Parenting Catch-all

I went with the Wyze camera for baby monitor in preparation for the move to the nursery here in another month.

Turns out a couple people at work have them so I got to see the app first hand yesterday and it looks like it will meet our needs.

mrlogical wrote:

Welp, turns out our pediatrician was not as supportive as I'd expected. They say they do recommend sharing a room for the first six months (although agree that more than that is unnecessary). Despite their recommendation, I'd be comfortable making the move now, ~5-6 weeks early, but my wife does not feel the same way, so 5.5 more weeks or so of crummy sleep ahead. Yay...

Over here in Europe pediatricians are nicknamed pedipanickians: they are trained to look into a general figure or standard graph, and as soon as your kid deviates in one way or another they start to scare the sh*t out of you. For parents with their first baby, this can be ok: you are untrained and don't know everything yet. With a third... you can trust your common sense and general feeling.

As soon as a pedipanickian can show me 'the average child', I will do everything they say. I remember the time they started stating my kid was 'rather tall for her age' (I am 6.5ft, my better half 5.8ft). I suggested we could hit my infant with a hammer back into the ideal growth-graph. They didn't think it was funny.

On topic. SIDS happen and are terrible, but that's why it is called SIDS, and not SIDSBSA (sudden infant death syndrome by sleeping alone). It is good to research the best for your kid, but parental instinct is a power to aknowledge.

Yeah, we have generally found our pediatricians here in Vermont to be way more chill about most things than the one we saw when we lived in Virginia, who we felt just gave whatever answer exposed them to as little legal liability as possible (basically their answer to everything was "take her to the emergency room"), which is part of why I was so surprised they took the more conservative approach here. Were this solely up to my judgment, I'd be comfortable ignoring the doctors on this one, but my wife is concerned and isn't ready to make the switch without approval of our doctor, so I am just resigning myself to six weeks of crappy sleep.

mrlogical wrote:

Yeah, we have generally found our pediatricians here in Vermont to be way more chill about most things than the one we saw when we lived in Virginia, who we felt just gave whatever answer exposed them to as little legal liability as possible (basically their answer to everything was "take her to the emergency room"), which is part of why I was so surprised they took the more conservative approach here. Were this solely up to my judgment, I'd be comfortable ignoring the doctors on this one, but my wife is concerned and isn't ready to make the switch without approval of our doctor, so I am just resigning myself to six weeks of crappy sleep.

Vermont is interesting. I remember how our first pediatrician was so gentle to approach the subject of vaccines with us. We were like "Jab him with whatever." And she gave a noticeable sigh of relief. Circumcision was kind of similar.

You are absolutely right. Pregnancy, giving birth, first months... in this period the misses is a force of nature who is always right, and who deserves to be always right - even if she might be wrong. Period.

Peoj Snamreh wrote:

Over here in Europe pediatricians are nicknamed pedipanickians: they are trained to look into a general figure or standard graph, and as soon as your kid deviates in one way or another they start to scare the sh*t out of you.

#NotAllEurope

Eleima wrote:
Peoj Snamreh wrote:

Over here in Europe pediatricians are nicknamed pedipanickians: they are trained to look into a general figure or standard graph, and as soon as your kid deviates in one way or another they start to scare the sh*t out of you.

#NotAllEurope ;)

That is absolutely true... Certain northern parts of Europe.. there, I said it

My youngest has now had a week free from ear infections and goopy seepage. The first in months. They now will confidently toddle across a room, taking corners, and making dashes for the stairs. The hearing test showed some concerns, but it was unclear if the tubes were interfering. We are scheduled to retest in a few months while we monitor for any concerns.

The eldest turned 3 yesterday. There is to be a party in our home today and we are not ready. The parental units are exhausted.

My youngest will be 2 in July and a couple weeks ago we weaned her night binky. My unicorn sleeper is now waking up at least once/night and it’s hard to get her back in her crib even if she falls asleep immediately when I pick her up. It is exhausting losing an hour or more of sleep in the middle of the night. I feel like I have a 4 month old again. That is all.

chixor7 wrote:

My youngest will be 2 in July and a couple weeks ago we weaned her night binky. My unicorn sleeper is now waking up at least once/night and it’s hard to get her back in her crib even if she falls asleep immediately when I pick her up. It is exhausting losing an hour or more of sleep in the middle of the night. I feel like I have a 4 month old again. That is all.

Just a phase, just a phase, just a phase.

That’s what I try to keep telling myself anyway! Just like the newborn phase, it feels like forever when you’re in the thick of it.

I just needed to scream into the void last night! Things are always less dire in the light of day.

6 month visit and shots today. For a preemie, she's still good. Down in the 20th-30th percentile for her actual birthday on size. But she's still hit many of the 6 month developmental milestones, rolling over and grabbing things, etc.

Doc seems pleased with her progress and we are too.

Lots of discussion about introducing foods. Some things like peanut butter and wheat to test allergies (wife is gluten and dairy free so the baby's milk is too) and just to develop some food motor skills. If anyone has any resources or recommendations, I'd welcome any advice the next few weeks. Thanks.

We did the peanut butter at an allergist's office since my wife has nut allergies. Luckily our daughter is clear and she loves peanut butter. At six months we fed her a lot of the earth's best baby foods, they have different mixes based on age and lots of different flavors. Ours liked most of the fruit ones and some of the mixed veggie ones. She preferred the pouches to jars, at her age you'll just need to squeeze them for her. Target is a good place to buy them, at least two years ago.

We've gone with a baby led weaning approach. Google that and you'll be inundated with info. When we started introducing food, we just gave her some of what we eat. Soft stuff like steamed veges, berries, yoghurt etc. She's got some teeth now, so she can handle slightly thougher things like some red meat too. Lots of fresh food and very little in the way of processed stuff or pre-made baby food. We let her decide how much she'll eat and the pace she eats at.

Most of it ended up on the floor for the first month or so, but she's a pretty good eater now. She can be a little unpredictable though - some meals she'll ignore most of it, others she'll slam it down. Also took me a good month or two to stop being incredibly paranoid that she was going to choke.

I did predominantly BLW with both of mine too. It’s fun, and nice not really having to make extra food, but the best part is letting them do their thing while you actually eat food as well.

I admit I didn’t read the baby section, but if you’re looking for a book about the feeding of children, I recommend Fearless Feeding, It talks a lot about the when, where, why and how of feeding and not just the what. It helped make mealtimes less stressful for my older kid, who’s consistently in the single digits on the weight curve.

I tickled my 2 year old daughter on the tummy today and she said "No Daddy, my Tummy." I said okay and stopped.

Getting 2 year old to be aware of herself and that she has the right to decide who does what with her body is a parenting win for us. We will continue to reinforce the things that have got us to this point and hopefully it'll hold her in good stead in later life

For those of you in baby and toddler phase.....”The days are long but the years are short”
My baby is now learning to drive and will be applying to college next year.
((Hugs)) for the sleepless nights and bone weary exhaustion.
I think it’s gotten easier as he’s gotten older, but I DO miss some of those baby and toddler cuddle days. When he’d climb in my lap for a book and I could see over his head to read to him.

Enjoy what you can of each phase.

And if I see you and your toddler out and about, I will ask your permission before giving them any money for the gumball machines, but I really enjoy giving quarters to the kids and remembering how excited my boy would get.

Turns out my daughter doesn't have strabismus - she has a cataract. That'll require surgery, then glasses and an eyepatch for an indefinite period of time. I know it's a minor, low-risk surgery, but anxiety is still through the roof.

Congenital cataract? That’s not common in our climes... do they have any explanation for it at all?!?

Avocados are also good early on, and scrambled eggs.

Eleima wrote:

Congenital cataract? That’s not common in our climes... do they have any explanation for it at all?!?

They said it was caused by an irregular pupil.

My youngest turns 13 today! I am old. That is all.

IMAGE(https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ0VN0K6R2fRm4ykr_d_lOkICOWiHl1dGutKaWJrk4IGcoafUk)

First week of a new daycare for both kids in the can and... It went well?
We get no instant feedback from the new place about potty breaks, naps, or food, but on the other hand we are saving $200 a week, it's a 5 minute drive from home, and every professional I spoke with mentioned this place in glowing terms.
Two hundred a week. It sounds more crazy Everytime I say it.

My daughter (16) just told us that she's dating someone.

Prozac wrote:

I tickled my 2 year old daughter on the tummy today and she said "No Daddy, my Tummy." I said okay and stopped.

Getting 2 year old to be aware of herself and that she has the right to decide who does what with her body is a parenting win for us. We will continue to reinforce the things that have got us to this point and hopefully it'll hold her in good stead in later life :)

Ours started saying no as well, but mostly with hugs of grandparents. Then he gets all upset when we go out the door because he does want hugs... I think he equates hugs with leaving... its hard to know what they are trying to communicate sometimes. "my tummy" seems pretty clear though.

Mixolyde wrote:

Avocados are also good early on, and scrambled eggs.

I second both these. Yellow squash and water melon are also good. We still make eggs for a snack or dinner all the time.

Had a pretty big scare with my 3yr old girl. Half her face stopped working. Left eye wont close, cheek wont lift, left side lips wont curl into a beautiful smile. Went to an urgent care, they sent us immediately an hour away to a pediatric emergency room. Turns out it's Bell's palsy, can be fairly common in kids from what they tell me. She is number 3 of 4 for us and we haven't had issues like this in the past. My older girl has Lymes, and they think this could be from that too since we live in the sticks. The thing is as parents I would do ANYTHING to protect her and take away her pain/suffering/ailments. Yet I am completely powerless and it is crushing. Fortunately the palsy is supposed to just go away. Could take days/weeks, but it's supposed to go. If it is lymes when we hear back from the blood test then that will be another issue altogether. Wish us luck.

I am so sorry to hear that Igneus, I can only imagine how I would feel if my 3 year old woke up like that tomorrow. I am glad it is most likely Bell's Palsy and she should recover ok.

The daughter of a former manager of mine had Bell's Palsy. A scary thing to go through, but she pulled through ok in a couple of weeks I think. Hopefully your daughters recovery is quick, best of luck!

We were able to finally get a diagnosis, it is Lyme's disease. Something has got to change here, it is getting ridiculous with these ticks. I have a nephew with a huge bulls-eye on his back from one that is currently being treated. I want my kids to go outside and play as much as possible, but if their health is going to be the cost. Then time to build that protective bubble.

Well at least we know how to proceed with treatment.

Ologies podcast just did 2 on ticks and tick borne illnesses. They were informative and fun. Lots of advice sprinkled through out.

Might help reduce future concerns.

Good Luck.