The Official New Mom Thread

[MommyPoppins]

Wow! Everytime you get busy and don't have a chance to check in everyday you get so far behind. I haven't read all the new threads yet. But I just wanted to check in. I have been busy lately house hunting. We are seriously thinking about moving to NC. We have a friend who is a paster in High Point, so if we move it will be to that area. Everything is SO much cheaper there it makes it sick.

I have to say that you all have the cutest babies! You know how you always see really ugly babies, but seriously everyone of you have adorable babies. Tosha&Scott Your little one is SOOOOOOOOOOOO cute! I LOVE all the hair. And little Kona oh my! I have never seen a baby so fat! But I say that in a good way. She is darling! And Mollys sly smile! How cute!

Well, Kaleb has Roseola . All of my kids have had it at one time or another. But it is still shocking when you go in their room to get them up in the morning and they are covered in a rash. So I thought that for the benefit of you first timers that I would post a pic and give you a heads up. It started with a high fever over the weekend and through Tuesday. He got up to 102 one day before I could give him more motrin. Then Thursday he woke up covered in a rash. It wasn't raised then, but now it is. The rash isn't itchy or anything, just ugly. They are contaigous until 1-2 days after the fever goes away and it has a 10 day incubation period. So when your little ones come down with a fever and then break out in a rash, don't freak. It's probably just good old Roseola. Well, I took pictures to show you all, but they are blurry when I upload them for some reason, so you can't even see the rash...here is one.

 

[Alice28]

POOR KALEB! I'm glad it wasn't itchy to him. He is still a cutie though, rash and all!

And you're right, we DO have a great looking group of babies here! Not all newborns/babies are cute. But we have quite an exceptional bunch!

I went to a McDonald's playdate lunch today (we got rained out of the park) with two of my closest girlfriends. Between us there were 7 boys! Three 7 year olds, a 5, 4, & 3 year old, and a 9 month old! And then sweet Molly, and of course I had to dress her in pink! My friend's 9 month old is the most engaging baby- so smiley and mellow!

 

[justhat]

I went to a McDonald's playdate lunch today (we got rained out of the park) with two of my closest girlfriends. Between us there were 7 boys! Three 7 year olds, a 5, 4, & 3 year old, and a 9 month old! And then sweet Molly, and of course I had to dress her in pink! My friend's 9 month old is the most engaging baby- so smiley and mellow!

That's how we are-everyone has boys and then there's Madison! A bunch of our friends had babies around the time Madison was born and they were all boys. My friend had a boy 8 months before Madison, my nephew is 6 months older than Madison, another friend had a son 2 weeks after Madison was born (and she has 4yo twin boys), another friend's son was born 2 months after that, and another little boy who will be 1 on Tuesday (and he has a 3yo brother). I'm hoping one day someone will have a girl so she's got more than boy playmates!

Aww, that's too bad about Kaleb's rash. Hopefully he'll be feeling better soon. Is his fever all gone now? I had roseola when I was a toddler and I remember my mom saying how weird it was that I suddenly had this rash all over.

 

[MommyPoppins]

I went to a McDonald's playdate lunch today (we got rained out of the park) with two of my closest girlfriends. Between us there were 7 boys! Three 7 year olds, a 5, 4, & 3 year old, and a 9 month old! And then sweet Molly, and of course I had to dress her in pink! My friend's 9 month old is the most engaging baby- so smiley and mellow!

I won't let my kids play on the playgrounds at fast food anymore. Last time I did they all got very sick and had their first ear infections. At the same time we were their this family came in with about 10 kids. The oldest was around 20ish and I'm pretty certain he was married to his sister. It was HORRIBLE! Everylast one of them wasn't right mentally, which there is nothing wrong with. But I am sure that they were marrying and having children with eachother. I talked to them for a few minutes and the only one of them who wasn't related by blood was the only one who made any sense. It was like walking into another demension. Have you ever seen Wrong Turn? It was a step away from that.
So anyway, no more fast food playing for us.

Kaleb's fever went away on Tuesday I think. He still has his rash today, but it looks alittle better.

 

[DisKim]

Play areas in fast food restauants always remind me of the novel Lord of the Flies. There are always the dominant kids that take over. My kids always seem to allow themselves to be dominated which makes me nervous. Well, I tried to take the kids out along with Aidan for our first big family outing since Aidan was born. We tried to go to Six Flags Great Adventure. I say "tried" because we left after getting to the front gate. I never saw the place so packed in my life. We had to wait an hour in a line of cars to pay for parking. Of course, we have season pass parking but had to wait in line anyway in order to "not pay". When we finally got to the front of the park, there was literally a mob of people wanting to get in. Apparently, they had stopped letting people in. I almost had a heart attack. Here I am in this mob with my 2 month old and they are all smoking, etc. I bribed the kids with a trip to the toy store and we left. There was not a worker to be found. My DH and I commented that such a thing would never happen at Disney. There would be CM's giving information and directing people where to go. Great Adventure decided to build the biggest roller coaster in the world and yet they don't hire the people they need to staff it, nor do they properly plan for the throngs of people the coaster will attract. Of course, it was not working today anyway. Our bad day ended with my DS 5 smashing his tooth in with his toy airplane. He was flying it over his head while he was lying on the floor and dropped it on his face . So, we ended the day with a trip to the ER. Ugh! What a day! I'm going to bed.

 

[justhat]

Aww, I hope your son is feeling better now. That must have been a heavy airplane! Madison smashed her mouth on a granite table on Easter, so I totally empathize with how you must have felt when it happened to him.

Great Adventure is also kinda crazy, though I haven't been there in about 5 years so I guess I can't comment much on how it is now. The best trip I had there was with my high school for Physics Day-great trip! That's too bad that you guys couldn't go in though, but maybe a weekday after work is done would be okay to try again. Kingda Ka was closed last weekend too (my cousins live about 1 mile from Great Adventure and tried to check it out last Sunday) and I read in my mom's paper that it was because part of the track lining was ripping up, or something to that effect. Hopefully they'll get it fixed cause I bet it's crazy popular! I actually planned to take Madison down there yesterday or Monday to do the safari, but then I realized that she won't see anything rearfacing in her carseat in my mom's Jeep. She can see a bit better in my Explorer since my window is larger and her seat is higher, but I didn't drive this time, I took the train, so we're stuck with my mom's car. I realize I could turn her seat forward facing for the safari and move it back after we're done, but that would be way too much effort of installing the seat tightly in my mom's car. Of course, she is about 21 lbs. now so I could just turn it forward facing permanently, but I'm not quite ready to do that with her since it took her awhile to hit 20 lbs. and she kinda hovers between that and 21 so I'd rather wait a bit longer. So we'll wait till she's a bit bigger and then we can do GA too, cause right now I feel it's kinda a waste with just me and her since there's not a whole lot she can do there, unlike at Disney.

 

[Alice28]

Well, here in the rainy Northwest, fast food play places are a saving grace sometimes. We usually try and go early, before the crowds; yesterday we left when some out of control kids showed up. I'm just so glad they have taken out to grody ballpits. Ours all just have groovy play structures.

Molly, who is usually such an easy one, has been so high maintainance today! I have hardly been able to put her down..she'll sleep for maybe 30 minutes and then wake up crying and wanting to be held or fed. I managed to get some annuals planted and the backyard picked up a bit. I love summer. Joshua's birthday party is next Sunday, so I need to get the yard nice and pretty. I love that his bday is in the summer....Sam is tricky as he is a late November birthday and we don't have that big of a house to invite lots of kids over if the party is inside.

 

[Tasha+Scott]

I am so excited! Dh and I have been debating about whether we would be able to go to WDW next year or not. Well, yesterday we decided we are going to go from April 30-May 6. We will be celebrating dd's 1st b-day there. My mom might be going w/us so she can watch Kylie some so Dh and I can go out by ourselves a couple of nights. Nothing is definite or set in stone at this point but that's the plan for now. We also plan to see my grandmother while we are there. She lives in New Port Richey, FL, and it will be the 1st time she will have seen dd. Dh also wants to take dd to Sea World since it is one of our favorite parks and it is more relaxed than WDW. We can't wait!

 

[tkyes]

Well we had our first night without the baby! It went very well. Of course we missed him but it was so great to get stuff done. My house is clean!

Other good news, Tyler went 5 hours between feedings the other night. Of course last night he was back to 3 hour shifts and woke up very gassy, but hopefully we are on the right track.

I just reserved our rooms for our WDW trip in February.

Tasha - that's great that you guys get to go, how fun!!

 

[DisneyPhD]

I am so excited! Dh and I have been debating about whether we would be able to go to WDW next year or not. Well, yesterday we decided we are going to go from April 30-May 6. We will be celebrating dd's 1st b-day there. My mom might be going w/us so she can watch Kylie some so Dh and I can go out by ourselves a couple of nights. Nothing is definite or set in stone at this point but that's the plan for now. We also plan to see my grandmother while we are there. She lives in New Port Richey, FL, and it will be the 1st time she will have seen dd. Dh also wants to take dd to Sea World since it is one of our favorite parks and it is more relaxed than WDW. We can't wait!

That is a great time to go to WDW, we were there 05 April 29th to May 6th and it was great (even with the 5-5-05 celebration this year.)

We are going Jan 3rd th 11th this year (or so) we are DVC members, but are waiting to see if we can get a good code so we can manage to save some points (we are all borrowed out.) We have AP that expire the end of Feb so if we go in Jan (when hubby's school is still out) then we can save a lot of money. It will be 3 trips in 12 months, and 3rd trip to use DDE!

 

[Alice28]

Yay for Tasha! I'm so excited so many of us have a WDW trip in the works. It's such a great thing to look forward to!

 

[Alice28]

I meant to share earlier that Molly rolled over several times yesterday! From belly to back....

 

[nucpharm29]

Hey all! I haven't been around much lately--summer trips and all, but I wanted to pass on a little info. I ran across in a magazine. The company that makes Rit Dye for fabrics makes a product called Rit Sun Guard. You put it in your regular washing machine with your clothes and it causes your fabrics to have an SPF of around 30. And it lasts through 20 more washings!! I was excited to find it so I can wash DD's clothes in it before we head to the beach next week. The website is www.ritdye.com and click on the Rit sun guard icon and it will list stores where the product is available. It is endorsed by the Skin Cancer Asso. and has a Good Housekeeping seal of Approval. Anything helps in protecting our little ones from the sun!! Hope this is helpful to some!

 

[MommyPoppins]

I meant to share earlier that Molly rolled over several times yesterday! From belly to back....

Yay for Molly!

 

[tkyes]

tyler had his 2 mo. checkup today - 13 lb. 1 oz and 23 1/2" long

he got 4 shots too hopefully today and tonight go well.

yeah molly for rolling over!

any tips on teaching babies to comfort themselves back to sleep? he's starting to find his hands, which may help if he decides to suck on them. we let him cry a bit this morning and tried to comfort him without picking him up, but he was inconsolable at one point and wouldn't calm down.

 

[justhat]

any tips on teaching babies to comfort themselves back to sleep? he's starting to find his hands, which may help if he decides to suck on them. we let him cry a bit this morning and tried to comfort him without picking him up, but he was inconsolable at one point and wouldn't calm down.

Wow, Tyler's a big boy!

I don't have any advice on self-comforting as I'm still working on that with Madison, but I just wanted to say good luck. That inconsolable thing you're talking about Madison still does sometimes, and then she's way too worked up to go back to sleep. It's a challenge, but hopefully you'll have better luck than I have.

Thanks for the tip about Rit's sunscreen. We're going to the beach for a week on Saturday so hopefully I can find some this afternoon and wash it into her clothes.

And congrats to Molly on rolling over! She's on her way to becoming fully mobile!

 

[DisKim]

Alice 28 - Congrats on Molly rolling over!

Tasha+Scott - I'm so excited for you. Have fun planning your trip! Where are you staying? I saw your post on the resorts board about Pop vs. ASmo. I was debating between the two myself. I've never stayed in a value before. We decided on ASmo. I thought the kids would like the theming.

Tykes - I really don't have any good advice for you. When my baby is inconsolable, I pick him up. I know the doctor says to let him cry it out. I do that if he's just fussing, but if he is really upset I just can't leave him there. I hope you find what works for you.

 

[copper68]

hi all.. wow am i behind on catching up on all the new threads!!!!

just wondering if anybody has any tips.. my dd has blonde thin hair.. i need to put sunscreen on her scalp, but i hate rubbing it in and getting her hair all nasty.. any thoughts? i bought the spray sunscreen thinking i could just spray it, i haven't tried it yet.. anybody else have any thoughts? and i've tried hats and they stay on all of hmmm.. 10 secs..

tkyes- i'm sure this isn't really helpful either, but here's what i did.. every night i would go through the same routine.. at around 10pm i would go up to her room rock in the rocking chair while she had a bottle and i would turn the mobile music on while feeding her.. then i would burp her and lay her down while she was still awake.. the first few nights she would whine and cry a bit i would stand by her crib.. give her 15-20 minutes and then pick her up and suffer through another night.. but, i did this exact same thing every night and at 8 weeks she was sleeping 5-6 hours at a time.. and now she's 17 months and sleeps from 8pm to 8am and if she wakes up in the night i will go in give her her pacy and she's right back out.. so, i'm sure that's not much of a help, but figured i would share my two cents..

Leah

 

[Tasha+Scott]

Hey, everyone! Well, my clinic called today to tell me that they got my lab work back from my pap smear and that it showed that I have a bacterial infection! Great! So I am on antibiotics for the next 7 days and then I have to go for another pap smear in August. I will be glad when all of this postpartum stuff is over!

On a positive note my mom and I took Kylie on her first outing yesterday. We went to Elvis Presley's birthplace. We have lived here for over 10 years and figured we needed to go just to say we've been. Well now we've been and know how boring it really is. We weren't missing anything. Of course maybe we'd feel differently if we were actually Elvis fans, lol! We also went to a buffalo park we have here. That was fun but the temp. was 92 with 77% humidity so we didn't stay long since I didn't want Kylie to get too much sun and heat. There was a monkey (yes, a real one) in the gift shop that kept trying to grab Kylie's shorts and kept trying to take my watch off. The little thief was sooo cute! It made me want a pet monkey. Well, maybe not!

And today was another exciting 1st for us--I was playing with Kylie and she started smiling this huge grin and then she giggled for the 1st time! It was sooo cute I thought I would melt! She is so different from when she was a few weeks old. It is hard to believe how much she has changed and how fast she is growing!

Woo hoo, Molly! You go girl!

Tamie, Kylie discovered her hands not too long ago and it calms her some but 9 times out of 10 she still prefers mommy or daddy to hold her or rock her. I am lucky though b/c she usually sleeps 5-6 hours before waking up to eat and will go right back to sleep afterwards. Last night she slept for 8 hours before waking up! She doesn't really want to sleep during the day though which is probably why she sleeps good at night. She's a nosy baby and thinks she's missing something if she falls asleep during the day! She will fight it no matter how tired she is! Good luck!

DisKim~ We are planning to stay at Pop just to try something different and so we won't have to share a bus w/other resorts. Last June was our 1st stay in a value (ASMo) and we really liked it. It was better than some of the moderates, IMO, since it wasn't too spread out and we liked the food court. The pools are definitely not as nice as the mod and deluxe resorts pools but it's decent. Your kids will probably love the theming.

Have a great evening everyone!

 

[Alice28]

Tkyes- I didn't really let my kids try and console themselves til they were more like 4-6 months old. It takes them awhile to learn to suck their thumb, or grab their pacifier for themselves...some babies just simply need momma or daddy to calm down. Now, if he was 5-7 months or older and still was having a hard time, I would recommend the crying it out in the stages (starting with a few minutes, going in, consoling, and adding time on each day).

My neighbor is driving me crazy. She had this strange combination of both crabbing and bragging at the same time. I can't stand her a lot of the time, but I want to be friendly with her as we both have young children, etc. Case in point- we were all at the park the other day (her, myself and another neighbor) and the kids were playing- she has the only girl (besides Molly) and then there are 4 boys. She kept commenting on her girly-girl and how sweet she was, and not like those "crazy" boys. Then Molly started whimpering in her sleep, so I popped the pacifier in her mouth and she says, "My Susie NEVER needed a pacifier...or a blankie...or her thumb..." It's like, who cares? My second one didn't take a pacifier and I wish he did cause all he wanted was momma and that got REAL old! I've known her long enough to realize that a lot of what she says comes from insecurity, but ugh.....there are days where I pretend I don't hear her knocking at the door cause I just don't want to hear her crabbing or bragging!

I think I am particularly sensitive with DH gone and it bugs me when people complain about stuff that is just so trivial...there are bigger things in life to gripe about, you know?