PS Mommy Thread-Newborn to 12 months!

[Dreamer_D]

Mandarine For me it was 9 months off and 9 months on, but I have not been working out and I gained like 55lbs or something

I am into most of my pre-preggo clothing now and have about 3-4 lbs to go. I am BFing though and it makes a big difference, especially in the last 3 months.

November I''d wait to be sure, but walking etc for sure!

EBree I feel your pain too, Hunter got both bottom ones at the same time and now both top are coming in too! They have broken through thank goodness because poor guy has been really out of sorts. I think that was why he has been waking at 5:30!

 

[Mara]

pg and mandy...just wanted to say good for you gals re: getting back into the swing of things with walking and running! i am hoping to do the same thing but you never know what kind of shape you''ll be in after delivery (or what kind of delivery you have), so it''s good to see you gals so active already. gives me hope.

 

[Pandora II]

Ebree - Commiserations on the teething, I think D is starting to suffer with the second lower one. I''ve found giving her an Ashton & Parson''s Powder in the morning and 2 Hyland''s Teething Tablets last thing at night have helped a fair bit.

If she''s really miserable then Calpol, but she hates the stuff and it''s a battle to get it into her - why, oh why do the manufacturers make it PINK??? It goes everywhere!

The sleeping seems to be going really well: 9.15am on Saturday, 10am on Sunday and 10am today - ahe''s going to bed around 8ish and eating at 10.30pm, 1.00am and probably once more during the night but don''t know when... I am loving the lie-ins!

Mandy - I was one of the lucky ones. I put on over 70lbs (half my body weight again) and lost all bar the last 5lbs by 5 weeks PP. Most was water and just vanished, the rest probably came off due to breast-feeding. The last 5 pounds are now off, and I seem to have lost more in the way of inches than pounds. My jeans and trousers are falling off me which is a pain. I am wearing nursing tops so I haven''t tried my normal ones, but they''d probably fit. I''ve always been on the skinny side and am one of these annoying people who can eat what they want, do zero exercise and still not put on weight.

 

[fieryred33143]

Hi Ladies

I have to catch up with everyone.

We had a great holiday with my mom. My brothers were awesome with Sophia. They pretty much took turns taking care of her so that I could just sit back and relax

. My brother had his dog with him and Sophia went crazy every time he was around her. She thought he was hilarious!

She''s doing this really cute thing now where she reaches for everything and makes a "gimme gimme" face.

Our trip to Orlando went really well, she slept the entire time. But coming home yesterday...

I made sure she was nice and full before we left and had a clean diaper. She fell asleep as soon as we got on the turnpike. An hour into the ride (we had only gone maybe 30 miles thanks to holiday traffic) she woke up and flipped out. So I pulled over to give her a paci. She was ok for 30 minutes when she flips out again because she was starving! I was 40 miles away from the next plaza, no exit in sight, and going 5mph so I pulled over again and fed her. I was terrified of being on the highway and not have her in her car seat. I had to cover her up because she kept getting distracted.

For the next hour or so before we got to the plaza she was crying, screaming, and kicking. We get to the plaza and I start rubbing her belly. It was gas

and she had an explosion in her diaper. Once I changed her I walked around a bit with her so that she can calm down. She slept the rest of the way home (3 more hours). I was exhausted.

BRB

 

[MustangGal]

Hi everyone!

I don''t have time to catch up on everything form the last week, but the pics of all the babies are sooo cute!

re: the sleep/CIO discussion, it is possible for a baby to start STTN without CIO, Kyle did it. He was going about 6-7 hours at 8 weeks, then just started going longer and longer. We never did CIO, and by 6 months he was going 10 hours at night.

We ended up driving 1,100 miles from Wednesday night to Sunday night. That was just way too long in the car, but we survived, and Kyle didn''t have any crazy meltdowns. I''ll have to get the pics downloaded, he met tons of relatives, got to ride on a ATV and a pony, and managed to bruise his cheek on a door frame. He slept fine, and still got 2 naps a day, even with all the driving/time change/and relatives holding him.

 

[Blenheim]

Weight loss - I''m hoping that it''s going to be 9 months on, 9 months off for me, LOL. But I still have 15 lbs to go, and so I really don''t think it''s going to happen. Like DD, I started dropping weight more rapidly at 6 months PP and I think that I''ll eventually get there. I also haven''t really been trying too hard lately because we''ve had so much other stressful stuff going on, but now that I''m no longer sick I''m going to start working out again.

Mara, if it helps you feel better, I felt ready to go on walks at a couple days post-partum (although I didn''t because I knew I shouldn''t) and was running and doing the 30 day shred by 6 weeks PP. So there is DEFINITELY hope.

FWIW, I stayed active throughout my pregnancy, including lifting weights to 37 weeks or so and walking something like 6.5 miles while in labor (in an effort to get baby into a better position), and had a vaginal delivery.

Fiery - Ugh, poor Sophia and poor you.

In other news, George bit me for the first time last night. I said "OW!" and waited for a couple of minutes before I''d let him nurse again, and he promptly bit me hard as soon as I let him get near me. And now that nipple hurts today.

 

[phoenixgirl]

November, I would definitely err on the side of caution, although it''s kind of hypocritical for me to say that. I *sort of* got clearance from my doctor because she didn''t realize that I had my 6 week checkup at 4.5 weeks. So she did examine me and declare me OK for exercise, but when I reminded her that I still had 10 days to go until 6 weeks, she said to wait at least on exercise (DTD was ok she said), but I only lasted until 5 weeks. 1 or 2 weeks postpartum I was taking Claire on 2 mile walks, but like Blen I had been walking miles and miles up until the day I went into labor (walked 4 that day). Then I got hit with the BF/formula/pump madness that aggravated or caused a case of the baby blues, and I missed a week or two of walks.

My uterine incision has bothered me a little after I exercise, but it bothered me way more in the beginning when I was just trying to move gingerly about the house, and it bothers me sometimes when I BF and the uterus contracts, so I''m not too worried. I figure that won''t magically go away at the 6 week mark (that''s Friday for me).

I do have a friend who did 10 pushups 6 weeks to the day after giving birth, and she immediately felt an organ "fall out." She doesn''t know if it was her bladder or her uterus; luckily it went "back up" eventually.

Mandarine, I thought that I would just wear my maternity clothes until pre-pregnancy clothes fit, but that got to be kind of depressing. If I hadn''t had my sister to borrow bigger pants from, I think I would have bought some. I''m not going to shed these 25 pounds over night. Didn''t you lose a lot of weight a few years back? I guess you didn''t keep your bigger clothes? I did from back when I lost 22 pounds, but I''m still a size bigger than the biggest clothes from back then.


Our best friends told us they''re pregnant last night!!!!! We are so happy for them!!! She was soooooo baby crazy that we were worried she would psyche herself out, but they conceived after only 3 months. She had weird cycles off the pill but she happened to get an exploratory U/S right when she was ovulating, so she knew when to DTD and it worked! Since Claire just missed the cutoff for school they''ll actually be in the same grade too! Send baby dust please!

 

[Mara]

Date: 11/30/2009 12:19:18 PM
Author: phoenixgirl

I do have a friend who did 10 pushups 6 weeks to the day after giving birth, and she immediately felt an organ ''fall out.'' She doesn''t know if it was her bladder or her uterus; luckily it went ''back up'' eventually.

ummm. fall out where?

 

[Pandora II]

Date: 11/30/2009 11:55:07 AM
Author: Blenheim
Weight loss - I''m hoping that it''s going to be 9 months on, 9 months off for me, LOL. But I still have 15 lbs to go, and so I really don''t think it''s going to happen. Like DD, I started dropping weight more rapidly at 6 months PP and I think that I''ll eventually get there. I also haven''t really been trying too hard lately because we''ve had so much other stressful stuff going on, but now that I''m no longer sick I''m going to start working out again.

Mara, if it helps you feel better, I felt ready to go on walks at a couple days post-partum (although I didn''t because I knew I shouldn''t) and was running and doing the 30 day shred by 6 weeks PP. So there is DEFINITELY hope.

FWIW, I stayed active throughout my pregnancy, including lifting weights to 37 weeks or so and walking something like 6.5 miles while in labor (in an effort to get baby into a better position), and had a vaginal delivery.

Fiery - Ugh, poor Sophia and poor you.

In other news, George bit me for the first time last night. I said ''OW!'' and waited for a couple of minutes before I''d let him nurse again, and he promptly bit me hard as soon as I let him get near me. And now that nipple hurts today.

Ouch! It''s a nasty one when they do that. D only has the one tooth and I''m dreading the moment she tries with top and bottom sets! Does anyone know if it''s actually possible that they might bite it off completely???

What I am trying to do when she is a bit bitey is to push my boob into her face so it covers her nose - they can''t bite and breathe at the same time - so she drops it automatically. I''m hoping this will make her associate ''bite'' with ''can''t breathe'' rather than ''bite'' = mummy takes me off (and in doing so I can see just how long her nipples can streeeeeeettttttcccccchhhhh) and then I can laugh and give her my hugest smile

I''ll report back as to whether it works!


Today Daisy and I did some painting - the place we are staying has one of these ceramics shops where you buy a piece, paint it and then they send it to be fired and you pick it up a few days later. We did a plant-pot - I stuck paint on her hands and she put them on the pot. I tried brushes, but they just went straight in her mouth - paint is non-toxic luckily as we got in rather a mess! We pick up the masterpiece on Wednesday.

Then we went swimming which she really enjoyed - I found the cutest swimsuit with red and white stripes, a little red skirt and a big daisy on the front - I''d got one of those blow-up rings with seats in the middle which worked really well. We went in the wave machine and the rapids and she laughed most of the way round so I think it was a definite success. DH has bought an underwater case for the camera so I hope we got some good shots even if it was the evening and dark.

Tomorrow we are off to the local stately home and safari park, I''m hoping the weather isn''t too awful - it''s been bucketing down for the last week...

 

[Pandora II]

Swimming photos...

 

[Pandora II]

Faster Mummy, Faster!

 

[gailrmv]

Hello!
As always, I am sorry for missing so many people. I tend to read and then only reply to a few things or the last couple of posts. Nothing personal, I promise!

Thanksgiving photos of the little ones are SO CUTE!!!

Fiery The trip home from Orlando sounds terrible!!! Were you doing this trip solo (just you and Sophia?) We've taken a couple driving trips the 3 of us that were AWFUL. I can't imagine doing it solo. I know some babies love riding in the car but mine did not get that memo. In a couple weeks we are driving about 8 hours (several parts of FL including Orlando!) to visit extended family. I'm pretty nervous for the journey. I'm already preparing not to get much sleep

A doesn't sleep very well in his pack n play.

MustangGal I am glad your trip went smoothly! It sounds like Kyle did great in the car!

Pandora Your holiday sounds so nice! Were you able to switch rooms to avoid the dog rooms? I sometimes travel with my dogs, and I think it makes perfect sense for some rooms to be reserved for people with dogs and some without. I am sorry for all that hassle. The pottery sounds like fun. I love your photos of Daisy. She and my A look like they could be siblings with their long blonde hair.

People asking about weight loss and fitting into clothes... I must be the exception here, but I'm still having a hard time. It's been over 8 months and I still have about 16-18 lbs to go to get to pre-preg. I am not on a "diet" per se but I eat healthfully, hardly any processed foods, etc, and I work out a BUNCH. I run multiple times a week (between 3 and 6 miles each time) and do weight lifting at the gym multiple times a week also. I've been big into fitness for years, though, so my body is used to it. I'm also breastfeeding. I don't know what is taking my body so long to lose the weight

Of course, I always have had a very hard time losing weight so I guess it's no surprise. I hope you ladies have an easier time. I would not overdo it with the exercise until you get the go ahead from your doctor and feel ready. It will take time to get your fitness back but it will happen. Oh, and the strange thing for me is that a lot of my pre-preg clothes do fit, but they don't look good because of the big old muffin top I've got going on. But they do seem to fit in the legs, butt and hips. Clothes 1 size bigger are fitting well. In the last 2 weeks of my pregnancy I got pre-eclampsia which causes you to retain fluids like crazy, so I was over 50 lb at the end. But if I had not gotten the pre-eclampsia I would have gained around 40 lbs, because I was up about 38 pounds at 38 weeks. So not a crazy amount to have gained. I don't really count that last 10 from the preeclampsia since the fluids probably came off easily. I'm frustrated that the weight it is taking so long to lose, but I'm trying not to dwell on it. I'm feeling great and most everything else is going well in my life, so I'm trying to stay positive.

Phoenix mentioned that it's hard to lose the last 10 lb while breastfeeding. I remember someone a while back (maybe Divergrrl?) talking about this too. Can you elaborate - why would this happen? I've always read and heard that breastfeeding causes you to burn extra calories which helps with weight loss.

Splitting the thread One idea is if we make this thread for "Moms of 2009 Babies" or "New Mommmies in 2009" or similar. We could request the thread's name to be changed. I think that most of the current posters on here have 2009 babies, and maybe a few more people will join us before the year's end. If someone's baby is a little older or younger and they want post here then of course they can. I think a few people (neatfreak perhaps) are kind of in between the baby boom of the toddler thread and the baby boom of this thread. I think there is a baby boom coming up in early 2010 and those mamas can start a new thread as they graduate from the preggo thread. Of course, they can pop in here w/ questions and we can follow their thread too, but it will keep each thread from getting huge to where people cannot keep up. Another benefit is that I don't think we would need to keep splitting or renaming the thread in the future. Let me know what you all think; maybe there is a better way to do it or maybe it is unnecessary, but if you like this idea I can email the mods and request the name change.

ETA Ebree Thanks so much for the compliments on my sapphire ring! I had a heckofa time finding cushion ritani photos, so I think it's a kind of unusual shape for them. I will try and take some more pics! I want to learn more about photography. I'm not very good at photographing jewelry OR babies!

Teething Sounds like several of us are dealing with teething these days! I think A was sleeping so badly last week because his top two teeth were coming in. Now he has two top and two bottoms! I feel those top teeth now and he slept better last night so I hope we are through the worst of it. We use the Hylands teething tablets and when things seem really bad, tylenol, same as several other people are doing. It seems like it is always something!

 

[Blenheim]

Splitting the thread I think that TDM''s plan makes a ton of sense.

BFing and weight loss - I think that it''s either a hormonal thing that makes your body want to hang onto a few extra pounds, or your body knowing that it would need those extra pounds in event of sudden famine to help keep your baby from starving. (Pssst - body - you don''t need to worry about that.)

Pandora - WHY would you suggest that possibility!?! Now you have me wondering too. I''ve never heard of it happening though, so I think it''s probably fine.

I''ll try your method of dealing with bites next time. I''ve been trying the "OW!" and stopping nursing for a little bit like somebody suggested WAY upthread (like, in the original Mommy thread IIRC) but he looks utterly dejected and gives me the most horrible face each time - sticks out his lower lip more than I would think possible. And it hasn''t stopped the biting yet. I just love the new pictures, and how Daisy is wearing a Daisy swimsuit.

 

[neatfreak]

Yeah I am in the middle...I always get left out of whatever is decided so it doesn''t really matter to me! I read both threads anyway for the most part.

Anyway TDM you are not the exception. I am still 10lbs or so from my pre-preg weight too and my boys are almost a year. I also eat healthfully and am active-it''s just stubborn. Still working at it and I know it''ll come off-but it''s frustrating to be a year out and be so close but so far from my goal. I''ve been plateaued for months. It sucks.

 

[Dreamer_D]

Date: 11/30/2009 2:37:47 PM
Author: Mara

Date: 11/30/2009 12:19:18 PM
Author: phoenixgirl

I do have a friend who did 10 pushups 6 weeks to the day after giving birth, and she immediately felt an organ ''fall out.'' She doesn''t know if it was her bladder or her uterus; luckily it went ''back up'' eventually.

ummm. fall out where?

I''m guessing out her hoo ha! Eeekkk... yup it is all very loose in that area for a long time, you must be careful!

 

[gailrmv]

Date: 12/1/2009 12:02:01 AM
Author: dreamer_dachsie

Date: 11/30/2009 2:37:47 PM

Author: Mara

Date: 11/30/2009 12:19:18 PM

Author: phoenixgirl


I do have a friend who did 10 pushups 6 weeks to the day after giving birth, and she immediately felt an organ ''fall out.'' She doesn''t know if it was her bladder or her uterus; luckily it went ''back up'' eventually.

ummm. fall out where?

I''m guessing out her hoo ha! Eeekkk... yup it is all very loose in that area for a long time, you must be careful!

OK that sounds terrible. Let''s hope she was exaggerating. Oh my.

 

[Dreamer_D]

NF We won''t leave you out we promise! That sentence was so sad! Hey, you might appreciate my news -- I had another paper accepted into the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology today! That makes 5 in that journal. According to my supervisor that is enough for tenure

Pandora I can see the headline now "Woman smothers baby with her boob". Those pics are gorgeous.

TDM Seems likea good plan!

What are teething tablets and where can I get them???

 

[neatfreak]

Date: 12/1/2009 1:10:50 AM
Author: dreamer_dachsie
NF We won''t leave you out we promise! That sentence was so sad! Hey, you might appreciate my news -- I had another paper accepted into the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology today! That makes 5 in that journal. According to my supervisor that is enough for tenure

Lol-I didn''t mean it that way. Maybe bounced around is better! I was on the preggo/mommy thread with the first round of PS moms-but then the threads were split and my kids were under 1 year so I got bounced to this thread. Now if we do it by year I would technically be bounced to the other thread since my boys are 2008 babies.

So just bounced around!

 

[Pandora II]

Date: 12/1/2009 1:10:50 AM
Author: dreamer_dachsie
NF We won''t leave you out we promise! That sentence was so sad! Hey, you might appreciate my news -- I had another paper accepted into the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology today! That makes 5 in that journal. According to my supervisor that is enough for tenure

Pandora I can see the headline now ''Woman smothers baby with her boob''. Those pics are gorgeous.

TDM Seems likea good plan!

What are teething tablets and where can I get them???

Thanks! And Daisy is quite big enough now to fight off even the largest of bosoms!

Teething tablets look like teeny vitamin pills, you put them in their mouth and they melt in seconds. Daisy loves them - even though they taste of nothing much (yup, I tried one). I get my SIL to bring the Hyland''s ones over from the USA for me.

The powders I get in the chemist here - you do look like a junkie though, unwrapping little paper parcels and tipping white powder into your baby''s mouth...

 

[Blenheim]

Date: 12/1/2009 12:25:19 AM
Author: TanDogMom

Date: 12/1/2009 12:02:01 AM
Author: dreamer_dachsie

Date: 11/30/2009 2:37:47 PM

Author: Mara

Date: 11/30/2009 12:19:18 PM

Author: phoenixgirl


I do have a friend who did 10 pushups 6 weeks to the day after giving birth, and she immediately felt an organ ''fall out.'' She doesn''t know if it was her bladder or her uterus; luckily it went ''back up'' eventually.

ummm. fall out where?

I''m guessing out her hoo ha! Eeekkk... yup it is all very loose in that area for a long time, you must be careful!

OK that sounds terrible. Let''s hope she was exaggerating. Oh my.

Uterine Prolapse. And THAT is why you want to be careful with exercising in the weeks after childbirth, people. Let your lady parts heal!

 

[Mandarine]

Pandora those pictures are precious! She looks so happy

re: weight loss Thank you all for chimming in!!. I''m so jealous of those of you that the weight just came off!. I knew I would have to work on getting back in shape though...as I never been the type of girl that is just naturally thin without some effort!.

PG I did lose a lot of weight...but it was like 8 years ago so I threw away all my clothes. I never keep "fat clothes" around because with me that''s an excuse to let myself go...

Ok...so I know tons of people missing but I have limited time and tons of questions. Please help

Night time feedings question
So the boys eat every 3-hours during the day. The last feeding before bedtime is 7pm (more like 6:30)...then I let them hang out like 10 minutes, then it''s swaddle, rock and to bed!. They have taken to this routine and only need to be rocked like 5 minutes before they are out!. I will work to face out the rocking...because I know that''s not a great habit...not sure when I''ll do that. Anyway, back to my question. Their next bottle "should be" at 10pm...but they never wake up at that time. Most times one of them sort of makes some noise at 10:30pm and then we feed them both. Then they are up at 1am, 4am and up at 6:20 am or so.

I keep reading that this 10pm feeding is very important to get them to sleep through the night...but it seems like they just naturally are not ready for it. So last night we let them go and they slept until 11:30, when Alex woke up (Lucas was still in deep-deep sleep!). We fed them and then I wondered how the rest of the night was going to pan out. Lucas made some noises at around 1:40am, but I just went in and did some "shhing sounds" and he went back to sleep. They woke up at 3:15am!!. I fed them and then wondered how that would affect the rest of the night/morning. Well, to my surprise, they slept until their 6:20am regular time and took their bottle at 7am, as they always do!!!.

Now (after all that!) here are my questions. Does that seem ok?. Should I wake them up for that 10pm "tank up"??. When I do, they wake up two more times before the 7am bottle...so isn''t that counterproductive?.

What should I do tonight?. Now that I know they naturally did this without any effort...should I try to hold them off to a similar schedule tonight if they don''t do it again on their own??..

Nap time questions
At what age do I start implementing a nap schedule?. They sleep throughout the day whenever (and wherever). Lucas sleeps MUCH more than Alex. Alex fights sleep and he just wants to be up all the time...but he does sleep some. I want to get them to nap on a schedule and I want their naps to start transitioning to their nursery at some point.

Do I need a nap time routine? (similar to how I implemented a bedtime routine?). They are both sleeping now after their 10am bottle...so that seems like a good time for a morning nap...but one is napping on the swing and the other one is napping in the bouncy chair...lol.

Thanks in advance!!!

M~

 

[fieryred33143]

DD-Congrats on the journal and getting tenure! (Is that right?

)

TDM-I was alone with Sophia. Normally she does really well. As soon as she gets in the car, she falls asleep even if she isn''t tired. She even sleeps during the car ride to MIL''s house in the morning which is only about 10 minutes. But I didn''t plan it well. I didn''t tank her up enough before leaving. Hope your drive goes well! As for the sleeping, I think what worked really well for Sophia was mimicking her bedroom as much as we could. We take her blankets from her crib and her sound machine. And the first night we have her sleep in a "dirty" pj. It''s not really dirty but it''s usually the pjs from the night before. Something about the scent of home makes her feel more comfortable.

Pandora-You and Daisy look great! So much fun!

Mandarine-I think the "dreamfeed" is key in getting longer nights as long as your boys aren''t light sleepers. We can do dreamfeeds now because Sophia will go right back to sleep. Before it would wake her up to much and then she would be in a light sleep for the rest of the evening. If I remember correctly, the boys have already reached their birth weight so there''s no need to wake them up anymore. I would just let them tell you when they are hungry at night (although I would imagine that if one wakes, it makes sense to feed the other at the same time). So my vote is yes, give them the 10pm feed and see how it goes. You can just get them out of bed with the lights off, keep it very quiet and then put them back to bed.

Re: rocking to sleep. You aren''t really creating any habits right now so I wouldn''t worry about it too much.

As for naps, we don''t have a routine. She just sleeps when she''s tired. We followed EASY (still do but not as strict) and she is typically awake for 2 hours before needing a nap. We stopped doing a routine for naps because she would get confused and end up sleeping for 5 hours

. So now we keep our routine for nighttime sleeping only.

*****

Sophia is tripoding/sitting! We''re so excited. Also, she finds herself hilarious. I give her a bath in her tub in front of the bathroom mirror. She stares at herself and cracks up. It''s hilarious. She loves the water which makes me very happy since she''s a summer baby.

Last night she ate 6oz of formula

. My LC talked about this before and mentioned that if you put the food in front of her, she''s going to eat it so that was my mistake. I made her a 4oz bottle (after bfing) and she screamed because she was still hungry. I don''t know how to make a 1oz bottle so I made 2oz and she drank all of it. She slept from 9pm until 7am LOL!!! So now FI thinks we should give her a 6oz bottle every night. No sir!

 

[MustangGal]

Pandroa - your vacation sounds fun! And Daisy is so cute in her floaty.

Manderine - I''d let them sleep as long as they want at night, and maybe go to bed when they first do (7pm), so you get enough sleep top. I did that for about a month, then DH could sleep all night and I''d have enough energy for both night feedings.

On weight and clothes - I gained about 33 pounds, and was down to about 12 left after the bloating form the c-section went away. By 2 months PP when I returned to work I had 8 left. I was walking every day for about 45 minutes, and that was it. I bougth some jeans and work pants 1 size bigger so I''d have normal clothes to wear, I got sick of the maternity clothes! At 3.5 months PP I did 30 days of a low card diet and the last pounds fell off. I also only BF for 5 weeks, so that may make a difference.

Now I''ll try a few pics from Thanksgiving. This is DH and Kyle on a quad at his Grandpa''s place (Thanksgiving #1), which is in the middle of nowhere with lots of land and a dirt airport next to his house.

 

[MustangGal]

Fiery - congrats on sitting! I'll have to check my old info, but I think Kyle was taking a 6 oz bottle before bed at that age.

More Thanksgiving, the Ventura Pier. We walked down the beach Saturday morning from the hotel, about 3/4 mile. The waves were huge compared to what I'm used to seeing there.

 

[MustangGal]

Thanksgiving #2, my grandparents house. Kyle''s first pony ride. I love the background in this pic!

 

[MustangGal]

And the last one, Kyle pulling apart an olive. He also tore up a roll, but wouldn''t put either in his mouth. You can see his battle wound on his cheek, he had a run-in with a door jam

 

[Mandarine]

aww MG, those are great pictures!!! What a cutie pie!!

Thank you Fiery and MG for chimming in...

If I do the dream feed at 10pm (which is what I have been doing up until yesterday) then they always wake up at 1am and 4am...so that''s 3 feedings between 7pm and 7am. If I let them sleep longer, like last night..then it seems like they eliminate one feeding (going to 11:30 and 3:30). So that''s 2 feedings from 7pm to 7am.

That''s why I''m confused as to how this "dream feed" is helping me...

 

[fieryred33143]

Oh Mandy! I''m sorry I misread. I thought it was that if they get the feed at 10-11, they sleep longer. I take back what I wrote. If you find that they are up less frequently at night by letting them sleep longer then definitely don''t wake them.

Sorry for the confusion! We do the dreamfeed because otherwise she sleeps at 8, wakes at midnight (once I''m asleep) and then one more time at night. If she goes to bed any time before 8:30, we do a dreamfeed. If she goes to bed after 9pm, we let her sleep.

 

[Dreamer_D]

Date: 12/1/2009 11:57:06 AM
Author: Mandarine
aww MG, those are great pictures!!! What a cutie pie!!

Thank you Fiery and MG for chimming in...

If I do the dream feed at 10pm (which is what I have been doing up until yesterday) then they always wake up at 1am and 4am...so that''s 3 feedings between 7pm and 7am. If I let them sleep longer, like last night..then it seems like they eliminate one feeding (going to 11:30 and 3:30). So that''s 2 feedings from 7pm to 7am.

That''s why I''m confused as to how this ''dream feed'' is helping me...

The dream feed never worked for us at all! Hunter is the type who likes a long stretch of sleep in the beginning then wake later on to feed. I tried to switch him a couple times to waking earlier and sleeping longer for the second stretch, but it NEVER worked and only created problems like you describe that took forever to get rid of. It made him wake much more if I woke him to feed him at 10/11pm. By 10 weeks or so he was going 7 hourse in the start of the night. I think you should do what works for you.

As for naps, I personally don''t think you should try to schedule them until they are much much much older. I follow Hunter''s cues and he is pretty consistent with a nap 2 hours after waking up and then another 3 hours after waking up from that nap.

But at your boys age he was in a pattern throughout the day -- wake, eat, play (somtimes eat again) and then nap. The whole cycle took about 3 hours or so, and he was awake for about 45 minutes to an hour between naps. So it makes sense to have a routine but a schedule I don''t think it even remotely possible until they are closer to 6 months. They nap a lot when they are little!

 

[Dreamer_D]

Fiery No tenure yet, but another important publication that will help me get it!

MG Great pics!