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.

Lauren is 5 months and one week. Is that a known growth spurt time? For the last two days all she has wanted to do is sleep! Yesterday she slept for 5 hours during the day and slept her normal good night of sleep. Today she again wanted to sleep after only being up for an hour and a half. Normally she can go up to two and a half hours now. She is eating like a horse and I've upped her solids to twelve teaspoons per meal. She is also on 4 seven ounce bottles. She is going to the clinic for weighing etc tomorrow so we will see what they have to say.
Anybody sitting up on their own yet? Lauren wants to so desperately but she just doesn't have the balance.

Hey Leogaela,

Nice to here you and Niklas are doing well. Congratulations to Niklas on the tooth

Kieran did sleep better last night, he went to bed at 9pm and woke up at 5.30am for a bottle and went straight back to sleep.

Kieran is now 4 months and 1 week old and weighs about 9Kg maybe more was weighed about a month ago and was 8.8Kg. He loves his walker and pushes himself around the living room in it giggling he is alo sitting now (ish). He sits up and holds himself up with his hands.

Kieran is has been drooling so much for the past couple of months I have given up on bibs and am using muslin squares instead.

Hello again, on the carseat question - you can be carseats in teh UK that are both front and rear facing that are supposed to be suitable from birth, then turned around at 9 month - 12 months. We tried one in our car at the Mothercare superstore but I wasn't happy with the way it sat when it was rearfacing. Our car is a nissan primera so we don't have fancy or unusual seats, but it may work for other people. cheers Carve

Hi Leogaela .... on the swimming - the reflect disappears at about 6 months but at the little dippers course they were still happy to put 1 year olds under. The key is getting a word association. We say ready go in a very firm voice to harry and then pour water over his head every night in the bath, so now before we pull him under, we say ready go and he closes his eyes and mouth (even takes his fingers out, which is rare !) The thing I have noticed is that the babies only seem to get upset if the person dipping them is nervous or unconfident so if you are a bit worries about it, it might be good to get someone who has a bit more experience to do it with you first. That's why I went to the little dippers weekend : ) They have a very good website - i don't know how to do thelink but type in little dippers and you will find it. It is also well worth buying or borrowing the DVD they sell as it is good to see it first before you try : ). If you aren't in the UK, I could try and scan some pictures in with instructions to send you - you could CAT me with your details . We aren't experts but we've been doing OK following the programme : )

Hi,

Glad to hear that Freya is not alone in her strange behaviour. Dont think I will be pinning her in at night, knowing my luck I would end up catching her.

Letting go under water!! We have been meaning to go swimming for ages and not really had the chance to. I dont think I would be brave enough to let her go.

Freya managed to put on a whole pound in a week! We have been keeping an eye on her weight since she decided not to eat properly for a week and lost some. Back on track now. She is exactly 5 calander months today.

We are looking forward to the swmming, I have been meaning to go for ages also but never managed it. Start in September. Not sure about the whole letting go thing but we'll see how he feels!

Like the idea of pinning a pillowcase, would look very cool. Adam hates going to sleep without any covers or indeed any clothes so it was quite interesting in the very hot weather, he wouldn't sleep unless had at least a vest and blanket! Was a bit worried about him overheating at the time but I spose he knew best.

We are planning a trip to Edinburgh in November to see a friend who will just have given birth. Planning to fly in the day from East Midlands. They insist on photo ID even for infants going in the same country so we are applying for a passport. Seems very strange that the photo we have just taken of him at 5 months will last till he is 5 years old! Isn't beurocracy silly. Bit worried about the whole flying thing with him, hope they don't misplace any of our stuff - car seat especially! Anyone been on a plane? What do you do with buggies etc? Any tips on how to keep them calm if the plane upsets them would be good too. Thanks.

hi everyone!
reading through the posts i feel i have less and less in common with you all........ anyone still just breastfeeding out there???????????

Also taken Caleb swimming, am nowhere near brave enough to dip his face in the water! We just bob around the outside trying to avoid getting splashed, he's a bit unsure but I want him to be confident in water.

Am going to give him 2 meals a day now, starting with mushed up weetabix and breast milk, followed by broccoli and cheese for lunch. Am still BF for the rest of the day though.

Hi everyone, just a quick update from me.

Harrison is 22 weeks and weighs about 17lb. He is on two meals a day (vegetable puree for lunch and baby rice with fruit puree for tea). He is doing really well with his food which he loves and funnily, has started feeding his milk really well when he was always such a fussy feeder.

He has also had quite a few nights of sleeping from 7.00pm until 6-6.30am although never twice in a row. However, now he has done it about four times in the past 10 days, it has given me the confidence to try and settle him without a feed if he wakes earlier than 5.00am. I did this for two nights and it took me ages to get him back to sleep only for him to wake again a few hours later. However last night he woke at 3.00am and I tucked him in, stroked his face and whispered for him to go back to sleep as it was still night-time. He shut his eyes, went back to sleep and slept through until 6.00am!!! Past experience with him tells me never to get too excited when he does something for the first time as it often isn't repeated for a while so we'll see how tonight goes.

We're also swimming (have been for a few weeks now) and he seems to really like it. Gets a bit wary when DD comes close as she likes to show me how good she is at swimming under-water which usually involves lots of splashing of her feet.

Hope everyone is well and babies are being lovely and gorgeous.

Hi Shalaa Haven't done a flight yet but my friend flew to South Africa recently. Big tip from her was to feed on take off and landing as it equlaises the pressure and stops their ears popping. Suppose it is the equivalent of us sucking a boiled sweet : )

Sweeney - I wanted to keep breast feeding only for a bit longer but Harry is 20lbs and was justv too hungry - after 4 days with feeding every two hours and night waking again, I cracked. please don't drop off the chain... I think we'll all have times when our babies are doing slightly different things but it will all equalise over a few months - just think, we'll get to make all the mistakes on feeding for you : )

Just been to have Lauren weighed. At 5 months and one week she is 18 pounds and 26 ounces. She is 69 cms long. That puts her on the 95th percentile for height and weight. I was worried she was putting on a bit too much but was assured she is perfectly in proportion. We are starting on 2 teaspoons of chicken twice a day, mixed in with her veggies, as well as yoghurt added to her morning fruit. Looks like her two top teeth are racing with her bottom two to see whom comes out first. Apparently it's quite common for all four to come out at the same time.
Quite envy all you swimmers. Are you swimming outside or in heated pools? Being in South Africa we have a pool at home, but it's not heated and it's nowhere near warm enough for swimming at the moment. Only about 15 degrees during the day. See buds coming out on the trees so Spring is not far away. Can't wait for our summer to arrive. We are going to Mauritius with DH's family over Christmas. Hate the humid heat over there, which luckily in Cape Town we don't get. But it's so lovely there, so will just have to make sure we have aircon.

harry just had his first baby rice...he is 24 weeks
he wasnt fussed for it at all
the tiny bit hat went down has just come up
lol

I'm not flying anywhere, at least no-ones told me if I am

Horrid day today, was trying to calm Caleb as he was crying in his pushchair, picked him out for a cuddle and some b**d stole my purse!! Didn't find out till I'd brought loads of shopping at Sainsburys and got to the till. They were really nice as I was in tears, one lovely lady gave me a £10 note and wouldn't let me say no. Can't believe someone would steal my purse, had a really sentimental photo of me and Caleb in there

Sorry to hear that Shalaa. Bastards will stoop to anything these days. Had my purse stolen a few weeks ago. Had a call from someone at the local council to say one of their gardeners had picked it up in the next street to ours. They just take the cash and ditch the purse. Luckily all my cards were in it, including my driver's licence which is a real pain to re-apply for in SA.

Shalaa - sorry to hear about your purse. I hate these a*holes that do things like that!

I flew Zurich to Mallorca and my tips are to make sure that they know you are flying with a baby. Make sure they book you the front row seats and tell them you want to use a cot. I called the airline about 3 times to confirm our seats and the cot. We had no problems. Niklas was entertained by everything going on and then fell asleep. I agree, either feed or give a dummy on take off and landing.

Popsycal - I'm also not having much luck with the solids. Niklas started enjyoing his millet porridge after about a week but I haven't had much luck with getting him to eat much of anything else. Also haven't managed to get him to eat more than once a day, but mostly my bad organisation !

I've had a bad breastfeeding day today and feel like I'm failing! This evening I sat with Niklas for about an hour feeding him, he fell asleep on me, I put him to bed and he started crying, he cried for an hour then I gave him a small bottle, he drunk the whole thing and fell asleep. I'm tired, feel as if I have too much to do and am disappointed that he is not satisfied with me feeding him for ages... !

Sweeney - ditto what Carve has said. Everyone is at different stages and some of the March mums are still 100% breastfeeding.

Jambot - still swimming outside here in Zurich. Niklas doesn't seem bothered by the cold and we have some really good children's pools here. I swam for the first time this summer in the lake today (usually go to the pool as its more convenient) it was absolutely wonderful !

Lauren had her first taste of chicken today. Blended to a mousse, it was added to her carrots and to some sweetcorn. Took it quite happily.Didn't even give me her 'what the ... is this mom'? look. Although it was pretty disguised with the veggies. The MW said it is normally the different texture that babies take a while to get used to. So far, other than the avo, which was a no go, she has eaten everything I offer her like a real star. I know the whole 6 month story, but I think she would have had to be on a lot of milk to satisfy her. She takes 850mls as it is and they aren't meant to take over a litre a day. Not supposed to be good for their stomach lining. It's great for those whose babies are happily still only on milk and nearing 6 months, but what do you do with a baby that is two months ahead in growth as Lauren is? I've seen no side effects, she's loving it, so I'm feeding away.

Sweeney - just to let you know that i am still just bf freya. She is 22 weeks, will prob start food in a couple of weeks.

Hello everyone and sorry to hear about your purse Shalaa. Some people will just stoop so low - imagine stealing a purse from a lady with a crying baby

I've decided to sell my DS on E-Bay so any early takers, just let me know . Only joking of course!!! Having gone through the night from 7.00pm until 6.30am about 4-5 times, Harrison has decided that not only is he going to have a spell of early waking (like Lauren I think Jambot) but that he's going to start his day at 3.30am!!!!! He's done it for three days on the trot now and I'm exhausted to say the least. I don't think he's hungry as he wakes up and chatters away to himself for ages, before he gets fed up of his own company and starts fussing. I've tried ignoring him, getting him up for a cuddle, putting his bedtime music on, everything except feeding him which I'm really loathe to do in case he gets into the habit of wanting a feed just to get back to sleep. After about an hour or so, he closes his eyes and goes back to sleep, usually until 6.30-7.00am but this morning it was 5.45am.

I'm in the same room as him (even with the early morning waking, it's better than my husband's snoring ) so when he's awake, I'm awake.

Any advice?

Busywizzy - is he on any solids yet? How much does he weigh? My MW says that Lauren's spate of night wakings may have been due to the fact that her blood sugar levels dropped, causing a waking, although they aren't hungry enough to really be moaning about being hungry. She would lie there for quite some time before getting fed up. The MW says that often it's only when you start introducing a bit of protein in solid form that this early waking stops. Don't know if she's talking rot or not. Lauren's only been on protein for two days so too early to tell, although her really early waking from 10 days back seems to have improved. She's also been taking a lot more solids. She's on 15 spoons per meal, three times a day. That's up from 10 about a week ago. She knocks it back without batting her lovely long eyelashes! She has started cutting back a little on her two daytime bottles since I introduced the protein, which I'm happy about as she was drinking a large amount of milk. Loves the yoghurt with her pears and doesn't seem to notice the chicken in her veggies. Although this evening I was at my mums and gave her some chicken and carrots that she had liquidised with her blender, but it doesn't blitz the food nearly as finely as mine does. The texture was quite rough and Lauren wasn't keen at all and spat it out.

Buzzywizzy - I've had a couple of bad nights as well. I'm not too worried about feeding Niklas when he wakes up as its the quickest way for him to go back to sleep. Last night it was 1.30 and the 4 am. At 4 I took him into bed with me which means I half sleep as he snacks on me (can't remember if you are brfeeding or not) I should put him back but in his own bed as i then sleep better but at the time it seems like too much effort!

Shalaa - shame that Caleb is giving your dp a hard time. Does he have much time alone with him? Dh does the first nappy change of the day and plays with Niklas a lot (except today when for some reason the tv seems more interesting , dh seems to make him laugh more than me, but I am definitely the comforter. Perhaps try leaving Caleb alone a bit more with your dp.

Someone asked a while ago if any of the babies are sitting up yet. Well, I only started trying to sit Niklas up a few days ago and he was quite happy to lean forward on his hands, but yesterday he pulled himself from that position into a full straight back sitting postion ! He stays like that unless he sees something interesting and then goes and tries to grab it and topples over! And, to add to the excitement, he has started chewing his toes!

Jambot - in a few weeks all the babies will be on solids anyway so there will be less feelings about whether to wait for 6 months! Niklas's doctor said that its important not to introduce new solids too quickly, but seemed to think it was OK to introduce them at 4 months.

Harrison has been on solids for three weeks now and is on two 'meals' a day as well as four full bottles of 7-8oz. He has two cubes of vegetable puree at lunchtime after his 11.30am bottle and two cubes of fruit puree mixed with 3-4 teaspoons of baby rice at teatime. He isn't having any protein yet as he was just five months a few days ago so I think he's a bit too little.

I'm not sure exactly what he weighs as I don't go to clinic too often but probably about 18lb as he was 17lb three weeks ago.

I'm going to see how we get on tonight and if he takes ages to settle without a feed and then wakes early again (before 6.00pm) I think I'll start feeding him again in the night on the basis that he must be hungry. Hadn't thought about low sugar levels but it seems to make sense.

Hope everyone else is sleeping well and having happy days. Harrison is an angel during the day which makes it all a bit more bearable I suppose

Hey ya'll

Sorry to here about your purse Shalaa.

On the breast feeding front, I gave up two weeks ago when Kieran made it plain that he simply was not interested. And he does like his food (Veg mainly) and since he is having the formula milk I guess that's the end of breast feeding for this baby.

Who's trying for number two or next baby yet? I am

Hey Guys,

Any of you sending your little ones to nursery soon? I am thinking of sending Kieran when he is 6 months as my Hubby works full time and I have to go to school.

I really feel bad about this, I feel like I am handing him over to the big bad world already at such a tender age. Am I failing my son?

Norash, I had to return to work after DD was born when she was seven months (she is seven years now) and she went to a nursery for two days a week. I felt like a terrible mother for having to do this but we needed the money so I had no choice and I thought that was the right decision in terms of childcare. Looking back now, I think I found it much more painful than she did as she always went off with a smile and was still happy when I collected her.

My only advice would be to go with your instincts about how you feel about the nursery you choose. I moved DD from the first one I put her in about 5-6 weeks after she started as I just didn't feel things were right (you can't always tell just from looking around) and one day I was proved right when I collected her as a total stranger was looking after her and gave her to me when I asked even though she had no idea who I was. The second nursery was great and DD stayed there until she started school. She is now a very confident, sociable little girl and I genuinely believe much of this is down to mixing with other children from an early age.

I will be going back to work in the New Year when DS is 11 months and this time I will be using a childminder. The reason is that he will go to the same childminder who now has DD after school so it makes sense to have them both in the same place. If it makes you feel better, I am dreading leaving him and also feel like I'm failing him in some way, even though I've been through this process before and I can see how well DD has turned out. I think it's just a mummies lot in life that you feel guilty about everything, all the time

Good luck and hope you find a good nursery.

Hi - got back from wonderful holiday yesterday and have just been trying to catch up on all the postings.

DD1 was with her father for 2 weeks so we took Grace to the Seychelles (the hotel where we spent our honeymoon) and had the most fantastic time. The staff made a huge fuss of her and the watiresses often carried her away whilst we were having lunch - she loved all the attention. It's a small resort hotel and everything just worked so well - we'd put her to sleep in her pram at night and then stroll up to one of the two restaurants and she'd sleep while we ate, then we'd walk back down and transfer her to her cot without her waking. She slept really well the whole week (must have been the sea air!) - she was having longer day time naps than usual and sleeping most nights until about 4am, going back down until 6-7am after a feed.

Dh had the great idea of taking her door bouncer with us - although there was nowhere in our villa to hang it, we had the inspired idea of hanging it from a sturdy branch of a tree and she had a fantastic time bouncing up and down in the sand! I will put a picture on the photobucket.

She is now 5 calendar months and 2 days and I gave her her first taste of solids yesterday - baby rice - which seemed to go down pretty well. She was grabbing the spoon and putting it in her mouth anyway.... Tried a bit more this morning and she seems quite keen.

Norash - I can reiterate what busywizzy has said. Dd1 was 6.5 months when I went back to work (3 days a week) and I had to put her in nursery. it almost broke my heart but she was fine and I believe that it benefitted her in lots of ways. She is a very sociable child, very generous and sharing and does extremely well at school. I put a lot of this down to the fact that she was mixing with other children from an early age, had to share toys and carers with others and did a lot of activities that I would never have the time or resources to do with her at home. So yes, you will feel bad, guilty, etc. but Kieran will probably love it and it will be good for him in lots of ways.

Shaalaa - how terrible about your purse - so sorry. There are some despicable people around.

Oh - Grace has a few new tricks she learnt last week, namely:

Rolling over
Removing the sunglasses of whoever is holding her
Blowing raspberries

AND - tonight, for the first time, she went to sleep without her dummy, and with no crying! In fact, I fed her, put her into bed and she was chatting away loudly to herself for about 5 minutes and then just fell asleep!