The Official New Mom Thread

[vald1977]

Hello everyone,
Robin,
Welcome home. I think you're entitled to a pj day after vacation . I'm sending an extra prayer your Dh's way.

Loretta,
Welcome and Congratulations on the birth of your daughter .

Tamie,
I hope DH is doing well after his surgery.

Bridgette,
That picture of Aidan is great ! Thanks for sharing it.

Disney Phd,
I'm so happy that Lily is doing so well. Sleep is a wonderful thing isn't it ?

Lisawynn,
I hope you got some extra zzz's over the weekend.

Joats,
Hang in there .

Tasha,
That's too cute that Kylie drew a crowd at Toys R Us . I'm glad you all had fun at your reunion.

We have had a tough couple of weeks here. Katrina has decided she doesn't like to sleep at night anymore. Most nights I am lucky to get 4 hours of sleep. It's making it hard to concentrate on anything else which is why I've been MIA from the boards. I'm also forgetting all kinds of things including an appt. we had at the school and my mother's Birthday . I felt terrible about that last one. Other than the sleep issue she is the happiest little baby. I'm hoping she just having a growth spurt and will be back to sleeping 8-10 hours a night again soon.

I am also starting to search for a part time job. As much as I hate to do it, baby-sitting isn't paying the bills. I just hope I can find something that gels well with Dh's schedule and can cause as little disruption as possible. He works 3rd shift and sleeps during the day so at least he will be here with the kids and I won't need a sitter but he also needs to sleep.

I hope everyone is having a nice weekend .

 

[joats]

Alice28: Welcome back! Hope you feel better after your PJ day. Yes,there is nothing better than WL. We had our honeymoon there too.
Bridget: What a cutie Aidan is! Sweet little Sox fan (must be why they won today)
DisneyPhD: Glad Lily is doing well. Congrats on the weight loss!
Tasha: Glad you enjoyed the reunion. I can't wait until Jace is old enough for an exersaucer - they look like such fun!
Valerie: I'm so sorry Katrina is not sleeping well. I hope that your mom understood your sleep deprived memory loss and that Katrina gets back to night sleeping soon.

Not much new to report. Just thankful things are going well (Jace is such a happy little boy) and dreading starting back to work on friday.

Hope you all had a nice weekend.

 

[Tasha+Scott]

Sorry your Dh isn't home yet, Alice! I was hoping he was. I hope things seem better soon and hopefully these next few months will just fly by!

vald~ I hope Katrina gets back on track w/her sleeping soon and I am sorry you need a part time job! Good luck! I hope you find one that you like and works with you and your dh's schedule!

joats~ I hope things will get easier w/the whole daycare situation once you get used to being back to work. I know it can't be easy!

Well, just thought I'd share some photos of the class reunion. Don't know how well the group ones will show up but I'll try to post them. Here goes:

This is the group shot. The man in the 2nd chair (w/glasses-he's holding Kylie) is my dh.

This is Kathy and Paris (the only other girl born in the class!)

A shot of Brandon. Look at all the hair and he has already had a haircut!

Adam and Jake (Jake's mommy is holding Adam and Adam's mommy is holding Jake)

Kylie and Adam flirting with eachother!

 

[Tasha+Scott]

And here are a few of Kylie's 5 month photos. I took them a couple days early but I was trying to use up the rest of the roll of film:

This is Kylie and...ME!

She rolled on her stomach and was playing and I snapped it when her eyes were closed on accident but still thought it was cute!

 

[Strawberry Lemonade]

Hope everyone had a good weekend!

Tasha - Love your reunion pics. It's easy to see where Kylie gets her good looks!

Bellacam - Aiden is such a cutie! (Even though he's in Red Sox gear.)

Alice28 - Prayers for your DH.

Vald - Hope Katrina decides to let you get some rest soon.

Joats - Good luck with the work situation. I'm in my second week and it's definitely easier than last week. I know I need to work, especially if we're going to take that Disney vacation next year.

We had such a busy weekend. My hometown had it's annual fair and we went for the day on Saturday. I had entered a photo of Lucas and it won third prize! The only problem I had was that they put it sideways. I got a nice ribbon and $6 though!

Yesterday, Lucas spent the day and night with his grandparents (my parents) while DH and I went to NYC for a movie premiere. DH works for a Disney-owned company so we were invited to see Cinderella at the Ziegfeld theatre and attend a reception ball at the Waldorf-Astoria afterwards since the movie is being released on DVD. It was amazing. We saw a few celebrities, not exactly A-list, but it was exiting anyway: Star Jones, Molly Shannon, and Woody Allen's wife. We got to walk the red carpet although no one took any pictures of us. I was really worried about what to wear because they first told us to dress "daytime formal" but then they amended that to say "business casual" so I wore black cropped pants, black boots, and a green tank top with lace trim. There were actually people in tuxedos and ball gowns, but they were definitely in the minority. The kids were adorable - they were asked to dress like princes and princesses. We had a great time.

 

[lissawynn]

Hey moms! Hope everyone had a nice weekend. I finally scrubbed the kitchen floor and used the carpet scrubber to clean our living room. The stuff that comes out of the carpet is just gross. I really want new carpet (something darker with Scotchguard) and think DH is going to relent one of these days, especially if we stay in our house.

Alice28 - It sounds as if you had a good trip. My nephew sounds like your son. He's got a one track mind. He gets something in his head and that's all you hear about. With him it was getting a pirate sword. He already has a bunch of them, but we had to get one. It was all he talked about after we left the PotC gift shop.
As far as the lady in your church, I can understand why you'd be ticked off at her. Do you watch Desperate Housewives? She sounds as if she acted like Bree's MIL. All she did was whine to everyone how her son had died, while Bree is there trying to keep it together. Squeeky wheel anyone?
Floor cleaner - Last year my DS and I bought our mom the Flip It (not sure if it's a Hoover or a Bissel) to scrub her hardwood and tile. I can't tell you how well it works b/c she still hasn't used it.
I, too, have promised DH LOTS of adult "fun" if he'd sign on for a Disney trip next year. I'm going to order the cruise dvd and see if that will work. If not, he'll take a regular WDW trip. I won't travel there w/o him. It's just too much with a baby. We'll probably be staying at WL, too. DH and I honeymooded there, and I've stayed there on my last two trips. As much as I want to stay at the Poly or Beach Club, I just like WL too much to go anywhere else.

Tasha+Scott - Kylie is such a cutie pie! Have you considered buying an exersaucer at a consignment shop? You can find great stuff there at really good prices.

bellacam - Your Aidan is a doll! At my house we root for the Yankees, and I'm surprised no one has bought Jimmy any Yankees stuff yet.

SL - That's so neat that you were invited to the Cinderella party. That is my favorite Disney movie and I know I will have it soon.

 

[ahutton]

Hi everyone, so great to see all is going well. These kids are growing up so fast!

Alice28 - I am brain-fried - is it your oldest that was having trouble with change, or things not being exactly as expected? I've had a lot of trouble with my oldest DD lately, she is 5 and just started K at the school DH works at. She gets an idea in her head that something specific is going to happen, usually based on what has happened before, and if it isn't exactly the same she just falls apart and is out of control. We've also had a few total meltdowns in stores if she sees something and I say no. There is a grocery store in town that will never forget the saga of the Polly Pockets. I am hoping it is just stress of change and an age related thing. Is your DS in that same age range? Or maybe a first born?

Michael is doing very well. He can (or should I say will) finally hold his own bottle. He has his 9 month check this afternoon so we'll see if I'm going to go buy a new carseat tonight. I expect I will be, he is HUGE! I do need to ask about his bottom teeth though. He got his first two, then got four on top but no other bottom ones. And the two center ones have what looks like a stain on them, but I'm not sure from what. We brush his teeth with that finger brush thing, just like we did with the girls and they never had this happen. Anyone know of something that might cause that? I had always heard that it is rare they have tooth decay, and we brush every evening.

 

[Alice28]

ahutton- no, it's my middle one who is the pain in the butt! He's 4. He's been this way practically since day 1 (he did have lots of needle pokes though---I something wonder if because he was in the nicu for 1 day and was poked with a needle umpteen times (blood sugars out of whack cause he was over 11#s) if that made him crabby ). He is NO flexible, go with the flow younger child and now middle child. I did a whole term paper on birth order in college and he does NOT fit the bill..my oldest is SO easy going, will try anything just about (well, some foods he mades a gag face at). I don't know what his deal is; an oddball I guess cause both DH and I are pretty easy going and were not such strongwilled children; not at that age anyway. He is as funny as heck....my little imp.

Lady at church- I did watch Desperate Housewives last night and yes, that kind of is what this lady is like. But she's just odd to me; like I said, she knows a lot of people in this church, she's very pretty/trim, seems to have it all together, incl her faith and the things she has told me. I don't want to be a gossip, but I just don't get her; have heard her go on and on about how she just lost her faith in God for awhile, was so angry with God for taking her husband from her...um, excuse me, if your DH is in any form of the military during war time, you better count on him going somewhere! And then she was asking me all these personal questions about how I cope with no sex, how she has used alcohol more than she should to cope, etc. And yet she's being put on a bit of a pedastal at church & it just BUGS me. She doesn't email me anymore cause she asked me how I cope and I said, "It's not like we're the first to go through this; think of how many women have dealt with their husband's going to war throughout the history of our country....and how at least we have email and phones, etc...we actually have it ok! I have a roof over my head, money in the bank & my health....that's a hell of a lot more than most people in this world have, so I'm not going to complain." She never wrote back after that. Whatever. I mean I did tell her, yes, I miss my husband like crazy and I hate being apart for so long- I'm not emotionless..

 

[Alice28]

Tasha- I meant to add that you and Kylie look fantastic! Thanks for sharing!

 

[DisKim]

Alice 28 - I'm glad to hear you had a pretty good time. Lots of kids have meltdowns in WDW. I don't like other people disciplining my kids either. It makes me uncomfortable. I can totally empathize with you. I can't believe it is still so hot. It sounds like the weather I had in August.

Bellacam - What a cutie your Aiden is! My Aidan has a round belly just like his. I love that. It's so cute!

Tasha - What great pictures. Your reunion sounds so cool.

I've been so busy, I hardly get on the boards anymore. Actually, I'm procrastinating right now. I have to make up a test for my honors class. I hope everyone is doing well!

 

[gwcollins71]

Hi everyone.

I’m sitting here at the University waiting for my class to start in an hour and a half so I’ll Dis. It really stinks having to wait here for so long but if I don’t leave work right away at 3 p.m. I get stuck in rush hour traffic and my commute goes from 1hr, 15 minutes to over 2 sometimes 2 ½ hours.

We went to Applefest in Long Grove (a suburb about an hour north of Chicago)this weekend with Mike’s family. We visited some of the cutesy stores but left earlier than we planned. It was unseasonably warm and SOOOOO crowded. We ended up leaving Lily’s stroller in the car and I wore her in the sling or Mike carried her.

I feel like I have to beg him to hold her. He loves to hold her when we go out. He is really the best Dad. I was kind of worried. He has a son from way before we met that he has almost nothing to do with other than pay support (issues with the ex) and we’ve fought about how he doesn’t spend time with his son for seven years. I was a little worried that he was gonna leave all the baby stuff to me once she arrived and he totally is a hands on dad. He is even good with the cloth diapers. I think I feel worse for his son now because Mike is such a good Dad to Lily.

I officially finished BFing this past week. I’m a little sad. Lily would suck for a minute or two and then almost nothing else would come out. She would start screaming and fussing. I feel like I really had to struggle with the whole BF thing from the very beginning. I hope if we do this again, I’ll manage better. From the very beginning, she was supplementing per doctor’s orders and my milk supply never quite caught up.

However, we still get “our” time. She doesn’t want her night bottle from Daddy. I have to give it to her. However, I guess it’s fair. She doesn’t want me to rock her afterwards, just Daddy. That makes Monday nights tough for Mike. I don’t get home till a little after 11 p.m. and she’s already asleep. Mike says she is fussy every Monday. Talk about an ego trip? HA HA

Robin -- I’m glad your vacation was nice. It’s normal for kids to have meltdowns on vacation. Things aren’t normal. That doesn’t mean that they are terrible, just not normal. It cracks me up. I have a daily meltdown at least once a day when we’re at Disney. It drives Mike crazy. Between the heat and if any little thing goes wrong I just start crying. At least your son has an excuse. He’s a little boy. What’s my excuse? I’m just a dork.

I think about you and your family every night when I watch the news. We are very lucky to have men (and women) like your husband to protect our families. When my husband goes away for a week or two for work I can barely manage and that was before Lily. He would ask me what would I do if he was in the service like my brother in law and I tell him I couldn’t have married him. You are a much stronger woman than I.

I’m sticking pins in a voo doo doll of the major’s wife for you. You say she’s a pain in the butt . . . Guess where I'm sticking the first pin?

Loretta— Congratulations on your little . Camaryn is a beautiful name. Please forgive me if I spelled it wrong. I am glad you are all doing well. How does it feel to have a girl?

Bridget – Aiden has gotten so big! I love his red sox outfit. I have two Cubs outfits for Lily to wear but Daddy has threatened to destroy them. I am a Cubs fan and he is a White Sox fan. Both our families are mixed also so its always a fun time during baseball season. However, I dress her and I refuse to put her in a White Sox outfit, which is really no big deal since none of the White Sox family members bought her one. Hmmm, I guess they’re all just cheaper than the Cubs fans.

Dis Phd -- Yeah, Lily is sleeping more! I know I am happy as a fish in water when our Lily sleeps through the night. It still only happens about once a week or so. It has got to be really hard giving up eggs and dairy. I think I would die without cheese. It is my absolute favorite food. I am not allergic to anything, but hubby is allergic to chicken and all forms of poultry so I only get to eat it when we go out.

Lisawynn & DisKim --
I haven’t heard any new stuff about work lately. I hope everything is going well.

Tamie – I hope hubby is resting and recuperating after his surgery.

Tasha -- Lily loves her Exersaucer. The sitter had her in it at 2 ½ months. She’s been holding her head up since she was like 3 ½ weeks so I didn’t worry about it. The sitter rolled a blanket and put it around her. Her feet couldn’t touch the bottom but she would grab and move her seat so she could play with the toys. We have the Evenflo one. It’s about 50 bucks give or take. Lily’s feet can barely reach the bottom now but she loves it, especially this little monkey jeep on it that plays songs.

Oh yeah, both you and your hubby are cuties. No wonder Kylie is such a doll.

Valerie – I am sorry that you are getting sleep deprived again. UGH! I think that’s the worst thing about the baby is that I am always tired. Even if she sleeps the whole night, I wake up when she would normally wake up and then have a hard time going back to sleep.

Money is tight for us right now too. Our mortgage payment went up. The bank underestimated our property taxes so we have to pay extra to make up for it. That jumped our mortgage payment by almost 300$ a month. We are trying to refinance now.

I’m also thinking about trying the whole Independent Contractor thing for Leaving Prints. The start up is $30. I figured the worst that will happen is I’ll get stuck with some extra scrapbooking supplies. OH NO!! Does anyone have any suggestions, ideas?

Joats -- It took a little while bit I’m ok with Lily being in daycare now. Actually, I didn’t go to class last week b/c I had a ton of stuff to do for mid-quarter grades for work. I left her at the sitters until hubby came home and had 2 hours by myself after work to do stuff. I felt so guilty, but it was such a productive time. It gets really hard to type with her in the baby bjorn. Her little round butt is in the way.

I think it was easier because we gradually worked up to full time day care. When she was 2 weeks old, I had to spend a day at a workshop and Mike’s parents watched her. The next week, I had two more workshops and they watched her one day and my girlfriend watched her one day. The same thing continued until I went back to work. When she finally went back full time I was like, bye, have fun. Call me if there’s a problem. I really like our sitter though. She’s the sister of one of the teachers I work with. I felt safe and comfortable with her family right away. It was good because we really didn’t have any back up plans if we didn’t like her.

SL – Wow, how cool, a papparazzi party. I miss those days. I used to work for a lawyer that was a big political fundraiser so I would get to go to all these fancy dinners. Oh the memories. I’m glad you and hubby had a good time.

All in all the week has been pretty good. I hope the weather starts getting cooler out here soon. I am sick of this too hot to wear fall clothes time. I love sweaters and right now they are the only thing that will fall loosely over my post baby body. I I’m going to sign up with WW for a week to get the points slider and then try it myself. I loved doing it online like I used to but I can barely get to the computer for anything anymore.

I hope everyone has a great week and I’ll try and visit again before the weekend.

Gretchen

P.S. We are going to hopefully get Lily’s 3 month pics done this week or next. She’s getting so big.

 

[Hillbeans]

Hi everyone,

I guess i'm now moving over to this thread from now on! My little Liam is now 11 days old, and he's doing wonderfully.

My MIL is visiting for the week to help out. The baby and our 4 yo son take up most to all of my time, so i've not been able to get on the computer much, but I wanted to check in and say hello to everyone and that i'm looking forward to speaking with all of you over the next few months!

 

[DisneyPhD]

Welcome Hillbeans, Liam is a cutie, you did good!!!!!

 

[Alice28]

Welcome Hillbeans and Liam! He's gorgeous!

Gretchen- WHOA! You certainly caught up! I'm glad your DH is so involved with Lily. I worry sometimes that DH will feel like an outsider with Molly. Hopefully that will only last the first few weeks he's home and then they'll be best of friends. And good job BFing for as long as you did.

I loved the pic of Aidan in his Red Sox outfit too- he's darling!

 

[joats]

Tasha: loved the pics from the reunion. I don't know how old you are, but you don't look any older than 18! Kylie certainly is getting bigger - what a cutie!
SL: Congrats on your photo prize! Your movie premiere sounds like it was exciting!
Lissawyn: You had a pretty productive weekend. Our carpets could use a good cleaning. I'd love new ones too!
ahutton: Curious to know how Michael's check up went.
Alice28: That lady at church sounds too annoying. I have to say I think that your outlook on things is really great but I hope that you get the support that you need also.
Gretchen: I'm a little sad too about the BF ending (I'm only nursing a night but my milk is dwindling). Congrats on making it this far with it. Glad to hear you still get your special night time with Lily.
Hillbeans: Congrats on baby Liam and welcome to the new mom's board. Liam is adorable!

Thanks everybody for being so supportive of my back to work woes. I feel like it's all I post about - sorry if I'm getting annoying! I know it will all work out, but I'm just sad.

Jace always had a bit of craddle cap (I call it cradle crap or cradle crud), but it's gotten really bad. The dr. says to wash his hair and leave the soap on for 10 minutes, then scrape the flakes away with a toothbrush and to do it every night. I'm hoping this works, as I've tried just about everything else (mineral oil, craddle crap kits, etc.)

DH is off work today - we are going to take Jace on a picnic in the park.
Have a good day.

 

[Alice28]

Joats- I know the daycare thing will improve over time. It's so hard being a mom- you feel guilty over everything! You will always be the sun in Jace's universe, working or not.

Oh, I am getting the support I need. In fact, after talking with this lady several times, I think I have had more physical support than she has; she just gets all the "ohhh....pooorrr Kate...." Get this- I was talking to her the last time I was at church, and some people I recognized from the worship team came up to her and asked how she was doing- she was smack in the middle of a conversation with me, but turned away, and said, "Oh.....we're doing ok....just hanging in there." If it were me, I would have said, "And this is my friend Robin- her husband is overseas too." But she just ignored me and I thought it was uber-tacky. I'm not one who needs attention like that, but I just thought it was rude.

My husband is on a rant about the whole radio station thing falling through and he emailed the DJ. He was kind about it, but told them, "I thought you might want to know everything fell through and my wife feels so badly about it, but is too embarrassed to ask you guys to do anything more...one guy promised us paint, painting the house for free and fixing our cracked ceilings and now he won't return her phone calls." We shall see if anything happens. My parents are coming this weekend to help me with some interior painting and DH's good friend and my dad are going to finally install some floor molding later this month I hope.

Did someone mention carpets? My upstairs ones, and the carpet on the stairs are DISGUSTING. I am going to rent a steamer before DH comes home for sure. We have talked about replacing it, but he just thinks it's a waste of money to do it before the kids get a bit older. Some 4 year old I know spilled blue kool aid on the stairs the other day....he is not supposed to take juice on the carpet, period, the little poop. We have Pergo all downstairs and it's the best.

I keep wanting to share my photos with you guys from WDW, but I'm hesitant to put my email here on the boards....if you want to see the "official" Disney Photo Pass pics, PM me. Warning: I am a hot sweaty mess in the pics with me in them! Yikes! I ordered a few, and now wish I had ordered one more...I guess I have a few more weeks to decide.

Hope you all have a great day!

 

[gwcollins71]

Welcome Hillbeans and baby Liam. Congratulations! I love that name. I wish we were Irish enough to use it. I have a little bit on my Dad's sad, but hubby is a German, Polish, Russian, Ukranian mutt.

All that said, Liam is handsome. I can't wait to see him grow up on the board. I love all the baby pics.

Gretchen

 

[bellacam]

Welcome Hillbeans and Baby Liam! I love his name!

Alice - That woman would drive me up a wall! I grew up military and remember alot of women like this. I remember asking my mom why so and so's mommy was so sad all the time. She would say "people miss their daddies in diffrent ways". My mom had 4 kids always seemed to have it together in front of us, anyway. I hope the deejay comes thru for you.

I tried "tummy time" with Aidan today. He like it for about 1 min then screamed! How do you guys do tummy time? does it get easier? He is still a liitle young and he does enjoy laying on my stomach and holding his head so I guess that counts too.

 

[Alice28]

I think babies just like tummy time more and more as they get older. Just let him do it for a minute or two at a time, a few times a day.

One more thing about the lady at church and then I will drop it....I think one other reason she has stopped emailing me is because her children are in counseling due to this whole ordeal; mine are not. My boys are just a-ok; I talk about daddy with them; they know where daddy is; they know daddy loves them; but I don't make a big deal about it. I guess she hasn't even been 100% honest with her kids about what it is daddy is doing- her 8 year old son overheard the newscaster refer to Afghanistan as a "war zone" and she told me he flipped- "WHY ARE THEY SAYING THAT! DADDY IS NOT IN A WAR!" I couldn't believe she and her husband weren't somewhat frank with their son before he left. We were with Sam; of course we reassured him daddy would do everything he could to stay safe, but that there were bad guys over there who don't like us. I hope I haven't made her feel badly about herself, but I can't help it if my kids have remained stable throughout this whole thing.

 

[Strawberry Lemonade]

Hillbeans - Congratulations to you and Liam! I love that name.

Alice28 - This church lady seems like a piece of work. Good luck with her. Hope you get the home improvement issues worked out too - I can't believe they left you hanging like that.

Joats - Hope Jace's cradle cap gets better. At least he isn't in any discomfort (at least that's what I heard). Poor guy. Hope you had a nice picnic - you had a great day for it.

Bellacam - Lucas still isn't crazy about tummy time. I try to do it once or twice a day and my mom, who watches him a few days a week, does it once. She said she can't take him crying through it. He's rolled over a few times and will prop himself up on his arms, but still HATES it. That picture in my signature was taken in a VERY rare moment! I guess it's just a matter of time.

Gwcollins71 - How funny that Lily's so particular about her bedtime bottle. Lucas is the same way - he only wants DH to put him to bed. Gives me a chance to clean up the kitchen...what fun!