Graduated Elderberries. Thread 9

[Cavort]

The over 30's expecting or just had their first baby.

Hope you feel better soon purple.

Hows the pregnancy going puppy? Good I hope!

hi everyone. so far so good cleo not had much in way of symptoms so feeling quite lucky!
thanks for the advice, ordered a lovely m&p blanket and will get a couple of cheaper ones too!

I don't believe it...Sophia just slept for 7 WHOLE HOURS STRAIGHT!!!!!

Yesterday I was really shattered and S also had a bit of a funny day as she was really alert, wide awake during my NCT meet up but not really crying that much. She was also awake lots in the evening, quite smiley and chatty, entertaining herself in her jungle gym and laughing with DH. She also got lots of wind when feeding so cried quite a bit in the evening. Anyway I thought "she'll be overtired and we're in for a shocking night", but no, best night so far! When she woke me up, first thing I thought was "hang on, why do I feel so human"?! Looked at the time and gave her the biggest hug!

oh thats fab to hear puppy. I was like that and actually really enjoyed being pregnant.

Yesderday was a good day, H took 30oz of milk, he napped in his cot in his room, I tried him in his door bouncer to tire him out a bit before bed an hw loved it, he went down like a dream. Then he woke up every sodding hour and a half on the dot for the whole night, took over 7oz. It must be a growth spurt.....I bloody hate growth spurts

nice one alex, what a good girl S is

Yay Alex! Well done S!

We had another shocker over here. L does not appreciate being alone in her room and is making sure we know about it . I caved in at 5 and let her into bed with me so at least I got a few hours sleep. How is it going for you cav? Anyone else has any tips?
Yay Alex you were due a good one

Lol until last night I would have said it was going reasonably well - she has still been getting up for her usual 1-2 hour stint, but she has otherwise slept well, has been going to sleep fine in there at bedtime and getting up for the day around 12 hours later. She has also been taking 2 decent naps of c. 2h in the morning and c. 1-1.5h in the afternoon in there all week. I think this decent daytime rest has resulted in her awake time between naps being nearly 3 hours and she is happy and smiley for most of it, which is much better than the tired grumpy baby I had last week.

Last night however, she went to bed at 7.45, struggled to get to sleep more than usual, woke at midnight for a 15 min feed, then woke 02.30-04.00 and got up for the day at 06.30 even though she was clearly still tired she wouldn't go back to sleep. I know this is still not that bad compared to some nights we've had, but it's definitely a step backwards. She is now flat out on nap number one and I am hoping she sleeps long enough to catch up on last night and wakes up in a good mood.

I haven't got any tips other than just persevering. I remember when I first tried to get her to nap in her bouncy chair instead of on me she kicked off every time, but after about a week something just clicked and she happily went to sleep in the chair and slept much better as a result.

L has gone back to waking me up at 4/4.30 every day for reasons known only to herself, oh well, sleeping through was a novelty for the week or two it happened

I'm very lucky though that she has always just fed and gone back to sleep in the night. I wonder if it is because she doesn't nap much in the day? And she's refusing to go to sleep until about 10pm most night now too. I think she's worried she might miss something.

They shouldn't be allowed to regress or take steps backward cav - am thinking of getting S to sign a contract for our new sleeping terms and conditions!

With the sleeping in bouncer thing and her getting used to napping in it, did you just keep putting her in it every day? And then did you pick up when she kicked off and let her sleep on you? Did you talk to her/try and soothe her to sleep in it? I'm fine for S to have her morning naps on me for now but just thinking ahead!

Alex at first I used to put her in the chair asleep, which invariably used to wake her up but I then did PUPD until she eventually stayed asleep. Once she was used to the feel of sleeping in the chair, I put her in it awake when I knew she was tired, tucked her in with a blanket and made sure she couldn't see the TV or anything else distracting. Then I sat next to her, offered the dummy (which she refused at first so I just used to hold it next to her mouth) and then I shushed, held her hand, stroked her nose (which encouraged her to close her eyes) and generally did anything which offered comfort without actually picking her up. After a varying period of time and some protesting, she would take the dummy from next to her mouth and drift off to sleep. I used to give it about 30 mins of trying and if she still wasn't asleep or if she got distressed I would pick her up and cuddle/calm her and then put her down as soon as her eyes were closing. When I first started doing this she would never go to sleep, but persistence paid off and she eventually started going to sleep, and then the time it took her to go to sleep reduced until it was just a few minutes, and then I started gradually less physical contact until it reached a point where I could put her in the chair, put the dummy in and as long as someone was in sight she would go to sleep. And FX this process has transferred well from the chair to her cot as she is going to sleep in a few minutes as long as someone is in the room with her until she's out for the count. It was a very slow and gradual process though so if you try it don't expect results too soon. It took about a week to get her to sleep in the chair, but weeks and weeks for her to go to sleep quickly in there.

Aww Purple I can't believe she's night waking again. You were my ray of hope that 3 decent meals a day would mean better sleep!

Not a great night here either, several wakings to feed. Although he heats plenty during the day now, so it should not be strictly necessary.

I know it's a mean thing to say, but it is comforting to hear that others have similar problems and my baby is not broken - according to anybody talking babies to DH, all other babies in the world sleep through the night without fail.

Hazle of course all other babies except ours through... as a cross-section of average new Mums, it's obviously purely coincidental that all of our babies are abnormal and broken. Has your DH had a good read of ISIS so he can correct them?

Yes who are these mythological babies we all hear about who sleep through the night from being all of about ten minutes old? because we've got a fair old representation of babies here and none of them are doing it so I'm calling bullshit on it.

Cross posts with cavort there

cav good persistence with the chair thing! What stage did you start doing that at, roughly? Might try it and see how S gets on. For now I'm going to let her sleep on me when we're at home during the day and enjoy the peaceful times!

I've been doing no dairy since last Friday and S has had good days so now I'm wondering if I should keep that going but it's so bloody hard! Also S had two rough nights this week and has still been crying and getting wind/reflux so maybe it isn't making any difference and just coincidence she's had some good days. Hard to know if it's having an effect but it's all over the internet to try cutting out dairy for reflux. I miss cake!!

Don't know where the word sleep disappeared to? I blame sleep depravity from my broken baby.

Don't you just love weaning? I am knackered and unprepared today so I blended up some veg, a chicken dipper and baby rice - yuk! But she happily ate it and is now smearing rasberry yoghurt all over her face.

Cross posts Alex. I can't remember exactly but I think she was about 10-12 weeks.

It's funny because it has gone full circle now and if I am in a situation where I need her to sleep on me she struggles to do it and much prefers to sleep on her own.

Alex, good luck with the dairy. I'm lactose intolerant and used to get a lot of reflux, and I think it's improved by cutting out lactose. It depends how specific the cutting out is - if it's dairy in total then that's harder, but lactose is easier because you can get lactofree milk and cheese and cream.... Mmmmm

Thanks tallyra it's so hard to cut it out and I have no idea if it's milk proteins or lactose, or nothing at all to do with that! DH said maybe I should eat it as even if it's causing issues now, we could ride it out, whereas cutting it out night lead to allergies later if she isn't used to it. She also had a terrible night on Monday, screaming for ages, and I was dairy free then. Maybe I'll give it a few more days, then eat dairy for a week and read my food diary and see if overall it made a difference (although again that could be down to growth spurts etc). Either way I am dreaming about cheese and cake!

Oh and by the way - some dairy free things I've discovered which you might like - alpro almond milk is quite nice, sainsbury's do a free from section and there lemon cookies are lovely, so are their 'naked' bars, and m&s do a great stir fry deal with rice pad Thai noodles and sauces without dairy.

I might have to check m+s sometime then!

Alex pretty sure you could make dairy free carrot cake, as most recipes use sunflower oil rather than butter.
I was wondering how long it takes food irritants to make it into the BM? Do you know?

Maybe our babies are broken because we are all old????
Everyone else I speak to on playgroup and swimming seems to have a baby who sleeps. Oh yeah, maybe it's the formula then as none of them are breastfed!
Question re weaning- we only started on mon and L seems keen to have two meals already. Yesterday we had carrot for lunch and porridge with apple in the evening. Today we had a bit of sweet potato - not very successful - and more porridge. I was thinking of offering avocado this evening. What do you think? Am I offering too much too soon?