- My son has a "thing" about bubbles. He is 1. My daughter loved bubbles at that age. Most kids love them. He hates them. Or is scared of them. We haven't narrowed it down. Maybe it's because he knows that inevitably his sister is going to pour bubbles over his head and face the entire bath time and he just doesn't want bubbles in his mouth. He screams if he sees them and she screams if she takes a bath without them. You already can't win and you are not even in the tub yet.
- Both kids love to splash. I know what you are thinking. "I have seen cute videos of kids on YouTube splashing in the bathtub and it is so cute!!" Wrong. Tiny baby splashing is cute. Toddler splashing is a flooded bathroom if you aren't careful. Any splashing at our house usually ends up with either me or my husband soaked from outside of the tub + at least one child acting like they are drowning because the other got water in their face.
- Both kids become deaf as soon as they hit the water. This doesn't bode well for swim lessons or being around the water in the future. We don't let our kids stand up in the bathtub. I don't allow it because our tubs are slippery on the bottom and I don't want them falling and busting their lips open. My husband, I would assume, has the same reasoning. We haven't ever talked about it but I overhear him saying "Do not stand up in the tub" like 9 million times while they are bathing so I know that he has the same rule. Even though they hear the rules every time that they take a bath, it is still like a new time every time they get a bath. Do not splash and do not stand up get repeated at least 90 times a piece during a 30 minute bath. My husband and I are not well known for our patience so you can imagine how this goes.
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Bathtime = necessary?
I despise giving my children a bath. Not necessarily the thought behind it because yes, I want my children clean and yes, I want them to have a healthy relationship with bathing and water in general, but the actual act of bathing my children is my absolute most hated chore. I will go on record and say that I would rather change 25 poopy diapers right in a row than bathe my kids. I think that if we could rectify a few things bath time would go a lot smoother:
Friday, January 18, 2013
Silas's One Year Doctor Appointment
They should really tell you that after all the torture and awesome-ness of pregnancy, labor and delivery that you are up against another un-named number of years of pain in the form of "well-child check ups". The first one is probably fine because your baby is too young to know any better. After that first one though, they are wise to it and make it impossible to even go near the doctor's office without flipping out.
From what I have come to understand, at least at my pediatrician's office, a well child check up consists of these things:
Today was Silas's one year appointment. I left Isabella with my mother because she doesn't understand that she is not the object of the torture for today. Let me leave a side note right here that I don't perpetrate the stereotype for them that they are going to be tortured at the doctor. I never joke with them that I am going to give them a shot; I never threaten them with the doctor, and have tried my best to prepare them for most of their appointments in the last six months by likening them to my daughter's favorite show Doc McStuffins. She loves that show and she loves to talk about what they do at the doctor, but going there still means that you potentially might die while you are there.
Silas started off the experience right by peeing through his diaper, through his clothes, down his legs and onto my lap while we were waiting in the waiting area. This was 100% my fault for letting him have a bottle on the way there AND for noticing that he needed a diaper change when we got out of the car and not doing it then. I love putting him in Fuzzi Bunz when we leave the house because they are a lot trimmer than our other cloth diapers and they fit him a lot better in the legs, however, they don't hold our biggest, thickest inserts and so they can leak if you don't notice the first time that they pee. So, I had to go to the common area bathroom, change his diaper and change every stitch of clothes that he had on. Awesome. On top of that there was also a saucer sized wet spot on the front of my top thigh. More awesome.
We were called back while we were having a wardrobe change, so they saw us to the back as soon as I re-entered the waiting area. And he has to completely disrobe again... for the second time in five minutes. He was as excited about this as I was about it doing it. He weighed 23.2 lbs which is 50th percentile for weight and was 30 inches tall which was 60th percentile for height. Now for the amazing part: 19.5cm for head circumference. My son is well known for his enormous head. >95% for head circumference. I guess you have to be the best at something! Now he doesn't have like a freakishly cartoonish looking big head. You would just look at him like a stranger and think "damn that kid has a big head."
Everything else looks awesome. He is ahead in speech, ahead to average in capabilities like walking, grabbing for items, etc. We didn't get a vaccine this time because he has been sick recently. We had a few conversations about what he is doing, like super sleeping > 15 hours per day, eating everything in the house, and using the cloth diapers because of his potential latex allergy. He then went through the normal torture activities like looking in his nose, in his eyes, looking in his diaper (not sure what they are looking for), and making sure that his overall body and muscle tone looks good.
Come back at 18 months. Appointment time: 9:45 back in the car 10:15.
From what I have come to understand, at least at my pediatrician's office, a well child check up consists of these things:
- height
- weight
- head circumference
- doctor's oral examination on you about food(s) your baby is consuming, activities your baby is doing (vocabulary, standing, walking, etc), and other items (how often they use the bathroom, etc)
- doctor's physical exam on the child
- vaccine(s), if you are getting any. I will advise of my choices regarding vaccines but this is not going to be a vaccine debate and I will never have that debate because I believe that whatever choice a parent has made for their children regarding vaccines is right for their family.
Today was Silas's one year appointment. I left Isabella with my mother because she doesn't understand that she is not the object of the torture for today. Let me leave a side note right here that I don't perpetrate the stereotype for them that they are going to be tortured at the doctor. I never joke with them that I am going to give them a shot; I never threaten them with the doctor, and have tried my best to prepare them for most of their appointments in the last six months by likening them to my daughter's favorite show Doc McStuffins. She loves that show and she loves to talk about what they do at the doctor, but going there still means that you potentially might die while you are there.
Silas started off the experience right by peeing through his diaper, through his clothes, down his legs and onto my lap while we were waiting in the waiting area. This was 100% my fault for letting him have a bottle on the way there AND for noticing that he needed a diaper change when we got out of the car and not doing it then. I love putting him in Fuzzi Bunz when we leave the house because they are a lot trimmer than our other cloth diapers and they fit him a lot better in the legs, however, they don't hold our biggest, thickest inserts and so they can leak if you don't notice the first time that they pee. So, I had to go to the common area bathroom, change his diaper and change every stitch of clothes that he had on. Awesome. On top of that there was also a saucer sized wet spot on the front of my top thigh. More awesome.
We were called back while we were having a wardrobe change, so they saw us to the back as soon as I re-entered the waiting area. And he has to completely disrobe again... for the second time in five minutes. He was as excited about this as I was about it doing it. He weighed 23.2 lbs which is 50th percentile for weight and was 30 inches tall which was 60th percentile for height. Now for the amazing part: 19.5cm for head circumference. My son is well known for his enormous head. >95% for head circumference. I guess you have to be the best at something! Now he doesn't have like a freakishly cartoonish looking big head. You would just look at him like a stranger and think "damn that kid has a big head."
Everything else looks awesome. He is ahead in speech, ahead to average in capabilities like walking, grabbing for items, etc. We didn't get a vaccine this time because he has been sick recently. We had a few conversations about what he is doing, like super sleeping > 15 hours per day, eating everything in the house, and using the cloth diapers because of his potential latex allergy. He then went through the normal torture activities like looking in his nose, in his eyes, looking in his diaper (not sure what they are looking for), and making sure that his overall body and muscle tone looks good.
Come back at 18 months. Appointment time: 9:45 back in the car 10:15.
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Newborn babies are not for me.
I have said it before and I will say it until I die: I love being a mom of toddlers and I am not meant to be the mother of newborns. I would be much better (read: less stressed, less exhausted, less anxious, less mad, etc) of a mother if I could just find my children at a gas station or something when they are like five months old.
Mistakenly before my daughter was born, I thought that the newborn age would be a breeze. Newborns sleep all day, know inherently how to nurse when born, have the "newborn" cry, and if they don't sleep at night, you are off work on maternity leave so you can just sleep during the day, right? Right?!?! Everyone who knows better has now died laughing. Let's break this down by fatal flaw:
"Newborns sleep all day" - uhh then I ended up with the two odd children out. My pediatrician and my OB told me this before they were born. I wish that I would have punched then while I had the chance. From the day that she was born, my daughter wouldn't sleep unless she was being held. Not just being held, but clinging on to the side of you like a monkey. See picture for how we slept for the first 16 weeks of her life. After 16 weeks, she decided that she was done with it and went to sleep in her co-sleeper until 7 months. My husband and I had several conversations before she was born that we were not co-sleepers because we didn't want to have to break that habit in the future. This all went right out the window in the hospital when that was the only way to get Isabella to sleep longer than five minutes at a time.
My son was similar and woke up every 1-3 hours until he was over 7 months old and then magically one night decided that he could sleep 10-11 hours at a time. Scary, but needed.
"Newborns know how to nurse when they are born." - This comes with work from both parties. They should prepare you for that better before the birth. I think that, before my daughter was born, I just thought - hey I have boobs; my body will know what to do. I was wrong. I nursed both of my kids until they were about 3 months old and when I went back to work they went on formula. I have a lot of guilt about this but it was unavoidable for me. I am positive that I will touch on that more in future blogs - I am hoping to get some closure on the guilt about that at some point... perhaps this blog will help.
"Newborns have the newborn cry." My daughter did, but my son was the size of a toddler when he was born and he was born with a set of toddler sized lungs. My OB's office doesn't do the "here is ho big your child is" ultrasound and I wasn't sad about it because I had heard how off it could be. My husband was very interested in knowing and asked my OB as soon as I started pushing about how big she felt like our daughter would be. After a LONG 36 hour labor, I was really excited about having this conversation when all I wanted to do was sleep without the bowling ball between my legs. She said "oh I don't know probably 8.5 lbs." This sounded HUGE. Luckily she ended up being 7 lbs 6 ounces. However, we asked the same question about my son a little over a year later and she said a similar answer. She actually said that she was betting that he might be smaller than my daughter even though I was effectively overdue with him by about a week. When he came out I will never forget her going "OH MY He's HUGE!" 9lb 14oz. He was the biggest baby in the hospital at that time and they even had to go upstairs and get size 1 diapers and a bigger shirt because the newborn stuff wouldn't fit him. Now, I know that there have been larger babies but that just seemed huge to me!! Needless to say, he did not have a newborn cry and has screamed at the top of his lungs as a cry since the day that he was born.
I say all of that to say this: Newborns cry a lot. They cry and cry and cry. Sometimes for no apparent reason. They don't sleep as much as people want you to think that they do. And they definitely will need a diaper change the second that they drift off to sleep. However, they are precious. And life changing. And as miserable as it seems that I thought they are, I wouldn't trade mine for the world and would do it all over again.
- Sara
Mistakenly before my daughter was born, I thought that the newborn age would be a breeze. Newborns sleep all day, know inherently how to nurse when born, have the "newborn" cry, and if they don't sleep at night, you are off work on maternity leave so you can just sleep during the day, right? Right?!?! Everyone who knows better has now died laughing. Let's break this down by fatal flaw:
"Newborns sleep all day" - uhh then I ended up with the two odd children out. My pediatrician and my OB told me this before they were born. I wish that I would have punched then while I had the chance. From the day that she was born, my daughter wouldn't sleep unless she was being held. Not just being held, but clinging on to the side of you like a monkey. See picture for how we slept for the first 16 weeks of her life. After 16 weeks, she decided that she was done with it and went to sleep in her co-sleeper until 7 months. My husband and I had several conversations before she was born that we were not co-sleepers because we didn't want to have to break that habit in the future. This all went right out the window in the hospital when that was the only way to get Isabella to sleep longer than five minutes at a time.
My son was similar and woke up every 1-3 hours until he was over 7 months old and then magically one night decided that he could sleep 10-11 hours at a time. Scary, but needed.
"Newborns know how to nurse when they are born." - This comes with work from both parties. They should prepare you for that better before the birth. I think that, before my daughter was born, I just thought - hey I have boobs; my body will know what to do. I was wrong. I nursed both of my kids until they were about 3 months old and when I went back to work they went on formula. I have a lot of guilt about this but it was unavoidable for me. I am positive that I will touch on that more in future blogs - I am hoping to get some closure on the guilt about that at some point... perhaps this blog will help.
"Newborns have the newborn cry." My daughter did, but my son was the size of a toddler when he was born and he was born with a set of toddler sized lungs. My OB's office doesn't do the "here is ho big your child is" ultrasound and I wasn't sad about it because I had heard how off it could be. My husband was very interested in knowing and asked my OB as soon as I started pushing about how big she felt like our daughter would be. After a LONG 36 hour labor, I was really excited about having this conversation when all I wanted to do was sleep without the bowling ball between my legs. She said "oh I don't know probably 8.5 lbs." This sounded HUGE. Luckily she ended up being 7 lbs 6 ounces. However, we asked the same question about my son a little over a year later and she said a similar answer. She actually said that she was betting that he might be smaller than my daughter even though I was effectively overdue with him by about a week. When he came out I will never forget her going "OH MY He's HUGE!" 9lb 14oz. He was the biggest baby in the hospital at that time and they even had to go upstairs and get size 1 diapers and a bigger shirt because the newborn stuff wouldn't fit him. Now, I know that there have been larger babies but that just seemed huge to me!! Needless to say, he did not have a newborn cry and has screamed at the top of his lungs as a cry since the day that he was born.
I say all of that to say this: Newborns cry a lot. They cry and cry and cry. Sometimes for no apparent reason. They don't sleep as much as people want you to think that they do. And they definitely will need a diaper change the second that they drift off to sleep. However, they are precious. And life changing. And as miserable as it seems that I thought they are, I wouldn't trade mine for the world and would do it all over again.
- Sara
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