MommyOfTWO

My husband builds bridge here in Illinois.. Illinois is the most IN DEBT STATE and there are NO road funds being released anytime soon. He has been blessed to get in with a good company however his job is finishing up in November and his company has NO work, which means in November he will be laid off of work, for who knows how long. 2 years ago he was laid off for 7 months.. which means we will be able to collect unemployment, but that about 1/3 of our NOW monthly income. We have roughly $28,000 in debt that I want to pay down really bad.

We live 40 min from the wis/illinois border. Wisconsin is BOOMING in construction, and needing workers fast. They have dozens of HUGE 4 year projects and work overtime, and through the winter. My husband would take a 6$ pay cut, but with working overtime and through the winter, he would make more money a week then he does now only working 40 hour weeks.

He is so loyal to this company and likes working for them but if they have no work, it means he won't work, which means I will have to work 3 jobs (I already have them lined up) and 18 hrs a day 7 days a week to make what our income is now (Im not even kidding).

My parents who live 5 min away from us now sold their house and are moving 4 hrs north (wisconsin) in 2 weeks. My dad is already in with a huge company and they said they can hire my husband whenever his job his done. But that would mean he would have to work in Wisconsin and possibly drive an hour or 2 to work (hes been blessed and the furthest he has had to drive to work is 25 min.)

My parents have offered to give us a down payment on a house, and my dad has offered to get my husband in with the company. If we were to move to Wisconsin we would be 45 min from where we are now.

My husband says he doesn't want to leave this area (our rent is insanely high, and everything is so expensive around here). the cost of living is so much cheaper in wis. What do I do? I refuse to sit here and watch us get further into debt, and live pay check to pay check. He says he would rather move our 2 children (21 months and 7 months) to his ALCOHOL WHORE mothers house where she has 2 weird creepy men living with her, whom she sleeps with both and he drinks from the time she gets up til the time she goes to sleep. We would have to live in her unfinished basement and pay her 600$ rent each month (our mortgage on a house in wis. in our price range would be 650$)

He thinks i just want to move up there to be by my parents, and ya, I love my parents, but they would still be 3 hours up north! So its not like we are moving next door! We will be 4 min from the wis./illinois border! He doesn't want to leave his friends and freaking bowling league.

What do I do? My parents are offering to GIVE us not lend, but GIVE us a down payment on a house, a job, and stability and my husband doesn't want to take it. I cant sit here and watch him bring the whole family down. I don't want to worry are my kids going to have diapers this winter..

What do I do

I want to start my own business putting cute/funny sayings on baby/kids clothing.

I don't want to get the stupid iron on patches/letters.. I want to make these quality shirts that aren't going to fade/fall off after 2 times in the wash!

What should I use? I'm not entirely sure what screen printing is.

If it makes a difference, I have a really nice HP officejet printer, and a macbook pro 5i

Thanks for your help

My son ever since he was born has NOT slept. When he was first born he woke every 45 min to nurse. He still does this at 6 months. He won't sleep unless I am holding him (Co-sleeping is not an option so don't mention it!)

He naps maybe an hour and a half throughout the day in 10-15 minute naps broken up throughout the day. At night he goes down at 8pm after he nurses, bath, read a book and I rock him to sleep. I've tried multiple routines. I can get him to sleep from 8-10pm and then he is up, wants to nurse, so I nurse him back to sleep. As soon as I put him in his crib he wakes up. It usually takes me an hour to get him to go back to sleep. And then after he wakes up every 30 min. for the rest of the night he wakes up at 3:00 AM every day for the day. And stays up until 11AM then starts his little 10-15 min naps through the day.

I'm losing my mind. 6, almost 7 months of this is taking a toll on me. On average I get 3-4 hours of sleep in a week. I can NOT deal with this anymore. His doctor just says "well don't nurse him to sleep anymore, he doesn't need to eat at night"

I'm so exhausted. I cant be a good mom anymore because I'm so tired, Im shaking all the time, have migranes because of the lack of sleep.. what can I do?

I would like to consolidate all of my credit card bills into ONE bill each month. I don't want debt consolidation, I don't want any stupid company that is going to take my money, I just want to be able to put all of my credit card bills into one big payment each month. Is there a company that isn't going to take half of my payments each month to do this?

My kids are 20.5 months and 6.5 months and it seems like in the last 2 weeks they have just hit a milestone growth spurt! haha.

My daughter, 20.5 months has really recently started putting sentances together. She was a little delayed with talking, but lately has been saying "is it mine?" "Yes Please" "Thank You" "Addie Kiss Kolt" "How You Doing?" and a few others! She is also climbing more than ever, pushing chairs or anything that she can climb over to the counter top to get on top of it and get things up there.

My son, 6.5 months. He has been army crawling since he was 4 months, but really just mastered the sprint crawl. haha. He has also mastered crawling up the stairs. and is actually pulling himself up on everything and cruising furniture! He has also been saying mamamama and daddadadad. Not Bababa though cause he has no idea what a baba is haha. He is also eating a ton! And getting really good at picking up food and putting it in his mouth.

Mommy is so proud.

What have your babies done lately!?!

We had a Graco Quattro Tour Duo and I hated it! It was heavy, bulky, and annoying! So I sold that and want to get a jogging stroller side by side! What jogging stroller do you have?

My husband and I have decided on getting my son a Britax car seat. My daughter (20 month) has a Graco Nautilus, and it works great for her.

My son is 21lbs and 28.5 inches (our infant car seat limit is 22 lbs and 29 in) so we need to get a new car seat STAT! I'm going out tomorrow.

I drive a Ford Explorer, so size is not an issue. I have been looking at the Britax New Gen Boulevard car seat (i think it just came out).

Its 300$. Its 5-40lbs rear facing and 20-70 forward facing. Is this a good choice? There really aren't any reviews because it is new, but I like that it goes up to 40lbs on rear facing and 70 on forward. What Britax car seat do you use? What would you recommend??

My son will be 6 months old next week. He has shown signs of readiness to at least gnaw on food for about a month now, but we introduced food to him last weekend. We gave him a green bean, and an apple wedge. He really only gnawed on it until it broke.

I am new to this, as I gave baby food to my daughter. What are some good foods to give him? Cut up bananas? Steamed veggies? Today he had tiny cut up pieces of blueberries, one blueberry was cut into 4 pieces!

I'm so worried he is going to choke. What foods did you introduce to your baby?

Thanks!

My son is larrrgge! haha Hes almost 30 inches and 22lbs and only 6 months old! I guess he got Daddys tall genes! He has outgrown his infant car seat, and needs a convertible one. I the Graco Nautillus for my daughter, and we have another one, but rear facing wise, it sucks, the recline is so minor that his head would flop straight down. But its a great car seat for forward facing/booster seat. We did extended rear facing with my daughter, but she is 40 in. tall and could not rear face any longer because her legs were cramped up! But I would like to rear face with my son as long as I can,and use the graco nautillus for when we turn him around.

I would obviously like a car seat that will recline so my sons head isn't flopping forward. Also, I would like something that is reasonably priced, not over 200$. Also, if I could get one that I can use for rear facing, forward facing, and booster, that has a good recliner that would be awesome and I can just return the Graco Naustillus.

I have a Ford Explorer, so I don't have to cram it into my car, lots of space! Size isn't an issue!

THanks for your help!

I have an almost 20 month old little girl and an almost 6 month old little boy. Right now we live in a 3 bedroom town home, and each baby has their own room. Well my parents are moving soon and giving us a bunch of furniture (bed, dresser, shelves, etc). We were thinking about turing our sons room into a guest room/play room (my father in law lives in Atlanta, but works in chicago so he stays with us roughly 2 weeks/month, and sleeps on the couch) plus there are toys everywhere in the house! haha

Right now our son sleeps in his crib from 7PM-3AM and then comes and sleeps in our bed til 6AM. My daughter sleeps in her bed from 7PM-6AM, so they are on the same schedule, except my son gets up to nurse.

Would them sharing a room cause issues, like them waking each other up? My daughter tends to wake up in the middle of the night and whine a little and then go back to sleep, and obviously my son wakes up to nurse.

Have you ever done this? How did it work out?

My son is 4.5 months old and exclusively breastfed. My initial plan was to start him on solids at 6 months, or until he was really interested (even if that meant later than 6 months).

Well the last week or so he is sooo interested in everything we are eating. Reaching for the food, and opening his mouth and following the food when he is in my lap and I'm eating. I was going to nix out baby food all together and move to table food right off the bat, but since he is so little still I'm considering starting baby food since he is so interested in ALL food.

I know if he ate our table food it would be fine since everything we cook is all organic, healthy, and unprocessed so thats not an issue, but I didn't start table food with my daughter until she was over 6 months and that is when she seemed ready and starting doing what my son is already doing (granted she was a lot smaller then him, hes already 20lbs @ 4.5 months).

Should I start him on food? Obviously he will still be breastfed and only given food AFTER he breastfeeds, so he will still get all of his mama's milk! I plan on allowing him to wean when he is ready. :)

We want to upgrade out computer from our HP to the macbook pro. But we aren't sure what kind to get. We are looking at the 15" screen, but aren't sure about what to get the i5 or the i7.

We really just use our computer to put pictures of our kids on it (I take a lotta pics), and use the internet, and upload videos onto. I plan on going back to school, but don't think I'll really need it write papers or anything (its massage therapy school!)

What would you suggust? What kinda memory would we need? 4 or 8gb?

My husband was laid off for almost a year (he has been working for 3 months now, and we are good to go for him working! thank god) but during that time of him being laid off we racked up quite the credit card debt (About $15,000) We pay more then the minimum every month on all of them, but the interests rates are ungodly high, and I have talked to all the companies and they all refuse to drop them (jerks!)

Rather then cancelling the credit cards and hurting our credit, we want to pay them all off, and cut em up! and keep them open, and only use one for gas/groceries. I pay roughly $900 a month just on credit cards!

We can take out a personal unsecured loan through our bank, and pay $23.00 per every $1000 loaned, so if I do $13,000 it will be $300.00/month for 60 months to pay that all back, but we will pay $500.00/month to pay it back faster.

Will this hurt our credit scores? I would think it would improve it by paying off all the credit cards and not using them anymore..

My son is 13 weeks old and exclusively breastfed. The first 3 weeks breastfeeding him my nipples were cracked, bleeding and RAW! They healed and it has been smooth sailing. Except a week ago my nipples started feeling achey again and on the bottom of both nipples is a crack, not big, but certainly painful! I have been putting lanolin on them

after every feeding but ouchy! What would cause this to happen after 3 months?? He's not teething, has no teeth, and hasn't been eating more than usual, so I'm stumped. His latch is perfect like always. Anything else I can do to help them heal faster? What might have caused this????

My son is 9.5 weeks old, and EXCLUSIVELY breastfed. He has had a few bottles since he was born, and he did eeh okay with them. My husband and I have a memorial service to go to for his friend who was killed in Iraq, the service is 6 hours away, and we will be spending the night. We leave next Friday afternoon, the service Saturday late morning and we are leaving right after, so we will be gone a total of 24 hours.

My mother in law will be staying with our kids, and giving my son pumped breast milk through the bottle. My concern isn't him not eating, because he will, but that he will prefer the bottle after being fed with it. I'm so scared. My mother in law will have her hands FULL with our 16 month old and our 9.5 week old, and I don't want to tell her to spoon feed him or medicine dropper feed him because its hard with my daughter, but do you think us being gone for 24 hours will ruin our breastfeeding???? He takes a pacifier fine, and has no nipple confusion with that.

Help!

I just started cloth diapering my kids. And today here in Chicago it is 80 degrees. My son had on a blueberry minky with a cotton insert, no shirt no pants just the diaper. It is a bulky diaper that looks hot to me, but I wasn't really thinking when I put it on him. we walked to the park and he seems like he was really aggiated (he also had 4 vaccines today & his legs are super sore). I was soo scared that he was over heating, so as soon as we got there (10 minute walk) I let my daughter play for 10 minutes and I paniced and we left because I didn't want him getting over heated. As soon as we got home I nursed him so I knew he was hydrated. I have him in a bumgenius bamboo diaper right now, no cover.

Is he going to overheat in a cloth diaper? What is the best cloth diaper to use during the summer? I have lots of pocket diapers, a couple all in ones, lots of fitted and prefolds. Can I use a fitted diaper and a FLIP or Swaddlebees or Thirsties cover over the fitted diaper? He is already 16 lbs, a little chunker and I'm scared with all that fat haha that he will over heat.

I am DONE with disposables and moving onto bigger and better things, cloth diapers!

I will be cloth diapering my 16 month old daughter and my 2 month old son!

I have ordered a variety of cloth diapers, so I can choose which ones I like best and really build my stash (I have a friend who is having a baby in 5 months and will be cloth diapering, so she said she would buy the ones off me that I don't like for full price I paid)!

This is my inventory so far (waiting for them to come in the mail, should have all by monday!!)

I HAVE:

Fuzzi Bunz snaps size Med.

Bum Genius one size velcro

Happy Heinys one size velcro

Thirsties Duo Wrap Snap size two snap

Fuzzibunz one size snap

Blueberry minky pocket diaper one size velcro (camo! soo cute)

Flip Diaper Cover one size snap

As for prefolds/inserts..

Flip stay dry- 3

Cotton babies one size micro fiber - 6

Hemp babies little weeds- 3

Hemp babies diaper doubles - 3

Flip inserts disposable - 18

Chinese prefolds- 4

prefolds- 3

and I got 2 diaper fasteners.

How is that for starting out?? I will be doing part time cloth diapering until I am out of my disposables, about a week or so. So I will have time to buy more cloth diapers once I find out which ones I really like..

How is this for starting out?? Anything else I need? Wet bag I will just use a ziplock bag. And I have a pail that can be used for cloth or disposables.

What should I use for detergent? I have heard people make their own? If I buy some what is the BEST to use? I want these diapers to last!

My daughter is 16 months old, and my son is 8 weeks old. I currently use disposable diapers but quite frankly am sick of them!

My daughter has a diaper change at 6 AM, 9 AM, 12 PM, 3 PM and 6 PM and then sleep through the night so thats 5 diapers a day and she poops every day at 9 AM right at her nap time, very predictable.. My son (soley breastfed) has his diaper changed every 2 hours, except at night when he goes to bed at 8 PM and wakes at 3-4 AM to eat and then sleeps til 6 AM. And he has bowel movements every 2-3 days, with the occasional racing stripe in his diaper haha. So he goes through about 8-10 diapers a day.

Pros and Cons of getting cloth diapers?

How much will it cost? I'm looking at one size fit all.

I do a load of laundry a day with just baby clothes (my son has reflux really bad and my daughter is a slob haha), so washing the diapers everyday isn't really a big deal.

What kind of diapers do you like?

Was it easier to potty train?

My daughter is 16 months old, and my son is 8 weeks old. I currently use disposable diapers but quite frankly am sick of them!

My daughter has a diaper change at 6 AM, 9 AM, 12 PM, 3 PM and 6 PM and then sleep through the night so thats 5 diapers a day and she poops every day at 9 AM right at her nap time, very predictable.. My son (soley breastfed) has his diaper changed every 2 hours, except at night when he goes to bed at 8 PM and wakes at 3-4 AM to eat and then sleeps til 6 AM. And he has bowel movements every 2-3 days, with the occasional racing stripe in his diaper haha. So he goes through about 8-10 diapers a day.

Pros and Cons of getting cloth diapers?

How much will it cost? I'm looking at one size fit all.

I do a load of laundry a day with just baby clothes, so washing the diapers everyday isn't really a big deal.

What kind of diapers do you like?

Was it easier to potty train?

I have a 16 month old daughter and an 8 week old son, and I am considering switching to cloth diapers. I am a stay at home mom, and quite frankly sick and tired of buying diapers every week!

What info can you give me on cloth diapers? Pros and Cons? Why are they better then disposable diapers?

Thanks!