August 2021 Babies - From Santa to Solids, Hohoho!

[PurplePansy05]

Here we go again!

I'd do another delightful intro, alas I've lost count which thread this is now and we all know our LO's names anyway 😁

So instead I will just say, Merry First Christmas together to you and your LOs! 🎄❤🎁

May the sleep regression pass as soon as they see Santa later this week...

...May they love weaning and may our kitchens survive...

...May 2022 be full of blessings for them and for us ❤❤❤

Oldcomers and newcomers welcome, as always! 🥰

@Ready2020 I totally get the sleep woes.
We've given up trying to settle DD 'down' for the night. I feed her to sleep then try and lay her down next to me on the sofa or if that fails I relatch and let her sleep in my arms.
Then me and DH can have a bit of TV/quiet evening time together.
When we go to bed she comes in with me and we'll feed again lying down.

It's not ideal but mentally feels better than the 3 hour battles to get her to sleep in the next to me (by which point I'm knackered and ready for bed anyway and have had no evening as such).

She's also started refusing a bottle if I'm in the house when previously we were managing one a day.

@BertieBotts yes I think I need to start doing that. Right now my turnabout time is 1-3 days but I like to get them done on the first day or I then get more orders the next day and so on and it all gets too much 🙈 but I think I need to extend it to 3-5 days at least then give an express option so that I can set aside days/times where I do them rather than just trying to get them all done as soon as I can

I’m probably late to the party (as usual) with this but have you all seen this video before? 🥺 It’s about being a mum to a boy but is relevant for girls too. Cried so much watching it tonight just thinking about a newborn picture popping up on my phone and I thought I don’t remember him looking like that at all 😭 Life really does just start moving in fast forward as soon as you have a child. I’m so busy trying to get everything done in the house and with my business now that I don’t fully stop to appreciate him at all. Tomorrow I’m just going to spend the day with him, as a little person, without rushing from one thing to another 🤦🏼‍♀️ God, I’m away again 😭

Would help if I linked the video 🙃

So Sophia has decided she does not want to be laid down to sleep.. ever. I think at most she spend 2 hours in the Moses basket last night . Tonight so far maybe the same but we have been "in bed" since 9 pm and had 3 wake up since then and otherwise has remained on me. She will feed, fall sleep, I'll try and transfer her to the basket and the second her head touches the mattress she starts screaming. She's tired I'm tired what is going on?!
She cried when laid flat in the pram for naps too did slightly better if pram up raised a bit.
Oh and apparently the dummy has turned to poison in the past 2 days.. she was never a huge fan but she would usually take it for a couple of sucks when transferring to bed before. Now it seems to make her cry harder 😫

Ok so she is also chomping on my finger when she wakes (was trying to see if stroking her head would send her back to sleep) have applied teething gel here's hoping!

Hope your night got better @smurf123

My DD has really mastered rolling from her back to front. She does it frequently every day. This is the first night she's done it in her cot though! It's not like I've enough going on at night. Usually by 6am I'd take her into the bed but I'm now scared to try sleep in case she rolls. So I'm lying awake feeling hungry and bored with a sleeping baby starfishing next to me on the bed.

It didn't get much better at most 45 mins at a time in the basket. Maybe it's too small too but then do I move her into her own room or put up the travel cot in our room I don't really want her on her own yet to 6 months but could put a mattress on her floor for me for the next few weeks I suppose but then if I'm going to be up and down 10 times a night I'd prefer my own bed

@Smurf123 that sounds brutal 🤦🏼‍♀️ Sorry it’s got to that. Hopefully she’ll sleep for longer soon! Does she have white noise on? He will cry when he goes in sometimes if he’s not fully asleep but it lasts under a minute and he sucks his thumb then he’s away. I’ve made a point of putting him in just before he is asleep for a while though, sometimes at first there was a minute or two of tears.

It will be heartbreaking having to listen to her cry though so you’re in a catch 22 to try and stop it ☹️ He’s been too big for the Moses basket in the living room for months really but I was still using it for his naps until a week or two ago. It sounds like she maybe would be happier in a bigger space though. I think I probably would either go for the travel cot or sleep in her room with her. The only thing with the travel cot is the fact you’ll need to move her again when she moves to her own room. We’re moving house and I’m already worrying that moving him beds and rooms is going to throw him off but going to try and keep him in the snuzpod as long as possible then just transfer him to the cot in February when we get to the new house

@Smurf123 I had exactly the same night as you last night. Nightmare. I can only blame the teeth. Forgot we had that liquid you recommended too, stupidly, I should've tried it! I'm exhausted. xx

@sarah13xx that's why I'm considering just sleeping on the floor in her room so we don't have to move again. She still just about fits in the Moses basket but has been in a travel cot for the past month while we were away so maybe she's more used to the bigger space now.
She was my excellent sleeper I could put her down awake and she'd just go off to sleep herself very rarely the odd tear but not much. But then we were room sharing with my 3 year old when we were away so it was harder to that there as she would wake him if she cried 🙈

@PurplePansy05 oh no! It's so hard isn't it. I need to get some anebsol today too I do think teeth are playing a role too

I also nearly just typed up Anusol, not Anbesol...😳 the state of my sleep deprived mind! I am not moving him out yet and also won't sleep on the floor next to his cot/buy a single mattress for this. I draw a line here! Travel cot maybe next month. Or we'll move his big cot to our bedroom, we have the space, it would be a bit of a pain as it's much bigger. Atm still waiting for baby monitor as well, I bought a different one as mine wasn't doing what it was supposed to do xx

For putting them down, try putting them down on their side and then rolling to their back, that is what German midwives do. Or my friend with 4 kids taught me to put their bum down first so they are kind of sitting and then lower their back down carefully. She also says a rolled up towel in a U shape under their legs so their knees are raised up helps.

I know the advice is 6 months for room sharing but the risk of SIDS does drop a lot at 4 months, so as long as you are past 4 months the increase in risk from not room sharing any more is really miniscule. Everyone has to make their own choice though. I will probably keep him in much longer because I don't expect him to sleep through any time soon.

We have stormed ahead with solids apparently! I made him some cold raw carrot sticks to gum on to help his teeth which he enjoyed and put him in the highchair to prevent me needing to grab it off the floor every 5 secconds (is anyone else's hair constantly falling out and getting on everything?? 🤢) and noticed that he was having absolutely no trouble with locating it and picking it up immediately. I think he is my most proficient at BLW at this age, never seen them get it this fast before. He is exactly 20 weeks. So we suggested that DS2 give him some of his pasta (plain coated in unsalted butter) I thought it would be a bit too slippery, but he had a whale of a time sucking it to get the butter off. It was too rubbery for him to actually bite, but that's OK. Then this morning DS2 was having toast and DH wasn't planning on giving DS3 any but he looked so hopeful that he did and apparently absolutely loved it.

BTW, I think UK advice is to avoid dairy and grains until 6 months, but German advice says grains and fats are recommended from starting weaning (at 4-6 months) so I am following that advice, just in case anyone was confused or worried.

However what happened last night was that DS2 came and ate DS3's (already sucked :o) pasta and carrot stick off his table, then donated all the rest of his pasta to him because "Baby Alec like this" and then later went around and ate the pasta off the highchair :o :o :o I am guessing this is our life at mealtimes now. As long as somebody eats it I don't mind I suppose!

We do have a travel cot we could use it was what we did with ds but he stayed in with us to 9/10 months as he never slept. To be honest the travel cot would have to go at the end of our bed so I'd have to get out of the bed to get to her anyway. Actually I've just realised it's only 2 weeks 3 days until she is 6 months how's that happen!!

I’m in the same boat @Ready2020 and @dirtyfries
We put Isaac to bed upstairs around 7ish and within half an hour (usually 20 minutes) he’s awake and crying. I have resorted to leaving him for a little bit just to see if he can settle himself and sometimes he does but mostly doesn’t.

He’s STILL waking every two hours at night for a feed- surely that’s not normal? He’s 5 months today. I can’t leave him to cry and see if he self settles else he will wake DH. Really tempted to move him to his own room soonish tbh, at least then I can leave him a little bit without worrying about waking other people.

I’m washing the IKEA high chair insert today as I want to see if he can do the weaning test Bertie said. I’m going down the BLW approach this time as it will just be easier with two kids. Any fast and easy recipes welcome!!

@BertieBotts Sorry, I know you've said a million times, but I'm having a really slow brain day - which book by Amy Brown was it that you recommended that covers weaning too? Was it in The Positive Breastfeeding one? I follow AB on insta and found her extremely helpful, I've made up my mind now and would like to buy this book.

Also, well done baby Alex! He'll be eating you out of the house soon, I can't imagine the amount of food you'll be going through with 3 boys and DH, I wish you all the luck! xx

The positive breastfeeding book is the one I mentioned the other day because it's 99p for all of January on Kindle. I haven't read it, just the contents page but I tend to find her really good :)

Waking 2 hourly at 5 months can unfortunately be normal. DS2 was like that. We have had an improvement and more settled sleep since starting more of a nap routine though.

If you don't care about a price drop then she also has let's talk about feeding your baby which is weaning, bottles, breastfeeding etc

@sarah13xx sorry for the slow reply. 88 sales is amazing! Well done! Do you think you'll go back to your old job now?

There's a different plan for each of mine. So I'm going to set up on my own as an architectural designer. Previously I've always worked for someone else, and as I'm currently working on the house my in-laws are building it seems like a good transition. My FIL has very kindly paid for the software license for me which means I don't have to worry about that cost at all as it's a permanent license. The only other costly thing is insurance but can't avoid that. DH is helping me on the website/business side of things which is good as I'm a bit clueless. The other thing is an Etsy shop where I'll be doing bespoke hand drawings for things like people's wedding venues/new houses, and also things like invitations with a hand drawing of the venue on. I'm expecting it to lay dormant for a while/forever but it really won't take much more to set it up, I just need to do a bit more work on the content. May never come to anything but it's got to be worth a try!

@RandomCatGenerator do you have any kind of bath seat? DS absolutely hates a bath without a seat, but loves it so much with.

@Daffodil21 I have pondered trying one but thought he might just be getting too big now for one? Which do you use and do you think it will have longevity?

@BertieBotts yes my hair is shedding horrendously, no matter what I try. I’ve tried moving to washing only once every three days to see if that helps; so far it has not…

DS tried some pear today and didn’t hate it… Tried to feed him when he shouldn’t have been hungry and he absolutely screamed the house down until he got some milk. Possibly having something vaguely food like in his mouth made him ravenous suddenly. Anyway, 120ml later he did manage maybe half a teaspoon of boiled mashed pear - HURRAY!! It was actually a nice moment with his very confused little face. Anyway, after about six little spoons he absolutely lost his shit again and had much soothing but it still feels like a little success.

@RandomCatGenerator we use the angel care bath seat. Honestly he loves it sooo much. We didn't have it at my PIL's and he absolutely screamed the house down. I think they're only up to 6 months old but I know of others who have said they've used it for longer but not sure on that. They do a version for the next size up which is more of a 'sitting' one I think so I was intending on buying that but open to suggestions! We bought an angel care bath seat for £5 off market place for my mum's house so it could be worth looking on there. There were loads for £5/10 and if it's really stressing you all out at bath time I would say it's worthwhile even though you may only get a months use out of it

Yeah my hair comes out in the shower too. All the hair that I should have lost during pregnancy.

Today has been a day. Since DD started rolling over she's just been full of energy and really hard to please. Not happy on her front, or back or in her chair etc. She had ok naps today I guess but it's been really windy so not been able to get out much. Days like today make me wish we worked harder in getting her to nap in the cot.

She's still feeding sporadically during the day so I've no clue where she's getting her energy from. I've had to pump to stop my boobs being engorged

I got a sitting one last time but didn't realise that it's not compatible with our bath as the base of it is too curved and not flat - annoying. I didn't realise that was the problem until I got a bath divider and then realised that didn't fit with the shape either.

They do not need them for very long so it is worth just waiting it out unless you can get hold of a second hand one. Also I think safety organisations don't like them because people get complacent and look away or even leave the room I think they are useful just to have free hands.