March/April '05 Thread #4

[Taylor's Mommy]

Ankie,
I plan to actually pm you with a few other thoughts I have been rolling around in this noggin of mine, but really quick...you said yesterday that when she wakes you don't know if she is really hungry.  Esp. because she doesn't eat well (solids) during the day.
Perhaps her body has adjusted to the one feeding she is getting in the night (or early morning), therefore she doesn't need the calories in the day.
There is a case study (again, can't remember the page) where Tracy instructs the mom not to feed between teh hours of 11-5 so the baby starts to take better feeds.  The mom was afraid she would go hungry but since the lo was a little older, Tracy assured her she wouldn't starve.  perhaps if you didn't feed at all between a certain timeframe, she would start needing/wanting more calories during the day so would eat better?

Just a thought, please dismiss if oyu have already tried.

Also, if it makes you feel better, we have struggled with teh 5am ish wake up for oh about 3-4 months!   :shock:  :roll:  So friggin annoying and have tried everything but am at a loss.

Hi to everyone else!  Sorry to "ignore" the rest of you, but jsut wanting to try and give some extra TLC to our gal Ankie.
gotta scoot and do some reading!

[mickymuscles]

hi girls!

Jo: that's great to hear about Lisa...I was beginning to wonder if James had turned into such a good baby that she didn't need us anymore  :wink: !  Our routine is something like this:

0815-0830 wake (Thank You California!!  )
0830-0900 breakfast & bottle
1130-1245 nap  (windown consists of changing bum, turning off lights and singing itsy-bitsy spider to him)
1300-1330 lunch & bottle
1530-1620 nap
1630- snack (cheerios or arrowroot cookie)
1800-1830 dinner & bottle
1900-2000 bath, remainder of bottle from dinner and bed

I'm fortunate enough that I'm able to stay at home with Jack...so I don't plan on working more then I need to to maintain my credentials.  Only 1500 hours over 4 years.  So my plan is to work one or two shifts every time DH is home from work.  I would also be stressing over finding a good dayhome that wouldn't let him CIO.  So lots of ((((((hugs)))))))finding one that makes you happy!

I think it was Nancy asking about a lovey (sorry, short memory  :roll: )  I started giving Jackson a teddy at about 7 months during our winddown so that he could see it before I turned out the lights. At first he wasn't too interested in it.  But probably a week or so later of giving it to him every winddown he started smiling and grabbing it from me and sucking on the ears, tail, arm, leg or anything he could get in his mouth.  He loves his 'Chewie' now and I quite often find him lying on top of it or cuddling it when he first wakes up.  It will also calm him sometimes during the middle of the night if he wakes and can't settle on his own.  I sometimes only have to hand him Chewie and he goes right back to sleep.  I think it has definitely helped with his SA. IMO.

Ankie: sounds like you are starting to make some headway!!     Yeah!!  Keep at it you are doing great!  Maybe Arwyn has finally taken the hint?!? :wink:  (Doing the anti-jinx dance for you!)

hannah: I was laughing too at Judy's comment about Michelle's size 5!!  I told you "skinny jeans" is all relative!!  My skinny jeans are definitely not a size 5!!!!!  Those would be my anorexic jeans. :shock:  :lol:  :wink:

I'm in for sending b-day cards/ postcards or whatever.  Postcards would be cool too just to have picture of where you all live.  But I'm game for anything! :wink:

[Arwyn's mom]

Andrea... just read your post. Yup... we tried the no middle of the night feeding... for 2 weeks through the Christmas holidays. It didnt' improve her solid intake during the day. It didn't improve her night wakings at all either. I am hoping that training her to fall asleep on her own will work.

Anyhow... now that I remember after you mentioned eating... Arwyn is eating much better... why? because we are all sitting down at the SAME time, to eat. We were feeding her first, doing all the bedtime stuff and putting her to bed first, before eating. My mom suggested we all eat together... we have been doing that for 2 days now. Last night, she didn't eat well at all, she was having different food than us. Today, I ate lunch with her... not bad. She had approximately 2 oz. of rice noodles in chicken broth. Dinner was sooooo cute... we had chicken, pasta, carrots and broccoli. I gave her the pasta without the sauce, cut up the carrots and gave her the broccoli. She was thrilled. She sat very nicely at her highchair and ate. She could have continued eating carrots but we had finished them all :oops: and it was so cute watching her eat the broccoli... she would hold onto the stem like a handle, eat the florets and then discard the stem :lol: . She didn't like the chicken though and didn't touch it. Also... I cut up some purple yams for her and she didn't touch them either. DH thinks that she knows that it is something that we are not eating. Oh... and everytime she saw us take a sip of our milk, she would reach for her bottle of apple prune juice. DH's comment... what a way to force family meals!

So... Karen, our resident solid food expert, I need all the help I can get for planning family friendly meals. I am not a great cook, nor a bad one... just a boring one. I have no imagination and often, forget to add spices and stuff... DH comments about the bland food thing once in a while and I still forget :roll: .

[mickymuscles]

oh yeah...I had a couple more things I wanted to add...

I made "my favorite pancakes" out of Annabel Karmel's cookbook tonight so Jack could have them for breakfast tomorrow.  Has anyone else made these?  They turned out more like crepes.  I guess they should, seeing as how they only have flour, eggs, a pinch of salt and milk in them but I'm just doubting myself.  I added vanilla and cinnamon to them too.  They taste pretty darn good so I'm interested to see if Jackson likes them tomorrow.

Last night (actually morning  :roll: --7amish) Jack woke up screaming.  I knew he was still tired because after sleeping all night he usually wakes up babbling....anyways, I think one of my cats pushed open his door and may have jumped on him or something and scared the sh!t out of him.  :shock:   Luckily ( :wink: ), I was able to give him Chewie and off to sleep he went again for another hour! 

[mickymuscles]

Ankie: You should look for " The Healthy Baby Meal Planer" by Annabel Karmel.  I just got it at Chapters.  It has some really interesting meals in it that are good for the whole family and it goes from first solids to toddler-hood.  I'm also not a bad cook....just a very forgetful one!  :wink:  :lol:

[Taylor's Mommy]

Karen-I keep forgetting.  This is for you!  Hope you get a kick out of it    :lol:  and I hope you don't think we are too weird or anything!
So they're not exactly twins or anything when you compare them side by side, but to me a very strong resemblance!

[Nikki~Nathan&Danielle]

LOL Andrea, gotta bit of spare time or what!  :lol: 

[Taylor's Mommy]

I did also want to mention that---it is not like this took us hours to do.  DH is a Adobe photoshop genius and did this in about 3 minutes flat!  I swear!  I really don't have that much time  :lol:

[Nikki~Nathan&Danielle]

OK, so i can't remember, but WHICH one is DH and which one is Sam's famous father? :wink:

[Little Bear's Mum]

Hi, ok, I'll try to keep this shorter than the last one!

Nikki, I think Sam's DD is the one on the right? I think  :oops:

Oh no, now I"ve forgotten everything I was going to say......

Oh yeah, Micky, did the pancakes use the entire egg? We're told here not to give egg whites until 12 months. I can't wait to be able to give Daniel pancakes as it's my favourite weekend meal.

Ankie, I"m sure you've tried, but I'll suggest the obvious, have you played around with Arwyn's night time bedtime? Maybe she's over tired/under tired? Also, as for 5am wakings, Daniel did this for months also. Finally when we changed his bedtime from 6.30pm to 7pm it fixed itself. Amazing. It took about 2 weeks before he stopped waking to get up at this time. He would then sometimes stir at this time and I go in and put his covers back on and tell him to go back to sleep. Lately he's fine though until about 6.30am approx.  It sounds like Arwyn is good with finger foods. I couldn't imagine Daniel eating what we eat. He doesn't like feeding himself much and certainly not biting pieces of carrots or brocolli. You're doing better than us when it comes to food, so at least that's one thing you don't have to worry about.

Karen, and anyone other food gurus, do you think I should try Daniel on a very bland thai chicken curry I made tonight. It was really bland, even for me (I don't like too hot), so I thought some of the leftovers I'd blend up for Daniel tomorrow. It's got carot, potato, tomato, red capsicum, onion, chicken, coconut milk and a bit of red curry paste. I would boil up some rice and blend together. What do you think?

Can you tell I'm still food obsessed? We had tears all thru dinner tonight, a bit late again I think, 5.20pm and he hadn't slept since 11.30am. Bad mummy took him shopping and got back to late and past his sleep window.

Right, I'm keeping this short. Sorry for everyone I've missed out. But I'm trying not to blab for too long.

 :oops:

[Little Bear's Mum]

Hi again, one last thing, someone asked what the custard was I was giving Daniel. I've got tins and powder, basically they're the same, with:

skim milk, water, sugar, ground rice, egg yolk, vanilla flavour. In about that order, so unfortunately sugar is up there! Oh well, he's allowed a tiny bit of sugar I figure. It can't be too bad for him if Watties make it - can it??

The custard recipe that Karen gave me is more like an baked egg custard. Egg and veges and milk.

Lastly, I noticed a few of you do the veges and fruit for lunch and dinner. This is what I was doing, then I realised that we (DH & I) don't have similar lunches to dinners every day, so I'm trying to do more lunch type food. Can anyone give me some suggestions for lunch apart from cheese on toast, or scrambled egg (not so keen on but I'll keep trying). Thanks.

[kq]

ROTFLMAO Andrea!!!! :lol:  :lol:  :lol:

I had to take a second look to work out which one dh is...my excuse, the pics were sooo small but I see what you mean about the resemblance. Have to show dh. I am still laughing!!!! :lol:  :lol:

Nikki, Des is the one in the middle (I think) :wink: Yup, that's him!
Am with Jo about the Birthday cards. I personally would like to send Danielle one so if you wouldn't mind, would you PM me your address. Also let me know if it is for general consumption or not and I will either put it on the list or leave it off. Same for Judy! You guys have been such great supports and it would be like forgetting to send your friends birthday cards.

Macaire and Hayley, I have not got your los birthdates. Sorry too thick to be able to work it out from your ticker, Hayley.

Hayley, I give Sam chicken curry. I just blend it and give it to him. Other lunch ideas-pita or bagel with hummus, little sandwiches with a chicken, avocado spread ( I will find the recipe and PM you), vege patties (Nikki posted a recipe once and I can dig that out for you), french toast (eggy bread), sushi ( you could make them without the raw fish). HTH.

Ankie, sooo cute at eating together. I also find that Sam eats better when we eat together but 5 or 5.30 is seriously too early for dinner so we try and do lunch with him. Ankie, at the end of my Annabel Karmel book, there is a sample menu for like a week...I will PM it to you tomorrow as it is way past my bedtime now.

Must go to bed...still laughing at the pic, Andrea.

[FrasersMum]

Andrea - too funny!!  SURE that only took a minute or so  :wink:  :wink:

Karen - if you don't mind, instead of having to PM each one of us individually with the recipes - could you please post them in the general forum?  I know that Andrea once attached a word document that we could then read instead of pasting directly into the body of the message - would that be ok??

Same Richelle with the finger food list??

Thanks so much!

Thanks everyone for posting your days - will have to have a good look through them and try and figure this little guy out - boy, he is not making it easy on us I would have to say.  Hayley, I'm right there with you on the grumbling all the way through dinner (and lunch).  Breakfast is usually OK because we've found something he likes (thankfully!!).  Ankie, we have decided to try the "family dinner" idea as well to try and encourage eating - if nothing else whoever is feeding Fraser will try and eat something at the same time - even if it is just crackers and dip or something - just so he starts to get the idea.

OK - it's 7.36pm here.  Fraser has just gone down to sleep after a 30 minute battle (better than the hour or hour and a half that we had - oh, not so long ago - but still takes a big chunk out of the night).  He had 2 shorter naps today - 9 - 10.15 (woke of his own volition) and 1.30 - 2.30.  I thought the second nap might go a bit longer (after swimming) but I think he woke hungry at 2.30 - because I forgot to give him his lunch time BF.  Bad mummy!!!  Poor little guy.  Luckily we had some left over EBM from yesterday that we put through custard for his lunch, so at least he wasn't completely milk deprived.  He still had 3 milk feeds today though - I fed him at 2.30 as soon as he woke up.

OK, you are probably all sick of me today!!
Chat soon
Jo

[Jayri]

just a quick thought before work, but what about bday cards for us mum's!!!!
cards for our lo's would be awesome, but it would be so nice to send something for each others bday's.....if karen is doing up a list of the lo's bdays, how about you all email me your bday's if you like....I can do it as my weekend project....
K  gotta run, need to get andy and the kids out of the door this morning....
ooo,ooo, jay counted to four this morning!!!!

[Carter'sMama]

Good morning all!  We had  agreat night ... Carter slept 9:00pm until 7:00am!!!!!  MAkes me very happy!!!  We have a ped appt today to discuss Carter's allergies.  I am getting concerned about them as a few daycares have decided to not take Carter because of them.  I just want to get him retested to find out if he even still has them.

All of your lunches/dinners sound great .. I'm so jealous!!!  If anyone has any lunch or dinner ideas (besides plain old veggies and fruit) that doesn't involve eggs or milk I would love to hear about them!!!  I like to cook and I am a good cook (DH thinks so anyway  :wink: ).  I would love to be able to give him things like cheesy toast (like Micky makes it!!    ) or pancakes but it seems everything has milk and eggs!!!!  Poor kid ... he's going to lead a deprived life!!!

Ankie:  We always eat together now too!  I get DH to feed Carter his "spoon food" while I finish preparing dinner and then Carter eats finger foods while we eat our dinner.  That way I get 2 things done at once!!!

Jo:  Here's our schedule ... it's mostly the same as everyone else except at bedtime!!!
7:30 - wake and bf
9:00ish - cereal and fruit
10:00 - nap (winddown is walking around house, a song, cuddles then into crib)
11:30 - wake and bf
1:00 - 2oz veggies and 2oz fruit, 1/2 cookie and Nutrios
2:30 - nap
4:00 - wake and bf
5:30 - 2oz meat/casserole and 2oz fruit, finger foods and Nutrios
7:00 - 1/2 cup cereal
7:30 - bath
8:00 - 2oz ebm, boobs and bed by 8:30

So I guess it looks like he is up for 4.5 hours before bed but his other awake times are pretty short still.

There was a bunch of other things I wanted to reply to but they have totally slipped my mind  :oops:   

Hopefully I will be back later and can post some more!!!