PS Mommy Thread-Newborn to 12 months!

[ChargerGrrl]

Oh my, I'm sooo behind! I'll stick with the latest happenings from this page...

Drooling- Nico has been drooling like crazy ever since he's been fixated on sticking his hand in his mouth. I guess he's at that age!

Sleeping- He's sleeping through the nite! We're talking from around 9p 'till 7a. I mentioned to his doc at his 3 mo appt that I usually have to wake him to feed at 3a and he said to "see what happens if you don't". I kinda hesitated to do so right away (crazy, I know)- only because I really think that the peanut NEEDS that nursing session. But i forgot to set my alarm one nite last week and next thing I knew it was 4a. Didn't want to wake him at that point. It's happened a couple more times since then, so looks like that's the plan (for now!)

Ally- sorry to hear about the shots. poor thing!

Pupp- There's nites (like tonite) where we swaddle N in just his diaper. Note that I live in a warm area (hello, it was 111* here yesterday!!)

HH- ditto on the fore/hindmilk. The more you nurse, the better it is for upping your supply- especially in the early days/weeks when you're looking to "set" it. As far as keeping up your supply to accommodate him, keep an eye on his wet diapers- Kellymom lists how many you should see each day. Less than that can signal that he's not getting enough. Oh yeah, N was (kinda still is) a lazy nurser who fell asleep while nursing. I had to tickle his chin/feet and also change positions- went from cradle to football hold and one side to the other. switch things up to keep him awake.

AFM- LC appt today, Nico now weighs 10lbs 7ozs. He's teeny compared to the other babies in our mommy group- one just hit 15 lbs. But, neither the LC or his doc are concerned as he's (slowly but) surely gaining! He's doing it on his curve. I kinda think that we'll see a jump in weight once he starts daycare and he'll get a definite amount from the 3 bottles they'll feed him while he's there each day.

His nursery is coming along... you may recall that we moved into our new house when he was 2 days old, so getting his room together in the early days wasn't exactly high priority. I've slowly been tackling it here and there and it should all be done in a week or so. I'd LOVE to move him in there during the first week of October.

Hope everyone is doing well!

 

[gingerB]

hh - i'm an exclusive pumper. i was never able to get A to latch correctly. with the pumping, i was able to increase my supply up to ~50 ozs by 10 weeks. the only "supplement" used was eating a bowl of steel cut oatmeal everyday. and lots of water. LOTS. if your body is well hydrated, it can make milk more easily...makes sense right? it was hard work as i was pumping 8 times a day, including 2 MOTN pump sessions, but it worked. as for storing, not sure what your timeline is for work (i assume that's why you're storing?) i would focus on making sure your little one is well fed right now. my supply built up slowly, but surely, and after a few weeks i was able to start storing easily while still giving him what he needed fresh. 3 months freezer with it's own door, 6 months deep freezer. milk does change with age so new born milk will be different from 3 month milk. you can rotate your stash to keep up to date (i.e occ use a frozen bottle and replace it with newer milk) -- this also let you check that your little one will take the frozen (some don't like it). foremilk is very watery, quenches thirst. hind milk is very fatty, satiates the hunger. as long as he's draining a side, you should get a good balance. usually the imbalance is more likely if you do 10 minutes one side then ten the other/switch back and forth (BFing from the tap of course). with pumping you obviously can see what you're getting (after it settles out). if you have any other questions about pumping i'd be happy to help. here or on the other site. message me. i'm still pumping and we are 7.5 months out. i've been really happy with my decision -- worked out well for our life.

charger - yay for weight gain!!

mara - ditto on fall clothes!! i luuuurve cooler weather clothes -- although it's silly as i live in sweltering tx, but it hasn't stopped me from owning a closet full of boots, coats, and scarves i just rock them as soon as i think i won't literally melt once i step outside

pupp - we swaddled with a onesie only

ally - sorry about the shots =( glad miss A is feeling better! and solids really is fun isn't it? you can miz the purees with the rice cereal or oatmeal cereal so it's more palatable so she'll get the fortified nutrients there, esp iron.

AFM - we've had an awful weekend. long story short, we rushed A to the ER sunday night for intractable nausea vomiting. i felt something was wrong, more than a stomach bug and i was right. he had intussuception (the bowel folds in on itself like telescope) and was obstructed. luckiny we were able to fix it radiologically with an air/contrast enema and didn't have to go to surgery. we are finally home and he's looking better, but i'm terrified it'll recur (always a risk, although it decreases after 48 hours). i was heartbroken that my little man didn't smile for 2 days when he is usually so generous with showing off his dimples -- i can't even imagine the pain he was in and he didn't cry. that's partly why it took us longer to figure out something was wrong. he didn't cry when he would cramp up, he just came to us and held on tight and curled up into a little ball. didn't even cry when he started projectile vomiting from his nose. i still get teary thinking of him suffering.

 

[steph72276]

Ginger, had to pop in and say sooo sooo sorry about little A. I'm so glad you used that Mommy instinct to take him in. Wow, didn't even cry in that much pain, what a strong little guy. So glad he's better.

MP, also wanted to chime in on the bottle at night thing. How many oz are you feeding him at his last bottle of the night? Also, have you tried putting a bit of rice cereal in his bottle to keep him more full. Is there any way you could keep him up another hour or so and feed him a bit later so he'll sleep til later? I truly think kid's internal clocks are set by when they eat, and he is just used to getting up and eating at those times, not that he necessarily needs to eat. I like Mara's idea about the gradual reduction as well.

Hello to everyone else . Sorry I have been MIA on this thread, but A has started up soccer which takes up a lot of our time now and we have done some traveling. I still do read this thread almost every morning while I'm having my coffee though to see how everyone is doing. Wow, all the babies are getting so big and the newer babes are so precious. Hope everyone is doing well!

 

[phoenixgirl]

Ginger, poor little man. I'm so glad you followed your instincts and took him to the ER. Sending dust your way for no more obstructions.

 

[Burk]

Ginger~ Poor A!!! So so sorry you all had to go through that. Hope he's back to himself soon!

MP~Just wanted to chime in because we were in the EXACT situation as you. Kade was waking like clockwork for a bottle in the middle of the night until last week (he's 7.5 months and 21 lbs so I was pretty certain he didn't really need it). At his 6 mo appt my pedi told me to CIO. I just wasn't okay with that at that point and I figured it took me 10 minutes to feed him (at that point I had got the bottle from 6 oz down to 3) and put him back down why let him cry for what could be an hour (of which I would not be sleeping but probably crying too!!). Anyway we stuck with the 3am bottle until last week he started waking at 11pm AND 4am to eat and I just knew I had to do something. I let him cry and the first night was the most miserable 50 minutes of my life. I was up loading the dishwasher and cleaning my kitchen at 4am because I just couldn't lay in bed and listen to him cry. But, the next night he cried for only 10 minutes and then the next 4 min and now he's pretty much sleeping through the night. He'll wake here or there and cry/fuss for less than 5 minutes some nights but he's going from 7pm-6:30am without being fed. This is not to say you have to CIO, but just I've been there and I tried lessening the amt he ate, tried soothing him other ways, ect. but the kid had gotten into the habit of eating in the middle of the night when he truly wasn't hungry. Maybe it'll work out differently for you....I hope it does because CIO isn't fun. But, it worked. And Kade was still his happy, happy self the next morning. Food for thought. Good luck!

HI everyone else!!

 

[Mara]

ginger you are one of two women i know who made EP work fabulously long-term but for a lot of other moms it doesn't work AS well as the boob itself. i always felt like my bb's didn't like the pump as much as the baby--but i also never had that dedication you did with 8x a day...it was hard for me to do as much as i even did! it never felt good for me and i frequently had boob pain, and i am ecstatic that my bb's are back to mostly normal again.

and oh my gosh about poor A!! your story made me tear up, poor baby. i can't believe he didn't even CRY. and how does that happen anyway??? is it just as their bodies are growing odd things like that can happen? so scary. i hope he feels better soon.

charger...yay for STTN! and yay for nursery. J's nursery makes me so happy to be in it, i hope he likes it too hehe.

ally... i love doing the foods too..it's been so much fun. and i just love watching J learn to feed himself. his first attempts at grabbing puffs were hilarious and now his pincer grip is so good, it's just so fun to watch them explore and learn. plus he has the world's cutest little fatty baby hands so i am always taking photos of them haha.

and ginger re: fall, yup we aren't exactly 'cold' here in CA in winter so i skip the coats but i do love cardigans and sweaters and layers. i am trying to figure out if i can rock a pair of jeggings, jury is still out on that one but we'll see!

speaking of fall, today is still going to be 92. w.t.f. i am over this heat!!!!!!! tomorrow says 83 but yesterday today said 88 so obviously the iphone weather app is a LIAR.

 

[MonkeyPie]

Oh, God, Ginger that sounds so awful. Poor little A And what a trooper that he never cried! Ugh, that just makes me feel ill. I'm so glad he's feeling better now.

So we tried reducing last night to 5ounces, he normally gets 7. EPIC FAIL. Normally he goes right back to sleep after a bottle, but this time he lay there in his crib and cried, fussed, talked and flailed for an hour! DH finally took him in the other room so I could get back to sleep, but he did it again at the next bottle, and then he was up at 5:30 wide awake. Sigh.

Steph, he gets a 7 ounce bottle at his last feeding before bedtime. He usually is falling asleep by the time he's done with it and he is seriously cranky if he stays up past his schedule time. I have been putting him down between 7 and 7:30 because he is rubbing his eyes and so sleepy, and he has been falling asleep by himself without needing me to pat him or anything. I did try the rice cereal - it worked when he was younger, but now it doesn't seem to do anything at all. Maybe I need to put more? How much would you put in a 7 ounce bottle? I was putting three or four baby spoonfuls, but maybe more to really thicken it? He does seem to like when I add the cereal.

Burk, ugh, I know I will probably have to CIO eventually but I am just so sad about it. He just doesn't cry unless he needs something so letting him do it just feels so mean. And I was all for CIO before he was born, I'm such a sucker! I am going to try again this weekend and if it just doesn't work, then CIO it is. I will have him by myself starting tonight until next Wednesday at nights, so now will be a good time. I intend on using my headphones, turned up pretty loud, to try and tune him out so he will relax. I hope it doesn't take too many nights!

 

[curiousaboutdiamonds]

HH - Like the others have said, putting A on the boob as much as possible will help establish your supply. For the first month, I felt that all I was doing was nursing and pumping, but it was great for my supply. Sounds like A is doing great. You're doing a great job!

Charger - for N STTN! Great attitude about his growth b/c as long as he's doing well on his own growth curve and the dr's not concerned, you shouldn't be either. You just have a cute little peanut on your hands.

Ginger - Oh my, so so sorry to hear about A! Hope he has a speedy recovery and that there's no recurrence. You've got great mother's intuition! And pumping 8x a day, WOW! A is a lucky boy to have such a dedicated mommy. Thanks for the tip on mixing the RC with the purees.

Steph - Hi, how's little E doing? Miss hearing about him.

PG - Hey momma, how is operation weaning going?

Burk - also to K for STTN!

Mara - re: jeggings - first time I saw them, my reaction was WTH?! But with this crazy weather and the preggo tummy pooch refusing to go away, all I've been wearing are tunics and leggings and ... jeggings! Don't know if they look funny, but I feel GREAT in them! So I say, go for it!

MP - Sorry to hear about your rough night. A is like M, she doesn't cry unless there's something upsetting her, so it was really difficult to let her CIO. Luckily for us we only had to do it for 2 nights, once for 20 mins, second night for 15 mins. After that, she learned to soothe herself to sleep. Hope tonight gets better!

AFM - Miss A has no interest in crawling (she's perfectly happy doing the army crawl) but loves sitting up and pulling herself up. For awhile now she's been trying to climb out of her bouncer but now she's trying to climb back in. Funny girl.

 

[Mara]

MP i know you said he only cries if he needs something--he obviously thinks he needs a bottle but if you know that isn't the case then that should help you mentally right? like burk said it's not easy and you may end up having some painful nights if you end up deciding you want to do it--but at least knowing it won't be easy to me is like 1/2 the battle.

I would try 5oz again tonite. Or try 6oz, maybe he needs it to be more gradual. When do you give him his solids? Maybe try giving him more solids as well as his bedtime bottle or closer to bedtime. But the fact that he is almost passing out on his bedtime bottle says to me that he's not starving or else he'd be eating every drop you gave him.

re: rice cereal-- just my own opinion but at this age/stage for him I would not put rice cereal back into his bottle. Since he's not a baby baby anymore-- I would either add more solids or add more oz to the bedtime bottle but not necessarily beef up the bedtime bottle--eventually he will be taking less liquid and more solids anyway. Or if you do decide you need to beef it up--do it with oatmeal or barley instead of rice--rice has no nutritional value at all and something like Cream of Wheat (while i love it) does not keep me full at all but if i eat plain oatmeal it does--think about what keeps you full (Fiber, Protein) and it would be the same for him. That said--we just started introducing real oatmeal to J-- I ground it more fine in the coffee grinder but you can get instant plain oatmeal which is already really flakey and use that if you want to. Instead of putting it in his bottle you could just add some to his evening meal.

and the reason I asked about time for the evening meal is that we feed J at about 5:45-6pm, bathe him and put him down with his bedtime bottle by 7pm. so he gets a big fully tummy with solids only about an hour before we put him down for the night AND he gets a 6oz bottle at bedtime too (80% of the time he finishes it). and he goes 12 hours most of the time. he was always a great night sleeper so i'm not saying M will suddenly sleep 12 hours if you do the above but i know J can do it so M prob can too but you have to help his mind and his body realize he can.

ally... yay on the jeggings vote. just gotta find the right pair.

 

[steph72276]

Ally, we are doing great. E is crawling all over the place and having fun getting into his brother's toys. He's saying lots of words and generally a happy guy. Thanks so much for asking. I know, I need to do better about updating on this thread. You are so sweet for asking. Your little A is so adorable!

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

Oh Ginger, that's horrible! I'm so sorry. I'm glad he was quickly diagnosed and is on the mend.

Thanks ladies for the helpful hints!

 

[Sha]

ginger - awwwww...... Poor A. Makes me want to give him a big HUG. Poor baby. I'm glad he's doing better!

 

[somethingshiny]

Oh, Ginger, poor baby!! I'm a firm believer in mother's intuition and I'm glad you trusted yours! I can't imagine if it got worse.



I forgot to mention that they weighed Lily at her appt yest. She gained a full lb in 2 weeks! My chunky monkey! Doc isn't concerned but surprised that a "heart baby" is so healthy and a big eater. She has a butt ledge. JT had one too. It's so darn cute!

Quick question: I'm thinking about making baby food but have no experience with it. I don't know if Lily or I will like it so what are the absolute basic necessities? Best recipes for starting out? (Not going to start for at least another few weeks.) Did you start immediately with homemade baby food or did you start first with cereal?

Another question: Formula feeders- Anyone tried Enfamil AR (also known as Rest Full)? It's supposed to thicken in baby's tummy to feel full longer. Lily is sleeping really well once a night. Then she's up for a couple hours trying to scarf as much as possible so I thought a different type of formula at night may help her.

 

[PrettyBlues]

Ginger, so sorry to hear about A Glad you used that mommy instinct though.

Charger, yay on the weight gain!

MP, I agree with Mara that I don't know if I would put rice in his bottle at this point either. I think her suggestion to feed him more solids closer to bed time could work, and also to try and do the night wean more gradually.

HH, when I was having latch issues with Miles I spoke to my pedi and told her I would pump and feed that way if I had too, and she told me she has only ever had two patients that were able to keep it up past six months. I do believe babies are the best thing for most women to get and keep supply up, so keep putting him on the boob!

re: fall clothes, yes I love them too! I sweaters and scarves and am so excited to wear them again. Here it gets COLD so they are a must have though.

SS, glad to hear that Lily is healthy and growing. I also want to make M's baby food, so will be waiting for responses from the mom's with older babies.

So I mentioned how I wanted to transition Miles from napping in his swing. So today I put him down in his crib. He was fussing and talking to himself, but then started full out crying. So I went to take a look and he had rolled over onto his belly and his limbs were flailing. So I picked him up and rocked him to sleep and put him down again. Had a shower and just after that he started crying, which is way too early for him to get up. So I went in to calm him down and he had rolled over again! Poor little man. He doesn't know how to get back from his belly right now, so I think he finds it scary and frustrating. The strange thing is, he spins all around in his crib at night, but he doesn't roll over. Anyway, fail on that attempt. We'll have to keep trying.

 

[gingerB]

thanks for all the kind words re: A. he really is a trooper. he's back to his usual sunny happy crazy busy self, and i'm so thankful. isn't it crazy how resilient kids are? dh and i are still trying to recover from the experience.

re: babyfood - currently the AAP is still officially recommending starting with rice cereal, but word on the street is in the next 6 months or so they are going to chagne that to veggie puree. i think some places in canada and europe talk about starting with a meat puree for the iron. we started with avocado -- simple and easy to digest and moved from there. i posted a few pages back on our first round. i did a lot of research on easy to digest foods and used those first before i went o the more gas inducing ones for my burpy little guy i haven't done any bought foods, but some of the other mommas here have and can make recs on what they're happy with. i was surprised how easy it is to make his food, and fun! didn't think i would enjoy it as much as i do. solids are def fun...enjoy!

as for basic equipment, for avocado and banana i just mash with a fork fresh and that's all you need. for squashes and sweet potatoe i roast mash with fork. veggies i steam and pureee with a food processor. when i started freezing, i bought silicone ice cube trays and freeze 1 oz cubes, then pop them out into freezer bags for easy storage. i didn't buy the more expensive made for baby trays (love how they target moms and jack up the price ) as silicone is an inert substance and should not leak into food, therefore should be safe for our LOs. meal time i just grab a few cubes, thaw them and voila! dinner is served. i tend to do single ingredient purees and mix and match according to my mood that night, adding herbs and spices depending on what i think tastes good. but i tend to cook for mself and dh the same way so no recipes per se here.

we didn't do cereal until later in the game, and really olny for the iron fortification. now that we've started meats on a regular basis, i really only use it when i want to thicken up something.

PB - boo on the nap fail. it's really hard when they can only roll one way and get stuck. def a hard time, but may be a good time to transition and knock out 2 birds with one stone ykwim?

shiny - lol on the butt ledge! my A, poor thing, thus far seems to have inherited my ABD (asian booty disease as per poreotix on ABDC ) -- flat as flat can be!

mara - i think you could totally rock the jegging! and as for EPing, i totaly agree boob is easier in most aspects. you don't need to deal with the equipment and toting the pump around. luckily i do respond well to the pump and with my ridic schedule, it's so helpful for others to be able to feed my little guy. it's not ideally what i wanted, but it's worked out well for our life.

MP - i am so with you on all for CIO until i had my LO. kind of had a rep as a bit of hard ass, until my kiddo came along, now i'm mush for his dimples! we are also sloooooowly weaning the night time bottle. when i say slow, i mean a 1/2 oz every few days or so. maybe try something like that instead?

burk - yay for STTN! def worried A is stuck in that rut that K was in and at some point we'll have to resort to CIO also. def not right now as he's recovering though.

 

[ChinaCat]

Wow, Ginger, that is really scary. Glad everything is A-OK though. Poor little guy! Btw, where did you take him? I never thought of which hospital I would take him too if emergency. TCH?

 

[Puppmom]

Ginger, that sounds absolutely awful. Thank goodness you're a diligent mommy!

HH, I wish I had advice but I'm new at BFing too and taking in all of the advice the others have to offer. I'm just trying to roll with the punches but it's hard! I was hoping to have a stash so that I don't ever have to supplement with formula but, it doesn't look like that will happen. I'm just taking it one day at a time and hopefully I'll be able to give N breastmilk until he's ready for cow's milk. We shall see...working is definitely going to make things interesting!

PB, good luck with transitioning to the crib for naps. N will fall asleep in the swing but he won't stay asleep there. I try not to let him fall asleep there because then the nap gets cut short and he's all fussy pants!

SS, count me in for making baby food. Maybe one of the other toddler mommies will chime in. I used jar food the first time around. I'm glad Lily is moving and shaking. We get N weighed on Saturday - I can't wait!

Charger, fantastic that N STTN! Although N is turning out to be a BIG boy, my first was always small and still is but she always followed the same growth pattern. We used to worry about it but turns out she's just small - not unhealthy at all. We have run into issues with school though- each year they weigh her and we get a note that she's underweight. She's ALWAYS been under the 5th percentile. At 15, she's 5'1.75" and 87 pounds. I just throw their stupid letter in the trash.

MP, M's cries must break your heart. I had DD as a teenager so I took everything the pediatrician told me very seriously. I told him she was still waking for a bottle in the middle of the night at 10 months and he told me she didn't need it and to let her cry. I did - ALL NIGHT! The whole family slept downstairs that night. It was obviously a bit extreme and I didn't expect the kid to have hours in her but she STTN after that.

AFM, N will be two months tomorrow!! I can't wait to take his pic with his 2 months sticker on his onesie.

 

[MonkeyPie]

So we will be skipping the rice cereal for the moment, and I will give him something "real" to eat with his bottle before bed, and I am going to try a 5 ounce bottle again just to attempt it. If he has a hard time after that bottle I will go back to 6 and try to downgrade more slowly. Wish me luck, and thanks for all your help ladies, it is VERY much appreciated.

And just because, here is Micah in his Big Boy Seat.

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

Re butts. So Aidan is basically DH's mini me. The only features of mine that we can pick out thus far are eye color (which could still change) and skin tone. Everything else is DH. One day last week after a bath he says to me "honey, I think I've found a feature of yours!" Of course I got all excited and asked what that was and he said "your butt! He's got no butt, just like you, it's like a shovel!" And it's true, he has NO butt to speak of!

 

[MonkeyPie]

Re butts. So Aidan is basically DH's mini me. The only features of mine that we can pick out thus far are eye color (which could still change) and skin tone. Everything else is DH. One day last week after a bath he says to me "honey, I think I've found a feature of yours!" Of course I got all excited and asked what that was and he said "your butt! He's got no butt, just like you, it's like a shovel!" And it's true, he has NO butt to speak of!

LOL! Micah doesn't look much like me, either. But just wait, Aidan may eventually look more like you

My STTN attempt has been partially thwarted already - I laid him down for a nap and he is still asleep, and it is now past his usual bedtime of 7:30. He must be catching up on the sleep he denied himself last night! Silly monkey.

 

[charbie]

Hi Mommies
A good friend of mine is due in a couple weeks, and I was thinking of cooking a few things for her to freeze. I know someone started a thread a bit ago regarding foods to freeze (HH maybe?) and I'm having trouble locating it.
Since you all are probably the best people to ask...do you think its helpful to make a few entrees to stick in the freezer for her? I don't want to do it if its more of a burden than a blessing. If so, anyone remember what ideas were tossed out to make?
Thanks!

 

[jcrow]

ginger - how scary! poor little guy! he sounds like a trooper though. hopefully it won't happen again.

foods - i plan to make em's food. however, last weekend, sil gave me a cabinet full of stage 2 food that she had just bought for her second child. he's not into it and since his baby food needs are met at his day care, she gave me her supply. it's all organic, yada yada. with her first she made all her food. she also gave me the food storage containers and her recipe book. em is almost 6 months and we haven't started foods yet. at her 4 month appt. the dr. said everything we were doing [bf] seemed to be going so well that there wasn't a reason to start foods yet. i had been eying the beaba babycook but i don't know that i need it for such a short time. and i feel like an idiot, but i don't know how to steam foods. guess i could check to see if there's a youtube instructional video for that. haha.

sttn - em seems to be close. within the last week she'd go 10 hours then feed once before waking. 8 hours then feed twice before waking. last night it was 11 hours then she woke once at 6 and feed and went back down until 8. awesome, but i have to wake and pump because um, youch! i pumped 12 oz. then feed her.

is there a 6 month spurt? she's almost 6 months and i hope the long stretches of sleep stick and she doesn't revert to every 2-3 at night again!

 

[jcrow]

Hi Mommies
A good friend of mine is due in a couple weeks, and I was thinking of cooking a few things for her to freeze. I know someone started a thread a bit ago regarding foods to freeze (HH maybe?) and I'm having trouble locating it.
Since you all are probably the best people to ask...do you think its helpful to make a few entrees to stick in the freezer for her? I don't want to do it if its more of a burden than a blessing. If so, anyone remember what ideas were tossed out to make?
Thanks!

how sweet of you!! for me, the first few weeks i had to watch what i ate because i was breastfeeding and em was having digestive issues. so i cut out spicy, tomato sauces [still don't like or eat that now!] and anything that was gassy [broccoli, cabbage, etc.]
here's a link for foods to avoid that i adhered to at the very beginning: http://www.babycenter.com/404_are-there-any-foods-i-should-avoid-while-breastfeeding_8906.bc

 

[Mara]

charbie...while i ate whatever i wanted while bf'ing (hehe my last hurrah!)...we only froze a few things and ate from the freezer intermittently. the reason was half the time we preferred fresh hot food that we didn't have to deal with heating up or whatever. you probably know your friend best but do they have some favorite takeout places? maybe give them some gift cards with menus? or what about healthier frozen meals like kashi or amy's or something? i eat those for lunch all the time and i did that as well when i was home with the baby in the beginning.

just some alternatives to making and freezing food. another option is just to take them over a fresh, homemade meal like once a week for a few weeks and just drop it off with a hug and begone. OR offer to let your friend shower while you hold the baby. or whatever. really any help from a friend is amazing.

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

Does anyone know how to get the smell of spit up out of microfiber? Aidan spewed this morning (no DH, he CAN'T have 5 oz of BM in an hour!) and OMG the couch reeks now. Should i just call someone in to clean it or is there an in-between trick I can do. I'm sure it wont be the last time it happens.

 

[Mara]

i just use water on our microsuede couch for J's little mistakes, and it's been ok for us so far... if that doesn't work, not sure. try google.

 

[jcrow]

ditto to the water. ours may be stain protected though.

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

Thanks ladies. It didn't stain, it's just stinky

 

[phoenixgirl]

HH, maybe Bac-Out? I just got some for our cloth diapers, and now it's my new best friend. It has an (pleasant) odor of its own, so it will definitely help.

Ally, Operation Wean is going well in the sense that I successfully transitioned from 4 nursing sessions a day (6, 10, 2, and 6) to 3 (6, 12, and 6). When we went from 5 to 4 I had no discomfort, but she also did that naturally on her own and still wasn't really drinking much from her sippy, so I think she was keeping the quantity the same. Now she's really drinking more from the sippy, so I did experience discomfort the first couple of days as my supply adjusted. And to get her to skip the 10 a.m. feeding and make it until noon, I had to get her out of the house to distract her. So now my plan is to keep this up for the next 3 or 4 weeks until she's one (or almost), and then cut out a feeding every few days until she's weaned. I hope it won't be too hard now that she's taking liquids and eating more solid foods.

 

[Puppmom]

I feel like such an idiot and bad mommy!!! N grew out of he size small SwaddleMe so I just started using a blanket. When I went to get N from his nap, this is what I found. There were two wet spots on the blanket so I think he was trying to get his hands to his mouth.

...off to BRU to buy new wrap.