Amy, Oh my god! Congrats!!! How exciting. You so deserve this. What are the odds? Are you freaking out at all or just overjoyed?
LadySosa: You are freaking adorable!
Booger: I feel terrible to have left you hanging. I've been consumed by all things house buying. We had a LOT of trouble getting Bri to take a bottle. But good news, he is now taking it like a champ! I'm using the Kiinde breastfeeding system, so we started out with those nipples. He would just choke and sputter and couldn't handle the flow at all. The funny thing is my flow is pretty quick, but I think he just couldn't figure out how to control it like he can with the boob. We tried Tomee tippee, Avent, Dr. Brown's and Latch slow flow nipples in addition to the Kiinde. Same problem. Several times I had to come home when I went out because he was screaming and my mom couldn't get him to take it. DH is more patient with him and less prone to freak out.
We went to using a Dr. Brown's preemie nipple, I also brought home a Playtex drop-in because that's supposed to be slow too but we didn't end up trying it. Dr. Brown's was the winner. We found it best for me to leave the house the first few times and hold him sitting upright. It was a totally different feeding experience than breastfeeding that way. DH did have to control the bottle for him a bit at first so he didn't choke but he got the hang of it.
My friend and neighbor, whose son is six days younger than Bri, had major issues too but hers were different. Elliot wanted a faster flow nipple, the slow was too slow for him, and turns out her milk has a high lactose content. After like 12-24 hours her milk sours, unless she scalds it after pumping. This doesn't bug all babies but it did bug Elliot, who screamed every time she tried to give him a bottle. He's started day care and is doing great.
(She figured this out by tasting it. I know it sounds kind of gross but it did inspire me to taste my own. And it wasn't anywhere near as weird as I thought it'd be. And now I can tell if milk went bad.) Hope that helps. Feel free to PM me if you need anything else. I had similar anxiety when I was finally left alone with Bri, especially because I'd had so much help I'd only been responsible with feeding him most of the time. I assure you it gets easier.
I made it a point to get out every day for at least for a walk or a run to Target. Not sure how rural you are, but a Target run always makes me feel better, even if I just walk around =) Have you tried looking for any mom's groups? I've meant to go to one on Mondays at 11 but I keep having conflicts. I do think it helps me that I am used to working from home alone most days, so this isn't as isolating to me as it would be to others.
Beagle: I'm sorry you're feeling anxious about returning to work. I certainly sympathize. I will say I am feeling a bit better about the prospect.
Krissy: Congrats on the house and all the interest in your current home! We haven't listed ours yet, so I'm definitely worried about two mortgages.
Brighteyez: Hope you start to feel better soon. That sounds awful
MrsL: Thanks for checking in. I can't believe you're that far along already!
Hi to everyone else.
I've been totally consumed with all things house buying. How do people do this while working full time? It's been a bit stressful because various inspection turned up some pretty costly things. I'd encourage any of you buying now to not just go with the standard inspection. Since it is an old house, we checked for radon, termites, snaked the sewer lines and checked the chimney. Initially, it seemed like the inspection turned up a handful of small repairs, we estimated would cost about $1,500.
But there was a little mold in the basement so we did mold testing and it is going to be $3,000 to fix that. The radon came back positive. Annnnnd then today I found out both chimneys need new liners, roughly estimated at $4K-$6K!! The current owners are in the middle of a divorce and they owe practically what we bought the house for after refinancing twice. We went back to them asking them to deal with the radon and offer us a $7,000 credit to deal with the mold and chimneys. We said we'd pick up the other repairs. But I just don't know if they have the money.
I'm really anxious because we're looking at almost $10K in repairs, not including the work we were already planning on doing upstairs. I don't want to walk away but we also can't be stupid here. Fingers crossed they at least meet up in the middle.
Thankfully, Bri's been such an awesome baby through all of this. He's a champion napper on the go.
Hope everyone has a great weekend.
! This pregnancy which is a blessing has had me down and sick with hyperemeisis. I am currently trying different medication to help with the nausea and vomitting that doctor have recommended, nothing works so far or it works but makes me drowsy which makes it hard to work. I miss you ladies and am always thinking of you all. I will check in again once I start to feel a lot better.
