PS Mommy Thread-Newborn to 12 months!

[Cupcake*Muffin]

Noelwr--Thanks for the response. I was really happy the carseat and stroller, etc all fit. I especially liked how quiet it was inside.Too bad I just got word that its probably going to be another week until the Eos is fixed


I have a quick and possibly TMI question for the breastfeeding mamas. Any of you ladies have experienced a milk blister or a clogged duct? I think I have one since it looks like a little white blister. The way they recommend getting rid of it online doesn't seem to work for me (hot compress then pump right after). Anyone else found a way to get rid of it? Its pretty painful

 

[somethingshiny]

cupcake~ I didn't bf and ended up with several of those little white blisters. The way I got rid of them was to stand in a really hot shower and then squeeze them. Totally gross, my it worked. A little milk blob would pop out and then the milk would flow freely again.

 

[Cupcake*Muffin]

SS-Thanks for the advice, I'm going to give it a try tonight. That side is pretty painful and now it's really affecting my production so I need to get it fixed

How are all the other mamas? Hope everyone is enjoying the end of the week. We got L's pictures back last night from her 3 month old shoot so here are a few for my early BFP post

 

[Lanie]

cupcake -- what a gorgeous little girl! I love her pretty face! Sorry, no advice on the milk blisters. I used to get clogged ducts, but not blisters. Hope it heals soon.

 

[Skippy123]

Hi Moms!!! The nurse came to weigh the boys here at home and they are 9 lbs 14 ozs (Evan) and 9 lbs 9 ozs (Miles)!!!! They weighed at birth 3 lbs 8 ozs and 3 lbs 5 ozs and now are almost double! Yay! Evan is still tough to feed and the feeding expert comes out next week but at least he is still gaining. As you can tell in the pic below he is still on oxygen and a heart rate monitor but it is sooo nice to have him home!!! The boys are now falling asleep right after their 2 am feed which is great! Not much patting their backs anymore; hopefully they sleep longer stretches soon!

CUPCAKE, awwww she is beautiful!!! Check out the Express pumping thread; I think someone posted about clogged ducts or milk blisters? wowzers for all her sleep!!! yay!!! Is she STTN?

LANIE, how is your little guy! More pics please!!!

NOEL, beautiful lo!!

SS, you are super mom for taking care of your kids and your friends baby!!! Lily pics and 1st day of school pics pls!

TIFFANY, are you out there? I am thinking of you; we need twin pics please!!

KUNZITE, how are you momma? How is Oliver? Is he feeling better? hugs!

LV, where are you? thinking of you!!!

TAOV, how is Violet? thank you friend!!

Here are a few pics of Evan and Miles!!!! I can't believe how big they are compared to what they use to look like!!!

 

[Lanie]

Oh Skippy! They are just precious! I love to see how much they have grown and progressed! Love that little mischevious Evan smile. You must be a proud momma!!!

 

[Skippy123]

Oh Skippy! They are just precious! I love to see how much they have grown and progressed! Love that little mischevious Evan smile. You must be a proud momma!!!

Thanks so much Lanie!!!

 

[Skippy123]

Moms I have a question!!! My boys use to wake every 3 hours to feed. Recently they have been sleeping for longer stretches in the day. In the mornings they are alert and we play w/toys that make noise and do some tummy time. Should I wake them and feed them since they are sleeping longer?? They aren't taking in more when they eat at the 4 hour mark. I usually wake them every 3 hours. I notice at night they feed every 3 to 4 hours. Just wondering what you do?? My boys are approx 1 1/2 months adjusted age that is what the doctors go by for development, med dosage, etc. Thanks for your thoughts! ps they are gaining weight, not sure if that helps w/your answer.

 

[tiffanytwisted]

Sloppy, I just love your boys! I think mine were about 8 weeks when they started sleeping longer stretches. At that point they were gaining weight sufficientntly so I let them sleep. That's about when I noticed their circadian rhythm kicking in.

 

[Lanie]

Skippy -- your pedi might be different, but mine told me that after 2 weeks, and assuming their weight gain is acceptable, don't wake them up to feed. They'll wake up in they are hungry. Enjoy the break!

 

[somethingshiny]

Skippy~ So glad to see your big healthy boys!! My rule of thumb is wake a baby during the day and let them sleep the longer stretches at night.

Lily has had her two bottom teeth for a few months. Then she started cutting 4 top teeth. Well, the outer two are in and the middle two haven't cut yet so she looks like the world's tiniest vampire. lol I need to get a pic of it.

Hope you're all doing well!!

 

[noelwr]

cupcake - L keeps looking more and more like the perfect little doll!

Lanie - no more pics of A?

Skippy - your boys really have grown! it must be very fulfilling to have them both at home now.

shiny - I'd love to see pics of your tiny vampire. and has your nephew come into this world?

- - -

Skye turns 8 months on Monday and has ZERO teeth so far. She's been so chatty this week. I don't know who this Nana-character is, but Skye sure has a lot of say about her! She is crawling all over the house now, following me into the kitchen and DH into the computer room. Then she'll go and explore the other rooms on her own and loves to find mirrors. She is able to feed herself bread now, but not so well if it has cream cheese on it because it stays stuck to her hand. Any suggestions for other food she can feed herself (other than cookies and soup sticks)? She can't pick up small things between her thumb and index finger, yet. We've moved off pureed food to food crushed with a fork so that little chunks remain for her to chew.

Here's a pic from this morning. An old classmate of mine has an etsy shop where she sells silk flowers, and she made one for Skye.

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

Cupcake-Your timing with the milk blister question was impeccable, lol. I ended up with something similar yesterday. And you're right it HURT. The white head on my nipple I had when I was actually lactating was nothing compared to this. This was a cyst the size of a pea with a teeny white head on top. I was shocked because I've been dry since A was 8 weeks or so. So why am I having blocked duct issues 6 months later? Anyway, on the advice of a bunch of friends I used a warm compress for about 5 minutes and then used a sterilized needle to open the cyst and then had to squeeze it to release whatever was inside. I'm assuming, as I'm no longer lactating, that it was a sebaceous gland and not a milk duct, but it was still SO GROSS! Anyway, I hope yours has resolved. I hope we never have another one of these again!

Aidan waved hello and good bye to me this morning. YAY now my doctor doesn't have to be worried about autism (non-verbal communication was one of the milestones she was concerned about him not doing at 9 months).

 

[Lanie]

HH -- your blister sounds so gross. Sorry. Regarding Aidan, what other kinds of nonverbal communication do they look for? And I think that's great to know. Everywhere I read, it says you can't diagnose autism until 18 months at the very least (or maybe I've read in a couple of places one year, but most say 1 but I have never really believed that. I think maybe it's a matter of not being able to fully diagnose it, but you can definitely see signs before that? What exactly did your pedi say about non verbal? I will say, autism is a fear of mine (and ADHD) simply because the stats are higher for boys. I have no other reason to worry, but it's in the back of my mind. I gave Anderson a car, and he was rolling the wheels and I was almost like "noooooo!" but then he put it in his mouth. He's too young still and something that is shiny and rolls is AWESOME to a 7 month old!

No pictures that are good enough to share. Most of the good ones are with other kids in them, and I don't think their mommas would approve. I'll post soon though! We are taking our first plane flight to Rochester, NY for my DH's family reunion. We are flying first class! i'm so excited! One of my student's father is an exec for Continental, and they gave me 2 plane tickets anywhere I wanted to go as a gift for being his teacher. I didn't know they were 1st class until my DH was checking flight times. With a little baby, I'm so excited we'll have the room. BUT, I'm scared other first classers will be annoyed. What do you guys think?

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

HH -- your blister sounds so gross. Sorry. Regarding Aidan, what other kinds of nonverbal communication do they look for? And I think that's great to know. Everywhere I read, it says you can't diagnose autism until 18 months at the very least (or maybe I've read in a couple of places one year, but most say 1 but I have never really believed that. I think maybe it's a matter of not being able to fully diagnose it, but you can definitely see signs before that? What exactly did your pedi say about non verbal? I will say, autism is a fear of mine (and ADHD) simply because the stats are higher for boys. I have no other reason to worry, but it's in the back of my mind. I gave Anderson a car, and he was rolling the wheels and I was almost like "noooooo!" but then he put it in his mouth. He's too young still and something that is shiny and rolls is AWESOME to a 7 month old!

No pictures that are good enough to share. Most of the good ones are with other kids in them, and I don't think their mommas would approve. I'll post soon though! We are taking our first plane flight to Rochester, NY for my DH's family reunion. We are flying first class! i'm so excited! One of my student's father is an exec for Continental, and they gave me 2 plane tickets anywhere I wanted to go as a gift for being his teacher. I didn't know they were 1st class until my DH was checking flight times. With a little baby, I'm so excited we'll have the room. BUT, I'm scared other first classers will be annoyed. What do you guys think?

Lanie-it was so gross.

Re: the non-verbal communication thing. I think because Autism spectrum disorders have to do with communication, doctors can get concerned with any sort of delay relating to interpersonal relationships and interpersonal communication. The paranoid side of me freaked out and thought OMG does she see something that I don't, but at the same time the rational side of me sort of mentally rolled her eyes when she said it because Hello! he was only 9 months old!

I do think there's some sort of inherent difference between kids on the spectrum and average kids, whether you can pin point it or not. I know several parents and families with spectrum kids and unless they're on the "my kid 'caught' autism from a vaccine" potato cart, most have said that they suspected something was off with their kid/relative from a very early age. They just seem different from the next child.

I think part of what triggered the doctor's concern was that earlier-on A was not what I would call an outgoing kid. He was very very laid back, tolerated everyone, etc, but he wasn't big into affection, smiling or laughing and he preferred to play by himself, etc. He also was small and a bit early, had colic, horrible reflux, and he didn't sleep longer than a 5 hour stretch until he was almost 8 months old. Can you blame him for not wanting to smile or be engaging?

Within the last month he's totally changed and morphed into a different personality though. Now he waves, gives hugs, smiles, laughs, interacts, verbalizes, etc. He was also a early gross motor developer so I think he might have just been focusing on those skills versus the others. Now that he's crawling and cruising he's got time for everything else. So I don't think he has any real issues.

Outside of that gut feeling that a child is different, I think this is one of the reasons why it's so hard to diagnose a spectrum disorder at a young age. You just never know when a child is going to blossom.

 

[somethingshiny]

HH~ I've always said my kids are good communicators because they can't get anywhere by themselves. I do think that A was focusing so much on his gross motor, communication took a back seat. L still isn't walking but she talks all the time. lol

Lily likes Mt Dew. OMG. I was in the kitchen and I left a soda on the coffee table. I heard a weird sound and I looked in and found Lily squeezing the can so hard it was dented and chugging for all she's worth. The next day, she saw my can on the table and reached for it. I told her No and she stopped. Then she reached for it again and I said, "Soda is not for babies." She raised ONE eyebrow at me! I couldn't help but laugh so she thought that meant, "Go ahead and have some." So again I had to carefully wrestle the can from her. I'm either going to have to cut out soda or put it up on a shelf. lol

No nephew yet. Sis went in today for a THIRD induction. Dr has assured her that this time they'll do a c-section if she doesn't go into labor. I have a feeling she will end up with a c.

I love all these baby pics! Makes me want more babies.

 

[Puppmom]

Cupcake, L is absolutely beautiful! I love her eyes a her little mouth!

Skippy, Oh! Those little guys have come so far. I'm glad you're not feeling too overwhelmed.

Dreamer, Ryder is so cute! ...and what a handsome big brother! I love his hair. My SIL is already bugging us to cut N's (and he doesn't have much). I plan on letting it grow. I think it's so cute! I guess I'll have to count DH's opinion when the time comes.

Noel, S is just a doll. I love her hairband! Do they make *puffs* in Holland? N loves those and they're really easy for him to eat on his own. Even if S doesn't have the pincer grasp yet, picking those up might help her to learn.

HH, congrats on your big week last week! I try SO hard not to worry about milestones. I've had no choice but to get better at it since N has been *late* on a lot of the obvious milestones. I think you're right that you can usually tell if something is off. Whether or not you acknowledge it is an entirely different story.

Lanie, yay for first class! Hopefully, given the extra room to move around, A will be in good spirits most of the trip. Is he crawling? N LOVES anything with wheels. He progressed from flicking them and spinning them to wheeling his cars and trucks around the house saying "Brm, Brm!"

SS, SS, I would love to see Lily's Dracula smile! Mountain Dew? When I was a kid, my mom drank a lot of Dew and I LOVED it when she would give me a taste! Sending lots of baby-having dust to your Sis. Geez!

AFU, long time no talk! Things have been busy around here. N's party went really well - despite the fact that I never got dressed (well, I had clothes on but yoga pants, running shoes and a tshirt don’t exactly + a birthday party outfit!) and look like a sweaty hot mess in all of the pics. Oh, and we forgot to use his birthday cake and the road leading to our house was closed for an event. N was so sweet and social ALL day. He woke up right before the party started and went down for his nap as everyone was leaving. I'll share pics when I have a chance.

A lot has happened in the last few weeks. N started crawling (like straight up, knee hand, knee hand crawling) the day before his birthday. It came out of NOWHERE! I was off to get ready for the party so I got to see it. I was so excited! I was cheering him on and clapping like a proud mommy. He's been talking lots and says "Mama, Dada (with intent now), Night Night, and All done". He started walking last night. DH and I had an appointment so DD was watching N for about an hour. She text us saying “Get home now. N is walking!” We were skeptical but darn it, she was right! We kept making him walk over and over. He finally melted down and refused. He had been pulling up and cruising the furniture for a while but I thought walking was a few months off since he didn’t even crawl until last week! Who knows how long it’ll be before walking is his main mode of transport. Oh, and best of all – he throws fits. Like throw your head back, turn into a pile of mush, screaming fits. Yay!

He has his one year checkup tomorrow so I’ll try to come back with his stays. I’m guessing he’s a little over 25 lbs. My official wager is 25lbs2oz. DH thinks he’s much heavier so we’ll see.

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

Pupp, I'm so glad to hear I'm not alone. Aidan has gone from the silent observer to a hellishly willful and opinionated monster. OMG the temper tantrums are unreal!

And YAY for crawling and walking!! Aidan hasn't taken a solo step since last week when he did his 5. It's like he knows we want him to so he wont do it. Oh well, on their own terms, right?

 

[Lanie]

This is a funny anecdote that doesn't particularly apply to anyone here, just one to remember: One of my cousins didn't walk until she was 2 years and a couple of months. My aunt and uncle took her to the doctor, and they had no idea what the deal was. They were thinking she might have cerebral palsy or something. She was crawling fine, just not walking. Finally, she took steps and they just determined that she was lazy. She works for NASA now, so she's brainy, just lazy when she was little!

 

[Cupcake*Muffin]

Hi ladies!

Skippy--L has been STTN since she was 8 weeks. Usually she sleeps 8 hours eats, than sleep another 4 hours. We are very spoiled. I can't believe your little guys are so big already!

HH--ugh...my eye twitches when I try to squeeze the milk blister. No joke. Its so gross. I took a needle and poked it a few times. It's gone down but its still there...what should I do? Did yours bleed? Help! Thats really great news about A

Noelwr--I love S's headband, so cute! When do teeth usually come in? I am scared for the day they do come in, I fear for my nipples. I wish that L could crawl already.

Pup-congrats on the mobile baby! DH is constantly asking me when L will be more "fun" .


Thanks to everyone for the kind words. I love my little L doll...haha. The biggest news I have is that I tried to drain the stupid milk blister and it did get smaller but it's still there. What am I doing wrong? It also bled a bit...I wish it would go away. I also wished my eye didn't twitch just at the thought of having to squeeze it again tonight...

Hope everyone enjoys their weekend!

 

[Kunzite]

Lanie - I want to echo the calls for more pictures of A!! Don't hold out on us!!

Skippy - Look at those peanuts!!! We never woke O at night to eat, but we wouldn't let him go more than 4 hours during the day when he was around that age. Mostly it wasn't about eating, it was more that we didn't want him to reverse cycle!

Cupcake - We have a Prius! We love it. It fits the stroller in the back and the car seat, so that's really all we need. Noel is right that the back window is small though. We got used to it though. OMG!! Milk blisters If you read through the pumping thread you'll see that I used to get them ALL. THE. TIME. For me I think it was my oversupply that caused them. Now that my supply has dropeed I've been a lot more lucky. I also found that I had to take care of them the second they appeared. So every time I pump I look to see if one is forming, and if so puncture it right away. That way it never builds up and doesn't end up bleeding. DH would say that it looked like a murder scene when I had one that was bleeding while I was pumping. So freaking gross!!


This is a super quick fly by because it's time to go pick up the monkey, but just wanted to share some pictures of O crawling!!! One day he was stationary and the next he was crawling. Amazing!

Oh, and he's still sick. Going on two months. We took him to the pedi this morning and he has ear infections in both ears. Poor, poor baby She also thinks he has allergies and that's part of the problem.

 

[AllieLuv83]

Hello Mommies! I have totally been MIA recently but we have been having a crazy summer. I go back to work in 2 weeks so I have been trying to suck up as much quality time with Charlie as I can. I had team planning at work and had to take him into daycare for the day and wouldn't you know it he caught a cold. I think now he might have something upper respiratory so we are taking him to the doctor tomorrow. My little AW proud mama moment came yesterday. Charles was doing his usual "throw the cup off the table" thing, so down it went and I leaned over and said "bye bye cup", to which he replied with "bye bye" as he waved his hand! Seriously insane how much they change in such a short period of time. So now he says, mama, dada, kitty, bye bye, and signs "all done" and "more". He is definitely developing a stubborn personality, if he wants something he will work his hardest to get it, it drives me nuts sometimes. It's like kid, chill out! On the other side he is such a happy little giggly, crazy boy. I am going to miss him when I go back to school.

Cupcake your little girl is so stinking cute! I love her little face. I am sorry about the blister, I have no advice other than OUCH and I hope that it goes away soon.


Skippy your boys are so precious. It is so nice to see pictures of them!

Kunzite you know how I feel about O, and yay for crawling. It really was like that for us as well. One day he was sitting and the next he was full out crawling.

HH yay for mister A he is getting all sorts of big now

 

[Dreamer_D]

Noelwr--Thanks for the response. I was really happy the carseat and stroller, etc all fit. I especially liked how quiet it was inside.Too bad I just got word that its probably going to be another week until the Eos is fixed


I have a quick and possibly TMI question for the breastfeeding mamas. Any of you ladies have experienced a milk blister or a clogged duct? I think I have one since it looks like a little white blister. The way they recommend getting rid of it online doesn't seem to work for me (hot compress then pump right after). Anyone else found a way to get rid of it? Its pretty painful

Have you tried latching L in different ways to see if it can unclog it? I had them with Hunter and eventually, I just used a small pin and dipped it in rubbing alcohol then *very very* carefully pricked the end of the clog. Then you sort of squeeze it like popping a zit and very very thick glue like glog will come out. You have to be very careful doing this as you don't want an infection -- you just want to sort of go in sideways and just make the smallest little prick in the very top of the clog. You migth want to ask you doctor to do it. ETA: Are you poking INTO the breast or going in at the side? You want to sort of just go in at the side and then barely catch the skin and then you pull it straight away from your body, so you just make a little break or hole in the skin, you don't really insert the needle into you very far at all.

 

[noelwr]

that's so weird... I thought I was the only one who was afraid of autism. and then I was wondering why when you see an autistic child in a movie, it's always a boy.

cupcake - the first tooth should appear between 6 and 10 months old. sometimes it happens before 6 months.

Kunzite - love O so concentrated with his little tongue out. amazing how it happened from one day to the other. for Skye it happened gradually over time.

pupp - I don't know what puffs are. I bought rice crackers so I'll try that, though they seem to not have much nutritional value. I tried giving her a noodle with dinner. tomorrow I'll try a slice of potato.

Lanie - how long is your flight? as a business class traveler, I am always annoyed if there's a crying baby and it's an overnight flight. if it's a day flight, then usually no problem. I fly 14 hours to Singapore, and I'm expected to work when I arrive, so I think you can understand. if you're lucky, A will be an angel the whole flight.

 

[Lanie]

Skippy -- to clarify (and echo what everyone else is saying), I meant wake up in the night. Like Kunzite said, I would wake up during the day if they sleep for more than 3-4 hours. I never had that problem since A would never miss a meal! This is why he has curves now.

noel -- my flight is at 4:30pm and it's 2 flights actually. One is like 4 and the other is 1 hour or something like that. Rochester has such a small airport, there are very few direct flights. So I have 2 takeoffs and landings to worry about, each way. I was googling "flying with baby in first class" and it seems LOTS of people are opposed to it. Malaysian Airlines banned infants from first class, in fact. ARGH. I hope I don't get hassled or nasty looks. But I kind of can't blame the other passengers, you know? It's like that thread about taking kids to dinner at fancy restaurants.

Kunzite -- yay for crawling! You say he was stationary one minute and crawling the next...what was he doing when he was stationary? Was he on all fours? We're still at the stage where we will either push up with our hands, or push up onto our knees/feet, but not both unless I raise up his hips.

 

[noelwr]

Lanie - I wouldn't worry about the flights. no one is really going to try to get a good night's sleep between 4:30 - 8:30 pm and your next flight is so short, it's just silly if anyone is expecting much in that hour. Skye doesn't crawl on all fours. she can get up on hands and knees and rock back and forth, but the crawling is a combination of first pushing forward with knees, then knees go down and she pulls her body forward with her hands, thus the caterpillar effect. so crawling could be in A's very near future!

 

[lliang_chi]

Love the pictures Mommies! PS babies are the cutest!!

Lanie, good luck on the flight. I read in some other "traveling with baby" threads they say to buy a new toy specifically for the flight to keep Baby entertained. And I agree with Noel, no one will want to get some sleep in the afternoon. Keeping fingers crossed that Mr. A will be an angel and everyone will be swooning over his cuteness.

~LC

 

[AllieLuv83]

Charlie has been eyeing this bear at Costco for months. We finally gave in and bought it for him.

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

OMG that bear is AWESOME!!!!

 

[Lanie]

liang chi -- thanks for the toy rec! I read that as well, and we have 2 toys on deck for that purpose! We just finished eating out and the giant spoon was a big hit, so I might use that as well!

Maybe I should buy one of those Costco bears and bring that on the plane! No one would mind, right? What fun!!!