Emily nearly six months - few questions !

Hi there,

Hope you are all well!

Emily is coming up to six months in a couple of weeks - blimey!! I have some first time mum questions that have been rattling around for a while which I hope some of you may be able to advise me....

Dummy - Emily is relying more and more on the dummy to get to sleep at all times, when she is out for the count and we take her to bed there is no need for a dummy but more and more we are using it. I am worried that she will come to rely on it more and more. Are there any other tricks to get Emily to sleep by herself and no dummy or do you think we are okay using the dummy for the moment...

Dropping the night feed - her last feed is at 10pm and she really only takes 1-2 ounces so we are thinking of dropping this feed to see if she goes through to 7am. She goes to bed at 7pm after her 6.30pm feed which sometimes has some baby rice in and then we wake her at 10pm but it is really a struggle to wake her - anyone just dropped the late night feed and how did you get on? We are thinking of testing it this weekend but if she wakes up hungry in the middle of the night then we know we are not ready....

Feeding in general - we are giving Emily 6 feeds a day, 5 ounce bottle then some baby rice with fruit, or porridge or vegetables. We are doing the food 3 times a day but sometimes we give Emily a little bit of baby rice at 7pm so sometime she is having 4 meals. Is this too much? Should we stick to the 3 meals a day. Her milk intake is still as normal.... but not increasing!

Milk - I log everything that Emily eats and drinks at the moment - when I mix her milk with baby rice I count this as milk drunk - am i cheating or is this okay, technically she is still having the milk but the last ounce in the rice.

Think that is it at the mo - thanks girls (what are all the 6 month babies up to!)

Natalie & Emily xxxx

Hello!

Nyla is 6 months soon too

We have not done a late or night feed for ages, in fact the other week she was in bed at 6.30pm and did not wake until 6.45am-and no wake ups inbetween.

Generally it's something along these lines-but it is as and when she is hungry, it's not dead set everyday.

8ish- 8oz bottle..followed by breakfast-porridge.
12ish- 8oz bottle-last few days she has had a little food aswell.
4ish- 8oz bottle...then dinner, fruit or veg etc
Then a top up bottle of 4oz before bed-at 7/8pm.
It does vary as in whether she has milk before of after meals etc and if the dinner time bottle is late there is no top up bottle.

Rice in milk?? Are some of you actually putting the rice into the bottle with the milk? I thought that was a big no-go? And reguards the last feed if she is fast off and you have to wake her for an 1oz i would just knock it on the head, 1oz will do nothing-it's not going to fill her up at all so i would say she dosent need it? Just leave it and see how you go. A while back i really worried about Nyla having 4 feeds...but if she only has 3 now i don't worry-if she was hungry or needed it she would wake but she dosent.

Nyla is very good at bed-she goes into bed awake-with a dummy but settles herself off and we don't have a peak out of her until at least 6am-then it will dummy in and she is back of til 7-8am...A while back we were in and out putting dummies in etc but now she just sleep soundly the whole night.

RE the dummies-they are only 6 months i would'nt worry at all-when they are older i would limit it to bed/nap times only if i could but at this age i'm not worried.

Rachx

Hi there

Thanks for the reply and congrats for Nyla's 6 months too

We will be knocking the late feed on the head but Emily has been out of sorts the last couple of days so will leave it for the moment.

Re the baby rice, I make up my 5 ounce bottle and let Emily have want she wants. Then I make the baby rice in a bowl and add what is left of the formula milk into the bowl and mix it. It never goes in the bottle but the way I see it is that she is still have her milk even though it is in the baby rice.

It is good that Nyla goes through the night, Emily used to but she has had a tummy upset and nappy rash over the weekend so things are changing at the mo. If Nyla wakes up at 6.45am how can you get her to last until 8ish for a bottle, does she just play in her cot??

I am thinking of doing something along the lines of below which I got from the contented little baby book

7 ish Bottle of Milk followed by breakfast like rice or porridge
11ish - Bottle followed by vegetables and perhaps a yogurt (perhaps knock the milk out?)
2.30pm - Bottle
5.30pm - Pureed Fruit mixed with Baby Rice
7pm - Bottle

All bottles being 5 ounces unless she takes more......

What do you think, does it sound about right....... I don't think I could get Emily to last longer after 7am but if I feed her a bit more like the cereal as well (which we dont do at the moment) then perhaps she will go longer.....

Appreciate your thoughts.

p.s. Emily was grouchy again last night, combined of sore bum and teething so we gave her Ashtons and Parsons at 10.30am and we did not hear from her until 5.30am which was a big improvement on the night before which was up at midnight, 2am, 3.30am, 5.30am...

Feel so much better today

Love Natalie & Emily xx

Me too !

Bit late joining this conversation, haven't been on in a while. Elise will be 6 mths on Friday..... wow, so quick!!

She's doing just fab fab fab, love her to bits. Loads of character, sitting up by herself all the time now, rolling onto her tummy and trying to crawl (unsuccessfully at the mo!)...... lots of giggling and laughing (and temper tantrums sometimes too, doesn't like anyone she doesn't know picking her up!)

Anyhoo... I digress. I have been giving her a bottle of milk for brekkie with baby cereal added, but she's often not really really hungry in the mornings. Then she has pureed veg, fruit, yoghurt and a drink of water for lunch (no milk) Then just milk for tea (have tried giving her yoghurt too but she doesn't want it) and then Milk before bed with cereal or rice added to it. She seems happy with that and she's sleeping all way through night .......

Only problem we have in the night, its not the dummy - when that falls out she doesn't wake up to have it put back in - but she does roll on her tummy and when she wakes up like that she wants to turn but can't so we have to wake up 6 times a night ish to turn her back over..... hope she learns how to turn herself back over soon!!

Lea and Elise - nearly 6 mths!! xx

Helloooo

i'm typing this for the second time, better flippin work this time

Cannot believe we are almost at 6 months...crazy, doesn't seem 5 mins since we were all on expecting waiting to pop!

Sam also loves his dummy, he goes asleep with it but spits it out when he goes into deep sleep. Luckily he can now find it himself and pop it back in if he needs too altho it's often upside down and even handle inwards, but hey whatever keeps him quiet! I think we are guilty of plonking it in when it isn't needed so gonna try and use it a bit more sparingly.

Sam hasn't needed night feed for yonks, can't really remember what we did but think it was just leave him if he's sleeping approach and he would sleep thru so feed not needed. He did and still does like to cram as much milk in as poss before bed (started when I demand BF'ing). Did you try this weekend or was it a bit disrupted with teething?

Sam has 5 7oz feeds a day and puree fruit and puree veg for lunch. I'm going to try and introduce tea this week and hopefully drop a milk feed. Trying to encourage him to drink water but not going that well so far! I'm sure babies only take what they need food wise so Emily would refuse if she was full, 3/4 meals sounds right to me, I just need to work out when to squeeze Sam's meals in...makes my brain hurt and it really isn't that complicated!

Take care x x x

Hi

isn ... annoying when you type a long message for it to disappear!!

I know, the time has flown by. Emily is alot better today although her bum is still sore. We did not drop the night feed last night as she was out of sorts so thought best to leave it - plus she did not have a good feeding day yesterday either.

Reading the contented little baby book we are trying to get a new structure in place as at the moment we are doing milk and solids at feeds and as a consequence Emily does not take all the milk, even if we give it to her first. She has 3 meals a day of either porridge, rice, fruit and veg and will allocate times for solids only and times for milk only. Do you do this??

I know what you mean, it does sound complicated but then you think back to the beginning when we were all trying to establish a routine, it was complicated then. Now it is a case of tweaking things a little bit which should work itself out in time.

Have you dropped milk feeds coz of the solids? I did not as my HV visitor told me not to but this was when Emily was just over 4 months so perhaps it changes at 6 months.

Anyway, must run Emily's bath, lots of splattery poos again today so a nice bath may help her bum - poor thing!

Natalie & Emily xx

Tell me about it

the new message was a bit shorter, prob good for you as I was waffling as usual!

I've got the Annabel Karmel book with meal plans in and following that we did try and drop the feed at lunch and replace it with water but Sam was too hungry so I abandoned that! The new plan is to up him to 3 solid meals a day this week and try again to drop the bottle and replave with water but maybe have 8oz in his first and last bottle rather than 7. Annabel Karmel recommends that for lunch and tea, give the solids first and then let them have as much milk as they need and at breakfast to give bottle first. I'm thinking that it's just gonna be trial and error and that his meals may no longer be 3 hours apart and that he will sometimes need a bigger bottle than others as I've noticed his milk intake has dropped as a whole.

Anyway, i'm waffling now and my head is a bit fuzzy thru too much thinking and also the wine i'm partaking in, ha ha!

Take care, hope Emily's bum is a bit better x x x

Hey

I know the feeling, I am on my second glass of red.......

I decided to have a bath with Emily, only problem was the water may have been too cold as she was not enjoying it as much as she normally does (Mummy was hurt), plus Mark popped her on the bed to dress her and she weed everywhere, so the duvet is on the line and the cover in the washing machine, 2nd time this week!! Best laid plans eh.......

Once Emily is settled again and her bum is better (looks so sore!) we will attempt to change things a bit!

Anyway have a good evening and hopefully a good nights sleep!

Natalie & Emily x

Hi

Ewan is just over 6 months now and he still has a dummy, he only really has it now for sleeping but i wanted to try and wean him off it but just can't so have decided to leave it for now and wait until he is a little older. My daughter found her thumb at 3 and half months which she still sucks now at nearly 4!

As for the night feed we dropped this a while back because Ewan was doing the same as Emily only taking 2 oz so i didn't see the point in disturbing him for that amount. If he woke in the night i just gave him back the dummy as sometimes night feeds can become just a habbit for them not a need. Ewan was approx 4.5/5 months when we stopped the night feed.

Any milk in food counts as part of their daily intake (even in things like cheese sauces, yogurts etc) so i wouldn't stress if Emily is cutting down on bottles.

We are at a stage now where the afternoon bottle is cutting down as he's just not interested in it. Ewans routine at the mo is:

6-6.30 bottle 6oz
8am breakfast
11.30 lunch (i give him meat/fish and veggies) and pudding (fruit or yogurt)
2.30 bottle only taking about 4oz now
5.00 tea (usually vegetables) and pudding
7.00 bottle (he will take a bigger bottle 7-8oz)

He goes straight to bed after this bottle and sleeps right through. His routine has to work around my daughter with nursery pick ups etc and her meal times but it works really well for us and both are in bed by 7/7.30 so we get an evening to ourselves!!

Hope this helps but it takes time and alot of trial and error!!

Kelly, Abbie and Ewan xx

Hi natalie

I'm a 1st time mum too so will be no help at all on the food questions, in fact i'm lookin forward to readin your replies for some help myself lol.
However have a read a bit about dropping the last feed ( 10pm) as will have to do this with my lil man. It sounds like Emily feeds well during the day so you may be able to drop it altogether as she only has 1-2 oz , or what i read advised to drop 1 oz of the late feed at a time but to include it in her earlier feed say 6.30pm but also move the late feed (10pm ) forward by half an hour at a time and change this over a few days/ weeks and once you get to the late feed being say 8.30pm you can then drop it as its so close to her feed ????

not sure if any of that made sense but hope you get the gist of it lol

by the way what sort of times do you feed emily do you try and stick to breakfast lunch and dinner etc or go say every 4 hours etc ??

t care
Em & Dylan 5 months tomorrow x x x

Feeding

Hi there,

Thanks for the reply..... Re the late feed, I wonder if we should move it forward..... think we will knock it out all together as she takes so little

We do the following at the mo
7am 5 ounce bottle
10am 5 ounce bottle and baby rice with fruit or porridge (some of the 5 ounce will be used in the rice - unless she drinks it all of course!)
1pm 5 ounce bottle and pureed veg like carrot, sweet pot or butternut squash
4pm 5 ounce bottle and baby rice with fruit
7pm 5 ounce bottle (if she is still awake then we may try a little bit of baby rice but not sure if this is too much!?)
10pm 4 ounce bottle (but she only takes 1-2 ounces)

Altogether Emily is not a big feeder (on the milk) so her average is about 20 ounces a day.

What do you do?

Natalie & Emily x

Well ...

we've only been on solids for about 4 weeks so its still mainly a liquid diet and not set in stone but our day normally goes somethin like ..

7am - porridge and 5oz bottle
11am - wake from nap 4oz bottle
12.30 - half small jar or pureed veg etc and 4oz bottle
3pm - wake from nap 4oz bottle
4.30pm - half jar of baby rice pudding or pureed fruit
6.30pm - 6oz bottle and bed ( although norm only takes 4oz )
10pm - 6oz bottle ( dream feed )

God when you write it down it seems like loads although he doesn't usually take all of the bottles now that he has some solids as well .. how does that sound ladies too much ??

Good luck dropping the dream feed hun i reckon you'll be fine as she only has such a small amount

t care
Em & Dylan x x x