Hoping to pick up some helpful tips and advice, as I'm becoming extremely stressed out and think I must be doing it all wrong!
My lg is just over 6 and a half months, and is breastfed. We started weaning just before 6 months on HV advice as she was up to waking up 3 times through the night for feeds, so we have been giving solids for 3-4 weeks. She took really well to it and ate more than I expected her to from the start, we started with just one puréed fruit or veg a day, then after a while added a bit of baby porridge for breakfast, and then switched this to half a weetabix. She seemed to like this and would eat the lot each morning, but over the last week or so she started refusing to eat any of the weetabix. I wondered if she was getting bored of it, but now it doesn't seem to matter what I offer each day for breakfast, she doesn't want any. We are also having trouble progressing at all from purées, anything other than completely smooth and she refuses it altogether. I was advised by HV that she can now just have whatever we're having, but this didn't work out as easy as it sounded. We had chicken casserole and I offered it to lg, even blended it all up but she refused as soon as she had one taste. She seems to really like the Ella's Kitchen pouches and baby food jars, but they are so expensive and I was hoping to avoid anything like that other than having them every now and then for convenience when we were going out etc. Also I feel like we should be starting to progress from purées and the pouches that just seem to taste of apple or pear!
I bought an Annabel Karmel book for a few ideas and made a few purées up from there, she loved the cauliflower cheese but now I have a freezer drawer full of things like salmon cheese and tomato purée which she refuses after one small taste.
I know it's still early days, I just find it so frustrating that it seemed to be going well to start with and I feel like we can't move on at all, I don't want to keep giving in and just giving her bought food or the same purées I know she likes, and I'm getting fed up with feeling like I'm constantly making up food and throwing the lot away.
I'm also having real trouble moving on from breakfast and one other meal, although it seems like I shouldn't be trying to add another meal or snacks now she's stopped eating the breakfast, but even though we're still on two meals a day plus normal breastfeeds, I now feel like in constantly feeding or preparing food or trying to get my lg to nap, and struggle to know how best to schedule everything. Our day always starts off really well with breastfeed at 7am, breakfast (or now attempt to feed breakfast!) at 8am, and nap at 9am, then next breastfeed at 11am. Then things start to go downhill as she is usually due for another nap around 12, and I aim to give her lunch at 1pm, however some days she will go straight down for the nap, and other days like today I'm still battling with her at 2pm to have the nap even though I know she's tired at 12. So now she's finally gone to sleep she's missed the 1pm slot for lunch, and by the time she wakes up it's nearly time for her 3pm breastfeed. When this happens I usually just give her lunch when she wakes up and breastfeed at the end, although I worry she's not getting enough milk this way now as she's so full from lunch. I also have no idea how to work towards fitting in a third meal when her lunch can end up being so late! Ideally she also needs another nap but by the time she's tired again when she ends up not sleeping til so late for her lunchtime nap, it's too close to bedtime and it all becomes another battle to keep her awake until it's time for her last feed then get her to sleep at bedtime.
Even though I feel like I'm constantly feeding her but she's not eating that much, she is now waking up every night for a feed again, when she had started to settle down and sleep through from 7pm-7am some nights.
This is all bad enough on the days I can just be at home and concentrate on her, but it is becoming particularly stressful on days where I need to go anywhere or do anything other than feed and have the sleep battles! I think I find it more frustrating because I know she can go to sleep really well some days, so I find it really hard when she suddenly has the days where it is a real struggle for up to 2 hours. I feel like giving up and just getting her up again but by that time she's even more tired and definitely needs the sleep. I used to use nap times to get myself showered or other little things I needed to do round the house, so I'm very stressed out now after having a two minute shower and then spending so long being screamed at that I haven't managed to dry my hair properly or get dressed or anything, never mind any jobs I needed to sort, and all the time I'm just stressing about when to try fit in her lunch and feeds, and I barely remember to have food and drink myself. All seems a bit silly especially the times when no food is even going into her!
Sorry for the long rant, really hope someone can help!
My lg is just over 6 and a half months, and is breastfed. We started weaning just before 6 months on HV advice as she was up to waking up 3 times through the night for feeds, so we have been giving solids for 3-4 weeks. She took really well to it and ate more than I expected her to from the start, we started with just one puréed fruit or veg a day, then after a while added a bit of baby porridge for breakfast, and then switched this to half a weetabix. She seemed to like this and would eat the lot each morning, but over the last week or so she started refusing to eat any of the weetabix. I wondered if she was getting bored of it, but now it doesn't seem to matter what I offer each day for breakfast, she doesn't want any. We are also having trouble progressing at all from purées, anything other than completely smooth and she refuses it altogether. I was advised by HV that she can now just have whatever we're having, but this didn't work out as easy as it sounded. We had chicken casserole and I offered it to lg, even blended it all up but she refused as soon as she had one taste. She seems to really like the Ella's Kitchen pouches and baby food jars, but they are so expensive and I was hoping to avoid anything like that other than having them every now and then for convenience when we were going out etc. Also I feel like we should be starting to progress from purées and the pouches that just seem to taste of apple or pear!
I bought an Annabel Karmel book for a few ideas and made a few purées up from there, she loved the cauliflower cheese but now I have a freezer drawer full of things like salmon cheese and tomato purée which she refuses after one small taste.
I know it's still early days, I just find it so frustrating that it seemed to be going well to start with and I feel like we can't move on at all, I don't want to keep giving in and just giving her bought food or the same purées I know she likes, and I'm getting fed up with feeling like I'm constantly making up food and throwing the lot away.
I'm also having real trouble moving on from breakfast and one other meal, although it seems like I shouldn't be trying to add another meal or snacks now she's stopped eating the breakfast, but even though we're still on two meals a day plus normal breastfeeds, I now feel like in constantly feeding or preparing food or trying to get my lg to nap, and struggle to know how best to schedule everything. Our day always starts off really well with breastfeed at 7am, breakfast (or now attempt to feed breakfast!) at 8am, and nap at 9am, then next breastfeed at 11am. Then things start to go downhill as she is usually due for another nap around 12, and I aim to give her lunch at 1pm, however some days she will go straight down for the nap, and other days like today I'm still battling with her at 2pm to have the nap even though I know she's tired at 12. So now she's finally gone to sleep she's missed the 1pm slot for lunch, and by the time she wakes up it's nearly time for her 3pm breastfeed. When this happens I usually just give her lunch when she wakes up and breastfeed at the end, although I worry she's not getting enough milk this way now as she's so full from lunch. I also have no idea how to work towards fitting in a third meal when her lunch can end up being so late! Ideally she also needs another nap but by the time she's tired again when she ends up not sleeping til so late for her lunchtime nap, it's too close to bedtime and it all becomes another battle to keep her awake until it's time for her last feed then get her to sleep at bedtime.
Even though I feel like I'm constantly feeding her but she's not eating that much, she is now waking up every night for a feed again, when she had started to settle down and sleep through from 7pm-7am some nights.
This is all bad enough on the days I can just be at home and concentrate on her, but it is becoming particularly stressful on days where I need to go anywhere or do anything other than feed and have the sleep battles! I think I find it more frustrating because I know she can go to sleep really well some days, so I find it really hard when she suddenly has the days where it is a real struggle for up to 2 hours. I feel like giving up and just getting her up again but by that time she's even more tired and definitely needs the sleep. I used to use nap times to get myself showered or other little things I needed to do round the house, so I'm very stressed out now after having a two minute shower and then spending so long being screamed at that I haven't managed to dry my hair properly or get dressed or anything, never mind any jobs I needed to sort, and all the time I'm just stressing about when to try fit in her lunch and feeds, and I barely remember to have food and drink myself. All seems a bit silly especially the times when no food is even going into her!
Sorry for the long rant, really hope someone can help!
