December 2013 - sleepless nights & lots of cooing

[Stom91]

Our very first Thread :)

Amelia is 4 weeks old & has the start of a cold. I feel so helpless :(. And she will only sleep on me or on her bouncer :(. Poor thing.

crispy so do they learn to self soothe themselves?? And you know what? My DD always sucks her fist now even after a feed so I wasn't sure if still hungry or what!! She does not like dummies. Is she sucking for comfort/soothing reasons then?
I keep looking at her thinking wow I made that nose, I made that eye, that finger, and so on. We had the most gorgeous nap this morning together, she really curled up into me. She makes me feel so special to have someone as wonderful as her, love and need me :) soppyness is spreading!

My DD can lift her head a bit too, she also now really loves her orange Lamaze cat, he could keep her busy for ages!

I really should post in one go but I forget what I want to say!! Baby brain!!??!!! Anyway, I want a wrap I think, someone mentioned moby wrap, are they easy to put on? I tried a baba sling but didn't get on with sling type? Also tried a caboo but too complicated!!

The caboo close dx is quite an easy one Hot it's like a hybrid between a material wrap and the harness ones. Once you put it on and adjusted it to fit you don't need to fiddle with it again until baby grows a bit.

Stom sorry your LO has a cold! Your Amelia must be one of the younger ones on the thread! Thomas is nearly 8 weeks.

Hotmad, I think they do learn to self sooth but I'm no expert. Let's hope one of the yummy mummies with other kids can let us know. But Thomas is the same - hates the dummies (gets proper angry if you try & sneak one in his mouth) but seems to like sucking on his fist a bit.

I haven't been doing much tummy time but am going to try & remember to do a bit more.

Oh yeah, re; baby carriers. I have an Ergo & a moby wrap. I think the wrap is fairly easy to put on but there must be a knack that I haven't really figured out yet as sometimes once I get T in he seems a bit to the left or a bit high or something. But I'm sure the more I use it I'll get better. I think some people put the moby on & leave it on - then you can take baby in & out without having to mess around but I haven't been doing that.

The ergo is a more structured one which I think will be better when he gets bigger & heavier. I've not heard of the one mogz was talking about but might be a good compromise rather than having both like I do.

I have a Moby wrap too- bought it after borrowing one for ds1 and 2- like crispy I do find sometimes baby is too high or it's too loose but it's not too difficult to adjust and he feels secure in it so it's been a godsend to enable me to do stuff when he's clingy/fractious. We also have a baby Bjorn but will only be for DH to use as I have a bad back so wouldn't use a sling to walk around outside really - it'd kill me after half an hour of walking.

Ah yummy mummy- I wish! But I can tell you that my ds2 learnt to self soothe at 10 weeks - he found his two fingers and still sucks them (and holds his blankie) now. Can't remember with ds1 but he had a dummy till he was 2 (only at night) LO is also sucking his fist a lot- it sucks (pardon the pun!) that we have to wait till they're 8-10 weeks before they can self soothe! Why does nature work like that?

crispy yeah she was due 21/12 but didbf arrive until 02/01!! 12 days late the lil monkey lol
Got some nasal spray that's helped abit. Just feel so helped she wakes up everytime I put her in her basket due to being so bunged up so think she'll be sleeping on me tonight.

Poor little girl, hope she shifts the lurgy soon Stom. A warm bath in a steamy bathroom might help relieve her congestion a bit, stick the heating on full and run the shower or hot tap for five minutes to get the room nice and humid before you run the bath.

hot the best book for routine depends on what sort of person you are really. I know some people hate Gina Ford but we followed her routine for both my DS's and it worked great- they were contented babies and slept through from 8-10 weeks and have slept well since. I've had a few friends dismiss her from the start only to go back to trying her routines at 4,5 or 8 months when they've had problems with their LO sleeping. However if you're not really a fan of routines but want to gently get your baby to some sort of sleep pattern then I have also heard from a few friends that the bay whisperer is good. I've only got the free book that came with a magazine with tips in it- but I think it's based around getting a pattern of feeding then some awake time (activity) then sleep to help baby to stay awake more during the day and sleep better at night.

'Baby' not bay!

stom hope she shifts the cold soon two I my family have colds so I'm dreading Joshua getting it- it's just so much tougher on them when they're so small! Have you tried those vaporiser thingys you can plug into the wall to clear congestion? I've never tried them but I remember a friend saying they were good. Or olbas oil for children on a tissue near her head when she sleeps.

stom hope lo feels better soon, Lleyton is exactly the same and he has the cough if a grown man, it's so loud I've heard nowt like it lol.
We have a little mini cot that he's still too small for so we put his Moses basket in that when he goes to sleep and we've been putting a rolled up blanket under the top of the Moses basket to prop it up and it's helping as he's not laid flat.
He slept on me for a good few hours before I put him to bed but he did sleep every 4/5 hour stretches after that.

Ok thanks mum I might look at baby whisperer as it's 6 quid on the kindle I think. I think my main worry is settling on her own but you guys say she will learn that soon so I'm ok with that :)

I've read the baby whisperer and am kind of following it, I like the routine eat play sleep and it has some good stuff about interpreting cries etc. But some of it is a bit vague rather than practical and it also it is very clear about putting them to sleep in their own room from the start but no mention of SIDS advice which is a bit annoying.

So Ds now seems to be in a pattern of feeding 7, 12, 3.30, 7 at night which is great but he takes forever to settle after feeds and from about 5 is up and down all the time. Any advice on getting him to sleep longer? I think maybe I need to start writing down his naps and see if they make a difference to his nighttime

Oh dear...we are currently waiting in our local hospital waiting to see out of hours GP for my little bubs. She been so sicky and sleepy and hasn't eaten well over last 24 hrs and now I'm worried.... First trip to the hospital for us, my friend said first of many. I hope not

It's not a bad cold but she has a sore throat I think from her cry it's sounds different and she's congested. I've got one of those nasal sprays and that's helping.
She just fussed and it's been 3 and Hal hours since her last bottle so did her or she had half an ounce and is now zonked lol.
Bit pissed off with dp. I bought the nasal spray which is just water really and some infacol as she's had real trouble being in up her wind (regardless why dp thinks!)
And he said this mornin 'you should ask me I don't want her to be one of those that's on medication at the first sign of anything ' I said so you want her to be uncomfortable and poorly.
Then he was like I don't think she's that ill and I think she's being up wind fine. Urgh.
That's cos 1. He's not with her every day on evenings/weekend and 2. He only winds her for 30 seconds if he doesn't get a burp he still the bottle in her mouth.
Thursday night she had a full bottles but he only winded her once after she was so fussy (cos she had wind!!) I said she needs winding and he was like no she's still hungry so he made another bottle and she didn't touch it!!
So I don't my best to wind her but it wasn't coming up.
The infacol is amazing.
He said this morning to her 'wow lots of burps' I said that's the infacol helping her.

Probs makes no sense it just wound me up. The nasal spread is just water and it's hel

Oh hotmad fingers crossed you get seen swiftly - how old is your DD? Mine was very sleepy over the last 10days but has really woken up a bit during the last few - I think they get sleepier sometimes in growth spurts as the growing is done while they sleep! Hope all is OK.

hotcross my DD has exactly the same sleep pattern in the night! I know it's good at 6wks just to have just 2 wake ups, but I am really looking forward to her ditching at least one of those middle of the night feeds! DD1 slept through from 7pm until 7am at 10 weeks and I am stupidly holding on to that as a target, which is bound to be setting myself up for disappointment!

Luckily she does settle back into her moses pretty well after her night feeds - we are still swaddling her at night - not as tightly as we did for DD1, so her arms still do break free quite a lot of the time, but I think swaddling does help - have you tried that?

I am also not really keeping track of daytime sleeping, but I am noticing that she's awake a bit more now, which I feel is progress, again because we are sort of loosely following the baby whisperer "EASY" thing. She really tends to zonk out after her daytime bottles, then wake up for a while, then zonk back. She does that after all feeds from 7am apart from her 4pm one when she stays awake until bedtime, but she's not really happily awake then, in fact she just gets super grizzly after her 4pm feed until we put her in the bath at around 6.30, so I don't know if that's any use to you!

She is 9 weeks on Monday. It's so unlike her to be this way, could be nothing, I think she may have reflux

Urgh. Sorry.
It's helping her breathe. As the infacol is obviously working as before she's be uncomfortable from the trapped wind.

I can't say anything come he gets shitty and starts sayin oh I'm a crap dad then. Etc.

Just wish he would do this properly. Like just wind her properly he pats twice rubs twice repeats and that's it shoves the bottles in when it's clear she needs a burp.

Sorry massive post!

Hotmad I hope you're getting seen now and that it turns out to be nothing. It's always best to be safe than sorry though.
I think you're right Stom when they're tiny they need that little bit of help from some meds as they can get stuffed up so quickly. I can see your DH's point of view, I don't want to become someone who runs straight to the medicine cabinet but infacol is a godsend and that nasal spray doesn't count, it's just a saline solution!

Still waiting zzzzZZzzz
Looking on amazon and there are a few baby whisperer books, does anyone know the author of the one your all talking about?

Yeah I don't want to run to the medicine cabinet either but she's so bunged up she just needed something to clear it abit as she can't blow her nose like we can.
And she was so uncomfortable from not getting her wind up. Since the infacol she's been a lot more comfortable.

Atm she can't breathe on her back so she's sleeping in her bouncy chair

Ok so finally seen by paediatric dr. She does have reflux but as she not losing weight there is no meds just advice on all I knew anyway plus could try aptamil anti reflux. Feel like it's all my fault as I should of persevered with bf, the problems I had there was probably the reflux looking with hindsight