September 08 Remember what we were doing this time last year?[wink]

[Debs75goldrings]

So what were we all doing this time last year?

meglet hope you are doing OK. Let us know how you're getting on when you can. x

starlight hey you should let me know next time you're going to get your LO weighed and I'll come say hello at the clinic. I might go next week anyway, but sometime after that!

And thanks all for the reassurance after my question a few pages ago.

re sleeping - now A is over his cold (and given it to me, thanks love), I'd like to try to get life a bit more regular. Previously when I tried waking him for a feed he'd just go back to sleep after a couple slurps and then wake a few hours later, but tried once over Christmas and it was OK. Except getting him to sleep a few hours before so that there's a point to waking him is dead tricky.

He often sleeps a lot in the day so understandably isn't tired come 8pm, but I can't see how you keep a baby from falling asleep on the breast or whenever he feels like it, and staying asleep even when you poke him!

He's now had 2 nights in his big cot, and last night wore his grobag, which looks adorable!

As for weaning - I went to the class and ended up starting a thread entitled 'Totally confused'! Having survived the 7- and 12-month-olds over Christmas, I'm weaning as late as possible! Backed up by the owner of the lovely nursery I saw the other day. Saw two, one fantastic and one really not very good. I'll look at a couple more but I think I'll book A into the first one - relief that there is a good place for him!

notcitrus I too am confused about weaning, especially how it fits into nursery as it sounds like I'll have to supply all milk and food initially while C is weaned - how does anyone do it? I'll have to be up at 5am every day when back in work just to be ready!!
And then I think what happens when/if there's another baby and C is at pre-school/school - feeling a bit overwhelmed at mo by all the stuff to come. It's much easier just to feed milk IMO!!

Any good tips from experienced hands out there??

LOL at you feeling bad for recommending that book Starlight TBH I haven't even remotely thought about weaning yet. Mind you, you're probably right, I'll be one of those awful women who fills the freezer with purees and then comes on MN when DS is 7 months saying, 'DS won't eat his purees, he's only interested in bits of food he can feed to himself. WWYD?', and I will be laughed at by all the baby led people.

starlight I usually go to Arlesdene, but have been to both. I can walk to Arlesdene so it's a nicer outing.
No, hadn't heard of the Baby Lounge, sounds interesting, what day is it? I'll go google it!

hopefully I am going to put some purees in my freezer, I've got one pumpkin that we grew ourselves this year and want LO to have some of it so it's going to be made into little ice cube portions for later!

PMSL Starlight, I had a feeling Annabel Karmel wasn't your thing

Although her structure of weaning isn't something that interests me, she does have some great recipes. When it came to thinking of things to cook for a baby I had a complete blank and needed some guidance.

Also, if you wait and wean at 6 months your lo can have wheat, dairy and gluten straight away. No worrying about what they can and can't have.

Starlight don't worry, I'm not offended! But you're right on me wanting times and structure, when I eventually come to think about it. Which would be next week, if my mother has anything to say about it. She has been pressuring me to start weaning since he was about 8 weeks! LOL that you have already forgotten about weaning your DS.

T had his jabs today, he was so brave! Had a bit of a cry about the second one, but was cooing at the nurse within 30 seconds. He got a bit grizzly this afternoon, but seems absolutely fine really.

Hopefully - I see a weaning spreadsheet coming on

Hi all, not been on for a while, getting up at 7 for the kids at school is killing me. Ds had pot off on Tuesday and leg has healed fine so one worry out the way.

Robyn is still going to bed impossibly late so now the kids are back at school we are going to try and sort that. I know I sais I would over christmas but the lie-ins were too inviting, I just couldn't get out of bed.

Went to weigh clinic today and robyn is now 10lb 13oz and has dropped down on to the 2nd percentile. HV wasn't too worried as she had put on weight just not as fast as the 'chart' would like. She told me to keep up with bfing and not to worry, as if I would stop now.
Had 2nd set of jabs as well, she cried but was over it within 2 minutes. I still feel all evil when you see how big the needles are.
We saw loads of other babies and almost all of the ones around robyns age (16wks) were huge, even one who was 10 wks weighed more. I think she is just going to be a small baby so am trying not to worry about it. At least it means I get more wear out of her clothes, she still fits 0-3 and only wears 3-6 when in washables.

Debs75 think Charlotte is same. Weighed her today at 16 weeks at she's 12lb 5oz and had dropped below 25%ile but just think she's gonna be small.

Went to mum& baby cafe today - was great! One of the mums is a nursery nurse at the nursery I'm sending C to and her son is going there too, as is another mum's daughter, so C will have plenty of company. They also invited me to wizz kids (no idea) next wed, so I'm going along to have a looksee, but great that they invited me (sort of knew a couple from ante natal class).

Down side is waterbabies have canx tomorrow's lesson as pool is too cold! Had really worked up to going too - never mind, starts next week and DP back from US then to give me moral support!
Night all.

T has grown out of his 3-6 vests when in washables

Ooh, meant to ask - we'll be in France in Sept when C is one. Can she eat shellfish (eg prawns) and runny cheeses or is that still a no no at her age? (obviously assuming she likes em in the first place!)

imoscarsmum don't know about cheese but yes she can eat prawns and shellfish. My ds1 had prawns before he was one I think (in fact I vaguely remember asking about it on mn somewhere)and they are still one of his favourite foods.

starlight that place you go to sounds amazing! Can't believe one place has so many different things on and that they are free. I'm too tight to pay for lots of activities for ds1 (I think the £3 I pay for tumble club once a week for 45mins is close to being too expensive tight Scot, I know) but then go mad if I don't get out with him somewhere everyday.
Saying that, he starts pre-school next week and is doing 2 mornings at £9.50 each!!!

Re weaning I've been looking into BLW, mainly as I'm wondering if I can be arsed with purees. Do I really have time to spend hours pureeing food for him when I can barely make dinner for me, dh and ds1?! I think I'll still aim for spoon feeding him things like yoghurts but give him as many finger foods as possible and hopefully a lot of the same foods as us.
I like some of the recipes in Annabel Karmel but didn't ever look at her schedule of what to feed when. I have another book too called Baby and Toddler meal planner which is published by Parragon. I used that a lot for recipe ideas and would recommend it, quite a lot of them were good for adults too. Also has quite a lot of finger food ideas in it. It also has meal planners in it but again, i didn't follow them, mainly I think as they looked like the baby ate more than an adult if you did!
DS2 is nearly 19 weeks I think and is showing interest in our food but doesn't quite have the coordination to pick food up and eat it, although he does pick up toys and eat them but he's just sucking on them, not trying to actually eat them.

imoscarsmum- here

I can totally recommend the AC weaning stuff hopefully! I loved having a page open on the recipe book stand with a planner for several days written on it, advising when to introduce new meals and reduce milk feeds etc. I got my knickers in a total twist before weaning dd and it wasn't that much of a drama in the end (even though it was 10 days before she swallowed anything )

I considered BLW with dd but couldn't be bothered - I found it loads easier to have a cookathon about once a month and fill the freezer with little pots of casserole, bolognase, veg etc. I never had a clue what i was feeding dd - I just defrosted two pots a day and she got what was in there! I did give her finger food alongside though - she would pick up a piece of bread and as it was making its way to her mouth I'd sneak in a spoonful of something to get her started!

I had to spend this evening paying serious attention to my legs and bikini line as I have to take dd to her swimming lesson on saturday. The situation was shameful!

Hope you're doing ok meglet, we're all thinking of you

hopefully, if the sleeves are still ok, you can get vest externders... M can still wear her 0-3 vests over her reusables!

I'm hoping A takes to BLW, but will probably try and feed him some mashed up stuff too in order to get him to taste things. His aim is rubbish at the moment. He can grab toys but always ends up with his fists in his mouth rather than the toy. Gets quite worked up about it too, like he's really frustrated that yet again he's chewing the back of his hand.

He occasionally chokes on his own fingers.

It's going to be such a change having to cart around pots of food after not worrying about it all this time.

A has been such a sleepy bunny today. Am not used to him napping so much, it's great I'm getting loads of stuff done. I've actually cooked dinner every night this week as I've been able to prepare all the ingredients during his afternoon nap and then just throw it all together after I've put him to bed at 7. Needless to say the quality of meals in the DG household has risen considerably since I've been back at the hob!

Got A weighed today and he's still just under the 50th centile which is brilliant, so dropping one of the night feeds hasn't slowed his weight gain. The 4am feed has crept back to 3am (boo)...and he still wakes at 6am (which we ignore) before I feed him at 7am. Think I might wait till he's 5 months before attempting to shift this 3am feed. At the moment I'm just pleased that I'm getting away with just one feed interrupting my sleep. Just hoping he eventually learns to stop waking at 6am.

debithescot many thanks for that - a very useful summary. Now looking forward to introducng C to lots of different french foods. Runny cheeses are a no no though, apparently.

Digitalgirl C often puts her thumb and first finger into her mouth, instead of just her thumb, and then starts choking and making very loud gagging noises. Quite alarming and gets me long looks from others if we're out and about but she isn't bothered by it and now I find it quite funny!

Doesn't everyone have a recipe book stand? I have a rather lovely red one which is also magnetic (have magnets on with metric/imperial conversions for cooking)... I'll just get back to my spreadsheet
Oh god, now you all have me worrying about weaning - I have no idea about it at all, like whether you're meant to give real food before or after BF, what time of day to try first... I may have to order some books from Amazon.

DG T quite often gags on his own fingers. Tragic yet entertaining! His aim is also fairly crap - he can just about manage to get his teddy to his mouth (clasped between both palms), but anything smaller and he usually either drops it or misses.

sunflower that sounds sensible. Do you know where I can get such a thing?

Oh, and in other news I have decided the time has come to start dieting. I am completely sick of still wearing maternity jeans and only having 10 items of clothing, and I refuse to but more fat clothes.
Haven't dieted for ages though, and don't know where to start!