November 2014 - The one where we figure it all out... Or at least try.

[Arkkorox]

Couldn't see another thread ladies! Crap title I know but I couldn't think of anything else!

Thisis how on earth did you manage to put the nappy in the wash!

Anna ergo back on offer
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We have added in another meal this weekend so has porridge late morning followed by little fruit and late afternoon has pureed veg yesterday was sweet potato and today carrot he eats about 4 ice cubes worth and would have more if I let him glad we started weaning early.

Went swimming today first time since he was about 10/11weeks old n he loved it felt bad we hadn't taken him for so long.

Those of you who have been out without your breastfed baby, how do you know how much milk to leave?
Can't get breast pump to work (it's been about 4 months since I last used it), so am hand expressing in preparation for tomorrow.

Guess work really. My mum recons DS needed about 6oz each feed (her and my dad had him for 24 hours while we went to a wedding yesterday). This was a bit of trial and error, 3oz not enough to settle him and 9oz led to lots of puking! DS is 5 months, approx 18 and big but not chunky (more solid). He ate really fast from the bottle as it's no effort at all for him.

Kellymom reckons 600ml per day. 6 feeds would make it 100ml per feed, roughly 4 oz.

Hi all. Hope you are all enjoying the sunshine. Me and DS have been to a clothes swap party (took some stuff to pass on but didn't get anything, lots of skinny people) and been to a BBQ all in the mei tai. My back is fine too! I was really surprised how comfortable it was.

DS has horrible nappy rash. It had suddenly started today and is bleeding too. He doesn't seem bothered by it at all. Any top tips? I have cleaned it off with boiled water and liberally applied Sudocrem.

We have finally (at the age of exactly 6 months) put the cot up! Wish me luck persuading Velcro-baby that it is a good place to sleep. Somehow DD1's bedtime ended up very late and taking a very long time (not sure she is asleep even now) so am feeding DD2 to sleep now then attempting to put her in the cot, but I've just noticed I haven't put the side down and I remember it is a very stiff side. I am not getting my hopes up too high, and having in our bed is mostly not to ad anyway in case the cot fails.

Sudocream cat and once it starts to clear then slather on the Vaseline as it'll act as a barrier to stop the urine re-irritating the skin and flaring it up again.

I don't know if breastfed babies take anything like formula babies but mine takes 6oz a feed these days.

This evening DS almost gobbled my hand off! God its a messy business though - he grabs the spoon, gets it all over his hands, then plasters his hands all over every nearby surface. And my god, who knew banana would be so hard to get out of clothes!

I'm not mad on our bib - its soft thin plastic and he just crumples it up and the mess flies everywhere. Any recommendations for weaning bibs?

Anna banana is a nightmare took 4 washes of one outfit I have some big overhead cotton bibs that I use for weaning they are only used for food so if get stained doesn't matter as gets older will use plastic ones. My monkey grabs spoon as well and if I am holding say banana or strawberry for him he crams my hand into his mouth too.

For bf babies it's 30mls per hr of being left from what I have read obviously all babies are different also read about paced feeding

Thanks anna looks a bit better this morning. Poorly bum baby.

We haven't started weaning here but a friend swears by the ones that look like art aprons from ikea. They cover from wrists up and are quiet thin plastic.

The cot was not especially successful. She slept in it for about a hour, then woke up just after I came to bed (which she always does, but I had wondered if she was disturbed by me getting into bed). I got her back to sleep and bak in the cot after a while, then she was awake not long after and DH decided it was his turn to go to her (he has never done before because she was always right next to me on my side of the bed). She cried proper upset sounding crying at him for a hour. I offered to take her, but he wanted to persevere and I thought he has to try if I am going to leave her with him and last week she settled better for him when he took her off me. When I did take her she stopped crying immediately, but didn't go to sleep enough to be put back in the cot until 1.30, so I got 4hrs sleep in tne bed without her before she woke up and I lay her down next to me so I could get a bit more sleep. Oh well, try again tonight with the added complication of me going out.

Have a happy that sounds like a toughy.

just back from HV. Went to get him weighed as looking at getting getting a new carrier. Had a chat with her about sleep as it has been so awful the past few weeks. She was lovely and understanding and had a chat about starting to get him to self settle. I understand that is DS getting himself to sleep. At the moment I am feeding him to sleep at night and putting him down asleep. I am not really sure where to start doing anything else. How are you guys doing the actual putting then to bed bit? We have a bed time routine of PJs and lullaby etc but just need to get my head round him getting himself to sleep. I feel a bit thick

Cat you are not thick! To be honest I have no clue what the "experts" mean when they talk about getting babies self settle. The only thing which could resemble a method is so called controlled crying, but that's just something so cruel and harmful that I would never consider doing it. We have been quite lucky with DD, she seems to self settling herself without us doing anything. We just always have been going with the flow with her, not trying to adjust her bed times or anything.
She has been easy to put down since she's been about 1 month old and recently she has become better at going to nap herself. Number of times when I saw her being tired I took her upstairs, put in her cot and left her alone and she fell asleep without any rocking etc.

Self settle MY ARSE! It may be best practise, but I suspect 98% of people feed to sleep. It works!

Ds has self-settled about 3 times ever!

He's either fed to sleep or it's pram, sling or car.
No cry sleep solution is the book to read if you can be arsed. I personally can't.

For the night sleep we ALWAYS offer her bottle once she is in the cot already even that she would fall asleep herself when tired. What the point to put her down if 30 minutes later she will be up hungry?! Some evenings timing works out that she eats shortly before I change her for night and put down, so she would not have more milk, but would fall asleep. So I consider that she self settles but I make sure milk is leaking out of her ears when I put her down for night to have chill out time of 3 hours (8-11pm). As Anna said, it works and it's the only thing what matters.
DD now has a habit to have lips zipped if she gets hassled with food when not hungry.

Thank you thank you thank you. This is why I come on here. Realistic and honest women who are in the middle of it.

Thing is he doesn't cry ( not complaining!)but because we have a co sleeper crib his wriggling and slamming about of limbs is so loud! I am going to try putting him down awake but sleepy tonight and see what happens. Because I have never done it I don't know what to expect. We shall experiment and see what happens!

Thank you all again. x

Hi girls. only just managed to catch up! So much going on at home.

Catg you're not thick! If dd wants to be fed or rocked to sleep then that's what I'm gonna do till she doesn't need it anymore.

Having a nightmare with dps family, his mums fine but his aunty invited DP and DD to a dinner at his grans house without me. . Dp didn't go but I'm fuming. All at theirs on Sunday for a birthday lunch, his sister is still being a PITA so I've decided I'm going to be super nice to her and I've just emailed her to see if I can bring anything. Like fuck am I going to be the bad guy in this Just cause I have a baby and she doesn't stupid bitch

As sympathetic as I am to people who struggle to conceive she has made such a fuss over this ( like telling DP he doesn't deserve dd cause he doesn't even want her - I've never seen him so angry) that actually I don't really have much sympathy at all now!

I always feed to sleep, day and night. She does sometimes wake up and settle back down again but quite often I have to feed her more. A HV suggested that I try self settling during the day by following the same routine I do at night and put her in the cot drowsy but it didn't work so I haven't tried since. She won't sleep in the cot during the day. When I go back to work in August DH is going to look after her 2 days a week so he'll be giving her bottles during the day so I hope that will work for getting her to nap. Has anyone carried on breast feeding in the morning and at night after going back to work? Does your supply adapt or did you have to express during the day as well?

catg I've always thought the same thing!!! I've never managed to 'put her down drowsy' but I can now feed her and leave the room while she's still awake and she'll fall asleep. I just started doing it if she popped off the boob before she fell asleep. I also stop feeding her as soon as she falls asleep now. But even if you don't try these tactics so what, its working and you're both happy so carry on :)

After weeks of unsuccessful bottle attempts in preperation for our spa day today I left dd with dp armed with breast milk, formula and a full belly. She took only one ounce at lunch and was then grumpy all afternoon and wouldn't go to sleep (because she was hungry no doubt) then necked 4oz right before I got home. So, success (of course feel terrible she was hungry but I'd rather we went through it with dp than childminder). Hoping we can keep it up and get her to accept a bottle as part of her routine.

I'm hoping to feed 3 times a day when back at work, morning, after work and bedtime. In theory supply should adjust but sometimes it tails off (this is bases only on my sister's advice).

"Self settle"???? You're having a laugh. Only way we can get DD to go to sleep at bedtime is to feed her to sleep. I BF her (and she often falls asleep on me, but then wakes up again as I move her from where I feed her in our bedroom to her room); and then DH tops her up with formula. It's a combo of feeding and rocking to sleep at night. At the moment she won't go to sleep if I'm rocking her as I'm too interesting (she's going through the 'attachment phase')...DH has the magic touch!

During the day, she'll only nap if being pushed round the streets in her pram (not even rocking the pram in the back garden works!) or if I'm driving somewhere in the car.

Still, at the moment, she's sleeping well at night, so I'm happy to walk MILES each day to get her to have naps if it means a decent sleep at night

This chat about the self settling made me realise even more what a load of crap is all this. So if you put the baby down and she falls asleep while feeding, you are feeding to sleep. But if you feed her and she falls asleep 15 minutes later, than she self settles. Seriously?!
Even the baby who settles most nights will sometimes fall asleep while feeding if both very tired and hungry at a time.

DS didn't have a chance to self settle tonight. Second boob and he was our for the count! I usually give him a cuddle for about 15 mins till he is in a deep sleep amd then put him down but tonight just popped him in his cot. Made no difference. This may well have something to do with him only having a 20 min nap this afternoon though!

Plan for tonight is feed at first wake up (usually between 12 and 2) and then when he wakes up again to try hand on tummy and shhing. We will see. All the plans go out the window in the night. Last night we were up 5 times between 2 and 6. Can't get much worse!

Going out was surprisingly successful. DH had both girls asleep in bed by 8.30. I have never achieved that. DD drank 20ml milk from a bottle, which doesn't sound like much but is better than DD1 ever managed. She is still asleep (probably will wake up as soon asi get into bed).

caz with DD1 I managed to continue breastfeeding once I went back to work even though I was out from 6.30am until 9.30pm on work days. I initially got up earlier and did a sort of dream feed while she was still asleep, but once she stopped going back to sleep after I stopped that. I would also feed at night if necessary, but couldn't let her start reverse cycling as I also work nights sometimes. I was surprised it worked out as well as it did with such long days though.

Thanks happy, I won't be out at work for such a long day so will try morning, after work and evening like you ladydolly.

Had a shit night, dd woke for a feed at 11.30pm and then would not go back to sleep again. She would fall asleep, I put her in the cot and she'd be wide awake again. Went and got dh about 1.30pm, who was asleep on the sofa. Then had big melt down about how nothing works and I'm fed up, losing my marbles and really don't want to go back to work. In the meantime she fell asleep on the bed so left her there and I eventually went to sleep at about 4am. She was awake again at 6.30. Really don't know what's going on here, she did the same on Saturday night. Sunday night she slept from 7pm-5.30 as she was so tired so at least I got a bit of a rest in between.