April 2012 - Feeding, Facebook and finally summer!!

[Flisspaps]

Apologies for the rubbish thread title - thought I'd cobble something together though!

thaleia I think they are now changing it to from 4 months onwards? Well after 17 weks just puree, then 6 month mainly all foods?
sorry your having a hard time with MIL, mine is staying with us for a weekend next week for dd christening.

We had no poo's for two days, I think her body is getting use to the solids? Then had a nice- thick/orange colour one, after the carot LoL.
Its now been yellow and green, thick and then running. Weaning is going well, we tried sweet potato for main last night and pear after. I've stepped up to breakfast too now, just babies rice or porridge! :-)
Had a few tough nights, last night up at 145am then 4am but she did sleep till 745 thus morning in her bed!
Her routine is changing again for night feeds, shame U was use to the 3 and 6 wake up :(

She been sitting up well, now does about 15 mins and has learn to slide backwards round my laminate flooring :-) think ill have to get a stair gate soon? X

The advice on weaning, IIRC, has been from 4-6 months for the last few years. It's not changed for a long time.

My friend was told by her doctor the same thing about weaning at 4 months leading to less allergies.
I think we're going to get a highchair soon and see what she does at the table. We're UK bound soon though so probably won't do much until we're home again.

I'm so tired today! E slept really well but I had insomnia and was wide awake after feeding her at 2.30am and didn't manage to get back to sleep even though she didn't wake again until 6ish.

H is 4 months and 3 days and has started weaning with a smile. He has porridge for breakfast with a few milk feeds during the day followed by half a jar of something and twice a week pudding with a large milk feed at night. He has also started on the baby juice in his sports bottle/cup thing.

Morning all!!! We are back from holidays in France, where DS has been enjoying the occasional treat of mashed banana. He started to suddenly, and quite dramatically, become really interested in everything we were eating and (especially drinking) - particularly my dad's bottle of beer! We have some great pics of that! (Don't worry - I haven't been feeding my boy booze!) We took this as a sign to experiment, and bought a banana, which he enjoyed mashed over a few evenings. I don't know if I'd really go so far to call it 'weaning' though, as it's more of an addition to his feeds, not replacing them. He giggled like anything the first time he tasted it, and then quickly began to reach for the spoon in his effort to be 'helpful'. I can see why my DH used to be fed banana in the bath by his parents!

So, yeah - naked weaning may make its entrance over the next few weeks, but we are taking it slow, and it'll likely be mashed banana, avocado, etc. He has no teeth yet - although he has very ridgy gums, so I don't think we're far off.

On another note, I LOVE France - it's basically my second home as I lived there when I was in my 20s for a bit - but I don't think they've heard of the concept of baby changing facilities or parent and child parking. Come to that, when we went to a supermarket they had a huge car park with ONE disabled space! They did have a special checkout till for 'future mums' though. I find it very interesting how two nations, so close to each other in so many ways, approach something so differently. The owner of the hotel was also astounded that I was still bf-ing at 4+ months. She told me proudly that she had bf for 3 1/2 months, and I got the impression this was considered a long time in France.

DS is a great fan of the country - and I'm pretty sure we'll be back there soon - (I still have a desire to relocate) but for now...home sweet home. Soggy, cold Yorkshire. ;)

Just a quick hello from me, A is a bit poorly, has had diarrhea for 5 days now, today it's green mucus basically and he's also congested today. He's not off his milk and he is smiling through it bless him, think its affecting me more than him as I'm worried. Out of hours say I need to take a poo sample to our dr tomorrow as he's not presenting in a stomach bug way just to see what's what.

hugandroll sorry to hear your ds is unwell, hope it passes quickly and U find out what it is?
Henrietta we have booked for Spain in October and I planned to bf over there. Although MIL says the spainish don't tent to do it in public much. Oh well Im sure we will been find. They also have penty of lush fruit and veg which I sure L will love!
She is a big fan of mushed banana too! She has porridge in the morning after 630am feed, normally about 9-930am. Then evening meal of fruit or veg, L likes sweat potato too! Still doing lots of bfeeding about 6-7 per day, so only really dropped one!
Last night she just woke at 130am from 815pm, then through till 630am :-)

Just marking my place as you'd all slipped off my active discussions.

I have loads to say but am struggling with my first filthy hangover in over a year and everything is blurry.

DH flew back to London today ... I'm very sad. We had a good, long talk yesterday and I think, we should have had this ages ago.

I'm so tired, not sure if we do the mixed feeding right. I "top up" the 7pm feed but he drinks 200ml easy - so either he really is starved, my supply has come down or he can't stop himself? How much would you top up at 17 weeks? I just don't want to wean him of the breast by mistake! All I gain is 1hrs and I think he snacks less during the day ....

Hi!
DS started at the new school on thu and the first 2 days went well. He seems happy. R is growing up quickly . She has become really mobile with rolling both ways now constantly and also is pushing herself forward ! It's crazy she 's doing this at 4 1/2 m , DS was 6m when he crawled and he went backwards first like a lot of babies. Can't take my eyes off her anymore because she'd be somewhere else next. She's getting better at sitting by herself but is still leaning forward a lot and topples over easily.
She's had a taste of baby rice and pear and apple but I haven't started it properly and won't for a while . It's all still coming back out and she makes some funny faces :) .
No sign of teeth here yet and she hasn't been suffering sleepless nights or anything . Just the eating everything and the endless drooling continues. Everything is always wet ...

Quick question about sterilising & weaning. DS puts everything in his mouth! My cardy, my hands, his hands, his car seat straps, his clothes etc. None of it has been sterilised. He is happy & healthy. It seems a bit daft, therefore, to sterilise the spoon he has his banana on & to boil/cool water before he can taste. He's been really wanting to try our bottled table water...surely that can't do any harm?

Henrietta my weaning book says U don't need to sterilise feeding equipment, just clean in warm water. Because they are use to germs by now! But U must sterilize bottle and teats till 1 yr+. And fliss says normal water is fine After 6 months+, but I think it has to be boiled and cooled, before given it to them, now! :-)
Tough night again for us here, mother babysat till 9 ish, L was up 1230, 330 and 5am. She's didn't feed at 330, just gave her dummy!
Very upset today, didn't have porridge this morning, and screaming and moody! Maybe teeth pain??????

You don't need to sterilise weaning stuff
Bottles 'should' be sterilised simply because the bugs in off milk are really very nasty and get stuck in the tiny nooks and crannies of the bottles and teats, and even then it's the washing that's more important than the sterilisation. I think that most other countries only sterilise bottles until around 6mo, so by weaning time it's irrelevant.

A hot cycle in the dishwasher will effectively wash and sterilise it all anyway

Oh and bottled water is generally too high in sodium for babies iirc

Yes I think you're right Fliss - was telling my DH that about bottled water the other day so I must've read it somewhere!

That's interesting...I know that mineral waters can have very high sodium levels but I didn't know that about the 'table water' 17p stuff! Water from the kettle it is, then.

If its the value brand stuff, that's actually the same as tap water, I think it's bottled in Yorkshire I was reading about it last week, I can't think where. Our water's hard here and tastes vile, I managed to get DH to stop buying bottles by getting a filter jug.

We are 3 nights into our trip away for DH's conference, all going fine so far except sterilising bottles in hot water with tablets, such a faff compared to the microwave at home. Also brought my breast pump but really struggling to get anything out of it now- a week ago I was still pumping 100ml a day, now it's 40-60ml at best.

I am trying to BF more often & for longer before every formula feed to compensate for the reduction in expressed milk - with DD only just over 4 months I don't want to stop BF any time soon, but not being tied to the pump so much would be a relief.

We swam in the hotel pool today (my DM who is with us helping) - so much fun, DD loved it!

Good idea bringing your mum along marshmallow!

Ds2 is a total water baby also. We had a swimming party for ds1 and he joined in. Absolutely loved it. Kicking away and shrieking with delight, complete opposite to how his big brother was at his age.

Sunday we went to the Paralympics with the boys - ds1 was really well behaved and ds2 just took everything in his stride. Even fell asleep breastfeeding for the last hour.

4 month jabs today! Long delayed due to various summer holidays...You can do it, DS!

R can now go for 5 hrs without food - during the day. Even then he isn't crying for it. But, at night we were up for food and snacks at 10, 12, 2.45, 5, 6.30 before he peacefully went back to sleep till 11am. I don't think the "never wake a sleeping baby" applies to up anymore.

This afternoon dreaded visit for MIL. Oh well, it's only 3.5hrs.

DH got bad news @ work re his performance. Everybody else is on a permanent contract but him now. It's a "communication" issue and I know he's not good a giving presentations.

I love being home with my mum and friends, I don't necessarily feel better but everything is easier and nicer if you can share things. I would love to come more often but don't know how long I should/ can stay away from London because of DH and his time with DS. On the other hand, they only see each other on the w/e. don't know ...

We feed R her five feeds of 6 oz every 3-4 h during the day and then she 's more likely to to sleep through the night without any . She could go longer in the day but that would backfire in the night . DH does some of the time do a last 10/11 pm feed but she can at times go 10/11 h between feeds. She has never regularly slept early eve to morning though and I don't think she will untill we're eating a good amount of solids like DS at 9 m ...
Having the last jabs here too tomorrow although still need to do the separate tuberculosis one.

Thaleia Hope this afternoon was OK! Some babies do go a while without feeds in the day and make up for it at night - daytime is exciting and stimulating and there's always something going on, but at night it's nice and quiet and he gets you all to himself! I think it's called reverse cycling, but I may be talking out of my hat.

Will he take milk if you offer it more frequently in the day?

:( about DH - at least you know what the problem is though so he can work on it. Are there any courses that work could send him on to help him? I'd be terrible at doing presentations!

Last night was fucking awful with DS again, I am hoping that he sleeps tonight instead of screaming at me from 10pm til 2am.

Hellooo.

Just thought I'd write a quick post as I cant sleep, have been on the facebook group a lot, so you know I'm still around :)

Don't really want to write on facebook (its not a secret, but there are people on there that I dont want knowing the ins and outs of my health!) but my depression has been bloody awful last few weeks. Caused DH to panic somewhat by calmly explaining to him that at least the DSs were too young to remember me!! GP has put me on new ADs (that I can still BF on) to see how they work for the next two months and if I need to change to something else once DS2 is 6m and would then be weaned off BF (which I really don't want to do for a long time yet, but I guess I need to prioritise a non-mental mother over my ideas of BF importance...)
He did also mention the possibility of refering me to a psychiatrist to investigate possible bipolar-ness... It swings majorly back and forth, I'd never thought that the good side could be manic before, but it makes sense now.

This isn't PND by the way, its long term, though reappeared in pregnancy not that it had fully gone away before

beyond I'm glad you are getting the support you need and are being referred to the right places.

It's my first day with just A today as ds1 is in school for the first time. It's nice spending quality time with him but the house feels so empty and quiet.