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

[moggle]

Here's hoping, anyway...

Hi I didn't contribute to this thread before but my baby is just three months now. He is also spitting up quite a bit - he goes through 2-3 days when we drown in a sea of regurgitated milk (lots of clothing changes etc), but then it gets better again quite quickly - sometimes i think it happens when he is just taking more, and his stomach capacity has to grow into his appetite? I think it is very normal…Have you propped up her mattress in her cot/buggy? That really helps, and keeping her upright for a good 5-10 mins after feeds. Also, DS was way worse when he had a cold - bringing up phlegm (LOVELY). I'm just hoping it passes but have a stack of bibs and muslins to rival yours…good luck!

I like the look of the car seat wraps, but is anyone else struggling to lift the car seat with baby in it?! DD was 12lb6 on Tuesday and its getting more and more difficult! Weirdly I think it'd be easier with a seatbelt as with the easybase you have to lift it up before you pull it towards you.

Anna I'm so sorry to hear about your dad. xxx Just can't imagine it, I'm in denial about my parents getting old.

Yes moggle !!!

For some reason known only to DD 5am is our new wake up time

DP has been having nightmares the last few weeks but the ones the last few days have been about him being on fire and gets in such a state I have to get up to sort him out. Feel a bit like I have two babies at the mo! But feeling a lot more stable relationship wise, wether it will last or not I don't know but I'm just going to enjoy it.
Going back to baby after lunch seems to get us a couple more hours sleep so I'm going to do that for the next few days till I've caught up.

Thanks for the suggestions for the car seat blankets girls, can't really afford one but going to see if my friend will attempt making one!

Hope you all had a good night?

Rubbish night. But my fault not dd. she went down at 8, I joined her at 11 and fed then. She woke at 2 for another feed and my cough then kept us both up til 5. She still was still up at normal time of 7 so we're both tired.

First swim this morning, she liked it but the changing rooms were so cold. Too cold even for me. I don't think I'd attempt it on my own yet. Its just not worth the faff for now. Maybe in the summer.

omama did you just start putting your baby down and she self settled? I've only managed it a couple of times and I try at nearly every nap.

ladydolly we found an old fashioned pool with changing rooms on the side of the pool really helped.

He slept from 11-7. Woo hoo.
He was so hungry he completely overfilled his belly when he woke up and vomited all over him, me and the hall carpet. Not so woo hoo.
Silly bugger. Xxx

eastmids Buy some vanilla extract & add a few drops to each bottle. Makes it taste like a milkshake. Thats what we did with the Aptimil Pepti and he gobbled it.

Now he's on Neocate, which is even fouler so we're still using it. GP had no objection. Pretty much everyone on these formulas have to use flavouring.

I meant back to bed with baby not just back to baby! Argh tired

Welcome cobaltblue!

moggle I'm struggling with the carseat too. It never occurred to me it'd get so heavy - what do people do when they get even heavier?!

Ark 5am is grim. I thought we were bad at 6am on the dot.

He's having shit sleeps, he doesn't seem to sleep deeply enough so even in between feeds he starts stirring and chattering and I have go get out and rock him till he settles again. Between that and feeds I seemed to spend the whole night sitting on the edge of the bed, all cold!

At 6am DH takes him downstairs & I finally sleep. Its crazy though.

Anna, sorry to hear about your dad. Cancer is just bloody awful.

I've had 3 crap nights sleep even though DD started sleeping for longer. Thursday night she slept through from 11pm to 6am but I still woke up twice in between. Friday night I didn't give her a feed before I went to bed as she was fast asleep and she went from 8pm till 4am, but I was awake every hour as DH kept coughing. Last night I really needed to sleep but I ended up feeding her at 11pm, 2am and 5am! I'm trying to work out what makes her sleep more. I didn't take her anywhere yesterday as I was so knackered, not even for a walk so maybe she wasn't as tired or maybe it's a growth spurt, who knows!

Thanks Anna once he takes a bottle of ebm will 're try the aptamil although not sure if he is reacting to that been using it to make his gaviscon n been more unsettled n def more congested n reflux worse.

Hi all. Just tried to catch up a bit. Have been feeding so much lately it's been hard to get on here!

Anna - So sorry about your Dad. I'm not surprised that joy feels inappropriate and unthinkable.it must be such a terrible, overwhelming shock. In time I do think it may be possible to feel happy and sad in turn without needing to force or stop yourself. In both cases you are honouring life and love. It wasn't that long after my Mum died that I got married and I remember thinking about that then, how I could almost feel sad and happy at the same time and both were valid and important. It's early days though yet and a lot to take in.

Regarding valentines day, we got prezzies of sorts and even booked a meal at a pub but then I got fed up with dh for being all stressy and embarrassed when lo cried briefly and being generally distracted. At one point called his mother! He couldn't understand why I was upset. Ho hum. Special occasions aren't his forte.

I've been meaning to ask folks whose babes go to bed early, do you go to bed at same time or are you feeling confident enough to put lo's to bed on their own? Mine goes to bed with me and is almost always with me. Was going after midnight and lo settling btwn 2 and 4, but now I try to go up at 10 or 11. LO still not usually sleeping 'til around 1 am but then sleeping through for about 8 hours last couple of days. Anyway, just pondering on whether I'll need to go to bed earlier and earlier if I want to keep bringing bed time forward.

Strawberry- Just want to say I identified with what you said about finding it hard to believe you're a Mum.

Sorry for such a long post. Making up for lost time! xx

anna so sorry about your dad. I thought I wrote that a few days ago but can't see it. Re radiotherapy: FIL has just had a short course and seems not to have had many side-effects. Slightly sore skin at the site, seems tired but that might be due to one or other of his other underlying conditions rather than radiotherapy.

Bad night here( hence posting at 2am having had no sleep yet). DD1 woke up at 11, crying because her tummy hurt then crying because she couldn't get to sleep . Calpol sorted the tummy ache but she didn't fall back to sleep for nearly 2hrs. The 3 of us in her single bed was not fun, but I couldn't do anything else with DD2 either other than leave one of them to cry. DD1 is now asleep but with no cover over her so will wake up soon because she is cold. Am waiting unsuccessfully for DD2 to fall asleep enough not to notice me putting her down so I can try and put a blanket other her sister.
DH isn't sleeping well either now he isn't on the strong painkillers he was on after surgery. He is upset because he doesn't think the surgery went well and feels he has put himself through all the pain for nothing. I am wondering how to make any of them feel better. In-laws coming again tomorrow for no particular reason. FIL finished radiotherapy now so no longer popping in as close by. They are bringing nephews aged 2 and 3 with them. 3 extra adults and 2 extra small children not really what we need!

My baby is generally lovely though. Has become very vocal and chatty, plays with her toys now. Today we were at soft play for DD1's friend's party, and she was fascinated with so much going on, far too interested to feed though which she is making up for now it is the middle of the night.

Annarose2014 sorry to hear about your dad.
Regarding bedtime we've noticed baby moving his own bedtime earlier so the last 3 or 4 nights I've started bedtime routine at 6 and come downstairs at between 7 or 8. Right now he's slept from 7.30 to 4, I've just fed him and he'll probably be up for the day at 6.30. I go downstairs leaving him in the moses basket in our room with the monitor on.
Car seat is heavy now but getting used less and less now that I've sussed a mei tei. The last few times I've just left it clipped in the car. Having him weighed tomorrow and he should be about 15lb so he's not light!

We're still working towards being able to go to a gig on 1st March, our best bottle success was half an oz from an asda cheapy yesterday. I'm pretty sure on the off chance he wakes while we're out that PILs will be OK. Just need to ask them now!!!

happy that sounds like a shit night.

We're in teething hell here. I went out and bought Teetha granules yesterday and will be buying Baby Nurofen today (and whatever teethers I can find).

Am I the only one teething?

He's not crying (thank god), just very unsettled in general. He sleeps too lightly so has to be re-settled every hour or so as he starts whinging in his sleep, and because of all his nomming and gulping he's full of wind so needs to have regular farting sessions during the night. Lovely! So every feed is full of writhing and wriggling until big raspers come out.

He's also really hyper during the day. So he goes nuts at the baby gym but then gets ratty with tiredness but fights naps with a vengeance and lots of crying and only goes down for 20 mins anyway.

I don't think I was this tired when he was a newborn but as DH reminded me I had nothing else to do during the day then!

Oh and juulie We bought a video monitor off Amazon cos there came a week where he suddenly wanted to go to bed earlier and our bedroom is miles away.

Its a Motorola MBP36S and its amazing, it has nightvision and is so clear you can actually see their chests rise and fall!

ladydolly - yes she's just started self settling! A few weeks back she would just scream if I put her down in her moses basket & all she wanted was to be cuddled to sleep. But in the last few weeks she's become harder & harder to settle with cuddling/rocking/jiggling & has spent the entire evening screaming & taking til 9/10 to settle. I even tried Ewan the dream sheep & she screamed louder when he was on. It got to the point where she was crying as much if not more in my arms than she was if I put her down, so I just popped her in the basket, stuck the dummy in & off she went. The next morning she was getting tired & I popped her in while I answered the door & when I came back she was asleep. I think maybe I was overstimulating her with all the rocking etc, so now I am doing very little.

She is still struggling with daytime naps though, but she is downstairs in broad daylight with a noisy 4 year old to contend with too. Once her nursery is finished & I can put her upstairs to nap it will hopefully help.

Anna - when DS got too heavy for me to carry him in his carseat we would leave it in the car & carry him in/out. If he was napping I'd sit in the car with him til he was done, though he completely stopped this at 7/8 months & would only nap in the house!

eastmids - have you tried gradually increasing the pepti 1oz at a time rather than going straight to 50/50 ebm? DS had pepti for cmpi & this is how we introduced it, eventually reaching 100% pepti. It tasted gross (to me) but DS did eventually get used to (& love) it. I have heard of people putting a spoon of nesquik in to make it taste better - as pp said vanilla is also a good idea.

So DD is still doing ok I think - she's spaced out her feeds to 4 hourly which seems really young to me but then I am comparing her to my ds who guzzled huge bottles every 3hrs til 4/5 months! She is still only taking about 4oz per feed in the day & then much bigger feeds at night. Her total intake is about 24oz per 24hrs - does this sound ok? The formula pack says she should have 30oz for her weight so am wondering if I should be trying to get a bit more in her somehow.

She is also becoming more vocal & properly squealed at me today! She is really chewing on her fists & slobbering everywhere too - time to bring out the dribble bibs!

My DD used to go 3-4 hrs between feeds but is now 2-2.5 hrs. I think it's cos she's now sleeping 11-7 most nights and needs to pack the food in to fewer hours. Plus I keep forgetting to offer her the second boob- she never used to want it!
We do feel sooo lucky with her sleeping though and it does feel great especially when I wake before her! She's always got a big smile for me when she wakes too. So glad we got the Bednest.

YY to the slobbering. There are always slobbery bibs drying on the radiators. They only go out of action during the day if they've got sick on...

I'm really just wondering what on earth more can be bloody thrown as us this year. Phone call from work today, had to go in for an urgent meeting, get there to see several police, members of staff and people from head office. Horrendous breach of privacy and I'm feeling utterly crap about it ( not by me, I'm a victim) . Can't give details obviously as police still investigating but just totally fed up now. You can't trust anyone evidently.

On the upside had a fab day out and about, lunch with friend and then dps mum took us out for dinner.

Hope you all have a good night girls xx

DD1 was sick last night, just as I put dinner on the table, then spent the rest of the evening crying that I hadn't given her any dinner. She seems fine today. I am desperately hoping it is not contagious, as that is the last thing we need, especially DH, and my in-laws and 2 nephews were here yesterday and I would feel terrible if she had infected all of them.
DH is convinced his operation has failed an so might need t o be redone, meaning another stay in London, more pain, prolonged recovery, repeat of the logistical nightmare of getting him bak from London. He is meeting the surgeon on Friday so we will know more then.
His work have lost his sick note. They need the original to pay him, so presumably if they don't find it they won't pay him and my maternity pay doesn't even cover the mortgage. It was handed in at the reception who said they would pass it to his manager who never received it. Argh!

happy lets hope the sicknote appears after all, its just so unfair and beaurocratic, especially, when its about a major operation, not some self diagnosed flu or something.

to all of you with woes.

Help please. Naps - how, when, where etc. Hit me with info. Make me feel less like a rubbish mum
DS gets 2 X 45 min naps if he's lucky and I always have to feed him to sleep

What amy said!

I do get 4 x 45 mins usually though. Feed or rock to sleep or if we're out then in the car or pram. She does fight them even when she's clearly knackered!

Once or twice she's self settled but only because she was drowsy after a feed, that rarely happens though, she seems to be either happy awake or angry tired and nothing in between.

In other news we had her hospital appt for her heart murmur and got the all clear - phew!

Also had an offer accepted on a house today, just waiting on the mortgage. After living in a 2nd floor flat with no lift with a newborn after caesarean it will be amazing to be in a house!!!

Naps - first one about 8am, after feed, in our bed. Lasts for about half hour. Rest of the day naps happen randomly after feeding and last as long as I can be bothered to keep holding her, or she sleeps in the sling/pram/car. Went out for 2 hours with the pram the other day and she slept for most of it.
I don't know if I'm into the idea of setting regular naps, seems a bit too ridgid to me but maybe they need that? Just read one website which said you should wake them up in the car if they fall asleep and its not nap time but I can't see that happening.