August 2021 - They've been here for half a year

[BertieBotts]

Can you believe it! Our lovely little ones are (roughly) halfway to their first birthdays.

Welcome friends old and new for discussion of sleep, teeth, weaning, milestones, navigating post-baby relationships and the whole existential dread of parenthood... I mean those amazing moments when they make your heart melt. Or produce a poo that makes the wallpaper melt. Oh, all of them. Nothing is off limits because it's just good to know that somebody else has been there.

Some people on here said their babies weren’t sitting independently yet didn’t they? I think after the whole HV thing with her saying he should be supporting his own head himself really early on and saying she’d need to speak to the physio etc (for them to come back and say no, he’s fine), it’s made me a bit paranoid of him missing milestones 🙈 I have so much going on and we’re hardly ever in, he’s either in the pram at the horses or out with the dogs, out a run, out in the car etc but I do try to do tummy time when I can but sometimes between feeds/sleeps and depending what mood he’s in it can work out at only once or twice a day 😕 Got the HV this week and already waiting for her big dramatic response to the fact he can only sit for a few seconds himself. My facebook seems to be full of babies born the same time or a few weeks before him sitting in pictures and makes me more paranoid with every one I see! 😬

@sarah13xx sounds a lot like my DS. No sitting independently here for any substantial amount of time

@sarah13xx Rowan definitely still isn't there! Though I would say he's made really rapid progress, from almost nothing a week ago (literally like a second or two), to now sometimes managing a good 30 seconds, so I do think it can change quite quickly! Bertie has been really reassuring about sitting too

@PurplePansy05 sending love your way - I can't imagine how tricky the mixed emotions must be for you xxx

We had some success today, Rowan hasn't been at all interested in food so far and I think it was because he didn't like the bib or high chair, so we put the splash mat on the floor and he sat on DH's lap while having yoghurt that he fed himself (though I think the dog got more than he did!!) - he really seemed to enjoy it! Is it quite normal for it to be slow going with food at the beginning?

Nope, no totally independent sitting here. He has very good head support anf will sit on my knee with his back supported or on the sofa with his back supported, but definitely not sitting alone on the playmat.

Alex can only sit with support, I wouldn't leave him to sit as he would just fall over. Sitting isn't expected at 6 months as it can take them up to 8/9 months and be perfectly normal :)

By the way, you don't have to move onto stage 2 formula. Stage 1 is suitable all the way up to 12 months and is more complete and more highly regulated. Stage 2 is really only suitable if they are eating quite a lot of solids. Not sure why they don't say this on the tins.

Here is some more information in case you want to read about it. www.firststepsnutrition.org/parents-carers

Thanks everyone @Daffodil21 @biscuitcat @RandomCatGenerator that makes me feel better 😅

Oh really @BertieBotts I had no idea, well I now have 3/4 boxes of this stage 2 milk now as my sister just dropped some more off not realizing we had found some. Maybe if I manage to get some stage 1 I could go back to using that and use the stage 2 at a later date if the use by date isn’t up for a while. Thanks!

@sarah13xx dd is not sitting independently at all and she is older than your ds. My hv is due some time between 6-9months apparently but no word from them since she was 4months.
I was told to just stay on stage 1 milk for as long as they take formula it's what I did for ds also but I could see us needing to move on to stage 2 at some point for dd purely because they keep running out of stage 1 milk here 😫

Sent to soon. Not a big deal with the milk right now as I mainly just exclusively breastfeed atm but in a few weeks when she's in nursery full time it will be an issue if I can't get the milk. (I can't pump so it has to be formula)

@sarah13 my DD isn't sitting without support either. She's 6 months and 1 week.

I've been having a wee issue with next door. I've got plans to remove the turf from our front garden and put in raised beds to grow veg and put in plants to encourage bees etc. We have an area of turf between our front doors with 85% on our land. It would be weird for me to just plant my area and leave a small strip of grass so I've been in contact with my neighbours. They have been really annoying with suggestions of just paving it or putting in artificial grass. I've specifically said I want to encourage insects etc but keep it low maintenance hence getting rid of the grass. So anyway after a few text messages they've just tantrumed and said just do whatever you want. So I intend to!

DD is just so much fun just now. I'm enjoying the 6th month so far.

@sarah13xx Cut yourself some slack, girl, it's so busy when you move/renovate that honestly you can't do everything else 100%, especially with your new business as well. Obviously DS is your priority regardless, but it won't do him harm if you do certain exercises every other day or whatever. You might remember I didn't do tummy time with Leo for months because he hated it, and here he is sitting unaided (all happened in less than a fortnight) and he's now trying to sit up by himself. Honestly? I don't think I had much, if any, influence on this. It really seems very random and just what he wants to do 🤷🏼‍♀️ You sound super hard working and clearly look after him so well, he'll be fine. I hope he feels better soon as well 😊

❤ Thank you @biscuitcat & @RandomCatGenerator xxx

Hello @lucyrp! Been thinking about you! I have just over 3.5 months off left, crazy. I don't want to think about it yet. How are your little ones? Car issues all sorted?

@BertieBotts I've just realised that DS would totally eat the toothpaste, he wouldn't know how to spit it out when asked, obviously 😂 So that was a stupid question from me! I'll just stick to wiping/gently brushing with water when his teeth appear 🤦🏼‍♀️ xx

If anyone has a dental check up booked you can also ask your dentist for advice :) I know here they recommend that you supplement flouride so they don't want you using flouride toothpaste on top of that. It will also depend on whether it's in your water, some of the UK has it, some doesn't.

We don't bother with the flouride supplement but I did use a very low flouride toothpaste for DS2. He has only just started trying (unsuccessfully as yet) to spit it out aged 3. But I'm not too fussed about the flouride staining as it's not harmful, just cosmetic.

@BertieBotts thanks for the new thread. Checking in.

Nice to read all your messages lovely ladies x

@sarah13xx my DD hasn't rolled over even once and she turned 6 months on Thursday gone. She does sit up independently. So all saying is I know how it feels but try not to overthink it my love x

Ok so I needed some clarification. Plan was to do BLW but am really feeding her as she has no clue how to eat - which is ok. The first day she had 1 Floret of brocolli, second day 1/4 of a mashed avocado, 3rd day 2 green beans and today some oats. These portions aren't much. Should I be giving her solids more than one time or? It's all so confusing 😬

@whatshouldbemyusername it's so hard right! I've had nights where I think I've not given her enough during the day so she wakes up all night hungry. Then nights when I think she's had too much close to bed so is waking with a sore tummy. Tonight she's woken up every 30 minutes so far! We gave her squash about an hour before bed so not sure if it's that going through her system.

@BertieBotts the picture of your DS1 did make me chuckle! His little rolls are adorable!!

Glad to hear your DS is on the mend @sarah13xx it’s awful when they are poorly and you haven’t a clue what to do. We rang 111 so many times with my first because it’s such a minefield. Don’t worry about sitting up either (or weaning for that matter) but much like @biscuitcat DS2 has come on rapidly with sitting. He’s gone from a few seconds to 20/30 seconds if he’s not jolting all over the place. 🤣

Sending hugs @PurplePansy05 Hope your okay. I don’t know what the point of that ladies post was really other than making some ladies upset. I hope she gets some help or talks to someone.

Re tooth rushing I used one of these with DS1 when teeth first started to appear. It was a lot gentler on tiny gums than a regular toothbrush off the bat.

www.amazon.co.uk/Toothbrush-Silicone-Finger-Brush-Massage/dp/B014W7Z4XY?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

Oh that's not my baby! It's just a picture I found on the internet.

If you're doing BLW it's normal for them to only take in teeny tiny amounts at first, that's part of the theory of it, that you're letting them go at their pace which will typically be slower than if you are feeding them. But when you say you're feeding do you mean you're putting food in her mouth? I would be really cautious about this, because if they are not doing it themselves they can end up with bits of food in their mouth that are too big or in a place they can't manipulate it easily and that can be a choking hazard. One of the theories of BLW is that their outer development in terms of hand eye coordination is aligned with their internal development in terms of mouth muscles and gut readiness. This is based on them not being able to pick up smaller things like sweetcorn or raisins until about 9 months (pincer grip).

They do seem to vary with it. DS2 hated self feeding and was so happy when I spoon fed him. He gagged and struggled with self feeding for months. Whereas DS3 is really surprisingly proficient at handling food to the point we have occasionally put solid food to his lips for him to chew because he can handle it so confidently. I gave him a quarter of a big strawberry yesterday and I thought he'd suck it and spit out out but he chewed it and swallowed. He will also grab the spoon if you are feeding him and prefer to do it himself. I find it easiest to give him something he can hold and let him get on with it than have a back and forth argument over the spoon :o DS2 was definitely the opposite. Purées were so much easier for him.

Also for many babies the first stage of baby led weaning is really just touching and looking at the food with nothing going in at all.

@Magik01 ❤ I'm glad you said about 111. We only ever called once when DS actually ended up in hospital, but inside I worry so frequently. Sometimes it's impossible to distinguish for me what's part of my anxiety and what's a normal part of motherhood (which I suppose involves some heightened anxiety over our LOs regardless? I don't know what's 'normal' if that makes sense). I talk myself out of worrying a lot which eats up my energy, that's the cycle I know I need to break. One step at a time. It helps to know others have some worries too, I don't need to beat myself up over every single worry of mine then!

Bertie, like Magik, I initially thought it was an archive photo of you holding your eldest until I realised this was a girl and thought nah, this can't be Bertie's kid too funny! xx

Well, we had a bit of a breakthrough last night!

A lady in a local shop said when hers kept waking for milk she gave them water, and they soon stopped waking when they learned it wasn't worth waking for. I mentioned this to DH and he said heard about it, so we gave it a try last night. I didn't think for one second it would work, but he didn't have any milk from 10pm until 7am! Normally he would have had two bottles between these times! He took a bit of settling, but he did settle! It's only night one, so it could be a fluke but it's a really good start! Hoping in time that he will learn it's not waking up for...

Got a long trek back down south later today. No train though, we are driving for the first time with DS. We are going through the night so hopefully he'll just sleep...

@Ready2020 it's hard. How did the night go? So I give her in the morning - like 1 "meal" just in case if there are any allergies or reactions her body has time to react and doesn't affect her night sleep. Having said that she woke up 3 times last night with painful gas. I'm convinced she's getting a reaction to dairy

@BertieBotts so when she doesn't pick up the food - I mash it down and feed her the mashed up food so atleast something goes in her tummy. Defo not feeding her the same food that she would ordinarily be picking up. Thanks for confirming the first stage of BLW. I did read this but I think my anxiousness around it got the better off me :(

@ready2020 I found the of I fed him at 4:30pm onwards he would wake up before 11pm crying, I'm presuming due to stomach pain.
So I now do breakfast and lunch and will leave dinner time until he is older. He does get fussy when we are having dinner and he isn't but it's worth it so he isn't uncomfortable.

@Daffodil21 I've wondered about trying that!! Did you use cooled boiled water, or just tap? We're moving him into his own room at the weekend (as we're away with friends in the week so he'll be in with us, and it seemed silly to chop and change so soon after moving him) and I wonder if those two things in combination might actually give us a decent night's sleep! He's going through a phase of just sleeping terribly at the moment, we're both hanging from exhaustion, I'd say almost on a par of the newborn days and much worse than the 4 month regression!

@sarah13xx - I’ve also had to give my LO follow on milk in the past week so 2 weeks ish before 6 months because I couldn’t find any hipp stage 1 and although people say formula is formula only hipp agrees. And I’ve now been able to buy quite a bit so I’m sticking with it, although it’s not needed as first milk is fine my HV & antenatal class who is a midwife said It’s personal choice 🤷‍♀️

@biscuitcat we used cool boiled because we took some up with us and left it on the side for a bit, so thought it should probably be boiled first..! I can't actually believe he didn't take any milk. By the sounds of it DH was very good at persevering and making sure he was ok with the water and a settle whereas I think I would have been quick to jump to the milk. I was in the spare room last night as I worked late but I didn't hear him cry once. DH said he took longer to settle than usual, but he did settle. He wasn't even that fussed about the 7am bottle! Hoping it wasn't a fluke, and in time he'll stop waking up through the night.... I'll let you know how we get on over the next few nights x

@Daffodil21 here’s the broken record again with ‘it says that in my book’ but Gina Ford does recommend that, didn’t know if it actually worked but it would seem it does 😂 Fingers crossed that’s you sorted and back to a full night of uninterrupted sleep 🙌🏼

@Smurf123 @Ready2020 @Fran919 @Whatshouldbemyusername @PurplePansy05 @Magik01

Thanks so much, made me feel a lot better 😊 He is very slowly getting there with the sitting so hopefully he’ll have a breakthrough with it soon. Got the HV tomorrow so let’s see if she has any words of wisdom, I don’t think I’ll mention it because when he was tiny and I mentioned he wasn’t holding his head up much himself that’s when it escalated 😂

Honestly going to get ‘Don’t overthink it’ on a poster in my new house I think, should be my life motto!

Has anyone done much baby led weaning with giving baby large veg or fruit and letting them just chomp on it? I've given DD cucumber sticks that work well as they just get mushy as she chews on them anyway and yesterday gave her a huge strawberry that she loved biting despite the obvious tartness. She was doing that funny shiver you do when tasting lemons or something. The strawberry did freak me out a bit though as bits were coming off but she was just spitting them out. It was quite juicy so that was going down her throat.

I'm just trying to think what else I can try as the thought of cooked carrot or sweet potato sticks make me worry about chunks being bitten off too.