Babies of Oct-Dec /04

[Mum to Ella Rose]

Standing by herself...wow! That's great!    Ella tries to feed me now too... so cute.

Jilly, maybe try grated cheese? Dd can't handle bananas either.

Kathy so nice to hear from you!!!!!!!! Must get dd now will write more later...

[cazao]

hi guys. haven`t checked in for a while. things have been a bit nuts. georgia has finally got the hang of crawling in the last few days, and is now all over the place...haven`t babyproofed yet so she`s finding all sorts of danger. and of course it led to major night wakings the last week or so...i`m assuming it`s the crawling anyway. and then there`s the major separation anxiety and mmm oh yes, i rear-ended our car  :oops: but last night georgia slept through so hopefully that`s done with that and we`re on a better track now. i`m in the process of changing her milk/solids routine....for the last little while her routine has been roughly

8 and bf
9 solids
11 nap...normally 1.5 hours
12.30pm bf
2pm solids
4pm nap...45 mins/hour
5pm bf
6.30pm solids
8pm bf
8.30pm bed.

the last 2 days i`ve stopped the 12.30pm bf and gone straight to solids lunch at about 1pm. she didn`t seem to notice at all. yesterday i offered her a sippy of formula before her second nap...she only took a tiny bit but had a good bf on waking from her 2nd nap. i think i`m going to forget about the sippy and just move that 2nd bf to a bit before the 2nd nap as i noticed yesterday the last part of the day from 5pm was kind of crammed with eating, with 2 bf and dinner. maybe in a month or so i`ll replace the 2nd bf with a sippy. so that`s my plan Kathy...i`ll let you know how it goes. what i`ve picked up from other posts is that about this age solids come before milk, only 3 bf`s are necessary and you don`t have to replace the 11am milkfeed with anything. i have to say it`s rally liberating to know that she now goes from before breakfast to mid afternoon without a bf...kind of frees me up a bit if ever i wanted a bit of r and r  :lol: 

on another note..is anyone else realising their lo is now really `getting it`? when i say where`s the ball...she goes to find the ball, she follows my fingers pointing now and completely recognises the words for bird and plane and the sign for drink as she looks in the right place whenever i say anything. still waiting for some signing back...she`s working away on something with her hands, just haven`t figured out yet what it is....

[Gigismom]

Kathy-glad your dd #1 is home.  that must be hard for you.  as for the milk/solids thing, we do bf 4 times a day.  once when she wakes in the am, after both naps and before bedtime.  she hardly drinks anything at all, so i can't really count that as any nourishment, maybe just a small snack.  in any case, she gets solids usually about 1 hour after the bf.  i could probly stop bf'ing altogether right now and she wouldn't even care.  but i don't want to yet!

cazao-yes, gianna is definitely "getting it".  she recognizes several words: daddy, doggies, music, eat, water, byebye, butterflies, etc.  sometimes, she will respond to the word with action, like when i say "dance" she starts dancing.  so cute!  she may be signing back "all done", but the jury's still out on that one...she's also really into feeding me...too bad i'm not really into eating slimy crackers.

[Gigismom]

one question:
do you guys have set nap times or is it just when your child shows cues, even if it is different times everyday?  my problem is that gianna's am wakeup times are so varied (anywhere from 5am to 7:30am), that her naps times are all over the place.  so i am trying set nap times.  i am aiming for starting 1st nap between 9 and 9:30 regardless of when she woke up and between 1:30-2:00 for 2nd nap to begin.  does this make sense?  i am just thinking that maybe this will help her regulate her screwy internal clock and possibly (please god!) give us a regular wake up time in the am.

[pdb]

Noelle - The finger foods we've tried are: avacado, rice cakes, Cheerios, puffed millet (usually I roll some puree in this because the puffs are very tiny), carrots, bananas, canteloupe, grapes, sweet potatoes, mashed potato balls, teething biscuits, egg yolks

The rice cakes and Cheerios are by far the favorites.  I think dd could eat her weight in Cheerios.  I think I'm going to start feeding more finger foods and less puree.  I have a hard time getting her to eat puree, although she eats it well for the sitter.

Sharon - I thought about doing the milk with meals, but I decided to keep the bottles after naps and I'll eventually replace those with a snack I think.  I'm planning on discussing it with the pediatrician at our 9 mon. visit and see what he suggests too. 

Kathy - Glad your daughter is OK and back home.  I know that has been hard for you.  Wow Jadyn is a great eater!  Susana will occasionally have a day where she pigs out, but she's usually so picky - just wants Cheerios.

MorganLEigh - Congrats on the standing solo!  How exciting! 

cazao - I'm noticing my lo getting it too.  She definitely knows milk (the word and the sign), water, dance(she loves to dance)  and she even puts her hands together when you tell her to Pattycake.  She's not clapping yet though.  She also knows no, but her response to that is to look up and grin and then go right back to what she was doing.

Lindsey- We have some problems with varied wakings as well.  I usually go with time intervals instead of set times.  Susana is usually ready for a nap 2 hours and 45 minutes after waking and 3 hours after waking from first nap.  If I let her get too tired then she doesn't nap well.  Our early wakings are tied to pooping though.  I have figured out that she poops almost exactly 12 hours after I feed her dinner.  So I think we're stuck with early wake times until school's out for the summer.     IF only she could learn the difference between weekdays and weekends.

Well, bedtime is becoming a nightmare again.  My dd just screams when I put her down.  I have to end up holding her and she tries her best to get me to play and then finally starts twitching and flopping like a dying fish until she's so exhausted she passes out.  I don't know if it's teething or what.  I don't want to get in a habit of holding her to sleep, but last night I went in and out of the room and/or sat by her crib for  almost 2 hours.  She would lie down, but then sit back up after 5 minutes and start crying again.  Any suggestions???

[lil'monkey]

Lindsey - we have set time intervals.  However lately, I don't know what is going on with dd as she can do anywhere between 3.5 - 5 hrs before am nap.  If she sleeps for 2 hr or more, she is very difficult to put down for the pm nap which I think is about 3.5 hrs after.  Yesterday and today, she didn't take a nap but did do take a 5-10 min snooze as I drive home. 

Phoebe - bedtime is out of wack over here too.  I'm doing what you are doing as well.  We are also having a 1 hr crying session in the middle of the night.  Everytime we put her down she would start screaming.  Dh had to walk the stairs just to calm her down.  DH suggested that I just let her cry and go in every few minutes to reassure her.  Don't know if that will work but another mom here says that you leave for 10 sec and then go back in to reassure and then leave again.  Maybe I will give that a try.  Hope there are better ideas. 

DD also understands no.  Everytime I tell her no, I would shake my head.  Well whenever she approaches the stairs or garbage can, I would say no and she would finish it off with a shake of her head and crawled away.  They are so much smarter than we give them credit for.   Our babies are growing up!

[MomtoRee]

Kathy - Glad to hear back from you and that dd is ok.  I can't imagine how hard that had to be on both of you. 

We are still bf 5 times a day.  I know that we really only need to be at 3 but I need to feed to keep my supply up.  The 5th one is at 5 in the morning to get her to go back to sleep.  It's only a couple minutes so it doesn't really count as a full feed.  We BF before solids but solids before BF at lunch.  OUr schedule is as follows:
7 wake & BF
8 solids - chex, apple bites, cantalope, watermelon, peaches, strawberries, waffles, wheat toast, banana, pear, mango, or other cereal
10 nap - 1 1/2 hours
11:45 solids - same stuff as dinner
12:15 BF
2 nap 1 1/2
4:30 BF
6 solids - chicken, veggiedogs, turkey, veggie burgers, green beans, baked beans, pasta, mushrooms, squash, sweet potato, potato, mixed veggies, peas & carrots, corn, cheese, fruit like breakfast, Gerber stuffed pasta, wagon wheels, and crackers  are the usuals

MorganLeigh - standing!  That is awsome! 

Sorry can't help with the sleep issues because we lay her down and leave.  Took a little crying but much better then when I stayed in the room with her.  that made things worse.  Now there is no crying for naps or night when I put her down.  Just wish that she could make it through that 4/5 oclock thing.

[Noelle]

I have a hard time getting her to eat puree, although she eats it well for the sitter.
 

Oh I know this!!  She takes all cereal and purees like a charm for our sitter - though makes me feel better because then I know she's getting th iron, etc. that she needs (she is there 3days/week).  I can hardly get her to take 3 bites of purees for me :shock:   Though she'll take fine from a straw cup for me, but hardly any for her  :?:

And I got a few more ideas nows on the solids  - thanks!!! 

[LachlansMum]

Hello Everyone,

I just stumbled upon this thread and thought that i would introduce myself.

My name is Chrissy and I am 21 with a 9.5month old son Lachlan.

I found out about Tracey on another forum that i moderate on and people can highly recommend her books. I've ordered mine and am waiting on them but thought that i would check out this website also.

For the past 9 months, Lachlan has been b/fed to sleep and now, well its come to a point where he needs to learn to go to sleep independantly and increase his sleep times. He is a horrible napper!

At the moment we are really having a hard time. His just starting to walk! :shock: and his just too over stimulated.

Anyway I hope to get to know you & your babies alot better.

Take care

[cata]

I was just wondering....
Do you ladies still use pacifier???
Since I started weaning ds from pacifier (today we start day #3).... and starting last night he started having a flu!!  :shock:
It was a better night, but now I think the stuffed nose woke him up too!  :shock: 
Since he's sick, should I give him the dummie back? just during the day (NOT to sleep)?
Thanks for any advice!

[Noelle]

Welcome Chrissy!!! 

[jillybeansmith]

Things have gotten worse...I'm hoping it's just the teeth..
Last night dh & I finally resorted to driving at 9:00 at night to get Con to sleep.  Then getting him into his crib, like we are carrying some sort of bomb...it worked though, he slept until 1:30, woke up briefly to have a snack, then slept 'til 5:30...This was after we rocking, and walking, and putting him down and leaving, and him screaming for two hours.  It got to the point that he wasn't even happy in the spare bedroom with us laying beside him...he was a raving lunatic!!!!


This morning, he was a screaming monster again...I couldn't even set him down for me to take a shower...I did the driving thing again!!...

Makes it hectic though when he is so unreasonably crabby during the day & the night...It's GOT to be the teeth!!!

[Gigismom]

Welcome Chrissy!  your little boy is a cutie.

lil monkey and phoebe-as for the problems going to sleep at night and night wakings, we have had those too, but they seem to be diminishing.  when we were having these problems, first off i made sure all the needs were met...she was fed, nursed, changed, given tylenol if necessary, etc.  if everything seemed fine, we would let her cry 5 mins, then go in and briefly comfort, let her cry 5 mins, go in and comfort, repeat.  this seems to work really well for us.  she usually started off crying really hard, we would comfort her after 5 mins, (ok, sometimes i cheated and went in after 3-4 mins), then when we laid her down again, she would cry really hard for 1-2 mins, then whine, then sleep.  rarely did the crying go on for more than 10 mins or so.  it seemed with pu/pd or any method where she could see us in the room, she was way harder to calm down.  i know the letting them cry method is a personal choice, but it worked for us.  of course, we still have the random, unexplained wakings but we always use this method and within a day or two, she stops waking or can put herself back to sleep without us when she does wake...phoebe, from what you described (susana being awake for 2 hours...not going to sleep til 8 when put down at 6...etc), it sounds like maybe she might be extremely overtired or not tired enough.  did she get significantly more or less sleep in naps on those days?  i am learning with gianna that she needs 3 hours or less in naps and needs to be awake at least 4 hours from last nap til bedtime in order to sleep well.  i just really want to if possible keep as much control over the sleep issue as i can because she just seems to keep getting smarter (and more manipulative) the older she gets.  i think it is easier when they are younger.  anyway, hope that helps.

[lisa regent]

Hi I'm new to the site I'm Lisa and I have a 9 1/2 month old Ben, I would be really gratefull of any advice you could give me on how to get ben to drink out of a sippy cup, I have about 20 of them in the cupboard all different shapes, sizes, spill, non spill, but he wont entertain any of them! and he loves his juice I only put the tiniest drop of sugar free juice in his bottle but I'm so worried about his little teeth I brush them morning and night. Has anyone got any suggestions.
Thankyou Lisa & Ben

[pdb]

Welcome Chrissy and Lisa!

Mimi- Glad to hear I'm not alone.  Tonight went much better thank goodness because I'm on my own for the weekend.  Dh is here but had surgery on his knee this morning, so he is bedridden at least through the weekend.  I gave dd Motrin before giving her her bedtime bottle.  I held her until she settled but put her down before she was asleep.  She screamed for about 30 seconds and then went to sleep.

Lindsey - Thanks for the advice.  I know being overtired had something to do with it Wed. because she was at my mom's and only napped 30 min. each nap.  But yesterday the sitter said she took two good naps and she was up for four hours before bedtime.  I'm starting to wonder if the sitter is not telling me the truth about the length of her naps, becuase she seemed very tired yesterday when I got her.    :?   Anyway like I said before tonight was easier because I was home and know how much sleep she got.  I also think teething and the fact that she is suddenly a LOT more active is contributing. 

Noelle - It's weird about the eating isn't it???  Glad to know my lo is not the only one who's particular about who feeds her.

cata- Sorry can't help with the pacifier issue.  My dd decided she no longer wanted one when she was about 3 months old and found her thumb.  Now she doesn't like that either.  I guess I'm lucky we don't have to break any habits there.

jilly- Sorry you're having so much trouble with Connor.  I hope it gets better soon.

Lisa - I didn't try lots of kinds of sippy cups.  Someone gave us one as a gift and I just kept using that one until she got it.  I started out by removing the valve so she could figure out that something came out of the cup and then put it back in when she started figuring it out.  I have also started using a regular cup.  I bought small plastic juice glasses that are just the right size for her to hold.  She is not drinking out of them by herself yet, but she drinks well from them if you help her hold it.  I always give her a little play time with it so she'll eventually figure out how to do it herself.