Magnificent Mamas (Closed Group)

Rachel! I am SO jealous of your travels! It sounds like an awesome time. I would love to do something like that. I went to Costa Rica for 6 weeks after college and Jamaica for a week in college. That's about it. Of course, hubby still thinks that down the road we can still live on a boat for a year. Would be interesting with kids. I'd love to go back to when I was just waitressing, no career, no kids, etc and actually go do something like that. It sounds like you saw pretty much the whole world!

Just a quick check in to say hello to everyone. I hope you guys are holding up ok, I know a lot of you are dealing with difficult times right now.

This weekend is "Summer Daze" in our small country town so no time to stop in and respond to everyone (ball tournament, parade, pancake breakfasts, big dance tonight, camping- fun times!).

Mel- Thanks! I truely enjoyed my travels and I would love to see soo much more (India, New Zealand, South America, and more of Europe to be specific). I hope you manage to get some rest today!

Amanda -- Silly pup. The only thing that would make me really concerned would be if he stops eating/drinking later today. That could indicate a blockage. Hopefully the diaper is digestible enough not to cause a problem.

Dogs sure do manage to eat some dumb stuff. We had one very sick dog earlier this week and now we have another one who is sick now (but not nearly as sick as the other was). Pretty sure both of them found something stupid to eat outside.

Mel/Bethe/Anne -- Thanks for making me feel less like a freak for liking to shower alone. :laugh:

Megan -- Yes, we're the couple the closes the bathroom door to pee. Hubby locks it then, too. Man, he doesn't trust me at all!

Hope the showers go well today, I got out in nature to and its doing the body good ok well the mind. I took my June photo!



Fun hike!, Brooklynn's first and Mc Donalds ice cream after :laugh:

okay mama's... I just went through and organized all my baby clothes.... we have about 12 newborn outfits (too many I know but most are used from my niece) and SO many 3 month clothes.... then 6 month on we have barely anything. Is this what your supply looked like too? Some of my 3 months have tags with no reciepts, should I try to return them to trade in for bigger sizes? How many 3 month outfits do you need/how long do they wear them?

Bethe - I have Slim in 6, also...but I never got past the first stage :blushing: Maybe we can motivate each other to do it... I really need to start something.

Sheri - is that carrier in your pictures one from Target?? I have that one too, if it is! That sounds like a good days outing!!

Anne - We only had a few NB outfits...maybe 5 onesies and 2 or 3 outfits. She was 8 lbs, 5 ozs though so she was on the high end of the NB weight. We had a HEAP of 0-3 onesies (like 20+) and she only wore about half of them. The 3 month outfits she can wear a lot longer than the onesies and is still in some of them. She is just so long that things dont fit her right. She is in 3-6 onesies now that are mostly too short...so she will be in 6 mos soon. I LOVE things like little jumpers/rompers (I think that's what BRU calls them), they seem to fit her better. I might would exchange some of the outfits for some 6 mo things, just because you don't know how fast she'll grow... Some things I tried to exchange without a receipt and they would only give me a few dollars for, so I just kept those. You can always wear things more than once, but I hated to see things get put away because they were too small that were never worn at all.... ya know?

Ok, so our power just went out! Looks like I need to get off of here to save the laptop battery! Thanks a lot, thunderstorm! Good night ladies!

Thanks Rachel, Megan and Maureen for the clothes advice.... i am glad to see I am not alone with too many clothes. I am not really worried about getting more for the older sizes because I have a niece who is 1.... and my sister has given me free reign of her clothes. I am considering trying to return some clothes but the sad thing is most of ours are from consignment sales or hand me downs... some new clothes but the ones with tags are ones that we bought when we first found out so they have some sentimental value to me... I guess Megan you are saying it just depends on how your baby grows? I know we have too much newborn stuff but people keep giving us more (most are used so I don't feel bad if she doesn't wear them).

Maternity shoot today! and my first sign of stretch marks on the belly :noway: Do these go away after birth?

Happy fathers day to all the DH's and SO's out there!

On our way to Mass, but holy crap Mell, I swear I am going to come kick your dh in the *kitten*! Is he insane? Get him up!

okay mama's... I just went through and organized all my baby clothes.... we have about 12 newborn outfits (too many I know but most are used from my niece) and SO many 3 month clothes.... then 6 month on we have barely anything. Is this what your supply looked like too? Some of my 3 months have tags with no reciepts, should I try to return them to trade in for bigger sizes? How many 3 month outfits do you need/how long do they wear them?

Keep in mind holidays. You will prob get a bunch of 6mo clothes for Christmas. And if you don't mind hand me downs and garage sales there is tons of time to come across cute and cheap larger clothes!

I have stretch maks from groin to boobs on belly. TThey never went away. I guess that is what you get for twins yoour first pregnancy. Mime don't bother me though, they are testimony to my amazing body that grew 11 children. I am older and pretty comdfortable w/ my body, not always the case though.

Julie - my cocker spaniel used to chew diapers as well which he fished out of the trash, he used to eat the poop until we caught him and now all the dirty ones go in the outside trash bin straight away...yuck! He never suffered though I'm not sure if he ate the gel but I'm sure your dog will be fine in a couple of days.

We shower alone but its an open house when someone is on the toilet, haha, not much is sacred in this house.

Ronya - I told my mother a couple of days after I found out about this pregnancy, I was definitely a lot more guarded this time around but since our night out everyone pretty much knows as they guessed why I wasn't drinking. I guess I'm cool with that because I'm feeling so much more secure in this pregnancy already.

Glad you had some quality time with your MIL and don't feel guilty about the ice cream, dairy is good for you, calciummy!

Sherri - looking good hot mama! Glad you got some quality family time in the great outdoors, I love spending time out with the kids when we an let them run loose and burn off that excess energy.

Anne - you are so sweet, its so lovely to know that you are thinking positive thoughts about this pregnancy, I'm sure it all helps! Glad you got some lovely things for Elise, she's going to be a very lucky girl when she arrives x

On the clothes front, you have to remember the change in seasons sometimes its hard to buy clothes that will fit for 6 months in the future now. I would stick with what you have got for now and see what you use the most in the first few months and perhaps in autumn buy some things then that are warmer for the winter that you know that Elise will wear. I usually stock up in the sales in sizes a year bigger so that come next summer/spring etc. you will have some cute outfits and you can buy some more at the time.

Unfortunately stretch marks don't go away but they do fade from pink or red to silvery grey and are barely noticable. Bio oil claims to help with the appearance but in reality all it does is speeds up the process. Be proud of those stretch marks because your amazing body is growing the most beautiful perfect daughter in the world and you have earned them!

Megan - wow, lucky you for those giftcards! aren't the baby floats so adorable?? i have 3 already this summer, i can't stop buying them lol!

Steph - it's good to know that you're feeling sick

Sheri - you are looking fabulous! looks like you guys had fun also, i love that one with your son's hands up lol

Anne - i would at least have some 3-6 stuff on hand because they grow so fast that it's hard to keep up. you don't want to one day look in her closet and find that nothing fits her! grow spurts sneak up on you lol my stretch marks have gotten lighter but they haven't gone away

Hubby and I just had a chat and laid out what our boundaries are going to be for labor & right after baby arrives. These are a lot more extreme than I initially planned on because of the way my mom has reacted to me informing her (for the 2nd time) she won't be welcome in the labor & delivery room. She has apparently been pouting all day about it (my dad told me he had talked to her earlier today & she pouted to him). She's acting like a child and making me feel like I'm being unreasonable and rude by laying down boundaries when I think in reality she's the one being very disrespectful to me. So, to make things "fair" for everyone, these are the rules:

1. No one will be notified until Maisie has been born and I've recovered. At that point, grandparents will be notified and invited to travel to see us at the hospital (the 3 we'll call all live 1.5-2.5 hours away; fil is farther away & has no desire to drive 8 hours to the hospital but we'll call him to share the news of course).
2. No one, other than hubby, will be spending the night at the hospital. They have to make their own accommodations unless they'd like to stay at our house & take care of our dogs while we stay at the hospital (you know... to be "helpful").
3. No other visitors will be allowed at the hospital. The postpartum room is too small and we anticipate we'll be too tired.
4. Once home, overnight visitors will only be allowed to stay for 2-3 nights at a time. We prefer only one visitor at a time because we only have one guest bed. No one will be allowed to plant themselves at our house or nearby to stay for weeks at a time.
5. No one visitor will be given priority over any other. This may mean visitors will have to take turns staying the night or may have to get a hotel room or find another accommodation for the night. If they can't be mature about the situation, they will be asked to leave.
6. All visitors must call ahead or we will have no problem turning them down at the door.

Basically I have a lot of anxiety issues and the majority of them are really set off by my family (um, mother). I want this to be as pleasant as possible and I feel like my husband and I deserve to enjoy a drama free experience. My mom has invited herself to be WAY too involved for comfort and I feel like now we really have no choice but to lay out our expectations as plainly as possible. I expect she will be extremely upset about these boundaries.

I feel no need for any support other than my husband in the labor & delivery room. We also don't feel like we need help at home. Our situation is different from a lot of people because hubby works from home. We'll both be home for 12 weeks straight. We both like privacy and aren't thrilled about the idea of anyone being on top of us for even a few days but we're willing to compromise and allow overnight visitors. We understand they're excited but we feel like we're being as flexible as we're willing to be on this. Honestly, what we've decided on isn't our ideal but rather a compromise of what we want and what our family (mostly my mother...) wants.

So, honestly, please -- are our requests reasonable? Or do you feel like it would be more appropriate for us to compromise more? If we were to totally get our way, everyone would stay away for a week or so after Maisie is born. Then they would only come for daytime visits and no one would stay at our house for the first few weeks. My best friend is really the only person I'd like to stay overnight for more than a night or 2 (she lives in Maryland, I'm in SC) and she has already said she'd love to come whenever WE'RE ready to have her to visit and get to know the baby and do whatever I need her to do. You know.... to help. She's the ONLY person who has expressed interest in staying with us who has actually been respectful at all about what *we* want.

Julie, there's no way I would ever want anyone other than PITAH (I don't like "dh" I call him pain in the *kitten* hubby) the delivery room w me! My mom and dad were there about 30 mins or an hour really early on for me. They drove all the way from Chicago and were just picking up my other son. They just hung out long enough to say hello and get him awake and out of there. I don't think they were all that keen on seeing me puking every ten minutes with a migraine and I was definitely not keen on them seeing anything more than that. I wouldnt mind family and close friends visiting at the hospital but if I actualy lived closer to "home" and there wasthen chance that people would show up I might feel different. House guests I'd say 2-3 weeks. I don't need them there when I'm in the bathroom bleeding all over and can't sit because of bruising and stitches... my mom came down this time and stayed the first week inusing at fhe hospital, but that's given extenuating circumstances where some support was warranted.

Sheri you guys look great!! Sounds like an awesome family day.