PS Mommy Thread-Newborn to 12 months!

[Mara]

love the pictures ladies!!! so cute. pupp, i love that big boy photo, cutie!

re: cereals... you don't have to start with cereals. in fact i think now the new recommendation is going to be to go straight to veggies rather than starting them on a starch. google about it but i think i read that recently. we only put oatmeal in J's breakfast now and the rest of his day is cereal free. we use oatmeal because it's just more nutritious--prob when j is about 9mo i want to start using regular rolled oats just cooked extremely well--he loves textures. i love eating oatmeal.

re: iron... if you skip iron-fortified things, you can most likely use a vitamin supplement with iron in it. you can ask your pedi about it and see what they'd recommend.

mere i am so surprised your period came back at 10 weeks esp since you are bf'ing!! mine i think came back around 3mo. booo!!

jcrow that is funny about the sleep sack! maybe a weird Q but do you guys have the right size on her? i don't think that J could actually get the opening of the sleep sack over his head unless we had a larger size on him.

speaking of sleep sacks, i was looking for fleece/velboa halo ones this week and amazon is having a pretty good sale. i got a yellow fleece in large for $14 with free prime 2 day ship. they're normally $20+ locally. they had a blue one too for $17. also diapers.com is having a sale on them as well. it's crazy but he is fitting the mediums perfectly and i even have a large A&A one that we rotate in and it is just a little long.

AFM i ordered the volo from ebay this week, can't wait til it comes so we can check it out.

and thankfully the horrible week is over!!! i spent this afternoon with J and it was great. and omg i swear i felt like i was gone forever. he is now trying to STAND from crawling position and also can stand holding onto things pretty well. also he is pre-talking saying dadadada and blablbabla. so funny!! i am loving it. it is crazy how just being really busy for a week and hardly seeing him and i feel like he went and grew up.

oh and we tried those baby mum mums that viz suggested (greg convinced me a little chinese rice stick should be fine!!). i just stuck one in his hand and he chewed on it. j loved them!!

 

[taovandel]

We just tried the mum-mum's also! Evan loved them..he's being doing the whole biter biscuits and my mom bought the mum-mum's and he was a bit confused by them because they are so different from the biscuits but once he figured out he could eat them---he loved them!

 

[meresal]

Tao, I added some apples to the rice cereal, and got C to eat a bit of it... but I may still try the oatmeal instead. Thanks for the heads up!

Mara, Ya... I was not pleased with the early return. I was really surprised. I'm not sure why it came back so soon... other than I think my body loved being pregnant. Maybe she's ready a bit sooner than I am.
Not to push my luck by saying this outloud, but I still need to go get the pill. I have never been on BC before, so I'm a bit nervous about taking it.

AFM- My hubby is on his way out and my mom is on her way IN!!! I am so excited to spend a few days with her . We also have Texans' season opener on Sunday that we are going to take the baby too. We ordered him some headphones since he has been startling really easy, and if we need to my mom and I will leave and come home. I hope he does well, but I have a feeling he is not going to be happy with the sudden cheering. (if he can still hear it with the headphones)
Are your babies like this? They are fine with constant noise, but anything that comes on all of a sudden startles them... like a loud cheer for a good play? (We noticed it at the baseball games and watching football game at a friend's house last weekend. There were about 15 guys there at the house and it was not a big room. We had to walk C outside to get him to stop crying after one of the big plays.)

 

[taovandel]

Evan gets upset with peopl yelling. But so far loud noises haven't bothered him. He loves hearing people cheering and clapping loudly....for him..haha...huge grin on his face. My parents dog has this high pitched bark that doesn't bother him. He hasn't been around sports crowds though--that's a whole other thing!! Goodluck Mere.

 

[Mara]

tao... yeah we are still on 'foods that dissolve' so the mum mums are perfect. i let him chew on a teething biscuit the other day but he is a really aggressive biter and he kept trying to bite off pieces and i just am not comfortable with him really going to town on them yet. the mum mums are so paper thin they are super easy for him to manage.

we have also started giving him small pieces of sliced cheddar cheese which he really likes. he can't 'chew' yet so i tear them super small and he works on perfecting his pincer grip.

 

[mtjoya]

Lovely pics of the bebes!

Mara-Didn't see a pic of cutie J. Post plz. kthx! lol!

Here is a pic of Diva J. Her sandals barely fit and they were off in 5 mins!

Cereals-J prefers oatmeal more than rice.

 

[KimberlyH]

cereals: having had to take iron supplements for anemia makes me determined to avoid that with j if at all possible. it was so hard on my system, upset stomach, constipation, etc. that i want to give her her iron in foods as much as possible. she hates rice cereal, as i said, but will eat cream of wheat, which is high in iron so we take that route and i hope no supplementing ends up being necessary.

 

[Mara]

mtj...here you go!! this was taken last weekend at breakfast hehe. J is so cute...i love her expressions!

re: iron.. yep taking iron sucks, in general i think it's hard on your system, even when you eat it in foods. if you don't drink enough liquids it can make you constipated big time. i have been anemic on and off. it seems like 99% of the baby foods nowadays are iron supplemented whenever possible too.

so J has his first fever.. poor baby. he's also a little congested and fussy, his nanny share buddy's brother is the one that started pre-school this week and the two boys had runny noses yesterday so i was hoping J missed it because he was only there on wed but apparently not. and i have a sore throat and am tired, not sure if it's the same thing he has though. also he seems like he's teething a little, poor thing.

i have seen moms mention ibuprofen ... is there like baby advil or something? right now we just have tylenol and teething tablets.

we are going to attempt an early pho dinner out in a few min so we'll see how it goes. we might be getting it to go.

ETA umm oops i posted the wrong pic of us... the name threw me off. haha. this was taken like 2 weeks ago. i don't remember if i posted it here?

 

[jcrow]

mara - j is such a cutie! hope he starts feeling better! and you too!

as far as the sleep sack, she can't put the opening over her head, but instead, she grabs her chest and picks up the sleep sack cloth and pulls it over her face. the slack, you know? that was the first time we saw her do that, maybe because we put her in her crib really awake thinking she'd go down for sleep. put she played instead.

 

[Mara]

jcrow... oh gotcha! J used to do that with his sometimes too. but now we just do the bedtime routine, last thing to go on is the sack and then leave him. he might play around for a little while but eventually he falls asleep. since he tries to instantly kick off ANY blanket we ever try to put in with him, the sack is the only way to make sure he stays covered so he had to get used to it.

 

[mtjoya]

mara-awww thanks! You guys look so cute! You look so great!

I really need to hit the gym. I lost all of my baby weight but I need to "tone" up. I am soooooooooooooooo freaken sick today!

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

I guess it's time for me to officially graduate to the NB-12 thread. YAY!

 

[MonkeyPie]

I guess it's time for me to officially graduate to the NB-12 thread. YAY!

Yay! Welcome HH and baby A!

 

[somethingshiny]

Welcome, HH!!


I'm bleeding like a stuck hog, JT woke up screaming with an earache this am, and Lily has terrible diarrhea. The joys of motherhood! I'm going to clean my grandma's house tomorrow morning so I can have a break! lol.

Hope you're all doing better than us!

 

[anchor31]

Hey all! I haven't posted in forever, it's pretty much been "same old, same old" over here. We started finger foods, and J LOVES feeding himself. So much so that he's starting to turn up his nose on my chunky purees... I still have a ton of it in the freezer! Oops.

Welcome, HH! Can't wait to hear more about your little one and the birth, and see pictures!

Sorry you had a rough day, SS.

 

[ChargerGrrl]

Cute pics- DrK, Ally, Pupp, Mere, MTJ & Mara!

Anchor- hope you're able to sneak in some purees!
SS- sorry to hear about your crappy day. rest up, mama!
Welcome, HH!
Mere- I'll be interested to hear about C and the game today. Read on to know why...

We had a jam-packed weekend as my BF and her hubby visited from SFO. We had planned this well before N was born and it coincided with the USC-UVA football game (our hubbies grad school alma maters) We had tixs to the game but I ended up having to to stay home with N as my mom wasn't in a good state to babysit him. My dad fell a couple of days ago and she was kinda distraught by it. We thought about bringing him along (in his sling), but I just wasn't comfortable with that- if he was a wee bit older than I would've been on board. Oh well- there will be other sporting events to go to!

Other than that we had a delish dinner in on Friday eve when they arrived, and spent some time out and about down at the beach.

So, I think that we've made a decision on daycare. I visited a couple more this week and had a great feeling about a particular one. The Director spent good quality time with me, and patiently answered all my crazy questions. I was impressed with the two ladies in charge of the infant room, and the place was super-clean. DH was able to go on his own on Friday and liked what he saw. I'll be contacting the Director tomorrow about next steps. We plan to have him start 10/25- the week before I go back to work.

 

[ChargerGrrl]

Oh yeah, also meant to post this since so many of us luv Ikea!

Five (non-furniture) must-haves the next time you go to Ikea:
http://www.ohdeedoh.com/ohdeedoh/5-nonfurniture-musthaves-the-next-time-you-go-to-ikea-126048

I hope the link works)

 

[somethingshiny]

anchor~ yay for finger foods! Hope you can use up some of your stock before switching over completely!

charger~ Sorry about your plans and I hope your dad recovers quickly. Yay for finding a great daycare!

We just got back from the ER. JT went to bed and within 2 hrs woke up screaming with 2 bright red and severely painful ears. We live 1 block from the hospital and we were seen immediately (yay for small towns!) He has a double acute middle ear infection. The dr specifically said "no oil, no drops, no cotton, no heating pads." Obviously a medical doctor would want appropriate medical attention, but hasn't warm oil and cotton balls worked for years? The only thing I could think was maybe they have people coming in after they've shoved cotton in too far, burnt the child with oil or heating pads, etc.

Break is over, both kids are awake and wanting mommy time.

 

[jcrow]

ss - oh no! i hope he heals quickly! i remember my mom putting drops + cotton in my ears. one time i was at the docs office for something no related and he did the general look in the ears. and promptly pulled out cotton! i guess my mom thought it had fallen out on its own like it sometimes does? ewe. i know. probably shared too much. anywho, hope he gets to feeling better!!

 

[Mara]

thanks mtj..! i am working on toning and man it takes forever. baby gut begone!

so last nite was the worst night for us since J was prob about 2 weeks old! he was up at 8:30pm, 9:30, 11:30, 2am, 4am, 7am and 9am. thankfully after the 11:30pm, he seemed to kind of get that i was not trying to murder him with the nose sucker and wouldn't scream when i whipped it out after he woke up. every time he woke i gave him a little water because i always get SO thirsty when sick, and then towards the morning started giving him a few oz of formula because i didn't want him to be stuffy AND hungry--what a crappy combo. at 4am he drank 3oz and at 7am we gave him 5oz. when he woke he seemed better thankfully and he ate regularly today, i have been packing in the veggies for his meals to try to help him fight this thing. this evening he took forever to fall asleep but wasn't really fussy--he did cry for about 5 min after being quiet in there for 30 but then he got quiet and we thought he was sleeping and i look in the monitor and he's just sitting there. so i go in and he's just sitting there in his crib quietly with his paci in. what the heck? i know he knows how to get back down to laying position now, so i don't know if he was zoning or half asleep or what. it was kind of creepy him just sitting there. so i picked him up and rocked him a little, he was pretty relaxed. and then laid him down and he fell asleep.

we also had to put the crib to lowest level since he started pulling to standing today and i also put his PBK bumper back in now that he is standing--the fall will hopefully be cushioned more than the paper thin breathable bumper. AND this morning he discovered that the monitor has a cord, so he started pulling it into the crib. we had to tape it along the slat itself out of his view, but tomorrow i am going to relocate it permanently to the bookcase. and once the PBK bumper was back on he started playing with the ties. jeez this kid!!

we also decided we are getting him a crib net. i just don't feel comfortable with him standing even if the crib is lower, he is a tall kid and standing he can still chew on the rail--my girlfriend's kid is 6 weeks older and 2 inches taller, i can easily see J having a spurt soon.

lastly, i don't know if i said this already but someone is full on babbling. he's saying dadada and blablabla. we are working on mamama (hee!) and wawawawa. and i friggin love hearing his little cutie baby voice TALKING. it totally melts my heart.

i visited BRU today and got a warm mist humidifier, saline mist and a battery powered nasal aspirator (which has not gotten anything out but he's a lot less congested so i'll reserve judgment for now) so we're at least prepared. we have the humidifier on low tonite.

my cold is a little better but the night of crappy sleep really didn't help. so hopefully we all get sleep tonite! good to see so many ladies.!!

charger, yay for finding a great daycare! are you gearing up mentally for returning to work?
hh, welcome!
anchor, so cute about j loving to feed himself. i hear ya on the purees but thankfully J seems ok with them still, i also have a stash i have to work through. he loves the puffs and the baby mum mums so far and i tear tiny pieces of cheese for him too.
ss, ugh sorry to hear about JT's ears..!! poor thing and poor you too, i feel your pain on the bleeding like a stuck pig thing, UGH. so unfair.

ok it's an early bedtime for me. fingers crossed tonite ladies.

 

[MonkeyPie]

So many sicks babies Micah had only one night of congestion, which was weird, but I am not complaining since both daddy and I are sick now! Ugh. I keep trying to pop my ears, I am so stuffed up.

I hope everyone has a good Monday.

 

[mtjoya]

Ladies,

I am sooo freaken sick! I have a cold, headache, and sore throat, and a nasty dry cough. My DH gave me this damn cold and I can't sleep! It's 5:10 in l.a and I have been up practically ALL night. I really hope that J doesn't get sick.

I need to see the doc. I am still BFing and I hope that I don't get the baby sick. Don't know too much if I can pass this thru her and if I can take meds. I feel horrible! I feel like someone has ran me over a couple of times. I am pretty upset that I can't enjoy these days off. I have 3 day weekends. I work 4 tens. Anyway, any suggestions?! I am

 

[ChargerGrrl]

Oh no! Sorry to hear about the sicky mamas/babies. I hope everyone feels better soon.

MT- I'm awake as well, but my reason is because of insomnia! Here's some info on nursing while sick, you should definitely continue to do so: http://www.kellymom.com/health/illness/mom-illness.html

Mara- I'm trying not to think about going back to work. I'll start gearing up for it next month. BTW, saw your Halo post on the BC page last week and said to myself "I think that's Mara from PS!"

 

[Puppmom]

Wow, so sorry everyone's sick! I can't even imagine being sick and taking care of an infant. I guess my time will come.

Mara, sounds like a rough night. We've had a few of those so I've caught naps during the day when that happens. I'm in for it if that happens AND I'm back to work...ouch!

SS, sorry to hear about the ear infections. It really seems like so many kids get them these days. Not a day passes at work that someone doesn't mention their toddler having an ear infection. I hope you're able to give him something to make him comfortable until his ears heal up. Sounds like cleaning your grandmother's house was a break!

Charger, how long is your leave? I'm taking 3 months and it's already halfway over. MIL is going to watch N full time so we have to get her up to speed. She's raised 3 children so I'm not worried but she seriously doesn't know how to use ANY baby gear.

Mtjoya, congrats on losing the baby weight! I just joined WW again this past weekend. I've lost 30 pounds since N was born but that was all in the first 4 weeks so I think I'm done and need to start working to get the last 15 off. Yay for the extra 10 points I get for EBF!

AFM, I have my 6 week check tomorrow and I'm dreading it! Obviously not looking forward to the pelvic exam but I have to manage to nurse, shower (maybe shave???) and get out of the house with the baby and be on time for something! I'm sure I've mentioned this already but DD was home with me for the first 5 weeks but she went back to school last week and the real work has begun for me...talk about a reality check! Also, I know the doc is going to clear me to DTD and our anniversary is this weekend but I'm scared! I'm terrified that it's going to hurt. I'm sure it's from BFing but I'm super dry...that's certainly not going to help the cause. Any advice is welcome!

 

[somethingshiny]

Gosh, all these sick babies and mamas!! I hope you're all getting good rest and your babies are feeling better.

Mara~ I really hope last night was better for J. He must be so miserable.

pupp~ I had a c-sec so DTD for us was a whole lot different than it'll be for you guys. Just take your time and know that sometimes the first time doesn't work. (especially if N wakes up in the middle!!) Lube is not a bad thing! Good luck! I know it's scary. OH! And, be prepared to laugh if you accidentally squirt your DH! Yeah, that was a good time....



eta~ I need advice on a really awkward situation. The real dad of one of JT's friends died of a drug overdose last night. The mom kicked out the dad around a year ago but the little boy still knew him. The mom is remarried and the little boy has called that man Dad too. I don't know if I should tell JT what has happened or not. They don't see each other all that often but I'm not sure what to do for JT or the little boy. Ideas??

 

[Mara]

pupp there is no shame in waiting to DTD til you aren't freaked out!! i was cleared long before i felt comfortable that is for sure. i think there's clinically medically ready and MENTALLY ready. hello look what went on down there lol.

charger that was totally me! are you on that site?

speaking of baby stuff, i am tempted to get the ally zabba baby steal today. that blanket looks comfy for both J and me!

mtj def keep bf'ing. you will pass baby the antibodies your body is building from fighting your cold. i had two minor colds while bf'ing and J didn't get either of them. i also tried to not breathe on him directly while sick and just gave him as much BM as possible during those days.

mp boo on the baby colds. and yeah J was only really bad for one night, whereas for me it's taking longer-probably because we end up caring for the babies they get the absolute best care. i def take better care of J than myself when sick!

thankfully last nite was WAY better for J. he took a while to go down but slept the entire night, only waking up at 6:45am, i fed him and put him back down and he slept til about 8:30am. i am just trying to get as much sleep in him as possible. and i wish i could nap during the day but it's so hard when you have 'regular life' going on all around you, and i am back to work too. thought about staying home today but i'll just leave early and i am WFH tomorrow anyway.

so is there like a 7.5mo 'super distracted' light sleeper phase? hahaa. J is turning into the lightest sleeper for naps and his after bottle nap in the morning. like i will just walk by his room and then i see a head pop up and the next thing i look at the monitor and he's awake pulling to stand. what the heck! his night sleep still seems ok so i don't know if it's the whole 'new skill' thing but it's crazy. i am totally creeping around now.

lastly, we are finally going to move J to his convertible. he's totally busting out of the infant and i think i read you want to move them when they are 1/2" below the top of the carseat and J is basically there. we'll move him this wkd, we meant to do it this wkd but with the illnesses we just took it easy mostly...and he only rides to and from the nanny share during the week so it's really hardly any car time. i really hope the Blvd fits in our car!! otherwise it might be going on CL while i buy a Marathon.

ugh off to start the work week.

 

[vizsla]

Welcome HH! Tell us all about your new peanut!

Hi everyone! I’ve been MIA.. so sorry… been kinda down in the dumps and feeling sad for myself.

Mara – I consider myself the self proclaimed resident on colds – right now I think we are on our 15th of the year ;P - it’s awesome
Anyhoo, I thought I’d interject a little piece of mind since I drove myself batty with worry during the first 6 or 7 colds. Only to realize that, unless they turn into an ear infection, they don’t require any worry
The best way I’ve found to deal with a cold is by not doing much. Sounds awful, but there really isn’t much to do, except let the cold run its course. We are very regimented about keeping his nose clean when he gets snotty and keeping him hydrated etc, but we don’t give him anything else unless he feels really hot. Typically his fevers are low grade so I avoid giving him Tylenol particularly after our pedi promised us that fevers won’t hurt the baby (and are actually a good sign that the body is fighting the bug). Might I recommend giving J Tylenol in lieu of ibuprofen. It’s a personal thing with me (and admittedly I’m sensitive to this topic) but ibuprofen can irritate the stomach lining, whereas Tylenol is relatively safe. It’s also not recommended to dose with both Tylenol and ibuprofen.

Colds are no bueno, but luckily the more he gets the less reactive he will be to being sick. I swear, a cold doesn’t faze C anymore.

PG – charlie didn’t really get the sippy at first (take and toss small cup) and I would get really frustrated. However, I just continued to offer it to him everyday (even holding it for him the majority of the time) and in the last month or so he ‘got’ it. I think it just takes a lot of perseverance.

I forget who asked, but we skipped cereal (rice and oatmeal) and went straight to veggies. he got plenty of iron from formula, and cereal is just for practice in the beginning anyway. Now that we rely on food for more of his caloric intake, i DO think about iron, but we still don't do cereal. He LOVES quaker puffed rice cereal (super awesome, dissolves quick quick quick, the pieces are small and it’s CHEAP) plus it is fortified with iron.

I don’t have much to report. I’m still in jobby job limbo. Each is taking their sweet time getting back with me. Sooooo frustrating!

And on the C front we’ve had a harrowing month. He has been dealing with yet more blood in his stool – and we have been to the children’s hospital more times than I care to mention. He actually had to get a blood draw, which was the hardest thing to go thru. Awful.
His recent ailment (after weeks of trial and error) stems from a c.diff (clostridium difficile) infection. (so super gross if you look it up
the doc hypothesizes that due to the large amount of antibiotics he was on for his ears, those antibiotics wiped out his good bacteria - causing this bad bacteria to grow. (even though we have him on probiotics… gah, how I wish he could have dairy!)
2 weeks ago, we did a cleanse to get rid of obstructions, this probably caused the c.diff bacteria to spread throughout his system (whereas before it was probably just brewing somewhere in his upper GI tract - possibly causing the black 'old' blood we were seeing).
he is on flagel to eradicate the c.diff. and will have to be tested again in 2 weeks to see if it is gone. then, we will do 3 more occult blood tests on his stool to make sure he's healed. if the blood is gone then hooray. if not, he will have to have a scope.

So that’s the bad stuff.. the good stuff is that he’s HI-larious! I love love love love love this age more than any other! He’s just so funny and sweet and squishable. Loves to mimic things we do, walking around with assistance, making raspberry noises, laughing hysterically, being a total booger nose when he has to get his diaper changed, pooping in the tub and laughing, giving me wet slobbery kisses, dropping food for the dog to eat, and waving to everyone. Basically just being so awesome I can’t stand it.

 

[curiousaboutdiamonds]

Such CUTE pics everyone!

Aww, sorry to hear about all the sick mommies and babies =( Sending get well soon wishes to you all!

Mere - How did the game go? We're going to a game in October and will probably leave A with DH's parents. It's more selfish on our part so we can have some time away from the baby and enjoy the game.

re: noise/startling - A is the same way. She can sleep soundly in a loud crowded room, but if someone sneezes or the door slams or there's a sudden noise, she'll wake up.

Mtj - Love the sandals. Has she worn them at all? We have a few pairs of baby shoes that A never even touched.

re: BF'ing while sick - I have also heard that you should continue to bf because you are passing the antibodies to your baby.

Mara - Wow, you look amazing. I don't see any baby weight. Toning up is so difficult for me, because of lack of time or lack of interest, probably the latter. Sooo cute to hear about J's babbling. A use to babble a lot, but she hasn't babbled much lately, probably because of her discovery of making sounds (smacking her lips) and blowing rasberries.

HH - Congrats and welcome!

Anchor - Uh oh, hope you don't have to waste all the purees. Yay for J feeding himself!

Charger - Yay for finding a daycare that you like. Can't believe it's almost time for you to go back to work. Thanks for the link. Some of those items seems really handy.

SS - Oh my, you had a busy weekend. Sorry to hear about the ER and about your son's friend's father. I don't know what I would do or say in your situation. I think if JT is old enough and understands death, I would just tell him that his friend's father passed away, but I don't think I would bring up the drug overdose. Good luck!

Pupp - Like SS said, lube is not a bad thing. LOL.

Viz - Good to hear from you. You deserve a break mama! {{{HUGS}}} Poor C and all that he has been through. Lots of healthy wishes coming your way! Love hearing about all the good stuff!

 

[curiousaboutdiamonds]

Wow, it took me forever to write the last post.

We had another weekend filled with family stuff. We were invited at the last minute to go out to dinner with DH's family Friday night. I was a little annoyed because A had fallen asleep at 6:45 so we had to wake her to go to dinner at 7:30. Luckily, she slept fine that night, but it's frustrating that no one else but *me* understands her sleep habits.

I know it's only Monday, but I'm wishing it was the weekend already. Looking forward to having a weekend of not doing anything.

Hope this week goes by fast! Happy Monday all!

 

[mtjoya]

chargerg-Thanks so much for the article! Sorry, on not sleeping well. I have been that way here and there! I hate this cough!

ally-She has only worn those sandals for 5 mins and that's it. She doesn't like them! Hmmmm!

mara-Thanks, i will def keep doing it. I will til she turns 1. I will stop on her bday. hehehe!

puppmom-thanks, girl I really need to tone up. I don't feel comfortable with this tummy of mine. I hope when I stop bfing that my boobs shrink down to a C. They are sooo freaken huge. I hate being looked at there. Hello, My eyes are up here!