May 2007 Postnatal, sleep and smiles only please babies!!!

[Mrsjaffabiffa]

Thought it was time for a new thread.

Lupins, beautiful pictures of the kiddies.

I have added a picture of Ella in one of her favourite sleeping places. Abby i hope you have a better day today with R

AM she has changed soooo much, really rounded out in her face - too cute!!

Have just been for a walk with one of the ladies from school, dd and her dd went to the same preschool and we seem to be the only ones either with dogs or that walk their dogs - so we got chatting and went to the park, had a lovely time, slightly sad tho as it turns out she lost twins at 31 weeks, we happened to have both birthed in the same room that they allocate for these things - anyway it was really nice to chat to here and nice to meet another mum, she has also said she will pik Willow up on the 19th so I can stay out as long as I like for our meet-up, so can we please make that the official date now that I have arranged childcare

Also need some vibes, a friend of ours has just had a little girl, they are no longer together it was a bit of a fling, anyway the little tot has suspected meningitis, she was quite prem as well i think, so hoping that she pulls through and is ok

Abbeylou hope today is a better day for you

Just eaten huge slice of birthday cake so am off to do housework and find homes for all these new toys arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh,

briefly popping in to say hello - am meant to be clearing out attic but computer is next to attic door..have not really time to catch up with thread but will do.
All well here - Samuel is having his second half day at nursery. Delivered both children this morning - hellish walk up there with both of them crying. Samuel has a red eye where DS1 (who is still mad on pirates) tried to put an eyepatch on him...
Scary to see reference to teeth already - they are growing up! Samuel found his toes yesterday and spent much of the day admiring them!

19th good for me Lups, Gun Wharf it is for tea and cake Wahooooooooooo!

I also heard some fantabulous news..... Krispy Kreme are opening up there!!!!!

YAY!

Well today has, so far, been a little better than yesterday in that there has been less crying - from both of us. R woke at 6.30 which is early for her and had her bottle at about 7.15. We had to take C to cm for 8am and she didn't fall asleep in the car. She finally dropped off in her bouncy chair at 9 but only slept for 35 minutes. She had a little play under her gym but was showing signs of tiredness again so I put her back in the bouncy chair at 10.15. She almost settled but then was really really crying so I rocked the chair and she finally dropped off at 11. Then of course she was hungry so she only slept for 20 minutes. I fed her at 11.25, we had a little play and cuddle nd now she's back in her chair. I think she has actually just dropped off. So since 6.30 this morning she has had the grand total of 55 mins sleep. It's wearing me out and it's really hard for dp as he works from home. We haven't got an office so he has to work in the lounge/diner and it gets so noisy.

Oh Abby what a nightmare, you sound worn out. Im a bit of a mean mummy and leave mine to cry, i know lots of people dont agree with it. I just think they are fed, changed and tired off to bed you go. They may cry for a while but if they are tired then sleep will come. Beau always steps up the screaming a gear right before he flakes.

It is usually only for 10-20 mins tops, gets less and less the better they get at getting themselves off to sleep.

Harsh for some i know but practically i couldnt do it any other way. I had twins first so just could not be patting backs and rocking cribs till they went to sleep. If i concentrated on one the other would be neglected, same as now. If i just picked B up every time he cried the others would be neglected.

I may get pounced on for it but it has worked for all of mine, trickier for some than others but all round a good tactic.

B sleeping peacefully now having just put him down 20 mins ago, he was awake but tired. He whinged, cried a bit but 5 mins later he is asleep.

AbbyLou, do you have anywhere really local where you could take R? I've just taken D to the musical bit at the end of a messy play/music for under 5s. He didn't cry while we were there, then fell asleep on the way from there to the library, me walking, him in pram, and he stayed asleep for about an hour altogether.

We also take him to the very nearby park a lot, and to the one 20+ mins walk away regularly. Although he doesn't always sleep, it stops the screeching and he often drops off in the pram and stays that way for a little while after it's stopped moving. And I get drinks to take away from the cafe, I'm far more likely to get to drink them where he can lie on a blanket and wriggle about and look at things.

Presumably there's a logic to the custom in the past of putting babies outside the door in their prams to sleep (or was that just not being able to hear the cries?)

I don't really calculate how much time he's spent asleep, it's usually much more when we're out and about and less if we're at home nearly all day.

Abbey I haven't read the whole of the thread so feel free to ignore meif irrelevant.

O will always sleep if in pram and outside being pushed around. As long as we're on the move he'll sleep. It's getting him to sleep for any length of time at home where I have problems. Have you tried long walks?

woohoo the 19th is it - and a KK to top it all off right what time?? lups, let me know what time you can get to basingstoke

OK will do - looks like we may have our internet cut off so im about to email you my mobile number in case we loose touch on here and email

Evening all,

Abby I'm glad today has been a little better. I'm afraid I am with LG&T and we let J cry if need be, though as TYG says if we catch him when he starts to fuss he will go off to sleep quite happily without a peep. However the poor mite often has to fit into our routine rather us fit into his.

Guess what I'm pushing around a new buggy, thanks to Lups J adores it, being able to see mummy is fabulous.. I'm sending you an email Lups. By the way I love the photos of the kiddies, too cute.

A couple of ladies at school have boys in dd's class and have given me their old winter clothes for ds, they have given me sooooo many I don't know what to do with them all

Hows the painting going April? What time will you all meet? I may be able to make it if I can fob off my two elder children on others for the afternoon

Right ladies, how do I get my booby loving baby to take a sucky cup with formula and which formula should I try for? Remember he is rather enormous...I'd like to try to get him to take a cupful before bedtime, but I tried last night and naturally he refused it. Any tips?

Abby, just a thought.

Have you tried putting DD to sleep in a quiet room away from the hustle and bustle. I always find that my kids have slept much much better when left to it in their cot.

Too much distraction doesn't bode well for daytime sleep IMO.

Hi CM - thanks for your message. Enjoy the new pram .

Well the gloss work and ceiling have been done in our room. He has even got some of the colour on the wall. Should have our room finished tomorrow and possibly even our bathroom as well.

I have the tommee tippee bottles that are more booby shaped - Ella will take one of those no problem. Ds had the SMA formula, but when i tried Ella on it a few months back ot made her tummy sore, so have decided that if/when she has formula that i will try aptimil.

Ok lups will keep an eye out for your email. has your mobile changed since we last spoke?

CM - we started DS on the Avent Bottle Sippy converter thingy (in place of a teat) - you can take the valve out until they get the hang of things. Once they are happy drinking out of the cup you put the valve back in - hey presto a mess free way of getting water/milk into a young baby.

AM - just checked out your profile. Ella is gorgeous. What a lovely smiley little girl.

Wow April he is speedy! Are you still exclusively bf Ella then? Do you use formula in any of her food or ebm? Is the tommee tippee a bottle or sucky cup?

Dejags, how are your plans to move to Oz?

All on track, thanks. We are just putting the houses on the market now and hope to leave in January

Yeah he seems very quick which is good. HE works 8-4.

Yes still exclusively feeding Ella and express some to put in her baby rice. She has had a bottle on 3 occasions - once to try it, when i was a bridesmaid and when i went to the Sanctuary - and she also has the bottle for her cooled water (to help with her poo ) They're bottles not cups.

GUN WHARF MEET UP:
I will pick Lupins up at 10.30 from Basingstoke stn and should get to GW at 11.30ish. Can give either Pebble or G&T a call when we are nearly there. Is that an ok time?

Dejags, your kiddies are gorgeous as well

Dejags crazy to emigrate with 3 littlies? Then we are too as you leave Africa, we arrive in Nairobi in Jan..

Maybe I should try J with a bottle and ebm first to get him used to something other than my boobies?

Thanks for all the advice guys, you're all so sweet.
LGT I am certainly not against leaving R to cry, I did exactly that with C when he was a baby and it always worked. The problem is, how long do you leave them for? I've tried it with R and she sometimes goes off if I go in and put her dummy back but more often than not she starts off crying but it escalates into an absolute hysterical scream. I've tried leaving her like this but have had to go in after half anf hour as I can't leave her any longer. When I tried it yesterday I went in after 35 minutes and she was hysterical, real tears and real huge heart-wrenching sobs. It took me ages just to get her to stop crying, it was awful. Should I still leave her longer or do you think this technique just won't work for her. I always used to tell people to try it before as it worked so well with C.
Elkiedee we do go out quite a lot and make sure we both have at least 45 minutes of fresh air every day. R usually sleeps when she is in the buggy but generally wakes as soon as we stop. I think I have walked every ingle possible 'round the block' route there is round near me.
Dejags you name it I've tried it. Sometimes I think R sleeps better with lots of noise around her so I tried the tv, music and just general household noise. Other times she seems to sleep better if it's dark and quiet. I think it's just the luck of the draw really.
I feel terrible not knowing what my baby wants. Having said that, today has been a better day than yesterday. After my last post she fell asleep about 1 and slept for exactly 45 minutes. I know it is said that a baby's sleep cycle is 45 mins, it certainly is with her. I just wish she would drop back off again. She has had the grand total of 1 hour 40 mins sleep today which is a big improvement on yesterday. She was much more good natured because she had had more sleep but I know she's still not having enough.

R sounds the exact same as L Abby who was a great sleeper at night but never ever slept in the day and was consequently whigy and exhausted half of the time..had to strap her to me to get anything at all done..it is hard work..I think tey say 10 mins or so to leave te crying baby then back in, put dummy in or whatever is needed but dont speak much to the baby then leave again and so on..sounds horrid but is what I did with L and it kind of worked to a degree..by 6 months or so she would maybe go down for a nap every second day of an afternoon..Even that was a was a huge relief though

Well it seems it wasnt the cold keeping M up-a tooth already!-she will be 14 weeks tomorrow-was hoping to get away with it till at least 6 months..she has been like a different baby since Saturday,up all night, grumpy all day..I wish the thing would just come properly through now as its quite waring to say the least!She rolled over today as well...L didnt ever roll over so I wasnt expecting it at all..hence I only just caught her as she fell off the changer

Havent had time to catch up properly as yet..but big wave to all..will have a good read when L is at cm's tomorrow..

Hi Abbey, since birth G usually only sleeps for the 45 min cycle, but has recently started to wake up give a cry or a shout and then go straight back off again for another 45 mins so maybe sleeping for longer is something they grow into - fingers crossed!

BTW G hardly ever settles himself during the day, i have to draw his blackout blind, wrap him in his growbag and rock and shush him to sleep whilst he sucks on his dummy - very labour intensive! When i try and leave him to cry it doesn't usually work either, he just gets in a state, and 30 mins is when i usually give up on that one too. He is the same as R, he sleeps in his pram but usually wakes when we get home and the motion stops.

Re meet up - All sounds good to me, will let u know when i have had a chance to sort out what i am doing - things have been hectic here lately, DH doing overtime, and i've not been well, nowt serious but means i have been sleeping rather than on the PC!

I'm so glad to here others are like R. I hadn't thought about putting her in her sleeping bag. Maybe i should try that. I'll open the window thoug because it gets a bit warm in her room during the day.
Sorry, I am just thinking out loud really. I've just been to check on the los and can't belive have been moaning about r, she looks so gorgeous all snuggled up and fast, fast asleep.
I can't believe some of the babies are getting teeth already. Time seems to be flying with R, I can't believe I am back at work in less than 4 weeks.