April 2012 - little people who actually DO stuff now!!

[BeyondTheLimitsOfAcceptability]

Ta da

Sorry to hear about your ill or unwell babies. So far we have been super lucky. All R has got is in my head or so to speak. On that happy note ... I'm seeing a shrink tomorrow for the first time. I know, it's not called so but I still need to come to terms with that I'm not quite right and actually need some professional help to deal with this. I am a bit scared and hope everything will be ok in the long run. He is such a happy baby - I am surprised of all the issues I have. I hope he'll stay that way and is able to enjoy life

He is still very short, he is on the 9th for length but shot up to the 50th for weight which means he has 3 wobbly chins now :). He eats like a horse and is still on 5 feeds a day. I wonder when I am able to drop one but am in no hurry. It actually makes me sad to let him go but I'm proud because I actually managed to feed him for such a long time now.

I am invited to the xmas party @ work. Need to see if any of my old dresses still fit otherwise I need to find a bargain on the high street/ ebay. And deep in my heart I am not bothered about what's going on at work. Oh well, free booze ;):)

Thaleia , I hope seeing someone helps you!
My R was such a healthy little girl until recently when she got her first cold (wasn't bad one though ) and then some vomity thing a week or so ago and now these weird spots . She's always had such a lovely skin and no rashes unlike DS did.
I've been useless about going to the heath visitor for moths intact so have no idea about DD's height. With DS I went all the time dutifully. Oh well I guess this is what happens with a second child :) .Got to remember the 8mth check though! Last time I went she was at 50 % for weight and height like she has been since she was 2mth old.She was born about 90% + for both so has whittled down . DD still normally had 5 bottles a day too . She isn't eating enough solids yet and keeps on waking up once around 11/12 at night . I've cut down in the amount formula in the bottles though to try to get her to eat more food (except the evening bottle ).

Thaleia - did you see my post a page or so back about a PND support charity which is launching a branch in SW London? Might be v convenient for you in terms of location.

Nordic - we have a sippy cup hater in this house, she took to it initially but now hates it - so I end up offering milk with her meals instead. Might try water in a bottle tomorrow but I know that's not generally approved of? I can't think of another way of getting her to take water, and I don't want her to go thirsty!

Marshmallow, I think it's fine to use bottles in general until 1y certainly. They have time to get hang of these things . They are so little. I had problems with DS eating for years . He was picky but not quite to the extreme. This time I'm trying to take it easy and keep it positive.
DD was using a cup before this free flow cup but it was one you have to suck more. Seemed happy with the new one today. Another interesting thing is that she seems to not need her dummy anymore . Not for months really . We just haven't used one. When she was small we felt she really needed it unlike DS but it stopped months ago. Well it's lucky then we don't have to wean her off it later :)!

A refuses to drink any water or juice. His poo is a bit "hard" for my liking and I'm sure it's due to him not getting enough fluids. Any suggestions?

It's a watery theme this evening. I would just try different cups/beakers/bottles, hugs. I'm also not convinced by forcing them off the bottle too young marshmallow - I have faith DS will pick up the cup if we keep offering choice.

At the moment he will try the sippy cup but prefers to play with it: water everywhere. A bottle he can drink independently, (if we remind him to tip it up). Other cups with different mouthpieces have different responses.

And if I'm out, or it's late in the evening, then I'm not going to bother worrying - bottle and teat it is. So ner, HV.

nordic - and improvement in the spots? I hope it only turns out to be something short-lived and minor. Not really sure what to suggest but keeping my fingers crossed for you.

hug - probably a silly suggestion and not really a long term solution but does he like watery foods such as cucumber or watermelon?

Well it's day five of cold turkey and my boobs are still pretty full but no longer sore, and not rock hard. Getting a bit nervous about what deflated state they'll be in when they are fully dried up, they'll probably hang around my ankles!!

N's skin is doing well. It is still scaly on his legs but not as red as it used to be. His torso and back look perfect! :)

I've tried to introduce sippy cups but he doesn't 'get' them yet and prefers to chew the handles! He'll drink from a cup if I hold it for him.

Oh and apparently naps are for wimps. He has one a day now if we're lucky!

laughing, we get two twenty minute bursts of a nap, that's it, if we're lucky.

I don't understand how she's not exhausted - she doesn't stop moving, ever. Her new thing is to crawl, pull herself up, walk along things, let go and stand, unaided, for about ten seconds. Then she does a commando/bond style bump and roll, before sitting up, laughing, and doing it all over again.

We went through a phase of no naps except in the car - and as I still can't drive because of my finger (not long now, hopefully!) that means not that many naps! Now he tends to fall asleep on me after an afternoon feed, for up to 40 mins, but wakes up if I try & put him down.

Still, it's a slight improvement!

Gnomette, unfortunately poor DD is getting more and more spotty :( ! Only one on her face so far luckily and belly is clear but now arms and legs are getting them too. She seems healthy otherwise and isn't scratching but it looks bad.
Happy that your DS skin is doing better!
Jambalaya , congrats on your cruising , standing little one :).
DD hasn't pulled up on her own since last week when she first did it a few times. She is exited when I put her to stand though. And is walking quite nicely with me holding her hands .
Eating is progressing. She had been still a bit difficult with lumpier food like spaghetti bolognese but today was hungry enough at lunch and dinner to actually eat a bigger amount and not push things out of her mouth :).I guess that's the secret to get her to eat better, make sure she's had several hours from her last milk and is properly hungry ...

DD likes a Tommy Tippee cup that we've got her. It's quite tall and fat and the mouth piece is the same material as a bottle teat but it's flat. Does that make sense at all! Shes far happier with thos one than the sippy cup that we have with a hard mouth piece...

We tried her on lumper food at the weekend. She was having none of it! Gagging and then blowing raspberries at me so it's back to purees..

She does like to hold her food now though and it goes straight to her mouth so might try to get chicken/fish down her like that. A little worried that she's just eating fruit and veg (and formula obviously)

Nordic hope you get to the bottom of the spots soon.

jam I can't believe that DD is cruising and crawling etc, so clever of her!

Hen how is the finger? Is it all present and correct?

DH is away this weekend so I'm camping out at my parents. Its like a mini break as there's so many of my family I hardly have to lift a finger with DD

Holly glad you are getting to have a little rest from baby care :)!
I've tried 3 different cups with R . A Nuby non-drip one, a vital baby and Tommee Tippee free flow ones. She's now equally happy with all of them but when she 's drinking in her travel cot or elsewhere in the house between meals (water) I give her the one that won't drench her. She tips it back just fine when she's not in the highchair that has a high back a bit in the way. The newest is the Tommee Tippee one with a hard spout. She was fine with it even though hasn't had such a hard spout before. She has continued to eat lumpier food really well but I think it's because she was again properly hungry (we had a late lunch ). She had risotto for lunch and i did mash it a bit with a fork but it was still grainy. I thought she hated rice since she doesn't like the Ella's ricepudding i've tried to give her.I guess it's the flavour rather than the consistency ...

Well done to all the clever babies you all have.

A gets his helmet on Tuesday and is being placed under Nhs paediatrician care. His development is behind due to his weak neck muscles but Nhs physio are not allowed to keep on babies with helmets. I'm lucky his private helmet consultant is a physiotherapist so will be helpful in that area too.

That coupled with ds1 possibly having dyspraxia and definitely needing speech and language therapy I have a feeling work are not going to be too impressed when I go back to work. I'm feeling very nervous about the subject of appointments the two boys will have and am not sure if I should tell them before I go back.

Dh and I are certainly not having any more children as we seem to make broken ones .

Hug, Don't worry about work, just concentrate on your lovely boys. :)

Was wondering, does anyone else feel like they have an extra clingy baby at the minute?

DD2, all of a sudden, barely wants to be put down, and cries if she cannot see me. Last night we had a wake up (practically unheard of, illness aside) where all she wanted to do was sit on my knee, cooing and stroking my face. If she could speak, I'd swear she was saying 'Mummy, my mummy' over and over again. Eventually she dozed off on my chest, but I couldn't get her to sleep in her cot, and she slept with us.

In fact, we overslept, as we were all so comfy - woke up 10 minutes before the school bus arrived! Oh dear!

jam I wish I could stop worrying about it, hopefully ds1 will get tested soon and it turns out he doesn't have it, I'm sat on the fence with it, some days I think, "no he definitely doesn't have it" and others "yes he does, stop being in denial he has most of the signs and school agree with trying to get a referral". Oh well, he's still a gorgeous, highly emotionally intelligent, brilliant at maths little boy, it doesn't matter if he needs more help with his speech, balance, coordination and expressing himself.

To also answer your question, A has been more clingy. He's still a very chilled out baby but doesn't like me leaving the room and is happy to have more cuddles (which I'm loving as usually he wants to be left to roll around on the floor).

And I just put commas where full stops should have been.

Jams Ive had a clingy baby on and off for awhile now, in fact my mum called me back from a night at the cinema with dh because she was crying for me, poor thing, slightly better this week as over her cold now.
hopefully things will improve soon? x

Hugs yeh for little one getting his helmet, :) you have worked so hard for it. Hope all works out with ds1, I'm sure he will manage through it, and i hope they can help him????? [bsad] x

I have dyslexia which was only found later on in life. I know its not the same.

Dd has Tommee Tippee "Tip it up" cup with a soft spout (£2 from Asda/Tesco's)
sound very like yours Holly She has really go the hang of it now, I give with mainly water sometime ex bmilk or cows milk now and again. she needs a little help tipping it up but seems to love it now. Just tend to offer it a meal times.

She seem to be wanting adult food now the same as us, anyone else's babies getting fed up of mush?
i have posted on fb. Any weaning tips or receips would be gratefull? x

jams no, not clingy at all. Might be because of the time we had with gran and the whole family or because R is a bi younger and not there yet.

hugs excellent - do you know who long it will take? It's a few months, isn't it?

We halso have the tip it up cup and it's fine. He drinks out of a normal cup as well, only thing is that I have to change him afterwards. So maybe he can't drink from it ...

How long did it take you to replace a meal/ drop a feed? I'm in no hurry but we have 2 additional meals as I have still 6 bfeeds a day. He's going up in weight quite a lot. Considering that they told me I'd starve my baby and that he was below the 9th, he's not in the middle of 50th to 75th percentile.

He's a bit of a strange baby. He starts crying whilst I feed him his mashed food but when I stop (thinking he's full) he pulls towards the food and cries more if I don't give it to him. I basically feed him till a full spoon goes in and comes out again. He is never turning his head it's always more more more. After a feed, the same. He can't fit anything in anymore but this doesn't stop him from wanting more? Will he ever be able to stop?

How is weaning for you?

Oh my gawd, DS did 8pm-7:30am last night without any wake ups! It's a miracle! I could do a little dance!! He hasn't done that since two fluke nights when he was 8 weeks old. I'm putting it down to a mix of giving up BF, introducing solids and better skin/less itching. Long may it continue.

Weaning is going pretty well. We started late so we've only been doing it properly for a couple of weeks but he seems to be getting the idea. Mainly finger foods with some mush included. Banana is a hit. I cut it into strips with the skin on so he can pick it up easily. He then sucks the flesh off the skin and discards the skin. Broccoli is funny. He picks off the nice bits and chews on the stalk instead! I think we might have to try spaghetti soon, I imagine it'll be fun to watch him tuck in :)

Yay for mini-gnomette!

Great idea about the banana skins, by the way. I'll have to try that.

DS woke a couple of times in the night, unusually. He's a bit snotty, so I think that's it. Happy in himself, though - although not so bothered with milk in the day just in the middle of the chuffing night

He's also getting very bad at settling at night unless he's completely boobed up. I'm feeding him for about 90 minutes before bed and then, only when he's completely comatose, will he settle. Should I just go with it? When would you guys start to encourage more self-settling? He is still pretty little...but my boobs are exhausted!

Henrietta, DS was always falling asleep feeding until about 5 m and it was a nightmare trying walk with him / put him in the basket / cot with out him waking and then we had to do slightly dramatic modified controlled crying to teach him to self settle since its was driving us crazy . This time I was aware of the possible problems later on so just kind of taught DD to self settle from pretty early on . We put her to bed awake but drowsy from when she was little . Now some of the time she has a period of tired wailing at bedtime / nap time and then goes to sleep . Sometime we have to go in to calm her down if she is getting hysterical which doesn't really happen thank god. Quite often I just say sleepy sleep baby and tuck her in and there's not a beep :)!
To another subject . Has anyone / everyone had the tuberculousis jab for their little ones? In this area it's separate nowadays ( unlike with DS) from the early 2,3,4 m jabs and you're meant to go into a drop in clinic on a set day for it . We haven't done it yet because DD keeps on being sick with something . Also I'm meant to get the HEP B boosters for her since they gave it in the hospital in the US when she was born but again have cancelled it twice due to a cold / tummybug and now the weird spots / rash ...

newmummy It's the cup that your DD has in the grapes video! She loves it :)

hugs I'd be worrying about work too, (i think that's natural) but I think you're going to have to bite the bullet and have a really honest conversation with them about DS. Are they usually a reasonable bunch? You'll feel much better once it's been done :) but then part of me wants to say tell work to stuff it! But that's not always practical is it. :)

Re clingy babies, we're due a wonder week between 33-37 weeks, we're just at the v beginning so some of older babies will be right in the thick of it. That might explain the clingy.

Yeah to that monster sleep gnomette

Weaning is fine here but we're puree all the way. No lumps really, DD gags and blows raspberries :-) but she loves a bit of cucumber!

Henrietta - love the new name :)

Nordic - As far as I know, not all babies are offered the BCG/tuberculosis jab, just the ones that live in high risk areas e.g. London. I could be wrong though. DS had his done at 5 weeks and still has the scar now :(. It has to be administered by specially trained nurses or doctors apparently and we had to travel to a clinic a few miles away to get it (DS's first trip on a bus!). One thing the nurse said to me is that they will refuse to give it after your child's first birthday so if you are planning to get it done, make sure you don't forget! :)

You don't get offered the bcg in Wales although when I was in high school we all had to have it because there were tb cases in the surrounding area.

A has cut his two front top teeth. Tomorrow is also his last helmet free day for a long while, need to take loads of pics of him so we can see the difference and remember his beautiful wavy hair.