Graduated Elderberries

[HazleNutt]

It's time to move to Post-Natal clubs.

cav I'd throw my toys all over, strop and feel sorry for myself for about 5 minutes then H would smile at me, my stoney heart would melt and I'd man up and get on with what basically equates to being awake for 40+ hours. Hope she sleeps for you tonight. Its my OHs one night a week of night duty tonight so fingers crossed I manage to catch up.on some sleep!

cav I'd throw my toys all over, strop and feel sorry for myself for about 5 minutes then H would smile at me, my stoney heart would melt and I'd man up and get on with what basically equates to being awake for 40+ hours. Hope she sleeps for you tonight. Its my OHs one night a week of night duty tonight so fingers crossed I manage to catch up.on some sleep!

V slept from 7 to 8 with feedings at 2 and 5, but otherwise not a sound.

Thanks for the swimming info all. I will look up some classes and try not to choke at the prices

My child is currently a little whinger who is apparently only happy to nap with a nipple actually touching her face. Yesterday she didn't really nap and was a crying grump all day, the day before that she slept like a log pretty much the whole day. I think it is a 'leap', and that the monumental discovery that she has got arms and legs is making her a bit frazzled, bless.

haha, quod that is quite a discovery.

B was a whingy whiny clingy child yesterday, was hard work. I think his teeth are on the move as he was chewing on anything he could get hold of, dribbling heaps and crying/whinging a fair bit, it was always the left side he was chewing on. Its sad to see them unhappy.

Good news Hazle, let's hope that going in his own room was the magic bullet V needed for a better nights sleep and means much better nights for you.

We had an improvement here on the previous night but still not great...
8pm - in bed asleep
10-midnight - wide awake
4.00 woke to feed
5.30 - briefly woke
6.45 - up for the day

While she was up 10-12 she seemed in some discomfort and was sick after I fed her (very unusual) so I am wondering if she is a bit under the weather. Seems fine during the day though.

I'm not talking about sleep as I don't want to jinx anything or annoy anyone! Suffice to say what I now class as a bad night was a good night a month ago. Fingers crossed that moving other babies to their own has the same effect. And that it lasts over here - heard whisper of a 9 month sleep regression the other day

FWIW M has never, ever "fitted in" with wonder weeks. He's supposed to be coming out of a fussy period, but has been unusually pretty good sleep wise, whereas other times he's supposed to be at an easier stage and been a fricking nightmare a bit difficult.

M seems to be reducing the amount of milk he's having - are other babies doing this? I'm still only giving him two bottles of formula a day but he's definitely breast feeding less often. I guess this is a blessing, as since weaning he likes to stop feeding/eating (whether food or milk) to make really loud kissing noises, which is a bit embarrassing to say the least.

yes V is definitely breastfeeding less. I still try to feed him whenever I can though, as of course he does not want to hear anything about formula. Won't even drink the sweetened ones.

Can you buy sweetened formula?!
Crap - am I buying it?!

I mean those cereal milks, they are really sweet, but he doesn't like those either.

Horrendous storm just knocked the power out, god it was so bloody dark! Thankfully they came back on after 2 or 3 minutes, was terrifying as H was in his chair and I couldnt remember how far away it was. Lights came on and the dog was sat right next to him so darn cute. Pooch is good with storms but this one was so loud it did make her and me a bit edgy, think the powercut was just too much. She's been glued to me since the power came back on. I've lit a fire just incase it goes out again, bloody hate powercuts.

E is still BFing with the same frequency but I think she is taking less milk at those feedings as I have noticed my boobs feeling fuller on occasions.

Night number 3 of atrocious lack of sleeping last night - she was awake for nearly 4 hours 12-4 and also woke up a few other times. FFS she can't even manage 4 hours awake during the day!

I just don't understand what's happened in the last 3 nights? We're not doing anything differently so it must be developmental but she's not learning anything noticeably new at the moment. She has never liked going to sleep ever since birth. Even as a newborn you could see the tired feeling starting to hit her and she would get upset because she didn't like it, but as she's got older she has got much better at going to sleep when she's tired so long as we put her to bed at the right times, but for the last 3 nights she has fought it with everything she has in the tank. She will still go to sleep ok when she's tired but then wakes herself up at the first opportunity and nothing we can do will get her back to sleep until she is so exhausted she can no longer fight the tiredness. Fucking hell, DH and I are absolutely fried and it's only been 3 nights! If this is a growth spurt/leap/regression it could go on for weeks!

Apologies for the moaning everyone. I genuinely hope all your babies are sleeping peacefully for you.

Moan away. I've read that they tend to have restless nights just before they start doing something new, so maybe there are some new skills she will show in the next few days?
In other news, V is definitely dropping feeds and I think I have a blocked duct now due to that

Sleep isn't going so well here either, not as bad as a lot of you so I can't complain but certainly the worst she had been in a while. She's also taken to screaming from about 8-10pm, I think that must be more teeth related. All in all I feel pretty knackered. She's constantly pulling herself up now as well so between chasing after her crawling off and licking dog toys and watching like a hawk that she doesn't fall over and bang her head (which she's doing quite a lot) I need a break!

Well I think I'm getting used to shit nights and suddenly waking up 6 times for a quick cuddle seems like a good one to me.
Question: L seems to have completely lost interest in food over the last 3 days. Even porridge which she loves she is now refusing. All she wants is boob. Should I be worried?

lol no I don't think there's anything to worry about, seems to be a very common problem. One reason could be teeth - on some days, V only agrees to use the really soft silicone spoons. or she could be tired of purees and wants to feed herself - have you tried finger-foods?

No idea if it's related to current shitty sleeping, but E is also not eating many solids at the moment either. A few mouthfuls and she's done. I wondered if she has sore gums but no sign of any teeth so far.

She wasn't particularly happy about going to bed so I think we're in for another bad night.

hazle sorry to hear about the blocked duct. I'm probably going to be facing that soon as I wean DD onto formula full time before starting work.
Teething is on full swing here and we are up like clockwork every night and cluster feed after that for a few hours (that's the only way she'll get to sleep!)
Has anyone hit gold with a decent underwired nursing bra? My Anita one is a bit hopeless- only a suggestion of support, despite the underwire.

zombies, nursing bras are overpriced and useless (and don't come in my size). What I've done is to get normal bras, like Freya and Fantasie ones, and converted them myself - it's really easy to do. Loads more choice.

I have tried finger foods with not much success either - apart from a piece of naan bread in the curry house tonight
I think I will try more tomorrow. Maybe toast.
A friend of mine recommended sneaking porridge into her evening bottle of expressed. I did that tonight and she didn't notice the difference in taste. I will report tomorrow whether that made any difference in her shitty sleeping.

Sorry about the rough nights I can say this without being smug because you all know I've had tough nights and will no doubt have them again soon, but S just slept for nearly five hours again which is great by crappy standards She got a new sleeping bag from the white company as a gift and is so snuggly in it.

However self settling just isn't happening! Put her down awake last two nights and she just won't sleep without boob or dummy (if she's in the mood for dummy). Honestly can't see her ever settling without them! I'm also reading the dreaded gina ford's sleeping routine and googling routines, as I'm still wondering if I should be trying to lay more groundwork now for later or whether that actually makes any real difference. A friend said to me that with her DS1 she followed gina ford roughly and they had a good routine from early on, with DS2 he has tummy probs/reflux and it's just a different kettle of fish and they couldn't establish a routine due to crying sessions some nights etc. So I don't know whether it's pointless trying to set good patterns now when she varies so much with good/bad nights and also still not sure if trying for an earlier bedtime would mean I'm not sleeping during her first best run of sleep?!

On bras, I really like my h&m nursing bras (didn't want to spend much on a nursing bra) - it's great for me while my boobs are shooting up and down in size daily but then I'm only a B/C cup so I just need comfy really.

Alex I personally think it's down to the individual baby's personality and temperament whether they will 'self settle' or not. I have worried about this in the past but have since done plenty of reading up on it (by non-biased authors without any books/advice to sell) and it's perfectly normal for a baby to want some assistance and comfort from their primary carer to help them get to sleep and they will just grow out of it as they get older. If you think a routine will work for you then no harm in giving it a try but I really wouldn't worry if S can't get herself to sleep. She is just a perfectly normal baby and they are all different. I have linked to these before but I think it's a great blog and very true Self-Soothing. and [[
uncommonjohn.wordpress.com/2013/02/14/the-real-self-soothing-its-not-what-sleep-experts-think-it-is/ The Real Self Soothing Part 1.]] And Part 2. I really recommend you have a read to give some balance to what the sleep 'experts' are stating as facts without any evidence to back it up.

E woke crying every 45 minutes from 10pm onwards last night.

I went to bed at 9.30 in anticipation of another bad night so had managed a total of about 15 minutes sleep when she woke for the first time and then couldn't get back to sleep in between wakings. We had already agreed before bed that DH would do a shift for a few hours 2-5am if I hadn't managed any sleep before then so I could get some rest, but she just wouldn't settle for him (no problem usually) and I obviously couldn't sleep through the crying, so at 3.30 DH went to sleep in the spare room and I lay E on the bed next to me in the hope that she would settle better there. She still woke crying 3 or 4 further times but it was only for a few seconds as I could settle her straight back off being right next to her rather than trekking across the landing to her bedroom. In the end I think I managed about 4 hours broken sleep after being in bed for 10.5 hours.

She is also off her solids, lots of ear pulling, very moany/fussy but frustratingly no sign of a tooth yet. I gave her some Nurofen at midnight in the hope that it was teething pain and she would settle off for a few hours but it didn't seem to make any difference so maybe it's not teething? Hell knows what else it is though, she has always been a crap sleeper but this is taking the

Oh cav, poor you. There must be something bothering her by the sound of this. Could still be teeth, or stomach problems? You didn't offer any new foods before she got fussy?

Every 45 mins! Really feel for you and more selfishly it's given me the fear about us getting to that age! Thanks for those links, I'll read them today. How does E sleep during the day? The dreaded gina ford has a table of max sleep drunk the day and S is only meant to be getting 3.5 hours sleep during the day so she can sleep well at night apparently. However that's a lot of entertaining her in between isn't it?!? Especially with S as she likes to be alert and busy/stimulated if she is awake.

On the plus side I've got a free day today so I'm trying to do a very rough sleep routine today and I thought I'd try her in her sleepyhead bed instead of on me for a midday nap as usually she only sleeps on me or in the pram during the day. Anyway she fell asleep with the help of her dummy and is asleep and not on me woop!