Alright all you wise moms out their... I need advice and input!
The boys are 9 months old... lots of things are changing and since I am not one to read parenting books (don't get mad) I am at a loss. Can you help me out?
Brian and I are trying to get them to take two naps a day but in the end they get so fussy around 6:45-7pm that we put them down and wake them back up for their bath and night bottle. Should we just give them a bath and bottle earlier?
They are holding their own bottle (for the most part) but they are laying down on a pillow.... how do I get them to sit up and drink their bottle?
We are starting to feed them finger food, I have been procrastinating on my part.... I hate to grocery shop... anyhow, we are starting but I don't know how much food the boys should be eating. They get 4-8 ounce bottles of formula a day and drink most of it but I don't know how much 3rd foods or finger foods I should be giving them.
When should I start trying to put their formula in a sippy cup? Should I, and if so should it still be warmed?
Our pedi said we could start whole milk around 11 months because we will be going out of town for their year birthday and I do not want to take cans of formula... do I warm the milk up too? When do you stop warming up formula to get them use to cold stuff? Do you?
Our new play area!!
Since John is crawling and Brandon is scooting we have moved into their playroom... finally 
Thanks Grandpa and Nana for the fun playzone
Brandon
John
John posing for yet another picture
Brandon goofing off
packing up getting ready to leave... this is their jumper
Poser
The cutest red heads ever hanging out with their cousins
Miss Lacye holding John... they bonded way back when John was three months old
My favorite picture!
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9 comments:
Wow I want to play in that room. That is awesome.
I can offer some advice but we are still transitioning to table food as well. We are 11 months today. I have never been one to warm their bottles. Even when our babies were young we never warmed them. We always thought room temp was easier since we are a family on the go. With your boys I would try gradually changing the temp since they are use to it being warm. Maybe not warm it as much one day then the next go to room temp and so on.
We just started giving our babies a cup at breakfast, lunch and dinner with half milk, half formula while still in their high chairs. I never put whole milk in their bottle (which they only get at night) because once they go to milk I am hoping to do away with bottles. We will see about that! I make a bottle with 4 oz formula and pour in 2 or 3 oz of milk, mix it up then pour into cup. Ours still take 2 naps 10 and 2 (or more like 3 these day) They both eat dinner at 5:30 - 6 then play while we eat and clean up, bath then bed at 7 - 7:30.
When ours were 9 months we would let them drink their night bottle on their boppy then put them in the bed once they finished. Some days they finished and some they didn't. They were so tired they fell right to sleep and slept until 7 am. Now we still do the same but without the boppy. It only takes about 10 mins for them to suck down their bottles.
As far as amounts of food. It's tough. We would do 2 3rd food jars per meal. Now it's more like 2 3rd food jars per day. It's hard to measure how much they are eating when it's a bowl of peas vs a measured jar. I just watch them and can usually tell when they are full. If they cry when I walk away then I guess they are still hungry. lol
Sorry for such a long comment. hopefully I helped a little. Feel free to email me.
Happy 9 months! They are growing up SO fast! As far as the sleeping goes, mine went to bed at 6:30 for a very long time! Just now are we beginning to keep them up until about 7:30. So I would recomend doing your bedtime routine earlier and putting them down for the night.
Playroom looks like so much fun! I'm not much help of the sippy cup issue. I tried ever cup there is and we use the cheap nuby no spill cups and sport sippers. Only recently can Andrew sit up and drink, he's always had to lay down. I still warm their milk but only to about room temp.
First off-LOVE your playroom and those sweet smiles!! Can you believe they are already 9 months?? Ahh!!!
On to questions:
Taking 2 naps a day-I would try to keep them up as long as possible-but mine do go to sleep a little earlier now that they are taking 2 naps a day. They usually go to sleep b/w 7:30 and 7:45 now. We start baths then bottles about 7:15 but sometimes earlier if they didn't get good naps that day. So....yes, I would try putting them down a little earlier at night.
I can't help you with getting them to sit up and hold their bottle. Mine still don't do that. I figure they will do it on their own time and it's really not that big of a deal to me b/c there aren't that many times where I need them to do that.
As far as how much to eat with finger food: They will eat what they need and they know when they are full. I put different things on their plate and they eat and will usually stop eating and start playing or get fussy when they are full. They are still getting a bottle after so I know that they are getting enough. I wouldn't worry about it. Offer them food and let them eat as much as they want-they will let you know when they are full just like they do with baby food. I prepare some stuff ahead of time if I can. I put small portions into snack size bags and put in fridge so that they are ready to go. Or I will put them in the snack size bags and then put those bags into a freezer bag so that I can still get them out easily and throw them in the fridge to unfreeze.
Our pedi told us the same thing about whole milk so we will probably start that soon. That is when we will make the switch to sippy cups and no more bottles. I'm just not going to put any whole milk in a bottle...only sippys. They get their bottle right now at room temp, I don't warm them up and haven't for a really long time. Not b/c you shouldn't but just b/c I knew it would be a pain in my butt! :) I will probably gradually get them used to colder and colder milk when they start whole milk so that they can eventually just take it straight from the fridge. Maybe you could just gradually serve it colder so that you can cut out warming the bottles up?
Hope that something I said helps. Let me know if you need anything else! Love ya!
Ashley
Hey Court :)
Happy 9 months Brandon and John! Can't believe how fast it's flying by.
Super cute play room! And super cute pics of the boys.
Can't help you on the warm vs. cold milk issue....but I think gradually getting them used to it is a good idea.
As far as the finger food goes I have been giving Brityn some after she eats her spoon fed meal. I just give her a little bit (example- cut up cooked carrots probably a heaping tablespoon full) and if she eats that up quick I will give her a little more. The boys will let you know when they are full. Brityn starts throwing her food on the floor when she is done :)
Hi there - your boys are getting cuter and cuter all the time!!! They are obviously doing very well.
I was wondering where that playroom was bought cuz we'd love to get something like that on a smaller scale for Braeden...it looks so fun!
That is an awesome play room! I am officially jealous! :D
Um... so I already forgot some of what you asked, but I'll help you with what I remember! (some of it still doesn't apply to me anyway)
The third nap thing - for a while with Kendra we would just go for a walk when she started getting fussy in the evening. If she dozed off, great! I'd let her sleep up to 30 minutes. If she stayed awake, cool. We already start her bedtime routine at 7:00, and she is always in bed by 7:30. Her bath really helps calm her down when she is fussy.
She still doesn't take her own bottle, I'm impressed!
With the formula temp thing, you could try offering it to them without warming it. That's what I do with Kendra. Then maybe when they are ready for milk you could just see how they do. My nephew would get so impatient for his milk that he wouldn't even wait for it to get warmed up, so that was pretty convenient.
I would probably ask the doc about how much to feed them. Just remember that they are all so different. They may still want more of their formula than their food. :)
Hey girl...
I would put the boys to bed earlier. I have always put keegan and jack to bed around 6:45. It is strange, but the earlier you put them to bed the longer they sleep.
Great playroom!
I'll make my advice short and sweet.
Put them down earlier!!! Mine go to bed between 7-7:30 and sleep until 6:30 - 7am.
Get them used to the sippy cups with water in them first. Give them a while. You dont want to force them or they will get mad and reject the cups. Ease into it. Eventually you can switch one feeding at a time. No rush.
Sit them in their highchairs with the bottles and help them hold them until they get the hang of it.
I wouldn't start whole milk until they are one year, esp if they were preemies. Plus you don't want to make a huge change while you are traveling.
Ok, that's my two cents!
I'm sure you've already got tons of good advice..but, I'll weigh in too. My kids go to bed at 7 every night.. Dinner at 5:30, bath at 6:30, cup of milk, brush teeth, in bed. That is a good time for this age to go to bed. Then they would take naps at 9 and 1 when they did 2 naps a day. I didn't warm their formula ever and just gradually added milk, 2 oz per bottle for a couple days, 4 oz, etc. I would give them a sippy just to play with a meals and let them figure it out. You can also hold a sippy for them like you would a bottle so they can kind of get used to it. GOOD LUCK!
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