March 2013: Smiles, sleep & excellent feeding.....the thread of wishful thinking!

[SoYo]

Well we may as well start the thread on a positive note before the grumbling about the little darlings begins!!!

Love the title SoYo !

Well I have had an interesting time, dd went to sleep at 4pm, woke up had a tiny breastfeed and bath, slept on bottle at 6pm and had zero ounces and has been asleep since.Assuming this must be vaccines making her tired. Going to wake her for a dream feed at 11pm as otherwise too long without milk in this hot weather. Drinking camomile tea and trying to relax! Been odd having an evening with no witching hour!

Poor MiniEig! Hope she does give you a good night.

And I love the title too SoYo

Eig I was wondering how you were getting on post-jabs. Any grouchiness?

Unfortunately wishfu thinking hasn't helped here. Up 1h earlier than usual so that usually equals a whole extra feed (& hr awake) overnight. Is shit! Boiling hot here too so difficult to get good sleep. Hope others are faring better.

Thanks for new thread.

Hope minieig feels better for a good sleep, as does her mum.

Had a hungry one today, though not very interested in formula too ups. Or sleeping. He's been really very lovely, but hard to get much done. Think he tried to deliberately bat the toys on the bar over bouncy chair today. Still no sign of any more bm's since the great clear out a week ago though, so will call doc tomorrow. As he still has a little formula I'd expect to see something...

I have a moby wrap, but have actually struggled to get on with it. Find it hard to gauge correct tension, so always retying it, and get very hot even before recent weather. Have a more structured carrier, bb rip off type, which is great for walks but wouldn't want DS in it all day.

Have a gro egg room thermometer which is great as I use it as the only light in our room over night. That's enough to check or swaddle him by and the glow of MN on the iPad lights the feeds!

Thanks for lovely optimistic new thread. The law of attraction will surely win out for us all!
Hot weather wise dd seems unbothered by heat rash but looks and feels pretty gruesome to the touch. Hv coming tomorrow morning so we'll see what pearls of wisdom she has. She prescribed cuddles for crying last week so maybe she'll suggest less clothes or something else radical.... Was wondering today whether hot weather means they need more feeds (I wouldn't want to go for three hours without a drink). Dd been on a two hour cycle during day which included four poo nappies in a row so I guess she's been taking a fair bit.
Our nights currently go feed at bed time which is 8, then one 2 ish then one 5 ish, then ping awake by ungodly 0630. Considering dream feeds from now on to hopefully loose one feed where I have to wake up. Those doing dream feeds any tips about how to do it please? Evil baby whisperer is very vague about it in the mini book I have.
Also, does anyone else eat at each night time feed or am I being greedy?! I have a granola slice and it feels like a bit of a dirty habit but it (along with cute milk drunk faces) is something that helps take sting out of night time waking.
Hope you all have a nice gentle breeze blowing it's calmmess over you tonight. See you later.

Oh I'd love a breeze here!

Well DD hasn't gone for as long as normal here. Fed at 10ish but has been really noisy and grunty since 1 something and finally barked out a couple of cries at 2:20 so got her up then. Yawn.

Is it wrong to say I'm now looking forward to the cooler weather coming back? I'm not used to this hot weather business any more where I live

No grounchiness, woke at 11 for dream fees but only took 3 ounces. Just woke, bit of a poo and both boobs and back to sleep. Seems v tired but ok otherwise. Normally I would have let her sleep but don't want her to be too long without a drink in the heat!

Oh, then did huge poo so had to change her but back asleep now! Hope you are all fairing ok!

Ha, miniPud did the whole of my right side last feed but fell beautifully asleep so just got put down.meant trying to get onto my left just now was quite a struggle for us both. Poor love.

Eco I keep a packet of dark choc digestives by the bed & munch through a few a night. They're my guilty pleasure!

Up again just a few mins ago so that was a good solid stretch for her after a first feed. Rooms a bit cooler now too which I'm sure helped.

Rainbow - please please explain how to feed in a wrap sling? I have a Boba Wrap which I know is pretty similar to the Moby but I can't for the life of me see how I'd get positioned so DS's head was near my boob!

We're at the Pil and i've forgotten the scarf I was meant to bring to cover us up, so I'm spending every feed in our room upstairs in a really hard chair playing bloody addictive Candy Crush Saga on my phone!

DS slept all the way here in a very hot car, his little sun hat falling down over his eyes - the smallest one they had in Mothercare dainty bonce.

Upon arrival he realised he was hungry and I had to whisk him away before meeting his public. I'm having to hold my tongue when i see his grandad putting a dummy back in after it's fallen on the chair where all the cats sit... There was a huge spider in the room we're sleeping in and They keep bowls of cat food on top of every small table in the lounge?! It's not a clean house at all but as this has already caused rows I'm just doing my best to subtly drum into OH that hygiene is currently a matter of life and death as opposed to me just being anal.

Somehow DS slept through from 11.30pm feed to 3.30am! Cue OH doing his only feed in 24 hrs and lots of grumpy huffing whilst I tried to sleep after a long drive and a very sore back/knee and no dinner; he's now asleep where he'll probably stay for a usual 6 hour stretch whilst I sit in bed with DS dying for a wee!

I'm sure car seats can't be great for newborns - DS's head was lolled to the side and he ended up in a sort of S shape, plus we couldn't see him because the seat has to face backwards. He was cross eyed all evening (his focus is so much better now that he's hardly ever squinty anymore) which worried me, I thought that stage had passed. He can reach for my face now, and he can also slide himself up the changing mat with his rugby player legs and almost fall down the back of the crib! He won't have blankets on to sleep anymore, just kicks them off. The legs are in charge.

TV lately makes me cry - last night a prog about ambulances showed a 5 month old baby whose mum tripped on a pot plant and fell down stairs through a window on to concrete - her baby hit face down and died - made my heart literally bleed. Horrific. Exacerbated my mummy neurosis massively. Poor poor woman... even an adoption story on 16 and pregnant can start me off though, but I should stress i have to have the tv on because otherwise the other plugs don't work (special block plug so things don't go to standby) so i watch when pumping and there's bugger all on.

DS has officially outgrown my favourite sleep suit, i might keep it unwashed forever and try and preserve his newborn smell...

eco dream feed with a bottle is easy - pick a time before she's likely to be awake, and sneak in there and just ease the bottle in. Bit of cheek stroking sometimes needed to start the sucking urge. If you're on boobs, I have no idea how it's done.

leni I had to resist the temptation to save the cutest newborn clothes, which DD is too long for now. They've all been bagged up and sent across the road to my brother, where they'll stay until I have another kid. Unless we both manage to go for baby number two at the same time, in which case I guess we'll just have to have a scrap over them.

7am and no squeaks from upstairs. This is weird... Definitely recommending a blackout blind for anyone who's struggling with babies who think 5am is time to start the day!

Just changed DS on the floor and looked over to see a cat poo under the bed how do I tactfully impress the need for cleanliness around newborns?!

OMG I knew yesterday was too good to be true. After a positively perfect day where the smallest person napped in all the right places (and one of those was actually in her moses basket not the sling ), we hit the evening from hell.

In what was probably a naive burst of enthusiasm I decided to cook an actual proper meal with hot components, despite the fact I was flying solo... what with the man being on a late shift and all. Big mistake. Huge. I had no sooner plated it up than dd had an attack of the grumps, and started to scream. She kept this up for 4 hours. 4 HOURS I tell you ... Colic has much to answer for. In the end I just threw in the towel and got into bed with her, where we huddled up in a snotty wet cuddle, until she had puked as much of her feed as she thought right to balance her chakras down my back, and farted like a cart horse to off load the wind. Joy. I dread to think what the room smelt like when DH got in at midnight, but I'm guessing not good.

The rest of the night passed eventfully, with a few stressy feeds, a lot more crying, and absolutely zero sleep for me. I am on my knees I tell you. My knees. Looking on the bright side however she is currently kicking around in relative silence, having tired herself out with a good old stroppy cry at 6am.

Injections at 11am. Timing could not be better

Leni - I'm guessing you need to have a serious talk with the cat

Oh Leni, tricky. At least he's not crawling though!

worcester if mine is anything to go by you'll have a very sleepy baby for the next 24 hours and potentially an enormous poo so put the nappies on well!!

leni I feel for you. I am totally scared of cats. Just hate them. I know sorry to you cat lovers, they freak me out! To get around my mother in law I seemed to manage to develop an allergy as I get a rash whenever I stay near her cat! so now I avoid it. Luckily for baby it isn't crawling, how many more days there?

leni 1 when I forget my scarf for covering up, I tuck a muslin into my bra strap and it works like a dream. Done that twice in the last two days as its been too hot for a scarf.

Also, our car seat has a newborn insert which like a padded horseshoe-shaped headrest and that stops her from moving about. Did you get the cat seat from the hire place or is it yours?

DD went back to sleep at 3 then fed at 5:20 on/off till 6:30 which is unusual and annoying. Then she and I have caught up on sleep in bed while DH has been up with DS. I needed that extra sleep! She's feeding now of course :)

HV visitor later at 3. Hope she has such common sense advice as the one mentioned above...!

Cross post with worsester. That sounds awful :(

Oh dear sounds like a few broken nights (except for Stormy and her blackout blind, which I'm rather jealous of).

Leni I'm a cat owner and I just don't let my cat near the baby. She's not allowed in our room at all. Maybe suggest this for the duration of your stay? I'd also be scrabbling under the bed to clean up, that must smell! No wonder you weren't up for the visit.

Stormy the connects great. I'm like your DP and d

Argh stupid phone. Anyway.

I don't trust my ability to knot. Although I'm sure I got that knot tying badge in brownies, but that'd be 20 years ago. The Connecta is a dream.

I woke to feed DS at 1.30 and then lay awake until 3.30 thinking about jabs this afternoon and how I'm going to manage my food shopping this week. Then DS kindly woke us with a colicky screaming fit at 6.30 which DP room care of. DS hasn't been this bad in over a month. Needless to say the boys are both asleep now (DS on me after we had a lengthy 'chat') and I'm wondering if its even worth attempting a nap or if I should grab some food while I can. The cat is beside herself with self pity so is better get up.

Oh and Stormy he lost his game. Hahahaha!

Eigmum - did you say sleepy?!! I can handle any amount of poo if sleepy is on the agenda

We're already thinking ahead, and planning to get an extra stair gate to fit on the bathroom door. Don't really think a litter-eating experience is a necessary character-building exercise. We keep the cats out of the baby's room, but aren't bothered about them interacting with her during the day - she's too wriggly and noisy and unpredictable so they mostly keep a wide berth. I would love to find a way to keep them out of the buggy though, even the dyson can't handle the cat hairs in there.

worsester my sympathies, four hours of screaming sounds like hell. I wish I had practical advice to offer, but my ridiculously easy-going baby means I've never had to deal with it. If it all gets too much though, remember: just put the baby somewhere safe, and go and have a cup of tea. And maybe hold off on the cooking until you know the baby's asleep in future? Although how that works with babies who can't be relied on to stay asleep, I don't know.

It's only nine in the morning, and I am fully clothed, have done the washing up, eaten breakfast, and even been to the corner shop with the baby in the mei tai. So many productivity points for me today! Did ask the man to get up and watch the baby while I nipped out, but he refused. Sigh. "I can't handle babies first thing in the morning" - what, so you're going to make me do it instead? It's not my favourite thing in the world either!