March 2010 - Six months in - will they ever sleep?

[Arcadie]

Welcome to the latest thread for mums of babies born in March ( and a few in Feb and one in April!).

Come on in. Find out who'll be pg next and who's weaning onto what.

yay for a good nap and a read ICWAS! it was lovely weather yesterda here too0 tyoical now the kids are going back to school eh!

Harry is back tomorrow and Rosie starts her nursery on tuesday 0 i she cannit wait!

anyway off to seperate my children from yet another fight! grrrrr!

IWCAS DD's gone the other way with poo, we seem to be having less not more, but when they do come...OMG. The smell is something else!

She's also decided that sleeping on her own is passe, so is now taking longer to go to sleep at bedtime, then waking up at about 10.30 (but not wanting to eat) and screaming until she finally goes to sleep on me. Whereby I try to put her in her cot, and she wakes up again If she does go down, then inevitably she wakes up at about 2.30am, has about 1oz of milk but won't go back in the cot, however she is quite happy to get in the big bed and try to kick Daddy out.

So tonight, we're going to put her in her own room :( DH is back at work next week so at least if DD wakes up in the night, I can go in with her and he can sleep. We're also going to stop offering milk during the night, if she's getting nothing then then she might take more in the day and might stop waking up if she's not getting any milk...TTSP!

Any help here appreciated

Sorry not to post properly, will do soon!

Hi, I'm back, my dad's ok(ish), my mum is coping (just) and Joe is teething - cute, but not exactly helping on the sleep front....

Just marking my place, glad I found the new thread. I'll try to read back a bit and post properly later.

Waiting for my other boys to come home from school for a big hug - whether they want one or not; I need one!

Also Joe is 25 weeks old today, so in his 26th week from tomorrow: surely I can start weaning him now, purty please! I am so impatient to let him eat stuff, probably my usually chaotic combination of purees and finger food, can't wait .

Quick hello from me.

Dizzi - so sorry about your friend. How awful .

And rebeccacad, sorry about your clients' baby. Poor them. I hope you're feeling a bit better. Maybe it's scant consolation for you but I bet you're a great doula. Your reaction to what happened makes it clear how much you care.

Pacific, keeping my fingers crossed for your Dad.

Haven't looked at your thread yet, Dalrymps, but hope you're OK.

Main news from me is that I am also not pregnant. Hurray!!! Oh, and DD's sleeping Is Not Good. She will not go to bed without me - which would be bearable if she didn't start screaming herself silly with tiredness at 7.30. . I am going to have to sleep train, aren't I?

Evening all.

Glad you're not up the duff Sariska

I had a lovely pizza lunch with NCT friends today, although DD insisted on sitting on my lap the whole time so I just squashed the pizza into my gob in the manner of a BLW baby!! Definitely could have done with a vinyl tablecloth under me!!

How are all the babs doing for daytime naps?

Generally I can't put DD down in her cot awake. She might nap for 1 hour in the morning and then maybe 2 naps of 20-40 minutes for the rest of the day. Does this sound normal? Lots of books seem to say that they should be napping for 1 and a half to two hours at lunchtime. i mean, is it possible to force them to nap longer??

hello
I should be napping like DD but I havent checked in in ages..
Thanks for holiday advice Melk I have written it all down :) Am hoping DD falls asleep on the plane like her Dad. Thanks also to Smac who recommended the petite Star - an ace little buggy!
And while Im thanking - Sarah Napisan works wonders on fruit stains thanks for the tip! (fifties housewife emoticon)

Donttry welcome back! Napping/ sleep - DD normally naps two hours after she woke and this is an hour in the morning , maybe upto 2 hours at lunch and 30 mins in the afternoon. Bedtime is 6.30. She wakes between 11pm and 1am for a huge feed and then once more between 3am and 5am. Depending on when that feed was means she wakes between 7am and 8.30am for the day. Im thinking of dropping the last feed as she doesnt take much at all, but she lays there singing at full volume and its the only way I can get her to be quiet!

Heckle I hope the week has improved for you. We tried rice cakes with cream cheese yesterday and they were very popular.

Fliss was wondering where you were. Hope you had nice time. I have never seen so much mess as yesterday with yoghurt and a plum. Its volume seemed to increase 4 fold when spread round DD and the kitchen. Science came to life too when DD dropped her sippy cup onto a spoon which sprang across the kitchen and into the cats food, leaving a vapour trail of yoghurt across everything.. :)

Flip glad you had a nice time in Ireland. brrrr at the atlantic sea! My parents used to make us swim in the Irish sea all the time (shudder at thought of what was swimming with us in the 80's)

Dalrymps sorry I cant help but have done so well to get this far with what youve had to contend with x

Wave to Pixie IWCAS Evitas and Arcadie and anyone Ive missed.. Is BookWormDad still lurking or did we scare him off with talk of SWI and Aunt Flo? :)

donttry DD naps pretty much the same as yours - about an hour in the morning and maybe 2 20-40 minute naps later on. Not in the cot though, oh no. She falls asleep on either me or DH and then will go onto a makeshift bed on the floor (changing mat+sheet)

Didn't get her in her own room last night as I didn't get round to sorting the curtains, but instead when she woke up we just shushed her (every two hours) and gave her some dentinox - worked until about 5.40am when I put her in with us, but feel much better than I have done for days. DH was wondering if it was something to do with weaning that was disturbing her sleep...her not digesting it properly yet and it giving her wind/tummyache?

Also feeling like a Very Bad Mummy this morning, made the schoolgirl error of leaving DD sat on the sofa whilst I went to open the curtains (I never put her there, why I did this morning is a mystery) so of course DD took the opportunity to launch herself off onto the floor :( Was fine after some cuddles but have kept a close eye on her for the last couple of hours, however me and DH were gibbering wrecks.

Fliss don't feel bad! I'm sure it happens to all mums all the time. And don't forget that babies are made of "rubber". they don't break easily :)

Donttry DS's naps are very random. Some days he sleeps 40-50 minutes in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon, other days he only sleeps 1h in the afternoon... but he always goes to bed at 7.30 and wakes between 7.30-8.30 am (and off course a couple of times during the night for feeding)

Pacific glad you father is better

Sariska lol at not being pregnant!

Dalrymps hope you are feeling better

IWCAS very about reading a book in the park while baby sleeps. Loved the pictures on FB :)

Waves to everyone else

Back to work!!
x

Pacific - glad your dad is ok

Not sure about Miles' naps, sometimes naps in the morning for between 30 mind and an hour. Usually either on me, in (flat) bouncy chair or in baby swing. As his sleeping at night had been quite bad lately we usually have a joint nap in the aft when he either sleeps on the bed next to me or in his cot. This is usually for 1 and a half to 2 and a half hours!

Fliss - don't feel bad! We've all done that, it's almost a right of passage. I'm sure lo is fine

Off to clean ds1 up after his lunch. Thanks to all who have posted on my thread and posted here to reassure me.

Weaning: so far we've tried rice cakes, breadsticks, toast, pitta bread, cucumber, red pepper, banana, banana porridge and cheese. Oddly, cucumber and red pepper seem to be most popular!

naps - all over the place, absolutely no rhyme or reason. But on a good day, she's much like yours donttry - one of 1 hour snd a couple of other quick snoozes, about 20-40 mins. I remember dd1 was much the same though, and she eventually got into the habit of longer, more regular sleeps. QUite of your joint naps dalrymps!

work (ignore this bit if you're not ready to think about this subject yet!) Got in touch with the college I was teaching with before going on ML and they seem keen for me to take a couple of classes starting mid November. So far the idea is not freaking me out and is actually making me feel quite happy, as I wasn't sure I'd have any job to go back to. But I really have no childcare sorted out for dd2. So I guess I'll be getting on with that and weaning in anticipation of re-entering the workforce. Wow, my brain must really be craving adult activity to make me actually WANT to go back to work

PS pacific glad to hear things are a bit better with your Dad. I hope he continues to improve. Now, get some solids into that baby!!

Well, we're back from the beautiful West Country again. Really didn't want to come back as we won't be visiting again for a while and it was the most glorious sunny day. DD and Alex had a lovely time building dens at the Eden Project and getting soaking wet at the beach and getting spoilt rotten by grandparents and aunt.

Weaning is going apace and he gets really cross if other people (espec his sister) eat and he hasn't got anything. Lots appears to be going in, and coming out, largely undigested. IWCAS, both DD and Alex went through a mad pooing phase around the time they started weaning and I reckon it is their systems adjusting. Lasted a week/ten days then normal (if rather smellier) service was resumed. I don't know how nursery are going to cope with the BLW idea as they couldn't get their heads round it at all for DD. Anyone here managed to explain it to a childcare professional before?

I'm also in the process of stopping BF - he's now got 2 teeth and a third on the way and my poor nips were being used as teethers. No thank you. I'm sad to be stopping but at the same time it means that I could go out last weekend without my first thought being how quickly I could get at my boobs in any given situation. Now I know how strippers feel on their day off.

Back to work for me on 1 November, seemed like ages when I set it up and now doesn't seem so long. I must enjoy the last of the leave although I'm looking forward to some adult company.

Sorry not to do proper shout outs but it's nice to see all the holiday makers back, I'm thinking of all those with personal traumas (rebecca, Pacific, Pixie, Dalrymps and evitas) and I must now go and do all the blinking house moving paperwork! Night all.

Had to laugh at Siamese's DD singing! My DD is making some lovely (and loud) sounds. Not so lovely at 5 in the morning!

Thanks for all the naps info folks. I am feeling better now. I was feeling like BAD MAM for not getting her proper sleep. She goes down between 6:30-7 every night and sleeps through until 3-6 and then some more sleep so at least that is sorted.

She is often so tired and cranky and won't go into the cot but doesn't want cuddles either (she never wants cuddles in fact, too busy looking at everything and has been since newborn). This morning I pout her in the cot and put my hand on her singing and shushing until she stopped screaming. She was hanging tired like. Took 20 mins but she then had an almost 2 hours nap.

Am also jealous of Dairy's joint naps. DD won't sleep with me at all.

Ok she's yelling in the Hop n' Pop (goddawful toy). Gotta dash!!!

Qucikly Fliss don't beat yourself up! nearly did that meself this morning.

Hey all - did i actually miss my own livechat date thing?!! I think i did...i realise i wrote july but anyway. i'm sure we'll do a proper one at some point....sooon?????
Hope all ok - you guys have dropped off my Threads I'm On which, quite frankly, is POOR.
Not with it enough to do shout outs but glad that all is generally well in M10 land and i'm enjoying the various pics (iwcas et al) of Weaning And The Mess on fbk!
We weren't really doing v well, and slightly confused (Melk does NOT breed fussy children [stern]) I also noticed DD2 was TERRIBLE at the breast - cue some looking around her mouth and realising that there were a great many white patches in there. Apart from the Dr telling me that "Thrush is terribly trendy at the moment" she did confirm that she's got thrush so I'm hoping the gel starts working asap. (what REALLY pisses me off about that statement is I have so many friends who have ended up giving UP bfing because bloody GPs didn't diagnose deepset thrush soon enough - so don't bloody tell me it's TRENDY it hurts mummies enough so do you not think it would hurt the babies too?!!!!!) (rant over)
Anyway she did well on some gloop tonight and loves her rice cakes so I hope we are back on track.

Would appreciate thoughts/advice please. DD2 is EBF, apart from one random bottle of formula on holiday when my lovely mum got stuck (she wolfed it down). She is doing very nicely on the boob and it works for me - she's a bit of a snacker which is a pita but it's going ok.
Thing is - by now with DD1 I had introduced formula. I had no problem with this at all. But with DD2, because she's gone SO long without it, I sort of feel like I should continue, almost like a challenge IYSWIM?!!!! I realise this makes me sound like a loon. This wouldn't be a problem but I don't think any formula would be the worst thing for her - she might sleep a bit better at night, and more importantly, I have a fairly serious weekend coming up where I am away for two nights for a bridesmaid get together. It will be VERY good for me to have two nights off, and tbh i'm looking forward to it. But if I continue EBF then it obv makes that weekend pretty full on - i'll have to store up a load of EBM and i'll obv have to take pump with me....
help. I think what I'm asking is - what do we think about introducing a bit of formula at this point?
And for those bottley babies, please don't take this as me thinking it's not a good thing - i honestly don't have any opinions on bfing or bottling, i think everyone makes their own choice, it's just I seem to have built this up into an issue in my own head about this particular baby...I've already done "better" than I did with DD1, so i don't even really know why i'm putting so much pressure on myself.

right. sorry for waffling. me me me.

Am missing RKD and hoping she is having a lovely time down south.
Hope you all well and looking forward to a nice weekend? Bristol Kite Festival this weekend - blinking brilliant for small children

Melk No real 'advice' as such - although I think that introducing formula wouldn't hurt. It's such a difficult decision to make isn't it? The only thing I will say is that it won't necessarily make DD sleep longer at night

Anyway, we've discovered the reason (we think) for DD's sudden inability to sleep - we have a tooth! So obvious really, but she'd been having teething symptoms for SO long that it never occurred to me that the bloody things would actually break through one day! And she seems no worse off for her adventures off the sofa yesterday

Greetings all from a serial Lurker...little energy to post, been working full-time since DD was 16 weeks, now she's 5 months and it's getting easier. An odd bottle of formula has saved many a day for a me, so Melk do what works for you - it's easy to build these things up in your head. DD takes to the bottle just as easy, only 'problem' is smellier poos.

Ok, am ducking out again...been on a work trip to Europe, back to the southern hemisphere on Sunday.

Ooooh thrush sounds nasty! yeah give her the formula for a break for yourself.

pixie hop n pop Your twins sound so cute going to sleep together.

IWCAS it is just in the last few days that I can occasionally get DD to sleep by holding her hands and shushing. Before that NOTHING worked most of the time! Like you I feel really relieved.

Hello everyone else. Just watched the film The Road and needed to take my mind off it before going to bed. Tis fairly depressing.

I think I understand where you're coming from, Melk. I'm also struggling a bit with the formula or not q. My DS didn't have it until he went to nursery at almost 10 months and DD has had none either so far. And sometimes, for me, it is a feeling of, well, I may be crap at getting my babies to sleep but I can do this. That said, I think I will be introducing a little formula in a zippy cup now and then. It seems silly to be letting her try baby porridge made with what must be dried formula and not the liquid version IYSWIM.

Weaning is still going well here. V interested to see what your babies have tried. We've done banana (her fave), apple, cucumber, sugar snap pea, a piece of pasta, French bread, pitta, humous and porridge.

Eventful evening yesterday. In amongst learning that BIL had been knocked off his bike while 8 month pregnant DSis was at home pudding their toddler to bed, I managed to get DD to fall asleep in her hammock with the aid of some bouncing and one of those sound and light h shows. I only felt really pleased with myself once I knew that BIL was OK (bar the inevitable scrapes and bruises - and a broken bone in his hand - not sure what that will mean for the in-labour hospital run).

Unfortunately the rest of the night was not so good. DS needed TLC and calpol for a cold and croupy cough and, after midnight, DD spent long, tiring periods awake. And so is asleep - next to me - now.

Sorry for length of post and lack of shout outs. I have read everything, honest, and am wishing you all a lovely sunny, relaxing weekend.

Turkey Lurking down in oxford at the in-laws. So much to AIBU about but will choose to be gracious. Go to my pares in Kent tomorrow where I fear they will tip me over the edge. I will however get to see my cute as a button 2 month old niece.

Hi Melk Missed you too. Loved you Greece photos.