January 2014 - hoping for more sleep

[beccajoh]

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/postnatal_clubs/1952352-Jan-2014-And-lo-there-appeared-a-star-Our-babies-start-arriving

What's the deal with threads being closed? Is there a post limit?

I am soooooo tired today. Archie has been really unsettled the last few nights from about 4am onwards. Sometimes he's hungry, sometimes he wants to play, sometimes he wants his dummy. The last two nights he's ended up in with us as it's easier to replug the dummy, pat etc.
YAWN.

Today we went hiking, well, i went with church friends. Henry was in the Kari-Me and ds1 walked the whole way. Was about 3 hours all together, stopped for a picnic for an hour. But three hours walking, I'm very pleased with him.

altered 15 week old tiny bastard, crying all the time, not sleeping and windy is exactly what we've got too. Miserable isn't it. Been feeling a bit sorry for myself this afternoon with it all but I need to man up. Being miserable just seems to make things harder, especially with DH. Am sooo tired though. Any advice on trapped wind and getting them to sleep would be much appreciated! Wonder if it's a wonder week?

We've got BIL and his 2 kids visiting tomorrow. We just need to get through that and then we can relax for the last two days of the Easter weekend. It's been glorious weather here in Edinburgh, so hoping it lasts!

Found you all! Well, I need some advice. I am now suffering from mastitis for the third time in twelve weeks, (on flucloxacilin which makes me feel nauseous). So far I have been ebf with the exception recently of my dh giving a bottle of formula at about 11pm. Baby not brilliant at taking a bottle and refuses outright taking it from me. Gp has suggested I give up bf as the antibiotics are not great for either me or the baby and I agree, and also I have felt like death warmed up for the last 24 hours (shivery, aches, high spiking fever etc and a lot of breast pain). I had mastitis just once with ds1 and not at all with ds2 which makes me think there is a connection with this baby and me getting mastitis. The last two times are following car journeys when I have had to postpone a feed and I also wonder if this is a connection. But, what do I do? I would hate to give up but I would also definitely hate to get mastitis again. I am thinking of feeding from the good boob and expressing less and less from the bad one and giving formula, until I am just bf from the good boob and the mastitis boob is allowed to empty completely. I also find the let down seriously excruciating and whether I have mastitis or not, in the morning I am forced to sleep on my back as even turning onto my sides really hurts my boobs. I cannot cope with this level of pain for the foreseeable future. I am so down about this. Any advice would be most welcome.

mythree, you have my sympathy. I had mastitis twice by the time DS was 3mo. The second time it turned into an abscess and I had to have it drained under general anaesthetic. Then I gave up bfing. I really didn't want to, but at the same time it was a relief that DS and I weren't miserable any more.

It's a hard decision to make. But if it were me, I'd FF after 3 lots of mastitis. It's awful. You poor thing.

mythree that sounds horrible, sending lots of sympathy! I'm very pro breastfeeding, but I think in your situation I'd FF. You've done amazing to get this far! A friend of mine had a good boob and a bad one, she just fed from the good one.

Leah slept on me all night last night, were staying at MILs and it wasn't really safe to co sleep so I stayed up until 6ish when DH took her! Staying at my dad's tonight, brought the moses basket downstairs an hour ago and she's still asleep in it! Trying not to get hopeful!

How much are your babies sleeping at the moment? DS goes to bed (in crib joined to our bed) at 7.30 pm. I go up and change & bf him at 7pm. Then he may wake before we go to bed, so bf for 5 mins he's back asleep. Last night slept from 7,45 to 3.30 am. 15 min feed, woke again at 5.30 now feeding again.
During the day he only has about 3 x half hour cat naps. I know he needs more but he always wakes too soon!
Anyone else?

MrsG fingers crossed! Sounds like you could do with a catch up on sleep.

mythree poor you. I agree, you've done so well to battle through to now, whatever you decide going forwards, you and baby will be great. Hugs.

angel and altered bastarding passports. I need to apply for one, been putting it off...

altered Montpellier? How lovely, although annoying about the sling.

Yesterday my back finally gave out. Alex is now 14lb 8, and I've been struggling, as DH gets her to sleep with lots of walking and rocking; she now expects that as standard, or being held against my shoulder whilst I sing to her. Was in kitchen, rocking and walking, and my back just locked up. DH found us, me pressed against the door frame in order to stay upright, and had to carry me to sofa. Once the muscles have reverted to flat things (from a knotted ball of agony), how are we going to train her to go to sleep in a non-back-knackering way? I have tried e.g. cuddling, cuddling in rocking chair, patting, shushing. She looks at me like this ---> and goes rigid and arches her back, and howls.

Oh, and she is 13 weeks (and 2weeks late) and yy to the gassiness, fussiness, overtired screaming etc. Bloody awful.

mythree no experience to share but bloody well done on sticking with it so far... I think if I was on your position I'd be teaching for the Aptamil!

Mistletoe what you've described is pretty much exactly F's sleeping pattern. I really, really struggle to get him down in the day, and I guess he gets about ten hours overnight. Agree, it doesn't feel enough does it?

The passport finally arrived! So all okay in the end - but don't rely on the seven day service actually taking seven days. Still v annoyed at the 'help' line which was utterly useless...

Humpty how stressful... Hope your back gets better soon. In the meantime, can you use a swinging chair? Or jiggling her on your shoulder while you're sitting? Although that doesn't work with F, he knows if I'm trying to test my back and he screams blue murder tiny bastard

humpty that isn't good. I can't really give any advice. We put Henry down and leave him for 5 mins to grumble, go back in to give him his dummy, and usually he goes to sleep. Sometimes when he's overtired he screams, but if he's too overtired holding/rocking him just piss him off. So his room with a dummy and white noise and going in to replace the dummy every so often. There isn't much more we can do.

sleeping during the day, Henry usually naps after being up for 2 hours, for about 2 hours. That pattern pretty much continues during the day, he never has less than 30 mins in his nap. We are extraordinarily lucky though

humpty will she feed to sleep? Or, I replicate the motion of a baby swing by sitting on the sofa with my feet on the edge of the coffee table and Alex lying on my thighs (feet at my waist, head at my knees). I just move my knees from side to side until he's asleep.

Starting to panic about my solo 11hr flight with baby and toddler on Monday. Having actual anxiety dreams about it. A bit concerned about jet lag too. Alex currently sleeping ok. Was going through/having one night feed but last few nights has had two. I don't really mind as he settles back to sleep quickly after each one.

tarka i did an eleven hour flight with ds1 when he was 12 weeks. He slept the whole time

Thanks for all your support with giving up the bf. well, I think it is the right decision as I am now tender (not yet red and swollen) in the other boob despite being on strong antibiotics. How is it possible to get double mastitis??? I pray that I am not going to get the fever and shivers again. Not looking forward to the nine hour drive back to Scotland on Monday.

Thanks million. Have stupidly chosen a day flight but hopefully the warmth and background hum should guarantee some sleep. It's the toddler I'm more worried about!

We did a day flight too tarka it'll be fine.

Good luck for the flight tarka!

Sleep wise, we try and put Leah down at 9, as it was working a little better, might start trying earlier though. On a good night she'll sleep for 3 hours, wake for one, then sleep for 2. She often won't go back down again so DH will take her downstairs. On a bad night she spends less than half an hour at a time in the cot. During the day she naps after being awake for about an hour and a half, sleeping for anything from 30 minutes to 2 hours. I have to make her nap by putting her in the pram and pushing it up and down though. Sometimes it takes a while for her to nod off!

She's just woken up next to me in her cot. I'm ignoring her for now as she's not crying, I doubt she'll go back to sleep though!

How does everyone get their baby to sleep at night?

I feed to sleep mrs gsr.
No lights or eye contact or talking. Baby mistletoe can't self soothe ( believe me I've tried ) so boob it is. Awaiting a copy of no cry sleep solution from amazon. He point blank refuses a dummy.

I feed her and then give her the dummy, holding her until she falls asleep mrsg. Then after 5 mins or so I put her down asleep. This works at night only.
During the day she naps for 30 mins unless I'm holding her, she's in her car seat or I'm lying next to her and she's snuggled up to me. She often has 4-5 naps I. The day but they are all v short.
She's getting much better at night though.
In the day I try to get her to self sooth which she can in the morning but as the day progresses she gets more and more tired so cannot.

mythree you've done so well to get this far. I'd give up if I was I. That situation as it's more important to have a healthy mummy IMO. Hope the other side improved too.

Good luck with the flight, tarka. You're a braver woman than I am!

MrsG, we have a rough bedtime routine. Bath, dressed in our room, sing her a couple of songs, read a short story if she's up for it (although she's usually grumpy and tired by this point) and then feed with low lights and the white noise machine on. I can't usually put her down awake because I have to hold her upright for 10/15 mins because she has reflux. She normally falls asleep then. Transfer to crib, and there she'll stay until around 1am. She goes back to sleep after her feed til about 5/6am.

Mrsg we go upstairs around 7, feed, then I use my rocking chair for 5-10 mins. Used to use an app that had womb sounds and dummy but he gradually needed them less. When I put him down he sometimes wakes but fortunately he is quite good at settling himself at night. Similar to pidgy the above doesn't work in the daytime, he is napping on me as we speak! I am aware we are lucky with his night sleep though.

Xander is 11 weeks now and outgrowing his moses basket, unfortunately this means putting him in his own room as we were given a cot bed which won't fit in our room. I feel a bit uncomfortable about this but don't really have much choice. We have a monitor but still scary! How will you all manage the move to separate room?

Also he has not had a poop for 3 days now. He is mixed fed so I would have expected something. Doesn't seem to be causing him pain but when should I start to worry?

Happy easter everyone. I am going to stuff my face this week then I had vowed to start eating better and trying to exercise when he got to 12 weeks, which is next Saturday, sigh!

Thanks for the responses, we feed to sleep, usually every half hour! Going to try the Pantley pull off method this week, willing to try almost anything after an appalling night last night!

Henry has been in his own room for about a month. It was ok. We have the monitor, but i check on him before i go to bed and if i wake in the night. I actually slept better when he was in his own room, i think we woke each other up.

I think DS is teething
14 weeks, so young! All typical signs though; intermittent grouchiness, one red cheek, chewing his any my fingers, drooling.
Any tips to help settle him? Won't go to bed! Tried anbesol, calpol, lots of bf hope we're not in for a sleepless night!

Ds1 got his first tooth at 11 weeks. I didn't know that was young until someone mentioned it today!

Henry is majorly drooly and constantly chewing his hands. He doesn't seem to be in pain, so we just have loads of dribble bibs handy