sarahkmm's Momaroo

Morning Sickness and Baby Gender

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 09:39:38 GMT

I've been wondering, when was your morning sickness worse, when you were expecting a girl or a boy?

With my son (who is now 2 and a half) I barely had any morning sickness or nausea, only very bad smells like garbage or dirty bathrooms got to me, I only vomited when I over ate during the second and third trimesters. That's it.

This time around (at 8 weeks pregnancy) I have all day nausea, I've only vomited a couple of times but I feel sick all day long, drinking water makes me feel sick and eating sweet or heavy foods makes me feel sick, I feel tired and sleepy all day long, its so different than my other pregnancy. Too soon to tell yet what I'm carrying but I'm hoping for a girl this time around.

Did you notice any difference? And do you have any suggestions or remedies to relieve this all day sickness

Challenges

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 09:30:14 GMT

My SIL was released from the hospital on Wed and she's doing well and all, the baby of course stayed on at the hospital. They want her to go to the hospital every 3 hours to pump breast milk for the baby. Well the major problem is that here in Saudi Arabia women aren't allowed to drive so she needs someone to take her and bring her back, another problem is that the hospital is half an hour away with no traffic, another problem is that the hospital wont accept frozen breast milk from home because it may have thawed or gone bad and then the baby gets sick and she really doesn't need that. So she has to go every 3 hours to pump at the hospital and keep up pumping at home as well and keep it in the freezer till the baby gets home. My SIL barely breastfed her 4 other children and never pumped, so keeping it up like this with the other responsibilities she has is really challenging and difficult for her, she's called me several times to ask about pumping, because I did it for 14 months and know everything there is to know about it. They really need any prayers that can be sent their way.

Other news, is that I can officially say that Little Monkey is home potty trained, he would run to the potty take off his underwear and go by himself both peepee and poopoo, I'm so proud of him, he figured it out in 5 days, and today marks a full week. Things I still need to do is go out with him with him in underwear, have him use other toilets or potties (I've gone out twice but I had him in a diaper and he wouldn't tell me that he needed to go and by the time we got home he would have a full peepee diaper), also have him agree to wear more than just underwear all day, he wont even wear a shirt, which is fine cuz the weather is so warm but I want to turn on the AC but when i do he gets chilly, and another problem I have is that I dont know how to wipe his butt while he's sitting on the potty or even standing up, I take him to his changing table lie him on his back lift his legs and wipe, and I know that is wrong at this age and stage but we are both learning, this is the only way i can see his butt and see that he's actually clean.

Major Progress

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:32:07 GMT

So I started serious potty training on Saturday, and there were a lot of disasters, with pee everywhere and poop on the floor that he stepped in and a lot of crying, and anger. The first day was like that time a few months ago where I attempted it for 3 days, he would sit on the potty when told and hold it in till he was dripping and crying from the exhaustion of holding a full bladder and we made no progress what so ever then. this time I was willing to stay at it with pee and poo everywhere for as long as it took, be it a month or more I was not putting him back in diapers, I was sure it would eventually click with him, I had no idea that it would click within 5 days :D today he's initiating it and asking to be put on the potty and he would pee right away and all excited about emptying it in the toilet, and he even went poopoo, I'm so proud of him, I cant believe he's being such a big boy, only thing left is speech, I'm not gonna say that he's potty trained yet, will say so if this continues for another week, but its looking good. Of course we have a lot to perfect, him actually taking off his own underwear and then more layers of clothing, he's in underwear only all day... he half stands over the potty so his poop isnt really aimed, Im not ready yet to try it while we're out, and using actual toilets, it's still a long road ahead of us, but not as long as i expected.

A preemie in the family

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:11:17 GMT

I mentioned before that my SIL was expecting baby number 5, this baby was due on June 10, 2010, but 2 days ago her water broke at 26 weeks pregnancy only, she was rushed to the hospital and the her doctor ordered her on complete bed rest, not even allowed to go to the bathroom, she was told to stay at the hospital for a few weeks but her insurance wouldn't cover but a day, so the doctor said fine, 1 week in the hospital and complete bed rest at home, and that was that, she felt fine, she was given antibiotics and steroids for lung development, and then later that day we get a call that she's being rushed into surgery for a C-section, what happened I dont know yet... and the baby was born, only 1 KG. The new baby girl they say is fine but will need to live in the neonatal intensive care unit for 2 months, kinda like the latest Duggar baby, she's not breathing on her own and they dont know what other problems she has yet, they said they'll give updates everyday. My SIL will continue the week in the hospital and I really dont know what they'll do yet, I cant visit her because I have no one to stay with my Little Monkey, and her other 4 kids are left mainly with the neighbors. 1 kid stays home from school to look after their 2 year old sister, and the next day the other kid stays home, they alternate... maybe during the weekend they'll stay with us. I would have offered to look after the 2 year old, but we dont see them much and the little girl doesn't know me well and I barely know her ways, it would be too traumatic for her... it's a horrible situation but they're optimistic so that's good. Oh yeah the doctor says that a bacterial infection seeped through the amniotic sac and caused the premature rapture. Me being only 6 weeks pregnant and having had a UTI right around conception really makes me worried, we just have to pray for the best.

updates and random stuff

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 14:28:12 GMT

Well most important thing to mention first is that I'm pregnant, baby number 2 is on the way. Due date should be Oct. 29th 2010, which is 3 years, 1 month and 4 days after Little Monkey, which I think is a perfect age difference. I still haven't scheduled an appointment, don't know which doctor to go to, will see soon. Symptoms so far, I get a dizzy spell every now and then, tired with no energy to do anything, and I'm constantly thirsty which is a new thing compared to my last pregnancy, I don't know why.

Will start potty training for real and once for all next week, for the past 2-3 weeks Little Monkey will tell me after he does a stinky and sometimes after he pees too, he shows a lot of interest in the potty and underpants. I dont know how to get him to tell me before he goes and that he should really pee and poo in the potty... a couple weeks ago one morning he was really excited about using the potty and wearing underpants, and every 2 minutes he would run to the potty say pee pee take off his underpants and sit down for 2 minutes and get up and run around the house naked, he kept doing this for about an hour and then he finally peed on the floor in his room, so he either got distracted or he really doesn't understand what to do, I hope it goes smoothly, now that I'm pregnant I really want him out of diapers as soon as possible.

We got Little Monkey a bike and we're trying to teach him to pedal but he just doesn't get it at all and doesn't show much interest, I'm a bit worried he'll take after my brother, who hated the bike as a kid and to this day (24 years old) has never learnt to ride a bike and he couldn't care less, I know its not important but its so enjoyable, I loved the bike and so did my hubby when he was young, I hope its just a phase and when he gets a bit older he'll show more interest.

Movies of the month are Toy Story 1 and 2 and Thomas the Tank Engine movies, when we went to Bahrain during the weekend we got him a Buzz Lightyear and Woody, the Bucket o Soldiers and a new train and track extensions. He's in love with it all.

An update of sorts...

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 06:44:44 GMT

Little Monkey's nightmares have stopped thankfully, why they started and why they stopped I really have no idea, they lasted for a month, he'd wake up almost every night sometime between 4am-9am crying, sometimes it was just whimpering in his sleep, sometimes he'd cry out but go back to sleep on his own and sometimes he would cry out, and come to us. It was very frustrating because nothing in our lives was different, no major changes, he was watching the same cartoons he always did, so nothing to scare him, and with him not verbal there was no clue as to what it was. All I did in hopes of remedying the problem was put him to bed way earlier than usual and only allow him to watch Elmo before he slept, something that in no way would scare him.

Discipline wise, there are some improvements, he is no longer banging his head against the floor when he gets mad or wants attention, instead he's banging his fist, which is better than his head but still something I would rather him not do, I will work on that eventually but will let it go for awhile. There also aren't a lot of tantrums and he usually does what he's told without much complaint. My main issue is the food spitting, I have no idea why he does it, my dad kept saying cuz I forced food on him, but that's not it at all, I dont feed him anything unless he asks for it, so he's hungry and asking for food, and I get him what he asks for which is something he likes he would either spit at the first bite or take a few and then spit, he's not full, he's still hungry and the food tastes fine, no reason to spit it out, I've tried the naughty corner and removing tv or toy rights, I've tried shouting, hubby tried totally ignoring it as if it didnt happen but still he kept spitting that whole day, one day I removed all snacks from him and he didnt eat anything that day and the next day he ate whatever I gave him without spitting. The spitting reminds me of his vomiting days and really frustrates me that I dread feeding him and dealing with all that. He doesnt have a sore throat or anything else because he can eat snacks and have cold juice with no problems. I guess he's getting picky and it's an age thing but I really dont like it because I never had any problem with eating and feeding before, he ate almost everything...

His vocabulary is expanding, he's learnt a few more words and recognizes things and plays with things differently and its all very cute, but still nothing is pronounced completely or correctly, but the way he looks me in the eye and talks to me as if he's having a totally normal conversation is the cutest, I have no idea what he's saying unless he points at it or takes me to it. Here I am waiting and hoping for the best.

Self Feeding

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 09:01:11 GMT

Oh how I wish Little Monkey would start feeding himself. He is soon to be 28 months and shows no interest in feeding himself. He of course feeds himself cheerios, goldfish, crackers, cookies and french fries. He eats cookies or anything that size pretty much in the same manner as Cookie Monster, he would take small quick bites until the whole thing is in his mouth with crumbs flying everywhere. If I cut an apple into small bite size pieces he would feed himself that but never finishing the apple, but if i were to feed him the bite size apple pieces he would always eat the whole apple. If I give him anything that is not bite size he would stuff the whole thing in his mouth, his mouth gets too stuffed and he'd either take a while chewing that or he'd spit it out. No matter what I tell him or show him, he would never take a bit, chew, swallow and repeat. Dont ask me about spoon or fork feeding himself, he doesnt show any interest, I got him his favorite character utensils, I've even given him our utensils, but he would just sit there waiting till I fed him and if I dont he would either get up and leave or ask me to feed him by pointing at his plate.

When I complained to my SIL about this, she totally disagreed seeing it better to feed her children herself because it was quicker and way less messy, she would follow them around the house with plate and spoon even bending under chairs and tables till the plate was clean. I've always been totally against the sight of mothers chasing around their kids to feed them, if he's hungry he would sit there and eat if not then put the food away. Ya'll might be wondering why I didnt start earlier with him, well I did when he was a baby still eating jarred baby food I would give him a spoon but he would bite at the spoon to relieve his teething pains then to actually eat so I didnt allow him much feeding practice and then when he got a bit older he would also stuff his mouth not chew and of course he ended up vomiting instead of spitting and he would vomit so often over any little reason that I took complete control of feeding to lessen the chance of throw up and all that came with it. Now I think he's just lazy and sees no reason to feed himself. I always want him to be more independent especially with things I see other children his age or younger doing. I cant see myself feeding 2 children when the days come.

Any suggestions?

The Terrible Two's

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 17:15:27 GMT

I take back any accusation of drama that has happened in the past year that I thought was a lead up to the terrible two's. What's going on now is definitely the terrible twos. We have a few issues we're trying to deal with these days, a time out or a cool-down time works most of the time.

* he spits his food
* he has a very bad temper from the smallest of things, his toy falls from his hand (loud screaming), he tries to stick something big into something small (loud screaming), if I don't respond in a millisecond (loud screaming) and so on, and its such an obvious fake loud scream, no crying or any emotion in it, just screams
* when the screaming doesn't get my attention (i totally ignore it), he would either get louder but usually would get down on the floor and bang his head against the floor, and today he gave himself a bump from all the banging.

Yesterday I was out with my high school buddies, and I had gotten him a Lightning McQueen balloon on a stick to keep him busy, so if the balloon fell from the stick it was the loudest ever screams from him in the middle of the restaurant, either me or my friends would rush to him to fix it. It was quite embarrassing.

I really wish I could control his temper, my brother is like this but he was never this bad, and my brother takes after our uncle, who has the worst possible temper when he's in a foul mood, so I guess these things are genetic, but I want to stop it, cause like my mom was saying shit happens and he should learn to deal with it and not have a meltdown, especially when its this minor.

Boys!

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 10:09:58 GMT

This is in response to Opster25

He was 23 months at the time and like your Tyler he got up there by himself and now its a normal thing whenever he wants to brush his teeth. :D

I don't know how to play with him...

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 15:16:54 GMT

This has been bothering me for awhile now. I really don't know how to play with Little Monkey. He's 27 months old and still not speaking, he has a vast vocabulary in both English and Arabic but they are all half words, barely any pronounced correctly and too far from creating phrases or sentences.
He's a little monkey, his main interest is to climb anything and that includes us, if i go sit beside him he would suddenly turn and start climbing my back and trying to sit on my shoulders or head and in the process I usually get kicked in the face or get my hair pulled, if it was particularly painful I might shout at him or I just get up and leave him.
Even the way he hugs us is odd, he would twist his mouth and bang his cheek or forehead against us and its painful, he does this with us and with his stuffed toys.
His favorite toys are anything with wheels, he has a huge collection of toy cars and trains and he can spend hours pushing those around the living room or around the dining table, he also enjoys little people or animal figures, where he has them walk around or he lines them up or even tries to make them ride the cars and trains. He has other toys but he doesn't play with them too often, when I try to play with him, like push cars around, we either end up with a tantrum or I end up painfully bored, I do things in a way he doesn't like and because he cant tell me what's wrong he throws a tantrum or he wants me to keep doing the same thing countless times or he wants me to do something impossible like balancing a large figure on a car and drive it around. He doesn't care for books, I've tried so much since he was really young, he would keep opening and closing the book or turning the pages before I could point out anything to him. I tried coloring and all he does is make a line with each crayon and placing them neatly in a row on the table and leaving. Puzzles totally frustrate him and lead to tantrums. Blocks are fun for both of us but he doesn't play with them for too long, always moving onto something else. Watching a movie or TV is something we can do together with no complaints from either of us, but how much TV will we watch. He loves playing outdoors and running around and going to the playground but sadly most of our days are spent indoors without much chance to go outside. He's a happy child and doesn't seem bothered by my lack of playtime with him, he's very independent and can keep himself busy for hours, which is really helpful when I'm cooking or getting something done, its me that's feeling guilty, I spend most of my day in front of my computer keeping myself busy with something online and occasionally try to play with him till I get kicked and give up and come back here.

I used to imagine reading books to my child or coloring together, I imagined I could sit down and teach my child something as simple as colors, letters, numbers, or shapes, but he just can't or won't sit long enough to grasp anything and I'm sure that is one of the reasons he's behind in speaking.

So what suggestions or ideas do you have....