March 2005 part 3 - Support for the sleep obsessed!

[bonym]

Which of course, we all are

I just had a look at the photobucket as i don't have any other pictures of Niklas here and needed to see some, I also had a look at some of the other babies and I was so moved by how beautiful our babies are. Babies are just so wonderful!

JoPG - I'm working 3 days (tues, wed & thurs). its definitely enough for now.

Christmas shopping - well i'm a scrooge and end up doing a last minute shop just for things I really have to get. Will be different this year though as its a great excuse to buy lots of things for Niklas!

Our famous South African summer seems be taking its time. Lauren has nearly grown out of all her warmer clothes and I have all these lovely summer things to put her in, but even though the sun is shining, there is a nasty cold wind that refuses to go away.
Lauren had some mince for her tea last night. Did it with carrots, onion and tomato. It was a definite hit and we did our little bird routine. It's feeding her lunch that I hate. She never really seems bothered and is so distracted. It takes for ever. Patience, patience...! She is so funny at dinner. She can see her yoghurt sitting on the table, and she hardly takes her eyes off it. As soon as I go near it her mouth opens faster than lighting. It's very funny. She is mad about the stuff.
Sort of sitting, but very hunched over. If she straightens up she tips sideways after a few seconds.

Yes, must admit that our March babies are very blessed. They are all so beautiful and healthy looking.

Great day on Oxford St - bought lots of cute clothes. Nothing for me Leogaela - I'm hopeless, but I just couldn't face doing the whole changing room thing with Iris in tow. I seriously need a personal shopper to just go out there and get me a new warderobe!

Iris charmed everyone as ever, grinning at the folks on the underground and in all the department stores. But she was a menace on the sleep front - just won't drop off in the pushchair. Eventually I got her to snooze in the wilkinet and then transferred her. But that was it - just 45 minutes all day. It's weird because she sleeps fine in her cot at home. Oh well ...

Leogaela - I see you're discovering the joys of packing boxes. They make great toys, don't they? Also, the tags and labels on toys, DD is so interested in them and spends many a happy moment touching them and chewing on them.

Pidge - Lauren is the same. She won't really sleep properly anywhere but in her bed. People always say "oh, just bring her with, surely she can just sleep in her pram". Maybe for 20 minutes but she certainly won't have a proper nap. She's actually too big for it to be comfortable to sleep in now.

jambot - yup - it is such a pain - especially on the days I have dd1 as Iris just refuses to sleep when we're out and about. I wouldn't mind if she was awake and happy - but no she's awake and yelling her head off. Today I drove her round to a friend's house at nap time and she screamed the whole way there, until we arrived and I put her in her sleeping bag, put her down in a travel cot and then she slept for an hour and a half. Sadly this afternoon in the park I didn't have a cot handy, so had to endure grumpy baby syndrome again!

Still, I should be very glad she sleeps in her cot.

I suppose we can't have it both ways. Some many babies will only sleep in the pram or in the car and never really have a good nap. It's a pain, but at least I know that when I put Lauren in her cot she sleeps for a good hour and a half to two hours. Although yesterday afternoon I put her down and went in twenty minutes later to see her attempting to pull her bumper off the cot! No sleeping and of course it was an afternoon when I was meeting a friend for tea, so she was grumpy and I had to bring her home early for a late afternoon power nap. My child is very easy, but boy does she need her sleep. The minute she's vaguely tired she is a real grump. Can't string her out - she just wants to go home to bed.

Harrison too is a big sleeper and is unbearable when he doesn't get his two naps a day, with one needing to be at least an hour and a half. I'm lucky though that he will sleep pretty much anywhere when we're out and about and he's tired. He's often slept on other people's beds with pillows either side of him when we've visited friends, he'll sleep in the car so I often time long journeys to coincide with nap times and he'll happily sleep in his buggy. We went to the beach a few weeks back and he slept for two hours in his buggy whilst DH nad DD caught crabs and I sat happily watching them and reading a newspaper. Bliss

He's still doing quite well at night as well and is regularly sleeping through from 6.30pm until 5.30am ish. I've been feeding him then but the past few mornings he hasn't taken much milk so today, I just cuddled him back to sleep. Took about 20 minutes and he slept through until 7.15am Slowly, slowly I feel we're getting there.

busywizzy -glad to hear the sleep is getting better. We have some progress here too - have managed to drop the 3am feed and now she is just having one at 5-ish before going back until 7.30-8.00. Still wakes at 3-ish though but it is getting quicker to settle her - only 10 mins last night.

She will also sleep in the car or buggy. If in her cot she won't sleep unless she has her dummy but I can usually get her to go off - unless she gets overtired.

boneym - how do you resettle her at 3am without feeding? I'd got that feed down to about a minute - 45 seconds before the let down, 15-20 second afterwards, so last night I thought I'd try to see if I could resettle Iris without milk. I tried cuddling her, but she just screamed, and then she was in such a state I ended up going back 4 times over 45 minutes to feed her in an attempt to get her back to sleep. And then the blighter woke at 5.45 and wouldn't go back to sleep at all. Humbug!

Am feeling surprisingly ok on broken sleep - I would have been horrified at this first time round, but am battle hardened now!

Have just had a super-productive evening with dp out playing in a concert. Made apple sauce ready for a roast lunch tomorrow, plus baked a pumpkin cheesecake (sounds weird, but couldn't resist trying it!). And made invitations for a halloween party we're having for dd1, plus made her a witches hat out of black card for her costume. Now celebrating my industry with a large glass of wine and some Green and Blacks chocolate!

Pidge - it took about 40mins the first night but I just cuddled her, shushing all the while and stroking her head. She has a dummy as well so also gave her that. When she was calmer I put her back in her hammock and bounced her up and down a bit until she was quiet (we have an Amby nature's nest). I was just determined to stick at it as I knew she couldn't be hungry. Hard though .

Last night only took 10 minutes of cuddling before she stopped crying.

serena now has 4 teeth. oh it hurts to breastfeed her atm as she hasnt learnt to not bite uet with the top two. she has been grumpy for days and hardly slept, hopefully she'll settle now the teeth have broken through the gum.

Hi all,

I hope all is well, I am so busy with this Uni stuff I hadly have time for anything else.

Kieran is now on 3 meals a day, but is still having a feed between 2-3am. He has between 5 and 7 ounces when he wakes up at that time.

Kieran has now mastered the art of crawling and has a serious case of separation anciety. He will crawl and play on his own for ages as long as there is someone in the room.

Oh well, better go catch up on the laundry otherwise Kieran will be off to the childminder in the morning in his pyjamas

Pidge, I did the same as Bonym to get Harrison to sleep longer. He started waking between 1-2am when he cut his bottom teeth and carried on doing this even after they came through. Wrapped him quite tightly in a blanket to stop him thrashing his arms around and cuddled him into me and stroked his face until he went to sleep. Like Bonym, took ages the first night but each night got better until eventually, I put him into his cot when not quite asleep and he went off by himself. After that, I left him when he woke up and he went back to sleep in 5 minutes and now he's sleeping through until 5.00ish.

Going to start on that one now to see if I can get him going all the way through to 7.00 by Xmas.

Glad it's going well Norash. Nice to hear from you whenever you get a chance.

Hi Busywizzy,
Glad all is well with you too.

Oh my, is it just Kieran who has no teeth yet .

Thanks boneym and busywizzy - I'm going to give that a go - I know she can't be having very much milk from me as she's only on there for one minute, so I'll try cuddling her or stroking her back. Last night she woke at 11pm which is the first time she's done that in ages. She was pretty inconsolable for about 40 minutes, but then went through till 5.30am. Weird.

Norash - Iris has no teeth either. In fact it's the one way we can tell the difference between her and her big sister in photos at this age!

Pidge, Harrison did exactly the same about a week ago. Woke at 11.30pm crying (first time ever he's done that) and it took me almost an hour to settle him but then he slept through until the morning. Who knows why they do the things they do sometimes ???

I've come to the conclusion that Pidge is really Mother Nature masquerading as a mere human being. Apple sauce pumpkin cheesecake and making costumes If it doesn't get sold in Asda or Woolies my DD has to change her mind about what she wants to dress up as

Norash, Harrison only cut his first two teeth two weeks ago and he's a few weeks older than Kieran (March 18th)

No teeth here either! DD1 didn't get her first tooth until she was 9 months so am wondering if Grace will follow suit.

Caleb is nearly 8 months! old and still has no teeth!

He goes too sleep at 7pm and wakes anytime after 6am. He always without fail wakes at least twice in the night, last night he woke at 3.30am and it took me an hour to get him back to sleep. I manage by cuddling up to him in the afternoon in bed and we have a 2hr nap together. Can't believe we'll be planning 1st birthdays soon!!

busywizzy - LOL at the costumes - I did think at one point they were selling a witch's hat for £3 in mothercare so what was I doing with my scissors and sellotape! Mind you the black card cost us £1.40 and given that dp was worrying about our lack of cash (me being still on maternity leave) I have bragged to him about me saving us £1.60 on the witches hat .

I can report back that the pumpkin cheesecake was utterly delicious. Also sooooo easy peasy - it's a nigella and you literally chuck everything in the food processor (including pumpkin puree from a jar) whizz it up and bake it in the oven. Foolproof. Am not always such a domesticated soul, this evening our supper was spag pesto and frozen broad beans!

Am hoping you are right on the sleep front and that the 11pm thing last night was a blip. We had dp's brother round today and their one year old is still waking twice per night. Heavens I hope we're not in that boat in 5 months time.

Someone here mentioned Annabel Karmel's chicken and grape recipe, so thought I'd try that out on Iris. What a HIT! It was her first ever non-vegetable meal and her little face just lit up after the first spoonful. I mixed it with some squash and she just wolfed the lot in about 2 minutes!

Pidge - Glad Iris liked the chicken and grape recipe. It seems like a strange concoction, but babies obviously like it!
BW - Freya liked the chicken and apple recipe you suggested from the AK website.

Freya loved her swimming yesterday. She was the only girl amongst 5 boys there, and the youngest as well, but she held her own and splashed everyone in sight! I think we've got a bit of a rough tough girl on our hands!

Pidge - I am also a Nigella fan. DS1 and I made her chocolate malteser cake today to take to a friend's house for lunch. Yummy!

Does it suddenly seem that our babies are growing up so fast? Within the last week it seems that Lauren has become a real little person. She is just into everything and laughing like crazy. She's like a real wiggly worm and every night she works her way from the bottom of her cot to the top and then sleeps horizontally with her feet up on her bumper.
Summer is finally here. Lauren wore her first little smock top and matching shorts today. Very cute. Just have to smother her in sun cream as our sun is so harsh.

JoPG - I've been looking at that malteser cake for quite a while - just need an excuse to bake it! We are going to our nephew's 1st birthday party this weekend and when I asked if I could bake something my BIL said "No we couldn't possibly ask you to bake those chocolate brownies again" ... so Nigella's brownies it is!

jambot - totally agree with you about the babies seeming grown up - Iris has really changed - is much more smiley and seems to really understand a good joke. She interacts beautifully with dd1, and thinks she's the best thing going!

Had my first discussion with work today about going back 3 days instead of 4 in January. Quite positive - though I haven't actually broached the subject with personnel yet.