The March-ers 2019 - Baby Talk #3

[Angelmiracle]

Thread 3 mamas

@Sianlouise432 it looks good so far! I'm going to start doing some practise runs... I'm ok at cooking but tbh since having LO and actually since being pregnant DP has done all the cooking and I get through the day on easy to grab (and not very healthy) snacks. Thinking of this as a good opportunity to actually eat better myself!

@wineandchoccy you sound like you have the hang of it! I must admit I'm a bit nervous about BLW cause I dont usually cook my own meals. I'm a chronic diner-outer and meal-dealer but there's a first for everything.

Sorry about the repetitive posting everyone, I am on the app and can't see the feed so I keep forgetting who I am @-ing at. Hats off to everyone who gets their baby to sleep in the cot and hats off to those who have started BLW. I will be watching your posts for reassurance and ideas when I start in 1 month.

I agree, fair play to those who have cot-sleepers. Elliot is stuck to me at night. Our weaning is going well, except the past few days he's been very constipated. We was pushing and pushing all day yesterday and all that appeared was a tiny little ball of clay, bless him. So today I gave him a few syringes of water and massaged his tummy. Then I gave him an Ella's kitchen pouch of pears and voila! Within 20 minutes we had a full nappy. Thank fook! Lol. Also, I am in awe of those of you who manage to get your los to go to bed anything before 9pm. Elliot will still only have naps if I attempt "bedtime" any earlier. I have now stopped attempting to put him to bed upstairs and I just let him go off to sleep beside me on the sofa. Unless it's bedtime for everyone and I'll take him up with me and he'll chat to me before going to sleep on the boob 🤣.

@melissa112 ha ha you must be in the same Facebook group as me they are obsessed with pinwheels
I find cutting things in strips so sandwiches/toast in soldiers, carrots/cucumber in batons etc are easier to hold.
Rice she just scooped it up in her hands I tried preloading a spoon but it just fell off.
The 1st week we just did breakfast and a little bit at teatime but we are on our 4th week now and she is having 3 meals nearly every day unless she is asleep.

Today I took my older daughter to a play centre and the high chairs were rubbish those padded ones that they can’t sit upright in so she hardly ate anything.

@melissa112 last night was pants actually 😂 he woke at least four times and needed feeding every single time. For ages! DH was in our room because we had friends staying in the spare room but after J's first
Very Noisy wake up he decamped to DS1's room instead 😂 I have struggled all day and had to take a painkiller for a headache this afternoon - rare for me! Hoping for a better night. J just woke up but I got him back to sleep without picking him up so I am hopeful?!

Regarding the travel cot, I bought a foam mattress insert for the cot on Amazon as I didn't think it was comfy enough as it was, and then our normal fitted cot sheets fit fine. It is quite a big travel cot - don't know if that is normal!

I'm so excited for weaning. J has been getting really good at sitting over the last few days so I am happier about putting him in a high chair now. He is desperate to get involved with our food so I am sure he's pretty much ready. I'm continuing to give him little tastes of stuff but won't start properly until 6 months. Flavour Led Weaning sounds great @Sianlouise432 - I will check that out!

[Edited by MNHQ: identifying]

Wheee, we survived our first big journey. Worst part was actually crossing London on the tube. Accessibility is awful, even on huge interchanges like Waterloo and Liverpool Street stations. I wish we didn't have to travel from Stansted.
Poor baby was falling asleep at worst possible moments. First on the tube (so noisy!), but we had to get him out of the pram due to stairs/escalators. Then at the airport he fell asleep 20 minutes before boarding the plane, so we had to get him out of the pram and wake him again. And then he was falling asleep just before the landing, so I woke him up with doing the strap and he finally calmed down and started falling asleep again... And we landed and had to get off the plane. He's so tired.
But even with all of this he was so amazing, just the landing was bad as he didn't want to take the boob or the dummy and was screaming a lot. Only thing that calmed him down was my husband snapping his fingers - he finds it fascinating.
I'm so so tired. And it's 34°C here even now, so hot. Should be a fun night.

@Sheeni well done! Hope you have a lovely time wherever you are x

Well guys, I am thrilled here. Put J down at about 9.30pm and he slept till 3.40am. Unfortunately I didn't sleep the whole way uninterrupted as we have friends staying and their toddler had a long and very noisy meltdown at 1am 😂 But the key thing is - J did it! I could do a little jig right here on the bed! (I won't though as I don't want to wake him up........)

@melissa112 thank you for your response. I'm so glad it's not just me. He's also started putting his fingers behind his own eyelids and then understandably making himself cry! Who does that?! 😂

We went to a friends wedding yesterday and left G with my mum. It's the first time I've left him overnight and was feeling a bit apprehensive about it. But I'm so so glad we went. I got to eat with two hands!!! Can you believe that?! What a treat. 😂 I drank too much, danced like a complete wally and sang like a kicked cat. But it was lovely to let my hair down and just be us again. That being said, I can't wait to go and pick him up!!

@Sianlouise432 same here, my DP does all the cooking. I'm trying to look at it as an opportunity to eat better and do more cooking.. but may be a big shock to the system!

@Brobot oo glad you found a cure to the constipation and glad the weaning is going well!

@Wineandchoccy ha I probably am in the same group. To be fair though, I made some pinwheels and they were delicious 🤣 sounds like she is doing really well. I'm looking forward to getting started. Do you strap her in the high chair? On the FB group none of them do incase they choke but I'm sure he would fall out of the sides if I didnt!

@BadBadBeans yay, glad you had a better night (was going to say sorry you didnt until I saw your next update!). Shame about the noisy toddler but great that J did it, and slept through it too! What a star! I'm in awe that you managed to do all that for the village fete 💪Is art and veg one category? I'm intrigued! Thanks for the tips on the travel cot. I'm still undecided on which one to get, I faff about far too much!

@Sheeni well done for surviving your journey, sounds like a long one! hope you have a great time!

@AssumeItWasSomethingClever ha maybe it's a George thing! Mine smacks himself on his head as he falls asleep?! Sounds like you had a lovely time, sometimes it's much needed! Bet you cant wait for cuddles when you get back!

Well we have had a small success. In fact I think a huge success but I'm only saying small as it may be a fluke haha. So we still dont let him nap alone but decided it's time to start getting him used to his room/cot. Normal sleep/nap time is that we get him asleep on us and slowly lower him into his crib once asleep. Very nerve racking and low success rate as mostly he wakes up and cries so we have to start again. Hoping that in a new room, new bed and new big boy 6-18m gro bag that we could start a new routine, I put him down drowsy but awake into his cot. And he just lay there... no crying. Then fell asleep within 5 mins! I did have to put white noise on and hold his hand through the bar for a few minutes but ahhh!!! We are half an hour into the nap and he's stirred a few times then gone back to sleep. I'm still nervous about leaving him before 6M so will sit with him for the next week or so until he turns 6 months on the 11th Sept but I'm so excited. Next step will be to do overnight in here in a few weeks but not sure I'm ready... anyone have their LO in their room yet? How did you manage it?

Anyway, I'm happy but pretty certain it's a one off and by his next nap I'll be holding him to sleep again!

@melissa112 I'm in awe that you were able to put him down and he went to sleep! I dream of being able to do that. If I lay Elliot down in his cot he throws his feet around and plays. If I ever put him down when he's tired enough to actually sleep he turns his head looking for boob and gets annoyed and cries when there isn't one there. And since he doesn't take a dummy there's nothing I can substitute for boob 🤦‍♀️

@Brobot I could have written that. We're definitely in the same boat. My LO considers his Next2me a small exercise box and the normal cot is his regular size exercise pen.
These babies are such silly creatures.
@melissa112 congrats! I've never managed to do the drowsy-but-awake thing.

Thanks both. I've never managed it before either so I'm amazed. Not sure if it was just the new place to sleep, different room etc or whether I got him in a rare mood. He's just come back from swimming and falling asleep on DP in his room but as he's had a bottle we like to sit him upright a while otherwise he spits up lots so likely he will be put down asleep instead of drowsy.

It must be hard if they wont take a dummy for sure. Without his dummy I don't think he would fall asleep at all. He will sleep without his dummy after his dream feed and get angry if you try to give it him then. Very odd! All other naps and the first bedtime bit he would no way settle without a dummy so I feel for you as I guess the boob to your LOs is what the dummy is to mine.

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@melissa112 no I don’t strap her in. I use the Ikea high chair with insert which holds her in place but could grab her if needed.

@BadBadBeans I love a village show did you win anything?

@Sheeni well done on surviving your journey I hope you have a lovely time

@AssumeItWasSomethingClever ha ha sounds like a great day it’s always good to be you again rather than someone’s mummy

@Brobot dd2 didn’t take a dummy until this week in desperation I bought one from the pound shop as she would not settle on a shopping trip that I needed to get stuff done lo and behold £1 dummy and she took it and fell asleep. I googled it apparently it’s a copy of a nuk dummy but I’m sure I have tried those. It may be a fluke and she may never accept it again but the peace was bliss.

It was dds christening yesterday it was an amazing if not tiring day she was so good so happy in church then slept through the entire party afterwards only waking for the last hour and for about 50 minutes of that she was feeding

My older dd starts school today I can’t believe I have a school girl she doesn’t seem phased at all I will probably have a sniffle when I see her in all her new uniform

Does anyone here have a SnuzKot? If so I have possibly the worlds most stupidest question about the mattress......

@AssumeItWasSomethingClever how was he when you picked him up? It's so good when you realise it is possible to have a little temporary freedom again!

@melissa112 ha no, separate categories. It was great fun actually, my MIL and I seriously bulked out the number of entries on show with our mostly mediocre offerings 😂 @Wineandchoccy we did get a couple of firsts and quite a lot of seconds and thirds so we weren't hopeless! I enjoyed it.

Great news about the cot success, Melissa. J will be moving in with his brother eventually but I think that will be a lot later than 6 months as I can't face the prospect of them disturbing each other! We moved DS1 into his room at 7 months with the aid of an excellent video monitor which I used to turn up to top volume so I could check he was breathing 😂

Sorry you can't use a dummy @Brobot but I have to say a massive thank you as I had totally forgotten they existed. Your post prompted me to buy a couple and when J woke crying at midnight i tried giving him one rather than feeding him. He loved it and he slept until 4.20am. Such a relief as I had been really concerned about how I was going to manage 3+ night feeds once we transition fully to bottles. Hope it works for you eventually too.

@Wineandchoccy awww how did school go? I have to start thinking about applying for places for DS1 now - can't believe it!

@BadBadBeans yeah well done 👍
She absolutely loved it she didn’t even say goodbye just ran in. Her best bit was having milk in a carton
I think what helped though at the parents evening before summer a Mum said did we all want to swap details and we now have a WhatsApp group and lots of us have met over the summer so they all knew each other yesterday and were charging around the playground like long lost friends.

@BadBadBeans He was happy as Larry bless him. It was really good to have him back but having a night off was brilliant. Might have to book in our next one soon! X

@Wineandchoccy ah ok, I'll have to see how he looks without being strapped in. I wouldn't be leaving him alone or unattended anyway. What bibs are you using to catch all the mess? I looked at those bibado that they love on the group but not sure if they are worth the money. Glad the christening went well and first day of school, sounds like your daughter had a lovely time. What a great idea to meet before school starts!

@BadBadBeans go you and MIL with your firsts and seconds! Sounds like great fun! Ha I was only thinking this morning that when he does into his own room I'll have the monitor on full blast so I can hear him breathe! I think it'll be probably 7 months ish before I'm happy with him overnight in there alone. I want to see how day naps alone go first. I've been very strict with not letting him nap alone so it will be nice to get a couple of dishes washed once in a while 🤣 realised his room has really creaky floorboards! Sat in here now while he naps, got up to get a brew and all the creaking woke him. So that should be fun! Ah yes I can see why you dont want LO disturbing his brother and vice versa. Does your LO nap with you in the room?

@melissa112 our house is a nightmare for creaking!! That's why it's so nice to go to my mum's as her house is so big so us walking about doesn't bother him. Our house is the creakiest house I've ever heard.

Trying first night in his own room tonight. He went down far too easily so I'm expecting multiple wake ups ha. But I figure the longer I leave it the harder it'll be so gotta just bite the bullet!

@Brobot ha its awful isn't it. Oh to be creak free!

@WhatALearningCurve aw look at him! Hope he sleeps well for you. Do you dream feed or is that him down for the night if all goes well?

@WhatALearningCurve is that a monitor in the corner? We have one but I have no idea where to put it so we can actually see him in the cot! Got a couple of weeks of easing into daytime naps alone before he goes in there overnight but worried about not being able to see him.

@melissa112 I dream feed him about 10ish then he wakes up about 3am - but he's stopped wanting to eat at that wake up so I'm hoping if he's on his own then he'll stop that wake up. (I am not holding my breathe 😂)

I basically pushed the cot up against the wall and I've got the monitor balanced there. It's not ideal but I'm wanting to move the room around somewhat so when I've got it how I want it then I think I'll put a shelf up for the monitor.

It also didn't help that the monitor and the receiver screech blue murder where they're fairly far away from each other (thinking they're too close) so getting the angle right was like a bad episode of Crystal Maze with me keep moving it and then running around checking the screen

@WhatALearningCurve right what sorcery is this??? How in God's name are you making this magic happen 🤣🤣. Tonight I'm trying a new tactic. I read him a story up in the bedroom and then fed him to sleep- holding him, not lying down so that it is easier to move him once asleep. Last night I bit the bullet and tried putting him in the cot just ad he was drifting off but as expected it backfired and I had to take him in to bed to settle him again. But tonight after the feed I waited for him to fall asleep and ninja-ed my way over to the cot and set him down. I am currently silently sitting on the bed waiting for him to wake up lol and I've purposely left the little night light on so that he sees that he is in the cot. My logic behind this is that there is no point sneaking him into the cot in pitch black because then he wont know he is in there and therefore wont get used to it! I don't know what I'm expecting to happen here 🤣🤣 I'm just seeing it as a mini win that I was able to transfer him in the first place lol