ILX Parenting 5: I'm a big kid now

She'll be 24 in July.

hm, yeah, getting a bit old to be living at home imo. then again, isn't inter-generational living all the rage these days?
can't imagine having moved back in with my parents after college, and i have pretty much zero problems with them.

Aw man that kid is so adorable!

The boy started twisting some of the knobs on the new lawnmower and I pert near got misty-eyed.

Saw the midwife yesterday and nothing is going on. Our baby is sort of just casually hanging out and not packing up and preparing to move out. I feel like I have been rather casually going about things and haven't hit a nesting phase. Made a few lists for two days but that was it. I need that high energy nesting phase!

I was given some herbal pills, tea and have been doing an exercise. Anyone have any other tips to get things going? I will be 37 weeks on Thursday. EEK!

Off to bed, was told I need to get the insomnia under control because bad sleep leads to bad labor and hard birth.

hey *tera, this may be difficult advice to take but I think the best thing is to go about your business. things will kick off when they kick off. your body knows what it's doing better than your brain does! so just let it do its thing. this unique period of anticipation will soon give way to a whole different thing so soak it up while you can. (and yes, sleep is good!)

Isn't a good sexing session meant to be good for getting things moving?

What Tracer says. Apparently in France they give you a due 'period' to prevent the expectation a due date gives. Kick back and enjoy the last few weeks of having your baby squirming inside of you, it sounds strange but you'll miss it once they're here. Once they're out you have to share them but right now you've got him/her all to yourself. do some pampering, get a pedicure, read books, watch crappy tv, revel in only having to worry about yourself! I really really wish I'd done a belly cast. It can seem a little self indulgent, and what do you do with it afterwards, but I really wish I'd done one. That or had some really nice photos done that I could look back on.

Your baby will let your body know when it's ready to be born, and that's what you want if you want as natural/uninterventional birth as possible. It could be that you go into labour tomorrow, it could be another 5 weeks away so don't get hung up on waiting and getting impatient. Easy for me to say though! I got very impatient with Aidan, eat tons of pineapple, drank loads of raspberry leaf tea, went for long walks, I don't think it made any difference! I was far more laid back about it with Molly and enjoyed my last month way more even though I had a three year old to look after as well as myself.

You guys, beware the kid who grows up content and happy, and doesn't hate her parents. She'll never move out.

I plan to adhere to the adage of my parents: "when you're 18, you're out of the house." tbf I couldn't wait to get out of there...

also from the "complaining about other people's shitty parenting styles" files:

acquaintance of ours has apparently been raising her kid according to some parenting philosophy that foregoes ALL praise or criticism of the child. *rmde*. the kid is 4 and barely talks.

lol, wth are you supposed to say to your kid then, "Yes, that is a drawing that you made." "Yes, I see that you have thrown your spaghetti on the floor and that you're now throwing a shitfit"

Thanks, guys!!! I do love this advice. These days do feel special indeed.

kid's new thing is screeching/screaming really high-pitched and loudly as a fun game. we've been trying to teach her about inside voice and sometimes it works but the screeching is just so dang fun.

Thanks, guys!!! I do love this advice. These days do feel quite special.

cf a fukkin nine year old (with no development issues) who had to be physically restrained by his mom and a nurse just to a g-d THROAT SWAB. literally screaming bloody murder for fifteen minutes, so shameful.

Culture was negative, oh how I lol'd

― catbus otm (gbx), Monday, March 26, 2012 12:46 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

gbx, i've watched kids screeching and kicking and swinging at their parents when their name gets called at the pediatrician. absolute terror. part of me is sympathetic since most kids are poked with a bunch of needles every time they go there, part of me is amazed they my kids haven't pulled this shit yet and part me is thoroughly entertained.

you just haven't lived until you've sat on the chest of a 6-year-old as their parent puts 'em in a head lock while attempting to get a nasopharyngeal swab.

currently in a lecture on how to do the pediatric physical exam

so many pro tips

I've been through something similar with a Great Dane, if that counts.

How do you all feel about Alicia Silverstone feeding her kid straight from her mouth. I don't really see what the big deal is. It's not like she said that she does it all the time or that it's the only way the child eats but people seem to be freaking out about it. I'm a lot more offended that she named the poor kid Bear Blu than I am that she feeds him like a bird.

wait what @ all that

lol. does she chew the food up and then deposit it in his mouth? that would be weird. oh alicia!

Yes! There is a video. Hang on . . .

No, E. That's quite all right.

LOLing at this image of Alicia Silverstone with a bird's beak feeding her baby!

No, E. That's quite all right.

― pplains, Wednesday, March 28, 2012 2:16 PM (21 seconds ago)

I honestly don't think it's that bad. I mean if she did it exclusively. Oh, I don't know. It doesn't seem to warrant some of the reactions I've seen though:

http://www.thekindlife.com/post/home-video-breakfast-with-baby-bear

Celebrities: They're Just Like BIRDS

The kid is adorable btw. That's her website so there are some positive comments but the people posting in other places I've seen it have mostly acted like she's deranged.

Certainly sounds deranged to me.

srsly what's the rationale behind it

it might not be "bad" but it seems pretty unhygienic and weird, haven't watched the video or read anything about it. going to assume the rationale is along the lines of "brings the mother closer to the child"

i dunno, guess i shouldn't be judgmental, there's probably no harm except maybe transmitting gross adult disease and germs directly to your child, but really the publicizing of it and putting videos of it online is what skeeves me out the most

x-post

idk I think she's just sort of out there. I doubt it's harmful though. She never said it was something she does all the time or anything which is how people seem to be taking it. *shrugs*

harmful? eh probably not (unless she keeps it up through age 5 or something). gross? yeah. publicizing it? gtfo you weirdo celebrity

n/a pretty sure this is nothing to do with bonding. shes just being a weirdo.

harmful? eh probably not (unless she keeps it up through age 5 or something). gross? yeah. publicizing it? gtfo you weirdo celebrity

― You big bully, why are you hitting that little bully? (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, March 28, 2012 3:46 PM (20 minutes ago)

^^^ eggs ackley

i thought this was a pretty good article

http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2010/07/why_parents_hate_parenting.html

The guy was in a relationship without any kids, and he felt neglected. What the hell did he think was going to happen when he had kids? Daily oral?

Whoah haha!

So maybe someone has advice on this. K is about 6 weeks old now. She tends to cluster feed before bed, and then want to eat every 2-3 hours throughout the night. Doesn't seem entirely abnormal, but my wife hasn't been getting sleep. We started a thing where I give her one late night bottle to give my wife a stretch of sleep. At first this seemed to work, but last night K was fussy pretty much throughout the night, even after she drank almost four ounces from a bottle (previously enough to knock her out for a while).

We've been trying to do all kinds of things to set a nighttime mood before bed. H gives her a bath in the evening, we turn lights down, keep our voices down, etc. I rock K in the dark before putting her down, but she tends to fall asleep on me and then wake up the second I put her down.

Basically what I'm saying is that my wife can't keep waking up every two hours to feed her for 30+ minutes and then change her and then hold her for comfort (leaving maybe an hour to sleep out of every two). I can't give her more than one bottle a night, not only because I'm working a lot and need some sleep but because we were told it's not good to do this early. We don't want to let K cry without picking her up this early. But I also don't want H to lose it.

Do we just keep at it and hope that eventually K will learn to calm down at night? Do we need to change our approach?

Is she sleeping during the day much?

Yesterday she did not, and yet barely slept during the night. I guess it could be "overstimulation" because she had gone with H to the in-laws during the day, but I find that concept illusive -- i.e. what does and doesn't "overstimulate" them

For the most part, though, I don't know -- I'd have to ask H.

IME regular naps during the day are essential to things working at night. You don't have to go full-on Gina Ford but if you can, try to work toward a two-hour nap in the morning and a two-hour nap in the afternoon, and the night time stuff will improve. YMMV of course.

I liked that TLP piece for the most part btw. I came to the conclusion before I had K that questions like "Why isn't X making me happy?" or "Why am I not happy?" were pretty much a poisonous line of thinking.

xpost hmm interesting. Sort of counterintuitive, since I'd think her being up more during the day would make her more tired at night. I will transmit this information to H.

I think that'll be true once she gets older but at this age they need a lot of sleep, they need big long naps, and if they can get into a groove with them it'll help make night time less of a big thing, and more like just another part of the daily sleep routine

our kids were p much nighttime hell for the first couple of months, then things sorta normed out in an ok-ish way, but "night things" are one of the hardest things for parents to generalize about I think.

she actually didn't get naps yesterday due to doting grandpa, apparently, so that could explain the rough night

guys, having a kid is awesome and i love it.

evie locked herself in the bathroom yesterday and my wife had to call our landlord to get them to send the maintenance guy to let her out. fortunately the bathroom window was open so he could climb through and unlock the door and meanwhile my wife fed evie teddy grahams through the window. apparently evie was pretty happy about the whole situation.

hahaha

awwww