September 2012 babies - warmest welcome!

[Macaroons]

Here's the new thread for September babies fresh from the oven!

I'm a first time mum and I'm struggling with breast feeding at the moment, my 6-day old DS always seems to be hungry (a feed every 2-3 hours, each lasting roughly an hour), and when he's hungry he's very aggressive towards my nipple it really hurts! Any tips out there? And how often do you feed your baby and for how long? how do you teach your baby to be gentle on the nipples?

Good luck to those still waiting for their babies to come out! Will be watching out for more baby news!

Thank you shoeprincess . I'm feeling somewhat calmer now after talking to some relatives who have been through the same thing and it's turned out to be nothing/treatable. Including my poor cousin who went through a horrendous labour two days ago because of the scarring on her cervix from tissue being taken away. She couldn't dilate. Eeep! Still mum and baby are ok and we have another little girl to add to our already sizeable brood of extended family. Can't wait to get a little cuddle from a newborn again I'm exactly the same and get headaches when I'm stressed. I know in my case it's because my bp goes sky high.

Three months seems an awful long time to wait to wait penguin?? I would be pulling my hair out, especially with health related things.

Hope the lo's pick up for you soon leelteloo and you manage to get a good night's kip tonight. Babies and coughs are awful I think as they seem to drag on for ages.

Started weaning baby b today. Just a little baby rice but she took to it well. Thought she would as she watches every mouthful I take and gets all excited smacking her lips. By the end of it she was like a little bird with the mouth open waiting for food, after the intital 'what the hell is this?' confused look. Have also found some cures for her non-daytime napping. Swimming or tummy massage. I go to baby massage and the tummy one today rather than some of the other parts of the body sparked her out snoring for two hours after. Result!

Okay so I got my letter yesterday, telling me that the results of biopsy shows abnormality, which has been treated. She would like to keep an eye on me so I have to go back in 6 months.

So it doesn't explain very much.

So I've started to give Herbie a bit of food at tea time, my question though is he will not eat baby rice, spits it out loads and doesn't swallow anything, I tried him on some baby porridge yesterday and he loved it, swallowed it right down and was looking for more. I told my mum I wasn't going to make up the baby rice anymore as he didn't like/want it and was going to give porridge and fruit, however she went on about how important baby rice is, blah blah blah. So is it really that important? Or can I just bin it and give something else?

Penguin I'd bin it. Or give it to your mum to eat if she is that bothered about it being eaten! It is bland and I don't blame babies for disliking it. I do weaning slightly different to the way some books recommend. I weaned ds2 from 24 weeks and gave him plain porridge with breast milk for a few days, then worked our way through the basic one fruit Ella's kitchen ones (apple, pear, banana and mango) then moved onto the fruit ones they do with baby rice mixed in already. Following that we've moved onto the ones that have mixtures of fruit and veg where he was having 2 meals a day. Today I've given him mango porridge (again the Ella's ones) for his breakfast and he'll have the fruit/veg mixed ones for the other 2 meals. He is having approx 70-80g per meal. Had him weighed yesterday, 26 weeks 1 day, 21 lb 11oz, on 98th centile! Did similar with ds1 and he turned out ok, not a fussy eater and had a tantrum last night because he wanted broccoli for his tea last night and we didn't have any!

I wouldn't bother with the baby rice either (though it comes in handy as a thickening agent if you make a puree too watery!) Thomas hated it, but loved porridge. Oliver is following suit. I never pushed the baby rice with Thomas, and he is now the most fabulous eater of any 2 year old I know. I am giving Oliver porridge for some meals and pureed fruit/ veg for others. We had a bad night last night- a temp over 38 and very unsettled. He has a cold and teething, but is still feeding and weeing/pooing, so all I can give is calpol.

Loopy- fabulous that DS1 loves broccoli. Thomas is the same- he likes more varieties of fruit and veg than his dad.

MN keeps eating my posts so quickly; hope all well and happy Ava's still got cold and cough GP says its ok x

We started baby-led weaning this week! Broccoli a big fave here too but not as much as the steak that Kerenza had this evening - very enthusiastic gumming!

I say the same as the others penguin , baby rice is not essential. I think the likes of our parents have it in their heads it's important as they weaned us very early and it was a way of getting formula into us and I know my mum used to thicken bottles with it (or potatoes), then punch extra holes in the teat . I suppose there wasn't as much variety of stuff that we had. As shoeprincess said, it is handy for thickening watery purees. Glad your results finally came through and at least they are keeping an eye on you. Did you get some cells burnt off if you don't mind me asking?

I'm actually stepping back from the weaning. We did it a few days but baby B has come down with a stinking cold and I don't see the point in pushing something new on her when she feels so yucky.

Hope all you mummies and new mummies have a lovely mother's day :)

Just checking in! DD is 6 months next week... can't believe how quickly it's gone...

Well, it's all kicked-off on my thread in chat about controlled crying... woops! We were just so desperate and DS was getting terribly neglected and we were noticing it in his behaviour. Anyhow it is working very well - she went down within 5 minutes and apart from 30mins last night she actually slept through the night!! Incredible! This is a girl who took an hour of rocking in our arms to drop off, would need attending to at least 20 times and would cry for 1.5-2hrs between 1am-3am EVERY NIGHT.... So a good result so far for us. Not counting out chickens just yet though as I know there can be relapses and it can take time.

We started weaning at 19 weeks (as I said about she just didn't seem to like milk) and she is doing BRILLIANTLY at it. She is on three meals now and wolfs it down. Doing spoon-feeding combined with finger foods (so far she has had cheese, broccoli, cauliflower, carrot batons, chicken slices, crab sticks, potato puff things, pineapple, melon, watermelon and other things I've probably forgotten!). SO funny seeing her cramming it into her mouth with her little fat fists!

So out vague sort of routine seems to have developed in the last two days to the following:

7am 7oz bottle
8-9am solid breakfast (porridge made with formula & toast)
9-10am nap
Midday solid lunch (veg puree with finger food followed by fruit puree and fruit slices to suck on)
1-3pm nap
3pm 7oz bottle
5pm solid dinner (as per lunch but followed by yoghurt)
7pm 7oz bottle

Naps have also hugely improved in the last two days (had only been having 20-30 min restless naps previously).

She is very small (20-30th centile) but is surprisingly physical capable. Been sitting since 4 months and this week has been standing holding onto the sofa.... eek! I think it must be in the genes as DS was the same (although huge... as in a good centimetre off the top of the centile charts) and he walked at 9 months so preparing ourselves for another like him!

Just to add to the smear discussion - I had strange bleeding a few months after I had DS and had to have a colposcopy. Wasn't pleasant but all was fine thank goodness. It is surprisingly common as you all say!

And speaking of being prodded and poked down there I had a coil put in today... so glad it's done but it wasn't a nice experience. Took far longer than I thought it would and was very uncomfortable. Nurse and lady doctor were fab though and we had a good laugh throughout which put me at ease.

Anyhoo hope all your babies are being good for you!

And totally agree with ballroom about thickening purees with baby rice!

I gave DD a couple of flattened peas on her high chair tray at dinner time. She schmooshed them around and then swiped them off sideways on to the floor. Then I gave her a couple of slithers of grape and she looked at them and made sucking faces. Then schmooshed them too. Although I held one up to her mouth and she did suck it, and seemed to like it.

I'm not really doing much to be honest. She's not majorly hungry and I'm in no rush.

Penguin don't fret about baby rice. They don't need it, it's just a way to get them used to being spoon fed as it tastes like their usual milk.
I certainly don't fancy it!
Glad to hear you're being looked after. Hopefully it settles down by your next check x

I think I'm going to do a bit of reading up about blw. I did purees for DS and am not sure if it's just giving bits of fruit and veg etc or if there's something more poncy I should be doing

Bobs standing up?

Off to find your bunfight thread

ballroom I honestly couldn't tell you if they did, she prodded for ages down there but I assumed it was just her taking a biopsy but maybe she burnt the cells off. Whatever she done says I've been treated so I shall wait until next smear. Although I have had quite a lot of bleeding from it, but doctor refuses to believe it has anything to do with it as I am on cerazette pill and its a side effect, (never had it before). So I'm just keeping a record of it.

I've also has to stop weaning as Herbie has had a slight temp past few days, cheeks are bright red and he hardly taking any milk so didn't want to fill him up on porridge.

I'm thinking ill do purees for a while until I get the hang of It then ill move onto blw but I shall wait and see how I go.

bobs I started reading that, I was going to comment but it had started to get a but to bitchy for me so I left. What I wanted to say was I am glad you have found something that works for you, however, as I'm sure you know no matter what you do, someone will disagree. Also my Hv said that from 6 months you can start cc, but Herbies not too bad so I shall wait and see in this. As I have an idea of what I want to do but I rule nothing out as you never know what will happen.

Ill figure out how to add a picture of my tattoo tomorrow as its all healed up nicely, I also got a heart daith piercing which I LOVE. If your not sure look it up :) I have missed this part if my life

I totally get that some mums wouldn't want to do it, totally. But I think calling me a bad parent is a bit silly when all we want is for her to be happy and have a good nights sleep! And for DS to ALSO have a good nights sleep and not be left downstairs on his own for hours on end while we endlessly try and settle her.

YEP standing up!! Will try and put a pic on my profile...

Ok photo on my profile but only for a while as I don't want to get outed!!!

Look at those tiny legs haha so funny!

Okay this will make me sound like an idiot but whenever I let Herbie stand up even when I'm holding him everyone is like he will end up bow legged, I know this is an old wives tale but it freaked me out!

Your profile is private bobs

Oh bugger sorry! Am in bed now on phone. Will sort in the morning.

I missed a bitchfight?? Sorry bunfight. Oh god the whole cc thing. Yeah I did it with ds at one stage for only a couple of days, thank goodness. Ds's dad actually had to hold me back. Everyone looks at it as an easy option but you know what, you're the only one who knows your child and it's hard listening to them cry, it's hard going. You know exactly from what sort of cry they have as to how you respond. Thank goodness dd is so chilled when it comes to bedtime. The thought of a coil makes me cringe something though bob

That's why I refuse cerazette now penguin . I had breakthrough bleeding the whole time so switched to microgynon again.

It's not breakthrough bleeding though, as I have a 'period' every three months same as before Herbie, so I'm due this month which I can feel happening.

This is mega light bleeding a day or two most weeks. Mostly after sex :( it's such a pain in the ass.

I started out on microgynon but I got major migraines, double vision, light heads and fainted a few times. So I had to stop taking it. I was thinking of stopping pill just so I could tell doc that I'm off it, to see whether it still happens, but I really couldn't risk it.

Wherearemyshoes blw is only safe after 6 months (lost track of how old others children are) so until then they should only have veg/fruit purées/porridge/baby rice. From 6 months they can then have meat, fish, dairy, gluten etc, the only things they can't have is nuts and honey, and limited to twice a week for fish that are at risk of high mercury levels

Posted too soon, dratted iPad. I think those are the main rules, and that whilst can't drink cows milk till they are 12 months it is fine to use it in cooking and for thinning things down to the right consistency. They are still meant to get most of their energy intake from milk until they are 12 months old, so it's all about teaching them to eat, and to introduce as many flavours as you can and textures so that they don't grow up being fussy. No need to worry about them having a balanced diet as such, just lots of variety. Speaking as someone whose ds1 will happily eat raw garlic, peppers, leek, onion, and loves frozen pepper and peas as a treat, and picks the mushrooms and courgettes out of pasta dishes and eats those first before anything else! And who loves frozen peas and frozen chopped up pepper as a treat!

Ah, excellent Loopy, thank you.
All that was stored up there and it's all coming back now. I've got that birthday to five book somewhere so might have a quick flick through.
She's still sleeping quite well and not feeding more than usual so I think I'll wait till 6 months, which is after 20th.

Lots and lots of mums start BLW at 5 months. We certainly did with both of ours and had no problems at all. Hilarious photos of DS at 5 months cramming in huge chunks of homemade pizza, chunks of cheese, watermelon and fistfuls of broccoli etc!

Right I've changed my profile to public now so you can see the photo of little miss standing up against sofa 24 weeks! She looks so funny with her little legs!

Oh yes and forgot to say SHE SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT!!!!! Wahay!!!!! Not a peep until almost 7am!!!

bobs we're on the laptop now trying
to view your profile but I can't make it work is that just me? X