The Official New Mom Thread Part 2

[Syrreal]

Poor kid, he just couldn't catch a break this week. First it was the two bottom teeth popping out and then he had his 4 month appt yesterday...including his 4 month vax. Poor baby woke up with a fever today and I could just see he was feeling like poo on a stick.

Now all he has to look forward to this week is long rides in his carseat. We're driving up to Toronto for a friend's wedding. It's a 9 1/2 hour drive that we're splitting into 2 days. At least it won't be as traumatic as all the time he spent in his carseat on the Florida trip. I think in total it came out to 37 hours on that trip (split up of course).

 

[TiggerStac]

Brady hasn't popped up any teeth yet...but they are right there!!

Our lives are about to go into turmoil, though. Hubby and I are taking temp custody (may end up being permant) of our 2.5 y/o niece!! I had said this would happen when sisinlaw got preg. we go to court on Tuesday and custoday will be given right then and there. sis in law isn't fighting it (has actually already signed). They told her, if she doesn't let family take her, she'll be a ward of the state. So, my house will consit of 3 kids..oh my. Ty will be 6 in september, Bella who is 2.5 and Brady who is 4.5 months. Oh Boy!!

 

[Pollito916]

Dmickey - Welcome to the thread! Sorry, I don't know anything about Jet Blue's policies, but I think most airlines will allow you to do that. We just got back from our first trip with Alex, and both flights were full so it wouldn't have been an option for us, but we bought Alex his own seat anyway. We used the carrier and snap n' go, but he doesn't mind the car seat, so that worked well for us. The only thing that didn't work well was the 2 hour delay by the airline and loss of one of our suitcases.

Jen - Yay for sleeping! Doesn't it feel good to sleep more than 2 hours in a row? Alex loves seeing my mom's dog, too. I showed him a book in Borders with a beagle on the front when he was only 6 weeks old and he smiled at it, I think b/c he recognized the dog.

Syrreal - Poor Brennan! Hopefully he'll be able to sleep for most of the car ride, so that might make it bearable. Alex doesn't have any teeth popping out yet, but I think they're close, b/c he has been drooling a lot and biting everything that goes near his mouth.

TiggerStac - Have you been taking care of the neice for a while already? It's so sad when parents aren't able to care for their children, but at least the little girl will be in a better home!

 

[TiggerStac]

Dmickey - Welcome to the thread! Sorry, I don't know anything about Jet Blue's policies, but I think most airlines will allow you to do that. We just got back from our first trip with Alex, and both flights were full so it wouldn't have been an option for us, but we bought Alex his own seat anyway. We used the carrier and snap n' go, but he doesn't mind the car seat, so that worked well for us. The only thing that didn't work well was the 2 hour delay by the airline and loss of one of our suitcases.

Jen - Yay for sleeping! Doesn't it feel good to sleep more than 2 hours in a row? Alex loves seeing my mom's dog, too. I showed him a book in Borders with a beagle on the front when he was only 6 weeks old and he smiled at it, I think b/c he recognized the dog.

Syrreal - Poor Brennan! Hopefully he'll be able to sleep for most of the car ride, so that might make it bearable. Alex doesn't have any teeth popping out yet, but I think they're close, b/c he has been drooling a lot and biting everything that goes near his mouth.

TiggerStac - Have you been taking care of the neice for a while already? It's so sad when parents aren't able to care for their children, but at least the little girl will be in a better home!

We have not had her. We took custody (guardianship) on Tuesday, went to court, etc. It is definately interesting w/3 kids in the house!!

 

[Syrreal]

Greetings from Canada everyone

Here is a pic I took of Brennan's teeth a couple of days before we left

Brennan did really well on the car ride. I felt bad for him though because what should have been a 5 hour ride on Tuesday ended up being close to 7 1/2. Apparently no one knows how to drive on the highway in Ohio and Michigan (apologies to anyone in those 2 states who does know how to drive). It seemed that people didn't care that the left lane is usually used for faster traffic or to pass. There were several times when people in the left lane were going slower than on the right (even slower than speed limit) and we had to pass on the right. Plus, if they moved out of the way for faster traffic at all, it was at the very last minute.
There was this one guy in a Mustang convertible that was completely oblivious to the world. He was Sunday driving on the left lane. <Sigh> Anyway, the slow traffic made us get to Detroit during rush hour which was no fun. At least the traffic moved though, which is more than I can say for Miami rush hour (aka 2:30-9pm- LOL).
Then it took us a long time to get to Canada the next day. Almost 6 hours instead of the 4 it would have taken us... because the directions we had led us through a very long construction zone (where no work was actually being done or had been done but there were plenty of barricades around). Needless to say, we were very glad to get to our hotel. It's a really nice place. Our friends who are getting married came over last night and we had some relaly bad chinese food, but we had a good time.

Tonight DH is out at the bachelor party. I think they were going to strip club and I have one question gnawing at my mind-->
In Canada, they don't have a bill for $1, only coins. So how do you tip the dancers?

 

[Jen_in_NH]

Tonight DH is out at the bachelor party. I think they were going to strip club and I have one question gnawing at my mind-->
In Canada, they don't have a bill for $1, only coins. So how do you tip the dancers?

My DH would tell you to think of it like a slot machine.......


We had to take Christopher on his first long trip - 5 hours in the car seat to drop my grandmother off at my uncle's. He did well with it, but he's a bear today

I'm getting depressed - he's been sleeping in our room in a pack and play since he came home, but now that he's sleeping 6-7 hours a night, we're going to move him to the crib in his room. I'm glad to get our room back to ourselves, but it's sad that he's growing up so fast.

Jen

 

[Pollito916]

Hi everyone! Alex got his 4 month shots yesterday, and he has not been doing well. The poor little guy has been running a fever from 102-103 all day and night, and nothing was breaking it. We were giving him tylenol, luke warm baths, and cool compresses, but it just wouldn't drop below 102. I brought him back to the doctor today, but they said he doesn't have any other symptoms, so it's probably just a reaction to the shots and the fever should break in 24-48 hours. It was finally down to 100.5 an hour ago and now he is sleeping in his swing. He hasn't been happy anywhere except the car, stroller or swing, he doesn't really even want to be held. Poor baby.

 

[Sonya]

Syrreal, your little one is a cutie!

Our girls are sleeping until 4am some mornings. Nice to get some sleep!

I threw my back out and am now out of service. DH has completely taken over, with 3 kids in the house and a wife that can't even walk to the bathroom. I hope I feel better soon!

 

[Pollito916]

Sonya - that really sucks, but at least you can Dis!

It turns out Alex actually probably has Roseola (baby measles). His fever finally broke last night, but now this morning he woke up with a rash all over his stomach, back, and neck. My mom was over this morning when I saw the rash, and she said I had all of the same symptoms when I was his age and it was Roseola. His ped's office is closed now, so I looked it up on-line and there is no treatment for it, and since he is not crying any more, I am going to wait until Monday to call the doctor unless he gets worse.

I also forgot to mention that at his 4 month appt this week, he is already up to 16 lbs, 7 oz and 26.5 inches! Such a big baby! I weighed 18 lbs and 27.5 inches at 1 year! Here's one of his most recent pictures that I have uploaded, about 2 weeks old - I know I am a bad mother! He's laying on the floor with his favorite toy!

 

[Jen_in_NH]

Pollito - I hope he's feeling better. What a cutie! I can't believe how much hair he has!

Sonya - How's your back?

Christopher spent his first night by himself in his own room - he did fine, but I was a wreck I think I stared at the baby monitor for about 2 hours before I could go to sleep.... He's going for his first set of shots Thursday - I made sure it was a day DH wasn't working so I'd have some moral support.

Have a good day ladies!
Jen

 

[Syrreal]

Well, we're finally back from our trip to Toronto for DH's friend's wedding.
We took two days to do the 9 1/2 hour car ride (which took way longer than that thanks to traffic and construction). We got to our hotel, which was called The Old Mill, and it was a really nice suite. We really like getting suites because we can put DS in his own room and be able to do stuff like watch tv in our side of the room with the door closed.

What I got to see of Toronto was really nice. I didn't get to take part in most of the wedding related activities because they were past Brennan's bedtime. I did take him to the wedding and got to see all of 2 minutes of the ceremony before he started crying and then I got through cocktail hour and two bites of my salad (literally) before I had to leave. The poor boy was just exausted and screaming by then. But at least I got to have a glass of wine during the cocktail hour.

DH had asked the wedding coordinator to pack me some of the dinner so he could bring it home but got so drunk that he forgot it at the place. If it wasn't that DH really only gets drunk about once a year and that he was so funny when he got back at the hotel (he turned on the tv and said "ooh, city slickers! Oh! I am too drunk to watch this." changes the channel, "You have a fivehead, I can't watch you.") I might have been mad. It had already been a really frustrating day, Brennan was in super crankinator form and it took us two hours to get moving to the wedding and we got there super late as it was. Luckily most of the guests were held up in traffic so even though I was the last person to get there, I did get to watch the beginning of the ceremony.

We did get to do some sightseeing too. We went up on the CN tower. We went to the gift shop and out of nowhere I hear "Oooh! Baby!" and one of the sales girls came running up to play with Brennan and she just gushed and gushed over him for literally 10 minutes. Then there was the random stranger that came up to me when I was carrying him in the Bjorn waiting for DH to buy something while we were at the train station. He walks up to me telling me how adorable my baby is and how cool the bjorn is and then he referenced The Family Guy episode where Lois apparently carries Stewie in a pack like that. Weird dude.

The rest of the time it was strangers playing with him on the subway, the woman who insisted he was crying because his feet were cold (and not because he was starvin' marvin), and the man who was sitting accross from us who kept making a duck shape with his hands to entertain the baby. There was also the lady at the brunch who just kept wanting to touch his feet and saying how soft they were. Kinda on the odd side.

He was also the hit of the hotel breakfast. Every day I would go down to get some croissants, cheese, coffee, and yogurt w/ granola (obviously not together). The waiters said hello on the 1st day and immediately Brennan smiles and laughed so for the rest of the week we got awesome attention (I didn't even have to carry my own plate) and he was always referred to as the VIP guest. It was really cute.

Here are some pics from the trip-
Pics from our room (aka what I did to keep myself entertained while waiting for DH to wake up)

At the CN tower-

At the wedding- (Brennan wasn't in the wedding but DH didn't know they would have to walk in and wanted to hold him. He was upset that so much time was taken up with taking pictures and he didn't get to be with us)

 

[Syrreal]

Here's one more picture.
The day after the wedding, Brennan had spent much of the morning screaming and nothing I did helped. I tried holding him, feeding him, nursing him, rocking him, putting him on my shoulder..nothing stopped the crying. I was worried that the people in the next rooms would get upset so I brought him into the bathroom with me and closed the doors. I then set out a towel on the rug and set him down. By this time I was practically crying too. I'm not a fan of cry it out but I just didn't know what else to do. So I set him down on the towel and started washing his dirty bottles. I had not even turned the water on yet and he had fallen asleep. I was so flustered that all I could do was take a picture and here it is...my son, on the bathroom floor...sleeping. BTW after I took the picture I managed to put him into his pack n play where he slept for about an hour.

 

[Jen_in_NH]

Syrreal - sounds like a fun trip! He's adorable

Christopher got his first shots yesterday. Other than screaming for 2.5 hours last night, he's doing OK. I'm still recovering, however He was 13 lbs 13 oz and 25 inches! No wonder most of his clothes are getting too small....

Jen

 

[Pollito916]

Syrreal - What cute pictures of your hubby with the bjorn at the wedding!
Jen - Wow! Christopher is growing fast.

Alex is finally feeling better and his rash has completely faded. I'm so glad to have my happy baby boy back. It was really getting difficult to deal with the unhappy baby, but I don't blame him since I know he didn't feel well and couldn't do anything about it.

Ribfest is in town this weekend, so we'll see how Alex does with his first festival!

 

[AllyandJack]

Hi, Mommies! I'm officially an official new mom.

After a horrific 22 hours of unmedicated labor (not my choice, apparently my body rejects epidurals), Katharine was born on 6/19. We're doing OK. Learning. I've had a few bouts of crying along with her!

Sometimes, I have no idea what to do. She's been spitting up. She's gaining weight, so the doctors are waiting to see if she just grows out of it before giving her something. But, we get into these cycles of feed, spit up, hungry again, scream like crazy, feed, spit up, hungry again, scream like crazy.....the breastfeeding thing has been hard because I just don't have enough supply to keep up. We have to supplement with formula. Then, she's all freaked out when she's hungry and her hands are at her mouth and she's screaming her head off and won't latch on. So, I cry some more and hand her to DH. I feel very frustrated. I have a manual pump that isn't working right, so I'm buying the electric tomorrow. I'm also going to see a lactation consultant.

My question for all of the BTDT new moms.....when do you stop waking up every 10mns to make sure they're breathing?? She sleeps for some good stretches, but I am up every few minutes making sure her swaddle blanket isn't over her face, making sure she's not face down, making sure she's breathing, etc. I'm scared all the time that something is wrong. My BP was 140/100 at my OB appt yesterday! I'm a wreck!

 

[Jen_in_NH]

Carla - keep smiling, it does get better. I had similar breastfeeding problems, and after a huge guilt trip and a lot of pumping, we just switched to formula. If you're going to get a pump, and you have a low supply, make sure to get a hospital grade pump. As far as checking on them every 10 minutes, I still do sometimes

So for any of you that have travelled with an infant, do you have any advice to make it go well? We have to take Christopher on a 4 hour trip to CT this weekend to see Brian's grandfather (he's not doing well, and we want to make sure Christopher meets him before anything happens). Then he gets to do it again in a few weeks so we can pack up his grandfather's apartment for him to move to the nursing home. Then, provided everything goes well, we'll be going back in 2 more weeks for his grandfather's 100th birthday. I have no idea how Christopher will do with all of this travelling.

Jen

 

[Syrreal]

Carla, I'm so glad to see you here
I also have supply issues so Brennan is supplemented with formula. It sucked because I didn't really come to full terms with it till he was 7 wks old and now feel like I spent 7 wks starving my baby! I still don't make enough for him but it seemed that as soon as all the pressure was off because I could just give him a bottle, I started making a little more (or at least I seemed to be able to get more out with the pump). I have the Medela pump in style and it works really well for me. I was given the dr brown electric pump but it didn't give me any suction. As for the spitting up, just keep an eye on how far it travels. Before Brennan was put on reflux medicine his spit up was literally of exorcist proportions (it could easily travel 2+ feet).

Jen, sorry about your DGFIL.
I assume you're driving. My only suggestions are to allow for breaks where you can take him out of the car seat and let him stretch. Take a blanket so you can lay him on the grass at a rest stop. If he is anything like Brennan, there is a good possibility that he'll sleep the whole way there. Other than that, allow for more time than it usually would take you.

 

[Sonya]

Well my back is finally better. It was nice to take a break and let everyone help me, but I was going crazy not being able to hold my babies!

Pollito, I just want to run my fingers through your baby's hair!

Congrats AllyandJack!

 

[Pollito916]

Hi Carla – glad to see you finally made it over here. Don’t worry, it will get better. I never did that much in the beginning, b/c I was just too tired! I would crawl into bed as soon as I put him down. I think it also helped that I had the c-section and really couldn’t get up that often and since he slept in the nursery in the hospital. Maybe you can try to get someone to come over and help out a little so you can get some rest. You really need to get that bp down! I also still peek in on DS, just b/c he’s so cute and I love looking at him!

Jen – Sorry to hear about your husband’s grandfather. DH’s grandmother is also very ill, but we can’t go to see her b/c she lives in Mexico and we’re STILL dealing with immigration issues after 7 years of marriage! DH isn't dealing with it well at all, since his mom passed away 9 years ago, and he wasn't able to go for that either.

I second Syrreal’s advice for travel. DS also sleeps most of the time in the car, so it really hasn’t been too bad so far. A 4 hour ride isn’t really too bad, and you can probably get by with only stopping once or less. I’m sure Christopher will do fine!

Sonya – Glad your back is feeling better. Your girls are just darling – I can’t get over how tiny they are!

I hope everyone is having a good semi-holiday weekend!

 

[Jen_in_NH]

Ladies - HELP!!! I need some moral support. Today is my first day back to work, and I'm wicked baby-sick And the worst part, I work 24 hour shifts. Just tell me he'll be OK without me for 24 hours.

Another question - when should he be able to start pushing himself up on his arms and stuff like that? Christopher HATES being on his belly. He will pick up his head a bit, but not for long, and doesn't try to grab things when he's on his belly. All of the crazy baby books say he should be by now. When do I start worrying?

Jen