December 2011: Of Mice, Men and Tables

[NorthernChinchilla]

Here we go...I hope!

northern that's awful, thank goodness they were all ok. DH is obsessed about making sure everything is switched off before we go to bed or when we go out, and I can't cope with seeing plug sockets turned on with no plug in them. And they'll have a story to tell LO when he's older, my dad put a knife through his hand on the night I came home from hospital and had to go to A&E.

mopsy that's really cool, I'm but the least musical person on the planet.

LMF that is a bargain!

cherry you're coping very well, I'd have told him to bog off by now. Out of interest how involved was he with his own own kids? I know I'm generalising but it seems that dads from the previous generation generally had less to do with taking care of the babies than our OHs do now.

I'm being perhaps foolishly optimistic about everything. The blood had been lighter today than yesterday, still no cramps so i think the worst has passed, and I'm hoping things will start to calm down tomorrow.

Thanks for all the advice ladies. As figgy suggested I cut down amounts in a few feeds today so he?s ?only? had 35oz. We?ll see what impact, if any, that has overnight tonight! aethel I?ll give no. 3 milk a try next time. BJR I like the sound of what your HV said, so I?ll try and relax about it for now. I?ve seen that recipe and will give it a try ? I need to get some high quality oats first though as all we have are the Scott?s Porage Oats that it says don?t work well. Oi he?s only on medium flow teats. He started on slow flow when we first switched over to bottles, but sucks so hard they squash in.

DS is trying all sorts of new foods, but I can safely say he?s not a broccoli fan. He was fascinated by it and kept wanting to pick it up, but didn?t like the taste, and it got to the point where even touching it made him grimace and shudder. It was so funny to watch . I?m struggling a bit with veg for him in that I can?t cook them for the right amount of time so that they?re soft enough for him to eat but not so soft that they disintegrate when he picks them up.

gee hope things improve for you and LO soon

aethel don?t feel guilty about refusing to give him the boob. You?ve done amazingly to keep going this long, and you?ve got to do what?s best for your family as a whole.

Cherry I know where you?re coming from. Had various in-laws visiting at the weekend, and overheard (40yo) SIL commenting when I was out of the room that the finger of pineapple I?d given DS was too ?challenging? for him to eat. Also, FIL commented that DS watches too much TV, because he turned round from his toy to see where the sound and pretty pictures were coming from. This from the man who sits all day every day watching the news channels.

Good luck tonight to Kate and gee hope Los sleep well!!

Seven he seems to have been quite involved with his kids, but he has always had to work long hours in a restaurant. When DH was a baby he worked 6 days a week (still does actually), so I don't think he's 100% right. DH is the eldest of 4, so I guess FIL knows about babies and kids, but my DS is his own person and he's not going to be the same anyone else!

I trust him to look after DS as he dotes on him, but I think DS is new to him as he's an active baby and doesn't like being held or cuddled, he's always pulling away to get on the floor to practice crawling and rolling!

Kate I wouldn't mind so much, but I'm starting to sound like Mrs Baby Led Weaning and I'm totally not, I started on purées and I spoon feed yogurts and breakfast :) I just think DS knows how to pick food up and put it in his mouth, he knows to suck things like bread to make it soggy and chews it before swallowing. He does gag sometimes, but I think that's normal and he usually carries on eating after a gag...it's certainly not putting him off.

My mum thinks he should be having pudding every day like rice pudding, custard etc, but the baby led weaning cook book doesn't seem to make a fuss of puddings? I see now why I've got a chocolate addiction....thank mum! :o

I guess the sooner DS stops this gagging the sooner FIL will stop panicking! My Mum is quite happy giving DS whatever we are having and handed him a whole roast parsnip to eat on Sunday. Mum is just obsessed with puddings :) The other thing is, DS sure as hell tells me when he's hungry by screaming the house down, so I'm pretty sure he's eating enough!

Yes I bet tv is going to be the next one lol! I think the best thing is to say what we are doing or what our thoughts are and just leave it as that. Some people just think what they want no matter what you say or do. Best to let it go in one ear and out the other! I think I'm probably being a bit sensitive as DS is my first and I'm learning as I go, but I think I'm doing a good job and he's healthy and happy which is the main thing!

first wakeup of the night already.

Good night ladies, hope especially that minimopsy, babygee and figgyboy are calm and peaceful!

Sky sleep all night 3rd in a row

37days till we get married

Minim woke at midnight, 01:00, 02:00, 03:00, then every ten or fifteen minutes until about 04:45 but then slept until 07:15 so I got 2.5 hrs in a row. So not a great night really.

Thanks for the sympathy everyone! We had a better night but still not great, she woke up every 2 hrs and took ages to settle, then wouldn't go back to sleep after she woke at 4am until 6am. But it's still better than every 10 minutes!

So it could be a dairy intolerance, will see if she's better tonight after another day without dairy.

Thanks for all the suggestions, might try that white noise machine. The problem is that she likes to be rocked back to sleep!

We have a paed appt on Friday for the lump on her back so will get a thorough check over then. Its just weird that she's absolutely fine in the day and napping as normal.

Can't remember what else I was going to say. Sorry, extreme sleep deprivation here!

Oh yes, xiao DD's still only pooing once a week so it could be discomfort related to that. But she's been doing it since she was 8 weeks old and its not due until Friday! Will mention it on Friday as well.

37 days! How exciting! I remember the countdown well. and 37 days may be enough to see this blimmin' awful weather pass!
bjr was it you who asked about going from boob to sippy cup rather than bottle? Well I had to try it last night as there were no bottles clean when we got home and he kept diving for my boobs and making a fuss, One of his cups is a "nuby", it has a strange sip/teat section - we were given it froim nursery and its the cups they're using there, so we gave it a try. The result was that he took it like a bottle, but he wanted to glug it down like a bottle of milk, and so it poured a bit too quickly and we lost quite a bit as every so often he'd spit some out.
I haven't tried white noise with BOI. "There's a worm at the bottom of the garden" is our sleep song. After wrestling with him last night for aaaages trying to convince him that sleep was a good thing, and him fighting it intently, I started to sing it and he relented immediately. We had a friend round which is why I'd held off the singing. Now I'm thinking I'll record myself on the ipod and then set it to repeat when we put him in his own room.
northern that is horrific. thank goodness they all got out OK. When there was the gas leak in the news a week or so ago that killed a baby, it makes you think that it can happen to anyone. - I've always thought myself as pretty invincible, "It won't happen to me" is how I live my life (however I never leave anything on standby and am v careful about what's plugged in!), but that's changed since BOi came along, I fear for him - not me. The dreaded fear of "what if...", I suppose that's motherhood. ...Just another 40 years or so to get used to it.
I have found a fault with BLW by the way. And that is when you do try to spoon feed him he wants to get his hands in. At home, that's OK. I have just bought a load of small -hand-friendly cutlery. But at nursery, ... well, yesterday I picked him up to find he had gone 12 rounds with a bright yellow curry. The curry won, I think. It was everywhere. He was in his vest and trousers. He was covered in it. they obviously thought there was no point changing him - he had a complete change of clothes in his bag. He was straight in the bath when we got home.
And he did a proper poop. Not of the normal fluid variety. Stinky BOi.
kateand cherry BOi spends 2 days each week with his GPs, they are supportive of the BLW idea and find it fascinating to see him discover and try foods, which is great. Grandad also loves the idea that HIS grandson can have some of Grandad's porridge, etc. BUT grandad watches antiques programmes 24/7. I better not be bringing up the next David Dickinson. Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!

The poop was not in the bath BTW. The significance of that sentence was that it was his first solid ("proper") poop. A food poop.
(and: it's, from not froim, etc.. - hate reading my posts back!)

Thanks Oi Hopefully the cup will work better than a bottle for BOi.

Brought most of the wedding guest book stuff yesterday as had a 25% off voucher in Hobbycraft to use.

Sky is currently demolishing a piece of crumpet. Eat a bit, bash it about, eat a bit more

better night with only two wakeups at 11 and 3....

Oh bob aethel, I'd love a Danish. Lack of sleep is making me CRAVE sugary fatty snacks. It's nearly like being pregnant again :) gummy bears, flumps and wotsits have all been scoffed this week oooooops

Oi my Mum and Dad are completely suppportive of what we're doing. My Mum found it fascinating to watch DS eating, and thought he was very clever to be doing so well in such a short amount of time. It's just the in-laws who seem to have a problem with what I'm doing. Funny that!

Well, last night was exactly the same as the previous ones - a wake-up at 2am for a feed - so I'll stick to the smaller bottle volumes and will reduce them more once DS eats more. If only he'd sleep through I could drop one bottle altogether.

Though i am mainly spoon feeding due to ease LO does have amazing food control, he picks up fruit, bread etc and chews well in fact he hasnt gagged on anything since the very early days. Yesterday he gummed on a bit of chapatti from our impromptu takeaway because neither of us could be arsed cooking......went straight down.

Question about bathing everyone how often are you doing it? I wasnt intending on doing it every night but i am struggling to fit baths in on i get home, eat, play etc. He should have had 1 yesterday but ran out of time, DH didnt give him one this morning and i will do one as soon as i get home tonight and we are swimming Friday so i know he will get one then but still feel like i am not doing it enough.

And oi food poos are horrible DS did one the other day which was warm and smelt of the previous nights lentil and carrot soup he had for dinner that properly turned my stomach ....bleurgh!

Lob a danish over here ladies, lovely!
Bathing is very sporadic at Ashworth Towers. I wanted to introduce a daily bath - bottle - book bedtime routine, but there just isn't time everynight. I get home with him anytime between 6 and 6:30pm (unless we have errands to run). He has a bath every 2 - 3 days.
Last night worked quite well... home at 6, a couple of ounces feed (he often wants a comforting feed once we get home), bath, proper feed, quiet time with a book... and then he livened up and wanted a wrestling match until about 8.30/9pm when he finally relented and slept.
He woke 2x in the night for a feed.

Oh dear minim just did her first proper choke on some tuna. Has to turn her over and smack her back which got it up but she also then vommed up everything else. Phew! But gross. I got such a fright though. It was her first taste of fish and she was eating it okay. Hope she won't be put off now but she prob won't remember!

gee I agree with xiao - maybe its food related, because I understand that BM gets digested very efficiently equaling less ergular poop for some babies, but so maybe she's finding solid food very hard to digest? Also one night MIL stuffed DD2 full of pasta and then DD2 spent about 2 hours screaming her head off in pain from trapped wind/being too full.

Oi I was the one asking about the sippy cups - I bought a nuby sippy cup today and tried it, think she might have managed almost an oz so I'm quite pleased as that was the first proper try of formula, so now have till the end of the month to perfect it before going back to work

We also had proper poops when we were away due to MILs purees but as we are now back to mostly BLW with a puree every couple of days, DD2 is back to nice sweet and soft toilets. Is anyone else fighting with their DCs re nappy changes? DD2 is constantly trying to flip round and makes lots of strangled cat noises when I flip her back :( When DD1 did this she was at least a year so I switched her to pant nappies but DD2 is too young for that, any ideas? I've tried giving her a toy but she still wants to flip over.

Bee I dread changing nappies now - especially poopy ones. He wants to flip all the time. So then I have to try and be heavy handed to force him to stay in place, or flip him back, so then he fights and cries... I have given him a toy each time, I use a firm "No", and I praise him when he lies flat. He doesn't give a fig.
I actually prefer public toilets now, because their changing tables have belts!

Bee We have nappy changing flipping going on over here.

DD2 has no problems poohing especially after yesterday's poomaggedon lol.

DD1 room's transformation is almost complete - just sorting her clothes out and she'll practically have her own little studio flat bless her!

Bee yes, the wriggling and flipping during nappy changes, he's just started to do this! It's like trying to change an eel. And the last time he had quite runny stinky poo, it was rather dystopian... we usually resort to one of us holding him down while the other changes him. Not sure what DH is doing while I'm at work!!

When did his poo get all stinky, it used to smell like freshly risen bread dough [wistful]

We have a little nappy gymnast at this end too. I'm using popper nappies which are a bit fiddly to do up when he wriggles, but it's worth it for when they hit ten or twelve months, when a lot of them work out how to undo velcro (you have been warned!)

And DS has just taken his first 4 oz bottle after being fussy most of the day! I still can't help stressing that he's not getting enough milk, but his cluster feeds at 6am and 6.30pm are enormous and he's well in himself so I know he's OK just stubborn like his mother

Octoboy likes to think he's a nappy escapologist, but his routine is the product of his habitual nature so I can head his antic off before he gets going. He's never very impressed:o

aethel can I pick your brain with regards to brass? I want to get the girl a lightweight bag for her baritone, but the one I've found says it only fits certain models. How do I find out what type hers is, without resorting to carting it down to the music shop in town? It's in a generic hard case right now and it's killing us both >_