April Babies

[MrsDoolittle]

Well there had to be one...
Thought I might as well start it at Fennels suggestion.
You have all read enough from me how about you?

still, none of it probably matters on the weaning front. I was formula fed and weaned on scrambled egg at about 6 weeks and have no allergies

lol Fennel

Sorry was just doing a bit of lurking and Fennel made me laugh!!

Thanks Fennel - that's helped to put it into perspective! As ds is my 1st I haven't really got a clue what i'm doing and I get so much conflicting advice, perhaps I should just wean at 5 motnhs to be in the middle! I could try formula for hungrier babies first I suppose.

Lots has been going on here in my absence.
I have absolutely no idea whether I am doing the right thing or not but I have started giving dd a bottle of boiled water in the afternoon. She is feeding more or less 4 hourly and appears to have settled all of a sudden. I wanted to start settling her earlier in the evenings and I had this bright idea that if I gave her water in the afternoon it would tide her over until I gave her one big feed before I put her down for the night. Well it worked and (dare I say it?) she has slept from 9pm til 6am for the last two mornings!!! I was so shocked first time I had to check the clock. I am still wondering if I am compromising her doing this but at the moment I only see the benefit. If anyone thinks this could be the case please say.
At our baby massage class today we were talking about this and some of the women were saying how much they are feeding at the moment, their babies are older than dd. I daren't mention the fact I am giving her water because I know that suckling is supposed to bring in the next feed.
Dd loves the bouncer - she'll sit in it for ages gnawing on her hands and sucking her thumb but I thought that was due to the oral stage she is supposed to be going through at 3 months.
So how do you all feel about going back to work? I love my job but I don't want to hand over dd to a nursery either I was looking forward to weaning her too!

dd has just started getting REALLY hungry all the time so all this talk about weaning brings up a good point.
She is sleeping about the same as what she did as a newborn at the moment as she is hungry all the time, just about swallowing her hand and spitting out the dummy which she takes if she is just feeling sucky.
I tried some water yesterday MrsD but she had such a tanty that I gave up...she just wanted milk from my boob and that was that.

Hi Chuffed and mrs Doolittle. My ds seems really hungry at the oment too, this morning he had a 7oz bottle at 5am, 7am and 9am!! Luckily he is asleep at the moment after his 3 month injections. Don't they have a growth spurt at 3 months? Mrs Doolittle - it sounds a good idea to give boiled water if it's helping sleep through the night

hi mrs d I noticed you'd gone quiet.

you can still wean them even if they're at nursery, start it at weekends or days they're at home, at lunchtime, and then you can do it at breakfast time (if you've got time, I wouldn't have before work) or dinner time. There's no rule it has to be every single day at the same time. Milk is supposed to be the main food til 12 months anyway. And then when you're ready to let nursery try it send in little pots of pureed stuff. maybe if they're full time it would be hard but part time would be easy enough to do.

do you mean bouncy chair or bouncer that hangs from the ceiling and they are upright in?

hope I don't sound too bossy there, my sister keeps discussing the bf/bottle feeding/weaning research with me (now she's really bossy and know-it-all )

Mrs D - ds has been having (wait for it...) water with sugar in it for the past couple of weeks - on the advice of our GP..! She said the sugar in the water helps with bowel movements - and wrote it in his red book, which I was relieved about - I was worried dp would think I'd made it up. I make up a 4oz bottle and he mainly has it in the afternoon, between 1pm - 5pm. Then it's a breastfeed at 5pm-ish and then an 8oz bottle at 7pm, which he downs in one, and then it's bedtime!

I'm wondering if ds is actually teething a bit - which I know is incredibly early - as he's also just started to dribble a lot and seems to need to chew on everything. I can't feel anything in his mouth - all very tricky really, but I'm going to get him weighed this afternoon so I might ask the health visitor to have a look.

We still can't get him to have a daytime nap of any description - he wore us down today after 20 minutes of awful crying... So I went to get him and he's been smiling and cooing ever since - the battle won... But after we get back from holiday we've decided to try for a few days in a row - to try and get him to have a lunchtime nap at the same time as his brother (I wonder who'll win...?).

Fennel - you don't sound bossy at all - I need the advice and you've 'been there done that' too whoch helps! I'm glad you can do it gradually and at different times of the day and every other day etc. Dot1 - my ds is drooling and sucking his fingers all the time too. I don't think it's teething but not sure what else it could be except maybe hunger? I'm sure he would eat all day if I let him!! No idea what he weighs now but he's very heavy

dot, does your ds2 really not sleep at all in the daytime? that's a lot of time awake! don't you get exhausted? dd3 still sleeps far more than she's awake in the daytime, as well as sleeping all night.

hello peeps,
sos i have been mia lately we have been upgrading to broadband , v exciting !
at the mo the babe is the easy bit , its the rest of them !

re the hungry thang , ds 9wks is also takeing alot at the mo 4-5oz every 3 hrs ( unless alseep ) he does go from 10.30-7-ish now with kat naps during the day , have also taken to boiled water with some apple jiuce in between as ds was up in the top 2 percentile curve thingy

My ds has gone all hungry too. He has definitely inserted 2 extra day time feeds into his schedule recently - yes they must all be having growth spurts.

Hi Dolbear, nice to have you back. I was off line for a few weeks too also trying to get broadband, but in my case it didn't work , and I am back on dial up.

Dot - sympathy with the day time sleep thing. I suppose you've tried taking him for a drive? - or are you trying to resist this because its not the best sleep habit to form (i.e. reliance on the car). I am sad to confess that they only way I can get day time sleep with my nearly 2 year old is by taking her for a drive around lunch time! She nods off after 5 minutes and sleeps for around an hour and a half. But without this drive she just will not give in and gets more and more tantrumy as exhaustion sets in!

Mrs Doolittle, I won't be keen to hand over ds to nursery either when I return to work (beginning of November). I warn you, its very very hard (I was in floods of tears for a week when my dd started Day Nursery), but its remarkable how quickly both you and the baby will adjust. Also IMO starting at 6 months old or so is better than starting later. They start to develop 'separation anxiety' around 9 months, so if they begin nursery prior to this time they form bonds with the nursery nurses before 'separation anxiety sets in avoid the problem...

sorry should preview, last bit should read: before separation anxiety sets in, which avoids the problem.

And Dot, sorry if I sound muddled, I did realise that you were talking about baby ds rather than older ds even if it didn't come across that way.

Do you think I should finish this glass of wine? - its obviously having an effect!

hi everyone - not posted in a while here as i've been v v busy. ds is doing well, anf fingers crossed seems to have got over his wind

dot how is your ds with his daytime naps now? my ds seems to have got into the habit of having his naps on the move either in the car or pushchair so it has become difficult to get him to settle on the days I am at home all day.

fennel i am seriously impressed with your ambition to bf exclusively for 6 months. i don't think i can do it. I keep wondering if my milk supply is good enough as it. I'm not sure when i'm going to start weaning - i'll aim for 6 months but will see how it goes - I think a bit like you HD. my dd was also weaned at 16 wks too but i've heard of people who have weaned much earlier than this who have had hungry babies.

Wow ! it seems like most of the april babies are sleeping through most of the night . ds wakes up twice still at night (around 10/11pm - which we wake him for), and then around 3-4am.

ooohhhhh - i don't even want think about going back to work time seems to be flying by sooooooo quickly already. I'm planning o go back when ds is around 8 months but will have to see as my mat pay is crap (only the stat minimum - and this is from the arge multinational firm that i work fir )

as I got made redundant @ 4 mths i have no job to worry about ! , will start in December was keen on ds going ealry for 'socialising' but now not so sure want to let go ! best mate is nursary dept manager so might not be so bad.

took ds to the clinic yesterday to get weighed and he's lost an ounce

Naturally I was gutted and am blaming myself - HV was really nice and thinks my milk supply is possibly a bit low - as he was feeding only every 4- 5 hours, and is sleeping all night, but now needs more and I'm not making enough. So, her advice to me was to eat loads of chocolate and drink lots of lemonade, and lots of rest (ha!)... so out goes the diet and in come Galaxy!

I'm trying not to be worried, as ds2 is still a really good weight - on the 60th centile. We're away on holiday next week but I'll take him back a week on Tuesday to check his weight. HV advised not to go with baby rice yet until he's weighed again - if he hasn't put on weight or has lost more we'll have to think about either more formula during the day, or a bit of baby rice.

Has anyone else's baby/first baby lost weight at this stage??

Fennel - ds just won't go down in his cot for sleeps during the day at all... He'll go off in the car, but usually wakes up as soon as we get home, and we don't tend to make long car journeys. The bizarre thing is he always goes down at 7pm without any fuss, wide awake and just falls asleep immediately (thank god!). Let the daytime controlled crying commence - in August?!

crikey dot ds will not go down in cot during the day either so I just let him catnap where he falls , he is bunged up again - my fault used SMA white and not gold ! try not to feel bad on the milk fron , I gave up after 6 wks cos ds ate so much he was waking up every hr during the night with bf cos i just did not hit the spot !
so i reseved bf for suckling and cuddles for a while which was nice , i do miss it a little . but at least ds is happy and i am getting some sleep now and I can enjoy him more

I love this thread I find it so reassuring.
Actually when I talked about the bottles of water I didn't add the fact I too put a small amount of sugar in it too. I was afraid of you all thinking 'bad mummy' because of all this furore about 1 year olds with their teeth falling out! But it defiantely makes it go down better, maybe that would work for you Chuffed.
Like all of you it seems, just when things seem to be going swimmingly, dd starts grumbling in between feeds but i think I recognise the hunger cries now. So that puts me in the same position as all of you, she is hungry all the time at the moment.
Fennel - I do appreciate your advice. I am relieved to know that weaning can be done really slowly and not all at nursery. Although there is no way I would have time in the mornings, I am banking on the fact her feed will take half an hour when I think (occasionally) about going back to work
Infact, I do think about you alot Fennel when I am thinking what to do about this or that with dd. Would you give us a description of yourself?
At the moment I can't help but think of a bulbus green vegetable that looks a bit like celery and tastes like liquorice!!!
Oh btw I meant her bouncing cradle, you know they sit on the floor and bounce. Dd can watch me and I can carry on handsfree!! Fab! I have put her in front of the tennis this past week as I have been watching it Lazy mummy!
As for daytime naps? Well, not lately but then I feed her at 6 and she goes back to sleep, eerr we go back to sleep and wake up again at 9.30 after dh has left for work, I'll feed her, she goes back to sleep while I faff about have a shower, log on, have breakfast, check my post, faff some more til she wakes up at 12. Then she gets up until 5.30pm and she has her evening bath before getting ready for bed again. She probably should sleep more during the day, but this way I managed to get her to settle earlier. Actually, to be very honest, I don't think I planned it like that, it just happened!!!

Look at that post - I do go ooooonn!!!

Mrs D - I'd love to keep doing one breastfeed aswell when I go back to work - maybe the 7pm one before bedtime. But this might not be possible as ds1 (who's 2 1/2) is being a complete nightmare at the moment when I'm feeding ds2 - he gets so jealous and tries to scratch/hit him - he knows I can't do much about it when ds2 is latched on, except try to fend him off... I end up losing my rag and ds2 of course gets disturbed and starts howling. We're not sure what to do about this at the moment, as we've tried explaining, distracting, shouting and putting ds1 in his room - nothing seems to stick and he does the same thing at the next feed. Getting to the stage where I think if dp and I are both around, I'll have to disappear to ds2's bedroom to breastfeed him - but if I'm on my own with both of them it's impossible...

ooo-er ,sounds , interesting , mmm have not heard about putting sugar in do u use brown or white, was told to use appleor pear juice as opposed to orange juice cos it is bad for kidneys??? well ds does'nt seem to mind , also put a does of gripe water in water , seems to help with the old movements so to speak and no your ot a bad mum , horses for courses as they say