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.

LOL re wallpaper paste - the big day is tomorrow, so will let you know if Iris agrees with you!!!

Pidge, Kieran too likes baby rice. I mix it with his milk. But then again Kieran is one of those babies who'll eat anything you put in his mouth .

Hi everyone, I'm back from holiday and its really nice to catch up with everyone. We had a really good time, we drove from Zurich down to the south west of france (near spanish border) to see my sister and her boyfriend who have just bought a vineyard down there. Its a really beautiful region. We did some stops on the way and also stayed with friends in Grenoble that we haven't seen for a while. We had great weather which always helps! !

Preggimum - great that you are back! And also Pidge its good to hear from you too!

3mummy, good to hear that you are coping and that you are managing to breastfeed again . Take your time to decide what to do and be careful not to let anyone put pressure on you to make a decision about what to do. Consider having some counselling, a good counsellor could help you organise your thoughts and emotions better.

Sorry to hear that so many of you are still having bad nights. Pidge, I have to say that Niklas's sleeping has improved since he has started on solids, but don't expect something to happen immediately, its going to take time!

Niklas now has 2 teeth, goes to sleep much better now he can turn himself into a more comfortable position on his front or his side, he is starting to eat well and isn't far off crawling. He gets up on his hands and knees and rocks, has knows what to do with his legs but tumbles on his face as he doesn't know what to do with his arms. He also gets up on his hands and feet so his knees are off the ground and walks forward, but again ends up wiht his face on the floor, he gets very frustrated, its so sweet seeing him wiggle his bottom in the air ! He had a great holiday, always smiles and laughter and was no trouble at all in the car even on the days we spent a lot of time driving.

Sorry, this is probably a bit of a long one , but then I have been away for a while !

How active is everyone's dd or ds getting. Lauren will be 6 months on Friday. Slightly concerned when I hear that others are nearly crawling! Lauren hates going on to her tummy full stop and cries the minute I put her in that position. I think she'll sit in the next week or so as she only needs a bit of support now and she's ok. Anyone else not happy on the tummy?

Hello everyone and glad you had such a good holiday LG.

Week from hell in our household. Spent 4-5 nights trying to settle Harrison in the night without feeding him. He has been waking between 3-4.00am and I know he's not hungry as even if I feed him, he doesn't settle well again and then doesn't feed in the morning properly. One night took two and a half hours !! . No crying (apart from that one night) but lots of noise which kept me awake. However, think we might be getting there as last night, he went to bed at 6.45pm, woke at about 4.15am and went straight back to sleep with no help from me
until 7.30am.

Unfortunately, DD chose last night to pull a muscle in her thigh and I was up with her at 3.30am, 4.15am and 5.30am She's been at home with us all day and hasn't been able to move off the sofa. Now school has finished, the children are playing outside and she feels miraculously better and is sitting in the garden with some friends playing . Back to school tomorrow me thinks.

Harrison is doing well and is trying to sit up. Some days he can manage a few seconds and other days he just crumples into a heap. No sign of crawling at all. He doesn't mind being on his tummy but hasn't shown any signs of trying to move. Being a second time mum, I'm glad as I now how much harder they are to look after once they can move.

Also having proper swimming lessons with some other mums from my NCT class and Harrison is starting to go under water. Not overly impressed but each time we do it, he looks a bit less shocked

Love to you all

Jambot - all babies are different. If I look at friends babies and others that I have met one was crawling at 6 months another not attempting to crawl until almost 12 months. Lots of babies don't like being on their front, but at the end of the day they will all walk. I think we have high expectations of our babies doing incredible things in a very short time, which they are, but we expect more.
As for Lauren pooing for Africa, well Niklas is in training for the world championships! He pooed 5 times today! And they are proper poos! Funny to think that a few months ago i was worried that he wasn't pooing enough !

Busywizzy - hope you have a better night tonight! I really sympathise with the lack of sleep, it is the worst. If Niklas wakes up in the night we ignore him unless he really cries and unless he is hungry he will eventually go back to sleep. He doesn't sleep in our room at home so we don't hear him, but on holiday he did wake most nights but went back to sleep aftre a while.
The swimming lessons sound great!

Hey all,

Jambot, don't worry about the crawling. My little sister (or maybe not so little anymore ) did not crawl just sat and started walking at 7 months.

Just enjoy them while they are at this age when you can put them down and not be worried about finding them sticking a knitting needle in a socket.

Do you guys remember in the beginning when we used to send

Welcome back Leogaela - aren't holidays great!!

Tonight saw the introduction of Iris to baby rice, and as per Norash and Shalaa's predictions she was unimpressed! Actually she was kind of getting into licking the stuff by the end, but I'm not sure very much was swallowed. My memory of doing this with dd1 was that she just wolfed the whole lot at the first sitting, but maybe I'm misremembering!

Iris can very much sit. She spend 15 minutes sitting playing with toys alongside her sister today. What a gorgeous moment.

And she does like being on her tummy - rolls herself in all directions.

Very unlike her older sister who was happy staying put wherever you left her.

Am with you with the sleep vibes - last night Iris was up at 11, 2, 4 and 5.30!

Yes, it wasn't so long ago that Lauren would go a day without a poo at all and I'd worry about constipation. No trouble with her bowels now!
She has started hitting everything with her hands and if she has a toy it gets shaken to death. She has started to touch her own body and had to stop her putting her hands into a dirty nappy today. Can't wait for Summer and getting her outdoors with little or nothing on, as she's been trussed up in vests and jerseys for her first six months. Going for her six month check up next week at the peadiatrician.

Oh Pidge, I am sending you

Jambot I bet you cannot wait for the summer, she will be at such a good age for it. All our babies have had their summer now and now they have the winter to face. I am definately not looking forward to that, all that wrapping in layers before you go out.

In the summer I just put Kieran in his stoller or sling and away we went . Oh well start looking forward to next summer

Iris went to bed at 7ish last night and then woke at 9.45pm .... aaaaaargh. There's no way that's hunger - it was barely 2.5 hours since the last feed. We let her cry for 10 minutes by which point she was hysterical, so we cuddled and rocked her for 10 minutes but she wouldn't stop crying, so we were super mean and just put her down and she cried for another 20 minutes before going back to sleep. But then ..... wait for it .... she slept through till 3.45am, fed then back to sleep till 7am!!!! I really think her waking isn't particularly hunger related, but a bad habit and she doesn't know how to put herself back to sleep.

A lovely summery day here so Iris is getting some more wear out of the one dress I bought her. Lucky you jambot with that to look forward to.

Off to Oxford St now for a bit of shopping therapy!

Pidge, really gld to hear you had a better night. Fingers crossed for you.

Harrison went to bed last night at about 7.15pm and unusually, it took about half an hour to settle him. He kept crying but eventually settled .............. and then slept through until 6.30am so that's two nights in a row without getting up to him and he's never done that, ever. Clealy he's getting the message that only having a drink of water isn't worth bothering to get up for.

DD also seems much better today and has gone back to school, although the limp was quite bad as we approached her classroom

Jambot, my DD didn't crawl until she was 10 months and it was great watching all the other mum's tearing around after their mobile little ones whilst DD sat quietly watching them. I'm hoping Harrison is the same but he seems to like being on his tummy more than she did.

Have a good day everyone and enjoy the retail therapy Pidge

Lauren is down for her lunchtime snooze. She was so tired today her eyes were actually rolling back into her head as I was giving her lunch. She only ate half which is unusual - normally screeching like a little bird with her mouth open waiting for the next mouthful of nummy sweetpotato, sweetcorn and chicken. That's her favourite combo at the moment.
Does anyone know where you can get cheapish swimsuits with the built in nappy? All the ones I've seen on websites seem very expensive, and made VERY expensive by the rand/pound exchange rate. Can't seem to get them here.
Also, anyone used a backpack type baby carrier yet and if so which one? Lauren is actually too big for her forward pouch now and it kills my back. Some of these back carriers look enormous with a roof and everything. Saw two on the Mothercare website that are front and back carriers, which don't look so bulky. Any advice

Hi all,

Jambot, I have the babybjon forward sling but am thinking of getting this back pack one.

Pidge, glad to here you had a better night.

Hey 3Mummy, thinking of you and hope to see you in here soon. Chin up gal

Hi Jambot,

I've been using the Tomy backpack (£5 from charity shop) and Caleb loves it. Got a nice little seat for him and a harness. Also had to stop using front sling due to my back giving in! You can get them cheap from ebay

Sorry guys "Inferno" = Norash (grin)

Brilliant news busywizzy on Harrison's sleep - long may it continue.

Dp and I have agreed that if Iris wakes before midnight tonight we will let her cry again ... gulp.

Meanwhile she has TOTALLY got it on the food front. After several hilarious minutes of licking the spoon and spitting the baby rice out, it was as though the penny dropped .... heavens, I can EAT this stuff! And she wolfed the whole lot. So we made her another batch and she ate all that too and then grabbed the spoon off me and chewed it frantically. Atta girl.

Shopping therapy was marvellous - given our lack of income I restricted myself to three bits of clothing for the girls. I'm going through an uncharacteristically girly phase in my clothing preferences for them at the moment, and indulged in two very very pretty flowery tops. Iris is the size of a rugby prop forward, with a crew cut to match, so she'll be quite a sight in her new outfit.

I'm also struggling with the sling - I do use it, but with Iris at 20lbs I feel like it's a major workout. Our sling can be used on the back, so I may have a look at doing that. We have a backpack too, but I find it very uncomfortable.

Pidge, lol at the thought of Iris wolfing her food down. Clearly a hungry girl

Shopping therapy is supposed to be for you

Good luck tonight

Hi all. We're back from our holiday in Romania. Sylvia's news: she has one tooth and another coming through, has started sitting and crawling (this is more a grab and pull operation at the moment but she's starting to put her bum in the air and make proper moves too).

We're starting solids too, a bit later than anticipated because we went to the seaside in Romania and I thought breastfeeding would be easier. Today Sylvia had some cereal, grated apple, banana and mashed potatoe - she loved it all.

Re slings, I read on another forum people praising the Ergo back carrier. I am still using ring slings (and I've started making some for friends and family, that's how much I like them -if anyone is interested).

3mummy - so sorry to hear you've been going through a rough patch, I hope things brighten up a bit at home before the depressing autumn months begin.

I'll be writing more again now I'm back but don't want to bore you from the beginning.

Welcome back cristina7 - how exciting about the crawling.

Busywizzy _ I am a hopeless shopper for mtself - in fact I could do with a Trinny & Susanna esque makeover! But buying kid's clithes is such fun. Iris is about to be inserted in her new flowery getup!

I wonder if she heard our discussion about waking before midnight ... she woke first at 12:08! Then at 3.30 and 5:30 and hasn't been back to sleep since then so is pretty grumpy now, and I'm pretty snoozy.

Hey all,

Pidge, glad that the weaning is going well for you. Sorry that you did not have such a good night.

Welcome back Chritina.

Ok, now on a lighter note, who wants to adopt a 5 month old, who is generaly well behaved . I thought I would give you guys first refusal since you already know the childs history .

Kieran has taken to waking up in the night around 2am, he does not cry now but does alot of talking and playing (kicking the sides of his cot). I stayed awake for two hours last night waiting for him to cry for a feed, but he fell asleep without one. Was up again an hour later and this time I gave him a feed and moved to another room.
I came back to our room an hour later, and he was asleep but half an hour later he was up again chatting to himself . So I have had just about 3 hours sleep, and now I hear him screaming upstairs so here goes.

I know I am going to have a bad day because he has not slept.

Norash, Lauren also does this. She is generally a good sleeper, but some nights I hear her wake a couple of times and she just lies there talking to herself and then it will suddenly go quiet again. I suppose it's natural for us all to wake at some stage during the night (I know I often do) but the trick is putting yourself back to sleep. I used to tense up when I heard her awake, but now that I know that 9 times out of ten she'll go back to sleep, I've relaxed quite a bit. And sorry, one nearly 6 month old is enough for me - you're stuck with him I'm afraid!
Christina7 - thanks for the tip about the Ergo carrier. Never seen them in SA but looked on their website and it looks perfect so have ordered one.

Cristina, welcome back and glad to hear you had a great holiday.

Norash, Harrison started waking about 3.30am a few weeks back and stayed awake for hours. If it helps, he only did it for a few days so it seemed to be another one of those 'just a phase' things that captures absolutely everything a baby/child does in the early years. I was knackered so completely sympathise.

Pidge, was thinking about you last night. What a little monkey Iris is . Try saying the same thing tonight, but substitute 7.30am for midnight and see if she takes note again

Jambot, don't know anything about back carriers I'm afraid but am going to look up the Tomy one as well as I think that sounds like an excellent idea as some walking with bruiser boy on my back and might help me to get rid of the 'love handles' I seem to have developed since he was born

Have a good day everyone