High-Need Baby Support Thread II

[tickleme63]

Hey ladies, here's a shiny new thread for us to discuss, query, whinge about and rejoice our high-need bubs!

Pretty bad night last night, bleeding exhausted. Can see why so many of you co-sleep. We haven't gone down that route, but it's never looked so attractive...

Gawd, grizzly DS. Poor tooths. Hope you have had a decent night!

Well we had a rubbish night's sleep :(

For the past few days DD hasn't been going to sleep till about 8.30 - 9.00pm, and waking at 5am.... and also waking every 2 hours in that period...

... I'm a tad tired!

Another night of every 2 hours here. We went to bed at 7pm to get a bit of extra sleep, it did help but thanks to this shitty cold/flu/cough I just have no energy and ache so much. Ugh.

Joyful ds is 7m with no sign of any teeth at all! Mind you, the others have all cut their first 4 teeth within 7 days.

Terrible night here too. DH left for Europe on business at 3.30 for two weeks. DS was awake 9.30-12.30 so I was in bed by 1. I woke up to see DH off (thought I better had!) leapt back into bed as DS was miraculously undisturbed. I was still awake at 5.45 like the probervial bush baby . What is worse is that DS then woke at 6 just as I had dropped off. Am ok right now but assuming there'll be a post lunch slump of the worst kind!

However, we've resolved the pushchair issue (at long last!). Having tried out SiL's P&T last weekend, DH has vowed never to let one in his house or car so he's bitten the bullet and told me to order a Bee whilst he's away. Tis done . We figured that the 2012 model is meant to have ironed out the glitches with the 2011 so buying new was smarter so we got a warranty. We umed and ahed but as he put it, he keeps his cars for 3 years and spends many multiples of the Bee price on them with the justification that he uses it daily and I would too for 2.5+ years if the others are anything to go by. So he felt a bit rotten saying it was too expensive.

It's coming Monday. Red hood. Am very excited .

Every two hours here too [tired]

Do you think they have their own secret babiesnet website where they agree what techniques they are going to try to break us this week?

I shouldn't complain. DP has taken LO out for a few hours do I can work in my masters & prepare for my meeting with the head this afternoon. Probably I should get on with it...

And I got £50 of the RRP so it was a good deal for a Bugaboo!

@ Button

I am very jealous of your new buggy and suspect DP would be too. When he took DS out just now he refused to take the 'proper' top for our buggy (sorry, don't know the terminology) and insisted on taking the car seat instead. He thinks the car seat looks better. Strange man.

Still, I have filed this experience under 'how to convince DP we need a new buggy' as I find ours so unweildy. It was very kindly donated by DP's sister and I'm sure it was top of the range when she had DD1 seven years ago, but it is just sooooo heavy. As soon as I get back to work I am spending my first paycheck on a LIGHTWEIGHT pushchair that I can put in the boot of our car with ONE HAND and a hair cut, massage and facial

^^

Truly I am so impressed as I've never really liked Bugaboos before but it is a thing of beauty as well as functionality. DS really likes it and I do too as he can face me which caused a tiny meltdown on the weekend when ds was in SiL's P&T (as he wasn't facing me though the meltdown was mine not his ). It is so light and you can unfold it with one hand which is great. I'm taking it on trust that the 2012 model is better and although they often get slated on here, I got it from Mothercare as when I had a problem with a buggy 4 years ago they couldn't have helped more.

I got it for £410 as babystore ltd are doing them for that and M'care price match. The sales assistant tried to tell me it didn't apply to Bugaboo and wafted her hand in the direction of the small print. I read said small print and then read out to her quite loudly and slowly that the price match applies to ALL branded goods . To be fair, she wasn't bothered, it was her manager who looked a bit sheepish! You just need to take in something printed that day from tinterweb showing price, exact colour match (I printed them all out!) and availability (it said 7-14 days though when I rang they said they had none in stock so I was glad M'care didn't ring to confirm!).

Arf at BabiesNet...

BabyKong - Urghhh. Sorry guys, need to rant. DM just put me down on the floor to play with my toys while she showered. I wouldn't mind but she was gone for 5 minutes! And she has this weird idea that night times are for sleeping. Had a good night last night when I managed to persuade her to wake up every 1.5 hours to cuddle me and feed me and she wasn't in too bad a mood about it. But I know that was just a fluke and tonight she'll be back to her old ways of wanting 3 hours sleep on a row . Anyone got any tips with this?

haha Queen - I'm sure BabySpanner could rant about how I'm a mean mummy for not letting him pull my hair and slap/scratch my face!

I'm glad you've picked something you're happy with button - I loved my bee apart from all the problems I had with it and still think it's gorgeous looking, I just wish mine hadn't been the crap 2011 one with all the problems! I got mine from mothercare and they refunded me for it after I explained all the problems with it - they were very helpful.

We're ok here - only 2 night feeds last night! He won't let me put him down today though but I'm enjoying the cuddles.

Urgh, bad night here too. Titania yep that wisdom doesn't apply here either - 2 big naps yesterday. Grrr, 'sleep begets sleeps' erm nope not here!

Gp couldn't find anything, he was grinning and cooing at her ( he like the ladies), just have to continue with whatever's bugging him. Back to suspecting teeth...

Oooh exciting buggy developments ! I've been considering getting a lightweight one but have been dithering. Resent spending more after getting a quinny buzz and also would likehim to decide he does like one of the slings as would be v handy for airport... Any recommendations?

queen forget baby music etc, a high needs baby group where they can swap tips n strategies might be the next big thing? < blanches at the thought of new challenges that would result for poor mummies>

Hey BabyKong - does your DM do that sleeping thing too? Ugh. It's weird isn't it? Why do they want more than two hours sleep in a row? It's much more fun to kick my legs around, say rararararara and drink lots of milk. My only tip is to scream, and I mean really scream, every two hours. If you're loud enough she'll offer you food to shut you up

BabySpanner - I have learnt that if I hold the hair at the nape of DM's neck it distracts her for long enough to be able to scratch her face. Sometimes I even manage to bite her chin at the same time. Give it a try.

You will not believe what DM did today... She left me. For a whole 90 minutes. I wasn't having that. I screamed non-stop at my dad until she came home. I mean, who does she think she is? Going off to work and all that?

OMG BabyTruth I am [shocked]. I can't believe she did that, you will have to make sure you kick up a huge fuss or you'll be making a rod for your own back and she'll think she can leave whenever she wants.

Will try the screaming tip tonight, thanks. I've bitten her twice today, you know just to make sure she knows who is in charge. She threatened me with a bottle if I do it again but I'll just refuse to drink from it and she'll get all worried and give up .

Haha! Loving BabiesNet!!

I had to cone on here quickly as a small miracle just occurred. I sang DS to sleep rather than feeding him to sleep! This is the first time ever anything other than boob or rocking has done the trick, I'm hoping it is a step forward! :)

@ babykong & babytruth!

Babybutton is happy today - I have imported my mum til Monday so he has attention whenever he wants it and earrings to pull out. He has eaten well, slept well and settled well at 7pm. I'm wondering what grimness he'll think of for later/tomorrow to make me pay for all this loveliness!

MissusT I don't have that feeling of resentment as I bought his current pram from ebay for £70 all in - wheels, carrycot, car seat adaptors, pushchair seat (never before sat in!) and footmuff. I had a Loola as it was what I had with ds1. Unfortunately they've changed a couple of things leading to The Great Pushchair Search of recent weeks but it means that I'm not spending £400 on top of a huge other expense. So it feels like a treat rather than something to resent. I'm getting to the point of wanting to change the delivery day to Saturday cos I can't wait but I said Monday so I could open it in peace and drool contentedly.

Well just got DS to sleep by patting and singing. Managed it three nights in a row a couple of weeks ago but not been repeated since. Hope it's a sign of things to come as I really want him in his cot. If he was on babiesnet he would be bemoaning the fact that I wouldn't let him crawl off the bed today.

Tried my first back carry in the wrap today - the people who were showing me, made it look so easy!

MissT - you've come to the right place for sling advice! Do you have any at the moment? If so what, if not what are you planning on using it for - just quick occasional use or for longer journeys? Front carry, back carry or hip carry?

Oops sorry MissusT not MissT!

Titania, which hip carry sling would you recommend? I don't normally use one, but sometimes have to carry DS (and push buggy!) home from town so it might be handy to take one with me.

Truth - You can do a hip carry with a wrap or a ring sling. If you're going to do it with a wrap you might want a shorter wrap. My ring sling (RS) is a hand me down and isn't great but is fine for round the house. I can't really recommend a RS myself but I think Queen likes her ellaroo. There are people over on the carriers thread that might be able to help you more.

Right, will look into it

Puddle that sounds like a rough night. Hope you catch up on some sleep soon.

We had a pretty good night by all accounts / only 3 wakings. It's telling that that's a good night isn't it?

Haha Titania, we had a 'good night' too. Only one waking between 11.30 and 6am although it was for an hour and a half and, crucially, I woke up in my own bed, cuddled up to DP instead of DS!

I suspect most people would also include the waking at 9pm and 11.30pm and say that 'three' wakings 'overnight' was rubbish, but I'm taking it as fantastic!

DS's longest sleeps were when we were visiting my parents, which confused us as we'd expected him to be unsettled in a strange place. We've just discussed it though and realised that, as they live in the middle of nowhere, the room was dark and silent. We live on a busy main road that the ambulance service uses as their 'official' route to hospital, sandwiched between two pubs famed for the arguments that spill out at kicking out time. I suspect he is being constantly disturbed by flashing blue lights and drunks. Just ordered a black out blind to see if that helps. Why oh why did I not do it months ago?

Well I've worked out what ds's problem is - dh. He's been here much more recently and ds's sleep has been not so good. Dh went away yesterday am and last night ds slept from 10-530 unbroken then came in with me for another hour! I feel like Wonder Woman though have avoided gold knickers and like the sand in my eyes feeling has gone for at least one day!

Let's see what happens tonight though before I get too excited!

Hello all, can I join? Just realised I should have been on here all along. DD 11 months is definitely a high needs baby! We just seemed to get over the major 9 month separation anxiety then she got a gastro bug and 2 new teeth so stopped having any solids and went back to breastfeeding almost hourly. She has been napping for nearly an hour and a half so have to wake her soon, I do agree for her, sleep does not beget sleep, we will pay for this tonight : (. Also she doesn't read the baby books: I have been pat-sshing her to sleep for a few weeks now to try and break the feed to sleep cycle and she is still waking every couple of hours! It seemed like it was going to work for a week or so but now it's all gone downhill again