★ October & November 2020 Hedgehogs ★

[Fern81]

Some pics from yesterday

 

[AzureOrchid]

Hope everything goes well with the condo Fern! I’ve been finding that Logan much prefers sleeping on his side, too. Also cannot wait for the smiles!! He’s looking so gorgeous!!

CO glad to hear Zeke is doing well! Great that he’s latching Hope your healing starts to pick up for you.

Yikes, Flueky! Sounds like quite the week for you. Glad to hear everyone seems to be doing well at this point, though!

We had our first family visit outing on Sunday to see my fiancé’s sister and her brood of kids. It was nerve wracking watching kids ranging from 3 to 12 holding my little guy (with a 10 month old being bounced around simultaneously) but he slept through it all like a little champ and the kids were all really good with him. I think I’m done with that much family at once for a good while, though.

I’m getting super sick of unsolicited (and sometimes solicited by my fiancé) advice from that side of the family. And it’s only the beginning…. Ugh!!

I get that she has a lot of kids but my fiancé looks to her and his mom for advice on all things, even personal things about me. His sister tried giving us some advice on the weekend for bath time (which she hadn’t even tried herself, she just saw it on Instagram) and he got upset when I said I wasn’t OK with trying it. Logan has been a bit of a screamer for his baths up to that point but he had only had a couple of them! That night he was good as gold and we didn’t do anything different. Some things just take a bit of practice.

I have started pumping a tiny bit every so often and dad (finally, after I showed him how to do it) has started giving him a bottle so I can get a little breather every now and then. I tried the Hakka but it didn’t work very well so wound up getting a note from my OB so I could get a discount on the Medela Sonata and it works like a charm!

Hope everything is going well for everyone and you have a safe Thanksgiving for those in the US!

 

[Flueky88]

Fern dd2 would only sleep if I was holding her. It made te transition from 1 to 2 very hard as dd1 was only 21 months. We bought a graco sense2soothe in hopes it would get her to at least nap without me, but she didn't care for it. Dd3 loves it though. Glad he will nap through babywearing though.

He is so cute and love his skinny legs, all my girls have super skinny legs as newborns.

Azure sorry about the unsolicited advice. Babies are all so different, having dd2 had me realize this as it was like learning all new challenges. In any case, I think as mom you know what's best for you and your child.

Glad you were able to get a pump and it's working well for you. Happy Thanksgivingto you as well.

AFM things are going even better. Dd2 is doing great and her follow up with ortho is Monday. Baby is nursing even better as poops have transitioned back to mustard yellow color. I didn't weigh her yesterday but project she will be near 6lb 14oz when weighing her later today. I'm thankfully losing weight too. Have lost 15 of the 22lbs I had gained during pregnancy. I'm not trying to lose but will accept whatever happens until I wean from nursing which is going to be awhile if all goes well.

Happy Thanksgiving to the US moms. I'm looking forward to eating lots of yummy food today and being with our immediate family.

Here's pics of baby E and dd2. Also, I'm having some feelings of sadness about no longer being pregnant, but I really don't think I can handle 4 mentally and financially. DH definitely doesn't want 4. I think it's just part selfishness (love the ultrasounds and feeling the kicks, etc) that I have those feelings and I know my body really cant handle pregnancy again. My poor pelvic floor is weak and don't want to stress it out. I guess just trying to say that I don't want any more children as we are complete that I'm going to miss some things about pregnancy. I suppose that's normal and there are many things about pregnancy I'm glad to not experience again.

Have a wondeful day everyone

 

[jellybeanxx]

Sorry it’s taken me so long to come back and update! Fraser was born at home in the birthing pool on 10th November. It was an intense and quick labour and a wonderful birth. I caught him myself which was an amazing feeling. He was diagnosed with a tongue tie (much like his eldest brother) a couple of days after he was born and we ended up with a hospital stay at 10 days old and a very dramatic 17% weight loss which was scary. He’s managed to stay alert and hydrated throughout which baffled the hospital staff. He seems to be turning a corner with his feeding now that his tongue tie has been snipped so hopefully things can be a little more relaxed!

 

[Fern81]

Thanks for the update Jellybean, I’m glad you got your home birth! Sorry that you had such a scare with the weight loss. It sounds really frightening but I’m glad it’s resolved. He is very handsome! So alert!

Flueky I’m glad things are going well at your end too and your girls are gorgeous. It feels like just the other day that you and I were both still ttc #1.

Afm up and down with baby sleeping and crying, I wish he would start smiling a bit but at least I have that to look forward to lol. He still sleeps best on someone/next to my bare chest side-to-side. The 5 s’s work sometimes but it was difficult this week with a sick toddler at home (G has sinusitis and is feeling very angry and upset shame). Maybe next week we can get into a better routine again.
I have to see my mil this week at a family christmas. I broke down crying a few weeks ago and told her I missed having a good relationship with her and whether we could make peace, which I really shouldn’t have because her behavior hasn’t changed and I dread seeing her & now I have to pretend to be NICE not just respectful lol. And I’m not always a very nice person so it’s going to be hard when I resent her so much. Now I have to reset the boundaries again, just my own fault. If she says anything about my kids or parenting style etc I’m going to be very firm and say “my kids, my rules” loudly so that everyone can be witness & so she won’t be able to tell a lie about it later. I really wish her out of my life! One plus point is that I can go have a breather and hide in a bedroom whenever Armand needs to (frequently) nurse haha!

 

[AzureOrchid]

Such lovely pics Flueky! They’re both so adorable! Glad to hear things are going well and congrats on the weight loss Sorry about the feelings of sadness. Sounds like you have a great outlook with it, though, so hopefully it fades soon. I definitely agree there are lots of things that are not fun about pregnancy!

Congratulations jellybean!! That sounds scary with the weight loss but great to hear he’s doing much better now. Very cool about your birthing experience, I can’t imagine what that must’ve been like!

Fern, that’s tough with the MIL! I hear you with being right on that cusp of being ready to firmly say that it’s your way or the highway with how you raise your child. I hope it’s not too awkward or frustrating for you and definitely take advantage of those “nursing” breaks!!

Logan is 5 weeks now and we had our one-month last week. He’s gaining well - up to 9lbs 13oz (from 7lbs 11oz at birth) and has grown about 5cm in length. We’re very slowly getting used to the bassinet at night, now, managing about 2-3.5 hours in there soundly between feedings but I can only get about one “round” out of him and he fusses after I put him back in there again so I just let him come back to bed with me so I can keep getting sleep.

Got a treadmill last week and have been enjoying walking on that. Can’t wait for my 6w checkup next week!! (And for the bleeding to stop… it will stop at some point, right?! Lol)

Hope all you ladies are doing well with your bundles of joy!! Have a great week Here are a couple of pics of him being a great little helper while I do a bit of work on my business.

 

[Pineberry]

Congrats Jelly!! Your birth sounds absolutely amazing and I’m so happy to hear that he is doing so well now in regards to feeding. He’s so cute and precious too


Fern I can imagine it was difficult with a newborn AND a sick toddler. Uff. Hope things are going better now. And your MIL definitely doesn’t deserve you at all (nor does anyone in that family IMO!). You’re worth so much more than to be treated like crap by these douchebags all the time. Is A smiling now?? It’s almost a week later so I figured he might! Also- love the pics of A at the top of this page - so tiny and adorable!!

Azure! He’s soo gorgeous omg! I love having him lay like that with me when I’m on my laptop (and love when he sleeps on me in general for that matter- except when I really need to pee or do something else ha). I do the same thing as you in regards to the bassinet; sometimes I’ll put him in it for the first stretch of his night sleep & it never works out too well for long (starts squirming, feeling uneasy) and I just end up putting him beside me and co-sleeping. We dont ever manage 2-3 hours in there though so good for you!

Jealous of the treadmill! Wish we had space for that in our apartment

-

all is going well here other than that bubs sometimes will still fight sleep a lot, and some days refuse to sleep anywhere but on us. But in general he’s been such a relaxed little dude ever since week 7 (knock on wood). 11 weeks today! The pediatricians we’ve seen are so impressed with his head/ neck control. They said he’s as advanced as a 4 month old!

His daytime naps are ridiculously short tho. We’re lucky to get more than an hour at a time. Nighttime is ok except he’s started being wide awake at 4AM these last days.

He’s honestly just the best thing in the entire world. Love being a mom so much.



Friend took some xmas pics for us! Really like how that one turned out.

We BD for the first time again 2 weeks ago at 9 weeks PP (and the only time so far), unprotected since I’m about 99% sure I’m not yet fertile again (seemed to be false alarm when I thought I was ovulating some weeks ago, period never ended up coming).

well now i’m all paranoid & thinking "what if??" and just ordered a pregnancy test Gonna take it in a couple of hours. Hoping real bad it’s negative; no way I’m gonna have another that soon. Even just financially its just not feasible for us. Probably gonna look into getting an IUD too. Never had it before so new territory for me

 

[co_fostermom]

Hey all!

Congrats Jelly! I'm glad you got your home birth and that bubs is doing much better with feeding!

Flueky, I'm so sorry to hear about DD2! That sounds scary and exhausting. But I'm glad she's doing well despite the broken bones. Praying that she has a super quick recovery and that you have the energy to keep up.

Azure, Logan is precious!

Fern, I feel like daytime naps are a struggle too. I'm sure it gets better. I'm sorry about the issues with your MIL...I haven't spoken to mine directly yet, but it seems like she's become a lot warmer to DH since Zeke was born so I kind of understand what you're going through with wanting a better relationship but also needing boundaries. MIL did have the nerve to ask us to travel to her so she can see the baby after DH had just finished explaining that he will be quarantined from work without pay for two weeks if he sets foot on a commercial plane. She doesn't work so really, that was quite rude and unthoughtful. We're always the ones traveling to our families anyway. I think it's time for them to come visit us for a change.

Pine I LOVE your Xmas pic! SO cute! I'm sorry bubs is not sleeping as well as you'd like. Also, I'm kind of in a similar boat as you with hoping for a negative preg test here in a couple weeks. DH and I BD'd for the first time this past weekend after I had told him I had an unusual glob of EWCM (sorry if tmi) as well as other ovulation symptoms and that we needed to hold off a bit longer. Suffice it to say my judgement was down (sleep deprivation) and he seduced me lol. I haven't gotten my period back yet but I really felt like I was ovulating. I'm holding out that nine years of trying and needing medical assistance to get pregnant is going to be consistent and that I'm not all of a sudden super fertile. Don't get me wrong, if I'm somehow pregnant again after only 2 months, I'll be happily VERY surprised, but I'm concerned it will cause my breastmilk to dry up and I was really, really hoping to BF until DS is 12 months. Oh well. We will see. Holding out for you that your test is negative!!!

AFM I'm doing okay with healing. My 6 week checkup went really well though and I'm starting to feel more normal. Still definitely have days where I can tell I did too much the day before. Zeke is doing really well. He's 2 months old today! He is also getting to a point where he's only waking up once per night (it's been consistently twice per night until the past few days or so). He's NOT a morning person just like his mommy, despite waking up at 6:30a every day, and his grunts and the faces he makes when he's waking up are hilarious! Okay, don't want this to get too long so I'll leave it at that. Also, Zeke is throwing me some serious shade from his swing so I better give him some loves.

 

[co_fostermom]

Pineberry...any news on the preg test? AF showed up for me yesterday so all is well on that front.

 

[Pineberry]

Aww co, sounds like everything is going pretty smoothly for you which is so great to hear. 6 weeks was also around the time i was starting to more normal too. So glad to hear Zeke is doing so well!!! And only waking up once a night is really good (definitely was not once a night for us when Rafael was 6 weeks) . My bubs has started sleeping through the night these past 2 weeks, only "waking" to eat every couple of hours (he doesn't really wake up though- he'll just latch onto my boob with his eyes closed - we bedshare). He's basically down from 8-9pm until anywhere between 6 and 8am. Now if I only didn't suffer from insomnia so I could get a good nights sleep :/ a lot of the time I'll only fall asleep around 4am and then bubs often wakes me up at 6-7am with his grunts trying to pass gas, and wanting to be picked up and carried around.

Pregnancy test was negative Gosh that would totally not have been doable for us had it been positive. We'll likely TTC again mid 2022 or beginning 2023.

I totally understand that you'd be happily surprised if you got a BFP the 'natural way' after so many years of infertility- do keep me updated?

Hope this thread won't die as it's so lovely to check in with you ladies from time to time and hear how all the bubbas are doing

 

[AzureOrchid]

Aww Pine that’s great with his neck and head control!! Hope he starts cooperating a bit more with sleep time for you. The 4am wake up sounds painful!

Your Christmas picture is SO CUTE!! Ahh I love it! The look on his face is heart melting!

Congrats on BD’ing again! I’m not quite ready yet at 7 weeks PP. Dry as all heck and still bleeding a bit, so no thanks! All the best with your IUD. I’m on the fence about that right now myself. I’m really worried about us getting pregnant again soon because I doubt he’s going to be game for condoms and I don’t want to take anything hormonal. Cue a stressful couple of years ahead depending on how long we wait (if we have another).

That’s great to hear you’re starting to feel more normal CO. Also fantastic with Zeke sleeping so well! I hear both of you about mornings, though haha, he sounds super cute with his noises and faces, though.

Hope everyone else is doing well with their little ones!

Logan is continuing to do well and is starting to smile a bit, which is so fun! He’s also seeing much better and gets mesmerized by so many things. He’s also doing really well with his head/neck, which is making certain things like bath time a lot easier.

What’s everyone’s plans for Christmas? How are you dealing with family gatherings, COVID, etc?

We’re in full lockdown in this province again as of the 26th, with my city being in full lockdown as of Monday. We’re still going to have grandparents pop by to visit and do gift exchanges on various days this week and skipping any family gathering/dinners but the SIL is pushing us to stay for dinner when we drop presents off there on Christmas Eve. Would really rather not since I’m not comfortable breastfeeding outside the home (my shirt often winds up soaked despite best efforts to keep dry lol plus I cannot relax at their house) and it’s just going to be pure chaos. Plus, my parents will then likely get jealous that we didn’t eat with them and the ongoing family drama continues. Why are the holidays so darn stressful?! I just want to stay in my little bubble with my little guy!

 

[Pineberry]

Azure, I’m so happy to hear Logan is doing so well and developing nicely Sounds like he is ahead of his age!

Regarding christmas plans - we’re going to see my SO’s family who live about 300 km up north. We are being cautious and did a covid test yesterday (which already came back negative). They haven’t seen Rafael since he was 12 days old so it’s going to be amazing for all of them getting to see him again.

Portugal is also in semi-lockdown again (on weekends it even starts at 1pm)- but people are allowed to travel between cities during christmas (thank goodness)

Also, my mom is visiting from Germany! She has been here for 10 days now, we booked her a really cheap airbnb which is right across the street from our apartment. So cool. She’s already helped tons with the little guy, cooking us dinner almost every night, helping me clean the place, etc. -- first time we’ve had any kind of help since bubba was born, we feel so spoiled

Also starting to get fit again, done three powerwalks in the past 3 days!!

 

[Pineberry]

Wish all of you a merry christmas btw Hope you all have a lovely one!

 

[co_fostermom]

Merry Christmas everyone! It's so nice to hear baby updates! Our Christmas is going to be quiet with just the three of us. My state is on semi-lockdown too. DH is taking me "on a drive" somewhere to do something. Apparently it's a surprise. We may be playing in the snow but I don't know for sure, though he did tell me to bring my snow pants in case I want them.

I started the mini-pill birth control method on Sunday. It promptly depleted my milk supply so I stopped it yesterday. I was planning on taking it until Zeke is 6 months and then trying again naturally to see if my fertility got a boost after this pregnancy (considering that AF returned already, I'm guessing things are looking better on that front). I'm honestly okay with getting pregnant within his first year, but I'm also 35, so I feel like I'm running out of time. At any rate, DH and I will need to be careful, because I'm not okay with getting pregnant before 6 months and I'd prefer it to be more around his 1st bday.

Okay, hope to hear from you all! I agree with Pine - let's keep this going as much as we can, even if it's just quick baby updates!

 

[co_fostermom]

I was FINALLY able to upload some pics of Zeke! Here you go!

 

[Flueky88]

I'm glad everyone seems to be doing well. I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas

Also, just a thought. How would you all feel about a "secret/private facebook group"? Have one with dd2 and I fins it easier to update and keep up with everyone. If others are interested, I'm willing to create one and would just need you to pm so we could ad each other on fb to add to the group. If no one is interested, I understand and my feelings won't be hurt.

 

[Fern81]

Merry Christmas everyone!

Flueky I’d be interested

 

[Fern81]

Nice to see the updates!!
It’s nice to see and read how the babies are growing up. I’m loving mine reaching new milestones and can’t wait for him to be more engaged and playful & to be able to interact with his brother.
As for birth control- I’m doing none. I’ve never been able to get pregnant without ivf in my whole 39 years of life, I’ve been sexually active for 23 years and no bfps other than my 2 ivfs so I’m not worried about falling pregnant at all!

 

[Pineberry]

co - Zeke is so darn precious, omg! Handsome lil fella, and those outfits!!

I would be interested in a fb group yes!

 

[Joannaxoxo]

Hi everyone!

Sorry I haven’t had chance to read everyone’s latest posts but thought I’d pop on and say Merry Christmas. I hope everyone had a nice time, despite all the Covid restrictions.

Baby Connor is doing well, we go for his 3 month check up next week. I am guessing he’s around 8.5-9 lbs now. He is sleeping longer stretches at night which is amazing.

I’ll try and get back on here more often. However, we are in another lockdown for about a month, so got the 2 bigger kids home now too. Hubby was about to finish his college degree in December before the lockdown happened (thankfully!)... so he’ll be doing some job searching come January. But I’m so thankful to have him home right now.

Keep healthy everyone!