Jan/Feb 05 Babies chat!

[HeatherC]

Deborah-great news for you with the 4 hour schedule.  Is Maya willing to take the catnap, or does she fuss through it sometimes?  I'd let Kelsey take if she would, but she resists.

Sandie-welcome!  Great to have you in our thread.  Like Deborah mentioned, the email alerts don't always come through, so check in every day because there's always a new post.  Looking forward to meet you and Crystal!

Julieb-yes, I broke up the veggie puff  :oops: .  I'm still scared about her choking, and she tends to gag at textures right now.  I tried putting one in my mouth and it didn't seem to disolve as fast as I thought.  About my cousin's 8 month old, he's still getting 24 oz of formula, which is what many peds recommend as a target amount for that age.  At least around here they do.  It's so hard with all the conflicting info out there.  What kind of store offers the teething tablets?

Michelle-sorry you didn't get to shop.  I'd be disappointed.  Every morning my husband leaves announcing he's off to make us some money; and I respond that Kelsey and I'll be sure to spend it  .

[dkjokisch]

Heather - So far she has gone down willingly (we've only been at 4 hours since Monday), but she doesn't take it every day.  However, yesterday, dh called at the 30min mark to let me know he'd be late coming home.  She woke up screaming and continued after I picked her up.  She screamed for 20min and fussed for another 15 before she finally calmed down.

Does anyone else's lo do that?  Waking her up in the morning or from a nap to keep our schedule is an absolute resort for us.  She does not wake up well  if she doesn't wake up on her own (of course, neither do I).  She is extremely fussy, and it often lasts the rest of the day.  What I have done is go in and talk to her quietly.  If she opens her eyes, I'll just keep talking to her until she has a chance to wake up fully.  If she doesn't stir, I leave her and come back in 15min or so.  I can't think of a gentler way to do it.

Everyone - what veggies have you tried?  Maya has had peas, squash, and sweet potatoes.  Green beans and carrots are next.  I'm trying to get her eating veggies well before I offer too many fruits.

[Kinlagh's Folks]

Christine - No parents want to meet you cause you must just be such a good teacher.  All parents go to the teachers that their kids complain about!!

Heather - I've always read and heard that BM or formula are the best form of nutrition for our lo during the first year.  So I'm surprised that an 8 month old is on "people food" only.  Seems early.  Especially now that I have a 7.5 month old.  I can't imagine dropping bottles by 8 months.

Tarri - Kinlagh had a "non-eczema" rash for every cereal she tried so far but the rice cereal.  Oat, barley and wheat have all caused a little breakout.  So maybe we'll try them again when she's a bit older.

JulieB - I've already started looking for foam squares on ebay. Do you know what stores carry these?

Deborah - Way to go on the 4hour schedule.  Hope you find life a little easier with that.  We sure did.  And yay for wake-to-sleep.  And veggies that we've tried:  Peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, sqash, green & yellow beans (in that order).  Corn is next - maybe tomorrow.  I bought a baby book to gather memories and it just so happened to have a list of foods to introduce to baby and in what order.  It's been very helpful for us.  Let me know if anyone wants a copy.  And as for the waking Maya from her sleep, I don't really have any advice.  Kinlagh is usually in ok spirits as long as she's gotten 30min or more sleep. 

Humidifiers - I think someone asked about a good brand...sorry, can't remember who.  We have a Sunbeam humidifier/vaporizer.  It's a 2 in 1 which I thought would be a good plan.  It's a little noisy, but offers good white noise for naptime.  Since Kinlagh has eczema, it runs 24/7 in the winter when the heat is on in the house and so far, it's been good.  It's listed on the sunbeam.com website.

[julieb]

Deborah: We have carpeting in a lot of the house and I hate it!  It's gets SO dirty!  And with Asher spitting up all the time, it's impossible to keep up with it.  Then I have the darn dog licking the carpet where he's spit up.  So GROSS!  It drives me nuts!  :evil:   On the other hand, the hard floor gets so dusty & dirty with the dog hair.  Even if I have just cleaned it, if I let Asher in the kitchen, I have to take a lint brush to him afterward because he's covered like a mop!  :?   Some days I can't wait until he's upright!
Glad wake-to-sleep is working for you.  Nothing's been working for us.  I got the halo sleep sack and he's still having a hard time.  He was up every 2-3 hours last night.  If I feed him, he doesn't take a full feed anymore.  So I don't know if it's hunger or not!  He just whined in bed all morning from 6-7 am.  :?  Now that he's on solid food, I'm thinking of buying a container of formula and giving him a bottle before bed or as a DF.  Then he could drink as much as he wants, it'd last longer, and maybe he'd sleep through?  I just can't pump enough (and don't have the time) for a big enough bottle (12 oz).  Maybe I could at least do a couple on the weekend so DH could get up with him and I could sleep in.   
Asher used to wake up very happy, but lately he doesn't (whether it's natural or not).  I find the best way to wake him is to listen for a transition on the monitor (him moving in a lighter sleep stage), and go in to wake him then.

Heather:  :lol:  Asher gags on the textures too.  I got some hilarious video of rice cereal this morning.  I'll have to post it later.   :wink:   You can get the teething tablets at any natural food stores.  I think I've even seen them Walgreens as well!
24 oz of formula sounds right (as opposed to going to whole milk).  I guess some make the jump faster than others!  Must be conveinent!

Michelle: I think I've seen those squares almost everywhere from BRU, to Marshalls, to any toy store...  I guess they're called "playmats."
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000067QXC/qid=1125596615/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/102-9233803-0365706?v=glance&s=baby
http://www.onestepahead.com/jump.jsp?lGen=detail&itemID=149764&itemType=PRODUCT&iProductID=149764&change=117

[Jaime]

hi everyone - thanks for the nice comments about our kids' sites - all the credit must go to dh - he's quite the creative one.  and thank goodness for all the computer knowledge too!  jaina's name is pronounced JAY-na, with the accent on the first syllable.

LOVE all the new avatars.  going to try & search for a new pic later.  not like i haven't taken thousands of these kids!  (and now you have all seen the websites as proof  :oops:    )

julieb wrote:

Sometimes I could just eat Asher up, he's just so darn cute!! Those chubby little thighs are just delicious! 

i know exactly what you mean!!!  glad i'm not the only one who thinks that!  know what you mean about the carpet getting dirty with spit up.  i hate how it leaves stains behind!  we figure we'll just let the kids go to town, clean the best we can & replace it when they're much older. 

branwen:  yay!  a tooth!  bet eirwen feels better now.

christine:  glad things are going well at work.  hope leah keeps up that napping! 

deb:  mmmm....chocolate and strawberries.....

michelle:  sorry you didn't get quite the mall outing you planned.  i'm sure it was nice to get out a little bit though.  i always seem to feel so much better when i can get out to go anywhere....

tarri - we are damage free but are suffering from a media rumor that there is no gasoline being delivered to our area.  it's not true, but we have been asked to conserve; only drive if we HAVE to, and the price gouging is crazy.  we're just happy that katrina didn't come near us!!

deborah - yay on the 4-hour schedule!

sandie - welcome!!  please join the chat!!! 

food - so far i've only given luke rice cereal & carrots.  we just take our time over here.  i plan on introducing sweet potatoes, pears, green beans, squash, and apples next (in that order).  will stick plain yogurt in there sometime too, and eventually cheerios, but who knows cause jaina was never very interested in them...maybe he'll be different.  i think it takes so long cause i just give him one new food a week or so... probably won't worry about oatmeal until he's a year - and then it will be actual instant oatmeal, and i will stir fruit in myself.  will probably never do barley cereal (but only cause that doesn't even sound good to me!)

guess that's about it.  nothing much new over here for now... that's probably a good thing! 

[HeatherC]

Michelle, sorry for the confusion about my cousin's lo.  I meant that he's dropped one of his four bottles and now takes 3 bottles, totally about 24 oz.  This is in addition to solids and snacks.

[Leah's Mom]

He was up every 2-3 hours last night.  If I feed him, he doesn't take a full feed anymore.  So I don't know if it's hunger or not!  He just whined in bed all morning from 6-7 am.  :? 

Me too!!!!!!! I am so tired. Especially since going back to work. I just don't know what to do. What does Asher do when he wakes up? Leah is crying sometimes and happily awake other times. This morning she woke at 5 and slept on and off from 5-6:15. So basically I was up for the day at 5.

[Leah's Mom]

Christine - No parents want to meet you cause you must just be such a good teacher.  All parents go to the teachers that their kids complain about!!

     Thanks!

[diyasmom]

Oh my God, all the babies are looking so cute in the new avatars. I can't wait to change mine now. I am not even going to try to reply all the pages which I missed. Even if I click on post reply in a new window, I don't think that I'll be able to answer so many pages....

Heather and Christine: Your babies are beautiful. I love their pics with the rose background. Christine! Hope your nights get better.  Heather! I tried putting the veggie puffs in front of Diya too. She took it with thumb and middle finger and managed to put it in her mouth and then I helped her bite it. She was not too crazy about eating it though. She did finish 3 or 4 of them.

Jaime: Great Website. Belated B'Day wishes. Luke looks so adorable!

Sandie: Welcome to the chat. I just jumped in and everybody where very friendly!

Tarri: Isn't that cute when they giggle like that. I keep trying to make Diya giggle  all the time.

Branwen: Congrats on the tooth!
Deborah: Doesn't your DD wake up in the night. I forget it! Good to know that your 4 hr EASY is going well.

Michelle: Sorry about the bad shopping trip. I try to go out as much as possible now so that Diya will get used to it.

Julieb: Sorry about the nightwakings. Has this started all of a sudden for the past 1 month or did you have it even before that? I have  tried formula with Diya and it didn't make much of a difference. I have always noticed that she wakes up if I give her a feed after her bedtime/DF and also when I try a 3.5/4 hr EASY. Maybe you can try dropping the DF. I read somewhere that you have to drop it by 8 months. You can check on that. If her bedtime is late too, Diya wakes up every 3-4 hrs and then I end up feeding her because nothing else works at that point. But she does better on her regular days. Try increasing one more feed during the day or increase the amount of solids/no of times you feed him solids. That helped us certainly.

Deb: Hope your days are better now.

US: Please tell me if you can find a difference in Diya. I'll reveal the surprise if you guys can't find it, in my next post. She is getting better at army crawling. But she is not very interested in moving. She goes to her toy and sits there. She loves the touch and feel and lift the flap books now. She had bad constipation y'day and refused to drink/eat for  6 hrs. Naturally, she woke up at 4. Other than that, after increasing her A time for the first nap, her first nap has become better. She shows sleepy signs for the third nap. But it is getting harder and harder to make her sleep at that time. I have been quitting it for the past 2 days. I don't want to keep her up for 4 hrs though for the bedtime. Maybe, I am going to just put her down earlier for sometime and see.

[Kinlagh's Folks]

Are the earrings new???

[Jaime]

Are the earrings new???

that was my thought too??

[Schae]

Hello everyone....

I have been MIA because for the last two weeks I was capped on ADSL, therefore could not access international websites. 
I cannot believe there are so many posts while I was gone.

Hope everyone is doing well.

[Kinlagh's Folks]

Welcome back Schae.  I was wondering where you were.  We were being quite silly over the last few days, but I think things are starting to calm down again.

[diyasmom]

That's right!
We took her to Walmart yesterday to pierce her ears. She was in shock for a second and then cried for a whole mintute which made me cry too ofcourse. But she was ok after that.
We are leaving to Dallas this saturday and will be back on tuesday. Might take a road trip to Austin. Have never been there. I would appreciate if you could tell me anything specific you liked about Austin. I am scared as usual about the routine because we have come to the point of 2 good naps only now. Anyhow, it shouldn't wreck the routine so much because it is for 4 days.
Vidya

[dkjokisch]

Vidya - I vote earrings too.  And Maya was waking at 5am, but we have had some success with wake-to-sleep.  She's now sleeping in until 6am or so.

JulieB - If I had my choice, I'd have hardwood in the main part of the house and carpet in the bedrooms.  Right now we have tile in the main part, and nasty old linoleum tile in the bedrooms (they were carpeted, but it was in such bad shape we tore it out).  The bedrooms will be carpeted whenever we finish painting them.  I have to agree cleaning spitup off tile is much easier, but our problem is we don't really have soft floorspace for Maya to play on, hence the rug purchase.

As for Asher's night wakings, is dh willing to step in?  I have never had any luck resettling Maya in the middle of the night.  Once she gets a whiff, she wants to eat, hungry or not.  Dh has been great in this regard.  When we are fairly certain it's not hunger, he goes in.  And if he's not taking a full feed, it's probably not hunger.  I have a friend who's had some success with weaning her lo off at night one feeding at a time, first to a bottle of water, then to a pacifier, but dh did most of it I think.