wantan - that sort of thing with your ds makes my mind boggle - i would have no idea how to handle that sort of situation. I love that our babies are currently too young to 'manipulate' us. I have no idea how to discipline them/manage that sort of behaviour.
Smiley, can't believe u r back at work while getting so little sleep.
elpis, your day sounds exhausting, too.
huffle, thank god u finally have a diagnosis for all the probs u have been having. U r such a trooper to have made it this far, well done!
smorgs, nice to c u back.
livvy, hope u can get a cuddle from your dp - mine works constantly (business work/rennovating our flat), so the only time we really spend together is meals and bed. A cuddle is power quality time, i find.
strawberry marks - babybeccus has one on her forehead - not planning to do anythiung about it - understand they fade and she can style her hair so it's covered if she wants to when she is older.
routines - she gets up anywhere between 6 and 930 and then we feed, change, play and try to get her back to sleep after 90 mins throughout the day. She is just a little 'un, so i usually offer her feeds every 2 to 2 and a half hrs or so, or if she's upset and i can't figure out why...or if she is making a fuss when i am out. If we go out, she'll nap in pram/sling, if we r at home, i try to get her to self settle during the day. I feel like a mean mummy, too, squid, as she always cries when i put her down, but she gets so cranky and clingly if she does not get her naps. We try to get her down for the nite anytime from 7, but if she is hungry she will walke up and sometimes doesn't go down until 10pm. She tends to sleep 9-12 hrs. I normally feed her to sleep, but want to try and stop this - totally agree with whoever said feeding to sleep is either fine or the worse thing u can do! So confusing - i guess i wont be feeding her to sleep forever, so would like her to be able to self settle at nite....but can't be arsed with this after 9pm - we just do what works when it gets late.
Self settling - thank u to whoever provided the link to twitter and to angelico for her link. We started trying this a while ago (after reading baby whisperer) and she had such a melt down, i decided i would just try it once a week and continue to bounce her to sleep on my tummy/feed her to sleep/get her to drop off in sling. It became less traumatic over time and when she managed it, i decided to try once a day and now i basically try and get her to self settle all the time, unless we r out and i will use any tactic, eg rock in pram, feed to sleep, etc. She still always cries when i put her down, but calms down with shhing and patting and staying with, and doesn't usually need to be picked up. She stops crying after 5-10 mins and she will be asleep in 10-15. Would never leave her to cry, but did wonder if crying while i am with her was bad - asked hv who said as long as she is not crying so hard she vomits, it's ok.....she has never cried and vomitted, even after 8 week jabs which was the worst crying i have seen. Am trying not to swaddle, but will use in desperate situations, eg if she is overtired. She will nap for 30-45 mins 3-4 times in day usually. I like self settling - often when we bouced/rocked/fed her to sleep and transferred her to bed she would wake up after 10 mins or so. Self settling is a bit of a mission as u have to get through the crying, but at least she usually gets a proper nap.
Today was a crap sleep day - she got up at 815, she got tired around 945, but there was no point putting her down as we had to leave for mummy and baby yoga at 1015. Suprisingly, there was no overtired melt down at mummy and baby yoga, but no sleeping apart from 10 mins in sling. Struggled big time to get her to sleep this arvo when we got home - figured it would be too hard to self settle due to lack of sleep, so tried feeding her off to sleep and she woke after 10 mins, tried self settling, same thing and eventually got her to self settle thx to swaddling. It's so exciting some babies are rolling, but i will be sad to have to stop swaddling in emergencies when we get rolling action.
Goodness, mammoth, rambling post!!