Sorry for the editorial hiatus — Mr. MomSquawk and I got our signals crossed as to who would have blog posting responsibilities while I was away… taking Disneyland by storm with fellow MomSquawkers virgierox, ineedcoffee, ABH, Kristi and doriankaye! But now that we’re back, it’s all systems go… hot dog, hot dog, hot diggity dog!
Posted by mctex
Hi, all ~
As you may have noticed, the MomSquawk forums have been acting extremely erratically over the past several days. Users may have had an experience to where they could access all other areas of the site except the forums, and this is why.
MomSquawk admin is aware of the problem, and is currently working with our technical team to address the situation. Unfortunately, the solution will probably involve the deletion of several threads, which will result in a reduction of user post counts. If your altered post count is problematic for you, please email your accurate post count to squawk@momsquawk.com, and we can manually make the adjustment.
We anticipate the problem will be resolved within the next few days. For those who have not checked out our forums, we definitely invite you to do so — you’ll find a smorgasboard of discussion sure to intrigue anyone!
Thanks for your continued patience.
The MomSquawk Staff
What a year it has been!
We had some sad times - including the Utah mine disaster, the California fires, and the Virginia Tech shootings.
We also said goodbye to Harry Potter and the Sopranos.
It was not all bad though… 2007 did bring us the iPhone!
We were informed again and again that obesity is ever increasing and it is a serious threat to our future health and our medical system.
And we learned that many toys aren’t safe and it is perhaps time to make a stand to ensure the safety of our children.
Women’s health has made many advances this past year, and I wish all of us wonderful women good health!
On the entertainment side, we bid a sad farewell to Anna Nicole Smith, and we watched with our boxes of popcorn in hand how Lindsay Lohan is seemingly crawling out of her dependency hole, while Britney Spears is diving deeper down.
For sports, we saw Tom Brady pull a nice one out of somewhere to lead the Patriots to a perfect season (that’s for you Supa!), and college football was a rollercoaster ride that has sparked many passionate debates about the BCS system. But many of our favorite athletes fell to scandals - Michael Vick, Floyd Landis, Marion Jones, and a whole lotta baseball players… leaving a lot of wide-eyed kids disappointed by their heroes.
We also watched our politicians gear up for the presidential race that has us wondering if we will see the first female President next year. (BTW - this is not an endorsement!)
Over on the boards, we celebrated the births of many future squawkers, we watched our precious ones grow a year older, we supported each other through the sleepless nights, potty training, magic marker mishaps and terrible two’s. And we marvel at the strength of our guy, Mikey. We shared the good times and the bad, laughed and cried and we can’t wait to do more in 2008!
Love to you all and all the best for 2008!
Posted by Meganlux
10. For this crazy thing called the Internet — allowing us to share this wonderful journey of motherhood with people we have come to love, yet have never met.
9. For our soldiers. Politics aside, their personal sacrifice for our freedom is beyond admirable.
8. For our good fortune. We don’t have to look very far to realize just how lucky we are.
7. For lucky number seven. What does this mean? I have no idea.
6. For the yummy, yummy food. Yes, it’s trite. But you know it’s true.
5. For our children. Really. Even though getting them dressed today will be nothing less than a two hour battle.
4. For spell check. (Or is it spellcheck? In honor of the holiday, we’ll give it the day off.)
3. For our MomSquawk blog team — in having so many interesting things to say and so many wonderful ways to say it.
2. For our readers and members — in showing up every day you inspire us to do the same.
1. For MommaSteph — in viewing things through your eyes we have learned so much, not just about you, but about the world, our families and ourselves. Your wisdom and humor will be sorely missed.
I love my kids to pieces, but whoever told me that going from 0-1 was harder than from 1-2 was apparently from a planet where babies are born self-sufficient. Having two kids fairly close in age can be tough, even on a good day. Here are my tips for surviving those first few months (geared toward families with an infant and a toddler):
Consider sleeping in shifts. My husband works second shift; he’s rarely home before 2am. My son sometimes screams from 7pm-midnight. Six weeks ago, neither one of us was getting more than three or four hours of sleep, and we were both miserable. (That, and if he pretended not to hear the baby crying at 4am one more time, I was going to invest in a cattle prod and a branding iron!) We sat down and talked about what we could do to maximize sleep for both of us. Now, he takes the baby’s night wakings - I realize this may not work for breastfeeding mothers, although if your baby will take a bottle, you could perhaps pump in advance for overnight feedings) - and I get up at six or so with both kids. He gets up around noon and gives me an hour or two of rest before he leaves for work. We are both much happier!
Housekeeping (or not). With a newborn and another small child to care for, your house probably isn’t your top priority right now. Still, it’s frustrating to deal with a messy living space on top of everything else. You don’t have to spend a ton of time cleaning every day in order to get things looking decent again - take our Martini Challenge, courtesy of the new Domestic Divas board. A ‘Tini Challenge is a mini-cleaning project you can do in fifteen minutes or less, and new challenges are posted daily Monday through Friday.
Let your other child(ren) help. Small children get jealous of their new siblings and have trouble expressing those feelings, so you’re likely to see some acting out from them. That can be hard to deal with when you’re also juggling your newborn’s needs. I’ve found that if I can include my two-year-old daughter in whatever I’m doing with the baby, she’s less likely to pitch fits and is more interested in what we’re doing instead of focusing on the fact that Mommy isn’t playing one-on-one with her. She hands me clean diapers or his bottle (I leave it on her table once I’ve made it and go to pick him up) or a burp cloth, and she loves to choose his clothes.
Nip frustration in the bud. As soon as you feel that “ARGH!” building up inside, take a step back and consider the situation. If you just plain need a break, put the baby and your other child in safe places and take five minutes to regroup. Remember that a little crying won’t hurt anyone (including you - go ahead and let it out if you need to; you’re not alone!), and a quick recharge does a lot of good. If you’re calm, it’s easier to calm everyone else down!
Don’t be afraid to ask for help. This one is twofold. Take people up on offers to watch a kid (or both of them, hallelujah!) for a few hours. More importantly, be aware of your own emotional state. Postpartum depression doesn’t always show up right away, and it doesn’t always manifest itself as sadness, anger, or destructive thoughts (though these are definitely signs, especially when they don’t go away or keep recurring). If you constantly find yourself feeling “blah” or numb/distant, even toward things you normally like, you may have PPD. Ask for help - call your OB. Admitting you need help doesn’t make you a bad mom - just the opposite, in fact! You deserve to enjoy your children’s childhood days as much as they deserve an emotionally healthy mom. (If you are having destructive thoughts - thoughts of harming yourself, your baby, or your other child(ren), please seek help right away!)
This too shall pass! As rough as some of these early days may be, it won’t be like this forever! Try to focus on the positives (your baby’s chubby legs, his first smile - even if it hasn’t happened yet, your older child’s abilities, etc.) and keep in mind that these days are fleeting.
Posted by Sunshining.
Welcome to the brand new MomSquawk!
It’s taken a long time, but we’ve finally outgrown our old message board and blog. The new integrated site is finally here. We couldn’t have done it without the ongoing support and encouragement of our members - thank you so much for that. You have no idea how much you have motivated us to create MomSquawk!
So let’s get on with it! Here are a few important notes about the new MomSquawk.
1. This is just the beginning! We are more committed than ever to providing you with the site that you want. Please use the suggestion box to send us your ideas for improvements.
2. Welcome to MomSquawk! is a forum that contains resources to help you get to know the new website. Feel free to ask questions and report problems there. There is also a tutorial posted to help you find your way around the new forums.
3. This is your community and we need your help to make it the best it can be. While we’ve tried to make our new home perfect, there may be a bug here and there. If you see something that doesn’t work the way you think it should first check the FAQ, and then let us know about it! Post in Welcome to MomSquawk! or email us. We’ll do our best to fix bugs quickly.
4. For those of you who read the MomSquawk Blog through a feed reader, the new feed can be found at http://feeds.feedburner.com/Momsquawk. (If you’re not sure what a feed reader is, don’t worry about it, you’re fine.)
5. All* members of the old MomSquawk message board were set up new MomSquawk Basic (free) accounts on the new MomSquawk. Your username will remain the same. However, when you try to log in, your old password will not work. When you try to login for the first time, click on “I forgot my password”, and your new password will be sent to your email address on record with us. Make sure to check your spam folder if you don’t get this email. Once you’ve got your new password, you can change it by going to My Account.
* If you joined in the last few days, your account may not have made it over. If that’s the case, just create a new one.
Thank you and enjoy,
The MomSquawk Staff
