F(l)ab Feb 2009: Primark pants and teething rants

[dinkystinky]

A brand new sparkling thread to mark the four month mark for our bubs

PT OMG what a nightmare morning. I'm sorry but I had to snigger at the thought of you driving off after him but to be honest, I'd have probably done the same but would have probably lynched him. Christ, I thought the doctors in KSA were a bit daft at times but yours wins hands down. What a twat.
So glad you managed to get some food into A though and hope you get a referal soon.

herby hope being back at work gets better. I went back to my old firm for a visit on Monday as DS1 is doing work experience there this week and I had mixed feelings about being there. Don't miss the long drive every day (DS is staying in a hotel nearby as can't be arsed to do that every day)but what is a shame is that when I was there I was the only 'youngish' female lawyer and now there are about 8. That would have been fun.

LBB glad party went well, thats it for another year.
I'm going to have a clearout too, have loads of stuff I'm not using. A moses basket that DD slept in once and loads of other stuff. There was a thread in charity section about a place collecting baby equipment for a refuge but its not local unfortunately. Might try and find a good cause locally to offload to as can't be arsed to ebay and would be happy for it all to go to a good home.

A bit stressful here at the moment sorting out my mum's estate. Had a worrying letter yesterday from probate solicitors as it seems like upwards of £20,000 is 'missing' from mum's accounts. I found out that one of my brothers had power of attorney and had been transfering stuff all over the place so that should be an interesting conversation!

Right, off for a shower as DD1 as just told me she has a bloody riding lesson in an hour and then I'm going out for lunch with a really good friend who lives in Dubai and is 'home' for a month. Can't wait. x

mos... the look on his face when i walked into the dispensary after him was priceless

glad the party went well lbb... poor dd is 4 and i still haven't braved having a party for her so i'm in awe at you doing it this young!

pluto, i'd leave the night training til after the hols tbh... he'll probably be a bit better whle you're away anyway, A was an angel at night when i was in england (pity he wasn't during the day!) enjoy the break and stress about the night waking when your relaxed and rested after the hols.

Arrgghhhhhhhh! Remember ages ago, I told you about my weirdo cyber-sex neighbour? Well, she turned up to party yesterday with pressie for Jacob (lovely, don't get me wrong), but I hadn't invited her coz she doesn't have dc and it for Jacob, not me, anyway I go out earlier and she yells out her window to me that she has been unwell for a few days with cough and hot and cold flushes, high temp etc and this morning was diagnosed with swine flu.
Now WTF would you go to a toddlers birthday party (bumped into her that morning at letterboxes in main entrance) if you were showing signs of swine flu. Fing idiot.
Now I have had to call all that attended to let them know their dc's have been near someone that may have it.

oh christ LBB, you will be about as popular as a sausage roll in a synagogue!
Hope you are all ok

PT still chuckle when I think of you stalking him. Bet he gives up medicine now

lbb... i'd keep schtum if i were you, most of london has been in contact with someone who has it, they've got as much chance of catching it down the supermarket, no point taking the flak for the possibility they might have caught it.

mos, poor dp had to deal with him this morning as he's torn muscles in his chest coughing... he gave him painkillers and expectorant but no ab's despite the fact that he's got asthma, had pneumonia before xmas and has had this cough for weeks

bloody hell, are you sure he is qualified.
i've heard some really bad stories recently about negligent doctors.
The worst was I texted an old friend of mine earlier this week (sort of lost touch and not seen for 2 1/2 years) and got a reply from his mum saying that he had died 2 years ago! He was only early 30's! I was gutted. Ended up speaking to his mum (we'd never met before) and turns out that he had crohns disease (I knew he had it but didn't realise how bad) anyway, he kept complaining of pains but doctors ignored it, his mum finally got him into hospital and they kept ignoring him and he died a few days later from some sort of obstruction. Don't really understand it but it sounds like it could have been prevented.
Am so sad, particularly as I only found out years later and didn't get to go to funeral.d

PT, you should have gone with your DP and might have scared the gp into real action

mos, that's so sad about your friend. definitely sounds like negligence on the hospital and doctors part... disgraceful.

this doc isn't scared of me sadly, he's a law onto himself. when i was preg and worried about the size of my bump (had been told by so many people i was looking really small for dates and it felt like there was very little waters in the bump) he was really bloody rude and dismissive, so much so the poor nurse had to apologise about his attitude when he left the room! he's also the same doc who acted like i was being a loony paranoid mom about A's umbilical hernia... granted it wasn't bad and did go down on it's own but there was no need for him to speak to me like a complete idiot when he checked it out.

MoS - so sorry to hear about your friend. Its totally appalling that his death could have been avoided by all accounts. Hope you had a nice lunch with your friend today which cheered you up abit.

Has been a lovely warm day in London today - had almost forgotten it was summer until today! Hope you've all had nice weather today.

LBB - I agree with Pinktulips; no point worrying your friends about your crazy neighbour (who may not even actually have swine flu - sounds like lots of things which arent swine flu are being diagnosed as SF anyway as the hotlines are erring on the side of caution).

LBB, that's terrible re your silly neighbour, but I'd be inclined to agree with PT. If your friends could do something about it I wouldn't say that, but is it any use getting them worried? I hope you and your dcs are ok.

MOS, have you tried freecycle? You can try and pick the respondents who sound most deserving, or you can see if any local voluntary groups have asked for stuff they need. Or you could find out if there's an organisation which deals with homeless families near you?

MsLucy and I and all our sons met in Finsbury Park today (my CM was at a wedding so I had both mine). All seemed to enjoy themselves and it was great that we had company for our first day without dp - I also met someone from the babyledweaning website who lives a few miles from me and has a child the same age as ds1, and my dad came to meet us in the afternoon. DS1 fell asleep as soon as he was wrestled into the Phil & Teds buggy and slept for about 2 hours! C had his first taste of melon which seemed to go down very well.

MOS, sorry to hear about your friend btw.

PT - what a rude GP. Is it worth making a complaint?

MOS - sorry to hear about your friend, that's really sad and as you say, it sounds like he deserved better treatment.

Decided to give the controlled crying a tentative go last night after all - and with pretty good results. He woke at midnight and 3am but both times the CC strategy got him back to sleep after 30 mins. In the cold light of day 30 mins sounds awful doesn't it - but actually it didn't feel too bad at the time. Given that he will often wake 4 - 5 times a night just waking twice is a real step forward so I'm feeling pretty positive. I put him to bed earlier tonight and he was asleep within 10 mins again doing CC. I really don't want to do night feeds anymore because I know it's a habit and not hunger so everything's crossed that he gets himself sorted before we go on holiday. I know this is not how I was feeling this time last night - but I'm just going to steel myself and have some faith that he can do it.

Went to the HV clinic today. She suggested giving Weetabix or porridge for breakfast rather than the baby cereals. What else do you all give your lo's for brekkie? I'm doing melon, pear, apple, avocado, banana, carrot, sweet potato and petit filous yoghurts. Any other suggestions? Is it too early to give a bit of crusty bread to chew on do you think? Al has 3 meals a day and the HV said to gradually start giving him a morning and afternoon snack as well. Is anyone giving meat yet? He's a mid Feb baby but I started weaning at 18 weeks. I'd love to hear how weaning is going for you all. The last time i weaned a baby was nearly 10 years a go and this is the one part of baby rearing that hasn't come back to me like it was yesterday.

Sorry - I don't post for ages and then expect advice and write too much. I'll stop rambling now.

I know he was 10lbs 10oz when he was born but rest assured I don't give Al melon, pear, apple, avocado, banana, carrot, sweet potato and petit filous all for breakfast - this is his complete diet

Thanks all. PT Hadn't really thought of it, my first thought was 'shit, all those kids. I'd better let the parents know incase one of them gets poorly' but maybe I shouldn't have done..........they've all been ok about it though, say it's obviously not my fault, I'm not expected to make visitors fill in an assessment form on ebtry to me home or anything, so all ok, just hoping everyone stays well. I know alot of it is over-hyped, but still not nice.

pluto Atm, I give baby cereal for breakfast at 6:30 followed by milk, 5oz of milk at 9am for nap, fruit of some kind for lunch at 11:30 followed by milk, dinner at 3:30 which is vegetable purees, followed by milk and milk at 6:30 for bed.
At 6 months, ds1 was having 1 weetabix for his breakfast, but he was better at eating than Luke is. Luke is Ok, he takes a few spoonfulls, but is still unsure about taking food from a spoon and I think needs to get used to it not coming in a constant flow. That's the reason I put him on 3 meals quickly, for the pratice which is also why I still give a full bottle of milk with each solid feed, where with ds1 all milk and solid was kept seperate because he was a better eater.
The only meat Luke has had has been stuff in jars if we've been out at meal times, but that's been maybe twice.
I give Luke frozen carrot batons to chew for his gums.
I think now I will start giving him the odd bit of food to hold from my plate, i.e. pasta or something.
I didn't give ds1 any finger food until he had his first teeth, but I might see how Luke gets on sooner than that.

morning all. night from hell last night. DD2 has been a little minx the last few weeks and when I got home from lunch yesterday the house looked like bombsite. DD2 came rushing downstairs where DD1 and DS2 were and she smelt rather fragrant and her hair looked a little greasy. DD1 said she thought she'd put something in her hair! DD1 is obviously a little brain dead at times as hadn't investigated. I go upstairs and DD2 had got into the guest room (she call's it nannies room still which is amazing that she can still remember nannie in it at Christmas) Anyway, she'd found some lavender handwash by the sink and had covered herself and large parts of the carpet with it!
Downstairs was also trashed and she'd ripped pages out of pop out books, broken toys etc and DD1 was clearly oblivious to it all.

Anyway, after the stress of clearing up I had a 10 minute bath whilst DD1 'looked after' DD2 and H. I come out of my bedroom (bathroom is en-suite) and there is another odd smell and the wooden flooring in DD2's room is soaking. She then comes downstairs (from loft conversion) with a naughty grin on her face and a bottle of some cif cleaning spray that I'd never seen before (turns out awful house swop people must have bought it and left it in the main bathroom which I never go in as I just let the kids use that one.
She had sprayed the walls going up the stairs, the walls in the study (loft room has bedroom and study) the desk in the study (with a lot of my sign language papers on which were ruined) also some clothes of DS1's and his new canvas shoes which he'd bought with his birthday money and other random things. Also DD1's new school uniform which I'd just bought which was hanging up ready for me to sew name tags on
I know I should have made sure there was nothing she could get hold of but still. The night before she'd got into DD1's bedroom while she was in the bath and painted her toes (not just her nails but her whole toes) and her fingers with gold sparkly nail varnish. And got it on the floor (wooden so came off) the desk and a rug!
Has anyone else got such a destructive little monster? What do you do short of killing them?

sorry, enough of me.

ref weaning. H has been on solids since 4 months. first just breakfast for a few weeks then introduced tea and now on 3 meals a day.
He usually has a fruity or porridgy baby thing for breakfast, have used a few of the heinz breakfasts, ie sunrise banana which he oves and have just tried a boots own brand one which didn't go down as well (was a nasty grey colour although supposed to be orange!)

at lunch and tea he has a small amount of savoury first (he quite likes anything with sweet potato or butternut squash) and then some fruity mush or baby yogurt. I am naughty as I'm doing ready made with the exception of the odd banana that I mash. I don't have a blender here and have been so busy I haven't bought one which is terrible.

Last night for tea I tried him on 'real' cottage pie and although he liked the potato he wasn't sure about the meat as I think it was a bit lumpy for him but least he tried it.
I've tried him on finger food, carrot & cucumber sticks etc but it always ends up on the floor.
He has watered down baby juice (heinz I think) with his meals and milk (from me) in between and at night.

pluto, I'm sure its ok to give A crusty bread. We through a few bits of french bread H's way when in France and he enjoyed slobbering on them.

LBB hope all the kids are ok and not oinking yet

elkiedee thanks for suggestion ref freecycle. I'd sort of heard of it but didn't really know what it was and didn't realise people on there asked for stuff. Will have a look later. Your meet up sounds nice.
Any news on another meet up? Can't believe I go back to the land of sand next month!

bumps Bluewater (and of course anyone else who can get there) went Tuesday and spent obscence amounts of money but I keep reminding myself it will be ramadam when I go 'home' so I won't go out shopping for ages.

Pluto - glad you've found a solution to the night wakings that works for you. DS1 loved weetabix with mashed banana as a baby but found just weetabix on its own abit too bland. If you're doing petit filous already, you could also try porridge with some yoghurt mixed in - or even with a fruit puree pot in. Plum baby pots were a great hit while we're out and about - think they do some with meat in it but the fruit ones were DS1's favourite.

Danny is tentatively weaning BLW style (mostly because he snatches food from the rest of our plates) - yesterday afternoon he sucked to death a slice of nectarine, a couple of tubes of penne from his big brother's dinner and a bit of banana. The baby rice cake was chomped into pieces and then rejected out of hand. He has no teeth (though is constantly drooling) so basically uses his gums to chomp things then sucks them into oblivion. Its all v hit and miss though - the few days before he didnt want any solids. We've got his highchair delivered but yet to put it together (decided to go for another tripp-trapp as the ikea high chair would take up too much floor space in our kitchen whereas this can be pushed under the kitchen table when not in use) - think that's a job for Monday when he's officially 6 months.

MoS - god, DD2 sounds like she's definitely keeping you on your toes! DS1 is being challenging at the moment with tantrums a-plenty but fortunately isnt being deliberately naughty at present - though has had phases of that. All I can say is remember the mantra - its just a phase, this too will pass - and repeat it ad infinitum. At least when you go back to the land of sand she'll be back at nursery and you'll have your nanny to give you a break on occasion.

ps Pluto - Danny loves to suck fingers of toast to death too. Remember to have unsalted butter on it and not too much as it contains salt in the bread though.

Eek at DD2's antics, MOS. Clearly your DD1 is paying attention elsewhere.

FFS!!!!! I just wrote a really long mesage and it's gone!!!!!

I wanted to ask your thoughts. Will keep this short and sweet.
I want to wean with purees. It seems Luke wants to do it all himself. Smear a loaded spoon of food all over his face, but he has done well today on finger foods. Has had a piece of apple and a cucumber stick. So am now thinking of doing puree and finger foods together. The only thing is, is that he is having full milk feed with each solid meal as he's not too keen on the spoon (I think) and I'm thinking he'd get on better with stuff he can feed himself........so if at main meal times I give some sort of steamed veg or piece of fruit, then a puree and then top up with milk, that's ok isn't it? I think the milk intake will drop as and when he eats more solids, but not too worried about it. What do you think?

Also re: water/juice, as Luke is still having milk with each feed, when am I supposed to give juice (I caved)? Just offer a bit here and there through the day? I know they say only give with meals, but as he's having milk, I don't wan to overload him on liquid, or should I do solid whatever with juice and then if need be, milk half hour or so after or whenever he gets ratty?

So what I'm really asking is should I do solids and milk seperate like I did with ds2.

Or should I just shut up???????
I did ask dp but he just told me to do whatever I think.....

LBB - for what its worth, I'd suggest keeping solids and milk separate. Its great that Luke is showing he wants to feed himself - try purees on bits of toast or carrot sticks if you want him to feed himself and finish up your purees. If you're giving him water/juice from a cup I doubt he'll be getting too much fluids from that so he will still want a drink of milk abit later or earlier on. I think when DS1 was weaned it was water or juice with meals and then a bottle at 10/10.30ish and one in the afternoon between 2.30/3.30 and bfs morning and night.

lbb, i agree with dinky, keep milk and solids separate if possible. i've always given a meal of solids, then done nappy change/floor time for as long as tolerated, then milk feed when they ask.

i used juices with dd but with ds1 and A i've found they're happy enough with just the food and don't really need any extra liquids until their milk feed later on, ds1 used sometimes have a little 20 second feed right after his food and then a proper feed later on, i imagine A will be similar.

although that said poor A was dragged around so much after his mango for lunch he didn't have milk til i was making dinner. one of the kittens had to be rushed to the vet and i had to haul A with me... he fell asleep and didn't even wake when i dropped the door of the cat carrier on top of him at the second vets we went to!

we had huge success with dinner... i blended up some gf pasta, broccoli and spinach and also gave him some broccoli to play with as i'm determined to let him learn to manage finger foods, even if he can't chew and swallow them there's no harm in him getting used to holding and gnawing is there? he pulverised the broccoli in no time and laughed his head off and loved the mush so much he was grabbing the spoon and bringing it to his mouth and gobbling it up, and trying to lick it off his high chair when i was too slow with the spoon! it's heartbreaking when he likes a food so much though to see 99% of it come back out of his mouth and him get so cross not being able to figure out how to get it down his throat, although we had some choking and gagging (apparently common with tongue tied babies as they can't manoeuvre the food to the back of their mouths by choice so when food is swallowed it's usually a shock to them) so some must have slipped down.

i have to go scrape the broccoli and pasta off the high chair now.... god i hate the mess of weaning!

Evening all.....
Can't believe we're all now talking about weaning now - our babies are really growing up aren't they even DS said today that he wanted DD to stay as a baby...ah sweet.

Had a bit of a stressful day today. Knackered after 3 days at work....DD is sitting up on the floor with a toy between her legs so I got up to get her a cushion and she shot backwards and hit her head on the carpet following which she threw up all her just eaten porridge all over me and her.....I panic a bit. Do I call NHS direct/my GP mate/ my mum?! Called NHS in the end and they were great saying that it often happens after a bang but to keep an eye out as repeated vomiting is a problem. I then pulled open front door and almost ripped off my toenail [ouch ouch ouch emoticon] - ran out to Waitrose to get food shop and they had no baby/toddler trollies available save one with bird poo all over the baby sit- threw a wobbly at manager. Came back from shops- heavily pregnant friend with toddler arrived - she doesn't cope well with one child and her pregnancy is worse than anybody's could ever be.....waited on her hand and foot all day and fielded two toddlers and a baby. DD then eats her tea and chucks it all up over me. It was mixed veg mush with some baby rice...My friend is still hanging around at 6.30 (I also feed her some chilli which I made this afternoon for me and DH for dinner....)

SO, anyway back to the important issue of DD now I'm confused. Does she have a bug? Is this connected to her head bang at 9am??...She's been chirpy smiley and lovely all day. Maybe she had one spoon too far of her mixed veg and rice mush. If she had a bug she wouldn't have had her milk I suspect but she took it all......I'm going to keep an eye on her. I called my GP mate after NHS direct this morning and she went through the questions and said she should be fine and wasn't worried - and I'd know if there was something not quite right......

So, that's my exciting day. It's chucking it down with rain here.

LBB - glad you had a lovely day for DS's birthday.

I'm just not going to sleep well tonight I know but I'm knackered !!.....

MOS oh dear at your DD....my DS is challenging and pushes my buttons in a big way. He'd climbed into DD's cot put her mobile on and got her out of her grobag...he climbed on the kitchen surface this afternoon to get something out the cupboard. He;s never done these things before....

Herb - what a day! Sounds like you're going to need to go back to work for a break! I'd just keep an eye on DD but not worry about it too much - babies vom lots for all kinds of reasons and if your GP mate wasnt too worried hopefully all is well. FWIW, DS1 goes through days of being a delight and days, like today, of being uber challenging - really tired, totally sulky and tantrumtastic and really naughty at little kickers (snatching, pushing, not listening). I think its a hormone surge as are all classic symptoms but doesnt make it any easier to live through. Hope you sleep well tonight.

Pink - am sure Aaron is going to be adept at spoon feeding himself in no time at all. Great he enjoyed his food.

dinky that's how I did it with ds1. I never gave milk and solid together. With Luke, it seemed he needed the milk first to calm him, maybe that means he wasn't completely ready or I have the timings wrong or something, but as of tomorrow, we're playing a new game. I think I'll give milk first though at 6am and then some toast and a few spoons of baby cereal a couple of hours later, aim to give solids at about 11:30ish and wait until he tells me he's hungry for milk. But might just see what happens and how he is tomorrow, hopefully I'll be able to tell what he wants. I just have to stop doubting myself.

It's crazyisn't it? I've done all this before and I couldn't have done a bad job as ds1 is still alive, so why do I keep questioning myself??????

OMG! We have just had the most successful breakfast.
We got up just after 6am. I put away last nights ironing and then gave Luke 7oz of milk. Once he'd winded, I put him on the floor for a roll aorund while I did some stuff in the kitchen and sorted out my airing cupboard.
Just before 7:30, I put him in high chair and put some cut up toast on the tray, and he LOVED it!!!!!!!!! He then, after sucking the hell out of a whole slice (cut up), he opened his mouth and had nearly the whole bowl of cereal. He helped with that and took the spoon and shovelled some in with his hands, so now there is baby cereal everywhere but it went well.

For lunch, I am going to try scrambled egg with cheese and green beans on the side. I'm going to have some too and try to get ds1 to eat it. He doesn't like soft, wet food really, but he might try it if me and Luke are eating it too. Fingers crossed.

For dinner, me, dp and ds1 are having fish, potatoes and baby corn, so am thinking of giving Luke some corn and taking a bit oif skin off my fish and see how he gets on. Or is it too early for supermarket frozen cod??

We have rain rain and lots more rain here.... Moosy you should get mail today!!!!

DS has progressed to having solids at two meals a day now... He has fruit at lunch time and veg at dinner time.... I am allergy weaning him so no dairy until 9 months, no gluton until 10 months and no wheat until 11 months.... as suggested by pt, just in case...

He loves his food but doesn't like purees. Yesterday he had sliced pear at lunch time, and mashed butternut squash at dinner time... He loved it...

Right must go and get the little monkeys dressed we are having a lazy day today...

MOS what day shall we meet at bluewater?