AUGUST 2010 - welcome to post-natal :o)

[CherryPie3]

I know I'm not around a great deal lately but we don't yet have a PN thread - so here we are.

Love to all xxx

:)

Oh, and top tip - Use Lansinoh round your nose when it gets dry and sore from blowing it all the time - amazing!

Elusive, you could try putting him down for a nap after 60/90mins awake, even if he doesn't seem tired. Put him in the dark, give him a suck if you are Bfing and just put him in the cot in a dark room. You might need to leave him to cry for 10 mins. If he is not asleep after that you could try another feed and another 10 mins crying. He should fall asleep. Or have you tried bringing the pram inside and rocking him in that? It is awful when they get overtired isn't it!

Daniel went down at 11pm last night and woke at 12 but then slept till 7.30am so still pretty good. I know a lot of people think leaving babies to cry is cruel but I really think that is why he and the twins are such great sleepers - you have to teach them to self-settle IMO.

I think he is teething . Had to give him Calpol last night cos his cheeks were all red and he was sucking furiously on his hand, rubbing his ear and generally sounding pretty upset!

I wouldn't leave him to cry for more than 10mins at this age tho!

I'm struggling with daytime sleeps at the mo too. Apart from dozing off on my lap for a couple of minutes at the end of a feed, I'm only managing to get him to have one sleep each day, and even that can be pretty hard work. I have to take him out in the pram until he falls asleep and sometimes he wakes up as soon as we get home so I have to head straight back out the door. Once he's properly off he does usually sleep for 2-3 hours though. He's often awake from about 2ish in the afternoon til bed at about 9-10pm. Too long!
neenz when you leave him to cry, is it just a whingy cry or a full blown end-of-the-world screaming? I'm afraid I couldn't bear to leave him screaming for 10 minutes

I reckon a lot of the refusing to settle is down to overtiredness. I put S down after 90 mins - 2 hours and he usually goes down. I do have to feed him a bit sometimes and he does have a whinge other times but if I wait to catch 'sleep cues' it's normally too late. If we're out and I can't put him in bed, he fights sleep for ages and then catnaps for 20 mins then is awake again and by the end of the day he's shattered! If he's screaming I don't leave him cos that's not fair on him but crying I'll leave him for 10 mins ish. (btw S doesn't sleep well at night so I might not have a clue what I'm on about )

neenz I think S is teething too, I've Calpoled him a couple of times now for crying/red cheeks/chewing/dribbling but when I asked the nurse she said he wouldn't get red cheeks cos it'd be the front teeth coming through...not sure I believe that though!

Hands cazzy and alice a slice of rather stodgy coffee & walnut gateau and tucks them up in front of tv. bubbabear you can have some too even though I'm and at you not doing a night feed since 8 wks...we did 4 last night and that's pretty normal!

It's not full-on distressed crying, just tired crying like he doesn't know what esle to do with himself. If I know he is tired (if he has given sleep cues like yawning, rubbing eyes, being grouchy) then i might let him scream for a bit but he'd usually fall asleep on the breast if he is that tired.

marzi - 2-3 hrs is great though if you can get him there!

he slept for 3hrs 15mins this afternoon :) Or is that too long . I'm worried if i let him sleep too long in the day he might get day and night mixed up, but i don't want to wake him unnecessarily, hmm.

Marzi I get a bit twitchy if he's been asleep for more than 1.5-2hrs, esp cos I don't like him to go more than 3hrs between feeds. But if 3hrs is the ONLY nap he is getting all day then I would not say that is too much at this age. Daniel naps for about 5-6hrs all in during the day. (about 2hrs at 8am, then an hour at 11.30, 2.30 and 5.30 -ish). My mum said she never woke a sleeping baby during the day and we all slept well at night.

Thanks for the tips on sleeping. Poor little S only had a total of about 2.5 hours all day today, which I know isn't enough at this age, and by tonight he was desperate, poor thing. I think part of the problem is that, because he has to fit in with DS1's routine, he ends up getting broken sleep all the time. Today, for example, he had a nap from 8.30 until 9.30, then we left for toddler group at 10am, he slept for 2 mins in the car then was awake all through toddler group until we left at 11.45am. Fell asleep for 5 mins in the car, woke up as soon as we got home, and then totally refused to fall asleep again because he'd already had a mini nap. At least with DS1 I could arrange my day around a routine for him, so it was much easier.

Neenz sorry I forgot to post again about potty training. Sounds like things are going a bit better anyway, but a couple of thoughts (I'm no expert, but it's fresh in my mind!!). 1) DS1 absolutely loathed the potty because he found it incredibly uncomfortable - once I'd worked that out and we'd focused exclusively on using the loo (and bought a squishy loo seat at vast expense), it all got much easier. 2) It can take longer than you expect but still be the right time. We had no successes whatsoever until around day 5 (ie no wee in potty or loo before then). I was thinking of giving up, but a friend persuaded me to persevere. A week later he was completely trained - only one accident in the month or so since (at the zoo, so not that surprising). 3) I usually try to avoid bribery (actually, DS1 is very hard to bribe because he doesn't find any types of food tempting enough), but in the end bribery was essential to get him to try to use the loo for the first few wees, and for the first couple of poos. We used a star chart with magazines as the rewards.

Right, off to bed. My poor tired baby has completely zonked out, so I'm hoping for a decent night's sleep. We've pretty much given up DS1's daytime nap over the last few days, and I'm really missing the hour or so of peace and quiet (I must admit I resorted to the Jungle Book at lunchtime today, just so I could get a few things done ). Night all.

Thanks Elusive, that really rings a bell with the potty training cos we had no success for 4 days but today we had 3 wee's on the potty and she is obv holding it in till she gets on the potty so has control. She just seems to get distressed for about 30-60mins beforehand when she obv starts to feel the urge but is tentative about going on the potty. But tonight she obv didn;t want to wee on the floor, didn;'t seem too keen on potty either but chose the potty in the end. and every time E was on the potty, T wanted to go on too, so with Dh home tomorrow we are going to try doing both of them. Really hopeful now!

I have same problem with D's routine - with the twins it was Gina Ford all the way (and it worked) but with D I just don't have the time to try to get him into that routine. Luckily he just naps on and off all day and sleeps all night so I don't need to! GF doesn't know everything after all

God, Elusive, I'm absolutely in the same boat re daytime naps. E is so, so hard to put down to sleep. If I have nothing else on, I can dedicate my whole day to it and get him vaguely on track, with 4 hours sleep in all. If I'm out and about, or, like today, too tired myself to bounce him and shush for hours on end, it's a nightmare. Flailing limbs, squawking, rings around the eyes... I just spent an hour trying to put him down. Two minutes later, he's awake again - because now it's tine for a feed. Really wish I was better at this. Thing is, he just doesn't self-settle. He gets agitated immediately if left sleepy in his crib.

Morning all. Sorry so many people are poorly!
I took Tilly to the doctors yesterday after we got back from visiting our friends and it turns out she has Bronchiolitis and an ear infection.
She has anti bios for the ear but you can't give anything for the Bronchiolitis. Wheezing and coughing sounds awful.
I have to monitor her feeds and take her to a and e if she drops to under half each feed. She has now for the last 3 feeds so may be off there soon...

Aw poor Tilly, hope she is better soon. Good on you as well ttc'ing #4 - you're a brave woman! You have 3 in 3 years don't you?

Nat, it could be developmental - how old is E? They tend to get better at settling around 12wks when digestive things settle down.

GYA goodness - thinking of you and Tilly. Hope everything is okay.

Neez E is 11 weeks on Monday. He is getting better slowly but surely... Maybe something magic will happen in two weeks' time!

poor tilly, hope she picks up soon.

Well DH and I have finally done the deed - felt a bit naughty sneaking upstairs to have sex while J was asleep in his pram! Definitely different to pre-baby and we nearly forgot to use contraception .

Hope all napping and potty training goes well today :)

Marzi, when we were on holiday in the caravan we left the twins watching CBeebies and sneaked back to bed

Hi all well here we are on a hospital mini break! Tilly dropped down to 1 out of 7 oz in her last feed so had taken around 6 out of 28 oz in last day. Def staying tonight at least and they ll feed her thru tube in her nose until she's taking a decent amount from bottle.

Hang in there GYA - hope Tilly picks up tonight/tomorrow.

gya poor little Tilly. A bit of help with her feeding and she'll be right as rain in no time. I'm sure you're a lot more upset (seeing her poorly) than she is, so how are you doing?

Thanks. I'm ok she's not worryingly poorly so I know she ll come through it but I'm just sooo tired. She has now needed oxygen tonight which means we ll more than likely be here another night. She has taken 1.5 oz from a bottle then rest tube fed up her nose poor thing. Anyway more later meanwhile someone tell me a joke??!

Just for gya , my best joke but may not be as good written down:

3 women discussing what they call their dh's and why,

Woman 1: I call my man "big balls" because he's got the biggest balls I've ever seen!

Woman 2: I call my my man "big willy" because he's got the biggest willy I've ever seen!

Woman 3: I call my man "Drambuie"

Woman 1: isn't that some sort of fancy liquor?

Woman 3: THAT'S MY MAN!!

I thank you. I don't think Peter Kay is quaking in his boots! Hope Tilly is feeling better soon x

gya I'm rubbish at jokes, but hope Tilly feels better soon and you manage to get some sleep [hands gya a hamper packed with trashy mags, chocolate, soft pj's and a cashmere blanket]

chulita snap on the sore boobs don't know what's going on, but I'm suddenly getting lots of nipple blanching too

Another fan of mooncups here - would not be without mine

off to google kitchenaids - I obviously need one

Finally seem to be emerging from the fog of lurgey - that was the mother of all colds. So lots of sympathy to all those still suffering. bleiurgh - it's rotten!

Tried to go out on a girls night out on Friday night. Had been expressing for days to build up a store of breastmilk and managed to get both boys asleep by 8pm. Wrapped G up in a blanket and left him snoring in his daddy's arms...got to the restaurant, had a glass of wine...then my phone rang poor dh had tried everything but G was just inconsolable and refusing the bottle. So I headed home and fed a very tearful G while dh ran out to get me some chips. Missed my girls night out but had an early night with dh instead!

Flippin nora girls

how much for a KitchenAid!!

(and this is a girl who spends £££ on StorkSac changing bags!)

I'd hope it cleaned itself and put the rubbish out at that price

Thanks for the joke Lizzie !! We ll be here another 2-3 days apparently as she has oxygen tube and feed tube which need to be out for 18 hours before she can go home.
Have just had a kit kat and am watching x factor with heat mag next to me. It can't get more trashy!
Sorry your night out didn't work out blueberries ..