Parenting Check-In - July 11th

[bexincanada]

What's going on this week parents?

QOTW: What has been your best parenting moment?  Lets spread some positivity...

[cetcar]

We're still in Massachusetts. We fly back Thursday.

In the last week, M has really mastered sitting up. You can just sit her down and she stays up! This afternoon we sat in the grass for at least 10 minutes. Last week it was for much shorter periods.

She still has this cold and tonight she feels a bit warm- 99.6. So, we'll continue to watch her temp and may take her to the doctor before our flight. I think I mentioned this before, but a couple times after eating in the morning she will cough and ends up spitting up a bunch. I'm wondering if she's eating too much and has more phlegm in the morning.

She continues to love the exersaucer my parents bought. I love listening to her feet stomp around on the wood floors as she bounces. We're starting to read more board books

Still not too interested in rolling over. We try practicing on the ground with helping her and moving/placement of toys. I think she's more interested in figuring out how to crawl.

We've been really bad about writing monthly updates. We wrote one when she turned 4 months and now she's 5.5 months and we haven't written another. We need to get better at it.

As for the QOTW- Overall we've been having a lot of fun together. She sitting up is way too cute. I've definitely appreciated the extra hands while we've been visiting my parents but we're looking forward to seeing CET again.

[bexincanada]

cetcar, I hope M feels better soon. Reading is one of my favourite things to do with Is, primarily because I can never remember the words to songs so when singing to her I make up half the lyrics.

Yesterday was a tough day. Is got her lip and tongue released. H. and I agreed after the fact that I most definitely should not have been the one holding her, I feel like I get vicarious trauma whenever she has a procedure and is upset/crying. It was done with laser, she wailed. She wouldn't breastfeed right after so we cuddled and bottle fed. Yesterday afternoon/night she barely napped. We did lots of skin to skin. By the time H. got home from work I needed to lock myself in the bathroom and have a good cry. No immediate changes, I know it can take time. Nothing scheduled for today, more cuddles are definitely in order.

This weekend we're going to a family reunion 2.5 hours away. It'll be Is' first overnight trip. Lots of my cousins have babies now, so it should be an interesting/lively weekend. I hope I get some time to recharge and that Is isn't too over-stimulated.

Milestone-wise, with tummy-on-me time she can do mini-push ups. Her neck is super strong, if still a bit wobbly/uncontrolled. She's starting to make new sounds which is neat. She's 7 weeks old tomorrow.

QOTW: The time I've felt best is when I swear she's smiling at me, and I check to see if she's peed and she hasn't! (That's a bona fide social smile.) This morning, super early she spent 5 minutes just staring at me/examining my face - that was pretty amazing too.

[wittyandwaiting]

Having a great week here.

O laughs!!! We all love it so much so.....the new game in our house is to see who can make her laugh loudest. DS is the clear winner!

O has begun to wake up every 2-3 hours at night. This is really sad because she was giving me a 5-6 hour stretch of sleep very consistently. I'm sending out an SOS here....any ideas???

Trying to decide if O is ready for her excersaucer; all the wants lately is to be held standing up or sitting up.

DS has met a girl while volunteering and asked her about hanging out sometime.....is this a date? Yikes.

cetcar sitting up sounds like such a fun milestone! I can't wait! Hope that M feels better soon.

bexincanada I'm sorry you had such a tough day; I would have cried too. You both deserve all the love and cuddles today. Yay for smiles, hopefully you get lots today.

Has anybody read The Mommy Book by Todd Parr with their LO? We love it and I highly recommend it, it's colourful, fun and inclusive.

ETA: I think my best parenting moment is every time I catch DS and O looking at eachother with goo goo gaga eyes. They adore eachother.

(Random but I have a pic that captures this exactly but I'm not into public posting. Anybody into the idea of putting our parenting check-ins in a private area so only active members can see if we share pics?)

[karlamo]

cetcar, L barely rolled over. He did it a few tomes and then that was it. HE went to crawling. Hope she feeling better. Could she be teething? Those fevers tend to be low grade.

bexincanada, GOsh, I'm so sorry for the tie clipping. I hope your baby feels better too and nursing improves.

[karlamo]

L is walking!!! My last baby is on the move. He will walk and then when he falls, he crawls till he can get back up. I can't even tell you how adorable it is to see him walk. R thinks it's pretty funny seeing him get around. We are on the Pintrest downward spiral of first birthday planning. I found invite I like and need to order them. We are also doing a cake smash like we did for R. I need to make an apt with our photographer.


R is great. We are using 1-2-3 Magic approach for his less than desirable behavior and it's going well. He really has started expressing his feelings in full sentences and it's awesome. He'll say, I don't like that or that hurt me. I'm so proud of him.

QOTW: Right now, my best parenting moments are when I stay calm amidst the chaos and or R's bad behavior. It's easy to parent when things are going great, it's much harder for me to be a better parent when I'm stressed.

[cetcar]

Random FYI- If you're doing Prime Day, Rumparooz cloth diapers (some colors) are on the deal- 20+% off

www.amazon.com/dp/B00QJTB0Y6/ref=gbps_tit_m-5_e868_e14e07cc?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_p=69a0be37-ffbe-447a-a396-4694da91e868&pf_rd_s=merchandised-search-5&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_i=13887280011&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=HFAD630DFPGNRWKWCN3T

[karlamo]

I've been all over Prime since 5am this morning, cetcar. The credit card is sweating bullets right now.

So far I scored, EZPZ mat, 2 insulated food containers for DC, diapers. Possible pulling the trigger on a bouncy house and Britax car seat for R.

[cetcar]

karlamo, walking?! So exciting. That must be adorable but keeping you even busier.

[cetcar]

karlamo, walking?! So exciting. That must be adorable but keeping you even busier. Glad to hear she's not the only one who isn't all into rolling over. It's not a big life goal for her at the moment. Have you tried the ezpz mats before?

wittyandwaiting, thanks for the book suggestion. I'll look it up on Amazon

[wittyandwaiting]

Prime day! Prime day! Prime day! I'm so excited for prime day!

[karlamo]

Prime day + maternity leave(wittyandwaiting)= bad

[karlamo]

Jul 12, 2016 11:05:00 GMT -5 cetcar said:

karlamo , walking?! So exciting. That must be adorable but keeping you even busier. Glad to hear she's not the only one who isn't all into rolling over. It's not a big life goal for her at the moment. Have you tried the ezpz mats before?

wittyandwaiting , thanks for the boom suggestion. I'll look it up on Amazon

I swear by those mats. We have been using one for R for a year and it's my life line. I just bought L one. They can't throw it. It's not like those suction cup type ones which are crap, IMO.

  This is a heavy mat that's microwaveable. $20 bucks on Prime deal today.

[cetcar]

wittyandwaiting, I'm reading the board while entertaining M so I'm a bit distracted. That's the reason for the multiple posts. My parents bought M a jumper exersaucer before this trip and she LOVES it! I was hesitant about buying one since it's so much plastic but she really enjoys it. She'll play and bounce all around for as long as an hour, it seems. I may have been converted! She's only been using it for 2 weeks but it's fun to watch how much more she can do it in than she could the first time we put her in it. Sorry to hear about the sleep regression. I remember the first time M regressed it was so depressing. Right before 4 months she started waking a bunch at night then she suddenly started sleeping through the night. No real tricks, we would try to put her back to sleep without feeding her but most of the time ended up feeding her. We mainly just listened to what she needed or did what would make her sleep. Sometimes when we tried not feeding her and it didn't work, we would think it would have been so much faster if we just fed her at the beginning. All this to say, I hope it's just a phase and she goes back to giving you those longer stretches. They are great and make you feel so much more normal.

[wittyandwaiting]

Jul 12, 2016 11:17:38 GMT -5 karlamo said:

Prime day + maternity leave(wittyandwaiting)= bad

It's so bad it's good.

[cetcar]

Jul 12, 2016 11:19:48 GMT -5 karlamo said:

Jul 12, 2016 11:05:00 GMT -5 cetcar said:

karlamo , walking?! So exciting. That must be adorable but keeping you even busier. Glad to hear she's not the only one who isn't all into rolling over. It's not a big life goal for her at the moment. Have you tried the ezpz mats before?

wittyandwaiting , thanks for the boom suggestion. I'll look it up on Amazon

I swear by those mats. We have been using one for R for a year and it's my life line. I just bought L one. They can't throw it. It's not like those suction cup type ones which are crap, IMO.

  This is a heavy mat that's microwaveable. $20 bucks on Prime deal today.

Good to know! Bowl or plate?

[karlamo]

I got the plate, cetcar.

[cetcar]

bexincanada, such a sweet moment you described from this morning. Sometimes it's the little moments that are the most meaningful.

[cetcar]

wittyandwaiting, we would be good with posting to a small private group.

[kh826]

OK, a couple of days late, but here is my check-in!

William is 2 and Lucie is 5.5 months.
We had a good weekend. On Saturday we ran some errands in the morning at a local outdoor mall. It was cloudy and rained lightly off and on, but it was nice to be out and about. Jennifer dropped her computer off at the Mac store (I fear it is on its final legs), we bought the kids some clothes at Baby Gap, I bought a few things at Trader Joes, and we had a snack at Starbucks. William alternated between riding in the double stroller and walking holding my hand. Both kids did well and we all had a good time.
We went home and both kiddos took long naps after lunchtime.
We just started putting Lucie down for solo naps upstairs using the monitor last week. Prior to that she was mainly napping on one of us or in her swing. She has started taking nice long afternoon naps with William now that we put her down in a quiet room upstairs by herself. Imagine that! When their naps happen at the same time it is WEIRD though. First time in almost 6 months that we have had kid free time together. I used that time to pull weeds in the backyard. Yep, first free time during the day that my wife and I have had together in almost 6 months, and I went outside and pulled weeds. I don’t even know why I felt like that was the best choice at the time.
After nap, I took William with me to the grocery store, and we did a big shop for all the essentials. He was thrilled that the police car cart (there is only one!) was available for him to ride in. It was a highlight for him.
Sunday was a low key day. We hung out and played, FaceTimed with my mom and sisters, colored for a long time in the afternoon, had some extended bath time for both kiddos, and watched some Clifford the Big Red Dog on Netflix – William’s current new fave!
Overall, William listened pretty well this weekend. He didn’t need a single time out, and only had to be reminded periodically to “turn on his listening ears.”
Lucie’s bottom two teeth are now fully through the gums and are a lot more visible. Just in time to start solids in 2 weeks! She has definitely been going through a growth spurt lately. She usually takes 4 oz per feeding, but at least once a day now she will have one “mega feeding” as I like to call it, of 6-7 ounces as once. She seems like such a peanut compared to William. She was 98% for height, but only 61% for weight at her 4 month visit. We just upgraded her to size 2 diapers this weekend (William was already in size 3s by this point!). She is still wearing a lot of 0-3 month onesies, but for anything with pants she needs 6-12 months because her legs are so long. She sits unassisted for 20-30 seconds as a spurt before flopping herself over. She has become more graceful at it, at least. She rolls like a mad woman from one end of the room to another. She definitely wants to keep up with William!

I am going to have to think about my best parenting moment and come back to post that. I am not sure off hand, and if I wait to post, I will forget!!!