***December Snowflakes 2012 Parenting***

[sigh]

baby bell - wow thats so scary! glad he's ok!!

 

[scoobydrlp]

I forget who all is doing BLW? For those that are, how much of what you offer is actually being ingested? Nearly everything Camden "eats" eventually gets spit out. She does actually swallow some banana and some plum on every occasion that I offer it. But carrot, cucumber, cauliflower, lettuce, pretty sure none got swallowed. I know it's not a big deal, but my mom is causing me to second guess myself. Somebody tell me I don't need to do purées!

 

[sigh]

So the day I feared has happened... something is wrong with her swing. We've been trying to get her in the crib for naps since she may outgrow it soon but now we have to get her in the crib during the day and she HATES it. We should've weaned her off the swing earlier but she slept so peacefully in it. The swing is in her room, near her crib, facing the same direction she would if she was sleeping in the crib. I've darkened the windows, use the white noise that I used when she was in the swing, same wind down routine of book, music and light play. I also give her the lovey blanket that she uses at night. It' so weird that she's totally fine with the crib at night but during the day she hates it.

Any suggestions?

 

[ImSoTired]

So much to catch up on in just a few short days!

Bell and Coco I hope your Lo's are well now. I can't imagine how scary it must have been to have a sick child in the hospital. I hope they are both feeling much better and that nothing happens like that again. to the mommies too.

Scooby and Lolly lovely pictures as always. What beautiful girls!

As for baby proofing we are playing it by ear. I follow Cait around and see what she is getting into and where I can move it or what I can do to prevent injury. lol. We've got our chemicals locked up and I put her in her playpen when I leave the room. We've still got to put up a gate or two. Cait is just so fast and between cleaning the house and chasing her I haven't had time to come on here much in the past week! I never expected her to pick up crawling so quickly especially because she wore the harness full time for 12 weeks. I'm proud and sad at the same time. I miss my little baby. In 8 days Cait will be 7 months old. Where has the time gone?

Happy 7 months to those who have turned already and congrats to those who are doing new and wonderful things. Ellie with her first words, and Joseph eating his first solid successfully, Carter sleeping better at night! And so so many more wonderful things our beautiful snowflakes are doing.

My growing baby has made me increasingly broody but we have decided to wait until about this time next summer. I'm going to enjoy the baby I have now and try to get in shape for another healthy pregnancy (not to mention all of the baby chasing I will be doing as a mother of 2!). So about July of 2014 maybe I'll see some of you in another pregnancy thread!

Those of you looking for caregivers and daycares, go with your gut. After working in 2 different daycares I know that there are good ones and not so good ones. Talk with your children's teachers and aides often and get to know them. If you have a great relationship with them it'll make you both feel a lot better about the child being there. Bumps, bruises, and bites will happen. The kids are learning new skills and will often fall and children don't know how to express themselves so bites and scratches will happen. It doesn't always mean that your child isn't in good care. Some of the kids here on this thread will be biters and some will be bitten. The best ways to avoid it happening frequently is to check that the daycare is well staffed (that is always in ratio of adults to children) and that the children are all within a close age range, and that the toys are developmentally appropriate and there are plenty of them so each child can have one. Injuries shouldn't happen often in the infant room but will happen tons in the toddler rooms. One daycare I worked at was wonderful. There were plenty of safe toys for the kids to play with and a lot of staff to help me run my room. Yes bumps and bruises happened but most of the parents understood that happens when you get 10-12 one year olds in a room together. Another I worked at had broken toys and very few of them. Kids were always fighting and there weren't enough staff to help me watch them or to help me clean up after them. I only worked there 8 weeks. Having said that, I know how difficult it must be to leave your child as I have yet to leave Cait for more than 3 hours. Best of luck to those child care hunting and leaving their lo's for the first time.

Cait is awake and demanding a bottle and then I'm sure she'll keep me busy for a while...

I hope you are all well!

 

[ImSoTired]

On the topic of sleep, Cait will sleep beautifully some nights and wake 5+ times others. She has been fighting naps for the past few weeks and also will only nap in her swing during the day and not her crib. I'm really just trying to get by and get as much sleep as i can. It's very unpredictable now whether we will have a good night or a bad one. All I can do is hope that she will eventually settle into a sleep schedule in which she sleeps 10 hours a night. Keeping my fx'd for sleeping babies all around!

 

[Chloe597]

bean - love the tattoo!

Coco and Bell - how scary! I am glad LO's are feeling better, and I hope neither illness comes back! Its never fun when the baby is sick, especially if it lands you in the hospital. to you both!!

Scooby, I tried BLW but I was on the fence and DH gets so scared every time she puts food in her mouth that we have pretty much given up on it. But I can tell you my pediatrician said food now is just for exploration, not nutrition, and milk is fine for the first year, so even if she isn't ingesting much, if anything, she can get the flavors and will get all she needs from your milk. That being said, I make my own purees now and Gabby loves them, and I give her rice crackers to hold and chew on to help practice her grabbing and eating skills. So its all personal preference for what you want to do, but don't worry that you are witholding anything from her. And try not to let anyone pressure you into changing your feelings if you want to do BLW.

IST, that is amazing that cait was in the harness for so long and has already picked up crawling! I would have never thought she would be such an early crawler for that reason. You must be so proud!

Sigh, sorry about the busted swing! maybe this will force Ellie to stop relying on it and she will realize that the crib is great for naps too. I had that problem when G was a little baby and she would sleep at night just fine in the crib but getting her to nap in it was a nightmare. I found myself not even trying to put her in the crib for naps because I knew she hated it, and then one day i really had to do it, and i put her in and she slept fine, even tho i had done nothing differently. So while not really great advice, just keep trying and hopefully one day she will realize its ok to fall asleep in the crib. gabby now naps in the crib anywhere from 30 min - 2 hrs. Love those 2 hour naps on the weekends!

Here's a picture of her, just for laughs. She is in training for KISS

 

[Honey.Bee]

Hey everyone! So much to catch up on. Sorry if I miss anyone out.

Coco/Bell - my heart skipped a beat reading your posts. Hope all is now well xx

Tooth - Hurray! Knew Joseph would get there when he was ready. Have you read a book called "Baby led weaning" by Gill Rapley? If not, would definitely recommend it. Loved the kitten analogy too

Lolly - A puppy? Are you completely insane? We were actively TTC but those plans are all by the wayside as I am in a horrendously long anovulatory cycle. No AF since Feb Guess it wasn't meant to be. I would like a sibling for Ava but at the same time I don't have that same drive that I did to have her. If the time is right in a year or so, then who knows, but right now I need to find some work nearer to home. Gorgeous photo of your gorgeous girls x

Bean - love the tattoo, the blue is cool.

Kelly - Wow. What success! So pleased for you. Lolly is right. We all have to do what we believe is best for our little ones.

Sigh - hope the swing breaking is a blessing in disguise. Sorry - no ideas you haven't already thought of.

Chloe - that photo is priceless! Scooby - yours too x

BLW - we started on purées which Ava loved. However, at 6 months she became much more independent and was desperate to feed herself. Despite my initial anxieties, I LOVE BLW. It's so much easier, especially for eating out and she enjoys it much more too. Incredibly her dexterity has improved and she has moved from clumsily chasing a bit of pepper around the table to deftly picking up a rasperry! At first it was all about exploration but there is now serious eating going on. We ate out On Saturday. I had taken loads of finger foods (sweet potato, rice cake, parsnip, carrot, melon, strawberry, mango etc) which she ate and then had some salmon, haddock, chicken, courgette and aubergine from everyone else's plates. Lolly - same going on with dropping the milk feeds here too. She only really has long milk feeds before her 2 naps, before bed and in the night (aargh!). She's much more interested in food than milk now but she's gaining weight nicely so Im not concerned. I read that this usually happens around 9 months though so don't worry if you have LO's who prefer to play and explore. Milk is still the primary source of nutrition for the first year......

Big hugs to those with interfering family. You all have far more patience than me xxx

 

[toothfairy29]

Thanks honey bee! No massive improvement really after my initial excitement the other day. The day after I posted I gave him carrot purée and the slight hint of texture to it made him throw up! Back to very smooth pear and apple yesterday and today and just licking like a little kitten again. Only a teaspoon or so in total though.

I'm far too nervous to try BLW especially after his episode with the carrot. I've been starting to worry there might be something wrong with him struggling with solids still at 6.5 months?? I never had a hint of trouble with my teens and I don't think any of you guys are having similar issues??

Joseph also has been making mum and mama sounds for a few weeks and did dada at the weekend. My daughter is called amber and he makes a good mmmmm-ba sound too that she is convinced is amber!! I know he doesn't know what the words are but it's pretty cool. I think he might recognise what the word daddy means though as when I say where's daddy he now looks at daddy and smiles. Wishful thinking???

 

[Kelly M]

Wow, sounds like we all have some pretty smart little babies huh?

Ist, wow I'm amazed at how fast Cait is at crawling, especially with having worn the harness. C scoots now and gets up on all fours but no actual crawling yet. We are sort of baby proofing as we go too. Just trying to keep the floors super clean and we moved a few things out of reach. I don't leave him alone much anyway and since he's not that fast at getting around yet it seems to work.

Scooby, trust your instincts. I don't do blw but if you are comfortable with it then go for it. They definitely don't need the food for nutrition. I skipped cereals all together and some days C eat more than others. Some days he doesn't have any solids at all if we are out and about and just too busy or he turns it down. All they really need is milk for the first year.

Chloe that picture is hilarious!! I love it. What a goofball.

Sigh, hopefully the swing breaking will force Ellie to learn to nap in her crib. She'll come around, just give it some time. Hopefully it isn't too long as it sure is frustrating when our babies don't nap, isn't it? You can't get anything done or have a rest when they don't nap in the day time! I feel your pain. C's naps have been worse the last few days. He keeps waking up after 40 minutes on the dot. He won't settle and I have to rock him back to sleep or he gets too awake and starts babbling and wants to play. I don't want to create bad habits but rocking back to sleep for naps is all that works now and it's how we first got him napping 2 hours at a time in the first place. These babies just keep us guessing!

 

[scoobydrlp]

Thanks for your support ladies. I feel like we're doing fine with BLW, and she's still doing fine on breast milk. If I didn't have other people buzzing in my ear then it would be so much easier! Also when she gets a tooth or two I think things will go a little more smoothly.

As far as being mobile, we're not quite there yet except for rolling. Yesterday she was laying on her stomach and got her feet under her and sort of stuck her butt up in the air and wormed her way forward a little, so I'm thinking that's the first step.

 

[Kelly M]

So, I feel like when I post in baby club I get none or very few responses to my posts. I feel like it tends to be a bit "cliquey" and that some people get way more responses for similar questions. I asked this on a thread I created there but I'll ask you ladies too: Carter is sleeping well at night now since sleep training but has started waking at 40 minutes on the dot during naps. It's so precise I could time it every day. I have to rock him for about 10 minutes to get him back to sleep and he won't self settle like he does at night. We do the same routine and everything, black out curtains, white noise, etc. But he's too awake after having 40 mins of napping that he won't go back on his own. I was reading about the "wake to sleep" method. Has anyone done this to lengthen naps? Or any other advice? Before, when C was catnapping I put him back by rocking and he started taking two hour naps that way but now it's not working.

 

[toothfairy29]

Kelly Joseph will only have 2 40 minute naps a day now and like you I can time it. He naps in my arms as its usually feeding that sends him to sleep. My the time he's finishes the half asleep feeding its almost nap time over so I don't try lay him down. He is no way near as heavily asleep as at night and instantly wakes if I move him so there doesn't seem any point disturbing him. If he falls asleep in the car or pram he wakes instantly as it stops even if only 5 mins!! He's been like this for a couple of months now. Apart from feeding he sleep a long night bed 7-8pm and up 8-9am so I think he gets all his hours in at night.

Maybe c is ready for less sleep?? I think naps increase again as they become toddlers?? At least I hope so!

I am sorry you feel unanswered in the thread. I know sometimes other posts about other things are written and questions we might have end up left behind unanswered!!

 

[Kelly M]

thanks tooth. He will nap another hour or more if I put him back to sleep and if I let him get up he is ready for another nap in an 1-1.5 hours. Yesterday he had 3 naps. He hasn't had to have the third nap in a while since he started napping longer several weeks ago. I thought maybe he's ready for shorter naps but the exact timing of it and the fact that he's still tired makes me think otherwise.

 

[toothfairy29]

I have a book the no cry nap solution and I think it mentions something about extending naps but I haven't had time to read it. Maybe you could google??

Joseph is manic these days. Never still!! It's like he's riding an invisible horse all the time!! When he decides he's hungry he goes face first at my chest pulling frantically at my top shouting and jumping up and down on my knee!! It's hilarious!! Like he's never been fed in his life and its obvious what he wants! It'll be embarrassing if he does it in public!

 

[Chloe597]

LOL, tooth, that is too funny to picture! Gabby gets super rooty when we sit down for booby time and her head will go all the way back to my bicep sometimes as she is frantically looking for a nipple. Babies are too cute!

Kelly, sorry bout the lack of responses. I unfortunately don't have any advice. Have you tried just letting him nap the 40 minutes? even tho he does fall asleep for more time if you rock him, maybe he doesn't actually need it? Gabby only takes a 30-40 min nap in the mornings, and her afternoon nap tends to be longer, closer to 1.5 hours. But it wasn't always that way, it just kind of naturally evolved into that.

 

[Honey.Bee]

Kelly - I'm sorry you feel unanswered in this thread
I had the same problem with Ava a couple of weeks back, combined with a 5 am wake up. I moved her to 2 naps following the 2, 3, 4 routine (Two hours after your baby wakes up, put him down for a nap. Three hours after he wakes up from that nap, put him down again. Four hours after he wakes up from the afternoon nap, it’s bedtime.) and hey presto! 2 naps - one of 90 mins, the other about 60 and she's much easier to settle for naps and at bedtime. I read that babies this age only need 2-3 hours (assuming 11-12 hours at night). Tooth mentioned Elizabeth Pantley - she suggests waiting outside the room just before wake up time (say 30-35 mins in your case) and waiting for the first wake up sounds. At this point go in and resettle whilst LO is still drowsy. The idea is that after doing this for a bit they will lengthen their own naps naturally. If Carter is happy enough on his current pattern, I'd guess he is getting enough sleep so you might want to think about consolidating his naps into 2 longer ones?

Tooth - I don't think there is anything wrong with Joseph. He is such a good weight and he will get there with food when he is ready. Don't force it. Just give him the opportunity to learn and he will. Do have a look at the book though - I think it will reassure you x

 

[ttc_lolly]

Scooby, we do BLW and as someone else rightly pointed out, food is mainly for exploring and testing right now, so don't worry if Camden isn't ingesting an awful lot. As the months go by it'll be a different story

Kelly, no advice I'm afraid as Millie has gone from napping well during the day, to short multiple cat naps and we are now back to napping well again. We haven't done anything differently, I assume it was down to growth spurts, wonder weeks, teething and all the other wonders a baby goes through! sorry you feel that way in baby club, I guess the forum is just so large you'll get a lot of differing opinions. I spent alot of time in there when DD1 was a baby and learnt not to go in there much again this time around

Tooth, Millie does that exact same thing (face palming my chest and pulling at my top) hilarious!

Took Millie for her 7 month weigh in today and she's 19lbs 12ozs chubba! She was in a 9-12m outfit yesterday and it fit almost perfectly. Wahhh I want my little baby back (but without colic and with more of her happier personality that she has these days )

 

[ImSoTired]

bean I forgot to mention i love the tattoo. I have 2 myself and would love to get something for Cait but I'm not ready yet. It's well done though, beautiful.

Also forgot to mention good luck with the puppy Lolly! I have a hard enough time with my 10 year old dog but I think it's a bit late to send mine back now, lol.

Kelly Cait is pretty much the same with napping. Once in a blue moon she'll sleep more than 45 minutes. I'm not sure why it is and I can't seem to get her to sleep longer during the day? I'm wondering if it isn't all the new skills she is learning keeping her up? Maybe once she establishes them better she will be able to rest more soundly? Perhaps Carter is the same? Sorry you didn't get many responses on baby club. It used to happen to me on occasion in pregnancy threads etc. I don't take it to heart but sometimes you just want opinions/answers! lol

On the subject of feeding we are doing a puree or two a day and giving Cait pieces of things here and there as we go along. She isn't very good at picking up the small pieces yet but I'm sure that will come with time. I get a little nervous when she gags but I'm getting more used to it and just continuing to watch her closely.

I hope you are all well!

 

[ImSoTired]

Chloe, I love the pic of Gabby with her tongue out!

Honey, Ava is very clever with such established dexterity! That is great for a baby her age! You should be proud!

 

[scoobydrlp]

Not sure what to say about the 40 minute naps. Camden used to refuse to nap in her crib too, but then over the last month or so if I put her down when she's already asleep she will nap from 30 minutes up to 2 or more hours. Never know what you're gonna get! I didn't do anything to cause her to start being ok with it, just got lucky I guess.

We tried an orange yesterday and Camden loved it! I just peeled it and cut it into wedges and she chomped all the juice out, and even swallowed some of the little tiny pieces. We tried yellow squash today which I thought she would like, but she was too crabby to even bother with it. She was home all day with Daddy and big sister (16) and didn't nap much at all, so she was in quite the grumpy mood most of the evening. She's so cute though, she tries to be happy even when she's crabby. If you tickle her or kiss her she still giggles, then shortly after goes back to being fussy.