PS Mommy Thread-Newborn to 12 months!

[somethingshiny]

Pupp~ Yup, Burt's Bees! I removed most of the cradle cap first then the BB removed the rest. I didn't use the Selsun because Lily has sensitive skin and some people say that the Selsun damages fine hair. Didn't want to take the chance with Lily's locks!

 

[Kunzite]

Hi ladies! Just a quick post to let everyone know that Oliver got to come home last Friday. Happy New Year indeed!! It's been quite the transition for us with not much sleep but we love having him home.... even with the stress. I have to say, I don't know how single parents do it. Hopefully I'll have more time soon to come back and do a proper update. But since I can't resist pictures here are a few going home from the hospital pictures.

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

So cute!!

So even after reading all the reviews on Amazon that said it was a choking hazard, I pulled the trigger and bought a Sophie. Aidan needed no convincing and loves it already. Unfortunately, so does D.O.G. so we're going to have to do a bit of training with redirection and make sure Sophie stays out of doggy reach.

 

[noelwr]

HH - what is the purpose of Sophie? thanks

Kunzite - on Oliver finally coming home. let the madness begin! bet his girlfriends will all miss him.

 

[Loves Vintage]

Oh, Kunzite!!! Look at Oliver's dreamy eyes!! Oh, I just love him! So happy you have him home with you now. (I just noticed we have the exact same car-seat. Hee-hee.)

Can't wait to join everyone over here, soon, soon, soon!

 

[noelwr]

Skye: 4 weeks old

had some *me* time: manicure yesterday afternoon and a facial + back facial this morning. my mom spent the night so she could take care of Skye which meant neither DH nor I had to do the night shift and could sleep with the door closed. but I still woke up at 4am wondering why I didn't hear the baby cry and was she going too long without food? but I didn't want to doubt my mom and I figured Skye would cry if hungry. finally got out of bed at 8am. my mom had fed her at 2:30am, I slept through it. greatly enjoyed my break. I love DD dearly, but sometimes I need to get away from the constant need to be "on call".

went to consultation office this afternoon to weigh Skye and looks like she gained 400 grams in 2 weeks which is very good. they also told me to ask the doc again for meds for the thrush as that might help her drink more. so hopefully I can get a prescription without having to go in with Skye as parking is a nightmare at doc's office.

 

[dcgator]

Kunzite - I just wanted to pass on my congratulations on little Oliver coming home. I'm sure you guys are so excited (while tired, too). He is such a little cutie!

 

[Puppmom]

Kunzite, Congratulations! How exciting that O is home! He's such a handsome boy.

HH, you caved! It looks like A loves that thing!

Question for ladies whose babies don't STTN. When they wake to eat, what do you do after they eat? We've been rocking N back to sleep and we're wondering if we're creating a monster. Sometimes he cries when DH puts him down (after being passed out in DH's arms) so he picks him up and starts over. If we just put him straight down after nursing, he wakes. For our sanity, we've been soothing him back to sleep.

In other news, N looks like he wants to GET UP and GO! He's constantly moving. When you hold him, he gets all grunty and kicks his feet like he wants to get up and walk. It's too cute. He also LOVES to *stand* and hang out in his Jumperoo. I don't know what we did before the Jumperoo. He seriously so content to bounce around in that thing and it's much more supportive of his back and neck than the exersaucer. He's very happy these days and we're getting lots of laughs. We've got lots of great audio of him. DH has an audio recorder and I highly recommend getting audio of your babies. We have snoring, crying, laughing and cooing. There something special about just audio. You listen and it takes you back to that moment. Love it!

 

[noelwr]

puppmom - don't know if it's worth me chiming in as Skye is only 4 weeks today, but first of all we don't talk to her or put on a bright light at night. we keep interaction minimal. DH lets her fall asleep on his chest. I always hold her up 15 min after eating so that she doesn't spit up. usually she falls asleep and I can just put her down and run. if not, I just let her cry herself to sleep. if she's still screaming bloody murder after 20 min, I check her diapers, hold her, give her a pacifier... after crying for 20 min she is usually very tired and just the pacifier can make her calm and put her to sleep. we also do bath-time before the last night feeding (around 10-11 pm).

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

HH - what is the purpose of Sophie? thanks

Kunzite - on Oliver finally coming home. let the madness begin! bet his girlfriends will all miss him.

Sadly there is no real purpose to her. She's marketed as a teether, but she's really just a glorified rubber chicken.

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

Pupp, we pick him up and sit down in the rocker to feed him but we don't rock. We feed, hold him for a minute or two and then put him back to bed drowsy. It's the only time he'll put himself back to sleep (if he ever really woke up to begin with). If we talk, make eye contact, change diapers, etc he'll wake up and be up for at least an hour.

 

[somethingshiny]

HH - what is the purpose of Sophie? thanks

Kunzite - on Oliver finally coming home. let the madness begin! bet his girlfriends will all miss him.

Sadly there is no real purpose to her. She's marketed as a teether, but she's really just a glorified rubber chicken.

Just had to say this made me LOL! rubber chicken, you just don't see that enough.

 

[somethingshiny]

Kunzite~ So glad that Oliver is finally home! Congratulations!


Pupp~ Before Lily STTN, we kept the room dark and quiet. No playing, tickling, cooing, or eye contact. Just a kiss and rocking back to sleep. Then we'd put her down and she'd stay asleep. I had to rock her to get her to sleep but that didn't interfere with her STTN because she didn't have fun when she was up.

 

[turtledazzle]

Question for ladies whose babies don't STTN. When they wake to eat, what do you do after they eat? We've been rocking N back to sleep and we're wondering if we're creating a monster. Sometimes he cries when DH puts him down (after being passed out in DH's arms) so he picks him up and starts over. If we just put him straight down after nursing, he wakes. For our sanity, we've been soothing him back to sleep.

I'm sorry that I don't have any advice, but I am interested in all of the replies. We've been lucky for the past two months that T has slept through the night. Until now. D*amn 4-month wakeful/sleep regression ... whatever the heck you want to call it. I'm afraid I might be joining you and HH in this club. Two of the past four nights he has woken up around 5-5:30am crying/whimpering. I was able to use the pacifier both nights, but the second night it took a few pacifier attempts and he really never went back to a true sleep. I'm afraid he'll eventually have to be fed for these wakes.

For the whole month of December he loved his thumb, and would use it to soothe himself back to sleep. These past few days it seems like he's forgotten how to do this OR what I think is more likely is that he's teething. He's been gnawing on everything (T loves his Sophie, too, HH), so when his thumb goes in his mouth now he chews on it instead of sucking. I just got orajel today, but haven't tried it nor have I tried tylenol yet ... but I think these things are in our near future.
The other thing I think that is keeping him awake is his feet! He found his feet about a week ago and thinks they are the coolest toys ever! I watched him on the monitor the other night after he woke me up. This time he wasn't crying, but was grunting and cooing and playing with his feet through the sleepsack. He did this for about 20 minutes, then rolled onto his side and went back to sleep. It was sort of entertaining, though I would have preferred being asleep myself.


Pupp -- how do you put him down to sleep for the night in his bedtime routine? Is rocking a part of that routine?
This is where I'm afraid we've created a monster. DH does bedtime routine (this was how we introduced the bottle early on). So T gets his bath, then jammies, book, bottle. We didn't intend to have rocking really be a part of this, but T has reflux and needs to stay upright after feeds for about 15 minutes (used to be 30 minutes ...). So ... that's how rocking got put into our routine. However, by the end of his bottle he's often already almost out these days (which is another bad habit, I guess). We're slowly trying to approach the "lay down sleepy but awake" thing, but we're not quite there.

 

[Mara]

for the mamas dealing with waking babies around 4-5mo... there's something called the 4mo wakeful. you can google it and read allll about it. around this time the kids brains start to go crazy with development, and they are also having development of the body, so many new things coming ... it makes it hard for them to settle and sleep. J didn't have too bad of a time, but we had a really strict routine in place and he STILL was affected by it for a few weeks. we also deswaddled around this time so it contributed. and rolling could be just around the corner for some of your babes which could also contribute. just try to stay consistent with your bedtime routines and hopefully it'll pass!

re: spitting up... J also had light reflux for up until 6mo+ and it is definitely normal to have spitup here and there.

pupp... after feeding, i wouldn't totally rock him back to sleep. but we were pretty strict on not rocking to sleep after a point in time, and even now we only do it if he has a fever or is really just having a hard time. can you guys just do a little light soothing then put him down drowsy and continue soothing in-crib? this is how we transitioned J from being in our arms when he was younger. he likes when we rub his forehead and between the eyes (third eye), smooth his hair, rub his belly, or if he is on his tummy rub his back. we also do the 'shhhh' the whole time. anyway...i would try to get to that.

re: sophie... our dog loved it too lol. she got over it after a while though!

kunzite, congrats on O coming home!! he looks like such a big, healthy boy there!

re: J's first birthday... we're just having a non-themed brunch affair. trying to keep it kind of simple. i wish i could tell people to not bring gifts and instead donate to a college fund or BRU gift cards or something so we can actually use the stuff...the kiddo has sooo many toys and clothes already!!!

 

[Puppmom]

SS , Noel and HH, no touch, no talk, no eye contact! …like Cesar Milan says! Okay that was a bad joke, but that is practically what we have to do to make sure N doesn’t fully wake during/after a night feed.

Turtle, rocking is a part of Ns bedtime routine. First, he doesn’t really have a consistent bedtime. It’s between 7 and 8 which isn’t a huge window but the difference is he nurses to sleep if he goes down later and gets rocked to sleep only if he goes down earlier. Everything else about the routine is the same – bath, jammies and quiet time. We never put him down just drowsy but I think we need to work on that. Otherwise, I feel like he’s not going to learn how to put himself to sleep. I like the rocking though.

Mara, I’m definitely noticing this wakeful thing. Even when he’s up, he’s so much more alert than he ever was. He’s constantly moving! He’s not rolling over from back to tummy yet but I’m sure that’ll be another sleep challenge when it comes. We always wait until N is passed out to put him down (bad idea!). We’re going to work on putting him down drowsy. Maybe we’ll start with naps. MIL is actually pretty good about this. She says he’s usually asleep not too long after she gets him zipped up in his sleep sack! Although, when it comes to naps, often N cries when you put him in his sleep sack because he knows what's coming! I hear you on the gifts. Our house is overrun with *stuff*. Everyone wants to buy a present though. My nephew just turned 1 on the 4th and we’re just going to put $50 in his college fund – boring but practical!

AFM, N slept through the night last night. Even having a full night’s sleep once a week is so nice. I feel like a million bucks today!

 

[jcrow]

em - 9 months

wow. it's been so long since i've logged onto ps. i have so much newborn-12 month reading to catch up on!

sttn - early on when i'd feed em in the middle of the night i'd do a tush pat to get her back asleep. we never needed to do anything much as she was always pretty good at getting back to sleep after nursing. now, i just feed and put her down and walk out of the room. sometimes she's asleep when i put her down. other times, she puts herself to sleep. most of the time it's her putting herself to sleep.

and speaking of sttn - em turns 9 months tomorrow and still wakes in the middle of the night. i few times she's gone back to sleep without us doing anything. a couple of times giving her water + holding her got her to sleep. but the last few nights, she cries and i give in to nursing her. typically she goes down at 8 and wakes at 8 or 8:30. she wakes around 1, 4 and 6. i don't mind the 6 feeding. for some reason i feel like it gets her to sleep a bit more and thus me a bit more. uh, what to do? cio? how do i know she's not actually hungry? or hurting?

and speaking of, i just peeked a couple of days ago and her top two teeth have come through. and another is about to break through up top.

and in other milestone news, she walked this week! 7 steps to me, 10 to her daddy and all on her own. yowza!

 

[Puppmom]

Jcrow, I think I'm too faint hearted to do CIO at least at this point. You must be tired though waking up all of those times!

Wow! Walking! Was Em ahead on her other milestones? Walking seems so far away to me. It must be so cute watching your little peanut toddle toward you.

 

[icekid]

Kunzite.. Hooray for Oliver finally getting to go home. You must be thrilled.

JCrow... Yay for Emily walking! Ahh it is so amazing to watch them grow and learn. And only 9 months, she is one advanced little girl. I walked at ten months and have been proud of that for many years

Pupp.. Hahaha at this point in time, I cannot even imagine what it would be like to sleep a whole night through. Did you get really engorged when this started happening? Or was it a gradual enough change that your body adjusted? How old was N when he started sleeping through?

HH.. Jumper got that expensive rubber chicken for Christmas. I wonder why the babies love it so much!?

Noel.. I am so jealous of your me time and full night of sleep! Breast feeding makes those seem so far out of my reach these days.

LV.. Kick that girl out and come on over

 

[Puppmom]

Icekid, N started STTN at 12 weeks...and yes I was definitely engorged at first. The girls would hurt when I woke up but it was totally worth the sleep. Now, I'm full if he STTN but not engorged.

 

[Kunzite]

Icekid, N started STTN at 12 weeks...and yes I was definitely engorged at first. The girls would hurt when I woke up but it was totally worth the sleep. Now, I'm full if he STTN but not engorged.

pupp - This still confuses me. When I talked to the LC about going from pumping 7 times a day to 6 she said I had to do it really slowly (i.e. move the times by 5 minutes each day) or I risked getting mastitis again. So is it different if you're BFing? Obviously at this point I'm worried that just about anything will cause mastitis since I'm so worried about getting it again, but it seems that most people can skip feedings and move times around no problem. I'm confused! re: sleep. Have you read the Baby Whisperer? We're having horrible sleep problems right now and have been relying on that book as of yesterday.

LV - Great choice on the car seat!! I can't wait for you to come over here lady!!! Since O and S had the same due date I'm always going to feel a special interest in little S. Can't wait for her to get here!!

Thank you for the kind words everyone!!

 

[Puppmom]

Maybe it's because pumping doesn't fully drain the breast? I would think going from 7 to 6 times per day wouldn't be much of a difference. Maybe LoganSapphire (she's an exclusive pumper) can help? I don't blame you for not wanting to risk mastitis again. It's awful!

 

[jcrow]

Jcrow, I think I'm too faint hearted to do CIO at least at this point. You must be tired though waking up all of those times!

Wow! Walking! Was Em ahead on her other milestones? Walking seems so far away to me. It must be so cute watching your little peanut toddle toward you.

it's not that bad, but i know she should be sleeping through the night. i say it's not bad because as soon as i nurse her, she goes back down without tears and either is asleep or puts herself to sleep very easily. we would have taken a different approach if the nursing didn't work so well.

how old is your little one? forgive me as i have no memory of babies ages on here! honestly, i'm not sure how early em was for other milestones. either on track or early i guess. hub was an early walker and comes from a family of early walkers if that has any affect.

 

[meresal]

j- how many naps is em taking a day?

Literally the day that C dropped his 3rd nap of the day, he started sleeping thru the night. I wholeheartedly believe that he just wasn't tired enough at the end of the day.

Re: CIO, We only go in if he is literally screaming. When he screams like that, it actually makes him more awake, and we know he is in some kind of pain (teething). However, if he just wimpers and moans, we stay in bed and he puts himself back to sleep within 5-10 minutes.
What happens if you don't go in when she begins to cry? Does it get worse?

 

[jcrow]

j- how many naps is em taking a day?

Literally the day that C dropped his 3rd nap of the day, he started sleeping thru the night. I wholeheartedly believe that he just wasn't tired enough at the end of the day.

Re: CIO, We only go in if he is literally screaming. When he screams like that, it actually makes him more awake, and we know he is in some kind of pain (teething). However, if he just wimpers and moans, we stay in bed and he puts himself back to sleep within 5-10 minutes.
What happens if you don't go in when she begins to cry? Does it get worse?

generally she naps once a day for 1 1/2-2 hours. sometimes she naps a second time for 30 minutes, but that's rare. she's never been good with lots of napping.

we don't go in if she moans or sorta cries because like c, she'll go back down if she doesn't get too worked up. when i nurse her, it's because she's really worked up and or the holding, water, paci [which she never really took to begin with] doesn't do it. sometimes i can hold her to calm her down and she's wide awake but calm, and i can put her in her crib and she freaks out! and it's a process all over again, typically resulting in nursing. in a way it's hard not to just nurse because it works. she's fully awake + crying for a while, i nurse, she goes back down. no fuss. no problem. but it can't be like that forever?! she's got to sleep through the night eventually.

when c wakes in pain or whatever and is crying hard, what do you guys do to get him back down??

 

[meresal]

When I was still nursing and his first two teeth were coming in... (this in when he would wake up screaming)... I would comfort him for about 40 minutes until he calmed down enough to nurse. He would nurse for about 15-20 minutes and then go back to sleep, somtimes wimpering, but would fall back asleep.

Do you think she is waking because she is hungry? Does she eat well during the day? My baby nephew still wakes up about once a night, but he is not a good eater, so I think that he is definitely hungry in the middle of the night.
After the first two teeth came in, that is when we discovered the Orajel swabs. He doesn't wake in pain anymore, but when he did, I would pick him up, swab his gums, sooth him for about 10 minutes and then put him back down and let him CIO if needed.
We have been pretty lucky, that since he started STTN about 2 months ago, we really haven't had many midnight wake-ups. I'm probably not much help J.

However, we did go thru a phase where C would wake up crying about 15 minutes after going down for the night. The first two nights we went in, picked him up, and he would immeditaly wake up completely. After the second night of going in, which resulted in him screaming in mine and DH's ears for 45 minutes each (due to being overtired, not because of teething), we decided the next night we would let him CIO. First night was 45 minutes of crying, second night was 15 minutes, and the third night was 6. It worked for C. (and just so you know, the 45 minutes of crying was crying for the first 25, screaming for the next 10, and then crying/whimpering for the last 10... blocking out the screaming was the hardest part.)

 

[noelwr]

Skye: 30 days old

Skye did her "first thing" yesterday. I was filming her during tummy-time and she rolled over from her tummy onto her back! she did it twice more after that. today she did it twice, too. I thought good eye focus or a smile would come first, but looks like she prefers showing off her muscle strength. also, when I went to get her out of her crib this morning, she had pushed herself all the way to the head end so that her head was against the bars, even though when we tuck her in she is swaddled with a regular blanket (she gets loose) with her feet against the foot end.

photos from 24, 26 and 29 days old (though I think PS will post them in reverse order). DH and my mom say that my photo-taking "skills" make her look like she's got a huge head.

 

[lovelylulu]

Long time no post

Hi mamas!

Hope that everyone had a great holiday season and that the new year is starting off happy and healthy! I have been lurking a bit, but haven't posted in ages!!

Mere - that picture of deuce in the snowsuit/crinkled nose is just the best. I also love the cousins shot!! First friends
kunzite - hurray for a homecoming! oliver looks terrific. very robust. and very, very cute!!
jcrow - N was a marvelous little sleeper. until she started day care. then she's been sick. sick. sick. and in turn waking. waking. waking. throw in a bit of teething and well, makes for a tired mama and baby. I'm double-fingers-and-toes-crossed hoping that health finds its way to my baby soon and then all of our sleeping woes will disappear (apparently tiredness makes one delusional ha!)
hh - your sleeping woes sound tough, because at least N goes back to sleep quickly. have you found anything that works? and sophie is a hit in our house as well.
pupp - I love, love, love all the pictures of Nolan. He is delicious.
shiny - whoever said that lily looks like a doll was exactly right. she is such a pretty little girl (and n's jealous of her hair)
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
as for us, we're still trying to figure out the right work/life balance (ha!). I had been so fully against part-time, but things have been rough, so I'm considering it. Can't implement immediately, not even sure if I can really implement it at all, but can't know until you ask, right?

And aside from giving our whole extended family a stomach bug for N's first Christmas (lovely), we are really enjoying these days. She's eating like a champ - Just had her first CHEERIOS this past weekend, (almost) crawling, took her first swing at the playground, was entranced by the fish at the aquarium. all good times.

Below are some catchup pictures.

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

She's so sweet noel! I'm jealous of her skills as well. Aidan will be 4 mo on Sunday and still isn't rolling over. He can get himself onto his side but hasn't figured out he can get onto his back as well. He scoots himself all over the place when doing tummy time. Usually around in circles, but he does laps around his crib in his sleep at night as well. I know the pedis say that these days rolling happens closer to 5-6 months, but I still stress about it. He's so strong though. He loves to be held "standing" and he loves sitting in your lap facing out. Honestly, I think he might sit unassisted before he's rolling. Leave it to my kid to be a$$backwards. He's loving his toys these days. Anything he can grasp and put in his mouth. Also, we started experimenting with solids this week. Our pedi gastro gave us the go-ahead based on his upper body strength, head control, weight and prior acclimation to rice cereal. So he's getting a little avocado at daycare every day at lunchtime. So far so good, next week is sweet potato!

ETA: Lulu, her eyes are GORGEOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A's sleep is a little better this week. He's been waking super early, like 5am and we get up at 6 and he's still waking up at least two times a night. So that's been rough. But his middle of the night wake-ups have been short and we've been working on putting him to bed and back to bed drowsy but awake. Last night he woke up and was just talking to himself for 10-15 minutes. We finally went in and settled him back to sleep, but it was odd....

ETA: our BPF contribution...

 

[Puppmom]

Just wanted to pop in with a PSA…MIL bought N an outfit from www.annegeddes.com.. It’s organic cotton yoga pants/tights with a top and he wore it yesterday. The cotton is seriously so soft and comfy and the waist is perfect. N is a bit *round* so the waist of pants are often too tight on him and these are perfect! Oh, and the split neck with buttons makes it super easy to get over his big head! The whole outfit is like $16 and they are adorable. I’m ordering more for N today and as a shower gift. For size comparison, N weighs about 17.5 lbs and 6-9 months fits perfect.