Newborn and baby advice

Bundle, I sent you a message on Facebook. If you didn't get it I'll resend it. It was already in one of my albums so I was a little bit lazy. Sounds like you're enjoying Luke so much. Can't believe that we've all come so far since those first few zombi weeks.

Beansmom, at her six-month check-up the paed advised us to take things easy with the food. Seems like most of the babies went through a waking-up phase at around six months, but it does get better. He seemed to think that two naps of 45 mins was ample for one day... Emily also does the kiss then sleep :> It's just her late afternoon nap that we struggle with. We've also changed to the stage 2 formula, but are keeping Emily on Nan HA only because after one disastrous attempt to change formula I vowed to never again try to fix something that isn't broken. I reckon if she's healthy and happy on the S26 then don't worry too much about it - she's getting all sort of nutrients from all the solid food too, and I think nowadays the formulas are pretty much of a muchness.

The weekend was so lovely & relaxing, Sat went out for breakfast and a bit of shopping and sunday we stayed in our pj's the whole day!! Luke is back to his happy self, he was so incredibly cute, laughing and smiling all the time. He is sleeping fine again as his nose is not blocked anymore. He still has a bit of a cough but so much better already. Glad we never had to use the antibiotics.

He is drinking and eating lots again too, so it must have been that he was just not feeling great. He gets so excited when he sees the bottle starts making funny noises its so cute!

Sleep & Eating:
wakes around 5.30 for milk feed then back to sleep until I wake him up for daycare at about 7.30-7.45am.

Cereal at daycare - 4-5 tbs

45min sleep in morning

Lunch at daycare - 4tbs veggie or fruit weekends we give him fruit

90min sleep in afternoon

2 x milk feeds at daycare.

45min Late afternoon sleep

Supper at around 6:30pm around 4-5tbs veggies

(He doesn't always finish all his food).

Last bottle & sleep at around 8:30pm.

ScribblingAl - thanx, where did you send the pic to?

Jacadebra, I love the essays. I especially love the bit about just getting her into a routine and then it bombs. So sad but so true! Enjoy the holiday!! So lekker to get away. Are you staying at the Vacation Club?

1stTimer, we're also introducing things very slowly. You have to report back on the chicken legs. Are you just going to give it to her like that or are you going to blend/mush it? Also, what is a pot? Like a jar of baby food? I bought a few jars of Olli 1st step yesterday just in case - my stores are running low and things have been a bit hectic.

Do any of you bath with your babies? What are your feelings on it?

Nelria I also struggle to sleep with Emily in bed with us. I'm so paranoid that I roll onto her that I try not to move. Although she's so chubby there's no way you wouldn't feel he . Oh, and also having 30cm of space to sleep doesn't help.

Hello all...

well the livers have not happened as yet... I will introduce that this week... but reading everyone elses posts I think I'm giving Tayla too little food... We have moved off S26 Gold 1 to S26 2... thought now that she is eating solids we can do the normal one?? And with the change we are now doing only 4 bottles a day @ 250ml each... but for breakkies at 10:30 she gets bottle and 3 heaped spoons of banana cereal with formula, then lunch is bottle and 1 and a half ice cubes of veg mixed and dinner is 3 heaped spoons of rice cereal with formula... but she has been waking 3 - 5 times a night for her dummy... wonder if its got anything to do with hunger?

As for sleep - we've mixed things up a bit with the changing from 5 bottles to 4... so her routine has gone for a ball! But at the moment she wakes at 0615, feeds, then plays till 0830.. sleeps for 20 - 45 mins... then plays till next feed @ 1030, sleeps for 1 hour, plays till 1430 feed and refuses sleep till after bath and dinner which is around 6:45 ish... so by the time she has bottle and cereal she is basically eating in her sleep... but then we just put her in her cot and kiss her forhead and walk out and she's gone! Wish every sleep was that easy!!!

We took her for a call back on another casting yesterday...
@ Nelria - various overseas adverts and clothing catalogues so far... nothing for SA as yet. But they pay quite well - anything between R1000 - R2500 for a morning shoot - which is never more than 2 hours for babies. A nice college / car/ house deposit for Tayla

Hello Ladies!
Cute pic Bronz! I think they love it when they can sit up by themselves... such a new perspective on the world

Thanks for the facebook add Des! Sorry sleep has been sucking lately - hopefully it improves very soon.. gah.

Let us know how the livers go Beansmom YUCK.. haha.. but really nutritious .

How's the sleeping going Claudia - seems like a few people been having issues :-S

Sorry about Luke's cold Bundle :-S.. hopefully he feels better in no time. Congrats on b/feeding for 6 months - good job .

Nelria - as long as you can sleep fine with him on your bed, that's all that matters. Lia is still in our room but in her camp cot - I just can't sleep comfortably with 3 of us in the bed - maybe if we had a King Size bed.. but seriously, I don't sleep.

Pinky - sounds like Karla is just petite - as long as she is healthy and happy weight really doesn't matter. Appetite's vary so much and it also depends greatly how much milk they have.
Lia is 7 months now, and has been eating solids for about a month - this is what she had today:
Breakfast - cereal (not sure how many spoons, I just pour) - she has a small little bowl. She then had a few teeny pieces of watermelon. Lunch she had leftovers (lightly mashed carrots) and she also had a tiny piece of toast - cut into small pieces to help develop her pincer grasp (she did super job! I don't give much bread now though, want to cultivate a love for veggies before putting too much other stuff on her plate). Dinner,butternut and some brocolli - mostly self fed but she had a few spoons of slightly fork mashed. She breastfed every 3.5ish hours and had about 60ml of water split between all her meals.

I have no clue what Lia weighs 9 something would be my guess. Didn't bother with 6 month checkup.

As for sleeping, just when I think day sleep is getting into a routine... it bombs. The last three days were as follows - 3x30min naps and 1 x 1hour nap on Sunday. Monday was 1 x 1.5hour nap the whole day! Today was 2 x 30 min naps - and she was awake at 5am. Jeepers. Oh well as long as she isn't crazy distressed tired I don't stress too much about it. She still wakes up 1/2 times most evenings but just feeds and dozes off. Most the time.

We are going away on Thursday for few days to Sun city - our first family getaway with the 4 of us... And of course... Lia is cutting her first tooth - it is just slightly starting to peek out the gum so I think it will be totally tearing out of there whilst on holiday... *grumbles*. Having said that SO FAR, touch wood, she isn't too distressed, she is chewing a lot on things and doing funny tongue against the gum movements but so far, no major distress. Makes a change because my son struggled with each tooth. So freaky though, because my son was cutting his 3rd and 4th already at 7 months and she's on her first.

Sounds like a nice schedule 1stTimer. My son was also a whopping 10kg's at 6 months. He also tall but really chubbs but as soon as he started running around the weight fell off.

Sorry for the essay lol, hope you all get a good night's rest

@ScribblingAl - I've been expressing everyday since James was 6w old so have built up from 60ml to between 150ml and 250mls. I express both morning and night (unless I want a glass or 2 of wine!) Plus I have a store in the freezer

I'm starting him on chicken - my clinic advised it. I'm using the first stock from Anabel Karmel and then steaming some chicken legs. Will see how it goes. So far he's had sweet potato, butternut, carrot, courgette, pears, apples and bananas. I usually wait 3 days before introducing something new as I'm a bit paranoid. Next I'm doing gem squash, paw paw, papaya, broccoli and cauliflower and then then clinic said things like avo and yoghurt.

Yah he's a fattie. Tall. But mainly a fatty I figure I'll worry about it when he's older if necessary.

Wow 1st Timer, 10kg already! I love the way you just throw in your 150ml expressed breastmilk. That would have taken me three sessions of expressing to get ! What protein are you starting with?