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

[moggle]

Here's hoping, anyway...

catg strawberry I know you're right and I totally agree, just sometimes these people get in a little bit y'know? I appreciate the sanity check! dd now sleeping on my lap against my naked boob after a feed to sleep, anyone who tells me that's wrong can do one!

Here here. If it feels right it probably is.

8 hours uninterrupted sleep seems like a lot. DS has always slept well but 6 hours is bloody good going for him. I don't think their stomached are big enough to hold enough food to sleep for that long.

She can clear off with her theories quite frankly! I'd rather he ate lots and grew up big and healthy.

*Stomachs

Dd is still up till anywhere between 10 and 11pm so we go to bed when she falls asleep, she goes through to around 6ish then sometimes if I'm lucky will go back down at half 6 for another hour or so. Naps in the day are totally random, today she's napped most of the afternoon but yesterday she hardly napped at all! I'm just following her lead rather than forcing a routine that wouldn't work anyway!

I would not be surprised that sleep expert doesnt have her/his own children or they have been brought up by their grandparents etc.

Maybe I have overlooked somebody (excuse me then, please!), but I don't remember reading about a single baby on this very thread who would sleep according to the experts. Ark has one of the best sleeping baby and not even her DD is up to the claim.

DD doesn't sleep through and she naps during the day as she pleases (when she is tired it is), but I am not drained with her and by 12 weeks I am fully back on doing things I like: cooking, baking, knitting, reading, watching films and having a garden project in the pipeline (want to turn it into decorative edible garden so that DD gets fresh fruit and berries and knows how things grow). And we have made a number of travel plans in UK and abroad. So I think I have a cool and easy going kid, obviously, I am not a childcare expert, just a finance person on maternity leave.
I don't fight with DD and she doesn't with me, we get along quite well. She has not been forced into any routine, but she herself seems to go into patterns which could be deemed routine.

ladydolly - maybe at 5ish months they will be taking 3 established naps per day but at 8-12 weeks?! Yeah right! Most are doing 45min catnaps & wont sleep longer unless in motion in pram/carseat. Dont listen to her!!!

That said I know 4 other people who've had babies recently, all are between 4-8 weeks younger than dd and ALL are sleeping longer than her at night. Am beginning to wonder if she'll ever sleep through!!!

And get you strawberry doing all those things - where do you find the time?!! Does your dd take long naps?

I currently get about an hour (if I'm lucky) when I get back from the school run where dd will nap in her pram. So I tear round like a headless chicken picking up all the crap that ds has chucked on the floor before school, wash the breakfast pots, sort the laundry, make the bottles & then she's awake. The rest of my day is spent feeding/entertaining her/trying to settle her to sleep/resettling her when she wakes crying after 30 mins/rocking or cuddling her when my attempt at resettling fails. Then the school run after which dd fights a late afternoon nap with all her might & screams from 5ish til bedtime. By the time she's asleep I'm so frazzled I can't be arsed to do anything much!!

omama DD is my DC1, so its easier. DD sleeps randomly during the day, some times goes for 2 hours, some times for 30 mins, but she is quite content being awake and being in the same room with dangling toys or just admiring her own fingers. Often she goes on sleeping after we come home from walk, so i keep her in the pram in the kitchen while I play around with cakes (lavender&almond today). Then i also steal 2 hours in the evening (9pm-11pm) when DD is already asleep and in the morning ( we often both have lazy mornings, she has her mobile on, then we cuddle, then she naps). So its about 5-6 hours every day for myself, so many more than when i didnt have DD but was working. At the moment while the weather isnt great i am in the garden couple of hours on weekend. I feed her to sleep before i go out and DH stays around her.
I guess it would not be a case if I would have an older child as well.

I'm impressed strawberry I have so many things I'd like to do but she naps best when we're out so obviously then I can't do much! When I'm home if she falls asleep I try to tidy her mess a bit, stack the dishwasher, etc. sometimes sit down for a cup of tea and watch telly.

Any other bf babies taking ages to feed? Since DD started sleeping through most nights (and don't get me wrong I'm not knocking that!) she takes 20-40 mins to feed! I know I shouldn't take her off early but it's takig a huge chunk out of the day. Ah well. More tv I guess...

Re sleep, DD sleeps 8/9pm until 7/8am overnight, with a dream feed at 10.30 or 11 when I come to bed. Naps are a bit all over the place, it's usually 2 or 3 and if we're out in the car or pushchair one MAY be 2-3 hours but apart from that it's anyone's guess. But daytime naps have been awful the past week or so, not sure what's going but I just thank my lucky stars she's ok at night.

First time using the monitor tonight! Dd has fallen asleep early for a while so have put her in our room with the monitor on. So why am I leaping up every 10 mins to check on her and sitting here with the tv off!!!

moggle it was quite hectic till mid-January with DD, but then she started to be awake and not cry, just chill all very happy, so I let her to take some time for herself. When I spend time with her I try to have it intensive, eg., today we were "talking" face to face for an hour, then I discovered she giggles if I make kisses with loud shmock and silly faces. She ended up pretty exhausted.

I know you're all right, I don't know why I torture myself! I feel like we're doing ok, she seems happy, I'm also gettig more time to do stuff, I pop dd in her bouncer and give her a running commentary of what I'm doing when I'm cooking or sing her songs while I hang the washing. The only thing I struggle with is making phone calls because I never know how long she'll be asleep for.

Going to attempt a dreamfeed now, first time I've done it without her 'asking' for it.

Strawberry it all sounds lovely. So jealous!

Today we had a napping nightmare. He's always cried when battling naps and its always upset me as it means literally wrestling a crying baby to a sleep he badly needs. WHYYYYY does it have to be so hard? Why can't he just doze off???

Today he'd only nap on me no matter how sneaky and stealthy I was putting him down. So he'd have a decent 45 min nap droooling on me, and after 20 mins awake start crying and thrashing and yawning like mad. I twig he's still tired and start trying to get him back to sleep. 20 mins later I succeed, but close to tears. Then 45 mins later (on me) he wakes up and....the whole cycle begins again.

This afternoon I literally spent from 1.30 to 6 either being napped on, or screamed on. I did EVERYTHING, including making a crappy dinner, one-handed.

Some of my friends say "Oh just pop him in his swingy chair and he'll drift off" Err, NO, not my child. The second he feels himself getting tired he starts crying. And then you have to pick him up for a cuddle, and then he sobs/thrashes wildly into your neck whilst you rock backwards and forwards dementedly whilst trying to ignore the ache in your 40 year old back.

Annarose I think you've earnt this! and this too

tonight was the first night Dd went to bed earlier than 11! Slept from 7:45ish till I woke her at 9:45 ( hadn't changed her nappy before she nodded off and needed to put her in her grobag or I would have left her!) but downed a 5oz bottle and was asleep Again by half 10?! What on earth is going on.... lol

I've pre made all the bottles we've got in anticipation of a bad night! She's started stroking thjngs now. Either my boob or bottle/face while she's feeding and is feeling the different textures of her toys now. I'm wondering if it's all just exhausting!

Oh I've had two enormous glasses of . Badly needed, with Dad and all. Luuuuvely. I said to DH tonight "You want to know how to support me best right now? WIIIINE!"

DS is 15 wks now and has started holding the bottle with both hands to feed himself. Its adorable to look at, except he doesn't get the angle right so I have to adjust it against his will and he's bloody strong! So feeds now constitute a wrestling element too. Fun times!

Sounds like you needed it Anna . How is your dad doing btw? Hope you are all holding up ok.

Strawberry that really does sound lovely. I think I probably need to snatch a bit of time for myself too - at the moment its all jobs & I never get any time out. Mind you thats the price I pay for having building work done right before I had a baby!!

Re sleep - Naps: she has one in pram when I do school run 8.30-10ish sometimes longer. After that its pretty hit & miss. Naps at home are usually 30-45 mins after which it is similar to you Anna & I spend half the day resettling. If we go out she sleeps longer in the pram/car. She isnt napping too well in the late afternoon so bedtime has become very early, bedtime feed at 6pm & asleep by 7pm latest. Feed when she wakes at anything from 11pm-2am then usually another feed around 4-5am. Am looking forward to the day when she sleeps through til morning. Please be soon!!!

I realise she is doing what is technically classed as 'sleeping through' & going 5-6hrs between feeds but she's doing it in the evening not overnight. DS did this too but was already sleeping through 7pm-6am by 13 weeks so not quite sure how we re-jig it - any tips?

anna glass of good winetasting solves everything or almost everything ;)
Since DD was born i seem to be more particular about my wine. Its a sort of "thats the only pleasure i get these days so it better be good" :D

Poor DD's cold is horrid! I've just been lying there all night willing her to learn how to swallow the phlegm (sorry, gross). think she'll be in the carrier all day. I do love my ergo but I think people dramatically overestimate what you can do wearing a baby on your front at least. I can't shower, I can't cook, it's hard to bend down eg stack dishwasher or pick up things off the floor. What I CAN do is sit on the sofa drinking tea from a thermos and eating smarties while watching Downton abbey. And that was after cake for breakfast. Win!

I'm going to ignore the fact that DD's face will probably be welded to my top with snot when she wakes up...

Just seen there's a November 2015 antenatal thread!
Don't know why I'm surprised, we had a little celebration on Tuesday for the year anniversary since DD, and her ten potential brothers and sisters, were conceived (in a Petri dish).

Didn't realise it's already a year since the very beginnings of our DD moggle! Thank you for pointing out! It was around first week of March for us, so maybe a small bottle of champagne is in pipeline for us to share with DH. I like the idea! :)

We are soon about to run out of posts on this thread... Did everybody got a good night sleep as hoped? Well, at least once, huh?

Ha, A still has the Vile Cough so night time sleep not excellent but improving now we've propped the top of the cot up. Re the sleep 'expert' its just a ruse to push their services and horrible methods on parents and cc on babies. Probably great if you're training a puppy, (even then I'm not sure) but not suitable for humans.

If it all feels gruesome now, This Too Shall Pass. Ds1 didn't sleep through till 13 months, and we still sat with him while he fell asleep till age 2. Absolutely fine now and waves me and dh goodnight singing 'byeeeee' at 2.2.

moggle what are your sling issues? Can a local library help at all? I find that if I squat rather than bend I can do pretty much anything like dishwasher loading etc, working, cooking. Does the ergo have a head support you can use? (I've managed to do a little very careful pruning with A in the woven wrap, but that's partly due to being able to shift the material to shield his head while he slept.)

strawberry I agree with you, it's good to maximise your time. Admittedly a lot of mine is spent working but we've planned a mini break with both dc to paris in march on eurostar as ds1 is going through a train phase, and I'm really looking forward to it!

In other news ds1 tripped up on the carpet the other day and decided he wanted his hug better from A. He's really genuinely fond of him now and is even helping him 'play' with bits of the baby gym..

Much better couple of days here. 2 night feeds last night once he was properly down. He's just started 3rd nap of the day. Phew.
I'm off out tomorrow night leaving DH in charge for the first time. I'm leaving at about 9 and should be home by 12 so technically he should be asleep but I'm still scared for DH! There'll be a bottle of EBM ready to warm in the fridge but what if he wakes and wants boobies?!?!