Sept 08: We'll soon be weaning, and of a full nights sleep we're dreaming ......

[ILikeToMoveItMoveIt]

Hello ladies.

Pull up a chair, grab a biscuit and lets start talking about puree vs blw and sleep deprivation

ponymum - A has started rolling and turning and getting stuck in all sorts of positions even without a slope to help. Although actually we've never removed the books from under the end of the cot from his last cold. I knew that copy of War and Peace would be useful eventually!

Tee hee ponymum! Glad she's ok, might have enjoyed the change of scene?!

My parents are on they way to visit coz its my birthday on monday, so they're here today til tuesday. Tonight I'm having a wine tasting party (been to the wine warehouse and bought 6 wines I've never heard of and will drink them all with my friends!) and on monday we'll go on a day trip but I haven't decided where, depends on how project potty goes this weekend!

Ds is still poorly He's having lots of little feeds rather than his usual 4 big feeds a day, and is quite unsettled, but as long as his fluids are kept up then we don't need to go back to hospital.

Hope you all have lovely weekends.

carriebo hope DS is better very very soon and you have a relaxing birthday.

at ponymums DH.

DD was a star last night, she didn't even grizzle and slept 7-7 . Although to ensure my life is not too easy my car now has a puncture. I need to go to the gym to calm myself down.

hi ladies, els is the magic 26 weeks on tuesday, so will start weaning properly, and antone who is interested Asda have an offer on baby food, (all brands) 10 for £4, so we have stocked up. xx

I think DD managed to feed herself some banana when we did BLW at tea time. I shall be keeping an eye on her nappies for tell tale brown banana bits in them .

I'm weaning her the lazy way, jars and BLW and some home made purees. Whenever I make a puree it's either too runny or like concrete.

hee hee ponymum i have had a similar thing a couple of times, the worst was today he was playing in his cot watching his mobile while i got ready this morning, when i went back in he had rolled over and had one arm completely through the bars of the cot! oops

made the decision today to switch to ff except for any in the night feeds and the first morning feed. After an initial nightmare time trying to get him to take bottles he now loves them and seems much happier than when bfing. Also, he's at that completely nosey phase and i hate the constant off/ on thing. Have the usual mixed bag of emotions about it all but on balance would say i am happy and just a little bit relieved- i think its cos of that constant feeling that you are the only person that can do anything, IYKWIM. Didnt expect to be able to feed him at all, thought i would do 4 months and have done almost 5. Definately want to keep some feeding going, and i may see if i can sometimes feed in the day if we are out and about if its easier- not sure if i will be able to do this occasionally though? Currently my left side feels like it is going to explode though- hasnt been used since first thing this morning! (gave top up tonight after bottle on right side) Hope i've made the right decision...

lol Ponymum. We propped up T's cot for a few nights, and the top end was waaaay higher than the bottom, but he lies so still in the cot (literally doesn't move a milimetre apart from his hands all night) that he didn't roll down the hill.

Must must must order high chair tomorrow. I know it's naughty to wean in the hope of improving the nights, but I am getting seriously bored of 3 night feeds. I don't see any kind of improvement in the length of time he's going (apart from freak night the other night)

meglet thats my way too

plusonemore Glad you are more happy and that he is happy. T is certainly a lot happier ff than he ever was at the breast

Bit of a horrid couple of days really...my sis is in a bad way re: her wanker dh and T is teething and I think ds1 is dyslexic....feel a bit emotionally wrung out and tired and hormnonal and dh going away on business next week

Sorry. Will try to be more cheerful next post x

I forgot to mention, els did an epic feeding session last night, 2am til 6am I'm jiggered today I think he's hit his 6 month growth spurt, but I knew it was coming hes been grumpy for the past 2 days dispite the amount of sleep hes been getting.
sorry to hear things aren't going so well for a few of you, I hope they get better soon. and Becaroo don't worry about dyslexia, I was diagnosed with it when I was a child, and after a lot of extra reading/writing lesson I made huge improvements, Its about finding the right way of teaching for your DS he will get there but it may take longer look after yourself x

Hi becaroo what's happened with your ds1 that you think that? He's still sooo young to be reding and writing (especially for a boy) and in most countries wouldn't have started yet.

I know the worry though as my DD1 (who's also 5) has been put in a special group for her literacy which is way behind her verbal skills. I was really worried but I have to say the group's really been good for her as she's starting to try and write by herself (though many of her letters still backwards)

hopefully I have to say I might be slightly tempted if I thought weaning would help the nights. We've gone down from 6 to 4 in the last couple of nights .

Starlight if you're reading don't look at the next sentence. I've even thought about some kind of sleep training at 6 months!!

We had a very exciting day today - not only did Erin have her first swim, but also tasted a teeney-weeney bit of banana after eyeing it up longingly. She was nonplussed by both but early days

I am waiting for the world's longest washing machine cycle to end - I put it on at 10pm and and an hour and a bit later, it is saying it has 41 minutes to go (this is on a 56-minute cycle) so I am tired and grumpy.

Night-night and lots of sleepy vibes to all x

Oh, for goodness sake. T went to bed 30 mins earlier tonight, so instead of waking at 11, 3 and 6 he woke at 10:30, 2:30 and 5:30. And 6:30 to start the day, for good measure.
I really am seeing absolutely no signs of this changing, the feeding schedule is so set.

Ninja we too are contemplating trying a 'no feed' period in the night (DP or I will just hold T and attempt to settle him) when he reaches 6-7 months if he is still waking 3 times a night once he is properly onto solids.

Kagey I hope your washing machine didn't finish too late!

hopefully that's the kind of thing I was thinking about. The problem is now I think my body's got used to producing the milk at night and I'm not sure how to reverse it until I can fill her tummy more in the day.

ninja he has had extra help both at school and at home now for some months and there are no signs of improvement...he doesnt seem to be abe to hear sounds and be able to convert them into letters and words. He also writes letters and numbers backwards. We just did his homework and he wrote;
ees for See
lut for look
fut for for etc etc
He hates writing and reading because he finds it so hard....am starting toe by toe teaching method at home next week and have requested a meeting with his teacher tomorrow.

According the the dyslexia action website he has several indicators of dyslexia. Thanks for the kind words barnpot x

She who shall not be named says trying a bottle of water if baby wakes at silly o'clock and you just know they don't really need food. They 'learn' there's no reward in waking. Not tried it but just remember reading it once.

Don't shoot the messenger, just trying to help with those sleep deprived

becaroo toe by toe is really good, I know we sometimes use it at school. Sounds like you are really in tune with his ability which is key I reckon. What a good mummy

you know i said i was ready to explode on left side last night? well i expressed in the end, it was very watery in colour. Just feeding ds directly from that side and after a few sucks he was screaming complaint, wouldnt have it again, but was then happy with right. Have i broken the left side??

Plusone I have a theory that my left side is broken . T is so much fussier on that side, but I'm trying to use it plenty so if for some reason it has low supply, it picks up again.

T has been a pain today, hardly sleeping, bit grizzly and generally not his usual self. He's filled up with mucus again (silly DP took all the towels out from under his mattress, so he was flat again last night, way too soon).

aww, thanks plusone

Dreading the meeting as I dont want to come across as critical of the teacher or school -the phonics method just isnt working for him

plusone and hopefully at your left boobs being broken!!!! LOL

Toby has started "gurning" chewing on his new tooth!!! Looks most amusing.

becaroo dont worry it will be fine, just say some nice stuff first about how happy ds is in the class/school or that you know they have been giving lots of support already and you really appreciate it...but...you dont think its working...blah blah...try something else...get assessed...whatever it is you would like!!!

good luck at the meeting becaroo, i agree with plusonemore about saying the size stuff. Don't worry about it, as a teacher I think it's great to see and speak to parents who care about their children's education and well being.

trying the water in the middle of the night sometimes work but not always I think. With ds1 we tried it a few times and he did get the message. With ds2 we tried it once (a couple of months ago now to be fair) and it didn't go down well at all.

DS2 is 6 months old today which I think must make him 26 weeks tomorrow so looking forward to giving him things like toast and pasta. he's been having a mix of purees (mostly homemade and the odd jar) and finger foods and hasn't rejected anything so far. Had a few gagging/choking moments but he's getting better. He's had various fruit and veg pureed and bits of broccoli, roast parsnip, carrot, cucumber (cut little ridges in to make easier to hold), gluten free rusk, rice cakes, melon (keep skin on to make easier to hold), pear...
I bought some mini plain weetabixes the other day, they should make a good finger food for breakfast when he gets onto breakfasts- I don't want to have to feed him breakfast as it takes us long enough to get out the door in the mornings as it is.

He is also very un-interested in breast feeding most of the time and is having what seems like very small feeds. I remember ds1 doing the same at this age and he ended up gradually switching to forumla which worked better for us. I liked that I knew how much he was getting and it was quicker as he was a slow bf-er. But ds2 takes twice as long to drink a bottle so I want to stick with bf-ing if possible. I'll just have to presume that he's getting enough and give him yoghurts and cheese if he seems to be having a non drinking day.

oh and ds2 seems to have got used to us coming into the room to go to bed now and isn't waking up then. Only prob is he's been waking about 12.30 instead which is hard work to wake up for. Then he wakes again anything between 3 and 5. So he's waking twice in the night now whereas before (when we woke him at 10.30ish) he was only feeding once in the night, but I think this is better long term as hopefully it wont be long before he only wakes once and then nonce (if thats a word)

Sounds as if you're on the ball becaroo. DD's only just got the hang of endings of (some) words, and usually misses out the middle. Went could be wet or wt (if I'm lucky). d's, g's, j's, z's amd a few others are ALWAYS the wrong way. She's just got used to writing words from left to right, but even now will write words (including her name) the other way!!

I know what you mean about not hearing the sounds, I think dd1 has just got the hang of this. It definitely took longer than other kids.

My sister was the same though, she just took her time.

I hope the meeting goes well.

Thanks Imoscarsmum. When I can be sure she's not hungry (or just waking once) I'll try and cut down the feeds by a minute a day. She's obviously relying on her night feeds for nutrition atm and I need to train my breasts too

Hopefully it's my right side that's broken. I think that might be 'cos I'm more comfortable feeding on the left so I can mumsnet multitask

plusonemore sounds like you've expressed a lot of foremilk without necessarily getting to the hindmilk (maybe you didn't actually let down)?? I guess your DS miht have had quite a shock getting a mouthful straight away if he's used to having to work for it.

yes ninja i was thinking it was too much foremilk but i couldnt work out why. It came out very easily, 7oz in about 5 mins tops. Now its in the fridge and settled there is only a tiny bit of 'cream' at the top and its very watery on the whole. Dont know if I should even give it to him as its so watery.

oh and LOL at nonce !!!