oct/nov babies

[jomae]

hi julie
thanks thats sweet of you
question for all are any of your bubs at the stage of fake coughing yet for the past two days thats been the entertainment i originally thought DS may be getting a cold but nope its his new sound. boy hes growing up too fast just yesterday he couln't manage to get with in two metres of his original spot and just over night he's learnt how to get around in his walker so it's not the case of put him somewhere and he'll stay in that general area its the case of where are you now he's actually getting a lot of speed up as we are on tiles next thing i know hell be running. oooohhhh i have to get busy and baby safe the house isn't wonderful to have such worries feeling pretty lucky to have him.

Anyway have to check where he's gotten himself to
Take care all
JOMAEXXX

[Tracii]

Jomae - I am sorry it didn't work this time. Keep your hopes up..your little one will have a sibling

The cereal has gone down very well! Issy gets so excited when we put her on the table for her cereal - she can't contain herself. She can't eat alot yet - we get about 6 spoons in her mouth and then she is done. But everyday she eats a little more then the previous day. She has been so good lately - beginning to entertain herelf. I can actually leave the room for 10 minutes and she hangs out with her toys. We are practicing sitting up although we have a long way to go on this one. My sis and family had a great time with Isabella...and was a break for me as well. Oh and MIL is the strangest woman I have ever met - she came over the other day and she wouldn't even say hello to Isabella - she only worried about the dogs. I told DH I don't want any complaints from her when Isabella starts walking and talking and has no idea who her "grandmother"is (although she has definitely not earned this title. Atleast my mother is madly in love with Isabella.

Off to go play for a bit

[Mel_P]

Hi All

So nice to hear that you are all doing well. Havent been on the board for ages. Doesnt time fly with these little ones in tow!! Maia is still a delight. I smiled at the comment about the fake cough ... maia has been trying this for a couple of weeks now with this little serious look on her face! I think she also puts on a fake cry now, which she isnt very convincing at (especially when I pull a face at her and she switches to a big grin, then remembers she is supposed to be grizzling!)

We are thinking about starting solids too, maybe in the next month or so, see how we go with the b/f and it it keeps her full or not.

Jomae sorry to hear that your attempt didnt work. This has been lingering around in the back of my mind. I have 4 frozen embryos sitting there teasing me. If I was rich would be trying for number 2 right now!

Take care all, you guys posted on photo bucket, I'd love to see updated pics of you and your bubbas, I will post one of Maia and I and Lee in the next day or so

Ciao
Mel

[saraid]

Hi all,

Jomae i am sorry to hear your news. I will keep my fingers crossed for you for the future.

The fake coughing and grizzling is going with Arabella as well. I think thy must all be at the stage of pushing ot see what sort of reaction they get to different things.

We are progressing nicely through the vegetable purees, i spent an hour chopping and steaming for madam! We now have a nice collection of parsnip, butternut squash, carrot and sweet potatoe to choose from. I will puree fruit tomorrow (all pureed out tonight).

Love to all i am going to get horizontal and sleep

Love saraid
xx

[Tracii]

Mel_P - Maia is so cute!! She looks so much like you! How big is she?

I will take photos today of Isabella (she is 17 weeks) - still long with not much baby fat. She is doing well with cereal - although not a full meal yet - we have to top her off with a bottle. Summer is coming soon and I have done some major damage on the cutest summer clothes and my mom keeps buying her stuff. Today we are finally putting her room together - although the crib and sheets are still on backorder. She is a darling little girl and I feel so lucky. Do you all think about how lucky we are - it all still seems unreal to me.

Off for a shower before Issy wakes up.

[Tracii]

Can you all believe 1 year ago we were basking in the joy of being pregnant?? I just saw on the pregnant side a topic for Thanksgiving babies!

Isabella has started something new in the past week - squeeling in delight all the time! It is hilarious she just squeels and squeels and laughs out loud..no complaints here I love it! Still not rolling from back to front. She loves cereal and we are now eating it twice a day. Friday we have our 2. round of injections

Any new breakthroughs for you guys?

[Cla]

Hi all!

Sorry don't get too much time to post. Am now back at work 3 days a week (boo!). Actually it's kind of nice to do a little bit of work again, and I feel quite "refreshed" when I get home to Charlie (does that make sense?! What I mean is that I feel cause I haven't seen him all day I'm bursting with ideas for entertaining and games, songs etc.!!) DP has him on a Monday - he goes to nursery on Tue and Thu and I look after him Wed, Fri, Sat, Sun. Seems to be working well and I think that Charlie will get a lot out of being at nursery 2 days a week. He can mix with other babies (although I do keep in contact with some of the girls from my postnatal group so he has been mixing with babies!) and they do all sorts of games and activities. He seems to be quite happy there so far!!

Charlie has cut his first two teeth!!!! I sort of poo-pooed the whole teeth thing when people said "he's dribbling a lot - is it his teeth". I felt sure that all babies dribbled and I couldn't feel anything so they were wrong. But blow me last Saturday he bit my finger and it hurt! I looked in his mouth and there were the tops of two bottom teeth - bless!!!!! We have now given him some of the herbal powder everyone raved about and he seems to quite like it!!

Have also started the weaning process very slowly! HATES baby rice so far! But last night we gave him his first veggie - carrot and he loved it!!!! Tonight am going to try sweet potato!! Spend all last Sunday going to farm shop for veggies, steaming them, pureeing and freezing so I hope he continues to like his veggies!!!
How is everyone else getting on? Any tips?!

Oh sausage - I thought I had plenty of time to write this and chat but I've just seen the time and I have to make a couple of phone calls before I leave work. Will check in soon!

Cla
xx

[EYCI]

Hi everyone!

I've seen all the great pictures at photobucket. They are fantastic!

I can't believe Hendricks is going to be 6 months old in just a couple of days. Where has the time gone? We are all doing really well. He is finally becoming an "accomplished" eater meaning, 90% of the food actually stays in his mouth instead of his tongue pushing it out. He is sitting really well too. He can go 4-5 minutes on his own without toppling over. Of course, I don't leave him though because sometimes he topples over after just a few seconds.

His favorite thing now is turning the pages in the book when we "read." The books he seems to enjoy most are the ones with pictures of animals... no words except the animal names. Although for each page I always give a little narrative... "what does the pink piggy say? Oink Oink!" He laughs at that... especially the yellow ducky page... quack quack quack quack... that REALLY brings on the giggles.

I had to laugh the other day... He has a toy where you have to push down a plunger thing on the top to get it to spin. Well, he couldn't push it down by him self so he actually reached out, grabbed my hand, and put it on the plunger to do it for him. What a little genius! Yep, I'm just a little bit biased.

To those of you making homemade foods for your babes...WOW! Where do you find the time?

So, how's potty training going for everyone? JUST KIDDING! I'm sure that time will be here soon enough.

Take care!
--Julie

[kristiA]

Cla & Saraid, I started making my own baby food yesterday also. Boy, it's really simple and fast! And when I did the calculations on how much I would be saving on money I was astonished! I put it in ice cube trays to freeze it and then put the little cubes in ziploc baggies. So when it's time to eat I grab a few cubes. So simple!

My boys turned 6 months, and I agree Julie, it's unbelievable! I have no idea where the time has gone.

I have one good sleeper...10 hours straight. But the other wakes up numerous times and often will only go back to sleep if I put him in bed with me (bad habit, I know!). So I'm trying to change that...I got up 11 times in 8 hours the other night! It's so hard to break those bad habits. Anyone else having sleep habits to break?

My boys are finally in 3-6 month clothes...although many are still too big on them. I have a feeling they will start really growing with the solid foods. I'm still BFing, but they don't need to do it as often since they are eating solids. So I'm still pumping because I like having the extra milk. Anyone else doing this? Or just BFing a few times a day?

Love to all...

[Cla]

Julie - your comment about grabbing your hand to push the plunger was so cute! They really are far more intelligent than we give them credit for!

KristiA - how frustrating that one of the boys sleeps and the other doesnt. Charlie has erratic sleeping - sometimes just one feed, sometimes up every 2 hours. I can't find any reason for it either. Doesn't seem to matter how much/little he has in the day to eat or sleep - sometimes he just wants to wake a lot. Habits are hard to break and usually involve heartache and lots of crying. I suppose you just have to do it slowly. One thing my friend did though when her little boy started to play up in the night (he's 6 months) was put him down in his cot the other way up (NO not upside down!!) Just facing the other way. It confused him and for some strange reason it worked (?!). let us know how you get on.

Veggies still going well! Broccoli is his favourite so far! It's still not replacing a milk feed though - just "tasters" still although he's taking more and more. Re: making your own - I have a multi-layer steamer which is fab. It means I can steam 3 different veg at the same time. I then had some leftover breastmilk freezer bags so for the moment I'm using those to freeze the food. Once they have all gone, I'll use ice-cube trays like KristiA. I've frozen the veggies separately and will now start to defrost 2 different ones each time and mix them together! Has anyone tried meat yet? Does it puree down easily? I have a mouli coming in the post but I don't see how meat purees??! For now I'm sticking to easy veg!

Hope everyone is well - love the photos!!!!!!

Cla
xx

[EYCI]

Ok... For all of you gourmet mommies out there (the ones making food), I need some tips.

Sounds like everyone is steaming veggies? How do you puree them? Food processor, blender, or what? Do you puree with water? Are you using fresh veggies or frozen? What about fruits? Do you have to cook them, or just puree.

I'd like to try this so any tips are greatly appreciated. Right now we are using Gerber Organic fruits and veggies. It makes me feel better since they are organic, but the cost is going to start adding up quickly once he starts eating more. Right now it is just 1 tub per day (1/2 tub of fruit, 1/2 tub of veggies).

Strangely, he definitely likes veggies better than fruits. Maybe the fruit is just too tart for him. So far we've tried apricots and blueberries.

Thanks ladies!

--Julie

[Cla]

Julie -
I'm using fresh veg from a local farm shop, although I've read that frozen veg is fine as it is frozen soon after being picked. I have used frozen peas (can't be doing with shelling thoses babies!) and will use frozen sweetcorn! I steam them all till they are soft (if you don't have a steamer you can put them in a suitable dish, then just about cover in water and microwave. Or of course you can boil, but this does take away some goodness). Once cooked, at the moment I'm using my smoothie maker to blend them down!!! I use the water from the steamer to thin them out - no more than about 2floz of water - he doesnt seem to like them too watery! However I have a mouli coming - it's like a hand held tool - you turn the handle and the food passes through "sieves" - don't know how easy it is yet, but apparently it's better for things like potatos as using a blender breaks down the starch and makes them "gooey". Can you tell I've been reading Annabel Karmel like mad!!!!!!!!
Actually that's a good book - 200 recipes for babies and toddlers I think it's called by Annabel Karmel. Fairly easy to follow and believe me - I AM THE WORLD's WORST COOK!
Not sure how I'll get on once we progress to "real" recipes but for now the veggies have been fairly simple!!!!! I spend about 2 hours cooking last weekend, which sounds a lot but have ended up with about 3 weeks worth in the freezer so not bad at all! And Annabel Karmel also suggests using "non-cook" make-your-own food by mashing banana or avocado if you're in a hurry!

Hope that helps!!!!

Cla
xx

[kristiA]

Cla said it all. I'm doing the same. Currently using a blender and adding some water (otherwise it won't mix)...but will be looking for a food processor or similar tool instead. Steaming is better than boiling, although both are ok. Fresh foods is best, frozen is next best, canned is worst...that's what I read. Using ice cube trays is awesome because it makes little cubes and you can just grab a few cubes.

Cla, thanks for the sleeping tip about moving him a different direction. I will try anything! I gave in last night about 1/2 way through the night and let him sleep with me. DARN!! It's so hard to battle all night with him.

[bella-s]

Hi everyone,

Well, it has been aaaages since I posted, but I have been reading everyone's posts all the time. Kristi - I just don't know how you do it with twins!! Lucy was going through a stage of waking really regulalry too. I have a baby monitor, and every time I heard her I would jump up and race in to give her the dummy before she fully woke up. I was up and down like a yoyo. Anyway, DH does Friday nights for me, so I went to bed, shut the door, put a pillow over my head and set off for a good night's sleep. Only I woke at 3am to Lucy calling out for a feed. DH was asleep on the lounge a little dazed and confused, until he finally got up to feed her. Anyway, the moral of the story was I ditched the monitor at night, so I don't hear any of her little noises anymore, just when she is crying out for a feed. It has worked a treat - have only got up once each night for her feed, and that's it.

Re the solids - we are not quite there yet, but will start in another month or so. About the meat - a friend of mine used to boil the veges with a 'hock' of meat in the saucepan (the bone of the meat). There is not really a lot of meat left on the bone, but a bit of the meat and protein goes into the mix, so it starts to give them a taste of the meat. Not sure about in US or UK, but in Oz butchers will sell you hocks of any meat that they have cut the filets from. Am I making any sense???

Tracii - the squealing is so funny, isn't it? Lucy thinks she is so clever when she does it. It is so cute, but the pitch can get quite piercing

I hpe everyone is well - it's always so good to read what all your little ones are up to.

Happy Easter!

Bella.

[kristiA]

Hey Bella! Good to hear from you. Glad to hear that Lucy is doing good. I understand what you mean by getting rid of the monitor at night so you don't hear all the little noises. I did the same thing and sleep much better.

I let Tyler cry a couple times in the night last night. It was hard and I even gave in and picked him up once. But after letting him cry (ok, scream) 2 different times he ended up sleeping the rest of the night. I'm sure I'll have to battle with him for several more nights before I can change him completely. But I'm working on it!

Happy Easter weekend to everyone! I had the boys' 6 month pictures taken this week in their Easter outfits. So cute!