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!

sorry, seem to lack time recently and keep on losing all my threads

starlight as others said, sorry to hear your news, but you are fab! and as others said, once you know where in the spectrum he is, it'll be clearer how to deal with the situation. but you've done fantastic so far without knowing anyway!

here, DD's enjoying eating! I thought BLW was about baby being in control of of how much to eat, so they're not overfed, BUT DD seems to have a bottomless stomach! she screams if I'm not quick enough spoonfeeding her/passing her pieces of food! and she's so good at picking things up, even little raisins (and crumbs if there's nothing else on her tray!!).

off to check paperwork for passport office tomorrow morning... we're off in a week's time and need to start sorting out clothes etc...

I've had a thought hopefully. Have you tried T with fennel tea? I'm sure it's good for digestion and I think someone like Hipp do a baby version - although that may just be a scam and ordinary fennel tea may be ok?

I bought some satsuma's and M can't eat them fast enough. Maybe that would be good for T too?

ponymum hows it going? I am such a dope I completely forgot to tell you how I got ds2 to take his bottle!!! He had been quite on/off with bottles, but i needed to get him to take one at 6/6.30 so I could go to netball at 7pm
DH giving it was no good, he also complained for me. So one night I tried BFing, then take him off, offer again (kind of sleepy by this point) and at the last minute stuff the bottle in instead- bingo!! Each night I gave him less and less BF each time until I just sort of waved my nipple in front of him to get him going. When DH fed him I also used to come and wave breats about, must have looked very odd. He now takes bottled no problem (NUK ones), infact he sees it coming and grabs it with both hands!!

Starlight I just want to echo what everyone else has said and hope you are all ok.

I had a big test weekend, I left Erin with DH for the weekend whilst I went gallavanting to Manchester for my friend's hen-do. I must admit I was quite tearful on Friday when I left but felt a bit better after a few phonecalls reassuring me that everything was ok. It was so lovely coming back to smiles

Off to bed now, still have a bit of a muzzy head from last night

ILTMIMI good idea about the fennel tea - will look into getting some tomorrow. Isn't it quite common somewhere like germany? T loves orange segments, which is a relief, as otherwise he'd hardly be having any fluid! He sucks them dry then proudly presents me with the leftover skin/pith.

plusone - Thanks that sounds like a really good suggestion for DD's bottle refusal. Can I ask, did the bottle have expressed milk or formula in it? Because here is what we have discovered: it's not so much the bottle, it's the milk she is refusing. Nursery have managed to get her to take water from the bottle, and she guzzles water from a sippy cup, but won't take formula from either. I suppose I should take it as a compliment that DD thinks my milk is so yummy.

I have to try again to express, if only to get her started, mix with formula etc until she is OK with the formula. But I can't. I have great milk flow for DD, but zero for a pump.

Collecting her from nursery on Friday was heartbreaking. I was watching her across the room as she played, then she looked up and caught my eye, and burst out crying - really screaming the place down crying. So I just picked her up and started feeding her. She was desperate.

Oh, and to top it off she has picked up a cold, and she has an actual bona fide tooth which has appeared through her bottom gum over the weekend. Last night was miserable.

Starlight, although maybe not totally unexpected, that news must be a shock. Hope you are feeling OK today, and yes, like other people have said, well done for being such a good mum to a) get the assessment and therefore any help sooner, and b) help your DS cope so well that you're actually masking whatever problems are there. Good luck and hugs, but no wine as it isn't decent at 1pm.

Ponymum, you've probably gone through all this before, but have you tried expressing while feeding from the other side?

Hmm, thought DD was going to sleep, but it seems not! Bye for now!

hopefully I had a thought too (at 2am last night when I couldn't sleep because ds2 was having a very noisy sleep). Have you thought about trying a cranial osteopath? I just remembered that a friend used one for her daughter who didn't poo very often and got very distressed about it.

ponymum it was formula, like you he really didnt like the milk, used to blow raspberries and push it away. might be worth persevering?? easier than expressing long term Oh and ds1 used to cry when i picked him up from nursery aged 6/7 months- i used to think it was cos he'd just remembered about me as he was quite happy up until that point!

oh and cartons to begin with, think they are a bit creamier and nicer

Starlight I am in awe of you - you are such a strong person, you are a great role model for your children, so I hope things work themselves out for your DS (v impressed by DH going to dad's club - DP would never go to one of them!).

C trying to sleep at mo, poor thing, but we're having new sofits, guttering and windows fitted, and lots of noise!!!

Am impressed with various tales of chicken korma and tangerine eating. Sigh. C just has such a small appetite. She will eat anything so far and even tried raw salmon sashimi on Friday from Yo sushi but her grip is poor and she struggles to get stuff to her mouth. Those of you BLW (especially re korma) do your LOs manage to eat food from within their hands? C doesn't realise she has to open her hand to get food in so we have to use food with 'handles'. Am trying to picture a baby eating a piece of chicken korma and rice and can't see how they do it without pincer movement. Any tips?

Oh and hopefully totally second idea of cranial oseopathy. it did wonders for c's colic.
I have heard of fennel tea too from Hipp. Supposed to be good.

C probably eats a quarter of a teaspoon of food on a good day by the way (actually, we only had a single good day so far, which was avocado day)!

• Just to put her onto the chart of what they all eat. There's such variety there isn't there?

hopefully the HV here says babies can have normal herbal teas.

starlight you really are a great mum. I understand about not wanting him to be labelled unecessarily. But I also get really cross at definitions of 'normal' anyway. We are all different, and children who are given love and individual interaction like yours are going to have the best chance of becoming exciting, interesting, achieving, giving people, how ever the world may chose to define them. I have worked with several grown men who are on the autistic spectrum (in scientific / engineering professions) and if others don't treat it as a big deal, it's really not.

Thanks star, plus and bot for your helpful suggestions. I tried to express again today and you would laugh/weep if you saw the result. It doesn't even cover the bottom of the bottle - there's just a few drops like dregs in an empty cup. I am using a manual pump and I am now considering getting an electric super dooper one. Do they really make a lot of difference? Has anyone experience of both?

Something positive to report! I think I may be turning into a BLW convert. DD has taken to closing her mouth when the spoon avec puree approaches. But she has successfully eaten the following all by herself:

• avocado wedges
• pear slices
• roast sweet potato.

And she LOVES it!

The chicken korma was quite a large piece of chicken thigh that she could easily grip. The rice she struggled with so i popped a grain in her mouth which she spat out. The naan bread she sucked and sucked till bits dropped off

For the last few nights Robyn has woken me up every 2 hours. Most times it is just for a drink and a snack and maybe once for a feed. During the day she goes at least 3 to 4 hours until 8pm where she has a big 2 hour feed before bed. Could this be another growth spurt?

I second preparing yourself before expressing. I have to have complete privacy and silence (if I hear ds I totally dry up), and then do a bit of relaxation breathing. Odd I know, but it's different for everyone, you just have to find what does it for you.

A great recipe for finger food here

imoscarsmum ds2 has been feeding himself for 5 or 6 weeks now and only in the last week or so has he started opening his hand to get whats in his hand into his mouth. He grabs the food, puts closed fist up to face then opens hand and move at same time and shovels it in. He doesn't have any pincer grip. With the rice it was quite sticky (I cannot cook non sticky rice but for ds2 that's good!) so I squashed a lump together with my hand and put it on his tray so he could pick up a lump at a time. It was quite messy but at least rice is fairly easy to clean up.

Don't worry your dd will get there, enjoy the fact that she is still a little baby- she won't be for long.

Starlight I'm in awe of your DH too - mine's v. good with kids but is more likely to take them to the footy or a pub!!

Ponymum it might be worth trying to hire an electric pump, I find mine great as I can relax more (I normally watch something tashy on TV)

Imo Maebh needs a handle too. She actually eats almost nothing but takes ages to do it!! Last night at my Niece's party at an Indian restaurant she ate part of a piece of babysweetcorn and part of some okra, but she enjoyed it!

Working again tomorrow so I better go and prepare

Did anyone ever watch that cold feet where he take the kid to the music group?

Let's face it there is something a little ridiculous about sitting in a circle singing nursery rhymes and shaking bells while your baby either a) sleeps b) cries or c) tries to eat the shaker!!

I love those kind of groups but I just can't imagine DH there!!

I've just emailed local NCT guru woman to see if they rent out the electric pumps.

ninja I totally remember that episode of Cold Feet! I also remember the one where Adam puts Jenny's expressed milk on his cereal by mistake. I would be so mad!

I have just had a long talk with my sister about my feeding dilemma. She was full of advice. I seem to be getting lots of advice that is along the lines of "and then just stick with that and don't change what you're doing and it will eventually come right". But all of the advice is different, and my brain is far too tired to decide which "just stick with that" I am going to stick with. (If this makes sense to you your brain must be about as scrambled as mine is right now... )

ponymum just to add to the advice!! I had trouble expressing an found the thing that helped the most was to close my eyes and picture ds2 breastfeeding