What do you DO with your babies?

[GuernseyTeddy]

DS 16 weeks. Not a happy chappy at the moment; neither am I. He seems to be constantly unhappy. He's not content to sit in his chair with a rattle/crinkle toy/bell etc while I potter around. He won't lay and play on his activity mat. He HATES tummy time.

He only stops the constant, very annoying low level grizzling when I'm giving him my complete 100% undivided attention - singing, talking, dancing him around etc. which is fair enough for half an hour etc but is draining all day long.

Slings etc are not an option. I am tiny, he is not. Already feel taken over by him by the way he flings himself all over me during feeds.

Any suggestions on how you kept your babies happy without being a 24/7 entertainer??

Mine was very similar - bored very quickly, would only nap in a moving pram or carrier - hard work!
Have you tried a sling library? I have an Ergo and DS loved it (and still does at 15mo) - I'm short and can easily carry him in it. He could see everything going on and I could chat to him. He now rides on my back but when he was younger he faced me so he could see the world and see me chatting.
I tried to split the day - something for the morning, something for the afternoon eg go to baby group in morning, walk to shop/park in afternoon. For me getting out of the house was key or we'd both go nuts.
DS was never interested in TV (even now) so it doesn't work for everyone.
DS can now walk and talk, and is very bright. And he can play by himself very happily for short periods while I shower/cook/do laundry! It gets so much better, it really does. We swim and go to soft play, and he loves the park. He also goes to nursery 3 days a week which has saved my sanity...
It's easy to be jealous of the Mums with the docile little puddings who grin, sleep and sit quietly.. But I bet your DC is very smart and will be a delight as a toddler.

We have a jumperoo!!

Only had half an hour in it so far before going down for his midday nap, but seems favourable so far. We had a chuckle. Legs can't reach the floor yet though.

Hurrah guernsey! I have ordered one off amazon but looks like it might take an age to get here!

Islingtongirl - let me know how long if takes you to put together. All the instructions are fairly simple - until you get to the seat assembly instructions, which I'm certain where translated through several different language changes before revering back to completely inintelligible English.

Haha will do! I now fear my won't be delivered until DD is about a year old now tho! What age is it supposed to be used from? Presumably 4m ok of decent head control? I have seen ppl put a cushion under baby's feet if they aren't long enough btw

Ooh - good idea about the cushion!

Guessing from 4m is fine. DS has great head control as mummy is quite often absent minded at swimming and forgets she's meant to be keeping his face out of the water...He's often executing a perfect cobra pose to avoid accidental submersion

Are you sure he's not overtired? I know you say he sleeps well at night but in comparison both of mine at 16 weeks slept 12 hrs overnight and then in the day only stayed awake for about 90 mins/ 2hrs max in between nap

So by the time they say woke at 8am, and had been fed/ changed/ washed it was 9am, a little sing to them/ play and they would be asleep by 9.30am. If I left them until 10am they would be fully overtired

I don't know about Guernsey, but i would love it if I could get DD to nap within 1.5-2hrs of waking but what if you can't ? It sounds easy when written but she fights naps at home and I find it very hard to get her to nap and stay asleep for a decent amount of time. I try and look for tired cues but I often end up having to bfeed her to sleep and calm down (from crying when I put her down). Any tips?

Have you looked at the babywhisperer? The routines are obviously not for everyone and their web forum is shit to navigate, but once you get the hang of it there's loads of useful information on there.

BW would expect a 4 month old to be on a 4 hour schedule (more frequent feedings if BF).

So it would be something like:
0700 wake up
0700 feed
0845 put down for nap, asleep by 0900
1100 wake up and feed
1300 nap
1500 wake up and feed
1700 short nap
1730 wake up
1900 feed and bed

But there's loads of flexibility to work out a routine that suits you all.

Sorry, that was a slight tangent... There's lots of stuff about how to teach your baby to self settle and techniques to stretch naps.

We used it to good effect with DS and we're doing a bit with DD.

Thanks Jolly - I'll take a look. God knows how I am supposed to get DD to take 2 x 2 hr naps at home tho! In pram if I am out she might, at home no way! The mysteries of babies....

He naps in line with the 'evil woman routine'. Morning nap at 9 - 9:30 and midday nap at 12 - 2. If he doesn't nap well at midday (if we're out and about for example), then I try to get him to take 30 minutes mid afternoon as otherwise he's a grumpy fellow. And he does get 13 hours at night, so that's roughly in line with the 16 hours a day max babies this age need.

Jumperoo update: He likes it. Can't really play with it by himself yet - which is what I was hoping (but definitely when he grows a bit). He's using the cushion underneath him to push up on his legs and 'stand up', which I can only assume is helping develop some muscle strength. And a huge bonus - great for bringing up burps! He's a burping machine in it!

Ahh yes I pop DS in for a little while after he's been changed and fed to get any remaining wind up. Luckily the covers are washable as he had silent reflux, which is now no longer 'silent', unfortunately!

Jumperoos are worth their weight in gold. I survived with ds1 thanks to our jumperoo. Dd2 liked it too although didn't go as wild jumping as ds1 did. Have you also got a play gym? It's handy to have one of those as well and rotate him - play gym, chair, jumperoo, nap, feed etc etc. (Just not feed then jumperoo unless you want to see the feed again!) Even if he gets bored with each fairly quickly it will still give you places to put him down and save your arms and sanity.

We have a play gym, a bouncy chair, a Lamaze tummy time mat with rotating butterfly support, and of course now a Jumperoo too. FFS!! Our house is only tiny too.

He's got to the stage now where he's only happy to go on his play gym for about 30 mins after being fed in the morning, and before he gets dressed and goes down for his morning nap. I think he's truly bored of it having been put on it several times a day since he was about two weeks old.

Bouncy chair he'll sit in on the odd occasion with something to hold and play with, but he quickly gets annoyed at his restricted movement.

Lamaze tummy time hasn't been used much simply as he has a weird habit of rooting at the floor, and then crying after a few minutes. May pull out again now his head control is better.

I also use his highchair - cosatto 3sixti spinning one, for him to sit in while I do chores in the kitchen...bottles, unloading dishwasher etc. Again he quickly gets fed up of the restricted movement.

Other than that I just lay the big cot quilt on the floor and scatter a few bits and pieces around him.

He really does have quite an entertainment schedule....but have too vary it as I really cannot stand that discontented grizzle he does. Far worse than his tired screams, it's like nails on a blackboard to me.

Hey Guernsey - just catching up, how is your LO now and over xmas? We are much the same unfort - still grizzling and crying a LOT and I got quite upset about it at one point. Hoping it will get better!

Hey Guernsey - just catching up, how is your LO now and over xmas? We are much the same unfort - still grizzling and crying a LOT and I got quite upset about it at one point. Hoping it will get better!

Hey IslingtonGirl!

Sorry to hear about the grizzling. It is annoying isn't it?? Took DS to the GP early December as he was refusing to feed, and along with grumpiness thought something MUST be wrong. But nope! I do now though have advice just to continue giving Calpol/neurofen when he needs it and not just the three days advised on the packaging, so at least I can drug him when he gets extremely tyrannical and teething.

He's been very unsettled with all the travelling, different people etc over the holidays. The last couple of nights he even had the cheek to try not settling when I put him to bed at six , but that seems to have stopped now that we're back home. Thank goodness - it's the only saving grace that I can put him to bed at six pm and escape until morning.

Really hoping that this needing constant entertainment is just a phase though.

Oh my god,this is my baby too! 15 weeks, she does not nap for more than 20 minutes, twice a day. Always bright eyed, alert, won't,relax.

Feeds every 3 Horus max, am hardly sleeping at night.

I said to a friend the other day, what on earth can I do to fill all these bloody hours with her!

Some great suggestions on here.