July New Moms

[LaraW]

Hi Everyone,

Wow - we are slow getting started this month. Hope everyone had a good 4th of July. We got home yesterday from having spent the weekend in Wichita with DH's brother and SIL and their 2 girls. It was so nice - just a relaxing weekend. We didn't even go anywhere, just stayed home and watched the kids play with each other. One of our nieces is 4 1/2 and was really enamored with "Baby Matalie" :D We took the 3 of them to Penney's on Sunday to have a picture taken. SIL and I found shirts for all of them that had a little flag type design on it (they were similar but all different) and had blue denim shorts.

Natalie did great on the plane ride there. She fell asleep just after we took off, and woke up just before we landed. The way back was a bit more challenging. DH and I were separated on the plane, and I was with Natalie near the back of the plane. THere was a woman sitting next to me who was rather heavy and was spilling into my seat, so I was holding Natalie, plus this woman was crowding me. Oh well, at least the flight was only 1 hour. She was very nice when Natalie grabbed a handful of her hair :rolleyes: So that was good. Then Natalie spit up a LOT all over herself, so I had to change her clothes while sitting in this tight space. Then she went to sleep, so I was happy about that.

Today is kind of a lazy day. I've been working on laundry and went to the grocery store earlier. I need to send an email to invite some friends over for dinner on Saturday. I'm going to make an orange brined pork tenderloin that was in that brining article in the June CL.

Hope all the other babies are doing well!

Lara

[Jen]

This is my first time posting here!!

If you've been lurking on the pregnancy thread, you might have seen that I'm one of the many who had my baby this month! Amanda is now 3 1/2 weeks old and things are going much better than I expected. The sleep deprivation hasn't been quite as bad as I thought...although we are lucky because she is a pretty good sleeper. She usually sleeps in 3-3.5 hour stretches at night, and we've had a few 5-6 hour stretches as well! (That was heaven!!). She is exclusively BF and is quite the little piglet...believe it or not, she gained 14 oz last week alone! I couldn't believe it. From a birth weight of 7 lbs 10 oz, she is now already over 9 lbs. I think she hit a growth spurt last week though, so maybe her growth will slow down for a bit now. She does seem to want to eat almost constantly, which is quite tiring and makes it hard to get out of the house!

I'm looking forward to learning all kinds of wisdom from you much-more-experienced moms! I think that's the hardest part so far - I wasn't prepared for feeling so unprepared for motherhood. I'm a scientist by training, and I'm used to researching stuff and getting firm answers. I did so much reading before Mandy was born (and still am!), and yet every book and person I ask has a different answer for every question. I am learning that in this job like no other, you have to trust your own instincts above all else, and I'm not quite there yet. But it gets better every day!

(If anyone hasn't seen, we have a website for Amanda at www.cabralda.ca/newbaby ...I'm always happy for an excuse to show her off!! :D )

[Julia1Pin]

I'm joining this thread as well. Nicole was born on May 20 and has a big sister named Abigail who's 21 months old (I post on the toddler moms thread). You'd think I would remember everything from Abigail being that she's not that old, but DH and I have forgotten everything!! For instance, when should I stop swaddling Nicole?

Jen - Amanda is beautiful! What a great website. Nicole came out swinging. She smacked the doctor with her hand when she cam eout ;)

Lara - I'm glad your flight went smoothly. We haven't attempted that with the kids yet.

[LaraW]

Welcome, Jen! Amanda is such a sweetie. It sounds like she is doing great. What a sweetheart. Natalie was exactly the same size at birth as Amanda.

Julia, I think we stopped swaddling Natalie when she was able to kick out of the blankets. She was never really a big fan of being swaddled anyway after the first couple of weeks, so we didn't force the issue. Nicole's birthday is the same day as my DH's. :)

[mrswaz]

Welcome Jen and Julia! (And of course Amanda and Nicole)It's been a while since we've had new blood over here on this thread. It'll be fun to relive the new Mom things.

Julia- it's amazing how many things you forget from one kid to another. My Abigail is almost 4, and Zander is 5 1/2 months. I haven't been able to remember anything, and of course, we were the parents who didn't write anything down. We have to go through photos and guess at what ABigail was doing when. It's annoying.

Jen- Sounds like Amanda is going to be a champion sleeper for you! The best advice anyone ever gave me was to stop reading books about babies. Every single baby is soooo different, most books would just turn me into a worried Mom (why isn't she doing this yet?). Just relax- enjoy baby. If there's a problem with something your little girl's doctor will spot it and set you in the right direction.

Lara- Sounds like Natalie is a pro at flying! We took Abigail on her first flight just before she turned 2, and she spent a lot of time crying.

Well, we kind of missed the end of June. Zander does have 2 teeth now, and we're already working on the top ones. (I was really hoping for a break). Of course while that 2nd one was bursting through, the whole family came down with a cold, which of course turned into an ear infection for Zander. This is his second one, and the first one I didn't take him in for antibiotics, but he was so miserable. So I took him in, and he coughed beautifully for the doctor, who promptly examined him further and diagnosed him with croup. So we went home with a nebulizer and antibiotics. Oh my gosh. Every 4 hours I had to nebulize him for the first few days, and he didn't particularily care for it. Although I do think it bothered Abigail more than him. We have since faded out the nebulizer, but I'm having him checked for asthma at his 6 month appt. Every once in a while he gets kind of wheezy, so I'll have him checked.

We did decide to get out for the 4th- we went on a mini camping trip. Zander absolutely loved it. He just loves being outside, and we had no problems with him at all. What we didn't realize was that we weren't actually going camping, we were going to be feeding mosquitos. Oh, they were so disgusting. We had to keep covered up and sprayed up all the time. And we had to re-apply the bug spray about every 2 hours. We were glad we only went overnight, and could come home and bathe everyone. Despite the bugs, we did have fun, and Zander really enjoyed watching his sister do sparklers. (Which we let her do a lot of, they seemed to repel the bugs for a while).

So I guess happy July everyone! Sorry about the novel!:rolleyes: :D

[greta]

hi everybody!
i've been wanting to jump in here, but i don't get much time on the computer anymore, and most of my time is spent lurking, not posting.

my son laith was born on march 29th. he is now 14 weeks old! i can't believe how quickly time goes. he is already in stage 3 diapers. i'm still breastfeeding and hope to do so at least until we got to kashmir to visit my husband's family in october. it was a rough start, but we're doing great now. he's been a great sleeper from the beginning. we hit a bit of a rough patch at the 3 month mark--possibly the "3 month growth spurt". now, he's back to 7 or 8 hour stretches. thank god.

julia, i swaddled laith until i found him with his arms out. we have the miracle blanket, and the swaddle is very secure. if he got his arms out, i figured he didn't need it anymore. and, sure enough, he slept fine without it. that was at about 2 months.

hi jen! i too am looking forward to the wisdom of others...

lara, we'll be taking laith on a long journey in october--he'll be 6 months old. the trip to kashmir is long and hard for adults, i'm nervous about how it will be for the baby. we have to go soon because my husband's mother is quite old and we want to make sure she gets to meet her new grandson. and her only american one! ;)

here's a little album i put together on imagestation. i have my albums on snapfish, but can't quite figure out how to share them here.
http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4286307493

well, back to the baby.
greta

[MandMs]

Congrats to all the new Moms! Welcome Jen and Amanda! Your website is just adorable. She's precious! And welcome Julia and Nicole! And Greta and Laith! He is sooo very cute! (I checked out out your album but couldn't get past the home page with his one picture) Stage 3 diapers! Wow! My daughter is still in Stage 3 at 10.5 months! Though I will most likely move to the 4's after using these up. What does he weigh?

Hi Lara! Thanks for starting the July thread. Sounds like Natalie (Matalie...ha!) is doing wonderfully.

Here we are almost 11 months old. Shay is alllll over the place and just started pulling herself up (to her knees) but not walking yet. We took our first road trip over the Holiday weekend. Well, it was only a 4 hr drive, but I had no idea what to expect. She did beautifully! Slept part of the way, and totally entertained herself the rest of the way. We spent 3 days at my Dad's lakehouse and she was just an angel. Not one fuss or tear all weekend. She slept in a pack-n-play and it was like we had never left home. She stuck to her eating/sleeping schedule just great. We spent a ton of time outside and she just loved it. I was so worried she'd just freak at the unfamiliar surroundings/sounds/bed. Nope. Adapted just fine. I think we'll be invited back. :)

I can't believe we're coming up on a year old! I hope you all don't mind me sticking around here on the New Mom's thread. I'm just not ready to have a Toddler!

Again, a warm welcome to all the New Mom's! Enjoy this time. It goes by way too fast. I miss my little cuddler! She's all about exploring now.

Lisa

[tbb113]

I'll delurk for a minute.

Greta:
I flew alot when my oldest was a baby (only an hour flight) but we also flew to NY (cross country) and to England (4 times when he was 13 - 18 months) and I think my advice is valid even for longer flights.
1. Ask for the aisle and window seat and ask them to block the center seat. This won't guarantee you extra room but its a great start. If you can't get that, ask for two aisles directly across from each other. That way you and your husband can easily pass Laith back and forth and he can stand/sit on the floor in the aisle and bother only the two of you :)
2. Put the provided blanket on the seat. If spills happen, the blanket can be removed and the seat should be relatively dry and clean.
3. Carry more diapers/food than you think you will need. Delays happen and the generic one-size large diapers available at the airport probably will be the wrong size.
4. Carry a complete change of clothes for Laith and for both of you in your carry on luggage. Spit-up and diaper blowouts do happen and you want to be able to change YOU as well.
5. Gracefully accept all offered help and ignore everyone else. When it comes to pre-boarding, one of you should pre-board with all the luggage, etc. The other one should stay in the airport as long as possible (be the last to board). The waiting area is much easier if you need to pace than to be stuck in the seat with an unhappy child.

[LaraW]

Greta,

Something else you might do is to mail a lot of your baby supplies that you may not be able to get in Kashmir ahead of time. Diapers, wipes, that kind of stuff. If Laith is eating solid food by then, maybe send a box of rice cereal and jars of baby food that you can use while you are there. That kind of stuff. Doing that will be a lot easier than having to lug it along with you on the plane.

I agree with carrying a change of clothes for Laith and for you and DH as well. Natalie had a huge spit up on the way back, and it was just pure luck that it did not end up all over me, which it usually does. I picked out a T-shirt of DH's that I could wear in an emergency and put it in my carry-on bag, but forgot about it for our return trip, so I would have been out of luck if she had gotten me. I actually carried 3 changes of clothes for her (I figure the worst case scenario and then try to multiply it as space allows). I tried to pick out clothes that were one-piece easy to get on and off type of things. She flew to KS in a onesie and back (part of the way) in a little dress which got spit up on and I changed her into a onesie.

I also figured it would be about 5 hours from the time we left ourhouse until the time we got to BIL/SIL's house, and allowed for one diaper per hour plus one. One thing you might also do is to carry some plastic grocery bags in case you do have clothes that need to be "isolated" from everything else.

Hopefully you won't need any of this advice. :D

[Julia1Pin]

Greta - Laith is beautiful - what a great smile :)

[paula]

Greta,

This is the American Academy of Pediatricians recommendations regarding flying with young children.

http://aappolicy.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/pediatrics;108/5/1218

They are strongly in favor of using car seats in airplanes, at a minimum, during takeoff, landing, and periods of turbulance. I have posted on this before, so many know my opinions - but it doesn't make sense that adults are required by federal law to wear seat belts on airplanes but young children are not. The "rules," as they are currently written, are simply inconsistent with logic (IMO). I have made several domestic flights with my toddler-age twins starting at 6 months. I have always bought seats for them and have required that they sit in their car seats. I realize that your anticipated flight is much longer, but please consider buying your child his own seat and bringing his car seat. Many airlines discount tickets for children under 2yo.

We normally use Evenflo Triumph convertible car seats because of their high ratings in Consumer Reports and Baby Bargains, but purchased Cosco Touriva convertible seats for traveling because they are smaller (with regard to width) and much lighter to carry around the airport. On second thought, when the kids were six months, we flew from Baltimore to Detroit and used Graco SnugRiders without the bases. We switched to the Triumphs shortly after we returned because DS was already >26in.

(If nothing else, the car seat provides your child a familiar and comfortable place to sleep.)

Paula

[greta]

lisa, i'm not sure how much laith weighs right now. i'm assuming somewhere between 15 and 16 pounds. he was 13.8 pounds about 3.5 weeks ago. i don't own a scale, and he won't be going back to the pediatrician until 4 months.

thank you all for your travel tips. i will print out this thread.

regarding diapers: we will have to use cloth since they don't have a sanitation system in kashmir. there's no way, with conscience, i could use disposables. i'll get cloth by september so i can get used to them. i'm just not sure what brand to buy. washing them in kashmir shouldn't be too bad because there are a lot of women in the house who are eager to help out. they definitely still have the communal mentality, which is nice for a new mom i'm sure.

we won't be able to send stuff ahead, because the mail system over there is horrible. it's more likely my box would get "lost" somewhere. but, my husband has a cousin living in kashmir who is a new mom, and western educated, so i will be asking her A LOT of question about what i can get over there. i'm imagining that laith will be eating some kind of food by 6 months, but i'm not sure what they start at that age. jarred food? cereal? (can you tell i'm a novice). i don't do a lot of reading ahead.

regarding the seats: i've seen on the international flights we've taken the airlines giving the bulkhead seats to parents and little children. they have bassinets that attach to the wall in front of the seats. usually the bulkhead is 3 seats, and they'll leave the third seat empty. who wants to sit with an infant besides the parents? ;) i'm hoping this will still be the case.

paula, i'm a nervous flyer, and would much rather hold laith for his first journey to kashmir. i plan on nursing him during takeoff and landing--our pediatrician recommended it, due to air pressure. nursing is supposed to stop their ears from hurting. i did read the artile you posted (the link didn't work but i found the article). the next time we fly there, i'll definitely use a carseat, but this time he'll be held tightly on my lap. i hate to say this (b/c this is what freaks me out so much about flying) but if we crash, i'd be holding, kissing and loving my baby the whole way. uuuggghh.

ok, onto happier things.

when did everybody start giving their babies cereal?

greta

[paula]

I think the link has been fixed. Paula

[LaraW]

I have a question about early waking. Natalie used to sleep pretty reliably until 7:00 am. This was great - she was sleeping 7pm - 7am. In the last couple of months she has been waking up earlier than 7am (like 6:30-6:45) which is fine. She sometimes even wakes up at 6:15, which usually is not a problem except it does sometimes interfere a bit with me getting ready for work on days I work.

Last week she started waking up at 5:45 most every day, and Friday was up at 5:30. When we were in Wichita, she sort of went back to her schedule of sleeping 12 hrs, though it was probably closer to 8pm-8am. Since we've been back, she slept until 7am on Tuesday and until 6:30 yesterday. Today she was up at 5:45.

I had been going to the gym from 5:30 - 6:15, and this was working perfectly (for the one week that we did it :rolleyes: ) as she was not usually waking up that early. I'd like to continue to have my workout in the early morning, but if she's awake and hungry I don't see how I can do this.

Does anyone know if there is anything I can do to try to get her to sleep until 6:15? I tried ignoring her until 6:15, and she would just ramp up with the noise she was making until she was crying because she was hungry. I also tried going to her as soon as I heard her and feeding her, with the hope that she'd go back to sleep for a little while, but neither of those ideas have worked. I also tried pushing her bedtime feeding back as close as possible to 7 pm. Keeping her up past 7pm really isn't an option because she is just so tired by then that she needs to go to bed.

Does anyone have any thoughts?

[tbb113]

Greta:
I used cloth diapers for the boys when they were little. I had no problem with them and actually preferred them to disposables (I had diaper service though...I wasn't washing them myself ;) ). They made then (12 years ago) velcro wraps for the diapers. You basically folded the diaper into the wrap and then put this around the baby. It worked in leiu of rubber pants/pins. Worked great...I can only hope that in the last 12 years they have gotten better. And while I agree with Paula, if you can take a car seat, do so just because its a safe place to fly. But even with a car seat, its unreasonable to expect a baby to sit for that many hours without being held. :)

[mrswaz]

Lara-
Zander's doing the same thing. :( So I'd be anxious for any tips as well. 5:30 is just too early. Plus then he seems ready for bed much earlier, and it's a real struggle to keep him going until 7:30. Some days I have managed to get him to sleep again after feeding him, but that's a rarity.

I would also like some positive thoughts sent my way, please. We just found out that DH has to go out of town for work. He leaves on Tuesday, and won't be back until the job is done. We've really tackled co-parenting, and I am already anticipating the challenges of single parenthood. He will be gone for at least a month, maybe more. Grrr....

[MandMs]

Shay has always been a champion sleeper, but we did go through a period of time where she'd wake between 5 and 6am. I want to say she was around 6 or so months. She started getting really sleepy in the early eve, so I let her doze for maybe 45 min. Took the edge off just enough. We'd then play, have a bath, jammies, bedtime feeding and she was out around 9. It worked pretty well, and still gave me some time in the evenings to get some things done. She was then sleeping until 7:30 - 8 am. We've just recently cut out that little power nap and still goes down around around 8:30...sleeps til 8 am.

Mrswaz - sending positive thoughts to you. I am a single Mom and have been at this alone since I was 5 months pregnant. Shay never had a co-parent, so single parenthood is pretty much all I know. Feel free to ask any questions. I guess for me, it was longing to just talk to another adult! Acept help if it is offered. This was hard for me to do initally. I wanted to do it all and do it well. It got to be just too much. I finally started accepting help from neighbors, family and friends. I have a neighbor that offers to mow my lawn, and now, I graciously accept! You'll do just fine. If you get down (and I know you will miss your DH dearly), come here and vent. There is so much support here. Hugs to you.

Lisa

[Molli526]

Hi ladies.

I am quite jealous of your champion sleepers. We've had a few snags with Charlie the past few days. I am hoping it was a fluke or something. He is sleeping now, so I am really crossing my fingers. The past couple of days he wouldn't sleep without being held. I know, bad thing to get into. I called the ped's office this morning and the nurse said it is ok for him to cry out some as he needs to learn how to sleep/ comfort himself. I had thought 3 weeks was a little early but apparently not.

DH gave Charlie the bottle (EBM) last night for the first time. It went OK. He ate it, but wasn't really happy at first. He ate way more than I thought, so I am also hoping that was a fluke as well. Gosh, hoping for a lot :o

Charlie has also been fussy/ gassy. I really don't want to start eliminating foods from my diet. Any suggestions from breastfeeding moms? I have been eating/drinking milk since my first meal after delivery, as well as all veggies etc. It has just been the past couple of days the fussiness has really started. Thanks for your suggestions.

[LaraW]

Hi Molli,

It sounds like Charlie is going through the same thing that Natalie did when she was first born. Hang in there, those first few weeks are rough, but things will get better.

Did you ever read Healthy Sleep Habits? If so, I remember that he says to just do what you need to do to get through those first 6 weeks or so. We held Natalie a lot - she slept in the bjorn or on my chest or where ever. Maybe try swaddling him tight, that seemed to help for us. I think 3 weeks is a little early to CIO, but that is just me. Sometimes you do just have to let him cry to be able to eat a meal or whatever. As long as you know he is OK (in a safe place, not hungry, etc) it will not hurt him to cry for a little while.

As far as the fussiness/gassiness, did you eat anything out of the ordinary in the last couple of days? I remember when Natalie was about 3 weeks old, we had a day where she pretty much cried all day and was really gassy and fussy. We finally figured out that I had eaten a lot of chocolate in the days leading up until Christmas, and so I eliminated that for a couple of weeks and she got much better. You can give the mylicon drops if you want, or try laying Charlie on his tummy across your knee and just gently bouncing him and rubbing his back. Or, lay him on his back and do a bicycle motion with his legs. Those things seemed to help us. I always liked to try a non- medication idea first before giving the gas drops, but they really do work.

I did eliminate a few foods from my diet, but was back eating broccoli, beans, chocolate, etc. by the time Natalie was about 8 weeks old, so if you do eliminate things, you can try adding them back in a couple of weeks when his system has matured a little and may not be quite so sensitive.

Hang in there, things will get much better. Hope that helps.

ghhjukik u uju

That was "hi" from Natalie :p

[greta]

hi molli,

laith was gassy since the beginning--fortunately he farts it out most of the time. SMELLLLLY! ;) i talked to a bunch of people about the gassiness in the beginning, and most people will say that most babies are gassy. and, most often, it's not a result of what you eat. their little digestive systems just aren't mature yet. i wouldn't do the elimination thing unless it gets to a point where it seems very disruptive to the baby.

sleeping...i think babies go thru sleeping phases. i'm not sure i would let him cry it out at 3 weeks--but i don't think it hurts to let a baby fuss a bit. you'll see what you feel comfortable with. i would let laith fuss when i put him down for a nap at around 2 months--usually he'd fuss himself to sleep. but, if he started crying, i would soothe him--if i didn't he'd just work himself up. people would say that at 3 weeks, you can't really spoil a baby--you can't form patterns. who knows. BUT, if the only way you can get rest is to hold him, i'd say HOLD HIM!!!! ;)

and, i'd highly recommend feeding a bottle a day. we had to feed laith bottles b/c of supply issues in the beginning, and we've just kept doing it. i have a great pump (and actually rented a hospital pump in the beginning). it's nice that my husband can feed the baby, and it gives me a break once in a while. we did go thru a 3 day span at about 2 months where laith just stopped taking the bottle! but, he got right back into it. i've just heard too many horror stories about babies not taking a bottle...

hope that helps.
greta

[greta]

oh yes, lara has a great point--swaddling worked wonders for us! i have a "miracle blanket" i can send you if you want to try it. i ordered it online. it was a bit pricey but well worth it.

and, laith started breaking out of it after 2 mos--he just quit cold turkey.

[LaraW]

Originally posted by greta
i've just heard too many horror stories about babies not taking a bottle...

yep, Natalie is one of those babies. Its been kind of rough, but I guess you just figure out a way to do what you need to do.

[Julia1Pin]

Even though Nicole manages to free her hands from the swaddle, she seems to fall asleep much easier, and for a longer period of time, if she's swaddled.

[Jen]

There are great travel tips on this thread...we won't be traveling for awhile, but I'll keep it marked for reference!

Thank you for all your warm welcomes!

Molli, we've been having similar problems since last week. Mandy is very gassy and has a lot of trouble getting rid of gas on her own...if she is really relaxed she will burp or let it out the other end, but we've had several-hour period each day where she is screaming with pain from the gas. I don't mind the crying itself (it doesn't irritate me) but I've been in tears more than once because I feel so terrible for her. It's frustrating because she tends to swallow her burps, which just makes them worse the next time around.

Our Dr. recommended trying the drops with each feeding (we've been doing a smaller-than-recommended dose, since the dosage recommended will go over the maximum recommended for the day, although Dr. said you can't OD on them). We started on Saturday and the last couple of days have been better, but still 1-1.5 hrs a day of screaming. He also said we should give her a pacifier when she is screaming like that...during those episodes she just swallows more air and things get worse. I've resisted a pacifier so far but I think we might try it today, just for when she's obviously in pain. I know that sucking on my finger helps a bit since it seems to distract her from the pain. Anyone have pacifier experience, good or bad, to share? I feel like a bad mommy for resorting to the pacifier, but I hate to see her hurting like this. We are now past the four week mark and BF is going well, so I guess technically it's OK...

[Julia1Pin]

Jen - I was really resistant to use the pacifier with Abigail but once I gave in things were really much easier. And Nicole seems to take to it also.

The first couple of times they will spit it out but you just have to hold it there and wiggle it around until she starts sucling on her own.

I was so afraid that Abigail would always want to have the pacifier but she's fine with it just for sleep. I didn't want her to turn into the kid who sucks on it 24/7, but luckily she doesn't.

Good luck with the gas and hopefully the pacifier helps.

[Molli526]

You guys are great. Thanks for the reassurance! It helps to hear that Charlie seems to be "normal" in his gassiness/ fussiness.

Jen, I was also resistant to the pacifier, but after your post, I tried it and it seems to help - well for now anyway ;) Hopefully tonight will be better.

[cniles]

Delurking here to say my youngest, Sam, who is now a very healthy almost 5 yr old, was very gassy!! I gave up on breast feeding after only a week ( i know i know!!) and we used Mylicon... went through different formula's and ended up with one of the most expensive ones!! Anyway we used the "binky" with both of our boys and didn't have any problems when it was time for them to give it up. Approx 1 1/2 yrs old.... I'm reading all of your posts and am reliving my moments with both boys. I only wish I had this support network back then!!!! Good luck :) It's seems really painful now but will definately get easier!!!

[beacooker]

Guess I should introduce myself here, even though I won't have time to post much! My second son, Chase, is one month old. His older brother, Mason, is 2 1/2. So far, things are going relatively smoothly, except that we cannot get Chase to take a pacifier, which is driving me nuts. He loves to suck to fall asleep, but the only thing he will accept is MY finger, not DH's. :rolleyes: We are also having a hard time getting him to take a bottle once a day. Not good, since I think I might be going back to work soon. :(

Molli and Jen - looking back on how I did things with Mason, two things I think I shouldn't have worried about so much for the first 3 months were doing whatever it takes to get him to sleep, and using the pacifier. If it works, do it! Some of the baby books make it sound like if you start your baby off using a pacifier, you will never be able to make him stop. That is just silly. You have plenty of time, and getting a 3-month old (or 6-month old or whatever age) to stop using a pacifier, or to learn to fall asleep on their own, is no big deal. Sure, there may be some crying, and it isn't fun, but at that age they will be more capable of soothing themselves. You can deal with the crying now, when you aren't getting much sleep at night, or you can deal with it later. I think having a newborn is hard enough without having to deal with unnecessary crying!

Greta, thanks for posting about the Miracle Blanket. We have found that Chase does best when he is swaddled, but we have a dickens of a time keeping him from getting his arms out. I ordered a Miracle Blanket - I can't wait until it gets here! I hope it helps. It is so frustrating to keep having to re-wrap him.

[Molli526]

I just have to sing my praises for the Medela Pump in Style and the pacifier. I got 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep last night! I feel like a new woman! DH said Charlie took to the bottle better last night and then really conked out for good when he gave him the pacifier. I know it was just one night, but if I had just one night like last night a week, I could manage.

Anne, sorry you have to go to work soon :(

The Miracle blanket looks intriguing. Nice that it doesn't have velcro or anything. We have a Swaddle Me and Charlie doesn't like it. Then again, if we combined it with the pacifier, he may like it better.

[hrk]

Good morning everyone.
Well July got off to a rocky start with Logan running a bit of a fever and not quite feeling like himself. But by the time we left for our week at the beach he was back to his old self.
Logan absolutely loved the sand, loved playing in it, throwing it, even eating it:rolleyes: . The ocean he was not quite sure about to start but by the end of the week, he wanted to ply in it all by himself. My parents had a great time spending the week with just Logan and myself and I think DH enjoyed a little bit of a break from it all.
We are starting to say all kinds of words and he really is very good at making his wishes known if he can't say the words.

Welcom to all the new moms.
Molli- Congrats on the sleep. When I started pumping, DH gave a bottle every night and stayed up with Logan until he feel asleep so I could get a longer stretch. It was wonderful. And stick with the bottle everyday as I know many moms who didn't want the hassle and their babies started rejecting the bottle.

Anne- I hope the transition back to work goes OK. I know I had a very hard time getting back into the grove of things after being off.

For those babies with gas, our doctor recommended after each feeding to not only burp Logan by rubbing his back, but to lay him on his back and gently press his feet up towards his head, like a reverse sit up. It worked very well at forcing some of the gas back out as he was digesting.

Mrswaz- Good luck at being a "single" parent. I did it with Logan for about a week and when all was said and done it wasn't that bad. Just very tiring, but I found that at night I went to sleep right after Logan since there wasn't anyone to be with :)

Lara- Glad to hear you had a great time with your family and that Natalie did well on the plane.

Happy Tuesday everyone
Heather

[angelamaria]

she is one year old today! i can't believe it. i gave her a card and a present this am but she didn't play with the wrapping paper and bow as much as i thought she would.
tonight she gets her first taste of chocolate cake:p
this sunday we have the christening and a little bday party for her.
i just can't believe this time last year i had just moved to charleston and was lying in the hospital with broken water dreading having a preemie. the first six months seemed so long - she nursed constantly and i was looking for a job and had no idea what i was doing with her - she was a little high needs shall we say. i felt like i was on another planet. and then magically at about 8 months of age she became a lot easier and happier. and i found myself thinking "it really wasn't that bad"! now that i know that it eventually does get better i wish i could have realized that then and enjoyed her more as a small baby and been less stressed about everything!
now she is pulling up on everything and finally starting to crawl a little.
i got her big fat crayons for her birthday - washable of course!and daddy got her a few toys also.
her christening gown came yesterday -it is so beautiful. her name and birthdate are embroidered on the lining. i have it hanging up in the living room and i thought last night - this is the first in a long line of special dresses- then there will be first communion dress, prom dresses, and hopefully someday a wedding dress - and then maybe someday she will be looking at her own child's christening outfit thinking the same thing! it is so neat to have these milestones.
have a good day everyone!

[Julia1Pin]

Happy Birthday Abigail! And Congratulations angelamaria for getting throught the 1st year.

[Molli526]

Happy Birthday Abigail!


What type of laundry detergent are you using? I have been using ALL Free and Clear and no fabric softener but I don't think it is leaving Charlie's clothes/blankets/etc. very soft.

[greta]

anne,

laith didn't take a pacifier at first. we tried a few different kinds before trying the walmart "smoothie". it seems as if this pacifier works for most babies who don't take other brands. it's worth a try. fortunately for us, laith doesn't really sleep with it--so there's no getting up in the night to put it back in. he'll usually spit it out as he's falling asleep.

and, i'd like to hear how the miracle blanket goes!

happy birthday abigail!

greta

[beacooker]

Greta, thanks for the info about the pacifier. I will have to try that one! Here I was doing so well before Chase was born, with not really buying any new baby stuff for him. I seem to be making up for it now! I have bought 4 different kinds of pacifiers (soon to be 5 ;) ), 3 different kinds of bottles, the sling I ordered last week, and the Miracle Blanket that I ordered. :rolleyes:

Molli, with Mason I used Dreft for several months, then just switched to regular detergent. With Chase, I have just been using regular detergent, and haven't had any problems. If you like your regular detergent, try washing some of Charlie's things in with yours and see if he has a reaction.

[mrswaz]

Happy Birthday Abigail! Watch out for those washable crayons Mommy! Yes, they wash out of clothing, off of walls, etc. But they also turn mouths funny colors, and run down faces, etc. We got washable crayons once. Then Abigail put one in her mouth and starting sucking on it- it may be non-toxic, but I don't like the idea of her eating crayons full of wax. I highly recommend getting plain crayons and those Mr. Clean Magic Erasers- yes, they really work!

I also sing the praises of the pacifier!!! Both of mine have used them, and we didn't have any problems getting Abigail to let them go.

BTW Lara- as far as those 5:30 am's go, I think I cured Zander. It took some work though. Two days in a row, he got up at 5:30, requesting food of course. I didn't give it to him. I just sat and rocked him until he went back to sleep. I think it took a whole hour to convinve him to fall asleep, but I think that once he realized he wasn't getting that bottle, he might as well sleep until he's refreshed. Because the last 2 days he's slept until 7:00. Hopefully he'll keep it up, because he's been so much happier getting that full night of sleep.

Molli- (Warning, big opinion here-) Don't let Charles cry it out. Zander is 5 1/2 months old, and I still rock him to sleep. I rocked ABigail to sleep until she was 14/15 months. It did not harm her sleep habits one bit. She will be 4 next month, and there are nights that she will look at me and say "Mommy, I'm tired, I think it's bedtime." And she will go to bed like a normal person. There was never a difficult transition period. I rocked her to sleep until she got her big girl bed, and then we started reading stories to her at bedtime. IMO crying it out is cruel. I tried it once when Abigail was 2 months old, becuase she was a terrible sleeper. She needed to be held to sleep- even at night. I let her cry for 2 hours, following the Ferber method. It was horrible. No baby should cry like that. Ended up that she's a tummy sleeper. I rolled her over, and she slept all night in her crib (I didn't- I had to keep getting up to check on her!). Zander is also a tummy sleeper. I only waited 2 weeks before I flipped him over. Every time I hear about someone letting their kids cry it out, it breaks my heart. Babies cry for a reason, and if they want their Mommy, by golly, my kids will get their Mommy. Just my 2 cents.

DH left at 4:30 this morning. :( Last night when he said goodnight to Abigail she started crying. It was so sad- I almost started crying. Right now he could be gone as long as 12 weeks! He does get the option of coming home a few times during- but we'll see whether it will be better for him to just stay and get things done, or take a few long weekends to come home. As much as I miss him already, last night I was secretly getting excited about "owning" the remote control while he's gone!;) (As he turned on one of those dumb choppers shows on TLC- which he doesn't even like, but there was nothing else on.:rolleyes: )

[LaraW]

Originally posted by mrswaz
BTW Lara- as far as those 5:30 am's go, I think I cured Zander. It took some work though. Two days in a row, he got up at 5:30, requesting food of course. I didn't give it to him. I just sat and rocked him until he went back to sleep. I think it took a whole hour to convinve him to fall asleep, but I think that once he realized he wasn't getting that bottle, he might as well sleep until he's refreshed. Because the last 2 days he's slept until 7:00. Hopefully he'll keep it up, because he's been so much happier getting that full night of sleep.


Yea, Natalie is back to waking up at 6:15 - 7:00. I have found that she can go 11 hours 45 minutes between her last nigttime feeding and her first morning feeding, so I have been trying to push the last one to as close to 7pm as possible. I usually feed her at about 6:45 and she is in bed by 7:00, asleep (usually) by 7:01. :) She is a good sleeper, and just like Mommy, she falls asleep quickly.

Happy Birthday, Abigail!! Enjoy your cake :D

Molli, congrats on the sleep. Doesn't it make such a huge difference? We never really used a pacifier, but if you're comfortable with it, then by all means do it. :)

[beacooker]

I forgot to say Happy Birthday to Abigail! And way to go to Angelamaria for making it through the first year. The second year is pretty much a breeze, IMO. 1-year olds are much more capable than babies, but not as willful as 2-year olds. It is a great time.

mrswaz - I wasn't going to admit it, but I started putting Chase down to sleep on his tummy when he was 2 weeks old, also. With Mason, he cried in terror whenever we laid him on his back, but we were too scared to let him sleep on his tummy. Finally when he was about 2 months old, my mom was watching him one afternoon while I slept, and she put him on his tummy and he slept for his longest stretch ever. After that, we put him on his tummy to sleep all the time. One of the reasons I want that Miracle Blanket is that I hope that using that, Chase will sleep ok on his back. If he doesn't, though, it is back on his tummy!

[hrk]

Good morning everyone.
Lara- Glad to hear Natalie is back on schedule. Hope that things stay that way so that you can get your exercise in. Have things settled down for you and DH at work? And is everything still going well with sharing the work load for natalie?

Molli- I used Dreft for the first few months and then switched Logan gradually after 6 months.
ON the sleep issue, I attended a mothers group, where the nurse running the group was a very firm believer in doing whatever feels right and what it takes to survive in the first three months especially. Logan was a terrible napper and at night he would sleep well in his bassinet until his first nighttime fedding then only slept well if in our bed. I was very conflicted about letting him sleep on me for naps and bringing him in to bed with me, but in the end it was the best for everyone cause LOgan and I both got rest and we were happier for it. And when it came time to put him in his crib at 4 months we didn't ahve any problems with it. And to this day I still miss those days when Logan napped on my chest, it was a wonderful feeling.

Happy BIrthday Abigail. And I agree anne the second year seems to be a lot of fun so far.

Mrswaz, I hope the next weeks pass by very quickly. I am sure your DH is sad he won't be with you and the kids.

For all the new moms on this thread, I want to make a recommendation to try and find a new moms group in your area. Contact the local hospitals, churches, etc and see if there is one that meets. I joined one through the hospital where I gave birth and it was wonderful. Not only did I get some great advice and support as an uncertain new mom, but I also got out of the house and met some great friends who I am still very close with and it is great to see all ouor kids growing up together.

Well Logan is doing quite well and seems to be developing more independence every day. Yesterday at daycare apparently the girl in Logans calss kissed him and then they both just stood there shocked. Ugh I am not ready for that yet.

And next week I have my first annual since my six week check after Logan. DH actually requested that I not go back on the pill, so I guess he has some ideas for the future ;)

Hapy hump day,
Heather

[MandMs]

Happy first Birthday Abigail! And her Christening gown sounds absolutely beautiful. Please post some pics from her big day. :)
Actually, we're jsut about a month behind you! Shay will be 11 months old on Monday. I found her standing in her crib for the first time just yesterday morning. She's discovered stairs but only has made it up maybe 2 before I freak out and remove her from said stairs. She's into everything!

What just baffled me the other day was she was going for an outlet with a cord plugged in. I said "no no Shay" and she stopped, and backed away! It just can't BE that she understands no already! She's done this many times with the same outcome! Also, when she goes to throw food over the side of her tray, I tell her again "no no" and hold my hand out and tell her to hand it to momma. She does! Then she takes it from my palm and eats it. Very weird.

I have used a binkie from day 1. She now only uses it to fall asleep, and doesn't use it at all at daycare. She pops it out after falling asleep, and I go in and put it in the same corner of her crib every night. She finds it in the morning, puts it in her little mouth, and drifts back off to sleep.

Her daycare got her to eat fruit! So we are now having fruit and cereal for breakfast, no cereal at all at lunch or dinner. We're still on pretty much all jarred foods (stage 3). I tried O'Soy yogurt with NO success. Picky thing, she is! :D

Lisa :)

[Julia1Pin]

Lisa -

Have you tried Yo Baby yogurt? It's Abigail's favorite. She's not picky but it's one of her favorite foods now and maybe Shay will like it.

[SueK]

Happy Birthday Abigail and congrats Angela on making it through the first year!

We are doing well here. Sara and I got back from NM yesterday and DH fared great while we were gone. This was the most time he's spent with Sammy since she was born so he enjoyed the bonding time.

Sam turned 9 months today! At her checkup she was 18 pounds and 28" long. She has been eating us out of house and home the past two weeks, so I guess another growth spurt is happening now. Her napping hasn't been great lately, but she is still sleeping 12 hours at night, so I can't complain.

Well, must head to bed. DH is gone as of this morning - 7th week in a row! And next month he is due to go to China for 2 weeks - ugh!

[angelamaria]

i was so excited about Abby's bday i forgot to say welcome to all the new moms!
congratulations!
lisa i will try to post a pic but i am technologically an idiot. we do have a digital camera so everything will be on our computer- anyone able to instruct me in an easy fashion?
pacifiers- abby didn't use one until she started daycare except for rarely in the car or on an airplane etc. once she started daycare at 8 months she quickly became addicted but luckily she was old enough to replace it if it fell out! she will suck her thumb (actually chews on her thumb) if she doesn't have the pacifier.
i slept with abby in the guest room for her first six months of life. it just made it easier to nurse her. at about that time she started solids and didn't need to nurse at night as much plus my back started killing me esp if i nursed her lying down. so we put her in the crib but it wasn't easy- worst 2 nights of my life! i am not a fan of cryitout methods but she didn't ever go for any gentler method. she was 6 mo old though - i wouldn't have done it at 2-3 months but that is me. i read every single sleep book and liked dr weissbluth's the best. even if you don't like his sleep method he does an excellent job of explaining what is normal sleeping at different infant stages.
i have discovered abby is a high carb eater! she loves mashed potatoes, oven fries, rice cakes, whole wheat bread etc. also zucchini (although it came out the other end pretty much undigested -yuck.)
have a good day everyone!
ps abby is finally starting to crawl forward this past week.

[LaraW]

Hi Everyone

Heather, yes things have settled down for me at work. DH has really gotten better about helping with getting her stuff ready for daycare. Getting out the door in the mornings is still a bit of a challenge, but I guess that's to be expected.

Sue, it sounds like you had a great time in NM, and glad that DH enjoyed his bonding time wiht Sammy.

Angela, GO ABBY! How cool that she's going forward.

Lisa, congrats on Shay understanding "no no". :)

We had a party at our house tonight. It was crazy, but really fun. DH and I invited the people in our book clubs over for a bbq. There were a ton of kids running around the house, and about 20 people all together. I don't know that we've had that many people here at once before. It was fun, but was kind of glad that everyone was gone by 8:00.

Natalie is doing great. She's trying so hard to crawl. She sits and leans forward on her hands, but then isn't quite sure what to do. Eventually she overbalances and falls over on her face.

She has been doing pretty well with her sleep, sleeping until at least 6:00 am every day (I say "at least" like that's sleeping in :rolleyes: )but did have one day last week where I heard her talking up in her bed at 5:00. I didn't go to her because she seemed happy, and she did eventually go back to sleep, but thankfully it was just that one time.

I have a question about solid foods and eating. Natalie is really an enthusiastic eater. One thing that she does a lot is to try and grab the spoon out of my hand. Sometimes i let her play with it and get another spoon, but it is really hard to feed her when she's already got a spoon in her mouth. Today I tried putting some of her cereal just on the high chair tray to see what would happen, and it was just such a mess. She got her hands in it, and was attempting to put it in her mouth, but mostly it got all over her body. Should I try giving her more "chunks" of food or something? I don't want to discourage her by saying "no" and taking the spon away, but at the same time, I'd like her to actually eat something.

Any thoughts?

Well, ladies, its getting late and I need to get ready for bed. :)

[hrk]

Good morning everyone. Hope all the little ones are doing well.
We had my parents in town this weekend so it was a bit hectic, but fun none the less. I think my mom is the best at getting Logan to laugh.
We went to the pool on Saturday with some of Logans friends, the three boys had a lot of fun. And Saturday night was out to dinner with the family. Logan is getting really good at behaving in restaurants as long as I bring books for him to look at.
Sunday we were out most of the day running errands, including
LOGANS FIRST HAIRCUT.
Yeap he got his first haircut this weekend, coincidentally on his 14 month birthday. He looks so much like a grown up boy now. And he did fantastic. We took him to a kids hairsalon where they played Finding Nemo while he sat in the chair. He didn't fuss or cry at all. We were very proud of him and I was so glad my parents were here for it.

Lara, The bbq sounds great. As for the spoon, when Logan started doing that we figured it was time for him to start learning. At dinner we would strip him down to his diaper and let him go at it, with some help from us. Boy can I post messy dinner pictures. But I am happy to say at 14 months he can pretty much use a fork and spoon by himself. I would say encourage Natalie and just be prepared for a mess to start off with and a bath right after dinner.:D

[MandMs]

Happy Monday! Yay Logan on getting his first hair cut!

I want to start with a quick question. This morning, Shay woke with a poopy, and it was so strange. Her diaper was full of little pellets...like the size of peas and maybe a few Kidney bean size (sorry!). Very hard and dry. We spent yesterday at a pool. I don't give her juice and rarely can get her to take water. Is this a sign of dehydration? Her diaper was plenty wet, but I have never seen anything like this. Itold her daycare to try and give her water today. We also have been eating more fruits. I would think this would have the opposite effect. Just curious if anyone has experienced this.

Well, Shay is 11 months old today! She is pulling herself up on whatever she can. No real moves to taking steps yet though and gets kind of shakey when trying to sit herself back down. She crawls everywhere and boy, she can move! I took her swimming yesterday for the first time and she loved it! Looked so cute in her little bathing suit too!

The eating thing has been okay. Julia, I haven't tried the yo Baby stuff because it's dairy. I thought since she's been on soy formula that I'd stick with the soy yogurt. She may just have an issue with that "sourness" that yogurt has. She doesn't really try to grab the spoon yet. We are trying more "chunky" jarred foods and she loves to pick up green beans or carrots chunks from her tray. I finally bought Cheerios, but we haven't tried them yet.

Hope everyone had nice weekends. It's supposed to be 99 degrees here tomorrow! Ouch!

Lisa

[mrswaz]

Lara- Zander always wants to feed himself. I've been giving him Cheerios with every meal, because he can get them to his mouth himself. There are many times where I will have to wait several mintues inbetween bites while he finishes with a Cheerio- but he really enjoys feeding himself already. There have also been times where I will load up the spoon with cereal and put it into his hand, and help guide it into his mouth. Then he'll spend a lot of time chewing on the spoon.:) I also have been contemplating dicing up some carrots and steaming them silly and putting them on his tray to see what he'll do. But I haven't gotten that ambitious yet.

Heather- First haircut! Wow! I am not looking forward to that! And that's great that he'll be good to sit in a restaurant.

I have a question about feeding Zander yogurt- when should I give it to him? That's one of those things that I don't remember if he needs to be a certain age before giving it to him.

Well, after the first week of single Mom- Wow! I certainly have a newfound respect for single parents and for other Moms whose DH's are in the military, or OTR. Yikes. I never realized how much I count on DH coming home from work and spending time with the kids so that I can get a moment to relax. By the time I get both kids to bed, I am so tired, I think about going to bed myself, but I really need that wind down time or I'll be tossing and turning all night. We've been keeping busy though. We found out DH will be here this coming weekend for a brief visit, and then gone for 2 more weeks. It will continue like that for a total of 12 weeks. Abigail is really having a tough time with Daddy being gone, so it's good that he'll be able to come home fairly often.

[Jen]

Wow, this thread has been busy lately! Thanks for all the advice about the pacifier...and Molli, glad to hear it's working out for you. Mandy has taken it a couple of times (only from DH, mind you) but I can't shake these really guilty feelings about it. I'm not worried about her giving it up...I just feel like it's kind of a cop-out, and that maybe she needs something else and is just making do with the pacifier. I don't know, I just feel icky about it. I guess I will have to get used to it.

We had a couple of awful nights this week - once she was up from 12 until 4:30 am, when finally DH came in and strapped her in the carseat and took her for a drive (which at least let me sleep for awhile). The next night she didn't cry so much but was continuously fussy. Unbelievably, I slept through the whole thing!! :eek: I guess I was so exhausted from the night before. She calmed down when being rocked, but DH was getting exhausted, so finally he strapped her in the carseat, put it on the glider, and set up a sleeping bag/pillow on the floor...this way he could push the glider when she started to fuss and she would calm down. It was funny to see his "base camp" the next morning.

Since then she's been pretty good, but we never know what we're going to get. The past couple of days she's been great at night but kind of awful during the day...lots of crying fits where nothing seems to soothe her.

Molli, we've been using baby detergent (can't remember the brand, but our brands are different in Canada anyway). But once the bottle is gone we're going to start using our regular detergent with an extra rinse cycle.

Angela - happy 1st birthday to Abigail!

Heather - that's great about the first haircut. Amanda has so much hair that our Dr actually recommended we cut some off if she gets too hot. She has been very hot with the muggy weather we've been having, but we can't bring ourselves to cut it! It looks so cute! It's the first thing anyone says when they see her.

[Luv to Cook]

Hi everyone,

I haven't posted in forever and I see I have missed a ton of milestones! So congratulations on the first haircuts, first birthdays, first teeth, crawling, walking, eating independently, babbling and talking! And of course, congrats to all the new moms! Welcome to the best time of your life.

Jen, I just wanted to let you know that we have been there. Asha was born in June, 2003 (must be those June babies ;) )! I highly recommend "The Happiest Baby on the Block" by Dr. Harvey Karp. I would send you my copy, but its already with someone else. This book (along with the mentioned miracle blanket) is a must for the first 3 months!

Mrswaz, I think the yogurt thing is around 8-9 months. I think it is okay earlier than milk because of the active cultures.

MandMs, Asha's poos change constantly depending on what she has eaten. As long as Shay did not seem uncomfortable, then I would not worry about it. I think with dehydration you just make sure their eyes and mouth are moist looking.

All is great here. My little peanut is growing so fast. All over the place and imitating everything we do. We have been doing a lot of traveling the past few weeks. Last weekend I made a cake for a woman in my Mom's club, so that was fun, but it took so much time. I really would like to do this on the side, but it takes alot of time and energy and I am not sure if it is worth it.

I know I missed alot of you and for that I apologize. I will definitely pop in again soon and try and catch up. I hope everyone is well and enjoying the summer.

Anita

[MandMs]

I must rant :mad:

I went to pick Shay up from daycare yesterday (a woman watches her and several others at her home). She was being held, and I noticed a welt/scratch on her cheek. Then, daycare lady proceeds to tell me that Shay was bitten by a 2 yr old! She had a huge welt on her forearm that was starting to bruise. She also had scratches on her upper arm and leg! It looked like she was in a bar fight! Apparently Shay (being her interactive and loving climbing on people now) tried to climb up on this 2 yr old and she bit her...hard! Daycare lady iced it. I was just livid! The Mother had picked the biter rightb efore I got there. Daycare lady told biter's Mother what happened and she said "I know. I don't know what to do". She has also bitten some of the other kids there. But Shay is 11 months old and can't defend herself or run away. She just wanted to play.
:(

I know that bumps and scrapes come along with having a child who's discovered her wheels. But biting? It really upsets me that daycare lady can't say "keep her at home until she learns not to bite". I hated dropping her off this morning. :(

Over the course of the evening, the bite got darker and really bruised. Thank God she didn't break the skin.

I often see this Mom picking up her daughter at the same time I'm there. Is it out of line for me to say something to her about the biting?

Sorry, ladies. :( At 18 months, she's going to Montessori. I can't wait.

Lisa

[tbb113]

Lisa:
I can understand why you are upset about Shay being bitten...but unfortunately its a fact of life that small children bite other children (they also hit other children, pinch them, kick them, etc). Children need to be taught not to do this and hopefully the parent and the daycare provider are working with the biter by putting them in time outs when the incidents happen. I'm sure that the other mother feels horrible that it happened to Shay.

Tyra
(my sons are 12 & 15 years...they still occasionally need to be reminded not to hit, tease, touch other kids :rolleyes: )

[MandMs]

Tyra...thanks. Yeah, I know this is all part of childhood, but she's still a baby. I do know the Mother is aware that her daughter has a biting problem and probably does feel bad. But seeing marks on my baby inflicted by a 2 yr old (don't they know better at age 2?) just got to me. I even had visitors last night who hadn't seen Shay in awhile and there she was all beat up! Clear nail marks and there was no hiding that bite mark. *sigh*. Thanks for your post! Your comment about your boys made me LOL! :)

Lisa

[tbb113]

Lisa:
No, at age 2 they still don't know better (they might be getting it though). Part of it is that they child isn't verbal enough to say NO! GO AWAY! so she/he bites in frustration. Same thing with hitting. The kid has to learn to control their impulse and act appropriately. Day care is tough...the kids are exposed to the good and the bad habits of the other kids. Hopefully the provider will do a better job of isolating and watching the biter to prevent future attacks. And more importantly, hopefully Shay won't start biting back :D

Editing to add

I just googled kids and biting. Here are two good articles. article one (http://www.nncc.org/Guidance/dc16_children.bite.html) and article two (http://www.nncc.org/Guidance/bit.hurt.html) and here are all the results (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=children+biting) You might want to share the info with the day care provider and mother if you don't think they are following through with the biter.

[MandMs]

Kinda quiet around here lately...

Tyra - I just saw where you edited your post to include those links. My printer is whirling away. Very interesting! Would it be totally...um...out of line to give copies to my daycare provider? (or the biter's Mother?) :D

So, YAY! It's Friday!

Well, I decided to start weening Shay off formula. It's just time. I started this morning mixing 2 oz 2% milk with 4 oz formula. She took to it no problem. Her lunchtime bottle today will be 2 and 2. and her bedtime bottle with be half milk/half formula as well. (8 oz). I'd like to get her down to having 16 oz milk/formula a day. So far, so good. And no ill effects from introducing the dairy. May even try cheese this weekend. (or is this too much 'new stuff' all at once?) If she takes well to the dairy, I want to try that Yo Baby yogurt that was recommended here. (can't remember by who?)

What started me thinking about weening her was the fact that this little thing was pooing 3 times a day! Religiously! This started when I introduced more jarred and some soft finger foods. I actually thought I was feeding her too much! A friend of mine mentioned it may be the formula and the fact that I was still giving her 20 oz/day in addition to the jarred baby foods. She's not chunky at all and weighs maybe 19 pounds at 11 months. This same friend had her daughter weened by 12 months of age, and my daycare provider saiod she never had a child over the age of a year still on formula.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! We are getting a break from the intense heat and our highs are mid 70's with nighttime lows in the 50's! Very un-July like!

Lisa :)

[tbb113]

Lisa:
No I don't think its out of line to share the info with your day care provider and the biter's mother. If the situation was reversed, wouldn't you like to have ideas on how to handle it?

I know when my kids were little, the thought was you didn't introduce milk until they were a year old. Shay is close to that age, right?

Years ago we had a discussion with a family friend that was a heart surgeon regarding poop frequency. The normal range is once every four days to four times a day. What ever is consistent for you...is your normal frequency. (my ex and I were on opposite sides of the spectrum ;) ) Shay may just fall in that 3 times a day range.

[mrswaz]

Lisa- Sounds like the milk introduction is going well! Hooray! It won't take long at all for Shay to realize that milk tastes much better than formula. We weaned Abigail when she was 10 months old. She was eating what we ate by then. I felt she was getting adequate nutrition from the food, thus eliminating the need for the more complete formula. As far as I know- there are primarily two reasons that "the experts" recommend formula until 12 months. One being the nutrition factor, and the other being the allergy factor. If Shay is doing fine in those places- go for it, and good luck! About the cheese- I'd try it. But be careful to give her very small portions- cheese could block up her little system real quickly .;)

[MandMs]

I knew you'd pop in Tyra! Yeah...Shay is 11 months old, so I fugured it was time to get her off the formula. She is eating more of a variety of foods now, so I think nutritionally she'll be fine. She still gets a serving of the iron fortified rice cereal in the mornings with her fruit. I also read that by one year of age, they should only be taking about 16 oz milk (or formula) a day in addition to meals. I was giving her 20 oz a day and she wasn't taking as much "real food". So I think by cutting down on the amount of liquid stuff, she'll eat more of the tables foods.

mrswaz - Thanks for your post! Now, is Abigail completely off the bottle too? Shay just loves her bottle...especially the night-time one. She will take water from a sippy cup with ALOT of coaxing. She actually does better with a regular cup.
Regarding cheese...LOL about blocking up her little system. The way this little thing poops, I highly doubt it! Seriously though, thanks for reminding me about the 'plugging' factor of cheese. I was thinking of tearing off small pieces of American cheese, or someone I know recommended shredded? Or are those cheese 'sticks' a better place to start? Farmers cheese is really soft.

LOL! Here I used to think I was a total cheese snob (love it!), and can't figure out what kind to give to my DD! :D

[mrswaz]

Lisa- LOL! Abigail is almost 4 yrs old now- but I remember giving her bottles until shortly after her first birthday. Then we started replacing her milk bottles with milk cups. It took a while for her to really want to drink the milk that way though. We kept up with a bedtime bottle until she was 18 months though- she'd just really gotten into that bedtime routine and I was afraid taking it away would ruin that. I think if Shay is good with a regular cup- you should give it to her that way. Sippy cups were really designed for parents- less spillage. There's no rule that says they need to do the sippy cup. :)

[MandMs]

LOLOL! I think I got my Abigails mixed up. Angela's daughter is a month older than Shay. Must have a case of Friday Brain Fry!

:D

[Jill123]

Hi all --

Finally getting to where I can spend some time on the internet after the birth of my daughter, Olivia, on July 13th!

I expect I'll be posting tons of questions and concerns -- Olivia is my first and I'm hundreds of miles from Mom, MIL, and sisters.

Just wanted to introduce myself and to say HI!!

-- Jill

[Jen]

Hi Jill - and congratulations on Olivia's birth! Sounds like things are going great for you!

I have a somewhat embarrassing question I'm hoping you all can give me your opinions on. Amanda seems to go through days where she'll sleep a lot, followed by days where she'll be up for a lot of the day. As a first time mom, I'm not sure exactly what I'm supposed to DO with her if she's awake for several hours at a time (with intermittent feedings, of course). DH and I both spend time playing with her, talking, singing, etc. But should we be interacting with her ALL the time that she's awake? Or is it OK to leave her for awhile in her bouncy seat or swing, or in her bed with her mobile, as long as she has something interesting to look at? I always feel like bad mommy if I have to leave her for awhile, but on days where she's up for long periods, I can't get anything done at all (we're talking not even a bathroom break, let alone a meal!). Of course it's not that I resent spending time with her - she's amazing! - but I have no idea what the "norm" is here. It's not something I'd feel comfortable asking people IRL because I'd worry they'd look at me like I was horrible!!

I worry too because I know in the coming weeks she will be awake a lot more of the time. For those of you with older babies, how does your day go (assuming you are home with them - I will be off work until she's about a year old)? Do you spend all of your time playing with baby except when he/she is napping or feeding?

Sorry if this is a really dumb question! :D

[greta]

welcome jill, and congratulations!!

jen,
not a stupid question whatsoever. i felt the same way at times. now, i am not a by the book kind of mom, so this is strickly just what i've felt comfortable with--not sure if it is developmentally the right thing for the baby.

i definitely let laith hang out in a seat, on the floor, etc. when he was amanda's age it may not have been for long periods of time--because he was eating and sleeping more frequently. and, when i was trying to get my supply up after having problems, i would have to pump after feeding him--so he had to relax on his own. i think it has helped him get comfortable with entertaining himself.

now, the time spent not in someone's arms is a bit longer. he's a pretty mellow baby, so he really seems to enjoy his "down" time. there are time when he gets fussy if held too long. this is how our day usually goes:

after morning feeding he'll hang out in his swing for a bit. he usually will dose off.
when he wakes up i'll put him on his play gym on the floor for a bit. this isn't normally for a very long time.
then, we'll take a walk--either in his stroller or carrier.
he'll eat again.
i'll hold him for a bit. play a bit. and then he'll take a nap.
when he wakes up i've been taking him in the pool.
and etc.

as long as amanda is content sitting without you interacting directly with her--i'd let her do it. not a bad mom at all!!

i'll be interested to see what other people have to say.
i'm always open to suggestions!
greta

[magdon]

Gosh it's been forever since I've posted. Congrats to all the new moms! Cliched as it is, it seems like just yesterday I was there and now somehow I have a 6 1/2 month old. Declan is doing great-- he's getting ready to crawl. He's doing the on his hands & knees rocking back and forth thing. Someday he's going to figure out how to get his arms moving and then the fun begins. We've also finally started solids. Just the rice cereal which is going ok, somedays he likes it and somedays not. I was all prepared not to force him to eat and to let him go at his own pace, but, man, once you get into it, it sure is hard to let him be. Lara, he also seems to like it better if he can take the spoon himself. We've been experimenting with loading one up, giving him that one, then loading another & usually we can get him to trade spoons. We also survived a cross country plane trip. He did great, no problem with the time zones, and loved seeing all his East Coast aunts, uncles & cousins. His sleep is kind of screwed up now & I'm not sure why. Maybe hungry, maybe a pre-developmental leap thing. He's always fixed himself before, but it's been about 2 weeks now so I'm not sure if we should start taking steps or not.

Jen, I think it's fine to let your baby play by herself sometimes. Declan & I don't really have a schedule. Some days we're out a lot on walks or at playgroups or just running errands. Other days we're more at home so I spend more time playing with him then. I generally cart him from room to room when I have to get somethings done. That way he's doing & seeing different things (swing, floor, bouncy seat, other floor) plus we can watch each other, which seems to keep him happier longer.

And this reminds me-- what do the rest of you do with your older babies while you're showering? I've been putting him in his bouncy seat in the bathroom but he's getting too big for it. I'm not sure what to do next.

[Luv to Cook]

Congratulations Jill and welcome to the world Olivia!

Jen, not an embarrassing question at all. I think all new moms go thru that...I still do sometimes wonder if I spend enough "interactive" time with Asha. Once you have some sort of schedule in the next few months, things will get easier. I think there is nothing wrong with a little alone time for Amanda. You can put her in the bouncy seat and let her watch you do the dishes. Just because you are not completely interacting with her does not mean that she isn't soaking it all in. As a matter of fact, I think it is important for babies to have some time to chill, otherwise they get overstimulated and are not able to settle down to nap or sleep for the night. Now that Asha has a pretty predictable schedule and she is a little older, she will entertain herself for a half hour at a time. It is nice for me to just hang out or to get some stuff done while she plays nearby. Also, I think it is great that you give Amanda some time to hang out and look at her mobile...if you are lucky she may fall asleep and catch a few ZZZZ's. Also, I have friends who have older children and they have mentioned that the little bits of alone time when they were younger, now allows their children to entertain themselves for awhile now that they are older. In other words, they don't always need mommy to entertain them. They have wonderful imaginations and enjoy playing alone for a small amount of time.

So it sounds like you are right on track!

Have fun.
Anita

[beacooker]

Congratulations Jill and Olivia! :)

Jen, I agree with Greta, that isn't a dumb question at all. I remember wondering the same thing with Mason (and at 2 1/2, I still wonder whether or not I spend too much/not enough time playing with him). I think that anytime Amanda is happy being on her own, let her do it. Playing on their own is a great skill. And even though you are a mom now, you are still allowed to do things like cook dinner, and actually sometimes eat it without a baby in your arms!

Greta, I got my miracle blanket and the Soothie pacifier. The pacifier has worked better than the other pacifiers did, but he still isn't a big fan. I think if I really worked with him on it, he would take it. But, the Miracle Blanket has been such an incredible lifesaver that we hardly need the pacifier any more. Once Chase is wrapped up in the blanket, he goes to sleep pretty quickly, and often doesn't need the pacifier or my finger. I love this blanket! I just wish they weren't so expensive - the hour and a half I have to wait while washing it is no fun. It would be nice to have two.

I also got a sling this week, and that is another lifesaver. Since getting that, I have been going out with the boys all the time. I even went to lunch with several former co-workers the other day, both boys in tow. I ate my whole lunch with Chase in the sling, and was even able to easily nurse him during lunch. I wish I had known about slings when Mason was a baby - it would have made my life so much easier, since he hated his infant carrier even more than Chase does.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

[LaraW]

Congratulations Jill and DH!! Welcome little Olivia! I love her name!!

Jen, not a dumb question at all. I too think its important to let babies learn to entertain themselves for short periods of time. I often would let Natalie hang out in the swing or bouncy seat while I was making dinner, now that she's too big for the bouncy seat, she frequently naps for a short while in the swing, or plays on the floor in the living room. If she's wanting to be in the kitchen with me, either I bring the swing into the kitchen or let her play in the exersaucer. Hopefully in the next few weeks Amanda's schedule will get a little more consistent day-to-day, and that her awake and sleep time is more predictable.

Magdon, I usually shower when Natalie goes down for her morning nap. Can Declan sit unassisted? Maybe you could put him on the floor in the bathroom with some toys to play with. Oh, you said he was getting ready to crawl...probably not really the best thing. Do you have an exersaucer? That might work, or if you have a pack and play maybe he could play in there.

Well, after a few days of Natalie sleeping "late" :rolleyes: until 6:15 or later, we're back to early waking up. Ugh. Today was 5:30, yesterday was 5:00! Ugh! She is happy just playing in her crib, and so I have not gone to her as I do not want to encourage getting up at 5:00 am. According to Weissbluth's book, we should put her down 20 min earlier than usual for 4 days, then do 20 more min for 4 days and keep doing that until we find the "right" bedtime. We got her down at 6:40 on Wednesday, and then yesterday she went down at 6:30 and slept until 5:30 this mornign, so we're moving in the right direction. My office's picnic was tonight, and she didn't get down until after 7:30 and I could hear her up in her bed awake until after 8:00 (can't tell if she's awake right now or not) so I guess we'll see what happens tomorrow morning.

So, we had a little babysitter situation last night. :mad: I had gotten the name of a girl who babysits a friend's daughter a month or so ago. I called her 2 weeks ago to see if she'd be available tomorrow night (saturday) as we have our supper club. The girl who's name I got was not avaialble that night, but her sister Amy was, so I set up with Amy to come to babysit tomorrow night (my friend had told me that Amy had babysat for them too, so I was comfortable doing this).

So anyway, I tried to call Amy earlier this week to confirm for Saturday and the person answering the phone said that she was not there and didn't know when she'd be back. So, I called back a little later that evening and the same person answered the phone and said that Amy had gone to Ohio because there was a death in the family (or so I gathered from the conversation - he was kind of vauge and did not seem to have much info). He did not know when she would be back, and there was not anyone there who did know.

I was starting to get concerned, since I wasn't sure if we were going to need to change our plans and have either DH or me stay home or what, and so I tried to call again last night to confirm. I got Amy's younger sister Lauren on the phone. She said that Amy was out of town until Sunday, but that she (Lauren) was going to babysit for us. So I said "who is this?" and she told me she was Amy's younger sister.

I was just really uncomfortable with this - I don't know this person, my friend did not give me her name as a potential babysitter, and I was a bit annoyed that the only reason I found out about it was because I happened to call. If I had just shown up to pick her up, I would not have found out until that time. Dh was pretty uncomfortable with this as well.

So, I decided to call my friend, and see if they had used Lauren at all for babysitting. She had not, but knew another mutual friend who had used her and did not really like her - I guess Lauren was more interested in watching TV than playing with the kids. This is not such a big issue with us, as Natalie would be asleep the whole time we were gone, but I was getting concerned that if something did happen and she needed some attention that Lauren would not take care of her.

So, while I was talking to my friend, she offered to come over and babysit Natalie along with her 6 year old daughter. So, long story short, I called Lauren back to cancel, and DH and I can still go to supper club. :) I was just starting to be concerned that I was over reacting and being unreasonable. I used to babysit for a family when I was younger, and 2 of my sisters babysat for them too, and so when they called, they would see if any of us were available - they knew us all and we all liked each other. I was kind of hoping to come up with a similar situation. Oh well. :(

[saw]

Hi everyone --

I mostly lurk on this thread and the toddler moms thread, but i have a question and need the advice of other moms with young babies. I have two DDs -- one is 2 1/2 and one is 6 weeks. The question os about the younger one ;)

I have problems with my milk supply -- never had enough with my older DD and now I am having similar problems again. So, we have been supplementing her breastfeeding with formula, but she still seemed really fussy. SHe has also always been a very sleepy eater -- not helpful to someone struggling with milk supply. Basically she will start to nurse and fall completely asleep within about 10 minutes. I have tried everything to keep her awake, to no avail. So, this weekend we are experimenting with bottle feeding her all the time, to see if it makes a difference in her disposition. She has seemed less fussy and has managed to sleep some during the days, which she wasn't doing before, so we are pretty sure this is helping.

Now, my quesiton -- this weekend she has been eating like a horse! Most times she has taken 3-4 ounces at a feeding, but 2 or 3 times she has eaten 5-6 ounces! (My doc. said to let her keep eating and see what happens) and she is eating every 2-3 hours. I am just afraid that I am misreading her cues (but she doesn't refuse to eat -- she usually gulps it down) or that she is overeating, and I am stressed out. Does anyone have any thoughts about the amount a baby of her age should be eating? Does this sound exessive? I don't want to make her take less if she really is hungry, but it just seems like a lot for such a little baby. Ugh -- figuring this all out is so hard! Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Sarah

[greta]

anne,
i'm so glad to hear that the miracle blanket is working for you. i did have a night when laith's diaper leaked on the blanket. so, i used one of my husband's long sleeved dress shirts to swaddle him. it worked in a pinch.
laith doesn't LOVE the soothie pacifier either, but it definitely helps from time to time.

sarah,
i feel for you on the supply issue--i had problems with that too! i've read that babies should be eating 2.5 oz of milk for each pound that they weigh. i'm not sure if this is for both BM and formula. i've wondered at times if i'm overfeeding the baby (when i've pumped and am giving him bottles), but everybody i've talked to said that the baby will stop eating when he/she doesn't want any more. what you're feeding her does not sound excessive at all.
good luck!

hope everybody else is doing well...
greta

[mrswaz]

Wow! We're busy here! Welcome Jill and Olivia! Hooray!

Nothing new here to post, really. DH was home for a visit, and it amazed me how much Zander really changed during that time. DH kept commenting on different things. I'm sad that he's missing so much.

Sarah- Zander was a big baby, and I had many questions about him eating too much. His Dr. told me that when they are young, those little tummies will let you know when they are full. If baby eats too much, it will come back up, and not to worry about it. If DD is taking 5-6 ounces at a feeding, and nothing is coming back up (aside from the usual little spit ups), then I would venture a guess that her little tummy is ready for more. Every baby is sooo different. At this point, I really don't think there is such a thing as excessive for a young baby.

[magdon]

Sarah-- I think also 6 weeks is about when there is often a growth spurt so that could be it too.

[saw]

Thanks for all of the responses! I think I just need ot relax about the whole thing. :) Eating has just been such an issue with us because of the milk supply challenges that it is hard not to get anxious about it. We see Megan's pediatrician tomorrow so we will have a weight check and talk with him too. I think you all are right in that she knows how much to eat. She does at least seem more satisfied after eating now than she did when we were nursing all the time.

Her cues are hard to read, though -- her tired and hungry cues are pretty much the same because she looks for something to suck on to help her calm down and get to sleep. I just feel like it is such a guessing game. I was hoping the second time would be easier, but it hasn't been so far. I'm sure we'll figure each other out sooner or later ;)

Thanks again --

SArah

[slknight]

Butting in here on the milk supply issue. You may already know this, but sooo many people don't, I thought I'd toss it out. Milk supply in breastfeeding is based on supply and demand. The more demand there is for milk, the more supply is made. Each time your baby nurses, signals are sent to your body to make more milk. Any time that formula is given, that is that much less milk that is made. Many women think they have a low supply when they really don't. If you are giving formula, your supply is going to get lower and lower. It's a vicious circle. I encourage you to speak with a lactation consultant. My apologies if you've done this already or already knew this. I just get so frustrated hearing about low supply when it might not even exist.

For more info:
http://www.kellymom.com/bf/supply/low-supply.html#supply

[saw]

Thanks for the info., Susan. Unfortunately, I do have a very low milk supply -- with my first DD we nursed around the clock the first two weeks and when we went in for her 2 week well baby visit, she had not even regained her birthweight. I went through everything to try to increase my supply -- pumping after feeding, using a supplemental nursing system, medication -- and had a great, supportive lactation consultant helping me. But, it was to no avail. This time I tried to head off the problem with medication from the beginning, but it still has not helped enough. We don't know the reason for my problem, and I would give anything to be able to nurse my babies with no supplements, but it just isn't meant to be for me.