Postgraduate brookers - Brooking No Argument for happy, healthy and sleeping DCs..

[musicalmrs]

New thread time!

Grr my nice supportive post for scarlet disappeared. I was suggesting a poo as well rather than sick. Brooking its the bottom end not the top.

We're in a house of poo over here. DS1 dud about 5 poos yesterday and DS2 is specialising in explosive leaky nappies. Washing galore - yuck.

DS2 seems to be teething. He woke up three times for the past few nights but has immediately settled when I've shoved in some bonjela. But don't know how to get him to stop waking at all. Still no sign of regularly sleeping through.

Had a near death experience with DS1 and a haribo on Saturday. He didn't chew it enough and it got stuck in his throat. We got it out through thumping his back and then a sent heimlich (sp) maneuver but scared the crap out of me

Seriously Scarlet if you need some moral support ds2 and I are just watching tv because he cries when I put him down .

Yikes Hawthers that's seriously scary. Poor DS1. How did you know what to do? I've read up on dealing with a choking child, but I imagine it's very dofficult in reality. You've just given me a reminder that I shouldn't take DS1 eating ok for granted. Quite often lately I've given him an apple/biscuit/crisps then disappeared out of the room to get on with jobs.

Thanks Biscuits that's so sweet of you. I have a friend popping round in a bit. Pre-arranged, not in case DS pukes! so it will hopefully take my mind off it for a bit. I think he's just dropped off to sleep.

I don't really know how I knew what to do. We were getting him out of the car and had given him a sweet ds he'd been so good out and about. DH was then getting his seat belt off and called me around from unloading the boot. I'm not sure how I knew what to do but DS1 was going bright red and DH was flapping - most unlike him.

I got him out of the car and was thumping him on the back and then heimliched him while DH fished in his mouth and it popped out. awful

I would have totally freaked Hawthers - you're amazing!

I'm posting this in Ante-Natal and Post-Grad as not sure which is best.

I bought Lansinoh in preparation for sore boobs but luckily I haven't needed it. Apart from 2 or 3 times right at the very start, it hasn't been used. If anyone wants it then drop me a PM and I'll send it out. At the moment it is just sitting on the table gathering dust literally as I'm a total slattern so I would rather it went to someone else to get used I'll dust it off first.

Just tried some tummy time under the gym and after about 3 minutes D fell asleep! Idont want to move him but he has never slept on his front before so I don't want to leave him unattended so I will just have to stay here on the sofa:)

Hooray for that wants :)

8:50pm, I may possibly have got the dts to sleep. Though I thought I had DT2 asleep and it lasted all of 5 minutes before. Hmm. Now, opinions, I got DT1 to sleep, in his cot, by holding a dummy into his mouth. I've never used dummies, not a big fan tbh, and he can't do it himself, I just held it in til he went to sleep, then took it away. Is this going to solve a problem or create a worse one? Particularly as i have to hold it in for him?! Still, he's asleep with way less fuss than usual for tonight... Putting down awake just isn't happening here. More guilt, especially as with this, i know I'm Doing It Wrong (Again) ...

Oh, and i forgot to say, congratulations too, fantastic weight loss, you should be very proud of yourself.

You too pomme

I've still not lost it, well, maybe 1lb on a good day, naked, before eating and preferably after a poo

Oh, and for hawthers for her quick thinking and heimlich action. Very frightening.

Dream I genuinely think that if he is sleeping, then he's sleeping. End of.

Is the saying something like 'sleep begets sleep'? I think the first thing is to get him used to sleeping for slightly longer stretches. Then i think you can begin to think about the self settling thing. I honestly believe that the priority for the dreamy household is more sleep first and foremost.

And anyway, I'm not sure it's definitely 'wrong' to use a dummy? Isn't the SIDS advice to use a dummy to get to sleep? Not that I've done it but I really don't think it's the 'wrong thing'

I just had another go with dummy myself dream and got hysterical wails so I am jealous!

She woke at 9 and for twenty mins we tried to put her back to sleep doing anything but feeding. Am now feeding - she went ballistic . I know she has had lots of milk and food today and reasonable naps. She doesn't need this milk she needs some proper sleep. Now to convince her of that!

I don't mean the dummy is wrong per se. I mean the fact that I cannot and do not put either baby down 'awake but sleepy'. You know, like the books say. I feed, rock, jig, Tiger in The Tree, push in pushchair- anything, but no helping them learn to fall asleep themselves. That's what i mean by Doing It Wrong.

Also he is trying to fight it and spit the dummy out the whole time, I have to keep wriggling it in and holding it there, Dh was just saying he was cross (S, not Dh) and it looked wrong and give up when the eyelids drooped and he fell asleep. I was gobsmacked tbh. But he's certainly not independent with a dummy iykwim, so I'll be stood there with the dummy, not feeding every wake up. Hmm. He's been so difficult today I'm just relieved he's asleep now though.

pomme, there was a lot of fighting and wailing here first too, but then Dummy 1:0 Seb :)

Ah I see, sorry.

I still think it doesn't matter how you're getting him to sleep at this stage - he and you both just need to sleep! You can worry about self settling later.

I would challenge ANY of those baby 'experts' to do what you do in a day and deal with a refluxy baby. Also you might find you make some headway with self settling etc when he begins to grow out of the reflux (which he will eventually)?

Hawthers how terrifying!! You poor thing! Well done for such a perfect response under pressure though! You really are a supermum!!! I hope your DS1 is fully recovered from his fright, and you as well!

Dream we had a similar response to the dummy here when we were trying to get DD to use it. She'd fight and complain loudly for a while and then suddenly drop off. With DD though she was so young that it would have been weeks before she had the coordination to keep the dummy in herself, since she doesn't seem to have an instinctive knack for it. DT1 is several weeks older and hopefully if you persevere with the dummy he might learn how to keep it in himself (once he realises how much he likes it). Whatever happens though you are not doing anything wrong!

I remember the first few weeks, when S was sleeping moderately well (for a newborn!) but B was up all night with colic. Then B seemed to improve but S started playing up at night. You've done everything right with both of them, but they've just had separate sleep problems at separate times. If you had only one baby you would have had a few weeks of slightly better nights, either at the start or more recently, it's the tag-team effect which is wearing you down! Don't let it affect your confidence though, you're such a wonderful Mum to all three of your DC! I really hope you start getting more sleep on a regular basis soon!

By the way, if it makes you feel any better I do EVERYTHING wrong (rock/feed/walk to sleep, zero routine or consistency, over-stimulate, inadvertently encourage snacking, etc etc) and DD has still had a few good nights recently. Not last night unfortunately. I think they'll all settle better as they get older, even if we're not textbook Mums!

Scarlet sending lots of hugs your way as well - what a stressful day! Poor you and poor DS. How did the day go in the end? Did he feel better after his nap? Was your friend able to take your mind off all the worry? I'm No Brooking hard for your counselling appointment to really help to take the scary edge off of things for you. Personally my bugbear is the whole SIDS thing, last night I had a horrible dream and randomly woke up an hour after FINALLY getting DD to sleep (at 2am, for the first time that night!) and I almost woke her just to check she was okay! I settled for resting my hand on her chest and counting her breaths instead

Too tired to go through and name check everyone. Sorry, I had sooooooo little sleep last night I need to get some shuteye before my shift starts at 2...

Quick question for y'all, or probably more for those with older dc. Now that ds2 is starting to get some teeth through, do I need to start to think about brushing straight away? I won't do anything while they are still breaking through, but once they're out? Ds1 was 8 mths so already weaned when he got his and we started off with one of those finger toothbrushes.

Can't remember when we went to a proper brush? And I seem to recall we used to do it sitting down with him (presumably after milk) so he mustn't have been spitting out any toothpaste at first? I can't really remember what we did - what did you all do?

Morning all by the way

We did proper toothbrush straight away. DD still doesn't spit (but is still not yet 2!) and it was before her last bf.

Hideous night here. I wanted to get S back in his cot. Took 90 min. And in the end, I tried everything else, got him in and asleep tiger in tree onto tummy- lasted 5 mins, rocked and onto back- lasted 30 sec etc etc. Eventually I wad so desperate I resorted to leaning over so he could bf from his cot in an epicly back breaking fashion... . It worked. Then B woke up

I pity my dc today, patience will be limited...

And the 90 min is from starting to settle him, not from him waking, being fed etc. Urgh.

Dream BF leaning over the cot? I'm well impressed! Sounds very painful on the back though. Have you got any help today?

Biscuits I would start attempting to clean them as soon as they're through. It gets them used to it even if it's no more than a token effort. Maybe start with one of those finger brushes for now, but I expect a normal one would be just fine. BTW DS still doesn't spit his toothpaste, he usually sucks it all off before doing any brushing whatsoever.

How was your night in the end Scream?

Thanks for all the moral support yesterday. I'm delighted to announce that there was no puking in this house. He was absolutely fine when he woke up. I wonder if it was a mixture of extreme tiredness from our hectic weekend away and the amount of sugary crap things he was given to eat while we were there. I hope he wasn't making it up as I won't be able to cope if that's going to be a new thing. To be fair he's never been one for making up aches and pains so I've no reason to think that about yesterday.

Re the dummy. Pomme and Dream, we have the same battle in this house. I hold it in DD's mouth while she fights sleep, squirming and complaining but she falls asleep within minutes and I then take it away. I suspect many would think this bad but frankly when you have an overtired baby who cannot settle themselves and you know that it works then I think do it. She has started to self settle a lot more recently, but sometimes goes overtired when I'm having to sort DS out and ends up having a meltdown so that tends to be when I do it.

Dream how is S doing on the medicine front for his reflux? I'm just wondering if there would be something that the docs could do to help with the reflux side of things that might then help with the sleeping? You poor thing, I really do feel for you . Did you try the dummy overnight?

And are we supposed to use toothpaste right from day 1? With ds1 I used to just do it sat on my lap - is that ok? We didn't do ds1's at the sink until he could stand on the step to reach.

I'm sure I should remember this having done it before....

Scarlet so glad DS was fine when he got up . Great stuff indeed

We haven't used a dummy and are paying the price with ds1 still being a thumb sucker but only because both DSs seemed to be able to self settle as babies. Not sure how that happened . I don't think it sounds bad what you're all describing. Ultimately until they learn how to you're only helping a tired baby get to sleep. Whatever works (within reason of course!) surely is fine.

All those with sleep dodgers, there is hope! My older boys are both still in bed after sleeping alllll night! Bless them:) so there is light at the end of the tunnel.
Ds1 finally got home at about 9 pm! It sounds like he had a great time. I am on my second load of washing already! He bought D the teeniest pair of havaianas flip flops, they are so cute!