Babies Born June 1st - 15th 2008

[Mirandabelle]

Wowie... Freyja is growing so fast! My milk supply increased when Zeke started solids, he loves them, but he started to nurse more too, he made it all too clear he wasn't going to settle for any less boob time!

He has a solid breakfast every day, and dinner if he seems hungry, originally it was only 2 or 3 nights a week, but now he will skip dinner maybe once per week.

I'm teething now though... my final wisdom tooth is making a slow and agonising appearance... I feel like I've been punched in the face!

[MummyPig]

Hi Miranda

What makes you say Freyja is growing really fast? She's little for her age (we're not tall - although she def has her mummies thighs!) and has always been on the 25th percentile. When we went to our first mother's group the other week, I was amazed at how big all the other babies were and the oldest one was only 3 weeks older. They were all huge in comparison!

I hadn't thought that babies might want to nurse more when they get solids, but am glad they do! Hopefully my milk might even get to a decent level again. Reason we actually gave Freyja solids properly was that she was feeding so often, we thought she must need more.

So, you give brekkie and then dinner IF Zeke's hungry? How much and what do you give at these meals?

Freyja is currently having brekkie, dinner and supper before bed, as well as booby at each of these times and at least 2 other times during the day. She now has the equivalent of a jar of food each time. We'd started her off with only 3 teaspoons (an ice-cube size) once a day. She always wanted more and was still waking every hour at night for food, so we upped it to twice a day and then had to keep upping the amounts as she wanted more and more. There's no need to persuade her to take the food as she has her mouth open and is leaning forward for the next mouthful before we've even loaded the spoon!

According to the MCHN, 3 tablespoons is the max she should be having. That's only the equivalent to one jar of food I think...?

I do feel sorry for you with the wisdom teeth coming through! Bad huh? I didn't feel them come through really, well, not that I remember, but I do remember getting 3 out at once because they were impacted and every single one getting infected. Now that was painful!

You should try using the baby teething products and see how effective they are!

[Mirandabelle]

The three meals a day thing... Zeke's only on two and is about a week older than Frejya... but every baby is different LOL! He's a lightweight too... usually around 25th percentile for weight, sometimes a bit bigger for height... he seems to have my metabolisim!

At the moment he has 1 tablespoon of fruit mixed w/1 of cereal or 2tbs of veggies. He won't eat veggies with cereal! I think a jar is about 3tbs... I don't have an exact tablespoon measure, so I'm kind of guessing from my normal sized spoons! He has dinner every night now. We started with breakfast only, and went by his cues in the evening as to whether he was really hungry, and fed him if he seemed unsatisfied with nursing alone. He normally has breakfast around 9am and dinner about 6.30-7ish.

I just made my own baby food for him so we'll see how he likes it tonight!

The tooth is being slow and painful still... it's not impacted or infected - that sounds horrible! But it sure is taking it's own sweet time!

[MummyPig]

Yeah, every baby is different and every day with them is different! Today Freyja napped properly (because mummy got it all right for a change) and so only had 2 meals as she wasn't awake long enough to fit the middle one in. Brekkie was at 12.15 and supper at 8.15.

She has bb when waking then again before her morning nap and again before brekkie. Then bb when she wakes if hungry, before her next nap, then if she's hungry when wakes, then before her next nap, then again when wakes and again before supper and maybe more if she wants it before bed. Only a couple of these times she has a full bb feed, the rest she tops up. Plus there's the night time one or occasionally 2.

I've no idea how many tbsp in a jar - not even seen a tbsp since cooking classes at school, despite having tried to buy one so I can get measures right when baking!

Freyja has either 2 cubes or half a jar of food (fruit for brekkie and veggies or whatever at other meals), mixed with 4 tsps on Farex made up with water. She has bb first. At the moment the only Farex we have is one with pear and banana or something, so for supper she had that mixed with sweet potato - nice... Clearly not fussy about mixing veggies with cereals!

Hope Zeke liked the food you made. What did you try and did you just make your own or follow a baby recipe?

Hope the tooth calms down before you try to sleep or you'll be needing to steal Zeke's bonjela!

[Mirandabelle]

Hooray for proper naps! Zeke has a big nap in the afternoon, anywhere between 12pm and 2pm for about 2 hours, and 2 or 3 30-45min powernaps the rest of the day. I tend to lay down with him and have a snooze during the long nap if I can too!

We don't 100% have a feeding schedule here, Zeke asks for it when he's hungry, but I usually feed every 3 hours during the day and twice (about 4 hourly) overnight, with basically a non-stop nursing session from about 9pm-10pm before bed.

Zeke has the pear/banana stuff too... he loathes it plain! It doesn't taste that bad with sweet potato - I tried to see why Zeke didn't like it... couldn't tell the difference!

We've got some Heinz Organic plain rice cereal too, but I'm trying to finish the Farex before I open a new pack. I'm also going to whiz up some rolled oats in a blender, cook it and see if he likes that more than the rice... I imagine it would taste better!

I just cooked and pureed veggies that Zeke likes, this time it was sweet potato and broccoli. When the cubes are properly frozen, I'll do carrot and zuchinni. I only have one ice cube tray right now, I can't find the others!

He gobbled it up and asked for more he was pretty hungry obviously, but he didn't have much breakfast, DP bought the wrong food Apple Custard instead of plain apple and he didn't like it much!

I'm also going to make him apple, pear & mango puree, but I'm waiting on the pears and mango to ripen a bit more first - baby food is so easy to make! I'm getting addicted already and it's only my first go!

I'm still buying some though, I doubt my blender could make spinach & pea (his absolute favourite) smooth enough for him... it would just get all stringy. It's also easier to buy a tiny jar of it first off in case he is allergic or doesn't like it. But I spent $9 on fruit & veg for him, and I think I will have an easy 2 weeks of food, compared to about $21 of jar food for the same length of time! (1 jar per day for 14 days at about $1.50 per jar)

It feels slightly better right now - I've gone through half a tube of Bonjela already - it doesn't do much for me though. I've been taking Panadol, but even though my GP said codiene is ok while nursing, I'm not willing to take it. DP has an allergy to codiene which in high enough doses could kill him, so until I'm either no longer nursing Zeke or we know 100% he's not allergic, I won't take it.

Anyway, I have a meeting to get to early tomorrow morning, and mum's asked me to go pick her up... it's 20 minutes PAST where I have to go to get to the meeting in the first place... so I have to leave the house about when Zeke would normally be waking... urg! I think it's time I got some sleep!

BTW - I just saw your signature - Frejya is beautiful!

[MummyPig]

Does Zeke have decent naps every day? I've been useless with Freyja because of the whole moving to here thing and she's had no routine whatsoever since August. Means I've not been very good at putting her down for naps as we've always been out and about, so she gets overtired and is a nightmare. Now I'm having to get to know her all over again because she's changed so much!

Right now she's refusing to nap. I must have missed her sleepy cues (again! ) because I put her down at 10.15 using the same routine as yesterday (bb, close curtains, sleeping bag, dummy, book, cuddle, in cot, music, leave room) and she's pretty much been awake since. She's been a little unsettled, but not too much. First she rubbed her eyes when I checked her, so I resettled her. Then I next went through she was babbling to herself and got all excited and grinning when she saw me, so we did our waking up routine (out of sleeping bag, have a hug, open the curtains, change nappy and play). Within 10 mins she was fussing, so I went through whole routine again and back in cot.... now it's coming up to 12 (when she would have been thinking about waking up!) and I'm still resettling her every couple of minutes.

Typical woman - doesn't know what she wants!

What do you do when Zeke gets overtired because you've missed his sleepy cues? I'm about to resort to a walk into town in the rain in desperation.

Yeah, no feeding schedule with us either - she eats when she seems hungry basically, but I always try to give her bb before and after a sleep.

Freyja never tried the plain stuff. I thought that I could give her just the pear & banana for brekkie, but she didn't seem keen the first day so it always gets a few tsps or a cube of fruit mixed in for good measure. We might give the Organic rice a go - must be nicer than the Farex surely?! Not so sure the rolled oats would be though - really not a fan of porridge despite being Scottish!

It sounds like you're turning into quite the little baby chef! Annabel Karmel better watch out Actually, that's a plan - you should check out the Annabel Karmel website (just Google her) as there's lots of recipes there. I won't link you as it also sells her cooking books and I've already received one warning for linking to an Amber necklace site (oops...).

Unfortunately, my blender is sitting in a container at Melbourne docks right now otherwise I would give it a go myself. Oh, Coles has the normal Heinz stuff in cans for $1.05. Doens't seem to have anything added other than water, so I bought a few of those to try.

I don't blame you for not taking Codeine. I was told in the UK that you shouldn't take it because it can pass to the baby in b/m so I've avoided it completely. Even though Nurofen Plus is the only thing to work when I have really bad headaches or period pains (they lied when they said that wouldn't happen whilst b/f!!!) :grr:

Are you back at work then that you have a meeting to go to? How do you feel about leaving Zeke with family/childcare? I'm officially on maternity leave until March, although it's unpaid from December. In the UK we have statutory maternity leave of up to a year, 9 months paid, and I went on leave when I was 7 months pregnant because my job was so stressful. It's great - especially seeing as I live in another country now and am obviously not going back to work!

Thank you for the Freyja compliment. I think she is beautiful to, but then I'm biased Zeke looks like a cutie in the pic you have, but I'm guessing he was quite young then?

[Mirandabelle]

Zeke is so-so on naptime right now, even when he gives very clear cues that he's ready, like Freyja he mucks around and won't go down. Then when he gets overtired he screams. The only thing that works is distracting him by taking him for a walk then offering bb again till he's ready to sleep. Mostly he has 1 short nap in the morning, and one longish nap (about 2 hours) and another 2 short naps in the evening.

I would think that if she's lying quietly but not sleeping she'd be okay to stay there, she may drift off on her own anyway... maybe if you just check on her from the door w/out her seeing you. When I know Zeke needs to rest, and is lying quietly in his bassinette I will only peek in from the door. He always wants up if he sees me!

By the way, the Organic Rice is the same as the plain Farex, but made from organically grown rice... it may taste better though, who knows? But at least you know what is or isn't in it!

The organic stuff is a lil more expensive... but DP really likes the idea of Zeke eating organic food, so he gets that a lot of the time. BTW, I personally avoid the "Nutricia" brand stuff, there's a pretty high water content (35% in the green beans), so the food tastes horribly bland and is sloppy and gross, there's also not just the veggie on the label in the jar... the sweet potato has pumpkin too, but unless you read the ingredients you wouldn't know, and pumpkin seems to make Zeke constipated so it's important I avoid that for the time being.

How long until you get the rest of your things back? It must be a pain living without some things, though wouldn't you need to buy a whole lot of UK-Aus adaptors for your electrics?

Zeke was fairly young in that shot, probably 3 1/2 - 4 months-ish, I don't remember when it was taken, and I think he's beautiful too - but like you, I'm biased!