August/ September 2019 babies #2

[kyles101]

Thread number 2 for our August / September 2019 due date babies.

DS is having a regression on nighttime sleep since moving over to combi - seems to want to wale at 1am whereas before would always go through until 3am...

You can absolutely do combination of spoon fed and finger foods - but that's not Baby Led Weaning. The Baby Led bit is about giving them pieces of food to play with and to choose to eat if they want to. The playing with the food and deciding if they want to put it in their mouth is the bit that is meant to help make them good eaters long term. With BLW you never “feed” the baby, you just put the food in front of them and leave them to it, but for a couple of weeks before include them in your meals do they get the idea of eating before you give them any to try.

You can give soft foods in BLW, eg yoghurt with fruit to dip on it themselves, or you can get dipping spoons they use to feed themselves, but it’s generally suggested to start with finger food first until they get the hang of it.

@horehound it wasn't the age, it was the spoon! They were militant about BLW but as we had to wean her early we had no choice but to start with purees.

@Stroan what a horrible bunch of people-I don’t understand why anyone would care so much about how someone else feeds their child!

My NCT are all weaning slightly differently, most doing full BLW but others not. We are all friends and don’t judge each other.

Thanks @Megan2018 will have to try to figure out something better for the mattress. A new one would be good!

@Stroan aren't people funny, as if it should matter to them how you fed your baby. They sound horrible.

Fwiw i havent done BLW with any of my big 4 and none are fussy eaters, i think them being fussy probably stems more from giving them too much of what they really like and not persevering with different tastes. It can take a while from them to accept new (often savory) foods

Oh BLW I'm starting to get a bit bllllaaaaahhh bla bla about this at the minute. @Horehound you absolutely can offer both a spoon and finger food, who really cares what that "type" of weaning is called! I'm following @weanin15 on Instagram which follows Joe Wicks weaning his little girl and has some amazing ideas for both purees and finger foods. He has always offered a little of puree and finger foods.

@Stroan that's just unforgivable from your NCT group, I just don't understand the level of self righteousness from people when it comes to parenting some times!

I bought this book last night on Amazon and it's already arrived...woo!
Just read this part which does say combined mixture of spoon and blw is advocated by three different bodies. So I think I'll do that but not Gona put pressure on either of us to follow any rigid thing.

Anyone else got snow? It's blooming. Freezing here!

I might have owned that book at one point!

@that90sbitch lol I bet you could write the book now!

Got another question for you, I feel you've prib had lots of experience in this too...Arthur keeps rolling on his change mat to look at everything around him and try and touch everything in sight. This is making nappy changing quite the challenge. What do you do?!

I’ve used annabel karmel to help with ideas and the NHS start4life advice! Weaning just means gradually replacing milk with solid food so, so long as you don’t do that purely with hobnobs and you’re offering an age appropriate balanced diet it doesn’t matter what name it’s given in my opinion! Just have fun with it @Horehound and do what feels right for you and your boy! And imo at the end of the day it’s always a mixture of adult led (you chose what you offer) and baby led (they chose what they accept and how much)

You get really fast at changing nappies

Puts the hobnobs away

Yeh that's right @Myspiritan and I am quite excited about it.

Lol @that90sbitch. I thought I was fast. This is now expert level!

Good luck @horehound you'll be fine, enjoy it! Oh, and I started only changing nappies on the floor and eventually progressed to pull ups ...

@happydays00 I think I got really unlucky. I tried so hard for 7 months and then recognised that they were causing me to question myself and feel bad about myself so just stopped meeting up. Parenting is just muddling through and finding what works for you, weaning is no different.

Ugh @Stroan sorry to hear about your NCT horrors! I think sometimes people get so caught up I researching the "best" way to do things that they forget that best for them may not be best for others. Parenting fundamentalists, not helpful!!
Annabel Karmel! Heh! I think possibly she may be one if the reasons people get a bit het up about doing BLW straight- she spent YEARS basically telling people that if they did BLW their baby would instantly choke to death, and now has her own BLW book out. Funny that. Gill Rapley's book (the "original" BLW book) is very useful, if you are interested. (And covers err... not doing BLW if you are waning early for medical reasons!). The advantage of doing it straight is that things progress quite slowly, at the rate that the baby develops, so in sober ways you have to pay less attention. If you mix it up you need to be a bit more on it (same principle as not helping children climb on things in playgrounds so they are only on things they can manage themselves).
We did straight BLW with my first two and will again. Basically you transition seamlessly from eating your lunch with a baby on your lap to finding the baby has eaten your lunch. But do look at the book, the library will have it.

@DustyDoorframes you are so right re the researching vs reality. I've got a good friend who had her first DC not long before DS which is lovely, but her constant spouting of knowledge from research drives me bananas!!

@Geegrl19 how is it going back at work? Are you managing to get more sleep yet? 😬 we bed share from 5am onwards, I'd say my mattress is a medium and I also have a memory foam topper on there. DS sleeps on his side or front.

@THAT90sBITCH re army crawl: yes, DS is but only backwards 😂 it's like an army crawl meets moon walk! Is yours on the move!?

Yes! Hes like a worm all over the floor!

I'm actually now really excited about letting ds try new foods - so far he's just had a suck on my pear and a tiny bit of yoghurt on the end of a spoon- he then spent and hour sucking the spoon just in case he'd missed any, very cute! He's only 23 weeks so literally only teeny tiny tastes at the moment but he's so strong at pulling everything I eat or drink towards him, I'm going to have to stop eating anything when he's on my lap!

@happydays00 work was surprisingly ok although the brain fog was horrific. Hoping that clears a bit this week. I managed to pump too which went ok. Unfortunately the lady I work with handed in her notice last week so looking (again) for someone new. Nightmare. I just hope I'm not on my own for too long as I'll still have to pump. Will have to shut the office, tough poo! I'm a bit stressed about it to tell you the truth.

The sleep is so hot and miss. Amazing night on Sunday and then he'll last night. I'm so tired of being so tired, it's debilitating. Will have to try the full on in the bed I think and see how that goes. I'm paranoid is pulling the duvet up in my sleep and smothering him. I'm hoping there's a kind of sixth sense and this doesn't happen.

Must start reading up about weaning. Think I'll go the but of both route and see how it goes? Can't believe we're all nearly at that stage.

I thought having a spoon was fine in BLW, so long as it is baby using it, not you. :S

I've had my head in the sand and been avoiding thinking about weaning. Still got 3 and a bit weeks to go at least. Tongue reflex is still around anyway.

Hope all goes well with the bed sharing Geegrl. And you finally get some good night sleep.

If Alice can get traction with her feet on anything, she's gonna scoot backwards. Especially when she's having her nappy changed. I just let her wriggle. She enjoys it, and no disasters have happened yet.

Pretty much accepted that Alice might just skip rolling altogether. She's simply not interested. She rarely rolls to her side when on her back now, but makes no attempt to go further. Tummy time, she holds her head up high and drools stares. Doesn't have any interest in toys or grabbing at stuff in front of her. Just staring. I've been encouraging her, but I think this is one milestone she's not going to hit.

Haha @dyra bet one day she'll just suddenly do it and shock you! DC3 is nowhere near rolling, she's only 20 weeks though so no hurry. Besides, she rarely gets to lie down and have a good try for fear of being run over by her galumphing siblings.
@Geegrl19 argh re your colleague!!! Hopefully a brilliant replacement will turn up at the perfect moment. Re duvet, we use a sheet and blankets which makes it a lot less fretful. Easier to for everything to stay put!
DP and DC1 have a horrific stomach bug, I think DC2 had it v mildly last week. I am washing my hands/towels/beds etc like crazy, please please please let me (and the baby) skip it!!!!!

@dyra rolling is overrated. Whenever I'm trying to get Nate to sleep (approximately 80% of the time ) he rolls onto his belly and just has his big bald head in the air and cries, argh. Lost count of how many times I say 'head down'.

@DustyDoorframes keep scrubbing those hands and don't let anyone near you whatever you do!!

@Geegrl19 I lie on my side facing DD and tuck any covers between my legs so I can’t accidentally pull them up over her

Agree rolling is over rated. I miss being able to put the baby down and leave the room knowing he will stay put and not be found trying to eat the rug / bottom of the sofa etc

@Dyra My girl is exactly the same! She pushes herself backwards with her feet on slidey surfaces. We have ended up putting a rolled up towel next to the wall where we change her because she kept scooting back so quick she would wack her head on the wall and hurt herself... 🙄 And she's rolled over back to front once and never again. No interest in front to back rolling she just chills during tummy time then thrashes around like a beetle who's stuck and shrieks until I turn her the right way up. She seems to be a lot more interested in sitting and standing so maybe ours will just skip to that!!

@Dyra we're in the same boat with rolling. E is not interested at all. He'll happily roll on his side but won't go further. He can go from tummy to back but chooses not too and will just shout for us to roll him back instead. Lazy boy!

Speaking of shouting.... he chatters non stop. Like all day everyday. I've never known a baby like it!

We had the paediatrician yesterday to discuss reflux and weaning. We've been told to official y start the weaning process now to try and calm the daily puking. We discussed BLW and spoon and were told to stick with the spoon for now (weaning for us at the moment is to line his tummy a bit so paediatrician has suggested the spoon so we know he is getting some in him rather than his face/clothes/ the floor) and then at 6 months carry in with a few spoonfuls at first then hand either the spoon or the picky foods to him for the rest of the meal. We'll see how we get on anyway.

We've got 5 months today and I can't quite believe how quickly these months have gone!