November 2014 - the one where we all get a good night's sleep

[moggle]

Here's hoping, anyway...

DD only catnaps as well. But seeing as she slept about 9 hours last night I'm not complaining.

Ladydolly - the HVs are a bit worried about DD dropping centimes as well, but they've told me to make sure she spends at least 20 minutes on the first breast. Kellymom says that what we eat doesn't increase the calorie content though. Maybe try expressing some of the fore milk before putting your DC on?

toniwol The first hv I saw told me they don't 'do' hind and foremilk any more but this one said similar to you, that I need to put her back on the same breast when there's a short gap between feeds to get the hind milk. She does seem to 'snack' feed rather than feast these days...

I must have the worst sleeping baby on the thread! Down at 7.30 last night, awake 20 mins later, back to sleep then awake again at 10.45 for a feed, down at 11.30 and up again at bloody 1.05 SIGH. After that lots of snuffling and messing and I took her into bed at 4.30 where she mostly slept/fed until 8. Ridiculous. Dd1 started the 4 month sleep regression at 13 weeks, I wonder is dd2 at it too? Not that there was much to regress from!

happy sounds really tough, you're coping so well. Poor dh and poor you!

Greenstone thats tough. I'm trying a new thing where if its been less than three hours its a cuddle back to sleep rather than food. Cos he's just not hungry & I don't want to create a snack monster at night.

........Though I suspect that's harder to enforce when BFing. I remember well thinking "if I stick a boob in there he'll settle down"

Mine isn't a great sleeper even without the terrible all-night windiness so don't worry too much. About three nights ago he kept waking up for no reason. At one stage he woke up & when I looked into the basket he was wide awake and smiling up at me. At 3.30!

He has been asleep on me since about 1. Didn't manage to get some lunch but he has chocolate on his baby grow from the m&ms I could reach!

cat DD has been asleep on me since quarter to twelve, I might wee on the sofa if she doesn't wake up soon. Jabs have knocked her out a bit I think

And also has chocolate on her baby gro haha!

Lol at chocolate covered babies! think i've missed a bit so hope everyone is doing ok?.

DD is suddenly extending her time between feeds at night - last 2 nights she's done 7pm - 2/3am which is fab. Evenings are generally getting more settled - tonight excepted!

She's really trying to find her fingers & getting immensely frustrated as she can't. So when she gets tired & I pick her up to settle her she tries, gets cross so I offer the dummy, she spits it out, cries, tries fingers again & repeat. This goes on & on & on at every sleep time. I wondered if was reading her wrong & she was actually hungry, so offer more food - she takes more til she's had enough but then we have more of the same. She's had 7oz before bed (usually only 4-5) so am sure she must be full now?! She was getting so worked up I popped her in her basket with ewan playing & she immediately calmed down. Left her just incase she'd miraculously developed the ability to self settle she's laid awake for 45mins & is now starting to call for me. she's been awake well over 2hrs now - how can she not be tired?!!! Go to sleep baby!!!!

Things are better with DH back, because I missed him and hated him being away, but they are not easier. He said himself that it is like having a third child as he can't do anything for himself at the moment. Of course, I don't mind but it is hard work with the 2x nearly 2hr trips to nursery too. Also, our families are planning to visit much more than usual to visit him and to 'help' which means I need to keep on top of all the housework too. My mum is coming on Friday, and she left on Sunday pointing out a number of extra things I need to do. And FIL is starting radiotherapy on Friday.
Sorry my posts are all me moaning, but I can't complain to DH and don't have any actual friends.

Aw Happy, why not have a bit of a moan? Sounds grim having visitors. Perhaps you should hold them to the help bit and get them to do housework tasks when they come. Alternatively tell them what wld really help would be if they left you to it for a while! I haven't charged my mob for a week because I don't want visitors!

Greenstone you're not alone. My DS2 is 10.5 weeks and doesn't sleep longer than 3 hours at a time at night. He generally goes down about 9.30 and then wakes for food every 3 hours, sometimes on for a while, other times on for 5mins. From 4am he's up every hour until 7am then goes half hourly until 9.30am when he'll have a good sleep in the morning if I can keep DS1 out of the bedroom! Last couple of days must be a growth spurt because it has been every hour and being exclusively BF it's all down to me but I can get a sleep in the day when DS1 naps (which I'm encouraging him to do daily now!) also the nights seem better than with DS1, he must have been more of a night owl or I've just got used to it this time.
Does anyone else have the wonder weeks app or book? Is it worth getting?

music I bought the book few days ago, have started to read but haven't got very far yet. Reading about 8week developmental leap and I can relate many things to DD who is 9 weeks today. It made me realise that she must be a very chilled baby as she hasn't been crying as bad as described in the book during the leaps (growth spurts?)
Didn't know there is an app as well.

I got the app (cos I'm cheap). It is interesting as it tells you what developments to look out for - and then they happen! I'm not sure on the timings though as our lad seems to start a growth spurt a few days before he's meant to, and it says their timings are the earliest from the due date. And I don't think he's a prodigy or anything! He was 10 days overdue so there might be some dates off, I suppose.

One thing it helps with is keeping bad days in perspective. "Oh its only the growth spurt". Otherwise they would be more upsetting, I think. DH finds it especially interesting.

DS woke up at 6.45 and there was no reasonning with him at all, so I fed him and brought him down to the darkest coldest kitchen in the universe. Ugh. Last night I went to bed at 7pm with him as I was tired and I was asleep by 7.30pm. What is my life???!

Unfortunately no sign of any skipped feeds here so we had a feed at 11, then 2.30, then 6.45. Could be worse though reading here!

happy I would tell the housework to go fuck itself. And shove all obvious clutter into a cupboard until they're all gone home. No washing floors/hoovering. Thats insanity. Practise saying "Mum, there was no way I had time, sorry but its as simple as that"

Omg definitely no housework happy, and never apologise never explain - you have 2 tiny ones and a sick husband so just not gonna happen.

Morning all. Hope you all have a brilliant day.

happy if they say they are coming to help, leave something for them to help with. My MIL always offers and I have always said "oh no we are fine" until the last visit. When she offered I told her there was a load of washing up to be done. Later that day she emailed OH to say she loved feeling useful!

amy how did the first swim go? Did DC enjoy it? How was getting out? That was the toughest bit I found.

Off to swimming this morning. A friend runs a baby swimming class so we will see how it goes down.

I have a bit of a wierd qustion, do you call your babies by their names?

DSs name is unusual (but very pretty) as its from DHs culture & I find I'm just not using it! Its all "little fella" "little man" or "the baby"

It doesn't seem to fit him yet - he's too little!

Also cheap and have the app, I do find it interesting and definitely see it happening in dd but it's not that useful, I mean I don't change anything I do because of the extra knowledge or anything.

We never used dd's name while I was pregnant but yeah we use it now, its Orla so it kind of works for a baby but I know what you mean about names being too big for them! We do call her more by nicknames though, we call her by her initials or more often than not we call her 'eggy chops' or 'monkey chops'. What is weird is that in private dp has called me by an embarrassing nickname but he stopped when she arrived in case she eventually started calling me that. I actually really miss it :(

New tricks here, spurred on by you guys, I normally feed dd when she asks for it in the night (normally twice but up to 5 times) and I wondered if both her and I were doing it out of habit so she went down at 9, woke at 2 and fed, woke at 4 and tried to soothe but def hungry so fed, woke at 5.30 and managed to soothe back to sleep til 7 which is normal wake up time. So that went ok I think.
Then she normally naps around 8.30/9 and I feed her to sleep in the chair then pop her in her cot when asleep. Today I fed her but she was awake, put her in bed and after 10 mins of moaning (but not crying) lo and behold she's asleep! And for longer than normal already. So I'm reeeeally hoping if we can nail self soothing I'll tackle moving to the cot at a later date.

Anna, we've naturally shortened DSs name but have started using the full version more so he will learn it. Other than that he's called Mr Jellybean (as I called him Jellybean whilst I was pregnant and it's stuck) or Fuzzball as he has a ridiculously full head of hair.

Random thought that occurred to me last night as I have some forms to fill out and the first midwife I saw couldn't answer. If you or your DCs father are from different ethnic groups but there isn't a box on the form which covers both or 'other', do you pick the father or mothers ethnicity?

Hi All, I haven't posted for a while but still lurking. Anna I rarely call DD by her name, I'm embarrassed to admit that I tend to call her bubba! My sister is calling her DS booboo, so it must run in the family. I will have to start calling her by her name before she understands what it means.

I'm also wondering if I'm feeding her out of habit ladydolly, I started feeding and putting her to bed about 7ish and feed her again when I go to bed about 10 though I usually have to wake her up but she does readily feed. Then I wake up about 3 because she's making noises so I feed her, and then again about 7. I keep wondering if I should wake her at 10 or not but don't really want to go to sleep and then she wakes me up an hour later. Daytime naps are quite short, unless I keep hold of her like I am now. As soon as I put her down she wakes up.

And I also managed to cut her finger ladydolly with the nail flippers on the first and only time I did it so have ended up using a nail file with varying results!

Nail clippers I mean!

Catg I wussed out!

I think for the first few times I'm going to take him to a pool with warm baby section and as you know my local one doesn't have one. I promise I'll go in the next couple of weeks!

Went to baby bliss this morning - was good. Felt like a pound well-spent.
DH did a walk in the park with baby in the mei tai and it was a success. They both looked very pleased with themselves!

What age do they start learning their name?

Caz I have the same quandary with DD, do I wake her for a feed when I go to bed at 11, or wait for her to wake me? The other day I didn't wake her as DH slept in the spare room so he wouldn't be disturbed by an extra night feed, and she slept until 6, from a last feed at 7.30! Amazing. But i assume it was a one off so have woken her since...

Off for second jabs in a bit, slightly dreading it as DH is away with work tonight...

Anna I reckon it won't be long before they learn their name if you use it all the time. But we call DD all kind of silly names, we have to make a real effort to use her real name...

amy don't worry about it. It is a bit of a scary one. Glad you enjoyed baby bliss.

Went swimming this morning. He has been drifting in and out of sleep since. Fell asleep in the car on the way back. Woke for a feed. Slept in his cot. Woke up with wind. Slept in his carry cot and still asleep. Might get this crochet hat finished. x

Last few weeks DD has been napping for 30-40 minutes at a time mostly. Not too sure what it's all about but today she has slept from 11.30 to 14.00 and from 14.40 still asleep...