Coffee talk

Last night I went out for coffee with some Mom friends. We - of course - spent the majority of the evening talking about our kids.

Here's what I learned:

• Almost all of us have babies/toddlers who still don't sleep very well.
• We're very in awe of the couple of Moms whose kids are good sleepers.
• All kids have a bit of a tough transition to daycare at first... but they all get used to it and learn to love it.
• Some of our kids don't eat well, some will only eat well at daycare - never for Mommy - and some will throw their food at us, throw it on the floor or even give themselves facials with their lunch, rather than eat it.

My conclusion? We all have normal kids. (Hurrah!) They're all just being kids - doing their thing, making life somewhat of a struggle for us Moms... but being incredibly cute and wonderful and fantastic at the same time.

Ah, these coffee nights. I love em. I really do. After reconnecting with some of the awesome Moms I met on mat leave (and meeting some new Moms, too) I always leave feeling refreshed. Calm. At ease.

It gives me a chance to actually talk to real, live grown-ups about what's going on and to find out that most Moms? Are dealing with the exact same things, too. I must have lucked out with the Mom group I joined because they're all wonderful, supportive women.

I've actually only met one Mom who was kind of holier-than-thou. You know the type, right?

"My child had 40-50 words by the time she was your child's age. What's that? Your daughter has 3-5 words? Well I'm sure she's fine..."

Or... "I don't give my child any product from a cow. My children will never consume cow's milk. If anything, they *might* have goat's milk one day. But only if it's organic and from a free-range, all-natural grain-fed goat."

Excuse me while I list off my daughters favourite foods. Uh, let's see... cheese, yogurt and homo milk - all from the regular aisle at the grocery store.

Anyway. Had a great evening. Reaffirmed my belief that Anna's a normal, happy, regular kid. And I'm doing a good job.

Thank goodness. Cause Anna's stuck with me.

Jeez Mom... if you're gonna post pics of me, at least make them current. I have more hair in the current ones.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

So many changes in such a short little time for my little nugget.

Anna’s completely moved into her new room – with toys and clothes and books and everything (it’s not just a bed anymore). She’s starting daycare full days next week – 2 days a week. She’s getting used to Mama not being around as much. And before you know it, the new baby will be here.

I even thought (for a nanosecond) of testing out potty training with her. The reason being… when I’m in the washroom she comes in (there is no such thing as privacy in the loo anymore), grabs some toilet paper and “wipes” herself. She’s showing signs of knowing what to do. And yesterday morning, she trotted out of her bedroom when she woke up, marched straight to the change table in the nursery, pointed to her bum and went “ooooo….” with a squinty face. She had pooped and wanted me to change her promptly.

Such a smart little kid, she is.

Anywho. With all the new things going on, I think potty training can wait. Not to mention, she’s still teething off and on, which is extremely unpleasant for her and everyone else involved.

I guess these are all just more signs of my little Anna growing up. (Sniff, sniff.)

Every once in a while I think, “My goodness, she’s so grown up.” It happens when I watch her run around – so quick and nimble on her little legs. Or when she walks hand-in-hand down the street with me, pointing and waving at people and cars and dogs she sees. Or when she sleeps in her big bed.

But then again, she’s still got very little hair and doesn’t say much. And she still likes Mommy to lie next to her when she can’t get back to sleep. She still wants Mommy to hug her and cuddle her when she’s upset.

And it reminds me that she’s not so grown up just yet. I’ve still got time. She’s still my little baby.

And an amazing little baby, she is.

Answers to your questions

Hey Mamas. How y'all doing today? Me? I'm fine, thanks for asking.

So a LONG time ago when I was actually blogging regularly, I asked all of you lovely readers to let me know what topics you'd like me to tackle. And now - a good 5 months later - I will respond to your questions. How lovely and prompt of me, no?

Question/Topic #1:

"How about post baby birth control? I'm curious to know what other women are doing. I've tried to avoid going back on the pill, but my hormones are crazy now that I'm moving up in my 30's."

Ah, post-baby birth control. This is something I'm obviously very good at. (This is a joke, you see... because I done got knocked up again and all). But this is an interesting topic to me. Once I spit out baby #2, I don't plan on going back on the pill. It's just not for me anymore. And since hubby and I have discovered that we're VERY fertile (I won't go into detail) I'll have to be quite concerned/aware of this afterwards.

So... since I'm not well-versed on this topic, do any of you other Mamas want to offer up your suggestions? What do you do?

My first (and, admittedly ONLY) thought has been to make the hubster get the snip. If I have to carry the kids and give birth to them - he can deal with a little snip here and a little snip there, no? Is that wrong? That's really my only thought on this topic so far. I'm kind of stuck on it. Lucky hubster.

Question/Topic #2:

"I know you're not there yet Hez, but can you ask your Moms about second pregnancies? How is it different from the first - showing sooner? Morning sickness that is actually worse the second time around?"

As you can see, I'm so incredibly late in replying to these comments, that I'm actually 26 weeks pregnant now. So I actually AM there. I'm 26 weeks there, yo.

My second pregnancy has been VERY different from the first. I was sick as a dog for the first 2 and a half months. I puked. And when I puked, I would pee my pants. (Gee - the snip solution is sounding better and better, no? My husband's never had a giant head pushing on his bladder day in and day out. He doesn't have to feel the fear of God every time his nose gets a tickle in it and he's out in public.) I had horrible skin. I was EXHAUSTED and had very low energy. My hair was falling out instead of becoming thick and glorious like it did the first time around.

Things have been much better in my second trimester, but I'm still pretty damn tired. I still pee every time I sneeze (this certainly didn't happen THIS early last time). My skin still kind of erupts every now and again. But all in all, I can't complain too much right now.

Oh - but another difference? I did prenatal yoga and walked throughout my entire first pregnancy. I even jogged up until 23 weeks or so. This time? Not a lick of exercise. Nada. Nothing. Unless you count lifting chocolate covered almonds from the bowl to my mouth. I like to do lots of reps and sets of those.

Question/Topic #3:

"I would be interested to know more about what people are feeding their little ones. Olivia is 10.5 months now and I struggle to come up with new food ideas for her. She can eat some of what we eat, but not quite everything yet."

Another topic that I may not be the best one to answer. The reason being - Anna's been teething off and on for a while, and for the last 2-3 weeks, she barely eats anything.

She's literally living on Cheerios and milk, toast and cream cheese, apples, applesauce, yogurt and bread sticks. Nice and well-balanced eh? Last night we actually managed to get her to eat some pasta which had a veggie or two in the sauce, but when I ask her if she wants to eat her squash, for example, she scrunches her face up and yells "Noooooooooooooooooooo!" at me.

So - yeah. I may need my experienced Mama friends to answer this one for me as well.

Phew. It feels good to get caught up! (In a slightly half-assed way).

Look for instalment two - coming soon. I promise I'll answer the next set of questions before I birth this baby in another 14 weeks.

Honest.

Question of the day

Does your child have any sort of predictable wake-up time?

Anna doesn't seem to.

A few days ago, she got up at 5:30 and would NOT go back to sleep no matter what. The next day? She slept until 7:30. Today it was 6:15am. That's a big window each morning.

I feel like I need to go to bed at 9pm every night, just to ensure I get enough sleep. You know, since I never know when I'll be up.

Anywho. So there's not much for me to blog about today. Just wondering if any Mamas are still reading (with all my gaps in posting, I really don't blame you for not reading). If you actually are still reading, weigh in on the Mom o' the Day Question, would ya?

I'm curious.