SLEEP IS FOR THE WEAK PART 5....... God have mercy!

[Tamdin]

Can't believe we're onto another new thread already!

Omit the salt and I think Pear Zucchini and Parmesan patties sound good

Meg, I try to be really zen about the gagging thing. I watch like a hawk and make sure LO is breathing properly and not turning weird colours, but other than that I leave him to it. I think it's actually an important learning process, to learn how to move things around their mouth. The gagging seems to lessen quite quickly. And yeah, like EP said if the piece really goes too far back they seem to either produce this excess saliva which helps lubricate it back out, or they just vomit it back.
I've heard that gagging is very noisy and choking is very quiet, so I feel safer with a lot of coughing and hacking going on

I agree with Amber about trying to be calm about the gagging/ choking. I see people trying to fish stuff out of their LO's mouths when they're just gagging. Not only is that probably more dangerous but it frightens the poor lo. We've only had one or two occasions where i've given DD a bit of a slap on the back because she was struggling to breath while gagging but it came up and all was well. They do gag, my cousins lo who is the same age as mine had never had anything other than mush until about 9 months and he was just gagging on lumps. They do learn quicker if you let them get on with it.

We also roll stuff into sausage shapes so minced lamb and spices etc etc. However my DD won't eat anything that is presented like that any more. It all has to be chopped into bite sized chucks so that she can either pick it up on the spoon or (more likely) scoop handfulls in.

Amber, I make a museli bar which is much better than the porridge pancakes. Soak some chopped apricots, figs, raisins, oats and desicated coconut in apple juice for a few hours. Put it in a saucepan with a nob of butter and cook for a few minutes then put in a baking tray and cook for about 20 mins. You will have to experiment with quantities but they're lovely.

DD's first half day settling in at nursery today. She only slept for 20 mins so gord knows what tonight will bring. DH took her and picked her up so I was spared the trauma. Next week it will be three full days. I worried about her all day today. We've had some bad nights of recent but DH has taken over the last few while I've been working and he's been off. Still feel knackered though

ginger, nice to hear from you. that's funny about your ds rejecting the sausage shape now. my ds is rejecting the chip shape in favour of the 'wedge' or 'half moon' shape! fussy. i actually did an experiment tonight, gave him half moons of beetroot and chip shapes of beetroot and he would only eat hte half moons! what the!?
agree about not scaring babies. i want LO to be confident about eating and i don't think that is going to happen if i am freaking out and/or picking him up and slapping him at every little noise. that said, i am very vigilant and at the ready to pick him up for some slaps should the need arise.
i will try your muesli bar recipe. i think oats are soooo good. i really want him to eat some.
i'm going to start a recipe site, so i'll be back to everyone with details. can i put the muesli recipe on there?

Hi Ginger, hope you get a restful night tonight.

DH has gone to pub so I am sitting with a glass of wine surfing YouTube and reliving my teenage years watching videos of The Cure etc!

my dh is at work. so i'm being useless. must hang out washing!!

mber: tried oatcakes with DS and he loved them. I think they're more interesting than rice cakes. I got the normal ones but should prob switch to the no added salt ones if I can find them. Those patty recipes look lovely.

Ginger: have put dried fruit and oats on shopping list - muesli bars look fab and I'd eat them if DS won't! He likes things he can pick up and munch (like whole apples, strange child) so sausage shapes a good idea. Will try some lamb things at the weekend.

As for sleep, well DS seems to well and truly hate his cot atm . Managed to get him to sleep at about 7:30, awake at 8:30 for about 20 mins yelling (DH settled him eventually) then in with is at 10 because he arched his back and screamed whenever I tried to put him down. Ginger:how did you manage to get your DD into the cot eventually? Am thinking about a) making the mattress more comfy with a couple of blankets under the sheet and b) trying the old hot water bottle with one of my tops around it trick to warm the sheet up before I put DS in. It's not that I hate co-sleeping, it's actually easier in terms of feeding, but our bed isn;t big enough and DH gets v umcomfy. If the cot thing doesn't work in the next couple of weeks I'll try getting a bed rail and see if that helps. But I really don't want DS in our bed too long IYSWIM. What to do...

Morning all,

Meg - glad you and ds are ok after your little scare. Not looking forward to all that gagging business myself, but I guess it's just part of their learning.

Ginger - re nursery stress. with any luck she'll sleep better as she gets used to it. I am going to DD's future nursery this morning. Whilst it all seemed fine a month ago, now the date is looming I feel pretty awful about the whole thing to be honest.

Poor DH was in charge last night. DD woke 10, 12.30 for feed, 2,3, 5, 5.45, and 6.30. I got up for the last two, but I just don't hear the monitor if I'm not on that side of the bed. Don't know what the problem was at all .

Hope to hear of some good nights .

x-post EP. That cot thing sounds tricky. I guess the one advantage of DD's inability to co-sleep (she gets all over-excited) is that we don't have to wean her off it. It's a shame, as I think co-sleeping sounds lovely.

So it's just the swaddle and dummy we have to wean DD off !

I feel a bit mean when DS obv loves it so much - he wriggles and giggles whenever I lie down with him on the bed (prob cos he knows there's a stroing chance he'll be fed!)

Oh, EP, that does sound lovely! No chance of squeezing in a kingsize bed (MIL bought one of her spare room recently, and this was about the only time we all got some sleep when co-sleeping!)?

ooh - wanted to add that my ergo's just arrived! no time to try it now as we're off out, but I'll have a proper look at lunchtime, naps permitting. It looks very complicated to my poor brain. Amber, Ginger - any tips, especially for the back-carry?

there should be a dvd included which would probably help. it's actually really easy once you get the hang of it.
getting LO on the back - the key is bouncing him from front to back with my technique, i think it shows this on the dvde.

girls there is light at the end o f the tuneel my lo is 1 year and 4 weeks and last night she slept for 11 hours

we didnt put her to bed til 10 as we had friends round and she had calpol coz she's teething but she still slept 11 hrs

hi everyone!!!!!!!!!

i'm back
had fantastic time. Glorious sun every day and ds loved the beach.
managed to get onto hotel computer yesterday so have caught up on most of the posts.

nothing major to report on ds's sleep. went to bed most nights at 9ish and woke once around 3 for bottle then 7 for day

Played very nicely with other lo's on the beach/park etc so am less worried now that he's going to be a social misfit!

off to try and wash 2 suitcases of clothes. hate this bit.
ds is out overnight tomorrow night though as we're off to see snow patrol with half of N. ireland it would seem

YAY foryour LO dressed up! hope it continues.
went to baby clinic this morning to get LO weighed. god i hate the baby clinic. i don't think i'm going to takehim for the rest of 2007. i don't want to be rude to HVs and the people who work in the clinics, but the woman doing the weighing was on a major power trip. One mum wanted to weigh her baby in his vest. He looked about 4 or 5 months old and it sounded like she'd been weighing him like this for a while. the weigher lady got all antsy about it repeating about a billion times 'but it's PROCEDURE' 'you'll have to take his clothese off, i can't weigh him like that, it's procedure', etc. etc.
the mum was just trying to calmly explain that if she weighed him naked he would scream the place down and she wasn't worried about his weight, so she just wanted a rough idea anyway, and she always did it like this and realised it wasn't perfectly accurate etc etc.
the weighing lady just got so uppity about it.
god, it's her child, her choice really. get over yourself. kid looked perfectly healthy etc.
rant over.

sleep sounds good tamdin. glad you had a fab time

Hi amber

Good to see you back Tam . Glad you had a good hol and DS enjoyed himself. I'm in awe at all the getting out and socialising you manage. DH and I haven;t managed an evening out yet!

Amber: I guess that post was meant for another thread or have I missed something? Must try my sling again for the rucksack carry but DS is so wriggly atm I'm not sure how safe it is as the material always seems to ride up at the back.

King size bed is an option, maybe when we move... if we move at this rate!

it was in relation to IBS's ergo arrival.

Hi EP
don't forget ds is older than yours and any socialising we do is a very recent thing! you'll get there in next few months.
iirc ds spent very 1st night overnight with grandparents on 7th july so we're just getting into the swing of it.
am still a bit anxious when leaving him esp tomorrow night as he'll have only spent 2 nights back at home after hols before another disruption but ya gotta have a life and ds is unbelievably good at adjusting to change. One good thing I believe has come from co-sleeping. He's never upset/anxious/insecure/disrupted when we go on hols etc as he knows no matter where we are we'll all be in bed together!

Hey Tam - glad you all had a great time. And for your trip to see Snow Patrol tomorrow!

Ta for the advice Amber - need to check out the DVD as the paper instructions might as well be written in Swahili, for the amount of sense I can make out of them [thicko emoticon]!

Aha. I have a Didymos which is great but quite faffy until you get the hang of it (not sure I have). Must dig it out though and try again.

Tam: thanks for giving me hope .

Hi everyone! Tam glad you had a good trip.

Baz let me know how you get on with the Ergo.

Well, we have another cast-iron excuse for DS' shite sleeping... he's got a tooth coming through! I feel irrationally both quite proud, and a bit sad about this... my little baby is growing up!

ok, here is my procrastination for the day Finger Food for Little People