Sheltering Children

Having watched a few friends and some family (yes, even me) go through some very difficult times in their marriage that could have or did result in divorce or separation, I find myself wondering at the best ways you all know of to shelter your children from potential emotional damage that arise from such situations.

Do you "ignore" the situation and act as normal as possible? Kids usually see through a lot of "acts" that parents put on, so I don't think that would work very well. But kids are so vulnerable while very young (like 3 years old).

So, dear, wise sister-mothers, how do you shelter your kids from potential emotional damage?

5 Words Babies Say

My little sister sent this link to me. I thought, "Wow! That's amazing! Where was this information when my boys were that small?!"

So for those of you with infants from 0-3 months, here you go!

When to Say When?

I'm having a dilemma...again. :) This last week I've been away at a state training for teachers. I had to leave my boys in the care of my amazingly wonderful mom (who did a great job of caring for them).

All week I missed my babies and just wanted to be home. Because I'm nursing, I brought along my trusty pump and used it every chance I got. I wanted to make sure my milk didn't run out, which it seems to be heading that way anyway.

So, last night when I got home, I took N in to nurse him, cause I was sure ready to relieve some pressure. He wouldn't nurse. He fought it and cried. He would only take a bottle. Part of me doesn't really know how to feel at being trumped by a bottle. This morning, he still prefers the bottle over me.

N is 6 1/2 months old, which is how old J was when my milk ran out and we had to feed him other things instead of my milk. My milk is starting to look blue (a sign that your milk is drying up/going away/biting the dust/etc.) and I've been wondering how long it'll last this time.

Bottom line of my dilemma: Do I stop nursing and feed him the breast milk that I have frozen? Do I try to "force" him to nurse? Am I a bad mom for even considering stopping?

A question

Hello fellow mommies.

I have a quick question to ask you all:

My daughter (26 months) has been throwing up quite a bit, lately.  And she's not sick.  I have noticed that she tends to throw up if she hasn't pooped the day before (she's usually VERY regular, but has her 'off' days).  It seems to me that her tummy can either handle pushing out the poop or throwing up the food she recently ate.  Poor little thing, today she started to cry, told me, "I don't want to throw up!"  then threw up on the couch.  She feels better afterwards, eats just fine...and usually poops within the next 3 hours or so.

I guess my question is, is this something I should be concerned enough about to consult a GI or her pediatrician (we happen to have a fabulous pediatric GI that my son goes to....)?

Thanks for any help or advice!

The Downs of Pregnancy.....

Everyone talks about the glow, the thicker shinier hair and the smell something a mile away.....but they never really get into the nitty-gritty...the downs of pregnancy. The achy back, the swelling ankles, the constant peeing! but what I would like to talk about today is the dreaded morning sickness....from the constant motion sickness to the hug the toilet for four hours feelings. I didn't have this with my last one, but this one killed me and frankly is still giving me issues.

So I'm looking for remedies, from old family 'secrets' to new age things you read in an article last week....lay it on me. Help me and my fellow mothers out with this horrid morning (all day) sickness!!

Also anyone have funny/unusual symptoms....like dizziness that they also had to deal with and if so what did you do to help you out with those things as well!

Thanks so much. I can't wait to hear from everyone!

ps. please don't think I don't absolutely love being pregnant! I do, I just want to be able to get past the morning sickness. ;)

Making the change

There are a lot of milestones in a child's life. Rolling over, sleeping through the night, taking their first steps, saying their first word, potting training, and so on.

The one I want advice on today is: moving to a toddler bed.

When did you move your child into a big boy/big girl bed? Were they still able to take naps after they weren't caged anymore? How was the transition to sleeping in a bed? Any advice or special tricks that worked for you?

S is coming up on his 2nd birthday, so we want to start moving that way soon. I just want to be very prepared! :)

Play groups

Now that summer is (almost) here, a lot of us are finding our way to the park to outside to enjoy the sun. In my little neighborhood, a few of us like to take our kids and walk to the park. We do a few laps around the park, then we let the kids play for a while. That's what we do for social interaction and exercise.

Some moms have successful play groups and play dates. I'd like to know all about those.

Do you have them scheduled weekly? Do you call and set them up whenever you want to play? Do you have snacks and games or just let the kids play? Do you rotate houses?

Come on. Give me the goods.

Binkies - When do you take them away?

I've never had to deal with this issue before. J never took a binky...that is until he saw N sucking like mad on one. Then we'd find him trying to sneak the binkies from N, usually when J was having a bad or extremely emotional day. He knows he doesn't need one.

But N is most definitely a BINKY BABY! And it's not just any binky that he wants. It's this one:


My sister got him one of these babies. It's called a Wubbanub. They have several other kinds of them with various colors of binkies attached.

N cannot live without this monkey binky. An example of this happened just today. He was crying and acting hungry, so I tried to nurse him. He latched on for a second, then started wailing at maximum volume. I put in his binky and let him hug the monkey and he quieted right down and fell asleep. I'm being passed up for a monkey!

Anyway, because he's so attached to this monkey binky, I'm a little worried about what will happen when we "get" to take it away and be done with the whole binky thing.

When do you usually take away a binky? (I've heard of some experts who say to take it away at 6 months or so, so they don't have cognitive memories of having it.) How have you done it so you have success (and little whining/crying/fighting)?

Baby Food

Baby food is insanely expensive! We bought all of the baby food we fed to J when he was eating the stuff. With N, I've decided to take a different approach. I'm trying my hand at making the food.

I had my reservations about doing this, because I thought it'd be hard to do, time consuming and messy. My sister bought a Baby Bullet, and it came with an extra one, so I split the cost with her and now we both have a Baby Bullet set. Way cute and way easy to use.

It came with a recipe book that not only has recipes in it, but it's organized by what foods you should start during what months, etc. I LOVE it! It's made baby food making really easy.

But I have to say that if I'd thought about it, I could have gotten away with doing the same thing in my regular blender. It just wouldn't have the nifty serving/refrigerating cups, the freezer cups and the flat blade...maybe your blenders came with one of those, but mine doesn't have one, so I'm assuming they don't.

What have I noticed about making my own baby food? I know exactly what goes into my baby's mouth. I can make and store a week's worth of food in less than 30 minutes. It costs WAY less than store bought baby food. It tastes better than the nasty stuff you buy. And I think it's just easier.

How do I make it?

Well, with soft things, like avocados, you just blend one up with 1/4 cup of water (more or less if you want it runnier or thicker) and there you have baby avocado food.

With harder things, like sweet potatoes, you boil, microwave or bake them, however you'd like to cook them, then you put them in the blender with about 1/4 cup of water. Very, very easy.

These things keep in the fridge for about 3 days, and in the freezer for about 3 weeks as per the instructions in the Baby Bullet cookbook. An easy way to freeze them is to put the puree into an ice cube tray. Then, when it's frozen, you take them out of the tray and put them into a freezer safe bag, label it and then just toss it back into the freezer. Simple as that. Depending on the size of your cubes, you'll usually have 1-1 1/2 of those as a serving size.

You can even make your own rice, oatmeal, millet cereal.

For cereals, grind 1/2 cup of brown rice, oatmeal or millet into a fine powder. Put it in a pot with 4 cups of water; cover until it boils. Turn down the heat to low and cook with the cover on for 20 minutes. Test the consistency of the cereal. If you want it thinner, add more water. This mixes well with fruit purees and, later on, with chicken or beef dinners.

I've tried both homemade foods and store bought foods with N. He definitely prefers the homemade.

For more recipes, go here.

Breastfeeding Whatnots and Wherefores

Most people (at least most that I know) aren't all that comfortable talking about their boobs, so it comes as no surprise that people don't like talking about what comes out of their boobs either. I'm going to be fairly candid in this post. Please don't take offense or anything like that. I'm just sharing what would have been nice to know before some of this happened.

When I had J (almost 3 years ago now) I had no idea what to do to get the little guy to breastfeed. I mean, I'd seen my sisters with their numerous kids feeding their babies and had even talked with them (much more than I was comfortable with) about stuff that happens to your boobs. But until you go through the process for yourself and your baby, it's still something akin to rocket science.

I managed to keep the little guy alive, thank goodness, and to feel fairly comfortable with my breastfeeding abilities. He was a great nurser and just loved to eat.

N, on the other hand, likes to - shall we say - "play" with his food. He is so very observant of the world around him, and likes to look EVERYWHERE. He also hates to stop eating or let go as he does so. Who knew a boob could stretch in so many different ways? Not me! I know, I know. Cover him with a nursing corner/blanket and sit in a dark quiet room. But that's not always readily available when you have multiple children.

Another thing I've learned this time around (here's another candid moment) is that ducts get clogged and that stuff builds up in the nipple at times. I had clogged ducts with J, and so I knew basically how to ease the pain and help them unclog. Hot showers and the like. But I'd never, NEVER seen or heard of stuff building up in the nipple.

Things got so painful that it would feel like knives stabbing me whenever N would eat off that side, tears streaking down my face and all that good stuff. I finally had enough of it and squeezed (yes it was extremely painful) until I got the stuff out. Then, as per one of my sisters' advice, I let N latch on to that side with his tongue on the side of the nipple where the stuff had been. Apparently the suction is greater on the tongue side of a baby's mouth.

I share this, not so you'll gross out, but so that if you ever experience something like that, you'll know you're not a freak (I'm assuming that I'm not one) and that you'll know that there is a remedy for it, painful though it may be.

I'm sure there are other "gems" of info on the subject that could be shared, but that's all I'll put you through at the moment.

Help needed for Bath Time Woes

I recieved this plea for help quite a while ago, but I did not get it until recently. My deepest apologies Annie!

Here is her dilemma:

I have a 2 year old who loves taking baths...up until we wash her hair! We have tried every trick in the book to make this easier: having her lay back with her head tilited back, having a cloth over her eyes, she refuses to close her eyes! It is a battle to the death (almost) each time She SCREAMS super loud, yelling things like "STOP! IT HURTS!" I'm expecting the neighbors to call CPS any second. We try and sooth her, tell her it's just water! We wipe her eyes constantly, we use tear free shampoo...give her rewards...

As her mom and the main bather to her I'm pretty much at wits end with the SCREECHING and death cries! Do any of you moms have some advice on how to make hair washing less painful for both of us?!

Thanks
Annie

Developing Imagination

My almost 3 year old (can he really be that old already?) has quite the imagination. It makes me laugh out loud quite often. Like it did today when he picked up a plastic Easter egg, opened it, held it up to his chest and said, "Look, Mommy! I got boobs!" Yes, he's my son. No, he didn't get that from me. :)

Imagination is something I think a lot of kids today are without because they sit in front of the TV or video games and are endlessly entertained, leaving imagination unneeded.

Reading is a great solution to that. My sis-in-law uses making up stories with her kids as an imagination development tool. I love both of those things.

What are some things you have done/do/plan to do to promote the use of imagination in your children?

Sleepless in Nevada

This is my cry for help!

Our 4 year old daughter has never slept through the night. Sure, there's been small periods of time (mostly when she was tiny) that she would sleep great. But the last, oh, year, has been a nightmare. She will fight us to go to bed. Screaming, crying, yelling, etc. She usually falls asleep, but only after making a hundred demands. ("I want COLDER water! With ICE in it!") We try not to give in to these demands...but we have an almost 2 year old who is already asleep at this point. Daughter #2 is the most incredible little sleeper. She has slept through the night since she was brand new...

Anyway, big sister finally falls asleep and just a few short hours later, she is in our room crying and making demands again. She was up from 12-1 last night. My husband works at 5 in the morning, so fun for him. Does anyone have any advice? We have tried literally everything we can think of. She has a sleeping bag on our floor because I won't let her sleep in our bed anymore. I can only imagine what it will be like when she starts preschool with no sleep at night...:(

Thank you!

Sincerely,
Sleepless in Nevada

A "Mommy" shopping site...NOT to buy from

Let me share with you an experience I just had with a pretty well-known shopping site catering to mom's: Totsy dot com.

At the beginning of March, I received an email from Totsy providing me with a $15 credit to use towards any purchase.  I thought, "Hey!  Awesome!" and went to their site to check out the merchandise.  I found a toy that both of kids would like for a great deal - $3.85 for each toy (and they usually run for $8-$10).  Having the $15 credit, I ordered 4 of them, and only paid for shipping.  Not a bad deal.

That was March 5.

When I had finished ordering the toys, the confirmation page came up and it had written on it: "estimated shipping date: April 1."  I was a bit shocked at the SUPER late shipping date (really? one month after I order?), but I knew that this site took the orders on their site, then when the sale was done (the special prices last about 4 days each), they placed orders with the vendors of the product.  So, a month?  I could wait.  Easter was nearly 2 months away.

On April 1 (the estimated shipping date, remember?) I received this email:

"We are experiencing a delay due to the increased volume in demand for orders intended to ship from our warehouse at this time.  We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Our warehouse is working quickly to get your shipments out within the next 5-7 business days."

Seriously?!  Yeah, so...another week wait.

On April 10, I wrote to the customer service email asking about my order.  Two days later, still no reply, so I wrote ANOTHER email to the customer service people.  I received a response today (April 13):

"Thank you for contacting us.  You will be pleased to know that your order has just been released to UPS.   Unfortunately, there are two items that are unavailable, which is the sheep and unicorn.  I will submit a refund back to the payment method you supplied for these two items.  My apologies for any inconvenience."

Can I please emphasize two points of this email that bugged the heck out of me?

1) "your order has just been RELEASED".  To me, this makes it seem as if my order has just been sitting around (for a month and a half, mind you), waiting for me to ASK THEM to send it to me.

2) HALF of my order will not arrive?  Yeah, that's an inconvenience, seeing as the half you're not sending are the two toys for my daughter.  Ridiculous.

Later today, I received THIS email:

"Unfortunately, items Sheep , Zebra  and Unicorn  from 
the Lubies event, is unavailable for shipment due to a shortage of inventory from our vendor.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you."

ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?!?  (See how cute the toys are?  Yeah, not happy they're not 

coming.)

So, only 1/4 of my order is coming.  And Totsy is blaming the vendor for a shortage.  This

 bugs me because, according to the way the Totsy places orders, there shouldn't BE any shortages, 

since orders to the vendors are placed AFTER they are placed on Totsy.

Needless to say, I'm less than impressed with my experience.  If you google "Totsy" the reviews

 are, in the majority, negative.  Seems my experience is the norm.

So: I DON'T recommend this site. At all. Not worth it.

Vitamins

My son loves vitamins. And I can see why. They look and taste like fruit snacks! They have come such a long way with vitamins. Back in the day, vitamins were to children like vitamins are to adults: something you have to swallow through (literally). Then they came out with the chewy kind (loved those as a kid) and now they're gummies!

Our favorite:
(And yes, you may have noticed that behind my son's vitamin bottle is a box of Girl Scout thin mints. He may think vitamins are a treat, but I know the truth.)

I seriously find myself acting like these are a treat because to my son, they are. So when he asks for a vitamin, I say, "Not until you finish eating your corn dog." Yeah it might seem like I have my priorities mixed up, but my son is lacking in the protein department and will use vitamins as an incentive to eat some types of protein (he still absolutely hates chicken... unless it's chicken nuggets). It makes me just want to hug that vitamin bottle. Okay, not really.

What about your kids? What kind of vitamins do they like?