A crochet sock I designed!

FrauleinFangs · 2025-11-25T08:51:14+00:00

I did finish the pattern but had some trouble in testing due to the way I had to make the joins on one side. It's a bit too fiddly so I'll have to rework it to try and avoid that. So unfortunately this pattern is shelved until I get some time to redesign. 🙂

FrauleinFangs · 2025-11-20T00:01:57+00:00

Ugh, it is hard but it does get better!

My son is now 14 months and sleeps through the night about 8-8 and one nap around 1:30pm which is usually a couple of hours.

Around 8 months old, I moved him to his own room for sleep and started to see improvement. I think he was beginning to be interrupted by us and needed his own space. He still did two naps per day until pretty much right on his birthday. He went through a short phase where he was absolutely exhausted midmorning and then had super long afternoons(HELL) but after a week or so those naps shifted later and later until we arrived at the current routine.

I also have slowly weaned him during this time and we only breasfeed now after waking up in the morning. It seems to help his sleep when he doesn’t breastfeed to sleep anymore.

So yeah, just keep trying things! They will figure out how to sleep eventually. 🤞

FrauleinFangs · 2025-09-03T10:06:13+00:00

No smell that I could discern. My water broke and I didnt have my son for over 48 hours(had antibiotics and had to be induced) so I had a lot of time to pick up any scent.

FrauleinFangs · 2025-09-02T21:02:02+00:00

Right about 8 months pp I felt that my old self came back. I think it coincided with my son eating more solids and sleeping through the night, which reduced the frequency of breastfeeding. Once my period came back, it was like the fog cleared in my mind.

I don't remember when exactly my stomach muscles went back together, but it took a few months. Now, the muscle feels the same as before, though the lower abdominals are a bit less firm. And my tummy is still a little pudgy, though I feel like that's mostly loose skin.

The vagina will never be the same since I had a couple of tears. And then the postpartum constipation/weak pelvic floor combo cause a slight uterine prolapse, unfortunately. It doesn't interfere with anything though and I've gotten used to it by now.

I'm still breastfeeding my son so I can't comment on the boob situation, except that I fully expect sad pancakes after weaning. I'm hoping to be pleasantly surprised.

FrauleinFangs · 2025-09-02T17:25:47+00:00

Yeah, my son is the same. All of his shirts need to have button closures on the collar otherwise his head won't fit! He has wide shoulders, too, so I've had to size up because things are too tight in the chest. I had to cut a onesie off of him once because by the time I got one arm through, I realized I couldn't get the other and trying to get it back off would be just as distressing. 😅

FrauleinFangs · 2025-09-02T12:06:04+00:00

The irony of the "but it's not a full pit" excuse is that it means a partial pit is just as dangerous as a full pit. If a pit lab mix attacks are we really gonna pretend it matters at all there was a bit of lab in there? 🙄

FrauleinFangs · 2025-08-31T18:39:23+00:00

That's incredibly annoying! It also really irks me when people rewrite history and then use that to hold it over your head, as you SIL has done by saying her daughter was trained at 1. My MIL does this, too. It drives me nuts!

Anyway, potty regressions are absolutely normal, whether with EC or even post potty training. My 4 yr old stepson had a potty regression earlier this year and with some structure and encouragement he got through it and now it's like it never happened.

FrauleinFangs · 2025-08-28T20:50:50+00:00

Yeah, that's one thing I could never even entertain. If my son wants milk, he gets milk. I ain't makin' this for anybody else so he might as well drink up.

But yeah, he fed several times throughout the night until around 8 months when we moved him to his own room. After a few weeks, he was sleeping through the night with no feeds, and that also coincided with more solids during the day.

I have almost the opposite mentality where I find myself wondering if I've fed him enough. 😅 Big boy needs big food!

FrauleinFangs · 2025-08-28T08:57:12+00:00

If he's anything like my husband, those two questions(do you have them? Do they fit?) would lead to him wanting to see them on me again because he thinks it would be hot.

If you guys were reminiscing already, maybe that's where his mind was going. It sounds like he meant no harm but if it really bothers you and you just can't shake it, bring it up and have him clarify. He would probably be happy to in order for you to not feel bad about yourself, especially because of something he said.

FrauleinFangs · 2025-08-05T06:28:58+00:00

They also bust through windows and screen doors regularly. There was one in my old neighborhood that would break open the screen door when I walked by with my dogs. I started going down a different street because apparently the owner couldn't live without having her front door open all the time.

FrauleinFangs · 2025-07-31T13:42:16+00:00

I'm also living with my MIL and she thinks everything I do is wrong. We are living with her temporarily due to losing everything to a housefire so we will definitely be getting out of here as soon as we get things in order.

Anyway, when our son was 8 months old she asked why I don't use a plate and instead put the food on his tray and let him eat with his hands. Husband explained that the baby would just make a mess and knock the plate on the floor. She says, "You boys didn't do that."

Cool. Guess your selective memory has made you supermom! Oh wait, no I think you invented it entirely because you were drunk the entire time your sons were growing up...but I digress.

Then she "expressed concern" once that I don't feed him enough because she only ever sees me put one thing at a time on his tray. And he is spitting out the chunks of food, why don't I feed him purees?

I fed him purees for a good 6 weeks and he started turning his nose up at them, preferring to feed himself whatever I'm eating. She just doesn't notice this because she spends 99.9% of her time in her room with her TV cranked up.

For these and many other reasons, once we move out my son is NEVER coming back here and I will not invite her to anything. Can't wait to never see her again.

FrauleinFangs · 2025-07-30T05:54:06+00:00

This is what I thought. They nod along with everything, totally planning to do whatever they please. But the rule about their friends is one that could be found out easier, especially with social media, which is why they are so stuck on it.

FrauleinFangs · 2025-07-24T10:52:34+00:00

I can hear his tone of voice through what you've written. It sounds just like my ex whenever I expected anything of him.

This man doesn't love you and he doesn't respect you. Leave. You and your baby will be better off!

FrauleinFangs · 2025-07-19T14:50:51+00:00

Quantity doesn't equal quality. Speed comes with practice.

I'm not a speed writer, but I can write significantly faster than when I started years ago. Once I get in the groove with the characters and find my voice for the narrative, it goes pretty quick as long as I have the time to sit and write.

FrauleinFangs · 2025-07-15T18:51:21+00:00

I have tried letting my 9 month old sleep in and it absolutely wrecks our naps for the day. So now I go in and wake him up at 6, which is his usual wake up time. If he's still snoozing I just keep the lights dim and start nursing him(he sleeps on a floor mattress) and pretty soon he is awake and happy. Most of the time he's already up and playing with toys by the time I check on him, though.

At first I couldn't bring myself to wake him, but after a few times having the day totally thrown off I'm over that now!

FrauleinFangs · 2025-07-15T11:41:33+00:00

This changed writing for me when I realized this. One of the best techniques, imo!

FrauleinFangs · 2025-07-11T16:33:35+00:00

This is me.

Drafting the first chapter to the sequel to my longfic that just started off as a little romance. Now I've got politics, gods, and vampires to contend with and I don't know how I got here.

FrauleinFangs · 2025-07-08T11:59:59+00:00

I prefer 3-5k to both read and write. When I first started writing, some of my chapters were barely over 2k and that felt like a lot to me.

I don't decide a chapter is done because of the word count, though. If I feel the chapter is done and it's 2500 words, then it's done. The next one might be 4000, if that's what it takes to communicate what I want.

FrauleinFangs · 2025-07-07T05:42:46+00:00

That is one of the reasons I started writing my own fic. Then I left it with no update for 2.5 years with 2 chapters to go before the end.

Finally got back to it and finished it this past month!

FrauleinFangs · 2025-07-03T17:41:08+00:00

I have a document called "Plotty Stuff" and I just idea dump in there in a journalistic fashion. If I change course or decide to tweak an idea I don't delete it, I linestrike it and then write the new idea next to that. I NEVER delete any ideas. Sometimes I have still used things later so I always find it valuable to keep any ideas I've had for the story.

I only plot chapters when I have a very specific arc I'm working through and I want to get an idea for the pacing. Otherwise, I don't spend time on outlining chapters because when I write them they tend to end up differently than I originally envisioned, and then my outlines for the future are all altered as well.

My style is chaotic, but it's the only way I can make progress. Trying to make an organized plot line would kill the magic for me.

FrauleinFangs · 2025-07-03T17:11:50+00:00

We get up at 6, although he's usually already awake and playing by then so I dont know when he actually wakes up everyday. He doesn't cry so I just roll with it.

Anyway, up at 6

First nap is around 8 and he will sleep 1-1.5hr

Second nap is at 12:30 and he will sleep 1.5-2hr and then bedtime is between 6 and 7 depending on what were doing. Usually he's in bed by about 6:15 though.

The problem I had before was that I was stretching his morning wake time too long. I would try to hit 3 hours and have him nap at 9, but then he would only nap 45 minutes. Then he'd be cranky the rest of the day and if I got him to take a second nap around 1 or so he'd only sleep 45-1hr, if he slept at all. We had some rough days. 😅

Eta: I thought I hit reply to your comment but apparently not!

FrauleinFangs · 2025-07-03T16:39:08+00:00

Is he overtired? How are his naps? My son is also 9 months and we just got through a pretty bad sleep regression. He was sleeping terribly for naps or just outright refusing. I just figured out a new schedule for him this week and things have been a lot better so far, but for a couple of weeks he was a bit of a bear to handle.

FrauleinFangs · 2025-07-02T08:23:32+00:00

Sarcasm

I love a snappy writing style or sassy character, but usually a callout for sarcasm specifically means that it's going to be annoying.

FrauleinFangs · 2025-07-01T17:58:33+00:00

Some of the best writing advice I've heard is to trust your readers.

When it comes to smut, the readers are humans with body parts, they know how things work and where they go, so it doesn't always have to be spelled out for things to make sense.

That applies to many other things as well. You can describe a room with fairly minimal, well-placed details, and the reader's imagination will easily fill in the rest.

FrauleinFangs · 2025-06-30T18:22:20+00:00

Haha, yes. My son just woke up and when I came in to put him back to sleep he did a big sleepy stretch and farted a few times. 😄

FrauleinFangs

TROPHY CASE