August 2007 - milk, mash or puree - take your pick and take cover!

[shrinkingsagpuss]

James - sorry, couldn't wait any longer... hope my link works...

Morning all. Another dreary grey day. At least I was parked right outside the house this morning so I didn't get as wet as I expected carrying the dcs from the house to the car and vice versa. Ds is definitely getting far too heavy to carry while in his car seat. I'm going to have to start taking him out of the seat as he is much easier to carry now as he holds himself up quite well and holds on to my top for dear life.

Poor dd1 my2weegirls. Sounds awful. Hope it clears up in time for her birthday. Were you planning a party? Dd has been talking about her birthday party since before christmas and her birthday's not til the end of March. I'm sure she'll be happy with a bit of food and a few games with her cousins. We can't afford to do anything fancy but we might take her out to see a show. They've got cbeebies on at the local theatre soon.

leifmum - I would have protested about the car but he had just lost his grandmother and his mum died the year before (he was still grieving for her and quite depressed) so I didn't want to upset him.

James - IMHO he will be fine with a childminder. Once she gets to know him she will know what to do with him, when to feed him, when he needs to sleep. I'd be surprised if she ever told you that he'd been screaming for 30 minutes unless he was unwell. Your dp needs to start spending more time with him so he can get to know his cues.

uki - I was in your position this time last week but thankfully we have managed to sort dd out. She is very anti going to the toilet when she's told and she's been potty trained since last April. She will only go when she decides she needs to go. Sometimes she won't go all day. It's so frustrating.

Hi folks,

Message from Tasha: Her ds1 has the vomit and diarrhea bug, so she hasn't been able to get on, not helped by her ds3 not sleeping and having a grumpy day yesterday.

Also, it's her 22nd birthday today so HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TASHA!

James is having a clingy day today. He'll sleep if I'm cuddling him, but the eyes are open as soon as I put him down in his pushchair. Normally I don't mind when he wants cuddling to sleep but I tried to sort his clothes out last night and then had to run to slimming world and start making tea etc when I got back so I've got a living room that looks like an explosion in Adams, and about a million pots to wash.

Plus my sister is finally back from NZ and she's coming over in a bit, so I have an hour to tidy up, wash the pots, get ds changed out of his porridge spattered babygrow, change myself out of dp's guns n roses tshirt and pink sheep print pyjama bottoms (God, I'm sexy) and run a hoover round.

But instead, I'm posting on MN.

I'm having deliciously naughty daydreams about shoving everything that needs sorting/washing/dusting into a binbag and throwing it in the shed....

Also, that Justin fella off cbeebies freaks me the f*ck out.

Happy birthday Tasha. Not the present you were expecting I bet. Hope ds1 gets better soon.

I'm sure your sis won't mind a bit of mess James. Would your dp not do the dinner on your SW night? I'd like to hide the washing in the shed too. I've been trying to be more organised lately and do at least 2 loads of washing every other day. The washing is not the issue, it's finding some way to get it dry. I've already got 3 clothes airers in the back bedroom. God knows where I'm going to put it all when we turn it into ds's bedroom.

My dh annoys me sometimes. I'll be running around like a headless chicken on 'work nights' making sure everything is done and the kids get to bed on time (not that ds has a strict bedtime) to the point where I don't get to sit down til nearly 10pm, which is when I like to go to bed (rarely happens btw). Meanwhile, dh is happily oblivious, playing games online on his laptop casually asking me when I'm going to take dd ready for bed Why should I have to ask him to go and get the pjs or clean dd's teeth? Sorry - mini rant there.

Lol. Dh doesn't like Justin either. I think he's a marmite person. I quite like him. It's Andy (one of the presenters) that I find a bit freaky.

Dp, cook???? hohoho

Dp came home tonight and said he's quitting his job. His boss is totally unreasonable and forgetful, and it's a bad combination. He'll say to dp "How much would it cost to have a website made?" and dp will say "I'll look into it" then boss will call back in three days time forgetting he hasn't made any more arrangements at all, and not only expect the website to be made, but be up and running, when he only asked for the cost of the damn thing. And then he lays into dp implying he's lazy and saying everyone's jobs are on the line because of him.

Dp is understandably hacked off with the constant unnecessary and unfair bollockings he gets because this man never finishes arranging things, but expects them to be done, and in a totally unfeasible time period. They treat dp like a general dogsbody, he's in charge of all the IT for the company, all the marketing, website maintainence, advert design, building and equipment maintainence (he even has to fix the windows etc) reports and statistics, and also has people coming to him throughout the day for IT help. It's too much work for anyone.

So in a nutshell he's doing at least two people's jobs for only £18k, and they regularly expect him to work late/weekends unpaid. It's a total pisstake- I just hope he can find something else soon because he's so angry about it all he could quit tomorrow, but we'd seriously be in the shit if he did.

James that's awful. I know what it's like to be in a job you hate but that just takes the biscuit. I really hope he finds something good soon. I bet he could find a much better job for a lot more money. He should put his cv on monster.

Ds had his first hair cut today. I was shocked that it cost £8 considering how little hair he has but it does look good. I'll upload a picture to my profile soon.

BTW James - I made the apricot and pear puree you mentioned. Mum gave it to him today mixed with yoghurt and he wolfed it down. He is actually starting to refuse his milk now in favour of solids. He's refusing 1 or 2 bottles per day. I'm a bit worried because today he's only had about 18oz and I've read they're supposed to have a minimum of 21oz.

Hmm. Well, if you're worried that he isn't taking enough milk, you could try incorporating 3 or 4oz into his food (for example when making up his porridge/baby rice, or just added to stiff fruit purees to thin them out to the right consistency)

I'm not sure exactly though, my piglet wants ALL his milk and ALL his food. He can eat a whole 4 month old sized jar of food (I freeze homemade in those jars too) and is eating three meals a day now. I'm actually a bit worried that he's eating so much he might start to put on quite a bit of weight, but then I remind myself that it's mostly fruit veg and the odd bit of porridge or rice- not very calorific.

Aaw, Alex had a haircut already? bet he looks like a proper little boy!

morning everyone thanx for the happy bday, 22 omg. ds1 is back to his normal cheaky self musta been a 24 hour thing, or my cooking and ds3 wants to be up all day now but isnt happy unless hes being held.
uki sorry to hear you had a bad day yesterday, we used to bring ds1 to the toilet with us everytime we went and he just started going on his own, luckily we have no problems there, o better go back soon lo crying....

Gill

dd2 has never drank 21oz of milk in a day. Although she is about 16lb she has never had more then 5oz but mainly 4oz's in any one bottle and no more 5 bottles in day. So although she is only 18wks i now slowly weaning her as she is crying because she is hungry but doesn't like milk.

So now i trying to feed every 2 hours.

6am MILK

8am PORRIDGE/BABY RICE

10am MILK

12pm 2TSP OF SAVORY/VEG

2 - 3pm MILK

6 - 7pm MILK

11pm MILK then she sleeps until 6am

hey all! quick post because think matilda will be waking up soon. at last it's topped raining so went for a walk this morning. the river near us is soooo high at the momnet. i hope you're all in nice dry zones!

we had a busy day yesterday. had baby massage. think we've started it a bit late really because dd hates being on her back for too long now. wants to be moving around so we had to improvise! dashed home for lunch then out to a playdate which was lovely. catching up with the other mums we've met. did mean she missed two of her three naps though so bit tense by the end of the day. chinese take away helped as always!!

gill- so sorry to hear about your husband's (and yours) losses. it always seems that when one horrible event happens, it's swiftly followed by something else just to really keep you down. i hope he's enjoying the car!

i'm looking into maybe working at a suermarket for a couple of evenings a week? my dh works for waitrose but also looking at tesco and asda, does anyone have any experience of working for them? wondered how flexible they can be with shifts etc.?

today for lunch lo will be having a mixture of courgette, watercress, potato and squash so her clothes will be splattered orange and green before too long! she just seems to be eating more and more at the moment and her milk intake hasn't dropped either! 6-9 month clothes are only just fitting now, very frustrating!!!

happy birthday tasha! can barely remember being 22! but having said that i think in my head i'm still about 19.

hope you all have lovely day

hello ! i've been lurking the past few days will try and remember whateveryon'e been posting about.

happy belated birthday tasha - hope you had a good day and dp got you something nice?

james - like your plan - really makes a big difference being able to drive and i hope you dp gets another job before he quits!!

uki - my dd1 was a bit of a nightmare yesterday behaviour wise - think she was fed up with me and wanted to see her friends - thankfully her 48hr quarantine is up and she's back a childminders toaday.

i even told her that her birthday would be cancelled if she didn't behave - it made no difference.

gill - no party planned - i couldn't face it, just have family round. she can have parties when she's older (i'm a bad mum!!)

dd2 and i are choked again with the cold plus i think she's getting her 3rd tooth so we had about 2 hrs sleep last night.

off into town to see if i can find a dora the explorer birthday cake

Afternoon all. Glad to hear your dcs are better tasha and my2weegirls. It's awful when they're ill, especially when you have other dcs to take care of.

Dd didn't go to sleep til gone 11pm last night cos she had a 3 hour sleep from 3pm til 6pm. It was her turn to walk from town to school yesterday (with ds and their cousin in the buggy). She told mum she needed to sit down so she suggested that she knelt on the front of the buggy and held onto the bar. Within seconds she was bent over the buggy asleep. When mum got to school she had to take her out and lay her on top of her cousin who was also asleep. She didn't wake up til we got home. She went to bed on time but wasn't tired enough to go to sleep til late. Miraculously I still managed to get 7.5 hrs sleep interrupted a couple of times by Alex needing his dummy.

Thanks leifmum - It was really hard at the time (just under 3 years ago), especially as we were due to get married 4 weeks after mil died. Fortunately dh and fil wanted to go ahead with it. He absolutely loves his car. His uncle has the same one and they somehow find something to do to them every weekend.

Will have to try that James. He likes the powdered breakfast yoghurt I got for him so I'm sure he'll like porridge.

lizziemun - it's strange having a baby refusing milk as dd was obsessed with it and has only just stopped having bottles of milk a few months ago.

Anyone know when they can start eating weetabix?

I know with dd1 she was drink 9oz bottles every 4hours but didn't sleep through the night until she was nearly 2 1/2yrs. but hated food/weaning

just back from hv and they are worried about los weight, he is 9lb 12 so they want me to start weaningand they are going to check him again after op. wee man had to get three injections he was so happy before and then he had to get them in his wee skinny legs
sorry havent caught up with everyone yet just have to say james have you ever read/watched the devil wears prada? your dp's boss sounds like miranda in it. thats terrible not surprized he wants out! well back soon in desperate need of a smoke!

Is your ds3 going to be able to cope with spoonfuls of solids with his cleft palate? (I have no idea about these things) I suppose he must be able to if the hv is recommending you wean him. Hope it goes ok

Gill I have some of that fruit and yoghurt dried breakfast too, gave it him yesterday for beakfast, and afterwards he was covered in tiny flecks of red fruit, so I was wiping his face and one bit just wouldn't come off, and I was wiping and scrubbing and picking at it for about a minute before I realised it was actually a tiny scratch. Horrible cruel mummy!!! lol

Lo is asleep on his padded changing mat on the floor (it's covered in a couple of blankets, as is he) it's great because I no longer have to have the pushchair up in the livingroom 24/7, or worry about him rolling off the sofa, and I can just chuck it behind his toybox when he wakes up.

Dp has stayed off work today, he was in no mood to go in. I'm worried about it all, I hope they realise how much they're taking the piss and back off.

tasha - is it next week your lo goes for his first op? will weaning interfere with that? just thinking that he may not be able to eat as easily if he's just had an op?

tasha - IMHO that doesn't sound right. Might be worth adding a post to the feeding section on here. There should be plenty of experts or people who have had premature babies. I'm obviously no expert but I assumed that weaning should start later than normal and milk contains more calories. See what they say.

Sorry if I sounded bossy there tasha. It's just that I know hv's can give some odd advice and it's better if you don't have the hassle of weaning if you don't need to.

hi no i was surprised too and i said to her that i thought it would go by his weight more than his age because he is prem but the 2 hv that were there said no, she also told me to give him 5 oz milk but he wont take 5 oz. his first op is going to fix his nose lip and soft palate which is at the back and he wont get the hard palate fixed till he is one so either way he will have to learn to eat like that. im not going to start him just yet because his op is next thursday and its going to be hard enough feeding with milk im going to have to syringe feed him for a while and he will have splints on his arms (ill pass these onto you james to stop him putting his hands to his mouth when hes feeding lol) if you look in your red book hes always been dead on the second line and now hes went well down, hes 21 weeks but in the red book hes minus 7 weeks.

Tasha - I agree with Gill, does seem odd advice. As even consdiering his real age he's only just over 4 months. I would ask your GP for a second opinion, hv can be full of tosh!

Gill - £8 for a baby hair cut . I use dh clippers to do ds1. They are dead easy to use and can even manage to do a bit of a style (less than £20 so pay for themselves very quickly). I tend to give him some sweets and stick the TV on and he doesn't even notice it happening (although last time he did have a moan but that's part of beeing 2!)

Can't be bothered to do bedtime tonight - feel like just sticking dc in bed in their clothes. At least they will be ready in the morning!

Hi folks- someone plase tell James it's time to go to bloody sleep! He's been ready for bed for three hours now but keeps nodding off and then waking up screaming because of wind or stupid cannons blasting suddenly on tv. And now he's stubbornly awake but yawning and grumbling.

I swear to god they know when you're not up to it all. I've had toothache and sinus pain since lunch and no painkillers in the house- I've just necked half a bottle of calpol to try and shift it and it's slowly going (not helped by the whinging boy in the pushchair)

And as I've been stressed out (and my sister brought me a box of kiwi fruit chocs from NZ) my diet has gone to shit today, too. Not the best of days.

In slightly better news (well, in my eyes anyway, for I am lazy and bored of spoonfeeding) I gave him a slice of pear today and he held it and gummed/sucked it for a bit. No idea if he associated it with eating or just as a toy, but in any case he seemed to like it, so maybe blw will work despite the purees... time will tell.

I just checked and he's finally asleep- HOORAY!

hi james! hope you have a better day today. can you tell me a bit more about blw? is it that you just give your babes "normal food" and don't worry about mashing etc? would definitely be a lot easier!

giving dd apple puree later for lunch. she's not been overly keen on it before so we'll see how we go.

have lovely day all!

have just remembered it's thursday which means er is on tv tonight! knew there was a good reason for getting up!!!

Leifmum- the basic concept behind blw is that you start off giving them "chip shaped" pieces of food roughly the size of their fist, once they reach 6 months and are confidently sitting up by themselves as this corresponds with their ability to cope with solid pieces of food.

You can start off with pieces of steamed carrot etc and at first they may just wave it around and look at it, and next time you give it to them they may sniff it or lick it etc- the whole concept of blw is that the baby is in control, and can eat at their own pace and discover the food rather than have it shovelled in. It's supposed to prevent overeating etc for the same reason. (Some parents may not know the signs of their baby being full etc)

Milk is supposed to be their main source of nutrition while they get used to the bits of food- so I don't know how it will work for us since I've been feeding James pures for a month.

For more info and much better explanations/examples have a look at Aitch's blog (she's a MNer, too) here

Morning all. Hope you're feeling better James. We actually got an evening last night. Dd fell asleep in the car on the way home and stayed asleep til 6am and ds was asleep by 8:45. There was washing up, washing and puree making to do but we still managed to watch a bit of tv together.

I weighed myself last night and I've actually lost 3lb (possibly more as I normally do it in the morning) since just before xmas. It's a bit of a miracle really considering dh kept tempting me with his chocolates. Ds is now 19lb 14oz. The only way I can get him weighed is by weighing myself, then both of us and then working out the difference as I can't get to the clinic anymore.

I'll be giving blw style food as soon as ds is ready too. I'll carry on with the purees for a while but there's no harm in getting him to feed himself early on and, once he's used to it he can just eat what we have - albeit defrosted and earlier on in the day.

I love ER too leifmum. I don't think I've missed an episode since it first started. I normally have to record it and watch it later though as dh's programmes are always more important

Today ds is having sweet potato, pear and apricot puree and a yoghurt. I found out this morning that he seems to be refusing his milk because he doesn't want to be held whilst being fed. As soon as I put him in the bouncer he drank 5oz (which is still not much considering the last bottle he had was at 8pm last night). Anyone else found this?