April Munchkins 2013- enjoying our wonderful babies!

[stmw]

Kirst - its so much easier on the phone isnt it!

Readytomum - sorry about the breastfeeding having to be stopped. It is annoying when you have to stop even when youve tried so hard to keep up with it. I hope the transition goes well for Peter.

Mommabrown - kevs said to me he wouldnt mind having another one either! Like you ive said i want to wait for at least a year!

Afm - ive been given a low dose of antidepressants as the doctor feels my anxiety levels have increased alot. They do seem to be working ghough as i dont feel so stressed all the time - im a very organised and tidy person and like to get things done - obviously eith 2 little ones this cannot be maintained! Lexi is a beaut - i think she weighs about 8 and half lbs now and shes in 0-3month clothes! She sleeps well at night - going to sleep after her bath at about 8 and she will wake at about 2, then back down until 7 when Roxy wakes us up! Shes slept through 2 nights already aswell - couldnt believe it!
Sorry if i missed anyone! Love to all xxxxx

 

[doggylover]

Candy I agree 100% with kirstabelle, you shouldn't feel guilty that he can only watch. Worse fault is it? Certainly not yours!!! What a creep, standing watching the, :/ I suppose maybe he wanted to see what they are like in a "normal" situation out of the centre, or to see you and Aaron with them. Whatever it is...super creepy. I hope Benson isn't being so clingy now!

Kirstabelle, I'm with you. The thought of #2 at the minute just has me like I mean, Isabelle is a pretty easy baby in general, but I still don't know if I could handle another one for a while!! What book did you end up downloading? I have LOADS of books that are new and haven't had a chance to read any of them. Did you ever look for someone new to help you after your disaster woman?

Mommabrown: Allen is batshit crazy for wanting another one so soon like you said, your body needs time to recover from the massive operation you had, it's bloody easy for him to decide another one sounds great! Isabelle also isn't a fan of being hot, it makes her so cranky! Our bedroom is so warm at the minute, so tonight she is just wearing a shirt sleeved onesie under her sleep sack, as her pjs (even w/o a onesie underneath) are just way to warm!

Dan-o so sorry to hear that LOs have been so ill. You are one impressive momma dealing with two very sick little men all alone! Thank goodness you didn't get sick as well!

Stmw: sorry to hear that you haven't been feeling the best but I'm so happy that your prescription is working for you. Sometimes we just need a little help in that department, but I hope you won't need to be on them for too long. So so so jealous of your little tinker sleeping through! And she is so tiny

Music wise...Isabelle only gets to listen to classical as that's all I listen to in the car! Her dad did play her lots of Disney tunes at the start, but he stopped after about two days! So she is all about the classical...oh and the "twinkle twinkle" music on her tummy time roll of course
She can just about fit in her newborn clothes, but she wore them all one last time last week so I could pack them away. Her 0-3 months are an ok fit, a little long in some cases!

So she squealed like a maniac for 45mins this morning to the point where I had to leave her and walk away because I got so frustrated that nothing would calm her. When I went back, little tears were dripping down her cheeks all very sad and pathetic.
Luckily my SIL and I arranged to go out, so from 10.30 when we got in the car until 2pm she slept soundly. Then again from 2.30-4.30 and then AGAIN until 7.30. So she has caught up on some of the sleep she missed yesterday, so I'm hoping tomorrow she isn't so fractious.

Also, she didn't eat off one boob between 6.30 and 2 so it was a ROCK. the same one as last night as well. Poor unloved rock boob!

 

[Mommabrown]

Oh kristabelle Emmaleigh and I are in love with the Lumineers and Macklemore at the moment. I have my ipod set on shuffle so she gets a healthy dose of rock, country, hiphop and rap.

Stmw so sorry to hear about your anciety but very glad the meds are helping!

Doggylover oh I hate hate hate when Emmaleigh cries I will do anything to stop it....I have sat crying with her before and I think the sounds of my sobs made her think I was a poor wallowing cow! She stopped crying and looked up at me like you poor sap!

I agree Allen is bat shit crazy!!! I take care of Emmaleigh about 23 1/2 hours of the day when he starts taking more care of her then we will talk!

 

[doggylover]

I did cry yesterday, she was in her bouncer on the rug, and I sat next to her sobbing. And that is not the first time...

I'm also ashamed to say I told her to "shut up" several times yesterday and today. Not good parenting by me over the last two days at points

 

[Steph82]

Sarah @ ou feeling sorry for your neglected boob . When mine get to that point, I force it into Graysons face ahahaha. (and I wonder why he is such a chunker).

I can't believe all you ladies LO's are sleeping for that many hours. What am I doing wrong . We had two nights over the weekend, where he sept for 4.5 hours, then 3 and another 3... but thats the best we can do!!

Shell, I am ashamed to admit.. I wouldn't mind trying for another one . Not that we are in any position (financially or relationship wise) to even consider it... but If our situation was different, I would not hesitate at all lol. Maybe I have forgotten everything, but I thought pregnancy was pretty easy and recovery as well . Surprisingly, I am also not feeling overwhelmed with LO and work (yet!!).

ReadytoMum, I understand the need to add some formula, but you dont have to stop breastfeeding all together, do you? Why not continue to BF morning and night (before a bottle)?? That way Peter still gets all the benefits and so do you.

Candy, I would have felt bad for the ex too... I know that he deserves to sit and watch, but I still can't help but feel bad for the dude. Only being able to watch your kids from the far, has to be hard! But , HE DESERVES IT !!

As for music, Grayson gets a mix of Rock and Country lol. I listen to country exclusively and Rob likes ANYTHING else . We actually have a onesie for Grayson that says "I listen to Iron Maiden with my dad". He worse it to a local restaurant (owned by the drummer of Iron Maiden) last week. lol. Too bad the owner wasnt there that day, but I guess that means, that we will have to repeat that lol.

I hope everyone else is doing well!

 

[Mommabrown]

Oh Allen has done that too. I almost smacked him once when he said just shut up kid! Not bad parenting just difficult when you have done all you know to do and nothing is working. Emmaleigh has been far more difficult than Landon was and when it is just me and her and I have no relief or help I get frustrated too. I hope she starts behaving herself for you!
On Memorial Day I handed Emmaleigh off to my Mom and sisters and just walked outside for awhile. I needed the break from her and they took care of her for the 3-4 hours they were at our house. It gave me a lot of relief.

 

[Mommabrown]

Steph i had a great recovery and a fairly good pregnancy also. I love Emma to death and don't want her being lonely and Allen has a good point but I am not about to tell him that! His head may get big and pop off his shoulders if I do. I just feel I need a bit of a break for me to be a little selfish and just spend all the time I can with Emma before another baby comes into the picture.

I love the onesie!!! Allen is a rocker too and sings her lots of Metallica songs.

 

[doggylover]

Yeah I didn't know my mum was at home yesterday, she told me today (not helpful!) or I would have had her come round to help me. I think like you said, being home alone can make things so difficult, and I think it kind of blows things out of proportion when you have nobody to even say "what the heck is this kid doing?!" to.

Steph: I saw you mentioned your relationship, are things not good still with Rob? I know you said a few weeks ago that he was struggling because of the job situation and it was putting pressure on things?

Baby wise, I would be pregnant again tomorrow! My pregnancy was so easy, thank God, and I loved every second!!! Even labour wasnt really THAT bad at all! I just don't know how you ladies with toddlers do it, all my energy is spent on Isabelle. I feel like every single thing I do all day is for her, even when I'm doing things for me it's to give me energy to look after her. I love it (not on days like yesterday) but cant imagine how I could devote myself to another tiny one in the same way. Does that make sense?

 

[ukgirl23]

thank you kristabelle xxx

lmao at poor little rock boob!!!

steph I felt so guilty that we had chosen the park near the center and he had walked past I know he deserves it but like you say it must be hard for him to see tour kids playing and not be able to see them.. I totally would have allowed him to hug them and talk to them if I had seen him. xx

Benson is being such a monster tonight hes still up!! his bedrime is 8pm and he just isnt giving in! I think he over heard daddy talking about having a bath with mummy haha tmi? I guess I dont need Aaron to get the snip.. this kid is birth control enough xx

stmw Im glad you are getting sorted with the pills. They really do make a world of difference. Well done for admitting to the gp that you needed help. Hope you are feeling better xxx

 

[Mommabrown]

Oh DL yeah I completely understand. At one point in my life I had 3 kids 4 years and under and i seriously don't know how the F@#k I did it. I can't even handle a 7 week old now! My sister was here again today and she took Emmaleigh for a bit again. She has wanted to be held and fed all day so it was nice to go pee without having to figure out how to wipe and hold a baby at the same time!

Oh Candy don't fret over it too much. I know that not being part of my childs life everyday is heart breaking but seriously I try to be there no matter what the obstacles are. It is so hard to co parent a child when the other one is still stuck on their own selfish reasoning of torturing the other parent rather than just trying to be a good parent and leaving the past in the past.

For what it is worth Emmaleigh has no sleep schedule. She is up when she wants to be and sleeps when she wants to. The only thing I can schedule her on is her 4 am feeding.

 

[Steph82]

Shell, Like I said.. it sounds great in THEORY lol. But I think reality... I would go mad with more then one baby ahahaha

Sarah, we are OK. We had a long talk and decided that we would both try to work on things. It has gotten much better, but we still have more of a friendship, then relationship. Its really hard to explain... we get along great... we don't fight... but we also don't gush over each other (if that makes sense). Rob described it as: Just kind of emotionless relationship. I don't know where things are going to go, but I know one thing... we will always be able to co-parent without any trouble.
He is great with the baby and that is really all I can ask for!!!

Candy, lets be honest... nothing can stop you and Aaron .. not even baby Benson lol! We DTD with Grayson asleep in his crib next to the bed

It looks like I have started AF . I have had bright red bleeding (not super heavy, but kind of clotty??) for 3 days now. We havnt DTD in the last week, so its not from that and I stopped bleeding, 2 weeks after birth. I guess i'm glad, that we did not rely on BF as birth-control
But the good things is, it has not seemed to effect my supply, so I'm happy.

 

[ReadytoMum]

Hey ladies, sorry I haven't had time to give a proper read through. Today has been busy! I finally tried out one of the mom/baby gatherings in my neighborhood and it went really well. It was at a coffee shop with live Jazz music playing. Peter loves music and it was nice chatting with the other mums. We're going to try another different meetup on Friday which is also in our neighborhood.

As far as the feeding situation goes, after some thought we've decided to follow a similar pattern as to what we were doing with the tube feeding, except using a bottle now since he was gaining weight well enough then. So he will still be a primarily breastfed baby, and during the day we'll supplement with some formula every other feeding, and at night we'll just breastfeed, and Adam will do a formula only feed for the 5am-ish feeding. Hopefully this plan will be sufficient enough for weight gain while also maintaining breastfeeding. Next weigh in on Tuesday again.

 

[ukgirl23]

awww Steph Im sorry to hear you are having troubles with OH I know in my relationship with Aaron that having a baby has really tested us and at times things have been bad but after a while they pick up again. Maybe you are just going through a rough patch and things will pick up again?
as far as AF goes that sucks that its come so early!! I dont inderstand how people rely on Bfing for BC anyway bfing doesnt stop people getting pregnant.

Sarah I meant to reply more last night but Benson didnt give in all night. He finally went to sleep at 11pm! little monster. I wanted to say on the subject of telling babies to shut up that it doesnt make you a bad parent at all. When yku have tried everything to soothe a screaming baby and they are still going afterwards it is really frustrating! Or my personal pet hate is when they calm down and finally stop screeching long enough for me to relax and then suddenly off they go again lol. I told Benny to ahut up yesterday. He was such a pain in the ass!! I love him so much but my goodness that boy tested my limits yesterday lol. Things will get better as she gets older. Get Simon to look after her and go get in the bath or something xxxxx

mommabrown I couldnt agree more with what you said. It is hard to co-parent when the other parent is hell bent on making life hard! Its the kids who suffer in the end though.
I have let Benny fall into his own routine and taken queues from him naturally. He usually has a zuper long feed around quarte past seven and is out for the count by 8pm or not long after so for him to be up until 11pm is really out of the ordinary for him. Hopefully tonight is better.

Connie was sleeping next to me in bed just now and starts saying she has growing pain in her leg then lifts it out of the cover saying she needs it to be rubbed and turns to me and goes... so mum are you up for it? hahaha sooooo weird! But I had to laugh! x

sorry for typos Im on my phone x

 

[doggylover]

Candy thanks for that. I just felt so awful for telling her off, when she is so little and obviously needed something, but flip me did I know what it was! Lol at connie, kids do pick up the funniest phrases sometimes!

Steph: I know exactly what you are describing with rob. Sometimes I feel like that a bit with Simon. I do love him, very much, and I am so happy being married to him, but again we aren't big with the lovey emotions either. And since I got pregnant and we pretty much haven't dtd since, I definitely feel its more friendship orientated than anything else. But I think having a baby is definitely a tough thing. It has meant that Simon and I haven't had any us time. I took for granted before how easy it was for us to spend time together. I love spending time as a family, but I think we need to do something soon just us.
I don't know if any of that even makes sense?!

Readytomum, I think that sounds like a great feeding schedule. And I'm thrilled that you are still going to be bf Peter I suppose just take things one day at a time and see how Peter does and adjust your schedule to suit him.

Afm: a cracking night from Isabelle.......she was up at 12, 1, 3, 4, 5.30 and then Simon finally took her downstairs at 6am when she proceeded to scream her head off for him. So I am a zombie this morning!! In fairness her 4am wakening was because I forgot to lock her swinging crib in place and she had wriggled over and was smooshed up against the bars, poor doll!

 

[lily28]

It looks like I have started AF . I have had bright red bleeding (not super heavy, but kind of clotty??) for 3 days now. We havnt DTD in the last week, so its not from that and I stopped bleeding, 2 weeks after birth. I guess i'm glad, that we did not rely on BF as birth-control
But the good things is, it has not seemed to effect my supply, so I'm happy.

Good news you are still ok with your milk supply!

BTW how do you know it is AF and not lochia, I hear lochia can last 10 weeks? I 'm not able to distinguish the 2, it seems like I have a very loooong period to be honest. Plus I have cramping. I'm glad I'm seeing my doc again on Monday because I'm at a loss.

Hey ladies, sorry I haven't had time to give a proper read through. Today has been busy! I finally tried out one of the mom/baby gatherings in my neighborhood and it went really well. It was at a coffee shop with live Jazz music playing. Peter loves music and it was nice chatting with the other mums. We're going to try another different meetup on Friday which is also in our neighborhood.

As far as the feeding situation goes, after some thought we've decided to follow a similar pattern as to what we were doing with the tube feeding, except using a bottle now since he was gaining weight well enough then. So he will still be a primarily breastfed baby, and during the day we'll supplement with some formula every other feeding, and at night we'll just breastfeed, and Adam will do a formula only feed for the 5am-ish feeding. Hopefully this plan will be sufficient enough for weight gain while also maintaining breastfeeding. Next weigh in on Tuesday again.

Your mom baby group gathering sounds fun, glad you had a good time! I will try to contact the girls from my birth classes, I miss them.

The feeding schedule sounds great, hope he gains lots!

as far as AF goes that sucks that its come so early!! I dont inderstand how people rely on Bfing for BC anyway bfing doesnt stop people getting pregnant.


Connie was sleeping next to me in bed just now and starts saying she has growing pain in her leg then lifts it out of the cover saying she needs it to be rubbed and turns to me and goes... so mum are you up for it? hahaha sooooo weird! But I had to laugh! x

BF is not BC lol, I don't understand it either!
HOWEVER, DH watching me BF all the time makes it a great BC method, I swear he is sick of seeing me with my engorged boobs out all the time. I'm telling you we are becoming the lords of celibacy.

lol @ connie, so funny!!!

Afm: a cracking night from Isabelle.......she was up at 12, 1, 3, 4, 5.30 and then Simon finally took her downstairs at 6am when she proceeded to scream her head off for him. So I am a zombie this morning!! In fairness her 4am wakening was because I forgot to lock her swinging crib in place and she had wriggled over and was smooshed up against the bars, poor doll!

Oh poor mama Get a nap when she is napping, hope you sleep better tonight!

 

[Steph82]

Lol Lily, you have a good point about BF = less sex lol. I swear, I'm constantly sitting around the house with one boob in Grayson's mouth! NOT sexy.

Lily I'm not sure I it's lochia or not . I figured that it couldn't be, since I have not had any bleeding for 5 weeks. I thought that it can last longer, but only if it is more consistent. I'm confused... Maybe it's not AF?!?

Sarah, that makes complete sense. I guess I always envisioned that hopelessly romantic love. Silly really, since I am far from that . I think the problem is, I'm ok with how things are, but I feel like it won't be enough forever .... Like I will miss being adored and gushed over?!? Not sure if that makes sense. We did have a really good day yesterday and it seems like things are getting better.
Boo for Izzy keeping you up all night!! That is exhausting. What did she want?? Grayson will usually wake me up for food or because he has to poo (am that can take hours of kicking), but he won't cry... Just grunt and kick.
Grayson has been watching Rob the last 3 days while I was at work . Poor rob is desperate to start his job on Monday lol. I find it amazing, that I have LO and still manage to clean and do laundry and take care of the dog... But when Rob has him, I come home and it looks like they didn't manage to leave the couch

Candy, lmao @ Connie!! Good for her... Roping mommy into some leg rubs! I should try that with Rob and see if it works as well lol

Question: do you OH do any night time feedings/changing? Even when I have to work and Rob doesn't, I don't bother to wake him . I figure, I'm up already and I wouldn't be able to sleep while he was changing him.

 

[lily28]

Grayson has been watching Rob the last 3 days while I was at work . Poor rob is desperate to start his job on Monday lol. I find it amazing, that I have LO and still manage to clean and do laundry and take care of the dog... But when Rob has him, I come home and it looks like they didn't manage to leave the couch

Question: do you OH do any night time feedings/changing? Even when I have to work and Rob doesn't, I don't bother to wake him . I figure, I'm up already and I wouldn't be able to sleep while he was changing him.

You are super mom, I swear I can't do much except watch the baby, wash some dishes, and do laundry. At best I will manage to have a cup of coffee, and eat a banana on my own. Usually we have take out or DH will cook, or if I'm lucky my mom will bring some food over.
I have a girl come over once a week to clean, she my favorite person in the world right now.

Nope he doesn't feed or change him, day or night. Except on last Saturday morning when I went shopping, I left them a bottle of pumped milk and he HAD to change him lol
DH works 12 h a day, so I can't ask him to change the baby in the middle of the night. I get to nap a bit more in the mornings w/ the baby so I'm good.

 

[Steph82]

Oh no no Lily... Far from super mom... Grayson is just fairly easy lol. He will swing in his swing contently for 15 min at a time. Then he usually sleeps for at least 2 hours at some point during the day.

 

[liams_mom]

Steph: I know how the "friendship" goes and I've found that having a good go round in the bedroom (even if you're not completely feeling up for it) can go a long way to pumping out those loving feelings again. Afterwards you forget how you didn't "want" them and then the cycle starts all over again Greg and I get to the friend-zone all of the time, then one of us breaks the other one down and we find some "us" time and we end up feeling close again. Our hormones may not be as wild as they were, but they're still ramping up and depleting our emotions. Damn being female sometimes!

Candy: I'm sorry you're dealing with some nastiness of your own, but never forget we're all here for you when your emotions get the best of you. I dealt with PPD after coming off a birth control pill suddenly (since BC fools your body into thinking its pregnant, coming off before you hit your green sugar pills can fool your body into thinking its lost the baby) and it was horrendous for me. I wish I'd had such a wonderful group of ladies to chat with when I was dealing with my crazy self back then. I was still young enough that I didn't know exactly what was going on and it took us a while to figure out what the root cause of my "depression and anxiety" was. I finally found a doctor that really went over my history and worked with me and helped me out immensely. I also found out the "pill" had caused a fluctuation in my thyroid and as the thyroid medicine built up in my system I started to feel SOOO much better. That will be my advice to you, have your thyroid levels checked if you can because PPD can be that simple.

ReadytoMum: Your schedule with Peter sounds awesome! I'm so glad you decided to keep on with your BF'ing! You did an amazing job getting your supply up and its your right to keep it there for yourself and for Peter!

DL: I yell at my parrot, Bailey, because he can be an annoying little bird. Parrots KNOW when they're being annoying, I am most certain of that. They test you just like a child would! I must sound a terror to Liam and Jake which is probably not a good thing as Bailey starts squawking and I start yelling at him to "Shut his beak!" only to have Bailey say "I love you". Makes me feel like a great mum. I've really been trying to learn all of Jake's cues so that we don't get into screaming matches and I think I have most of them licked. He's pretty obvious - Deep throaty cry = hunger, High pitched cry = gas, Squished face cry = tired

AFM: I have my 6 week checkup tomorrow and they're going on and on about my "balance owed". Greg had just started his new job so the insurance company was telling all of my doctors and the hospital that I hadn't met my deductible and all of the offices were overbilling me because they could bill for the whole amount of the deductible. Now that I've met my deductible, my hospital bill went from 1000 US to NOTHING! Because I HAD actually met my deductible. So I asked them to check my balance again by checking if 200 US was what I actually owed and the lady on the phone was none too thrilled to have me asking to have my bill adjusted. Apparently all of us stupid Americans are just supposed to pay because we don't know any better? Hell no! I am a strong woman and will question everything! :wink:

Liam has had some boundaries put up, such as no toys around the house, only in his room, time outs have been instituted for very ill behavior and please and thank you are now REQUIRED. He seems to like the little bit of structure we've started and so we will continue. I read an article on French children and how they're raised with certain things that are acceptable and certain things which just aren't allowed and it made so much sense to me, plus a 3 year old is so busy searching for himself, sometimes he needs a little bit of fence to make him feel safe.

As for Jake, I think we really are getting onto a schedule. Sleep for about 2 hours in the AM between waking up from the night through to 10:30-11, feeding playing, etc through till 1ish, then sleep from then through until 3pm ish, then up through around 7-7:30 then tubby time and a big nurse and finally - SLEEP. He's been sleeping from around 8-9 until 4am for a feed and then back down till around 7am YAY!

 

[ukgirl23]

Steph Aaron only does it in the night if I ask but I'm proud of him because he gets up and does it without complaining. He doesn't do the feeds because I BF exclusively on demand. xx

Thank you Liams_mom! That makes a lot of sense to me, I was using Nuvaring and had to come off it because my anxiety levels shot through the roof. It explains why I get so many pregnancy symptoms on the pill. That is why I'm recommended the non hormonal coil plus I got Lucas on the pill lol. I'll go to my gp next week to talk about the depression. Hopefully its just stress xx

Good for you on questioning how much you owe! You have 2 children to pay for you don't need to be over paying on anything! It sounds like Liam is doing what my oldest child did around that age, he's starting to build a personality and see how far he can press you. Stay firm with your rules and disciplines and he'll settle down again, he needs his own independence now and it sounds like he's trying to see how far that goes for him. I'm still working on Benny's daytime routine xx

afm not a good day again, well it started well we went out for lunch while the kids were at the center. Then the solicitor called..... The social worker posted her statement for court, she sees the abuse William lays on me but isn't worried about the children with him so she's asking for 3 visits a year with him unsupervised and if something goes wrong we can revise her decision.. but why should my children be put at risk just to prove he can't look after them. I have to fight extra hard now. I'm so upset about it I feel out of control of what is best for my kids. I feel like selling all my stuff and moving back here to protect them was a huge waste. He's going to destroy them and I can't stop it