KateW

Hi all, We're after a sports buggy that we can use off-road (adventures in the woods etc where the path is more gravel or bumpy) for our 11 month old daughter. We've currently got a Pliko Pramatte that was given to us but it's no good off road. I have no idea about what to buy; what would people recommend? I'd like to be able add one of those 'pods' underneath the buggy when we have another baby. Thanks!

Fuschia, I really think that's the wisest thing I've read on weaning in a long time (the bit about the Chinese restaurant). It made me gulp and feel very guilty about not REALLY thinking how it must all seem to my daughter. OK, new perspective on feeding tomorrow...

Awesome idea jennyh; I'd buy it!

jennyh wrote: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I make mine laugh by doing something stupid and then shove the spoon in, the funny thing is that she now smiles with pursed lips so she too has worked it out! Oh this post has cheered me up no end and made me LOL! I started off loving weaning, smugly thinking 'Oh she's such a good little eater, this is a doddle' til she hit 7 months and demanded more independence and it all went pear-shaped! DD is now nearly 11 months and we have good eating days and not so good. I'm starting to be a bit more chilled out about things but as you've all said, it's just so darned hard. Then to top things, after a day of fussy eating yesterday (she has a cold and literally ate hardly anything) she slept a straight 12 hours and I had to wake her at 7am - she's NEVER done this!! There's me, daily cramming her with every carb I can find at tea-time to keep her nice and full then, blow me, she eats nadda, just milk, and has a blissful 12 hours! MONKEY.

After posting a similar query on here a while ago, we went with the popular recommendation of the Maclaren Quest and haven't looked back; it's brilliant! Lightweight, easy to use, good value etc.

Saffron this thread is sooooooo true. After the umpteenth 'cry on husband in the kitchen' session today, I really am starting to wonder if I'll ever just let rip and belly laugh again! No-one really tells you what long term sleep deprivation does to the soul (god that sounds over drammatic, I just have an early rising daughter, that's all). We're off on holiday tomorrow for the first time since DD arrived 9 months ago and I'm hopeful the change of scene will unearth the lighter hearted side of me that seems to have gotten lost in baby-world. Heres to some good ol' fashioned laughter for us all! x

From memory, the pain was only really bad for about a day and then it subsided and I didn't really think anything more of it. Boobs were back to 'normal', albeit smaller and droopier :o(, within about 3 days I think. I wouldn't express if it was me, as I think it would just prolong things. Hang in there!

Hi all, Our second wedding anniversary is in a few weeks time and my exhausted baby brain is lacking inspiration; has anyone got any good ideas for a gift for the hubby with the theme of 'cotton or straw'?

OMG this made me laugh out loud Moos! Madam (8 months old) took to solids brilliantly til about 2 weeks ago when she's started being really fussy. Yesterday, after trying to be calm during teatime, I found myself having a couple of spoonfuls of her tea then looking at the bowl and thinking, 'Oh you managed to eat a fair bit there little one'. WHO AM I KIDDING?!! I did chuckle to myself afterwards but don't feel half so bad now I've just read your post. Thanks, cheered me up no end!

Sounds great! Well done. Out of interest, how old is your son? Our daughter is 8 months and I'm wondering at what stage to reduce her morning nap and then cut it our altogether.

Gina Ford isn't a dirty word! LOL! Sounds like he might be ready to drop the morning nap completely. I'm dreading dropping that nap! I think there's meant to be a couple of months transition when the morning nap is dropped so you might just have to be a bit flexible with early lunch and lunchtime naps for a while until he gets used to it. DD was a bit cranky for a while when we started pushing her nap to 9.30am but I think she's getting used to it now. Could you do lunch at 11.30am and nap at 12pm?

Does your son still have a morning nap or just a lunch time nap? If they nap too early in the morning, their little bodies use this nap as an extension of their night-time sleep and so they continue to wake early, knowing thay'll catch up with their sleep in a little while. We're currently trying to tackle early morning waking with our 8 month old little girl. We're following Gind Ford's nap routine (shock, horror!) and she suggests putting them down for their morning nap as near to 9.30am to try and break the early waking. Our daughter would wake anytime from 5am, although usually nearer to 5.30am and I used to put her down for a nap around 8.45am and let her sleep for 45mins. However by now putting her for a nap at 9.30am for 25-30 mins and lunchtime nap around 12.30pm, she's waking more consistently at 6am (with some 6.30am wake ups), going to bed at 7pm. Apparantly it takes a while for the changes to occur but I'm hopeful that she'll get more consistent. Hubby gets up at 6am so that suits us, although I'd dearly love for her one day to sleep til 7am! Good luck.

JessB that made me laugh my head off!

My daughter is 7 and a half months and the pattern for her growth spurts have been that she's just been out of sorts for a few days; a bit cranky, nothing specific but she's never seemed to be any hungrier, despite everyone saying that they feed more during growth spurts. The crankiness has tended to pass in a few adys then I've thought 'Oh, that was probably another growth spurt'!

Not yet as I'm currently just feeding her in the kitchen which is tiled. I put her in it when I'm doing things in the living/dining room and she plays quite happily with a toy. I plan on putting an old towel under it when we start eating together as a family in the dining room to catch the spills.

We've got the Baby Bjorn high chair and it's fantastic; quite possibly the best thing we've bought for our daughter.

Hi HonorOaker, My daughter is now 7 months and since we did CC she has always managed to sleep through her 35/40 min sleep cycle. I have to wake her from her morning nap and at lunchtime she sleeps 1.5-2 hours. She had a phase of sleeping 2 hours at lunch but since she's had a cold and been teething, it's more like 1.5hrs. The last few days I've cuddled her when she's woken after 1.5 hours and she's gone straight back to sleep in my arms (and we've had a nice cuddly sleep in bed for another half an hour). Today I didn't go in when she woke and she managed to get herself back to sleep for another half an hour. I'm not sure what I'd do if she woke again after 45 mins; if your son isn't crying then maybe go back to your old technique to get his body clock used to having the longer naps. If he's crying when he wakes then I'd do CC again. Sorry that's not much help. From things I've read, when there are blips in a baby's sleep routine (cold, teething, illness etc) it is sometimes necessary to go back to CC to re-establish the previous behaviour but it's meant to be much easier than the initial CC and isn't meant to take very long. Best of luck x

Sweep did nothing for me; I did loads of step-ups on the stairs one afternoon and went into labour that evening, 5 days overdue!

I know you say you want to stick with tommee tippee but maybe try MAM teats; I've leant my bottles to 3 friends who all struggled to get their babies to take from a bottle and they all got on brilliantly with the MAM ones.

Thanks everyone for your comments. Supergolden, yes I used to do a feed at 11pm but stopped about 6 weeks ago as she had never slept later than 5.30am and it didn't seem to make any difference (got to the stage where she was only taking 2-3 oz anyway). We've tried reintroducing it and it makes no difference; little lady still wakes at 5.30am. I'm going to try a few more weeks of not feeding her at that time and holding out til nearer 7am to see if it pushes her to wake any later. Incidentally, as she's full of a cold this morning, I gave her a short feed at 5.30am as she was crying lots but it didn't get her back to sleep. Normally a feed then would always send her back to sleep. Bless her, she's really grotty with this cold! Thanks Trish, it is good to know that I'm not alone with this one!

My daughter is 6 and a half months and has been waking around 5/5.30am for a long time. I understand that all babies come into a light sleep between 5-6am but she just can't seem to resettle. She naps well at 9.15am (for 30-40 mins)and 12.30pm (for 2 hours) and goes to sleep at 7pm. She goes to sleep by herself, unaided, so I know she can settle and resettle herself at these times. She sleeps through the night until she wakes at 5/5.30am. Up until a few weeks ago, I was feeding her when she woke then putting her back in her cot and she'd sleep until I woke her at 7am. However, because I was giving her 5-6oz (she's formula fed) she wasn't then interested in breakfast milk at 7am, so this in turn would throw out her meal pattern for the day. (She is on solids and is eating a good lunch and tea, when she has a full bottle at 7am). So, I decided to only start offering her 2-3oz at 5.30am and get her back to sleep so she would still be hungry at 7am. That worked for about a week then I decided to stop feeding her at all and trying to resettle her without the bottle (as I presumed she was waking through habit and expecting to be fed). I was able to settle her back to sleep on the first day but since then (about 4 days) she hasn't settled and has dozed and cried on and off. Then, on Monday morning she stirred at 5.30am but resttled herself til 6.25am and the next morning til 6.20am. Since then she has been full of a cold so everything is out the window as her sleep is quite disturbed. She takes between 22-24oz of formula per day plus 2 good solid meals including protein and carbs, so I know she's getting enough to eat and shouldn't be needing a feed at 5.30am. My question is, should I stick to my guns (when she's well again) and resist feeding her til 7am? I'm happ to start the day at 6/6.30am (as I'm from a family of early risers) but 5/5.30am is just too early! Has anyone got any advice they'd be willing to share? Many thanks.

I spent the first 4 months of my daughter's life feeling hugely guilty for cuddling and rocking her to sleep for naps (guilty because everything I read seem to suggest this would instill bad habits). I would curl up with her at nap times (9am, 12pm and 4pm) and made sure she got the naps she needed or take her out in the pram as she'd sleep in there. I would often sleep the 2 hours at lunchtime with her snuggled on me and it was lovely. Then at about 4 and a half months I started to try and put her in her cot for naps using shush/pat then pick up/put down when she was a bit older. It worked partially in that she would sleep in her cot but never for longer than half and hour, at which point I'd cuddle her back to sleep. I did controlled crying at 6 months and it worked a treat (with only one day of bad crying - 50 mins on and off - after that it was 10 mins, then 7 then just a few whimpers). I'm very consistent with the wind down time: low lights and cuddles for 5 mins then sleeping bag on (at which point she usually cries) then I walk round with her snuggled into my shoulder whispering 'It's just sleepy time' until she goes quiet, then I lay her awake in her cot and leave the room; she's usually asleep within a few mins. She now naps brilliantly in her cot and I've realised that she probably just needed those cuddles in the first few months and it has had no impact on her ability to nap by herself. I wish to god I hadn't wasted so much energy feeling bad about cuddling and rocking her to sleep; I agree with Fuschia and when I have another one I'll relish those snuggly cuddles.

One final update on the nap situation: CC has been a HUGE success for cracking my daughter's napping. For the last 4 days she has gone in her cot awake, has barely whimpered and has been asleep by the time I've reached the monitor and turned it on! She has slept through her sleep cycles (so no more waking after the 35 minute mark) and has resettled herself with no tears, barely a peep. She has slept for nearly two hours each day since Wednesday. I honestly can't believe how quickly this happened and how much calmer she is now going down for her naps. I usually take her out for a walk for her 9.15am nap but the weather has been against us the past two days so I put her in her cot instead and I had to wake her both days. Hope this is encouraging for those pondering CC. Thanks again Forumites for the advice and support.

The jumperoo is by far the best thing we've bought for our daughter. She LOVES it!

It might have something to do with the late nap or total nap time. Babies of your daughter's age need no more than 3 hours sleep if they're to go 11-12 hours at night. If you're aiming to put her down at 7pm then she shouldn't sleep past 5pm so she has 2 hours awake time before bed. At 5 months my little girl was almost ready to drop the late pm nap and sometimes would have just a quick doze at say 4.45pm but I always made she I woke her at 5pm. I'd try and reduce your daughter's lunchtime nap to 2 and quarter hours max, then just allow her 15-20 mins before 5pm. OR, it might just have been a bad night! We had a rubbish night about a week ago but it was a one off and has been fine since. Good luck.