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Wayne Gretzky posted:We're doing "santa exists and he flies around and poo poo for real and hes spying on your rear end" in my house because it definitely scores higher than "there is no santa" on the "which is way more fun for a child" metric, and its also important to let your kid know early that people lie all the loving time for good and bad reasons. Being not-perfectly credible as a dad is a goal rather than a failure as far as I'm concerned - seems more fun Same here. Calvin's dad is somewhat of a role model of mine. 
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Dec 11, 2012 14:16
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My daughter, who will be four months tomorrow, has decided that she wants to crawl. She cannot wait. She started doing what other parents are telling me is called a commando crawl but I've taken to describing as 'the sort of thing you'd see a paraplegic doing who fell out of his chair' but she kicks up with her knees as well. We thought it might be a freak accident of hers but she's been doing it all day, any time you put her down she'll do it for a bit then get tired and start yelling in frustration because she's tired. Tonight she crawled a good metre before getting stuck with her head wedged into a piece of furniture. Kept trying to crawl though, just got more and more annoyed. Anyone else have a baby who just can't wait to move? She even tries to crawl over onto furniture when she's sitting on us to grab whatever takes her fancy.
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Dec 11, 2012 14:28
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Konomex posted:My daughter, who will be four months tomorrow, has decided that she wants to crawl. She cannot wait. She started doing what other parents are telling me is called a commando crawl but I've taken to describing as 'the sort of thing you'd see a paraplegic doing who fell out of his chair' but she kicks up with her knees as well. Thats how my daughter was, crawling at about 5 months, walking at like 10, always climbing, never not moving. Now shes 4 and sometimes she will just do laps around the house, tries to jump up multiple stairs at a time because 'its faster' and is obsessed with climbing trees and gets mad when bigger kids can do it and she can't. What I'm saying is get used to it.
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Dec 11, 2012 15:06
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My youngest was army crawling at three months and really crawling at five months--he's only six months now and trying (unsuccessfully, of course) to walk, which looks right now like doing pushups. He's a little terrifying.
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Dec 11, 2012 16:25
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For me the whole Santa thing is simply a fun fantasy to buy into as a child. I hadn't thought about the whole nice/naughty thing - as far as I remember that was never a part of it for me when I was a child. Probably won't be with Amelia, either.Konomex posted:My daughter, who will be four months tomorrow, has decided that she wants to crawl. She cannot wait. She started doing what other parents are telling me is called a commando crawl but I've taken to describing as 'the sort of thing you'd see a paraplegic doing who fell out of his chair' but she kicks up with her knees as well. I find that once they get something into their head - some new activity - they run and run with it. Moving is pretty fundamental, so it applies a lot to this, and yeah, I think frustration at not being better at it straight away is pretty normal. Now she's started, though, I very much doubt it will be long before she can reliably commando crawl. You might be surprised at how quickly she becomes able to move quite fast, too! If you haven't baby-proofed your house where required (stair gates in particular) now might be a good time to start thinking about it.
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Dec 11, 2012 16:33
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Thanks for the Vegas & travelling advice, everybody. I can't believe I hadn't even thought of how awesome the decorations will be this time of year. We had an early crawler and furniture-cruiser too, and it certainly is terrifying to watch. My advice is try not to worry about the bumps, bruises, and falls too much. It's an inevitable part of childhood, and they really do learn how to fall more safely after a bit. I've got a mom-acquaintance who is so controlling, that her kid just sits there like a lump because every time he tries to follow his curiosity, she reins him in so he'll be "safe." Don't be that parent. I'm kind of a free-range hippie anyway, but I would MUCH rather have an adventurous 7 year old kid with a broken arm who fell out of a tree than a bored, overweight kid who just sits in the basement.
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Dec 11, 2012 16:40
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My older daughter is 3 and a half and recently we've been talking about strangers. She's good about parroting the "never talk to strangers" rules but recently she's been asking questions about how strangers act, the difference between "mean" and "nice" strangers, and how to define a stranger (after a neighbor she didn't know said hello while we were walking around the block). Last night I was getting her ready for bed and she was playing with her dollhouse, and out of nowhere she asked, "Daddy, will a stranger come to hurt us?". I answer that they won't, especially if she doesn't talk to one. "Will a stranger come in our house?". Of course I answer that no, our doors are locked and Mommy and I will keep her safe. I can see her thinking, and she stops playing, frozen in thought. "If a stranger does come into our house..." She trails off for a moment, then puts down her dolls gently, looks into my eyes and quietly says, "Daddy... I'll kill them." 
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Dec 11, 2012 16:53
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We spent Christmas in Vegas a couple years ago when Nicole was about 14 months. Aside from being in my first trimester and feeling crappy, I'm pretty sure we went to this: http://www.opportunityvillage.org/magical-forest/ She seemed to like it, although I think it was kinda freezing when we went.
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Dec 11, 2012 17:00
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PXJ800 posted:My older daughter is 3 and a half and recently we've been talking about strangers. She's good about parroting the "never talk to strangers" rules but recently she's been asking questions about how strangers act, the difference between "mean" and "nice" strangers, and how to define a stranger (after a neighbor she didn't know said hello while we were walking around the block).  This is amazing.
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Dec 11, 2012 17:09
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PXJ800 posted:My older daughter is 3 and a half and recently we've been talking about strangers. She's good about parroting the "never talk to strangers" rules but recently she's been asking questions about how strangers act, the difference between "mean" and "nice" strangers, and how to define a stranger (after a neighbor she didn't know said hello while we were walking around the block). Now. Now is the time to start her weapons training.
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Dec 11, 2012 17:28
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opie posted:We spent Christmas in Vegas a couple years ago when Nicole was about 14 months. Aside from being in my first trimester and feeling crappy, I'm pretty sure we went to this: http://www.opportunityvillage.org/magical-forest/ I had considered suggesting that. It definitely depends on where you will be staying, and how easily you have access to town a couple miles off the strip.
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Dec 11, 2012 19:07
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NY4bUP48RE8&t=48s YOU SIT ON A THRONE OF LIES I like to think of Santa as trolling my children a little bit. I tell you one way it's drat useful: getting them to bed on Christmas Eve. It's fun when they're little, but it really became funny when my daughter was old enough to kind of know that it couldn't really be true...but she didn't want to admit it was all fake because what if it WAS true, then she might not get anything but socks under the Christmas tree? Also - don't make the coolest present be from Santa because then that fat bastard gets all the credit.
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Dec 11, 2012 21:56
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PXJ800 posted:My older daughter is 3 and a half and recently we've been talking about strangers. She's good about parroting the "never talk to strangers" rules but recently she's been asking questions about how strangers act, the difference between "mean" and "nice" strangers, and how to define a stranger (after a neighbor she didn't know said hello while we were walking around the block). Someone posted a great link about how it helps to tell kids not to talk to tricky people instead of 'strangers.' It had a great list of key behaviors, like asking a kid for help--because no adult ever needs a little kid to help them with anything. Edit: Here it is! http://safelyeverafter.com/tips.html
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Dec 11, 2012 22:00
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hepscat posted:I tell you one way it's drat useful: getting them to bed on Christmas Eve. I tell mine "I can't put the presents under the tree until you're asleep!" and they go to bed pretty easily Christmas Eve. 
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Dec 11, 2012 22:17
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Ben Davis posted:Someone posted a great link about how it helps to tell kids not to talk to tricky people instead of 'strangers.' It had a great list of key behaviors, like asking a kid for help--because no adult ever needs a little kid to help them with anything. There also some great stuff over at kidpower.org, like this: http://www.kidpower.org/library/article/safe-without-scared/. We don't just want the illusion of safety, but to give kids real life tools to actually BE more safe. For example, if the kid is alone and in an emergency situation, you DO want them to ask for help from a stranger. The vast majority of abuse isn't from a stranger - it's from a relative or someone trusted by the family. I was just reading this post (http://coreparentingpdx.com/2012/a-real-look-at-preventing-sexual-abuse/), and found the statistics surprising.
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Dec 12, 2012 01:47
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My kids still believe in Santa, Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, the whole nine yards. My oldest is starting to get into the age where I expect her to see through the whole thing any day now, but if she suspects she hasn't said anything. My youngest 100% wholeheartedly believes. Eventually she'll get older and can transition into the whole "Santa is the spirit of giving" belief; but kids her age just naturally take to magical thinking. The downside to this, of course, is she put all the most expensive stuff on her list for Santa because "Santa can afford it".
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Dec 12, 2012 03:48
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Ben Davis posted:Someone posted a great link about how it helps to tell kids not to talk to tricky people instead of 'strangers.' It had a great list of key behaviors, like asking a kid for help--because no adult ever needs a little kid to help them with anything. Thanks, this is a much better way to phrase it. I always reinforce that not all strangers are bad people and many are actually very nice, and in turn how not everyone we do know is a nice person (using examples she can relate to like the antagonists in TV shows she may have a toy of; Zurg, Plankton, etc...). She has difficulty with why one "stranger" is OK for me or her (under supervision) to interact with but another is not and she will really dig into the "tricky" term. OneSizeFitsAll posted:Now. Now is the time to start her weapons training. I'm thinking of signing her up for martial arts but I'm worried I would end up picking her up after she chokes some kid out on her first day. PCJ-600 fucked around with this message at 17:42 on Dec 12, 2012 |
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Dec 12, 2012 17:35
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Gimbal_Machine posted:Thanks to you, goons. It turns out my son had an ear infection. Hopefully this antibiotic syrup does the trick. I play it pretty safe with my kids, but I always get them checked out at the first sign of being sick. My kids have had chronic ear infections, both have ear tubes, and both at points have needed breathing treatments to help get over various upper respiratory issues. It's always better to get them checked out and catch it first than it is to wait.
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Dec 12, 2012 23:11
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A long backstory: When my wife had her first official ultrasound the ob/gyn thought that my daughter had a diaphragmatic hernia because she could see a 'bubble' in the ultrasound. After going to a few different specialists and having a thousand tests done, it was concluded that she had a cyst on her bronchus which was causing hyperinflation in one of the lobes of her lung due to fluid build-up. This in turn was crowding out the other lung and her heart, making her lung shrivel and her heart to be on the wrong side of her chest. We met with the prenatal surgeons who determined that surgery was probably going to be necessary, but they wanted to wait until 30 weeks if possible. The best case scenario we were presented with was that she would have one lung that worked and one that was a shriveled up mass. We met with the perinatologist every week for ultrasounds to make sure she was still alive. Right around the time surgery was going to be necessary, my daughter had a growth spurt and the cyst stayed the same size. Her lung looked like it was starting to grow back and her heart shifted back (though it was still flipped around). My wife ended up being induced at 38 weeks and my daughter was born in the NICU, but she was breathing. Now: She seems to be doing fine, but every time she has trouble breathing or has excessive coughing I start getting really anxious about her cyst. I know it's still in there and I have no idea if it's growing. The preferred method to see lung tissue is still a CT scan, which carries with it a lot of risks and is not usually recommended for children. I keep a camera on her crib and usually wake up at least 2-3 times a night and watch to make sure she's still breathing. I'm not sure exactly what I'm asking for here, but how do you deal with stresses like this? I forget about it for a few weeks and then she coughs and I start getting paranoid again.
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Dec 13, 2012 02:04
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I'm so sorry  That's so stressful for you. How is your pediatrician keeping tabs on it?
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Dec 13, 2012 02:07
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My wife had really bad anxiety about SIDS when both my children were younger. We bought an AngelCare monitor and it really helped alleviate some of the anxiety and let her sleep through the night.
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Dec 13, 2012 02:12
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Ariza posted:I'm not sure exactly what I'm asking for here, but how do you deal with stresses like this? Personally I go the prozac with klonopin supplement route.
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Dec 13, 2012 02:56
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skipdogg posted:My wife had really bad anxiety about SIDS when both my children were younger. We bought an AngelCare monitor and it really helped alleviate some of the anxiety and let her sleep through the night. This. I wish I'd known about the AngelCare monitor when we had Amelia; I was horribly paranoid about SIDs and woke up around-the-clock to check on her.
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Dec 13, 2012 05:46
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Ben Davis posted:I'm so sorry We've moved so we've had a few different pediatricians now. The general consensus that I'm getting is to wait until some symptoms are present before trying a CT scan. The cyst may just fade away or it might grow larger. They said that we could try a CT scan but they may not see anything, but that doesn't mean it's not there. It may be a bad angle, etc. Before she was born the perinatologists we met with said she'd need annual x-rays starting at 2, but the pediatricians think that's not necessary. I've read all the journal articles I can find and the medical community is pretty divided on whether asymptomatic cysts should be removed or not. Things turn bad very, very quickly if they burst and their behavior is pretty erratic on that front. Yesterday was just a super stressful day for whatever reason and I was freaking out about it. Most days it doesn't even cross my mind, I'm too busy trying to keep her from messing with the oven or playing in the trash or harassing the cats. When I show my friends the webcam that I keep on her when she sleeps, they all think I'm weird and creepy.
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Dec 13, 2012 14:00
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That's really hard. It's important to had a pediatrician you feel you can trust. Maybe your perinatologist's office (or one closer around) can recommend a ped in your new area? It's not creepy at all to have a video monitor, and a webcam is essentially the same thing.  I think many people prefer video to sound-only because you can see whether that noise or silence means anything! Anything to relieve a little of that stress.
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Dec 13, 2012 15:51
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Ariza posted:We've moved so we've had a few different pediatricians now. The general consensus that I'm getting is to wait until some symptoms are present before trying a CT scan. The cyst may just fade away or it might grow larger. They said that we could try a CT scan but they may not see anything, but that doesn't mean it's not there. It may be a bad angle, etc. Before she was born the perinatologists we met with said she'd need annual x-rays starting at 2, but the pediatricians think that's not necessary. I've read all the journal articles I can find and the medical community is pretty divided on whether asymptomatic cysts should be removed or not. Things turn bad very, very quickly if they burst and their behavior is pretty erratic on that front. Does your baby see a pulmonologist? My son has multiple medical issues and while our pediatrician is in charge of the day to day, vaccinations, earaches and sniffles, his specialists generally make the bigger calls. His pediatrician is *wonderful* but as he himself points out regularly, he's a general care doctor and doesn't have the knowledge that the specialists have. He's referred us out multiple times for things where he has said "Well, it doesn't really concern me, but then I'm not an XXXX specialist, so if you're concerned, we'll get it checked just in case." Usually he's right, but a couple of times it has been a real problem (orthopedics comes to mind. Oy, my child and his ortho problems) and either way, I feel more comfortable with things if the doctor who specializes in it says "eh, no biggie". I guess what I'm trying to say is perhaps you might ask for a referral to a pulmonologist, since it is affecting her lungs. Let the specialists take a look, they are far more current in their knowledge and will likely be more able to make a call about when to do a CT. (FWIW, my son has had 3 CTs - one at 5 months, one at 2 and one at 4 - he's got a heart condition. The first CT was for diagnosis, the others have been part of buildups to completely unrelated surgeries). My son was a preemie, his lungs were under developed at birth, so he was taken to NICU and given surfactant. Then he had a pneumothorax (the pressure of the oxygen they had him on blew his lung). He had an apnea problem in NICU - would stop breathing with regularity until someone went and jostled him. He came home on liquid caffeine to stimulate him so he wouldn't stop breathing. He was on that at home for a month. The urge for me to watch him 24/7 to ensure he didn't stop breathing didn't *really* begin fade for about the first....8 months or so I think. We ended up having my mother basically living with us for the first 2-3 months, so that there was always an adult awake to watch him (number of times he went apnic and had to be reminded to breathe at home: Zero). And even after that, I still checked probably more often than other people might have. The good news is that it DOES eventually go away. He's 5.5 now, and once he's down for the night, I check on him once at about midnight to make sure he hasn't kicked the blankets off and that's it.
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Dec 13, 2012 21:21
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Any advice on how to prevent diaper blowouts? They're always up the back, not out the leg, and we have at least one a day since he started sitting up. We're doing disposables, and I've tried two brands with no difference in result. He's going to be 6 months this week, he's roughly 16lbs, and he's wearing size 2. I don't think going up a size will work because he's a very skinny baby and we're already having to fasten the diaper so tight that the tabs overlap in the center. I've heard that cloth works better, but we're just not into doing cloth.
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Dec 17, 2012 20:09
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Try yet another brand. Try a brand with elastic in the back.
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Dec 17, 2012 20:20
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We love Huggies for the elastic "flap" in the back that holds things in.
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Dec 17, 2012 20:50
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Yeah, we were all about Huggies at that age. Now she wears Luvs.
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Dec 17, 2012 20:53
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Mnemosyne posted:Any advice on how to prevent diaper blowouts? They're always up the back, not out the leg, and we have at least one a day since he started sitting up. We're doing disposables, and I've tried two brands with no difference in result. He's going to be 6 months this week, he's roughly 16lbs, and he's wearing size 2. I don't think going up a size will work because he's a very skinny baby and we're already having to fasten the diaper so tight that the tabs overlap in the center. I've heard that cloth works better, but we're just not into doing cloth. I do cloth most of the time, but Huggies overnights for nighttime, and regular Huggies or off-brand diapers for travel. It's true, I never get blowouts with the cloth, only the disposables. Could it be that his pants be too tight on the diaper, leaving too little room for expansion? I think the sitting position also encourages blow outs, though. The poop comes out fast, and there's just no where for it to go but up the back of the diaper. If you're curious about trying cloth diapers, but don't want to make a big investment yet, a diaper service often works out to be about the same price per month as buying disposables. We did that for the first few months, and once I realized I wanted to keep doing it, I bought my own stash of diapers and wash them myself.
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Dec 17, 2012 21:22
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Hello, latest incarnation of this thread. Long time no see. In the vast and lengthy interim, my baby got big:  FOUR. She's FOUR now. And dances while rock climbing. It beggars belief.
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Dec 18, 2012 09:07
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 She's beautiful.
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Dec 18, 2012 13:56
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Eia posted:Hello, latest incarnation of this thread. Holy cow. Where did all of that hair come from? I swear my baby was just born the other day:  My other baby is teaching the newbie a thing or two about his toys  Basically everyone enjoy every moment with your kids cause god drat do they grow up fast.
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Dec 18, 2012 22:57
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I was at the pediatrician's office yesterday for my son's 4 month check-up. I saw a newborn and could not believe how small it was. My son was that little? And it was only 4 months ago?! Insane.
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Dec 19, 2012 01:18
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I kept a few of Liam's preemie outfits. Occasionally I take it out and look at it and cannot even comprehend a human being that tiny. There's just NO WAY he was that small. Then I look at pictures of him wearing the outfit and it was huge on him, he was positively swimming in it.
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Dec 19, 2012 02:23
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My daughter will be 2 in January. Today she found one of her old socks in the closet, handed it to me, and said "Here, for baby!" 
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Dec 19, 2012 04:02
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Oh holy poo poo, do the kids grow fast!! Just commiserating here. It makes me teary to look at pictures of when they were brand new--they're so big! Tim will be in kindergarten next year; enrollment is in two months! That's for real school. Like, big boy school.  Liam will be in the Twos room and start nursery school as well. Even my "baby" is going to start school.Extra hugs and lap time all around lately because of the horrible news out of CT anyway. Then I think about how fast they're growing too and I literally want to freeze them in space and time!
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Dec 19, 2012 21:46
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It's weird. I have these moments where I tear up a little looking at tiny baby pictures, or coming across old clothing (or seeing other babies, and realizing that my kid used to be that small), but then I have other times where I can't wait until we can do awesome stuff like rides at Disneyworld, or snowboard/surfing and go to rad museums and stuff. It's a weird combination of feelings.
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Dec 21, 2012 01:53
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| # ? May 14, 2024 11:33 |
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ChloroformSeduction posted:It's weird. I have these moments where I tear up a little looking at tiny baby pictures, or coming across old clothing (or seeing other babies, and realizing that my kid used to be that small), but then I have other times where I can't wait until we can do awesome stuff like rides at Disneyworld, or snowboard/surfing and go to rad museums and stuff. It's a weird combination of feelings. I have the same problem. But I don't want to waste our time together either pining for the past or impatiently waiting for the future, so as cliche as it is, I try to live in the present. Appreciate the awesome things E can do right now that he couldn't do just a few weeks ago (walk over to me and give me a hug) and the things that he still does but won't do forever (snuggle with me when he is sleepy). It mostly makes the strange combination of sad and impatient feelings go away, if I remember how awesome he is right now.
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Dec 21, 2012 20:07
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