September 14 babies - bring on the weaning!

[KitKat1985]

New thread for the Sept 14 babies. :)

I have been thinking how realistic it would be to ebf with baby no.2 (don't get excited I'm not pregnant lol). I don't regret ebf at all and on the whole i enjoy it. There's been a couple of times I tried to give her formula to give myself a break but she wouldn't have it anyway so I've had no choice but to carry on. I was thinking I might try mixed feeding if I had another baby as I won't be able to sit on the sofa bf for hours on end with a toddler running around !

I think most babies do that happy noises, fast breathing and big smile when put in the feeding position (breast or bottle) and shown the milk source (breast or bottle).

Makes no difference what the milk is.

In the grand scheme of parenthood, how you feed your baby is unimportant.

Ellla - I think runny poo and sore bum is a teething sign?

Oh dear, Ella :( your post made me really concerned about the future. The worry never ends, does it? I always read Fate, Jay and your posts about your older children with interest...

It this thread going to exist when our babies are years old or teens? Fate I don't suppose you are following any of your older children birth threads are you?!

Oh and I do think feeding , in general, is important in parenthood, but I agree with you that choosing between bf or ff in specific, is not that important in grand scheme of things... I think developing your kids taste to like healthy foods as solids is probably more important. Just personal opinion.

DD hasn't gotten any better at sleeping since changing from bf to ff. She's still up at 5.30 every morning. Today she was up every 30 minutes from 3.30

Social media is grim - it affects kids terribly; the written word seems dreadfully poisonous at times, and kids think they are being funny when they aren't.

DH is a few year younger than me. A computer geek and social media fan of the highest order. He recently had an epiphany after many years of me nagging him that he needed to think more about he used it.

He's deleted EVERYTHING.

Took him hours.

I think between the two of us we've had enough experience of it ourselves to have a fair idea of the pitfalls. We met through the internet which had an interesting community. I've seen some pretty awful stuff over the years. I'm quite thankful for the experience now.

I do also think that a lot of the bigger issues with be dealt with or be more widely known by the time DS hits an age when he really wants to start using unsupervised.

My older children are 10, 9 and 5 so I am yet to reach the teenage years. But actually I am looking forward to it. As a secondary teacher I mostly taught KS4 & 5 - so 14 to 19 year olds. I have found I relate better to my children as they get older and I definitely relate better to your average 16 year old than I do your average 8 year old.

I have using several internet help forums over the years, I like the forum interface. But have never engaged with social media and have to say I don't 'get it'. DH is the same. However we do realise that should our children join the social media generation then this is something we will need to join, not least just to keep tabs on them.

Team - Unfortunately it is not uncommon to reach the point that habits are too ingrained to be changed with something as easy as switching to formula.

I introduced formula with my DC1 initially at 6 months, out of desperation. But the behavioural issues surrounding sleep with her were too ingrained by that time for anything that easy to make a difference.

In the BF/FF debate, it may be worth me noting that my DC4 was sleeping through (11pm expressed milk dreamfeed without waking again until 8am) at 8 weeks old and whilst exclusively breastfed.

To acknowledge the difficulties some of our breastfeeding Mums are having though, I'd say she was the exception, rather than the rule.

I don't think she would have stayed sleeping through . As soon as she faced her first significant growth spurt that affected how content she was (at 12 weeks), I started mix feeding so that she didn't have to go through the cluster feeding and boob rage.

Sorry Ella I didn't mean your post about your ds1, in fact I also think it could be normal at this age not to be after many social interaction; my concern was more about the general feel of post, social media, etc.

I have been using different types of social media since 1990s (oops! Shows how very old I am) but I have to say I don't understand many teen problems and don't have experience of dealing with them; had never faced a very bitchy person and was not affected too much... I am generally somewhat reserved about sharing on social media; dh is among few people I know who does not use social media ... So we wont know how to deal with those issues, but then I would have thought any general life skill will work there too, no? What's different?

Had a super hysterical baby tonight... No idea why... He has a cold, but not sure if it was it... Out of desperation and as we were debating calling 111 used tiny bit of anbesol on his gum and he went quite within seconds!! Surely even if it was teething it takes more for the medicine to kick in? Coincidence?

Oh woooow Ella (where is the icon of feeling sick??)
Have never experienced anything like that, would have loads of difficulty dealing with it all...

Poorly baby here.... Loooong night... Still Not quite sure how to notice if chest infection or normal cold.

Babyhood seems to be the nicest stage though... With all its problems..

Argh!

DD, 4.30 is not an appropriate time to wake up!!!

I can just about cope with 5.30 (pre-DD I was an early bird naturally and am usually up 6.00-6.30), but 4.30 is really not good.

Any ideas on what we can do?

She would probably go to bed at 6pm if we let her, we try to push her to 7pm, but it does sometimes lead to over tired hysterics.

I'm tempted to try putting her down for a nap at around 5.30 and to wake her 30 minutes later. If that means we can push bedtime a little later, maybe wake up time will shift too?

Otherwise, I'm just really looking forward to the clocks changing. 8pm - 6am sounds far more sociable than 7pm - 5 am!!!

I would give her a late nap and see if that works.

I have to do a late nap, supposed to be 5 till 6 but can be 5.30 by the time I get him to sleep. He then goes to sleep properly at 8 or 8.30 but he's still a tired mess by then! I'd rather not have a late nap, but otherwise he's be the same and wanting to sleep properly by 6. I try to let him wake himself from his nap, if I wake him then he's even grumpier. I live in hope that one day I'll get his naps right and he'll sleep better at night. Though with a cold and another round of teething it's not going to be anytime soon.

Going to try a late nap today then! Let's see what happens

team, u may find an earlier bedtime means she is less overtired and she actually sleeps later.

Team - Do you do night feeds?

I'm trying (on and off) to extend the time between DDs feeds during the day to 3 hourly. This results in her having one less feed overall in 24 hours - six feeds instead of her usual seven.

As a result on the days she has 7 feeds she sleeps 11pm - 8am.

On the days she has 6 feeds she is fed 11pm and without fail always wakes around 4am - 5am ish. She wants a feed just I just spend half an hour re-settling her with dummy and hand holding and she eventually goes back to sleep.

I mention this because the time is the same as your wake up. You could try more frequent feeds during the daytime to solve.

Yes, we do night feeds. She is dreadful through the night.

It usually goes something like... Bed at 7, bit upset due to over tiredness. Wake at 11.00-12.00 for a feed. Sometimes she will then sleep until 3.00 ish for another feed, but sometimes that is the beginning of her being unsettled and waking every 30-45 minutes. She is always unsettled from the 3.00 feed until she wakes at 5.30. Sometimes the 3.00 feed is split into two feeds at around 1.30 and 3.30.

She is a sleep disaster zone! The good news is that we have made some progress. She is now in a big cot in her own room and she will now let DH feed and settle her, so he takes on some of the night work so that I can get some sleep.

From my perspective, I think getting her to self settle is something we really need to work on. At the moment we need to cuddle and rock her to sleep. I'm trying to start to put her down tired but awake with her mobile/music. She does like to stare at it, and I think it is getting her into the right relaxed state for her to drop off, but at that last moment she fights it and cries so I end up picking her up. I'm going to persist with it though. I'm hoping that the more I do it, the more used to it she will get, and eventually she will just drop off. Maybe I'm just kidding myself though?!

In bed she is full on swaddled with a cellular blanket tight over her. She does have a dummy, but I've been trying to take it away from her when she's asleep as it tends to end up under her head, which then wakes her.

During the day she feeds about every 2.5-3 hours. I've been trying to push her longer between feeds to get her to take more milk. We make 5oz bottles and often throw away a couple of oz.

She usually goes about 2-2.5 hours between naps. In her cot she will do anything from 20 minutes to 1.5 hours, in the pram or car 1-1.5 hours.

Sorry for such a mammoth post, but I thought these might be the kinds of things that might give some pointers as to what we are doing wrong!

We were discussing whether to try to do a dream feed. Might that help to keep her settled for longer? If she goes to bed at 7, she would normally feed after 11.00, so would 10.30 be a good time to do it? Do you literally just pick up, feed and put back down?

Early weaning has been suggested by some, but we are going to wait until she's six months (she's just turned five months). They think her digestive problems may have been due to a slow to mature gut, so I want to leave it to develop a little more. She's also showing no interest in food at all yet.

So, might a late nap, dream feed and trying to get her to self settle help us to get a good night's sleep?!?

Thanks all, and sorry for such a long post.

Well done on all the progress you've made Team, I know you've had a tough time.

If she doesn't take many oz per feed, this may well be something as simple as that she has a physically small stomach and can't take any more. Aiming to feed more frequently through the daytime, rather than larger amount per feed may be an alternate way to consider getting more milk into her.

Your daytime naps sound absolutely perfect!

The point of the dreamfeed is for your benefit, you just pick her up and put the bottle teat in her mouth before you go to bed. It may take a week or so for a dreamfeed to be effective, but some babies just are not receptive to them.

She does sound over tired at bedtime. My DD always has a nap at around 5pm (I need her to, because that's when I need to make dinner!) until somewhere around 5.30 to 6.00pm. She then goes to bed between 7pm and 8pm, depending on how grumpy she is.