The Official New Mom Thread

[Jenn Lynn]

DisneyPhd-I just wanted to let you know that you can decide to delay vaccinating your DD if you want too. You really don't need a Dr.'s permission especially in MI where they have Philisophical Exemption. I just wanted to let you know your rights because the Dr. might try to convince you otherwise. If you feel strongly about delaying then you can.

 

[Gwene65]

Hi Guys! I haven't posted in awhile, I have been busy getting my career rolling. I do have a few questions for you vetran moms though.
My daughter is 6 months and is not sleeping through the night yet. She doesn't like to eat her baby food. I started letting her have some formula too but I don't think that is cutting it. I am also breastfeeding.
So what can I do to make her eat more, and what canI do to make her sleep through the night. I have more dark circles under my eyes then I can count. Thank you in advance for any replies.

 

[DisneyPhD]

DisneyPhd-I just wanted to let you know that you can decide to delay vaccinating your DD if you want too. You really don't need a Dr.'s permission especially in MI where they have Philisophical Exemption. I just wanted to let you know your rights because the Dr. might try to convince you otherwise. If you feel strongly about delaying then you can.

Thanks, I have been thinking about it. I think I will call the Dr. and talk with him about it. The shot is set for Friday.

I just think I would feel more comfortable waiting on this one until she is older and given a chance to outgrow the allgery. I didn't know that about Michigan. I am currenlty at SAHM and she doesn't go to day care. It will be 2 more years until she starts pre-school so I don't have to worry about that.

Of course that might make it more of a risk since not all other children her age might not already be vaxinated.



Gwene65, I am so sorry. I feel your pain I really do (and lived it, still do some nights.) Some kids aren't good sleepers. Food may or may not be the answer. Some babies don't care too much for baby food, but the good thing is that phase (eating baby food) doesn't last long and table foods will be close behind it. How often does she wake to eat? How long does she eat for? How much is she napping during the day?

 

[DisKim]

I wanted to post real quick and let everyone know that I survived my first day at work. I missed Aidan terribly and had a really bad attitude all day (luckily, I'm tenured!). I just withdraw from people when I'm upset and I got ticked that we had to waste time playing a staff "getting to know you" bingo game. What a waste of time. I found out that we still have no contract which means no raise which means daycare for two kids is going to kill me. On the good side, Aidan is looking at me with his big blue eyes right now so I'm getting off this computer and playing with him!

 

[Alice28]

Hi Guys! I haven't posted in awhile, I have been busy getting my career rolling. I do have a few questions for you vetran moms though.
My daughter is 6 months and is not sleeping through the night yet. She doesn't like to eat her baby food. I started letting her have some formula too but I don't think that is cutting it. I am also breastfeeding.
So what can I do to make her eat more, and what canI do to make her sleep through the night. I have more dark circles under my eyes then I can count. Thank you in advance for any replies.

This is one of those rare times where I think it would be ok to put some rice cereal in her formula. It won't cause any digestive problems, and will fill her up a little more, without having to struggle to get her to eat baby food from a spoon. Some babies just aren't ready to eat from a spoon...have you tried all sorts of different foods? Making silly faces while she's eating? Or stir in some cereal with something sweet, like the pears or bananas- give her a few more calories.

DisKim- I was thinking about you....glad you survived Day 1. Bingo game does sound kinda lame...esp when you're thinking about baby!

DisneyPhD- I think it might be a good idea to prolong the shot, or at least discuss with your doctor what s/he thinks. I'm glad Lily is sleeping well- wahoo! Molly goes back and forth- some nights she gives me a good 6 hours (a couple times 8!) and other nights, no go. She turns six months on Thursday!

 

[Gwene65]

I have tried all foods and all silly faces. She will eat a few bites and then just stop eating and make her wet razzing sound.
At night she wakes anywhere between 3 and 5 times. She eats for maybe 5 minutes and then falls back asleep while on my breast.

If I was to put rice cereal in her bottle, how do I do it?

 

[DisneyPhD]

I have tried all foods and all silly faces. She will eat a few bites and then just stop eating and make her wet razzing sound.
At night she wakes anywhere between 3 and 5 times. She eats for maybe 5 minutes and then falls back asleep while on my breast.

If I was to put rice cereal in her bottle, how do I do it?

Gwene65, if she eats for 5 min and then falls alseep (and that is much shorter then normal) it is likely the problem isn't she is hungery. Waking may be a habbit and eating is a good way of falling back to sleep.

We had a lot of simlar problems with Lily, but she would eat alot, nurse both sides well.

What happens if you don't feed her? Will she eventally fall back alseep? If you let her cry it out will she go back to sleep? Does she fall asleep on her own ever? Does she fall asleep in one place, but wake up another (like in your bed, but then get moved to the crib.) Lily had a problem with that. We worked on getting her to sleep in her own crib and staying there.

Is she growing ok? Is she that hungery during the day? Many babies don't start soilds until 6 months, and it takes a while to get a "taste" for it. I would't worry about her not getting enough baby food, it isn't really their primary source of calories or nutrion at that age. Mostly it is just to get used to eating.


Of course I am really the one to talk, Lily sleep all night for the 1st time when she ws 13 months old. (I know you don't want to hear that.) In our case I think her food alleriges played a role in it. It is very unlikely your DD has the same issue so I wouldn't worry about that. (just take it slow with foods and be careful what you introduce.)

Keep in mind rice ceral has a lot of iron and you might need to increase fiber cotent too. (yum, baby food prunes!)

 

[Gwene65]

I have tried to let her cry it out but after 5 minutes I go get her from her crib. She shares a room with her big brother and I don't want to wake him up. She starts the night in her crib but by the 3rd or 4th time of waking up, I am so tired I just put her down next to me. She doesn't really nap well either. For instance I put her down at 2:15 and she is up already, at 3pm. I am just going insane I think. All my smarts are going out the window.

 

[DisneyPhD]

I have tried to let her cry it out but after 5 minutes I go get her from her crib. She shares a room with her big brother and I don't want to wake him up. She starts the night in her crib but by the 3rd or 4th time of waking up, I am so tired I just put her down next to me. She doesn't really nap well either. For instance I put her down at 2:15 and she is up already, at 3pm. I am just going insane I think. All my smarts are going out the window.

That was the same situation we had (have). Thank God her big sister sleeps like a log. It still seems unfair to be stuck in the room with that nose. It was the same with the getting up. Nursing is the easier way to get them back to sleep, and you don't have a bottle to warm up or waste. We did the same thing.

We have found that Lily is better if we let her take a later in the day nap instead of a morning one (she only sleeps for 44 min or so then) If she goes down later (2:00 or 3:00) she sleeps longer. The past few nights when she has slept well she didn't take much of a nap at all during the day and really wore herself out during the day.

I know none if this is what you want to hear, becuase the last thing you want is to be still dealing with this 6 months from now. So here is to hoping that your DD does better then mine did.

One thing that has helped recently is I got a new music CD from the libary. She loves baby enstine and this one is lullibies. She really likes to lay there and listen to it. I love this CD and I am going to buy a copy before it goes back to the libary. It doesn't bug big sister since she is such a sound sleeper. The other is staying with her in her room (with sleeping big sister) to get her to fall back asleep. This is much harder then taking her back to bed with us.

Good luck. I can't really say I am doing that well since it really has only been 3 nights Lily has sleep "through the night" but I will take what I can get.

I know how you feel. If she only got up once a night that wouldn't be bad, but 2, 3 or 4 times you can't even see stright when the sun comes up.

 

[Jenn Lynn]

Hi Guys! I haven't posted in awhile, I have been busy getting my career rolling. I do have a few questions for you vetran moms though.
My daughter is 6 months and is not sleeping through the night yet. She doesn't like to eat her baby food. I started letting her have some formula too but I don't think that is cutting it. I am also breastfeeding.
So what can I do to make her eat more, and what canI do to make her sleep through the night. I have more dark circles under my eyes then I can count. Thank you in advance for any replies.

Gwene-I read something recently that fascinated me and made sense. Around 6 months babies can start hitting some major milestones. Because they are busier during the day they don't eat as much. They will start to eat more at night when sleeping and eating is their main focus. She also might just be checking in with you at night. When she nurses is it a hard active nursing? Or more like a comfort nurse? DS will nurse actively for 5 minutes and then drift off doing the lighter suckling.

DD did not start really eating solids until 9 months. she just was not interested. Good luck!

 

[Gwene65]

Thanks for the responses guys. I guess I will have to wait it out. Good thing I like coffee!

 

[DisneyPhD]

Thanks for the responses guys. I guess I will have to wait it out. Good thing I like coffee!

I felt the same way. Then I thought maybe it is the coffe in my diet that is bugging her. So I cut it and coke out for around 3 weeks. It didn't seem to help at all. (I don't drink that much with caffine, but I do have some. Otherwise I do decafe or one glass of coke.) Now a days I can't even have the coke (carmel coloring, go figure!) Thank God I found this Silk Moca drink that is great. Oh sorry off on my tagent again.

Hang in there, it will be better, but I don't know how soon.

 

[Jenn Lynn]

I forgot to add that Eli was weighed today and he was 11lbs.8oz.!

 

[Tasha+Scott]

lissawynn~ Yeah, that is exactly what we plan to do at the WL...take the boat and the monorail. That was one of the reasons we decided to stay there. It seems so much easier than taking the bus with a 1 year old. Although we probably will take the bus to MGM and DTD (we're skipping AK this time) unless dh wants to take our own car, which he doesn't seem to want to right now. Oh, and Kylie also has a temper. It is coming out more and more each month. She screams if I don't give her the bottle as soon as it's ready. She doesn't even give me time to get the top off of it before she screams and gives me the dirtiest look. I do the same thing as you. I tell her, "No, ma'am! We don't scream at mommy. That's not nice." Yeah somehow I don't think she cares! I teased dh and told him just imagine if I had bf...she would probably hurt my breasts if I didn't feed her fast enough. I have thought about nursing my 2nd child (since I know it will be my last I am afraid I will regret not trying it atleast once) but man, if the 2nd one has the temper that Kylie has, I'm scared!

DisKim~ Glad you made it through your first day! Hope tomorrow goes well too!

Gwene~ I hope things get easier soon.

Well, Kylie officially has her first tooth coming in! She has been teething for a little over 2 months now and I kept waiting to see signs of a tooth or something since I was an early teether and had all my teeth by 8-9 months but I was mainly looking at her bottom gums b/c I was told most babies get their bottom 2 teeth first. Well, we went to my mom's yesterday and she said she thought she felt a tooth coming in up top but she couldn't see anything. Well, I looked this morning and sure enough, she has her top right tooth coming in. It hasn't broken all the way through yet so I could just barely make it out but it's there and I saw the little white tip and it won't be long now! So far she has been in no pain with this tooth. Hopefully our luck will hold out with the remaining teeth!

My brother goes back to Memphis tomorrow to have his cochlear implant wiring connected and the device turned on. It will take some time for his hearing and speech to become normal but tomorrow marks the 1st day of the journey! Wish him luck! It's so exciting! My little sister is excited since her 10th b-day is Thurs. so it's kind of like a b-day present to her in her mind.

 

[lissawynn]

Ok, moms. What do you think about this? Jimmy has apparently had it with his crib. He can be sound asleep in my arms, on the sofa, on our bed, etc., but as soon as he's placed in his crib, he SCREAMS. I'm not talking crying, b/c crying I could tolerate. I'm talking screaming as if his arms and legs were being cut off. DH and I have discussed buying a twin mattress and a bed rail and putting him in the bed. Last night I inflated our aerobed and slept on there with him. He rolled around all night long. I think part of the problem with the crib is that he is moving so much at night and he doesn't have the room he needs. Do you think this is too early, and if so, what else can I do to make this stop. He is completely fine when he's with mom and dad, but I'm not going to make that a habit.

DisKim- Get to know you bingo? That sounds as bad as the speaker we had on our first in-service day. Even our administrators agreed it was awful and a complete waste of time. We are also working w/o a contract and I feel as you do. It's just not shaping up to be such a great year. Isn't it the best when you pick up your little guy at the end of your day? Jimmy smiles and gets so happy when I get to my dad's. It's hard to leave him, but I know he's in great hands.

Yesterday after I picked up Jimmy I made the mistake of watching Oprah. I'm saying it was a mistake b/c I sat and bawled for the entire show. I am not a weepy person but to continue to see the people and animals (that really got to me) in such a state put me over the edge. I think I'm going to continue to contribute to the Red Cross everytime I get a paycheck. Even $10 a week will, I hope, make some kind of difference. Lisa Ling made a fantastic point during her broadcast. Had that happened in an affluent white area, would the response been the same? I really don't believe it would have been that way.

Hope you're having a great day!

 

[justhat]

Hi everyone. We just got back from visiting my in-laws who are staying in South Carolina till they figure out where to go and what to do while New Orleans is being rebuilt.

I haven't caught up yet, so I'll have to go back and read all the replies later today, hopefully Madison will take a nap.

Lissawynn, I would go ahead and move Jimmy to a mattress on the floor, with a bed rail on it. I wouldn't put him in a real bed like up high, but I'd just put the mattress on the floor with a rail on the side (and maybe the top/bottom too if it's not against a wall since they move so much. Madison hated her crib too but slept fine in our bed. It wasn't just about sleeping with us, cause she'd sleep fine in our bed without us in it too. In fact, she'd prefer it if we weren't in the bed because she likes the space to herself. We moved Madison to a toddler bed at 14 months and she did fine. She never fought us about going in the bed like she did the crib (she screamed like Jimmy so I know what you mean!). It came with a side rail and she's never fallen out. Even though it's the same size as her crib, I think she likes how it's not as confining, shecan get in/out on her own, less babyish. The only thing to be prepared for is that once he's walking (or maybe even sooner!) he'll probably climb out and come find you. Not a big deal for me, but if that will bother you keep it in mind. If he's in his own room, you could always just stick a baby gate at the door and let him roam around his room till he's tired and goes back to bed. Madison just comes to the side of our bed and either climbs in herself or gets picked up by me or my husband and spends the rest of the night with us. That's if she gets out of her bed at all, many nights she'll wake up, cry a few minutes, then go back to sleep in her own bed. For us, it was the best move we've made as it made bedtime so much easier.

ETA-I don't know the name of the bedrails we bought (we use them on the bed at my mom's house when we sleep there) but they come over the top of the mattress instead of just staying flush against the side of the mattress like most of them do. Okay, I found them, here's a link to what we bought so you can see how it's different than other bedrails. Safety 1st Bedrails I mean I guess there's still a chance that they could get trapped, but because they go over the top of the mattress (and you can really tighten them to be a very snug fit) the risk seems slim to me. It does cut away some of the freedom of movement since they take away a couple of inches of the bed, but it's not that much IMO.

 

[DisneyPhD]

Tasha+Scott, don't worry, actually breast feed babies learn to be more gental because THEY HAVE TO. They just don't get feed unless they don't hurt and so they learn not to. Both my girls tried to crawl or move away while nursing and I would tell them "you can't take it with you. This is not a to go meal." If you ask pro breast feeind places they will clam it as one of the bennifits.

Lily had some trouble when it was hard for her nurse with her new teeth, they would get in the way. I learned the hard way if it hurt at all I had to pull her off. I don't know how since she was so young, but she learned how to nurse with out her teeth.

So I wouldn't let that hold you back if you would like to try nursing your 2nd child. Anna used to chew on her bottle, but NEVER on me. (Anna had a bottle sometimes since I worked, Lily almost never does.)

lissawynn, we had the same problems with Lily (the poor sleeper) She was fine in our bed, even if we weren't in it. She just loves the softness of a GOOD matteres, not those hard ones in cribs. We even considered cutting up some memory foam and putting it in her crib, but we know it is a no no. I am ok with her sleeping on it when she is bed with us since we are right there, but not alone. As it is we pad her crib as much as possible with blankes under her sheets. It helps, but not enough. We gave up for a while and let her in bed with us (new king size bed) but have her back in her crib. I sometimes lay on her big sisters bed with the bedrail, but I worry about her getting traped it it. I don't feel it is as safe.

We joke that when we get her a twim bed it is going to have to be a GOOD one.

 

[tkyes]

Gwene - I'm sorry you guys are having such a hard time. I agree with others that it sounds like she's not really hungry at night, but just wants you guys. I know many disagree with crying it out, but it worked really well for us. The first night he cried for 29 minutes, it was horrible. We kept checking on him to make sure he was ok, but we knew we had to let him cry. The previous few nights he was up 5 times, just wanting a nuk. The next night was 20 minutes, the next night 5 minutes. Now he doesn't make a peep unless he is over tired. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

Tasha - good luck to your brother, how exciting! Good luck with those teeth!

I think my little guy is waking up! Have a good day everyone.

tamie

 

[Tasha+Scott]

Gwene - I'm sorry you guys are having such a hard time. I agree with others that it sounds like she's not really hungry at night, but just wants you guys. I know many disagree with crying it out, but it worked really well for us. The first night he cried for 29 minutes, it was horrible. We kept checking on him to make sure he was ok, but we knew we had to let him cry. The previous few nights he was up 5 times, just wanting a nuk. The next night was 20 minutes, the next night 5 minutes. Now he doesn't make a peep unless he is over tired. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

I completely agree with you, Tamie! We started letting Kylie cry it out on Aug. 16 (I remember the date b/c it would have been my grandfather's b-day). Well, the first night she cried 30 min., 2nd night 23 min., 3rd night 15 min., 4th night 5 min. and by the 5th night she stopped crying all together! She now goes to bed no later than 8:30 and is okay with it. She sometimes goes to bed by 8 if she is getting tired and fussy. She cries more now if we don't put her to bed when she's ready. She usually wakes up around 5:30 wanting to be fed and probably just wanting mommy, I think. Then I usually let her sleep in bed with me until about 9:30 and we get up. It works really well for us. I don't want her sleeping in bed with us at night but for a few hours in the morning is fine. I enjoy the cuddling time honestly. Anyway, crying it out was the best decision we made when it comes to her sleeping. It was a miracle. It is hard at first but if you can get through the 1st few nights it gets easier. Now I know some kids don't do as well as Kylie and Tyler have done with it but I think it's worth a try when it gets to where nothing else works. And by 6 months I think she is plenty old enough to give it a shot. Good luck!

 

[DisKim]

Well, today was Aidan's first day at the babysitter. She said he was very happy and such a good boy. That didn't suprise me because he is always so good and sweet for me now (except in Disney when the heat index is 105 ). I was so stressed getting him there by 6:45 and myself to work by 7. Then, I had to beg other teachers to cover two of my classes so I could run home and put my other son, Alex, on the bus for his first day of kindergarten. All in all, I was happy with the babysitter, but it does feel weird to see Aidan hanging out with 4 other babies. I really wish I could stay home . When I got there, he was asleep. I went to get him and he was on his belly. Is it ok for a 4 1/2 month old to be on his belly or is there still a risk for SIDS? I don't know if I should say something. Also, I thought she could have given me a note or something that told me when and what he ate and when/if he pooped, etc. Other than that, I was happy.