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

Nearly!

Baby Bear has been rolling since 2.5 months... but now every time i put him down he flips over! He started pushing up on his arms over the last few days, has a look around and then lifts all of his limbs off the ground and flails them around like he's swimming. He can 'swim' round in circles, if there's a toy he wants or he is facing the other way but wants to turn to my voice. But yesterday he started tucking his legs under his tummy and lurching forward and face-planting into the floor (haha). He can either hold up his front or back half, but hasn't quite worked out how to get on all fours. I think I'll have a crawler soon enough!

Watching my BB grow up to first
xxx

Do I Dare?

*peeks out from behind door and whispers post*

I think it might be getting better...
I know I jinxed myself last time... but I honestly think sleep might be improving. Now, I might be shooting myself in the foot here (and believe me, it might be a little less painful than night after night of no sleep and day after day of horrendous napping) but we may be coming out of the sleep regression.

The fussing over bottles is getting better, he's no longer screaming with the teat in his mouth, he drinks a few ounces and plays with the teat for a while, but he is taking it (albeit slowly).

Naptimes are difficult but bearable. For his am nap he slept in his bouncy chair to the tune of Classic AM for a fair while. I don't know how long it was, but it was enough time for me to shower, brush my teeth, make beds, do bottles, get dressed AND put make-up on. I even got a slice of toast and half a cup of tea before he roused his sleepy head. He then played with my face (his new favorite toy - he likes to pull my face around and babble) before going in the door bouncer (hilarious, will upload video later) whilst I sorted his breakfast and put away toys. He had a bit of an Ella's Kitchen pouch (I know I said I wouldn't use them but it was pure mango and I refuse to buy them and puree them myself as mango puree can't be frozen and the rest would be wasted). He happily munched that down and then I dressed him and went to visit my friend for the day, where he had another sleep in his pram (again for a fair while). Bedtime was reasonable, a few minutes of fussing before he let me pat his bum to sleep in his cot.

So the daytimes have improved... and dare I say it... so have the nights!!

Two nights ago my SIL bought be a night-time porridge back from Germany, and I gave him a small amount before bed. He slept thought until 4 when he woke for his dummy twice... and that was it. No feeds, no fussing...
Last night he slept from 7 until 2.30am, had a feed and woke twice more for his dummy and woke for the day at 6.30...

Have I cracked it? Could we be coming out of the hell which is the four month slepe regression? If so, IT'S ABOUT BLOODY TIME!!!!!

Crossing her fingers (and toes)
xxx

Why Oh Why??

Did I say anything out loud. Here I was, going on and on about how well BB had gone to bed, how soundly he was sleeping. Little did I know, 40 mins after I posted all hell broke loose. He woke up half hourly/ hourly from 10pm until 3am when he finally gave up and went to sleep until 6.15.

I fed him twice. Gave him Calpol. Put his dummy in. Held his hands. Patted his bum. Stroked his head. Put him in the Moses Basket next to my bed. All tried and tested methods which usually work to get him to sleep. But no.

Clearly I jinxed myself.
Not a happy (and very sleepy) Mummy Bear
xxx

Changing Bedtime

For a fair while now Baby Bear has had a bath at six, bottle at six thirty and bed anywhere between 7-8.30pm, depending how long he fights sleep for. This last week has been particularly bad, he simply refuses to self-settle and needs me to hold his hands and pat his bum until he falls asleep, for anywhere up to an hour! He's suffering horrendously with the 4 month sleep regression and wakes anything up to 10 times a night, but the last three nights have been better, am just crossing my fingers it stays this way.
Tonight I thought I'd try putting him down earlier, as bedtome really couldn't get any worse, bathed him at 5.30, bottle at 6 and bed for six thirty. He was asleep in minutes. WHY DID I NOT TRY THIS BEFORE???? IT IS SUCH A SIMPLE SOLUTION!!!!!

He's still asleep now, at 21.20 *touch wood* and I am praying for a good night. For my own sanity.

So, back to weaning. BB has had nothing but homemade purees from the start, but yesterday he was out so I tried him on an Ella's Kitchen Apples, Pears and Babyrice pouch. The first thing that struck me was how smooth it was, a completely different texture to homemade food, almost like yoghurt. He wasn't keen for the first few mouthfuls but took about a third of a pouch. For around 99p a pouch and only making 3 servings for him, it would be too expensive for me to buy baby food on a regular basis but for emergencies it was fine. I like Ella's Kitchen as it was one of the only brands that had no additives, just the three ingredients listed. I was slightly worried today that he wouldn't be keen on his normal food after tasting packets, but luckily he was fine.

Praying Baby Bear sleeps well!
xxx