June 2013 (3) - teething & not sleeping!

[rrreow]

I broke the old thread! Step this way, step this way.

We have rivers of snot here. But I think with the two bottom teeth through things are actually better. Teething is worse than a cold, who knew.

He's also been going 3 hours between feeds at night instead of 2, so my boobs are like melons at the moment.

DS1 is back at nursery after being off sick for a few days. A sick toddler is horrible, such hard work. Glad he's back to his chirpy self now.

DS2 is a dab hand at picking things up and putting them in his mouth, and he also makes chewing motions, but he doesn't actually swallow any food yet. He'll be 6 months on Saturday.

MadameJ I feel similar to you. Although DS1 was actually super low-maintenance, so I always felt things were 'easy', but what I did with that was work a lot and always felt the obligation to be doing something. With DS2 I've taken more time to just enjoy him and although he's not as low-maintenance, I've actually enjoyed it more so far overall.

6 months tomorrow! Where has that time gone.?! At baby massage today I was told she looked like the 'next stage' baby, as she sat on her own wobbling and trying to look at everyone else but me!

Rant moment coming up, which is nothing to do with dd really or here, but really need to rant and I'm afraid you lovely ladies get it.
Dsds school play tonight, all fine and good all looking forward to going, then DPs ex pipes up today that it's nothing to do with me and if I go she'll cut all contact the dsds have with their dad I couldn't go and risk that, I'd never forgive myself, even though I'd have liked to have gone as a two fingers up to her. They divorced almost 6 years ago, I wasn't around until 3 years later, yet she hates me for having taken DP 'away from her' ugh.

Sorry, rant over, just annoys me, especially when DSD looks sad and says she wanted me there because she knows I'd be proud of her. Ho hum

Right time for snuggles. Hope everyone up t'north is ok and not being battered with the awful weather.

Pink, how utterly unreasonable of her!!! That really sucks, both for you and for dsd.

I can't believe it's 6 months. It's flown. I should really be thinking about return to work, I can't be arsed though, I don't want to go back

DD is still waking up in the night, but not wanting to feed, just snuggle with us. I'm hoping she improves soon.

Food isn't proving a hit yet, she does seem to prefer just milk. I telling myself "food is for fun until 1" and just going to give her bits of tastes until we find something she likes (and continue to do 5 bottles of milk so she's at least getting the calories).

Amy isn't arsed about food either, Dontmind. Though annoyingly she seemed to enjoy a HIPP jar more than my lovingly prepared purée!

I'm going to start giving her more solid pieces of fruit and veg soon, see if they appeal more.

We've had a teething day from hell today. She's barely slept and is utterly wiped out. Her eyes are so tired and sore and she looks so down. :-( I wish they'd just come already.

Pink, that's really shit re your DP's ex. So childish and pathetic. Poor kids.

I have decided I need a bloody break...dd1 has being a complete cow bag today and dd2 is refusing to settle. Dh keeps giving me his opinion but hasn't offered to bloody help

Sorry to hear you had a tough day Madame.

Pink bear I can't believe your DP's ex. That is so ridiculous. Poor kids being stuck in the middle of it.

Heading home today after spending a few days with my dsis while dh is away with work. Has been lovely to see her but being away from home is so hard for dc's sleep. Sis and her dh both have trouble sleeping so I have to respond quick to every cry in the night. When you have ds in the room next door crying because he thinks its time to get up, and dd crying in my room cost ds has woken her up, its not much fun. And its teaching dd lots of bad habits, as she thinks I'm come running at every first whimper. She's definitely waking more at night, and its habit not hunger. We have a few weeks to get back on track before the in laws come to visit, she''ll be back in our room, and it will go pear shaped all over again.

On the plus side, shopping with dsis to help with the kids means Christmas shopping is pretty much done. On the downside, at said Christmas shopping trip, I lost ds when he wandered off. No describing the horrible feeling of not being able to find your son on a busy shopping street, running up and down screaming his name. And trying to explain to him afterwards why mummy was so upset/angry did not seem to get through to him.

Can you go out and leave DH to it at the weekend, Madame? Even if only for a few hours, see how far his opinion takes him then?

I'm lucky, DH is very hands on. But he does need prompting about stuff a bit which can get irritating. But at least he does help.

Oh goodness, Aloha. I can't imagine that. I'm so glad he turned up safe and sound.

Hopefully the message will get through to your DS eventually. Was he not worried that he'd lost you?

Aloha how scary. Glad all is ok. No idea how that must have felt. Little ones really do just bounce along on these things don't they, like nothing happened, while we get over the anxiety and be cover let go if their hand again. Kids!

Madame you other half sounds very much like mine. He doesn't much like my opinion giving on things, I'm just getting at him, but he's helping me so much so, the other night he announced he would do bedtime and get her settled in her cot none of this fussing. So I left him to it. 1hr later when he came down with a still very wide awake little girl, I calmly asked how it was going..... Went through everything he had done with her, knowing full well what the issue was. Got to the end if the routine and asked if he had fed her, to which he looked at me and said of course not, he can't do that (in fairness I do bf) at which point I reminded him he what he said! (And there is a bottle of expressed in the fridge I use for mixing with foods) he has been a little less smug since.

Thank you ladies re DPs ex, I shouldn't expect any different, she has always been the same, I'm fine when it comes to things she doesn't want to do with them, but other wise I'm nothing to do with them and only care about myself/dd. Won't tell you what she said when dd was in hospital at 4 weeks, how I didn't slap her I'll never know.
Ho hum eh, today's a different day.

That's so annoying, pinkbear, and how scary Aloha, thank goodness all is ok.

Sleep is slowly getting back to normal after DD's virus - only one waking last night. Please let that be it for a while. We could cope with a runny nose, but as it was congested instead it affected her breathing, feeding and sleeping.

DD is definitely teething, but no sign of teeth yet.

I can't believe DD is 6 months. We have just started weaning. She doesn't seem particularly impressed so far and is only having a tiny amount. She definitely prefers her milk! We've been letting her have one 'taste' per day. She's had some food mashed up on a spoon, but has also been given her own spoon, and also a chunk/stick of the food to hold and bite on. As recommended in the weaning class, we've let her touch and experiment with everything - messy! So far she's had carrot, banana and pear. I think sucking on a chunk of banana has gone down the best so far, although I think she quite enjoyed the carrot. We're also giving water in a Tommee Tippee cup as recommended by the HV, she's not impressed with that either.

I thought I'd give up bf at 6 months - tbh I never thought I'd make it to this point with the abscess etc, but now it's here I'm going to continue till she's a year old (if I can). If I stopped we'd have to buy formula and start messing around with bottles; I didn't think of that when I had 6 months as my goal.

Thanks to those who recommended the Ikea high chair - it's great, and so easy to clean.

We decided on Wellkid vitamins. She hates them, they make her cry! But I've read that the other ones taste even worse.

Sorry for moaning last night but im just so bloody tired and fed up!!
#mrsbri# I can't really do that as much as I feel like it because little lady doesn't take a bottle or dummy and hasn't started solids so I think it would be unfair to her :'(

I just need to buck up my ideas and try to remember that this won't last forever x

Madamej: I share your pain. DS doesn't take a bottle either and still feeds every 2-3hrs by day. DH tries to free me up a bit at the weekend but it's barely worth it this now. And if I do get a window to myself then by the time I've started to relaxed, they're back and it's feeding time again.

You're right; it's not forever, but it is tough going sometimes!

It is really tough, DD feeds a lot during the day and when she's not feeding she's often asleep on me for hours at a time as that's the only way she'll nap during the day (I used to be able to transfer her, but not anymore). She won't take a dummy or bottle. Luckily (as we have no family around for support) my husband does what he can to let me have some time to myself; he takes her every evening so I can have a relaxing bath and does a lot of the housework after work so that I don't have to do it in the precious moments that I do get to myself. I thought it would end at 6 months when she started solids but it looks like I'm wrong...

Phew we've had an exciting couple of days. We had no electricity yesterday from 8.30am til 10pm at night. So we declared ourselves refugees and hung out at my sisters in the afternoon and then spent the night at my parents.

My little poppet though has decided that travel cots are far too exciting to sleep in. She's got this new thing she does where she lifts her feet high, high, high in the air before flinging them down. I think she enjoys the bounce it makes. So last night to try and let DH sleep I slept with Lil in a small single bed in the nursery that is usually used by my 3 year old nephew with Wallace and Gromit duvet cover.

Lily is still waking 2-3 times a night. At 2-4 months she was a little cracker who was regularly sleeping through. I never never thought it would get worse.

She is however loving weaning and eats loads. Porridge is a big favourite.

Sunny Violet does the same with her legs! Makes an awful noise! First time she did it scared the crap out of me.
Glad your all ok, although Wallace and gromit sound like a wonderful duvet set, complain it should be the snowman now, it's December ah to be small again

DD did the same thing every morning when she woke up for around a month but she stopped a few weeks ago (thank goodness!).

What a nightmare Sunny. We'd be stuck if we lost power for that long as we would have nowhere else to go.

I am half thinking about offering a dummy at night time but I'm arguing with myself as it may not help especially if it keeps coming out. Please advice me, I am too tired to think straight!!

Madame dd has a dummy, and thankfully once she's settled if it falls out she doesn't care! I know we may be lucky with that, but if it gives you some peace even for a little it might be worth it.

We also find music helps, her musical mobile has been a godsend. Did you ever have Ewan the dream sheep, I know lots have sworn by that too.

Thanks pink, she is a very sucky baby but obviously at the moment just uses the boob which is fine but I need to start getting some rest!

We brought Ewan but it seems to agitate her, I have attempted to get her to self settle but she is so noisy that she wakes dd1 and then I have 2 to deal with!

She might not even take it. We tried to give one out of desperation months ago but DD wouldn't have any of it. She used to take the odd bottle so my husband could help out at night (and I could express and not have to bf in public) but she refused that full stop after a couple of months too.

Ewan is magical in this household. If DD does stir and it sounds like she's going to wake instead of self-settling, turning this on usually sends her straight back to sleep. She even turns it on herself sometimes. It also keeps her occupied when she's awake as she spends ages trying to pull it into the crib with her (its attached so it stays at the top of the side panel).

That should have been 'it's' - auto correct makes me lazy and doesn't always work!

Dd is a sucky baby too, I find she'll still feed pretty much every two hours, but certainly the dummy offers comfort at other times. And she's quite good at taking it in and out now herself.

And I agree on the self settling noise levels, how can small things be so noisey?! The hand sucking gets me every time, it's the loudest sound ever.

I have never tried her with a bottle or a dummy, I never bothered with a bottle because I do 99% of her care so I felt that trying to express would just add more pressure. I think I need to try and encourage her to self settle as that's why she needs the boob so much as I am convinced no baby needs to feed 7 times in 12 hours after being fed at least every 2 hours in the day, my first dd was terrible until she was about 18 months and I'm starting to thing it's all down to me not encouraging them to sleep without the boob :-(