Do what you can do. Every bit helps... and is fun!

I had to work with babies #1, 4, 5, 6, and will still be working with #7.

Only 2 and 3 had me full time during toddlerhood and I think that was God's doing because #2 (Joseph) had to deal with severe autism (that, thank God for Glenn Doman, is now nothing more than a bit of "quirkiness" with an intense love of mathematics!)

All of my children have benefitted from whatever level of program I was able to do with them, and I look forward to continuing with the new little one who should be here within the next few weeks at the rate he is growing!

Oh, thank you for posting that. I seriously need to send Glenn a birthday card and a letter. I got to meet him 8 years ago when Amber was a baby... what a dear, sweet man. Of course, I blubbered all over everybody because I consider IAHP to be my oldest son's lifesaver... from severe autism at age 2 to today when he is a gentle, loving, outgoing 13 year old who is excelling in the seventh grade (except for math... where he is taking high school honors geometry).

I love love love love love Glenn Doman. (Oh, btw, I flew out two weeks after 9/11/01 to go to my seminar at IAHP. I wasn't going to miss it for ANYTHING!)

Well, any time I've done it, the little one popped it in their mouth, sucked a couple of times, got a funny look on their face, and spit it out, never to ask again. A little hard for bacteria to make their presence felt in that amount of time.

Yes, cutting it is unsafe because of the edges and baby can potentially chew bits off of it. That's why I suggested popping it with a needle... it doesn't give baby any more possibility of chewing bits off than if it were whole because the needle pinpoint prick is too small.

Glad to hear she's doing well!

Just saw this area...

I started using GD Reading with my eldest (now almost 17 years old) and had SO much fun with it. My MIL who had never ever heard of such a thing was the best help... she spent hours cutting posterboard for me so I only had to fill in the words, make the bits, etc. Saved me a lot of time!

My own mother, who had taught both my brother and I to read before kindergarten (just by reading to us nonstop) was more skeptical, which I thought was odd.

My dad was embarrassed by the whole thing. We were out with really close friends of the family (they would have been my guardians if my parents had passed away when I was a child) for dinner and Alison was rattling off words off the menu and so on (she was about 2-1/2 ish) and the wife asked, "Is she reading already?" Because of who it was I just beamed and said, "Oh, yes, she reads very well." My dad actually said, dismissively, "Well, she can read SMALL words."

I lost it... I grabbed a paper napkin and a pen and wrote "Hippopotamus"... she read it...  "Refrigerator"... she read it... (I'd have written a sentence if I thought the napkin was up to it!)... I turned to my dad and glared at him and said, "Little words, really?"

Anyway, for the most part I have learned over the years 1) I don't need to tell everyone everything and 2) if people do find out and they are negative, that is THEIR problem, not mine.

Alison is not quite 17, going into her junior year of high school at a specialty charter school for pre-veterinary students and is in all ways a bright and well-rounded girl. She is sweet, gentle, and loving and sees the inner beauty in everyone. She thinks math is FUN and her teachers adore her (she was homeschooled until high school and would have remained so if she didn't have the strong desire to become a veterinarian and had the opportunity for this specific school).

Keep up the good work, moms!

I started at birth reading aloud to the children great classics that *I* had always wanted to read, or had read and loved. I just stopped reading if their attention wandered and picked up there again the next night...

You can try that with older kids, too... mine loved hearing Lord of the Rings as toddlers/preschoolers... it's great for sleepytime.

One method that has had good results is to take a needle and "pop" the little air balloon in the binky. For many kids that makes the sucking less "satisfying" and they will give it up on their own.

I'd like to point out an alternate viewpoint.

First of all, if you truly feel that you are incapable of providing for another child, please do not have one. There are certainly worse things in life than being an only child.

However, I happen to feel that siblings are an important part of life for many reasons and that the decision to have only one should not be undertaken out of fear only... most fears tend to be unfounded.

I'm a pediatric RN and the mother of seven... Alison is 16-1/2, Joseph is 13, Jonathan is a few weeks shy of 11, Amber is 8, Amanda is 5, Arielle is 3-1/2 and baby Patrick is due to make his arrival in a couple of weeks.

I've worked many areas of the hospital, including SICU (surgical ICU). When I worked in SICU I noted that when my patient was an elderly person, one of two situations almost invariably presented. The first was that the person had one or maybe two children. This was overwhelming for their adult children who were attempting to a) be there for whichever parent was ill; b) be there for the other parent; c) tend to their own families of teens or tweens; d) maintain their jobs... they always looked beyond stressed out on top of the inevitable stresses caused by the surgery/illness/impending death itself.

The second situation was when the elderly person or couple had a larger than "average" family... the kids would quickly develop a schedule of sorts, someone was always with the patient, someone was always with the other parent, and they sort of just naturally "divvied up" the necessary chores of tending to their own families and jobs.  Yes, of course they were often stressed or saddened by the immediate situation, but there was a definite difference in the level of stress caused by attempting to maintain their own lives... the old adage of "many hands make the work light"...

I may not have the most material possessions to give my children, but I happen to believe that the greatest gifts I have given them in life are... each other. When Steven and I have passed on, they will have each other. They are each other's best friends, always have been. And, because of the sheer necessities of life in a large family, they have great attitudes about pitching in and being there for each other.

Does each child get as much of my attention as they otherwise would? Probably not. However, it is more than made up for with the amount of attention they get from each other. I'm miserably huge right now, par for the course at this point in pregnancy. My 16 year old offered to make dinner. The 13 year old is cleaning as his sister cooks and prepping the table. The 11 year old is reading his baby sisters a book.

At a family party a few weeks ago, a distant aunt on Steven's side commented that she had never seen a 13 year old boy take such good care of his younger sisters (he was slathering them with sunscreen before they went out to the pool).

Yes, with more children there are more possibilities for problems. However, there are no guarantees in life. You could have a perfectly healthy child now who later develops a horrible disease and dies (I see it every day... the hardest part of my job.) I'm not trying to fear monger, just showing that the fear mongering already being done always has a flip side.

With more children there are more possibilities as well... more blessings.... more hugs, more kisses, more opportunities.

Not everyone is meant to have seven children (or more, God willing, I hope!) but the rationale for a certain family size should not be based on fear....