May 2017 #16 Sleep deprivation, mumnesia and first smiles

[crazyzooo]

New thread to celebrate the small things (like first smiles and eating steak with one hand), commiserate over the less fabulous stuff (poonamies, vomit eruptions and wind spring to mind) and someone to talk to at 4am

Just laughing about all the blankets and cardigans! My mum has rediscovered her love of crochet, we have more blankets than we know what to do with! She has made matching ones for my DDs dolls though which is sweet! (Although even more clutter!) And she made Isabelle a little Octopus toy that she makes for preemies in hospitals, the tentacles feel like the umbilical cord apparently so its nice for premature babies to hold onto in the incubator.

Isabelle's octopus! Took me ages to find the photo....i have taken nearly 2000 in the past two weeks and a half weeks! Oops!

Anyone else's boobs gone on over drive after the hot weather cluster feeding...? Mine are obscene... Rock hard after being emptied less than an hour previously.. I almost drowned the poor child and when he pulled off, my spray hit the wall over a meter away and it just kept on coming... Hoping this calms down!!

I feed asleep... I latch on, tuck child to my side and then go back to sleep... I tend to wake up when he is done, to burp him but not always. Sometimes I wake up and he has latched on himself.. I never move though and wake up in the position I went to sleep in (touch wood)

Me too crazy

Oh I love the octopus! How wonderful.

We've been in 3-6 month clothes since about 7 weeks. And loads of newborn and 0-3 that never got worn. It'll all be given to charity or friends but I feel a bit bad at the stuff that was never used!

@ClaireSunflower hope you're feeling better today and that baby sunflower is doing ok today. Your DH sounds very kind.

Super cute octopus walkerbean and great view rise. I love love love green grass and a blue sky. Couldn't live anywhere without that combination (however occasional the bright blue sky) now.

We do lots of feeding lying down. I do a nappy change in middle of feed to wake us both up. Baby likes to lie flat on back but they are supposed to be on side tucked along you. HV said lying on back long term will hurt as they pull at your nipple. So I roll up a blanket and put it along his body (other side from me) to prop him up and left keep him at more like 45 degrees. It's a compromise!! And a nifty use for all those knitted blankets we all have

Is everyone else putting babies down early and doing an evening routine? We are currently having dinner, then I feed him, then we go out for a walk (last night we drove to canal which was lovely and buggy friendly), sometimes get a MC flurry if we're near a town but the caramel mud pie ones are to die for! And then home to feed in front of a box set episode (around 9 ish) and then bed with possibly more feeding... am I creating a whole world of problems here?

He's a month old if that helps advice

Since 5.30 this is the only way she'll sleep, bang goes my extra couple of hours 😣

Oh rise those mornings are gutting

Who recommended Jane the Virgin on Netflix? It's brilliant!!

My LO has only slept for 4 hours (in 2 blocks of 2) and has been awake, feeding, or asleep on me ever since 4.30am. If I put him down he cries. It's the second night in a row and I didn't get much is the way of naps yesterday as he was doing 1hr awake, 1hr asleep. I've had a mini meltdown this morning as I'm struggling to stay awake to hold him.

Any suggestions on how to get more sleep? I struggle to see how DH can help more (when he's here) as he can't feed him and expressing would take away any little daytime nap time I have. 😰

I have no idea how people would manage spells like this when they already have a child.

Morning. We had a better night. BabyTea was only up twice and we had a few decent chunks of sleep. I've no idea what made a difference. It's funny sometimes when you're at the worst it suddenly gets better.

@Barnes79 I wish I had the answer but huge sympathy for you, it's awful. I can only advise going into survival mode, no housework, eating takeaway, staying in bed lots. You could let DH sleep until 4 and he take the baby from 4-7 (or whatever) until he has to go to work whilst you sleep. Any family around to help?

Hugs @ClaireSunflower hopefully the night wasn't too bad for you.

Lovely view and beautiful baby pic @1004Rise

@Barnes79 Is it the heat? Or a growth spurt? How old is your LO?

@dreamofhungarianlanterns I think if the routine works for you that is what matters. We started to implement the sequence of actions (bath, nappy change, feed, cuddles, feed, nappy change, more feed, nappy change...) with more or less success. Baby is 5 weeks only so I'm not stressing too much about it.

@teainbed Baby newbie started to grow out of his vests which is a bit of

Today is supposed to be the hottest day so take care everyone and be careful of heat.

Morning ladies

Am gonna have a scan through the thread to catch up but just wanted to say that baby nate really didn't cope very well with the weather last night/early hours of this morning with the heat. Am quite glad the weather is going to cool down soon.

Tea I'm already in survival mode and I don't see how DH (or family) can take LO when he's eating every hour. I guess they could take him if he's just wanting to be held but then I can't relax as I'm just waiting for him to start screaming for his next feed...

Newbie I'm thinking it's the heat - he's a month old exactly.

Barnes can you get baby to sleep in the crook of your arm then transfer slowly next to you in bed? Pillows to prop baby up a bit can help. Or both of you in bed today. Will baby sleep if you're asleep alongside? Bedsharing seems to work best for us.

Or, not recommended for safe sleeping guidelines, but could you prop yourself up at 45 degrees with support under your arm (lots of pillows needed!) and have baby across your chest feeding (i always feed cross cradle hold)? You could them potentially doze off while baby feeds or naps on you?

Was he sleeping better before then? Any reason (apart from the heat) like illness/reflux to explain the change? I swaddle under the arms and when he's asleep on me I can transfer him to the cot because he's parcelled up iyswim, he doesn't wake then. You could also try a dummy if you're not using one already.

@walkerbean16 we have a grandma crocheted octopus too 😊

@dreamofhungarianlanterns no routine here yet! Baby W is 4 weeks tomorrow. Evenings generally involve constant feeding and her wanting to be held. She tends to be awake from 5pm onwards and refuses to sleep until around midnight. We've had some success with DH taking her for walks in his arms/sling but then she often feeds to sleep anyway. Might try to introduce routine soon but in this heat I'm so worried about dehydration I just feed on demand even if that's all evening. Not ideal though!

Will try to keep baby on her side when eating. She always tries to roll but I know it should be tummy to mummy.

@dreamofhungarianlanterns we're doing the evening routine, he goes to bed between 8 and 9 which gives us an hour or two 'off'. This is fairly recent though, in the last week or so. But I would agree whatever works! Having a walk and an ice cream sounds lovely.

Little fox cub is really rajey in the evening. Can't gets her to sleep until 11-12pm 😭

Definitely no routine (5+4) @dreamofhungarianlanterns we try to head for the bedroom by 9 pm because we can start getting ready for bed as well, usually involves me feeding and passing her to DH and back again. Our challenge is to get her to sleep in the next2me rather than in our bed 🤔

I'm on my own for most of today for the first time 😱 good practice for when we finally move out of my parents! I reckon I might be dressed by 4pm and have had lunch by about 3.30 😉

Love the octopuses!!

@Barnes79 I have no solution only sympathy, in my experience just when we reach breaking point it gets better!!

I managed to get an extra 30 minutes sleep she was finally asleep enough that I could move her off my knees onto the bed. I spent most of the time she was on my knees asking myself why I ever put her there!! But whatever works right!! 😁

We don't really have a routine at the moment (5+6 weeks) but we all try to go to bed by 9pm at the latest. This might seem crazy early for me and dh but it's been difficult trying to settle nate at night so I dh ends up helping me. If nate wakes up during the night I tend to take him downstairs until he settles. Wish I could have a lie-in but dd wakes up at 6 every morning without fail!

Our challenge is to get her to sleep full stop. She sleeps in in the morning but the toddler wakes us up!

Just been to the doctors and my blood pressure is coming down and they've reduced my medication. It no longer matters that I only got an hours sleep last night.