March 2007 Mamas: Babies' First Thread

[Kanga]

shimmerstar - Don't you hate it when people comment on how tired babies are but then never leave them alone! Dd2 rarely gets a good nap in any more because of dd1, but slept for 4 hours straight today. My parents kept coming over to her and talking to her and rubbing her head which of course would cause her to flash her eyes open for a second and stir. When I'd ask to please not wake her they'd say "oh no, I wouldn't do that" Yes, complete coincidence that she wakes up everytime you bother her:rolleyes:

diapers - my skinny minnie is still in size 1's, but won't last much longer in them

[MarriedaGoalie]

Carter is still in Size 1 diapers. The Pampers Swaddlers fit great but the other Pampers we have been using lately are a little small on him. I want to go ahead and use that package up, though... and we haven't had any blow outs yet (*knock on wood*) so I will continue to use them until the pack is gone at least.

[Janey]

Diaper Size - We're in size 1-2 of the Pamper's Swaddlers. Before K got here, I bought a box of size 1, a box of 1-2, and a pkg of N's. It turned out that we were in size N for a loooong time, and we're quickly moving toward Size 2's. I only used half the box of 1's and half of the 1-2's, so I stuck the other half of the box in the closet for Baby #2. I think she weighs about 13.5-14 pounds now.

As for where she naps... I don't really give a flying fatootie where she does it, as long as she does it. :p


I went to my first PEPS group on Friday. Had a good time. Something I thought was interesting... I was the only SAHM out of the seven mamas there -- they all had really cool jobs. I was kind of bummed; I'm hoping to find other SAHMs to do stuff with during the weekday. Go to the zoo and parks and whatnot. I think I'm going to have to do some of the other moms group things around town. It kinda stinks to be the first in my group of friends to have a baby! :p

[betsyboop]

Orion- Congrats to your DH!!

Mia- Have fun getting wrapped:) That sounds great.

Diapers- Millie is in size 2 diapers and has been for a while (although, she just had a MAJOR blowout last night, so we may be moving her up soon). She was in newborn size for a really long time, then in size 1 for like a week or 2 and has been in size 2 ever since, for maybe a month or more now. Until just now, I didn't even know there was a size 1-2. I never noticed them, I guess. She was 10 3/4lb at her dr appt a month ago, so I'd guess she's no more than 12lb now.

Kindermom- I feel your pain- I sometimes have this odd ache in my elbow after nursing. It sucks.

Janey- What is PEPS? Bummer that you were the only SAHM though. I'm in the same boat- the first of our friends to have a baby (although we do have friends the just had a baby girl yesterday- unfortunately they live on the cape, a 3 hr drive from us).

People bugging the baby- Funny this was brought up. We went to my cousin's high school graduation party on Sat and it was the first time that most of my extended family got to see Millie. So of course, she was passed around, poked, and oogled by everyone. After about an hour, she was inconsolable and we had to leave:rolleyes: Granted, the party was outside and it was in the 60s and drizzling and the music was SUPER loud, so I'm sure that factored in, but still. On the upside, we got 3 huge bins of clothes and a backpack carrier from my aunt that has a 3 yo daughter and we also found out that another aunt is pregnant. Oh, and another aunt and uncle just brought home an 18 month old girl from China AND signed up to adopt another before they came home. Lots of babies/little kids for Millie to play with at family parties someday! (although, come on, it's time for my aunts and uncles to call it a day as far as having kids is concerned, really:p )

[Janey]

PEPS stands for Program for Early Parent Support (http://www.pepsgroup.org/). Basically I go in and meet with a group of 10 women (3 didn't show last week, hopefully they'll show this week) and a PEPS moderator, and we talk about babies and parenting babies. The series lasts for 12 weeks, and after that we can keep going without our PEPS moderator if we want to. My neighbors have all done PEPS and really liked it -- they're still friends with people from their PEPS groups three years later. I wrote a little more about it in a blog entry (http://stfunfw.wordpress.com/2007/06/09/peps/).


We went to a BBQ on Saturday at our good friend's house, so we experienced the whole "pass the baby around" thing too. K was pretty well behaved though. It was also my very first experience of Breastfeeding in front of people I didn't know! They were all really great; I felt surprisingly comfortable. There was a gal from Columbia there, and a friend of mine who is Chinese and has been studying in Burma... so we talked a lot about breastfeeding & childrearing in other cultures. It was interesting. We were there for 5 hours... the longest we've been out of the house with her except when we spent the night at my mom's house.

[shimmerstar]

QOTD- As of right now, are you having anymore kids? How many and when?



We are planning on one more, when Noah is about 3 or 4.

[MarriedaGoalie]

QOTD: Yes, I think we are planning on one more (bringing the total to three). I want to be a CPA before we have another one, though, so it will be at least 4 years down the road.

[Janey]

QOTD - More kids?
Yes, we are planning on definitely one, and maybe two more. This pregnancy was not easy on my body (GD & PIH), and I'm not getting any younger, so we'll have to see what the next one is like before we decide whether or not to have a third child. As for when... again, if we think that three is a real probability, we'll try for #2 pretty soon. If we decide we want just two, I think we'll try again when she's 2.5 or so.

The one requirement I've made is that whatever else happens, I want to be down to my goal weight before we start trying for #2. I started this pregnancy out 30 lbs. over my goal weight, and got gestational diabetes and was on the modified bed rest, and gained WAY, WAY, WAY too much weight and now I'm in a deep hole. :( I don't want to be here again, so I want to start the next pregnancy out in a better place. So, I am doing WW and so far have lost 7.5 pounds. "Only" 56 left to go. :rolleyes:

[littlemia]

Kanga- I saw your post. Thanks.

Hi, everyone. We're hanging in there. It's been tough. Claire's still not eating well. I posted this (http://www.constantchatter.com/forum/showthread.php?t=33274) thread awhile back. Since then her weight gain stalled and she started getting bad feeding aversions but it's been better in the last week. She actually gained some weight and she's not screaming when I try to feed her. She just started taking Zantac and I've cut out dairy, soy, gluten, corn, and eggs out of my diet. Hopefully it will make a difference. She's been a lot fussier in between feedings though, so I don't know if that has something to do with the Zantac or if she's just going through a fussy period. Otherwise, she's doing good but feeding issues are really hard and I get worried and depressed sometimes wondering if these problems are just the first signs that something larger is going on.

I don't have a lot of time to post these days but I'm going to try to keep up a little better.

QOTD- We would like one more in a few years.

[Kanga]

QOTD - We will probably try for 2 more. Dh does not want an uneven number so if have a number 3 inall likeliness we will go on for another. I'm aiming for Camdyn to be STTN and potty trained before we have another. We also want to take a family vacation before the next one when Camdyn's about 3 (or whenever she's done with naps). I can totally see myself getting used to not having baby depend on me 100% though and not wanting to go through the weight gain, sleepless nights, etc all over again.

[MrsKinnison]

QOTD ~ We are one and done! That was always "the plan", and now that we have been blessed with such an amazing and easy baby, we're certainly not going to gamble that again :D

[miaclear]

QOTD: We'll have one more. Likely start trying summertime next year. I'm a get it done and over with girl. When my kids are out of diapers I want them to be out...not to have to start all over again.

[lady1297]

Hi all!
Sorry, I've been MIA, but things have been busy. I don't even get to post in my LJ! Things are going well. J is 4 months old today! :) Yeah! We go to the peds on friday and I'm a nervous wreck about it. He's gaining weight, up to about 11 pounds. But I'm still worried that the doctor will be all mean about it not being enough. I'm prepared though mentally for it. J is gaining and hitting his milestones well from everything I've read. He's loving standing up and tries to sit up by doing baby-sit ups. He doesn't have the strength to get that far, but he tries. He likes when we prop him up the see things. He is soo drooly too. E wasn't, so this surprises me a lot. We've taken to using bibs all the time now. We can go through 4 or 5 a day some days! J is taking great naps during the day, usually 3, sometimes only2 longer ones. It's nice. Real nice!

QOTD: We were planning on more kids. But I'm not so sure. I keep thinking that God has dubbed us the 'house o' boys' and if that's the case, I think 2 is fine. I also want to see if I think John could handle being the 'middle child'. I think if we do have more, it won't be for a few years. We're just getting settled into a routine now and I don't want to mess with that.

[betsyboop]

QOTD- I think we'll have 1 more and we'll probably start trying next spring/summer. I would love to be due in March again or April/May.

Littlemia- I hope things start improving for you guys soon! That diet sounds tough:(

[Orion]

A lot of catching up to do here...

QOTD #1 - Diaper Size: We just moved up to Pamper Swaddlers size 2. I was really hoping DD and DS would soon be in the same size soon but alas, DD just took a growth spurt. It seems so crazy to me that some of the babies are in size three because that is what my daughter wears and she is 18 months! That being said though, she is a tiny little thing.

QOTD #2 - More Children: Oh yes! We are hoping to wait until Dalton is about 2 and 1/2 before trying again only because DH has a lot of courses he is taking in the next two years that will take him away from home a lot and we don't want to go through what we are going through right now! Notice I did say 'hoping to wait'...with our track record who knows. There are only two things preventing us from using BC; I want to BF Dalton for at least a year (I lost my supply when I hit the second trimester when Sophie was 8 1/2 months old) and I do NOT want three under three...two under two is enough.

SAHM vs WOHM: I have the opposite problem than Janey. I live in the military housing here and most Mom's here are SAHM's. Somedays it is great because if I'm bored I can always go to my neighbor's house...that being said though, it seems like someone is always knocking on my door when I am trying to get things done and there is so much gossip and backstabbing here and it drives me nuts...I'm not really the gossipy type!

Whit: I've been trying to get in here all week-end to say thank you to you. It is so nice to have someone out there who not only reads my whiney posts about the military but also can understand. It really means a lot to me when you comment and commiserate.

Update on Us: As I wrote on Saturday, DH passed his really tough course. His course actually did really well...50% of the people passed (this course has a 65% failure rate!). It was such a relief to know that we won't have to re-do the last month. I've basically been alone for the last month taking care of everything and I didn't want to have a repeat of that. I'm just so proud of DH for how hard he has been working. He had Sunday and yesterday off so we spent both days as a family. It was so nice. Yesterday, we played tourist here in Victoria because we have made a firm decision to get posted to Nova Scotia to be closer to our families and now our time is limited here in Victoria, provided we do get posted back home.
In other news....only 23 more sleeps untill my Mom comes out! Not hard to tell that I'm excited. I haven't seen my Mom in over a year so I think that warrants being excited! It won't just be nice to see my Mom but it will also be nice to have an extra pair of hands our here to help out a bit to give me a bit of a break. It will also mean that DH and I will have the chance to do a few adult things together. We bought a motorbike last summer and I've only been on it once and that was when I first found out I was pregnant with Dalton so I was scared about being on a motorbike (remember how nervous you are in the first trimester to do anything that might cause a m/c!). So I'm excited about that and going out to dinner (just him and I) and maybe going to the movies. It will take some planning because I ex. BF and I don't pump/bottle feed but I might look into renting a pump and freezing some and seeing if Dalton will take a bottle every once in a while!
We have a Doctor's appointment for both kids on Friday and I can't wait to see how much Dalton weighs now...he is such a big boy! Got to run...someone needs some booby juice!

[Brink]

Sounds like everyone is doing great. The girls have their next dr. appt. this Friday, so we'll see how much they weigh and where they are on the curve.

QOTD - IF I cound guarantee a single boy that was healthy, I think I would do it again (I know, crazy). But, my luck I would get pregnant again with twin girls, so I don't think we will try again. We are waiting until next January to make a final decision and then DH will go in and get things
"taken care of".

Janey - I'm on WW too. I just started last week and have lost 4lbs. I don't have a lot to lose, but those last 15 lbs just won't come off by themselves. Of all the diets out there, I love WW the best. This is the third time I've done it and it works so well.

Orion - congrats on your DH passing. I hope the next 23 nights go by fast and your mom is here before you know it.

[Janey]

littlemia - I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you that you and Claire get over this hurdle together. Feeding problems are tough, no doubt.

Brink - I'm glad to hear I'm not the only WWer. I am liking the program too. I don't feel like I've been too deprived, I've been happy with my losses so far (4 the first week, then 0, then 1.5, 1, and 1). The best part, though, is that even though I'm losing weight, my milk supply has comparatively good. I have decided that I will breastfeed until I'm at my goal weight, cause I like those extra 10 points a whole lot. ;)

Orion - I'm glad to hear your hubby passed. I'm not a gossiper either, and wouldn't want to live on "Wisteria Lane." Yuck.


K held her own bottle last night. B was feeding her while I was in here reading the "did you pay for CC" drama in ChitChat, and he said, "She's holding her own bottle!!" I ran in the other room, and so she was. Amazing. He said that he took it out of her mouth cause she was kinda gagging/choking on the flow for a second, and she grabbed the bottle and put it in her mouth and held onto it, as if to say, "I'll tell you when I'm done with that, thankyouverymuch, and it's not now!"

So that brings me to a new QOTD: What milestone are you most looking forward to?

For me, it's gotta be sitting up on her own. Then she can go in the stroller, and in shopping carts. I'm soooo looking forward to her being in the stroller!! And being able to actually put my groceries in the basket of the cart instead of the little childseat, cause she's in the basket.

[shimmerstar]

Milestone-
I guess I'm looking forward to talking the most. I think we will hit creeping/crawling pretty soon, because he can kind of do it. Also, I can't wait until he can eat our food. Because right now he's not doing great with the bottle. He wants to play more than eat.

[Kanga]

QOTD milestone - Hmmm, that's a tough one. I will say walking because I can't wait to see my two girls running around the house and yard playing together and fingers crossed entertaining each other more than fighting. Also dh seems to be a lot more involoved with baby duty ever since dd1 started walking. He's not so afraid of them and isn't constantly asking me what toys she likes, does she need to eat again, etc. I'm looking forward to sitting up and talking a lot though too. Dd1 loved her toys so much more once she was sitting on her own even though they were the same toys she had when she wasn't sitting.

[goldengbridge]

Diapers- Ashlyn is still in size 2 pampers. Probably for a few more weeks at least.

More children- We're still up in the air. I'm happy with Andrew and Ashlyn but then sometimes a third sounds so nice too. We're going to wait till Ash is about a year old and decide from there.

Milestone- Probably sitting up since it makes things easier. I can definately wait till she starts crawling and walking!! That is going to be crazy with both of them running around. I was in such a hurry for DS to be mobile and then when he was things changed alot! I'm enjoying this time when she is stationary!

[whitlockan]

Wow this thread took off over the past couple of days.....

QOTD One and done here, I've gotten tons of kick back from DH's family telling us were going to create a monster, but thats all we want. Ditto some others, we got a very easy baby(with the exception of lactose problems and reflux, but those days/nights are few and far between now)! I'm not going to gamble it, and I really only wanted boys so I'm very satisfied with what I have now.

Diapers were in size 2s have been for a long time, we were in ones only for a few weeks, only went through one case of them but were going on our second case of 2s, were still having to overlap the tabs so I think we'll stay here for sometime....and no blowouts.

SAHM vs WOHM I dont know were going to try this working thing again but we'll see how it goes. I did just get a blackberry so hopefully I'll have a little more freedom but I do have a flex schedule so it may turn out to be easy. I really think now I want to stay home....Monday will be the true test!

little Hugs, your doing a great job hang in there, I know its tough but hopefully it will get easier for you. Your doing great and keep your chin up!! If it makes you feel any better were allowed soy but I only drink soy milk thats it, I just, well dont eat anything else and yes it sucks and its VERY depressing, grocery shopping I used to LOVE now I HATE. I literally eat the same thing over and over again because I know it wont bother him and is just *safe* I hate our screaming days I cant stand to listen to him in so much pain. We dont go out to eat at all hardly only one place I'll go and get the same thing. Honey I'm right there with you, its no fun but you can get through this, I really hope you've found your answers!

Lady good luck!! Your doing great, I dont see what would be wrong with it if its been his same growth progression, some babies are just smaller whether they eat a ton or not so much.


Orion no problem. I know military life bites sometimes!! I felt so aweful this morning we had to drop DH off and he sat all the way to the airport with Z and just talked to him and kept kissing him and telling him dont worry daddy is here and will be back shortly. We got out Z was sleeping he grabbed his flight bag and just kept peering up at Z before he'd close the back hatch I just wanted to bawl. He is so upset because he is missing an entire month of his life and is just so afraid when he comes back Z will be a big boy. I'm so nervous come Jan. when he goes to the "sandbox." Anyways you have to vent somewhere you certainly cant do it to them, you have to be as supportive as possible. Congrats to your DH!! Continued luck.....your right military bases are litered with Drama!! We dont live on base since were not active duty but we live 2 miles from base and do everything on base and thats enough and OMG lets just say some wives are sooooo rude!!

milestones the talking!!

Ped told us to come on in on Friday....turns out DS did have a small little stomach virus, the ped told us to ride it out, let him eat and sleep as much as he wants. Well we had to make him eat because he was sleeping 6 hours straight during the day and not getting up and hte night before he went 6+ hours with a dry diaper so we had to keep him from getting dehydrated. He is over it now and back to normal.......yahhhh!! Since he was always a sleep I was getting lonely..HA!!

Oh and he is 2 1/2 months and weighed in at 11lbs 14 oz and is 24 inches long!!! Long slender baby thats for certain!

Yesterday we went to DS school to meet his teachers, another mom was there with her son (6 months old) and was askign the best way to leave on Monday and they said drop him off kiss him and say mommy loves you and will be back shortly, bye bye........the tears just started streaming down my face and then the other mom started bawling too. But the teachers were excellent and so comforting. Emotionally I'm not ready but everything else is ready......I have 400+ oz frozen for him and still have a great supply I am hoping going back to work does not disrupt that, but I'll pump every 2-3 hours and have been doing it for a week now to get my body adjusted. I'm soooooo nervous.

Anyways thats all thats new with us.....

[MarriedaGoalie]

QOTD 2: I think I am looking forward to sitting up the most. I think it will be more easy to do housework when he is able to do that!

Doctor's Appointment: Carter had a doctor's appointment today. We were worried about him having reflux and so we decided to take him in. He is 2 1/2 months old and weighs 13 lbs 1 oz. He was exactly at the 50th percentile in his height, weight and head circum. I have a perfectly average baby! They did diagnose him with reflux and since DH had so many problems with ulcers and stomach sensitivity as a child, they wanted to go ahead and put him on some medicine as well as special formula. They also want to see him back in a week to see how it is working out for him. Also, she noticed that he doesn't like to turn his head to the right. She said that we need to make an effort putting his head to the right to help build up those neck muscles. Anyone else having this problem? I hope it doesn't develop into something more serious! :(

[Orion]

MAG: Do you mind telling me what the syptoms of reflux are? Dalton is constantly spitting up (we could go through and outfit an hour with how much he spits up) and sometimes gets really fussy because his stomach is bugging him. Gripe water and Infantcol seem to make it worse so I'm wondering if it is relux. We have a doctors appointment Friday so I am going to discuss it with her than.

[whitlockan]

Orion....watch for arching back,spitting up and ecsp a constant dry cough, of course fussy when on back....were getting ready to go on zantac his is progressivly getting worse, those are some signs that the ped said were increased signs his reflux is getting worse

[shimmerstar]

MAG, I noticed Noah was holding his head at a certain angle all the time, so I put a rolled towel in his carseat to block his head from leaning that way, and now he's fine. Do you rotate the direction you put him in the crib? That's supposed to help.

[MrsKinnison]

Orion ~ I think I forgot to say it before... Congrats to your DH!!!!!

Whit ~ I got sad just reading your post. It must have been so hard for your DH to leave. I do not envy you military families one bit!

QOTD 2 ~ I'm really not looking forward to any milestone. Don't take it the wrong way, I am always happy and excited when Ollie learns/does something new, I am really just trying to make every second last as long as possible because it seems like he is getting so big so fast! I don't want to wish any last bit of it away too quick. I really got sad the other day packing up the clothes he's already outgrown.

Tomorrow Ollie moves into his crib. If I didn't pick a day, it would never happen so a couple of weeks ago I picked June 13th when he is oficially 3 months old. I think I am going to have a really hard time doing it, but if I don't just do it I may never do it. He really is outgrowing the bassinet, so it definately is time. It's funny because it was never for convenience, it was only because I just love having him right there. Even when he was getting up 3+ times a night to nurse, I always got up and brought him into his room to nurse and change him. I s'pose now that he is sleeping through the night and only needs the paci popped back into his mouth on occassion it is kind of convenient having him right there, but really I just love him being there. Tomorrow is going to be a sad night for me!

[Kanga]

QOTD milestones - I change my mind. The single most milestone I am looking forward to by far is when my youngest is officially consistently STTN. That will be a happy happy day for me. It's been since I was about 6 months pregnant with Daytona since I've last STTN on a regular basis, so 2 years. I miss it!

[MarriedaGoalie]

Orion: It sounds like your little one is doing the same thing that our little one was doing. They diagnosed it as reflux. I'm not exactly sure what the medical symptoms are, but it sounds like yours has it too! They gave us some sensitive stomach formula and our little one is spitting up just as much (if not more) than he was before. I just started him on the medicine tonight so hopefully that will help!

Shimmer: Thanks for the advice!! I will try that!!

[Orion]

Is there any non-medical solutions for reflux in a breast fed baby? It does sound like Dalton has reflux but I would prefer not to use medicine on him as it doesn't really seem to bother him. He spits up all.the.time but he is happy, healthy and gaining weight so I would prefer not to give him medicine. So does anyone know what I can do to help with the spitting up? I'm so tired of the laundry!

[buffy]

wow it's been forever since I've been on here and I'm so behind.

Diapers ~ Morgan is still in size 1-2s but only because I bought too many. She really needs to be in size 2s and I think we'll get there in 3 more weeks. I refuse to waste diapers! We don't have any major leakage issues but she's about 14.5 pounds now so they're just getting a little tight.

More kids ~ I think DH would like for me to say I want to be done but I can see myself having another one so I'm leaving my options open. :) But having two kids that are completely dependant on me is tiring so I want to wait until one of my younger two starts doing more on their own!

milestones ~ hmm, the sitting up one is good. Babies are so cute when they crawl too. Honestly I'm looking forward to all of them but a little nervous too because my 2nd DD hit all her milestones until about 15 months and then started to backslide so I just hope Morgan hits her milestones and they stick.

Littlemia ~ I'm sorry you are having these feeding issues with your DD. I read through your post and wanted to let you know we are going through EI and we only pay a % of the therapy visits. They base it on income level and the # of kids we have. Therapists are $$$ so its nice that we don't have to pay for all that they charge. I'm also thinking of putting my DD on the GFCF diet and it seems like we're all going to have to do it to make it work. Its so overwhelming right now.

I'm loving this age! And I know I'm going to say that about every age, but it's so fun to watch Morgan interact with people and smile and "talk" with everyone who looks at her. I also noticed she's getting a little easier because DH is gone tonight so its just me with all 3 and it didn't seem as bad as it was a month ago. I didn't have to scramble to give the older ones baths andhurry to get them ready for bed because Morgan is ok with sitting by herself for longer than 20 seconds at a time for the most part now.

[MrsKinnison]

Orion ~ a friend of mine's DD was diagnosed with reflux as a baby and she didn't want to give her meds either. She decided to take her to the chiropractor instead and said that there was an 80% improvement in 4 weeks.

[miaclear]

Reflux... We were dealing with this last week pretty bad. Lots of spit up, the dry cough, everything. We decided to try and work it out on our own and it seems to have gotten a lot better. Specifically I had noticed he stopped burping. He used to burp right away as I lifted him from the breast...not so much anymore. So I make a point of burping him for up to ten minutes if I have to. Also the one thing that realy helped was quiting the nursing in bed. Often times we'd both fall asleep while he was nursing and then....no burps to be had.

Head Positioning....Our Ped pointed this out to us at our 2 month. So every day we work on straightening DS's head by stretching it. It has only gotten slightly better. I know another mother who's baby had the same issue and when it didn't work itself out she had to take him to Physical Therapy. I'm hoping DS will be better by his 4 month otherwise I imagine I'll be doing the same for him. :(

Milestone....Sitting I guess. DS hates to lay on his back so I think sitting will allow us both a little more freedom :) Plus then we can use the bouncer and umbrella stroller :D

[whitlockan]

Orion....there are quite a few things you can try before turning to meds. Z is still 100% breastfeed and were trying to ride it out as long as possible without daily use of meds.

reflux I am a little confused on what we are calling reflux? The reflux I'm talking about that Z has is a miserable thing when it flares up. He CANT sleep on his back by anymeans it opens his chest for all that stomach "stew" to come up. He does not spit up but just has a terrible dry cough, as with last night. Its not an everyday thing but he does sleep on an incline everyday per our ped. Its the same thing as heartburn.

Things to try:
There are quite a few things you can do before going to meds if you prefer.......feed in a vertical position (works when they are resisting to eat a lot and feeding less but more frequently.

We only have been using mylanta on the BAD days, when he has his icky cough and not really into eating much. I'm very reluctant to put him on Zantac same with the ped so were riding this out to see if his cough will go away, its only a big concern if this is a constant every single day cough since its signs that it may be irritating and damaging there esophogus. Here I'll link in this article on babycenter, its everything our ped has told us at some point as well. *but beware some babies may just be spit up babies and may not be a true tell sign there is reflux
Gastric Reflux (http://www.babycenter.com/refcap/baby/babyills/babystomach/10900.html)

Here is a link to babycenter to help ease a "spit up" baby, might help you rule out if its more reflux or spit up
Spitting Up (http://www.babycenter.com/refcap/baby/newborns/1765.html)

[happy1nuv]

So much to catch up on... we're baptizing Joe this sunday so I've been crazy busy getting ready for it. The exciting part is that Mom randomly met us at the mall for 'lunch" and it turned into an all afternoon shopping spree, so i've coordinated our outfits and we're going to do an impromptu family photo session with my sis before the ceremony. Dh and nic have matching black suits, white shirts, and coordinating red ties (different designs on them, but same color red), and im deciding between a red dress that matches the ties and a white dress (white dress is nicer, but joe's outfit is cream color)

in other news... joe rolled from back to front day before yesterday!

diapers ` were in size 2's over here. havent had any blowouts yet, but i see size 3's on the horizon. he's totally outgrowing his 0-3 mos clothes, but we have BATS in our attic and need to get rid of them before we can get his 3-6mos clothes down... poor boy though. He constantly has stuff riding up his diaper...

More kids ~ dh and i both want one more (me more than him... he would be done if i was ok with it) ... but i really want TWO more.... im thinkin well try again when joe's betwen 18 mos and 2 yrs or so...

[danalou]

When I finally manage to check the boards you girls have pages that I have to catch up on, but that is fine with me. Things are starting to get more normal when it comes to the daily schedule. This is DD 2nd week at daycare and despite a rocky day yesterday she seems to be doing well!! I am only sending her 3 days a week for the month of June and it is nice for both of us. I just found out DH has to stay overnight at month end and that will be the 1st time I will be the sole provider!! I know it should be just fine, but it still nice to know he is there when I might need him.

DD update - She has learned how to make "Rasberries" and it is the cutest thing!!

Diapers - We are still in Size 1 and I would like to try and make them last a bit longer as I can get the odd sizes for dirt cheap from the hospital!!

More Kids - I think both of us would really like another one if we feel we can afford it. I think once we give ourselves a year with one kid we will get use to the added expenses and a second won't be hard to swing. Either way I would prefer to have a baby around the same time of year (March - June). Being able to take DD outside when she is fussy is a nice treat for both of us!!

Whit - I know you posted about your supply for me sometime ago, but I still have to say I am impressed with the 400 oz supply. To be honest I only use my frozen stuff when I am desprite!! I pump every 3 hours at work and I get 3 bottles which is what DD takes at daycare. I do send an extra bottle every day and sometimes it is used, but normally it comes home with me. I would check and see if your provider will take some frozen and they can use it when they need it. If you defrost it and send it that day it MUST be used!! Just a thought to keep your reserve for emergencies. I also haven't noticed a decrease in supply yet and I am keeping my fingers crossed on that one!!

[betsyboop]

You know, after reading the reflux info here, I'm pretty sure Millie has a bit of it. But she doesn't seem to be bothered by it and is gaining weight just fine, so I don't think we'll do anything for it- other than lots of laundry:p

I'm with you guys who are trying to lose some weight. I think all the weight that was going to magically fall off has already done so, so now's the time to get serious. I only have maybe 5-10 lb to lose which is about one size in pants. I've decided not really to diet, but I've started jogging again this week. The last time I jogged was the day before I got my positive pregnancy test, June 27 of last year. Boy, are my legs paying the price today for the long absence! I am SOOO sore!!

Last night was a great night for us. She slept from 11:30-7am, 7:30-10, and then 10:15-noon. She had been going through what we're assuming was her 3 month growth spurt for the past 8 days or so. It was so miserable because she normally sleeps through the night, but during the last week would be up multiple times each night. The worst night was last Fri and she went to bed at midnght, was up to eat at 4:50, 5:20, 7:15, 8:15, 9:15 and was up for the day at that point. Ugh- so glad it's over.

[MrsKinnison]

I did it. I put Ollie to bed in his crib tonight. He went to sleep just like normal, now lets see how mom does...

[danalou]

MrsK - I hope the crib went well last night as I know it was tough!! I resisted it as well and in the end it was a nice treat for both of us.

Betsy - I have to say I am jealous of that sleep pattern, but DD slept her 1st 6 hour stretch last night. Let's hope this is a change that will last for more than just one day!!

[happy1nuv]

waving hi as my toddler drags me away from the computer...

[miaclear]

MrsK...congrats! We're going to attempt it tomorrow night. I wanted a weekend just in case it doesn't go well....then DH has no excuse to not chip in ;)

[Orion]

Thanks for the responses on reflux. We have the doctors appointment on Friday and I'm going to ask her for a recommendation to a chiropractor that deals with babies.

Yesterday, we went on a 5 km hike with the two babies. It was great. I haven't been on a hike since before becoming pregnant with Sophie so it felt so good. It wasn't a long hike but it was a great way to get back into it.

The best memory that I will take away from that hike is sitting in the middle of the woods on a log breastfeeding Dalton and watching Sophie play beside me. It brought a tear of happiness to my eyes!

Today is a catch up day. Since DH has been on vacation we've been doing lots of fun stuff and ignoring the housework so today we are catching up. DH is actually taking Sophie out for a walk to do some errands so I can get the floor scrubbed.

[MrsKinnison]

Ollie had a great first night in his crib! I had to get up a couple times to pop his paci in his mouth and re-cover him with his blanket, but thats no different than any other night. He doesn't actually wake up, but just starts making all sorts of "eh, eh, eh" noises. I think he's like his mom and needs a blanket to sleep :p

[happy1nuv]

congrats mrsk... dh is adamant that joe go to the crib soon, but since nic is still in the nursery, we have some time yet (and im so not ready for that emotionally)

[miaclear]

Glad you had success with the crib MrsK. Wish us luck for tonight!!!! Personally I've had fun getting the nursery ready to use as a nursery :D

[MrsKinnison]

Good Luck tonight Mia :D

[miaclear]

It feels so weird in the house now with DS in his crib. Almost normal!

[miaclear]

Friday Night.....to bed at 9:15 with no problem. Woke at 10 fussed till 11:30. DH heard DS wake at 3:00 and self soothe himself back to sleep. Slept till 7:30.

Saturday Night....to bed at 9:30 with no problem. Woke at 10:15 and fussed till about 11:00. Woke at 5am for a feeding, back down about 5:45. Slept till 9:30!!!!

[Janey]

We had the most amazing night last night. I put her down -- awake! -- at 9:30 PM, and she put herself to sleep :eek: and then she slept until 6:30 this morning.

Of course, I woke up at 4:30 with huuumongous boobs, wishing she'd wake up. :p

[goldengbridge]

Sounds like our babies are sleeping great! Lets hope that continues!

Ashlyn had her 4 month well visit on Friday-

14lbs 5 oz
24 1/2 inches long

Dr said thats the average size for a 5 month old! Way to go Ashlyn:) She likes her Mommy milk, what can I say:p

Also started her on Zantac. She's been spitting up curdled milk and has been really really fussy. This is only day 2 of taking the meds and already I see a difference. I have my happy baby back finally!

[MarriedaGoalie]

DS slept in his crib for the first time last night! :( While I am happy about it, it was kind of by accident. I told DH we were going to start putting him in there starting when he turned 3 months old, but last night he was so out of it, DH laid him down in his crib at 8:30pm and he slept until 6:30 this morning. Yay for sleeping so long! I do have to admit it was a little weird not having him in his bassinet in our room, though... :(

[Kanga]

We had a wave of good sleep too. Friday night Camdyn slept from 9pm to 6:30 straight through! The only thing we did differently was swaddling her only because we didn't have anything but a onsie in our room and the rest of her clothes were in her Daytona's room (she was sleeping). I've swaddled her everynight since, but alas it was a fluke and we're back to our original schedule of waking once most nights (around 5:30) sometimes twice, but I still consider that really good, especially since my 20 month old still wakes in the night once a in awhile.

I also found the trick to burping Cami without her spitting up all over everything so I thought I'd pass it along in case it helps anyone else out. I've found that if I pat her back 5or 6 times then wait a few seconds before patting again she will usually burp, but if I don't give her those few seconds it takes her much longer to burp and she spits up at the same time.

[shimmerstar]

Must be the age- Noah has been sleeping great most nights. He has slept from 8pm-10am three nights now, but not in a row. We had one night where he woke up twice really excited and playful. He has also been waking up screaming hysterically. Not always, but sometimes. He's really scared and he will go right back to sleep if I pick him up. It's horrible to watch!

He's still not a good napper. The most I usually get from him is 30 minutes, 2-3 times a day. :(

[dollface]

Sounds like everyone is starting to get some sleep! DS has been sleeping well, but inconsistent. He sometimes sleeps from 7:30 p.m. to 5-6 a.m., but other times sleeps 7:30 to 1:30 or 3:30, then back til 6:30-7. It's so random!

[Brink]

We are getting better with sleep. Katie routinely STTN but Kristi is still waking up once. Usually around 4am-5am, and then she goes back to sleep. I can't imagine the day when they both STTN.

We had the girls 4 month visit the other day. The doctor couldn't believe it - they were EXACTLY the same. Same head size, weight and height. They were both 12lb 11.5 oz and 23 in. long. I can't believe they were not even 1/2 ounce different! What are the odds? Good thing Kristi has a freckle that Katie doesn't have or I would be relying on toe polish forever!

Looks like we are getting an au pair. Does anyone else use one? We are spending a ton of money on all three girls in daycare. My DH is currently not working because he is remodeling our house. Between that and the daycare it's killing us! We can get an au pair for less than 1/2 of what we pay the center. I'm not thrilled about having someone live with us, but we do have an extra bedroom, private bath and an extra car to drive, so we are set up pretty perfect for it. We'll give it a try and see how it goes.

Marriedagoalie - congrats on sleeping in his own crib. That must make a big difference.

Goldengbridge - Glad to hear you got the reflux issue worked out. Yeah for having a happy baby again.

[danalou]

I wish I could say that DD is sleeping like everyone else!! I will say that her sleeping in her crib is nice as it gives me better rest. She is going down around 8:30pm and wakes up twice on average for feedings before being up for the day. I can't wait for the night that she sleeps 6+ hours more than once. I am sure that my boobs will be sore, but it will be great otherwise.

MrsK & Marriedagoalie - Glad to hear that the crib switch went well for both of you!!

[betsyboop]

kanga- Thanks for the burping tip! That helped us out a lot- she normally spits up a ton when we burp her, but barely spit up at all when I tried your suggestion.

[Kanga]

Brink - would a live-out nanny be comparable to an au pair? That way you wouldn't have to live with anyone.

[shimmerstar]

Noah's 4 month visit stats:

height- 25.5 (75th) I think he is taller, but whatever.

weight- 15 lbs, 5 oz (50th) He has not doubled his birth weight, not even close, but the doc didn't seem too concerned.

head- 41.5 cm (25th)

He is pretty cranky from the shots. I gave him tylenol but he is not sleeping it off like last time. Poor guy!

[miaclear]

We're finally taking Aaron in for his reflux issues. I thought it was getting better but he had two pretty bad episodes these last couple days and I just want him to be happy. I'm also excited to see how much he weighs! He'll be exactly three months tomorrow when the appt is and his 4month is obviously another month away.

[littlemia]

Claire rolled over! Yay! I guess she's officially mobile now. Although, she has been somewhat mobile for awhile as she can creep a little (although she only uses her legs) and a couple of times we have woken up in the morning to find her head at the foot of her co-sleeper.

This diet sucks big time but at least it's better than the total elimination diet as you can only have like 5 foods on it. I don't know if I could handle it. Depsite cutting out all of those foods, Claire still had a reaction to something I ate. Hopefully I can figure out what it is so I can avoid it, too.

After a few days of eating better, she's starting to fight me again and I have to feed her while asleep to get her to eat well. We have a swallow study tomorrow to see if something's bothering her when she swallows. Wish us luck.

Buffy- good luck with the GFCF diet. You can still have soy, though, right? That will make it easier. So many processed foods contain soy. One of the hardest things is that you have to make so many things from scratch. How old is your middle DD? I think the younger you make a diet change the easier it is.

Crib transition- glad to hear the crib transitions are going well. I am so not ready. I plan on letting her stay in her co-sleeper until she grows out of it. I figure once she sits up, I'll have to move her out of it.

[Brink]

Kanga - A live-out Nanny is about the same price if not more than daycare. Since a lot of the compensation for a live-in is in room and board, you only pay about 1/2 as much in actual $$'s. Not to scare anyone, but we are paying out about $2,400 a month in daycare and the live-in will cost us about $1,200 per month. We got an application from an au pair from South Africa today. I think we are going to have a phone interview with her soon and decide if she is the one.

[Sherb]

Whew, we've weathered our first ear infection. DD woke up at 4 am Sunday with a fever of 101.8. It went down with tylenol and we were able to get some sleep once she cooled down. Sunday morning started with a call to her doctor and a trip to an urgent care clinic. 3 antibiotic shots, an attempted course of amoxicillin, and poop and vomiting issues later, she's a happy baby again.

Back to daycare tomorrow, which will be nerve-wracking. We brought up some issues to the director on Friday (namely, the covering of babies faces with blankets while they were sleeping in their swings - discovered on Friday and really bothered my DH and me.) Keep your fingers crossed for us that we find another daycare situation soon.

[whitlockan]

real quick I've been following along every morning on the train but I could not resist this post.....sorry ladies I'm freaking EXHAUSTED. My first day back was Monday and I have to get up at 4:30 to begin my day and be at work by 9:00, ugh I cant wait for DH to get back!

Daycare....were looking into a live-out nanny, I wanted to try the daycare thing for a year but I just dont like it and for 1 kid were paying 1500.00 a month. Its about a few hundred dollars cheaper for a live-outBrink did they give you a 2 for 1 special on the twins :p.

Sherb OMG, I showed up on Monday and this is how I found my son granted he was awake and with a pacifier in his mouth. I freaked out inside, I was SCREAMING!! So yesterday morning I left it on his sheet (every morning we leave a daily activity sheet that you make any comments or changes to his stuff on) I simply put no blankets above his waist that are not securly fastened. She apologized to me and said she had done it because he was getting fussy and if you give them a blanket or cloth with the smell from home to rub up against there face/cheecks it soothes them because they smell mom.....um no I dont think so not for my child, he doesnt even get that at home and were not starting bad habits!!! But before she explained to me yesterday Monday night I called DH bawling my eyes out. I'm like I dont know if I can do this daycare thing, I pay 1500.00 a month and this is what you get so much for NAYCE (I dont remember the order) accredidation. Granted the school is AWESOME and just this one thing so far but I was sooooooooo upset and so relieved that she apologized.

little good luck!! I know it sucks, I came back to work and everyone wanted to take me out and I was like sorry no if it doesnt have a label and not something I've ate before I cant. They just are like you and your stupid dairy thing, just feed him formula........um sorry not an option for me unless needed to be. I hope you find all the answers soon.

GERD After a long long weekend DS is finally on Zantac, I was not happy but he is coughing up a storm and was visibly upset all weekend long, its just better this way for now and I know his cough is a sign that his esophogus is iritated, but we do have GERD and hopefully the meds wont be forever.

But work is good I cried and cried about leaving him, thankfully on Monday when I dropped him off he laid down and immediatly started talking and enjoying there toys, he was very happy so it made it easier. That night he was sooooo happy to see me and just wanted to nurse all night long, he was a little bit of a mess as in off his schedule but he will adjust. And it makes me sad to know he finally knows whats happening every morning and I dont think he is happy about it. Yesterday was a better day for both of us though.

[kindermom]

Wow - Sorry to hear about the diets ladies. I can not even imagine. My ped had recommended to me that I watch everything I eat for the 45 minutes before I feed H. Most of the foods should be out within 45 minutes. So now if I want tomatoes, for example, I wait until I have just feed him. It seems to be working so far. In fact, his acid attacks have gone down to one or two a week.

I have so checked out of work it is not even funny. I never thought I would stay home with the kids but I will be applying for a PT work from home job that is opening soon. If I do not get it (which would be beause of office politics), then I will put in my notice. My nanny said that once her kids are back in school, she would like to come to our house. This is icing on the cake. Right now the kids are an 7 to 11 minute drive from here with a good friend.

Daycare - Also sorry to hear that there are no many problems. Brink: I can not even imagine how expensive it must be for care for 3 under 2! Whit: $1500? :eek: That is expensive even for around here! You may also want to look into a nanny share. You share a live out nanny with another family and can get the nanny for half the price. I have a coworker who did this and her son blossomed. The key is to have a good relationship with the other family. We picked up DD from her nanny the other day and one of her daughters (age 11 and 16) had put fake tatoos on my 22 month olds arms! :mad: WTH. They are still not gone and it has been 6 days. We do not want DD to think that tatoos are acceptable (although DH has one).

Bed - We have DD in her big girl bed which means that in the next month we will be able to get Henry into the crib. I am looking forward to that only to get him out of the bed with us. He fusses around 3 which wakes me and we feed. I have a feeling that with him in the other room, he will sleep through the night.

Well, we picked up my MIL last night (well really at 1 am today). She will be staying with us for 2 weeks to watch the kids while our nanny is in Paris. This will be interesting.

I am going to NY to visit my family this weekend. It will be the first time many can meet Henry. I am so excited.

[lady1297]

Hi all! I'm reading along and doing silent so's! Sorry it's been awhile.

We're still dealing with a lot of weight gain issues here. John isn't even 11 pounds yet at 4 months old. I have started him on rice cereal this weekend to see if solids help him gain weight. So far I've not seen a difference, we have a scale here at home, though it is old. It shows a 4 oz gain in the last week which is what he's been gaining at for 2 months. I don't know. I think it's just that he gains slow, but the doctor thinks something else may be the problem. We had a urinalysis done on Friday just to rule out kidney issues. My SIL's have weight gain issues with some of their kids, but each has a different diagnosis so it's not really genetic.

In other news, John is doing great developmentally. He rolls over both ways (has since 11 weeks) and babbles and coos like a crazy man. He is working on sitting up although I know that will be awhile in coming. He is just a cutie pie.

[Tandis]

Hi ladies!

Lady1297 - Sorry to hear that John still isn't gaining a lot of weight :(

Kindermom - Have fun visiting family this weekend!

Daycare - Wow - that is just outrageous how much some of you pay. Just out of curiosity, does it really pay for you to work when you spend so much in daycare? I'm just wondering, because if we had to pay that much, I would probably end up staying home because I don't make too much more than that for the whole month.

Whit - Glad it's starting to get slightly easier for you to go back to work, but wow, those hours are killer! I go back in about 2 1/2 weeks, but my day probably won't start until 6 am and I'm dreading that!

Littlemia - Yay for Claire!

Kanga - I'm going to have to use that trick for not spitting up.

Brink - Yay for the babies sleeping and getting an au pair. I had a friend who was an au pair in France, and went to visit her for a couple weeks one year. It was an interesting experience.

Waving Hi to everyone else!

******************

We started solids last Saturday because the girls were no longer able to four hours in between feedings, but also couldn't eat more than six ounces at one time, so their food was holding them. So far so good! We give them cereal right before bed at their 8 pm feeding, and they usually sleep until 6:30-7 am. The past couple days I've also given them some in the morning, since Audrey is wanting to eat every two hours from about 6:30 until Noon.

Veronica successfully rolled over from her back to her tummy a few weeks ago. She is now trying to go from her tummy to her back.

Audrey is teething. Nothing major so far, just lots of drool, and her gums are kind of sore.

Hope everything is good for everyone else!

[Sherb]

Lady1297 ((((Hugs)))) Just wanted to chime in and tell you that you're not alone. My DD is 3 months one week and only weighs 9 lbs 12 oz. She is gaining but she didn't start gaining very much at all until 2 months. At two months, she was finally past her birth weight of 7 lbs 3 oz. Some babies are small. It sucks that you are having to go through the testing. I guess we're lucky that our Dr. is not ordering tests as long as DD is producing enough diapers and is healthy, happy, and meeting her milestones.

FTW, at birth, she was 7.3. at discharge, she was 6.11, at 1 month she was 7.4, at 2 months, 8.6. At ~3 months, 9.12

[happy1nuv]

we had joey's baptism sunday... all went well. now hopefully ill have some time to catch up... hope all is well with everyone!

[MarriedaGoalie]

Carter had his follow appointment today for his reflux and he is up to 13 lbs, 12 oz. He was 13 lbs, 1 oz last Monday. Holy crap, my baby can eat!! haha

The doctor wanted us to up our medicine dosage for him and then gave us some really expensive formula to try. DH and I decided we just want to try the medicine first and then if that doesn't seem to help, then we will try to the formula. I don't want to do both 'cuz then we won't know which it is that is fixing the situation.

Daycare: WOW!! I can't believe how much you ladies pay for daycare. We pay $110 per week and I think that is a LOT!

[deelcie]

Just a quick post to say hi to you all! I am reading with interest all the accounts of moving babies to cribs. I haven't gotten up the nerve yet but I know I will have to since she's probably outgrown the basinette already. :( And DS doesn't get pissed anymore when I put her down in the crib ("Noooo! MY bed!!")

whit I just started work again on Monday too! How is it going so far?

All my work accesses and clearances were revoked since I was gone for so long so I haven't been able to do much of anything. Just taped aluminum foil over my office windows so I can pump (looks soooo ghetto) and rearranged my office furniture. Am pumping at keyboard as we speak! :) After a rough start, Reikke is apparently taking a bottle OK 2x/day. I nurse her 1st thing in the morning, at lunch and as soon as I get home. I work about 5 min. from home so it's been pretty easy.

Daycare costs I am in a different situation than the rest of you in that quality domestic help and daycare costs are ridiculously cheap here. So it is definitely worth it for me to continue working. It would be a different issue entirely if we were back in the states.

[MrsKinnison]

Reflux ~ I can't believe how many babies we have here that have reflux. Makes me wonder if all those babies who were diagnosed as colicky in the past were really suffering from reflux? Is it something they willl eventually grow out of, or will they have it forever?

Blankets ~ I don't know about covering there heads with it, but Ollie does love to have his blanket touching his face. He is always pulling it up and rubbing it on his cheek especially when he is tired.

Daycare ~ I can not believe how expensive it is. I am so lucky we can work and not have to pay daycare! We will eventually have to pay for a preschool program, but that will be so much more affordable than infant and toddler care.

Lady ~ If everything else is okay with the exception of his weight, could it just be that he is naturally small?

Crib ~ Ollie is doing great in his crib! He is consistenly sleeping 9pm until 5am, then nurses and goes right back to sleep until about 8:30. Usually by the time he has burped he's already asleep again, but I still take him back to be with me so I can get some snuggle time with him.

Diapers ~ after 2 leaks and 2 blowouts in 24hours we've moved up to size 2 diapers. Some how he still had a blow out today. My sister said she thinks it's a boy thing because she never had blowouts with the girls, but it's always happening with my nephew.

So, I had a catastrophic morning... Apparently I didn't close the freezer all the way last night and lost more than 1/2 of my stash :eek: I salvaged anything that was still pretty frozen, but tossed the rest. I'll just make sure to smell it before I use it. It still kind of worries me, so if I get too sketched out I might end up tossing the rest too (I really have issues with stuff like that). I figure it will take me about 70days to replace it all. I had about 420ozs and now I'm down to 162ozs :( Luckily I am rarely away from Ollie and don't depend on it, but it is like money in the bank ~ you just feel better knowing that it is there. On the flip side, we didn't really lose much for food since there wasn't really any room for food in there with all the bm I had frozen :p

[whitlockan]

Kinder where are you about? We live in the Annapolis area but he goes to one of the Goddard locations in Howard County. I forgot all about nannyshares someone mentioned that to me when I was pregnant, thanks for jogging my memory. HA! Your a actively disengaged employee huh....good luck! I have to be on a complete elminiation diet because he is allergic to the dairy protiens and those take a while to leave.

lady hang in there, some babies just gain at a slower pace, I really hope this is just the case. My brothers wife knows a family that there 1 year old is smaller than DS who is 3 months old and she is perfectly healthy no disorders or anything!

tandis once DH gets back it will be 10x easier! Yaya for teething but then again not so much your going to get a cranky baby once they start to cut through I'm sure. I think this is one thing I think I can wait for. I am still working because after daycare I still make enough to pay 2 car payments, and part of our mortgage..yeah so DH said your not getting out of that.

MAG OMG I would love it if I could find a place for that price.

deelci I went in and everyone said "welcome home" okay not so much home but its good to be back but then again I am sad when I pick up DS that I dont get to spend nearly as much with him as I'd like. Other than that I'm swamped.


MrsK I was in your situation last week......we lost power and I was freaking out. I was calling my DH everything just for reassurance, it came back on after 5 hours and thankfully everything was okay at that point I had 520oz now I have 602.75 oz and thats only a months worth. That is my biggest fear now when I leave the house every morning!

Okay well we are off to the Peds this morning, they want to see him again he still has his dry cough from his reflux so they will probably run more GERD stuff and find a medicine that better suites him. Makes me sad I so do not want him on this stuff!

Oh and I got a comment yesterday from someone at work shes like wrent you just pregnant and your back already, I was like Dalia its been 3 months.......she laughed so hard!

[buffy]

whit ~ wow you have an amazing stash! I have a total of 3 oz in the freezer :o. Sometimes I think I should pump more just in case I ever need it but I never feel like it. I figure I've made it this far without needing to give her a bottle so hopefully I can make it a few more months and then she can start eating other foods and not be quite as dependant on me.

littlemia ~ I'm pretty sure we can still have soy, although I've read a couple places that soy tends to act like gluten so don't have too much of it. We are having her tested first before we start anything so right now I'm just researching and looking around at the different foods I can get in place of what we eat now. My DD is 2 and I do think it'll be easier for her to be on it at such a young age, the only hard part will be keeping her from grabbing at other kids foods since she won't understand that she can't do that. I hope you get an answer for your DD soon!

I'm jealous of all you who have good sleepers. I think Morgan would sleep better if she was out of our bed but we don't have a crib for her yet and the PNP just doesn't seem comfortable enough for her to sleep in all night. I know she can make it until 5 or 6:00 because she's done it plenty of times but she still has that 1-2:00 wake up too often. Plus she scoots around so much, she always ends up laying across the bed with her head by DH and her feet kicking me. I think I need to talk to DH about getting another crib again. My 2 year old doesn't seem ready to give hers up for a while.

[miaclear]

Reflux....Our Ped prescribed Axid for DS yesterday. He said it was much better tasting than Nexium. MrsK.... from my understanding they will grow out of the reflux when their sphincter muscles tighten and they aren't spitting up so much. Around 6-12 months.

Crib Sleeping....he's been in there six nights, sleeping in the bouncer in the crib. 2 of them he slept through the night, 2 of them he woke up once, and 2 of them he woke up twice. This weekend we're going to remove the bouncer and elevate the mattress some.

Blankets....we give DS a blanket during nap time and it's always pulled up to his face. He loves to suck his thumb and hold the blanket at the same time.

[shimmerstar]

Mrs K- that's terrible! I'm so sorry about your stash, but it sounds like you can build it up again pretty quickly. (My stash was 5, count 'em, 5 oz). :p

Did I say that Noah was a great sleeper? Well I LIED! Last night was terrible and I think I'm going to lose it if it happens again. I don't understand how you can go from STTN for months and then not get any sleep for two nights straight! It's not teething, either.

[Janey]

Mrs K - I'm sorry that you lost so much of your milk! But, I still consider you lucky -- I don't have a stash. I wish I had a stash, but I do not. I hate the freaking pump. 30 mins of 'work' and I might get 2 ounces total.

[Orion]

I am so far behind that I'm not even going to attempt SO's at the moment. I wasn't getting e-mail updates for the last few days so I just figured that no one has been posting.

I, as well, have lost my good sleeper. Dalton goes to bed really easy and goes down at 7 pm but he has been waking up usually at 10:30 pm, 2 am and 6 am for feedings and up for the day at 7 am. I'm thinking that he is going through a growth spurt as he has been eating, and eating, and eating and did I mention eating! Can I just say that my boobs are sore! I don't really mind getting up in the middle of the night with him though because it only takes him about 10 minutes to eat and go back to sleep so I don't even really wake fully up. Also, Dalton has learned to roll front to back and back to front now and did I mention that he loves to practice this in the middle of the night. He rolled from back to front last night (meaning 5 am) and got stuck against the crib slates and couldn't roll back so I had to get up and help him because he was getting so mad. He also loves to scoot around in his crib. We have the Fisher Price Aquarium in his crib and he has discovered that he can kick it on and off...again at 5 am! I can't wait until he will sleep a little better.

I have to run... I smell a poopy bum! I'll be back later for SO's and more updates.

[whitlockan]

Were back from the ped, my chunky monkey gained 5 oz is less than a week.....12 lbs 7 oz....whoozer!!

Anyways she upped his Zantac but were taking him off of it for a few weeks since she said his cough is not too bad right now and to make sure this isnt a cold cough, those could stick around for 5 weeks or so and since he just had a bit of a stomach bug we want to rule that out. Which makes me happy since I expressed my concern I dont want him on meds unless needed so keeping my fingers crossed we can use mylanta casually still when we need it only!

buffy are you dairy free as well? If you have a trader joes in your area check them out, they have tons of dairy free items including TV dinners which might help with lunches for work! Its hard to find anything in a normal grocery store, ecsp if your soy free as well.

[lady1297]

Thanks everyone for you well wishes and concern about John's weight. I am mixed about whether it is an issue or not. He is hitting all his developmental things on target and he's happy and loving and sweet as all get out. The concern is that he isn't staying on a curve, he's dropping percentiles rather than stayon on a 'small kid' curve. He was on the 5%-tile at 2 months and now he is like at 1%. That's the concern. And the other thing is that neither DH or I are small people. DH is 5'11 and I'm 5'7". My brother is 6'7". DH's family is rather short, on average, but not that far off the norm for women (he's only got sisters and his mom only has sisters, so there aren't any boys to use as measurements until you get to cousin level). So while there is a lot of short people at family parties, they aren't like petite or anything. So it's just odd. We're keeping an eye on it basically for now and making sure to rule out anything that may be an issue. I'll keep you updated!

[MrsKinnison]

I think there might be something to this blanket over the face thing. Two days in a row now Ollie has been fussing and having a hard time falling to sleep when I put him down for a nap in his pnp and has been pulling the blanket over his face himself then instantly calming down and falling asleep. It's just the light cotton waffle type blanket so he can definately breathe no problem (plus he's sucking away on his paci under neath so I know he's breathing just fine). I just give him a couple of minutes like that to really be out and I fold it back down... of course not until I've snapped a pic with my phone :D

In other funny sleeping news, I've now caught him giggling and talking in his sleep. It is too cute!

P.S. We are at work, so he is literally napping 2 feet behind me. Just didn't want you to think I left my kid upstairs in his crib with a blanket over his face :)

[littlemia]

Mrs. K- sorry about your freezer disaster. I would be so upset.

Reflux- I don't know if there's an increase in reflux or not, but I do know it's being diagnosed a lot more these days. I think a lot of babies they labeled colicky had reflux. My mom said I nursed until I threw up every night for months and I even had some episodes of apnea. The drs just said I had colic to shake me when I stopped breathing. :rolleyes:

Lady- have you ever tried to see how much John is taking in a day? You should be able to rent a Medela BabyWeigh scale if you're interested. That would tell you if he is slow to gain because his intake is low (which does not necessarily reflect on your supply) or because of other reasons, like possible malabsorption. Babies with allergies can be slow to gain because of malabsorption. Of course, it could be that nothing is wrong and that it's just how he is. I'm hoping that's the case.

Whit- :rolleyes: at your coworkers for suggesting formula. Um, most formula is made from cow's milk, and a lot of milk intolerant babies are intolerant to soy so that just leaves you with the really expensive formulas. I know you know that you're doing the best thing for him by giving him breast milk, I just wish other people were more supportive.

Miaclear- I saw the thread you started. Sorry you're going through all of that. It was hard for me to hear about Claire's oral motor problems but I now look at it from the perspective of I'm glad I know now so we can fix it instead of finding out when she was older and further behind.

Claire had her swallow study. They didn't see any aspiration, which is good but the study was really limited because trying to get a baby with a feeding aversion to drink barium while strapped to a chair is not easy. She only drank a little so they only recorded a few swallows. We have a follow up with the GI next week to see where we want to go from here. I want to know what's going on but I don't want to put her through a lot of testing and possibly make her aversions worse.

[whitlockan]

OMG its 4:30 I've had a long night and did I mention I HATE daycare already. Its only been 4 days there and DS is already sick. Good thing I took him off Zantac he has a terrible cold. He is soo stuffed up he cant even breath and just coughs all night long. He wont sleep on his tummy (which scares the crap out of me) nor his back so I got desperate last night and put him in bed with me up against my chest on his side and held him so he couldnt move so I could catch a wink. I feel soooooooo bad for the poor kid. The ped did say cant do much for him if its a cold so I did put the humidifier right next to his bassinet and put a few drops of a vapor bath in it. Lets just say I could breathe easier but it has yet to help clear him up, maybe I need more.

Today begin the 100% full fledge serious search for a nanny, I'm not going through this over and over again, I hate to see him miserable....hes not fussy just coughs, and has that terrible I cant breathe sound and groan.

little Fortunatly that expensive formula is made by Ross/Abbott which is where my dad retired from so if we REALLY wanted to we can get it for next to nothing since we get it at production costs from the cash sales store there. But your right so what I have to sacrafice a little more big deal its worth it in the end and its not going to be for the rest of my life. I also wish others were more supportive I'm just tired of them being jerks when I refuse to eat out, there like "OMG your baby is so high mae, you and your da&n dairy" um no not really, its so annoying. Then they also ask why I dont just be careful, um because obviously you havent seen this child if I accidently get dairy its not fun and its the most miserable experience to watch.

[miaclear]

Sleepless night here. The first four days in the nursery were great. These last three he's been up multiple times in the middle of the night. Last night he woke up about 1:30. I nursed him and fell asleep in the chair. I HATE IT when that happens. Woke up about 3:00 with a sore neck and him stirring so I nursed him back to sleep again. I'm in bed at 3:30. He wakes at 4:30...down at 5:00, up at 5:04. Down for good at 5:30. Awake at 6:30. DH got him at that point and let me sleep till 7:30 when he had to start getting ready for work. I nursed him at 8:00 and he fell asleep...still asleep now. Too bad I'm wide awake now. Maybe he'll take a good afternoon nap and I can catch one with him.

[betsyboop]

Whit- Sorry to hear Z is so sick:( And wow on the weight gain!

MrsK- Oh man, I'd be so bummed to lose that much milk! I think I have around 50oz frozen, but I hardly ever pump and she hardly ever needs to take a bottle, so that's more than enough. At least you were able to save some of it.

Good sleeper turned bad- I've got one of those here too. She got to the point where she would have about 3 nights per week of sleeping for about 9 hours straight, but the day after she turned 3 months all of that ended and it hasn't come back:( Now she sleeps for about 5 hours at a time, which is still pretty good, but not great like before. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted!

We were supposed to be down the cape yesterday and today visiting the brand new baby of Dave's best friend from high school, but we had to cancel at the last minute because Millie woke up yesterday with her right eye crusted shut (I wish I got a picture because it was really funny looking:p ). We took her to the dr and it turned out that she has conjunctivitis. Who knows how she got it since we don't know anyone who has it and she's not in daycare or really even around people other than Dave and me:confused: But as far as first illnesses go, it's a pretty good one to get since she doesn't seem uncomfortable or anything. She doesn't even seem overly bothered by the medicine we have to put in her eye either.

In other Millie news, she's starting to get ticklish:p She giggles everytime we come near her neck now. Actually, I'd describe her laugh as more of a chuckle than giggle. It's kind of akward like she's not totally sure she's doing it right- so cute!

[betsyboop]

Oh, I forgot to add that Millie got weighed at the dr's and she's now 12lb 4.5oz with her diaper on at 3.5 months. There was a brand new baby just leaving as we were walking in and I could not believe how much bigger Millie was! My teeny tiny baby isn't so teeny tiny anymore:(

[miaclear]

Poop Question.... DS used to go twice a day. Then just last week it was every other day. Now we're going on day three without a poop. I've read that around 3-4 months this can happen but still...I'm dreading when the dam breaks! The every other dayers were messy enough. Anyone else having these issues? I'd rather have to change a mildly poopy diaper once a day rather than a huge explosion ever few days!

Boob Question....DH and I often refer to giving DS the boob. Boob is how we refer to it all the time, "I gotta boob him", "I think he wants boob", "boob him to sleep". I'm afraid if we don't get out of the habit his first word will be boob. I dread the day when DS screams to me in public "give me boob!!!" Anyone else have this fear? Or what do you refer to it as, whether your bottle or breastfeeding?

[lady1297]

mia- I intentionally use the word 'nurse' to DS1. He learned to use it and would ask "Momma, I nurse now?" or my favorite "Momma, those nurses" (meaning my breasts). I personally HATE the word boob. It sounds so preteen-ish to me and I revolt against it. So I suggest you pick a nice wordand us it all the time. Some call it "Num-nums". :) Have fun! (as for bottles, DS1 always called them "bah-bah's".

littlemia- I may end up seeing where I can rent a scale and do more weigh and feeds. We have an old scale, but I don't think it is that specific. Thanks for the idea!

Betsy- Go Millie!!

[MrsKinnison]

What we call it ~ I'm thinking hard and I don't really call it any one thing in particular. I'll often say "are you hungry" or "do you need/want to to eat" or just now I caught myself saying "are you a hungry boy." To everyone else I probably use some form of the word "feed." I guess I just treat it like any other food. My friends daughter uses the sign for milk.

A funny story on the subject... I have a friend who is one of 7 children and at one time her mother was actually nursing 3 of them at the same time. Her brother was the oldest of the three and her mom decided it was time to wean him after they walked through the lingerie dept of JC Penney and seeing all the manaquins his eyes grew wide and he proclaimed (rather loudly) "Wow! Look at all the nursers!" Their family loves that story!

[miaclear]

Pooping update....the dam broke just about an hour ago! Forutnatly right when we got home from the mall and not while we were there. First time I had to wash the cover on the carseat...yuck!

[miaclear]

QOTD: Can you believe it's almost been a year (or has maybe in some cases) that we found out we were pregnant? I'm curious what your story is!

We had been trying for three months but even still the day I found out I was pregnant was one of the craziest days of my life! I had been temping but had just gotten back from a vacation where I didn't temp. Knowing when I Od though I didn't think anything would have happened. The first morning back from vacation I thought...well let's just take the temp and see...knowing that AF should show up that day or the next. It was the highest temp I recorded!!! SO I hoped out of bed to POAS. Before doing so though I found a deer tick on my hip. Coming from MN I knew the dangers of Lymes Disease so I was freaking about that. POAS...positive. DH woke up crabby so I decided to wait for the evening to tell him because I wanted to take a digital to confirm. The reason he was crabby was because he had gotten bit by a Deerfly on our vacation and his leg was swollen beyond belief. That afternoon I get a call...they admited DH to the hospital for the infection in his leg! After work I go get my digital, run home to grab some stuff for DH, POAS, positive again. I head to the hospital and have the stick in a bag wrapped like a present. DH opens the bag and pulls out the digital. Not realizing what it was (the Positive had disapeared) he says "What's this? I rectal thermometer?"

FYI I was diagnosed with Lymes after developing the bullseye rash which freaked me out at the begining of the pregnancy. I spent five weeks on antibiotics...basically week six to eleven of my pregnancy.

I love that crazy story :D (only because it all ended good)

[Orion]

Here's my story of finding out I was pregnant again.

Our daughter, Sophie, was about seven months old and for weeks I was tired, not feeling very well and super (and I mean super) cranky. DH and I were driving back from the beach and I was being cranky at him and he asked me if I was pregnant because the only time I was ever that cranky at him was when I was first pregnant with Sophie. I got really mad at him for saying that and told him to pull into the drug store on the way home to buy me a pregnancy test...that's right...I made him go in and buy it...did I mention I was super cranky? Needless to say, we went home, I POAS, right away it come out positive. DH first words were "Holy SH@# and I started to cry as I looked at our then seven month old baby! I went over to my friends house later that night dumbfounded and told her that 'I peed on a stick and it was positive'...she couldn't figure out why I was peeing on a limb of a tree but eventually figured it out. Went to the doctor later that week to confirm it and get a dating u/s. Come to find out at the u/s that I was 11 weeks along...almost to my second trimester already!!! We were shocked as we weren't trying to have a baby but that being said, we weren't exactly preventing either. We just figured that since I was BF and it took 6 months of trying to conceive our first it wouldn't happen for a while! Best 'oops' of our whole life!

[shimmerstar]

Ours is pretty boring!
It was our first month trying, I was temping and I was pretty hopeful. I waited until 5 days before AF was due, and had to drive 3 different places before I found pg tests. I took one when I got home and started shaking like crazy! Then I waited until dh was almost home before I took another one. I made a really trashy t-shirt that said "bun in the oven" and met dh with the test. We were shocked that it was so fast.

It was one year ago yesterday.

[MarriedaGoalie]

My little man will be 3 months old on Sunday. We are going tomorrow to get his 3 month photos taken. I hope these go better than the last ones!

QOTD: My last period before getting pregnant was June 26th and I didn't go back on birth control after I started my period. Carter was conceive sometime between then and July 23rd(?!) when I found out I was pregnant. It happened a lot quicker than we expected. No real story here....

[MrsKinnison]

It took us 7 months. I charted TTA, so I was pretty experienced with my cycles but after 5 months with no luck I started charting again. I took my temp on Saturday July 1 and it was my typical pre-af drop. I cried all afternoon because I wasn't pg again (should have been a big clue being so upset about it). The next day we went out on an all day deep sea fishing trip and I felt lousy and laid down most of the trip. Granted it was 10ft seas, but I had grown up sailing and had never been sea sick before, even in a hurricane. Still didn't occur to me that I was pg, I just thought I'd lost my sea legs. Wednesday morning when I should have had AF I temped and my temp was still high. I woke up my husband and told him he had to go to the store and get a test, I was so convinced I wasn't pg I didn't even have any in the house. It was 6:30 am and he asked me "right now?" I said yes, unless you want to wait until tonight to find out. I went to poas and yelled to him to let me know when 3 minutes was up, then immediately yelled to tell him to come in. I showed him the test and asked him if he saw the line (it showed up immediately but I was afraid my eyes were playing tricks on me). I will never forget, he says "Yes. Is that good or bad?"

In hindsight, it should have also been a big clue when the week before I was in tears because there were too many weeds in my garden ~ LOL! I still have the test... Is that weird?

[buffy]

MrsK ~ I kept my positive test from my first for well over a year, then finally took a picture of it and threw it away. So I don't think you're weird. :)

QOTD ~ My last AF was May 5th, actually it was my first AF since having my second DD. We knew we wanted a 3rd but weren't going to start trying for another 5-6 months. We weren't using BC but I was BFing and it took a few months to get pregnant with my second so I figured it wouldn't just happen out of the blue this time either. I was temping and after my temps went up for a couple days I figured I ovulated and stopped temping and just waited for AF to show. I knew my cycles would be a little off since I was still breastfeeding but when I still hadn't gotten my period by June 20 I POAS and it was negative. June 25 I was driving from GA to WI and felt some weird twinges that were like the ones I felt a couple days before I tested positive with Addy. So it was in the back of my head that I might be pregnant and when DH, my brother and I went out for drinks a week later and I was very slowly sipping mine DH asked why. I told him I thought it was strange that I hadn't gotten my period for two months he said "you're pregnant. I just know you're pregnant". So July 8 before meeting friends to go out I decided to take another test to see and it was positive this time. It was kind of a shock so I didn't want to tell anyone for a while. It was nice though, like it was our little secret!

[littlemia]

It was my first cycle after the miscarriage. I had planned on just seeing what happens and checking CM but I got too anxious and tried OPKs but still didn't get any ovulation signs. I figured that my cycles had gotten off, so I started temping so I could have an idea of when I should expect AF. I started having pregnancy symptoms around June 29th/30th but I got a BFN. I took a test on July 4th to make sure I wasn't pregnant but I got a very pleasant surprise. Here's what I wrote on the TTC after a loss thread:

So, on Tuesday I wake up and my temp is still high so I decide to test just to make sure I'm not pregnant so I can have some beer. I take the test, still half-asleep, wait a couple minutes and when I don't see anything I throw the test away and go back to bed. Even though I expected it to be a BFN I'm still really sad and I spend the rest of the morning doing a little bit of crying and talking to DH about our future.

A few hours later, I walk into the bathroom and pick up the test (it's laying on top of the trash). OMG, there are two lines. The second line is really faint, though. Now I know you're not supposed to interpret a test after 10 minutes or so, so I don't know if I'm seeing an evaporation line or a real line. I dig the BFN tests I had taken last week out of the trash (luckily the trash wasn't that dirty) and see that both of them just had one line. So I don't know what to think. It's an AccuClear test so I start analyzing the pictures on peeonastick.com to see if it looks like a real line or an evap. line. Looking at the pictures and reading the site make things as clear as mud and I really want that beer so I decide to take the last test I had.

I wait a few minutes and don't see anything but instead of throwing it away, I place the new test next to all of the old tests on the counter. DH walks in the bathroom a few minutes later and says "what are you talking about, I see two with two lines and two with one line." Huh? I look at the test I just took and if you notice that if you hold it at the right angle and in the right light you can see two lines. Now I really don't know what to think. Did I get a bad batch, am I really pregnant, or what?

Now we have to leave to go to a party. On the way, we stop and I buy two boxes of different HPTs (FirstResponse and EPT). At the party, I just drink my bottle of water, trying to figure out how much water I can drink and have enough to go but not so much that it dilutes my pee. Finally after holding it for hours, I'm about to burst so I go the bathroom and take both tests. After about a minute I see the faintest line on the FirstResponse then I see an even fainter plus sign on the EPT. But a line's a line and the chances of having 4 false positives are really slim, right?

I held off on testing again until today. The line's still pretty light but it's definitely darker than the other ones. So, I'm definitely pregnant again. At least for today. Who knows how long it will last- hopefully for 36 more weeks. I'm really happy but of course really scared. DH says for us to take it one day at a time and I'm going to try my best to do that.

[betsyboop]

I love reading everyone's stories!

Here's ours- We decided to start trying at the very end of April, just days before my period was due. Obviously, I couldn't get pregnant until the next cycle. I decided to temp just to speed things up a little so we'd know when I was fertile. But we totally missed my fertile window in May accidentally because I was new at interpriting my chart. So, in June I got more serious about charting and used an online service to do the figuring out for me. Apparently it worked because I got pregnant on what we consider our first month of really trying!

Anyway, it was June 28th that I found out- so 1 year ago this Thursday. I was about to do a test when Dave called at 6ish to say that he was on his way home from work. I told him that I was in the middle of something and I had to get off the phone. I have no idea why I didn't just wait for him or tell him what I was doing. I guess I didn't want to seem over anxious by testing so early (this was a couple days before my period was due). I peed on the stick and it came out positive. I immediately went online to find out what my due date was. Dave walked in the door as I was doing that and I looked up from the couch, with the laptop on my lap, and said "I'm pregnant" with what Dave tells me was a crazy/scared look on my face. Then I burst into tears and Dave hugged me and kept saying "This is good news, don't cry!" I was just totally shocked that it didn't take that long- I was convinced that we would have trouble getting pregnant because our method of "birth control" was the withdrawal method which they tell you is not that effective, but I hadn't even had a scare in over 2 years of marriage. We then had to leave the house immediately to drive to Providence because Dave's youngest sister was performing in a play. Of course we couldn't concentrate on the play at all! We started telling people that weekend, which was 4th of July weekend. I have to admit, I was a little bummed that I couldn't drink over the holiday:p

[Janey]

We tend to call nursing "food." Sometimes we say "boob," but I try to get out of that habit for the exact reason that miaclear does -- I don't want her asking for Boob out in public! So I say, "Would you like a little food??"


I'd been Charting To Avoid since November, and it was our first month trying. I was 13 DPO and I never had taken a Thai cooking class that day, and I felt strange all day. I just knew I was pregnant; I never go to 13 DPO without seeing my period. I blogged this (http://stfunfw.wordpress.com/2006/06/15/still-nothing/) and then this (http://stfunfw.wordpress.com/2006/06/16/bam/) on June 15 & 16. :)

[goldengbridge]

Ashlyn is 4 months old today!! Where does time go?:eek:

My story- We lost Jacob on 4/3/06 and the Dr. told me to wait 2 cycles before trying again. We decided to wait the two cycles and let things happen naturally. If it happened right away, great, if not then thats ok too. I felt in my heart that it would happen when it was supposed to happen. If just so happens that it happened the first month we tried again. I tested two days before I expected AF and got a positive right away! We got the BFP on July 3rd! Part of me was surpised it happened so fast but I'm glad it did. It gave me something to focus on and take care of myself. Something I wasn't really doing since I was really an emotional wreck after Jacob's passing.

[Kanga]

What sleep deprivation does to ya....I jumped on here quick while both girls are napping. I read Janey's post first, and when she said TTA since november, I thought november of this past year thinking we all had babies in october (dd1 is an october baby). Then I read her blog and thought she was pregnant with #2. Yeah, I need sleep:o I started reading more posts and thought geez, EVERYBODY is pregnant on here and nobody is congratulating anyone....that's kinda rude...I'm not reading something right.

My story.

I hadn't been on birth control for months after the mini pill had comprimised my milk supply so we had been charting to avoid. I always 0 on the same day so it was easy, though my DPO always varried. Daytona was about 8 months old and my period should have been on it's way. On Monday, I thought it really should be coming any day now and started wearing a panty liner and packing tampons with me. On wednesday I thought to myself that it was running later than it usually does, but wasnt sure as after I o, i never kept track very well of which cd I was on. By Saturday, I knew something was up. But surely I couldn't be pregnant:rolleyes: I drove to the dollar store, picked up 3 pregnancy tests and came home and took one to rule out pregnancy but afer I POAS, i couldn't just watch it. I left the room and didn't want to go back in. Finally after 10 minutes I forced myself back in because the test directions said it may not be accurate after 10 minutes. Sure enough there were two very dark pink lines. No denying it now. I was pretty shocked since we hadn't even DTD around my supposed o date. Either I o'd on a different day than normal or dh has super sperm. He'd like to believe the later.:rolleyes: I cried while looking at my 8mo old baby just barely learning to crawl wondering how I was going to make it all work..the finances, the sleep deprivation, etc. After about an hour of being pretty upset I realized they would be about the same distance apart as my sister and I who grew up as best friends and started seeing the brighter side. I put a onsie on Daytona for jammies that said I'm a big sister so when dh got her in the morning that's how he found out. (of course i had to point it out to him, but he is a male afterall:cool:)

[shimmerstar]

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1271/612408683_52335ea0a2_m.jpg

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1170/612408731_ef8c973974_m.jpg

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1282/612408815_1d05f4be2b_m.jpg

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1092/612409015_56b69d5fd0_m.jpg

Noah started creeping last night. He has been doing it for awhile, but he just figured out that using his arms makes it to much easier!

[miaclear]

Shimmer....Too cute! I bet he's so proud of himself :D

My too cool baby boy ready for the waves.
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1198/610930645_e58dd25dd8.jpg?v=0

[whitlockan]

Shimmer/Mia adorable!!

My Story we were of the we'll try if it happens it does if not not a big deal. We actively started at the very end of May and bahm in June we hit it right on. Granted we didnt find out until end of July when AF was a day late around the 26th/27th. I was on my way to work when I thought something was up so I stopped by CVS once I got in, the night before I told DH I thought something was up but he asked that I wait until that evening.....are you kidding me do you seriously think I could wait!!?!? So I did it that morning instead and called and told him and he said Okay call the doctors so we can get in and confirm. Next day we were sitting at our Primary Care and sure enough, she was really suprised we found out so early since I was right at 4 weeks or so.

So everyone tells you how nasty miconium is right.....one thing they dont tell you how nasty a baby with a cold.. OMG its soooooooooo gross, smells terrible and so slimey (sorry I know TMI). I think were starting to get over the cold slowly, even though DS has not been happy with me I made him sleep pretty much all weekend, the more he rests, the less we do the faster he'll recover. But then again, he can almost be over it and go right back to school in the morning to start this thing all over I'm sure. I dont even want to think about it. Besides I thought this whole breastfeeding thing was suppose to reduce the possibility for sickness....guess not so much huh!

[miaclear]

I loved reading everyones stories! Thanks for sharing!

QOTD for breastfeeders: How long to you plan on nursing, or exclusivley nursing? Originally I had planned to EBF for 3 months and then BF and suppliment when I went back to work. Now that I'm not going back to work I'm hoping to EBF till 6 months. For me it's not really because it's the "best" thing to do for your baby, but because I set that goal and I want to make it. I'm only slightly worried now because we're going on vacation in a week to see my parents and they've offered up so much babysitting so DH and I can go out and about which I plan on taking them up on. But since we're flying I can't bring a stash of frozen milk so I'll have to pump when I'm there. But the pumping sessions aren't filling up the bottles like they used to. I'm hoping fenugreek will do the trick for me.

[Janey]

My goal is 6 months exclusively, and then we'll start solids. I'm hoping that the small amount of supplementing we've been having to do will go by the wayside once solids begin. I haven't set an end-date to nursing altogether. My thinking is a year... but we'll see. Factors being that I Fear Teeth, I want to BF until I'm at my goal weight :o, and her level of interest.

I'm looking forward to starting solids. I'm collecting jars of organic baby food when I see it on sale at the grocery. It stays good until 2011, and when it's on sale it's the same price as non-organic. We're planning on making some of our own food too, but I know there will be times I will just want to open a jar, just like there are times I want to open a bag/box/whatever for our food, too.

[goldengbridge]

My original goal for BF exclusively is 6 months too. Now, we're at 4 months and I can't imagine just stopping at 6 months. I know she'll nurse less when she's on the solids so I'm hoping to keep BFing until she is a year old. If I can get her to a year and just give her BF and no formula I'd be happy. Nothing against anyone who uses formula, its just my feeling. Heck, shes had a couple of bottles of formula in the past. Part of my determination comes from being really determined to BF myfirst son and then not being able to due to his medical conditons. I pumped exlusively for 6 months and then gave up cause my supply was really bad. I promised myself that with the next baby I would make it work come hell or high water. I'm proud to say we've made it 4 months. It was no easy but so worth it!

[MrsKinnison]

Shimmer ~ looks like you're in trouble!!!

Mia ~ too cute!!

BF'ing ~ Originally I had said 6 months, but now atleast a year. I'd like Ollie to wean from BM to cows milk, so after a year sometime when he is ready.

We took Ollie to hang out on the water and out on the boat for the first time today...

He looks too cute in his hat and swimsuit (both are UPF 50)
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1105/616110207_a1e4807e4a.jpg?v=0

And in his lifejacket with Dad ~ it is specifically designed for Infants 9-25lbs. The only one I could find.
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1145/616110257_434fa2bd05.jpg?v=0

Too cold Daddy!!!
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1070/616110289_31136b3ab1.jpg?v=0

Out on the boat. He loved it while he was awake, the motion made for some nice napping :D
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1158/616110321_c624c99567.jpg?v=0

Changed back into our clothes after a great day
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1302/616865450_71c47d31a7.jpg?v=0

[whitlockan]

QOTD for BF 9 months is my end goal but 1 year I'd love. Right now, now that I am back at work, I feed in the mornings and pump right after and then pump while were apart and feed at night and pump as well. I pump after he feeds simply because I do not want to give myself the message that he does not need as much.....since I do pump all day long at work and he doesnt take nearly as much as I produce so its just a way to keep my supply up and going. For me its a huge inner issue of I want to know I am doing best for our son with what I've been given and my DH gives me tons of encouragement. The first month I felt so much pressure and he helped so much to get him feeding great etc, I really think without his "pressure" and encouragement there is no way I could have done it.

mia another trick, dry pump, yes I know it does not sound terribly fun but I increased my supply even more by doing that. Once you finish keep it going for a good 3-4 minutes after no more milk, eventually/ideally you should see an increase. Also add oatmeal to your diet if you can. I know it doesnt work for everyone but my body responds very well to it. I'm a slave to oatmeal, my pump and 5-6 peanut butter sandwhiches a day for good carbs and lots of protien. Its a HUGE balancing act and remember not everyone will respond the same way to a pump, ecsp if you have just been nursing most of the time, it may take a little longer to get the pumping thing going. I know it takes tons of time as well, I pump every 2 hours and after every feeding...I know I'm a crazy freak!! Every 4 hours in the middle of the night :). Good luck and I wish you the best........sorry for my rant, I'm certainly not an expert but hopefully you might find some of it informative/helpful.

[MrsKinnison]

A funny side note... I had to take the "miracle" out of my Victoria Secret Miracle Bra bathing suit top and the girls were still busting out!

[goldengbridge]

Mrs.K- I was going to say you're very brave for wearing a bikini after having a baby! I tip my hat to you that you can pull it off. I definately cannot!

[Kanga]

Mrs.K- I was going to say you're very brave for wearing a bikini after having a baby! I tip my hat to you that you can pull it off. I definately cannot!

Exactly what I was going to say. I bought a new suit this year so I could take the girls to the wading pool. It's a black tankini, how original:rolleyes: I feel like such a soccer mom in it:o

BFing goal - My minimum goal is until she is able to be weaned to solids and cow's milk rather than formula, so around a year. My ultimate goal is the WHO's recommendation of at least 2 years and and will possibly do CLW (child led weaning) and let her decide to wean when she's ready, whenever that may be. At this point, I don't see a reason why I won't make it and would need to wean to formula, but who knows.

[MarriedaGoalie]

Carter is 3 months old today! How time flies!

Here is a picture of him today (at 3 months):

http://images.photo.walgreens.com/34%3A59773%3A%7Ffp69%3Dot%3E2328%3D894%3D466%3DXRO QDF%3E232387433528%3Aot1lsi

Shimmer: Oh wow!! How our little ones have grown! Carter hasn't started scooting yet, nor has he rolled over... when should he be doing that? I am starting to worry that he hasn't rolled over on his own yet.

Mia: OH WOW!! I love that shirt!! My husband has this huge fascination with buses (in fact, we have one). Where did you get that? I have got to get one for Carter!

MrsK: You look fantastic!! We went out in the sun today, but I was too shy to take my tank top off. I don't think I am quite ready for that yet, but you look great! You give me hope! ;)

QOTD: I had wanted to breastfeed/pump until he was at least 3 months old, but once I started doing it, I wanted to make it longer (a year, preferrably). However, since going back to work and since Carter has been sleeping through the night, I have been unable to maintain my milk supply. I went back to work when C was 5 weeks old and from that time until about 3 weeks ago, I fed him breastmilk and supplemented with formula. Now I have stopped pumping at work and am only feeding him in the morning, before bed and if he wakes up in the middle of the night (which is not typical). I am really very disappointed in the situation, but I just couldn't produce enough to make it worth my time to pump during the day. I was distraught about it at first, but I am very happy with the situation now. I will continue to BF in the AM and PM until I dry up! :)

[littlemia]

Miaclear- How cute!

Shimmerstar- Yay for Noah!

Whit- Hope Z gets better soon!

MrsK- That lifejacket and suit are too funny! We took Claire to the beach about a month ago. I would have liked to have a suit to go out for a little bit in the afternoons.

MAG- Carter is very cute. Definitely don't worry about the not rolling over yet. I think the average is 3-4 months and he just turned 3 months.

Breastfeeding- Well breastfeeding has certainly not worked out at all how I had hoped. I have a goal of not giving her any formula but I don't know how realistic that is now.

Does anyone's house not have any carpet? Do you just put your child down on your area rugs? We only have one rug right now and it's under the coffee table so I've been putting her on our guest bed for tummy time but now that she's starting to get mobile that won't work any more. I've tried blankets on the floor but the floor just seems so hard.

[buffy]

Great pictures!

MrsK ~ my friend keeps trying to talk me into going to the pool but I'm too scared to try on my swimsuit! I guess I could try it...

MAG ~ I don't think doctors look for them to be rolling over until 4 months.

littlemia ~ we had all hardwoods in the house we were living in when my first DD was born. I put her down on the rug most of the time. She started crawling at 6 months and then it didn't matter anymore. :)

QOTD ~ I plan to breastfeed for at least a year and then we'll see how it goes after that. Neither of my DDs got into solids until at least 8 months, my first was actually 11 months before she'd eat much of anything. She wanted nothing to do with pureed food. :rolleyes: I BFed her until she was 15 months, and we only stopped because I went away for a few days and she never asked for it again after that so it seemed like a good time to stop. I BFed my second DD for 16 months and with her I stopped because I was pregnant and don't think I was producing anything anymore. She'd get mad and started biting so that was the end of that. :p It was nice to go from breast to sippy of milk anyway so that's how I want to do it this time too.

[lady1297]

QOTD: I've loved reading all your stories especially now that we 'know' each other so much better.

Our story is cute, I think! My mom had stopped over on hot hot day in mid June, just after I had come back from a long walk with our dog and DS1. I was sitting upstairs scratching a crazy raised 'rash'i. It was a raised set of bumps similar to ones that I had gotten the summer I was pregnant with E. I commented to my mom that it was really really weird that I was getting those rashes again and I slathered on the hydrocortisonz. Day after day, the rash continued, so after about a week (June 20th) I took a pregnancy test that came out VERY faint. I took 5 more in the next three days, even having my GF check it too before I told DH! I was only 3 weeks pregnant at that time, that's why the test was so faint. And the rash never returned!

QOTD: Breastfeeding: We plan on going until at least 2. I BF E until then and will J too. Although we have already started solids and I think I'm going to introduce formula because this weight thing is stressing me out way too much.

Does anyone's house not have any carpet? Do you just put your child down on your area rugs?

We had all hard wood and only area rugs in DS1's room and our office! We put the boys down for tummy time on blankets topped with either a gymini or a tummy time mat. The blanket gets progressively bigger until they crawl, though! LOL!:)

[miaclear]

MrsK....look at you rockin the bikini! Way to go!

MAG....my MIL brought it back from Singapore just recently. So I'm no help. It is super cute though and matched his swimsuit perfectly. Only thing was the head hole was pretty small and had no snaps or anything so I had to stretch it pretty far.

Swimsuit....I bought a new tankini for the summer that is if you ask me really cu