Potty Mouth

I have a horrible habit of saying Sh**. I apparently say it so much I don't even realize I am doing it, but my daughter does. Her first word other than mama, dada, and no was unfortunately Sh**. I feel horrible. What am I going to say when she's 7 or 8 and asks me what her first word was. She actually says it at the right moments to. The first time she said it my husband had given her some fruit snacks, and she dropped them. Her response was Sh**. The elevator doors almost closed the other day before she could get in, and her response again was Sh**. Of coarse we were watching and pushed the open door button before they could have closed.

Our response to this is to just ignore it. I act as if I didn't hear it, and then I say Uh, Oh. I hope this works and puts an end to the potty mouth. One thing I learned my lesson there are ears everywhere.

Acid Reflux

I have two kids one 16 months and one 5 months. My first born, my daughter, was an easy baby with practically no problems. She was 6 months old when she got sick for the first time, and it wasn't anything more than a runny nose and fever. However, my son was another story from birth he always had something going on. He would occasionally spit up massive amounts. My daughter only spit up very small (tiny) amounts. My son put a new spin on spit up all together. He could spit up and not get any on him self, and he could spit up what looked like more than he had eaten. His spit up seemed more like vomiting to me, and sometimes it was really scary. He also would spit up not only after a feeding, but sometimes hours later.

Occasionally he didn't seem to even want to eat although he was hungry. He also would cry during feedings, and sounded like he was having troubles. His breathing was so scary when he would eat that I quit nursing him and simply bottle feed him breast milk. Even then he sounded odd when he would eat. Sometimes you would hear a sound start at his mouth and go all the way down to his stomach, and then he would cry a horrific cry. I was later told this was due to him swallowing air. I felt like a failure as a mother. My mom assured me that some babies just spit up a lot, and not to worry.

Around two months his spiting up started to really concern me. He seemed to spit up more and more frequently as well as large quantities of spit. I didn't think he was keeping enough in. Plus, he seemed to be in more pain after and during feedings. After two nights of excessive crying that started around 3 or 4 in the evening I took him to the doctor convinced something was seriously wrong. I was told he had GERD, and possibly colic. I was devastated at first. I felt like I had some how let him down. GERD is basically acid reflux disease, and I don't really know how to explain colic. Colicky babies cry for long periods of time. After I thought about it for a while I accepted the GERD and realized his father has the same thing. To this day if he drinks something to fast it comes back up. I didn't know what to think about colic. Plus, there's not really much you can do about it. Treating GERD came with a list of dos and don'ts.

I was told to get rice cereal and thicken his breast milk or formula with it. I was to feed him at a 30-45 degree angle, and to keep him upright for approximately 45 minutes after meals. I was also told not to lay him flat for very long. So he began sleeping in his car seat. Actually he spent a lot of time in his car seat. Unfortunately, this resulted in a slightly flat spot on the back of his head. I did all of these things, and still do desperately trying to make my baby a happy healthy baby. I also tried about 5 different types of bottles in an attempt to reduce air intake. We settled on Dr. Browns. I actually noticed an improvement after one feeding with the Dr. Browns bottles. We also no longer shake bottles to mix them. I was told this only adds more air so we stir them now.

We also tried a medication for acid reflux. I won't mention the name because we didn't really like it. He seemed to do better on it, but he became a very agitated baby. He just wasn't his happy self. It was like he had been switched with another baby. His disposition seemed to have totally changed. Although the medication did seem to help some we decided the benefits were not enough to continue it with the side effects.

He also would still scream out at times and cry for lengthy periods of time. Because he would stiffen his body during these crying spells I assumed he was in pain. However, he still does this today at 5 months when he is tired and having difficulty falling asleep. He has always been easily over stimulated. The problem I am facing now is wondering if he was actually in pain? If he was then he probably still is, but if not then he was just over stimulated and needed to get to sleep.

A couple weeks after my son was diagnosed with GERD he became violently ill. He was admitted to the hospital and transferred to another hospital that had a pediatric intensive care unit. Due to respiratory distress. He had RSV, and was in the hospital for a week. After his discharge he was home only for 2 days. At his check up he was sent back to the hospital and back to the pediatric intensive care unit again due to respiratory distress. This time it couldn't be RSV. The acid reflux and severity of the RSV were all related to a condition we discovered after his second hospitalization. He has what is called Laryngomalacia. A condition in his throat. While in the hospital he saw an ENT. Who set us up for a scope in his office, and confirmed the diagnosis. Later I will elaborate on the details of his hospitalization, and condition.

Could I be pregnant?

I don't really know what to think about all this. I don't really know what to do about it either. Well here it is. This is my problem. My son is five months old now. I have been taking birth control pills for almost 3 months. Usually you start them after your period. I was breast feeding and didn't have a period so I just started taking them after I took a pregnancy test to make sure I wasn't pregnant again. Once I started taking them I started my first period in about two years. Then I started the second pack and a few days later started my second period. I didn't keep track of the exact days or even how long they lasted. I couldn't even remember if I tried. I know that cause I have been racking my brains trying to recall every detail. That is just not going to happen. Any ways. I am almost finished with the second pack and no period!!! I also am tired and moody. News flash I am a mom to two tiny tots. I am going to be tired and moody! Right? Well, after careful review I have realized that last month I missed a few days I think three, and this month I forgot one night. I didn't even know that I forgot. So I took a home pregnancy test a couple days ago and it was negative. They don't have false negatives do they. I did have a dream where I told someone it was time to have another baby. I thought it was funny at first, but now I am not so sure. I have never been on birth control pills, but I always thought they caused your cycle to come like clock work. I haven't told anyone or asked anyone about it. I really don't want to jinx myself, but I am getting more and more nervous every day!! I never had a regular cycle before kids, but I also never took birth control pills. I am taking something called a mini pill. Oh, and guess what? Due to the holiday my OBGYN is closed until the 7th. How's that for service. Wish I could take a long vacation!

I give up! Update: My daughter won't sleep in her own bed.

I know I only worked at it for a little over a week, but this is killing me. I keep trying to get my daughter to sleep in her own bed, but she doesn't want to. The pediatrician said to keep at it and eventually she will get it. I don't know what she's supposed to get. So far all she has developed is a fear of walking by her bedroom when its close to bed time.

Tonight she was tired and ready for bed, but we had company over so she stayed up and played longer than she should have. After they left she grabbed her Binky, bottle, and blanket then started following me around. I had to go to the bathroom first. As she followed me we walked past her bedroom and she stopped and looked frightened at her room then at me. When she realized I wasn't going in her room she was fine. This hurt me so much. I felt so bad. I couldn't believe the look on her face. She remembered being put in there and was obviously seriously upset by it.

I posted a week update last Wednesday. Thursday night I put her in her bed again, but Friday and Saturday nights we were out of town visiting my In-Laws so our schedule got messed up. Sunday night I didn't put her in her crib for long I felt like I was starting all over and didn't really want to. So basically I gave up. She will be sleeping in our bed for now. The bad part of this is I have a six year old brother who still sleeps in my parents room almost every night. My husband seems to think at some point she will just want to sleep in her own bed. Yeah, when she's 13. The only good news is for now it saves us some money. We are now using her crib for Christopher who has needed to move from the bassinet to a crib for a long time now. I was procrastinating the move because our bassinet is a bed side one and due to Christopher's health problems I didn't want him very far from me.

The end result of all this will probably be me sharing my bed with Evie and Christopher while daddy gets the couch. So much for any romance. I don't even know what that means any more! I guess the best birth control is kids!