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September 2014 - Babies turn 1!

994 replies

lilone1234 · 12/08/2015 16:56

First birthdays are starting to arrive and our babies are becoming toddlers! What will the next year have in store?

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18
cookielove · 21/09/2015 10:41

KitKat we had that check at 10 months and E didn't do the best for communication but they weren't to worried. I also think E is ridiculously cute in all his photos but dh thinks he is cuter now then he was then. When in reality he is just adorable Grin

We have good throwing, I mainly just ignore it. He is a pickle with food and is very jar orientated :( I am currently working on getting him to eat home made food. I think as he is pain from teething he wants smooth stuff and home made is such a different texture but we have made progress so yay!

nazly I had to teach E how to self settle at 9 months and pretty much from then on he has slept through bar the odd wake of cause he is too hot. I haven't been into him for a long time, but I always wake up when he does!

Salene · 22/09/2015 07:41

It's my babies birthday yippee, I want him to wake up but he still fast asleep , it feels like xmas :-)

September 2014 - Babies turn 1!
lilone1234 · 22/09/2015 17:32

Happy birthday to your LO Salene! Hope you're having a great day!

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Acorncat · 22/09/2015 18:50

Aw cute balloons! Happy birthday!

Sleep is still awful here. A good night is 2 wake ups! I still just feed back to sleep, if I try to withhold he just freaks out. Annoyingly the the night he couldn't feed as his nose was blocked so he just rolled away and went back to sleep so he can do it! He's been waking about 5am but still knackered and feeding doesn't help. I have to rub his back for at least 30 mins till he's asleep and of course I get about 20 mins sleep till my alarm goes off while he sleeps for another couple of hours. I really thought things would be better by 12 months but clearly not!

polkadotdelight · 22/09/2015 21:36

You have my sympathies acorncat. DS usually wakes twice and needs a little shushing, he always wakes at 5am and wont go back to sleep unless we bring him into our bed and even then its hit and miss. By 5.45am he is up for the day. I couldnt believe when I saw salenes post that she was waiting for the birthday boy to wake at 7.40! Hope he had a great day but Im very jealous of your lie in!

Salene · 22/09/2015 22:13

Yeah he had a fab day

YeH he never woke till after 8am but he did get up at 5am for a bottle till 6am

Here is the birthday boy enjoying his cake

MissMoo22 · 23/09/2015 00:02

Aww he's a cutie Salene. Still very babyish looking too which is lovely because it's sad when they lose all their baby features. M is quite babyish still and on her birthday the staff at the soft play couldn't believe she was 1. I know they have to turn into toddlers soon but the more babyness I can squeeze from her, the better!

Nazly · 23/09/2015 00:47

Such a cute photo Salene
happybirthday to him x

Apple thats interesting , I also came to same conclusions but haven't thought being hungry corelates with too much food throwing

Cookie how did you teach him to self settle ?

Kitkat I know exactly what you say... For my ds it is now like a habit, he sleeps with no waking up between 7-8 and 4am but then he wakes and will stay awake for a couple of hours...
I have now gave in and started offering breast in the last couple of nights but I am putting him back in bed straight after feed which is not great for him as he just wakes again ! Aagh ! This is all a bit weird for me; how come my plan of putting him back in his cot and not picking him up to feed was so successful and helped in a way that two hourly wakes up became a block of 8 hours sleep, but nothing seems to work after 4am ??? I suppose some of you ladies with more knowledge about sleep can help ?

Cumbrian that info about washing powders is extremely useful; thank you. i really do think now that his skin becoming progressively worse had directly to do with Using Persil for some time so I am thinking of re-washing all his clean clothes with Ariel or Aldi brand! That's a lot of work and the most annoying part of it is not having enough drying lines !!!

Oh how I was missing communicating with you ladies ... Thank you

KitKat1985 · 23/09/2015 11:40

Cute pics Salene. I love the cake eating shot. xx

Nazly I wish I could help with your sleep issues - I know how draining it must be for you.

As for things here, I saw HV on Monday as planned. We are to keep a sleep diary for a few days before doing sleep training, probably starting Friday (so I have DH around for support). I'm really quite stressed about it. I actually started crying in the appointment which was a bit rubbish of me. I'm just so knackered. She gave me a leaflet on the approach (very briefly it's about breaking the 'suckling milk to sleep' association and then doing gradual retreat). However it's very brief and since I've left the appointment I'm a bit confused about some aspects of the approach. Confused Also she said Jessica needs to go onto beakers and off bottles (which links into breaking the 'bottle to sleep' problem). So far, for reasons unknown however, Jessica is adamantly refusing to have her milk from a cup though. Sigh. Sad Any tips? Also as I suspected although she's okay in most areas her communication skills are below average for a baby her age. So for example she won't respond to her name when called, or point to things she wants. We also haven't progressed much from babbling (no words or anything here). The HV has even questioned her hearing, which at the time I said 'oh I think she's just got selective hearing', but now it's got me questioning it now as well. She can definitely hear some stuff but the HV said that sometimes they can only hear sounds in certain ranges. She doesn't really respond to voices at all. It's difficult to know though if she's just too interested in what she's doing to bother turning around, and HV had same issue (she was very interested in playing with a piece of string at the time). Do your babies turn around when you call their names? Anyway HV said she will assess Jessica again in 3 months and if no improvement will refer for a hearing test.

FATEdestiny · 23/09/2015 13:56

Nazly - Does your DS have a way to go to sleep without you? Does he always have to have a fully tummy when being put down to sleep at bedtime and naptime?

If baby can just be placed into the cot when tired and he will go to sleep independently without any feed or intervention, then any night wakings would signal something that is wrong and needs to be resolved (it might just reassurance needed, to find comforter, maybe a drink, too cold, too hot, nappy change, pain etc.).

That's what you are aiming for, then you know that at 4.30am something is wrong and all you need to do is figure out what it is.

If baby needs you in some way when waking (either to physically be there to get to sleep, or feeding to give a fully tummy) then rather than focusing on that 4.30am wake up, I would focus my attention on getting to sleep at bedtime and naptime.

I find having a 'thing' that signals sleep is useful for wake ups. We have DD's dummy permanently attached to her sleeping bag and her blankies live only in the cot. So at bedtime as soon as we put her in the sleeping bag she looks for the dummy and going into 'sleep mode' even before in the cot. Then one in the cot, as soon as she grabs hold of blankie she snuggles it into her face and goes to sleep. This gives a trigger that can be used for any wake ups.

My DD usually stands if she wakes up in the night. So I can lie her back down (mimicking what happens at bedtime), give her the dummy if she doesn't already have it and snuggle blankie into her face. This is usually enough. I would then always know that if this doesn't work, something else is wrong.

At 4.30am I would consider a nappy change as reason for a wake up. That's just because DD drinks a lot during the day and her nappy gets full quickly. She hates lying in a full nappy. I would then consider temperature. If DD has been cool all night, by 4.30am she might be cold. Equally if she's been snuggly warm all night, she might be too hot by 4.30am. Failing that I'd try a feed.

FATEdestiny · 23/09/2015 14:15

KitKat - Honestly, I would be pushing for a hearing test now in your position. It might be nothing, but will definitely do no harm knowing now.

There are lots of things that cause non-permanent hearing issues, so don't fear the worse. Glue ear is really common in children and is easily treatable. Or it could just be an ear infection. I'd be asking the GP for a hearing test referral if it was me though.

Re the beaker & bottle. IMHO you are tying to do too much all in one go. Personally I would move the time for giving the bottles. Give the bedtime bottle downstairs, before bath and PJs. Then sleep train to get her to sleep without milk. Likewise don't give milk before daytime naps.

Once the milk-sleep association is completely broken, Jessica will be drinking milk because she wants it, not because she needs it to get to sleep. At that point it will be much more straight forward to change from bottles to beakers because milk becomes nothing more than a drink.

Acorncat · 23/09/2015 17:58

Am I the only one just hoping that sleep improves by itself? I just can't bring myself to do anything about it cos I know he'll just get upset Sad . I just tell myself that as milk is designed to send them to sleep it must be ok and there must be a natural end to it. I think I may be burying my head in the sand!

There's no way I'd tell the HV how bad it is - not that I've seen her in 6 months anyway.

KitKat1985 · 23/09/2015 18:09

Fate thank you for the advice re: milk, glue ear etc. The giving milk downstairs thing is actually the same advice as the HV gave me, and then move into gradual retreat once we've accomplished that. I will be observing Jessica's hearing very closely and if I'm still concerned in the next couple of weeks take her to the GP.

Acorncat no I don't think you're the only one. FWIW I'm not convinced this is going to work anyway since none of the others have. I just can't deal with the fact that this could go on for months or years like this, so I'm clutching at straws. I thought this would be better by now.

cookielove · 23/09/2015 19:38

nazly I sat next to E's cot for three nights and rubbed his back till he fell asleep, when he woke I repeated it. On the third night I didn't go in and just listened and he went back to sleep after 10 minutes he only really stirs briefly now and always resettles himself he also goes to sleep by himself at bed time!

ApplesTheHare · 24/09/2015 11:40

Happy Birthday to your DS Salene - what a cutie! I'm another one who loves baby pics now whereas I was never bothered Blush

Nazly I only find it's when DD's too hungry that she gets into a rage because she can't get the food in quick enough. I never let it get to that stage but Grandma's of the mindset that if she's hungry at half 4 she'll wait until tea at 5 rather than giving a snack. I tend to give a snack whenever DD wants it so I've had to have a word!

KitKat what is this test that your HV did? We saw ours at 8 months and won't see her again until DD's 2, but there are no tests in between. I can understand you seeing her about the sleep training but aren't things like pointing dependent on whether you've taught them that? DD wouldn't be able to pass a pointing test as I've only just started teaching her pointing, and also doesn't respond to her name when she's got something better to do, which is all the time! How does she respond to other sounds? Does she take an interest in things like TV sounds, bells, dogs barking, oven timers, etc?

FATEdestiny · 27/09/2015 15:19

DD's birthday yesterday
My birthday today

Spent a fair bit of time last night and the night before remember how frightened I was this time last year, which took the shine off a bit.

Lifted DD from her sleep at 11.10pm last night, the time when the decision for a Cat 1 ECS was made. Cuddled her through to 11.32pm when she was born.

Lovely birthday weekend though. Extended family BBQ yesterday and a meal out together today.

Then starts the shopping and organising for DS's 6th birthday on Wednesday...

lilone1234 · 27/09/2015 15:46

Happy birthday to you and your DD Fate, and to your DS for Wednesday! Busy time for you!

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polkadotdelight · 28/09/2015 08:47

DS turned 1 yesterday. Had a family/close friends party at home which was lovely but a little stressful at times. PIL stayed the night before which I couldnt really say no to and I did feel a little resentful that it wasnt just DH and I. I wanted us to sit together and remember.

polkadotdelight · 28/09/2015 08:48

Happy birthday to you and your dd FATE

FATEdestiny · 28/09/2015 09:22

Happy Birthday Polka's DS

lilone1234 · 28/09/2015 09:49

Happy birthday to your DS polka!

What are you all giving your LO's for breakfast? Stuck for ideas as I want to give as much variety and nutrition as possible. DP and I do not eat a particularly varied or overly healthy diet and breakfast especially isn't a big deal to either of us! Such a pain that she's gone off porridge as giving that and some fruit was a nice, easy, 'good' breakfast. Toast is ok as long as there's something in mind for lunch as don't really want to give too much bread. What works for all of you?

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PipersOrange · 28/09/2015 12:41

Happy birthday to all the ones I have missed; ds was 1 on Saturday and between that and starting my first ever job I've been slightly stressed out and not been able to get into the app hasn't helped! Hopefully this shiney new one will be easier, I like it a lot more already! Grin

Breakfast at the moment is either eggs and cottage cheese (DH's breakfast of choice at the moment boak) or toast and fruit. Probably porridge as it gets colder. I have no energy to do anything more exciting than that, and he apparently eats very well at nursery.

Saying that though he is 97th percentile for weight and 50th for height so I'm getting a bit worried. I'm 5"4 and 9stone and DH is 6" and around 15stone so neither of us are Giants (or overweight I think). I'm worried I'm one of those parents who can't see that their child is fat. Everywhere online seems to say they don't worry until 2, but it is gnawing away at me that he is in some cases twice the weight of other babies his age..

polkadotdelight · 28/09/2015 20:27

I give DS cereal. Usually something like bitesize shreddies (but dry so he can pick it up) on his tray with a beaker of milk. I all about the easy in the morning. Sometimes I mix the cereal through with yoghurt for more dairy and to make it less dry. Lazy I know. He often has a piece of fruit toast too.

polkadotdelight · 28/09/2015 20:29

If I am having porrige though he shares that with me and I always have raisin & banana in mine.

FATEdestiny · 28/09/2015 21:25

DD's breakfast here entirely depends on time available.

DD likes porridge but that means spoon feeding so is given only if I have time to feed her.

Other weekday breakfasts include whatever cereals are in the cupboard, given dry by the handful on her tray (she'll usually eat 2 of my handfuls) or toast (sometimes peanut butter, or marmalade). Sometimes muffins or crumpets. These are all things that are just put on her highchair tray and she is left to eat herself.

Weekends DH is in charge of breakfast and he is something of a breakfast connoisseur, we have allsorts. Eggs benedict, American pancakes, cinnamon French toast, bacon/sausage sandwiches, scrambled eggs, mushrooms and tomatoes, eggy bread, "dippy eggs" (soft boiled eggs) - whatever the children request really.