Hi viroids!
This is me only just getting a chance to post today. MiniLa decided today that sleep was just not his thing. He's tired, he's not grouchy or anything, but just won't sleep. Just lies there in sleepyhead with eyes open. I've ended up leaving him to self settle, sticking dummy in and walking away - it seems to be working as his eyes have now closed but I am watching carefully as at any minute that dummy's going to come out and he might wake up again. How can a four week old child be this awake? I've tried him self-settling a few times and he seems to do it OK if the dummy is in.
OK - so I will finally get to catch up:
fleur how is your boob? Mine are getting pretty engorged because I'm now block feeding to try to sort the over-supply issue and also stop the green diarrhoea looking nappies.
min is mini any better?
cookie thank you for the room temp/clothing guide! I've just been putting him in a sleepsuit/baby grow (one with feet and long arms) and a cellular blanket. I tried him with the short sleeved vest and 1 tog bag at 23 degrees and he was sweating buckets. Strange baby.
mini when did you start giving E toys? I've not given B anything yet because he seems to not realilse that it's there if I hold it up. I do play with him on his mat and he likes the dangly animals. There are a lot of cuddly toys in his nursery eager to meet him but I haven't wanted to put any of them in his crib yet as he's too little. Hooray for mum friends! I love my fit mummy lot, they are my lifeline. Im' struggling a bit with the NCT lot. I'm kind of keeping in touch with them out of politeness, but it'll not be long until I just don't bother I reckon. oNe of them is lovely but the others are just a bit young and not really 'me'. (translated as - I'm a radge and they are all quite polite/don't swear/religious etc.)
Stop killing spiders you evil lot! They are good - they eat the flies in your house. And a four-legged spider!?! You should have kept it and put it in a show, people would pay good money to see that! ;)
RE: sore bums - I've been using metanium but its still a red bum with little sore patches. He poos and wees so much we just can't keep up with it! Sometimes once an hour. I guess we just keep whacking on the metanium and giving him no nappy time.
I no longer thing B has reflux or colic or anything else sinister, other than just normal old baby wind. Now that we've got the hang of winding it seems he's fine as long as he gets burped. If I get the burp up then he seems pretty contented. If I don't get the burp up then he is uncomfortable, wiggles around and squirms and cries. The 5am groaning and writhing in pain is still happening but I think it's normal infant bowel movement stuff. I put him on his belly on my chest and he goes straight off to sleep. I read it's because they are too young to relax sphincter muscle at same time as straining to push poo out, so it's all a big drama. I am still giving him infacol though as he's very difficult to wind and it seems to help, and we are doing all the massage techniques and leg bicycling (thank you mini for the pictures - we've been using them!).
We've also worked out that the problem has been us not spotting when he's tired and just needs to be put down. I kept still responding to his 'food' cues and trying to feed a tired grumpy baby who then got stressed, wouldn't latch on and screamed. Now Ive started just putting him down it seems to be making both of us much less stressed! (until the next thing comes along - I've long realised that there are many hurdles in this parenting thing!)
Yesterday we worked really hard spotting when he was tired and just needed to be put down, and also trying to do the EASY method. We had a brilliant day! He hardly cried at all all day and slept well. But today - not so good at the sleeping bit.
We are still going to see osteopath tomorrow to see if there is anything from the birth that needs to be corrected. I'm excited about it! I find it really interesting.
He's a difficult baby to get to sleep during the day. He is pretty good at night, we keep everything quiet and dark. But last night when he was a bit overtired it ended up with me holding his arms and closing his eyelids and dh simulatanously holding dummy in and phone to his ear playing white noise. It looked very cruel but remarkably it worked really quickly!
dulcet I very much doubt you're not producing enough - it's probably a growth spurt plus smelling the milk on you. I have to use a dummy when I'm on my own with B. He is just so food orientated so if i pick him up to rock him he starts doing food cues and staring at my boobs and just won't sleep - that's what's happened today. If dh is not here then I've started putting dummy in and walking away. He seems to fall asleep by himself if I do that. They will make food cues even when tired - it's likely J is tired but just doing the food cues anyway out of habit/greediness. If you take away the need to suckle with the dummy he should settle. Also white noise app is amazing! I have it full blast net to B's head.
Does anyone combination feed here? I'm looking to start giving him bottle of formula at night as he's such a massively guzzly hungry baby and I want to fill him up at night. I'll still bf too, but just top him up with the formula. Also when would you start expecting them to sleep a bit longer at night? Longest B has gone was 4 hours but its usually 3 hours between feeds, sometimes a bit less. Last night was 10pm, 1am, 4am, 6:30 which is pretty standard. Then after 6:30 he's just awake and that's when he is difficut to get to sleep until the afternoon.
B has started smiling and I had my first laugh today :D it was gorgeous. It's a bit unnerving though, as he smiles at my boobs! They get much more smiles than me, it's as if he's greeting an old friend. Anyone else have a child who smiles at the boob?
Oh god and I put him in the sling today and he threw up in it! All down himself, me and the sling - yuck! I had to pull a stinking child out and bung both our clothes and sling in the wash!
Hi indigo! How are you?
This was long. Sorry guys! (he's still asleep - shhhhh...)