September 14 babies - bring on the weaning!

[KitKat1985]

New thread for the Sept 14 babies. :)

Hello all :)

I am amazed that some of you are still swaddling, E hasn't swaddled since he was about a month old!

E had been doing really well with his food but has a ridiculously bad cold so has stopped eating. And sticking with milk which is fine mostly a part from when he can't drink and breathe :(

Fx it passes quickly.

red do you give your lo something to hold during changing? Might help distract him. Or have a stash of shakers so when he chucks one you can quickly replace it?

fate lilone is right your thinking of follow on milk, hungry baby is targeted at stage 1. My friend uses it for her lo.

Goodness, all the stuff about stage 1 / 2 / follow on milk/ hungry baby milk seems quite confusing! Or maybe I'm just too sleep deprived lol.

Cookie, Jessica is full of cold too and screamed through breakfast and lunch and hardly ate anything so I'm not even attempting tea. She's having plenty of bfs though so I'm hoping this is ok.

Ella, after about a week or 2 of weaning Jessica's poos were runny no more! Proper (smelly) poo now!

Hi all-am new to this thread (can't believe I've not been on here sooner!)
Just wondering for those of you who are weaning (and forgive my ignorance -LO IS MY FIRST!) when you are out and about do you pre-make your food to give to your LO? Mine loves porridge but it's a bit of a faff when we are out and about preparing it from scratch!
So-is it ok to make in advance and keep in an air tight container until it's needed?

Hi all-am new to this thread (can't believe I've not been on here sooner!)
Just wondering for those of you who are weaning (and forgive my ignorance -LO is my first!) when you are out and about do you pre-make your food to give to your LO? Mine loves porridge but it's a bit of a faff when we are out and about preparing it from scratch!
So-is it ok to make in advance and keep in an air tight container until it's needed?

Sorry for the double post-my post didn't seem to work the first time!??

Yay KitKat I'm glad it helped! Red I didn't know that thing about the blind spot, really interesting.

Welcome Riri I just take food I've made for dd out in little air-tight pots but not sure what the official advice is. Can't really see the harm as long as it's not exposed to extreme temperatures or kept out for hours and hours??

Hi Riri85, welcome to our little bit of mumsnet

In the longer term it may be worth timing your day so you are home with baby for mealtimes. But when that isn't possible, there is no reason why you couldn't use a jar of pre-made stuff for ease when you are out.

Red - You have a child and children are hard work Get used to it, it will be no easier in 5, 10, 15, 20 years time (etc etc), just different.

I can imagine how exhausting it must be Red having a mobile baby that wants to get its hands on everything! Funny how I'm desperate for J to get mobile instead of lying on her back all the time and you want your lo to slow down a bit!

Jessica is nearly 7 months:(born 3 weeks early though) but still hates tummy time with a passion! She can lift her head for a few seconds but then just face plants the floor and cries hysterically. She doesn't like using her arms to push herself up either. She can roll onto her side though. Do I need to worry about her lack of mobility yet?

You know what. I didn't post that I was struggling before as I was worried about the response I would get. I was right.

Its fine to say, "I'm struggling with getting my baby sleep" but anything more and suddenly its 'get used to it'.

I guess I will have to get used to keeping my mouth shut.

Red honestly I'm not surprised you're knackered. Even though Jessica isn't mobilising yet sometimes I stick her in her jumperoo with CBeebies on for half an hour just to get a break, so part of me is already dreading the part where she gets mobile. I think we should be able to come on here and ask for advice / vent about whatever we need to. It should be a supportive place for everyone. For what it's worth, we have a travel cot that we're going to set up in the lounge when Jessica is mobile to use as a playpen, so I'm sure there will be plenty of times I pop her in there to crawl around to her hearts content whilst I nap do some housework. Would a playpen work for you? x

DS isn't mobile yet so I haven't got the same challenges as you Red but I can imagine how tiring it can be. We've had our first full day at home for ages & DS takes so much more entertaining now.

Our current challenge is nappy changes. DS & I have a race every change as to who can get to his bits first, me with a wipe or his hand. This morning he won & it wasn't just a wet nappy

Vent about anything you need to Red. It's all just as valid and important as anything else

Red, don't worry about one unnecessary and unhelpful comment. KitKat makes a good suggestion with the travel cot, i've seen a few people make their travel cots in to ball pits which seem to a be a hit with the LO's!

Top, You could always talk to your HV if you are worried but it certainly has been the case with Molly that mobility wise there are quite big leaps all of a sudden rather than gradually.

Red - vent as much as you need! Yes, being a parent is hard work and I think we all know and accept that, but that doesn't mean that we don't get frustrated and need to vent at times.

DD went down quite easily at 6 tonight! I'm pretty sure she would have gone down earlier if I had put her down, but 6 seems so early already!

Feeling a bit better today. Can't see who said about having unrealistic expectations, and this is exactly the conversation DH and I had last night. I'm a perfectionist. I like to read everything, plan it all out and then do something perfectly, but I need to get used to a baby not working like that!!! Plus, DH pointed out that DD has teeth coming through and a cold, so it is not that surprising that we've had some backward steps with sleeping. DH is so rational sometimes!!!

poor red dd1 didn't move until she was almost 15 months. i hoped her immobilty would last the year until i went back to work, but she exceeded my expectations. she started bum shuffling as soon as she started nursery - we must have been pandering to her and fetching her everything. it was worrying when she seemed so behind all her peers physically, but there was no sleep problems caused by her trying to sit/roll/stand etc; in the cot and she got there in the end. it was v relaxing having a non mobile baby, so don't worry if yours is a little slow. fwiw I thought the smiley face by fate's comment meant she was being tounge in cheek.

Play groups, parent and toddlers - that kind of thing come into their own when baby is more mobile and into things.

Children are had work and you will have to just get used to that. No one needs to shut up. Not you Red and no one else, including me. There are lots and lots and lots (an lots) of aspects of life that change permanently with children and you simply just have to get used to. Not entirely sure why that would be unhelpful, was just meant to be a truth.

Glad you are feeling much better Team.

Tomorrow is nursery day. I am dreading it.

ella Re: Runny poo - I did mention it to my HV at the last weigh in and she said it was down to teething (no sign of teeth yet). She said it will stop when DS starts weaning. I'm convinced it is the Hungry Baby formula.
I don't remember it with either of my twins (they were also FF - don't think Hungry Baby was available back then).
I'm the same as you..can't seem to remember much from when the twins were little, it's like starting all over again.

Riri Hi and welcome to the thread .

RedJ not crawling yet..but I am dreading it. I had a brilliant big Smoby colourful plastic playpen with the twins which made life much easier. However, I wouldn't have room for one now as have moved and my rooms are smaller. I've already tried to babyproof the lounge as much as I can and put things up out of sight and reach. One thing I'm really worried about is that my older kids drop stuff all the time...ie coins, craft stuff, phone chargers etc and always leave stuff lying around. I can see it being a nightmare when J is mobile so you have my empathy. A thread or two down the line...and we will be sharing your struggles .

ella Re: Runny poo - I did mention it to my HV at the last weigh in and she said it was down to teething (no sign of teeth yet). She said it will stop when DS starts weaning. I'm convinced it is the Hungry Baby formula.
I don't remember it with either of my twins (they were also FF - don't think Hungry Baby was available back then).
I'm the same as you..can't seem to remember much from when the twins were little, it's like starting all over again.

Riri Hi and welcome to the thread .

RedJ not crawling yet..but I am dreading it. I had a brilliant big Smoby colourful plastic playpen with the twins which made life much easier. However, I wouldn't have room for one now as have moved and my rooms are smaller. I've already tried to babyproof the lounge as much as I can and put things up out of sight and reach. One thing I'm really worried about is that my older kids drop stuff all the time...ie coins, craft stuff, phone chargers etc and always leave stuff lying around. I can see it being a nightmare when J is mobile so you have my empathy. A thread or two down the line...and we will be sharing your struggles .

Good luck Nazly!

Ugh ugh ugh. Jessica up at 1.15am, then 2.45am, and then every 45 minutes for the rest of the night. Oh and then she wanted to get up at 5.50am. I'm convinced now that some of these wakening's are just bad habits rather than for feeds (the later feeds she wanted to just have my boob in her mouth rather than suck, and at one point DH got up to offer her a bottle of formula and she just wasn't interested). I think she just associates suckling with going to sleep as she tends to feed to sleep. I'm a bit sceptical of sleep experts , but I've decided I haven't got the strength for CC and I've got to try something, so having trawled the internet I've decided to try the following:

1. Jessica to always go down awake after a feed so she learns to self settle.
2. If Jessica wakes in the night for a feed, to leave her for 10 minutes before going in to her to see if she self-settles before offering food / cuddles (unless she gets really distressed).
3. Although the jury seems a bit 'out' on if a baby Jessica's age can go without feeds all night, I think it's pretty clear she shouldn't at her age need feeds every 45 minutes. One expert has advised no more than 3 hourly feeds at night, which I'm going to try, and seems like a fair compromise. If she wakes within 3 hours of last feed, (after 10 mins of waiting to see if she self-settles), then she has a cuddle only and then goes back down awake.
4. After a feed / cuddle she has 10 minutes of self-settling time. Only if she doesn't settle after this time can she have another cuddle. Repeat ad nauseum.
5. All time from bedtime (7.30pm) until 7am in the morning to be treated as night-time and she will not be 'rewarded' for early wakening by going downstairs to play.

It's going to be knackering trying to implement this, but I'm knackered anyway, so what the hell. Worth a shot!

Good luck Nazly :)

Kitkat that looks like a good plan of action! I might have to try it with my own Jessica.

Well last night was great. Jessica slept for 9 hours 50 minutes. But (big but!) she's full of cold and a horrid chesty cough so I think she was just exhausted. I also raised her mattress and used a calpol plug in which helped. It would be fab if she carried on sleeping like this when she's better but i'm not holding my breath!

Wow kitkat good luck! I always have these great ideas and then at 2am I give up and pick up DS and offer boob immediately. Don't give in like me! I can absolutely see why you need to do something though, every 45 minutes must be so hard. I had a few nights like that and I was like the walking dead.

We are on every 3-4 hourly wake ups at the moment which isn't too bad compared to previously I was on hourly or under every two hours. I haven't changed anything, it's just happened. But ds does this to me, and then a week later he will change his mind.

Is anyone else not enjoying weaning? I'm only a week or so in and it just seems to be hassle! I'm currently offering food at a time when he is relatively settled rather than at specific times of day but I'm wondering if I atuck to times (within reason) it might establish a routine? Where he is bf we have next to no routine with feeding and other than the first nap there is no routine there either. I'm starting to struggle with this and also think DS would benefit from a fixed pattern. He really struggles to nap late afternoon which results in an overtired mess of a child and I can't offer food at tea time because he's in such a state.

What does everyone else think re routine for meals hopefully leading to routine for naps?

Nazly - Hope nursery day is going / has gone well for you both.

KitKat - Looks like a good plan to me, sounds like elements of 'Pick Up, Put Down'. You may well be knackered but surely it will be worth it if it works. Have you got anyone who can help out with some support? Even if it's just granddad taking granddaughter out in the pushchair for an hour or your Mum making a meal for you and DH.

How involved are everyones Dad or FiL with the baby?

I love the idea of granddad taking grandchild out for a walk. It is what my Mum says her Dad used to do with me and my brothers when we were babies. My Dad never got to meet his grandchildren and my FiL, well he is of the 'seen and not heard' camp. Both grandmothers, on the other hand, are very involved with the children.

Great overnight sleep there Top. Long may it continue!

Honey - It's often that naps dictate meal times, rather than meal times dictating naps. You are absolutely right that timings of eating is very flexible at this age. It's more about fitting it around sleeps and milk feeds, which is often a feat of extraordinary logistics!

I guess it's just about finding something that works for your child. The daytime routine will change lots anyway, so it's not as if any routine you start now will be set in stone. It'll be more 12-18 months where the daytime routine starts to stick long term

I have spent the last 3 days cleaning my oven! I am sure it shouldn't take 3 over night soaks and 6 bottles of oven pride. Maybe I should consider cleaning the oven more often in future

I recall seeing some kind of oven liner things that collect all the crud at the bottom of the oven rather than it welding to the base of the oven. Might look for that. Anyone know where I might get something like that on the highstreet, rather than ordering online?

Honey, J was exactly the same. Not much of a routine in naps or bfs. But since starting weaning it's somehow helped me with when she should be napping and we've naturally fallen into more of a feeding routibe too, though it can vary by as much as an hour sonetimes. I started just on one meal a day at a time she was calmest. I also find that if she's been bf around half an hour to an hour before feeding then she is less likely to get upset at feeding time. Food before age 1 is just for fun too or so I have read, so try not to feel too hassled with it. I would love a strict routine (that's the teacher in me) as it makes life easier but it is probably not going to happen until she's older