MSE Newborn to 1 year (& beyond!) baby club 3

continualdiamond

Hi everyone. Haven't been on here for ages in terms of writing anything but have been reading.

I've also gone with the flow with weaning. Started with puree and still use some puree stuff, but then make up lumpier food as well as giving lo bits of cheese, strawberries etc etc. Sometimes she coughs and sticks out her tongue to show me the little bits of lumpy food, hahaha and manages to eat around the lumpier bits to then let them fall out her mouth.

Well as scary as it sounds I have 1 more day to work (next Monday) before I am on my summer holidays. Cannot believe I have been back at work for 7 weeks, it has honestly flown by, a lot quicker than I ever thought. I should be finishing next Wednesday but my school closes 2 days early due to building work.

Then the following Monday we're off on our holiday to Australia, cannot wait for all my family to meet Scarlett. Here is a photo of her today, totally love working part time and being able to capture moments like this with her.

dizziblonde

Funniest moment we had when weaning Robyn was when her obsession with a balanced diet being defined as a bit of food in both hands couldn't quite co-exist with the fact she'd got a chip in each hand but fancied a meatball as well (for we were in a large Swedish furniture store at the time)... so she just shoved her face in the plate and reappeared with a meatball triumphantly between her teeth like she'd been apple bobbing on Halloween!

Just had both of them out in the garden loads today now I've got some more shade out there in the form of a big gazebo perfectly sized to cover our little patio... put their play kitchen (which was huge and not getting used in the house as they just tend to play "cooking" on the coffee tables inside) in the summerhouse and made a load more room that way - they've spent most of the day chalking stars on the patio and rediscovering the slightly outgrown but still useful toys I keep in the summer house for rotation.

Could cheerfully swing for my mother in law though - with two so young I've got a very zero tolerance line on throwing sand in the sandpit (you ain't gonna hurt your sibling and you ain't gonna go into preschool and nursery doing that either missy) - warning and then the lid goes on it for the remainder of that time we're outside. Went to the beach with the whole in-law family at the weekend and Erin was throwing sand - so I told her to stop it like I would do at home (since to her it was just one huge sandpit anyway and she keeps talking about it like such) - and MIL made this huge thing of "oh you ignore mummy, you can do whatever you want, get as messy as you want, and throw as much sand as you want here this weekend"... result? I now have two very confused sand-throwers - and they've always been really good about not doing so before now. So our nice weather out there in the garden's been mildly spoilt by me having to reestablish that particular boundary again. She never listens though - I'm just the miserable fun-stealing uterus on legs.

lazywife

dizziblonde wrote: »

"oh you ignore mummy, you can do whatever you want, get as messy as you want, and throw as much sand as you want here this weekend"... result? I now have two very confused sand-throwers - and they've always been really good about not doing so before now. So our nice weather out there in the garden's been mildly spoilt by me having to reestablish that particular boundary again. She never listens though - I'm just the miserable fun-stealing uterus on legs.

Aaaaah yes, the "lets keep this little secret from Mummy" and "don't be silly, he likes eating a whole bar of chocolate from breakfast"
Grrrrrr, MIL's can be very frustrating!
L.xxx

Bangton

I have no MIL to put up with but my mum can be a bit the same so hugs on that front!

weaning - I do whatever works too. We've had times he won't eat from a spoon/times he won't feed himself/times he's vomited after every meal. I started with purees (he was 23 weeks) and moved onto finger foods quite quickly. We've done more of a BLW approach I guess but anything sloppy is eaten with a spoon so it's not the whole hog. A bit of both is convenient for us. I find with BLW not only is the floor/highchair/baby a mess but so am I when I lift him up so I either spoon feed or find less messy items when we eat out as I don't want to wander around with food down me.

I have a couple of questions (as usual)! ..

snacks - when did you introduce them? I've kind of fallen into a thing of giving lo fruit in an afternoon. I usually have a little bowl of fruit for myself and lo has started to reach for it so we sit on a towel and share. This is meaning he doesn't want much milk at all. .yesterday he only had 2oz between lunch at 11.30 and tea at 5.15 but ate fresh cherries and a babybel with me.

I'm not concerned or anything but I'm just wondering what other people have done snack wise.

The other thing I wanted to ask - I am pig sick of my pram. It's a travel system but lo has been in his second stage car seat for a month. We've put the pram seat back on and it weighs a ton and is just so bulky. I'd like to get an umbrella pram and am wondering how people got on with theirs. As in do you use it all the time or keep a big pram for certain occasions? The one I'm looking at reclines right back for naps and I can't see why I'd need my big pram so am thinking of selling it and recouping some money back but then I worry the umbrella pram won't be sturdy enough for use all the time?

CD - so cute!!!!! How on earth do you get her to keep baby sunnies and a hat on? my lo won't do either! ! xx

Gillyx

Can't help r.e the pram Bangton, we used our travel system for 18 months, and then packed it away as we walked everywhere after that. I bought a stroller once for a holiday, and used it that week but he hated it, it was too low down and didn't parent face, which we were used to but our travel system wasn't heavy and turned on a sixpence so suppose it was easy to use. I've heard great things about Cosatto strollers though and they offer a 4 year guarantee as standard. Amazon sometimes have them reduced.

We are going swimming this afternoon and then I'm getting an early night ready to brave the next sale in the morning :eek: we need elasticated trousers, now we're potty trained he just can't get the buttoned trousers down

Gillyx

Oops snack wise, we don't do them as much now as I feel he eats enough at meal times and I worry about his teeth but when he was little he needed to eat more frequently. If you are eating and he wants some I'd offer cheese is quite a good snack too, if he doesn't want it he probably won't eat also I can't remember what age your LO is, but at around 9 months my LO dropped to 2 bottles a day, morning and evening, and then about 10 months he was only taking a bottle before bed of about 7/8oz as far as I can remember x

dizziblonde

Strollers - I've had a couple... they're much heavier work to push with a larger baby/toddler in than our usual pushchairs, and I find the shopping baskets on them nafftacular in space terms. With having two so close in age - the doubles we've had got particularly heavy recently and I rarely use one these days.

We keep one in my husband's car for when we're out walking the dogs - but I can't push it one handed which is annoying if you're trying to hold a toddler hand or whatever (not a massive issue as my eldest uses backpack reins if needed) and it's the one I used a lot when pregnant with the youngest and I think I leant on the frame a lot with SPD so it's got one ASBO wheel which is irritating as hell! It's a koochi one though which we got cheap in Argos with a lot of stuff with it in terms of raincover and footmuff and the like and for the tiny bit we use it it does the job.

I've also had (well still have) the double version of the M+P Kato - the seats on it drove me to distraction... they're ones that lie back with the drawstring type of fixing so get really "hammocky" and my youngest is forever leaning forward on them since they're not attached to the drawstring and almost toppling herself out. Had a Cossato double as well which is at my mums now and that was much sturdier - the back of it was like one of those expanding garden trellis things which stopped the whole hammocky seats thing, and the kids couldn't do the leaning right forward on them thing they were doing.

I just find them too hard to push for any long period of time I guess - but I'm used to buggies with air tyres now (which make doubles bearable) so I just tend to take the Phil and Teds everywhere and use the bottom seat as some kind of mega shopping basket! I keep looking out for a cheaply priced single Nipper (greatest pushchair I ever owned) to put a buggy board on and get rid of my doubles completely.

What about something as a half-way house like an iCandy Cherry? I had one when I just had a single - really light and easy to push, folds in two parts but folds really really small (I could tuck it in the passenger footwell in the back of the car easily) and loads available second-hand, and a shopping basket you could fit a small country in!

Mine have never snacked much - they do if they're out and somewhere's offering (like toddler group or whatever) - but I just don't tend to do it at home. We might have half a biscuit or something when we come in from the garden to keep 'em still enough for me to clean them up a bit!

Off to Cbeebies land in Alton Towers tomorrow in the rain and storms! Should make the queues bearable and kids aren't water soluble anyway! Won the tickets a while back and my brother's coming down to go with us.

sunshine_1988

dizziblonde wrote: »

Strollers - I've had a couple... they're much heavier work to push with a larger baby/toddler in than our usual pushchairs, and I find the shopping baskets on them nafftacular in space terms. With having two so close in age - the doubles we've had got particularly heavy recently and I rarely use one these days.

We keep one in my husband's car for when we're out walking the dogs - but I can't push it one handed which is annoying if you're trying to hold a toddler hand or whatever (not a massive issue as my eldest uses backpack reins if needed) and it's the one I used a lot when pregnant with the youngest and I think I leant on the frame a lot with SPD so it's got one ASBO wheel which is irritating as hell! It's a koochi one though which we got cheap in Argos with a lot of stuff with it in terms of raincover and footmuff and the like and for the tiny bit we use it it does the job.

I've also had (well still have) the double version of the M+P Kato - the seats on it drove me to distraction... they're ones that lie back with the drawstring type of fixing so get really "hammocky" and my youngest is forever leaning forward on them since they're not attached to the drawstring and almost toppling herself out. Had a Cossato double as well which is at my mums now and that was much sturdier - the back of it was like one of those expanding garden trellis things which stopped the whole hammocky seats thing, and the kids couldn't do the leaning right forward on them thing they were doing.

I just find them too hard to push for any long period of time I guess - but I'm used to buggies with air tyres now (which make doubles bearable) so I just tend to take the Phil and Teds everywhere and use the bottom seat as some kind of mega shopping basket! I keep looking out for a cheaply priced single Nipper (greatest pushchair I ever owned) to put a buggy board on and get rid of my doubles completely.

What about something as a half-way house like an iCandy Cherry? I had one when I just had a single - really light and easy to push, folds in two parts but folds really really small (I could tuck it in the passenger footwell in the back of the car easily) and loads available second-hand, and a shopping basket you could fit a small country in!

Mine have never snacked much - they do if they're out and somewhere's offering (like toddler group or whatever) - but I just don't tend to do it at home. We might have half a biscuit or something when we come in from the garden to keep 'em still enough for me to clean them up a bit!

Off to Cbeebies land in Alton Towers tomorrow in the rain and storms! Should make the queues bearable and kids aren't water soluble anyway! Won the tickets a while back and my brother's coming down to go with us.

They will love beebies land, we went last week and thought it was amazing!!
X

continualdiamond

Bangton - Re the hat and sunnies trust me it look awhile and a lot of distraction. We had tears to start off with so I ended up singing to her and then when she saw our dog she started reaching out for him so that was it I started pushing the pram and went for our walk. She lasted about 10 mins though with both on then the sunnies came off, but she did keep the hat on the whole time.

The sunnies have a band that goes round her head and fastens with velcro, they last until they're 3.

I don't really give snacks as such, though I do when out as she likes to feel part of the action. So this afternoon when I always meet my friend for a coffee lo has a baby rice cake whilst us adults get stuck into our cake.

Well I had a fab but tiring day. Went swimming as normal with lo, then had a paper come round to get photos, so had my hair and make up done and then wore 2 dresses. They liked my story in the weight watchers magazine so I had photos taken on my own then with lo as well. Good job I've lost 3 stone already and only have 1 more stone to shift as I'm soooo not a dress person but I did like what they bought for me to wear.

I have no idea what they're doing with the photos as yet to speak to the person who is writing the article, but never the less was nice being pampered even if I did have to keep stopping to attend to lo.

*Nutella*

Bangton wrote: »

I am pig sick of my pram. It's a travel system but lo has been in his second stage car seat for a month. We've put the pram seat back on and it weighs a ton and is just so bulky. I'd like to get an umbrella pram and am wondering how people got on with theirs. As in do you use it all the time or keep a big pram for certain occasions? The one I'm looking at reclines right back for naps and I can't see why I'd need my big pram so am thinking of selling it and recouping some money back but then I worry the umbrella pram won't be sturdy enough for use all the time?

I was too! I took our heavy travel system to a charity shop when LO was 11 months, bought a Maclaren Quest and never looked back. It's fab It's still in use most days. LO is now 2 years and 2 months, so we don't use it for little trips, but we do use it for e.g. the 30 mins walk to the nursery. It reclines for naps, is sturdy, folds easily (it has been on a number of plane journeys) and is also very bus-friendly. I'd get a stroller if I were you - I doubt you'd regret it