Sept 06 Babies - trying to sit and roll....

[clairemow]

new thread here!

well I shall post on friday and let you know...cross your fingers

My in-laws live in Manchester and my parents in France (we're in Essex) so my DS is used to staying away from home! Its a good idea to get them used to the travel cot before you go. We put DS in there during the day to play so he gets used to the surroundings. If your parents are looking after LO, make sure they know the routine inside out and they probably won't notice. I think its best to get them used to it now. Apparently they start to know who their main carers are at about six months and start to become a bit more clingy at that stage. Fingers crossed for you!

Jingle - glad things are finally settling for you. I'm with you - am really enjoying this stage with DS. He, too, is much happier on FF.

Mabel - so sorry that things have become difficult for you lately. I have no suggestions unfortunately but I do hope it gets better soon. Not much help, I know.

Think my LO is definitely getting ready for weaning. I was eating a pear yesterday and he was trying to grab it. I put it to his mouth and he started sucking it as if his life depended on it! He loved it!! He was most uspet when I took it away. Have a freezer full of fruit and veg for him so I can't wait to get going now.

He's just rolled over while I've been typing Better go as he's cross now because he's stuck. Have a good day..........

Just rolled him back and he's been sick on my BRAND NEW carpet Still, its my own fault for not putting him on his play mat. Off to get the kitchen roll.

Thanks bristols....I'm going to try weaning in a couple of weeks, am trying BLW, so no blending fingers crossed

I'm so lazy

Hi all!
Mabel, I agree that it sounds like habit. Have you tried the 'wake to sleep' thingy from the baby whisperer book? It may be worth a try as it worked for us with DS when he was about 7 or 8mths. Basically, you set your alarm for 1/2hour before he normally wakes then rouse (sp?) him but don't wake him fully then comfort him back to sleep. The idea is to train his body clock not to wake at that specific time. (you carry on for 1wk waking him at various times)
It doesn't work for all babies and it goes against the grain to wake yourself when they're asleep but maybe worth a go.

We've taken them both away and they slept fine in the travel cot but then I'm rubbish at routine anyway other than bath/bed at same time. Though I have to admit, DS is2yrs and I've yet to leave him overnight, even with grandparents.

JustJam - we have been away at relatives houses overnight quite a few times and DS has been fine. We've kept to his usual bedtime routine ie. bath, breast, bed and we've not had any problems and he has slept in lots of different cots as we don't have a travel cot but my parents have a cot at their house and MIL and SIL both have travel cots that he uses.

Mabel - I hope you managed to find a nice top
I didn't do the soothing last night in the end. DS went to bed at 6:30pm then woke at 9:30pm and had a good feed then he slept til 3:30 and that is a quite a long time for him so I thought he must be properly hungry and he had an ok feed but then woke again at 6:30am. I just can't seem to get him into a good pattern! He seems to do one long stretch of sleep during the night and 2 mini stretches of about 3 hours.

arrrrgggghhh just lost my message and the 't' keeps sticking on my keyboard!!!

well...just to say thankyou all so much for your advice, it spurred me on for the night ahead.
i went to bed armed with a bottle of cooled boiled water.
he woke at 4.15am, i left him for 10 minutes but he wasn't going to settle, so i went in and ried rocking him, but he was sucking on my clothes, so i tried the water, he was having none of it, so in the end i fed him for 1 minute and then lay him down, he grumbled a bit but evenually settled himself, so that proves o me that he is not hungry, so i am going to try the same tactic tonight and hopefully get him ou of the habit. he woke up then at 6.30am, which was fine.

Jingle, thankyou so much for the offer on loaning me your top, it sounds lovely, I am actually a size 12, but my boobs are something like an E or F at the moment, and the thought of wearing a corset type top with such enormous boobs, is just an accident waiting to happen though!! I would be far too scared!
I did get a top from ASOS, it is nothing fancy just a chiffon top in this seasons 'mus have colour cobalt blue' (apparantly). I have got some black trousers and silver heels and a silver bag, so hopefully it will all come together ok

Just had a friend and her two over to play, the house is now a tip and have been picking playdough out of the living room rug....
She told me some bad news, a friend of ours who's DS was born 2 days before mine has cystic fibrosis...I don't really know alot about it, or what the implications are, but apparantly his life expectancy is about 30. I can't imagine knowing that you will probably outlive your child, feel so sad for her.

Just to let you know ...for all your none BLW out there, Annabel Karmel is on This Morning tommorow...might be interesting, wonder if she's got any advice for a baby that blows raspberries and consantly grabs the spoon, whislt feeding, so I can barely get anything in!

Ahh, DS used to blow rasberries, my own fault I taught him how to do it, sooooo pleased when he blew one himself for the first time. That was shortly before I realized the error during his next feed felt like I'd been pebble dashed. We now have a no raspberry rule and thankfully he has forgotten all about it

Does anyone have any recommendations for a baby food cookbook? Been looking on Amazon and have got myself completly confused, not hard these days!

Ivor - I have an Annabel Karmel book which is pretty good or I have heard Sara Lewis mentioned before and her books are meant to be good.
Mabel - I would be interested in seeing AK interviewed. Thanks for the tip. I'm sorry about your friend's DS, it makes me realise how lucky I am

Well, we have an exciting day planned for tomorrow. We are going to the "Big Scream" which is a cinema showing for people with babies. The babies sit on your lap and watch the film and no one minds the fact that you might need to feed or get up and change a nappy etc. Then we've got a date in the afternoon with my post-natal group for tea and cake at the local teashop

The cat has just brought a bird in! I have to go.

Myrtle - I too have annabel Karmel, i is good, although my copy is very old, my MIL found it a her nursery when they were having a clearout!

there is a section on feeding babies and toddlers in nigella lawson s book 'how to eat' i kinow she's no baby feeding expedrt but i found i easy to read and with some good ideas.

the big scream sounds like fun what a fantastic idea!

Sorry to hear about your friend's DS, Mabel. Don'f forget though that only a few yrs ago the life exp. was 16 and research, esp gene therapy for CF is advancing all the time so in the next 30yrs, his L.E could well have increased to 60 or there could even by a cure! Fingers crossed!

As an aside to that. Did you know that in Scotland they test for it as part of the heel prick test? So kids are diagnosed early and can keep well. Despite government guidlines, testing is not widespread in England yet as it would apparently cost an extra 40p per child!

Ivor i also have an Annabel Karmel book and find it very helpful.

Mabel, seems as though you had a better ish night? Fingers crossed for tonight Sorry to hear about your friend. Does make you realise, when you hear news like that, just how lucky we are.....

Ivor, I havr 3 AK books!! I think she's great personally Seriously, the receipes are fun & easier to make & do taste quite good...if your into purees!!

Mrytle, the big scream sounds fab!!

DH has gone to bed complaing of not feeling well. Now, this may be a tad mean of me bit when I was feeling like crap last weekend (when he was working) & I had both the children feeling off colour I received ZERO sympathy..! So whilst I know that two wrongs don't make a right etc I just feel he's sloped off expecting me to rush up every two mins with a warm drink, cool flannel & be expected to stroke his head...well I aint gonna do it out of principal!!!! Man colds.....

Mabel, that's good news about the waking, I hope you can crack it quite quickly now - hopefully once he gets out of the habit e'll settle better. Does he have anything to 'love'? DS2 loves his muslin which I tie to the shoulder of his grobag. He still wakes (I'm pretty sure as sometimes I hear snuffling) aroung 3-4am but settles himself back now.

Sorry to hear about your friend's DS. LE for CF is going up all the time but it will be hard for your friend. It's likely that she'll have to learn how to do chest physio for him which can be very time consuming and with lots of trips to the hospital and doctors it will really impact on her life. It also means her son will be infertile and won't be able to have children of his own. Aside from that though, with good management and as long as he follows his treatment programme he is likely to have a very happy, normal chilhood and early adulthood. Children like him though are a good reminder why it's good to be on the donor register though, I hope your friend is OK - there tends to be a lot of support in the CF 'community' but not face to face. That'sbecause it's actually advised that people with CF don't integrate with eachother - it was found that when they did it decreased LE because of a certain bacteria they passed between patients. There'll be lots of help from her hospital staff though, they have specialist teams most places now who will follow the child throughout their life.

Jingle - the new milk's going really well now and we've cleared up the sogginess issue by using gaviscon - have you tried it? - It's really helped! His skin's staying good too so fingers crossed!

Hi girls!

Not checked in for a while so there was lots to catch up on.

Things going well here. Had thought we'd start weaning a couple of weeks ago, but L's more settled again so we're holding off for nearer 6 months. She has def upped the number of her feeds from about 5 to at least 7 (and yes Cori I count them too!). Same overnight - only fed once but sometimes up twice.

She's massively into her bumbo and her brother and loves holding her wee rattles. Hates getting into her snowsuit or into her car seat. I'd leant our activity centre thing to a friend but got it back today and she seems to really like that too.

I do like this stage.

Hope you're all doing well.

I love this stage too. In fact I only said to DH this afternoon that I'd love DS to stay this age forever!

Mabel - Well done on the sleeping. Fingers crossed for tonight.

DH is out at a football match so I'm snuggled up on the sofa with a huge bar of Dairy Milk. Am giving up chocolate for lent so I'm making the most It's going to be really hard work so I may need some extra support over the next forty days, Ladies!!

Cori re "man colds" - That's a common complaint, isn't it? Would drive me nuts.

Bristols - No way could I ever give up chocolate; it's got its own space on the bottom of my food pyramid: meat, fruit/vegs, grains, dairy, chocolate. Good luck!!! Bet you'll really enjoy your Easter basket! [GRIN]

Mabel - I'm so sorry about your friend's LO. Liquid, that was interesting info -- Hadn't known the first thing about it before.

Neglected to mention this last post, but thought I'd share it: Won a scholarship to a week's art study this summer! Got the call 2 days ago; will be flown out to Tennessee for a week in late July to study classes of my choice under visiting college professors at an art retreat in the mountains. Very excited. Came in second place last year (which meant nothing material was given of course) - so feeling somewhat vindicated and really looking forward to a whole week by my lonesome.

marls congrats on the scholarship - how nice to have a bit of time to yourself!

Liquid - Thanks for the info on CF, I knew nothing about it at all, i was a complete shock yesterday, I haven't seen my friend yet, so at least i feel a bit more knowledgeable about it, when I do see her, from what my friend, who told me, was saying yesterday though, she is not really talking about it, or telling people details, she is just getting on with it and seems to be taking it in her stride.

well last night was an improvement, DS slept to just before 6am, so maybe we are taking a step in the right direction!
Spent last night pureeing pear and sweet potato, he has just tried some sweet potato and it gone down particularly well!

Hi everyone. Just in acse anyone is in Annabel Karmel is on This Morning at 12.15pm

Marls - I know! Still, it won't do me any harm and I will most definitely enjoy my easter egg more. Congratulations on the scholarship. Sounds really exciting. What a treat.

DH and I are off into town to book a holiday later. Can't wait! He has been working solidly without any time off since July last year. He's a locum so he doesn't get paid annual leave but he will become employed in April so we're going to make the most of him having paid time off. I think that it will be quite straight forward to take DS away at the age of 8 months or so. Maybe not if he's on the move!!

DS is such a jet-setter already. I took him to my parents' in France when he was 10 weeks old and we're off over there again in a couple of weeks. I was 11 years old when I went abroad for the first time. How times change...

Its a beautiful day here today. Hope you have sunshine today wherever you are. It's so lovely to see the daffodils and crocuses coming out. Come on, spring, hurry up

Sounds as though you are breaking his resolve Mabel!!! On & up eh?

bristols, know what you mean! I was 16 when I first got on plane & went abroad...DD was on her first trip at 3 months & by the time she was 18 months had been to 3 different countries Poor Jack, he's yet to make it further than Staffordshire.....!!!

Phew, mega read..

Welcome to all the new people

Someone asked about bath seats - we had a deckchair style one for F when he was first born, but he tries to hurl himself off it now... Next stage is a plastic seat thing, but they need to be sitting up by themselves really to use it.

And the play nest - F is only just beginning to like it. I remember DS1 used it alot between 6 + 9 months, when he started to crawl.

Marls, congratulations on the scholarship! Sounds fantastic! Can you post some of your work on the yahoo site?

Jamtarts - both my DSs have slept all over the place, in travel cots of various sorts. I've found that as long as the room is dark and quiet, they seem to sleep just like normal. Hope you're having success!

Well, I had a lovely break! 2 full days' skiing in Val Thorens, what heaven. Only wish it could have been more... The snow was brilliant and the sun shone. Sigh. Back to reality now... Fraser was fine without me, and DH coped by himself all weekend until my parents came (although I did leave a double sided sheet of A4 with full instructions!!! But he'd even kept up with the washing, and even used the washable nappies. Good lord!

Clairemow - I'm glad you had a good break. I love skiing so am very envious.
The Big Scream (cinema) was really good this morning. We saw Happy Feet and DS was captivated for a good hour and then he fell asleep on my lap.

Mabel & everyone else - how did you break the waking in the night habit? Last night DS was up at 8pm then 12am then 4am. At the 11pm one DH gave him an 8oz bottle which he guzzled down apparently and at 4am he only had about 5 mins on the breast so I know he doesn't really need it.
He has a bottle for his daytime feeds now and I only breast feed at the bedtime, night feeds and first thing in the morning so I did wonder if i'm just losing my milk?? Its frustrating because last night was the first time he has had a bottle at the 11pm feed which DH gave him and I had a good long stretch of sleep and it was wonderful and now I have a taste of what I'm missing. I just feel so much better today than I normally do and its made me realise how exhausted I've been feeling lately.

Hi Myrtle, I don't think you are losing your milk moreover only producing what you are offering him..i.e supply & demand. Before I gave up BF, Jack was on just morning & night & I had enough for that even though it felt as though there was nothing in there! As with Mabel, I reckon your LO is waking & sucking out of habit & yes I can imagine you feel much better having slept that much more! Why not try ignoring him or just soothing him for a couple of mins? As you've said yourself he doesn't need it....but you do need your sleep!!

Forgot to ask before....for those of you that have had 1st period since pg how long did it take to come back after stopping BF? It's coming up for 3 weeks since I stopped BF & whilst I do feel PMTy every day nothing is happening! I just can't remember how long it was with DD but I'm willing it on so I know where we are in terms of cycles & knowing when we should avoid sex!!!!!!