September 2006 Babies - growing in front of our eyes!

[Lysettes]

New thread everyone!

Hi Marls - well done for figuring out how to get J's "night" to match yours! What's AR btw? My ds at 3.5 is still in a big carseat with 5 point harness, lots of his friends are in the booster and back style but he doesn't seem to have noticed! Wow at you running a 5K - well done. What time to you expect to do it in?

If anyone likes the look of Marls' luminaires, you can buy them in Lakeland (or could 2 Christmasses ago!)

ok so i'm officially a member of the yahoo group and i've added a few pics of ds. ((yahoo name is ChefMunki)).

i'm off to begin the settling of ds. goodnight all!
p.s. thanks for all the words about routines. im ver much a routine person, but also a very new parent. i cant seem to find the balance. but he's only 7 weeks...so i'm hoping the balance finds itself soon. ((or at least sometime before we have another one!))

oh MARLS~ i was thinking of keeping him up "somehow" for longer periods of the evening...glad to know it worked for you..MUST TRY IT SOON!

well after yesterdays reasonable sucessful nap with DS1, we had a reasonably ok night, with only a few tears. So hopefully we've turned a corner.
DS2 however didn't take his feed at 9.30pm, he just wouldn't wake, so went from 6.30pm til 4am this morning, which to me means he is more than capable of sleeping through. This weekend I have decided he is going in his big cot, he's outgrown the moses basket anyway and I am sure this waking at 4am is because he is coming in to a light sleep and he senses we are there - so more a habit than hunger.
Marls - wow xmas decs already!!! I will be waiting til after DS1's birthday which is 1st december, once that's out of the way...roll on xmas! I love the luminarias - I will be looking for those in lakeland, I like the idea of having some by the front door.
Tassis - what a fantastic night! I am hoping mine will be like that after this weekend

By the way - I am going to book us a cottage for next may, in Cardigan bay, I have never been but it looks lovely - Has anyone been? Any experiences?

Marls, we also (whatever has happened earlier in the day) try to keep Fraser awake between 5 pm and 7 pm (sometimes a real feat...!), so that he's tired when he goes down for the night.

Another good night - F fed when we went to bed, then woke 3.30 - dummy in and back off to sleep til 6 - dummy in again, back off til 7.10. Question for you Marls, as I know your DS uses a dummy - did DS1 drop it of his own accord, or will I be facing a fight to get F to stop needing it? Am now paranoid that he'll carry on waking twice a night just to have the dummy... Mind you, he's gone to sleep now no problem without it... in the cot.

If it isn't one worry, it's another...

Mabel, well done with both your DSs - so pleased to hear you had a better night. You must be relieved!! I keep wondering whether to leave F to sleep rather than wake him when we go to bed - he's always fast asleep. But he does wake enough to drink 7 oz most nights...

clairemow - my ds1 had a dummy for the first few months and just gave it up himself when he found his thumb.
We had a 7.30pm-6am night last night Think it was because dd had her injections yesterday but at least we know she can do it now!! Will let you know if it was just a one off!!

tassis's dd had the same long sleep after injections the other day as well! fynn has his jabs this monday so i'll have fingers crossed that we'll get the same experience, even if its just a one-off, i'll take it!

[insert very tired emoticon here] it was one of those nights that the LO woke so often, i couldnt tell you how many exactly, as its all still a blur. im certain that on nights like these, ds isnt in need of being on the boob..possibly just needs cuddling back to sleep. however, DH gets irritable and shouty about being "disturbed" by ds's crying in the night. (( what?!?!? and he thinks I like having 7 days a week of broken sleep??)) so, when DS is fussy in the night outside of his normal feeding times, i put him on the boob to hush him. i dont always like it, it saves DH and myself from arguing in the night about something so petty.

why do the husbands/partners act like this?!?!? it drives me mad! sometimes i feel like i could move DH permanently into his own room! but of course i probably would never do such a thing. hehehehe

munkibaby - totally know what you mean - I have to be eternally grateful when DH gets up for the middle of the night feed on a friday night!

prune juice is fine for constipated babies - we were advised one tablespoon per 9oz bottle by the gp, once every few days / week or so - it's certainly worked for jacob.

so many posts! we are a sociable lot aren't we!

jacob did 930 till 230 then 730 this morning, which is great for him, and we are just finding our own routine rather than sticking to any particular one - i too am normally a very routine person, but we haven't found he finds his own routine tbh!

lol everyone - is it raining where you are? remember how much we moaned when it was so hot in june!!!!!

well aren't all the LOs doing well

we gave ds a dummy until about 4 months. ditched it with no real problems. he did cry himslef to sleep from then on but not for long. mind you dd has her dummy a whole lot more than he ever did!

pouring here, pretty grim

dd did 7.30pm to 5.30am so definately getting there...

We're moving her out of her room for visitors for the next 2 nights, then taking her out to a ceilidh on Saturday night and off on holiday next week so who knows how that'll all affect her! We're off to the Republic of Ireland to visit my parents for a week. Dd has her passport ready - very cute!

Wow compo...great night!! Much envy here!! Jack was up 10, 1,30, 3.30, 5.30 & then 6...when the house was made to get up by a combo of DD & DS!! Anyhow, no gas still..plumber is coming next week but as the new boiler is going in the loft DH is up there now putting down a floor (law apparently)...only to discover there is also a small leak in the roof...arrgghhh.....Jack is playing on the floor, DD asleep in the car after helping me at sainsbury's (picked up a nice ribera del duero whilst there...I need it!!) & I'm busy making a courgette soup.....ah Lysettes, the summer gone was tough, would have loved this rain back then like all of you I'm sure!!

Reading everyone's posts just shows how diferent they all are when it comes to sleeping. DD still going down at 7pm, waking around 4 then up at 7am. Last night she didn't wake until 4.35 so hopefully it'll keep getting longer. I cant believe how different that is to DS!!! At her age he was still waking 4 or 5 times a night.

Mabel, if it makes you feel any better we are still having lots of problems with DS especially where sleeping is concerned. Everyone keeps telling me it'll sort itself out soon so I'm clinging onto that.

Tassis, enjoy your ceilidh! Sounds like a great way to get back to pre pregnancy shape!

Claire, I used the dummy in the same way that you are when DS was little. Then, when he got to about 3mths, I gradually weaned him off it at night although he still had it for naps. He accepted this after a couple of nights of fuss and seemed to just associate it with comfort and naps from then on until we got rid of it at 1yr. This worked well as he associated it with time to nap and went off well in the day. Until Lizzie came along anyway!

Redz, hope you've found some answers to your wrist problem.

Marls, is it usual to put your Christmas decorations up at this time where you are? I mean, do you all put them up in time for Thanksgiving? Just asking out of curiosity. I'm like a child at Christmas and would love to 'get into the spirit' a little earlier but we (DH and I) usually buy and put up the tree just the w/e before. DD will just get a tree bauble and a sack with her name on it but it will be lovely to see DS open lots of little presents with delight on his face for the first time! Oh, I love Christmas!

hommamma, usually decorations go up day after thanksgiving ((thats how it is on west coast, dont know about the south where marls is)). not to mention, the day after thanksgiving is the biggest, busiest shopping day of the year... ahhhh, how i miss getting the morning paper absolutely stuffed full of xmas sales!!!! just one of the many things i miss from being back home...but really loving my life here in the uk as well. heheheheh

I'm v jealous, DS fed at 10:30pm, 2:30am then started grunting and straining which woke me up, finally gave in at 5:00am and woke him up and fed him, then he had an explosive poo and settled back down but then I couldn't get back to sleep which was very frustrating. We're at my parents at the moment but when we get home i am going to move DS into his own room next to ours. That way maybe the nightly grunting won't wake me up!
Parents are helping a lot which is nice but are so excited to have DS staying with them that they are always picking him up and jigging him about, sometimes i have to step in to make sure he gets some quiet time.

Don't be too jealous. You lot seemed to have really sussed out how to get your lo's down at bedtime whilst with dd it was the first time she went asleep after her bedtime feed and stayed asleep!! I'm sure it won't happen again tonight but would be great if it did as it's really getting me and dh down not having any time together. Does anyone else feel their relationship is suffering a wee bit? We seem very stressed and irritable with each other.

Tassis - AR is "added rice" ... so it's 2 tablespoons rice cereal for every 6 oz formula ... the nipple you'll use needs to be cut a bit larger, as it's going to be thicker than formula.

Hope to finish the race somewhere under 29 minutes ... I used to go faster than that, but I'll take what I can get these days!

Munkibaby - Agree with Compo; probably some of your most difficult times now; newborns seem to bring out everything. Seem to be more DHs who never think about the sacrifices their wives make than who do ... You know, I knew this ... that's why I never wanted to get married or have children. I really didn't. My DH really pulls his weight and then some, but he had to be pretty perfect for me to want to marry him ... and then have his kids!!

Homemama, our retail/commercials get into it immediately after Halloween! Not to mention the Christmas catalogs! This is earlier than usual for us though, b/c PILs coming next week for Thanksgiving & that's when we have to do our Christmas with them ... so it needs to be Christmassy for their sake.
But from now on, think we'll do it like this anyway! I'm a huge Christmas fan too. The tree is fake - terrible spider incident 3 years ago; swore we'd never do real again - so can decorate now without worrying about its premature death. That used to make me sad anyway, cutting down a tree ...

thanks homemama. Had a success today re. the dummy - we didn't need it for his long nap!! He went to sleep around 11.50, made some crying noises around 12.50, but I said to myself I'd give him 10 mins to settle - which he did! Went in to have a look and he was sucking his fingers, which then dropped out and plonked slowly onto the mattress as I watched - he'd sent himself back to sleep! Hurrah!!

Have to defend DH a bit! He's pretty good too, does the late feed every night, and always does DS1's bedtime unless he's away with work. He also does most of the cooking around here, as I hate it, and he enjoys it, and all the vaccuming too. Sometimes I think I don't make enough of what he does do, but am quick to moan if he's not doing exactly what I want... e.g. the other day I was doing the laundry in a huff at 10 pm - when he realised what I was doing, wanted to know why I hadn't asked him to help. Somehow I thought he should know by telepathy and by the huffing noises I was making (in a totally different room!).

Claire - He sounds great ! DH doing my laundry when we were dating was part of what won me over! I do all of it now, but don't mind it. Forgot to include info re: "paci" (that's what DS calls it) - He has never been allowed to use one anywhere except in the crib (or the bed) and in the car, i.e. never in public. But lately thinking of getting him to give them up ... don't think it'd be difficult, but he does enjoy them. Pediatric dentist told us he'd like "paci" to be gone by the time DS1 is 6, but not a problem up until then. Dentist likes to see dummies gone a good 2 years before permanent teeth start to come in. We'll make DS1 give it up by next summer, if he hasn't done so already. For about a year now, it's been more a toy for him than a sucking mechanism. My opinion on dummy use: dummies are a great tool under parents' control and v. useful to pop out on the plane or in the car when child gets fussy and snacks and toys aren't working well. If calming devices are an arsenal, a dummy is a great weapon to have on hand.

Well no such luck settling dd this evening Guess i'm doing controlled crying - keep going back in with dummy and putting mobile on. I think if she kept the dummy in then she would fall asleep. I know she's not hungry, she had a 5oz bottle before bed. I knew last night was too good to last

compo, is she over-tired and so finding it hard to settle? Maybe the mobile is stimulating her again? could you bear to leave her for longer, maybe 15 mins? On the amount front, F's been drinking a good 7 oz at his feeds, so maybe she does want a bit more? Hope she drops off v.v. soon..

Compo - I hope it works for you all, I'd try dropping the mobile too and the dummy if she keeps spitting it out - that's what our DS1 used to do too and it's hard as you know it would calm them but it would only be temporary so in a way why bother?

I really hope all you first timers are managing to find some time for spending with DH/DPs. 'They' (whoever 'they are!) do say that the first year after having a baby is the most difficult time in your marriage/relationship and DH and I definitely found that. It took at least 3/4 months for DH to get genuinely interested in DS1 (rather than be nagged to do stuff with him) and a bit longer for me to feel really supported - and my DH has always done every other night feed - don't know how some of you manage! It really does improve around about a year though so hang in there - it's all worth it when you have your first night off together, see him chucking LO in the air while they laugh and watching your big strong bloke sing nursery rhymes!

Just want to share with you all what happened today as it was such a reminder not to get irate with LO just because they're crying. DS2 had been crying since he got up at 6.30 unless there was a dummy/bottle in his mouth or he was asleep. This is really unlike him and I had a feeling something was causing him pain but I couldn't tell what - wasn't hunger/wind/poo etc. Anyway, it was really starting to get to both me and DH (who's on annual leave at mo so home) by 6ish this evening and I raised my voice at him which I deeply regret as he's only a baby and I should have known better. Just after I was tickling his toes when I noticed a piece of my hair had got wrapped around his toes and was so tight it had cut his skin and I had to snip it off with scissors - then hey presto - happy baby came back. Just goes to show, sometimes even when you can't find a reason for their crying they might be in genuine pain and it's worth trusting your instincts.

Mandaz - don't know if you're lurking but really hope you and Georgia are ok and things with ex aren't too bad.

Claire - re dummy, DS1 had it until we knew he'd found his thumb as he sucked it during the day. Then we went cold turkey with it - after 5-10 mins of extra fussing for a few nights he changed to happily sucking his thumb and snuggling his bunny instead - so cute - will put a piccy of him doing it on yahoo if I can find it

Just given her 3 more ozs and she's still crying I've tried it without the mobile and will try not bothering with the dummy. Do you think if I left her for 15 minutes that would work? Dh has suggested giving her more milk in half an hour if she's still not settled. We know that when she does go to sleep it's for a long time, I just don't know why she's like this

compo, have you ruled out the usual suspects? Wind, nappy, temperature etc etc? Maybe she's over-stimulated? I'd drop the mobile & not bother with dummy esp. if she keeps spitting it out...try leaving her for longer....it could be that she really just wants to fall asleep & can't...let her cry for a while, it really wont do her any harm (if you can stand it that is). She's coming up for 9 weeks too right? I think they have a growth spurt at 9 weeks so maybe you're going to have a 24 feed fest? I've had once of those with Jack today....(9 weeks Sat)....chin up

thanks for the moral support everyone We left her for longer and she was still crying so dh is feeding her again. Yes, Coriander - she's 9 weeks today. It's just this bit that I hate - she's onyl gone down at 'bedtime' twice I think. Maybe we're just expecting too much too soon.

Just out of interest once lo is fed, winded, nappy changed etc and you really think they are overtired how long would you leave them crying for?

We think maybe we're being too soft!!