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

[moggle]

Here's hoping, anyway...

babydolly went to war with sleep last night, sleep won in the end but not until 1am. Same as you anna she grunts and groans from 6ish because of her tummy.
She sleeps well during the night but we NEVER get an evening. Last nights settling efforts started at 8.15 but she was having none of it.
This morning I got up with her at 8, nappy, play, boob, tried to get her to nap after a couple of yawns when dp arrives and starts performing for her when I said I was trying to get her to sleep he asks 'why?'... groan so she got to tired and he put her in the swing to sleep. I try not to put her in there every time, would I be making a rod for my own back? would she onky sleep when swung then? (who am I kidding, thats already the only way it's just normally me swinging)

I hear baby moans and milk is dripping into the bath. Mama alone time is over.

Another one here who seems to wake up at 6am and wriggle and grunt from then on- she may be asleep but no one else is! She was giving us a better chunk from 10-2.30, then 5, but in the last few days has started the 2 hourly wake ups again, projectile vomiting after most feeds and crying for hours when she is awake. Gp says it is reflux but I am clueless! We have infant gaviscon to try which I am hoping works as she sounds so unhappy and nothing we do seems to soothe her. I have just been praying she will sleep for most of the day as it is the only time she isn't screaming at the moment and we move house to the other side of the country on monday so things are a bit chaotic here!

Anyone else's baby love weird parts of the house...

Just found dp singing 'nothings gonna change my love for you' while rocking babydolly. I said 'how sweet', dp said 'I was just thinking what a weird day it'll be when I walk her down the aisle and the bloody curtain rail is waiting at the end'.

She is OBSESSED with it! But he did crack me up

The back of the sofa is INCREDIBLE . No idea why, it's also very tasty apparently.

Barmy if u r breast feeding my tips with gaviscon are mix with 5mls boiling water n then 10mls expressed milk n give at start of feed rather than all water n mid feed as on packet, water my ds spat it all out n after couple doses mid feed he learnt to dribble it out, at start of feed they are crying so squirted in slowly they have to swallow, it's not always 109% successfully done but better.

Gaviscon can cause constipation so we do tummy massage every eve n cycle legs alot in day n if seems to be struggling syringe 20mls of 50/50 milk n water mixture down him. (Bottle refused)

Lady, DD loves the cupboard handles in the kitchen. Shiny!

Lady, DD shuts up whatever the problem if we put her over the shoulder, then she sticks her head back, mouth open, eyes pealed and stares for all the contrasting objects. The best is kitchen with the beams on the ceiling. She can look at them for ages, paired with rocking most of the cases sends her to sleep. DH has even worked out a special send-off routine where he has lights on in half the kitchen and he first walks with her there, when she seems to start drifting off he goes to the darker part to walk her to proper sleep. Then we can both leap on tiptoes to the bedroom praying we don't wake her and can all go to bed.

Also the black picture frame and the massive black mirror frame fascinate her.

DH has often resorted to standing facing a dark corner, Blair Witch Project style. Its.....disconcerting.

He's really trying to learn, I have to say. I went out to the Sling Meet & was gone two hours and they'd gone for a walk, had a feed and had a successful nap in the meantime. He told me proudly that he'd "observed some sleepy cues". Pretty good!

Anna, wish your DP would give mine a lesson or two! He moans that BabyFiend cries when he holds her, doesn't smile etc but he's only ever here in the evening, when she howls no matter what we do, or he holds her for two minutes while watching tv, so not interacting with her at all, then she cries and he gives her straight back to me (even if I'm trying to cook dinner). I put her down in the bedroom at 7:30 last night and she was unsettled, so when she started to cry I sent him in to settle her and he brought her out into the lounge where all the lights and the tv were on, so she woke straight up and howled and I had to start all over again. Argh!

Whinge over, sorry ladies!! Ark, I can thoroughly recommend riding again as soon as you can - it's done wonders for my pelvic floor! Been over to clip my pony today while my mum had DD for a while.

Eee! DD just having tummy time and had rolled herself over onto her back! Clever little sausage

Twiglet DH works mainly from home. He does work out on sites but they're only half days and he's back again. So he's here a LOT. I do think it makes a big difference. He has to listen to me whittering on about baby stuff all the time so a lot has gone in, and also the baby is quite accustomed to him.

Thats not to say its perfect - he definately thrusts him back at me in despair on a regular basis. But the period of time before he does it has lengthened, thank goodness.

So its apples and oranges when you're talking about Dads who only see them for an hour or two and Dads who work from home - the babys are often pretty skittish with Dads too, which doesn't help matters.

So we tried a bottle of expressed milk today. The medela bottle that came with the pump we have borrowed was a bit confusing. He didn't not like it just couldn't get milk out of it so tried him with a cheap boots bottle. Managed about 1 oz and then fell fast asleep. Bit much for him I think! Any suggestions for bottles?

cat was it the funny looking calma one? It took DD a while to get used to that. You can get 'normal' looking teats for the medela bottles, we got the slow flow ones for about 2 for £5 on Amazon.

cat - my dd couldnt master the medela calma one either.

Help I dont know what to do with dd! She's slept a lot of today while we've been out & woke up at 7.30pm when we got home and has been awake ever since!!! She laid quietly in her moses basket for a while after I'd spent 2hrs trying to settle her & gave up, but is now getting tetchy & is clearly shattered but cannot switch off. No wonder after 4hrs awake!

Dh has had a good 3hrs kip on the sofa while I've been sat up trying to settle her, we've come up to bed now & he's already zonked. Not once has he offered to help so I can get a rest. Feeling at him for this & for sleeping & because I'm not. He better be prepared to do the night feeds or else!!!

Same here omama last nap at 6ish and nothing more than half an hour today. She drops off but soon wakes up again. Dp has taken her for a bit now, I can here the floorboards so I'm guessing he's pacing the bedroom.

Tiiiiiiiired.

Hey folks. Hi to you all.

we went to a family party tonight. Dd2 was great - happy and Emily and slept in the midst of much noise. She was v much adored and oooh-ed over, it was lively to see her in amongst her kin.
she had her development check with HV yesterday. She is now 64cms so up at top of scale (no wonder - her dad is 6"5 and her big dis is on 95th percentile) All good with weight gain, tracking with her eyes. Responding to sounds and her name. They said she was v strong with excellent head control. When HV tried to pull her to sitting position to check,for head lag -- DD stood up - her new fav trick. I was v proud (can you tell ) and v relieved.

I am really loving this stage now. It is of course tough st times and I know we are v lucky to have a baby with no colic / reflux etc. She is a patient wee mop of a thing and usually v content. I also know we have lucked out re her sleeping ( though I do get bugged by people asking if she is a "good" baby as if babies can be intentionally bad).

next week is the start of classes /,groups for us and looking forward to meeting new people / other mums.

here's hoping we all get some kip tonight - it is snowing outside and I hope it lies to allow for sledging on the morning!

cat we are using nuk bottles with latex teats because a friend of mine recommended them - they're supposed to feel closer to the nipple for the baby. I think the latex teats don't last as long as the silicon ones, but if you're only using them for the odd feed of expressed, it doesn't matter.

The other thing I'd say is that the baby needs to practice with the bottle. DD was reluctant at first, and even when she'd had quite a few bottles and was used to them, she still found the pace hard to cope with and milk often went everywhere. But now she has started taking the bottle much more calmly, though she still has a clear preference for breast (which makes me happy as I like feeding her). Also, we found that giving the bottle and judging how much she wants improves with practice.

Eastmids, thanks for the tips on gaviscon. She spat up most of it until I tried that and we managed to actually get her to keep some of it down then thankfully. She was much happier and settled in the evening so hopefully it is helping her. I was naively hopeful it might make her sleep longer as she is often waking every 2-3 hours still but no luck so far!

Lady, DD loves the corner of the fire place for some reason. That and any lightbulbs going. Odd!

Hello all, it's been rather uneventful here which is just the way it should be!

Spent 7 hours at MIL's yesterday while the menfolk went to the football - lovely to have an experienced pair of hands very willing to take baby off me to settle / coo over!

Nappy-wise we've had some leaks from cloth - any tips?

Amy, a cork?! I sometimes think my DD could do with one of those...

Well, we had a 5 hour stint in cot last night. Longest sleep so far, wahoo! She even went back down in the cot for a couple of hours, though by 6 she was in bed with us because her windy tummy was kicking off.

Cat, will double check the brand of our bottles but they were from Mothercare, they've got anti-colic extra slow flow teats with an offset nipple as opposed to a central one. DD refuses a dummy but will take the bottle quite happily. When we tried the Tommee Tippee one that came with my pump, which has a central nipple, it was disaster! Milk everywhere and she was gulping air. I have a set of 4, which i don't really need for the odd expressed bottle. Do you want me to post you one to try?

Stormy evening yesterday with DD also in here. Could not settle DD for hours till 11pm when we all went to bed. She kept falling asleep and waking up in no time. Thank god she slept well during the night. Woke for feeding at 3.30am, 5 mins feed and straight to sleep.
Damn wind kicked in at 6 am, struggled to get her sleep up to 9.30am. Guess what, she is awake again!
Think we might have upset her yesterday by trying her in sling, she hates it with passion, presses with her arms against my chest and screams in my face. Read that most babies don't like being in sling at the very beginning and it takes time to get used to it. Decided give it a go, but she got even more upset. I think I will not try the sling anymore, will use baby carrier for outside and good old arms inside. Cannot stand her being such a bad way.

twiglet need a cork and a celotape for DD. :)
She likes to have dummy when we go outside, but keeps it spitting out and screeming for it at the same time, celotape or a ribbon would work wonders there.

Anyone else dress their baby up reeeeally stoopid?

I've dressed DS so funnily today it's making me chuckle every time I look at him!

So quick Grobag update - it worked ok on Friday evening until DS threw up all over it on Saturday morning lol. Worked out well Moggle with the travel mat to change during the night and he felt warmer in it although had to be careful to spread it out when he was in his crib so he could kick his legs. Will persevere with it I think despite him having a rough nights sleep I'm putting that down to his jabs he had the same day.

Had a horrible night last night I went out for dinner with some girl friends leaving hubby to do the last feed and settle mini mama. Turns out DS guzzled 6oz EBM and hubby topped him up with another 2oz of formula (which he hasn't had since hospital!) So despite coming home to find them both sparko it didn't last long

DS threw up at midnight and I mean it was a river flowing from his mouth sick worst I've ever seen it went everywhere even soaked through the mattress! He was the palest I've ever seen him too and slightly blue around the mouth and eyes (poor little mite!) and kept throwing up. Managed to get him all cleaned down but he was fast asleep so not very responsive and breathing really quietly and slowly so I panicked and rang 111 They got a GP to call me back and she reassured me which at 2am it might be a combo of the milk and jabs was just what I needed as hubby was walking the floor profusely apologising and beating himself up that he'd given him the formula

So after been awake most of the night just watching him sleep checking he wasn't sick again or chocking, and still breathing i'm cream crackered!

DS on the the hand is the perkiest I've seen him for days and was very hungry this morning. Phew! Feel like such a neurotic mother in the cold light of day though. We've had Los of cuddles and kisses this morning though so hopefully tonight will be uneventful and he goes down for a decent nap soon so I can get a few zzz's!

Btw I've often thought how I could get a piece of ribbon to keep the soother in - if only...!

Strawberryfield - same here with the sling. DS hates our baby carrier but I'm going to keep persevering and hopefully when he's a bit older and can face outwards he might like it...don't think he likes being restricted.