The May 2007 Postnatal dilemma- 40 winks or 40 situps

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thanks to soh/gw for the title

awww she is gorgeous cinn, very smily we call libby our pretty pixie cause she is sooo dainty and smily she has massive blue eyes

afternoon good to see you lilaura and congrats, lovely pics!

I have just done J's passport and did the pics myself, propping him on a white blanket over some cushions and sent them to passpix.com and they printed them out - much easier than going to the photographers. I did check and send at the Post Office and it was back within the week, amazing really

It has been chaos here with the car being serviced and men coming to remove our playroom ceiling that was damaged when the shower flooded. The people who are fixing it wouldn't remove it because the artex (sp?) contains miniscule amounts of asbestos - great, since the rest of the house is covered in the same asbestos Dh arrived back in the middle of it all and dashed off again to pick up the car and go to Bristol for a meeting and it was raining and raining.. at least now the sun is shining.

Gosh J is really enormous compared to the rest of the littlies - 15lb at 11 weeks

Hi all

Welcome back lillaura123, Libby-Jaine is beautiful. I had Charlotte on the 23rd May - ouch! She is now 11lbs 5oz at 10 weeks old, chunky monkey.

Went shopping yesterday and treated myself to some new stuff. Haven't bought myself nice new clothes for a year! I just made do with what I could and what I was given when I was pregnant, so wardrobe was in desperate need of some tlc! £300 later it looks pretty good! Also went into BHS and got Lottie loads of stuff in 3-6 months and it only came to £24.00

Also, am in need of a new pushchair. I have the silvercross 3d and I love it, but it's too big and heavy for when I need to get on and of trains, buses etc and it doesn't fold easily without needing to take EVERYTHING of it. So I'll keep it for going out walks and stuff but need something more lightweight for travelling, any ideas? I like the Quinny Zapp in bright pink, but it says it's only from 6 months. Help needed!

Bought C her cotbed now so am waiting for that to arrive. The mattress for it came today so I had better get my skates on and get the bedding ordered. Like the secret garden range from mothercare.

Still no word from scoot?
Hope all are well x

i have a cossato lunar its great cause its a stroller and folds down in umbrella style so very small and its also travel system

Hi Girls,

Hope you're all doing better than me!

I have a dilemma. Oscar currently has a crappy random sleep pattern. Sleeps when he feels like it (because I let him). Some nights are 11pm until between 1am and 2:30, feed then he might sleep for 1 and a half to 2 hrs, 3 if I'm really lucky another feed and this 2 or 3 more times before 8/9am.

I can cope with the daytime randomness, but I need to get a bit more sleep at night. Will this come on it's own accord and if so how soon, OR do I need to do something proactive. He is now 7 weeks old.

I've sort of been avoiding reading any books, as was happy to let nature take it's course. But am now completely KNACKERED!!

I have added a new piccie of Oscar. That's exactly the look I get after a crap nights sleep. Who can be pee'd off when they get smiled at like that?!

Hi JL, hope you had a fun holiday. The best person for sleep advice is TYG, but here goes this is what I do with Archie.

7.15, bath time about 15 mins seems to be enough to calm him down.

7.30, he has a bottle of EBM or I give him the bap.

8.00, into his sleeping bag in a darkened and quiet room then we say night night sleepy time and put him in the moses basket.

He will then often chill out looking at the ceiling for an hour or so before sleeping. He then tends to wake at 3ish and again 6ish.

The thing I found when he was only going for a couple of hours was that when he did wake I kept him in the darkened room didnt speak to him just latched him on and fed him and put him straight down again.

I think the key to the night time thing is the keeping everything very quiet so that they begin to differentiate between night and day. The hope is then that they will slowly start stretching the sleep time to bigger chunks.

Now if you have any tips on how to get the little munchkins to sleep in the daytime I would be eternally grateful.

I am meeting a friend tom over in Victoria Park then am sure a spot of lunch at the Empress if you want to join us.

Hello to everyone else.

oh he is just too cute how on earth did you manage to snap him when smiling I just keep getting lots of blurred ones of A whenever I attempt a smily photo.

Thanks JW - DH comes home today (YOOHOO!!), so we will try and start a night-time routine from tomorrow. I have been travelling alot with him the last 2 weeks, so I guess it's a bit much to ask him to sleep where and when I want! I think I have no probs with daytime because he's not sleeping long enough at night, so I'll probably have problems getting him to sleep in the day once we've sorted out the night!

We complete on our house tomorrow and the gasman is coming, so will have to pass, but how is next week for you? - walk in vicky park and a spot of lunch to follow? How does Tuesday suit?

That sounds cool am free on Tues.

Sleep is such a tricky one with them. If you scroll down the thread a bit we were talking about it the other day and TYG had some very sensible things to say.

Have a fab time with your DH. See knew you would survive him going back to work.

Good luck with the house completion.

hun good luck with it - remember you cant tell a baby when to sleep but i find letting them sleep in a diff place during the day in comparison to night sleep helps as they connect longer more relaxed sleep with their cot.

Can't really help with the advice side of things. Don't believe in reading baby books, I'd rather do things my way then somebody elses, but each to their own.

I think I've just been lucky with Charlotte bacause she seems to settle well, she sleeps when she needs to sleep, feeds when she's hungry and I play with her and give her cuddles when she seems very awake and bored.

I had a scroll down earlier and although it may work for some of you, I just couldn't leave C to scream herself to sleep. It's not me being precious towards her I just don't agree with it. Babies only have one way of communicating with us - crying. To my way of thinking they cry when there is something wrong or if they want something. Therefore in my mind leaving them to bawl seems kind of cruel, I wouldn't like it if I was being ignored when I was in need or wanting some attention, so I couldn't do it to her.

I have my days where I honestly feel like just putting her outside so I can have 5 minutes peace, but everyone has off days. Sometimes she sleeps lots, and eats less and then she can be the complete opposite the following week. But the same can be said for me.

Hi everyone.

Well I finally have pictures up for all to see.

Mateo is turning two on Monday. I can't believe my little boy is going to be two. This has been the fastest two years of my life.

Cruz is good. He's been a ball of gas these past few days poor guy. I tell you though with all the gas he has, he's proving that he is in fact a man.

MKG your boys are gorgeous! You must be a very proud mum You can see that they are brothers, resemblance (sp) is there.

Thanks LW. I am proud of them. The cool thing about them is that I look at Mateo's pictures as a newborn, 2 months etc. and Cruz is the spitting image of him.

Question for everyone. Tilda is 10 weeks old today. She was doing nice scrambled egg poo's at every feed (so 6-7 per day) and hasn't done anything for 2 days now. She is very uncomfortable and doing lots of sharp sounding farts and is very unsettled which is not her at all. What's going on? She is still on the boob, has never had any formula and has plenty of wet nappies.

tam have you tried cycling her legs to get her bowel moving bring her legs right up to her chest this might help get things moving. It is not uncommen for BF babies to go a few days without pooing. I wouldnt worry about it just yet.

Don't listen to my advice anyway it's all bollox .................

Why MrsJB?

MKG and lillaura, lovely photo's. The weeks are flying, I can't believe our tiny bundles are not quite so tiny and are growing so fast.

not bollox MJaffa - i agree i cudled and rocked dd1 and she insisted on it for months because she expected it all the time - the controlled crying technique is good if you can handle it - they say to walk in and out of the room at first so ur baby knows u are still there rather than picking them up .. worked a treat with ds and libby .. mne are all in bed, ds went at 6, dd1 at 7 libby at 7.30 - if she wakes for a feed i will go upstairs and give her a feed but i dont talk to her and dont rock her then when she is fed i put her straight bk as it happens for the last three nights she has slept until 5 am and i do the same (except give her a fresh nappy in the hope i mite get another hours sleep) its more boredom i think - u are meant to leave them for 5 mins if still crying then go and assure the your there, and you extent the time untill eventually they fall asllep content cause they realise your still about - its not easy with new borns as there is so much they could need other than sleep... but as fedding routines kick in it will become clear hether they r hungry or not

god just read that back and must apologise for my terrible spelling lol

I am with you MrsJB and Lillaura, i spent 6months with dd feeding her to sleep and she couldn't go to sleep on her own, controlled crying eventually settled her and taught her how to fall asleep on her own with no 'crutches' and so with ds1 I started at 6 weeks when I knew he was fed,clean and ready for sleep. After 2 days he went off to sleep on his own with no crying. With J, I have done it almost from the start and he goes down very well, if all three boxes are ticked, fed,clean and ready for sleep. We felt that ds1 needed to have a good cry just before going to sleep to 'get out' that last bit of energy before dropping off.

Its not for everyone naturally as it can be difficult to hear your baby crying and it is always a sensitive topic

Frankly J is very easy, now if anyone can help me with a 5 year old who has developed a phobia about wobbly teeth and tooth brushing I would be most grateful

Oh bless him about his teeth thats so sweet. Haven't got that far with H yet. He's struggling with what I can only hope is growing pains (if they exisit) he's woken a few night recently crying that his legs hurt.
Actually I may start a thread about that in behaviour and developmet and see if people think they exist?

oooh yes MrsJB, ds1 has also recently had this. I just rub his legs as if he has cramps. Its quite common in 3/4/5 year olds I think. Apparently if you have an enamel bath if you put them in it standing with no water it takes the ache away