PS Mommy Thread-Newborn to 12 months!

[cdt1101]

Date: 1/8/2010 1:55:56 PM
Author: mela lu
good suggestions so far...what other veggies are easy and a hit?

ONE MORE QUESTION.

It seems Romeo has his naps backwards. He gives me a 1 hr 15 min nap every morning. (to the tee). The afternoon nap is spotty; at 20 or 30 (maaaaaybe 40) mins tops. What can I do to lengthen this? It''s absurd!!

We''ve also done zucchini, but it''s pretty soft, so he will be able to "eat" some it. Lex made the gagging sound and DH freaked out...the end of zucchini for us..at least while DH is around

 

[neatfreak]

Mela Do you have Trader Joes there? We buy all their frozen veggie mixes and then just nuke them. The boys LOVE them and have since they were little. And it''s easy for mom and more nutritious than fresh produce if it''s been sitting around for a long time or isn''t in season.

And I am like Pandora, I''ve given them everything basically. I try to stay away from sugar filled things except for special occasions and I also don''t give them anything they can choke on or that is really hard to chew. But otherwise it''s open season on food around here.

 

[ChinaCat]

Quick question: how do you keep your little ones warm enough at night? It generally isn''t too cold where we live and with the heat on I was concerned with him being too hot when he slept. When we swaddled him, he was always warm when he woke up.

Now it''s freezing here (in the teens and 20''s) and we live in an old house so even with the heat, it gets cold. We aren''t swaddling anymore, so need to find a way to keep him warm. Not ready to use blankets, he flips over too much.

Right now I put him in footie pj''s and a regular halo sleep sack.

Thoughts? Fiery, I KNOW you or your MIL have an answer to this one!

 

[Blenheim]

Mela - meatballs. LOL. Really, we just feed him whatever, as long as it''s reasonably healthy, not a choking hazard, and not nuts/shellfish. It''s easier for them to grasp really slippery things like avocado if you leave a little bit of the skin on for them to hold on to. Just watch that they eat the avocado itself and not the skin.

CDT - seeing as he has "conversations" with people, it may just be that he''s not in the mood for people in his face sometimes.

I think that George did that some at that age, but our pediatrician was not concerned as he was able to interact with people.

Hanging onto clothing - this is a disagreement that DH and I have. DH wants to hold onto everything, while I just want to hold onto the nicer ones. There''s no guarantee about gender or season for the next one, but I decided that it''s not worth fighting over. We are keeping most clothing, as well as some other outgrown stuff (diapers, bouncy seat) for the next kid since we are positive that we are having more and as we tried to go gender neutral for early baby stuff and for gear type stuff.

Around here-
I''ve decided that George needs to move to a crib for naps and for early bedtime. He''d been sleeping in a crib at daycare, but I''ve basically been conapping (i.e. in the room on my laptop) for most of his naps since we''ve moved and I''m tired of it. DH doesn''t see the need for the crib, but he''s also not the one here for naptime. It''s taken over an hour to get him down for each of his naps today, as anytime he touches the crib he just starts screeching. Ugh. He''s finally sleeping peacefully, in the crib, right now.

We''ve noticed in the past couple of weeks that George''s right eye intermittently wanders off to the side. I know that this is something to catch early and treat, and we''re definitely going to mention it to the pediatrician at his 9 month visit, but does anyone have experience with this kind of thing?

Also, as far as babyproofing cords go - BRU had a 16" jacket that you can put over the cord that''s $13/2, which seems absurd. Any other ideas, sources, etc?

 

[sunkist]

Date: 1/7/2010 12:45:27 PM
Author: taovandel

We are struggling with naps now that he ''sleeps through the night''. He fights taking naps unless being held...he wasn''t like this before. So today, I''m trying to get him to use the crib for his naps.


I just put him down a few minutes ago---fingers crossed....

Tao, we''re struggling with the same thing. Wes won''t nap at home unless I''m holding him! So after reading everyone''s posts on napping I''m trying right now just soothing him when he cries and hoping he goes back to sleep. I just used the pacifier too...

But why is it that at home he naps for 10 mins and wakes up and when we''re out running errands he can nap for an hour or two? I wish we could nap like that at home too. But I don''t know if that is asking too much of him.

He has been going a little longer at night though. The past two nights he went down around 10pm, woke around 1:30am and then not again until 6am! So I think that''s pretty cool

How early are you guys putting your babies down for the night?? Is 10pm too late for 8 weeks old? My husband and I have always been night owls since hubby doesn''t get off work till late and we have dinner anytime from 9pm to 11pm, depending on when he gets home. Now with Wes, he''s been going to bed around 10pm and waking up for the day around 9am.

 

[fieryred33143]

Date: 1/8/2010 4:31:29 PM
Author: sunkist

How early are you guys putting your babies down for the night?? Is 10pm too late for 8 weeks old? My husband and I have always been night owls since hubby doesn''t get off work till late and we have dinner anytime from 9pm to 11pm, depending on when he gets home. Now with Wes, he''s been going to bed around 10pm and waking up for the day around 9am.

Hi Sunkist!

Sophia was sleeping between 9 and 10pm at that age. I followed her cues. Slowly she started demanding an earlier bedtime and at around 5 months, she switched to sleeping at 7:30pm.

Are you returning to work at 12 weeks? If so, then I would try to start an earlier bedtime routine just so that you have more time in the evening for yourself. Around 12 weeks, I switched her to go to bed between 8:30 and 9pm so that I had the rest of the evening (I also go to bed around 11/midnight) to iron, clean up, and get stuff ready for the next day.

 

[taovandel]

I was also wondering about bedtime. E used to fall asleep around 10 and I''m noticing he is naturally falling asleep around 8:30-9:00 now. I go back to work in 2 weeks (

) so like fiery said, I''ll probably appreciate the "me" time I''ll get at night--as I normally don''t go to bed until 10:30 or so.


China: As for clothes at night. We are just doing a footed sleeper and his swaddle-me. His room is really really drafty, so I''m always paranoid about that but he doesn''t like hats and if I try one it''s normally ripped off by the morning.

He''s napping next to me in his boppy pillow....so much for napping in the crib.

Thanks Mela...we are convinced he is the cutest baby ever...

 

[fieryred33143]

Date: 1/8/2010 3:48:12 PM
Author: ChinaCat
Quick question: how do you keep your little ones warm enough at night? It generally isn''t too cold where we live and with the heat on I was concerned with him being too hot when he slept. When we swaddled him, he was always warm when he woke up.

Now it''s freezing here (in the teens and 20''s) and we live in an old house so even with the heat, it gets cold. We aren''t swaddling anymore, so need to find a way to keep him warm. Not ready to use blankets, he flips over too much.

Right now I put him in footie pj''s and a regular halo sleep sack.

Thoughts? Fiery, I KNOW you or your MIL have an answer to this one!

bwahahahahaha!

We''ve been having the same issue since it''s in the upper 40s at night (that''s freezing for us!) and we have yet to put on the heater. Sophia''s room is the coldest room in the house so on nights when it is just too cold, I move her into the bedroom in her PNP with us. She has fleece feet pjs and I put a long-sleeved onesie and socks on underneath. I also throw a blanket on top of her and figure that if she is either too hot or too cold, she''ll let me know. The other night she was too warm while in our room so she picked her head up, screamed, I took the blanket off, and she plopped back down to sleep. It was pretty silly.

 

[Dreamer_D]

Date: 1/8/2010 1:55:56 PM
Author: mela lu
good suggestions so far...what other veggies are easy and a hit?

ONE MORE QUESTION.

It seems Romeo has his naps backwards. He gives me a 1 hr 15 min nap every morning. (to the tee). The afternoon nap is spotty; at 20 or 30 (maaaaaybe 40) mins tops. What can I do to lengthen this? It''s absurd!!

Hunter did this. Nothing wrong with it being longer in ther am. Try waitng longer to put him down in the afternoon? Seems counter what you often hear but works for us. He may be ready.

 

[Dreamer_D]

China We bought a fleecy sleeper that is a szie too big and he wears that over his cotton sleeper.

 

[mela lu]

Date: 1/8/2010 7:06:02 PM
Author: dreamer_dachsie
China We bought a fleecy sleeper that is a szie too big and he wears that over his cotton sleeper.

I second this idea

We do a long sleeved onsie under a cotton sleeper, then in a thick sleep sack. He likes the sleep sack because he doesnt flip over at night. For babies who roll, I''d go with what DD says and do the double sleeper.

Has anyone given their baby BEETS yet? I love roasted beets, and will give them to him soon - I just wonder what it will do to his pee and poo! LOL

Dreamer - I''ll try putting him down later in the pm...we''ll see if that helps. Something has to give - it''s WAY too long to be awake for in the afternoon!

 

[Dreamer_D]

Date: 1/8/2010 8:34:10 PM
Author: mela lu

Date: 1/8/2010 7:06:02 PM
Author: dreamer_dachsie
China We bought a fleecy sleeper that is a szie too big and he wears that over his cotton sleeper.

I second this idea

We do a long sleeved onsie under a cotton sleeper, then in a thick sleep sack. He likes the sleep sack because he doesnt flip over at night. For babies who roll, I''d go with what DD says and do the double sleeper.

Has anyone given their baby BEETS yet? I love roasted beets, and will give them to him soon - I just wonder what it will do to his pee and poo! LOL

Dreamer - I''ll try putting him down later in the pm...we''ll see if that helps. Something has to give - it''s WAY too long to be awake for in the afternoon!

It will make both very red! Don''t be scared! It isn''t blood. Real blood in poops is black.

 

[Mandarine]

Naps I started doing naps in their cribs a couple of weeks ago...basically because they were not sleeping too soundly in the living room and the dog loves to bark at ANYTHING outside and kept waking them up!.

Yesterday was Day2 of "kick the rocking habit"...they did so GOOD!!!

. DOwn for the morning nap in TWO minutes. We were then running around s they slept in the car seats/stroller and then for bedtime it took THREE minutes and they were out!. This morning''s nap took about 2 minutes and they''ve been sleeping for like 40 minutes.

My boys are not long nappers. The longest nap they take at home is like 1 hour (if I''m lucky!). Unless of course once they''re out I have a crazy thought like "maybe I''ll nap too"..then they''re up in 5 minutes. Not joking!. Little jerks (just kidding, just kidding!)

Bedtime From pretty early on they liked an early bedtime. It started to be like 8pm at around 4 weeks and now sometimes they are ready as early as 7pm!. You can pretty much tell when they are ready because after their 6:0pm bottle they start fussing when they are ready to go and get calm as soon as they''re swaddled!.

ChinaI saw at Target they had "sleep sacks"...pretty much they looked like bigger fleece PJs. Once we stop swaddling I think I will just use those over their regular PJs

Hanging on to clothing Luckily, most of what I have have been hand me downs from the Twin''s group!. I''ve bought very few things...and I''m glad because they outgrow everything SO quickly!. I''m only keeping a few things that are special (a gift, coming home outfit, etc). The rest I will probably give to my nanny''s niece (teenage pregnancy

) or to new mom''s in the twin''s group.

 

[Sabine]

I''m still a page behind in reading, but wanted to reply to cdt!

I''ve noticed that Jacks will NOT look at me while I''m holding him. If I try to look at him, he turns his head, so I go to the other side, and he turns it the other way. It worried me at first until I noticed that if dh holds him, right next to me on the couch, he stares at me like no other and makes tons of eye contact. It doesn''t matter how close or far, he''ll look at me and make eye contact, just not when I''m holding him. He does the same thing to dh, won''t look when dh is holding him, but will look at him if I''m holding him or he''s sitting or something. So I''ve concluded it''s just something weird that he doesn''t like to look at who''s holding him.

Will Lex make eye contact when you set him down, when he''s eating, etc.? If so, I wouldn''t worry about it at all!

 

[Sabine]

Okay, more...
Hanging on to stuff...we''ve kept almost all our clothes so far, but I''d like to get rid of some of it if I can find a good place to give it. I''ve sold a lot of stuff that I didn''t end up using much, like the boppy, nursing bras, sling, etc. on craigslist. I do plan to keep a lot of the gear since we got gender neutral stuff, but it''s going to be such a pain since we don''t plan on having another until dh is out of the navy in 4 years, and we''ll be moving a TON between now and then. I''m hoping we can figure something out where we can put stuff in storage and just leave it till we''re done.

Nighttime clothes...I put ds in a footed fleece sleeper most nights and he is fine. If it''s really super cold, I put him in a cotton footed sleeper with a fleece sleep sack over it, and I also sometimes use the fleece sleep sack over his clothes for naps.

Napping...some days ds does great and takes a 2 hour morning nap and a 2 hour afternoon nap (and usually a quick cat nap). Other days, he fights his morning nap like crazy. I basically had to re-sleep train him for naps this morning because he''s been teethign so bad that I''ve given in and gone in and rocked him/given him the paci if he takes more than 15 minutes to go down for his first nap, and I think he started thinking "ok, if I cry for this long, mom will come in and rock/hold me" so today I let him cry and after 40 minutes he finally fell asleep and has been sleeping for an hour!

Speaking of, does anyone else''s lo take a LONG time to REALLY wake up in the morning? I think our nap problem stemmed from the fact that he wakes up at like 6, but then if I leave him, he falls back to sleep till after 7, but if I stay awake and watch him, he tosses and turns a lot in that hour and doesn''t seem to be really soundly sleeping. I think I should just get him up at 6 because then he''s more likely to take a first nap.

 

[cdt1101]

Date: 1/9/2010 9:21:18 AM
Author: Sabine
I'm still a page behind in reading, but wanted to reply to cdt!

I've noticed that Jacks will NOT look at me while I'm holding him. If I try to look at him, he turns his head, so I go to the other side, and he turns it the other way. It worried me at first until I noticed that if dh holds him, right next to me on the couch, he stares at me like no other and makes tons of eye contact. It doesn't matter how close or far, he'll look at me and make eye contact, just not when I'm holding him. He does the same thing to dh, won't look when dh is holding him, but will look at him if I'm holding him or he's sitting or something. So I've concluded it's just something weird that he doesn't like to look at who's holding him.

Will Lex make eye contact when you set him down, when he's eating, etc.? If so, I wouldn't worry about it at all!

Thanks Sabine! It sounds EXACTLY like what Jacks does. Like it's more that he turns away as if I'm annoying him

Last night and this morning I made a point to not get in his face and force it and while he still would rather look around, he definitely makes eye contact w/ me when I start talking, he just doesn't hold much interest for long

. I'm still going to bring it up to my pedi, but I'm not really concerned at this point. Thanks for chiming in!

 

[sbde]

china: do you have any long sleeved onesies that can fold over his hands? we used those underneath a fleece sleeper and that helped when J was younger. i noticed it was mostly the exposed hands that would get chilly so covering them up was our solution.

mela: if romy won''t hold any slippery food a quick fix is to roll it in some baby cereal or crushed up cheerios. i did that with J to help him when he was eating things like banana pieces or avocado that would be too slippery. that added covering of the cereal makes it easy for them to pick up.

 

[Mandarine]

So the little ones have been going to bed like at 7ish (last bottle at 6:30pm). They wake up anywhere from 2am to 4 am to eat and then they sleep again until 7am. One time Lucas made it to 6am and Alex to 5 am! (but that only happened once!). Anyway, so I had this idea to give the dream feed a second chance to see if they could stretch out to 6am. So at 10pm we went in and gave them a bottle. They each ate like 3 oz.

It was a disaster!. One of them woke up fussing at 1am...then they were both up and HUNGRY and 2:30am. They didn''t sleep soundly all night and were up by 6:15am.

Why is that? do you guys think it''s because it disrupts their natural clock? did anyone else see this with their LOs?. Not sure if you remember, but I used to to a dream feed a while back and decided to drop it and that''s when they went from 3 feedings/night to 2. So it''s not like it was a one night fluke..I think dream feeds just don''t work for us...

Won''t be trying THAT again!!!!. I''m so exhausted!!!

 

[taovandel]

I''m thinking it messed up their internal clock...like maybe they thought the 10 feeding was their normal 2 feeding...so they woke up at 2 thinking it was 7? No clue really...but thanks for saying this---I definitely won''t be trying to bring the dream feed back!

 

[Mandarine]

yeah...I won''t be trying again. I rather them wake up at 4am and sleep until 7am!. I think eventually they will start stretching it out. It was 1am first, then 2, then 3, then 4 and we do get the occasional 4:30-5am!

 

[taovandel]

We went to my work holiday party last night...Evan was a complete angel the entire time--smiling and cooing at everyone! We came home at 10 and he went to bed at 1030 and didn''t get up until 6!! he then went back down and slept for another hour.....hope that continues.

Keeping clothes: So far we are keeping everything...we plan on trying again early next year...and some of the clothes aren''t seasonal and are gender neutral....he''s only filled one diaper box so far...so it isn''t a lot of clutter yet.

 

[mela lu]

MAndy - re: dream feeds. I (personally) don''t believe in them. Why wake up a perfectly sleeping child for something they don''t want or even need? I''ve never seen the benefit of them, although a lot of moms here do them (with "success" meaning it didnt'' reek havoc). I think in your case if effed with their natural internal clock. Since you''ve been letting them wake up when hungry on their own, the dream feed basically went against their natural order of things. Hang in there. Either they will stretch it out until morning on their own, or if you feel that they are waking up (between 2 and 4am) out of habit, rather than true hunger, then just don''t feed them anymore. Try pacifying them back to sleep instead. A couple nights of this will do the trick, and they will be sleeping through in a matter of a few days (of this). Good luck Momma!

 

[neatfreak]

Mandarine-dream feeds never did anything but wake them up for us either. Ditch em.

 

[Dreamer_D]

Date: 1/10/2010 12:47:37 PM
Author: neatfreak
Mandarine-dream feeds never did anything but wake them up for us either. Ditch em.

yup.

 

[taovandel]

i was going to say Go Patriots...but we are doing horrible right now....

 

[AmberWaves]

Sorry to be such a "taker" ladies, but I have a question: Piper has been stuffed up the last couple of days and we''ve been using the saline solution thing which helps. This morning she sneezed about 7 times in a row then went back to smiling. She''s also sounding a little phlegmy, but has been eating/sleeping normally. I wouldn''t worry otherwise but a few times she has these gasping breaths like she forgot to breathe (which she has had before), but it just seems a little more recurrent. Is this a cold? I''m going to get a humidifier, but don''t know if it''s cold or warm mist. Should I call the pedi? That thread with the poor family who lost the baby to pertussis and rsv has me panicked.

 

[cdt1101]

I guess I''m the odd one, because dream feed work GREAT for us, but we started doing it at like 9 weeks old. So he went to bed at 6:00, dream feed 11:00 and he woke on his own at around 5:30-6:00. I guess we were lucky. And we had no issues dropping it either, never used CIO.

Blen & Pandora - I''ve finally had a chance to really use the Mai Tei this weekend and I love it!! What a difference from the Bjorn. I''ve been practicing getting it on and off since Wednesday and am finally getting the hang of it...no problems getting it on and off today. Thanks for the suggestion ladies!

 

[cdt1101]

Amber - I''d get a cool mist, at least that''s what our pedi recommended. Another thing that can help the congestion is elevating her crib mattress when she sleeps.

 

[rockpaperscissors67]

Amber, I''d go for a cool mist humidifier, too. I''d heard that it''s recommended for kids so that they can''t burn themselves (although I doubt Piper''s old enough to get at it! LOL!). We bought a warm mist one a few months ago when both SO and I had colds and Target only had warm ones -- and it was HORRIBLE. You have to add some salt to them to help them work and it didn''t do anything for us. Once the cool mists came back out, we bought one that has a huge tank on it so we can let it run for a long time.

I really doubt that Piper has a cold. Babies are absolutely awful at getting rid of the standard junk that builds up in their noses. Since they aren''t good at switching to mouth breathing to make up for it, they usually sound a lot worse than they are.

My rule with infants is if they''re not running a fever, I don''t take them to the pediatrician''s, mostly because at this time of the year, a doc visit means exposing the baby to worse germs in the waiting room. I''d keep using the nose sucker and the saline. Another suggestion, which I know sounds really odd, is substituting breastmilk for the saline.

Taovandel, omg, your little guy is too adorable! I love his big eyes!

 

[taovandel]

we elevate with a crib wedge and when we use one it''s the cool mist humidifier....

thanks rps!