March 2016 - quick, a new thread!

[Swearwolf]

Sorry for the terrible title, I saw the old thread was up to 996 posts and panicked!

Ooh don't I feel important

Oooh Trinpy I want a sleeping bag with arms! I always worry about little arms getting cold. Forget bed, I'm off to google!

Tk maxx had sleeping bags with sleeves when I went in there yesterday to get DS a couple of grobags

Blimey, I've finally caught up after dropping off the thread and feeling like there was way too much to catch up on!

Glad I'm not the only one struggling with small things, my problem of the week is breakfast. How do you all time it? Three days a week DS has preschool and we leave the house at 8.15, before we were weaning this was fine as the baby would feed once before we left, often she'd come to school still in her sleep suit and get dressed when we got home, and I'd basically have an hour and a half after getting up to get me and DS ready. But now that I've introduced breakfast I just can't see how I'll get it done, shovelling weetabix and toast into her takes ages and then she's so filthy afterwards she needs basically hosing down. Last week I fed her milk before we left and breakfast when we got back, but she usually falls asleep either on the school run or just afterwards so breakfast ended up being 10ish, which is really close to lunchtime. What does everyone else do?

Exactly a week after starting weaning, S had her first little cold, she was all snotty and sad. I did wonder if it was the effect of introducing something other than milk into her system. Other than that, she's been all constipated, though that seems to have cleared up now thankfully.

I can't remember who asked to join the Facebook group, but if you want an add PM me and I'll add you. It never really got moving like the thread did, every once in a while someone will post a picture and update in a kind of 'how is everyone doing' way, but there isn't much chat like there is on here. But no harm in being on both, and I kind of think if there were more of us on the Facebook group it might get moving a bit more.

This talk of car seats has me feeling a bit guilty, DS is four and when he was a baby there weren't many ERF ones and I didn't know anyone who had one, and the seats we had for him were forward facing. We have two seats, one for each car, and they're expensive so I wasn't planning on replacing them, now I'm questioning myself and feeling like a bad mother!

Sorry about your bum trouble marmite, I hope you're feeling better.

Swear I do breakfast with DS about 8. But he's my only one! One of my mum friends who has an older one said to me the other day that her DS2's mealtimes are all over the place because of fitting in with DS1. I think in your position I'd do a late breakfast after the school run and as the babies get older mealtimes will take less time and become less messy and you can think about moving it forward to when DC1 eats.

We are going on holiday on Saturday, our first one with DS! We're staying in the UK and it's about a 3 hour drive so planning one stop half way through. Self catered but I think DS will be living on pouches for the week and as I don't fancy trying to take cool bags with frozen stuff with me. Nor cooking much once I get there! The weather has been so good this week and it looks like it's going to be sunny next week too if a little colder. I don't think we'll be sunbathing on the beach but hopefully DS will get his first little paddle in the sea!

Oh I meant to ask, is anyone else who is ff not sterilising bottles anymore? I read that after 6 months you don't need to sterilise as long as bottles go in the dishwasher. I have still been sterilising anyway but there is a dishwasher at the cottage we're staying at and it would be one less thing to lug with us ... feels like I still should be sterilising everything though!

Regarding the car seat thing - we're looking into it at the moment. C hates his infant carrier and screams on long journeys, we need to sort it by Christmas because we're driving from north London to Holyhead for the ferry to Ireland, we also have to drive across Ireland on Christmas Day and right now booking flights for us instead is looking tempting. We're looking at possibly getting the Joie Stages, but C is 99th percentile for length so I worry about him outgrowing it early.

Have decided I'm going back to work in mid November. Hubby's anxiety has been at him lately and being sole provider is not helping matters, also I really miss regular adult conversation and mental stimulation. In the meantime - we have three family visits and we're trying to get a few days away ourselves.

Me I'm still sterilising but when I went to a NCT weaning talk a little while ago the lady said at 6 months you can stop sterilising and put in dishwasher. I just don't have a dishwasher so I've carried on, but if I did I would stop sterilising.
DS slept through 19:40-06:40 with one dummy run at 11:30 for the first time eveeeeerrrrrr!!!!!!! We put him in his own room on Saturday finally and seems to have improved his sleep!! So was this a breakthrough or a fluke me and DH keep asking ourselves lol I guess only time will tell but wow I woke up at 5 and was like is he ok? He's not woken up so felt the need to check on him and he was fast asleep bless him. He's down for a nap now too so happy days. We also have 2 bottom teeth maybe it was those before causing him pain and rubbishing his sleep?! I didnt even realise until SIL told me poor child did the whole teething process with no pain killers! Bad mum or what!! Never mind I'm like a hawk looking for other teeth now and stocked up on pain killers!!

Thanks me, I usually do 8ish too but that's slap bang in the middle of school run time Tues-Thurs. Urgh. She's still napping and I'm off to a baby group soon, breakfast still waiting on the table!

I am feeling happy and calm after finally hopefully making headway on going back to work and the childminder issue. My old childminder has given it up and I haven't managed to find anyone else, and I don't want to use a nursery as DS is already in the school preschool class and I don't want to disrupt him for six months before he starts school. One of the school mums told me at the weekend that a very experienced childminder who currently only does wraparound care is reregistering for babies, I spoke to her and I think she's going to be able to take them! Yay!!! And I've taken the big decision to go back three days rather than four and take on some freelance work in the evenings and weekends, which I'm feeling great about as I hate my job and the thought of only getting one day a week off with my girl was making me miserable. Dh is all for it which is such a relief!

Well the anxiety is at a high today because of sodding DH. I'm taking the kids to my mums tonight as ds has an inset day tomorrow so I asked dh to do the middle of the night feed because he'll be having three nights of unbroken sleep. He only adds 6oz of powder to the already made bottle that dd didn't drink at bedtime and was left upstairs. Why he didn't put his bloody glasses on is beyond me. Anyway she happily drank it, god knows how it even got through the teat 12oz formula in 6oz water. She appears fine but I'm just freaking that she is going to explode or something. I googled if anyone else has done it and a few American mum's have posted on circle of moms about the same thing and have reported no awful illnesses but

We still sterilise obviously with the panicky mother. But thinking about it we did stop for ds when he was crawling and sucking shoes. We just used the dishwasher then.

Weaning has got better with lots of purée eating Swear we have no real timetable for eating on school drop off days she sometimes doesn't eat breakfast. Dinner is normally about 5 for her. I'm not consistently doing lunch yet either but now she accepting more food I will introduce it.

Our dishwasher ends up with the bottles right side up and full of grubby water no matter how I try to secure them, so we just do a really hot wash in the sink with gloves for bottles past six months. I mean, I was scooping shreds of cardboard out of T's mouth this morning from the toilet roll that DS gave her to play with!

I might brave it for the holiday without the steriliser! DS is crawling all over the place and shoves everything in his mouth from toys to shoes, he also likes to suck the edge of his pushchair which gets absolutely filthy so I think his immune system must be pretty strong!

Purple that is quite an impressive mistake from your DH but I can't imagine it will have done any harm to DD. At worst she might get slightly constipated? In which case just shovel some prunes into her!

DS had me up four times last night, the little monkey. I wonder if he is cold, I might put a vest under his pyjamas tonight. It's definitely getting much colder at night now.

I'm currently sitting enjoying a coffee on my own while I wait to go to my hair cut and colour ... yes that's three or four blissful hours to myself!! DS is with my parents and unlike last time I had my hair cut when he was only 12 weeks old, I don't feel worried about leaving him at all. Just enjoying this time to myself!

Can someone help me... Am I feeding DS enough?? I feel he's still not getting enough milk and he's rubbish with water so worried more than anything that he's not getting enough fluids...
7/8am wheat a bix and prunes (to help with constipation) followed by a bottle 4oz including the milk to wheat a bix
12 - lunch will be a jar at the moment or last nights dinner we had if he can have it puréed with a yogurt and or blueberry wafer followed by milk (he took 2 oz today no more)
He's then no interested in anything until dinner time...
5pm - dinner
7pmish bed time with milk will take between 4-6 oz
He's waking once in the night and takes again between 4-6oz however a couple of nights ago he slept through and had nothing?
Maybe I need to add another bottle in? Or maybe I'm just a worrying ftm and need to just let him lead me!

Me she has been fine all day thankfully and although I'll never say it out loud to dh she slept brilliantly after being overfed.

Ftm the quick answer is I have no idea. But it looks like your ds eats more food than E and actually only has maybe 10oz less milk than her so I don't think his feeding is any different in the sense that E has milk and he has food. Have you had him weighed recently? My lovely HV told me it is all about the weight and the line, if they follow their line that is fine. Can you pop to clinic and see. I know how easy it is to get hung up on the milk ounces.

Thanks purple I will take him to
Clinic on Tuesday and see what they say... I don't think he's underweight in the slightest just not sure he's getting enough fluid... I'm probably over thinking it

First the food intake sounds fine but it looks like he could do with a bit more milk, I think they are supposed to have around 20oz a day until they're one. I have recently moved the timing of ds's bottles, mainly because he's started waking up later, but it also means that they're now given at different times to his meals which might help you? If your DS is having quite a lot to eat at breakfast and lunch then he may be too full to drink much of his milk.

My DS's rough schedule, if it helps, is bottle on waking at 7ish, breakfast at 8, bottle at 10.30/11ish after he wakes up from his morning nap, lunch at 12, bottle at 3ish after his afternoon nap, tea at 5 and bottle before bed at 7. As I said, this has only happened quite recently as he's been waking up later and it's also coincided with him dropping from 5 bottles to 4.

Try not to stress though, if he won't drink much milk then just make sure he gets plenty of milk and dairy in his meals, so lots of yoghurt, cheese, milk in porridge, add milk to mashed potato etc.

Purple glad DD seems fine and slept well!

Hello mums, looking for some advise please..
My normally very placid and happy little boy has not been himself for the last two days. Bright red cheeks, not his usual happy self (but still times of giggles and smiles), not sleeping well- waking several times a night when has previously slept through or woken once for milk and getting very upset when I leave the room. I also think he's a bit snuffly.
We've started weaning (has had baby porridge for a while as big hungry boy) and he is loving his food, but I can hear his tummy gurgling when he sleeps.
So clever mums please help me try and decipher what is wrong with him- is he teething? Is it the food I am giving? Should I change his diet? Does he have a cold coming? is it a sign of a food intolerance? Or something else.. Please help me figure it out! Thanks X

Hi New bright red cheeks always make me think teething. Sadly broken sleep and colds all seem to be part of it too. My mum sent me this link recently which was an interesting read incredibleinfant.com/teething-baby/signs-of-teething/

Hi new sounds like teething to me. Try Ashton and Parsons teething powder, worked wonders for ds.

swear I'm so glad you said that about car seats, we have 2 ff group 1 car seats for ds as erf just wasn't a thing when we bought them. He will be outgrowing them shortly and we had always planned to put dd in them and get new ones for him but that makes me feel like an awful mother that I am putting her in something that isn't as safe as the best on the market. But crikey having to buy 4 new car seats sounds expensive!

I still mainly bf but when I do give a bottle I don't sterilise, I figure her plates/cutlery/cups and any other crap she manages to get her hands on aren't sterilised so there's no point doing bottles.

Yep, sounds like teething to me too. I always found that with DS1 teething made him drool more, more saliva made his reflux worse, which could link the gurgly belly - that or just some wind from last feed? (That's common in DS2).

I'm still sterilising bottles. But nothing else. I think I'll probably continue, unless they go through the dishwasher (never quite synced right. And always makes them tomato stained!). I know that's not quite rational, but... I'm going with it!

Weaning is still more miss than hit here. DS2 is refusing all spoon feeding unless it's apple purée at the moment! I've been stuck with what to pack for meals during the week. Also, the mornings are way too rushed to give him breakfast too, and he's too tired most evenings (and these are always too busy too getting DS1's homework done, pumping etc).

I'm scouring Pinterest for recipes I can make ahead and freeze. Has anyone got the BLW cookbook? Would you recommend it?

I've got the blw cookbook dom. I find it's good for snacky things, I make a cheese and spinach muffin, cheese and courgette flapjack and drop scones frim there which all freeze well. The main meals I find a bit tasteless which I think is the opposite of what blw is supposed to do, fine if you are just cooking for baby but not great to share.

I didn't realise next stage car seats were so expensive either oh well at least I'll be back at work by the time DS needs one! We are haemorrhaging money at the moment, DS is constantly needing new clothes, we're off on holiday tomorrow and although the house is free (belongs to my DPs) we've had to pay for travel and stuff for DS the house doesn't have eg a travel cot and high chair! DH is terribly funny about second hand things and won't buy anything second hand, he will occasionally agree to accept a hand me down from friends but that's it!

New I agree with the others that the red cheeks does sound like teething.

DH went out last night and has a hangover so I've brought DS downstairs to give him some peace. Heating has just gone on as it's really chilly but he seem quite content with a jumper over his PJs. He's even crawling around on our freezing tiled kitchen floor which is making me shiver through my slippers!

Morning all,

Two things:

1. Pancakes went down a treat this morning. Win!

1. My friend messaged me the following last night. I was deeply sceptical to say the least, but it appeared to work, and we've just picked up a huge box from Boots:

"Hiya mums,

A lady on my birth board just posted this...worked for me. With my advantage points on top I got about a million nappies for free! And it seems you can use the code more than once for multiple transactions.

CHEAP NAPPIES

for those of you who are members of the Boots parenting club.

Log in to your account

Add 6 packs of Boots own brand 'super dry active stretch nappies'

Check out and put the code PCLPEDB into the promotional codes box.

Voila, 6 packs of NAPPIES for £2.06 😀

They only have certain sizes in stock now"

They had size 3 and 4+ in stock last night. Not sure what'll be left but I got 6 packs of 4+ for £2.90.

Dom that Boots offer is amazing! I have had terrible experiences with boots own brand nappies, wet grobags, poo on lap etc but I'm tempted to give them another go for that price!

Poor DS has been really out of sorts this week bless him, he's soldiering on but he's been quite unhappy at times. He's got a cold and I think his teeth are bothering him. Yesterday I started to give him his supper and he did the most enormous projectile vomit. Every.Where. I've never seen anything like it. At first we thought bug but I think it's more to do with his cold. Then today he has been really constipated, although he did have a good clear out this evening. Poor boy. He's had no solids at all today, thought it best to give his tummy a rest and to get back to normal. I feel so mean though for not giving him anything to eat. His sleep has been pretty pants again I think because of the cold. I need him to sleep well tonight because I am completely exhausted. Please cross your fingers for us!

Fingers crossed for you dotty! Sounds like you've had a testing time. Hoping it gets better for you soon!! for you in the mean time.