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

ah that's awesome missi! Fingers crossed for the work request. I would go part time in a heartbeat if my job allowed it, but it's definitely been nice using my brain a bit more.

Today at work I missed a 'first' and am a bit sad about it. DH said she got herself up into a sitting position for the first time. In her cot she was lying facedown, on her knees with her bum in the air (her favourite sleep position!) and rolled back onto her bum. Looked around for a minute then flopped forward again!

I guess there will be many more things that I miss but hope she saves some for weekends!

ffaux I'll be devastated to miss the firsts but I try to console myself by thinking that DH has an amazing bond with DS and he has missed practically all of the firsts so far - but it's still amazing for him the first time he sees DS do the new thing. So hopefully it will be the same for us! I'm not planning to go back until January but I haven't actually spoken to work about my return yet - they've left me alone and I haven't got in touch to tell them about my plans yet. I think they're probably expecting me to take a full year so they'll probably be pleasantly surprised when I say January.

DS's sleep has really gone to pot this last week, he's gone from sleeping through most of the time to waking 2-3 times a night which is seriously annoying. I think it might be skill related, he's desperate to crawl and yesterday he did manage to pull himself forward commando style for a bit before collapsing with the effort of it all. Hope it's just a blip and he gets back to his usual good sleeping self soon.

Well after yesterday's 2 hour morning mega nap dd2 didn't sleep at all (not even a catnap) so had to put her to bed at 6 as she was massively overtired. Was a bit of a disaster!

Trying to get her to nap now and failing she's massively winging. Going to have to boob her to sleep whcih I've not had to resort to before but the past few days is the only thing that will get her to sleep. Usually I'd just sit it out but looking after dd1 as well today and can't expect her to entertain herself for much longer as already been trying for an hour.

Sorry to hear about you missing a first ffaux, but hopefully your DD will show you herself soon!

The thing about firsts is that you never really know if you've caught the first one or not - they could sit up in the night while you're fast asleep, or take their first step while you're on the toilet, and when they did it again in front of you you'd never know that wasn't the first time. If that makes sense. I missed sylvie rolling over for the first time and I was bloody sat next to her!!! I was sat on the floor playing pirate race game with ds, she was on her play mat, I had my turn and when I looked at her I noticed she was on her front - bad mothering!

Swear I hadn't thought about firsts like that before but you are so right and I like that way of thinking!

Missi Zach sounds amazing, he has done so well! Evie sounds at a very similar stage to him apart from his eating sounds a million times better! I lovingly made apple and pear purée last night for her breakfast but she clearly thought it was hideous. Mashed banana and formula was more appealing. She also had cucumber and strawberry at lunch and then ended up starting to choke on a bit of cucumber Thankfully my ultra calm friend was round so I managed to flip her up and get it out without panicking. Dh who is on annual leave sat there all chilled. Thanks for that!

Anyway I'm at the hairdressers now leaving him in charge. My roots are awful and I can't put it off any longer. I've also joined weight watchers today so I'm sat here trying to understand it all and trying not to think of the chocolate in the fridge at home.

Marmite and Me sleep is bad here too. E woke a lot in the night, clearly space wasn't the issue of the night wakings. In the end I put her in bed with us about 5am and she slept soundly. Really don't want to get into that habit too much. Naps, well she has had two mini ones.

swear that is a good way of looking at it, thank you!

purple oh my I'm so terrified of choking! It's what's put me off starting weaning tbh. I have done the CPR/choking training recently but it would be such a mission to get her out of her high chair quickly. Maybe I'll start off with her in my lap. Sounds like you did great though!

I'm still at an 11kg 5 month old glue! What centile is that? My ds is 5.5 months and between 8.5-9kg which is 91st centile so I guess 11kg would be off the scale. If she's staying (roughly) on the same centile then I'm sure that that's the right amount of milk for her. Maybe it's just that as she's much bigger than average she needs more milk than average? My ds1 wasn't interested in food until around 7 months old. I think some babies just take a bit longer to reach that stage.

Nice to read an update from you Missi. It's lovely to hear that Zach's developing well and loves his food! 9 months already...it's gone so quickly.

Me I'm so jealous that your baby normally sleeps through. Mine wakes up every 2-3 hours on a good night and it's killing me! Ds1 is going to visit his grandparents for a week at the end of the month so I'm going to sleep train ds2 then. Dreading it! I'm sure your ds' sleep will get back to normal soon and then you'll have a crawling baby to wear you out.

Nice to have you back Purple. Lovingly preparing anything for babies/small children is guaranteed to make them turn their noses up at it. It's like they know...

It's me and Dh's wedding anniversary today (5 years!) so we're leaving ds2 for the first time tomorrow evening to go out for drinks and dinner. My mum has very kindly agreed to babysit so at least the boys will have someone they know looking after them. I've just done a trial run with ds2 and a bottle of expressed milk and got on OK with it which is a relief. I'm so excited about being able to wear something that doesn't need easy access for bf .

ffaux if it helps, I think it's quite unusual for babies to choke. Can't remember the reason why now - something about their gag reflex or something maybe?

She's off the scale in length, head circumference and weight. So at least it's all at the same point if that makes sense. Have toned down the food and just offering her little bits and bobs now and then. It was stressing us both out stupidly.

Isn't it nice that they are becoming a bit more 'human'?! Starting to do more interesting things and being great fun.

DS crawled today super proud parent it wasn't a graceful crawl and it's a lot of effort for him but he's so proud of himself when he does it! We played a game of putting my phone (his current favourite thing!) on the opposite side of the big rug in our lounge and he then crawled to it - did it about 10 times while I tried to film him from every angle to send to DH at work! I expect it'll take him a few weeks to perfect it and then I'm sure I'll be wondering why on earth I encouraged it ...

DS is eating quite lumpy things already and is starting to feed himself finger foods and he hasn't choked at all. He gags on the bigger bits but they soon come out and he doesn't seem at all bothered by it. Obviously need to be careful round things like grapes and cherry tomatoes and I haven't given him any of those yet but like Trinpy says I don't think choking is that common (on food anyway - I know my little sister choked on a Lego piece when she was a toddler and my dad had to turn her upside down and whack her on the back - gave me quite a fright watching him do it as a 5 year old!)

Wow me, well done your boy!

Ffaux sorry I didn't mean to add to your fears. Blw is great and fun, and like ds gagged a lot but didn't choke at all. I think Trinpy is right it is really unusual. Today she had a lump of cucumber and just went a bit red and quiet so I quickly tipped her up and banged her back. Possibly she would have cleared it but it was different to her gagging. This is a good webpage www.babyledweaning.com/features/gagging/the-gagging-thing-v-the-choking-thing/

Me- just wow! What a clever baby crawling already.

We only had one choking incident with ds when he swallowed a button mushroom. You are supposed to let them try to deal with it themselves initially but it had just got to the point when both dh and I jumped up to get him out of the high chair and it came shooting out. Ds looked terrified when it was happening but then carried on tucking in to his food so it can't have bothered him that much. We are still blw with dd, she has gagged a couple of times but no choking.

Parent fail tonight, I have just realised that I didn't give ds her bedtime feed! She had bf at 4pm, 'dinner' at about 5.45 then bed just before 7. I gave her cheese and spinach muffin, bread stick, carrot and fromage frais. I think she ate some muffin and fromage frais but just sucked the rest. I have a feeling I will be doing a night feed tonight, doh!

Wow, Me! Actual crawling!

I've just had a mini-panic about leaving DS2 on Monday.

Realistically he'll be fine. He's been happily passed round family for the last two days, and is (mainly) happy enough to fall asleep with people (DM, at least). He'll be fine.

But I've started thinking 'but he won't know what's going on', he'll think I've left him, etc etc.

I'm fairly sure he hasn't got that level of reasoning. And the childminder is LOVELY and brilliant and he'll hardly notice I'm gone.

But the stomach-dropping panics...

Dom for you. I remember that feeling with ds. You are right he will be fine and happy but it's horrible going back to work.

Dom I am feeling EXACTLY the same about Monday. As you say they haven't got to that level of reasoning yet, but I just keep thinking of her little face if she thinks we have left her. This week when I've come home from work she's smiled at me, but not in the sense of 'oh thank god you're still here, I missed you so much and thought you left' but more in a kind of 'oh yeah, you're that person I like' way, which makes me think she didn't even notice I was gone!! I think the problem we're more likely to be facing is one of over-stimulating and non-napping.

Thanks for the choking reassurances. I'm going to do BLW but wait until she's sitting up unaided, hopefully soon. I have the Gill Rapley cookbook and going to read up tonight

Does anyone have any thoughts on or experience of baby sign language? We learned 10 or so basic ones but have mainly been using 'mummy,' daddy' and 'milk' for a while, just to get into the habit of signing really as I know she's too young. She looks at my hand quite intently but I have no idea if it is sinking in! Any resources or apps you recommend?

me wow!!!! So exciting!!!

*over-stimulation I meant there. I just remembered Monday is a holiday (Labor Day) so at least I have 3 days with her now, yay!

Yep a 4am feed needed, can't really blame her though!

Dom I think their concept of time and existence is still at the stage where if you are not in their eye line they don't understand that you still exist so to them there isn't much difference between you going to work for a day and you leaving the room to make a cuppa! Its still hard to do though. With ds I did all the settling in sessions at nursery and he was fine then the day I actually went back to work they called me by 10.30 to say that he had a temperature and I had to pick him up! Luckily I took him to my mil and went back to work but it wasn't the best start!

ffaux I love baby signing! I did it with ds and it was great for his early communication. He could sign eat, drink and more by the time he was 9 months and I think that really helped stop any frustration from not being able to talk. I started taking ds to classes from 6 months but now there is a 'babes' level to the course so C has been going from about 10 weeks old. I think she is signing 'more' when in her high chair already but I'm never quite sure whether she is just banging her hands together! Besides an actual class I'm not sure about resources but I would just say sign at home as much as you can and she will get it.

I've woken up this morning to find DS fast asleep on his tummy. My immediate thought was panic! But, his head is turned to the side and he is breathing fine, and he is still asleep! It's almost 8am!

I took DS to see some of my friends from work yesterday. It was lovely to see them but my goodness it was stressful! DS had refused to nap and there were lots of small children there and a lot going on. I could see he needed to sleep and was desperately trying, nobody was stopping their children from stroking him and prodding him, people were asking for cuddles and then the helpful advice started! One colleague who only started as I was going off on leave so I don't know her very well, was really going for it with the helpful advice! She thought it awful that DS cries sometimes before he falls asleep and announced "it's not very good for them to go to sleep on a cry is it"
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
Funnily enough she didn't have any helpful advice for stopping him from crying before he goes to sleep though!

It just made me feel a bit bad. I'm not that confident with DS, I'm a lot better but it still feels a bit like trial and error a lot of the time. I don't like to see him cry any more than anyone else does but it seems that sometimes it is just what he needs to do. Obviously yesterday was a bit more extreme as he was hugely overstimulated but he settled eventually after he had had a feed and a cuddle, and he was his normal happy giggly self when he woke up.

Rant over! It's actually made me feel a bit better! I think he has just woken up too, there's lots of raspberries coming from the cot!

dotty ah the advice givers, you get know it alls in all sorts of areas but babies really bring them out in some people. Easier said than done but best just to smile and ignore most unsolicited advice. A woman from my NCT group seems to have become a child rearing expert over the last 5/6 months. I just zone out.

Was that a first back to front roll? DD always ends up sleeping on her tummy now, if they have head control it is fine I think- or at least it has done DD no harm even thoug she rarely rolled front to back in the first few weeks.

Thanks for the childcare-irrationality sympathies! I know the worst of it is my imagination!

Dotty my DS2 was on his front this morning too, and was crying when he went to sleep last night (and each of the 4 or 5 times he woke up before 10pm!). Some babies cry because they're tired I do, or frustrated because they're not asleep. Your colleague knows nothing!

Dotty nod and smile -and stick your fingers up at them when there back is turned- we're at the start of an NCT group spread over two months and naturally there is sometimes the what did you do question to us that have gone through it first and I'm always cautious with the well this is what we did but no idea if that's right or will work response because like you it's definitely trial and error - I thought it all was?!

Dom good luck for Monday, he'll be fine but completely get the irrational reasoning. I also agree that it's not a first until the first time I see it!!

Yet another weekend of demands of visits from the Inlaws - it's great they want to see her so much but I really don't need to see them that much, I'd be more happy if they offered to have her for a few hours while we do some hoovering or something and the MIL has got a bit of a competitive edge on about how much she sees her - which ironically is less than everyone else.

Hello all,
Sorry to hear about the back to work panics - sure most of us will experience those in the coming few months.
Has anyone moved from breast to bottle lately? Since we started giving his last feed as formula on a night I've been thinking more and more to change him over, he's been really fussy on boob the last few days and only fed for a few minutes each time - getting distracted by anything and everything. Would I just swap a feed a day for a bottle? Maybe for a week, then another feed etc so that I don't get engorged? I'm so torn between knowing I should continue with breastfeeding but the ease of daytime formula feeding.

Hallelujah, DD finally napping after being up since 7. My good intentions of getting her to nap in her cot went out of the window the later it got and she is in her bouncy chair.

Had a bit of a parenting fail this am when walking the dogs, threw a tennis ball that rebounded off a tree and smacked her in the forehead. Left a muddy mark but luckily she didn't even react.

Q when I transitioned DS to daytime bottles I swapped one feed every 5-7 days. I was a little uncomfortable the first two days but fine after.