March 2016 Babies Thread #11 - We've got smiley babies, screaming babies and farty babies!

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This time last year....my nephew was days away from being born, I was planning a wedding and looking forward to that holiday.....little did I know that I would fly home with a little souvenir

Ooh well done me!

DD is combination BF and FF but still feeds every 2.5 hours like clockwork. Some mums in my group are extending it to 3 -4 hours by distracting them to delay feeding and sleeping but I just don't think I could get away with that, she would just scream the house down! It worked for them though. Our teacher said cue watch rather than clock watch and trust your babies to eventually stretch it out by themselves ........ I'm sceptical!

For those who only have 3 naps a day how does that fit into the eat-play-sleep pattern? Do they eventually stop needing sleeps between each feeding cycle? Is this another thing that they just eventually change by themselves as they consolidate naps?

Also, I'm a bit worried DD is a bit more cross eyed looking than she should be at this stage. It's noticeable in photos but not sure if I'm being paranoid. I'll try find some I took recently to show you what I mean .....(and also just for cuteness!!) is this just normal?

Me am very jealous and equally pleased for your good night! We had another strange night. E didn't sleep until 9pm then woke at 10.30 briefly so I tried to feed her but she was having none of it. So she slept until 2 then fed, then woke at 5.45 and at that point I just got in ds bed because he'd come into ours. Dh said she refused to feed again but did got to sleep next to him in bed. We were very lucky to have had a few weeks of good sleeping. I think the regressing has started!

Ffaux she looks beautiful and I can't see the cross eyed look in the photos but you are her mum and know her best so seek advice if you are concerned. E does still go a bit cross eyed from time to time as well.

I just tried E in the bumbo, she seemed to like it and has quite good head control but I wouldn't leave her in it for long. She loves sitting up so much that it might give me a five min break from holding her.

I have a gp appt in early July to see about getting the cortisone injection for my wrist. It has become so painful even if E kicks it when I'm changing her. I think I need it sorted. I don't think my feeble attempt at push ups at boot camp helped it either

Oh and I meant to say to all bfeeders. E is bottles as you know but even if she drinks 6oz she still normally feeds every 3 hours too.

ffaux DS often looks a bit cross eyed too. I don't think it's anything to worry about at this stage. She's gorgeous btw!

In reply to your other question, DS does roughly follow the eat play sleep thing but he's fallen into his own routine over the last month or so which is roughly like this:

5/6am - wake up and bottle
Back to sleep
7.30/8.30am - wake up properly for the day; play
8.30/9.30 - bottle, play
10ish - short nap for 30 mins
12/12.30 - bottle
1ish - long nap, 1-2 hours
3.30/4ish - bottle
4.45/5 - short nap
6.30 - bath
7 - bottle then bed.

Most days we are out at a group or seeing friends or family in the morning and over lunch so playing time varies depending on what we are doing and the nap times and lengths don't always work if we're out!

Oh god, am I the only one not timing feeds and sleeps? S feeds quite a lot, she only feeds once overnight though usually so I can't complain. During the week she tends to nap on the preschool run at 8.30 and 11.30, the rest is a bit hit and miss. I took her out in the sling yesterday and she slept for three hours!

swear I'm also not timing feeds or sleeps, just put DD2 down for a nap when tired and feed her on demand!

Maybe I wouldn't listen to the hv that sounds like absolute rubbish. Bf babies should be fed on demand not according to some schedule and four hours is a long time to go between feeds. For dd2 it's anywhere from 1-3 hours. I don't really take much notice of how long has passed since last feed tbh.

Had another night of three wakes at half 10, 1 and 4. Was complaining about it to my SIL but her baby is almost 9 months old and she said two wakes was good for her and that her baby was up 6 times last night! So don't feel so bad now!!! Dd1 was also a lot worse at this stage so I can manage three wakes, just hope it doesn't get any worse...

swear no timing here either. E tends to wake about 6.30 but go down again after a feed til 9.30 and then we have feed-nappy-nap-play for the rest of the day. She has been going down about 7 - 8 and having a last feed as I go to bed.

She suprised me by happily going 4h between feeds when we were out and about the other day but 2.5-3h more the daytime norm.

Also, we dug out the bumbo today too purple! S is the same age as ds was when he got it, and it was so much harder to jam her in - her thighs must be much more chubbly!

I'm not timing feeds/sleeps either, and DS still feeds anywhere between 1-3 hourly. I try and watch for him getting tired, and don't let him go longer than 2 hours without a nap (in theory!) because he gets overtired so easily, but other than that we don't have much of a routine.

Kicking myself for not getting C's Irish passport sorted already, it's going to take forever and a day now! At least we have his British one for our next couple of trips...

Just back from a lovely week back home. Loads of time with family and we were even able to get my mum to babysit so we could have a night out together. Still around 50-50 on moving back - DH has a pay review in July and if that doesn't go the way he wants then we may bite the bullet sooner rather than later.

C slept the night 5 nights out of 8 back home - there must be something in the air! First night back in London and he had a huge feed at 4am It looks like his bottle refuser days are over, he took bottles of EBM from my mum, sister and DH while we were away. Just the bog standard Avent Natural ones from our starter pack but with the 1 month and up teats rather than the newborn ones and room temperature to lukewarm milk.

C goes 4 hours between feeds in the day time other than evening when she wants to feed 6-7 regardless of when she last fed. That seems to stock her up for overnight though and she will sleep through till 7. She's another one that likes space but we are lucky that the cot bed fits in our room.

Are all the ones who don't time anything second time mums? Maybe I'm just a bit of a neurotic FTM it was only a couple of weeks ago that I stopped writing down the time of DS's every feed and how much he'd had (ff)!

TriJo it's great that DS will take a bottle again. Gives you a bit more freedom. The offer of free childcare must be tempting! DH and I have just started looking at nurseries and my DM has just offered to do one day a week childcare for DS. There's not a huge cost saving between 4 and 5 days as most offer a discount for doing 5 full days but it makes me feel much happier about going back full time to know that he will be with his grandparents one day a week.

Nope, FTM here! Im a worrier and would drive myself insane, so I've just been trying to go with the flow. Ha!

Me I don't write anything down and I don't care when he naps, but I know J will feed every 3.5-4 hours (except overnight) and like MrsElls he usually wants a feed around 7pm regardless. I'm a second time mum and much more chilled this time round. It is so much less stressful to just go with the flow.

I'm a ftm and have an app do don't feel as though I'm timing it as such - more just notice the patterns when putting naps and stuff into the app. We don't have a set number of naps, we just make sure he's never awake longer than 2 hours as that's when he seems to get really fussy! Just tried him in the pushchair part of the travel system and he seems much happier than the carrycot. Growing up too quickly!

Dd has just gone from 5 to 6oz feeds which also seems to mean she can now last 4 hours during the day. She has always been a good sleeper at night and tends to go 10:30 till 8:30.
I've just tried the faster flowing teats on her bottles and now have a milk drunk baby not had that for ages!!

me I'm a FTM and I still record every feed and amount too! I like to make sure she's had enough ounces by the end of the day as she varies her feed from bottle to bottle.

Like Q I don't time per se, but just like to look for patterns as it helped me to distinguish between a hungry cry and tired cry for example. And DD also cannot go much more than 90 min without a nap, so if I record when she wakes up it helps me make sure she's down in time before she gets overtired, as she doesn't always give me those early tired cues and will just be screaming for ages otherwise

winging we moved to higher flow too! It was just taking aaaaages on the slow flow and she was getting so distracted by lights and wanting to play etc that she would never finish a bottle

I'm on DS2 and I'm still using an app to note everything down! I use it to help keep track of time and to anticipate his next requirement/work out why he's screeching!

And to look for a pattern!

Oh winging, you're right, I haven't had a milk-drunk baby for ages either. It's going too faaaaast!

He is onto waving his hands around clawing at me while he feeds, which is cute when I can kiss his hands. (Less cute when he's lifting my top and flapping it around).

I only tracked C's feeds for a week - I usually just go with the flow. The only time he really goes longer than 60-90 minutes away from the breast is if he is having a long nap. If we have a second DC while C is quite young I'm not exclusively breastfeeding again, I'm already absolutely sick of feeling touched out and the constant drain on my body from a very hungry baby and he's only 13 weeks.

FTM I tried using an app but kept forgetting..I just go with the feed when she's hungry, it seems to be anything between 2 and 4 hours during the day depending on what we are doing.. I used the app a bit to track pumped versus eating as well for a while but it seemed that if I had some in the fridge I was pumping enough... 100 days of expressing today.. That equates to about 750 pumps!...

Stm and I use an app to note feeds but I often forget. To be honest it is more for dh as if she cries and he can't settle her he instantly things she is hungry!

vroc 750 pumps is amazing!

Ds has gone from sleeping 9-4 and 4:15-7 to waking at 1, 3 and half 5 again. Have started leaving him in the big cot in his room from the half 5 wake up as that's when he gets grunty and so far he seems to sleep well. May start leaving him in there from the 3am wake and see how he does.

Does anyone know how much the food we eat affects bm? In the last 3 days ds has been unbelievably gassy and they've stank the place out - wondering if it's something I've eaten which has had this effect.

Not a terrible night here but we were out and DS didn't go to bed til 10.30 as a result. He was up at 2.30 and 6am then back down til just now - ok by me!

Q I think foods that make us gassy (beans, cauliflower etc) can also make babies gassy but DS has had very stinky farts before and I can't pinpoint anything gassy I've eaten.

I use an app for sleep purely because he's such a disaster if he doesn't get enough. And for feeds as he doesn't really cue so I like to know when to offer.

Q, mine seems to be really affected by what I eat. Garlic makes her very sad! I'm still on decaf tea too just in cas

Ffs, stupid phone, obviously that was 'case'