We are waiting as well. Between what our pediatrician has said and the research I've done myself I'm okay waiting. Plus he doesn't sit on his own yet and would rather he have that control before we introduce food. He is just now starting to watch us eat and notice food.
Our doc said to wait until 6 months also. I was hoping for sooner but I'm also gonna listen to her advice. My friend got me a great baby food cookbook so I'm excited to get started ( I'm still in that eager phase that I'm sure will pass quickly! ) The first several weeks are kinda funny as there are 9 identical recipes for steaming different veggies to purée.... but the mixed food ones look good.
On a different note, has anyone done the strollers and screens? is 4 months still too young? I'm really looking for more activities to do with her. Right now we just do a lot of shopping! My husband is going to kill me if I bring home anymore adorable little shoes!
Hmmm is it a Canadian thing? The movie theatre does it every Wednesday afternoon. They play a movie for moms with babies. It is quieter and more light. They even set up a change table and have stroller parking it looks like.
The stupid thing is that I'm worried about her crying and annoying the other moms...at a baby event. If I go during her nap time I think she may even sleep. I'm just nervous to try it I guess...They take $2 off admission so I guess I could always just leave if it isn't working and not be out too much money.
Strollers and screens sounds amazing! The theater in our town doesn't do that but it's a locally owned independent theater. I should make that suggestion since I think 1/3 of our town is babies.
I would love to do something like that since I have also spent way, way, way too much time shopping since being on maternity leave. I'm suprised all the Target employees don't know me on a first name basis right now
Yeah you aren't really missing much by waiting until 6 months. At 4 months most of it ends up on their face and down their chest anyway. There really is little interest at that age.
Anyone feeding food yet? At our 4 month appointment my doctor said no food until he is a minimum of 6 months and then we will discuss it. Her reasoning is that physiologically he is not ready because he can't sit up unassisted yet and the digestive system is not fully mature until around 6 months, it prevents obesity, and food isn't nutritionally necessary until one year.
I know about 10 people with babies within a month of my son's age and all of them are starting solids. I'm going to do what she says because I trust her and our doctors office is generally up on the latest research, but I am wondering if anyone else's doctor said anything similar?
I'ts interesting the different schools of thought at the Dr's Office - We started solids like rice cereal at the recommendation of her NP after 4 mos check up. He said take it slow and let her lead the way. Just offer stuff and see if she wants it / likes it. I was really surprised when he recommended adding a little peanut butter around 6 months. When my big kids were little, it was no nuts until after a year but even better to wait til 2 years old!
Victoria likes her food thick so I add rice cereal and breast milk to purees and mashes. So far she has had avocado, green beans, and carrots that I've made. I make enough for a week unless its the avocado - then just that meal. We have also had the Beechnut "just" kale, pear and cucumber. Her favorite has been green beans.
We've been putting her in the high chair (it reclines slightly) at dinner time for a while now. She likes to watch us eat. I knew she was ready when she started mimicking eating when we were eating. And if she happened to be sitting on one of our laps instead of the highchair, she would reach out for the plate. When we are feeding her, she opens her mouth for the next bite eagerly. Until she's done, then she turns her head away from the spoon.
Went back to work today. Work itself was good. It was an easy day, and people pretty much left me alone and let me get caught up with all that's been going on.
I felt fine that he was at daycare during the day. We started him last week so that we could ease him in. Emotionally it helped ALOT and I was totally fine at work today. However, when I got home he was so tired and cranky and pretty much just cried so I didn't get a chance to play with him. He naps poorly at daycare, and even though he started last week, he's never had a real FULL day until today. He's also used to a very early bedtime. I gave him a quick bath and then bottle/bed. He kept falling asleep during his bottle and would kinda choke on the milk. I felt terrible. To make matters worse he has a little cold so he was making these little wheezing sounds while he drank. The working mom guilt has definitely hit me now.
So random question. I've noticed that quite a few of you on here are from Canada, that being said, what is your maternity leave like? How long, is it paid, do you have to pay anything for having baby? Just something I've been curious about.
Oh man I really don't want to answer those questions after hearing about all that you guys go through in the U.S.!
My prenatal visits ( us and tests as well ) are all covered under OHIP ( our healthcare in Ontario ). I paid a $35 hospital Bill after having her and that was because I upgraded to a private room. We do pay for all of this in our taxes but I will admit that I don't know the numbers for that.
I work full time as a RN. My maternity leave is a year long. Employment insurance pays less than 50% of income for that year. My job pays a top up to 85% for 27 weeks total. We do pay into EI with every pay to be entitled to receive it. And I work in a hospital that has a good maternity leave plan. That being said I would not have been able to afford to stay off the full year except my husband got a new job just after I got pregnant that increased his pay enough for us to still pay the mortgage and bills while I am off.
Wow yeah seriously jealous of you for all that. Yes I understand you have that all covered by taxes but do you really notice that coming out of your paycheck. I truly wish it was that way here. At least better maternity leave and paid at that. I absolutely loathe the fact that he is 4 months old and I am away from him four days a week. If we could afford for me to cutback in hours we would but like you @jellybiehn I am a nurse as well and have the better insurance. You don't want to know what I am paying for having the baby. Ob visits and US were covered for the most part but lord the hospital stay.
U.S. is so behind when it comes to maternity leave, and paternity leave as well. Such a shame. Although you do hear of certain companies catching up with the rest of the world, and I do think it is slowly becoming a trend. My husbands company just started a new paternity leave policy. It's not much, but at least it's something!
Well like you other 2 ladies I am an RN also lol go nurses! I wish I could have taken longer off with him or just go back part time but realistically we would not to be able to afford all of our bills. I took 12 weeks off six weeks were paid at 60% and my other six weeks were covered by vacation time I had saved up. the one thing about using all that vacation time is that now that I'm back to work and I have absolutely none so if something comes up that I will have to take unpaid leave
Well to keep on with the nursing trend - I'm one too! I'm in the military and lucked out receiving 84 days maternity leave on top of my 42 days convalescent leave. They've since scaled back to 42 days maternity leave.
Here's the catch - while I'm entitled to those 84 days within baby's first year, I've only been allowed to take 21 thus far. My boss has the ability to deny my leave and has done so. I understand why - we're short staffed. But it sucks.
So I started back at 6 weeks postpartum full time. When staffing looks good, I take a day or two off in the middle of the week. Fortunately for me, my big kids were able to help out during the holidays when I wasn't able to take off and was back at full time again.
For me, full time is about 50 hours per week. Sometimes more. It's painful. But I have to keep going for that retirement that is just 5 years down the road. When we're short staffed, we pick up extra shifts. Days. Nights. Weekends. No diff - no OT. It sucks. On occasion when we have low census, we take turns with a "holiday" which is like a surprise day off. It's nice but without planning it's pointless and half the time you don't know until you've already dropped baby off and are on the unit in your scrubs already. So it's like "great. It's 6:30 am. Guess I'll go to the grocery store?"
One of my benefits however was that I paid nothing for my maternity care, hospital stay, and baby visits. So it's a balance of good and bad.
My fiance works for his family and they increased their vacation time from one week a year to five weeks a year of course this was after we had the baby but it is because they realized that he would have loved to have been home longer with Xavier. He did get two weeks home with us so we at least got that. The next one we will get to have the whole 5 weeks.
Man, crazy how different everyones leave was. Our short term disability pays our leave. Its part of our benefits plan. So you can choose no STD, 40,50, or 60%. I didn't think I'd be using it, so chose 50%. So I got paid 6wks at 50% pay. I chose not to use any of my vac/sick time because I knew I'd need it after I came back. I took 10 weeks off. So 4 wks without pay. It sucks. I don't know how people do it. I have a high deductible insurance plan, but my employer puts 1K into my health acct for me, and I put 1K in. Again, I never really needed it, but now my bills are 4k+ because thats my "out of pocket max". OMG. Its so dumb and confusing. So I have a payment plan set up with the hospital because we weren't expecting that. And now its a dilemma, do I risk it and choose the high ded plan again next benefits year so that I get that 1K from my employer? Or say screw it, and pay higher cost out of my paycheck for an insurance plan with a lower deductible? Ugh. Oh, and I'm not a nurse, haha! Husband is self employed, so don't even get me started on that...
Any moms using a jumperoo? My guy loves his. He usually spends 10-15 minutes at a time in his jumperoo approximately 3-4 times daily (but not every single day. He's in daycare a few times a week). I've recently read that jumperoos can hurt babies developmentally and cause hip/leg problems which can delay walking. This is upsetting because the jumperoo is my los favorite activity and keeps him occupied the longest. Gives me a chance to pump, eat, or do a little cleaning. I really didnt think he's in it all that much since it's a little bit at a time a few times a day, but I guess 40ish minutes total a day is kinda a lot. How long do you let your los play in their jumperoos?
@Sbrown721 I tend to eat like I did before but I do pay attention to when he seems extra fussy and/or gassy. Like I have found he doesn't like when I eat tuna, he refuses to nurse when I do. Also taco rolls make him super gassy and cranky. I just try to pay attention to him more with how and what I it.
@BabyBoyH92016 I have not done the jumperoo or a walker because of the reason you said about the development thing. I have a friend who is a physical therapist and she told me to wait until he is walking or at the least standing on his own before we introduce things like that.
I read somewhere that what we eat will only effect the taste of the milk slightly and cannot give them gas as that is a byproduct from digestion that is produced in the bowels. I totally get the science behind that but I still think that when I ate a lot of dairy in the past or if I take fenugreek for a little while that she does seem gassy! Mainly I just try to eat healthy...mostly...chocolate is healthy, right? Apparently there is a link between what we eat and the foods they tend to like later on so that guilds me into eating more veggies these days.
We just started with the jump-a-roo but her little feet can't reach the ground in it yet. I put a giant bunny mat under it so she can stand. She doesn't love it yet so we maybe only use it 10 mins a day max.
Well I guess I'm going to start to cut back. Fortunately the days he's in daycare we don't really use the jumperoo. At stay at home days I'm going to try and cut back to 20minutes total, and talk to the doctor at his 6 month checkup.
Does anyone else feel like their kid does a complete 180 from one day to the next. I swear earlier this week or maybe even last weekend Xavier wasn't really grasping things or grabbing at things. However since about mid-week this kid like flipped the switch and he's grabbing at things he's purposely you know putting things in his mouth it's not accidental he's actually grabbing for his toys. It just boggles me how quickly they change is what I'm getting at.
Yes! They learn so quickly! We are using the exersaucer now, and same thing as previous posters, just don't go crazy and leave him for hours I think the main thing is to make sure the baby gets a variety of things. Tummy, back, cuddles, etc
I don't have a jumperoo but we do have the Skip Hop exersaucer which has a little bit of a wobbly platform for the baby to stand on.
At our 4 month appt I asked the doctor if it was okay to use because it's also the one thing that keeps him entertained the longest. She said 2-3 minutes is okay but he really shouldn't be using it until he's about 6 months, since their joints are t really ready to bear weigh at this age.
IUD was located and removed! Doc said it was embedded in fat stuck to my colon. She said it was quite clear where it perforated the uterus because of scarring. She's got pics for me at my follow up. It was a lap procedure, I'm sore but not bad. Childbirth aftermath was way worse.
LO used to be halfway interested in a pacifier. He would definitely take his wubbanub while daddy was putting him to bed. I try to give it to him while we're out in public and he's getting fussy and he has had zero interest lately. Does this mean he'll probably end up being a thumb sucker? Should I keep at it? He's 4 months today. Has he just made up his mind that he doesn't like pacifiers at this point?
Ugh..on Tuesday evening we got an email from daycare that they had confirmed cases of norovirus, and on Wednesday morning my lo woke up, vomited and had no appetite...later on he developed a fever. We took him to the doctor and all that we can do is monitor him at this point (make sure he's having wet diapers, and fever doesn't get to 105). This is day two, and the doctor said to call back if the fever doesn't go away within 72hrs. I am so worried it won't go down, and I don't know what the next step is.
Ive been back at work for two weeks, and this is making me think about quitting all together. My work allowed me to come back part time which is awesome and I felt like it was a good balance for me. I like working, and my job, and three days a week felt perfect. Now that I see my LO so sick I feel incredibly guilty that he got this from daycare. Going back to work was my choice, and if I wanted to stay home I could. I'm just so worried and don't know what to do.
Im quiting my job today and I'm soooo nervous. My job has been great about maternity leave and coming back part time, so I feel badly about it. My LO picked up Norovirus at daycare and it took us all out. It's been an extremely difficult few days to say the least. I never really intended to be a stay at home mom, but my heart tells me this is what's best for my LO right now. We are moving from the city to the burbs in a few months (which would have made my commute long). Maybe in 6 months or so once we are in our new home and LO is older I can revisit the idea of going back to work.
The thought of leaving the workforce is very scary to me, but nothing has to be permanent.
@BabyBoyH92016 I felt the exact same way when I stopped working 2 days before my due date. I work in the medical field as many of you and it pays so well that I dreaded losing that income. It felt really really weird there for a bit and its only been that last few weeks that I really felt good about it. I think the stress of a new baby and not having my "own" income was why it took me so long to adjust. I have no question in my mind that I would have ever been able to send Luke off to daycare everyday. I probably would have had a mental break down if I had to do that. So even thought it was a rough adjustment I would have it no other way. My days are very fulfilling with taking care of baby, cleaning and baking. Occasionally baby and I go thrift shopping or I might get a chance to indulge my reading obsession. Overall, being a stay at home mom is wonderful! I hope you enjoy it as well :-)
@jennlynn777 Thank you! It was was hard quitting but both my manager and group leader were great about it and both told me the door is always open and to contact them first if i ever decided to go back to work. I'm 34 so I've been working an "adult" job for 10+ plus years. I didn't get married until 32, so I'm used to making my own money and taking care of myself. It seems a little weird to not be working now. I hope to grow to love staying at home. I know I'm lucky that I'm able to do so.
Anyone still have the line on your belly? Mine is definitely lighter, but still noticeable. I'm surprised it's still there. my bald spots are starting to grow back after all my hair loss. Man. Between that and my flab, feeling super cute!
@hejo2016 mine is faint but still there. I still lose a ton of hair in the shower, always have...but it hasn't lessened up yet. Has anyone not had a period yet? I'm not sure if I should be concerned or not!
Re: January Randoms
Our doc said to wait until 6 months also. I was hoping for sooner but I'm also gonna listen to her advice. My friend got me a great baby food cookbook so I'm excited to get started ( I'm still in that eager phase that I'm sure will pass quickly! ) The first several weeks are kinda funny as there are 9 identical recipes for steaming different veggies to purée.... but the mixed food ones look good.
On a different note, has anyone done the strollers and screens? is 4 months still too young? I'm really looking for more activities to do with her. Right now we just do a lot of shopping! My husband is going to kill me if I bring home anymore adorable little shoes!
The stupid thing is that I'm worried about her crying and annoying the other moms...at a baby event. If I go during her nap time I think she may even sleep. I'm just nervous to try it I guess...They take $2 off admission so I guess I could always just leave if it isn't working and not be out too much money.
I would love to do something like that since I have also spent way, way, way too much time shopping since being on maternity leave. I'm suprised all the Target employees don't know me on a first name basis right now
Victoria likes her food thick so I add rice cereal and breast milk to purees and mashes. So far she has had avocado, green beans, and carrots that I've made. I make enough for a week unless its the avocado - then just that meal. We have also had the Beechnut "just" kale, pear and cucumber. Her favorite has been green beans.
We've been putting her in the high chair (it reclines slightly) at dinner time for a while now. She likes to watch us eat. I knew she was ready when she started mimicking eating when we were eating. And if she happened to be sitting on one of our laps instead of the highchair, she would reach out for the plate. When we are feeding her, she opens her mouth for the next bite eagerly. Until she's done, then she turns her head away from the spoon.
I felt fine that he was at daycare during the day. We started him last week so that we could ease him in. Emotionally it helped ALOT and I was totally fine at work today. However, when I got home he was so tired and cranky and pretty much just cried so I didn't get a chance to play with him. He naps poorly at daycare, and even though he started last week, he's never had a real FULL day until today. He's also used to a very early bedtime. I gave him a quick bath and then bottle/bed. He kept falling asleep during his bottle and would kinda choke on the milk. I felt terrible. To make matters worse he has a little cold so he was making these little wheezing sounds while he drank. The working mom guilt has definitely hit me now.
My prenatal visits ( us and tests as well ) are all covered under OHIP ( our healthcare in Ontario ). I paid a $35 hospital Bill after having her and that was because I upgraded to a private room. We do pay for all of this in our taxes but I will admit that I don't know the numbers for that.
I work full time as a RN. My maternity leave is a year long. Employment insurance pays less than 50% of income for that year. My job pays a top up to 85% for 27 weeks total. We do pay into EI with every pay to be entitled to receive it. And I work in a hospital that has a good maternity leave plan. That being said I would not have been able to afford to stay off the full year except my husband got a new job just after I got pregnant that increased his pay enough for us to still pay the mortgage and bills while I am off.
I am very well aware of how lucky I am up here!
Here's the catch - while I'm entitled to those 84 days within baby's first year, I've only been allowed to take 21 thus far. My boss has the ability to deny my leave and has done so. I understand why - we're short staffed. But it sucks.
So I started back at 6 weeks postpartum full time. When staffing looks good, I take a day or two off in the middle of the week. Fortunately for me, my big kids were able to help out during the holidays when I wasn't able to take off and was back at full time again.
For me, full time is about 50 hours per week. Sometimes more. It's painful. But I have to keep going for that retirement that is just 5 years down the road. When we're short staffed, we pick up extra shifts. Days. Nights. Weekends. No diff - no OT. It sucks. On occasion when we have low census, we take turns with a "holiday" which is like a surprise day off. It's nice but without planning it's pointless and half the time you don't know until you've already dropped baby off and are on the unit in your scrubs already. So it's like "great. It's 6:30 am. Guess I'll go to the grocery store?"
One of my benefits however was that I paid nothing for my maternity care, hospital stay, and baby visits. So it's a balance of good and bad.
Husband is self employed, so don't even get me started on that...
We just started with the jump-a-roo but her little feet can't reach the ground in it yet. I put a giant bunny mat under it so she can stand. She doesn't love it yet so we maybe only use it 10 mins a day max.
We are using the exersaucer now, and same thing as previous posters, just don't go crazy and leave him for hours
At our 4 month appt I asked the doctor if it was okay to use because it's also the one thing that keeps him entertained the longest. She said 2-3 minutes is okay but he really shouldn't be using it until he's about 6 months, since their joints are t really ready to bear weigh at this age.
Ive been back at work for two weeks, and this is making me think about quitting all together. My work allowed me to come back part time which is awesome and I felt like it was a good balance for me. I like working, and my job, and three days a week felt perfect. Now that I see my LO so sick I feel incredibly guilty that he got this from daycare. Going back to work was my choice, and if I wanted to stay home I could. I'm just so worried and don't know what to do.
The thought of leaving the workforce is very scary to me, but nothing has to be permanent.
my bald spots are starting to grow back after all my hair loss. Man. Between that and my flab, feeling super cute!