March 2011 Windy bums and a good nights sleep - Will these wonders ever cease?

[GeekLove]

welcome to the new thread fellow March Mums!

Now they are all rolling suckin and gearing up for weaning!

I'm back already! Couldn't relax. I did put Hannah down first - we are lucky she is ready for bed any time after 6! Aparently she did wake up when I closed the front door but DP got her back to sleep. Its now going to be his job to put her sleep every other night once she has fed so that she gets used to it. Then after a while he can start settling her instead of me feeding her.

halo u are back already?? Enjoy some freedom!
Having said that I have only been out 4 times since o came along and on tuesday I had to come back at 9.30 to settle him again then go back out! Apparently will only settle for me at night!

Morning ladies, hope you're all well and you enjoyed your night out halo, albeit a brief one!

I just wanted to get your opinions/experiences on something please. It's regarding routines at bedtime. I have a really good one with Ruby, feeds at more or less at the same times every day ending with a last feed around 7pm. I feel a bit precious about this and I really feel strongly that its important for me & her to try and stick to it so much. However, I've noticed I've had a few comments, DH included, noting that we can't do something 'because of R's routine'. It's starting to make me feel that I'm being a bit too strict about it and that it's not such a good thing????

Don't get me wrong, I'm not that strict that it's down to every minute, but I thought I'd done really well getting this far and I don't want to spoil it and I've heard baby's like routine too?/

I'm starting to ramble now, but how do you all feel about routines, do you follow one or just go with the flow???

JoJo I'm a bit of a slave to routine. The main reasons for this are that firstly I'm sure that routine helps the baby, makes them secure as they know what is coming when, and secondly, I know that if one of them is out of routine for any reason, it's muggins here who has to piece things back together the next day!!! DS still has a post-lunch sleep and I hate having to miss that for any reason; unless it's something really important, to be honest I just would miss out at this stage because I literally can't face the afternoon melt-down that would ensue if he missed this nap!!!

Also I'm trying to get them sleeping at the same time after lunch; this is purely selfish so that I can have some "me" time!!! Bottom line is you should do whatever makes your life easiest and baby happy - you're the one doing the most work for LO after all, not DH or anyone else! :)

PS - This is a question particularly for mothers of girls - do yours screech??! Lara has "found her voice". This means VERY HIGH PITCHED screeching. She thinks it's HILARIOUS. This was my nightmare about having a girl!! She was practising it at 4am this morning. Somehow the boys in my house slept through it all?!

Oh and PPS final question! Lara doesn't really "feel her feet" yet - ie if I stand her up on her feet she makes no effort at all to take any weight. I remember DS bouncing on my lap from a very early age. What are your LOs like if they're "stood up"?

lozario we had screeching from ds3 a few weeks ago. Thankfully only a few days of it. It was just a new noise that he got bored of!

Jojo yes big on routine here. And it gets more important as they get older. Ds1 and ds2 still sleep 2 hours at 1-3 and sometimes longer and 11 hours at night. If they don't get a nap I have wailing banshees by late afternoon who are too tired to eat, play or do anything except whine.

Ds3 has fitted in quite naturally to this but then I think the routines we have are based around their needs. At the weekend when all 3 kids are asleep at 1 or early evening and dh and I have some time to ourselves then we really appreciate it!

There is flexibility in terms if where they sleep, but also if we are away they know their bedtime routine etc so get comfort from familiar things in a new place iyswim?

It is hard getting used to the fact kids need to do things at certain times tho. FIL really didn't get it and expected 2yr old and 1yrold to sit quietly and patiently thru Christmas lunch starting at 2pm. He understood afterwards when they were besides themselves and too tired finest anything! Feeding time at the zoo has to be near 12 and 5 for us or they are too hungry to eat weirdly!

I think a good routine ends up making life easier. And as someone else says it's you who has to pick up the pieces so if you find it works stick with it!

Purple fabulous about doubling birthweight and everything else sounds positive - you must be really pleased

lozario E likes to 'sing' screech and it is often at about 3/4 in the morning - lovely happy sounds though and she is v pleased with herself.

jojo we have a routine, but like others flex it a bit. For DS we are ok to move from it a bit now he is 4.5, but some sense of routine is good for him too. We are not slaves, but things like bathtime, or a wash and getting pjs on signal 'bedtime' etc, routine of 3 stories and then sleep time. For E I have a bit of a routine which is roughly - 7.30am feed, 9am quick sleep (30-45mins an hour occasionally), 10.30/11 ish feed, 12-2 sleep, 2.30/3 ish feed, 4pm - quick nap, 5/5.30 ish feed, 6.30 bath, 7.00 ish feed and then bed. If we are out at lunchtime and she doesn't sleep well I put her down for a slightly longer afternoon nap. In between feeds and sleeps we play, go for a walk (she loves to look at everything), singing or playmat or door bouncer. Expect she will soon drop either the morning or pm sleep which not looking forward to.

Find that sometimes if we are at Grandparents or something then routine can go a bit haywire and boy do we pay for it, but getting back into it ok.

So I say think routine is important, but don't be a slave to it as too stressful.

Right E waking from the morning nap and also have oodles of cleaning to do as the outlaws are arriving for the weekend so better fly.

xx

jojo we are accidentally in a routine here. I think babies create their own routines and like to stick to them I only mess with the routine now if I am out for dinner in the evening (baby friendly wine bar, not v often sadly!) and I make him nap in his pram. In this case he will go to sleep but wake at 9.30pm and pretty much have a melt down so then its home time! We don't have precise times/locations but wherever we are its the same - feed, play, sleep every 1.5 hours (hoping he will stretch this out). Naps are about 45 mins long (Hoping he will stretch these too). Bed time around 7.30pm. DH used to get annoyed that we always had to wait for Arthur to feed before I would go anywhere/do anything but he eventually adjusted (now he's upset that Arthur is in bed before he gets home). Now the feeding doesn't take too long, I now try to co-ordinate nap times with going in the car/on the bus.

Keep going, as Lozario said, its us that have to pick up the pieces when routines go out of whack and the meltdowns begin!

purplefan well done Bethan on doubling birthweight :-)

lozario ds squeals and screams quite a lot and also likes practicing at 4 in the morning I remember dd was the same at this age, also ds bears no weight really on his feet and also no attempt at sitting will either fall forward or to the side. Dd didn't sit unaided until near 8 months!

Sam we are going to a little village on the Somerset/Dorset border quite close to Sherborne.

Am on iPhone so can't remember who asked about routines, ds has fallen into his own routine with a little help from us if he isn't fed and in a quiet room by 7-7:30 he will become very overtired ad start screaming and then refuse to sleep so now we bath him at 6:30-7pm then I feed him in dark bedroom with the lullabies fr out bt monitor on he is usually asleep by 8 but will not self settle he always falls asleep on the boob. If he falls asleep at 7-7:30 he usually always wakes at 8:30 so need to feed him again! Then he usually sleeps until either 2:30 or 4:30 depending on if it a good or bad night the. He is usually up and chatting at either 4:30 or 6:30. Last night he fall asleep at 7:45 so I got Ito bath and he woke at 8 so had to get out then got him back to sleep got back into bath and he woke again 5 mins later all I wanted was a relaxing bath with a book, I never get to bath these days didn't even get to wash my hair. Oh well must stick with 5 min showers.

me cassie exactly the same if she doesnt go off very well at bedtime as soon as my butt hits the bath water shes awake!!! We are in north somerset, and if any of you were watching this morning it was live from my hometown of weston super mare!!
back from our camping trip! It was fab, unfortunately cassie was hit with a tummy bug i think as shes generally not a puker, however she did a couple of spectacular ones..luckily outside the tent, but then slept well so not sure, didn't affect the trip as she was so happy ! We got back to about 15 missed calls as phone died and forgot to take charger to find out DH back first thing tomorrow 72 hrs early and i have 15 hrs to sort house and camping stuff out...eek!!!
sorry for bad grammar..again, am exhausted can't wait for my own bed, before i have to share it again i am used to my own bed space
Re car seats there is new research that suggests baby stays rear facing for a lot longer now, there is a link but can't remember what its called, something like extended rearfacing, will look on google and try to link, al;though i really don't hold out much hope that i can link!!!
well, will pop on when can over next 2 weeks!!

www.rearfacing.co.uk
not sure how to link but theres info on the safety of extended rear facing i haven't read it all but saw it on a friends facebook page.

Thanks for your input ladies, it's made me feel much better and that I'm doing the right thing.

I think DH even gets it now as he made a comment this morning about how good it is she is in a routine (wonder if he's reading this!?!).

Lozario Ruby has definitely found her voice! I was having lunch in a cafe yesterday and she just would not stop shouting - I couldn't help but laugh, not sure what other diners thought but hey ho!

I've just set up my profile and finally put a picture of Ruby on there, think she was around 8 weeks old so it's fairly old but I just love it.

Forgot to say we went to ikea the other day and ended up buying the antilop Highchair for £11 had read nothing but good reviews about it, also bought inflatable insert for smaller babes for £5 though even with that Ethan is still not stable enough in it which also made me reconsider weaning he is still too small and I don't think he is ready so after 2 days of trying we have stopped. Will wait until he sits up or result starts grabbing for food as would really like to do BLW.

I think i'm in much less of a routine that all of you. Naps are usually 2 hours after she has woken and only occasionally last more than 45 minutes. Bedtime is about 6-7pm. Feeds are frequent. I still do about 6 per day and 4/5 overnight. This could be where I go wrong re sleeping though but its hard to instill one & do things.

However I would be reluctant to go out at bedtime as it really does mess things up when they get overtired in the evening.

jojo Lovely pic! Such a fab smile.

lozario Hannah found her feet last sunday at 18 weeks 5 days. Lara is younger than Hannah isn't she? I'm sure it will come. She doesn't bear any weight on her feet yet and her legs wobble and bend if you stand her up.

petty I am loving the sound of that baby friendly wine bar!

me23 Glad to hear E has an earlier bedtime. Hannah often wakes up half hour after she goes down. I just replace her dummy. Its very frustrating and always when you are in the bath/watching a program/drinking a cup of tea!

Yesterday I wanted to stop her feeding every 2 hours at night so at her first wake up last night (8pm!) we tried to get her back sleep without a feed (with dummy, hand holding, soft music, comforting words) . I gave in at half 8 due to tears but then she decided it was party time. She fell asleep at 10 and then was up again between 3 and 5, moaning and kicking her legs. She was happy if I looked at her or touched her. The second I turned over to go to sleep she moaned. Hoping for a better night tonight. I think I'm gonna keep riding out the night feeds for now as her tears last night broke my heart (I know I am such a softie)

Just to say you are not alone halo! We are still two hourly and it's just not worth trying to prolong it at the moment. We have tried but to no avail. My HV was really nice about me having introduced solids (well pureeds!) now.. E is 19 weeks and 19lbs! So she said I'd done well to get him this far on breast milk alone. She did say that pureed veg and fruit is unlikely to make a difference to their sleeping as it's protein that will help them go longer and you can't introduce that until 6 months. So I'm just going to assume that he'll keep being a 2 hourly baby at night until then and if he changes it will be a wonderful bonus!

Arthur thought it was party time at 4.30am (after a few wake ups last night!). Even with earplugs and pillows pulled over my head I could still hear the wicked little noises

I am starting to feel better about the weaning now (A is 19.5 weeks) because the reflux is just ridiculous and it does seem to hold the milk down a bit. I thought the reflux would have improved by now but its just getting worse. Each feed he starts fussing so I sit him up to wind him, which makes him scream because he wants to keep sucking, then he burps and immediately vomits the only good thing is that most times it doesn't take long for the wind to come up (but the sicking up continues until the next feed - there is no end to it). I can't remember the last time he just rolled off the boob happy and satisfied [sigh]. Although he doesn't have the wind at night, he throws up in his sleep and recently has stopped latching off - i fell asleep feeding last night, woke up and hour later and he was still going! Gaviscon is crap and I think I would rather give him a little bit of food (I think) rather than pump him full of drugs.

I'm on my iPhone so just checking in to say hi. All well here, the night time wakings have settled down and we're back to sleeping 7-7 with a 1030 dream feed. Sorry to all those up in the nights.

Re: routine. We've got a fairly good one that DD created herself. Up at 7. Nap in cot 815ish-9, nap 12-1, nap 3.30-4.30. Bedtime routine starts at 6 with bath, milk and bed. The morning nap is in her cot, the others tend to be in our pram as we are always out.

Got to go, I can hear whining noises, these are a new trick she has learnt!

Just checking in, to say DH got back 2 days early and is back home safe and sound for the next 2 weeks, it was all very emotional and DS is practically attatched to his legs!!!
Routine wise, up at about 8am, 3hrly feeds throughout the day..ish sleeps as and when she wants to, usually in car or pram, bath milk and bed 7.30pm, then during the night is anyones guess!! And shes the eldest so should be going longer!!!! Little minx
Petty and Purple am looking forward to tuesdays meet!! Shall we just got straight to our cafe??!!!! Is there anyone else coming to it?
Well, off shopping now as DH not eaten any fresh fruit and veg for months! The only time he really wants to go food shopping when he gets back from exercise!!!

Sam great to hear your DH is home safe and sound, enjoy the next 2 weeks!

Cheese good news about the sleeping through!

KPidgeon sounds like you have a nice HV, i've heard they can be judgemental and mine's vy much of the no solids till 6 months persuasion. What happened to mum knowing best? Petty I've heard that introducing solids earlier to refluxy babies makes them keep their milk down better so good luck there. ps. Angus also falls asleep on the boob and would keep sucking for hours if I left him there!!!

me would be great to hear your opinion of the Antilop as we still haven't bought a highchair and Angus is 5 months!

We're starting day 1 of a routine today to see if I can get my evenings back, currently Angus goes to bed at 7 then wakes 8 - 8.30 ish and generally gets upset and cries until about 11.30 ish and then up every 2 hours after that. Am exhausted. And only stopped vomiting yesterday (although thankfully he's been better since Thursday)....one way to get rid of the belly I suppose Maybe this wasn't a good time to be coming off my ad's.

Sorry, selfish me me rant over, I know I'm not the only one having difficult nights.

Sam Glad DH is home safely. Def looking forward to our meet up on Tuesday, I thought that you might want to change it as DH is home, but I guess it kinda makes it easier with Oscar. I have asked Georgie if she wants to go to a summer camp for the day or come with me and go in the creche at cribbs and she has chosen the creche! Meeting straight at our cafe sounds like a good plan.. are we meeting at 11 again?

Halaflo we haven't got a set routine here either...it is quite vague to be honest. I am trying to settle a routine in the next two weeks as soon back to work properly and Bethan will be with the childminder.

After my positive post the other day regarding the hospital apt...I made the mistake of reading the very informative booklet given to us.... this has since made me feel a little down , there are so many factors of life that can be affected by turners syndrome and although I know that she will not have all the problems listed I guess it just hit a nerve!!
In my heart I know we are really lucky that she is here and is currently doing so well, but in my head after reading the booklet I just feel a little

Sorry to winge!! Hope everyone else is ok. x

Purple and Sam - see you in the caff at 11am on Tues?

Purple a booklet like that must be quite scary because it will list EVERY possible circumstance, but remember that Bethan will not have ALL the problems and having met her (ok only once so far!) she seems like such a happy little bunny and doing really well (like she decided not to wait until 6 months to double her birth weight! )

Had a bit of an emergency last night when our freezer broke down. I ended up dashing across the city at 10.30pm to rescue my breast milk and put it in a friends freezer - it was the only thing I was desperate to save! Arthur then decided to revert back to night time partying - grrr. I gave up at 6.30am and went to the carboot sale and picked up lots of bargains see there is a plus side to early risers!

This fell off my "threads I'm on", must have been a while since I posted. I have been reading. purplefan Bethan sounds adorable and you've been doing so well by her. I hope you're feeling more positive now and have got the booklet into perspective. The unknown to come must be very daunting.

sam glad DH is home safe and sound. It must be wonderful for you all, especially him. He'll have some fab R+R with C now.

purple gosh, you must have a thousand thoughts whirling through your mind. Hope you have had a bit of time to think. She is doing so so well, you must be so proud of her.
Am laughing at the thought of petty charging across town armed with thawing BM!

highland try not to stress about routine too much. However, we needed one as it is me and DD 99% of time - without getting some 'me' time in the eve I would have gone insane. I am a horrible mum and let her grizzle in her cot - though if she cries properly I am straight up there!

I can't have posted for a while as it fell off my I'm on page!!

Anyhow, I saw some debate earlier in the thread on car seats. we have had to move O up to the next stage car seat as he is too big to fit into the baby one and cries as soon as he is in it. Too broad so really uncomfortable and won't sleep in it.
yesterday put him in the maxi cosi tobi (DS1's old seat) which is the 9kg+ model (O is 9.5kg) and he was so happy....
I wasn't too happy about it but no choice really!

Sleep going a bit pear shaped again... started to wake 2-3 times after 2am and if he wakes at 5 is up at least an hour before settles by which point my older ones want to get up and start shouting not long after.

Am wondering if he is just plain getting too big for EBF. still hanging on in there but he wants feeding every 90 mins - 2 hours during the day and takes a big feed each time. With his weight as it is am guessing he probably wants weaning. will try to get at least another week before he gets his baby rice, but am going camping for the bank holiday so would be much easier not to have to worry about weaning then too!

highland don't worry about routines. we sound like we have a good one, but it is just a routine instigated by him i.e I follow his natural rhythms and have never imposed one on him, and it changes fairly often!

I finally got O to sleep in a buggy for the first time today - usually he goes in a sling but he is just getting too heavy for me. I think the difference was I put in a sheepskin liner and he was immediately happy! no crying, just happily looked around and went to sleep. doesn't sound much, but a big thing for me!

He is currently having a marathon lunch time nap - been asleep since 12.45 though I have resettled him a couple of times very early on in the nap. think I will wake him up at 4pm!

purple Bethan sounds like she is doing brilliantly!

petty think I would be in tears if my expressed milk defrosted! not that O will take a bottle! but I did chuckle at your night time sprint to keep it frozen! I would have done exactly the same!