Kalebsmama - How are things going?

[amp]

I am dying to know how all of you are adjusting to your new little girl! she is absolutely gorgeous and I see that the last update from you looks to be about a week ago. I also know you were having difficulty remember what to feed a 9 mth old and having trouble with bathing her. How are things going now? Is she adjusting well? I am so thrilled for you guys and I know this must be an exciting and overwhelming transition. And I'm sure you have PLENTY of computer time now! ;-) Hope all is well for your family! Take care!

[Melanie]

Me, too!

[Mommie2MadLyn]

I was just thinking of your family too! Hope everything is going well!

[kalebsmama]

Thanks for thinking of us everyone! As you can imagine, things have been kind of crazy around here. It's not having any advance notice that is the hardest. I've been pulling baby things out of storage and friends have been dropping off clothes to borrow and I have stuff everywhere! I need to start trying to get organized!

Kate seems to be doing really great. She is so easy going and is happy almost all of the time. The bath thing hasn't improved, but I'm hoping that it's a phase, or that as her trust of us increases things will get better.

Feeding her is ok - she seems to like everything, but she must not have been given much texture. I gave her 1/2 Cheerio softened in milk as someone suggested and she gagged - it was just sitting there on her tongue driving her crazy! Even the 3rd stage Gerber carrots which are just slightly textured make her gag sometimes. I'm going to try to introduce her to more lumpy foods over the next few weeks. In the mean time, I'm just sticking with the foods in the jar since that is what she seems to have been used to.

We just returned from a 4 day trip with my family. It was nice having Aunts, Uncles and Grandparents around to help with the kids. DS has been rather difficult as he is trying to get used to being the big brother. We were able to spend some time with him alone while others watched DD. Around here he spends much of his time going "no, no baby" as he objects to her touching anything of his! The only downside of our trip was trying to sleep in one small room with 2 kids! We all kept each other awake too much!

Tomorrow we drive 4 hours to Illinois to visit DH's family. FIL is in the hospital so we want to go visit. I'm sure the kids will love being back in the car again! Oh well, it will be fun to show off Kate to that side of the family.

I'll check back in a few days. Take care everyone!

[amp]

Glad to hear you are all getting adjusted somewhat.

Can I just say that I love the name Kate and that the name is in our top list of names, either as a first or middle name. It won't be Katherine, but just Kate, or possibly Katelyn, although that's gotten mighty popular (this from a mommy who named her son Jacob!)

Just at tip. Lots of kids who have been using pureed stage 1 & 2 baby foods have trouble with the lumpy stage 3 foods. We skipped by them almost completely, as have some other moms here on the boards. Most of us started transitioning to finger foods. Just give her a few opportunities with the cheerio softened in milk. With us it took 3-5 times before he got it without gagging, and then there was no stopping him. Don't worry about doing stage 3 if she can't handle them. You won't be alone. Just keep with the softer stuff for now and periodically introduce the soft cheerio or a shred of cheese or something.

I know Kaleb must be having a bit of difficulty. I say this an adoptee who's adopted brother came along with 4 hrs notice also. My parents thought they would have at least 6-12 mths to prepare me, based on what the agency had told them about the wait would be. They got a call and had to go pick up a 6mth old, sickly baby who had some serious issues with attachment. Let's just say that my level of attention went from 100% to very, very little in a matter of hours. My mom still apologizes for it! Needless to say, I'm no worse for the wear after all those years. Although my brother and I still don't get along. Hopefully it will be much better for Kaleb & Kate.

I know I really haven't had a lot of contact with you yet on the boards, but obviously, your story has touched me and I've been thinking about all of you and hoping things were going well. Please keep us posted. Hugs!

[McQ]

Thanks for the update. I still get goosebumps just thinking of you.

And like Andrea said - don't worry if Kate can't handle the stage 3 foods. We went straight from stage 2 to finger foods. Declan never stopped gagging on the stage 3s. Sad that it wasn't too long ago but that I can't really remember what finger foods we started with. But do a search or post questions in the Feeding Baby forum - I got a lot of help and ideas there.

Allison
~ mommy to Declan 3.24.03
and number 2 EDD 9.14.04