October 2014.. Thread 7.. Teeth, tantrums & tickles

[STIGZ]

Hope this works ?

We went out for a really long walk in all that rain today. Tried out my new £3 Primark special (a little waterproof for an 18 month old that I can wrap around Pip in her sling to fill the gap in my coat), and it worked really well - I was covered in mud and my jeans were soaked through, but my top was dry and she was completely dry apart from her face. She had rain running down her nose, but she was laughing and grinning her face off. Ace.

Also had a really good chat with a friend who is a stay at home mum - her and her husband have a really good way of managing the child care and basic household tasks. She still does stuff during the day, but the basic washing, washing up and breakfast getting and bedtime stuff they share. Suggested it to my boyfriend as a way of doing things once we're back in our own house, and he actually agreed it's a good one. He really likes this friend's husband though, so probably imagines that if he can do it, then it's a good idea. Also splits up the cooking, which I want to have happen - at the moment boyfriend does most of it, but I love cooking, just don't get the opportunity much.

Anyway, feeling generally much more positive after my weekend of ranting like a fool. Also think period return has cheered me up a bit - out of the pregnancy hormonal bubble.

Seems like we've had a mixed bag this weekend- Goats glad you had a good day, sorry to those struggling, hope things get better soon.
We're having lots of sad faces, grumbling in sleep and crying with teething. Poor love seems to be having her back teeth popping out first
On the plus side we seem to be getting into a nap routine with lots of activities in between!

Oh sherbit don't worry about moaning on here! I think its actually therapeutic seeing your thoughts & feelings written in words and you always know someone reading it will totally understand what you are going through! I do sympathise as i was having a week like yours last week, sometimes a good cry does help aswell?

splendid are you on any medication for your anxiety ?

Glad you got some things off your chest goats

I'm hitting the 4 month exhaustion slump, I'm honestly beginning to "fear" going back to work ! I think since having the baby it's been all systems go ie christmas, new year, february birthday's in my family are crazy, one each week. This month I'm shopping for holidays clothes as we are away in May, thank god my mum and dad are coming or i would be dreading it, will be so grateful for the extra pairs of hands for two weeks.

Is anyone else going away ?

thanks guys I have calmed down abit now except for the bit about my poor poor inlaws heated poollol.

Every night is different here. He generally goes down about 7pm which is the best bit - then he feeds at about 11 and then 2. After the 2am feed he is really unsettled and wakes and dozes on and off until about 4 when I end up feeding him again. Then he will not settle again until about 5 - then hel sleep until about 6. So we aren't getting any decent stints at all - should we be doing by now?! I was with dd1 but maybe that was lucky? I have a feeling he's as bad as I think sleep wise.

Oh crap he's waking now. So that's a 10pm start tonight. Fab.

I am convinced he doesn't need all that milk in the night - in the day he feeds at 7.30, 11, 3, 7 and he takes about 7/8oz a time. Problem is he will not resettle without it. Wev tried rocking him and wev tried leaving him to self settle but neither work. it just escalates more and more and because we have our 3yr old upstairs he ends up waking her. We are literally in and out of bed all night. now it's got to the point where even when DH is sorting him I'm lying awake worrying/listening etc.

I know the reflux/kidney things haven't helped nor did the hospital stay but I feel like things should be getting slightly better. It's hard to know if it is a regression because we haven't had a break from "issues" since the day he was born so wev never really experienced much positive in terms of his sleep.

thanks for everyone's replies - it does help! Especially with my friend with the newborn saying we had a nice 5 hour stint last night.

bad friend

I am convinced he doesn't need all that milk in the night - in the day he feeds at 7.30, 11, 3, 7 and he takes about 7/8oz a time

DD sleep well - 7.30pm feed and sleep. I wake her for an 11pm feed (or am-whenever I go to bed) and then she wakes some point between 7am-8am but is never demanding of a feed straight away.

I mention this not to gloat (so please don't think that) but in relation to your daytime feeds. I cannot get my DD to lengthen the time between feeds to more than 2 1/2 hours. It is usually 2 hours through the daytime. An example day would be:

8.00am-10.30am-12.30pm-3.00pm-5.30pm-7.30pm-(woken for)11pm.

I am acutely aware that she has 7 feeds a day - of between 5oz and 7oz. This is more than the tin suggests. So I have tried lengthening the time between feeds to 3 hours. She will tolerate this through the daytime, but without fail if she has only had 6 feeds instead of her usual 7, she will always wake up somewhere around 4am and be unsettleable until she is fed.

I get the same if I try not waking her for the 11pm feed.

So, all of my waffling aside, have you tried feeding more frequently through the daytime Sherbetdip1 ? See what fitting in one or two extra feeds in the daytime (by reducing the time between feeds by maybe half an hour or an hour) does to how settled he is at nighttime.

I'd also recommend a dummy, if you've not tried.

Ditto what fate says, I'm also feeding every 2.5 to 3 hours during the day and she does a long stretch of good sleep through the night. I really feel as though good sleepers are mostly a big fluke though! I have no clue what I'm doing

I wish mine was sleeping well having been fed every 2-3hrs in the day! We had one good night a few days ago (fed at 1.30&6.30) but it's all gone to shite again since!!

We feed at least every 3 hours, usually less. The dream feed isn't always given, depends what time I go to bed.
DH and I had a panic in the night- DD starting shouting/ groaning in her sleep and woke us both up. Must have been a bad dream?!?

I took fate's advice on two hourly feeds during the day, and the nights where she does a good stint at night are the ones following the big feed days. I don't get 11 - 7, but 11 - 4 then 4.15 - 8, which is fine. That's just breastfeeding.

I'm thinking about introducing a formula feed in at 7 so we can share bedtime and cooking duties.

We feed very frequently & she seems to tank herself up for nighttime. I don't think this is in any baby book & my first didn't sleep til she was 3 so I think it's luck to an extent but in case it helps this is our "pattern"

7am - BF on waking - full both sides
9am - BF - splash & dash/feed to sleep
11am - 7oz bottle - not usually finished
14:30 - BF - full
16:00 - BF - splash & dash before nursery pick up
17:30 -Bottle 7oz - not usually finished
19:30 - BF
20:30 - bottle 8oz and then bed around 9

We haven't hit the regression yet & have fallen into pattern rather than trying to get into a routine so every day I cross my fingers & hope it lasts!

Hope the sun is shining with everyone today and it's a good day all round

sherbet I'm just boob feeding but we have a similar nighttime set up which is crap. So he goes down easily at 7, might need a resettle 45 mins or so after but then normally wakes every 2 hours after and like you nothing will settle him. I've tried the dummy (my first loved a dummy) and I've tried several... And rocking will not often do the job either. He cluster feeds from about 2/3 until the morning, 6/7am. And is rarely hungry for ages first thing as he's fed himself silly all through the night. It's like we've got the feed scheduled the wrong way round. I'm trying to re sort when he feeds, although it's nice to have both kids in bed by 7, id rather feed in the eve and he went to bed at 9pm and slept through better and I bring forward his bedtime later on... The thing is I don't have much of an evening anyway with my DH at the minute because I'm so tired I end up in bed early so I might as well cluster feed the greedy blighter!
Any advice anyone? Does this sound like a sensible way to tackle the problem?

I'm not sure what will help, but I know that when we tried the bedtime at 7 thing and she wasn't ready for it, I went straight back to cluster feeding all evening. Took 2 weeks for her to be able to go to bed at 7 and sleep (mostly, we sometimes still get a wake up).

Thanks goats. Yeah maybe he's not ready, I mean he goes to sleep ok at 7, but maybe I'll trial a cluster feed evening for the next few nights and see if that improves things. N is the same age as pippa I think, it's amazing how different they all are!

Sazzle it sounds like Ned's got mixed up with day/ night I'm not sure how you can flip round the cluster feeding schedule. But I'm sure someone much wiser than me will be along soon!
Has everyone enjoyed the sunshine today? We went shopping with the Ergo instead of the pushchair, and had a little dance to the saxophone busker

Thanks so much for your replies everyone - especially fate. It's interesting as a few months ago he was feeding every hour or so through the day but he wasn't taking any substantial quantities - few ounces here, few ounces there etc. it was driving me spare as he was going mad for bottles and then messing about with them. Then when he was diagnosed with silent reflux the paed suggested he was comfort feeding. As soon as we started omeprazole he seemed to be able to go a lot longer in the day but based on what your saying I wonder if wev pushed it abit far...tbh I'm willing to try anything so I have managed to get another 9oz in him today so far and I may attempt a dream feed eeeeeeek tonight. We did try it a while back but he was still waking frequently so figured he was just not a dream feed baby - maybe we needed to persevere....

Il let you know how we get on...

Hope everyone else is having an ok day.

Ps in case anyone was worried my inlaws have managed to sort out their heated pool crisis so we are obviously all so relieved.

Good luck sherbet. Thank Christ for the swimming pool resolution! Heheh x

I'm glad the swimming pool issues have been resolved. I've been worried about your poor MIL

I'll be able to sleep now. The thought of a non heated swimming pool was bothering the shit out of me.

Oops DH put baby to bed minus scratch mits. So she taught us a lesson by gouging her head when she woke up with teething pain.
He looked pretty upset so I'm using super boob to get her back to sleep

Sazzle - we're in a similar situation with the night feeding. I don't put bubba to bed before 8.30pm/9pm as she wakes after a catnap if it's any earlier.

She does wake at 11pm ish and gets a big feed. Then she wakes at 1.30am and I'm now putting a dummy in (perseverance on this one, she rejected it from 4 weeks until now but has finally taken it). We get another waking any time from 3-4.30 am and from then on she wants feeding. She won't go back into her Co sleeper cot and wants to be next to me feeding and dozing. She also wakes up sated and won't feed in for the first hour at least.

Not sure how to break the cycle. She has a cold at the moment so she's resisting her cot even more and wants my presence. She does the zombie flailing arms which goats once described if I move away from her in bed. Seeking boobage... gahhh.

Good luck for tonight ladies, i took dd1 to see the peppa pig movie today as a wee treat to say thanks for being so patient when i was dealing with the baby, felt so bad as i was actually falling asleep through it poor wee love kept saying "mummy wake up, your missing it" im so tired as my period is due plus little miss is teething so she is really unsettled after 2am, i am so alert to every wee grunt, really should put her into her own room but im putting it off and i really dont know why?

The was meant to be lol

Sleepy so like us. From 3ish it's just feeding and dozing which is why I leave my boob out and let him lie on me snacking! Not ideal at all. Yes he will not go into the co sleeper at all, or he will fat asleep but wakes after about 20 mins and needs more feeding which is more annoying that just letting him sleep on me!

Yup, I know how you feel Sazzle. Bringing her into bed is so much easier than trying to resettle over and over. It's cos I'm so knackered, I don't have the energy for anything else.

I usually have so much more milk at night that I think she wants to take the opportunity to fill up. It's like she's pre paid for the all night buffet and wants to get her share of free refills and unlimited salad cart trips.

Hoping that weaning might help but we're a few weeks away from that...

Aww Stigz - I only have lo, cannot imagine having two, one takes up all my focus as it is. I haven't had a period yet, not looking forward to one either. Although I hope I'm not pregnant again...

Aw DD whimpering in her sleep made my stomach ache. Haven't woken her for dream feed as she's sleeping peacefully now. Am prepared for a broken night here.
Good luck Sazzle, Sleepy and any others having rubbish nights