Motherhood: "The hardest job you will ever love!"
Philosophy: Through shared experiences, we believe women can learn and support each other while having fun!
Vision: While respecting the difference of each others' families, we can grow together.
Meetings: The club meets once a month. We will also have date nights, cooking classes, book clubs, charity work, play dates, and walking groups.
Suggested Meeting Topics: Nutrition, Vaccines, Child Development, Making Your Own Baby Food, Fashion, Skin Care, Interior Design, Personal Finance, Infant Massage, Love & Logic, Prenatal Care & Fitness, Marriage & Relationships, First Aid & Safety, Children's Literacy, Entertaining, Holiday & Children's Crafts, Gift Ideas, etc.
What To Think About For Each Meeting: Some of the meeting will take place in another location and will not be a standard meeting. For example, our September meeting will be our first "Date Night." For a standard meeting, please consider the following:
(Keep in mind, these are simply suggestions and we are not asking that you bring one from each category. Contribute as much as you wish! )
1. Gift Swap-Do you have a gift at home that someone else might find more useful? Bring it for our gift swap!
2. Pay It Forward-Have you read a really great article recently or any form of information that you would like to share with the group? If so, bring 20 copies to share at our next meeting!
3. Hot Tips-Have you heard of any fun fund raisers, cooking classes or any "Hot Tip" you want to post on our bulletin board to share with the group? If so, bring your tip with you to our meeting!
4. Idea Swap: Depending on the topic, it would be great if each guest brought an idea to share for our group conversation. Get your ideas down on paper and bring it along with you to the meeting to present to the group. If possible, make 20 copies to share or just bring your original and we can distribute copies for you at our next meeting.
Organizers: Amy & Danielle
About the Organizers: Danielle is a stay at home mom with three sons and a daughter. Amy is a part-time teacher with two sons. Both woman have bachelors and masters degrees in education.
Blog Discalmer: Information presented on this blog is believed to be accurate and reliable, however, NMF assumes no responsibility for any errors appearing in the information. Further, NMF assumes no responsibility for the use of the information provided. In some cases, the information may need to be updated. DO NOT RELY ON THE TEXT CONTAINED ON THIS WEBSITE IF THE PRECISE LANGUAGE IS IMPORTANT FOR YOUR PURPOSES.
Also, we welcome and appreciate various perspectives. Comments and postings are not necessarily the beliefs of all NMF members, if any. We believe we can learn and grow from being open to all.
14 comments:
My son Gavin is 2 1/2 years old. Fortunately, he has always been an awesome sleeper, so bedtime is easy for us. He drinks milk, watches TV for about 10-15 minutes, then we go upstairs, he brushes his teeth, tucks his baby doll in, says "Good night, mama" and falls asleep. As long as we stick to this routine, bedtime is easy for us. I hope baby number 2 is this easy :) --Amy
My twin sons who are 11 months old are sleeping well...NOW! It took months of trial and error before we figured out a good system. We feed them their last bottle while rocking them in their room, away from distraction. We also dim the lights, put on soft music and speak very quietly. We lay them down awake and 9 times out of 10, this routine works like a charm. Now, as some of you may have noticed, we have a rough night once in a while. :) Usually it is because we are off routine! My husband and I like to entertain and lately, when ever we have a gathering the boys do not want to go to bed! They are very social little guys and want to be where the party is!!! All in all, I am very happy with our routine. We have come along way!!! Danielle
I was very militant about a bedtime routine from an early age (like weeks old) and now we think that maybe our little girl doesn't respond as well to this as we hoped and we needed to chill out a bit! So we do bath and PJs, which gets her riled up, and then she hangs out in the living room for a little longer before bedtime...then nursing, book and songs in the chair in her room. We turn on the fan and put her in the crib. She typically cries for several minutes to 25...it depends and no matter how short of a time it is, it's hard to listen to. But HOPEFULLY she's learning to go to sleep without paci or movement (her two crutches) and the reward will be a better sleep in a few months...
I forgot, my Tess is 6 months old...
My twin girls are almost 11-months. We usually start calming down both the girls around 6:45 by reading and cuddling. One twin goes to her crib about 7 and falls asleep. The other twin used to struggle sleeping, but does wll now. She goes down about 7:30. She wakes up about 9 to eat again and then is down the rest of the night. Sometimes both my girls stand up in their cribs and yell out. I lay them back down, give them a kiss, remind them it is time for bed, and leave the room. So far it is working well!!
Kara
My daughter Kara is just over 9 mos. old. We established a routine very early on, and that was the best thing we could have done. We go upstairs about a half hour before bed. We chill out with Kara on our bed and talk to her real softly. My husband really likes to be the one who lays her down, he feels it is their real bonding time. I love that he has that special time with her. Sometimes she cries for a few minutes, other times she just falls asleep. She must have her blanket, cookie monster and Lammy to comfort her. She is obsessed with the tags on them... does anyone else have a child obsessed with tags? Anyway, Kara sleeps until 7:30, very rarely does she wake up during the night. I wonder if their will ever be a night that I don't feel compelled to check on her before I fall asleep. However, wathcing a baby sleep has a glimpse of what true peace looks like :)
Our daughter, Charlotte, is 8 1/2 months. Since she was about 4 months old, we have done bathtime around 7ish, followed by baby massage, a book or two, then nursing. She's usually asleep btwn 7:30 & 8 - sometimes falls asleep while nursing, sometimes goes down awake. But usually without a peep, so rarely do we have any issues getting her down. The bigger problems are if/when she wakes up in the middle of the night - usually a couple nights a week still. Typically we just lay her back down and remind her "time for sleeping" :) but sometimes it's more of a challenge and I rock and/or sing to her...if all else fails, I nurse again.
Like Jodi said, I can never resist watching her sleep for a few moments before I go to bed every night! Especially lately when she sleeps with her butt up in the air - so stinking cute.
I have to agree with Christina and Jodi...everytime I check on the boys in the middle of the night I ALWAYS get this feeling of gratitude come over me! They do look so peaceful..it is just so sweet!!
Do you still check to see if they are breathing?? What is up with that and when will it stop??
Ps) Comment above was from Danielle :)
I recently found a routine that works. Gavin just turn 6 months and we do bathime at 7:30, then dim the lights in his room, read a couple books on the floor and then a bottle. He's been very restless the past week. Up 2-3 times crying and cranky. He's also waking very early for a bottle (4:00am..ugh..) Hope that tooth pops up soon!! Stephanie
Danielle-
Maybe by the time they're in school we will stop checking on the breathing :)
Stephanie-
Try Nighttime Orajel-- it is a wonderful, wonderful thing. Kara had 8 teeth pop out in a matter of weeks...not sure how we would have got through it without that! Also, I started brushing Kara's teeth about that time (6mos) and the toothbrush really seemed to massage her teeth and relieved her pain a little- Oral B makes a stage 1 toothpaste/brush. She nows likes to "brush" them herself-- which is really just chewing on the brush.
My daughter is almost 10 months old and she is finally sleeping through the night! There were several months where she would wake up three or four times in the middle of the night and get up for good at 4 or 5 AM!!!! We solved this problem by letting her cry in her crib-she would either go back to sleep on her own or cry for what seemed to be a long time...It took a week or two, but it worked. Hearing her cry for long periods of time was hard, but now she sleeps like an angel.
So her current schedule is: dinner around 5:30, bath around 6:30, followed by books and a bottle from daddy. She still falls asleep to the bottle most nights, otherwise my husband lays her down in the crib and she may cry for a little bit, but always falls asleep pretty quickly. She is usually asleep a little after 7 pm. She wakes up around 6 am - a little early for me, but so much better than 4 am :)
My son is 6 years old. I check in the middle of the night to make sure he is still breathing. I think it is just a mom thing. I wish when I first had Anthony that I would of had a mom's group like yours.It's great, keep up the fantastic job!!!! ......Michelle
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