March 2004 Babies

[Chuffed]

Hi, like all of you I'm sure I have been having trouble finding the time to get on Mumsnet. Hope everything is going well for you all. I love being a mum!
I thought we needed to have a post to discuss stuff as Feb, April and May have them but not us.
DD was born 29 March and is a real character showing lots of personality. Hopefully I won't be alone for long.

oh no - big hugs. dd has had a cold for a week now and I have just got it back so we are feeling miserable now.
Jet lag is almost gone although we are still having one wake up between 7-5.30 but at least she goes straight back to sleep after feeding instead of wanting to play.
I would have been sooooo mad if I had paid for a seat and they had not let me put the car seat in for the baby. Ours was a facing backwards one and we didn't object too loudly on bmi as we hadn't paid for the seat it just happened to be beside us.
If you can fly Singapore next time I'd recommend it they were so brilliant.
Good luck with the highchair, the only thing I'd recommend is getting one where the seatbelt thing doesn't just crumple on the seat when they aren't in it as I feel awful everytime I put her in it as she has to sit on the buckles until I dig them out from underneath her.

nightmare journeys californiagirl - what I don't get is how the rules are different on every carrier - can it really make that much difference?? they sound like real jobsworths. on ba I was told not ok to use carseat for takeoff and landings until baby was 6 months old (if I'd known beforehand I would have lied!) but it was fine to use forward facing (and the car seat went nowhere near the seat in front so don't know what that was all about) during the flight itself but only on the window seat. I go back home in 2 weeks so hope the rules haven't changed in the meantime.
my ds is also a big fan of the organix banana stuff and is also pushing backwards and round in circles - hopefully forwards sometime soon
good idea about the peekaboo game with a muslin - any other top tips for amusing babies? I get bored after about 5 minutes playing I'm ashamed to admit

ds is also going in circles and backwards - sometimes manages a few inches forwards.
I have been giving ds a basin of water to play with in the garden and some floaty toys as the weather has been quite warm the past few days.
Other things he loves are sitting up at the table and just throwing things on the floor - so I just pile up all my junk mail from the post and let him rip them to shreds. It only takes a couple of minutes at the end of half an hours entertainment to pick them all up and dump them in the bin.
I tend to just play peek a boo and blow raspberries at him when we play together - not very inventive. I've tried reading to him - but he won't sit still long enough.

Went to the park today and sat under a tree and read stories and she just sat and watched people.
lots of raspberries here as well TraceyK - it puts dd into fits of giggles.
Hopefully will get a good night's sleep tonight.

I think 5 minutes is a long time to actively play with a baby this age. We play a silly madeup game which goes "Nose chin nose chin cheek cheek; nose chin nose chin eyebrow!" and so on with something different instead of the eyebrow each time around. Plus I'll do her, and then I'll take her hand and do the same routine on my face (or DH's if we can reach). We have a stacking ring toy and one with stacking/nesting cups and I'll stack the rings or nest the cups so she can then take them apart one by one (she used to like the cups stacked so she could knock them down but at the moment she gets distressed when they fall over, she wants to take one off at a time, and holding the tower up is too much work for me).

We also let her shred the junk mail. We tried blowing raspberries on her when she was little but she looked worried so we stopped. Since then she has figured out how to do it to us (she likes knees and elbows, although she'll also do it while bf'ing if I'd let her).

Right now she has a cold, one tooth is about to cut, and she got jabs yesterday and is feverish. She's reasonably happy as long as she's held and not moved against her will. I can see my day isn't going to be very productive.

Just back from picking ds from nursery (he goes 2 aftrenoons a week to socialise him).
He SHOULD sleep well tonight - swimming this morning and no nap then 2 hours nap this afternoon and plenty of games. I think the nursery made easy money today!
ds also likes being thrown in the air and rough stuff - the rougher the better -but I let my dh do that I'm too scaredy cat and only throw him a tiny bit - but he giggles and laughs like mad.

ohhh good idea with the stacking cups we have some somewhere, will need to dig them out.

I'll try out all your ideas tomorrow on little ds. he also loves raspberries and loves having them on the back of his neck. he also goes into hysterics if I hold him in the air and then rub his tummy with my head if you can picture that? I don't know if it's cos it's tickly on his tum or because he gets a face full of tickly hair. he's a bit hair obsessed and always makes a dive for long tresses as well. and has also started the rasp blowing during a b/feed, alnong with cheeky 'pulls' on my nipple when I'm not paying attention - certainly gets me looking at him again in a hurry! he's also started blowing bubbles while eating his dinner and manages to cover half the room in mushy carrot bits - charming.
oh but he is so adorable - isn't this a great age for them? sooo cute and cuddly.
I'm glad to hear I'm not alone in having a baby who STILL wakes up for night feeds - starting to drive me mad
anyone else got their ds/dd in nursery or playgroup? ds will be going with me and ds1 to mums and babies groups again in a few weeks and I might take him by himself to a few sessions too. is anyone back at work yet? I start back one day a week in a few weeks time - dh will look after the kids that day which will be a bit of a shock for him (and the kids?)

have figured out the night feeds are directly related to how much she eats during the day...not much equals lots of feeds.
dd also loves long hair morocco and is always got handfuls of mine it's a wonder I have any left actually.
no baby groups etc at this end...not sure what there is available really for her age. I also start back at work full time on 3rd Oct so she will have plenty of playtime at nursery. Not looking forward to it at all.

Really big hit yesterday; we have a sort of a biscuit tin in plastic that I saved for her to play with, and I filled it with water and put a few toys in it (the only one I could find that would sink was a spoon!). She had to be watched like a hawk, of course, but she was hypnotized by it for about 10 minutes.

Oh, and a stranger gave her a helium balloon because she was so fascinated. That's another one you have to watch carefully, but it's a big thrill.

We've been doing moms and babies yoga, but she's too big now, since she can move around (slowly, backwards and in circles). I'm looking for daycare for her so I can go back to working without her.

The April babies are on show in photobuckets so I have put one together too. I couldn't resist showing off my beautiful.
here
password is london

We're now into weaning. DD is her usual ferociously independent self and would rather take bites out of a plum I'm eating or eat Cheerios than eat age-appropriate mush.

The daycare hunt has me in floods of tears but slowly I'm finding possible places; the best so far is a real Montessori school where they have a schedule and the teachers say please and thank you to 8-month olds. I know it sounds excessive, but they had happy involved independent kids who get to go outside twice a day whether they walk or not.

DD has her own website (for the PNG grandparents who complain if its not updated regularly) but it's not at all anonymous -- I don't particularly care but would it be bad to post it?

fab photos chuffed - your dd is sooooo cute - and those sweet little outfits make me quite pine for a little girl!
we're not so hitech yet - maybe one day we'll get round to it - is it easy to set up an album like that?
nursery hunting sounds stressful but the montessori place sounds good - what is the age range there? will she be in an 'age appropriate' group - I know some montessori places let the kids wander around between age groups but it's hard to imagine for an 8 month old!
we are all sick with the 3rd cold this month and thoroughly sick of English rain/sun/wind/back to rain again - at least this is what I'm blaming my cold on
no 'milestones' reached right now but ds is super cute as always
love to all

We had a overnight stay with my old work chum who has a 4 yo and 2yo twins. Boy what a difference in ds crawling - I think he was inspired by the older ones and he is quite good at crawling for a few steps.
I hope that nursery will do the same for him as there are 'older' babies there too.
ds has gone off his solids slightly - so still up for night feeds. Unfortunately he's not going straight back to sleep (maybe a bit chilly now) - so I end up taking him into the spare bed with me and then we both sleep like logs! he still lves his fruit purees but not so keen on his veggies - so I end up dipping the veggie spoon into the fruit to try and fool him. working so far.
anyway - he's crying now - so will catch up later.

DH didn't like the Montessori place, so we ended up in a different one. They're in an easier location for us, too, which is nice.

DD can crawl forwards some now. It's not fast, but it gets her places. She can also pull up to standing and cruise along things once standing. But she can't sit up from lying down, and she doesn't imitate.

Her website is here

Hi Guys
What are your feed/sleep routines these days? What size of portions are you giving of milk and solids?
I don't think I can be doing it right as ds still wakes during the night sometimes for a small feed sometimes just to piss me off!
If he wakes 4-5am ish and feeds it make him sleep till after 8 and then I think maybe he misses a feed as his nap is about 10.30 till 11 ish and when he wakes it's kind of too late for milk and I give him solids.
Its all very confusing.

how do you get a baby (very determined one at that) take a bottle.
Just got back from 10 days in Egypt and had a ball but now have to start getting ready for going back to work in 2 weeks and she starts her practise sessions next week and she won't take a bottle. I spent 3 hours this afternoon trying with 3 hours of almost solid crying and it was awful.
Morocco the photo album is very easy to do if you have some pictures online. You just set up a login and then attach the photos like you would on an email.
dd pulling up to standing on stuff and attempting to crawl but doesn't go very fast. She likes her fruit as well but is quite happy gumming anything we are eating that we feel we can give her. One tooth about to emerge there are rather large grooves in her spoons so might be great timing with moving to a bottle if I can manage it.

maybe get someone else to try feeding her while you aren't in the same room? or face her away from you on her lap. is it ebm in the bottle or formula?

Who's going to take care of the baby while you're at work? If it's somebody with lots of experience, let them do it! Supposedly it works better if you're not there anyway. The nursery is pretty calm about the fact that DD stopped taking bottles 3 months ago -- they say leave them the milk, bottles, a sippy cup she likes and the solids she'll eat and one way or another everybody will figure out how she can get enough food and liquid to get her through. Since she'll take a bottle from me (!) just not at all from DH and very little from anybody else, one nursery suggested feeding her and sleeping with a blanket and sending that in with her, so the carer could hold a blanket that smelled like me while feeding. Neither of the nurseries I liked best thought it was worth my time to try bottle-feeding her at home if we'd already tried and failed.

We booked her into a nursery last Dec just under 10mins walk from home and about 10mins on tube from work so great location really. Haven't talked to them about the feeding thing yet, hoping that it'll be OK once she starts.
I was trying her with formula yesterday but am going to try ebm today to see if it is just the formula.
Californiagirl your photos are great. Isn't it amazing how fast they become little girls from being these tiny babies.

ds is now pulling himself up to standing and wobbling about! this baby lark doesn't get any easier does it.
Am now giving dream feed at 11pm as he was waking at 3 or 4am and putting him off his breakfast etc.
have had to purchase a large baby dan to fence off our larger than average fireplace.

Tracey, have started searching for the cheapest baby dan as well. We're going to block off a portion of the living room. She is standing against things quite stable but isn't pulling herself up yet.
She has started her trial week at nursery and after 5 hours of crying about not taking the bottle/sipper cup I think we might have cracked it but she doesn't drink much at a time.
She seemed happy at nursery yesterday for her 1/2 hour, off for an hour today.
It is funny isn't it, people say "they grow up so fast" and yes they do but if you have a mobile/wiggly baby who does lots of physical things a bit earlier then they grow up that much faster.

Just left DD at daycare for the first time. She was having a lovely time, and I was in floods of tears... staff kept hugging me to make me feel better. I will go back at lunch and BF her and see how she's doing. Meanwhile I am supposed to be getting lots of work done but am mostly just being stunned.

We can't decide whether or not DD has her first word. She certainly has the rest of the universe convinced she says "Hi"! If you say it to her at home she just giggles at you, but when we're out and about she says it to new people (and things). And one morning when I came out of the shower she said it to me. She doesn't just say it randomly, but she also doesn't say it on cue...

Mothercare did a price match for us for the babydan - I think £79.99 - but we've had to order an extra 2 panels to fit. but you can only get them from babydan themselves £15 a panel and they don't take ccards - you have to send them a chq.

after me doing a bit of cc ing last week and resorting to dream feed to help ds sleep through - i felt sooooooo guilty when I saw a little bit of baby tooth peeking through today!

When I went away from ds at his playgroup thingy yesterday, came back to see him crawling on all fours - just like the older babies - it was a shock to see him like that - I hardly recognised him. boohoo - he's growing up!

I know it is scary isn't it. kiddicare have them for £69.99, that's the best deal so far.
Big hugs Californiagirl, isn't it hard to leave them behind no matter how much they love it.
dd is starting to pull herself up on everything and had a wee fall on her nose today. She is fine just gave her and me a bit of a fright.