September 14 babies - bring on the weaning!

[KitKat1985]

New thread for the Sept 14 babies. :)

Thanks Topsy and Cumbrian, I'll try taking a made up bottle out next week. Dd is a bit fussy heat-wise but hopefully she'll get less so the more she gets used to bottles and other foods.

FATE Thanks, she's 2 weeks off 6 months, so that's good to know. Can you also just make bottles at home by adding a few oz of hot water then topping up with tap water rather than cooled boiled water? I'm assuming that's the case, as they shove so much crap in their mouths from this age anyway. Dd's new fun hobby is reaching wildly for the dog's face so he'll lick her hands

DS rolled.

He waited until his Daddy was home, decided he wanted his toy, rolled onto his front in full view of both of us AND THEN rolled back onto his back as if he'd done it a million times before and it was the easiest thing in the world.

The Swine.

Thanks ladies. DP has looked after DD alone before when I was visiting my mum in hospital before she died so I know he can do it. It forced him to do it where he struggled quite a bit with having her before, even though I was only leaving her for half an hour to have a shower. I'm due to go out for dinner with friends at the end of the month, which will be my first outing (with the exception of hospital visits and a funeral) without her.

Even when he is here i'm still very much primary caregiver. I still do practically all feeds and nappy changes and always do getting up and bedtime. He probably would do these things if I asked at weekends but if i'm around I wouldn't be able to relax being in earshot of her crying so partly my fault. I think it's more the ease in which he can go out and do things that annoys me. Just having one of those days, never mind me!

Apples - I take little ready made bottles out with me. So much less faff. If you only use them when out it's not really too much of an added expense.

as they shove so much crap in their mouths from this age anyway

Exactly. How much you need to be concerned about sterilising is directly proportional to how much baby licks carpet, eats the newspaper, shoves 9yo brothers fingers in her mouth (ewww, even I wouldn't consider that a good idea), tries to kiss the dog... and so on.

Personally I won't go to totally abandoning all sterilising and proper preparation of bottles at 6 months, but it will mark the start of loosening how strict I am so that her immunity can gradually increase.

Apples His hemagioma is on his right cheek - you can see it most in the sleepy pic. It looks like a red spot. It is there in the other pics but looks tiny due to the angle he is at. Please let me know if you get any interesting information from the doctor about your daughter's.
My son's hasn't really grown for a while and I think it may just end up being a small one. Which makes me feel guilty for all the worry I initially had. There's still time for it to grow though, so I'm just keeping an eye on it.

I think I will keep sterilising the bottles and teats but everything else like beakers etc will just be washed!

Sleepless the HV told me that you need to start brushing their teeth as soon as they appear. You can use adult toothpaste, just not the abrasive whitening ones. I got a baby toothbrush for £1 in sainsburys this afternoon. Gave it to DS in the bath tonight & he loved it.

Sleepless, as Topsy has said, you can use normal adult toothpaste. In fact its recommended in the North West as there is no fluoride added to the water up here and childrens toothpaste doesn't contain (enough) fluoride apparently.

Yay for your DS rolling Red. Mine can get on his side but that is about it!

Good to know about the need not to be as strict on the sterilising! It does make sense though given A was trying to get my foot in his mouth earlier!

Aww lovely photos jay and cookie. So cute Here's one of J on her "half birthday".

Sleepless - I was due in the last week if August but she decided to come 3 weeks early. I joined both the August and September groups.

Had a horrible evening with J last night. I started bedtime upstairs at half past 6 and she kept falling asleep fine on the boob but was absolutely hysterical on being put down. This went on till midnight when I gave in and let her sleep on my bed with me. Poor hubby had to go sleep on the sofa as he had to be up early for work. She slept for nearly 6 hours! So I'm confused to be honest. Maybe she doesn't wake in the night so much usually for milk - maybe the crib is uncomfortable now. I'm putting her in her big cot tonight in her own room to see if it makes a difference. That's if she'll be put down of course. Eeeeeek.

I went into work yesterday to discuss going part time and my head said he can do that for me. So its looking like I will be working probably 1 full day and 5 mornings. I am relieved as I should have a much better work / life balance this way hopefully.

ah have deduced that waking in night could well be because b is too long for his sleeping bag - feet are at the end. now I tried him in his 6-12 and 6-18 month ones and it looks like his head could still get through. however, if I took them tomorrow and got someone to put some press studs on the arm holes to make them smaller that would stop him wiggling down, wouldn't it?

Recent picture of Emily, they are growing up so fast!

Awwwww all the babies are such happy little cutie pies!!!

Here's Zaynah just a week shy of five months. This was at baby sensory and she was trying to not flop forwards and kiss the ground!!

Loving all the pictures of the babies!

DD had her first night in the cot last night. Strangely, I'm not sure how it went as DH was up working late, so said he'd feed her and deal with any wakings. So I only did the 4.30 feed last night - so blissful to sleep!!!

It seems that DD loves watching the weather forecast! Every time it comes on she just stares at it in a hypnotic state. Not sure whether that counts as having a "screen time" obsessed baby, making me a terrible mother?!

team, b loves thw gruffalo and 64 zoo lane. my best friend said it's just like story time but eith bigger pics and decent voices for the characters (I am assuming that she meant that mu voices for characters are not up to scratch).

Awww lovely baby pics ! They are all real cuties.

They are all looking so much more grown up from when we last posted pics .

Happy Valentine's to all of you lovely and wonderful mummies!!!

We do have lots of cute babies on this thread. It's amazing to think of the difference from only a few months ago!

Holls - I would think adding the press stud should work. Maybe try it with one of them first?

OK need your opinions please ladies; ds will start 2 mornings in the nursery in two weeks time, from 8:30 ish to 1; they will give him level 1 breakfast and lunch; so I imagine one bottle milk would be enough for him. Now up until a couple of days ago I was going to express for him for two days, but I just realised it is not only the two days, if I want him not to have a difficult time in nursery he has to get used to consistently having one milk feed from bottle every mid morning; right?

In that case I just can't express while working half days, running a house and having a baby; I mean I could but too much hard work which may indirectly affect my baby having a grumpy mum; so although sad, I decided to replace one milk feed with formula; do you think it is the right decision?

As he is starting in 2 weeks I want him to get used to it (although I have some frozen expressed milk for a couple of weeks maybe) ; so Daddy just opened a ready made formula bottle; surprise surprise he didn't take it and cried and cried until I gave in and offered boob; now how long can I use that milk for? On the bottle it says two hours, but what if I fridge it??

Nazly, it depends on when you decide to express and when you feed him. Sometimes if I feed and express at the same time I won't get enough for a feed off.

At the moment I do it once before getting up, once or twice during the day and then when I go to bed, which is giving me enough for just over three feeds. Which isn't too traumatic as it fits in with the routine of the day and the evening one especially I can do it chilling in front of the tv before I go to sleep once he's asleep. But this does rely on DH doing his bit.

Realistically, I think you are wise to think about the formula option though. I find it bareable because I've got into a routine over a long time. I think I would struggle if I suddenly changed my daily routine.

Nazly

There is absolutely no problem at all with either mix feeding or formula, if you are looking for reassurance on that matter.

But there are lots of options if you want to carry on exclusively breast feeding when returning to work.

Red is The Master at expressing and fitting expressing around your baby and your life, so I will let her post above do all the talking on that.

Assuming you would normally breastfeed your son during the time he will be at nursery, the easiest thing would be to express at that same time during the time he is at nursery (you will likely have some engorgement anyway if you are missing a feed) and then give that expressed milk to your son the following day.

I had a work colleague who when first returning to work used to have her childminder bring baby into work at a set time so she could breastfeed him. I realise you can't do this. But as her son started nursery she picked a nursery setting close to work and would go visit him for 15 minutes of her lunchtime to breastfeed.

I believe you have some rights at being given a private space and facilities at work to be able to express, if needed.

So whilst there is absolutely nothing evil or bad or wrong with formula milk and it is a zillion times easier, there are many ways and means to make exclusively breastfeeding work long term if this is important to you.

Thanks Fate, Red. I have nothing against formula, but it makes me a little sad that I planned to bf until 1 year and now I can not. I can't express at work; I mean I could, but it is just miserable, a very male dominated office and realistically we don't have anywhere to express apart from toilet which is not pleasant to say the least...

That's interesting Fate, I did not think about going to nursery mid day. It is around 10 min drive from work to nursery each way, so if I drop ds at nursery half an hour earlier I could fit a feed easily. And he probably would be happier at least to start with. I will consider this option.

Red expressing at other times will be hard going , I can't expect dh to do "his bit" simply because sadly he does not have the time; plus I have decided to cook for ds (and us) now, ; surprisingly once you add the washing up, etc, it will take some time. I used to cook perhaps a couple of times a week, now it is more like every day or so; And since starting to wean, cooking has become important for me cause as sensitive as I am about the milk he is getting, I am also sensitive about the solid. He has started taking quite good amount of solid and replaced quite a lot of breast feeding already; I can feel my supply is much less now simply cause he does not need it as much. It may be all wrong, but I developed a dislike to all shop baby foods after tasting a few... So all in all I feel if I work half days, want to cook and clean, and take care of ds, it would be very little time and energy left for expressing :(

Overall my plan is to increase the nursery time gradually so I can go back to work full time by the time he is 1yr old; in that case I just feel realistically I should also start replacing bf with formula gradually to make my life tolerable ! But given I could drop to nursery mid day I will not rush it.

Oh and for all of you mix feeding, how did you start formula? Did your lo just take it with no problem? After trying hard, we had to bin to first pack of formula we opened cause he didn't take it. He bf instead, which rules out not wanting a feed; now I am not sure if it is the formula or the bottle he dislikes? he used to get small amount of expressed milk every night up until two weeks ago -not happily but he took it nevertheless-

I tried a beaker as he really loves drinking water from his beaker, but he just had maybe 30 ml or so before stopping...

Very confused!

Nazly - I imagine the taste of formula is very different to breast milk, it probably would take some getting used to as he's been EBF up until now. My DD has been formula fed from the beginning and had expressed breast milk as well for the first couple of weeks and I think she liked the taste of breast milk better. I think as well the taste of different brands of formula are different. DD used to make such a face when having SMA but seemed to much prefer Aptamil. Maybe worth trying some different brands in the beaker to see if he prefers one over the other?

Your work place do have a responsibility to create a private and clean area for you to pump, and you have every right to ask for that and should not do it in the toilets no matter what!!! Given everything you want to take on it would probably be easier for you to formula feed though in my opinion but can understand the feelings of wanting to continue to breast feed. If I were you I would maybe think of it in the way that from now he is going to get more and more of his nutrition from his food, which you are lovingly home making (and the veg and meat baby food jars do taste disgusting), and so the type of milk he is getting will become less important.

Happy Valentine's Day all!