Trying to view as a blessing...

[LilLamb219]

It's not anyone's business and don't let anyone make you feel guilty. People can be so rude.

You ARE blessed.

Flipper is right, it's no one's business. There's nothing wrong with loving babies

 

[PreachersWife2004]

I don't think my husband was too happy with the gay comment, but he understood anyway. He doesn't have to deal with this part of things. All he knows is that in nine months he's gonna have to get the gum cigars again and if he has his way they'll be the blue ones!

I'm not one to be "private" about my pregnancies, although I do get quite perturbed when people just come up and rub my belly. I did tell someone that a genie wasn't gonna pop out so could she please stop. If someone ASKS me, I'm all for it.

I do realize that children are a blessing from God. But could someone call me at 4am and remind me when I'm changing a poopy diaper and I'm half awake? Thanks...

 

[latebloomer]

Yeah, that diaper business gets old sometimes. We had some foster kids once when Tiger was 2 1/2--one was about to turn 3, one was 15 months old. All in diapers. I would have enjoyed them a lot more if I hadn't been sick the entire time we had them.

 

[Flipper]

I can take those kids with poopy diapers off your hands if you want.

 

[latebloomer]

We sent our two spares home--happy ending. We got to keep Tiger. We had just adopted him and were getting ready for his baptism at the time.

Tiger was talking today about having a brother and sister. We're playing phone tag with an adoption worker. We'll just have to wait and see what the Lord has planned for us.

 

[Flipper]

We sent our two spares home--happy ending. We got to keep Tiger. We had just adopted him and were getting ready for his baptism at the time.

Tiger was talking today about having a brother and sister. We're playing phone tag with an adoption worker. We'll just have to wait and see what the Lord has planned for us.

How exciting!!! I pray God continues to open the right doors for you.

 

[PreachersWife2004]

I can take those kids with poopy diapers off your hands if you want.

Oh, it's not the KIDS I want to be rid of!!! Just the poopy diapers!!

 

[Flipper]

Oh, it's not the KIDS I want to be rid of!!! Just the poopy diapers!!

Well, I'm not going to take just poopy diapers.

 

[PreachersWife2004]

Well, I'm not going to take just poopy diapers.

How diapers with pee pee too?

I tell ya, these kids are full of all of it. I think I changed six poopy diapers today. SIX! That's an average of three per kid!

We're gonna see if Aaron might not be interested in using the big-boy potty soon...

 

[Flipper]

Oh man, you have a challenge ahead of you. Doesn't it usually take boys longer to potty train than girls? Or, is it the other way around?

You think you get the strange comments. I have the opposite problem. 35 years old, married 8 years, no kids (unless you count the kitties - they act like kids sometimes). We're trying, it's no secret, but there are a few people we've chosen to not share that info with. The comments we get... It's mostly from his family. I've started telling them that we aren't having any kids because I'm too much a career woman. The looks on the faces are classic - caused a major scandal last Easter. Hee hee!

If I do get pregnant, I have a special cheezy maternity T-shirt that I'm going to buy. When we decide to tell his family I'm pregnant, which will be when I'm as far along as I can be, I plan to just wear the T-shirt. My husband thinks I should just hide out and we not tell them until I'm in the delivery room. That's too mean, though it's tempting.

I'm also looking for one for if we are adopting for sure, but haven't found the perfect T-shirt for that yet.

 

[LilLamb219]

Girls are easier to potty train. I was trained at 1 and my daughter was trained at age 2.

 

[Confess]

I've had boys take 2 weeks to train and others who still wet the bed at 7 years old.

It all depends on the child.

 

[PreachersWife2004]

I babysat for people when they were potty training and they were having a much harder time with their girls than their boys.

The cheerio method works wonders with the boys, but it's harder to come up with creative ideas on how to motivate a female child to potty train.

My mom used the bathroom sink and a candy bar for me.

 

[latebloomer]

We used every bribery method we could think of with Tiger. Thomas the train toys, candy, underwear with his choice of superheroes...nothing worked until he decided on his own one day. Chemotherapy didn't help much. He's still not reliable at night, but in the daytime he's in the bathroom every 10 minutes, it seems. Maybe he'll be a plumber when he grows up.

 

[Flipper]

Does he still play with those Thomas the Train toys? Are they made out of wood? There's a recall out due to lead paint being used on many of the wooden toys (they are made in China).

Lead poisoning is nasty stuff. If they are wood, and he is playing with them, let me know and I'll try to find out the recall information (and meanwhile please take them away).

 

[latebloomer]

Thanks Flipper. I know about the recall. My SIL emailed me and there's a thread in the CF parenting section with a link. He has the metal ones. He had a couple of wood ones that came with videos, but we have already taken away the one affected by the recall. What we did was every time he had a "success", we'd give him a piece of track. Every once in a while, we'd let him trade us some track for a new engine. He wanted the track and engines, but he wasn't motivated enough for them to work as potty training rewards. I think he just finally decided he wanted to be a "big boy".

We had a call from the adoption worker today. He told us about a few kids, including a couple of sibling pairs. He didn't have much information yet, so don't know yet if we'll be a good match. They usually consider several families for each child, looking for the right combination. I'm praying for our Lord to lead us to the right child, the way He brought Tiger to us.

 

[KimLCMS]

God bless all of you ladies who are having babies, trying to have babies and trying to adopt. You're in my prayers!

 

[Flipper]

Thanks Flipper. I know about the recall. My SIL emailed me and there's a thread in the CF parenting section with a link. He has the metal ones. He had a couple of wood ones that came with videos, but we have already taken away the one affected by the recall. What we did was every time he had a "success", we'd give him a piece of track. Every once in a while, we'd let him trade us some track for a new engine. He wanted the track and engines, but he wasn't motivated enough for them to work as potty training rewards. I think he just finally decided he wanted to be a "big boy".

We had a call from the adoption worker today. He told us about a few kids, including a couple of sibling pairs. He didn't have much information yet, so don't know yet if we'll be a good match. They usually consider several families for each child, looking for the right combination. I'm praying for our Lord to lead us to the right child, the way He brought Tiger to us.

Just to keep in the back of your mind, lead poisoning symptoms don't show up until the child is school age, so poisoning can happen without you knowing. Also, lead naturally chelates in 30 days, so if you were to get him tested today, he'd probably be negative, but that doesn't mean he wasn't exposed. Though it sounds like he had a tiny bit of exposure if any.

We don't work on as many lead cases anymore, because they are so difficult to litigate, but we'll do it if a good one comes in. Back when we were doing it full time, I saw hundreds of children affected, and how horribly silent the disease is.

Praying for your adoption situation.

 

[latebloomer]

Flipper, thanks for your prayers. I'm praying for your situation too. Anyway, he never played with that particular engine much, so I hope the exposure is minimum--at least he was past the putting-toys-in-his-mouth stage when we got it. And our house is new enough that lead paint isn't an issue there either. He has enough problems already. Right now, his main problem, from his point of view, is that his mean mommy and daddy make him come inside when it isn't even dark yet, so he can't chase lightning bugs. That and he doesn't have a dog anymore--old age caught up with our old golden retriever mix not long ago.

 

[Flipper]

What a lot of people don't realize is that lead tastes sweet, like candy, so it is natural for children to put a toy with lead paint in their mouths. Or, if there is chipping lead paint, to eat the paint chips.

While those things will elevate levels, what will get extremely high levels and the most damage is when the old paint turns to dust and the kids breathe that in.

If the toys were in good shape, then, chances of exposure really was at a minimum so there probably is nothing for you to worry about.

There are, however, studies showing that even the tiniest minimum level in the blood can cause damage. None of those studies have held up in litigation of childhood lead poisoning cases, but they are legitimate studies. Right now the EPA considers under 10 micrograms per deciliter safe (35 for adults). The studies are saying even less than that can still harm you. To put in perspective, for those of us who lived in the days of leaded gasoline, we probably all had elevated levels (lead in fumes too) at one time. Scary thought.

But... I don't mean to scare you. Most of the cases I've worked on had to do with children living in slum houses that haven't been painted in decades, so bad that no amount of cleaning can get rid of all the dust. I doubt some toys from China that were inadvertently given a coat of leaded paint, are going to cause massive problems. However, I use every opportunity I can to share the dangers of lead poisoning in children.

Praying for your adoption situation.