Nov 2010, our thread's babies are way more awesome than yours' ;)

[hmmSleep]

OK, so I sneakily added the word 'thread's', but went with SGJ's suggestion

oh god yes wallace, they have all been very different! but they all get to where they need to be in the end and tbh once they are school age, it all tends to even out anyway!

re sterilising i will sterilse bottles as long as i use them well certainly until one year, purely because milk can breed germs so easily. but i was wondering about dummies, i just chuck them with the bottles every evening, but i am thinking once merryn is sitting properly (she is getting there!) and then crawling and putting everything in her mouth then what is the point in sterilsing them, obviously give them a quick wash when dropped etc but am thinking that i wont need to bother sterilsing them.

oh and those of you with dishwashers, as long as your cycle is hot enough you dont need to sterilse anyway if you wash them in the dishwasher?

loving this sunny weather, its so nice not to have to wrap merryn up in a million layers to go out, just stick a little jacket on her and a blanket over her legs and she look soo cute in her little sun hats, which remarkably she leaves on most of the time!

I am being a lot more lax about sterilising now. Still sterilise bottles, but dummies mostly just rinsed under tap, as everything else is going into his mouth at the moment.
Tried the dishwasher with the bottles once, but never again. They all came out a funny orangey colour, so had to soak them in milton to get them back to clear again.
4mad am also loving not having to wrap Finn in loads of layers, but did notice that he had a real aversion the sun in his eyes even when not that bright. Perils of being a winter baby, probably wondered what on earth it was. Got the parasol for my bee delivered today but can't figure out how to get it on correctly . Though am rather proud that managed to put the highchair together all by myself, just need dp to tighten a bolt before I dare plonk ds in it.
Am loving weaning so far. For the last week have given him baby rice with his 2nd to last bottle ( around 6pm). Started off on about half a tsp bht we are up to 2 now. He cried last night when it was finished lol. Can't believe how much he loves it. So far not too messy either, he must have lost tongue thrust reflex as it doesn't come back out again. Tried a spoonful of banana and the face he pulled was priceless so i gave him another one might have to mix it with the rice so flavour not as intense?

Questions re weaning. When/ how often should i introduce new tastes? How often should I offer food? How long before he is having a meal and dropping a milk feed?
Am worried i will overfeed him and he will be like a Weeble. I am definitely not coercing or forcing him to eat. He is wide mouthed and ready as soon as he sees the pot.

Lainey - well done on DIY skills My suunshade consists of an old blanket and some old pegs - classy!

re weaning - I just give H a bit of what we are having (tonight he had a chew on some baked potato skin!), and think about it as joining in and experiencing different flavours and textures rather that food for nourishment. I think every baby probably differs how long until they are eating enough to drop a feed.

Wallace, I'm going to start coming round to yours for dinner, it all sounds delish :)

Norry has the same problem as Finn, Lainey, with the sunlight. He's got my eye colour and I'm very sensitive to light so we already bought him baby sunglasses. He's pretty good at keeping them on which is good if he's half as blind as DH and I are he'll be wearing glasses at 3 and they seem to do the job.

We never really bothered sterilising actually, just bung stuff in the dishwasher or give is a good wash

DH went off on business yesterday for a week, his longest trip yet. About an hour after he left Norry did a full 360 degree roll, back to front and then back again. He's now sulking The CM thinks it's great as he'll soon be able to roll home by himself

Lainey, I wish Lottie was a less messy eater like Finn! I've had to resort to stripping her off and using two spoons. She immediately grabs the spoon loaded with food smears it all over her face, hair, chair, body attempts to eat it then refuses to hand the spoon back until I've loaded up the next spoon to replace it with. She still has the tongue thrust reflex too so most gets pushed back out, I end up spooning it off her rather than the bowl to put back in.

I still haven't got Lottie on the bottle so no sterilising here. I don't sterilise her water cup though. With Ds (Dd1 would never take bottle either) I sterilised his milk bottles until he was 12 months.

And well done on the rolling Norry!

YAY well done Norry!!!

i am at all these eating babies, merryn is now 21?wks and so havent started her yet, she is almost sitting up now tho so should be ready at 6mths and then i will get started. cant say i am looking forward to the mess.....

i shant be sterilising any weaning stuff like spoons, pots etc, just the bottles as they have milk in. and i am right in remembering that from 6mths they can just drink water from the tap, it doesnt have to be boiled and then cooled down? i think i did that with PFB and then the rest have just had if straight from the tap once 6mths......

Go Norry!
Ah 4madmerryn must be the the youngest/one of the youngest on here. How late was she? Finn was 23 weeks yesterday and born 29 Nov.
Ooh didn't realise they could have tap water from 6 months. Mind you tap water round here is minging so we use a filter, so might continue boiling first.
Or maybe
I should just give him Evian
since Finn has learnt to sit, he ONLY wants to sit. Tis hilarious, if we try to lie him down in the pram/ bouncer/ bath etc he will use his elbows to prop himself up. Think he did his first babble today sounded suspciously like mama but was definitely different to his normal talking attempts.
Have some friends coming to visit me on Fri night. So excited as I miss them and London, although happy here.
fen was thinking of getting
Finn some sunglasses because they look so cute to protect his eyes

merryn was born 5th december so yes she was one of the last ones i think? and she may actually be 22 wks..... goes away to check.. yes she was 22wks on sunday

oh and i have no idea if they are 'officially' allowed tap water from 6mths, but it doesnt seem to have harmed my boys in any way

and filtered water probably fine, i do recal there being some 'rule' about NOT giving them bottled water? but then in other countries they recomend giving bottled water...

is my baby NOT an accessory lainey oops i really thought she was like a doll that i get to have fun dressing up holds out wrist for a slap on the back of my hand...

Yes, you're right 4mad, you can give tap water from 6 months but advice is to not give bottled water as it contains too many minerals.

I only started Lottie on the solids at 6 months too, must admit more due to laziness than anything as I hate all the faff and mess! I think Lottie is 29 weeks today, so 7 weeks older than Merryn .

thanks hmmsleep, i was just coming back to say tha ti have googled and yes tap water is fine from six months and they say NOT to give softened or mineral water as it can have too much sodium and other minerals in it.

the hipp organic website had some good advice on water and weaning etc.

and yess hmmsleep i too am lazy cannot be bothered too wean merryn and she seems happy enough on her milk, tho she is currently sat on my lap gnawing at my arm.... and besides as she isnt a great milk drinker anyway i am slightly worried about weaning her and her hten cutting her milk down even more..... tbh i think i am just used to the guzzling boys and she is just smaller with a smaller appetite and is BLATANTLY thriving, so i just need to stop overthinking it......... seriously baby no 5 and yet i STILL find something to obsess over

and 7 wks seems a lot now but in a year or so it will seem nothing at all and even less so once they are all school age.

ooh i think someone is filling their nappy......... nice!

Well it has finally happened - ds fell off the sofa while i was out of the room Not sure if he rolled/ flipped or what as i was on the toilet otherwise engaged. I left him laying calmly on a cushion, heard the thud and resultant cry he was face down in a totally different angle. Bless him.
Guess that means careful planning when leaving the room now

Oops LAiney - happens to us all .

Well done to Norry rolling :)

H now gives kisses on demand - ask for kissies and you get you r face slobbered on with a big grin on his face

if it makes you feel better lainey, today when doing a bit of shopping (and putting the shopping in the hood of the pushchair) i wasnt concentrating and i dropped a packet of crackers on merryns head she even has a little red mark and she HOWLED, bad mummy bad bad mummy......

kisses on demand if i put my face anywhere near merryn she simply tries to latch onto/chew/slobber on my nose......

Well, I say on demand but I could probably say "pogo stick!" and he would do the4 same

The French recommend that you make up formula with bottled water - I always did it the British way and I have no idea how my CM does it as I am a negligent mother trust her to know what she's doing.

Should you start giving water when you start weaning? Time to break out the doidy cup then :)

And I should just clarify from my last post that it's DH that's sulking, not Norry Not that there's any more rolling action been going on anyway.

with mine when i started weaning i have started offering them a cup of water with each meal yes :)

I have been giving Jessica baby rice for 6 days now, a couple of baby spoons around lunchtime then breastmilk as usual. She seems to absolutely love it so it's obviously wasn't a bad time to start, however she had been sleeping through & now she wakes at 3am (and today again at 6am) so probably I could have waited a few more weeks as it may be that she's taking a bit less milk so needing to wake up for more?? Ah well, I've started now so probably shouldn't stop! I think she might be the youngest on here as she's 6th December.

For those of you whose babies are on 3 'meal's' a day, what is your schedule in terms of food and milk? Jessica was feeding around 8.30, 11.30, 2.30, 5.30 and 7.15 for bed... do you offer milk on it's own, as part of the meal, a couple of hours after solid food??? We will be sticking with baby rice & purees for month or so before adding finger food (although she does like gumming cucumber). I know there's not one single right way, so just interested to see what is working for everyone else.

Marking my place!

sgj, merryn feeds at 9:30am ish, then 1:30am and then 5:30-6 and then a dream feed at 11:30 and then a feed at 5am.

my plan is to start offering her some solids after that 1:30 am feed andthe 5:30 feed, so lunch and dinner, then when established on that i will start giving her bfast at 7:30 with the boys. the plan being that she then wont want that 9:30 feed till nearer to 11:30ish? adn then she can have her lunch slightly earlier and miss the 1:30 feed, give her a feed at 4am and then her dinner at 5:30 andthen offer her another feed at 7-8 before bed, thats the plan, she may totally not want to do that at all, but i am hopeful that i will be able to jiggle her feeds around like that and i shall continue to offer the dream feed and am going to try and move her 5am feed so its nearer to 6-6:30am....

and i will be doing a combination of some purees(tho mashed rather than totally blended) and finger foods with each meal, purely cos thats what i did with the boys, its easy to make some mush and freeze it and also give her bits of what we are eating etc and just see how she goes, what she prefers.

ds1 liked mashed up stuff, but ds2 and ds3 both prefered finger foods and ds4 has never been a big eater so its a case of offering and going with the flow, they all get there eventually!

and sgj re her waking in the night, could it be that the warmer weather is makign her thirsty and so she is wakign to feed through thirst rather than hunger? tho tbh they are all young still to be sleeping through without a feed anyway, could be teething, a developmental thing etc etc...

I have absolutely no idea how often and times Lottie feeds . It's pretty much she cries, I breastfeed her, today she has already had porridge at about 7am, bf at 8am, bf at 10am and I'm sat giving another bf now . I'll offer her more solids after this feed and another meal at 5ish, but it really just depends on what activities Dd1 and Ds have on a day as to when that normally happens. She'll probably have another bf at 4ish then another at 7pm before bed. She can wake anything from 1-3 times in the night to feed still as well.

We really don't have a routine. If I put my mind to it I can probably remember what we have done so far today.

Woke about 8ish (unusually had been awake between 4.30 and 5.50am and feeding a lot) Bf about 9.30 - there hadn't been time before the school run!

Snack at toddlers about 10.45 ate some toast, banana and pear.

Went to sleep about 11.45 on way back from picking up ds2 from nursery. Woke up maybe 12.30 and had a bf. Fell back to sleep for another 10 minutes. bf again at 2.30.

Would probably bf a bit more often but we have been out and about today.

HMMSLEEP my first three were all bfed on demand and none of them EVER had a feeding routine, or any kind of routine at all tbh!

ds4 developed his own routine and so had dd, tho i have jigged it a bit so feeds fit in with school runs etc!