The Official New Mom Thread

[Alice28]

Alice28,

I have a Gymboree question and I figured you were the one to ask.

Do you know if you can use the Gymbucks you receive online in the stores?

Yep -did it myself last Gymbuck time. Can you believe, that GASP, I may be sitting this Gymbuck session out? My kids just don't really need anything. So, unless Gramma wants to spring for some of those fishing t's for the boys, I am not going to buy anything. DH and I had "words" online about finances and I had a crying fit last night about it. It is REALLY hard when every single decision I make regarding the money, the kids, the house- EVERYTHING- if anything goes wrong, it is all on ME right now. I kind of blew through our money this month so I asked him to not debit anything til payday & he got a little snarky...basically I'm being very aggressive in paying off our credit cards and sometimes I don't budget well and leave myself short for the end of the month cause I made too large of a payment on the cards. Sigh.

Welcome baby Tyler! We're glad you could join us SeeDisney.

How cute that Kona is talking---Molly sometimes just screams too. I wonder if because she is a girl, if she will talk any earlier than the boys. They were late talkers- Sammy about 18 months (he could say a few words before then) and Josh was more like 2++. Now I can't get either of them to keep quiet.

I had a HORRIBLE day with the kids yesterday. Joshua just tries my patience like you wouldn't believe. I didn't handle it very well. Molly was fussy..then DH criticized me (and probably rightly so & I'm not being a martyr, I just can be a little short-sighted about budgeting) about the money,
it just was not a good scene. I called my mom up and then burst into tears. I'm going down there today after lunch to have some mom and dad time and get the boys out of my hair (they have a few acres of land to run around on, a barn, etc).

I also have friends who pushed and pushed their kids to train around 2 and they had accidents for years. My boys were both 3 1/2+, but when they decided they were going to finally do it, it was done. I mean, practically within 48 hours of them deciding to go on the potty, that was it- no more accidents, no more bed wetting. I'd rather save myself the stress and just let them do it on their own. Although, again, Josh really tried my patience...last October (he was 3 and a 1/3) he went pee and poop on the potty. But then he decided he didn't want to anymore! (he went poop once on the toilet and pee twice I think). He is the most willful child ever. So then he wasn't really ready until AFTER Molly was born. So, I would like to go on the record as saying, "I have not had a break in buying diapers since November of 1997."



AND I also would like to say that Pull Ups, for us, seemed to make the process go on even longer. I say let them mess their underpants a couple times and I think that works better (when you think they are ready for this whole thing!). I just used diapers on Sam til he was ready and that saved me some $$- pull ups are expensive! (did this route with Josh cause I *thought* the Buzz Lightyear would help motivate him. Nope---

 

[vald1977]

We love Chef Mickeys Tasha ! We have done dinner there on our first trip and breakfast on our last. Unfortunately, I had unbelievable morning sickness the morning we were there so I didn't eat hardly anything but they had a ton of variety and everything looked wonderful. The characters were really attentive and great too. I would definitely reccomend it.

Sorry you had such a rough day yesterday, Robin. I hope you enjoy your break today .

 

[justhat]

Welcome baby Tyler!

Sorry to hear that Katrina's thrush just won't die. Hopefully her own dr will have a better idea of what to do with it.

T&S, we went to Chef Mickey's with Madison twice and she loved it. She loves all character meals so that doesn't say much, but she did like all the singing and stuff too. We did dinner our 1st night and breakfast towards the end of the trip, and we enjoyed the food at both. Another character meal Madison liked was Liberty Tree Tavern. She had never eaten mac and cheese till that night and she loved it. This kid loves characters like you wouldn't believe, but the mac and cheese was so good to her that she'd see the characters, hug them, and go back to eating!

Alice28, I hope today turns out better for you! I can only imagine how hard it is, not only to be a full time single mom but also to have to be totally responsible for everything around the house and finances.

 

[DisneyPhD]

Tasha+Scott, the perfect mother is just a urban ledgend. There is no such thing. You are doing a great job. Just so you know, when a parent critizes a child, it mostly it meant at the parent themselves. You know how happy people don't complain? Just think when she finds everything you do wrong, it is really because of her and has nothing to do with you. As much as I love my mother and have a pretty good relationship, it makes me sad because I love my kids so much and want to have a much stronger one with them. Just as well with the tubes tied. You are still very young and even if you only want 2 right now, you never know what life has in store for your future. Hysterectomys can have both psychological and physical remanifacations that can be very difficult.

Alice28, that is just what I was talking about.


As many places as we have been at WDW, we havne't done Cheif Mickeys yet. I think we will next trip. We did Ohannas last trip for the 1st time, and we are going back there again! We love CP though and do it every trip if we can. I am a bit concerned about this next trip in Jan still being dairy free, it is such a pain in the butt! At least the cheifs at WDW are great about food allergies! I hope I can start indroducing small amounts in my diet by then.

We just got back from Lily's 1 year check up. She has gained less then 1 pound in the last 6 months. She just stahled at 16 lbs. She was 16 lbs 10 ounces, so she has gained some in the past month. Her head growth is fine along with her height to weight, but that along with the food allergies is enough to warnent a trip to the nurtionist. Good I really have so many questions about this allgery thing. We also have to take her to the allergiest get her MMR shot. They did give her the chicken pox one today in the office.

The doc didn't mind her not walking or crawling at all, she thought the scoot was cute too. In fact last night she did crawl just a little, then swicthed like "this doesn't feel good, hurts my knees".

Hugs for rough days, I know how they are!

 

[Strawberry Lemonade]

Congratulations SeeDisney and welcome Tyler!

Tasha - we're thinking of taking Lucas to Disney World next fall when he's about 15-16 months. You'll have to let me know how your trip goes with Kylie.

This weekend will be Lucas's first trip! We're going to Cape Cod for the weekend. My mother was practically begging for us to leave Lucas with her for the weekend and to go to the Cape alone. We settled on having him spend the night before we leave with her and then picking him up on our way up there. It will be our first night without him! I'm a little sad, but thrilled at the same time because the sleep will be nice and I definitely trust my parents with him.

 

[joats]

Thanks for all of the weaning recommendations. I bought playtex nursers and playtex ventaires and plan to try to use them this weekend. The lactation consultant says because of the hyper lactation, I should not pump and that basically Jace won't let himself starve. It could take a while, but he will eat the formula eventually. I am not looking forward to this experience and truth be told after all the frustration of BFing, I am going to miss it! I will still do bedtime nursing though - I could never give that special time up!

I'm still having a rough time with the daycare scenario. Thanks for all the support. I don't think I'll ever be happy about it, just hoping to cry less about it and stop getting my hopes up with wild schemes of "if we could just do this...I could stay home w/him". I did send my resume and applied online for a job that is closer to home/daycare. I hope that they will call me for an interview.

Welcome SeeDisney and Tyler!

Justhat: Love Madison's new picture, she is adorable!!
Lissawyn: That pic of Jimmy is great!
I love new pictures of all the cuties! I love it when there are updates.

SL: I hope that you all have a very nice time on your weekend at the Cape.

We won't be taking Jace to Disney until Fall 2007. I too will be curious to know how Kylie does Tasha. My parents are going with us when we go, so we will have some kid free time too. Oh, man I don't know if I am going to make it for 2 more years.

Hope you all have a great night!

 

[vald1977]

Hi everyone,
Just wondering if any of you have thought about what your babies will be for Halloween? I was thinking of having DD be Piglet since she grunts alot . But, checking the Disney site the smallest costumes they make are 12 months and that would be way too big for her. Does anybody know of any places that make costumes for smaller babies?

 

[Tasha+Scott]

Hi everyone,
Just wondering if any of you have thought about what your babies will be for Halloween? I was thinking of having DD be Piglet since she grunts alot . But, checking the Disney site the smallest costumes they make are 12 months and that would be way too big for her. Does anybody know of any places that make costumes for smaller babies?

We decided we are going to wait until next year before dressing Kylie up so I don't know the answer to that. But if you find a costume her size you must post pics! Babies are adorable in their little costumes!

I am calling next week to make ressies for our May trip and I am sooo excited! We are going to stay at POP and CSR. After researching it a bit more dh and I love the look it has. It was hard deciding between that and POFQ but in the end the theming, pool, and food court at CSR appealed to us more. Anyone stayed there before? The only thing that I might not like is how spread out it is but I don't think that'll bother me too much. Afterall we stayed at CBR (which we hated btw!) May 2004 and it couldn't possibly be more spread out than that! We are definitely going to do Chef Mickey's. As a matter-of-fact we are going to go there May 5, which will be Kylie's b-day and I am so hoping she will enjoy the characters as much as Madison did! I can't believe we still have 8 months to go! It seems sooo far away but I know it will be here before we know it!

Oh, I meant to add, welcome SeeDisney and baby Tyler! Glad you decided to join us!

 

[DisneyPhD]

Hi everyone,
Just wondering if any of you have thought about what your babies will be for Halloween? I was thinking of having DD be Piglet since she grunts alot . But, checking the Disney site the smallest costumes they make are 12 months and that would be way too big for her. Does anybody know of any places that make costumes for smaller babies?

My DD will be piglet this year, since her big sister has an old costume. However it is size 6 to 12 months and it wouldn't of fit her last year. We got her a cute little pumkin outfit from carters that was like a coverall thing, but very cute. That way she was comfortable too.

I know Lillys kids has some cute costumes for , along with right start. Even babies r us has some. They are different for babies that can't sit up yet, and oh so cute.


Tasha+Scott, funny the food court at CSR is one of the things that most people DON'T like about it. It didn't bug me much, but they made it more complicated then nessary and stuck this "tip" tax on it that really insn't nessary, so must people don't like it. However the food was fine. The resort is beatiful with a nice pool, kiddy pool and even playground I think. It can be really spred out so make sure you request a close room and you should be fine. However PORS is my favorite mod. We even stayed there again last May after going DVC (Ran out of points too may trips this year) and we weren't disapointed at all. Infact we loved it. The pool and playground was great, along with the new renovated rooms and the grounds. We are looking to find a good deal this Jan there and say some of our DVC points. Either way you really can't go wrong with Disney resorts, they all have their perks.

 

[KristiKelly]

Hi everyone,
Just wondering if any of you have thought about what your babies will be for Halloween? I was thinking of having DD be Piglet since she grunts alot . But, checking the Disney site the smallest costumes they make are 12 months and that would be way too big for her. Does anybody know of any places that make costumes for smaller babies?

We'll probably wait until next year for a real costume. Our other 2 kids really want to dress Mary Grace up but she'll only be 4 monthes and costumes usually aren't very comfortable.

We are going to WDW in a month and a few weeks ago someone mentioned the Princess Outfit Bibs @ BRU. They have Aerial & Cinderella. I bought both since we'll be eating breakfast at CRT. Mary Grace will probably wear one of those for Halloween. I was @ BRU the other day and they also had a tuxedo outfit bib and a witch ( I believe) and I think I saw a Pooh a few weeks ago (but don't hold me to that). They are not expensive, I think the Disney ones are $7.99 and the others are $3.99 or 4.99.

 

[Tasha+Scott]

ITasha+Scott, funny the food court at CSR is one of the things that most people DON'T like about it. It didn't bug me much, but they made it more complicated then nessary and stuck this "tip" tax on it that really insn't nessary, so must people don't like it. However the food was fine. The resort is beatiful with a nice pool, kiddy pool and even playground I think. It can be really spred out so make sure you request a close room and you should be fine. However PORS is my favorite mod. We even stayed there again last May after going DVC (Ran out of points too may trips this year) and we weren't disapointed at all. Infact we loved it. The pool and playground was great, along with the new renovated rooms and the grounds. We are looking to find a good deal this Jan there and say some of our DVC points. Either way you really can't go wrong with Disney resorts, they all have their perks.

Yeah, I read that about the food court tax too but we decided since we are only planning to stay there 1-2 nights it won't set us back too much and are just going to overlook it. Now if we were staying there the whole trip I'm sure it would bug me. I want to stay at all of the Disney resorts at some point. That is my life's goal, lol! They all have something unique to offer. So far I have stayed at ASMo, the Dolphin (but dh hasn't been there so darn, I guess I'll have to make the sacrifice and stay there again! ), and CBR (dh hasn't been there but I refuse to stay there again...I just really did not like it there!) This trip we are staying at POP and CSR so I am making some progress towards my goal!

 

[justhat]

Madison is going to be Piglet this year too. Last year she was Bumblebee Pooh, and she was 8 months old and wore the 6-12 month size and it was huge on her! This year I got Piglet in 18 months and now I think it will be too small so I'm exchanging it for 24 months. I can never figure out the Disney sizes!

Madison has that witch bib, KristiKelly, and she wore that last year most of the day, we just put her in the costume for trunk-or-treating on Sat. night and then again Sun. night for real trick-or-treating. Much better than keeping her in the costume at the Halloween parties we were at both days.

Tasha, we stayed at CSR and we liked it. I liked it more than my husband, but really he only likes ASMo and CR so that doesn't say much! The only thing that annoyed us was that it seemed like everytime we got on a bus it stopped at 3 other stops, coming or going and from different stops. I forgot where we were, either Casitas or Cabanas, it was to the left of the main building as you're pulling up to the resort though. Anyway, we usually went to the bus stop in the front of the main building, but then it would travel around the resort before heading to the parks. So then we switched to the stop for our section (a little further than the main bus stop) but then it still stopped everywhere, including the main building stop which was then last! On the way back, it usually stopped at the main building first, but 3 or 4 times the bus was pretty empty so the driver asked what stop we were all at and everyone but us was at Ranchos (or either Casitas or Cabanas, whichever stop was not ours) and he went to their stops first cause there were more of them! It was unreal. But I think that is just fluke bad luck cause I would think the routes are pretty set. Other than that, I had no complaints about the resort. I thought it was really pretty and we loved walking the paths that led all around the resort. It rained most of our trip so we never got in the pool, but it looked really neat! Oh, and the food court didn't bother us, but we really only got snacks or ate breakfast there so maybe that had something to do with it.

 

[Strawberry Lemonade]

Hi everyone,
Just wondering if any of you have thought about what your babies will be for Halloween? I was thinking of having DD be Piglet since she grunts alot . But, checking the Disney site the smallest costumes they make are 12 months and that would be way too big for her. Does anybody know of any places that make costumes for smaller babies?

We'll most likely be dressing Lucas up as Superman this year. I found a Superman bunting and DH just loves it. Buycostumes.com has an infant section - I don't know if we'll buy it from there but that's where I got the idea. Here's the website: buycostumes.com

There are some Disney costumes on that site.

Tasha - we did not like the CBR either. My friend insisted we stay there when we went together but we didn't see why she loves it so much. Our favorite is the CR, but we haven't stayed in the tower yet (that's a goal of mine). We also love POFQ and will probably stay there when we go next year.

 

[katerkat]

Russ is going to be a monkey - my mom is sewing his costume. She's very excited to be making Halloween costumes again. She made all of ours when we were kids!

 

[vald1977]

Thanks everyone for the costume info ! I had forgotten about those bibs, Kristikelly. When I saw them we weren't sure if we were having a girl or not so I didn't get one. I think Katrina needs one, though .

That link that StrawberryLemonade provided has some really great ones too. I really like this one: http://www.buycostumes.com/productd...hildcostumes&ccatid=childbaby&refProdID=12844

If DH likes it, I'm going to get it. I tell ya, it's expensive having a girl because I want to buy everything cute I see!

 

[Alice28]

Call me a stick in the mud, but I don't think I'm buying Molly a costume. I will go to Old Navy or Gap or Babies R Us and buy her a onesie or something to wear that says "My first Halloween" with jeans while we trick or treat.

I'm not buying the boys new costumes this year either- we paid full price last year at the Disney Store and they are as good as new and they still fit. So, Joshua will be Buzz again and Sam will be Prince Philip OR he can be a soldier as his dad sent him some BDUs in kid size. (desert camos).

I like the little Minnie & Tinkerbell from Disney Store, but they'll be too big for her. Next year.

 

[Tasha+Scott]

vald~ Trust me I know what you mean about it being expensive having a girl! I have to avoid the cute girl stuff when I am trying not to spend too much money b/c I know I will end up buying something! It's an addiction! Although I will say I like some of the boy clothes I have seen also so I'd bet I could easily spend too much money on boy clothes too if we ever have a boy!

Alice~ Nah, you're not being a stick in the mud. I love baby costumes but I am not buying Kylie a costume this year either. I more than likely will next year though!

Kylie rolled over from back to tummy today! She has been really close to doing it for about 3 weeks now but never quite rolls all the way over. Well, she finally did today which means she can now roll both ways (she started rolling from tummy to back at 1 month)! It's exciting! She is trying really hard to sit up by herself now too. Dh was supporting her earlier and let go of her and she sat unsupported for about 15-20 seconds before she fell to the side. She tries to pull herself into a sitting position now too. It won't be long before she does it! She is growing so fast, it's unbelievable! My baby won't be a baby before I know it!

 

[Strawberry Lemonade]

Lucas is at my parent's house for the night. It's pretty different here without him. I know I'm know leaving him in good hands though - look how good I turned out!

Tasha - congrats on Kylie rolling over!

Alice28 - I was thinking of you today. I just returned a bunch of Gymboree clothes I got for my shower. They were size 3-6 month summer clothes and I know Lucas won't grow into them before the summer is over. So I'll be going on a little Gymboree shopping spree since I have so much store credit.

Hope everyone has a nice weekend!

 

[J&D]

Hi!

I hope everyone had a great summer. I honestly can't keep up with this thread. It goes fast. I'll have to catch up later.

Have a great weekend, everyone!!!

 

[Alice28]

Lucas is at my parent's house for the night. It's pretty different here without him. I know I'm know leaving him in good hands though - look how good I turned out!

Tasha - congrats on Kylie rolling over!

Alice28 - I was thinking of you today. I just returned a bunch of Gymboree clothes I got for my shower. They were size 3-6 month summer clothes and I know Lucas won't grow into them before the summer is over. So I'll be going on a little Gymboree shopping spree since I have so much store credit.

Hope everyone has a nice weekend!

Oooo....have fun getting Lucas some great fall stuff! I saw a mini sneak peek at the next line called Rocky Mountain & I think it's REALLY cute for both boys and girls. Yikes. I've been staying away lately, (I think I have only bought 1 outfit there since Gymbuck redemption in mid-July), but I saw the preview for that line and was like, oh great...there goes my restraint! I think it debuts in the stores in 2 weeks. But right now they have cute stuff in the stores-- fishing stuff, airplanes...cute, cute, cute.