I am joking of course, but 2 weeks away from my ADD child makes my life w/ the other 2 little ones feel like a breeze. I didn't realize what a strain dd(8) puts on me and even the little ones. I will be picking her up from grandma's tomorrow and am kinda dreading it. She will be so hyped up and uncontrollable after being spoiled by my mother in law. It will take weeks to get her back to obeying the rules and being calm. Her main issue is that she can not self-entertain and constantly needs someone to give her attention; when I can't, she agitates the little ones until they scream. I have so far avoided any medication, but am seriously considering it since I now realize how much energy she really takes out of me. Guess this is more of a pitty party for myself before getting back to the daily grind. Anyone else have a dd/ds like this? How do you cope everyday?

A Moby wrap is great for a newborn as well as a similar wrap from Wombfruit. An Ergo or Becco is a very popular carrier for a baby 3+ months of age. There is tons of info on the diaperswappers.com website under the category of Babywearing.

I have a 8 yr old as well as a 2 & 3 yr old. We ONLY do school during nap/quiet time. Ds(2) still naps, so when he goes down for a nap I allow the 3 yr old to either sit silently at the table doing preschool work, or to watch a movie in another room. This leaves dd(8) and I in completely silence and works very well. Every now and then we school on the weekends when dh is home to entertain the littles and he usually keeps them outside so we can have silence in the house.

Wow! Thanks so much, I will definately try this out. Either way it can't hurt.

I am pregnant with baby #4, currently 20 weeks, and have never had this happen before. I had a stomach virus 2 weeks ago. A day or two following the virus, my entire body (my scalp, face, hands, chest, tummy, lady parts, legs, toes, etc.), broke out in a rash. It was not itchy, just red and splottchy looking. About a week later, it started to itch very badly and since then it has started to peel. It is very itchy still, as in I wake up in the middle of the night itching so bad I can't sleep. I am guessing the itching is due to the skin peeling. I have tried to exfoliate but that led to severe red streaks across my belly and horrible burning for hours. So, has anyone ever had this before? I don't have insurance right now, it will go in to effect April 1st so I am trying to wait this out. On the other hand, dh and I are going out of state before then for our 10th Anniversary vacation and I don't want to be miserable IF there is something that can be done about this. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!

I think I may have you beat. Try waking up at 3am everynight for 2.5 years to someone screaming that something is attacking them. Gets your adrenaline going and then I never go back to sleep. Dh has night terrors every night sometimes 2-3 times per night. I haven't gotten a full night sleep in FOREVER! Oh, and yes we have been to a sleep specialist and no the many meds he has been given DON"T WORK!

:iagree:

Seeing as how all my dc are young, they have a 8pm bedtime with book reading for the dds until 8:30pm. Dh and I usually stay up and enjoy the quiet and catch some TV time until 11pm.

We did Mon/Wed and Tues/Thurs. It allowed an extra day to get the assignment or project done so we could move on the next class period.

My super smart cousin just got a scholarship to Stanford and plays sax. in their band.

I bought the "paint" bowl from lakeshore learning for painting of course. I ended up using these with the littles to help them learn colors. There are 10 colored paint bowls. I picked the 5 paint bowls that coresponded to the 5 colors of counting bears that we have. This is an absolute favorite for the littles. They take each bear out of the bucket and put it inside the matching bowl. We also use this for learning to count too. They count the color of bears in each bowl. These were things that we just happened to have around the house, I'm sure you can find somethings too. Another cheap color game is colored notecards with colored paperclips. Once they get coordinated enough they can clip the correct color paper clip to the correct color card.

A family friend went to West Pointe.

We are in Texas and dh overheard a phone conversation from a guy in his office building...they are bringing a group of Haitian children here. The guy was saying that he was taking a child and several of his friends were also taking in children too. I wish we could get some more info on this. Dh is really interested in fostering/adopting, maybe he can track down the guy he overheard! I do know that we do not qualify under the pre-earthquake guidelines.

We have always felt that sharing a room was important for bonding. We have designated boy and girls rooms. Our girls each have their own double beds, but when dd(3) moved from her crib to a bed, she would cry at night. To remedy the situation, dd(8) told dd(3) she would share her bed. So, the girls sleep together everynight and they each seem to sleep better together than apart. I think it's really cute because dd(8) reads a book to dd(3) everynight before bed...it's one of their special times together. I hadn't thought of putting ds in with the girls. The occasions where they have been in the same room at night (have guests over and dd's give up their room) has caused them all to stay up giggling and chatting and takes hours for them to go to sleep. I'm just not sure about privacy issues with boys and girls in the same room. I would think that at puberty they would need to have a boys and girls room.

Since we only have one school-aged dc, she does chores and plays with the littles all morning. Then after lunch ds goes down for a nap and we do school until she is done for the day (only takes 3 hours). We have tried a typical school schedule, but this really works for all of us right now. When the littles are school-aged, we will definately implement a more typical schedule.

Thinkfun games are one person strategy games that can be taken in the car, we LOVE these. Also, Timberdoodle has many more strategic games like Lonpos 303.

:iagree: I felt a college degree was my life insurance. I made more $ than dh and know that if something happens to him I can still give our dc the same quality of life they have now.

That's me!! I can't stand to be commited to a specific date or time. It has gotten worse over the last year and now I pretty much stay home all day, every day since it is so cold/rainy outside. At least we have no excuse to not getting our school work done!:D

db and I were 12 years apart. I was paid to babysit him anytime mom went to a church meeting, couple's night, etc. I did enjoy getting paid, but did not enjoy being told to change my plans to babysitting for the evening.

My bathroom has become my teacher's lounge. After lunch, I put ds(2) down for a nap, give dd(3) something to entertain her, and have dd(8) do assigned work, then I am off to the teacher's lounge. I bring bottled water, a cup of yougart, and a book to read. We have a 2 person jacuzzi tub that I fill it up with nice hot water, soak and relax. I get out feeling like a new person and the house actually stays quiet and clean while I'm in there. ahhhhh...

Hmmm..so the ribs crack with CPR compressions and not the paddles...good to know! Also very interesting about the rythms. As for the vomiting from a drowning victim...ewww...do they tell this to the teenagers when they all think it is so cool to become life guards? I do get that saving a life is much more important than being vomited on...or in.

I learned something new yesterday. My cousin who works in a hospital said that when they apply the paddles to shock someones heart, there is a horrible cracking sound as the body is compressed. I HAD NO IDEA!! Seems that, especially with older people, their ribs end up cracking while trying to resuscitate. The movies always make it look so easy, one or two shocks and all is well. Just thought I'd share...

Very surprising results...I told dh I was 99% sure this baby will be a girl based on my assumptions. Guess I could be wrong! gasp!

If it makes you feel any better, I have been trying to find the answer to this same question. My prenatal vitamin contains propylene glycol, but doesn't seem to be helping much. :bigear:

Thanking God for our blessings and praying for theirs :crying: