November 2011 - early birds, just in time and late to the party, all welcome!!

[TwoJackRussellsandapumpkin]

Hi all,

just starting up a post natal thread for all the due in November peeps on the antenatal forum and anyone else who would like to join in too, hoping to see my arrival by the end of the week, so officially an early bird I hope :)

We've got a bit of a routine going but I can't get him to nap more than once in the day:

5.30am Feed then back to sleep
9am Wake up & feed
10.30am Feed
11.30ish Sleep
3pm Wake up and then stay awake wanting steadily more feeding, comfort sucking and bouncing around until
11pm - finally go back to sleep
2.30am - feed then back to sleep

etc

He may have a couple of 30 minute dozes in our arms or the carrier but generally he's awake for 7 or 8 hours in the evening. Is that normal? He's probably awake 10-11 hours a day which seems quite a lot for such a small person. Have others got routines going yet?

smiling we have a tentative routine:

5.30am - 6am feed and then back to sleep
8am wake up
10am feed
10.30ish sleep
12pm wake up
2pm feed awake for afternoon, ,may have a couple of catnaps but nothing substantial
5.30pm bath
6pm feed
7pm bed
10pm dream feed
2am feed

However, as with everything, this may well change! I too struggle to get DS to nmap in day unless I put in lots of effort in encouraging it!

Our routine is:

7-8am feed
9am 30-60m nap
10.30am feed
11.30/12 - 2/2.30pm sleep
2.30pm feed
5pm feed (one breast)
5.45pm bath + massage
6.15pm feed (second breast)
7pm bed - she doesn't always go down easily so sometimes this is as late as 8ish
10.30/11pm - wake, nappy change and expressed bottle, she takes 1-3oz
she sometimes wakes at 4/5/6am for a feed but most nights she is sleeping till 7am after this feed - sorry to share that I have no idea why but she seems to be a good sleeper, DS didn't do this consistently till 7mo so I am shocked and happy, it also really helps when I have DS to contend with in the day!

This is based on Gina Ford routine although we are more flexible this time and I haven't even looked at the book!

Naps are either sling / carseat / buggy with occasional ones in her cot/moses basket.

Hope this helps

Also, DD 5 weeks now and I find she needs a nap after 1.5hrs of being awake (that includes feeding)

We have a bit of a routine too,

between 6.30 and 8.30 wake up and feed
around about 10.00 nap
anywhere between 11.30 and 12.30 wake up and feed
3.30ish nap
between 5.30 and 6.30 feed
7.00ish bath
8.30ish sleep
12.30 wake up and feed for hour or so
3.00 wake up and feed for an hour

It really depends on how much we have done the day before, if he's slept a lot, say I've been out and about and he's been sleeping in his sling J will tend to sleep less the next day and some days he just has an awake day and occasionally an awake night, which is a bit of a nightmare!

What's this routine you talk about, and where can I buy one? :o
Abi is an attachment-parented Velcro baby - the only "routine" we have is going to bed together around 11pm when I do the Jedi Mindtrick until she falls asleep. She gets a top and tail morning and evening, and a bath every two days.
She sleeps off and on most of the day on my tummy, in my lap or cuddled up on a pillow next to me - if she settles during the daily dog walk I leave her in the pram and do housework for 30 minutes. If we have urgent stuff that needs doing she gets popped in a ring sling, but she seems happier just on the arm, so I now know how to do laundry, do dishes and hoover with a baby.
When she's awake we have "poopy time" under the gym (we've set the gym up on a nursing mat so she can go without the nappy as she seems to prefer pooping without them on...), "face time" sat up on my lap or "tummy time" on the nursing table.

I prefer this to what DP calls a "Teflon parent" ;)

HV came around - Abi is apparently developing very well (I showed her rolling over trick and the HV nearly fell over), but her weight has stalled now - one more week of stalling and we're back in NICU.

Thanks for all the advice guys, but unfortunately we've tried -everything- this past two months.

I never though I'd say this but: I WISH IT WAS COLIC. Then there'd be an end to it.

Ooh Terry's!! Am very jealous of your long sleeps, I thought we had it good with 4 hour blocks occasionally!

I tried to Gina Ford Viggo when he woke up at 7am a couple of mornings in a row but he steadfastly refuses to have a morning nap and then I don't have the heart to wake him halfway through his midday sleep so I've buggered the routine from the off :)

I've noticed a vague routine emerging over the past few days.

7am nappy change, feed and wind
8am nap
12 nappy change, feed and wind. Alert time, put under gym for play or bouncy chair.
3pm nappy change, feed, wind
4pm nap
8/9pm nappy change, feed and wind, take upstairs to Moses basket
3am nappy change, feed and wind

All daytime naps are on a baby bean bag which is fantastic. Best item someone gave us.

We're nowhere near a routine - going to get through Christmas then try & start encouraging one - just need to think about what I need first eg can't feed him in during the school runs, need to be able to put other LOs to bed etc

Terrys I express with one hand, holding a sterile milk bottle (same as used with pimp in other) so I put forefinger underneath & thumb on top about an inch back from nipple and squeeze with nipple resting on edge of bottle so milk drips / squirts in. I adjust position of fingers occasionally to work around nipple. I have tried lots of pumps & just didn't get on with them. I can generally get 30ml per 5 mins - so in eve I get about 60ml from 1 side & 15-20ml from the side H has just fed from in less than 15 mins. I am happy to use formula to make up the 10:30 bottle to 150ml as with 2 other LOs I can't commit to more expressing

Pump even!

Hi all, your routines sound good. I actually recorded dd sleep and feed pattern last night as I'm so tired at night I sometimes wake up in a panic thinking that I've not put her back in cot - frightening. She has been sleeping longer one stint for 3 hours! :)

Stupid question alert - when you take los up to bed, do you just use a monitor or do you go to bed too? We get to bed normally by 10pm that is after either top tail or bath and a feed. She sleeps in cot next to our bed. Is this ok? She is just 2 weeks old

Thanks all re daytime naps - I'll try it, but even when he was sleeping during the day he was awake and playful 1am to 6am.

He got big enough for his grobag this week so we had our first night last night and he slept more woooohooo I felt great because I'd got 2 hours unbroken sleep lol.

Went to bf clinic today and they think I may have white nipple (vasospasm) so getting refered to see if it is latch issue or me.

we have no real routine here either, although its vaguely a three hour cycle of feeding and sleeping, but the bits between the sleeps aren't continuous sleeping - a bit of lying in the moses basket looking around, a bit of lying on my lap cuddling and a bit of lying in his swing seat looking around!

But.....HV was here today and we talked about not being able to go more than three hours between feeding. She recommended a faster flowing teat, as she felt he may be exhausting himself sucking, taking on too much air, and falling asleep without getting enough to eat. Have given him one feed with faster teat and he has slept for the past four hours. If it turns out to be something as simple as this and I've been struggling on next to no sleep for the past seven weeks I'm really going to kick myself!!

Cali my heart goes out to you, that all sounds so stressful, I wish I could suggest something to help, but all I can say is hang on in there. Not much help at all, sorry.

Morning. I too am lurking bt not getting much time for posting. Also feeling for those struggling. Just one breath at a time, keep going, things wont just stay as they are.
We're par for the course I guess. No real routine, very baby led, but may become impossible when its just me and baby and toddler after xmas. No sleep, feeding bad days and adequate days. Many many headaches. Had more to say but lost it. Oh, pump, I couldnt do hand or manual, I use the medela swing, best of the three i've had. And who had the kiwi lump? Cookie? Hope it clears. I had abscess with ds, not pleasant, scared of same again. But still ebf here never the less.

I have the Medela Swing too and have been pumping sporadically since I came back from hospital, not sure why the 6-week wait.

Had the worst night ever - no settling between 3 and 8 - was in tears in the end but my own fault because I went to bed too late, watching episodes of Breaking Bad.

But it has made me determined to start a routine now. Like Terry's, I did a flexible Gina Ford with DD1 and was great for me, as I didn't know what I was doing and it gave me some structure. Also worked for her, as she slept and ate wonderfully, despite some health issues. And she slept from 7pm to 7am from 6 months until quite recently!

But we have been freestyling - and honestly, its not working for either of us. I thought she may have a touch of colic as she is really fussy in the evening and difficult to settle but I think its just because we are both all over the shop with eating and sleeping times.

So I want to start to gently marshall us both into a routine but with Xmas coming up, it may not be until after we've been to the UK.

Huge hugs to those going through the mill, especially cali and pam - hope things straighten out soon.

I'm off to see "New Year's Eve" at baby cinema today and have invited some of my new local mums group. But I have the feeling I may just fall asleep...

So many people in this thread have been through the mill with their LOs. This morning, after DS had FINALLY pooed after 24 hours straining, crying and grunting; I am reminded if my favourite bits of motherhood:

The way he grabs my fingers when I feed him
His beaming gummy smile, as well as all the little expressions he pulls
His little voice
The way he puts his face reallty close to mine when I wind him on my shoulder (although that is going to end in tears if he is ever sick after a feed)

I'd love to hear everyone else's mummy best bits.

Perish a lovely idea! I love how he will just gaze at me when he is sitting calmly after feeding and winding. I also love how his little head twists round to see when he hears his Daddy come in from work. And one more, I love how he will lock eyes with me when he's feeding or I'm massaging him, like he 'knows' me.

To everyone talking about routine, as L is not yet 3 weeks I know I shouldn't worry about being strict. We're entirely baby-led and have been able to be as flexible as we like as we're at home with very few visitors or commitments. Some days I've done the 8am feed in bed and gone back to sleep for a couple of hours when he goes back down. When we move this weekend we will have lots of visitors and will need to be presentable at an earlier time. That will be fun! We've purposefully kept our Christmas schedule quite low key so we don't have too much pressure to be 'ready' for things.

In spite of all of that though, I am soooo excited for our first family Christmas. I have gone a little mad with buying things for L even after all of my talk of 'he won't even know it's Christmas' and 'he doesn't need anything' and it will be lovely snuggling up on Christmas morning, the three of us for a cuddle. One of the first things I do at the weekend will be going to choose a Christmas tree

snoozle we changed to next size up teat and it's made a huge difference. Hardly any wind going in, less trapped wind so sleeping better.

DD is currently pointing at everything and asking 'what's that'. So I taught her 'teat' but it comes out as 'tits'. Was a bit when DH put her to bed, said nightie night and got 'tits' as response.

perish
first smile (got it yesterday)
His sleep position of hands up and eitheR side of head
Fallin asleep on my chest
Being able to calm him down by talking or singing
Being able to sleep on my front again
Being able to walk a normal pace again

truffkin we're going Christmas tree shopping this weekend. We were trying to figure out if 19month DD will try and demolish it once it's up. Have decided to go for it. If v bad we can set up the playpen and stick it inside!

DH finishes work on Friday, so lookin forward to it. I would love to go back to bed with lo but have to feed DD after ds. Am lucky she still naps in the day so get a couple of hours to myself.

never we go to bed at same time as ds and he is in our room so don't need monitor yet (which is currently in dd's room). When we move ds to own room, we will be using monitor fir when we out him to bed but stay up longer. DH can't wait for this as he hears every snuffle at mo.

I too am thinking about trying to introduce some structure! At 6 weeks & nearly 10lb H is feeding roughly every 3 hours in the day but is being a shocker at night - up every 1-2 hours last night. I am sure it is not always food but if it has been 2 hours I just feed him as it is so easy to pop him on for 15 mins & put him back down but I think I'm just turning him into a midnight snacker! So come the weekend I am going to try to not feed him until we get to 3 hours even if I am up bouncing him on the ball the whole time. I think he might not be taking full feeds hence such short gaps - I generally only feed him from 1 side for between 10 & 30 mins - he sucks rhythmically at 1st with obvious swallowing then slows down. He never 'dismounts' of his own accord & I never feel like boob is empty (but it is gigantic). I'm wondering if at some point he is switching to using me as a dummy & I should switch sides? Any advice?

Perish best bits - off the tip of my head so I'm sure I've forgotten loads
His smell - wish I could bottle it, I could inhale his head all day
The sigh he does after a big burp
His coos & oohs

truffkin I too have bought lots of things for DS even though he a.) will probably sleep during the present opening b.) won't remember it c.) can't unwrap presents. My Christmas day is at the in laws and boxing day at my parents so I can have a chilled time, give LO to family members for cuddles and get dinner cooked for me :)

Light hearted question: pockets on babygrows? purpose? answers on a postcard please :)!

ali I would defo suggest just feeding until he comes off himself, if he falls asleep while still attached - try massaging your boob a bit as it pushes some milk out and when i do this Tilly tends to start sucking again.

Also I always offer the other boob - i wasn't doing this at first as she was falling asleep so assumed she'd had enough, then she'd wake up an hour later for more. So I know feed one side - change her nappy - as this wakes her up then feed on the other side!

MrsA awaiting your birth story with intrigue!

Sorry for those with trouble feeding - i think weve been really lucky - despite some restless nights with wind (who said bf babies dnt get wind????)

I had fed in public once - me and a friend took our babies out fir lunch - with the sole purpose of me having a practice at feeding in public and it went well - I sat in the corner so I could cover up one side of things with a muslin square but I could still cleary see what was going on on the side by the wall!

Best bits for me...

When she holds my gaze for ages - and I know she knows I'm Mum
The blissful silence and calm after we pull out a giant bogey! especially when its one thats kept her awake
That she loves my terrible singing!
How much she loves her Daddy - It's amazing that she knew him straight away

Got to add - worst bit...

Realising you've left the tv remote and/or mobile out of reach when weve just sat down for a feed!

Perish the pockets on babygros are maybe designed by the same person who puts grips on the bottom of some newborn socks......