January 2014 Thread 17 - and the final babies will be here any day now!

[Frizz1986]

Thought i would start up the last thread before we move over to postnatal thread.

Ugh come to my mums for the weekend as it's my nieces birthday and my sister still lives close by. DP was invited to watch the local non-league football club by my sisters fiancé so they went out at 12.30. He turned up back here at 7ish absolutely hammered, and has thrown up his chips and mushy peas all over my mums spare room From the sounds of it, he's tried to keep up drinking with everyone else when he hasn't drank at all since last July! Because he's from the north east he reckons he can drink loads even though he can't haha. He's going to be mortified in the morning, I can't wait!

Oh frying you poor love. Ignore them, people always have baggage you can't predict.

Reached rock bottom today with the lack of daytime sleeping, and I think Alex realised she couldn't push us any further, as she napped twice for three and then two hours! This is unheard of, she's usually awake 90% of the day, and therefore in a foul mood from tiredness by evening. It's made a huge difference to both of our moods to have had a few hours without the screams and incessant walking/bouncing/singing/rocking! Now to get her down for the night...

felix your DH needs to do some serious childcare tomorrow! Preferably involving poo and vomit...

I second humpty!

Henry slept all night again, 8.30-5.30, gave him his dummy, then woke up at 7. We put him in his cot to sleep instead of downstairs with us, so maybe that made a difference? Who knows!

we're going to church today, i need to do better with it. So no more wine and I've gone back to decaf coffee. I'm gonna get the shloer in instead :)

dh is working again and is next off on Wed. I've done nearly a full week by myself and it hasn't been as bad as i thought

I am still around and empathising with you all! The crying has really ramped up with my Velcro baby this week, at nearly 8 weeks old. He full on cries with everything he has and the tears just pour and it breaks my heart (and my ears)!

Only managed to catch up to the 18th so far so still a few days to read.... Will have to try again later as the little monkey is beckoning!

Oh frying hugs. I have a similar problem with DS1. He's quite a small boy but he's solidly built and I know he's healthy. Just the last demented hv I had read his weight on the scales wrong and it looked like the weight was just falling off him, cue much judginess and panic. Our current hv came round and saw him eating (wolfing down a load of soup, toast and fruit) and said he was fine. Just he'd be smaller as I'm teeny and dp isn't huge.

felix I agree smelly and knackering childcare is in order.

humpty that sounds fantastic. Long may it last.

Cal seems to have a cold and that and the cluster feeding seems to have sent his sleep haywire. Last night he seemed to be ok and only got up about 3 times. We've been house sitting this weekend and were back home tonight so hopefully boys will be more settled.

nature Henry had a squint at his six week check and they are referring him as a precaution! Still waiting for the appointment to come thru....

pidgy what an awful shock for you! He must feel dreadful, but I completely understand your reaction. Glad you are finding the strength to put it behind you. Well done!

book omfg! Your hv! There are no words!!! Have you looked into hiring an NCT bed nest? About £100 for 6 months. That's what we did and by some miracle Henry sleeps in it at night. Not in the day, but in can cope with him attached to me in the day. He is a chest sleeper too.....

mrsv bless you. Sooo sorry to hear what you are going through. Really hope your day out helps. HTH xxx

How did last night go humpty?

Yes mrsv, I hope today goes well.

sultana I'm so scared that I'll hire the bednest or buy a Sleepyhead and then she won't use it. I bought a swing for her yesterday, as she likes being swung in her car seat, but she just screams in it.

I'm really struggling now. She feeds hourly still, and won't take a bottle/dummy so nobody else can help out. She won't go back to sleep after her 1am feed, and I'm desperately tired. It is getting worse, and I'd hoped things would start to get better at 6 weeks. DH just got half an hour out of her by standing in the greenhouse with the fan on for 20 minutes, but now she's awake and feeding again. Her tongue tie appointment isn't until the 10th, and that might not help anyway. I'm rubbish at this, and I'm starting to feel a bit desperate. I'm already upset at the thought of DH going to work tomorrow morning :( Sorry, mememe.

book your dd sounds jut like Alex. Still feeding constantly and only really settling on me at nearly 8 weeks old. He also has one long, windy stretch in the night where he won't even settle on me and just wriggles and squirms for over at least an hour before finally relaxing. I don't mind the feeding and sleeping on me as at least I can rest too but I hate the winding.
I'm also not keen to spend any more money on sleep aids that might not work so just trying to survive it. I know from experience with dd that the wind issue will resolve itself before too long then I think he will sleep much better. It'll help when he can sleep on his tummy too. Each night seems so long at the moment but looking back it will go so fast.

book firstly you are NOT rubbish at this. You are doing an amazing job! Look at you effectively single handedly sacrificing everything for your little bubs who is thriving because of you! That's an incredible thing!

I really feel for you. If Henry hadn't started sleeping in his bed nest at night around 5 weeks and gone on to formula I would be in exactly the same boat as you. I feel very lucky and wish I could come round to help you as I know how lonely and unbelievably exhausting it can feel.

I have a feeling you have a grace period with the hire of th bednest if you don't get on with it. Will have a look and see if I can find the link to the small print for you.

I have literally just ordered a poddlepod and a travel cot to try and use in the day (after a comment from DH asking when I will be able to put Henry down somewhere during the day, which I am sure wasn't a dig at me, but couldn't help seeing it that way), to see if I can at least pop Henry somewhere for half an hour so I can make some lunch.... Am currently surviving on chocolate until DH comes home and makes some real food! toby I am in awe of you and your sausage plait! I will let you know how I get on with the poddlepod....

I bought a swing chair too and he hated it the first time I tried it, but it have since tried it when he is fed and happy and he has stayed in it calmly for half an hour once! It really depends on his mood so I can't rely on it.

What I did get which has been really great this last week was a mini playmat with toy bar - £15 from Asda. I put it on the sofa with me or on the floor and (again depending on his mood) he will stay on it long enough for me to wolf some food down or go for a wee. Will find the link for that too....

mini playmat link

Can't find the link to a potential bednest grace period, so am perhaps making it up, but worth a phone call to them to ask?

Meant to say, the beauty of the mini play mat is the toy bar detaches and can be attached to prams/car seats etc, so when they outgrow the mat, the toy bar is still useful.....

book Cal has been doing the exact same thing for the past week. Feeding almost every hour. You are doing really well.

sultana what's a poddlepod? Can you link please?

Jesus wept, have had to come up with a decent proposal for my psychology research module (for next thurs) and my idiot lecturer has not been helpful. Initially came up with an idea on personality types having been given the brief of 'any topic in the field of psychology'. Having started research on this, lecturer has said not suitable. Needs to be 'in the field of cognitive psychology'. Now I've just had a text from her saying 'it needs to be on memory or perception. Limited on what you can do with your fellow students'.

I am now literally drawing a blank on this (as I find it boring beyond words). And I am completely shattered. "Effect of sleep deprivation on memory and information processing"? is looking likely as a topic.

Thanks everyone. It is good to know others are in the same boat - all the people at nct new mums group are getting 7 hours a night and last session they basically all pitied me

enormouse you could use us all as test subjects!

sultana it looks like you get 30 days to try the bednest, so I'm going to talk to DH about it once he's back from his nap.

tarka I hope this passes soon for both of us! I'm with you on the winding. It wakes her up after she dozes off during her feed, but without it she is so uncomfortable.

book, I don't have long because we're going for a walk to the pub, but don't suffer by yourself. Text me and we can do something. Even if it's just coming to me for a cup of tea or something, sometimes it's easier if you get out of the house and aren't on your own.

I can at least hold Percy while you drink a hot cup of tea!

Has anyone heard from loulou, btw?

poddlepod

I read a mumsnet review of the sleepyhead vs poddlepod (they are basically very similar products it would seem, but poddlepod is half the price). There is also a toddle pod for over 6 months....

The poddlepod looks good!

not heard from loulou hope she's ok tho

book you are doing brilliantly to just survive, and that's all you can do. You can do it! I know how shit it feels when you get literally no respite, believe me, and it wears you down so fast. This too shall pass, I'm sure of it! or we shall 'pass' on from tiredness maybe

sultana will be interested to hear how poddle pod works out, I was thinking of one. I have a snuggle pod (mothercare, £30, present from a friend), but that's more a swaddling thing than a pod/sleeping nest thing.

We had sleep again today! My hysterical thread (on Parenting) garnered some useful advice about sleep begetting sleep, so I took her out early this morning, after first feed. She only catnapped, but it broke the 'feed, wind, doze, wake, change, scream, refuse to sleep, feed, repeat' cycle.
Now I have to work out how to get up and showered before her first feed of the day, so I can take her out a few more days in a row to get this into her system as a habit.
As a result of the sleeping, I managed to cook a nice dinner, and make brownies for an NCT pal who's having a rotten time. Feel v productive!

This bloody baby is being bad tonight! Waking up starving, I get her up to feed her, she feeds for maybe a minute then falls asleep and there's no persuading her to eat more. So I put her back in her crib and she wakes up an hour later to do the same again. We're on the 3rd time of doing this, the tiny bastard little darling.
She's lucky she's adorable :)

Well done, humpty! It makes such a difference, doesn't it? Can you link to your thread, please?

Nice to hear from you, sultana :)

We've had a busy few days here. It was DH's last day in his old job on Friday. He only had to go in for a meeting and to hand in his laptop and pass. So Meredith and I got the train into London to meet him when he was finished. We had lunch to celebrate, then went to Westfield Stratford on the way home to spend way too much money in Polarn O.Pyret and get Pinkberry get DH some stuff for his new job. It was a lovely day, and Meredith was an angel, although she did start to get a bit overstimulated towards the end (as did I!)

DH is off now for a week, and has no laptop, so will no doubt spend his time driving me insane.

Aaaaaand we're up again!

With you Toby and now DS is stirring.

I'm still awake. Meredith is sleeping on me and she seems to peaceful to move her.

As a pointless aside, pidgy, your name always makes me smile. 14yo DS plays Pokémon and when he's playing he says things like "I'm going to have to get my Pidgy out" and 'the ladies love my Pidgy". And then we snigger like the pathetic children we are.

The ladies love my pidgy

Book you are ace! You're doing brilliantly and don't think otherwise! I agree that it will pass and as usual we will have something else to worry about instead. I agree with trying the bednest as it may make a big difference. I didn't realise there was a 30 day grace period. At least then if you don't get on with it you haven't lost out

Not much to report here. Sylvie has dropped her 1am feed it seems, but the past couple of nights she's hardly fed at all overnight. Last night she had a couple of oz at 11pm, then a couple at 3ish then 3/4oz about half an hour ago. She still wakes up and fusses for ages and it takes a long time to get her to drink that tiny bit. I have to hold her arms down and she keeps thrashing them about and knocking the bottle out of her mouth

She seems fine though. Currently staring up at the corner of the room smiling at something only she can see