May Babies... part 2!

[GeorginaA]

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

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DS never appears in our bed unless I know we are both reasonably awake and aware of his presence, it is lovely to have all three of us lying in a row and he sometimes goes straight back to sleep. That said, he didn't seem too bothered that DP was absent last night so we all went to bed at our usual time without any problems (so why does DS begrudge me taking a few hours out! the little monkey - must work on that bottle thang - )

Twiglett, I really hope DD feels better soon.

hi all, the 2am feed has finally dropped. The last few days ds2 has been getting up at either 4 or 5am..trying to stretch it out to 6am if poss.
Prufock, i envy u..u must be feeling great after a 12 hour sleep..does ds sleep during the day too?
I must admit i sleep with ds on my bed..he hated the moses basket and we never tried the cot..ds1 slept with us from 8 weeks (when he started to sleep thro the night) until he was 2.5..
the only problem i have now is his fussing at the bottle..his feeding's a lot better and is now taking between 25 and 30 oz a day..as one thing stops another worry starts!
i've posted a thread on that and i'll check out the response..basically at EVERY feed time ds has started to take 2-3 oz and then starts to thrash abt, arching his back and screaming..i then leave him for 15 min and after that he'll happily take the bottle again for another 2 oz and then the screaming starts again..he takes at least an hour to feed now..i've switched teats that many times, its made no difference at all..i can't wait to start him on solids (hoping, that somehow that will stop the fussing)

linnet, ds1 always had the dummy and he threw it in the bin aged 3.5..ds2 has not taken to the dummy prefering to suck his thumb instead..my only issue with this is that i have no control over his thumb and i worry he could become a thumb addict right into his school years!..my friend told me that children who suck their thumbs damage the skin on the thumb and tend to push their teeth out, resulting in them having to wear braces later on in life..is this true and has anyone experienced thumb sucking?

Twiglett, poor baby..must be pretty miserable..hope he's feeling better soon..i suppose the British weather doesn't help..hot one minute..cold the next..my ds1 has a nasty cold too..for some reason he always falls ill in the school holidays

oh dear, didnt mean to start the whole co-sleeping thing! i do have dd in bed in the morning, usually after 5am feed, if she doesnt want to go back to sleep, but on my side, not in the middle. i am such a light sleeper, but dh is NOT, so wouldnt dare! i was more astounded that the babies slept right through from almost birth rather than the parents having them in the bed with them. tempting.

anyway, i was a thumb sucker (ahem, sometimes still) and i have perfectly fine thumbs and teeth. dd wouldnt take a dummy. she screams. but i am hoping she will find her thumb, just so i can have my little finger back. she loves sucking, just not a dummy! in know you cant throw a thumb away, and ideally wouldnt want her to have anything, but it didnt do me any harm...nor my sister, nor my friend, or my other friend.....there are a lot more thumb suckers out there than you imagine!

twiglett, hope ds is better soon.

congrats prufrock, you must feel so pleased. can't wait! dd had a 6oz formula bottle at 7.30pm, slept at 8.30, woke at 10.30 (she had got out of this) woke at midnight, 3.30, 5.00, 7.00 - WHAT am i doing wrong someone? still, at least we dont have screaming ab dabs at bedtime anymore. anything but that.

Eek, left DS in his bouncer to put on a washload and came down to find him enthralled by the TV! must remember to turn him the other way next time . . .

thanks egypt..reassuring to know thumb sucking isn't all that bad..

Egypt - you aren't do anything wrong, just like I'm not doing anything right - there's a huge element of luck involved. The only thing I can suggest is making sure she feeds really well during the day - but even then she may just be a night owl.
Sandi, ds has a 45 minute nap in the morning, then 20/1/2 hours at lunch and a couple of 10 minute cat naps in mid afternoon.
twiglett - poor dd, we wnet through a cold with ds a couple of weeks back and it was horrid. My toptips for coping:
-let her sleep in a car seat - being slightly upright seemed to help the breathing

• feed ebm from bottles - ds couldn't suck/breath at the same time so this made satisfying his hunger quicker. And when you inevitably get her cold: -think positively, you may feel like crap, but you'll be passing on the exact antibodies she needs in your milk
• If you are very stuffed up it is OK to take the non-drowsy Sudafed occasionally. It's not a problem for your dd, but it could dry up your milk if you take too much or haven't got a good supply established
• Hot water, honey, lemon juice and brandy is a very good safe medicine for pre-bedtime.

My take on the whole thumb/dummy thing;
DD had a dummy from about 8-16 weeks, then abandoned it in favour of two fingers. This wored brilliantly until she was about 18 months, when she had big blisters/sores on one finger where her teeth had rubbed. So we gave her a dummy, and now it goes evrywhere with her - I am trying to restrict it to bedtimes only, but it's quite difficult. If the dummy isnt available, she will suck her fingers still. If a baby wants to suck it's thumb/fingers,there isn't any way to stop them doing so - and I don't really se why you would want or need to

thats very good advice prufrock. didnt dawn on me that feeding well in day - or often as she has today - would help the nights. i always thought that if she assumed a 4 hourly feed routine in the day, it would continue into the night, but obviously not.

Hello everyone!
Just had a read to catch up on what's going on...
Prufrock - congratulations on your sleeping through (well, congratulations to you on a good night's kip!) . I can't wait for it to happen - we;re doing the GF 10.30 feed (fits in nicely with Big Brother!) and then one around 5am, back to sleep till 7am. DH did the 5am last night, woke poor DS this morning to find him swaddled with his bib still on! Poor boy.
We also find out at the 8week check that DS has a heart murmur which we need to get a second opinion on at the hospital Am waiting for an appointment to come through and trying like mad not to worry. Actually, DH found a thread on here about heart murmurs so we've been doing a bit of reading.
And if that wasn't bad enough, DS has given himself a black eye (well red and swollen) through bashing himself with his fist.
Apart from that, its been a lovely weekend with the PILs down for a visit and so lots of spoiling of children and feet up for me !

I am going to do a fongers in ears 'la la la' about the sleeping through, because dd is emphatically Nowhere Near it. She will either go 2 hours regularly or all over the place. Sigh...

Very good time at my mum's yesterday. She played with dd so fantastically and got such quality 'chats' from her I really felt quiite humbled... She was doing that thing of really letting dd take part in the conversation, giving her lots of opportunities to respond and dd just loved it... she cried when the game ended...I love seeing older people/grandparents with the wee ones. They seem able to relax and just do it.

While they played I was busy making a lovely stripy bean bag feeding cushion which has transformed our feeds, so it was a good day.

Judd, I have a heart murmur myself that was detected at birth but never gave me any bother... when not busy mumming I have been a keen runner and tested my ticker plenty. They can be really insignificant, so if it's only just been picked up it's unlikely to be huge isn't it? please don't worry too much.

Actually 'fingers' but i do like 'fongers'...

Thanks for that, Spots. It did seem to be pretty common, but you still worry ....
Grandparents are FAB aren't they? DD loves going to stay with DH's parents (my mum is too old to have her) and DS was entranced yesterday as they played with him. He rewarded them with a huge noisy dump (is it just boys who get it up their back? DD never did that and I could really do with DS not bothering....)
I've just put my name back into our local babysitting circle. We need to build up some points so that when we are brave enough, DH and I can venture out after dark together! Mind you, it'll probably be a good couple of months before we do ....

Can you say 'dump' for what a baby does? I always thought a dump was quite a solid thing which landed with a dumpy noise.

DD seldom gets it up her back but wherever it ends up it gets called Nyurg...

don't ask me why.

sorry, I realise that differences in parenting style are welcome and my nyurg can happily be your dump!

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love it twig!! Much better than my:

'DD has got a dirty bum, dirty bum, dirty bum
DD has got a dirty bum on a cold and rainy Sunday'

(to the tune of here we go round the mulberry bush) which I was singing whilst changing her this afternoon.........why do we do that!?!

Well, DS is very...ahem...loose so it lands with more of a splat than a dump. Cue DD "Miss Rubbernecker" holding nose and pointing furiously at nappy region. DH immediately engrossed in something very very important indeed.

Judd my DD is quite able to get it right up her back. She was sat on my lap at tea time the other day and managed to leak big time all over my trousers. Lovely.

DD is still waking twice in the night. And she's also feeding fairly regularly in the daytime. I wonder if I should try and wake her up more and so get her to take more at the 2 am feed to prevent the 5 am feed. Or try and make her wait longer for the 5 am feed. Because when we all get up at 7 she's not hungry. Usually not hungry until about 8.

DS was very proud of his "up the back and halfway across mummy's lap" movement the other day . . . and when he starts "blowing bubbles", as nanny puts it, we know he is waking up - is it a boy thing?

Grandparents are awesome for knowing exactly what they are trying to say aren't they? although my dad seems to have developed a hearing problem that occasionally makes him scuttle to the shed to tinker

Congrats on all those whose babies are sleeping longer, I'm so jelous.
DD is all over the place with her feeds. Its still approx every 3 hours during the day. I cant really time a last feed as depending on jow long she last during the night sets the feeds for the rest of the day, this means that the feed times change each day. E.g sometimes shell feed at 9pm and then last until 1am and then feed 3 hourly from there, other nights shell wake at 2am for a feed. Its generally 3 hours in the day and then feed somewhere between 8.30-10.00pm and then 1-2am, 4-5am and again at 7am.
What time is everyone putting the baby down to sleep. Weve been doing a bath at around 7.30 and then attempting to go down for 8.30pm however she struggles and wont eventually sleep in her basket until 9.30pm. Should I just give up and not put her down until 9.30?? She seems to be a really light sleeper and her naps during the day are terrible. Shell sleep on your lap but wakes every 10 minutes then in the evening shes so irritable and overtired. Shell fall asleep in your arms but the minute we put her down shes wide awake again.
Why doesnt she realise that shell feel loads better if she takes a longer deeper sleep
Ok im off now as its past my bedtime. Im so knackered these days that 10.30 is all I can manage to stay awake to. Am I the only one who's absolutly tired.
Bye

I didn't mean to start a dummy versus thumb sucking debate either.

I don't mind if dd2 sucks her thumb or has a dummy. like I said dd1 had a dummy it was only ever restricted to bedtimes and people are often surprised when I say that she had a dummy as they didn't know. she was about 18 months when the one she had started to break so dh said to her to put it in the bin and she did. So long as dd2 is happy I don't mind. She was fussing a minute ago and when I went into to check on her the dummy had fallen out and she was trying to find her thumb, poor baby.

Had a good day today but when she had her 4pm feed she brought the whole lot straight back up again. This happened at my grnany's house and my granny panicked is she ok, are you sure she's ok. I told her that dd2 was fine and then dd2 went to sleep, she didn't want fed again until 8pm. She seems quite unsettled now though so I think I might offer her another bottle soon incase she's still hungry.

Libb, dd2 often lies on her mat and watches tv. dd1 asked me today which cartoons she used to watch when she was a baby lying on her mat. I told her that she didn't watch cartoons as I didn't watch them. She asked what I watched then so I told her neighbours, the news, grown up programmes etc. She was not impressed that she had to watch neighbours, lol

ok, going to go give dd2 a bottle see if she takes it.

kbaby you and your dd saound just like me and mine. we struggled with the time for bed until my mum came to stay! we were trying to put her down at 7, but she just wasnt ready despite being grissly. so we waited until about 8, fed her and put her down about 8.30. she didnt take long to go to sleep. any later and she just got overtired and wouldnt sleep. basically bath at about 7.30, feed at 8, cuddle until sleepy/asleep and put down. if she wakes in wrapping her up i try and give her the rest of the bottle (if unfinished). often she doesnt want. oh yes, we have changed to formula at bedtime, just to make her last longer - and i can see just how much she is taking. I think its trial and error with the timings. but now it has been about 6 days and all is still ok with bedtimes. have to say, that cuddling until sleepy is a major part of the plan!

anyway kbaby, she is still waking every 2-3 hours in the night too. i think its just going to take a while. last night was bed at 8.30, woke at 11.30, 1, 4.50 (wow) and 7