***December Snowflakes 2012 Parenting***

[ImSoTired]

Kelly I'm glad to hear Carter's finger isn't broken and is now on the mend. With everything they touch and how often they put their fingers in their mouths it is so easy for them to get infected. And I hope those teeth finally pop through and you get some sleep!

Chloe very cute video. Crawling baby butts are the cutest. Cait has the same ball and she loves it! She pushes is across the floor and chases after it. Yay for Gabby!

Sigh those invitations are beautiful! We haven't really decided anything about Cait's birthday. We weren't thinking a big party but a part of me really wants to have one. I guess maybe DH and i should revisit the birthday party thing.

Scooby no experience with ear infections here but she has no teeth either so I can't really help in any sense. Perhaps Camden has just discovered her ears and likes to pull on them? Or maybe, as others have said, she is teething? Either way I hope she is well and feels better if it's bothering her.

Bean and Tooth, I agree that the clingy, whiney stage is frustrating for everyone. I think we got lucky because it was maybe a week or so around the 7 month mark. She is still whiney on occasion but nothing like she was for that week. I hope that Joseph and Amber both get settled soon and you get your happy babies back. I know how draining it can be!

Cait is doing well. As I said, no teeth, But eating small bits of table food really well so we're going the cut-up-small route and it's working. She's beginning to stand for long periods without holding on and then she tries to move and falls. I know walking isn't too far off and although I am proud and excited I'm also sad. (My uncle and his wife had a baby last week and DH and I both couldn't wait to hold him. We both are pretty broody but it's not financially practical at this time) Cait is very healthy and starting to wear her 12 months clothes. They are a little baggy because she's a skinny baby but length wise they are only a little long. She's still getting into everything and she can barely sit still. I'm getting used to chasing after her though so it's no big deal. Everything is fine except that we are a little tight on cash. With the new carseat, the new car, and the price of home heating oil we are kind of strapped and not saving any money for anything other than our bills. It's stressful but I think we will be able to get out of it soon. And DH will not let me go back to work (not that I really want to)

I hope everyone is well!

 

[cococobain]

Oh, I'm sorry Kelly! That sucks! I understand your concerns with the antibiotics, I had similar concerns a while back (I was the one taking them, but I was worried that since I was breastfeeding we could develop and pass a yeast infection to each-other) I hope the swelling and infection passes quickly! Poor lil guy.

Congrats to Gabby for crawling! And sigh, that invite is so cute! I haven't given any thought to her birthday and honestly I don't want to because MIL is coming out here again for the holidays and I don't know how I'm going to handle sharing Mia's birthday and Christmas with her. Ugh. I can hear her judging the way I decorate the house already...can see her taking things down/replacing them with her kitschy crap. Bah! Moving on!

So Mia's top teeth are through and man breastfeeding sucks. She really chews on my boob so she's constantly scraping me with them. Also, sleep is still horrible. The average is 3-4 times. It's been weeks! When will it end??!

Hope you are all well (and get better soon Carter) xx

 

[scoobydrlp]

Kelly- glad Carter's finger is on the mend!

IST - I know just how you feel about being broody yet knowing financially that now is not the right time. It's probably a good thing we're not wealthy because I might just have a baby every year! Hahahaha.

Coco - Sorry about your painful nursing, I'm kind of glad Camden still doesn't have any teeth just for that reason!

Camden hasn't been bothering her ear as much the last 24 hours, so I'm hoping it's not an ear infection. Maybe it's teething indeed. I'm going to try to post a video I took of her laughing hysterically at our dog, hope it works! She loves this dog soooooo much!!

Ok I don't know how to imbed, it but here's the link!

https://youtu.be/gh9sJvwlh4w

 

[Beanonorder]

Yay, Amber is 9 months today! And happy 9 months to Camden too. I just can't believe it! And to celebrate, Amber slept til 6:30 this morning! She seems to have eliminated her third nap herself so now she is starting to sleep later in the morning. It is so nice not to be up 5am everyday!! (touch wood!)

The Chinese have some ridiculous ideas when it comes to public holidays so in order to actually get the days off you have to work other days to make up for it! Madness! So we have had to work 8 days in a row. Today is day 6 and I'm SO tired! But at least there are two more days after this and then I get 8 days off - yay for that. And I'm really glad not to be at my old job. They have to work 9 days in a row and are only getting 7 days off. I wish we were able to go away over this holiday but sadly the finances are still not there for it. But we are planning a trip to Thailand in January and one to South Africa in June so I'm really excited about that!

Happy Friday to everyone!

 

[scoobydrlp]

Happy 9 months to Amber! Bean, I always forget about the time difference until I look at your ticker and it says Amber is a day older than Camden even though they were both born on the 27th. Kind of crazy to think about! Sorry you have to work so many days in a row, it sure is wearing. Hope you enjoy your time off!

 

[Chloe597]

Happy 9 months, Amber and Camden!

And enjoy your 8 days off, Bean! Is that a regular thing or just for a special chinese holiday?

Scooby, that video is hilarious. I love the end part the best. Such a happy baby!
Coco, i hope BF is getting less painful as Mia gets used to her teeth. I do not look forward to that, although at this rate, Gabby won't actually have teeth before I am done. She will be 10 months tomorrow, and my plan is to BF until 12 months, and then go down to either a night or morning feed, or maybe both, but NO pumping at work, and NO breastmilk during the day, for as long as Gabby wants to nurse and as long as my nipples dont get bitten.

DH will tell Gabby 'no no no' and she now laughs hysterically at that. And then he thinks its great, so he continues it, and i really hope she doesn't learn to ignore the 'no'...although he says it in a non stern voice, so maybe its more the tone that will be impactful in the future? oof!

I'm starting to think its time to meet the end of purees. But this leaves me with quite a dilemma of finding actual meals that gabby can eat regularly. It was nice to just make a batch of broccoli or carrots and know that it will feed her for 10 days. Anyone have any tips on how to prepare lots of nice soft foods en masse for baby to eat? I can't cook 2 meals for every dinner, and I'm still not comfortable giving her the spicy/salty foods I like to eat.

 

[Beanonorder]

Chloe its just a special holiday. What they call the National holiday. This week and the week for Spring Festival (Chinese new year) are the main two holidays here. Thankfully Spring Festival falls in my winter holidays so I get three weeks off and I don't have to work in any extra days to make up for it!

I'm feeling a little rejected at the moment. I was home with Amber every day for 8 months and now I haven't even been working full time for a month and she already seems to prefer my dh to me. Yesterday I was holding her and she kept trying to go to him and then when he was holding her he wanted to give her to me and she kept refusing. It was heartbreaking. She doesn't do it all the time but I guess I'm a little sensitive to it. Its not like I chose to go back to work full time. We're just trying to do whats best for our family at the moment.

 

[sigh]

OMG we figured out what bitchy potato was lol. She was always saying it in her room...

Bit-chy = "Bidgie" = Birdies
Po = Go
Tito = tweet tweet

 

[ImSoTired]

OMG we figured out what bitchy potato was lol. She was always saying it in her room...

Bit-chy = "Bidgie" = Birdies
Po = Go
Tito = tweet tweet

Bahahaha! How freakin' adorable, sigh! That's hysterical!Cait doesn't say much except for hi, Mama, Dada, with the occasional random word she repeats and then never says again.

Not too much new here. I've been keeping myself busy with house work. Between the baby and my exercising I haven't had much time for it lately and it was starting to show. Feels so good to do productive work around he house during Cait's naps. I'll get back to my exercise just as soon as the house is presentable. DH and I are having our Anniversary on Wednesday so we'll go out for a date night. We've been trying to spend more time together and as a family and I've really been enjoying it.

Hope you are all well!

 

[Chloe597]

Sigh, too funny! Glad you figured it out! Are you counting those as her first words? I still haven't decided if Gabby has said her first words or not. She will point at the cats and say 'di-di', i assume for 'kitty', and she will look at DH and say Da, and every once in a while she will say mamama and hug me. But I don't know if i count these as 'first' words? What does everyone else do?

 

[ImSoTired]

Chloe I wasn't counting mama and dada when they were just noises but now that Cait recently started using them in reference to us I kinda count them. I don't know..we'll see if she says anything else that I can claim as her first word. DH got her to say hotdog the other day but she hasn't said it since so I'm thinking fluke or something she managed to repeat but has no interest in re-repeating. We will see I guess.

 

[cococobain]

Happy (late) 9 months to Amber and Camden

That video of Camden laughing is soooo cute, scoob! She's having a little laughing fit!

Bean - I'm sorry you're feeling rejected sweetie! Once things settle she'll end up saving her best laughs and smiles for you and daddy will be the boring one because she's stuck with him all day (that's how it is here but vice versa)

sigh - I love the bitchy potato translation, what a clever baby you got there!

I'm counting mama as her first word because now she says it as if she's calling me (like i'll be washing dishes and she'll go maaama, or whenever I'm not right by her and she'll smile and stop once I am nearby) She's also such the kisser lately, I'm loving it. I've been helping her stand by crouching infront of her and she will lean into my neck and plant a big sloppy one there

Sleep is still crap. I'm so tired. OH and I are starting to take it out on each-other. Plus we've all got a bug and are generally sneezing/coughing and feverish so that doesn't help! Mia is in good spirits during the day though so I'm happy for that.

Totally unrelated note, but National Novel Writing Month is almost upon us! Writing a short story is on my bucket list and this year I'm going to join the challenge of writing 50000 words in 30 days Wish me luck! :goes back to feverishly researching and drafting character references:

 

[Chloe597]

Good luck with your novel, coco! And I hope sleep/illness get better!

Can you all share if/how you transitioned from LO falling asleep nursing to putting to bed awake? For ba whie gabby was just happy being put to bed awake after nursing. I didn't have to do anything special to transition. Recently she won't go down for the night unless she falls asleep on the boob. If I put her down even drowsy she immediately gets up on her knees and screams. And bed time has gotten later this past week. Not sure what to make of all this or how I can get her to sleep on her own. I won't be nursing forever....

 

[ImSoTired]

Good luck with your novel, coco! And I hope sleep/illness get better!

Can you all share if/how you transitioned from LO falling asleep nursing to putting to bed awake? For ba whie gabby was just happy being put to bed awake after nursing. I didn't have to do anything special to transition. Recently she won't go down for the night unless she falls asleep on the boob. If I put her down even drowsy she immediately gets up on her knees and screams. And bed time has gotten later this past week. Not sure what to make of all this or how I can get her to sleep on her own. I won't be nursing forever....

Why won't you be nursing forever? No I'm just kidding. I know that usually when 12 months rolls around women start weaning. I wish I had been able to go this long, so kudos to you and all the other breastfeeding moms!

Cait used to fall asleep while breastfeeding or drinking a bottle and I'd put her down asleep. Now she is always awake when I put her down. For a week or two she cried for as long as 15 or 20 minutes and I think she just got used to it and started putting herself to sleep. It really bothered me to listen to her cry for a while but at the same time I'm glad she learned to go to sleep on her own. It wasn't an awful sort of heart wrenching cry usually, it was just a whiney 'I can't go to sleep, and I'm tired, I need help' cry. This was around the same time she stopped waking at night for a bottle also. I give her the little muslin blanket she loves and I turn on the projector and I hear her talking in there for a while and then she falls right off. Now that she is mobile she reaches outside the crib to the top of her toy box and gets her musical seahorse down and/or her stuffed piggy. So when I hear her quiet down I go up and take the piggy and the seahorse out. She's been putting herself to sleep for about 2 months now and I've been getting plenty of sleep too. So I guess what we did was kinda like having her cio. But I swear it wasn't as bad as that. The first few days were the worst and she caught on really quickly that I wasn't coming in to save her so she got quieter everyday.

Now our only issue is that her crib is the only place she'll sleep! Whenever we are out of the house she won't sleep anywhere else. She'll fall asleep in the car for a short time (no more than a 1/2 hour) and then she'll be awake and crying because she's tired and not in bed. If we have a whole day out of the house I always come home with a miserable baby. Maybe she'll eventually learn to sleep whenever she needs to wherever she is until she no longer needs naps? That'd be nice but I'm not going to hold my breath.

Anyway, Chloe, I hope you find a solution and I hope everyone is doing well!

 

[sigh]

Hi Everyone!! :wave:

Chloe - we did what IST did but we did checks every 5 mins, then gradually made the checks longer each time. I do still nurse Ellie to sleep but she always wakes up atleast partially when I stand up and she'll fall back asleep when we put her in the crib. the potato thing isn't her first word. Her first lil kid word was "mumum" and her first word (other that mumum mama and dada) was Hi (lol).


So updates here. Ellie is trying to stand on her own and falling like crazy. She is getting into EVERYTHING so we have this place gated up like a prison lol. She is baby talking a lot and has been trying to sing her abcs. The weird thing is she barely says mama now (only if she is crying). When I tell her to say mama, she says BLA BLA and seems to thing she's saying mama. Tooth #5 and #6 are still creeping their way out and are right at the surface so she is pretty grumpy. We are on day 7 of NO SWING for naps. It's really hard but she isn't crying hysterically for hours like she did last time we tried. She cries on and off and plays. We now have that problem... i put her in the crib at 2:30 and she cried on and off for 15 minutes, then played for over an hour before she fell asleep. Atleast she isn't in the swing!

 

[ImSoTired]

Hi Everyone!! :wave:

Chloe - we did what IST did but we did checks every 5 mins, then gradually made the checks longer each time. I do still nurse Ellie to sleep but she always wakes up atleast partially when I stand up and she'll fall back asleep when we put her in the crib. the potato thing isn't her first word. Her first lil kid word was "mumum" and her first word (other that mumum mama and dada) was Hi (lol).


So updates here. Ellie is trying to stand on her own and falling like crazy. She is getting into EVERYTHING so we have this place gated up like a prison lol. She is baby talking a lot and has been trying to sing her abcs. The weird thing is she barely says mama now (only if she is crying). When I tell her to say mama, she says BLA BLA and seems to thing she's saying mama. Tooth #5 and #6 are still creeping their way out and are right at the surface so she is pretty grumpy. We are on day 7 of NO SWING for naps. It's really hard but she isn't crying hysterically for hours like she did last time we tried. She cries on and off and plays. We now have that problem... i put her in the crib at 2:30 and she cried on and off for 15 minutes, then played for over an hour before she fell asleep. Atleast she isn't in the swing!

I used to sit outside her bedroom in the hallway. I think I may have done it for two weeks straight.

Yay for Ellie trying to sing her ABC's! She's such an intelligent girl! And yay also for 'no swing' naps!

 

[scoobydrlp]

Hi ladies! Haven't been on in a while. Camden had a fever yesterday, not really sure why as she wasn't acting ill. She just felt hot so I took her temperature and it was 100.2 on the ear thermometer, which usually reads 97.5 when I've taken it any other time. I gave her some baby motrin and it dropped a full degree after about an hour. When she woke up this morning all was well, so not sure what the deal was. Weird question though, I was telling my mom about it and she implied that I shouldn't have given her anything to reduce the fever. She said a fever is the body's way of fighting off germs. It never occured to me to just let her have a fever...would anybody else have just let it go?

Is anyone elses LOs getting shy around people they don't know well? Camden used to go to anyone anytime with no problem, but just over the past few days she's started crying if we hand her off, even if its someone she knows but hasn't seen in a while like DH's dad. It's only been a few weeks since she saw him last. I guess in a way it's good, they have to learn "stranger danger" at some point, but when it's someone they already know it's kinda sad.

Here's my sweet girl the day before her 9 month birthday with her little pigtails in

https://i1340.photobucket.com/albums/o725/scoobydrlp/null_zpsdd097d08.jpg

 

[Chloe597]

Wow, scooby, so much hair! what a cutie! For a fever over 100, I would have given medicine (we have tylenol, but i would use motrin if I had it). She has had a fever of 99.5 before and at that point i didn't give tylenol. I had never heard that fevers actually help fight off germs tho. I googled and found this article:
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/02/03/the-benefits-of-fever.aspx
So maybe your mom is on to something! This says medical intervention after 102.2F in children 3 months - 3 years.

Gabby is shy around strangers, and around family she doesn't see often. She cries if i give her to friends or unfamiliar family, and it takes a while for her to warm up to family she occasionally sees. This started around the 9 month mark.

 

[scoobydrlp]

Interesting article, thanks for posting it Chloe!

 

[Beanonorder]

Chloe with regards to bedtime - I try to always follow the same routine. Dinner, bath, bottle, play, story, cuddles, bed. Some nights it works better than others. Now that she crawls and pulls herself up, Amber spends some time doing that which can be a pain because she gets stuck once she's up. But I just keep laying her back down. Sometimes I give her one of her little books which she 'reads' for a while and then eventually goes to sleep. She does cry occasionally but I go in and reassure her and its usually enough.
After we moved her sleeping was awful and we had to teach her to self soothe all over again. But the perseverance has paid off.

Scooby thats a lovely picture of Camden. I really can't wait for Amber to have more hair. I'm so tired of her being called a boy - even when she is dressed in pink!
Sorry about the fever - teething maybe?

I had a lovely, relaxing 8 days off. A typhoon hit south of Shanghai in the early hours of Monday morning so we've had non-stop rain since Sunday. This morning when I left for work I had to walk through water that went right over my shoes. It wasn't fun!
So today is the first day back and Amber decided to sleep until 7am! Why couldn't she do that when I was still able to sleep in?! Oh well, at least I had a chance to do my exercises this morning!

I bought a scale last week and I'm really pleased that I've lost 2kgs since we've been in Shanghai. So I'm just over a kg off my pre-pregnancy weight and 4.5kgs off my goal weight. Lets hope this progress continues!