March 2018 newborns

[blinkineckmum]

Not sure if a thread exists already. If so, point me in the right direction.
Here's a place to celebrate our bundles of joy and find support for everything from stitches to breastfeeding, partners and sleep and anything else we may come across in the early days to challenge us!

@avocadoincident you did the absolute perfect thing for your little one and now everyone is happy and well rested.

We did the same and night weened at just before 7 months (though I understand that this is not right for every baby, ours is on the 98th centile and was only comfort feeding at those wakes ups).

Went from every 2/3 hours to one wake up (sometimes 2, sometimes non!) usually in 12 hours, which takes me or my partner now a few minutes to just rock her back to sleep now.

It helps to have a really supportive partner so they can go in for those wakes ups the first few weeks of controlled crying so the feeding cycle is not only broken but the option is no longer there of nursing at each wake up if that is what you choose

Hi everyone,

Haven't posted in a while but great to read all your updates.

Dd3 is 8.5 months old. On a (very) good night, she wakes once in about an 11 hour stretch. Bad night would be 2-3 wake ups and usually ends up in our bed. I've had 2 bad sleepers before this and at this stage I'm too knackered to try to keep putting her back in her cot so I just bring her in and after a while of messing around she goes to sleep.

Overall I consider her to be a good sleeper so haven't really had to think about sleep training at all, feeding back to sleep usually works really well. The problem is when feeding back to sleep doesn't work - I've been there - so I can totally understand anyone needing to sleep train in order to hold on to the last bits of sanity. It's so hard when they wake that much.

vicky really sorry to hear about your dd's illnessess, hope she is ok now? That must have been scary.

Right, so as I said dd is 8.5 months old. Not really anywhere near crawling and seems a little bit behind on gross motor stuff (fine motor is great). I just checked milestones there for 8 months and seems like every site reckons most babies are crawling by now or able to sit from being on their tummy. Definitely not!

Hi @HalfStar ds is also 8.5months.. He can sit well independently if put in a sitting position. He can't get from lying on his tummy to sitting no way..
He can kinds commando crawl.. He gets around but kinda more on his elbows etc half the time with his head pushed along the floor... I wouldn't say he is crawling...I didnt think that was all that late

Any tips to help a snuffly baby? Doesn't seem to bother him during the day but nose running and snuffly at night....

Hi smurf: we are very snuffly too. I prop her cot mattress up at one end so it is raised and I use a vics cream on her chest. I think the brand is called snuffle baby and it's from the chemist and can be used on younger ones.
What are you doing, and tips for me?

Thanks @avocadoincident I'll get some of the snuffle babe tomorrow.
I had thought about raising head of cot but haven't done it yet as he is still in a travel cot in our room..
Atm I've just tried lots of fluids, warm bath before bed.. Gave him calpol before bed tonight as he was a bit out of sorts

Hi, sorry to hear it. The thing that works best for me over the years is get a few deep bowls and put some big blobs of Vicks (not snuffle babe) into them along with some boiling water, then put the bowls in the baby's bedroom at bedtime. (Put them on a shelf somewhere or well under the cot because otherwise you'll end up blundering into them in the middle of the night and spilling them everywhere .)

Just make sure to keep the door closed so all of the steamy Vicks stays in the room. It really works well.

The Calpol plug-in vaporiser things also work quite well, and you should be able to get them in most pharmacies.

Also saline spray up the nostrils is a godsend.

Ah it's that time of year!
Mine is suffering with bronchiolitis. I know it's this as ds had it 3 times, once hospitalised, and we nearly lost dd2 to it as a new born.
Poor babies. She's hot, sleepy, short of breath, so snotty with a nasty cough. I'm hoping for an improvement tomorrow as the past 2 dayshave been tough on her. If not we'll have to get checked out.
She's currently sleeping on me as I can't put her down.
Hope everyone gets some sleep and the babies start to feel better.

Oh no. hang in there, fingers crossed she picks up soon.

How is she 3in4?

Thanks for asking. Getting there! Definitely on the mend but still coughing and snotty! And ever so clingy.

How is everyone? Looking forward to baby’s first Christmas? It was quite a tough time of year for me whilst we were ttc (for over five years) and especially after a miscarriage very close to Christmas a couple of years ago. This year there’s a few family challenges that have disrupted our plans, but all in all, I’m really looking forward to our first one as a family.

DD continues to get worse and worse at sleeping - I did not expect that I would have a newborn that slept better than a 9.5 month old. She had an awful virus, and stopped eating solids for almost two weeks, sore throat, snotty nose, ear pain and a high temperature for almost a week. She wanted to feed a lot and we ended up co-sleeping for half of the night. Now she seems completely unable to self-settle and is very clingy. Five wake ups last night. As a newborn she would only wake up once or twice and then settle easily after! Now it’s a battle to get her back to sleep.

Any ideas to help us get back on track??
As a start, DH is doing all the wake ups before midnight, so that we can try to tackle any habit waking for feeds before that time. Then I am going to work on naps and trying to gently encourage self-settling during the day - DD has never just been put down in her bed to fall asleep.

I’m very nervous about being this tired and having to go to work!!

Hi Snowbambino, yes I’m looking forward to our first Christmas with the baby too. Should be really special although we too have done family issues to contend with!

Sorry to hear about the sleeping! But if it makes you feel any better the waking at this age is supposed to be a developmental thing. We’ve certainly got issues here too and we also did around this time with my first daughter. Just in time for going back to work! We formula feed so our night wakings involve one feed (take her downstairs give bottle, change nappy, cuddle watching a quiet program on tv - takes about an hour) and then lots of wakings when I shove the dummy back in! The dummy normally works to get her back off as she’s not hungry just after some comfort/sucking reassurance I think. Some nights it’s only once and other nights it can be every 45 minutes from 4am until get up time. All good fun!

Oh and regarding the self settling, I would try to crack that for daytime naps if you can. I think it’s more complex when breastfeeding as that’s so associated with comfort and sleep but what I do is don’t feed her before sleep I do the Easy routine where you feed, then do an activity and then sleep a good time after. Then it’s case of watching for tired signs and getting them led down in cot at the perfect drowsy time (not easy!) we use a dummy and a cloth comforter thing which she holds onto while she sucks her dummy. I started off by lying next to her cot after I’d led her down and pretending to sleep and doing quite heavy breathing! After while sneak out room. the time led next to cot got less and less until now I just bung her in with comforter and walk out and she goes to sleep on her own. Even now Sometimes she fidgets and I have to go back in a few times to stroke her head and put dummy back in. Naps are so tricky!! But getting naps sorted helps with night time waking too I think as they are used to getting themselves to sleep, hope this is helpful!

Hi, I think I may have posted on this thread a while ago but can totally relate to the sleep deprivation thing.
DD3 (9 months) wakes on average 3 times a night, this has become the new norm and I have no-one in real life to sympathise with (because I don't know many mums with babies and those that I have spoken to, don't seem to encounter the same issues).
Still breastfeeding - was planning to stop altogether at the 12 month mark and I don't think this helps with the sleeping pattern because dd expects to be fed as soon as she wakes (sometimes it is just comfort, I am sure). The lack of sleep affects me and dh in so many ways and I am frequently irritable with my other dds because of it. I also don't like driving etc. when I am tired.
Has anyone recently stopped breastfeeding? If so, how did you manage with the engorged breast thing at the beginning? I have done this twice before but I can't quite remember how I wound the breastfeeding down.

Hey you definitely arent alone with the tiredness and irritability lavenderdays. It’s a constant state of tiredness here! I’m snapping at my 4yr old dd and feel awful most days. Hoping will get easier in 6 months or so 😩

Vickylou, it can feel quite isolating I find, because I don't know many other mums with children this age, it feels as if I'm the only one going through this; it is very debilitating. I hope it will get better for us both sooner rather than later, I just want to join the rest of the human race again!

You are definitely not alone lavenderdays. We’re also dealing with many wake ups a night and it’s making us grumpy and irritable. I am getting to the stage where I feel angry at DD, and then horribly guilty for feeling that way. DH and I also argue, although we both recognise it’s because we’re tired and stressed, and have been quick to forgive each other and make up again! We’ve only been dealing with really bad sleeping for about three weeks, but it’s enough to have had a huge effect on my wellbeing.

vickylou we were making some progress with self-settling at nap time prior to the illness. I could gently pat DD as she lay in the cot and she’d go to sleep. Now she screams at the top of her lungs if she’s been put in there anything less than fast asleep, so I’m having to cuddle her. During the day we never feed to sleep and follow a decent routine so that DD has two reliable naps a day. At night, I feed to sooth and then rock to sleep. The problem seems to be separation anxiety and DD suddenly being very aware of her surroundings and when we’re not there. I used to watch her wake up and shift around on the monitor, then go back to sleep, but now she’ll wake straight up and scream.

I don’t think I will easily be able to stop breastfeeding. DD has a cow’s milk protein allergy, and until she’s grown out of it, I’d worry that she wasn’t getting enough nutrients as she can’t have regular formula.

With the sleep, I think I will have to do something about it. I don’t want to leave DD to cry but even the solutions that claim they don’t involve crying, would make my DD cry I’m sure, as she has a tendency to scream at anything she doesn’t like. I just don’t really know what to do, but I know I won’t be able to do my job this tired, and work is only a matter of weeks away....

Happy New Year everyone. Still no sleep here. Teething again. I’m reading the no-cry sleep solution, in the hope it will offer some useful advice. Wake ups are still every 2-3 hours although we have had the odd good night here and there, so it can be done.

Has anyone else’s baby developed a new scream of anger/frustration? DD was already a fairly earsplitting baby, but she now screams, in what looks like rage,
when she can’t have something or if she wants out of the highchair, pushchair etc or any other situation where she’s not happy. It’s the kind of scream that makes a whole room turn round! Not a nice noise.

Hi Snow. Happy New Year to you and everyone else! Yes, dd is teething too and still wakes up every 2-3 hours. Some nights are better than others but I don't think I have ever had a block of sleep greater than a 3 hour stretch.
I seem to remember my dd2 did the screaming thing that you mention. My dd3 does a sort of fake coughing/choking thing by way of getting attention and stretches her legs out stiffly when she doesn't want to sit in her high chair...definitely changing and showing attitude bless her!

Hi snow yea my ds has perfected the screaming while throwing himself backward out of your arms while going as stiff as a board.. He was really bad with this over Christmas but thank has seemed to stop doing it so much.
We are also still up every few hours. Last night was a good night with feeds at 8, 12, 430, 530 then 720 up for the day.
Ds has been struggling with very loose nappies and lots of them since just before new year. He is otherwise happy and full of chat. Had him at the gp today and they are thinking maybe lactose intolerance although gp thinks it is probably (hopefully) temporary following a bit of a stomach bug.
Been prescribed lactose free milk for him although I bf at night anyway and due to my own dairy intolerance don't eat much lactose anyway.
Can i ask what your babies all eat in a day?
Currently my son would have had creamy porridge and toast for breakfast then rice cakes / fruit pot and yogurt / custard for snack, cheesy mash / fish pie / potato and leek soup etc for lunch then toast for snack sometimes or carrot puffs etc and then either a bit of what we are having/ wheetabix and milk / cheese cubes / rice pudding / rusk and milk for dinner / supper.. Lots of that is milk based don't know what to do for snacks etc now if avoiding dairy for a few weeks.
Hope you are all well

How many feeds are you guys doing in the day now? my baby is just over 10 months and has been night weened since 6 and a half months so I have been keeping the breast feed up as and when, though pretty much every 3 hours still.

Recently she does go around 4 hours between 9 ish until 1 ish.

But just wanting to know if it might be time to cut a feed? She wakes around 6 so is fed then and is asleep in the evening by 7pm

*9am
*1pm

Did the GP say lactose intolerance Smurf? It’s usually a cow’s milk protein intolerance/allergy, but I know from my experience with DD (who has CMPA) that the two often get confused. My GP prescribed us a formula (despite the fact that I was EBF) that wasn’t appropriate according to the guidance, so they can be pretty clueless!!
I make porridge with oat milk, and it is still very creamy - either with grated apple, berries and cinnamon etc. I use almond yoghurt instead of normal yoghurt, I would have used coconut yoghurt but DD reacted to that too. We have Pure spread or Avocado oil spread instead of butter. Cheese is a hard one to switch -alternatives are all pretty rank, and coconut based, which rules them out for us.
Today, DD had porridge with apple and oat milk. Snacks were almond yoghurt, rice cakes, fruit. I’ve just made mini carrot, apple and banana muffins, so we will see how those go down tomorrow. Today DD had salmon with mashed potato, sweetcorn and peas for lunch, and pasta, with broccoli and courgette puréed to make a sauce with almond based cream cheese. Most of it eaten, the rest on the floor as she likes to feed herself these days.

It is a pain having to be dairy free - so many baby recipes have cheese in them, and milk based snacks are so good for getting calories and fat into babies. I am constantly stressing about it.

Champoo I now try to feed only at 7am, 2.30pm and 6.30pm (bedtime) but I usually end up giving a bit of a feed at 10.30am still. I’m EBF, as DD can’t have regular formula and has never had a bottle. She feeds twice overnight though, 11.30pm and 4am the last few nights. I think the first one she’s hungry but the second one is comfort. She used to only feed once at night but after a period of being ill, it became twice and stayed that way.

I am stressing about breastfeeding and going back to work, the possibility that I will be away some nights and what will DH do if I’m not there, leaky boobs, what milk she will drink if not breast milk etc etc. I wish someone could just give me a simple plan to follow so I didn’t have to worry and overthink it all!!

Hi @SnowBambino yea the gp said lactose intolerant. She said she is hoping it is temporary lactose intolerance caused by a stomach bug. Ds is point blank refusing to drink the lactose free formula that gp has given though. Which means he doesn't take any milk between 6/7 am and 4ish when I get home from work.. When he dives on me and then wants to feed all evening / night.
I bought some oat milk today so going to try and make porridge with it tomorrow. Fingers crossed his tummy is settling though as only 2 dirty nappies yesterday and today.. I also found alpro yogurt and custard that he likes which is good.