Sept 08: the thread for when they may start crawling, and there will definitely be some separation anxiety bawling ....

[ILikeToMoveItMoveIt]

Welcome ladies

Well, there's no crawling going on in our house, but there's defo some separation anxiety bawling going on .... tears, screaming, the works - oh joy!

Hopefully that feeling when you first start leaving them is awful isn't it? Effy has started crying when I leave her now - never when daddy leaves her only when I do, and I feel like crying along. I have to put my i-pod on as soon as I leave nursery and switch off into the music.

how much milk are your dc s having now please? Alfie has 1 bf and then 4 8oz bottles (including waking him at 10pm) and i just noticed that it says on the cow and gate tub that 7-12 month olds should be on 3 7oz feeds!!! He is eating, but not much, just enjoying lots of finger foods and the odd bit of mush/petit filous, so consequently I dont think much is going down. Should I start to decrease the milk to encourage him to eat more? (this is what Gina says I think) Might start moving dreamfeed forwards in preperation to dropping it?

plusone I have just dropped one of Tobys milk feeds as he was having 5 x 7oz bottles per day plus breakfast, lunch and tea!!! Felt a bit guility as he would still drink 5 feeds a day, but need to get him to take more solid food and get him interested in finger foods - also his weight is on the 96th centile so not worried re: weight

It seems to have worked in that he now eats more - has more prridge in the morning and a pudding after tea for example. I dropped the feed he had before lunch. So his feeding pattern is now somehting like this;

6/7am - milk feed
7/8am - breakfast and water
10/11am - milk feed
12/1pm - lunch and water
3/4pm - milk feed
5/6pm - tea and water
7/8pm - milk feed

Also he has water throughout the day and I try him with finger foods, but hes not too interested at the moment.

HTH x

Sunshinemummy thankfully T hasn't started doing anything like that - I think if he had started crying when I left this morning I would have taken him home again! I'm so brave.

Plusone T eats plenty (3 meals a day, eats a reasonable amount at each) and has:
7am BF
7:30 breakfast
10-ish 6oz bottle
11ish lunch
2ish BF
5 4oz bottle
5:30 dinner
7ish BF

Plusonemore Effy is a glutton so she has been dropping feeds herself but she currently has (all ff as I've stopped bf):

• sometime 4oz in the morning, sometimes just a moutful
• sometimes 4oz during the day but she often leaves some of this
• 7oz at 19:00 just before bedtime
• 3-4oz dream feed at 22:00 (which is the next one we're hoping to phase out)
• occasionally (but not since we started her on banana at 18:30) 3-4oz at about 3am.

Hopefully she's got terrible separation anxiety with me. It's a little wearing, but then she gives me big kisses and I forget all about it. Part of the problem as well is she's creeping but not crawling so she can't get to me as fast as she'd like.

thank you everyone- its so useful to compare!

Oh, and focaccia recipe:

450g plain flour
1tsp salt
1tsp bicarb soda (I did a bit of a heaped tsp)
350-400ml buttermilk
olive oil

23x33 loaf tin (I used a round cake tin though)

mix dry ingredients, pour in 350ml of buttermilk and mix, adding more buttermilk if necessary - dough should be soft but not sticky ( found I only needed 350ml of buttermilk, no more).

Roll or press into loaf tin, make dimples all over with your fingertips (NO idea why...), drizzle generously with olive oil, sprinkle with sea salt if desired (I roasted some pieces of red onion and pressed them into the top of the dough instead of putting salt on top, she also suggests pressing some olives or sun dried tomatoes on top)

Bake at 220 degrees C (425 F) for 20-30 mins - if bread browns after a shorter time, reduce temp to 190-200 for remaining cooking time.

drizzle a little more olive oil over while hot.

is very yummy, and very very easy - no rising time.

Gosh, easy to tell I'm working - 3 posts in an hour!

Thanks Hopefully. I'll give that a try and let you know what I think.

I've also got a recipe for focaccia to use in the breadmaker, but I'm very sceptical about it tbh.

sunshinemummy interesting re: feet first. Will try that with DS next time he goes for it. Unfortunately it's usually when we're all in bed together in the morning trying to ignore the fact that DS is wide awake and hoping he'll get the message that he too should be asleep. It used to work. Not anymore, he just clambers all over me, pummels my breasts and then attempts to bungee jump off the bed (without bungee).

Last night was worse. Don't know if it's because DS has a cold. Up three times, each time I end up sleeping with him in the spare bed because I'm too tired to feed sitting up. Perhaps this is where I'm going wrong. I ended up sleeping there for more than half the night. He woke up all sweaty this morning because he was next to me in his grobag.

And plusone i'm all over the place with feeds with this aprt-time working. If I'm around then DS gets it whenever - usually about 4-5 a day. But if I'm working then he'll get breakfast and bedtime bf's and he might take some of a 200ml ff. One thing I've found is that if he's having a hungry day he'll have loads of milk and solids. If not then he will turn his nose up at most things offered (apart from a BF).

Don't know what to do about night-times. They feel like they've steadily been getting worse over the last 2-3 weeks. My original plan to just 'go with it' and feed him whenever he woke in order to minimise sleep loss for everyone doesn't seem to be working. And it's worse than when he was 4 months, back then I could reach over, feed him and put him back in his cot. Now I have to get up go into his room, feed him till he's truly asleep, lie with him for 10-20 minutes then put him back in his cot and creep back to bed. Only to be woken up 30 minutes later to repeat the same thing. DH is losing patience and he's a very patient man.

digitalgirl it takes a little time but if you persevere it's worth it. I remember being at my sister's house with DS when he was little and she has a DS about a month older. DS was on the sofa and was about to get off so BIL raced across the room to grab him, while I sat there sipping my wine shouting 'feet first' - which he did and got off it quite safely !

Re. the sleepless nights when Effy was about 4-5 months we were in a similar situation and I pretty much cried every night because of it. I also rationalised that I should feed her whenever she peeped to stop her waking everyone else up. All I can say that what is worked for us is giving her the banana before bedtime routine starts, doing a warm dream feed and making sure she's not too cold or warm. Also I don't know if you're using a baby monitor but turning that off so I'm not up every time she peeps has also worked wonders.

I agree with sunshine about the feet first thing. we did it with ds1 and it didn't take that long before he was confidently getting on and off things without us having to say anything. He's always been pretty good on the stairs.

Ds2 roughly does this in terms of food;

7am ish- bf
8am ish- mini wheatabixes or apricot wheats plus a couple of grapes
11 ish- drink water and small ricecake or breadstick
12.30 ish- lunch- sandwich, fruit, flapjack, water
3.30 ish- up to 6 ff
5.30 ish- tea- something like pasta+chicken, yoghurt, water
7.30 ish- up to 8 oz ff

Last few days though he's not had much of that last bottle, think yest he had 5 oz in afternoon then only 3 at bedtime. So only 8 oz milk and 1 bf!

Made it up to Dundee without any major traumas. Went a bit wrong on the DLR, didn't realise there were 2 bits going east and went down the wrong bit so ended up on wrong side of the river.
Then as we went to board the plane I was asked for id for ds2! I didn't have any and wasn't asked for it when I checked in! Luckily they let me fly but said I have to have his birth certificate for coming home. Luckily dh comes up tomorrow so he can bring it.

Hello ladies,

mmmmh, thanks for replies re: nursery. I must say, I'm not overjoyed with it. I'm going to give it one more day (when I'll do a proper settling session) and I'll let you know how it goes. So far, I can only think of it as the Fawlty towers of the nursery world. The director had just left, so the disarray may be due to them being directorless until the new one starts. I do hope so, as finding a nursery is such a trial.

Feeds:

08:00 breast
09:00 toast soldiers and fruit while we all have breakfast
11:00 breast
12:30 lunch (lentils and veg or similar)
15:00 breast
17:00 tea (stewed fruit and maybe an organix rusk)
20:00 Cereal porridge made with 210ml of formula and fruit compote

Am I over feeding? He's put on LOADS of weight since I started weaning him. His favourite meal is dinner, and he can't get enough of the millet porridge thing I give him. I credit this with him sleeping till 4 am...

Pacita I wouldn't worry as Effy is the same. I'll plot her tonight but she was on 2nd percentile and there is no way she's on that now. I can't remember but I think she's about the same weight as Diego.

Whoa, sunshinemummy, that is a big increase!

I'm not too worried, as I figure they are going to need all those stores of fat once they start moving around (and us with them, so let's hope I get rid of some stores of fat myself, particularly the ones firmly entrenched round my arse and hips). I spoke to a friend today who said both her babies suddenly fattened up just before they started moving around in earnest.

Evening ladies. Well I made it safely to mum and dad's, not too much traffic and it took 6 hours including two stops. The kids were great but mostly because Grandma was there - she caught the train up yesterday to do the drive back with me today, what a total superstar
Can't wait to have a coffee with some of you in croydon tomorrow, yipee!
Ds is cutting back so much on his milk, or maybe its just that he's getting v.efficient with his bf?
We do Gina so...
7am bf
8ish breakfast (porridge or weetabix)
12 lunch
3ish attempt a milk feed, doesn't usually take much
5pm dinner
6:45 bf or bottle if he had a bf at 3 (or if I'm out

So in theory 3 feeds a day, but not sure how much he's getting. He's a boy who loves his food so I add milk into everything!

Better go, I'm on my dad's laptop

Oh yes and after 20mins in my parents' care, ds is showing signs of starting to try and move. [quite pleased but why wouldn't he do it for me emoticon]

sunshine that story with the pillow nearly made me cry, I really feel your pain on that one.

Okay okay I'm going...

Carrie C has clearly been reading Gina on the sly!
This is our routine (all led by C but clearly similar to yours!):

7.30am about 160mls ff
8.45am Porridge, poss some fruit
midday - 1pmish Lunch (bread, cheese or omlette, savoury muffin etc, fruit, water)
3pmish Milk feed. Between 70 and 200mls, depends how she's feeling.
5.30 - 6pm Tea. normally fish or meat with veg, or mac cheese or fish pie or etc etc, plus pudding (fromage frais, plum fruit desserts etc)
7pmish last bottle - again between 100 and 200 mls, depending on her. She does still generally fall asleep on that last bottle.

So 3 feeds, totalling between 450 and 600 mls a day.

We don't have a routine as such as if we are out I don't always give Robyn food

5.30-7.00 bf in bed
7.30-9.30 porridge/fruit and yoghurt/toast
10.00 bf
12.30-1.00 bf or ricecake with cheese/banana/sandwich with water(if I remember)
4.00-5.00 tea usually what we have with extra vegs
6.00 bf
7.30-8.00 bf
9.00 bf and bed
11.00 bf (moving her into my bed makes her wake up.

God that is a lot of bf's. She struggles to get off to sleep so I feed her. Do not what she will do when I stop bfing. On the plus side she like taking water from her bottle with spout so hopefully when she goes onto mlik she will take that and drop off to sleep.

Oh for a baby that I can put down awake and watch her drift to sleep with no screaming.

Oh and in addition to the milk feeds Effy is having:

1-2 rice cakes before nursery
Porridge at nursery
Lunch plus dessert at nursery (fish, cottage pie etc.)
Dinner plus dessert at nursery (normally soup or pasta)
Banana when she gets home

No wonder she's a porker!

Pacita it's true they get really chubby before they start moving. They need that build up to give them the energy and sturdiness to get going.

debs hear hear. I used to be able to put DS down awake. But since he's got more mobile, as soon as he's put down (on his tummy) he pushes up and starts pivoting round in the cot, crying, looking up at me with pleading eyes.

Another bad night, not helped by the fact that I've got yet another cold.

sunshine & pacita glad you mentioned the putting on extra weight thing, I'm SURE DS has got much chubier recently. Obviously it's down to the million night feeds I seem to be doing again, but am hoping that once he's properly on the move that he'll be tooo tired to wake up anymore.

Also, where are these goddamn teeth? He's been teething for 4 months now. Anyone else still got a gummy baby?

T is right little porker too - I think they're just at the age where they're laying down loads and loads of energy for all the rushing round they'll (eventually) be doing.

Here's a question - what do you all do with your babies all day? I guess those of you with two it's not such an issue - running round after 2 is more than enough activity - but I'm often finding that I am (whispers) bored out of my skull, while at the same time not stopping for a moment.
T is spending rather more time in front of Baby Einstein than I care to admit to, as he enjoys it, and I often struggle to keep him entertained enough when I'm playing with him. It's not all doom and gloom - we have an hour or two of baby groups 3 days a week and he goes to the childminder for 1 day now, but the rest of the time I find myself increasingly struggling to be sufficiently entertaining.
Any ideas?!?

Ooh sunshinemummy I am envious of your nursery offering tea to Effy. The only downside to the nursery Charlotte will go to is they do not offer tea. the upside is that as it's in the grounds of a local college, the catering school cooks the babies' food every day as part of the chef's training and it's highly rated by ofsted.

She will have porridge on arrival (supplied by me), toast at 9.30. lunch at midday and a snack at 3pm. they will give her tea but I have to supply it. I'm hoping to pick her up around 5ish so I can give her tea before 6. I suspect early evenings will be very busy when i go back to work! My friend has just gone back and is currently giving her DD tea at 5.45 and her and her DH eat too. She then cooks tea for the next night after DD has gone to bed and flops down about 9pm for a short hour before bed. next morning it all starts again. I'm dreading it!!

DG no teeth here either and it's been at least 4 months of gumming! C also acts like 'dolphin baby' (DP's phrase) when we put her down on her tummy. She is so excited by the stuff in her cot.

Hopefully C is currently sat on a mat surrounded ye her toys while I watch this morning do the ironing. With C, as long as we have a few days every week of socialising (baby sensory and we see local mums once or twice a week and she really enjoys seeing the other babies), i don't worry. babies need quiet time too. Whatever I'm doing (shopping at asda, cooking, cleaning etc etc) I talk to her alot, telling her what I'm doing. People think I'm mad but we go round asda and I'll ask her what is next on the list, or 'does that banana look ripe'? etc. One day she'll reply.
Generally, as long as you involve them, babies will be entertained by watching you. We also go swimming and go for a walk every day if we haven't already been out. we also put music on and dance around the room and sing together. Leave all dignity behind at the door.