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Mommy Talk
October 2007
Wednesday October 31, 2007
Posted by: Janine Anderson at 8:47AM CST on October 31, 2007
With a baby coming in about a week, we're starting to think about how to make the trips (both short and long) that come with the holiday season. We'll have a three-week-old baby for Thanksgiving, and we're planning an overnight stay with family for that one. There's far away (read: New Jersey) family that we'd like to bring the baby to visit within the first few months, and then there's the family frenzy of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Anyone have any tips on what to bring, what not to bring, and how to make car and airplane travel easy with a newborn? Sunday October 28, 2007
Posted by: FRH at 10:37AM CST on October 28, 2007
Ok, so I am going through my first pregnancy and it has been interesting! With a little less than a month to go before my due date I got put on bedrest for a mild case of pregnancy induced hypertension. I have survived the first week of it, but am wondering how I'm going to get through the next few, and heaven forbid I go past my due date! Now, I know there are people who have to spend the majority of their pregnancy on bedrest and I am sooooo grateful I am near the end. I'm just wondering what bedrest stories you bloggers may have and any tips/advice for getting through it! Friday October 26, 2007
Posted by: mlaehr at 10:33AM CST on October 26, 2007
Two nights ago my almost 6-year-old coughed through the night. He woke up several times crying and gagging, and just couldn’t sleep comfortably. When I picked him up from school on Thursday, his teacher told me that he was coughing during the day too. Yesterday afternoon he seemed OK, but about an hour before bedtime, he started coughing again - terribly. I knew he would be up again all night. My husband and I made the decision to go to Walgreens and talk to the pharmacist about a pediatric cold medicine. My husband bought a cold medicine and we gave my son half the recommended dose. He slept like a baby. I didn’t hear him cough all night. I KNOW the FDA has voted to ban these products from shelves. I’ve heard the arguments that there is no proof they work, but have also heard reports that most of the deaths/illnesses associated with these medicines has been due to overdose or misuse. My son’s almost six, which appears to be the cut off for these types of medications causing harm. But I don’t know that I would be opposed to giving a lower dose to my 4 1/2-year-old if it helped him get the rest he needed either. How do you feel about this? Would you give your child any of these cold medications? If so, under what circumstances? Have you talked to your child’s pediatrician about it? -Marci Monday October 22, 2007
Posted by: eyoung at 11:38AM CST on October 22, 2007
Call me crazy, but I love to make my daughters’ Halloween costumes. I realize you can buy perfectly good costumes for $20, and less, at just about every store in the city. My friends point this out to me every year (undoubtedly annoyed by my ridiculous resolve). But this is my annual foray into craftiness, the one time a year I pull out my sewing machine. And I tell my daughters they can be anything they want to be. ... (more)Friday October 19, 2007
Posted by: Janine Anderson at 3:33PM CST on October 19, 2007
So we're about two weeks away from having this baby, and it's time to start putting together the bags we're bringing to the hospital. I'm expecting a total hospital stay of about four days, from the start of labor through discharge with the baby. I know I'm going to want some books to read and some music to listen to. I should also bring some snacks, I think, just to make sure that I'm not completely at the whim of food service. So I'm looking for advice. What are the most important things to bring to a hospital when you're having a baby? How come? Thursday October 18, 2007
Posted by: mlaehr at 9:14AM CST on October 18, 2007
The gals around the office are going to start calling me a bad mother, as I have yet to bring in photos of my 5-month-old daughter. So a few weeks ago I took the camera memory cards (yes that’s plural on purpose) to the Walgreen’s. I sat at that little digital print machine for over an hour going through approximately 367 photographs that I had left in the camera for months on end. It was literally a slide show of my family’s important events over the past year. There were funny-faced pictures of my 4 and 5-year-old boys playing in the snow that I laughed so hard over I snorted. I looked at blurry photos of my boys’ Christmas program AND preschool graduation. I sighed over pictures of my daughter, freshly born. I smiled at photos of my three children from our vacation this summer. Then I discovered the really old stuff. There were photos of my boys’ first day of preschool together from last fall. There were pictures of what I thought was my oldest son’s fifth birthday, until I counted the candles on the cake. Gulp. I’d never had prints made of his fourth birthday. In this age of digital cameras, we save photos in our cell phones and on our screensavers. We e-mail them to friends far away. We store them in desktop files. But how many of us regularly go and get prints made? Will our children have to someday track down pictures of themselves at birthday parties and summer picnics electronically? -Marci Friday October 12, 2007
Posted by: mlaehr at 10:03AM CST on October 12, 2007
"David had a pizza Lunchable today," my 5-year-old says as he climbs in the van after school one day last week. "He spread the tomato sauce and put two kinds of cheese on top." "That’s nice," I say, knowing perfectly well what’s coming next. "Mom, can we go to the grocery store and buy a pizza Lunchable?" "Maybe." On the drive home, my mind wanders a bit toward the extreme overreaction. It’s started already: peer pressure. Right now it might be something as innocent as the type of food their friends have in their lunch box, but someday it will be beer, then drugs, and even sex. I’m worried. I don’t want my son to be the one wanting to be like his friend. I want him setting the pace. I trust my kid to make the right decisions - most of the time. Perhaps I’m more concerned about having my 5-year-old be a stand-up, confident leader because he is the oldest of my children. Already his 4-year-old brother mimics the way he talks, wants the same toys, and allows my oldest to dictate what game/activity/TV show will occupy their time. And it won’t be long before their baby sister follows suit. So I don’t want him to want Lunchables, just because his friend has them. Enter in a bit of creative parenting. My husband bought a few Lunchables at the grocery store. I told my son that on the days I packed the plastic box of crackers, cheese and treat in his lunch box, he would also be getting a napkin with a heart colored on it. "Why?" he asked, looking very apprehensive at the thought of getting caught by his friends with a love letter from his mother inside his lunch. "Because when I pack your lunch with food I’ve made, whether it’s a sandwich or soup, a banana or cookies, I make it with love. I don’t make Lunchables, so on the days I send you with a Lunchable, I’ll also have to send you the love you’ll need to get through the school day in a note." "Mom, don’t do it," he says. "What if I just do it on one side of the napkin and you keep it hidden? Then, it can be our secret and not embarrass you." With a sly smile that tells me he’s happy about the plan, but doesn’t want to show it, he says, "OK." Hooray! I feel smug. I’ve not only told my son in a nice way why he should prefer the homemade lunches I pack him, I’ve also made him feel loved. "Mom?" my son says as we climb into the van after school the next day. "Yes?" "I really don’t like that pizza Lunchable. The sauce tastes kind of funny." Good grief. Just when I started to feel like Mom of the World Who Has the Answers to All Parenting Dilemmas and Should Be Giving Advice on Oprah, my son drops the most casual of bombs. He has figured out on his own that pizza Lunchables aren’t that great. -Marci Wednesday October 10, 2007
Posted by: Janine Anderson at 8:48AM CST on October 10, 2007
With about a month to go before the little one shows up, it's time to get things ready. Over the past two weeks we have assembled a stroller, bouncy seat, crib and Pack n Play and washed three loads of baby clothes, baby blankets and crib sheets. There's still stuff we need to get (like the cloth diapers we're using), but we've got a little bit of time, and two showers left to go. One of the biggest tasks we needed to tackle was getting the car seat installed. I knew that the Safe Kids Coalition was having a car seat clinic today (that's Wednesday, Oct. 10), so I decided to call and see if they'd let me come in a day early to get mine checked out. Then, I'd write about it in the paper, and promote the clinic. You can read the story here, if you're interested. It took an hour and several tries before we were satisfied that we'd done things correctly enough for me to take the car in for the inspection. We hadn't made any giant mistakes in installing the seat (it was buckled in tightly, facing the right way, and the proper kind of seat for an infant), but there were things we could have done better. For instance, we used a rolled up towel to boost the seat up and give it the proper recline. That's what the seat's manual said to do. But Erin Donaldson, coordinator of the local Safe Kids Coalition, said towels can compress over time and may actually make the seat less safe than if you use a cut-up foam noodle, like the ones sold as pool toys. Donaldson gave some tips for car seat installation: * Check your car’s manual and the safety seat manual to find out how to install the seat. * The two most important things for car seat safety are to get the seat installed properly, and make sure the child is in the seat tightly. * Check the straps. You shouldn’t be able to pinch any of the strap’s fabric once it is fastened over the child’s body. Make sure children can’t lean forward. If the child’s back can come off the seat, the straps are too loose. * Don’t add things to the seat. After-market products that go between the baby and the infant seat, or the infant seat and the car’s seat, can make the seats less safe. That includes snowsuits and puffy jackets which can compress during a crash, making room between the baby and the harness straps. If it’s cold outside, put insulating layers, like blankets, on top of the seat, over the strapped-in baby. * Don’t use an expired seat or one that has been involved in a serious crash. If you don’t know a seat’s history, don’t use it If you have a car seat and want to have it checked out, the clinic is from 1-4 p.m. today (Wednesday, Oct. 10), at the Family Medicine Center on the St. Luke's campus, 1320 Wisconsin Ave. in Racine. If you can't make the clinic, but still want to get your seat checked out, these agencies do checks by appointment: Safe Kids Coalition, (262) 687-3366 Caledonia Mount Pleasant Health Department, (262) 835-6431 City of Racine Health Department, (262) 636-9201 Western Racine County Health Department, (262) 763-4930 If you don't live in those areas, contact your local health department to see if they know of anyone in the area that does the checks. In some communities firefighters are certified to check seats, and some hospitals provide the service as well. Monday October 8, 2007
Posted by: eyoung at 9:35AM CST on October 8, 2007
Whenever I meet a new mom at a birthday party, school event or wherever, I always end up asking if they work outside the home. I’m not trying to be nosy — and I’m certainly not trying to get into any working mom/stay-at-home debates. I’m just seeking out new strategies. See, I’ve been a mom for more than five years now and, except for two maternity leaves, I've always worked outside the home. Yet despite all that practice, there are still those days when I feel like I’m losing my mind. ... (more)Friday October 5, 2007
Posted by: mlaehr at 8:52AM CST on October 5, 2007
I was listening to the radio the other day when I heard the mom song played. It is absolutely hysterical. It's sung by Anita Renfroe to the tune of the William Tell Overture. Have you seen or heard it? If not, you can see it on youtube by clicking here -Marci Thursday October 4, 2007
Posted by: eyoung at 12:34PM CST on October 4, 2007
This isn't really a Mommy Talk issue, but if you give me a chance, I'll turn it into one ... So I was at my dentist this morning. After my cleaning, the hygienist scribbled some notes on my chart and left the room. I didn't have a chance to ask about my gum/tooth health, so I figured I'd just look at the chart and read the scribble while I waited for the dentist. I was later scolded by another staff member for looking at the chart. I was told it was unethical and rude for me to do so. I was surprised (and embarrassed, since I was scolded about my behavior in front of other patients in the waiting room). When you're at the doctor or dentist, do you ever look at your own chart? When I take my daughters to their pediatrician (see, told you I'd make it a Mommy Talk issue), I've occasionally peered at the chart after the nurse left to write down their weight and height in their little red "Success by Six" books (which I can never find in the diaperbag/my purse until the nurse has left the room). Another time, I had forgotten one of three antibiotics that my older daughter is allergic to, so I peered in the chart to see which one. So was I wrong to do that?
Having a baby? Eat more fish.
Posted by: Janine Anderson at 11:02AM CST on October 4, 2007
Newspapers all over the country picked up on a story that came out yesterday saying that pregnant and nursing women should eat more fish. That's right, more fish. I know when I went to my doctor early in my pregnancy, one of the things they gave me was a list of safe and unsafe fish, and limits on how much to eat each week. Fish can be high in mercury, and exposure to mercury can permanently impair some brain functions. Click here to see a 2004 Harvard School of Public Health press release about mercury. Now, a maternal nutrition group is recommending women eat at least 12 ounces of fish each week to promote brain development in their babies. Specifically, they recommend women eat salmon, tuna, sardines and mackeral, and say that a diet that includes those fish can result in children with better brain, motor and behavior skills. Click here to go to a page where you can find details on the group's recommendation and supporting research. I'm now planning to stop the cutbacks on seafood in my diet. I won't eat fish every day, but I'm not going to feel guilty about my tuna fish sandwiches or broiled salmon anymore. It's yet another case where there's conflicting research on what expectant and nursing mothers should do to give their kids the best outlook possible. How do you make decisions for your children when you hear about research like this? Monday October 1, 2007
Posted by: eyoung at 3:04PM CST on October 1, 2007
I don’t know why, but I still have subscriptions to several parenting magazines. At 5 and 3, my children are past the baby stages where I need to read about developmental milestones and toilet training triumphs. I don’t have time to make my own Halloween table decorations. I rarely follow any of the "Guaranteed!" discipline advice. And while I think they’re very cute, I’m never actually going to stencil my children’s silhouettes onto porcelain plates. Yet I continue to subscribe, and end up reading them in bits and pieces. I seem to have time for just three main genres of parenting-magazine-lit: 1 — lists of new children’s books; 2 — embarrassing tales about other people’s children; And 3 — every story of unimaginable tragedy that I can get my hands on. ("I ran over my child with my SUV!" "My son was crushed by our automatic garage door!" "My daughter fell out of a second-story window!") It’s this third category that raises my anxiety level with every page I turn. Just as I watch crime shows, then can’t go to sleep without checking the closets, I apparently read these articles just to freak out that something similar might happen to my kids. So of course, it becomes my duty as their mother to keep them informed of the latest safety do’s and don’ts. ... (more) |
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