Jennifer L

I have been hearing the stories lately of "My 10 week old baby sleeps 10 hours a night thanks to x, y, z sleep training thing" and whatnot. I hear this a lot, especially from first time parents. I am curious about you moms out there with 2 or more children who have embarked on various sleep training endeavors. Are there parents out there with 3 children who wear a badge that says "I am the well-rested parent" of an infant, 3 year old, 5 year old and 7 year old? All of my kids sleep 10 uninterrupted hours a night thanks to my sleep training program." Or does a reality set in that some kids are sleepers and some maybe are not?

My daughter was feeling a bit industrious one afternoon and colored some of her wooden blocks with Stockmar beeswax crayons. I've read suggestions of using WD-40 to remove it, but I am not sure I want to spray down her blocks with WD-40. Hmm. Some of them are nicely colored, but others she just drew random marks.

My OB sent in a pre-approval to my insurance at 5 weeks for a cesarean and I am not sure if I should take this as a bad sign for attempting a VBAC this second time around. I had a scheduled cesarean the first time around for breech presentation. Would you be a little miffed if received a letter from your insurance saying that they approve a cesarean--five weeks into your pregnancy? Seriously?

I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes during my first pregnancy. It was easily controlled with diet (I actually never had high blood sugars in all the time I was testing). Due to that diagnosis, it is requested that I take the test during the first trimester of my current second pregnancy. I am wondering if my glucose readings are abnormal this time around in the one hour test if I will be required to take the 3 hour challenge test, or if "failing" one will be sufficient for a diagnosis. I don't mind regularly checking my blood glucose levels, but I'd like to not sit through the three hour test since it does make me queasy and ill. Since they know I have a history of this, might they let me off at the first test if it comes back abnormal?

Toilet paper and other misc. things on the weekly trip to the grocery store included. Also, which city do you live in--or at least clarify if it's a big city or a small town.

My neighbors are very nice people who rent their half of a duplex. Their front and backyard are over-grown with weeds since neither they nor their landlord take the time to mow it back occasionally. I kind of like the meadow look, but weed seeds do spread. We just lowered our front fence and our neighbor is always complimenting my garden. I was outside with my 2 year old and she was out squirting Round-up all over the weeds (on a windy day!). I have lots of edible herbs and flowers in the front garden and would rather not have Round-up on them (or sprayed close to where my daughter plays. Her current favorite garden activity is sipping nectar from Jerusalem sage flowers. I am not too keen on pesticides being applied near that plant at all. We really try to keep our garden as organic as possible (no chemicals at all). Any thoughts?

My best friend just had her second baby. Normally, I cook for families that just added a new member, or offer to watch the older child while new mom and baby rested, or do laundry, or something like that. Unfortunately, my friend lives in another state, and helping out in that way isn't possible. Sending flowers seems like it'd just be one more thing to remember when leaving the birthing center she is at. We've already sent gift things and now I'd like to *do* something :-).

Any ideas?

A good friend of mine needs childcare on Thursday and Friday this week since her usual childcare provider will not be open. Unfortunately, her son (15 months) has been dealing with some illnesses over the past two months or so. He had hand, foot and mouth disease about two-three weeks ago. Throughout that whole time, he had a cold with a runny nose and cough. The cold is mostly gone, but the nasty cough is still lingering. I have a 19-month-old daughter who has been fairly healthy this season, so I am feeling a little hesitant to take him. We really don't want the cough illness (or hand-foot-mouth, for that matter!) What would you do? Not worry and take him (since childcare is hard to find for sick kids) or tell her not this time?

A friend of mine, who is like a mom to me, is coming to the end of her 25 year marriage. They're "waiting" until their son goes off to college to make the final split, driving each other completely crazy in the meanwhile. She and her husband haven't had a nice relationship for a long time and I feel there must be men out there who are in a similar state of relationship limbo. They are both admittedly done with their relationship, but due to financial reasons they feel compelled to stick it out. I think it'd be great if she met someone who would really see her as the funny, spunky person she is. Anyone out there with a nice, single, divorced/widowed dad out there? :-) I think it's harder for the older generation to see the possibility of meeting new people--especially new people that you might like to spend the next part of your life with. Any ideas of what I should recommend for her?

I might be the only one, but I am feeling a little confused about how to get my toddler out of her cloth diaper and cover fast enough when she tells me she needs to poop. Pooping on the potty is currently a fun thing to do, and she will tell me sometimes when she needs to go, but often, she's either pooping as she's telling me or we have a 15 second window of opportunity. She's still young for really starting the potty training (17 months), but she really likes sitting on her pink potty and peeing/pooping in it every now and again. If you went from cloth diapers to the potty, did you use training underwear in the meanwhile or just your little one run about naked for a time when you finally decided to get down to business and help with potty learning?

How many minutes/hours/day? What types of shows does s/he like?

When I cook black beans and white beans they end up splitting. The skin is still tough, but the inside is mushy. I soaked them for about 6-7 hours (today I made great northern beans) and then cooked them for about 2 hours now (in a cast iron/enamel) pot with two inches of water over the beans (and no salt yet). They don't seem done, but they're all split in half. :-(

I really want to make good beans, but all of this soaking and cooking to end up with crunchy, not so pretty beans makes canned beans look more appealing.

Do pressure cookers really cook beans in 10 minutes or so after it's brought up to pressure? That sounds easier and the results might be more predictable.

We have a two-year-old male cat that we found under our deck when he was about a month old, or less. He was probably feral. He's a nice, gentle kitty, but he is a bit quirky. For instance, he very rarely sits on people, only near them. I would say he *never* sits on people, but he will sit on my husband's lap when he has the keyboard in his lap and is typing, but no other time and only once in a while. He gets along well with our other cats, both younger and older and likes to be snuggled by them (but he doesn't snuggle). He likes attention so very much and I think he would enjoy being more than just an-arms-reach-away kitty, but I don't know how to get him to not be so nervous. He gets so happy and has to jump down off the couch if I start petting him and then he walks over to the table where his accepted petting place is. He'll gladly be scratched and rubbed for a long time if you stand by him while he stands on the back of the couch or the table. We love him dearly, quirks and all, but is there a way to make an older once-feral kitty more comfortable to be close to people? I like lap kitties (though our other kitty is quite content being the only lap kitty). My husband can pick him up and scratch his tummy while he slides away again and again, but you can't just pick him up and hold him and sitting on people is just forbidden according his rules. Any ideas on how to acclimate him to the idea of sitting in laps for his back scratches and belly rubs?

(Without it being puréed?) Does it depend on teeth? My daughter is 14 months and only has 4 teeth, and since she can't really chew it on her own, I've been serving it partially puréed. It's not really a choking issue, I don't think. I guess it is more about digestion--can little bellies digest whole pieces of brown rice if they're not chewed up?

Have any of you mamas out there ridden the night-waking waves with a "This too shall pass" attitude and come out on the other side with kids who sleep through the night? My husband and I are too lazy for sleep training and think it's a bit odd as well. Weissbluth and Ferber could easily scare us into thinking that we're doing permanent harm by allowing the night-waking phase to pass in it's own good time. Our child is bound to grow up in need of tranquilizers and other sleep medications in order to go to sleep at night... So, if you're an adult with sleep issues--blame your parents. They must have failed or have been too lazy to follow through with the sleep training program. :-). At any rate, I'd like some mama reassurance that kids do sleep through the night eventually (or perhaps that they don't and we better hop on the sleep training bandwagon quick before it's too late).

Our girl is 11 months old and still wakes up 1-3 times/night, usually in the first three hours or last two hours of the night/morning.

My daughter is 11-months-old and my body still feels a bit out of sorts after having a baby. There's a small ravine where my belly button is and my abs feel wonky and lopsided. How does the doctor know how to replace all the body parts that they took out when they took the baby out? I am slender and wonder if perhaps they just squished everything back in there as well as they could and hoped for the best?! Of course, I am, in part, teasing, but still. Is it from being pregnant that my body is still a bit weird or is it from the cesarean? My belly button has never really returned to normal. At about 4 months of pregnancy, my belly button was the only thing showing! By five months, I had a bit of a belly, and an even bigger belly button. Does it get better over time--or at a year I should just accept it that it's about as good as it will get? Do any of you feel that your body is weird after the cesarean?

Okay, my life has been taken over by snot. You mommies with toddlers know about this, I am sure. My 10-month-old hates having her nose wiped. Saline drops are necessary, but no fun to administer. I gave up on that blue thing a while back and now I am wondering if I should give it a go again since now she's really stuffed up. The thing is, I have to buy one (I think I was so fed up with the one I got from the hospital that I passed it on when I got rid of some of her baby stuff) and well, I'd rather not buy one unless the mommies of the world vote that it is indeed a necessary and useful tool from extracting snot from the noses of the mobile young. I will be one happy mama when this cold is over and she can breathe again!

Okay, I'll be honest--my little one just got her first two teeth, and of course, they aren't ready to fall out yet, but I am still excited about getting my tooth fairy wings. :-) What special goodies do you leave for your little ones and when is a good time to do the sneaking? I want to be prepared :-)

I am very excited about my upcoming position as Easter Bunny Extraordinaire! I love some parts of my parental duties :-)

My 10-month-old has her first stuffy nose and it's miserable. She has a hard time nursing and sleeping. At first we thought it was the runny nose that comes with teething (she's teething too), but we don't know. She just cut her top two teeth about two weeks ago and we think she might be working on the bottom ones (we thought she was teething at 5-months too, so we're definitely not experts in this teething business!). Anyhow, whatever kind of stuffy, runny nose it is, it's yucky. I feel like a walking snot-monster mommy, both from being covered in it and from having to wrestle her down for a nose wiping ten times/day. I totally don't judge mommies who have snotty-nosed kids running around anymore. :-). If another person looks at me with the, "Jeez, don't you *ever* wash your kid's face?" look, I am going to hand them the hankie and let them get to business of trying to capture the boogers. Anyhow, steam, the blue booger-snarfer thing, chicken broth, extra fluid, warmth, a humidifier, etc...we're trying those and not having super luck. It's day 6 of snot and we're desperate. She doesn't have other symptoms of anything yucky. The mucous is clear, she doesn't have a fever, no cough, a bit of sneezing (I'd sneeze too with all that in my nose), etc...