Mums/Moms after Recurrent Losses (MARL) - Come join us!

[dairymomma]

I'm thinking of introducing solids in another month or so. DD is watching we eat and she's chewing on her fingers more not so much sucking on them. But I'm not going to push it either so I suppose it would be more baby-led than traditional. My other kids were eating solids by 6 months and it sure helps with the formula bills so I'm hoping LO will be amenable to solids but if not, then oh well. More snuggle time for me I guess. And DS LOVED anything orange-sweet potato, carrot, yam, etc and despised anything green. He'd eat fruit so-so (applesauce and peaches were fine but bananas were an absolute NO-NO unless they were whole. Mushed up-they just hit the floor). But he ate so much orange food that he actually started turning orange! The dr said it was fine just to try introducing other foods, and by 8 months he started to like a bigger variety. But it was funny to have a slightly orange tinted baby boy for a month.

 

[petitpas]

Hehe, dairy. I knew a lady who took carrot pills before getting married as she wanted to look more tanned. I never thought it would work, though!

I babyled weaned J. Mostly. He still had mushy breakfast such as baby porridge mixed with my milk. I let other people (e.g. my mum) feed him mashed food and didn't hesitate to give him pouch food when out and about. Mostly, though, we stopped cooking with salt and he therefore ate what we ate. I suppose you could say I was too lazy to make baby food
I would also give him water with his meals, which I personally think is a great way to introduce healthy drinking habits. J's favourites were steamed broccoli (he'd suck and munch on the florets), rice, apple (not raw - that is actually one of the most dangerous foods for choking ) and bread.

For anyone worried about choking I can recommend educating yourself on choking mechanisms and how to deal with them. For instance, I was amazed to learn that babies' gag reflexes are much further forward in the mouth meaning they will start gagging even when they aren't actually at risk of choking. They might chuck up but their airways are still open. Real choking is actually very quiet, I've been told. Also, certain types of food are more dangerous to choke on than other. Anything that can dissolve with saliva (e.g. bread) or is mushy (e.g. cooked broccoli) - even if someone were to seriously choke on it, their airways wouldn't stay permanently blocked and they could be saved/kept alive until help arrives.
Something that doesn't change shape such as a whole grape, cherry tomato, nut or a piece of apple is the most dangerous. At least this is what I understood from my reading and a first aid course I took.
You will notice that some babies have a more pronounced gag reflex. One of J's friends would still start gagging when eating a finger of toast when he was almost a year old so he could really only eat soft food. He eats perfectly well now
Can't say that of J who is Mr picky eater these days!

So, for those of you giving it a go I can recommend breadsticks (make sure they have no/low salt, though!), rice cakes, toast fingers, soft veggies such as green beans, broccoli and carrots. Fish fingers were also very popular in our house (still are!). Pasta works, sticky rice, too. Even if you are traditionally weaning you can feed these things from time to time. Gathering rice up is great exercise for little fingers!

Btw, not all babies want/need food at six months! Don't feel pressured to start if your baby isn't interested yet

 

[Starry Night]

That's really helpful advice.

I tried cereal again today for DD's supper (she's still not on the same schedule as us yet) and I found that if I let her put the spoon in her mouth herself then she was very eager to eat. She gobbled down the whole bowl that way. It was VERY messy (she isn't quite 6 months' yet, after all!) but she seemed to mostly enjoy it. By the end she got very frustrated as doing it herself was hard work so I stopped pushing and let her have her bottle. I'm going to try that again tomorrow and see how it goes. Gotta stroke her independence and ego, I suppose.

And saw my doctor today and she ordered up a stress test as I'm still having some chest pains especially when I exercise. I'm not in shape at all so I hope it's that as my resting chest pain has gone away with iron tablets. But better be safe than sorry. I also took a blood pregnancy test "just in case" but I'm on AF right now and even though it's VERY light and spotty it seems like enough to not be implantation. I did have fun telling DH about the test though. Mwa ha ha

 

[cazi77]

Just a little update from me. My yellow bump turned pink on 22/11/2014 weighing 7lb. Meet Isla Imogen!!!

 

[petitpas]

Congratulations, cazi! What a cutie - those luscious lips
How are you doing? Recovering well?

 

[wookie130]

Cazi, huge congrats! What a beautiful child!

Happy American Thanksgiving from my two baby turkeys to yours!

 

[Starry Night]

Congrats, cazi! She's adorable!!

wookie - love your little turkeys. What a fun photo.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our American friends. I hear you guys put Canadian Thanksgiving to shame (my DH lived in the States for a few years, he said it was scary how much food there was. LOL)

 

[wookie130]

Oh, it is shameless gorging. I love it. LOL!

 

[dairymomma]

It is shameless gorging but not for this lady. I actually did okay yesterday. My weight is up a few pounds (3 from my absolute lowest) BUT I didn't overdo the food OR the goodies yesterday so I'm super proud of myself. And now I'm looking for another diet challenge to keep me on the straight and narrow. I'm too afraid I'll let myself go over the holidays if I don't have something to keep me accountable.

And LO had her first taste of apple pie yesterday. She was sitting with me and grabbed my spoon, smearing the pie remnants all over her hands in doing so, and then stuck her fingers in her mouth. The look on her face was priceless! It was this funny cross of "What the heck IS this?!" and "I think it's yummy???". I'm thinking she liked it because she kept reaching for my spoon after that.

 

[petitpas]

Aw, Wookie, so cute

Dairy, I hope you got that face on camera!

 

[dairymomma]

Petit-no I didn't. I wish I had though. It was SO cute!

EEEE! I just put in an order for DH's Christmas gift from 'Santa'. It cost more than I would have liked ($70 so not outrageous but not cheap either especially considering his gift from the kids will be around $20 and from me it'll be $90) but I know he'll love it. It's a set of Louis Lamour audio books. I suppose I can put it down as a gift for both of us really. (I know this probably makes me sound dorky to admit that I like westerns but I can't help it. I do like them. ) I know I'm going a bit overboard on the presents this year but I feel like we need it. Finances have been tight much of the year and while they are easing, we'll be pinching pennies for a bit yet. I feel like we deserve this little splurge since we won't be going on a vacation this winter.

Also ordered a teething amber necklace for LO and a few treats for myself along with my next few months supply of opks. I'm back on the poas train now that AF finally showed up in full force.

 

[Starry Night]

I love gifts that the both of us can enjoy. We don't do westerns but we both will watch sci-fi and superhero movies together. Though I like more the mainstream stories. He's really into comics and some of the more niche market stories.

Money is tight here too and DH just had to replace his third laptop. DS keeps yanking on the power cable which breaks the part where the cable plugs into. We looked into repairing it but the replacement parts costs so much it is more effective to buy a new one. This one has a shorter cable so less tripping room and we decided to just use the battery when DS is around. the keyboard also detaches and the monitor can be used as a tablet. We're techno-phobes so having a hard time adjusting to the touch-screen. We feel like we're in Star Trek. LOL

Just sucks because I LOVE buying gifts for Christmas and now DH's gift budget is blown totally away. I might sneakily get him some socks and a chocolate bar but anything more would be unwise.

And just 2 weeks until we go back home for Christmas. So excited! My parents haven't seen DD since she was born and my siblings and nephew and nieces haven't met her at all yet. Also excited to see both of my grandmothers again. And my besties. Miss them so much! We're there for 2 weeks. I grew up in a touristy area so it's a bit easier to make visiting my relatives feel like a true vacation than the inlaws where there is nothing to do.

 

[Starry Night]

dairy - are you hoping for another baby yet? Just curious to see who is still on the TTC train.

6 more months before we make the final decision to get off. Pretty sure we will but you never know.

 

[dairymomma]

Starry-I don't feel like I'm truly done and honestly I'd love at least one more (a boy preferably so I'd have two of each) but knowing how hard it was for me to be pregnant this last time is weighing on my mind quite a bit. I just don't know how I'd mentally handle being pregnant again, at least right now. Currently we're being REALLY careful about my cycle because of some supplements I'm on and I'm hoping to lose a few more pounds yet so ttc isn't tops on my list anyway. I'm dreaming of a Spring baby (If we do try again) so ideally we'd be ttc/ntnp again next summer but until then, I'm just enjoying my LO and my bigs. I can say too that if I decide that another baby isn't in our future, I'm happy with the three I do have. :shrugs: So I guess the plan is to re-evaluate in 6 months or so?

Back. Agony. Again. AF finally showed up and she was just as nasty as she was last month. And if I keep this up, I've gone from a 28 day cycle to a 33-35 day cycle. (Spotting starting on CD33 but full out bleeding didn't start until CD35.) And to top this all off, my back went out over the weekend and I've been to two chiropractors trying to get it back to normal. Still dealing with spasms and pain but I can at least walk upright today. The chiros all think my back is going out because of my cycle since the last two times it's gotten like this, I was either getting my period or I was thinking I was ovulating. Something about how my ovaries and uterus are a bit inflamed so it's irritating the nerves that go from my female parts to my back. Whatever it is, it sucks.

 

[Starry Night]

Aw, Dairy, that sucks about the back pain and screwy cycles. I hope you can come to a TTC decision you are comfortable with and thatyou sort our your back pain. Not being able to stand straight sounds terrible.

I'm more and more growing attached to the idea of only having 2. Sometime I get a little sad about not having a third but that feeling is fading.

And my cycles are still all crazy 6 months out. They are about 50 days apart now and either horribly heavy or very painful but light. Since my son was born my cycles had been 40 days apart to the day. Even my miscarriages didn't mess with that. I'm not even getting any ov signs so not sure TTC would even be realistic at this point.

 

[vietmamsie]

Hi Moms! It has been ages since I have been on, just thought I would drop by! Getting excited for Christmas - been doing a bit too much shopping, but I figure its Lucy's first, so we should go big or go home!

We are also doing baby led weaning and it is going ok. Lucy isn't a big eater, she still loves her milk, and will try most things I offer, but really seems to prefer raw fruit and veg best. Most food ends up on the floor, but I figure at some point she will catch on and get more into it.

Sleep is slowly slowly slowly getting better - we still get up A LOT, but I think I have just gotten so used to it that I actually just require less sleep. A good night is 2-3 night time feeds, a normal night is 6, and a bad night is all night at the breast. It wouldn't be so bad if we had a better mattress and my hips magically lost a few inches - my back is killing me after sleeping on my side for too long!

Here is a photo I had taken the other day - it is part of my husbands Christmas present - doing silly photo shoots isn't really our thing, but I thought it would be fun to do and really cute - the pictures are priceless even though she never creaked a smile! Lucy thought it was all a bit much!

 

[wookie130]

Viet, she's so precious!

 

[hopeful23456]

adorable pic Viet!!

 

[dairymomma]

Cute pic viet! She's a doll.

We're gearing up for Christmas too and I overdid the presents this year. Ooops. Dh has NO clue how much I've spent. I didn't go majorly overboard but it feels like it because I spent just over double what I did last year. And really, after the year we've had (mostly medical stuff and extremely tight finances) I feel like we deserve a splurge or two. Now just to find the time to wrap everything, clean the house, and we can start decorating, baking, and enjoying the holiday season! I'm curious as to what DH is getting me for Christmas too. I told him straight out 3 things I could use. Given the choice, I'd go for the spendy one-a Vitamix blender to replace our ailing current blender but knowing DH, I have a feeling it'll be something useful, cheaper than a Vitamix, and something I didn't pick out.

 

[petitpas]

Haha, I've asked for a hand held wet and dry vacuum cleaner. I can't think of anything I'd rather have

Viet, what a cute picture!