Week of Aug 28

[thoseareradishes]

How's everyone?

We ended up putting E on reflex meds.  I've suspected she's had reflex for awhile, but didn't want to treat until she seemed bothered by it.  She choked on spit up twice last week  so we decided it was time.  It was so scary, her eyes were watering and she couldn't catch her breath.  Thankfully it hasn't happened again.

[kellikans]

7w3d. I had a follow up this morning for the abscess I had drained in the ER last week. He had to go in and drain more, but he thinks he got it all out now. He did it under local again, which has me freaked out because of crossover to the placenta. I have an ultrasound on Wednesday and am praying that baby boy looks good.

I just really hope this is the end of it.

[kellikans]

How scary, thoseareradishes. Hopefully the meds help E.

[starryfish]

I'm in south Houston suburbs. I'm safe and dry but many friends are not. It's truly devastating here. We are stuck in our house for probably the rest of the week.

[Chrysanthemum]

((( starryfish)))

thoseareradishes, We put C on Zantac after a lot of internal struggle and it was such a good decision! He became a different baby and all that reflux pain disappeared. We actually tried weaning a couple months ago but his symptoms quickly reappeared. I think I might try again though because now he's really sitting up by himself which the doctor said will help.

I haven't checked in in a while but all is well here. H and I still marvel over C being part of our family and H especially can't believe how much he LOVES being his dad. King26 your comment in J's birth story post made me think of it, even 8 months later, I still tear up when I put him to bed and tell him he's my special boy. We are so lucky.

He sits, he loves solids, he rolls only when he has to, and he's starting to think about getting up on all fours. He loves to scream and laugh and rough-house. And, I swear he says mama. Life is good!

[dellabear]

starryfish , stay safe!

thinking of you kellikans,

hope she's feeling better soon thoseareradishes,

I'm trying to enjoy my last week off before I return to work next week. DS starts daycare tomorrow just for a couple hours each day until Friday when he will stay all day. DD is home with me as school doesn't start until next week and I'd like to get in some quality time with her without the baby. My mom is visiting and taking DD on a day trip tomorrow so I'm going to try to sneak in a pedicure while DS is at daycare.

[mpc]

I started my period last week.    DD was exactly 19 weeks old. I looked it up and I started after DS when he was 18 weeks and 2 days. So I guess my body is pretty consistent.    My pumping supply has taken a hit, and I'm afraid this will be the new normal until I'm done. But, you know what was really bizarre... I realized this is the first period in over 3 years that was just a period. Not a disappointment, not a failure, not another blow that knocks me down. Just a period. No tears. I had forgotten what it was like to simply bleed without the associated devastation.

[loira]

A often only says the first syllable of words. Apparently this sort of thing is common for bilingual English-French kids, especially since she intuitively knows that in English the first syllable of a 2 syllable word is often stressed. It made for quite entertaining dinner conversation tonight when she kept yelling "MORE CRACK! MORE CRACK!"

Cracker. Lol.

[oneslybookworm]

Huge hugs starryfish, glad you're safe and dry!

G is 8 weeks now and time is FLYING by. I weighed him yesterday (you know, the super official "stand on a scale with baby then stand on scale without baby") to see where he was regarding weight. He is approximately TEN POUNDS! He's doubled his birth weight, which I'm super happy about. Especially since he was a preemie, so he's really chunking up!

I'm pretty sure we're in the middle of a leap, he's SUPER clingy. Yesterday he would be asleep in my arms and then the second I put him down, he'd start screaming. He actually fell asleep MID-SCREAM at one point. Sigh...exhausting, but hopefully it doesn't last long.

[mpc]

oneslybookworm, 8 weeks already! wow! 10 pounds is great. Go baby G!

@daylily, blaming his behavior on being an only child would really get under my skin. i'm sorry.

[mpc]

My dad is in the hospital with pneumonia. He'd been sick all week and I guess my mom finally convinced him to go see a doctor yesterday. The doctor was like, you're too sick for me, go to the ER. I guess it's good he's there, hopefully he'll start feeling better soon.

[knx9211]

P turned 12 weeks on Wednesday. I can't believe it. He's had a bit of a tough week, with a really tough day yesterday. I'm wondering if he's going through a growth spurt. For most of the day yesterday, he was either eating, sleeping, or crying. He at one point cried until I let him lay on my chest for 3 hours. Luckily, he really is a calm baby. It's not always convenient for me since I'm then stuck in one spot, but he's not hard to calm down. He's been a dream, so when he fusses even a little, I'm jumpy because we've been so spoiled. He's been spitting up a little more the last 2 days, too. He's not running a temperature or anything though, so I think he's just having a tougher week. Poor bunny. I love him so much, he's getting such a little personality. I post about 30000 pictures of him on Instagram a day.

He slept in his own bed for the first time Wednesday night. It was kind of sad. But he's been sleeping through the night for almost 2 weeks, so it was time. When I come in to bed, I was waking him up, and him rolling around was waking me up. We've both been sleeping much better. But now DH has his fucking alarm go off a full hour before he ever actually drags his ass out of bed. So I've been awake since 5:45 and Dh didn't get out of bed until almost 7. I wanted to kill him, especially since P was in bed until 7 and I could have gotten an extra hour of sleep (AND DH always falls back to sleep while I lay there wide awake because of him). He was all clingy with me last night because I got upset with him that I had to plan my own fucking birthday brunch and had been feeling pretty under appreciated lately, but then he did that again this morning, so I'm back to being pissed again.

[shoeless]

I haven't posted in a while and I hope its ok I post here instead of TTTC since my stay there would be very short (only one embryo left). We decided to transfer our last embryo this fall. The expense of it all has me so depressed. If it doesn't work then our only other option will be adoption which is even more expensive. I thought after being able to have one child that IF wouldn't hurt as much, but it still sucks.

[mpc]

knx9211, that's awesome you guys are getting good sleep now! We are in the middle of the 4 month sleep regression and it is tough. I'm so tired! My H was doing that snooze thing a couple weeks ago and I told him he had to stop. I get up at 6, he gets up at 6:45, it was just cruel to have his alarm waking me up before 6.

shoeless, yes please post here, no problem. I hope your transfer works. We will be rooting for you.

[thoseareradishes]

I hope your dad is feeling better and back home soon mpc.

Hey shoeless, welcome back.

[loira]

Just dropped A off for her very first 2 hours of daycare. She did not have the meltdown I was expecting. I am definitely having the meltdown I was expecting.

@daylily, people are stupid. I was an only child for 11 years and other than being more comfortable around adults, my behaviour was entirely dependent on my introvert personality/phases I was going through/energy levels/hanger etc.

[loira]

@daylily, I'm sorry to tell you they will likely comment, or (less rudely) just make wrong assumptions. The age gap between me and my siblings is substantial, and most people thought they were my half siblings, that they were oops babies, or that I was a very early oops baby - none of which was the case. And these were just the things said in front of me. I can only imagine how rude people were to my parents without me present. If I were you, I'd start working on prepared responses to these sorts of comments so you're not caught off guard. Something like a firm "we have exactly the family we want" or "did you really just ask me X?" Of course, these are more polite than they deserve and you are also free to tell them to piss off.

shoeless, good luck! Nice to see you here again!

[lms]

@daylily with me it was more about the looks I got more than the comments. When I was by myself people would ask if it was my first child. I told them no, my second. Which of course prompted the follow up question of how old my other child was. The look on their face when I told them she was 12 is what bothered me. It's like they were trying to figure out why I would have waited so long to have a second a child. And then it was "Boy you are starting all over again!" I so wanted to respond with "Well, no shit I'm starting all over again! That's what happens when you get divorced and then can't get pregnant with your new husband and have to see an RE and go though IF treatments." instead of the smile I put on while saying "I am."

But now what's almost more annoying when they find out the age gap is that say "Well she must just be the biggest of helpers for you." She really is but what if she wasn't? Shut-up people, just shut-up!

[mpc]

Sept 1, 2017 11:48:02 GMT -5 @daylily said:

Also...I feel really sensitive to people assuming that this is how we've intentionally structured our family. This is all making me consider how I'm going to handle people potentially commenting on an age gap between our kids. Like if someone insinuates that our new baby is an oops because she is 6 years younger, I might actually get arrested.

I relate to this so much. Our gap is only 4 years, but people will say things about how smart I was to wait that long and I just want to scream this is not what I wanted! 

[loira]

Sept 1, 2017 13:09:12 GMT -5 lms said:

But now what's almost more annoying when they find out the age gap is that say "Well she must just be the biggest of helpers for you." She really is but what if she wasn't? Shut-up people, just shut-up!

This was me to my mother. I was... not happy to have a baby in the house, and even less happy when she told me 3 years later there would be another one. I mainly ignored them. My brother, sister and I get along okay now though.

[shoeless]

Thanks loira. Daycare drop offs are worse for parents. Even know when we have a bad drop off I leave almost in tears feeling bad, even though I am sure my daughter has more fun at daycare than with me on the weekends!

[loira]

The drop off was better than pickup. She didn't meltdown when I dropped her off, but I think this might have been because she was confused. She's never been left with anyone but my mum & dad or my sister - all people who live in her house. When I returned I could hear her crying even before the teacher opened the door. She said A hadn't been crying the whole time, and told me what she'd been up to (it all sounded like stuff A would do so I believe her). Still, it's the worst to come back and find a frantic toddler screaming, "Mama, I want to go go go go go!"

[King26]

I am having a bit of a rough one. Baby J slept the best he has last night (2 hours, 2 1/2 hours, then 1 1/2 hours) and it felt really good. Then this morning was good but now this evening I feel like I'm crashing worse then the other days. DH and I snapped at each other over dinner and I'm just feeling down. I've managed to breastfeed most of the day but at dinner I gave in and let DH give J a bottle of formula because I was just really tired and my boobs hurt. I feel like I'm letting him down by giving him a supplement of formula but I can't have him on my boob all day long.

With that being said, when do they stop nursing all day long? Is there a point? Also, when will he sleep more at night? Prior to last night he was doing stretches of 45 minutes-1 hour 30 minutes. So last night's 2 1/2 hours was glorious.

I'm sorry A was cryign when you came to pick her up. I'm sure that's hard.
@daylily and lms People need to mind their own business.
knx9211 I'm sorry you are havign a rough time

[knx9211]

King26 , I'm sorry you're having a tough evening, but you're doing great. You didn't let him down. You being at your best is what's best for him, and sometimes that means you need a break!

also I can't remember when P stopped eating constantly. He still eats every 2-3 hours during the day so it gets better but is still a full time job. 

[shoeless]

King26 don't feel bad at all about giving formula! Fed baby= happy baby. Sane mom= happy baby! I regret that it took me so long to embrace formula. As to your question, K (at 18 months) has only slept through the night 8 times. But I think by 3 weeks I was regularly getting 2-2.5 hour stretches through-out the night. Are you using a pacifier? K was a comfort nurser (and still is) so at some point around 2/3 weeks I started offering a pacifier MOTN instead of nursing (when the wakeups were too close to the last nursing session). I think that's what helped stretch her to the 2-2.5 hour mark.

I should note K was a 37 weeker so I wasn't allowed to go past 2 hrs without feeding until 2 weeks

[thoseareradishes]

King26, hang in there. It's so easy to snap at each other when you are both so tired and stressed. I try not to take it personally when H is grumpy with me, and I think he does the same for me. I try to tell him if I'm feeling sad or angry, then it's easier for him to deal with my mood (and easier for me to check myself).

As for night stuff - keep the lights low/off and minimize stimulation, so that he learns that night time is for sleeping.

[thoseareradishes]

Currently E is in her swing, NOT NAPPING. UGHHH. She fell asleep for about 20 minutes, now she's awake again. She's mostly quiet, but omg kid needs to nap. She'll nap just fine on me, but I can't do 3 "mommy naps" as I call them a day. She'll sleep in the carrier, but only if we're on a walk (not in the house). She's an excellent sleeper at night (although we still wake her to eat, that's a whole other issue) so I try not to complain but kid needs to sleep during the day too, or else she gets too sleepy to finish her bottles.

[loira]

thoseareradishes, A refused to nap in her own bed for the longest time. She only finally started doing it around 11 months when she became too tall to comfortably nap on me. I even tried to nap train once, and it was a total bust. Will E sleep in the car? When A was still taking multiple naps I tried to schedule one of them around an outing.

King26, you are doing such a great job! It's a difficult time, and I can't think of a single person who wouldn't be crabby on that type of sleep schedule. H and I never snapped at each other before A came along. In her first year I joked that we should rename ourselves the Bickersons.

[grover]

A is teething (5.25 months). I feel so bad for her, because it's obviously uncomfortable for her the past two days. I hope it pokes through soon. Today she only took one nap (she usually naps three times), but she went to bed forty minutes early, so I'm hoping this doesn't wake her up at the crack of dawn. We also gave two half doses of tylenol today because the teethers, paci, cuddling, feeding etc were not helping at all.


I'm all caught up in the IF feelings again- we haven't prevented since my period returned three months ago. And each month I get the disappointment again. I'm reading to do another IUI right now (though I realize there's no guarantee it would work again this time around), but can't take the time off of work since I just started back after maternity leave (I'm a teacher). So naturally, I'm all hopeful that it will happen naturally this time, then angry and upset each month my period comes. And really, a May duedate wouldn't be my first choice this time around just because we have a mini vacation planned for a family wedding then that I'd be bummed to miss. But on the other hand, I'd be thrilled to not have needed treatments again. So basically my mind and emotions are playing ping pong on a daily basis.

[dellabear]

loira, we just started daycare here too and it's been difficult. Hopefully they get used to it soon. I remember my daughter really loved daycare after the transition period, and I'm hoping R is the same.

Hang in there King26, the first 6 weeks with a newborn were a blur and then we started to settle into a routine. It does feel like they feed around the clock at the beginning. As he grows and his belly can hold more, the feedings will space out more.

Good luck shoeless!