***December Snowflakes 2012 Parenting***

[scoobydrlp]

No teeth for Camden yet. But that doesn't stop her from chomping off pieces of food! I gave her some pear slices yesterday that were quite crisp, and she bit off pieces and chewed them into mush. On another food related note, I found 2 undigested green beans in her poo today. So weird!!

I haven't thought a bit about her first birthday party, although I'd guess we'll probably just do a small family gathering. I hate the thought of her being 1 so soon!

So I got a taste of what you poor ladies with not so great sleepers are going through. Cadmen slept from about 9:30 to 1am, then was up every 30 minutes until I finally brought her into my bed at 4:45. She slept there until I had to get up for work at 6. And then of course she slept straight through to 11am for DH after I went to work. She's all congested and her nose is runny and she's coughing. I don't know if she has a cold or if this could all be related to teething? They said she was fussy and crying all day at daycare yesterday too, which is really unusual, she's normally a very happy baby. I feel so bad for her, I hate that she doesn't feel well.

 

[sigh]

scooby - aww poor Camden! The congestion gets worse when they are laying flat so that could be the problem. Colds also lead to ear infections so maybe her ears might be bothering her? Someone told us to try rolling up a towel and putting it under the mattress to elevate it a little...it didn't work for Ellie but might be worth trying... or if you have a swing she might sleep better in that. Hope she feels better soon

coco- LOL at your yoda comment. We had one regression day when she kept waking up (not sure why). I wait 20 minutes now unless she is crying hysterically (which hasn't happened... it's usually just whining) and then I go feed her. When she's sick or teething I'll probably go to her whenever she cries but from what I hear some people need to retrain them after that. Hopefully we won't run into that problem since she's become pretty good at soothing herself at night now.

KellyM- oh no!! Could it be because he learned to crawl? I hope he starts sleeping again soon!

I totally forgot about halloween. Not sure what to dress her as hmmmm.

 

[Kelly M]

Scooby, sorry you are in the horrible sleep boat with us. It sucks over here. Carter is teething horribly so maybe that could be Camden's problem too?

Coco, I don't really know if what I'm doing is right. I nurse him at night and give him extra comfort when he's teething but then I've had to do some re-training already like Sigh said. It's so hard because when he's not feeling good I just want to be there for him but at the same time it's hard to tell if he's just pulling the wool over my eyes and just wants me to hold him or if he really is in pain. I'm not saying he's capable of manipulation but sometimes he wants me to put him to sleep instead of falling asleep on his own vs. truly needing comfort because his gums hurt or he is actually hungry. I can't decipher his cries that well so I feel like a crappy mom for not knowing after all these months what he truly needs. Of course, he'd nurse if I offered it but I can never tell if he just wanted comfort or if he was really hungry. I think nursing feels exceptionally good to him when he's teething. This second tooth is taking forever to come in!

I'm quite pissed at the moment as my 2 year old niece keeps biting and scratching my son. Today she bit him extremely hard twice, leaving a bruised bite mark on his leg. I felt awful that I couldn't have prevented it! She's been doing this to everyone for the last year and hasn't stopped at all. I can't keep them away from each other as we live with our parents and they come over to my parents every weekend, Fri-Sun. I can't wait to move out! I got into a fight with my parents because they bought her ice cream 5 minutes after she bit him for the second time today and that made me mad. She got no time out either. I'm so tired of it! Sorry for the long rant.

 

[sigh]

KellyM - Do you wait a bit before going in? I can now tell when Ellie needs a feed because her whine cries stay constant over 10 minutes or so. Sometimes I don't wait that long, since she seems to be waking to feed around the same time every early morning. Poor C!! I have a 2 yr old niece too. She doesn't bite Ellie but she tries to put her fingers in Ellie's eyes so I try to keep them separated as much as possible when they are around. I think jealousy is part of the problem, since she seems to do it more when she sees my parents or sister near Ellie. I would yell if she bit her though! C has teeth now... maybe he'll bite her back to teach her a lesson!

 

[Kelly M]

Sigh, I wait a couple minutes and then go check on him, give him his blankie, briefly pat his back or leg to reassure him. That was all I had to do for a couple of weeks after the training. Now he just continues to cry until I break down and nurse or pick him up. I'm actually kind of tired of the whole "training" thing. It's getting me down after 2+ months of off an on successes and failures I'm ready to just throw in the towel and wait it out.....but at the same time I'm going crazy without sleep.

 

[scoobydrlp]

Poor Carter getting bitten! It's so upsetting to see them get hurt and not be able to prevent it. I get just what you mean about your parents "rewarding" her with ice cream and not having any consequence. I would have been upset about that too.

Sigh, I have a friend with a 2 year old who also tries to stick his fingers in Camden's eyes. What the heck? It's not like they've never seen eyeballs before, everybody has them!

I forgot to mention earlier my most recent annoying food rant about my mom. They went to Arby's today and took Camden with them while I was working, and my mom was so proud to report that Camden ate cherry pie filling from a cherry turnover (pretty much pure sugar), as well as roast beef. We JUST talked about how we weren't going to do any meats until she was 7 months old. At this point I'm just ready for her to be old enough to eat whatever so that I don't have to be annoyed with this situation over and over again. But what is the big thrill about giving a baby food she's not ready for yet?

Also meant to mention, I bought Hyland's Tiny Cold Tablets as they're supposed to help with congestion, and those in combination with infant tylenol and saline drops for her nose all seemed to make her feel quite a bit better this evening. Hope she sleeps well tonight!

 

[sigh]

So I'm trying to get Ellie on some sort of schedule, esp since we've hired someone to help me 3 days a week starting this week while I work. Ellie is now waking around 6 am for a feeding. I'd wake her up for the day at this time but she is obviously still tired so I have to treat it like a night feeding. Yesterday I decided to go feed her at 5 am to avoid the 6 am wake up but she was so zonked out that she wouldn't eat so I put her back in the crib. Today she woke at 6 am and just laid there until I went and fed her at 6:55 (no crying, just laying there trying to fall back asleep). I went to feed her and she fell asleep on me within 10 minutes so I put her back in the crib at 7:10 and she's just been lying there awake since (it's 7:30). I don't mind feeding her at night and I'm glad she's sleeping but this 6 am feeding is annoying!! If I wake her for the day, she'll be crabby and if she falls asleep she'll sleep until 8 or 9 and that will ruin her day and her bedtime. HEr schedule has been all over the place and shes been taking a late evening nap because of it (waking around 6:30 pm).

Do your LO wake at the same time each morning? What time do you put your LO to bed? I'd like her to wake up around 7 for the day, that way I can put her down by 8 pm (we tried earlier but she gets no time with DH after work then).

 

[Chloe597]

Scooby, hope Camden slept better last night! And that is unfortunate about your mom feeding her foods she shouldn't. I can imagine that gets frustrating!

Kelly, omg, biting?? So wrong that she was then 'rewarded'! I hope that situation improves, as does your sleep situation.

Sigh, G does not wake up at the same time, does not have a set nap schedule, but does go to bed between 8 and 830 every night. She will be up for the day between 620 and 830 pretty much every day, always getting fed sometime between those times, but half the time she falls back asleep for an hour or so after eating, and the other half she is up for two hours til she needs a nap. I hope you can get your schedule sorted out!

 

[bbygurl719]

Scooby. I understand how u feel 100%. We live with my mom and grandma. Since I'm not 100% ready to lose alot of breastfeeding time I have chosen to only feed her baby food at lunch time and rice cereal w/ juice and fruit mixed in as it helps baby sleep longer. But my gramma insist on giving her people food. Yesterday she gave her eggs n toast and pizza. I have also caught her giving her whole milk grrr. I try n keep my mouth shut but when I caught her giving her milk I flipped out.

And kellym. I feel for u on the situation with your Bruce. As u all now I have my dd1 who will b 20 months on Friday. She loves her little sister and gives her hugs and kisses all the time. But she also has biten her on the nose, she hits her,scratches her tries to pick her nose and sticks her finger in her eyes and mouth. I do feel bad that sometimes I can't protect her. It's hard when there young like that Cuz they don't truly know what they are doing. But u do punish her when she does that. But was for rewarding that's ridiculous. My Gramma does that too. It must b a grandparent thing.


OK now about angel. She has started trying to get her legs up to crawl but she only ends up scooting.if she is on a bed or couch she will crawl forward but not on the ground yet. She loves to sit up by herself. She says mama, Dada, Hi, and yay when she claps her hands. She is a major mommy's girl. She loves standing up and she tries to let you go but she can't do it on her own. I was just looking at a pic from when she was a couple weeks old and I can't believe how big she has gotten.

 

[scoobydrlp]

Bbygurl, Camden does more forward movement on the bed too than on the ground. I wonder why? Maybe because its softer?

Camden slept great last night and seems to feel fine this morning. She's still doing a chesty cough, but its not bothering her.

 

[bbygurl719]

That's what I'm thinking lol.

 

[scoobydrlp]

Ok forget what I said earlier, she's not feeling fine. She's trying to be happy but I know she's hungry but won't stay latched. She ate great at 5:30 this morning but hasn't had anything substantial since and it's now 12:30.

 

[Kelly M]

Scooby, hope Cam feels better soon! Poor thing.

Sigh, C wakes up anywhere from 5:30 to 6:30, sometimes later if I'm lucky or earlier if I'm not. Today he woke at 5:30 which means he'll probably have to take a third, late afternoon/early evening nap which means a later bed time. He can't make it through the day when he wakes up that early. We follow 2,3,4 which usually is pretty accurate but he's still a bit unpredictable. I haven't noticed any connection between his bed time and his wake up time. He can go to bed anywhere from 7 to 8:30 pm and there's no telling what time he'll wake up based on when he went to bed.

Thanks for the support about C getting bitten. I'm trying hard to not hold a grudge against my niece, she is only 2. But it's tough to not be mad considering she's done it so many times. Spending all day today just trying to keep them away from each other. Should be fun.

 

[scoobydrlp]

Kelly, what would happen if you put your neice in timeout when she bites Carter, since nobody else will? It's not really your responsibility to discipline her, but maybe it's the only way to stop the behavior.

 

[sigh]

Kelly - agree with scooby! I scold my sister's kids if no one else does when they are acting up.

Scooby - Do you have a nosefrida?? Unclogging her nose might help! We also steamed up the bathroom and brought her in there for a few minutes before to loosen the boogies.

bbygurl - wow angel is so smart! You must be very proud I feel the same way... miss my little newborn!

My friend has a newborn and was complaining that breastfeeding is so boring. I chuckled... I remember when Ellie would latch on with her fists near her face and concentrate on getting the milk and snuggling. Fast forward to now... SUPER distracted, unlatching every 30 seconds to stare at things (OOO a wall!), sometimes she kicks her legs and swings her arms like she's dancing, sometimes she shoves her fingers or toes in my mouth or nose, sometimes she punches and hits the other boob while eating. I sit in a semi dark room in the corner because I can't feed her anywhere else (too distracting) and miss the days when I could use a computer or watch tv while feeding her!

 

[scoobydrlp]

Sigh - hilarious! I feel the same about nursing Camden. I pretty much have to nurse her in the rocking chair in her room with the door closed or she gets horribly distracted. And even then she's always flopping her arms and legs around and grabbing my shirt or hitting me or herself. Silly babies!

I don't have a nosefrida, although I will be purchasing one ASAP! We've been using saline drops in her nose and then bulb syringing as much snot out as possible, but it's not very effective. Has anyone heard of babycomfynose? Looks quite similar to nosefrida, but you use a tissue in it instead of having to buy filters.

 

[bbygurl719]

Lol sigh. Angel does the same thing. I was reading ur post to my husband n she kept popping g off to look around. She now pinches the nipple as she pops off to pull it back to her I always wear sports broad so 90% of: he time she's tugging o. That but I just let her do it.

 

[sigh]

Scooby - It comes with a few filters... It says to change them after each use but I've used it 2 or 3 times and the boogers never got that far so I just washed it in antibacterial soap with really hot water and it's held up so far. If you have a BuyBuyBaby near you, they take bed bath coupons so I used the $5 off $15 one to get it

A friend sent me this. Since my college friends are all either single or newly married (none have kids yet), I'm sure many of them think this way... one day they'll get it!
https://www.danoah.com/wp-content/uploads/friends-with-kids.jpg

And for a laugh:

 

[Beanonorder]

haha sigh! That's awesome!
With regards to a schedule, Amber pretty much sleeps 9 hours at night. At the moment she's going to be around 8:30pm and waking up for the day at 5:30am. It used to be 9/9:30 to 6/6:30 when she was in our room but her room is really light so I think that is whats waking her up so early. As for naps she still has three naps a day. The first one is at about 7/7:30am. The next one is at about 12pm. And then the third one is around 4-5pm. If she doesn't have the third nap she's really cranky, falls asleep during her 7pm bottle and it just causes too many issues.

Scooby sorry Camden still isn't feeling better. When Amber caught a cold she also had up and down times. I hope it gets sorted soon! And wow, I would have flipped out at my mom if she'd fed Amber something after I specifically told her we weren't doing it yet!

Amber is doing well back in her own room. It doesn't seem to faze her where she sleeps!

I know it was brought up earlier but I can't remember what was said. Is anyone giving their LO vit D? The doctor keeps asking us and we keep saying its in the formula. I spoke to a foreign doctor friend last night and she said if I'm EB then I should definitely be giving it. Then she messaged me this morning to say the WHO recommends an addition 10umg even if LO is drinking formula. Now I'm not sure what to do - I'm not even 100% sure if the vit D I have is the correct dosage and I certainly don't want to give too much.

 

[Chloe597]

sigh - thanks for the article! its so true! I have a lot of friends without kids and I try my best to keep up with them and hang out, but sometimes its just so hard, and no way do they understand.

Scooby, the nosefrieda comes with maybe 15 or so filters, and i use it quite often and have only changed the filter twice. The boogers don't come anywhere near the filter, so i inspect it to make sure its not gross, and i'll wash it sometimes, and other times i just don't even pay attention to it. Unless we have a particularly nasty bought of snot sucking, that is. I hope C feels better! G has had a cough for literally 5 weeks now. I think its 2 colds back to back. Already took her to the Dr a couple weeks ago and got a clear bill of health.

bbygurl, angel is so smart! That's great that she is saying all those things! Gabby says Hi and dada, but i don't think she has a clue what they mean yet

bean, my Dr says i should be giving vit D drops, but I told her i'm super bad at remembering and she says its ok. it would be a problem if G wasn't growing properly, but since she is, it isn't urgent to give her the drops. she told me to try to get them in a couple times a week if i could remember. There is a condition called Rickets that can be caused by not enough vitamin D. Now that it is summer, sunlight will help with vit D too.