October 2014 // thread 5 // baby's first Christmas

[JeannePoole]

Welcome back!

(Dear greetings cards manufacturers: 'Baby's First Christmas' does NOT necessarily have to include Baby being liberally sprinkled with glitter from your shoddily-made merchandise.

Except that, as I'm rapidly discovering, it does.

CJ - Sounds like his fractiousness could be more likely to do with being tired rather than hunger, CMPI or anything else.

If he will only sleep moving (for now, he will get better - promise!) then what about keeping him moving whilst asleep? If you could carry on bouncing the hammock, would he stay asleep? I find parking myself on the sofa and permanently bouncing DD in the bouncy chair (with one foot - so hands free for other children's needs) keeps her asleep when fractious.

Pregnantagain - I cried at last years carol concert and again at the nativity play. I didn't realise it was pregnancy hormones at the time, but it must have been. Cried again at this years. I also just cried at the Nativity film that was just on BBC2

There is something about children singing carols loudly and everso slightly out of tune that makes it truly beautiful.

Cj I have no advice as Dylan is the same! You can see how exhausted they are in their little faces I am currently holding his hands and resting his snuggy in his mouth with the vacuum noise going. I wish he would let me swaddle him again but we tried last night and it made him cry louder! Dan hands keep waking him up!

mrsb I'm sorry you are going through same but it does make me feel less alone! I can't believe I have non sleeping baby #2. He is still awake since my last post which was 3 hrs ago & he had been awake for an hour before that! :(

Babymoose doesnt sleep in the day at all, and since his jabs on monday hes been a nightmare at night too. During the day he screams/cries, looks at me and yawns; then cries again :s hes obviously exhausted but even when i try and get him to sleep after being awake for 1hr30 he wont be put down at all.. i think people who get daytime naps out of their babies have magical powers! ;)

CJ another 20 minuter here and DD was the same. It really is exhausting (for all parties). I'm afraid I don't have any answers so an empathetic hug will have to do instead!

Thanks you guys. He had another 20 min kip and is awake again! I've had to go to bed with him as its the only way I can get him down for night. Means DH & I never get any children free time. Good job he is out tonight!

I really feel for you mums of non-sleeping babies. Surely there's a reset button hidden somewhere?
E was obviously tired today but at the great grandparents so she didn't get a chance to sleep. As a result the 2 hour drive home knocked her clean out.
Good luck with tonight, hope you get some rest

Munday I have a slight concern that my boob juice might actually be baby rocket fuel! I've just put him down & he is lying in his bed 'chewing gum' (makes this weird slappy gum noise) & trying to suck his hands after spitting out dummy. I hope he goes over instead of crying, we are on a knife edge right now!

Ds is not playing tonight at all... falls asleep on the boob with/without nipple in mouth, seems absolutely fast asleep... wakes instantly on moving :( we only got 2x 1hr last night so really not looking forward to that again! I want my sleeps 5-7 hrs baby from last week back :( it just about made up for the lack of day sleep

CJ something you're eating maybe? We get lots of resistance her after day feeds too.
E has discovered her hands do what she wants today/ yesterday. Lots of fist sucking and grabbing. And it seems like she's trying to kick flip herself over Hoping it's almost bed time now

....and im back to wanting to kill dh!!
Ive fed babymoose to sleep 4 times now, yet every time he tries to move him to his cot he wakes up, mainly because he tries to do it too quickly and just plonks him down. Dh has now stomped off downstairs to get some sleep on the sofa!!! Why precisely he thinks he needs sleep more than i do i'll never know :( getting so sick of this

I told my boyfriend last night that while he knows that I'm getting up one or more times in the night, he can neve? mention anything about his own tiredness. I didn't say it in a cross or emotional way, just matter of fact. Any sleep issues he might have are self inflicted, I'm not interested.

Yay ive seen ever hour tonight :s and im still being used as a chew toy

Hey wonder how are you coping? Hope you're both asleep now. I really feel for you.
We went to see my grand parents Friday and left ZdH for 36 hours on his own. Came back to a filthy house where nothing had been done. Think he feels guilty but not 100% sure.
Men will never understand what we do as mothers/ wives/ partners.
BUT it's almost christmas

So, apart from a brief interlude of no more than ten minutes at about 3.15, I've just had eight hours' sleep, and DS (12w) has had 7.

We're FF on demand and he usually goes about 4h between feeds, with one bigger gap of about 6-7h which has tended to be after his late evening feed at 7.30-9pm. Which means getting up at 2-3 am, and the rest of the night spent with him in mummy's bed because it's the only place he'll go back to sleep then thrashing about and babbling away to himself in the cot next to me.
So last night DH woke him up at 11 for a feed. Didn't have a full bottle, but went to sleep and didn't wake up until 6.30. FLUKE RESULT! - as I believe they say.

Sorry to all the non-sleepers. Hope you all got settled eventually.

My insomnia has returned. Baby woke up at quarter to four and went straight back down after a ten minute feed. I've been awake since. Ended up crying quite a lot around six a.m. Now I'm in the resigned phase.

CJ mine won't nap either. He falls asleep while feeding but if I try to put him down he's instantly wide awake. He has cat naps in the sling or car seat but only while moving.Thankfully he sleeps well at night and is generally pretty happy in the day, but he often looks exhausted and can't seem to switch off enough to nap.

Can I add to the rants about partners? Mine was great in the early weeks and just got stuck in. But now he expects me to ask him to do stuff, otherwise he won't bother. So whenever I change a nappy it's "you should've asked me to do it" AFTER it's done. He also tells me how tired he is, after I've spent the small hours feeding DS whilst he snores beside me. Can't wait for him to be off at Xmas so he can resume equal share of baby duties (hopefully).

I've just left the house, DH a complete knob. Left me in bed with baby to use toilet. So I waited 45 mins thinking he was in there when I needed fresh water to clean DD. Oh no. He'd made himself a cup of tea and fucked off downstairs to play playstation I'm so upset. He's just had 2 baby free days, did bugger all, the house is a mess, no food, no washing done. Then he didn't even think I'd want a cup of tea. Am I over reacting?

Everybody has a breaking point munday ... Sometimes you need to have a meltdown before somone listens! Shame it has to get to that point but you can only take so much thoughtlessness, i have been there first time around! They just dont get how demanding being a mum is sometimes!

Sounds like he was being completely selfish. Thoroughly deserves a telling off. How you spoken to him yet munday?

Ha. After a long and bloody battle it's 1-0 to me in the nap wars.

munday it's not over reacting- I'd be furious- but even if it was it would still be how you feel, so important to address. It's so easy when tired and fraught to end up fuming, and I think less important to try and work out whether the fuming is justified than to try and find a solution to it.

rudy mine has started doing that too! I dont understand how he used to just get on with it but now expects to be specifically asked its very annoying

Im very envious of all you lucky sleepers but very happy for you too! Babymoose slept 1230-3 and 630-8, its so annoying. No idea how to get him back to last weeks sleep!

No real discussion on me leaving but he helped put the food shopping away. That's about it. Hopefully he realises he was out of order. I know we're meant to get baby brain but think men suffer it more! Trying to do some wrapping but someone isn't being very helpful!

Excited, have you tried a dummy? I can't decide if they are a good thing for naps as M will nod off but then lose it and wake up. We've only tried it during the day. We had a day of nap resistance here - took him out in the horrible Scottish rain in the pram this morning. Wee bugger refused to sleep. He was so grouchy. But hallelujah the car trip this afternoon got him two hrs sleep.

It's such a vicious cycle as the less he sleeps in the day the earlier he needs to go to bed from being knackered = earlier wakings in the night and an earlier start to the day. Grrrr.

Sorry for those of you with less than helpful partners. Would it help to really have it out and lay down the law? Maybe they don't realise how knackered you are....