August 2015 - Let the Sleepless Nights Commence

[nolongerwaitingfornumber2]

My DC2 was born on 5th August and I'm up in the wee hours feeding away. Anyone else with their August babies care to join me?

I still can't believe he's here and in my arms!

And now she's sleeping soundly in her pod downstairs, little git!

Oh and it was all going so well on Friday and Saturday nights too

I can't even imagine mini mzzzf being 2yrs old! Hope she (and you!) has a lovely day Joskar.

Siani I'm sorry you've had a similar night. I kept telling DH to go to the spare room but somehow he managed to stay in there and sleep - which bizarrely just added the pressure on me to get DD quiet and settled.

Question for you experience mums: do you always stick to the same get up time? Regardless of what's happened during the night or do you keep it all baby-led?

Annnnnd question for everyone: in the evening do you have a seperate sleeping place for your LOs downstairs? So that they come upstairs at your bedtime. Or do you take them up at 7pm for example and effectively go to bed with them earlier?
I don't know how best to manage the evenings as she almost exclusively sleeps on DH, so he gets contact he wants and she easily stocks up a few hours as she's sleeping in her preferred place too i.e. on someone! But I don't know if then getting her to snooze in the Moses later is a bit of a shock to the system...
Orrrrr maybe all this is my sleep deprived self clutching at straws for a solution!

Guess what's for breakfast this morning?!
Oh and frolic forget ditching the digestives - I need biscuit based moral support today!!!

Siani - get that coffee down your neck lovely!!!

and for those who have had crap nights, 45 minutes is nowhere near enough sleep. Biscuits and a little cry sound more than reasonable.

Thanks for the link Dozy - I often have a drink or two and don't feel guilty, it doesn't effect DS in the slightest and it's lovely to be able to enjoy a pint in the sunshine / glass of wine after 9 months of sobriety.

I've heard that baby sensory can be bonkers(!) but good fun. Although one friend did say it was sensory overload for her baby who basically got hyper-stimulated and wouldn't settle afterwards. Might be worth doing a taster before signing up Nolonger.

Happy birthday to your DD Joskar, hope you both have a fab day.

DS and I lie in for as long as I can convince him to mzzzf, I'd imagine it's very different if you have older DCs... One of the big reasons I suspect DS will be an only child!

He tends to sleep on one of us during the evening then after his feed at 11/12 we all go to bed. But OH and I have started noticing he's doing longer stretches in the evenings (he used to cluster feed) so I'm thinking about trying to get him down earlier so we can spend some time together. We live in a tiny flat and our bedroom is next to the living room so I think we can pop him down in there and leave the doors open.

Hope everyone has a good day, I'm hoping to go back to bed after this feed.... Fingers crossed.

I had a crap night too, but couldn't get my phone off charge as DS wouldn't let me put him down!
I usually settle him after his bottle at around 8 and then pop him upstairs in his cot with all the doors open. He usually sleeps until the early hours then. I can still hear him if he cries. We have to be up quarter to 7 latest, so I can get DS ready for school.
Happy birthday joksar DD

Mzzzf have been thinking about the same thing. Currently DS stays up with us and sleeps on DH untill we go to bed at say 11:30 ish. I then feed and put him down. Like clstow we have been wondering about starting a bed time as he has started sleeping more and cluster feeding less. We discussed this on Saturday and I can only assume he heard as last night he was wide awake all bloody evening!
In terms of mornings also just lie in as late as possible but that is the luxury of him being baby number 1. I figure at this point I take any chance to catch up on sleep.

What do people do about feeding at say 11/12 if baby is asleep? Sometimes (and only sometimes) he is so asleep when we come to bed he would go striaght down. Any thoughts on should I wake him or just let him sleep and accept that means more night feeds?

Feeling the pain of people who've had bad nights. DS had a terrible night. Strong coffees all round!!

I suggested DH sleep next door but bless him he won't as 'doesn't think its fair'. Much fairer to be in same room and sleep through it all.

Jokstar have a lovely day with your DD. 2 does seem a v fun age (my nephew is 2 and so much fun).

Everyone else today is a new day. Coffee, chocolate and more coffee. We can get through this. Who needs sleep anyway right???? (Oh god me. I need it. Soooooooo tired).

mzzzf, siani oh no - feel your pain - hope you have a better night tonight. DD was unsettled and not sleeping for the whole weekend - day and night. I took her to bed with me last night at 7pm to watch X Factor - didn't see a bit of it - we both had a lovely sleep until 11.30pm then slept on and off until 5am - feel much better today

Happy Birthday to your DD joskar - have a lovely day

My DH has a Monday holiday from work - he usually leaves for work at 6am so not used to him being around on a school morning - well he sat at breakfast bar with tea and toast doing precisely nothing because according to him he didn't want to interrupt my routine . Yes, just sit there while I get 4 kids organised for school (well eldest sorts herself out but still) and a toddler and baby washed, dressed and fed. Then he thinks he is being dad of the year by offering to take them - it is a big help but omg I do it EVERY DAY!! He then intended going for a long cycle since he has a day off - haha - it's pouring down - guess he will be stuck in with toddler, baby and me with my grumpy face.........

Háve a good start to the week

mzzf, siani, .fatty and kbro and any one else who had a bad night to get you through the day.

mzzf, I tend to take ds up with me when he starts looking for food around 10-11. Then I feed him in bed and try to get him settled. It only works sometimes! I'm trying to put him down to sleep more in the evening rather than letting him nap on us. If I can get him down he seems to have better quality sleep, is less overtired and is easier to settle later on. It can be a struggle to get him down as his favourite place to sleep is face down on the boob. Our pram is suitable for overnight sleeping and rocking him in that seems to be most successful.
As for the mornings, we tend to lie in, feed and sleep until I'm ready to get up.Ds is always pretty settled in the morning so I use it to catch up on sleep. A perk of only having one dc. I might try for more day / night seperation when he's 6 weeks in 2 1/2 weeks time.
I hope you've managed to get back to bed by now.

I can't believe your dh thinks that he's helping you by not interrupting / helping loves! I would be very tempted to take myself off to bed or out for the day and leave him with the little ones.

Have a good day everyone. This is our first without dh home or any visitors coming. I was going to do loads of useful jobs, but we're still in bed so far!

Hi all. Boo to no sleep- I think we managed about 3 hours in two 1.5 hour chunks- had worse though! At the moment, we have DS up with us then he feeds around 9. I've tried taking him up then to settle him and keeping him downstairs and it really just seems like potluck still at to how he sleeps for the rest of the night. Our house is fairly big so wouldn't want him upstairs without us yet. Ugh it's so hard though- last night he would fall asleep in my arms but then wake up as soon as I tried to settle him. We have gripe water now for his wind but it still seems to bother him more at night. We go to a lovely baby group on a Monday though and he seemed to enjoy himself at that. Had two feeds in two hours but now sleeping. I'm going to try baby massage soon as well. I went to a baby sensory taster and I think he was a bit young for it but I want to go back soon as it did seem really good. Anyhow hope everyone is ok!!

Mumsnet is back! Hurrah! Was worried when it was down about what I would do during the night!

Hope all went well without DH and visitors Frolic.

Magrat you have totally inspired me and I now have a massage booked for Saturday. Can't wait, my back is killing after using our crap sling too much. OH and I are off to Mothercare this week to try some new ones, I think the ergo baby looks good (though v expensive).

Think I'm coming down with a cold. Felt so awful all day, practically threw DS at OH when he got home so I could have a bath. Think DS is coming down with it too as he's very snuffly and keeps coughing and sneezing. Poor little guy. Just hope he's better at coping with being ill than his father

Hope everyone is having a much better night tonight.

Thank God mn is back! I panicked for a while there.
I've had less than 2 hours sleep. My back is killing me from pacing up and down with DS
Sympathy on the cold clstow I have one and its awful. I just feel drained, and DS is snotty to. I have a snot sucker for him though so he can still breathe when feeding. Poor little thing, his nose has been really blocked and he doesn't like the snot sucker, but its better than him being full of bogeys!

Frolic I hope your first day flying solo went well. Solo and no mumsnet!!! WTF?! Is DS still sleeping like a beaut due to Sod's law?!
MaGrat- I'm sadly getting to the point of thinking that 3hrs isn't too bad, how sad is that?! We're in the same situation with you, re house size. If we put DD upstairs at 'bedtime' on her own it'd worry me her being too far away. I know we could use the monitor but I think I'm still nervous re: her swallowing any of her reflux. So for now she'll hang out with the olds downstairs until our bedtime

Clstow - I know!! I had a mini freak yesterday with no mumsnet to keep me sane. I actually had to talk to DH
Let us know how you get on re carriers as I think I need to change up from my close caboo sling.
Hope that cold doesn't develop!! But I agree with Fatty that snot suckers are great. I use it to get bogeys out of DD too.
Mini mzzzf did much better last night. Isn't it awful how one bad night can make you second guess everything and open the door of self doubt to how to care for your LO?! I've made a rule to myself now that one-offs I will ignore but if something happens 3 times then I can google my arse off and throw money at the problem with all manner of fancy products!

Have a look at this video ladies/sisters!!

m.youtube.com/watch?v=XYliyCxV2AE

And we're back again! I'm amazed ds survived 24 hours without me being able to check mumsnet for advice on every aspect of his care!

Have you tried infacol magrat? We've been giving it to ds for about a week now and his wind has massively improved. It could be a complete coincidence, but I'm not ready to test yet.

I hope you and the little one are feeling better by now clstow.

Yay for better nights mzzf! I like your 3 time rule - I need to adopt something similar and step away from Google .

Our first totally solo day was lovely. Ds was in a great mood and we did lots of cuddling and had a big walk in the sunshine with frolicdog. I even managed to cook dh a nice dinner - but I have warned him not to get too used to that.

And the sleepyhead is brilliant so far! We've only had it one night, so it could well be an utter fluke - but ds slept from 12:30-5:30! Five whole blissful hours. It was worth the money just for that one time. I'm hoping for a repeat performance tonight and ignoring the fact that ds cluster fed for so long before bed last night that he was exhausted and probably would have slept those 5 hours anywhere!

I hope everyone's had a good day and fingers crossed for a good night tonight.

Dd2 also full of the cold. Saline spray is good stuff and then the snot sucker. She still had to sleep upright on me last night though. Poor wee toot. I'm also full of it so no doubt we're re infecting each other. Or dd1 is at any rate. Lots of toddler germs.

Dd1 had a lovely birthday. Her face when she saw the doll and the tractor. She didn't know where to put herself! Both go to bed with her. Thanks for your best birthday wishes.

6am is a lie in here. I think my children are trying to kill me. That fecking groclock does nothing. She just switches off at the wall!

Sleepy nights everyone!

Urggh cold!! Blah! We:are all coldy here too!

Just watched the advert - great stuff! Thanks for sharing mzzf.

Sorry to hear you guys are all also suffering with the lurgi Fatty and Magrat. I'm full of snot (sorry - gross) but so far DS isn't. Am going to get saline and snot sucker just in case though. Possibly stupid question but I assume I don't need to take him to the GP if he has a cold? I wouldn't go to the doctor for my cold but I know the rules are sometimes different for babies...

Great work on the sleep and dinner cooking Frolic, how did you manage that?! I still don't find time to do anything more than the basics during the day. One of my NCT friends baked muffins the other day... I hadn't even showered!

Thanks for the video MzzzF, definitely rings true.

DS must have known I'm poorly as this is first night feed (down11:30-4:30), what a little star giving me a break and a bit of sleep. Hope you guys are all having good nights too.

Awww no to you folks with the lurgey. Hope it passes soon!!

Mini mzzzf had a shocker of an afternoon/evening. Serious screaming mixed with exhausted cat naps and snacking feeding BUT she sleep from midnight to 5am - WTF?!! I got some great stretches of sleep mixed with waking up in panic of 'is she ok?' Since she's slept so long! I really do think that was a fluke though so not at all counting my chickens. And to be honest I'd prefer a couple of nighttime feeds and a quieter day rather than what we had yesterday. So a bit of a mixed bag!!

Does anyone else find their LOs poo faces hilarious?! The pensive stare, little grunts and wobbly chin

Kbro junior has had a couple of shockers too. He has stopped having decent long stretches of sleep and just cat napping. And then spending all evening screaming and feeding really badly. He's pulling on and off my breast, screaming, napping for maybe 5 mins then repeat. We've had a couple of better night. 3 lots of 3 hour blocks of sleep. But it's a bi price to pay having each evening ruined. And I feel so helpless when he's in that state. I dread to think what my neighbours think we are doing to him.

Frolic is the a max size for the sleepyhead? We have tried to create our own money saving version with towels but really tempted to give it ago. Esp now there resale value is almost the same.

Also frolic well done on making dinner. I class it as a good day if DH comes home and I've brushed my teeth. And v impressed!!

Mzzzf love the sisterhood video!!! Totally true.

Had another go at expressing yesterday. I seem to manage 50 mils in an hour. Which DS would drink in about 3 gulps!!

Hope everyone had good nights. Fingers crossed for both good days and no mums net crashes!!

Dd1 was up for the day at 5 and I'd been up much of the night feeding and snot sucking my poor wee tootie who is so full of the cold. Left her in bed with dh and went downstairs with dd1 to make her eggy bread which she barely touched. Played with her til it was time for nursery. Tried to get some sleep then but dd2 is feeding and feeding. I'm starving! Stupidly chose having a shower over sleeping or eating in the brief window of dd2 sleeping. Am now lying on the bed in the bufty with wet hair.

A friend is (unexpectedly) arriving tonight at 7 at a train station 45 mins away so have to make tea for her and fetch her while dh puts dd1 to bed. She staying for two nights. Need to think of a pudding too because she has a massive sweet tooth. Also my boss and his wife are coming over tomorrow to see dd2. Need to make a cake. Also have Dr appointment tomorrow to see about the everlasting thrush and Uti.

And Worst Of All...

I'll miss GBBO tonight!

It's a rich a full life right enough!

Joskar - you are superwoman!! Talks of baking and hosting, aye currumba!!

I braved my first mum group this morning. Was ok but dd slept through it all and I had to make small talk (which I'm crap at!).

Dd is constipated oh this reflux milk as today we had a pebble of poo in the nappy. Been advised I need 3 constipated nappies before heading to the GP. Anyone got any experience of dealing with this at home?

mzzzf baby massage can help. Bicycling the legs and rubbing tummy basically. If not try a tiny bit of pure orange in some cool boiled water. But that's probably not advised by actual professionals!
I don't know how you are even considering baking joksar ! Wow!

I have news that I can't share IRL, so will share here. My friend is expecting!!!!! She's only 6 weeks though so can't tell anyone yet (had to have early scans as suspected mc, but luckily everything is OK and baby seems to be doing well!) It will be her 3rd but her first with her current partner. I will be honest, I'm worried as they have only been together a couple of months but I will support her. She knows I think they have done things too quickly, (hes moved in with her already and she has bought him a car and stuff) but its her life to live and not my place to judge. Only thing I can do is be there if she needs me.
I've told her I will save all if DS2s things for her so if she needs them they are there.

Och been baking and cooking since dd2 appeared. The very next day in fact I made a cake for visitors. I'm telling you this child is so chilled and after dd1 it all seems so straight forward. She was (and is!) high maintenance to say the least. A very steep learning curve. The last three weeks have been a breeze compared to the hell of dd1's first two months. Wouldn't mind some more kip though!

Well done Mzzf! It's hard work at first but be brave. Speaking rubbish to other sleep deprived mammies is the way forward. Dh and I find ourselves on the committee of the local playgroup and helping at fundraisers for it. Never thought I'd see the day!

The orange juice thing does work. And the massage. Poor wee thing.

Fingers crossed for your pal, Fatty. Sounds like a lot going on. She's lucky to have you.

Well done to you ds letting you sleep clstow. I hope you and all the others suffering are feeling better today.

I'm exhausted thinking of all that jockstar! Good on you, you are a better, and braver woman than me. Do be careful not to over do it.

I've no tips to share re: constipation mzzf, but I hope your little one feels better soon. Well done you for braving your first group. I was going to brave baby massage tomorrow, but it's been cancelled. I'm also not a fan of the small talk.
I know what you mean about the poo face - ds' post poo face is brilliant - a picture of relief.

kbro, your ds sounds a lot like mine when he has wind. Have you tried infacol? I'm convinced it's really helped us as he's so much better since we started giving it.
The sleepyhead we have is meant to last until 8 months i think. You can get a bigger version, but we thought we'd try this first. Ds still seems to love it - he had a good nap in it yesterday afternoon while I tidied upstairs and slept well last night. So far, so good.

I know exactly how you feel about your friend fatty. My very close friend has recently jumped headlong into a new relationship with a bloke she's only known for 5 mins. They both have kids and I do think they should have taken things much slower. She's not pregnant but I'm sure it will only be a matter of time. Like you say, all you can do is be there. You sound like a lovely friend

I hope everyone is having a good day. We've had a nice time catching up with some friends. And ds was weighed for the first time since he was 10 days old. He's now a whopping 10 pounds - not bad for 4 weeks. No wander he's outgrown all the newborn stuff.

Are any of you using dummies? Ds has started to suck his thumb when he can find it. I'd much prefer him to have a dummy so that I can take it away when he's s bit older. I'm slowly introducing one, but he's not keen so far. Do any of you have any experience of how to go about this?

My DS now weighs 14lb 1oz! The hv was laughing as he follows along the top of the chart and my DD follows down the bottom

I use a dummy, but he only takes it when very tired, then spits it out when he's a sleep. DS1 Had one too, it took a while to get them to take it and I had to hold it in their mouths at first until they realised and sucked. DD refused point blank and never had one. Which makes it highly amusing when she gets hold of DS2s, as she puts it in then kind of half chews it because she doesn't know what to do with it!