Parenting Check-In: April 18

[wittyandwaiting]

Hi....
It's Tuesday.

What's up parents?

QOTW: What cute or embarrassing story might you tell about your children at their wedding?

[karlamo]

wittyandwaiting, I was just coming here to post this! what time is it there like 3am? hehehe

[wittyandwaiting]

Apr 19, 2016 8:09:48 GMT -5 karlamo said:

wittyandwaiting, I was just coming here to post this! what time is it there like 3am? hehehe

I think it was like 9am but I considered posting it at 3am.

[karlamo]

R is 2 and L is 8 months.

Life in our neck of the woods is insane at the moment. I'm ready for things to calm down but it seems like the insanity may only be getting started. I'll share more when I get the green light to.

L is in the middle of separation anxiety. I forgot how much *fun* this phase is. Over the weekend L refused to let anyone hold him except me and even I couldn't put him down without alligator tears. MUST.TOUCH.MOMMY.AT.ALL.TIMES.
Poor thing, it's all very real to him. Other news: no teeth, no sleeping in crib, no crawling, happy baby, talking, obsessed with nursing, obsessed with mommies and brother.

R is doing great. Nothing new to report. Life as usual with a toddler. Oh, one thing, we no longer sit in the booster sit...(sigh) We now sit at the table in a regular chair.

QOTW: hmmmm, I need to think on this. I'm sure we'll tell them the story of the day we found out we were pregnant. It was one of the best days of our lives. Each boy has their own unique story around that.

[wittyandwaiting]

DS is 14 and O is 3 weeks today!!!

I'll start with the baby:
This past week O has been sleeping from 10pm to about 3am (Hooray!) and then cluster feeds from 3-6am...literally stuck on the boob almost that whole time.

Not sure if anybody recalls me mentioning this in the past but C's family is not very pro-breastfeeding. C and her siblings were not breastfed and our nieces and nephews were not breastfed either. They believe that formula was created in a medical lab and is therefore superior and that breastfeeding is terribly inconvenient. I'm all for fed is best and families making the decision for their situation and our family has chosen to breastfeed. Her family makes comments all the time...
"It's a shame that nobody else can feed her", "We'd love to watch her so that the two of you could have a quiet dinner together but she'd be starved by the time you got back.", "I've fed all of my grandchildren" and on and on and on.

Besides that annoyance, life is wonderful.

Now onto DS. Teenagers are hard. They think they are adults, they understand many adult things, but they aren't mature enough to make adult decisions even though they try. Ugh. Also, teenaged girls scare me as a parent.

Overall, O is great and DS is doing well.

QOTW: Well, O pooped on my face yesterday so maybe that? Or perhaps when DS thought that girls had "good China's" and freaked out when we were going to help my grandmother sort her good China.

[mahler5]

C is 2.

She peed in the potty twice for L tonight. I was with her the whole day and she peed on the floor twice, and peed on carpet once and pooped on carpet once. I even had her in diapers some. The plumber came over and I didn't notice the poop until he was over there (I really hope he didn't notice). I was in the middle of trying to get a diaper on her when he rang the bell.

She is getting really excited about sitting on the big potty. I have this attachment thing you can put over it. But then she says she peed when she hasn't. At least I haven't heard it. So I'm like "no you didn't sweetie, but that's ok." And she wants a chocolate chip and I tell her no and she's mad. But now I'm wondering if it's possible she is tinkling w tiny bit and I can't hear it. Ugh. I would feel really bad.

Apparently, one of the kids in her daycare class has a sibling with lice right now. They just sent us a notice they found out today. Luckily she wasn't there today. Now I'm thinking of not bringing her in tomorrow until after her nap but that would probably suck for the daycare workers. I have to work at 3 so have to bring her in.

Anyway, C is generally doing great. I've been really working at doing more time outs. They generally seem to help. Right now I put her in a corner and stand over her. She has started to get really upset though so I hold her in place which makes her really mad. Now I'm thinking of putting her in her room (except it's upstairs) or the study downstairs (but o need to baby proof it). Ugh. It has window panes on the door though so I could keep an eye on her at least.

The other problem is getting clothes on her for daycare. I will even try bribing her with tv and she doesn't care. I'm thinking I am going to start making her get dressed before she can eat. She is seriously "food motivated". More so than my black lab. I can get her to do all sorts of things for food and quickly too. I feel slightly bad though, like I shouldn't make her do things in order to eat. I make her wash her hands before she eats though. So that's not so different.

QOTW- she has been shoving her hand down my shirt and exclaiming "mommy's boobies". We haven't breastfed in over a year. She also makes all sorts of grunting "mmmm" noises when she eats. It was cute when she was littler but now I worry kids are going to make fun of her!

[serpentine85]

S is 15mo

This week, we seem to be getting back to the sleeping pattern she was on before ' The Virus' ( that's how we think of it now, lol ) Some days she has a 60/90 min nap just before or after lunch - usually days we've been swimming - and some days she doesn't have one. She goes to bed after nursing between 6 and 7 ( we prefer she goes to bed when *she* asks to so she gets the idea it's not just something Mumma and Laddy make her do ) and she sleeps till 4; after nursing again, she sleeps in till 7.
She's not a little baby anymore.

This week, she has changed so much. You can see the massive leap in her processing information and interactions. We're so proud for her. Seeing her growing up, learning new skills and becoming this incredible little person (occasionally a little nostalgic for the early days but she's still baby enough to indulge Mumma with lots of snuggles)

I learned a new fold for S's nappies today. Admittedly, we've been a little lazy with the flats until recently. Before S was born, my mother taught us the two basic folds she used with me and we just fell into a kitefold rut. Now that S is a toddler, I'm starting to realise that kitefold just doesn't work for her. A prefers the pockets that I prestuff for her but I like finding my Zen prefolding nappies for the day. Not sure if that will change when peanut makes an appearance. I keep thinking of my poor grandmother. Eight children and based on their ages, probably never less than two in cloth at any time until the last were potty trained.
Anyway, I digress. Having spent a couple weeks on and off answering questions about cloth for a pg friend and encouraging her to try flats part time and with this being real nappy week, I figured it's the best time to pick up a better fold for my heavy wetting toddler. I finally tried the Gaynor square and can't believe it took me so long to get around to it. Quick, neat and absorbant. I can't wait for S to wake up from her nap so I can try it out on her.

[kona]

O is 21 months.

She learned how to jump for real with both feet off of the floor recently. She was so cute jumping in the pool. With the nice weather we have been at the playground frequently. She loves to swing. I took her to a playground a bit farther away that has a smaller kiddie slide and yesterday she did all of it herself. No help on the stairs or when she climbed up the slide backwards. It was odd to just stand and watch because she didn't need my help. She's growing up!

I keep holding my breath for the terrible twos. I can see her becoming more independent and opinionated. So far for the most part she is still our sweet kiddo. I'm hoping that throwing another baby into the mix as she turns 2 isn't going to be a big mistake.

We are going to try a new schedule next week with much less time with our nanny. Mostly it's a cost saving issue. I'm honestly nervous about how it will go. I usually only spend the afternoons with O solo. I know I can handle her from 9-5 but with working before and after I want to have enough energy to be present for her. I really didn't think parenting and adulting would be this hard!

QOTW:
I'm not sure we have enough material for a wedding day story just yet. I have no doubt that there will be embarrassing stories to come though!

[kona]

karlamo, separation anxiety...hope that this passes quickly!

wittyandwaiting, that's really frustrating that you have such vocal lack of support for your breastfeeding. I try to take that attitude of 'you do you' but it can be tough to let that judgment roll off your back, esp from family...hugs!

mahler5, good luck with the continued potty training!

serpentine85, glad to hear you found a new fold for the flats. I tried a few with my prefolds after the newborn stage but never got out of the jelly roll (which is usually only for newborns but I find it works for us still).

[calsurb]

S is almost 11 months old. She's been crawling with confidence and eating like a teenager. We stopped purees a month ago and she eats all our food. Even though she's toothless, she loves saltines, cheese sticks, homemade chicken gyros, and oatmeal.
When she's frustrated she rears her head back and either hits it on the ground or on my chest if she's in my lap. I think she'll be a strong willed one very soon.
I don't have many stories saved up to tell her when she's older... Better get that on my radar!

[cetcar]

M turned 3 months yesterday. Just crazy. I guess she's no longer a newborn but is an infant. She loved spending time with her grandparents. She's really into playing these days- she will entertain herself on her activity mat for quite a while (sometimes almost an hour). We're still working on tummy time and she seems close to being able to rollover but hasn't been doing it consistently.

This week sleep has been better (knock on wood). She's into scooting in her pack n play. We put her in it with her head towards to top and she manages to scoot all the way down to the bottom.

We bought plane tickets for her first flight in 3 weeks. We're starting to think about logistics and what we're going to bring and what my parents will buy to have at their house. We need to figure out our system for traveling with a baby.

I feel like every week I say this, but she's at a really fun age. I miss her newborn baby days but also enjoying her as she grows.

Hmmm......not sure but one thing is she has really loud gas. Didn't expect it to be this loud.

[cetcar]

We attempted to put M down for a nap not swaddled this afternoon (just in a sleep sack). Go in to check on her (she was asleep when CET put her down) and she's bright eyed, smiling, and looking all around. Her hands are up over her head and she's lifting her legs high into the air. Think it's something we'll have to work on.