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!

Yes same Q, DS also prefers the number 1 tests! I suspect number 2 teats are too fast for mostly breastfed babies.

I want to use powder but I'm scared of not making it up correctly. The ready made stuff is easier and I'm lazy.

Teats, not tests.

I just wanted to say how nice it is to post here btw, I read everything even if I don't manage to respond to stuff and it helps keep me sane. IRL most mums I know are all sunshine and roses about motherhood and it makes me feel quite inadequate!!

Ah I find it quite easy - 7oz/7scoops. I boil kettle before his bath then while dp dresses him I go make up the bottle. Stand in a jug of cold water while dp does story time and within 5/10 mins it's cool enough to feed.
Don't think I'd find it as easy if it was every feed though

Maybe C is a total horse for formula when I give it to him - I generally just stick the full 200ml of a ready-to-feed carton or bottle in the bottle and let him take what he wants. He generally takes a minimum of 150ml and takes the lot quite frequently. I hate cartons for ready-to-feed so we use Aptamil these days. Avent Natural bottles with the #2 teats (marked as 1m+) - he got cranky at how slow the newborn ones were, when he breastfeeds I have a huge supply and fast letdown.

Ok great, I'll give him the lot and let him take what he wants then :)

Interesting thoughts about using a faster flow teat ... I have fast letdown too, and I've been trying T with the lowest flow teats. I'll pick up the next size today and try those. I tried the sippy cup out of curiosity yesterday while T was having a rusk in her booster, and she was very interested. Didn't drink more than a few drops, but I had only put 2oz of formula in and it was hard to get it tipped enough. I remember DS liked having the cup pretty full to make it easier to drink. She ate about 80% of the rusk and has been refusing puree. Guess we're doing BLW - thank goodness we have a tiled kitchen floor and a steam mop!

We're going to have a go at sleep training next week (25 weeks). Tried it about 10 days ago and had no improvement over about 5 nights, so she clearly wasn't ready or it wasn't the right thing for her. We were doing every 5 minutes controlled crying, but I think we will use the Ferber timings next as I felt that she was starting to settle but we were interrupting that process by going in too soon. I don't really mind having her wake in the night for boob or bed share with us after my bedtime, I just want her to go to sleep in the evenings in her cot so I can spend time with DH!

Swear thanks for the info on baby porridge / weatabix. I bought some weatabix today with that intention but wasn't sure if it was too early. He hated the baby porridge.

Q and maybe, you could make your process easier by using 2oz of hot boiling water, add the 7 scoops and shake to sterilise the powder, then top up with cold tap water. Bottle is instant then.

Good luck everyone doing sleep training. We still get J to sleep on us, then transfer to the cot. Perhaps we should start putting him in awake but this way he's usually asleep by 7:30/8 and there's no drama. Just don't know

Yes second that, thanks for the weetabix tip Swear. Will pick some up next time I'm at the supermarket. There's so many things I want to try for him! I know in a few weeks I'll probably be moaning that I never know what to cook for him

When it comes to water, is everyone else giving cooled boiled or just tap water now? I started offering DS water a few weeks ago and he happily drinks it from a bottle, can't quite get the hang of the sippy cup yet. Until now I've been giving him boiled cooled water but I didn't have any ready today so I gave him tap water ... then wasn't sure if I should have! It says 6 months on the NHS website and he's only a week off that so I'm sure he'll be fine.

Just tap water here me. We've got a free flowing Tommy Tippee sippy cup which he seems quite good with.

Me I haven't started offering water yet but I'm just going to start offering normal tap after straight away. My reasoning is that if their gut can cope with food then it can cope with tap water!

I'm sorry to hear you're still having a rubbish time with sleep Maybe. I do agree that stopping/decreasing breastfeeds at night is key to getting them to sleep for a decent length of time. I keep meaning to be a bit more strict with night feeds so I can share the load with Dh a bit more, but when it's 3 am and I'm knackered all my good intentions go out the window!

I think baby porridge and ready brek are basically the same thing, just ground up porridge oats? I'm going to try porridge next week blw style - just bracing myself for the huge mess! Ds1 hated normal porridge but loved baby porridge and baby rice. Strange child.

I found out last night that I'm going to be an auntie again! My db and sil due their 2nd dc end of Feb, so likely to be a March baby. I can't wait!

Oh, what I'd do for air conditioning on those few hot days...! I drove to pick DS2 up from the cm the other day, it's only 5 mins walk, just so I could sit in the car with the air con on!

Me, the only thing I've found that helps is to open the loft hatch. Seems to help a lot of the hot air escape past the mountains of loft insulation.

I keep telling myself that there's babies around the world living in hotter places than this. And they survive. We're just not used to it.

Swear, one night won't make a difference, surely?

Me - we used to give DS1 readybrek with fruit purée stirred in.

Don't beat yourself up, Maybe. You've got to do what you've got to do to retain your sanity! And all our ideas about parenting before the event go out the window in the face of parenting reality!

I know what you mean about real-life friends being all rainbows and unicorns about it. It's so hugely fake. I have a friend (who's also into MLM so fake all the way) who's social media promotes herself as utterly lovely and wonderful. In reality, she finds her kids as difficult as the next person and looks like a normal person too. Lots of contrived posts and heavily filtered/staged photos. We just don't get the reality from most people.

TheMShip

Some advice on controlled crying from my sleep consultant, if helpful:

1. Start timing only from when baby starts actually crying, not from when they're just whinging or having a shout. And if they appear to be winding down, don't go in.
2. Many parents make the mistake of staying too long when comforting. Just a quick pat and say reassuring words (always the same words).

We did the Ferber timings and they worked well (initially anyway). Really wanted to start tonight but it's just too hot I think - I find it hard to fall asleep in this weather so I can't really expect DS to! Tomorrow is 25C max so hopefully should be cool enough to start then.

Mship, totally with you on wanting evenings back! DS was sleeping for a good 2-hour stretch from 8-10 when I go to bed, but now more often than not wakes as soon as I put him down and grizzles. We're debating sleep training to see if he can get himself back off again but haven't been brave enough yet! Your tips are really helpful Maybe, thanks for sharing Hope all goes smoothly when you're ready to try again.

Trinpy, I definitely live by the motto of 'just stick the boob in' at night! Probably a v bad habit as I think it's often comfort feeding not genuine hunger...

First 'meal' here today - broccoli puree. He made a funny little 'yuk' face with each mouthful but didn't seem to stop him from going back for more!

Hi everyone again. All this talk of weaning is making me feel like I should do something. Where to start ? Is he ready ? He seems so full of milk all the time and it doesn't seem right to replace his milk feed with some boiled carrot or broccoli just yet so I think we'll wait a few weeks and then start offering finger foods at our meal times. He is sitting up himself and has more than doubled his birthweight but doesn't show any interest in solids beyond looking at me but he always does that ! me I did out of desperation and my mum convincing me it would improve his sleep offer him some purée but not only did he not seem keen but he also still woke up a trillion times so I abandoned it . He's also not particularly hungry at night, just messing about . I've realised that he's not connecting sleep cycles and when he wakes he struggles to go back to sleep . swearwolf you've inspired me to put my chest of drawers in the hallway and buy a cot!! We're going away soon but it will be delivered when I get back . Thanks for that I think I just needed a push !
What I would love is for him to take a bottle of formula so I can atleast have a break and give him to his dad or anyone who'll take him for a while so I can unwind properly . He won't take one though !!

Thank you maybe ! I'll show that to DH so we're on the same page. We're in Scotland, temperature isn't an issue but I think we'll wait till Monday when the festivals are done and DH isn't so stressed. I want to do naps and bedtime all at once. DH's back is not in good enough shape for hours of sling naps and baby wearing and I don't want him to risk injury. Unfortunately at the moment T usually has one nap that overlaps nursery pick up for DS, so that one will have to be in the sling until she drops from three to two.

sher join me in the bottle refusers club! I'm returning to work soon and T will have no choice, so I'm trying daily. It is slow but we are getting somewhere. As for weaning, T will be 26 weeks Monday and I started offering her the occasional solids at 22 weeks, but not every day till this week, and I stopped entirely for several days when she was sick. She loves finger food, initially was interested in puree but mostly rejects it now. She has a big brother to copy and I think that's driving it.

She also said not to do naps and night sleep simultaneously because naps are usually a lot harder to crack.

She said get night sleep sorted first and then work on day sleep.

I'm a bit confused by weaning. Should I do blw or purée? Or a mixture? We live in a small carpeted flat so I think full on blw might be a bit ambitious

Maybe- I've started doing a mixture.

Today dd had puréed apple and a quarter of a whole banana for breakfast
Puréed carrot and butter nut squash and a half a biscotti for lunch
Puréed peas and carrot and some Greek yoghurt and apple purée for dinner.

Can't believe my little monster is 27 weeks and two days.

Also I'm having real problems getting c to eat veg/savoury food yet she happily laps down the fruit/puddings. Is this normal? She will eat the veg but not as much as rhe fruit and takes longer to eat it rather than attacking it

I think that's normal time as babies naturally prefer sweet stuff

I think I read for that reason it's better to introduce savoury first but no idea if that's right or not!!!

Time Do you offer sweet foods at every meal? Maybe more savoury foods so she can get used to the taste? Milk is quite sweet so I think that as thats what they're used to they prefer sweet tastes.

Maybe A mix of purees and finger foods is just traditional weaning and irl (away from mn) pretty much every parent I know has weaned their baby that way because you can work out you own balance between the two. I'm doing BLW because I like being able to sit and eat in peace(ish) while the baby sorts himself out and I like how it goes at the baby's own pace. I think the best way is to just keep an open mind and go with what works for you and your baby. I would definitely recommend a wipe clean mat under the highchair whichever way you choose though! Thanks for reporting back with all the sleep training tips. I'm taking notes in case I need to do sleep training further down the line.

sher I feel the same about filling ds up with fruit and veg when he could be having milk. It's a big draw back of weaning before 26 weeks. I've been taking it slowly by only offering finger foods and I try to time meals straight after breastfeeds but he still seems to be eating loads and I'm a worrier! I think your plan to wait a few weeks and then follow his lead sounds good.

Nice motto Peggy .

Maybe and MShip good luck with sleep training. Re weaning, I'm doing a mix of purées and finger foods, it's working well so far. DS is happy with quite lumpy textures already but isn't quite getting finger foods! His teeth were bothering him today so I offered him a stick of cucumber from the fridge thinking it might help, nope, he sucked it briefly and then chucked it straight on the floor, did exactly the same with the second one!

DS certainly isn't replacing his milk feeds with food yet. He is still taking all his bottles in roughly the same quantities as always. I have been trying to time "meals" in between bottles, but sometimes we've been busy so I have done half the bottle, then some food, then the other half. A friend gave me that tip - it's a good one because a couple of times DS has been too hungry to be interested in the food and has screamed the place down because all he wants is his milk!

Dom good tip on the loft hatch! Got dh to open it (i can't reach!) and hoping it will help tonight, it is a bit cooler here thankfully than it was yesterday.

Anyone else got pets? Having been pretty oblivious of our cat until now, DS started noticing him about a week ago and now thinks the poor cat is the best thing since sliced bread. As soon as the cat comes into the room DS's eyes lock on and follow him round, a huge smile appears and sometimes he even shakes with excitement. Unfortunately it's an unrequited love at the moment as the cat is a bit of a wimp and doesn't appreciate excitement from anyone really let alone a 6 month old who is very grabby

Yes we have 2 cats and my DS loves them both, constantly tries to grab them. They are very very docile and don't seem bothered but I don't let him get too close as I don't want him to hurt them.

My girl bloody LOVES the cat me! I've been letting her stroke her by moving her hand myself and only doing it with the back of her hand so she can't grab. She just adores her. And the cat is doing very well with it, she actually comes over and tolerates baba love which is a big deal for my trembly little damaged old rescue mog.

Yay sher, fingers crossed the bigger cot works out and your boy starts sleeping!

Everybody sleep training, I feel for you and wish you the best of luck! Let us know how it all works out.

time, I read in my weaning book that it takes about ten tries for a baby to learn to like a new taste, so keep pushing the broccoli!
I hope you're feeling better, you sound so much more relaxed after your mum had C for the night. Hopefully it will be a more frequent occurrence and make the times in between more bearable.

We did traditional weaning last time, I loved the idea of blw but had a boy who fed constantly and didn't sleep so I wanted to fill him up. The health visitor said every meal do some mush and a finger food, and that worked for us. I think this time, without the pressures of a continuous screamer, I will lean further towards blw but still not completely. I intend to start with my old approach, mush plus finger food, and a few weeks in will move further towards finger food but if there is something that lends itself to spoon feeding then I will. So no baking porridge into fingers or loaded spoons of yogurt, but if dinner is pieces of potatoes, broccoli and chicken then that's all down to her and I wont be mashing it up. Does that sound OK?

Sounds like a good approach to me Swear. J loves finger food but he just rams everything into his mouth and ends up gagging which scares the life out of me. So we do purees and cautious finger food. He literally eats anything and like Me still takes most of his bottles. He might leave an ounce or two less. So this week I'm upping to 3 meals a day and including weetabix and bread/toast/cream cheese/eggs for lunch. Has anyone started on meat yet?

Time, as Swear says, it takes a while for them to get used to a taste. J wasn't overly impressed with broccoli to begin with, now he loves it. I only gave him veg to begin with and gradually introduced sweet foods later on. Keep trying to offer veg first and she'll get the hang of it.