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

Hi everyone. I've not been on in ages but am back - new baby coupled with moving house has not left me much time for Mumsnetting!

DS 8 weeks old today and all going fairly well - he does get grouchy with wind and we have had the occasional hysterical fit when overtired but generally he's not too bad.

Congrats on your wedding marmite

Sorry to those having shit sleep. DS now sleeps a good 5-6 hour stretch at night (well, for now anyway) which I think is thanks to swaddling and white noise. Keep reading swaddling increases the sids risk though so kind of want to stop but worried he won't sleep without it.

He has his 8 week jabs today and am shitting myself. What can I expect??

Good to be back, I have missed you all!

Wow I love sleep! Eddy had 2 short wake ups, the 2nd was probably due to being cold but got feed anyway as he only had onme side the 1st time. Then up again 7.30! But omg dd has slept through in her own bed until past our agreed morning time for the first time ever! Only taken 3 years 6 months and 5 days...

So sad about your neighbour purple we adored my nan's neighbours who went out of their way to help when my nan died.

Maybe I was dreading the jabs but DS had them last week. 3 injections in the legs and a squirt in the mouth. They say the meningitis vaccine creates a fever so take calpol with you as my nurse made me give some to DS whilst with her. Fever is supposed to peak after 6 hours. They advise a further 2 doses too.

My DS did get warm but just seemed to sleep off the effects!! Apart from the sleep and vulgar nappies we didn't notice much difference. Good luck x

Maybe we gave all the doses of Calpol (x3) and he didn't have any noticeable side effects. Welcome back btw!

Time so sorry you are really going through it. How are things today?

Glad to hear Beaut is ok and look forward to her being back on the thread.

Your poor neighbour Purple, that's so sad.

Dom hope you had a better night.

J had a good night. I've realised that when he 'wakes' now around 3am he's not actually awake. He's just coming out of his deep sleep cycle. He's not crying, just trying to suck his hands and grunting, so I popped a dummy in his mouth and he went back to sleep after about ten mins. Woke for a feed at 6:30am. Must now convince DP to not jump for the bottle each time.

rhu I noticed last night that Rory does that, the fidgets and grunts - I scoop him up and put him on boob each time. He's not actually awake but he does feed for about 8 minutes on just one boob. I wonder if I try dummy too he might go back off.

Last night got 3 hours, 3 hours then 2 hours, the one between the 2 x 3 hour stretches was the one where he had a small feed and didn't really wake.

Jabs are booked in for a week today so making notes on everyone's advice, hoping won't be too bad.

Used a sleeping bag last night instead of a blanket for R, he seemed to have a better sleep as he always kicks off his blanlet. Had put a nighttime nappy on him at 9pm - when he woke at 6am for a feed it felt cold, opened it up and he was soaked through. Felt awful that he had been laid in such wetness - he didn't seem to mind and was all smiles as I changed him though. Looks like I'm going to have to do a change midway through the night too.

dobby I bet you feel like a new woman today!

maybe hope the move went well, I love moving house (but also hate it haha) dp and I have decided we want to move at some point in the upcoming 3 years so have started looking around. 3 years means no rush and time to find the perfect house - we thought this one was but we now want 4 bedrooms instead of 3 and dp wants something he can do work on.

Seconding purple on the gripe water, ds brings up his own burps a lot of the time now since using it. The ones he doesn't really do seem to come up a lot easier. We swapped to it from Infacol and it seems much more effective. I don't give it for night feeds but that doesn't seem to matter.

Thought we'd managed a 7h stretch if sleep last night. Good job I finished feed and rechecked clock before waking DH. It was not, as I thought, 9.30 but rather 5.30. A more usual 3h stretch then. Can't complain though, E feeds every 3 or 4h at night but goes down again well so could be much worse.

Welcome back maybe! Congrats to those getting good sleep last night. Hope time is doing ok?

Disaster morning here. Thought DD1 had hearing test at hospital at 9.15. She throws a mega tantrum about not being able to wear a particular t shirt which was in the wash, DP rushes off with her late, can't find the building in the hospital so rings me in a stress, gets there and I've gotten the appointment wrong and it's next week needless to say he was not happy with me. I can't even complain that he didn't check the time/date as I was the one with the reminder text message about it. Apparently she is now having a tantrum because she wants to see the doctor. Oops. Going to blame lack of sleep and baby brain for that cock up!

Think E is going through growth spurt as she was very hungry last night and this morning. Have a meeting with a work colleague this morning to discuss some work (seems I can't get away from doing some work even on mat leave!) So hoping E sleeps through it!

Welcome back maybe hope you're getting well settled in the new house.

purple that's sad news, especially when he seemed ok so recently.

Hope you're ok time and got to speak with a HV or GP or someone yesterday or today.

1french I had to smile at your post as I did similar last night! We had a 4 hr stretch to 4am (unusually long) then I fed him again at what I thought was 7am which I thought was great, only for DH to tell me it was actually 5am . So his second stint of sleep was only 30mins, not the 2.5hrs I thought!! I think it's like a time-mirage or something!

Saw the HV for 6w check today, chunky monkey is growing well but she thinks he has a posterior tongue tie which would explain my ongoing excruciating sore nipples so off to the lactation lady to assess it, though I think I'd be reluctant to get it snipped since he's growing so well, seems mean when I could just carry on putting up with the soreness. Feeling unsure.

Afternoon all!

Thanks for the gripe water recommendations. I might give it a go (though not sure how spill proof it'll be in the night when I've only got one eye half open and zero coordination!)

Hi maybe! Hope the new house is all good.

Ahh, marmite! That's exactly the kind of confusion me & DH get ourselves into and the same tantrums DS1 does! Huge sympathy!

I've finished reading the Baby Whisperer book. I was sceptical of a routine book, but it's not at all rigid (and I only chose this one because I knew enough of it to recognise that DS2 was already doing things in the right order!). So the plan is to start an evening routine to sort out the ridiculous over-tired screaming we're having. And I think I need to start putting him upstairs in his bed for daytime naps (when we're home).

I'll (obviously) let you know how it goes!

Rhu and Q, DS is exactly the same, he starts stirring around 3am most nights when his deep sleep cycle ends and his lighter one starts. He starts grunting and the arms start flailing around but as long as I get the dummy in and stick Ewan the dream sheep back on, he goes back off and doesn't wake properly until 5/5.30. Sometimes I literally have to pull his bottom lip down to get the dummy in but once it's in he starts sucking and settles right down. This discovery revolutionised our nights! Now it's just a quick stir for both of us and back to sleep, no getting out of bed to make a bottle and be up for 45 mins/an hour or more!

DS also had his jabs yesterday maybe and like Rhu's DS he was fine. Had all 3 doses of calpol (well maybe 2.5 doses, he spat a lot of the last one out!) and didn't have a temperature or any noticeable side effects really, he slept just fine and his appetite was unaffected.

Well just got back from the jabs. Was horrific hearing him cry so much

He seems ok now and had calpol but on full alert for next 24 hours.

Dom gripe water will go everywhere. They say give it on a 5ml spoon which is a desert spoon isn't it and newborns mouth is tiny in comparison. It would help if I could find the calpol spoon I've been using a nurofen syringe- I think it was Dobby who recommended that. E hates it and cries and wiggles so probably only gets about 2.5ml at the most but I do think even that little bit works. Interestingly I used infacol twice yesterday because I was out and didn't want to be covered in spat out grip water and she seemed uncomfortable again. I'm now thinking she will associate the syringe with gripe and spit out the calpol at her jabs next week. To be fair this will be no different from ds who up to the age of about 4 had to be wrestled on the floor to take any calpol.

Me good to hear another positive jab story. Maybe hope ds is ok tonight.

Well tomorrow I am attempting a baby and mum fitness class with a new baby friend I met. It's one of those ones where you run a bit with the pram in broad daylight in a park for all to see laugh. I'm not an exerciser so fingers crossed I can walk after.

Dessert not desert!!

purple I use a calpol syringe for gripe water but it would appear I have a weird child who licks the syringe and cries when he's had the 5ml?! Dp thinks it smells like sambuca and is convinced Rory will love shots when he's older
Did notice that boots do an own brand gripe water which Is apple flavoured- might be worth a try and see if your mini will take that one any better?

Q I love that! Sambuca loving baby. The first time I gave it her with the syringe she loved it and grabbed hold of it and I swear pushed it into her mouth again purposefully. Now she hates it. I did see the Boots one but didn't notice the flavour. I'm going to try that, it may work. Apple juice was all I could drink for the first 5 months of pg and I drank so much she must have a taste for it.

Good luck for tomorrow, Purple! Sounds like great fun! (Though I'm with you on the 'in public' thing, I always ran after dark!)

Well, I'd attempted to start some good evening habits by bathing DS2 and then putting him down in his own bed. To try to avoid the hours of overtired screaming we've been having.

We just had hours of overtired screaming in the bedroom instead! I consoled myself with the idea that it's no different than he'd be doing downstairs, just with less pacing!

I'll try again tomorrow... (he's waking up again now...)

Glad to hear positive jab stories - E has hers next week and dreading the men b one.

Dom interesting you say that about the baby whisperer - I hated that book! Read it before I had DD1 and I found her writing style really annoying. And although its flexible I just found in real life the EASY routine didn't work with DD1 as she wanted feeding constantly and never wanted sleep (and wasn't unhappy either, just didn't need sleep). Hope it works for you though!

Had HV six week check today (not sure why its called that when El is 8 weeks old!). The HV turned up an hour early! Who does that to someone with a young baby?! No warning either and the place was a mess as El took a mega two hour nap on me which she'd literally only just woken up from when the HV turned up. All was fine though, El is still tracking the 75th percentile after being born on the 50th, so pretty pleased her growth is good.

magpie if I were you I'd go for the tongue tie snip. From what I've read its a v quick procedure, baby gets over it quickly, can feed straight away and usually latch issues get better pretty much immediately.

Ha! marmite, I'm not high brow enough to criticise literature but I know what you mean! I skimmed through a lot of it to get to the bits I was interested in! And it wouldn't have worked for DS1 nothing did. I only went for it because I knew DS2 was already doing things in the right order! He needs more sleep, just seems to go straight to overtired and distraught and won't be soothed. Hoping the ideas from the book make our evenings a bit less... loud!

The HV turned up early? I could not have coped with that. That's like the worst social faux pas in Britain!

Is there an 8-9 week sleep regression? After doing 7 hours between feeds at night on Monday we are now in our second night of doing 3 hrs between them again. I'm not asking for 7 well I am but before that she was at least 4-5 hours between?

Well C has been squirming in her cot since 3am but I thought I'd follow marmite and q and see if Ewan the Sheep would help her drop back off. It kind of worked, she kept falling into light sleeps then starting squirming and sucking her hand again. She was so noisy and my boobs are so full and sore after 45 mins I decided we would both get more sleep if I just fed her. Was rewarded with the biggest smile ever during nappy change but feeding from a full boob is never much fun shouldn't have been lazy and expressed some first.

Hope everyone is having decent nights, particularly those that need it most.

mrse I tried the 'stick a dummy in' game tonight - R just pushed it out and started crying,looks like it doesn't work for us either. Tonight he slept well though, 8:30-1:30, then 2-4:30. Dp and I were both asleep by 9pm too (shattered) so I've also already had about 6 hours, hoping this is a quick feed and can get another 2/3.

Is it a growth spurt,purple? (Just a guess)

Well, after DS2 finally went to sleep around 10ish, I dream fed him around 11:30 ( that never worked with DS1 either), he woke for a feed around 3:30 (and actually burped after!) and went straight back to sleep, and has only just 'woken' now. (So I've had somewhere around 5-6hrs in two blocks, which is an improvement!)

Although now he's writhing around grunting and trying to poo (we had no poos yesterday, I'm expecting a poonami any time!).

Need to hold off feeding him as long as possible this morning or he'll be grumpy on the school run.

Hope everyone has managed a good nights sleep:)
I've seen a few of you talking about Ewan the dream sheep, are they any good, do they work? Was thinking of getting Archie one so he can associate it with bed time and hopefully it might help him fall asleep better.
Also I'm after some advice on naps, Archie doesn't really nap in the day and wondered if he's getting over tired? How do you get your little ones to nap (that's if they do)? Or Is it a case of pot luck? X

FirstTime Ewan works well for us, we've used since day 1 (post hospital) at night and while it will not calm her if screamy if she is unsettled but sleepy it just seems to soothe her enough so she can drop off.

We find E naps of her own accord in the main, usually after a feed but if she is getting overtired then a quick walk in the pram sends her off. We have a lie flat stroller with a cosy wooly insert so we can just leave her to nap in it - though when fully asleep we are able to move her without her stirring most of the time.

ftm Ewan has some kind of magic in him, both my dc's and my dh have loved him.

Your ds should definitely be napping in the day, they need time to process everything the have learnt and sleep is when they do it. C has been a good daytime sleeper since she was a newborn and is still probably asleep more than she is awake in the day, particularly if we are out and about in the buggy. With ds it was about watching for his tired cues and trying to rock/feed/bounce him to sleep at the right time. I think at this age I used to note when he woke up and think he should only really be awake 1.5-2 hours at a time so then it was nap time. At some point I transitioned to cuddling then putting him in his cot awake and if he cried leaving him for 5 mins, then going in and saying its sleep sleep time, stroking his head and leaving him again. They are all still a bit young for anything like that though.

I also skim read the baby whisperer and tried to loosely follow it with ds, should probably try to get into a routine with C soon but I'm finding with 2 C is just having to go with the flow!