August 2016 - early arrivals to the newborn cuddles & graveyard feeding shifts

[rumisyum]

So many August bus babies have arrived already! Anyone else fancy a chat during night feeds or wondering what to make of the contents of tiny nappies? Might as well get comfortable...

DS has developed into a sleep fighter; gave him a dummy last weekend which was miraculous on getting him to sleep more quickly but now he's cap napping, 20-30 mins max in any one stretch and v overwrought by the end of the day. I don't know whether the sunny introduction is a complete coincidence or the cause. He was managing good 2-3 hour sleeps at the beginning of the day previously... oh these babies not at all straightforward...

My eldest was a shocking sleeper, sometimes I would spend 90 minutes getting him down for a 20 minute nap! Once he settled into a predictable (ish) routine things for much easier as I knew when to start settling him. He had rubbish sleep cues (or rather I was rubbish at reading them!) so by the time I realised he was tired he was already over tired, which made it really hard to get him to sleep.

Ah that's interesting about the dummy whattodo.. I really don't want to give him one but was sorely tempted today! He does seem to cat nap and wake up at the end of every sleep cycle, so it probably wouldn't help with that. He's had a nice long sleep this evening.. tomorrow is a new day!

DS was notorious for only sleeping in 30min bursts as a young baby. You could practically set your watch by it. This improved via many pram naps with lots of walking and then being able to pop him in the pram in the house and rock him to sleep. Ultimately the rocking to sleep wasn't required either and he could nap for 2-3hrs in the pram.

Apparently there's a three month growth spurt. DD fed heaps this afternoon and took forever to settle this evening. I have no idea if prem babies are slightly different with this but DD will be 3m on Wednesday, albeit only 9wks adjusted. Equally it's got a lot colder here (3 degrees this morning!) and maybe she is just feeding more because of that.

Also, re naps, I recall that they were easier to manage earlier in the day. Generally as the day progressed DS would become more tired and over stimulated and thus less compliant about snoozing.

I have days when I try to feed every 3 hours and then days like today when I feed on demand. Neither changes how much Dd wakes in the night. I'm convinced that if she wasn't windy she would be an amazing sleeper. I've always had to rock her to sleep or feed. Ds was exactly the same. I actually got tendinitis in my wrist with him

So, wind. How can I make this baby less windy? Do I try infocol again? Tried it from week 2-5 and didn't see an improvement but then I didn't start renotidine until week 5 so maybe I needed to fix the acid problem first. Or do I try gripe water? The only thing that I haven't tried yet. What do you think ladies...infocol or gripe water?

The combo of ranitidine and infacol has been great for E. I've not tried gripe water though....

DD was shockingly windy, you could actually see the big windy bulge in her tummy. Infacol didn't seem to help, we didn't tty gripe water because massage twice a day has sorted it. As she's grown she's become much less windy so I only massage when she needs it.

Now Bella do you massage when she's in distress? I've tried to massage when it's bad but this is often at night and she clearly doesn't want it. I can't let her cry too much because she would wake ds up.

Plimsolls I thought your vote would be infocol as it worked for you. Whatever I decide I've got to really stick to it

Does anyone own a car seat foot muff? I'm thinking about getting one. Well, asking my MIL to buy one as she hasn't got Dd a present yet but keeps suggesting she might get something. The maxi cosi ones are quite expensive but I'm just thinking this might be really useful, particularly for the cold school runs. Someone recently told me they had one for dc2 because dc2 got carted around more often then dc1 and they're right...this does happen a lot more. Although Dd doesn't like spending time in her car seat I still think it would be nice to know she is warm, especially around the shoulders and head where it isn't always easy to keep her warm in the car seat. I think I'll ask for one. It does feel like blankets are tricky around Ds as he likes to run up to her and pull them off. What a fun game

This car seat blanket looks good...and cheaper then a foot muff. Hmmm. Maybe a better option for me considering how much Dd gets sick in the car seat! Would probably be much easier to clean then a footmuff https://www.morrck.co.uk/shop/all-season-baby-hoodie-size-1.html#product-tabs

Or this one which is the same price as the blanket and also washable in the machine http://www.kiddicare.com/p/Maxi-CosiFootmuffforPebblePlusandPebbleCarSeatinTriangle_Flow.htm

Oops here's a working link http://www.kiddicare.com/p/Maxi-CosiFootmuffforPebblePlusandPebbleCarSeatinTriangle_Flow.htm

Well that is annoying. Don't know why it won't let me show the link. Here's the picture

Omg 2hrs have passed and every time I try and put Dd down whether it be on her side or tummy she wakes up with trapped wind I am beyond frustrated!! Just given her a early dose of renetidine just to see if it will help, only because I could hear some churning so wondered whether her crying had set the whole reflux issues off too.

OK I've now done the whole walk about the room thing and managed to get one small burp out of her. Let's hope this makes a difference. Only 1 hour to go before the heating turns on...yay

Oh Pear poor you and poor DD. My HV sent a baby massage lady to my house who showed me how to do it and what signs to look for. She recommended I massaged her twice a day, which I did for a rew weeks. By then her tummy looked more normal so I switched to doing it when she needed it. She's not had a night time bout so far but if she did I think I'd bring her downstairs and shut all the doors to limit noise.

My friend bought DD a lovely fleece star shaped wrap, which has been great for car seat, pram an especially supermarket trolley seats! Hang on, I'll see if I can find a link.

This sort of thing :

www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=star+fleece+baby+wrap&tag=hydrukspg-21&index=aps&hvadid=16920992847&hvpos=1t2&hvnetw=g&hvrand=15062593273236297779&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=e&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9045609&hvtargid=kwd-37742883488&ref=pd_sl_2gnumb5o5b_e

We don't have a carseat foot muff but actually can see how they would be a good idea. There's a universal fit one on Amazon for around a tenner which is also showerproof - which would mean reasonable wind protection too.
We have a decent liner and muff for the pushchair part of the pram once she goes in that. It does away with the need for endless snowsuits which do my head in - and they grow out of those all the time.

We have a car seat footmuff, it was given to me as a present for DD2 who was a winter baby in 2010, when it was a really cold and snowy winter. It was very useful and easy to use, and has the benefit of staying in place without compromising the straps. Haven't used it yet this time, but have it poised for when the weather turns. Have used the car seat generally less this time though as we have moved since then and can walk to more places, so the pram has had a lot more use, so far.

On the feeding thing, I am very much just offering when he cries/there are cues. Sometimes it is every hour during the evening, longer stretches during the day. I am happy to continue with this as A has been sleeping well at night so seems like a fair deal we have going on!

I was wondering what you lot are doing about bedtime? At the moment, DS is still hanging out with us in the evening feeding quite a lot until we go up to bed at between 10-11. He then has a final feed and settles in his bednest. At some point I'll need to introduce an early settle for him, but I can't remember when or how I did this with the elder two.
Any suggestions?

Biscuits totally with you on the hated snow suits - such a pain! We found ones with double zips at the front were the easiest to get on, but avoided then if possible. I suspect we'll have length issues with the ones we have been given, as DS is 91st centile for length but 50th for weight, everything is short in the leg if it fits his body and the snow suits have sewn in feet!

lots I'm also still feeding on demand i.e all the blinking time! DD is the same, hangs out with us and goes down about 10/11. I've tried an early settle a couple of times the past week or so and all that hsppened is I spent all evening upstairs constantly resettling. So I don't think she's ready yet.

pear I like the look of those blankets! 8 don't have any foot muffs or anything yet. I do have a snowsuit which I picked up at a NCT sale.

DD goes to bed at the same time as DS now - though bear in mind she will be quite a bit older than some of the other babies on the August bus.
So both children have a bath every other night at 6.30ish, DD first then DS. I feed DD on our bed next to her cosleeper and she's usually asleep by 8. If I am doing both children then we skip bath and I feed DD on DS's bed. He's usually asleep by 7.30.

I've not tried doing a dream feed with DD. Am a bit scared to arse up the decent sleep that DD generally has to be honest!

Now, if only there was a stress-free way to stop DS coming into our bed during the night..!

Biscuits Yes. I saw that bargain universal footmuff on Amazon but two things spring to my mind. Is it flammable or whatever it is that stops it ? Has it been tested to be safe to use with car seats? As its so cheap the answer is probably no so I personally wouldn't risk it. Shame though as it is such a bargain! If it was for me I would be tempted but as its for Dd I better not

TG DH is working from home today. Passed him Dd at 7am and got 2hrs sleep.

Fair point Pear. I've gone off it for different reasons but actually a branded maxicosi one isn't that expensive for the cabriofix anyway (if you consider all the snowsuits you avoid buying!) so may just get one of those.

Glad you got a bit of extra shut eye this morning

We are also struggling with day time naps. Nothing on this week so my number one priority is to get dd to nap in her cot. So far being putting her down for an hour . I will tentatively say she might have finally gone off...we'll see.
As for bed time I start with bath etc at 7, have up to an hour of cuddles with the light off/feed downstairs in living room then take her upstairs. Normally she's off to sleep at 9.30 and then has her biggest chunk of sleep if I'm lucky until 12.30. Her night time feeds seem to be a really quick ten minutes now if that. I'm wondering if these are more for comfort and habitual? Still wouldn't say we've got a set routine but she's seeming more settled.
Can't remember who was asking about infacol but I've slung it in the bin. Not noticed any difference. Gripe water also did nothing! Ranitidine has been the main help and I can really notice it if I miss a dose.

We are also struggling with day time naps. Nothing on this week so my number one priority is to get dd to nap in her cot. So far being putting her down for an hour . I will tentatively say she might have finally gone off...we'll see.
As for bed time I start with bath etc at 7, have up to an hour of cuddles with the light off/feed downstairs in living room then take her upstairs. Normally she's off to sleep at 9.30 and then has her biggest chunk of sleep if I'm lucky until 12.30. Her night time feeds seem to be a really quick ten minutes now if that. I'm wondering if these are more for comfort and habitual? Still wouldn't say we've got a set routine but she's seeming more settled.
Can't remember who was asking about infacol but I've slung it in the bin. Not noticed any difference. Gripe water also did nothing! Ranitidine has been the main help and I can really notice it if I miss a dose.