March 2013 - still too sleep deprived to think of a funky title

[StormyBrid]

Old thread here.

We seemed to be running out of space (again) so I made us a new thread.

Leni- there are 2 types of bigger mam dummies. One that's 0+ months, same teat size but bigger rest of it. They also do 6month+ but dd doesn't like these much.

Well DH is out of surgery and I managed a couple of hours at the hospital today. We're very lucky that our local hospital is all private en suite rooms, and he seems pretty happy there. No word yet on when he'll be home but considering they sent my 80 yr old grandmother home 2 nights after a hip replacement, I'm guessing it will be tomorrow.

Think I'm going for beans on toast tonight. May not be official surgery recovery fare, but definitely 'recovery from husband having semi-emergency surgery' food! If we could afford it I'd order pizza.

VJ good to hear DH is fixed. I hope he gets a reasonable recovery time on the ward, but if they kick him out tomorrow and he starts to milk it, just remind him who managed to go through labour, give birth, and then look after a baby 24/7 whilst suffering from a form of sleep deprivation torture . I'm kind of thinking that trumps an append-whats-ity

I'm a big fan of beans on toast. It is my can't be ar5ed meal of choice. DH looks on in disgust. His is hummus [bleurgh emoticon]

SoYo if were me I'd give her 20 mins, then wake her. It's long enough for her to get over the over-tired hump, but not so long as to mess up sleep patterns later. It's a regular tactic here. That said I seem to have a completely different routine to everyone else. Evening sleep is limited to a short nap, and bedtime official is 10pm. I may not get a baby free evening but I always get at least a 9 hour stretch overnight.

Leni please tell me you went for the blood tests today. You did didn't you [hard stare].

Not much to report today from the world of worse. Some spinach and sweet potato was rejected, then accepted after the world's worst mother realised it had been offered fridge cold. Also we now have a recognised going to sleep song. I sing the same lullaby every night, and today, when I played a u-tube version the tiddler stopped mid screamy meltdown and started to dose off. Altogether now 'AWWwwwwwww'

Good evenings and good nights all, especially to VJ who is home alone with the prospect of a week of Florence Nightingale-ing ahead of her.

Florence nightingale was, some people argue, a bit of a bitch, not a great nurse, but an administrative genius. So I shall indeed be Florence-nightingaling by that interpretation. (Also a lesbian. I'm not planning on that route although women tend to be tidier...)

Talking of routines, I'm just interested in where everyone is now? We have 2 types of days: lazy mummy days where I play on the fact that she'll sleep til 8.30 if she comes in with me when she wakes at 6.30... Roughly 8.30 bottle, 9.30 breakfast, 10.30-11.30 nap, 12 bottle, 2.30-3.30 nap, 4bottle, 5 tea, 6.30 bath, 7 bottle and bed, 11pm bottle. It's a struggle to fit everything in to be honest, and the day never seems to flow properly. The ideal (but more tiring) day goes 7 bottle, 8 breakfast, 9-10 nap, 11 bottle, 12-1 nap, 3 bottle, 5 tea, bath 6.30, bottle and bed at 7, bottle at 11. I am yet to figure out how on earth I'm ever going to fit lunch in...

vj what routine? Im just winging. Well apparently according to ds we do have a routine as he has a meltdown if he hasnt had a bath before his late afternoon nap and if he is not in his own cot to go bed. There have been many incidents when im visiting people but have to make a quick getaway to settle him for bed. He wakes between 5-6am. Bedtime 8pmish if not in pain from teething. Milks are hit and miss. He can go for a long time without milk. Hence a lot of milk wastage in our house. Also naps depend on when he wakes up from his last nap. He can last 1.30-2hrs between naps and can sleep from 45mins- 2.30hrs. Afternoons can be tough as he refuses to sleep. I have surprised myself by not being a control freak (my weakness or strength) and set out rigid routines i have just gone by his cues which works best for us.

leni swallowing dummys scare me. I got the next size up but he still does it.

Ds gets on his knees and rocks back and forth. He moved his left knee forward and fell flat on his face today. I reckon anytime soon we have lift off. I cant imagine my wee baby crawling.

vj good luck with the patient. I hope he remembers he's not the only one you have to look after and that small, helpless people take precidence over large, post-surgery people.

Our routine is along these lines:
7.30am Milk, 8.30 breakfast, 9 nap, 10.30 milk, 12 nap, 1.30 milk, 2.30 lunch, 3 nap, 5 milk, 6.30 bath, 6.45 milk, story, bed (7.30 ish).
Have tried and failed to get DD to stay awake more than 1.5 hours but she won't. As soon as she yawns I have to throw her in the cot or there's a meltdown.

Hang on - need to go back and check something on the feed ...

Oh yes KF - crawling? Not even close. DD won't even sit up. I put her down and she flops forward so she can chew on her toes in a bizarre new yoga move an eventually flops onto her front but immediately rolls to the right. Will not stay on her front so may never learn to crawl!

VJ What????? She was a what????? Another illusion shattered. I had this lovely image is solders kissing her shadow as she passed. Not any more !!!!

Routine, well, it varies... but mainly

Bottles at 8am, 12 noon, 3pm, 6pm and 9pm

Food: about an hour after her lunchtime and 3pm bottles (early learner weaner here so it's more about the idea of food rather than the eating of it)

Naps: 11am, 2pm on walks in pram, sometimes very brief naps at 5pm, and/or 8pm. Naps are a nice to have rather than a must, and unless we go for a walk often don't happen.

Bath 5.30pm

Bed: 10pm-ish. It can take anything from 5 mins to an hour to get her to sleep.

I have to do a lot of baby entertaining in-between all that, much of which is getting her to roll about and exercise as then she will nap!

Disclaimer: Some days the entire of the above is a work of pure fiction.

I second your disclaimer there wors...if only life was that perfect. That ignores bottle refusing/nap refusing/waking up with a giant shit at 5am days. Having said that I would say at least two thirds of our days go like that, and bedtime is both non-negotiable and almost exclusively fairly painless.

As for ms nightingale, us historians are a funny bunch. There is a lot of evidence that she was the awesome, lamp swinging angel of mercy that we are used to hearing about. But also a lot that she was a jumped up admin girl who was good at getting her own way. Same impact though so who cares? As for her supposed sexuality, I haven't actually read any of the evidence so I don't know if it's in the 'hitler killed the Jews cos he woz gay innit' pile of tripe, or if there's solid evidence behind it. But it's definitely a popular theory. But then historians really are crazy, so who knows.

And..... the prize for the least sleep may for once be winging itself my way. I'm dead on my feet. If I had more than an unbroken 10 minutes I'd be amazed. Reason. Room temp. I hate his weather, I want autumn to hurry itself up. I don't care if the rest of the UK thinks it's a nice end of summer bonus, to me it's a massive PITA. So, room temo when I put the tiddler to bed was about 21, so a sleepsuit plus one tog grobag was (according to the instruction chart thingie) about right. Which would have been fine at the room stayed at 21 degrees. But it didn't! By the time I went to bed it was 24, and within an hour 27 . How does that happen???? Ok, so I know.... heat rising up from rest of house, blah-de-blah etc. So now I'm in a panic, I have a small person potentially expiring from heat, a room that's going thermo-nuclear, and a dilemma. Do I wake her, change bedding, attempt to re-settle her, only to have to do the blanket dance in the early hours when it gets cold, or do I not?

In the end I settled for opening every window that opens upstairs (not all open. Previous occupant was a tad paranoid and we've yet to remove all the 6 inch screws she sealed them up with), opened various curtains, and checked the tiddlers temp every 5 seconds. How she didn't wake up through all this I'll never know.

Finally, room back at 21 degrees I went to bed, only to wake 5 minutes later to dd kicking about in a strop what with her cot now being in a massive draught and all.

So I closed some windows... and the room heated up.

You can see where this story is going can't you

So I'll end it.

But grrrrrr, I hate this weather.

VJ You history teachers know too much!!! The only period I've studied in depth was the Tudors. I get ranty enough when periods dramas twist all the facts, and CJ Samson's Shardlake series made me really cross. I'd not cope if the rest of time was similarly ruined for me.

Ah worse surely we get the award for the number of dummies fallen under the cot. A total of 4 but just heard another one fall so it totals 5. DS has been up since 5.30am and will not sleep. well we found him playing in his cot at 5.30 so not sure what time he woke.

Yep roll on autumn. Its another hot day in London.

worse maybe you should focus less on room temp. Bad mummy points this way for not having a thermometer in ds room. It would just make me paranoid. Hot cold he has to snuggle with a blanket but then covers get thrown off during the night. He just wears a sleep suit with a vest underneath if cool outside.

KFF you are so right. I never did until I got that damn grobag thing as the beauty of blankets is they can be kicked off. Once zipped into a sleeping bag however exit options are reduced to zero. I'm reverting back to blankets until winter proper now!

Current routine... Ours is fairly flexible, because a) nap length is still unpredictable and b) buggered if I'm waking her for a bottle at 7am. Theoretically milk is 7, 11, 3, 7, 11. But we rejig depending when the first is. Today it was 8, so we'll be on 11.30, 3 and 7 probably. She usually wakes somewhere between 5 and 6 and is ignored until 7, or fed if she's bitching, and that throws the milk out too.

Awake times are usually between an hour and three quarters and two hours, but occasionally longer if we're anticipating a schedule hiccup, as happened yesterday - she woke from a nap just after 1pm and we kept her up until 4, as otherwise she'd have wanted a nap at 5. Which is when she needs to get up from her last nap. Bathtime is 6.30, she's always in bed by 7, and it's rare we have any dummy returns these days.

As for meals, they're not set in stone. If she's awake and it's been at least an hour since milk we'll take the opportunity for some mush out of a jar. Food off my plate is whenever I happen to eat.

DD seems utterly unfazed by temperature, so I'm trying not to worry about her sleeping in a sauna. Worried about the winter though. The bedrooms are always warm even without the heating on. Open plan downstairs gets cold. The radiators are all controlled by one thermostat in the coldest part of the house. So we can be comfy in bed but freeze in the day, or I can turn the heating on for half an hour in the morning and we boil all night.

I must be doing it all wrong... I still have no idea what time we do anything! Apart from waking up time, there's just no routine at all. 9am is now get up time after an hour of DS playing in his cot. I've been giving him yoghurt with his milk at about 10am because he normally doesn't want it earlier after a 5am feed. He seems happy to have both and yells if he doesn't have a drink with food (but hates water). Then we just feed on demand, around the normal meal times we have ourselves but his dinner is obviously much earlier. He's still wanting about 30 oz plus a day. The only thing missing seems to be naps. He doesn't even sleep in the buggy now . OH keeps telling me off because I don't just put DS in his bed and let him cry (he does go to sleep that way but I hate it). He can go for 5 hours without sleeping but of course he starts getting grumpy and then it's a vicious circle.

I'm with those in the 'too hot' camp now - our flat is super insulated with triple glazing and man is it boiling. In the day the sun shines right into our living room and at night right into the bedrooms. We also have really good curtains that effectively keep the cold air out when the window's open so last night I had to prop the edge round my foot sticking out of bed to allow the air to circulate. Then I had weird dreams about a group of male to female trans people donating their old penises to a fund for men who were lacking in that dept, and they had one of those thermometer charts to show how many inches they'd raised like on Children In Need?!

Delirious I tell you

Has anyone else went on to the follow on milk ?
I posted about this the other day

i know i don't post regularly like most of you this is due to me being so busy on the farms
I Wonder if my posts are just realy dull , hence why they are overlooked

That dream sounds hilarious, Leni.

I for one am not ignoring you, Christi, I'm just arse at namechecking on my phone. Have forgotten what "memory" means. No to follow on milk here though - it only exists because formula companies aren't allowed to advertise formula suitable from birth. Follow on milk was invented to get round the advertising law, and doesn't exist in countries with no such law. Stage one is fine until you switch to cow's milk at a year old.

Christi I am also seriously rubbish at remembering what people have said, which means that I usually end up seeming very self-centred and just talking about my own problems, it's because I can't remember who said what before me! Was just about to say the same as stormy. Follow on milk is all about brand recognition and nothing about necessity. It's also apparently much sweeter, and the higher iron content is negligible and unnecessary, as long as they're still having milk+half decent diet they don't need more. Then at 1 we can move to cows milk and save ourselves all the bother of making up bloody formula every day

Sorry i overlooked your post christilass. We are not on follow milk and to be honest i doubt i will try it. Yes no1 are expensive but I dont want to rock the boat with ds digestive system as thats what happened when i tried hungry milk in the early days. (not to say thats what happens but im just cautious and hate change). I heard there is not much of a difference with the first milks anyway.

leni we seem to have no routines around milks so dont worry. Ds appetite is very minimal at the moment. He has had 30mins nap since 5.30 and that was me walking like a zombie around the streets of bromley this morning.

Christi I love your posts. You always sound so happy, and mini-farmer a proper little country boy. I'm also continually in awe of how you manage to combine motherhood and farming. Both are full on jobs.

I'm so sorry I missed your question. I find unless I make notes I miss quite a lot, and then I feel mean when I leave someone out. It's the scrolling backwards and forwards - the screen isn't big enough.

I've not tried follow on myself, as the worselet isn't big into this weaning lark. Interested to know how you get on though.

Leni two words. Brain bleach! After that dream I think you may need some

I too forget who says what and my posts are all about me. I wince when i read them back. Im sorry if my posts are self centred. checking is hard on phone and PITA to go on laptop.

I'll be really upset if everyone stops writing about themselves. It's not self centred, it's chat. I've laughed so much since I joined this forum, learnt loads about babies, been reassured that minor upsets in the worselet's life are nothing more than wonder week wonders, and made great friends. Bring it on... mores self centred posting please!

Me too KFF! If I post on my phone I can't scroll so mostly talk about me! I agree with Wors though, it's lovely to know about other people's days!

Christi, I too love your posts but we are formula free due to bottle refusal so couldn't help!

KFF and Leni we're routine free too. Just try and wedge everything into the day as best we can! It's usually snooze in bed with me until 9, breakfast 10ish, dog walk and pram snooze 11-11.45ish. Boob on waking. Lunch 1ish. Dinner 5ish. Few other feeds fit in. Bath 7ish. Bed whenever we can manage! Lots of waking in first hour & 2 or 3 overnight feeds.

Wors all puréed food is giving fridge cold or room temp here! More bad mummy points!

That's the limit of my memory! Hope everyone's good.

Christi stormy is right. Formula companies aren't allowed to advertise first milk because it competes with the breast feeding message. So they invented follow in milk which they can advertise because it supposedly comes after bf or first milk. But there is no need for it. As long as baby is having 300-500ml a day of formula they are getting enough iron. Once milk intake drops below this, you could look at vitamin supplement drops if you're worried their solid diet won't have enough. At 1 year you can switch to cows milk.

I too adore lurking reading about everyone's goings on... Makes me feel normal!

Hope mr vj doing ok, and all babies behaving - didn't get a chance to say go mini yo on the sleeping!

Routine varies here, up at 7 unless he's woken for food any time after 5 as he won't have breakfast til later then anyway and I need the sleep! There is a nap in here somewhere. Usually a feed between 10-11ish Then a good awake time then nap. Food 2 ish awake til 4.30 then shorter nap and final feed 6.30 for 7pm bath and bed. Thankfully last bit usually pretty smooth. Dream feed at 10pm.

Of course all goes up the pictures when I have to go out - naps the big loss usually as now we're in the pram rather than carrycot the world is too interesting to sleep to!

Christi - I've been working on the premise that we all just write about ourselves unless someone asks a specific question (that I know the answer to!). I'm always on my phone and my memory is shot so because I post quite infrequently I end up having so many posts to read my brain gets scrambled and then I have weird dreams...

Occasionally I notice that because of my lurking I get missed off namechecks but I'm aware that I don't namecheck much either so it doesn't bother me. Everyone here figures in my mind though, and because I grew up in farming I always enjoy your posts!