July 2014 - sleepless nights but lots of smiles

[NancyinCali]

The old thread is nearly full so here's a new place for us to chat about our July babies. Help yourself to some tea & cake to keep you going through the sleepless nights .

watch out for orange poo!

Too late for that zing looks the same as it did going in and it's more solid than the rest of his poo since he's been ill!

Oh auntie he would definitely care if you stopped breastfeeding so don't put yourself down. We had orange poo this morning thanks for the warning!

ds loves this food lark - he had a right tantrum when there was no carrot left!

Happy new year everyone!
Am being a bit haphazard with this weaning lark - just offering things once a day and seeing what sparks interest. So far we've tried toast fingers, broccoli florets, penne pasta and today I tried banana (mashed/chunks). The mashed stuff definitely sparked more interest than the chunks - I think they were too slippery for DS to grip. He doesn't seem that interested at the moment but I guess we'll get there in time (he's 25 weeks). Toast and mashed banana def the top hits so far, am planning on trying sweet potato tomorrow. Any ideas what else I could try?

the book i used with all of mine is called "What should I feed my baby" by Suzannah Olivier

it's fantastic. gives you all the foods you can introduce to baby broken down by age groups 4-6m, 6-9m, 9-12m and so on.
allergy advice, menu planners, recipes - honestly it makes weaning so much easier!

Annabel Karmel has some good books too.

get them second hand from Ebay

Happy New Year everyone!

I've been reading back on everyone's weaning stories and am slightly envious / worried.

DD never went up to the maximum amount of formula (supposed to be on just over 1l now but got stuck at about 850ml) and in terms of foods she's happy to try things but hasn't properly scoffed anything down. She was just over 6lbs when born - 25th centile - and has stuck quite well to her graph so far.

She was born June 30th so is just over 6ms now. There's no sign of teeth. She doesn't sit herself, only with a bit of support. She's some interest in our food but doesn't grab for any of it and in fact, she doesn't seem to be a very grabby baby. She's timid, until she knows the thing well enough to know what it will do, then she'll grab it, whack it about and shove it in her mouth.

I actually caught myself worrying that I don't let her watch enough baby telly! NCT group comparisons y'see...harrumph. She's the second oldest out of the group but now the smallest.

I'm trying not to worry about anything as she's clearly happy and content in general and that's all that matters as she'll catch up in the end, somehow...but it's a bit hard sometimes to keep believing... breaks out singing Journey

Thinking of doing a NC...ismarah queen of the long meandering but meaningless post. Harrumph indeed. You know what I meant though, right?

ismarah

DS1 cut his 1st tooth just 5 days before he turned 1

DS3 took even longer, 14.5 months! we started joking about signing him up for baby dentures!

I think it's great you have a regular group you go to and you should keep going as long as you enjoy it.
As for me I stopped after about 8 months with DS1, I felt so uncomfortable with what seemed to be endless competion. I wish had been more laid back and understanding instead of PA and patronising.
oh well...

if you want to NC how about BeautifulGummySmiles
I love toothless grins. so sweet

Ugh just lost long post
ismarah ds often doesn't drink as much as 'should' hes happy and putting on weight- also tracking 25th (dropped from 50th) so I just carry on as can't force him!

zing will look up that book thanks

its weve tried potato (yummyest with apple /carrot ), sweet potato (and purreed with spinach!) , courgette, pear, carrot sticks, banana, broccoli - hilarious to see h eat!

DD has tried mushed plain rusks, mango puree, apple puree and pear puree (on their own and mixed in with the rusk) and mashed banana on its own. She's also had a bit of a rusk given to her but it never made it into her mouth. We're gonna try vegetable puree next, I think. The purees are boring for both of us but I'm taking my cues from her as to whether she's ready for finger foods.

My NCT thing isn't really a group in terms of numbers (or ambiance) - there's 4 of us as one of the others lost her baby at 34w in utero. The last lady was signed up but was v ill and in and out of hospital so she missed the NCT sessions.

Thanks for telling me about dentures Zing I'm trying really hard not to imagine those falsies used by beauty pageants to be fair I don't know when either DH or I teethed so won't worry just yet.

Sorry for the delay grumpykiwi. This is the link for the cheesy lentils which are a hit with DD http://www.mumsnet.com/food/recipe/377-Cheesy-lentil-teatime (hope that link worked!)

Keep losing my damn posts

its HV advised to start with one meal a day and we started with mashed carrot and will look at Apple, sweet potato, green beans and broccoli in the next week first mashed then cooked chunks. At baby group ds plays with food during messy play but hasn't eaten any of it so far except cake and that was an accident! But he loves playing with the different textures so perhaps strip ds off and let him just play with the food at the moment as they still get what they need from milk at the moment.

Thanks for the book recommendation zing I was given a handy booklet by hv but I've just looked and it's by bristol council - I've looked in their website and can't find it but if you Google bristol council and weaning or feeding your baby there are a few others that come up.

ismarah I never kept track of ds's total daily intake just fed him what he wanted. He started off above the 50th percentile but has settled on the 25th. He's 27 weeks now and has just become extremely grabby in the last few weeks so be careful what you wish for as ds wants everything now!

I'm reading a book called 'bringing up bèbé' by Pamela druckerman that has an interesting chapter on eating habits of french children which I may take some tips from.

Thanks everyone! I'm trying to be relaxed about it and just see what goes in. From the poo I can see some of the banana and broccoli made its way through so something must be going right! We have finally found a bottle DS likes (cheap ones from Tesco!) so I am currently working on swapping his daytime feeds from breast to formula which seems to be going ok so far - hoping to be just bf Ing in morning and night in a week's time when we are settling in with the childminder.

Ismarah - very easy to worry! DS has no sign of any teeth yet despite all the red cheeks, constant thumb sucking, fist chewing etc, and he'll be 6 months on Friday. Also feel like all our NCT people are way ahead of us on the weaning front but I can't be bothered to make lots and lots of purées (lazy parenting for the win!) so we'll just go slowly with mashed/finger foods and see how we go.

Everyone please feel free to tell me to calm down but I'm starting to get a bit obsessive with the fact that DD2 (was 5 months on 1st) hasn't giggled yet. She makes squeals and high pitched noises when she's excited, smiles loads and makes plenty of eye contact etc but nothing has made her giggle. I'm going on a mission this week to win the funniest mother award - the dog made DD1 laugh at 12 weeks but even he's having no luck.

Oh dear nancy I'm sure it's nothing to worry about - ducks always make theo giggle if you get desperate!

So heres my what should I have done scenario for today. ..

Baby wakes at 3am and rather than crying is making happy but wide awake noises meaning going back to sleep is unlikely! Should I have
a) accepted it was a rediculously early start to the day
b) feed and try and get back to sleep (even if doesn't seem hungry and regularly goes longer before first feed!)
c) use pick up put down sleep technique
d) co sleep and try and get back to sleep

Any combination of the above allowed! Help!

nancy I wouldn't worry especially as she's responding in other ways.

ickle Probably would've left him til he cried then tried d then b then a but what ever works for you is best :)

Ickle - in this scenario I make it pitch black, turn white noise on loud, refuse eye contact and feed / Rock to sleep. If it doesn't work we go downstairs abd watch TV for an hour or so and then feed him back to sleep.

Elijah loves baby rice. I'm a bit unadventurous and will stick with it for 2 weeks then will start him on fruit n veg

I saw a hand blender in Lakeland (£60), I think I'll buy it coz the old one is getting worn out.
I have also seen a brand new range of pots and pans - fell in love with it. might have to beg DH to buy the lot for new kitchen.
Lakeland is dangerous, I spent over a grand in my head in 10 mins.

Took ds to be weighed today - 3 weeks ago he was 6.95 kg on boxing day he was 7.3 kg and today he was 7.1 kg. (Does that sound right? He supposedly put on .35 kg in 10 days and lost .2 kg in 11 days?)

He seems better today and slept much better last night but he's still not interested in BF during the day though earlier he grabbed at my boob so I fed him but only for about 30 seconds then he'd had enough. He's not crying or anything he just rejects it.

He's been eating broccoli and melon though he definitely doesn't seem to be ready for chunky food as he gagged/choked on a small piece rather than chewing and swallowing - meant to ask hv about that but I forgot...
I had a cry on the HV. I don't know what is wrong with me - perhaps it's depression or hormones or exhaustion from the past few weeks but I don't feel like I'm doing a very good job and getting upset makes me feel like I'm failing even more. I love ds so much it hurts and I feel guilty that I get upset and struggle with him. I should be able to do this. It's not even that I mind giving up everything for him and not even being able to go to the loo without him but that I do all that and I still don't make him happy half the time. I'm also sick of not being 100% physically and to top it off this evening my ovary hurts which means my pcos is back with a vengeance and I can't take anything for it because of my bloody bp. I just want to disappear into a big cuddle with ds and everything to go away.

Sorry that sounded really miserable.

oh darling Auntie, I do wonder if it is depression

please talk to gp, you sound so unhappy, it might be nothing or you might need a bit of help.

(hugs)