PS Mommy Thread-Newborn to 12 months!

[Mara]

tao ..E is so cute! love his big hair.

so someone (coughJcough) seems to be going through some type of 6.5mo wakeful. the last 2 days he has wanted to wake earlier than normal, the first day at 6:30am and this morning at 5:30am and squeal and talk to himself in his crib. he never fusses just babbles, squeals, screams, etc. since our house is thisbig it totally wakes me up. so i tried soothing 2-3x and finally i just loaded him with formula and changed his diaper so we could get back to sleep. he slept til 9am then, WHEW. i really need this wkd to try to catch up on sleep to finally 1000% kick this cold and get back to tip top shape for work (bah).

amber, i think i remember you guys going through this too with P and maybe it's STILL kinda going on?? usually most times i can just bink him and move on but a few times this week he seems to want to get up earlier than normal. and going down for naps and the like is harder too, he just seems so ALERT all the time suddenly. but he's EXHAUSTED by 6:30pm--earlier than normal and he's a supercrab rubbing eyes at that point. oh and he's suddenly become a pro at tossing his binky out of the crib into the BACK of the corner where i can't get it--this happens 2x a night and we only have 3 in the house since my mom has the other 3. i might have to get some more.

anyhow, other than that he's been a total joy the last few days... super interactive with us and all smiley and squealy. i find him just more and more fun as he gets older.

we have a friend coming over today and bringing her baby who is just 2 days older than J. i love seeing the boys together...can't wait to take some pics!!

 

[gingerB]

question: any thing to consider when buying a sippy cup? there are so many out there, how do i choose? looking at the NUK learner.

on another note. my bro snaps this pic and send to his fiancee with the msg "feeding himself".



his fiancee messages back "are we talking about aiden or [DH]?" ROFLMAO!!! he hadn't noticed DH in the back. take note the exact positioning of the head and the precise placement of the hands. what can i say...like father like son =D best picture EVER.

 

[somethingshiny]

Thanks for the info on the teether. That's a great idea! Definitely will be getting one in a few months.

Lily has a cardiology appt tomorrow so any dust or prayers would be much appreciated!

 

[AmberWaves]

Hey Mara,

Yeah, we are STILL in the middle of "Crazy I never sleep ever never again" Piper. I am PRAYING it's a teething thing. And yes, she went through the same thing from like, 4 months to right before her 7 month birthday when she finally STTN- for a month. Back then it was waking once or twice and now it's like, three-five times a night- EVERY night. I don't know what to do, really. I tried CIO and she just got progressively more and more agitated and it took me even longer to put her back to sleep than it would if I went in there, soothed her and put her back down. I'm at a loss. I'm also SUPER anxious when I go to bed, totally worrying about how many times she'll wake up that night. Amber = The Mom Who Goes to Bed at 9pm.

Hello to everyone else, I love love love the pictures. I'm just suuuuuuuper swamped right now. We're actually taking a mini-vacation this week to San Diego with the baby starting Thursday. I am so looking forward to it I can't even say.

SS: GOOD LUCK tomorrow!!

JCrow: We also had a leakage issue for awhile with the BD diapers. I found that I just wasn't tabbing them closed tightly enough. I worried she was uncomfortable, but it appears to not be an issue.

 

[lili]

Ginger--
LOL....great picture.
I was going to say "like father like son" before reading your insert

 

[Mara]

ginger.. we got two green sprouts ones (i was just at WF and wanted to get one and that is what they sold)... one that is non leak with like a bottle spout, and one that is normal with just a little flattish spout. J did not like the no leak so i removed the 'non-leak' part to make it a regular sippy cup. he loves the other one. however he gets like 1/10 of it in his mouth and 9/10 of it on his outfit because he shakes it with his hand so it comes out. it's just water but we always have to change him afterwards. however he loves the regular sippy cup and i know eventually he'll get it. also he takes drinks of water from our regular glasses and LOVES it. again 1/10 in the mouth. i know they have ones more like bottles to kind of more easily move them over but i'm actually glad we went this route so he can have the fun of figuring it out.

amber... i am so sorry P isn't settling down. that is my secret fear for J.. that he'll keep getting 'worse' with his wakeups. it's so hard to know why .. shots, teething, whatever. sometimes he wakes up like 3 hours after he falls asleep totally crying... but we don't know WHY? until they can talk it's so hard to know. and girl I am in bed at 10pm usually!! and ditto on CIO-- whenever i have tried it, he seems to just get more agitated, it seems hardly worth it for anyone at this point. maybe when he's another month or two.

someone was a superfuss this afternoon-- not much seemed to please him. i don't know why but sunday afternoons i am always looking fwd to work on monday. what is up with THAT???

oh and we tried plain greek yogurt this wkd and he loved it mixed with mango puree and a bit of oatmeal. that is what he had 3 days in a row for lunch and he was mowing it down every time.

 

[Allison D.]

Just wanted to drop in with an update - the PS dust works remarkably well. The little guy who I mentioned a few months ago was born at just 4.6 lbs on June 29 is my godson, L.

He's now up to a robust 7.5 lbs and going strong. I spent the afternoon with him taking his newborn photos.

 

[MonkeyPie]

Just wanted to drop in with an update - the PS dust works remarkably well. The little guy who I mentioned a few months ago was born at just 4.6 lbs on June 29 is my godson, L.

He's now up to a robust 7.5 lbs and going strong. I spent the afternoon with him taking his newborn photos.

OMG that one is so cute - kissy lips! Congrats!

Ginger, that picture is HILARIOUS. What perfect timing there!

I'm sure I'm missing people but I need to get Micah up for the day in a minute so I just have a few seconds to post, and since I missed BPF I wanted to post this one. I actually took it on Saturday but I looooove it so much - cutest picture of baby and grandpa EVER. Micah gets downright giddy when grandpa so much as looks at him, he is very much partial to Abuelo.

 

[KimberlyH]

ginger, we have a few avent sippies and a few playtex. she has a harder time with avents, but they're new so she's only used one once. i didn't contemplate brand, just told dh to buy some. great picture!

mp, that is darling.

ss, lots of good thoughts for lily and your family.

amber, enjoy your time in our fair city!

 

[ChargerGrrl]

morning
PS babies are the cutest- LOVE all the pics

sorry to swoop in with just a question- seems like that's all i do lately.

Nico has his 2-month pedi visit today, and I know that he's getting a couple of vacs (like 4, i think?). Anything I can/should do to prep? We visited with some friends yesterday- the mom mentioned that I should give him Children's Tylenol BEFORE we see the pedi. The instructions i got from the pedi (at the last visit) were to bring the Tylenol with us. I'll give them a call in a bit but thought I'd put the question out there...

Any advice on that or any other tips for this visit?

THANKS in advance

 

[Mara]

CG if you are using Tylenol make sure it's not the recalled Tylenol--you can google about it but they recalled all Tylenol like 2 months ago maybe? we are now using Generic non-Tylenol (Walgreens or Target or something) but I imagine if you bought it really recently at the store it would be ok? Not sure.

That said--we brought it with us and dosed him like 1/2 a dose just right before the shots. This is how it seems most Moms I talked to did it. There is also some stuff out there that says that it might reduce the efficacy of the shots if you do it BEFORE they get them but our pedi and/or shot nurse never said anything about not doing it. So we just do a 1/2 a dose before and then follow up with another 1/2 a dose or full dose right before bed so like 3-4 hours later. That is all we have had to do really. Good luck!!

 

[vizsla]

amber - oh girl... i know exactly how you are feeling right now. it's awful! you can never really settle at night, instead you are worrying how often your LO will wake up, what you will do when they do wake up and how long they will be awake. it's exhausting and terrifying and impossible to be 'yourself' without sleep. plus, you start to dread going to bed.
what are you currently doing when she wakes up? are you feeding her? soothing? binking? does she settle down and/or sleep longer if she is in bed with you? i found that during c's 5-6-wake-up-at-night-period it was just easier to bring C into bed with us. some nights, when i would feel him waking up, i could quickly pat his bum and he would go back to sleep. other times i would actually have to sit up and hold him, but it was so much easier to stay in bed and do this than getting up out of bed. mentally it worked. i might also suggest taking piper to the pedi just to make sure there isn't an underlying medical condition (such as ear infection etc) that is causing her to wake up?

mara - i would be a little freaked if c was in a home with an older child too. i get nervous about c while he's at school class when just the bigger babies seem overly aggressive i wouldn't worry too much about j getting a cold. they don't typically cause that much discomfort. it does suck to deal with them when they are a little fussy, but they aren't too much trouble - we have a battery operated 'booger sucker' which has been AWESOME! and c thinks is hilarious when we use it colds are just a fact of life now that he's putting everything under the sun in his mouth.. i think c is on his 10th cold.
i just try and think positive, like c is going to be the healthiest toddler - getting all of these immunities out of the way now.

ss - glad to hear the bleeding stopped, but not that you are going thru PPD. (((hugs))) i went thru a low point when i brought c home from the hospital and all of the problems that came along with him. it is so scary! and not at all how anyone imagines life with baby. i'm glad the zoloft is working!! ((hugs))

cute pictures everyone!!

well, our road trip was a semi success. i left friday night around bed time - i did our normal bedtime routine and put him in the car. he was awake for about 45 mins of the trip and then slept the rest of the time the only hiccup was when we got to my sister's house he wasn't tired anymore and stayed awake for another 3 hours the dude also knows the second i try and put him in the PNP. no pulling the wool over his eyes. i can lay him on the bed just fine, but the PNP the ride home was a little more challenging. i left after his morning nap and he was awake for almost the entire trip. i also had to do a mid ride poopy diaper change and c was not happy to go back into the car seat. but a sippy cup, empty bottle of water, singing, opening up the windows, and playing peek a boo in the rearview mirror were all nice distractions.

c is having some poo issues again and has thrush.
i started to do some research/thinking and noticed that the last time he had poo issues we had been giving him teething biscuits and puffs. we stopped until he started to have regular poos again and then started giving him puffs again late last week. coincidentally, we are having issues again. i'm thinking it has to do with either the wheat or gluten in the puffs/teething biscuits. thrush can also be a symptom of a wheat/gluten intolerance. we have an apt with the pedi tomorrow so she can check him out and we can talk about this. either way, i'm staying away from wheat and gluten for awhile. instead of puffs i've been giving him puffed rice cereal which he LOVES! he is also really liking to feed himself food-food over purees. this weekend he gobbled up an egg yolk, and some super ripe peaches and plums - last night i even cooked a little bell and evans chicken tender and shredded it up for him to nom nom on.

guess that's all for now! chat at you later!

 

[phoenixgirl]

Ginger, I've tried a whole bunch of sippy cups. So far the only Claire has taken much to is the Nuby two handle cup with soft spout. I think she likes it because the soft spout is similar to a bottle nipple and she can hold onto it herself (sometimes). Funny picture!

Allison, your godson is beautiful! I'm glad he's gaining weight and doing well.

Viz, glad your trip was (mostly) a success! I hope the pedi can give you some insight on the wheat.


Claire has figured out how to get from lying down to sitting up. She gets on her stomach and then rotates her legs around, I swear, like 180 degrees. This girl loves sitting up; she won't even get out of the position to figure out how to crawl. I think we're going to go from scooting to walking.

I'm heading to the doctor (for me) in a bit because my allergies have gone cray-cray. Ugh. In the past I would have just taken a bunch of OTC stuff, but I'm trying really hard to stay away from anything that might decrease my milk supply. I have not come this far to give up now! But if I'm miserable and can't function, I'm not doing Claire any favors either. Hopefully I can get a good nasal spray; I read that those have less of an impact on milk production.

 

[KimberlyH]

cg, we've never given jane medicine for shots until this last round. we were told it reduces the eficacy to medicate beforehand and she never had a fever or seemed uncomfortable until the 6 m vaccines. we gave her acetametaphin. ask your md about dosage.

 

[vizsla]

pg - my alergies are cray cray (tee hee) too! it's awful!!
i don't like to take medicine and have been using a netti pot. DH also uses a capsaicin nasal spray that really helps to clear out the airways. i tried it and likened it to being sprayed with pepper spray, but more manageable
you are my BF hero!! i'm going to be just like you on viz v.2.0

 

[drk]

Sorry I've been MIA for so long. I couldn't keep up with the thread with the stress of the past week with the pumping-at-work issues.

I thought things were resolved on Sunday, only to come in on Monday to be told things had to be discussed with still more people. And in the meantime, I'd have to hold up my list to pump. Then they asked me to see the hospital lactation consultant to talk about my pumping schedule and if anything could be done to help me out in terms of decreasing frequency or increasing my output. Never mind that I'd already seen about 6-7 lactation consultants before then. And never mind that I was in endoscopy and the day could go on without me, just with less-than-optimal care for the patients.
The GI docs I was working with that day both thought the whole thing was ridiculous, and the morning one suggested I get in touch with a lawyer through my malpractice association, as the restrictions from the pumping could affect my scope of practice and my income. The afternoon guy was on the medical staff association committee, which represents docs in dealings with hospital admin. He said he'd speak to the bigwigs on my behalf.
Mon night I hardly slept. I'd spoken with a lawyer, but DH and I weren't sure we wanted to go that route and make me very unloved when my privileges aren't yet totally secure and I'm at the start of my career. We'd also had a so-so nanny interview that night, and the fourth candidate we wanted to interview had already taken another job, so I was terrified we'd not get one of our top couple candidates unless we sped up the selection process a lot. And Tues I had scheduled myself to go give anesthetics at a private dental clinic for the first time (invited by one doc who was totally supportive of me pumping in the OR), so I was anxious about that.
Tues I called the nursing director who seemed to be coming up with all the objections (the latest of which were that me pumping might distract the nurses in the OR, that the pump might malfunction, causing me pain and distracting me from the patient, and that she'd been told by the lactation consultant that I only had to pump every 4 hours). She seemed nice enough, and I asked to meet with her to go through the objections so we could come up with a mutually satisfactory solution. I met with her Wed and pumped while we talked, and by the end of the talk she'd agreed that I could continue to pump in the OR as long as I step outside the OR room to put on or take off the pump and dump the milk into a storage container.
What a relief that was!
Thurs we verbally agreed to hire a nanny after a trial run on Wed night. Of course K totally misbehaved and had a hissy fit while she was there, so we thought she might have been scared off. We signed the contract with her yesterday.

K seems to be getting a little more high-maintenance these days. She's 5 months today, and the hissy fits seem to be coming a little more often. We've been trying out not waking her at night to eat, and she'll sleep from about 9-9:30pm to 7:30-8:15am. Naps during the day aren't so hot though.

My 83-year-old FIL is coming to visit for 2.5 weeks starting tomorrow. Hope it goes well.

Ginger so sorry to read about the loss of your milk. It was almost enough to make me cry! I can't believe you've had that much stashed away. How do you manage to squeeze in pumping at work? Are you maintaining your supply with only 1 pump during the work day? He's a real cutie - love that last pic!

RE Shots K was fine with the shots. Comforted her with BF the first set, the second set she stuffed her fingers in her mouth and was happy within 10s. She did develop a mild fever the first night each time, which I treated with tylenol. I didn't premedicate her or anything.

 

[phoenixgirl]

DRK, glad you got the pumping at work and nanny stuff resolved to your liking. 5 months is when Claire suddenly went from always happy to having crying bouts, and we finally figured out that she was developing separation anxiety (after daycare made us come get her because they thought she must be sick since she never cried before that). Maybe K sort of sensed why the nanny was there? Hopefully it will get better once she gets acclimated to her.

That's great that K is sleeping so long at night!!! If you don't just pass out right when she goes to bed, can you get in an extra pumping session at night? That's how I was able to pump enough for work since I had a wonky pumping schedule where I often had to go 4 to 5
hours between pump sessions.


OK, so I'm getting a nasal spray (Nasonex). I really hope this helps because I'm having to take ibuprofen and benadryl just to survive. I've given up exercise and my sleep is not great. I'm also going to pick up some fenugreek to make sure my milk stays on track through all of this.

 

[ChargerGrrl]

THANKS for the replies on the shots & pre-medicating. I called the pedi to get their take and they advised to wait until we're there to administer the Tylenol so they can weigh him and then give the correct dosage. I hope the shots don't affect my little man too much!

DrK- glad that you're good to go with both pumping at work and the new nanny

PG- I hope that the nasal spray doesn't affect your supply- that would suck! My LC really likes Goat's Rue as a supplement. I usually take Motherlove's MORE MILK SPECIAL BLEND (which includes the Goat's Rue), but am out of it at the moment and had to make due with another supplement. Unfortunately this one does not include Goat's Rue. I did notice a wee dip in supply, so had to locate just the Goat's Rue to take with the other supplement. Anyway, just thought I'd mention it!

 

[drk]

CG - hope the shots went well!

PG - my pumping schedule during weekdays is basically go to bed at 10pm, get up a bit before 1am and pump, get up a little before 5am and pump, get up and drive to work while pumping at 7:20am, then pump at 9:30/11:30/13:30 at work, then again at 15:30 on my way home, and at 17:30/19:30/21:30 at home. If it's a weekend, I'll generally skip the 7:20am pump session so I can sleep in. Wow, somehow I thought it was only 8-9 times a day I pumped, not 9-10. Yikes! Hopefully I'll be able to keep up the brutal pumping schedule another 5 weeks and make it to the 6 month mark.

ETA - I've officially had another gross mommy first: fishing a "floater" out of the tub with my bare hands. couldn't she have waited a few more minutes for mommy to get her diaper on first??

 

[MonkeyPie]

I finally got a picture! Introducing, The Toof!

Ugh, ignore my husbands long nail - we lost the clippers

 

[Allison D.]

I finally got a picture! Introducing, The Toof!

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwww - I can't believe it! Already!

 

[MonkeyPie]

I finally got a picture! Introducing, The Toof!

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwww - I can't believe it! Already!

Took us three tries to get that shot, and he drooled EVERYWHERE lol. His poor carseat was soaked. My little baby

 

[gingerB]

mp - LOVE the toof!

drk - wow, and i thought I had a crazy pump schedule! i did something similar during the first 10 weeks when i was at home, but unfortunately my field doesn't accomadate pumping at all. since i'm on the wards and in clinic, i can only pump at lunch. lol...can you imagine me flying down the hospital corridors hooked up to my pump as i make my rounds. uh...no. my supply took a hit, but i was managing really well actually, until Aunt Flo came to town and has, well IS, single handedly destroying my supply. at exactly the same time i found out my freezer broke. nice how life deals you these little hands once in a while huh? i'm really glad you got the nanny and work/pump thing worked out. it is so hard to be a working mom as it is...i don't understand why people sometimes go out of their way to make it even harder.

thanks for the sippy cup recs!

A is now more consistently crawling on his knees. and umm, has managed to pull himself up to standing position a few times on his own. i swear, i don't know why this kid is in such a hurry...seriously, where's he got to go? lol.

he's gotten more wary of strangers now. when new people come over, he no longer immediately accepts them and will kind of cling to me a bit, checking them out. once he's decided they're cool, it's all good. kinda loving that he differentiates us from other people.

tomorrow is his 6 month pedi visit. can't wait to see his stats! but feel bad for the booger cuz he's getting shots

 

[Mara]

Cute tooth, MP! that looks a lot like what is hovering under J's skin too (kind of a white blob looking thing) so we'll see. I am not in any rush though because I will miss that gummy little smile.

DRK lol we had our first floater yesterday too. Greg was like..I think he's trying to do something then a few minutes later Oh I think he did something, YUP.

ginger I can't believe that A is just barely 6mo and he is already crawling/creeping AND pulling to stand. way 'ADVANCED'..hehe. hope shots go ok.

So I'm sitting here listening to J cry it out. Friggin' torture. He sounds horrible but all he's doing is flipping around. It's been like 15 minutes but it feels like forever. Also today he put the paci in twice by himself so I think he's getting more ready to be on his own for nighttime. I am going to get him those nighttime pacis and start scattering them around the crib.

The other reason I am thinking that we need to do some CIO with him at least for certain times (aka this first bedtime is easier because we are awake) is because he's starting to get really needy. Today and yesterday on our 1 hour walk he had toys, blanket, awesome scenery, paci, etc and he fussed almost the entire time. And as soon as you pay him attn he is all smiles. So I spent like 1/2 the way singing to him and keeping him from crying. Today, similar thing. I am starting to feel like he just wants our attn and doesn't want to be left on his own at all. I just don't want to create a monster--of course he is a baby and needs our love and attn but not 24/7, he's 6mo old and that is old enough IMO to realize he is cool playing on his own and doing things on his own for small periods of time, without our absolute CONSTANT input. I think part of it is that at my Mom's house he always has my Mom and/or Sis near him spending time with him and it's kind of creating this 'I always need to be with someone' kind of attitude.

HA HA and while typing this (it takes me forever nowadays to type posts!) we realized that poor Portia was stuck in the baby's room with him!! she was scratching on the door but we couldn't hear her for like 10 min. I snuck over and opened it to let her out and thankfully he fell asleep within 5 min after that. I went in to check on him and he's fine. 20 min total... not bad I know in the scheme of things, but still torture for everyone involved!!

I know it's not totally consistent but I will prob not be able to stomach doing nighttime CIO but if I am consistent with 'bedtime CIO' then maybe it'll rub off? It's an experiment but we'll see.

 

[AmberWaves]

Selfish post: So far I had been with P for an HOUR trying to get her to sleep, she's in my arms and flip flopping all over the place, rocking in the glider. She was NOT going to sleep even though I KNOW she was tired. So, frustrated I put her in her crib and went to have a bite of dinner (which came right when I was getting ready to put her to bed). She was screaming and sobbing in her crib so Paul decided to go in and soothe her. From the sounds of it, she is NOT soothing. I'm not going to interrupt, but I can HEAR that she's getting worse (the I'm not breathing cry). This is not fun.

 

[Mara]

oh and funny story... today my sis fed J at 10:30am the way they always do. fresh mango mixed w/ yogurt and oatmeal.total of about 3oz. then she goes to the gym. so she comes back and Mom says...oh i just fed J. and she was proud he ate the WHOLE JAR of baby food.

so yep the poor kid got 3oz at 10:30 and 4oz at 11:30. needless to say they skipped his noon bottle AND as soon as my Mom picked him up he projectile vomited all over her.

ETA...Amber I'm so sorry girl...I feel your pain. So he's in there with her now and she's STILL not soothed?? Hugs. Are you guys considering doing CIO--don't remember if you have tried it. Seriously these kids are tenacious !!!

 

[AmberWaves]

Mara, he's back here with me, said she was looking for me. Sigh. She is in her crib crying sporadically. My stomach is in knots, I can't with good conscience CIO with her, as I know she's teething (although I may be a bit of an excuse giver all the time), but Paul was holding her AS she was sobbing when he was in there, so it's not like we were in our room listening to her wails. Honestly, I've tried CIO twice since she has been waking a handful of times a night and it wasn't fun. Outright screaming and wailing, gasping for air... Both times I caved and went in and nursed her and put her back into her crib- after a bit of gliding. I'm a little afraid of what I'll get tonight from her- will she wake up fifteen times utterly crushed and feeling abandoned? Will she sleep longer because she tuckered herself out sobbing? Will she be happy to see me and want to play? Gah. I hate this. I want my baby from a month ago back. I lost my appetite now from listening to her, and feeling crappy for abandoning her. Talk about creating a bad habit, eh? I'm the only one who has ever put her down, so Paul decided that it's his turn now. I don't know what to do with this crying thing. Crap! That's all I want to say- CRAP!

 

[Mara]

Yep the drama on these kids is insane. I swear j sounds like someone is attacking him and if you look in the monitor he's just rolling around mouth wide open.

I know that they go through phases so it's not like I think that it's a catch all forever if this works. But I also don't want to look back and think we never tried it. Nor do I know if 'this time' is the time that will stick. Guess we'll all figure it out.

And it's funny you mention teething because tonite G was like..well he's teething. And I said well we THINK he's teething but we don't REALLY know because he can't tell us. We just know that he's intermittently crabby and that he is within 'teething age range' and we think we see something under the gum. Plus he'll be teething for a really long time, so I also don't want to just wait and wait --he'll be like 1 year+ before we try anything then.

Tonite I had to remind myself countless times that he was well-fed, changed, and warm. There was no 'technical' reason for him to be carrying on. He really just wanted his binky and someone to come and give it to him. But he fell asleep without it. Hopefully he will remember that. Do I think I'll get off scot free tonite? Heck no.

I think it is actually a good idea that Paul puts her to bed too. We should switch off more often in our household, we actually do sometimes and at times we'll do diff tasks so he never gets used to one person doing the SAME thing all the time...but maybe I'll let G do the putting down part (end part with binky, lovey, head petting etc) a little more so that J doesn't get too used to it always being me.

And yup..it sucks. CRAP is right.

 

[AmberWaves]

Mara, I hear ya. Paul was like, she's eaten, she's dry, she's got no discernible reason to be crying, so don't feel bad! Then, like the Catholic mother I was raised by, I said, "But what if she's too full, or needed to nurse more? What if her mouth hurts (I gave her the tablets before bed), what if she was sick and just wanted someone to hold her?" Paul replied, "And what? You'd hold her all night?" I told him, yes, yes I would. I know this is smart, I really do. I just feel so terrible, because she's never flipped out like that before bed, so I was thinking it must be something else. Of course, she did take a nap after four pm today which I never ever let her do because I fear her nighttime sleep will be affected. Perhaps I was right! Ah well, this crappy feeling mom (I still can't believe I'm a mom) is going to bed. G'night, PS, thanks Mara, for helping me console myself!

 

[drk]

Amber - hope you finally all got some sleep! Sounds brutal.

K is getting a little worse at sleeping these days. She woke up at 6:45am today, when a couple weeks ago she'd have slept until 8:30-9am. She also didn't go to bed much earlier to make up for 2 hours less sleep. She did nap a little more than usual yesterday though. I think we're going to have to start moving to the earlier bedtime soon. It's just hard to get her down when it's still light out and she's not acting tired at all. Still, I guess I can't complain much about her going down at 9-9:30pm and sleeping through (usually) till 7-8am.

Now I'm worrying about her nap schedule getting totally disrupted today. FIL is arriving, and DH and K are going to drive to the airport to get him. Then they're going to come pick me up at work at some point. Is it weird that I feel bad for my baby when she can't just hang out at home and do her thing?

Ginger - I can't imagine doing what you do. You must be ready to explode by lunchtime and dinnertime if you have to go 5-6 hours between pumping. Sorry AF has put a wrench in the works too. Hopefully my nutso pumping schedule will hold mine off for another few weeks. And hopefully my poor nipples can take it a while longer and get us to 6 months. After that, who knows.

We tried rice cereal on the weekend - not a hit. I wonder if I made it too watery? Sweet potatoes are a fave, carrots and pears too. Avocado not so much, but she really chowed down on the avocado-banana mix last night. I think that might become my new high-cal high-nutrient standby. I've got to try peas and winter squash soon, because I think she'll like both.

She's really starting to grab stuff more. Picks up toys and purposely drops them on the floor. Grabs your plate or cutlery if she's on your lap while eating. And it's so cute when she lies on her mat and watches you, and when she sees you look up and smile or wave, she just grins back at you. We're greeted with a big grin in the morning when we go get her out of bed. The bath last night got big grins as well - she loved feeling the water dripping off the washcloth onto her belly. What a cutie!