May 09 - Pumpkin (or champagne) anyone? We're doing the Monster Mash!

[ScarySpangleMaker]

In honour of sausage's forthcoming nuptials, with a nod to imminent weaning.

Evening all,

I am thinking of starting S on purees/baby rice once a day - he's 23 weeks, really interested in food, and has had baby rice on 3 occasions and loved it and would cry if i took the pot away and stop if i brought it back . I have bought some jars in, just because i can't see myself fitting pureeing into my daily routine at the moment, as S's naps are so unpredictable and often only 30 mins. He was so gripey today, struggling with my milk and seems to need milk every 2 hours in the day, so it would be nice to be able to spread the feeds out.

Blotted I admire you making your own baby food. I did it with ds, but poor dd1 had lots of jars. I was doing my midwifery training at the time though, so I've got an excuse. Knowing what I know now, I could have skipped the jars with dd1 and just gone for finger food straightaway, because she was near enough 6m.

I've given C the odd bit of food to hold, just to see what she'd do and basically she just doesn't look at it and then drops it. Clearly she thinks she doesn't want any solids yet. She is starting to become difficult to have on your lap when eating though. I have to keep my plate and utensils out of her reach or she grabs them and they go flying on the floor.

jenn Sounds like you had a great time. Trying the potty training again later is a good idea if it's not working. If he's ready it'll go in no time.

I am trying to have a good night's sleep tonight, I tried yesterday, but my plans were crushed by ds who had had a nightmare. I ended up having him in bed with me which is fine, exept that children always seem to take up twice the amount of space than an other adult in bed . So anyway, goodnight everyone! Hope your nights wont be too disrupted.

Whoops, all these x-posts.

Just want to add spangle blotted You do have a point. Not all babies sit/walk/crawl at the same time, so why would they all have to be ready for weaning at exactly the same time. C's still happy with just her milk though, so I'm just carrying on. But I know that ds would never have managed to last on just milk for 6 months.

Anyway. I'm really going now. Goodnight!

I'm making my own purees. I did with DS and just got into the habit of doing extra veg, and pureeing and freezing batches. I'm not really organised enough to have a selection of jars in the cupboard but I can usually delve into the depths of the freezer for some unidentified orange puree. The plan is to get DS2 eating what we eat asap.

Have you picked up your 6 month Bounty Bags? I got mine at the weekend and it was full of jars / cereals / money off coupons.
Having said that, I am making all my purees .

Bonsoir!

Am braving a soothing glass of red!

Anyway, so the hen do wasn't too bad, actually. Started at lunchtime meeting a few girlies and my Mum for lunch at my parents' 'club' (shutup) - sarnies and vino, tres civilised - until I was given a veil to wear, a big pink fluffy badge saying 'bride to be' and a wand. Hm. HAD to wear these down Oxford St, to the theatre - we saw Sister Act, which was fab! Then off to the Soho Hotel (hen garments off by now) for a cocktail - and got given silly prezzies, like saucy pants, and a book on how to clean etc etc (like I need that!) THEN off for nosh at Ping Pong which is a dimsum chain. Got trolleyed on booze. Missed last train home. Can't remember going to the karaoke bar, where we weren't allowed to sing, and I had an argument with the silly bint who was in charge, so we hung around in the bar. Had to get a cab home, and I remember walking down Oxford Street (again) with my shoes off as I'd been wearing heels all day and they had given me blisters.... and managed to navigate whilst snoozing. Got in at 2am Dp was a saint, ran me a bath the next day, brought me tea and marmite toast in bed, and looked after M as much as he could, as he had loads of work to do. Phew. Anyway, I lost a bloody shoe! AND I have discovered an enormous bruise on my calf and am wondering if it is lost-shoe related.

Still. All was pretty well behaved, not a willy in sight (which, I see, is most topical at the mo!) and not even any chatting up by any lush chaps (although a man did stare at me nicely in the Soho hotel for about 5 seconds - and my veil was off!)

We tried M with baby rice on Sunday. Just a wee slurp. It was quite funny, it was a right mess. I'm with llare, I'm not too sure about the whole BLW thing. I had a chat with my friend who has a baby one month older than M, and she's a paediatrician, and I pretty much follow what she does... anyhoo, she's sticking to the puree route too.... ho hum.... strangely though, M has been off her feeds (FF, remember)... I've been keeping a tally over the last week on how much she takes, and it's definitely not rnough. She's very happy, lots of wet and pooey nappies etc etc, but then she may wail for absolutely ages. I reckon the teething thing may be starting..

Oh and re centiles - this is my work forte... (I know the people who are referenced in the red books!) - once the baby has 'found' their centile, and sticks to that, then its pretty much ok.... what 'professionals' look out for are severe dips or gains, with a cross reference to any illness - eg, M dipped from the 40th to the 9th ish and hung around there for a bit when she had a cold, but when she got better, she picked up again.

Ooooh I've thought of another sleb moment! I saw Marc Almond when he was a patient at the hospital where I was working at the time, after he had his bike crash. He was wearing a very nice paisley silk dressing gown!

And..... EEEEEEEK..... wedding day in 11 days time! Am dreading it, tbh. Our parents are totally winding us both up about any bit of crap that comes their way. Eg, I did the table menus by myself, took me ages. Showed my Dad, he said they were awful, why can't I have 'proper' ones etc. Told him not to be so stupid, these were nice, and if he wants to pay £10 per menu (I know!) then go ahead!!!!!

Breeeeeeeeathe!

Talking of which, ubertrendyfriend came over yesterday, and she's learning to be a yoga teacher, and we did loads of breathing and stretching exercises. Twas lovely. She is v excited re my wedding, and has a Vivienne Westwood dress. Well, darn, she's going to look better than me!

Hope everyone's PND issues are being dealt with properly and with lots of TLC. I think I have luckily turned a corner now, but still have a blub everynow and again. Interesting re the anger thing - I was really angry too, ante-natally as well. Hm. Non MNy hugs to you, I know how poo it is

Anyway, I have studying to do now. It never rains........

Pula & Belgian - the only time I spent making G's food was cutting everything up. I threw it all in the steamer for an hour, pushed the sweet potato and potato through a sieve into separate bowls then threw all the rest into the blender, using some of the water to loosen it up a bit. It was enough to fill the two Annabel Karmel baby food ice cube trays which have 15 cubes each iirc? She gets one cube at a time so that will tide us over for ages. As much as I love to be credited with great ideas, it was sheer stingyness on my part!!

Gawd, that was a bit mahoosive!

Trick - I got my 6 month Bounty Bag - eventually - nowhere had them in stock! It was quite exciting, and took me back to when we got the birth one! Aawwww...

Also, sleeping - M is pretty much sleeping through till around 6.30am now, after a 2300 ish dreamfeed. Usually, I say. Dp had to be up at 5am today for a meeting at 7am. So, of course, she woke up then... I trudged downstairs to make the bottle....(also made myself a cup of tea, tidied last night's dinner crap away, loaded the dishwasher and put it on) trudged back upstairs, got her all comfy... and all she wanted to do was play, and watch her Daddy walk around the place Harumph. Still, the tea was nice

£10 a menu? Are they gold-plated?!

Sounds like a successful hen-do.

jenn hope it's not too bad a dose if it is cp.

blotted i made all ds's baby food for same reasons and also after trying a few of the jars i realised they were really bland and to me the various recipes all tasted kinda the same I did use the ellas kitchen fruit ones as topping for yogurt and if we were travelling i used to take some of the plum baby ones with me.

My top tip for no mess easy peasy puree/mash preparation is to use a microwave steaming bag like these you can peel & chop your fruit/veg of choice, pop into bag, seal, microwave and then esp with things like potato or apples etc you can attack the outside of the bag with a masher and hey presto instant puree with nothing to clean up. Empty contents into ice cube or similar tray and then freeze when cooled The veg that don't mash easily need to be blitzed or put through a grinder but still saves on the pots/pans washing up and it all steams so beautifully. The only draw back is the 'use it once and throw it away' drawback to using the bags... but when time is short I felt they helped me...

loads of posts while i was typing!

sausage what a great time you had & I really hope your shoes weren't favourites! at your trendy friends VW dress.

evening all.

sausage at your post. glad you had a good time, sounds like fun and a hangover to prove it.

weaning, going to try a bit of the BLW route (didn't read the book though) and give purees as well see what Harper takes to best. I did similar with both DD1&2. like llare, i want to get her eating the same food as us as soon as possible.

Harper has been following every forkful, every glass to mouth for the the past couple of weeks, can sit quite well (nearly a minute) unassisted and can hold things to her mouth so I figure she's nearly ready. I even tried a banana yesterday which she held to her mouth and sucked on it a bit with happy noises. didn't eat much of it though and pushed it away when she was bored.

pula, that's funny about S crying when you took the baby rice away .

Salem, hope you're on your way to a good night sleep.

ses, have a good time in Ireland.
fi, that is a great, great tip you have for making purees using the bag and I shall be doing similar.

trick, you've just reminded me to get the next bounty pack. I just can't remember how to go about getting one .

everyone else, hope you're well.

Morning all.

Bad night here again. R went to sleep at 7 then woke at 10 so I fed him. He then woke at 3, I tired to settle him but then fed him at 3.30 when he wouldn't take the hint. He then woke at 4.45 so I tired to settle him with shushing, patting, music lullabye thing and when they all failed I gave him to DH at about 5.45 to cuddle back to sleep. He gave up so I fed him at 6am. Then of course he slept till 8.

I'm getting a bit down about it. I do not mind feeding him at 11 and 3 as that is 4 hourly and I'm happy to do that until he is estabished on solids (at which point I'll get tough on those feeds if he hasn't dropped them.) But waking every 2 hours is not neccessary and I need to stop it for my on sanity but also it mucks up the day ahead as we are having very lazy mornings and I have been slack at getting out and about. I do go to toddler group on Thursdays but I was going to something most days before. I am finding that due to tiredness I am doing the bare minimum- cooking dinner, a bit of housework, trips to the supermarket, the odd trip to the park. I feel bad for DD mainly.

I think I'm going to go and post in the sleep section to get some advice.

Febes- sorry to hear you had a bad night. I think posting in sleep is a good idea. I guess if you tough this out, you may have a few bad nights but it will get better. I have decided that i will give S his first night feed after 10pm (he woke at 10.03 last night- how does he know ). Then I won't feed him more than every 3 hours, and then i might stretch it to 4 hours.

I found it that you spent an hour trying lots of things to get R back to sleep. Then your DH had to cuddle him, and gave up after 15 minutes. Men, eh . How would you feel about controlled crying? It might be one option. I do pickup putdown with S as I would rather stay with him but i know that CC does work.

I should make it clear Febes, the point i was trying to make was that you were up for an hour trying to settle R and your DH could only manage 15 minutes. My DH has very little patience with S too and gives up after 5 mins of trying to settle him!

Men

I should be fair to him though as he was awake the whole time and he cuddled him but DS doesn't lie calmly he thrashes about so after 15 mins DH put him in between us and I was besdie myself so whipped my boob out and fed him. I would do CC but HV said it was too early and not really effective before 6 months. I do leave him to settle himself between shushing and patting but he has a stronger will than me it seems.

febes sorry about your rough night. I have to admit I'd have whipped out the boobs desperate for sleep too. my ideas for night waking would be teething, feeling cold, hunger.. growth spurt, noises.. like heating coming on & in summer time.. lighter mornings. guesses for not wanting to go back to sleep.. the above plus wind, over-tiredness & wanting to play, not sure if too young but separation anxiety but not knowing how to self soothe is a possible don't feel bad for not getting out.. it's hard enough to get through the day sleep deprived but i do find just a walk outside with the pram a good pic me up if i can manage.

febes sounds like you had a rubbish night, but Fi and pula have some good advice / suggestions. F also had 2 feeds in the night - the first at 1.40am which is weird. Think he keeps getting too excited to feed properly.

Talking about that, although I am another who loves bfing for all the reasons Salem said (oddly, really didn't expect to), I am finding that F is gumming and chewing on my nipples (ow!), thrashing about, moving his head around and basically giving my boobs a good old beating. He thinks it's all hilarious! His particular favourite is to get an especially good grip and then move his head back slooowwwwlllly to have a good look at me, stretching my nipple right out like an elastic band before giving it a little shake and then letting go to smile beatifically at me.

I'm almost a bit envious of those of you starting solids. I need to wait until the full 6 months (I have asthma but more importantly DH's mum is coeliac) - and for us that's end Nov / start Dec. Feels like ages away.

Your hen night sounds fab, saus.

Hope everyone is well, sorry not to namecheck. I'm off for cocktails and dinner with the NCT girls tonight. DH is a bit nervous about being left in charge, bless him. He said 'babies need their mummies'. I said 'Well, why did we leave him overnight with just my mum and dad last week then?'. He was quiet.

Nice to hear from jael, blotted, and choco as well.

reebee grace does that too when bf! i did lol at your reply to your dh about leaving F with m&d when he said babies need their mummies bet he was a bit stumped for a come back..

Hi All,

febes sorry you had a pants night. Hope you are having a nicer day despite this dull weather. If its any consolation A has never had less than 2 feeds per night but given than it used to be about 6 I'm not complaining... yet

Another one trying to wait until 6 months to wean due to allergies but A seems to have other ideas, today she grabbed a chunk of banana out of DH's cereal bowl and almost got it to her mouth but missed and smeared it on DH's work trousers Not sure this might mean she is ready earlier or not really. We plan on a mix of BLW and purees.

saus sounds like a fab do, I LOVE pingpong, their steamed buns are my favourite.

reebee have a great time tonight at your DH's comment, sounds like something mine would say!

while A's asleep am busy making an icebreaker guessing game for my MIL's 60th surprise party on Sat by stuffing items related to MIL into thick hiking socks for people to guess what they are - my family love playing it, not so sure about DH's more straight-laced lot

Tomorrow I've got to make her birthday cake - enough for 40 people

running sounds a great fun game to me what kinda cake are you making?

running- IKWYM about thinking 2 feeds a night is a good night . The funny thing is S did once go from 7pm til 5am without a feed so i know it probably isn't hunger every time he wakes. Last night S only fed at 10pm and 2.30am but was crying a few times due to trumps. I might ask the HV if i take him for weighing whether trumps and poos should still be upsetting him so much.

Fi it is a fun game, you can make it as easy or as difficult as you like. A friend of mine made it up I think at a new years eve do one year, kept us guessing for ages! The cake is going to be a choc one as its the one recipe I have for cake that never fails. I actually made it for my friends' wedding cake. I usually 'posh' it up for things like this with nice organic ingredients but it is dead easy as its just a bung everything in the bowl, mix it and bake it type thing. Can post the recipe if you like.

pula apols if you've already done this but have you tried raising the head of S's cot? My HV suggested it as A still gets quite windy in the evenings. Seems to have helped a bit. She also gets fretful when brewing a poo too but for her thats usually during the day.

Febes sorry to hear you've had a rubbish night. Hope someone comes along with some good advice, either here or in Sleep. 2-hourly does sound too frequent for feeds at this age. Does R feed well in the day?

We have had two rubbish nights sleep-wise too, with feeds at 1am, 3.30am and 6am and grumbles from the 3.30am feed onwards. My 'rule' always used to be 3 hours but I gave in pretty quickly and fed him just so I could get back to sleep. Also with his slow weight gain I don't really want to deny him a feed. From 20wks to 2 days ago H has been going 7.30pm - 4-6am, so I'm not sure what's going on but am hoping it's a growth spurt or something and that he'll be back to normal soon.

ooo always on the look out for great cake recipes.. chocolate ones even better! yes please so hard to find a moist not dry quick chocolate cake recipe. can't remember who a few pages back mentioned a quick microwave one? must try that one too.