March/April 05 Thread #2

[Richelle]

Erin, we posted at the same time!!    Sophie went off her solids and the breast due to teeth, well that is what the ped. said anyway.  Sophie did have an off time for a few days but then came right back around.  Happy belated Birthday by the way.. :oops:

I have crib bumpers here and funny enough it has sort of become Sophies lovie :shock:   She flops over on her side and curls her arm around it and pulls her self right against it with her little hand poking between the rails, it is very cute!  I didn't know about the stepping thing though - good to know!!

[Claire Marie's mommy]

I forgot to ask.  When do you shift naps to more of a schedule, as in the same time everyday regardless of wake time?  I'm still going by activity time and sleepy cues because Claire wakes up for the day anywhere from 5:45 to 7 am.  Her naps usually end up being with in an hour of the same time everyday.  Are some of you using the clock? Hope this makes sense.

Jessica

[Colesmom]

Hey Jessica,

I kind of do a combination of awake time and clock time.  When he gets up early like today (5:20) I usually stretch him a little in order to get him to a more reasonable nap time.  Of course I stretched him a little too much and he had a 30 min. nap.  At least I think that's why it was 30 min. :wink:   I am trying to work towards 9am and 1pm naps.  Right now we're around 8:15 and 12:30.  Yesterday was ideal for me, napped 8:15-9:30 and 12:30-2:00, then no catnap so he went to bed kind of early.

What I'm trying to say in a not so direct manner is that I find I need to watch the clock with DS more than cues...as he doesn't show many cues at all.  Not sure this helps but maybe it does :?

[B&BMommy]

Hi Ladies, just wanted to post some quick pics for Brady dressed up before he went to bed last night, and as you know I use the term went to bed loosley...lol

Holly

[B&BMommy]

oops lets try this again

[B&BMommy]

I'm not going to have a computer again until Thursday, so I just wanted to let you know why i'm MIA. Getting it fixed again.  I'll catch up with all of you on Thursday....In the mean time, I hope all your lo are getting sleep....

Hugs
Holly

[Richelle]

Jessica - Sophie has set nap times, no matter when she wakes up.  Some days I may put her down 10 or 15 minutes early if she got up really early but for the nanny I am fairly rigid about her nap times.

9 - 10:15
1 - 2:15
4:30 - 5:15
7 or 730 Bed

I think we are in the process of dropping the catnap, I will then move her bedtime up and stretch her naps longer?  I still am confused about this bedtime/catnap business, some days I am sure we are finished with the catnap and then a few days in a row she will go down without a peep...sigh...

[kq]

NIKKI, Sam has been constipated and I cannot for the life of me figure out what is causing it. Kumara was one of the first foods and he seemed fine, we have not added anything new apart from cooked chicken in a bottle. He has a cube of prunes a day now and so far, no improvement.
I only know how to puree veges. Any advice on how to puree chicken as I am only giving commercial stuff but would like to do some of my own.
JO, how do you do pureed chicken?
I am at a loss about no catnap/bedtime so any advice welcome. Last couple of days, Sam has refused his catnap and we put him to bed about 20 minutes earlier but then we get 5 am waking!!!! Do we just put him to bed at the same time but then he would have been awake 4 hours!!! Plus he is sooo tired.
Take care all,
Karen

[Taylor's Mommy]

Hi Ladies!  I have sooo missed you all.  I went back and looked and it has been a full week since I posted and 20 pages later!!! :shock:  :shock:
This last week has just been really busy for us with 3 different play dates, a "house work" day on the weekend where we left Taylor at Grandma's house, and getting ready for the big day (we had a party with 20 adults and 8 kids).  So basically we've been around but just super busy.  Sorry I missed the chat too! :cry:   Will have to catch you guys eithre this Wed. or next week.

So, an update...(sorry, but there is no way I can even attempt to catch up, but I did read the last few pages, so hopefully should suffice).  First off, LOVE all of the Halloween pictures.  As soon as we download ours I will post as well, if anyone recalls, Taylor was going to be Minnie Mouse. 
We have a crib bumper as well, and Taylor loves staring/talking to it.  She is moving quite a bit in her crib, so sometimes we will go in and find her face smashed against it which kind of freaks me out so we move her a tad...but I have read that SIDS is drastically reduced after 6 months, so I left it.  They are quite common here in America...everyone I know has one, if that means anything.
Constipation, oh yes, I know what that is all about!    I finally gave her a suppository last week which did the trick and oh boy, was she plugged up!  Poor thing I have no idea how she could have so much poop in her!!!
Since then I gave her one drop of little tummys, as well as changed to Barley cereal instead of rice.  I also give a little but of prunes at all meals.
I also have to spoon feed her water if she is not having a good sippy cup day, on the advice of my pediatrician.

Other than that, we had a rough couple of nights with multiple night wakings last week, but I think due to the constipation.
She has not catnapped since last Monday, so I'm thinking it is gone for now.
Lastly, she has been waking up at 6 am for 8 days now (it was 5 am for one day right after the time change, but went back to 6 on Monday).  The first 2 days I got up and fed her and she went right back to sleep.  On the 3rd day I thought, hummm, this is becoming a habit, so no feed and patted her back to sleep.  So for the last 6 days she wakes up at 6am precisely and can pretty much go back to sleep after fussing for about 2 min., but only sleeps for 5-10, then up again.  Basically she fusses off and on for 1 hour before I finally get her up at 7.  WHAT DO YOU THINK SHE IS TRYING TO TELL ME???  Is she hungry so should I feed and put her back down for 1 hour?  Or should I try wake to sleep, eventhough it isn't technically the middle of the night?  Don't really know what to do at this point :roll:  :?:   8 days in a row, so I'd defintely call it a habit.

Anyhow, sorry for being such a stranger.  I did really miss you all!  Glad to see Holly is still here and am hoping things have improved with your ds.  Naomi, Nicki, Traci, Hannah, Hayley, Judy, ANkie, Richelle, Erin, Jo, Bec, Jessica, Kate, Karen and the list goes on and on......, thanks for always being here, even when I go MIA for a few days!
Have a great day, Andrea

[FrasersMum]

We missed you too Andrea!  Especially at the chat - hope you can make it to the next one!!  Sorry I can't help with the night wakings, what with illness and everything we've got going on here we have night wakings and early starts every day.  OH SO TIRED...  But perhaps once you work it out, could you let me know??  :wink:

Karen - pureeing the chicken - OK, I poach the chicken breast, just in water, a slow cook over low heat like a casserole.  I think I left it about an hour or thereabouts.  I then chucked it in the blender and added a bit of the cooking water and wizzed it.  It is mighty gross I would say     Anyway, it's not completely smooth - I haven't bought the jarred stuff so I don't know if that is completely smooth - but when I mix it with the veges he tolerates it fine.  I'm only doing 1 cube at the moment with 3 of sweet potato and 2 of green veg but will increase it to 2 cubes once he gets a bit more used to it.  I have heard you can do the same with veal as a good first meat.  Otherwise I guess you could do the same principle but chuck the meat and the veg in the blender all together - you might get a smoother consistency??  Any way, that's what I did - don't know if it's "right" but it seemed to work.

Cheers!

[Nikki~Nathan&Danielle]

Thanks for that about chicken Jo!  I am thinking of doing that soon.  Danielle's having about 8-10 different veg and fruit now (I only do the 3 day rule) and scoffing it all down.  It's quite handy, I won't really need to cook ahead of time like I did with Nathan because I'm basically cooking him lunch most days anyway, so she just gets some of his veges mashed (she's now onto a chunkier texture).  I think you're right about her probably not being constipated, just unused to the the thicker texture because it wasn't hard and pellety.

Jo with the celiac, we basically are committed to it for life now - the blood result was positive, and it's an auto-immune disease, so not just an intolerance which is what I initially though which means every time he comes in touch with gluten it will attack his body.  So 100% for ever - I was kind of grieving yesterday thinking about how he won't be able to easily have meals out, no take aways, no drinking beer with his mates  :cry: - but I feel a bit better about it today, and my mum apologised without me even mentioning anything! 

Anyway, better get these two ready for their nap.

[Colesmom]

Andrea-of course we missed you!  let me know when you solve the early wakings and I'll hop on board your solution.

Well-I jinxed myself yesterday ladies.  Can't remember exactly what I said but something about Cole being easy and sleeping well.  LOL, that is so OVER.  30 min. nap, 45 min. nap, 40 min. nap on the boppy in my lap after feeding to sleep.  Down for bed after 1 hour of screaming, pupd, feeding and holding and rocking to sleep :?  The one thing I don't like is when I leave him to settle now I never know if he's standing up crying like he was for catnap and for bed or lying down just trying to settle.  I leave the door open now so i can try to peak in.  It could be one of two things a) teeth-but how long could it possibly take for these things to come in b) too much going on the last few days...need to chill out with him for a bit.

I am thinking it's b.  Saturday, Sunday and yesterday were all hectic.  Met Holly today after 30 min. nap.  Cole was great while there but had trouble going down for second nap.  They told me a new sign language class was starting from 2-3 so I hightailed it back for 2 only to be told it was cancelled :twisted:   so i went to walmart to pick up a few things.  I think I've just been running around with him too much lately...and with the time change too.  So, staying around the house for the next couple of days. Hopefully no rain so we can get out for our afternoon stroll.

And you know, I haven't been able to soothe him to sleep with a pat, a jiggle or anything for weeks now.  I'll go in and stay with him and do all that stuff but he's always up on his hands and knees and I can't get him down.  So as long as he knows I'm around I leave and give him 5. If he doesn't settle I go try again...but he always needs to do it by himself and I don't like it at all.  I wish I could just give him a pat, a reassuring hand on his back or something :oops:

okay, really behind now on getting dinner and such ready.  I just hope he doesn't wake up at 45 min. screaming.  poor smuggies.

[kate585]

Hi, girls! 
Andrea, so glad to see you back!  We knew you could never leave us for long  :wink: , not that you'd want to, of course.
This time change is for the birds, I tell ya!  Poor Ryan, or more accurately, dh.  I was at my 6 am aerobics class (which is why we were trying to train him to sleep til 8 so it'd be 7 after time change.  No luck.   :?)  He was up at 6:00 and dh tried patting back to sleep, but he wouldn't do it.  Got him up and realized there was a MAJOR poopy diaper.   Tried to change him in the dark, but Ryan was dressed in a onesie, pj's and socks, then another set of pj's.  (We are ErinM/Katie wannabes!    )  So, he gets it all undone and the diaper is open.  Ryan then wriggles around and SPLAT!  foot with sock goes right in the pile of poop.  So, Matt whips off the sock and poop goes flying everywhere...on dh, on the diaper pad, on the outer pj's. Matt turned on the lights to see (without realizing he got poop on Switchy the Fishy, Ryan's favorite friend/lightswitch, which I found at about 5 pm :roll: ) and sees more poop IN THE MIDDLE OF RYAN'S FOREHEAD!   :shock:   Gross!!!  So, he got everything sort of wiped up and then popped Ryan in the bath.  He was playing happily when I got home, but dh looked majorly frazzled.  He got a big kiss and now Ryan has a new nickname to add to the list: PoopFace.  (Just kidding...sort of!)
His mom (my mil) was so glad he had to deal with a situation like this.  She thinks it's so easy for moms to always deal with this crap (pun intended) and the men just skate by and never have to get in the trenches.  Gotta love her!
So, it was a bit of a hectic morning, then threw off naps and feeds all day, but he did fine and even went to bed with a minimum of fussing. Hooray! 
Okay, off to hang with dh...he deserves some snuggles after this am!  (And, I really do mean snuggles...we're too tired for anything more!)

[mickymuscles]

hi guys!!

good to see you back andrea!!

LOL!!! Kate!!!  I have a very vivid image in my head of all the poop everywhere!!  So funny!!

Traci-Jack and I are on the same boat as you! :shock:  :roll:  He has been having one 1 1/2 hour or 45 min nap a day then two 30 min naps. I don't know if it him trying to cut back on day sleep or what but he generally has been waking happy so I've just been going with the flow.  He hasn't been showing very many sleepy signs either.  Only the ones he shows after being up for an hour! :roll:  So I'm not likely to put him down for a nap then....so I've been keeping him up and finally put him down after 3 hours up! :roll:   I don't know if I'm keeping him up too long???  He's not showing sleepy signs after 3 hours at all until I start doing the wind-down with him.

[Arwyn's mom]

Welcome back, Andrea!

We had an okay day today. When I last posted, Arwyn had settled herself to sleep for a nap or something... well... she did it again today for her morning nap. Also, our catnap is back. After 2 weeks plus of no catnap, suddenly, it is back, much to mommy's pleasure!! I think it was teeth. Now that the 2 bottom ones are through, she seems less fussy at sleep times although we are still struggling with night wakings that I have inadvertently made into habit by feeding her. She was not getting any BFs during the night up until 3 weeks ago. She was very difficult to console so I started putting her on my breast again... and now, I have habitual wakings again. :roll:

The day was only okay because Arwyn got up an hour earlier than normal. We have swim lessons on Tues. and I really wanted her nap to be on track but...  :? So, we started heading out to her swim lesson when she was really supposed to be going down for a nap :roll: . She managed fine as she really loves the water but I knew it would be a struggle to get her down when we got home.

Arwyn is only having about a cube (1 oz.) of solids per meal. It sounds like everybody else is having more. I don't have a guide or anything... does anybody else have something they are following?

Kate... Umm... EWW? on the poop! Good thing DH got to experience it. :wink: Happy snuggling!

Jessica... I do a combo of watching the time and Arwyn's cues. I know what her awake times tend to be between each nap so I try to go by that and depending on her behaviour, will try to shorten or lengthen to get back on track. I know this doesn't really help but it kinda makes sense to us here. I also track her sleep so I know generally when she should nap. Usually it is around 9 am and then again at 12:30/1:00 ish. The catnap, when it appears, it around 5:00 or 5:30 ish.

Hopefully I can catch you all at the chat tomorrow!
Goodnight