The new "New Moms" thread!

[DMickey28]

Thanks Guys. I am sorry I haven't been here to update. It's been a rough few days, it's just mentally draining.

I had a repeat beta on Friday, exactly 48 hours after the first. I won't get those results until Monday. I know I want it to be at least 30. The nurse did not seem concerned but here is where the internet is NOT your friend. There are so many scary stories and reasons for such low beta's right off the bat. 50/50 between good outcomes and bad. I am not good at not freaking out and worrying.

No sign of AF yet but my temp, which has previously been very stable, is starting to go wacky. I know I need to stop temping.

My tests were actually starting to get slightly darker, slowly but then stopped. I had a negative DIGI (CBE, had ++the two days before) on Friday but then a ++ yesterday. I know I need to stop testing ... I can't seem to but luckily I ran out of tests again so I am done.

Just waiting to see the test results and if AF arrives. Another stressful note is the supplements and vitamins I have been taking. I have it cleared up now for the most part but what if they hurt the baby? What if they cause a MC? What if they delay an enivitable MC? My gut feeling is not good but that could be due to many things.

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On a positive note .... WE ARE MOVING BACK TO BOSTON THE FIRST WEEK OF JUNE!!! We are pretty excited. It's final. DH is staying with his current job for now, just to get back home. We are going to move in with my parents for the summer to pay off some debt and save for a down payment on a house. DH works outside Boston and my parents live on the Cape. He is going to stay with a friend Monday through Thursday and come home on the weekends. It's going to be rough at times I am sure but my mom works long hours in the summer and my dad travels a lot for work so I think it will work out fine. Plus there is so much more outdoor room to live in during the summer we won't feel so crowded. My parents are finishing off the basement before we get there so that we can make that a family room/play room so we have our TV and DS's toys down there and we can have a place to get away to without having to watch TV at night with my parents. I am very excited. I am excited to save money on rent for a few months, I am excited to get back to family and friends and I am excited to hopefully buy something in the fall. We are going back to our orginal idea of buying Southern NH in the Fall.

 

[Jen_in_NH]

I love all the fart and burp stories. Christopher is still really impressed by either. He loves to wait until he's laying down to get changed, grab his legs so his bum is sticking up, and fart. Of course I laughed the forst 20 times he did it, and now it's just habit. BOYS!

Christina - welcome back to New England

Bethany - I'd keep the EI appointment. I really thought Christopher would qualify for gross motor skills, but he didn't. He ended up qualifying based on speech and language. Let them come out and see what they think. It's way easier to get him in when he's younger than when you have to go through the school district, from what everyone's told me.

 

[k_reile]

I love all the fart and burp stories. Christopher is still really impressed by either. He loves to wait until he's laying down to get changed, grab his legs so his bum is sticking up, and fart. Of course I laughed the forst 20 times he did it, and now it's just habit. BOYS!

Christina - welcome back to New England

Bethany - I'd keep the EI appointment. I really thought Christopher would qualify for gross motor skills, but he didn't. He ended up qualifying based on speech and language. Let them come out and see what they think. It's way easier to get him in when he's younger than when you have to go through the school district, from what everyone's told me.

Ok...now thats a funny Fart story! I think I am in trouble once Caleb is older! I'm out numbered by men in my house. Dh, Caleb and even the dog! THe only other females are the cats but they are outside!

 

[Pollito916]

Bethany - cute bubble fart story! Alex actually says "excuse me" after he (or anyone else) burps, but it sounds like "sequee" or "sequee Daddy." Sometimes he also says, "piggy!"

Kara - too bad your mom caught on right away. I didn't with my sister. She watches Alex for a few hours on Wednesdays before I get home, and she sent me a text message that the landscapers had cemented most of my back yard. While I didn't believe that because she exagerates everything, I thought they had cemented an addition to the patio, which we had discussed, but not agreed upon. I was not ready to make a decision on the patio yet, and I was freaking out thinking that it might be done already because it's really hard to undo cement.

DMickey - we'll be praying for you this weekend - stay off the internet! That's great that you all finally decided where to move and that you'll be closer to family!

Jen - Christopher holding his legs up to fart! It's amazing how quickly they catch on at repeating things after we laugh even once!

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Ugh, I broke our garage door opener today. My mom was over trying to help install a remote, and I was cleaning out a toy bin that we found at a garage sale (only $20!). I got out the shop-vac which was in the corner by the garage door, and apparently when I put it back, I knocked off the garage door sensor, and ripped out the wires.

Luckily my mom used to install phone systems so she is pretty good with electrical stuff, but I didn't know where to find a wire stripper in my husband's tools (if he even has one) so I had to go borrow one from a neighbor. But my mom was able to fix it. Unfortunately, the universal remote did not work, and we had to go exchange it.

And poor Alex has come down with a cold. His nose has been runny since yesterday, and his afternoon nap just passed 3.5 hours.

 

[k_reile]

Christina! I 2nd the stay off the computer (though its harder done than said) but maybe it will help you keep your mind from wandering even more.

But yeah for the move! Though I am sure your winters are going to be way different now!

Well Caleb only had one nap today from 1-2:30pm. Well after he ate tonight at 5:30pm he got really fussy. So I put him down for a quick nap that turned into a 2.5 hr nap. I thought he actually was done for the night for a while. I finally got something around to eat. Of course as my food was done...he woke up. I fed him his bottle as I ate. I even gave him a small amount of my mashed potatoes. He didn;t really have much of a reaction to them. Just ate them like he's always ate them. Then he went back down around 9pm and was out right away. That boy was tired! I'm just suprised he went back to bed so easily!

 

[ImarriedGrumpy]

Christina, I hope you get good news soon! Hang in there...
And yay for moving back to Boston! That sounds like that will be a good arrangement while you need it.

Jen, I love Christopher's farts on the changing table! That's hysterical, and I can just see Owen doing something like that.

Kara, isn't it fun to see kids discovering new foods?

Sara, I hope Alex feels better soon.

Hi to everyone else!

~~~~
Rosalind was okay for a few hours after her vet appt yesterday, but at 4am she was barfing again so DH took her in to the vet as soon as they opened at 8am. They ran a bunch of tests but didn't find anything wrong, so they gave her more intraveneous fluids and a stronger anti-nausea medicine, told us to try giving her stage 2 chicken baby food instead of cat food, and said we should just watch and wait. There are more tests they could do, but we can't afford them. She's already cost us over $500 this week. DH is horribly worried and sad.

So that all means that we were late leaving for Sacramento, and we missed the train ride, lunch, and the gift exchange part of the party. We were there for the old time photo session, which was completely crazy. The 2yr. old twin nieces were impossible to get to sit still and look at the camera. One or the other of them was always lifting up her dress or fussing with her headband or whacking her sister with her flowers. Poor Owen was getting fidgety and fussy, and it's a miracle that he looks as good as he does in the photos. I look horrible - we got there as the last few people were getting dressed, so they handed me a dress and clipped me into it so I couldn't lift my arms, stuck a hat on my head and put me in the picture - I never got to see myself in a mirror or fix my hair or anything! Ugh!

But I'll still try to scan in the photos and post them here so you can see Owen looking adorable and serious as usual.

Anyway, most of the family had to leave right after the photos, so we didn't get to spend a lot of time with them, but we did get to see DH's dad & step-mom for a couple hours before we had to head home.

Old Town Sacramento is neat - I wish we'd had more time to explore it and see more of the city.

Tomorrow I sing in church - first time I've sung a solo in years - and I'm a little nervous. I have a B.Music in voice, so it seems a little silly to be nervous, but I haven't had a lesson or done much public singing since I graduated 15 years ago. So we'll see how it goes.

 

[starwatcher]

Emily is now 5 months old. She turned 5 months on april 3. I swear seems like yesterday she was born and she is already near 1/2 a year old. She is babbling ,giggling and screeching like an eagle now. I have her first pic with the easter bunny was taken yesterday.

 

[clgwli]

Bethany, I am glad to hear that the appt went well. One of my friend's daughter wasn't crawling at 12 months and didn't start walking at all until she was about 19 months old. The good thing was she had an amazing vocabulary by the time she was walking. Doctors thought she wanted to talk more than walk so that was her issue.
My son seems to be the opposite. He has a few words but he's definitely not talking the way she was at his age. He literally runs and is trying to jump now.

Christina good luck with everything. You might remember me from another time & place where I was pregnant and was having bleeding. The baby wound up dying due to chromosomal defects and I miscarried at 12 weeks, but my blood work was totally fine.
I was freaking and taking pregnancy tests and First Response was giving me no line or extremely fant lines. My hormones were well above average and doubling every 24 hours. So even though I did miscarry, the First Response was wrong due to the hevel of HCG I had in my body. I refuse to use that brand again

That's why when I got pregnant a 2nd time I stopped testing after the first. Oh and IIRC, CBE digital is not very sensitive. So early in pregnancies if you are testing way too late in the day or have drank so much your urine is diluted you will get a negative.

Gack I wrote so much there I am running out of time. Church and all to get ready for.

But I love all the burp and fart stories. DS loves sneezing of all things. Everytime I sneeze he laughs like crazy. So I fake sneeze just to keep him going. It's so cute when they do that.

The thing he does to crack me up is take a play phone and talk on it. He babbles along, stops, giggles, babbles and says 'bye bye' then puts it down. He must be like me who loves to chat on the phone

Poor Rosalind, I do hope she will be okay. I went through tons of stuff like that with my baby cat and it can be so heart wrenching when they are that sick

What a cute picture of Emily with the EB!!! I love the dress.

I better get ready... I hope everyone enjoys the rest of the weekend.

 

[k_reile]

Emily is too cute. I too can't believe Caleb is already 6 mos old. My mom and I have already found items for his 1st birthday party! isn't that sad we are planning already??

Bethany...how far away are you from Sacremento. My cousin is leaving MOnday to go live there for a year. Well she is living outside of Sacremento but pretty close I believe.

 

[DMickey28]

Thanks clgwli - I have started spotting and my last test was pretty much BFN. I am ok. I know that these things happen for a reason and that it was not time for this baby to be brought it us. We are going to take a break, move back north and buy a house. Then we will start again ...

 

[Pollito916]

Christina - I am so sorry.

 

[kellyf2626]

Christina - I am so sorry. I was thinking about you today...so sorry to hear the news. On the bright side, I am SUPER happy that you will be moving up to southern NH! I can't wait to meet you and have the boys play!!

Bethany - How is Rosalind doing? I hope she is feeling better and keeping down some food. Sicks pets are stressful...especially when it costs so much $$ to find out and treat the problem. How did church go? I am sure you sounded beautiful!!

Pollito - How is Alex feeling? Brady has been coughing with congestion for about 2 weeks now. It sucks!!!

Anyone I missed....HI!!

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

The weather was so nice today! We had a great time playing outside, raking leaves, and running around with the dogs. I can't wait until the really nice weather comes!

Oh - check out this funny video of Brady dancing to Flo Rida. Last week this aired on Ellen, and I taped it because Brady was hysterical, bouncing around the family room. Now we play it for him all the time and he LOVES it! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOByUQAL7c4

 

[ImarriedGrumpy]

Bethany...how far away are you from Sacremento. My cousin is leaving MOnday to go live there for a year. Well she is living outside of Sacremento but pretty close I believe.

We're about 2-3hrs SW of Sac in good traffic. It's okay for a day trip if you don't mind the drive. Some people even live here and work in Sac or vice versa, but I think that's just crazy!

The thing he does to crack me up is take a play phone and talk on it. He babbles along, stops, giggles, babbles and says 'bye bye' then puts it down. He must be like me who loves to chat on the phone

Owen has just started to hold toy phones up to his ear like he's talking on the phone, and it is so cute! Of course there's lots of things he thinks are phones - his toy remote, one of his toy cars, a toy spatula - and he seems to think that a key on DH's work lanyard is a bluetooth earpiece and he tries to hold it up to his ear like he's talking on a phone. Of course, he always looks at the "phone" with an expression that says "why isn't this working?" and then hands it to me and says either "Nonna? Hi Nonna?" or "Dadda? Work? Hi Dadda?" I've tried to explain that toy phones can't call Nonna or Daddy, but he doesn't seem to believe me.

Thanks clgwli - I have started spotting and my last test was pretty much BFN. I am ok. I know that these things happen for a reason and that it was not time for this baby to be brought it us. We are going to take a break, move back north and buy a house. Then we will start again ...

Christina, I'm sorry. That's so hard...but I'm glad you will be able to move north again!

Bethany - How is Rosalind doing? I hope she is feeling better and keeping down some food. Sicks pets are stressful...especially when it costs so much $$ to find out and treat the problem. How did church go? I am sure you sounded beautiful!!

Oh - check out this funny video of Brady dancing to Flo Rida. Last week this aired on Ellen, and I taped it because Brady was hysterical, bouncing around the family room. Now we play it for him all the time and he LOVES it! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOByUQAL7c4

Bummer that Brady is still sick. That's no fun at all. But I love that video! Owen has those same PJ's - he likes pointing to the different animals and making the animal noises. I think they are my favorite PJ's that he wears right now, and I'm tempted to go buy him a pair in the next size up.

Church went okay by my "I was a voice major in college" standards, and very well according to the people who stopped me and said they loved the song. I was painfully aware of every mistake and all the funny little breaks in my voice, but most people didn't notice.

Rosalind is doing a little better. She's at least stopped throwing up, but she's still not eating or drinking mutch. We're trying to tempt her with her favorite canned food (and the 2 other cats are seriously annoyed at not getting any), but she just licks the food and takes a couple bites, then walks away. DH is at least feeling a little hopeful that maybe she'll get better, but Ros can't be declaired healthy until she starts to eat more.

In happier news, one of my BF had a baby on Friday! It's their 2nd DS, and she had a (disgustingly ) easy labor and delivery. Sigh. If only mine had been so smooth... But she only pushed for 1/2 hr, and baby is 9lbs 4oz! He's a cutie - all cheeks! Her DS2 is totally in love with his new brother and they've got some adorable pictures of him snuggling and kissing the baby.

 

[clgwli]

Christina I am so very sorry My heart really does go out to you right now *hugs*

Kelly that is such a cute video! I have a dancer as well. It always cracks me up to watch them!!!

Bethany, DS uses a ton of things for phones too. He doesn't have a whole lot of words (he's said at least 20 or so but some he only uses now and then) but you can tell he really thinks he is on hte phone.
Glad to hear that Rosalind is feeling a little better. I hope that continues.

Dreary weather here. I got so spoiled going outside so much to play. I know I'll miss it with the snow in the forecast

 

[k_reile]

well I had an interesting morning. Caleb and I were sitting on the couch before I had to get him ready for the day. Rusty our chihuahua was sitting on the back of the couch. Caleb was smiling at him like crazy. He just loves that dog. So I tried to have Caleb slightly pet rusty on the dogs back. Caleb was not hurting him at all and he growled at him. So I tried it again. Growled again.
I don't know what got into Rusty. He has let my niece and newphew carry him around with one hand when they were small. I wanted to have Caleb know how to treat the doggie nicely and to start young.
Maybe because they were on different levels that the dog felt threatened?? I got mad at the dog and as punishment he is spending today in his room. (As opposed to having a couple rooms of the house)

I really hope we do not have problems with this dog! We love him soo much and I would hate to have to give him away if it does not work out. I can kinda see his point...he was here first...but he has to learn how to play nicely.

We'll have to try it again later when Rusty is on my lap and maybe he won;t feel as threatened if I am holding him??? I hope!!

We also have had a problem with Rusty thinking Calebs toys are his! He stole Calebs' froggy and hit it in just the right spot where the music and vibrating went off. Too funny...scared the crap out of the dog! I was . I never thought that my dog and child would be fighting over toys. Of course right now Caleb could care less that Rusty has his toys. And soon Caleb will probably want Rusty's toys too!

 

[7beasley]

Quick post...

Christina -- I just wanted to say how sorry I am for you!! Hugs. I know how hard this is! We are here for you!!

Hugs
Nicole

 

[Jen_in_NH]

Christina, I am so sorry

 

[ashjohnson80]

Christina, I'm so sorry.

Hi to everyone else.

Ellery has broken out in a rash all over her neck and arms so we took her to the doctor today. She was all happy before the doctor came in, saying "goc goc" for doc... then the doctor came in and the crying and screaming commenced. She got really scared! But it looks like it's just an allergy and prescribed some zyrtec for her to take. it already looks a little better.

 

[7beasley]

Sorry to do a drive by "me" post but I'm really upset...can't sleep as a result - its past midnight and I am still up and I need to vent!!

As you know - my DH and are are in the process of looking for a new house and selling our current house. Up to this point - we have looked at about 4 houses between October and now. My sister in law is a realtor -- we have been going thru her to look at these 4 houses.

Some background -- SIL and brother live about 45 mts away. SIL is 3 months pregnant. SIL has a full time secretarial job. In October, when we started to causually look at houses, SIL was a full time realtor and she and brother were broke because the real estate market had dropped out and she had no work.

I accidentally made the mistake of mentioning to her last fall that we wanted to get into a new house this year and she jumped on me and asked me to let her be our realtor...I have a hard time saying no to people - especially family going through money problems!

I tried to tell her I thought it would be a mistake to mix family and business- she was too far away - she wasn't familiar with our area/neighborhood but she had an answer for everything!!

My DH was very upset that I had even told her we were thinking of moving since he was dead set that using her as our realtor was a bad idea. Don't get me wrong - she is a good realtor -- he was just uncomfortable using family.

Recently she has told me she is "too tired" to drive the 45 mts after working all day to show us houses at night -- when I got a little ticked - she relented and came out but then I felt guilty for dragging out the tired pregnant lady.

We asked her to show line up 4 houses for us this Saturday but she said no because she is hosting Easter and has a lot to do on Saturday.

She thinks its fine and great to look at houses with us at night on weeknights. We aren't thrilled by that because it means we have to get a babysitter for Izzy - not see Izzy at night - and I have to get out of work early.

DH and I want to go on Sat/Sun or take a day off every now and again and go during the week -- she can't do the week cause she has a full time job and weekends seem to be difficult for her as well...

Anyway - tonight we "fired" her -- we haven't signed any paperwork with her yet and we thought it was less cruel to do it now before she invests tons of time putting our house on the market, doing the lisitng, taking pictures, having an open house....

Well she freaked out - and then my brother called me screaming that they are in a tough financial problem and they were counting on the money from the commission for selling our house and buying our new house (around $7000-$8000 total commission) and they are really having a problem!!

As way of other back story -- they are 30 years old -- my brother bought a 3 decker a few years back that they lived in till about 2 years ago - they now rent it. They make about 1/2 as much money as DH and I yet they live in a nicer more expensive house then we can afford -- turns out they financed this house with the rental income -- but what that means is that its a house of cards-- if the apartments are rented or the people don't pay rent then SIL and brother don't have enough money from their income to cover their own bills!!!!! And this is what is going on now. Plus, she had no income for about a year due to the bad real estate market and brother is self employed as a private detective for insurance companies and business was slow.

SIL tells me tonight when I call her back after brother calls me yelling that they are 1000 - 2000 in the hole each month!!!!!

To make matters even worse -- she is pregnant -- they have not even factored in the cost of day care, diapers, formula ---- nothing!! Plus, she got pregnant in early February -- she got her new full time job offered to her the begining of March. Which means they deliberatly tried to get pregnant knowing they were having really bad financial problems and knowing that she wasn't really working and her real estate career was tanking.

Ok - fine - to each their own...

and my heart is being ripped apart that they are having such a hard time right now financially -- but to put all their financial eggs in the basket of selling our home and buying our new home -- the $8K in commissions would not have solved their problems.

And I know DH and I did the right thing because we want to have baby #2 adn we need this housing stuff settled so we can plan our family and do what's best for our family -- but it is really killing me that SIL and brother are going through so much right now and that this was kind of the straw breaking the camel's back for them....

She seemed so sad tonight -- she was crying -- and it was obvious how afraid and stressed out she was about money ---- which is not good for her or hte baby. Its also not good that she works all day and is out all night doing real estate and driving home at 8pm 45 minutes away -- and coming straight from work and not eating dinner.

And its not good for me and DH to be sacrificing our family situation and Izzy and stuff...

Plus -- she does not even find us houses -- I spend about 2 hours a day at work (time that I am supposed to be working - and I only get paid if I bill hours!!) finding houses and researching houses and calling her to tell her about the houses so she can call the realtor and set up the appt.

Sorry this is SOOOO long...

I am just freaking out for them about their money troubles and I hate that they were so desperately counting on this real estate commission (which was at least 6 months away) from us! We encouraged them to talk to both sets of parents and get some help and advice.

My god...if they are so in debt each month now - how are they going to handle the extra financial burden of a baby!!

I am just so upset...it is such a lose-lose situation. They are miserable - we are miserable - SIL is hurting - I feel incredibly guilty and sad....she blames herself and kept saying that she could work harder nad make herself more available - which made me feel awful because that is not really the issue -- we just don't want to mix buisness with family and we want someone local...

I am just so sad for them and for me and for the whole situation and I am just so very worried about them and what they are going through right now....

-Nicole

 

[DMickey28]

Nicole - I am sorry that you are going through this. I know how hard it is to do the right thing and watch others keep making bad decisions. It is the right thing, that you are doing.