Family Forum / Pregnancy / Pregnancy / April 2007

On Apr 13, 8:02 am, "Welches" <debbie.welc...@SPAMntlworldPLEASE.com>
wrote:

I guess you weren't done posting spots!!  LOL

I'll respond here, too.  I have my four, and we're not planning on
anymore.  The two girls are in school (Kindy and 2nd) and they are
doing well.  Both boys are home with me.  Spencer is four, and he and
Grant have some interesting interactions.  Grant is 18 months, and
he's already figured out if he screams, Spencer gets into trouble.
I'm getting wise to the situation, and Spencer doesn't get in trouble
nearly as much. :)  It's so easy to underestimate a baby.  Spencer
DOES drive Grant batty, though, by getting in his way and smothering
him (literally) with kisses.

Grant had a very rough January/February with a total of four shunt
revisions (hydrocephalus).  His third one ended up being a shunt
replacement, and they pulled the entire system out and put in a new
one.  Then a week after going home, it blocked again.  He came home so
weak and thin, but he's plumping up again and has regained his
strength and abilities.  He has been REALLY blossoming the past couple
of weeks, developing new words and skills.  He can pull to his knees
and "stand" there, and he has been pulling to stand and holding it
briefly.  He has started pushing himself around while sitting, and he
can crawl fast, that boy. :)  What's been fun is watching his
understanding and vocabulary flourish.  If I say, "Did you go
poopy?" , he will make the appropriate noise.  I have a horrible sense
of potty humor, so I find it quite hilarious!  He drives cars around,
makes animal noises, can point out a few body parts, identifies a few
animals, and is the most LOVING child I've ever met.  He gives me
kisses all the time, and I tell ya, it melts a mother's heart to have
a little boy crawl up to her, pull up on her leg, and all because he
wants to give her a kiss or two or three.

I don't want this group to disappear, so I'll try my best to
contribute!

Joy
Rose (1/99)
Iris (2/01)
Spencer (3/03)
Grant (9/05)  http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/ grantphilip

Jessica's 9 months old and doing well. The poor baby had the rotavirus
(that's what it turned out to be on my previous posts) and was very poorly,
but she's recovered well, and is currently blowing "raspberries" on my knee!
She's crawling well, but has found an alternative use for her baby walker -
she puts her dolly (her "baba!") in it and pushes it round the room! I think
I'll get her a dolls pram soon - She can walk when she's holding on to
something, so maybe a dolls pram would take up less space!

Vocabulary-wise, she's saying "mumma, dadda and babba", all at appropriate
times. She's finding it fun to play with the cat's water bowl, and to pull
all the CDs/books/DVDs... off the ehelves! The baby gates arrive on
Tuesday!! LOL.

Health wise, they're still monitoring her hips, and she has an ENT
appointment next month to see if there's a physical cause for her Night
Terrors, or if she's got some of my narcolepsy, but otherwise, she's
fabulous! She's about 25lbs now (slowly regaining some of the weight she
lost) and super tall!

And, here she is! http://s176.photobucket.com/albums/w176/so-lucy/easter/

Lucy x

    Kids are doing great!  A. is 12yo now, and ready to
head off to middle school next year (yikes).  Still dancing,
playing piano and percussion, reading like a fiend, hanging
out with his friends, playing computer games, playing basketball,
etc.  He struggles with organization sometimes, but is really
getting things together overall.
    C. is almost 10yo and in 4th grade.  He's doing much
the same as his brother, although debating what instrument he'll
start in band next year.  He's got a bit of "middle child
syndrome," but is also learning a few lessons and figuring
out that if he manages his time well he has more time to
do the things he enjoys.
    G. will be 4yo this summer, and still quite a firecracker.
Nothing fazes her or slows her down in the slightest.  She has
a blast at preschool and dance classes and can't wait to be
able to go more days.  She loves going out to lunch with friends.
    I think we're completely full up with three--don't know
how we'd accommodate more, space-wise or time-wise!

Best wishes,
Ericka

I posted in the July thread but I'm also going to post here so I can ramble
about Alexander. :)

He will be 2 in June, and he is fantastic. He loves books and flipping
through them. One of his favourite things is pointing at everything and
labeling them or if he doesn't know he says "S'that?"

He speaks constantly. Rambly nonsense followed by two words that do make
sense. :) He recognizes the whole alphabet and numbers up to 10 (after that,
everything is 13). He knows his colors and animal sounds. He likes making
people tell him what the cow says or the pig says.

He sings all the time. Nonsense songs he makes up using words he knows:
"Daddy Truck No No No." He likes The Lion King and Sesame Street.

He nurses just before he sleeps now, so it's down to twice a day (naptime &
bedtime). He'll also nurse if he hurts himself or gets really upset. He had
his first tantrum the other day. He calmed down quickly though.

I love being his mom.
http://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a364/rebeccajo/Alexander/?

B"H I have 5 kids ages 6 1/2 years to 11 1/2 months and am not
planning on any more. I just hang out here
because I guess I am just so used to logging on here since pregnant
with #1 LOL. and I like hearing birth stories
and trying to help others from my experiences.

I'm still here!

DS is almost 4, seems smart in the way he communicates and the things he
talks about, but is averageish in terms of actually doing things like
letters and numbers, he's pretty much the same as Rebecca Jo's Alexander who
is 2 yrs younger - I think he's basically got all the letters and mostly
knows the difference between little and big, same with numbers, he
recognises 0-9, but when counting gets stuck after 10 or 11, however I think
all that is just plain old normal, and it's mostly self taught, or at least
self directed. I wouldn't be surprised if over the next year he figures out
reading without being taught, he likes to use stuff on the internet where
you click on words and it reads them, or you arrange the words into a
sentence like jigsaw pieces.

We're a bit concerned about him in other ways though, he's always been small
and had a bad illness about a month ago, losing weight he couldn't really
spare, he's 27lb, same as some under 1s when he's almost 4, he's a little
taller relative to weight, but shows no signs of 2T clothes becoming too
short. The other problem is pain in his knees, elbows and possibly
elsewhere, blood tests have showed it's not some kind of arthritis, or other
inflamatory disease, so the doctors call it "growing pains", however my
investigations indicate "growing pains" are almost always a symptom of a
connective tissue disorder - hardly surprising since I have one, but
worrying non the less as I'm quite badly affected, but didn't have such
pains until much older and never in the arms.

DD is 2 in June, she's a funny little child, almost as heavy as her brother
at 25lb, though that is a significant drop in the charts from her
birthweight, she's also quite short, I think shorter than DS was at the same
age, this causes problems with clothes, she's chubby and in real nappies,
but heightwise only needs 9-12 mth clothes. She has quite a significant
speech delay, we were initially concerned about her hearing as she'd had an
infection and her ears remained blocked, but after dropping dairy and using
homeopathic remedies they cleared and her hearing test came back fine.
However, she is now slowing increasing her words, we do intend to start
speech therapy, but as her receptive understanding seems to be good we have
no concerns that it's anything more than for some reason her being slow at
speech. This tends to mean that she might feel slow at other things, because
she can't do stuff like try and sing a nursery rhyme, or follow the pattern
of you counting or doing the alphabet, but those things don't seem to be
significant and it turned out she was actually ahead on many other
milestones, for example, though she can't say the names of colours, she's
well aware of the differences and can match things in colour groups, which
for DS came at the same time as knowing the name of the colour which was
about 2, which I understand is about normal.

We've been battling the nappy rash from hell, which finally this week has
shown some improvement, but took a couple of days of hydrocortisone. She
also has pubic hair and we are waiting for blood results which will tell us
if anything sinister is going on, the doctor thinks there isn't.

We're slowly adapting to life in the USA, back in England, DS would have
been in 5 day a week 2.5hr nursery school, for free, here, we don't even
have the option of 5 days preschool, he's in a 3 day class. Next year would
have been full time school back in the UK, here it's the following year and
only part time - though you can enter a lottery to get a full time place and
pay for it, we'll definitely do that! He's in 5 mornings of preschool next
year. One big difference I've found is the kind of groups available for mums
and toddlers, everything here seems to be majorly structured and at a
significant cost, the concept of "mums and tots" or "toddler groups" seems
non existant, this was something that almost every church runs back the UK,
there is often some vague structure, sitting down for a snack, having story
time, that kind of thing, but mostly free play and a chance to meet other
mums, usually all for a nominal fee, like 1 pound (~2 dollars). DS loved
going to these kind of things and for months would ask every day "can we go
to a group".

I'm still considering midwifery as career, but it's going to be tricky, just
to get trained, I think we'd probably end up needing a nanny to manage with
childcare, as we have no relatives close, which means DH would need to earn
enough to afford that, which is all a bit backwards! And all that would not
work at all if we decided to have another baby, which is not off the cards,
but not likely to be any time soon, I could imagine TTC in 15ish months
time, but more likely another year after that.

Cheers

Anne

Nope no more more for us, DH has had the snip because we were warned that
it's unlikely we would carry to term again so we have counted our blessings
and really enjoying our two.  Jasmine has just turned 5 and is in school
which she loves, and Abby has just turned two and is a real little devil.
Absolutely keeps me on my toes.  Jasmine is generally a pure joy as she has
been her whole life so I hope that it starts to rub off on Abby :)

Hunter will be 8yo this month.  That does not seem possible to me.  He
is still my sweet, sensitive, intuitive boy.  He is a fabulous big
brother.  I could not ask for anything more in that area.  He repeated
first grade this year and while that did not do much for his academics
it was a much better year for him socially.  He's had lots of
evaluations through the school but he has private testing scheduled next
month to see if there is something going on that affects his learning.
He's very anxious for summer to get here.  Summer is more his pace, lol.

Luke will be 6yo this month - again - how did that happen?!  He's in Jr.
Kindergarten this year and that was probably a mistake.  He is certainly
ready for more challenges.  He's bright and spunky.  The child is a
natural with a ball so we'll start signing him up for some sports
activities.  He can't wait for golf.  Let the fun begin :P

Brock is 1yo now.  He is mellow and funny.  He says mama and dada - and
waves.  He eats well and crawls and cruises.  He's not walking but he is
a big boy so has a lot of weight to throw around.  He has a lot of dark
hair.  My only baby to have hair at all much less dark hair.  He's so
cute :)

Ben is 1yo too of course.  He is the smallest of all my children but
he's so darn cute.  He's skinny because he is in perpetual motion.  He
eats a ton but we joke that he burns more calories sitting in his chair
then Brock does all morning, lol. He wants to walk badly so that isn't
far off. He is very quick to smile and laugh.  Everyone falls in love
with him.  He also says mama and dada - and waves.

I have spent the last 2-3 months getting them down to 4 nursing sessions
a day and this week I am trying to eliminate the two daytime nursing
(and bottles) and keep the morning and night feeds.  This is having
moderate success.  I think dh is having a harder time getting rid of the
bottles actually. I am more determined to make this happen right now, at
this age, then I was with the others so I'll tough it out through more
fussing.  Sometimes I feel bad because these two are being raised so
much differently then the first two.  They don't seem to be any worse
for the ware so I try not to think about it to much.

I would love one more baby but unless life changes I think we are done.
 I still work full time and don't see any options out of that.  I feel
completely maxed out as it is so can't really justify adding another
baby to the mix.  We are also beyond maxed out financially.  I like this
group though...I'll live vicariously through all the pregnant woman ;)

PS:  I downloaded Thunderbird.  I've always used OE.  The smilies show
up as actually yellow smiley faces :D

--

Nikki - mama to
Hunter
Luke
Ben
Brock

On Apr 13, 8:02 am, "Welches" <debbie.welc...@SPAMntlworldPLEASE.com>
wrote:

Thanks for asking Debbie! Let's see, E is almost 6, finishing up her
first year of kindergarten, which she loves. Her teacher gushes over
what a great kid she is, which makes us feel good! She's reading
pretty well and shows a real aptitude for math (not surprising, her
dad and I are both engineers).  C will turn 3 this summer, but thinks
she's 6 too. She's exploded with language and is sings all the time.
She's very active and loves to 'read'. She's certainly hitting the
terrible threes. I find three so much harder than two and can't
wait for four!

I was babysitting the other night and had my two and my friends
two. DH was off getting a pizza. I call him and tell him I'm glad
we stopped at two, so yes, we are definately done! No more
babies here. I just like hanging out at m.k.preg

Mary

I still linger around and read, although I seem to post rarely due to not
being pg and the kids keeping me somewhat busy!
The kids are fine.  DS1 (7) is in gr. 1.  DS2 (6) is in kindergarden.  DD1
(20 months) is still obsessed with Winnie the Pooh.  DD2 (5 months) loves to
jump and hold things, rolls but has no desire to crawl or even try!
We're not planning on any more.  This seems to be more than enough for me to
handle all day long!  I still have this lingering desire for possibly one
more, but common sense says NO!

Briefly:  Emily is 16, a sophomore in high school, involved in youth
group, drama club, Praise Band, and Girl Scouts, and planning to
volunteer at the hospital this summer.  She's sweeping the stairs as I
type--she does a lot of the housework not to mention babysitting and
we couldn't get along without her!  She's doing great in school in
English and History, taking AP courses next year, but struggling with
Math.

Jake is 13, and has been homeschooled this year for 7th grade, which
has not been a huge success except for that he finally discovered
reading and has ended up staying up all night more than once engrossed
in a book (The Lord of the Rings ATM).  He'll be back in parochial
school for 8th grade next year and will have to cut his hair, which
he's been growing for about a year now!  He has ADHD and we have a
fair amount of struggling with medication, behavior, eating schedules,
weight loss, low blood sugar, etc.

Teddy is 12.  He wants to play football in high school and he is built
for it.  He's Mr. Brains in the 6th grade; he gets concerned if his
average drops below a 95 in anything.  He also loves to read, and
still likes playing with pirate ships and the like.  He also likes
scooting and playing Runescape.

William is 6.  He's had a very hard time in kindergarten.  It was his
first time in a school setting.  He didn't know how to cut or paste or
print or count past five, never having shown an interest in any of
these things.  He'd rather be playing with his Fantasy Fortress and
his ship which are part of a make-believe world he has created and
talks about all the time.  He's going to do knidergarten again in the
fall but he does not know that yet.  I'm going to put it to him
positively, as a chance to still come home earlier and get to play
during school (1st grade is very hard, with homework every night).

Lorelei is 2.  She is a little devil.  She still doesn't have much
hair, but what there is is black and curly.  She still loves to nurse--
I wish he didn't love it so much!  She has a temper--she throws things
and lays on the floor and kicks and screams.  She loves to play with
baby dolls, not a big favorite with any of the other kids.  She's
quite big and tall for her age; she wears size 4T.

Are you planning on more-or hoping for more maybe?

We'd like one more.  I feel the urge more and more lately.  It doesn't
make much financial sense, but that probably will not stop us.

That, and because I'd miss y'all.

Leslie

Haven't been on here in ages and I just put newsgroups back on my computer
and thought I'd check in. I dont know how many of you will even remember me!

Kaylie is my oldest - she's in 5th grade, 11 yrs now. She's heavily into
dancing, has a competition coming up in 2 weeks followed by recital. She's
in 6 different classes including a lyrical solo. Im more nervous than she is
about it and I can't even watch her solo, it makes me cry :( Just overly
senstive momma and she's dancing to "because of you" by Kelly Clarkson and
looks so small up there yet graceful. She's still a tiny little thing, she's
50lbs, 50inches and at 11, Im beginnging to think she's never going to grow.
Her younger brother is bigger and taller than her. Super in school, she's in
advanced math, etc.. She's also a black/brown belt in martial arts.

Noah just turned 8, he's my super duper smart, intuitive, senstive,
middle-child one. Lol. he's so far ahead in 2nd grade, he's doing 4th grade
work and still bored. At his last conference his teacher looked tearful
almost that she couldn't do more for him. *sigh* He is obsessed with
Runescape, totally. I wish I could change that but big sister and my dh both
play too and they only egg it on. He's also in martial arts and plays
soccer.

My Xander is 3 and he is all boy, but he's a lover. We still (or I rather,
hubby is on the couch most nights ;) co-sleep with him. He's very active,
keeps my on my feet!! Very talkative with an amazing vocabulary. He'll use
words that make me laugh such as "activities" in place of games or
"difficult" instead of hard. He loves to build things, out of anything he
can find. I found him stacking batteries end to end and I have no idea how
he did it but he had it quite tall.

We want one more. Im getting the baby bug BAD. My cousin had twins in
January and it only makes it worse. We have no room in this house for
another, and I dont know how Xander would feel about sharing his bed with me
;), I think it may be put off for another year or so. We're planning on
adding on to our home next summer so after that, hopefully we'll be ttc.

Kari
momma to K, N and X-man.

pics - lots of them because I add all the time. :)

http://new.photos.yahoo.com/firedancer623/albums

On Apr 13, 8:02 am, "Welches" <debbie.welc...@SPAMntlworldPLEASE.com>
wrote:

My daughter Stella turned 2 at the end of February. She is mostly
delightful with occasional bouts of that extraordinary toddler
willfullness. She potty-trained in March with little fuss, which makes
her seem like such a big girl. She's still rather a night-owl, it's
just her constitution, but she is doing a great job sleeping in her
big girl bed all night. She sings adorable little songs and loves to
run and jump and be outside riding her trike. We're taking advantage
of that independent streak and she loves to get herself dressed and do
things for herself (I dood it, she says) and "help". She's so proud of
herself when she accomplishes something, it is awesome. Sometimes she
seems like a little baby (like when she's not in motion) and other
times like such a big girl.

We are expecting another girl by the end of the month, and are so
curious to see how her looks and temperament compare to her big
sister. Stella pats my tummy and always talks about her Baby Sister
but I am quite sure she has no idea of the changes that are in store
for her!

Elle

On Apr 13, 6:02 am, "Welches" <debbie.welc...@SPAMntlworldPLEASE.com>
wrote:

Alexander is doing very well. :-) We homeschooled Kindergarten this
year, and he'll be starting first grade in the fall at a local private
school (he's ready for more time away from mom and will handle full
days just fine). We just had him tested, and for math he's at the end
of first grade/beginning of second grade. Reading is behind that, but
still about halfway through first grade. So since we still have 5
months before he'll start school, he's ready. Socially, he is just a
busy little bee. Loves being with other people and is starting to get
very bored with Mommy. He just got his first fish tank and is taking
very good care of his pets without reminders now, which pleases me. I
still need to remind him sometimes to feed the cats though. ;-) He
"graduated" from Occupational Therapy over a year ago now (for the
Sensory Integration Dysfunction), and from Speech Therapy this last
October (most people look at me crazy when he talks about Speech).

For the last 5 months, he has been begging a pleading and bargaining
for a sibling, and it looks like he's going to (hopefully) get his
wish soon. We're talking about starting TTC sometime this summer
maybe. So he'll be 6.5-7 when a sibling comes along (which is far
greater a gap than I had ever originally imagined). Any suggestions on
that? He loves babies, and all our friends have babies that we've
spent a lot of time with. He never gets irritated or jealous when
we're around them, so I think he'll be okay.

I hope to be able to use this forum much more as there is a lot I'm
nervous about after last time, and with this big of a gap, I know my
body will have "forgotten" a lot. Plus, now I'll be older (not old,
just older) since I was 25 last time (so 31-32 when get pg with the
next one). Plus the last time was not so great, and we've had 2
miscarriages total (would have an 8 year old and a 16 month old right
now otherwise), so I'm very nervous. My thyroid is under control at
this point, I'm exercising, and I'm almost back down to my
prepregnancy weight again (I've been there several times, then binged
with stressors in life). So really, physically I feel good! I'm just
more nervous about my state of mind. Anyone with traumatic pregnancies/
births who went on to have fabulous second births? We're hoping for a
home birth (barring any complications of course) this time. :-)

Sharalyn
mom to Alexander James (9/21/01)