March 2016 - I can't think of a pithy title because I'm too sleep deprived :/

[DomesticAnarchist]

New thread?
Sorry, really couldn't think of something humorous!

Cross post french. So far I've just been doing one meal a day - lunch - and I do it early, about 11.30/11.45, which is roughly 2.5/3 hours after DS has his morning bottle. He then has a bit of a break before a lunchtime bottle at 12.30ish. I decided to time it then because it fits around his morning nap and it's long enough after the morning bottle that he should be a bit hungry but not starving. Towards the end of next week I plan to introduce breakfast at about 8am maybe, so before the morning bottle.

Hi all,

Very impressed with the crawling. DS2's given up his early efforts; no more floor-swimming!

I saw the Ella's Kitchen pouches thread. I barely made it past the OP - I get irrationally irate at stuff, but I couldn't understand how she'd worked herself up so much! It seemed quite similar to the BF/FF type outrage you see from the AP gang.

Personally, we tried to do everything Right with DS1 and he still ended up being a pickle so the plan is to take it easy this time - bits of whatever we/DS1 are having at home, pouches and that if we're out. Mixture of finger food and mashed up whatever. Whatever works, really! (I haven't thought about it much yet!)

In terms of working it around BF, I think if I tried to time it for an hour after a BF we'd be constantly feeding one way or another. (He still feeds every 2 hours or so). I'll probably offer bits at meal/snack times.

Mind you, DS2's not even 5 months yet so we've got ages. I get to read all your experiences and cherry-pick the best bits!

It's a bit stormy here tonight. Hope everyone's got their hatches battened!

I haven't seen the pouches thread but like most of you I have nothing against them if out and about for a long day. I cook myself the vast majority of the time.

J is now having either toast or rusk for breakfast, sometimes something for lunch - usually cucumber to suck on or banana or avocado, and then a veg and fruit purée for dinner, sometimes with finger food (loves a broccoli head). Tonight he had butternut squash and cauliflower (which i thought was Apple- oops!). He's naturally started drinking less in a few of his bottles but he's also having water now. With DS1 I tried to time it around bottles and naps. This time, he just eats when we eat.

Q i do use salted butter. Hadn't even thought about it, but as it's such a small amount it should be fine.

Wow MrsElls to the crawling. Eyes in the back of your head time!

Ugh, DS1 had a strop in the night (he does this occasionally) and woke up DS2 who was then awake for over an hour. And then DS2 woke up at 6:30 for the day too. And I stupidly didn't go to bed till after midnight.

Urgh dom I feel your pain! With dh away some friends invited us for dinner last night, both were in bed by 9 but of course this didn't mean a late wake up, it meant a baby up at 5.30 and a boy who came in when he heard her wake up. Two grouches and a tired me! We're just playing pirate race game for the billionth time while the girl naps and I'm going to try my hardest to get them both to have a nap later. Urrrrrrrrgh.

He's crying because I won. Ffs.

Ah Swear and Dom I'm in the same boat today. Ds1 was up 3 or 4 times in the night (didn't wake up enough to count) and I think ds2 must have some sensor that goes off every time I leave the room because he woke up every single time and then was a nightmare to get back to sleep. Oh well, hopefully we'll all have a better night tonight.

I read some of the pouches thread but its all classic mn really, where anything other than kale and quinoa is eeevil. Every parent I know irl has used pre prepared baby food at some point.

Re weaning and babies not liking stuff: I found with ds1 that if I kept giving him the food he didn't like every few days then eventually he'd start to like it.

Ds2 is still grabbing everyone's food. He took my ham sandwich during a family lunch yesterday and it's surprising how strong they can be when they get hold of something. I did think of just giving him a bit of cucumber to chew on but I promised Dh I would wait for him to be there to give the first food so I haven't given in yet!

I've just been to find the pouches thread, yep, classic mumsnet! Everyone I know used them too, including me, they were great for out and about.

I read in my Ella's kitchen cookbook (yep!) that it takes up to ten tries for a baby to get used to a new food, so keep going! I think I'm going to start with long stem broccoli and mashed sweet potato. We're just five months here and I think I'm going to wait at least another couple of weeks.

Hi everyone again, hope you don't mind me popping in to say hello some of you might remember me from antenatal but after having ds life became somewhat tumultuous in a number of waysbso I struggled to keep up although would have loved to! So nice to see familiar names still here and newbies too. Ds is now 5 months old and a crawler too . Keeps himself busy throughout the day but is up every forty / fifty min at night till he is boobed back to sleep. An envious of those whose babies are up every two or three hours (never mind sleeping through ). Sometimes it's even every half hour here. Needless to say am beyond knackered --if not slowly going insane. He was sleeping through from 6-14 weeks from 8-4 then a quick feed then down till 7 but that's now a long distant memory as he is up all hours sometimes comfort feeding and sometimes just playing !!
Lovely to read about all the weaning and milestone they go through at this age . Not started food yet here am too lazy and he seems ok on bmilk and he won't take a bottle ...!

Haven't read the pouches thread but i think ill stay clear. Have to admit i never used pouches with Dd1 but i did completely blw with her, and not planning to use pouches with dd2 I'm too stingy but cant really see what the problem is with them tbh.

Wow mrsells to crawling! We haven't even mastered rolling here at 22 weeks!! Dd2 is just about learning to roll from front to back but hasn't got back to front yet. Im not too fussed as her personality is very very laid back (everyone comments on how chilled out she is) so i think she just isn't interested.

Sorry to hear about your bad nights sher, sounds like my dd1! Hope it gets better for you sooner rather than later!

We are doing full baby led weaning like I did with ds which means no pouches or jars for us, I have zero problem with anyone who chooses to use them though, not going to look up that thread as I think it will annoy me, your baby, your life, your decision as far as I am concerned. C had Philadelphia on toast for breakfast and a bit of ham sandwich for lunch as well as a single pom bear crisp. Poor ds wasn't allowed pom bears until he was at least 2 yrs old so not sure how that snuck in on day 1! For timing, she eats when we eat, if she's asleep she misses out! This us when unsalted varieties if everything come out!

Welcome back sher! Without sounding too creepy, I'd occasionally wondered how you were getting on. Sorry to hear about the sleep, that's exactly like my ds, it was a killer and I can't even imagine how you're doing it with (two? three?) other kids. It will get better, but for now, just grab every chance to sit down that you possibly can!

One more day of hauling C around a gazillion relatives and then back to London on Tuesday. Thinking happy thoughts about vegging out in the sun with him at Hampstead Heath on Wednesday tbh...

He has started screeching. I know it's just him learning to use his voice but it's a little disconcerting! Getting ridiculously long too - feet right down in his Primark 6-9m sleepsuits and he isn't 5 months until Sunday!

Regarding weaning - planning a mixture of BLW and pouches. We are in a small apartment with lots of carpet so don't really want too much food fired around the place!

Aw thanks swearwolf. He's been up on and off since 11pm, babbling, blowing raspberries ,humming, crawling up to me/rolling and kicking me in the back. He needs a cot but no room at the moment and he's outgrown his crib and Moses basket . He's so pleasant natured( and if I dare to make eye contact with him he'll give me a big dimply smile and grab my face and start playing with it )that I can't be cross for long but the tiredness is killing me. He's so laid back during the day- the broken sleep does not seem to be remotely bothering him . How has he gone from sleeping through to this I don't know. My tiredness is affecting my ability to parent my older children because I can't be attentive or sustain a conversation with them at times :(

I just realised that I've name changed since the antenatal threads lifts mask and looks furtively around it's me, Suz!

It sounds really trying, and I can well imagine it's affecting how you look after the others. Do you think it will improve if you get him in a cot? Could you maybe move some furniture to squeeze one in, chest of drawers in the hallway etc? I feel your pain there, our flat is tiny and my bedside table is currently in the living room. We've got a space saver cot, which is smaller than a normal one but apparently should be big enough until she's a year old. No other practical advice, so just lots of sympathy coming your way!

sherazade hi again, I feel for you. Better a happy sleep refuser than a grouchy one but still, must be so energy zapping.

TriJo, ah screeching, DD went through a phase of that but only for a couple of weeks thankfully. The new focus is constantly blowing vey wet raspberries, sounds cute but we had to change babygrows 3x yesterday because of that and her puking. I feel as though she'd be the size of a small elephant if she actually kept her milk down but as she is growing I'm not to worried.

Hope you got a better night dom - and others with restless babies.

Nice to hear from you sherazade but sorry you've been having a tough time. Do you have any family or friends nearby who could take him for you during the day for a couple of hours? Just to give you a bit of a break and some time for your older DC. Have you started weaning? Some people say their DC started sleeping better once on solids.

TriJo DS also did the screeching thing, like french it only lasted a couple of weeks. Then he discovered a fake cough sort of noise and did that for a couple of weeks too, it has now passed and I'm wondering what will be next!

I'm planning to introduce fruits for DS this week after all veggies last week so currently busy steaming pears and apples while he's napping! I've been so purée happy that I'm rather short on containers to freeze it all in

Hello everyone!

Trijo my DS has learnt how to screech too, he thinks it's great! He has also started to blow raspberries probably very much like frenchfoodies DS, they are not proper raspberries but he seems to spray dribble everywhere and looks really pleased with himself once he has done it!

Me how is your DS now? Are the chicken pox getting better?

It has been an uneventful weekend in the Dotty household, we went to a barbeque on Saturday which turned into an indooreque because of the wind! DS is currently napping in his cot woop woop! I did put him down asleep but he was absolutely knackered! I'm hoping he will have a nice long nap, he has been obsessed with rolling today and I think he has worn himself out.

To change the subject has anybody had a post natal debrief? DS birth was quite traumatic and 5 months on I still find myself wondering why certain things happened and thinking about it, and I wonder if a debrief might help? I also wonder about if we have DC2 will it be like that again? I don't know how you go about requesting one? Help!

Hello sher sorry to hear about your sleep woes at least he's happy and not screamy!
Today we picked up our free Ella's kitchen recipe book and an awesome hand blender (I've never been so excited about a half blender in my life) I intend to mixed wean, give purees alongside whole pieces of what he's eating to get him used to sight, texture and taste.

Also asda have the huge packs of 130 pampers on offer for £10. We usually use aldi but do like a pampers so when they're on offer like that I grab a couple of packs.

Dotty, I was given a leaflet about the postnatal debrief service when I was discharged after delivery - so if you've still got your notes or paperwork from hospital anywhere they might have some info? If not I'd call the ward where you gave birth and ask them. I'm debating doing it too, although my delivery was basically very smooth so I feel like a bit of a fraud... I had an episiotomy and a second degree tear though, and the whole pushing stage felt very rushed and forced (definitely no breathing the baby out!) which I think was because DS had his cord around his neck but I don't know for sure. Like you I think I'd like to know for DC2 in case anything could be done differently.

Q, is the Ella's Kitchen book worth getting? Think I have the Boots voucher for it knocking around somewhere... We're also going to mix feed. We have the River Cottage baby book and it's a nice middle ground between BLW and purees.

We've taken a step towards moving DS into his own room and finally built the cot today Debated leaving it in our room but think we will bite the bullet and combine the move to his own room with some sleep training sometime in the next week or two - eeek.

Sorry to hear you are still finding it hard thinking about your traumatic birth dotty. I haven't had a debrief but I have heard they are helpful. As for subsequent births... Obviously it is different for different women but my experiences of labour with dd1 and dd2 were very different. Dd1 was back to back, 48+ hours in labour with frequent contractions, ended up with epidural, episotomy and narrowly missed having ventouse. Was very worried second time would be awful too, but dd2s labour was a walk in the park - think i was posting on the antenatal threads when I was in labour a few hours before she was born! Went into labour at about 10, baby was born at 6 and I had a stress free home birth in the pool. Kept expecting it to get worse them the midwife told me baby would be out in 10-15 minutes! I know a few people who had difficult first births who went on to have straightforward second labours.

Dd2 has finally started consistently rolling from front to back at 22 weeks! Her sleep is a bit all over the place at the moment. We're still on 2-3 wake ups between 7-7 but she seems to want to nap loads in the morning (2 and a half hours today!) And then nap refuse all afternoon. Today she woke at 12.30 from a mega nap then only had half an hours nap between then and bedtime, had to put her to bed early at half 6 as she was so knackered.

Hi Sher, good to see you! I've also namechanged (I was the aspiration ally named Indomitable). Sorry to hear a jut your sleep woes.

We have raspberries going on here! And screeching. We did have lots of rolling but he has days when he seems to only remember when he's trying to go to sleep.

Thanks for the heads-up on pampers, Q. The only reason we're up at this stupid time of day is because the Sainsbury's nappies have leaked again. (Although yesterday they held on till about 7ish, at least).

Yes to different births. Both mine were really straightforward, really. First one involved a little ambulance trip and a looong pushing stage but was no big deal terms of pain. Second one hurt way more (pelvis separating?) but had the decency to be over quicker with far less tearing. Pregnancies were completely different too. But I'm not planning to continue this research with a 3rd!

I'm starving. DS isn't quite asleep enough to put down yet...

We've also got screeching and raspberries here, glad im not the only one with a screechy baby as was wondering what was going on! Dd2 has also started waking up for the last feed of the "night" earlier at around 5.45/6 which is when dd1 gets up, so even though DH leaves me to lie in I actually can't as its a little too late.

Realised today I'm back in work in three months. Am dreading it!

Another screechy baby here. It gets louder and more manic the more tired he is. Also went through the constant raspberry stage but he seems to have got bored of that now.

The move into the big cot has gone well, now down to 1-2 wake ups a night, but he settles off so much quicker. We've even had a couple of 8 hour stretches (unfortunately I was awake for most of both of them - must go to bed earlier).

5:30 was up time in this house today, and now he's fast asleep on my knee. DH and the dogs are also asleep so I'm enjoying the peace and quiet.

I'm back at work in 4 weeks and really don't want to go back unfortunately I'm the main bread winner so have no choice. DH is going part time though so it'll be nice he gets to spend time with O lucky sod!

peggy after having a brief reason through it I'd say it's worth picking up if you have the voucher. Wouldn't have paid £6 but it does come up with some different ideas for meals that I wouldn't usually think of.
dom we tooffer have been experiencing nighttime leakage but when we tried pampers before there was nothing of the sort - just can't justify them at full price usually. Ds is currently 16lbs but I have bought the size 4 pampers which say from 17lbs, they fit perfectly. Realised before their sizes do come up quite small.
at the back to work thoughts, mine is the 9th January but I'm applying for jobs so may end up being sooner.
Sounds good doc ds is currently going down at 8, waking about 11:30 and 3ish and MUST be fed otherwise he just screams. He then does another 5ish wake up, I bring him from his room into ours and he goes back to sleep until 7 then.