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

[MrsAukerman]

New thread, new moves, new poo!

WOOHOO greenstone!!

Thanks Thisisimpossible. I know what you mean about evenings being precious. It took me a long time to get over the fact I had lost my daily unwinding time in the evenings. Ds1 has a very predictable routine which he had from when he was a newborn and was usually tired out and ready for bed by 7ish.

Ds2 is a complete night owl. When he was first born he would sleep for most of the day and be up from about 8 - 12 pm. Ds1 on the otherhand would go to sleep at 7 - 8 pm but would be awake very early so I was stretched between their two schedules. I have had to juggle their natural body clocks a bit so that they both go to bed at 9pm but it is too late for them and for me.

What time do you start your ds's bedtime routine if he goes to sleep by 7pm? I am thinking of starting their bedtime routine at 5pm. My nightmare though is that baby will wake up later in the evening fully charged ready to face the world if you know what I mean, which has happened occasionally in thee past hen I have managed to get him down at 7pm.

Listening we eat dinner altogether at 5.30pm and baby is in bath for 6.15 and on boob by 6.40 and is then in bed 7-7.30 depending on feed length. Whilst I am feeding dh gets ds1 sorted for bed (he is 5 in a few weeks) and they play a game etc and he is in bed for 7.30 so we are both downstairs for 7.30/7.45 at the weekends we do it all half hr earlier so we get more of an evening as I go to bed at 9 as baby is up twice a night.

Baby would be better with a 6pm bedtime but husband walks in at 5.30 and literally we eat as soon as he comes in.

Ds1 used to have 8pm bedtime as husband used to get home st 6pm then and ds1 would be bathed and on boob for 7pm have an hr feed and from 15weeks sleep til 7am he loved sleep and still does (from birth til 8weeks he did wake 2hrly and feed for an hr so I only got 45min block of sleep it wasn't all plain sailing)

I would recommend sorting baby sleep before older one so get baby down for 7pm and this will start by waking him at 7am and adjusting routine accordingly so he goes down at 7pm I would also have a half hr later bedtime for older one as gives you time if on own to get them down after. My older one if we are on our own sits on bed next to me with sound off on tablet watching you tube clips (usually opening of blind bags and surprise eggs - he enjoys it!!) Then once baby goes down he gets half hr with me on his own even if it's bedtime wind down.

I go back to work beg Sept and hate saying next mth where has my mat leave gone although in early tough days I would have gone back in a second (well not really but) now u don't want to go back and these school hols are flying by.

If I could night nanny as my main job I would but it's an extra income for treats really as there isn't enough work here in Midlands unlike London also I intended to do some night nanny or babysitting work once baby was 4/5mths old even 6/7mths and perhaps extend mat leave but nope he still waking so no night work for me!! I will have used all savings being off 11mths in total (1mth unpaid, 1mth annual leave and 9mths mat leave)

listening we have a bottle about 4ish, then he has a big dinner at 5.30. Then we go in and watch Peppa Pig till 6 and then we either go have a bath or on non-bath nights start getting pyjamas on and changing nappy. Then by 6.20 he's yawning so he goes off to bed with a bottle.

I absolutely looooove our long baby-free evenings. It makes me feel normal. The downside is that he's up at 6am but hey ho. You can't have it every way.

If I were you I'd cut the nap down. We have 2 naps a day here, an hour in the morning and then an hour in the afternoon from about 2.30-3.30. Today it was a bit later as we were in the car so he fell asleep 3.30-4.30. So it could be a struggle to get him down tonight but i wouldn't push bedtime back as I want to be consistent with it.

So maybe if the nap was a bit shorter things might start to change naturally?

DS has tea at 4, then I start bedtime at 6 with a bath at 6, swiftly followed by a bottle and bed. He can either drop off immediately or take a while to settle. He stopped wanting cuddles about 6 weeks ago - he just wriggles and tries to get to anything in reach - so we just kiss him goodnight, put him in the cot and sit with him for a bit. Tbh he seems to settle better once we're out of the room.

He has two naps during the day; one between 8 and 10ish although can be shorter or longer, and the second between 12ish and 2/2.30/3 although again this can vary.

At 8-12mths the "average" baby needs 3hrs of naps over 2 naps and 11hrs at night!!

Ds 1 followed that to the letter

Ds2 is far from the average baby!! I will always empathise with any parent of a baby with silent reflux forever more and the poor sleep patterns that end up being caused long after the reflux is in control.

Twice a night waking isn't really that bad for an 8mths old it's just people pay me to support them getting babies to sleep through the night - so different with your own though

Need a virtual hand hold ladies. Just stripped DD off for bath free picking her up from grandmother where she has been 'off colour' all afternoon and she's covered head to toe in a red bumpy rash. Rang NHS number but not really anything I didn't know. Calpol and monitoring here for now but just an awful feeling knowing she's been miserable all afternoon with it and nobody noticed. Can't help but think I would have, even if that's not necessarily true, you know? Sitting cuddled up with her on the boob now, having a little cry because I am back at work with no option but to carry on and I am just not ready to leave her at all.

Twiglet have both hands for holding and hugs and tea and cake. She's probably been a little quieter but if she wanted comfort she would have 'asked' for it and I'm sure cuddles wouldn't have been refused. She's with you now and she has boob. It'll get easier (I'm assured it takes a couple of weeks).

I'm absolutely hating being back at work too. Well, the work is ok but the not looking after dd is hideous even though she's clearly loving it. She comes home FILTHY from all the crawling round the garden (we don't have a garden at the moment) and yesterday twisted to get down from me and into all the toys when I dropped her off. I still cried all the way to the work.

Hi listening, I also heard bring it forward by 15 minutes a day. DD has a short nap at 4 (which she's dropped at the childminders), dinner at 5, bath at 5.45/6, 6.30 cuddle and boob, asleep by 7 latest. Up at 5.30 (ouch!) and on the boob for a sleepy, dreamfeed until 6/6.30, as much as I'd love her to sleep until 6.30 or later, now I'm back at work I LOVE the morning feed and cuddle, sets me up for the day. Because of the early starts and broken sleep I have to go to bed at 9 so the evenings aren't long!

Nights have been rough this week, I assume because of the change in routine. Last night she was up at 1, 3 and then 4 when she wouldn't go back down so I got her Dad in, he got her off by 5.30 but wasn't worth him going back to sleep. She finally woke at 7 but we leave for CM at 7.30 so I didn't get long with her.

Greenstone Awesome!!

Also, after last nights shenanigans babydolly woke at 7 and was asleep again by 8.30. Then to add insult to injury she actually fell asleep in her highchair while having her lunch!! CM had to fish her out and lay her down! I was only saying yesterday that dd never seems to be drowsy or be one of those babies that sit quietly watching TV til they're sleepy, she's a whirlwind and then fights sleep as long as she can. This unheard of!!!

Big hand hold twiglet and a huge hug. I so feel for you. xx

And to you too ladydolly xx

Thank you for rhe great advice. My DH comes home quite late (anytime between 6-7.30) and I realised that this has been part of the reason why I started their bedtime routines so late so I could get some support and so they could spend some time with their dad.

Anyway yesterday I bit the bullet and started getting them ready for bed at 5pm. So tidying up toys, dinner, bath, story, bottle for baby. Dh got in around 6.45 so did the story bit with ds1. They were all in bed and asleep by 7.15.

Initially it started off beautifully. Baby slept throughout the evening. Bliss. However woke up at 12.50, ready to play and took me till about 2am to settle him which is not bad in the grand scheme. Weirdly though Ds1 also woke up around that time saying he needed a wee and proceeded to pee all the way from his room to the bathroom floor leaving a trail and puddle in the bathroom. Lovely! So mixed results but definitely going to persist with this. I need them in bed earlier for my sanity.

Oh and sorry to hear your lo is unwell twiglet. Be kind to yourself and hope she gets better soon.

Listening sounds like they need the earlier bedtime maybe get ds1 to have a very final wee before settling down to sleep so hopefuls he doesn't wake needing the toilet.

Twiglet hope your DD is better soon. You would most likely notice it earlier, but then again you are her mum, you know her best, you understand her without words, right? I find it with my mum (she loves DD to bits) that it takes her longer realise what DD is after. Look at it from the positive side, if you can, this incident will make grandmother more alert when looking after DD, it's good that she got warning. Big hug!

So last night DD had a good night, went to bed at 9pm (she had late nap 4-6pm) and woke up only once for a feed at 1.30am. But then it was me who woke up at 3am from a bad dream (some dodgy guy was taking DD away in her baby carrier). Damn! At this rate I will never get a sleep!

Hi All,

I haven't been on for a while, totally lacking in energy for anything as DDs sleeping is worse than when she was newborn, waking up every 1-2 hours during the night. We were on holiday last week, staying in a yurt, and she suddenly started sleeping better, just waking at 1.30 and 5 for feeds (but not going to sleep until 9ish as it was too light). I thought it might have been because she started crawling and was eating more food but she's gone back to waking every 2 hours since we got back. And ideas anyone? We were feeding her what we had eating out at lunch time, then pasta or half a pouch for dinner.

Sympathies to everyone back at work. I'm going back on Tuesday and dreading it. How is she going to cope without boob all day! I'm expressing like mad to fill the freezer as she hates formula (I tasted it, it's awful but then I'm not a big milk drinker anyway) and trying to make up some more purees but it not easy now with a baby who's into everything and climbing up everything. Must do some baby proofing and buy some stair gates this weekend.

Hi everyone - just quick note - I am still here, just v quiet as no time AT ALL trying to sort out Dad and give him the support he needs as well as keeping things on an even keel for DD.

Will hopefully be able to contribute more again soon!

Hi caz I go back to work in a mth so from Sat we begin operation no daytime boobing he will be offered milk in a cup mid morning n mid afternoon as he refuses bottles it will be ebm n food offered at all other times will be stocking up on fruit pouches, no milky desserts due to cmpi. Day 1 will be no feeds til 2pm, day 2 3pm until we reach 5pm and feeds will be 7am, 5pm and 6.30/7pm as my working day will be 8-4.30 and from experience it's better to do same on work days and non work days. Dreading affect it will have on the already not great nights. Life would be easier if he took a bottle.

We did same with ds1 and dreaded it but worked fine no issues and actually started eating more food although ds2 actually does eat alot and boob alot intake of Amy description does not reflect how the night goes here.

Thanks East, I think she will probably be ok, it's just me worrying. She didn't have a lot of milk during the day while we were away as there were too many distractions when we were out and about, but she's been having midmorning and lunch feeds since we've been back. I will stock up on yoghurt, fruit custard etc. My plan was that she would be having a bottle of formula during the day by now but that hasn't worked.

Poor havent Lord knows i remember how shit it is going in and out of hospital every day and minding the baby! Bloody nightmare.

Well at this house, DS has started to CRAWL! Took us all by suprise tbh as he wasn't even commando crawling. He literally discovered commando crawling and then proper crawling in 24 hrs!

THIS HOUSE IS NOW A DEATHTRAP.......he has discovered all these lovely cables and chargers and plugs and things!

He's started pulling himself up on things too so no end table is safe. This is all a bit sudden!

On the other hand he slept longer than ever before - from 6.30pm to 7.15am without me having to go in once. I presume thats cos of all the moving?

haven't that sounds so difficult, and your poor dad too can anyone share the load with you?

Twiglet how is your dd now? I understand how raw everything feels when you go back to work, it feels like the world of work and the world of being a mother to a baby are so incompatible sometimes, so much to worry about at home while trying to present a calm and professional veneer at work. All I can say is that it does get a little bit easier as time goes on, though any illness makes it feel 100 times more miserable! I'm sure your dd will bounce right back.

Caz I think you are heroic to do all that expressing! I'm sure you have tried mixing formula and ebm and gradually reducing the percentage of ebm every day? Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. DD1 wasn't that keen on the taste of formula at first but we tried this and she got it. DD2, for all the difficulties we've had with her, never had an issue with the taste of formula, or a bottle for that matter.

Anna wow that's impressive that your ds just decided to do everything at once! I am going mad here with random teeny splinters of wood all over the floor (DH has just laid a new floor in the new house). DD2 keeps finding them no matter how vigilant we are. Actually, DD1 does a far better job of monitoring what goes into the baby's mouth than I do

After her good night when I went out the other night, DD2 did a bad night the following one (of course). Last night though she was brilliant - brief wake at 10.30 but I was able to cuddle her back to sleep in minutes without her demanding boob, then she slept through til 2.30, 15 minute feed, then up for the day at 6.50. She was sitting up singing in her cot when I went in so clearly the extra sleep suited her. I just can't get over it! Even if it all falls apart again, at least I know she is technically capable of doing a good night. Actually, a bit of mini-cluster feeding went on at bedtime for both of those good nights, so I'll be pushing that again tonight.

Hope everyone has a good weekend.

Oh and east good luck with operation no daytime boobing tomorrow! I'm sure ds2 will get the memo fairly soon and adapt.

Anna it's a nightmare isn't it for past few weeks baby can roll across lounge and get around on his back nothing is safe from his grabby hands and going to the loo is a strategic operation

Thanks Greenstone it's always been the plan to do it one month before as we did with ds1 but now it's upon us I feel a little mean but needs must Will be expressing for food n beaker

Thinking of you haven't.

Caz we were/are in the same position. I didn't prep as well as you so just started pumping at work twice a day once I went back so I was a day behind. Also made loads of baby food in the few weeks before... I now have about 3 bags of veggie balls that she won't eat!! :)

Yesterday she had a late nap because she was so tired and I ended up waking her up after