February 2016 #2

[haquoi123]

We're into thread 2! Can't believe our babies have been here this long!

I started dd a bit early at 22 (23 minus a day) weeks. She kept stealing my food and putting it in her mouth and was able to sit up so hopefully ok My Hv had suggested it at last weigh in in the hope of getting some sleep and said 5 months is fine but I was not 100% convinced (but did it anyway ). Taking it veeerrrry slowly, so far she's only having a tiny amount of baby porridge for breakfast and no other meals. She's had a taste of mango and avocado (mango was yum, avocado was yuk) and has had a suck on bread, cucumber and carrot as finger foods. Once I start giving her more she'll have a mixture of mashed up stuff and finger foods. Or that's the plan anyway! Dd1 rejected anything off a spoon so had only finger foods but didn't really eat at all until 13 months. Ds was much better! Neither of my big two are fussy at all and neither have any allergies so fingers crossed dd is the same.

Well done on the commando crawling Clara, dd only goes backwards!

Anyone's baby wakes up at random hour and just wants to play? It was 4am today, DD started babbling and flapping her arms around finally got her to sleep at 5am, and she slept till 7.30 so I can't complain too much... But if it happens at 5am there's almost no chance of her going back to sleep!

Dd has only just started sleeping longer than an hour at a time again carrot (10 weeks of hell)! She would normally go straight back down but did have some random playtimes

DS wakes about 6am for a bottle, then we go back to bed where he kicks, bashes his arms around and babbles for what seems like ages before sleeping again.

In starting BLW, I have created a monster! Meltdown this morning because I was eating snack a jacks in front of him, and another this afternoon when I had cake in front of him in a cafe.

Haha handbag, baby loves the food! Ds really isn't interested at the moment - he likes following us when we eat but does disgusted faces when eating himself! We're just taking it slow at the moment.

Carrot we sometimes have that. He goes back to sleep eventually on his own without any milk/cuddles. We don't put the light on or anything and basicaly ignore him! Sometimes he rolls into a strange and uncomfortable position in his cot and we need to 'right' him, but that's about it.

Similar position here haq, we started putting bits of food in front of him at the weekend and he mostly licks/chews then spits/throws it away with a face that says 'what is this poison you are feeding me?!?!?!?!'. So funny....Avocado was treated like playdoh today and didn't go anywhere near his mouth!

Hi all! Sorry it's been such a long time. We're just coming to the end of 2 weeks off nursery (at mum's last week and she's been here this week) and I'm knackered!!!

Fortunately babycud has been good and sleeping fairly well but we had some rubbish nights before we went down to mum's. She's great with the boys but the constant excitement has exhausted us all and the resulting tired toddler is not much fun!!! Being in someone elses house was hard. Especially ad microwave and dvd player dont work. And I'm going to have to dig out all the substandard washing up in the next few days...

We started the weaning a couple of weeks ago and definitely going better than ds1. Anything sweet (fruit) is a hit and he will steal bananas if you're not careful. Veg tend to get the unimpressed faces but breadsticks, toast, sweet potato wedges and cucumber seem good. I'm not sure much actually goes down to be honest but as long as he's getting stuff in his mouth I'm happy! He drank so much water at teatime yesterday he was completely soaking this morning which wasn't quite so good though.

Best shoot, my respite while ds1 is in gym class is almost over and I need to change babycud!

Welcome carrot if I haven't said hi yet

I hope I haven't killed the thread????

Hi cud! I'm still here hope you are ok.

I've realised I have less than 2 weeks until maternity leave ends spending the weekend stocking the freezer for when I'm knackered after work.

How is everyone?

Still here too! Just been pretty busy and exhausted last couple of weeks. We hit Edinburgh, Portsmouth, Southampton, London, Oxford and Birmingham in a week and have spent the time since recovering and getting baby boy back into a routine :s it was a wonderful trip though, weddings, meeting family, staying with my mil & sfil who are just brilliant with the bubs and DH and I got to rest for a while. Now it's back to the usual keeping on top of the house and trying to get ds to sleep!

How is everyone else?

clumsy are you back full time?

Wow haq full on week there!

I have Wednesday's off until January to use up my holiday but essentially back full time I've booked a week off for October half term too but dd has said she wants to go abroad with her dad so I don't know whether to cancel it or not. Oh well I'm looking forward to having a little bit more money although most of it will be swallowed up by nursery fees and after school club (I'm in trouble for this she wants to come home by herself and wait for me...1/2 hour walk and then 1 1/2 hour wait till I get home at age 10 I think not!)

Yikes clumsy, I would have been going back then too if my boss hadn't ended up getting cover for a year. Feeling very relieved that I'm not back til January as I don't feel at all ready!

Still not getting any sleep here. How many wake ups do you all get?

How's everyone doing with solids? Dd only take tiny amounts but quite happy to try stuff. Disgusted face with broccoli but did keep on putting it in her mouth. Dp has massive panic attacks with finger foods so I'm mashing quite a bit (even then he panics if she gags on a lump) but I refuse to puree! Have got a few bits of carrot and apple in the freezer for emergencies but otherwise just giving her a bit of our veg. She loves sucking on bread too (when dp isn't around to tell me she is going to choke). Need to read up on what foods they can have when as I've totally forgotten.

clumsy how is your dd taking to the baby? Good that you've got those Wednesdays off, ease back into it.

My mat allowance finishes September so I'm back to work a couple days a week but actually have to build it up - technically there's nothing yet! :s We're thinking of putting ds in nursery a day a week so that I've got some time at home where I can really concentrate on marketing myself, etc., and it'll be good for him. Got to see whether we can afford it though.

troika our nights have regressed massively! All routines etc have gone out the window and he spends times kicking us and moaning and nursing through the night. Although of course everyone's asleep now and I'm awake.
Weaning, you know when you can't get your head around something simple? That's me and blw. So stupid. We're pureeing until I can make sense of things. We don't feed him though, we load up the spoon and let him do it himself. He is not as in to food as I thought he'd be!

Ds has got into a habit of waking at half 5 every morning but he sleeps from about half 8 at night now, I just need reset myself to go to bed at 10 so I get enough sleep. I'm supposed to be studying for my final exam but I'm too tired at the moment and naps have gone out of the window.

I'm doing a mix of blw and purées he wasn't keen on spag bog but loves this lentil recipe www.annabelkarmel.com/recipes/lovely-lentils I've just basically been prepping all our food with salt free stock etc and then blitzing some of it to put in the freezer for him. He has soft fruits as finger food and I'm going to try him with some toast when I've got some bread in the house.

Dd and Ds are absolutely smitten with each other, they love each other so much I'm really lucky. I think it's a nice age gap for that. I do try and make sure I have one on one time with dd and have had several days out this holiday that are centred around her and Ds is just put in the sling/ pushchair so we can go round museums or play mini golf etc.

Haquoi tbh I don't think how you feed them makes much of a difference, I only refuse to puree because the blender us at the back of a cupboard of doom and I can't be bothered to get it out. What I do think makes a difference is feeding them real food, whether pureed, mashed, chopped or whole rather than just relying on pouches or jars (although they do have their place)

Hello!

DS isn't eating much but puts plenty in his mouth! Haquoi - don't overthink BLW, just put healthy unprocessed food in their hand and let them go. With a big old sheet underneath them! He loves toast, rice cakes, banana, pear. His favourite is yoghurt but I spoon feed him that and still get in a mess! It's just exhausting tidying up everything after each attempt!

I'm definitely not back at work til the new year, but can't decide between January or March. If I went back in Jan, I could use holiday to go back three days a week til April 1st on a full time salary, but if I wait til late March I would be paid my full time salary for the last 7 weeks due to accumulated holiday/bank hols. I was lucky enough to have 6m at full pay but it's dropped to SMP this month and that stops in October. Just don't know what to do and what I want to do when I go back!

Sleep is going well - he's in bed about 8 every night, and wakes around six, sometimes seven. Since we hit 6 months old at the weekend I've dropped my middle of the night pump, so am sleeping through the night for the first time since he was born. No alarm at 4am is bliss!

What are people doing re milk? I'm still pumping but have dropped to five a day which gives him three bottles of breast milk and then 2 of formula a day. Have people started to FF their previously BM fed babies? Have people moved to 2nd stage formula?

We have two teeth properly through now, and he's working on the top two as well. Lots of dribble and grumpiness and Bonjela!

Handbag sleeping through the night!

Last night was a million times better though, fed and into bed at 8, fell asleep at 9 , fed at 11 ish, woke at 2 something but settled again, fed at 3 ish woke at some point I think around 5 and brought her into bed and she then slept til 7.15. I'll take that over hourly wake ups any day.

Dd is still bf. I tried her on formula a few weeks ago as I thought maybe a bottle before bed would help with the sleep but she won't drink from a bottle anymore and spits out any milk I do get into her! Happy to carry on bf anyway, it's far easier.

Hi, im a lurker and wondering if its too late to join? DS was born on 22nd February and is now an 18lb11oz 6 month old brute! We have struggled with sleep the whole time, and he currently wakes 6-10 times a night. I EBF and I've started cutting down the number of feeds from every time he wakes to, now, twice a night. It's not stopping him waking up so far and I'm permanently exhausted! Other than sleep he's a little treat, enjoying rolling around all the time and eating his purees (he hasn't got the hang of finger food just yet).

It's good to read that I'm not the only one out there whose baby wakes constantly. Really hoping it gets better when I move him into his own room!

Welcome coffee! And 6-10 times??? I feel for you, that sounds exhausting! Another big boy, my ds is now 24lb 3oz at 6 months. How are you finding it so far?

handbag woohoo to sleeping through! I know we keep saying it but you're supermum! Did you have a stash stored up with all the pumping or was it for immediate consumption?

I'm getting to the point where I'd like to give ds to my mum and sleep for 8 hours uninterrupted. It wouldn't work though, I woke up last night waiting for him to wake... Grrrrrr. But we only had two wake ups so that was an improvement.

That's so lovely clumsy that your two get on so well. Beautiful.

troika & handbag I went all out this morning and pureed kiwi, banana and yoghurt, then strained all the seeds out of it. Ds put the spoon in his mouth and immediately shot it out again, he was so shocked! Hilarious! He kept playing though, so obviously it wasn't too repulsive. I might find some baby stock cubes as well, thanks.

Hi coffee
Sorry to hear your nights are so bad, although like you say it's nice to not be the only one. From 14-26 weeks dd has been on hourly (or more) wake ups with just a couple of slightly better nights in there. Last night she only woke at 10, 140 and 515. So now had two better nights. Fully expecting tonight to be awful!

Impressed with the weighty babies, haven't had dd weighed in a while but she is teeny tiny. According to our not very accurate scales last week she was 13lb something! Maybe just below the 9th % line she was following but she is so blimmin active I'm not surprised. Even when she's sitting she's bobbing up and down and her legs are going 19 to the dozen. Then she's rolling all over the place and trying hard to get up on her knees to crawl. She is never still! I'm a bit scared to take her to be weighed though in case they tell me off! Not quite sure how I could fatten her up though, she bfs whenever she wants to. Dp and I have both always had high metabolisms (mine less so since having three babies and being in my thirties) and we're both skinny (again me less so...) and I'm only 5'2 so I think she is probably destined to be small ish. She does still have some chubby bits so not worried really.

Dd was 6 months yesterday so let her have a strawberry to celebrate. She loved it. Also loved courgette for dinner which I was slightly more surprised at.

Clumsy I meant to say that my big two (10 and 8) are also smitten with dd, and she adores them too. Everyone told me the big age gap would be a nightmare but I am loving it so far!

Hi coffee! Sorry to hear you are not getting much sleep.

I need to get Ds weighed again I haven't had him weighed for ages, although I can't carry him in the car seat up the 3 flights of stairs home any more so every time I get in the car I'm praying he doesn't fall asleep. He's just started commando crawling too.

haq I tried Ds with plain Greek yoghurt for the first time yesterday his face was a picture, not sure if it was because it was cold or the taste but it made me chuckle, he did tuck in after his initial shock though.

troika I'm glad your 2 are the same, it's lovely isn't it? Not sure I'm going to leave it so long to have another one next time though if we do decide to have another.

handbag I'm starting to move over to ff now so I have dropped one or 2 bfeeds and wahoo for no more night pumping for you!

Hi haquoi wow 24lbs is very impressive! I'm finding motherhood more difficult than I expected. For some reason I expected that the baby would just fall out (was actually a 30hr labour) and he'd be a 'perfect' baby that never cried and slept like a treat. I was very ignorant back then!

troika I'm sure our babies will get there in the end, and we can get them back when they're lazy teenagers anyway!

Is anyone starting to think about having another baby? My friend has a DS whose 3 months older than mine - she's been trying for the last couple of months. I think she's mad but I would like a close age gap between mine as well. Although nature plays a big part and I haven't had a period yet anyway. Maybe once DS starts sleeping through the night I'll have a proper think about it.

Hi everyone.

No need to use 2nd stage milk, the infant stuff is fine until they switch to cows milk, unless your doc or hv advises a special formula for medical reasons.

Welcome coffee! My ds was born on 22 Feb too!

On weaning we have given ds a few things to try now, usually a bit of whatever we ate having. So, things like toast, weetabix (carnage), yoghurt (also carnage), various veggies and fruits, omelette, jelly, cheese, sausage.

He doesn't have any teeth yet but is gumming away like mad. A lot gets spat out but have seen a few odd specks in his poo. His favourites so far are juicy things like tomatoes and oranges.

Haq try not to worry not all babies are interested at the same time. My friends wee boy didn't really take an interest until after his first birthday and now he eats anything.