August 2010 - new thread ladies!

[Chulita]

New thread cos we've nearly filled the last one!

neenz have you tried eco balls ? We use them cos L is hypersensitive to life itself lots of things. I think cos they swill around in the wash with the clothes they knock food off iyswim.

It is quiet on this thread isn't it?! I double-thread with the July lot and we get through a thread a month!

S flatly refuses to have an afternoon nap at the mo which means if he wakes up from a nap at 13.30 he'll push and push til bedtime and just grizzle non-stop, like today. He's also obsessed with crawling into the kitchen...

Glad you're all better marzipan and good luck with the self -settling!

Ooooh I'm with everyone on the mucky clothes - I have learnt my lesson re blueberries though and now only feed E blueberries if she's just wearing a nappy!

We've moved onto chicken now which she loved and today she had beef casserole which also went down very well. Greek yogurt with apricot puree was also well received - and much cheaper than petits filous!

No teeth here yet but I don't think it will be long... no sign of crawling either, the legs are willing but she doesn't know what to do with her arms

Good luck to everybody who is still battling with sleep
I'm so glad the drier weather is here as we've been for lots of long walks, not to mention how much easier it is to dry the washing

Grr, I lost a whole post. I can't remember it all, but thedogwalker, baby rice with cow's milk has been absolutely fine, have also had cow's milk with porridge and it's all gone down happily.

Since Wednesday, we've had no crying at night-time and E has been sleeping 7-7.30pm to 8-9am, waking once anytime between 12.30am and, last night, 4.30am - meaning she slept for 9+ hours, a personal record.

She is now sitting unaided and did her first crawling motions yesterday (has been rocking on all fours, but then managed to bring her legs forward - it won't be long I fear).

Happy nights to all.

wow belly that's great (and a little )
I hope our sleep training produces such good results!

Belly that's great. Daniel woke twice again last night - I asked HV about it and she said up his solids and cut down his breastfeeds to just morn and evening . I think I will ignore her! I think he is ready for cc at the 5am feed cos he often sleeps till morning from 2am - I think it might be his teeth though cos he has got major bulges on his bottom gums! He is not napping so well either (cos of teeth again I think).

Eco ball a good idea, thanks!

Neez - sounds like the usual HV crap. I often find I do the opposite to what they say. Mine have all been really bored/unsympathetic or full of what seems like old fashioned advice. Not impressed.

Got some definitely buds on E's lower gum at the front and he has been extremely quick to cry today - seemingly upset at nothing. Sound like teething? (Honestly, six months in and I'm still clueless).

Weaning moving along slowly here - quite a good day yesterday. Toast and a pear for lunch, roast squash and broccoli florets for tea. All went down quite enthusiastically. Today, not so much. Tried pasta (bow ties, so easy to pick up) with tomato sauce. Might have been too hard to grip. E not really interested, so gave him a bit of banana and smeared some tomato onto a rice cake, which worked quite well. I hate how everything he eats in is permanently stained!!! I now feed him in just a nappy and he can just be as messy as he likes. My MIL was round today and seemed genuinely shocked by this. Why?? Why ruin all his clothes? It's not like the heating isn't on.

Nothing much else to report - struggling badly still with at least 3-4 wakings per night, just for comfort sucking. Have been trying to not give in but the meltdowns take an hour's work to get him resettled. Am going to try and tackle this next week in earnest - got guests coming for the next few days and so can't really have a screaming baby keeping the house up all night while they're here. Dreading dealing with it though. I feel like I should have known better than to end up in this position, but it's so tempting to do what's easiest at the beginning, isn't it? I guess I just haven't given E any self settling skills. :(

Hay Nat don't worry, it's nothing that can't be fixed in three days! Of course you do what's easiest at first (especially with your first baby who you can totally dote on) and that is lovely. I leave mine to cry for 5-10 mins for naps etc when I know they are tired but apart from that I have always just fed them when they cry, night or day, no matter how often the wake. For the first 6mths it's all you can do as you can't really try to sleep train before then IMO.

I am with you on the useless HVs! Just do the opposite

Neez - you and my husband are on the same page! Think I'm just going to feed to sleep/settle while we've got guests, try and up the solids and milk feeds in the day, and then I'll KNOW at night that he's not hungry.

Spoke to my friend today who has a three week old who just slept 1am to 8am. I am SO jealous. E has only done half that a handful of times! Sigh.

Sleep tight all!

Evening everyone,

Neenz - your HV sounds a little bit . I agree it's probably best to not listen to her on that one, surely our babies can't be ready to pack in the breastfeeds already?

I'm dreading it :(. I love our snuggly feed times together but not at 2am.
Tonight I bathed C at 6:45 which is earlier than normal, I fed him, wrapped him in his blankets and bravely put him straight down at 7:15pm......NOT A PEEP!!! I cannot believe it! He never settles at this time! I expect he'll be up very shortly though.
Very pleased with myself and him tonight :).

Hope everyone is well. Hasn't it been lovely weather? It's made a nice change to be able to hang washing out! Went for a lovely long walk with C yesterday and even though he was well wrapped up, he's sooooo snotty today it's unreal! Poor little mite.
You know I've lived here in this little village for 4 years and saw things yesterday I didn't even know were here . In my defence tho it's cos me and dh worked so much before. Was very refreshing. :)

Mucky Clothes - I gave up!! After another set of bibs were ruined I decided to give them in as a bad job and wrapped a triangle-folded muslin around him instead. Result = much more covereage

Teeth Corey has his first tooth , his daddy found it on Saturday morning. He has another as well just about to break surface looks like- bless him, he's been so good with his teething - maybe thats why he hasn't settled on an evening? (but then again he's never settled on an evening)

TTC Babies - still a 'don't go there' subject here! Still hoping tho :). Good luck with your ttc adventure GYA, hope you're not waiting too much longer.

Well, I think I'll go to bed now, and be ready for when Corey wants his last feed, he's due in about 30-45mins. He's like clockwork that kid for night time booby-feeds .

Wishing you all a quiet and successfull night xxxx

OMG Corey just slept 7-7 for the FIRST TIME EVER!!!

:)

CherryPie3 wow - congratulations - well done Corey!

No teeth here yet but plety of dribbles and red cheeks still!

Hope everyone else had a good night!

Fab news cherrypie!
nat, I can't remember if you've talked about this before but sleep training has made a world of difference to us and to Elodie. If you're anti CC then definitely don't do it and I wouldn't have done it any earlier than we did (27 weeks) but E now goes down with almost no protest at all (sometimes a bit of whining when we leave the room) and only wakes once in the night between then and 8am or sometimes later. I know it doesn't work for all babies and you'll know your LO better than anyone but she clearly needed that extra sleep. I was only trying to get her to sleep in the evening, I didn't mind carrying on with a couple of night feeds, but it had a really good impact on the rest of her sleep. Including naps - although that said, I put her in the cot half an hour ago and she's grumbling at a level which I think means no sleeping... Best go

Well done Corey! I tried to feed Daniel as much solids as poss yesterday and it did the trick - he didn't wake at 2am! He went through to 4.30am which is great. I couldn't get back to sleep though for over an hour . And today he is hardly eating anything cos he is whingy from his teeth i think!

Ok ladies, since 3 of you have decently sleeping babies I need some advice. S wakes anywhere between 1 and 4 times at night. He goes to bed around 6pm (that's when he's ready, not when I make him go to bed) he then sometimes wakes at 8.30/9.30, he usually feeds around 10pm, then might wake at 11.30, 2.30/3.30 and then is usually up for the day around 5.30. At each wake-up he has a proper 20-30 min feed and each wake-up is at a different time so there's no real pattern to it. I'd like to start sleep training but I'm wondering with him waking very unpredictably and having full feeds when he does how to do it. I can't 'drop the 2am feed' cos there isn't always one. should I drop the evening feeds first? He eats really well during the day btw

neenz I'd ignore the HV too, 2 bfs a day? they're only 7 months old!

cherry well done C :) that's a brilliant night, hope you made the most of it!

Hmm Chulita, I would say if he is eating well and having lots of breastfeeds through the day he probably doesn't need all those feeds in the night. There is something called the core night method, which IIRC you don't feed them between, say, 12 and 6am. Or it could be 10pm-4am for you (whatever seems to fit best with his pattern). if he wakes for a feed between these times, first time go in and cuddle him then put him back down to sleep. Wait 2 mins and if he is not asleep go back in and cuddle again and put down. Repeat every 5, 10, 20 mins (whatever feels comfortable for you). You should see progress even after one night but certainly after three nights you should see a massive improvement. Make sure he is having lots of protein (fish, meat, beans, lentils) in his meals because that will keep him fuller for longer.

Thanks neenz I might give that a go. I was thinking of trying to only feed him every 4 hours so if he woke at 8/9 I'd try and resettle and not feed til 10, then not til 2 then not til 6 but I'm not sure how that would go. The core night method might work better.

chulita J was similar (although he goes to bed and gets up a bit later than S), but since starting sleep training at the weekend we've seen marked improvement. We basically decided that if he woke less than 3 hours since his last feed, we'd offer him water, try and resettle him, and let him cry if necessary, with a view to increasing the gap every couple of days by 15 mins. Monday night he fed at 10.15 then woke at 12.30 so had some water and cried for awhile until he fell asleep again. He then woke at 4.55! So I fed him and he slept til 7.20.
Last night he fed at 10.15 and slept til 3, had a feed and slept til 6.15. It seems to be working (hope I haven't jinxed it). I think they just get used to having food in the night but if you can wean them off it, they'll get used to not having it and hopefully sleep through.
A book I've got also suggests reducing the length of night feeds so they get used to having less and therefore get less hungry at that time. Haven't tried that though as his feeds are quite quick anyway

Chulita E is v similar in habits. As we've got guests, the status quo will continue, but a new regime will begin next week! If you give it a go, do let me know how you get on! I quite like Marzi's plan of stretching out the feeds to every 4 hours.

Cherry - go Corey! Amazing. God, I dream of that day :)

We're away next week nat so I won't try it til we get back but I think making him go longer between feeds is the way to go. We're off to Dorset and I'm going to be staying in a b&b without DH, just me and the 2 littlies how on earth any of us are going to get any sleep is beyond me...

Good morning ladies :)

Hope everyone is well rested? And babies behaving?

Well 7-7 didn't happen again for us last night! Although he did 7-2 then 2-7 so can't complain. And so much for his 'like clockwork' feeds. Honestly the kid just wants to prove me wrong :). This morning at 2:15am, I was up with C and dh was laughing at me by 2:30 cos I'd fallen asleep with my head resting sideways on the headboard! . I'll get him back!!!

Chulita I really don't know what to suggest. I know I'm doing things differently but I think I'm now doing what most people were already doing, if that makes sense?

I used to bath him every other evening, but now I bath him between 6:30 and 7pm every evening. I also put him down for his nap immediately after his mid-morning feed in his cot. I used to just let him sleep in his pram/on the sofa/in his bouncer.... Result = he actually has a nap now!

Core method sounds good tho!! Fingers crossed.

neenz typical that you couldn't get back to sleep! Hope D carries on sleeping for you and his teeth cut through soon, thats the hardest bit :)

belly Glad E is settling better for you, fingers crossed it continues although it seems like you've nailed it now :)

WEANING RECIPES - Has anyone got any to share? I'm running out of inspiration! Yesterday lunchtime Corey had white fish, buttery sauce, broccoli and carrots. For supper he had porridge with pureed apple and banana and cinnamon.

Don't know what to do today now? Might just go with the trusty pasta...

Have a lovely day all xxx

Ooooh, I have extra triangles....how did I do that then?

I'm giving S stir-fried veg and noodles today with butternut squash/lentil soup for tea. Off to cook cupcakes now though, DH was craving them after reading L's Charlie and Lola book last night

at your dh's craving Chulita.

Thanks for the recipes, don't have the right ingredients for those until we go shopping tonight.

Going to collect C's nearly new, almost-a-freebie- baby walker when dh gets back. 99p for a baby walker, eBay is wonderful

I love ebay too! Well done, sounds a right bargain!
I'm rubbish with S's meals, just run out of ideas and end up giving him porridge again! Never mind, he has his whole life to eat everything else

omlette went down well for lunch today and only takes a couple of minutes to make