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TY ladies, Amelia has started to improve a bit already. She has still been happy which makes it easier. She has been in bed with us a bit as I was so worried about her chest. She is now eating solids 3 times a day but wasn't really fussed until yesterday :)
DDB - Glad to hear little A is feeling better. I hope she continues to improve for you.
Terry - Sucks that you have to go back to work too. That's good that you're bringing her into the centre though. Much easier when it's a bit familiar. A has been going with me twice three days a week to drop off and pick up her brother. When I drop him off I'll usually stay 10-20 minutes and let her have a play and crawl around. So with any luck it will only be traumatic for me, not her as well. It was really horrible with DS as he didn't know the centre reall well and would crawl after me grabbing at my pant leg. Was completely heart breaking. :(
Lady N - A loves dogs too. All animals really. Our pig had piglets just over a week ago and she squeals in delight every time she sees them. Cracks up at the horses and just generally terrorizes our dogs. LOL
Not going back to work full time yet. Thankfully. I don't think I could handle that. Just 3 days a week for 6 months. Then back to full time when she's a year old. STill too early, but better then at 6 months.
Pholi - It is so stressful when the cry like that. You didn't the right thing about leaving him and having a shower so you could calm down though. The more upset/angry you get the more upset and crying they get/do. I've had to do it once or twice. It's not nice or fun, and I always feel guilty about it, but it's better then loosing it with them.
Glad to hear that T is settling a lot easier now.
Definitely not ready to go back to work yet. I wasn't ready with DS either. Spent the first 3 days back (so my first week) sitting at my desk bawling.
AFU - A is a bit sick today from her shots yesterday. Bit of a fever, sleeping TONS and very unsettled when she's awake poor little poppet.
She's a bit of a bean pole though. 71cm long a 7.83kg.
Hi everyone :)
DDB how is Amelia now, all good?
Tal at least you can ease back into work, though 3 full days would still be really hard! You poor thing, crying st your desk! How did she go with day care?
AFU J has been having a rough week, screaming till 4/5am but still happy and normal during the day, not sure what's going on.. had immunisations yesterday and doc did a thorough check and aside from some mild eczema he is great. He has started playing with solids, has had some banana but the dogs ate it because it ended up on the floor lol. Baby led weaning aint that messy when you have greedy dogs haha
J is 6 months today, 77cm and 8.5kg. He's just about mastered sitting up :)
My old manager called me the other day (not the place where Iwas before having J, but the place before that) begging me to come back part time to be the accounts manager, I can bring J with me and put a little play pen in my office, do whatever hours I want and damn good pay too. But because its payroll I declined, I just don't want them to rely on me that much and I'd feel bad to let them down. But I said I can temp for them or come in casually to do data entry or help out whenever they need, which is pretty cool really.
Hi lady_neon, Dr tal, DDB... etc.
All's mostly well here, too. Thor is 6 1/2 months, rolling and commando crawling madly, and sitting up for a minute or two on his own. Hasn't quite mastered putting a hand down to break his fall when he topples sideways, though! His 2 bottom front teeth are slowly getting taller, and I suspect that some more teeth are getting ready to come through now, too. Anyone know which ones are usually next? We're not doing any dental hygiene, as yet - what toothbrushing do others do/have they done with previous bubs once they first get teeth? I've heard of little 'finger brushes', are they any good?
Thor is demolishing bowlfuls of vegies at most meals - he goes absolutely mad for pumpkin, but also eats sweet potato, normal potato, carrot, beans, peas, zucchini, cauliflower, chicken, chickpeas... I'm planning on trying him with fish next.
BUT... we're in this Egg Allergy Study, and the plan is that he gets randomized a double blinded powder (ie, neither we nor the researchers know what it is) that contains either egg, carrot and pineapple, or rice, carrot and pineapple, that we add to his food every day until he's 10 months old. The carrot and pineapple disguise the colour of the egg, so they are in both. In the WA branch of the study the first taste of the powder is done under medical supervision, as a hospital inpatient, so off we went to PMH 2 weeks ago to have his first taste of whatever it is. And he reacted to it!
He wolfed down all the powder in a bowl of pumpkin and potato, in 2 minutes, and one minute later, started getting hives around his mouth, and then some on his back and tummy. He didn't seem bothered by it at all, but of course the researchers were, and once they'd seen that it was spreading to his body, they gave him an antihistamine and it started improving pretty quickly. Of course, we don't know for sure if it was the egg he reacted to, because he'd only had rice once, and he's never had pineapple, so it could be any of those 3.
Needless to say, we don't keep giving him the powder at home, and we have to go and see a paediatric immunologist (today) who does skin ***** testing for egg, rice and pineapple, and advises us as to what we should do in terms of foods at home, and also sets guidelines as to what happens with us in the study. Most likely we do stay in the study, and probably have a medically-supervised first taste of muffin (containing cooked egg) at ten months and raw egg at 12 months.
In the meantime, they gave us the name of a over-the-counter liquid antihistamine that is ok for 6 months+, so we bought some to keep on hand, just in case. At least I know what a mild allergic reaction to food looks like, now! Not that I would have missed it, bright red welts all around his face and throat. :(
Pholi-that must have been so scary, in regards to dental hygiene we brush Amelias teeth with a baby toothbrush every day. She loves it and it gets them used to you being in there. I then give it to her to have a chew on. I have also heard of using a wash cloth to wipe them. The idea is to just break up the plaque so we do not use any toothpaste.
lady_neon – A went fantastic. Me on the other hand. Not so fantastic, and DS not so fantastic either. Tuesday was my first day back, and she was happy to be left. Goo’ing and ga’ing and smiling away at the carers. Which was a fair site different to when I first left DS. As soon as he realised I was leaving he just burst into tears and was crawling after me, pulling at my pants and just screaming his little heart out. I think the difference with her was that I’ve been taking her with me to pick up and drop off DS 3 days a week for the past 6 months. I usually was staying with him for a while too. So the place and all the carers were familiar to her. When I left DS for the first time he’d only been there a handful of times before and everyone was still basically a stranger to him.
But DS got really upset at me. And I mean REALLY upset. For leaving A. He started to cry and way trying to pick her up to bring her to me. He was so upset he started to hyperventilate. And why? Because he was worried about how she would get her milk. Kept going on that “my bella need my mummy for mik (milk). My Bella cry. My Bella Sad. My bella go home in mummy blue car with my mummy so she eat mik. My Bella need be my mummy (I think he was trying to say that she needed to be with me). And on and on. And he wouldn’t leave her and go into his class until after he saw her being fed and given milk from her sippy cup. And they had to explain him that the milk was from mummy before he would leave. Then he kept asking to go and see her to make sure that she wasn’t sad all day. Which was really sweet. But it nearly killed me leaving with him going on. I really did feel like I was abandoning her and that he knew it.
But I am able to go and feed her at lunch time, which is good. And she doesn’t get upset when I leave, which is even better. I fed DS during lunch too, and had my heart ripped out twice a day when I left him because he wanted me to stay or to come with me. It was really hard. Knowing that she’s happy and ok with me leaving her there makes it a lot easier. Although it’s still really hard.
As for J and his crying, I wonder if it’s growing pains. My brother, who is really tall, use to get them really bad. And I think Annabella gets them too as she will do something similar to what you say J is doing, and she’s really tall for her age like J. She was 71cm at 6months, which is off the charts for girls. Have you tried to give him panadol or neurophen to see if that helps any?
That would have been fantastic being able to bring J in with you to work. But I can understand not wanting to let them down, especially with pays because it would affect so many people.
Pholi – Sounds like T is going great guns as well. If he’s commando crawling it won’t be long now till he’s fully on the crawl!
Teeth, usually the four front ones come first. Then the four on either side of those. Then it skips the eye (canine) teeth and moves to the first molars (then maybe the second ones, can’t quite remember) then the eye teeth.
Tooth brushing I started getting both DS and A use to the tooth brush from about 6 months. Just let them chew on it and the like. Then when their teeth came in I just brushed them with water. Didn’t start using toothpaste at all until DS was about 2. I’ve always just used a normal sized tooth brush that is identical to mine or DH’s because inevitably, they want the one we have and won’t have a bar of ‘their very own special’ brush. It’s a bit more difficult to manouver around in their mouths, but saves me a lot of fights.
That’s pretty scary about T’s reaction to the powder from the study. I really hope that he doesn’t end up having a serious allergy to something. On the bonus side, at least it happened in a clinical setting with a doctor right on hand instead of at home. That would have been really scary!
AFU – apart from what I wrote above. A is growing great guns. She’s growing out of her o’s and is wearing mostly 1’s now.
She’s a mad crawler, but thankfully hasn’t made any attempt at all to try to pull herself up yet. I really want her to be little for a bit longer! She has started this odd hop crawl thing though. Not sure what that is about. She was crawling ‘normally’ for weeks, but in the last few days she’s started to ‘walk’ with her hands and then hop her legs at the same time instead of moving each one independently. It’s kinda funny.
Still toothless.
She LOVES her food. She’ll eat anything and everything put in front of her…..except avocado. Doesn’t want a bar of that one. AND she’s taking milk out of a sippy cup at daycare. Which is really good. I was a bit worried about that as at home she only wanted it direct from the breast and would refuse expressed milk of any kind, which is the same thing DS did and although they persevered for weeks we were never able to get him to drink milk (of any variety, still to this day he won’t drink it) unless it was straight from the breast. So it was a relief when she drank it from a sippy cup from them.
Pholi-that must have been so scary, in regards to dental hygiene we brush Amelias teeth with a baby toothbrush every day. She loves it and it gets them used to you being in there. I then give it to her to have a chew on. I have also heard of using a wash cloth to wipe them. The idea is to just break up the plaque so we do not use any toothpaste.
Hi girls! Good to hear all the babies are growing well!
Dr. Tal- sorry to hear about your first day back at work. I guess at least you can see just how protective you DS will be! Hope the settling gets easier.
Pholi- wow about Ts reaction! My ds1 has had a similar reaction to a snickers bar (peanuts) hope it's easy for them to find out which food it is.
Re: teeth hygiene, brushing with a face washer is perfect for babies without teeth (we let K suck on it in the bath). Also using a babies or super soft toothbrush is great! About tooth paste I've had several different dentists and hygienists say not to give babies any kind of tooth paste until at least 2yo, because it is really bad for little tummies (from about 2yo they can learn to spit).
Also the next best thing for teeth is to avoid juice and sugary drinks. We used to give ds1 watered down juice and now his teeth are awful, whereas DD has never drank anything but water and milk and the dentist said her teeth are perfect condition, that she shouldn't have any future issues unless she ends up eating heaps of sticky lollies (which she doesn't like yay!)
Chrispe-that is exactly what I learnt :)
Thanks for the tooth brushing suggestions, all. I'll take a look in the toothbrush aiskle next time I shop, and start using a washcloth in the mean time.
Dr Tal, Thor can't get the hang of a sippy cup yet, but he's fine with a bottle and teat (like we use for his formula, but a different coloured and shaped bottle. I've been giving him the sippy cup once or twice a week, just to give it a go, but no luck so far.
Thanks all for your concern about the egg allergy. The allergic reaction wasn't nearly as scary as it might have been if we had been at home, but there we were, in the hospital, with nurses watching and monitoring every little symptom, and the antihistamine drawn up in the syringe and ready to go.
We saw the allergist - she tested for egg yolk, white, rice and pineapple, as well as soy, peanut and fish, and since he's already had wheat and dairy, she didn't need to test for those. He came up clear to everything except for the egg white and yolk, to which he had a moderate reaction. So we avoid egg, now, until 10 months, and he will be admitted to hospital again to eat muffins which are baked with egg - so an 'egg in baked goods' challenge.She reckons there is a good chance that even by then, he will have grown out of it.
I think it's great news, all together - I'm thrilled that he isn't reacting to any of the other common allergens, and egg allergy is one that they frequently grow out of, and isn't as hard to avoid (I think) as dairy or gluten. And while he's really young, he won't be getting much food except what I make from scratch at home, anyway, so it should be really easy for now.
Hi all, just quickly popping in while Arya is asleep. All is going well here. We have 2 teeth which came through with very little fuss, and crawling is not far away. She kicks her legs out and pushes herself up but just kinda falls to the side and goes in circles. Arya ends up in our bed every night. Most nights I feed her to sleep in bed then put her in her hammock next to me, then once she wakes up I bring her into bed. Some nights that's only a couple of hours later, other nights it's after a full night sleep. She's enjoying BLW but doesn't seem to like purees. She goes absolutely frantic to the point of getting the shakes when we give her meat, or more to the point when we don't give it to her quickly enough. She did the same with honeydew melon. She's lazy though, doesn't like holding it herself, I have to hold it and she just face plants onto my hand :p Arya is also in the egg allergy study so have been having to give her purees but we're taking a break from that until I can call them. The last few days I've noticed straight after she's had red blotches appear after having her puree meal but never if I give her a piece of food. Tried today without the powder and there was no reaction so I'm assuming she's reacted to the powder. Not sure what they'll get us to do since we're in Sydney for the next 2 weeks. Can't remember if I'd mentioned in here but DF managed to get his 13 weeks paid parental leave! He's only going to spend about 4 of them at home though. His first day of leave we drove to Sydney, then we were home for 2 days before flying to Perth for oz comic con where we both worked, home for a day before heading to the city for Adelaide oz comic con, home for a week before flying to Sydney again, then we'll be home for 10 days before we fly to Singapore for a month and then we'll be home for 2 weeks before he has to go back to work! Clearly we don't like to relax! :lol:
Hope all the bubbas enjoy their first Easter!
Miss Dee, give them a call and let them know - when Thor had his reaction, they waited until it had developed to a certain degree of severity before deciding to give the antihistamines. While they were monitoring him, they explained that if it stayed mild enough, they'd get us using just a fraction of the powder and gradually building up over time. But when the reaction kept developing they said no, it's too severe to do graduated doses. But it sounds like A's reaction is mild, so even with just a phone call, they might suggest you drop back to a 16th of a sachet, or something like that. It's definitely worth calling them and letting them know, even if you're away.
Apparently the Perth ethics committee insisted on the first taste of powder being done in hospital under supervision, whereas the Adelaide ethics committee didn't, which is why Thor has his first taste at the hospital and Arya didn't.
Awesome that your DH is getting so much leave! Enjoy having time together as a family. :) Gotta love the frantic shakes when they know food is on the way, huh?
Hi Dee-fantastic to hear A is loving her food. Also good to hear someone else who ends up sleeping with their bub.
For the last month or so A has been sleeping with us. There have probably been a total of 3 nights where she slept in her cot all night. Some nights she will start off in her cot but other nights she will not give in until she is in with us. It makes it a lot easier to feed her though. As for solids, she isn't a fan of BLW but loves purees, weird hey. She absolutely loves yoghurt and banana. Not so much a fan of veggies but we are persisting.
Forgot to add, she finished her antibiotics but seems worse so I need to ring her dr at 8:30 am and hope there is an emergency appt. She is so snuffly and congested and just not herself. I am quite worried, no temp though, The vaporiser is working overtime and we are keeping her room at 20 :(
Chrispe – I’ve also heard that juice is really bad. DS doesn’t really like it…which is good. He might have a sip or two, but that’s about it. Pretty much all he drinks is water as he’s not touched milk since he weaned.
Pholi – I’ve found Annabella is best with the nuby sippy cup that has a soft silicon spout that pokes up a bit (That’s not a very good description….I’ll have to see if I can find the actual name for you).
Although I did find with DS that it was more of a trial and error thing. I have at least a dozen different brand ones sitting in the cupboard that were only used once or twice becaue they just didn’t work for him.
I hope that T does outgrow the egg allergy.
Pholi and Miss Dee – that’s funny that the two different states didn’t both have the first dose being administered at hospital. Especially with an Allergen thing I would have thought it would have been much safer (and consequently the thing to do) to give it in a hospital setting.
Miss_Dee – That’s fantastic that your DP FINALLY got his leave.
Sounds like A might be having a slight reaction to the powder you’re giving her, although thankfully it does seem to be much milder then the reaction that poor little T had. Hope you are able to get that sorted soon.
DaydreamBeliever – A ends up in our bed quite a bit as well. Not as much as DS did though, he use to spend most of the night in with us. A likes to cuddle all day and be worn whereas once DS was moving he didn’t want to be held at all unless he was tired. But he didn’t sleep well on his own and consequently only spend an hour or two a night in his cot. But A seems to sleep better on on her own (most of the time) until about 5, then I take her into bed with me and get another hour out of her. Unless she’s not feeling well, then she sleeps the whole night in with us.
I hope that you were able to get hold of a doctor and figure out what is wrong with A. Perhaps try keeping her room a bit warmer. I know with my A if the room is too cold (below 25) it makes her cough worse, so I try to keep the room at about 26 and make sure that the fan isn’t blowing on her. Just a suggestion.
Morning (or afternoon, depending where you are ;))
Pholi, the top two teeth are supposed to be next (if you are using teething rusks, the boxes have a picture of the order). We aren't doing any dental hygiene either.. I think I might start. Not good that Thor reacted to the egg! Thank goodness you were at hospital. Would have been terrifying at home. Hopefully he does grow out of it :)
DDB and Miss_Dee, we cosleep too. J has his naps in the cot, starts the night (if we're lucky..) in his cot but is in bed with us for most, if not all of the night. It is so much easier!
Dr.Tal, oh your DS sounds SO CUTE! Protective big brother :) So good that you get to breastfed them at lunch time.
Chrispe, I love juice!! Maybe that's why my teeth are bad :D haha but seriously I need to go to the dentist :o I have seen SO many mums offer their kids 'juice' then proceed to mix up a pitcher of cordial??!! Um?!!
Anyway, sorry for brief responses, trying to be quick while J is napping.
AFU, things are going, well, not so great :( J's sleeping continues to be horrific. He has cut 4 more teeth (bottom 2 last month, and the top 4 in the last week), but I don't believe he is in any pain.. He is very easy to get to sleep during the day for his naps, but night time is really testing our patience. I've booked in to an Osteopath as I'm at the end of my tether. He is awake, thrashing around until 3am most nights/mornings. He screams like a banshee in his cot, but only at night, so now we are cosleeping. Except he thrashes and thrashes and grunts and rolls and refuses to sleep. Not crying or upset (which is why I don't believe he's in pain). NOTHING works. Last night I went for a 2 hour walk up and down our street (with my dog for protection) with him in the carrier to get him to sleep. Even then he was only drowsy, so I fed him to sleep, put him down, walked out of the room.. the screaming begun. Somehow DH managed to get him to sleep by 10.30. We are following his tired signs and trying to put him down at around 7.30, sometimes he does sleep but wakes up hourly until we come to bed then awake for hours. Not really enjoying this at the moment as I'm so sleep deprived. DH and I are both so fatigued, snappy and grumpy.
Anyway, sorry for the ramble but needed to get it out.
Lady_neon, we had a terrible week just gone, too - After 5 nights of an absolute minimum of sleep for me, and only a little more for DP, we were the same, snappy and grumpy and feeling like we'd tried everything and nothing was making a bit of difference. (Thor was also sleeping fine during the day, at this time.)
I rang Ngala, and they really quickly came to the conclusion that it was probably abdo pain from eating his solids at dinner time too late. We've reshuffled the eating schedule, and that very night, things were back to his normal routine of waking twice for feeds but going straight back to sleep afterwards. Three normal nights later, i'm convinced that they were right. Yay for Ngala! Let me know if you want more info on our suggested schedule, or otherwise, give them a ring yourself. They've always been totally lovely, and given me really useful, practical advice.
He's not on solids, he reacted badly with gas so hasn't had any for 2 weeks now. This sleeping behavior has been like this for almost a month :(
Hi ladies finally found some time for a quick reply. Seems like everyone is going along nicely now with their routines.
Lady neon sorry to hear about the altered sleep patterns I'm afraid apart from the food suggestions I really have nothing. Not sure but can babies still alter their sleep and confuse day and night
I'm typing from the phone so hard to see who wrote what
AFU G's teeth are so close to coming out but still not their she's had a few restless nights now so I think she's close. She's crawling all over the house so baby proofing had to be done quickly. Eating solids we have tried everything but the peanut butter all good so far. Started daycare last week as I go back to work soon think it was harder on me than her.