How are you Motherosette?

I am also a believer that babies should be given the opportunity to entertain themselves. 

I found that starting them out playing on a rug near where I was working gave them the security to start to explore on their own and we could build up gradually.  I have to admit that my fourth daughter has been a breeze.  From about 4 months she has wanted to be down on the floor amongst her sisters playing and would cry to be put down.  Now she toddles off with them and only wants me to feed. A huge difference to my third daughter who is still more clingy even at 3 years.

Thanks for all your replies. 

We do the hand washing, eat really well with lots of raw fruit and veges etc but we seem to still be constantly sick.

I do believe it builds healthy immune systems in the long term but I think it's just having 4 young children that means by the time the last is better there is a new round.  The last of them recovered last week and now we are starting a new cycle with a different bug!

I am exhausted caring for them all     Maybe I should start a thread on how to cope with that 

Since we are in the thick of winter here and I've had 3 of my 4 girls sick the past week I was just wondering what others do to ward off or treat all those annoying illnesses that are so prevalent in winter.

I generally try and get my girls to rest and just wait it out and try and make them comfortable but I wondered if anyone here had any wonderful remedies or take preventative measures. 

The only thing I would suggest is that you either wean around 11 months or wait a few months because I have always found my babies to go through a stage of being more easily distracted from breastfeeding around 11 months and then going through a growth spurt around 12months which meant they needed a lot more breastmilk until they were around the 16 month age.  I've spoken to quite a few friends who have noticed the same thing and it is really hard to wean a baby around 12 months because they become more aware of wanting to be breastfed.  It is also common for them to need to feed as much as a newborn around the 12month age so if it is really becoming a problem for you it's worth considering.

Other than that I really don't know.  My babies all weaned some time during pregnancy so I've yet to consciously wean a baby.  Good luck.

ETA here is a really great link for weaning, scroll down to the bottom for tips on how to wean.

http://www.breastfeeding.asn.au/bfinfo/weaning.html

Hi

Is your baby already on solid food or are you planning on starting them with baby cereal?  Honestly for babies it's better to start them on food which is not processed such as fruit and vegetables that have been steamed and mashed.  Your baby can eat whatever your family eats which is much easier than having specific baby food.

Here is a good article about introducing solids.

http://www.breastfeeding.asn.au/bfinfo/solids.html

We have started all our children on mashed pumpkin, avocado or whatever else we were having.  We also added rice fairly early since we eat it several times a week.  We also found that our babies always wanted what we were having anyway so it was easier and also meant that we were much more conscious of eating really healthy food which is always a good thing.

Hi goodnightmoon

What you are describing is exactly what happened with all my elder children when the baby was about 6 months.  It didn't seem to matter how old they were it was always when bub was around the same age so I think it has more to do with that then the older child.

I think there are a lot of reasons why your son is not as attached to the baby as he was.  6 months is a long time to have a baby take up so much of your time and is also around the time when bub starts to be a little bit more independent and can play without you for a short while, is starting to move around and do much more.  I think the elder child thinks that the baby is more able to be left alone and that they should be getting back some of the attention you have been giving to the baby.  Of course you still need to spend a lot of time with bubba but it is hard for them to understand this at their age.

Also it is about the time when the baby starts wanting everything they see and taking the older child's toys which is hard for them.  At 4 in particular children are learning how to share and also that they can not just take a toy off somebody else.  They have a great sense of right and wrong but not the ability to understand that a baby is unable to share so this can cause conflict.

Also the novelty of a baby is wearing off after 6 months and it is becoming a bit routine so the boredom with the baby sets in.

The good news is that we've found this stage soon passes and your boy will be back to being attached to bub in no time.  We always found it helpful to make some special time for the older child when bubba slept and teaching them to give the baby another toy if they wanted the one bub was playing with or had just taken from them.  This made it much, much easier to deal with bub wanting all the toys the older child had. 

Other than that you just need to let your older boy work it out and he will soon find that bubba is starting to be a more interesting playmate.

Congratulations 2010 BEBES.

Do you feel differently about your daughter expecting a baby than you did your son?  I have been told that there is something really special about seeing your daughter become a mother.

I haven't had a water birth but I have many, many friends who have.  Water is a fantastic form of pain relief and it is not in any way dangerous to Mum or baby.  Contrary to what I've heard the baby won't drown or anything like that.

Personally I have very short labours and there would not be enough time to fill a birth pool let alone get into one.  I also really dislike the feeling of anything on me even water so it's never really been something I've considered in any great detail.  If I laboured for more than an hour I would definitely consider it but I go from nothing to contractions every minute within 5 minutes of my first contraction so have never had a real labour where I have needed relief from water.

Water is also known to speed up labour so is a good option if you are prone to long labours.  My friends have all said it is a huge help to be able to relax in the water between contractions. 

The hospitals here previously had a policy that there were to be no water births but are now installing birth pools and training midwives to deliver in water.  Prior to this you could only have a water birth at a home birth so this is a really great thing to have the option of a water birth in hospital.

Wow, none of my girls have had any teeth until they have been around 10-11 months and at 13 months my daughter has only 3 teeth.

My eldest DD is nearly 9 and has only lost 4 teeth so far which is a lot less than others her age.  She lost her first tooth the month before she turned 8.

With my first daughter I found out around 17 weeks but I knew anyway from the moment I found out I was pregnant.  There was never any doubt that she was a girl.

My second daughter I found out when she was born because at the ultrasound they couldn't tell as she was crossing her legs.  It was very, very frustrating because I really wasn't sure one way or the other.

My third daughter I found out at my first ultrasound around 28 weeks.

My fourth daughter we couldn't tell at the first ultrasound around 29 weeks but when I had another ultrasound at 40 weeks we found out so I had a couple of weeks before she was born to buy some extra girly clothes.

It all depends on positioning as well as the experience of the ultra-sonographer.  Although with our third daughter my husband and I took one look and both picked it since by then we had seen heaps of ultrasounds.  Plus she gave us a very good view so if we had wanted it to be a surprise it would have been impossible.

 

  mylittleones, you are a great parent indeed!

I am a great parent today because I managed to get all four girls to my eldest daughter's hockey today, on my own, on time and even remembered to cut up fruit for the little ones and bring it with me.  Without completely stressing about it.

Wow, that is a lot of vitamins.  I have to say that I believe the majority of my children's essential nutrients and vitamins come from the food they eat.  If they are sick then I would supplement while the rest and recuperate but other than that I don't.

The biggest thing you can do to increase your child's intake of essential nutrients is to include a wide range of organic fruit and vegetables in their diets.  These are more abundant in organic food and whilst somebody eating conventional produce may be lacking in essential vitamins and minerals somebody who has a plentiful supply of organic produce should not.

I will be back later to some links about this but am on the laptop so don't have access to my links.

You know I really do wonder sometimes if the reason so many adults have issues sleeping is because as children so many of us were on strict sleep schedules and we have lost the ability to know when we are actually tired and need to sleep.

I do think that most children will sleep when tired if they are left to self regulate and that the insistence on sleep experts of a 7:00/7:30pm bedtime regardless of a child's individual needs impedes their ability to self regulate.

I am all in favour of a bedtime routine to wind down but I'm not convinced that a set time is necessary.

Thanks for bumping Kreena.  I am familiar with Alfie Kohn but haven't read the other links so I know what I will be reading when I'm feeding bub today.