PS Mommy Thread-Newborn to 12 months!

[somethingshiny]

The first year with a baby is IMO the hardest in a marriage. Often DH doesn't realize how tired a mom is, how hard she works, etc. Also, men are usually not as ease with a first baby. Lots of communication is key! And, remember, you still HAVE to make your marriage a priority. Early bedtimes are great for a little couple time in the evenings.

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

Ditto SS.

Also the book Babyproofing your Marriage is a fabulous read, both pre- and post-baby.

 

[geri]

Cupcake - Lorelei is beautiful! Congratulations! I'm sorry you arre having such a hard time but juggling a newborn and work is a huge task, especially in those early weeks, so please don't be too hard on yourself. I wasn't even working and found those weeks from about 3 to 7 weeks incredibly challenging. But it does get better!

As for your DH, you are not alone. DH is pretty good now but we had a couple of very wobbly weeks from about 3 to 7 weeks. Claudia was a dream for the first 2 weeks when he was on paternity leave and then she decided to wake up and everything went pear shaped pretty quickly. DH couldn't understand how different it was and would make comments about the house being a mess and dinner not being cooked etc. He did try to help out a lot but he often made me feel like he was doing me a big favour doing things that I should have been getting done in all my spare time! He thought of himself as doing 2 jobs, not recognizing that I was also doing double shifts by working day and night! I don't think they will ever get it but I am thankful my DH has gotten better over time.

Graff pink - welcome! I think it is perfectly natural to feel overwhelmed at times, especially after a big move, but there is no shame in talking to someone about how you are feeling to determine whether it could be PPD. I hope things settle down for you.

 

[tiffanytwisted]

cupcake: I cant imagine trying to work from home while taking care of a baby. I'm sorry your bosses and husband aren't a little more understanding.

I started taking domperidone to increase milk supply 2 weeks ago, and it has increased my supply quite a bit. For others who used it, what dose did you take and how long until it took effect? I'm wondering if it will increase any more at this point or if this is as much as I will produce. (I've been taking 30 mg three times a day)

HH- I can't believe Aidan is 9 months old already! I lurked on the preggo thread when you were there but it doesn't seem possible he could be that old!

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

TT-I know, it's insane. Technically he's only 8.5 but we moved his appointment up 2 weeks because he needed to have his ears checked post-ear infection. I just want to press the pause button. Things are good right this second. He's fun and lovable, he has one tooth, he's standing and starting to cruise, eating table foods and (dare i say it) sleeping well. I'm going to make a conscious effort to savor this summer.

 

[noelwr]

we've got another milestone over here. I sat Skye down on her activity mat and she managed to lean on her arms for a little bit. also got it on video camera.

 

[Puppmom]

TT-I know, it's insane. Technically he's only 8.5 but we moved his appointment up 2 weeks because he needed to have his ears checked post-ear infection. I just want to press the pause button. Things are good right this second. He's fun and lovable, he has one tooth, he's standing and starting to cruise, eating table foods and (dare i say it) sleeping well. I'm going to make a conscious effort to savor this summer.

Yes to hitting the pause button! This is the best age by far!

 

[somethingshiny]

SO Lily is about 10.5 months and just now was the FIRST time she rolled herself to her belly. I went to get her up from her nap and she was on her tummy. Now maybe this girl will get moving! lol.

 

[noelwr]

what did you ladies make your babies the first few months they were on to solids? I try to mass produce in one day for the week, mixing different fruit for breakfast and veggies for dinner. I hope it's ok to keep pureed fruit and veggies in the freezer - they get eaten within the week and thawed in the fridge the night before. pumpkin and squash are not easy to get here and avocado is expensive. the fruit is doable, but there are only so many ways I can mix carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini and potatoes. sometimes Skye will get bottled baby food (which she loves because of course they know how to make it tasty), but I'm trying to keep it fresh as much as possible. maybe I should try peas (is it ok to use frozen peas?). any other suggestions?

shiny - yay for Lily rolling onto her tumtum! Skye has been doing this for a month but looks no closer to crawling. however, Lily is older so I am sure she'll get the hang of it pretty soon. or does she crawl already if you put her on her belly?

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

Noel frozen veggies are totally fine to use to make baby food with. In the States frozen veggies are flash frozen when they're ripe and ready to eat so the nutrients are retained. Fresh veggies in the grocery store are often picked before they're ripe and left to ripen while they're transported so they aren't as nutritionally rich. Now, if you have a farm stand or farmers market where you can get fresh stuff from the grower, then that's the perfect combo. Just avoid canned veggies. They're really high in salt and sugar and well, just plain gross.

Peas are great to puree, you can also puree edemame. You might find squash or pumpkin in the freezer section as well. Some other good veggies for purees and fruit and veg combos are:

peas
carrots
green beans
spinach
swiss chard
summer squash/zucchini
carrots
potatoes-white and sweet (also known as yams)
parsnips
turnips
edemame
black beans
chick peas

combos:
spinach pears and peas (one of Aidan's all time favorites)
carrots and corn
butternut squash and apples (you can buy organic, unsweetened applesauce and give it to the baby vs making it yourself)
banana and blueberries
pears and peas
apples and peas
peas and carrots
homemade hummus (no tahini or salt added)

Take a look at some of the commercial baby food brands and see what sort of combos they have and then try and replicate them in your kitchen. You can add mashed beans or grains like quinoa to the purees when Sky is ready for more texture.

 

[somethingshiny]

Noel~ Nope. Lily doesn't crawl at all. If I put her on her tummy, she'll push herself backwards. And if she's sitting, she scoots efficiently.

HH~ Thanks for the combo ideas. I haven't tried some of those yet!

 

[Puppmom]

Noel, love the *tri-pod* sit! She is just a darling little girl.

HH, I’m glad A is well! He sounds like a mover and shaker!

SS, I have a sneaking suspicion that Ms. Lily COULD roll over for a while now but didn’t. Darn kids! I’m not terribly worried about any milestone timeline with N. I just go with my gut. My gut tells me he’s just fine and he’ll do things when he’s ready. It's wierd because I'm normally not relaxed about anything!

Not much new here – we’re seriously blown away by the fact that N will be ONE YEAR OLD in two months. I’ve started planning his party. I’m normally pretty low key but I’m feeling the need to really do it up. DD and I are the party planning committee and have decided on a Robot theme. This is gonna be fun!

 

[Lanie]

Fast post from me, but wanted to say hello to everyone! Love the new pic of Skye!

A's baptism went really well. I can't believe he was so good for it. Didn't even cry, much less make a sound. Sound relieved! And here's his 5 month pic. I can't believe time is flying!!!! I'm done with school for the summer so I'm looking forward to having him 3 days a week to do fun things with!!!! Happy Memorial Day everyone!!!

 

[HOUMedGal]

Hello, friends!!

Have been waaaay too busy to post much, but I'm still lurking and loving seeing pics and hearing about how you all and your LO's are doing!! Can't believe how fast these babes are growing.....!!!

We are doing well! Ellie is SO much fun these days. She laughed for the first time on Mother's Day (and it was GOOD belly laughing!), and of course we haven't been able to replicate it since, LOL! Silly monkey. She did well with her 4 months shots, and at her 4 mo check was 12lb4oz (still ~25th%) and 24.5in (63rd%) - still long and lean! She's losing her dark baby hair and getting all this strawberryish blonde hair growing in...it's sooooo cute and fuzzy, hehe! She rolls from tummy to back easily, and is THISCLOSE to rolling back to tummy...she gets all the way over on her side, and has her legs positioned right, but can't quite overcome that bottom arm yet. She babbles all the time, and usually the way I know she's woken up from her naps or in the morning is because of the sweet coos I hear coming from her room. And, best of all, her stay-at-home Daddy is holding up well, doing a great job juggling his work from home and taking care of her during the days when I'm at work. I'm not gonna lie, it hasn't been easy with me being back at work with a heavy workload (almost done with this dadgum residency!)....but we're making it.

Recent pic....I got a new lens for my Canon DLSR, it's a dreaaaaaaaam. One of Ellie and her daddy, and a couple of Ellie and her friend Livi the cat.

 

[tiffanytwisted]

Love the Friday pics, Skye, Ellie, and Anderson are so cute!!

HH- That list is great- I'm planning to make their baby food when the time comes and those are great combo suggestions.

Hou- which lens did you get? I have a Canon also so I'm just curious.

 

[noelwr]

wow HH, thanks for all the great suggestions! and your post made entire sense while I was reading it, but it's strange that I never thought of it: how frozen veggies are more nutritious and it's best to get fresh veggies at a farmers' market. I never heard of edamame - I probably always thought they were snow peas or sugar snaps when looking at them. I read about mixing fruit and veggies but thought it personally sounded disgusting, but hey, I'm not the one who has to eat them, so I think I'll give adding apple a try.

by the way, when you started adding meat and fish, how did you prepare them? do you fry them in olive oil?

shiny - apparently I used to scoot as well and was walking by 1 year old. then again, according to my mom, my brother and I were both walking, talking AND potty-trained by 1-yr-old. I think she likes to adjust her memories to having the ideal kids.

puppmom - tripod sit! I like it. a robot party sounds fun! you should all dress up as them.

Lanie - so good that the baptism went well and A was on his best behavior. he's as big as his sheep buddy now!

HOUie - the last pic of Ellie with the cat is darling. it was when Skye started grabbing her toes that she began to roll over. is E doing that yet? isn't the cooing in the morning lovely? they can wake up in such a good mood. I hate when I have to be the one to have to wake her up for day care.

 

[Kunzite]

HH - I want to know what your push present was! Mine just came this week too. So excited

Noel - Look at little S sit! So cute! Are you feeling any better? It must be nice to get a little break during the day now to rest. O's first week at daycare (the week after next) I'm going to have Friday off and I can't decide if I'll just take him to day care and just have a me day or not.

Laine - So cute!! A is getting so big!

Hou - What lense did you get? I love those pictures!! I really need a new lense.

I want to hit the pause button too! If O were STTN right now (the whole night) everything would be perfect! He's just so much fun right now.

Just a quick update on all of his doctor's appts. The GI said that he is perfect and there is no need for us to do any test or give him any medicine if he's happy. Take that pedi! Our pedi freaked on us when we told him that we'd stopped giving O his reflux meds. Which leads to the fact that we need a new pedi. I'm really starting to hate ours. He spent all of O's 6 month check up telling me how I needed to start solids. I'm pretty sure he didn't even look at O's chart as we've talked about how we were going to wait. Ugh. The PT said that his development was right on track. And the best one... the opthamologist said that he doesn't have a cross eye! He's got a psuedo-cross eye. Apparently babies can have extra skin on the inside of their eye that covers part of the white and makes it look like it's cross. Yahoo! Then she said it's really common in Asian babies.... haha

Here's my BPF.... story time with papa.

 

[Skippy123]

I am loving all these baby pictures!!! Such BEAUTIFUL babies. hugs to all the mommas

 

[noelwr]

what is a push present?

Kunzite - day care days fly by. I spent my Friday mostly in the kitchen preparing meals for Skye and then making lasagne for DH and me... and the day had gone by. boo. don't think I'll plan any more cooking on my days off as it's definitely not something I like to do. great news on all of O's appointments! there definitely has to be some Asian somewhere in your bloodline, all signs point to it! is O good with having a book read? I tried with S, but all she wants to do is grab it and put it in her mouth.

 

[random_thought]

I wanted to pop in and update too Things are going well, Cayden is now taking 4 oz down at each feeding, I don't know how I'll keep up Sleeping well and gaining weight; pediatrician gave us the ok to feed on demand now instead of every 3 hours which is awesome Sometimes we think we see a smile on his face but I think it is still just gas lol! I was so thankful he didn't let anything rip in church today!! Here's a couple of pictures me and the little man took today

ETA: Pictures aren't uploading right now for some reason I'll come back and put them up later!

 

[somethingshiny]

RE: books. Babies love to play with books until they're about 2. Even then, I remember my sis chasing her little boy begging him to let her read Twas the Night Before Christmas to him. The point is, just having books around, letting baby grab, touch, pull, eat, and throw the book encourages language skills, socializing, and quality time. Never give up the books! Every day Lily and I "read". Usually I open a board book to a random page and point at pictures and name them or look for all the red things, etc. She already associates books with quiet and calm time and usually takes one to bed with her.

Noel~ Push present: a gift given to a woman after giving birth (pushing, get it?).


Hope you're all doing well!!

 

[noelwr]

shiny - ok, I will be persistent with the books! I thought "pushing" might actually have to do with pushing the child out... but then thought, nah, that's kind of weird. haha, but that is the case!

rt - can't wait to see your photos!

 

[Loves Vintage]

I haven't posted in a while, so my apologies that my responses are a bit dated.

Puppmom - I loved the pic you posted of N in his wagon. He looks sooo happy! I'm jealous of your neighborhood! Oh, how I would love sidewalks!!!!!!!!

Tiffany - I'm glad to see you posting here! Your boys are adorable! I'd love to hear more about them and more about raising twins in general. When did they start acknowledging each other? Do they usually sleep/nap at the same time?

Noel - We only decided to deswaddle because the pediatrician said it might be contributing to the slight flat spot on her head. It hasn't been easy. She doesn't come close to STTN without the swaddle, but we're working on it as best we can. Her pedi said we should let her fuss for 5 mins when she wakes up, then feed her, then put her back down without giving her any special attention, cuddling, etc. I kept forgetting this was the new plan in the middle of the night and would pick her up right away, though I am now waiting the 5 mins. I still wind up cuddling her back to sleep. Ah well, baby steps. Great pictures you posted of Skye. She looks very LONG in her crib photo! Oh and thanks for mentioning the growling. I growled at S, and she loved it! Haha.

Graff - Welcome! How are you feeling? I hope you'll come back and check in with us.

Cupcake - Little L is so adorable!! Enjoy every moment! How are you doing? Are you working from home full-time? That seems like a huge undertaking at just 4 weeks PP and with a newborn to care for as well. I was still feeling very out of it at 4 weeks PP, and still am to some degree now at 4 months! I hope things ease up some for you.

Lanie - Glad to hear the Baptism went smoothly. You must be one proud momma. Sweet photos. School's over already! Yippee!! You are going to have the best summer with A!

HMG!!!!!!!!!!! - We missed you! E is adorable! Look at her hair! Yay for rolling! We aren't close to rolling yet, I don't think. Did you do a lot of tummy time? We need to do more.

HH and Kunzite - Where are the pics of these push presents?

Kunzite - Yet ANOTHER perfect picture!

********
We had our 4 month pedi visit last week. S barely cried during her shots. She is so AMAZING! (I've decided I'm just going to outright brag about her whenever I want. Hope that's not ANNOYING! Haha.) Anyway, she's 26.8 inches long now (99.4 %ile)!!! My LONG and AMAZING baby! Love her!

So, methinks I need a new car seat RIGHT AWAY. The one we have now is good up until 29 inches. Any recs?

I'll post some recent photos in my next post since I usually lose an entire post when I try to post pics at the end of long post. Cheers!

 

[Loves Vintage]

Some recent favorite photos. The first one is in front of the dogwood tree that we planted on Mother's Day. I plan to take pictures in front of the tree with her every Mother's Day.

 

[Kunzite]

noel - Yes, Oliver loves to read his books. He's usually pretty calm and engaged when it's story time, but I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that we started reading to him in the beginning while he was swaddled. So he couldn't really try to get the book! He loves to look at bright colors and will just sit and hold the edge of the book (like in the photo).

LV - S is adorable! And long! Oh my. We have the same car seat, I guess I didn't realize it only goes to 29 inches. O is right around 26 inches right now. We're going to get a Britax, probably the roundabout, though I don't remember the reasons I chose it over the other Britax models at the moment.

Speaking of swaddles... we've been swaddle free for about a week now (nearly three weeks for naps) and it's going okay. He actually seems to sleep longer without the swaddle because he would try to fight out of it in his sleep. The part that doesn't work so well is getting him to sleep. It was much easier to get him to sleep with the swaddle. The other challenge is that he won't sleep on his back. The kid just doesn't like to be on his back (in his crib and otherwise) so as soon as you lay him down he flips to his tummy. I'm trying to be okay with his tummy sleeping but it makes me nervous because he'll sleep nearly face down sometimes.

Here's my suite of Ollie presents. I'm going to do a proper thread in CS as soon as I get two rings back from being set (probably the next few weeks). My push present are the .7 ctw martinis, transitional cuts (thanks Uppy!) and my Ollie birthstone set are a bezel set pendant and bridge ring, both topaz (nearly colorless with a slight pink/champagne) by DanielM. Sorry they're so dirty!

 

[random_thought]

Photos

 

[tiffanytwisted]

Happy Tuesday- hope everyone had a fun Memorial Day. We went to a bbq at a friends which was fun, it was so hot here though too bad the boys are too young to swim!

RT-Those pics of Cayden are so sweet- those cheeks!

Kunzite- LOVE the Ollie presents!! I'm not looking forward to when we have to deswaddle, they are busting out of the swaddle wrap though so I think it will be soon. Right now they usually sleep straight from about 10pm-5ish and I'm sure that will change when the swaddle goes away. That's great about his opthamologist appointment! Good luck with the new pedi search, sometimes it's hard to find a doc that you "mesh' with. He's so into that book!!

LV- brag all you want you've got a gorgeous baby! No point in being humble!! I love that last photo, is that a pink rose blanket she's laying on? it's gorgeous.

Noel- sorry you spent the day in the kitchen- hopefully you can enjoy your next day a little more

HH- I second the request for pics of the push present- did you tell us what it was? If so I can't recall.

The boys are so much fun. They watch each other so intently, and just in general are becoming so much more interactive with their environment. Their little personalities are startng to emerge. Travis is a little more laid back and somewhat shy; a little more stingy with his smiles. Christopher is more the little charmer/firt- he loves the ladies and smiles for everyone. They sleep pretty well at night, usually I feed them/bath/etc. around 700 and they fall asleep around 730 but it's a very light sleep, then they eat again around 10-1030 and after that they are asleep for the night, although there's always one that has difficulty going to sleep and will take a good hour to get to sleep, but then they will sleep till about 5 or so. (although I get up to pump a few times, so my sleep is still interrupted)
They just don't nap well though- I've tried swaddling/noise machine/etc but they don't stay asleep for more than 30 minutes. If I put them in the swing then they will usually nap for about an hour so at a time but I don't really want them to always nap there, but for now I guess it's ok and I'll just work on naptime as I can. I'm going back to work on thursday, I can't believe it's been 12 weeks. I never posted an oficial birth story but I had a post partum hemorrhage at 11 days post partum, had 2 surgeries and spent an additional 4 days in the hospital and that recovery was worse than the original c-section, so I feel like I got ripped off of a little of my maternity leave! But I'm sure Thursday will be fine- I'm going back part time so they will be here with my DH when I'm at work, and occasionally our schedules will overlap and a friend will come over to watch them (he's a police officer and I'm an RN, so we have strange schedules and daycare hours wouldn't work for us). They do have stuffy noses right now so I hope it doesn't get worse before Thursday!
I feel like I really rambled but there were so many thoughts to get out before one of them wakes up! And my keyboard is sticking so sorry for the typos!

 

[Graff_Pink]

I feel like I am going to look like a total lame-o not knowing this, but what is a "push present"???

Also wondering if anyone is from the Boston area and could suggest good Mommy-&-Me classes/groups and also a good gym!

 

[tiffanytwisted]

I feel like I am going to look like a total lame-o not knowing this, but what is a "push present"???

Also wondering if anyone is from the Boston area and could suggest good Mommy-&-Me classes/groups and also a good gym!

a "push present" is a present given to the mother after chldbirth for "pushing"

 

[tiffanytwisted]

I need a bigger diaper bag. The one I have just isn't very functional. I don't feel like I have a lot of stuff in it but it just doesn't hold very much and doesn't organize well. Anyone have one they love?