Introducing Meat

So I've been making purees in preparation for my return to work, so family don't have to worry about feeding Baby Bear. At the minute he's still on fruit and veg purees, as well as finger food bits such as cucumber and rice cakes. He loves his food, and is a brilliant eater.

He's six months in just over a week, so I can bring meat and gluten into his diet. So I've been stocking up my freezer by pureeing basically what me and Daddy Bear eat. So far this week I've done him a pork and apple casserole, chicken and potato and a shepherd's pie with a root veg top (which I just taste tested, it's really nice!). I've been putting aside a small amount of meat and veg, as I'm a bugger for adding salt for my own food, and cooking him up his own little meals. I've actually really enjoyed doing it, I did wonder if it was too much hassle and I should just give him baby jars, but I like knowing what goes into his food, and it's really not that hard! I know it's not for everybody, but I'm going to try to keep it up!

We are still teething like a demon, today was especially hard as Daddy Bear wasn't home at dinner time, and I ended up having to cook my dinner, sort out BB and get him bathed and in bed by 6.30. It was hard, I'll tell you! I'm used to having DB either bath BB or help me with dinner. I can do it on my own, provided I can put BB down to play or stick him in his highchair with a few toys. But no. My suddenly clingy boy would not let me put him down without dissolving into tears... so I put him in his sling and did it all! Dinner was mediocre, and his bath was a little shorted than usual, but he had his bath and bottle and went straight to sleep. Thank god. He's still not taking a nap in the afternoon and it's making the evenings hell! I'm really hoping this is just down to his teeth...

If anybody wants the recipe's I use for purees let me know
xxx

Goodbye Sleep, Hello Teething

Seriously? I got like a week of nice nights with Baby Bear.

And then, out of nowhere....

Came the teething monster......

He's dribbly, off his milk, refusing solids, not napping and incredibly miserable. He whinges, 24/7 until Mummy Bear is at her wit's end. A bit of Calpol soothes him if I'm lucky, but the moaning is endless!

Yesterday imvolved waking half hour earlier than usual, bottle, a small amount of mashed banana, whinge, half hour nap, whinge, bottle, whinge, play with an empty wipes pack for 20 mins, whinge, half hour nap, refused lunch, cuddles, whinge, play, whinge for hours and refuse anymore sleep, dinner, bath (the only time he was awake and not moaning) fall asleep on bottle!

All of my family member's who said hey, wait until he's three months old, it suddenly gets really easy, lied. To be fair, it is easier, he sleeps usually at least 4-5 hours, if I'm lucky up to 12 hours at night. He laughs, smiled, plays, tries to crawl, sits unaided. He's usually a pleasure, but the teething monster and me are not friends!

I got my rota for work, I go back in two weeks. I'm bricking it! I haven't worked since JANUARY!!! I don't even know what to do anymore. And I'm absolutely dreading ten hour days on broken sleep. All I can hope is that he cuts this tooth and goes back to normal before then!

Enjoying time off while I can!

xxx

Sighh....

It honestly feels like I'm never going to get a full nights sleep! I've started going to bed around the same time Baby Bear is, just to get a few extra hours in! He's been good a handful of nights lately, and although it is improving... I really miss the days of maternity leave, when although I was huge, had heartburn and a bladder the size of a brussel sprout, I went to bed at around ten, woke up maybe once of twice to pee or guzzle down some Gaviscon, and woke up around nine. Maybe a sneaky nap around two in the afternoon...

I try to be in bed around 8pm now, although sometimes I wait until ten pm for his dreamfeed. A good night for us is two or three wakings after this feed. The worst have been twenty minute sleeps between cuddles, putting the dummy back in and patting his back. o

I've restarted the Gina Ford routine but I've had a few really busy days and getting good naps in has been a nightmare! And bad naps during the day = lots of waking in the night. But I'm going to continue following it, as the days I have he's pretty much slept through the night, and I go back to work soon. Work + broken sleep = zombie mummy bear.

Daddy bear is getting very grumpy with the lack of sleep (although he sleeps through half the night wakings anyway!!) but continues to tell me it's not me. I've had many a morning, sat sobbing in bed because he has hardly slept and I don't know what I'm doing wrong :(

He's now on three meals a day, which consists of

Banana porridge - it's an Organix one which stinks and comes up really thick so you have to make it runny as it goes stodgy within minutes.

Some kind of root veg mash, and a cube of apple or pear puree for dessert

Hipp nighttime porridge, sometimes with a bit of fruit puree mixed in.

I still give him his bottles first, he takes a good 7oz of milk four times a day, and since introducing breakfast he only takes 3-4 oz during the night rather than a full bottle. I still want milk to be his main source of food.

Hoping and praying things get better before I go back to work
xxx