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

Hello Monkey I was thinking about the Mirena coil but was a bit nervous about the fitting and whether or not it would be comfortable (does that sound silly?) It does sound fantastic - if you don't mind, could you keep me posted on how you get on with it? You don't have to worry about getting it replaced for a whole 5 years right?

Sorry to hear about your lack of sleep CSWS - I feel your pain ( a little bit!). It's funny because my 3yr old has started waking up in the night with nightmares ( although this seems to have coincided with starting nursery - she loves it though!.)
Last night was horrific as my baby screamed after 2 or so in the morning .I don't think he slept much after that. But he now has a full blown snotty cold. I'm not looking forward to tonight :( His sleep is very hit and miss too and he eats 3 big meals a day. Its definately a comfort thing - but Im too tired to try again with the sleep training. (It all went to pot!!)

Baby was born in June and Ive had 2 periods now - despite him feeding tons day and night!

and sorry to hear of all the bereavements - 11 months on for me, it is easier. But doubly painful I think when you have a small baby and you keep thinking "If only xxxxx were here still, they would love this little baby so much :(

CSWS I've been watching your fb updates with horror. Sounds very similar to how DD1 was following our move. The only way we survived in the end was for DH to deal with DD1 and me to focus on Alice. How you do it all on your own and still get your DD to school in the morning is beyond me, but I truly hope things improve for you soon.

No periods here yet. They came back at 5 months after having DD1, when she started sleeping through. Maybe they'll return if or when Alice ever decides to do the same although I'm taking the mini-pill at the moment so that may stop them too. I must sort out some more permanent contraception. I tried to get the mirena coil after Alice was born but they couldn't get it in, so was supposed to be going back to family planning clinic for another try, but never got around to it. Am slightly hit and miss about taking the pills so really must get something better sorted.

justbeme :(

Is there a FB group for this thread?

CSWS - I tjust sounds awful. We're (and I really mean DH) almost on top of our toddler sleep problem, but it's been hellish. I slept in the same room as both of mine when I was on my own at my Dad's. It was nightmarish, so I do sympathise.

With us it was a response to disruption (your DH going away plus new baby) and a delayed reaction to Daniel.

What do you think he wants? What if he slept in your bed?

I just read about this strategy in Playful Parenting: stay with the child while they are settling down. When they're good and sleepy, say you're just going to out your pyjamas on (or some such) and you'll be back when you've done it. The author's theory is that chilcren who are having trouble sleeping are so anxious about you going that they will always fight to stay awake and always wake up. If they know you are coming back, they relax and sleep.

You've probably tried very similar things.

I know what my DD would like it to have someone sleep int he same room as her. Could J, or DD? I'm not fully aware of your situation, so these might be silly ideas.

No fb group laT, but I can pm you my rl name if you want to add me (I'm pretty easy to find as uncommon name).

I don't think it's a reaction to ds2, but rather to ds1 moving bedroom at the beginning of Dec, followed by various visitors over the festive season which displaced him and put dh in the same room as him.

Thanks for your suggestions LaT. Unfortunately he won't stay calmly in his room even when I just pop out to eg get a refill for his vaporisor, or put a sibling to bed.
He can't come in with me, because ds2 is in my bed, and as he's a terrible sleeper already I can't have him disturbed any further.
We did try to get him to settle in dd's room with her, but he still screamed when I tried to leave. It wouldn't be a great long term solution anyway, as he needs about 2 hours a night more than her, but we'd have settled for it if it had worked.

He did sleep through last night though, after I stayed with him whilst he settled. Hurrah!

Well, that's something. The disruption is somewhat similar to ours and it's taken since November to get her reasonable again. With sleep, especially with older ones, patience and time seem to me the only real solutions and it sounds like you're doing your level best there.

Hello everyone
CSWS - Really feeling for you going through such a nighmare with sleep and absent husband. I can barely manage two evenings without dp on the trot without losing the plot.

Condolences to LaT, WWISA and Goodname. I hope the zest for life of your wee ones brings you joy through your sadness.

We have got back from our amazing month-long trip Down Under. It has been totally fantastic and we have been so spoilt. The kids have had an absolute ball - living the outdoor life and being constantly surrounded by willing playmates and adoring relatives. Everyone commented that Emma never cries and it was true while we were out there she barely grizzled once. Not the case since we've been back however!! It's quite an anticlimax crashing back to the reality of a pokey little cold house jammed to the gunnels with heaps of clothes, clothes and more ruddy clothes - think I'm just going to have a big bonfire - will save two changes of clothes each and possibly 3 for Emma.

We have been attempting solids since we left for Oz - and still (6 weeks later) virtually no food has passed her lips. I'm at my wits end. She simply purses her lips tightly closed at the sight of a spoon. As for finger food, she likes to pick it up and bash it about a bit. She will sometimes put it in her mouth for a few seconds but it's usually followed by the 'i've been poisoned' face and a repertoire of choking and gagging noises. We managed to get a miniscule amount of apple puree into her by pulling her thumb out of her mouth and pasting it with the apple - the thumb of course went straight back in. Result. But cruel??? And she does like sucking on bits of watermelon. Apart from that she is still totally breastfed. She feeds a couple of times a night too which I have considered could be dulling her appetite but I think it's to make up for her very poor/distracted feeding during the day and I'm not sure I'm ready to let her shout it out instead of picking her up.

Do you have any suggestions of where to go from here. What are the best first finger foods to get them excited about eating? I started DS on purees at 6 months and by this stage he was eating masses of stuff so I really don't know what's going on here! Reading so many comments about how your babies are now on 3 good meals a day has sent me into total despair.

Just popping in but Madame Freckle - don't worry. she'll get it in her own time. Take it from a mum who was pushy with a reluctant baby first time round: it took us THREE YEARS to get over the damage I did.

She'll get her calories from milk.

For what it's worth, Daniel likes Spinach soup, melon and tomato apart from what you mentioned (yes I know tomato is an allergen, but for various reasons, both our little ones have lapped it up almost from the get go)

Oh, and I think the gagging is part of learning to eat. It's not the same as choking. Daniel does it almost every time he eats, but eats all the same. As for 'the face' he does it too, even if he actually goes on to eat quite a bit more.

Thanks latrucha. I think i'm more concerned than I would otherwise be after the new weaning guidelines malarky - thinking that maybe if we'd started sooner she might be less reluctant. Also, should I be worried about lack of iron etc? I thought this was one of the reasons why it's important to get them onto solids as their iron stores from birth become depleted?

They do need the iron, yes but for me, now, I have to have a balance between that and respect for their wishes. That piece caused a lot of ructions, but it wasn't based on any new research. It was based on the same guidelines as the current WHO guidelines, which say around 3% of infants MAY benefit from the introduction of solids earlier than 6 months. The article was an opinion piece based on that research written by four people, three of whom have links to the baby food industry. They put it out now because there is about to be a governmental review of the research on weaning. They're stealing its thunder.

There is no new advice. Very, very few infants in th developed world are anaemic.

Thanks again - most informed! I will try not to stress. It is very frustrating though.

And to add to what LaT said, if you also left the umbilical cord to stop pulsating before cutting, then the iron stores should last longer.

But you can give vitamin and iron drops if it would make you feel less stressed about the food. :)

Hi everyone - I haven't posted for ages but have been trying to keep up to date with those of you who do. We had a bit of a disasterous christmas, all of dec dd1 was ill with an ear infection & perforated eardrum,then flu, proper flu but not the swine flu variety. Then week before christmas dp got the flu & boxing day I finally got it. We had a trip tp stay at alton towers planned but couldn't go so was gutted about that.
sorry to hear about the bereavements, we had a sudden one last week, my adopted disabled brother, he had multiple,complex health problems but was healthy considering iykwim it was completetly unexpected.
sleeping here is crap but not def not as bad as what you are going through csws. In an effort to help everyone else get some sleep I have lauren in bed with me & feed her whenever which is usually every hour or so, she isn't hungry obviously just wants comfort & is using me as a dummy. I was planning on moving to 4 hr feeds but over christmas just fed her when she wanted too just as it was easier, now she wants feeding every hour or so in the daytime too, whenever she wants comfort or is tired. To make matters worse she has had 2 teethj come through & since this won't take a dummy she just chews on it.
any advice is much appreciated.
Lauren also has a clunking/grinding hip, is intermittent, usually gets noisy after arching her back, she is very windy/colicky a night so freqently does this but now after the arching it seems to set off the hip noise which coincides with her being distressed. The gp thinks it more likely that the distress is caused by the colic - didn't offer any advice on that tho & is referring to ortho for a check up.
madame freckle - we are slow at weaning here, keep trying, fdollowing baby led way but lauren chews on some things & most gets chucked on the floor. I'm not worried she is so chubby & is def getting loads of calories from milk at the mo!

Hi all, suddenly loads of posts on here after a very quiet spell. Christmas must have wiped everyone out! roundabout and CSWS much much sympathy with the sleeping. We are persevering here with putting Fergus in his own bed and trying to get him to settle himself. He was an hourly waker before with the odd 3hour spell if I was lucky. Things have improved over the last week but there is still some crying which I had rather hoped would be finished by now. I find it so so so hard not to pick him up and cuddle him as soon as he cries! Anyway he now seems to be able to go fir about 5/6 hours, then feed, then another 5/6 hours. He has done this perfectly twice but tonight is crying again about 2 hours after going down. Oh well guess it will have its ups and downs. Roundabout Fergus is also fairly windy which was waking him up but strangely it seems to have improved since we started this sleep training. I do not know if the overly frequent feeding was perhaps causing the wind or if he naturally got better (seems unlikely) or if he just manages to sleep through it now he can settle himself a little. DH is upstairs with him now and he seems to have settled again. One thing is he still wont settle if he is on him own and he wakes up, he likes DH just to put his hand on him so dont know how we will ever get back in the same room?
Oh and since staopping the hourly night feeds fegus has started eating much more solid food during the day. Fairly wolfed down all his meals today (no less messy though )
Hope everyones sleep gets better soon and yr DH comes back from Greece soon CSWS. Is there no one else who can come and help you out? Do not know how you are coping.

thanks goodname - I was beginning to wonder if the frequent feeds were exacerbating the wind problems. The last day I have been feeding every 3 hrs ish although she did have an extra one yesterday evening. Last night was better although took hours to settle down but did only wake 3 times between 10.30 & 7.30 so much improved. Dd1 went straight to sleep at 7 too so a much better night was had by all.

Fell off again....sorry for the extended absence....all ok here but only just managing to juggle the 3 dcs through the day (with no time for MN or anything else) and far too shattered at night to do anything other than chores and collapse.

There is hope...au pair arrived last Sunday and is settling in well. Hopefully I may yet regain my sanity and MN updates will be restored.

Love to all, hope everyone is coping with weaning, sleeping, teething and all the rest. Not sure what on earth is going on here at the moment, again, hopefully I will get more time to focus on Mia once the aupair is helping with the older 2....

Hi All.

Is it just me or is January just an awful month! Everyone in the MrsD house here has been sick.
DH & DS1 are currently in bed with a vomiting bug. DS2 had same bug over the weekend.
I had what seemed like mild food poisoning, dreadful stomach cramps and totally unable to stand or even sit upright for 2 days this week.

DS2 was also in the emergancy room (on the day I was sick) with what doctors thought was testicular torsion. It was a worrying few hours waiting for a scan and then the results etc...luckily he is ok.

DD has been throwing up a few feeds each day but so far today she is keeping them down.
Seems so much tougher with all of us being sick with no family nearby anymore to help out or even pop in with some supplies.

madame freckle DD is another non-starter with weaning.
Its been nearly a month now and ive barely got the spoon to pass her lips more than twice. She'll be 7 months next week and I'm wondering when she will get the idea that food on a spoon/finger food is ok.

Aarrggh....Mia is, I think, teething. Not eating, utterly miserable, generally grumpy, awful awful poos and a great big red sore on her bottom as a result.

I never know what to do at this point...nothing seems to make her happy, not even chomping on my finger, and she is totally refusing to eat anything sensible. Still demanding anything fun DS and DD1 get, tho....so maybe all hope is not lost....but I don't want her eating sugary petite filous and sausages when she hasn't had anything healthy all day.....

Anyone able to help?

Just give her milk filly. Will she take that?

Filly, you've just described Alice today too. She's not really taking much milk either as she's too snotty to feed properly. She did have a bit of cheese and banana earlier, but I think all she ate for tea was a prawn cracker . She's a bit happier with calpol on board - does that make any difference to Mia?

Yes, Calpol is helping....at least when she is dosed up I can see a shadow of her happy little self - I was beginning to think she had turned into an evil troll baby overnight :( :(

When she takes her milk, its fine, but she's really not keen on anything, not even a bottle. And of course I stopped bfing over a week ago thinking it was me that was the problem....now I suspect it was her teeth bothering her :( I have completely given up on food - didn't even bother offering her any lunch today, although her temperature seems to have dropped so we may attempt dinner tonight.

By the way, my left breast is still solid, painful and full of milk a full week on....is this normal????

filly did you stop feeding suddenly? You will be at risk of getting mastitis if you did. But yes, I believe it's quite normal to still be producing some milk a week later. If it feels really full or sore then I'd actually express a bit off.

CSWS, I was down to just 2 bfs a day (morning and evening) and was convinced Mia wasn't taking much by the last week as she wouldn't stay on for more than 10 minutes (1 side only, always the same side, she wouldn't even latch on my right for the last 3 weeks!) even after 12 hours of no milk, but then put away 7ozs in a bottle straight after when I finally offered it to her. It was at that point that I thought my milk might have dried up (which wasn't a huge surprise as we'd been winding down slowly and I knew it might happen) so switched to bottles for those 2 feeds. That was a week ago and I'm still immensely sore with what feels like a solid square brick inside my left breast. Really really not nice...

Odd, because DS and DD1 stopped bfing in a much less controlled way (pretty much overnight) and AFAICR I was sore for about 3 days and that was it.