June 2020 Babies-Six months on: mobile babies, feeding adventures, and still sleepless nights! 3rd thread

[UKtoSK]

Hi everyone! I made a new thread as we were at the end of the last one. A new thread for the new year! I changed the title as we don’t have newborns anymore!

@UKtoSK @MrsMarrio @Magpie21
Hi its just a simple plan to follow with 2 options either in room settling or coming in and out after however many minutes it says. The first night was hell on earth I cried she cried dh nearly cried but once I was at that point I had settled her the first time so I thought there's no point all that upset being for nothing and I told myself the first night would be the worst and it was ! I would say it only took a week for her to really click and 'get it' now a typical night bed at 7.30 , woke at 3.30am so fed her both sides and back asleep for 4am then woke at 7am if she doesn't wake I wake her by 7.30am to keep her on schedule she's On a pretty strict routine throigh the day it doesn't work for everyone but it definitely does for me and her she naps at exactly the same times abs I wake her from both naps x

I know what you mean re finger foods I still get abit nervy but she's doing so well she much prefers finger food we don't spoon feed her at all, again it's another personal preference she has really taken to weaning I feel like she's changing daily now she really responds to her name. Still won't sit on her own for very long more interested in trying to crawl and getting cross !

I hope your parents can visit soon @UKtoSK

@UKtoSK we hired a sleep consultant and she was amazing. I can message you her info xx

@Magpie21 we put Freddie down wide awake and within five mins he settles himself to sleep. I love our bibado and thing they're definitly worth it to avoid the lap full of food.
Felt awful last night after my jab, my whole body ached and felt I had a fever, took some paracetamol and feel fine this morning.

We have a cheap Amazon version of the bibado and I like it so far, I only really use it at lunch times though the rest of the time I just embrace the mess 😂

We have been using the whatmummymakes cook books and I love them!! Most of our meals come from her recipes because I love
That theirs so easy to follow but they’re so yummy and I like only have to cook one for us and Grace and she enjoys having the same as us.
She prefers to feed herself so I put finger foods on her tray and she just cracks on with it.
Have struggling with her learning to use a cup for water though, she didn’t really “get” the munchkin 360 one so we’re using a tum tum straw one and she seems to be getting the hang of that one better.

I was nervous about the finger foods and the choking/gagging but I read that if they are red and loud to let them crack on with it, if they’re quiet and blue (blue lips) they need you. Of the few times she has gagged/choked (many due to now chewing properly or shoving too much in) I have just let her cough it up herself and she manages to do it just fine and then normally picks up her food and carries on with no bother (meanwhile I have to take some deep breaths to calm down lol)

@UKtoSK hope your parents are able to come and see you soon, it must be so hard that they haven’t been able to see your little one yet.
Will she take a dummy or are you not wanting to introduce one? That’s been the key for us getting grace to self settle.

Sorry just read that back, sooooo many typos! I wish you could go back and edit

@Cornishbumpkin @mrssunshinexxx sleep training was the best thing I did, glad it's going well!

@Magpie21 I bought 2 bibados and I think they are worth it - good quality and will save so much cleaning time and faffing around! Only thing for me is my little one seems to hate putting it on, but he doesnt like getting dressed either - it's mainly the motion of putting his arms through something (like a bodysuit) so he got really upset with the bib. Think that most would be fine with it though!

@MrsMarrio yes finger foods are setting me on edge so much! I also had Ella's kitchen book and pouches but he just doesnt seem to like puree / mushy food and prefers finger food. I've started with breakfast with toast with different toppings and just this week introduced lunch. I always pick extra soft things so with lunch I've started with sweet potato mashed with tuna spring onion and creme fraiche into little patties which I fry for a couple of minutes. I feel safer with these types of textures and wouldnt feel brave enough to try other things like meat fish even fruit! It's been slow going with him, i think he is still getting comfortable with chewing and swallowing.

I also give him Ella's melty sticks and he likes them - I think they are a really good option as gets them used to small amount of chewing and swallowing with minimal danger as it basically dissolves quite a lot!

@SRS1311 Any purée that falls off the spoon I thicken up with rice, but anything with too much texture for example if I mash instead of blend he will retch until he throws up 😂 so veggie sticks and stuff are a no go at the minute, but he only turns 7 months tomorrow. Trying to build him up with melty puffs and things like that. Bought some ellas kitchen rice cakes for him to try today too. Although he's taken a shine to Aldi prawn crackers 🤣

I've also bought the other cook books in the Ellas kitchen range to think of some other meals to make. I think they are really good and much more realistic family meals compared to celeb cook books who will have you slaving away in the kitchen for hours for a Tuesday night dinner!

@mrssunshinexxx @Cornishbumpkin I’m glad it has worked so well for you both! I’ll take another look at the plan and see if I think Jia and I can handle it!

@umabb that would be great, thank you. Was it expensive?

We are mostly doing finger foods but only really soft things that I’m comfortable with. She doesn’t really like being spoon feed but is really getting the hang of putting things in her mouth. I haven’t made her anything yet, just given steamed vegetables and fruits and egg. I have two cookbooks - What Mummy Makes and Little Veggie Eats. Now that she is showing more interest in trying food I’m going to start making some of the recipes for me and giving her a bit.

I would definitely encourage trying with the finger food as weirdly they need practice to learn how to handle the bigger pieces and indeed to gag if they need to. We have given big strips of steak and chicken and she just gives them a good old suck! As long as finger foods aren't hard (like raw carrot sticks) or round (like grapes) then they can all manage. Just observe closely! My bigger concern is her hiding bits in her mouth so we have to check it has been emptied when we're done!

Has anyone else's baby learnt to kiss? She doesn't pucker her lips but if you say 'kiss' she leans in and presses her face against yours!!!

Take a look here especially the testimonial shuteye.co.uk
She's a bit of headmistress type of personality but it was exactly what I needed to get through the training. Her knowledge of sleep is amazing. @UKtoSK wasn't cheap though. A two week program was about £400. The initial consultation call is free you could have a chat with her to start with. Have said that with time difference it might be harder for you to work with her. Can take a look locally too? In China sleep consultation is becoming a common thing as well in the past few years I presume similar in Korea. Hope it helps xx

@umabb thank you for the information x

@NeurologicallySpeaking yes just this week Jia has started giving me big open mouthed (no puckering) kisses and it’s the best thing ever ❤️ She also prefers the finger foods and feeding herself and it’s a lot of fun and less stressful than I thought it would be. She also likes hiding food in her mouth for a long time! A while after dinner she spat out a bit of egg onto her exersaucer that I didn’t know she still had in her mouth lol.

Omg the baby kisses sound soo cute! Definitely better than the hair pulling we have here!

I know what everyone means about the gag reflex, so scary seeing it and kinda puts me off finger foods as I'm not sure what's safe to give. But it's all part of their learning isn't it! @NeurologicallySpeaking that's great re steak and chicken, I need to be braver and try more foods!!
Meal times in general are still hit and miss, sometimes he'll gobble up something and the next time I try it it's a no go.

@Cornishbumpkin I got the covid vaccine this week too for returning to work in April. Luckily only had a sore arm afterwards. Had second thoughts due to BFing and Mom guilt too!!

Have delayed sleep training again because husband has been super busy but hearing @mrssunshinexxx @Cornishbumpkin has renewed my motivation again.

Haha we still have way more hair pulling than kisses sadly

Haha same. I’m lucky I have any hair left! Same goes for our cats, the poor things. She’s always grabbing big handfuls of their fur!! Thankfully they’re the calmest friendliest cats in the world and they don’t seem to mind. They don’t even run away half the time and always come to lie next to her on her play mat. How is everyone else with pets babies interacting with them now?

Exactly the same @UKtoSK. We bought two kittens when the baby was four months old. Not the usual plan but our poor old cat was killed the same week the baby was born so thought at least I would be home all the time to settle new kittens in.

Baby is always trying to grab them, smiles at them now, but they still come to cuddle up!

@UKtoSK
We've got 2 dogs one 5 and one 3. When we first brought baby home they couldn't stop sniffing him, the older one would let the baby lie next to her, the younger one would jump up like she'd had an electric shock 😂
She's settled down now and just wants to give him kisses all the time which the baby hates. The older one basically ignored him for 4 months then she started to do things to wake him up from his naps, like nudge and lick him (he sleeps in his cot for daytime naps now). But they all adore each other now.

The baby done his first giggle that wasn't something directly happening to him when he was watching the dogs playing. Sometimes one will just be sat doing nothing and he will giggle his head off.

The dogs will come lie next to him and check on him. It's so sweet. And they are subjected to a few hair pull, eye pokes and slaps and they are just so daft they just take it.

Apologies if this has double posted but my phone seems to be glitching! Loving hearing about the kisses and giggles. If anyone's doing BLW I highly recommend giving them corn on the cob, it's fascinating watching them try and work it out.

Ahhh @Cornishbumpkin that is sooooo cute!
My LO doesn’t have any teeth yet, does Yours? Not sure how she’d cope with it with no teeth!
@UKtoSK we have a 3 year old Labrador and he is scared of everything lol so I wasn’t sure how he would react, but most of the time he ignores her unless she’s eating in which case he hovers around waiting for anything she might drop, he also like to try and give her kisses which is sooo cute. Occasionally she freaks him out now that she’s moving around more, but he been very good at just moving out of her way. She is obsessed with him, loves watching everything is does and loves stroking him, it’s soooo cute 🥰

@Cornishbumpkin yes! Nelly loves it and it's so cute watching her turn it round to get the corn bless them

Aww @Cornishbumpkin we have the same bib! Will give the corn a go..the weaning has got a bit better this week and he seems to have developed the motion of biting chewing and swallowing but still small amounts.

For those formula feeding - Has anyone dropped a milk feed or know when you do? I do a morning bottle followed by breakfast an hr later. I then give him a bottle at around 10am followed by lunch at about 12. He doesn't seem that interested in the 10am bottle. Hes still getting loads of milk overall as well - about 34 ounces!! Not sure if I should be reducing that?!

He's got his 2 bottom teeth so uses them to pull bits off but his top gum works pretty well too 😊 the bib is a lifesaver for my washing machine as otherwise everything ends up on his lap and he has to get changed after every meal

@SRS1311 yes Grace has dropped one bottle now that she’s having a decent amount at each meal.
Typically she used to have 5 bottles per day - we always give 210ml (roughly 7oz) but some she finishes and some she doesn’t and now she has 4 x 210ml and typically finishes them all.
Similar to your LO. She wakes up between 6.30/7am and has a bottle at 7ish, breakfast at 8ish, next bottle after her morning nap so typically around 10.30am, then lunch about 11.30/12pm and then another bottle after her post lunch nap so somewhere around 2.30/3pm and then she has her bedtime bottle around 6.30ish.
I think they say to just follow their lead and they’ll drop them naturally. There’s a lady on Instagram @feedeatspeak who has posted some info about this before I’ll see if I can attach it here. But if it does work just go to her bottle feeding q&a highlight and it’s towards the end.

@Cornishbumpkin aww so cute 🥰 it’s amazing how much they can chew with just their gums isn’t it? I might offer her some anyway just to see what she does with it, exposure is key after all!

@SRS1311
Yes Rowan has now dropped a bottle. He was having 5x210ml at the start of January as I introduced 3 meals a day it was a fight at every bottle feed and he was drinking like 2floz out of every bottle all day then he went from sleeping through to wanting a bottle at 2am then again at 7am, so I took out his lunch time bottle as this was the one he was least interested in. Now he's drinking all bottles no problem.

8am- wake up and bottle upon waking then breakfast afterwards.
11.30- lunch
3pm- milk feed
5pm- dinner
7ish milk feed
10.30/11ish- last milk feed

Just wondering if any of your LO will only take a bottle from mum? Rowan is ok first thing if dad gets up with him but as soon as he sees me it's game over, he won't let dad feed him even if he has already started. And any feed later on in the day he won't let dad give it to him DH after trying for a while has to shout me to do it. It's getting me stressed as I go back to work in 8 weeks.