January 2014 -- the birthdays are coming!

[TobyLerone]

Just wrote a long message on the old thread only to have it not post because we'd filled it.

We really ought to do less chatting and more sleeping

Tarka & Toby how did last night go?

Merry that sounds great!! Enjoy I have resisted any embarrassing outfits so far but I have bought some retro Santa face fabric to make a dress, and I've also bought Christmas tights and bibs

I will paste my notes from last night. Wasn't as bad as expected and I did still feed her but she didn't drink much, so now I'm quite confident that I can reduce the amount of times I feed her tonight.

Sunday - in cot at 7pm, asleep at 7.20pm, did not feed to sleep. Woke up 9.45pm, patted to soothe and back to sleep within 10 mins. Woke up 10.50pm, crying and would not settle, drank 2oz milk and back to sleep at 11pm. Woke up 11.50pm, drank 2oz milk and back to sleep 12pm. Woke up 3.10am, drank 3oz milk, wouldn't settle so patted but still tossing and turning and crying trying to grab my hand, back to sleep 3.25am. Woke up 5.30am, drank 3oz milk, sat up but flopped down to sleep with no interaction, asleep 5.40am. Woke up for the day at 7.50am.

She actually slept better than she does usually. She would often wake up then go back to sleep for a couple of minutes then wake up crying again, over and over. I think me sitting next to the cot for 10 minutes after she fell asleep to make sure she was definitely sleeping really made a difference. Before I was so knackered that at the first sign of her sleeping I would hop back in to bed which probably disturbed her. She also usually drinks between 14-21oz milk through the night and last night only had 10oz in total. I might try offering water tonight if I really can't settle her without milk. I'm not getting my hopes up that this will work but it's a decent start.

Toby that's always the way! I am always amazed at how bright and breezy S is in the morning after not sleeping at all. Hoping she will be feeling a bit better tonight.

Hi all - flip its been busy! Went to first 1 year birthday party and it was madness. The noise! Poor little puggle was a bit overwhelmed but did "win" pass the parcel. Thanks Toby for the name comments :)

Well done all you sleep trainers. I;m pathetic - partly blamed on my guilt for being back to work full time and also worry about him getting enough calcium with the dairy and soy allergy so I'm accepting (if not liking) of the all night milk snack bar. Did have an amazing thing on Sunday where he fed for a little while on my lap and then took himself off to actually fall asleep - don't think that's happened before. I'm sure I read somewhere that self-settling was a neurological stage like walking/talking so even if that's nonsense I'm clinging to it...

Managed to get a couple of 10-4 stretches last week which amazed me. Still look like I've got an attractive matching set of grey luggage under my eyes though...

Last night went pretty well. Only woke at 4am and settled in cot with 10mins back stroking. Woke for the day at 7.40. So was a good night considering.
Potty training dd (again) today so staying in the kitchen. So far have made marmalade and done a lot of tidying. Dd is currently watching a video on YouTube of someone opening 101 kinder eggs

Tarka sounds like a good night!

The egg opening videos!!!! I hadn't heard about it until someone posted a thread on here and it turns out loads of kids are obsessed with watching them. Then I went to visit my 3 year old nephew recently and he was watching them too. It's so bizarre. How did these small children even find the videos in the first place?

Busy day here. We are also joining the gradual retreat group. Took two minutes tonight for O to fall asleep with just my hand on her, so not bad at all. Won't be doing it at night until Xmas though as wouldn't be able to cope with that and work.

Had O's carpet fitted today. Took her in to see it after it was done and she actually squealed with delight Letting her play in it each night to get her used to it. Need to repaint part of the door though as the dog managed to get herself shut in and scratched at the door grr.

Took her to the gps today as her nappy rash was still bad and her excema is bad. Apparently part of it is infected and she doesn't think it is nappy rash so having to smother her in various potions to try and clear them up. Bless her.

Was at the hospital today too. Consultant appointment was a complete waste of time. It was his registrar instead and he didn't know anything so we need to wait to find out if he wants to refer her to the surgical team or not. Bit annoying.

Oh my gosh this is horrendous. She's been awake an hour and 20 mins crying now. It's not a proper cry, so I know she's not really upset. I have had to leave the room because I don't have any patience left. I'm in bed and can hear her across the hallway and I feel so guilty but I don't know what else I can do because I'm so exhausted DP got in bed ages ago without even saying anything and now he's fast asleep I'm assuming she will just fall asleep eventually. She's just doing a whingey cry then being quiet, then doing it again a couple of minutes later and going quiet again. So many times when I was sat there she 'went to sleep' then suddenly after 5-10 mins she just sat up and cried unexpectedly. It's so tempting to just feed her the milk but what's it going to achieve?

Sorry that was a proper moan moan moan post. I went back in and fed her so this whole thing has just been a massive waste of time. She's now calm but will not go to sleep, despite the fact she's poached a whole bottle of milk. Hopefully she will drop off soon.

Felix hope you got some sleep.

O suddenly developed a cold last night so she was up a fair bit snuffling and has been really upset this morning. I had to just let her cry as otherwise I would have been really late for work. Made me sad

Felix hope you and S got some sleep in the end. You have my utter sympathy. This is how most of my attempts at GR go. DS cries and rages for hours, then I feed him and he falls asleep, but is very disturbed for the rest of the night. I struggle to sleep too as I think I've probably scarred him for life.... I think the key is to stick with it though. Don't give up like pathetic me!

Aawww, felix, that sounds hard :( Hope you both got some sleep in the end.

M still has her cold, so we're stuck doing what we always do for now because if she gets too worked up she starts coughing loads. I'm almost certain she has asthma. It sounds like that sort of cough.

Poor M toby I can't bear it when they are ill.

Keep going felix! It is incredibly hard, but our sleep consultant says that each development in their sleep can cause a bit of a regression somewhere else. P is currently settling fine in her cot at night (and is currently doing her first ever cot nap) but still wakes multiple times, even though I don't feed her until 3 or 4 am now. Apparently she'll get there in the end bloody better do! Can you get some rest today?

Has anyone been contacted by their hv about the 9-12 month review yet?

I was wondering about that, nature. I can't remember if they have my landline or mobile number, but if it's the former they'll be out of luck as it's not plugged in and is currently in M's toy box!

Nature and Toby, hope they are feeling better soon Toby is it worth going to the GP for suspected asthma or is it one of those things where they fob you off constantly saying it's just a cough?

We had our review back in late August.

Sorry had a massive pity party last night didn't I! DP is at work and won't get back until 6.30 but I'm hoping I can have a nap when S has hers later on (but I do have a mountain of washing which could be done instead). Will try again tonight but don't know how well it will go. The funny thing is last night I put her in the cot at 6.58pm and she was fast asleep at 7pm without having to be fed.

I tried giving her water last night instead of milk and her face was a picture No chance that will ever work unless I try it in a bottle rather than sippy cup, or does that just defeat the object?

Oddly, given that she wouldn't fuck off leave me alone for the first four months, I haven't had a peep about the hv review.

Bollocks to the washing felix

You could try water in a bottle, felix. I would. I might.

Re asthma, I'll hold off taking her to the GP about it until she's 1 if I can. My Dr told me they won't usually diagnose it until 2, but there is such a strong family history for me that they just instantly took my word for it with DS because they know I know what I'm talking about. But before she's 1 they might well try to fob me off anyway.

Another vote for sleeping Felix, the washing can wait.

If I were at home today I would most definitely be sleeping when O was sleeping. She was awake at 8, 9, 10,11.30 slept till 3 then awake at 4,5 and 6. I am knackered

Tiny bastards! The washing will be no dirtier tomorrow Felix away and get your head down.

The Virgin telly installer man turned up just as she went down for a nap. Damn it!

Anyone know how I can stop S wanting to touch the fireplace constantly? We didn't have one before and will probably never use it, but she is OBSESSED and I have to pull her away from it literally every two minutes. She thinks it's a game

I have the two biggest fireguards known to man felix. I even have a fire screen behind one of them to stop her getting burnt by spitting coals. I'm super paranoid about it because I got my hand melted onto my nan's gas fire as a little girl. It was horrible.

Book that sounds nasty DP's Mum has bought us a fire guard but I don't know how effective it will be as it's just a modern gas fire in the wall with no surround etc. so the fire guard will just be sat on the carpet and might not be very stable, if that makes sense? If there was a proper surround with the bottom bit on it then it would work better I think. She's bringing it down on Sunday so I'll see how it fits.

Ours are screwed into the wall. If it is one of the meshy looking metal ones I think they have holes you can drill through.

We had a good night last night. Not sure if it's actual progress or just a fluke though. She went down at 7, then woke up at 10.30 just before I went to bed. Had a bit of water from the bottle (not much at all) and went back to sleep with her dummy.
Then woke up at 2.30 and it took me 30 mins to get her back to sleep, and she drank 4oz milk. Then she's just woken at up at 7.10 for the day! So we have gone from 14-21oz milk a night right down to just over half a bottle.

Hopefully it's not just a one off. I'm not really sure im doing any of this right and feel like I'm winging it most of the time!

That's great, felix :)