Parenting Check-In

Jazibel · May 2014

Good Morning Everyone,

How was everyone's weekend. Any new updates with your LO(s), challenges, accomplishments?

QOTD: Open to random thoughts and questions? (I'm completely out of ideas right now and juggling the two kids - I'll be back later though.) ;-)

Mystjava · May 2014

Morning! Wrestling with a preschooler who wants everything his way! I'm trying to work with him about expectations and patience! Sigh! Also trying to deal with a kitten who expects us to wake up when she attacks our feet in bed(at 530 am!)... no, the critters share our spaces too! Ugh!
Anyway, we've have been ups and downs this week. Both in terms of affections and grouchy moods.
I hope everyone else have a wonderful week...

trisholio · May 2014

Things are going very well with M and K. I think that M is hitting a growth spurt because she has been super hungry lately and also seems more tired than usual. We are happy about her increased appetite because she has lost a little weight since coming to live with us. She can be a picky eater or just refuses to eat at times. We have chosen to not fight the battle and just let her eat what she wants, which is usually oatmeal and cereal. It could be a lot worse, so it's not something we are standing our ground on. We have also tried mixing in Pediasure with her milk to get her some more vitamins. Her little sister baby K on the other hand will eat anything we put in front of her. She is loving baby foods and we have started giving her small bites of food to feed herself. We have given her different fruits and veggies and one night a few noodles of organic mac n cheese. My wife lectured me a little about that one ;-) So we are going to stick to fruits and veggies now.

My wife was on vacation for 4 days and we spent lots of family time together this weekend. We had another little boy with us for a couple of days on respite care. He is 17 months old and super adorable, but shy. We only had him two days so barely long enough for him to warm up to us, but we managed a few smiles out of him and M took him under her wing for the weekend. We got a glimpse of what our life is going to be like soon with having three little ones and not just two. Whewie! It was tiring!!! But it was a good trial run and I was happy to give him a happy home for a few days.

ATXmommas · May 2014

@sarahrpt - just keep doing tummy time! We have a bumpo seat that we use sometimes (only use it when she has really good head control) and LO spent/spends some time in an exersaucer when he's at child care (we don't have one at home) - they are a bit controversial because there is one line of thought that you shouldn't put a baby in a position when they are developmentally not able to maintain that position on their own. Some say that those things actually delay development. I take a middle of the road approach - we use them, but not for prolonged periods of times or terribly often. At 3 months, Ash loved his activity gym. He was quite content to just lie there and bat at his toys. Just keep doing what you're doing! After 3 months, things start changing rapidly.

@trisholio - I'm worn out just reading your post! I'm always amazed at how much you are juggling right now!

Hello everyone! Ash is 6 months and change - so many developmental changes going on. I can officially say we have a crawler. It's not swift or pretty and it takes a lot of effort, but he's doing it! He starts by balancing on all fours, then kinda lunges his arms/body forward and drags his legs up to meet him. Then he gets on all fours again and starts the process again. Life will be much easier when he figures out how to alternate moving one side of his body at a time!

I'm also pretty sure that he is cutting his first tooth. I felt a little sharpness when he was gnawing on my finger (who has time to look for a teether

) yesterday, so, of course, I tried to inspect. LO was not terribly cooperative, but I'm fairly certain a tooth is beginning to emerge. I imagine I'll know for certain soon!

Sleep is still not great and it's starting to wear on me. We are beginning to let Z get up with him when I'm certain he's not hungry to help me out. It's not surprising that's he's eating more at night - he is so enthralled with what's going on around him during the day that he sometimes only snacks. Plus, I figure he's burning extra calories with the crawling and overall squirminess.

The introduction to food is still…. interesting. He refused to eat anything we put in front of him for a few days. We're being low key and trying to follow the BLW principals of letting him feed himself. It's hard to resist the temptation of placing a little food in his mouth, but I figure that's okay - for example, he was really into sucking hummus off my finger yesterday. And, he did take an interest in bread crust over the last couple days. Hasn't been too interested in veggies, but we're still offering every time we give him food.

What else? We survived our first road trip over the weekend. Just a 3 hour drive and he did great, but he's always been really great in the car. He napped mostly and only cried when he was hungry. We're very lucky to have a good traveler. I am feeling a little anxious about traveling by plane with him today. I'm traveling without Z to Chicago for a work trip (my mom is meeting us there). I feel like traveling with a squirmy 6-month-old is a whole different ball game than traveling with the 10-week-old blob that he was when I last flew with him. I'm also having to travel with frozen breast milk, which is making me a little anxious. I hope it survives the trip since it has to be used within 24 hours of thawing. We're leaving the house at 11am and he'll need three bottles while I'm working tomorrow, usually at 10:30am, 1:30pm, and 4:30pm. As long as it doesn't completely thaw by the time I get to the hotel (around 5:15pm), I think we'll we okay.

I think that's it for us this week!

Jazibel · May 2014

Morning Everyone :-)

@sarahtrpt - I've heard that baby-wearing will strengthen neck and back muscles in babies similar to tummy time.
@ATXMommas - good luck on your flight today. FX for a sleeping and happy Ash ;-)
@stringy813 - I'll look for the other thread - but I hope that you're successful with night weaning (and some good long stretches of sleep at night).
@mystjava - I hear you about up and down weeks - hope this week is more even-keel :-)
@trisholio - I'm pulling my hair out with two.. Seriously! How you are juggling three I have no idea but I'm tipping my hat to you.

....Well we're surviving. I realized yesterday as EV, the kids and I were driving back to our house that I had anxiety about EV going back to work the next day. We had two good days last week and two very challenging ones. On the days that are more "challenging", meaning cranky kids (Kaden's cutting a molar), tired mama, etc. I try to just take it easy. Let the house chores pile up, and even put on a movie or show for Kaden to watch. On the good days I try to get everything done that's otherwise stacking up. Needless to say I'm falling behind...
This weekend was a three day weekend for us, which was amazing. We headed out of town to a friends birthday party, it was mostly adults which was tough for us with a very active toddler to chase around. Because of traffic and a brief stop it took us nearly three hours to get there but the boys did great. It gives me some hope that our practice will help acclimate Owen to car rides for July's trip to Las Vegas.

Kaden is really adjusting well (knock on wood). He's such a sweetheart toward his little brother, its the cutest thing to witness. And Owen who is opening his eyes and even flashing a gummy grin every now and then, seems to love looking at Kaden's face as much as his parents. We're really working hard to keep things balanced and positive for both kids and I'm hoping our efforts are paying off since Kaden is learning to be gentle, and his jealous has subsided. (For now - I hear it can resurface later).

My plan is to pump today during a nap and have EV give Owen his first bottle this evening when Owen is cluster feeding (so hungry but not not starving).

Biggest challenges is juggling their needs when both need something. Like two poopy diapers, a hungry newborn and a tired or overwhelmed toddler. In those moments all I can do is "keep my head down" and keep doing the next best thing. It's hard because in those moments someone is always going to be unhappy.

trisholio · May 2014

Thank you for the acknowledgements ladies. I am lucky to have two wonderful little girls and haven't had to juggle a newborn in the mix just yet. I did have a few moments this weekend where the little boy and K were both crying and sitting on me, then pushing the other away because they wanted my attention. That was pretty stressful.

There are some days when I feel like I handle things well and other days I feel like I am winging it because I have no clue what I am doing. I think this is a normal feeling for parents?

Jazibel · May 2014

@herbabymama‌ - we'd love to meet there :-)

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