old memorable Gumdrop board posts

things I posted on the board that I do not want to lose....unfortunately, a lot was lost already due to the deletion of another board, so I am picking up when Nicholas is a few months old


Sent: 12/1/2003 11:16 AM
We are going slowly with the solids thing. He has been on rice cereal for about 4 weeks and today, we switched him to baby oatmeal and he gobbled the whole bowl within minutes! We will now have him on this for a few weeks before beginning barley cereal and then a few weeks after that, we will go to veggies. I am dreading that day!



Sent: 12/1/2003 11:41 PM
We saw him the day after Thanksgiving and he did so well on Santa's lap! No crying or anything. He smiled so big for the professional shot (our scanner is broken, so I cannot put that one up), but I got a few good ones myself (they let us videotape and take pictures, most do not!). Thankfully, I found this Baby's First Christmas Santa hat right before we had the picture taken.



Sent: 12/6/2003 12:01 AM
Nicholas will be 5 months old tomorrow, Saturday (I cannot believe it!!) and he does not seem to be eating much (or maybe I am wrong about this?). I have been introducing him to solids slowly. First, with rice cereal for about 3 weeks and now with oatmeal cereal this week. Tomorrow, we start him on barley cereal for a week and then move on to veggies and fruit in the following weeks.

Anyway, I am pretty sure he is not eating enough and I do not know what to do about it. Today was a particularly bad day. He woke up late and just was not hungry it seemed. We do not have him on a schedule (I have tried and failed at that!). We just feed him when he is hungry, typically every 2-3 hours and he usually has about 25-28 oz. of formula (bottles) a day. Today, he only had 23 oz. I waste so much formula!!

Here is all he would eat today:

10:15: 4 oz. ebm (I am getting to the last of my frozen stash so this first morning bottle will change to formula in a week)
noon: oatmeal (about 1/4 cup mixed with 2 oz. formula)
2:15: 4 oz. formula
4:30: 5 oz. formula
7:00: 1 1/2 oz. formula (tried some cereal here too, he did not want it)
7:30: 1 1/2 oz. formula
9:30: 1 oz. formula
10:30: 6 oz. formula

Is this OK? He just does not want to eat more!!



Sent: 12/8/2003 3:32 PM
3:30 and Nicholas will not for one minute!! He has been awake since 9:30 this morning and just wants to play. Every time I give him a bottle, he seems to want to sleep, but as soon as I put him down for a nap, he is wide awake and giggling. I have him in his crib now and he is just kicking and talking, but not napping. What to do!??!? I am going to have one grumpy bean for daddy when he gets home from work!



Sent: 12/16/2003 11:53 AM
I have been stumped as to what to get him. I always seem to buy him clothes. Well, this is what we have so far:
Winter boots (he picked them out)
2 shirts
framed print of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address (he bought the print and wants it framed, which costs$$)
and if it turns out, a great picture I took about 7 years ago of the Lincoln Memorial in DC at sunset. I am going to get it blown up, but that was before digital cameras, so I am doing it from an old negative. Anyway, he is always looking for things to hang in his office so I thought this would be great to go along with the address.

I think I will get him a little something that will be from Nicholas too, but I am not sure what that will be. Any other ideas? I am stumped!



Sent: 1/5/2004 11:22 AM
I *think* that Nicholas is teething, but we will talk to his ped on Wed. at his 6 month appointment about it. He is pulling at his ears, kind of playing with them (no fever and eats and does not have an ear infection), drooling a ton, everything is going in his mouth and last night, he woke up every 20 minutes screaming and was trying to stick his whole fist in his mouth each time I picked him up. I gave him a pacifier and that calmed him down, but that usually does not work, he takes it out of his mouth normally and throws it across the room! He normally sleeps soundly for about 10 hours each night and has since he was 9 weeks old, so this was not a fun night for us! We are not used to it!! Anyway, can you tell me what your babies did when they first started teething and how bad it all was?? Will he never sleep 10 hours through the night again?



Sent: 1/7/2004 10:40 PM
Why do people do this?? We had to show our place tonight because yes, it is still for sale! Anyway, I tried to avoid getting back home when our realestate agent was still there, but she was taking her time and I needed to get Nicholas fed so we could go to his 6 month dr. appt. (more shots ). Anyway, our agent has been sick, so we have been avoiding her. I start to go up the stairs to go into our place and she stops me to talk and is talking to Nicholas. She then starts to touch his face and gets him to grip her finger. She has been sick, but I thought it was just a cold. She then proceeds to tell me she think she has the flu. WTF? WHY TOUCH A BABY WHEN YOU THINK YOU HAVE THE FLU! I rushed inside and washed him up with anti-bacterial soap on his face and hands and he did not put his hands in his mouth before I had a chance to wash him up, but really WHY?? Some people are so clueless. We have another open house this weekend so I told dh that I am taking Nicholas to Wisconsin to my family for the weekend. I do not want to see our sick agent anymore!



Sent: 1/7/2004 2:45 PM
My girl name is still available! My sister just called after her big u/s and she is having a BOY! For years we have both liked our great-great grandmother's name, Emelia (changed to Amelia when she moved to the US from Germany) and have said that the first to have a girl gets it. Well, I had a boy, now she is having a boy. Since we are TTC now, lets hope for a girl for me!! I just called dh to let him know that Emelia is still available for us. He was as excited as I am!! WOO HOO!!


Sent: 1/8/2004 11:07 PM
Nicholas loves to roll around on the carpet when I change his diaper. So, I finally got a picture today. For a baby who HATED tummy time, he spends a lot of time on his tummy now


Sent: 1/12/2004 10:19 PM
After 4 months on the market, we finally have an offer! I am doing a happy dance!! Our realtor called about an hour ago to tell us that the buyer's agent was going to be dropping off the contract tonight, so we do not even know if it is a good offer yet, but we have not had one yet, so this is exciting!! We had an open house again yesterday and 2 different couples wanted to come back tonight to see our place. One couple put is putting in an offer for sure, I am not sure what the other couple is up to though. WOO HOO! I will be moving to a place where I do not have things falling on my head when I open my kitchen cabinets!!!


Sent: 1/13/2004 3:38 PM
I just talked to dh who had all the info from our realtor. Good news is that the offer was for $500 less than our asking price! Actually, that is AWESOME news! Bad news is that it is a contingent offer. Contingent upon whether they sell their condo or not. They have had their place on the market for a few weeks and live in a great neighborhood (near Wrigley Field), so unless it is a dump, I can see it selling in a month or so. I think that is great news since we do not have a house picked out yet. My realtor was a little nasty about it though. She then went on and on about their financing, she has not seen if they are pre-approved for this amount and also the earnest money was a check that appeared to belong to the father of the woman. Dh and I think it is great though, we do not care where the money comes from as long as it comes!! So, we will see what the offer says when dh gets home tonight and has a chance to look it all over. Then, the BEST news is that our realtor said she is most likely going to get ANOTHER offer on our place from the other couple who came for a second look last night!! We will see what their offer looks like, but I doubt that it will be for the asking price. I will keep you all updated as this continues to unfolds.........


Sent: 1/16/2004 3:20 PM
We ended up getting about $3k less than our asking price, so not bad!! We have the inspection tomorrow to make sure it all goes through, so I am thinking this is it (I do not know of anything the inspection would find?). Now, which suburb to look in? I have been looking at realtor.com and the houses in our price range in the suburbs we would want to live in need some work. I hate to buy a house and then have to stick a bunch of money into it. But, what are people thinking with mirrored walls in the master bedroom or wallpaper in the entire house (and not very nice wallpaper either!)? We could move farther out of the city than we would like to get more for our money, but dh does not want to commute an hour and a half each way to work. Anyway, we are excited!! Finally, we will find someplace new to live where we will have room!!



Sent: 1/16/2004 2:06 PM
It is 2:00 here and other than my glass of OJ this morning and a few bottles of water, all I have had today was the rest of Nicholas's meals. I have had some mixed grain cereal, applesauce and some acorn squash. I am guessing I will have his leftover chicken and peas for dinner. If I keep this up, I will let you know about my weight loss progress!


Sent: 1/16/2004 8:12 PM
I know I am being selfish with this, but I cannot help it! Anyway, dh walked in at 5:30 from work (he never comes home before 7:30!) and was all sweet. He then says that he is going to get an offer from the governor's office for an assistant general counsel with some agency and that he is going to take it. It will move us to Springfield, Illinois. First of all, I know this job will make him happier. Way fewer hours, he hates being a litigator and he feels that to get anywhere in his firm, he will just have to work more and more hours (which is true) because he is up for partner this year. I want him to be happy, but this job means a few things: moving to a city where we know absolutely NOBODY; a HUGE pay cut, like over half of his salary gone; and the part I hate the most, we would be an hour and a half from his parents and like 6 hours away from mine. I still will not have to work, but things will be way tighter. We will get a much bigger house than we would in the Chicago area, for way less money too, but the thought of his parents showing up all the time, and they will, just makes me want to leave. I am trying so hard to be supportive and I told him that if we do this, there will be definite ground rules regarding his family. If they even think of breaking any of them, I cannot be held responsible for me actions toward them. He agreed that he wants to avoid a mess with them as well. I also said that EVERY holiday will be with my family as well since his family will be so close and I know we will see them all the time. I am just so angry about this. I want the nice house and I want dh to be happy, but the paycut is really making me nervous and his parents so close has my stomach in knots. Anyway, I guess I am having a pity party for myself here. Tell me I am being unreasonable, I will understand.



Sent: 1/18/2004 11:25 PM
Nicholas got his first tooth! My baby boy is growing up! He has been drooling alot, but other than that, we have not had one indicator that he was getting a tooth. No grumpiness or anything! Dh found the tooth on the bottom gum when he was chewing on dh's finger today. I called my mom to tell her today and said "guess who got a toothy?" She just sat there, no response. I said "at toothy, guess who got one?" She said "who?" Um, who did she think, my dh?? Anyway, she is hard of hearing, she thought I said "guess who got a teepee?"!! Yep, that makes sense!


Sent: 1/23/2004 1:33 PM
We noticed Nicholas has a tooth on the bottom on Saturday. Today, I noticed the other bottom tooth popping through. Is it typical that it happens this fast? Or, will a few come in together like this and then it will be awhile for the others?? My little boy is growing up!!