July 2009: Grinning, wolfing, rolling and puking! :)

[alibobble]

Hi thought I'd take the bull by the horns and start a new thread. Hope the weaning was covert enough! Fire away!

Thanks Patchybob, I'll try lots of protein! Weaning is fine, TBH I'd say most of his meals are quite rich in protein, most are chicken/fish/meat/lentil based now..but maybe I'll step it up a notch and overload him with protein lol.
He does tend to wake up at about the time I'm going to bed (11-12ish) so I feed him then. Last night was a bit of a nightmare, he was stirring at about 11.30 when I was going to bed so I got him up and gave him as much milk as he would take (about 7oz) but then he woke at around 2am and then about 5am. At 2am he was adament that he was hungry so I gave him some bottle whilst he was still in his cot and settled him again without picking him up but at 5am I just didnt have the patience so I ended up gettin him in bed with me. On the plus side he did sleep in till 8.20am so that was nice!!
I just struggle to believe that he can REALLY be that hungry 3 hours after his last bottle when he's been asleep??! But if he's telling me he's hungry I can't just not feed him.
He's on the follow on milk at the mo, does anybody know how filling it's supposed to be? They don't make it very clear. I was giving him SMA Gold in the day and SMA White at night but I didn't find that it was making any difference so now I've put him on the follow on milk cos it's cheaper but dunno whether to try him on the extra hungry milk at night again?

hunny can try extra hungry formula. might help. dd was bottle fed. you need to switch the bottle from night to day cos will automatically take less in the day if having bottle at night (obvious - hope not patronising) When dd1 got into a habit of night waking I used to give a watered down bottle in the middle of the night so she took eg 5oz of fluid but 2/3 scoops of formula in it. that way they fill up on water but not calories so you can try and get the calories in in the day. then slowly water down the middle of the night bottle till it's just water and they get fed up with that and hopefully don't wake for it. otherwise have alsos found that both children stiring more recently due to the cold. DD2 was in long sleeve vest, babygro, 2/3tog sleeping bag and 2 blankets last night and slept much better. had to put another blanket ontop of dd1's quilt as well. dd2 ended up in our bed ther oter night. not hungry just cold. managed to get her back to sleep in her cot as soon as she'd warmed up a bit. i know we don't want to overheat our babies but who can sleep with chilly toes eh? HTH. may be barking up wrong tree but anything worth a try!

just a quick post before tea... blw: dd2 stole playdough from dd1 today and attempted to eat large quantities of it! that was fairly baby led! oops!

Marco got his first tooth yesterday!! Woot woot!! Maybe now that its out, he will be in a better mood. Looks like the second one is not far behind either. Its been quite the week for us. Between teeth, jabs (which the fever went on for 2 days), and a cold, Marco has been a little devil grouch. Combined with DD2s terrible-two fits increasing in volume and the older DCs constant bickering, the noise in my house has been unbearable this week. Actually broke down in tears one afternoon after having 3 hours of sleep and a horrid afternoon. Then proceeded to go postal on the older 2 brats DCs as the little ones looked on in fear. Looking back, it was actually quite funny to see the expressions on their faces as they sat side by side watching mummy's cheese slide off her cracker!!!

sleep Hunny... no help here. Marco was up at 2:30am and then every hour after. The 5am waking is the worst, since that seems to be his 'gassy' time. He screams and writhes in my arms until he starts 'erupting'. Then all is fine and I nurse him back to sleep. We tried the colic water this morning and that seemed to help things along quicker. Tomorrow night DH and I agreed to try weaning him from BF at night. Maybe if he gets only bottles of formula from DH at night, he wont wake as often for comfort feeds. Its worth a go, since nothing else has worked so far. As soon as we introduce proteins, will try that trick as well.

Activity gave Marco a hunk of crusty bread to chew/suck on the other day and the same thing happened... he gobbled it down til he was left with a soggy bunch, then choked on it. Thank goodness was standing there cooking at the time... but it put fear into me!!

Patchy glad the funeral went well and is now over and done with. Ever since my friends 21-year-old daughter was killed in a car wreck (the funeral was the worst thing I have ever been through), I get very overly emotional and teary at funerals and wont go unless absolutely necessary. Anyway... am glad things are moving forward with your conservatory. Hopefully the adjusters dont give you grief once you submit your list of damages. Does the insurance company rebuild or do you have to find someone to come in?

haircut am jealous of you ladies getting dolled up! I will wait til March or April to get mine cut and highlighted. The grays are all coming through, but seeing as I have no where to go, there is no point spending the money yet. Especially since I last got it done in November for Marco's baptism. Besides.. $110 is more than I can afford on a more regular basis.

weight must brag about my weight loss Have lost 22lbs as of this morning (another 16lbs to go). Was finally able to squeeze myself into my favourite pair of jeans!! Woot Woot!! I can close the button and zipper too . If I try to sit I am sure they will rip in 2, LOL, but I figure a few lbs from now I will be able to wear them again (for the first time in 3 years!).

baby woo! for the weight loss and Marco's teeth (are they the first teeth to appear on this thread?) I laughed last night as the wii fit congratulated me for losing 1lb in 2 weeks

hunni hi good to hear from you again

sleep no i'm no help here at all. Alfie has gone from being an excellent sleeper to waking every couple of hours including being awake for 2 hours at about 2am. It's driving me mad and I am seriously considering doing controlled crying as it seems as if he is feeding to sleep
I am going to try and give him a bottle tomorrow night and see how much he takes and if I can still get him to go off afterwards. If that works might try Ali's water in the bottle trick.

ali rofl at the playdough incident. Alfie loves his finger foods now and gets really stroppy when he drops one he's in the middle of enjoying!

DH has finally been made redundant so finishes at the end of Jan. This could actually be really good for us as long as he finds another job fairly quickly as the company he has been working for have been taking the mick for a while now with too much work and ridiculous extra hours (partly self inflicted as DH likes things done well)
He is hoping that he can get a home based job this time as he wants to have a more active roll in the day to day lives of the kids. He hasn't really been seeing them at all except at weekends so would be lovely.

Baby well done on the weightloss. That is FAB!!! I need someone to suck out my tummy fat and I would be happy.

Patchy hope you get the conservatory sorted ok. Insurers are a HUGE pain but you will get there in the end. BTW what does your DH do? Is he a spy. He gets to travel to so many far off places. LOL.

QF sorry to hear about your DH and redundancy but as you said, it may be better in the long run.

Activity how fun to do a local MN meet up. Had you spoken to anyone there before?

Teeth QF we have 4 cut here and looks like more on the way. Happy days.

Weaning finally a bit of a breakthrough and Tristan LOVED the roasted sweet potato which he held himself and sucked. He also sucked on a broccoli floret but don't reckon he actually ate any of it. I also found a raisin in his poo! DD may have given him one so we had to explain that she was not allowed to feed him anything.

Sleep am trying to come to terms that it just isn't going to happen for a while.

Feeling very blah right now. I am very over January, roll on Feb (and better yet March when the days get lighter).

hi, nice to hear from you hunny, my friend swears by hipp organic night time milk. you only give them one bottle of it at night and it is supposed to fill them for longer. it has cereals in it but you have to use a large hole teat as it is really creamy.

patchy im glad the funeral went as well as can be expected. good luck for the insurers, i hope you manage to get everything replaced.

activity your meat up sounds lovely. i have wondered over to the meet up boards but their isnt one anywhere near me!

baby congrats on the weight loss! im determind to start eating better, but thought i better leave it till monday as went to an all you can eat indian buffet for my sisters birthday last night, and then having a big family meal tomorrow!

teeth bill has his front two, he looks so cute grinning and flashing his teggy-pegs as my nan calls them!

weaning bill has been getting fussy with the purees and in general at meal times so made him a cheese and vegetable omelette which he loved today and even ate it off a baby fork.

choking at baby group yesterday dd was munching on a hob nob sat up, next minute she's laying down mucking about and started to choke, it scared me to death. these children are setting my nerves on edge!

sleep its getting better, i tend to stay up now, (rather than going to bed at 9!) as he tends to wake up about 11 for a bottle then goes down again til 3/4 ish so at least technically its only one feed through the night.

queenfee you must be so pleased you finally ahve a decision, and how lovely your dp wants to be at home more, mine would go nuts! dp was really sweet last night though and said he finally feels like he's really bonded with Bill! i left the pair of them in bed together watching gavin and stacey whilst i took dd to ballet lessons, it was really nice to have some time just me and dd.

shop is already starting to come togehter, we have premises we like so just waiting for our checks to come through which should hopefully be tues/wed, so we know if we have got it! have already seen a rep who has got the ball rolling, if we're lucky should have it up and running by end feb beg of march. we're just thinking of a name. we wnated something quirky so sre thinking 'Madame Baa's Wool Boutique', a bit poncy but thought it was quirky!!

best news all week my sister is pregnant!!!! she's only been trying 2 months. so excited had to tell someone but not allowed to tell anyone in RL!!

lydia how lovely about your sister! My sis is due to have her 4th in march

Wow so many teeth! Alfie's are nearlynthrough and I think that maybe what is keepinghim awake at night.

Weaning little man likes this finger food too much and is fast going off pureed dinners despite me giving him lumpy purees now! Messy very messy sigh

finger foods- I remember dd1 went right off being fed by me at one stage but it was much later. She wanted to feed herself (always been an independent soul) but couldn't do a spoon herself so had to come up with miriad mini quiches, potatoe wedges and dips etc to keep her happy till she could feed herself. Plus with her being lactose intolerant there's so much stuff you can't easily give for finger foods eg cheese sticks etc

lydia good to hear about the shop. Sounds so exciting

misspaella also feeling blah! Got money for a light box for christmas but singularly failed to buy it yet. Will be getting lighter by the time I get round to it!

teeth no sign here (well lots of chewing and dribbling but no actual teeth) tho am sure it is why dd2 is more laid back than dd1. I kid you not dd1 had 6 teeth by now. Poor bugger. Not a wonder she cried none stop for 6 months!

new tv went a bought one today as our old one blew up! Ooops! Very nice but a bit of an unexpected bill. Makes you think tho when you hear about all those people in haiti on the news. How awful to have lost everything.

weight am normally quite skinny [don't punch me emocicon!] but have realised that my massice cake intake since having dd2 is not wise seeing as she is now cutting back on feeding and thus i don't need all those calories. Am actually putting weight on! Oh dear. But i just LOVE baking. Made dairy free (both me and dd1 are lactose intolerant) cheese cake stolen from cbeebies I can cook idea today. Lots of fun. Soya's lower fat anyway isn't it?!

patchy rofl at miss idea of dp as a spy! Am curious now as to what he does.

Hello everyone, hope you all had a good weekend. We had a happy, manic time, and spent yesterday on Brighton beach, playing with the pebbles and eating ice cream! It was cold but fab. max loved it and sat happliy watching the goings on.

Misspaella LOL that is so funny! DH loves the idea of being an international man of mystery! I could tell you what he does......but then I would have to kill you! End of spy gags now!! He works for British Airways, so spends about 1/2 the month away. It's hard as when he is away it is always far away and for at least 3 or 4 days at a time. Still it is what we are used to.

Activity I hope the new bedroom does the trick.I give Max his tea at 5pm. He has breakfast at 8am and lunch at 12 noon followed by tea at 5pm. Lydia fab news about your sister and the shop...great name!

I am so cross...I have taken him off the gaviscon as he is having so much proper food now and reflux is supposed to get better when they are on solids. It's been over a week and all of a sudden he is throwing up again, loads of it and last night did a fantastic projectile all over dh. So its back on the gaviscon tonight.

Anyway, must dash to get the big dc from school, feel like a good mummy as made them a banana cake for their snack when they get home. Didn't put much sugar in it as I thought Max could have some too

Just a quicky - Patchy - I took Noah off gaviscon a while back and he was brilliant for a week then he changed, been sick again more and screaming more so i put him back on it. He had been having it in all four daytime bottles but i've been gradually cutting it out of 1 bottle a day then after a week-ish cutting it out of another until yesterday i knocked it out of his bedtime bottle so he's having none again now so i'll see how he goes.

I'm back again

Has anyone got any tips to get Noah to sleep in his big cot? Ages ago i tried him in his cot in the spare room, it went well for about a week then his waking got earlier and earlier til i ended up laying him down on the sofa on an evening instead of running up and down to him every few mins.

Then we found he slept in the travel cot at my parents so we put that back in our room and he was sleeping again, upstairs in his (travel) cot on an evening (still only til around midnight then not settling until i put him in our bed. Which i don't really mind as long as i had my evenings)

Last week i tried him back in the spare room in the big cot. He woke up almost the instant he touched the mattress so i didn't bother trying again just put him in the travel cot in our room with no problem.

Our boiler is broke at the moment (so no heating or hot water at the mo aaaaargh) and we needed the big cot out of the spare room so there's a little bit more room for the gas man to get to the boiler tomorrow (it's in that bedroom) so i put it back in our room. It's only just after 9 o'clock he's been up 3 times already (bed at 7.40ish)

What can i do? I'd rather he get used to the big cot than have to sleep in the travel cot forever.

pheonix could you make the big cot smaller feeling by putting teddies or something in then gradually taking them away till it feels bigger to him. Do you swaddle him not sure if it would work at this age though. Have you tried putting a hot water bottle in his cot before you put him down so it is warm and not such a change, obviously taking it out when he is in there. Sorry just thinking out loud. Hope someone else has a better suggestion.

activity Alfie has 3 meals a day and his last one is around 5.30 and he goes down for the night at 6.30/7. Never seemed to be a problem. If he has his solids literally straight before going to bed he doesn't take enough milk and usually wakes an hour later to take it instead. 5.30 is ok though.

ali good idea re quiches etc thanks

solids we have breakfast 7.30/8am, lunch 11.30am/12pm and tea 5/5.30pm with 3/4 bf. just cut out dream feed as dd ws refusing to bf on waking and waiting till 9am . it means i can go to bed really early now

sorry not bragging just adding my 2p'th.

bigcot there's some gaget you can get to make the cot smaller but sure you could improvise. maybe abumper would make it seem snugger? will try and find link if dd2 doesn't hit the power button b4 a do!

there must be a way of improving one of these safely!

improvising i mean. bah. give up. baby trying to type!

Thanks for all the tips, activity part of me is looking forward to going back to work to regain some normality and get back in to a proper routine but another part of me is dreading going back. I work for a big corporate travel company and things have to be done their way, so many rediculous office politics etc and I just can't be bothered with it! My friend was telling me yesterday that they're making everybody email their manager to report their colleague's errors which will be kept on a log and be used when considering redundancies!!! I can't work like that, it's gonna create such a bad atmosphere .
I've been looking for other jobs but there's not much around, especially part-time positions.
Yeh I've got a nursery sorted. I'm now just waiting for work to confirm whether I can go part-time and if I can what job they're gonna give me. TBH I'm really not very happy about how they have been whilst I've been off. It's been like they've just forgotten about me, I wasn't invited to company parties, wasn't put in to the xmas raffle (everybody wins a prize, some are free flights, hotel stays, £50 vouchers etc).

lydia thanks I'll maybe give that milk a try.

good news...joseph only woke up once last night! We'd been out all day so he didn't sleep much during the day but then slept on the way home until about 6.30pm. He usually goes to bed at about 7ish but he was quite clearly not a little bit sleepy so I kept him up until 9pm and he slept till about 3.30am and then back to sleep until 6.30am. I've tried keeping him up later before but he knows his bedtime and makes it well known that he wants his bed! lol.

mum's opinions please...would you want to know if your ex husband intended to introduce his new gf to your kids? I've got a new bf, everything is great but his ex wife is a bit of a weirdo and I predict that she might cause problems if she knew about me. We've been putting off me meeting his kids for this reason but I think the time for me to meet them is approaching. I think if I was her I'd rather know in advance so I can get my head round the situation first. I know as a mother that the thought of Joseph's Dad's gf being near Joseph makes my blood boil (but she's a tramp! lol). But my bf thinks it's none of her business what he does or who he goes out with. He does have a point n it was her who left him so I suppose his situation is a lot different to mine but I just wanna try n avoid any problems. He's such a good Dad and his kids mean everything to him n the last thing I wanna do is come between him n his kids.
Any opinions on how we should tackle the situation?

Hi all - can't stop, so this is just a quickie

Phoenix - I have one of these - would that help? I was thinking that Ali's idea was good and the above in the cot might make it feel smaller to Noah. If you want to borrow it, I can always meet you at Meadowhall or something.

Thanks ladies, although i'm not sure making it smaller would help cos the travel cot is quite big. I'm going to go out and get a cot bumper to see if that makes any difference. I'm thinking it could be the bars or the mattress he doesn't like.

The gas man has just turned up so got my fingers crossed that he can fix our boiler. I can just about cope without heat but you don't realise how much you use hot water until it's not there

Phoenix good luck getting your heat and hot water back... cant imagine how you managed all this time without. How about wrapping a long board (or part of a box) in towels and feeding it through the bars on either end. It will make the cot smaller without spending any money. DH made me a similar bed rail for DS1 when he was 3 and it worked a charm!

Lydia sounds like the shop is coming along nicely Fab news about your sister.

Sleep So my strategy seems to be working. We give Marco cereal, veg and BF at 9:30pm and he is asleep by 10pm. He was up this morning at 4am, DH gave him a bottle, he fussed for a bit, then back to sleep. He was then up at 6:30 for BF and back to sleep until 8. Its not perfect, but its getting better. No more BF until at least 6am, so we manage to cut out the comfort feeds. I am hoping to cut out the 4am feed, since he seems only to take a couple of ounces anyway.

weaning going to try making him some chicken with sweet potato today. He seems to be quite a fussy eater. He didnt like squash or peas, unless they were mixed with his cereal. Sigh... DD2 ate EVERYTHING I put in front of her. Funny. DD1 and DS2 seem to be cut from the same cloth in almost every respect. Same thing for DD2 and DS1!! Funny how that works.

hunny I think I am with you on this one. As a mother, I would want to know who my DCs are spending time with. No matter how distasteful, your DH should tell his Ex when he plans to introduce you to his kids. She may not like it, but at least she cant say it was done behind her back. My sister is in a similar situation, and was MAD when her ex moved in with his GF and didnt tell her (her DCs spend every other weekend with him).

Finally we have heating and hot water. The fan in the boiler was broken and luckily the man had the part so it's all fixed

I've got a cot bumper today so we'll see how he goes in his cot tonight.

I keep thinking of trying him with cow and gate goodnight milk but then i think about all the comments i've read that that type of formula and follow on stuff are money making gimmicks from the formula companies .

Aaaargh he's been in bed 20 mins and he's screaming already. The cot bumper doesn't work then . I might take it back tomorrow and get my £30 back

Evening all!

Bit sporadic with posting at the moment. My Nan got a chest infection a couple of weeks before Christmas and to cut a very, veeerrry long story short, it has brought on a pretty bad case of dementia. So my Mum is run ragged and virtually on the point of collapse with the 24 x 7 care, whilst me & my little sis are running around trying to hold everything else together. It's all just truly horrible for all concerned. Social Services are shite. The medical help isn't great to be honest. So apologies if I'm on and off here; it's all a bit manic, and I know this sounds terribly selfish, but it's not exactly how I expected to be spending my maternity leave

Weaning - I have bugger all time to make baby food just now. Mealtimes are crap; DP has this obsession with putting Hetty to sleep at every available opportunity so getting her to eat with us in the evening is proving difficult. All I want him to do is entertain her whilst I prepare a meal, but he loses interest after half an hour and then sticks the dummy in and rocks her to sleep. Then he gets arsey when the rest of the evening goes to shit. We've had a row about it tonight

Anyway, even though I'm not posting very often, I'm still reading up on how you all are, so don't think I've forgotten you