March 2013 - still too sleep deprived to think of a funky title

[StormyBrid]

Old thread here.

We seemed to be running out of space (again) so I made us a new thread.

Wing- dd is 24 weeks. Honestly can't remember when she had her first tastes- just bunged her a but of something off my plate, probably at about 20 weeks? But only recently had actual mealtimes. Tea is set in stone at 5pm and has been for a couple of weeks. Just started doing breakfast (about an hour after first bottle). No lunch yet. We are mainly blw, although she doesn't exactly have the same as us, I usually do different stuff for her, especially at tea time. Dh's cousins (6 dc between them) said blw is fab BUT you want them to accept a spoon from you as well. We now tend to put bits in front of her, then offer the odd spoonful of purée as well. As an example, last night she had some strips of left over roast chicken, some bits of curly kale, and some breadsticks. I also had some veg purée, some of which she had from a spoon, some of it with chicken/breadstick dippers! No noticeable drop in milk yet but nappies suggest that more and more is being swallowed.

Something- well done on Edinburgh, both the reviews AND the time away. Brave and brilliant in one go!

Plonky and worse have a lovely time in Madeira! Looking forward to hearing all about it (the logistics as much as anything else!) because our holiday is suddenly looming at the beginning of October.

Worse- so sorry you're poorly again. So unfair. Really hope you feel better soon, and we can get our dds together again!

Everyone else-enjoy the weather, another lovely day here but sounds like autumn is going to hit the second September arrives!

Oops not sure what happened there...

Thanks vj :)

Rubbish weather here. It's raining and I'm cold enough to want to go and get a jumper. Brr.

Rubbish weather here today too, grey and cool and I'm sure it's going to rain soon. I'm actually quite looking forward to Autumn, it's much easier to decide what to wear for cool weather and i just bought some new boots than hot for me and BFing in the sticky heat hasn't been much fun! The only downside will be going out in the rain, I'll be jealous of madam in her cosy covered up pram!

I'm having a very expensive day! I dropped the car off at the garage and it needs all 4 new tyres. Ouch!!

Good luck with the rest of the packing Plonky.

I hope the Dr goes well Worse.

How's Eco-baby? Any more low temps?

Cooler here too, I'm loving it.

I keep forgetting to tell you all about the amazing thing that's been happening this past week. DD has figured out how to put her dummy in, all by herself! No more incessant dummy returns, no more waking up and crying because she hasn't got it. At bedtime and naptimes, she goes in the cot, we give her Zebra and dummy in her hands, leave the room, and she sorts herself out and goes to sleep. It's awesome.

Stormy I am hugely jealous! Dd is getting there, but often upside down/back to front, and I have no faith in her managing it half asleep! I've been saying it for a while, but on Monday I'm going to spend a week trying to get rid of it. If it doesn't work in a week, I'm going to leave it for now, but she's showing signs of maybe sucking fingers or bunny's ears in the absence of dummy, so I'm hopeful!

Sounds like where we were a week ago, vj. Then all of a sudden, bang, she's got it. Still wakes up on her tummy and can't roll over though!

Well I'm in a ridiculously good mood, stupendously so. I'm feeling almost irritatingly pleased about life... which will please DH as I've had a right moo on me recently. Ms Consultant was most reassuring. Apparently I don't have an infection. Apparently what I have is a rather nasty batch of cysts. This is excellent news. Cysts are ok, they can be fixed. You are slowly rotting from the inside out and anti-bs just aren't cutting it is a far worse prognosis. Hence the good mood. Oh and the worselet was so good I just didn't know what to do with myself. Exploding with pride although an option would have been untidy, so I settled for smug. She sat through an ultrasound, a consultation and some hanging round without so much as a squeak. We had a gurgle, and a coo, and much flirting with nurses, but all that comes under the remit of 'good'.

Eco your GP sounds rubbish. A level of rubbish which challenges that of mine. Change. I have. It's very easy if you do it the way I have, which is to just always ask to see Dr X, when Dr X is anyone other than yours. Hope the low temps are a thing of the past, and eco-baby is firing on all cylinders again.

Plonky happy hols!

SoYo Ouch indeed. Bad timing to need 4 at once.

VJ Would be great catch up. I need to borrow mini-vj as the worselet needs some weaning lessons . Speaking of which, I'm still waiting that nappy, as she's only gone and got herself constipated. Honestly, the tiddler and solids, so not happy together. Nothing a bit of water and some tummy time won't solve. Hopefully.

Stormy clever baby! I am hugely jealous of the settling herself to sleep thing. I'm wearing a groove pacing. Lovely toned legs though

Any Good to hear any-baby is getting her sea legs early.

soyo I'm original from Nottingham so happy to be moving back. 3 of us on this thread; small world!

wing DS started weaning at about 20 weeks, with purees and the like. Now, he still has the odd puree and fromage frais, etc but also has bits of what we have. No set meal times for the solids but his bottles are 8, 12, 4 and half 7. DM and DSis had him today and he had all sorts - toast, cake, cucumber.

worse so glad you're feeling better, it's good to hear!

We've had MIL round today to help clean the entire house ready to move out tomorrow. Eurgh, why is moving so hard? Thankfully DSis is taking DS for the day so we can power through, although slightly annoyed as he's my get-out clause!

Something huge congrats on the reviews! I'm lucky to get to my own doctor's appts, let alone achieving creative genius

I did get to the appt though and have been duly sent for bloods. You can't just have a blood test though, you have to go to a walk in 30 mins walk away with a baby who definitely will not sit quietly for a long wait! Humph. She didn't seem to have any ideas as to a diagnosis other than possibly a vitamin deficiency, which I'm pretty sure it isn't. I suppose bloods are just the first thing to rule out certain obvious causes.

On a more jovial note, when I feed DS in his bed, he wiggles side to side like a snake, so bending his shoulder towards his knee on the same side and then same on the other side whilst lying flat still. Does anyone else's DC do this or is it just his own slightly freakish dance??

Gave him a small piece of plum yesterday. Not at all amused. His face was a picture... Maybe he's more a savoury boy like me, or maybe it's too early...

Glad to hear that worse! Do they go on their own or need removal?

leni, that's a pain about the walk-in. Are there any nurse practitioners at your surgery who can take blood?

Good luck with the move something :)

Excellent news wors! Weaning- officially not all its cracked up to be. With 4 bottles and 3 meals a day, my entire life is now taken up with either preparing, feeding, or clearing up. That's 7 times a day! And still very little actually gets ingested...

So, over the last few days, my previously independent little bean is suddenly whinging every time she's alone, and cries just at me turning my back! It's exhausting, and quite frankly hugely irritating.

In other news...today I started a thread in good housekeeping. About shoe storage. Turns out I've suddenly become old and boring...

I can tell I'm not going to enjoy the next stage of weaning VJ. Seven meals . Even the queen doesn't require 7 meals. These babies really know how to keep us mums in line don't they.

The cysts aren't anything other than painful at the moment wing so the consultant has put me on the pill for a few months to calm everything down, and we'll go from there. I suspect I'll be trailing back and forward for a while before they are sorted, but at least I now have someone competent looking after me.

Leni hope you get everything sorted. The clinic sounds like a right pain.

Well, I'm for bed. DH and the worselet have been dancing round the living room all evening. It's exhausted me.

Hi all. Been mad here so catching up on your news in the early morning and waiting for mini eig to wake. My dad is in hospital for a heart op tomorrow so staying with my mum and just dd to give moral support, so while dd is asleep I can't as worried about my dad... . And gosh just one who now sleeps is easy. My mum is finally converted to breastfeeding after she saw how convienent and easy it is! Mini eig loves the weaning with sweet potato and butternut squash purée being her favourite! We have rolling and trying to crawl and had some good rolling to a toy about a meter away so playpen needed! Mainly to keep her safe from toddler! I have finally made peace with breastfeeding and don't necessarily intend to give up when I retur to work 1 October as I can stil feed morning and night. Little miss now sleeps 6.30 ish pm til 7 ish am every night and have to say I feel so much better. On the bottle I give one three ounce feed of aptimil a day and bought the playtex latex drop in bottle via amazon as my USA friends swear by it. She loves it and cos I know she'll have it I am now less stressed about stopping as I know she won't starve when I am not here.

Eco trust your instincts. I find I rarely take either of my children's temp when they look well but I do it regularly when something just doesn't seem right. Press for a paed referral.

Vj, I know what you mean about constant food. We are on three meals ( attempts at food) a day here and omg the laundry as its so messy!!!

Worse, I am in the no camp for the car. Zero benefit to baby and huge risk re ear damage or worse. Pun intended! Huge shocks not good for little hearts and personally don't see why you would risk it even if risk small when no need. She'll love it when she is 2 plus ( still with headphones) so wait for then....

Stormy, I know we caused a storm at the time but isn't self settling a god send. Sounds like our little ones are in sink and crawling will be soon!

Hi all! We are going down the pure blw route as DD really is so proficient at self feeding now and properly chewing and swallowing loads with no apparent difficulty - it would feel very counterproductive to now take control away from her so we are sticking with it while it is working. The major advantage for us is that it doesn't feel like I am preparing extra meals as DD just has what we have and we are definitely eating more healthily for it as a family. Really wonderful - mealtimes are the favourite part of the day here! Blw plus ebf mean there is no real feeling of having to prepare extra meals than we would for ourselves anyway which is great.

eig yay for self-settling. Everyone tried to convince me that if we stroked and sang DD gently to sleep she would never be able to settle herself which turns out to be totally wrong. Some nights she needs a little help with a hand just resting on her head for five mins but most of the time just settles down nicely herself, although one of us likes to stay in the room just for 15mins just in case she needs us. I think she learnt that she is always secure and so is fine to go off to sleep. Daytime naps are more challenging as DD just wants to stay awake to see everything!

vj DD is definitely less independent in the daytimes at the moment but I just pop her in the sling and she joins in the daily activities!

eco I would definitely press for further investigations - our mummy instincts are amazing things!

worse great you have found good care at last - hope the pill helps and you get back to 100 per cent soon.

leni DD does exactly the same kind of movements - usually when she is about to have a bath or other times of great excitement. She kind of looks like a puppet! Really funny to watch.

I'm guessing with BLW that they need to show an interest in picking up the food? DS is only interested in putting brightly coloured plastic things in his mouth so food is boring. Might make some puree and see what happens, or rice perhaps.

Eig - I saw those Playtex things in a chemist, but don't they normally make condoms? Interesting sideline but they did look useful. Wish Dr Brown would make some on-the-go bottles with milk that you could just buy and use, we got caught short once this week which wasn't nice, made me wonder what we'd do if we were stuck somewhere remote without shops now that BF isn't an option...

Anyone got a good and relatively cheap playpen they could recommend?

Hi all, sorry for gate crashing!

I was on and off the March thread as just keep up half the time lol

Just looking fir a bit of moral support to be honest, DD will be 6 months next Thursday and still not sleeping through the night! Since about 18 Weeks she's been BFing every 2 hours day and night and since DS has gibe back to school after the holidays last week I've been shattered :(

We introduced food at 22 Weeks (3 Weeks ago) and as she wasn't interested in picking up food we've been mashing up whatever we're eating which she seems to enjoy but she's set on breakfast and dinner not really interested in lunch at all.

Please tell me mine is not the only baby who just does not sleep?!

Welcome back, peanut! And well done for making it through the first six months with sanity intact. SoYo's the best placed to commiserate with you over sleepless nights - the rest of us are in awe of her ability to not crack up under the strain of sleeplessness.

leni first few times DD tried food I handed bits to her (as an experiment thinking she would play with it like her toys) and watched as she unexpectedly munched it with great enthusiasm. She started picking bits up herself about a week later. Tbh my view was that unless DD showed interest in food herself i.e picking up and sucking or munching then she wasn't ready for food yet so no need to try purees. As it turned out she showed interest in food very early and has been unstoppable since! We just had a lunch of natural yoghurt with chopped apple and blueberry served on preloaded spoons that we put on her tray and she picks up herself, banana chopped into finger size bits still in skin to make it easier to pick up and bits of whole grain roll with hummous - was enjoyed by us all!

peanut we are on two hourly feed cycles at night here too - I think due to growth spurt. I'm tired but it's not affecting me as much as I feared, mainly because DH looks after DD from 5-6am for a couple of hours so I can get proper nap. But it is still hard and hoping DD gets back to 1-2 feeds a night instead soon!

Hi Peanut! I am indeed the source of much night feed companionship!

Mini-Yo used to go down about 9, wake at 2 and then every 1-2hrs but for the last 3.5 weeks its been every 1-2hrs! Lovely. We've never had less than 2 night feeds.

I've taken to just ignoring the fact that other babies sleep, assuming mine will do something else before the others and just hoping that everyone's right and this too shall pass! Caffeine, chocolate and the odd glass of wine help too....plus chanting DDs refrain of 'sleep's for wimps'.

Peanut we're also non-sleeping, DS wakes roughly 5 times a night now, after a brief spell of just one night feed in the early days. I find gin helps

Lol glad to hear its not just us! At baby massage/friends on Facebook and baby group all I seem to hear about us how well they all sleep and that I should give her a bottle/leave her to scream or feed her baby rice at bedtime and although I've been tempted I haven't done any if these things as I don't think they're the right solution for us.

Rainbow, Soyo and Leni, DD was a great sleeper pretty much from the start (well compared to my DS who never slept a whole night until he was 3!) naturally dozing off around 8.30 until 2/3am and wake at 7/7.30 but at 18 weeks(ish) that all went up in smoke and now its generally bed at 7.30, wake 9/10, wake 12/1, wake 3, wake 4 and wide for the say at 5

The worst is she won't settle unless offered a feed and have no idea how to get round this, anyone else find this?

Yep, me again. I was determined she would self settle and I wouldn't feed to sleep (rod, back etc) so I tried everything in the early days. Needless to say nothing worked & we're still feeding to sleep. I figure she'll grow out of it eventually. Although tonight I wish she would feed to sleep, I'm trying now but she's tired and refusing to sleep. My favourite combination!

Sounds like us! can babies be insomniacs?? :o

peanut non sleeping ds here too. Broken sleep is killing me. Often i cant get back to sleep and so im up from 1-2am. Just when i want to sleep ds wakes up. It also can take me up to 3 hrs to put ds to sleep for day time naps. For the late afternoon naps he now has to have a bath. We often have meltdowns in the afternoon.maybe our next dc will love sleep! What is even more weird is i now wake up a couple of mins before ds wakes.

Sorry for the negative post. Im feeling so tired.