Perogi
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Posts posted by Perogi
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We recently moved and there isn't any overhead lighting in our living room either. We aren't too bad for light during the day but I do have a floor lamp and 2 table lamps in a triangle configuration and quite like it. I would still prefer an overhead light but it's okay. I have my floor lamp tucked behind my chair that sits in the corner so no danger of it getting tipped over.
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We had one baby in that situation, and other than being fussy he was fine. We did have to carry him around a lot to keep him calm, but he did not scream. You can dose morphine at home, and the doc will give you info on that. Our little guy became one of the happiest babies after a couple of weeks, but he did have some issues with attachment. He would go to anyone and never developed fear of strangers, and we were told it was due to the drugs. He was bright and developed just fine. He was very strong for his age, and we were told that was from the drugs too, but I still don't know if that was true or if it was a family trait. He left our home just before his first birthday.
You are doing a great thing, and I would not worry about long term crying in addicted babies. It might change your school day for a few weeks, but it will resolve and get better. Find a pedi that you trust and that can help you through those times if those times occur.
Good - another positive story! Again, fussy I can handle for the most part, especially if we're talking about weeks not months. I'm very happy to hear from so many that physical touch, carrying, rocking, etc is helpful.
I had read about babies like this having more muscle tone - interesting. I'm not sure why it would be that way. Did you find him to be tense as well?
I plan to ask more questions of the agency and hopefully find by their response that there are some good supports in the area.
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My granddaughter was born addicted, and I have to say a big thank you Nakia and to all the other nurses that help these poor babies.
My granddaughter was in hospital for a month before they let her go home. Oh, the crying that poor baby did! It's like no other baby cry I have ever heard. She was always restless until she was picked up.
She seems to be doing fine now. Her mom has cleaned up her act (so we think), can't say the same for my step-son, but that is another story.
A month is such a long time! How hard that must have been!
Restless until picked up, I can handle. I've heard some stories of babies who are simply impossible to soothe, no matter what is done.
Best wishes to your grand-daughter and family :grouphug:
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We do not give our babies morphine, but methadone instead. It is at least a 30 day regimen. We do not send babies home until they are at a stable dose. I won't get into the medical lingo, but there is a scoring tool we use, and once they meet a certain criteria, they are ready for discharge. Sometimes that means they go to NICU or the pediatric floor when discharged from mother/baby, which is where I work. Sometimes it takes a while to get them on the right dosage.
A high pitched cry is one of the hardest parts. They hurt. It's hard. BUT that's where the methadone helps. And they come off of the methadone slowly. Yes, you could give it at home; it's easy to give. Sometimes the coming off part is really hard.
We always cuddle our babies that are withdrawing. They like to be held tight, rocked, swayed, etc. They do tend to need a more quiet environment than "normal" babies, for lack of a better word. They suck frantically, so pacifiers are great. Wearing the baby is a great idea.
I will answer any other questions I can.
Is there an "average" amount of time that babe is in hospital? I know that there can be a lot of variation...One of our other placements was in the hospital for a week and I hated not being able to bring him home!! Granted, the nurses there weren't doing any of the rocking, swaying, holding, etc that you are describing so I just found it heartbreaking that if I wasn't there, he wasn't being held (other than for feeding).
It's the high pitched cry that I am most worried about...for many reasons. I know that crying can really get under everyone's skin - mine, dh's, the kids...it's just a hard thing to listen to all day. Not to mention not getting invited to playdates...;)
Wearing babe would be the main strategy I think. It's something I just do anyway and have a nice collection of carriers so that part should come naturally. Oh, and soothers are my best baby friend :D
Thanks again for your help.
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A quiet place to rest could also be a bit of a challenge. Not that I couldn't find a quiet bedroom but if babe needs to be held to rest it won't typically be all that quiet with my 3 kids running around.
I had heard that in the long-term drug addicted babies recover more fully than alcohol affected babies.
I wouldn't necessarily be adopting any of these babes, although it's not totally out of the question. My concern is more immediate - getting through the withdrawal period.
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The Baby Kanoe looks great - I was looking into various baby hammocks last night but also saw that Health Canada does not approve - which likely means my foster agency wouldn't approve either :(
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Well, I could potentially be caring for them "from birth" if they are apprehended at the hospital. Do they generally require a longer hospital stay or special care in hospital? The worker mentioned I think dosing the infants with morphine to help with their symptoms - does this sound right? Is it something that I could do at home??
Fussier I could handle - high pitched crying for many hours a day would be harder. Waking every hour at night would be a challenge. Frequent feeding and cuddling during the day is not as much a concern for me. I had read that some don't enjoy being cuddled because they are just too sensitive to over-stimulation. That would be tricky because my plan would be to sling babe basically all day/as needed.
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We've been a foster family for the past 2 years, largely to infants. We recently moved and met with our new agency. When we told them that we most enjoy caring for the 0-2 age bracket they asked about our experience with babies who are born addicted to drugs. We really haven't had that experience (one baby we wondered about but nothing was ever confirmed - it could have been simply nicotine addiction from mom's excessive smoking). Apparantly in our new location this is a big problem and many of the infants coming into care are in the throes of withdrawal.
To be honest, I've always had a soft spot for babes in this situation but I know that it presents many challenges and I'm not sure we're ready for that yet. If I have a baby crying 20 hours a day how am I going to teach my kids? Not drive everyone in our house crazy?
Anyone with experience in this area care to share? How do you cope? How do your kids cope? How old are your kids? Tips and tricks? Advice? How long do the withdrawal symptoms go on? I need a realistic picture of what this could be like. I'm feeling quite a bit of anxiety about it.
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I just saw these at our library the other day and wondered about them. I'll have to start dd on this series.
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I haven't used this curriculum but I was interested in it and took a look at it at convention last year. As I was thumbing through I saw some things I didn't like....some character/family stuff stuck in the narrative that bothered me because imo it doesn't belong in a geography text. The one that I remember in particular was an illustration about a boy having a temper tantrum and the judgment and tone around that I didn't appreciate and simply thought it was unnecessary.
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Well, I wouldn't do brain surgery because I've never been to med school. Same for law. I have, however, been through school. If I can't teach elementary education to my children we have a problem.
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I think jeans and plain t-shirts would fit the bill. A few pairs of jeans, a bunch of plain t-shirts in different colours and you're set. My guess is that would attract less attention than wearing the exact same thing all the time.
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I think that everyone is operating off of different definitions of "frumpy."
I agree. I'm feeling better after this thread because I'm more casual than frumpy (unless I'm in the house ;) ). My SIL and her sister whom I referenced earlier definitely have a more strict definition of frumpy. For them, casual would be frumpy. No make-up and hair thrown up would be frumpy even in yoga pants and a cute t-shirt.
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My 8yo has found it somewhat frustrating as well and racing the teacher stresses her out. I notice that her endurance isn't great - she gets off to a really good start but by the second race the teacher she's making silly mistakes. I've also wondered if I really want the facts above 10 memorized....
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Thanks for the review. We're doing Artistic Pursuits this year and focusing on composers for arts biographies but I'm really very interested in MtM for next year. Do you think the level you are using would work for 7 and 9yo? I'm guessing 5yo ds won't really participate.
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YES!!! We were using Skype to communicate with an aunt and uncle that moved away and it was awful. I dreaded making the call. Thankfully we then moved to a rural area with only dial-up internet and Skype became a thing of the past. We've since moved again and are back to high-speed internet but Skype has been forgotten :) :) :)
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I tried Astronomy this year but I'm finding it a challenge for my 6yo. We got distracted down a bunny trail unit study about dolphins, then whales, then sharks, etc. and haven't gotten back to it yet. I did buy the notebook and then also printed some extra mini-books. I think it's a difficult thing for a young child to wrap their brain around - the universe and planets. Talking about how plants grow or the water cycle is just much more easily grasped. So, I'm still on the fence - haven't given up but we're not loving it.
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I was just wondering the same thing the other day.
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I'm a night owl, lately having a hard time falling asleep before 2am. That means I get up later in the morning than I would like - usually around 9am.
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I really like the Only Hearts dolls but my dd's prefer Barbies. I don't know if it's the hard vs soft bodies? Also, I think they like to pretend to be a woman in playtime rather than having dolls that are also little girls.
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My dd in 3A right now is also going the route of adding/skip counting. We're working on drilling the multiplication facts but they're not all memorized yet. I do feel like 3A is moving quickly and we're going to have to stop soon and make sure the facts are memorized before moving forward.
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Beware of sheep! We went from one (free) sheep to buying one to keep that one company, to buying 3 more, to 47 more sheep on shares, add a different breed of free sheep that turned out to be six a few weeks later, to yet another breed of sheep (down to 3 of those) to 87 at one point, to finally selling 49 about a month ago: 10 wool now, no Shetlands and 3 Suffolk. And did I mention the two spinning wheels and 12 looms??? And two llamas and LGDs? Beware of sheep! :D
You are really making me miss my sheep!!!
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Chickens are 100% wonderful and 100% the gateway farm animal. We got 4 hens when we lived in town, were told to get rid of them due to zoning bylaws and sold our house to buy a 10 acre hobby farm ;) Then we got sheep, goats, a cow, ducks and many more chickens!
We ended up having to move because of dh's job and couldn't afford property in our new area so we're back to 1/2 acre but it's my chickens that I miss the most.
Having had those animals I'll give you my input:
Ducks are messy, don't lay as many eggs, eat more and are more expensive to have butchered. The best part of having ducks was that it was easy for them to set and hatch eggs and ducklings are fun.
Goats are FUN! but can be hard to contain. Dairy goats have a more complicated feed regimen than some other animals and we didn't like the milk (we had 2 different breeds, no buck around, drank it raw/fresh/unpasteurized, but the kids and I didn't like it). If you really want goats you might consider a meat breed.
Sheep are wonderful. There is very little I can say about sheep that is bad. We had Shetlands and they were perfect for us - they are a smaller, heritage breed which meant that they were easy to manage and didn't generally require anything other than hay. They were very low maintenance and come in lots of beautiful colours.
We had one black angus meat cow. We found her very expensive to feed because we didn't grow our own hay or corn. We also weren't really able to use big round bales of hay so we generally bought square bales, which are also more expensive. I could have purchased meat from a local farmer for less than what it cost us to raise her and she was "higher maintenance" - we couldn't just stock up her feed and go away for the weekend they way we could with the sheep and chickens. She ate twice a day and drank a lot of water. She also wasn't halter broke so moving her around was a challenge.
If I had to do it over again I would have a nice flock of laying hens and some sheep and then do meat chickens once or twice a year.
My advice to you is to NOT do what we did - we overwhelmed ourselves with getting too much, too fast. Try one thing at a time and wait 8-12 months before adding anything else.
Have fun!
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We had a black lab named Chaos and I loved that name for him :) My kids are really into The Waltons right now and the Waltons' dog is named Reckless.
Any foster parents experienced with drug addicted babies?
in General Education Discussion Board
Posted
It's encouraging to hear that it's possible for baby's hospital stay to be short. I definitely want to go into this eyes wide open and as informed as possible, while also keeping the perspective that we won't know until we try.
It's really awful to think about a baby going through withdrawal.