Feb babies 2011 - We may not be glowing but we're definitely growing!

[Wanderingsheep]

The old thread was getting quite full so I took the liberty of starting a new one, I hope nobody minds! I thought I'd keep in with our glowing and growing theme (I'm not very creative, sorry).

BLW baby is portable but does generate a lot of mess (I have holidayed with BLW baby and yes, not so much to carry with you but a lot to clear up after you IYSWIM; you do a lot of surveying your surroundings and wondering how washable/wipeable they are, and a fair bit of finding out... )

Have temporarily put photo of BLW DD on my profile to illustrate general point. Also a photo of a more genteel BLW moment in Wagamama so as to not scare you all off totally and demonstrate that it can be done. Although, as I recall, she did start that particular meal by doing a large and very explosive all over the Wagamama highchair. I legged it to the loo to change her while the rest of the family did the explaining, and returned to a nice new clean highchair while the old one was presumably being hosed down or preferably incinerated out the back . So there was mess involved anyway... before they are old enough to sit in a highchair they just poo all over you which is traumatic for you but doesn't involve so much grovelling to restaurants.

I trust that I have now boosted the UK GDP by making you all too terrified to travel anywhere with a baby of any age.

"large and very expensive poo"

Would help if I didn't leave the crucial word out of the sentence...

Also if I didn't write "expensive" rather than "explosive" when trying to correct my earlier mistake...

Haha, I did wonder how a poo was expensive . I love love love the first picture, def one to use on her 18th teehee. Yes, BLW can be very messy depending on what you are giving them. Maybe it would be a bad idea to visit Italy for example with all those tomato based sauces, saying that, the Italians as a rule love children and are usually more accepting.

The trick is have lots of wet wipes to rough clean surfaces and baby, failing sticking them in the washing machine after every meal ;)

I've not decided how I'm going to wean this one yet, OH isn't so sure about BLW, though until a month ago he thought that all babies need baby jars.. So I guess we will decide closer to the time.

One thing I don't get about BLW is that you start at 6 months, right? But babies don't have teeth at 6 monthsm as far as I'm aware... so how do they chew the food? Do they just sort of mash it with their gums? I mentioned BLW to mum and MIL and they both laughed at me but I told them that people on the internet can't be wrong... can they?

Once you have had your nipple enthusiastically gummed by a 5 month old you will no longer question their ability to mash up pretty much anything they choose with their gums... and [ouch]

There are obviously limits to what they can gum into oblivion, but they are broader than you think. I can hardly think of anything I normally eat that they weren't quite capable of attacking with gusto.

(and they are generally starting to get teeth around that point, if they don't already -- the majority of babies get their first tooth between 4 and 7 months)

(although it's also fine not to have teeth until a year or more and no cause for concern if they don't)

ooo holidays and blw - my fave topics! if you don't mind me butting in? we did centre parcs when ds1 was 12weeks and had a great time - he'd just started settling into a routing and doing more interesting stuff so we could do lots of swimming and nice walks in the countryside. had such a great time we'd pretty much done all the centre parcs by the time he was 12months!

we did blw with ds2, he was flapping at 5 1/2 months every time he saw me with food so i gave him a rice cake to see what happened and he scoffed the whole thing - a big adult sized (no added salt!) one, not a little baby one! he refused to let us spoon feed him but would spend ages happily exploring food and getting covered in it. he didn't get 1st tooth till nearly a year but if you've ever had your finger chomped by a gummy baby then you'll realise then can happily 'eat' pretty much anything. if it's too hard then he'd still have a good go at it - like plain strips of meat. i loved it, hands free baby weaning!

Hello ladies!

Hope you are all good. I need some advice on buying a pram/pushchair for the impending arrival. Have been looking at the BabyStyle Oyster and it looks good with a decent price and reviews seem alright too. We want a travel system so will buy the additional bits to make it into one. However, just wanted to get a feel for what everyone seems to be going for. Did think of the Quinny Buzz 3 but have read that it's really heavy so have gone off it.

Any advice much appreciated!

I would get a carry cot thing that will turn it into a pram, we had one with DD and it was great, I could take her out all day in it and not worry about her being squashed up. We've got the Maxi Taxi one but it's quite old and I don't know what the new version is called.

Had my scan this morning, all is well and we didn't find out the sex so we'll be having a surprise.

erm, can I enquire with my naive first time mum-ness what BLW actually is ??

prof love the 'you've been tangoed' piccie - really made me smile (and feel just a little bit scared about the weaning process).

Just met a friend of mine who has a 2 month old (who was very cute and well behaved). I managed to dazzle her with my knowledge of baby things which has all been learnt thanks to this thread and those of you passing such great knowledge - she was quite suprised how much I seemed to know about so am feeling very smug and grateful to all of you lovely ladies .

Scan tomorrow - eek. I know there's quite a few of us with scans tomorrow/this week, so a big good luck and hope we can all give good news over the next few days.

Afternoon everyone,

Have been chuckling at the BLW stories and LOVE the pics prof!

PFB Warning!
I've been having a brilliant time watching my stomach move around as baby Ben (have named him Benjamin Robert NeedToSleep) kicks and stretches, it's great now that OH can watch, he is amazed that it doesn't freak me out which I thought it would but it's great!

naturalbaby I have the SIlvercross 3D travel system and Ventura car seat, seems great and I've even worked out how to collapse it and put it up again (proud emoticon!). Think one of my concerns was the height, sturdiness and washableness (?) and this fits me so whilst it might not be for everyone I love it.

Am halfway through IMG's guide to childbirth and can hardly put it down, keeps making me cry (like everything else, damned hormones).

Tarlia so pleased you're having a baby and not a yeti, I kept telling people that we were hoping to have a cat before we knew the sex and were asked what we were having. I hope your heartburn buggers off soon, it's horrid and I've only had a little bit.

am buggy browsing right now even though i've got 4 (at least, i think!) ds2 will only be 18months so need a double really but am looking for a lightweight stroller that i can use from birth that will be padded and comfy enough for newborn as well as easy to chuck a tired toddler into. loved having a travel system but after a few months everyone seemed to get smaller/lighter buggies that were easier to carry about and get in/out of the car.

blw is where you offer chunks of food for baby to explore and feed themselves, rather than feeding them purees then moving onto slightly lumpy etc. they pretty much gum the chunks into a puree anyway!

Ah ha, many thanks prof and others. Can't wait to go back to mum and mil and rub it in their faces!

Ah ha, many thanks prof and others. Can't wait to go back to mum and mil and rub it in their faces!

BLW is, in essence, not doing purees but giving your baby finger food/whatever you're eating (if it meets guidelines on things like salt content) right from 6 months.

Can be worth bearing in mind, zero, that when your mother and MIL were having babies it was perfectly standard to wean onto solids at 3 months or earlier, and it would be pretty much impossible for a 3-month-old to feed him or herself. But by 6 months (has been weaning guideline age since 2003) they are pretty much grabbing everything they can and sticking in their mouths anyway...

See www.babyledweaning.com.

very interesting re: BLW - have never heard of this concept before - had always imagined myself making lots of purees during weaning, but quite like the idea of BLW (although not sure about the mess ).

Have also got the Ina May book today and started to read, but too tired to get any further than the intro, yawn, think I might have a lie down with some 'come dine with me'.

Ooh angels, I hope you like it, I found some of the birth stories really inspiring and uplifting and now refuse to listen to other people's scare stories. I'm not ignoring the risks I just think that I stand a better chance at a calm delivery if I'm not scared!

I need to learn more about BLW, I imagined constantly using the food processor to puree stuff but looking at what we normally eat I think it would be okay for a baby, as long as I don't add any salt to the veg etc. It sounds fun if nothing else and hopefully allows your baby to be more open minded when trying things so less chance of faddiness

Americanexpat I'm not sure where your family lives but I would say it is totally doable to fly with a 3 month old on your own. I live in Oregon and when I came here to live dh had already been here for a while. Consequently I flew from LHR to Seattle with a 2 year old and an 8 month old on my own. Ds had sickness and diarrhoea which was a bit of a nightmare as I'd practically run out of clothes for him! Take lots of spares in your hand luggage. I made dh come and pick me up(8 hour drive) as I was just recovering from PND. Since then I've been back to the UK twice with them and changed a couple of times. That is a nightmare as you have to go through security in the US every time taking shoes off, etc. Although a baby wouldn't need shoes, you would have to take the stroller down/sling off and find somewhere to put the baby down while you take everything off. Fly direct if you can is my advice!

Needtosleep, been laughin at your desire to get a cat, my mum, when she was little and was asked what she wanted to be when she grew up, said that a duck.

BLW sounds like the normal thing to do, really. My only worry is that presumably they'll still need breastfeeding as main food source, and I plan to go back to work next September, has anybody got any experience of how to manage this? can you express all that milk? (feel soooo ignorant!)

expat I got terribly exhausted yesterday doing some digging, which I take really easily and then could barely cycle back home. Had to get here and have a long warm bath. I also planted some onions and garlic, my first! that was very exciting.

I think today I had some Braxton Hicks, although they hapenned while I was walking, and I seem to remember that they go away with excercise? well, it was just kind of very tight, slightly painful (but then I'm a wimp).

Is nice to hear all of you sounding better, including you angels, perhaps you are not, but your post was very possitive so that's why I thought that.

thanks knitta - think I've felt a bit more positive about coping with a rubbish pg since accepting it's probably best if I give up the stress of work (from next month), and meeting my friend with her lovely baby sort of reminded me what all this is for . Having said that, I have spent most of the afternoon in tears on the sofa feeling under the weather - hormonal, moi?! . Love your mums wish to have a duck when she was little - I was the same only I used to say I wanted a donkey!!

Talking about hormonal angels I burst into tears yesterday because I found a caterpillar in the pan of broccoli I was doing for dinner! It had come out of dh's garden. I was nearly sick! Glad you are feeling better.

Most (?) women can express that much if they start early and build up a frozen stash (tip, though, if you're planning to do that -- freeze and defrost a trial portion early on as if you have too much lipase in your milk it can make it go "off" when frozen, and in that case you'll need to scald it before freezing). I was always rubbish at expressing so when I went back to work I bf when I was around and let them have formula when I wasn't.

Hello, its funny talking about weaning, it was always the baby thing I stressed most about. I was always pretty relaxed about the birth, my feeling being that it's coming out, nothing you can do to stop it!! Even with the incredible non sleeping dd2 (I too have that wonderful child) I got by, potty training - piece of piss but the thought of weaning resulted in many tears not sure why!! Although both dds are fairly decent eaters, although they tend to eat like camels, non-stop for 3 days then nothing for 2 days!!

DD2 told Mr Wiggles yesterday that she too had a baby in her tummy, it's coming out at Christmas but apparently she can't decide if its going to be a lion or a tiger!!

Angels and anybody other scanees, good luck for tomorrow

Anyone fancy doing a fun stats list to see how big our waists bumps have got? I feel huge now and would like to compare notes so that I don't feel alone in looking like a double garage.

Here is mine:

24 weeks - 41ins