Grad babies/toddlers check in April 2017

[loira]

I love learning what all the babies and toddlers are up to these days, and we haven't had a check-in since December. I re-read what I wrote back then and can't believe how much A has grown since!

What are your babies up to? Any concerns? Any advice you'd like from those with older babies?

A is 14 months old and SO CLOSE to walking. She cruises like a boss, and will take her little walking toy for a spin. She can stand by herself if I trick her into it - same with walking holding onto only 1 of my hands. She is super tall, so already into everything even without being able to climb up on chairs etc. She's very chatty and has become a bit less anxious of new places and new people, although she still sticks close to me which I like. She LOVES the pool down here, so I'll have to take her swimming more when we return to Canada in 2 weeks. Her new favourite thing to do is to pick out her clothes. I don't know that she actually cares what she wears, but she really likes being given a choice, maybe because it gives her some control in her tiny world.

She is definitely getting an attitude. I'm trying to teach her to say 'please', but it's not catching...

Those of you who follow me on instagram may have noticed, but A is officially a bit of a ginger. H and I have no clue how that happened. My hair is light blonde, his is very dark brown. Neither of us have redheads in our gene pool. It's beyond bizarre.

[Chrysanthemum]

I'm still in shock that I'm finally a mom. (heart)    C is 3 months old and we just successfully made it through my first week back to work and his first week at daycare. He is so much bigger than when he was born, but still on the small side for his age. He is smiling, laughing, and "talking" all the time now. He sleeps through the night (10+ hours) and naps pretty well during the day. He likes to dance and look at our faces and talk.

He's scheduled to get a tube in his right ear and possibly his left at the end of the month. It was confirmed that he has fluid in one, if not both.  (He hasn't passed the multiple hearing tests he's done since birth.) The doctor and audiologist believe he can hear now, just that it's muffled so I'm optimistic that once they drain the fluid he will hear perfectly.  Right now I feel ok with the surgery because I'm relieved there's not something more permanent wrong.  But, I bet it will change once the dates approaches.  He's so young to go under anesthesia but I don't know it's for the best to get this resolved ASAP.

We're in the market for an umbrella stroller.  Anyone have any recs? Also, do babies need to be able to sit independently to graduate from the infant car seat snap n go strollers?  His seat is getting so heavy!

[loira]

Chrysanthemum, I think there was a recent post on MMM about umbrella strollers. I would NOT recommend mine, depending on what you want it for. We have a Quinny Zapp, and it's okay for going places like shopping centres etc. I like that it has 2 recline options and a rear facing option. But it is a terrible, awful pain for air travel. I originally bought it so I could just snap my Maxi Cosi car seat onto it, but of course, we only used that until she was a year old. It doesn't fold up easily, even if you have 2 hands. With an infant in one hand, forget it. I have to put A down on the floor to fold it at the gate.

[G22]

Z turned 17 months last week. No clue where time has gone! He runs and climbs everywhere and is constantly surprising me with learning new things. His favorite thing to do right now is go in the back yard and run around and explore. He legit throws a tantrum if I let the dogs out and not him half the time.

He's working on cutting his bottom canines right now. That's been fun...not. I think it's as bad as the molars for him.

He chatters A TON. He says a fair amount of words, though only a small few are super clear. To anyone else but H or I, they'd probably have no clue what he's saying.

I'm planning get to wean completely in the next week or so. We only nurse once before bedtime and I want to be done by the end of the month. It's just a comfort thing for him, there's barely anything left in my boobs.

Overall he's an absolute sweetheart and full of personality. He just started a hitting phase though, so he's a little less sweet at times. But it's crazy to think he's nearly 2.

[G22]

Chrysanthemum I have the GB Pockit stroller for our umbrella stroller. With how often we travel and take public transportation, I need something small and compact. It doesn't get much more compact than this one. I literally can fold it up and stick it in my bag and put in under the seat of an airplane. It's a bit flimsy in comparison to other umbrella strollers, but it does the job for me. And it must be comfy because Z slept his way around London in it when we went a few months ago.

[loira]

G22, I totally want that stroller, but I'm sure it will cost a small fortune in Canada. I need to take the Quinny back with me to see if I can sell it first... Maybe I can have H buy it here and bring it with him when he comes to visit us, though!

[pooh8402]

E is 20 months now, almost 21. Lots more words, he repeats us all the time, and pretty clearly too! He's becoming way more independent and even more active than he was 4 months ago! He's so smart, his daycare teachers brag on him all the time (I don't know if they do this to all the kids, but I don't wanna know, ha). He still loves balls, but now trucks, trains and planes are big hits as well. he also loooooves Mater from the Cars movies. the playground is his happy place. he loves to be outside exploring or climbing on things.

I think most of yall know, but we weaned at 18 months and it went well. Some distress on his part, lots of tears on my part. I still have milk after 3 months, although it is looking more and more like colostrum. I hope my prolactin isn't too high when we consult with an RE for FET--that was a big part of why we weaned.

[thoseareradishes]

I guess I can post here now! E is 5 weeks old and doing great. She's gaining weight - up to 2lbs 13ozs - and her lungs are getting stronger. She will likely switch to a simple nose cannula this week or next, which we're really looking forward to. She's seems to enjoy kangaroo care, and I'm also getting more comfortable with it. She's only had a few episodes of her heart rate dropping, besides the biggie she had last week that scared the shit out of me.

She'll be allowed to wear clothes sometime in the next few weeks, so I've been looking around a little for suitable outfits. She can only have long sleeves, with snaps, no zippers. Basically has to be very easy to get off and not be able to snag wires and tubes.

[dollyllama]

L is almost 14 months. He's recently discovered climbing and running which is awesome & terrifying. As of Mid-March he finally got his first tooth & is up to 2 now! It seems like he's had a knowledge explosion in the past 2 weeks, he can now tell us the sounds of 11 animals & started saying thank you.

However, he's so busy learning that he's forgotten how to sleep & my normally great eater is now way more fascinated with food as projectiles. Anyone else experience similar at this age? My gut tells me it's just a phase.

We are down to nursing am & bedtime only now & he loves whole milk. I really would like to 100% wean him so that he is over any boob attachment when #2 comes but I am struggling to make the commitment so it's as smooth as possible. Weaning tips?

Last question. Anyone thinking of moving kiddo to a toddler bed? I had just planned on buying another crib but someone was telling me today that she started moving her oldest around 19 months and it got me thinking.

[pooh8402]

Apr 8, 2017 21:08:25 GMT -5 thoseareradishes said:

I guess I can post here now! E is 5 weeks old and doing great. She's gaining weight - up to 2lbs 13ozs - and her lungs are getting stronger. She will likely switch to a simple nose cannula this week or next, which we're really looking forward to. She's seems to enjoy kangaroo care, and I'm also getting more comfortable with it. She's only had a few episodes of her heart rate dropping, besides the biggie she had last week that scared the shit out of me.

She'll be allowed to wear clothes sometime in the next few weeks, so I've been looking around a little for suitable outfits. She can only have long sleeves, with snaps, no zippers. Basically has to be very easy to get off and not be able to snag wires and tubes.

if you have a Once Upon A Child near you, check there. I sometimes find a rack of preemie clothes. Last time I was in OUAC, I bought out the rack of all the long sleeved preemie snap sleepers since my NICU at my old hospital never had enough.

[dellabear]

R is 10 months now (!) and just getting the hang of crawling. It's still half army crawl but he can get around pretty good. Likes to stand holding furniture or people, still has only one tooth that he's had for probably two months now. We finished nursing about two weeks ago and finished formula yesterday, so he's on 100% WCM now, plus he eats a ton of food. He's happy and fun and lovely to have around.  (heart)

We have him signed up for daycare in the fall and I get to stay home with him and DD (who's currently in half day kindy) until then. Really looking forward to enjoying the summer with these kiddies.

[G22]

Apr 8, 2017 16:45:34 GMT -5 loira said:

G22, I totally want that stroller, but I'm sure it will cost a small fortune in Canada. I need to take the Quinny back with me to see if I can sell it first... Maybe I can have H buy it here and bring it with him when he comes to visit us, though!

I'd definitely see about buying it in the US if it will be super expensive in Canada. I actually bought it on Amazon.de (German amazon) because that was the best price at the time. I do love it though and I'm so glad I dropped the money on it. I feel like with all the traveling we'll do this year alone, I'll already get my money's worth out of it.

[lms]

C is almost 13 months. He'll walk as long as he's holding onto my fingers. He'll grab one and then reach around to grab the other because he won't walk holding just one finger. And then of course when he's done walking he'll just plop down and crawl the rest of the way. He won't stand on his own either but that's probably because anytime he's fully upright he's bouncing....constantly bouncing! He's finally getting interested in his books. He'll sit there and sort of turn the pages but he's got to do it himself. He doesn't like when someone tries to help him.

He's got his bottom two and his top two teeth and the next set of top teeth are starting to coming in. We just switched him to WCM and now that he's done with formula we are also ditching the bottles. I'm so thankful to not have to clean bottles anymore! He still doesn't feed himself very well. You put Cheerios or puffs on his highchair tray and he'll pick those up and eat them, put cut-up fruit on there and all he wants to do to rake it off into his lap. So we end up feeding it to him ourselves.

He'll sleep through the night once we put him down but he's still an early riser. He'll start babbling to himself between 5:30-6:00 am. Maybe one day he'll grow out of it and start sleeping a little longer. During the week it doesn't bother me since I'm up at 6 anyway but on the weekend I'd like to sleep a little longer.

He babbles all the time and he's so loud. I think being loud might be a boy thing? I remember my mom always saying how loud my brother was and I don't remember DD being loud at all. The only word I think he knows is Dada. At times I think he knows Mama but he's constantly calling Dada since DH stays home with him. I've been working on other words/animals & their sounds but there's no association yet. And he is already starting to throw little tantrums when he doesn't get his way. We thought that we had a little bit longer before the tantrums started.

The cutest thing is when I leave for work I give him a kiss and say bye, he'll wave bye-bye and then blow me a kiss.

[loira]

lms, A didn't start feeding herself anything more than cheerios until after she had 8 teeth. It also took her a long time to get past the gag reflex - understandably, she didn't like swallowing pieces of un-chewed food. Not sure being loud is a boy thing. When A gets frustrated she bellows and it is the loudest sound ever...

[lms]

loira my former boss and her husband both have dark hair and her DS & DD both have blonde. She doesn't know how that happened either. It could change as she gets older. You would never know that I was so blonde when when I was younger. C still gags sometimes as well, probably on those larger pieces of food he hadn't mashed up well. He gets really loud when he's trying to get our attention but even when we are playing with him he just has so much volume.

thoseareradishes I love your updates. It makes me so happy to hear how well she's doing. How have you been doing?

[pooh8402]

loira , I read an article somewhere a few weeks ago about hidden gingers. like blonde or brunette dudes with red beards. it can definitely be passed down through generations without really showing up. no one in my family has red hair except my late great-grandmother, and I'm the only one with even a little bit of red (it's just enough to make highlighting my hair a real PITA, but I wear red hair colors really well). a friend of mine is blonde, until he grows out his beard then it is bright carrot orange, haha.

on that same note, E is white blonde, while I have the medium-dark brown hair (with a tinge of red) and DH has light brown hair. I was always dark, and DH was always light brown. Where did my son's blonde hair come from? Well, my sister is blonde and was white blonde as a child, and my dad was blonde as a child, but by the time he was an adult, it was dark as mine (now his hair is mostly gray). Blonde hair often darkens as people get older. My sister has to highlight her hair to maintain her blonde now, as it is now a naturally dark dishwater blonde.


it all makes me wonder what E's beard will look like. I think it will be red. His eyelashes are already strawberrry blonde (they're really pretty, and long too).

[G22]

pooh8402, one of my brothers is a hidden ginger. I had no idea there was a name for it. He has dark blond hair on his head, but red facial hair. My dad is a redhead though, all my siblings and I have some form of red in our hair.

[loira]

pooh8402, that's neat! One of my best friends' natural hair colour is both dark brown and white-blonde, in these amazing large streaks. Her eyebrows are also the two different shades. H has been holding out on me - apparently his maternal grandma had red hair. I didn't think it would be totally impossible for A to have blonde hair and blue eyes, since H's mum has that colouring but I never expected ginger. I am sure it will turn darker as she gets older, though. Maybe auburn? Her eyes are hazel. I think I just expected the Mexican genes to come out way more, they way they do in my H.

[cactuscookie]

I think I've finally recovered from the house flooding when I was 7 months pregnant and then from having a colicky newborn who turned into a bad sleeper. I feel...relaxed lately, as relaxed as I've been in a year and a half.

If you'd told me a year, 6 months, or even 3 months ago, that H at 14 months (or ever) would fall asleep within a minute of us leaving her in her crib, I wouldn't have believed you. She's become, for now, a really good sleeper. And then when she's awake, she's just the cutest, happiest, goofiest little thing. She makes everything totally messy, but we deal with it.

She eats fairly well. Not so interested in silverware, and she'd be much happier if we would cut the bullshit with the fish and vegetables and just feed her noodles and cheese all the time, but she does all right.

I stopped pumping, so now she's just getting one bottle at daycare before her nap. When my freezer stash runs out, we'll be done with bottles. Still nursing mornings and evenings though. I'm also still getting her up for a dream feed before I go to bed. I tried to cut that out a few weeks ago, and it went well for a few days and then she started waking up in the middle of the night again, so I went back to it. I should probably try again.

Basically, I feel like DH and I spent all of our time exclaiming about how cute she is and how much she's learning.

[boiler717]

Teddy is just the sweetest!! I love how much he snuggles, he is so good at listening and following directions, and he's just such an awesome kiddo. He is running around everywhere and is super verbal. Literally says everything -- he knows colors, shapes, planets, presidents (LOL). He counts to eight now. He is still pretty apprehensive with new places and people.
We had his 15m appt today and he's 50th percentile for height and weight and like 90th for head. The pedi was super impressed at his verbal ability! He said a few short sentences when she was in there and said that was a first for her at a 15m appt. He did have more wheezing today so we are doing 2 weeks of albuterol to see if that helps.
We are still nursing 3ish times a day. He eats and sleeps well still.
Chrysanthemum i hope the tubes go okay!
Hi everyone else!!

[swiftlyirun]

Hi! Checking back in here. L is 14 months old now and is my little wild redhead (I'm guessing DH is one of those hidden redheads 😊). She's walking...actually running all over the place, obsessed with ALL "woof woofs", and hugs everything (even mannequins).

She's still sleeping really well, except tonight of course, but I think this southern spring and ALL THE POLLENS have really gotten to her. Poor thing is sneezing and wheezing and eye running like crazy😫.

She thankful for her even when I'm slap worn out at the end of every day, she has changed our lives for the better in every way!

[shoeless]

DD is 13 months. I swear every age I feel like 'this is my favorite' but she continues to be in my favorite age. Its so amazing to see her understanding and communicating (pointing, sign language, and some words). She's also walking (trying to run) and climbing over everything. She loves slides. The last 3 weeks have been rough though. Croup, ear infection, cold, ear infection, its been wearing me down. We need to go urgent care in the morning if amox still isn't working for her ear infection.

She's still not sleeping through the night, 1 wake-up a night. I'm still pumping once a day, once we get past this last (knock on wood) ear infection, I plan to drop pumping and start weaning. I'm scared since nursing is definitely a comfort thing for her. I'm hoping once we wean she'll start sleeping through the night.

[awick14]

loira- my sister is a true redhead, and DHs beard is red. (But not the hair on the top of his head.) So I'm curious to see what color her hair will be.

I hope that the tubes help C. Chrysanthemum. We are planning to move DD into a different car seat soon, but it is a convertible one that works from 7lbs to a booster seat. (Can't remember the weight limit.) She can't sit independently yet. I also put her into the stroller without the car seat. I just make sure the stroller is flat so that she isn't "sitting up" in it.


G22- good luck with weaning.

thoseareradishes- I'm so glad E is doing well.

dollyllama- we are not there yet but my friend just got a second crib mattress and placed it on the floor instead of getting a toddler bed. (That way she couldn't roll out of bed and hurt herself.)

dellabear- having the summer with both of them will be fun! I can't wait for the summer and showing DD all the things.

lms- DD is super loud all the time. But I don't remember my niece being loud like this. She talks up a storm all the time.

cactuscookie- DH and I do that too. We are always saying things like "how cute is she?" "Have you seen how cute she is when she's sleeping?". Lol

[awick14]

DD is almost 4 months old. I can't believe it, where has the time gone?!

She is so vocal, she's always talking up a storm. She is trying so hard to say real words it's so cute. If you talk back to her she becomes so proud of herself it's so funny.

She has been teething since she was three months, and I feel so bad for her. Some days are better then others but today she was fussier then not.

Her head control is amazing, she is almost ready to sit in her bumbo without me behind her just in case. (She can hold her head up as long as she's not excited, which happens often.)

She is reaching for things, and can pull herself up to sitting in her bouncey chair while holding onto the hanging toys.

She loves the water, we take her to the pool about once a week and she kicks and splashes up a storm.

And for everyone talking about taking their littles to see the easter bunny, the mall here had the easter bunny there today. He was kinda creepy but I took DD anyways. She just gave him a weird look and sat there all confused.

[loira]

shoeless, good luck with weaning! A doesn't sleep through the night either. I don't know what to do about it, since my experience has taught me she does things her own way (she always hated schedules, wouldn't nap train, even refused to feed herself until she was ready). She usually gets up for 1 bottle and drinks most of it, so I think she's genuinely thirsty and can't make it 12 hours without something. She's a gem about going to bed, and about going back to sleep after her MOTN bottle... I feel like I should probably just tough it out, but man I wish I could just count on her sleeping through.

[shoeless]

Apr 16, 2017 20:58:39 GMT -5 loira said:

shoeless , good luck with weaning! A doesn't sleep through the night either. I don't know what to do about it, since my experience has taught me she does things her own way (she always hated schedules, wouldn't nap train, even refused to feed herself until she was ready). She usually gets up for 1 bottle and drinks most of it, so I think she's genuinely thirsty and can't make it 12 hours without something. She's a gem about going to bed, and about going back to sleep after her MOTN bottle... I feel like I should probably just tough it out, but man I wish I could just count on her sleeping through.

So much this! I'm sorry you are in the same boat but at the same time its nice to know I'm not alone.  K goes to bed on her own and naps on a schedule, and motn wake up is only 10 minutes long.  So really not that bad, but I still just want a few nights of not waking up.  I have no interest in doing motn sleep training since the current wake up is so short.  Some of the time its at 500 am, so I'm afraid that weaning will just mean her getting up at 5am instead of 7am (8pm bedtime).  I keep reminding myself something my aunt said 'almost no one goes to college still needing a pacifier'  I've extrapolated this to someday my child will learn to sleep through the night or learn to just not bother me in the middle of the night.

[loira]

Apr 16, 2017 22:14:18 GMT -5 shoeless said:

Apr 16, 2017 20:58:39 GMT -5 loira said:

shoeless , good luck with weaning! A doesn't sleep through the night either. I don't know what to do about it, since my experience has taught me she does things her own way (she always hated schedules, wouldn't nap train, even refused to feed herself until she was ready). She usually gets up for 1 bottle and drinks most of it, so I think she's genuinely thirsty and can't make it 12 hours without something. She's a gem about going to bed, and about going back to sleep after her MOTN bottle... I feel like I should probably just tough it out, but man I wish I could just count on her sleeping through.

So much this! I'm sorry you are in the same boat but at the same time its nice to know I'm not alone.  K goes to bed on her own and naps on a schedule, and motn wake up is only 10 minutes long.  So really not that bad, but I still just want a few nights of not waking up.  I have no interest in doing motn sleep training since the current wake up is so short.  Some of the time its at 500 am, so I'm afraid that weaning will just mean her getting up at 5am instead of 7am (8pm bedtime).  I keep reminding myself something my aunt said 'almost no one goes to college still needing a pacifier'  I've extrapolated this to someday my child will learn to sleep through the night or learn to just not bother me in the middle of the night.

Yes, exactly. The times I've tried to fight it - wait for her to go back to sleep, then she's up 30 minutes later anyway - always mean a worse sleep for me. The only thing that's helped me is turning off the monitor. I'm a very light sleeper and listening to A rustle around at night, wondering "is she getting up now? how about now?" was making it impossible for me to sleep. Her bedroom is next to mine, so I do hear her when she's clearly up and asking for a bottle. I also refuse to get her up for the day before 7am. Even if she's up at 6am, she can talk to her lovey and wait for me.