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! 🥰

Thanks Bertie, I saw your weaning advice attachment earlier! Wow can I come for dinner with @Daffodil21 😂 sounds amazing! Was the toast okay? Yoghurt is a good shout actually, okay you’ve given me inspiration! I’m sure they would prefer sweet stuff but it’s just like they won’t eat anything else if you give them sweet stuff 🤷🏼‍♀️ we’ll get a bit more adventurous this weekend!

@daffodil21 how are your night feeds going?

Definitely finding a preference for sweet stuff here as well. But then the formula tastes really sweet so I guess it's no surprise. (Does breast milk taste sweet too? I never tasted mine!)

@Inmypjsagain he's actually getting worse. He was going from 10ish until 5ish, then 7:30/8 for a while but now it's more 10ish, 2:30, 5:30, 7:15. He's also going to sleep later too 🤷‍♀️ he takes the whole 8oz (yes, you read that right) in the middle of the night so I'm not sure he's going to drop that any time soon

We've only tried baby porridge and carrot so far. Both were met with looks of disgust by DD It was kinda funny actually. I think we'll try sweet potato this weekend. I'm taking it quite slowly though, not trying something every day. It's extremely messy and my OH isn't dealing with it very well! I bought a few bidabo bibs but they are a bit of a faff so might try the kind that has a bucket on the front.

I really want to put DD in her nursery very soon. But I think we're going to move her nursery into the spare room and have the office in the current nursery. It means the day bed can be in the nursery for feeding and settling. It does mean we'll give up our spare bed but if I need to I can just go sleep on the day bed in her room if OH is snoring.

I'm having a bit of a nightmare with childcare options. I just didn't do my research in time. The private nursery I've got her enrolled in scores 3 out of 6 with the care inspectorate. It's not my first choice but all the childminders are full and the only other nursery is full too. So I think I'll need to send her to this nursery until a place comes up with the childminder.

Thanks so much @BertieBotts so I had him on a old backless booster (totally unexpected journey and it was it or nothing) and I was surprised at how well he sat but I was sitting beside him which obviously in most cases I won't be. But he is generally good in the car and pretty chilled as he likes listening to music and looking out the window. My main concern I suppose was the whole pelvic development thing plus he would likely fall asleep on long journeys still. In saying that the next time we will be doing a long journey will be the summer so that's a good 6 months from now.
He's in age 5 clothing already simply for the length he has incredibly long legs (unlike me!) I'll see if anywhere near me has a kidfix to try

I think I'll try and keep him in the spin as long as possible but I want to have a decent idea of what I'm going for.
Dh is completely against erf. So I'm definitely not going to manage to persuade him to a 25kg rear seat which I think leaves the babyauto dupla and the joie bold. Plus I have to buy 2 as he's going back to my mum every day so need a seat for her car too

Cozy n safe Hudson is a cheaper option but I don't know if it's as good as the Joie or baby auto. If you get the baby auto one make sure it's the Isofix version. There is a belt fitted one that is sometimes sold and it's not harnessed to 25kg. You will need to check all the cars have top tether as well.

I forgot to add Weetabix to the weaning list! I had the only tiny bit of breastmilk I managed to express this time all saved up in a tiny pot, about half an ounce. I defrosted it and it smelled a bit sour almost like sick but I dipped my finger in to try and it was completely sweet, so I mixed it up with a bit of crumbled Weetabix and tried that. He liked it but there was only a couple of spoonfuls.

We are going to hold off solids for a couple of days as he hadn't really pooed in the last few days and that's not like him. His tummy also seems really bloated and he's uncomfy, so he really needs to do one. Thinking back to milk only might help. If that doesn't work I'll try a jar of prunes :o

@BertieBotts I'm a totally clueless FTM but would a bit cooled boiled water help?

Maybe. Could be something to try :)

Thanks I think he will be in a highback booster for my mum's car as it's only for very short journeys where he won't fall asleep. Then I'm torn between seats for our car my gut says harness but part of that is just because he's always been in harness.
Shouldn't be an issue with dd and she's on a much lower weight centile to ds so I reckon the spin will easily last her until she 5 (she's only on 9th compared to his 75th)

My mum used to swear by cooled boiled water or highly diluted fresh orange juice for constipation.. Prunes and blueberry pouches always worked for ds.
I'm tempted to try weetabix today as it's an easy and not so expensive breakfast compared to baby porridge!
Ds still loves it and pretty much survives on weetabix and milk or oats with skyr plus pureed fruit 🙈😂

I don't think he's constipated as such, just the lack of poo is making him uncomfortable.

I gave Leo some cool boiled water in a bottle when he was constipated a couple of months ago and did baby massage using baby oil (watched a YT video with millions of views and it was as good as people said) - this combination worked for us.

@Daffodil21 Breastmilk is quite sweet. I tasted a tiny bit of mine when my boobied were still rather squirty and it was going everywhere and actually it was quite nice. Bit odd as it's not what we're used to in a sense of cow's milk, but ok. I would definitely say this is where the preference of sweet flavour comes from

@Inmypjsagain re weaning, we did:

• banana (mashed and finger food) both big success
• carrot (same as banana, and also successful)
• carrot & parsnip puree which is his fav atm
• sweet potato puree, that was a hit
• pea and fresh mint puree, also a firm fav
• mango puree, success
• apple puree, success
• pear puree, mixed bag so far
• apple and blueberry puree, big hit
• apple and raspberry puree, ok, but I think he found the combination a bit sour (and I agree, it was on a sour side)
• broccoli puree and sticks, mixed bag so far
• broccoli and carrot puree, went down well

We've also tried C&G plain baby cereal and I add some fruit puree to it - it's definitely a big hit here.

He's started reaching out for food and I think we'll be moving towards introducing more finger foods slowly. He nearly stole my cake when we were out with friends yesterday, he grabbed it and broke it into three larger pieces and a tonne of crumbs for me, the whole cafe was laughing at him cheeky little monkey! xx

@BertieBotts Whenever you're thinking about sharing that car seat advice (which I'm beyond grateful for already), could I make a cheeky request and ask if you could include some info re best second car seat for occasional use? Our friends and us are looking to buy extra car seats for emergency use (ie if one of us can't pick up our LOs from nursery - kids will be in nursery together). So really, very occasional use. We live 10 mins away from each other so only a short drive anyway. We're after something as safe as possible but also not too bulky and preferably around the £100-£150 max price considering it won't be used much. Thank you in advance - my friend knows I get advice on this and we'll basically buy two of the same spare seats. xx

I’m watching my asleep baby on the monitor, and he’s been sleeping on his side for the last few minutes. Such a grown up little boy! Hasn’t time flown. I feel like it’s (almost) worth having another baby because I would be so much more relaxed second time around, not constantly thinking ‘oh shit what am I doing wrong’, and I’d take more time to cherish those moments of my little tiny baby being a little tiny baby!

We are undecided about whether to have another. I would really like DS to have a sibling, especially as DH and I are likely to go overseas again in a few years and I think it would be good for there to be two of them together if we’re moving around - I relied on my sisters a lot when we moved house a lot with my dad’s work. But DH has not enjoyed having a baby, at all. And pregnancy was SHIT. And is still giving me physical problems that I’m working through with a physio.

Weaning is going ok here - DS isn’t mad about fruit but is a fan of green vegetables, which is an unexpected bonus. Overall, not a huge fan. He has got a bit stuffed up - three days without a poo in which he seemed very uncomfortable - and when it came out it was like an adult human turd. BUT he’s getting four or five cubes down him each day. He’s five months and one week.

FYI we are broadly following Gina Ford (but without the baby rice because unsweetened baby rice isn’t available in India - or if it is, I can’t find it!).

@PurplePansy05 hurray for your weaning success! 👏👏 may I ask where you get your ideas / recipes? And how did you make pea and mint purée?

Ah also - apparently, according to the mighty Gina Ford, banana can stuff up babies under 6 months as it is a bit complex to digest. DS’s stomach does seem to be happier now we’ve stopped doing banana, after a week of having a cube at most breakfasts.

Sorry to multiple post

@PurplePansy05 what was the massage video you watched? I tried massage with DS for the first time today and I think we were both a bit nonplussed.

Thanks @RandomCatGenerator! I'm so pleased with his eating so far 😊

Here's the link to the massage video, like I said, I used baby oil for this after a bath:

Re weaning, I've looked up Deliciously Ella ingredients and make similar stuff at home using fresh fruit/veg and water. I also thought about combinations that go well together for adults, eg in porridge (like apple+blueberries) or with dinners (minty peas) etc and just replicated this tbh! Minty peas were just frozen peas, cooked and pureed with a bit of watee and few leaves of fresh mint.

I'll be super grateful for some veg puree tips, I'm thinking a root veg puree maybe. But maybe some other veg too, I think we need more greens and possibly thinking tomatoes, peppers? But not sure how to serve them best and what to puree with? xx

Tomatoes are linked to allergies if given before 6 months - warning! Along with eggs, dairy and wheat.

Broccoli was a success here so we tried courgette and also spinach. Success so far!

We have frozen lots of cubes in ice cube trays in the fridge - makes it easy to have a choice. In theory also makes it easy to mix and match although I’ve only tried that with apple and pear and he hates both so…

And that is really impressive stuff on the eating - I’m really happy for you!

@BertieBotts have I missed an attachment on weaning from you?

Are they really @RandomCatGenerator? They're not on the NHS 'official' allergen list in the UK, however, interestingly I had an allergy to them for a while - which turned out to be the skin, not tomato itself. So I'm keen to introduce them to DS's diet fairly soon (he's 6 months soon anyway 😊). Thanks for the green veg suggestions, I need to add them to my list too. Might do something with kale/cauliflower/green beans soon too. Apparently cauliflower+apple is lovely btw! xx

That is my understanding, but I’m not a doctor so take with a hefty pinch of salt if you’ve heard otherwise!

Argh MN really annoys me with random loading and I just lost an entire message 😢

@PurplePansy05 that is a great list, Leo is doing so well!! And a mix of flavours too! Thank you for that, will definitely take inspo from that. Sounds like he was being super cute at the cafe, don’t blame him for eyeing up the cake! I’ve not actually noticed any recipes for root veg, but for pepper I’ve seen red pepper and sweet potato, I think I’ve seen red pepper and cannelloni beans too.

Re: tomatoes, you might want to take off some of the skin to start with, they can be a bit tough to digest and often just comes out in poo. Same with sweet corn, it’s included with deliciously Ella but I thought they were straight fibre that got pooped straight out.

@RandomCatGenerator I second deliciously Ella, I signed up to them and got a little weaning leaflet thing through the post with recipes and just some general info on weaning. It also comes with a poster to track some of the weaning process. So how do these cubes work, sorry for daft questions but we’re only having a few mouthfuls here (he’s still drinking same amount of milk) so I’ve been doing everything in small amounts and fresh. Are you bulk cooking and freezing? And are you freezing in normal ice cube trays or in the bigger weaning type ones? Sorry for 20 questions 😬

We had broccoli today and it went down far better than expected, got a big smile after the first mouthful. Banana tomorrow!

How are everyone’s teeth doing? It looks like the second one FINALLY broke the gum now, he was chomping on my finger earlier because I think he must have been a bit sore, but those teeth are surprisingly sharp. Hope that’s a bit of respite from teething for a bit now.

@Inmypjsagain not so much bulk cooking, but cooking more than he’ll eat in one sitting yep. So I’ll boil or steam a few carrots, purée them, then put them into an ice cube tray. So when it’s time to feed him, I can just pop out a few cubes, warm them up, hey presto! I’m using normal ice silicon ice cube trays, so ones with squidgy bottoms / sides so they’re easy to pop out.

I figure it’s still fresh enough - everything eaten within a few days, not planning to have anything in the freezer for him for longer than that.

@RandomCatGenerator yeah that’s a much better idea than me steaming half a carrot 😂 And it defrosts okay? Don’t know why I sound so dubious, I’m not, I just don’t really freeze stuff usually (freezer is just ice cream, pizza and spinach these days!) I imagine it would keep quite a while as well. I’ll do this going forward I think. Might need a new tray though, our ones are all silly heart shaped ones 😂 😬