September 2014 - Rocking and Rolling

[FATEdestiny]

Our babies are rocking and rolling, crawling and climbing into the second half of their first year.

Let the fun continue...

E loves pop up books, we have a couple hard books that I love, ten fingers and ten toes and hairy mclairy E is not a fan lol!

Hello all! I lurk here every day but rarely post anymore. I follow you all and love reading about how you are all getting on. I am also guilty of 'bad' parenting, definitely spending too much time on my phone and not always playing as much as I should. DS is still in our room, sort of co-sleeping as the drop side is off the cot but I think it should go back on now. He hasnt started crawling yet but reading about all these mobile babies reminds me that its only a matter of time. I find myself justifying that he is still in our room and I get cross with myself. He is finally sleeping well and we are now too.

I am also guilty of pacifying DS with baby biscottis when needed and of course he has had jaffa cakes etc.

I often have daytime tv on, we need to curb our language and Im sure I could go on!

Fate we love the bear books

My children have all been able to 'read' (ie recite the words of) The Bear Snores On a good couple of years before they can actually read. DH & I know the words off by heart, it's been read that often.

My Favourite classic is Green Eggs & Ham and I also like insisting on DH reading Fox in Sox every now and again. He absolutely hates reading it because the tongue twisters are really, really difficult so it makes everyone laugh.

Nice to see you about polka!

I love the Alfie books by Shirley Hughes. Also, the Mog books and The Large Family (five minutes peace from you lot!) DD still just wants to eat books when I try and read to her!

I forgot to say hello to you polka. Sorry! . It is nice to see you posting again.

With all this talk about childrens books and relating it back to previous chat about "bad" parenting (that isn't really bad) - we don't read to DD yet. I honestly see little point. So if there is anyone reading this sitting in the background thinking they aren't reading to their baby - I wouldn't worry about it and definitely don't feel bad about it.

We (actually DH) still read to our 9 year old and 10 year old every night whilst most of their friends parents have stopped reading to their KS2 children, since they can easily read to themselves. But we place a lot of value on it. And our 5 year old has a story every night. But reading to our children didn't start until about 18 months old when the child is more engaging with the story and book. Board books are just toys at the moment.

Hello again polka!

Week seven weight loss update:

• maintained my 4.5lb loss. Happy with that, especially as I've had a couple of meals out and I've had a horrid cold, so mainly eaten stodge.
• seven minute workout: dine everyday, albeit a little half heartedly due to the aforementioned cold!

Sleeping is ok at the moment. We've used the calpol plug in for the past few nights and she has been better. Still having the 4.30am issue though. We do have blackout blinds in her room, but a fair amount of light leaks in around the edges, so last night I taped black bin liners to the window, and this morning she slept until 5.30!!! Will try it again for the next couple of nights and if it seems to make a difference we will have to look into new window dressings.

We do read to DD every night, partly to establish a routine but the rhythmic stories do seem to help to calm her. I'm stuck on Julia Donaldson books as they have lovely rhythms and are just the right length. Are the bear books rhyming?

DD does really like looking at and playing with books. They commented on it after her settling in session at nursery yesterday! Both DH and I are bookworms, so maybe she's just genetically determined to like them!

Only one more week until I return to work. Two more settling in sessions at nursery next week. It's all starting to feel very real. Wonder if I'll still be any good at my job?! I'm slightly nervous.

Ha ha team I've often thought 'I wonder if I remember how to do my job' never mind if I'm any good lol. With the bin liners in the window, you can buy a 'gro blind' which I believe does the same thing. We don't have one but I've heard good things. blind

fate I don't read to DS either. I tried but he just tries to eat the book so I got bored. He did seem to enjoy looking at a picture book in a group the other day where the lady was sat in front of him so I might try that.

Well done on the maintenance Team! I've been fairly good this week but out tonight so that will undo some of my good work!

I do read a bit with Jessica but mainly those textured books (like the Osborne 'That's not my...' series) as she likes those, just to start to generate interest.

We have gro blinds. They are pretty good but I do find they tend to let light in still around the edges. They do help though.

Hen night time tonight. Honestly I should feel excited about a night out but I really don't want to go. All I want to do these days is go to bed at 9pm, and I don't like hen nights anyway! It doesn't help that I've had to organise the thing with sod all help from the other bridesmaid who was meant to be helping and it's been a complete pain in the arse. We had to scrap our original plan to go to a show because even though loads of her friends (most of whom I don't know as they are from her work) originally said they would come when push came to shove only one person sent ticket money (and I wasn't prepared to pre-pay tickets for loads of people on the vain hope they might pay me back). So decided just to do a restaurant thing instead (no need to get money in advance then) and I've had to waste so much time chasing people for replies as to if they were coming or not, several of whom seem really 'flaky' and I'm not convinced are going to turn up even though they have said they are coming. We let people know the date in bloody January and all I asked was for people to let me know if they were coming by last Saturday (and I've sent several reminders) as the restaurant told me they get busy on Saturday nights so would need a weeks notice for a large table and get a text last night from bride asking if her friend X could come too, so now I'll have to phone the restaurant again when it opens, and I bet after asking if they can fit someone else in a couple of people will bloody well drop out and I'll have to phone them again. I know I sound like a right grump but I'm just pissed off with the whole thing. I would so much rather just have a take-away and an early night later.

I am off to buy a gro blind today funnily enough. DS is an early bird as it is but it was 5am this morning despite our dark curtains.

I read 'guess how much I love you' and 'its time to sleep' to him every night, I think they were mentioned on a MN thread which is how I found them. I use it as part of the bedtime routine to associate with sleep.

I lost all my baby weight through stress (pnd) when he was only a few months old but now I have put it all back on again! I was weighed at the Doctors yesterday and had a bit of a shock so its healthy eating for me again.

I've got a friends hen do in the summer. Its an all day/night affair and I dont really want to be out for that long. It is 50 odd miles from home though.

Im trying to make more of an effort with play at home now. We have been banging on steamer pans with wooden spoons and I tied some shoelaces through a few of the holes for him to pull. He has done some tummy time playing with a baking tray of dried porridge oats and also with a baking tray of water/fairy liquid bubbles (I did put coloured ice cubes in but he got cold). Ive given him some spaghetti and jelly to play with too but he ate it! Please dont think Im trying to sound like a perfect parent because its all to buy me time to have a cuppa lol! If anyone has any other suggestions they'd be much appreciated.

I meant to say, we are still trying tummy time as he hates being on his front and I worry that he isnt going to have enough upper body strength to crawl.

m.growingajeweledrose.com/cjx08eh/articles/16891/Sensory-Play-Activites-for-Babies

I quite liked some of the ideas here if anyone is interested in this stuff.

Oh and I meant to say hi to you Polka! Nice to hear from you. x

Jessica loves anything that makes a crinkly noise. Old baby wipe packets are very popular, as are carrier bags (obviously supervised due to suffocation risks).

Polka he might not crawl. Jessica isn't either. I still give her tummy time but she would far rather bum-shuffle instead to move places. I know several babies who 'skipped' crawling so I wouldn't worry too much about it. xx

Oh and one more post!

We changed health visitor recently and she came this week for DS 8 month development check. We were discussing weaning and nutrition, I was asking about multivitamins as the nhs website recommends them from 6 months and we were talking about vitamin D. Did you know that if you leave mushrooms for a few hours in sunlight before cooking them that they become a good source of it? They produce vit d in sunlight like our bodies do and its a good way of boosting our intake. DS loves mushrooms so we will be doing this.

Thank you kitkat. He lunges forward from sitting to reach things but doesnt bum shuffle either. All he wants to do is stand.

We were given a lovely book at his 8 month old check, all about 'can you see .....', lots of repitition and a mirror at the back. DS really enjoys that. We were given a doidy cup too, she said to try it every day, in the bath to start with to get him used to it.

Hi Polka and welcome back! Thanks for the sensory play link. I struggle to entertain DD at home so some of those ideas look like just the ticket!

Thanks for the book recommendations everyone. Red the Chris Haughton books were exactly what I was imagining, I just didn't know they existed

FATE I think there are lots of benefits to reading to babies of this age, though I'd not have thought that before I had DD. We got given two board books for Christmas and I started reading them to her each day to break up the monotony of days at home, and because it was an easy way to interact without having to think about it, and it's one of the best things I've done. She absolutely loves her books now, and has just started turning the pages herself as we read, which is incredibly cute. If we're out and about and she's about to kick off I can recite one of her books and it instantly pacifies her, it's magic! Team DH and I are bookworms so I also wondered about genetic predisposition?

Ella I've been wondering the same thing about baby food. DD increasingly wants what we've got and hates baby food (apart from French baby food, which is much more adult in flavour and texture anyway). It's the salt that I get stuck on with giving her our stuff

Apples we've been doing BLW, which is definitely the slacker mum's option- just give lo some of what you're having. We just add any salt to our portions once we sit down. If we're having eggs and sausages he usually just gets the eggs, in slices of omelet or scrambled on toast fingers. He's pretty capable of feeding himself now.

Polka - A cheap blow-up paddling pool is a useful thing for tummy playing and now is a good time of year to get one. Can be filled with balls, sand, cold spaghetti, foam, all sorts of thing. Large enough for baby to fit in but means you don't end up with mess everywhere.

My eldest never crawled. She sat, stood, cruised for about 2 weeks then was walking. Many children skip the phase completely. As someone else mentioned, bum shuffling is quite common as well.

Hi Polka Lovely to see you back. Your play at home stuff sounds great - I took J to my friend's house and she gave him an assortment of household items to play with - empty bottles with pasta/rice etc in, pans and spoons, empty packets, laundry detegent lids - and he loved it. So at home I have sorted him out a little box of similar items which he muses through.

Re: BLW/feeding. J hated baby foods and all the purees I made for him. He now basically eats what we eat - I don't add salt to anything anyway, and I do check for excessive salt in products so I feel it's pretty safe. I spoke to a health visitor who told me that it's fine to feed him what we have. The only problem is that he wants to feed himself and won't take anything off a spoon unless it's a pudding - but other than that it's been fine.

Re: Reading. I tried to read to J early on but he got angry with books and would growl and smack the pages so I stopped. Maybe it is time to try and read again - I might try it tonight. I feel a bit guilty as I always read to the twins.

IAte we do as much BLW as possible as I'd read all the 'just give them a bit of what you're having' advice but I've been amazed by how little of what we eat DD can have. Today for example I've had a muesli-type cereal (too much salt), a bacon sandwich (too much pork) and some wholemeal crackers with humous (too wholemeal and salty). We cook a fair bit from scratch, but I worry about salt content of stuff like bread, cheese, biscuits, etc., basically anything that's not pure fruit or veg, and DD is bored with veg sticks. On the plus side it's made me far more aware of how much salt and other nasties we eat.

If you're cooking from scratch Apples, just don't put the salt in. Like Jaykay, we just no longer cook with salt ever anymore, it being well established with the older children.

So for example knock up spag bol, without any salt. Or risotto. Or casserole. I am mostly a one-pot meal cook but DH cooks as much as I do and his preference is the meat and veg meals - which creates a happy balance of both through the week.

I think the idea of watching salt levels is that you shouldn't add any extra salt to the meals you cook for children. Then read lables in ready made stuff but as long as they aren't eaten constantly I think it's fine. If not - what would children eat?!

Apples, I have the same problem with BLW. I am generally taking the attitude at the moment that the amount that actually goes into his mouth is generally small, so if he eats anything its a good thing. Otherwise he wouldn't eat any solids. There is only so much we can cook from scratch as we are both knackered/busy and there are limits to how much you can do with someone clinging to your ankles. I think as he gets bigger and can eat properly it will be worth making more effort to do stuff for him specially but right now, you can make the effort only for it to be thrown on the floor or ignored.

DS loves books. They are often the only thing that stops him bouncing off the walls. Glad the Chris Haughton ones are popular with other people. I find they have just enough words to keep DS interested. I love Oliver Jeffers books but DS doesn't have the attention for them yet and tries to rip them apart. Blown Away by Rob Biddulph is also top of my DS's wish list, but again he's still a little too small.

RE tummy time. DS wouldn't do it at all. I really fail to see the value. One minute DS hated being on his front, the next he was off. If it was about building up muscles, how could he just do that? Its guilt inducing bollocks. They'll move when they want to / see something interesting enough / want to scare the bejesus out of you. Seriously, don't wish the time away either. I probably sound like a broken record but mobile babies are not all they are cracked up to be. We go to baby swimming and I look at envy at all the other babies who stay still whilst I'm chasing DS across the floor or pick him up crying his eyes out after he's just fallen flat on his face on tiled flooring whilst trying to change me and him.

DS LOVES music. He has started 'dancing' to it. Either sat down or stood up. Its really sweet. And DH and I being the music lovers we are proud as punch at this. He is yet to develop taste though. We will be educating him in the greats before he can count to 10. He always seemed to be very attentive watching The Voice and we thought it funny and a bit of joke, but it seems to be a continuing thing. Eurovision genuinely will be a treat for him tonight I think. Though I could do with him going to sleep BEFORE midnight tonight