Babies Born June 1st - 15th 2008

[leesha]

Well hi everyone!!! Hope you all had a merry christmas!! Sorry I havn't been round but With the surgery and chrissy I was very busy! Thank goodness it's all over now!!

Taj's surgery went so well..he is a strong little bubba! He looks amazing now! They heal so quickly and handle the general anesthetic so well! I have put photos in the gallery if you are interested on how he looks! The swelling was gone only a few days after and not much bruising at all!!

He is now eating solids...just pumpkin atm and tomorrow I have some pears ready for breakfast...he loves the pumpkin!!

He is not quite sitting on his own yet but I think he is not too far off it!!! I also can't leave him byhimself atm as he could fall and knock his mouth! Hopefully over the next few weeks he will be!!

OMG do I have a lounge room full of toys from christmas..I could open a toystore!!!

[Mirandabelle]

Hi there!

We had a lovely, but busy Christmas and I am very much pooped! Zeke was a bit more into the wrapping paper as well, but now that the paper is in the bin and the pressies are around, he seems to think they're pretty cool as well!

Zeke gets about 60-80mls of water every couple of days or so, but I don't think a lot of it goes in. We're giving it to him in a sippy cup and a lot of the water pours straight back down his chin. I don't think he's thirsty, just bothered by the heat. I figure if he was genuine thirsty he'd drink the boob or bottle I was offering. I think the water is more of a distraction than an actual drink!

We have one of those mesh feeders too, and he LOVES it. I put slices of mango or cooked potato in it and he'll sit there all day gumming it. They're not too dear, I really recommend picking one up and trying it with your LO. It's basically a dummy but with a mesh bag to put food in where the teat would be.

We ALMOST have a tooth - on Christmas day I noticed that there is a little mark on his gum, you can't feel anything yet, but you can definitely see it! Not sure how long till the actual tooth will arrive, I've been doing some reading and it can be anything from a couple of days (we're at about 48 hours since I saw it) to a month! Does anyone else have teeth yet?

Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas! I did, although now I am totally exhausted! And I have to clean up - we have a house inspection soon

[amyhunz]

Hi Skye,
Yeah Gracie liked the paper more than the pressies...me and DH were cheap-skates and didn't get her anything. We figured between our families she'd get HEAPS and she did! Her favs are her Bumbo and a Jolly Jumper...

Gracie has a bit of water when she wakes up from her day sleeps...not sure how much in a day but I'm guessing maybe 50mls(?) I've heard ppl say not to give too much but I'm not entirely sure why. I guess if it interferes with BF but you said she's taking just as much...I wouldn't worry then.

Anyway, we've had an eventful week of weaning the wrap and dropping her dreamfeed (finally!). All good so far. I bought this thing called a Safe T Sleep and it's been great. It stops her from rolling and the band around her waist probably gives her the illusion of the wrap (but she has her arms out so that's the major difference). Anyway, it's nice to go to bed when I want!

Happy NY everyone...I'm being boring and going to bed early. We've just got back from hols and am SO tired.

[amyhunz]

Ok I just read other ppl's posts...sorry I'm a bit slow...GREAT news about Taj's surgery!! What a little legend...what a relief for mum and dad.

Miranda - no teeth yet!!! :-)

[skye+cammi]

hi everyone
wish yous all a happy new year!!

amy-ppl have told me if i give her to much she wont want to b/f as much the only difference is cause its been so hot she doesnt want her 1min feed cause she is thirsty she has some water but she still loves to have it for comfort all the time..lol
yay for dropping the dreamfeed more sleep for you...

leesha-i had a look at taj's photos and he looks wonderful its amazing how quick they heal and good to see him smiling so soon after the surgery...

miranda-cammi has a sippy cup to it took her a while how to suck on it properly now that she has she gets excited when i get it for her dont think she is thirsty either but she likes it and i give it to her when its really hot and she wont stop drinking it,lol
where abouts did you get one of those mesh feeders from have heard about them before but cant find them?it would keep cammi very occupied..
we have no teeth here yet,but she has started to bite me when i feed her and it HURTS so im a bit scared when she does get teeth that she will bite me...lol

cammi is crawling now its so exciting!!i cant leave her in a room by herself cause she gets into everything,i have to change my whole house around now its not very baby proof i didnt think i would have to do it so soon..has any other LO started crawling yet?and she has learnt how to say dad dad thats all i hear all day dp is so proud..lol

[amyhunz]

wow crawling! no crawling here...

funnily Gracie did better with a cup that has a straw rather than the trad'n sippy cup...she's a strong sucker so she gets more out than trying to tip it up and suck...

Happy NY!

[Mirandabelle]

What fantastic news about Taj! I am so glad to hear that he's doing well!

Zeke is sort of crawling, it's more of an army type crawl where he drags rather than up on all 4s but he's working on that fast!

Amy - the advice on not giving babies too much water is because it fills their tummies up w/out the nutrients of BM or formula. I will have to try Zeke on a straw... see if he likes that better, I imagine he'll just bite it though!

Skye - I got the mesh feeder as a gift during my baby shower, but I saw them in Baby Bunting (a large baby product store in Vic) and I think Big W or Target. You'd probably be able to find them online really easily too.

We got our first tooth on the 30th! It's barely out, just a few millimetres of white on his gum, but I am very impressed! Zeke keeps sticking his finger in his mouth and poking it too.

Anyway, he's creeping his way away from me and is about to rip all of his nappies out of his bag again so I'd better go!

I hope you all had a great NYE, however you spent it.

[skye+cammi]

hi all,

miranda-wow first tooth very exciting!!i found the mesh feederthey didnt have them at target could only find them at "toys r us"....

it has been so hot how have everyones babies copeing?cammi is ok hard for her to sleep tho..
cammi has started picking at her bottom gums and its taking skin off them should i be worried?
i find if cammi drinks alot of water at once she will spew it back up...

[Mirandabelle]

Skye, did you give Cammi a try with the feeder? What did she think of it?

Zeke has been a little crankier with the heat, but he's also working on his second tooth, so it might be that as well. I haven't noticed him picking at his gums at all, though he does poke the tooth he has a lot. Maybe a word to your MCHN about Cammi would help?

I have to do food shopping today and Zeke is asleep when I want to go... blah! Of course he'll wake up at lunch time when the shops are crazy busy...

[leesha]

Luckily victoria hasn't been that hot so the heat isn't a problem just yet!!! I wish it was tho cos this is the first summer I havn't had to work in about 10 years and I havn't even been to the beach yet!
Taj is still being wrapped as he just doesn't sleep properly if his not so sometimes he gets a bit hot because of that...I've tried 1 arm out, both arms out etc but nothing seems to make him sleep properly unless he is wrapped. He alsways gets out of it during the night tho so I don't know why he just won't go to sleep without it??

I am assuming he is teething as he has been a monster the last week...he is irritable, not sleeping well, has gone off his food and doesn't finish bottles! Pulling at his ears alot and rubbing his bottom gum with his rusk or anything that fits in his mouth! Also greenish poo and smelly wee( sorry a bit gross)

He has come good today tho and is a bit easier to deal with although I also need to go to the supermarket and now I'm ready he is asleep and I ain't waking him up!!

No crawling here but we are a little bit behind cos of the surgery..I think he may have been by now as he was doing so well rolling around the lounge room and sitting up!! I'm not in any hurry for him to crawl tho as my house hasn't been baby proofd either!!

Lots of talking and words that sound like Daddaadaaddaaddaa Typical we do all the hard work and they say dad first....I keep repeating mumumumumum to him but to no avail!!! He just smiles and gabbles dadaddadadaaa................................

xoxox

[MummyPig]

Oh gosh! I haven't been on in two weeks and there's been loads of activity here. Lemmee see...

Firstly, Leesha - I am so glad the surgery went well and Taj is going great. I will take a peek at your handsome little man's pictures once I've finished this post.

The sleep class wasn't too bad, but it mostly covered stuff I'd already read about - some things I'd tried, others I'd dismissed. They didn't push CC or CIO methods at all, which surprised me really. In fact, the mothercraft nurse who took the class did mention Dr Ferber and how he apparently meant for CC to be applied to much older babies than most people try to use it on. She didn't seem before or against, but said that Ferber was (no idea if he's still alive!) a renowned sleep specialist and it's worth reading some of his work just to understand how babies' sleep works.

Amy - Freyja did sleep overnight when she was 3 months (no feeds and no effort from me!), but then she hit the 4 month development point and they all seemed to merge together into one long 2 month nightmare, from which point she's only slept a whole night a couple of times. I've been reading the wonder weeks book (got it from the library!) and apparently this always happens when babies hit development points. Some babies don't get as badly affected though - has Grace had any points when she suddenly stopped sleeping through and how long did they last?

I learnt that we're approaching sleep the right way (with her bedtime routine, recognising her sleepy cues, giving her sleep indicators like her iggle piggle etc), but that I need to review the way I deal with her during the day when she doesn't want to nap.

Normally, I follow her routine, put her down to sleep and leave her. If she cries, I keep reassuring her, but if she's awake after 30 mins I give up and take her out of bed again. Then I open the curtains with her and put her down to play in the living room as if her nap was successful, whilst keeping a close eye for her to show sleep cues again in 30 mins time.

What I should do is the popping in to reassure thing for 45 mins and if this fails, then get down on the floor at the side of her cot and do the patting and shushing thingie that we do at night when she's unsettled or overtired, for 15-20 mins. She should be asleep after this, but if not I should take her out of the cot and allow her to play quietly on the floor of her still darkened room before trying again.

They key is to take her right through the sleep cycle apparently.

For night-time, we should do the same thing, but obviously don't want to be allowing her to play and get more wound up, so if she doesn't go to sleep and is still crying after the hour, we need to start just picking her up, giving her a quick cuddle so she calms down, then popping her back into bed. Not snuggling up with her and allowing her to sleep on us. This is working suprisingly well, especially combined with our new trick of blowing her a big kiss, waving goodbye and saying 'good night Freyja, I'll see you in the morning' in a quiet but firm voice. You feel silly, but what the hell!

I also learnt a bit more about adding patterns to the baby's day and found that the mothercraft nurses recommend the Baby Whisperer EASY method (i.e. baby eats, plays, sleeps and you get time to yourself). I've got the Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Problems from the library, so will read a bit more about this and see if there are any ideas in there that I can use, without becoming brainwashed into believing I am a bad parent because of my penchant for attachment parenting!

Now that Freyja is established on solids, we should also be trying to encourage her to sleep a longer period at night before waking for boob. The suggestion is that we continue to give her the roll-over feed before midnight (usually between 10-11pm) and then drop the first feed she has, which is currently around 2.30am, give or take 30 mins. She can then have her feed at 6am ish.

To do this, I should be co-opting Alistair's assistance because Freyja is more likely to relax and fall back asleep if there's no booby on offer!

Unfortunately, our plans to do that over his 2 week break at xmas didn't even start as she hit the 28 weeks, 'oh my god my mummy and daddy can put me down in my cot and just leave me here forever!' point. So we had 3 days of hell when it came to bedtime, then she slowly got better and has occasionally been skipping that first feed herself. I've decided to give her a chance to drop it on her own, but we may try to force it if she's still waking in February.

I did get a couple of good nights sleep at the start of December though when she had her needles and was tired as a side-effect. God, that was bliss!

Freyja has been having lumpy food since November and I started giving her stuff like toast at the start of December for her to chew on. She didn't push it back out (did you know that they do that with their tongues to produce saliva? The harder the piece of food the more saliva their little gummy mouths probably need to help them, so Zeke probably wasn't doing it on purpose!), but she didn't always understand that she needed to chew the bits first. We had a couple of coughing fits, but she's got the hang of it now thank goodness cos they're scary. Now she has cubes of cheese, pieces of chicken, veg, rice, pasta and even little sarnies with philadelphia on them!

We still enjoy sweet potato, but her current favourites are salmon (which I mix in with sweet potato or squash, warm it and then add a little milk) and pasta. She mainly eats what we eat now, though a less spiced and less chunky version. She had some of our favourite curry with rice the other day and loved it.

Freyja still has porridge for brekkie with fruit in it (Figs are a fav, but apple and pear are popular too), but I now give her a plate with some cubes of fruit and a piece of toast afterwards so she can help herself. Messy, but cool to watch her concentrating when she tries to pick stuff up and negotiate it to her mouth!

The thing she loves most is choosing which colour of spoon she'll eat with. She squeals with excitement, studies them all carefully and then chooses... green! Almost everytime

We have lots of multi-coloured poo!

Miranda - have you tried blueberries yet? They do interesting things to poo! I mean for Zeke obviously, not you

She drinks loads of water as well as still having her boobie 4 times a day, though 2 of those times she doesn't always eat well, and then often twice at night. Skye, I'd say that Freyja drinks almost a sippy cup of water a day. We offer her little sips throughout the day as well as with meals though. Plus, the cup is usually near her when she's playing and she tries to help herself.

As for sitting up, we're doing really well at that. Freyja insists on sitting to play and stays that way for ages. At first she would occasionally fall over when reaching for something, then she started bouncing in her sitting position and after 2 weeks of that, it seems to have strengthened her legs a lot. Now when you let her take your fingers to pull her into a sitting position, she just pushes herself up into a standing one! At the same time, she started the whole becoming ram-rod straight thing when we try to put her in a sitting position when she doesn't want to (usually when putting her in her buggy). She's also started to rock herself forward from sitting to get onto her tummy when she wants to, has learnt how to roll from her tummy onto her back again and also, in the past couple of days, has been pushing herself up onto her hands and feet and rocking. Oh, and she's been making many more varied noises, laughing more easily and studying things intently. Plus, I swear she grew 6 inches in 2 weeks!

I can't wait for the proper crawling and am so jealous of you Skye. I've been dying for Freyja to be mobile, but she only manages to wriggle herself around or reverse under the sofabed. Not even army crawling like Zeke does. I'll probably regret this when she does though as we're not baby safe at all, what with Alistair never putting anything away (I found a stanley knife on the floor under the dining table today ) and cat food and litter.

And a teeth Miranda! I bet you're glad they're finally coming Freyja still has no sign of any and is looking particularly gummy. I'm actually now fairly sure that all her fussiness has been as a result of development points, rather than blaming it on teething like I thought.

Leesha - from what you've described, it sounds like Taj is at a development point. They have a major one around 26 weeks and another around 32 (anytime between 30 and 35 apparently) when they learn how things fit together. Everything you describe (except the poo and wee!) fits in with what the wonder weeks book says and also what I've personally experienced from Freyja. Best not to try changing anything, but offer extra comfort instead until he gets over it. Could be a couple of weeks or so unfortunately!

As for the poo and wee, I think with both together you might want to just check in with your MCHN or GP.

Now, off to peek at the pics of Taj and marvel at how massive this post is. I think I may have outdone myself!

oooh, almost forgot - I'm in Boronia Miranda. It's an outer suburb, so further out than Box Hill

[skye+cammi]

hi everyone,

miranda-cammi loves the mesh feeder it keeps here occupied for ages till it needs more food in it,she loves watermelon but it is so messy..lol poor zeke hopefully it comes throu quick for him,cammi still has no teeth yet..

cammi can now sit by herself very good and yesterday pulled herself up on the lounge so she was standing then fell over freaked dp out cause she hurt herself...
she is now learning so quick its scary she is growing up,she is 7 months tomorrow where does time go?????????

kerry-thats great thats the sleeping class was succesfull..


sorry to cut it short but cammi is crying..

[leesha]

Just a quickie??

Taj is loving solid food now which is great! He has had Pumpkin, Sweet Potato, Potato and Broccolli!
Bannana, Pears, Apple and Watermelon.

Farax in the morning mixed with apples, Fruit for lunch and Vegies for tea. Also still having at least 4 bottles a day, 2 EBM and 2 FF. I always offer a bottle first and offer food in between naps when he is awake.

Today he was very constipated....Yesterday he had a whole bannana and Farax( half in the morning and half in the arvo) Potato, sweet potato and broccoli mixed together for tea.

What in the last 24 hours would make him constipated? Is it Bannana? He has had farax solidly for almos two weeks so I don't think it is that. I bought some organic porridge today and am going to try that as I hear farax can constipaten them.

Any suggestions girls as to what maybe causing it or have you had any similar problems due to any particular foods??

He is sleeping much better now than last week..think it maybe a developmental phase mummy pig!

[rhyb]

Hi Ive been meaning to post in here but I never get round to it
Im Rhiannon Single SAHM to Aiden (born June 1st) Just wanted to say hi and see if it was too late for me to stick my head in

[skye+cammi]

welcome rhiannon of cause your welcome to join more the merrier...

leesha-thats great to hear taj going so well on solids,as for the constipation cammi had it aswell i thought it could have been the farex i now give her wholemeal cereal and she has been fine every since.

[MummyPig]

Hi Rhiannon! You're more than welcome to join in

Why don't you let us know all about Aiden and what stage he's at with everything? All our babies are at such different stages, even though they're so close together, and I think it absolutely fascinating!

Leesha - both baby cereals (because of the added iron apparently) and banana can cause constipation. It didn't kick in straight away for Freyja either, but as she ate more it got worse.

Should see an improvement in a few days if you switch to just plain porridge (I tried an organic baby one at first, not knowing it was also fortified with iron...), which you can get from the supermarket or a health food store. Cheaper from the supermarket and you can buy own brand quick cook porridge for a couple of dollars.

I'd suggest that you initially use a combination of rice porridge ('rolled rice' or 'rice cereal'), porridge oats and perhaps also millet cereal. You can get the rice and millet from the gluten free sections of supermarkets, or from a health food store, where again it will be more expensive but easier to find!! It's just that porridge has gluten in it and if you're bub hasn't been introduced to gluten products, like bread etc yet, you might want to do it slowly and watch for allergies.

I still give Freyja a mix of the 3 - I use 1/3 cup of each, stick them in a pan with 2 1/2 cups of water, bring to the boil and simmer stirring for 5 mins until thick. Because I don't use milk to make it up, I can store it in the fridge and this makes enough for a week. I usually add some fruit to it before it cools and I stick it in the fridge. Freyja loves either figs and pear, apricot and apple, or apple and pear. I change it every week.

Some dried fruit can have quite a high iron content itself, so this is worth checking before you buy it. Otherwise, figs are pretty good for getting those bowels moving again! You will probably want to use some of the soaking liquid from your dried fruit when mixing this into the porridge. Thick porridge is too stodgy and I found that Freyja would take ages to eat a spoon and then do this freaky thing where she took a really deep breath in through her nose. It makes a loud and scary noise, which kept making me think she was choking or couldn't breath. Scary! Can also add a little milk when you warm the porridge - I usually add it after warming it (40 secs in microwave) because then it thins it and cools it

Oh, you might also want to try Miranda's tried and tested tip at a tummy massage in the evenings before bed. This is good at helping relieve the constipation (will only work if you stop the food that's causing it though!) and will also relieve the painful wind Taj might get in the evenings for a few days whilst his bowels start working again.

Rhiannon - as you may have spotted, I have waaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyy too much to say

[leesha]

Haaaaa yes you can tell a story well can't you MummyPig!! You are full of advice which is great!!

I will try to eliminate what it is over the next week. I have stopped bannana all together and will go back to just 1 fruit and 1 vegie per day for a few days and then I'm sure I will work out what it is. Also I am giving farax the flick for awhile to see if it is that!!

OOOOOOOOhhhh boy this solids thing is hard work.. I much prefer my little booby juice drinking boy! It was much easier!! But I guess they have to grow up sometime!!!

WELCOME RHIANNON!!! Hope you feel at home here, we are always asking each other questions and comparing babie stories!!! Fill us in on Aiden's little life story!!

xoxoxoxo

[skye+cammi]

hey everyone,

we finally have a tooth comimg throu its just breaking the skin,and cammi has been a nightmare!!!the other morning she ate a hole jar of food and wanted more so i got her some banana and she ate half of it she must of been very hungry..
how is everyone else and there bubs going?miranda has zeke got his second tooth yet?
leesha did you find what was upsetting taj's tummy?
was just a quick one today...