any other over 35 first time mums?

[Storm1jet2]

Oh SK sounds like me and my dh! We bicker when we are together too much, he can't cope! Big hug x

 

[clio]

SK--your OH sounds miserable right now! I'm sorry! I can't believe that he pulls 1) "you're the one who wanted a baby" (from and earlier post) and 2) "you've got a mental illness"! I'm glad he's going back to work soon! YOU need the holiday!

Borboleta--thank you for all of the info and the link! That straw cup looks like it has potential. I have one "Nuk" brand cup, which is supposed to "grow with you child" with new nipples, and so on, but I've never seen any extra nipples... I have to go sippy cup shopping, I think.

He just won't take to the milk. Though if he really doesn't need formula anymore, then we should really just be getting rid of it and replacing all of his bottles with milk and get on with it. I think we're too chicken. The sweet idea (chocolate or honey) is not a bad one, either. If that's what it takes, then that's what it takes. Formula is expensive!

But, I really like how you do it before naps, the same way you would offer a bottle. He's used to water at meals, so replacing it with milk means NO liquids at all.

Angel--how's it going with the fleas, you poor thing? When you do vacuum, remember to throw out the bag or empty the canister right away--I've learned the hard way that they can crawl right back out again!

How's everyone else? Storm--how's the snow? Is it gone yet?

Rowan--how are you feeling? It must be almost time now!

I feel just wasted. Luckily I've now got a week off because of the long Easter weekend, but ugh...

Okay, have to go. J needs me!

 

[Borboleta]

Good early morning ladies,

Thiago decided that 4:40am was a good time to wake up !! So we are here in the kitchen having breakfast at 5:20am ! I just hope he will take one of those 3 hours naps that he does or go to bed really early ! He has been Sttn for the past 4 nights but today the wake up time was way too early! And I am PMSing like the good old before pregnancy days and sore from a class that I taught ( drinking my own Venon ). I have not felt my Boobs and back hurting like this for a while, and of course I feel like strangulating someone ! Can't wait for AF to come!!!

Anyways, I hope you all had a good night and not having breakfast at 5am like me !
What are you all doing for Easter? We are going to my MIL. My SIL is coming with the kids ( not sure if BIL is coming or not since they are having marital problems) but we should have a great time. I love my MIL! She is crazy sometimes but has a wonderful heart. And she is the best cook!!! Can't wait to eat her yummy food!!! We will paint eggs ad them on Sunday we might have a couple of little eggs in the backyard for thiago to hunt ! He will have no clue what that is for.
He loves going outside now. And we have a backyard that is covered with little pebbles and he loves to grab them and trying to eat them ! And of course wants to go swimming in our little fish pond !
Found out that he loves bacon. So that is being part of his breakfast as a source of protein. And yesterday I was eating some ranch Doritos and he was interested in all that crunchy sound so I decided to give him a little taste and he loved it !!! I know, I am a bad mommy . But was just a little bit . Way too much salt for me too!! But I was hungry and dinner was not ready .

Talk to you ladies soon.

 

[clio]

Happy first birthday Dominic and Sebastian!!!!

Oh my, I can't believe that the twins are now a year. We have been together for a quite a while now, my friends!

 

[Borboleta]

Happy first birthday Dom and Seb! Hope you can take them to the zoo angel.

 

[clio]

Okay, so Day 1 of "Operation Bye-Bye Formula, Hellooooo Milk!" was completed yesterday. He received whole milk in his sippy cup over dinner just to test "compliance" with milk in sippies. Then he received 2 oz formula, 6 oz milk last night before bed, and slept until 6:30 am! Yay!

He had the same 6:2 ratio this morning for his wake up bottle. So far, he has not fainted from hunger, nor died. I consider this a promising result.

My main problem now is snacks. I have loads of ideas from the internet, but they all require one of two things: molars or spoons. The first he does not have, and the second he is horrible at (a residual effect of BLW--there's a thread over on Toddler Club about how well does your BLW toddler eat with cutlery? Universal answer: not well at all). Oh well, I guess he's about to get better with cutlery real fast.

So last night my father, who is incredibly shy, watched J for an extended period over FaceTime for the first time. I got out the xylophone for J; my dad plays the vibraphone, so I thought this would be pretty cool for my dad to watch. And he did watch, and watch, and watch as J went to town on the thing. Afterwards, I asked my dad what he thought, and his answer was this: "He needs to use two mallets to build up BOTH hands, not just his right. He must ALWAYS use two mallets!" My mother chastised him for being critical and nothing else, and his response was: "But I'm a TEACHER! I must TEACH!" Wha? Since when does a man nearing 80 get a teaching degree without anyone noticing? While I love my dad, and adore that he loves his grandson, I'm so glad J is growing up across the country from him. He doesn't need that kind of pressure at the age of FIFTEEN MONTHS. Next time, I'm going to force Grandfather to watch J play the xylophone with a feather duster and a sock.

I just put J down for a nap and tried to give him a mostly milk bottle. He mostly didn't drink it. Bah.

And it looks like we're back to CIO naps. J sometimes manages to cry just long enough that one of us will think, "well, I guess that even though he cried, yawned, rubbed his eyes and fell over from tiredness, he is obviously NOT tired," and go get him again. This has happened too many times in the past few days that, sadly, it's time we reinstate CIO naps. I'm waiting it out right now and HATE it. But he's barely napped in three days--this is getting ridiculous... I just have to hold on and believe that he will sleep.

How's everyone else?

Angel--what are your plans for the birthday boys?

Borboleta--we're going to my MIL's too, but it's just like another Sunday Night Dinner. Except we're getting turkey, strangely. My MIL is an...interesting cook who makes...interesting choices. Eric always eats before we go because he knows that he won't like anything his mother makes.

***ooooh--quiet! Is it over? Is he asleep? Please, oh please!!!***

J loves outside too, but it's rather impossible with the snow right now. Not that he can't go out in snow, but rather, he loves picking up the snow. And we don't have any mitts for him. I know--bad mummy; we had one pair, but he promptly took them off and then even more promptly lost one, and because it's supposedly spring, no one is selling winter wear any more! I'll have to go to a second hand shop, I guess.

Hey, do you think that Annabel Caramel (sp?) book would help me out with more ideas for molar-less foods? Oh, and thank you SK--I totally forgot that I have some fish in the freezer to make fish sticks with. J loves them, but the last time I made them I used cod and the house smelled disgusting for days afterwards. This time I'm using tilapia. A bold choice, no?

AND.....he's asleep. Yes! CIO sucks.

 

[SabrinaKat]

not much here - I went shopping after work so OH had the joys of looking after LO all afternoon and seemed exhausted when I came home (around the same time he usually does) and I had a lovely afternoon, buying some baby clothes, new bras and had some sushi for very late lunch.

happy, b-day, to the twins!

bye!

 

[SabrinaKat]

weighed myself this am and have lost another 2 lbs this month, so I've lost 8 1/2 lbs since the beginning of the year....wish it was faster, but should be grateful that I'm not gaining and I'm only watching what I eat rather than dieting per se.

OH now realises how hard work LO is, so me thinks, my life might be a little easier (a girl can hope and pray!)

hope all are well?! have a happy Easter to one and all (and sleepy dust, too!)

bye!

 

[Borboleta]

Hello ladies,

Clio: keep trying with the milk. Some babies take more than others but even though j doesn't seem to be gaining weight too much now that will change. I have a friend that his daughter that is 2 is Always around 17 percentile on the weight. She looks healthy to me. And very bright like J.
And your father is so funny. Why do people don't always say cute things about our babies? They are learning still!

Sabrina: for the pounds lost!! Slow is always better. And so funny your OH is now realizing how much work babies are !!! Men!!!

Well, Thiago has decided the last 2 days that 4:40am and 5:10am is a good time to start the day!!! I miss my 6:30am!
Oh and I gave some raisins for Thiago yesterday and he really enjoyed it! So as tapioca Pudim and jello.
How is everyone else? Angel, Jules, Rowan, storm, kosh, Charlie, claire ? I guess everyone is busy getting ready to eat some chocolate!

 

[clio]

Hello! Hope you're all enjoying your Easters!

SK--that is amazing about the weight! Congratulations! It must have been such a nice shopping trip! So, did you buy a different sized bra because of the dieting? And YAY! for your OH finally understanding. Good on you for leaving him with LO and going out for some retail therapy. What an effective teaching strategy: he learns, you shop! Perfect. Sounds like you're going to need to go shopping more often.

Borboleta--today is the hunt for sippy cups for Operation Bye-Bye Formula, Hellloooooo Milk! He drank half (so, 4 ounces) of a 6:2 milk to formula bottle last night and a full one this morning. So, he is now officially getting more milk than formula. But I freaked out last night when I visited Toddler Club and saw a discussion about weaning off of the bottle among mothers with kids younger than J! I am no where ready for that!

Oops, got to go--J in need!

 

[Borboleta]

Clio: now I want to check it out what happens at toddler club. Have not been there yet. Good excuse. And I have a friend from brasil that her daughter is about 3 and she still gives her a bottle at night time. I guess it depends on the culture.

 

[Claireyb1]

Hello ladies, not much to report here.
Lucy had a random throwing up incident last night at bedtime,but for no apparent reason? she is fine today
We are getting more regular stretches of sleep of a night, but still no sttn - I guess one day it will happen.
I hope everyone has a lovely Easter weekend.
xx

 

[SabrinaKat]

clio - Irish government regulations state going off the bottle around age 1, so the creche is 'weaning' him over to a sippy cup, but he's happy enough with a sippy for water anyway with his meals there. However, we're still going to give a bottle at home for awhile and if he isn't happy having a bite to eat, will offer a bottle. My OH, however, will offer a bottle then food, so am trying to suggest that an hour or so between each will mean food eaten, not just offered to cats.

off to bed! bye!

 

[AngelUK]

Good morning ladies First of all, thank you so much to all for your kind good wishes for my boys on their birthday

Claire I hope you have a good trip and by a miracle lovely weather for your holiday in Ireland
I am glad Lucy is sleeping a little better now Any improvement helps I think. And we got regular stretches from Dominic too before he started sttn so hopefully L is on her way there too

Storm I am glad your assessment with L went so well and that they didn't find reason to scold you as you had feared
Hope she is sleeping better for you so that you can get a bit rested over the Easter weekend

Clio I had a gap too between my top front teeth before I had braces but it was no where near this wide. (It did make me lisp though!) Must try and take a pic of Dominic so you can see what I mean.I am of coursed biased but I do think that he still manages to look cute even with his goofy top teeth
As for food, the level 3 food is what is causing the problem. Sebastian is spitting out anything level 3 given him on a spoon. I have the theory that he expects smoothish kind of food and is surprised by the lumps and doesn't like that but has less problems if he can take something relatively solid in his hand and then eat it as finger food. But there too we have a lot of spitting out. We gave them sandwiches the other night (cut into shapes with the cookie cutter too, what a waste of bread!) and he ate it quite eagerly but I guess had problems with the bread and spat most of that out so that in the end he probably only ate the fillings. And then I am not sure how much food he has had and usually give him a little bit of stage 2 food after
Your story of J and eating the banana is so cute! What a constant delight and fun he must be
The fleas seem to have died thank golly but my bites still itch. I remember when I first had my cat Schnitzel. She was tiny and came from a farm and was covered in fleas. But she slept in my arm that first night and I woke up covered in bites and they itched for weeks! And the hot water of baths/showers made it worse. So yay
As for J's naps, how's that going? Isn't it odd how some babies (can we still call them that at their age? ) fight sleep and others are so willing? Dominic usually is very willing to nap but just not for very long. I think we shall have to do CIO for our boys too. They sleep only half an hour and if some idiot rings the door bell during that time they won't even have that as they never go back to sleep. So as my mum advised, the bouncies might not be good for them for naps any more. So we will have to try and put them in their beds. I don't think this will happen without crying first cause they have never napped in their beds but we shall see.
Anable Karmel's book might well help you with ideas for cooking stuff for J. She has a range of books and we have so many dohh. There is one for fingerfoods which I thought sounds promising but I am not sure how easy most of those foods would be without molars. At any rate we judged our boys not ready for most of them. But I know J is better at that sort of food. I think maybe Rowan or Leeze might be better at advising you here cause I know/think they have used Karmel's recipes.

Borboleta what you said about being reluctant to put away T's bottles completely rings a bell with me too. I so enjoy giving them a bottle, a rare moment when they are again my tiny babies. I know it is wrong but well... I don't think we will rush the sippy cup replacement either. But the ones you posted with the straw look great and I will see if we can get them here too.
Btw what you said about your friend from Brazil who gives her daughter a bottle at 3 years still... sounds like my SIL. My twin nephews are 3 1/2 and get a bottle at bed time. Hm...
I am so glad you have such a lovely MIL! Mine is sweet too and from what I read on here we really are lucky! Sounds like you have wonderful plans for Easter too. We aren't doing much as the weather is so bad. They have a egg trail in the park for kids but since ours cannot walk yet there is not much point yet. Next year though definitely

Sabrina I hope things are ok again with your OH but I must say what he says to you in a moment of anger is seriously below the belt and totally unacceptable. Bet he doesn't talk like that to his mother
Well done to you for losing weight! I bet even if it is slow you must feel good about it? I admire your discipline, I always watch I eat and want more Am going to try Diet Chef for a month and see if that works. It had better as it's expensive

Rowan my dear are you ok still? Your time is nearly here now isn't it? Bad me I forgot the date for your section. I hope M2 waits till then at any rate!
How is everyone else, Leeze, Jules, Cranberries?

As for us: well I can hardly believe that the boys' birthday was two days ago! It always seemed ahead of us and woosh it is past. They grow too fast!
We had a lovely birthday though. My brother is ill and so he and his wife didn't come over. But of course my mum did and she is still here till Monday and then she goes back to her holiday home in Spain. We had planned on all going to the children's zoo in Battersea park but the weather is awful here, really cold and rainy and the forecast for Thursday was worse. So then we thought maybe we'd go to the London Aquarium. But then Sebastian's godfather had to excuse himself too as he has a paper due on the 4th (he is working on his Masters for architecture) and couldn't spare the whole afternoon and came to visit us yesterday for coffee instead. So since I thought MIL would probably prefer coming to our place and have cake and presents in comfort, we changed the plans. We were 5 adults and that is as much as my kitchen table can seat. The boys got lots of toys but I must admit Nick and I are so so about them. They all make noises and they are all made of plastic. Nick and I gave the boys a play tunnel and a little tent cause Sebastian loves the ones at gymboree and those can both be folded and put away no problem. But all these noisy plastic play things of course take a lot of room which we don't have and frankly they drive us crazy. The noisiest things we have gotten for them ourselves are rattles... I am ungrateful I know but golly I loath all this plastic stuff And typically the boys played with the paper wrapping more than the actual toys. Am I the only one who would rather have books and stacking cups and cubes etc rather than noisy plastic things? I feel bad and ungrateful now. But at least my mum gave them this little walker and this is exactly the sort of thing I like. I know it too is made from plastic mostly but it isn't noisy and it isn't huge
Anyway I had better go. Time to give my loves their breakfast I hope you are all well. xxx

 

[SabrinaKat]

love the walker, angel - thanks for showing the link! They have a shop near us, so might get one ourselves. Absolutely agree re: plastic toys, but we have a decent mix of blocks, stuffed animals and plastics, e.g. Finn loves remotes, so we have a fake Sky one and a fake mobile phone, which plays music. He also has a leapfrog 'scout' from the USA (so with an american accent), but it does entertain him, plus a few other toys in plastic, but the most annoying, I have hidden away (gift from MIL!)

clio - went bra shopping because although I lost weight and my pre-pregnancy bras fit around me, the cup runneth over, e.g. my breasts have gone puffy since LO and need a larger cup size, plus I always hated underwire bras and some of my old tolerable ones just fit wrong now. So, I bought some black simple sports type bras and they seem to be okay....

well....no sttn last night -- first, I couldn't sleep, then LO was fussy from around 4am and I ultimately pulled him into bed around 5.30 and we both dozed a bit, but grumble!

hope all are well?

bye!

 

[Borboleta]

Good morning ladies,

Angel: your day with the boys sounded lovely. Was the cake pretty good? Did they dig their hands in it?
I totally understand about the plastic toys even though thiago has loads of them ! Their is a particular one that when you turn it on that thing will not shut off by it self !!!! It makes me crazy! Even though thiago has moved on to another toy 30 min later is still playing music and trying to get his attention !
Now the food issue I have to admit that thiago's eating has improved thankfully to his molars I think. So you might need to way a bit on seb until he gets more teeth.?
Talking about teeth, I think thiago now is getting his incisors. He had a low grade fever yesterday and has been biting everything and drulling like crazy. Now that he has more teeth I have to be very careful about putting my finger in his mouth to check his teething progress . And he normally loves to have his teeth brushed but the past couple of days he has been crying when I try to do it . I say just come all of them and let's be done with it!!!!

Sabrina: I am so impressed that your bra size has gotten bigger and fuller after pregnancy ! Mine has deflated like a tire with a nail in it ! And it is half down my belly ! The other day was early in the morning and I went to the front yard to turn on the sprinklers in my Jammies with thiago , hoping that no one would see me in it and specially because I was not earring a bra. Of course my neighbor shows up and comes talk to me ! So I try to put thiago in front of my boobs so he doesn't notice I am not wearing one. But my lovely pink and black super old pajamas cannot be hidden ! Oh well...

Thiago has been waking up super early as you all now but yesterday he woke up for about 20 min at 1:40am and I was able to put him back down quicker than normal and he slept till almost 6am !! Yes I know to 6am ! But them in the afternoon naps he has been taking a 4 hour nap the previous day and 3 hours yesterday! And of course his normal 1:30 nap in the morning. Just wished he would pack all these nap hours during the night !
Oh, angel how do you still have the boys in their bouncers? I had to have thiago out of that thing when he was about 7 months of so cause he kept falling out of it! I am amazed. And I bet you they will sleep better in their cribs for nap time too.

 

[julesjules100]

Hi ladies

Sorry for the delay, manic week in London and now in transit up to the Lake District. Proper replies on Monday or Tuesday but in the meantime happy Easter!! x

 

[clio]

Angel--I'm glad you had such a nice time on the boys' birthday. And how nice that your mother could come! Where is her house in Spain? My grandparents retired to Marbella on the Costa del Sol, and lived there for around 30 years in the end. We used to visit all the time and while I didn't really like my Grossmutti (Grossvatti had died when I was 10), it was soooooo beautiful there.

Oh, and I complain all the time about the stupid gifts J gets. My pet peeve is toys with little plastic fiddly things that get lost IMMEDIATELY and then are useless. I like blocks and books and balls and anything that moves or makes music, but some of the stuff Oma or my SIL buys him... Though Oma has come through with some winners; she lately gave him this:

https://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=11807504

While he has lost half the huge lego blocks, he still loves playing with them, and I see how they develop his motor and other skills. But THIS toy from SIL?

https://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=13351291&gcsct=0ChMIiOaRgu-ktgIVStvmCh2DcwAAEAM

He's never shown any interest in it, promptly lost every piece, and I have stepped on the hard, jagged edges of the shells so many times. The toy is a menace, and I groaned inwardly when I saw first it. I don't feel guilty though, and neither should you; I'm sure every single mother or father has gone through the exact same thing. And as well as I know you by now, I'm certain that you do appreciate the sentiment greatly, even if the present itself isn't that great.

I think putting the boys in their cribs to nap sounds like a good idea. Now that they are so mobile, they may feel confined by the bouncies. This way they can move while they sleep, and you might get more nap time out of them. As for J, he tries and tries to fight the naps, but it eventually catches up with him in the end. Last night he went to bed at 7:30, slept till 6:30 am, OH gave him a bottle (6 oz milk, 2 oz formula--drained!) and then he slept until 9! Then two hours later, he looked tired and went down without a peep for a nap, and he's still down an hour and a half later, so he can't escape the Sandman forever! Muuwaahahahahaaaa!!!!

And I love your new ticker!

Borboleta--really, TC isn't that great. I actually miss BC because far more people use the forum, and let's face it, sometimes drama is fun to watch (well, read). I go back to BC occasionally, but it's the same old stuff, over and over again. Though the one thing I was surprised to learn about BLW toddlers is that they don't use plates or bowls either! I guess I missed the memo on that one. Though I only started with them when Leeze told me about that suction cup bowl, and I just wanted to try it because it looked so cool. I then never returned to food on a tray or on a mat on the table. Makes clean up a million times easier.

Operation blah blah blah is going much better today. He is consistently drinking 6 oz of milk with every bottle (3 a day) and will even take it from a sippy cup at mealtimes (but not much). I went sippy cup shopping yesterday, and bought two big/long Playtex cups that I thought I would use at bedtime, but he was having none of it. So I tried drinking from the cup and I couldn't get anything out of the nozzle myself because it was so hard to suck on! So you use a straw one at night? He has a smaller straw one, but the straw is counterproductive. J will tilt the cup up just like he does his other sippies, and the straw is so long that once you tip it, the end is no longer immersed in water. I should really cut that straw and see what happens...

I've decided not to worry about the bottles right now. He will go to bed without a bottle, so if I can get him to drink milk successfully from a sippy, then I simply won't give him anything before bed or naps anymore.

Jules--good to hear from you! I hope you're doing alright! Enjoy yourself at the Lake District! It sounds heavenly!

Rowan--I'm thinking of you, too. I also don't remember the date of your c/s, but it must be fast approaching! How are you feeling?

Claire--I'm hope Lucy is feeling better! Did she throw up again, or was it a one off?

Oh dear, must go. I'll try to catch up with the personals later...

 

[Leeze]

quick catch up. back from our week on the farm. Kia totally loved it. the ducks were outside our window every morning and she was so excited to see them each time.

Sabrina and storm - totally relate about OH needing free time. drives me mad. i think partly i feel envious that i never have free time. but there's also something that feels quite selfish about it. even when we were packing to go away he said we didn't need much time as he could get his stuff done in about an hour. erm, what about everything you need to go away with a r
toddler for a week? who will be packing that then?

clio - re snacks - we mostly do fruit like grapes, strawberries, pear or apple; or fruit vouchers that she now feeds herself by drinking from the pouch, or some type of bread, pitta, rice cake or bread stick with dip, cream cheese or pate.

 

[kosh]

belated happy birthday Dominic and Sebastian!!!