November 09 - Autumnal times are drawing near, soon our babes will be one year!

[MsInterpret]

Hello ladies, hope no one minds me taking the liberty of creating a new thread and approves of the name choice. We've been moving a bit slower than antenatal so though we'd most certainly have some year-olds by the time we finished this one!

Right ladies, I need your help/advice. I have to crack this sleep thing ...

So Ioan is now 11 months and probably in the region of about 22lbs..?
He has morning and evening milk from me, 3 meals and 2 or 3 snacks a day, and still has a dream feed at 10:30.
The morning feed is very small as is the evening one, so I'm thinking of cutting back the dream feed.

1. do you think this will encourage him to take more at the other two feeds?
2. if he drops the dream feed, will the not waking him up at 10:30 allow him to sleep better?
3. if yes to 1 and 2, do I cut the dream feed down, or stop cold turkey?

Thanks!

scarlotti go cold turkey. It never ceased to amaze me with dd1 how I fretted over things like that and she was none the wiser. Even giving up BF altogether. She wasn't bothered at all. I haven't given dd2 a dream feed at all this time around. She still wakes in the evenings for a cuddle and a fart, but I'm hoping that one day the ability to fart painlessly in her sleep will be on her developmental calendar!

scarlotti I am still feeding bear cub in the night ! I am doing 11pm 3am and 5:30-6am. I would be happy to have just 11pm . But i think, if you are going to get rid of it, do cold turkey, as any amount would just confuse him? where if you stop, he will eventually figure out he is not getting any and stay asleep, and should then pick up the calories in his meals/snacks. I have also heard of people offering water instead of milk at 11pm, maybe something to consider? but, like i said, i am not one to talk as I can't even get my boy sleeping through the night. However, up to quite recently he was waking 4+ times a night, so I am not complaining yet.

hobnob i like the image of that, a baby having a cuddle and a fart , and discussing it as a developmental milestone with friends! Actually, DS does not have a dream feed at 11pm, he always wakes for it, and sometimes he does not want any milk, sometimes DH can settle him with a cuddle, that also applies when he wakes in the night. Once MIL has gone, i will be dropping the night one completely (don't offer milk from me any more, he has a bottle).

I'm a bit about bf. Isla is taking so little morning and evening now that I think it would be easy for us to stop. She really enjoys being able to hold her cup herself and drink out of it. However, I bf dd1 for 13 months and that is the plan again this time. But it's for selfish reasons on my part I think. I've lost so much weight this time around that I'm afraid of what will happen when I stop and go back to a normal diet. Also, the prospect of actually having to properly get up at 6am and get a cup of formula ready instead of crawling into bed for a cuddle and bf is distinctly unappealing. Especially as the mornings are dark and cold now.

But on the other hand, it'll be lovely when there really is no excuse for dh to duck out of the settling responsibilities and we can work on 50/50 parenting for both the girls instead of him being in charge of dd1 most of the time and me dd2. It's still me who goes up and does the long cuddles of an evening whilst dd2 works out her wind even though I'm now back at work and have marking and planning to do in the evenings

Hello' sorry had computer failure so not been around for a while.

DWB That's great news congratulations!

Pav Scarlotti I too am still feeding in the night but know that it must stop.....

I have just had an amazing weekend, on Saturday my mum, sister and I took ds1, ds2 and my 2 nieces to Disney on ice, it was fantastic and Dh got to spend the day with ds3.
Yesterday was my birthday and my best friend, my sister and her family, my dss and his girlfriend, my Gran and me and mine all spent the day at my mums eating and playing games, it was lovely and I got loads of great pressies. I feel very lucky.

Its great to see some of your Birthday plans for the little ones, I'm unsure yet what to do for Hen.

Right better get on, I have ds2 home from nursery as he had a sickness bug yesterday (only downside to my birthday).

DWB woo hoo! What fantastic news, I was wondering the other day who would be first to get pregnant again and its you! Massive congrats to you all!

Pav your dd's post was very sweet, bless her!

Tigger your weekend sounds like fun, Happy birthday for yesterday!

I am still bf Millie 4 times a day but (whispers) she has started sleeping through until 5-6am, finally! I plan to carry on as long as she wants to, ds was 20 months when I stopped feeding him so will probably do a similar amount of time if Millie wants.

Millie says dadadada and nananana, but her favourite word is nooooooooo, which she says a lot! Apparently she has said mumumum but I haven't heard it, I think she deliberately withholds it from me!

scarlotti think I agree with hobnob and you should just go cold turkey. In my admittedly little experience I have found the same: that my worries over stopping this or that or changing something seem to have very little effect on R. She doesn't seem bothered by it! Then again, we never really did a ddream feed and her naps etc have always been when she's tired, rather than by the clock.

Have also stopped bf-ing now, more or less. The morning one I was reluctant to stop as I thought of those cold, dark mornings without a cuddle in bed, but actually...it's not been too awful nipping downstairs to make a bottle. We're lucky in that Rosa wakes up somewhere about the time we have to get up on weekdays. I didn't decide to stop as such but one morning Rosa rejected me! I really thought we'd go to at least a year, but...

Like you hobnob, we like the fact that DH can do half the feeds. He does almost every bedtime now as he loves it so much, that's one of the main reasons we went onto bottles then and it just spiralled from there. I am not missing it like I thought I would and I actually feel good in terms of my body, like it's my own again! She just seems so much more independent which is lovely, but she still needs mummy for cuddles, which is even lovelier.

One question - she's having milk from a bottle at the moment. Have others found it's easy to switch to a cup? She drinks water from a sippy cup but refuses milk. Would it be best to try day milk feeds in a cup first? Or is leaving her with the bottle ok for now?

Sounds like a great birthday tigger. Many happy returns!

scarlotti - think inventor of dream feed (she who shall not be named..)suggests bringing time back 30 mins and reduce quantity and continue doing this for a few days and then bring back again until u just stop to graudually wean off but who knows!

I quit the overnight feeds cold turkey, with some crying involved for a night or two, but kept the dream feeds for several weeks after. Once she started sleeping from the dream feed to morning, I started pushing the dream feed back gradually until it was a proper bed time (7:30-8p). That only took a few days, so maybe the transition was more for me than her!

Pav and Scarlotti H feeds exactly the same as bearcub does Pav- she was missing out the 3am- ie sleeping through, the joy! but is now back to 8pm, 3am, 6am. Would be OK if I ever finished work and crashed into bed before midnight!!

Agree with all who said dcs take to cold turkey easily. When I finally gave up feeding ds he couldn't have cared less and he was old enough to say if he did!!

MsI I guess bottles do get phased out into cups but can't remember how early ds did it as they phased him out at nursery, IN fact, all the really gruelling stuff was mainly sorted at nursery, including potty training. Cheat and ask Roo's keyworker to switch to a cup?!

Sounds a v happy birthday Tigger

Pav sweet from your dc, ds is fascinated by texting. It is strange to think how normal all this technology is for them!

Off to watch/drool over Spooks

Gave whole staff training tonight, no one died of Powerpoint, even though my room was v hot and stuffy. Felt quite good to be back in the saddle and I was quite proud of myself afterwards but overall I think working for a living is HARD with little dcs-one long compromise on everything (well, one long compromise on the housework anyway- filth does not come close to describing it, the bathroom is worse than a soft play area)

Hi all, I wonder if anyone remembers me?? I am so sorry I have been AWOL for so long, I have been trying to half keep on on facebook, but basically I am rubbish, and seem unable to much more than basic things like survive the days!!! I am also pregnant again, 17 weeks and a bit, which was a massive shock to be honest, but excited now. Although I have no idea how on earth we will cope with a 16 month age gap. Trying to move to a different part of the country to be close to family, but selling/changing jobs (for DH not me) also adding to my stress!
Anyway, I am going to try and catch up a bit on how everyone's doing. I hope you haven't all forgotten me! I have tried to rejoin a few times, but thought "no, they'll all hate me by now for being so crap"! I hope you're all well xxx

Hi katster, just popped on and spotted your message. Of course we remember you, silly. I think of you lots, especially as I'm teaching Y2s in my maths programme and I remember you're a KS1 teacher. Lovely to hear from you and huge congratulations on being pregnant again, that's fantastic news!

And we don't hate you for being crap. We all come and go, depending on what's happening in our lives...

It must be really hard being pregnant again with S keeping you busy as well as working. Feel free to off load here. As you'll see if you check out the thread, there's another pregnancy in our group too...!

wook thanks for the tip on getting nursery to do all the hard parts for me, will remember that one! Although they are pretty terrible about getting her to sleep. She has NO morning nap sometimes at nursery, wheras at home she will sleep for an hour or two.

Oooo hello Raggie! You will forever be Raggie in my eyes, hope that's ok! Great that you are doing Y2, I remember you saying you had got a new job doing a maths booster thing, is that right? Sounds absolutely perfect. I am in year 3/4 mixed this year and to be honest I miss being able to be a bit silly with KS1. It's only two days a week though, I could not cope with more!

Oh great - will go and find the other pregnancy news!!! Glad I am not alone - I felt like a right wally at first, was (am) still BFing, no periods, baby sleeping in our bed most of the time so not exactly rampant but somehow S will be having a little sibing in March, eeeek!

S is just playing with the microwave, I have an idea this is not good and so had best intervene.....

Eeek, hope it doesn't matter that I just said your old name, and you are not in disguise! Sorry!

Hi Katster, welcome back! I'm the other pregnancy (claired21) & I think our nicknames are listed on the facebook group if you're wondering who some of us are!

No idea how far along I am but certainly not 17 weeks! Or at least I don't think so... ... hoping for an early dating scan to confirm due date as I'm in a bit of a pickle with jobs just now - took redundancy last month before I knew I was pregnant. I've got a temp contract lined up but it's a 9mth contract, which I certainly won't be able to complete, so I'm trying to find out how much I could do before deciding whether to tell prospective new boss or not!

How is your DS doing?

MsI I'd be interested in opinions on cups/bottles too! We have discovered Ethan will guzzle water out of (wait for it) a fruitshoot bottle, but only drinks one or two mouthfuls at the most from his other cups or beakers. Not sure about trying milk in the other cups yet.

Hi everyone, I've been AWOL for a long time too. I think about you lot all the time, but never seem to find the time to post. I trust you're all well and congrats to DWB and Katster!! How exciting .

DWB I've forgotten exactly, but you only need to work something like 13 weeks of your test period to qualify for SMP which is about £123 a week.

Is anyone else just exhausted? Things are really hectic here. DD finished her private nursery 2 months ago to prepare for starting pre-school - but then it turned out she's not starting until tomorrow. It's been like a mad house with both of them at home all day every day when she is used to far more stimulation, and James is still waking and feeding SIX times a night! I just long for sleep! Now I am panicking about my little girl being all grown up as she tries on her new school uniform etc. Where does the time go? I still think she is my baby...

Congratulations DWB! I had a dating scan too. Were you BFing? At my dating the scan, the sonographer gleefully pointed out that I was 9 x more likely to be having twins since I conceived while BFing! Ha! (I'm not).

Are you having cup trouble? We have bought every cup/bottle under the sun and found he will have a drink from a weird, purple tommee tippee space-age looking thing. I'll try and find a link.

Very similar to this one: www.mothercare.com/Brown-Boys-Trainer-Bottle-Stage/dp/B003TFTO6O/sr=1-10/qid=1286295319/ref=sr_1_10/280-4299458-7018826?_encoding=UTF8&m=A2LBKNDJ2KZUGQ&n=75697031&mcb=core

I am combination feeding... I'm also a twin myself so the chances are probably quite high. Gulp!

Yikes! Sorry, DWB hope that didn't scare you! Also hope you don't get the same sonographer as me, who thought it was funny to tell me there were two heartbeats! The expletives I uttered were not pleasant....

OMG I think I'd have a heart attack!!

Thanks for the dream feed suggestions.
We use a sippy cup here for water and he's finally got the hang of it, I put milk in it the other day and he seemed ok although didn't drink a huge amount.
Welcome back katster and congratulations!

MsI like you I am contemplating dropping the bf now, think I might just buy some of those cartons for the 5am feed and keep them and a bottle upstairs!

Front tooth on the verge of breaking through here so have had some rough nights - sleeps until 4:30 then awake from then. Am dead on my feet as work is also busy!

Hope everyone is well x

Hi laugs! Have missed you! Aw, it's like a reunion on here this evening

Yes, it is fine to call me raggie katster, not in disguise! Some of us decided we wanted to be more creative with our names, inspired I think by SirBoobALot originally, if I remember correctly. I wonder if you can guess who she might be...actually, you worked out me pretty quickly so perhaps will be no problem!

I can't complain compared to your situation Laugs, but there's a vote for exhaustion here. I'm working 5 mornings and then picking up R from nursery/Gparents and with her in the afternoon til DH is home just after teatime. Luckily he usually then does bath and often bed, as we're bottle feeding now. But then I have to prep my lessons for the next day. I am so braindead I do nothing else but veg in front of laptop. I really must do something. people like scarlotti raising money for (and doing) the Himalayan trek and SirB being a bfing counsellor are putting me to shame!