Jan/Feb 05 Babies chat!

[Leah's Mom]

Great idea Schae! When I get a chance I will post Leah as a newborn.

[Daniel's mummy]

Christine and Heather - I keep forgetting to say, your los have the same birthday as me.  My birthday is 4th Feb 1977

Foods Daniel has tried - he eats almost anything now! :shock:   I started him on solids when he was nearly 4 months old and did start really slowly.  We did rice cereal for a bit and then veggies (introducing them at 4 day intervals)  Now he eats such a variety and so far has shown no allergies to anything.  For lunch today he had a mashed shepherds pie (homemade so I know what's in it) and for tea he had a cheesy pasta concoction.  I don't even bother pureeing anymore.  We just mash it all up and he eats it lumps and all.  It really does make life so much easier once they get to this stage.  In fact for tea tonight we had a pasta meal and I kept the leftovers for Daniel tomorrow     I never use salt in our cooking so that makes it easier.  He also loves finger foods so his desserts now are usually just small chunks of fruit (pear is his all time favourite). 

You know when you have a good few days and you find yourself just waiting for something to go wrong  :? well that is me right now.  Daniel hasn't recently made any new developmental milestones so I guess that's why.  I am dreading the standing in the cot and the crawling round when supposed to be sleeping :shock: At the moment (I know so many will hate me for posting this!) every single nap and bedtime he just falls asleep before I've even got downstairs to turn the monitor on!  I put him down wide awake and he just snuggles his lovey and then falls asleep.  Just amazes me every time.  I guess I should just enjoy it while it lasts. 

Had some friends over for a meal tonight (lady from church whose husband is away working in Africa for 3 months and her 2 sons and also my sister).  We ended up talking about logos.  One of her sons is amazing (12 years old) - you can literally name any logo and he can describe it to you.  Like every little detail!!!  Just had to share that as I found it almost scarey.  I can recognise most logos but if you actually asked me to describe it I wouldn't have a clue!  (Oh except for MacDonalds - I can spot the golden arches a mile off.)

Have chosen three of my fave piccies of Daniel when newborn.

[thitz]

Heather, I'm glad you and Kelsey had a good day.  It's amazing how one good day can make all the difference.

Deborah, how would you go about grinding oats?  I too would like to make my own oat cereal, because the baby kind is getting expensive.  Also I know what you mean about waiting around for 45 mins, that's an eternity for babies!

JulieG, I make most of Emily's food, she's had carrots, peaches (bought), banana(bought), tomato, rutabaga, gr. beans, potato, yam, baby cereals (rice,oat and 3grain), plum, apple.  She gets oats and apple for dinner everyday because she gobbles it up and has no patience at that time of day for vegetables.

For those cutting out df, for a few weeks now I've been giving Emily 4oz at 8:30 latest and she sleeps till 6:30.  I don't think I'll be cutting the df out though for awhile since she has her dinner early at 5:45.  Also it's easy for me to give since it's so early.

Us, I saw a mommy deer and two baby deers in our yard this morning, they were just walking around muching on leaves. 

Emily's second nap is shortening again.  But she seems to be fairly happy for most of the afternoon, so I can't complain.

Tomorrow I'm getting my hair cut.  This will be the first time in about a year.  When I was pg I was afraid to go cause I didn't want to bend back while they do the shampoo cause I thought it would make the baby uncomfortable.  Sounds silly now but oh I can't wait to get it all chopped off.

Good night everyone!  Tarri

[julieb]

Argh!  I wrote out my reply and lost it!

Anyway....

I spoke too soon on the teething.   :roll:   We had a really bad nap day (by our standards).  Although it could have been much worse.  He went down for bedtime well and haven't heard from him, so I guess he's making up for it.  And he was surprisingly in good spirits during A times.  He's got two more bottom teeth that cut through to show for it though!  Still waiting on those top two to come through.

I'm worried that Asher may have had a reaction to the squash, so I'm taking a step back and will try it again when this current diaper rash clears up.  Although, it could be a teething rash as well.  It's just not clearing up as quickly as the others. 

Jaime: Yeah, I'm sure I'll forget a lot about Asher as a baby (already have  :shock: ), but like you said, there's some things I don't think I could ever forget.  Common sense stuff like bedtimes, naps, and being in public with a baby.   :roll:
We decided not to vaccinate because the potential risks outweight the potential benefits in our situation.  DH has adult ADHD and because of the possible link between ADHD and childhood vaccinations, we don't want to take our chances with Asher.  We have no way of controlling how his body will react to a vaccine, but we CAN control his exposure to these infectious diseases (to a degree).

Schae:  I'd worry about the bottle of water becoming a prop to soothe himself back to sleep.  What's the temp there at night?  Do you have A/C?  It's much hotter here and about 77~78 (25 degC) in the house at night.  We have no need to give water at night here.

[Deb_in_oz]

schae - i woudl give the botle of water (maybe 100ml?) on very hot nights if that is causing the waking. don't worry about dehydration otherwise (if gets thirsty it will cause the waking and you can give water - no problem)  We did this with alex (breastfeeds at first) her first summer and she was 6-10 mo - she never woke looking for a drink except when it got bad (her room would sometimes be 30C because we had no aircon and could not cool it down)  Those nights were very stressful and i woudl call my mother in NY crying because i was scared she would die form the heat...she was fine and like i said, just hydrate if he wakes.

Us - We have had a great couple of days (still working on the food thing though) and amazingly Olivia took a 2hr 15 min afternoon nap today from 1:30-3:45pm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! yipee! i think it is the first one since 5 mo??

that is all i have to say for now  :lol:  am off to do bed and bath routine. it is stinking hot here this evening (it seemd to get hotter after 3pm strangely  :roll: )

also - my PPD support group starts tomorrow which is good but it also means olivia is starting daycare for the first time (both girls will go on Thursdays from 9-12:30 for the next 10 weeks - yikes)

[dkjokisch]

Ok, I tried to post photos last night and again this morning, but the site isn't cooperating.  It just idles.  I'll have to try again later.

JulieB - It wasn't just MIL, but we just spent the most time with her as we were staying at her house.  At least FIL offered to sit up in the middle of the night with her when we went to the beach with him.  The problem is they don't see her often enough so she is not comfortable enough with them that they can calm her down.  The one night she wouldn't even settle for dh.

She is settling back in, but slowly.  She goes down fairly well for her naps (but only with the pacifier, which I am not wild about), but we're lucky to get one good nap (> 1hr) per day.  She's having trouble resettling at the 45min mark.  And after a week of pretty much no independent play and being held all the time, she is very clingy.  She cried while I used the bathroom this morning, even though she was still in sight of me.

Tarri - Super Baby Food has some info about making your own cereal.  It was a bit more involved than I was looking for, but I was just planning on buying a container of quick-cooking oats and grinding them in the food processor or the small jar attachment for my blender.  I was going to do whole rolled oats (which is what I eat), but dh pointed out that the quick cook ones might be easier to digest and definitely quicker to prepare.  I'll let you know how it goes.

[HeatherC]

Well, I lost my post, too, when I hit "submit", so I'll try again.
Debra-I think it might be a good thing for you to have the girls in daycare to give you a break.  I hope the support group works out for you.  Keep us posted.
JulieG-yikes, the standing up but can't get down sagga!  Good luck.  Maybe Michelle can offer advice.
Christine-my computer stalls when I try to visit your website, but I'll keep trying.  I'm sure it's great.
Me-well, I offered pieces of banana this morning, and she gagged.  I was bummed because I waited days for them to ripen, only to have it wasted.  I'll try again I guess.  My next attempts at finger foods I think will be rice cakes and pancakes or waffles.  I am making chicken and dumplings in the slow cooker tonight, so I might mash some up and let her try that.  You'll be proud that I'm diving in, and now giving her whole veggie puffs!
I love everyone's pictures.  Here's some of Kelsey.

[dkjokisch]

One more try...

[dkjokisch]

Just to show how tiny she was (about 5lbs in this picture)...

[dkjokisch]

And now (at ~15lbs)...

[julieb]

Well, despite the bad nap day yesterday, the night went great.  He woke 'singing' around 6:30 but I didn't get him up until 7:00.     So far so good today.  And the diaper rash is gone so I'll try the squash again tomorrow.

Christine:  I think the JussPress site is having problems because I tried uploading last night and this morning and none of the videos have showed up on my site.  I just emailed tech support.  So it may not be your computer after all.  BTW, I tried to check your site last night (the other one), and I couldn't get it to come up.  I'll try again later today.

Heather:  Keep trying!  :wink:   It took a few tries for Asher to figure it out.  You could try squishing them a little between your fingers and then give her one to get used to the lumpiness.

Love all the photos!  It's so fun to see "then and now"!

[Schae]

I'm loving the pics! I can't believe how tiny our lo's were. Awwww!

Deb: I think the daycare idea is a good one, you'll get some quality time with yourself and that can't be anything but good. 

Deborah: Poor Maya  I hope she settles in soon. I can't believe how tiny she was! Was she prem?

Heather: How did the dumplings go? Luka LOVES dumplings, we only gave them to him coz he cried when we ate them and didn't give him any.

Us: Thanks for the water advice. Julieb, it was 30 degrees celcius here last night, and dry dry dry, we're hoping for rain (and it's threatening tonight Yay!) And today was was 32 degrees, and it's only October, I'm scared of what December is going to be like.

Here are a couple of Luka pics:

[thitz]

Hi Everyone,

Here's some young Emily pics.

[Leah's Mom]

Thanks for trying to visit my site everyone. Something is going on because I can't get on either. I wanted to upload more pics last night and couldn't.  I'll let you all know when I can get back on. The newborn pics are great!!! I'll put ours on when I get home tonight.

We had our first choking experience last night!  :shock: I gave DD a chunk of banana that was obviously too large. She started to choke and I actually had to pick her up and hit her on the back. The banana chunk came flying out. Scary!!!!!!!! She just smiled though. 

Schae- Too funny about your weather becuase we are actually having flood warnings right now! We live by a lake and I had to take a different road to work today becuase the lake water was over the road!  :shock: It seems so weird to me that you are entering your hot season (right?) and we are entering our cold season!

[Kinlagh's Folks]

A little too crazy to be able to reply to everyone.  Hope you and your lovely babies are doing well this week.

You may have seen my post in the nap section.  As you may remember, Kinlagh started standing in her crib (and everywhere else) which we were battling last week at nap and bedtime.  Well now add in a cold and teething and you can just imagine right?  All 3 of us are sick here.  Dh stayed home from work Monday & Tuesday so he got to witness how crazy things were while he was away.  Kinlagh seems to just have a stuffy nose, but those aspirators are just the worst.  She hates it!  But it's gotta be done. 

On the milestone front, we now have a stair climber and the beginnings of a cruiser.  I'm so anxious for month 8 to be over.  This is too crazy for me!

Love the pics everyone!  Hope all is well with the rest of you.  Will post a little more when I get a break.