September 2014 - 6 months already?!

[holls2000]

new thread!

Sorry for typos and spelling mistakes in last post ! Really shouldn't post in the silly hours !

J had a really good night...seems to be loving his new cotbed and room. He went up at 8.30; woke at 2ish, then 5ish...now back to sleep. Bliss. I feel refreshed . Hopefully this continues.

I'm very tentatively going to say that the first 24hrs of the new sleep routine/rules has gone quite well. Other than a very difficult 1hr 15min during the night, she was pretty good. Let's see how the naps today go.

She's also come down with a cold, so she's full of snot. Going to push ahead with the sleep training anyway!

Jay - glad you also had quite a good night.

FATE - how was your night?

That's great new Team. Glad it went well. To be honest the transition of 5 + times a night waking to twice a night waking has not been too bad, J has been very adaptable to it.

Thanks Fate, will try to worry less.

Well done on a not-too-bad first night team.

Weigh-in day today at weight watchers and I'd stayed the same. Am gutted. I know 3 and 3/4lbs off in 4 weeks isn't bad but I was hoping to be losing 1-2lbs a week so feeling frustrated. And I swear (hand on heart) that I haven't been cheating. :(

FATE - how was your night?

4am night feed last night. Quick and easy though. I think we did 4 or 5 nights sleeping through this time. Sometimes she sleeps through, sometimes she doesn't. It's no biggie, I'm happy to just go with the flow.

Great to hear about your better sleeping Team.

Jay I hate the "boys are lazy" throw-away comment too, children just develop at different rates at different things. I believe that evidence shows the biggest two factors that affect achievement in children is affluence and maternal education - so nothing in there about gender, timing of physical, mental and emotional development, speech, month of birth - nothing that mothers of babies worry about actually affects the outcomes of a child.

great news, team. jay, have u night weaned? 5 wake ups last night, yawn

Not weaned entirely off night time milk Beccus...he has an ounce or two when he wakes up, but I prop him up in his bed to feed (he's FF), and this doesn't seem to appeal to him as much as being lifted up to feed. I don't think he's really hungry - it's just a sleep association.

Here's hoping you have a better night tonight !

I hoping to catch up more frequently this time if possible but things at work are piling up. DS had a cold which lasted around 2.5 weeks and yesterday the fever was not going down after 24hours of calpol; went to doctor who immediately prescribed antibiotics; I wasn't sure it was needed but he was suffering and I didn't even question it... He is better now; doctor said keep giving him neurophen until he is better.

I feel ds it being ill too often. Can you ladies tell me roughly how many times your LO got ill/even a simple cold till now?

We are going backwards with sleeping. I think I know what needs to be done to make it better but I am just too tired to try sleep training and I keep telling myself this is likely to be our only child and he will grow out of it at some point so not too worry... But then I get a bit upset at moving backwards; he used to self settle during the day; but he does not do that any more.

Thank you for asking about nursery ladies; it is not going great unfortunately and dh is questioning our decision of keep going like this and is suggesting a nanny. I disagree.

Nazly Sorry to hear that Nursery isn't going well, I was really hoping that would have improved for you. Well done for perservering with it, it must be difficult for you.
In regards to illness, J has only had one cold so far. However, you might find that your LO is picking up more colds from Nursery. I found with my eldest two, that during the nursery years they had permanent snotty noses ! I'm expecting it to happen when J goes too.

Re: Bright Clothes for Boys Alert

I have seen some really bright summer stuff in Asda - in the toddler boys section that goes from 9-12 months. Next have a few bright things in (pinks/orange/green), and a gorgeous pastel green/orange/peach/turquoise range. And Bluezoo in Debenhams also have some bright Tshirts - reds, oranges, greens - some with slogans/pics of animals on.
I will continue to keep my eyes peeled !

Re: Sleeping...Last night was the best yet. Put J down at 8.00, he drained off a bottle but was awake so I left him to self settle. Could hear him cooing and playing with the cot toy - then fell asleep within half an hour. He woke at midnight, and had 2 ounces of formula, before rolling on his side and drifting off. At 4am I heard him calling out...by the time I got in there he had gone back off. Finally he awoke at 6am, I've given him a bottle and he is now playing in his cot. I feel we are getting somewhere.....

I'm slightly scared to say it, but we also had quite a goodnight! Day two of sleep training and she went to sleep in her cot, woke at 12 and downed a bottle, woke at 3 but wasn't too interested in milk and was really difficult to settle, but she's got a cold and I think she was struggling to breathe, so I gave her nose drops she fell asleep after five minutes and woke just after six.

Yes, you heard me right - she woke just after six. In. Her. Own. Cot.

Given she has a cold, I'm so pleased with how she's doing. It has really motivated me to stick rigidly to this new plan.

Hope the rest of you also had restful nights.

That's great Team. We found that the improvements in J's sleep happened pretty quickly. Looks like it will be the same for you.

Great stuff Team and Jay

My DS has gone from self setting every night to needing to be rocked to sleep every night. I don't know what is different! On the plus side once he is asleep he generally stays asleep all night (touching wood) but I can't be rocking him to sleep every night, it takes ages so I end up bringing him downstairs. Think I am going to have to start retraining him, but not sure where to start as I didn't train him in the first place he just did it

Hi everyone, I've been a bit quiet as we've had guests staying this past week. It's been lovely but hard work cleaning up after everybody and now we're back to normal I feel quite down for some reason. I'm not really sure why, as objectively I know everything is much easier with dd - she is sleeping through, we've cracked naps, she loves her food, she's very happy etc. - but for some reason everything feels much harder. I feel like I'm wading through treacle and dread having to do whatever the next bit of looking after is... obviously off my game this week...

Well done Team and Jay, sounds like great progress with sleep!

Cumbrian and Nazly I'm also starting to slightly struggle to get dd down at night now she's 8 months, and I'm wondering whether it's because she's made the next mental leap. I read yesterday that it can be harder to get them to sleep/stay asleep between 7 and 12 months because they want to be practising all their new skills. DD self-settles instantly during the day, but when bedtime comes is now hyper awake and wants to be clapping and singing.

Nazly sorry to hear nursery isn't good. I think you've done really well to persevere but maybe time to try elsewhere? I was chatting to a neighbour of mine with a 14-month-old last night and he's just started with a child minder but hated the first one and was instantly happy with the second one once she moved him. Perhaps that nursery just isn't right for your ds? About illnesses, I've been wondering the same thing. DD had no colds until 5 months, and has had 4 in quick succession since then. I wonder if your ds is picking up bugs at nursery?

I think DS has had about five colds since he was born. I was surprised because lots of people said 'breastfed babies don't get sick as often'. The volume of snot has proved otherwise. We are at the tail end of a cold at the moment. They are very disruptive to routine etc which is frustrating. Luckily DS never seems to be that ill, just more clingy, runny nose and a cough.

Nazly well done for persevering. I think I would have given up a long time ago and tried something different. Is there a reason you want to stick with the nursery and disagree with your dh?

great news about sleepteam & jay. great night here, too. only needed 2 feeds. woke 3 other times but self settled ;) only 4 nights left until the 10 day trial of sleeping apart finishes. I think it seems to be helping, although he is v inconsistent. 3 nights of 5 wake ups, 1 of 3 and 2 of 2.

Wow! Well done EllaBella to you and to your DP! x

Wow! Ella, that's amazing. Well done

Thank you all- interesting how babies are so different.
Ds got a cold first when he was two- three months; after that he has been sick once every 6 weeks or so.... Nursery could play a role; but we are going to lots of other public/baby places and the possibility of getting sick is big every where, it is not only the number of times, but the length which has been normally a couple of weeks.
Ella thats really interesting, ds was born anaemic , but we are under impression he is now a lot better based on results of tests...

About nursery, we are both pretty sure changing the nursery does not help, and think the alternative would be a nanny- which is not going to work for us for various reasons including cost; but dh says we'll find the money -until he grows out of being nervous in nursery. but I am worried even at this age we may be causing social anxieties to stay with him if we pull him out.. But to be honest, I just don't know what is right anymore; I just know I am not letting him cry for any more than 10 min or so even if that messes with my work/life as I am effectively going to nursery with him!!!
I am very aware this may not work as my friends 19 months daughter never settled in nursery and has a nanny

In other news ds laughed and laughed and laughed in the car today with no reason known to me; just looked/listened to heavy rain an country music and kept laughing !! :)

Team/Jay/ other successful sleep trainers; please could you remember your methods with details as I think I will need to ask you in a couple of months what to do

Ella that's amazing weight loss

Sorry to hear nursery still isn't going well Nazly. Have you considered a childminder? DS may prefer the home environment & smaller number of children. It's normally cheaper than a nursery & certainly a lot cheaper than a nanny.

DS is suffering with a cold, cough & teething at the moment & also seems to have forgotten how to self settle. The dummy was rarely being used but is needed every nap time & night again at the moment. Hopefully once he's feeling better he'll start self settling again.

Hope you've had another good night team.

Well done on the weight loss Ella, that's great.

Had a relatively successful night. She went down after about 20 minutes of whinging and a small amount of crying, woke at 2 for a feed - yes, she slept 7-2, seven hours, never more than four at a time before!!! The bad was she woke at 4.45 For the first 15 minutes or so she was just rolling around and chatting, so I left her to it, but from 5.00 she was crying and I just could not settle her. I stuck to not taking her out of the cot, but it was tough!

Nazly, I'll try to summarise our new "regime rules"...

• clear bed/nap time routine so she knows it is time to sleep.
• do no let her fall asleep on us, she has to go to sleep in her cot. This was tough the first few times (45min!) but is getting far easier. She tends to fall asleep having her bottle, so I rouse her slightly, give her a kiss and lie her down, read her a story, then leave her as much as possible to settle herself to sleep. Use the same key phrase (sleepy time), shushing, stroking hair/back, patting bottom, whatever is needed to calm her, but...
• minimal intervention to help her settle, as much as possible she needs to do this in her own to learn to self settle. Yesterday she fell asleep for one nap just holding my finger! And...
• really important one... do not take her out of the cot until she is getting up. This is probably the most difficult one, but I'm sure this has made a big difference. We can do whatever it takes to settle her, but not take her out. Even feeding is dine with her lying in the cot, although she is on bottles, might be more challenging if you're still breast feeding!!!
• create new positive sleep associations that are not being cuddled by and sleeping on me or DH. We use white noise and she now has a comforter to snuggle up to. It's so sweet the way she drags it around the cot with her!
• given one of our biggest issues is early rising, in also doing a bit of a "wake up" routine, I'm hoping she'll learn that when I go in and say "sleepy time" and try to settle her it's still time to sleep. When it's morning (no earlier than 5.45) I open the blinds, say "good morning" and take her out of her sleeping bag whilst she's still in the cot.

Think that's everything we are doing! We've done three days now and it does seem to be working.

Sorry to hear that nursery is still tough for you Nazly

Sorry for the stupid auto correct typos!!!

Thanks for that 'regime' Team We tried putting DS down in the cot last night but gave up after 30 minutes, so I guess we should have persevered that little bit longer. Its hard listening to him cry/whine though. We are all out at an evening do on Saturday so I think I will wait to Sunday to try again now, then we can have a straight run of over a week to get him back to a routine.

Nazly I too was going to suggest a child minder. Home environment, but will still be mixing with other children so should help out with any social anxiety you think he may have? It must be so difficult seeing him upset at nursery, I am dreading the day I leave A, only 9 weeks to go