Elderberries no 2 - all old and new berry babies welcome!

[HazleNutt]

New thread!

Alex I think it's only E and V who are old enough by due date to have gone past 45 weeks. M and L are hot on their heels though a few weeks later so they must be 43/44ish weeks about now? Sleeping here is still worse than normal but much better than it has been for the last few weeks. FX we are coming out the other side now.

L is 41 weeks and last night was worse than previous ones with 3 wakings. Having said that they were all quick feed and cuddle - and one of those was a nightmare I think. So still not as bad as it has been.
Re walking I think she will be an early one I'm afraid. Dh was walking at 10 months and all she wants to do is sand up. Plus she is already cruising a bit - better than she is crawling!

I almost daren't answer but Miles is 43, nearly 44 weeks on WW, and still sleeping through every night.

I've just jinxed myself, haven't I?!

Come on Miles, keep it going and give me hope for my hols

I have to say, L is definitely coming out the other side of quite a long rough patch sleep wise. She's not quite as good as M yet but I'm hopeful I think some if her problems were how many teeth she got in such a short time.

How many weeks is L now lilly? We've had two good nights with S of just one short wake up feed around 3ish, which is great despite the early starts!

Umm...umm...younger than M and V, older than E. I've totally lost track of how many weeks by now bad mummy!

Oops. Just nearly dropped the baby. Fell asleep with her on my chest, a little too upright and she decided to lie on her side. She's only 4 weeks. I think she's going to be turning over pretty soon.

Oops!

Having such a crap night here, S just won't sleep and have put the dummy in a million times. To be fair she slept well the first part of the night, it's just these last few hours. I'm really trying to only feed her once overnight (which she had at midnight) but hope she's not hungry. Weirdly my boobs seemed empty all day yesterday, not sure why or whether she was getting enough milk. Maybe I'll have to think about formula or weaning ASAP.

Thanks for all the advice folks. I think he realised he's been an arse. I suggested he did bath, bedtime etc with some formula last night & he did it. I hovered to supervise help but got told to go away! He's got J all day Fri as I've got to go to Birmingham to discuss some future work. He doesn't mind having him for things like that it's more the everyday stuff. The idea of swimming would be good quod except our baby swim class is Sunday when he has DSS. Oh & when DSS was a baby he worked long hours & away a lot.

Anyway we've booked a 6 night holiday to Majorca leaving on Sunday so hopefully that will help. Mind you not if this is the 4 month regression people talk about we're both going to be tired & grumpy. J woke up at 9ish & self settled, 11.30 & was fed, 3.30 & was fed & has not gone back to sleep yet but is feeding again. Aaa argh!

Any holiday with baby tips appreciated btw. I've taken him to relatives for 3 nights before on my own so I'm not too daunted by the packing but DP was getting in a right panic about pushchair & car seat. We Bought a new lightweight pushchair in JL on a total impulse the other day!

I think someone was asking about co-sleepers earlier in the thread. We have the NCT Bednest. Not cheap but last minute panic purchase when a CS was threatened & couldn't hire it over Xmas period. It has good eBay resale value & was brilliant when travelling in UK as works as a travel cot too. Even DP is impressed by it & I think it is has been a factor in J generally sleeping well as a newborn & being very good at self-settling most of the bloody time anyway.

Oh & morning alex I feel your pain!

Morning She's now banging the bars of her babybay like a xylophone and trying to sit up I caved in and fed her in the hope it would get her back to sleep so at least she isn't crying at the moment. Damn, just when I thought it was safe to move her into her nursery! Bloody WW says she's going into a blue period hate that stupid app!

Alex can I ask why you are only feeding S once a night? L still feeds once or twice -or more- and I feel she needs it. I know it's hard to tell if it's comfort or hunger but maybe guy could offer boob, see if she is actually feeding and then offer dummy if not!
Frog my little L has been abroad twice and fine both times. Check the airline luggage info. A decent airline will let them have own suitcase plus pushchair and car seat so you might just be ok.

Who's Guy? Do you mean quod's OH? Why would he be offering S the boob? (Sorry crap joke, blaming tiredness)

Anyway! What I was aiming for was just one feed a night to get her used to only eating in the day as already a couple of my NCT friends have babies sleeping through and I know lot have dropped to just the one dream feed for example. And it's been working for a week or so until last night as she's gone back to sleep with the dummy if she wake up again after the feed. I suppose my theory is that she won't associate night wake ups with needing boob?

Sorry for bad grammar, again blaming tiredness!

Alex an empty breast makes more milk rather than less (as you might think), and levels of Prolactin (hormone which helps build and regulate milk supply) levels are naturally higher at night, so night nursing helps to establish a strong milk supply for the duration of breastfeeding. The Importance of Breastfeeding at Night If you genuinely do think your supply is low then there is increasing low milk supply. Personally I am like Lol and still BF on demand at night, which is sometimes once, sometimes twice, rarely more but if she does want to nurse 5 times times overnight then she gets it.

Glad you've got it (hopefully) sorted Frog. Men can be such arses

Best night here for a good few weeks. E slept 7.45-6.45 with one wake up at 12.30. It might just be coincidence but yesterday day she napped 11.00-12.30 and then when I put her down for her second nap at 3.45 she only slept for less than 10 minutes and was up again happy as larry until bedtime so maybe a short second nap gave us a better night? Hmm, I wonder.

W's sleep seems to have regulated again (thank god) but she now has a new pattern of waking for a feed at midnight (just when I've dropped off) and about 4, then going through til about 7.30, even though previously she's been down to one feed a night or even all the way through. Like Lol I just feed her if she wakes up, I'm not expecting things to improve in a linear fashion I suppose, and to be honest it's less faff feeding her than trying to get her off to sleep any other way!

Hmm that's interesting, I wonder if I should just go with it. Maybe I'll keep doing what I did last night - feed for the first wake up, then try dummy for the second wake up but if she doesn't drift back off relatively quickly, feed her and try not to feel like it's a bad habit.

The nap routine we're loosely following has a nap at 9am followed by a midday nap so that doesn't involve an afternoon nap. I do wonder if it's that afternoon nap that makes the difference sometimes, especially if it made a difference to V and E's sleep.

Just tried to express (I also tried yesterday morning) - only 1.5ml which is really unusual for my boobs. So either S is drinking it all or my supply has changed! At this rate, my first night out with DH since S was born won't be happening on Saturday!

Alex if you haven't been expressing regularly you might find your boobs are not being pump compliant - mine are like that, if I've forgotten to pump for a while it takes a few days of trying before I get a good yield again. Maybe try a co

...a couple of times today, tmw and Sat?

I haven't expressed for a while actually. Will keep at it! I used to be able to pump while she fed from the other boob, was handy, but now she's too interested in what the pump is going! She's also not going down for her morning nap (she was going down like clockwork for that). So in summary, I thought I'd nailed it, but now it's all gone to shit over here!

On the subject of expressing I'm not sure what to do about my work thing tomorrow. I'll feed in the morning at least once & express right before I leave at about 9 but won't be back till 7pm at the earliest. Do I ask my old boss (who is going to be my new boss as it's a different company) if I can have a room to express in, do it in the train toilets, try & find a Mothercare or similar feeding room or just try & last the day? I know it will be v painful & potentially leaky to not express at all whilst out! Has anyone else had this?

I would probably ask for a room to express in just in case you are too full.
Well I've been bitten 3 times now. Once yesterday and twice today. I don't know what to do about it. It hurts like hell and all times I took her off and said 'no' quite firmly but I'm scared! Any advice?

Lol - L did that to me a few times when she first some top teeth, I was worried that was the end of BFing but just said no and stopped feeding her and touch wood she stopped doing it. Now she's got a whole row of top teeth she does catch me with them sometimes which is uncomfortable but nothing like as bad as the intentional biting so hoedully she'll get the message and stop? (Or maybe it was total chance and I was just lucky!)