Parenting Check in Feb 8

[karlamo]

Happy Monday Parents!

How was your week/end? Anything new going on with your LO's?

Parenting Roster
healz413
Manada
kevinandjesse
foodislove
megd893
calsurb
andstilltrying
jazibel
kh826
karlamo
jgy
sherminator
mahler5
wittyandwaiting
kona
strings
mrsnorris
2mrsks (mrs&mrsk)
jennicole
amberreva
shemarie82
officerofthelaw
ionaerebor
firstcomeslove2013

sdfonz619

QOTW:  How good are you with keeping a baby book?  Is it up to date with every milestone or is it like mine, where you neglect it and then write guesstimates for milestones? hehehe 

Parents of older ones, How have you kept your child's milestones or special projects/gifts to you?  I need ideas for when we're past the baby book phase.

[mahler5]

C has been talking a little more the last week. I wonder if daycare is contributing to this. It's not so much a boost in vocabulary but she seems to be saying slightly longer sentences and random phrases I've never heard her say. For example, we went to the park yesterday and walked over to the pond to see the ducks. When I told her we were going to see the ducks, she said, "hello ducks, nice to meet you!" I have no idea where she picked that up

She liked daycare last week. She only cried a little on Wednesday and no tears on Friday. The teacher will text me updates and send pics, which is so awesome! The other place we went to didn't do this and was more expensive.

Today she was really fussy this morning though so I picked her up early and I'm taking her in. I think she may have an ear infection.

She fell asleep on the couch too so I know she doesn't feel good.

QOTW -- a lot of her milestones I have recorded on posts from the parenting thread from the bump that I cut and pasted to save all the info. Sadly, I still haven't transferred all the info.

[healz413]

Ellis is 10 days away from being 6 months old! I can't believe she's such a big kid.

We started sleep training using the Sleep Lady Shuffle without night weaning on Friday. We are training naps and nights at the same time which is intense. Naps are definitely harder. But she's in her crib now for naps and for night. It's a huge change. I actually have some free time during the day (albeit in 30-40 min chunks because she's only taking short naps).

We've tried a couple more fruits and veggies. Bananas are still her favorite even though she's more interested in playing than eating (which is fine).

She loves her jumperoo and is getting more interested in her exersaucer. And this afternoon she spent 30 minutes playing on her activity mat/baby gym!!

Qotw: we have a baby book we are really looking forward to using but we haven't even started it. Maybe now that ellis is sleeping in her crib, we will have time to do that!

[cetcar]

We'll do an update later but right now M just fell asleep and I'd like to get some things done.

Sometimes I lightly poke her when she's sleeping soundly just to see a wiggle.

[kona]

O is 18 months.

She is still talking up a storm. We bought her a plastic slide this weekend and she LOVES it. It takes up my entire living room but oh well. My dad came over this afternoon to put up the new window covering we got. Finally we can open/close the shade to her room. It looks really nice, especially after the ugly blackout thing we had put up with velcro and tape that had been there for at least a year.

We joined the YMCA and dropped her off at the childcare center for about 30 minutes this weekend. She seemed to really be excited about playing with 'the kids'. But when we left she was kind of standing by herself looking a little lost. It broke my heart even though I know there was nothing wrong. I'm having a really hard time letting her go. I never expected to have all these emotions over being a parent, I'm just not that touchy-feely otherwise. It's really throwing me.

QOTW:
We made a shutterfly book of her first year. Honestly, it was really expensive and it's not really what I had pictured. M was in charge of it and I got too frustrated to try and explain what my vision was or to do it myself. I'm not sure what we will do going forward.

[sdfonz619]

At a little over 4.5 months, Mila seems to surprise us with new personality traits daily and is so curious about everything around her. She has started making chewing motions with her mouth and is reaching for our food which makes us confident she will be ready to start trying solids in the next month and a half. Our nights are getting back to normal and she is sleeping anywhere between 4-6 hours at a time with one or maybe two wake ups. We took Mila on her first road trip this past weekend and she didn't scream cry once! It seems a simple switch from her infant seat to a convertible car seat worked like a charm.

QOTW: We haven't kept a "baby book" per se, but have been keeping a written journal, video and pictures galore.

[kh826]

William is 20 months & Lucie is 2 weeks old.
I am having a hard time finding time to check-in and keep up with threads this week!

William is continuing to show us defiant behaviors. He is starting to adjust to Lu though, and we are having more "good times" to balance out the "rough times." He gets easily frustrated, and he has noticed that when Lucie cries J and I take notice and go to her, so he has started "crying" -- which really just a high pitched squeal that sounds AWFUL -- when he wants attention. We are really working on redirecting him to "use his words" -- sometimes more successfully than others. Being gentle is a struggle at times, mainly because I think he doesn't know his own strength.

Current William Struggles:
*diaper changes
*brushing teeth
*walking up the stairs
*whining/"crying" for attention
*nap time has been hit or miss
*Hair pulling!

Current Positive William Stuff:
*He is talking in sentences like crazy and repeating new words by the dozen daily. Yesterday he said "Mama take Reese outside to go poop" -- woah kid, that's 7 words!
*He has very sweet moments when he shares toys and other things with Lu. He likes to put things (like his cars and trucks) in her swing with her.
*He is still sleeping like a champ at night, and Lu hasn't woken him up once yet. Thank you, universe!
*He has the best laugh, and even on tough days he still laughs a ton. He has a great ability to shake things off and go from distraught to loving life at a moment's notice.

Lucie Stuff:
*She is a great sleeper like her brother, which is really saving our sanity right now. We put her down around 10pm most nights and she sleeps until 2 or 2:30am, then most of the time she will go back down around 3-3:30am and sleep until 7 or 7:30am, so only one wake up per night. We have had a couple of nights where we have had 2 wake ups, but mostly just one. She is a little champ.
*She is a very mellow baby. So far she is not a big crier (which is good, b/c William is crying enough for both of them right now -- poor little bugger). She pretty much only cries when hungry or gassy. When she wakes up at night, she mainly just breathes heavily and makes a little snorting noise to let us know that she is awake. It's cute.
*We are still taking BFing one day at a time. We seem to have 1-2 good BFing days, and then we will struggle for a day. I am fairly confident it has to do with supply. It is pretty obvious when I have enough there to satisfy her and when I don't. So we are still supplementing with formula. We are using a sensitive kind b/c she spits up a lot and has had an issue with belly aches/gas. We have started giving her gas drops/gripe water as well, and that seems to be helping.
*She makes such expressive faces for a newborn. Her awake periods of time are SUPER alert and awake.
*She is a snuggle bug, and loves to nuzzle on our shoulders.

QOTW: What baby books? Oh man...

[karlamo]

kh826, Reading about William reminds me of R in those early weeks. Heck even now sometimes. Before L was born I thought R was so big and "independent". It wasn't until we had L that I saw how little R still was. It's tough because there are moments when I needed him to be more "grown up" than he was. My wife and I were looking back at photos a few days ago and couldn't believe how young R looked when we brought L home.

Excuse the ramblings of another 2U2 mom!