June 2020 Babies-Newborn, snuggles, recovery, milk and night feeds! 2nd thread

[Busylizzie85]

New thread!

@SRS1311 correct :( trying to remind myself there’s a reason for it but I’m hoping only the first half is this bad . I have noticed him doing so much more though he never stops shouting or moving about!

@Magpie21 the arm flinging and back arches are not my fave .oh and the pain if a nail catches my face 😬

@UKtoSK I have those nights when I don't remember if I woke up but I'm sure I did. Also having the most peculiar dreams with all
This micro sleeps I'm having!

@Mj2196 and the hair pulling 😢

@Magpiefeather we give our little girl bottles breast milk regularly. During the day if I might start her on the boob with the bottle nearby and when she comes off, I quickly switch to the bottle. During the night, she tends to take the bottle pretty easily so that might be a good one to start with. Baby gets noisy (like others it seems) around 4-4:30 so hubby takes her downstairs and will just watch for a root to trying the bottle.

She does refuse the bottle by pushing the teat with her tongue if she doesn't want it. If she gets too upset and cries, we have less success getting her to take the bottle.

We use the MAM bottles. We used the newborn (size 0) until 2 months and switched to medium flow.

Does anyone have tips or recommendations for teething? Our baby is 16 weeks and went to the GP today who confirmed sore gums. We were concerned as she reduced her feed and been aggressively attacking her own head and ears. We've had to put scratch mittens on her pretty much all day now!

This is why I love this group. Every time I wonder if something is normal, I read that everyone is going through the same. My LO is waking multiple times in the night as well.
I was wondering something though. Are there any EBF babies that sleep more than 5 hours stretches? My mum seems to think that EBF babies don't sleep well.

@Missgemini it’s so reassuring. Without it I would constantly be questioning myself and thinking that I was parenting badly. My little girl is EBF. She had been doing 5-6 hour chunks but I think the four month sleep regression is in full swing and she has been waking every two hours for the last week. 😩 xo

Ohh I see. I guess babies are just different. I am desperate to have a stretch of 5 or 6 hours. My LO once did almost 6 hours ONCE! The rest of the time is mostly 2 to 3 hour stretches! I need this phase to enddddd

@PurpleLaws we have a gel stick that has bristles on the end you massage onto the gum I think it’s ashtons, we struggled to get babe to take the granules x

@Missgemini he did 5 hours once ... I still dream of it 🤣. He did a good few weeks of solid 3 hour chunks/ only waking twice before this leap started though , prayinggg we go back to that and more

@Missgemini we are EBF and baby was consistently doing 4.5-6 hour stretches for the first part of the night, followed by 2-3 hours until morning. But the past week she has been all over the place. The last few nights she is suddenly refusing to go down in her crib at all for hours 😫

@UKtoSK yep he was born on 6th and was a week overdue. Hes never been a great sleeper and those early weeks were just horrendous, I struggled massively. But he seems to be going against the grain with everyone else on this thread as the last 3 nights he has slept lots, basically not needing a bottle till 7am. He is bottle fed though - I wonder if that makes any difference?

Its frustrating that after 3 long months you feel like you've got a bit of a handle on things but then you see this big regression on the horizon!! Definitely didnt expect that - maybe I was being naive!!

Well, we are knackered this morning. LO woke up at 12, and then again at 3. But then decided to stay up. My husband and I are zombies this morning. He hasn't done this in months! Save meeeeee

@Missgemini We had a 2:45am and 5:45am feed. Going from no night feeds to this is tough work! 😅 it makes it a bit easier to know a lot of us are going through the same thing. I thought we were safe until the 4 month regression!

@magpie21 oh goshhh! Maybe I'm already in the regression. He'll be 15 weeks tomorrow. This baby malarkey is hard! But they are sooo cute as well! Haha

@Missgemini oh I feel you! Tea and chocolate needed today I think!

My children decided it would be fun to tag team last night. So 3.30, having just settled the baby back to sleep for about the fourth time, 3yo wakes up “mummyyyyyyy!”. Daddy will not do in these instances, it just prolongs the anguish. Up I get to settle her back to sleep, take the baby with me cause I know he’ll realise I’m gone and wake up. Mercifully he stays asleep on my lap as I sit by the bed to settle dd. Dd falls back asleep after an hour. The cat has crept into her room and is also now asleep at my feet. So it’s 4.30am, I’m sat on the floor, everyone else is asleep. A tableau of motherhood right there.

Managed to creep back to bed .... til 5.30 when dd woke up and try as she might couldn’t get back to sleep. So she read us stories in our bed which then woke the baby up... fml. So we rolled with it and were out the door for a walk to feed the ducks at 8. At least it’s cold and bracing out there today - it definitely woke me up!

My EBF baby was sleeping a good 6-7 hour stretch a few weeks back but alas, no more. Now it’s usually 4-5 hours max.

@magpiefeather thanks! Oh my! I can't imagine having a second child to deal with as well! Even though we're hoping for a similar gap to you. Tough times ahead!

@Missgemini if it makes you feel better my app says the 4th leap or 'four month regression' begins when they are 14 and a half weeks old so sounds like you've hit it. Thats the good news - the bad news is it says it lasts 5 weeks!!

@SRS1311 hahaha! I'm going to have to ask my mum to come back then. I hope staying up from 3am isnt his new norm!

Don’t worry @Missgemini, so far it is not anywhere near as hard as the first time round IMO, yes there are challenging times and I’m tired today but totally worth it. This baby is also definitely the last one for us, so I am consoling myself with the fact that I’ll not have to do the baby stage again after this ever! Which is of course sad as well so I’m trying to soak up the good bits and let the bad bits wash over me (with varying degrees of success!)

My LO's new thing is to blow bubbles. It's so adorable! She is also trying to grab more things (including her feet and bottle...in the most clumsy way imaginable).

Seems to want to put everything in her mouth now, so I've just bought some more toys to accommodate. I'll share any that go down particularly well. It's so nice to see her really enjoying her toys after all these weeks.

Hope everyone's night goes well! x

I just read yesterday that the dreaded "4 month sleep regression" actually can start anywhere between 3-5 months so falls within the 4th leap.
I must say I am relieved as I thought these additional wake ups were just to do with the leap and that I would have the 4 month regression still to come! Makes me feel the end is in sight.... even though that's 4 weeks away yet.
DD IS 16 weeks and we have already survived our first cold bless her. It was hard as she was really struggling to breath while feeding so her normal 3-4 hours of daily feeds went down to just an hour and a half 😔

Hi ladies, hope you all had good weekends. So after all of your kind words I have decided to stop breastfeeding and move my little girl on to formula. I got some advice from the NCT feeding line who advised me to drop the night feed between 11-3 first as that is when the milk making hormone is at its peak and the body essentially places its order for the next day. Between 5-7 days later, I should then drop a feed 12 hours after that night feed. I’ve dropped the middle of the night feed for the last two nights but find that the gap between the last breastfeed (8ish) and the early morning feed (6ish) is too long and my boobs are in agony when she wakes. I wonder if it would be better to drop a day feed instead so that I can better monitor how full my boobs get and hand express a bit off if needed. Does anyone have any experience with this? I would really appreciate your advice! I’m not in a rush to make the switch to formula super quickly. I just want to do it in the most sensible way so as not to risk blocked ducts or mastitis. xo

@missgemini Freddie is EBF and has a bottle of expressed milk after bath before bed. We've done that since he was 3 weeks old and it signals bedtime to him. He now sleeps long stretches (4 month regression aside) and can go up to 9 hours. Eg last night he slept 6.45-3 and has just woken again now for a feed (6.30ish). The best he's done is wake at 5 for a feed with a 7ish bedtime. So it can be done with EBF babies x

@mangoforbreakfast86 I dropped a day feed first and just expressed a little at bedtime to ease the fullness, I found it took just over a week for my boobs to sort them selves out completely,
Did they say how much formula to give at first? I am finding it hard for ivy to take more than a few ounces now and most of the time it's only an once so I am having to try a little more often to feed her as I am worried she's not having enough.

@Busylizzie85 morning 😊 do you think it would do any harm if I dropped a day feed today? How much formula to give was a question I had too. They advised 5 ounces and to see how Esme got on with that amount. She seems to have taken it with no problems. What brand have you gone with? I’m using HiPP. xo

@mangoforbreakfast86 I don't think there is any harm in dropping one today if she's taken to the other ok!
I have used SMA but tried her yesterday on Aptimal, she took slightly more yesterday but was also sick a little a couple of times about an hour later, I have also found she passing wind a lot more and burping more, I'm not sure if it's just her digestive system getting used to it or she's reacting slightly to it. I'm finding it very hard with no support so I may try and find the number of the local health visitors as the text service they try and make us use is very unhelpful.
I don't think it's helping she's teething as well making her drool a lot more and in some discomfort come the afternoon 🙁