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

[moggle]

Here's hoping, anyway...

Oh thanks moggle will pop over and give her some support!

Why oh why can we sleep for 7 hours if we go to sleep at half 3 in the morning but anytime before and we only do 3?! Babies are odd

I'm just taking vitamin D - I never took pregnacare, just folic acid til week 13 then iron and vitamin D after that, then prescribed iron after birth now just vitamin D - it's very strongly recommended for both you and baby's bones.

Hello can I join please? My beautiful baby was born on 21st November and due to password problems I never got round to sorting out being on mumsnet until now.

I have a question about muscle pains after birth. I'm still getting muscular strains across my lower tummy, bits that hold my hold my womb together?! Ligaments? Anyway, it's quite painful particularly after I've been active (walking, nothing strenuous) and when I get up off the couch holding my baby, that kind of thing. My GP today said it's pretty normal and just keep an eye on it but I'm not convinced. Does anyone have any advice please? Thanks very much.

My lad isn't a screamer and I'm still a shadow of myself after three days of wakings every two hours. to all of you enduring the screaming.

How are you all doing daytime naps? I'm bloody militant about them. I spent the first few weeks really not understanding why DS was screaming - he couldn't be tired or he'd fall asleep, surely?

So then when I finally twigged it was a revelation! So I have a rule that 45 mins after the start of a feed we start rocking/shushing him for a nap. So whilst he doesn't nap for all that long, at least he naps every three hours during the day so never gets that cross.

My only problem is DH who wants to play and play and play, particularly as DS is now making a lot of delightful "goo goo goo!" sounds, and doesn't even notice baby yawning in between smiles. So a TON of overstimulation. By the time he twigs Baby needs a nap its usually too late and it all kicks off - when of course he's handed back to me as "you're much better at settling him". [anger]

I've come back up to bed for an hour with a cup of tea with instructions to start winding down for a nap at 11. What do you bet I hear screaming by 11.15?

The other day I was leaving the room and said "Its naptime, sing him a lullaby" and DH started singing "Oh you'll never get to heaven on a boyscouts knee!!" all uptempo and with a big insane smiley face close up to the baby. They just don't get it! I said no, it has to be boring, thats the point! AAAArrggh!

Hey just marking my place albeit a bit late sorry but Happy NY all round :)

I've been lurking reading all your messages sounds like things are getting better slowly. Welcome to all the newbies too!

DS is now 9wks and after initial BF issues we're doing well and trying to get into a night time routine so far can't improve on getting DS down before 9.30 although he will then sleep for about 4 hrs then wake again after 3. Think I'm expecting too much with anything more! Weight wise in need to get him weighed again next week but my shoulder is hurting when lifting him so guessing he's putting some on!

Couple of questions though...

Is anyone using a Grobag? We've got a couple but haven't used them yet as tbh I'm not convinced how they work. Do you change their nappy in the night while their in it and do you feed while they're in it? And is it just me but the 0-6mths still seems massively long on him?!

Also practically what are you all having for dinner/tea in the evening? Struggling to think of things that can keep in the oven if DS kicks off! Bit bored of casseroles now lol.

I've been to a few groups this week and was a bit nervous but everyone has been sooo lovely and hopefully will get a couple of good friends from them. It's not normally my cuppa tea but forcing myself to make conversations :)

Thanks goodness it's the weekend again hope you all have a good one xx

GroBag since 10lbs here. Have stopped changing nappy at night - he doesn't poo at night anymore. You keep it on with feeds and just take it off in the morning. And yes, they're freakishly long

Hello newbies.
DS has been asleep for the past 2 3/4 hours and for most of it we have been out and about. So have I slept when we got in? Oh no. I have caught up on washing up, clothes washing and sweep floors. Just sat down with a cup of tea.
Had 6 weeks apt this morning. 3rd degree tear is not fully healed but she is happy with progress of healing. OH isn't. I think he thought it would be DTD as soon as he got in from work! She was also concerned as my blood pressure was low so blood tests on Tuesday and instructed to be careful standing up and drink lots of water.
OH is starting nights in bed with us (DS in a Co sleeping cot) and usually vacating to the spare room at about 4 to get a couple of hours solid sleep. I am doing all the night bits during the week but I cannot wait for my lie in tomorrow!

Dp sleeps in a separate room and the last week has gone to bed with earplugs at 9! Babydolly sleeps from about midnight so I have to get her off and do the night feed/s but since I'm still getting around 7/8 hours sleep I can't complain. I just go get him if I want his help. Last night he cuddled her for an hour and she went off at 10 rather than midnight!

I quit the grobag, just because the blankets work so well for us. I don't change her at night either, apart from last night when she she pooed so loud at 5am it woke us both up!! mama your sleep pattern is the same as ours, everyone I've asked about getting her down earlier has summarized that I should be grateful I'm getting so much sleep!

We're back to usual dinners now, dp and I cook in shifts depending on what babydolly wants (ie. If me and my boobs need to be with her rather than in the kitchen). I try and prep during nap time though.

Anna I follow babydolly's lead for naps which is normally every 90mins, I'm getting better at seeing the cues but she won't sleep without rocking/feeding/cuddling no matter how often I try. The swing is a lifesaver.

Hugs for twiglet and omama those times are tough and bloody lonely. I confess to wearing my iPod during screaming sessions, it just takes the edge off...

6 week HV check was EXACTLY the same as 6 week doc check, what on earth was the point?

Anna DD sometimes just drops off but often needs rocking and a dummy to get her to take a nap. She is a very sucky baby and though I wasn't planning to use a dummy, we've found that it comforts her when she gets over-tired, whereas offering her the breast then can sometimes send her into an inexplicable rage. Stroking or holding her head also seems to make her go to sleep.

DH and I are now alternating the nights (he is in the spare room) since DD only needs one bottle of ebm to get through. After a few bad nights earlier this week, she has been brilliant the last 2 nights. She is being a pain to settle at midnight but has then slept through till 5am and then till 8 - bliss. Now I've written it down though it probably won't last...

We use a grobag too and about every other night we need to change her while she's in it, usually cos she poos during her last feed. We use a thin travel mat for changing in our room so I unzip down the side, slide the mat between her bum and the underneath of the bag and change her on that so she doesn't have to come completely out of it.

Thanks Annarose & Moggle - good tip there Moggle with the travel mat we've got one if those do will give it a try this weekend and see how we go :)

Ladydolly - good to hear we're on the same wavelength routine and bed times yay! :) Blankets work well for is too but intrigued by the Grobag so think we'll give it a whirl and see how we go...

mama grobags are worth their weight in gold once baby starts wriggling & moving in their cot, so def worth getting them used to it now. We often used to find ds upside down to how we had laid him - if it werent for his bag he'd have woken up cold. Plus once he got to 18 months+ it prevented him climbing out of the cot . We'll def use them again with dd but prob not til she's in her cot.

Thanks ladydolly - despite my tiredness today has actually been ok. DD has finally had 3 huge blowouts (they were green too - what's that all about?!) & she is ravenous & no longer throwing up so much. Have managed to do some sort of bedtime routine today & she has zonked out on me qfter her bottle. Am pretty sure she'll wake as soon as I lay her in bed tho!

Annarose - we're not really doing anything much re daytime naps yet. Am trying to be a bit more relaxed about it all as I got a bit obsessed about ds naps when he was a baby, but then he'd scream the house down if he got overtired!. This one seems a different kettle of fish - she still sleeps for much of the day but once she wakes she will sometimes stay awake for a good couple of hours. If she gets tired she yawns but doesnt cry, just eventually shouts a bit then I cuddle her & she zonks. If I lay her down at the first yawn she will not give in & go to sleep by herself no matter what but a cuddle always works.

We are however getting a lot of wakings after 10-15mins into a nap, she often startles awake then I have to settle all over again. Not sure if this is just her startle reflex or her being overtired?

What sort of nap lengths are you guys getting? Do yours startle awake like dd?

omama I also have a DH who complains he is tired because he goes to bed at about 3am and then has to get up for work. I am not sympathetic to him at all. He usually has a nap when he gets in from work, which then leaves me trying to cook dinner whilst entertaining a baby and a 3yr old, similarly having a lie-in for the whole morning on weekends and look pissed off if I can't stop DD1 from going up and disturbing him.

mamalloyd I have been using baby sleeping bags since she was big enough. I do feed her in it and change her nappy if necessary. Re meals, DH and I take it in turns to make dinner, which is what we have always done. I am trying to plan only quick and easy meals but DH does sometimes have to take over if i am feeding DD. I need to start going to some sort of group. Several days go by and DH is the only adult I speak to, but I struggle to make conversation with people I don't know so it will be difficult.

We're using sleeping bags as well. If she needs changing I try to do it between boobs so she's got chance to feed back to sleep. Plus we've discovered if it's laid out right in the Moses basket it is possible to fasten it without waking her.

We do seem to have lucked out as she's not really one to get aggravated, but it's still tiring (especially with a week consisting of HV, buggy burn and music with mummy sessions, plus some retail therapy. I'm really tired though so tonight we've bathed DD, I've given her a feed and come upstairs to bed myself, leaving DD with DH.

omama yes, mine still startles awake sometimes. Sometimes she will go back to sleep straight away but sometimes not. People say to swaddle but she doesn't like having her arms restrained and manages to wriggle them out, and at 2 months I thought she's getting too old to enjoy being swaddled anyway. Am hoping she naturally stops it.

Recently naps have been getting longer - we normally get one hour-long one a day, and others are shorter. But if she is in a sling/carrier or on someone she'll nap for much longer than if she's put down. Today I took her swimming though, and she enjoyed it but found it so exhausting that she basically slept all afternoon in her hammock. I kept on checking she was still alive, she was so silent!

DD's morning nap today went from about 9 to 1.30!! If she's in the pushchair she will stay sleeping for ages. At home though it's usually more like 1-2 hours, but sometimes less too. Her awake times are getting longer and longer. She's found her hands today which is cool- I'm hoping she finds her thumbs soon as id rather she sucked those than her dummy, I think.

omama DD startles herself wake quite often and sometimes she wacks herself in face which results in eyes wide open. She would first have arms going like windmill with all sort of noises and then whack and she is awake. And now that she has discovered the hand sucking it's another way to wake herself.

I like growbags, shame they are not of much use for the arms...

I mentioned that I bought that Love to Dream swaddle, which is basically designed so they don't waken themselves with the tiny windmilling arms. Its a wierd thing, it looks like it has wings! It keeps the arms up by each ear and they can suck on the fabric to soothe themselves, but the arms are still tethered. I got it on JojoMamanBebe.

Its going to be the greatest discovery of my life or an epic fail.

I also splurged on the Tomme Tippee Perfect Prep with the logic that it was 50% off in the Asda sale. This is what comes from being stuck in the house with the shit weather - online shopping!

Anna the perfect prep machine is sooooo worth it, think I commented on the feeding thread you had, I thought oh another overpriced gadget that won't be overly useful but then used one as a maternity night nanny I checked safety of how it works as wasn't sure about it and so worth buying if bottle feeding, the bleeps it makes seem noisy in night but nothing compared to a screaming baby while you prepare a feed using a kettle.

Debenhams have a good online sale lots 70% off if you want to buy clothes in bigger sizes and toys for bday n Xmas or presents for others - I spent a fortune but got my nieces bday presents for Sept, one of ds1 bday presents for Aug n both Boys some clothes in bigger sizes.

happy thats really not fair on you. Bloody men! Thankfully for my dh that was unusual - I'd be mightily pissed off if it happened all the time.

Anna you will have to let us know how you get on with your swaddle!

Sounds like my dd is probably jolting awake, so lets hope she outgrows it soon! She's gone 5hr stretch between feeds tonight & I actually got a decent bit of sleep as dh did the bedtime feed - yay!

Got a very snuffly DS here for the second night in a row, which means he's stopped sleeping through. Last night he awoke around 4 as his nose was so blocked. A teeny bit of olbas oil on a nearby muslin and he finally drifted 30 mins later. Tonight I haven't been so lucky as he's been up since 3. He now has a cough on top of his blocked nose, it sounds so awful. I've just managed to settle him with a bottle of formula so fingers crossed that's all for the night.

Lovely 8 hour sleep from DD last night! DP was being rather noisy on his Xbox with some friends so took her into our room with my laptop so I could quietly watch a film and feed, popped her in her Moses basket so I could get changed for bed and she was out cold when I came back! Didn't hear a peep till half 7 this morning! She's now lying on my lap practicing her outdoor voice, she's just shouting cause she can I think, no crying just a lot of AHs lol

Oh Ark I could cry. Don't get me wrong, I'm so happy for you but so jealous! This last week DS has fallen into a new rhythm of feed at 2.30, feed at 5.30....then his digestion wakes up at 6.30 and from then on its writhing and moaning and pulling legs up etc. So I take him into the bed with me to try to calm him but I don't sleep really from that point on as I'm listening to him and shushing him intermittedly.

Our evenings are good though, he sleeps all evening and settles easily for the night. So DH & I get to watch telly and have chats in bed. So I guess its swings and roundabouts?

Going to Sling Meet this morning - am debating whether am too tired to shower or not and just turn up with a ton of Batiste in my hair.....

Oh Annarose I'll pay for it tonight don't worry, last week we had one night where she went down at 9 then woke up at 11 and was awake till 5:30 in the morning then slept for 3 hours. I was fairly useless that day lol. When she started squeaking this morning I was fully expecting it to be 2/3am but was pleasantly surprised. Hope the sling meet goes well

Doing our first longish journey today over to my grans house near gatwick so fingers crossed she doesn't kick off in the car! It's about and hour each way but my mums coming with me for moral support ( and cause I'm a wimp)

Desperate to get up to the yard tomorrow and see my gorgeous pony. Poor boy has probably forgotten who I am!