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.

[busywizzy]

Hello Bonym. Harrison loves his big sister more than anyone else and like yours, will laugh out loud for her with no effort required on Hannah's part at all. I'm not complaining, as when they're 'playing' I can get quite a bit done.

Thx for advise on teething powders. It's all gone quiet the last two days but I'll get some in ready.

[jambot]

3mummy - come on the golf trip! You can come and visit me in Cape Town and I'll show you the sites!
Welcome to busywizzy.

[Leogaela]

welcome Busywizzy. And well done Harrison for sleeping through the night! Niklas is also sleeping better again, he slept from 9.30 to 6 last night!!!! I still wake up in the early morning and go and check on him - a habit I look forward to breaking! Just reading up some of the threads on MNet I am really shocked at some of the advice given by the HVs and how uninformed some of them seem to be. In Switzerland we can go to a drop in place ot see the equivalent of and HV whenever we want to - I've never bothered going though!

Bonym - Niklas also loves to be on his feet! He is also really pushing his bum up in the air when he is on his belly now and manages to shuffle himself forward. Can't push himself up on his arms and legs at the same time now though.

Niklas is such a happy, energetic baby at the moment. He hardly seems to cry at all! ! He is such a pleasure!

Well we are off to the Zoo today!

[busywizzy]

Unfortunately, Harrison's 'through the night' trick wasn't repeated last night, although he did sleep until 4.30am from 7.00pm so I'm still happy. Like you Leogalea, I haven't slept well the last few nights as I keep waking at 1.00am as I expect him to wake up and then I seem to wake every hour thereafter. I suppose it will take more than a few nights of sleeping later for my body and brain to really believe it's happening!

I took Harrison and DD swimming today. This is his first time in the pool and he seemed to really like it. When we got home, he wolfed down his bottle, gobbled up some lunch (carrot, yum yum) and now is sparked out in his cot for a (hopefully long) nap.

I really feel like it's all coming together now and am loving being at home with my two for the summer holidays. I know that teeth are lurking in the background though so I won't get too complacent!!

[Cristina7]

A welcome from me too, Busywizzy.

I've been in to work yesterday to talk to my boss about when to return to work. Provided the head of department agrees to this, I will start work in September, 25% of the time, from home, doing some distance learning tutoring on a masters course. I'll also try and really get started on my PhD for a provisional upgrading date of late October. I'll then look for a half-time or full-time job starting next March when Sylvia will be 1. I feel relieved to have got this out of the way and that my boss was fine about these arrangements, I was somewhat dreading telling her that I didn't want to go back for a while yet.

Now all I have to do is get Sylvia into some kind of routine (not fixed time schedule, but at least a routine) so I know when she sleeps and for how long so I can do the couple of hours working from home then.

We'll be off on holiday for 3 weeks from the 15th August. We are going to Romania to see my parents and relatives. We haven't been for 3 years (they've been over here, though) and we want to make the most of our time there and hope to get some time at the seaside and some in the mountains too.

Oh dear, I barely mentioned Sylvia in this message . She's doing OK, sleeping at the moment, eating a bit of porridge (she loves it) but otherwise still breastfed.

[moresleepplease]

Hi first time on this thread. My little girl Freya was born on the 18th of March, so she shares a birthday and her name with others on this thread.

She is teething at the moment. We have had a very bad week and she went from a smilie happy bunny to..a very upset and not very well little babe. She also went right off her food.

Starting to get back to normal, though no teeth yet.

She has also started solids and is on two meals a day of two to three teaspoons each.

Don't know what else to say. She is sat on my knee watching me type so i had best give her some attention before she gets bored.

[busywizzy]

Hello moresleepplease and welcome. I'm not the new girl anymore (only been posting myself a few days).

Harrison's birthday is the same and he too had a really bad few days earlier this week. However, it seemed to stop as quickly as it started and after a few sleepless nights (up between 4-6 times), he's back to sleeping better than ever before.

He has also just started solids and LOVES IT. Tried carrot today and you'd have thought I was feeding him banoffee pie the smiles I was getting.

Does your nickname suggest Freya isn't so good at night or are you like me and love your sleep so even getting up once is a killer?

[moresleepplease]

Hi,
Freya is not to bad really normally waking once during the night. I used to love nothing more than a lie in at the weekend. I chose the name when she was just a few weeks old and life seemed like one very long day.

Freya loves her food to. From the very first spoon that she was ever offered its been mouth open and more please mum.

I got feed up of baby rice, and i could not get the consistancy right, so we are trying a few jars, Hipp organic. She seems to reaaly like them. We also both enjoy the rusks.

Nice to hear that Harrison is giving you a bit more sleep. They are strange with sleep though. Freay slept through the night for the first time about a month and a half ago and will do so now almost when she feels like it. No reason that i can find behind it she just chooses to sleep through or not!???

Oh well they keep you on your toes don't they.

[JoPG]

Hi to you moresleepplease!
My little girl is also called Freya (born 17th March). What a lovely name

[JoPG]

Not too sure what to do.....

Freya has gone from sleeping thru the night to waking once and night and (as of last night) twice a night for a feed. Can't decide whether she is now ready for weaning (she is 20 weeks now and has more than doubled her birth weight already) or whether this is a temporary blip which will pass in a few days.
Is anyone else still just bf, have you seen the same thing happen?
Maybe I will give her a couple of days to see if she calms down, and if not then start weaning. Am very worried about eczema tho, DS1 suffered horribly and would like to avoid this with Freya.


DH also loves golf, I do not see the fascination myself. I think I am too impatient. I do play a lot of netball tho and am looking forward to the start of the winter season since pregnancy meant that I couldn't play atall last winter season.
Hope everyone has a great weekend.

[moresleepplease]

Thanks for the welcome,

Someone mentioned reusable nappies. Freya has used them since she was a few weeks old and they are great. I like them much more than the disposable, which I do have to use during the night as i don't fancy changing her during the night.

JoPG
I stopped beastfeeding Freya at about ten weeks after she spent two weeks screaming at me when ever I tried to breastfeed her. She has been on solids for two weeks and loves them, maybe your Freya is ready for them.
(She has had very dry skin since going onto formula, going onto solids has made no difference to her skin.)

[bonym]

JoPG - Grace has also gone from sleeping through the night to waking once or twice a night for the last 3 weeks (she will be 20 weeks on Sunday). She will sometimes settle again with her dummy, but more often than not she wants a feed (she is exclusively breastfed). I started a thread on this and it seems to be quite common at this age. The general consensus is that it does settle again eventually! It's hard, isn't it, when you've been used to them sleeping through? I don't really feel that she's ready for weaning yet as she doesn't show any real interest in our food.

[bonym]

Oh - welcome to moresleepplease and Freya

[busywizzy]

JoPG, Harrison has been bottle fed since six weeks and he too started waking twice in the night. It is also what my friends baby started doing and she is 19 weeks and exclusively BF. Like Harrison, she had also started needing to be fed more frequently during the day as well as the night and had stopped gaining weight. She has now been weaned (two solid meals a day as well as all her BF's) and is back to one night feed.

For an alternative view (don't wean) have a look at a thread I was watching the other day. I can't do links I'm afraid so I'll just point you in the right direction - it's under 'Feed the World/Breast and Bottle Feeding/Weaning at 15 weeks....too early'

Good luck.

[busywizzy]

Sorry JoPG, it's not under breast and bottle feeding, it's weaning. Doh !!

[Leogaela]

Welcome moresleepplease.

Niklas also started waking up more often at night around 4 1/2 months and I seemed to be feeding him constantly during the day, I was fed up and exhausted with it and started giving him a bottle in the evening, it got better for a while and I dropped the bottle again. He is 5 months and 2 weeks now, still no solids but he has a bottle during the day now, I sit with him for a long time feeding him in the evening and he is sleeping well again. He's definitely ready for solids.

Cristina - good news that you have sorted work out, but still not started on that Phd yet, what HAVE you been doing with your time !

Niklas loved the zoo yesterday, he was fascinated by the elephants, fish in the aquarium and the monkeys (i think they were fascinated with him as well )! Unfortunately I gave dh's niece our camera to take some photos (on her insistence) and she dropped it and its not working anymore , we've only had it for a month !

[jambot]

Lauren has started waking up early. I was always lucky in that she never woke up before 6:30 and I would often wake her up at 7. This morning she woke at 5! She lay there talking to herself for ages before she finally started moaning. Haven't done anything different and I don't think she's hungry as she doesn't cry until she gets fed up with lying awake in her cot. She then lets me change her (always the nappy from hell every morning at the moment) quite happily before eventually complaining about the whereabouts of her breakfast. I wondered whether it was her dirty nappy waking her but don't think so. She's had a horribly full nappy nearly every morning for ages now and seems quite happy to lie in bed with it all mushy and warm!!
She's eating 3 meals of solids as well as taking 4 big bottles, so find it hard to believe she's hungry. Who knows, she'll probably go back to normal in a few days. Hope so for my sake as I've been very spoiled by sleeping well from the start, even when she was still taking a feed at night. She's 5 months next week and will be introducing some new foods. She's only been only pears and s.potato and even though she doesn't know anything else exists her mummy is getting bored with them.

[Leogaela]

Jambot - the best time to have a dirty nappy (not) is first thing in the morning! Dh always changes Niklas's first nappy in the morning ! Perhaps you should persuade yours to do the same !
Yes, you've been spoiled with such a good sleeper, just go with it, she will sort herself out. Maybe she needs less sleep during the day now.

Today Niklas has had 2 really long, long sleeps not sure if its because he is over tired from doing too much or if he's not 100% well. He seems happy enough now though. Its almost 6pm here and he's still in his pyjamas !

[jambot]

Lauren has between 3 and a half and 4 hours sleep a day, depending on how she feels. She will go anything from one hour 45 mins to 2 hours 15 mins awake before needing a sleep and her naps range from one to two hours - it varies most days. Can't see her managing on any less sleep in a day and on days when she sleeps a lot she actually seems to sleep better at night. By 6:00pm she is ready for her bath in a big way and is in bed no later than 6:45. She can hardly keep her eyes open and goes down straight away. Luckily when she does wake early she's not screaming for me for quite a while. She's happy to lie and talk to herself for quite a while. Sometimes I'm lucky and she goes back to sleep. I've not been sleeping well all week - waking at 5am waiting for her to wake any minute. I can't relax and go back to sleep. Unfortunately/fortunately because we work from home DH doesn't have to get up until 7:30 and because he often works all night on deadlines, he's never an early riser. A benefit of working from home is that he is around during the day and early evening so is able to help out then and look after her if I want to go off somewhere without her.

[moresleepplease]

Hi
I know that a lot of people frown on them but Freya has a dummy and that has helpped no end with her sleeping. She only has it when she is tired and often after giving her the dummy she is out in a matter of minutes. She stirs a lot during the night but if you give her the dummy 9 times out of 10 she goes right back to sleep.

I know its a bit late to introduce one and people do have very strong views on them...but just a thought

[busywizzy]

Jambot - had a look at my Gina Ford 'Complete Guide to Sleeping' book. I'm not a fan of hers but find her case studies quite interesting. She puts sudden early morning waking down to one of three things 1)hunger 2)too much light in the room, she suggests a black out blind and black out curtains 3)going into deep sleep as soon as they go to bed due to being so tired, rather than going into a light sleep and then moving into a deeper phase after 40 minutes or so. She suggests trying to get your baby to have a nap around 4.30pm if this is the case but I'm not sure how this would work for you.

Not sure if this hepls but she had quite a few case studies about this and changing some or all of these things made a difference.

Good luck and hope you get a lie-in (6.30am!!) soon.

[Leogaela]

MSP - funny about dummies! In Switzerland (where I live) people htink you are strange if your baby doesn't have one! Niklas did to start with (on doctors advice!), but now he just plays with it and it has the opposite effect, so I gave up with it. The interesting thing that I read is that a baby needs some kind of comforter to fall asleep, whether its a toy to hold, or cloth to suck, rocking or dummy. Niklas usually has either a cover tucked against his face or often during the day I feed him to sleep - trying hard to break that one, but I guess it will happen when I go back to work.

Jambot - it still sounds as if Lauren is doing exceptionally well, but its tough at this stage for a routine to get worse!

We started Niklas on solids this weekend, he had a millet porridge and seemed to enjoy it!

A question - how many of your babies eyes have changed colour?????

[busywizzy]

Leogalea - My DS's eyes are changing at the moment. He had really, really dark eyes to begin with and when he looked out of his pram when he was all wrapped up it was like two black glints staring at you. Now though, they are starting to go green just like his daddy's and DD's.

Hope the solids goes well. Harrison is now well established on two meals a day (in just 9 days) and loves it. He gets really excited when I put him in his chair with his bib on as if he knows what's coming next. We've also had another night of him sleeping through from 7.00pm until 6.35am. We're following the Gina Ford book of weaning and whilst I don't go a bundle on most of her stuff, her advise here is spot on.

Have fun and enjoy the nappies !!

[Cristina7]

Sylvia had a dummy as well and it helped her fall asleep. I'd have been quite happy to breastfeed her to sleep but she'd get irritated after a while and just wanted her dummy. Oh, well. It lasted a few weeks, she started spitting it out at about 2 months old and hasn't got one now. Dominic instead had a dummy till very late. I was reading that all babies have this physiological need to suck, very intense till about 4 months, less so afterwards. There are older children who still suck their thumbs, even adults. I know people hold strong views nowadays about dummies but ... so what. I have strong views on lots of things but the longer I go into this parenthood journey the less they are about parenting.

Sylvia's eyes are still baby blue. Dominic's were the saame till 8-9 months old, now they are green-brown. I have brown eyes and DH's are blue.

Busywizzy and MSP - where do you live? I'm in London. I think Tamula is in London too.

I've been using cotton nappies for Sylvia as well but I've been lapsing badly lately into disposables. The overnight and the first one in the morning are usually disposables, in case of poo - dainty mummy. Then if we go out it's usually disps, especially if we're away for more than half an hour or so.

Sylvia is sleeping pretty well, roughly from 9 pm with a wake up at 3 am and 6 am for quick feeds, then awake for the day around 8 am. Then two 2-3 h naps during the day.

[jambot]

Yay!! It's 6:45 and I haven't heard a peep from Lauren. Let's see what tomorrow brings before I conclude that a week of early waking was a blip on the radar. As we are still in Winter, the mornings are still dark, although I notice that it's just starting to get light outside. I am collecting blinds that I ordered that have a blackout backing tomorrow, so we will be able to get them up before it gets any lighter. Lauren has never had a dummy. The few occasions that I tried her with one when she wouldn't settle when she was tiny, she spat it right back out. She has a little 'tag blankie', with little satin tags. Started to put it in her bed with her when she was about two months and now when I put her down I put it in her hand and it has become her 'time to sleep' signal. She grabs it straight away and pulls it over her face and chews it. I often check on her and she is sleeping with it totally covering her face. It's only the size of a hankerchief so it doesn't worry me. You can get them at babysense Hope the link works, haven't done one before. Their book is also good. I think I can hear DD sucking her thumb which means she must be awake at exactly 7:00! Good Girl