June Angel Baby Mommas Hoping for Rainbows!!

[jenkb123]

Stef - It was too cold to actually get all the way out of the water. Shoulders (for a moment) and head were all that were outside of the pool. Hair and eyelashes would freeze up and basically have icicles or frost. It would make you look like you had a head full of white hair. It felt so nice though. There is nothing like sitting in a hot pool outside in the middle of winter.

 

[angel2010]

Jen, I am horrible about drying my hair before we go out for the day. My hair is always freezing. For about a week it was cold enough to freeze your nose hairs here too. HATE it!! Want to go live with Meli or Vegas!

Meli, I am so excited for you guys!!!!

 

[angel2010]

Melissa I am so happy for you and your family!!!!

 

[StefNJunk]

Angel, her screaming fits are getting better. She's had a few, but the Maalox seems to help quite a bit. It isn't instant, but usually within 10-15 minutes after taking it, the screaming stops. We don't have to use it every night, either, which is great.

Hmm... have you tried Lansinoh on your nipples? It's great stuff. You can try putting it on right after feedings or right before, or both. My left nipple is still healing, it helps if I put it on before a feeding (it's completely safe for them to ingest).

I'll know if the bleeding I had was my period if I start bleeding again this Sunday / Monday (as long as my cycle is still regular). I'm not convinced it was... it was super light, no cramping...

I'd be happy to make you an alphabet print! Just let me know what you want done! That goes for everyone else as well

Have you found your new house yet?

Meli, soooo happy Xzavier is home! Almost a week now, it must be amazing!

Vegas, Jen, Jasmine - hope you're all doing well!

AFM, you ladies probably saw that Sienna rolled over from back to tummy already, at 9 weeks and 6 days old. How crazy! She's also been doing this trick where she rotates like the hands on a clock. I'll put her facing one way in her pack n play and find her facing the opposite way. She's been doing this for about 4 weeks now, but today she's just been having a blast with it. She rotated herself 360 degrees, and was halfway through another rotation when she fell asleep. Such a goof.

Have you guys ever done baby swim lessons? They start at 6 months. I've been interested since before she was even born, but I don't think Blake will go for it. Whenever we end up moving back closer to his mom, I'd like her to be a confident swimmer and not afraid of the pool, since we'd be over there a lot during the summer. She's not afraid of water at all so far, she loves bath time and the few times I've splashed her face on accident, she just smiles, so I think she'd take to it well.

 

[vegasbaby]

Stef: I looked into the infant swim lessons, which here is basically just teaching them how to flip from front to back so they can float. The YMCA wanted like $400 for the lessons and I already have a pool fence so I decided against it. We started regular swim lessons last year when she turned three. Maybe the clases in your area are different.

That is amazing how mobile Sienna is already. I don't give Grace enough room to wiggle around as she is either in the bassinet, the swing, the vibrating chair or the Bjorne.

Meli: loving your posts about Xzavier. He sounds like he is doing wonderful! Does he have to get shots monthly to prevent RSV? My nephew had to get them during his first year to help prevent respiratory illness, but his premie issues were almost entirely respitory whereas Xzavier seems to not have issues in that department.

AFM: Grace is eight weeks old today. Time is flying! She is a very happy little girl, though she does get cranky in the evenings. She's currently sleeping 5-6.5 hour blocks at night. Not bad, but her sister was a better sleeper by this point. Charlotte is still loving being a sister and can't wait for Grace to start going to daycare with her.

 

[StefNJunk]

Vegas, the rec-plex in my town does infant swim lessons, $54, this is their description - "Students will learn to feel comfortable in the water with the parent's reassurance. A parent must accompany the infant in the class. Skills will be taught to both the child and parent. Children will learn water adjustment, front kick, back float and water exits. Parents will learn holding positions and basic safety skills." I'm hoping I make up my mind soon, lol, because April is almost booked, and she'll be the minimum age at the end of May, so I'd want to register for a block in June, which they don't have listed yet but will probably book early, based on how the other classes booked.

Yeah, she's a wiggleworm. I try to give her space to move because I know she wants to, so she spends a lot of time on one of those activity mats or in the pack n play where she can move around. She still sleeps in her bassinet, but she doesn't like it much, since she can't roll around at all, so we're thinking about rearranging our room to fit the pack n play in there until we move her to her crib.

Grace and Sienna seem to have a lot in common! Sienna is happy a lot also, and cranky in the evenings. And she sleeps in about 5 hour blocks at night (mostly).

So glad Charlotte is loving being a sister! Grace starts daycare in a few days, doesn't she?

 

[vegasbaby]

Stef: that sounds like a terrific deal and a great class. Wish we had something like that here. All they do is infant rescue classes and the worst part, other than the price, was that it was five days a week, ten minutes a day for six weeks! Who has time for that?!

So I've been giving Grace more mat time, but she doesn't wiggle around too much. I used to call Charlotte my inch worm because I'd have her swaddled and she'd end up at the opposite end of the crib by morning. Silly baby.

Afm: one more week until I start work. Well eight days since I don't go back until Tuesday as daycare is closed for President's Day. I have no idea how I'm going to get both girls out of the house and myself to work by 8:00am. It's the morning nursing session that's going to mess things up.

I'm having fun today dealing with insurance claims. Totally messed up, huge headache for me. One of the doctors owes me a good amount yet they are sending me final notice bills. Wth?!

 

[StefNJunk]

Those classes sound crazy! These ones are either once a week for 40 minutes or twice a week for 35 minutes (not sure why they set it up that way?) for about a month, depending on the class. I'd probably do the twice a week, since the schedule (evening classes) is better for me. I'm going to be paying attention to when they get the June schedule up because April is now completely booked.

Charlotte sounds a lot like Sienna with the wiggly! Did she like being swaddled? I can't swaddle this wiggly one because she works her way right out of it. We got her in one of those swaddler blankets once without her fussing, but it was when she was still sleeping like a rock during the day.

You might want to try a dry run of your work morning routine before you have to do it for work, to see how early you should start getting everything done to make it in time.

Good luck with the insurance, that can be a pain in the ass.

AFM, not too much new going on. Did have a question for you all, though. Most nights lately, Sienna has an issue with nursing off the right side. During the day she's fine with it, but come the evening, she screams if I try to put her on the right side, and is completely fine with the left. During the middle of the night feeding she's back to being fine with it. Has anyone experienced something like this?

She's also very wiggly during feedings, waving her arms around a lot. I'm thinking that might just be how she is, though. Always a wiggly one.

 

[Meli_H]

Hi everyone. Sorry it's been so long!

Everything is great so far with Zavy. He does get mad and cry when he crys or poops, especially when it happens during his sleep. Other than that he is pretty chill. Believe it or not, my biggest stressor is my mil and sil. I am so pissed that I have let them get to me and will keep trying to forget about it!! GRRR

vwgas, so sorry to hear about your friends child. I will pray for them. Yes, Xzavier will.need to get RSV shots during RSV season, not just this year but next year as well.

I plan to log on tomorrow to respond In more depth as DH has work appts and I can use the computer

Ttys xoxo

 

[angel2010]

Stef, thanks for the lansinoh tip, don't know why I didn't think about it. They started feeling better after just a couple applications. What a strong little lady you have, rolling like that. Emma rolled front to back once when she was around four weeks, but I think it was a fluke. She also somehow manages to turn herself. We have not found a house yet. we actually found out that our lease isn't up until 4/30 so we have a little longer. I would love the print, I am wanting one for Cart's room as well. Let me measure the frame I have for Emma's room and get back to you on size. I can send you money for supplies and postage.
I really want to do swimming lessons. We have done them a couple times with Carter, but never did them consistently. He is still at the point that I would have to be in the water with him. If we had the extra money I would want to do them with both kids and start Emma early.
Emma did the same thing with my right boob! It seemed to come on suddenly and stopped after about a week and a half. It was very frustrating for a bit though.

Vegas, glad to hear Grace is doing so well. I bet Charlotte is great with her! Sorry about the insurance, I have been dealing with the same thing from the third party I got my breast pump from.

Meli, I am so happy everything is going well. What is going on with your mil and sil?

Middy, where are you?

Jen, where are you at in your cycle?

 

[angel2010]

A friend of mine, just experienced a miscarriage last night. She was about 10 weeks, but the baby was only around 7 I think. She started talking to me about it last week when she went to the dr and found out the baby stopped growing. She finally just miscarried last night. I was the only person she knew that had experienced it. I hope I have helped he by talking about mine and offering what comfort I could. It sure has brought up sad feelings though

 

[StefNJunk]

Angel, glad the Lansinoh helped!

I don't think it's a fluke; it took her the same strength to roll herself at that age as it would at a later age. Even if she hasn't done it again yet, I still wouldn't call it a fluke! Sienna hasn't rolled again since that first time, either, but I haven't seen her really even try, whereas before the roll she has tried a few times.

It'd probably be better if I had the prints sent to a local Walgreens for you to pick up, that way there's no risk in them getting ruined in the mail. Would that work for you?

That's so weird about the right boob thing! Glad to know it isn't just Sienna having boob bias.

So sorry to hear about your friend. I'm sure being able to talk to you about it helped.

AFM, pumping the hell out of my boobs today... Blake's mom is babysitting for us tomorrow so we can do vday stuff then instead of today. I didn't start pumping until today, thinking it would be like the last time I pumped when I got a lot of milk super easily. Well... wrong. Big time wrong! I understand now why I had the forceful letdown before... I was able to get 3-4 oz. from one boob AFTER nursing before (last time I pumped was ... man like 10 weeks ago), but I've been pumping on and off all day and only have 2 oz. so far... Not sure how I'm going to get enough for tomorrow at this rate...

 

[angel2010]

I think you have to be consistent with pumping to get a good volume. I never get much.

 

[Meli_H]

Angel, sorry to hear about your friend.

Stef, have fun tomorrow celebrating Valentines!

Vegas, i cant believe it's almost time to go back to work!! GL with getting out the door on time. you seem like supermom, I know you can do it! PS loved the juice box snacks you posted on fb! I also plan to take Zavy for swim lessons starting in June at the YMCA.

Hi ladies so here is my issue with SIL and MIL.

I might have already mentioned that back in the beginning when Xzavier was born, mil and sil both complained to raul that “Meli was making faces” “She wasn’t very welcoming”. Really?! My baby is fighting for his life so yah, you’re probably 100% right. I was not a very gracious host, nor did I give a crap!!! My focus was and always has been Zavy. Sorry if I didn’t chit chat with you about the weather, or smile enough for your liking. I mean really.. and I have never had a bad relationship with my mil. Now my sil is a different story…her and Raul have always had issues but when Xzavier was born she was here for him and made the effort to visit him lots so it thawed Raul’s heart. So, when I suggested to Raul that his sister and her husband be one of 2 pairs of people to baptize Zavy, he agreed. We asked her and she was so excited, we told her not to tell anyone because we still hadn’t decided who the other pair would be, and they will be from my family.

Well, the first week Zavy was home he had 2 dr appointments, one on Tuesday and one on Wednesday. I asked my mom to go with me to the Tuesday one to help me, but didn’t ask her for Wednesday because she was going out of town on a cruise. So I asked MIL to help me with the Wednesday apt. She kind of snootily responded “Oh, you mean your mom isn’t going with you?!” I just played it off and didn’t react to her snootiness and said, no, please, if you can accompany me I would appreciate it. So she did and everything was fine (or so I thought).

Anyways, a couple of weeks ago mil mentioned to Raul over the phone, bitching about things that I didn’t mention in FB. Things that had to do with her, maybe gifts she had bought him? Well, I add as much as I can remember and thank people as much as I can, but of course there will be those that fall through the cracks, but I know that she wasn’t one of them!! I don’t know if it’s sil that’s in her ear, egging her on, or what the deal is. So of course Raul got pissed off and told her “listen, I’m tired of this bs. Cut the crap now because I;m not having it. Meli didn’t omit anything of yours and if she did, it wasn’t on purpose. How petty can you be?” What I don’t understand is, what she thought she would accomplish, telling Raul this. How stupid is she? She knows her son, all she is doing is pissing him off and antagonizing him.

I think she is jealous of my mom and how much time she would go to the hospital. She went like, maybe 6 times to visit him in the 18 weeks he was in the NICU. My mom was there pretty much every day. She has also mentioned to Raul that my mom and my family look down on her because she doesn’t speak perfect English. Yes, her and my mom are totally different. My mom assimilated while keeping her heritage, and worked her way up the corporate ladder to a great career. My mom is the most humble, gracious and respected person that I know. She has NEVER looked down on anybody, it doesn’t matter what their lot in life is. I think it’s just MIL’s own insecurities that she is projecting.

So I told Raul “You need to check your sister. Tell her in a nice way that she needs to stop talking shit and soon, because I am not going to have her baptize Zavy and then have to walk on eggshells around her all the time, and then you and her get pissed off at each other again and don’t talk for another 10 years. I will not rob Zavy of his godparents. SIL as a selection is making me nervous and I am totally second guessing myself on this one, because I am the one that brought it up to Raul and pushed for it!!

So, last week, maybe a couple of days after the not so pleasant conversation between Raul and MIL re FB, she calls him again to ask about the tdap. I told her she had to have the tdap because she is around Xzavier. She was on speakerphone but I guess she didn’t know it because I told Raul, “please remind her about Monday’s appt that she said she would accompany me to”. She responded “Why is she asking me again? Isnt it fair that she ask her mom and we take turns”? I said “You know what, that;s ok. Don’t worry about it. I will find someone else to go with me” Right away she backpedaled and said “no, that’s ok, I will go with you” and I said “NO THANK YOU”. She then called me the next day and apologized and kissed my a**. I don’t hold grudges but I am really irritated with these people.

 

[vegasbaby]

Meli: sorry for all the family drama; that's the last thing you need as your focus should be on Xzavier. I'm glad Raul is standing up for you (you know how protective sons can be of their moms). You are doing your best trying to include everyone. You went above and beyond by sharing daily updates about Xzavier during his hospital stay when you could have been doing other things (like sleeping) and you always thanked everyone for even the smallest gesture. Hopefully this will all blow over soon.

Stef: I haven't noticed a side preference here, but Grace prefers my noobs over a bottle or EBM over formula. She used to take whatever, but now she's developing preferences. Maybe you produce more milk from that side so Sienna knows to go to it when she's really hungry. I know I produce more on the right.

Angel: hope you find a new place soon. Btw, I'm obsessive about Charlotte's books too. They must be organized from biggest to smallest. Also, we've pretty much run out of room for new books and I so love buying children's books.

Afm: tomorrow is the big day. I'm looking forward to returning to work, but a bit sad too. We decided to celebrate Charlotte's 4th birthday today, even though it's tomorrow. She's home from daycare today as they are closed for President's Day. Yesterday we took her to the zoo. She got to feed giraffes, a deer, and some birds. We were lucky because the weather was perfect. Even the baby enjoyed it and didn't cry the entire time.

Speaking of Grace, does anyone have any tips on how to get her to drop her night feeding? Maybe I'm expecting too much too soon, but Charlotte was sleeping 9-10 hours a night by now. Grace sleeps a 5.5-6.6 hour block, nurses for about 20 minutes and then does another 2-3.5 hour block. It's not bad, but it could be better. She only wants boob in the evening, so tanking her up with formula won't work (like it did with her sister). Just want a bit more sleep as I head back to work. Other than that she's a pretty awesome baby!

 

[Meli_H]

Hi vegas,

So tomorrow is the big day! GL and I know all will be fine.

Yah, I am very disappointed as I did not know my mil was so petty.

what do u do to get 5+hours from Gracie at night? Do u feed her differently than u do during the day? Do tell!

 

[vegasbaby]

Angel: I'm so sorry your friend had to experience a miscarriage, but I'm glad you were able to comfort her.

Meli: she does typically cluster feed before she goes down for the night. She'll eat once every 1-1.5 hours from about 6:30 until she goes down at 10:00 (though we are trying to move bedtime up).

So work has been great. They had a huge welcome back banner for me in my office. Grace has been doing great at daycare. They say she doesn't cry at all. She also doesn't nap. Tonight I put her down at 8:15. I'm sure this is a mistake, but she just wasn't happy awake. I'll let you all know how it goes.

 

[StefNJunk]

Angel, yeah I'm really not consistent with the pump at all. I want to try to build up a stock, but I really need to get some storage bags first.

Meli, that sucks about the family drama. I'm confused as to why your in-laws are like that with you, it doesn't sound like you you did anything to upset them at all! I hope they get over it.

Vegas, you may be right about her preferring the left boob because it produces more milk; it definitely does! I hadn't thought of that and it makes sense.

No tips on getting Charlotte to drop her night feeding here... Sienna is now sleeping 7-8 hour stretches at night, but it just sort of happened. I just make sure she's full right before we go to sleep. Sometimes it means feeding her close to the last feeding if we go to bed shortly after I put her to bed, but she usually wakes up wanting more when we come to bed if that happens, anyway.

So glad Grace does well at daycare! Sienna doesn't like to nap during the day much either, she starts getting cranky in the evening because of it and has been going to bed earlier, as well.

AFM, we had fun on our Valentine's Day celebration. Went to dinner, it was ok. The food was overpriced and just ehh, but we had fun anyway. I know you guys saw Blake's little drawing... lol. The restaurant had paper wrapped around the table for kids to draw on (we found it odd considering the place looked semi-fancy) and he got bored after our appetizer waiting on our main dishes. He cracks me up.

Sienna did really well for her first time being left without us at someone else's house (the few short periods she was left with my parents / my brother was at our house). She had two 30 minute naps and was up being social the rest of the time. She slept the entire ride home (over an hour), woke up very happy and nursed and went back to sleep for 8 1/2 hours! Woke up to nurse again and passed out for another 2 1/2 hours. It was great! She's slept 7-8 hour stretches almost every night this week.

Have a question one of you ladies might know the answer to. I mentioned awhile back that Sienna's baby acne had cleared up. Well she ended up with one pimple on her cheek 5 weeks ago. It's STILL there. Any idea why? I'm wondering if it's a normal pimple or something else, although not sure what else it could be.

 

[StefNJunk]

Angel, forgot to mention that what I thought may have been AF last month wasn't, it didn't come back after 4 weeks. What reminded me to mention it? It's come full force for the first time just a few minutes ago. Bleh. I should have known... had all the symptoms... actually thought I might be prego again because of all the symptoms and took a test the other day lol. Blake came home today and I gave him a scare saying "I know why I had all those pregnancy symptoms." He said why and I just looked at him for a few seconds, haha.

 

[jenkb123]

Hey Girls:

I’ve been meaning to pop on here to give you an update on where things are at. Its been a busy couple of months. I’ve been staying away from BNB a bit as I did take a break last month due to my ruebella vaccination. I have been reading the posts and enjoying hearing about all of the JAB babies!! I can’t believe how big they are all getting (and of course how cute they are all getting!!)

I think in my last post I told you that I got in to the fertility clinic and that we were on the waiting list for IVF. We were going to do a couple of IUI’s while we were waiting. Well this month we did our first IUI. I had to learn how to give myself the trigger shot (mixing the medications and giving myself a needle was an interesting process). We did the IUI last Friday. I am scheduled to go in and get a blood HCG test on March 7. They said that if I go first thing in the morning they should have the results before the end of the day. I will likely still POAS prior to the blood test. I gave myself the trigger shot Thursday morning (which should have induced ovulation sometime on Friday or early Saturday at the latest). So that means I am about 5dpo right now. Fingers crossed that it worked!!

I have also just completed a 21 day sugar detox. I already cut out gluten and dairy about a year ago. I figured that it wouldn’t hurt to eliminate sugar. Some people swear that sugar is the worst culprit in creating inflammation in your body. It also messes with hormones and creates things like insulin resistance. I figured it was worth a try to add it in to the long list of things I have done to try to get pregnant. My husband did the detox too. The recipes in the plan are really good. It takes a bit more time to prepare things since basically anything premade is eliminated. We are going to mainly still stick to it even though we were officially done on Monday. It eliminated all processed foods, gluten, dairy, sugar, sweeteners, sweet substitutes, grains/legumes, all fruit (other than grapefruit, green tipped bananas, and green apples). The idea is to eliminate anything that your body perceives as sweet to eliminate sweet cravings and to relearn how to taste sweetness without the huge amounts of sugar in most average diets. It was interesting. I never considered myself to have a sweet tooth or eat a lot of sugar. I rarely drink pop or eat candy. I definitely noticed after starting the detox and cutting all forms of sugar/sweeteners how much my body relied on it. The first few days I was so exhausted I could barely stay awake at work in the afternoons. It just goes to show how much sugar is hidden in all of the things we eat on a regular basis. Even in things you wouldn’t necessarily expect like canned tomatoes, broths, sauces, salad dressing, etc...

So we will see what happens in the next week and a half. Hopefully I will have some good news to share with you all. Keep your fingers crossed for me. One of these times it has to be my month!!!