Feb 2011 - it's all about the shred

[reastie]

welcome everyone

Ah thanks everyone! Its so hard to be insecure!

At the minute I usually feed harry at 4/5 pm, then do bath at 6.30 and awake time downstairs with us till he starts to twist, then give him a bottle, usually about 7.30 ish but he normally only takes 2oz or so.Then I rock him til he is sleepy and put him in his cot (sometimes with a dummy too!). Does this sound alright?? I just wish I could get him to go to 5 or 6am as he used to< but has now started waking at 3.30!

Had a lovely day with my neice today, weve been to the park and played on the swings, then fed the ducks and Harry slept in his pram the whole time.

ledkr I am thinking about starting H on solids soon, about 18-19 weeks as he is huge and its taking alot of milk to fill him.

jane well done for shredding. I am dreading looking forward to my shred DVD coming!!

ahhh I meant easy to be insecure!

Hi ladies,

Good to read everyone's updates again, although I have no idea how you all have time to be on mn so often. I only really manage to get on here on Wednesday's when C goes to MILs for a few hours, and at the weekend when DH is here, I am clearly mismanaging my time!

Ledkr apart from last night, is D going through from bedtime to 7ish now then? C has a split feed for bedtime routine - feed at 5pm, then bath and then feed again at 6.30, then we dream feed at 10.30 and then through till 7. I really want to drop the dream feed but I don't want to risk the early waking. To be honest she only has about 60ml then, so it might make no difference, but I don't want to take the risk, although I suppose I'm only risking one night if it goes wrong. The thing is tho, that C struggles to have really big feeds, so I think if she dropped the 60ml dream feed, then it would put pressure on the other feeds and I would get more obsessed with finishing bottles, which is something I'm still battling with (as in battling with my instinct to 'encourage' C to finish a bottle, probably a bit obsessed as she lost so much weight at the beginning but I need to get over this).

If I give her bigger feeds she refluxes more so at the mo I really can't get more than 150ml into her at a sitting, so maybe the 60ml at night time is the difference between enough and not enough?

I don't even know what I'm wittering on about now...I've tried asking C if she wants her night feed but she just makes a gurgling noise so not very enlightening.

Oooh talk about noises, C is currently totally obsessed with her gggggggggg noise, like she's going go say g but has loads of spit in her throat, it's the noise that comes over the monitor to tell me she's awake, and her response to basically everything at the moment.

D

Suzym you're doing better than me! We don't even have a routine, just seem to fit things in when we can. I'm far too lazy

haha thanks wandering it's nice to hear routines, but also that some just go with the flow!

delia did C always have a dreamfeed? weve tried it with H but he just does NOT drink!!!!!

ledkr was it you who mentioned babies nopt napping after 5pm? H is always shattered at this time, how can I keep him awake? and if I do he just twists, but would not napping late in the day make him easier to settle for bed do you think?

Funny story from having dd weighed today (she's 11lb 2 oz now!) - she was being all grizzly, crying and a general grump when getting her naked to be weighed. Chatting to the hv and she said to me "is she like her dad?" and I automatically said "what, grumpy? yes she is" and hv laughed and said " no, i mean does she look like her dad because she doesn't look like you!"

reastie I only figured out byronic's name the other day when thinking about mn while washing up probably I used to call her byroni, byron etc. Sorry byronic!

ledkr I forgot D couldn't drink a lot in one go, you must have to do feeds quite often then.

delia you could try dropping the dream feed and prepare for the worst, hope for the best?!

Oh and dd does power naps, annoying sometimes when I want her to sleep longer bu then sometimes she'll do a massive 2 hour sleep in the day

suzy your routine sounds good to me (but what do I know ) dd has started doing random waking at 3am too which is weird.

suzy really early on we were on 3 hr feeding due to weight loss, then I moved to kind of Gina-lite, and we still dream feed her at 10.30.

When we started doing it, and we had a 'proper' night feed as well (around 3am) I wasn't bothered how much she had at 10.30, then when we dropped 3am and let her sleep until she woke, it turned out it was between 6 and 7 (I had thought it would be 4 or 5 so was surprised), so I started pushing the dream feed more to encourage 7 rather than 6 or earlier.

At that point, we tried waking her properly at 10.30 and doing nappy, so she would feed properly and so it wasn't really technically a dream feed.

We have since got more complacent as she goes through till 7 anyway apart from the odd blip, so now it's just get her out of bed, shove bottle in mouth, blow on her face a bit (mean Mummy), tickle her toes and sit there for about half an hour until she's had about 60ml then give up.

She doesn't want it, and if she does actually wake, she seems a little annoyed to discover she isn't in bed! So I feel a bit mean doing it really and at 10.30 she is in such a deep sleep it is really counter-intuitive to disturb her.

I just want to drop it as ideally I would go to bed at 10ish (as am still tired despite good length of sleep) so the dream feed keeps me or DH up till 11 and so we argue about it!

Also on feeding/sleeping etc. we absolutely do not let C sleep between 5 and bedtime at 7 (well from 6.30 she is feeding and drifting off), and to make this happen, I try and make sure she does sleep between 4 and 5 for around 20 minutes. This is usually in the pram pacing the pavements or in the car, as she is tricky to settle at this time, she's tired but I think over-tired and gets a bit stroppy). She doesn't need much at this time, just literally 20 minutes or 2-3 5-10 minutes catnaps. I think this nap will be the first to go as she gets older but I know she can't last till bedtime (from around 2.15 ish when she wakes from her lunchtime proper sleep) and won't for a while yet.

WRT daytime sleep and bedtime in general, I find that no matter what she has done in the morning and early afternoon, if I can get this short nap then awake 5-7pm she goes to sleep fine at 7pm. We bath her a this time so that helps.

Check me and my long post out, I seem to be unable to shut up today.

Dx

Ponyo I know I could, I just don't like relinquishing what tiny amount of control I seem to have convinced myself I am exerting over the tiny bundle who has turned my world upside down! I know the only way to find out is to try tho, so I guess one day I will have to or I will be waking a teenager for a dream feed...

D

delia I know what you mean, its a bit like me with the swaddling actually. I suppose (for both of us) the babies will let us know when they don't need a feed/a swaddle anymore. We can just worry about it all the bloody time meanwhile... :)

Thanks delia I might try that with the naps. Altho H is napping now....so God knows what will happen at bedtime! ge did have his jabs today tho, bless him!

H does not nap very well in the day, 1 hour max at a time. I am very of people with babies that sleep for 2 hours at midday!

With regards to self-settling, what does everyone do at bedtime if their LO starts to cry? Do you ;pick them up and settle them? leave them to cry? I seriously feel a bit lost with all of this!

You're right, they will let us know, although I suspect the fact that she only has such a small amount is her letting me know now really!

Because I've had a few difficulties with this mothering thing so far (borderline PND I think, plus baby with reflux), I do tend to cling desparately to my night time sleep as it's the only thing that keeps me sane I think!

Dx

ponyo I tried H without the swaddle last night and it was a disaster, so gonna leave itt and try again in a week. I guess he will get it eventually! When your LO wakes at 3am for a feed does she then not feed properly at 7am? H does this and it throws off the whole day routine!

Hi Ladies...just a quickie..have posted some more pics of nate for anyone that wants a nosey

wandering 40 * wiggles had a nosey at your pics..so fab & cute!

Had a mre of a day...had a fight with a pillar in an underground car park (me & the car came off worse funnily enough!) ...now have a lovely £400 excess to pay in near future...just what we need & we're supposed to be driving up to Glasgow in 2 weeks

suzy we tend to get C to the stage where she is drowsy and relaxed, then put down, shush for a minute and then leave. The first few times we did this we kept going back in to settle her but gradually tried to do this without picking her up (we rubbed her tummy and shush or just pat her a little bit). It only took a few nights to be honest, and we did leave her to cry a bit, a few minutes at a time. Now she usually goes down sleepy but awake, flaps her arms around, clucks a bit then drifts off. It's very rare that we go back in now and if we do, it's usually because something wasn't right to start with (wind, not relaxed and drowsy etc.).

I avidly watch her flapping and clucking on the monitor, and when I see her going a bit 'limp', it's G&T time in our house!

Dx

delia our refluxy babies are very similar arent they? I think they cant tolerate large amounts but D is on high cal formula due to her weight loss so its ok for her. I too have to really work on the late nap between 4 and 5 no later cos she has meds at 5,it was just that once she slept till about 5.30 and i had a shit night but could have been coincidence. I think all babies are very different tho and what works for you is ok,i certai ly wouldnt mind doing a quick dream feed if it got me thru the night but its not as easy for me cos D has to be kept up for 30mins due to reflux and aslo takes a crazy amount of time to feed due to cleft so a dream fed could take about an hour and a half you can see why i piushed the night thing now.
It does all get easier when they are weaned and your doubt as to if they are hungry goes cos you've seen them eat a big dinner iyswim.
D has been gnawing on a bicky peg,they are really hard littl teething biscuits from boots she has also been drinking from a doidy cup ready for her op,she'll be starting school soon at this rate. She is a right misery at this time tho,im marking time before the bedtime-thank god for Ella,altho she is also doing my nut in with her "look at me,this,that etc" cant seem to just let me be for 2 mins.

suzy i responde to the type of cry,if its a feeble moan i leave her but if its a frantic scream like last flippin night i respond,pat or pick up if doesnt work. I really would worry about the swaddle its lush,id be still swaddling d had she not rebelled,she sleeps in one of thos fleece baby gros-from primark whoever asked.They arent babies for long and if you watch tem carefully they will show you what they want. D has to have abig bottle at 5pm even if she has one at 4,i only noticed that last week.

ponyo so glad i wasn't the only one re: byron and I did giggle at the grumpy story

I always feel really about day time naps - how long and how many alice should be having. Some days she will sleep for hours in the day and others she'll only cat nap every now and again. In the day either she's getting quite bad about settling herself or I'm getting bad at noticing the signs - she's got over tired alot this week in the day . Just glad I'm not seeing MIL as she'd never get to sleep

granny love the piccies - such a cutie and love the starry babygro. I'm of all these babies that actually sit in their bumbo when alice still won't blinking well fit in hers properly and much prefers sitting on her sofa (must post pic of the smug little girl on her big girl chair at some point - she'll never go back to baby seats

isnt ponyo a bloody fish? Um im glad you all find it so funny that you didnt "get" byrons name ,well chortle onwards cos i dont have flipping clue still/ is it to do with the author? mine is my kids initials i didnt add an extra d for Dilly tho.I only ever logged in to get some advice re old boot pregancys and now look!

Ledkr what's weird is that in the day, if I don't keep her upright for 30 mins after feeds she does lots of refluxing, some of it with vomit, some without, but after her feed at her bedtime and the dream feed at our bedtime, she just goes straight down. I have heard her refluxing in her sleep over the monitor (mean mummy again), but nothing comes up, and when the acid was not under control, it didn't seem to be enough to wake her.

I think she doesn't have such a problem at night because they're smaller feeds, but if I only did that amount in the day I wouldn't get enough in her or would be feeding every 1.5 hrs.

Dx

reastie it's funny you mentionabout self-settling in the day getting less good. I have noticed this with C too, she really does seem to have a couple of minutes of real screaming while i cuddle, shush and dummy then she'll go. I don't know if she's getting worse at it, or I am! I used to spot the first whimper, shove the dummy in and she'd away with the fairies in about a minute.

I'm wondering if I'm pushing it, as in thinking that she should be awake for longer now she's a bit older, so maybe not encouraging the sleep early enough for her to just drift off. It's hard as once she makes it to two hours I think it's a real milestone, but perhaps I need to start winding her down earlier. Winding down for naps is hard tho because I have feed (takes up to 45 minutes with fussy Claudia), 30 minutes upright time cos of reflux, then I only have 45 minutes to do anything else like play with and engage with her, so I do kind of put off winding down a bit because it seems like there would be no fun otherwise!

Dx

Hello, thanks for asking for me, starting to feel a little less coldy. Mr W has been off the past few days and have been trying to get boring stuff done that we've been avoiding for ages. Also sort of realised that we are actually getting on the plane in 2 weeks and although my "holiday notebook" is full of lovely lists, I haven't actually done anything to get organised

Anna is not sleeping through the night yet, gets up for one feed and then up early around 5-5.30am sometimes she dozes but mostly we get up, although she is starting to self settle in the "big" cot at night.

wandering, byronicheroine and grannyapple great photos, as has been said before we all have good looking babies, we must be gorgeous in real life

wandering how old will dd1 be, Sofia's 6 when we are away but we are having a small party before we go. Its my sisters, mine, Sofias', my mums', Fathers Day all within 2 weeks so its birthday fatigue at the miniute

ledkr I used bicky pegs with Olivia, they were great, have you got an actual date for D's operation?

ledkr think ponyo is an anime character from a film but an probably talking out my bum. I am scundered to say wiggles is actually an homage to the fab four of the Wiggles - Greg, Sam the interloper, Anthony, Murray and Jeff.

Oh bollocks! I had forgotten it's father's day soon!

wiggles DD1 will be 4 tomorrow. Where has the time gone . I keep thinking - this time 4 years ago I was in agony!

Thank you for all the kind comments re photos. We all do produce beautiful children don't we . Unfortunately Lottie doesn't get her gorgeous looks from me - she's the spitting image of DH . However, everyone says that Isabel looks like me.

All those of you that have posted pics of yourself - you all look fab!

wandering I had forgotten your dd1 was called Isabel, its one of my favourite names and Isabel and Lottie are lovely together. Sofia & Olivia have different features of both of us, if that makes sense, everyone says that Anna is the spit of Mr W. I can't believe Sofia will be 6 in a few weeks, I think what I find more is that I went on to have another 2

I'm very lazy re Fathers day, we will be away, so Mr W was either getting aftershave or an i-tunes voucher, went into Boots for co-codamol and they had his aftershave on offer and I had a £5 off voucher, well more money for me to spend on sticker books in Poundland

Well having not had any contact with bil for a month, since the christening, infact we were snubbed several times since, Mr W text them to say we were having a little party before we went on holiday and bil rang and was really friendly, chatty on the phone , so we must have paid our penance!!

I've managed to get a fathers day card but no pressie yet

wiggles glad you're a bit better - at least it should be out the way by the time you're in Ibiza (woah, we're goin to ibiza, woah, back to the islands ) . Maybe BIL wants to come to the party so bad he's willing to melt his iciness

ponyo - is it an animation character or a fish? . ledkr you're not getting confused with pollock (which is a fish) are you?

wiggles what is the fab 4 of the wiggles? I have no idea what you're talking about

d maybe we're expecting our LOs to stay awake more than they should

40 nope - no formula at 9:30. Only formula she has is the nightime feed (which she hasn't had anyway past couple of nights) as in 3am ish. My mum said I slept 8 hrs a night at 3 months and 12 hrs at 6 months and I was bf so (crosses fingers) maybe alice will be the same.

Right, alice stirring, I'm going to dream feed quickly.