September2007 Babies: Halfway to one, gettin' our move on!

[September2007Mommies]

Welcome to the September 2007 Mommy group
Congratulations to all our Mommies!




26 Mommies & Babies:




User name: 2 crazy pugs
Me: Tracey, 35
DH: Mark, 32
Married: 6/30/06
Any other children: no
Its a: Girl, Sophia
ADD: 9/7/07
N/B stats: 8 pds, 8 oz. 20 in
2 week stats: 8 pds. 6 oz. 20 1/2 in

User name: Amuse Bouche
Me: Amuse Bouche
DH: K
Married: 3/1/03
Any other children: Just the dog
Its a: GIRL, Madeleine
ADD: 9/23/07
N/B stats: 8 lbs, 3 oz. 22 inches long
1 Month:

User name: Bluejeanbaby
Me:Sandi
DH:Norm
Married:Jan 4, 2003
Any other childrenS, Tyler July 16,2004
Its a: BOY! Brayden Charles
ADD:Aug 31, 2007
N/B stats:9 lbs 1 oz 21 in.
1 Month:10 lbs 21.5 in

User name: Boskie
Me: Cathy
DH: Brett
Married: 5/13/06
Any other children:
Its a: Girl - Olivia Grace
ADD: 9/15/07
N/B stats: 6 lbs, 10 oz, 18 inches
1 Month: 8 lbs, 15 oz and 20 1/2 inches long.

User name: Bucktown
Me: Jen, 36
DH: Tony, 40
Married: 3-15-03
Any other children: Niko 6/23/04
Its a: girl, Anna Carmella
ADD: 9/21/07
N/B Stats: 8lbs 4oz, 21 inches
1 Month stats: 10 lbs 13 oz, 22 1/4 inches

User name: DisneyGirl
Me: Jenn
DH: E
Married: 6/15/02
Any other children: DS & DD
Its a: BOY
ADD: 8/29/07
N/B stats: 8lbs 2 oz,
1 Month: 10lbs, 21 inches long
2 month: 11lbs, 4 oz, 22 inches

User name: Emilie
Me:Emilie
DH:Randy
Married:9/28/02
Any other children: Just a fur baby, Truman the golden retriever
Its a: Girl - Elizabeth Jane!
ADD: 9/7/07
N/B stats:7 lbs, 1 oz, 19 inches long
1 Month: 8 lbs, 2 oz, 21 inches long
2 month: 10lbs, 8oz, 23 inches long

User name: emschwar
Me: Emily
DH: Josh
Married: 12/7/02
Any other children: Noah, 4/21/04
Its a: Boy - Daniel Edward
ADD: 9/13/07
N/B stats: 6 lbs 13 oz, 20 inches
1 Month: 8 lbs 11.5 oz on 10/11

User name: filmgirl7
Me: Carrie
DH: Jeremy
Married: 1/7/06
Any other children: nope
Its a: Boy - Spencer Joseph
ADD: 8/30/07
N/B stats: 5 lbs, 6.6oz, 18 inches
1 Month: 7 lbs, 4oz, 19.25 inches
2 Months: 10 lbs, 8 oz, 21 inches

User name: Heidi
Me: Heidi, 28
DH: Jason, 34
Married: 8.23.03
Any other children: none
Its a: boy
ADD: 9.16.07
N/B Stats: 8 lbs 3.5 ounces, 20 inches
1 Month stats: we also have 2 wk and 2 month appts. - will post 2 month when we go

User name: hmbay
Me: heather
DH: jon
Married: 5/3/01
Any other children: DS#1, Colin 11/7/03, DS#2, Alex 9/15/05
Its a: Girl
ADD: 9/27/07
N/B stats: 7lb 10oz, 20.25 inches

User name: isign
Me: Julie, 27
DH: Brian, 26
Married: 12/12/03
Any other children: furbaby, Emma
Its a: Boy, Austin Phillip
ADD: 8/20/07
N/B stats: 6lbs, 8.oz 19.5"
2 week stats: 6lbs 10oz 21 1/2"

User name: Jen309
Me: Jen, 29
DH: Kevin, 29
Married: 9/28/02
Any other children:Matthew, 1/9/06
Its a: BOY, Nolan James
ADD: 9/15/07
N/B stats:

User name: Jess71903
Me: Jessica, 28
DH: Tony, 27
Married: 7/19/03
Any other children: just furbabies
Its a: BOY, Gage Anthony
ADD: 8/28/07
N/B stats: 7 lbs, 15 1/2 oz. 22 in.
2 Months: 14 lbs, 6 oz. 24 inches

User name: jjohm
Me: julie
DH:simon
Married: 10/4/03
Any other children: DS#1, Ryan 1/19/06
Its a: BOY
ADD: 9/18/07
N/B stats: 8lb 5oz, 21 inches
1 Month:

User name: jodylovesscotty
Me:Jody
DH: Scott
Married: 8/30/03
Any other children: None
Its a: Girl
ADD: 9/21/07 3:39 am
N/B stats: 8lb 5oz 21 1/4 inches
1 Month: n/a

User name: kate2l
Me: Kate
DH: Chris
Married: 11.12.05
Any other children: no
Its a: Girl - Nora Kathleen
ADD: 9.19.07 at 1:10 pm
N/B stats: 6 lbs. 13 oz.
1 Month: 9 lbs.

User name: mobe63
Me: Bethany
DH: Morgan
Married: 6/3/06
Any other children: no
Its a: Boy-Parker
ADD: 9/19/07
N/B stats: 7lbs 9 oz 20.5 in
2 week stats: 8 lbs 0.5 oz

User name: pam27
Me: Pam
DH: Ryan
Married: 07/27/01
Any other children: Taylor 1/10/02, Colin 5/4/05
Its a: Girl - Grace
ADD: 10/1/07
N/B stats: 7 lbs3 oz, 20 inches
1 Month:

User name: ptcrn
Me: Jen, 32
DH: Gerry, 31
Married: 7/30/05
Any other children: none
Its a: Boy, David Parker
ADD: 9/26/07
N/B stats: 7 lbs, 9 oz. 18 1/2 inches
2 week stats: 7 lbs, 10.8 oz.
1 month: 8 lbs, 12 oz. 21 1/2 inches

User name: Sabrespa
Me: Sabre
DH: Tony
Married: 4/7/2001
Any other children: Isabella & Anthony
Its a: Boy - Zachary William
ADD: 9/06/07
N/B stats: 9lb, 20 3/4"
2 Months: 13lb 7oz, 23 1/4"

User Name: scubasam
Me: Jen, 33 (34 on Halloween!)
DH: Todd, 35
Married: 11.03.01
Any other children: Carter, 2 yrs
Its a: Boy! Reece Christian
ADD: 9.10.07
N/B Stats: 7lbs 8oz, 18 3/4 in
2wk Stats: 8lbs 7oz, 20 in
2 Month stats:

User name: shushyk
Me: shoshanah 31
DH: steve 39
Married: 8/31/03
Any other children: DS 10/12/05
Its a: Girl, Cici
ADD: 9/14/07
N/B stats: 7 pounds and 19.5 inches

User name: Suzlywoozly
Me:Suzlywoozly
DH:
Married:6/15/02
Any other children:
Its a: BOY! Andrew William
ADD: 8/23/07
N/B stats:6lbs 19inches
1 Month: 9lbs 6oz 22inches (5 week stats)

User name: Taurus
Me: 29
DH: 32
Married: 4/12/03
Any other children: T, 1/06
It's a: Boy, N
ADD: 9/25/07
N/B Stats: 7 lbs 13 oz., 19.5 in.
1 month:

User name: TracyDP
Me:Tracy
DH: Doug
Married: 6/18/05
Any other children: None
Its a: Girl
ADD: 9/6/07 8:16pm
N/B stats: 5lb 11oz 18in
1 Month: Around 7lbs, no official weight/length yet.




First Tri: http://www.constantchatter.com/forum/showthread.php?t=28688
Sec Tri: http://www.constantchatter.com/forum/showthread.php?t=30845
thirdTri: http://www.constantchatter.com/forum/showthread.php?t=33225

[September2007Mommies]

Our Mommies & Babies

Boskie
Olivia Grace
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v255/Boskie/Olivia3.jpg

Emschwar
Daniel Edward
http://images.costcophotocenter.com/232323232%7Ffp%3A%3B%3Dot%3E2326%3D42%3C%3D528%3DX ROQDF%3E23239%3C7%3C69462ot1lsi

ptcrn
David Parker
http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7ce20b3127ccebca71e7b43a600000025108AZtGTVy4ZOB

[September2007Mommies]

SAVED

[September2007Mommies]

New thread is now open! Post away!:D:D

[Bucktown]

Thanks again Disney!~ Also, I just wanted to offer my help again if you'd like it!

[emschwar]

Thanks for the new thread, Disney! I'll close the old one.

[TracyDP]

Woo Hoo! :D Got in first, yay me. (though by the time I post this someone else will have snuck in)

How about we start this thread out with some updates on our DCs.

Solids: Ellie is loving almost everything I feed her, eating solids 3 or 4 times a day. She is eating enough that I have noticed her formula consumption is going down a little bit. We are starting on chunkier foods and so far no gagging or choking. So far so good.

Crawling: She's still working on it. Lots of scooting and rolling, some hopping and shuffling. Not pulling herself up on anything yet, and can't quite figure out the horizontal-to-sitting manuever yet.

Communicating: She is getting so much more responsive to sounds, songs, other things around her. It's fascinating to watch. She babbles all the time, still with the high pitched screaming when excited. Nothing resembling a word yet. She is really checking out the cat, who she didn't even notice before. She will sit in front of the sliding glass door in her high chair for 30 minutes at a time just watching the rain/birds/wind in the trees/cats wander by while she chews on one of her teething toys. It reminds me of "Rear Window"...lol.

Teeth: Nothing even close. She doesn't even act like she's teething anymore. The little "bohns noduals" she had on her gums are almost completely gone though.

Medical issues:I have an appointment with the opthamalogist Wednesday to find out if she needs to keep wearing the glasses. I hope not because keeping them on her is almost impossible now that she's on the floor all the time. She just pulls them down around her neck, or they get knocked crooked as she's rolling around on the floor. I don't notice the eye wander at all any more so I think she'll be ok with out them until she needs them for school. Since she's near-sighted she will be ok without them until then.

Random tidbit: I got a Baby Bjorn little potty and Ellie's been using it after almost every diaper change, and has pooped in it 4 or 5 times (she is really obvious about when she is getting ready to poop). It's saved several cloth diapers from being poopy so it's worth it to me! Hopefully it will help when she is ready to potty train that she is used to sitting on the potty already.

Updated picture

Ellie and Dad at the Waterfront Park (1st 70* day we've had)

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3133/2432947422_24b33a3733.jpg

Happy girl!

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2168/2432133687_2944407008.jpg

[emschwar]

I'll update.

Daniel's turned into a bear of late. Ped suspects teeth. Great. Because he's already KILLING me with the 2 little razors he's got on his bottom jaw now. Seriously, kid, my boob is not a teething ring. He started scratching at his ear like mad on saturday, so we dragged him into the ped today. No infection, just the biggest glob of wax you've ever seen. OMG, it was insane. Hopefully he'll stop scratching up his ears now.

Daniel eats everything. Seriously, the only thing we've tried that he didn't like was jarred turkey. He was fine w/ turkey and sweet potatoes mixed though. He LOVED food and eats quite a lot. If I let him, he'll go through 6 or 7 jars a day. I've started making his food. His favorite is mango.

Sleep is shit. He still wakes up 2x a night on a good night. Last night it was 6 times, hence our trip to the ped for the suspected ear infection today.

He's getting really close to sitting on his own. He can do it for a second or two if he holds himself up with his hands, but falls over before too long. I suspect it's hard to balance that giant noggin.

He's still a shrimp. He was weighed today w/ clothes and a slightly wet diaper and was 13 lbs 2 oz. So he's probably slightly under 13 lbs naked.

We're still battling constipation. It's been going on, off and on, for over a month now. Ped wants us to get more water and juice into him, and if that doesn't help, then we're on to miralax. Poor kid.

I think that's the major points. I'm exhausted, so I'm off to bed, but first I'll drop off this picture. It's my latest favorite of Daniel, and I just swoon every time I see it.
http://images.costcophotocenter.com/232323232%7Ffp43239%3Enu%3D3235%3E33%3B%3E437%3EWS NRCG%3D323335%3B3%3B3%3A95nu0mrj

[hmbay]

subscribing. Can someone change my stats up top--Alex's b-day is the 10th, Sabrina's is the 15th.

update--no teeth but she's definitely teething. so so on solids. I keep forgetting to feed her any so so far we've only had sweet potatoes and squash. Sleep is better but still crap (it's 11:30 pm and she's still up--as soon as I put her down she starts screaming). no crawling. She won't stay on her stomach long enough to try anything--she immediatley rolls over. Will sit for a long time as long as you keep handing her toys to keep her busy. Lots of big smiles for daddy. Longest stretch of sleep is 4-5 hours.

[jodylovesscotty]

Solids~ Zoë is on 2 meals a day and I am thinking she is ready to try 3 here soon as she is getting hungrier. She will eat anything in the stage one but her favorites are peas, pears, squash, and carrots. We tried a stage 2 mixed vegetable the other day and she ate all of it, so I am thinking it might be time to move on once the stash of stage one are gone. She hasn't had any of the meat meals yet. I am wondering do I do one at a time for a few days like I did when she first started veggies?

Crawling~ Not yet, but I can tell it will be soon. She can get up on all fours. She has figured out how to move around to get what she wants. We will have to babyproof the house soon.

Communicating~ She babbles and screeches. The only real sound that sounds like a word is "dadadada". We sign to her but she hasn't really done it back yet. She laughs all the time which is just so cute to see.

Teeth:~ None have come through yet, but we can feel one coming through and she has been a bear so hopefully it will break through quickly. I tried to get in there and look last night after she ate and I must of gaged her because she threw up on me, yuck.

Medical issues~ We are still dealing with the eczema though it has gotten much better. We have the whole body cleared up. The eyes are the only thing we keep dealing with. She makes them worse when she rubs them when she is tired or wants a change of scenery. She also grabs and scratches her ears when she gets upset.

I can't believe my little one is already 7 months old. She is such a joy in our lives. Only 36 more work days and I will be home for the summer with Zoë. We have so many fun things planned for the summer. I am hoping though that she starts getting on a better nap schedule as that is so irratic being at daycare.

[Jess71903]

What a sweet boy I have. I would love to update!

*Sleep-If you had asked yesterday I would have said horrible. He was getting up at least 2 times a night. That's not really so bad, but for months he was sleeping 10 to 12 hours at a time. Then last night he slept all night...teeth, I guess

*teeth- I can feel 3 but none are through yet. He's been working on a top one for several months now.

*he loves being outside. Yesterday I sat him on a blanket, gave him a stick and he played for an hour while I messed around in my flower beds.

*we found out that he does indeed have a latex allergy. Up to 70% of people with spina bifida do.

*development-Gage is really doing much better than I ever expected! I really thought we would be WAY behind all of you by now, but we're not! He is sitting unassisted for as long as I'll leave him now, even pretty well on uneven surfaces. I can put him down on all 4s and he will rock and stay there for a while, but no forward motion yet. He can turn around and scoot backwards on his belly. He is SUCH a social little boy! I really expected to go through that stranger anxiety thing, but we haven't. He will go to anybody. He definitely prefers me and wants me if he's sleepy or hungry, and he always has an eye on me if he's with someone else, but he just smiles and laughs at anybody.

He bangs everything he gets in his hand. We call him Bam-Bam. He LOVES his puppy dog and pulls and yanks on her. She is so patient with him. He likes to jump in the Johnny Jump-up, which is something I wasn't sure he would be able to do. I am going to cry typing all of this out. We have just been so blessed!

*food- a switched flipped and he went from hating everything to loving it all. He's eaten pureed pears, peaches, squash, avocado (oops- shouldn't have given him that due to the connection with latex allergy) and prunes. From our plates he's had refried beens, potatoes (the squishy part of french fries), sweet potato, green beans, tiny bits of chicken, and applesauce. Basically if I have something on my plate soft enough for him to handle, I let him try it.

And now some pics:
http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg233/Jess71903/IMG_1258.jpg

http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg233/Jess71903/IMG_1172.jpg

Yeah, I think he's cute nekid, so I take his pic a lot without clothes on!

[jodylovesscotty]

Jess~ He is such a cutie:) I am so happy that everything is going so well for him. I always keep him in my prayers. Children are truely a blessing.

[Taurus]

Thanks for starting a new thread.

N will be 7 months on Friday. I can't believe it.

He's really long and lean, which is funny since T was sooo different. All the 6 month pants are too big around the waist, but too short in the legs. Hand-me-downs are out since T really stretched out those waistbands!

Sitting/Crawling He is sitting up well but is only just beginning to push up on his arms when on his tummy as opposed to flailing around. I don't even think about crawling until I read about it here as T did not crawl for a long time!

Food He is getting two meals/day. I'm not sure how to tell if he's ready for 3, I think it will happen more when I can get more organized with our schedule! I'm home all day with both boys (no school for T yet) so our days are all about getting naps and meals in! So far I have made him sweet potatoes, winter squash, pears, peas and green beans. I am really looking forward to all the fruits that will come in season soon. I remember making the most delicious peach-plum-type blends for T! N also gets rice and oatmeal cereal.

Sleep I never thought I'd have a terrible sleeper, but I do. I'm mostly at peace with it since I'm not getting up to go to work outside the home and DH is actually getting up more than me (we are trying to wean from all the night nursing). I think I might go out and get The Sleepeasy Solution today. My ped recommends it. Has anyone read it?

Challenges We know that N is nearsighted so we'll see how long we can keep him out of glasses. Or perhaps we'll have a mini miracle and it will get better, unlike T, who has a pretty strong Rx. In the words of MY eye doctor though, medically speaking this is a total non-issue--their eyes are healthy, it's primarily a cosmetic thing.

For that and so much more, I am grateful and blessed. Looking forward to a busy spring and summer with my ever-engaging boys.

Here he is patiently allowing someone's rubber-stamped hands to stick vehicle stickers on his legs while Mommy runs around trying to get everyone out the door:

(Pic removed)

[hmbay]

speaking of pictures here's one I took last week (yes I'm committing a major no-no by having her bumbo chair up on my kitchen counter and yes she's playing with a toaster oven.... It's unplugged....) she can sit without the bumbo. I had just popped her in it to be by me when I was cooking since I couldn't find the tray to the high chair and she sits contentedly in it and doesn't try to squirm out so I figure I can get a little bit more use out of it yet before putting it up on craigslist.

http://media3.dropshots.com/photos/113947/20080417/161325.jpg

[Taurus]

Great pictures. Lots of blue-eyed babies in this thread! T's were blue until he was about 18 months old, and now they are hazel like mine.

Jess, my older son had those same rolls and thighs that you just want to take a bite of! He still has the thighs!

[TracyDP]

speaking of pictures here's one I took last week (yes I'm committing a major no-no by having her bumbo chair up on my kitchen counter and yes she's playing with a toaster oven.... It's unplugged....)

I saw a segment on the news the other day about nanny-cams and some lady who saw some things she didn't like. It was funny because as I watched this I thought "OMG if I watched myself on a nanny-cam I'd fire me!!" I do so many things that would look bad if seen by other people. I came into the living room from the kitchen the other day and Ellie was wrestling with the surge protecter that DH's laptop is plugged into :rolleyes: Had to tuck that away.

Great pictures. Lots of blue-eyed babies in this thread! T's were blue until he was about 18 months old, and now they are hazel like mine.

Both DH and I have blue eyes, and our families have mostly blue eyes. If DD came out with anything else DH would have had to have a long talk with me ;)

Jess, my older son had those same rolls and thighs that you just want to take a bite of! He still has the thighs!

Ellie has some serious thunder thighs. I need to find the onsie I saw online once that said "I make thunder thighs look good".

Jess Gage is adorable! I really can't wait until it's warm enough to go outside here. It's still in the 50s and raining a lot

[hmbay]

Tracy--both me and DH have blue eyes as well. All 3 of our kids have blue eyes. Mine are darker and more greenish than DH who has lighter blue ones. It's been interesting to see who gets whose eyes. :)

mommy crimes--yep in our house people would freak at some of the stuff my kids play with. :)

[Boskie]

Thanks for the new thread Disney!

Update on Olivia -

Sitting / Rolling Over / Crawling - She has been able to sit for a long time, probably because her head is so small (7th percentile). She can roll over, but since she prefers to sit rather than lie down, she doesn't roll often. She is working on starting to crawl, but won't get up on all fours yet. She will be up on her arms, but still flat on her tummy. She tries to go forward, but ends up scooting backward and getting frustrated. I figure she'll be army crawling soon. What she can do, and loves to do, is bounce to move herself around. Not the quickest way to do it, but it does work!

Talking - She babbles all the time. Dadadadadadada and babababababa are very common, plus a host of other things. She also likes to "sing" with you. Apples and Bananas and the ABCs are her favorite songs.

Food - She consistenly has 2 solids meals a day. Sometimes 3. She likes everything now, but did not like peaches and green beans the first couple of times she tried them.

Teething - Ugh, this has been a nightmare for us. She has two teeth on the bottom and is working on getting two on the top. She has had a tough time with getting the teeth, with the worst being the week she also had her 6 months shots. Bad timing. I'm hoping after the top two come in, which look like they could be at any time, we'll have a bit of a break.

Sleeping - She has regressed in this. She started sleeping really well, early on. Only getting up once a night from the time she was about 2 months old. For the last 3 weeks she has been getting up 2-3 times a night to eat. I started doing a twilight feeding at 10:00 pm on Saturday night and after 3 days of doing this, she is now back to only waking once per night. I'm hoping this continues - I am exhausted! I'm pretty sure the problem is she is so busy trying to move around and so busy watching everything around her during the day, she will only take enough from the bottle to barely satisfy her. Then, at night, when it is dark and there is nothing going on, she is hungry. That is why I started the twilight feeding.,

Here are two pictures taken last Friday. She hasn't really ridden the rocking horse, but she loves to sit on it!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v255/Boskie/OliviaRockingHorse.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v255/Boskie/OliviaRockingHorse2.jpg

[Taurus]

Both DH and I have blue eyes, and our families have mostly blue eyes. If DD came out with anything else DH would have had to have a long talk with me ;)


Neither of us has blue eyes and none of our four parents do either, so with babies with such blue eyes, we have (jokingly, of course) had that talk! :)

[2 Crazy Pugs]

TracyDP- I saw the baby bjorn little potty at BRU and wondered about trying it- how did you start with Ellie with it? Any suggestions?

[Bucktown]

Ok, I'll have to come back later but this has me busting a gut!

yes I'm committing a major no-no by having her bumbo chair up on my kitchen counter and yes she's playing with a toaster oven.... It's unplugged....

Freakin' hilarious Hmbay! You rebel you!

[Jess71903]

Jess~ He is such a cutie:) I am so happy that everything is going so well for him. I always keep him in my prayers. Children are truely a blessing.
Thank you so much Jody! How sweet of you!

Jess, my older son had those same rolls and thighs that you just want to take a bite of! He still has the thighs!

I love me some fat baby rolls!



Jess Gage is adorable! I really can't wait until it's warm enough to go outside here. It's still in the 50s and raining a lot
Thank you!
We actually just went to the park with some friends today! I am loving spring! I hope it warms up for you soon!

mommy crimes--yep in our house people would freak at some of the stuff my kids play with. :)
Oh yeah- I've done many of the "nono's" My Bumbo has gone in the shower with me and sat up on the bench part. You do what you gotta do!

Sabrina is so cute! I am glad she's doing so well these days!

Boskie-Olivia is so cute! She's changed a lot since your avatar pic!

Taurus- what a patient little brother! That's a cute pic!

[Taurus]

Thanks, Jess.

Re: baby rolls...when I took my older son to visit family around 8 mos old, my cousin's 6 year old took one look at his arm rolls and said, "whoa, he has really big muscles!"

[Amuse Bouche]

Ooh, new thread! I'll update, too. Madeleine will be 7 months tomorrow!

Solids: I am a super loosey goosey solids feeder - we mostly just feed her bits of whatever we're eating (except eggs and nuts). She loves all forms of bread and will spend a long time gnawing on a bagel or a piece of baguette. Rice is also a big favorite, as is avocado. Most fruits she could take or leave - especially if they're pureed. She prefers small pieces. Also wants to feed herself all the time, and we bought her a sippy cup since she's a water fiend. Weirdo.

Crawling: Definitely scooting -- better on a slick surface (ie hardwood floors) than on the blanket on the floor. Starting to get onto all 4s.

Communicating: I swear she's starting to use a few signs - sleep and eat and milk being the ones I'm thinking of. When she's hungry, she says Mamamamama -- she also tends to adopt a consonant of the week and babbles in that for a few days. Last week it was all Dah! Dah! This week it's Vvvvavvvavvva and sometimes fffaffaffa.

Teeth: 2 teeth on the bottom, no more. Doesn't seem to be teething, but everything goes in her mouth.

Sleeping: I think she sometimes STTN -- we still cosleep, and she has dream feeds, but given that she's still a peanut I don't mind -- I barely wake up. She's also pretty good about being put down awake -- at bedtimes usually and sometimes at naptime. She doesn't have a consistent nap schedule.

Updated picture
This is actually a few weeks ago:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2271/2386878284_36bf1d2a5b.jpg?v=0

[Bucktown]

Oh I love all the updates! And the pictures are soooooo cute. Definitely out of the infant phase and looking more like toddlers. Yikes!

Here's our update:

movement~ None. Ok, she can turn herself a full 360 degrees but it's usually screaming while doing it. She won't roll over any way during the day but I know she can cause she saves it for bedtime. I think she may be using the bars with her feet to get her completely over though. I know she wants to move because she'll dive bomb from my arms to get something or use her hands while sitting to pull herself to something. She doesn't get far but it's pretty funny to watch. :p

Talking/communication - The kid never shuts up. She gabs all the time. Yesterday I heard mama but I'm sure it was a fluke. Sounded so nice though. Funny how with DS I could never tell what the boy wanted (he was speech delayed but didn't gab alot just screamed). With Anna she communicates very well. She does this thing with her legs when she wants something. She kicks them both out at the same time. This past weekend she was in her highchair waiting to be fed and she kicked so hard she kicked a full can of soda off the parent tray and onto the floor. She's pretty strong that one. Today she started to wrap her arms around my neck and squeeze, like a hug, then she kept giving me open mouth kisses. I was floored and weepy both at the same time. :)

Food - Oh my Gosh, she loves her some food. If she even sees the bowl or her spoon she starts kicking and yelling at me. Can't come fast enough. I started giving her biter biscuits while I'm trying to cook dinner to keep her occupied. She loves them till I take them away. Then she's pissed.

Teething - None. DS didn't get any till 10 months and she's showing no signs of it either. She's always got something in her mouth but she always has.

Sleeping - Dare I say FANTASTIC! Most nights down at 6:30p not up till 6:30am. Occassionally she will wake 2x's (10:30p & 4:30a) for a large bottle but it's usually because she refused a few bottles during the day. I don't mind at all. And before anyone shoots me for having a sleeping baby, don't worry. My just about 4 year old is still waking 1-3 times per night so he's really sticking it to me. Soooo not fun.

*******

Jess~ I was so happy to hear your update on Gage. He sounds like he's doing so well and is right up there with the rest of our kids. Give yourself and your husband a big pat on the back cause you're doing a great job!

Em~ Daniel must have a lightening quick metabolism to go thru all that food and still be a mini! I think you mentioned constipation? We are/were having some problems with that as well. Sunday I had to give her a glycerin supp to help her out. It worked but nothing great. Yesterday I bought Earth's Best Organic Whole Grain Multi-Grain Cereal from Target. I fed it to her this morning with apples and wouldn't you know, she blew out her diaper this evening. I haven't seen a blow out like that since the early days. :o Maybe worth a try before the meds?

Eyes~ No blue eyes here! Both DH & I both have dark brown. DS & DD both have brown, though Anna's eyes are alot darker than ours. I think she has more of the Sicilian genes in her because her skin tone is very olive and she's already tanning and we've only been outside this past week or so.

Roll n roll n roll n! This pic will come down fast since she's in the tub but I think we have you all beat on rolls! Her thighs are pretty impressive but check out the belly! Whoah baby!

****

Keep them coming ladies. I love reading about the babies!

[TracyDP]

Now THAT's a budha belly! So cute!

2 crazy pugs/little potty: I just randomly went into the EC thread and got curious about early potty training so I decided to get a potty seat. Ellie has a habit of peeing about 5 seconds after taking her diaper off so I would just leave the old diaper under her until she was done. After reading over the EC thread I got to thinking that she would do well with a potty seat since she is so predictable with her post-diaper change peeing. She is also hilariously obvious when she poops so I figured I could try that too. I've been using it for about a month now and its working pretty good. The first time I put her on it she peed like it was nothing. The next day I was changing her and she got that poop-grunt look and so I put her on the potty and sure enough, she pooped in it. She seems to like sitting on it and uses it about half the time I put her on it. She seems to be getting out of the habit of the post-diaper change pee, but I still catch about half of her poops and get her in there in time. I keep it next to the changing table on the floor with a waterproof changing pad under it in case of accidents.

[emschwar]

Em~ Daniel must have a lightening quick metabolism to go thru all that food and still be a mini! I think you mentioned constipation? We are/were having some problems with that as well. Sunday I had to give her a glycerin supp to help her out. It worked but nothing great. Yesterday I bought Earth's Best Organic Whole Grain Multi-Grain Cereal from Target. I fed it to her this morning with apples and wouldn't you know, she blew out her diaper this evening. I haven't seen a blow out like that since the early days. :o Maybe worth a try before the meds?

Thanks for the suggestion! I'll look into it. Unfortunately, Daniel is soy intolerant as well as dairy, and I don't think earth's best cereals are soy free. I know they don't say soy free on the front of the box, which most soy free cereals say.

[Bucktown]

em~ I just checked my box and it doesn't say No Soy anywhere but the ingredients do not indicate it.

Ingredients~

Organic whole oat flour, organic whole millet flour, organic brown rice flour, organic rice bran extract, Vitamin E, Alpha-amylase (enzyme), electrolytic iron. May contain trace amounts of wheat.

My Gerber box lists soy in the ingredients.


Now THAT's a budha belly!

Right?! I think this is why she's having a hard time rolling and getting on all fours. Lots of extra cushioning! ;)

[emschwar]

Bucktown - Thanks for checking! I'll have to pick up a box next time I'm at target.

[Jen309]

Solids: Doing ok here. Still trying to finish the box of EB rice cereal, then I'll start making my own, a la Super Baby Food. Fortunately, no probs with constipation here... my older son has enough of those for 4 babies, so it's only fair ;)

Crawling: Soooo close. He gets on all 4s and rocks and slides one knee up but then can't quite get the other one and flops forward on his belly. He can cross the room in seconds though by using his arms and sliding on his thighs. He gets around way too well outside too. Actually, he pulled up for the first time today and stood for a few seconds by himself yesterday. I'm blown away.

Communicating: Not too much here. He still says mamamma, but mostly when he wants something like fed or picked up. He also does it when DH has him and he can't see me. Cute, but I can't get anything done! We don't do signing at all... I'd never be sure if the movement was random or not.

Teeth: Bottom two are about to come in; the first one is just barely cutting today. I hope it improves the sleep. He naps pretty well and goes to bed between 7 and 8, but he gets up at dawn. No joke, I check the weather and the time given for sunrise is literally the minute on my clock when he wakes up. It's been consistant for 2 weeks now, and if you don't know, the sun comes up earlier every day. :mad: I'm a zombie.

Medical issues: His burn healed really well. It was a PITA to keep it bandaged up for 2 weeks, but now the bandages are off and it's just a little red looking where the burns were. I'd have been safer if I'd just let him play on the floor with the power strip or toaster oven :rolleyes:

Random tidbit: It's been Soooooo nice to get outside, although keeping the grass and various ground things out of his mouth has been a challenge. Since he's learned the mobility thing, he refuses to be held on a lap.

Sorry everybody, shout outs are going to have to wait... little pumpkin just woke up!

[Jess71903]

Jen-I'm glad he's healing well. As much as I love seeing him do new things, I think I can wait on the fully mobile gig. It's going to make my job a lot more difficult!

Bucktown-Thanks for the back pat! I think we all need that sometimes! I am so proud of my baby boy!

Taurus- one of our friends kids said the same thing about Gage's "muscles". Too funny! He has edible thigh and arm rolls! I love it!

Gage got up 3 times last night after sleeping 10 hours the night before. What's up with that? He only nursed once. He snuggled and went back to sleep at 11:30 (I gotta say, I love to snuggle!). Ate at 2:30, then I think the thunder storm woke him up at 5. I just held him for a minute and put him down in the PnP by our bed that time.

[hmbay]

sleep--no idea what is up with Sabrina. I think it's a combo of teething and separation anxiety. She hasn't been eating for DH lately so pigging out when I get home. I dragged a twin mattress from the daybed in our guest room into her room and it seems the nights I just snuggle in there she sleeps better. Perhaps she can sense I'm in the room (separation anxiety?). too bad the bed is too soft for my taste but at least it's sleep even if my back kills in the morning. the last two nights she's gone down around 9pm, been back up around 1 then again at 2 then down until 8 or 9 (but I get up for work at 6:30). I need to find a way to move her bedtime earlier so perhaps we can get that one waking about the time I'm heading for bed and I can get a stretch of uninterruped sleep--however DS1 and DS2 need to cooperate for that to happen and well I'm not holding my breath.

[Jen309]

So, not really baby related but I'm so excited right now! My DH just got offered a new job and he's going to take it, which means that we're moving back to my home state of Michigan!! It's going to be crazy trying to move with 2 LOs a dog and a cat and oh, yeah, us... but :D:D:D

[Taurus]

That's great news Jen!

? Is anyone else's LO doing the high-pitched screeching thing? I know DS1 did this for a quick phase (as if he had just discovered he could make this sound) but I don't remember when he did it. I'm trying to figure out if this is just "that phase" or if it is something else!

[emschwar]

Congrats, Jen! That's great!

That's great news Jen!

? Is anyone else's LO doing the high-pitched screeching thing? I know DS1 did this for a quick phase (as if he had just discovered he could make this sound) but I don't remember when he did it. I'm trying to figure out if this is just "that phase" or if it is something else!

Daniel LOVES to screech!

Last night was amazing! Daniel didn't STTN, but close! He woke up at 9 pm, but I wasn't home and he wouldn't take a bottle from Josh and then he went back to sleep and didn't wake again until 7:30 this morning! Wow! I feel so rested.

[TracyDP]

? Is anyone else's LO doing the high-pitched screeching thing? I know DS1 did this for a quick phase (as if he had just discovered he could make this sound) but I don't remember when he did it. I'm trying to figure out if this is just "that phase" or if it is something else!

It's "that phase". Sometimes when I am holding DD she will kick and let out a high pitched squeal that will make my ears ring. She does it all the time when she's in her jumper.

Friday she started going "Mumumumumumum". Her first actual sound besides aaaaahhhhhh of varying pitches and squealing.



Daniel LOVES to screech!

Last night was amazing! Daniel didn't STTN, but close! He woke up at 9 pm, but I wasn't home and he wouldn't take a bottle from Josh and then he went back to sleep and didn't wake again until 7:30 this morning! Wow! I feel so rested.

Congrats Emschwar! I hate to tell you this, but I think you can call 10 hours straight STTN! Great feeling when you finally get the full night sleep! You get too used to it and then when they DO wake up you end up stumbling and groggy when you go soothe them. When DD was waking up regularly I just expected it and it was weirdly much easier. Now its actually harder for me to go back to sleep after getting up with her since it only happens 2-3 times a week.

[Jen309]

Oh, yes. LOTS of screeching. Yet another vast difference between #1 and #2. :p

[jjohm]

we have a screecher here, too. he has just recently started saying "bbuuu". unfortunately, no "m" sounds yet. it's great to watch DS1 and DS2 just scream at each other. once DS1 gets started, Alex laughs so much.

Alex went to his first baseball game today! (It was DS1's first time too) and they LOVED being there. On top of that, the Nats won! if any of you live near DC or come visit here, i highly recommend checking out a Nationals game. it's really family friendly.

eta:
Emschwar - congrats on STTN!

[emschwar]

jjohm - I didn't realize you lived near DC too. We haven't made it to a Nats game yet, but we want to!

[hmbay]

yes she screeches but not as bad as DS2. We have lots of sounds. I actually think she might be trying to talk. On more than on occassion we have dadadadadada when she's looking for daddy/playing with daddy and mamamamamamama when she's looking for mommy. Of course at this age it's all probably just coincidence.

[emschwar]

Argh! I just have to complain for a minute.

Last week, Daniel was fantastic. All his naps were over an hour, and saturday, he had a 3 hour nap in the morning and a 2 hour nap in the afternoon. It was amazing! He was so well rested and happy!

Yesterday, and so far today, he's back to the 30 minute crap naps. Come on, kid! You were doing so well! :(

[TracyDP]

Argh! I just have to complain for a minute.

Last week, Daniel was fantastic. All his naps were over an hour, and saturday, he had a 3 hour nap in the morning and a 2 hour nap in the afternoon. It was amazing! He was so well rested and happy!

Yesterday, and so far today, he's back to the 30 minute crap naps. Come on, kid! You were doing so well! :(

I don't know if this would have anything to do with it, but I'll throw it out there. I left DD at grandmas a couple weeks ago w/ her pack-n-play for the day. Grandma put the PNP in the spare bedroom for her naps but said she didn't nap very well that day, only about 45 min each. She was a crabby mess when I picked her up so I could tell she hadn't napped well. Last Saturday I did the same, left her at Grandmas with the PNP but this time I had grandma cover the windows with blankets so it was dark in the room. It had occurred to me that DD's room at home has dark denim curtains that keep her room dark all the time. I think the light was waking her up or keeping her from getting deep into sleep.

Funny thing is she naps fine in the car (very bright) and has fallen asleep in her stroller more than once, but I think if she is in her jammies in a house for official naptime she is used to the dark room. If Daniels room is really bright in the daytime, maybe try covering the windows or getting the black-out backing for the curtains?

Just throwing that out there. DD's afternoon naps can be really hit and miss, but luckily her morning naps are pretty predictable and almost always 2+ hours. I call her morning nap my "sweet spot" :)

babbling: Now that DD has Mumumumumum down pat, I can see her trying to make other sounds. She watches me VERY intently when I speak directly to her or make sounds for her, and I see her move her mouth like she is trying to mimic me. Yesterday and today I've seen her trying to make the puckered lips kissy noise...but instead of sucking air in to make the noise like we do, she is still blowing out (yummy, more spit!) She is also leaning in and putting her (very wet...) mouth on my face like to do to her.

Potty: I could be completely imagining things, but I think DD has started to figure out what the potty chair is for. 3 times now I have put her on it in the late afternoon after her diaper change like I always do and she has pooped! She does it with no indication at all before I take her diaper off that she is needing to poop (usually she has been really obvious about it). It's like she sits down and is like "Oh, good time to poop!" All of the previous times she pooped in the potty it was because I saw her making the signs so I scooped her up and took her in specifically for that purpose. Lately it's been much more deliberate on her part. Fine with me since I started using the cloth diapers and don't want to deal with poopy ones! I'm really hoping that in a year or so when I start with real potty training she will already be so used to the potty seat that it won't be much of an issue to make the transition.

[Bucktown]

em~ I'm going to complain with you then. Of course right after I posted about Anna's beautiful sleeping thru the night she caught a cold and is waking all the time. I know it's the cold but it's killing me. Even a few days before the cold started she was beginning to wake at 5am for the day! Argh! Last night she was up at 4am for the day. I refused to get her so she stayed in the crib whining and when I couldn't take it anymore I went downstairs and slept on the couch.

I'd rather have her never STTN instead of me getting used to it for 3 weeks then making me pay for it.

Colds~ I'm waiting for the ped to call me back about giving her benedryl for the runny nose. My first practice encouraged the Benedryl to dry them up and avoid ear infections. I don't know what this one will say though I'm pretty sure it's 'We don't recc for kids under 2'.

Jen~ congrats on moving back home! I'm so jealous ;)

Sounds~ I got another 'mama' when she was sitting with DH & upset/looking for me then made eye contact. It was awesome.

***ETA*** Ped said Banny was ok, but only for 2 nights to avoid overdrying. Excellent! We've been giving DS benny at every cold he gets so mucousy.

[TracyDP]

em~

***ETA*** Ped said Banny was ok, but only for 2 nights to avoid overdrying. Excellent! We've been giving DS benny at every cold he gets so mucousy.

I don't know how your DC handles the nose drops, but I found that Ellie didn't even really notice when I used them during her cold. I'd put about 2 drops in each nostril when I changed her diaper and she would make a face, but not cry or anything. I'd see her swallow so I knew it was running through ok. It really helped keep her from getting too stuffy. They also sell nose drops with a small amount of decongestant in it (the Little Remedies brand I think). I used that for two nights and it did wonders. I was still too paranoid to use the actual benedryl on her.

[Suzlywoozly]

Andrew has his first ear infection. :( He was waking up almost every 45 minutes for 5 nights before I finally couldn't take it anymore and I called the pediatrician. I didn't really think anything was wrong but I wanted to get him checked out. Sure enough he has two ear infections and of course his top gums are really swollen so the ped thinks he is going to sprout some new teeth. My poor little guy. I am going to take him back to the ped today because he is still really congested and is coughing now. He said to bring him back if he wasn't better by this past Saturday so I just want to make sure that he is okay. We are suppose to go to Disneyland this next weekend so I really don't want to risk taking a sick baby down there.

[Taurus]

I just had the longest stretch of sleep I've had since the day before DS was born! :)
x-posted from BFing support:

DS slept through the night last night!!! The SleepEasy Solution book worked wonders for us--it just happened to be the right fit for DS. In my heart, I truly believed that he was not hungry all those times at night and really wanted to sleep longer and needed our help to do so. The method was to wake him before he had a chance to wake and then to reduce the feedings in ounces or minutes until they were done, and it TRULY broke the cycle of him just waking up and not being able to go back to sleep unless we fed him. Also, we abide by a very strict nap and sleep routine now (we had gotten lax with it despite what we learned with #1) and we also quit replacing the paci and made sure he wasn't ever being put down fully asleep (I had gotten lax with that, too, since he was so fussy as a newborn I was just happy when he'd fall asleep on me). Within one week he stopped using the paci completely, learned to suck his thumb, learned how to fall asleep even if he rolled over onto his tummy, and dropped the 1 am and 3 am feedings. The total crying if I add up all the minutes over the course of a week was maybe 45 minutes, and I never had to deny a feeding when he wanted it. (ETA I did have to hold him off a bit/let him fuss in the early morning two times in order to help reinforce the wakeup time/routine that they talk about.) As soon as the feedings were phased out, he never woke up wanting one. Naps have followed their time suggestions and he's asleep within minutes each time (usually just "talking" not crying). They also have such realistic expectations for nap lengths that I don't feel as frustrated as with other books.

I still wake him for a dream feed before I go to bed, so last night he went to sleep at 6:50 pm, I woke him to feed him at 9:45, then he slept until 5:50 am, then put himself back to sleep within seconds and slept until 6:50 am! Maybe one day I'll drop the dream feed, but I do think he benefits from this one nice quiet meal without a toddler running around, etc.

It wouldn't work for everyone, but this is what ended up happening for us. It's been great for all of us!

[Boskie]

Taurus, that is great! I'm so glad you found a method that works for you.

[TracyDP]

Taurus congratulations! It's really great when you find a method that works for your child, especially when it can be done w/o a lot of crying. Once you get used to the STTN it gets twice as hard to get up with them when they DO wake up in the middle of the night...but it's a worthy trade off!

Mommy Matinee Ellie and I are going to attend our first Mommy Matinee at the movies today! It's Juno which I've been wanting to see for a long time.

We have brew pubs here called McMenamins that buy old historic buildings and make them into hotel/brew pub/theaters and they have the Mommy Matinees at 1pm for $3 each (babies free). The theater I'm going to is in the gym of a renovated elementary school that they made into a hotel/pub/theater. There are couches and fat chairs to sit in w/ tables around so you can have pizza and beer/wine/sodas while you watch the movie, or order anything from the restaurant and bring it in with you. I see a slice of pepperoni and a glass of wine in my future :D We'll see how Ellie does.

Separation anxiety: Starting to get a little of that going on. We were at the grocery store the other day and I was down the isle from her when a biker guy (big straggly grey beard and wild grey hair) came around the corner and said Hi to her. She immediately screwed up her face, stuck out her bottom lip and just WAILED as she frantically looked around for me. I walked over and she held out her arms for me to pick her up out of the cart. That's the first time she's done that (reached out to me). The poor guy who smiled at her felt so bad! Some thanks for trying to be nice...lol.

She also cries when I leave her with grandma or Susan but according to them she calms down after 10 minutes or so.

[Taurus]

Well, I'm pretty sure that nothing can be worse than the sleep deprivation DH and I experienced, especially after having an older one who slept through by 4 months and has woken up at night less than one time/month since then! We'll see how it goes though. :)

I loved going to Mommy Movies with DS1. I wish I had done it more often.

[TracyDP]

I realize this is like my 4th post on one page but I've got to vent.

I put DD down to bed at 7:30 (normally she goes to bed at 8:30) because she only had 2 very short naps (like 15-20 min each) this afternoon...my fault for getting sidetracked when we were out doing errands.

It's now 9:10 and she is still in her crib screaming her head off... I mean screaming like she very rarely does. I've gone in about 5 times, calmed her down, changed her diaper twice, given her 2 more oz formula. She is obviously just completely exhausted to the point that she can't sleep and is seriously PO'd because of it. Is this the situation that CIO was made for? She's not hungry, has a dry diaper, had a little gas earlier but burped and tooted about an hour ago, and I didn't feed her anything new today that would bother her. I've only let her go about 10 minutes without going in so far. Just now there are a few silences between screaming fits...hopefully she will run out of gas soon. I hate hearing her cry like this since I've never had to let it go this long without her falling asleep.

I guess now that she is aware of her surroundings more she has a harder time relaxing and going to sleep, but seriously I'm almost shaking sitting her typing this because I've NEVER had her scream like this. I know it's not anything like sickness or something because if I go in she calms right down, even smiles. How long do I go without going in there? I don't know how those of you that have difficult DC's do it night after night. You deserve medals, and I don't mean that lightly.

10:25pm update: She JUST fell asleep 5 minutes ago. I let her cry for 25 minutes. Well, crying is an understatement, she screamed for 25 minutes. Finally I couldn't do it, I went in and the poor thing was completely sweaty, red faced and had screamed so hard she'd spit up...a LOT. It was in her hair, on her face, on her sleeper/sheet. I picked her up and calmed her down, then when I went to change her diaper/sleeper I could tell she had a little fire butt (really red in that area). Not sure what caused it, but I decided to just give her a quick bath to cool her down, clean her up and calm her down. It worked. She was much better after the bath so I gave her to DH to watch while I went for a soak in the hot tub to regain my sanity. I got out there and burst out crying then said a prayer to God to calm her mind and body so she could fall asleep, and to calm MY mind and body so I could deal with her if she didn't. I came back in about 15 minutes later to find DH walking DD around singing to her, sound asleep on his shoulder. I started crying again. I took her and rocked her in the chair for another 15 minutes just to snuggle and make sure she was OUT. I put her down and she didn't even twitch. So, 3 hours to get her to sleep tonight. That's by far a record for us. Apparently she is not a CIO baby.

Mental note...no more crazy busy days. We are going to chill at home tomorrow.

[hmbay]

Tracy--I won't be able to do CIO with Sabrina. DH does it during the day and she can scream for HOURS. I've determined with her either 1) she usually has a stomach issue or 2) she's just more stubborn than I am. ;)

I do need to think about some sort of sleep training though because she's starting to be up every 2-3 hours at night (reverse cycling). One of the wakings is always a wet diaper and the others are feedings. I am going to try an overnight diaper to eliminate one of the wakings (I hope) and then was going to take a week off of work and try sleep training but then was reading a lot of things about how hard it is to sleep train a BF infant because they have all the comfort associations with nursing (My first was bottle fed EBM and slept like a dream from 4 months on--my 2nd was BF for 12 months is 2.5 AND STILL gets up 1 time a night several times a week). I can't handle two of them sleeping crappy. I need to do something even if it involves going to feeding her eBM and pumping for the next 4 months.

On a happy note I am 99% positive she is using 2 words in context--mama and dada. She says dada when she seems him. She calls mama the second I leave her sight and will escalate to screaming mama if I don't come back. In the morning when she knows I"m usually at work when she wakes up in her room she starts babbling dadadadadada for him to come get her. I also think ni-nite is possibily being used in context but not positive. Neither of the boys said mama until much later so I'm thrilled perhaps one of my kids said mama before dada. :) No crawling yet but if you prop her up on all 4's she will hold herself like that for a bit.

[TracyDP]

Just a quick update about Ellie's glasses. I went to the opthamologist and he checked her out and was like "you know, there are some things that follow a pattern and you can say, yeah...I see where this is going or why this is happening. Sometimes things happen that are random and I can't explain. This is one of those things". It seems that her eyesight is ALMOST NORMAL NOW!! Her super nearsighted eye is almost perfect sight, and her farsighted eye is very mild. I asked "so, this means she is ok for now but will need glasses when she starts school?" He was like "No, I mean she may not need glasses until she's in college, or later". :eek: Crazy. But I'm not arguing. He said he thinks it must be that since he rarely sees such young babies that this happens more often than they think where the eyes make BIG adjustments as infants. Without the wondering eye no one would have ever known she had eyesight issues at all.

So, no more cute pink glasses...I'm surprizingly disappointed. I may have gotten slightly irritated at all the comments, but secretly I liked having the "special" cute baby! :rolleyes:

Sleep: Geeze, what's up with great sleepers suddenly going to crap? Ellie went down last night without so much as a twitch at 7:30 after sleeping 50% of her day (3 hr AM nap, 2.5hr PM nap)! I know that was because of her really crappy night the night before, but I'll take it. Today was a good day, DD slept until 8:30am (little later than normal), took a 2 hour nap in the AM then we had a play date this afternoon, but I had her home and down for a nap by 3:30pm and she slept until 5pm. She was in a good mood all evening and started acting sleepy at 7:30 so I did bedtime routine. She was rubbing eyes and all during the bottle so I went and put her down awake (as usual). Crying, carrying on immediately ensued. Ugh. That was at 8:15 and now at 9:20 she has just fallen asleep. Instead of trying CIO which failed spectacularly night before last, I stayed in the room with her. I walked her around a bit and she stayed fussy until she burped...then tooted. She quieted down so I put her back in the crib. Crying and carrying on. I left her for about 5 min to go use the bathroom. Carrying on still so I went back in. I left her in the crib but sang to her for like 30 minutes straight, first touching her in the crib then next to the crib in the chair. She dozed off once then like a complete goober I knocked her sippy cup on the floor and it woke her up, so 5 more minutes of singing and she was finally out. Now I'm sitting her listening for her hoping she stays out. The only thing I can think of is that maybe I need to be putting her down at 7:30, but often she is not acting tired. Maybe that's the point? Get her to bed BEFORE she's acting tired? We'll try that one tomorrow night.

The thing I hate is that this is making me second guess our decision to take a 2 night vacation next weekend and leave her with my BF Christy. But, since I do know Ellie will eventually go to sleep when she gets tired enough (usually with singing) I guess they will be OK. She is used to Christy putting her to bed from being babysat by her every other Saturday, and Christy loves to sing and sings to her a lot. I need to stop worrying and just GO. I can tell by the fact that dealing with her being like this for 2 out of 3 nights is making my twitchy and stressed that I need a break.

My appologies to all of you with genuinely crappy sleepers for whining about this. You all can call me a whaaaaaambulance to bring me some cheese with my whine. ;)

[TracyDP]

Boy, talk about a thread killer! All the way to page 2...

Is anybody out there?:confused:

[2 Crazy Pugs]

I am here! Just been busy! We bought a house- its a short sale, so we are waiting for the sellers mortgage holder to approve the sale. Its making me a stress case. And we are trying to sell our condo at the same time.

As far as DD goes, she is great. Has another ear infection, took her to the doctor on Thursday, she had a 102.7 fever and was miserable. But once she was on the antibiotics, she was better, and is doing much better now. Hates taking the medicine, but we have to give it to her for the next 7 days. She is sleeping great, knock on wood, but she DOES NOT NAP! Its insane. If she does happen to fall asleep, its only for 30 minutes maybe once a day. She is growing fast, will be 8 months old on Wednesday. She is in 12 month clothes, she is very long. I just want the weather to get nice here so she can wear all the cute summer dresses I have for her.

Got the okay from the pediatrician to give her yogurt, which she now loves, especially the YoBaby blueberry one. The doc said she can eat pretty much anything we eat (except strawberries, nuts, the usual). She had a pancake last night, loved it, and she loves any kind of melon.

Still no teeth yet- but I can see bumps on her gum line and it almost looks like she may get more than 1 at a time-

[jodylovesscotty]

2 crazy pugs~ I was wondering about the yogurt and asked in another thread. My ped said it was okay to give at 7 months, but I am so afraid because she uses sensitive formula. Don't know whether the yogurt will effect her. Also, I put the medicine for DD's ear infection in her bottle and that worked much better.

Question about foods..... When do you plan on introducing meat meals? Right now Zoë has just started 3 meals a day. For some reason she is eating all the veggies, but is not eating the fruits. I don't know if it is because we are giving her too much cereal (Just upped that to 2 tbs. of cereal with 2 tbs. of milk).

Zoë is so close to crawling forward. She crawls backwards and rock on all fours. At daycare she goes in the padded toy area now to play so I am sure she will watch them all crawl and learn soon.

Her tooth is taking forever to come all the way in. It has been over 3 weeks since it broke the gums. She is liking to rubher tongue over it. Thank goodness the teeth haven't seemed to bother her.

[2 Crazy Pugs]

Jody- Sophia was on sensitive formula also, and the yogurt doesn't bother her. The doctor said that because the antibiotics might upset her stomach, the probiotics in the yogurt would help that, and that it helps with little girls, since they can get yeast infections. We tried the bottle thing- did you put it in with her formula, or by itself?

We have been giving Sophia meat- she has had turkey, chicken and beef (really small pieces of steak and hamburger)- she loved the turkey. She eats 3 meals a day plus she has 5 bottles. So her day is:

When she gets up she has a 6 oz bottle.
8:30 at daycare- jar of stage 2 fruit with oatmeal cereal.
9:00 or so- 6 oz bottle
Lunch at daycare- jar of stage 2 veggies, some puffs and water in a sippy cup
mid afternoon- 6 oz bottle
Dinner- jar of stage 2 food, yogurt and fruit, sometimes whatever we are having
Around 7:00 she gets 6 oz bottle
Bedtime around 8 or so, I give her a 4 oz bottle to get her to sleep.

This weekend, I wanted to try more "real" food, so she had pancakes, cantalope, honeydew melon, some potatoes, turkey and some cheese. I think she might just skip the stage 3 foods and go right to real food.

[jodylovesscotty]

2 crazy pugs ~ We mixed the medicine with the formula. Thanks for all the info. on eating. Wow, you DD is eating great! I am always so nervous on what to give her. She won't eat any puffs or cereal or anything that is not pureed though we give her some each night to try to get her to eat it.

[TracyDP]

2 crazy pugs~ I was wondering about the yogurt and asked in another thread. My ped said it was okay to give at 7 months, but I am so afraid because she uses sensitive formula. Don't know whether the yogurt will effect her.

My ped had me wean DD off of the sensative formula (the Similac orange can, lactose free) and onto the regular stuff so her system would regulate to processing lactose. I did it over the course of about a month and now she is on Similac Organic completely and has no problem with it. I am still nervous about yogurt though since I fed her 2 small balls of fresh mozzerella and that night she had a tough time falling asleep and had a little of the fire butt.

Question about foods..... When do you plan on introducing meat meals? Right now Zoë has just started 3 meals a day. For some reason she is eating all the veggies, but is not eating the fruits. I don't know if it is because we are giving her too much cereal (Just upped that to 2 tbs. of cereal with 2 tbs. of milk).

I'm not doing meat for a while yet. She is happy with the veggies and fruits and still gets a lot of formula. I think I will wait a few more months on meats. Ellie LOVES fruits and her absolute favorite is fruit puree mixed in with her cereal, mango especially. She flaps her arms and gets excited when I feed her mango.

2 crazy pugs I am always so nervous on what to give her. She won't eat any puffs or cereal or anything that is not pureed though we give her some each night to try to get her to eat it.

I started making my own purees of sweet potato, fruit, etc. and I leave them lumpier on purpose, as well as making little diced pieces of sweet potato. DD doesn't like crunchy or rough things (puffs, cereal) but will chew on a MumMum cracker and eat cut up soft foods. Maybe try chunks of soft foods first, then work up to cereal. MumMum crackers are great to get them used to a rougher feeling food.

[Boskie]

Tracy - That is great about Ellie's eyesight!

Meats - I just started Olivia on meats late last week. So far, she's had chicken and chicken and rice. I am using the stage 2 ones, because she is NOT ready for anything chunkier. I gave her a puff a week or so ago and she had no idea what to do with it. I also tried potato and all she did with it was stick her tongue out until I scrapped it off!

Olivia's Food Schedule:

2:00 - 6 oz bottle (yes, she is still getting up once per night)
6:30 - 4 oz bottle
8:00 - 2 tbs oatmeal with formula and 1 container of fruit
10:00 - 6 oz bottle
1:00 - 1 container of fruit, 1 of veggie
4:00 - 6 oz bottle
6:00 - 1/2 container of meat, 1 veggie
7:30 - 6 oz bottle

I was giving her a dream feed bottle at 10, but once she started in with the meat at dinner, she was taking, at most, 1 oz, so I've stopped that. I figure she'll be eating the entire container of meat in a week or two. Maybe THAT will get her to sleep all the way through the night!

[emschwar]

These meal schedules have me laughing a little. Why? Because little shrimpy Daniel will eat 6 jars of stage 2 baby food a day! I started making my own becuase he was costing us a fortune! He has very little schedule to speak of, because he can't pick a wake up time (this morning was 5:55, yesterday was after 7) and his nap length is horribly inconsistant. But, as far as solids go:
Breakfast - oatmeal mixed w/ prune juice
Lunch - a jar of veggies and a jar of fruit
Dinner - a jar of green veggies, a jar of orange veggies and a jar of fruit, plus a dose of probiotic mixed in his food.
He'd probably eat more if we let him. We do meat occasionally (mixed in stuff, or he doesn't like it - not that I blame him!) but not all that often. Meat baby food makes me gag, so we don't do much of it until finger foods (which we don't do until 10 months per our ped). He likes absolutely everything except prunes, but his favorites are mangos, papaya, spinach and sweet potatoes. Except the sweet potatoes I make. He only likes jarred sweet potatoes.

[hmbay]

ack I feel behind. Sabrina has eaten a whole 5 tablespoons of food so far.... I just forget to feed her solids but this weekend she was grabbing my spoon and got some pancake and some mashed potatoes. She liked them. She hasn't liked the baby food. I still need to do the rounds just to check for allergies. I did get some green beans in her this weekend and both times she spit up shortly after. I need to keep an eye on that. Anyone know what other things green beans are related to? I'm thinking peanuts but I'm not sure (which would make sense since I've kind of determined if I eat peanut butter it seems to bother her but I haven't totally determined that yet).

[Amuse Bouche]

Man, we're super disorganized. I just give Madeleine bits of whatever we're eating (except for nuts, eggs and shellfish), and if she likes it, I give her more bits. Last night guacamole was a big hit. Black beans were good, and she liked whipped cream. When I remember, I feed her a jar or so of baby food or some cereal. And she loves bread, so I give her bits of flatbread to munch on, and sometimes cheerios. She really likes to feed herself (will grab for the spoon if you're feeding baby food) so purees get messy and I'm more likely to gravitate towards finger foods.

I have a couple of questions, though, about food. 1) Is spicy food intrinsically bad for babies? My grandmother is super worried about spiciness, but it doesn't seem to upset her stomach and I figure if she didn't like it she wouldn't eat it.

2) How is your baby's poop responding to the food? M's had pretty solid poops the last few days, and although she seems to be in no discomfort and she's not having an issue with frequency, should I worry? Is this normal or is she constipated?

[TracyDP]

rough feeding schedule for Ellie

(wake up): 6oz bottle
(breakfast): 2oz cereal w/ 1/2 jar or 2tbs fruit puree mixed in (mango...HUGE hit)
(before nap): 4oz bottle
(after nap lunch): 2oz veggie, 1oz fruit
(afternoon snack): MumMum cracker or a frozen chunk of fruit in the safe feeder & 6oz bottle
(dinner): Veggie/fruit again, some finger food to play with (diced sweet potato usually)
(before bed): 6oz bottle


How is your baby's poop responding to the food? M's had pretty solid poops the last few days, and although she seems to be in no discomfort and she's not having an issue with frequency, should I worry? Is this normal or is she constipated?

This sounds totally normal to me. Ellie's poops have been pretty solid for a couple months now, once a day w/ no discomfort. Only a few times she cried while pooping and that was when we started on regular formula from Sensative and it gave her "fire butt" for a little while. I give water with her sippy cup with each meal & randomly through out the day, it helps keep her regular. I also give a drink from the sippy if she wakes up in the night. Once or twice she skipped a day and I gave her some apple juice mixed with her water for a day and it helped, but still she didn't seem uncomfortable when she finally did poo.

Hmbay: Ellie had problems with green beans too, lots of gas and fussy that night. She also didn't do well with carrots, but I have not tried those in almost 2 months so I might try them again soon...but only a little bit at a time.

[Boskie]

Olivia's poops have been much more solid, especially since starting the meats. I usually make sure she has prunes 2/3 times a week and so far, she hasn't had any problems. I do need to remember to give her some water with her solids meals.

[Jess71903]

Tracy- That's awesome about Ellie's eyesight! I hope it's fixed forever!

Food- Gage has taken off. We SO don't have a schedule. I feed him food when I think about it or when we have something he can have. I usually give him a mid-day meal- somewhere between 12 and 3 and then sometimes "supper". I guess I should get more organized about it, but his sleep schedule is so off that no 2 days are alike for us. Pretty much anything non-dairy is fair game for us. He got nothing until 6 months, he rejected almost everything then. We tried a few things one at a time. Then he decided that he liked to eat, so I have let him try several things.
He has had: pureed peas, green beans, sweet potatoes, squash, pears (we think he may be allergic- related to latex), avocado (oops, also related to latex, but he didn't have a reaction), prunes, peaches. He LOVES refried and baked beans and will eat as much as you can give him. He has had spaghetti that I tore into little pieces and put on his tray. I really didn't think he'd do anything with it but he did. It was funny to watch him try to get to a piece stuck to the back of his hand. I gave him a little bit of sauce with deer meat in it. He's had little pieces of chicken, although he pocketed them, baked potato and sweet potato, and a graham cracker.

I am going to have to look into the yogurt thing. That would be good for his digestive system since he take abx every day.

Poop- it's feast or famine with him. I think it may be related to his sb and not really having enough feeling to feel the urge to go, so he doesn't grunt and get it all out at once like most kids do. He just kind of goes a little all day, which is a nightmare for his butt...as Tracy said, "fire butt" is a good description. Then he'll go a week without going at all or needing a suppository. I have been pretty vigilant about giving him prunes several times a week and he really likes his Nuby soft spout sippy with water, so I try to offer that several times a day.

Gage is on the verge of crawling as well. My FIL calls him a crawfish because he gets up and scoots backwards. He has transitioned from sitting to hands and knees a few times without face planting.

I got him a little blow-up baby pool today and he really liked it. The water was COLD as I filled it with him sitting in it instead of letting the sun warm it, but he splashed and played anyway. He's such a ham!

http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg233/Jess71903/IMG_1380.jpg

[sabrespa]

I haven't really fed Zach any table food at all. He eats Stage 2 babyfood 3 times a day. He did have a banana in the babysafe feeder the other day and I've given him a nibble from my plate once or twice. Maybe I should step it up a notch.
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f393/sabre_01/IMG_1075-1.jpg

[Bucktown]

Oh my gosh, look at these cuties!

Jess, Gage is just as squishy as can be! He looks so freakin' happy in his pool!

sabre~ Zach kinda looks my son early on. Is that a stork kiss on his forhead? My DS has one too, though it's fading over time. :( I really loved that on his face.

Update on Anna~ Ack! We are so nowhere near eating anything but purees. I tried to feed her butternut squash orzo (tiny pastas) the other day and she just kept gagging till I picked it out of her mouth. Maybe I need to try other things as well cause she grabs at everything I'm eating, and she sure didn't mind gnawing on some pizza crust or tasting some chocolate buttercream frosting a few weeks back!

Poop~ Double ack! She is so constipated. Poor kid pushes & pushes and gets barely nothing out. Somedays I think she's going to have an anyeurism or wind up with hemmroids before she's 1! Talked to the ped yesterday and we are off of all cereals for now and giving a suppository 1x daily till Friday. We'll re-evaluate then. Bummer cause she LOVES her some cereals!

Whining~ Anyone elses baby whining? OMG, Anna whines all.day.long. She is even more clingy to mommy than ever (as if I thought that could be possible). She hates being in her car seat (can't see mommy). If I step more than 5 feet away from her, but still within her view, she starts crying. She wants to be carried all the time and her 22lb body is killing me. I pulled my neck muscle picking her up off the floor this morning.

teeth~ Anyone not have any teeth? We don't. Maybe that's why this week seems to be more whine. Jody, my DS' teeth came in super slow as well. I have no idea if it bothered him though cause he was always crying/screaming/not sleeping without teeth. :)

[Taurus]

I've been busy enjoying my sleeping baby! N is going to bed by 7 pm, sleeping for three hours, then I wake him for a dream feed and he goes another 5-8 hours straight after that. Life is good!

Tracy--Awesome development re: Ellie!

Love the pics of Gage and Zach!

[sabrespa]

Buck~ Yeah that's a little Stork Kiss between his eyes and he has one on the back of his neck too.

[Jess71903]

Buck- Gage has a stork bite (that's what we call them) on his head, on the back of his neck, and on his upper lip, but they are all fading.

Gage whines, too. He throws a fit if I leave his sight and wants to be held a lot too. It's not as bad when DH is home or if we are at a friend's house. I think he gets bored with just me. More people keep him more distracted.

No teeth here either. We have one white spot on top that comes and goes, but has yet to break through.

[Bucktown]

Stork kiss~ That's strange about the back of neck cause DS has that as well.

Jess~ I wish the whining/crying stopped when there are others around. She gets MORE upset when there are people around and can barely tolerate DH now. Totally sucks. My parents are coming to visit in less than 2 months and every time I talk to my dad he asks if Anna's getting better. Tonight I told him she's worse and he's like 'Worse? How could she get any worse'. I'm totally dumbfounded as well. We are suppose to be visiting them in Salt Lake in August for a few weeks and I don't see this being any better a trip than it was at Christmas time---she screamed the entire 2 weeks. I thought for sure at 11 months she'd be over this. Guess not. :(

Pictures from today:

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd127/Croceil9/IMG_3435_1.jpg?t=1210125949

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd127/Croceil9/IMG_3442_1.jpg?t=1210126035

This second one cracks me up. She was so happy sitting on the chair, feeling the warm sun & breeze on her that she didn't care that her (18mo sized) t-shirt rode up.

[TracyDP]

Adorable pictures everyone! I especially couldn't stop looking at Gage so happy in his little pool!

I think Ellie is working on a tooth...I really hope she is working on a tooth. She's been more high-maintenance for the last few days and has been chewing on her finger and drooling buckets. Her bottom gum feels like there is a bump on the right side and it looks a little swollen. Any ideas on how long it actually takes for the tooth to pop through once it gets to this point?

I also think there is some separation anxiety going on. If I put her down to sleep at night not tired enough or still awake, it ends with an hour or more of trying to get her to sleep (when previously she never had this problem). So, I've been making sure she is good and tired so she will fall asleep with her last bottle and I can just go put her down. If that happens, she stays asleep. It used to be (way back a whole week ago...) that she would finish her last bottle, then get fussy and WANT to go into her crib and put herself to sleep. My, how things change. I really really hope its a phase combined with the tooth and will pass soon. I don't want to get into the habit of putting her down asleep and have her lose the ability to put herself to sleep, but I also don't want to fight with her an hour+ every night to go to sleep. Maybe it's like riding a bike and she won't forget how once this phase passes.

Her favorite new thing is snorting. She wrinkles up her nose and laughs/snorts all the time. I think she got it from me doing it to tease her. It's so funny because when she gets a really good loud snort, it just makes her laugh harder.

[jodylovesscotty]

Tracy~ Zoë's tooth has been coming in for a month now and it still is not fully up. So I am guessing it could take a long time.

[Boskie]

Teeth - Olivia's top gum has been very swollen for a quite awhile, at least a month. The teeth are getting closer to breaking through, but still haven't. For her bottom teeth, I'd say from when the drooling really started and the gums were swollen, it was around 5-6 weeks before they broke through. For her, they would bother her for a few days and then they wouldn't for a week or more, it was really random. Like they were moving for a bit, then would stop, then would move again.

Stork Bite - Olivia also has one on the back of her neck.

Separation Anxiety - We're not having too much problem with this yet, maybe because she is so used to being taken care of by different people. M, TH and F she goes to daycare, Tues my MIL watches her and W my mom watches her, with my DH taking over in the mid-afternoon from each of them. We'll see if this continues!

Jess - I really want to get Olivia her own pool to sit in, since it is so warm here all summer.

I'm loving all the pictures! They are all so adorable!

[Jen309]

such cute pics everyone, I'll have to get some new ones uploaded... one of these days :o

Not much to report here. Things have been exceedingly good lately (knock on wood). Naps have been great and they're both STTN except 1 or 2 times in the last couple weeks. Nolan still wakes up between 6 and 6:30 though. Really wish I could change that, as Matt doesn't get up until 8-8:30, even with all the noise we make!

As for me though, I'm freaking tired. We've got 2 weeks to get the house ready to sell and 1 week of that is being taken up by DH finishing his masters degree and all of his end of year stuff (he's a teacher FT + PT masters classes) for work. So, it's been all me, taking care of the boys, dinner, cleaning, and packing/organizing for garage sale. I want a nap sooooo bad right now, but I have to clean the house now the boys are sleeping. We've got one of DH's coworkers coming by to look at the house. Ok, rant over :o

[2 Crazy Pugs]

Just got a deal! I found the Britax Roundabout car seat on Amazon for $186 with free shipping! Everywhere else I looked they were over $250 dollars! I am so happy to have saved some $ on it.

[TracyDP]

Teeth - Olivia's top gum has been very swollen for a quite awhile, at least a month. The teeth are getting closer to breaking through, but still haven't. For her bottom teeth, I'd say from when the drooling really started and the gums were swollen, it was around 5-6 weeks before they broke through. For her, they would bother her for a few days and then they wouldn't for a week or more, it was really random. Like they were moving for a bit, then would stop, then would move again.



Oh dear god, I hope she's not like this for 5-6 weeks!!! neither of us slept much last night. She would finally fall asleep, then 30-40 minutes later, wake up fussing...then I would hold her & settle her down, then she would hug her bear and go to sleep again. We did this until after 1am when she finally fell asleep for good, but I slept in her room to keep an eye on her and she shuffled a lot, waking up a little then putting herself back to sleep. She is still chewing her fingers, drooling a ton and being really pissy today. She wouldn't take a morning nap for DH, slept maybe 30 minutes. This is the first time in like 4 months she has not taken at least a 90 minute morning nap. I had a traffic court date this morning so DH watched her. I got home at 1pm and FINALLY got her down for a nap from 3-4pm. One hour, not great but better than nothing. It's been weird since last Wednesday when we had our 3 hour marathon getting her to sleep. She will sleep great one night, crappy the next..literally every other night.

Now I'm not sure if I want to take her to our Parent Tot swim night since she has had such bad napping today and been so cranky. I guess it can't make it much worse, and just might tucker her out enough that she goes to sleep. We did PT Swim on Monday and she went out like a light at 8:30 without a peep until morning. It's hard to have a good sleeper go to crap. I'm sooo stressed out listening for her to wake up I even get shaky and it makes it hard for me to get to sleep. I much preferred her predictable newborn 11pm, 2am, 5am schedule to this. At least I knew what to expect. I feel like I'm dealing with schitzophrenic baby right now. At least I'm pretty sure it's the teeth so I can at least console myself that there is a reason she's being so weird lately.

[Bucktown]

Tracy~ My experience with DS and teeth, once they broke thru the gums the irritability was gone. It was cutting thru that was bad. I kmow it's past tense now but I would have brought her to swim class. Change of scenery might do her some good!

*** just re-read some prior posts.... Yes, it can take a long time to break thru. Sorry hon! Just wait till those 1 yr molars start to come in. Holy Crap were they brutal for us!

[Jess71903]

Oh dear god, I hope she's not like this for 5-6 weeks!!!

Gage has had the beginnings of a tooth for 4 MONTHS now, no kidding! He'll fuss and sleep like crap and chew for a few days, then he's fine, but still no tooth.

I much preferred her predictable newborn 11pm, 2am, 5am schedule to this. At least I knew what to expect. I feel like I'm dealing with schitzophrenic baby right now. At least I'm pretty sure it's the teeth so I can at least console myself that there is a reason she's being so weird lately.

ME TOO! I think it's harder when you have a good sleeper for a little while (for us it was 2 or 3 months) then they quit for no good reason!

[Boskie]

Tracy - I hope she slept better for you last night!

Olivia has a cold and her sleep has been crap all week as well. Last night was a BIT better, she only got up 2 times, instead of 3, so maybe tonight she'll only get up once. I can hope anyway!

[TracyDP]

Thanks for all your commiseration with teething :) It helps to have "those that have gone before" to give a little perspective.

We actually did go to the Parent Tot swim class, I figured it wan't going to make it worse and might tucker her out enough to sleep OK. She loved it. We got home from class and I gave her a bath, and gave her last bottle. She fell asleep in my lap at about 8pm and went down without a fuss. She woke up at 12am and DH went in, quieted her down and she went back to sleep. I slept through it. She woke up again at 5am, DH changed her diaper but she wouldn't go back to sleep so I gave her a 4oz bottle (normally I wouldn't, but I realized I hadn't given her any solids the evening before so she was probably pretty hungry) and she went right back to sleep until 8:30.

That said, WE HAVE TEETH! Apperantly she doesn't get fussy until the teeth are right on the verge, so THANK GOD I don't have to put up with this for weeks on end! I was at Gymboree today at the mall and I looked at her from upside down over the top of the stroller, and she smiled really big and I saw two clearish teeth poking through her bottom gums. Looks like both came in at almost the same time. This might explain the extreme mood swings and sleeping patterns of the past week :eek: Not just one tooth but BOTH teeth at once. I was looking at her gums yesterday but mostly just from the front and they were red and white and sore looking, but the teeth could have been poking through and I just didn't notice from that angle. Today I can feel them though, rough little lines on her gums. She was in such a better mood today that I can tell she feels better. :) She went down at 7:40 tonight, it's 8:25 and so far she's still asleep. Hopefully with the teeth out she will be able to stay asleep and get back into her routine...until the next one...:rolleyes:

[Boskie]

Poor thing, getting two at the same time! So far, Olivia has just the two and they came in about a week apart.

[TracyDP]

Poor thing, getting two at the same time! So far, Olivia has just the two and they came in about a week apart.

Yeah, it couldn't have been comfortable to get them both but in the end I'm glad I only had to do it once for both teeth. Just getting it over with is nice. I would be willing to go through a week like that again if it meant getting both top teeth together too. We will see what happens.

[emschwar]

We're stuck in teething hell here. Daniel is working on both his top front teeth, and he's absolutely miserable. He's sleeping like crap, he's whiney all day long, so the rest of us are all pretty damn miserable too. Man, I can't wait until these teeth break through!!!

[hmbay]

we have teething and cold/ear infection hell here thanks to my stupid SIL's who can't keep their sick kids home from family b-day parties. I'm extremely PO'd about this because _I_ also got sick and ran a 102 temp the last two days while trying to take care of a sick 8 month old who only wanted mommy and refused to sleep. I wish my d*mn SIL's would keep their kids home if they are sick. I see them enough times in a month (we get together for every little darn thing in DH's family and there are 14 cousins so we get together several times a month) that honestly if you aren't healthy stay home or at least warn the rest of us so we can stay home if we want to.

anyway on the same rant I just got off the phone with my insurance--I got charged a double-copay on my last WBV. Seems since I asked about the patch of eczema behind her knee they "diagnosed" her to write out a prescription so I got charged for the "diagnoses" as well as the "WBV" to the tune of a double-copay. But if I'd brought her in for say an ear infection (like I did this week) and asked about the rash then I would have only paid one co-pay because it's a "diagnoses" copay. I've never heard something so ridiculous and meant to rip you off in my entire freaking life. Good lord I didn't take two time slots and I didn't make someone update her chart twice so why the h*ll do I have to pay a double-fee???

sorry for the rant here but I'm a bit crabby today (still not feeling well but had to go into work since I was out for two days).

[Bucktown]

Tracy~ Congrats on the teeth!

Em~ Sorry to hear Daniel is giving you so much trouble.

Hmbay~ (((hugs)))). Sounds really rough over at your house now. I hope it gets better soon.


E/I~ I have learned my lesson the hard way with this one and should there be a 3rd DC I will not make the same mistake. I put in a call to E/I to get Anna evaluated for physical therapy. :( I'm so sad about it, mad at myself, and some other things I can't verbalize yet. She is not rolling over on her own. She will roll from back to front in her crib only but I am pretty positive that she is using the crib bars to get herself over. She cannot get back onto her back from the tummy position.. She can't get on all fours either. Heck, she can barely get her chest off the ground.

I feel horrible for not doing TT more deligently with her but she would scream & scream & scream I just couldn't bare to listen to it. I also remember that DS was exactly the same way and he just started crawling on his own at 6 months. I know I shouldn't compare the 2 but I really didn't think much of it. Even now, knowing she HAS to be on her belly, I forget to do it! I am completely ripping her off developmentally. And on that note:

Happy Mother's Day! A day early but not sure if I'll be back on before then. :)

[Jess71903]

Don't beat yourself up, Bucktown. We moms do what we have to do to survive. You are getting her evaluated. You are doing the best thing for her right now. These kids do really well to catch up quickly when it's caught early like that. You will probably feel better about it when she gets into it, but I know it's hard now. It's different because we knew this was coming since he has been here, but Gage is getting evaluated for PT Tuesday. We can compare stories! I know those feelings of guilt well. PM me if you need somebody to talk to about it. ((HUGS))

[emschwar]

Bucktown - Daniel can't get on all fours either. He can't really roll from belly to back either. He used to be able to, but he's forgotten, and now he just (repeatedly) rolls to his tummy, gets pissed off, and puts his head down and cries until I rescue him. I've tried leaving him for a while to see if he'll figure it out if he's frustrated, but he doesn't. He just cries. I've been wondering if I should call EI about it, but I'm not all that worried yet. Noah was really delayed in his motor skills (he didn't walk until 19 months) and he's fine now.

[DisneyGirl]

I have not posted in the new thread yet..LOL Wooops! Hi-everyone! I have lots to catch up on.

K does not roll over at-all nor does he get up on all 4's. yet hes one of the oldest in our group. At what point should Ii be worried?? Any ideas?

Heather Thats such bullcrap that you are getting changed a double co-pay. Thats the weirdest thing i have ever heard. How much are your co-pays?

teeth K has 2

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!!!!

[sabrespa]

When we went to Zach's 4 month wbv he was behind on a lot of stuff and the ped wanted him to get evaluated, but I wanted to put it off until the next wbv. Sure enough he caught up and was even a bit ahead at his 6 month wbv.

That said, I say follow your instincts. When Anthony was a baby I KNEW something was wrong but the ped (a different ped then I have now) insisted that he was just spoiled. Now he has all sorts of issues that I could have started working on when he was a lot younger.

Happy Mother's Day!

[DisneyGirl]

I really have no idea if i should be worried or not. Part of me is a bit worried since both my kids by 8 monthes were crawling 100 miles per hr and her K is not rolling over or getting in the crawling position. With that the other part of me things ahh its no big deal...he can sit up on his own with no problem, he grabs things and put it in his mouth, he can put his pacifier in his mouth when he needs it, he has been holding his own bottle and able to put it in his mouth on his own since 5 months, he can follow objects, and responds to his name, laughes out loud all the time...so, with all the things he can do thats why part of me thinks there is nothing wrong with him...he goes to the drs soon for his 9 month visit.

[hmbay]

Sabrina isn't pushing up really or crawling. She did spin around today on her tummy and slide back about 2 inches. I figure she is further ahead on a lot of fine motor skills than the boys were at this point so I figure she's been focusing on that and not on the gross motor skills at this point. I'm not concerned yet but might get there in another month if she's not trying yet.

[Bucktown]

Wow, I didn't realize so many of our babies were not 'almost' there yet. It seemed like everytime I read here someone's babies is so close to crawling. I may just wait then till she turns 8 mos on the 21st. I'll talk to the service coordinator when she calls.

We have made some progress on tummy time though. Since I posted I've been more deligent on getting her on her belly. After naps is the best time and we are up to 15-20 minute intervals. She whines and complains the entire time but I just keep giving her new toys to try out. I've also been putting them up in the air forcing her to reach up rather than out. She's getting her chest off the ground!

Thanks to those who have posted about their babies in similar developmental stages. I can relax alittle now! ;)

[TracyDP]

I hope everyone had a happy mothers day! I sure did :D I got to spend the weekend NOT being Mom. DH and I left DD for her first overnighter since she was 3m old and went to the coast overnight Saturday. DD stayed with my BF who watches her every other Saturday and it went great. After leaving her Sat morning I didn't call until Sunday morning. I didn't want to know if things were not going well because it would just bum me out and keep me from really enjoying the time off. I trust BF completely and she had both mine and DH's phone numbers so I figured if it was too bad she'd call.

We went out to a fantastic dinner at a seafood cafe' then went to the casino and played blackjack with some of our government blood money. We were winging it w/o a reservation and ended up with a queen suite with a main room and separate bedroom both with queen beds. SO, one of the best parts of the weekend to me was that after some quality time together, I went into the extra bedroom, closed the dark curtains put in my earplugs and slept for 9 hours straight w/o interruption, snoring, bumping into each other or anything :D DH was able to stay up a while, watch TV use the computer and listen to the ocean while I slept, and he got up earlier than me and packed most of the stuff up and I just kept sleeping. It was the perfect mothers day present.

DD did great while we were gone, she slept 12 hours straight and aside from looking around occasionally and going mumumumumum she didn't seem to really notice I was gone.

Development: This is such a hard thing since every baby is SO different and there is a HUGE range of 'normal'. I think its even harder when you have previous children to compare them too. FWIW I hardly ever did tummy time with Ellie and always felt bad about it, but once she figured out how to go from her back to her tummy she did it all the time, but it did take her longer to figure out tummy to back. Still no "crawling" here, just the combat crawl/hop. She may never do traditional crawling, we'll just have to see. She is not pulling herself up on anything yet. Mumumum is our only actual "word" so far. I need to make her 9m appointment soon. Geeze, our babies are growing up so fast!!!

[Taurus]

drive-by post:
N is not crawling either and after my experience with PT and DS1, the only thing I am concerned with is that when on tummy he is is getting up on fully extended arms. and he is.

ETA: Sorry, sick toddler here so I only had a second to post. I've learned from the PT we saw that the important developmental aspects of crawling (which is an important step for them to take at some point) are pushing up on extended arms (strengthening the trunk muscles), bearing weight on hands and arms, etc. These are the building blocks/stepping stones to other things, so I am not concerned with when DS2 "crawls" so long as he is "getting there" by getting himself up off the ground.

[DisneyGirl]

Tracy Thats so awesome that you had a nice weekend alone with your DH. I am in the pricess of planning a 4 night trip with just my DH to Vegas. I really need sometime to just be a wife and let someone else have the kids..I have never done such a thing, but I really think I need it.

[jjohm]

alex is crawling and has been for a few weeks now. he also pulls up to a stand.
however, when i give him his cheerios or gerber puffs, he grabs them with his fist, then proceeds to suck on his whole hand. it's really cute to watch!
our diaper changes have turned to wrestling matches.

[hmbay]

Disney--you will be amazed how much you miss the kids. DH and I went to Banff a couple years ago (when we only had 2) since I won a free trip via my work and spent 5 days away from them (first time spending more than a night) and we missed them like crazy--they, however, never even wanted to talk to us when we called my parents to check on us. ;) Vegas sounds fun though--I need to get back there again--it's been years since I went. Oh and I think you asked before--my copays are $20.

[TracyDP]

alex is crawling and has been for a few weeks now. he also pulls up to a stand.

I just read an article in a parenting magazine, forget which one, that talked about late crawlers being earlier walkers and early crawlers tending to be later walkers. The reason seems to make sense, good crawlers get around fine and see no big hurry to start walking, but frustrated non-crawlers start walking since they are not getting around crawling. My cousin-in-law has a boy that just turned 1yr last week and he has been crawling like a champ since about 9m and cruising furniture, but just has NO interest in actually letting go and walking. When he gets to the end of the couch he just falls down and starts crawling. My cousin just figures eventually he'll get it. Of course as always YMMV.

however, when i give him his cheerios or gerber puffs, he grabs them with his fist, then proceeds to suck on his whole hand. it's really cute to watch!

DD LOVES puffs and cheerios! She also does the fist thing. She knows they go in her mouth but just can't quite figure out how to get them in there. She has gotten the hang of the chewing thing so I really need to get on the ball with finger foods. We are making stiry fry tonight so I am going to make her a little pile of cut up rice noodles and see what she thinks of them. Maybe do a few little chunks of chicken too. I also have some of the gerber chicken sticks I thought of bringing out. I bought them after my surgery for quick, easily digestible protein snacks for me (I'm weird and have liked the chicken sticks since I was a kid) but have 4 jars leftover.

our diaper changes have turned to wrestling matches.

Same here. It's like trying to put a diaper on a squid. I use an Elmos World cell phone to keep her occupied and it usually works pretty good.

Swimming: Has anyone taken DC out in the pool yet? We signed up for a Parent Tot swim "class" and DD LOVES IT!! She is really a little fishy, hardly notices when we dip her under water or pour water over her head during baths. She kicks her little legs like a duck, all calm on the surface but kicking furiously underneath. She particularly likes to flirt with this one little boy about 1yr old that is at the class. She laughes and flaps her arms as soon as she sees him, and he gets all shy and hides against his dad when he sees her. It's so cute! Probably not so cute when she's 13 and running after all the shy boys...:p

Tracy Thats so awesome that you had a nice weekend alone with your DH. I am in the pricess of planning a 4 night trip with just my DH to Vegas. I really need sometime to just be a wife and let someone else have the kids..I have never done such a thing, but I really think I need it.

You won't regret it. My biggest piece of advice is, don't call home! Check your messages and assume that if you don't hear from their caregiver that everything is okey dokey. We are talking to Grandma and BF and are hoping to arrange 1 weekend a month off either with BF watching her here so we can get out of town, or sending her to grandmas so we can enjoy the house alone. Go see the Beatles "Love" show if you can, it's FANTASTIC! Well worth the money. Even better if you and DH drink one of the 32oz strong mixed drinks they sell in the souvenier cup. Being able to walk back to your hotel is the best thing ever!

[Jess71903]

development- I agree- kids develop at different rates. It's worth asking your ped about it if you're concerned. Speaking of development- Gage goes for his PT eval tomorrow. I'm kind of excited! I think he'll think it's fun. That's why I went into pediatric therapy. It's basically all playing!

swimming- Gage went once a couple of months ago at an indoor hotel pool. He thought it was okay. I think he might have liked it better if there hadn't been loud, splashy kids there. We may be going with DH to another job thing OOT in the next couple of days, then we're going to FL with my cousin and family in a couple of weeks, so he'll have plenty of opportunity!

*Do any of your DC fake cough? Gage has been doing this for several days now. It's so put on. So funny. It may have started as a real cough, but he does it constantly now.

[Bucktown]

Wow Tracy! That was awesome! The only Mother's Day gift I got was a burger from my favorite food place (Portillo's Beef). I bet it would have been fantastic if DH wasn't trying to carry DS and all the other stuff. My hamburger presented itself to me all over the front walkway. Every single aspect of the burger touching the ground completely. I wish I got a picture of it.

Unfortunately, the nearest one is downtown and traffic has been a b!tch here so I decided to forgo a replacement burger :)


Ear Infection~ I just knew something was up this time with DD. She has an ear infection. Guess it got pretty bad but her only symptom was frequent nightwakings and those weren't even that bad. She was generally happy during the day, ate normally, kinda would touch her ear but not pull it. Naps went to crap but I figured it was a phase. Only 1 dose of antibiotics + tylenol and she's on her second nap, first was 1.45 hrs this one will probably be an hour.

[Amuse Bouche]

I signed Madeleine up for swimming lessons starting June 1. She LOVES water and other babies, so I figure it will be a blast for her. Me in a swimsuit - not so fun, but what can you do?

M has started army crawling, but she really wants to stand up, which results in a downward facing dog position all the time. She also does a cheesygrin every time she sees the camera. She totally poses and is SUCH a ham.

[TracyDP]

M has started army crawling, but she really wants to stand up, which results in a downward facing dog position all the time.

DD does this too! She does a perfect downward facing dog and plank (push up) position. Right now she is working on going from horizontal to sitting, but just can't quite figure out how to get from sitting sideways leaning over on one hand to sitting.

[DisneyGirl]

*Do any of your DC fake cough? Gage has been doing this for several days now. It's so put on. So funny. It may have started as a real cough, but he does it constantly now.

Oh yeah, K does this very often. He mostly does it when were are in the stores and he wants people to pay attention to him.

[TracyDP]

Someone in this group asked me a while back about the Baby Bjorn little potty and possibly wanting to start their DC using one. I completely forgot who it was...

Just an update on that...it's going great! DD has pooped in the potty 12 out of 14 days now :eek: Pretty crazy at 8m old, but I can't believe it is all coincidence when it happens that often. I just put her on it after each diaper change and if she pees or poops I clap and sing "yay for peeing/pooping on the potty!" She smiles really big and flaps her arms. She digs it, like it makes her feel like a big girl. I have noticed that the pooping is always either the diaper change before her morning nap, or the diaper change after it. This is roughly the same time she used to poop in her diaper so it might be coincidental, but I think she has to know that sitting on the potty means time to pee/poo otherwise I would think she would poop in her diaper more often. She also toots almost every time I put her on it. I think maybe the human body knows that squating position is meant for evacuation....

Anyway, I am hoping the end result of all this will be easy potty training once she is old enough to really be aware of needing to go. She will already be used to going in the potty so the only change will be using a potty seat on the real toilet. We are using cloth diapers at home too which will also help I think. The best thing is that it is SOOO easy! I only do it when I diaper change, or if I catch her making the poopy grunt and have time to scoop her up and take her in there. But even that has not happened in a long time, she just does it on the potty without any prior "warning".

[emschwar]

Tracy, that reminds me. If anyone has an ikea near them, they have a knock-off of the bjorn potty for $3.99!

[Taurus]

Em, is that what you would recommend for a 2 y/o? I am such a slacker and need to purchase a potty for DS1. No idea what to get.

[TracyDP]

FWIW My Baby Bjorn potty is really small and fits Ellie perfectly right now. I would think a 2 year old would definitely be squatting over it, knees up. I have no idea if that would be good or bad, but if I were starting later I would probably get the next step up and get something a little bigger.

[emschwar]

Yeah, the bjorn potty is tiny (and the ikea knock off). It's good for tiny kids, but I don't think I'd use it with a 2 year old. We just put one of those potty rings on the toilet when we trained Noah. Much less to clean that way.

[2 Crazy Pugs]

Tracy- it was me that asked you about the potty- I think I am going to get one for Sophia and try it out.

What is everyones little ones eating now? Any favorite foods yet? Sophia loves yogurt and cantalope, and cheerios. We went to the doc yesterday for a follow up for her ear infection she had, and the doc said that she recommends that we skip the stage 3 foods and have her eat what we eat, since she is doing so well with food.

I forgot to ask her about the milk thing though. Sophia eats the YoBaby yogurt which is made with whole milk, so can she have milk?

[Jen309]

fake cough Oh yes. #1 likes to do this too... one afternoon they went back and forth *talking* to one another (fake coughing) for like 10 minutes straight. It was sooooo cute, and I thought it was a little weird that I was left out of the 'conversation'.

milk I think some people start to wean to whole milk around 9 mos, but everything doctor oriented (AAP, for example) that I've read says to wait til one year. I think the major issue is too much milk will result in a lack of iron (not only from no longer being supplemented in the formula or from BM but a large large quantity of milk also inhibits iron absorbtion by the intestines). So, since I don't know what angle your question is shooting at specifically, I'd say that yes, she can probably tolerate milk strictly speaking, but I wouldn't offer it in place of formula or BM (I'm sure sips are fine).

[Taurus]

IIRC the milk protein in yogurt is different than in milk you drink (??) as well as what jen said....

[TracyDP]

I gave DD Similac Sensative until about 2 months ago when I slowly transitioned her to regular Similac Advance. She takes the regular formula just fine now with just a little bit of gas that doesn't seem to bother her (if I put a few Mylicon drops in each bottle). She just toots and goes on her way. I was wondering if anyone else had lactose issues early on but can now feed their DC yogurt. I got some Yo-Baby yogurt but have chickened out on giving it to her for fear of gastric issues later on. I tried the organic unsweetened Nancys yogurt mixed w/ fruit puree but she wasn't having it at ALL. So, I decided sugar or not I would try the Yo-Baby. I think the cultures in it would help with her digestion and poops which have become a bit hard lately.

Anyway, just looking for some affirmation before I jump in and feed it to her. Starting slowly of course.

[2 Crazy Pugs]

Tracy- Sophia was on Similac Sensitive also, but is now on Similac Advance with no issues at all. She loves the Yobaby blueberry yogurt, and doesn't seem to have any gastric issues at all. I have to watch that carefully, because I have Crohns disease, which is herediatary and there is a 50% or more chance she will get it eventually. So far so good (knock on wood). My pediatrician told me that the probiotics in the yogurt would help her stomach because she was on Augmentin for her ear infection which would upset her stomach.

[emschwar]

The milk protein in yogurt is *slightly* different from drinking milk. (Woah, I know too much about milk proteins!) "Liquid" (for lack of a better word to call drinking milk) milk protein is whole and totally unbroken down. As the milk gets made into other things (yogurt, cheese, baked goods) the proteins get broken down. If you were to list them from least broken down to most, it would probably go something like this:
milk
yogurt
soft cheeses
hard cheeses
baked/cooked milk
Which is why babies can handle yogurt before they can handle milk. Most kids are able to handle regular milk at 12 months, unless you have my kids, and then it's closer to 24 months.

Also, for those of you interested in probiotics from yogurt, you can buy baby probiotics at health food stores. We give them to Daniel daily. It's a powder you mix with formula, water, juice or purees. It's much more effective than the probiotic in yogurt, plus you don't have to worry about digestive complications of giving milk-sensitive babies yogurt. It helps immensley with gas, and can help with milk-protein digestion issues, though we haven't tested that aspect of it yet.

[jodylovesscotty]

I tried yogurt with Zoë and she hated it. She spit it out and then wouldn't open her mouth. I am not much of a fan of yogurt so I can't blame her. We are doing purely stage 2 food now. She will grab the puffs and cheerios but won't eat them. She gets the funniest face when they even touch her lips.

This may be a stupid questions, but do we have to wait 3 days after trying a new food like we did when they first started eating? I tried a new mixture last night, applesauce with cherries. She had applesauce before but not cherries. Should I wait the three days? Do we do that forever? What happens when they start eating table food and it is a new food? Also, another dumb question..... I read before they shouldn't have citrus fruits, but why do baby food have those? I saw a stage two that was pinapple, organges, and something else.

Finally, QOTD, What do you plan on getting DH for Father's Day?

[Taurus]

Jody, I did the "wait" rule for most of the first year, but with increasing sloppiness and especially for any potential allergen like yogurt or egg yolk. I also never assume that just because something is sold for a certain age means it's ideal to give to them. I never really feel in much of a hurry to introduce tons of foods either. No need to get it all in right away. But once it was really obvious to me that DS1 had had no problems whatsover with any food and as he was nearing his first birthday, I was fairly open to anything. I do think we waited until one year for wheat and egg white and milk and strawberries and nuts. He still has not had peanuts though.

ETA: I can't for the life of me remember when I did them, but I was in no hurry for citrus or tomatoes or those acidic foods either. Maybe after one year. Corn also. I just remember DS1's "table food" before one year was a lot of rice bread, rice pasta, homemade meatballs, fruits and veggies, yogurt...

[TracyDP]

This may be a stupid questions, but do we have to wait 3 days after trying a new food like we did when they first started eating? I tried a new mixture last night, applesauce with cherries. She had applesauce before but not cherries. Should I wait the three days? Do we do that forever? What happens when they start eating table food and it is a new food? Also, another dumb question..... I read before they shouldn't have citrus fruits, but why do baby food have those? I saw a stage two that was pinapple, organges, and something else.

I wait until whatever new food I fed her makes its way through her system, so usually until poop 2 days later. For example, I feed her a new food at breakfast today (thursday) I would wait until after poop on Saturday to try the next new food. By then it's worked its way through and I would know if it caused problems from one end to the other. As for citrus, I haven't fed her anything with any citrus yet. I was avoiding it for another month or two.

Finally, QOTD, What do you plan on getting DH for Father's Day?

We went to the Birkenstock store on our weekend coast outing so DH could get a new pair of sandals (his current Birks are like 8 years old and hanging on by a thread) and he tried on these slide on closed-toe furry birks (http://www.birkenstockexpress.com/Products/Style.cfm/collection.Tatami/style.Oklahoma%20Shearling/id.150520081216-076487)that were super comfortable. He kind of hemmed and hawed but decided not to spend the extra money. So, I decided to order them online for fathers day. His office is a building about 50 feet from our house and they would be perfect for when he's going back and forth next fall/winter.

[Boskie]

We've got a crawler! Started yesterday, on her 8th month birthday. She also started pulling herself up on pretty much anything that is standing still and got her third tooth. It has been a busy week!

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

[DisneyGirl]

I know oneday my baby boy will crawl...hes just so happy sitting on the couch like a old man..LOL

[Bucktown]

Boskie~ Congrats!

Disney~ LMAO at that visual. My DD is super content sitting on her bum on the floor eyeballing what she wants and grunting for one of us to get it for her. Funny thing is I know exactly what she wants everytime. Princess.

[TracyDP]

DD is also starting to do real "crawling" with opposing legs and arms, but she still defaults to the combat crawl. She is also pulling herself up on things. She pulled up in her crib for the first time with Grandma last night while I was at the hospital w/ DH. So, I just moved the mattress down to the lowest setting so she doesn't fall out. I imagine I'll spend the next week of nights going in repeatedly and putting her down to sleep, only to have her pull up again. This will be fun.

DH is fine, surgery went well and he should be home by Tuesday. BF is coming today to watch DD so I can spend the afternoon at the hospital. It's going to be an adjustment to have to get up w/ DD at night again since DH almost always gets up with her between bedtime and morning on the odd times she wakes up. He won't be doing that for a while.

[MrsSpencer]

merjmo told me that someone in the sept/oct 07 mommies had to keep her son upright for 20 minutes after he ate? My son also can't be laid down and wanted to know if you continued or could breastfeed??tia

[hmbay]

MrsSpencer--my daughter had problems with reflux. I tried to hold her upright after eating (usually tossed over my shoulder). It seemed to help. I did and still am BFing at 8 months. You just need to try to feed them a bit upright if you can.

[jodylovesscotty]

MrsSpencer~ My DD had reflux as well. For the first few months we used a wedge in her crib as well. We also kept her upright for 15 minutes after eating before putting her to bed.

Zoë is almost crawling, but on Friday she learned to get up to a sitting position all on her own. And now she has been doing this like a crazy woman. On Saturday I went to get her out of her crib and she was sitting up with a huge grin on her face.

[hmbay]

Also--she slept upright in her swing or in her crib with a memory foam sleep positioner the first six months. The sleep positioner was more for trying to prevent plagio than the reflux but it served both purposes luckily.

[MrsSpencer]

thanks

[sabrespa]

Hooray for all the mobile babies!

Zach has been cruising the furniture for the past week and just yesterday he started to let go and stand for about 20 seconds unassisted.

Our kids are getting so big!

[Amuse Bouche]

M is pulling herself up on people -- not as much on furniture yet, but she is motivated. She also loves to "walk" while having her hands held.

[2 Crazy Pugs]

Question- how often do you bathe your LO?

Sophia still has no teeth! It looks like she will be getting them soon, but nothing yet. She has started to get up on all fours and rock, and last night she pulled herself up using the coffee table. Time to lower the crib!

She is so much fun at this age, she says DA DA, MA MA and BA BA, she claps, and she "dances" when she hears music. I just can't believe how big she is getting!

[Jess71903]

All these mobile babies all at once!

Gage probably won't be pulling up until he gets his braces. His little ankles just aren't stable enough, but he does like standing on our laps or if we pull him up on the floor. Still not crawling forward. He's taking his time.


Have I posted since the PT eval? He was behind with a few things, which I expected. I thought I would share since I know some of you were concerned with your kiddos development.
She wants him to have a more upright posture. He tends to "sacral sit" with a round back. He doesn't army crawl forward, but she said he would have gotten the highest score if she could give points for going backward. He wouldn't roll back to tummy. He's only done that a couple of times at home and always on the bed. He couldn't "unload" one arm to reach for a toy while on hands and knees. He always flops down on his tummy first. He doesn't spin on his butt to get to things. His protective reflexes were a little delayed (like if she would push him to the side while he was sitting- he didn't throw his hand out to catch himself as quickly as he should have)...lets see.. On his tummy, he lifts his arms off the mat, but not so much with his legs. He can, but not for very long. This is a result of his weaker hamstrings and glutes.

She was really pleased with his ability to bear weight through his legs. I guess that's a biggie for kids with SB. He has good stability in his hips, which is good for walking. He is very motivated to get to new toys, he just can't figure out how to get to them if they aren't already within reach, and usually ends up further away.

Gage had a blast at the eval. He loves new people and new things to look at. He thought her toys were great. We really like this therapist. She used to work at the sb clinic at AR Children's Hospital and has come highly recommended by our friends who have kids with sb. She really knows her stuff. While we were there, I got to see an old friend who is a SLP. We worked together at the nursing homes when I first got out of school. I also found out that my old college roommate and fellow OT works for them, but in a school, and the lady I lived with my 1st semester of my freshman year of college, who is an SLP works there, but is out on maternity leave with her 2nd set of twins!!! She had a little boy and a set of boy twins with her 1st husband, who left her for a younger woman, then remarried and just had these girl twins a few weeks ago! Crazy!

[Jess71903]

QOTD- baths-As often as I can remember to? It's silly, but we're lucky to get a bath in every 2 or 3 days. I just forget to do it unless he stinks or something!

[DisneyGirl]

gosh, I really just have to laugh in a weird way because my little guy does nothing! No standing, no rolling, no clapping. I think I may have a BUM onmy hands or the most unmotivated little guy in the whole world! I brought him to the Dr on saturday and told her all of my concerns and she told there is nothing wrong with him and to go home and enjoy him. I figured there was nothing wrong , but the mom inme had to bring it up just incase.

QOTD Everyday I wash him..simply becasue I love giving him a bath and he likes playing in the water now that he sits up.

[hmbay]

Disney--well Sabrina isn't exactly a bump on a log but she is perfectly content to sit and play with toys for hours--no crawling or clapping or anything else but she will scream "mamamamamamamamamama" when I ignore her! ;)

QOTD--me bad. I hate baby baths--babies are too darn slippery. Now she can sit so it's not so bad and she's starting to really like baths so I should do them more but really 1 or 2 times a week for my kids.

[jodylovesscotty]

QOTD~ We give DD a bath every other day. She likes them and I would like to give her one every night, but I just can't find the time every day. She loves to sit and play in the tub.

[Boskie]

QOTD - I give Olivia a bath every night, as part of her bedtime routine. I have an infant / toddler bath that I am still using. For the bathing part, I lie her down on the net thing (I hope you know what I mean!) and wash and rinse her that way. Once the washing part is over, I take that out and let her sit and play in the tub. I find washing her while she is sitting up much harder, but I'm not sure what I'll do when she stops willingly lying down.

This is what we have. I forgot about the sprayer that comes with it, because like the reviews say, it didn't work. But I love the tub!

http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2574107

[TracyDP]

QOTD: I give DD a bath every night as part of our bedtime routine. She LOVES bathtime and would play in there for an hour if I'd let her. I only do a complete cleaning w/ the Aveeno bath every other day though since she doesn't really need it every day (unless she has stinky butt).

[Jen309]

My LOs have sensitive skin (esp. #1) so we get into the habit of every 3 days or so. Now that warmer weather is coming, we'll probably do every other day as they work up a stink or get dirty outside.

I've given up on the baby tub (which I'd been placing in the big tub) because it was killing my back and he didn't seem to really enjoy laying down for baths... so, we've been doing them in the kitchen sink! We have an extra deep, extra wide side and pull out faucet with a spray setting. It is so freaking easy now and he loves sitting in there - I just have to make sure that there isn't anything within reach b/c he grabs EVERYTHING!

Fun, fun times! :D

[DisneyGirl]

Jen Don;t feel bad I still give my LO a bath in the sink.

[hmbay]

Jen--I would totally use the sink but it's usually full of dishes. ;)

we almost have a tooth. I can feel it but it's not poked through yet. She was a b*tch last night for sleep though--up every 1-2 hours even after tylenol so I'm hoping it pokes through soon.

On a completely unrelated baby note I'm working my last day at my current job tomorrow. I've been here 4.5 years and I found a position I'm more interested in closer to home but I had to take a contract to hire position to get it so I'm a bit nervous about that but I have a good feeling about it. I'm taking a week off between jobs to relax, do some cleaning/organizing and buy a new car! Eek! I'm afraid after a week off Sabrina will be hard for DH to deal with again once I'm back at work.

[TracyDP]

we almost have a tooth. I can feel it but it's not poked through yet. She was a b*tch last night for sleep though--up every 1-2 hours even after tylenol so I'm hoping it pokes through soon.



FWIW Tylenol did not help DD at all w/ the teething pain, only Motrin did the trick. The first night I only had Tylenol, but the next day I bought some Motrin and that night was much easier to get her down. Even with that though it still took us 1.5 hours or so (vs. 3 hours the first night) to get her to sleep for about a week.

I also remember when I had a really gnarly filling done and my tooth ached for about 3 days, the only thing that took away the pain was Ibuprofin. I remember taking some and about 15 minutes later literally feeling the pain subside.

[Suzlywoozly]

Anyone's LO having issues with constipation? DS is so dang constipated lately. I am wondering if it is all the Puffs he loves to eat. Also, what is everyone feeding them? Everytime I try something new, he stops SSTN and winds up crying at night. So far the only thing he tolerates is Puffs and apples. He goes for his 9 month WBV on Thursday and I am totally worried that the Pedi is going to flip out on me for not feeding more things. Any thoughts?

QOTD- I usually give him a bath every other day unless he has been out in the sun and we use sunscreen, then we will give him a bath the same night.

[TracyDP]

No constipation here. DD eats a lot of fruit so hers are solid, but not super hard, and don't seem to cause her any discomfort. She usually goes once a day right before or after her morning nap. She had a few bouts of constipation before I added fruit into her diet when I first started solids, but none since fruit became her new favorite.

So far carrots, green beans and soft mozzerella cheese are the only things that have not agreed with DD and caused some gas issues that night. I am not sure the fresh mozzerella was even the culprit that night since it was right around the crappy sleep of teething week.

Fruits she LOVES are:

Banana in all forms
Mango (fresh & blended slightly chunky in the Cuisinart)
applesauce
pear (Trader Joes canned in glass jar, blended chunky)
peach (also TJ's canned, blended chunky)
any Earths Best jarred baby fruit I've offered, though I have NOT tried anything with berries yet.
I really can't wait for all the fresh local produce we get here in the summer. I am looking forward to giving her fresh local melons!

I feed her usually a jar or 2oz serving of veggie, then as much fruit as she wants for each meal. She's really good at letting me know she's done.

She loves any fruit mixed with baby oatmeal cereal, we have that every day for breakfast about an hour after her morning bottle. I just bought some wheat/gluten free frozen waffles to try this week, and some wheat/gluten free pancake mix I might throw together this weekend for all of us. I am also going to boil some eggs and have her try some egg yolk, which is perfect since I prefer the whites :).

I have YoBaby yogurt in the fridge but I'm putting off trying it since there is a higher chance it won't agree with her. Maybe just a few bites tomorrow morning early to see how it settles, then I'll finish it off...

[jodylovesscotty]

Suzlywoozly~ I was just about to write the same post as yours. Zoë has been so constipated lately to the point she cries. The other night we actually had to massage and pull her butt apart because we saw the poo that was stuck (sorry to be so graphic). She is not much into fruits so it is so hard to give her stuff that will keep her going. One thing that has helped is giving her water in a sipppy cup after each feeding. Please come back and let us know what you find out. I was going to call the peds. office today because I know she is in pain because she cries.

[sabrespa]

Zach used to have a problem with constipation also. I found that if I feed him prunes every 3rd day or so it keeps him pretty regular. I've also cut back on banana since that is a bit constipating for him.

We haven't ventured far from babyfood and it's pure laziness. I just don't have that much free time in my day.

[emschwar]

We're constipation experts here. Things were REALLY bad with Daniel. Prunes never helped. For a while he was eating no constipating foods (no rice, no bananas, no applesauce, no carrots) and eating a TON of non-constipating ones (p-fruits) and it didn't make a difference. We've finally figured out what works for him - a bowl of oatmeal or mixed grain cereal made w/ prune juice EVERY morning.

[jodylovesscotty]

We tried the cereal with prune juice and she won't eat it. She will eat the cereal with formula, but nothing else. She just doesn't like fruits except pears and apples with cherries. The other ones she will take a bite and then keep her mouth tightly closed. I am having them try prune juice in a sippy cup today.

[jodylovesscotty]

My ped. said to give miralax (1/2 cap full with 4 oz. of liquid) once a day to help with the constipation.

[DisneyGirl]

heather congrats on getting a new job closer to home and on getting a new car. What kind of car you looking to get?

[Jess71903]

constipation- we're dealing with that too, although I am pretty sure some of it is a lack of muscle function and/or sensation of needing to go. Prunes help some. We use Fleet BabyLax glycerin suppositories (realy more like an enema) for those times when it's right there...Jody- I can TOTALLY relate. That's exactly what we have to do.

[Suzlywoozly]

Suzlywoozly~ I was just about to write the same post as yours. Zoë has been so constipated lately to the point she cries. The other night we actually had to massage and pull her butt apart because we saw the poo that was stuck (sorry to be so graphic). She is not much into fruits so it is so hard to give her stuff that will keep her going. One thing that has helped is giving her water in a sipppy cup after each feeding. Please come back and let us know what you find out. I was going to call the peds. office today because I know she is in pain because she cries.

I gave DS an ounce of Gerber Apple/Prune juice cut with an ounce of water tonight and within an hour he blew out three diapers!:eek:I couldn't believe how fast it helped move things out. He has his pedi appt in the morning so this is the top thing on my list to talk about. Don't worry about the TMI stuff... we had to do the same thing last week. I felt so bad for the poor kid!
I'll be back tomorrow with an update :)

[TracyDP]

Yeah, no biggie about the TMI. As mothers we ALL do things that are TMI...and usually every other mother in the world has done the exact same thing. I haven't actually had to help DD when she's been constipated, but she has had a few crying poops :( Luckily she LOVES her some fruit so she doesn't have that problem much. I also give her a lot of water, maybe 3 or 4 oz a day, from her sipper cup. It doesn't seem to have affected how much formula she takes since I give her the water with meals and at non-formula times.

[Jess71903]

Girls, I am OUT for a week or more!!! Gage and I leave in the morning for the BEACH!!! Poor Tony has to stay and work. I can't wait to see what Gage thinks of the sand and surf. I'll check back in when I get back!

[Boskie]

Have a great trip, Jess!

[DisneyGirl]

Jess have fun at the beach. Wish I were going with you. I could really use some nice warm weather here. We have have rain for a straight week now and I'm about to loss my mind!

[Jess71903]

Thanks, Boskie!
I can relate, Disney. This is the 1st week in a LONG time that it hasn't rained at least twice!

[Jen309]

OMG, so guess who is climbing STAIRS?!! :eek::eek::eek:

[DisneyGirl]

OMG, so guess who is climbing STAIRS?!! :eek::eek::eek:

:p Have fun! LOL

Gosh darn my baby is soooooo boring! LOL LOL :D He does NOTHING! I was even on the floor the last few days tryin to show him how to crawl.

I don;t think the title of out thread applies to my baby " getting our move on" not here. ;)

[emschwar]

My baby is boring too. He *just* figured out sitting. But then he does have a 0th percentile body and an 80th percentile head. Hard to hold that thing up!

He did learn to clap this week though, and he's mighty proud of that.

[hmbay]

Another boring baby here--no movement but she did finally get her first tooth yesterday. It broke through yesterday morning.

[TracyDP]

Ellie has finally figured out regular crawling. She's still pretty slow, but she's got the alternate knee/hand movement down. She is pulling up on EVERYTHING but has not figured out how to let herself down very well so I have to keep a close eye on her so she doesn't fall and bang her head. She has bonked her head once and got a very small bruise/scrape on the side of her head but barely cried. My babysitter thought she'd done it at her house and was SO appologetic when I picked her up. I just laughed and said "nope, I let that happen this morning" :rolleyes:

Still just the 2 teeth but I think she's working on a third bottom tooth. Her top ones still don't look anywhere near coming in and most of her chewing is on the left side on the bottom.

I REALLY need to work on finger foods. She has eaten everything I've given her so far without gagging and she has the chewing thing down pretty good. She loves puffs and works them around in her mouth until they desolve before she swallows. I fed her a bunch of thawed frozen peas and corn and she loved it. She's also getting grabby with the spoon so it's soon going to be time to let her get messy and work on feeding herself.

[Taurus]

We had finally fully STTN (12 hours) then the very next day N got sick. (ETA: And went back to waking every 2-3 hours.) He also took a bottle strike which really stressed me out since I'm in a wedding this weekend and this is the most time I've been away from him. Thankfully he went back to taking a bottle. Some days he still feels like a newborn--such a little stinker! Crawling? Finger foods? Ha ha! Progress for us is self-soothing for a nap over 45 mins and not freaking out when I leave the room for 2 seconds!

He's 8 months old today! Time flies.

[DisneyGirl]

K has 3 bottom teeth now and had all 4 coming in at the same time!!! ACK! Now wonder why he has been a bear lately.

[TracyDP]

K has 3 bottom teeth now and had all 4 coming in at the same time!!! ACK! Now wonder why he has been a bear lately.

Ouch! Sorry to hear you had to deal with that. DD had her two bottom teeth come in at the exact same time and she was a nightmare to put to sleep for about a week. I think she's working on a third bottom tooth but she seems much less irritable this time around with just one tooth coming in.

[Bucktown]

And Anna to the boring list. No crawling, no teeth, only puffs. She will dive to the floor when I'm holding her but put her down on her belly and she's still screaming. Diva.

[TracyDP]

Ellie HATED tummy time until she finally figured out how to roll over on her own, then she was OK with it since she could immediately roll over OFF of her tummy. I was also really bad about doing tummy time, she just figured it out on her own somehow.

[Jess71903]

Hi girls! Checking in from our Destin condo. LOVE it! The beach has done Gage some good. He has figured out how to roll back to tummy finally on a hard floor. It takes a lot of work to get his tubby self over, but he can finally do it! We are also SO close to the 2 top teeth. I have seen white spots on top forever, but now I can see the shape of the whole tooth. They're nearly through.

Gage is a big fan of the pool but no so much the ocean. The water is still pretty cold and it startled him when it splashed up his leg when we went out it in the first time. I took him out a little today with a sling and it was better, but he wasn't thrilled.

You can add watermellon and cantelope to the list of yummy foods for him. He also really likes lemonade. He nearly choked on graham crackers last night because he apparently just stuck them all to the roof of his mouth instead of swallowing. Not fun.

Anyway, we are having a blast. Gage is loving all of the attention from our family (my step-mom "Addie", cousin and her b/f and aunt and uncle). This place is NICE....MUCH more than we could ever afford if we were paying. The beach is much busier than I have ever experienced. We usually go during off-season and to quieter beaches.

[jodylovesscotty]

We too have a crawler on our hands. She is all over the place now. I guess it will be time to baby proof. Zoë's second tooth still hasn't come in. She has had the one for a while and she was crabby for a week a few weeks ago so we know the other was moving. She takes so long for teeth to come in.

Jess71903~ Glad you are having a great time. Do you make your own baby food or just feed him chunks of stuff?

[Taurus]

New obsession: half a frozen Trader Joe's banana waffle (wheat free)! Finally figuring out the self-feeding thing, and putting all those teeth to good use! Up to this point he would only eat single Joe's O's cereal, and only if I fed them to him!

[Amuse Bouche]

We have a sunken living room and Madeleine has figured out how to climb the hardwood stairs (and then either perch, precipitously, on the edge, or head right for the non baby proofed wine rack.) We have to watch her like a hawk now. She's also completely obsessed with pulling up and standing on anything she can (mom, dad, a dog, a table, another baby ...)

In other news, we went to the beach and in the hot tub for the first time this weekend, and both were a big hit. Our first swim lesson is coming up, and I think Madeleine will have a blast.

[TracyDP]

New obsession: half a frozen Trader Joe's banana waffle (wheat free)! Finally figuring out the self-feeding thing, and putting all those teeth to good use! Up to this point he would only eat single Joe's O's cereal, and only if I fed them to him!

I just bought some of the TJ's banana waffles yesterday! I can't wait to try them out tomorrow (this morning I didn't have time). I also bought a couple of different flavored organic applesauce blends. She LOVES her some applesauce. We started with cut up Gerber Sausages for lunch today and they were a big hit. She gagged twice, I think because of the new kind of mushy texture, but that was on the first 4 bites. After that she downed a whole sausage w/o gagging once. Yo-baby yogurt is a HUGE hit. I only feed her half a container right now, still making sure it isn't going to cause any gastric problems. 2 days and 3 poops now and so far she seems ok so I think tomorrow I'll let her have the whole container.

DD goes to Grandmas Thursday morning through Friday afternoon. I am going out with my friend Christy Thurs. night (the one who watches DD all the time) as friends for a change. We are going out to dinner and to see Iron Man, then I get to come home for a blessed baby-free night and morning :D DH is excited too because he has been recovering from surgery and we have all had a little too much togetherness this past 10 days. He is looking forward to a LONG interruption free nap and some private time. It all works out ;)

QOTD (for Wednesday): To go along with my excitement about Thursday night, I was wondering what you all are doing as far as leaving your DC's overnight, or even longer. Have you or are you planning on leaving them for a vacation this summer? If things go well Thursday, Grandma has offered to take DD one whole weekend (Friday AND Saturday night) each month for us. That would be AWESOME if DD seems to do ok at her house. She has stayed the day at Grandmas and been fine, taken good naps and all, so I'm hopefull it will go well. We have plans in July to leave for 3 nights for my birthday, but I think that we are going to have Christy come stay with DD here at the house since she will have the time off and could use the extra $$. Of all the people I have watch DD (well, there are only 3) I fully and completely trust Christy, and DD loves her. I came home from shopping on Monday just as she was getting DD ready for bed and when it came time to have her bottle and go down, she reached over for Christy!! I wasn't offended, I was happy...it just made me that much more comfortable leaving her in July. Christy gave her the bottle and put her to bed with me home and DD didn't protest at all, she crashed out and didn't even twitch until morning.

[jodylovesscotty]

QOTD~ We haven't left DD overnight with anyone yet. Though she will be staying with Grandma and Grandpa (IL's) overnight in June. We are going to a wedding in NY. This will be the first time. They are staying at our house though so they can also take care of the dog. We have had mine and his parents watch her before at nights and they put her to bed so I am sure things will be fine. I am more concerned with me going away for 3 days next weekend with school (our end of the year trip to Chicago) and my DH having her alone the whole time. He doesn't know her schedule, etc... so I will have to leave good notes.

[Boskie]

QOTD: We have left Olivia overnight twice at my parent's house. Both times, it went really well. She followed the same schedule she follows at home. Plus, my mom made sure to follow our bedtime routine with her. Also, my mom watches her one day a week (sometimes more, if something comes up) and Olivia is really comfortable both with my mom and at their house. I'm sure all of those things contributed to it going well.

Now, if we were to leave her at my IL's, where she ISN'T as comfortable, I don't think it would go well at all. My MIL watches her at our house on her babysitting day and Olivia has never napped at their house. Things would probably go ok if they stayed at our house.

[TracyDP]

QOTDI am more concerned with me going away for 3 days next weekend with school (our end of the year trip to Chicago) and my DH having her alone the whole time. He doesn't know her schedule, etc... so I will have to leave good notes.

I wouldn't feel comfortable leaving DD with DH for that long. DH offers sometimes to watch DD for the day so I can get away, but for some reason I just don't feel comfortable doing even that. DH loves DD and is really good with her when helping me out, but he can be pretty impatient sometimes, especially if there is something wrong and he can't figure out what it is. When she gets fussy or irritable he gets flustered and has a hard time stopping and figuring out whats wrong. Even when he spends several days at home with us (like now with him recovering from surgery) he doesn't really pay attention to her schedule or what I do to deal with her. He knows her morning routine up until lunch pretty well since he often gets up with her on weekends so I can sleep in and shower without worrying about her, but the rest of the day...not so much. He is good about helping me when she is fussy going to sleep and will hold and soothe her, but I'm usually the one to actually get her to sleep finally. He was sooo good at dealing with a newborn since she was a very easy baby (he was a pro at the 5 S's). Now that she's a little more complicated I really need to have him DO more. That's the only way he's going to learn it is if I teach him on purpose. Baby behavior just doesn't gel well with his methodical, mathematical order driven brain.

[Boskie]

I don't think I would be comfortable leaving Olivia with DH that long, either. He does take care of her in the afternoons frequently, but usually it is after naps and after any solids meals, so all he has to do is play with her and maybe give her a bottle. He still has a hard time reading her. He thinks any noise she makes means she is upset, when I can clearly tell if she is just talking, just whiny or if she is truly upset. When I'm home and she IS upset, he brings her to me to figure it out. Would he figure it out if I wasn't there to be the crutch? Probably, but I'm not sure how smoothly things would go. On the other hand, he will probably never learn, if I'm always there to handle things.

[sabrespa]

I would have no problem leaving the kids in my husband's care for several days. Though, he does have lots of practice seeing as we have three. ;) I know that by time I got home he would probably be really stressed and anxious to get away, but geez, so would I if I was parenting full time, alone, for 3 days!

[jodylovesscotty]

As much as I am afraid to leave her I know it will be good for me. I haven't went away without her yet. And I know that DH is a great father. He tries to figure her out and is more relaxed with her when she gets upset. He just doesn't know the reason. He is 1/2 the parent, so he better figure it out. Though I am sure I will get lots of phone calls from him (did before baby too).

[Amuse Bouche]

I wouldn't have a problem with leaving M with DH (given that he's her primary caregiver while I'm at work) but given that she's still a frequent nurser, I'm in no hurry to leave her overnight because I LOATHE pumping.

[DisneyGirl]

I haven't yet left my middle child or the new baby with anyone, but my oldest has stayed at my moms a few times over the course of his life.
I am however going to be leaving all 3 of the kids with the grandparents while I go away for a few days to on a romantic getaway with DH to Las Vegas!! Oh, I can't wait!!! WHile, i am a littlew freaked about leaving them I know this is something I have to do and I am looking forward to just being a wife for a few days.

If I were going away for a few days without DH I would SO leave him in charge of the kids. He does a great job and can handle them and the house just fine on his own.

[Jen309]

We left the kids alone for the first time a few months ago. I freaked myself out as the time got closer, but in the end it was ok, they didn't even seem to realize any time had passed when we were back. When our friend called in the middle of the trip to ask a question, she said that sadly enough it was the dog who seemed to miss us most! :rolleyes:

Does anyone else have a problem with other people driving your kids? I have issue with this. I just feel nobody else is as safe with them in the car as DH or I. I'm glad I'm cautious too, becuase nobody can seem to get them in their car seats correctly. :rolleyes: I always serruptitiously re-check the buckles and strap tension, and 99% of the time, it's TOTALLY wrong!

[Boskie]

Both my mom and my MIL have driven Olivia in the car, without DH or I. They both had infant seat bases in their cars and just this past weekend, we installed convertible car seats in both their cars, along with ours. Both moms got a very thorough lesson in how the seats need to be before driving and they both have done great. Believe me, we've checked! As for other people driving her, it hasn't come up and I haven't really thought about it.

[DisneyGirl]

poeple driving my kids with K the only people that have driven him places was me and DH. With the other 2 my parents, DH parents and friends have. The friends that have driven then have kids of there own so they know how a careseat works and how to buckle them in correctly.

[TracyDP]

I have a convertible seat installed in the back of DH's Honda Civic, but oddly enough I'm the only one so far that's taken DD anywhere in it. I find unless I need the Element for hauling something I go ahead and take the Civic for the better gas mileage, and DH just hasn't had the need to take DD anywhere. DD is still using the infant seat in the Element because I have been too lazy to install the Britax Marathon I have sitting in the hallway collecting dust, and DD still has 2 lbs and an inch of headroom in the infant seat.

When grandma watches DD I put the base of the infant seat in her car, which is a breeze since she has LATCH connectors, so I don't worry at all about her taking DD to the grocery store or over to my SIL's. Once DD is out of the infant seat I'll be purchasing a Cosco Scenera for grandma. She already knows how to install one since she has been hauling my SIL's kids around for the past 10 years. Their youngest is only 4 so she is still doing the car seat thing with her.

My BF took DD up to the park while we were away for the weekend a few weeks back and just used the infant seat w/o the base in the back of her car. She's a pretty smart woman so I think she was able to figure out the installation of the infant seat to keep DD safe. I didn't worry about it. My friend Susan that watches DD has also taken her in the car to pick her husband up from work. She has 3 kids so I'm comfortable with her driving DD and installing the seat.

Babysitter: I was just introduced to a potential babysitter by my friend that lives down the block from us. She is a 16 year old girl that is the oldest of 6 kids, so she's been dealing with babies all her life, and my friend swears by her. She is looking for work this summer and since she lives about a block away from us it would be fantastic to have a cheap realiable source to watch Ellie. I think I may call her and have her come over and meet DH and spend a little time with Ellie and see what vibe I get from her. Leaving her with a babysitter feels different than leaving her with my BF or grandma...

[jodylovesscotty]

Babysitter~ We are using a high school student (junior) this summer. I am taking Zoë out of daycare since I will be home (teacher). I still want to be able to have some time to myself and to get stuff done like grocery shopping so I hired her. She is going to come over twice a week for a few hours. It will be nice and so much cheaper than daycare. I feel comfortable with this girl as I taught her in 3rd grade:)

[DisneyGirl]

Gosh, i could use a babysitter something big..LOL

diapers so my little guy breaks out and is very alergic to pampers diapers. So, now i have a huge box of them that I opened only to find out I can't use them..GREEAT! I honestly have never in my life heard of a baby being alergic to a brand of diapers..its crazy. After 1 month of back and forth to the dr to figure out what the hell the rash, hives, raw red patches on him, we finally figured it out..

[TracyDP]

Gosh, i could use a babysitter something big..LOL

diapers so my little guy breaks out and is very alergic to pampers diapers. So, now i have a huge box of them that I opened only to find out I can't use them..GREEAT! I honestly have never in my life heard of a baby being alergic to a brand of diapers..its crazy. After 1 month of back and forth to the dr to figure out what the hell the rash, hives, raw red patches on him, we finally figured it out..

What are you going to try instead? We use Seventh Generation disposables, I stock up when they are on sale, and I use cloth at home. DH wanted me to use cloth 100% of the time, but I'm lazy and I was not going to lug cloth dipes around the mall or when traveling. So, the compromise was cloth at home, 7th gen dipes when out and about (or when someone else babysits). I have the one-size pocket diapers (http://www.abbyslane.com/catalog.php?category=534)that go on like a disposable. I tried the pre-fold with covers and , um, no thanks. Like I said, lazy. Since we stopped using pampers/huggies and the like at around 3m old we have not had one single diaper rash in over 6m. I also love that they don't have that weird diaper smell and no cartoon characters. Good luck! I would seriously consider cloth dipes for home use, the expense at the beginning is worth it in the end...no pun intended.

[Jen309]

Tracy, you make me think about something.... what the heck is it with cartoon characters on diapers anyway? I can't stand them. I hate it when I can see a shadow of elmo thru DS's pants or when my older DS starts asking who each one is. It's also annoying in pictures. And you know we're shelling out extra $$ for the licensing :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:.

[emschwar]

DD still has 2 lbs and an inch of headroom in the infant seat
Just checking to make sure... her head is an inch from the top of the seat? Or 2? Because the height limit is when their head is an inch from the top.


We're here still and we're all doing well, I'm just way too busy with everything (2 kids, working on my discovery toys business, trying to improve my photography skills, my duties at Noah's schoo, and, if I have time, trying to do a load of laundry now and again so we're not all running around naked) to post much. That, and there's not much worth reporting. Although Daniel did start signing! He signs "up", maybe "milk" (I can't decide if he's really signing that one) and, with prompting, "more".

[hmbay]

Disney--DS1 broke out in a rash everytime we used Luv's and my friends DD broke out in a rash everytime she used Pampers so it's not unheard of. I think it's either the stuff that absorbs the wetness or the fragrance.

[DisneyGirl]

Disney--DS1 broke out in a rash everytime we used Luv's and my friends DD broke out in a rash everytime she used Pampers so it's not unheard of. I think it's either the stuff that absorbs the wetness or the fragrance.

I actually started asking friends today about it and your right, its more popular than I thought. I really have never heard of such a thing. All I know its Pampers are not welcome in my home anymore. :p If they remotly touvh his skin forget it..rash city


Tracy
I am going to look into that link you posted.

[TracyDP]

Tracy
I am going to look into that link you posted.

Check out the Cloth Diaper thread, it's got a lot of good info in it. I would also be glad to share my experience with the various diapers I've tried.

[jodylovesscotty]

We are having such awesome weather. Zoë took her first trip to the park on Saturday. She went on the swings with me since they didn't have a baby swing. She also had her first sitting in the cart experience at the grocery store and that was a big hit. Of course she was grabbing for everything. And today we are going to the zoo since we live about 5 miles from it and have a membership.

Question...... What do you do about naps when you want to go out and about? For example, this summer I would like to do a lot of fun things with her but don't want to drive home for her to take her naps. What do you do?

[emschwar]

naps - I try not to be out at naptime more than once a week. I'd like to not screw up his naps at all, but for Noah's sake, sometimes we're out at naptime. Ideally we do 2 naps at home and then go out and miss the 3rd, but it doesn't always work. I just let Daniel either sleep in the car, if we're driving at a naptime, or I'll put him in the mei tai and he'll sleep on me.

[TracyDP]

Naps: Ellie is on a 2 nap schedule so we usually do any errands between the two naps. We leave at noon and I try to be home by 3:30 or 4. If we are out when afternoon nap rolls around she will fall asleep in the car on the way home. It's a 45 min drive from Portland to home so even if that's all she sleeps it works out ok. On a few occasions we've missed afternoon nap alltogether or it's only been 30 min or so, but we've survived. She just goes down earlier for bedtime and is a little cranky that night. Most of the time I'll give her a bottle before we leave town to come home so that when we get here I can take her from the car and put her directly in her crib. I have about a 75% success rate on getting her to keep napping so it's always worth a try.

[Boskie]

Naps - During the week, Olivia's naps are rarely interrupted. Weekends, I try to schedule errands right after she wakes up from her morning nap that way we can be home in time for the afternoon one. Today, she fell asleep on the way home and I was able to move her into her crib for the remainder of her nap.

Yesterday, we went to my nephew's last baseball game of the year, about 1 1/2 hours away from home. We left in time for her morning nap and left to come home in time for her afternoon nap. She took both in the car, so that worked out well, time wise.

[TracyDP]

Naps -

Yesterday, we went to my nephew's last baseball game of the year, about 1 1/2 hours away from home. We left in time for her morning nap and left to come home in time for her afternoon nap. She took both in the car, so that worked out well, time wise.

This is exactly how I do it when I drop her off/pick her up at grandmas house. It is almost exactly a 1 1/2 hour drive so I give here a bottle then pack her up in the car for her morning nap. When I pick her up it's usually just in time to give her a bottle and pack her in the car for her afternoon nap (if it's an overnighter).

[jodylovesscotty]

That is what I have been doing with Zoë's naps. Yesterday we went to the zoo when she woke up from her morning nap 10:30 and then made sure we were home for her afternoon nap at 3:30. And sometimes we do schedule it so she naps in the cars. I guess I was just wondering when the kid might take a nap in her stroller because as we know life can't always revolved around naps.

[Taurus]

life can't always revolved around naps.

Mine does! I mean, I am flexible on holidays, special occasions and vacations, but I try to rarely mess with naps. I can't believe how important they are, but, yes, as others have mentioned I will allow a nap here or there to happen "on the go." When DS1 was about 8 months we went out in between his two naps. Now that he is over 2, I am home every single day by 1 pm for his nap, unless it is a weekend/special event and DH is also home. (Otherwise, no break for Mommy.)

ETA: Jody, I'd imagine that if you had stayed walking around the zoo long enough, she would have fallen asleep in her stroller? My kids don't nap long in their strollers or transfer well, so I have never been a big fan of naps in the stroller. But if we are on the go and willing to sacrifice a real nap (again, no rest for us if they are napping on the go, but sometimes a necessity), then a snooze in the stroller can usually be enough to "take the edge off" of any crankiness/overtiredness so we can keep going.

[Boskie]

Olivia has napped in her stroller, but hasn't done it often. Sometimes she transfers well and sometimes she doesn't. Next month, we are going on vacation to San Diego for a week. We are planning on going to Sea World while were there and are HOPING that she'll nap in her stroller. If not, we'll leave and go back to our hotel for the nap. If we can get back into Sea World (without paying again) maybe we'll go back. I should check on that.

[sabrespa]

I'm with Taurus. Our life revolves around naps. Has for the past 5 years.

[jodylovesscotty]

Wow, you guys are some dedicated women! I just thought about it while at the zoo because I saw soooooooo many kids sleeping in their strollers. I am not sure that Zoë would have because she loves to be in the stoller watching everything. She is such a curious child. She does the same thing at daycare (stays up). I know that when we have her home on the weekends and she gets her two good naps she is so much more delightful than when we pick up a cranky child from daycare because she refuses to sleep.

[emschwar]

Our life pretty much revolves around naps too! I occasionally will have to wake Daniel up or wait to put him down so I can pick Noah up/take him to school, but otherwise, we're pretty dedicated to naps! Otherwise, we get a tired, unhappy baby.

[ptcrn]

My baby is pretty much the complete opposite of what you all are describing! He sleeps best in the stroller, car, anything that is moving. We take a walk every day for one of his naps and he falls asleep usually within 5 minutes. I just lie the stroller down flat, walk home and let him sleep in the house in the stroller. Sometimes he'll sleep for 2 hours that way!

I can't believe I haven't posted in this new thread yet! Life just gets so busy and I forget to post. I have been reading along though. I'll come back later with some pictures and updates.

[TracyDP]

Hey there! Just a drive-by post to share a few pictures.

I LOVE this one. I want to enter it into a "cute baby" contest or something :) Fun with peas!

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3015/2548284941_485b87faf9.jpg

And fun at the pool for "parent tot swim". She had SO much fun!

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3191/2549111612_98b0c3b575.jpg

[Jess71903]

We're home from the beach. It was a lot of fun and Gage had a blast. I have skimmed what I missed so I think I'm all caught up.


diapers so my little guy breaks out and is very alergic to pampers diapers. So, now i have a huge box of them that I opened only to find out I can't use them..GREEAT! I honestly have never in my life heard of a baby being alergic to a brand of diapers..its crazy. After 1 month of back and forth to the dr to figure out what the hell the rash, hives, raw red patches on him, we finally figured it out..

Gage does this with just about any diaper. We thought it was a latex thing at first because it's almost always around the sides where the stretchy tabs are, but Pampers and Huggies are supposed to be latex free...who knows. Anyway, this is the reason we have started CDing at home. My stash is very small right now, but a couple of sweet mommies sent me some stuff to try for free and I have bought 2nd hand on diaperswappers.com for some stuff. So far, we really like pocket diapers, like Tracy posted. We're also trying our best to cut out expenses, and while they are expensive to start, it beats $20 a box until potty training. We're still using disposables at night and when we go out, but when our pocket stash grows enough, I hope to be mostly CDing.

naps- I try to not be out EVERY day during nap, but I don't plan my day around naps. He can sleep in the car or sling if we are out. He naps pretty well wherever we are if I can lay him down, so the park on a blanket, or at church on the pew works for him.

So here are a couple of beach bum pics from last week.
http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg233/Jess71903/Destin%2008/IMG_1459-1.jpg
http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg233/Jess71903/Destin%2008/IMG_1450-1.jpg
http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg233/Jess71903/Destin%2008/IMG_1439-1.jpg
Tracy, you make me think about something.... what the heck is it with cartoon characters on diapers anyway? I can't stand them. I hate it when I can see a shadow of elmo thru DS's pants or when my older DS starts asking who each one is. It's also annoying in pictures. And you know we're shelling out extra $$ for the licensing :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:.

No kidding, and I hate that it sometimes rubs off on his clothes.

[Boskie]

Jess, great pictures! Gage is ADORABLE!

I think Olivia is FINALLY STTN. Last night was the third night in a row. I am SO hoping she keeps this up!

[2 Crazy Pugs]

What do you think of painting a 9 month olds toenails? I haven't done it, but someone I work with has a little girl, same age as Sophia, and she came in today with her, and her toenails were painted bright pink! Is that okay? I never even thought of it!

[TracyDP]

No kidding, and I hate that it sometimes rubs off on his clothes.

Awesome pictures of Gage, what a cutie! I hate the cartoons, which is part of why the 7th gen diapers are worth the extra expense, especially since I only use them when out or overnight. One package lasts over a week when it used to last about 2-3 days.

My cloth diaper stash is finally complete. I only have to wash them when the pail is full (and I have a BIG pail) so it's every 2-3 days and I have enough for diapering while the bulk of them are in the wash. I settled mostly on Happy Heinys since they have the best velcro closures, hard for little hands to undo, and I like the inserts the best. They are also the most trim-fitting for under clothes. I've never had a leak with them and no red marks on her legs/bum. I bought about 10 Bum Genius that I use for naps cause the inserts are really thick and absorbant, but kind of bulky under clothes.

QOTD: What is the one thing that will make your DC laugh hysterically every time you do it, or their absolute favorite thing right now? I thought of this today when I had DD on the changing table and was "beating her with socks". She thinks it's the funniest thing ever when I hit her with her socks...(that sounds bad, but you all know what I mean). She just laughs and laughs. She is also fascinated with the cat and will watch her and laugh and flap her arms. The cat is not so amused by her though, she can tell there is trouble coming....

[emschwar]

QOTD Daniel about busts a gut when I put the throw pillow from the couch on his head.

He loves the cat too, but it's nowhere as funny as that pillow.

[TracyDP]

What do you think of painting a 9 month olds toenails? I haven't done it, but someone I work with has a little girl, same age as Sophia, and she came in today with her, and her toenails were painted bright pink! Is that okay? I never even thought of it!

I have thought of it, but I would have to use a tranquilizer to subdue Ellie enough to actually paint her toenails and not her whole toe! She's ticklish on her feet and it's enough of a chore just to keep her gnarly toenails clipped let alone paint them. My guess is they did it while the baby was asleep, but I value her sleep too much to risk waking her up! Besides, if you touch her feet in her sleep she moves them or jerks her leg, so no painted toes for Ellie until she's old enough to sit still for it.

If you did opt to give it a try I'd make sure you get some non-toxic safe polish in case of toe chewing/sucking.

[Taurus]

QOTD: any funny sound, sudden movement or action, anything that remotely resembles "rough housing" like dancing and spinning in circles while I hold him. i think this kid is gonna be fearless. so different from his Buddha brother already. yesterday another parent in art class said watching my mellow older son makes her feel "peaceful." the baby, on the other hand, has not been still since the day we brought him home from the hospital!

[DisneyGirl]

Cloth diaper Question (tracy) What so you do with the poop diapers? Do you rinse then first..the thought of tossing a poop diaper in my washing machine akes me think that cloth diapering is not for me.

painting nails My DD just turned 3 a few days ago and I have yet to paint her toes and i swear i read that you should not paint kids toes until more like 2 yrs old.

[emschwar]

Cloth diaper Question (tracy) What so you do with the poop diapers? Do you rinse then first..the thought of tossing a poop diaper in my washing machine akes me think that cloth diapering is not for me.

heh, I can answer this. Yes, you rinse first. Actually, you can get a sprayer that attaches to your toilet so you can spray the poop off into the toilet. (I looked into CDing, but couldn't convince DH.)

[TracyDP]

Cloth diaper Question (tracy) What so you do with the poop diapers? Do you rinse then first..the thought of tossing a poop diaper in my washing machine akes me think that cloth diapering is not for me.



Actually, Ellie's poops are pretty solid so I've been able to just dump the poop in the toilet without really having to "rinse" at all. A large scoop of Oxyclean in the wash has gotten out any brown left on the diaper, so far I'm stain free. This is the rare diaper I get with poop since she still does most of her poops in her little potty.

If she were to have a runny poop in the cloth diaper I'd rinse it into the toilet with our shower sprayer (it easily reaches to the toilet). You can also buy flushable liners that you can just flush with the poop. I have them but only put one in her diaper around morning nap since about 90% of the time she either poops before or after her morning nap.

My DH (being an "ex hippy now working for the establishment") was much more gung-ho about cloth diapering than I was. We had to come to the compromise of using cloth at home and me using 7th Gen disposable diapers for the diaper bag and traveling. I wasn't going to haul around dirty cloth diapers. Kudos to those moms that do, but I have my limits. I will sometimes take her out in cloth if it's just a run to the store or for coffee and I won't be changing her until we get home.

[hmbay]

Just dropping off a new picture of Sabrina. I had her pictures done at JC Pennys a week ago and just got my online link last night.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v237/hmbay/e8fff867-2c09-11dd-88a7-0016764b4f8.jpg?t=1212674087

[emschwar]

hmbay - What a doll! Look at that hair! We don't have any of that here ;)

I can't remember if I've posted any pics of Daniel lately. Here's 2 I took the other day:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3050/2546417245_69013e09ab.jpg?v=0
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3130/2547240028_00760fe8e9.jpg?v=0

[TracyDP]

Emschwar: Props to the NPR fan! I turn off the TV every day at noon and listen to NPR until around 4pm. Ellie actually talks along to NPR in the car since I almost always have it on. She especially likes Terry Gross on Fresh Air :p I bet there is no 9m old that is more up on current events than my little one...lol

I need to make an appointment for Ellie's 9m photos. I was at BRU one early afternoon about a month ago and the lady working the Kiddie Kandids asked if I wanted a free 8x10 (slow day, no customers). Ellie was in a good mood so I went ahead and did it. I really liked the photographer lady and she got some great pics of DD. The one I chose is sitting framed on our bookshelf now. She works T-TH afternoons so I think I'll go in around 2pm and see her when it's dead and we won't have to hurry.

I am starting a new playgroup in our town at the local library and the first one is this morning at 10:30. It's actually a replacement of a Story Time that they had, but the teacher is leaving and they didn't have anyone to take over. So, in a very un-Tracy like move I volunteered to start a playgroup at that time sine the room was already reserved for that time slot. :eek: I'm a little nervous but I think it's going to be great! I have 6 moms I know are coming from the Story Time, and I've posted it on Mamasource.com for my area and next week there will be an article in the local paper. It's for NB-3yrs old and there is a great park next door to the library so if it's rainy we have the community room and when it's nice out we can go to the park instead.

[hmbay]

emschwar--thanks. She was so crabby and in need of a nap I'm surprised we got such good pictures. Daniel is adorable. Those eyes are just gorgeous--who needs hair with those eyes!

[Jess71903]

We have a tooth! I've been able to see 2 for a week or more, and the first one finally broke through. My little guy's going to look like a beaver with just his top 2!

[2 Crazy Pugs]

Sophia had her 9 month WBV today. She weighs 21 pounds, and is 29 inches long. No teeth yet, but the doc says anytime now, her gum line is thinning out. Growing well, eating well, doing everything she should be doing. Good to hear that I may actually be doing what I am supposed to for her!

[Boskie]

2 Crazy Pugs - That is great! Good for you. Olivia has her 9 month WBV today and I'm really curious to see how much she weighs and how tall she is.

[TracyDP]

I have Ellie's 9m ped appt this week too. I did sit her on my scale and she stayed still long enough to weigh in at 20.9lbs, we'll see how accurate it is. She outgrew her infant seat by height so she's in her big girl Britax Marathon now. She's a tall girl, but not surprizing considering I'm 5'8", DH is 5'11" and Grandma and 2 aunts are all near 6'. She's tall and thin so she still has 6m pants that fit her, only they look like capri pants now. I even found a pair of 3/6m jeans that fit her perfectly, only the legs go to just below her knees...lol :p

We are going in for 9m pictures today. I never got professional 6m done so I figure I'll get some for fathers day. My DH wants to send some pictures to his father who has not really been a part of his life since he was a child. We got a check and card for our wedding from him, but have not heard anything from him since Ellie was born. DH is giving him one more chance to step up and be Grandpa and if he doesn't respond then he's done with him, it will be closure and he can move on with his life. Because it's fathers day I let DH pick out one outfit for pictures, then I'll pick out the other one.

[2 Crazy Pugs]

Tracy- Sophia's clothes are the same way, all her pants are like capris, but the 18 month clothes are too long. I let her wear the pants like capris and roll up the other ones. But she has been wearing her summer dresses since its so hot here now (I am in Maine, it hit 98 here yesterday and today its 92)- she went in the lake yesterday with me, and loved it! Even though the water was cold- it felt good since she was so hot. Thank god we didn't get rid of our window air conditioner, we put it in last night because I was so worried about her not being able to sleep since it was so hot out.

[TracyDP]

Tracy- Sophia's clothes are the same way, all her pants are like capris, but the 18 month clothes are too long. I let her wear the pants like capris and roll up the other ones. But she has been wearing her summer dresses since its so hot here now (I am in Maine, it hit 98 here yesterday and today its 92)- she went in the lake yesterday with me, and loved it! Even though the water was cold- it felt good since she was so hot. Thank god we didn't get rid of our window air conditioner, we put it in last night because I was so worried about her not being able to sleep since it was so hot out.

I'm insanely jealous of your weather! It's been unseasonably cool and wet here (in already cool, wet Oregon) and if I don't start seeing some sunshine soon I'm going to go crazy! Ellie is still wearing long sleeves and has a closet full of cute summer clothes she is barely going to be able to wear before it gets cold and rainy again this fall :rolleyes: Ellie is going to be wearing 2 summer outfits for her pictures today but I'm going to have to put a hoodie on her for the ride there! Ugh. Sometimes I miss Phoenix.

Anyone else having 9m sleeping issues? We've been having a lot of restless bedtimes lately. It seems the "sweet spot" between not tired enough and too tired has become about 5 minutes long and if I am too early or too late then Ellie has a hard time settling down. We have done the cowards CIO. I give her bedtime routine, then a bottle and if she is still awake at the end of the bottle I put her in the crib awake. She usually plays for about 15-20 minutes then either falls asleep or gets fussy. If she gets fussy I go in and sit with her again and see if she sucks her thumb and hugs her bear until she falls asleep. If she keeps playing on my lap I put her back in the crib. Rinse, repeat until she either falls asleep in her crib or on my lap. It seems to be about 50/50 falling asleep on my lap or in her crib. I don't want to do straight CIO since one way or the other she is usually asleep at most an hour after I put her down. Knock on wood, her naps are still pretty good. I think all the pulling up, crawling, moving is keeping her nice and tired for naps.

[DisneyGirl]

weather All I can say is its HOT HOT and more HOT here. We have been holding at an awful 95-98 degrees since Friday..ACK!

[Boskie]

Olivia had her 9 month WBV yesterday. She is 18 lbs 8 oz and 27 1/2 in tall. I thought for sure she was over 20 lbs!

[Jess71903]

Tracy- sleep issues here for sure, but mostly due to teething, I think. We had a horrible night, night before last and naps yesterday were 30 minutes long, then last night was better.

Is it bad that I plan to skip the 9m WBV? It's just a weight check anyway, so I wasn't going to go. He gets weighed plenty with all of our trips to SB clinic.

[Boskie]

Jess - For a weight check, I'd be really tempted to skip it as well. Olivia got shots yesterday, so we went. Thankfully, she took them really well and only cried for a minute.

[emschwar]

Our ped doesn't do shots at 9m. It's a growth and development check, and they test the iron levels.

[hmbay]

I know there are no shots at our 9 month but I'm not sure what else they all check. I have to postpone mine until probably 9.5 months anyhow. Since I went contract work I'm still waiting on my independant health insurance to be approved and since they cover WBV's 100% (but everything else is subject to a high deductible) I don't want to take her until I don't have to pay for it. ;)

[2 Crazy Pugs]

Sophia had 2 shots at her 9 month WBV also. The doc also looked at her skin (she has mastocytosis and is on zyrtec) and we have to have a follow up with a pediatric dermatologist to see if we can stop giving her the zyrtec. That appointment is on Friday.

[Boskie]

We won't have the iron level check until her 1 year appt. It is interesting to see how different doctors schedule things.

[DisneyGirl]

no shots at K's 9 month well visit and iron check at 1 yr.

[TracyDP]

We had 2 shots at our 9m visit today, but thats because they were left over from her 6m visit since I'm breaking them up. DD doesn't really cry with shots, she just kind of looks at the nurse like "Um, ow...that hurt" and whines. She weighed in at 20.6lbs and 29 inches. She's a tall girl! The ped checked her ears since she had been grabbing her right one and kind of hitting herself on the side of the face there like it hurt. She didn't see anything but when she checked DD's mouth she said her right front tooth is VERY close to cutting through and is swollen and red. She said the nerves on the top teeth are tied to the nerves of the face/ear so babies often act like their ear hurts when they cut top teeth. Kind of made sense to me. Looks like a few nights of fussiness are coming if this tooth is anything like the previous ones. Thank goodness it's only one tooth this time though. Better stock up on the infant Ibuprofin.

I talked to my friend Susan today and we have our arrangement for her to take DD every Tuesday through summer :D. I can't wait to have a predictable day to plan some things I need to get done. She will be taking her all day from about 9am-6pm so I can do some cleaning early then do errands. Yay! And Grandma is taking her this Friday night overnight so DH and I can go out for Fathers Day. Double Yay! :)

[Suzlywoozly]

Gosh where is the time going? I can't believe DS is going to be 10 months! He had his 9 month WBV a couple weeks ago and he weighs 19lbs13oz and is 29.5" long. He is super skinny and super long. I am having serious issues with pants. He can easily wear 3-6 month pants for the waist size but needs 12-18 months for the length. He has four teeth on the bottom and the two top teeth are getting ready to pop through anytime.

I wanted to report back about the constipation issue and what the Ped. said about it. He said to continue to give him apple juice or apple/prune juice as needed. I give him a couple ounces diluted with water. It usually does the trick within a couple hours. I just hate to give him juice. Scooter recommended that we try flaxseed oil as an alternative but I haven't had the chance to pick any up yet.

Here is a recent picture... I take his picture every month in front of this ginormous bear. It is crazy to look back at all the monthly pictures and to see how much he has grown each month.

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb182/suzlywoozly/IMG_8700-1.jpg?t=1213284659

[TracyDP]

Suzly, SO CUTE! We have the same long & lean problem here too. I found a pair of 3/6m denim "jeans" that fit her waist but go just below her knee.

We have a top right front tooth popping through! It must be coming in at a slight angle because half of it shows now through the gum but the other half is still coming. Thank heavens it has been a MUCH easier process than the 2 bottom teeth. Some minor trouble sleeping, but a dose of motrin and a little extra TLC at bedtime seems to have taken care of most of the fussiness.

[Jess71903]

Great pic, Suz! He is SO cute! We do that too, with a tiger. I love looking bakc at all of them.
Here is Gage's 9 month one:
http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg233/Jess71903/IMG_1487.jpg

ETA: As you can see, we do NOT have a "long and lean" problem ;)

Tracy- I remember you posting a long time ago about possible tooth issues with your DD...like it looked like it was coming in on the side or something? Did you ever find out what that was?

[emschwar]

Daniel had his 9 month check up today. He's 14 lbs 2 oz (so far off the charts we're in negative percentiles ;)), 27.5 inches long (25th percentile) and his head is 18" (50th percentile. I've got a lollipop.

[DisneyGirl]

Daniel had his 9 month check up today. He's 14 lbs 2 oz (so far off the charts we're in negative percentiles ;)), 27.5 inches long (25th percentile) and his head is 18" (50th percentile. I've got a lollipop.

Holly cow, you have a tiny little guy(weight). LOL, LOL about your lollipop comment...too cute!

[TracyDP]

ETA: As you can see, we do NOT have a "long and lean" problem ;)

LOL...that's pretty funny. I have to say that every time you post a picture of Gage I just can't stop looking at it. He's just got a very mellow, happy spirit and it even comes through in his pictures. You've got a special little guy there. :)

Tracy- I remember you posting a long time ago about possible tooth issues with your DD...like it looked like it was coming in on the side or something? Did you ever find out what that was?

Yeah, it was something called "Bohns Nodules". They are a kind of cyst that forms in the gumline. Some babies get them on the roof of the mouth too but they are called Epsteins Pearls in that location (a lot more common than the Bohns Nodules). Just a weird benign thing some babies get. They just sort of went away. I couldn't see them if I didn't look for them and I forgot for a long time. I looked about a month ago and could barely see a little white dot where the biggest one was, and now they are gone completely.

Naps: Do you think that a 9m old might be ready to start moving to 1 nap a day? The last 3 days, and a few random days in the last few weeks, Ellie has either taken a VERY short nap and a much longer nap, or only one nap (fairly long one). Like yesterday she woke at 8:30, we had playgroup at 10:30 and she fell asleep on the way home in the car at 11:30. She only slept like 20 minutes and usually she would go down in her crib when we got home and sleep another hour. Nope, I put her down and she sat in her crib and sang, played, talked to her bear,climbed around :confused: She didn't get fussy, but I went in twice to see if she would go to sleep on my lap. Nope, she wanted to play so I put her back in the crib. Then I got her out after an hour when it was clear she wasn't going to sleep. Then, right after a late lunch around 3pm I took her in and she was asleep on my lap in about 5 minutes and slept for almost 2.5 hours and went to bed just fine at 8:30pm.

Today she did the same thing in reverse at Grandmas (1 hr morning nap, playing, singing etc. for afternoon nap), and twice last week she only took a 30min or less nap in the car for one of her naps, but took a 2 hour nap for the other one and went to sleep just fine for naptime. She does STTN usually 12 hours straight so maybe she just doesn't need 2 whole naps anymore? She doesn't seem overly cranky on the days she gets one nap so she must be getting enough sleep. I figure if she was tired enough at nap she would fall sleep while she's talking to herself in her crib (which she routinely does at night), or if she was overstimulated or over-tired she would be fussy. I thought maybe it was the teething but then I wouldn't think she'd be happy and playing for "naptime", she'd also be fussy...:confused: Who knows. Baby sleep is like an enigma wrapped in a mystery wrapped in a lovey bear blanky. :rolleyes:

[2 Crazy Pugs]

Tracy- Sophia has been doing that with her naps also. She has only been taking one for the past week or so at daycare. She also sleeps 12 hours at night. Today she woke up at 9:00, after getting to bed around 9:00 last night. No nap until around 3:00, but she slept until 5:30. Up for dinner, playtime, bath, bottle and is in bed now, went down around 9:00.

[TracyDP]

Tracy- Sophia has been doing that with her naps also. She has only been taking one for the past week or so at daycare. She also sleeps 12 hours at night. Today she woke up at 9:00, after getting to bed around 9:00 last night. No nap until around 3:00, but she slept until 5:30. Up for dinner, playtime, bath, bottle and is in bed now, went down around 9:00.

Yup, that sounds familiar, but I think Ellie is more of a morning nap & long stretch in the afternoon type girl. She did it today again at Grandmas (she spent the night last night), woke up at 8am took a nap in the morning 10:30-noon then no nap (grandma tried, twice) until I picked her up at 6pm. She slept in the car for an hour on the way home, now it's 9pm and she has been in her crib playing and talking to herself for almost 45 min. If she had not taken the hour nap in the car I'd have just put her down around 7:30 with no nap and I bet she would have gone right out. She was SO tired but just wouldn't fall asleep in my lap so I put her in her crib. Hopefully she is asleep now and just needed the time to "unwind" before crashing out. We don't do CIO here, we do WIO...Whine It Out. :rolleyes: I would be surprized if she wakes up any earlier than 9am tomorrow. Fine by me :)

I think I'll keep trying for 2 naps this week, but if she keeps just playing and not sleeping I'll give up and see if I can push her morning nap to 4 hours after she gets up instead of 3 which is what I've been doing. I also think I'll start putting her down earlier, I think I might be waiting until she's a little too tired and that's why she's having a harder time settling down. Like I said before, these days her "sweet spot" when she falls asleep in my lap and goes down asleep is about 10 minutes long...otherwise it's WIO.

[jodylovesscotty]

Zoë's naps have been much shorter, but she is going to bed earlier and sleeping longer. Who knows. Over the summer though (probably August) I am going to try to work on one nap since when she goes back to daycare she will be moving up to the next room (in Sept.) and they go to one nap a day from noon to 2.

I am finally home for the summer. I am so happy to stay home with my little one. I think I have the best of both worlds. I don't think I could ever be a 100% SAHM. But with teaching I get the summers off as well as all kinds of breaks.

Zoë has her 9 month check up next Monday. I know from the scale she is over 20lbs. We are installing her new car seat today. We got a Britax Roundabout. Funny thing is that we bought a Kansas State one (we live in Ohio) because it was only $129. Now we have to find a new cover that we like. This one is bright purple. But it saved so much money:) And it was manufactured in 2008.

[sabrespa]

Zach had his 9 month wbv today.
weight:22.5
Height: 29 5/8

He has a horrible case of eczema, so we left with a prescription for that. He didn't get any shots so it wasn't too horrible for him.

Jody~ That's an awesome deal!

[TracyDP]

Zoë has her 9 month check up next Monday. I know from the scale she is over 20lbs. We are installing her new car seat today. We got a Britax Roundabout. Funny thing is that we bought a Kansas State one (we live in Ohio) because it was only $129. Now we have to find a new cover that we like. This one is bright purple. But it saved so much money:) And it was manufactured in 2008.

I finally got off my butt and installed Ellie's new car seat. I got a Britax Marathon during the Britax sale last February and it's been sitting in our hallway since then! I was planning on turning her to forward facing when she turned 1yr because it is a HUGE pita to get her in and out of our Honda Element rear facing. But, I saw a video of crash tests with rear vs. forward facing (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psmUWg7QrC8&NR=1)for young babies and OMG it had me in tears by the end. I had NO idea how much safer it is to rear face. Now Ellie will be rear facing until she reaches the weight limit for the seat, pita or not. I won't mess with her safety. She seems to like the seat, I think it's a lot more comfortable for her than the infant bucket. She falls asleep in it even easier than in the infant seat.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3021/2583897263_f83f8c004f_m.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3002/2583898129_005566996f.jpg

[jodylovesscotty]

sabrespa~ Zoe has eczema as well. She has had it since she was a month or two old. We see a pediatric demotalogist for it. What did they give you for it? I found that peditricians give you stuff you really shouldn't use, not to scare you. The best advice I have for you too is: 1. use cetaphil cleanser instead of any of that baby stuff 2. Use the cetaphil lotion that comes in a tub (if it comes in a pump it is too thin). 3. Use things with no fragrance (sunscreen we use nutrogena sensitive skin). Once we get her under control those things seem to keep her skin hydrated and well. We haven't had to use any steroids for at least 2 months now.

TracyDP~ Those pictures are too cute. I hope that Zoe likes her carseat as well. We plan to keep it rear facing as long as we can. She doesn't seem to mind right now.

[hmbay]

jodylovesscotty--interesting about the steriod cream. Ped gave me some for Sabrina at her 6 month checkup and warned me not to use it more than 10 days in a row. I use it a day or two in a row here and there as it flairs up but by no means use it regularily. I might try the cetaphil stuff instead as the whole "don't use it more than ten days in a row" kind of made leery of using it at all.

[DisneyGirl]

Zach had his 9 month wbv today.
weight:22.5
Height: 29 5/8

He has a horrible case of eczema, so we left with a prescription for that. He didn't get any shots so it wasn't too horrible for him.



What were you given for his eczema?

K has it as well and I was wondering what works for him.

[DisneyGirl]

Jody Thanks for the tips..I will be heading to the store today to buy the things you recommended.

[Taurus]

Great links (with product reviews) on skin care products. It's amazing to me that companies put known irritants (balsam, fragrance, etc) in things such as diaper cream, which is going on the most vulnerable skin!

Baby Skin Care (http://cosmeticscop.com/learn/art.asp?ID=387)
Battle Plan for Eczema (http://cosmeticscop.com/learn/art.asp?ID=141)