PS Mommy Thread-Newborn to 12 months!

[Mandarine]

took me a while to figure out what TTT was...I read your first post too fast Viz!!!

I was like: "trying to..." what??? hehehe

I like the idea Viz!

Let''s see...My TTT would be also similar to the boppys, I use them against the sofa too, a little bit lifted so they can "sit". I feel like it makes them practice sitting better than the bumbos (which requires no effort). I''ll have to take a picture so you see what I mean, but they love it!. I sit them there and talk to them (it looks like they''re in class and I''m the teacher! hehehe)

 

[Mandarine]

Date: 2/25/2010 11:22:45 AM
Author: fiery

Date: 2/25/2010 11:00:29 AM

Author: Mandarine

Fiery, where do you put the actual machine? I like the idea but I don''t know where you would put it?

It''s on the floor next to her closet. I had it on her diaper pail last night so that she could see the animals a little better.

Hmm...I would have to figure out if I can somehow use this for both of them to see..................

 

[Mara]

thanks for the tips on the gas (aka wind!) everyone. last nite he went down at 10pm, woke up again at 11:30...change and fed him a little and he went down again til 2:30. then from 3:30 (took a while to get him down that time) til 6:30. so a bit more waking than typical for us. sometimes i can tell it's just him wanting to be held or being a fuss... aka his fake cry is on...but i think at 11:30 he had some gas. we did the mylicon 2x last nite... and greg has done the massage every time he changes him and sometimes he gets rewarded with some crazy farts. i will ask the pedi today as well what she thinks. i just hate to think that he is in pain...because we've all had horrible gas or STUCK gas and it definitely friggin hurts and i imagine it hurts even worse if you are 8.5lbs and don't really know how to expel it. we have also done the bicycle and the tummy massage as well. i might look into some dietary changes because if it helps him, then why not, and it would not be for that long anyway til his digestive system matures.

overall he really is a good little creature but it's just those few times a day when he is wailing and you are like 'whats wrong buddy' that are harder. or like RPS you said...they are fed and changed and still crying. those are my hardest times... as a 'rational adult' i am like 'isnt it time to sleep now?'...but i love that if nothing else these little people just love to teach us that rational does not mean it happens HAHAHA. aka don't be so rational mom!

and re: bad habits, i totally agree it's subjective and just depends on the people involved. even the phrase 'bad habits' is not a good one. it might be better called 'creating routines you are unsure of' hahhaa. because if the parents don't mind doing it, who's to say it's a 'bad' habit? for us we just don't want to go down a path that we aren't sure we can get out of later or will take a lot of work... it's interesting a lot of you feel like the first year is a free pass re: routines/habits.

has anyone read the 'fussy baby' book by weisenbluth(sp), the same guy who wrote HSHHB? i am tempted to get it, the first chapter i read online was really interesting. on the flip side, my pedi would tell me to 'just relax and stop overthinking things' hahhaa.

we have pedi appt today for weigh in and measure. i hope the kid has gained some weight, i feel like a moo cow this week for sure. he is eating up a storm and at night he is taking 4oz in a bottle! oinker. he does APPEAR to be bigger but maybe this is a mental thing, like he appears larger than life esp at 2am when you are sleep-deprived. hehee.

lastly... this might have been asked before, but around when do the kids stop doing the crazy flailing arms and smacking themselves in the face thing? i know mostly right now it's reflex...and we COULD swaddle his arms in but the kid screams bloody murder when we do (and i mean fights and screams until his arms are out and he won't give up before) so we tend to leave them out or leave one out but then as he is calming down to sleep he always does a few 'wake ups' where he starts waving them around and pissing himself off. i wish we could kind of hold them down but not swaddle them in, drats!! any suggestions? oh and someone else mentioned the halo swaddle but with arms, we haven't tried that yet...since the one swaddle with velcro i did try he managed to worm his way out in like 5 min even though he was wrapped super tight.

ETA i am too lazy to go back and see what TTT is but i guess it's some sort of tip?? anyway mandarine we do the boppy against the couch thing too. i love putting J in there when he falls asleep on me and i can keep an eye on him but do something else at the same time. he's still small enough to curl up in there and it helps me keep him on his side or similar when i am trying to not have him be flat.

 

[AmberWaves]

TTT: Our humidifier works as white noise. Apparently, having to get the CVS brand one means it''s super loud (they were out of ALL cool mist ones) but it works for her!

We never dealt with the swaddle but we''re using the sleep positioner wedge, and I''m worried about having to get another wedge for the crib. She''s starting to weigh down her current one. My poor hefty baby.

 

[Mandarine]

Viz...here is how I sit them using the boppy.
I present to you, my class!
(sorry Lucas is blurry!)

 

[vizsla]

OMG i'm totally doing that with charlie tonight.. we have a sectional and i have put the bumbo in the corner and then propped him in there so he doesn't fall to one side.. but i love this idea so much more.

mara - j is eating 4oz?? gah i'm jealous... so far today c has had 2 oz, 3oz and then 2oz... for real baby... are you seriously not hungry???

ETA: mandy.. i love that you dress your boys differently do you dress them alike when you go out??

 

[Mandarine]

They love sitting like that and I really think it''s more "practice" for them in terms of balance. It also looks more comfy than the bumbo!. I just raise the back of the boppy against the sofa a little bit so they have some back support.

I dress them differently pretty much all the time (even for going out). I do want them to look like the same mom dressed them (so not one in PJs and the other one with khaki pants or something). So for example if it''s shorts, then I put shorts on both of them, different onesies, etc. I do have a few outfits that are the same that were gifts...so sometimes I do dress them exactly the same (and sometimes it''s cute, like for their month pictures). I rather not though and will probably try to avoid that more when they''re older and more aware...

 

[Mara]

i know viz...and he only gained 4oz last appt in like 8 days so where is it all going?!?! to be fair i dont think he gets 4oz out of my boobs each feeding, maybe 2.5-3 depending on the morning/evening. so the bottle 4oz is just one to two times a day. but he would eat 4oz each time i think if he could! he is an oinker.

 

[MonkeyPie]

They get cuter every time I see them, Mandy. Just wanna squish their cheeks!

Mara, I think it's so funny that you call him a creature lol. I keep seeing a little green monster in my head! He's going to have a complex, hah!

 

[AmberWaves]

Confession: I have 11 boxes of Girl Scout cookies in my office right now. Three are for a friend in NY, the rest are for us and family. I want to eat them all right now.

 

[Mandarine]

hehe creature! I call mine monsters, monkeys, chunkers, gordos (chubby).

MP Thank you!!!

 

[Mandarine]

Amber, I saw your picture in FB and decided to look away and ignore I ever saw that!
I SO WANT A COOKIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. D@mn diets!!!

On a good (semi related) note I weighed myself at the grocery store yesterday and I''m 6.5 lbs from pre-pregnancy weight!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Puppmom]

Just wanted to say that PSers make some GORGEOUS babies. I love looking at everyone''s pics.

 

[anchor31]

I have a question re: quantities of milk. I've never really worried about that, Jacob seems content after each feed, sleeps well and is growing well (went from 25th percentile at birth and 1 month to 50th at 2 months). I pump every day and DH gives him a bottle in the evening. We used to give him 5oz that he just gulps down. I thought that maybe giving him more would give him tummy aches, he's just 8 weeks after all, but my doctor told me that if he empties the bottle I have to give him more. So last night DH gave him his 5oz, then 2 oz I had pumped while he was giving him the 5oz. Again, Jacob drank it all. I was going to thaw some more milk, but he ended up falling asleep after DH burped him. 7oz+ just seems crazy, there's no way he gets that from the boob every feeding... So, what are your thoughts? If he keeps that up I'll have to give him the boob after his bottle (which sort of defeats the purpose of DH giving him the bottle to give me a break...) or supplement with formula!

 

[anchor31]

Date: 2/25/2010 1:47:08 PM
Author: Mandarine
They love sitting like that and I really think it''s more ''practice'' for them in terms of balance. It also looks more comfy than the bumbo!. I just raise the back of the boppy against the sofa a little bit so they have some back support.

I dress them differently pretty much all the time (even for going out). I do want them to look like the same mom dressed them (so not one in PJs and the other one with khaki pants or something). So for example if it''s shorts, then I put shorts on both of them, different onesies, etc. I do have a few outfits that are the same that were gifts...so sometimes I do dress them exactly the same (and sometimes it''s cute, like for their month pictures). I rather not though and will probably try to avoid that more when they''re older and more aware...

I think it''s great that you don''t dress them the same. My mom did that very rarely too (maybe a handful of times in our whole childhood) and I really appreciated that, so did my sister. We''re each our own person, right?

 

[phoenixgirl]

Anchor, I''m not expert, but that does seem like a lot unless Jacob''s only eating about 4 times a day. Except for Viz (((hugs!))), I don''t know anyone whose baby doesn''t just keep eating when the food is there. My sister and I are in agreement that since we only pump around 3 or 4 ounces when skipping a feeding, trying to provide much more than that is just impossible, and probably not even necessary if the 25 ounce standard on KellyMom is to be believed. Today I''ve had the luxury of being home, and I pumped 3.75 ounces each time at 3 hour intervals. Unless I do extra pumpings (which I do, an average of 2 at night after work), I can''t magically transform that into 5 ounce bottles. So, sorry, doctor, but 5 oz. is all she''s going to get! (Claire still eats 6x a day, BTW). So if she needs extra milk, she''ll just have to nurse more when we''re together.

I''m not done by any means (sigh), but I feel a lot better knowing that I will be caught up on all the small assignments my students have been turning in. It''s too stressful to think about grading the big stuff when you have stacks of little things lying around.

DH has pointed out I should probably just give my students less graded work. True, but so hard for a perfectionist like me. I realized that ironically, I''m doing what my seniors do today -- staying home to get caught up because I''m too stressed/tired to go into school! Yesterday a whole bunch of my students were absent, and the others reported it was because of their homework for my class. Ha!

Back to work . . . DH and Claire should be home in about an hour (yay!).

 

[Mara]

so we just got back from the pedi. J gained 3oz in 7 days, so he is 8lbs 10oz. she said he is 45 percentile and while she says he looks wonderful, very healthy, active, etc ... she wants him to gain a little more weight. she suggested supplementing with extra BM in a bottle since he is kind of a lazy eater...or if i am not producing, a bit of formula.

she also suggested chamomile tea for the gas...if we do formula supplement she said to brew the tea and then use it as the ''water'' for the formula. she said this has been most successful in her opinion and it''s natural.

thing is...she totally admitted that he looks great and is very healthy, active, he actually rolled over for her while she had him on his tummy! and she said that there are #''s and then there''s the ''baby'' and she said he looks fine. but she''d like to see him with a bit more weight. sooo i''m not sure what we want to do yet. i do feel like a lot of times he is more hungry than i am producing for him and i don''t want to starve the kid nor do i really have an issue with giving him a bit of formula a day if its 95% BM. so we''ll see. i am intrigued about the chamomile for gas.

anchor... your post struck home for me because i feel like J will eat more than i am making or we are giving right now. and i feel like he is eating a lot (on demand anyway) but he obviously is not because he is not gaining a ton yet. anyway...it''s hard to know what to do. good luck.

so anyway we have another weight check in 2 weeks. who knew i''d have a smallish baby..and i know he''s not even small at 8lb10oz hahaa, but greg and i were both big babies so we just figured we''d have a chunker. at least he LIKES to eat, we''re prob just not giving him enough!

MP...lol re: calling him a creature. we called him a cretin when i was gestating him. it''s all said with the most love possible of course hehe. we also call our dog funny names, and i call greg Piggy and he calls me Pony so i guess we are just name weirdos!

i''m now celebrating my first successful solo outing with the kid by consuming taco bell. yay!

 

[Mara]

oh and i know its not friday but i got this SUPER ADORABLY CUTE bad iPhone pic of J naked under his blanket while waiting for the pedi to come in...i just had to post. he looks like 'hey baby'...hahaa.

 

[Shoopy]

I love the pics!

Mara-that''s such a cute picture. Awww newborns

I call Sophia everything but Sophia. It''s usually Fialynn or Popia.

 

[phoenixgirl]

Claire only took two bottles at daycare today! A milk deficit becomes a milk surplus! Can I get a Woot Woot?

 

[Sha]

Date: 2/25/2010 1:22:00 PM
Author: Mandarine
Viz...here is how I sit them using the boppy.
I present to you, my class!
(sorry Lucas is blurry!)

Awwww.....look at the little heart-bweakers.... ! Alex looks like he's knitting in this pic....ha ha..

Mara - love that picture of Julian too! His expression is priceless!

 

[taovandel]

Sad face...i might have to give up on this board...it moves waaaay too fast for me to keep up anymore.

Congrats CDT!!!

 

[phoenixgirl]

Don''t give up, Tao! Just do what I do . . . respond less to other people and ramble on about yourself more!


I''m tired, but Claire isn''t, and DH is on his man date. Sigh.

 

[gingerB]

gosh this thread moves fast. i can''t even begin to catch up. but what i did manage to catch--

cdt - congrats!! my sister and i were 12 months 6 days apart and it was a blast having a ready playmate. and i think psychologically i''m doing ok (well outside these post partum hormones of mine any way

_

dd - happy b-day hunter!! LOVE the cake and that pic is adorable!

bad habits - everything i''ve read or heard from the docs say no worries about them in the beginning. but that has def not stopped me from "hypothetically worrying"

right now i''m just making sure he feels safe and secure and that his needs are met as i best i can guess.

rps - thanks for the cookie recipe. if i can manage to find some kitchen time i am def putting it to use!

===========================================

Went to the pedi today, our littel porker gained a pound in a week!

now i''m worried i''m overfeeding him. currently i;m still pumping and supplementing with formula and he''s consistently taking 2-2.5 oz of BM and then 1-2 oz of formula every 2-4 hours (avg 2-4 oz per feeding). mind you this is a not quite 2 week old. how does he hold it? and he''s not throwing it up either. his head and weight are in the 25ishth percentile and length in 50th so he''s def not a chunker yet, but wil be if we keep this up. my supply is slowly increasing (can do at least 2oz pretty consistently, more 2.5 oz pumps happening and almost 3oz once today!) but def not keeping up withhis demand. and if we try to stop the feeding before he''s "milk drunk" he just frets and roots and smacks his mouth. hubbs and i joke that he inherrited his dad''s black hole for a tummy, but i''m still a bit worried. if this was all BM, not so worried, but i know over feeding with formula happens. outside of cont to phase out formula, any other thoughts?

just watched happiest baby on the block dvd today. very interesting. anyone have any opinions?

 

[mtjoya]

Yep! I second that! This thread moves way too fast! LOL...

Ginger-My daughter, piglet, gained a pound in a week! Is in the 25 percentile for weight & 75 percentile for height. I am also BF and supplementing with Enfamil Lipil. We are on the same track! Your bebe is super koot!

 

[taovandel]

I''m going to keep trying for a bit longer....and I might just have to take the advice and ignore everyone else and only talk about me!! hehe.

Not sure if I had the chance yet to welcome all the new babies!!! They are all so cute....we do make the cutest babies here on PS.

Evan is having that 4 month reverse on his sleeping patterns that is for sure! But he did do a bit better last night--so I''m hoping it''s going to take a turn soon.

I''m sitting in the bedroom right now, listening to him talk to himself in the other room...so cute!

We used the baby tub for the first time yesterday. Giving a baby a bath is hard! haha. I think we might continue with the showers a bit longer...or change the location of the tub...he was splashing all over the place!

Confession Friday: We might be giving the baby over to my parents tonight so we can go hang out with some Friends and drink....I haven''t really drank anything since I found out I was pregnant...I feel guilty even though I won''t be drinking a lot of anything!

Picture time...I have two I''m sharing...

The first is E with his Daddy.

 

[taovandel]

Lifting his head up to watch tv...so bad!

Oh and E totally watched the girls get eliminated last night on AI! I guess that is another confession---I let him watch tv.

 

[rockpaperscissors67]

Mandarine, GREAT pic! Your boys are way too cute.

Amber, I wouldn''t blame you if you ate all of the GS cookies. Not one bit. I was a Brownie leader for both of my girls, so I always ordered a boatload of cookies. One year, I ordered 30 boxes. I did show some restraint, though; it took us an entire year to eat all of them. The best = thin mints in the freezer.

Anchor, I think it''s unlikely that Jacob really needs that much milk in a bottle. It''s fairly common for a baby to suck down the contents of a bottle and then act like he wants more. Since drinking from a bottle takes far less work than nursing, a baby gets much more milk faster so he may not feel the signal that he''s full until he''s already taken more than he truly needed. If he needed 7 oz. at each feeding and was at the high end of the average of how much breastmilk a baby takes in 24 hours (30 oz.), he''d only be feeding 4 times a day. If he''s feeding every 3 hours, at 7 oz. a feeding, he''d be taking almost double that 30 oz.

I think what I''d do is give him 3 oz. very slowly by taking a short break after he''s taken several sucks, and see if he doesn''t cue that he''s full at the end of that 3 oz. Is he taking a pacifier at all? If he is, after the 3 oz., I''d offer the paci. If he''s not, I''d offer my finger (turned upside down) or my knuckle to suck on and see if that soothes him.

Mara, I think it''s good that your ped is willing to look at the baby instead of totally focusing on the weight charts. Since I have slow gainers, I hate when a doctor gets so wound up about weight that he refuses to look at the big picture. Love J''s pic, too! Looks like you have a ladies'' man on your hands.

PG, I''ll give you a BIG Woot for having a surplus of milk!! It''s such a great feeling, isn''t it?

Ginger, great job on the weight gain and the continued improvement on pumping! That''s awesome! I wouldn''t be worried about overfeeding him breastmilk, but I''d probably cut back on the formula quite a bit since he''s obviously gaining well. Like I wrote above to Anchor, maybe he''s not getting that full signal because of drinking from a bottle?

The one thing that would concern me about a baby gaining a lot of weight on formula is that formula tends to increase the number of white fat cells in a baby''s body, while breastmilk increases the number of brown fat cells. White fat cells store calories but brown fat cells burn calories, so if a baby is laying down a lot of white fat cells, he''s more likely to have weight problems as an adult. Of course, if the baby is genetically programmed to be thin, he''ll probably be thin, regardless of the number of white fat cells he has.

Tao, I agree that giving a baby a bath is hard! I usually just jump in the tub myself with Ben, but the other day, I didn''t want to. I washed him in the big tub with only a little water and even though I was fast, my back killed me. Last night, I picked up a little bath seat (looks like a bouncy seat) and it can also be used in the kitchen sink, so I may bathe him there from now on. I''m too old for this!

I love the pic of E with his dad. I think it''s so cute when men become mushballs around their babies!



Last night, I took Ben to bed at midnight and of course, as soon as I lay down, he started fussing. I was about to get back up when SO came in and said he''d take Ben and rock him. I figured I''d stay in bed and just doze a bit until Ben came back...and I totally zonked out. SO said he brought Ben back in, put him next to me and I cuddled Ben up to me. I''m sure at some point in the night, I fed him because my boobs were not ready to explode this morning. However, I have apparently reached the point at which I can nurse in my sleep because I don''t remember it! I do know that Will came in around 6 and got into bed with us then wanted me to get up at 7. So I essentially slept from about 12:30 to 7!

I have no confession for today! Oh, wait...does the fact that I ate half a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts over 2 days count? Or do it only count if I feel bad about it? Because I don''t!

 

[Pandora II]

Tao - trying getting in the tub with him - it''s way easier than trying to lean over to wash them, plus you get to play with the bath toys too! (I managed to soak the ceiling the other day playing with some of Daisy''s toys - ooops!).

Madam here is still unwell - temperature of 102 degrees (38.8C) this morning and that was taking it under her arm. I''m taking her to see the GP this evening to check whether she has a UTI as she''s developed a nasty nappy rash. She''s still very cheerful except when her nappy gets wet when she cries like mad poor thing - so she''s running around in the altogether and I''ve turned the heating up.

My father suggested that I take a urine sample with me as it''s Friday so I can get antibiotics straight away if she has. The only sterile thing I had was one of her bottles, so I had her sat over it on my knee for 30 minutes trying to get her to pee in it...

. Luckily my OB friend had given me a whole pile of hospital incontinence sheets for letting her play on nekked, so I had one of those over me too!

Anyhoo, will find out tonight...

Otherwise there is a new development this week. Daisy has never shown the slightest interest in music whatsoever since she was born, she''s always been much more visually attracted. Anyway, I caught her dancing to music on TV and trying to sing along (very tunelessly) - I''ve been trying to get it on video for DH but no luck so far.

 

[cdt1101]

Pandora - Poor Daisy, hope she gets better soon!

Tao - thanks! Love the new pics of Evan!

We''re home today because of yet another snow storm. So I took some pics this morning.

Here''s my contribution to BPF...