New, bright and shiny MARCH 2005 thread

[ZoeC]

Thought this was about due, hope that's okay

Well, no solids here (forget who asked that, sorry) - except she licked my finger when I was pureeing some apple but I don't think that really counts ). I have icecubes of carrot, apple and pear ready in the freezer though but really she's fine on milk and I'm in no rush.

She's now all formula fed though - we did mix feed for a bit but she quickly forgot how to draw the hind milk so was getting less and less from me, plus we got thrush again so I really wasn't sorry to finish to be honest. I much prefer the routine we can have now and am just pleased she got 4 months of breast first. It really was as much as I could do and stay sane.

She is such a smiley baby it's untrue - you only have to glance her way and she beams, it's so nice to see. She naps better too - 2/3 hours in the afternoon plus a small nap in the morning - and that helps her be happier I'm sure. She was 15lb a couple of weeks ago by the way.

She's 4 months, 1 week and 3 days old today.

Cristina well done and good luck misdee with the driving.

I keep meaning to take rebecca swimming as I'm sure she'd love it but I haven't figured out how I'd manage two of them in the pool and changing room yet, maybe I'll talk dh into going with us at the weekend - that'd help. Dd1 is so lively and into everything I'd probably lose her while looking after dd2.

Poor you popsycal, heres me sending you

I have started giving Kieran small meals for breakfast and lunch and where as he was not having a nap at all during the day, he had a nap yesterday after his lunch and now he is having a nap again after lunch

there has to be room for debate surely. everybody judges others, we all do it all the time. good and bad. i simply haven't felt that i can relate to a large portion of some of the things that are said. research is invaluable to mental health and that is my field. my views on parenting are much the same as everyone's of course but i think that mother's have got caught up with the medicalisation of childbirth and rearing. of course we all share love for our babies but i don't understand some of the approaches that i read here, it all seems so sterile. i appreciate that i sound uppety but i have the same heartaches and struggles as everyone.
anyhow, i'll keep shtumm.

Sweeney, you keep saying "some of the things" what are these things? I know there is room to debate and that most of us would be willing to participate.

oh i could go on but i think actually i'm in a churned up way coz i've just started giving him food. maybe i feel guilty though i know he's 6 months. yes i think i'm projecting stuff onto others! sorry

Bring on the lovely tasty, delicious food, that's what I say! Lauren is now well and truly a keen solids eater (today is her 6 month birthday) and has been for 2 months. BAD MOTHER!!!
But hey, she is as happy as larry and sleeps like a bomb. Different strokes for different folks, but I think we are all doing a great job. Sure every one of us has a slightly different approach but if that's what suits us and makes our babies happy then that's great.

Happy Birthday Lauren. It's Kieran's 5 month birthday tomorrow. Am I the only one who sings happy birthday to their baby every month {smile]

popsy - sorry to hear that Harry is still not sleeping well.

Glad Iris had a better night though Pidge - we also had a better one here, Grace slept until 4am, had a feed, back to sleep 10 minutes later and then woke at 6am, chatted to herself for about half an hour and then "called"' me for another feed. Feeling more human today!

Sweeney - don't feel guilty about giving Cosmo food - he will either take to it well which means he is ready, or he won't, in which case you can delay it a bit longer. I do understand how you feel though to a certain extent. I had fully intended to exclusively b/f until 6mths but Grace seemed ready a couple of weeks ago so I have started giving her bits. Am a bit half-hearted though as part of me still feels I ought to wait. All this despite the fact that dd1 started solids at 16 weeks as was the recommendation at the time. She is 7 now and no sign of any ill effects.

Re: the crying issue - I certainly can't leave her cry if she sounds distressed but sometimes it's just grizzles (tiredness). Also I know that I sometimes need a good cry myself for no real reason and always feel better afterwards! I thikn that if a baby has had a very busy, stimulating day, crying can maybe be a release of tension and therefore not necessarily a bad thing.

Can only reiterate that we all love our babies very much and want to do our best for them, but all babies (and mummies) are different. It would be a great shame if you stopped posting here as it's good to hear different points of view and individual experiences. Oh, and feeling guilty just comes with the territory I'm afraid - we all want to be the perfect mummy, but sadly we don't get it right 100% of the time.

Sleep vibes to all (esp. popsy). x

Norash - have you taken Kieran off the photobucket?

Caleb will be 7months old in 12 days! Sometimes he wants to eat his solids and other times he screams as soon as he sees the familiar green bowl! He woke up 5 times last night and ended up in bed with me. Start new job next week so for 3 evenings a week I shall be cleaning, not that I don't seem to spend everyday doing that anyway.

Caleb has got to be one of the loudest babies i've ever heard. He's constantly singing, yelling, squealing always very happy! I encourage him to scream away even if people give us weird looks.

It all seems a bit heavy today so on a lighter note ....... today seems to be the day for 5. Popsycal was up 5 times and Harrison has had 5 poohy nappies Surely such a little thing shouldn't produce that much yuck

Happy birthday to Lauren and Kieran

Wow, 5 for Shalaa as well. Spooky

Bonym, I took the pics out as I needed to edit the album just haven't got round to it, but now you mention it I will do it.

5 poohy nappies!! What are you feeding him busywizzy?

Lauren also poos for Africa. I call her the Poo Queen of the South! Nearly every nappy is a No. 2. Have to really slap on the barrier cream as it's not always obvious that she's done her 'bit' and she seems happy to stew in it for a while!

harry has just started having solid poo....he was 6 months this week. he started on solds about 10 days or so ago as i went back towork properly on the week that he was 26 weeks.....
he has had baby rice, banana, carrot, sweet potato and pear. going to try him with a little bit of breakfast tomorrow....have some porridge with apple for him to try

work is dreadful though I have just started a 4 day week which is great.

expressing enough for him to have 2 feeds a day when i am work has been hard but i am a stubborn taurean

oh fellow taurus here! Have just had half a glass of wine and i'm tipsy, am also sat here sucking water out of DS bottle to 'see what it's like'. It's quite hard to actually get any water out! Oh the shame...

sweeney - I really gave the wrong impression when I said I would leave Iris to cry - if anything I'm far more a Deborah Jackson girl than a routines person. But most of all I think each to their own to make happy babies and happy parents. I'm a real odd mix - I do exclusive breastfeeding to 6 months, extended breastfeeding (2 years for my first daughter) and happily co-slept with Iris in the early weeks, and for at least half the night for several months until she decided she WOULD not feed lying down, but would latch on happily if I was sitting up!

On the other hand I have got totally desperate on the sleep front, because unlike my first daughter, Iris will NOT be breastfed to sleep, she just feeds till she's full and then pops off wide awake. It's been a real challenge to get her to sleep. In the first couple of months she would just cry and cry with tiredness, even when cuddled and rocked, and would even cry at the breast, popping on and off and wailing. Heartbreaking. So in those situations when nothing we could do would console her I HAVE just put her down crying and it takes 5 minutes before she's sleeping. I hate doing it, but I never had to face this problem with my older daughter as a good old breastfeed always got her to sleep.

Anyway, I hope you don't feel excluded here. It should be an all inclusive place to swap thoughts and ideas and to share the joy of parenting. You'll always find people doing similar stuff to you and others doing things differently.

I know what you mean about the introduction of food. I felt an enormous wrench about the end of exclusive breastfeeding with my older daughter. This time I've found it easier - in fact I'm even quite excited by it. And so far Iris is basically just getting breastmilk - 3-4 oz with some baby rice mixed in, so I guess she's still a mummy's milk girl until I start pureeing those carrots!

Norash - Iris watches TV only because my older daughter has occasional CBeebies sessions, but at this age it's all just swirly patterns and colours. Frankly Iris will watch anything involving movement!

Oh and Iris is 6 months old today - totally forgot any happy birthday singing!

She is now so huge she has grown out of the wraps we've been using on our washables - MUST buy some more as we've had to go back to disposables after my great effort in making the switch!

popsycal - just saw your message - LOL at the stubborness. I totally remember that - I was utterly pig-headed about expressing for dd1 when I went back to work at 5 months. What a lot of work, but it did get easier. Hope the new term is not too stressful. Dp has just survived his first week back at school and is also at the vino!

Happy birthday Iris .
I am silly like that i sing happy birthday to Kieran every month.

I know what you mean about pattens and colours, Kieran is not normaly interested in the T.V but we were in Blue water the other day and he got fixated on one of the big screen T.V s. It was on MTV and it was really loud, he just sat there and stared.

At home he would rather get on with crawling practice or pacing around in his walker.

Had our big 6 month weigh in yesterday. Lauren is 19.5 pounds and 70cms tall. Average for a 9 month old! People can't believe she's only 6 months. She's like a baby giant. MW happy with everything. Going to start adding some 'green' veggies to her diet and also give her a bit of juice in her sippy cup. Told the MW that Lauren hates being on her tummy, so she tried to demonstrate putting her over a rolled up blanket to help support her weight. Lauren absolutely screamed the place down. Really seems to find it very uncomfortable in that position. Apparently MW said the bigger babies do find it more difficult to comfortably support their weight in that position and that she may never actually crawl properly but go straight to cruising. She is much happier standing and even stood on her own holding on to the coffee table the other day.
Pidge - Does Iris go on her tummy happily, considering she is also a big girl?
Oh and don't forget SA is an hour ahead. I'm not actually sitting here at 5:30am but rather 6:30. Getting a bit of a cold and woke early with a sore throat. No stirrings from the Lauren that I can hear so I'm MNetting while I get the chance.

Sweeney - one of the things that I really like about this thread is that I think we have all been careful not to get into a critical discussion or strongly express our views on childcaring etc... (I am an very opinionated person and sometimes its difficult )! we are all different, the babies are all different and I think we need to be very careful not to criticise based on what we has been written here, I think we usually write about the best and the worst moments and if anything I write sounds sterile (as I think with others) then it is your perception and interpretation of what I have written (I am definitely not a 'sterile' person and have a very emotional relationship wiht Niklas and am very emotional about my decisions about his childrearing). I am here because I know I am not a perfect mother (although, like you, I try my best to be) and appreciate the advice and experiences of others. You don't post very often these days, but I guess you read what we have written so you know a lot more about us than we do about you. I think we would appreciate you staying and sharing your experiences and expertise with us without judging and criticising negatively or making us feel that we have to justify in someway the decisions we make in caring for our babies.

I am now going to give some of my opinions on certain things but am NOT going to say anything about feeding.

Unfortunately the way society is today in many ways it is not optimal for the best childrearing and compromises have to be made for our own sanity and health (happy mum = happy baby (quote Norash) ). For example - In the past families were based on extended families and peopel lived much more in communities, it was not one or two parents looking after a child on their own. Because of this today (usually) the mother has a huge burden of work on her shoulders to provide love, nutrition, entertainment and other care as well as carry on doing everything else they need to do, in the past a lot of support and help would have been given by the extended family. Another example, on holiday I gave Niklas food from jars and was SHOCKED on reading the ingredients how many of the jars contain sugar and salt! Companies that we should be able to 'trust' are encouraging dangerous unhealthy and bad habits in our children.

I believe that Niklas is SAFER and happier sleeping in his own bed and we all sleep better, I have more energy to play wiht him during the day and he has more fun as he has slept well and isn't tired.

I also don't believe in leaving a baby to cry, but usually Niklas will only go to sleep crying whatever I do. I don't think its a good idea to rock a baby to sleep or walk it around in a push chair. It will take a child a long time to break the habit of being rocked to sleep and encourages sleep problems in the future. That is why I suggested to Norash to let Kieran cry before he sleeps and not get upset or stressed by it. I like Norash find Niklas far too heavy to carry around and rock to sleep and have already developed a back problem since he was born.

And only one point on feeding I think you should feel more guilty to start your baby on solids later than 6 months as the baby NEEDS the extra nutrition by this time. From my experience with Niklas I realise it takes time to build up a good and varied diet without overloading the baby too quickly with too many different foods. Niklas's doctor (who is a paediatrician) believes that introducing too many foods and too much food too quickly is as bad for the baby as starting solids too early.
And finally - It felt very strange giving Niklas solids but I didn't feel guilty, somehow sad that he is growing up, but also excited and happy for him to have a new experience which I was sure he would enjoy.

Well, I feel better now, sorry to bore you all.
I hope I don't regret writing all that!

...and I bought Niklas a door bouncer yesterday and a high chair, he loves them both :!

And... yes I also sing happy birthday every month !

are we all judging now?

no, seriously, we are all doing the best we can. sometimes i leave serena to cry it out, usually when i am doing something with the other 2 girls. if she cries in the car then i rarely ask for the car to be stopped, as i know she is crying as she doesnt like being backwards facing, she will hush a bit if i am chatting away, but generally the 1st 15mins of car journey can be hell. but i love my daughter, i lvoe all my daughters, but sometimes i cant split myself in 3, and one of them will have to wait and cry, whoever it is.

at night, sometimes she has a little cry, i dont rush to her straight away, as sometimes she goes back to sleep within a couple of minutes, if she starts to get worked up, then i go to her. its all about judging the situation.

btw, i dont like GF routines,