PS Mommy Thread-Newborn to 12 months!

[Lanie]

SS -- I remember your bat story! How horrible!!!

I think Tacori has the actual Boon Flair, not that one that noel pictured.

What do you girls think of those Baby can Read ads? (speaking of development) I can't believe them.

 

[Puppmom]

Lanie, I personally think that your baby can read stuff is BS. Who knows, maybe you can teach your baby to recognize written words, but WHY? They're babies! Let them be babies! Then again, some people might think I'm nutty on the whole signing thing but I do feel like that at least serves a purpose and lessens the baby's frustration in some instances by increasing their ability to communicate.

Noel, I don't know if all kids fall into one of two camps because there are certainly some that excel at everything early. I know for sure though that my kid falls into the "I ain't moving unless someone makes me!" camp.

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

An email story a friend just sent me...

We had this great 10 year old cat named Jack who just recently died. Jack was a great cat and the kids would carry him around and sit on him and nothing ever bothered him. He used to hang out and nap all day long on the mat in our bathroom. We have 3 kids and at the time of this story they were 4 years old, 3 years old and 1 year old.

The middle one is Eli. Eli really loved chap stick. LOVED it. He kept asking to use my chap stick and then losing it. Finally one day I showed him where in the bathroom that I kept my chap stick and explained he could use it whenever he wanted to but he needed to put it right back in the drawer after he finished because I used it sometimes several times a day.

That year, on Mother's Day, we were having the typical rush around to try to get ready for church with everyone crying and carrying on. My two boys are fighting over the toy in the cereal box. I'm trying to nurse my little one at the same time I'm putting on my make-up. Everything is a mess and everyone has long forgotten that this is a wonderful day to honor me and the amazing job that is motherhood.

We finally have the older one and the baby loaded in the car, and I am looking for Eli. I have searched everywhere and I finally go into the bathroom. There was Eli. He was applying my chap stick very carefully to Jack's rear end. Eli looked right into my eyes and said "chapped..."

Now if you have a cat, you know that he is right - their little bottoms do look pretty chapped And, frankly, Jack didn't seem to mind. And so the only question to ask at that point was whether it was the FIRST time Eli had done that to the cat's behind or the hundredth!?!

And THAT is my favorite Mother's Day moment ever, because it reminds us that no matter how hard we try to civilize these glorious little creatures, there will always be that day when you realize... they've been using your chap stick on the cat's butt.

 

[somethingshiny]

HH~ Thanks for posting that story! That's something JT would've done if we had a cat when he was younger!

RE: Your Baby Can Read. I've read up a lot on this and talked to teacher friends about it too. Basically the consensus is, You shouldn't let any baby watch that much tv, they aren't reading-they're memorizing, and by the time they're school-age it's no more fun so they give up.

This morning was CRAZY!! I had 6 children in this house at one time. Two 5 yr olds, twin 2 yr olds, a 9.5 mo old, and a 6.5 week old. Holy. crap. crazy. It went fine though. I think all of the poop and mac n cheese is cleaned up now, but I may be finding it for days in odd places...possibly in my own armpits.

 

[Puppmom]

HH, that is a great story. I can’t type it out as nicely but my sister had a similar situation. She has three boys ages 12, 7 and 5. About a year ago, the youngest was using the bathroom and he was taking an awfully long time. My sister went to investigate and put her ear to the door. She heard a little tinkle and then a splash then again - tinkle tinkle, splash. She opened the door to find him peeing in the cup she uses to rinse her mouth out after brushing her teeth then dumping it in the toilet. She said to him, “Please tell me this is the only time you’ve ever done that!” to which he proudly responded, “Nope!”

I’m sure with three boys she’ll have a million stories like that over her lifetime!

SS, you are a BRAVE women!

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

Oh my!

So....any advice on teaching a kid to sit down after learning how to stand up in his crib???

 

[somethingshiny]

HH~ Put the bumpers on cause when he gets tired and lands it'll be softer. Seriously, JT would only sit after he could literally hold on no longer. Then he'd just drop. As soon as A learns a new mobility skill, he'll probably move on to that anyway. YAY for standing!!!

 

[drk]

HH - we did nothing. No bumpers, no teaching. I think we just let her stay standing in her crib for a bit, and soon enough the legs and arms got tired and she figured out how to slide back down to sitting. I'm sure he'll figure it out soon.

 

[noelwr]

Happy Friday, mommies!

Skye turns 5 months on Sunday. yesterday we changed her feeding schedule to rice cereal bottle, fruit, formula bottle, formula bottle, veggie dinner + juice, rice cereal bottle. she had her first clump of poo today (is that TMI?) and it's so much easier to clean her butt! on Tues we went to the doc and this time got better stuff for her eczema and her cheek under her ear is clearing up finally. got some stuff for her body which we're also allowed to put on her head for the cradle cap, but that just made her scalp even drier. very strange. she's still rolling from her back on to her tummy every chance she gets. she's also getting better with her pacifier because one minute I see her without it and the next minute it's back in her mouth... sometimes upside down. tomorrow we're taking a 2 hr drive to my mom's for Mother's Day. hope we can all stay sane in the car with a baby.

AFM, I'm happy to announce that I fit into my normal jeans again. okay, if I lift up my shirt I've got an unsightly muffin top, but it's getting somewhere.

and here's my little camera poser

 

[swimmer]

HH, ditto DrK. There were a few days of standing and whailing -in the crib, at the gate, next to the jumper...and then suddenly sitting and playing. hugs to A!

Omg, Skye is adorable! and yay for pre-preggo jeans.

 

[Lanie]

Cute pics of Skye! She's beautiful!

Here's my belated Cinco de Mayo picture!

 

[Bella_mezzo]

Skye is so adorable I can't even believe it! Laine he is so handsome in that kind of greasy mustached way

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

Aidan's latest trick-baby yoga! Quite an impressive downward facing dog. We've also suddenly started going from crawling/laying to sitting. A development I'm THRILLED with!

 

[Puppmom]

Noel, I love those pictures of Skye! She's just so darn pretty!

Lanie, OMG - love the *stash*!

HH, oh man, you're in for it. You're in uncharted territory that I think involves lots of bruises to the forehead!

AFM, N has two chompers! The second one came in just a week or so after the first. He's talking like crazy and signs like a mad man. Sometimes, we're too slow with the spoon and he's doing more over and over so it looks like he's clapping. He's pretty good at standing although he doesn't pull himself up and he just plops down when he's done. He can *sort of* get himself into sitting position from his belly. It involves a lot of grunting. As big as he is, most things he does involve grunting.

I haven't shared in a while but here are two recent pics of N. We took him to the park with my nephew and he LOVED the wagon. He looked so proud. My brother was so nervous that he pulled them around at a speed of about 1/10 mph!

 

[AllieLuv83]

Pupp those cheeks! I just want to squeeze them. He is so cute!

 

[Kunzite]

Cute babies

My baby is starting to get rolls! He's never had baby rolls. I guess I'm doing a good job of fattening him up!!

 

[meresal]

I just wanted to pop in and wish all of you ladies a FABULOUS 1st Mother's Day! I hope all of you are gifted peaceful and restful weekends!

I love ALL of the pictures! Lanie- The stache is purely awesome!

 

[turtledazzle]

Happy Mother's Day to all of you wonderful mamas!!! I hope you have a great day!!!

LOVE the pics! That Cinco de Mayo pic is hilarious!

**********
T woke up this morning giving me a fabulous present -- his fever finally broke! He had a fever of 102+ since Friday afternoon, peaking at 104.0 on Saturday afternoon. This morning it was completely gone. I am suspecting it is possibly Roseola??? but we'll see if he gets a rash soon or not. This is also my birthday -- pretty special having my first mother's day fall on my birthday.

 

[Lanie]

Happy Mother's Day everyone!!!!

Kunzite -- that picture should be framed. Such a good picture!

 

[somethingshiny]

Happy Mother's Day to all of you! Hoping you're all having perfect days!

 

[noelwr]

well, my little girl didn't know it was Mother's Day and gave me just as a hard time as any other day... but she did sleep for 11 hours and I had to wake her up, so I think that means we can move her bed time another half hour earlier. we're doing this slowly, every few days.

Lanie - A looks like a little Mario! (Nintendo) he didn't try to pull the mustache off?

HH - yay for another mobility milestone!

puppmom - N looks like a different baby in his two pics. we get that with S as well. so glad he enjoyed the wagon.

Kunzite - aw, cute little arm rolls! I love the way babies look like little wizards in their bath towels.

shiny - how come you had so many kids at your house? are you running a type of daycare? if yes, you are a very brave woman!

 

[Lanie]

noel -- 11 hours?!?!? That sounds like a dream.

Which reminds me of this. Is it possible for a 3 month old to sleep 11-12 hours straight, without a feeding? My friend tells me hers does this but I really don't believe her.

 

[somethingshiny]

Noel~ No daycare. I will be watching the little baby a few days a week starting in June. The lady next door has a daycare and she had to have a medical appt last minute so she asked me if I could watch all the kids. I had 6 of them for about 30 min again today. Even on Mother's Day I ended up with 2 neighbor kids in my yard. I like kids so it doesn't bother me (most of the time).

 

[turtledazzle]

noel -- 11 hours?!?!? That sounds like a dream.

Which reminds me of this. Is it possible for a 3 month old to sleep 11-12 hours straight, without a feeding? My friend tells me hers does this but I really don't believe her.

Lanie -- My DS did, but it is not the norm, especially for an EBF baby. He first STTN (11 hours) at 2.5 months and around 3 months that was his norm. However, DS was quite a large baby -- 90+ percentile for both height at weight at that time, and I do think that made a difference.

****
AFM, the fever came back yesterday afternoon This morning so far he's been fine, but we have a dr appt this afternoon b/c of how long he ran such a high fever. Ugh. Please let him get health and STAY healthy after this is over. These past three weeks have really been crappy.

 

[Lanie]

turtle -- wow. You are lucky. I guess I should believe her then. She's one of those that everything just falls into place for, so I was hoping this wouldn't be true. (Is that mean of me? ) She got pregnant the very first try, she never got morning sickness, she found a daycare that she only has to pay 500 a month for, her baby never ever cries, etc. ARGH! I was hoping that maybe sleeping through the night that young wasn't possible. I'm bad, I know. I halfway expect her to call me up any day now to tell me she won the lottery and that her baby poops gold.

Sorry about the fever. Hope he feels better soon. Fevers are scary, but I saw a news report pretty recently that they aren't as scary as they are pinned to be, but still....

 

[Puppmom]

I want a baby that poops gold! N did STTN from 8 until 7 or 8 from 3-5 months...then, not so much. Now, at 9 months, he's up once at night usually. Sometimes it's for a few minutes and sometimes an hour or so. Sometimes he nurses, sometimes he doesn't. The odds of your friend's baby doing so from now until forever are pretty slim IMO.

So...we went to visit a daycare today. It really was nice - lots of friendly staff, very clean, a great curriculum, and lots of cute, social kiddies. I still felt so sad about the possibility of sending him there...or anywhere for that matter. We don't HAVE to do daycare but I really feel like being home with Grandma from now until kindergarten isn't ideal for N or Grandma. I want for him to have an enriching, learning experience. I want him to make little friends. Ugh, he just looked like a deer in headlights. He was nuzzled against me sucking his thumbs the whole time. I probably looked the same - I was so overwhelmed! Any words of encouragement from the mommas who use daycare full or part time? My head is spinning!

ETA - daycare would be two days per week to start.

 

[noelwr]

she did wake up in the middle of the night (can't remember if it was 3 or 4am) making some frustrated, half-asleep grunts and then usually I go in to put the pacifier in her mouth, but last night I just left her and she must have sorted herself out because next thing I knew DH's alarm was going off. I think she thinks today is Mother's Day because she's been on best behavior, even falling asleep for her naps twice on her own. it's like someone stole my baby and replaced her with a model that looks exactly the same but is so much sweeter. let's see how long this lasts.

puppmom - I'm going to go visit the daycare on Wed, and Skye starts next week, also 2 days per week. I CAN'T WAIT! I know that makes me a horrible mother, but sometimes I really don't know what this kid wants and I want to tear my hair out. so finally some time for myself, which I will need more and more the next few months with my health issues. my mom also offered to take care of S, but that's just not a solution. first, she lives too far so that would mean she would have to stay with us and that would just drive us all mad in the long run, and she also has some mobility issues with her knees which she needs medical attention for. but most important, I really want S to be around other kids and be social. she doesn't have siblings so it will be good for her to copy the older kids and learn to share. not looking forward to all the sicknesses she will bring home (she hasn't been sick one day since she was born, except for the thrush and eczema, but no fever or cold), but that all comes as part of the package.

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

*sigh* I don't know what happened to my post from last night, but it must have been eaten by the PS post monster. Aidan is 8 months old today and is sick as a dog. He sounds like an 80 year old 3+ pack a day smoker with emphysema. He's all snotty and wheezy and has a bad smokers cough. No fever and is acting normally though. We tried steaming him, having the humidifier on, baby vix on the chest, etc and nothing works. Well Tylenol helped with the pain from coughing a bit last night. He started getting sick on Thursday and I'm hoping last night was the peak and he'll get better, though the wheezing was worse this morning. I called the doc and she wasn't concerned about either the cough or the wheeze, which sort of blows my mind. I mean, she told us what to look for if it was getting worse and when to take him to the ER, but other than that we're to let it run its course...Any other tricks of the trade for dealing with this kind of bug?

 

[Loves Vintage]

HH - I have no words of wisdom for you, sorry, but I do feel very sad for little A. It is soooo hard when they are sick.

Puppmom - Did you like the daycare you visited? Sounds like it's a center? Will they do cloth for you? Despite my initial hesitation, I am totally ok with daycare, which we are also doing 2X per week at this point. The only negative for us has been the sickness. One cold and one stomach virus in her first two weeks. Third week nothing, thankfully. She also got her first cold the day that I visited there. You may recall when I freaked out about not having my baby comfy nose at that time. Aside from that, I really like the center, the women who care for her and they love her too! She does really well there! You'll be ok!! It's much harder on us than it is on them, and really, after the first two drop-offs, it's become routine to us.

Noel - That's great that Skye hasn't been sick at all!! I do enjoy my two days that I go into the office too. It is nice to have the balance.

Lanie - I still can't believe any baby sleeps that long!! S still gets up every 3-4 hours. When does that end, typically? She takes naps throughout the day, some longer than others, but maybe 40 mins on average. She usually doesn't go to sleep until 11 or so, but she would have had a nap maybe 2 hrs prior, or something around that time. But, I could not imagine her going to sleep at 8 and staying asleep! So, anyway, if she goes to sleep at 11, then she'll be up at 2, and again at 5 or so, and then back to sleep for another 2 hrs maybe. Thoughts? And, wow, $500/mo for daycare!! That does seem really, really inexpensive. Will you do daycare over the summer? You'll still have meetings and stuff, right? Summer's almost here! I bet you can't wait!

Turtle - So sorry to hear about your son's fever. Do they know what's causing it? I hope he is feeling much much better soon!!

Kunzite - I agree that is an awesome photo! Have you been printing off photos as you go along or storing on-line? Any photo organization tips? I'm just keeping everything in separate folders on our server, but it's kind of a mess. I wonder if there's a good place on-line to organize and then print . . .

Lucy.Lucy - Your little girl is ADORABLE!!! Seriously, she is so so so cute!!! I'm so glad that you popped in. How great that you are TTC'g #2!! Keep us posted!!

 

[somethingshiny]

HH~ Lily had something very similar recently. It took about a week of steaming, sucking, and vicksing her before she was any better. I think it may be this time of year. They say babies can't have allergies, but it really seems like that's what she has. Hope A feels better soon!