PS Mommy Thread-Newborn to 12 months!

[MonkeyPie]

Happy birthday little man! MP it sounds like you all had a great time. I'd love to hear about the marshmallow clouds and that mexican chef salad!

And you know where to reach me if you need info on the necklace.

The marshmallow clouds were marshmallow fondant. It was good but SO super sweet - he only had a few bites before he just started squishing them, lol. He will eat sweet stuff but doesn't much care for it, so mostly he just made a mess. I got him chocolate milk as a treat and he had a few sips before he pushed it away for water. My healthy baby, hah.

The Mexican Chef Salad is AWESOME. It's my favorite thing to make and eat, so easy and so good. It has lettuce, tomato, cheese, hamburger meat, avocado, kidney beans, and Doritos. Yummmm! And it makes a TON - I brought some for lunch today, hehe.

I'll post more photos tonight of the whole cake and the mini cupcakes I made. I was really proud of how good they came out, since I rarely bake.

 

[geri]

Thanks everyone. I think it was just one of those days yesterday - Claudia wouldn't sleep during the day and then woke up twice during the night, it was my birthday and I was stuck at home with a cranky munchkin all day and AF decided to rear her ugly head

Noel - Thanks. I have been trying to work on a routine of eat, play, sleep for a couple of weeks now but because she doesn't sleep long, she always wakes well before the next feeding time and then I don't think she knows what to do with herself other than eat. I try to distract her but that only lasts so long. She will start a feed but not finish and end up spitting up more etc. Then she is tired straight after the feed because she has been awake for a while but doesn't sleep well because she is spitting up. Vicious cycle that I can't seem to break! When I can get her to sleep, she works best on a 4 hour feed cycle but with about an hour and a half of awake time and a 45 minute sleep, the maths just don't add up! I don't know whether to stick with this routine and keep walking her for the extra sleep till she gets it (which she may never do) or try to get her used to a shorter cycle and deal with the feeding issues. Agh, too hard! But you are right about the patience!

HH - Thankyou. Sorry you are having to deal with A not sleeping in the day. I hope you have some luck with the Ferber. I agree that for me it doesn't don't feel right doing CIO with a little bebe. When she was really unsettled a few weeks I tried a modified version at the suggestion of a mothercraft nurse who came to help me and it took an hour, with me going in every few minutes to comfort her, for her to fall asleep and I was a mess by the end of it. I'm not ready to do that again yet. And at the end of it the mothercraft nurse said she wanted me to think about why it upset me so much?! Umm, because my daughter just cried on and off for the best part of an hour! (I should add that this is not a judgment of anyone who uses CIO, I just couldn't do it).

LV - I'm not sure whether I'm trying to settle her too early or too late. When I try to settle her at the earliest tired sign, she gets all restless and works herself up but if I wait too much longer she then fights me when I try to settle her. She doesn't like the swing unfortunately. She will fall asleep in a sling/carrier but this is what we were trying to break her out of because it was the only way we could get her to sleep for weeks. Maybe if I don't do it all of the time she won't think that is the only way she can sleep!

Kunzite - Thankyou. I think I need to lower my expectations! The wind down time before she sleeps is a good idea so I might try that.

 

[somethingshiny]

Flying by....

Happy Birthday to Micah!! Glad the party went well.

Nothing new here. Just enjoying being able to be outside. Trying to wean myself off Zoloft since I'm not using BC. It's linked to birth defects of the heart, so obviously, I ain't taking it no more. I have an herbal thing that is supposed to help reduce the withdrawal. If I feel like I still have the PPD, I'll go back on the zoloft and try to find a BC until I can get off the zoloft successfully. So, that's all from us.

 

[Kunzite]

noel - Yep, he does the crazy open mouth thing too! He's always (unintentionally) tried to knock the bottle out of our hands when we feed him, even when he was in the hospital. It makes it a challenge to feed the kid! Now that he has more control over his hands he'll actually just hold onto the bottle or our hands when we feed him. It's super cute!

MP - cute picture!! Happy birthday Micah!!

geri - Have you considered trying a three hour feed cycle? O was on a four hour cycle for awhile but gradually he moved to three hours and it's so much better! He's basically awake for the day for 12 hours so he has 4 cycles through the day. Eat - 30 minutes, activity - 1.5 hours, sleep - 1 hour. The last part of the "activity" time is the reading books in the crib part to get him quiet and settled. Seriously, the three hour schedule was life changing for us! As an added bonus he sleeps longer at night because he's eating more during the day. Happy birthday!!

shiny - I hope the weaning from Zoloft goes well for you. I'm jealous that you can go outside! The weather here is still blah. O's only been to the park twice since he came home!!

 

[taovandel]

Making my way over here now that Violet is here...she is 5 days old now and is a great baby so far....just waiting on the 2 week craziness to set in before I start bragging too much about her..haha!

 

[somethingshiny]

Welcome, Violet! She is just gorgeous!! Congratulations! I hope the 2 week craziness goes well for you all!!

 

[noelwr]

taovandel - welcome Violet! you look already so wise and focussed in your pic. and you should be happy you're not my baby, or I'd already put lots of bows in all that hair of yours!

Kunzite - because S is more playful now, she also tends to play with bottle nipple. most of the time it's like she thinks it's a microphone and she needs to serenade the milk.

- - -

AFU, Skye is no longer keeping to her feeding routine. she drinks less (which I read is common when they reach 4 months old because they don't grow as fast), and then gets hungry in the middle of the night and woke us up at 2am for a bottle! at least she was the first to congratulate Daddy on his birthday.

I tried to find the winkle thing, but the closest they have here is this huge, heavy thing with a rattle inside.

 

[AllieLuv83]

My MIL and FIL visited this weekend. Charlie loved all of his Grammy attention

 

[Sha]

Congrats tao! Violet is so cute!!!

Love all the other baby pics too!

 

[Mara]

M.. re shields, we used them for just about a week until we got J to properly latch without them. My husband washed them every time for me and I had 2. They said to help wean them from the shield to put the shield on, get them going, then try taking it off and getting them to latch. They might be so in the zone they would just get it. We tried this a few times and it did not work but then it just did. It can be really frustrating, so be patient and don't expect them to get it right away. But after about ~5 days of REALLY trying on and off to get him to do it, he finally was off shields FT. Good luck!

Tao love little Miss V!!! Noel your daughter is so beautiful. Allie, love C.

 

[HOUMedGal]

Tao, Violet is beauuuuutiful!! Congratulations, mommy! And best of luck with the coming weeks.

Noel, Miss Skye is such a cutie pie. I just wanna smooch those cheeks!!!

Allie, love the pic of C with his Gma!! Is he feeling all better now??

SS, good luck with the Zoloft wean!! Isn't it wonderful outside right now? I love the spring.

Geri, sorry to hear you've had a rough time of late. Whenever we have a rough patch, I try to remind myself that usually the rough patches only last a few days, then things get at least a little bit better. E does the thing where she wakes before the next feed is due too....things for us got better when I stopped obsessing so much about her getting off schedule and just tried to roll with her needs/wants a little bit better. When we first started the eat/activity/sleep then rinse and repeat cycle (around 6 weeks of age) she took to it sooooo well, and the first time she started getting off that schedule (i.e. waking up after 45 min instead of sleeping the full 1.5-2hrs up until the next feed) it threw me for a loop....but then I decided that it was OK if some of our cycles became eat/activity/sleep/activity/eat/sleep.....and things got easier. I've noticed that the most important thing is that I've got to protect her sleep time as much as possible. For example, I know a lot of the books say that babies shouldn't eat themselves to sleep (because then they end up learning that eating is necessary prior to sleep and eating becomes a sleep prop of sorts)....but if Ellie wakes early from a nap and ends up staying awake until her next feed, it's usually better for her if she goes to sleep immediately following the feed, without any activity time following the feed. Does that make sense? I think it's more important for them to get enough sleep at this age than it is to try to teach them immaculate sleep-training habits, yanno? Also, wind down time is good....don't forget that any wind down time counts in the total activity time, so if you're shooting for 1 hr total awake time, and it takes 30 minutes to feed and 20 minutes to wind down, then you've only got 10 minutes of actual playtime in there before she needs to start going down for a nap. And watch for the super subtle sleepy cues...Ellie used to fuss as soon as she started to get sleepy, but now that she's enjoying her world so much when awake, often she doesn't fuss until it's too late and we've already missed the prime sleep window. So I watch for the time when she gets quiet and starts kinda staring off...that's prime put-down-for-nap time.

MP - happy birthday to Micah!!! Glad the party went well!! LOVE the pic. What a handsome little man you have!!

-----------------------

Not much new here, except my baby is getting cuter and cuter every single day. She smiles soooooo much now, and coos ALLTHE TIME. So precious. Also, she's 12 weeks old today!!! 12 weeks ago right now, we were getting ready to move from our L&D room into our postpartum room, and Ellie was almost 2 hours old!!

Updated pic coming soon (have to sync my phone to get all the latest pics off of it!)

 

[geri]

Tao - Congratulations! Violet is beautiful. I hope she continues to be a good baby.

Allie - Charlie is just so cute!

Noel - Skye looks like she loves the toy. Hope she gets back on her feeding schedule soon. It must be hard going back to a 2am wake-up call!

Kunzite - Thanks. I did try putting her back to a 3 hour cycle but it felt like I was force-feeding her because she is not used to eating that often (she is formula fed now so seems to go longer between feeds). I may have to try a bit harder if we don't have any success with the sleeping soon. She had a two and a half hour sleep yesterday sraight after a feed, so maybe I just need to be patient!

Houie - Sounds like we have had a pretty similar experience! Claudia was great on the routine for the first week or two at 6-7 weeks but around 8-9 weeks started waking every 45 minutes. (I have read that this can happen at 8 weeks). You're right that I need to just go with the flow a bit more in each cycle. She had a 2 and a half hour sleep yesterday straight after a feed and over an hour this morning, completely off schedule of course, so she is clearly telling me she will sleep on her schedule not mine! I agree that sleep is important so if she has been up too long, she needs to sleep regardless of anything else. The key thing I am trying to stick to is not having a big sleep too late in the afternoon and getting her to bed close to 7 because she seems to go to sleep easily and sleep really well when we do this. No doubt that will change too at some stage! Look forward to seeing a recent pic of Ellie.

 

[mtjoya]

Tao-Wow! How beautiful! I want another bebe! She looks so peaceful and lovely! How is lil E takin to her?

Allie-She is your MIL? Wow, she is young! Beautiful bebe!

 

[noelwr]

well, I'm happy to report that waking up hungry at 2am was a once off thing. the last 2 nights S slept from 22:30 - 05:45. still getting up earlier than she used to, but I think it's because I moved the rice cereal bottle to earlier in the day. maybe I'll go for 2 rice cereal bottles per day, one in the morning and one before bed. anyway, so I give her the first bottle early and then it's so worth it when at 6am I can crawl back into bed and get a DH to spoon with to keep me warm. of course he has to get out of bed 15 min later to get ready for work, but I get to stay in bed for another 3-4 hours.

we're on to carrots now, and boy does that make a mess! it stained the rubber spoon orange. I wonder if it will wash out of the clothes. it also goes in and comes out the same bright orange, if you know what I mean. anyway, at least she eats it because it's no where as sweet as pear. I think she just enjoys the spoon in her mouth, the most.

and last, we went to the doctor because she has a weeping rash on her cheek by her ear, and it turns out it is eczema. she's also got patches on her tummy and chest. I picked up special creams at the pharmacy and it should shows results within a week. fingers crossed! at least the itchiness doesn't keep her awake at night.

 

[Lanie]

OK so PS just ate my post. I hope the admins see this bc this is starting to get ridiculous!

ANYWAY,

tao -- Violet is such a pretty lady! I'm also curious as to how Evan is taking it. How is your sleep going?

HOU -- good to see you! You are so on the ball with Ellie's sleep. I didn't read a single sleep book until about 3 weeks ago, and I regret it. I have seen an improvement in Anderson's behavior by putting him down for naps instead of just letting him nod off in my arms or in his bouncer. Good to see things are getting better. Are you still moving?

geri -- I have no advice other than strong coffee. Everyone always says the usual "It will get better". What's the longest she will sleep?

noel -- such a cutie! Hope your treatment went well. I'll be trying rice cereal next week when he turns 4 months. How do you spoon feed when she can't sit up yet? I think I'll feed him in his bumbo or have my DH hold him.

kunzite -- I love your little O! He's SO CUTE!

Allie -- such a cute pic! His grandma looks so in love.

icekid -- are you around? Wondering how your pumping is going...

AFM -- Anderson was sick last week with the daycare crud. We Nose Freida'd him, which worked wonders, but he hates it. His sleep was all off, and we're wanting to get him back in his routine, but are cautiously optimistic since we'll be going out of town for Easter and that will mess up everything. He keeps waking up at 5am and I want to stretch that to at least 6am. The feeding before that is usually just 4 hours before, and he has gone up to 7 hours without a feeding so I know he can do it. I just have to reset that internal clock somehow. Any tips?

I'm going to post this, then post the pics in case PS eats my post again.

 

[Lanie]

My crabby little angel I took these this morning.

 

[Lanie]

Oh, and before you call CPS on me, this was after the 5am feeding, and my DH and I were both awake and around him. We know it's a hazard that he could stuff his face in the cushion. He's normally swaddled and sleeping on his back.

 

[Puppmom]

Lanie, that is the SWEETEST pic ever!

 

[taovandel]

Lanie: love the disclaimer! haha.

All the babies are soooooo cute!!!!


Evan has been a great big brother. He's always going up to her and petting her legs and arms like he does to our cats. And one time her flailing arms happened to touch him and he laughed so hard at it.

Sleeping has also been good so far...I know we have the two week wake up coming up soon...but I'm enjoying her sleepiness for now!

 

[Kunzite]

tao, noel, laine - I'm just dying over here, so cute!!!

I call this one, "Look how tall I am mama!"

 

[HOUMedGal]

Kunzite - OMG, what a big boy!! Soooooooo cute!!! Growing up so fast, I am impressed that he's pretty much standing with just a little bit of assistance!! WOW!!

Tao - I would have loved to have seen Evan laughing when Violet flailed on him. Priceless!!

Lanie, what a sweet sleepy boy!! I love it!!! Also love the disclaimer, hehehe. No judgement coming from this direction!! We haven't moved yet, just closed on our house. We'll be moving in July when I finish my residency (my last day is July 8, I think? and we'll be moving ASAP after that). Luckily the grandparents will be totally on board to help us out, and I'll be off for the whole month of July before I start my new job Aug 1, so things should go (relatively) smoothly. RE: the sleep books - I remember how amazed I was when I first started actually putting Ellie down for naps on a schedule instead of just letting her fall asleep wherever (usually my arms)...it WORKED, and I felt like suddenly I had my life back (to a certain extent, LOL), because before, I was always so afraid to put her down once she fell asleep in my arms. I'm reading Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child right now, and the other two I read before it were Babywise and Baby Whisperer. All have good stuff, IMO. We don't follow any of the plans to a T, but use bits and pieces from each philosophy, and it's working well for us. I think our most important guiding prinicipal is that good sleep is of paramount importance...and we do our very best to protect Ellie's opportunity for good sleep. Of course, we have good days and bad....when we go out and do stuff it throws her off, but we just try to get right back on track ASAP after a bad day. Sorry to hear little A has been sick - hope he's feeling better!! I don't have any magic suggestions to get him sleeping longer at night....besides consistency with bedtime and trying to get his tummy nice and full if you can (I know that may be easier said than done...Ellie is a very temperamental eater, I absolutely cannot make her eat more when she doesn't want to).

Icekid - how are you hanging in, fellow resident momma?? I hope work is going OK. It is HARD working long resident hours with a little baby you're missing at home.

Noel - what a gorgeous girl!! I love that sweet smile! Glad to hear you're having good nights with her, and getting to enjoy cuddle time with DH in the mornings too!!! LOL re: the carrots and orange poop!! I hope the eczema clears up nice and quick for her. How are you feeling lately?? Hope all is well.

Geri - Ellie does well with a 7pm bedtime too. Her natural naptime rhythm seems to be better naps earlier in the day, with not great naps in the late afternoon, so I've just come to expect that and I think it will all work if I keep trying to get her to bed by 7ish. And yes, I'm sure things will change very soon too....I'm learning that this parenthood thing is all about trying to figure things out at each individual stage (which may last all of 2 days, LOL) and just rolling with the changes!

-----------------------------------------------------

Pic time!! All 3 taken today, at almost 3 months old (her "birthday" is on Tuesday!) Love her in the little hat!!! She's killing me with all the sweet smiles lately.

 

[Kunzite]

Lanie - I forgot to address your early wake up question. Dh and I were just talking about how O's been getting up a little earlier than usual lately (6:30ish so not too early) and he reminded me that all of the books say early to bed does not mean early to rise. So the logic is that if they're getting up too early it means they need an earlier bedtime. O is on the 7:30 - 7:30 schedule but we may need to push him earlier to 7 if he keeps getting up too early and see how he does with it.

HOU - E is so cute (and so skinny!!) I adore your glasses, cute mama!! Can you believe how strong my baby is?! We just got a call that the hospital wants us to do a follow up PT appointment to make sure that he's doing okay and we just laughed because this kid is certainly not lacking in motor skills!! You reminded me that I never posted our post-bath picture! He is always so calm and happy after a bath... like a little angel.

This one is called, "Mama! Don't take a picture of me naked!"

 

[meresal]

I have tried to post twice now...

First post was all lovey dovey with a cute message to C for his laft BPF pick in N-12month thread.
Second try was less sappy, but still sweet.
(Ohh, and just to add, I almost lost it for a third time... would have been my own fault for making premature clicks when the page was still loading.)

Now I am just going to post the pictures. Wouldn't expect anything else at the end of a day like today.

So, here is my very last post around here... thanks for all that you have brought me over the last 12 months. Friends.

 

[geri]

Noel - I'm glad the 2am wake up was a one-off and what a great photo - Skye looks so happy!

Lanie - What sweet photos! I love his little hands joined together!!

Houie - Aww, she is so sweet and look at those long thin legs! Claudia is not a temperental eater -she will eat anything, anytime - I am worried she does not have an "off" switch!

Kunzite - Wow, he's grown so much. He looks long and lean and certainly not like you have anything to worry about!

Meresal - Congrats on 1 year. What lovely pictures to remember it by.

AFM, Claudia had a two hour sleep at lunchtime today. Now I just need to work out what the magic ingredients were - a full tummy? a warm sleeping bag? a dark rainy day? I really shouldn't complain - she sleeps about 12 hours at night from about 7ish with one feed at about 3-4am. She even gave us a sleep in till 8.15 this morning. Maybe my punishment for this is no daytime sleep?!

Here are a few photos of Claudia - waiting for food, wrapped in towels after a bath with daddy (the princess has a melt-down if she gets cold) and daddy massaging her feet.

 

[AllieLuv83]

Cludia, Oliver, Anderson and Ellie are soooooo cute

Congrats Tao on Violet she is a stunner.

Mere your boy is so adorable and you got some LOVELY pictures awe.

Here is one you might have seen from FB from yesterday.

AFM: Charlie had his 6 month WVB visit yesterday, he took his shots like a pro. The doctor commented on his strong abs, but unfortunately he dropped in percentiles again. He is now 50th for weight and 95th for height. 18lbs and 29inches tall, the doctor and everyone else tells me not to worry but it is easier said than done. I know he is happy and healthy (relatively) but still going from 90th for weight at 2 months to 50th kinda freaks me out.

 

[noelwr]

Lanie - we put S in her bouncing chair to feed her. if you have one, make sure to buy a cover for it! the Bumbo wouldn't work for us because she doesn't hold her head up the whole time, and I think she'd be too folded over on her tummy. spoon-feeding with rice cereal didn't go so well, so we just give her that via the bottle. when we moved to solids, she started to get the hang of spoon-feeding. anyway, try spoon-feeding between feedings when A isn't hungry, yet. we used to do it at time of bottle and S would get so frustrated that there wasn't enough going down her throat. sorry about A's cold! they say if you give the rice cereal before bed, that helps them sleep longer. A looks like he's praying in his sleep... "Please, God, let me stay asleep so that Mom & Dad can get some rest, too."

Kunzite - at first I didn't see the supporting hands and I was like ! haha, he looks like a natural.

Houie - Ellie with her hat! and great photo of her proud Mama.

meresal - I think we're all going to miss the beautiful photos of C.

geri - I love the look on lil C's face in the towel pic... "Yah, so I get cold. What's wrong with that?"

Allie - your kid has got the most awesome clothes. Charlie looks super healthy and happy, so I wouldn't worry about percentiles and graphs. what shots did he get? (I'm asking because here they get DTaP, Hib, IPV + PCV shots at 2, 3 and 4 mo and then again at 11 mo. interested in how they do it in the US.)

- - -

and for those who asked, I'm feeling great. I seem to be nauseous for 3 days post treatment which feels exactly the same as morning sickness and I need to continuously eat small bites to manage it (in addition to the anti-nausea pills). so I guess now it makes sense to me why some pregnant woman will go on Zofran, which is actually used for chemo-patients but not the one I use. but after the 3 days, I feel right as rain again! my bald head doesn't bother Skye at all. I am used to it, though I always cover it when I go outside, and I do feel a cold breeze in my neck at night. I also don't have to shave anywhere for now, and so far my eyebrows are still there, which is great because if I had to draw them on, I think I'd be bad at it (anyone see the last episode of Breaking In?).

 

[AllieLuv83]

[quote="

Allie - your kid has got the most awesome clothes. Charlie looks super healthy and happy, so I wouldn't worry about percentiles and graphs. what shots did he get? (I'm asking because here they get DTaP, Hib, IPV + PCV shots at 2, 3 and 4 mo and then again at 11 mo. interested in how they do it in the US.) [/quote]

Hey Noel...Skye is getting to be so big and such a beauty!

Charlie got the rota, hib, polio, dtap, pneumococcal disease.

 

[HOUMedGal]

Thanks for the kind words, friends! Yeah, Ellie is definitely long and lean...she was 25th% for weight and 61st% for height at her 2 month check...since then I think she's probably maintained around the 25th for weight and may have even jumped up more in height! I do worry about her weight, especially since she doesn't eat great, but it's probably fine. She is tracking right along her percentile...I think she was ~20th% at birth.

Allie - try not to worry too much about C's weight. We (pediatricians) worry more when babies aren't maintaining their lengthwise growth curve, but looks like he's doing GREAT with regards to length/height!! It may be that he was heavy (percentilewise) at the beginning but isn't genetically destined to be heavy forever, so he's got to cross percentiles at some point, right?? I know it's hard not to worry when it's your own baby....I feel the same about Ellie and her skinny self. But C looks great - looks like a happy healthy boy to me!

Noel - glad to hear you're tolerating treatment well!! Seems like this is but a bump in the road for you. I love your awesome attitude.

Geri - Claudia is a doll!!! Glad to hear you got a good nap out of her! Here's hoping it becomes more of a pattern!!

Meresal - we will miss you around here!! Precious pics of your handsome little man!!

Kunzite - thanks!! LOL - I'm pretty sure you can tell the hospital PT folks that O has no issues!!! Love the sweet bathtime pic!!

-------------------------------------------------

On call tonight....it's my second-to-last in-hospital call ever!!! sweeeeeeeeet.

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

Just stopping by to attention whore my kid again. I had Aidan's Easter pictures taken yesterday. He was such a little trooper and our photog was great with him. This is a different photog than the one who took his other pictures and I like this woman a lot better. I had some taken of Aidan and I and I'm going to have one printed in 8 x 10 and framed for DH for Father's Day. Here are some highlights.

 

[HOUMedGal]

HH - ohh em geeee! Those are fantastic!! LOVE LOVE LOVE the adorable little suit!!! And the little hat KILLS me. Such a little man!!!