August 2021 Babies - Running on Caffeine and Baby Smiles

[PurplePansy05]

Welcome to the chattiest post-natal club on MN!

We have welcomed 31 gorgeous new babies together 💖💙 ...

We have filled up several more like a hundred threads in the antenatal birth clubs chat...

...and now we have finally graduated and officially moved to the postnatal birth clubs chat! 🥳

Graduates of the August 2021 (and thereabouts) thread:

@Smurf123 & baby Sophia 💖
@wimbler & her baby boy 💙
@Jessicapebbles & baby Ebony💖
@Inmypjsagain & her baby boy 💙
@PurplePansy05 & baby Leo Alexander 💙
@WinterBabyof89 & baby Rosie 💖
@Winecoffeeteamum & baby Emily 💖
@Ready2020 & baby Rowan 💖
@Magik01 & baby Isaac 💙
@Hoares3 & baby Ellis 💙
@Daffodil21 & baby Elliot James 💙
@sarah13xx & baby Freddie 💙
@MrsB2019x & baby Ella💖
@biscuitcat & baby Rowan 💙
@Whatshouldbemyusername & baby Arya-Nyah 💖
@notinthestarsigns & baby Erin 💖
@Aaaaa1519 & baby Anum 💖
@Angelesque & baby Isaac 💙
@Millymay13 & baby Ethan 💙
@WolfMother326 & baby Alasdair 💙
@BertieBotts & baby Alex 💙
@RandomCatGenerator & baby Solomon 💙
@lucyrp & baby Evelyn Rose 💖
@HopefulB & baby Chloé 💖
@Mmr224 & baby Alasdair 💙
@Smallbean27 & her baby boy 💙
@Fran919 & her baby girl 💖
@Caz1226 & baby Dougie 💙
@Ava50x & her baby boy 💙
@dirtyfries & baby Frankie 💖
@ame88 & baby Lily 💖

Tagging @Dia12, @livingwithbees, @Sheisfee, @Alittlexmasmagic and @LottSE20 in the opening post so you know we're here as and when you wish to rejoin/share your updates 💐

Here we go!

I went on my work email tonight because something had been sent to it that I needed. Just seeing an update email from my boss (the head teacher) with details of what they’ve all to have done by next week stressed me out. I really really don’t want to go back there 🤦🏼‍♀️ Supposed to be going in to see them and I’m even putting that off because I kind of don’t want to even be reminded what it’s like. I toyed with the idea of being a photographer and specialising in newborn photography but I don’t know whether I’d be any good at that. Just struggling for what I could do with a teaching degree that isn’t teaching 🙄

Oh man. We’re still on 3 wake ups per night. I am so envious of those of you getting 6-7 or more hours unbroken. DH and I are still splitting the nights into two shifts and sleeping separately as otherwise we’d both fail to function.

We’ve started purring DS down at 20:00 to start a bedtime routine. Tonight has gone to pot due to a surprise massive poo at 21:00, but usually he then wakes for food at about midnight, 03:00, 05:00 and then he’s awake. We’d really really like to get rid off the 03:00 especially…

He is a colicky baby though with very bad gas so I’ve sort of resigned myself to the wake ups. Often he wakes himself up with gas and then realises he’s ravenous I think, rather than hunger waking him

@RandomCatGenerator must be seriously hard going. The odd time if he even wakes up before 8 like 6:30 or something I’m almost begging him in my head to go back to sleep 🙈

He’s just woken himself up there with gas I think then started screaming when he realised he was hungry! It’s meant he’s ended up going down for the last time a good bit earlier than usual so I would doubt if he will make it to 8am tonight but here’s hoping 😬

Well DD has blown her good record of sleeping from 7.30 to 1.30am by waking up in between then waking up early. She's fed and back to sleep. No clue what's up. She's quite farty though.

It is @sarah13xx, to be honest. It’s 5:45 here and I’ve taken a close record of his sleep tonight to see how much sleep he’s actually got. From 21:00 until 05:30 when he woke up, he’s had about 4hr45 of sleep. Poor little farty baby. And poor tired mum and dad!

Those whose babies are around 9 weeks old: please could you tell me your bedtime routine, and how the night usually goes e.g. when they wake up, how long it takes them to go back to sleep?

I'm so sick of the dummy! It's never been this bad. Every hour she's squeaks because she's spat it out and wants it back.

I'll do my sleep routine a little later @RandomCatGenerator Trying to doze between dummy duty. Sigh.

@Ready2020 I’m with you on the aching front…I am so achey all over! When I wake up I’m so stiff it’s hard to move around but that does ease after a bit thankfully. I’m not sure how or when it’s going to get better but I am going to start a mums and baby yoga or Pilates class soon which I hope will help.

@PurplePansy05 thank you for the recommendation, that’s on the to buy list now!

Dd cried because she was so overtired last night that I ended up feeding he to sleep on me at about 730/8 pm so she was sound asleep from then even when I transferred her to the moses basket when I decided to go to bed about 10 so she's just woken for a feed now. She only had a couple of cat naps yesterday day time. Though she was happy just looking round her while I spent hours cleaning for the in laws visit
For her she will normally just wake feed for anywhere from 10-30 mins during the big and then will go back down in the moses basket. Often she won't feed to 6/7 am sometimes we have a wake up around now.
Ds on the other hand is 3 and there's a 50/50 chance that he will wake at least once (or 2/3/4 times) and normally starts his day at alone 6am atm. If he wakes for the toilet any time after after 5ish there's not a hope of him going back to sleep 🙈

Note to self check auto correct mistakes before clicking post. Dd feeds for around 10-30 mins at night and Ds starts his day around 6 am not alone!

Gave up putting dummy back so we're feeding now.

On a normal night it's pj's on at 6.30 and feed then relaxing music and bit of massage. Another feed and change then sway, walking to sleep and put down in pram downstairs around 7.30. Usually up at 1 30 am for change and feed then down in snuzpod. After that it's active sleep time but in a good night not feed until about 6 am. After that maybe in with me or back in pod. Bad nights are up after 3 hours for feed. She's feeding to sleep during night apart from when she's woken up at mid night change then I'd walk to sleep.

Usually awake about 7.30 am.

I'm looking to buy a travel cot as now that we're a bit more organised and confident with DD we're going to stay with family more often down in Durham and up near Aberdeen. Also DD will grow out of the snuzpod before she's ready to go to her own room so it can be used for that.

www.argos.co.uk/product/8892351

This looks good but anyone any suggestions?

@Ready2020

I'm looking to buy a travel cot as now that we're a bit more organised and confident with DD we're going to stay with family more often down in Durham and up near Aberdeen. Also DD will grow out of the snuzpod before she's ready to go to her own room so it can be used for that.

www.argos.co.uk/product/8892351

This looks good but anyone any suggestions?

I did a lot of research on this - that one definitely looks the best. Unless you want one of the really lightweight ones in which case Phil and Teds looks really good but I struggled to actually find retailers.

It’s not light - I think it weighs 8kg or 9kg?

Well we've had a tough evening, looks like DS had terrible trapped wind. He started crying at around 7pm and was inconsolable until 9.30pm. I don't know if there's anything on the how to calm down your crying baby list that we haven't tried, probably not! It's so unusual for DS too, I felt so sorry for him. Then he finally let out a massive fart and a few smaller ones and immediately fell asleep in my arms because of how exhausted he was. I was exhausted too, at that point on a blanket on the floor in his nursery after giving him a tummy massage and bicycle legs. He then had a feed around 11pm and is still asleep. We've not had a poo since Friday late evening too, so something big is coming!

Does trapped wind get better as they get older? I'm guessing might be related to infant dyschezia? xx

Well we've had a lovely weekend away, totally unplanned which made me very nervous but so glad we went as we very nearly didn't! OHs brother lives in liverpool and we went up to help him move but decided to stay over the night. DD was absolutely fantastic couldn't fault her 🥰 MIL came too and we spent yesterday walking around and eating and it was some lovely wholesome family time. DD adores her pram and slept most of the day I think the fresh air really knocked her out 😳

He’s 10 weeks.. I just have to hope his daytime naps tie in so that we can have dinner about 6ish then he wakes up for an hour or two for the bedtime routine. He goes for a bath every night, I know a lot of people don’t do this though but I just like to do the same thing every time 🙈 After his bath we just do jammies then I was planning to start doing the massage I’ve been learning at his massage class but I still haven’t. I put his night light on with the stars on the ceiling which he loves then he has a bottle and watches them for a while. If he doesn’t fall asleep on me at that point I take him through to our room and put Ewan the sheep on til he’s starting to either yawn a lot or has actually fell asleep then I put him in the snuzpod for 8ish ideally. Some nights if he’s screamed the house down from being overtired that bit takes a while longer 🙄 We used to aim for a 7pm bedtime and we used to put him down in moses basket at that point so we could watch him but he actually hardly ever uses it now. I go for a bath at 8 through the wall from him with the baby monitor and he has his the snuza hero alarm on too or DH will just sit in our room with him til I’m out. Our routine has only really ‘clicked’ since we’ve started putting him down in the snuzpod rather than downstairs and I think having his 2 hour lunch time nap in the snuzpod also has an effect on the night time bit as well. The days we miss the lunch time nap or he gets half an hour in the car seat or the pram instead he just seems to spend the rest of the day screaming and crying at being overtired 🤦🏼‍♀️

We’re going to a class this morning and he woke at 6:30 after having his ‘dream feed’ at 10ish instead of 11. It’s hopefully worked out well though because if he’d got up at 8 he would have been overtired by the time the class started but instead he’s still asleep so hopefully I can get myself ready then wake him and he’ll maybe not cry through it all 😬

@RandomCatGenerator DS is 10 weeks today. He's usually awake for a couple of hours in the evening and then tends to go to sleep properly about 10pm. I know this sounds late and it probably is, but DH gets some lovely awake time with him after work which at this stage I feel is far more important than a proper bedtime routine. He then sleeps until about 4, has a feed/wind/nappy change halfway through a feed and thankfully goes back to sleep quickly. Now I'm not pumping anymore, the night time feeds only last about 20 minutes which I'm pleased about. He wakes again anywhere between 5:30 and 7 then I put him down again for another hour or so (mostly because I'd like another hour or so!). We don't do a 'routine' as such before he goes to sleep properly, but sometimes if he starts being grouchy because he's tired then we just bounce him around a bit until he sleeps. This is all probably the wrong things to be doing, but at the moment it works for us, and DS is sleeping well until he's hungry, and then goes back down again. We'll re-evaluate at some point, but seeing DS with DS for that but if time in the evenings is so lovely.

@Ready2020 if you're ever visiting family in Aberdeen and fancy a coffee or lunch, let me know. I'm happy to come to Aberdeen

We bought DS a jumparoo thing off marketplace - he absolutely loves it! Why do they have to be so hideously garish though 😂

@RandomCatGenerator ah yes just to add, like @sarah13xx we have one of those star projector things but we don't always use it. We often ask echo to play 'rain on a tent noise' instead of white noise, but I'm starting to think this is more because my husband likes it rather than for DS 😂 I didn't put anything on like that while we were away and he still slept well. If he hasn't fallen asleep himself by 10pm and he's not being grouchy from tiredness, we usually just put him in the crib until he falls asleep.

How is everyone putting their babies to sleep so early at night DS2 just won’t go to sleep probably until around 11pm if not later! Jealous of all your routines at the minute.

@Daffodil21 it's Buckie that we'll be going to if that makes it easier. We're going in November at some point so we can see what we can arrange

We're going to start again with putting DD up stairs from 7pm rather than downstairs. We're going to wait until we're back from Durham though. I think we might use the travel cot in room as soon as we get it as she'll go in there eventually.

For travel cot we're looking for it to be easy to get in the car, sturdy, room to grow in to have a bassinet bit for wee ones. I think that one covers it.

@Smurf123 have you tried a groclock with your DS1? I’ve heard they are great for early walkers as they stay in their room until the sun comes on the clock once they get used to it! And you can set what time you’d like the sun to appear. ☺️

@Ready2020 Buckie makes it a lot easier! About 20 mins away :)

Am I still the only one who can't put DD down during day time nap? If she falls asleep on me then that's it, can't put her down or she'll wake up! If she wakes she doesn't go back to sleep so I need to go out in pram. So I usually just hold on to her on sofa and watch TV.

@Magik01 we have one and it had been working great. But this time of year every year he goes back to early wakes I don't know why. It normally takes a week or 2 of being really strong saying nope suns not up stay in bed but he can get really upset and I really don't want him waking dd shouting. He won't go back to sleep anyway but he might play. Atm he just wants me to stay. I've reset the clock for sun to come up at 6am and this morning I wouldn't let him out of bed until them but stayed with him to minimise the noise when he wanted food at 545. After 5 mins he did low back down and we got to 6.. Hopefully he remembers this will happen every morning and then he might sleep longer.
During the night of he wakes he usually just calls for his start projector and audio story to be put back on again whicb I can deal with.