February 2019 babies - thread 1

[Celebelly]

Let's go ladies! Share your tales of cluster feeding, cracked nipples, poo explosions and sleep deprivation!

Emma has started sleeping for longer periods overnight, 5.5 hours in one go last night, but it's certainly nothing I've done! No routine or schedule here, other than we tend to go to bed about 10!

@avoidingmarking just under 4 weeks old. She's followed a strict routine from day 1 by the sounds. She does 6 feeds during the day at set times, first one is 5am and last one at 21:30. Clearly it works, but I could never be brutal disciplined enough to only give dummy / water at night!

@celebelly 5.5 hours is pretty amazing too :) how old is your Emma?

I'm just hoping that my little girl will suddenly start going longer between feeds and we'll start getting more sleep at night! But at the moment it seems like she's doing more often smaller feeds if anything . Keep telling myself she will only be this little for a few more weeks and I need to be patient and make the most of this stage. But I'm terrified that she will never start sleeping longer stretches or keep doing these 2+ hour wakeful periods in the night!

Emma was 4 weeks on Saturday. She's been a good sleeper since birth tbh, although I'm sure that won't continue. I think when they're this small it's just the luck of the draw. We've had the odd bad night too when nothing about our 'routine' has changed so I'd guess your friend just has a good sleeper and it's nothing really to do with her routine. It doesn't sound very nice either having such strict feeding times - we just feed whenever Emma is hungry night or day.

@detachablehoof that goes against all advice and sounds absolutely awful. Each to their own I guess it I'd rather wake up and feed my newborn.

At 6 weeks my daughter slept 10-5. I'm holding out for that this time too!

@detachablehoof - I did ask her and she said it was fine yours must be too. I know, crazy weight gain.

Also, I think a lot of the sleep thing is luck. My Emma has slept really well at night since the start but don't think it's anything we're doing particularly x

@detachablehoof I certainly wouldn't expect a baby that age to sleep for that long although some naturally might. We've managed 5 hours a couple of times but it makes me nervous because ds still needs to get back to birthweight and he's 4 weeks old. You're definitely not a bad mum for responding to your baby. I have two friends with toddlers the same age as my dd (2.6). One of them slept through the night at 12 weeks old (no sleep training or leaving her to cry) but the other has only slept through the night a handful of times since she was born. The smaller feeds more often may be linked to a growth spurt that babies usually have at about four weeks.

It's so exciting that we are all talking about our babies now after months of pregnancy woes!

Anyway my little one is just over 2 weeks, he is such a hungry baby and wants to feed all the time! The night time feeds can take 2 hours with him on and off! I'm jealous of all these talks about babies sleeping lots in the night. He will only sleep for 2 hours max. Is anyone else having difficulties with cluster feeding?

Not sure on formula fed but I'm sure breastfed is on demand.

@Squashbanana1 our max sleep stretch is usually 4 hours. Most nights 2-3 hours.
Feed for half hour-1hour in between.

He is only 4 weeks so I don't want to push for anything else. Just follow the advice of feed on demand. His weight gain has been 1lb per week so far so he obviously is just a hungry baby. 💙

@Squashbanana1 my little man has been cluster feeding all day and was up every 45 mins last night. He has a 10 min feed and falls asleep then wakes up shortly after wanting more. I've been stuck in the sofa most of the day! Took him for a drive this evening to collect my daughter and he slept for a few hours after in the car seat. Not ideal as they aren't meant to be in it that long but I didn't want to wake him!

@Squashbanana1 although ds has managed five hours that's only been a couple of times. We still get cluster feeding too - Monday night I was up from about 2am (he'd slept for about three hours) and didn't have more than an hour between feeds from then until when I had to put him in the car to take dd to nursery. If I hadn't put him in the car seat I think he'd have kept feeding. Your baby is changing quickly and cluster feeding is normal. Dd was ff and ds is bf (with top ups due to weight loss) and both have been fed on demand except when they've been woken to feed (again due to weight loss). Be led by your baby if you can.

detachablehoof that routine sounds awful!

I really wouldn't worry about the sleep thing going forward, I think it's hard to say how a child will sleep this early on. DS1 first slept through (8 hours) at 7 weeks and did it every single night from 9-10 weeks, he was and still is at 3 a fantastic sleeper. But pre 4-5 weeks he was only doing very short blocks and he was often up for hours in the night, it was hard going!

DS2 is only 17 days old, he's only just started doing one block of 3+ hours sleep at night and the rest he's doing 2-2.5 hours, but he does settle easily so I feel like he's easier than DS1 was at this age. We shall see how he is in a few weeks though!

I also know plenty of people whose babies slept well at the newborn stage then went downhill!

So please don't worry

And yes to cluster feeding. DS2 cluster fed essentially all day yesterday and barely slept. Today we were out and about so he slept a lot more and has so far only had a short cluster period this evening. He is breastfed excluding one bottle of formula that DH started giving him in the night a couple of days ago, and he only takes 3-4oz of that. Fed on demand 100%.

Thanks ladies these stories keep me positive to keep going with it even though feeling like a milking cow! We are all brilliant women

@Squashbanana1 My daughter is just over two weeks old as well. Up until the last two nights she was awake at least two hours for each night time feed. I'm hoping the recent shift to half an hour sticks!

My eldest was sleeping through when she got home from hospital at three weeks old. I don't think I'll be so lucky time!

Re sleeping I think it is sheer pot luck. I'm mainly formula feeding DS who is 6 weeks on Friday and still feeding every 2 hours through the night. DS1 was sleeping 5-6 hours at this age and we aren't doing anything different. This baby was huge though and packing on the weight so he obviously needs to feed a lot. It will get better..... I hope!!

OMG; started taking dihydrocodeine on Monday and then stopped being able to poo. After eating prunes today I was in agony sitting on the loo and crying - nothing doing! Thank God I managed to go a bit later on. I'm not taking any more of that; it's not worth it.
I have just found out I can still use my Spritz for your Bits but on my c section scar and surrounding area so I'm m just going to go to town with that.

How much do your babies drink?

My boy has between 30-35 oz of ebm in a 24 hour period, which seems a lot to me (midwife wasn’t worried though..🤷🏻‍♀️).

He was 10lb 7oz at birth, dropped to 10lb 3oz, and today is 10lb 10oz at 10 days old (so many newborn clothes he’s never worn! 😩)

Is this standard? I feel like a dairy cow! 😂

@NotAsGreenAsCabbageLooking my DS was nearly the same weight as yours and was having about the same amount at 2 weeks. He's now nearly 6 weeks and having about 45 oz a day which seems like loads. Well done to you for expressing that much: that's don't dedicated pumping!

I'm still jealous of anybody that gets more than 3 hours of their evening in bed. We are still having to do night shifts as DD will not sleep anywhere but on us still. We've tried hot water bottles, rolled up towel, tilting crib.. it's tiring.

Anyone else's baby make noises like a straining, constipated goat/dolphin at night? I remember this well from DS1 but at the time we thought it was something bothering him eg wind. Can't work out if it's something like that for DS2 or if it's just the noises a newborn makes! It's making it really hard to sleep even between feeds and puts me on edge thinking he's going to cry any minute...

@Maxiflump1 It’s killing me!! 😂😂

@Lookingforadvice123 yes my DS makes those straining noises as well. A constipated goat is a good description! He seems to be asleep but keeps me awake. It's frustrating when u only have an hours window of sleep and he makes those noises!

Noisy baby over here too 🙋‍♀️

I think someone used the word gremlin - couldn't have described it any better! X

So frustrating maxiflump1! DS2 seems to start doing it a good hour before he wakes for a feed, so this morning despite not having to feed him until just before 6am I'd been awake since 5am!

My baby also makes a lot of noise at night!! As well as her keeping me awake I think we disturb her too. I'm thinking I'll probably move her into her own room in the next month or so. I asked the midwife if this would be OK and she said as long as I have a monitor it's fine. Her room is directly opposite ours and I'll have both doors open so there's no chance of not hearing her cry but I'm thinking I'll get one of the breathing monitors for peace of mind.