Hello Mudduh Hello Fadduh: ILX Rolling Parenting Thread

Oh okay, twist my arm. Nigel, the still-huggable one.

See! Still a hugger! He came home after one semester of college in California because he missed this gf so much. Then they split up, but natch.

Another of Tucker at Joshua tree.

my sister went through a period of worrying about this shortly after she became a mom. she was like, 'all my friends hate their parents! i don't want my son to hate me!'

i told her, look, if he makes it to adulthood alive and capable of taking care of himself, you've done your job. anything beyond that is a bonus. sometimes it helps to take a biological perspective.

Happy the lorikeets are pooping on something/someone else.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v240/lunacee/pettingsharks.jpg

Petting the sharks.

There must be a scouse joke in here somewhere.

Maybe: imagine Ray Stubbs saying it?

Ugh Maria, I feel for you. I remember when my son went through a bout of sickness that included lots of vomiting and vile disgustingness I don't like to talk about. I ended up taking him to the ER because he couldn't keep any liquid inside and I could see him getting dehydrated and I needed help. Yeah, I know doctors are smart and they've been through tons of school and stuff, but sometimes I wish they would give moms credit for knowing SOMETHING. They didn't think he was dehydrated and decided to take a urine sample to see what was making him sick. It was so bad, I wanted to strangle the doctor. In the end I got very mean and told her that I said he was dehydrated and I meant it and if he's dehydrated he's not going to have any urine and she could take that little tube out of my screaming boy right now, thank you very much. They ended up giving us a prescription for an anal suppository (another vile thought) and sent us on our way. That little butt pill worked wonders.

Being a mom is so great. Thanks for letting me share.

me at 7 months and my boy at 3 months.

Teeny, we thought Cyrus was teething at very young (drooling, gumming things like crazy). He just cut his first two teeth a week or so ago. He's 9 months old. We thought those teeth were going to pop out any time, but it took a long time.

and thanks alison for that post, not to open a can of worms but going through pregnancy and childbirth and motherhood has made me a lot more pro-choice than I used to be but also a lot more mooshy about babies and fetuses and stuff. I think it's said so often that babies change your life that it's lost its meaning. Making the decision to have a kid means that my body will never be the same, my brain will never be the same, I've lost a good portion of my economic independence that I've worked so hard to get. And I'm a healthy, married, college-educated, white American 30-year old, I have everything going for me.

happy b-day to sterling. a year is quite an accomplishment, when it's the only one you've had.

Me with my late grandfather.

http://static.flickr.com/34/95772448_37fadad1e9.jpg?v=0

Ophelia

Ophelia's been wonderful. She doesn't sleep through the night like Teeny's baby did. Teeny, didn't he sleep through the night when he was seven weeks old? Well, Ophelia wakes up about two or three times a night now. I think it's GR34T. I now go to sleep at around nine-ish to catch up on sleep because my body's a wreck. Either my iron is too low or my blood pressure, cause I'm floating on clouds at the moment.

Ophelia has laughed a lot lately. I remember when she turned her head, looked at me and cracked a big smile... and then a bigger one. I nearly started crying, I was so happy. :-)))

Breastfeeding is great by the way. I have to say, few women I know did breastfeeding. Really strange... Well, not really, I can understand cause the first three weeks were painful and, heck, when you need to go back to work... I have given her a few bottles of formula (one time cause I was away for a perm and haircut and the second time for a photosession).

The other week we went for a photosession. hahaha What an experience. She cried of course but the photographer was great.

Teeny, are you back at work yet or will you remain at home for a longer time? It's been quite hard combining work with taking care of Ophelia. Thank god, I have a fantastic husband who will sometimes take care of her while I work.

I was always pro-choice but having Ophelia I now fully understand the implications of becoming a mother and thus understand even better that pro-choice is necessary. That said, I would never ever have an abortion. But that's because I have the luxury of making that choice. Not everyone is up for it. (Is that well put? My English has gone down the loo. heh)

Sorry for the long post.

A little light drooling on battery-powered devices never did any harm... (Oh, hang on, this is how Pam's mobile died...)

http://static.flickr.com/38/111448504_b5dd3cb23a.jpg

13 months tomorrow. Much sleep disruption with teething pains this last week and now she's having to endure our gas central heating installation (drilling and sawing = no naps & great need for reassuring cuddles from Mum). MMR jab next week.

sleeping through the night--I read somewhere that this is defined as going more than five hours without waking? I dunno. Funny you bring it up because I say we just last night had our first official sleeping through the night--10p to 6:30a without waking up or eating. That seems like way too long to go without eating though! However I know it was because very early on he rolled over from his back to his belly and I left him there, he sleeps so much more soundly on his belly. I don't know if they're as hard-core about it outside the US, but they really yell at you to always always put the baby on its back to sleep, it's reduced the rate of crib death by like half since they started doing this in 1992. So I feel a little guilty about leaving him on his belly but oh well.

Louis has always been good about letting me get enough sleep--probably starting around 4 weeks he settled into a good pattern of nighttime sleeping where he would wake up once or twice a night for a feeding and then go right back to sleep. However this only worked if he slept with me in my bed because he would wake up at other times too, and if he fussed enough to wake me up, I could just give him a little pat and he'd go right back to sleep, whereas if he was in the crib he'd work himself into a state by the time I could get to him. Babies are always going to wake up lots during the night, it's just about how they react to waking up and if they can get themselves back to sleep. And I'm sure you've read like I have that breastfed babies often need a middle of the night feeding into the sixth month.

I am working just a little bit--less than I did before the baby. My mom comes and watches the baby when I'm scheduled to work at the radio station, and then I have a couple of freelance web design jobs that I can work on in my spare moments at home. But it's more for my ego than any actual money I'm bringing in (although that's nice too).