Babies Born February 2008 #5

[prama]

sue - glad sophie's cough is better, how was she doing today? is she sleeping better... poor bubba....
darn this viral infection that's going around.
xoxoo

[RoyaUK]

Hi girls and babies,

It's been a while since we've posted - life has been so busy!! We're all well, Amelie is now 6 months and a week. Rolling has started slowly, solids are going ok. Sleep is just awful but it's been like that for 3 months now.

She's not slept longer than 3 hours in a row since she was 12 weeks old. So i'm pretty exhausted all the time. Plus running around after a toddler means no chance to rest during the day!

Typically, Amelie will wake about 3 times a night although last week, there were a couple of nights where she woke 6 -7 times. getting her back to sleep is easy - I nurse her and she's off within mins - but my DH can't seem to get to her go back to sleep.

At the moment, i'm all out of options and I know she'll grow out of it....eventually....I'm not going to even think about CC as the idea horrifies me.

Not sure if i've even posted since we returned from our month trip to the UK. It all went really well, lots of learning experiences - night flights definitely the way to go! We've been busy recently with trips to the snow - it was fun seeing Sarina (2 yr old) playing with snowballs and tobogganing. And a weekend away on the Great ocean road for a wedding.

Looking forward to staying home this weekend and not packing the car again!

Sorry for lack of personals - hope you're all doing well and looking forward to a great Father's day.

[Bun]

roya - sorry to hear you are having to get up at night so often, that must be so tiring with a toddler to run around after during the day as well. I hope the sleeping gets better soon. And yay on the rolling! It sounds like you had a great time in the snow.

sue - poor DD, I hope she gets better soon. A bub at mothers group got really bad bronchiolitis and ended up in hossy for a week so I know how serious it can be. I hope she recovers soon, the poor little chicken. My DD is also not interested in solids unless she feeds herself and it is such a mess. Sometimes the only way I can get her to eat anything is by giving her a milk arrowroot and shoving the food in everytime she opens her mouth, or else putting a spoonful on the biscuit and she will then lick it off. It is so ridiculous and can take up to an hour to feed her each time, but I still perservere twice a day. What is infant led feeding? I am asking cos I took her to the health nurse the other day and she said I am BFing too often and should giver her less milk and she will then eat more. I only BF 5 times a day and one is a night feed, and if I fed her any less she would be starving! I always try to give her solids first so I know that she is hungry but she is just not that interested in them. Now I feel like I am doing something wrong (plus DD has gone from being in the 70th percentile in weight to now just under the 50th in the last 2 months) so it has rocked me a bit. I felt like saying to her 'Here's the baby, here's some food, YOU try to feed her!!'.

[jenjams]

Bun- I hate these health professionals who tell you things and make you feel bad. Those charts with percentiles were modelled on FF babies I do believe. I have since read that BF babies tend to put the wait on quickly in the first few months then they plateau out a bit. You are doing a great job with Catherine. We are doing 5 feeds a day here too. I wrote a topic in the BF section the other day asking how many feeds we should do and the response I got was 6-7 feeds a day. Who do we believe! I reckon as long as Catherine is happy then you as her mother knows best.
The baby led stuff is giving them finger foods like really soft carrots, toast, overcooked pasta etc and they then feed themselves and they take the lead.
And how messy does arrowroot biscuits get! Amber gets it everywhere!

Oh cant remember if i shared this or not but a friend gave me a recipe for "home made" rusks. I now do them for Amber and she loves them.
Get a really fresh piece of bread. Cut the crusts off. Spread with vegemite and roll up tightly. Give it a good squash and then put in the microwave for about 50 secs until it is a little hard. The rusk will set while it cools down. Then give to the baby. Smells good too!

Roya- Hopefully Amelie will settle down and allow you to get a full nights sleep.

Sue- I hope Sophie gets better very soon. Damn these viral infections.

Have a happy weekend girls.

[prama]

bun - sorry hun..
i was told the other way round a few times, give them milk first and then solids and they need milk more than solids, and solids just as a taster. but then when i told his paed that he's more into solids than milk (i have the opposite problem to you) he said give him solids then milk. do what you feel is right. i was confused and stressed and now im just doing solids first and then milk. if you feel she needs milk first then do that. or do milk, solids, milk, tho then it seems you're constantly feeding...

dont worry about catherine not diving into solids, from what ive read, they will in time. robin barker's baby love suggests stopping for a few days and hten starting again.
does she take baby cereal or pumpkin? lakshman seems to like those more, i gave him fish with potatoes and carrot, he cried and cried and threw it all up. he seems to only want to eat sweet stuff.

percentile charts - i hate them so much. lakshman is only 10%. he's no where moving up.
i dunno how they think babies will constantly follow the graph. our weight fluctuates up and down. why do they need for us to worry about the chart, just making sure bubs are eating and drinking well enough is hard, let alone worry where they are...

poopy's having about 4-5 milk feeds. he has ff and bf. paed said w solids 4 feeds is normal.

jj - thanks for the recipe!
do you give rusks once htey have teeth or can you even before the teeth come out?

[jenjams]

Prama- Amber doesnt have any teeth and I give these rusks to her and she just sort of gnaws it down. She enjoys them.

it would be nice if the health professionals are uniform in their advice. that way we would stop all that confusion. We tried tuna and rice the other day. She seemed to like it a little bit. I guess we just keep trying new things.

[prama]

thanks jj - i just took it out of the microwave. im waiting for the rusk to set. do you give it anytime between meals?

[prama]

pfffttt - im getting really tired of writing posts, only to get an error.. grrrrrr

i lost my post...

let me remember....

esme - yaay!!! jasper you're a champ!!!
gag - i was scared to give lakshman mashed food cos he would gag. the mcn told me it's a natural reflex and it's ok to give him mashed food, as the gagging is normal.
so i gave him some beetroot yesterday, he gagged a little, and today beetroot again and he gagged just a couple of times. i think he's getting better. and i was giving him pureed food in public and mashed at home cos i was scared of gagging. the other day he gagged and i got so scared and tried to remember all the first aid i learnt.

hehe - put some newspaper over the carpet while feeding him today, lucky, lots of red spots on the paper.

i better go.. xoxoxo

[littleme]

Hi Everyone,

I hope it is ok that i pop in here and say hello. Ive been a lurker for a while now!! and thought i should join in a little.

I had my DD Maddison (aka Maddy) feb 18th
So she is just over 7months old

She is an absolute angel adn my hubby and i are in love and fall more nad more in love with her every day. She has slept through the night since 4 wks old, back then it was 6/7hrs now its 12hrs a night, 6/7pm - 6/7am. She has 3 day sleeps during the day and it seems to be working well.
She still has 4 bottles during the day now at 6/7am-11am-3pm and 6/7pm
she has started to refuse the 3pm bottle or only take a small portion of it so we will start to cut it down to 3 bottles soon!!!!
She started solids at 5.5months and in the last 2/3 weeks has actaully started to like it!
She loves her vegies and loves apple and pear.
This week she tried pasta for the first time (rissoni - tiny pieces!) and really enjoyed it. Tonight she had a beef cassorole and loved it too - so time for me to get more adventerous then just vegies!!!! Thankfully she doesnt mind! She loves rissotto too - i made some for her with just the aborio rice, stock and sweet potatoe and pumpkin adn she LOVED it....

In development i think she is going great,
She first sat up on her own at 5mth 1 day old and can sit on her own without a problem now. She only falls back and hurts herself if she forgets she is sitting, its happened once in last 2/3 weeks so she is getting better!

She is just starting to stand on her own and likes to hold onto the couch! that resulted in a bump to the head this week She fell sideways and hit her head on the floor boards.

She took her FIRST Crawling steps yesterday (5 in total) at 7mth 1 wk old. I was pretty proud of her she spends a LOT of time on All 4's so im sure it wont be long till she crawls ALL over the place!!!!

that will do for now, i hope to get to know some of the other feb bubs in here

[*MinKy*]

Hi Everyone!

So sorry for the lack of posts lately! Have been flat out working, travelling, being sick...the usual...lol..

Everything here is great! Noah is a gem! He is such a typical boy..lol..very playful and loving his big sister! He is still on solids, 9.1kg and crawling! He does a commando type crawl on his forearms...he looks so cute!

Prama - Beetroot?? Crikey your game...I wouldnt trust my boy with that lol...he makes a big enough mess with potato...lol.. You can buy a big thick plastic sheet to go on the floor under the highchair, then you just wipe it down afterwards...

Esme - thats so cute that Jasper wanted to feed HIS way or no way...lol...glad to hear that he is sleeping a bit better too!!

Jen - we go through a million bibs too! I have resorted to the disposable ones when we are out and about, that way it can go straight into the bin!

Danda - I hope that you and Zoe are enjoying your holiday!!!! How are the mozzies going?? Did you find anything to repel them with? We use on the kids here a natural repellent that has Olive Oil, and essential oils etc, seems to work quite well, we have a lot of sandflies up here so it seems to help them stop biting too.. NOt too sure if you can get anything like that over there?

Bun - Sounds like Catherine is doing really well without solids! You'll know when she is ready!!

Sue - Arent those Wii's so much fun!! We brought the Wi Fit too for me, with all the intention to get up and excercise...but ahem...I havent been that motivated lately...lol..

How is everyone else? Jacki? Ash? Roya? Kat? Roquen?

Has anyone tried those MUM-MUM rice rusks with thier bubs yet? Ds Loves them!

Okay , better scoot...am meant to be cleaning the house...

[prama]

Warning - Beetroot Poo Is Just Like Beetroot!!

[*MinKy*]

Goodmorning!

Hi Bun! Yeh those mats are great.....until bubs works out how to sneeze and cough with a mouth full of food towards the carpet thats not covered...lol..

Hi Prama! Those mum-mums go all soft pretty much when bubs bites a bit off, I dont think Noah has ever gagged on them, he gets bored with the normal rusks, but loves these ones! I had the same worries as you re: being for 12 months but when I saw a friends bub chomping away on them, I gave it a go!

Hi Sue! I hope you are having a brilliant weekend!!!!

Hi Esma! Ooohh what a scray thought!! School!!! This time last year and we were pregnant!! Where has the year gone??

OKay better go, the washing machine is beeping madly at me....I dont think its happy..lol

[Esme]

By the way, Bun, we are on the same no. of breastfeeds (5-6) per day one of those usually during the night. I just figure that BM is more important than solids at this stage, so I just follow his lead and keep offering new foods. They will take it when they are ready. But I have to say, it is really easy to start to stress about it, especially since other bubbies are doing so well with solids. I sometimes really get the feeling that we are falling behind....But I try not to stress about it too much. Lucky there's at least two of us in this forum; big , they will get there and then we'll look back and wonder what all the worry was about!!

[Bun]

Thank you all so much for your support, you girls are fantastic! Now I feel a lot better about Catherine not wanting solids. I was pretty sure that BFs are more important at this stage, so wasn't too worried about her not taking solids until the stupid CHN rocked me, plus the fact that her weight gain is not much as compared to normal.

jen - thanks so much. I have just had a look at my baby book and read that a lot of BF babies put on heaps of weight at first and then level out later, and she still has huge fat rolls everywhere, so she must be doing ok! At the moment I am just letting her feed herself with pieces of fruit, bread, arrowroot or rusks and then I can manage to shove some food in everytime she opens her mouth (although half the food comes straight out again!). Thanks for the rusk recipe, I tried it and she loved it! I will keep doing that, and it is much cheaper than commercial rusks that end up in the bin most of the time because she throws them on the ground all the time!

prama - I try solids first simply because I have so much trouble getting her take them, and it is easier if I know she is hungry. I'm glad to hear Lakshman is so into his solids, that's great! I am going to try not to think too much about the growth charts, I guess they are only a guide, and looking at our bubs, I think they look completely healthy.

sue - I think I am going to try giving DD soft veggies too - she likes to pick things up from her high chair and feed herself, so I may just cook up some mixed vegies tonight and leave them for her to feed herself at her own pace. I am not having any luck with pureed stuff either! We just got a wii too and I am wasting heaps of time on it!

esme - sorry to hear about the sleep situation, that is so hard to cope with. I hope he improves soon. DD doesn't seem to move around in her cot too much yet thank goodness so I don't have any advice. I also feel like I spend most of my time trying to feed DD and then cleaning up. She makes such a mess that I have to change her entire outfit (and often mine too), and completely clean the high chair and the floor. Food goes everywhere! And I see the other babies at mothers group who just open their mouths and swallow their food down no worries at all! Why can't it be like that for us?! Sooo frustrating, but you're right, they'll get there eventually, and as long as they are getting milk, they will be fine. I just hate when stupid CHN's make us feel like we are doing something wrong! Right now DD has 2 naps each day - each for around 2 hours, and she can stay awake for 2.5 to 3 hours at a time.

Must go, the little one is calling. I hope everyone had a great fathers day!

[danda]

Hi Girls,
Yes, I know....long time, no post. I do read this thread regularly but for a million and one reasons, never get around to posting. Even now I won't post much cos I am off to bath Zoe (she has no nappy on)....but I have a quick question I need to ask Prama!
Zoe and I just landed in Singapore (to see Nanna...my mum) and I have already been eaten by mozzies. Just wondering what you did for Poopy as far as keeping the mozzies away? are there any baby safe repellants?
Anyone else have any ideas?
Thanks heaps....i promise i will post again soon with a proper update.