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

[STIGZ]

Hope this works ?

Going to get the coil fitted at 1:30pm ... Im nervous..... Eeeek

Good luck STIGZ hope it goes ok. We've still no need of the coil, DD is making sure of that!

I should get a coil, but I just can't face it. I think boyf should get the snip to be honest. His turn to have horrible stuff done to his bits!

All done ... Not as bad as i expected, but feel like im in the early stages of labour just now so glad i got it in now

I'm with Goats I want DH to get the snip! I don't know if we should wait a bit though in case we change our minds about another. I feel as though I deginitely want just one but feels a bit radical to close the door totally.

Is anyone having any luck with a proper nap routine? A is asleep now in bed but we had such a crazy fight getting to that! And I had to feed him to sleep which I don't do at night.

Nope splendid no continuity to naps during the day, i find she needs a nap after 30 minutes of "playing" probably takes her about half an hour to settle into a nap and sometimes she will only nap 20 minutes but generally has a longer nap between 2 and 4.30pm only if I'm successful in re-settling her after her 20 minute wake up period

No continuity to naps here either. Some days like today it's just a few 1/2 hrs, if we go in the pram she can sleep for 3hrs. Only really sleeps on me or in pram actively daytime or conks out on playmat or bed when I'm sorting washing. Keep thinking I should do something but putting it off #lazymummy

I thought we were getting somewhere with naps. Got lulled into false security. Refused to nap until 11, even after a walk in the sling in the rain!
DH been on nights this week- has been hard work keeping her quiet in the mornings.
The ILs are coming this weekend, wish me luck!

DD naps have been really routine for ages. Changes as she grows (has just transitioned to big sleeps in the last week and a half). We loosely follow the EASY method to allow for regular sleeps and feeds. Just moved from a 2 hourly schedule straight to a four hourly schedule. I'm a schedule and routine fan though.

A loose routine here, usually a nap around 2 hrs after waking. And another 2 hrs after waking again but the length of nap is very random. Anything from 20 mins to 3hrs!! And she's been very wakeful in the afternoon this week, usually having a pre bedtime nap when DS is having his tea at 5pm.

Stupid FTM question but how do you know when to go to 4 hourly gaps and how do you get the routine changed without unleashing the beast?

I've just followed DDs lead Munday. Our schedule was based around 2 hourly feeds. Say if I fed her at 8am, she might be ready for a nap at 9am but then wake some point before 10am to feed again (repeat approx. two hourly through the day)

First I noticed she was leaving loads of her bottle every feed. Second I noticed that although she was feeding when I gave her a bottle, she was never at the point of being hungry. Finally (and the catalyst for change) she started sleeping much longer - 90 ish minutes. So I started spacing things out more and she started sleeping more, so must have liked it.

I'm pleased because she's been on 7 feeds per day for a long time. She had a while on eight feeds per 24 hours. Way more than the suggested amount on the tin so I was concerned. She has decided now that 5 feeds per day is what she wants, which is a far more reasonable amount. I guess I just had to wait for her to be ready.

Babywing is pretty good on naps and has settled into a good routine (guided by me!)
He sleeps for about 45 mins at about 9. Then goes down in his cot for a long nap at 12 usually between 2 and 2 and half hours.

he has slept through the last three nights too. Feel like I've finally turned a corner!

I've been guided mainly be him, to encourage him to have the long nap in the early days I would let him sleep in bouncy chair and if he woke I would bounce/feed him back to sleep. Sometimes I would do this 6/7 times but over a couple of weeks it got less and less. When he was sleeping well in his chair I moved him upstairs.

I know this sounds like a bit of a faff but for me establishing a decent nap at 12 was a big thing. It would probably have happened more naturally if I'd let it til he was a bit older. My elder Ds sleeps 12-2 so I wanted him to sleep at the same time. I have three under five so I need a break in the afternoon plus dd gets some 1 to 1 time.

Sometimes I would do this 6/7 times but over a couple of weeks it got less and less. When he was sleeping well in his chair I moved him upstairs.

I've done exactly this too. DD has only been having her big naps upstairs in the cot since Tuesday, so it is a very new thing. We do two big naps though - 9am and 1pm - rather than just one. Then two shorter later afternoon naps.

'Tis always a sad time when we say goodbye to the bouncy chair, but it is the beginning of the end for it. Still use the trusty bouncer for late afternoon short naps. Although she does this odd looking trying to sit up thing in it. She'll be grown out of it in a month, which in itself is a bit sad.

See I'm a routine fan as well and trying hard but he's started really resisting his lunchtime nap. So frustrating!

The baby's broken- my usual good night sleeper woke at 9.30 and 12.30. Wouldn't go back to sleep until we both got in my bed and she had her hand on my face. DH put her back in her room at 4.30 and now we've been up since 6.45.
Now I'm broken too!

We've got quite a loose nap pattern. Basically, I try and get her to nap an hour to ninety minutes after she wakes up, until five o'clock, when she has to be awake till bedtime. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, but I've discovered that if it doesn't work the best thing to do is either try again or go out and do something else, because spending hours trying to get her to sleep was destroying me.

She's stopped doing her awful evening fussing stuff, for which much relief, but after two good nights where she only woke up once and I felt positively spritely she's taken to waking every two hours actually howling, so I can't really leave her to sort herself out. Why? Teeth? Growth? Demonic possession? Perhaps we'll never know.

DP is going out on the razz tonight. It's the first time since before she was born, poor man, and I'm so, so jealous. Can't believe he gets to go to the pub AND sleep on the sofa (conversation sample- me: if you're pissed you'll have to sleep on the sofa. Him: Hurrah! Unbroken sleep! me: damn you shakes fist) I'm going to console myself by eating a pizza the size of my head and going to bed at 9pm.

That should have been try again half an hour later about the naps.

Another broken baby here
I went out for dinner with friends last night, I sort of knew she would be awful for dh but I really needed a night off! I did think she'd settle for a few hours before waking but nope had to abandon her crying and dh had to take over.

I had a nice dinner and didn't stay out too late but came home to them both still up and stressed. She'd downed the 3 oz of milk I'd left which was impressive seeing how full she was already and also seeing how rarely she has a bottle. But no dice on the sleep. Felt sorry for dh because another night she would have slept a bit at least but must have been picking up on my stress.

He says that she's not comfortable with him so we should maybe 'swap children' for a week or do and I do dd1's bed and he gives dd2 a bottle. Good plan in theory but it would mean putting the baby to bed after dd1 I think so that I can be free to help if necessary. And the baby so needs to be in bed by 7 at the moment.

Anyone else with 2+, how is the baby with your oh? Dh did so much with our first but this time around it's really just me dealing with the baby for operational reasons! But that's not ideal I guess.

Actually, on consideration, I've been thinking that maybe we need fewer, longer naps here now. I keep trying to get her to sleep when she's not that interested- still cheerful and awake, rather than just nap resisting. Then she'll go to sleep easily thirty minutes to an hour later. Anyway, the fewer naps bit isn't the problem, it's the longer part we struggle with- so batting that in mind I am sat by a bouncy chair with a sleeping baby in it, foot at the ready.Can you please all be like "go go go" and "no pain no gain" and "it's going to make your life better in the long run" because otherwise I'm going to give up in probably three days.

I've got a nice book about whales to read, though, so it's not all bad.

how is the baby with your oh?

Daddy is The Messiah, with all of them including baby

He's Fun Dad and gets most of the smiles and giggles. I do most of the practical, necessary parenting stuff. DH is family entertainment manager.

So if I am here, I do all of the bedtimes with baby while he does bedtime stories with the older ones.

There are times I am not here for bedtime though (I have a lot to do with Guiding so am often out at Rainbows/Brownies/Guides at bedtime). DH can do bedtime when I'm not here, it's not a problem. But if I am around then baby's bedtime defaults to me. Twice this week I've not been here for bedtime, for example.

Our key is that we don't have any kind of strict bedtime routine, so nothing is missed or vital if bedtime is different from one night to the next.

He's the Messiah here too fate with dd1 and he tends to take over with her when he comes in. I feel a bit that he hasn't yet bonded as much with dd2 which is a shame part of it is because she's had reflux so very unsettled plus a brief hospital stay during which time she was in excruciating pain - so since then I feel she has a strong aversion to being held by anyone who's not me a few people have commented on her extreme reaction and making strange this early on. She's not averse to dh but will only be happy with him for so long.

He did bath for dd1 every night but nightly bath is a thing of the past here now so it's not a bonding thing for him with dd2. So a -food bribe regular bottle with him might be a good idea.

But she is young still. I think it will all be a lot easier once she's on solids and he can feasibly take her on his own for longer.

Fate? May I bug you with a question?

I saw you talk about shh pat on another thread. Do you think this is worth trying for naps? Do you just keep on forever till they sleep? I just can't seem to get him to settle well in the day. It's weird as he's pretty good at settling at night

The caveat here is that I've not tried Shush Pat (CC at 12 months in desperation with DC1, the others never needed any sleep training), but like the idea of it above the other sleep training that result in crying.

Splendide - is this a problem getting to sleep or staying asleep during the day? Or both? Because if it the 45 minute short naps problem, you don't necessarily need to do anything. When baby is ready he'll move to bigger naps of his own accord.

Until then, dummy and bouncy chair is easiest.

With shush pat though, yes you just keep going until baby goes to sleep. You stay with baby constantly for reassurance, while they scream, shushing and patting. Still involves lots of crying and distress - hence dummy and bouncer being far less traumatic. You don't leave baby's side though, stay reassuring and don't pick baby up unless absolutely necessary (ie feed or nappy).

I love the pram for naps because if you catch them quick enough you can rock them back to sleep. Also it means I can nap her inside or go out and get some exercise. Also it makes transitioning to the cot easier because they know the drill of falling asleep in the pram so when the time is right you just stop rocking the pram at all. Once they can go to sleep in stationary pram you can recreate that upstairs in cot.

However it is a pain having our big pram constantly in the way in our small open plan kitchen/living area!

Naps are not so much of an issue here it's just the night sleep.