Martians 2014 (and the February early arrivals)

[LyraSilvertongue]

I expect it will be quiet in here for a while with only four Martians born so far and it not even being March yet

Those who have popped so far:
Coolhand
Dabarai
LyraSilvertongue
Wuxiapian

[Imeg]

Just need a little moan! Baby was 3 months yesterday and for the first time I actually went out in the evening - only round the corner for two hours. Put him to bed before I went and usually his first stretch of sleep is the longest, but I came back to a screaming baby and husband at the end of his tether, despite the fact that he (husband not baby) has been sleeping in the spare room since the baby was born and so has barely had any disrupted sleep, whereas I have done every single night by myself for 3 months... You'd think he'd been kept up all night instead of dealing with a bit of crying for 40 minutes at 9pm! Grrr. Anyway, moan over...

[FrankelandFilly]

Oh Imeg that's not fair of your DH, hope you talked battered some sense into him.

DD was 3 months yesterday and I had her weighed today - 14lb 3oz She's starting to try and roll too - she can get up onto her side but not quite all the way over yet.

[commsgirl]

Imeg DP was like that the first time I went out. He's fine now he's used to it. I hope it made your DH appreciate what it's like!

Frank what a fab weight! Sounds like she's doing brilliantly. I've not seen any rolling attempts from C but there's been a couple of mornings when she's on her side so she must be doing something!

[Alixion]

How's everyone getting on??

It's been a bit all over the place here - sleeping and feeding had regressed into chaos but is settling down now and we're thinking about Making Decisions.... Introducing a regular bottle (DS is ebf), talking about moving him to his own room, thinking about whether he needs feeding at every night waking or if we can substitute with a cuddle instead....

It's so easy to pootle along with things as they are but DS is 4 mo and at 6mo he will be in full time childcare. I feel that introducing some better habits slowly and without the pressure of a deadline is something we should be focussing on.

[FrankelandFilly]

We're doing ok here. DD slept till 6am yesterday and 6.30 this morning, though I kept waking expecting to have to get up to settle her so am pretty tired still . I've had a few tough days missing DH and finding the sheer weight of having to do absolutely everything hard going, but the majority of the time I'm coping well.

[Imeg]

We had a week of rubbish sleep but he's been much better the last 10 days or so - may be a coincidence but it's since I started aiming to feed him every 2 hours during the day rather than waiting until he asked (usually only around every 4 hours - think life is too exciting and he gets distracted). And he was in his crib for 10 hours last night! (first time he's gone that long!). He sounded like he was stirring a couple of hours in so I turned on his white noise and he went back to sleep. Then I heard him pooing and was sure he would wake up but he didn't. Still v v sicky but he put on 1lb 9oz in 2 wks and is looking really chubby so I've more or less given up worrying about it.
He has had bottles from time to time but has been very reluctant the last few times I've tried so I'm also planning to work on persuading him to take bottles regularly.

[Vikkijayne2507]

when we hit 11 weeks lo turned into a different child he smiled all the time interested in everything and responds with very excited gurgles at me. He's 3 months on 24th 13 weeks Monday. He hasn't been going to bed until 1am but last night he went and woke up at 5.30 for feed he was stirring with wind after and I brought him in with me from 7-9am. he has slept tons today. There is a growth spurt at 12 weeks no? He's eating lots and sleeping lots. We're about to start a bedtime routine now he's 3 months so hopefully he'll click eventually

[FrankelandFilly]

Yes the 12 week growth spurt is a pretty big one and eating lots plus sleeping more than usual is standard.

DD will be 15 weeks on Monday so I'm nervously awaiting the 4 month sleep regression!

[mrsmugoo]

Hi everyone. Little Edward is 14 weeks and 14lb. We are still EBF. Haven't tried him on a bottle for age because expressing is such a PITA but hasn't ever taken one so I've given up in favour of skipping straight to a sippy cup in a few weeks.

His night time sleeping is much better. Still co-sleeping it as he can now roll front to back, back to front is not that far away his days in our bed are numbered and he will have to go in his cot.

Sleep is still very much anchored to breastfeeding although at night he now goes down straight away after his feed drowsy and just drops off himself.

He's done one stretch of 8 hours which hasn't since been repeated but it's nice to know he has it in him! A typical night of late would be to sleep 8-12:30 12:30-3:30 3:30-5:45 but the last two mornings have been closer to 5am which I'm not loving.

For day time naps he's much harder to settle. He is getting too big to hold across my arms and so rocking is pretty much off the cards now. He feeds to sleep and I have been letting him sleep on me as if I move a muscle he wakes up. He's now getting bigger and it's uncomfortable for us both, not to mention this heat so I've been trying my hardest to put him down and get him to settle either in bed or in the bouncer. The bouncer has had more success as it's not a flat position and I can gently bounce him the last bit off to sleep. I'm finding it quite hard to fit 4-5 catnaps in around trying to lead a life outside the house! He can only manage 1.5-2 hours awake and then only manages a 40 minute sleep so sometimes I am trying to get him to nap every 2 hours. I'm desperate for him to be able to put himself to sleep without being boobed drowsy every time.

All in all though, he's amazing and I'm already broody for number 2 - I must be insane.

[Vikkijayne2507]

very quiet on here how's everyone. is there a March Facebook group

[Imeg]

We're doing well - we've both had a cold but he hasn't seemed to bothered by his, just covered me with snot, no trouble feeding etc. But he did choose the two nights when I was feeling quite rubbish to have poor nights. In general though he typically sleeps around 9-3 then 4-6.30 ish so I usually only feed him once in the night. Quite often he wakes me up another time snuffling and moving around but he goes back to sleep.
He's still very sicky but his last weight was very good and he never seems uncomfortable so I've given up worrying about it! I've taken him to work for two Keeping in Touch days.

[mrsmugoo]

I've inadvertently embarked on sleep training as co-sleeping was getting difficult due to his size and the heat (we only have a standard double and he was taking up a good third)

Lifting him into his cot asleep is nigh on impossible so he is having to learn to be settled whilst in the cot. We're only on night 2 and I didn't think nights could get anymore difficult. I was wrong.

We're also going through 4 month sleep regression - gone from 2 feeds a night to up every 2 hours.

[pixiebell79]

@mrsmugoo, also going through sleep regression with 2-hourly feeds - was starting to think it was just me! Mind you I swear he's also got some movement in his gums that isn't helping. He used to have a beautiful sleeping pattern, I'm just praying it comes back (and soon!). He's getting nearly impossible to cope with like this as he's almost permanently overtired...

[mrsmugoo]

He properly self soothed for the first time in his life (without any intervention from me) twice last night, once at bedtime and once after first feed. Second feed he didn't quite manage it so I rocked him and put him down asleep and he settled himself the last little bit but he was exhausted as he'd been trying his hardest in the cot for an hour.

I'm utterly frazzled this morning but it's such a major breakthrough I'm actually pretty buzzing!

[pixiebell79]

Oh well done!! You must be so pleased :) major breakthrough!

[Imeg]

Wow! You must be really pleased. I'm dreading the move into the cot as I currently put him in his crib asleep but I won't be able to do this in the cot. Fingers crossed he'll get the hang of it too... I think I might need to try the dummy again although he wasn't overly impressed last time I tried it!

[mrsmugoo]

That was the exact reason why I've had to force the issue Imeg. Co-sleeping was becoming too annoying - his lordship lays starfished accross half the bed leaving DH and I spooning in the other half sweating our tits off!

[mrsmugoo]

Wow there's a March 2015 antenatal thread now!

[Imeg]

I suppose that makes sense - I just went to a first birthday party and I remember that the child was born about the same time I found I was pregnant.

Last night I fed him to sleep as usual but woke up when I put him in the crib - this is happening more often now as he's bigger and heavier so it's harder to put him down gently. I tried the dummy and it took about 15 minutes but he did go to sleep and stayed asleep for his normal length of time so I was pleased with that. He did seem to need to cuddle my arm as well which will be tricky in the cot but we can work on that!

[mrsmugoo]

Imeg that was what promoted me to call time on the putting down asleep - he's just too big and heavy for it!

Touch wood, he really seems to have taken to the self soothing with gusto now. I just put him down for a nap and it took about 3 minutes of grizzling before the fingers went in and off he dropped. It's the sweetest thing to watch! I really thought I'd never get there with him so for it just to have "happened" is amazing. I'm chuffed.

[Imeg]

Just needed to share that after a lot of worrying about weight at the beginning baby has gone from 10lb 5 to 13lb 14 in 5 weeks! He's gone from the 0.4th centile to just under the 25th.... No wonder my back is complaining!
We've had a few days out on the train recently which has made persevering with breastfeeding worthwhile as it's been so convenient not having to worry about carrying bottles around.

[Vikkijayne2507]

im starting to have trouble getting him down asleep now. But usually if he's tired enough he eventually falls asleep. Our issue is going to bed early. He naps ok in the day and will go down at 8.30pm but wakes within the hour. He then doesn't go to sleep until 12.30 1am. He's happy wants to play and generally eat a lot. He's had a few 12.30 - 6am 7 but some nights its still 3am 6am. We've had a few screaming sessions at 6am with wind and hunger followed by a big poo I can't wait for his guts to mature fully

[Imeg]

Oh yes the 5-6am poo! We have that - I'm sure he wouldn't wake for food at that time as he's usually fed at 2-3am but he wakes himself up pooing...

[FrankelandFilly]

Lost you all for a while, hope everyone is doing ok. We've just come out the other side of the 4 month sleep regression, at least I hope we have!

Has anyone got teeth yet? A few of the babies from my post-natal group have started getting them through so I guess that's the next bit of fun to look forward too!

[Alixion]

Hello!! Hope everyone's doing ok? I also got a bit caught up in the every day routine.

Sounds like some of you are doing well with sleep patterns. Its lovely to get a few reliable hours even if everything else is hit and miss. We have introduced a dream feed and its working quite well. DS will go through from df to around 5am most of the time :)

We also had sleep regression from around 3.5 months for about a month due to rolling, immunisations, growth spurt and teething! DS has half one front tooth and one next to it is just coming through! It makes him grouchy and a bit shouty :)

We've almost moved entirely to ff from ebf by dropping one feed a week - its so different for me but don't think DS has really noticed. I offer boob in the night if he is fretful but he's not really interested in much more than a comforting few nibbles... Just as well with those nashers!!!

We're trying to make the most of the long sunny days - I have a vague countdown of about 6 weeks until I'm back to work so no more pajama days for us. Is anyone else planning their return to work?