March 2012 - Brewed to Perfection!

[TroubleAndFyfe]

Hello all, come and add your babies to the list and let's see what adventures they bring!

Oh right, too high fibre for a toddler. Googled.

Hmm. Anyone given any thoughts to stair gates yet? I was given one this morning which was great.. but the problem I hadn't thought of was the cat. The bars are far too narrow for her to fit through. Basically we have a small house on three floors, so lots of stairs, and the cat lives almost exclusively indoors. She spends most time in the living room (first floor) but needs to go downstairs to use the tray. She's pretty old & arthritic (definitely won't be able to jump over it) and has had quite a few issues with protest pooing, especially when Ivy was born! So I really don't want to do anything to upset her on that score, including moving the tray.

Any ideas? I suppose the bars are that distance apart for specific safety reasons, so doubt you can buy wider ones. Looked it up online and someone said they'd raised their gate so there was a bigger gap at the bottom, and it was screwed in tightly enough that she felt it was safe enough.. not sure about that though...

I'd also heard the raised-gate thing. I guess it has to be low enough the baby definitely couldn't get through. Cats can squish themselves under some awful narrow things -- if her skull can fit, so can the rest of her, so it might not need to be as high as you imagine (unless she's too arthritic to crawl? Although my old cat squeezed herself into some mighty tight places). Or have you considered getting a second litter tray and seeing if she'd use that as offered, but without moving the other? Or would that upset her enough to poo outside both places? (My cat is having some elimination problems too, but she had a urinary infection and blocked glands which we just got cleared yesterday, so I hope she does better there.)

I am actually seriously considering putting the heating on. I'm telling myself it's for Poppy as her hands feel ever so slightly chilly - in truth she couldn't give a damn as she is soundly asleep in my lap after a tiny top up feed! It says 21 degrees on her monitor but it feels more like 15 IMO! Brrrrr

Revision : she is Not sleeping soundly now after her wee has come out of her nappy and gone all up her side, all the way up to her armpit! Poor thing. That change was definitely the loudest. Not surprisingly. It had soaked through a bodysuit, sleep suit and sleeping bag on to the pillow so must've been a big wee! Itll take ages to get her settled again now

Oh dear broody! Hope she settles quickly I put my heating on today! DH was grumbling about it being too hot but I was freezing! I'm having fun this week DH on night shift and DD1 decided to get up in the middle of the night last night I let hr get in with me what a mistake! Both DDs ended up awake on and off from midnight to 5! On a very happy note though my sister had a baby girl this morning :) she lives away so hot to wait till next weekend for newborn cuddles

Heating?! We slept with no covers and the window open, clearly we are having different weather!
Congratulations to your sister law! How lovely.

Aaah congratulations, aunty law is it her first/your first niece/nephew? I love having a nephew, there's something wonderful seeing my sister as a mummy. Hugs for all xx

Thanks everyone yes it's her first I've got three sisters and she's the first to have a baby all girls in my family! DH had 2 nieces so already an aunty but having my sister become a mummy is so special gush!! Xx

Thanks everyone yes it's her first I've got three sisters and she's the first to have a baby all girls in my family! DH has 2 nieces so already an aunty but having my sister become a mummy is so special gush!! Xx

Congrats, law! :)

Both DD and I have ear infections :( I got antibiotics, but doctor said just use Calpol for DD unless she seems to be really bad (they gave antibiotics just in case, as the weekend is coming up). Had a devil of a time getting Calpol in her, though. Used a syringe, but it seemed she spit out more liquid than I put in! I hope she got some. Anyone have any tips there? Taking paracetamol myself, as it really hurts, especially when moving my jaw :(

Also had the "weaning talk" today. Not hugely useful. HV was an older woman, and seemed to be speaking about the pre-6 month guidance, with baby rice only to start for a few weeks. I did mention baby-led weaning and she said that was fine, but every piece of advice she gave (couched as "you must") completely ignored that. She referred mostly to two sheets that came from the dairy council; however, she did also give us an NHS booklet which is consistent with BLW -- basically providing suggestions for either purees or finger foods or a combination. So I think I'll read the booklet and ignore what she said. (And glad she wasn't my HV from the start! I really didn't like the "here's what we have you do" and "you must" phrases.)

Yes mad we have the calpol issue with Fyfe! My tip is put the dose in to an egg cup or similar..I then dip my finger in the calpol and rub it on to his gums. It takes a long time but the dose goes in!

Poppy loves calpol! Her eyes literally light up when she has it! It's so cute I just use the spoon it comes with but would try the tommee tippee first weaning spoons if she had an issue with the calpol one as they're soft and bendy and she can touch it herself that way.

Sleeping update btw - ack, who needs more than three broken hours all day and all night anyway?!

I always flip the thread and read the last messages first and for some reason read your message, Broody as 'Poppy loves calipo'...thought she was a bit young for ice lollies before I realised it was me being dense!

Scimum- I read a tip in the parenting section a while ago saying that when you give pamol to squirt it into their cheek when using a syringe. It totally revolutionised it for us now, if we need to give it, we find that doing that works. She won't swallow it otherwise.

Yesterday we had our follow up appointment with the dietician, which was really good and made me feel confident with when we'd been doing. I was a bit worried because LO's intolerance to diary hasn't disappeared yet and we're going to raise her as vegetarian until she's old enough to choose. But it put my mind at rest and helped me work through some ideas for weaning, so all good. So far she's had carrot, banana, apple, hummus (which I thought would be way too strong as I'd been a bit heavy handed with the garlic, but she loved and devoured it off he end of carrot sticks), egg yolk on a toast finger. Tonight I baked her some baby biscotti which is meant to be fab for teething and would be good to predip in a legume mash, I think. If anyone wants the recipe, I'm happy to post it up. Nice alternative to rusks and all those kind of things.

Spring has well and truly sprung here. Our magnolia tree outside is in full bloom and LO got to lie on the grass for the first ever time today. It's good to nearly be fully out of the winter...it was okay with a newborn as we just kept the fire stoked and wallowed in the dark, but I'm so excited that the days are getting longer and I have this little sidekick to take and show all the places where we usually hang out in the summer. Happy days

P.s. happy half birthday to Fyfe for tomorrow, Trouble

Haha, bee It wouldn't surprise me if she will like calipos because in the first few months of pregnancy I ate loads of them - I found they were fantastic at keeping the sickness under control. Them and any food that was beige! Yikes, I do not miss those early pregnancy days at all - the secrecy and sickness drove me bonkers!!

Hello all,
Re: Calpol, we use a syringe too, but find that lying her down makes it easier- and we do it a bit at a time rather than all in one go. Any that dribbles out we wipe with a finger and pop back in!
The second tooth came through overnight- she's been so lively at night- waking up all the time, but only cries if you try to put her back down to sleep- she wants to play! But- we've had much longer daytime sleeps. About an hour & a half in the morning and afternoon now. A friend says her son was exactly the same at this age and his teeth just starting to come through then and as soon as she introduced solids he started sleeping through the night again. Here's hoping!

I'm desperate for Poppy's teeth to make their appearance kiki if that's what all this nighttime nonsense is all about! We are lucky to get four hours sleep a night. Been like this for about six weeks now, we're exhausted. She cries til you pick her up, stops when you hold her, falls asleep then wakes as soon as her back touches her mattress. Personally, I think it's four month sleep regression hanging around rather than teeth, even though she is clearly teething. Just driving us bonkers whatever it is. Weaning in just over a week so fingers crossed it is the answer to our prayers!

Yes, Broody- I'd really appreciate one of those long night's I used to get a couple of months ago, too! What time do you put Poppy to bed? I've stuck with 7pm because she is always very tired by then, but maybe I should try a bit later. I think I might do a combination of BLW + a little bit of mushed food when we start, because I think it's going to take a while with BLW before she actually starts swallowing & digesting...

Thanks for all the Calpol advice. We've tried several things -- so far the best is lying flat on back with syringe and shooting it into her cheek, but I'm guessing she still only gets half. It reminds of me the early days when we were trying to supplement and simply couldn't get anything else into her. I'm thinking this is a big indication for BLW - she doesn't seem to want to ingest anything except on her own terms!

Wow. I really hate ear infections :( DD has spent nearly the whole past two days comfort nursing, which is fine, as I'm not up to moving much anyway. And glad we have Sky+, because we had to pause Dr Who several times for shrieking baby...

And, oh dear. DH has been looking at properties for sale, because he thinks its fun, and we'll eventually need a larger house with DD. Mostly he found things way outside our budget. But now he's stumbled upon something in budget and as close to perfect as I could imagine, plus some bonuses - like being literally next door to a livery (as I hope to have horses someday) and excellently placed: only ~4 miles from work, with a separate bike path all the way into town, and past the intersection where most buses turn, so public transport passing about every 10-20 minutes. As DH said, even if I walked into work, it would be a shorter commute than I have now! But, argh, I can't imagine doing all the work necessary to sell our own house and then move. I'm just barely managing work + baby, and I'm not sure it's possible to add clearing out house enough to be saleable and then keeping it looking neat. Yet life would be SO much easier if I spent 20 minutes a day commuting, instead of 2.5 hours. And I can't imagine we'd ever find a place so perfect and so close to work in our budget again. Don't know what to do... Sorry, just sounding off as it's a nice dilemma, but still a dilemma.

Ooh, that's tricky, Mad. What work would you actually have to do on your current place? Is DH any good at all that?

BeeWi - I'd love the baby biscotti recipe if you're willing to share.

kiki Her bedtime routine starts at 6pm with a bath, story, cuddles and sleep balm. Thats done by 630/40 then we stay upstairs and I feed and cuddle she falls asleep, usually about 715/730. She generally goes down for 2-2 1/2 hours but then stirs and basically that's it for the night.
She's really developed in the last few weeks - v comfortable rolling front to back as well as back to front, spends longer on her tummy, wants to sit up a lot, chattering away a lot (I swear she said mummmummm the other day when she was screaming as DH held her - I didn't say anything but DH said yday "she calls for you doesn't she? Mummmummm") - and she rolls on to her side in the night so it's not hard to guess that maybe all this development is making her overtired so could be affecting her nighttime. Plus she still doesn't sleep much during the day and she will never be put down in her crib or elsewhere if she does nod off; it is only ever on me.
I'm thinking exactly the same as you on weaning. BLW sounds fab but she won't be getting anything from it for a good while yet so we are going to be combination feeding to start with I think. I'm so excited about seeing her with food!! We've narrowed the highchair choices down to the baby bjorn or the cosatto 3sixti so we are a bit closer now. Have you got yours sorted?

I guess you have played around with the routine broody? Putting her down later doesn't make a difference? Your routine does seem very long. Our post natal class said to keep it under 45 mins start to finish, otherwise it is meaningless to them, they can't link it with sleep as it starts so long beforehand. Ours is half an hour start to finish. Fyfe is still waking lots in the night, he'll mostly (not always) go for 4/5 hours initially then wake between every hour and every hour and a half most nights at the moment (yawn) but luckily only wakes for 3-5 mins each time and generally sleeps from 8-7 so although he's far from 'sleeping through' it's not nearly as bad as what you are going through. Maybe your DD will crawl early though then start to settle down through being active. For those of you pinning good sleep hopes on weaning, it hasn't made any difference with any of my friends, even those spoon feeding purees and putting rusks and rice in bottles(!) what we tend to forget is that their milk is really calorific and packed with nutrients, they don't need any food until they are one. I don't mean to be the voice of doom, just don't want you to be disappointed. One day we will get a full night's sleep again....one day!
I messaged a friend of mine who did BLW with her now 2 yr old to see how it went, she said she couldn't recommend it more, her DD is far from a fussy eater, they get comments all the time about what a good eater she is and she has always fed herself whereas some of the 2 yr olds at nursery are still spoon fed. Sounds encouraging! Fyfe had spaghetti bolognese tonight. Wow that was messy beyond belief fun!
mad you need to book a viewing for the house and see how you feel then, if it is meant to be you'll find a way!

hope that didn't come across as annoying and bossy broody, wasn't intended that way, just wondering if tweaking the routine would get you more sleep but re read and thought !

No offence taken, it's what we are all here for isn't it? Peer support/advice!

But...No, we haven't played with the routine and wouldn't favour putting her to bed later - www.justmommies.com/articles/early-bedtime.shtml
I think that although it's frustrating and exhausting, her weird sleep boils down to her awkward age, teething, overtiredness and maybe a spot of separation anxiety. She was fine before she hit 4 months so hopefully she will fall out of it soon. She had these daytime naps today which is rare for her - just hoping that's going to be a regular thing!! Xxx