June 10 babies have arrived. Now we are all sleep deprived!

[CantSleepWontSleep]

Welcome to 'the other side' ladies. Long may we all continue to post!

ARRIVALS
27/04 (due 23/06) - SunshineDay - Faye - 3lbs 2oz
16/05 (due 02/06) - Meggymegmegs - James (Jimmy) David, 7lb 1oz
19/05 (due 01/06) - whenwillisleepagain - Alice Emily, 8lb 7oz
21/05 (due 21/06) - Gizmo - Hester Rose - 6lbs
23/05 (due 9/06) - greensnail, Alice Elizabeth, 7lb 2oz
24/05 (due 8/06) - Saucepanman, Gabriel, 8lb 4oz
24/05 (due 31/05) - minimoonumber2, Sebastian Robin
26/05 (due 24/06) - GibberingGinger James Alexander, 5lb 13oz, & Douglas John, 5lb 15oz
28/05 (due 30/05) - GoodName, Fergus, 8lb
28/05 (due 31/05) - mampam, Tilly May, 9lb 11oz
28/05 (due 4/06) - jo807bump - Hannah May, 5lb 7.5oz
04/06 (due 07/06) - perkster - Sidney James Perkins Berner, 7lb 11oz
05/06 (due 31/05) - dinosaurinmybelly - Zoe Leila - 6lb 9oz
07/06 (due 02/06 ) - AlwaysHopeful - George, 7lb 13oz
07/06 (due 07/06) - MrsC09 - Rufus Jack
08/06 (due 01/06) - PogueMahone - Magnus Gabriel, 8lb 14.5oz
08/06 (due 11/06) - woofie - Laurence Elliot (Laurie) - 7lb 11oz
08/06 (due 21/06) - sunworshipper - Romola Ann Bettina, 5lb 15oz
09/06 (due 08/06) - LittleRobbo - Summer Dawn
09/06 (due 09/06) - Boobz - Constance Ella Reed,
11/06 (due 02/06) - Justbeme - 'Nobody' (boy) - 8lb 9oz
12/06 (due 02/06) - roundabout1 - Lauren - 8lb 14oz
13/06 (due 18/06) - Virgo1979 - nameless boy! 7lb 9oz
14/06 (due 30/06) - monthlymayhem - Hayden, 7lb
14/06 (due 08/06) - MrsAlwaysRight - Alice Rose, 9lb 7oz
14/06 (due 15/06) - Millymollymoo - boy
15/06 (due 31/05) - RnB - Artemis, 7lb 9oz
15/06 (due 29/06) - playftseforme - Rory 6lb 4oz, and Fergus 6lb 8oz
16/06 (due 17/06) - Chestnut100 - Daisy Belle 6lb 14oz
17/06 (due 01/06) - Madamfreckle - Emma 6lb 6oz
17/06 (due 30/06) - MonkeyMargot - Atticus Fox 7lb 8oz and Rafferty Bear 7lb 14oz
17/06 )due 04/06) - Suzy1975 - Samuel 7lb 14oz
18/06 (due 23/06) - earlyonemorning - Edgar William 7lb 8oz
18/06 (due 13/06) - sobloodystupid - Stella 8lb 8oz
19/06 (due 22/06) - Gaelicsheep - Robin 6lb 14oz
22/06 (due 14/06) - Fillybuster - Mia Rae 9lb 3oz
24/06 (due 16/06) - Nizzynoodles - Samuel James 10lb 10.5oz
24/06 (due 17/06) - summerhols - Lilly
25/06 (due 17/06) - Barbeasty - Ruth Damaris Rose, 9lb
26/06 (due 16/06) - JoKettle - James Lennox, 8lb 7oz
26/06 (due 29/06) - MrsDmamee - Elyssa, 8lb 5oz
28/06 (due 26/06) - imkeepingmum - girl, 7lb 11oz
28/06 (due 12/06) - Georgee - Anna Rose, 7lb 15.5oz
28/06 (due 12/06) - Elena67 - boy, 9lb 5oz
29/06 (due 17/06) - bluesnowfalcon - Corey, 8lb 11.75oz
29/06 (due 18/06) - theperfectbaguette - Clementine Jemima, 6lb
29/06 (due 26/06) - RubyReins - Luke Douglas, 7lb 14oz
29/06 (due 25/06) - Ilovemyterrier - Jeppe Sebastian Fagerlund, 7lb 6.5oz
01/07 (due 30/06)- LaTrucha - Daniel Timothy, 8lb 11oz
3/7 (due 29/06) - CantSleepWontSleep - Jeremy Francis, 9lb 4oz

I did post the other day, but it disappeared, so here goes.

Hope everybody who was ill is feeling better. Thankfully I never quite caught Ruth's cold properly, and she is now only slightly snuffly.

I have got through to the second round of interviews for the job, so now I have to relearn all the standards and things I was doing what feels like a very long 4 months ago! Interview should be next week.

We went out for a lovely grown-up night out on Saturday, as an early anniversary celebration. My MIL looked after Ruth and said she was really good, but kept looking over to the chair I normally sit in to see where I was. We left at 4pm so that we could get into Bristol for a meal before the opera (I said it was grown up!) and we got home just before midnight. I was tired and Ruth normally wakes up for a feed not long after, so I didn't bother expressing anything (and I'd already leaked so that's a pre-pregnancy dress that needs dry cleaning). Did she wake up at the usual midnight to 1 am? Of course not. MIL seems to have sorted her sleep out (so there's a solution for you CSWS [hwink] )and she didn't wake until 3am. That's 11hrs without and feeding. I was pretty desperate myself! To top it all off, I put her back in the cot afterwards (why is the cooing not cute at that time?!) and slept in until 8am- I haven't done that since long before Ruth was born. It does show that if I am not too lazy to actually bother to put Ruth back in the cot we will both get a better night's sleep.

Jack is trying desperately to roll from his back to his front and gets most of the way there unaided - it's his trailing leg that's stopping him!
Wish he'd revert back to sleeping through though - 5 times up in the night last night, and one of those wakes was for an hour and a half. Any tips for what to do other than just reswaddle / dummy / cuddle / feed?! He was better than this when fresh from hospital. Can't believe he'll be 20 weeks tomorrow! How time flies!

Happy hols filly :).

lol at your suggestion for me barbeasty. MIL gives back the babies when they cry, and doesn't do nappies, so I somehow don't think that would work.

ds2 was up most of the night v unsettled, but I snuck him in to my docs appt this morning, and he now has antibiotics for a chest infection. Hopefully that means that I'll get more than 2 hours sleep tonight.
Bigger 2 have just left to go to nanny's for a couple of days, dh is in Greece, so it's just me and J until tomorrow night (dh coming back earlier than usual). Going to go and see a childminder friend for a cuppa this afternoon, but no idea what we'll get up to tomorrow.

Any ideas on how to put baby down for a nap while looking after a toddler? It's driving me nuts today (not helped by the fact Daniel won't nod off in his bed any more).

If I want him to go to sleep in bed I have to feed him to sleep for a long time alone upstairs(and you can imagine how much DD likes that - she shouts upstairs and makes it nearly impossible).

If I put him down in his bouncy chair, he sleeps very little these days.

He does sleep in the puschair but this is not always an option.

Argh.

He also only wants to be fed to sleep these days. Sigh. I promised myself I wouldn't this time, but with dd around, it's the only way it works.

Could he sleep in a sling/carrier LaT? That's what we do.

He's not keen on slings in general. He's just had a half an hour's sleep pin his bed after being fed to sleep.

I suppose it's too much to ask for a self-settling four month old who has daytime sleeps in his cot, isn't it? Possible if you've got help with the other child/ren perhaps but maybe I'll have to revise my ideas downwards. Way downwards.

If i want Jack to sleep on his cot (he's still in the moses basket at night) during daytime I swaddle him and give him something to suck on. We aim for one of his fingers (although he has discovered his thumb this week), if not one of our fingers, or if we've things to do, the dummy. I'm really trying to encourage him to settle himself, so just put him down and walk out of the room. Doesn't always work and occasionally have to go back as he's spat the dummy out..

Thanks. The problem is getting the time to do it. DD usually stands and screams through the stairgate while I'm up there.

It's been fine muddling through but we're having a few problems at night with Daniel ~(don't laugh CSWS) and things are more edgy because Im tired.

Anyone got any clues on this? D has started waking around 3.30am. Not a problem, but usually he falls asleep after a few minutes feed, won't be woken. I put him in his cot and he wakes after a few minutes because he's hungry. He has a good feed but then won't settle, perhaps because his milk is coming up. Then I feed him to sleep in my bed and he sleeps there. This can take anything up to two hours.

I'm going to give him Gaviscon tomight and cut down on his day sleep. Any other suggestions?

la trucha - we're having bad nights here too - lauren wants to be fed to sleep in the night but wakes minutes or seconds after going in her cot yet will fall asleep happily on me or in my bed. this only lasts an hour or so though & it starts all over again.

Lauren hated being swaddled but did it out of desparation last night & stuck a dummy in & got 4 hrs sleep in a single stretch. After waking for feeding however objected very loudly about being reswaddled. Will try again tonight though.

lack of sleep affecting me big time now & am very snappy with everyone too. Made a huge balls up when booking a night away at alton towers & booked the wrong thing completely -admittedly it was very confusing booking online but am sure with more sleep I would have coped. Dh went mad at my balls up, I have since cancelled it but they were very stroppy at me so now dh doesn't want to go at all, yet have promised dd. so all in all have managed to upset everyone!

latrucha - I have the same issues with settling A for naps with DD1 around and it drives me nuts too. DD1 insists on coming into the room while I'm settling Alice in her cot (we're all on one level so I don't even have the option of leaving her screaming behind a stair gate). She often brings a noisy toy along with her, and insists on announcing "night night Alice" and "bed" loudly as we try to creep out of the room.

We're definitely moving on friday now. Very exciting, but stressful now we realise how much we have left to sort out before friday. I'm sure it wouldn't all feel so daunting if we could just get a good night's sleep.

I can never get f to sleep for naps or at night without feeding him or in his car seat/pram. Also he tends to wake if I move him off me. Today I have persevered and managed to settle him in bed twice for his naps (yippee). Am persevering as he is getting too used to sleeping on me and wants to do this all night. His sleeping at night sounds the same as yours roundabout 1-2 hours max before waking. Its been like that for weeks now and I am so wrecked its unreal. I have bought and read the no cry sleep solution but am struggling to impliment it just now. Main prob is it says to make sure naps are right length which is 2 hours at his age. However is I am not holding him its hard to get more than 45 minutes. If I am holding him then I am teaching him bad habits. It also says to gradulally get then used to sleeping without feeding by taking them off the breast before they are quite alseep but I am really struggling with timing of this. Its especially hard in the middle of the night when I am so tired I really have no idea what I am doing half the time and really just want to go back to sleep as quickly as poss. Has anyone else tried this book and has it worked? I really need to do something.
Hope the move goes well greensnail, cant imagine coping with that just now with the amount of sleep that is happening here. Glad I was not successful in bidding on the houses I wanted recently!

Good luck with the move.

Well, after a few good nights Ruth seems to well and truly have hit a 4 month sleep regression. Tuesday night she went to bed (and sleep) just after 9 and slept until... 10! Then last night she just was going to sleep, even after 10 so ended up with me all night. Both nights we were up every 2 hours until around 6am when I put her in her cot and got up. She's asleep there now as I type.

Mind you, both days have been pretty full-on for her, especially yesterday. Four of her cousins are staying with MIL, who lives close by, so we have been seeing lots of them. Yesterday she woke up from an hour nap (normally 2 hours at the moment) to 4 faces right by hers- enough to scare anyone. She burst into tears and everybody thinks she wailed a definite "mama". Sure it's a coincidence but I'll go along with it!

Last night there was a Halloween party. It was fine, even Ruth being dressed as a cat, until we lit fireworks. Whatever they claim, they were not quiet or suitable for young children! At least we know not to go to a big display...

Sympathy to everyone with sleep problems. I feel like i have been hit over the back of the head with a cricket bat today... G is better for being on bottles during the day - the extra milk he is taking on is helping him sleep longer, but he is still after me feeding him around 10, 12 & 3 then he will usually sleep until 6ish.

G does sleep in his cot during the day, even with DD around, although i admit he only sleeps for about 40 minutes at the best of times and much less if DD is upstairs. I dont bother with the quiet creeping out of the room. I just pop him down, cover him up, put his mobile on and shut the door. Sometimes he will cry for 5 minutes or so, often he will find his thumb much faster.

I don't understand the books which advise 2 hour sleeps - how can you make a baby sleep?! That only ever happens when G is in the car seat wrapped up very snuggly!

My mood is also varying from vile on a bad day to grumpy on a good day. DH had the snip last week and he seems to have developed an infection in the wounds, so is back at the doctors now. Fingers crossed for it only being something minor, i haven't got enough energy to look after him too! (Bad wife

I too have not had more than 2hrs sleep at a stretch for some weeks (I think there was one exception when I got four hours, but it might have been a fantasy). I am trying hard on getting Alice to go off to sleep at night while she is still slightly awake - usually success 2 nights a week - rest of the time she drops off on the breast before I can do that with her, IYSWIM. I am loath to drag out my sleep books from last time, but feel that sorting out bedtime is the first priority. Next to tackle her attachment to the breast at night...

When DS is at home, I take Alice out in the buggy and he walks (which is one of the advantages of having a nearly-four-year-old) If he's at home it's impossible to get her to nap because I usually have to keep up a conversation with him, conducted at three-year-old boy volume. Yesterday was a complete nightmare as I'd taken DS to play with another little boy and not realised how late in the afternoon it was - so we were on a rush hour bus with DS in over-tired, over-excited meltdown and Alice wailing. I was trying to bf Alice with both of them on my knee, DS headbutted Alice, I think accidentally, and someone then moved so I could have 2 seats together - in my frazzled state I got up with my shirt completely up and my boob totally exposed and tried to get baby plus DS to another seat. I could feel waves of horror from all around me as I grappled with two screaming children in my partially clad state.

As ever, I hardly get the chance to post, but do try to read the thread when possible.

On the sleep front, I've found with both DS1 & 2 that having some sort of soft teddy or cloth right beside their nose helps them to get to sleep. DS2 likes to rub his nose against it while he nods off to sleep

I've got to say that DS2 has so far been an angelic baby which is a welcome relief after DS1 who was a complete nightmare at this age. At nighttime after his bath DS2 generally just needs swaddled, fed, dummy in, and a wee song, before putting him in his moses basket and closing the door. I do need to put back in his dummy every now and then, but feeding wise (bf) he'll generally go from 7.30pm til 5am ish (or 6am on a really good night). And he'll generally drop off himself for daytime naps if swaddled.

I'm sure it took 10 long months with DS1 to get to that sort of sleep/feeding pattern, and I can't think of anything we've done differently this time round (except relax more, and not look at any sleep/routine books) so just goes to show that every baby is different!

Hello Ladies,

Is it too late to join this thread? My son Jon was born on the third of June and at the time I didn't Mumsnet much (A couple of threads in AIBU had scared me off). Now I'm addicted a regular user so would love to jump in.

I'm a SAHM at the moment, but am doing a masters to become a psychotherapist. The training takes another 4 years so even if we have DC2 when we vaguely plan I won't be qualified until they are both past baby age. In the past I have been a strategy consultant, a ski instructor and an administrator, so no problems settling on a career there!

Jon was 8lb 11 at birth and is a ganet. I haven't had him weighed for a while but his legs are so long we are looking at the 6-9 month trousers already, all his 3-6 month ones look like they are 3/4 length.

Anyway, just wanted to say hi and introduce myself a bit.

Hi TSGardener

waves to theskiinggardener...Hello there!

monthlymayhem do enjoy it, Jack was exactly the same until he hit 19 weeks and 3 days....it's not been the same since.

We took Jack swimming for the first time today - I almost cried buying the swim nappies and waterproof camera to take to the pool! He clearly loved it, but just how are you supposed to manage everything when you get out??!!

I ended up with no shower and standing around in my damp cossie for what felt like ages getting him ready and then keeping him stapped to the changing table whilst I hastily dry and dress - is there another way?!

Ooh Bravegirl Jon has his first swim lesson on Monday, I hadn't even thought of a waterproof camera, thank you. I will also be interested in tips on the getting dressed conundrum.

Looking up the board I'm reassured we are not the only ones with sleep issues at the moment. Jon went through one week of sleeping through during which we blessed him daily, but never since. I think it's worse knowing that in theory he can, but he's not. I keep telling myself it has to happen eventually, but that's not as soothing as it used to be!

Fergus went through one night of sleeping well once!
Took him swimming while we were on hols a couple of weeks ago and he hated it. tried two times and gave up, both times he screamed before we even got him in the pool and kept screaming when in and up until i put his clothes back on, then he was totally fine. He likes his bath fine as well so not sure what that was all about. His cousin who is 1 had the exact same reaction so it was quite weird

We've never had good nights, so blah to all sleep convos - haven't the energy to go into it! Ds still trying to recover from chest infection, and we might have hit growth spurt - hard to say since he always feeds so much!

Welcome TSG. :) Bet my giant baby beats yours . He was 9lb 4oz at birth, and was 18lbs by 3 months. He is in a lot of 6-9 month stuff already, despite not even being 4 months yet.

Hope the move went well greensnail.

Swimming with babies is, I'm afraid, a pain! Of course the easiest solution is to take another adult with you, but if that's not possible, then I tend to hold baby under shower with me to warm them back up, then strip off baby and wrap in towel, strip off me and wrap in towel, then get baby all sorted, then get me all sorted. Generally with a feed part way through to add to the fun .
And of course if you throw in a toddler too then the excitement is almost too much to bear.

LaT - could you change D's nappy at the start of the night feed to make sure that he's awake enough to take a decent one?

That's an idea. Depends on how high I can lift my weary head though. Usually just high enough to drag him to the breast. I'm very short-sighted in thr middle of thr night.

Welcome SkiingGardener!!
Just thought I'd add that at most swimming pools you're not allowed to take photos!!

I found that I wrap the baby in a towel and leave on the changing table, then hastily dry myself and get my clothes back on and then dress screaming baby ending with a feed!! I agree with CSWS - it's a nightmare!!
The other week, I had to leave baby on changing table 15 ft away, try and unlock 2 lockers (one wouldn't release the key), juggle contents of 2 lockers as DP had put towels at bottom - carry stuff that I needed, find a changing room and carry baby who was then screaming........you get the idea!!

I dress the child, put it in the pushchair then dress myself.

Impossible with two IMO

Actually we got told off by the lifeguards for taking photos - something to do with privacy! However we had managed to shoot about 15 photos before we were spotted (in the practically empty pool), and managed to convince them to let us take just 2 more photos!!!