Babies of Oct-Dec /04

[Gigismom]

ange- i will let you know what the dr says...in the meantime, i have a friend who is a pediatrician...i will ask her for a diagnosis, but she lives so far away that i won't be able to have her actually look at the rash, but it may give us a clue as to what it could be.

phoebe-i know you said you are feeding susana organic foods, so what we like to give gigi for finger foods is "earth's best organic (wheat-free) teething biscuits".  she loves them and they dissolve easily after being sucked on for a while!!  they are a little sweeter than i would like them to be, but she really loves them and they are one of the few things she will feed herself...plus, i LOVE the extra 45 mins i get to do some chores while she sits in her high chair playing with/eating them.

[pdb]

Mimi- Naps and nightime sleep are getting worse.  It's hard to know if it's just from overtiredness, ears, teething, etc.  Last Friday she napped great for the sitter and had a good day, same with me Sat.  Sun. her afternoon nap was really short and this week naps have been pretty bad.  At night she used to always go down so easily, now she sits up in her crib and tries to play.  Cries when I leave but won't lay down when I come in.  After about 45 minutes she'll settle if I hold her, but I don't want her to get in the habit of me holding her to sleep.  I'm also wondering if maybe the babysitter is doing that.  She had been sleeping through the night, but the past few nights has woken several times in the early evening and then again in the middle of the night. 

Lindsey- I almost bought those teething biscuits the other day, but I wasn't sure if Susana was old enough for them yet.  I'll have to give them a try.

Called the doctor today and they want to see Susana tomorrow instead of waiting until Tues.  I hope her ears are OK, but if they are not then at least that might explain some of the erratic behavior.  We'll see...

[hannah'smom]

Well ladies Hannah is 8 months and we just got our first tooth. We were calling her gummy joe because she hasn't had any teeth up til now...Guess we will have to change the nic name 

Has any one else noticed that there little ones are now dropping things and watching it fall and smiling when you bend over to pick it up. Or if you place something behind your back they bend and reach to try and find it. It's amazing being here each day to notice the small developmental changes.  I really am not looking forward to going back to work and missing all these changes.

What games do you find your little ones like to play or do they have a favorite toy they like???

Hannah loves the fischer price learning bird bath. She loves she can smack the birds, water or pull the shapes out and suck on them. She also likes her leap frog activity center. 

Ohhh the mummum's can be found in Zehr's or any big department store.  They have a little sugar in them, I think it's 1.8 grams of sugar for 8 cookies. I only give her one or two a day so the sugar content is really low. Also the shape of the cookie makes it really easy for her to feed herself.

Ange

[MorganLeigh]

Just wanted to add about those teething cookies. Morgan loves them and I felt so safe with them. But now that she has like 7 teeth she actually bited big huge chunks off so no more. Ijust loved them as well bc it as like a break..took her like an hour to gum it to death! Now it cheerios!! they everywhere.

[NKmommy]

Hi!  I see that a lot of our babies are waking a lot at night!  For the last few weeks, Nathan will wake a few times a night screaming, inconsolable.  Sometimes it takes an hour to get him calm and back to sleep.  Took him to doc (thanks to all your good advice), but no ear infection.  Hmmmm, could teething take this long?  Or maybe he is having separation anxiety.  Not sure, but I hope this is just a phase.     :?

When do you normally go from 4 to 3 bottles a day?  DS is 8 mos, 1 week, and he takes about 4-5 ounces, 4 times a day.  He won't take more, and sometimes after about 4 ounces, he pushes his tummy in and out, like he is trying to have a little fart.   :shock:   Gas?  Not sure if cutting out a bottle would help since he refuses to drink any more than 4-5 oz ( BTW also medicated for severe reflux).  What do you think?

[Mum to Ella Rose]

Well we too are all over the map still... dd's latest is standing in her crib CONSTANTLY!  :lol:  She's up all hours and won't nap easily...

Sheila, we went to 3 bottles just a few weeks ago and it made all the difference. Ella too would only drink about 4 oz. and now she has 3 8 oz. bottles though it took a few days to adjust. And she too is a refluxer. On Zantac and Domperidone. In fact we were at the doc's again today and he wants her to see a gastroenterologist (sp?) again plus he upped her meds. (she's not gaining well again  :cry: ) At any rate my point is we had good success with going to three bottles so maybe you would too??

Morgan Leighs mom... your post made me laugh!!! (gumming it to death... :lol: )

Ange... congrats on the tooth!!  What is the bird bath thing? Sounds great! Ella also loves the Leap Frog table though she pulls it on top of herself... :lol: She also still loves her jolly jumper and her latest thing is balls. She loves to "play ball." you roll it too her and she trys to throw it back. She is also showing her first interest in books. She points at stuff and then looks up at you with a big grin. It's the funniest thing... she's so interested in her pointer finger right now! She stares and stares at it then lifts her arm up over her head and watches while she waves the one finger around!

[MorganLeigh]

5:30 wake time - 3 days in a row now. You know how hard it is to get them to stay up to 7:30 pm when days like this happen. Im at a loss. She wakes up at 5:30 plays to get then yells she ready to get out and join the world. Now yesterday after getting uo at 5:45 she didnt wanna nap till 9:30! Her schedule is all messed up this week and I feel like Im losing it. I dont know maybe Ill try to sneak in a cat nap today and try to put her to bed at 8 tonight and see how that goes, we will see. Just hope she least gets some good naps in. Mondays start off like this the whole weeks will be the same! But Im determined to fix it.

[MorganLeigh]

Or maybe instead of an extra cat nap I should cut back on daytime sleep? But it just seems she barely gets an hour a nap in for her 2. Ahhhhhh!

[Jakes_mom]

pbd- work is going well, i am surprised how much i enjoy the time to myself.  Jake is still adjusting.  He goes to my sisters house 2 days a week and usually doesnt go down for his nap as if he is home.  she usually waits till he is exhausted and he passes out :roll:  :roll: .  Those days are so hard, usually he is miserable because he didnt sleep.  As soon as Jake starts to crawl i will ask my sister to come to my house and then he can go back on schedule.  the funny thing is that those two days dont seem to mess up the other days.  Does your lol fall asleep in the car?  How old is your lol?

We have been slowly trying the gerger puffs, he seems to like them and is now picking them up himself with his thumb and pointer and putting in his mouth.  we too are trying to go from 4 bottles to 3 but worried he may not get enough formula.  the first 3 bottles are about 7 oz's and we are still doing the dreamfeed but only about 4oz. 

Morganleigh-  Jake is always up around 530-6am. We have adjusted his morning wake time to 3hrs before 1st and 2nd nap and 4 -4.5 hrs before bedtime.  sometimes he falls asleep before 7pm but he still sleeps till the morning.  hope this helps.

well gotta jet--Jenn

[NKmommy]

Sheila, we went to 3 bottles just a few weeks ago and it made all the difference. Ella too would only drink about 4 oz. and now she has 3 8 oz. bottles though it took a few days to adjust. And she too is a refluxer. On Zantac and Domperidone. In fact we were at the doc's again today and he wants her to see a gastroenterologist (sp?) again plus he upped her meds. (she's not gaining well again  :cry: ) At any rate my point is we had good success with going to three bottles so maybe you would too??

Hi!  Thanks for the bottle advice - I will definitely try it.  Good luck with the gastroenterologist.  When we took Nathan to a ped GI, he switched us from Zantac to a PPI (Prevacid or Prilosec), and it made all the difference in the world.  Hope it helps her!   

[Gigismom]

for all of you with babies waking in the night:  we have had this problem on and off for about 2 months.  we usually do the letting her cry/try to settle for 5 mins, then comfort, cry 5 mins, comfort.  it was taking us 2 hours sometimes for her to go back to sleep.  now, it is usually 10-20 mins.  sometimes she wakes and cries and goes back to sleep by herself right away.  also, i have been reading a lot lately on infant sleep and am noticing many glaring mistakes i am making with dd that we are going to try to correct now that i know.  tracy's books are good, but they leave out many key facts on sleep.  it is a very interesting subject and i recommend (for those of you with spare time-haha) reading a few extra books on babies and sleep so you can try to get to the root of the problems rather than pu/pd until your arms fall off.

morgan's mom-gianna sometimes wakes really early too.  on those days, i have to drive her around in the car at 5 pm for about 30 mins so she can get a catnap.  she refuses to sleep in her crib that late...if you have the time and morgan sleeps in the car, you can try this...??...also, if you have a fortune to pay for all the gas!!!

[Gigismom]

i always do this...i write a long post then forget to ask the question i came here for!  this is a df question...for those of you who've dropped it.

gianna lately has just been plain refusing it. she is always asleep but turns her head and won't latch on.  so i just put her down.  is it ok to drop it cold turkey like this?  i have no idea how much she takes at the df as she is EBF.  i just don't want her to start waking any earlier in the am because she is hungry.

[Jadynsmom]

  also, i have been reading a lot lately on infant sleep and am noticing many glaring mistakes i am making with dd that we are going to try to correct now that i know.  tracy's books are good, but they leave out many key facts on sleep.  it is a very interesting subject and i recommend (for those of you with spare time-haha) reading a few extra books on babies and sleep so you can try to get to the root of the problems rather than pu/pd until your arms fall off.

Lindsey, just curious as to what were some of the mistakes you were making?  I never could do pu/pd for just personal preference so I can't say that I tried it even.  Can you tell me the name of the book?  I guess I do have a little extra time. :wink:

This last week has been really tough for Jadyn with her top teeth.  Yes, she finally has the top two out!!! Yeah.    THe first one was really tough and the second one is out but not as much as the first one.  She woke at night 2 or 3 times for almost a week.  I noticed a lot of you are also experiencing night wakes as well so I can sympathize.  I think we did a lot of AP during that time, bringing her into our bed, bfing her back to sleep, rocking her to sleep (daddy did this).  Good news is this morning she woke up at 7:38am happy and she went to bed last night at 7:45pm and it took 3 mins to sleep on her own and never did make a peep during the night.  Only thing is she's been pooping in the middle of the night.  I'm really thinking about dropping her df, even though her solids are not quite in place.

I can't tell if our AP has affected her clinginess as we can't leave her to play by herself most of the time.  I can't even set her down in her exersaucer to play.  She gets these big tears in her eyes.  Just when I thought her separation anxiety was almost gone. :?

Uh oh husband needs the computer.  Gotta go.  Will write more later.

Kathy

[MomtoRee]

Well we are over 9 months now and there is still no sign of crawling!  She moves mostly by rolling but pushes herself forward wtih her toes.  Sure makes things easier on me that she is not crawling!  She still can't sit herself up on her own either.  DH was really slow in these areas so I think that she is taking after him.  He didn't crawl until over 10 months and didn't walk until he was 15 months! 

We went through that stage for a long time with Reegan getting up at 5:30 but now it is 6:30/7:00.  She just outgrew it or somehting but she still gets up around 5 to get a snack.  I don't mind this since I have supply issues.  I think it helped that she started napping better.  She is now going 1 nap 1 1/2 and the 2nd nap has been over 2 hours  !  It throws the eating off a bit but that is fine wiht me.  I am just so happy because she has never been this good.  I have to say that I go through the nap/nighttime routine and lay her down and leave.  If she does cry I let her go for a few minutes before I go back in and then just comfort her and leave again.  I know that this is not BW but when we were gettin up 10/12 times a night for over a month I had to do something different.  THis got her sleeping almost through the night and she very rarely cries and if she does is just a little fussing.  I still feel bad about doing this but turns out that it is what she needed. 

We are still having BM 4 times a day.  I don't think that I will drop one until we are ready to quit.  I think this is different then a bottle but that is my input. 

Reegan's favorite toy besides her treasure basket is the Fisher Price Aquarium bowl with teh balls in it.  She has loved it since she was a month old.  Now she loves to take the balls in and out and throw them.  It is such a great toy!  She also loves her baby mcdonald on teh Farm book.  When I pull it out she gets so excited and screams.

[NKmommy]

i always do this...i write a long post then forget to ask the question i came here for!  this is a df question...for those of you who've dropped it.

gianna lately has just been plain refusing it. she is always asleep but turns her head and won't latch on.  so i just put her down.  is it ok to drop it cold turkey like this?  i have no idea how much she takes at the df as she is EBF.  i just don't want her to start waking any earlier in the am because she is hungry.

Yes!  We had to drop the dream feed cold turkey.  All of a sudden, Nathan just refused it, even though we tried again for several more nights.   :?   At first, he would wake middle of night, probably hungry.  But, after a few days, he slept through pretty well (until the last few weeks, where he has been screaming 2-3 times a night.  Hmmmm.  Don't think that is hunger related though).