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

[Busylizzie85]

New thread!

Well last night LO went to sleep 6:30 took s 7oz bottle at 10:30 & slept till 6:30am, went back over at 7am till 9am. I couldnt believe it!
I think it was the 7oz bottle that did the trick ( I'd like to think 😂) we shall see tonight, she went down at 7pm.

Hows everyone getting on?

I think I'm in for another long night... last night had 5 wake ups, tonight I'm already on my second....
I hate wishing the weeks away but I can not wait for 5 months and hopefully sleep settling back down. It's really making me dread the move to the cot when she's out grown the next to me crib.
I keep wondering if I'm doing something wrong, she's soooo tired and grouchy these last few weeks, her say time naps have got shorter and shorter.. her average sleep in 24 hours ranges between 9-11 hours when everything I read says it should be more like 14. I just worry she's not getting enough sleep to help her develop and I don't know how I'm meant to get her sleeping more. Naps in the say time are quite the battle, taking around 10 mins of constant crying and me rocking her to fall asleep. If I let her fall asleep on the boob in the day time now, she generally wakes up when I take her off. In the day she will only sleep on me, Like many of you, or in the car seat. I find if she falls asleep in the car seat I end up just driving until she wakes up to make sure she gets a longer nap.

Sorry for the rant, it's been a tough couple of weeks.

@Magpiefeather I do the exact same thing with photos! I actually took her to the doctors yesterday and checked her weight and height and she’s still only 5kg but 63cm so she’s growing in length but not putting on weight. But then at 3 months I only weighed 5.3kg and I was formula fed (my mum has my old notes) so maybe it’s just genetics. I’m thinking of pumping and offering top ups after feeds but worried it’ll just negatively impact her breastfeeding even more.

@Magpie21 I’m glad someone else’s naps look just the same as mine!

@Smiffette same. Just everything you said. Same. She did 8 hours last week and this week she can’t sleep for longer than an hour or so at night before she wakes up crying.

Re sleep, does anyone else have a baby who still won’t put themselves to sleep at bed time? I’ve been doing the Taking Cara Babies sleep course and she says that you should have trained them to put themselves to sleep by 12 weeks to help get through the 4 month sleep regression but Jia just won’t put herself to sleep at bedtime. Some days she’ll feed to sleep and I can just lay her down and she’ll stay asleep but other nights I feel like I’m picking her up and down a thousand times before she’ll stop crying and actually sleep. And now she’s suddenly waking up in the night crying between feeds which she never used to do and I feel like it’s because I’ve done everything wrong up until now. I feel overwhelmed by the methods Cara suggests to fix things, it seems like it’s never going to get better 😫

Also regarding naps, apparently they don’t start to develop until 5 or 6 months so it’s normal to have no consistency and to be fighting to get baby to sleep etc and short nap times until at least then. Doesn’t make it any easier but naps are pretty much out of our control at this point.

@UKtoSK I'm glad I'm not the only one then...
My LO doesn't put herself to sleep yet either, at night she's fed to sleep in the day for naps she's rocked to sleep (used to be fed but wanted to move away from feeding to sleep always).
Sleep training is a minefield! I've decided after the last few day's v, to put any further changes on hold for a few weeks so I can instead concentrate on just getting her daily hours of sleep up so she's happier and well rested as this should then help with any sleep routine / change so try to make.

@Gigitree so sweet! We've been doing swimming lessons since she was 7 weeks and we both love it I think by end of Nov lots could change so maybe don't worry just yet?
@UKtoSK the only nap of the day where she will sometimes self settle is the bedtime one but usually she feeds to sleep
I can't ever imagine being able to put her down fully awake for any nap she would scream the house down !

@Smiffette I make sure she has 3 naps a day with around 2.5/3 hour awake time in between if I putt her in the sling and go for a walk around that time she will fall asleep so fast could you try putting your baby in sling when she/he starts showing you they are tired with cues

@mrssunshinexxx she generally starts showing tired signs after about 1 and a half hours... she can't go that long between sleeps, probably because she's so tired from lack of sleep. It's just these short naps have really made her grizzly.

I did try the sling a couple times but unless we are out and about she doesn't like it. the only time she falls asleep peacefully now is in the car, on a walk or bedtime

@UKtoSK No! I rock the baby to sleep and hope she doesn't wake up when I put her down. Didn't even realise this was considered a 'bad' sleep association until I read a sleep training book. The sleep training book made me feel bad so I stopped reading it!

I don't know anyone who puts the baby down without any form of soothing. Would be interested to know if anyone has had any luck on this front.

@Smiffette have you got other children? If not I personally would just have my only goal of each day to get her to have good naps so one out in the sling then another go in car and another in oram
She will likely quickly become happier I think mine is starting teething and due sleeP regression any day now and 3rd jabs next Friday which I am dreading 😟

@Magpie21 me too!

@UKtoSK no! My baby has never fallen asleep independently. I don’t think he’s capable yet but I’m sure he will get there. I’m not desperate to change anything yet. My dd was the same and when she got too heavy to rock to sleep and she was getting frustrated (ie it really wasn’t working for either of us anymore) I did gentle sleep training. From memory I think it was when she was about 9 or 10 months. She goes to sleep well now and sleeps through the night but I do stay til she’s asleep (she’s 3). She usually falls asleep mid bedtime story anyway!

With the baby he will either feed to sleep, or sleep in the sling, or in the car. He’s never slept in the pram, he is suspicious of it I think! Very occasionally he will finish a feed, unpatch and nuzzle into the boob like a pillow and then close his eyes which I love cause it’s so cute!

Ps neither child has had a dummy, which I think does make a difference. All the babies I’ve know who go down awake and get themselves to sleep at this young age do so with the aid of a dummy.

@mrssunshinexxx no I don't have any other children... I think I've come to that conclusion, whatever it takes get a good amount of naps and good length

It's so reassuring to read how everyone else is not having a good time with naps and sleeping.

In the evenings he's gone from going down around 7ish and managing anywhere from 5-7 hrs to waking every 2 hrs and wanting to feed. Naps are also 45 min max. This morning he wouldn't sleep despite me rocking and him being ready so I left him in his next to me with white noise etc and after 15 mins of leg slams and slight moans he was asleep...without the dummy! He's only ever done this 1-2 times before when I've just tried it. However 30mins later he was awake. Just been for a walk for his next nap and normally he sleeps so well....making scrambled eggs for lunch and he woke again after 30mins and lunch now abounded as he fed and is asleep on me. I know ultimately his sleep is the most important but right now I feel my whole mood and day is dictated by his napping...I'm completely obsessed and have cried many times about it! Testing times but I sure we'll make it out the other side x

@Mj2196 Rose had a floppy larynx (laryngomalacia) she had to have surgery on August. Hers was causing lots of problems though, she wasn't feeding well as she was so out of breath, she lots of apnea spells and generally worked hard at breathing. My older son had it too, he was fine and didn't need any surgery. At the the hospital appointment the dr will probably put a wee camera up the nose, it's a really thin flexible rod, over in seconds and doesn't hurt. If you want more info I'm happy to help.

@Magpiefeather the reflux sucks! I'm having to fight the GP to increase her omeprazole dosage. She's still on the first dose based on her weighing 7lb, she's now 11lb14oz. She's. Wee soul, screams all day, doesn't sleep, chokes, catches her breath and has began vomiting where's before it was just silent. The latest advice from the Gp is to contact my HV and put 2 sachets of gaviscon into a bottle, even after unexplained how constipated she is with just the 1! How's your wee one doing?

Oops I tagged the wrong magpie in my post!

Hi! I have been watching this thread for ages but not really posted. It's so great hearing about all your LO's as I've not been able to go to any baby groups until recently :) my DS is 17 weeks now and I'm living in fear of a sleep regression!
@Blizy have you tried instant Carobel instead of gaviscon? My DS has awful reflux and CMPA and we saw a paediatrician privately who said Carobel is better tolerated and doesn't cause constipation which it hasn't for my DS. We are also on Lanzoprazole instead of omeprazole as the paediatrician said this is also better tolerated by babies, apparently the reason it isn't often prescribed is that it's more expensive. That's so bad they won't increase the dosage as it's all weight dependant!

@Kennylou12 I've tried carobel, she was even more constipated and she was choking on her vomit as it was so thick and lumpy with the carobel. I have thought cmpa but she doesn't have a rash. She has awful reflux, screams most of the day, coughs, sneezes, hiccups and does a word thing after feeding where she may runs her wee nose on my shoulder as if is itchy. She has terrible wind and it's a nightmare to get it up!

@Blizy Aw and is she any better now ? I was fobbed off up until now that it was his mucus from him being an emcs and all his breast feeding problems were his tongue tie . But gp noticed his consent hiccups & blue tinge when crying . Did rose vomit after feeding ? . Tbh I got As usual “it’s not that bad cause he’s gaining weight “. But I do think it’s because We are feeding hourly atm I dont know what will happen when I go back to work .

She's being dismissed because she's gaining weight (all be it slowly) and I keep being told she'll grow outbid it. I had the same fight for my son, who "outgrew" the reflux only a few months ago at 5 years old! I kicked up a lot of fuss for him and he was referred to the gastro paediatrician.

We've had some success with napping and sleeping but I just stumbled into it and also involves a lot of crying initially!

My day is always the same in 3 hr blocks. I'll feed him, put him down awake, he might cry for one or two minutes and then he sleeps for an hr and a half. He normally always wakes up in the middle of this crying and I have to leave him for a good few minutes (I always check theres no reason why he would be crying..hes not in distress or difficulty etc) and then he goes back to sleep again. I read that at this age their daytime sleep cycle is only 45 minutes so when they come out of one sleep cycle they have to try and resettle themselves to start another one - which they obviously find hard to do!

After he wakes up he then has awake time for an hr and a half and then it starts all over again with his next bottle.

Theres no chance my little one would sleep on me - hes so big and fidgety! It would be nice to have the cuddles and close time, I'd love for him to stay still for a minute so I could just absorb all his loveliness.

@Mj2196 she vomits now, didn't used to!
The surgery was like night and day, she went from taking 2 hours to finishing a feed to 15/20 mins! Her breathing issues have gone and her stridor has lessened. she doesn't have a breathing tug anymore. I hope your ENT is as awesome as mine.

@Blizy my son didn't get a rash until we tried nutramigen although his skin was quite red and dry, someone in A&E asked me why my baby was so red and I was so upset!
I got fobbed off a lot as he was gaining weight but he cried hysterically 24/7, I do think it would have taken months longer had I not gone private.
That's a shame about the Carobel, it did make my DS so gassy for weeks but he is on Neocate which is like water so we had no choice but to plough on using it as he brought up whole feeds without it!
How much does everyone's LO drink in a day. DS at 17 weeks still only does on average 600ml. It stresses me out but the HV said if he is gaining then it's fine.