Brooking no argument for babies who sleep, eat, smile and behave perfectly at all times. Yeah right!

[scarletfingernail]

New thread, here we go...

A HOT cup of tea????

I don't even get the concept of going to the loo on my own....

Hope ds2 shakes his cough off soon. Ds2 here had bronchiolitis too but not so bad. It was gone in 4-5 day or so fortunately without any intervention. The doc said that about 5% of babies end up in hospital with it so glad they sorted you out ok!

And yay for a good night's sleep - it makes SO much difference doesn't it! Even just one good night

Morning. Ooh, I'm shattered - DD2 had me up loads in the night. Glad to see some of you had good nights though. at Too - and congratulations on your proper pay!

Loopy sorry to hear DS2 has been so poorly. I hope he gets better soon.

I'm so tired I can't physically read anymore posts, sorry Hope to get more compos mentis as the day goes on.

I can't really say too much about yesterday, but it looks like neighbour is getting help. Police & MH team involved, but it seems that she contracted malaria on a recent trip abroad and it made her delusional. She's being treated thank goodness and is a lot more rational today. MH team will assess her though, to be sure she's ok. Feel a bit wrung out by it all tbh!

Morning ladies!

Pet I have sooooo much sympathy for the Xmas family debate. My DH is a nightmare. He lost his parents when he was much younger, which is incredibly sad, but now he insists on visiting ALL of his aunts and uncles every Xmas. Which means we usually spend 24 hours with my family, and a whole week on the road driving around south England staying with all his various relatives who are scattered in villages miles and miles away from each other! Grim. I've hated it every year, I wish we could just alternate xmases like normal families do, but DH can't even conceive of not seeing his family one year and seeing them the following year instead. This year I have flat-out refused to do the 'xmas tour' with a small baby. I made him choose one family member, and we're spending xmas day with that group (it'll be his aunt, uncle, their "kids" plus wives, plus lots of kiddies the same age as DD). Then we're spending Boxing Day with my family. That's it, no grand tour! I've been saying to DH since the summer that I'm more than happy to visit all his relatives in a more spread out way, over the whole of December, for a day here or there, not all back-to-back. However DH is now sulking and hasn't arranged to see anyone, because if it's not Xmas week there's apparently no point in seeing family

Loopy how terrifying for you with DS2! I'm so glad he's okay now, no brooking for the cough to vamoose asap! Good luck with your Xmas prep!

Hurray for another good night for M Too!! Dream how did S get on last night? Jaggy and Pet I hope you had good nights in the end?

Little A was good last night. She woke 3 times between bedtime and having her morning milk, but she went back to sleep within 2 mins with no crying each time. The main thing I'm looking forward to with moving back home after Xmas is not having to hide each time she wakes! (Once she's back in her own room.) The nights now are still a HUGE improvement over being up half the night trying to coax her back into her cot though. So glad she's not crying at all any more. It was the same for her morning nap today, straight to sleep from wide awake within 3 minutes, with no crying. Love it.

N was a ratbag going to bed last night, was 11.10 before she eventually fell asleep but then she slept until 3.10, had a feed and then slept until 7.30! Fingers crossed all these babies are getting better ready to give us all a lovely christmas present of a good night's sleep

DS woke 3 times between bedtime at 8pm and joining us at 11.15. :( But at least he had a better night and didn't feed much once he'd joined us. CC seems to be the answer, but I'm worried that he can't self settle at all now so will have nothing to fall back on. I guess I'll start in the new tear when he'll be 9 months old. :( Sitting with him napping now - 2 transfer fails and I need to finish wrapping presents before the ILs arrive - aargh!

Too and Scream yay for such good nights! Dream how was yours?

Smegs can you grab a nap today?

Oh Pet - all of these cheeky babies will sleep for us. They will. Fact. And between us brookers we have now amassed a great deal of knowledge of all sorts of methods so I'm sure we can all pool our knowledge and help whatever you decide to do. If we all put our knowledge together we would be the most awesomest knowledgeable baby experts ever!

Are your in laws arriving to stay or just visit? Can they look after DS while you wrap? I'm supposed to be wrapping DH's presents and I'm watching Criminal Minds instead while ds2 is asleep upstairs. I don't even have a good excuse for my laziness (except this is ds1's last day at preschool for 17 days not that I'm counting so I'm officially Taking It Easy )

Can I ask a question of Too and Scream - when you're doing cc, what do you do when you go back into the room (or what did you do before they started their amazing sleeping)? If they are crying do you pick them up? Or try to settle them in the cot? At what stage do you leave again? (Or go back to hiding behind the cot end as appropriate!)

Biscuits, I covered M up if she'd kicked her blankets off, stroked her face and said 'shh, darling, go peeping' and left. I was in the room for 30 secs. I didn't pick her up. If she was lying up against the cot bars I moved her back into the middle of the cot, but that was all.

She's howling now because I'm trying to get her to nap. I'm in the 4 minute segment. She MUST be tired by now - she's only had a 15 minute nap in the car since 9am! Intermittent silence and grumpy cries.

And how did that interact with crying? Was she crying when you went it? I guess so or you wouldn't have gone in? Did she stop when you went in / start when you leave?

I'm just curious.....

Hoorah, peeping baby!

If she's quiet I don't go in. If she is crying and I go in, she ramps up the howls in the hope I'll pick her up. She usually falls silent again in less than a minute.

I do sneak in after a few minutes of silence to check that she's okay, under the covers, breathing etc. not paranoid at all

Ah ok so it's just saying 'look, I'm still here, don't panic' and going. I'm the same if ds2 has been muttering or grumbling and then goes quiet - I always want to go in and just check him! Plus one of my favourite bits of parenting is getting to go and kiss sleeping small people

Is peeping Scottish for sleeping? In my head I have an image of Thomas the tank engine - Peep peep

Um, no, it's Too for sleeping.

Too and Scream - so glad you're having so much success with the CC! :) Especially you with your fab night Too!

Having a good day here. My suspicion was that one of the reasons Iz didn't want to sleep in her cot during the day was because she was in pain (she really struggled with teething!) - but she'd happily snooze on the sofa while I pottered around doing things. She's still chewing things and dribbling lots (think it's because the second tooth hasn't completely emerged yet?), but have just got her down to nap in the cot. Hurrah! Glad, too, as it would be useful before the madness of Christmas day...

Thanks for all the AF info! I feel like less of an AF-less freak now . Not that I'm complaining about her absence, it's just a bit odd! Even more odd is the fact I keep getting bouts of period pain... hmm.

So sorry so many of you have nightmare ish Christmas plans, or DH's complaining about them :( We've got a good set up, luckily - we always used to do my family on Christmas Day and DH's mum on Boxing day - then his dad's family the day after. We'd switch my family and DH's mum, and everyone would be happy. But last year we had both our families round for Christmas, which worked so much better - now Iz is here we'll be doing the same this year. Added bonus is that DH does most of the cooking . I'll do cakes though - so will be madly baking from Sunday onwards...

Ahhh... spent too long writing this and she's woken up again. Off I go..!

So jealous of all of you with no AF! I got mine back after 12 weeks both times. I need to get the mirena coil fitted (got very told off by my consultant for not really using any contraception on Tues...) but I think it will have to be in Italy now.

We're on our own Xmas Day! Then my family (with db's new australian girlfriend to meet for the first time too!) on Boxing Day. I like these plans!

Athough our families only live about an hour and half away, so that neither side can complain we have Christmas at home on our own then visit DH's side Boxing Day and mine the day after. Although this year we are doing visiting this weekend cause DH is working 27th. We've done this ever since we moved to Wales.

A few days ago I put a travel clock in the Nursery which seems to have a loud tick tock. The first couple of nights DD woke 3 times between 7pm and 7am. Last night she only woke once! She is also sleeping on her own it seems to work better for her. Have probably just jinxed it plus trip to PILs going to confuse things I think,,,

Hmm. I've lost confidence with the sleep thing. Last night s woke at 11:20, pu/pd for 1hr 15, then gave up and fed him as he was miserable and bunged up nose, he then slept in his cot til 5am, dhs tried to settle, fed him again, slept til 8. So, what's going on? Does he still genuinely need 1-2 night feeds? He can be hit or miss with solids, but seemed to eat lots of tuna sweetcorn pasta last night- thirds!! I've lost confidence.... Gah

Going to post this now as i started it so long ago and see how many people I crosses posts with then reply... :)

Dream it's so so hard. I think sleep is the hardest thing to 'fix' in our littlies because by the very nature of it, you're trying to work on it when you are knackered yourself. You know if they don't eat, althoughL you have to deal with it, it doesn't make you hungry. But if they don't sleep, you can't either .

Now, if he's snotty, it would probably cause a step back in any sleep training, or even in an otherwise good sleeper. So don't lose heart. We're all right behind you for each step of this 'project sleep' journey.

Just think of the tales you'll be able to regale B and S with when they have their own children

dream not sure if your DH would be willing to do this but this worked for us. When DS1 was probably about the same age or a tad younger then your DT's he started waking in the night after sleeping through before then. Was only waking once a night, but i was having to feed him to get him to settle, as nothing else seemed to work. HV was very old school and she insisted he had no need to be fed in the night at his age and he should eat in the day (3 meals and 2 snacks plus milk feeds) and only sleep at night. She said DP should take a week off work and that when DS wakes in the night, DP should go into him and just give him some cooled boiled water in a sterilised bottle (so maybe he was between 5-6 months then, not sure, but def not before 5 months as it was when he was in his own room and he didn't move in there till 5 months!). So anyhow, she said that if i go in, he will smell my milk and expect to be fed. If DP goes in, no smell of milk and all he gets is water, and that he will soon accept there is no point waking if all he gets offered is water. So DP wouldn't take time off work but agreed to start this from a Friday night with the expectation that the following week he might be knackered at work. Well DS only needed 2-3 nights of this and he stopped bothering to wake up in the night, and he's never done it since apart from when ill. Can't promise it will work for the DT's but it worked for us....maybe if your DH is off over xmas he could try it on them? (or maybe one at a time??)

Maybe loopy, but I doubt S would allow a bottle to be put in his mouth. He's completely spoon refusing now, won't let us help him with his beaker of water, or hold and slippery finger food like pear for him. Only things he puts in himself go in his mouth! dh has been off this week and has been helping with pu/pd. He has gone down from anything up to 6 night feeds to 1-2, and he is snotty- so he was trying last night to suck his comforter dog, but he couldn't because he was so snotty and couldn't breathe through his nose. Poor little tike. So maybe I should try and keep persevering?! Could have a beaker of water up there, but not sure it'll be a winner, guess I don't know without trying though.

Boo to all those with stupid travelling-required Christmas plans and dh's being arses difficult. This year we have somehow managed to wangle my mum, her husband and my sis and her fiance coming to ours, but doing all the cooking- result or what?! To be fair, if I had to cook it'd be spag bol as I just never get time for anything else .

ooh, pomme, i want a feedback on the mirena when you get it. If the progesterone only pill makes me mental though, will the mirena do the same?! Can't believe you'll be gone in a week or so. Mental.

musical 8.5 months, no af here. I'm another only just doing less night feeds, but as I feed both twice, I'm still doing the equivalent of 4 x night feeds so quite a lot. I had to drop a feed suddenly to get af beack to ttc after dd.

scream, your DD did so well with cc because it was probably more separation anxiety from you, seeing as she did differntly for your dh and dmum maybe? Sounds like its been fantastic. dh and I left S for 7 minutes in the night as we had a little break from him and the pu/pd mainly to argue about who was most tired and who was to carry on and I needed a drink of water - he was totally hysterical by the time I girded my loins and went to carry on .

ah, crap, stirring, best dash

See, Dream , I reckon DS would be similarly distressed if I left him. So maybe I'll try Loopy's water suggestion first, as DS is happy with bottles. Though he removes the dummy with disgust when I try to pop it in his mouth at night time, so may give bottles short shrift too at night!

Dream that still sounds like a better night from S? So I guess it's working better than if you hadn't tried it at all? Maybe he was thirsty, even if he's not hungry? You're doing brilliantly, anyway.

Biscuits thank you for your kind words. The postman came with an Amazon delivery (just in time) so I had to interrupt DS's knee-nap after he'd had 45 mins. Wrapping got done when DH got home from school. ILs have been and gone, leaving (courtesy of MIL) some horrendous plastic musical light-up dancing monstrosities! Think LED nativity, dancing Santa etc. Yuck. But she's lovely so I just said thank you. :)

Gah packing done, presents mostly wrapped, stressed DH in bed and I've made the packed lunch for our 300 mile scoot north tomorrow...

Bloody annoying relative rant alert... DH has a huge family so not all his bros and sis go to Christmas in the same year as one of his brothers kids are total nightmares and the parenting style sounds like a current aibu it would be too much work for mil. So its our turn to go north and we've got a gazillion presents to take with us especially as its F's birthday just after Christmas. But relatives not attending this year have given us a load of presents to take up with us for other random members of the family so now it looks like we'll have to leave some frankly ridiculous sized presents from my nun for F's bday behind. Grrr and some are from mad aunt c who is loopy and presents are always very random. This year DH and I and the boys received a second hand broken thermos.... Very odd

yes pet, hes still improved. He's just woken and dh nipped up and settled him down and he's asleep again for now . That would not have happened without boob 6 nights ago, no way, so there is progress.

ah, kind of, to your in-laws!