August 2014 Babies,half way to one and staring at you while you eat.

[GingerCuddleMonster]

I've been told via Whatsapp by a MN'er this morning who used to be a member of the ante-natal group that there's a Facebook group, but that they won't accept anyone or her back (a bit weird if you ask me, but each to their own, and have really left a PND suffering mum feeling like shit, but I doubt they care in their "clique")

So are there any August Mums left on here willing to chat, without connecting to Faceache?

Aw ginger I was up early with an exploded nappy (baby's not mine) but otherwise a successful Mother's Day and first as a mother. There's a bit of a bottle ptotest going on at the moment, arching, screaming and so on...

Sorry you didn't have a great Mother's Day ginger. Mine was ok but I'd hoped DH would have made a bit more effort as it was the first one! It was no different to a normal day here, other than I had a card and a chocolate easter bunny. I have to admit to feeling slightly sad when I saw people posting on facebook about their day. DH forgot to phone his own mum too - despite several reminders!

Nazly I still haven't attempted the hair cut as the photos were postponed and so I chickened out. I am planning on getting DH to hold her and then taking the fringe back to the top of her head and taking off very very tiny bits at a time.

DH goes away Friday for ten days and I'm not looking forward to it. Because DD won't nap in the day apart from on me, I have no idea how I'll get everything done. ginger how do you manage? DD won't go to bed until I do either! Last time he was away it wasn't quite so bad as she wasn't on solids so I didn't have to worry about baby friendly meals and just went to M&S . This time I do have some meals frozen in preparation.

Nazly, for me the big advantage of BLW is not having to do separate meals, just be a bit careful about salt and making sure stuff is cut to make it easy to grab. It's also great that I can have leisurely meals/cups of tea while he gets on with feeding himself rather than having to be hands on - though if we were in a rush thie leisurely pace could be a pain. There was a recent study that found it discourages overeating and encourages children to enjoy different tastes. It is notoriously messy but having eaten out with babies of similar ages who were being spoon fed I didn't find it much messier. The BLW cookbook is a great resource both on the theory ad practical recipes.

MrsMilky, I find I get more done when he's not napping as he mostly does that on me. The sling is brilliant for cleaning and laundry. I shop online while he naps. If I'm cooking, I put him in the bouncer and chat or sing to him - I find having a bottle of bubble mix handy is great - blow them near the ceiling and watches raptly as they float down.

Ginger, great news that he's feeding again!

Jess thanks, that's quite interesting. I don't do separate meals for ds either, I just don't add salt to ours and blend it for him in the end; however, I think I see your point about overeating and being fussy.

Ds is not fussy as such, but he certainly prefers some food to some others. Could I overfeed him? I doubt that; he pulls away and turns his head when he had enough, but you never know...

My problem is he gets really frustrated if I leave it to him to feed himself. We started with blw, but it was just like play time for him, after a couple of weeks I gave him some puree which he really enjoyed. I give him finger food everyday, but he is a hungry boy and recently he just bring his mouth forward instead of his hands when I offer him finger food. Sometimes I have to put the stuff in his hand and leave it so he gets then point. But even then when things don't get to his mouth fast enough, he starts nagging and then screaming until I help him!! I think I just need to persevere with finger food and see how it goes...

Currently food is his main source of nutrition as he isn't really interested in milk any more apart from the night feeds; so I can't take the leisurely approach of blw to feeding, it needs to be a balanced diet...

I just like the sound of blw though and before getting into weaning I always wanted to do that...

Ooh bubbles, that is a great idea jess. I got some a while ago and dd loves them but had totally forgotten about them. I sling too for laundry and vacuuming etc plus any safe food prep. It's more the actual standing over the hob part that worries me as obviously I don't have dd in the sling for that and she's liable to howl if she is sitting down away from me. Actually, saying that, I do think she's better in that respect than she was, she'll grab a muslin or a bib and use it to play peekaboo and has started to wave and clap. So maybe I am worrying unnecessarily about getting food!

nazly my reasons for blw are very similar to those that Jess mentioned. I love how dd takes part in the meal too. We all get to eat together. She's not eating that much yet but she is always keen to try everything. We had homemade fish fingers tonight and they seemed quite easy for her to manage. I do worry at the moment that as she's getting keener on food she is literally biting off more than she can chew but she will spit out those bits so I guess it's ok. I love watching her as she tries something new. We haven't seen any reduction in breastfeeds yet though.

Nazly, it's different if he's used to puree because he is used to getting some of his nutrition from food, so it's not surprising that he gets frustrated if he can't get enough finger food in. I'm not sure my DS even realises that the funny "toys" I give him in his high chair have the potential to fill his stomach if he swallows them! It's standard BLW advice to offer solids when they're still fairly full from a milk feed, so you could possibly start a meal with puree and offer finger food at the end, or give him something to hold in between spoonfuls. I think there are specific guidelines on introducing finger food for traditional weaning so probably best to follow those rather than BLW advice as it's a bit different.

Aggghh we had a terrible night last night. Thought it might be teething but looked at the wonder weeks app and it's the first day of leap 6. Although dd arrived in august, her due date was actually 26 July. This stormy period is meant to last 30 days!

Wonder weeks is little more than baby horoscope. You'll attribute certain behaviour to the day because you are influenced by it. This is why its always 'amazingly accurate' despite the fact that babies all hit milestones at different times.

So I really wouldn't be worried about stormy periods.

I'm tearing my hair out with weaning. Offering him the pouch has worked once then back to not working. He had a bit of bread this morning and threw porridge everywhere. I don't know if I can face another morning of sticky baby porridge clearing up. What else can I give him for breakfast a I'm not keen on giving him too much bread.

Red, pity the pouch trick didn't work again. If other meals are going better you could just offer the same stuff, your LO doesn't know what's typical for breakfast! Other breakfasty things you could try: fruit (plums are nice and suckable), sugar free scotch pancakes, weetabix with just enough milk to make it manageable, omelette, yoghurt with or without fruit puree.

Ah red I hope you're right! So many people seem to set so much store by it but what you've said makes perfect sense.

For breakfast you could always try baking the porridge into bars, there might be less mess that way. Dd sometimes has slices of hard boiled egg if we are having eggs at lunch time, that might work for breakfast too.

Got a teething necklace today, not one of these amber things, but one I wear that is safe for her to chew on or play with while she feeds. She absolutely loves it! I was missing wearing necklaces too but this is great.

evening all,

're the wonder weeks app, it never seems to match DS so I just gave up on it.

more problems with DS he's now been diagnosed with poosible blepharitis . my maternal grandfather had it so not sure if there is a genetic link, and speaking of genetics our referral for genetics councelling has arrived and I'm terrified to go. I'm struggling a little lately but trying to just push through.

hope everyone is well xx

ginger I am sorry I don't know what that is but I have had genetic counselling so i have a bit if insight on that. Fx you'll be OK

red people have been asking after you in September thread, I assume you have been avoiding it for now, someone mentioned you were on a break!

Mrs can you put a link on for that necklace?

E can sit by himself yay!

Anyone watch here come the triplets?

Yeah I'm taking a bit of a break cookie for a few reasons.

DS is a 1st sept baby so one of the oldest.

I'm finding it hard as he's hit a few milestones miles ahead of where he should (and a couple of people had said they were struggling with that which was making me feel awkward). And then on other things he seems to be miles behind everyone else, most notably food.

So the two things I'm struggling with most are totally at odds with the other thread at the moment as much as anything.

Its much more baby led weaning on this thread and there is a couple of crawlers who like eating cables, which suits me a little better.

It might change in the future. I really needed a bit of support before and things just made me more anxious and upset so was defeating the point a bit.

DS has eaten rice crackers today and that's as far as we got. He very deliberately dropped the omelette on the floor after touching it and pulling a face. He has a taste for plates (I have a comic set of photos where he ignores the slice of bread I had for lunch, deciding to throw it around everywhere whilst attempting to eat the plate) and beer bottles... Sigh.

ginger Sorry to hear about the possible blepharitis and the genetics counselling. It really does sound like you are going through a tough time and I think you're coping amazingly. Keeping everything crossed for you that all turns out to be well with DS!

red we were talking about baby led weaning at the baby group I go to, and the general consensus was not to worry how much the baby is eating until at the very earliest 9 months. So I am just going to relax for the next little while and not worry if DD doesn't eat that much. Saying that, she is eating more than in the past, it just seems a slow and gradual process, with some days a lot better than other. Yesterday I gave her some orange segments at lunch with the inner skin peeled off too, and she actually seemed to really enjoy those.

DD slept well last night, for which I am very grateful, although I lay awake tossing and turning most of the night, and had to run downstairs to the kitchen to indulge in a coughing fit without waking her! DH spent last night at Heathrow, ready to fly out to the US this morning. Not sure how we'll amuse ourselves this weekend...all the baby activities take place in the week and since I don't drive, our options are limited. We'll probably go out for walks at least, but not sure what else! It's times like this I wish I had family nearby (they are 500 miles away).

DD waved goodbye to DH yesterday, it was really cute. She says 'ba-ba' when she waves (maybe bye-bye, maybe just a coincidence!) and then for the rest of the afternoon she was waving at people too. She learnt how to do it from my mum on skype, I think.

cookie here's the site I got the necklace from: gumigem.co.uk/

I got one of the gumidrops one - people have commented that it doesn't even look like a teething necklace and I'm really pleased with it

Red, it sounds to me like your son is focusing on some things and not on others, so he's moving ahead in the things he likes and less so in things that don't interest him yet - I think they're all like that in their own ways and I'm sure he'll slow down in some areas and catch up in others in time. As MrsMilky says, it's normal for some babies to take a while to get going with solids - DS is still hardly swallowing anything yet.

Ginger, sounds stressful, hope the genetic counselling goes well.

MrsMilky, could you try some messy play? Some nice ideas for babies here: www.funathomewithkids.com/2014/07/50-creative-activities-for-babies.html

Well done BabyCookie - they look so much more grown up when they can sit up, don't they!

hope you've all had a good weekend. We've been househunting. Kind of fun nosing around lots of houses but also stressful as i have to go back to work full time for us to afford a bigger mortgage and also its forcing us to think way into the future about schools which is terrifying me!!

DD is finally getting over her cold. think this about the 5th in a row she's had and I'll be very happy when she is better at last. she's so snotty at night its hard to breathe and she's still waking every 2 hours or so Spring and the warmer weather can't come soon enough for me!

Jess thanks for that link - there are some fantastic ideas there. Have you tried any?

felkov that sounds quite stressful. We need to decide what to do about that too...we've been renting since we moved back to the UK two years ago which is really a waste of money (in our situation, a mortgage on a decent property would be half our rental costs) but because we hope to move back to the US one day we haven't done anything yet. I feel in limbo with it all, as I don't want to commit to buying over here and then find DH gets a job back in the US! But if he doesn't, then we should really move because I'm not happy with the schools in our current area, although I actually like where we are otherwise and it's particularly handy for me seeing as I don't drive.

DH is away right now and I really miss him! DD has also been very grumpy, and I think her top teeth might be about to come through and causing her some pain. The hardest thing I am finding while DH is away is showering - normally my shower is the one time of the day I have completely to myself (ok so it's only about 20 minutes but I need that time!) while DH looks after DD. But now she screams even while I have the fastest shower possible and I feel as though I've tried everything - taking her into the bathroom in a chair, trying a door bouncer, letting her stay in the cot with a toy (I shower in the ensuite so the cot is literally right outside). But nothing works! Anyone got any ideas? One of my friends suggested taking her under the shower with me but I don't really feel comfortable with that.

posting quickly on my way to work but saw your post mrsmilk

massive hugs it's hard them being away, and if there's one thing I've learnt "have a shower" don't worry it won't scar them for life if you have a 10min shower. Jesus I'd look like shit going to work of I didn't shower daily DS is plllaced in his cot with toys and I go for a shower, he's safe yeah he cries but I've got no option. it wil be fine milk

mrsmilk what works for me is taking DD into the main bathroom so she can see me and then singing her a silly song while I'm in the shower. something from Disney usually works! DD thinks its some sort of entertainment to watch me wash my hair and I get a good 10 or 15 mins under the shower. having said that, if you have a shower cubicle where the door steams up it probably wouldn't work as she wouldn't be able to see you.

sorry also meant to say unless you are used to taking DD under the shower e.g. if you go swimming then i wouldn't do it. it can be quite a nasty shock for them to get water up their nose or in their eyes and often what you would think of as a normal hot shower temperature is too much for baby skin!

Thanks guys - ginger I'm so glad you started this thread as it's great to "meet" other mums at the same stage! Hopefully DD will eventually get used to me showering because as you say, I don't have much choice about it!

felkov I've tried singing/dancing/clapping and it didn't work...but you've given me a good idea - I normally shower in a cubicle where the door will steam up so next time I will try the shower over the bath in the bathroom that DH uses. For some stupid reason I hadn't thought of that. DD might be so interested in being a different room that she'll last a bit longer before crying too!

Our front room is rapidly turning into a mini soft play area. We have a kitchen lounge which is a bit of a safety nightmare so its not exactly easy.

This morning I have rearranged the furniture, so he can run riot in the lounge as this morning he chased me into the kitchen. He can nearly keep up with my walking now.

DS HATES being restricted in any way and separation anxiety is definitely starting to kick in. He's bad enough with his baby prison whenhe can see me but I can't leave the room at the moment unless I distract him with his noisy train which makes noises if you press the buttons. I can get a few minutes that way.

Red, it sounds to me like your son is focusing on some things and not on others, so he's moving ahead in the things he likes and less so in things that don't interest him yet

This is definitely the case. And a lot like both me and DH tbh! His learning is very 'lob-sided' rather than steady and matching milestones. This also seems to make a bit of sense. DH has a very high IQ but severe dyslexia.

it always amazes me that you can see their personality come through even when they're so little.

Red it sounds like your DS is going to be a very clever little guy! and he's already so fast!

I'm off to my first soft play place today. I'm only going so I can chat to the other mums and drink because DD is not remotely close to crawling but i figure it'll be good fun seeing the mobile ones zooming around and prepare me for a few months time if when DD finally figures out how to move. she's just like her Dad, watches everything really closely but only joins in when she has seen everyone else doing it a hundred times first!

felkov, I think he's likely to be a clever little boy, but I think any notion of being pleased by that is tempered by the fact that that I think we are also going to have problems if he takes after his Dad too much. DH had behavioural issues and problems at school. His dyslexia balanced out a lot of his natural ability and the school didn't think there was a problem as he was doing well. They even overlooked his behaviour as they wanted his grades! It worries me.

Early walking is supposed to reflect risky taking rather than IQ though. His father is a risk taker too though unfortunately. More considered children are supposed to walk later after watching and working out how to do things rather than trial and error. Early walkers are supposed to be more accident prone. I suspect crawling is much the same.

Changing nappies is a new wrestling sport at the moment. Its awful. I've been in tears over the weekend and my normally zen like husband has lost his temper with it. Its taken two of us a couple of times. DS hasn't been too bad yet this morning, but we have haven't had a poo yet and DH is out this evening so I'm panicking a bit. Every distraction technique we develop seems to work a few times before DS works out what we are doing.

MIL tells the story on when DH and his elder brother destroyed her record collection age 2 and 3 by moving and climbing up a chair. This is the stuff that is really worrying me in the shorter term. How long before DS can 'escape'?

So enjoy having a patient baby whilst you can!!!