The Official New Mom Thread

[Hillbeans]

Hi -

Below is my christmas card pic of the kids....I had pictures done at Picture People last month, but the baby looks so much different now I wanted to take a homemade picture for my cards. It was next to impossible getting a good picture of the two of them smiling, so I settled for the better picture of my older son who at times can make terrible faces while taking pictures.

 

[nucpharm29]

Morning all! Well, we had an interesting night. Sometime last night our furnace decided to stop working! In Northeastern Wisconsin with no heat, imagine. I can't believe it! So now we're in our house freezing! So, now we get to sit at home all day today and wait for the heating people. I've got the kids bundled up like we're going to go out and play in the snow. Luckily, we have a gas fireplace that I've got on full-blast. Maybe it will warm up in here to a balmy 65 degrees! And to top that off, we have to take our van into the shop tomorrow. Wouldn't you know, a week and a half before our Christmas drive to my parents (15hrs), our van starts to make a weird noise. When it rains it pours!!

Hope everyone else's week starts out better than ours. I'm jealous of all of you who can get pics taken at Target. I'm at Target at least twice a week, but we don't have a photo studio. Oh well! I guess I just have to wait for another coupon from Picture People.

 

[lissawynn]

Good morning everyone! My computer has been acting strange for the last several days. It's been much slower than normal. I don't know if it's the weather (snow and ice) or what the problem is.

tykes - Love the trees! I SO wish I had a dining room! I am jealous. I also love the wreaths you have on your windows.

Hillbeans - Cute picture!

joats - I have to clean up the boxes, etc. immediately or I got nutty. My house is too small to be cluttered. I am storing all of my wrapped gifts in Jimmy's room and it's getting out of control. Thankfully, I am done my shopping so there won't be any more things in there.

nucpharm29 - I hope you get your furnance fixed soon! I ran out of oil once when I lived my grandmother's house, and boy, did it get cold. Also, I had no hot water to shower, so I took a cold one. I can see how that would calm a hot and bothered man down!

Jimmy is still refusing to sleep. He has now mastered the art of smushing down the bumper in his crib and getting his face smooshed against the slots. I am a tired mommy this morning.

Here's a new pic of Jimmy in his red jammies and the had we got from DisKim in his gift exchange. I love taking his picture!

 

[tkyes]

Good luck with your pictures 2sweetangels!

That's a cute picture Hillary. I love the belly showing!

nucpharm - brrrr!!! I feel for you! Hopefully the furnace guy comes quickly. I hope your car repair bills are minor too.

lisawynn - what a cute picture of jimmy. That's so funny.

Tamie

 

[Tasha+Scott]

Good morning all! I hope all of you are well! I just finished catching up with this thread but I really can't remember all I read enough to reply to everything! This thread really moves and it is hard to catch up if you miss a few days!

I love all the new pictures! All the babies on this thread are too adorable. The trees are gorgeous (I will try to take some pictures of my tree this weekend hopefully!) and I love the Christmas card pics!

Alice~ I am so excited for you that your dh will be home in less than a month! I couldn't imagine being separated from dh for as long as you have! We'll have a cyber party when he returns!

Well, dh's toe surgery has been rescheduled for January 13. The secretary who made his appt. was simply filling in for the regular secretary and made his appt. for a Thurs. and they only do surgery on Tues. and Fri. so they had to reschedule him! I'll be glad when we are done with all of this!

We went and visited with the inlaws yesterday and actually had a nice time. Kylie was fine around Scott's mom and dad yesterday so there was a huge improvement. I am so relieved! It helped that his mom bought some toys to let Kylie play with at her house. She had so much fun playing with them. Yesterday was also my mom's b-day. There are so many b-days this week. My best friend's b-day was the 8th, my mom's was the 11th, my best friend from high school is the 14th, and my nephew is the 17th!

We discovered I had a flat tire Saturday night. It is leaking air from the rim or something. Scott and his dad were able to temporarily fix it and Scott is taking it to be fixed this afternoon. The rest of the holidays are going to be busy ones for us so don't be surprised if I don't post as much after today until the holidays are over! Friday night Kylie and I (and dh if he gets home from work in time) are going to my nephew's 5th b-day party. Saturday I am hosting Christmas for my mom, stepdad, and brothers at our house...I think. My mom is supposed to call later and let me know if they are definitely coming. I think they are but if they don't then we will just go to their house on Christmas Eve I guess. Anyway, Sunday we are going with my best friend her dh, and their little boy to try out their church. We are "shopping" for a new church. We used to have one but decided it was not the place for us so we left. Then, Tues. (the 20th) we have a family reunion for Dh's grandmother's side of the family. Not sure what else is going on that week yet. And of course then there is Christmas and 2 get-togethers. We are not having 3 this year since we invited my family to my house. That will be nice not driving all over NE MS for get-togethers! Anyway, so you can see my holidays are full!

Well, I hope all of you are well! I am glad everyone has received their exchange gifts! It was a lot of fun! If I don't post before Christmas then Merry Christmas everyone! Have a wonderful, safe Holiday and God bless!

Giving this a little bump before I go...

Katelyn (dd to 2sweetangels)~ January 17, 2004
Jimmy (ds to lissawynn)~ January 24, 2005
Allie (dd to becka)~ January 24, 2005
Madison (dd to justhat)~ February 26, 2004
Molly (dd to Alice28)~ March 8, 2005
Russ (ds to katerkat)~ March 16, 2005
Anna (dd to DisneyPhD)~ March 29, 2001
Aidan (ds to DisKim)~ April 18, 2005
Tyler (ds to tkyes)~ April 26, 2005
Kylie (dd to Tasha+Scott)~ May 5, 2005
Jace (ds to joats)~ June 17, 2005
Lucas (ds to Strawberry Lemonade)~ June 20, 2005
Lucas (ds to Minnesota!)~ June 22, 2004
Bryce (ds to AngieWin)~ June 26, 2003
Lily (dd to gwcollins71)~ June 29, 2005
Katrina (dd to vald1977)~ July 12, 2005
Eli (ds to JennLynn)~ July 24, 2005
Aidan (ds to bellacam)~ August 1, 2005
Lily (dd to DisneyPhD)~ August 3, 2004
Noah (ds to AngieWin)~ August 12, 2005
Hayley (dd to 2sweetangels)~ August 16, 2005
Jacob (ds to laurajetter)~ August 24, 2005
Cameryn (dd to zalansky)~ September 10, 2005
Liam (ds to Hillbeans)~ September 23, 2005
Shelby (dd to T16GEM)~ October 21, 2005
Sebastian (ds to Disney Enthusiast)~ October 21, 2005
John Paul (ds to llij)~ October 27, 2005
Matthew (ds to nucpharm29)~ November 7, 2005
Dean Alan (ds to cabmom)~ November 14, 2005
Benjamin Alexander (ds to Daydreamer64)~ November 30, 2005

 

[vald1977]

Good morning,
Nucpharm,
I hope they come to fix the furnace soon .

Hillbeans and Lisawynn,
Love the pictures! I swear all our kids are gorgeous .

Tamie,
Lovely decoration pics. I love the dining room table. We have a small dining room so no room for a big table just a six seater.

2sweetangels,
I hope the phot shoot goes well.

I am hosting my sorority Christmas party tomorrow and I am going to attempt to make a cake today. If any of you get Family Fun it's the tree cake with the presents under it. If it turns out I'll post a pic of it later.

Well, Katie is crying so I guess I better go.

 

[Alice28]

Tamie- I love your holiday pics too! I had to whip around and look at my dining chairs after seeing yours cause they are VERY similar! Except my dining set is shoved in a corner of our kitchen. We don't have a 'dining' room either- we have this weird room off our kitchen that we originally used as a dining area, but I would call it more of a parlour- it's really kind of just a hallway that's wide enough to be a 'room.'

ANYWAY- Jimmy is a HAPPY boy! What a cute picture! We DO all have beautiful babies, I swear!

Nucpharm- oh man, I hope the repairman comes super soon! How horrible! And I hope nothing is wrong with your van.

Have to share a story- two Januarys ago, Portland had a severe ice storm. We managed to get around with our trusty Subaru, but most people could not. Then our power went out and it was so cold in the house....we don't have a fireplace (WTH- our house is 108 years old and we have a chimney----I guess someone took it out at some point)....THEN the kids got sick....both of em....throwing up and diarrhea...oh my god, it was the worst night of my life! They weren't making it to the bathroom....etc. We finally decide to get in the car and head to my parent's cause even if their power was out they have a woodstove...right when we load in the car the power comes on. And I was SO SCARED to walk outside with my crappy knee and all- so afraid of slipping and dislocating it. Now it's one of those memories that I can look back on and laugh about, but man.....sitting in freezing weather with no heat IS NO FUN and I feel for you Nucpharm!

Tasha- good to see you! I'm glad you had a friendly visit with the inlaws and I hope your DH gets that toe fixed ASAP. Ingrown toenails hurt!

Love the pic Hillbeans! Very sweet!

I know what you mean about small houses lissawynn- that's why I have to do all the wrapping, etc in the basement. Otherwise I would go insane. I'm dreading Christmas morning with ALL the paper, boxes, toys, etc. Yikes. We have about 1500 square feet and it's still managable IF I keep everything orderly. Like I mentioned before I think, we want to finish the basement into some sort of a family room in the next 2-3 years & that would add at least 300 more sq feet and make this house very doable. We have sort of gotten priced out of the market for now- we bought our house for 125K 9 years ago. Now it's probably worth 200+K, so I looked online to see what kind of houses are going for around the 230K mark---same size as we already own! To get something around the 2000sq ft size, we would have to spend about 300K and we can't do that on DH's salary alone and I don't want to go back to work for quite some time. C'est la vie! I'm happy with what we have- we're pretty lucky compared to most is how I try and see it....my neighbors are moving though and I'm so bummed. They are our favorite neighbors, friends really, and they put an offer on a house in a neighboring suburb. Wah.

Geez, I'm so good at running my mouth off....yesterday I was just so wanting to talk to DH about the neighbors- I hate not being able to pick up the phone and yack with him. He's doing 14 hour days right now with the upcoming elections. I'm a little nervous about it, but trying not to worry.

Hope everyone has a great day!

 

[llij]

Hi Everyone!

I hope everyone is doing well! I love all the pictures of trees and all the cute babies. What a bunch of cuties!

I've been trying to keep up with this thread, but ended up getting way behind so I apologize! It moves too fast for me to keep up with everything. I'm sorry that I haven't posted more.

I'm starting to get in panic mode here as John Paul's Baptism is on Sunday and I will have a whole household of company to prepare for in addition to Christmas. What was I thinking? I think I lost my marbles when I scheduled his Baptism for the week before Christmas. Eeek! I'm trying to get all the Christmas shopping done and presents wrapped before my MIL comes on Friday. I usually use the guestroom as my hiding/wrapping place but I can't now so I am trying to clear the room for her.

I'm also trying to figure out what would be good to serve everyone after the Baptism. It will be finger foods, but I am looking for ideas. Any suggestions?

John Paul is doing pretty well. He is now up to 7 1/2 lbs. so we are going to take him off the Neosure formula (preemie formula) and put him back on regular formula. He has also decided that he wants to be fussy every evening for a few hours and I think it may be b/c the formula is making the poor little guy constipated. I hope switching him back will help. My oldest DD did this as well. Overall, he is a great baby though. He is much more into being "snuggled" than the girls but I don't mind b/c he is my last baby.

Alice28 - I just wanted to say "congratulations" about your DH coming home soon! You must be so thrilled! I am very excited for you all!

Again, I apologize for not responding to everyone. I do read everyone's replies, I just have been bad at responding. I will try to do a better job keeping up with this thread.

Take care everyone and have a great day!

 

[Hillbeans]

LLIJ - Although I think you'll be super busy with the baptism coming up this weekend, being the Roman Catholic that I am I still like the idea of being baptized as a tiny baby. We just went to Baptism class on Saturday (we had to attend again since it was 4 years since we went last) and ours will be at the end of next month.

Honestly, for the food, you can't go wrong with a spiral ham and some rolls. The ham is sliced and cooked already, and people can help themselves because it's ready to serve. You could also make a ziti - it's easy to make and doesn't cost much either.

Hope everyone's doing well!

O/T - Does anyone here use Enfamil A.R.? I've got a coupon for $6.50 off, but it's only on this ome kind of Enfamil with the added rice. I'll happily give it to the first person who wants it/PM's. Thanks.

 

[tkyes]

I guess I don't really have a "dining room" either. It's attached to our kitchen and leads into the living room. It's all very open. It's only a 6 seater table too. We did get a bench that goes with it so we can squeeze a couple of extra people at it.

I don't think anyone needs to apologize for not keeping up with this thread. We have have little ones that keep us pretty darn busy. Just post what and when you can and let us know what's going on in your lives. I don't think anyone takes offense if everyone doesn't respond to their question or story.

I think we are going with the warm mist humidifier. The biggest difference is the safety issue of getting burned and Tyler's is only on at night and it's away from his crib.

There is no good tv on tonight. I guess that means I could clean my bathrooms huh? how boring!!

Tamie

 

[joats]

Hey Ladies.
Love all the pics of the cutie pies and that everyone is sharing their holiday photos. Really puts me in the spirit. DH says he will add new pics to my sig. The one of Jace in his overalls is the one I am using for our Christmas cards. The card itself is dark green - I think it looks nice. I'm going with the color photo after all (although I'm usually more a fan of B&W).

Jace is finally eating his solids without sucking on his thumb between bites. Two days in a row of clean hands - YIPPEE! He had a hard time with carrots though. I stopped them as he tended to spit up a lot and that stuff stains everything!! ICK! I'm glad he's finally getting into it.

Jill: For Jace's Baptism, we ordered platters of stuff from Stop and Shop. Do whatever is easiest. It is stressful no matter what.
Tykes: We have both a cool mist and a warm mist. I used the warm mist when Jace had the croup. I prefer it, but it was making the walls damp and streaked so I bought a cool mist and so far no problems.
Nucpharm: Hope you are warm soon!!
T&S: You sure have a busy schedule. Thank you for always posting the baby roster.
Alice: Sending positive thoughts out to your DH and his troops.

I'm starting to get stressed out with all the family commitments over Dec/Jan. I feel like there is stuff with family almost every other weekend if not more. Maybe I'm just selfish, but I feel like DH and I have such limited time with Jace and to keep afloat housewise. I like to have the majority of my weekends free - one day to do errands, etc and the other to just enjoy the day with our son. I'm starting to get resentful of all these upcoming events.

Well, off to do my nightly routine and get to bed.
Have a good one!

 

[lissawynn]

Hi moms. I am eating my "brain junk food" and watching the Gauntlet on MTV. I just spent the last 2 hours getting caught up on my grading and updating my grades on my website. I am pooped. My right wrist is also giving me some trouble tonight. I broke both of my wrists at the same time when I was 9. I fell off the top of a sliding board at school. They were broken pretty badly and I needed surgery to fix them. They get achey sometimes; I think it's all the typing.

Loving all the tree and baby photos. I can't believe how big all of our babies have gotten since we started this thread.

I also noticed I can see Jimmy's tooth in his pic. I am very proud that we finally have a tooth!
Jimmy has found a love for grilled cheese and real bananas. At least he's eating!

Jill - For Jimmy's baptism, we had three or four kinds of cakes and coffee and punch. We were going to have a dinner, but things got really complicated and expensive, so we didn't do it. I am happy with what we did, but a small dinner with just the godparents would have been nice, too.

I am tired mamas. I'm shutting down and going to bed. Night all!

 

[justhat]

Okay, I finally got our card done so I'm posting it. We're actually just taping this photo to the inside of a real card cause we already had the cards from last year. One of our Hallmark stores closed down last January and they had stuff on 90% sale so I stocked up. I got a musical sutffed Santa for 99 cents! Anyway, here's the photo.

I have more to add, but I'm so tired I need to go to bed so it will have to wait till tomorrow. Night ladies!

Ugh, I just realized you can see our tree in one of those photos. I mean, I did that intentionally for the card, but didn't want to embarass myself by posting it here after seeing all of your beautiful trees. Oh well, it's already done. Well, there it is, card and tree all in one!

 

[Strawberry Lemonade]

Hillbeans, lissawynn, joats, and Justhat - great pictures!

llij - Good luck with the baptism. We served pasta and salad after Lucas's - but it was 1:00 in the afternoon and DH comes from a large Italian family. My sister just baptised her DSes and had a brunch afterward with scrambled eggs, French toast casserole, coffee cake, muffins, and bacon & sausage. She and my mom made everything but the eggs the day before.

lissawynn - Congrats on Jimmy's tooth!

nucpharm - Hope your heat got fixed. We're in single digits here this morning.

Tasha - enjoy your holiday!

Alice28 - Don't you just love looking seeing those house prices? By the time we're ready to sell our tiny 2 bedroom ranch, we'll probably only be able to afford a tiny 2 bedroom ranch.

Thursday night is DH's company Christmas party. They open up an entire banquet facility (the Aquaturf for you locals) for us. Free food, drinks, and entertainment. It's a pretty good time. Lucas will be staying with my parents that night since he'll be at their house on Friday anyway. Last year I was pg and spent most of the time sitting down resting, then we left early. I'm sure it'll be more fun this year.

 

[T16GEM]

Hi all!

Ok I have tried to keep up, and have back tracked a bit to see what everyones's been up to - I took notes! so that I would remember who was doing what!

Tasha- A flat tyre is a nightmare especially when you have a little one to contend with as well.

Hillbeans - I love your Christmas picture!

Lissawynn - Jimmy looks so cute in his Pjs! Shelby has a Santa hat like his too, I am looking forward to Christmas day so that she can wear it!

llij- Poor John Paul, constipation is no fun, are you allowed to supplement him with any water to help? I have been doing that with Shelby and she has been ok so far - but I am keeping my fingers crossed

Joats - How old was Jace when you started him on solids? He is doing well!

Alice - Congrats on your DH coming home I can't begin to imagine how excite dyou must be!

Diskim - Storybook land sounds like such fun!

Tykes,- What a beutiful house! I love your decorations!

Sorry if I missed anyone out

Well Shelby is doing good, she only put on 1.5oz this week which was strange as she usually puts on 9 oz or more but we were told not to worry, we will have to keep an eye on it if her increases aren't consistant. I have stopped breast feeding her now and she is just on formula - I have started using the hungry baby formula at night so that she sleeps for a bit longer - she takes over 60z now!! A lot for a little girl! She weighs 10lbs 1.5 oz now and is nice and chunky to get a hold of!

We went to the doctor today for her first set of immunisations - I was not looking forward to it , anyway we got there and the nurse said that she couldn't do them as Shelby isn't 8 weeks yet she is 7 +3 days, so we have to go back next week for them - annoying as DH is working next week and he was off today to take us. I was also annoyed as the receptionist was told when she booked the appointment how old she was, I guess it's better than having the shots though and them something going wrong, I just wish that they would train the staff a bit better!

[/IMG]

This is our new snowman - we have him in our back garden - his is about 8ft tall - we got him from Costco in the UK

[/IMG]

This is our tree in the dark!

[/IMG]

And again in the light! I haven't got my fairy on the tree as it keeps falling off and need to get another one thats a bit lighter!

 

[nucpharm29]

Well, we had a much warmer night last night. The heat guy came ON TIME (can you believe it?) and and the problem fixed w/in an hour. Something about air blowing in the wrong place, don't ask me--I just paid the bill. They get away with charging whatever they want for repairs, don't they? It's highway robbery. Oh well, I guess it's a small price to pay to be warm and toasty. Now, we just have to see what our car repairs are going to cost. I sure hope it's covered under warranty.

We're heading out this am to make Christmas cookies with one of DD friends. I have a cookie exchange on Thurs. so her friend's mom thought that we could do cookies together so one of us could watch the kids while the other baked. I'm sure it will turn into mass chaos anyway. Oh well!

Justhat--great xmas card. Don't worry about the tree--I think it's cute. Last year we didn't want to put up our tree b/c DD had just learned to walk, so my mom bought her a stuffed tree from Hallmark. That was our tree last year.

Have a great day everyone!

 

[nucpharm29]

Hey ladies-sorry this didn't make it in my last post. But I have 2 $1 Enfamil (and kind) coupons and 1 $5 coupon that expire at the end of December. I won't be using them, so if anyone wants them send me a pm and I'll send them out asap!

 

[tkyes]

I have a child who is supposed to be napping right now, but I hear him crying. sigh - I'll make this quick.

joats - I hear ya on the Christmas stuff. It gets pretty crazy.

nucpharm - glad to hear you are all warm and toasty again!

t16gem - We had a similar issue with Tyler's flu shots. We had to go back a few days later because he was 2 days shy of 6 months. Good luck with the shots.

llij - good luck with the baptism. You are a little crazy! lol I'm sure everything will be great.

sl - have fun at the Christmas party. Tonight is Dh's work one. I was pregnant at last years too. I get to have a drink and ceaser salad this year!

justhat - great cards! I love them. Your tree looks cute! Don't be embarrassed.

have a good day.

Tamie

 

[Strawberry Lemonade]

I just got back from the store, and now I want to talk about carseats.

Lucas is just about at that 20 lb point so I guess we'll have to retire the carrier and base and install a convertible car seat. I got one for my shower, but we have 2 cars and I'll also need to buy one for my mom's car since she watches him 3 days a week while I'm at work.

Any recommendations or words of advice? The one I have is a Britax and will be installed in the car we use most often. I'm not looking for top of the line for the other two, but I of course want Lucas to be as safe as possible. Any suggestions would be more than welcome.

 

[nucpharm29]

SL-we really like the Evenflo Triumph (I think that's right-I'll check in a minute.) It's the convertible type, rear and forward facing. It sort of looks like a throne. DD is very comfortable in it, and has been for awhile. It wasn't really cheap, but we got a great deal by shopping around on-line.