March 2005 part 3 - Support for the sleep obsessed!

[bonym]

Which of course, we all are

3 posts in a row!

On the food front - here's approx what we do:

7am breastfeed
8am brekky - 2-3oz my milk used as porridge
10.30am breastfeed
12.30am lunch - 4 big cubes savoury, 2 cubes fruit
3-4pm breastfeed
5pm supper - 4 big cubes savoury, 2 cubes fruit
7pm breastfeed

Oh plus nighttime, now I tend to give one minute feeds at 3am and 5am, and then often she wakes at 6am and I take her into bed and feed her back to sleep for an hour, which then replaces the 7am feed.

Hello everyone,

I dare say that time is not on my side to catch up with you all and all thats been happening!!

But just to say that all is well with Ava and myself, she is getting sooo big, I havent weighed her since she was about 4 months so dont ask how heavy she is! She eats really well and still sleeps all night, has 2 teeth and chats for England. She really enjoys books and flash cards (For chewing purposes only you understand!).

I skimmed that some posts were listing a rough diary of their day so ours is as follows:

7am up and breakfast
9am milk and sleep
10am up
1230 lunch
1pm milk and sleep
3up
5pm tea
7pm milk and bed

Its all subject to change if i'm busy but it generally falls into that routine. She may take some water inbetween meals but not alot.

I have put some more pics in photobucket and will try to post again soon and keep up with everyone!

Tam and Ava Xx

Hi Tamula
Nice to hear from you - it's been a while. Lovely to see little Ava looking so big and cute.
Your news pics are so sweet Busy. Love looking at all the new pics.

Lauren's routine is approximately

Wake and bottle (6 ounces) at 7:00
Breakfast at 8:30
Sleep from 9:30 to 11:00
Snack and cup of water when she wakes. Snack normally = 1/2 rice cake or something similar.
Lunch at 12:30ish
Sleep from 1:30 to 3:00ish.
Bottle (6 ounces) after her nap.
Dinner at 5:30
Bath at 6:00
Bottle (7 ounces) at 6:30 and then bed.

I notice some of the babies go to bed so early. I put Sylvia to bed when Dominic goes to bed, so usually 8 pm or shortly after. I've tried getting her to bed earlier but she can't sleep as Dominic pesters us. She can't sleep after he comes frome school either (3.20 pm) for the same reason. Dominic is very good with her but still so, so excited to have a sister, wants to involve her in everything.

I feel reassured about the amount Sylvia eats, so thank you for posting that. Perhaps I expected her to eat a bit too much. She's very good about trying all sorts of food. Last evening we went to an Indian restaurant and she tried popadums with chutney and yoghurt, naan bread and savoury rice.

Tomorrow I have a hairdresser appointment for colouring and haircut. I have black long hair now (naturally dark brown) and was thinking of trying something quite different, red or blonde and short. Dunno. I'll see how brave I feel in the morning. I'm going to Swan Lake (Matthew Bourne's production, where all parts are played by males) with two friends in the evening, so if there's any hair disaster I won't have time to correct it.

This afternoon we're going for a hospital appt for Dominic (ENT, he wears hearing aids), then I'll take him to the Woodcraft Folk club. I need to tidy the house a bit and do some shopping. Stupidly, I washed my jeans with my card in the back pocket. Long & hot wash too, now the card is all bent. So I'm short of cash until my new card arrives and can't remember my PIN on the credit card and so many places now ask you for your PIN. DH left me a fiver and I'll have a look through Dominic's pocket money for some coins.

Jambot - how lovely to be looking forward to warm weather. The rains have truly started over here now.

Harry back at docs...
definitely croup with possibly asthma complicating things
dreadful night last night
he is not a happy boy

Just to finish off our routine

up between 6 and 7 feed - depending what he has been like in the night he may just have a little top up feed at 7ish....
breakfast usually half a weetabix with milk around 7ish on a work day.....around 8ish on a non work day

sleeps at around 10 usually for about 40 mins
feed when he wakes - 5oz (if I am at work) one boob if at home
lunch around 12....bowl of something savoury with perhaps a small amount of banana or yoghurt afterwards
sleep at around 1ish
feed anywhere between 2 and 3 (6oz when at work, one boob otherwise)
tea at around 5
(although if it has been a work day i give him a teeny tiny feed when i get home so that I can express easily....
nighttime feed aroun 6:30...usually some downstairs then off to bed between 6:30 and 7 and rest in bed.
Usually has one boob around 10 ish
then cross fingers and hope for the best

Cristina - Niklas also won't go to bed before 8, I've tried but even if he is really tired he ends up screaming. Its really bad the days I've worked as he is so tired when we get home that he is really hard work, but he just won't go to bed!
Sounds as if you have a busy day which is always good!
Dominic sounds very cute!
and.... let us know what you do with your hair!

Tamula - great to hear from you, the pics of Ava are really lovely!

BW - the one of Harrison kissing himself is also adorable.

Popsy, Poor Harry. Lots of healthy, get well vibes from me.

Well, its official, Niklas is talking ! His vocabulary consists of ada, da, dada and ad, but he speaks with so much expression and different tones, its so lovely !

Lauren is yawning her head off and becoming moany by 6ish. She is definitely ready for bed by 6:30/6:45 latest.
Don't think she's been awake past 7 since she was born.
Beautiful day in Cape Town today. Lauren was up to her waist in the pool and she loved it - her first taste of the pool so taking it slowly.

Good to hear from you Tamula - love the new photos of Ava -especially the one in the sink!

Busywizzy - Harrison kissing his reflection is gorgeous .

Sorry to hear that Harry is no better popsy - hope he improves soon.

Leo - it's lovely when they start "talking" isn't it? There's no shutting Grace up sometimes (not that we want to ) - I think she's going to be real chatterbox!

She has perfected commando crawling now and can move quite a distance to get what she wants (which is almost everything. She discovered she could open the drawer under the TV cabinet yesterday by pulling the handle and spent ages opening and closing it. She then realised that if she pushed it closed a bit harder it would make a lovely slamming noise! . Time to put cupboard locks everywhere I think!

Unfortunately, just when we thought we had the sleep thing sussed, she seems to have reverted to wanting a feed at about 3am . Night before last she woke just after 2am and I couldn't get her back to sleep until almost 4am (at which point I gave in let her feed). Last night she woke at 3am and wouldn't settle so I (reluctantly) fed her after about 20mins and she went straight back down. Having managed to drop this feed a few weeks ago I really don't want to go back to it again. Hoping it is just a growth spurt and won't last.

Jambot - v. jealous of the weather you're having now. It has been wet and windy almost every day this week and I'm getting mighty sick of it!

Bonym, we're in the same boat with Harrison's sleeping. The past week or so he's been sooooooo good at going to bed and sleeping through from 6.30pm until 5.30am ish (apart from when I've woken him with my coughing) The past two nights though he's woken at 4.00am and has taken a good half an hour to settle. He's then woken again at about 5.30am as usual for a feed. Just like you, I'm hoping it's a growing spurt as he's eating for England during the day, loads more than he ever has done before.

Jambot, sooooo jealous of your lovely weather. I'm sick of the rain already and it's only just started.

Cristina, very impressed by your daring hair decisions. Took me all my courage just to have a fringe cut in earlier this year Let us know what you decide.

Popsy, how is Harry today?

Have a good day everyone

Just had my hair cut too. Quite a bit shorter, with a reddish colour and a few highlights for Summer. Much cooler and I never did anything with my longer hair anyway. Normally just wore it tied back, so what's the point anyway? Also just been for a facial and pedicure, so basically a badly needed mini-revamp.
Went to the nursery to buy plants with Lauren. She loved it but kept on pulling all the flowers off the plants. Our new grass is growing like mad and has made such a difference to our house. No longer looks like a building site.
Lauren spent the whole day making lion-like roaring sounds and flapping her arms with each roar. Very cute. She has entered the ' obsessed with my Daddy' phase. She is absolutely crazy about him and shrieks with delight every time she sees him. Mamma doesn't get a look-in!

Hi Guys,

Cristina how the hair?

Popsy sorry to hear little one is not feeling to good, much improvement?

Bonym, good luck with locking up the cupboards, we'll definetly have a nightmare once Ava begins crawling, our flat is small and is pretty hazardous for a crawling baby! ho-hum

I have been looking at all the pics in photobucket, I cant beleive how fast they are all growing and arent we lucky to have such a beautiful bouquet of babies?!

Hello to everyone else, have a fantastic weekend, does anyone here from Norash and Kieran these days?

Tam and Ava Xx

Hi all,

Popsy, sorry to hear Harry is not well {{{{{{{{{{{{{GET WELL SOON HARRY}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}. I do hope he is feeling better soon.

I hope all the other babies are doing well.

Kieran and I are well and he just cut a tooth, he is ok so far.

Has the password changed for the photobucket?

Tamula, it's nice to see you. Glad you and Ava are doing well.

Sorry guys,

The password is case sensitive and I forgot it. But I remember now and I have seen all the babies and they are all thriving earent they?

I wish I could add some new ones of Kieran's but my computer went mad and deleted all my photos and music

Hey Norash, good to hear from you. How's the studying going and how are you coping with it all.

Tamula, Ava is a little poppet.

Well, am feeling much, much better today although still have a cough lingering that likes to creep up on me in the early hours of the morning. Cue lots of diving under the quilt to cough as quietly as I can so I don't wake Harrison. So far, so good and last night was much better with him sleeping from 6.30pm until 5.00am. Didn't want to go back to sleep though so brought him in with me in the end and he slept until 7.45am

Went out with DD this afternoon and it was lovely to have time alone with my little girl. BUT what was even better was that I put Harrison down for a sleep just before I left and told DH he'd sleep for about an hour and a half (which he always does). DH settled down in front of the telly for a nice peaceful afternoon ...................... and Harrison woke up 10 minutes later and was grizzly all afternoon as he was still tired. Don't you just love it when that happens Ohhh, bad mummy

Hope Harry is on the mend Popsy and that everyone is having a good weekend.

Hi Norash - good to hear from you. How awful about losing all your photos - have you got back-ups at all? Does this mean that you've lost all your pictures of Kieran?

Glad you're feeling better Busy, and that Harrison slept better last night (thanks for all the help with my pushchair hunt by the way - we've ended up ordering an Xplory in the end!)

Thanks to misdee too for the advice (fellow buggy obsessive ).

Grace had a terrible night last night - kept crying intermittently thoughout the night, athough only for a few a seconds at time so we didn't have to get up to her (well, only once, and dh did that). Kept waking us though. On a positive note though, she didn't want to feed until 6am and then went back to sleep until 8.30am.

Am wondering if she has a tooth coming as has been off her food a bit today and didn't settle well tonight - started crying every time I put her down which is very unusual. After trying teeting powders and Dentinox and still having no luck, I finally gave her Calpol and this seems to have calmed her as she seems pretty settled now.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend - sleep and good health vibes to those who need them .

Norash - poor you with your photos. That is one of my big nightmares - we had a scare earlier where we thought we'd lost all our digital pics. Now I have printouts and backups all over the place.

Get well vibes to Harry.

Iris has been off form for a couple of weeks since having a cold, and since doing her monster puking earlier in the week she has been off her food. Unheard of behaviour! Such a shock to have to keep throwing stuff away. Anyway, she seems much cheerier today, though still not that keen on breakfast.

The night was not great, having slept till 4am the night before she woke at 11.30pm last night - and of course we'd had a bit of a late night, having had friends round. I couldn't console her at all and she cried and cried. Ditto at 3.30am. But at least she didn't actually feed till 5.30am. Then woke again at 6.30am and I had just got her back to sleep when dd1 came bouncing in and woke her up!

Am hoping all her new crawling about will somehow wear her out enough to see us through the night sometime soon. Can't imagine going back to work in my current sleep-addled state.

Hi

Been down lately with everything going on so have been negleting this thread. i know everyone has problems, but some days i find it hard just to revel in being a mother and dont want to talk about the kids.

But serena is doing well, is now sleeping through almost every night, is eating well, crawling, bouncing on all fours, so i think it wont be long till she is crawling upright as well, is trying to pull herself up on furniture, and is just gorgeous. i need to get the passwords again for photobucket to upload some more of the girls. I also lost all my picyures a few months ago, a virus killed my pc and i lost everything in here. But i did upload all the good ones 2 days before to snapfish so wasnt too upset.

take care. hope the buggy is good BonyM, i want a full report lol.

misdee - will CAT you the password for the photobucket.

Nice to hear from you Misdee. Sure we all often think of how you are doing. Please try to put some pics of Serena on if you can - would love to see her.
Not much to report here. Borrowed a 'Jolly Jumper' from a friend and it was a total hit with Lauren - she loves it. Doesn't really bounce in it - rather does a little jig-like dance. DH says she thinks she's in Riverdance! Very cute - pointy toes and all.
DH wants us to think about trying for a second baby in the new year. Not quite sure how I feel about that. Might be a bit too soon for my liking, but he is keen for the age gap to be no more than two years.
Actually battling to try and get my head around having another child. My feelings for Lauren are so intense that I can't imagine loving another child in the same way. Silly I know, but as I was an only child, find it hard to imagine how she will feel about having a sibling. What have the mums with more than one got to say about this?

jambot - I was really worried I wouldn't love my second child as much, and everyone says "it's different" and "don't worry about it" - easier said than done! The truth for me is that I love Iris very differently. Less obsessively, which is probably healthy! It's less of a rollercoaster ride this time round, I'm less over the moon at the little things she does, like smiling, babbling, rolling etc. But I'm also calmer about when she cries it doesn't matter if I don't have the answer. And if she doesn't eat, I know it's just a phase, and not to push it, she'll get the hang of it again.

I have loved being a second time mum - absolutely loved it. I'm better at filling my day, and not counting the hours till dp comes home. Plus I love looking at my older daughter interacting with her little sister, and it's just heartmelting how Iris looks up to her and heroworships her.

And I am definitely on for having a third in a few years time, so I'm obviously having a pretty good time (despite getting woken 4 times last night by one or another child!).

And most of all I think the perfect age gap between kids is the one where you and your partner feel ready and excited to embark on the whole baby adventure again.

Jambot - The age gap between my 2 is a bit bigger than you are intending (3 1/2 years), but I can honestly say that Freya fitted in perfectly and there has been more than enough love to go around. It is also really lovely to see the 2 children interact, that is something that always makes me smile. Good luck with whatever you decide.

Not sure what has happened to Freya's sleep. She used to be a 7pm til 8am kinda girl (I was spoilt, I know) but recently she has started waking earlier. This morning it was 5.30am (aagh!), and she made so much noise that she woke DS1. I will be in bed early tonight. I'm hoping that it is just a phase!

Am hosting Xmas dinner for our family this year, so we have been having roast dinner the past couple of weekends so I can perfect my roast potatoes. Have recently joined an organic veg box scheme so we are also eating whatever veggies are delivered - good way to get a bit of variety else I just seem to pick up the smae things every week at the supermarket. Anyone else got plans sorted out for Xmas yet??

Am just off to check out the new piccies in the photobucket - it seems as if everyone has been updating their folders.

Misdee I often think about you and all you have to cope with. It must seem like pretty insignificant worries the things we chatter about here but I suppose we all get wrapped up in our own little worlds. Here's hoping things brighten for you soon

Hey JoPG, was thinking today we hadn't heard from you for a little while. I'm hosting Xmas too. 13 adults and 4 children (including Harrison). Have done it loads of times now and actually find it easier than transporting us all to someone else's house, especially this year with Harrison. My advice is to give everyone 'jobs' when they arrive - getting drinks, making tea, clearing the table, otherwise you'll spend all day doing everything for everyone and you won't get to enjoy Freya's first Xmas.

Jambot, I've got a 7 year gap which I know is really big but can therefore particularly sympathise with the intensity of feelings you feel as it was just me and DD for all that time. However, I love Harrison with a passion which has almost shocked me. I can't bear to be apart from him and want to cherish every second of him in a way I don't remember with DD. Also like Pidge, it's sooo much more enjoyable this time round not worrying about every little thing. You just go with the flow, know it will eventually pass when things are tough and appreciate all the good times (as you know they're over very quickly as well) As Pidge and JoPG have said, I also love the way Harrison and DD just adore each other - long may it continue Good luck with your decision.

Harrison has been out of sorts all weekend and has already woken twice this evening I'm off to have a glass of wine, a read of the papers (gosh I remember when I used to read them in bed in the morning !!) and then an early night for me too in readiness for what tonight is likely to bring.

Sweet dreams everyone

jambot - there is a quite big gap between my two girls - 7 years in fact, and I can honestly say that I adore Grace just as much as her big sister. There is no limit to the amount of love you have for your children ime. Also, dd1 thinks Grace is the best thing since sliced bread, and Grace adores her back - I feel sure they will grow up to be great friends despite the age difference.

Jo - is it Riverford that you get your veg from? I just had my 2nd delivery from them this week and think they are great. I did a direct (well almost!) price comparison with Tesco on my first box and Tesco were about £2 more expensive!

Not sure what is up with Grace the last couple of days - she has been off her food a bit - really not wanting to eat her savoury stuff but will eat her yoghurt and happy to chew on bits of toast or rusks. Also, she has not been settling well at night. Usually I put her to bed and she goes straight to sleep without a murmur, but the last two nights she has cried and cried and taken ages to calm, even with me cuddling her. Doesn't seem to be ill though - no sign of a cold and no temperature and fine during the day. Wondering if it's teeth, which is why she will eat yoghurt (cold) and chew on stuff (soothing to gums). Well, if we don't see a tooth soon, I really don't what it could be.

Busywizzy - think you and I must be living in a parallel universe!

Bonym, how spooky - I was thinking exactly the same thing as I was reading your first post