Baby Corner

[letty 1]

Letty,

In my opinion you can go before or after, I didnt go until I knew I was a few weeks pregnant but I know several people who have gone while trying to conceive just to make sure everything is fine. More importantly though you should be asking around and looking for a doctor who you like and respect and who's policies you agree with. It seems to me that many women's pregancy and birth experiences are hugely impacted by the medical staff so you want to be sure you are with someone who you feel good about. For myself, I just asked around to my trusted friends who had babies in the last few years, asked them about their experience and what they did/didnt like about it. I found a midwife who worked in partnership with a couple of doctors and I LOVED her, she was awesome.

in the meantime, you may want to go ahead and start taking a prenatal vitamin

good luck!

@Kelly - hahaha I love your transcription of song lyrics! we get a lot of that too and it always makes me laugh.

Sara thanks a lot for your advise!

[Susita 175]

Hey guys.

I keep having contractions all the time, they get regular, hurt like hell... and then after 2 or 3 hours they just STOP. WTH? This is getting annoying plus my whole midsection hurts like hell. I'm scheduled for a c-section next wednesday, but who knows if I'll make it until then or not.

[Mommy2ZaidnSalma 11]

Stef, Zaid got a few baskets. We filled his with mostly coloring books, bubbles, chalk, etc. I put some Freeze Pops in there and that was about it. My dad got him a soccer ball and toys for his sandbox and my brothers wife got him a TON of chocolate which went straight to the garbage lol. I dont love chocolate at all and Zaid is waaay too little for it IMO so in the trash it went.

Sara, ya the singing is getting cuter and cuter around here. Zaids vocab has expanded soo much the past week or two he is amazing me. He is speaking sentences here and there and is on top of his "please and thank you's" I just love it when he says "Sank You, Mommy" lol

[tnh9479 1]

Well...we almost have two walkers here. Zak will walk a little bit on his own, but you can see he is focusing sooooo much on it. My mom was here this past weekend and her comment to me is that you can see he is just thinking too much about it when he does it. If he is focused on something else, he can walk ok. Once he realizes what he is doing, he stops and drops. So...it won't be long until both are running around here!

[Anna C. 4]

@ Letty: definetely ask around and check what your insurance covers. Since you are from the Netherlands, beware, birthing is totally different in the US. Homebirths which accounts for 1/3 of all births in your home country are virtually unheard of in the US... So try to figure out what kind of birth you want (obgyn, hospital, midwife, birthing center, homebirth, doula) and try to find someone for a preconception checkup and see if you like him/her... I had no idea what I wanted the first time around and ended up with a totally unsupportive obgyn (he didn't support any of my choices and thought women who don't want an epidural must be crazy, he didn't share any concerns nor did he want to sign off our birthing plan). Last minute we switched to his midwife in his practice which made a huge change for us since mostly we got the birthing experience we wanted (delayed cord clamping, baby immediately with mama - those things are not standard in the US). It is super important to have a practitioner who agrees with your vision and wishes. And of course, there always might be an emergency, but most of the time, women have low risk pregnancies... And you as a mom should be able to pick the experience you want, whether it's homebirth or an elective csection (though some insurances won't cover that).

Boy, Jona was sick for the first time and had a terrible case of croup. We spent three days in the hospital for observation and epinephrine nebulizer treatments, which they didn't want to give us to take home for some reason. We were back home for Easter... Which was quiet, we didn't do much cause he is too young to do any of those activities. We were just enjoying being together as a family!

[Autumnchik 6]

Yay for all the new stuff the kids are doing! Declan terrified me on Easter ... we took him to a park because the weather was so great. He decided he didn't want to slide on the "baby" slide so he took off and climbed to the top of this HUGE metal slide (daddy was behind him on the ladder). I can't believe he is not my baby anymore! This past weekend, he decided he no longer will ride in the shopping cart seat, will not sit in a booster seat at restaurants and doesn't even want to sit in his carseat. He wants to sit on the regular seats. Of course, the carseat is non-negotiable

Hope Jona is feeling better now.

[JVKn'CVO 11]

Big time nursing strike...not sure if we'll make it through this one

Saludos,

Caro

[Susita 175]

I'm using the easter candy as bribery to get the kids to eat their vegetables, and it's working. I told Jonathan he could eat 5 jelly beans and a mini peanut butter cup after dinner if he finished his mashed potatoes and carrots. He chowed it down.

They have no orange or yellow jelly beans left because of me

[Mommy2ZaidnSalma 11]

Poor Jona Was that really the first time he has been sick? He's gonna be in trouble when he starts getting exposed to other kids at preschool and such, you'll have a sick baby for months!! Zaid had croup too so I totally feel ya. Trying to keep a nebulizer mask on him was awful. Thankfully Zaids immune system is in tip top shape (from being exposed to so many germs and daycare and what not) and he fought it off within about a day or so. Glad to hear Jona is feeling better.

Susita thats so funny. I hate jelly beans. I actually hate most candy for the most part but I LOVE caramel. Im sure Ill be bribing Zaid when hes the boys age too. Sometimes thats all that works right

[Anna C. 4]

He's been exposed to multiple things in playgroups and public playgrounds, in church, on the plane, in Germany, but he never caught it - he had a runny nose twice and a fever for a day when I had piggy flu (NP thinks that was his version of swine flu), that was about it - I don't count that as being sick cause we didn't even have to see a doc nor was he bothered by it. The NP said it's common in breastfed kids to be sick so little, but I think it is mainly genetics since DH and I were rarely ever sick as kids (just stuff like mumps and chickenpox and aehm accidents!). It was quite an unusual case though, for us, for toddlers in general, though 2 toddlers per day came in the hospital and 2 would leave on daily basis... The nurses said we have a super strong bug going around here that has even caused some kids to be sent to the Denver hospital for intubation!!! There even was a 9 year old with a bad croup in the hospital, and 9 year olds usually don't get croup!

Wow I hear you all talking about nebulizer masks - we never had one - they just flashed some sort of hose in front of his nose and the mist came out of there. They said that's good enough. Keeping the oxygen nose mask on Jona was quite hard, we taped it down with hospital tape (the one that doesn't hurt) but soon enough he just kept ripping it off, but his O2 sats were good so it was okay.

@ Caro: How is it going? What happened? We never had a nursing strike, quite contrary, he wants it all the time. I read in the Sears book that cuddling and such helps.... Can you pump to keep your supply up?

@ Zaidsmommy: Btw our local Target has a lot of polo shirts on sale, no sports theme whatsoever!

[letty 1]

Anna, thanks for your response. I knew home births are not common like they are at home, but I don't really know what I would prefer at this time. So, do you just call a place/doctors office and set up an appointment or do you ask some questions first to see if they support your ideas?

[anya-D 8]

I'm sooo happy!! I passed the 3 hours glucose test!!! the blood sugar is on a little high side but I still pass. I'll cut down on my sweet and carb but at least I dont have to worry so much YEY!!!

[Mommy2ZaidnSalma 11]

Anna, Thats great that Jonas immune system is good. Zaid doesnt really get sick unless hes at daycare hugging and kissing the kids who are currently sick. We actually ended up finding polos at JCPenney for like 4$ . I ended up buying every color and hes quite adorable in em i must say!!

[tnh9479 1]

Hana and Zak are rarely sick as well. We are lucky enough to have a private babysitter at the moment so that aren't around lots of germy kids. But, my husband and I were extremely healthy babies as well. I know once they enter a larger group of kids that I'll be home with them a lot more. Hopefully by then they can tell me what is wrong!

[Vi Mazzella 4]

We are on the lucky side too, Sofia is one years old and never got sick,not even a rash and according to the Dr. is because of my milk, btw,

Caro@ how are u doing? is the little one still on strike?

anya-D@ Congrats!

Susita@ Nothing yet?, I keep checking your fb to see i there is some update

Mommies I know that alot of you speak two languages to your little one , we do the same here but you never felt that you are confusing them? Sometimes I feel that I'm confusing Sofia with english and spanish and then I have my father in law speaking to her in italian, poor Sofia!