PS Mommy Thread-Newborn to 12 months!

[JGator]

K had a 5am wake up for a bottle last night. She did have a good long afternoon nap in her crib - 1.5 hours so we are making progress even though we did not have a repeat of the 830am wake up!

 

[bibiloves]

Hi All,

Hope I can jump in here and start posting. I've been a silent reader of this thread since when I was pregnant and now my baby is 6 months and 6 days old *gasp where did the time go? Anyway I've been battling with solid front and I hope you guys can shed some lights my way. I waited a while before giving Aiden solids because he seems to have a weak stomach. I waited until he was almost 6 months to start on solids. I started with very watery rice cereal (almost water consistency) and he did ok. We then try sweet potato and he would chew when I put the spoon in his mouth but then he would not swallow at all and the food eventually fell out of his mouth. I thought he wasn't ready to eat or didn't like sweet potato. I then try banana and avocado and each time when he actually swallowed them he would gag and threw up everything. Maybe the consistency is too thick for him? He doesn't seem to be interested in eating at all. After 2-3 spoons he wouldn't swallow and let everything dripped out of his mouth. My sister is babysitting my friend's baby who is 1 week apart from him and he's eating solids so well and he eats a lot. Does anyone have any tips? Also for those who make their own puree what blender/baby food maker do you use?

And don't get me started on the sleeping front. That's another post for another day. Here's a picture of Aiden taking a week before he turned 6 months

 

[amc80]

Bibiloves, welcome! What a cutie you've got! A lot of us have been having feeding issues, so I started a new thread...hopefully we can all help each other out. B had a lot of issues with texture at first, but I think by 6 months he was okay with purees...as long as there were no chunks at all. It did take a while to get there, I know at 5 months or so he was very picky and spit a lot of stuff out. Hopefully one of the other mamas on here can chime in.

 

[monkeyprincess]

Hi Bibiloves, I really do think some kiddos are just not quite ready, even at 6 months. My son just turned 9 months old and over the past few weeks, he is just now becoming more interested in eating and consistently eating two "meals" a day. He was exclusively on formula until 6 months, and then I started trying oatmeal cereal and purees. He would only have a few spoonfuls before deciding he wanted nothing more to do with it. About a month ago, he had tummy troubles for about 10 days and we stopped trying to feed him anything other than formula altogether until that cleared up. However, when I reintroduced it after that, he was much more enthusiastic about it and would actually eat 3-4 ounces of purees at a time. I think he just wasn't ready for whatever reason before that. I feed him mainly Earths Best pre-made purees, but I have also pureed sweet potatoes, bananas and avocado (not a fan of that one), however, I puree it pretty finely. I am going to try giving him chunkier stuff over the next few weeks to see how he does. If I were you, I would stick to the finely pureed things for now (or Stage 1 if you it is store bought) until he gets the hang of it and then try some of the thicker stuff after that. The thing I keep reminding myself is that solids are mainly for practice at this age, and breastmilk or formula should provide most of the calories/nutrition until they are one. Good luck!

JGator, well, it sounds like you are definitely moving in the right direction. Until recently Ev always woke up around 5 or 6, and I was fine with that as long as he went down before 10 or so and stayed asleep. I'm okay with getting up early as long as I don't have to get up in the middle of the night. He still wakes up cooing or babbling at 5 or 6 a lot of mornings but if we leave him be for awhile, he falls back asleep until 7 or so.

AFU, as DH likes to say, we have a stage 4 clinger in our house right now. He gets so upset if we try to set him down or walk away. He seems to go through this phase every couple of months. It's weird because I see him on the camera at daycare seeming perfectly content to play by himself for awhile, but with mommy and daddy, he just needs to know one of is right there with him, preferably holding him. I love cuddling with him, but does it ever make it difficult to get anything done!

 

[JGator]

Bibiloves, welcome! Have you tried rice or oatmeal cereal with Aiden? We started with that at 4 months. You can add formula or breast milk until it is pretty runny and over time make it less runny. I think he will get used to eating purees if he starts off with the more runny/watery consistency cereal. K is 8 months old and get 1 serving of cereal a day, a veg, and a fruit. We are using Plum Organics and Happy Baby Stage 1 and 2 purees. She doesn't eat a whole container every time - sometimes it's 1/3 or 1/2 of the 3 oz container. We also distract her while she's eating or she wouldn't eat. Sometimes I giver her a clean bowl and spoon to play with or recently a lid from the bowl, and she plays with and drops those items on her tray while I feed her.

MP, good luck with your cuddler. K is generally not clingy, but does want someone in the room close by. She tries to crawl off my lap for her nighttime bottle feeding and fidgets around a lot. She generally won't take a bottle unless she's in her bouncy seat during the day. She also is fascinated with touching and scratching things like my watch, my nose, my neck, my necklace, the liner of her Playtex bottles, the chair we feed her in, etc.

 

[monkeyprincess]

MP, good luck with your cuddler. K is generally not clingy, but does want someone in the room close by. She tries to crawl off my lap for her nighttime bottle feeding and fidgets around a lot. She generally won't take a bottle unless she's in her bouncy seat during the day. She also is fascinated with touching and scratching things like my watch, my nose, my neck, my necklace, the liner of her Playtex bottles, the chair we feed her in, etc.

JGator, YES, Ev is super fidgety too, so it's a bad combination. He wants to be held, yet he won't sit still and insists on grabbing, pulling or scratching my hair/face/jewelry. He is especially attracted to things he knows he is not allowed to have like our phones, drinks, remotes. I think all babies are like that though! He also doesn't like us to hold his bottle for him anymore. He likes to rest on his boppy and hold it himself while he is eating unless he is really tired.

 

[monkeyprincess]

One more thing I forgot to post this picture. We finally set up Ev's high chair last night. It is the boon flair, and so far we really like it because it seems sturdy and should be easy to clean. We have a booster seat as well, but since we end up eating more of our meals at the island in our kitchen instead of at our table, this should work better for us I think. It has wheels, and my DH was pushing him around in it all over the house last night. He had a blast!

 

[jfo]

Sorry I've been a bit MIA over the past few days. We've been pretty tied up with house stuff and L being sick.

JGator, wow, that's awesome about K sleeping in to 8:30am! I realize that may not happen every day, but the fact that she did it once means that she's capable. That hasn't happened to us yet. I still give L a bottle if she wakes up between 5:30 and 6:30am, but I figure she hasn't had one for 9-10 hours earlier, so she probably is hungry. Anyway, that's great that you're starting to sleep train. Like, MP, we haven't done that yet either... ugh, not looking forward to it when we wean her from the bottle in a few months.

amc, that is cool that B gets to move to the bigger kids room. It definitely sounds like he is ready for the most part. I wonder if they might make some exceptions to the nap and food stuff while he transitions. Will he be the youngest one in the room?

MP, the Boon Flair looks awesome and Ev looks so happy in it! Love that big smile of his! It definitely sounds like Ev and L are on the same page developmentally. She is also going through a clingy period right now. I think some of it is pent up frustration that she can't crawl to one of us when we walk away. She is also too distracted to sit still. That goes for drinking a bottle in my lap (she rarely finishes a 5oz bottle these days) or simply holding her unless I am reading her a book. Otherwise, she is a total wiggle worm with grabby hands. She also recently decided that she HATES being pushed in a stroller for a walk. She used to love it and would be happy looking at everything or taking a snooze, but now she screams until one of us picks her up and carries her. Kind of frustrating, but hopefully it's just a phase. In the meantime, I've been making a lot of use of our Beco Gemini carrier.

Bibiloves, Aiden is soooo cute! What an adorable outfit and I love his hat! The other ladies have given you great advice regarding solids, so I don't really have much to add other than the eating thing really seems to be a lot of trial and error! It seems like it depends a lot on how they might be feeling that day, how hungry they are, if they're into the taste/texture, etc. I think I read that you often need to offer foods no less than 15 times so that they start to get used to it. We're pretty slow-going on our end too. Lila is 8 1/2 months and great at purees and will eat any kind (fruit, veggie, meat), but still is getting used to chunkier textures. I have been trying to give her puffs and, just recently, those yogurt melty things, and she has fun trying to practice picking them up, but only has tried to put them in her mouth herself a handful of times and usually misses entirely. Otherwise, i offer it to her and she will open up and let me put it in her mouth and then she makes all kinds of faces until it's completely dissolved. Anyway, I agree with trying to give him stage 1/finely pureed fruit/veggies and runny cereal until he gets the hang of it before moving on to some thicker textured items like bananas and avocado again.

AFU, the inspection went well for the most part last Friday. Nothing major that we can't live with like the last house although there are some big $ items that we're hoping the sellers will help us out on... like a new roof and water heaters. We have now gone back to the sellers with items we'd like them to fix, so we'll see how that goes.

Otherwise, we've been dealing with a sick baby. Friday night, L kept waking up... as often as every 10-15 minutes from coughing and wouldn't stop crying until I calmed her down and put her back to sleep. This went on until I just went to bed and put her in the bed with me. The last time that happened, she had an ear infection, so I took her to the pediatrician on Saturday morning, and lo and behold... double ear infection. She started antibiotics that day (a different kind than she has used before) and I figured it would take a couple days for her to really start feeling better.

She slept much better Saturday and Sunday night, but yesterday morning, she woke up crying and I found out she was running a fever of 101. I gave her some tylenol and that brought her fever down and she was acting more like herself. Fortunately, I was working from home in the morning and had help and then had the afternoon off for an appointment. Anyway, I figured she was ok enough to bring her to the appointment since I was managing her fever with the tylenol. Well... that was a bad idea. She threw up her lunch and then some all over me in the waiting room. By the time I got her home, she was just burning up with a fever of 103.6! I promptly gave her a lukewarm bath and gave her Tylenol since it had been about 7 hours since I had last given it to her and fortunately her fever went down to 101 after about 15-20 minutes. I had the pediatrician on call paged since it was after hours and she talked me down and let me know that a fever betwen 100 and 105 is considered "normal" for an infant, and that I can continue to manage her fever using tylenol or ibuprofen, to feed her clear liquids like Pedialyte or water until her stomach seems settled and that I only need to bring her in if she continues to have fevers for a couple more days or it seems like her ear infections are not getting better. She slept ok last night, but did wake up at 4am with another fever of 104. I gave her ibuprofen this time since it's supposed to last longer and she eventually went back to sleep until close to 8am. I had to come in to work today, so I'm fortunate in that my parents came to our place early today and are taking care of L all day since she can't go to daycare. I'm just crossing my fingers she starts to get better soon. I hate seeing her so miserable!

 

[JGator]

MP, I love Ev's high chair. Very modern and cool looking! I'm sure he loves it too.

Jfo, sorry to hear that L has been sick. That's pretty scary. I don't think K has had a fever yet. I hope L is feeling better today. And, congrats on the house inspection too. I hope they get back to you quickly. We were pleasantly surprised that our owners agreed to everything we requested right away. We are closing 3 weeks from today.

AFU, K slept till 7am today and had a bottle and then fell back to sleep until 830. I'm feeling optimistic. What do you all think of tv with an infant? I work from home and our nanny has the tv on a lot. Ie, I went to our kitchen/family room area a little while ago and she was reading to K with K sitting on her lap facing the tv with the Wendy Williams talk show on. She previously had the Trayvon Martin trial on a lot, and now she's on to daytime talk shows. Should I say something? I don't want the tv distractions to hinder K developmentally.

 

[monkeyprincess]

JGator, it's your baby, your house, your rules. You definitely have a right to set limits on the amount of television and what is on the television. That said, we do tend to have the tv on quite a bit in our house as well. My husband is set in his ways, and he has a habit of having the tv on a lot. While Everett is awake, we mainly have news type shows on, and it mainly just background noise. If I notice Ev watching or getting distracted by the tv, I try to distract him or take him into another room to play. I do think we are going to have to modify our tv watching habits though as he becomes more aware and impressionable.

jfo, poor little L. That sounds awful. We haven't had a fever over 100 yet, and I know I would freak out if it got to 103 as well. Hope she is feeling better today.

 

[amc80]

What do you all think of tv with an infant? I work from home and our nanny has the tv on a lot. Ie, I went to our kitchen/family room area a little while ago and she was reading to K with K sitting on her lap facing the tv with the Wendy Williams talk show on. She previously had the Trayvon Martin trial on a lot, and now she's on to daytime talk shows. Should I say something? I don't want the tv distractions to hinder K developmentally.

Like MP said, your house = your rules. We also have the TV on a lot. The baby channel (293 on DirecTV) is a life saver, especially in the mornings while I'm trying to get ready. B definitely paid more attention to it when he was younger...now he would rather play with his toys. If it bothers you then you should say something...you are paying her to watch your kid, not watch tv.

 

[jfo]

Thanks, ladies. L's fever has not been high over the past 24 hours and she's kept down formula, but she still feels crummy. She's just been so unhappy, moans or whines a lot and has very little appetite. Then last night, she started doing the wake-up every 15-20 minutes again until i put her in the bed with me. Then she woke up at 2am and was obviously uncomfortable and was starting to heat up again with a fever. I gave her ibuprofen and a 4oz bottle and she still didn't go back to sleep until an hour and a half later. My mom stayed with us overnight last night so she could be with her today since she couldn't go to daycare. I'm bringing her to the pediatrician in an hour, so hopefully they can find out what's wrong. I suspect the antibiotics aren't doing their job on helping her ear infections.

JGator--that's fantastic news about K sleeping in again! Hopefully that will start to become her new sleep schedule! As for tv, just like MP's husband, my DH has the tv on a lot of the time. Usually sports. The good thing is that L really doesn't pay attention to the tv unless we put on a baby einstein DVD. We also let her watch The Backyardigans and/or Dora the Explorer on Saturday mornings if she is awake. It's amazing how these baby/children's shows will immediately suck her in, but the other stuff that will be on, she doesn't pay attention to at all. Anyway, I third the notion of your house and your rules! Just tell the nanny what you'd like for her to do. The advantage is that you are there and can remind her!

 

[JGator]

Jfo, how did the pediatrician visit go? I hope they figured out something to help L. K likes Dora too. The nanny introduced her to that and Mickey Mouse. I hate Dora's voice so I was quite disappointed to hear she liked it!

MP, AMC, and Jfo, thanks for your advice and input on the tv watching. I talked to the nanny this AM and told her we don't want the tv on while K's awake so she is fine to watch it while K is napping, but not to have it on otherwise. She was fine with it. K had an earlier nap than usual yesterday afternoon - she was up at 320pm and she clearly was tired around 7pm, but I was afraid to put her to bed that early. When I did put her to bed at 8pm, she was so tired she fell asleep 1/2 way through the bottle and ended up getting up again at 1am to finish it. She was up at 630am today for the day. I think we are lucky to get her to nap whenever we can for as long as we can right now, but we really need to tweak the nap times so she isn't up for more than 3 or 4 hours max at a time. Baby steps!

 

[monkeyprincess]

Jfo, how are things going with your little one? Is she on the mend now? I sure hope so. There really is nothing worse than having a sick baby and feeling helpless and unable to make them more comfortable.

JGator, good for you for setting limits on the tv. I don’t think I would like knowing the tv was on all day either. It does sound like you are making progress on the sleeping, and you have to start somewhere. And they are all going to have the occasional night awakenings no matter what we do. I do find that Ev sleeps best if we load him up with some baby food and a bottle around 7, and he goes to sleep around 8.

AFU, my husband has been preparing for a trial that starts today, so I feel like I’ve been a single parent the past few nights. And then Ev woke up with a horrendous bomb of a diaper this morning, and I really could have used a second set of hands. Makes me really grateful for how involved my husband is in the parenting. I can’t imagine doing it on my own!

 

[jfo]

JGator and MP, thanks for asking. Lila is doing much better. No more fever and just nasal congestion and coughing. At the pediatrician's appointment, we found out that her ears were actually looking better, so fortunately, the antibiotics were working. The pediatrician surmised that the fever and her feeling crappy and not sleeping were likely because she caught some other virus late last week on top of what she already had going on, so she was just unlucky. The only thing that sucked was that the nurse came in to help suction her nose, and L got SO upset when she was doing it, the nurse stopped and asked me to pick her up to calm her down. I had come straight to the dr's office from a client (my parents took her there), so I was wearing a suit, and as soon as I picked L up, she cough-cried and then threw up her peas from lunch on me. Twice in one week, yay! Fortunately, this one was not nearly as bad and was cough-induced!

JGator, that's great that you asked the nanny to not watch TV while K is awake. I think that makes perfect sense and I'm glad that she didn't give you any pushback. Ha, I'll be honest--I don't even know if I would recognize Dora's voice. The Backyardigans and Dora that we have on is actually on the Spanish channel on Saturday mornings, and I'm not sure if the person they have doing Dora's voice in Spanish is the same as the one who does it in English and plus I turn down the volume quite a bit. DH's and my grasp of Spanish is pretty elementary, but we figure we're giving L some exposure to other languages while she's young.

Yep, baby steps on the naps and night sleeping. It still sounds like you're making progress, which is great! I think we're all going to have make tweaks and adjustments as we go along because our LO's are always changing, plus the illnesses, teething and whatever else they've got going on.

MP, I hear you on how it's not easy having to do baby duty 100% yourself for an extended period of time. I feel very fortunate too in that while I do most of the baby care, if DH is around, he is helping in the ways that he best knows how... like distracting and redirecting attention if she's fussy. I have a tremendous amount of respect for SAHM's and for single mom's... especially for those who have more than one kid! I guess you just figure out how to make it work.

AFU, L has been at her grandparents since Wednesday. I heard from her daycare after her pediatrician's appointment that there is at least one confirmed case of Hand Foot and Mouth disease with one of the infants in another classroom. With L already being sick, and with us headed to Florida on vacation tomorrow (!), her catching something else would be the absolute LAST thing I would want to deal with, so I didn't want to risk it. And... on a personal note, I actually contracted H, F and M disease when I was pregnant with L last summer from going to a kid's birthday party where a couple of the kids were contagious, but not displaying symptoms at the time, so I know firsthand how uncomfortable it is! I've missed my baby girl, but she's coming back today and better for it. Plus I could catch up on some sleep and have been packing like mad.

Wish us luck on this Florida trip! It will be the first plane ride and vacation for L. We're renting a house with DH's family on a beach. I'm so looking forward to hopefully some R&R although I know it's different now with a baby!

 

[Dandi]

Hi ladies!

jfo, good luck with your trip! I'm so glad Lila is better. Boo about your suit copping a pile of pea spew!

mp, that is about the coolest highchair I've ever seen! Ev is one lucky, stylin' dude!!

JGator, it sounds like you're doing fantastic on the sleep front. Well done mama! Some days I have felt like all I have thought about the entire day is about Oscar's naps/sleep/when to get him up/when to put him down.

bibi, welcome! Oscar is just 7 months and is just really getting a handle on solids (well, purees). It really is something they need to learn and doesn't necessarily come naturally, they have to teach themselves how to physically get food from the front of their mouths to the back, and their gag reflex is so strong, anything foreign is going to be launched out inthe early stages! Oscar spewed a lot of stuff up too, but he was far better at swallowing it and keeping it down when it was really finely pureed. Have plenty of washcloths on hand and don't worry if Aiden (who is ridiculously gorgeous by the way!! ) isn't too interested just yet.

Hello amc, S&I and mlk, and anyone else I may have missed! I'm loving reading about your gorgeous bubbas.

I realised yesterday that Oscar hasn't been having much tummy time since learning to sit up, as he spends most of his time on his bottom. I put him on his belly yesterday and left the room for a minute to get a toy for him, thinking I was safe to do so as he can't move anywhere yet... or so I thought. He had caterpillared himself backwards and was stuck under the coffee table, and appeared to be pretty pleased with himself

 

[monkeyprincess]

Dandi, ahh, what a little cutie! Such blue eyes. Crazy when you can no longer trust them to stay put anymore, isn't it?

Jfo, hope you are having a great time on your vacation!

Hi to everyone else.

Just got back from Ev's 9 month appointment (a week late). He's still pretty tall at 30 in (90%), but his weight is finally moving up the charts a bit at just over 19 lbs (38%). Doctor wants us to do a cows milk challenge with him, so we are going to try giving him a bottle or two a day of regular formula. Crossing my fingers he has outgrown it.

 

[Dandi]

Thank you mp, he gets heaps of comments about his big baby blues! May I ask about the cow's milk challenge? What is it and why does Ev need it? Sorry, just being a busybody as I have never heard of it and am a titch curious!

 

[monkeyprincess]

Dandi, I didn't explain that very well, did I? Everett is on Nutramigen, which is a hypoallergenic formula, because the doctor suspected he had MSPI (milk/soy protein intolerance), which caused him to be a very colicky, uncomfortable baby for the first 8 weeks or so. Anyway, we are going to start giving him some cow's milk-based formula to see if he can tolerate it. If he starts having problems when we try switching, we'll know that he still has an intolerance. Really hoping he has grown out of it.

Oh, and I forgot to mention, Ev is finally *this close* to crawling a bit. He's still very awkward and has an unconventional style, but it's progress

 

[JGator]

Jfo, I hope you are having a great vacation and that L is feeling better.

MP, wow! Ev is starting to crawl! How exciting! Good luck with the cow's milk challenge. I hope Ev has outgrown the issues he had previously.

Dandi, O is so cute. Love his spikey hair! Yes, I feel like all I think about is K's sleep!

AFU, K has been sleeping better at night still. She did wake up at 3am on Sunday night though. Today it was 530am. I think she is teething and maybe we'll see a tooth soon. She also is still napping horribly - we maybe get 15-20 mins of naptime in her crib before she's up and crying. Our sure fire sleep inducer is the car though. I took her to the grocery store yesterday guaranteeing a 30 minute nap! We have had a lot of nights in a row of leaky diapers. I am going to try the size 4 Cruisers at night and see if that helps. She weighted 19.5 lbs on Sunday at home with her clothes on so she isn't at the minimum weight yet for size 4, but I think it will help anyway. K turns 9 months old next Monday - I am hoping she has a tooth or starts rolling over from back to tummy between now and then so we have some progress to report to the doctor since her 6 month appointment!

 

[S&I]

JGator, can you tell where the leaks are coming from overnight? Is K a heavy wetter? I feel like A is a heavy wetter and it comes out fast. He used to wake up with pee coming out of the front top of his diaper. I think it was because he tends to sleep on his tummy more than on his back once he started rolling. His morning diaper is ginormous (we call it his atomic bomb diaper), but the cloth diaper cover we use on the outside seems to have solved a lot of the leaking issues. The cover is just a waterproof cover, like a swim diaper, so it doesn't add any extra bulk or heat to the disposable diaper underneath. A also can wear either size 3 or size 4, so we use size 4 for overnight, just in vase it can hold more than size 3.

Hi to everyone else!

 

[monkeyprincess]

JGator, glad to hear K is starting to sleep for longer stretches more often at night. There will definitely be setbacks, but she will get there! Last night, we had our first MOTN wake-up in a long time where he couldn't be soothed, so we had to give him a bottle. DH, bless his heart, handled the feeding because I was so out of it. I've just gotten used to STTN and was not in a very good mood! You have my empathy on the napping. Ev is still a horrible napper! And as far as the milestones, I bet K is not too far off from rolling more consistently. All of a sudden, Ev is much more determined to move, so he is trying new manuevers, but for awhile, it felt like he would never get here. He still has a long way to go before he is really crawling or pulling himself up like a lot of other babies his age!

S&I, is the diaper cover that you use machine washable? Ev also has massive wet diapers in the morning, but our bigger problem is that he also very consistently makes a dirty diaper in the morning and ends up with a blowout. Wondering if a diaper cover would help with that or just add to the mess.

 

[amc80]

Hi everyone! Add me to the "my kid is peeing out of his diapers" list. He is a stomach sleeper and sleeps with his butt in the air, so the pee goes up over the top of the diaper. He also has diaper bombs, those things are just saturated. I think we are going to move him up to the size 5. They are for 27lbs+ and that's about where he is, so we'll see.

He is pretty much walking. Or, I should say, he can walk when he chooses to. Crawling is still his method of choice but if we stand him up he can walk just fine. They are officially moving him up to the next room at day care next week. Bittersweet.

Eating is getting better. It's almost as if he wanted to get walking down before trying food. Because Friday he was walking all over the place and Saturday he ate table food (well, at least tried several bites) at two meals. Major progress. I found the trick- if I give him table food at the beginning of the meal he stares at me and won't eat it. If I give him a few bits of baby food it's as if it "clicks" and he gets that it is time to eat, and then will eat finger food. Last night I was eating pizza and I held it up to his mouth and he turned his head. I tried a few more times and eventually he took a bite and loved it. So we are getting there.

We are currently getting everything in order for his birthday party, which is a week from Saturday. I can't believe how fast it's gone.

 

[JGator]

S&I, the diapers are leaking at the top back, I think. She sleeps on her back or her side - she cannot roll over yet to get on her tummy. She scoots all over the crib on her back, and I think the diaper is moving up and down or something. Do you have a link to the diaper cover?

MP, sorry Ev woke up in the MOTN last night. And, sorry his diapers are leaking a lot too.

AMC, I can't believe B is going to be 1 already! I remember when you were planning to TTC pre-wedding! That's great that B is walking and eating table food now too! I hope he transitions well to the big kid room.

 

[S&I]

MP and JGator, we have a few of these Flip covers (http://www.cottonbabies.com/product_info.php?products_id=2220) and a Swaddlebees cover too. They are absolutely machine washable. It's basically a diaper-shaped piece of cloth with a PUL (waterproof) layer on the inside, with snaps or velcro like a disposable diaper. Ours are snaps.

MP, we haven't had massive blowouts in a while (I know, now that I've said it out loud, I'm bound to have one soon), but I do remember those! I'm not sure if the diaper cover will hold everything in completely, but it's bound to catch some of it, since it's an extra layer that it would have to leak out of, and it should catch anything that leaked out of the disposable. But then, it's another thing to wash, versus just throwing the whole thing out.

JGator, A moves around like crazy in his sleep, so I'm sure his diaper is all over the place too. I think the diaper cover should be able to help with that. Just make sure that it's tight enough and that you tuck in the disposable parts all the way around so the cover can catch leaks. It might not solve all your problems, but it'll probably help.

AMC, yay for B walking, and moving up to the next room at day care! I'm still refusing to let them move A. He just started walking last month though, at 14 months, ha! The director asked me if they could move him since he's the oldest one in his class, but I firmly stated I didn't want him moved until he could walk consistently. They ended up moving a younger girl since she'd been walking for the last 3 months or so.

 

[amc80]

AMC, yay for B walking, and moving up to the next room at day care! I'm still refusing to let them move A. He just started walking last month though, at 14 months, ha! The director asked me if they could move him since he's the oldest one in his class, but I firmly stated I didn't want him moved until he could walk consistently. They ended up moving a younger girl since she'd been walking for the last 3 months or so.

Usually they make sure the kids are 100% walking before moving them, but sometimes there are exceptions. I think with B it's because he's as big or bigger than all of the kids in the next room, so there's less danger of him squashing a baby. But they said those kids that move up when they are just starting to walk are fully walking within a few days...

 

[monkeyprincess]

S&I, I'm thinking you're right about just adding another layer to wash for blowouts. I just wish he could time his dirty diapers for any time other than early morning when his diaper is already soaking wet! I don't blame you for not wanting to move A up to the next room just yet. I'm sure he'll fare better when he is more steady on his feet!

amc, I can't believe B is almost one either! Do you have a theme for your party or will it just be a lowkey one? I go back and forth with how much effort I want to put into a party for a one year old when the time comes. And sometimes I just wish time would slow down. But everybody I talk to keeps telling me that it just keeps getting better and better as your children get older and become their own little people. Still makes me sad though. And I have no doubt your little bruiser will fare just fine in the next room at daycare

One more question for you all. Anybody have any sippy cup recommendations? We have these http://www.amazon.com/Playtex-First-Sipster-Spill-Proof-Colors/dp/B0009EXN10/ref=sr_1_1?s=baby-products&ie=UTF8&qid=1374602383&sr=1-1&keywords=sippy+cup... They seem fine, but he has to suck so hard to get anything out that I don't think he has quite figured them out. I might just try taking out the plastic piece that is meant to stop spills until he gets the concept. I only give him water in them for now anyway.

 

[amc80]

amc, I can't believe B is almost one either! Do you have a theme for your party or will it just be a lowkey one? I go back and forth with how much effort I want to put into a party for a one year old when the time comes. And sometimes I just wish time would slow down. But everybody I talk to keeps telling me that it just keeps getting better and better as your children get older and become their own little people. Still makes me sad though. And I have no doubt your little bruiser will fare just fine in the next room at daycare

One more question for you all. Anybody have any sippy cup recommendations? We have these http://www.amazon.com/Playtex-First-Sipster-Spill-Proof-Colors/dp/B0009EXN10/ref=sr_1_1?s=baby-products&ie=UTF8&qid=1374602383&sr=1-1&keywords=sippy+cup.... They seem fine, but he has to suck so hard to get anything out that I don't think he has quite figured them out. I might just try taking out the plastic piece that is meant to stop spills until he gets the concept. I only give him water in them for now anyway.

I'll answer your second question first- we got some Nuby sippy cups and B won't use them (http://www.amazon.com/Nuby-Count-Handle-Spill-Colors/dp/B00792RG1S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1374604404&sr=8-1&keywords=nuby+sippy+cup). I tried a random cheap one I got at target and he loves them, they are the Nuk brand- http://www.amazon.com/Nuby-Count-Handle-Spill-Colors/dp/B00792RG1S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1374604404&sr=8-1&keywords=nuby+sippy+cup

I think the Nuk ones are easier to get liquid out of...the Nubys are sort of stiff.

We have a loose theme for his bday. I found these plates and such that I love (http://www.birthdayexpress.com/Little-Man-Mustache-1st-Birthday-Party-Packs/84348/PartyPack.aspx). So there will be some of that stuff around, and his smash cake will match as well. But I didn't go crazy- let's face it, the party is for the adults

 

[S&I]

MP, I totally understand what you mean about Ev's blowouts happening when his diaper is already soaked. I can't remember when A stopped that, but he still wakes up with poo in his diaper sometimes. It gets a lot better once the poo starts hardening up so it's not so liquidy, probably once Ev starts eating table foods. A tends to poop in the mornings after I put a new diaper on, usually after his breakfast/morning milk, but as you know, there's no such thing as a strict routine with babies.

We also used the NUK sippy cups (and NUK nipples for his bottles). He still uses the sippy spout for his morning milk with his Klean Kanteens - had to buy a separate attachment thing for it, but I like using SS bottles for him instead of plastic now.
http://www.amazon.com/NUK-Disney-Winnie-Learner-Silicone/dp/B005A3OGRA/ - sippy cups
http://www.amazon.com/NUK-Replacement-Silicone-Spout-Clear/dp/B004FPYG7O/ - replacement sippy spouts

A transitioned to them easily from his bottles to the soft sippy spouts around 9-10 months.
Around 12 months, I added straw cups (http://www.amazon.com/Thermos-Phases-Stainless-Bottle-Yellow/dp/B00318CO6G/), and it took him a while to figure it out. Actually, I gave him a real straw with water when we were out at restaurants first. After the third time or so, he figured it out, and then I started giving him the Foogo straw cups for water and formula at day care.

ETA: AMC - I have no doubt that babies learn faster in the older group. At A's day care, they have the infants and toddlers in the same "classroom", but it's divided into 2 rooms/sections. At the end of the day, when parents start picking up their kids, the teachers will start combining the babies with the toddlers so they can start cleaning up and closing out one side of the room. I'm pretty sure A learned how to crawl from being over on the toddler side. Once he started walking last month, it was like 2 steps on Monday, and 10 steps by Wednesday. I think it took him about a week to go from that to 20+ steps.

 

[Dandi]

Thanks for that mp, I was particularly curious because one of the girls in my Mother's Group is lactose intolerant, and she has a very fussy, grizzle breastfed baby. Her doctor doesn't seem to think he is intolerant to her milk, but I do wonder! He is a terrible sleeper and most of the time wants to feed and cry. I think I might suggest to her to push for a second (or third!) opinion. Thanks heaps!

Hehe thanks JGator! I kind of hope his hair stays upright for ever