April 2013 - We've all had our babies now. Let the (hard work) fun commence!

[HadALittleFaithBaby]

Thought I'd take the liberty of starting a new thread since the last one filled. So mark your places, get comfy and prepare for a few sleepless nights!

In particular we think of Empress and little Sam - hoping and praying he's coming home! :)

That would have been a good night if we hadn't had the 11.50pm feed! Then did 3.20 and 6.20am, and settled well. So just need to sort the pre midnight side of things!

I'm hoping to sort the passport soon, but E is staying resolutely asleep every time we go past snappy snaps, and she's normally overdue for a feed, so I end up rushing her the 15 minutes home, rather than wake her and have her scream for 15 minutes!

Evan had a fairly good night although I am not sure that DP did! Evan was waking up just 2 hours after feeding and DP would get out of bed and make a feed but Evan would be back to sleep (in DP's arms) as soon as the bottle got into his mouth.

When Evan had done this twice I realised he was probably waking up because he was cold. He sleeps in a vest, babygro and grobag but I think tonight we might try putting a blanket on top too. We have never used blankets with sleeping bags with any of the DC but, having read about how lots of you do so, then perhaps that will help him sleep longer at night.

Just noticed that the window in our room was left open a bit all night too so yes, Evan was probably noticing the chill!

A lovely sunny day here. We were up very early so got to see the start of the Round the Island race (yachting thing!) from the playroom window.

ruddy did you try out different things like bouncer chair (ours vibrates and we wouldn't cope without!) or a swinging thing etc?

We also swaddle, avoid eye contact once down & rock.

Feeding cues is interesting, baby user sucks constantly for comfort and for hunger it usually goes, sleeping..sleeping... Screaming tantrum of rage!

She went too long without feed last night, 10 hours ish. She is almost 11lbs 2 weeks ago so I don't think it's a big problem, but she usually goes 7 overnight and anymore she gets properly grumpy next day (is currently waving her fist at me in her sleep) I expressed 7oz this morning, so at least I have an emergency bottle for when I go out.

dysgu baby user woke up cold last night too, was OH that called it, I didn't realise but her little arms were uncovered as was first night in sleeping bag, so we swaddled and she went back to sleep!

I also think dd may have woken up cold last night. She went down at 12 and didn't wake til 5.30 then only had 3 of usual 6 oz and went straight back to sleep until 9. Will leave heating on low tonight I think

Funny - if Faithlet has her arms tucked in she won't settle til they're out!

Faithlet went to sleep by 9pm last night! I even managed to get back up and watch tv with DH for an hour! I do miss my evenings....she fed again at 1.30 and 4.45 so not too bad.

Dd also can't be swaddled as hates arms tucked in. Hence my heating plan!

Tried moving Lucy's feed an hour earlier last night, I was more knackered lol. Normally, bath at eight, feed at twenty past til 8:45, sleep from then onwards. She then sleeps to anything between 1:30 and three and then from there between 5:30 and seven. Last night fed at 7:30, up at midnight, up at four am. Felt like hell. Back to eight pm tonight I feel. :)

Crying during feeding/burping now? Not every time. What could it be? Not like H to cry like that he can be placated with a cuddle/rocking after 5 mins

Have given him gripe water after feed just as he did this crying and he settled??

trish Woody sometimes does that if the milk isn't warm enough... could that be it?xx

Nic it's the same temp as usual and tbh he will take most temperatures.

We've had another 24 hours with no poo so i am thinking it's his tummy. We did the cycling legs thing and he farted lots but still no poo. We also gave him some cooled boiled water but he brought it all back up on hubby xx

Hmm. Bit of a sad day in the Sneezy household. DH has persuaded me to trade in my beloved Ford Kuga (which I only got last year) for a seven-seater S-Max. His car is worth about 50p, so it's got to be mine that goes.

I do see how a bigger car is more practical. The two car seats take up loads of room (DD has an extended rear facing seat which is huge) so we could do with more seating, and extra boot space will always come in handy, but an S-Max is just not pretty.

Bye-bye sporty car, hello mummy-mobile!

P.S. I know this is not a real problem, but I turn thirty on Saturday and I'm feeling sensitive

Oh sneezy- no-one said parenting was glamorous, hey!

P has wailed again this evening- I think he just gets really tired by the end of the day. Will give it a few more days but if 7.30 really is wail-central every day then I think I'll need to get a bedtime routine sorted for him- at the moment we just go with the flow.

wishful we seem to have fallen into a routine and have (so far) avoided the evening crying that we had with DD (who had no routine).

I think the fact that we already have DD means that DS has to fit in around her, so he's taken on her routine. We bath them both at six and then DH does stories etc with DD and I feed Henry. If he falls asleep before DD, I'll pop in for a cuddle or an extra story.

I do find that he gets tired very easily, so I am keeping a careful eye on naps. The better he sleeps during the day, the better he sleeps at night.

DD was a complete sleep-refuser though, so this time around has been a pleasant surprise so far. In fact, in the first few weeks I consulted Dr Google as I thought H was sleeping too much .

DD walked at eight months and I'm c

...convinced it's because she'd had as many awake hours as a typical 18 month old!

sneezy that is a hardship!

We've had a nice day - seen DH's best mate and GF. We went out for lunch. Faithlet slept through it and I didn't have to feed her until we went into town. Staff at House of Fraser were helpful carrying my drink to the table (I was overloaded and she was screaming!) and no-one batted an eyelid while she fed. Bought a new t-shirt and hoody in the Gap sale.

We tried settling Faithlet a bit earlier tonight. Bath and bottle from about 6.30 and took her to the bedroom at 7.15. I made it darker (blackout material) and didn't use my phone and she settled by 8.45! Will keep going with this.

E has got her first cold! Poor wee girl, she all snorty and snuffly! Thankfully it's not interfering with feeding too much.

User - H will sleep in his swing chair but only for 20mins. I haven't tried swaddling though so think I will give it a go!

Sneezy - you are still but a spring chicken but I feel your pain re: the car!

Amber - H also has a cold that he caught from me. He is really bunged up and not sleeping well as a result. We have some saline spray for his nose and bought the Vicks paediatric humidifier but his blocked nose is still waking him up all the time. Off to the docs for a check early this week if it's not clearing up soon. Hope E better soon!

Swaddling is awesome, tbh we owe a lot of our sleep to the midwife who visited at 3 days old, we were unable to put baby down without tears, she just swaddled, popped her in basket and let her cry about a minute and she asleep! Mind you, the cot arrives Wednesday, bit scared about settling her in something that neither rocks nor vibrates.

It's currently nap time but silly baby user doesn't seem to realise. I need to express before my boob explodes and haven't had my coffee yet.

We had a bad evening again yesterday, lots of tears & screaming. Gave her a bottle of expressed for last feed as just couldn't face boob again, boob feeds all end in tears & hysteria still, it's so predictable, I have a system now where as soon as tears start I sit her up on my lap facing me but not close to my boobs, then just wind her like normal, if she carries on crying I put her down or give her to someone else and that helps. I miss post feed cuddles though, milk drunk used to be great! 6 week check tomorrow so I will try get HV to watch a feed.

Gah still not asleep, she is having too much fun in her chair I think!

Also I need suggestions of what to do with baby during her awake times since she has more longer now! Slings are bad for us as she is longer than my body and constantly kicks, fidgets and is generally awkward.

user H is awake for longer now and these are some of the things we've been doing
Reading stories (well, reading to DD while he is there!)
Singing songs with actions
Lying on playmat in the shade in the garden (he loves this and I don't need to do anything!)
Wrist rattles
Looking in a mirror
Tummy time (but he hates this so only infrequently)
Dancing to music (again, usually because this is what DD is doing!)

This is only really for very short bursts at a time. The rest of the time, he just watches what's going on around him!

Also, the bouncy chair we have vibrates, which means he sits quite happily (and often falls asleep).

I'm really pleased about this as we bought it for DD and she refused to go in it - so at least it's getting some use!

Happy birthday sneezy Thirty is the new 21

trish a holiday in Spain sounds great, I think we might try to do the same at some point. I'm inspired by you doing a 55 min train journey on your own with H. How did you find it?

It's taken me a while to catch up on everyone's news and now I can't remember who said what so sorry for the lack of name checking.

Teapiglet's rash got worse this week so we went back to the GP and he referred us to the hospital - cue me panicking like a crazed first time mum. The doctor on the childrens' ward had no idea what it was but said it wasn't the typical newborn rash we'd been told it was. Eventually we saw the senior doctor and he thinks it's a very bad form of craddle cap with a fungal infection so we now havr special cream and shampoo to use. Really hoping this sorts it out.

Hope everyone has a good weekend.

Holly, he sleeps most of it tbh! And even when he wakes he's chilled, just time my travelling between feeds (he's feeding 5 hourly anyways).

However I think I could easily feed him on train if I needed to!

dressed baby bird in a short sleeved legless outfit today as it's quite warm ( yay!) she looks so cute. She's quite a petite baby, still wearing newborn at 7 weeks, but has such cute podgy arms and legs!!!

thank you sneezy going to try some of those suggestions.

teapig I hope teapiglets rash clears up soon, you must have been scared having to go hospital.

Earlier on I averted a baby tantrum with just a drop of gripe water, she seems to like it, can't wait till I can bribe her with rolo cookies if that's the effect from gripe water