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! 🥰

Hello my loves. How is everyone doing?

We're doing well-ish. Just wanted to ask for a few tips.

Arya-Nyah will be turning 6 months on the 10th and I will be transitioning her into the toddler seat of the uppababy Cruz. Does anyone know how to put on the footmuff for this? I can't seem to find anything online. I have those universal kind of foot muffs.

Also (might be a silly question) but she still needs a pram suit right? X

@Whatshouldbemyusername oh it's so confusing getting the footmuff on! @PurplePansy05 found a really good video which she might still have? If I recall, if you take the strap covers off you should see a little metal ring which the strap goes through to connect it to the strap on the seat back - there's a small gap in this ring which you can't see, and you use it to separate the two straps so the shoulder bits go through the top. So annoying that Uppababy don't include it in the instruction manual!

@Whatshouldbemyusername we have the same buggy and i found if Ivy is in a pram suit she doesn't need a footmuff

We don't use a pram suit with the footmuff. I just put him in a thick cardigan or a jacket and I tend to tuck an extra blanket between him and the footmuff as well because ours is quite roomy.

Welcome back @kagerou!

Hey @Whatshouldbemyusername here's the video:

It's definitely tricky with Uppababy prams, not obvious, but this video makes it a slice of cake! xx

Thanks @RandomCatGenerator, we has a period of bad sleep and living like zombies but it seems to have improved a bit (fingers crossed!)

@biscuitcat @PurplePansy05 thanks so much for explaining and the video. It's definitely confusing but this has helped x🤣

@kagerou ah that's helpful. Need to get her a pram suit now. She's almost grown out of the 3-6 months one and will within the next two weeks. Since the weather is changing it's hard to gauge x

@BertieBotts that's a good tip too! Once it's all ok will see what works for us x

Could anyone make a recommendation, please? We're out a lot in baby carrier now and DS's cheeks get cold and dry (very sensitive skin). Shall I just mousturise with a daily cream or buy a specific cold weather cream instead (and which one, if the latter)? xx

@PurplePansy05 I really like weleda for cold weather protection. Ivy also has very sensitive skin and its one of the only ones that doesnt cause problems

@kagerou I use Weleda a lot, we've talked about their products on here often. I know they do cold weather cream but I'm trying to understand if I need to buy this or just a daily moisturising cream for him instead which I'd apply in the mornings, not just before we go out. xx

Sorry should have been clearer, I meant their cold weather rather than regular cream.

I was using just regular before and she was getting very red cheeks still so I added the cold weather one into our routine to apply before we go out. It seems to have helped the redness / chapping she gets but hasn't set off her eczema.

The Weleda balm is like a protective layer for the skin, not a moisturiser as such.

We're going through our finances tonight as I've just got my last full pay from work. It's kinda grim tbh. I've always been able to pay my own way. I've been left with a bit of pocket money every month and have some of my own savings but it's now a case of reducing the lunches out!

When I go back to work I think it'll be even worse as we'll have childcare to pay for.

Third night for DD in her own room and it's been pretty good so far. She's now got 2 teeth coming in though and it's making her pretty sad more than anything. Cold cucumber helps though

2 hours of attempting bedtime here send help 😫
She is knackered but she has drank her bottle and didn't quite fall sleep and now she's too full to feed anymore which is well and truly annoying her as she wants to do that 🙈
Last night she was up almost every hour and in the one 2.5 hour long sleep she did take her brother was up 3 times (to be fair to him I think we have an airlock in the heating pipes with appear to be right under his bed and they woke him)

2 hours 35 mins later... they are both asleep .. for now! I think gums are really bothering her too 😫

Teething drama over here too. Dd has been super clingy and grumpy over just about everything past couple of days. No teeth breaking through so god knows how much harder it'll get by then!
She has drastically reduced her feeds too, so I'm hoping her appetite picks up soon.

I quit my work before I fell pregnant because of the multiple rounds of ivf we were having. It's a shame as I missed out on maternity pay altogether. I find all the NCT women are out on what seems to be daily regular lunches but are all on paid maternity leave. It really does add up and so do the calories!

@Dia12 I quit mine too because of the expectations my boss had late into second trimester (expecting me to go on building sites for inspections every two weeks until maternity leave, in a pandemic 🙄). You've probably seen above so I wont repeat anymore details but I was on my fourth pregnancy after 3 losses so I wasn't taking any chances. Thankfully I did just about qualify for SMP but this stops next month and I don't have a job to go back to. I've just set up as freelance so hoping to have some enquiries soon but that may never happen. I may potentially have some work via another architect (working on her projects) but again this may lead to nowhere. Also getting an Etsy side hustle together in the hope something comes of it just to top us up here and there. Anyway, just wanted to let you know you're not alone in not having a job to go back due to decisions following fertility issues ❤️

Just finished the first wake up feed tonight, makes a change from being just after midnight. Hoping he goes back down ok! He's just fallen asleep so I'm tempted not to do his nappy but he'll almost definitely leak if I don't!

Oh I do remember you talking about your boss's demands back then @daffodil21. What an idiot! I'm sorry you had to quit to safeguard your pregnancy. It's an awful way to be treated - I imagine not far off from a constructive dismissal case....but that might be a whole new can of worms.
I'm so impressed with your freelancing and Etsy venture, give it time, it will pick up. You may never have to work for someone else again - a massive middle finger to your old boss!

I'm sorry to hear about the MS diagnosis @kagerou and your DM's comments. My DM does the same, compares me to either herself or my sister's parenting which reaaaaaaallllly hacks me off. It's not like I'm some bumbling teenage mum, I'm actually doing ok and would be nice to hear that once in a while instead of the unhelpful comparisons.

Totally feel you @PurplePansy05 - we have no one we can depend upon for regular help either. Friends are lovely and have offered but all have kids a little older and are back at work themselves. I'm grateful we can cope and will inevitably be just fine, but I do envy those I see with family rallying around them.

Had a little breakthrough on the weaning front. Introduced dd to these little wafer biscuits which she was able to pick up and eat independently (they practically melt in her mouth) and this made her much more receptive to the purée I was spoon feeding her. So I managed to her to eat something and look like she actually enjoyed it!

https://www.boots.com/kiddylicious-banana-mini-wafers-4x4g-10303518-?cmmmc=bmm-buk-google-ppccLIAsAs--Baby---UKSmarttShoppingLIAssBaby&gclid=Cj0KCQiArt6PBhCoARIsAMF5wagS2ehrjPe5cFw93D-4Vqsc4TxjXY7Th-DwQA3N9AVXYTdyPhMOhIaAssnEALww_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

@Dia12 possibly, but ultimately it was my decision to quit. I don't want to go down that route anyway. I had a safe delivery and a healthy baby so that's all that matters. He's still an arse though 😂 thank you for the banana wafer suggestion - I never knew such a thing existed. I'm hoping DS will be better once he can hold food to try but he still isn't quite 6 months yet so we haven't tried him, but those look perfect.

I honestly thought he'd be like a duck to water when it came to weaning - I'm making him 8oz bottles so I thought that's what he needed but other than the odd successful few spoonfuls he's not interested now. He just point blank refused to open his mouth at lunch 🤷‍♀️ anyone else have this? Am i just timing it badly?? Trying to time so he's not too hungry but maybe he's not hungry enough??

Revisited lunch - grabbed one of his spoons and pretended to eat with him. No idea if that's a good thing to be doing, but he ate a good helping 🤷‍♀️

@Daffodil21 dd is still very hot and miss with weaning. She definitely enjoys being able to feed herself best and is currently munching and squishing a strawberry also enjoys ds potato waffle and was much less fussed on the organic carrot and pea purée I had actually made for her

I actually often start off with solids, then bf - or other way round but if so, I tend to bf few mins less than usual, then solids, then a top of bf if he wants it. This works for us. We also eat together and he watches me when I use cutlery, cut up, chew etc., as well as eats from his own plate. He now puts his hands into purees and also picks up finger foods and puts them in his mouth, some of it goes on, most falls out 😊 However, I will say he's been fantastic with weaning, so, so easy, I can't complain at all. He surprises me every day - today he actually had pasta with homemade tomato sauce and loved it. I couldn't believe that he ate what I couldn't imagine him eating only a fortnight ago. DH cried when he saw him 😂

Does anyone else's LO wake up early in the morning and chats contently to themselves? He does around 6/7am then doses off for a bit longer. I love this 🥰 So lovely to listen to him.

And @Smurf123 are you back in work now? How is it going?

Quick question to those of you who have/had LOs in nurseries, were you ever concerned about them being there before they're fully vaccinated? Without sounding overly precious as I never thought about this until DH pointed out to me that apparently MMR vaccination rates are at their lowest for decades amongst children and of course DS won't have his first dose until 12 mo. That was rather unhelpful of him tbh as I'm trying to work on my general anxiety. But of course once he said it, I can't stop thinking about it (sorry if this worries anyone else - I really don't mean to worry anyone). I'm just trying to understand if there is anything to be concerned about at all or for example if people tend to bring vaccinations forward for babies in larger childcare settings? xx

@Smurf123 I'm hoping being able to hold food will help.

@PurplePansy05 I try and eat with him at lunchtime but today I wasn't ready for it. We've stopped giving him dinner for the time being, and eating with us was too late. But he does still sit with us. He can do it, he's done it before. I don't know why he needed to sit and watch me using one of his spoons, but it seemed to do the trick 🤷‍♀️

I feel like after our easy start it's payback - everything just seems to be a battle! Feeding him, bedtime, middle of the night. I thought they were supposed to get better with age?! Also totally typical that the one night he goes back to his old routine of waking up at 330, then straight back down until 7, I'm awake from 330 unable
to get back to sleep at all. Safe to say today has not been productive. Hoping to pull a couple of hours of work out of my arse tonight but we'll see. I say work, it's not actually paid yet, just setting up

@kagerou I somehow missed your recent MS diagnosis. I don't know much about it but I hope you're ok