The new "New Moms" thread!

[DMickey28]

Michelle - Happy Birthday to Will!! Time flies.

Meredith - I can't seem to kick the bedtime formula bottle at all. Alexander is 18 months. I have tried but he wakes up starving at 4am and even after a week didn't adjust what he would eat during the day. He eats a lot in general so there wasn't even room to add more food! Oh well, he gets an 8oz of toddler next step enfamil with cereal at bedtime ... i figure it out over the next 6 months.

I can totally picture Alexander standing with the chair on his back like Spencer. Luckily he hasn't figured out how to get up out of the crib but it's only a matter of time. He's too young to sleep in a toddler bed/real bed he'd be up playing all night!!

JB - What an entrance into the world. I am glad that he is doing well and he is adorable!!! When do they think he can go home?

 

[beckmrk04]

Nicole- Congrats on your DH's promotion!! And don't worry, the 2 weeks will fly by. Izzy will be so cute as Yoda! I'll post pics of Vaylie in her costume tomorrow night.

Meredith- liver pudding? Your poor kiddos. (I'm just kidding- but I have to tease you about it. It just sounds SO.... liver-y).

Amber- the turtle shell thing cracked me up! Kids are so- inventive, no?

GoofyG- Glad to have you!

kelly- Last year Vaylie was 10 months old at Christmas time, and we decided not to go crazy since we knew she would get so many gifts from both of our families. So, we bought one big gift (the "I'm the Boss" ball pit made by K's Kids- they have adorable stuff), and a few toys, then books and stocking stuffers. (One tip- take the stuff OUT of the packages before you wrap it, and have batteries installed.) So, last year she got gobs of stuff and I was glad we didn't go overboard. We're pretty much doing the same thing this year- I think her "big" gift is going to be an "Anywhere Chair" from Pottery Barn kids. Then we'll get a few toys and books and stocking stuffers.

JB- WOW! I'm glad you both made it through alright. Jacob is adorable with that little hat!

Bethany- the thought of Owen being a naked mole rat is just hysterical. And we kind of have the same attitude about Christmas- I don't want it to be all about the presents, you know? But I love the holidays. So, we have sort of decided to start a tradition of picking a charity to donate to each year as a way of recognizing our blessings and being thankful, and also helping out others in need. I hope that as Vaylie gets older she recognizes that Christmas isn't just about what's under the tree. Even though I'd really, really like to see a Coach Graphic Op Art Sabrina bag under the tree.

DMickey- I hear ya about the toddler bed thing. My nephew has been in a twin bed for a few months (he'll be 2 on Dec. 4th). I can't even imagine Vaylie staying put for a minute! I figure we'll switch to a toddler or real bed when she figures out how to escape the crib.

 

[beckmrk04]

Oh! I forgot. Tomorrow, we have decided to dress up for Halloween at work. We're having a "slumber party." Which is exactly what it sounds like: a shameless excuse to wear our pjs and house shoes to work.

We're seriously the most professional bank I have ever seen. (You gotta love small towns).

 

[ashjohnson80]

WEll guess who is ONE tomorrow?

Happy Birthday Will!

To I think it's ASH- Love your DD's name.

I have 3 kiddos
DD4- Ellarie, DD2-Araeyah, and my baby boy Attikus who is 5 months (A.J.)

Welcome to the thread! You're the only person I've heard of to have another Ellarie sound like Ellery! lol.

Ok....Christmas/holiday question for all of you... For those of you that celebrate Christmas and do the whole Santa thing...what are you planning on doing for your LO? know?

We're definately doing the whole Santa thing. We usually have a tradition of staying with my parents on Christmas Eve and opening up all of our presents from one another and then Santa comes. But I'm not sure if my parents house will sell before then so this might be our first Christmas in our own house, I'm not sure. But we'll probably do a couple of gifts on Christmas eve and then after she goes to sleep we'll set out her "big" present and her stocking.

Hi Guys
Ash -- that is so great that Ellery took 2 steps - on her own or holding your hands? Either way it is phenomonal!! Izzy is walking holding our hands but not yet on her own - I hope she starts soon. And I LOVE her Halloween costume -- adorable -- so great!


Super excited about Halloween tomorrow. Izzy is going to be Yoda - we tried the costume on last night and OMG - it was so adorable.

The steps were on her own! Last night she did it tons of times. Two steps and sit down, three steps and fall. It was so exciting! She can walk all over the house if we're holding one hand. She stands a lot on her own, she'll just stand there forever and then get excited and start clapping and dancing until she loses her balance. It's too funny.

I can't wait to see Izzy and everyone else's costume! It's going to be too cute! I'm so excited about tonight, I'm dressing up too as a hippie (I really like Halloween). I just hope I get to feeling better. I've felt kinda since I woke up this morning.

 

[DMickey28]

Happy Birthday Will!!

DH was really upset that I never got DS a costume for Halloween. I just figured it wasn't really worth it but DH really wanted to dress him up and even if he just hung out with us at home and took some pictures. Do you know how hard to find a costume ON Halloween? I found a really cute Sock Monkey one but they didn't have his size. I went to another store and found a really cute Bedtime Bear Care Bear Costume. It was between that or Big Bird but the Care Bear one was cuter. Oh well ... I'll take some pictures. I figure the blue outfit will bring out his eyes!!

 

[ImarriedGrumpy]

Happy Birthday Will!!

DH was really upset that I never got DS a costume for Halloween. I just figured it wasn't really worth it but DH really wanted to dress him up and even if he just hung out with us at home and took some pictures. Do you know how hard to find a costume ON Halloween? I found a really cute Sock Monkey one but they didn't have his size. I went to another store and found a really cute Bedtime Bear Care Bear Costume. It was between that or Big Bird but the Care Bear one was cuter. Oh well ... I'll take some pictures. I figure the blue outfit will bring out his eyes!!

I'm sure he'll be cute in anything!

We were given 2 costumes and offered 2 or 3 others, but the one Owen will wear tonight I made for him (well, sort of - I used the hot glue gun and the scissors! ). It was some potential family drama for a bit - DSIL bought a dragon costume for Owen, and DMIL was miffed because she had a pumpkin costume that 2 of the other grandkids wore for their first halloween and she had decided that Owen should wear it. Meanwhile, DH and I had already decided on a family theme for our costumes, and for a little while we had both DSIL and DMIL slightly miffed that we weren't using their costumes. I solved the problem by having Owen wear the pumpkin for his 9 m photos and the dragon costume to the quarterly family birthday party (which had a halloween theme). Satisfied both of them, and since neither will actually see Owen today, I hope that is sufficient.

I'm bummed that part of DH's costume hasn't arrived yet. I ordered a utility belt off ebay for him that looks just like Ron Stoppable's, but it hasn't come. It's been over 2 weeks, and I contacted the seller but he said it shipped out 2 days after I placed the order. Who knows what's up...maybe it will come today...but if it doesn't I'll have spent that $ on a utility belt and who knows what we'll do with it!

Oh, and Owen's top left tooth has just poked through today. Poor kiddo is not enjoying teething one bit. His little mouth is all chapped up from his extra drool and he's been gnawing on me all day - my knee seems to be his favorite!

 

[Pollito916]

Michelle - happy birthday Will! Doesn't the time just fly!

GoofyG - welcome! Your kids are adorable!

Kelly - Alex was 10 months at x-mas last year, so I just didn't think spending tons of money on presents for him would be worth it, since he already had so many and would receive so much from friends and family, and he wouldn't remember it anyway! We took him to see Santa Claus and have his picture taken, and got him a little santa hat of his own to wear, which was so cute! I agree with Becky, that I want him to remember more of the spirit of christmas and not just the piles of present (though I love those too! ).

Jen - that's too bad about work - is there anyway you can get our early? I would think most bosses would be pretty understanding for your first halloween!

Nicole - Happy B-day - enjoy your fancy dinner! Sounds like you are really busy with work - I hope you win! That will be tough with your DH being gone for so long, but I'm sure you can handle it and will enjoy him even more when he returns!

Villain-lover - Happy B-day to Sam & Zoe!

Amber - sounds like Spencer is an active little guy, he must keep you on your toes! Alex is the same way.

JB - Welcome! Jacob is so cute - do you know when he might be able to go home?

*****************

I finally got around to uploading some pics, but they aren't really of the house yet. I was waiting until DH gets it cleaned up b/c there is painting stuff everywhere right now.

Here's some pictures of Alex "helping" Daddy paint

And when he climbed to the top of the ladder by himself :

And a cute one of him grocery shopping at Trader Joe's

I'll see if I can get Alex to keep his costume on long enough to get a picture.

 

[DMickey28]

Pollito - I love the little grocery cart!! I wish we had a TJ with those ... well I wish we had a TJ's in general. Right now I just let DS walk in front of me 'pushing' the big cart. Usually works for about 5 minutes before he wanders away and he's not old enough not to wander completely away, or just plain RUN from me!

 

[ImarriedGrumpy]

Okay, here's our Halloween costumes, the front of our friends' house set up for the superheroes/supervillans theme, and a picture of Kim Possible et al for reference. It was a madhouse, but a lot of fun! I wish I had pictures after it got dark - it looked even more amazing! Owen did great, despite teething, and was a hit even with people who had no idea what his costume was.

DH is actually quite bald, so we had a lot of comments about his new hair. Owen did great with the hood, and especially loved the whiskers.

Note that I opted not to go with the bare midriff ala KP...no one needs to see my post-baby tummy!

 

[Villain-lover]

OMG Bethany..you guys looked great!!!!!!! Loved Owen as Rufus!!!!

 

[ashjohnson80]

Bethany- Great Costumes!!!!

 

[beckmrk04]

Bethany- I LOVE the naked mole rat costume! It's awesome. You guys looked great, and their house! Ohmygosh! That is so flippin cool!

Pollito- Love the pics of Alex- especially with the cart. He really looks tall! Vaylie's a peanut.

DMickey- I felt kind of bad because we pretty much skipped trick-or-treating, but I figured 1) she won't remember, and 2) I don't need all that candy!

Here is Vaylie as Minnie Mouse.

She wouldn't look at the camera because she was engrossed in "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" (she's obsessed with pumpkins). And she had already scuffed her shoes. But, she looked cute. We trick-or-treated at a co-workers house and then went out to my inlaws to trick-or-treat there.

 

[Pollito916]

DMickey - we do the same thing at other stores, b/c Alex will NOT sit still in the carts ever. He used to like the ones with cars on the end, but won't even stay in those anymore. And he constantly wanders away, the trip has to be short, or one of us ends up taking him out to his car to wait for the other.

Bethany - Your costumes look great and your friends' house looks really cool! Nice job on Owen's costume!

Becky - Vaylie makes such a cute Minnie Mouse! And Alex was obsessed with Pumpkins too! We didn't get any trick-or-treating done at all yesterday. Alex started screaming before I could even get his costume on - we didn't even get one picture where you could see his face b/c he was trying to pull it off. We drove through CVS to pick up a prescription and the lady game him a few pieces of candy, but that's it. No costume, and no trick-or-treating.

And he has been a real beast today - I think he's teething, he's had his hand in his mouth for a couple of days. Maybe I'll try again in a few days to get him to keep the costume on long enough to take a few pictures.

How was everyone else's halloween?

 

[DMickey28]

Great pictures Bethany. Your friends really go all out. I think now we need a picture of our DH without his wig though ... !! Owen is a very cute Rufus, even if you didn't know what he was dressed as he is adorable!!

Becky - Vaylie makes a beautiful Minnie Mouse. We had DS dressed as Mickey last year but left the costume on the Cape. I think it would have fit him this year too. Oh well ...

I was at Target this AM and got so mad at myself that I didn't check there yesterday for costumes for him before going to the Halloween store. They had a cute Monkey costume that was $19.99 regular price so I would have got that yesterday instead of the Care Bear for $34 yesterday. I thought about getting it at 50% off today but decided against it, Alexander will fit in to the Care Bear again next year and what if he has a new obsession next year instead of Monkeys!!

Here's one picture of him in the car from my cell phone.

 

[bekkiz]

Yippie, I can finally join this thread!!

My boys were born 1 week ago. They were a few weeks early, but I developed PIH and the OB thought it safest to deliver right away.

Andy is on the left and Will is on right. We try to keep Andy in blue (Andrew/blue kind of rhymes ) just so we can tell them apart from across the room and in pictures.

So far everyone is doing well. Because they're premies, they're pretty quiet. We just keep feeding them every 3 hours, and they seem pretty happy. I'm guessing that once they get closer to the original due date (11/26), they're going to get a lot louder and more demanding!

 

[Villain-lover]

Yay Bekkiz!!!! Welcome! Yes, they will "wake up" closer to their due date..I know Sam & Zoe did! So they are home right? Did they have any kind of NICU time?

 

[DznyLvr2005]

Here's my little Tinkerbell....Her first Halloween... 3 1/2 months old...

 

[DMickey28]

DznyLvr - What an adorable tinkerbelle!! She actually looks happy in the costume as well!!

bekkiz- Congrats on the birth of the twins!! They sound like they are doing great!! They are very cute too ... how big were they?

 

[beckmrk04]

Bekkiz- Congrats and ! We've had a couple of new mommies lately- glad you joined us! Andy and Will are just adorable.

Pollito- At least he won't remember Halloween yet. But you can tell him later what a little monster he was! And I think Vaylie is teething too- she keeps shoving her whole hand in her mouth and gagging, which is really a little funnier to me than it should be. But she's also slobbering like it's her job. She still doesn't have her eye teeth or her 2 year molars... I think that's all that's left, isn't it? She's got 4 on top front, 4 on bottom front, and 4 molars so far. How many teeth do they get? I'm kinda clueless- I should look that up....

Dmickey- your cell phone takes good pictures! He looks cute!!

DznyLvr- Emma looks adorable. I love her hair. She's actually what I imagined our baby to look like (before DH and I had Vaylie). We both have dark brown hair and DH has brown eyes, I have greenish brown eyes, so I assumed we would have a dark-haired, brown-eyed baby. As you can see in her picture, though- we got light hair and blue eyes! She's gorgeous but she doesn't really look like either of us!

 

[bekkiz]

Yay Bekkiz!!!! Welcome! Yes, they will "wake up" closer to their due date..I know Sam & Zoe did! So they are home right? Did they have any kind of NICU time?

Will had a little over 24 hours in the NICU, just because he had some fluid in his lungs and low blood sugar. Mostly they wanted to keep a closer eye on him, and we haven't had any problems since they let him out. We did stay 4 days in the hospital as well, but yeah, we're all settled in at home. Camping out in the living room

Thank you for confirming my thoughts. I'm keeping my fingers crossed they don't turn into screaming banshees anytime soon, but I'm not getting my hopes up!

bekkiz- Congrats on the birth of the twins!! They sound like they are doing great!! They are very cute too ... how big were they?

Thank you! I like them Will was 7 lbs 3 oz and Andy was 5 lbs 11 oz. I'm scared to think just how big they would have gotten if I had gone the extra 2.5 weeks to make it to 38W! I might have had like 16lbs of baby Both dropped quite a bit of weight in the few days after birth, but they're gaining now. We weighed them last night and Will is 6.10 and Andy is 5.6.