Naptime Blog

Staycation is defined as a period of time in which an individual or family stays at home/close to home and relaxes or takes day trips from their home to area attractions. Staycations have achieved high popularity in current hard economic times in which unemployment levels and gas prices are high.

Things are so expensive now days. It is really easy to have some family fun right at home. My oldest son Jeromy loves the pool, and Jayce likes the bathtub. We decided to get a hotel room for the night. We paid about $50 for a nice room with an indoor pool. I stopped by our local Dollar Tree and picked up some floats and pool toys. I packed sandwiches and snacks and we had a ball!!

We stayed in the pool the majority of the time and once we returned to the room we rented a few Disney movies. Both boys really enjoyed the pool and THANK GOODNESS the water tired them out. My husband and I were able to relax and enjoy some QT time while the boys went fast asleep.

As much as I would love to travel and see the world; I was very satisfied enjoying some inexpensive “Quality Time” locally with my boys.

This is my BIGGEST / OLDEST boy (husband) having way too much fun.

-Shanta 

Before I had my children, I babysat for friends and family for years. I thought I was prepared, armed with the best baby books and years of knowing advice from friends and family who had “been there, done that”.  Well, then the baby was born and I realized it is so true that every child is different. I really don’t  think parents realize, I know I didn’t, how different each child can be until they are faced with a child that has more struggles than they had hoped he would.

Here is a little background. My first son was born via c-section after a high risk pregnancy filled with bed rest and many doctor’s visits. He was born relatively healthy, but started to develop issues shortly after birth. By four weeks of age, he was having projectile spit up (by this I mean across the room, literally) and was losing weight because he spit up all of his formula. On his four week birthday, Memorial Day weekend 2007, he was admitted to Texas Children’s Hospital to have a Pyloromyotomy, because he was diagnosed with Pyloric Stenosis. Pyloric stenosis is a narrowing of the pylorus, which is the lower part of the stomach through which food and other stomach contents pass to enter the small intestine. In babies with pyloric stenosis, the muscles in the pylorus have become enlarged to the point where food cannot empty out of the stomach correctly.

About that time, we were also told that he would have to have at least two surgeries to repair a urological issue when he was at least six months old. Long story short on that one, he did have the two surgeries, but ended up having another because he developed issues.

All four of his surgeries were done under general anesthesia with recovery times (except for the pyloric stenosis) that  can easily cause delays because he wasn’t able to crawl and play as much due to his surgeries and needing to recover and be kept still.

Did I expect to have a son that had to go through all of this at such a young age? No, I guess I expected the baby that my friends described, one that was 100% healthy, crawled at a certain age, walked at a certain age and didn’t have to deal with much more than the occasional cold. I guess I just got lucky, because my son is absolutely perfect to me. He still has some struggles (I’ll tell you more in the weeks to come), but his struggles have made him who he is. He is sweet, cuddly, smiley and absolutely perfect to me. He loves going to the doctor (can you believe that after the surgeries, the IVs and all the poking and prodding?) while his younger brother (more about him later, too) who hasn’t had any surgeries or health issues absolutely despises doctors and nurses. They both make me proud daily.

Shannon
Potamus Prefers
http://www.potamusprefers.com/

I can’t believe my baby is 8 months old already. Friends always tell me the first year goes by quickly. As I watched him playing last night I remembered the first time I laid eyes on him. I didn’t get to see him when he was first born, due to an emergency c-section. I did get to see him a few hours later as strange as it sounds I didn’t feel connected to him. I asked the nurse about it and she said many new Moms feel that way, especially c-section moms. I got to see him for 10 minutes and then they took him for the next 24 hours. It wasn’t until a few days later when we were home that I looked down at him and truly felt he was mine. He looked up at me and I connected, I have never told anyone that before.

I felt it was important for new Moms to know, my best friend just had her third child. She had complications and at our hospital we don’t have a neonatal care unit. Lisa’s daughter was flown to Johns Hopkins, while she stayed at our local hospital. It has now been a week and Lisa is out of the hospital and on her way to be with her daughter. Lisa called me on the way crying because she said she feels like she is going to see a stranger, this baby she doesn’t know. Lisa’s husband has been with the baby, so that has caused her some inner turmoil also. I told her to wait and it would happen. I asked my mother who didn’t get to bring my twin sister and I home right away when she felt it. She said honestly you didn’t feel like mine until you were close to five months. My Mom thinks it’s because even when she went to see us she had to follow someone else’s rules. I will leave you with two pictures of my little man. One from when he was born and one from his 8 month birthday. Pardon the mess in my living room, some how it always looks like toys r us threw a bunch of toys all around. I am constantly picking up

-Chrystal

The results are in, we just have a lazy baby! Haha! Well I can’t really blame him, my husband and I have an occasional tendency to be lazy also. The doctor said there were no abnormalities detected, and that his hips look perfect. He also said just to keep pushing him to crawl and pull himself up, but I don’t know how to help him besides those tips I read. I get on the floor beside him into a crawling position and hit the floor with my hands to get him interested. Then after he mimics me by hitting the carpet himself, I start to  go. He smiles, then rolls away.

The other day, both my husband and myself were on either side of him and did the same thing. We looked pretty silly but it was fun. A smile and a roll is what we got from that one. Sometimes Shaughn does this thing, it’s pretty funny, where he just moves his butt really fast up and down, and it gives him a little push forward but he doesn’t incorporate his hands to continue that little boost he gets that would lead to crawling. I’m also told that sometimes babies don’t even crawl, they go right to walking. Or that it may even take a while for a child to crawl.

Either way, I figure I will do whatever I can to show him or help him, but I know ultimately he is going to decide when it is time for him to go mobile. He seems to be a happy rolling boy for now. He gets to the toys I set out for him hoping they will entice him to crawl to them. They entice him all right, but he just rolls to them! He even does like a 3 point turn, a toy will be just out of reach and he’ll roll to the left at an angle, roll to the right, where he’s lined up with it, then another roll and he’s got it. I guess all we can do is wait until he feels he is ready. What age did your babies start to crawl and walk?

-Krystle

We recently spent a great weekend in Colonial Williamsburg for a short family vacation.  My daughter loves to swim, and this was the first time my sons were in a pool.  They loved it (as I expected)!  In Wal-Mart, we bought two baby tubes for $3 each (the best six bucks we ever spent), and the boys loved to sit in them and lounge around like the little princes that they are!

I was resting my feet on a lounge chair by the pool while my husband and the kids were swimming.  My feet were swelled from having walked the amusement park the day before and the humidity and heat didn’t help.  But it was so relaxing to sit and watch Paul and the kids have a blast.

A woman came over to me and asked if the twins were mine.  She was tall and thin, very attractive, and was very friendly.  I answered her that they were mine, and that they were ten months old.  She pointed to the kiddie pool and showed me her 5 year old twin daughters and 3 ½ year old triplet sons.  I was amazed and thought to myself how well put together she seemed and how well behaved the five little ones were.  We engaged in a nice conversation about raising multiples and how our families were managing.  I told her I was expecting again in September, and how I would have three babies under fifteen months old.  This woman had five babies in eighteen months.  She said she had two older children as well.  She was recently remarried, as the father of the seven children left her, claiming he couldn’t take it.  Her new husband also had older children of his own, and she commented how he was very good to her children.  She previously spent three years as a single mother of seven before remarrying.

We got to talking about how I felt so overwhelmed when I found out I was pregnant with this new baby when the twins were only six months old.  I remember crying for three weeks, feeling as if I would never get out again for the next few years, wondering how in the world I would manage with all these kids so close in age, and feeling guilty that I could not possibly give the attention to the three children I already had at home while having a newborn.  And the thought of three babies in diapers at once, three more babies to potty train, having to do the nighttime feedings again, and just the whole idea of adding another child into the mix just was a lot to swallow.  And here I was looking at this mom of seven who managed for three years alone and from the looks of the kids and how everyone was interacting; it seemed she was doing a great job.

I remarked about still feeling overwhelmed about having another baby so soon.  The woman asked me if I felt overwhelmed when I found out I was having the twins.  Come to think of it, it isn’t so much that I felt overwhelmed, but I would question being able to handle my older daughter and two newborns at once.  I had no idea how I would manage nighttime feedings with two… heck, I had no idea how I was going to manage daytime feedings with two!  And all of those little thoughts made me anxious for much of my pregnancy with the twins.  Here we are, almost a year later, and the boys were sleeping through the night by seven weeks, they are happy, healthy children learning to walk and talk, and it has not been bad at all!  Not to say it isn’t sometimes challenging, but we take it day by day and we are doing quite well!

So then she reminded me that it will be the same way with the new baby.  She told me that when she stopped saying to herself “How am I going to do this?” and changed her thought process to “I can do this”, things got much easier.

We are going to have four children at home with us.  Although my older daughter is growing up, she still needs help with homework, occasional assistance with picking out her clothes (she has the tendency to walk out of her room with wacky combinations of clothing for instance) and needs to be disciplined for that mouth of hers, she is a big help to me with the babies.  And I have my family and my in-laws who are a great support as well.  Paul is a gem as a support, and he helped with the twins as infants, as he still helps today.  He is a great help with Juliana as well, although sometimes he doesn’t understand the little girl “melodrama” we often have to deal with, as his son obviously never gave him that growing up.

Today, my biggest worry is getting out of the house when I am alone with the kids.  I don’t think I will get a triple stroller at this point, for now I will use a carrier for the new baby and use the double stroller for the twins.  That might change in the future.  If I go out with the car, I will just have to take it slow and plan in advance.  I will welcome any help during the day I can get, but for the majority of the time it will be me alone with the little ones.  And you know what?  I CAN DO IT.  I WILL DO IT!  Stay tuned for more!

Jennifer
Mom to Juliana (7), Louis (9m) and Anthony (9m)
Expecting #4 in September!
www.nevaland.com

I am proud to announce that Baby Jayce is sitting up all by himself!!! I think they call this a “Major Milestone”!! Jayce is only 5 months and for the technical moms out there, 23 weeks old. It seems as if he is doing everything toooooo fast.

I have to admit his little Bumbo chair has helped a lot. They are the coolest little things. You can sit your baby in it as early as 3 months old and it supports their little backs, making it possible for them to sit on their own. Check out this site:

http://www.bumbobabyseat.com/

While I am very excited & and a little anxious to see him make these milestones, I am also a little sad for him to grow up tooooo fast.  I am trying to take as many pictures as humanly possible, so we won’t forget all the big moments (or the small ones). Sometimes Jayce looks at the camera as if we are the paparazzi!!

I think he is over the flash-bulbs. Big brother Jeromy even grabs the camera to catch those cute moments of his lil bro!!

Shanta’

Ok, I need your help, readers. I need your ideas for healthy and fast food ideas for my two boys. My youngest will eat ANYTHING, literally. My oldest is much pickier. He would live on chicken nuggets, fried okra, bananas, strawberries and milk if he could. I’d love for him to have a more rounded diet and am looking for tips on how to do this.

One thing that is fast and the boys really enjoy is pizzas made out pretty much any type of bread with whatever leftovers we have.

We also keep whole wheat pitas on hand (in the freezer) so I’ll take a couple of those, brush them with olive oil, pizza sauce (I use the Great Value brand because it’s cheap and tasty, but any type is good), cheese and a few herbs and spices.

I even “let” my oldest son help me pick out the spices on occasion. See?

Here is a finished pita pizza…

I also make pizzas out of left over biscuits from breakfast. We usually have one or two left so I split them and then do the same process as I do for the pita pizzas. Plain bread works too! Sometimes, if we have leftover chicken, broccoli or other meat and veggies, I put that on top too to increase the healthiness of it.

Now, it’s your turn, I’d love to hear your recipes or ideas. This will help me out immensely (and our readers too). If you use a store brand that you like, I’d love to know. I am also out for a good bargain!

Shannon
Potamus Prefers
http://www.potamusprefers.com/

When you have a big baby, Tristan was almost 9 pounds its strange to see little tiny babies. We were out and about when a small little shrimp of a girl walked up to us. Yes walked, she was less then half of Tristan’s size. I asked her Mom how old she was, I know my mouth hit the ground when she replied 11 months. She had the same reaction when I said Tristan was 7 months. We talked about size and differences; her daughter was 4 pounds at birth. I think I would be afraid of breaking Tristan if he was ever that small. I have an identical twin sister and we were 3 months premature. I was 1 lb 2 oz, and she was 1 lb 9 oz when we were born, I can’t image a baby that small. Especially in 1983, there is a picture of us at John’s Hopkins Hospital where we were born; the Doctor has each of us in one hand. Its no wonder they kept us for four months, can you imagine peoples shock if my mom just carried us around that small. I hope our next baby is a big baby, I am not sure I could handle a shrimp. Tristan makes me nervous now, he crawls in a cabinet and will sit there hitting his head over and over again, all the while laughing. He is my strange little bull in a china shop.

Tristan and I visited my work, for about a week he was afraid of strangers. He seemed fine at my office, looking back its only two people he is nervous and cries around. I think maybe he reads something about them that I don’t see as an adult. It is funny to see how people act around a baby. Everyone wanted to hold him, and play with him. Many people commented how nice and relaxed the office was while he was here. I think that the world would be a better place if everyone made each other laugh like they do with babies. We would all be happy and nice all the time.

-Chrystal

Well we had the x-rays done and we’re just waiting on results, which should hopefully be very soon. Anticipation is killer. Over the past weekend, I made a very bold decision and decided to chop off my hair. I was extremely nervous about it but I love it. Especially for the summer! Shaughn got his first hair cut 2 weeks ago! What a moment! I really wanted to wait til his first birthday at least, to let it grow a little longer, but he was born with a full head of hair to begin with so by 9 months, it was hanging over his ears, and the back would get knots after he slept at night, so we took him to Hair Cuttery and a wonderful hair stylist cut his hair.

I was expecting madness. I thought he would fuss and cry, but he made no peep.I timed it perfectly after his afternoon nap so that helped the joyous occasion. They have cute certificates that they fill out to remember this big step, and it has a place to put a lock of hair. I of course, filled a ziplock bag full of the hair she was cutting so that I could place a lock in his baby book as well. I still have a little extra, too. I’ll put it in his baby keepsake box. I called my mom who lives nearby to meet us at the salon so that we could have record every moment, meaning Brent sat in the chair with Shaughn, I had the camera, and she had our video camera.

Thank goodness the place was empty! My mom had to bring my younger siblings, so there was 5 people total moving around. Had it been busy, it would have been impossible to do what we did. It was a great time though, and just another sign that my little baby boy is getting bigger! I cannot believe it, just “yesterday” I found out I was pregnant with him, and now I’m already thinking about his First Birthday Party! Oh my oh my! Well, I still have time… but I know that time will creep up on me so fast, much like these last 9 months have!

-Krystle

Our children range in age from 18 to 10 months (and I am pregnant again).  Although the 18 year old is not mine, it gives my husband some advantage over having raised a child already and having gone through high school, the teen years, driving, dating and other lovely things.  As for me, I have just recently begun all of this.  My daughter is 7, and at the end of her first grade year.

I had her in a small private nursery program a few hours a week when she was three and a public universal pre-k program when she was four.    I put her in Catholic school for Kindergarten.  It became immediately apparent during the first week of kindergarten that there are different cliques of moms, most of them I never desired to be any part of.  At the time, I was working part time as a social worker/therapist at a foster care agency, so my time at the school was very rare.  I would drop my daughter off in the morning and pick her up at the after school program at 5:30.  I very rarely dealt with any of the other parents, except the handful I had known prior to enrolling her (as we are parishioners of the church associated with the school).  It did not bother me, with the exception that I would have loved to be more involved for my daughter’s sake, but due to my hectic work schedule this was not possible.

Whenever I would get the chance to pick her up at dismissal, it was evident that all the mothers would gather on one corner or the next as they waited for their children in different groups.  As I walked past each group to get to the entrance of the school, I would pick up bits of conversation:  all sounding like cackling hens.  And this was something I was proud NOT to be a part of.

My twins were born last July.  Since then, I have remained a SAHM.  Since the beginning of this school year, I had wanted to be more involved with my daughter’s education, and made it a point to be at the school every day with the double stroller awaiting dismissal.  I would be amazed with the mothers…  some mothers who had known me from the neighborhood for years would run up to me (when they were alone) to take a look at the babies and want to know all about them.  Those same mothers, when in their “clique”, wouldn’t even give me a second glance.  Often I would sit there with the stroller and talk to some of the grandmothers, because I didn’t want to involve myself with any of these cackling hens.  But it was also apparent that by October, if I wasn’t in a clique, I wasn’t going to be welcomed in one any longer.  It didn’t bother me!

I became friends with the mom of my best friend’s daughter, and we would set up play dates, chat with each other, catch up on the “ins and outs” of first grade, and weed through the rumors either one of us had picked up along the way.  No one has secrets when they stand outside of school with the other hens…  I heard so much ‘dirty laundry’ it was unbelievable.

The only negative to not being part of any of the cliques is that I am not privy to being chosen as a volunteer for school events, such as the Halloween party, the Easter Bunny breakfast, the Christmas fair, the school play, the Card Party, and more.  The moms who run the PTA board are the heads of the cliques, and despite many emails and notes sent to school that I was available to help out, because I was a “nobody” to these women, I would get overlooked and one of their own would be chosen before me (or any other mom who wasn’t in the ‘in-crowd’).

Last night was the Card Party… talk about cackling hens!  I sat there (losing a lot of money on the raffles, by the way!) looking at the women running the event, and how I have heard over and over again from other moms like me how they have tried to ask to help out and were never called either, and I could not believe that these moms could actually be this way!  What message are they sending to their children?

I could offer a lot to the committees:  I am very arts and crafty, I would be happy to wrap gifts or shop or even decorate or clean up!  But it is their loss, and they can bask in this glory they are enjoying while it lasts.  Because I opened up my daughter’s school folder today and read a letter from the principal asking for nominations for the PTA board, as their two year terms have expired.  And I am hoping that there are more moms like me who will be voting a new board in for the next school year with new parents who will bring with them a breath of fresh air!

Jennifer
Mom to Juliana (7), Louis (9m) and Anthony (9m)
Expecting #4 in September!
www.nevaland.com