The kid thread: Planning, pregnancy & parenting

[taz157]

zbear - Welcome and congrats! Do you know if you are having a boy or girl? Or are you going to be surprised? Sudafed is not on my safe list.

Stina - Putting away $10 every paycheck is a great idea! I may have to steal that idea.

Gardener - Stinky that your favorite store is closing.

ladyki - Good luck with TTC and sending you tons of baby dust for you and DH.

Books - Thanks for the great ideas on the books. I have the Bernstein Bears. I had some when I was a kid, gave them away, and ended up replacing them a few years ago for when we have kids.

Today, I'm more tired, but I also had a terrible time trying to sleep last night and stay asleep. I'm usually the early bird in my office and today, I showed up when the office opens. Tonight, I plan on going to bed very early. My DH was out of town the past couple of days and is coming back tonight. When I spoke with him, I told him I'll probably be asleep but he can wake me to let me know he got home okay.

[zbear]

Thanks for the reassurance re: sudafed. I guess I am just being ultra-paranoid, especially when everyone keeps telling me I can't take anything for a cold. Maybe that was back when they all were preggo.

Good luck to gusita and regina! How exciting to hear your birth stories!

[gusitarenker]

Zbear-Thanks! I'm so excited! Yeah, people love to give outdated information or what they 'think' is correct. A lot of times, people mean well, but they give out bad info.

[boosmom]

stina - Instead of getting giftcards now, I'd just put into a savings account. Having the cash will offer more flexibility. Also, TRU/BRU may have better sales on diapers/wipes than Target, along with their Rewards program of getting free diapers after purchasing 9 boxes.

zbear - Congrats & welcome! Folks may be referring to antibiotics. Usually dr's aren't going to prescribe any Rx meds for you unless it's really really bad. If it's okay with your dr., then it's usually better to relieve the symptoms earlier (with the approved OTCs) rather than get worse and then needing to end up taking stronger stuff.

regina - glad to hear you're progressing along and that LMSK will be here soon, too, one way or another!

[Sam_2.0]

zbear - sudafed is on my safe list. Unfortunately that didn't cure the problem for me - I got strep about a week & a half ago, and had to get amox to clear it up

I like the savings account idea for baby stuff too. We need to start that up. I also need to call the insurance company & get a new estimate for all the delivery costs since we switched plans.

Dh took me out to dinner tonight, and now we are having a movie date It was a great surprise, especially since I worked an hour late & really didn't want to cook anything. We talked a lot about our future plans & how things will change over the next year as we add the baby to the mix. Serious stuff, but a great night none-the-less

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

Went back and reread what I posted about Gwen's birth. Talk about an out of body experience. It feels like it has been forever, not just six short months!!

Going to transfer her to her crib this weekend. DH and I are going to have movie night so we'll be up, figure it's as good a time as any to try it out.

Since I seem to be keeping up with her for now and I am slightly ahead by about 2-4 oz we are going to skip the formula and just go to solids. We'll add formula to bottles later if we need to. One transition at a time.

[stina72]

Regina and Gusita-I'm anxiously awaiting baby news from you two over the next week!

Boo-Good thought on the savings account, I think I'm going to have to rethink my strategy!

zbear-Welcome and I hope you get to feeling better soon!

Sam-I'm glad you got a date night with DH!

taz-I hope you were able to get a good night sleep last night!

Eternal and Ins-I really hope you ladies can get things straightened out with your respective jobs soon!

Thanks for the thoughts ladies, I am back to feeling 100% today and am hopeful that the doctor and I can work out a plan so this won't happen again!

[yogiii]

Drama, if Gwen is a good solid food eater you won't need formula. DS started to eat 3 meals per day a couple weeks ago, after only eating solids for a little over a month. I think this was so fast because he was 6 months already when we started and was very eager to eat. He eats really large meals too, for breakfast and dinner about 1 cup of food and a little less than a cup usually for lunch. I make his food so I'm not sure what that comes out to in jars, but it seems like a ton of food to me.

For all the hard times we've had with colic, sleeping, lazy eating etc ... we finally found something that he is really really easy about (at least for now). He eats a ton of solid food and so far isn't picky at all.

stina - Hope you feel better and good luck TTC

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

Hope Gwen isn't picky. So far I know she likes the taste of turkey and bannanas, so that is a start.

[regina24601]

Jan 7, 2011 9:36:46 GMT -5 NomoreDramaQ1015 said:

Went back and reread what I posted about Gwen's birth. Talk about an out of body experience. It feels like it has been forever, not just six short months!!

Drama - I'm sooo thankful they transferred the old thread over here - there was so much good information that I hated the idea of losing all of that! I, too, went back and read when I posted I was pregnant and then my bad ER experience/miscarriage scare at 14 weeks. That was surreal for me, too. In some ways it feels like this pregnancy just started, but when I reread those posts, it feels like I wrote them decades ago. So weird...

[gardenergirl]

regina - so glad you are progressing!!! I hope you go into labor on your own and don't need an induction either.

drama - I wish you the best on transferring Gwen to her crib - hope she likes it. Hopefully will make things better in the bedroom for you and DH as well

sam - that's great you had a nice night out with DH and talked about things. Communications is SUPER important!!

taz - hope you got to bed early last night and got some good sleep

It's a record - Olivia has slept thru the night the last 7 nights in a row!! It's been wonderful being able to get that much sleep. She's been sleeping from about 7 pm to 6:30 am. So nice. I hope it continues.

I had a hard time falling asleep and staying asleep last night because all I could think about was my BJ's store closing! I kept thinking, where am I going to buy my diapers/wipes/formula/TP/meds/contact solution all that stuff from at those great prices PLUS coupons. I'm so bummed that I will have to start shopping around now and probably have to go to several different stores to get good deals on everything. I always bought my gas from there too. They always had the best prices and my car always ran well on their gas. I have until the 17th to stock up. Sigh....

[poohbiscit1]

Gardenergirl: Where are you located? I do not know what I would do without a BJS near me as that is where we buy everything. Meat, Diapers, Wipes, and when DS was under a year that is where we bought the formula too. Are there any other warehouse stores near you that you could get a membership to instead?

[Sam_2.0]

KGB - do you think you could edit your first post on this thread to include a link to the history thread? That way we won't lose it once it starts getting bumped down. Just an idea

[jenna30]

Anyone use the Kirkland Signature brand of formula from Costco?

[gardenergirl]

poohbiscit - I live just outside Atlanta, on the west side. BJ's was right in between my work/home so I would go there all the time on my lunch breaks. I buy all my meat from there too. There is not another warehouse club that is as close as that one. Also, my work gets a corporate membership from there so I get my membership from there for only $15 a year. I think other places charge a lot more, plus BJ's takes CC's and coupons. I'm just so bummed. It's going to cost me so much more money now to buy everything Hopefully I can figure out something...

[gardenergirl]

Jenna - I don't use the Kirkland brand but I do use BJ's generic brand, Berkley and Jenson. I did a side by side comparison to the Enfamil Lipil and it was exactly the same. If they have the Enfamil cans there, just look at the ingredients side by side. It should match up and then try your baby out with one can. If baby takes it and has no problems then it will save you lots of money on formula!

[jenna30]

I'm calling Costco today to see if they have it in stock. I'm also going to ask if we can return it if it makes Baby E sick.

We're having a hard time finding the right formula. We're on our 3rd.

He takes the Similac Sensitive ok, but he goes through it like water. He's hungry almost every 2 hours, and p's constantly. It doesn't make him as gassy, and he spits up less.... but it's expensive & I don't want to be up feeding him every 2 hours.

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

Jenna by law all formulas in the United States have to be the same nutritionally. Now you have your different compositions for things like colic, premie, acid reflux, spit up, hypoallergenic, soy etc. Overall generic is exactly the same as name brand.

[telephus44]

I used the BJ's brand of formula, too. DS liked it and it was WAY cheaper than any other kind out there.

Also, on kids books - any of the Sandra Boyton ones. Not the Hippopotamus, Moo Baa La La La, Pajama Time, the Going to Bed Book - great pictures, lots of rhyming.

[mom2-4monkeys]

Hi ladies, Just wonder if any of you have experience with TRYING to let kids CIO when they share a room? I have 2 sets of twins and the girls (3yo) were awesome sleepers. They shared a room, but hardly ever cried. Now I have two boys (1yo) and one of them SCREAMS in the MOTN. I have tried to let him CIO, but he always wakes up his brother and sometimes both girls in the next room over. I do NOT like have 4 kids up at 3 am!! any suggestions??

[yogiii]

mom2-4monkeys - I have no advice for you but the thought of 4 kids up at 3am just made me nauseous.

gardener - sorry about BJs . I'm glad Olivia is sleeping better though. DS isn't eating in the MOTN anymore but he often wakes up around 5 or so and needs to be readjusted/hugged a little. I'm not sure if it is seperation anxiety or the fact that he works himself into a corner and can't get out and in the process wakes himself up even more. He moves a lot during his sleep. So far though after a few mins of rocking he goes back to sleep. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we can stay at that level or get better soon. I hear him wake up other times during the night, but he often can put himself to sleep after a few mins of babbling. I feel really lucky!

telephus - DS loves moo baa la la la. He squeals whenever I bring that book out

regina and gusita - good luck. I hope everything goes smoothly for you

[regina24601]

Jan 7, 2011 10:15:45 GMT -5 gardenergirl said:

It's a record - Olivia has slept thru the night the last 7 nights in a row!! It's been wonderful being able to get that much sleep. She's been sleeping from about 7 pm to 6:30 am. So nice. I hope it continues.

Gardenergirl - Yay for a good streak of sleeping well!! I'm sure that makes all the difference in the world, and I really hope it keeps up! Sorry to hear you're losing your favorite store. I'm sure you'll figure something out, but hopefully it doesn't require you trekking halfway across the state a lot!

Sam - I'm glad you and DH had a good date night and a good talk about the future. Those serious talks can feel really cathartic sometimes, and hopefully you guys were able to get on the same page about some decisions.

mom2-4 monkeys - I'm not a mom yet, so I don't have any advice for you except for the obvious one: is there any way to separate your two boys and let the crier CIO somewhere away from the others? Hopefully some of the other ladies will have some better advice for you. Good luck!

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

Gwen rolled over in her sleep last night onto her stomach. DH flipped and nearly got up to move her. I told him if he did that I was going to kill him because she slept and slept WELL on her stomach. I didn't want her waking up and being hungry.

I said yes she is still breathing, go to sleep!

[yogiii]

drama - DS is a tummy sleeper too. He rolled over really early, I think he was only 3 months and it freaked me out. I watched him sleep like that for over an hour (on multiple days) and then realized I was being a little silly.

[mom2-4monkeys]

Jan 7, 2011 11:38:26 GMT -5 NomoreDramaQ1015 said:

Gwen rolled over in her sleep last night onto her stomach. DH flipped and nearly got up to move her. I told him if he did that I was going to kill him because she slept and slept WELL on her stomach. I didn't want her waking up and being hungry.

I said yes she is still breathing, go to sleep!

This is too funny. My DH was so scared to let any of my kids sleep on their stomach. I let all 4 of them sleep that way, they always slept better. None of mine would sleep on there backs, even as newborns.

[mom2-4monkeys]

Jan 7, 2011 11:28:26 GMT -5 regina24601 said:

Jan 7, 2011 10:15:45 GMT -5 gardenergirl said:

It's a record - Olivia has slept thru the night the last 7 nights in a row!! It's been wonderful being able to get that much sleep. She's been sleeping from about 7 pm to 6:30 am. So nice. I hope it continues.

mom2-4 monkeys - I'm not a mom yet, so I don't have any advice for you except for the obvious one: is there any way to separate your two boys and let the crier CIO somewhere away from the others? Hopefully some of the other ladies will have some better advice for you. Good luck!

Regina- Not really, we don't have any extra rooms right now. I don't really want to get in the habit of bringing him to my room, and the living room is out because my mom sleeps on the couch while her room is being "finished" in the basement. But thanks for trying.

[redwagon]

How long does a BJ's can of formula last? Trying to work on a "baby budget." As I won't be BFing, I am thankful for the tip of using BJ's brand!

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

How long does a BJ's can of formula last?

I don't know about BJ's, but Enfamil lasts a week once opened if stored properly. Other than that unopened you go by the expiration date.

And expiration dates on formula are ones you absoultely should not ignore. Nutrients and other vital things start to break down past the expiration date making it unsafe for baby to drink.

Well not really UNSAFE per se, but it isn't going to be very good for him anymore.

[poohbiscit1]

As long it is stored properly an opened can of the powerded BJ's formula is good for a month. I used to use the entire can in 2-3 weeks so it was never an issue.

[gusitarenker]

I love rereading the old thread. I'm so glad it wasn't lost in the transition.

Drama-I hope transferring Gwen goes smoothly this weekend!

Stina-Yay, glad you are feeling better!

Jenna-My doctor said the generic formulas are the exact same, ingredient wise and nutrient wise as the Enfamil/Similac. He actually gave me a hand out telling what generics at which store were equivalent to each name brand formula type. I plan on trying the generic Target kind.

Well, I went to the doctor today to get my blood pressure checked today and it was 141/92. They had me lay on left side for 15 minutes, then checked it again, 135/88. They said I had slight traces of protein in my urine, but since I am getting induced Monday anyway at 5:30 AM, to just take it easy this weekend, keep an eye on my blood pressure, and to call if the bottom number gets over 100. Soooo glad this is almost over so I can quit worrying about this!