Hellobee Boards

@MsMini: keeping you in nightlights. We Co slept full time because that is what worked for us for about two months. It was the only way we got sleep.

@MsMini: I am with you in that I feel like I have tried EVERYTHING to get Penny to sleep. In the end, she winds up sleeping with me most nights so that I can do side lying breast feeding while half asleep. Lazy Mommy, happy child I guess. Will be thinking of you and so hope these babies get out of this phase soon!

@LAGS: no belly laughs, but he sort of laughs does this funny breathy smile sometimes.

@LAGS: Yes but rarely. Usually it's when I'm carrying him in the carrier or taking him in the stroller for a walk. Sometimes I can turn on the TV to make him fall asleep (over stimulation for the win!)

ETA: Check this out. He is sooo cute

@Coco Bee: That's crazy, he definitely doesn't wanna miss out on the fun! That laugh melts my heart, ahh so sweet!!

@pastemoo: I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one whose LO rarely does this. I wish she did more often so we could practice swaddle-less sleeping.

@sarbear: While I was catching up I couldn't remember if it was you or Maymuma who wrote about their LO being such a great sleeper. I'm totally jealous, but still... that's awesome for you guys it has to be so nice not having to go crazy with schedules and fighting a LO to go down all day. That sounds ridiculously cute falling asleep in the exersaucer haha silly babies

@pastemoo: my 75th percentile guy has me thinking the same thing. I think it's part of the reason that I started nursing to sleep at nap times: he was just getting too big to hold and walk/bounce for 20 minutes. The ergo helps but he doesn't seem to find it comfy enough to sleep in. The sling-wrap only takes maybe fifty percent of his body weight away.

@Mrsdaredevil: in my dream last night I got my period but it wasn’t real

@msmini: my guy has joined the 45 minute nap camp. Winniebee inspired me to try to extend the first nap today and I did get him to fall asleep nursing, but woke right up when I put him in his crib. I think I’ll try the same thing tomorrow morning, but then I’ll just hold him at my breast for the rest of the nap. I am sure that it is the overtiredness that is making all of this so hard. Today, going down for 2nd nap, Nico was almost beating me up while I tried to soothe him to sleep! I was half-laughing and half-horrified.

I started a thread the other night to get some bedtime help. The advice from the expert mommies was to make bedtime even earlier. What I have learned is that bedtime needs to be based off of the last nap, rather than the clock. And I even had been doing that recently, but I was STARTING bedtime routine 2 hours after he woke up from the last nap. I needed bedtime routine to FINISH 2 hours (or less) after the last nap. Last night I did that and he was ALMOST too overtired to sleep, but we just made it and he did a 5 hour stretch. Tonight I will back it up even more. This means that if he wakes up at 4 from last nap, our 30 minute bedtime routine will start at about 5:15pm. I wouldn’t have believed it myself, had the advice not worked for us, but it did. So, last night he slept from 6:45 to midnight. It was a breakthrough. And I, so tired too, was asleep by 8pm, which means I finally got a 4 hour stretch of nighttime sleep. The rest of the night was not so good, as I think I’ve created a nightwaking habit…..but we’ll keep fighting that the best we can. One thing at a time. Cat in the Hat didn’t work last night, but amazingly I did get him to fall asleep at one of the wakings by singing him a lullabye. The other million wakeups required my breast. I’m sorry to continue to obsess about the sleep, but what can we do? It’s the thing we’re all dealing with!

@MsMini: I love that Sawyer is sneaking food from your kisses!!! So funny! I’m just ‘playing’ with BLW until 6 months and then I’ll make some stronger decisions, as that’s when his intake of iron-rich foods will become more important….I’ll probably switch to tri-drops with iron instead of plain D drops at that time too. These days if I have time, I offer him a try at some kind of food. The last 2 days it was avacado. Day one he loved it, day 2 he did not. Not sure if he gets any swallowed, but I just like the idea of him tasting the flavours and trying at gnawing. So far: banana, butternut squash and avacado.

@LAGS: Mine does laugh every day, but remember that he's much older than most babies here! He laughs if I kiss his cheeks when he's laying down. Yesterday he even laughed from us playing a game of face-copying.....I would just copy whatever faces he did. He would laugh a lot! I would say that it is only recently that he is laughing for reasons other than the one-way I found for him to laugh with the cheek kissing.

@LAGS: I agree that Nico wont sleep just anywhere anymore. And even if he falls asleep in the car, he'll wake up when I bring him in the house or wherever we're going.

@MsMini: Due to the sleep issues and overtiredness, we probably won't be able to go to church again this weekend. For me, right now, nap/sleep time trumps all. And in the same breath I will say that I am STILL trying to relax about it. (And get it right...sigh).

DH is home and I'm really letting him/ pushing him to do more baby stuff. We had a big fight about it this week (maybe similar to @mrsdaredevil ) and I do see him trying. I am a bit bossy about things (like told him Nico is not allowed to watch TV and made him put a coat and boots on him just now as he's taking him out for a walk in the rain) but I think I'll be a better person in the end. Actually, come to think about it, now that DH has Nico out for a walk, this is my first actual break from Nico in more than 2 weeks (since the last yoga class/ bedtime trauma incident). Feels good.

Hair. I was contemplating a major haircut, but I've just changed my mind. I do need to get a hair cut, but that means I need to actually go ahead and book something on the weekend when DH is home. I used to just call up the salon on a day when I had no work and say 'when do you have a spot available?". I haven't had a haircut since I was 32 weeks pregnant. Is that ridiculous? No wonder I've been mastering the ponytail lately. This week I just discovered that a hairband seems to tame the PP hair-flyaways. Oh, and my skin has broken-out on my cheeks. I thought maybe it was my blush and stopped using blush, but I'm still broken out. And I'm down past my pre-preg weight and my pants are falling off me, but my belly still seems to sag out unless I suck it in. Hmmm....am I done complaining about my appearance? Check.

It's a gloomy rainy day.

What makes me happy: seeing Nico turn on his tummy like the hands of a clock. He does this every day at tummy time. So I put toys all around him so he can visit them as he turns. He only turns counter-clockwise. It's odd and I love it.

Can't believe I have an almost-5-month old. Time flies.

@calsmom: oh man! I can't imagine dealing with the sleep regression combined with the ability for the baby to move in the crib like Cooper and like Willa and others. Mine has enough trouble just being a sack of potatoes.

Small victory today. I was able to put A down for a nap with one arm out of her swaddle (I'm thinking I'm going to try to wean) and she actually napped. She woke up upside down and sideways in her crib, but she napped!

Here he is, giant but not very chunky. Love his chunky thighs though.

@LAGS: Good work weaning her! Your off to a good start! I'm nervous when it comes time to wean Cooper from his paci.

@pastemoo: How short is your hair now? I am thinking of cutting my hair...it's a few inches below my shoulders. It's shedding so much right now, and maybe it will be less annoying if it's shorter?

@cvbee: It blows, but I know it will pass one of these days lol

@pastemoo: re what winniebee said....ha, yes, I forgot he hates no pants And with cute legs like that I bet you want to see them all the time!

@winniebee: Was Tyler doing the lean-forward sit? I've noticed most of the babies at my Group start sitting up by leaning way forward and eventually their backs get straighter and straighter. I need to remember to practice sitting more (without being propped) with Nico. And yes, 5 months sounds so big to me too. Actually, yesterday when DH took Nico for a walk, an old couple asked how old he was and then when DH said 4.5 months, the lady said, "He's just passed the really cute phase." lol I think she meant 'infant-looking' stage. Not sure if she realized that what she said could sound like an insult....like, well, that explains why your baby is not cute.

So yesterday Nico happened to wake up at exactly a good time for us to take him to the church for mass, which hasn't worked out (either because of timing or us being out of town or us having non-Catholic visitors) for what seems like almost all summer. He absolutely loved it there. He seemed to spend a lot of time trying to figure out where exactly the voices were coming from (due to both the accoustics and the speakers). He did seem to finally figure it out, looking up at a speaker quite a bit....but the speaker was right next to an exit sign and I wonder if he thought that the exit sign was the one talking. To be inside a baby's brain...

It's been a great weekend for DH growing in appreciation for Nico's need and routines and all that I do. I'm really happy about that. Super glad that we had a weekend without visitors or us visiting; we needed that.

Hope you all are having a good weekend!

PS
@winniebee: Bittersweet 'milestone' about the tears. I totally remember the first tears too....it was that time when we were visiting with no baby monitor and he was crying in his pack and play and I didn't hear him. These days now I see tears all the time (well, at every bedtime meltdown, which you know I am trying very hard to avoid).

@pastemoo: He looks soo long! Any idea how long he is? He's such a handsome little man! My LO has the chunkster thighs too, they're pretty adorable.

@calsmom: I was about the paci too and even regretted introducing it (chasing dropped pacis became my #1 pet peeve) but she recently has had absolutely no interest in it with the exception of being put down for naps or night time stretch #1. Maybe your guy will kinda self-wean too?

@winniebee: Addie's the same, that's why I'm still at least partially wrapping her... she otherwise throws a fit if I'm not putting her down in that perfect window.

@winniebee: The real tears were heartbreaking for me too. Great job on transitioning to crib! You must feel great to have that over with. My LO has been in the jolly jumper too but doesn't jump... she just walks around in circles, its hilarious. That's so cute that T doesn't touch yet, a little peanut for sure!

@cvbee: My LO does the lean too on her own... I should let her do it more I just hate seeing her puke when she does it. We're still having spit up issues so I have to be careful when we've eaten vs. when put pressure on the belly!

@cvbee: That's great that Nico enjoyed his outing to church! Hopefully his timing keeps up!

@mediagirl: Welcome back! Its amazing how much you notice their changes when you've been away from the regular routine/environment for a while, eh? For our lo, if I know she'll fuss during our bedtime routine, I'll give a quick nurse to take the edge off, go through the motions and then nurse again just before bed. Maybe that could work for you guys too?

LO slept roughly the same last night as the past two nights (yay) but I had a heck of a time putting her down. She went down @ 7:45 for about 30 mins and then I had to fight her until 9:50. I was trying to keep one arm out of her swaddle and she wasn't having it. Then I realized she was hot so tried without, that didn't work so I got a lighter swaddle... still too hot... eventually I just brought her to our room and turned the AC on which was just what she needed... I wish I had clued in earlier, poor girlie.

She slept most of the night with an arm out of her swaddle too. Since we changed to the Halo she rarely broke out but now has been doing it a lot. Instead of wrapping her back up when I see she's broken out, I'm just leaving her out. I'm thinking that'll be the easiest way to wean. Start off with her in it so she goes down but just let her get out of it and keep her out to get her used to the freedom. Last night it worked fairly well!

A good friend of mine from back home just had her second LO and omg it has me full of baby fever! I keep reflecting back on the day I went into labor and our whole L&D and those first days home... its just the most amazing experience. It's a good thing LO has been a handful lately or I might just get caught up in wanting a new, newborn again. hah!

@LAGS: Quickly nursing to take the edge off if bedtime routine will be fussy: BRILLIANT. This is a big a-ha for me. Thank you.

@LAGS: We use the Halo too and that's how we weaned from swaddle: by leaving the broken-out arms. After a while the breaking out was so often that I just swaddled with arms in. Now, we are having the opposite problem of you with the temperature. We had a really cold night last night. DH and I like a cold room and just sleep with 2 big duvets, but what do you do with a baby who is sleeping without a swaddle? When I fed Nico at 4:30 this morning his hands were icecubes, so I swaddled him for the first time in weeks. What am I going to do all winter? They should make pajamas not only with feet but with mittens too.

@LAGS: ha. I wonder which one of us will be the first to get baby fever and have a number two. For financial reasons we have to hold off. I even made us stop DTD (we do other things) because I got paranoid recently.

@pastemoo: holy standing baby! that's neat. Nico prefers standing to sitting, but I he still needs my hands no matter what. When I went to the play centre last week there was a 9 month old baby standing up on his own and taking steps; it looked crazy to see such a tiny guy doing that...now, to see your 4 month old standing must be insane! (but normal to you) Go standing, pant-wearing, cute-legged Gabriel! (Do you call him Gabe?)

Coco bee I can't stop watching Cobi's laughing video. I LOVE his laughs; it is so precious!
@cvbee: "Gabe" is the reason I didn't even want to name him Gabriel. I do not call him Gabe but sometimes other people do. A lot of DH's friends and one of mine call him Gabey-Baby.
@LAGS: Picture for you! (I'm concentrating really hard on not letting him fall.) And we stopped swaddling when he became unswaddlable--somewhere around when we took our road trip so 8 weeks? Now we just tuck him in really tight with a blanket that wraps under the mattress. He can pull his arms out but he's still snug.

ETA: Bad pic of my haircut, but you can see that the front is so long that I can not only tuck it behind my ear, but I can also pull my hair into a 1/2 pony.

Ugh. Tyker has missed 2 naps today. One was sorta my fault as I thought he would nap in his crib. The other no reason why he won't nap. My husband thinks it's funny for some reason??? Says there is nothing we can do. Then I started crying and yelled at him that he is so cavalier because I am the one to get up with him 2x a night (or more) and going on 4 months am going bonkers. So i stormed out of the house and told him he needs to get Tyler to sleep - im going to the gym. I think I clearly need a break from all this sleep discussion : (

@winniebee: I'm so sorry :(:(

@pastemoo: aww thanks! I looove it too. He's so cute. He only ever laughs like that with DH though, hardly ever with me... kinda sad and cute at the same time. He's started to show more of a "daddy preference" over the weekends when DH is home. If I'm holding him and DH is standing next to me, he grabs DH's shirt and leans over to him. It's so cute! He hasn't done that with anyone else yet, not even me. But I'm strangely okay with it

I feel like Cobi is going to start crawling between 7-8 months. He is 6.5 mos right now and rolls and scoots all over. He can push himself onto his feet and push himself forward like that - it's so funny. If I take my eye off of him for 5 seconds, he will be on the other side of the room.

Now that he is mobile, I can't help but feel guilty we live in such a small apartment I feel like he wants his space to roam and explore and he'll never get that until he's much older. Anyone else have living situation woes?

@winniebee: Good call. I'm glad you went to the gym and left T with your husband.@calsmom: Ah, cute!! Gabriel is always frustrated by what he wants to do but can't yet--I think that's normal but hard to watch. I was up from 1 45am to 3 15 am ... oops!
Hey ladies, why are we all such wrecks? It feels easier to take care of my LO and yet I am more exhausted by it now than before...@Coco Bee: G has daddy preference too,,, and we also live in a small place. Can you let him play on a blanket at a park? I don't think he'll be bored with the small apartment. My grandma sent me an article called "the Goldilocks effect" in which a baby will stop paying attention to things that are too predictable and will also stop paying attention to things that are too confusing or unpredictable and focus on what he needs for his development. So don't worry. He'll be fine.
mediagirl, if she's asleep on you... transfer her to the crib now. That's what I do! And that's when I get his longest stretches at night...

@Coco Bee: NICE! Sounds awesome. And he will love crawling and scooting around in the small apartment until then.

I wanted to post something... weird... in light of the recent PPD posts. I really want to make sure people don't hesitate to check in with their doctors when they worry about their mood.
I have a history of bipolar disorder so I know I have to monitor for PPD and post partum psychosis. The really great thing is that both are treatable with medical care (with can include behavioral therapy, talk therapy, medications, etc). The hardest thing to do is to show up to the appointment and speak the truth to the doctor or therapist. Once you are there and talking, recovery does come. It can be slow, and you will need the support of your family, but recovery does come.

I didn't want to make a separate thread because it still comes with some stigma...

@pastemoo: which doctor do we call? OB? PCP? No one talks about mom's post care so it's hard for Mom's to know what to do or who to talk to!