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! 🥰

I love the taking it in turns method and I find it hilarious everyone on MN hates it :o there were just three of us in my family growing up and we didn't have loads of money so perhaps that's why it worked. I get a bit stressed if we go for Christmas with the in laws and there are loads of people and everyone is just unwrapping their own pile. We did that one year and BIL managed to "tidy up" a €25 gift card (into the bin) :(

DH was all for not doing stockings this year but I ended up getting them and buying stuff to go in them anyway. We will probably have to put them on the bedroom door. I have absolutely no faith that the gro clock will work on Christmas Day :o :o

In Germany people do presents and the family meal on Christmas Eve too. Apparently you wake up in the morning and everything is normal, you have an entire day with your relatives, eat a big dinner etc and then go to church in the evening, maybe midnight mass. It's at this time that the presents get delivered. DS1 says he thinks it must be awful to have to wait for the evening to get your presents and then you have to go to bed :o I have to admit that is strange to me! Because the DC get so excited we do tend to do presents in the morning but it gets a bit much so we open a few, play with them for a while and save some for later.

@BertieBotts yes it's the same here but I think we are planning on doing similar to you. Some presents in the morning then more in the evening but I envisage it is going to lead to a completely hyper and overtired ds by the end. We shall see. I agree with your ds though it seems like some form of torture to me to make kids look at the presents under the tree but not be allowed to open them to just before bedtime!

@Ready2020 the only thing that has worked here is feeding in a dark quiet room and even then it's a bit hit and miss tbh

With the distracted feeding I tend to take it as a sign he's not really hungry and try again later, if he's really hungry, he settles down more.

Most often at the moment he plays a game where he'll latch then bob off to grin at me, then latch, then grin, on off, on off with the cutest little smile and often a pokey out tongue! I think all of them have done this at this age. I join in with the game and he soon has his fill and latches properly.

Plenty to catch up on today 😂

@Daffodil21 I think it’s completely up to the mum how they feel about leaving them, there’s no right or wrong. My friend is very much like you and it was her 30th so they had a few big things planned that got delayed with lockdowns and ended up doing them after baby had arrived. They went away to a fancy hotel overnight when their little one must have been maybe 3 months. At the time I felt a bit panicked by this as I couldn’t have imagined leaving him, he was still a newborn but I thought maybe when he’s that age I would. They’ve been a weekend away just the two of them recently and she regularly asks if ive left him etc and I always feel a bit pathetic saying no not really 🙈 I’ve been to the odd night out or dinner and left him with DH, although he’s been in bed so I’ve hardly missed much. The difference between me and my friend is that her partner works from home and has a very flexible job so she is really free at all times to be able to leave the baby at home and can still do her old hobbies etc even during the week while I have a baby attached to me all day and my partner isn’t home til 6pm most nights. My mum does offer to help and she’s the only person I’d feel 100% comfortable with taking him (only because I can be blunt to her and say exactly what she’s to do) but the practicalities of arranging her to come for time to be able to even go a run or something mean it doesn’t very often actually happen. I think I’m then just used to having him with me at all times 🙈 I haven’t let the inlaws babysit at all yet but they haven’t even asked to. One set live too far away to really be able to and the other ones are as handy as a chocolate teapot so they’d be more hassle than they’re worth. I think the fact his routine is really good right now and working so well also makes me a bit panicky at the thought of someone doing the total opposite of what he needs and mucking it all up for us 🙈

So basically I’m jealous of the fact you feel confident enough to be able to leave him and know he’ll be fine. When we move in with my parents next month I think I’ll get a lot more freedom and be way more used to leaving him with them, although we won’t be able to afford a night away for about another 10 years at this rate so I’ll cross that bridge when we come to it 😂😂

Also @Daffodil21 I just got a little foldable travel buggy on ebay for going away in the summer but thought I’d buy it now while I saw it going cheap-ish. It’s the silver cross jet.

We went for lunch in Glasgow with him in the pram the other week and of course they sat us at the corner table at the very back of the restaurant, DH really struggled getting our big pram through all the tables so now when I’m just nipping into the supermarket or in somewhere for lunch I take the little buggy and it’s crazy how small it goes 🙈 I took it round aldi today with the rain cover on so we could walk through the crowds of people and he’d be in his own little covid shielded bubble 😂 It will be especially good when we have the dogs in the boot because it can literally fit on the floor of the back seat. Just leaving it in the car now for emergencies but so worth getting it a bit early 😊

What are most people thinking about moving them to their own room? Are you waiting until 6 months?

I was saying he still has loads of room in the snuzpod but he stretched out this morning and he really doesn’t at all 😬 We move house in a few weeks and I’m still sleeping in with him in the snuzpod in his room while DH isolates in our room but I don’t know whether to just leave him in here himself until we move now rather than change it again for him. I think at my parents he’ll need to sleep in the big cot in our room for a month or two then finally go in his own room at the new house at about 7 months when we move in. There is the option of giving him the spare room upstairs at my mums (my old bedroom) but it means he’d be upstairs and we’d be downstairs which seems quite far away 🙄

I think I woke him up last night as I came into my single bed beside him and I could hear him struggling to get back to sleep as I was falling asleep. I don’t think he ever did because at half 2 he was absolutely breaking his heart wanting fed so I had to go and make him a bottle. It’s not like him at all but he was just so genuinely starving. He seems to be going through this spell of constantly being so hungry just now. I tried giving him 8oz before bed to see if that makes any difference, he didn’t want much more than 7 though so we’ll see if he lasts til the morning tonight 🤞🏼 Think he would get a way better sleep without me in here though

Probably about age 1, that's when we moved DS2. Or maybe more like 18 months and hope his sleep is more stable. I might move him to a cot in our room before actually moving him out. So I can try the things that helped DS2 wake up less.

Maybe it's a growth spurt Sarah. If so that might force the snuzpod issue before too long!

@BertieBotts luckily we are moving or his big cot wouldn’t have fit in our room beside us, even the snuzpod is a squeeze 🤦🏼‍♀️ My mum has my cot from when I was a baby already in the room we’ll be sleeping in (has a new mattress) but might try him in that to save us rebuilding his big cot back up just to take it down to move him

We have a travel cot so will probably use that, the big one is a cotbed so it's massive!

With old cots you should check, if it has a drop side that the mechanism is secure, and also the bars should be no more than 6.5cm apart.

Yes his a cotbed too @BertieBotts

He’s been in my mum’s cot a few times but only for a short nap if he’s fell asleep while I’ve been there and I’ve put him in it. Yes il need to check, there’s way more space between the bars but she gives it the ‘well it was fine for you’ rubbish at every wee thing like that I say 🙄

Haha. But that is why they all think cot bumpers are safe too :o

I mean to be fair, these things are fine for 99.99% of babies. You'd have to be really unlucky for things to go wrong.

@sarah13xx DS seemed too big for the Snuzpod from end of last week - so he’s been in a big cot for two nights now. Touch wood, all seems to be going ok, although he does manage to do full 180 spins in the night

We’ll wait until at least 6 months. I still have to fight the urge to check he’s breathing every hour. I like being able to hear his little noises. If we moved him i would probably just have the baby monitor screen on beside me anyway…

Wishing all our late July/August/early September babies a lovely first Christmas and of course all of you and the rest of your families ❤️

@RandomCatGenerator oh that’s good he’s taken to it well! I think we’ll just go for the cot when we move then and hope for the best 🙈

Merry Christmas Eve everyone.. can’t believe a group from the summer (well earlier - but I only found it in august) is still going now 😂🎉 So thankful for all your advice and ears this year, just listening to my moans. How strange that I don’t know any of you in person but if I haven’t been on in a while I wonder how people are doing. I’ve been in contact with you all more than some ‘friends’ this year!

Hope not a creature is stirring in your houses tonight and everyone has a lovely, stress-free day whatever you are doing 😊🍷

It's 9pm on Christmas eve, I've had half a glass of proseco and I'm off to bed 😅 Rock and roll lol. My Christmas wish is more than 3 hours sleep!

I'll probably be busy tomorrow so wanted to say merry Christmas and have a lovely day tomorrow. We had a great evening today with family up from Durham. DD is fast asleep so far.

So this is Christmas 🎄

Have a good one, ladies! I hope the babies sleep well and get milk drunk tomorrow! ❤ I hope your toddlers and older siblings don't climb the walls and have lots of fun to remember 😁 I hope Santa's sat nav finds you wherever you are in the world right now 🎅 I wish you all to find enough time to yourselves to rest this Christmas and to pause and enjoy. They're only so little this year ❤ And thanks for always being here for us, you're all good eggs ❤ Merry Christmas 🎄 xxx

Merry Christmas all! How different from the last one! We've managed to have our traditional family argument today so hopefully tomorrow will be smooth sailing 😂

@sarah13xx I'm not sure when we'll move him - he's still waking for feeding at the moment so I want him in with me so I can stay in bed!

Merry Christmas everyone, I think I will be busy tomorrow with DS1 mainly and family dipping in and out as well as trying to cook the dinner 🤪🎅🏼

Like @Ready2020 I want my main present to be more than 3 hour block of sleep 🤞🏼

Hope you all have a smashing day wherever you may be. Thank you for this little group we have to share information/moan and general chat to keep sane.

I second those sentiments @sarah13xx and @Magik01. You’re a super group of women and have provided great support, companionship and sympathetic ears during the last year!

We’re just out of mass and now heading out for a walk. Merry Christmas everyone.

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

I’m sorry I haven’t caught up, but I wanted to log on to wish you all happy Christmas!!!! May you all have a magical day filled with (too much) food, fizz and fun! I hope your babies have the BEST first Christmas! 🎅🏼 🎄 🦌 🛷 🎁 🍾 👶🏼🍼

To anyone finding Christmas hard, sending lots of love xx

This year has already started so differently to last, pretty sure I’d been throwing up for an hour this time last year. Definitely could not stomach a Christmas meal, so I’m making up for the year, double the roasties for me! 🍲

Thank you all for the support and wise words throughout our many many threads! Appreciate you all!

😘 xxxx

YY I have a cold this year, but that is preferable to morning sickness!

It's barely 10am and my brother has already started with 'I know this is a personal question but why did you give up breast feeding so easily? It's better for the baby'

Full disclosure he is autistic so does come out with a lot of stuff he shouldn't. But don't worry, he still got the appropriate response