March 2012 - Brewed to Perfection!

[TroubleAndFyfe]

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

Biscotti turned out great, very easy with the food processor, thanks!

Those of you who have tommee tippee cups -- what do yours look like? I thought to get a second one, but I can't find any like the ones I got in my 4 mo bag. Mine has got a lid with a free-flow spout having 3 holes, and also comes with another lid that just has a little hole where stuff can come out (next step, I assume). Online all I see are ones with a flip down free-flow spout (that reviews say have 2 holes).

And perhaps I don't need a second one -- I was just worrying about confusion if it sometimes had water and sometimes had milk, so thought to get a different colour. But perhaps that's just a silly worry? I just made it up myself, no one told me that or anything :)

Glad the biscotti worked well, Pink & Trouble.

Today I opened up a bank account for LO (been meaning to for months) and put in the money she'd been given by various relatives shortly after birth. Is anybody else doing pocket money for their babies? If so, how much are you doing? We've set up a weekly transfer from our account to hers for $2 (about a quid) as I thought it'll be years before she understands the concept of pocket money, so it can just be accumulating in her account, but it's a sum we'd not miss too much whilst not going too nuts while we're down to one income. Is that a bit stingy though?

No idea about cups, I'm afraid, SciMum. Only just started using one and the water mostly ended up down LO's front .

Is anybody's LO biting their nips at the moment? LO only has one tooth but in the last couple of days has had the odd chomp on my boob. It freakin' kills! I let out and involuntary squeal yesterday when she bit me and it made her cry...I felt so horrible but it was such a painful shock! Any tips on not scaring her but getting her to stop? She also bit me at her 5am 'let's get up an play, mam' feed this morning. I nearly took her back to the hospital to ask for a refund!

Weaning starts today v v v excited!!!! Cannot wait. Carrot and broccoli on the menu, possibly a finger of toast too. Yay!!!! We got the BLW cookbook last week - delish looking recipes in there that I can't wait to try.

We have two TT cups mad, one with a stand up spout with three holes and one with a fold down one with two holes. They are the same colour and I just tell him 'milk' or 'water' which I think he'll understand just as quick as he would learn to associate the colours tbh.
bee yes, it really hurts! push her in to your boob when she does it, she'll then open her mouth as you'll have restricted her breathing (sounds awful I know but it's just for a second!)
Yay broody!

I was wondering, when you pick up your babies from sitting in their highchairs for example, do you feel their bones crack? We do with Fyfe and had assumed it to be normal until I spoke to a friend at the weekend who didn't have it with her little boy...

Well I would say our first experience with food was excellent She took a few minutes but she picked up a piece of broccoli and squashed it while watching it intently, then she stared at the finger of toast and watched DH eat his before picking it up and shoving it straight in her mouth with not a second thought! She sucked all the butter off it then chewed a bit round her mouth - I'm not sure she will have digested much but some definitely went down. Then she moved on to the carrot, which she sucked the living daylights out of for about 25 minutes! She didn't swallow any of that, I'm pretty sure as it was still the same when she finally opened her mouth and spat it out.

Tomorrow, we try porridge for breakfast. Has anyone else tried their LOs with it yet? I have a feeling it's going to be much messier than today!

Oooh on the sleeping front - last night was much better, waking only five times ("only"!!!!) between 640 when she first fell asleep and 530am. She was much better at going back down quicker. Today she has taken five naps between 630am and 630pm, most for around 30 minutes, except the first and last which were for an hour. We don't normally let her nap that late on but we have been to the races this afternoon as our racehorse was running and wanted to take her because it was at Leicester races and we live a mile away from the course so it'd have been rude not to go see our boy. He didn't win though

Sounds good broody.
I make a BLW recipe - porridge fingers, which Fyfe loves.
Mix 2 tbls porridge oats with 2 oz milk, (I use expressed milk, you can use full fat cow's milk) leave to soak for 10 mins. Spoon on to a plate and shape firmly in to a block with the back of a spoon and pat down. Tip off any excess milk. Put in the microwave for 1 min 30 then turn on I a cool plate and cut in to fingers. Once cooled they will be a flapjack consistency. Perfect for little hands and less mess!

Ah yes I'd seen that in the BLW cookbook and wondered what it'd be like. I think I'll use formula in ours. We'll give her banana too I think - major issue with this though is that banana smell makes me gag I know also that anything banana touches goes black if it goes unnoticed and dries! Now is not the time to be thinking of my house being messy but haha!

We have also started weaning! So far so good! Carrot and parsnip big success! I'm doing puréed stuff as I'm very mindful of watching out for reactions due to DD1s ceoliac (although this is actually an autoimmune disorder it's made me very wary of intolerances etc) she has had fingers if the puréed stuff at the same time and took it well! She's happy to self feed off a Pre loaded spoon! So cute!

Also this week she's agreed to take a bottle :) so relieved as I have an afternoon tea on Sunday for a friends birthday and was hoping for some child free time it's looking more promising! Though she's still very Velcro like (happy to play with DH untill she realises I'm not in the room :/) the tea party is only a five min drive away so I figure DH can bring her to me if need be?

trouble DD1 used to 'click' sometimes it was quite audible I noticed it at birth and mentioned it to my midwife who dismissed my concerns I brought it up again with my hv when she was a couple of months and we wee referred to a consultant oesteopath turned out to be nothing but I was pleased to have it checked! She only clicked on a few occasions but I found it concerning as it always seemed to be her right shoulder?

Oo, all the weaning sounds so very exciting! We'll probably start this weekend, when she'll be 24 weeks. I've been cooking meals in a way that DD could have parts -- cutting things into long strips instead of chunks, low sodium, etc., to practice.

I'm not quite sure what to do about dinner time, kiki -- we usually eat at 8 or 9pm, and I don't see that changing. Tessa does start getting fussy at around 7, but the times I've tried to put her down then she just takes a 1-2 hr nap and is then alert for a few hours again. Maybe she'll just have a late evening nap before dinner? The one night she went down for the night at 7pm she was awake for the day at 4am! That's too early for me...

Ugh. Tessa's ear infection has been gone for a week and I'm on my third course of antibiotics -- two at a time this time. I hate being sick :( I hope this time it clears up.

trouble, we don't have creaking but every once in a while there is a pop like knuckles cracking. But not consistently, and she seems happy. If I were you, I'd mention it to GP or HV and see what they say.

Yes, it's a pop like knuckles cracking, several times a day though...it had never bothered him, he's always very happy. I will book a GP appointment soon though!

Consultant oesteopath ooops meant orthopaedic consultant really shouldn't mn late at night I really hope this mush of a brain sorts it self out before I go back to work! Cannot believe my baby is 26 weeks where oh where has the time gone?????

Evening all! Are any of you on instagram? Thought itd be nice to follow each other and share pix of our babies after all the chatting we do about them? (and also cos we had a family photo shoot today that I'm dying to show off!!)

I'm not broody but we could make a secret group on Facebook?

Yick. We're all sick. Me, DH, and DD have a cold, and I still have the ear infection. I had a bad reaction to one of the antibiotics so they took me off that one and will reassess on Monday. We had been planning to start BLW today, but with DD coughing and us barely up to making our own food, I don't think that's going to happen.

poor you mad!

Hope you're feeling better soon mad must be horrid being poorly as a mummy to a six month old

Has everyone had their first post preg period yet? Mine took me quite by surprise the other week! Guess I knew it'd come sooner or later but still was like "oh, flippin eck, not AF already" So in theory, we could start trying for broody offspring %232 now...... But bearing in mind we are so struggling with %231, I think not!!

Sympathies mad, myself and baby both have chest infections. Not fantastic timing as Eldest started pre-school this week so have to be up and out very early to travel.

Iam eating lots of chocolate. For medicinal reasons

Not yet broody!

Nope broody I'm still bf though I didn't get mine back with DD1 till she was nine month and started formula in fact I got it on my very first day back at work from mat leave talk about depressing day ha!! When is everyone thinking of going back if at all? I'm already dreading it!

I'm turning 30 in jan so thinking after that! I went pt after DD1 would love to go even more pt but don't think the job would be manageable on even less hours :(

Oooh, bad timing law!
I'm not going back, it's quite a commute to London from our new house by the sea! that's a shame your job would not be manageable with less hours, would it work as a job share?

Oh no, Broody, that has me worried now! Mine hasn't come back and long may that continue! I think we all have enough to deal with without all that carry on . Out of interest, are you mixed feeding? Also, would love to see your pics but am not on instagram. Could you upload them into your profile or put them on photobucket? Or can anybody see instagram, even if they're not on it? (I'm not very up on how it all works).

I've put up a couple of new pics into my profile of LO chowing down on some cannelloni - man, that was a big hit! Trouble, I tried the recipe for the porridge fingers (what an ace idea!) but I managed to nuke it too much, so just ended up with oats welded onto the bottom of the bowl. I think the problem was I hadn't managed to express enough milk as I'd just fed her, but tried to just put in fewer oats, forgetting that the depth would be different, so wouldn't need microwaving for as long. Hey ho, we'll try again when I've managed to express a more impressive quantity!

Mad, sorry to hear things are still rough with you. +

Law, we're lucky because I'm a member of the union and part of the collective agreement here is that my job must be kept open for 2 years, so I'm not going back until February 2013. We're having to really budget though as I was the main breadwinner and if we keep spending at the same rate I'd only be able to take off 18 months. That said, in the time we've been off we've had a lot of one-off expenses for the baby as well as having insulation put in. Kiwi houses are generally really bloody cold (wood, single glazed, no insulation or central heating) and I felt it was worth just getting all that done so we stood a chance of keeping her warm over the winter. We're meal planning now though and I've started a veg patch, so fingers crossed we can live a bit more frugally. Plus, hopefully our energy bills won't be as eye watering over the summer (this winter they tripled from last winter as I was home during the day rather than at work).

Oh, in other news, took LO to the doc's earlier in the week as she hadn't pooed in 18 days . She's now only had one tiny (and so paint-strippingly smelly) one in 21 days. It was awful...the doc had to put the tip of her finger up LO's bum and she just screamed and turned bright red. It was awful. Poor little thing. So fingers crossed for poos - never thought I'd say that!

Oh, meant to ask if anyone knows how to update my 'mumsnet mates' list so I could include the newer members of the thread, in case you want to see the pics in my profile...although I guess you may not have any interest