October 2011 - weaning here we come!

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our new thread

Can't post properly because P is a screaming banshee but I am taking a bunch of clothes to Warrington Womens Aid Refuge this afternoon - mainly so P will sleep in the car though! It's a place where women of domestic violence etc go with their babies.

Might be worth seeing if there is a similar thing near any of you who has clothes you don't want to keep for the next baby .

I've tried looking into that chesire but can't see anything around here :(

pink, I BF, yes, apart from a bottle of formula at the 11pm feed. We started that after 7 weeks when things were v worrying. I'd had a problem with the hind milk (v thin and hardly any cream settling when I put expressed in the fridge). I've been taking liquid iron, which has helped the milk quality, but she never gained enough weight for me to be willing to let go of the bottle feed. It's hard when I worry whether I should have given another feed or two a day from the bottle, though.
She's still in newborn vest and mostly in 0-3 clothes, though randomly in 3-6 tights. Maybe she'll be lucky and have nice long legs?!
I'm 5'2" and 10-12 but DH is a foot taller and from a big build family so I expected DD to be average!

I put a teething ring in the steam steriliser today......it did not end well!

Sometimes I wish they had a 'like' button on here! I've done that will a few things that have gone a bit freeform afterwards!

My girls aren't huge, weighed them and at almost 22 weeks they're only 13.5lb give or take (edie a bit more) and too big for 0-3 but drowned by 3-6. But they're just fine the way they are.

Edie is rolling from side to side purposefully so you never know before 6 months I might get a roll

Sassy, I know there's a lot of 'can you just' at the moment and even though I missed him immensely the poor man is suffering from my moods!!!

Hello everyone, couldn't post earlier as L been a little nightmare with his sleep! I'm struggling big time. First of all, Scheh thanks for the advice on sleep, have tried it but it doesn't seem to work, it may be too early and will keep trying as people usually say any changes you make take a week to 10 days! Cheshire hope smear ok, and all the ill people and babues I hope you are all feeling better! Scheh you made me laugh with the teething ring and steriliser - I've also done that a couple of weeks back although the packaging said not suitable for sterilising I assumed it would be ok (NOT!!!).
We went to see a consultant for a check up today as L is on medication for his reflux. He advised me to start weaning (L was 20 weeks yesterday) as he said it usually helps babies with reflux. He told me to start with baby rice and i am now panicking as I am not at all prepared as was expecting to have another 6 weeks for research! Anyone have any tips on early weaning. Off to get a highchair and some baby rice tomorrow :)

Hello all, sorry to hear about so many sleepless nights. I have caught strep throat from the boys and our nights aren't great, so just trying to survive at the moment. L is currently falling asleep on my shoulder ready for nap. I have allowed one arm out of his swaddle so hopefully he an start to self soothe a bit.

Catching up now!

Oh dear Jnice :( you're not having a good time of it are you xxx

I've just looked in my red book and DD at 17 weeks was 10 13, born 6 12. In the previous two weeks she had put on 8ozs, which for her was loads. sassy She sounds exactly as Isobel at 18 months. We're just moving into 1-1.5 yrs and she's 2 in a few weeks (although her 9-12 do all still fit)

bubalie I'm on day 4 of weaning with S! So far so good. She is 20 weeks today. I had planned to wait a bit, 6 months old will be end of march. But april is looking like a pretty busy month (London for a wk the start of April, then friends wedding so S will be with my mum fri to Sunday then we are away to Canada for a wk at the end of April) so I was planning to start earlier so we could get a good go at it rather than be 7 months + before things got quiet again. I bought a box of multi grain first cereal which went down a treat! Today I added some mango purée through it for little extra flavor and she loved it! Have been giving about an hr after a feed so I know she isn't starving, but not full either. Will continue with this over weekend then look at doing the veg purée next week. It's exciting!! Hopefully it does help with the reflux

Oh jnice strep throat is a bad one. I remember having it a few years ago and it was awful . Plenty cuddles from dc

bub, its interesting that you were advised to wean early because of reflux because we had the opposite advice. Are you under a general paed or a specialist?

Alex is under the neonatal team (has been since birth following possible brain trauma during delivery) and had a general development review at 3mo. His reflux was discussed then and we were advised not to wean before 6mo. Not sure if this is because I suspect he has s dairy intolerance.

The gp has said she will refer us to a dietician when he's 5 1/2mo (which strikes me as as useful as a chocolate teapot since if she only refers us as we start to wean, Alex is likely to be on unprocessed roast beef and all the trimmings before we get seen.)

Anyway, I've got this far with managing his and my diets without professional help so I gave him a peeled carrot to play with last week when he was teething which he liked. I also gave him a suck on some apple the other day but only after he'd tried to steal my banana and had nicked a very salty chip off my plate in the pub. He's probaby ready now but he's not asking for more milk; if annything he's feeding less and has dropped to feeding for under 2 hours a day. Part of this is dropping the night feed so he's down to 7 feeds a day but they're also shorter; 5-15 mins rather than 29-30 which they had been. Not sure why. His reflux got worse as I ate more soya so I went back to oatmilk last week and he's much less sick but his appetite has just been dropping since then. Anyone got any ideas?

Oh Jnice hope you get better soon
Am sat expressing as E not feeding and am worried about losing my milk supply. Poor little man been coughing all night again I can't wait for him to be better it's horrid feeling so helpless

jnice big hugs sweet. x

gole could it be that he is still getting the same amount of milk- he just doesnt want to suckle afterwards? i would have thought that no breast has enough milk in it, to be coming out for 30mins. maybe im wrong though.

fuzzy im dead slow at weaning, comapred to you! it takes me weeks to build up to food more than once a day and vegetables. i start with baby rice, give it once a day and for about a week, then change to yoghurt, once a day for a week. then i might combine them, so two solids in a day, for a week and so on! when i do introduce veg i dont mix them at first either, cos i want them to like each veg iyswim. same with fruit.

people who want to go straight to blw would hate my weaning techniques cos it takes ages before i get to finger foods!

it did work well with the twins though, as they are not fussy eaters and eat things like courgettes, aubergines, cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower.
i wasnt as good with chloe and bought jars. then tried to give her home cooked stuff and she wouldnt have it. she is still fussy about eating veg.

tbh, i did buy the organic stuff in the pouches for the twins, if we were going to be out and about, or if id been somewhere and there was nothing prepared. they liked some and hated others.

just thought about it and by the time i go through puree. textured, and then lumpy, they are 9months for finger food!

sassy iv got my ice cube trays at the ready for the veg/fruit next wk! Will be doing the same ie separate veg to start so they get used to each taste. We done this with weaning in nursery and I think it always helped rather than straight off having 3 diff veg mixed together. She has taken to it well. As I said, I'll be away a lot as she turns 6 months so don't want to miss the boat and her be much older. This way we have a good 6 weeks to get a taste for it. I've read and read but the blw just isn't for me. I couldn't stand to see so much food be thrown on floor/wasted.

lp how did E get on a doc? Did they offer anything for cough? It's heartbreaking knowing there is nothing you can do to help . Hope the little guy is over it soon

I'm so worried about weaning, I'll just follow what people on here do.

A moan about men...!

Sometimes dp really, really pisses me off. He's really involved with C, but it means that on a weekend he just takes over, criticising my method of doing things and its so ANNOYING. Yes, you obviously know more than me, as I obly look after him all day Mon-Fri, plus nights, plus weekends when you're at thr football.

This morning he wouldn't let me give him his rabbit blanket as a comforter, said it just keeps him awake. So c just screaming for it. So I said "you're such a twat at times" and he leapt out his chair and started yelling at me. So I'm in thr bedroom with c, as he can't shout at me here

fuzzy god you're organised. pity you're not closer, then i could pay you to come here and sort my muddling through life strategy out.

scheh totally see where you are coming from. mine pisses me off daily. he managed to do it today by 8am and he wasnt even in the room!
my lie in, and he's set the alarm on his fecking phone for 8am. he was already downstairs with the twins. grrrrrr.

i know you find it hard to let c cry, so maybe its not for you. but id just put c in his arms and say fine, you deal with him all the time and just shout me when he needs bfing. id then go off for a read or something. and if he came to me, saying, i csnt stop him crying, id be sacrastically saying 'why? cos i thought you knew everything' or if he doesnt come and you can hear c crying,. id go and say 'are you ever going to stop him crying, or 'you dont seem to know what the feck you're doing, judging by the amount he's crying.'

mine thought he could do it better, until i had a c section and he had to do it all. were do they get their egos from?

penguin isobel was almost exactly the same weight as your dd- 6lbs 10. she is sooooo cute and feels as light as a feather when you pick her up. chloe was a very solid child - like jacob. he feels like a ton weight!
i think the average weight for chloe's age is 5 stone 10lbs are something, but despite being really slim she weighs nearly 7.
its the same with me and my mum. when i weigh 11 stone, im a size 10/12. my mum is always around 11 stone and she is quite petit, but still a size 12.
weight is not really a good indication of anything in my opinion.

Fuzzy so encouraging to hear you are doing well with the weaning. I've bought some organic baby rice and we are going to try in 15 minutes or so. Scary and exciting at the same time. I also wanted to wait until 6 months, but don't really want to go against the advice as he has been seeing this consultant since he was 6 weeks old and he has sorted L out with the medication etc. so I do trust his judgment.
gole the guy we are seeing is head of pediatrics in our local hospital and has had great recommendations. He has been working with children for 32 years and specialises in gastro stuff so i kind of trust what he says. But obviously everyone is different, every baby is different so there will be conflicting advice outthere, so i assume we all do what we think it's best for our babies and hope it works. Great news that your little one had a taste of carrot and apple! I think I'm going to do couple of weeks or so of baby rice once a day and then introduce pureed veg and fruit and see how we get on. That way he will be 5 months by the time we change from baby rice to proper food!
sassy I will be like you slow at weaning I think< but glad to hear it worked for you!!
scheh hope your day improves, I find weekends totally different and L is much more unsettled and I think it's because DH is at home and we are out of the routine. i.e. sit in bed in the morning for an hour with the cup of coffee, where we feed, dress and are downstair quickly weekdays.
Off to get the highchair! Hope you all have a good day :)

Penguin I could not find anything round here either to give the baby clothes to. I had tried our local hospital but they did not respond. What about asking your local Council if they know of any similar type shelters?

Pebble I put P on the potty because she was being a bit "gassy" and she did a poo in the potty. I am going to try EC but I don't know how likely it is as I imagine you have to constantly be watching them and can't really go out much. Plus I am not going to leave her nappy-less I am just trying to put her on the potty when I am at home and making the appropriate noises. Don't hold me to it though DH thinks I am bonkers. I hope E feels better soon :)

Jnice hope things improve in your house shortly :)

Lemmings it just goes to show the differing information given out all the time doesn't it? As others have said though previously it's best really to just go with your instinct as you are doing I would have thought.

Aww Scheh it's hard isn't it when you are with them all week to try and suggest to DP to maybe do something x way. We have the same problems with the dog tbh, we just have to try and discuss it and compare each persons method and then come to an agreement that we both do the same thing - whatever that may be (although obviously the dog is not crying at the time so slightly less stressful). That is why P has ended up in her own room because DH suggested it seems to be working ok (apart from last night) but then I didn't agree with him saying I should sleep in our room because it's a PITA keep going across the landing. Plus I walked in to the en suite rather than out of the bedroom door the other night so I got mad.

I agree on the weight thing too because the weight doesn't match the clothing for a start does it. P is 13lb's and fits in to baby grows for a alb baby.

I have only let P lick a banana and an apple so far, very boring I know.

Less night P woke nearly every hour again between 1am and 6am, then this morning I locked the front door but left the keys in the door (outside) whilst I went to the chickens, massively scratched the car by driving it in to a brick column (I blame DH for not parking it straight) and lost the dog because he went off in to someones garden whilst on his walk then got trapped in the brambles (was tempted to leave him to teach him a lesson). Should be doing jobs but can't be arsed taking it easy as DH at work. Would love to book a holiday is anyone else planning it with their baby(ies)?

sorry that was a bit epic!

bub good luck with the weaning.

forgot to say that i usually start with only 1 spoonful at first and build up to a couple after a few days. (no wonder it takes so long)

i read loads when pregnant with chloe, so maybe its all lodged somewhere in my brain unconsciously! its probably all different now -11years later- but heyho, it works for me.

oh cheshire i have days like that. you just feel like going back to bed and starting again!

scheh on a less confrontational note (which you will see, that i dont do very often when it comes to my dp) perhaps you could just explain that if you went to his place of work and started to tell him how to do his job better, perhaps he would get a bit pissed off too.