***December Snowflakes 2012 Parenting***

[Kelly M]

Glad you ladies are doing some research! I'm not vegan but I did go off dairy for Carter. Now that I can have it again I've been slow to reintroduce just to test it out with him and see how he reacts. So far so good but I think I am going to stick with almond milk and earth balance butter and other substitutes that I've gotten used to. I am much less mucousy without drinking milk. I also love almond milk and silk yogurt (soy yogurt). I wish I could afford to buy organic meats and such but I mainly just don't each much meat because I can't buy the kind that I want to. The almond milk I buy is not that expensive, about $2.50-$3 for a half gallon but I always coupon when possible. I would totally buy the organic milk if I were drinking milk. That's what I buy for my husband.

Also, coconut milk has a lot of calcium in it, some brands have more calcium than dairy milk does. I personally really like the almond coconut blend that Almond Breeze makes.

Coco, I'm surprised to hear all the flak mommas get when breastfeeding an older baby. The WHO recommend to bf until 2 years yet people still freak out when they see a baby nursing past a few months or sometimes just nursing at all freaks people out. Luckily I've never gotten any dirty looks or comments, I'd slap someone! My son will nurse until one of us decides not to any more. I don't know how I'll get him back to sleep in the middle of the night if I don't nurse him!

 

[Beanonorder]

Greetings again! So all three of us seem to be over the tummy bug now. Thank goodness!! I do have to be honest and say two good things have come about from being sick! 1 is I have finally caught up on my missing sleep and 2 I lost some weight! I am now 1kg below my pre-pregnancy weight. I have just over 2kgs to go to get to my goal weight!!!!
IST I'm glad to hear that you are also feeling better. I also briefly wondered if I was pregnant again. Mainly because that morning I only ate half my oatmeal and my tea tasted funny! Falling pregnant now would put a huge spanner in the works!!!

Coco lovely pictures and yay for the army crawling! I love all their new developments. Amber doesn't really wave yet and she'll give hugs and sometimes kisses but only when it suits her!

Wow Chloe, two and a half weeks! I think we have finally decided to hold Ambers party on the 31st of December. It seems to be the day that most of my friends will be available and I have it off too. So now I have to start making plans!
I was looking on pinterest (sorry I forgot who asked about it but I have it!!) at some cakes on there. Some people are so talented - I so want to have cakes like that but I don't think I have the talent or access to the necessary ingredients.

I was considering soy milk for Amber instead of cows milk. I did some research and there is no issue with giving it to them and there isn't much difference in the amoutn of nutrition they each give. I haven't looked if anything like almond milk is available. I think I'll look into it. I have seen coconut milk so I will look have to look at the price. Unfortunately if it is imported it just puts it out of my budget. If breastfeeding had worked out for us I don't think I'd be looking to change. But there is so much controversy over formula here that I just want to be done with it!

 

[sigh]

Chloe - Yay for Canon! I'm a Canon shooter too and so is KellyM! I was shooting on the side and just started shooting weddings in 2011 but have stopped booking things because I just don't have time to edit. I work full time in marketing and want to spend more time with Ellie. I'm thinking about doing more baby and family portraiture but we'll see! This image was f/1.2 1/160 1600 iso. It was really dark in our house at the time... and she refused to smile. lol

KellyM - OMG he is soooooo friggin adorable. I LOVE that you put the curl in the front of his hair!! It's so weird but my cousins son reminds me of C. They were the same size and then you mentioned how he didn't gain much weight recently and she told me the same about her son. She is also on the elimination diet because her son was on zantac and had eczema. She slowly started eating dairy again and things were going ok but then when he turned one, she made him a bday cake and he had a reaction to it a few minutes after eating it. They did an allergy test and it turns out he's slightly allergic to milk and eggs. Are you going to do an allergy test?

bean and IST - sorry you guys weren't feeling well! Get well soon!!

Coco - Yay for crawling!! Mia is so adorable!! She is one pretty lil lady

Whats going on here... we might sell our townhome and buy a house. We are talking with a realtor this week to see what he thinks we can get for the place. We have a new nanny and Ellie hates her so I'm probably going to have to find someone else. I was reading Ellie this dog book she likes today and she pointed at a picture of the dog playing with a ball and said "BAAAAAAL" I'm really excited about it Other than that all she said all day now is "THEREEE" and "THATTTT" while pointing. I keep staring at her trying to figure out when she stopped being a lil baby and started becoming a lil lady. sighhhhhhh.

 

[ImSoTired]

I've looked into it and I have decided to stick with milk. I love Almond breeze but I don't think it would be ideal for Cait and she's never had nuts so I'm going to wait a while on that. She has had dairy and has had no reaction to it. As coco said, I have a bit of a petite girl and I think the fats and proteins in milk would help her keep up her weight and her energy.Our pediatrician recommended milk so that's the route we are taking. To each their own.

bean I'm happy you are feeling better also. I have no idea what is going on with me. I feel better but still not 100%. It seems like mornings and evenings I'm still very nauseated but less cramping and actually getting sick. I am just keeping an eye on it. Congrats on the weight loss! I'm below pre preg weight now also and working on at least 10-20 more for now. I'm kinda hoping not to push myself too much until I feel completely better.

Sigh good luck meeting with your realtor! Buying a house is always exciting! Ellie is such an intelligent girl! She seems to have a decent vocabulary already!

Not much new here except that Cait wants to walk. Each time I put her down she tries to take off running while she still has some support from me. She's really trying and my guess is she will be walking before her birthday. I'm so not ready to have a walking baby.

I hope all is well

 

[scoobydrlp]

Hi all! My modem and router went down at home so I haven't been on in a while. Interesting that you've been discussing alternatives to cow's milk. My mom has been "bothering" me about it every time I mention making the switch to cows milk. I haven' t had time to do proper research for alternatives yet. I do plan to buy organic at least. But Camden has been refusing breast milk a lot during the day for about the last week. She will still nurse first thing in the morning and right before bed at night, but the rest of the day she may only take 7-10 ounces. It's killing me that DH and daycare are having to throw milk out when she refuses it I don't know if she's trying to self wean, or if its the fact that she finally has some teeth trying to come in. I guess we'll see if things change once these teeth are fully through.

Such cute pictures from everyone! Sorry to those who have been sick, hope we're all feeling healthy soon!

 

[cococobain]

KellyM - Ditto on the concerns with weaning and nighttime wakings! I don't know what I am going to do, the boob has been our saving grace at night. I foresee a lot of frustration for both parties in the future.

bean - Glad you are feeling better! yes that is the upside of being awfully sick LOL you do lose some weight

sigh - How exciting, good luck with selling the place and moving on! And I am continuously astounded with Ellie's vocabulary skills!

scooby - I've heard from a few sources of babies self weaning long before their first year. I never thought that was even possible before, but even a close friend told me her kid self weaned at 10 months and just stopped drinking milk. I would say to persevere, like you said could just be a nursing strike due to teething or something of the like (I've heard of babies doing nursing strikes during certain developmental stages) but man that must be so frustrating seeing all that milk go to waste!

 

[Kelly M]

Sigh, go Ellie for all the words she says! Carter said very clearly the other day, "Gramma!" as my mom walked by but he hasn't said it since so I'm not sure it counts. I don't think we'll test Carter for allergies unless something else happens. Both dh and I on separate occasions accidentally fed him dairy mashed potatoes the other day. The were full of butter and cream and he seemed to do just fine with it so that's when I decided I could start reintroducing some dairy into my own diet at least.

Ist, Cait will be walking before you know it! Toddlers are so fun but man it's work keeping up with them. Carter is running around the house getting into EVERYTHING! He's a tornado and drives me bonkers all the time! He's so rambunctious and when I say "no" he just thinks it's funny and smiles at me and then continues destroying whatever it was he was working on ruining. I have to take him out of the house to do something everyday or we both go crazy. He needs constant new stimulations or he just gets into trouble! It is super fun though too. I chase him around the house and say "I'm gonna get you!!" and he runs away and laughs. I love this phase in so many ways. My lil walker is a handful of fun!

Scooby, so sorry you are having to see all that milk wasted. I nearly cry when I have to dump a bottle of breastmilk that Carter doesn't drink. He has had a two nursing strikes before so maybe that's kind of what she is doing? Or a bottle strike? I hope it passes soon!

Coco, so glad I'm not the only one still nursing at night. Last night was so rough I must have boobed the kid 5 or 6 times. He was up almost every hour! Luckily my dh took him in the morning and I got to get another couple of hours sleep. I could just see Carter weaning himself for all day feedings but still wanting to nurse all night. He's so busy during the day he doesn't really need to nurse often but at night he cries for it so badly.

 

[cococobain]

Kelly - Wow 5-6 times is rough. I've been there, but only briefly during growth spurts and occasionally the tooth ache. But even now, another two teeth are coming in at the same time and she's only up twice a night. Have you heard of Reverse-Cycling? I read something on it a while back, where a baby who won't BF as much during the day due to distraction and being more active will power nurse through the night. Some babies apparently even do it when mums go back to work, rejecting bottles so they can hold out for the good stuff later on! Unfortunately the only solutions I read on the matter were techniques to BF distract-free during the day, which is easier said than done...

 

[toothfairy29]

Hi ladies! Long time no speak. Its been absolutely ages since I have been on here. Hope you are all well?

Theres too much for me to catch up on fully but seems you've all been busy!!

Joseph is doing well. He started walking last week! About 10 steps now!! Yikes! Hes also a tornado and hard to keep up with!

still slow to progress with solids. Taking stage 2 textured foods now and little bite size pieces but if I give him finger food to hold he takes huge bites and gags and vomits the contents of his tummy. Anyone else having similar?

Still breastfeeding. Still waking many times through the night too. Between 1.5 to 3 hours. Occasionally a 4-5 hour stretch but this is rare! He feeds every time too. After 4am is he comes in with me then he stirs more frequently but at least I'm not out of bed.

I just started no cry sleep techniques last week and he is getting the hang of falling asleep in his cot off the boob if he has had a feed to get him drowsy. This is an improvement on feeding to sleep and waiting til heavily asleep to put into cot. As yet this hasn't made any difference to his sleeping!

has anyone else tried no cry techniques? Any advice??

Anyway can you believe our babies are almost 1?????? How time has flown. Joseph is amazing fun but I also miss my newborn and miss the excitement we had this time last year.

big love and hugs to you all and your gorgeous snowflakes.

hopefully a photo of Joseph last week has attached! Hmmmm he seems to be sideways!!!!! Sounds about right!

 

[Kelly M]

Tooth so happy to hear from you and Joseph! What a cutie pie! Love the pics! Carter still wakes just the same as Joseph, every couple of hours and a rare few hour stretch if we are lucky. Still breastfeeding and feeding at night. We started no-cry sleep techniques when he was about 6 months old. He's been able to fall asleep on his own for months now but it hasn't improved his sleep. It did however make things much easier when putting him to bed. I don't have to do the dance where he falls asleep, I put him in bed, he wakes up immediately crying, and repeat. I can just do our routine, lay him down and he'll babble or play until he passes out after a few minutes. Every now and then I have to go back in and pick him up for a minute but not often. I've tried all there is to try to get him to sleep well. No sleep associations at bed time or nap time, gave him a blankie that he sleeps with and hugs all night, put a cup of water in his crib if he gets thirsty (doesn't work!), night weaning, letting my husband calm him, let him cry even. I've also tried all teething remedies (homeopathic, natural, tylenol and ibuprofen), baths before bed, lavender oil to calm, warmer, cooler, white noise, silence, sleeping in my bed, sleeping in separate room, you name it we have tried it and nothing works! I guess it's just a waiting game. Good luck to you. I'm getting really, really sick of these night wakings and feedings. Really!

 

[daydream]

Hi all, I've been reading but haven't posted much in this thread. Harrison is almost 11 months now, and I recently finally got our frequent night wakings under control. I read the book Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child, actually listened to the audiobook during my commute. H was getting overtired from his afternoon nap to when we put to bed. We moved bedtime earlier by a hour and started just putting him in crib if he didn't fall asleep while nursing and he would cry a bit (tops was 20 mins, but not continuously that whole time), but I found he would cry for LONGER if I went in and was soothing him. Now he is sleeping 7:30p-7am with no wakings. I think all I needed was to read that book and get informed on his sleep needs. So needless to say I highly recommend it. The Dr is also pro breastfeeding and supports cosleeping in the book as well.

In the end we are having much less tears than we did with all the night wakings. We also did a sleep log (I used the Total Baby app on my phone) for about a week to calculate what his total sleep was each day to make sure he wasn't getting overtired. Coming from the other end of things, I can say my life has improved SO MUCH after getting it figured out.

If you do keep up the no cry sleep solution, I hear it does work but just takes longer. Keep it up! It's soooo worth it to get a good night's sleep for everyone.

I'm so glad everyone's babies are all so happy and healthy though. They look so cute!

 

[ImSoTired]

Tooth happy to hear from you and Joseph! He is such a handsome boy! It sounds like he's doing pretty well though. Sorry about him still waking so much at night. You and kelly are real troopers dealing with that many wake ups. I would have lost my marbles by now if Cait were still waking like that regularly.

Kelly I can believe Carter is a tornado!It's great that you are enjoying it though, they grow so fast that they won't be like this much longer. Toddlers really are a handful! I just know that Cait will destroy this place once she has more mobility. She is so fast and stubborn as it is.

Cait is officially eating 3 solid food meals a day. Sometimes I help her but she mostly feeds herself. We've started on a transition/toddler formula. We won't be starting milk until after her birthday. It'd be nice if she'd drink better out of her sippy cup but she is adamant that it is better used as a toy to make a mess with and she'll only have a few sips from it. Maybe I need to get her a different cup? Oh well, I guess that will come with time. She took two steps on her own yesterday and is often standing up mid floor (without pulling herself up) for longer periods of time. I can't believe she is so big. She'll be 11 months tomorrow. Still no teeth though and not a big vocabulary. I'm sure it'll all happen in good time.

I hope everyone is well

 

[ImSoTired]

oops! Posted while you were posting daydream! Happy to hear you and H are well!

 

[toothfairy29]

Thanks for the replies ladies. Daydream I will look into that book.

Kelly I totally feel your frustration! Ive Googled and researched and tied my head in knots trying to figure out how to get him to sleep longer. I think partly he definitely still needs the milk in the night and partly he just seems to he so active even in his sleep and gets into awkward positions so wakes up uncomfortable!!!

I just keep reminding myself that it doesn't last forever!!!

 

[toothfairy29]

Thanks for the replies ladies. Daydream I will look into that book.

Kelly I totally feel your frustration! Ive Googled and researched and tied my head in knots trying to figure out how to get him to sleep longer. I think partly he definitely still needs the milk in the night and partly he just seems to he so active even in his sleep and gets into awkward positions so wakes up uncomfortable!!!

I just keep reminding myself that it doesn't last forever!!!

 

[cococobain]

tooth - He's the cutest skeleton I've ever seen!

daydream - awesome job getting the night wakings under control! I think I have the same book lying around here somewhere, might have to reread it again!

Not sure how to add video, so here's a link. I caught Mia playing peekaboo the other day!
https://s1325.photobucket.com/user/cococobain/media/DSCF9598_zpsbda49d86.mp4.html

https://i1325.photobucket.com/albums/u632/cococobain/444e0bf9-7584-4507-9792-0a172043a5ae_zps74a8aaa4.jpg

And she wore her first hair accessory today (very badly placed as she would not comply) Her hair looks like a bad toupée most days I can't wait for it to get long enough that I can put it in pigtails.

I just realized in the last few pictures she's almost always in her high chair... I swear, she doesn't live in the thing! It's just the only place she'll sit still long enough to let me take a picture.

Oh, I also wanted to ask if there were any baby products that you ladies have found really handy lately? My MIL is insisting on buying a few things for her, but I don't know what to ask for.

 

[bbygurl719]

Hey ladies. How are u? Sorry I have been Mia I've had alot going on. So here's my update.

Savannah my eight year old has had her cast on for three weeks now. Her cast was full of signatures by the next afternoon. She says she's ready for it to be of she's tired of it lol. She's been learning to write with her left hand. She gets the cast off on the 18th and when that happens we see if anything else needs to b done.

My almost two year old Aaryella. She's a whole other story. Her birthday is on the 19th. She will also be having surgery on her toes on her birthday. She has what they call curly toes. Her third toe on Both feet curl up underneath her second toe. It causes her lots of problems she can't wear shoes Cuz it hurts, she gets blisters on them, and cuts them open and they bleed. She tells me all the time mama points at toes and says owie boo boo. I feel so bad for her. But Happy they are doing something. It was the hardest choice I had to make to have surgery on her birthday. When we scheduled it it was set for today November 12th. The scheduling lady called me a couple days later Cuzco she realized she scheduled it on a day the doctor doesn't do surgery so we had scheduled it for te 13th. Well she called me last week and said doctor hadfamily issues and couldn't do it on the 13th since he wouldn't be there. So I had the choice of the 19th her birthday or the 27th which is the day before Thanksgiving and three days before hers and angels bday party. So since we don't have anything planned for the day of her bday I figured it would b the beSt day and didn't want her cranky in pain on her party. Unfortunately since she's so young the have to go overboard and pt cast on her feet for the incision to heal.

And on to angel. She is into everything like crazy. She stands up on her own all the time now , the other day she was trying to walk she would take a step but I don't consider it her first steps. She's got a huge vocabulary already which I think it's from having to older sisters. She say Hi, bye bye, ball, mama, dada, papa, Mimi, more, that, baby that's just some. She points n claps all the time she loves to dance. I just absolutely adore this stage. She still breastfeeds already four times a day and Yes she still breastfeeds at night too. I still Co sleep with her and my husband says sometimes he wakes up and she's attached to the boob and I'm still sleeping. She has free range at night. Since the time change we have been having trouble with keeping her up until bedtime and if she goes to bed before bedtime she's up between 4 and 5:30am. Well that's it on the kids for now lol.

On to family matters my husband is not doing so good right now. He's father is in the hospital and there is nothing else they can do for him. So they r just trying to keep him as comfortable as possible until he passes. I feel so bad for my husband and I have no clue what it feels like to b losing a dad. I don't know what to say or what I can do to make him feel better. It's been causinfo Loyang fights and argument (due to his dad wanting to leave his house to my husband and his loser brother) and this is not how we are we never argue so I just try and keep my mouth shut. Onto the house his dad wants to leave it to mike and one of his brothers. Well the brother that hwe wants to leave it to with doesn't have his head on his shoulders.he won't help us pay taxes and we have are head on our shoulders but we are not in a situation to get into the financial obligation. We live with my mom n pay rent our goal for a future was to get our credit scores up to get our own house to raise our kids in (dad's house is in Pennsylvania and were in Florida) and I'm afraid if we take this obligation we won't get our house we plan to get one day.

Oh and I'm having my babies aaryella and angelycas birthday party on the 30th of November which is right in the middle of the birthdays Ella is November 19th and angels is December 22nd. We went with a princess Sofia the first theme as Both my are absolutely in love with her. Got everything finished already. Invitations sent out, party decorations all ready, cake ordered, all the food except the last minute stuff. Whew I've been crazy busy. How are all u other mommas I can't believe are babies are all almost one.

 

[sigh]

OMG I feed Ellie earth's best. DISGUSTED
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=709510312394140&set=vb.100000055342829&type=2&theater

 

[Kelly M]

Sigh, I saw this today! Nasty! I get those pouches sometimes too. I also heard that Plum Organic is recalling some of their pouches from a certain date because they went bad for some reason. I usually just feed C whatever we are eating or some fresh cooked veggies or homemade purées but I do buy pouches for the diaper bag. I buy Earth's Best as well as Gerber Organic but mostly Happy Family organic brand. I mainly buy whatever I have coupons for and that is on sale at the same time. But so gross to see this!! I'll be testing all of C's pouches now before feeding them to him.

I have all of C's bday decorations in, invites sent, location secured, and my mom even ordered him an adorable special outfit for hi bday. Here is the outfit: https://www.dapperlads.com/index.php?c=41&p=1126 I love it, so cute! I can't wait to do his 1 year photo session in this outfit. He looks so adorable in it. The woman who owns the company wants to use his photos for her website when I do them. He'll be famous. lol It will also make a cute Christmas outfit and I'll keep it for shoots for other babies when he grows out of it.

Coco, so cute. I wish I had a girl to put cute hair pieces on! I'd be a headband freak. lol C has so much hair I don't know what to do with it. I don't want to cut it, it's so curly and soft and gorgeous. But I don't want everyone to call him a girl either.
I don't know if you have it already but I've thought of some things I need for C which I'll get for Christmas. One is a tub spout cover like this:https://www.target.com/p/skip-hop-s...sku=11316301&gclid=CLPZwovh4LoCFadFMgodxzoAYA and the other is a bath toy net that holds all the toys and suctions to the wall.


Daydream, glad you are finding some well deserved rest these days! I'm jealous!

 

[Beanonorder]

Sorry for those that are sleeping issues! When I have the odd bad night I get so frustrated but I have to reminding myself that it isn't every night!

Coco very cute peek-a-boo video!

Bbygurl sorry about your daughter's surgery. But rather she gets it done asap. And then she can enjoy her party!

Sigh that was really disgusting! I'm so glad we don't get that brand over here!

I think I forgot to mention that the previous week we ended up having to cancel the playdate. But we had it this past Friday and it was awesome. Amber had so much fun playing with the other two babies! It was really funny because Amber is two months older than the other two but she was still the smallest of the three of them! We went and had lunch together and it was so weird being at a table with other moms. Its amazing how we can continue a conversation and feed baby and grab plates out the way without even thinking about it! Then on Sunday we met up again because the other two were entered into a crawling competition. We found out to late to enter Amber but it was great fun to watch! Parents were allowed to use one toy to coax baby along and one mom was actually using an iPad!! The one baby had a snotty nose which Amber sadly picked up. She was up every hour on Sunday night. I was exhausted at work on Monday! And then on Tuesday my friend contacted me to ask how we were and to say that her and her son and the other two had picked up the tummy bug. They were much sicker than any of us and she ended up going to hospital. They tested her and turns out it was rotavirus! Most countries vaccinate for it but not here. I'm not sure if that is what we had because we really didn't get as sick but the timing seems that its likely. I feel really bad unintentionally for sharing

Monday, 11/11, is singles day here in China because of all the ones in the date. So they have these massive sales on that day! Its really awesome. I basically got all of Ambers birthday and Christmas presents and I paid less than half price for them! I got this amazing wooden push trolley/walker thing, a ball pit with 500 balls, a shape sorter, cloth books, 3-D baby puzzles, a wooden train with shape things, a set of 5 different instrument like things (xylephone, clapper, bell rattle, shaker and whistle), a toy telephone with buttons to make different sounds, another wooden toy that focuses on hand/eye co-ordination and a toy tortoise that makes sounds. Basically I got about $300 worth of stuff for $100. Very awesome shopping!!!!