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

Not sure...but I think we might be coming out the other side of this new wakeful/extra night feeding phase. I'm hesitant to call it another growth spurt (even though thats probably what it is) because despite me trying and offering A refuses to feed anymore during the day but has been feeding more overnight.

Is it a coincidence that this started the day he picked up his first solid food?

Last night he cried himself hoarse an hour after I put him to bed. DH was rocking and patting and A worked himself up so much I had to feed him back to sleep again.

This morning he's been very jolly and had a good old fumble with some banana and strawberries. I've decided the (broken-strap) highchair my dad gave us is actually quite useful at the moment because the tray has a short lip that A can push the food up against to help him pick it up rather than pushing it on to the floor.

TMI alert. I keep having these half day periods. I've had two weeks of cramping, then yesterday morning I thought I'd started my period. But by lunchtime there was no evidence of it. Still feeling a bit crampy, but nothing. This is the third time it's happened since the lochia stopped 2 months after giving birth. Is anyone else having similar weird cycles due to breastfeeding? I'd read on other threads that the first proper period after childbirth was mega heavy and painful. But this pathetic half day thing makes me wonder if my cycles will ever return to normal.

NC If I'm at home I feed A as soon as he wakes up so he's still a little bit sleepy and keeps his eyes closed.

yay! I'm back and adding this to my threads.

I've a hell of a week. I've been so busy as I've not been on MN or FB. Done insurance stuff, gardening and started weaning DD. We have done mashed banana and baby rice and she loves it . But I have had some bad news and my coloposcopy results are not good so I have to have more of my cervix removed , I can't watch jade goody on the news without feeling sick with fear.

must go, mum is coming over to help as I'm getting so stressed everything is going to pieces! I am roasting a chicken for the first time in my life, wish me luck. x

I had DD weighed this morning and she is absolutely fine! 6.4 kg (14 lb 2 oz) at 22-23 weeks, which is on the 25th centile so nothing to worry about as she has pretty much been tracking that line since birth. The midwife also pointed out that she has fat ankles and wrists and is quite tall. She gave me lots of reassurance and said nobody should be telling me my baby is too small.

I am now trying to think of the best response next time someone comments on how small she looks. "She's heavier than she looks" or "She's slim and tall just like all her cousins" should do it.

Or perhaps just "Unless you're a paediatrician would you mind your own business?"

excellent news ponymum! Maybe "She's a typical 5-month-old baby"?

People keep telling me A is huge, which is amusing as he's right on the 50th percentile. I just say "He's exactly average for his age apparently - they grow so fast, don't they?"

The 'mind your own business' will be used on the next person to try pulling his blankie off his face, though. He puts it there and goes to sleep - and objects to being woken up by its removal!

Ponymum glad everything's ok with DD! just stick your tongue out at anyone who says she's too small.

Meglet so sorry to hear of your bad news about the colcoscopy - it's hard, but just try to remember it's a very very long way from a bad colcoscopy to a tragic situation like JG's.
I roasted a chicken for the first time when i was 8.5 months pregnant!

Izzybiz at 21lb 14oz!!!!

T still isn't right - screaming at every feed (he's probably taking 1-2 proper feeds a day, the rest are a few sucks interspersed with screaming), grizzling when he's not feeding, keeps making sicky noises, but nothing's coming out (he was massively sick on sunday morning, but not since), and only really happy upright on my lap. Was up and down almost hourly last night too. I may have already said that... Luckily we've got a doc's appointment this afternoon for his urine test, so I'll see if they can suggest anything other than calpol. It's so sad as he's normally such a happy smiley chap, and he's scarcely stopped crying/grizzling since friday night (jabs were on thursday).

Debs75 my HV also threw a strop when i mentioned BLW. i do think they believe we are morons who are incapable of most things baby-related . Just do what your instincts tell you. My instincts say BLW is for us, up to a point. Not sure i fancy getting porridge off the walls/cat/ceiling as I would if i let C stick her hand in and lick off. So a little bit of spooning of runny foods won't hurt.

I showed my sister the open cups as sugested by hv. she laughed and gave her dd an open cup full of water (dd is 18m), which was sipped out of, then the rest tipped on floor! She said hv had to recommend open cup as some mums would fill bottles with ribena and leave with yr old baby - ie no good for teeth. As i have no intention of doing that, i'm gonna stick with normal toddler spout cups.

And well done Fraser!!! I don't tell people this often as i get looks of pure hatred in RL, but [whispers] C has been sleeping 7pm to 7am since 21st Dec - am so proud of her.

Hi again izzy and welcome back Meglet Ponymum The correct response to comments is: 'Yes, thank you. With obese babies on the increase it is a big relief!'

I think Lollyheart and imoscarsmum need to go and start their own support thread about having 5month olds that sleep because they are a minority group afaics

meglet you have my support. I had CIN2 about 10 years ago and and had multiple colposcopies and operations to remove cells from my cervix. The good thing to think about is that they do these things to address the signs at a very early stage, with the result that many thousands of women (like me) have been prevented from going on to develop anything more serious. If you are like me then 10 years from now you will have almost forgotten. Hope this helps. Good luck with the roast chicken tonight!

notcitrus yes, DD is doing the head swivel, totally forgets she is feeding thing. I keep saying "concentrate, will you!" and making DH leave the room if he appears to be the distraction of choice.

meglet I hope you are doing OK, and that your mum is looking after you during her visit, how did the chicken go?

snowlight I spoke to Bethany and there wasn't a space for me in the end on the course, I think it only started this week because of the snow.

eandz good news that you're finally getting somewhere with Noah.

hopefully let us know how you get on at the drs today.

ponymum glad you're reassured, sounds like she's getting on fine.

Oh and notcitrus, yes we're suffering with that too at the moment, it prety much goes like feed for a bit, finger in, finger out, feed, clamp on but want to look round, feed, BITE down, feed, finger in... and so on.
If people are talking I have no hope of her feeding properly at all!

Doc was fairly unconcerned, esp as T had improved slightly by the time we got there. However, T has been suffering more and more with the constipation - earlier he did (sorry, TMI coming up) a poo that was normal BM-poo-coloured, but absolutely solid like an adult one. He was also absolutely screeching with pain while he did it, as he has been a fair bit recently. Doc agreed that this isn't normal on a long term basis, so we're working on trying to get a bit more fluid into him, and I have to give him some suppositories (yuck).
He's a little bit happier, but still fussing/crying/pulling off loads while feeding, which is tedious.

notcitrus we have the same problem, ds2 is always very distracted and is a nightmare to feed if there's other people around. He pulls off and exposes me to whoever it is he's nosying at.

meglet hope you're ok, and that what ponymum has said will hemp ease your worries a bit. One good thing though is that you have prompted me to get on the phone and make a smear test appointment. I need to stoip avoiding it becasue it sounds horrible and just get it over and done with.

meglet hopefully lollyheart we still all on for tomorrow I take it. 10am at JJs?

Are you all talking to me yet

Fraser slept for 11 hours last night woke up for a feed then went back to sleep for another 2 hours

debi ive just heard from meglet, we are still meeting at jj's at 10am, im looking forward to it

deb phone your doc's tomorrow. Is that your first smear? They only do them from 25 these days don't they?

I am pleased to announce the roast chicken went well and me and DS are still alive and kicking so I don't think I've poisoned us. Not bad coming from an ex-vegetarian, I lapsed after 19 years when I was pregnant with DD last summer . I am going to eat every last scrap of it too, it was organic and free range so I nearly had to re-mortgage the bloomin' house to pay for it.

notcitrus I've only just stopped bf DD but she was a nightmare with getting distracted while feeding. I could only do it if DS was out the room as she kept trying to crane her neck to look at him.

debs75 & imoscarsmum. I'm going to try a little bit of BLW with DD in a week or so. We did purees & BLW weaning with DS and he has always been a fabulous / non-fussy eater, as long as you don't give him lettuce.

I'm coming to the Basingstoke meet up tomorrow too.

Lollyheart I am definitely still not talking to you if an 11 hour stretch is becoming the norm!

Still on for tomorrow too! Which reminds me, I must check train times. Really hope T is in a slightly better frame of mind tomorrow.

Meglet when we have roast - organic - chicken (as we did yesterday), we usually manage:

• 2 portions of roast dinner
• 1 or 2 portions of leftover roast dinner for lunch the next day
• 4 portions of some meal made with the leftover chicken (egg fried rice with chicken, peas and cabbage this time)
• stock made with the carcass, usually used for vegetable soup. All of this makes me feel slightly better at spending approx £1million on a chicken.

hopefully oh yes, we will be living on chicken for a few days. I did offer ex P some when he came round but he didn't have any .

Posting to bookmark the thread - haven't posted for a while but have been managing to read the thread recently and nice to hear how everyone is doing (met some of you in London for pizza last year). Am very sleep deprived as ds is waking several times a night for the last few weeks and is a nightmare to settle. Have just started a little rice/veg puree (he is 21 weeks) to see if it helps (did with dd after a week or two).

Meglet I am a semi-lapsed vegetarian too - started eating fish again when pg for the first time but haven't eaten meat yet (although may at some point as dd/ds are not going to be veggie unless they choose to be later). Dd picks lettuce off her plate and hands to me in disgust though will eat almost anything else

I will phone meglet, you can shout at me if i don't! I'd got away with it for a while as they changed it to over 25s but I do have a letter from the gp sitting in my things to do pile but its been there a while.

Ds1 loves lettuce especially if it is from my big mac

DS won't eat lettuce either. He picks it up and says 'leaf' and then puts it down again.

Yes - I know what you mean about the being interested in everything else - M pulls off, arches back, smiles ... I've been soaked SOO many times this week and I'm afraid my nipples probably been flashed a few times!

Imoscarsmum my HV is very supportive about BLW. Most of them here seem to be, in fact they showed us the video. I think the open cups can be useful for babies who won't drink out of a bottle or cup and will lap out of one of them. I'd go with tommee tippee ones they continue to be useful. And no yuo didn't need to remind us about C's sleeping

meglet I'm with your DS - lettuce, why??? When a child I once tried to blow my nose on a leaf

I'm still a veggie - anyone else not lapsed?

Carrie - your dh sounds v romantic , hope you had a lovely time yesterday

Eandz so glad you're getting some help with Noah at last

meglet sorry to hear your news, must be worrying, but good that the problem's been detected

Ninja -I'ma non lapsed veggie . Been one for about 18 years. Dd1 is avid carnivore though

meglet sorry to hear about your test results, hope all will be ok in the end

M does the nipple pulling-look-at-everything-around-especially-DS thing... been doing it for quite some time now, she really hurt me today I can still feel sore...

Mum's been on cleaning/cooking/laundry/ironing duties... ah, so nice....

splishsplosh my dd1 a real carnivore too (tho' not at home!) I make sure she knows where it all comes from though