kirsten

I have been under tremendous stress lately due to the combination of suffering 2 miscarriages in 3 months, my marriage hitting a rocky patch and "breaking-up" with my best friend. As a result I decided to get my life back on track and make some changes to better myself. So this week I started exercising every day and eating about 75% better than usual. I have been doing this for 4 days.

Then today, I woke up and am almost unable to function. I am so tired that not even 3 cups of coffee and a red bull were able to give me even an ounce of energy. Just changing my toddler's diapers feels like a chore today. I had a good night's sleep and cannot figure out why I am feeling this way.

Is it just the stress or is it possible that making too many positive lifestyle changes all at once can make your body shut down??

I have a long-term relationship with my mother-in-law. In fact, we used to have a very close relationship. However, as soon as I got pregnant with our daughter she has been driving me CRAZY!!! Before we even had a baby, she bought a book of baby names for herself, plus a newborn bath tub and a crib. Now that our toddler is 17 months, she is in our lives constantly. She is always telling me how to raise her, how to dress her, what kind of music I should be exposing her to etc. She has a key to our house and she lets herself in our house whether or not I answer the bell. She buys her presents we tell her we want to buy her. She feeds her all kinds of junk food and laughs about it (I try to teach my daughter to eat healthy).... Its making me want to be nowhere near her. I cringe when I see her name on caller ID. I ALWAYS ask my own mother first before asking her to babysit. I am shutting her out because I haven't got the balls to tell her to back off a little. I believe strongly that it takes a village to raise a child and would NEVER stand in the way of a granddaughter and grandmother, but she drives me mental!!!! How do I cope with her? What do I say to her? How can I assert myself without damaging our relationship? Please help!!!

I gained about 55 pounds when I got pregnant with my daughter.

Now that she is year old, I have lost all but 8 pounds (yes, some of that weight loss was baby and fluid)

I am now 5' 3", and weigh 140 pounds, which according to height and weight charts, is overweight (by one pound). But I don't feel like I look nearly that big! I look at other women my same height and weight on shows like X-Weighted, and I feel like they look MUCH bigger than me.

I eat pretty well, everything from scratch, no meat at all, no white anything, lots of veggies... I exercise for 30 minutes plus 4-5 times per week... But according to these charts I am overweight...

Do I lack accurate self-perception? Or is there something wrong with height and weight charts???

Just about the day after my daughter turned one, she started throwing tantrums. I mean all out screaming, arching her back, flailing about, no calming her down, tantrums. It happens at home, but seems to happen most when I am out and about with her at the mall or the grocery store. It's embarrassing because I feel like people are looking at me like I am a bad mom because I can't control my child.

I don't understand why this is happening, the tantrums don't appear to be a response to anything. I am a loving, stay at home mother. I feed her well. She gets all of her needs met. She gets lots of positive attention... when she has these tantrums I just don't know what to do. If I hold her she tries to shove her way out of my arms, if I try to let her walk, she sits on the floor of the store and screams, ignoring her is easier said than done when we are in public...

HELP!!!

I have 2 questions about ketchup potato chips:

1.) Is it true that you can't buy this flavour of chips in the states? (I am Canadian). If so, why?

2.) Every time I eat ketchup flavoured chips or dill pickle chips it makes me sweat like crazy. No one else I have talked to has this problem. Why does this happen to me? Am I a freak of nature????

My 11 month old has this (what I hear is common) habit of pinching and scratching my chest. Its not an aggressive thing, but more of an affection thing. The problem is that she does it so much that my chest is now covered in scabs (seriously).

I've tried every piece of advice I could google, and nothing is working. I move her hand and say "no" firmly. I wear higher cut tops (she just pulls them down as soon as I let my guard down). I try to swaddle her hands when possible, but that often makes her fuss like crazy. I try distracting her. She will always find some way to scratch/pinch me once my guard is down. Now she's even started to pick at the scabs when I am not paying attention (I carry her a lot).

I am desperately hoping someone out there has some unique advice that can help me, because I am at my wits end. Its getting hot outside, and I have to wear scarves everywhere to cover up all of the scabs. Just typing this makes me want to cry. I love my daughter, but this habit of hers is making me bananas.

My husband and I are headed to the Dominican Republic next week. We are taking our 10 month old daughter with us. There are two nights (one a wedding, and one a date night) that we would like to be able to stay out as late as we would like. As such, we are considering hiring the on-staff in suite babysitting services.

My child gets babysat often, but always by family and close friends. I have never left her with a stranger, let alone a stranger in a strange country. I would only have her babysat AFTER she goes to bed, so the sitter would not need to interact with her... but I am still nervous.

Should I relax and trust that my child will be fine with resort staff, or does anyone think I might have reason to worry?

My husband, 10 month old baby and I are heading to the Dominican Republic in 11 days and staying at an all-inclusive resort. My baby goes to bed at 8pm every night. My husband is concerned that we are at risk of getting stuck in the hotel room doing nothing every single night once my baby needs to go to bed.

His solution??

He bought a walkie-talkie that can work hands-free. He figures we can use it like a baby monitor at night. Leave our baby in the hotel room, and roam around the resort freely after she goes to bed.

To me, this is leaving the baby unattended in a strange place and I am totally not comfortable with it.

My husband says its no different than leaving her alone in her bedroom in the evening and hanging around our house using the baby monitor to listen in on her like we do at home.

Am I being over-protective and paranoid by not feeling comfortable with this, or is he being irresponsible by wanting to do this?

I decided to begin weaning my 10 month old about 7 weeks ago (she has far more teeth than average, and the biting was just getting way out of control). I researched weaning thoroughly, and tried to make weaning as gradual as possible. I weaned her over 6 weeks, replacing about one feed every week or two with a bottle of formula. Last Sunday I breastfed her for the last time (sigh).

The first two days my breasts felt soft and natural. About the 3rd day they became engorged, which I figured would pass, and it did. Then today (4 days later) they became very hard, lumpy and very tender. Massaging them causes them to leak (I was never able to express milk so easily before).

I had read about using cabbage leaves, but don't have cabbage on hand and there is a snow-storm outside preventing me from driving to get any. Should I be worried about this? Is this the beginning of a blocked duct, or an infection?

I thought I weaned as naturally as possible, and am disappointed with this result. Any advice on how to simmer these puppies down? Should I run to my doctor? Should I just express a little (I am worried that will make the milk keep coming)? Should I just keep massaging them?

Help!

I am traveling to the Dominican Republic (from Canada) in two weeks with my husband and 10 month old daughter. I just weaned her off the breast, and want to hold off for a month or two on giving her whole cow's milk, so I will need to have formula to feed her the week we are away.

I wanted to pack my own can of powdered formula in my checked luggage (I know you can have formula in your diaper bag to give them on the plane)... is it alright to bring formula to the Dominican Republic? Or would that be considered outside food which might be banned? I really don't want to have to buy formula while I am there. My little girl is really picky about formula and its hard to get a brand that she will drink.

I have googled this to death and can't find what I am looking for. I do not need to know when babies start "sleeping through the night" as in being able to sleep more than 2 hours at a time. I need to know when babies start sleeping like regular human beings. No waking up at all, all night.

My little girl started sleeping 9 - 6:30am at about 3 and a half months. Then, around 5.5 months she went back to waking up 2-3 times a night. She is now 9 months old and I lose count how many times she gets up at night. Last night might have been 10 times! We have read every book, tried every method of sleep training there is, co-slept, cried it out... nothing helps. When will she grow out of this and just let me sleep? One year? Two years?

I am starting to loose my mind.

Okay, I'm a moron when it comes to this kind of stuff... but cut me a break, I grew up in the 80s and 90's and didn't have the internet until I was 20...

Anyway, the only way I know how to get music for my ipod is by buying it from itunes. But there are a bunch of songs that I want that itunes doesn't have (namely "I can't believe my eyes" by Air Supply, and the "Play with me" theme song from "Cool World").

Can anyone help me figure out where to get these songs off the net? And I'll need it explained to me like I'm a blonde... because I am one.

Someone told me when I was pregnant that one of the reasons we know that acetaminophen is so safe for pregnant ladies and babies is because it was tested on the Jews during the Holocaust (as they did all kinds of human tests during that time on the Jews). As HORRIFIED as I was to learn about this, I am unable to find any literature, documentation or proof that this is true. There is plenty of literature about the fact that the Jews were tested on, but I can't find anything about acetaminophen. I am just curious if this is actually true, because if it is I find it an interesting, though sad, bit of trivia.

Imagine you were a principal and had two students in your office, one a bully, the other her victim. How would you handle the situation to ensure that the bullying did not continue?

I am planning to wean my now 8 month old daughter starting in about a month or two (I just can't handle nursing anymore, for a variety of personal reasons). But she's such a nursing addict, I am unsure of how to make this process as easy on her as possible. I don't even know what the first step is.

Can anyone share with me how they weaned their own babies successfully and with as little distress on the baby as possible?

My daughter is only 8 months old, and I just love her to pieces. However, I am already seeing signs of her being very demanding and impatient. I know other mom's with babies the same age who are already trying to teach their babies right from wrong, telling them no, that sort of thing.

Half of me thinks she's way too young for any sort of discipline, that she couldn't possibly understand right from wrong at this age. The other half wonders if starting now would set me up for a well behaved child in the future.

I studied childhood development in university, but only for school aged children. I know nothing about this stuff for kids aged 0-3. Any thoughts?

My 8 month old daughter slept right through the night from 3 months to 5 months. Then from 5 months to 7.5 months she started getting up again between 2 and 6 times a night. We eventually couldn't take it anymore and decided to "sleep-train" her using the "Sleep Sense" method in which you stay in the room for support, but let baby fall asleep on her own in the crib (no rocking, nursing, soother etc. to aid her to sleep). We've now seen awesome results, she sleeps all night and is able to usually put herself back to sleep when she wakes up EXCEPT, she's up every morning now at 4:30 am, and will cry, nonstop until I get up and nurse her. We're trying our best, but no amount of patience seems to get her to stay in bed. I am okay with an early morning... I could handle a 6am wake up, but I just can't function getting up at 4:30 to start my day.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to get her to sleep an hour or two longer in the morning?

Side note: she clearly could use an extra hour or two sleep two, as she has been fussier than usual since starting to get up that early.

My husband is a wonderful man, and by no means at all a violent man... but his temper is shorter than any person I have ever known. Though his anger is usually not directed toward me and I am certain he would never harm anyone, it seems like the littlest things cause him to fly off the handle. If he can't find his keys, the computer doesn't work properly, he can't find a misplaced document; little things that most people would just brush off cause him to yell, scream and swear and even throw things around.

I grew up with a father who almost never got angry, so being around this male anger, whether or not it's directed at me is frightening and new to me. If I try to talk to him about it, it only leads to a fight. I need to find a way to cope when he is in a rage. A way to deal with my own emotions, fears, anxieties that I feel when he is angry... but I am unable to find any relevant books, articles etc. on the subject. All of the information seems geared at abused women, or is more for people trying to deal with their own anger. I just want to find ways to not let my husband's anger bother me, and I am out of ideas.

Does anyone know of a decent resource? Maybe an al-anon-type deal for people affected by others' anger instead of others' drinking or something?? Any information would be so much help. We have a baby girl, and I want her to see that daddy's anger is no big deal, and that it doesn't bother mommy so it shouldn't bother her.