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

Norry only got a routine when I sent him to the CM For us it's bf at 8am, again at 9.30 then a snooze for an hour or so, bf at 12 then lunch (couple of teaspoons only), snooze at 2 (at the weekends I tend to bf before that one too, during the week with the bottles he doesn't seem to need it), bf again at 4 and 6.30 ish, then dinner (again, only a couple of teaspoons really), then bf at 8 and bed time. He's started sleeping better and better now and last night slept 8-8

We did bf feeds at 6am, 10am, 11am, snack of fruit at about 1pm on way back from Tesco then lunch (lamb casserole and some banana) about 2pm then bf milk feed at 4.30, small bf top up at 6, dinner (tomato pasta and chicken,banana yogurt, baby biscuit) at 7 and bf at 8.30 before the bedtime bottle which will be any minute. Written down that sounds like a lot of food!

We have been doing bf at 7am, 9am, 12pm, 3pm, 6pm and 8:30pm and some purée/mush before the 9 and 3 feeds. However, the nursery have said that yesterday she didn't have any milk at 9 and seemed to be more interested in the food they were giving her. It seems a bit early to be dropping a feed to me, although of course I can't tell if she make up for it at her afternoon feed since I bf her then.

Evie is like clock work generally! We do:

7.15am/7.30am - 8oz bottle followed by breakfast (weetabix,porridge etc)
11.30am - lunch which is main (veg etc although have introduced chicken today for the first time!) then fruit & water to drink
2.30pm - 8oz bottle
5pm/5.30pm - tea which is same as lunch but with 4oz milk instead of water after as worried about dropping too little milk yet
7.30pm - 8oz bottle and bed until we start again at 7am ish the next day :)

Works really well and Evie appears really content with it all.

My mum & stepdad had her overnight on Tuesday! Eek! But all went really well and with my 2 page list of 'advice' and labelled food/milk it worked well! Thanks to all the positive comments, I'm glad we went!.....but was also nice to get back lol :)

Glad your night away went wellbabybean. Did Evie notice you were gone?
I now have a rolling baby. Careful what you wish for hey? He firsy did it this morning from sitting, launched himself forward and onto hs side, ten full over. But has since being doing it. The more conventional tummy to back way. Since yesterday he seems to have got over his dislike of being on his tummy and now tries to crawl, though clearly gets nowhere lol

so glad you trip away went well babybean, but yesi bet you were pleased to get back to Evie :) and btw with regards to her milk intake, from 6mths she should have 20oz per day, and that can be made up with milk in cereal, cheese, yog etc so she is doing fine :)

i think babies generally start dropping feeds from 7mths ish, but they all totally vary, my ds2 wasnt even eating any solids at 7mths he just wasnt interested.

i had a night out last night with some lovely ladies from mumsnet, so good to have a grown up night out, first time since merryn was born.
yay to rolling baby lainey and at trying to crawl, tho tbh i think once merryn is sitting it she will be desperate to crawl, she is already rolling/wriggling around and goes round in circles and arches her back and swings her legs about etc, she is certainly very active just when lying on the floor and i am sure she will be keen to chase the boys as soon as she can!

i also noticed today that she is VERY interested when we are eating now, have had a few meals with her sat on my lap and she has been watching me very closely and opening her mouth when i put my fork to my mouth etc and i half offered her the spoon today and she opened her mouth ready in anticipation, lol i was eating ice cream so wasnt going to give her any but she certainly seemed keen! her balance is getting better daily as well and we sat her in a high chair today and she was fine, so she will def be ready by 26wks (she is 22wks now) talkign of high chairs i need to buy one!

i am liking the east coast wooden one but you cant take the tray off, there is a chicco one i like, a friend has it and says its good and it gets fab reviews on kiddicare and is also on offer! plus mamas and papas have jsut bought out a new range and have one called the pixie which i like, i may take her to our local m&p and try her in one to see how comfy it looks etc.

i think its called the chicco jazzy? its currently reduced to £50 on kiddicare anyhow and the m&p one is £60 dont want to spend much more than that tbh.

hope everyone is well and lets hope for some more sunshine, we have had rain today.. booo

Aw babybean well done. i remember the first time we left ds1 over night 2 sides of A4 worth of instructions - and he was almost 2!

Well done rolling, lainey. H has only really just started rolling consistently. Only back to front though. He has also started push with his feet when he is on his front and gets his bum in the air a wee bit.

We don't have a highchair yet either. H eats sitting in his bumbo in the middle of the tables at mealtimes. I have just ordered a bumbo tray to make it a bit easier.

Not sure if this is of use to anyone but we've got several samples that arent any good to us but I can post them if anyone wants them

Organix first wholegrain baby rice 20g
Aptamil creamy porridge 23g
Hipp organic good night milk 28g (to make 6oz)
Hipp organic follow on milk 28g (to make 6oz)

Let me know if you want any/ all of them

4mad glad you had a good night out. So few and far between, must be v difficult when you have 5 dc. I am off out for dinner with my friends tomorrow night, think it will be the 2nd time have been out.
wallace i know what you mean about the bum in the air, it is so funny when he's wiggling with his bum in the air.
Gave up trying to use the tray on the bumbo as ds kept somehow dismantling it
Dp out at a poker night tonight so enjoying having the tv to myself and being able to mumsnet without being told off
finn had baked sweet potato at lunch time and seemed to go down well bar a bit of gagging on the lumps as i only mashed it. He also gummed on a bit of asparagus as me and dp had butternut squash and asparagus risotto. Not sure that was quite so much of a hit.
Anyway got to go, he is tired and needs to go to bed

Thanks all for the feeding schedule info - always useful to have an idea of what other people do, even if Jessica then follows a completely different pattern!

I'm also going to start swapping bf feeds for formula quite soon - was going to wait until she was 6 months and on 3 meals a day but after a newly introduced dream feed at 11.30pm (she wasn't bloody dreaming, I can assure you), and 10 minutes of her trying to pull my nipple off, I am officially over bf!! Now off to liberally apply lansinoh and sleep... Until about 4am if I'm lucky!

I would love to mix feed but the little darling still refuses to take a bottle. As she's just cutting her second bottom tooth, I'm wishing I'd made more effort! Why are baby teeth like little razors?

Abbie is on 3 feeds a day unless she sleeps during lunch time. She generally has weetabix and fruit puree for breakfast, chicken or fish and veg for lunch and similar for tea. She likes fromage frais and definately has inherited my sweet tooth. Sleep wise, she goes to bed at 7pm and has been sleeping til 5am, having a quick feed then back to sleep til 7.30/8am. Typically on both mornings when I have to be up and out for the nursery run, she's had to be woken at 8.15am! Then on a morning when we don't have to be up she's awake at 7 something. The past two nights though she's woken at 11pm and 4/5am but her second tooth has just cut this morning so hoping that was the cause as she did similar just before her first tooth cut.

She's still not really rolling but can sit up, just not reliably yet. Our carpet is not thick and makes for quite a hard landing so I tend to put a quilt down to soften the knocks! She loves going in her Pod. ( Leapfrog learn and groove ) She also loves watching the Waybuloo's on Cbeebies. She goes mad, bouncing up and down, 'chatting' and smiling at them. Ds never had tele at that age but it's on for him a bit now so she gets to watch. She can make Mama and Dada sounds and plays peekabo with her muslin, pulling it up over her face then peeping out. It's very cute.

Ds's hospital appointment went well. He was very well behaved. The woman doing the scan of his heart was a right miserable cow. Didn't say a word to him even when he was saying it hurt. He's not got an ounce of fat on him and you know how hard they push the probe thing down when they're scanning. He made me and Dp laugh though. When he first saw his heart on the screen he said, "Yes there is a baby!" I sincerely hope not darling! Anyway there's no change in the valve so we've been signed off for a year although the Consultant was very keen to make us aware that 'he will require intervention' at some stage.

Love hearing everyones baby news. Can't believe how fast they're all growing. It's great seeing all the photos on Facebook.

mibby if you dont mind i will have the sachets, they are always handy to have around, esp as know i wont always have time to make stuff up in advance etc and also for going out and about and away! do i have you on fb?

SGJ i met your mum yesterday, tho typically i forgot the sodding material! but i have now washed it and am going to post it to your mum tomorrow!

You do. Ive messaged you :)

how much food are you all feeding to your little ones? DS is having 3 meals a day, but i have no idea as to what the right amount should be per meal so nothing to judge it against as to whether he is having enough... i am currently using Ella's kitchen pouches which are 120g but no idea how many meals that should do - DS 27 weeks this Friday.

Ebb - glad check went well :) Dd has one soon I think. We are on 5 yearly check ups now :)

Yes, glad the check went well Ebb!

Loooopy, Lottie has those food pouches too, she normally has half a pouch per meal but is slowly wanting more each feed. I think it really depends on individual babies though.

yes the amounts vary according to babies, my ds1 was a GANNET and always ate loads, the others have never eaten as much as he did/does! tho ds2 and ds3 do now they are older and ds4 can eat nothing for days and then pig out on others.

they 'recomend' that they are on three meals a day by 7mths and eating about 100-125g food as a portion size, at least i think i read that somewhere.....

anyone that has me on fb i have a new pic up, merryn is mastering sitting up, literally getting better by the day, at 22wks old, scary, my baby is getting all grown up!! but soo cute

and the new boden summer catalogue arrived today, three outfits that i want for merryn, i have linked to them on fb for my mum and sister to see!!

EBB great news re your ds, can i ask what the issue is? my ds3 had to have an echocardiogram on his heart the other week, but that was a follow up to kawasakies disease he has had, thankfully all fine tho they may want us to go back in a year for another just to check.

thanks hmmsleep and 4madboys as i wasn't sure re quantities...in the last week a hv told me 100g 3 times a day, and then a doctor told me that was way too much and that DS would be off the growth charts if i fed him that much (DS is 27 weeks and was 19lb 10 oz at 26 weeks! i just didn't want to be either feeding him too much that he wouldn't have space for calorific milk and risk him not putting on enough weight, (or risk him being sick from over eating if i give him too much), nor feed him too little and have him wanting more milk and putting on too much weight! we are doing well though as he kept down 3 meals yesterday and 3 meals today, reckon he will increase his appetite when it suits him and then eat a pouch a meal, but at the moment he is having half at best.

To anyone who is still breastfeeding, are you planning on switching to formula beyond 6 months or continuing to breastfeed? i don't know what to do.

Pro of breastfeeding - convenience as it is on tap without faff of having bottles prepared and ready, it is free, breast is best mantra, i quite enjoy it, nappies don't smell as bad as ff nappies (although guess the more he is weaned the smellier his nappies will get anyhow?!)

Cons of breastfeeding- will be 35 this year, want 3 more DC's and don't want big age gaps due to my age, and a DC2 unlikely whilst i am still breastfeeding, dryness down there might disappear if stop breastfeeding, DS feeds a lot, friends who are FF say their DC's only have 5 feeds a day, can never leave DS as he is always brewing for his next feed, usually only goes about an hour between feeds, often feeds off both sides so expressing isn't really an option so DP can't help and he'd love to let me have a lie in which formula feeding would allow.

Any thoughts/opinions? And to those who have had more than one DC, how long before you got your first period after giving birth? and were you still breastfeeding when you got your period or had you switched to formula feeding? (and if so how long after switching did your period resume?)

Loooopy, I'm still breastfeeding and Lottie is 7 months this week. I am planning on introducing formula but haven't been able to persuade her to take a bottle or cup yet! I'm planning on a weekend away at the end of July with Dd1 so need to get her off the breast before then, Eek.

Also, Dd1 was breastfed until 11/12 months, I got pregnant with ds when she was 10 months old but my periods had returned so I think the amount of breast-milk she was taking at that point must have been very little. I think my periods returned when she was about 8 months, fully established on solids and therefore not breastfeeding as much. My periods haven't returned yet this time but Lottie is still feeding very frequently.

This time I'm planning on skipping the bottle and going straight to a cup, I've got Lottie taking small amounts of water from a cup already, just need her to accept milk now and get better at drinking without spitting it out everywhere!

DD is 6 months tomorrow and we're still bf here, with a 6oz formula bottle at bedtime. She has two meals of solids but is still feeding fairly often in the daytime. No sign of my periods returning yet, Im not planning to switch to formula in the day but will be changing to a six month plus formula for the night time bottle once this carton is finished

Still bf and will be for a copuple of years still probably!

re bfeeding my first bfed till 18mths and my periods came back when he was 10mths ish?

ds2 bfed till he was nearly FOUR YEARS OlD!! i got preg and had ds3 in that time so tandem fed!

ds3 bfed till 3 and a bit years old, again i got preg and had ds4 and tandem fed, then stopped feeding both of them when ds4 was 3mths as i got pnp.

and with dd i stopped at 2mths cos she was a fussy feeder and it just wasnt working with four other kids to look after! with those two i got my periods back within 2mths of stopping bfeeding.

generally once babies arent feeding int he night and go longer int he day your periods should return and you can get pregnant, i did!

LOOPY i was looking in my red books at and 12wks old ds2 was over 18lb!! and all four boys were over 20lb by 5mths! so your ds isnt that big at all, well he is but you know what i mean. and my boys were all long, so chunky but not really huge iykwim? and they all shot up even more at about 3yrs and now they are skinny skinny minnies! so i reckon the dr is talking twaddle tbh, he will eat as much as he needs :)

loopy if you want your periods back then you could try introducing some formula OR as he gets older simply give him more snacks and drinks of water in replacement of some feeds? it may be that he actually just likes it for comfort? once they are over 6mths then they'should' have 20oz milk a day but that can be made up by cheese, milky puddings and milk in their cereal/porridge etc.

by 9/10mhts ds1 was having 3 or 4 bfeeds a day i would say? but ds2 and ds3 both fed A LOT more and for a long time, infact ds2 was mainly bdfed till 18mths as he was not a food fan, he got there in the end tho!

anyone else have early waking babies, merryn did it a while ago and then had got back to lseeping in to 7-8am but now its early mornings again, not appreciated by me, tho this morning i gave her to dp at 8am and then went backt o bed till 10 as i was shattered :)

i 'think' its related to her development, lots of rolling and now sitting up!! and also she was very farty this morning and has since had a HUGE poo, so maybe her tummy was uncomfortable? who knows but i do not like early mornings.

4mad Maybe it was the excitement of Eurovision last night? Norry wouldn't go to bed at all, he was crying the house down every time we tried he liked the Moldavian entry and we ended up taking him into our bed at 11. Managed to put him back in his cot at 6am so that he would got back to sleep a bit though thank goodness.

I'm a bit that they're supposed to be on three meals a day by 7 months. Norry's 6.5 months and really not all that interested in food. He has a couple of spoonfuls at lunchtime and another couple in the evening but that's it. And now I'm a bit at 4mad's DS2 as I was hoping that Norry's bf are going to reduce a bit soon as I'm still having to pump twice a day while at work to meet his needs. I'm not sure I can do that for another year!

I am intending to keep bf though. I also thought I'd give up at 6 months but actually it's the first few months that are hard, now it's the easiest thing in the world and I'm way too lazy to be bothered with bottles We've just gone to the stage 2 milk for the one daytime feed that I can't pump enough to cover though. Doesn't seem to have harmed my supply though as I'm ebf at the weekends.

We have a wedding in August & we're paying for an adjoining room so my mum can come too & take Jessica off so we can enjoy the evening part - I've decided she'll be fully on formula & food with no bf at all (eek) by then & I intend to gradually swap over by that time. I do love it and it is easier by far but I would like some flexibility in who can look after her and how long I can be away from her!

She's now 5 months 10 days and we've added 1 tablespoon of baby rice at lunch (followed by bf) and are attempting 2 ice cubes of carrot mid afternoon... although she doesn't seem to like carrot! Added baby rice yesterday & she ate it but tried adding formula based baby rice just now as a trial run & she rejected it! I'm hoping it's because she saw through my ruse and genuinely doesn't like carrot... looks like I'll be trying butternut squash instead tomorrow!

For most of my friends who were ebf & gradually swapped to ff, they seemed to get their periods back within 1 month... some other friends are ebf & got theirs when their dc was around 3 months! So everyone's different I guess

Eek. We've been on spot watch since last week, but Norry's got three (v. small) spots on his head. They're not red but they definitely have some liquid inside. Does this sound like the start of chickenpox? I've googled but can only find pictures of what it looks like in full flow.