Hellobee Boards

That's cool how many of you describe LO starting with a rocking before rolling. Gives me an idea of what to watch for. Right now when he's on his back or front and mad he just cries and doesn't even try to roll. But the funny thing is when I go to do side-lying breastfeeding, I swear he is very good at rolling onto his side....yes, the matress slope helps, but he does all the right moves too. Otherwise, he has no interest at all in rolling.

@Mrs.M57: yes, he cried more this time , but with the first set of shots I had him sucking on a pacifier, which he no longer will take....may have made a difference. This time he got a reaction from the one that's not tetanus....red at the site today and a bump in his leg: weird, but he seems not bothered and google seems to say it's just a normal reaction.

So, tonight was the 2nd week in a row that while I was at yoga, Daddy FAILED at bedtime....well, Nico was sleeping when I got home, but apparently he 'cried his head off' for almost an hour. He was cry-sniffling in his sleep. Looks like I'm going to have to start taking a back-seat at bed-time because Mommy cannot be the only one who can put baby to bed! Now I'm starting to wonder if he'll be difficult for babysitters and maybe I need to get other people to watch him sometimes to get used to not being with me?

PS. When I was leaving for yoga I had forgotten something so had to come back in the house and DH had Nico propped up in a chair in front of the TV, like, really close. wtf. I bit my tongue but it p'ssd me off big time. So after bedtime fail, I slipped in "I don't think you should put the baby in front of the tv, because maybe it's messing with him".

@Coco Bee: yay! Thank you!!!! I'm excited that you started with your own purees instead of 'rice cereal'. I was going to do baby led weaning because I loved how it sounded in theory. But now for the past week, we have given Nico a little peice of BLW-appropriate food in front of him while we eat dinner 'together'. He is so obsessed with watching us eat, and has even put his hand in our food before, and since he puts toys in his mouth I thought he'd go for BLW right away. But night after night, we watch him and he only picks up the food half the time and he never puts it in his mouth. We can't wait, so we're thinking about starting purees soon if he doesn't get the BLW 'memo' soon. (Winnibee, I loved your phrase about Tyler not getting the rolling over memo!)
BLW is for patient people. And yes, very messy. He hasn't even eaten yet, and it's a bit of a mess. My friend with a 6 month old confirms that her gal still can't coordinate feeding herself yet with anything except those baby crackers because they are big enough for her to both hold and coordinate getting in her mouth.
Although most literature these days says to wait til 6 months, I've read enough the other way, and my doc said we could start whenever I feel like he's ready now. I want to start, but I'll be careful just to make it a daily taste so that it doesnt interfere with the breastfeeding, since that should be his primary nutrition. Ah! You got me so excited about purees! I'll keep giving him a piece for dinner to try to feed himself, but I don't think I'm patient enough to wait for him to be a pure BLW baby.

@winniebee: hehe I think it's too awesome that you have a husband that can diagnose your condition. T is going to be one smart baby with a doctor and attorney for parents!

@cvbee: yea...I'm pretty much the only that can put M down because we nurse to sleep. Definitely need to at some point cure that.

@Coco Bee: hehe, we've started letting M smell our food. ie whenever we put groceries away we let her smell it. It's so cute because you can actually hear her sniffing it! The other day I was having cereal and she was staring at me so I licked my spoon clean and put it near her mouth and she stuck her tongue out then made this weird face. hahah I think it's bc the spoon was cold!
So far I've frozen carrot puree from our veg share. And got a 1/2 bushel of peaches from the farm and will be pureeing and canning them this weekend for M!
I think once apple picking starts we'll be taking M to a farm that doesn't spray to pick some. Then make purees, applesauce and can some from there.

@Goldilocks1107: what did you do with the peaches to puree? I was just planning on checking out wholesomebabyfoods.

So you ladies know how last night she was rocking? Well I started recording video so I can have it and send to my husband. I'm recording, recording then out of no where she pulled the giraffe off her play gym! I was shocked!! Strong little girl. So happy I have it on video.

@regberadaisy: I boiled them. I think I got the "how to" from wholesomebabyfoods.com. Then I pureed and froze it. I have an eggplant in the fridge right now that I need to puree. Guess I should check out how to prep it first!

@cvbee: If it's the book I'm thinking of, my pediatrician also recommended it. I checked it out from the library and it has some helpful tips, but I found it hard to flip around to find what I was looking for. I didn't want to read the whole thing, just find the part that referred to what I was dealing with right then!

@Coco Bee: SOLIDS! What a big boy! All this talk of solids makes me feel like our babies are growing up too fast. I still think of Tyler as just so small, but I know he's not!

@Goldilocks1107: That's awesome - yay for sleep! What's your arrangement with your hubs?

@regberadaisy: Go M! What a big little girl : ) LOL DH and I do not want Tyler to be a doctor or a lawyer!

@cvbee: I think I'm going to download that book for my kindle, too. Though it suggests putting your baby to bed at like 6:30. Blech.

Sleep report: Tyler slept 9-3:30 then 3:50 to 7. I was tempted to put him back down again as if it was still nighttime since that's not as much sleep as he has been getting. But then he seemed pretty alert and his diaper was about 2 lbs so I changed him. He was up for 1.5 hours then has been sleeping for 2 hours and 15 minutes....in his swing, but still. I think I have figured out that he gives me a long nap ONLY if he sleeps 10 hours or less. Which I'm not sure is a good thing?

this thread moves SOO fast!! haha I gotta get used to it

@cvbee: Oooh I just bought that book! Found it at a consignment sale for $1! I have heard only good things. I'm only about 15 pgs in (got it yesterday). We've already started the "extinction method" though, but I've heard it's a good book to have on hand even if you're already sleep-trained, it has lots of great info about sleep as they get older and is a good reference. I'm excited to read it. So far I'm liking it because they point out that no way is right or wrong - you have to choose what's right for you. Like they said that if you sleep with your baby, it's your decision and that's great, but if you don't want to - that's ok too. It's hard to find a book that says EITHER way is great!!

@Mrs.M57: don't worry about it too much! most books/websites recommend storing baby purees in the freezer no longer than 1-3 months anyhow lest they start losing their nutritional value. So you can only do so much bulk. I didn't really prep much at all, and I puree a couple times a week.

@cvbee: yeah! I didn't want to do cereal. I see no need for it at all. Since we are a GF family and eat little, to no grains - I figured why give him what even we don't eat?! And I read some great articles about how babies often have difficulty digesting grains. So I didn't see the point.

I think that as a parent you are the one that knows best when your baby should start eating. If you feel he is ready then go for it!! I started having guilt about starting Cobi at 5 months, but I knew he was ready so I had to let it go!

@Coco Bee: Yay, now we're in like a book club!
I am also impressed that it is totally inclusive of all sleep methods, really. Like, tonight when I failed at the 6:30 bedtime (longer story: so, from reading the book I now see that what I thought were tired cues were actually OVERTIRED cues. Tonight I was all set for the super early bedtime, and I was about to give him a bath and I saw he was rubbing the blanket on his face and I thought, oh man, he's already in the way-tired zone.....and I should have put him to sleep, but instead I went for the bath, and then I was just slightly too late to ride that proper sleepy wave for him to catch the early sleep)....so after I failed at 6:30 bedtime, I turned to some of my old-standards for putting him to sleep: nursing, bouncing,....and instead of feeling like I was doing something 'bad' I felt okay about it. And I think that's important. Well, important to know that sleep science says it's okay too. (Yet, of course, if I got the timing right like I did with all the naps today, he wouldn't have needed any bouncing). So, since we did the usual 8pm bedtime I suspect we will still have lots of nightwakings again tonight...time will tell.

So, more about Healthy Sleep bookclub: I'm on chapter 2 and already the book has done an amazing job at convincing me how important sleep is. Like, this week I started asking myself why I'm so concerned about all this night-waking business...I thought maybe I was being selfish or something. But reading this book so far has convinced me that figuring out healthy sleep for my baby is one of the most important things I can do for his current and future brain, emotions, etc. So, May Babies Mamas, we ARE doing the right thing by obsessing about the sleep issue we all seem to be having. It IS important.

@Coco Bee: Re: introducing solids: Not that this should matter, but almost all of the Moms in my Mom Group started their LOs before 6 months, so I don't feel bad about being interested in starting soon at all. (but I do remember being 'judgy' in my head when they were doing it, after I was brainwashed to think that 6 months EBF is a rule). Plus, with the extra okay from the doctor, I'm feeling even more at peace with it. But I know I still have lots of time, not in a rush, so I'll get around to starting purees one-of-these-days. I'll just be really careful not to give him too much, as I definitely don't want to mess up the BFing.

I recently got a $50 cash baby present from my aunt and I've been thinking about what to spend it on. Likely 2 hemp doublers for overnight CDing, and now I've also got this device on my radar for making baby food: http://www.theweanmachine.com/ I feel like it is my style because I am not a make-ahead kind of gal. But I also wonder if it is something that later I'll think 'why did I buy this?'. I guess there's only one way to find out?!

@marriedandlovingit: congrats on making it back. Healthy Sleep says don't flip your baby back over if they flip in their sleep. He says the baby will either learn to flip back over, learn not to flip over, or will learn to sleep in a new position.

Alright ladies, time to get back to my eBook (I used Kobo to buy it). Oooh! Just one more point from the book: he says that all the talk about sleep being connected to eating/hunger is BS. Since I changed to feeding Nico every 2 hours all day long instead of 3 hour EASY cycles, and his napping didn't change at all, I guess I do have some firsthand knowledge of this now, but it is hard to believe because so many people talk about the feeding being connected to the sleeping. Sorry about the run-on sentences.

Goodnight!

@cvbee: woo book club!! YES, I love the part where they said that if we don't help them develop healthy sleep habits NOW while they're young, than they have a higher chance of being an adult insomniac who needs pills to sleep. I never knew that insomnia was something that could be ingrained so early on. That is scary and definitely motivation to keep working on helping our babes sleep WELL.

Re: solids - so about the wean machine... looks interesting!! I wonder thought if it might be a better investment to get a food processor? We have the ninja and have used it for purees, as well as a hand blender, oster blender and the baby bullet. Perhaps if you get something with a little more versatility, you can use it for your own cooking as well as your LO's purees? Just something to think about

@cvbee: What about while he is trying to fall asleep? It took forever for him to fall asleep tonight! He was overtired, so that may have been part of it, but he was crying so hard while he was on his tummy. It's heartbreaking

Interesting to hear about food and sleep not being associated.

@LAGS: How far away do you live from your families? We live in Atlanta, and our families live in KS and MN. My husband and I would love to live close enough to our families where we didn't have to tell them weeks ahead that we were planning on coming. I wish our parents lived in places we could see ourselves living!

@mediagirl: Good luck with the travels and have a fun time! Let us know how the flight went!

Cooper woke up half an hour ago fussing. Hubby and I went to check on him and he was lying sideways in the crib with his legs (in his sleep sack) slightly through the slats. He also spit-up. BOO. I am so over the spit-up! He's back to sleep so far. Hubby plans to tend to him if he fusses again. I'm going to sleep!

Alright girls, so I got through the sleep at 4 months part. Here's the deal:

1) at 3-4 months of age, babies start producing their own melatonin and begin to have a biological need to go to bed at around 6pm.

2) Nightwaking (other than the 1-2 normal for feeding at this age, which continues to be normal through to 9 months) is a symptom of not going to bed early enough.

3) Sleep breeds sleep. The babies should be having a morning nap, afternoon nap, and a shorter late afternoon nap. Do not wake your sleeping baby. If you can soothe your baby to get him/her to sleep for 3 naps, plus an early bedtime, the night wakings should stop.

Last night I tried bedtime at 6, and we had him sleeping by 7, which is the earliest ever. He FINALLY went back to his normal pattern of 6 hours, then 4, then 2 for wakeup.

If your baby is severely overtired, you might be able to put your baby down for the early bedtime right away, otherwise, bring it back by 20 minutes every few days.

I might just be way too obsessed with this book, but I swear Nico is already way more capable this morning after his better sleep.

On other fronts: Nico had his first ride in the stroller in the 'big kid' seat, rather than the infant carseat bucket thing. I also let him taste some banana.

Liam's sleep seems to have gone back to normal! He's back down to just one wake up overnight to eat, and is going to bed around 9 or 10pm, then waking up for the day 12 hours later. his naps are still only 30-45 minutes though. I've gotten better at noticing his sleepy cues and have started putting him down at the first sign of fussiness. it's weird, he'll get fussy, so I'll swaddle him and he laughs while i'm doing it, but then once I pick him up to rock him he gets fussy again for a few minutes, yawns, and passes out. Still won't go to sleep on his own.

Our new cabinets come tomorrow so DH started ripping out cabinets yesterday. Should be an interesting few weeks without a kitchen!

@bpcmarj: congrats on being a new woman today....me too!!!

So, this morning, DH made so much noise 30 minutes into Nico's 9am nap. It woke Nico up. Nico pooped and I changed his diaper and I was sooooooooo mad at DH because I just learned that the 9am nap is actually the most important, restorative nap. (Linked to making baby smarter too!) So, rather than killing my husband, I decided to spend the rest of the time when I expected him to be sleeping to bounce him back to sleep. It worked and now he's been sleeping for another hour and 15 minutes already. So, one plan for the short nappers is to use your soothing skills to try to soothe them back to sleep when they wake up early. But there is a part of the book that says that some babies are just short nappers.....but the rest of the book convinces you to try really hard to work at longer naps.

I promise one day soon I will stop being so obsessed about sleep and nap information.

@marriedandlovingit: Oh brother, we live 'far' from our families but not nearly as far as you guys How often are you able to get together with them each year? We're a 10hr drive from my side and 6 from DH's. His fam is in NY and min in Ontario so we hope to move to NYS next year and land somewhere in between the two.

@cvbee: I've been trying to get LO down earlier and tonight am going to aim for 7pm. Our usual is 7:30. We had two better nights (although not normal) and last night was back to hourly wake-ups from about 2am-6am... Something's gotta give!

Also, I've caught on this week to the whole soothing back to sleep thing and I've gotten 3 days now of a solid 1.5-2hr afternoon nap. Yay!

@bpcmarj: So happy the swaddle worked for you. Your sleep last night sounds amazing, hope your husband makes it through the day!

@winniebee: Yay, you must feel great to have that part of your life back to normal/the fear of the unknown over with. Enjoy your vacation!

We've gotten random giggles out of LO but today finally got ongoing laughter from her... ahh its just the best. What was just as cute was DH's reaction... he laughed so hard he startled LO, proud Papa!

@cvbee: haha good... not that I would have said "no" but it didn't seem like something you needed lol

the sleep info is fascinating. I haven't had time this weekend to read the book so I'm still on the second chapter. I will get to it some more hopefully this week during LO's naps. Cobi's nap schedule has been completely messed up since we started sleep training and I'm anxious to get him back onto a nap schedule. I just need to figure out HOW as the swaddle thing throws a curve ball into the whole mix.

How many babies here are swaddled?! I have such a love/hate relationship with it... and this is the moment I've been dreading the last 6 months!!

@cvbee: that's EXACTLY why we didn't DTD until LO was nearly 4 mos!! lol it seemed everytime we started to try, a little someone would wake up.

@Coco Bee: we stopped swaddling maybe a month ago. First I would swaddle him loose (we have velcro swaddlers), so if he really wanted those hands he could get them out. Next, when I noticed he had them out every time I went to get him, I started putting him down without a swaddle. But, I have found that if I put a muslin blanket over him, it helps because when I lay him down his hands grab the blanket and he rubs it on his face. It's light enough that I don't think he would suffocate. Now, having said that, he's not a roller yet, and I do wonder if it is a strangulation hazzard at that point.

@cvbee: yes!! one thing I love about CD'ing is no blow outs! Even though we do use sposies on occasion... like during travel, or day trips.

Aww he's SO CUTE. I love little fluff butts.

As for the blanket... hmm good point. I know he'd probably love to sleep with a blankie - he actually loves the A&A - but yeah idk about strangulation (I'm not so worried about suffocation at this point because he moves so much)... I have his 6 months wellness appt on Tuesday - I'll ask then!

@winniebee: I get up for work at 5:15 and he doesn't get up until 6:15. So, if Audrey wakes up before 3am, I get up to feed her. After 3am, he gets up to feed her. Because if I wake up at 4am to feed her, I won't go back to sleep.

@marriedandlovingit: If you haven't given away your Enfamil coupons yet, I would love to have them! Email me at goldilocks1107@gmail.com and I'll send you my address.

Audrey rolled over this weekend - tummy to back. Unfortunately, I haven't witnessed the entire act in progress. I saw her on her tummy, looked away for a second, then she was on her back. And she did it 2 more times for DH yesterday morning while I was asleep. Ugh!

@regberadaisy: ha, we finally DTD after he went to sleep for the night....but of course, he had a mini-wake-up 10 minutes into his sleep for the night, just as we were about to start.....such a comedy.....but I think from all the anticipation, it was an extra good time of DTD.

@regberadaisy: I think that BLW is like cloth diapering for me: it sounds so complicated when you read about it, but once you get going it is no problem-o. I have given Nico banana two days in a row in my own style of BLW. I gave him a giant piece of banana, so it's way too big for him to bite off a chunk, but he was getting some good practice at using his little gums to gnaw away at it. I just want him having tastes of things for a while, so I didn't let him eat too much. He was working on about 1/3 of a banana, and when I decided it was time to stop he had that 1/3 was all mushy and definitely smaller than before, but still looked like 1/3 of a banana. I examined his diaper poop this morning and there were definitely little teeny tiny brown banana hair-like bits....so tiny, but i could tell. Last night I made butternut squash soup, so I reserved a chunk about the size of the 1/3 of banana so he can try that today. I do assist him in holding the food, but he is the one bringing my hand (and the food, and his hands) to his mouth to gnaw on it.

@regberadaisy: Your peaches look soooooooooooo yummy! It's grocery day for me today and I think I will definitely have to buy some peaches now.

Penny did a couple of new things over the weekend! First of all, she can, and will everytime, roll from her back to her belly. I put her in the pack and play and she's so long that she rolls around and her feet touch the ends, I will post a picture from my phone in a minute of her pushing herself up on the wall!

And, last night we were at a friend's house for dinner and she laughed for the first time. Our friend's husband was making silly noises and sort of startling her and she was cracking up! I took a video, but it didn't save on my phone and I am a little bummed. But, it means that hopefully her Dad or I can get her to laugh like that soon!

So, those of you who are using disposable diapers, do you all use pampers? We had been using the swaddlers, and I love them most of the time, but I was at BJs and couldn't help but decide to try their brand (Berkley and Jensen). A box of 186 Pampers were $41.99 and the box of 184 B and J were $21.99. So, I figured I won't know if they work unless I try them. First impression is that they aren't nearly as soft as swaddlers and they aren't quilted like swaddlers, I assume they might be more like baby dry. Anyway, I had them on her overnight and only had a slight leak when she pooped, but that would have happened with pampers, too. So, I don't love them, but at nearly half the price, I think that they work well enough. Today will be the test as we will go out and about for lunch and shopping and see how they hold up!

In other Mommy news, I can now fit into my pre-preg clothes!! I randomly put on a skirt (that I knew I could wear higher up if it wouldn't fit at the hips) and it zipped up right away, no question. I feel like a whole new person now that I can wear real clothes. It's amazing what that will do!

@Coco Bee: We are swaddling Penny using swaddleme velcro swaddles. We only swaddle at night though, not during the day.

@Goldilocks1107: Did you ever figure out what might have caused Audrey's little rash?

@marriedandlovingit: My family is far away, too. We likely won't see anyone (unless they come to see us again) until like February! She'll be 10 months old by then, which is so sad for me. DH's parents are close by, but we don't see them too often. My Dad might come visit at Thanksgiving, and I hope he does; he hasn't seen her since she was 3 days old! We are in MA, My Mom and stepdad and 2 youngest siblings live in NC, My 2 younger sisters live in CA, and my Dad lives in LA!! We are all over the place and it's really hard to get everyone together. Luckily, everyone but my Dad was able to come here to visit us in July. But, I miss them more than anything so I understand.

@bpcmarj: nope, I use Huggies and have used the BJ diapers! They are def not as soft but just as absorbent as the Huggies!
I don't like how Pampers fit on M.
I will def buy them again next time there is a BJs coupon for them!

@bpcmarj: hah that pic is so awesome! We finally caught M's laughter on video yesterday and it's so awesome.