Still brooking no argument for sleep, glorious sleep!

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This will be the thread where all brooking babies learn to self settle and sleep through the night (the real version, not that 5hr at a time thing).

So, dream, given that you still feed quite a lot, how do you find it when you're at work? Do you have to express in the day? Well done re the evening feeds. Hope this does lead to an improvement in sleep for you all soon

I don't express in the day, no time or suitable place, but some days its fine, others I get really sore, engorged boobs and sometimes blocked ducts...

I got some sleeeeep I got some sleeeeeep

Back later, phone keyboard acting up. But woo-hoo!

Hi all, I'm back from Majorca, having had a more relaxing holiday than I expected. Both dc were a pleasure to travel with . In fact, J slept better there than here, just waking at 12 and 3 for milk then up at 6ish. I was hoping it would continue when we got home, so I was not impressed with 9pm feed, 11pm waking, then feeding on and off from 1-5am last night [sigh]. So what is it, does he hate his cot, prefers Spanish air, doesn't like me sleeping??? Answers on a postcard please.

Really pleased to here smegs and dream have had a bit more sleep though.
Re the mixed feeding, J has had a bottle of formula as his last milk before bed since he was six weeks. It worked well when we did it with dd, so was hoping for the same (a bit more sleep and a break for me) this time. In the last week though, we've actually gone back to just breast feeding, as he was screaming blue murder every night after his bottle. He is definitely calmer on boob milk. It makes me wonder why though? Could the formula aggravate his reflux more?
I certainly never f

Posted too soon

I never found adding a bottle interfered with bf at all.

I hope sparks is enjoying time with the lovely twinks.

Hi to everyone else x

Wow, so pleased there has been some sleep had, well done those little ones :)

Little your holiday sounds lovely, the pics look great too.

Can't remember who asked, but my nips are all back to normal now, I didn't end up finding shells but a combination of shields, lashings of lansinoh and being incredibly careful about her latch and they have recovered, bfing is now back to being a pleasure again. She also seems to be recovered from all her ills finally :):)

Smegs, woo hoo! What's the secret?!

Little, so glad you had a fab hol and managed to relax.

Boo, that's great news re k's feeding.

Oh and dream, that sounds rubbish re the blocked ducts. I had a surprise night of only one feed after the 11pm one, so have had a sore, lumpy lefty today. Decent sleep tho apart from DD up three times and DH unable to get up due to heavy sleep induced by beer

Great news re more sleep for the Brookers! Long may it continue! T went down at 7 last night and didn't wake for a feed until 4am! And for the first time in a very long time DS1 didn't wake AT ALL! I however have AF visiting, after a brief visit 5 weeks after I had T she had stayed away but she's back and is making up for the missing visits!! I am literally flooding after 2 hours despite tampons and night towels Fingers crossed its a one off because I've never had a period this heavy! Not much else happening here, T still very pleased with his rolling skills and can cover some distance now And we've started a few tasters of rice/veg puree on advice of the consultant who we saw a couple of weeks ago.
Hope everyone's enjoying the sun! And little has the sun helped J to resume his Majorcan sleep pattern?! So glad you had a nice time

Green that af sounds awful, hope its a one off as your body adjusts. J has been trying a bit of baby rice the past two days too, and seems to really enjoy it. Sleep still not great. Now he just rolls on to his front and cries til we come and turn him back over several times a night. Luckily he takes a dummy, or I'd end up feeding him ever time I think.

Gen hope your good night wasn't a one off?

I don't know Gen, I wish I did. Saturday night was horrific, we had friends over for a bbq and DD2 decided to refuse to sleep. DH and I ate in shifts, our poor friends only got to see us together at 10:30 and they had to leave at 11! But then she slept through till 7am.

Last night was ok, she slept in just a nappy and seemed quite comfy. She woke briefly at 3am when the temperature dipped and I put her in a 0.5 tog grobag (effectively a sheet). Then we co-slept till 7am again. She's having a nice long nap now. About to go and wake her up! Maybe we've turned a corner? FX.

My new nephew has been diagnosed with reflux, poor baby. He's not been putting much weight on and is a very bad sleeper, as well as throwing up massively after feeds. I did wonder but didn't like to give an armchair diagnosis to my DB and SIL. I'm going to try to put them in touch with my neighbours who also had a refluxy baby. No matter how much I sympathise with them I think there's nothing like actually having gone through it, and my friends may be able to give them some tips.

Also, I have a GP friend who swears by ranitidine (sp?) for reflux. He says that it can be taken alongside infant gaviscon, and in his opinion is absolutely the bees-knees for reflux. What do you say, brookers? SIL only managed to get a gaviscon prescription for DNephew, I don't know whether to mention this other stuff to her or not.

little Have you got the head end raised on J's cot? We have found that T finds it harder to roll onto his front when the head is raised and we also lay him nearer to the side he prefers to roll onto which means he mostly can't roll right over. He often falls asleep on his side whilst desparately trying to roll right over so we just pop him back onto his back once he's fast asleep!
smegs I noticed a massive improvement once T started on gaviscon - it is a faff to give but well worth the effort. I'm not really sure whether adding the Ranitidine made much more improvement but he's on both and he's reflux is very well controlled. I would guess if it's bad enough to cause poor weight gain then just gaviscon is probably not enough? Have they been referred to paeds?

Oh and this may jinx things but T is asleep in his cot in the day AND I put him in awake!!

Thanks Olives. I know, it does sound liek pretty bad reflux to me but I'm no expert. He's a very little baby in comparison with my two hulking DDs, a full kilo less at birth than DD2 and they were both nearly 42 week-ers . He needs to put on some weight pronto, really.

I don't think they've been referred to paeds. I don't want to scare them, but I also want my DN to get the best possible treatment. It's a fine line isn't it?

Yay for cot sleeps! And awake? That's unheard of in this house!

DD2 is going into her big sisters room tonight. Fx for us please, brookers!

PS Olives I'm doing a special dance just for you. How awful, I hope you feel better soon

Smegs we've found ranitidine works well to control J's reflux too, though it seems gp's will always try just gaviscon first. Good luck for tonight

Green J seems to only want to settle on his side now, but tips on to his front and wakes when he stirs in the night. His cot is raised at one end. I think time is the only thing that sorts out this sleeping lark [sigh]

Thanks for the dancing smegs
I think some GPs don't like to prescribe Ranitidine for little ones so maybe they should ask for a referral so they get an expert opinion on it. I'm fairly certain that's protocol anyway if there's significant weight gain issues.

little It may well just be a time thing! Maybe he'll be rolling back on his own soon, or comfortably sleeping on his front. I know DS1 became a tummy sleeper as soon as he was able to roll onto his front and he still sleeps on his tummy now. It used to terrify me when he was a baby and I used to creep into his room several times a night to roll him back onto his back! I eventually gave up when I realised it was a fruitless exercise as he would roll straight back again within a few mins!
Well T only slept for 45 mins in his cot earlier but it is a small victory in the day time nap saga!

Hi all. Sorry not name checking but re reflux, DS 1 has losec omeprazole and domperidone and they are amazing in my opinion. Has been on them for 18 months, and only now are we starting to wean him on a lower dose of domperidone without him vomiting loads more. It took me filming him being sick before anyone would take it seriously, and I showed the hv and she said to show a GP and then we got referred to see a paediatrician. Even now though the GP doesn't believe in reflux and the paediatrician said there is no proven treatment, but having had DS 2 since who does not have reflux, I can see just how bad ds1 has it. Even now, one gag and that is fully tummy emptying job, whereas ds2 can gag 3-4 times and still compose himself.

Re sleep, both of mine sleep on their tummies, and as soon as they could roll over, they slept better.

So, now for some help please! DS 2 was born tongue tied, lip tied and with a very high palate. He has never had a sucking instinct, he could never be pacified with a knuckle, finger, dummy etc. He has never latched onto a bottle and has no interest in trying to drink from any water cup that we have tried (solid plastic spouts, silicone ones of varying styles). He feeds from me, but his latch has never been perfect and he has gone from having no teeth to cutting one tooth a couple of weeks ago, to cutting 2 more in the last few days. I am dreading feeding him for much longer unless his technique improves. I fed ds1 till 14-15 months so have no phobia of teeth, just of ds2! Additionally I am getting married next month :) and was hoping to be able to give him 2 bottles that day so that I could get drunk for the first time since feb 2010. I also would like to stop feeding him by Nov so that we can start trying for dc3 in Jan and also so that possibly we can have a child free honeymoon in nov. However at the moment I feel like I am going to be feeding him forever and don't know what to do! We recently tried a mimi jumi bottle on someone's recommendation but that didn't work either. Anyone got any ideas?

(There is also the issue that if I am ever going to work again/ send ds2 to nursery, he needs to be able to take a bottle!)

Oh and he had tongue tie snipped at 8 days...

Really quick smegs but gaviscon did nothing for mine bar increase constipation. Ranitidine + domperidone = the dogs testicles. Paeds told me unlike almost everything else they do where you start at lowest dose and inch up as needed, reflux they recommend starting at the highest dose and allowing it to ease down as baby grows to stop pain, feeding issues etc.

Thanks so much for the advice and telling me your own stories, everyone. I'm seeing DB and DSIL later this week, hopefully it's all a bit better now but I have to say that I was surprised that he was only given gaviscon if his weight is such a concern.

I guess all I really want to do is support them. DSIL really wants to bf for as long as possible and I can see how much it's upsetting her that he's so sick I don't want to tell them how to parent their own child though, so it really is a tricky one for me.

smegs - although obviously hard they say bf for reflux is better than formula as it is more digestable etc. I was told that even if A didnt have dairy issues a bm from a woman with a no or low dairy diet was the gentlest thing on a baby's tummy.

God, it is so hard having an unhappy reflux baby.

Loopy - sounds bonkers but have you tried a bottle again recently? When A went past 6 months I stopped trying bottles (she'd refused them all!) and tried beakers. After trying every beaker on the market I got her to try a mam dummy at nine months ish and out of desparation tried a mam bottle. She took it!

Wow! Just fed DS and put him in his cot awake and I think he has gone to sleep all by himself! So hot in his room, poor thing.

loopy, I'd probably just go for a beaker too, though difficult if he's not interested. A free flow obvs if he's got a poor suck. Maybe once he learns tipping it = result he'd use it...?!

Yet another 5:20 start here. 2 weeks of not feeding before midnight has made officially no difference to sleep. Still waking 4-6 times before 11:30, and I'm mostly giving in and feeding then and then co sleeping as i just can't get him to sleep. At all. So now its actually worse as i could have gone to bed at 9 before and had an hour sleep before next waking whereas now I'm up and down, jigging, cuddling and settling til I give in and feed at 11:30, then about 4 feeds til 'morning' aka 5:20 every fecking morning. I'm broken. So fed up.

So, glad everyone else is seeing improvements at least!

Oh dream, it sounds so tough. Brooking mega hard that things improve very soon.

Well my jubilation was short-lived as I managed to wake him on my way out of the room. Damn you, creaky floorboards!

Loopy, I was meaning to suggest a beaker too. in theory that's what I'm doing with DS, but I really must get on with it.

Exciting re olives and little's babies weaning!