Wow, do most co-ops simply not have anything for the preschoolers? I'm so glad ours does -- my almost 5yo loves having a class of his own! (As opposed to hanging out in the nursery with the little two and me.) I can see prioritizing preschoolers who have older siblings in the co-op over preschoolers who don't have older siblings, if space/supervision is a concern, but if there's room, why not include them (if you do have classes for the preschoolers, that is)? We DO have things that are not appropriate for preschoolers and toddlers, so no, we wouldn't welcome them there, whether they have older siblings or not, and yes, that does mean that my big kids skip things sometimes because it's just not workable with the littles. But park day? Can't that be open to seasoned homeschoolers, new homeschoolers, and prospective homeschoolers?

Birthandbaby.com

We hit a major overview when appropriate, but no, we don't correlate with history for the most part. We pick the artist or composer that we want to study, regardless of time period we are studying in history.

Also, there are communities for new moms, new mom groups, LLL, babywearing groups, attachment parenting groups, etc., but I think those are probably harder to do with several kids, especially once you hit the preschool age. I loved my new moms' group when I had one baby, but it want really conducive to toddlers and especially not to preschoolers. I wish I'd found our homeschool support group when we moved here when my oldest was five, before we even had a third, but such is life.

Yes, indeed! Our group would welcome you! We don't care if you are an unschooler or a very strict school at home type. We don't care if your preschooler watches TV all day, or if you're doing three hours of work with her every day. If you want to meet other homeschooling families, find friends for your kids, get advice on what to do in the future, whatever, you are welcome with us. Shoot, we'd probably let you in if you only had one infant and just wanted to hang out in the nursery with other like-minded moms, although I don't think we actually have anyone like that, but since the compulsory age here is eight, we have many families who only have kids under the compulsory age. I'd have loved a group like ours when I only had one or two kids, although when I joined, my kids were seven, four, and one, so none of them were officially homeschooled, according to state law, and we were well accepted. Keep trying, mama!

I don't know about a laptop case, but I highly suggest a SquareTrade warranty (preferably the extra-special one that protects against drops/spills/accidents in handling). I feel much better having those on whatever electronics I can! If you join their mailing list, they often run specials for a fair discount.

All weather mocs from Lands' End or LLBean. Love 'em!

I vote all of these! Yum!

Bonding is an ongoing process. I believe that it's jump-started in the first few weeks when you're with him constantly, but really, it's not a one-time thing. Take a deep breath and just enjoy him. Cuddle him, kiss his little head, rub on his soft little hands, all of that. I'd say you're probably well-bonded to him already, but in a few weeks, he'll start to look at you like he knows you. Even now, your touch or voice probably calms him. He's heard it for nine months, and if you go to get a shower, he may be fussy for Dad after a bit, but he may calm the instant you take him, especially if you're nursing. It sounds to me like you are doing a wonderful job of loving on him and enjoying him and letting him be confident in your ability to care for him. That's bonding! I think as long as you're responding to his cues as soon as possible and taking the time to do more than just the necessities with him (which it sounds like you are), a bit of going out isn't going to wreck the bonding.

Yes to all of this! Can't do it every day, but some days, it definitely happens -- sometimes board games, outside play, forts, or Legos are more important than book learnin'.

Yes! If YOU feel up to going out (and being that your baby is very new, do be careful of YOU -- don't wipe yourself out too much, and if you had stitches, do be careful about driving and braking hard and such), it's fine to take the baby out. I'd probably avoid very crowded places, especially if small children might touch him, but you can take him out, even if he's sleeping. At his age, life is pretty much one big nap, so you aren't going to disturb it too much; chances are high that he'll fall back asleep pretty quickly even if you do take him out of his carseat. Obviously with several children, I have to go out sometimes (although I do stay largely at home for a few weeks to recover and to focus on bonding with my baby), and the baby does great; he usually falls back asleep if I take him out of the seat and put him in a baby carrier (personal preference; I don't like lugging the carseat -- it's heavy and takes up too much room in the grocery cart, plus random strangers tend not to touch a baby who is snuggled close to my chest). The only thing my babies tend not to like doing is a lot of in and out of the seat -- five errands, all a few minutes or less, does tend to annoy them with the back and forth, so I limit the errands, lug the seat for two seconds, or (what I do now) send one of the big kids to buy stamps or drop off library books), or have DH do a few errands. But sure, go visit your mom -- that should be a pretty easy trip for you! And it's a lovely time of year to take walks.

Yes, when in doubt, call the doctor and ask. They're heard all manner of "new mom" questions before; you won't look silly. This is my fifth baby, and I am older and have had way more actual experience with newborns than my doctor has, and I was pretty sure everything was fine with my baby, but it did make me feel better to have her check him well.

Oh, and as for snoring, if your doctor has looked at him and deemed him to be okay, he may just be noisy. Newborns do tend to be noisy, but some are noisier than others. My current baby is a particularly noisy one; he isn't wheezy, but he is a noisy breather when he's not deeply asleep, and he is often a noisy breather when he's nursing too. Our doctor listened to his heart/lungs (she heard a faint murmur on my fourth baby when he was an infant, so I trust that she's listening well enough) and said they were clear and that some babies are just noisy, something about loose tissues or something like that. If he's not having trouble breathing or turning blue/purple, he may just be noisy. Yes, I do think newborns can snore; I'm pretty sure some of mine have, and I would say that DS4 makes snoring-like sounds.

dp

My baby is almost 5 weeks old, and he is just starting to be awake for more than a few minutes at a time, like maybe half an hour? He's just started, within the last weekish, to appear to be looking at things intentionally -- now, he will turn his head and look at things that move, or he'll study someone's face other than mine. I can't really explain it, but it's something in the way they look at things that shows the difference between only sort of being present in our world and actually being in it. I want to say that my fourth baby, who was both my earliest (38.5 weeks when my others were all well over 40) and smallest ("only" 8 pounds when my others were close to 9 or well over 9), also had the longest "not quite all here" period, but it's hard to remember. My current baby does still keep his legs tucked up a lot, when I think my others were straightening out more by this point, but he was also a very late-term breechie, so his normal may be a bit different from other babies' normals. And my first son, who was my latest and biggest baby, was very, very sleepy for a long, long time. We have all of these "DS1's first trip to such-and-such" pictures from his first 18 months or so, and he's asleep in every single one of them. He napped until age 5. DD, otoh, was rarely asleep, even as an infant; she was my best nighttime sleeper but was never a good napper. Some babies are just sleepier than others. As long as your little guy is eating well and making appropriate wet and dirty diapers, let him sleep. He'll wake up soon. (Actually, I got more sleep in the first couple of weeks after my current baby was born than I do now. For the first couple of weeks, he just slept and ate and went back to sleep. Now, he will be awake for a while, and that's kind of hard when it's 3 am, because he'll fuss if he's not being held or being nursed, so it means that I'm largely awake too.) Congratulations on your baby!

Congratulations! She's beautiful!

I'd try getting him some school stuff as well. When I set up the workboxes for this year, I was all, "This is DD's stack, this is DS1's stack, and this is DS2's stack [it's small; he's four]." 2yo DS3 piped up, "Me box?" So I grabbed another box and said, "Yes! You have a box too! Let's put some books in it." He was a happy camper when he put some books and toys in his box. Can you do something like that for your small guy? I'm not sure how old he is (not sure if DS3 means DS age 3 or if it means your third son, but I'm guessing the latter, and I'm guessing he's pretty little still), but it doesn't have to be fancy -- just put some things like special books, toys, coloring implements, stickers, stamps, playdough, lacing cards, whatever in a box or basket or something and make a big deal out of it being *his* school time. My 2yo and 4yo definitely lose out if I'm not really careful, sandwiched between the two big kids who need me and the baby who needs me (and who takes up my lap). They get bored. Having some activities of their own really helps, but I do try to carve out even a few minutes to read picture books to them or to do early learning activities with them (especially the 4yo; the 2yo plays a lot or hangs out next to me -- the 4yo will too, but he really wants to learn and be like the big kids), and that does seem to make a difference. Re: dinner. Before our baby arrived, I froze a bunch of meals. We still have some in the freezer, and it is really helpful on busy days. Can you take a weekend or a day to prep a bunch of meals and freeze them?

I'm not going to debate marked vs. not marked, but I will say that I thought the MUS rods were larger than the C-rods, and not 1 cm. So for that reason, they wouldn't work as well with a lot of the Miquon pages, because it's not always a matter of "use the unit and the one that is three times the unit;" sometimes the length is actually important. If you used bigger rods, you wouldn't come up with the same area of a rectangle, for instance. Now, I could be wrong about that, so I'd check it first.

Clubbing -- no. I think I've been to two clubs, ever, and one was more of a pub, not a place where people were dancing (we went to hear the band). Not my thing. Also not DH's thing. Despite turning 21 in a very big party town, I did not do the bar tour that many students did; instead, DH (then my fiance, as he'd proposed three months before) took me out to a very nice restaurant. I've only ever had a handful of alcoholic drinks in my entire life, and it's only been in my thirties that I even developed any small liking for any sort of beer at all (or coffee -- which I still only like if it has milk and stevia added). I've never smoked anything and have been with the same guy since I was 14. I never did anything bad. I've never even had a speeding ticket. I'm boring. :) (However, maybe that's why I thought becoming a parent was relatively easy. Wasn't into clubbing or bar-hopping anyway. I much prefer to stay home.)

I know, I kept expecting we'd hear a bit more about it as well, but we really haven't. I think we'll hear more about it in the next couple of months. Did you see the post a little further back that had the website where you can put in your income and family size, and it tells you how much you would probably get in subsidies? That might give you some idea. I found it to be pretty helpful; I hope it is accurate for what it told me.

I started the discussions when DD wanted an email address at age 10. So I set one up for her (gmail is lovely for kids, btw, because the spam filters are very good) and told her that she could give the address to friends that I've approved (so far, I know all of her friends quite well, although I don't think she's given her address to any of them because most of them don't have email), but I told her that she's never, ever allowed to use her address to sign up for anything (and her email doesn't have her name in it anywhere). If she needs an email address for something, I have some junk ones she can use. I also set it up so that my email gets a copy of everything that is sent to her -- so far, no spam or anything inappropriate at all, and I check my email way more frequently than she does, so I can monitor what comes in. I have told her that anything on the internet is out there forever, and we'll continue to discuss that when she has Facebook or whatever (she's too young right now). I've also specified that DH or I must have all passwords. I think she did get the "Smart Girl's Guide to the Internet," put out by American Girl, from the library, and those books have thus far been really good -- they give a lot of information in a very tween-appropriate way, but they come across more gently than a parental lecture (so, less "yes, mom, we know" followed by the eyeroll, plus it's someone else giving credence, not just parents being paranoid). DD isn't into boys yet, although several of her friends are boys, but once that milestone is reached, we'll include s*xting and sending pictures and such along with our other discussions on romantic relationships.

My kids range from 11 down to 4 weeks, with 2-3 years in between them all, so I can't comment specifically on the large gap, but I can say that my oldest is particularly close to my 2yo, despite the age difference. It's also much easier having a baby when you have older kids, because they dote on the baby and are such good helpers. Plus they are able to do things like take themselves to the bathroom and get their own drinks. Of course, babies are portable, so the bigger consideration, in my opinion, is that you'll be hauling/chasing/entertaining a toddler and then a preschooler at the big kids' events. Sometimes that is annoying. But I think you'll regret not doing it more than doing it.

We asked the other guy's insurance to replace two) out of three seats when we were rear-ended (didn't replace the backless booster, since it wasn't a huge accident), and they didn't give us any grief about it. The one guy did try to say that they'd only give me partial replacement because they were a couple of years old, but I said that that didn't help because I couldn't buy used seats. He checked with the other person handling the claim, and she told me to buy new seats and send her the receipt. Amazon brought two new seats within a couple of days, and the insurance company cut me a check (separate from the check they cut me for the repairs to the vehicle). I would replace the seats, personally, probably, but I'd really insist that they pay full replacement cost.

I know; I just bought Early Modern levels 1 and 2 myself, because I liked the samples so much. My kids don't really like to color, and they're picky about projects (they didn't like a lot of the stuff in the SOTW AG), but I liked that HO has writing and researching, because I really felt like they (well, my older one, anyway) needed more of that. I'm hoping they don't end up hating it!

I want to cry too -- so very sad. I'm so sorry for this loss. :(