PS Mommy Thread-Newborn to 12 months!

[littlelysser]

Hey guys. I know I've been MIA, but the past month has been pretty farking awful.

Calvin is fine, but there has been tons of family crap, dog illness, Calvin health scares and last but not least, we were robbed last week.

We were out of town for a week, at my godson's christening. They took every piece of jewelry I didn't bring with me. They also took our tvs, my designer hand bags and some other stuff.

I'm just posting as a PSA - PLEASE make sure you have your jewelry insured. My engagement ring and my rolex were both insured (and with me) but my little stuff (I had several pieces of Marco Bicego and David Yurman jewelry as well as 20 other pieces) is all gone. And the insurance pay out is not going to be enough to even begin to replace it.

And our homeowner's has an exclusion which excludes jewelry not separately insured over a certain amount. Of course, I knew this, but I guess I never thought about it all getting stolen. If I lost a piece, well that would stink, but I could replace it. I just never imagined it would all be wiped out.

Alright, back under my rock.

Burk - Sorry for you loss.

 

[Sha]

Fiery - what lovely pics! it's so amazing to see Sophia as a baby and now as a toddler....she's grown so much! Sweet girl.

EB - cute pics! Glad Henry enjoyed his birthday.

Amber - yayy for crawling!

How exciting. I think D and Piper are about two weeks apart? D is lunging after things and then falling over and crying...so not exactly crawling yet, but getting there.... I suppose?

mtjoya - I get "What's his name?" all the time too. Even when D has on a pink dress with a headband - people come up to me and ask, "Is it a boy or a girl?"

Like I would dress my son in a pink dress and headband...???!!

***************
I'm jealous of all the good-sleeping babies....

Am I the only one whose baby is still waking every 2-3 hours?? Even vizla and Charlie have gone and left me behind...

(thankfully!

But seriously...I'm so exhausted. Think I'm going to have to try CIO again soon.

ETA: littlelysser - Yikes! Sorry to hear!!

 

[steph72276]

LL, so sorry about your break in

Re sleep habits, I think it has to do with both parent''s hard work and luck. I truly think I lucked out by having 2 good sleepers. E has STTN every single night since 9 weeks. Yes, I worked a bit in the beginning to establish a routine and we still stick to it b/c hey it has worked so far, but I don''t think I really did anything extra special that other moms here aren''t doing ya know? I need to go knock on wood now that I''ve said this b/c now E will probably be up all night tonight! So sorry for those moms still being sleep deprived, I hope all the babies that don''t STTN will soon discover how good sleep is

 

[So Excited]

Hello Ladies,
I guess it time to introduce myself (or shall I say the LO, Alek) and come over to the NB thread.. Some of you may cross over to the Prego thread and may have already heard about him, but here he is for everyone else.

 

[AmberWaves]

So Excited: Super cute!!!

Sha: Piper stopped sleeping through the night awhile ago. It is exhausting. She was born 11/24, so less than a week older than D!

 

[Mara]

Two things since i''m posting from phone tonite ...

Mtj, barley really?? Never heard that before!

MP, omg time for solids for M already?? It feels like he was just born!!

Sha, I am just junk without sleep. Hope D sleeps soon.

Re: oh is it a boy or girl, a few times recently people have said how cute SHE is. I am like hello he''s in alllll blue. But he is kinda pretty hehe.

 

[mtjoya]

Sha-LOL, I think it''s so funny too! HEHE! Are D''s ears pierced?

Mara-Yeah she said Barley. She also said that she wants me to start giving her veggies when we see her at J''s 6mo appt. August 18th. Doc said that she doesn''t want J with a cheeto in her hand! LOL! I was like nah. trust she won''t!

Did I mention that I love J''s doc? She is the besssttt!

 

[ChinaCat]

Burk- So sorry for your loss. Thinking of you and your family.

MonkeyPie- That pic is hysterical.

Fiery- Can you believe they are so grown now??? I remember looking at O in his newborn phase when he was just so unformed and couldn''t imagine what his little personality was going to be like. And now I can''t imagine him any other way. I can totally "see" Sophia''s smile in her newborn pic. O''s newborn pics look nothing like him to me! Love the babe. O is so not talking yet- well he babbles and is quite insistent, but not using real words yet.

EB- Yay for Mr. Henry! Love that car- care to share what it is? Looking for bday ideas for O- have a few months but don''t want to wait till the last minute.

Phx- Hello to Summer All Year PG!!!!

Lysser- I still can''t believe that. It''s so creepy. Thanks for the PSA, never even thought about that. We miss you around here, don''t stay under that rock for too long! I was going to page you anyways- what are you feeding C these days? O is pretty much over anything pureed so trying to mix it up with the real food but I feel like I''m getting stuck in a rut.

Speaking of food- where is Mandarine?

And Viz? Where are you ladies, missing you girls! I miss Mela too.

Not much to report here. O is like a kamikaze and I swear he''s going to end up in the hospital. He fell a total of 6 times on Sunday, all on my watch of course. Not only that, but he likes to lay with his head off the edge of the couch or chair. He was lying like that and I was sitting right in front of him and he lifted up his legs and did a back flip off of the chair.

No joke, and it wasn''t even like he accidentally did it. THANK GOD I was right there but this boy is going to kill me. I am so afraid he''s going to fall on his neck or something. And he''s falling just cause he''s moving too fast. So now I literally have to keep a hand on him at all times.

 

[MonkeyPie]

Mara, Micah isn''t eating solids yet, not really - he''s tasted a few things, and he is SUPER interested in what we eat, but hasn''t really tried anything for real. He will watch us eat and chew, trying to mimic us. It''s super cute, but I know it''s a big no no to feed him yet, so I won''t discuss it much

Lysser, I am so sorry to hear about the break in!

That''s so awful. If I were you I''d watch the pawn shops and such nearby, maybe you can find some of your things.

China, I am so worried about that stage with Micah. I mean, kids will fall and hurt themselves no matter how close you watch them, but omg! Flipping off a chair?! How are you supposed to always be prepared for that?

 

[ChinaCat]

MP- I don''t know, it''s scary because I see how he could get seriously hurt SO EASILY and SO QUICKLY. Part of you just relaxes about the bumps and bruises because they fall a lot when they start crawling/cruising. The first time he hit his head I freaked and cried, and now it''s just like, oops, he bumped his head again! But I crawl around with him and just see so many things that could hurt him and you just can''t be there all the time or catch everything. You will be AMAZED at what babies find on the floor that I just never see until he picks it up and puts it in his mouth. He put an entire dead June bug in his mouth last week.

GROSS. And I looked at the floor before I let him down and didn''t even see it! But yeah, the flips off the couch freak me out, he could land on his neck. And it didn''t even occur to me that he would even try that until he did it. So you just have to be extra careful, I guess, but it''s hard. Part of me wants to let him fall a little bit so he learns that he can''t just fling himself off the couch and part of me tries to catch him.

 

[E B]

I'll be back later with a proper update (actually, I guess I should start posting in 12-36?), but I just wanted to say a big thank you to phoenixgirl, Mara, FL Steph (cute bedding!), MonkeyPie, Sha and China. We love our little monkey so much.

LL- I'm so sorry.

So Excited- What a cutie!

China- It's the Push Around Buggy by Step2. There was recently a recall since certain models had a screw holding the "pusher" to the buggy that would come loose, but it was praised in one of the threads here in FHH, so we ordered a 'safe' version directly from the website. It was a pretty big hit with H!

 

[KimberlyH]

eb, darling b-day pics! h is too cute.

fiery love the pics of s and her daddy/g-pa. so sweet.

girl/boy: i get that ? a lot, in part because j wears lots of neutral clothes. doesn''t bother me.

anyone doing swim lessons? i''m considering it at 6 m, the can learn to dwim to the side.

 

[Mara]

kim.. we put J in the pool at my friends house, he likes it, and we'll try some floating with him as he ages. i just want him to like the water. my friend does swim lessons she said hers were really expensive, and i was like really...can't you just teach them yourselves? i also feel the same way re: music lessons and in general skeptical about 'lessons'. there's so many other things he can be learning that are 'free' hehee--but i prob feel that way too because when i was young we were really poor and i never had any of that but my mom still taught me to read really early and did all these other things with me that didn't cost anything.

mp.. gosh i can't believe that M is so into your food already. seriously J has absolutely no interest in us or our food when we eat, so if we used that as an indicator we'd be still waiting hehee... i figure you know your kid best.i am a wee bit freaked re: letting J taste things, because one night we were at outback and greg let him taste a bit of butter off his finger and later that night J barfed in his crib 2x (and never has before and never did again) so i am convinced it was the outback 'butter' (whats in there anyway?!?!) that did it. at the time it didn't seem like a big deal but later i was like butter, ugh...why did we think that was a good idea.

sha...have you tried sleep training D at all?

lysser, so sorry about the break in, that's so sad. i am just so glad you guys were all away and safe.

re: mandarine, i think she's too busy with world cup to check in with us crazies hehee.

i posted a PSA in FHH about lithium cell batteries so if your kids are going to be mobile soon, please read it. we read this article last week and it's so sad, they pose a huge danger.

AFM... the last few days J has slowly started to show more reluctance at going down to sleep. last nite it took him an HOUR to go down. even if i know he is really tired he will babble, play, fuss, cry, rinse and repeat. i end up going in 3x to soothe him and every time he would light up, smile and babble to me. last nite he was up 2x just light fuss, paci took care of it and he slept. but this morning for his 'after bottle' sleep/nap (usu another 1hour) he did not want to go back down and as soon as i'd leave the room he'd cry. finally i ended up holding his hand and turning around so he couldnt' see my face and just standing there holding his hand for 5 min...then leaving the room. he was calm the entire time just staring at me quietly, and then when i left he fell asleep. i hope it's just 'i wanna be with people' rather than 'mom separation anxiety'.

i can let him CIO, but i swear the kid has stamina of a bulldog and our house is so small. also at night if we ever are driven to do CIO in the summer i feel like the neighbors are going to call CPS since his windows will be open and his 'i'm so mad right now' screams sound like someone is murdering him. hopefully this phase passes quickly.

 

[jcrow]

Date: 6/21/2010 6:01:16 PM
Author: AmberWaves
So Excited: Super cute!!!


Sha: Piper stopped sleeping through the night awhile ago. It is exhausting. She was born 11/24, so less than a week older than D!

crap, so they sttn only to stop and need helping doing it again?! grrr. also, when did piper stop bfeeding during the night? or does she still?

 

[KimberlyH]

Now that I''m not on my phone...

More on Swimming: The pool down the street from us offers lessons for $50 for residents. Because of where we live (10 minutes in the ocean) we really want J to be comfortable in the water and neither of us is very good swimmers. The AAP recommends 4 years old, because they don''t want parents to get too comfortable with their kids at the pool and because motor skills are typpically not ready for swimming until that point. At 6 months babies can learn to swim to the edge, something I don''t think I''m capable of teaching her, so that is the reason for considering lessons. My sister did it with her son and said it was lots of fun and I figure it''s another way to meet mom''s in our neighborhood.

Mara, I grew up lower middle class, so lessons were not something we had at such a young age -- I took piano, swimming and ballet when I was in elementary school, but nothing until at least the age of 5 and they were not expensive -- so I know what you mean. The library and the local public pool were our favorite hang outs when we weren''t running around the neighborhood making up games with friends and my mom was our primary teacher. But I also don''t think that just because I didn''t have something that J shouldn''t, if it''s something I think she can benefit from.

Lysser, how scary about the break in. I''m so sorry.

 

[Mara]

Date: 6/22/2010 6:40:55 PM
Author: jcrow

Date: 6/21/2010 6:01:16 PM
Author: AmberWaves
So Excited: Super cute!!!


Sha: Piper stopped sleeping through the night awhile ago. It is exhausting. She was born 11/24, so less than a week older than D!

crap, so they sttn only to stop and need helping doing it again?! grrr. also, when did piper stop bfeeding during the night? or does she still?

lol J was STTN 8-9 hours at 6 weeks and then was up to 12 hours by about 9-11 weeks.
at about 14-15 weeks he started waking up once here and there but needed just a paci or a quick soothe.
around 16 weeks started waking up 2x...needing paci and a quick soothe.
17-18 weeks he was screaming, waking up and needing actual feeding and/or big time soothing at night (due to rolling over and freaking out)
now ~20 weeks he seems to be back to 2x a night just needing paci not soothing BUT putting him DOWN to sleep is harder than it was at weeks 15-20.

it seriously seems like it never 'ends'..hehe, sorry to say!!

ETA... Kim yeah i know what you mean about just because we didn't have it...but that is why i am just more skeptical about stuff like that. i agree i couldn't teach J to swim at 6 months, and if it also helps you meet other moms, that is a great benefit. my neighbor is a SATM and i feel like a lot of what she does for the kids (aka lessons) has to do more with her getting social activity, which is totally cool, but i just hate the whole 'oh it's for the KIDS'... and she wants me to do it too, and it's like $200 and i'm like really? no thanks! but also swimming could be a life saver so it's a bit diff than music lessons.

 

[MonkeyPie]

I wish Micah would sleep through the night! I usually get one long sleep - 5-6 hours - at the beginning of the night, and then he''s up every 3-4 hours after that. He''s so easy to put down, though. Right now he fell asleep during his bottle so he''s sleeping by me on the couch. And this is after I came home and daddy told me he refused to nap all day, haha. I think he''s just more used to me, daddy only puts him down or watches him all day once or twice a week.

Mara, I have to wonder if just a tiny taste of butter would have made him so sick. Unless he has a total intolerance to something in it, but I would have thought he would need more than a little melted on a fingertip for it to show up like that. I could be wrong! I hope he isn''t allergic to butter, poor baby. Micah has tasted a lot of things (he really liked watermelon juice), and he always is so interested in it. My husband was a meanie one time and gave him a taste of lime juice, and he LOVED it. He got so excited and he kicked like mad and opened his mouth for some more. He didn''t even scrunch his face up!

 

[jcrow]

monkeypie- how old is m again? e is 2 months and *just* started doing 7-8ish hours during the first stretch and anywhere from 3-5 the rest of the night. i can''t remember if m is breast or formula, but that plays a part too.

 

[jcrow]

oh and as for us,

this weekend, mil wondered if e was teething. she has a couple of taller nubs bottom front, and a little white dot, but i have no idea if that''s anything or not! i spent a few minutes this afternoon googling pics of baby teeth! haha.

 

[MonkeyPie]

Micah is 10 weeks, so his stretches are sometimes longer, sometimes shorter. It depends on how many naps he got - the less naps and more play, the better he sleeps, it seems. And he is formula fed. He usually won''t fight sleep at night but he is today!

 

[MonkeyPie]

Micah is 10 weeks, so his stretches are sometimes longer, sometimes shorter. It depends on how many naps he got - the less naps and more play, the better he sleeps, it seems. And he is formula fed. He usually won''t fight sleep at night but he is today!

And he has a white spot, too! It''s a molar though - the pedi thought it was so weird lol. I guess his front teeth won''t be first! E could definitely have some teeth in there!

 

[Mara]

jcrow the white dot is prob a cyst -- J had those and i thought they were teeth! Pedi was like umm no. I also read the first 2 they get are the bottom front typically. So far we've still just got gums.

speaking of teeth though, someone was SO fuss tonite, tensing up and screaming and then alternating with laughing...and crazy drooling. i stuck my finger in his mouth and he bites on it SO hard..it feels like he could crack a bone! poor thing. a teething tablet, 1/2 a dose of non-tylenol and 7oz later and finally he is sleeping. i hope he isn't too restless...i think he needs a good night of sleep tonite. i also hope he doesn't get crazy teeth soon.

mp...i really hope it wasn't the butter but that was the only thing we could think of, it was so weird. outback is a chain so who really knows if it was pure butter...maybe it had something else he reacted to, i don't know. he doesn't seem to be allergic to dairy as i ate it all the time while bf'ing...but who knows. it might even just have been the 'richness' of the taste. it was just a fingertip too.

 

[jcrow]

mara - a cyst? maybe so. i hadn''t noticed it before today, but then again i hadn''t looked hard for anything before. the white spot is on her bottom and in the front.

monkey - ah, m + e are really close in age! e will be 11 weeks tomorrow.

 

[KimberlyH]

mara, there''s definitely an added benefit of me meeting more mom''s in our neighborhood. there are other ways i could do so like playgroups, and may at some point, but getting her used to the pool is important to us, so it''s a win-win.

**

babysitter came today. she put j down for her nap and then organized all of j''s clothes for me. awesome! i got her room back together and her closet organized. we''re closer to this kid having her own bedroom. i need to alter some curtains next, need help as i''m a novice sewer.

also learning to balance being back to work, calls and emails during naps, etc. it''s been great for her and dh to spend time together w/o me.

 

[PrettyBlues]

Burk, I am so sorry for your loss.

Fiery and PG, hopefully you made it through ok. Mother’s Day is the same for me, so I know how hard it can be.

We went over to D’s sister’s for Father’s day, it was fine. Anchor, I your pain regarding the in-laws. Although I really do like them, we have also seen his Mom and step-dad every.single.weekend. since we moved into our house on April 28. And we see his sister at least twice a week. And it’s not just because they are my in-laws it’s too much – even D is like give me a weekend alone already!

Also, as I said, I do like the in-laws. However, his Mom has really changed in the time we have been together and I find it harder and harder to have a relationship with her. After dinner, Miles was hungry so I went to the living room to feed him as it was more comfortable. All of a sudden out of nowhere, I hear her start going on about how she chose to formula feed, and that she can’t stand how Mom’s who breastfeed are so militant about it and sanctimonious, blah, blah, blah…

I was going um, hello I’m only in the other room?!? And I have never once said a word about me breastfeeding other than, oh Miles is hungry I better go feed him. D got quite upset at the table with her, and I only found out after that she often on the phone randomly tells him that I can switch to formula if I want and I don’t need to breastfeed. Of course there is nothing wrong with formula and I can use it, but I’m choosing not to. Why is this a problem? Grrr…..

Fiery, love seeing the difference a year makes. And she is so cute with Dad!

EB, love love the monkey theme and your adorable boy.

Amber, yay for crawling!

Littlelysser, so sorry about the break in. That’s awful.

MP, Miles is almost 12 weeks and he is still sleeping like Micah. I ususally get a 5-6 hour stretch followed by 3-4. There was one night where he slept 9 hours and I was so excited but it has never returned. I have hopes it will come back one day soon.

I have started using a swaddle me I got at my baby shower though, as he always seems to break his hands out of the regular swaddle now and when he does he wakes up. I for some reason decided to try the blanket again last night, and he went down at 10 and was up at 2:20 instead of the usual 3:30-4:30 time. Guess I learned my lesson.

Also, for anyone that does/has shared a room with the baby, do you find an alarm clock wakes them up? D needs one to get up for work, and it never seemed to bother Miles, but all of a sudden he seems to wake up when it goes off. Understandable, of course, he’s sleeping and then there is a beeping noise. It half wakes me up, so why not him? Just wondering, what, if anything we can do about it? Any ideas? We may have to move him out of the room and I really don’t want to do that yet.

 

[Mara]

aww PB your MIL sounds like a peach. seriously i will never get why people say such stupid stuff. there''s certainly nothing wrong with bf''ing or ff''ing...but it''s up to the parents to decide what''s best, not grandma! esp when bf''ing is so personal of a subject just in general.

re: swaddling, have you tried the miracle blanket? if you are still interested in swaddling i would def check it out. J was a crazy houdini, could break out of anything when he was approaching 2.5 months. friend gave us a MB and it was a GODSEND. he stayed in it til just about 4 months at which point we deswaddled. but yeah he would also get his arms out and wake himself up even almost up until 4 months.

re: alarm clocks, the babies start to get a bit more alert, i read after their initial ''i can sleep through anything'' phase. it seemed to me more like his ears just got more honed to recognize regular always-there noises vs something lifestyle inspired or out of the ordinary (aka signs of life in the morning or an alarm clock). can you use an iphone or something instead of a clock? G uses his clock still but i use my iphone as it can vibrate and play very softly and i just leave it near my pillow. J is not in our room but it''s a lot more of a mellow wakeup than an alarm clock.

kim, can''t wait to hear how the lessons go and see some pics!!!

AFM i have a pet peeve today. my stupid video monitor lately has been seemingly on the fritz. at night it makes these crazy alien clicking noises randomly and it will do it for minutes at a time. last nite for the first time i had to turn it off since it was keeping me awake..and i keep volume off anyway so i just use it for the video portion. so when i woke up to pee i''d just turn it on, look at J and then turn it back off. it''s fine to do that but i feel like we shouldn''t HAVE to, it''s only 5 months old! does anyone else''s video one do this? and it also is blue screening and static''ing out sometimes. granted i have dropped it a few times (oops) but it actually did this before too, now it just seems to be doing it more.

J slept through the night last nite without a wakeup, yay! he did move around a lot, he was in diff positions every time i looked into the monitor, but no wakeups, no needing the paci etc. he was happy this morning when he woke up, thankfully. i felt like he really needed a good nite of sleep so i am thankful he got it.

 

[Sha]

Welcome PrettyBlues! I love that photo of Miles you posted before. He''s a cutie!

Sorry to hear about the stresses with the in-laws. Visiting every weekend is really too much! Things are hectic enough with a new baby, not to mention having family on a regular basis. That really doesn''t give you and your DH much alone time. Those comments your MIL made about bf were really uncalled for. Sounds like she''s sensitive about the topic and is projecting that onto you?

Mara - I did do some sleeptraining before, but it all went out of the window a few weeks ago - with the teething and the cold thing. Now that she''s setteld ab it, I''m trying to nudge her back intoto sleeping the 4-5 hr stretches, instead of every 2 hours. Last night she woke at 11:30 pm and I fed her and put her back down, and she was up again at 1:30 like clockwork. When she wakes at the 2 hr intervals now, I just give her her pacifier and pat her a bit, and then leave the room. If she cries after that, I let her CIO. So far it''s been working at bit. She whimpers for about 15 minutes and then falls back to sleep. We''ll see how it goes. I''m sooo exhausted again today I can barely keep my eyes open.

Re: sleep - A 5-6 hour stretch of uninterrupted sleep right now would be so heavenly right now! I guess everything is relative, huh?

mtjoya - no, D''s ears aren''t pierced. Not sure when we''ll have them done. Probably a bit later on, though. It would probably help with the "Is he a boy/girl''? thing. but I''m sure somebody will still ignore them, just like they ignored the pink dress and headband...

 

[Mara]

Sha...poor D. Yeah I am finding as J ages his sleep is not as consistent as it was when he was smaller. Maybe there''s so much more happening in his brain, his mouth, his body, etc...but it''ll be like a few great nights, then a few off ones, etc. But I really am happy he sleeps well in general because I would be junk without long stretches, esp now that I am working again.

re: ear piercing... my ears were pierced and i would be wearing a pink dress and people would be like ''hi sonny''...W.T.F???? of course my mom gave me a chopped home cut so that is prob why but again, dress. ears. sandals?

 

[AmberWaves]

Date: 6/22/2010 6:40:55 PM
Author: jcrow

Date: 6/21/2010 6:01:16 PM

Author: AmberWaves


Sha: Piper stopped sleeping through the night awhile ago. It is exhausting. She was born 11/24, so less than a week older than D!

crap, so they sttn only to stop and need helping doing it again?! grrr. also, when did piper stop bfeeding during the night? or does she still?

Jcrow, she stopped feeding at night around 5 months, but then at 6 months she totally started waking up to eat at the least twice a night, and EARLY, too! Like, at 9pm, instead of sleeping through until midnight or so. A big part of it was the rolling, she just can''t get comfortable on her tummy, and coincidentally forgets how to roll back at night. Now she wakes around midnight (give or take an hour or two), and anywhere from 2, 3, 4, 5... She''s usually up for good at 6am, then takes a nap at 8am. It''s ROUGH.She wakes to eat both times and just gulps then falls right back to sleep, so it''s not toooo bad!

 

[MonkeyPie]

Date: 6/23/2010 10:45:32 AM
Author: PrettyBlues
Also, for anyone that does/has shared a room with the baby, do you find an alarm clock wakes them up? D needs one to get up for work, and it never seemed to bother Miles, but all of a sudden he seems to wake up when it goes off. Understandable, of course, he’s sleeping and then there is a beeping noise. It half wakes me up, so why not him? Just wondering, what, if anything we can do about it? Any ideas? We may have to move him out of the room and I really don’t want to do that yet.

We have the baby in a teeny little room with us, and my alarm never wakes him in the morning. But I make sure to set it fairly low, and it''s music (my Blackberry), so he never even stirs. It will wake up DH, though.

jcrow, then they are only two days apart! Micah will be 11 weeks Friday