:iagree: with everything you've said. Thank you. And if it matters, I don't think you are a horrible parent. I think sleep deprivation can take a terrible toll on a person and it's not always something that can just be overcome through sheer will. I will try some other things first to see if it will help, but if it comes to CIO, I will use it if I have to. Someone on the boards a few days ago talked about how when they gave themselves permission to take an easier road, they found the strength to try the harder road again. I guess it's what happened to me. Everyone who gave me "permission" to CIO made me feel better, but I've found the strength to wait on it. So I just want to say thank you for your help.

Well, I can't speak for her or any other pro-CIO people, just my own experience. When Pigby was little, he cried it out a few times. I never thought of him as trying to manipulate me. He was just overtired and got angrier every time I tried to help him. However, when he was a toddler, he went through something where he was absolutely inconsolable at night. If I brought him to bed with me, he'd just thrash around screaming hysterically. If I gave him a cup of water, he'd throw it. If I tried rocking him, he'd climb all over while still screaming hysterically. The only thing that got him to calm down was watching a Veggie Tales. So I'd put a movie in and let him watch then put him back without any problem. After a few days of this, he'd wake up without the hysterics, but just want to watch a Veggie Tale. I still wouldn't call it manipulation, I just called it habit. When I told him no, he'd cry. I'd try comforting him, but to no avail. He wanted Veggie Tales. Well, I could see no other option than just crying it out, so he did for one night. He stopped waking up to ask for Veggie Tales. With Digby, only in my crazy state did I think ill things of him. When I was rational, I knew he was just a baby incapable of doing it on purpose.

:grouphug::grouphug::grouphug: Praying for you both.

I'm from Littleton and went to college in Utah (still stuck here). I never noticed it until I went to meet my DH's family in upstate NY. It's painfully obvious once you've been. I really want to live somewhere that green. It's so pretty

:party:

I have a book called Super Baby Food and she says she ground the grain to a fine powder then cooked it with liquid. I've never done it myself, but it should work that way. And from my many hours of watching Food Network, I think that if you were to try and process a cooked grain it would get all nasty and gummy. Again, no real experience, but that Bobby Flay sure seems to know what he's talking about. And I wouldn't worry about the iron that much. Baby girl doesn't really eat the baby food cereals and her iron levels were fine when they checked at her last appointment. Maybe your pediatrician checks too?

YAY!!!! Santa is staying!!!! Well, what don't I feel guilty about? That might be a shorter list:lol:. The health food blogs make me feel guilty that I'm not making my own kefir or soaking my grains; the homeschooling blogs make me feel guilty I don't do a whole bunch of crafts and fun projects; the religious blogs make me feel like I'm not teaching my kids my religion well enough. There's no one telling me that I ought not to, but there's a bunch of people posting their "why" on their blogs. And so many other people comment and agree with them. I was starting to think I was the only one. Thanks, that page is so cool! What is a Bethlehem dinner? Of the three years we've been in this ward, we only went to one of the parties. Santa was not at that one. I like your FHE idea, that's a really good one. Most of the blogs I saw with the anti-Santa rhetoric came from the LDS Homeschooling blog. I suppose I should stop trying to fit in with that crowd, eh?:lol: I did have one friend who went on a rant against Halloween on her FB. And so many people left high-horsey comments about how they couldn't wait for this "traditions of the fathers" holiday to be over with so they could get to the REAL holidays about being grateful. *sigh* I'll try to stay away from the high horsey people from now on. Maybe I'll write my own blogpost about why we're keeping Santa, gosh darn it!

Oh that's cute, I like that.

So I'm seeing a lot of blogs lately from people in my religion that don't do anything Santa related. A lot of them won't even listen to Christmas music that doesn't have to do with Christ. Their reasoning ranges from not wanting their kids to stop believing in God when they find out Santa isn't real to just wanting to focus on Christ and his gift to us. In either case, I'm now feeling guilty and like a horrible mother and Christian. Do any Christians not feel guilty about having Santa? For what it's worth, Santa only brings stocking stuffers to our house and the ornaments on our tree is 95% nativity themed. I used to feel like that was a good balance, but now I wonder if we should cut Santa completely. But gosh darn, I love everything Christmas, I don't want to give it up.

I don't have any experience with ereaders, but I do have an Ematic mp3 player. It works well, but it's nothing fancy, no bells and whistles. It just gets the job done. When I read reviews, lots of people liked the Ematic products because they were cheap enough to give to kids, but not so cheap as to be a waste of money.

Utah is not green; it is a brown desert. I assumed when the OP was talking about the beautiful topography of upstate NY, she wanted that kind of green. Utah does not compare at all. However, I will say that despite my hatred of its weather and brownness, it's a rather nice place to live. Lots of nice people, low cost of living, lots of things to do, easy homeschool requirements.

Well it can be if you just search the boards all day looking at all the fun things out there and pinning everything in sight. But if you just use the internet as you regularly do and only pin the stuff you would usually add to your bookmarks, it's about the same.

Thanks for all the help everyone. She is behind on eating solids, which is one reason I've not felt a need to CIO. I figure she can just nurse as much as she wants. Only it is starting to take a toll on me. She's recently started wanting to eat more solids, so we'll work on that. Once she's ready to night wean, I'll try rocking her for ten minutes. We don't have another room we can move her to yet. We only have two bedrooms and we can't put her pack n play in with the boys; there's not enough space. Once Digby is older, we can get a bunk bed and put her in the crib in there. For now, she's stuck with us. She won't take a binky anymore; they make her mad.

Oh and I don't find it to be much of a time waster. I don't search the boards all that often; I just use it to pin stuff I come across. Several days go by without me signing in. However, Facebook is a different story:lol:

PM me your email and I can send you an invite. It's much quicker that way/

Whoa, more posts! Ok, thanks for the ideas everyone. I'll try putting Pigby in my room and sleeping with her on his bed. I would have DH help, but he sleeps like the dead and is usually more useless than helpful at night. I will also look into that book. Thanks Nance:001_smile:

No, we don't co-sleep. I've tried it with all three kids and I think I must be doing something wrong, because it makes things worse not better. Right now, if I bring her to bed and hold her without feeding her, she'll start to play. Even if I'm unresponsive (I usually start falling asleep) she'll start grabbing my nose, chin, trying to roll over, slapping my cheeks, etc. She gets wired up. If I just bring her to bed and let her nurse, she falls back asleep for 1-3 hours. DH has started insisting I go to bed early. I don't know if it's helping or not. Digby was like that, which is why I never wanted to do it again. But when I put her down for naps, she cries for about a minute and then starts sucking her fingers. I think she could handle it, but I'm not sure if it's worth it. I don't know. I just don't seem to know what would be best. If anyone knows any tips or techniques for functioning while being chronically sleep deprived, I would appreciate any advice. When I was pregnant with her, my midwife had me take Rhodiola Force to help with depression. Since there's no info about its effects on babies, I don't want to take it while I'm nursing. But I need to survive until then. :lol:

Baby girl was a wonderful sleeper from 0-6 months. At six months, she started waking multiple times a night. Now she's going 3-5 times and I'm really tired. After I had Digby, I went crazy from the sleep deprivation. And I literally mean crazy. I've managed to hold back the crazy for the time being by reminding myself that she's my last and that someday I'll look back and miss her snuggles, but I honestly don't think I can hold it at bay much longer. She's 10 months old; would you make your 10 month old cry it out or would you wait until she's weaned?

FIL is coming tonight. Until then, I need to spend most of my time cleaning. What is quick and easy to make? I have ground turkey, onions, carrots, potatoes, rice, broccoli, peas, turkey stock, a variety of beans, canned tomatoes, and spinach. I'm feeling very uncreative and very overwhelmed. I don't have any bread or tortillas or pasta. Help!

:grouphug: You seem like a really great aunt. I would just like to encourage you to keep your niece and nephew in your life by doing fun and free things with them. As for your sister, a clear "No" about anything related to money should be your answer. She really does sound like a leech and unfortunately, there's nothing you can do to change that. Just keep on with the "NO". She sounds very immature and selfish. Kinda like a 3 year old. And like a 3 year old, I would expect her to lash out when you tell her no. I just have a feeling it will get worse before it gets better. Hold your ground.

DH took today off. His dad come in tomorrow for a visit. Our goal is to finish cleaning the boys' room and the kitchen and living room. Then tomorrow I will give both bathrooms a good scrub down. Hoping FIL doesn't pass too much judgement on the state of the house. I hate cleaning for visitors. I actually hate having visitors period. Too much stress on me. Luckily DH will be taking vacation days for the visit so I don't have to entertain FIL. I'm not sure what I would do if it came to that.

I'm not generally one to initiate, but with one friend I did. I thought we were kindred spirits or whatever. I always had a good time hanging out with her. So I invited her to do things. And always at the last minute, she'd have some excuse to get out of it. OP, I think if your friend accepts your invitations and enjoys them, you have nothing to worry about. If she didn't want to do things with you, she would be able to find an excuse. And they would probably be sent via FB or email since that's an easy way out nowadays.

Same here. I used to get the racing heart, fast breathing whenever I had to. I don't remember how I "got over it" probably just a lot of telling myself that it wasn't the worst thing in the world and that nothing truly terrible has come of me calling someone on the phone. I still don't like it because it's often hard to hear people on cell phones, but at least I do it without feeling like I might have a panic attack. ETA: Oh I remember what it was. I married DH and he hates calling more than me, so I was roped into doing most of it. Now we're both better about it, neither of us likes it, but we don't freak out so much.

Ohhh...don't be hard on yourself :grouphug::grouphug: Super Mommy skills come with practice. If he's the first one you've been home with, you're just discovering all these "wonderful" things he's doing. Transitioning to being at home is hard, but it will be worth it. You sound like you're doing great. Heck, my son loves to throw food on the floor and it's such a nightmare to make him pick it up. So at least you've got that ;). I honestly have to tell myself constantly that someday I'll miss it. I've also taken to keeping a journal for them. I keep track of the cute things they do because it's easy to forget when they're being monsters. And I'm absolutely positive that children are so deliciously adorable at that age as a survival technique. Someone's gotta love and forgive that child with that little devilish grin and mischievous twinkle in the eye. Someday it'll pass. And you'll have a whole host of other worries with them :lol:

For me he was hardest from 18-24 months. He had started climbing and was in to everything. He had no concept of self-preservation. Now he seems to understand the concept of gravity a little and tries not to get hurt. He's much safer than he used to be. I used to have to put him in his crib every time I fed baby girl because I didn't want him to get injured because I couldn't get to him.