!"

We are anxious for spring to fully kick in, so we can get out more. I am still working 4 days a week -- but it looks like I'll be quitting in June -- yeah!!!

We set up a crib mattress next to our mattress on the floor, with rails. She spends half the night in her bed and half in ours. She slept 7 hours straight two nights ago for the first time, but last night she was back to her regular waking schedule of every two hours. Still nursing like crazy. And eating massive amounts of food (and poops to match). She also signs prior to needing to make a poop, and we put her on the potty and she does her thing.

Well -- that seems like a good place to end! I enjoy hearing about all the kiddies and how much they are growing!