November 2014 - The one where they won't stay still.

[MrsAukerman]

New thread, new moves, new poo!

Errrr, without sounding like a complete idiot....what's the connection / link between BF, sleeping through the night, naps and return of periods? I'm exclusively BF, DD is now sleeping through, and naps 3 times during the day. Is this an indicator of something? (does everyone know this except me?! )

Haven't usually once baby goes longer than 3hrs between feeds periods return but not in all cases and some people they return even though feeding all day and night

Period came back as soon as BF:FF was 50:50, and full on the usual frequency. The weight is back to pre-pregnancy, but instead of going back to size 10, I am now somewhere between 10 and 12. Due to mum tum better buy 12 to be on the safe size. Should not be surprised with all the chocolate binge I have had recently. I think the size will be back to the old one once back to work (commute, stress, mental workload etc). Will just have to accept myself while pottering at home in clothes with elasticated waste line.

Havent you are not idiot. The link between things is that while BF regularly, most likely periods will not come back, and it should work like a natural contraceptive. But then again nature likes to play a joke or two with humans... ;)

DH is making toad in the hole with mash and veg for dinner. I would make DD2 batter with soya milk (make small Yorkshire puddings and freeze ones not eaten) and mash her some potato separately without milk and butter/ with dairy-free spread and soya milk. DH had (another) long discussion about how he doesn't believe she has CMPI and we should try introducing dairy. I explained the milk ladder to him and maybe taking it slowly just in case, but I don't want to be the one making all the decisions all the time when he is so adamant, so tonight's dinner is a blind trial to me. I don't know and won't know if he has made separate batter or seperate potato and won't ask until another day. Except the 'symptoms' that made me cut out dairy from her diet was mostly the appalling sleeping, and she didn't sleep particularly well last night, and if her sleeping goes wrong now we can't necessarily blame her dinner as it could be her teeth or the weather or anything or nothing.

Thanks for explaining Eastmids and Strawberry . Hmmm, well maybe it's only a matter of time then...DD been going 4 hours between each feed for quite a while now, but I am exclusively BF - no FF at all... Really don't fancy "nature's joke" either Strawberry ...

The information I read said 6 hour gap (presumably at night) is what stops it being a contraceptive. That's why last night's 7 hr stretch made us think.
I've been feeling quite flushed today but not sure if it's because I've caught the sun, been at the wine or am hormonal!

My af (seems like ages since I called it that on the ttc boards!) came back in April but I only had one before getting the mirena fitted and that's made me bleed for the last few weeks anyway. I'm still exclusively bf and I can only dream of her going more than 3 hours :)

Right, trust technique users. Advice please, I have to feed dd to sleep (the only other way to get her to sleep is in the buggy or car and even that takes ages now) including night time wake ups every 3 hours. The book suggested the gently technique and to move from feeding to rocking when she's nearly asleep. DD isn't a particularly cuddly baby and hates being rocked, it's been months since we could do that. She also doesn't really have a sleepy stage, she's either fighting and fidgeting (even when I'm feeding her) or asleep, there is no inbetween, it's like she just passes out! So I'm worried about this technique. If I give it a go for a week or so I'm thinking I'll have to just go from feeding to putting her in the cot (and back and forth) and skip the rocking. What do you think?

Last night was awful due to teeth I assume, she was crying in her sleep and waking every hour, I brought her into bed with me at 3 and fed her on and off until 6.20 when she was done. She woke up with what I thought was a cold but dsis thinks it's just the teeth symptoms.

Brekkie of fruit porridge, lunch fish pie, dinner chunks of swede, cheese and green beans plus new try of an olive which she was not keen on at all.

Went to a local baby show today was good fun although baby refused to bf or sleep and a savoury dinner pouch was given a firm lip purse after 2 mouthfuls and he waited til home for beef stew I did mix a bit of pouch into both his lunch and dinner as not to waste it, my first hated the pre made dinners too and admittedly they taste rank.

Both boys had pics taken for photo comp will post link for likes if people don't mind it's done on Facebook likes, council judging and photo company judging apparently

Didn't get af back til 12 months with dd1, I was still doing a night (well early morning) feed at that stage but stopped a few weeks later and stopped altogether at 13mo.

Absolutely no sign of 6 hour stretch here :( longest ever stretch was 5 hours :(

Bad sleep here too, dd is so unsettled in the evenings again it's headwrecking. Feeding now again. She does tend to still give us a 3.5-4h stretch from 11pm onwards and then another 2.5-3.5 hour one after feed if we're lucky. But up and down all evening at 7.5 months is getting a bit old. Sigh but she has been streaming snot ever since jabs and I guess lots of developmental stuff happening too. Sometimes when I'm saying goodnight to dd1 who is drifting off happily on her own (well, sucking thumb!) for the while night I think HOW? How do you get from there (dd2) to there? (Dd1). It's all been such a blur.

Ready brek with prune ella's pouch stuff for breakfast. Lunch beef stew with sweet potato mash followed by a Liga dipped in milk and prune stuff for dessert. Dinner was sweet potato with avocado and a dash of lemon and rice cakes and banana for dessert.

I am being a bit disorganised and crap with the dinners and relying too much on sweet potato I think! I will be happier giving her salad vegetables once she has teeth. Anyway she was knackered after a day out and about and just cried for a lot of her dinner.

Happy to see pics east but I'm not on Facebook!

ladydolly thats tough. If you can't rock to sleep, could you use a dummy? Its probably the sucking reflex thats the trigger.

It seems from reading the thread like this is the stage where the FF babies start to sleep longer whilst the BF babies aren't there yet?

Just saw those Kate Middleton pics. 6 weeks after #2 and stomach as flat as a pancake. God its depressing.

Haha Anna I saw them pics last night and was trying to remember how I looked myself at the 6 weeks appointment.
Was thinking maybe it's a different way people put on weight? She seems to have more than usual on tights and bum, I had all the glory on the stomach and looked bit pregnant at NYE (4 weeks later).

Ladydolly we used the Peekaboo technique and we found this worked really well for us. Like you, I'd had enough of pushing her around in the pushchair to get her to nap during the day... We started using the technique for the first time on a Friday night of a bank hol weekend (so DH was around for longer to help ) and her first nap in her cot bed was the Saturday morning. After 8 minutes and 6 "reassurances", she napped for 1.5 hours. We were gob smacked to say the least.

Is it worth giving this technique a go if you don't think the other one is suitable??? I think she suggests 5 different ones in the book? Whatever you do, GOOD LUCK!

Lots to catch up on!

Lady, no tips as sleep still a complete roulette here, but commiserating thoughts for you!

Greenstone, we also rely quite heavily on sweet potato, mainly because I've got gluts of it frozen in portion sizes and it's so quick and easy! We have tried giving her carrot four times now and she hates it, it touches her tongue and comws

Bugger! Bloody phone!

...comes straight back out. Might see if I can find some avocado in the reduced bit this evening. Money getting so tight now that any kind of waste makes me cringe.

Anna, if you had a team of stylists/make up artists/pamperers looking after you and a nanny on hand 24/7 post baby you probably would have looked similar! That's what I tell myself anyway.

MrsA, you and your 7 hours of sleep and your DTD make me haha!

My younger sister (23) had DD most of the day on her own yesterday as I went out competing with my horse. DD was apparently sunny and delightful the whole time, took her bottles fine both times and had a 1.25 hour nap which she went down for with only 15 minutes of fussing first. DP was most put out as she still fights a bottle with him and refuses to sleep!

Happy, hope you had a good sleep last night.

Really crap night here, DD stayed awake from 10pm - 2am. She doesn't seem ill or in pain so God knows why she wouldn't go back to sleep. The only thing I could think of was that I had a cappuccino while we were out yesterday afternoon but surely that not enough caffeine to make a difference?? I tried everything ignoring, shushing, feeding, playing the bed time music but the only thing that works is just waiting it out until she falls asleep. She also kept biting my nipples, maybe because I was trying to feed her to get her to go to sleep when she didn't really want it. Makes me flinch every time I put her on. Going to have to start using the nipple balm again. I did go 'ouch' quite loud and took her off but she just thought it was funny. On the plus side, I'm sure she waved DH off to work this morning (or maybe it was just some well timed arm flailing!!)

Caz is she in a wonder week? Our last one was hell on earth with the unexplained wakings. Now though things have improved massively.

Caz they often bite down on nipples when teething/in pain I too am suffering with chomped on nipples.

Just made huge batch of chicken potatoes and veg all mashed for freezer for baby as only had 2 pots beef stew left in the stash as he eats so much now.

Lunch was last of some curry he ate more than normal of it but not a huge fan.

Saw a cm this morning for baby nice enough but not for me I won't post name of her business rather than her first name she has called it a random name followed by some baby talk for example looby loo loos!!! (But worse)

We haven't been rocking DD for months as well because she didn't need it to fall asleep. So today I thought I will give it a try, maybe it does send her to sleep once she is about to wake up from the nap. Poor kid, she woke up completely and stared in my face like saying "mum, are you nuts? What are you doing?" Still trying all sorts to get her naps prolonged. It seems that with DD sometimes work the opposite the book. She naps longer if she is more tired. Also tried to put her down for night earlier than usual, 1,5 hours later she woke up perky, so that we ended having her downstairs for an hour or so before she went properly to sleep. She goes down beautifully, but what happens afterwards is definitely worse that used to be 3 months ago. She is learning lots of new skills recently, so quietly I am hoping she would get through it in few weeks time. Meanwhile trying my best to make sure she eats, drinks and naps as much as possible (not boring at all, right?!)

Naps back to 40 mins today no matter what we do. Oh well, its a marathon, not a sprint.

Caz and eastmids I've got a nipple chomper too ....even more painful when she gums down and then yanks away

anna We did talk about using a dummy but so many people have said 'if you've come this far don't do it' and I wonder if I'll be up just as much putting it back in. I think it's on the table but we're not quite there.

haven't I have to admit I thought that one was best suited to dd, sometimes she just doesn't want the boob and she tries so hard to get herself to sleep while I stroke her leg or sit with her but she can't quite get there and I get her back on the boob in the end and sometimes she fights it. Although she never fights boob for night wakings. At least with peekaboo and dummy options I don't have to do it alone, I don't know that I have the strength! Question though, did you stay in there if dd cried for more than the time it took to use the sleep cues? or did you go out and comeback in? Did you feed to sleep for nighttime before you used this technique?

Long night last night again, I brought her into bed at 2ish which was the 3rd time she'd woken. She's been nipple tugging but thankfully not biting, that new tooth is sharper than a samurai sword!

Brekkie was porridge and pear slices. Lunch was parsnip and apple puree which she wolfed down along with peach slices. Dinner was 2 crumpets with almond butter which she ate approx 1 bite from and I ate the rest

Dp made the mistake of telling his know it all, judgemental, ex maternity nurse mother we're doing some sleep training and she spent the rest of his journey home saying it's natural to wake up and she's still very young etc etc. I'm annoyed because she knows I wouldn't let her cry it out.

Also thought the same thing about K Middy, and I knoooooow we shouldn't be judging each other on our weight loss post pregnancy but I was just so jealous. Then today while out shopping with dd in the push chair I was wearing a denim dress with buttons at the boobs for feeding access and the buttons kept popping open and I was so annoyed, I kept thinking how I love breast feeding but I'm missing the non boob accessible clothes. Then this new mum swans by in HOT PANTS, you could actually see her cellulite free bum cheeks. Tum totally flat and hair all shiny but most of all her face was so serene and her baby can only have been days old, possibly weeks. Imagine my joy when a chap stopped her to ask 'how old is your daughter?' and she said 'she's my niece' :) phew.

Ladydolly before we used the Peekaboo technique at night time I was BF DD to sleep and then when she fell asleep I was VERY carefully carrying her into her rom and putting her to bed. If I got it wrong and she wasn't in a deep enough sleep and she woke up during this, it was pretty tricky to get her back down to sleep - lots of rocking and jigging up and down were required. It could take at least 2-3 hours to get her to sleep.

So now, our bedtime routine to get her to bed is: I BF her downstairs in the living room on my own (she gets too distracted if anyone else is around); DH gives her a bath; we read her a bedtime story and then put her into her cot bed (awake). In the beginning she cried as soon as we put her in the bed. We'd say the sleep cue words, leave her room and go to our room, and then go back in again to say the words again. So in answer to your question, we left and went back in. The first night we followed the Peekaboo technique, we ended up going in 63 times within the first hour (she cried continuously ). Then we had to go in another 8 times before she feel asleep. The 2nd night we had to go in 20 times and the 3rd night we didn't go in at all .

We've also used this technique in the night when she's woken up (and it has worked). Must admit, I did stay in for practically 2 whole weeks as we also wanted to nail her sleeping in her cot bed during the day...once I was happy that the routine was embedded, we ventured out again!