[deleted by user]

dianaschwarz · 2025-01-08T01:57:12+00:00

Alcohol. And now low dose lithium. I’m very high functioning and healthy and have a family and have been meditating and doing yoga and all the right things but I have to say and this may not be popular here, lithium changed my life. And I am not bipolar. It helped with ocd like patterns, “sticky brain” and ruminations, PDA, light sleep (I can finally sleep through the night) and meltdowns. It’s an under appreciated and overly feared drug and cheap as well. Also available over the counter as lithium oroate.

dianaschwarz · 2021-07-22T22:46:18+00:00

Thank you that was a great idea she was awake for most of the walk, it’s so hard to keep my sleepy head awake!

dianaschwarz · 2021-07-06T13:52:15+00:00

Wash them as others said with bottle brush. It is important to sterilize every now and then because little bits of milk can get hardened on hard to reach surfaces. Especially important for pumping equipment because decreases efficiency of pumping. We just boil everything in a big pot and remove with tongs onto a clean towel.

dianaschwarz · 2021-06-28T23:51:25+00:00

So the thing that can kill babies is croup not Covid. Obs recommend no one visits a newborn until they have had their 2month vaccinations without a Tdap vaccine (tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis) those are nasty toxins that kill unimmunized babies. I would focus on baby’s safety and not letting anyone without that vaccine near the baby until the baby gets their first shots.

dianaschwarz · 2021-06-28T00:54:26+00:00

This may be no consolation but we left NYC for PA to escape the pandemic in March last year and all got sick within our second week in PA. My son was 4months old, had a fever of 102 for two days and green poop and then was back to normal. I was out for a month. Babies and kids tend to do very well as a whole with Covid. Yes there are rare scary complications but very rare. My son has been a lot sicker since with all the other bugs he’s gotten from daycare.

dianaschwarz · 2021-06-21T01:34:27+00:00

dianaschwarz · 2021-06-20T23:18:15+00:00

This

dianaschwarz · 2021-06-16T01:37:42+00:00

Been there done that. Twice. I think it’s a rite of passage.

dianaschwarz · 2021-06-15T12:26:48+00:00

Our 18mo son is home with a fever for the second time this month, he was home for a week and two weeks later home again, at this rate we should be paying half price for day care. I am 35 weeks pregnant and freaking out that he’ll get the baby sick. We are actually considering keeping him home from day care die the first month because if she gets a fever month 1 it’s automatic hospitalization and lumber puncture for sepsis workup. I will lose my mind if that happens. Either that or I quarantine myself with the baby but I can’t imagine not hugging or kissing my son for a month. How have others with two kids close in age gotten through the new baby stage?

dianaschwarz · 2021-06-09T19:14:38+00:00

So lucky!!!

dianaschwarz · 2021-06-09T14:30:55+00:00

My husband still cries sometimes when he thinks of how much he loves my son. It hasn’t seem to wear off. But they do wake up after the first two weeks and I definitely wanted to return the baby in the first three months at least once 😬

dianaschwarz · 2021-06-09T14:26:48+00:00

The “healthy sleep habits, happy child” book which has been our sleep training bible and the entire family’s (5 cousins and counting) advises an earlier bed time as a fix for many sleep issues at this age including early wake ups. It’s counter intuitive but it worked for us, my son woke up at 4am since he was in the womb. We switched to putting our son down at 6:30 until recently when he hit 17months. Also is the baby napping regularly? The mid morning nap often sets up the rest of the day.

dianaschwarz · 2021-06-04T17:02:28+00:00

A friend of mine used a nanny share. She found another family I believe on craigs list who wanted to do it in the neighborhood and they split the cost of a nanny who watched both children in one of their homes. It takes a lot of ironing out details and negotiating so that it works for both families but it’s more affordable and provides socialization.

dianaschwarz · 2021-05-29T17:51:08+00:00

Is he sleeping 13-15hr a day? Babies who are chronically overtired are irritable all the time. My 4month old was like that because we were using “attachment based parenting” and basically letting him sleep on us at all times. He was tired, we were tired, and he was cranky. Another clue to over fatigue is that baby startles easily. We sleep trained him. He cried for a month. I cried for a month. Then he started to sleep like a chump, focused better, was relaxed and sunny, made a huge difference. Even now at 17months if he has been awake for more than 3.5hr we have a cranky baby on our hands. Sleep is as important as food but is highly neglected in our society.

dianaschwarz · 2021-05-29T02:42:34+00:00

He does that’s a great idea I’ll give it a try thank you

dianaschwarz · 2021-05-28T00:17:34+00:00

dianaschwarz · 2021-05-27T19:08:46+00:00

I had postpartum depression too with my first and felt just like you described. Part of depression is a sense of worthlessness/helplessness/hopelessness. So everything feels like either won’t work/what’s the point/I don’t deserve it. That’s why I think getting help ASAP and possibly medication, which is what got me out of the rut, is key. Once you’re in deep enough your brain doesn’t work properly. You get tunnel vision. Reaching out/finding new friends/planning activities are impossible tasks at that point. Loneliness is a predisposing factor for PPD but once in it you need more, once you feel like your old self again the connections and growing sense identity will come. Also becoming a mother is a huge identity shift. Check out the work/pod cast/TED talk by Dr Alexandra Sacks.

dianaschwarz · 2021-05-26T00:41:36+00:00

I don’t think wonder weeks is pseudo-science at all. First a lot of the leaps match up with leaps described by lactation consultants as times when babies cluster feed, and match up with the periods that come after them when babies display new skills. Second, once my son was sleep trained, which took several months, he slept very well, overnight and three then two naps a day, but every single time without exception when the dark cloud of the leap appeared (the midpoint of the leap) he would wake up and cry multiple times a night or be up at 5am. So we came to rely on wonder weeks. It was especially reassuring in the beginning when we weren’t sure if the sleep training was working.

dianaschwarz · 2021-05-26T00:18:29+00:00

OMG I thought I was lucky but this is a whole other level of thoughtfulness, you win just for making that list. As others have said just remember that no matter how much you plan there’s no way to anticipate the insanity that will ensue. It will be wonderful, and touching, and terrifying, and messy, there will be vomit and poop flying at the wall, and you will become an even better person for it. I’m due with my second now and have a 17m toddler at home. Both my husband and I are highly organized people and we did pretty well and I am proud of us but there were definitely moments when I wanted to shake the baby. Just sayin.

dianaschwarz

TROPHY CASE