Mother bird? (updated)

How many of you "mother bird" it for your baby? Do you know what I'm talking about? Chewing up food and then taking it from your mouth and letting your baby eat it. (okay, so mother birds actually regurgitate it first)

Am I the only one who does this? When Karl wants something I'm eating, but it's too hard for a baby with only 2 teeth to eat, I'll chew it up first and then take it out with my finger and let Karl eat it. When thinking about it, it sounds so gross and I can't believe I do it. But Karl doesn't mind it at all and he gets to try something new.

update - I reread this and it sounded way worse than what I actually do. I don't chew it up like ready-to-swallow food. I just bite it a few times with my front teeth until the pieces are small enough for karl to eat. I don't chew it all up with my molars or anything!

Poor kid. He'll probably gag at the thought if I told him about it when he's older, but for now, he's my little baby bird and he likes it. Today, he got to try caramel bugles. And he loves them!

Another new food for him today was strawberries. I know we aren't supposed to give strawberries until a year old and I looked it up. Here is what I learned ...

• 1. Children under 1 yr of age are more susceptible to develop allergies when introduced to certain foods too early. Strawberries are just one of the more likely foods to develop food allergies.

• 2. All children are different, but up until 4-6 months of age their digestive system is not developed enough to handle any kind of foods other then formula or breast milk. Strawberries and citrus fruits are extremely hard on their sensitive tummies and will make a very irritable baby as they work out the natural acids in these fruits.

So the second thing shouldn't be a problem since he's almost 10 months old. But the first one may be a valid thought. None of my other kids have food allergies, so hopefully karl won't have any either.

I didn't baby bird the strawberries though. I gave it to him through his mesh feeder and he chowed down on it. He absolutely loved it!

Regardless of my disregard for the rules, I'll never give him honey though. That rule is definitely something I'll adhere too! (Honey may contain bacterial spores that can cause infant botulism.)

Love and Understanding

I just got done watching Schindler's List and I want to run to Ella's school, pull her out and just hug her.

The horrors of what happened during the Holocaust is not new information to me, but everytime I see anything of what happened - movies, print, pictures - I'm just horrified. It's not just the Holocaust, it's racism (against ~any~ race), treatment of native americans, everything. My heart just hurts there were (and still are) people in this world who can hate a person based on their race or hell, anything at all. There is still so much hatred in the world and my heart weighs so heavy at times.

I hear ~a lot~ that people can't stand to bring babies into such a world. But what I think, is we need to bring MORE babies into this world (I know my audience, I know we're all trying!) and raise them to be better people. The more children we raise with love and understanding, the smaller the percentage of people raised with hate in their veins.

3rd child = things I would never do with my first.

Poor Karl.

With Ella, my first baby, I was one of "those" mothers - doing everything by the book and even overdoing it.

No sugar. No chocolate. Staying away from all the no-no's like eggs and cheese and hell, anything that you aren't supposed to give them before a year. I carried a diaper bag that was stocked to the hilt. I read the baby books like Baby Wise and spoke Holier-than-thou to others. I thought my child sleeping through the night was due to my super duper parenting. I read reviews of toys before buying them. I refused things like pacifiers.

And now with Karl, all that is out the door.

~ If I am eating something and he seems interested in it, I give it to him (unless dangerous, ie: honey, of course). He's licked my ice cream. I've given him chocolate. I've given him sips of diet coke, coffee, ice tea.

~ I actually tried to get Karl to take a pacifier. And while he did a few times, he was pretty much a non-paci baby.

~ My diaper bag is often my back pocket. I simply stick a diaper in my pocket and go. When I do bring a diaper bag, it contains less than my own handbag.

~ All the baby books are collecting dust on my shelf, trusting in my instincts instead of expert advice. (of course I remember a lot, I'm not saying those books didn't help).

~ When I give advice to other mommies, I keep in mind if it worked for me, it doesn't necessarily mean it'll work for them.

~ Karl sleeping through the night is due to Karl's ability to sleep through the night, not my parenting. (I do, however, think me letting my babies sleep in their crib instead of co-sleeping, sleeping in a bassinet in my room, etc, did help each one turn into great crib sleepers.) It's all due to each baby's personality. For sleep, I did the exact same thing with all three kids and had 3 different sleepers. Ella slept through the night by 11 weeks. I could put her down wide awake and she'd just go to sleep without even a hint of a cry. Allison, while going to sleep quietly was her strong point, she didn't sleep through the night until the day she turned two years old. Karl slept through the night by, um, hell, I don't even know. Maybe 12 weeks? And he's slept through the night since. But when I put him down, I get a few minutes of crying with him before he falls asleep.

~ Toys? He gets the hand me downs from the girls but when I go to the store to buy a toy, I just let him pick what he's interested in. I don't first go online to make sure other people liked it too or how educational it is. (although I still stay away from toys that play themselves, if you know what I mean. I like toys the kids have to play WITH. Not be entertained by.)

Here is some evidence of what I'm talking about. I was trying to get a picture of Karl doing "so big!" so I could get a shot of his cute little shirt (daddy is a sports nut and he loves any sport like clothing). But Karl wouldn't raise both hands because he didn't want to mess with the hand that was holding his cheeto. Yes. I let Karl eat cheetos. Oy vey.

Free Gift Giveaway

Have you guys seen the promotion over at kodak? They are GIVING AWAY $15 gift codes to their site and there are no strings attached. I signed up, got my code and picked an ornament for $12.99 and the gift code took off the entire $12.99. I did have to pay $2.99 for shipping (that's the string I guess) but there are LOTS of things to get for $15 or under.

TRY IT!

The Tooth Fairy Cometh

Look what happened at school yesterday! She was freaking ~thrilled~ when I picked her up. She came running up to me with this little missed tooth smile...



Awhile ago, I purchased little tooth fairy dolls from The Land Of Nod. It's a little doll holding a little bag to put the tooth in, so the tooth fairy can find it easily. She wanted the tooth fairy to let her keep her first tooth, so Tom wrote this little note and pinned it to the doll:

"Dear Tooth Fairy, This is my first tooth. Can we please keep it? You can have the next one. ♥ Love, Ella"

Seriously. How cute is that?

Late last night, I snuck in the room and took the note and rolled up two dollar bills and put it in the bag. I left her tooth. About 3am, she came into my room just sobbing - half asleep, she said the tooth fairy left her money but didn't leave the tooth. I showed her that her little tooth was still in the bag and she grinned and went right back to sleep.

This morning, she was so happy she got "paper moneys", as she calls it. I know some people leave a lot more than $2 (seriously - a friend of mine gives $20 per tooth!), but in this house, we decided two bucks was the going rate.

My little girl is growing up.

Today I am grateful.

If any of you saw my post on my main blog, you'll know an acquaintance of mine suffered a stillbirth at 36-38 weeks. I am simply heartbroken for her and at the same time, I'm overwhelmed over my own little miracles asleep in their beds right now.

Today I got up at 7am to make breakfast for my girls.

Today I dressed my oldest daughter for kindergarten.

Today I kissed my daughter when she left with her daddy to go to school.

Today I spoon fed my son.

Today I kissed my son and daughter before they took their naps.

Today I snuggled with my son and daughter when they woke from their naps.

Today I made dinner for my three children, husband and my mom and dad.

Today I brushed my kids' teeth.

Today I gave three baths.

Today I got my children in snuggly warm pajamas.

Today I kissed my children goodnight.

Today I sit comfortably knowing my three children are all asleep in the rooms just down the hall.

Today was a good day and today I am grateful.

Total 100% Freak Outs

Today was a triple appointment with the pediatrician. Karl's 9 month well baby appointment, coupled with all three of them getting their flu shots. The girls were nervous, but we had been talking about it a lot, using the whole "knowledge is power" thing.

Karl went first. His stats were:
head: 18" - 65th %tile
height: 29.5" - 90th %tile
weight: 18 lbs 8.5 ozs - 25th %tile

Everything checked out great. He still has the remnants of a yeast infection (he took antibiotics a few weeks ago for another double ear infection and developed a terrible rash from it. It was so angry red and prickly, but didn't seem to bother him at all) but it is definitely getting better.

Then he got his flu shot. He cried for half a second and promptly stopped as soon as I picked him up.

Allison was all excited to go next. Whenever one of the girls gets to be "first" before the other one, it's a big thing. So Allison holds up her hand and says "I'M NEXT!" and jumps up on the table. And then the panic set in. She suddenly realized what exactly was about to happen and she starts shaking and crying. She is so tensed up that when the needle went in, it hurt and she SCREAMED. I mean on the top of her lungs scream. Which, in turn, panicked Ella.

Ella decided she was NOT going to get it done and totally flipped the hell out. She started screaming "NO! NO! NO!" and I had to physically pick her up and hold her down. She was screaming and kicking and as soon as it began, it was over.

I was mortified. Now, I understand that shots are scary, but my children do ~not~ act like this in public. Ever. I've never had to remove my children from anywhere due to their behavior, as they mind their manners when with me. I couldn't believe it. Once the nurse left, I let them know their behavior was ~not~ acceptable. I also was sure to give them lots of love because I know the situation was scary and shots are a big deal.

Well, that was my morning so far. Do I dare say "what's next?"

Pickle sandwiches.

I just let Allison pick out and make her own lunch. What does she pick? She had me cut up a bunch of little pickles and put them on bread. Nothing else. Just pickles and bread.

It's funny to see what kids come up with when they have no idea what sandwiches "should" be. To her, pickles sounded good and she made it. And ate the whole damned thing. Heh.

Mother of the Year!

Karl ate cat food. I rule.

But jeez, this boy ~moves~. Up, over, under everything. I didn't have a "climber" with either of my girls and I suspect I'm going to get it with Karl.

So. Remember the story I just told a few weeks ago about "uncle" glenn letting Allison eat cat food? I got it handed right back to me.

Oh yeah, and to add more to my Mother of the Year award, I also picked Karl up quickly while he was sitting next to the coffee table and I didn't realize, until too late, his little leg was under the table. So I pulled up while his poor little knee took the brunt of it.

Ugh. There is something sweet about holding one of your children when they get hurt. But when ~you~ are the one who causes the hurt, it's just heartbreaking!

The Clap

heh.

Add Clapping to that last post. He figured it out while grocery shopping and that's pretty much all he does now.

Newest Milestones

Really for my records ...

Pulling up to standing in crib - Oct 1st
Crawling 99% on all fours - Oct 6th
Sitting up from crawling position - Oct 8th
Pulling up to standing on pretty much anything - Oct 9th
Saying "mama" and thinking he means it - Oct 9th

Wow. He's not going to be my baby for long.

I forgot about this.

Obviously all you out there with little babies have already gone through this, since Karl is so "behind" in milestones ~wink~, but I'm just now dealing with this again and I completely forgot about it. I went through it with both girls and now it's Karl's turn.

It's when they learn to stand up, but have NO IDEA how to sit back down.

My kids have all been good crib sleepers. There's been exceptions: I had a hard time transitioning Ella from swing to crib for daytime naps; Allison woke up every night 3-11 times until the night of her 2nd birthday; Karl cries when I put him down when I could just put the girls in their crib when it was time for bed, even if they weren't ready to go down, and they'd just go to sleep. But all in all, I'd say they were (and are) all awesome.

When they learned to pull themselves to the standing position, they would do it a lot in their cribs. They'd be tired and needing sleep, but standing was such a great new thing that they would immediately stand up. Then they'd realize they had no clue how to get back down. The bending of the legs to sit down was (and is) always a mystery. So there I am, hearing Karl cry cause he's standing, and I have to go back in the room to lay him down, only to have him stand up again seconds later.

I don't know any other solution than to continue to go back in the room and lay him down until he stays down. Is there anything else to do?

Do I wake them?

First of all, I wanted to thank each of my guest bloggers. If you haven't read the last 3 yet, take a quick gander and afford a comment. You'll read from Robin about her letter to her unborn baby about what a great time in history to be born, Lisa's post about raising twins and Hollie's post about the things she's found out while being a new mommy.

Now to my post.

When I come out from out of town, I hate when I come home when the kids are already asleep. I always wake up my girls, all blurry eyed from being woken up from a deep sleep. They usually have no recollection of my saying hi, but ~I~ am the one who remembers, which is what counts. I just want to hug them and kiss them.

But do I wake the baby? If I wake him up, it's a little harder to get him back down, as he'll see me and think it's time to eat or get up. So I tiptoe into his room and just look at him as he sleeps. He is now an official stomach sleeper. He gets his knees under himself so he sleeps with his butt sticking up in the air and his little arms curled underneath his chest.

And that's where it all goes wrong for me.

He sleeps in such a cute position and I can't ~not~ touch him. So I carefully stroke his back and pat his little bum. Within a millisecond, he's moving around and lets out a cry. Then I figure I can totally pick him up now. Which is mistake numbers two. Within minutes, his head is off my shoulder and he's smiling at me, going in for baby kisses.

But it's all SO worth it.

In the 3 days I was gone, he has perfected his crawling. Now it's on both knees 85% of the time. It used to be 85% army crawling, but I guess it just took a weekend to realize he can get around MUCH faster if he doesn't have to drag his body.

Spending some time away from my kids is wonderful. But nothing beats coming back home and seeing them. Nothing.

Sunday's Guest Blogger ... Hollie!

The Joys of Motherhood

Hi everybody! My name is Hollie, and I blog on Everything Changes. I am honored that Nancy is allowing me to guest blog for her. I met Nancy on the TTC Infertility Conditions message board. We went through IVF together, and our sons were born 1 day apart! So I do feel a special connection to Nancy. Nancy was also my inspiration to start a blog. I enjoy writing about being a mommy, my family, my life, and whatever strikes me for that day.

Today I bring you… some of the little joys of being a mommy to a little boy. Note – my son is 8 months old.

1. Bringing a little screaming crying bundle of joy into the world.
2. The first time your child smiles at you.
3. The first time your child smiles at you after they smear poop everywhere.
4. Having said little bundle kick you, slap you, bite you, and scream in your ear… all at the same time! And you don’t mind!
5. Being peed on, pooped on, puked on, and you don’t mind. Well maybe you mind a little bit.
6. Pumping your breasts at work with the door locked, still hoping no one barges in.
7. Taking your child out in public and always being told how cute he is. I think he’s the cutest kid in the world of course.
8. Spending all of your money on the child.
9. Wanting to sell our house, sell half of what we own, all so I can stay at home with my son. He has really changed me!
10. Finally, looking at his sweet angel face when he is sleeping.
    

There really is nothing greater than being a mommy! I’m sending love to all of the mommies out there!

Keep up the good work!

Saturday's Guest Blogger ... Lisa!

First of all I wanted to take a second to thank Nancy for allowing me to guest blog. She is a wonderful mother and a remarkable and strong woman who cares so much about other people. She has also been quite the educator. I met her on the TTC boards and she helped me through to my BFP. She taught me so much about TTC and then afterwards about infertility. I knew nothing about it and through her struggles and her willingness to share, she has enlightened me. Never would I say that I can understand what women who have infertility go through, but at least now I feel like I know what not to say or do.

I am the mother of twin 17 month old boys and I blog at Our Janidlo Clan. They were conceived naturally and I consider them to be the greatest gift from my maternal grandmother (she had two sets of fraternal twins). It can be challenging at times to raise twins but I must say that my boys make it relatively easy. They are wonderful little men and I could not imagine my life without them. I decided I would talk a little bit about two different aspects of being a mother of twins.

We can no longer be in a hurry to do anything. Whenever we are out in public we are constantly stopped to be asked questions about the boys. These conversations generally start out the exact same way... "Are they twins???". Sometimes it is very hard for me not to respond with all the ridiculous answers I have formulated in my head over the last 17 months. This question is not quite so bad now that they are toddlers, but when they were newborns I couldn't believe how anyone could think otherwise. The next question is usually... "Are they identical?" This one is a little more understandable since their differences are a little less noticeable to someone who does not know them. But come on... they have different eye colours! I know that all these people are just curious and trying to make conversation so I try not to be rude. But sometimes I would just like to be able to go to the grocery store without being stopped. I guess that's what happens when you not only have one cute baby but two!

I find it difficult when I am asked by a singleton mother "How do you do it? I can barely keep it together with one baby/child." This to me is such a loaded question. Everyone has their struggles and different levels of what they can handle. I truly believe that we are only given what we can handle and I guess my genes were meant to have twins. I have a hard time when people try to compare battle scars and mine are not deeper than someone else's just because I had twins. My boys were not premature, they did not spend any time in the NICU, they were not colicky, etc... and they are HEALTHY!

I find it the most difficult with my friends because they feel like they can't talk to me about their parenting issues. They are always saying, "well, I can't complain to you about this because you have two of them to deal with. You must think I have it so easy." When in reality I think that in some ways I have it much easier. My boys always have someone to play with. That defintely takes a load off of me. I can leave them to play together while I go off and get something done. I also think I have been thrown in automatic second time parent mode. Mothers out there that have more than one child understands what I am referring to. You learn so much from the first baby, that things run much more smoothly the second time around (barring any kind of extremely difficult second child). I had to react as if I was a second time parent the first time around. It was hard at the beginning but now I am reaping the benfits.Well, there it is a little insight on my little life.

Please feel free to head over to my blog and check it out. I am not nearly as interesting as Nancy but really... who is???

Friday's Guest Blogger ... Robin!

(In Robin's words ...)

I wrote this when I was in my last trimester of my first (and only) pregnancy. My son is now 10 months old. I regularly wrote letters to him in my personal journal, but most of them are pretty mundane. This one is a little more universal. Maybe other moms who were bringing babies into the world this year can relate.

A little background, just to avoid confusion—my son has two mommies. ;)

Dear Baby,

What a time for you to be born. The Phillies just won the World Series and Barack Obama was just elected president. Everyone seems to be feeling this incredible sense of hope and ease. We have a long road to hoe, baby, but I feel confident that we can do it. It's an amazing feeling--hope.

Your mommy and I had been on edge, worrying about the outcome of the election. Worrying about what kind of a world we were bringing you into. While I was pregnant with you, our country was in the middle of a war that looked like it would never end (it's still not over, but i hope by the time you are reading this, it is) and gas prices had shot up to almost $5/gallon, making it really difficult to justify going anywhere that wasn't absolutely necessary by car. While I was pregnant with you and the presidential candidates were duking it out on television in debates, it started to look like John McCain (the guy who ran against President Obama) was going to win the election. People really started to rally behind him and we all felt so worried and we thought, how can we bring a sweet new life into this tainted, terrible world with no promise of it getting better?

But then, in just the past two weeks, everything changed. Living in Philadelphia as our baseball team experienced its first championship in something like 20 years -- the city was so celebratory. There was a huge parade; it was all you could hear about on the news. We saved the front page of the newspaper for you to have. And then, a week later, the election. Your mommy and I were taking a tour of the hospital as the election results were coming in. In fact, I was standing in front of the hospital nursery, looking at a baby born the day before and thinking about how you were on your way and you would be just as tiny and reliant and amazing and your mom came over and told me she had seen some early election results coming in and they looked promising and my heart swelled with hope. This tiny baby in the nursery, these other expectant parents standing around me, these moms about to give birth in the rooms up and down the hallway, you inside me, me, your mom, your grandparents, your cousins and the friends you haven't even made yet--all of us are going to be ok.

What a time for you to be born.

I can't wait to see your sweet face (just a few more weeks now!)

--Love,Mama

Guest mommy blogger?

(this is a cut/paste from my other blog, but I'm also looking for 3 mommy bloggers who would want to blog about mommy stuff.)

First off, I was a guest blogger on Poltzie's blog last week while she was in Vegas. I wrote a post called "Victims of Infertility" and I would appreciate if you read it. If you head over there, don't forget to check out her other posts. She's got some really cute pictures up from her trip to Vegas!

So. I'm going to be out of town tomorrow - sunday. And I'm looking for 3 guest bloggers. If you want to be a guest blogger for me, please comment on this post. I'll need your posts by tonight, let's see, by 11pm MT, and I'll set them all up to auto post on your day.

Please will you be my guest blogger? (I'll take the first three volunteers. That's if I even ~get~ any volunteers!) If I would have thought of this sooner, I would have asked you individually, but I don't have the time now. But I would still LOVE it if anyone would like to post on my blog. Please? Let me know!