The Official New Mom Thread

[DisKim]

Well, Aidan was up twice again last night. I guess his 2 good nights were a fluke for now. He takes a bath every day. I just love that just bathed smell when we're cuddling before bedtime. Well, I have to go to work today. Yuck! It's only 5 hours to prepare for a class and I get a little check for it. That check has "Disney" written all over it .

 

[lulu71]

He's moving all over the crib too. He even set his angelcare monitor alarm off because he was all the way to the edge of the crib, off the sensor pad. Scared me half to death!!!

OMG! I guess it did! We had one false alarm with Mia, of course it was the first time I was ever left alone with her when she was a week old! But I don't know what I'd do without that monitor!

 

[Strawberry Lemonade]

Alice28 - Glad you had a good trip.

Katerkat - Congrats on Baby Russ's achievement!

Tkyes - Congrats on Tyler's rolling over!

DisneyPhD - Thanks for the advice. I think keeping one or two feedings a day is a great idea and I'm going to try to do that.

To everyone - Thanks for the encouragement on the BFing issue and the compliments on the new pictures. I hope this doesn't all go to Lucas's head!

We try to give Lucas a bath every other day or more often if he needs it (messy poop, spit up all over, etc.)

 

[Alice28]

I give Molly a bath about every other day too....sometimes more, sometimes less. She smells like spit up a lot more often than the boys did, so that prompts me to get her cleaned up.

I was so struggling with the nursing before I left...and then Molly got interested in it again. I think it was the heat. Hang in there SL and just do what works best for you. Lucas will be great no matter what.

I'm such a dork, but what did you have at Stanford's KaterKat? I love their salads.....were you able to get a lot of shopping done? Stop in the scrapbook store? I need to go there soon- they have a GREAT selection of Disney stuff and we're going soon! I should wait til we come back though before I buy so I don't buy things I'm not going to use.

 

[KristiKelly]

Hi everyone! I haven't been around in a few days. Mary Grace is doing well and sleeping pretty good. She usually sleeps from around 9:30 (or 10) until 3:30- 5:00 and then back to sleep until 8 or 9. I really wish she would get up a little earlier during the night, I am always so full and I'm afraid going so long might slow down my milk supply.

I give Mary Grace a bath everynight (always have). She spits up alot so I feel like she needs it. I don't use alot of the baby soap though. She hasn't had any problems with dry skin so I'll probably continue.

SL, I'm sorry you've had a rough couple of days. If he's waking up more during the night, he could be hitting a growth spurt, or if he slept more one night he could have been more tired than usual and slept through his feeding.

I'm trying to type with one hand while holding Mary Grace (I apologize for any typos), she is mesmerized by the screen.

A few weeks ago someone mentioned the outfit bibs at BRU. I went the other day and bought both cinderella & Aerial. Now Mary Grace is ready for her breakfast with big sis Charlotte in the castle.

Mary Grace was 6 weeks old yesterday , it's so sad how fast they grow. DS8 will start 3rd grade & DD5 will start kindergarten next week and I know that in a blink of an eye it will be Mary Grace and this age will just be a blur. i'm trying hard to enjoy every second, even when DH & I do dinner in shifts while she cries. I know that she is my last and I'll never be doing this again.

I hope everyone has a good day!

 

[vald1977]

Hi everyone,
DisneyPHd,
Glad to hear that the soy milk agrees with Lily so well. I would have a hard time giving up dairy completely.

Welcome back Robin. Glad you had a fun trip .

Diskim and Strawberry Lemonade,
I hope your guys will start sleeping through the night soon.

Tkyes,
Yay for Tyler rolling over !

Joats,
We do a sponge bath every other day (more often if we have a spit up issue). I love the Huggies disposable wash cloths. They smell so good and make baths really easy.

Katerkat,
He will be crawling before you know it !

Kristikelly,
I feel the same exact way with Katrina. I'm trying to enjoy every minute with her (even the 3 am feedings) since she will be my last little baby. I know this special time will be over before I know it. I can't believe she will be a month tomorrow!


We are still dealing with the Thrush from H-E-double hockey sticks here . I thought it was almost gone (just a couple little spots on the roof of her mouth) but last night I found it hiding between her lip and gums! So now I have been trying to squirt some of the meds up in there too. I hope it goes away soon.

I start back in babysitting tomorrow. I'm sure it will be a long day but I really need the money. I just hope Katrina does fairly well tonight so I can get some sleep in. Last night she wanted to stay up and play from 3 on !

 

[katerkat]

Robin - we started out at the outlets south of Portland. Had to take advantage of the no tax in Oregon! (And can I say, what a joy it was to not pump our gas! I grew up in New Jersey.) Then we went to Powell's, because I can't pass up that big of a bookstore! Then BRU, Baby Depot, Stanfords, BRU. We ended up buying his crib at the BRU in Tigard - they actually had one of my top three in stock.

For dinner, I had a rock salt prime rib and a side salad. DH had, um... I can't remember. Something lighter because he had a big lunch. It was a GOOD prime rib, too.

 

[joats]

So many huge accomplishments for the little ones!
Tkyes: Way to go Tyler!!
Alice28: Happy 5th month birthday Molly and 10 hours of sleep - Yippee!
Katerkat: Way to go Russ!!

Kristikelly: I can relate to the shifts of dinner. DH and I sit down together and then take turns getting up to comfort Jace. It's very rare that we get thru a meal without it.

Valerie: I hope that the thrush will be gone soon. Poor Katrina.

Thanks everyone for responding to my bathing question. Hope you don't mind so many questions/topics.

Hoping to go out to dinner tonight with DH. Hopefully Jace will do ok. He usually does when we are out - he sleeps right thru it.

 

[Alice28]

Sounds like you had the grand tour of Portland!

Molly also is a rolling and a rockin...she's starting to scooch!

I am putting away a lot of her 3-6 month little stuff- the stuff that was on the small side to begin with (basically anything that isn't Gymbo or Gap). It's making me sad! She's not that chunky but she's l-o-n-g and the onesies and some of the dresses are too short already!

Anyone else ready for fall? We had the cruddiest spring here- so rainy and chilly. But I'm ready for autumn. All my kids have such cute clothes to wear! And more importantly, WDW occurs for us in Sept. And even MORE importantly, that means DH will be home soon! He's thinking sometime in January....I can't wait to start a countdown ticker.

 

[KristiKelly]

I need to ask you all for a favor, please keep my good friend in your prayers. Her Dad has leukemia and is not expected to make it through the night. She just called to talk to me and was so upset. She said that she took her 2 boys to the 3rd floor of the hospital, the L & D, mother/baby floor. She said "it was so amazing to see this brand new life and then so sad to go back downstairs and see her Dad and his life that was all used up". I've never heard her cry when talking about her Dad's condition but she was today, he's always bounced back but he's not going to this time. She told me to "go kiss that little baby" and that's what I'm going to do. I'm so upset for her. Thanks for letting me share that and please keep her in your thoughts.

 

[DisneyPhD]

We are an every other night bath family. (unless needed, but that doesn't happen too often.) Sometimes we even go longer (if we somehow miss bath night, but that isn't pretty.) Both girls have so much hair.

Come to think of it we are an every other night sleep to. (if I have a good night, the next night won't be.) We almost never get to decent night sleeps in a row.

Alice28, Lily is a scoocher too. Even now she gets up on her hands and knees and looks like she might crawl, but she goes sideways instead. However it really is the cutest little scooch in the world. Every kid crawls, mine is specail! about hubby comes home in Jan.


Strawberry Lemonade, I know bf isn't easy. Support and encouragement can often be helpful, but I know being pushed isn't helpful. I only mean to offer encouragment. I am going through my own bf issues right now. Either give up dairy or give up bfing. BF is best for her so I want to continue for a while, but OMG it isn't easy to get dairy out of your diet, it is in everything. I couldn't do it for myself, but I think I can for her (and it is only temparary.) The good news is I should loose weight now too.

 

[joats]

KristiKelly: Sending positive thoughts and wishes to your friend and her father.

T&S: How is your brother? I'm not sure if I missed the post of how everything went.

 

[Alice28]

Kristi Kelly~~ I'm so sorry your friend is going through this difficult time.

Molly scooches by getting up on her arms a bit and then just pushes with her feet and toes...she's not even on her knees. It's funny. She's funny. And so flipping cute I cannot stand it.

I wrote this to my husband today; "I took the kids to the mall to get their Disney Dollars...and I went and bought Molly another fall outfit from Gymboree. I'm past even trying to justify it to you." He just laughs and tells me, "Whatever makes you happy." He knows how much I'm enjoying my girl. Right now I would much rather have him home and talking with and having a normal life with than placating myself by buying cute clothes for the kids. I did actually buy myself some tops at Sears (I had to SCOUR the Lands End piles of tshirts for an XL----tons and tons of smalls and medium....I found exactly 3 shirts in XL- none my favorite colors, but I bought them anyway cause I love the quality and I needed some more shirts for Florida weather). To be honest, and maybe a bit TMI, I think I really need some "loving" from my DH and I would feel a LOT better! I just hate this sometimes...I try not to think about it and just get through each day without being a sour puss.

ANYWAY, it was fun getting the Disney dollars- new patterns on them- Stitch on the $10, Donald on the $5 and DUMBO on the $1!!! So cute!. A coworker of my dad's just LOVES my kids for some reason, and she always buys them christmas gifts (I don't think she has any grandchildren of her own, so she adopted mine) and she gave me $100 for them! So, instead of buying them MORE toys or MORE clothes, I got them Disney $$ for our trip. So now each boy has $60 and Molly has $30...for all that shopping she wants to do. I'm sure her momma can find her a tshirt or hat with Minnie or Princesses on it. I have some other money set aside for myself and we're good to go! My parents made the final payment to the trip on Monday and now we're just ticking the time away til 9/23. I just want school to start so I can actually go to the store with only 2 kids vs. 3...and then my 4 year old starts preschool in later Sept. so I will be down to just Molly for 3 hours a day! I'm so awful!

 

[Tasha+Scott]

Kristikelly~ So sorry to hear what your friend is going through! I will keep her and her family in my prayers and hope that her father has a peaceful passing. So sad!

joats~ Sorry! I don't think I ever did update about my brother! My sweet little angel has decided she doesn't like it anymore when mommy is on the computer! She wants my undivided attention even when I am not holding her. So I haven't been on the computer nearly as much lately. But hey, my house is cleaner now that I am DISing less! Anyway, his surgery went well. He hasn't had the wiring connected to the cochlear implant yet. They are waiting until Sept.7 to do it just to make sure the scar has completely healed. So he will officially have the device turned on Sept. 7 (which happens to be the day before my sister's 10th b-day) and then begins all of the speech/hearing therapy he will need to get used to something he has never experienced before! Still exciting stuff! Thanks for remembering my brother!

Alice~ I sure hope your dh is home by January! And I hope you enjoy your upcoming trip! I am so jealous! And Kylie is really long too. She is 3-6 months in clothing but length wise has already outgrown some of the feety pajamas b/c they are getting too short. Everything else still fits as long as it doesn't have feet on the bottom. I need to measure her and see how long she is now b/c she is really long and almost everyone thinks she is 6 months instead of 3 months when they see her now!

DisKim~ I hope you enjoy your trip too! Did I mention I am so jealous?!

Baths~ I give Kylie a bath 2-3 times a week or more if needed. But I bathed her last night and tonight before bed b/c sometimes that helps her sleep better and she was fussy tonight so it helped! She is starting cereal next month (or I am at least going to attempt it b/c I am certain she is ready) so depending on how messy she is we might start giving baths more often soon.

I bought Kylie a barnyard gym from Wal-mart yesterday. She LOVES it!!! I finally found something she hasn't grown bored with in a few minutes. She likes it b/c it is red and she seems to love the color red and it makes music when she bats at it. She loves that she can do it herself. She is going through an independent stage where she doesn't want help doing certain things anymore, believe it or not. She doesn't want my help putting her binky back in her mouth anymore but a lot of times she still needs it b/c she puts it in backwards. Poor thing gets mad that she needs help though! I wanted to buy her a jumperoo yesterday too but they were out of them at Toys R Us and at Wal-mart! Apparently everyone wanted a jumperoo this week!

My dh's grandmother gave us the changing table we have...a really nice, expensive one too. She used to keep kids and has had it for years. Not a scratch on it even after the numerous kids that have used it...until my Kylie got hold of it! She kicks nonstop especially if she gets excited and the other day she got so excited and kicked so hard she kicked a huge tear in the changing pad! So now I have to buy a new pad for it!

Well, it's official! Dh and I weren't sure how many kids we wanted altogether but tonight we decided we only want 2. It's perfect for us b/c we have 3 bedrooms which means everyone will have their own room. Plus it is easier to find things for families of 4 and all of that. But I feel sad knowing that I will only have 1 more! Dh is definite that he doesn't want more than 2 and I have known that from the start. He would have 3 if I just felt I really wanted 3 but I don't want him to have more kids than he really wants and I know it makes more sense for us to only have 2...so is it normal to feel sad over it even though I know it's what we want? Especially since I haven't even had our 2nd one yet? We plan to try for our 2nd one when Kylie is around 2. That means we will be done having kids by the time I am 27. I can't believe I am sad about this but I am! Although I am also a little relieved that we have made a definite decision finally! I also really, really don't want more than 2 but it's sad to think that our next will also be our last and I won't even be 30 yet! Someone snap me out of it!

 

[bellacam]

Hi Mommies! Aidan and I are ready to join this thread! These first two weeks have been a major struggle for us. Breastfeeding came so easy until my 10lb 12oz baby's appetit caught up with him! He was nursing every 45 mins for a half hour then sleeping about a half hour and wanting to nurse again 15 mins later. I felt I was a wet nurse not a mommy! I have made the very tough decision to switch to formula. We have an appointment with our Dr at 10am and I hope it all goes well. I may still try to BF and supplement but as a FTM I don't know how practical/possible that is. The change in Aidan since we gave him formula over the last 18 hrs is incredible. He is no longer "angry", he slept for more than a half hour, and seems to be adjusting all right. I just hope I did the right thing. One heck of a first post, huh. Any advice/similar experiences to share would be great!

 

[justhat]

Welcome Bridget!! Wow, Aidan is a big boy! Obviously I have no idea if this is the case with you, but maybe your milk just isn't in completely yet, or rather that your supply is not yet established, and that's why he wants to nurse all the time. Madison was a pretty big girl (8 lbs. 4 oz, but she was born 15 days early) and needed more milk than I was producing at first. Her first night home from the hospital she literally screamed all night long and I had no idea why. The next day we called her dr and explained that everytime she nursed she'd suck maybe 3 times, then break away and scream. Her nose was very congested (more than average baby stuffiness, they thought maybe because I had a cold when she was born) so we thought maybe it was too hard to breathe while nursing so the dr said to try a bottle of either pumped milk or formula. Well I pumped and practically nothing came out so we gave her some formula. She drank 1.5oz and fell asleep for 2 hours for the first time since she was born. It was like a miracle. I tried nursing her later, without much luck, so I did bottles and nursing the rest of that day.

When she went to the dr for the 1st time the next day she had lost 14 oz. and they said I probably didn't have enough milk yet so to supplement in the meantime. I pumped and fed her a bottle of formula every 2 hours for a couple of weeks. I got mastitis when she was about a week old so that contributed to the extended pumping/bottlefeeding too. Once my milk was totally in I was able to go back to nursing her and dropped the formula simply for my own convenience. She ended up nursing exclusively till 6 months, then several times a day till about 11 months, then just before naps/bed/night till 13 months. Now (she's 17 months) she still nurses when she first wakes up in the morning, but that's it. I know my supply is really low at this point and she sometimes gets angry when she doesn't get much, but she's getting used to it and I'm thinking she'll be totally done with nursing in the next few weeks. I never planned to go this long, it just sorta worked out that way and I've been pretty happy with it so we kept it up. But I just wanted to show you that if you decide to keep nursing Aidan but want to supplement too, you'll most likely be fine doing both as long as you want to.

KristiKelly, I have your friend and her dad in my prayers. I lost my own dad (who was often sick and always bounced back too) when I was 17 so I know how hard it can be for anyone to lose a parent.

Congrats to all the newly mobile and soon to be mobile babies! It's an exciting time once they start moving around. Oh, T&S, be careful about thinking Kylie is too young to sit up, it'll come before you know it. Madison was sitting on her own a week before she turned 5 months old (she still tipped over from time to time, but was able to sit and play with a toy without anything propping her up for about 20-30 minutes at a time). And Kylie rolled over before Madison (I think you said about a month and Madison was almost 2 months) so watch out!

Also, I think it's normal to feel sad about knowing you'll only have 1 more kid. Of course, I'm not there yet, but I get sad thinking about all the things I miss about Madison being an infant and look forward to seeing the next one do all those things (and trust me, I am nowhere near ready to have #2!!). So if I thought the next time was gonna be the last I think I'd be pretty sad about it too. I want 4 of them though, so I'm thinking that by that point I might be ready for the baby days to end!

 

[castlegazer]

Janie and Jack has a great sale rack that gets better and then gets OK and then gets better again - you have to kind of haunt them a lot. But its the only way I can afford to buy the clothes and I have bought quite a bit. Some of it is precious but didn't really work practicality wise when on the baby - so watch out and make sure it really is something that will work for a wiggling or crawling infant.

 

[DisneyPhD]

Wellcome bellacam and Aidan. Congradulations.

I agree with justthat, bf can be a struggle at 1st but is very rewarding and really much eaiser then bottle once you both get the hang of it. Your milk might not be in yet. If you give it up now, it can be hard to get back later (but can happen if you are dedicaided enough. Anyway I agree that give him all the bottles he needs, but if you don't want to stop bf don't. Milk supplys can be increased in number of ways. The best is to keep at it, the more you take out the more you make. Keep in mind some breast milk is better then non, so what you can do is good for him. (and really good for your body too at this point.) One way to help him from getting confused it let other caregivers feed him bottles for now. Gives you a break and a chance for dad's and grandparents to help out too.

Good luck, I just wanted to offer encouragment. Breast feeding really was a challange for me, but so worth it. I am so gald I did. The support of my husband, family and friends really helped.

 

[lissawynn]

Hi everyone! Jimmy and I are back from his first trip to WDW, and things went very well. He was probably the best one on this trip.
I have much to tell about our trip. First, I will never again go to WDW in August. It was just entirely too hot. I don't think I ever sweated that much in my entire life. Jimmy kept nice and cool, though. I bought the UV shade for his stroller, and that kept him pretty well covered up. I also took a clean washcloth from the room each morning which I would get wet and put on his head. He seemed to really like pulling that from his head and chewing on it. He also enjoyed his cold watered down juice.
We stay at the VWL in a studio. If I were to rent points again, I'd probably stay in a 1 or 2 br. It was kind of crowded with the three adults and two kids. I also didn't like the fact that we had no housekeeping for the length of our stay. By the end of our trip, our floor with filthy, and I was contemplating "borrowing" the housekeepers sweeper to do our floors.
We stayed away from riding the buses as much as possible. It was such a pain to get Jimmy out of the stroller, get the stroller folded up, and get on and off the bus. We used the boat to MK most days, and then took the monorail if we needed. I think there were only a few bus trips.
Jimmy loved almost everything we did. He completely freaked out when he saw Piglet at our CP breakfast. He has a stuffed Piglet that he plays with at home, so to see a giant sized Piglet was a trip.
All of our meals were excellent. We ate at CG, CP, Ohana, Brown Derby, Kona Cafe, and Le Cellier. The only old restaurants were CG and Ohana.
I'm sure I'm missing a ton of stuff, but I'll add the new info as I think of it.

 

[Alice28]

Welcome back lissawynn! Tell me- was the menu the same at 'Ohana? I read a rumor they were going to change the rice & wontons...sounds like you had fun except for all the sweating!