November 09 - rolling, laughing and cutting teeth ... but us mama's are still not getting sleep!!

[scarlotti]

New thread for us

I found this poem from my 1st antenatal classes and thought I'd share

I hope my children will look back on today,
and see a parent who had time to play.
There will be years of cleaning and cooking,
but children grow up while we're not looking.

Dusting and scrubbing can wait for tomorrow.
For babies learn fast we learn to our sorrow.
So quiet down cobwebs and dust go to sleep.
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

Particularly poignant when dd1's new excuse for not doing things is 'I don't have time'. Not that I ever seem to get housework done either

Aw hobnob . So true! I still think of James as being about 6 weeks, not 6 months.

wow helips that will be very exciting, i am sure its a great ex pat lifestyle

very sad lost is over, loved the last bit but re. ending left me with lots of unanswered questions but still a brillant program

did someone say that around 6 months getting them to sleep become an issue as DD2 used be fine, a few goes of dummy, tonight major meltdown, is it a phase or do i need to do something??

Like that poem hobnob

DWB Glad you liked the Lost finale - I can't wait to find out what happens. We might need to make a new thread to discuss our theories, if you're as much of a fan(atic) as I am...

SirB what do you mean about BLW changing feeding guidelines? Is it because I said I gave her strawberries? I am just being careful and giving her one new thing a day, but luckily for us not too many allergies in our family so I have given her a little bread too. Hope I'm not destroying her insides but she seems fine. She's 6 mths next week. I just find that there's so much contradictory advice, I try to go with the flow and remember that I'm her mummy and I have instincts for a reason. Pigheaded, me?!

Raggie oh now, it wasn't a criticism in in the slightest I hope it didn't read as such. It was a genuine question. I get very confused with all the guidelines, I didn't know if it was different for BLW. I'm really sorry if that sounded like I was questioning your judgement, I truly wasn't .

Sorry, that should say "no", not "now".

free baby led weaning book in mother and baby magazine

best toys to entertain at 6 months?? struggling abit at this stage as gym or even stand in baby einstein dont really seem to keep her occupied
also what do u sit them in?

weston the cat in disguise here
have the same thoughts exactly . bear cub prefers metal spoons, corners of books that he cannot have, DDs hair, pillow cases, the cat's tail, the wire for the laptop power supply, nappies, daddy's ipod and the keyboard. His favourite toy is a lego duplo 6 bit brick, was red, but i keep changing it .

He has also just learnt to drink from a sippy cup much to his absolute delight. He had been sucking it in then not able to swallow so it came out in a stream, but now, he sucks and swallows, sucks and swallows but cannot stop! Very cute.

Sorry not been posting much, been around of sorts, but had visitors, beach, paperwork and prep for court hearing on friday.

I am absolutely shattered, as the bear cub is not sleeping due to another cold and wheezing/coughing again. But, saying that, i am loving being a mother of two. I just love both of my children so much, i felt quite emotional with it today. DD is just the best little girl and growing up too fast. DS is so happy and cuddly and smiley, and together they love each other. I hope that does not go away.

raggie don't worry I won't give any lost spoilers, it was a great episode though! Yes i will still be able to mumsnet in Singapore, I think that will help me not to be too homesick! Oh, and I'm going to give Millie some strawberry's tomorrow, she had some satsuma today and loved it! Also, I gave her some marmite on toast, only a scraping, that is ok isn't it? Does anyone know if we can give things like scrambled egg yet or cheese on toast?

hobnob I love that poem and am definitely guilty of doing things around the house instead of playing with the dc's, will make an effort to play more, especially in Singapore as we will probably have a maid to help out with the housework.

sirboob your friend sounds bonkers, fancy giving a newborn only 3 bottles, you must be finding it very hard to read what she's doing and not remark on it. I really hope someone puts her straight, poor baby.

weston I'm having a job keeping C entertained as well. DH has pulled DS1's old walker out of the loft this evening and I've given it a good clean. It has a few buttons which makes some sounds, It will also give him a different place to sit, rather than using it to walk in just yet. I'm hoping it will help keep him entertained for a bit. C has spent most of his time today either trying to crawl and getting frustrated, or grabbing the baby wipes and trying to eat the packet. Once they can sit it becomes easier for them to interact with their toys. I find I have to go out with him in the pram every day as he seems much happier to be out and about than stuck in the house.

helips It will be so exciting! And ooh a maid - I could get used to that!

As far as I remember (though thinking back 3 years) cheese and bread are ok from 6 months but eggs are something like 9 months.

Babba (any reason for name change BTW) J is enjoying the sippy cup too. He doesn't get much out yet. He hates the bottle and has flatly refused it again this evening (while I was out)

I'm just giving one meal a day at the moment, offering finger food first and then something pureed (making it up as I go along, basically). He seems to be really enjoying it. I'm a bit nervous about finger foods, but getting better.

James still sits in the bumbo for short periods of time, or sits on a little blanket on the floor, although he does fall over after not too long.

I made one of those baskets from Babba's other thread for DD when she was little, after seeing them in our local children's centre. She really liked it. Will have to cobble it together again.

Ooh, thanks for posting the thread weston, I'll have a think and add to it. Rosa is loving her bouncer, as those of you on FB will have seen!

SirB don't worry, I wasn't offended! It's hard to put across all the subtleties of speech on here isn't it? Try as we might! My HV said is fine to give eggs as long as they're cooked through, so scrambled should be fine. However, my friend gave eggs about this time and her son reacted v badly. He is still unable to eat them, but that's why he reacted badly not because, IYSWIM. I'd just be careful and watch her like a hawk for anything unusual after eating I think. And Rosa had some cheese yesterday. Just cheddar. She liked it, though it kind of became cheese-juice in her slobbery little mouth. Ewww.

And thanks for the BLW tip weston - will check out the mag tomorrow.

Helips I've given C omelette and cheese and he loves it. I'm looking out for skin reactions though as DS1 has excema as a baby. Not done the marmite as it's rather salty. I'm sure a smidging now and again won't hurt.

hobnob love the poem.

Hobnob that's a great poem.

Helips how exciting! I'm sure you'll have a great time there.

Babba I've read about the basket before, just collected some pine cones from the woods so will make a start, too.

We're weaning! Lucy's had banana, broccoli and carrot. Nicely smeared over face, up the nose, on mama's top and the highchair tray and the floor. Not sure how much went in, but she seems to love playing with it all. Asked hv about her opinion on blw and got something completely opposite to what the book says - more fussy eating later on, should start with bland baby rice blah-di-blah-di-blah - so just doing my own thing. Like you, Raggie, watching her closely. And hoping that nearly six months in I'm not completely incompetent and can be trusted not to do any harm.

Glad Lucy enjoyed her feast yesterday Skorpion

Sorry in advance for me moaning.. Our nights are going from bad to horrendous! This is an average night, starting with
7pm feed and bed
9pm feed
11pm feed
2am feed
3-4am wide awake for about 30 mins and feed
5am wakes and feeds (sometime back to sleep until 6am

I'm exhausted and DH is getting ratty because I'm ratty. He told me this morning to give the boy some food!! I have been going with BLW and we have good and bad days. I love the concept of it and C has enjoyed having a go at eating most things. But, he is hungry and started to show frustration. Playing with the food and being hit and miss with the mouth isn't enough for him anymore. So, I'm going to do a combination of spoon and BLW. I know it might not make any impact on the nights improving, but I'm getting a bit desperate now. Something positive is that C has accepted he sleeps in his cot for a morning (not every day as we're sometimes out) and afternoon nap. I really wanted to crack the afternoon nap. When I return to work as a CM in september, I'm going to be looking after a slightly older baby than C and I need them both to be in a routine.

Sorry I had to get that all off my chest ladies.

Fruit exhausted and ratty here too, sleep is hard to come by but also looking for work is wearing me out now. H does 7-8 pm feed then bed, if it's 8 she'll probably go through till midnight. Then 1 am, 4am, 6am. That's with spoonfeeding of tons of mush plus blw with bits of toast, veg etc btw!

Ds is still very poorly and now has had two days off school. (So it must be bad!) He just keeps throwing up but is also all floppy and exhausted. I'm worried as no temperature, no diarrhoea(?) can't spell it,-just misery for him. Also none of us are sick except him which is odd. So doctors again later!

PS those of you who have seen the Bowie mask photos on fb, I have to say even this has failed to get anyone's libido moving round here!

Poor DS wook. I hope the doctor can help. Any jobs in the pipeline?

Fruit that sounds really tiring. Can DH give you some time off this evening? I don't know anything about BLW except what I've read on this thread, but it seems like most people are giving some purees as well as finger food.

I'm signing up for the Exhausted and Ratty Club. James is still feeding very frequently, day and night. The flat is an absolute tip and I can't seem to find the time to do anything.

I need some advice! He's been on one 'meal' (just fruit or veg) a day, for about 5 days, but is now constipated again. Today he did a poo (hard-ish) and it caused him to bleed a bit . He seems perfectly well in himself and there was no blood the next time I changed him. I'm not sure if this weaning is still going too fast for him? But I feel like I am taking it very slowly - more so than I did with DD - and he is still BFing probably every 2 hours on a day and 3 hours a night, so is getting plenty of fluids.

I'll try to post later, but Laugs, I'm pretty sure potatoes make it a bit less "constipaty". Will check my book later if there are any others. Sorry, no other advice.

Laugs, I just remember, pear was recommended too.
Paula is sometimes a little bit constipated too. But not that bad. I always try to give her more water. So I add more water to the puree and give her some with a cup which usually only works a little so I usually feed her water with a spoon too.

Ok, I'm a bit tired so will probably forget many things.
helips, it sounds really exciting and it's only for 2 years, isn't it? Believe me, 2 years pass so quickly. Try to enjoy every minute of it. I'm sure you won't even have time for being homesick (and there is always MN as well)
fruit, you have all my sympathies. I hope you'll get some rest. If it helps you, my last couple of nights have been far worse and I'm prepared for another bad night. In fact, I try to hurry up as it might well be that in a couple of minutes Paula will wake up for the first time.
It just became better and now it is really bad again because she is getting at least tooth Nr 3, but I think I saw a tiny bit of 4 and 5 as well. She is quite ok during the day, spends a lot of time as a happy child but obviously needs me more around but the nights! OMG, I'm lucky if she does two sets of sleeping for about 45min each in the cot. It's incredibly difficult to get her back and at some point, I need to be there too. And I can even be lucky if she doesn't wake up when I put her next to me (instead of ON me)
And for some other reason we have as well about an hour of being wide awake in the middle of the night. I'm wondering if that means that they are sleeping too much during the day. Hardly possible with Paula. So I'm not quite sure how to deal with that problem.
But I can't complain, I think she is quite easy for a teething baby, I imagined much worse. And I suppose for them it is far worse anyway.
And she is really developping so quickly in moving. It gets better every day. And she tries to sit down as well. I wonder when she will be able to do that.

Sorry if I miss out on news but I'm doing this from memory. My thoughts are with you all.

helips so exciting for you! I think the expat community out there is excellent. And having a maid will be wonderful. When I was wee my dad was posted to Hong Kong and we had one there. She was Philipino and worked away from her kids which was really sad, but then again being able to pay a decent wage to these women is so helpful for them and their families. If you ever go travelling and end up in Penang, let me know. I might have a personal favour dear to my heart to ask you.

FP and wook I love coming on here and finding out that others have it worse than me. Of course, that doesn't help you at all and I'm so sorry that things are so hard for you just now, but it makes me feel a teensy bit better. So selfish.

laugs we're still having constipation issues after weaning. I. is still only going once a week despite being given stool softeners from the GP. I suppose it ensures that when she goes it's not too sore though. And she is feeding heaps during the day too. I've been trying to give her as much water from a cup as I can after meals, but I really don't know what the answer is.

DD2 is having a bad day today. Very sore tummy which seems to be brought about by eating solids full stop, so I'm taking it really slowly too. I've tried 2 meals today and yesterday but I think it upsets her so much I'll go back to one. But I'm beginning to worry about her weight gain thing (no weight gained in 6 weeks) and am in a dithery tizz today.

Hi all,

Sorry to hear everyone is having sleep troubles, Millie still wakes a couple of times in the night, I'm just resigned to it now

raggie was it you who gave Strawberries as blw? I gave some to Millie but before she had a chance to eat them ds helped himself and scoffed the lot, little monkey!

hobnob hope your dd feels better soon, has the doctor or hv been able to give you some advice? I'm not surprised you feel in a tizz, big hugs to you. Oh and if I visit Penang I'll let you know!

laugs can you give some fruit with prunes or something like that to help your ds poo?

wook sorry to hear you are having bad nights too. I'm on edge this evening waiting to hear C on the baby monitor. C had 2 mushy meals today, plus some finger food. He didn't look too impressed by the spoon but he me the go ahead to feed him. So we went slow and he ate quite a bit. I wonder what tonight will bring. Some sleep hopefully

hobnob What a worry for you. Have you been given any advice?

ursi Wow 3 teeth already. C has none and not showing any sign of teething apart from the odd day. I'm sorry Paula isn't a good sleeper either . I'm not sure if C is waking with proper hunger, or for cuddles, but probably both. This waking up for a chinwag at 4am is doing me in. He is a happy soul and wants to sing and shriek and then when he's had enough he rolls over to me and cuddles in. I do love the cuddles and the smell of him next to me