Sleep is for the Weak Reunited

[gingerninja]

As we're officially not the weakest of other posters on the sleep boards anymore, it's time to move on. So, here is the new home for those of us that have been on SIFTW so long we can't bear to leave and who finally, can think about other stuff to talk about.

So my SIFTW sisters, this is where the kettle is always on and we can talk freely about sleep, no sleep or anything that takes our fancy.

EP: hope the spots clear up soon. Never heard of babies getting red teeth before! I will be working in Southwark on Tuesday so not really that central, I suppose... in any case I will probably work through my lunch hour to make sure I can leave on time, otherwise I will have a very tired/hungry DS to come home to!

I have cut out the afternoon BF since yesterday to make sure he will be OK without me on Tuesday, just given him a snack after his nap instead. He was fine yesterday but today he was mithering and grabbing for my boobs, I felt a bit as I wanted to feed him but just feel like it's best if he gets used to it for a few days. Anyway eventually DH distracted him with a plateful of grapes and he was fine.

Ginger: glad to hear that DD is getting less moany, I'm sure it must be very frustrating for them not to be able to communicate very well. Hope you get DH's appt soon.

Hello, I'm off to bed as we have to go to a frinds babies dedication tomorrow (Baptist christening). We have to be in Oxford (about an hour away) by 10.30, which because of the clocks changing, actually means 9.30 . Can I get 3 children up, breakfasted and in clean clothes by then???

If it's any help Ginger I have decided that the terrible 2s start at 18 months. Your gorgeous 12 month old turns into a little monster seemingly overnight. It is like the Harry Enfield scene when Kevin turns from a child into a teenager. My best advice.......

Hang in there!!!

Oh and try and stay consistent.

And calm (Ha ha)

Goodnight all

friends not frinds

Hope your LO is ok EP

Cheeks not teeth! He seems to be better, rash has more or less faded and grumpiness back to usual levels . It's actually really hard for me to tell if something is seriously wrong atm, as his default setting is shouty and cross.. I suppose if he were really ill I'd know about it.

Has anyone had any probs with the clocks changing? It seems to have worked for us (so far), DS was up at 6 this morning rather than 5 (only the number has changed but it makes me feel better!).

Hello ladies!

Wow, we've really got a lot to look forward to by the sound of it...grumpy, tantrum-y, willful little almost-two-year-olds! I can see the start of the tantrum in DS, his little screech that's not really a cry and not really a whine, but something far more animalistic in nature...we're trying to ignore it for the time being, but I can sense it reaching an octave and level that will be impossible to ignore. He has become more kissy and cuddly, and that's lovely.

His first birthday party was great, he had a wonderful time stuffing his face with cake and running around playing with new toys.

EP, glad to hear the rash has faded, and Ginger hooray that DD is turning the corner a bit...and good luck with DH. CM, did you manage to get all of the kids ready in time? Amber, I hope your early morning riser sleeps in a bit more with the time change. Meg, good luck with your day in town tomorrow!

Hugs to everyone, I'll check in again soon.

Hi all,

I am new to this thread. I kept meaning to join SIFTW before but it was such a long thread I could not get my head around reading it - much less the time!

Are you all still sleep deprived? Has the thread moved on to other things or will I still find a sympathetic ear?

Hillbilly: we are always sympathetic to mums of non-sleeping babies! I think r sleep we're a bit of a moxed bag, DS certainly sleeping better but not a model sleeper by any means (and he's nearly 18 mo). How old is your LO?

hi everyone!

well the changing clocks have worked for us too. i just kept everything the same, meals, naps, bedtime etc, so it's all just an hour later, but means we're getting up at 6.30 instead of 5.30 - so that is an improvement, even if just a psychological improvement for me.

yes ds is getting more tantrumy by the minute, but also in between, he is getting sweeter and more clever by the minute too, so it's all very fun and exciting despite the inevitable frustrations.

to anyone with younger LOs, i cannot recommend baby signing highly enough, it is such a wonderful wonderful thing to see your baby express themself pre-verbally.

He is 22 wks.

I also have a dd who is 2.9. She used to also be a terrible sleeper until about 7/8 months and then turned into the best sleeper I could ever wish for. Well, it took some PU/PD over a few days. She still naps 2 hrs a day and about 11 hrs at night.

DS is the same as she was at this age. Wakes all through the night. I have tried feeding, not feeding, leaving him to self settle (he is in cot next to me), picking him up, rocking, patting, shhh-ing- oh my God the list is endless.

Funnily enough though since starting giving him some baby rice and puree in the last week I think I see a slight improvement. Also last night instead of bf when he woke, I ff instead. (He is half bf/ff)and then he slept for 3.5 hrs.

Anyway let's see - maybe this is a turning point.

Thanks for the welcome though!

Hi Amber! DS has learned the sign for milk, and it's amazing to see him ask for exactly what he wants, and even nicer to see his satisfied expression when he gets it! What other signs have you successfully taught, and which do you notice your DS having the most fun with?

Hi all

We have had a lovely day, DH took the afternoon off so we went to Hayes Hill Farm in the Lea Valley. DS loved seeing all the animals, but the favourite was the giant sandpit.

We had some later mornings thanks to the clocks, but now he seems to have adjusted and this morning it was 6.30 again

Also I think DS might be self-weaning Have got a thread in BF about it. He seems to be going off his bedtime feed since I cut out the afternoon one, and I fear the morning one alone won't be enough to keep my supply (or his interest) up. I had pictured myself happily BF until he was at least 2 so feeling quite upset about it.

hey RoRo, glad your LO started signing - it's so satisfying. ds signed milk and eat from about 9 months or so and not much else, then about 13 months, he had a massive sign explosion. he loves to sign dog and tree the most for some reason
but loads of animals, vehicles, eating and drinking and good night type stuff. at this age, he can pick things up quite quickly and it just takes a few days of pointing something out and signing and he'll get it.
his favourite sign is still probably milk though

hey meggy, sorry you're feeling sad about the BF. if its any consolation, its rare for babies to wean before 18 months, though they can go through nursing strikes esp if they are sick or teething. maybe you could express for a week or so while he's not feeding so well and see if he'll come back to it... hope it goes ok, but if he does wean, you have still done such an amazing thing and its ok to be sad for a bit too. xx

Hello everyone!
(Imbarryscott here with yet another name change)

It's really lovely to hear that all of you are getting a bit more sleep nowadays.

My DD is doing ok on that front, although I shall sweep the issue of early rising deftly under the carpet .

we are just starting out on the tantrumming front - so if you guys have any tips other than gritting my teeth and sitting them out, I'd be grateful to hear them.

ginger - I'm sorry to hear DH is still poorly. fingers cross for some resolution soon.

Meg for your poor moggy.

Big hugs to all.

ps - where are Tamdin and Tibs? glad to see they're not posting on SIFTW, though

Hello all,
Meggy, hope you're not too sad about the little man self weaning. I don't know if it's of any reassurance but at least he's dictating terms and is obviously happy and content enough to let go, you should be very proud of yourself about that too.

RoRO and AMber, what clever little fellas you've got. My DD has started calling either me and my DH and then smacking her lips together like we do when we want the cats to come to us. It's very funny. It's like she's beckoning us.

We had a vomitathon last night which wasn't good. Poor love, first time she's been sick in her life and she does it four times in one night!

hi all!!
just logged on and found the new thread!!!
glad to hear that there are some improved nights, yay!!!!
its so lovely to 'see' everyone

ginger - sorry to hear that dh isnt sorted yet. hope its resolved soon

for those of you with strong-willed, feisty [read- tantrummy lo's].... i'm with ya!!
wanting to walk is one prob, then not wanting to walk, but not wanting to go in the pushchair, yikes!!!!

hi amber, ibs, cm, meggy, iate, roro, ep, cinderella and anyone i've forgotten
our nights are good on the whole now, but most mornings are a 5am start
cant have it all!!!

hi ginger, tibs and IBS (by any other name).

hope the vomitathon stops ginger and dd starts feeling better.

we had a weird night last night - up from 3.30 to 6am. not the ususal though thank god. must be some teeth or some trouble brewing.

tibs, i totally know about the wanting to walk then not wanting to walk, but the puschair is totally out (backbends and screaming ensue). i'm thinking of going back to mainly slinging, as getting LO into the pushchair is just too much of a headache.

generally we're in a really good pattern now though. bed at 8pm and sleeps mostly until 7am. brilliant. i used the time change to our advantage.

we tried that trick Amber, though sadly it didn't work in our case.
but hey, there's always next year .

Hi everyone and welcome back Perkin and Tibsy!

We did go through a few days where DS was going to bed at 8 and getting up at 7. But we decided we couldn't wait that long to have dinner (and open the wine ) so we're back to bed at 7.30 and waking at 6.30ish.

sorry it didn't work for you perkin.
yeah the downside is later dinner, but i just try to do some of the preparations in the day/evening even with ds around. sometimes i find carrots stashed in his airport set and such and such...
even so, that is a very good sleep meg. 11 hours seems to be the right length for ds too.

sorry it didn't work for you perkin.
yeah the downside is later dinner, but i just try to do some of the preparations in the day/evening even with ds around. sometimes i find carrots stashed in his airport set and such and such...
even so, that is a very good sleep meg. 11 hours seems to be the right length for ds too.

Hello everyone .

I am busy these days now that DS2 is commando crawling everywhere. He is alot happier, but I do have to fish him out of trouble occasionally. He is also starting to pull himself up to stand, but kind of has to throw himself back down when he's had enough. The cutest thing he has learnt to do is wave. When I got home the other day from work my mum held him up to the window and he grinned and manically waved at me.

It is hard to believe that so much has changed since those hideous early months when I felt like I was sliding into despair. Thankyou all so much for being there for me. I am already having the odd broody feeling but luckily common sense overides that!!! I think I will always want to have anther one so I have to be firm with myself otherwise who knows where it would end!!! It feels weird though to think I will never be pregnant again, never bf again, never have that moment of meeting my baby for the first time.... I feel kind of sad that one of the reasons is because I seriously worry about my mental health if I did have another baby. I can't help feeling that I've failed in some way.

But enough of that I am feeling very cheerful and we had a lovely picnic today with some friends. The Dcs were on the most part lovely. Apart from the bit when DD had a poo in her nappy (will she ever toilet train?!!!!) and decided to take her nappy off there and then. She ended up wearing my friends nephews nappy, tights, wellies and a coat. Apparently she looked very Kate Moss.

We got over the waiting for dinner bit by always having dinner with the DCs. DS2 goes to bed at 7 and sleeps approx. 11 hours. Which I know is brilliant I just am so not a morning person and 6am still feels like night to me!!!

Take care all of you. And sweet dreams. I hope poorly Dcs feel better and that everyone is well.

CM: you certainly haven't failed, I would think 3 kids would be enough for anyone! (anyone sane, that is). Glad that DS2 is still sleeping well.

We had a 6am start this morning and he was obviously still tired -- just about managed to keep him awake til lunchtime when he flaked out for two hours. Tonight we're trying shifting bedtime back by 15 mins to see if it makes any difference. It's not even so much the wake-up time, he barely had 10 hours and that's just not enough sleep for him.

I think part of the problem is that he stirs at 6 and pulls himself up to standing in the cot (and can't get back down again). I'm sure if I stapled him lying down in the cot he would go back to sleep til a decent hour