March 2013 - time to wrap them all up in tinsel

[StormyBrid]

Old thread here.

worse we're like Plonky on the timings - we keep mealtimes and milktimes separate. I spotted something in Evil Baby Whisperer that suggested around this age milk should be at the time you'd give a snack. Thinking about it, that's pretty much what we do - milk at the crack of dawn, 11am, 3pm and bedtime, food at 9am, 1pm and 5pm. It seems to work, and Fartypants is definitely in the process of reducing milk herself. Those middle two feeds, she's having about four ounces now.

How is the worselet on mush? Does she show any preferences? If we were sticking with baby led weaning we'd be getting absolutely nowhere. Savoury mushes, she'll try a mouthful then get distracted by the cat. Fruit mushes, she practically inhales. For a reduced stress option, can I suggest getting yourself to Asda? They've a hell of a range of cheap fruity mushes, and then at least you're not having to throw away purees you've spent hours lovingly creating.

Incidentally, six month old Molly may love her porridge, but all that means is that Molly's a total weirdo - porridge is vile. It's weetabix all the way round here, with mashed banana in.

eco hang in there, it does get better. How long until 37 weeks for you?

I am thanking my heathen gods we don't have crawling yet. Nappy changes with rolling are bad enough. Especially when it's a particularly horrific one.

betty the wine for later, I mean. Unless you're on an all dayer of course

Something is it worth keeping some cards close to your chest? I just don't want you to feel you have to be completely honest with them 100% of the time when they've been awful to you - and I clearly think you need to fight them on this.

Eco good luck with the sleep lady, and the house. Hopefully you can get a quick sale! When does your DH start his new job?
WW is a doozy in that it's blindsided us a bit. Last night we had so many wake ups, all before midnight. He ended up having a bottle to settle him just after midnight (expected, as he refused the bedtime one), and came into our bed. He woke repeatedly between 3 and 7.30, despite being right next to me. Considering our normal routine is down at 7pm, maybe a squeak around 4 then nothing til at least 6.30...well, I'm knackered! How on earth do you cope?!

Happy birthday Betty! Hope you feel well enough to enjoy your day.

eco when ds did this trick I used to keep going in to put him down but this made him even more hysterical. I just leave him to it now. He eventually goes to sleep. 10mins after he falls asleep I go in and cover him. Maybe the others have better suggestions though.

Good luck something let us know how it
goes. Fingers crossed.

Thanks eco . Good luck with the
house. We sold a few months ago and ours
went in 3 days . The one we bought
we saw on the Saturday, phoned up on the
Monday morning for a second viewing -
as they had already had asking price
offers!!! Must be even harder when you
don't live there- we moved about half a
mile! .

Outwitted by a 10 month old. Tried to get
him in the buggy to go for a walk- he
Would Not Get In. Lots of twisting and
straightening out so I couldn't strap him
in!!!!! Will try again this afternoon - I will
not be foiled!!!

Something I don't know if this would be of any use to you?

Happy Birthday betty I hope you get lots of sleep tonight after much celebrating

eco I was doing the lay-her-back-down-till-she-stays-down shuffle for all of last week until yesterday when I just walked out and said 'well, sort yourself out', leaving her bouncing in her cot and after 10 minutes of mumbling she was soundo. I think the interference was keeping her awake so apparently she just needs to get comfy on her own. Who knew?

I had a pantry moment earlier (in the main bit of the kitchen - no pantry, you see) as DH, on his day off, had to do a speed awareness course this morning then the afternoon off I had planned (basically food shopping on my own) went tits up when he came back and said he was going in for overtime until 8pm. I had a meltdown just as I was putting DD to bed, which involved physically wrestling her into her sleepsuit where she wouldn't lay down. I needed a little time to myself and I feel angry and unappreciated and downright downtrodden. I'm going to bed to sleep it off and hopefully i'll feel better tomorrow, although I have no plans yet and am desperately trying to think up something to get us out the house before I go a bit crazy again...

hello Any. Sorry you've had a poo day. That does sound trying. Sometimes the feeling of frustration in so intense when they just won't make things possible. Like allowing themselves to be changed/dressed etc. So you need a plan for tomorrow. Ring a baby friend and arrange a meet at theirs perhaps? Look at the map for inspiration and find a nearby town you like and go for a coffee whilst you feed the babe? Don the waterproofs and have a good old slosh around in your nearest mud? Go to town and buy something you've been meaning to get for ages? Go crazy and go to your local for lunch? And when you get back from your adventure book a pedicure, or whatever your pamper thing of choice is, for next time dh is off. Let us know how your day goes. May it be pantryless.

Sorry any you had a rubbish day. Do you feel better this morning? Its annoying that some men can make spontaneous plans without having a thought for others. Have you made any plans for today?

Any that really sucks. Eco has some fabulous suggestions though, and I hope you have a better day today.

It's all gone very quiet around here of late!

We've hit the stage where I think DS wants to get rid of bottles. I really didn't envisage this happening before his first birthday, but here we are. He just keeps pulling it out of his mouth but so clearly wants the milk anyway. Argh. He's shit at holding the bottle himself (sorry, a more PC way of saying that might be 'he has yet to learn how'), so I'm back to the drawing board and experimenting with different ways of getting milk into him. Has anyone else moved on from boobs/bottles yet?

plonky we are still on bottles but ds is on the verge of cutting out milk completely. He had no milk yesterday and has no interest today. Have you tried milk in a sippy cup? Maybe he will be able to hold the handles of the sippy cup better.

Yummy our tactic tonight is something like this, just as an experiment. If he rejects it we have a few different cups to try, but he's not great with a free flow cup and I really don't like the valve ones (I breathed a sigh of relief when we lost it out shopping).
I think being able to hold it will be good for him.

Little bugger, going and growing up and not needing me constantly for everything now!

plonky we are still breastfeeding but DD uses a doidy cup for water. Recently we have started using shot glasses too which DD loves because it looks like a bit like our glasses just smaller! It look a bit of practice to use an open cup (we started with a bit of expressed milk at 6 months) but DD is pretty good at it now - we never bothered with any kind of sippy closed cup. Also means we can give her any glass or cup to drink from when we are out and about and she knows what to do which is useful if like me you keep forgetting to bring their cups out with them!

Any DH pulls similar stunts here with depressing regularity. I have a solution now. He does the night wake duty instead. He is no overly fond of this solution, but to be fair to him does see the logic.

Eco Ohhh exciting. Good luck with the sale. The housing market is hotting up I believe, so here's hoping you get sealed bids over asking price on yours. Fingers crossed.

Plonky worselet is wedded to her bottle. Sippy cups are for teething purposes only. Allegedly. I'm hoping being the most backward child at nursery will embarrass her out of it, but I don't have high hopes. The eating better because the other babies are eating theory has been discarded already. Today she had bread. I sent her with bolognaise, fruit, all sorts.... and she ate bread . But I digress. The person you want to speak to about cups is Gerry. Gerrybaby has been sipping from an adult sized glass for months. Just to make us feel bad

Eco the amazing sleep lasted 2 nights before she went on food strike and started waking up hungry again. I wouldn't spend too much money on a professional just yet as I honestly think it's a phase. DD has just had 6 new teeth pop through all at once, so I'm guessing a fair few nights from h*ll have been related to that, and the recents wakes for milk are entirely down to the fact she is neither eating enough nor drinking her milk during the day. I suspect this is stomach bug related as put it this way for a baby who specialises in constipation she is doing very well on the nappy front.

Am hoping for a better night tonight, as yesterday somebody was woken from her nap by a badly timed phone call, and spent the rest of the evening in the mother of all strops. Today she has napped properly, so my only challenge is getting some food down her. Don't hold your breathe on that one.

It's official. I give up. She's just thrown every single thing I have given her to eat on the floor. She won't eat anything. Why won't she eat????? Other babies eat.

Oh worse, she was doing so well! I'm no expert, but it sounds like this is her 'thing'- I reckon all babies have a thing that, when they're teething/wonder-weeking/feeling poorly/whatever, the same thing always goes to pot. Some babies it's sleep, some it's food, with mine it's milk. Which isn't very helpful because there's probably not much you can do for the moment. Keep offering, keep trying to enjoy it (difficult I know), and I reckon in a week or two you'll be on here again saying everything has clicked again.

As for water/milk/cups/bottles. I have a baby who will drink from my glass only because it never occurs to me to take her cup anywhere. So it's more about neglect than any particular skill. She does usually drink from a sippy cup, we tried the doidy cup but I'm too lazy to clear up when she spills it everywhere. If it makes you feel any better, she resolutely refuses to hold her own bottle. She just lies there, arms up and surrendered to the bottle like a newborn. Never tries to hold it, will occasionally hold my hand holding it but never herself. And if I try to persuade her to hold it herself the SHOUTING starts...

Thanks Gerry. I think I have an explanation - looks like the suspected stomach upset is a proper nasty one. Is that a GP thing, or a keep the fluids up and keep her warm thing?

Gerry DS wouldn't hold the bottle til about a week ago. Now it's All The Rage. But the grippy bottle worked and he went down with a full tummy. Doidy cups are a choke-inducing hazard in this house. I think it'll get used as a pen pot.

Worse I'd keep her warm and hydrated, but call the gp if you're worried. As long as she's alert when awake etc she'll be fine. You, however, might need some gin.

plonky the doidy cup took DD a bit of practice to not to drink to much and splutter but she can now really control her sipping and is moving on to a normal glass for every meal. They get over the choke stage really quickly as they start to get the skill of tipping and sipping.

To avoid to much spills we fill the cup or glass about a third full from a jug so she can see liquid going in and put it in front of her but just out of reach. When she wants a drink she will point to it at and make her drink sound at which point we pass it to her and then wait till she has had enough and then replace it where it was. Spills happen frequently because we also give her the cup at the end of the meal so she can learn to have it within reach and control it and obviously needs to learn about fluids and what happens when you turn it upside down! Mealtimes are a lot of fun here anyway! We tried a sippy cup for one day but DD just wasn't getting enough water out of it and kept pointing in frustration to our glasses. Funny how demanding a pointy little baby finger is! DD certainly no longer leaves us in any doubt about what she wants!

worse sorry to hear your little one is not well. Hope she is feeling better soon and finds her appetite again.

We're just getting over stomach bug too, although she has been fine in herself we've had a week of disgustingness.

In terms of gp, I'd say probably not at the mo, although when you say nasty, how nasty? (I'm not scared of detail...) we had no puking this time, but 4 or 5 noisy, smelly, rather wet poos a day. Is she still a big milk fan? Maybe just up the milk for a couple of days if she's not great at drinking water.

Thanks everyone. Gerry noisy, smelly, liquidy and a lot. Other than lack of appetite she's happy enough, playing, alert, so I'll not worry unduly.

Rainbow impressive drinking skills. Go Rainbowbaby!

eco helpful suggestions all - it was pelting with rain so didn't fancy going out but just after lunch, out came the sun, and dried up all the rain and incy wincy anypants went out of the house for a refreshing walk (with anybaby, obv) and it cleared the fog a little. DH knows I had a bad day yesterday and he texted me on his break today to ask how I was. I told him 'ok but I need a hug' thinking he would supply one when he got in tonight. I'm still waiting....

Boob-wise, DD has about a minute tonight before bed and although I kept trying she just wouldn't have any more. I think she's deffo weaning herself right off. She'll be 11 months on Saturday so I guess it's nearly time but I don't know if I should start offering milk instead? That makes me very sad - i'll soon be redundant from the one thing only I can do for her but alas, it means freedom for me to not be the one to put her to bed!

As for cups, we're still on a sippy cup for water but she tries to grab our pint drinking glasses so I had toyed with the idea of the shot glass.

worse sorry for the dodgy tummy - I agree with plenty of fluids and keep an eye out. It never hurts to bother the GP if you're even a tiny bit worried - it's what they're there for and it'll put your mind at rest.

hello worse. Sorry to hear it's all go at the bum end for poor worselet. Doc told us to monitor drinking and wet nappies and as long as these continue to not be unduly concerned as long as she was not floppy. At least you have an explanation for the poor appetite. As bug goes her food brain will hopefully come back. The ecobaby gannet is also off food at present for the first time in her short eating career. She, well we actually, have a stinking cold. Whilst I am eating dh out of house and home ecobaby has a mouth firmly shut head pressed back onto high chair approach. I can now empathise with the waste. All that stuff you carefully plan, shop for, prepare and proffer......sat congealed on the plate. I have been hoovering some of it up myself!

Quick story to cheer you. This is a confessional space right? I wrapped us both up well this morning and donned full waterproofs for a walk. Ecobaby went in lie flat off roader for a nap, with rain hood over. She normally goes out like a light so it was odd that she whimpered for ten minutes. Suddenly the whimper ramped up to a wail and I engaged my brain enough to look under the hood. Due to a fitting malfunction, or rather a malfunction with the fitter, the rain hood had been channelling rain directly onto her face. Poor mite was awash with rain right on her beautiful little face. I felt, quite rightly, terrible. I wiped her and adjusted the hood and she was out like a light within seconds. Bad mummying right there.

Right, best sleep a bit. Me and my cold are solo tonight with ecobaby so I ought to get some rest ahead of the wailing.

must not laugh at eco's story. Must not laugh at eco's story

That is quite funny though. Sorry!!

any we went through a phase of breast refusal a few weeks ago - I think it's really common at this age as an exertion of independence and increase in food. I think babies who naturally wean at 11 months are extremely rare given that natural weaning age is actually 4-7yrs. DD breast appetite is back anyway - she is teething and keeps pointing to my breast and demanding milk!

I'm a bad person, I laughed too.

DD has rediscovered the art of entertaining herself, and has mostly given up on the standing up and shouting incessantly. These wonder weeks really are a bitch, thank god that one's over.

Will post more when I'm on the laptop and can proofread.

Any babies tot any bona fide, intentional words yet?