May Baby Mayhem!

[Bodeccia]

Hello fellow May mums. Let's follow on from our lovely ante-natal threads, here's the first of the post-natal ones. Join us as we work out how to handle nappies, feeding, colic, crying and all things newborn, or just to celebrate the joys of a new baby!

cydonia I know what you mean by everyone giving advice, whether qualified or not - I have had it to the back teeth I can tell you. From family no less.
Luckily I have a fab GP & HV so they keep me sane telling me to ignore my non supporters!! V helpful, along with the NCT BF cafe & joining LLL. Oh & Kellymom online.
We are holding out for the 6 month mark to intro solids. Looking ok at the moment.

Hey all, nice to see activity on here .

Limeflower we need to apply by 15th January for a school place, otherwise one would be allocated to us. Considering all the lovely schools are over subscribed we would end up in a bit of a dump! I think we've decided now so will apply shortly. There's a new school that has just recently opened- it was a private school but it went bust and is now a primary academy. They have kept the private school uniform so blazers and ties! The buildings are pretty tired but the council have committed funds (and they need to as there's a massive shortage of school places) and the grounds are huge. It's just scary as it's new and unknown! Feedback so far from people I know with kids there is great. I think quite a few people we know will end up there too which would be nice.

Yes, still Breastfeeding here too and no plans to stop yet. Adam hasn't had milk other than direct from me! Re the weaning earlier than six months- I gave him food as I didn't think he'd manage to eat it! We're trying blw this time so I just put the food in front of him to play with but he managed to pick it up, bite, chew and swallow! We started just after five months and I won't give him dairy or gluten until 26 weeks, so only two weeks away now! He's tried a variety of fruit and veg as well as rice cakes. Quite surprisingly mil seems quite impressed with blw- she normally hates mess and is quite traditional really but was so impressed by Adam chewing away at his food and trying everything that's put in front of him. I normally feed him milk before and after the solids. We are still feeding roughly every two hours here too.

Having two children is bloody hard but at least people seem to hold back on the advice this time! I guess people assume you know what you're doing by the time you're on your second but all babies are different. I think you also know that all the phases they go through pass so you are less likely to worry and that makes people less likely to offer advice too. Just smile and nod, then ignore completely unless it seems like good advice! Definitely agree the boards on here for bf are fantastic.

Off to a funeral today- dh's grandad. Obviously sad but he was 90 and passed away in his sleep after a short illness with no real pain. I think DH and mil are ok really and ds1 doesn't really understand. Ds1 will stay with my parents today (they only live a few miles apart from pil- DH and I are childhood sweethearts) but we need to take Adam with us. Ds1 will come for the wake. I imagine I'll spend a fair bit of the service in the back room feeding, then Adam will prob go in the sling as its the best way to keep him quiet.

Hi Wrigglebum hope the funeral and wake went ok.
We are hoping to do blw - what food have you been giving adam? Only 5 weeks to go & I am trying to work out what to offer PFB when the time comes!! What to offer & how to cook it, or give it raw.... Quite daunting. How do you cope with the mess?
How much are you offering & how much do you reckon actually gets consumed?

We are quite excited and looking forward to that milestone. Just thinking that he will be able to have Christmas dinner with us!!!!

Good luck with the school applications. I hear the nearest state primaries to us both have nurseries but they only accepted siblings of current pupils this September!!! Woweeee. The next nearest is a dump but we cannot afford private . Will have to see how things change between now & school being an issue for us. Fingers crossed places become available.

We have offered-
Cooked- broccoli, carrot, asparagus, cauliflower, sweet potato, potato
Raw- mango, figs, pears, melon, soft apple, avocado, rocket, rice cakes

Sure there's more but that gives a good idea. Steaming or microwaving the veg is good, or oven roasting. I usually give a few chunks or fingers and just put two or three at a time on, I have a clean plastic sheet on so dropped bits can be picked up. Ikea do good washcloths- I have a damp one ready, wipe hands, face and body, then pop Adam in the bumbo and wipe up the tray, seat and floor. Rinse cloth and repeat, then a spray of dettol and a wipe! It is messy but then purées can be too as they put their hands in their mouth and smear it everywhere!

At the moment there's a lot left over but a bit does seem to be going in based on the nappies. I like that you can't really tell how much they have as it's easy to get neurotic about how many spoonfuls they eat but this way you just have to trust that they will have what they want. I guess it's a bit like bf- you can't see how much they have so there's no trying to force that extra ounce in. It just means less stress. The book is quite good if you can borrow a copy.

We'll start more variety soon as he reaches six months and just see how we go.

Things may indeed change with schools- two years ago it looked like we may need to consider private then they opened this new school and it all looked more promising.

Thank you for the blw tips.

What is everyone else feeding their LO?

Btw how are you coping with MiLs? Mine is using a nickname for pfb which I don't like. I don't know what to say.... Will I make it worse by saying something.....? She has not been easy to cope with since we became parents. In fact I have been stunned by her behaviour. Any tips?

So far Finn has had banana, avocado, sweet potato, rice cakes, cucumber, grapes, tomato and whatever else Fergus puts in his mouth oh and a lump of blue playdoh oops! Going to try parsnips and carrots this week. So far grapes and cucumber are winning.
Sir Charles if your Mil is not being very considerate there's prob not much point telling her but it might make you feel better. What does she do?
Can I ask how other people, ESP those with two or more kids gets there babys to nap bearing in mind mine will not sleep in car or buggy. He will in sling but not for long and not of I take him out to put in bed, getting fed up of feeding to sleep

Hello ladies :)

No time for anything-lurking even less,used to do that while feeding DS,now he's very quick in taking the breast so no point in switching lappy on.
Some evenings spent at kitchen cleaning,some writing long overdue mails to friends and family and tonight-online grocery shopping.

Asked DH to go shopping before Sunday visit to MIL,we were late so he refused but offered to go after the visit knew it wasn't going to happen as he couldn't be bothered ,of course we didn't go surprise,surprise honestly,I don't know what he expected to see in the supermarket on Sunday evening except from empty shelves.

Grrrr,grrrrr,grrrr,had a chat with DH about the dinner for umpteenth time that it doesn't work for us-the time he wants to eat collides with DS's bath-he gets overtired and goes waaaah,waaaah,waaaah full blast and obviously it's me who's dealing with it.

Quick rant over otherwise will be sitting here raging till the morning.

Grrrrr,grrrrr,grrrrrr

See you next year or when I sort out all stuff soon

goodname as for sleeping DS has cot mobile installed-in the morning/evening after feeding I switch it on (no tunes) and he goes to sleep after yapping to it.Mind you,I've got just DS and no other kids,unless you mean the noise from the others?
Last night DH stayed with DS at bedtime cue DS not going to sleep but waaaaahwaaaahwaaaaah.You can tell I'm not impressed with DH at the moment...

Hello,anybody here?

Will probably take a plunge next week with some solids-can anybody tell me what did you start with?

I was eating my dinner with DS sitting on my lap-little monkey wanted to eat my brussel sprout!

No teeth yet but waiting impatiently for the first ones to appear-DS is obviously in some discomfort because of itchy sore gums.

I'm here. Keep typing messages and blardy phone won't post them

Waiting 4 more weeks til solids, yay. Exciting next step!!

As for sleep..,, feeding to sleep at night. Sometimes in the day too. Works for us and I don't believe CIO or CC is for us (yet!).

Upset today. DH still out of work. I am hoping to take 12 months mat leave but he has not worked since June & the pot is running dry. V worrying & not sure what to do.

Anyone elee got a happy story to share?

SirCharles I'm the same re feeding to sleep-if the weather's rubbish and we can't go out I just let DS to suck for comfort.I'm so happy then that I bf,anything for peace and quiet.

Any chance of swapping jobs?You coming back and him staying with DC?It's probably hard,especially if you want to bf but needs must and so on...

I got my papers sent from work last week-didn't even manage to look at them.

Hooray for a clocks change-I can put DS to bed an hour earlier still need to work out how to persuade him to wake up later

Off to the kitchen-hasn't eaten dinner yet

Take care everybody :)

Name changed.
limeflower I am checking with work what job there is to go back to. If DH is still out of work at Christmas I'll have to go back in the new year. Not ideal but hopefully it will work out one way or the other.

Btw I had a lovely day today with PFB. I wore my pjs all day & we snuggled of the sofa. Bliss

Happy Halloween everyone. LO has been dressed as a pumpkin today. V cute.

hello! i have been completely muddled up in house moves, we moved out of devon a couple of months ago and now we're moving again, third time this year! i hope all the mummies and babies are well

mythical - welcome back BUT why so many moves?! From where to where? I don't envy u. Was bad enough 34 weeks prggers, but with kids in tow??? Owwwwwwwwweeeeee. Hope u r still bf? To ease the little one into the new place& anew routine.

In other news we will have tomove if DH does not have a job soon. Rent is expensive in these parts. Fi gers crossed today's interview leads to something soon.

Hello all, food is going down very well here, doing some finger food, some porridge here :) Finn wolfs everything down and tyells of not fed quickly enough except avocado and yoghurt, grapes cucumber and chicken are his favourites. Fantastically this new eating thing has improved his car journeys, if I give him something good to chew on like a baby biscuit or crusty bread he will quite often go to sleep. It's a miracle! His night sleep is hellish though, think his stomach is windy from all the new foods as he tosses and turns all night, he has always been a windy baby though.

So jealous of you first time mums peacefully feeding babies to sleep reading a book or watching tv, I have to read me men books or watch bob the builder here and now Finn is getting do nosh its hard to get him to sleep at all if Fergus is around which he almost always is. Anyone got any tips?
Hope everyone else is well

Hello everybody
Just flying visit as feeling crap and tired.Trying not to panic what the heck is wrong,DS wearing me out.

goodname DS here on a very windy side-he's farting like father like son mad

sorry or the terrible grammar and spelling, posting while feeding on my phone

Evening! T has also done some "tastings". He wasn't sure about banana, seriously not interested in microwaved carrot or apple. However he seemed very keen on pear. Bless him. We are doing blw so he has just had chunks to hold and stuff in his own mouth. Clearly more banana than I realised went down the hatch - his nappy definitely showed traces the next day .

Limeflower have you had your thyroid checked and of course iron levels? My thyroid stopped working so well a few years back and once diagnosed and properly medicated I felt like a totally new woman and realised I had been living my life as if bogged down by gloop. V odd.

Thyroid problems are sometimes triggered by childbirth/pregnancy.
Just a thought. Hope you feel better soon.

NotZiggy if I have one episode more I'm going to go to the doctors and ask them for some blood tests-I had a problem with thyroid a while ago-TSH was borderline and I had thyroid antibodies 3 times over the limit (which wasn't picked up here).As for iron-i was anaemic after the labour as I lost a litre of blood so was prescribed iron and recommended stout to drink.I also started eating liver once a week.Never had my bloods checked whether the haemoglobin went up or not.
Thanks for the suggestion :)

As for tasting-DS had some carrots,he liked them on the first serving,on the 2nd wasn't so enthusiastic so I left it.Nothing interesting came out of the other end (no orange poop or nuggets,goodness knows what the heck I expected )

DS is 5 months today and exactly a year ago I had my first scan-still remember the sonographer not being able to take the measurements and her words "oooh,it's going to be a lively one".How right she was...

mythical hope the third time will be lucky for you:)

Hello,where's everybody else?Any stories about feeds or first teeth coming?DS is drugged on boots teething powder,he seems to like it and opens his mouth wide when he sees the sachette.

So sleep horror here from Finn, I have mostly been feeding him to sleep which I know from experience is nota great plan however it was all that worked. Lately he has been waking when I put him down and then refusing to feed or sleep but being really grumpy, crying a lot. Cue us walking around with him and trying to feed him intermittently for hours, Friday night I had had enough, I could not stop him crying soended up putting him down in bed and leaving him. 7 minutes later he was asleep and only woke once!!!!! On sat we were out later than normal bedtime and when we came home, he went to sleep after a brief feed, however he was up a lot in the night. Tonight I wasnt sure what to do, I fed him to sleep as normal but he woke up after 5 minutes and I had not had dinner or tidied up or done my tesco order yet so thought lets leave him to cry again and see if it works. However after 20 minutes he was still screaming, thought it would be a wast to give up but it was horrible horrible, after 30 mins dh went in again to check and ended up cuddling him to sleep in a couple of mins (not something that ha s ever happened before)
So what do I do now, never planned to do cry it out but it seems to have happened on its own sort of and nothing else is working anyway? AHH help please tell me I am not evil
BTW have never left ds1 to cry and heis still terrible at 2 1/2 which may be motivating me a little

Feeding to sleep seems to be stopping working a bit here too! Managed the 'shush pat' this evening- Adam grumbled for a bit but when it turned into crying I went to rub and pat his back saying 'ssshhhhhh' over and over. Worked quite quickly, just stopped when he was calm then he was asleep fairly quickly. That might be worth a go, I seem to remember it working quite well with ds1 who I never really fed to sleep as he wouldn't.

No teeth here yet, but ds1 was 9 months when he got them so not expecting any yet! Get occasional dribbly phases but no need for any medication yet. Wanted to get some Ashton & parsons powders in but they have more than doubled in price since ds1, fire at the factory or something.

Eating going very well here, he'll try anything! Rejected pasta at first but now eats it quite happily. Had spinach and cheese pancakes this eve, went down a treat and fussy ds1 loved them too.