anyone ttc or ntnp before there child is a year old?

[Harley Quinn]

Melissa, that line looks pretty promising! I'm definitely looking forward to more tests!

Jordyn, what a great photo! I love that idea, and your bump is just lovely. I think I know how you feel about the potential disappointment on delivery day. I've often thought about being team yellow for #3, but then I think I might really need that time to prepare myself if it is another boy. I like that rule - boy until proven otherwise! So good!

And I totally understand your not wanting to BF this time around. My BFing days with Ozzy ended VERY stressfully - I had a bad case of agitation/aversion (I think because I was pregnant) and I wanted to tear my eyes out after about 2 minutes of feeding. It took a loooong while for me to be okay with the thought of BFing Jimmy.

Heather, I agree with your thought about weaning. I feel like if they are self-weaning, then it's best to just let it happen. Jimmy is down to about 2 feeding per day as well. One big one in the morning before I go to work, then another decent one in the evening when I get home, then maybe a "snack" before bed. Although I do pump once per day at work, so he gets anywhere from 3-6 oz. of pumped milk during the day. I'm thinking of maybe easing off on the pumping, though. Now that he's one he can start drinking cow's milk more often, so I might try to slowly "wean" off the pumping and have a full hour for my lunch break again!

Well, Jimmy's dedication at church and the small get-together in the park afterwards went really well. The weather was great, and we all had a good time. It was just me, Daniel, the boys, my mom, Daniel's parents, and Daniel's sister. I'll try to post some pictures later. I don't know how to post them from my iPad yet!

 

[HAKing]

Rachel, I'm glad to see you said that Jimmy just snacks at bedtime. Ben is the same way lately...I thought it was weird since he used to fully feed before bed but I guess that makes sense that he doesn't anymore since he is eating regular food now. I think Ben has been more fussy with nursing the past week too though since AF just started today and it seems like I produce less the week before

I'm glad to hear that Jimmy's dedication went well I look forward to seeing some pictures soon!

 

[Spiffynoodles]

Rachel, can't wait to see some pics! I'm glad it went well.

So am I right to assume that Jimmy and Ben are both sleeping through the night? Liam still wakes up about 3 times a night on average, though sometimes more.

 

[HAKing]

Awe, Jordyn that must be hard still waking up with Liam especially being pregnant! Ben sleeps through the night almost 100% of the time. There might be a 1-2 nights a month he may wake up but its pretty rare.

Now, just trying to get Sam to sleep in his bed all night! How did you get Alia to sleep in her big girl bed all night without getting up? I feel like I have a newborn again...but worse! Because when Sam gets up he turns on ALL the lights in the house!

 

[Spiffynoodles]

The easy solution for us was not letting her leave the room. When we first put her in a big girl bed, she was 19 months old and couldn't physically open doors anyway, but once she figured it out, we just put a safety lock on the inside so she can't open it. Once I feel confident that she won't be roaming the house at night, we'll try without the lock, but I wouldn't be able to sleep right now without it, because I'd be worried about her falling down the stairs in the dark, or getting into the kitchen, or whatever else.

 

[blessedmomma]

thanks ladies. still same stuff going on. I timed my fmu test this morning and it showed at 20 mins. so still after time limit. I will try to get a pic. have to use DH's phone, mine wont even pick them up, its that faint.

I have a frer im planning on Friday unless I get one to show in time limit.

 

[Spiffynoodles]

Ooooo yes, picture please!

 

[Harley Quinn]

Heather, I definitely notice a drop in my supply before af. And as far as getting little ones to stay in bed, we put a gate across the bedroom door. Ozzy can actually get past it now, but it still keeps him in bed at night. He pushes it down sometimes after naps or in the morning, but not at night. We should probably get a more sexier gate. Lol

Jordyn, I wish he did, bit Jimmy does not sttn yet. He doesn't eat anymore during the night, but he still wakes around 12:30 - 1:00 every night. We can't seem to get him back to sleep, so he's been just coming into our bed with us for the rest of the night. It's not ideal, but at least we are all getting sleep that way. I'm hoping he'll just grow out of it, as I have no desire to sleep train.

Eta... Oh my, my first autocorrect fail. Secure, not sexier. Haha!

 

[Spiffynoodles]

Rachel I was laughing at your autocorrect fail! I was thinking, "What would constitute a sexy gate, I wonder?"

Well, I'm sorry to hear that Jimmy isn't sleeping through the night either, but at least it makes me feel a little better, because when everyone around you has kids that sleep through the night way earlier than yours, it starts to make you wonder what the heck you're doing wrong.

 

[blessedmomma]

ha! we have a sexy gate too! im sure to other people our situation would look like a mess, but it works for us. our girls are in a room. peyton and jaxon are in a room. and in our bedroom we have a king size bed that of course Jason and I use, but we also have mason and Sophia in bed with us still. nathon sleeps in a toddler bed right next to DH's side. that's generally how we move them on. mason rarely wakes at night, but nathon (who is a year older) wakes at least once a night. I think it really depends on the kid, or has for us anyways. all our bedrooms that are upstairs are in the back of the house down a long hall. so we have a gate at the front of the hall we put up at night. we also have one at the top of the stairs though in case they get past the one in the hall. if that's not confusing enough....

well, I tried to get pics of my sticks. I have to use DH's phone and even then its hard to see. I can see it when I take the pic, but then when I download it to the computer it doesn't really show up.
here is the frer I took yesterday

 

[HAKing]

Thanks for the tips, ladies

I might try to put up a sexy gate too this week and see if it helps!

Melissa, I don't really see anything on that first test but I definitely see one on the second one!

 

[blessedmomma]

heather- yay for your sexy gate!

 

[Spiffynoodles]

Thanks for the sexy gate ideas, ladies. I hadn't really thought about it, but that might be a good transition for us with Alia, so we don't have to have her "locked" in completely.

Melissa, I see the line on both tests, though the lighting definitely makes it a little tricky to see. I can't wait to hear what happens with your tests today!

Liam slept horribly last night! He woke up so many times, and would get so worked up, like he was hurting. He's had so many tummy issues lately, and I keep going back and forth wondering if it's a problem with the cow's milk, because he didn't have this many problems before we introduced it, but on the same hand, I tried eliminating it for a while with him, and he would still throw up, so it's hard to know what to do. All I know right now is, I am utterly exhausted, and don't know what I'll do if tonight is as bad as last night. And I can't even ask DH to take the night shift tonight, because he had to get up at 3:45am this morning to work, so I know he's tired, too.

 

[HAKing]

Jordyn, I'm sorry you didn't get much sleep last night and Liam had a rough time. Hopefully tonight is better!

Could you get both the kids to nap at the same time so you could take a little nap as well during the day, maybe?

 

[Spiffynoodles]

I would love that, but the problem is that Alia only naps maybe once a week, tops. The rest of the time she just plays in her room, but since I have to have her monitor on, it keeps me from being able to sleep. And on the rare day that she does fall asleep, it will usually happen right before Liam wakes up, so there's no real overlap between two.

 

[HAKing]

Bummer! My boys rarely nap at the same time either. Sam still naps during the day but he usually goes down right before Ben wakes up so maybe I get a 20 minute overlap so not enough to get anything done kid free!

So, DH and I have talked about trying to sell my car for something bigger since what we have now just isn't practical with 3 kids so this week we finally decided to put it up for sale. I'm hoping we sell it quick so we can go car shopping!

 

[Spiffynoodles]

Ooo, car shopping! How exciting! Do you know what kind of car you want?

I think I told you all that we bought the van that my DH's parents no longer used. It's a 2001 so they only asked $500 for it. It's not in great shape, but we really couldn't afford a second car payment, so it was a good option for us. The worst thing is that only one of the sliding doors works, so I have to lift Liam over Alia's car seat every time and as he gets heavier and I get more pregnant, it's really becoming a pain.

Okay, I have flipping had it with Liam today! He's having stomach problems lately so we're wondering if it's the whole milk, but I don't want to stop giving him milk and go back to just formula, so I know the best option is to get him eating more food so he needs less milk, but he is a worse eater than Alia was! I just tried him with two different types of baby food and some solid food, and he rejected all of it. It happens almost every time I try to feed him, which means we end up wasting food, time, and there's always a mess to clean up because he smacks the spoon out of my hand, and all for nothing since he won't eat any of it!

Sorry for the rant, but after getting so little sleep last night, I am just so done. What did I ever do to deserve two babies who won't sleep or eat??? If baby #3 is this bad, too, it might seriously make me reconsider how many kids I want.

 

[HAKing]

We will probably get a Yukon XL. It has a third row seat and still has trunk space so that's probably what we will go with. Not new though, we can't afford a car payment either. We will just take the money from selling my car and buy something else bigger.

Jordyn, as for Liam's eating and sleeping I'm sorry he's giving you a hard time. Is there anything he really likes to eat? I noticed you said you tried baby food but does he get regular food at all? Ben won't let me feed it to him either and will try to grab the spoon like Liam does so we don't even bother anymore. I would try giving him fruit or something kinda bland and see how he does.

We do lots of chicken, fruit, some very bland veggies and that's it. Besides crackers or cookies. I look at like as long as the boys are eating and are eating fairly healthy I don't stress too much. I also buy the baby food that is in the little pouches that they can suck out like a straw and that way they are getting some veggies but don't realize it since it's usually sweetened with a fruit. Maybe try that. I would recommend yogurt but not if he is having a milk allergy. That is a big go to for me with Sam since he rarely eats and when I need him to eat something he gets Greek yogurt so at least he gets some good protein.

 

[Spiffynoodles]

Yes, I give him solid food, too, and he usually just throws it on the floor immediately. I also try the pouches, but he'll smack that or try to grab it, too, which makes a huge mess. That's why I'm so exasperated; I don't know what else to do. With Alia, the magic trick was letting her watch something, like Baby Einstein, because then she'd sort of just automatically open her mouth and eat because she was so interested in the show. I tried that with Liam, but he actually does even worse, like, "Get that spoon out of my face, mom, I'm trying to watch this show." And then sometimes my DH will make a comment like, "We should be giving him more baby food," and it just makes me want to scream, because he's not the one that has to make that happen!

I'm sorry. I'm not having a very good day today.

 

[HAKing]

I'm sorry Jordyn I hope your day gets better!