May Babies... part 2!

[GeorginaA]

... just because we can't stop yammering on

egypt tbh i dont i just guess. my theory is that as she has gone 5-6 hrs previously without a feed that she can do it and so if she wakes and its only been 3 hrs or less since her last feed i assume shes just woken up and needs resettling. e.g last night i fed at 10.30 and then she woke at 1.45 where i did feed her but then she woke again at 4.00 and so i thought she cant be hungry and dd reswaddled her and she slept until 6.30. If she was hungry then im assuming she wouldnt have resettled. Also the night before she woke at 2 and 4, both times I fed her but at 4 she didnt take much and then woke again at 5.30 where I fed her. I thought that last night she was going to do the same thing and so didnt feed her at 4 as I thought she would wake at 5 anyway.
As you can see I am completely inconsistant and just keep trying things until something works. Tonight im going to try resettling her if she wakes at 2 as she has lasted until 4 for the 1st feed before now.

egypt the times your dd woke for are quite good. 10.30-3.30 means that she went 5hrs I would assume that she needed that feed. If only we could get back to 3.30 instead of waking at 2ish.

Now im worried.
Does anyone elses d's wake just for resettling and not feeding?

I think I must be a terrible mum because if DS wakes during the night I just let him mumble away/suck fingers/wave arms around until he either goes back to sleep or makes louder noises, when the noises get louder I then feed him.

im leaving dd with mil while I go back to work. I need to go back to work as im bored at home and need something to do. Would ideally like to work part time but I dont think I can as my position isnt really a part time type of job and id end up too busy on the times I was in work. Also have the wedding to pay for.
dreading leaving dd with mil though. Shes already been making lots of comments about how she will be brought up on fruit and homemade food, obv my cooking isnt good enough but I dont have the luxury of sitting on my arse all day. Also shes started saying to dd when she cries 'have they been shouting at you, ill give them' and holds her fist up. DP told mil off for saying it, he said that no one's been shouting at dd and he doesnt want mil badmouthing us off to dd or shell be too scared to come home. im starting to get really worried about her having her. I know she will look after her really well but I can see her taking over and whatever me and dp do for dd wont be good enough.

Do we have same mil?!?! oh kbaby, i'm sure she will be fine on her own with her. there's me saying it and i worry about my mil. she drives me mad, saying things to dd in front of us like 'come and stay with nana. let's tell that nasty mummy and daddy to go away'. she wants her for herself at her house for the bloody weekend! Christ woman - i am BREASTFEEDING......and even if i wasnt't!

btw, i do wait til dd shouts for me, so maybe she is hungry.

I am getting more anxious about night feeds now all this talk is going on about them! We are the backward ones I think: last night was like this:

7.45 mammoth bedtime feed
8.30 bed
woke 11.30, 2.20, 5.30
into bed with me when waking at 7 guarantees a dozy lie in with intermittent little feeds on side
....and got up at 8.30.

I have avoided laying it all out until now because it looks so disorganised compared to all you lot! but you can see she wakes fairly consistently after 3 hours each time. The thing that confuses me most is he mammoth feed... after that I would have thought she could last longer than 3 hours.

I do always feed her when she wakes. Never questioned it. The sheer regularity of it has me convinced that it's her tummy emptying, but as time goes on I get a little question mark appearing...

God you two, am shocked at your MIL's...

no spots, you are doing exactly as i do or did until she went into her room last friday. i always feed her when she wakes. its really the quickest way to get back to sleep! but until she went into her own room (doors open - monitor - i AM brave!) i don't hear her until she shouts. unless i am in a very light sleep. so now i am thinking maybe she is going back to sleep herself sometimes without me realising it. little question marks appearing for me too

spots I wouldn't say that waking regularly meant hunger necessarily - could mean habit either.

DD is continuing her decline - last night fed at 7.15, 10.30 2 and 5 before getting up at 7. Before she's managed 7.15 to 5.40. I'm going out tonight so will need to leave an expressed bottle just in case. First time she's woken before 12 for over a month.

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Hello - loads seems to have been posted since I last looked!
Prams - we had Graco travel system for DD which is still serviceable and still very blue and white checked (came with annoyingly twee matching rucksack which I refused to ever use!) but is SO heavy when you are trying to hold hands with a toddler as well. Luckily, I have a rich friend whose "spare wheels" (the crap buggy you keep in the boot of the car - ours is £30 Mothercare job) happened to be a Quinny Fashion which she sold to me for £65. Love it to bits, feel way cool with it....however it is sunning itself in Torquay at the moment, due to DH forgetting he had it, and the buggy board, in the boot! It should be returning at 10pm tonight - hip hip hooray!
I don't feed in the night any more after the 10.30pm glug. If DS wakes, if anything its around 5.30am, I give him a while to settle (about 5 mins)...and 9 times out of 10 he does. He is in a grobag and clamped down tightly with a sheet as well because he is still doing a very good Mexican wave and waking himself up! However, his thumb sucking is coming on a treat and I'm hoping that will also help him settle if need be. BTW, he weighs 20lb now - I know at 20lb you can use a forward facing car seat, but you don't have to do you? His head control isn't all there yet and he isn't danging out of his carseat so do I just keep him where he is? I can't find the rules that came with ours...perhaps I should see if I can e mail Graco and ask.
Spots - I left work when DD was born and didn't go back. I don't plan to go back until the children (hark at me! I sound like a REAL mummy!) are at school and then I would like something that means I can be around in holidays etc. My degree is in languages,and I've never really had a career....just a series of different jobs that involve talking a lot !
DS is coming on a treat - lots of smiles and cooing/crowing noises. DD's favourite thing is getting in his cot with him after his lunchtime nap - they both lie side by side looking at each other and laughing. Very very cute indeed.
Georgina - how are you doing with just DS2 around? Is it stimulation city at your house or have you gone down the groovy bar and shopping route

A bit of both to be honest It's been really nice to get to "know" ds2 a little better without ds1 around to make me feel guilty! I've felt so lovely and relaxed - I'd forgotten how utterly gorgeous the LTN is when you don't have to entertain another child and can go read a book in bed or surf the net while sipping a cup of tea - absolute bliss! Looking forward to term time when ds1 starts going to nursery 5 mornings a week - I think I'll feel a lot less spread thin between the two of them.

Ds1 came back today at around 11am and I can't get over how knackered I feel already. I did miss him loads though and it's lovely getting him back home If only ds2 was a little bigger and he could go on holiday for a week so I can get some quality ds1 time too. Oh well, next summer maybe

In some of my more "time poor" moments, I fantasise about DD starting school and DS still needing an LTN - that's 2 years away!
However, DD starts pre school 3 mornings a week from September so I'm looking forward to some quality time with DS...already planning swimming on a Monday, Toddlers on a Friday, and...erm...watching mummy do housework and drink coffee on a Tuesday!

Dd1 goes back to school next week and I don't know what dd2 is going to do without her to be honest.
Dd2 likes to sit in her bouncy chair or lie on her mat and watch dd1 as she plays around her, wonder what she'll think of being left with only mummy and daddy next week?

We've been looking at buggy's as we'll need one when we go to London, won't be able to get the travel system on the plane and it's far to big for traipsing round London with. I looked in the mothercare catalogue and saw their own version and thought that would do but when we were actually in Mothercare last week it didn't look all that comfy or sturdy. The McLaren buggy looked much better but I'm reluctant to get a McLaren as dd1 had one and we had nothing but trouble with the darn thing. The wheel kept falling off and to get it fixed we had to take it to a place 20 miles away! They wouldn't even come and get it Still we're not going until October so it's not an urgent thing to worry about.

I'm quite looking forward to going back to work but at the same time wish I could stay home. Theres no way we could afford to live on just one wage though so I have to go back. My job is good though I'm only part time anyway, it's a job share, I work 4 days a week, only 2 of those are full days and I love it. Dh will look after dd2 while dd1 is at school. Because he's in a restaurant they work his hours round mine which is why he usually works nights because I work during the day. This is what we did when dd1 was a baby we worked round each others hours although at that time I was a restaurant manager (different restaurant from dh) and I was full time so we hardly ever saw each other. I gave up work when dd1 was 1 year old, was fed up with the restaurant line of work by then anyway. Theres been lots going on at my work recently while I've been away so I'm not sure what it's going to be like when I get back. Maybe I'll win the lottery though and not need to go back I can live in hope.
My Mil works so I couldn't leave dd2 with her even if I wanted to. She's ok for the odd stint of babysitting but i don't know how she would handle a small baby all day. and my granny is to old so we're very lucky that dh and I can work round each other.

I moved dd2 up to the medium flow teats today, she seemed to be able to burp a lot more easily after having a feed with them so I guess that's a step in the right direction. She's 12 weeks old tomorrow, my little baby is 3 months old and it's gone so fast Bought her the cutest little winter pram shoes in Marks and Spencers today, can't wait until she's big enough to actually wear them, lol They're a deep pink with pink fleecy stuff inside, just the thing to keep her feet warm during a cold Scottish winter.

My MIL is heading back to New Zealand next week , she adores DS and I am so glad we all got spend some time together.

Just can't imagine the difference there will be when they next meet, she kept saying to him that he wasn't to forget her . . . . luckily we have figured out the movie thang on the digital camera so we will make lots of 2 minute long jpeg movies to e-mail her. We have lots already of DS basically doing nowt except gazing like a rabbit in headlights, occasionally poking his tongue out and mumbling ah-goo quietly before ramming as many fingers as possible into his mouth! Have I mentioned the dribble? enough already!

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how did you sleep twiglett? tbh, i didnt the first couple of nights without her but all is fine now and i dont feel sad anymore. she didnt have a great night last night anyway. but at least we are having more good than bad instead of the other way around, which is how it was.

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Miracle night last night after all! DD slept from 8.30 till 2.20 then till 6.30 - this is unprecedented. my poor rocky buzooms...It's not that I mind her waking exactly, more a sort of confused feeling between what 'could' be different and what 'should' be different.

My sister is coming up from Newcastle at the weekend and I can't wait to introduce the new friendly dd to her. Last time they met dd was just tiny and now she's just so exciting. I do think this is a fantastic stage. DD is 'talking' so sweetly and loving using her muscles.

by the way I didn't know about the guidelines for using forward facing position on baby carrier... the perils of hand me downs... But I only put dd in when I thought her neck muscles could take it. She's never been a floppy baby, but that was around 8 weeks I have to admit. Hope I haven't done her back a damage...

thats pretty much our night twiglett. and spots - well done that was our night the night before!!! (but with a 10.30 feed). Tomorrow night we are staying at dh's dad's. which means a bad nights sleep methinks....in our room and no blackout blinds. oh dear.

spots when dd was in our room i also fed every 3-4 hrs as dd kept waking me up with her shannanigans so i fed her hoping it would keep her quiet. never worked though and now shes in her own room i only go in if shes shouting and only feed if i think she needs it. half of me thinks that the reason she wakes so often is because shes used to waking and me feeding her to sleep. now she doesnt need the feed but cant get back to sleep on her own.
not sure how to sort this out yet.

our night wasnt too bad either.
bed at 8.30
feed at 10.30
feed at 2.45
feed at 7 then in bed with me till 9
oh and only had to get up once to reswaddle at 4ish.

those who are swaddling, what are you putting on them.
our nursery is 22c and ive put dd in just a leepsuit and then swaddled with a sheet, but i think shes too warm.

kbaby i am putting her a bodysuit on - short sleeved and wrapping with a cotton blanket. i dont fold it or swaddle in the normal way, just lie it out flat, put her head at the long side, wrap the right side over and under her back on the inside and the left over her other arm and under her back on the outside. that way she only has 2 layers of blanket over her. have the fan in her room too, although blowing away from her.

I've started putting DD facing forwards in the sling this week. It says on the instructions head control and approx 3 months.

Judd I've got a Graco travel system that I had for DS. I think that they can stay in the car seat until 13kg. Shouldn't be in a forward facing car seat until they can sit up for a decent length of time so you're doing the right thing.

Went out last night so didn't get to bed until 12.15 am. DD woke up and fed four times and DS woke up and cried once between my going to bed and 7 am so I feel awful today. Luckily DH is still off work and took DS out for a few hours this morning which really helped. Am going to have to do something about DD.

what do you mean you are going to have to do something about dd? sleep?