July 2014 - sleepless nights but lots of smiles

[NancyinCali]

The old thread is nearly full so here's a new place for us to chat about our July babies. Help yourself to some tea & cake to keep you going through the sleepless nights .

Thanks, everyone. Had a somewhat better night last night. Got up to her 4 times after we went to bed but only two of those times were for feeding. Managed 4 hour and 3 1/2 hour gaps.

I have been feeding DD2 on demand but will stop that because I think it's adding to the issue. If she can go longer between feeds during the day then hopefully that will carry over to nights.

She's too big for her crib now and the cot doesn't fit in our room. I had been cosleeping but that doesn't work anymore as the quality of sleep isn't good enough. So she has to be out of our room.

Re food: discovered yesterday that she might refuse purees because I made them too thick so I'll try again with those. Could make up some with meat soon.

DH is going to take some mornings off work over the next few weeks so that will help too.

I really appreciate your suggestions and support.

Kiwi re purees, Ellas Kitchen does purees for little ones to try, if you didn't know. I hate doing something specifically for bean and it doesn't work, so those have been great for us.

Bean is now teething but relatively cheerful with it, so that's good. However, she is REALLY off her milk. 660ml yesterday instead of 880 all last week. Her sleep is suffering, as is her 'output'. Is this likely to continue the entire time she's teething?

ismarah

less feeding for about a week when teething (as in cutting teeth) is normal.
mine would go off food, have mild temperature/fever, terribly acidic poo, raw bleeding bottom for days, then magic tooth would appear and magic happy hungry baby would reappear!

that just reminded me that I have all of that coming. again. oh dear

I second Ella's pouches. yummy.
if baby doesn't finish it off lucky you!

Zing I wish - I have to treat baby's food as if it was raw meats as I am allergic to half the ingredients! It all smells lovely though.

Yes to pouches making life easy especially for days when tired and baby isn't playing ball! A friend told me how her dd went through a phase of refusing to eat food and throwing it on the floor. She stopped making an effort to make nice meals, bought jars so she didn't care if it went on the floor. Made a lot of sense.

Ds just keeps dropping milk feeds could be teeth couls be eating more solids as seems to be the case here! Often hungry but not interested in milk. also tired but not interested in sleep but nevermind.

Other than long walk this morning have had to carry ds all day he is miserable and crying all the time I'm fed up and on countdown for dh to be home...

Oh and ellas kitchen is just fruit/veg and water ismarah no funny ingredients - in the ones I've bought anyway!

I really can't justify the cost of the Ella's Kitchen pouches, especially when I can get a butternut for £1.30 and make a meal for us plus 12 helpings of baby food with it.

I like to make up a pile of things at once and have 30 little freezer pots for this.

Today I gave her a thin puree and she ate all of that so I think we've cracked it.

ickle Hope your little one is happier now. Have a restful evening.

Ickle - and I am weird and am allergic to fruit and nuts.

Who cares though - bean likes at least two types of the purees so DH does the taste test and I just shovel feed the baby.

Ohh fair enough sorry ismarah

kiwi I've only bought when on offer for 50-90p max! Useful for out and about. Roasted a butternut squash last night and ds loved it!

Luckily ds us good at sleeping in the eve. He was up a lot at night as awful cough going to dr today as really chesty and got worse over the week rather than better. He has started screaming whenever I leave the room- separation anxiety starting I guess? Sorted settling dates with childminder yesterday but think I need to do more couple of hours/mornings as only got 2 before full days when I want to be at work. She is so lovely though so hopefully will be fine!

Ds has croup again and is so horrible to hear. Think this is why he is so miserable and added to us both having not slept means I'm fed up. Wish could go for a walk but its heavily snowing right now so staying in. ...

Snow That sounds awful. Is your boiler maintained by your energy supplier? If so, they might prioritise you as you have small children in the house.

Is your DS1 using a potty? I kept ours in the living room while DD1 learnt to use it, and put her on it every half hour at first, as well as watching for cues. That might mean you could watch both at once?

Hope you and ickle get healthy wee ones again asap.

Urgh thought yesterday afternoon was tough today has been horrible non stop coughing /crying /more coughing /more crying since he woke from nap at 12.30 went for a long walk once it stopped snowing got him to sleep but he kept straining /grunting and woke up as soon as we got home. Lying down next to him every time I get him calm he coughs and crying starts again. Dh not due home till long past bed time. I'm totally fed up and just wish I could do something, anything!

Glad your boiler's fixed, Snow.

I used Snufflebabes vapour rub for DD when she had bronchiolitis and it seemed to help her. I also put Vicks on a tissue under her cot sheet by her head.

So thanks to whoever said that when ds started sleeping longer when I put blanket over him was coincidence was correct. Last few nights been a nightmare. last night was the first night in a long time we didn't end up cosleeping! Sun night ds was wide awake at midnight and I was really serious about getting him back to sleep in his cot - been trying to do this for all naps too. after 30mins dh came in and said why don't you just cosleep. I clearly then gave up because I was shattered! Anyway fingers crossed keeps getting better...

So how much are your babies eating? Should I just keep going until he stops or is the stomach the size of his fist a better rule? He keeps going for ages and easily having 3 meals + snacks if out and about!

Blimey ickle you're doing better than me with feeding your ds! We're not quite up to 3 meals a day yet but he'll pretty much have some of what we're having within reason but in the evening he's too tired to eat much. This morning we've had porridge banana and kiwi and we'll have baked potato and cheese for lunch later. But sometimes depending on naps and stuff he'll only have 1 or 2 meals. As for quantity because I'm not mashing a lot of it then it takes longer for him to eat and he gets tired/bored. So he's had about half a kiwi 1/8 banana and a couple of tablespoons of baby porridge which is the only baby food I'm giving him. (He cried when I tried to feed him baby food!)

ickle just a thought but could ds be awake because he's getting used to digesting food? ds seems to have brought forward his night feed from 2 am to 11:30 pm but still goes back to sleep after til about 5 am and I'm wondering if that's something to do with him being hungrier or his eating. HV said he shouldn't need a night feed but you try telling him that as he tries to eat anything in reach when he wakes at that time so I'm ignoring her for now!

after losing weight over Christmas ds has put on 2 lbs in the last month so now weighs almost 18lbs! He's very vocal and mobile now - not quite crawling but covers quite some distance going backwards on all fours and rolling around on his back. Wears me out but he's gorgeous :)

I'm giving DD2 two meals a day, plus all of her breast feeds. Not sure whether I should add a third meal yet or not. Might leave it a bit longer.

She's having butternut squash for lunch and baby porridge at night time. She also chomps on the vegetables we have for dinner.

Both of my children are being difficult today. I want to crawl into bed and escape from it all.

Oh dear kiwi hope you can have an early night and some rest

auntie hadn't thought about that waking him...hmm what's easy to digest? Ds smallest meal is always in eve as he's dropped his last nap so us always very tired! We use Normal porridge oats and ds loves it- going to increase portion tomorrow as was still hungry at breakfast!

ickle ds had baked beans at lunch the other day (must have only swallowed about 2 beans) and he had lots of wind in the night. DS is always tired at tea time so eats less then too though tonight he's had spag bol sauce, the potato he didn't eat lunch time cos he was having a strop and some garlic bread. What is it with bread sticking to the roof of his mouth? He eats toast no problem! He didn't like normal porridge - how are you making it?

Ds also finished his lunch at tea for similar reasons auntie are you sure we don't have the same baby? Porridge wise I measure small amount, add milk and microwave. Yes also to bread sticking - normally when he's taken huge bite!

ha ickle it wouldn't be the first time I thought that ds had a few mouthfuls then decided it was the end of the world so I gave him a bottle and a cuddle and he cheered up. I thought it might be because he still wants milk if he's really hungry rather than food.

That's how I make my porridge but take some out of my bowl for ds before i add honey to mine and just to prove me wrong again he ate some this morning!

Any teething advice? Poor Zechariah is cutting 6 teeth at once. He's dosed up on calpol, yoghurts (because they are cold) but still he is screaming most of the time he is awake. None of my others have had it this bad and I can't remember if I can give him bonjela etc as well as calpol or not. Also I've always been sceptical of those amber necklaces and there are so many fake ones around but I'm getting desperate.