Oct 2007 - This little piggy had none (sleep that is!)

[alicet]

Hello ladies!

Well here is the new thread so I can link it before the old one runs out... Hope you all find it!

Hello everyone

Still have a stinking cold but at least the tonsilittis has gone. Took Ben back to see the docs last week as his skin had started going bad again once the antibiotics were finished, she has prescribed another course which I am into my third day on but it hasn't made as much as a difference as it did the first time.

Put him in the bath tonight and he was wriggling that much I got some water/shampoo in his eyes, cue lots of screaming and he scratched his stomach to bits and made the water go all pink, I was trying to get the soap out of his eyes and stop him scratching at the same time, not fun when the decibels of screaming were almost deafening me too.
He is doing well with the baby cereal and purees he can't open his mouth quick enough for the next spoonful. His milk has now dropped from 35-37oz's down to 25-30oz. Once these antibiotics have finished I am going to start him on soya formula to see if that makes any difference, he isn't his happy self at the moment, so I need to at least try it. If it doesn't work we can try something else Oops, crying again must go see to him.

Mrs Fish & Muppett - how old are your lo's...??
I've noticed that you've started weaning..... i too have but only one meal a day.. he's still on approx 32oz for the day too plus water in varying amounts.

I'm almost scared to talk about weaning after the response that poor lady got on another thread.

Hi all

Just a quickie as very tired.

Mine - not weaning yet though H is taking 8/9oz bottles each feed. He's showing no other signs of needing weaning so I'm nmot sure if I just need to give him more milk -10ozs bottles anyone??

Unicorn - good to hear from you!

Mrs Fish - I hope this set of Ab's work for you...

Alice - glad your mum could help out. The carpet picnic sounds nice

Anyasmum - I didn't know that about baby rice either. With Oliver we let him have what he wanted

Will write more tomorrow as very tired now
Night all
x

Mine - Ben will be 21 weeks on friday, I started introducing baby cereal 3 weeks ago and purees 2 weeks ago. He doesn't have much at the moment just enough to get him used to a spoon and the idea of swallowing thicker food. He is doing extremely well, as with the milk nothing gets spat out so not messy to feed at all He would eat far more if I let him. At the moment I am making up the recommended amount for a 4 month old but he scoffs it down so quick and is always opening his mouth for more I am going to make some fruit purees later to stick in the freezer

Morning All...[FT waves sleepily]

Unicorn; good to hear from you. Glad to hear that big R is doing so well. I believe the London meet up was cancelled so you may well still be able to join in.

Advice please from anyone who wishes to chip in; In his 19.5 wks Alex has only once slept more than 5 hours (an 8.30pm - 3am)and had a one b/feed night. Usually it has been 2 feeds (1/2ish and 4/5ish) and up at 6 or 7am. But for 4 nights now he has only been sleeping 3.5 hours then demanding bf every 2 hours on the dot (12, 2 and 4!)and wanting to feed and play from 6. Dh and my Mm were encouraging me to start weaning 3 weeks ago; I tried spoon feeding ebm & baby rice on 3 nights but it made no difference to his feeding pattern and seemed to upset his tum so after reading about the benfits of waiting until 26 weeks I decided to return to exclusively b/f, but now I'm getting almost no sleep they are positively nagging me to start purees now. Another friend reccommened only offering a bottle of water at night saying he'll soon stop asking if that is all he is getting, but he hasn't taken a bottle of ebm since 9 weeks so I'm certain we would have hell. Now I though I would dearly love a decent nights sleep, reading the threads on weaning on here I think this is probably a growth spurt and will pass and we will only have to endure another 6 weeks to get to the 26 week target...but everyone is going on about how tired I look and how he "obviously" needs weaning... what would you suggest I could do to get back to 2 night feeds (or preferrably 1)?

Hello all!

Just popping on quickly....

Floria really feel for you. Adam is shite too but not as bad as that. All I can say is that while weaning might help it is not always the magic answer (any more than ff as I know all too well!). I have friends whose babies slept worse after introducing food so think about it carefully.

I have been sent a pdf about sleep which I am going to mail you now. Only been sent it yesterday so apologise if it's crap as I haven't had a chance to read it yet but my friend saiud it worked wonders for their lttle girl who was sleeping like Alex and after a week and a half of her crying and it being pretty stressful she now sleeps through.

By the way if anyone else wants the file on sleep give me a shout - alicetownend at doctors dot org dot uk. Choc have sent it to you too!

hey guys, sorry not posted for a day or two, been here there and everywhere!
Just wondering about the berwick meet cause I just realised it's this fri, I think alice said she was interested but haven't heard from inzi or stefka about it and not sure what choc wants to do either? We can rearrange it if people are not able to make it this time but just thought i'd check in case anyone had forgotten about it... hope everyones ok, floria - hope you get the sleeping sorted soon, don't give in to presure to wean, do it only if you want to, it's your lo at the end of the day , hi to everyone I haven't mentioed, back later

duh, just checked my mail and see choc has mailed me about the Berwick meet, have replied and copied all involved in

hi all - v. quick one to floria - we have similar patterns to you and I know that they were the same with my DS, who was also exclusively b/f'd. Exhausting!! B/f'd babies have regular growth spurts like this. Also, remember b'f is also as much to do with comfort, smell, hearing your heartbeat etc as it is food....sometimes they just need that more I suppose.

When I asked about weaning DS (cause like you I was shattered and in a state of zombified shock!)everyone told me that it makes little difference; so it might settle Alex, might not.

Without wanting to sound all been there done that, thus time round I'm exhausted but more resigned to it as DS has ensured ongoing sleep deprivation over the last 3 years - but also because I want to go at DD's pace, knowing that this phase passes so quickly and soon enough she'll be sleeping through and so will I.

Sure that doesn't help you though... could you have him in bed with you until the g/s passes?? or rest more during the day? let dh pick up the slack (dogs, housework, shopping etc) I know it's so much easier said than done. just wanted to empathise and share experiences. hope you can catch up a bit today. take care

Hi all

Floria - but I agree with the others that weaning may not give you the sleep you crave. My friend weaned her exclusivly b/f boy early as she hope it would make him sleep but it didn't help at all.

I phoned the admissons dept at the council and Ollie is 18th in the waiting list at one school ( she said this would not go down as they were all sibling children) and 3rd at the other. I asked for the name of someone to write to to complain so I can now get this bee out of my bonnet. I would home ed before Oliver goes to the allocated school.

Had tennis course this morning boys were in creche, came home and cleaned house and at 3 we are going out in the street with my neighbour and her son to play remote control cars. Good time for a tea and a gossip, I am such a fish wife

Nellie speaks a lot of sense!

Despite the meltdown of last week I totally agree with her that this is just a phase and it does get better. Although I have found it hard that Adam seems to be going backwards a bit on the sleep I have also found it easier this time just knowing that they are little for so long and that although it is unbearably hard at times it DOES honestly get better. And more easy to bear as their little personalities develop!

Ask for help LOTS and sleep when you can... And admitting you can't cope every now and then does not make you a failure - just a normal shattered new mum

Muppet cross posted... Sorry you have no joy on your school dilemma... Remote control cars sounds fun! I have got one of Sam's friends coming over so they can both paint - am I mad?!?!?!

Got any LARGE polythene sheets!!!!!!
Will be really fun though, take photos and let us see....

It was fun muppet ta! Don't have polythene sheets. Do however have table with granite top that wipes clean, a big plastic overall for Sam and paints in little pots like weebles that don't spill! Bonus! He has 'drawn' lots of pics for thankyou cards!

Didn't take pics - sorry! Will next time...

Had some lovely moments today when SAm was cuddling Adam (or Da as he calls him) and they were both smiling at each other. Even managed a couple of pics of that so when I get round to uploading them will stick them on my profile. Makes all the sleeplessness and stress more than worthwhile. I love my boys SO SO SO much!!!!!

I had a good day with the boys too. Ben was an absolute diamond today, slept loads but when he was awake he just lay there and played without crying or whingeing, it was bliss. Also helped Sam make a b'day card for DH for tomorrow which has a handprint, lots of pen scribbles and stickers, its a work of art MiL came round this afternoon and we had a nice walk out in the sunshine and both boys have gone to bed without any trouble. I also managed to do quite a bit of cleaning after a weekend of building works. What a great day

Glad you had a good day too MrsFish - makes it all worthwhile doesn't it?

Certainly does. New pic on my profile of the two of them today

That's gorgeous! I can't believe how alike they are! I will have to get round to uploading my pics - I have some fab ones recently plus all the ones from the York meetup!

I need to sort the York meet up ones out too.

Next time we meet up can you get your Ben to have a word with my Adam about that thing called sleep please?!

Off to bed now in a vain attempt to manage something approaching a normal amount of sleep. Boo hiss!!!! IT IS ONLY A PHASE - spoken slowly and loudly in a vain attempt to convince myself

Fingers crossed you get some sleep

hi all

muppet-GRRR at schools, how stupid! why is he so far down the list and your neighbours children got in?

sorry to all those not sleeping Shannon hasn't been too great at sleeping either but not too bad neither, she's started screaming in the middle of the night and can't be settled so i think she's teething, just a word of warning-unless is says on the packaging that you can, don't put gel or water filled teething toys in the steriliser-they melt

mrsfish-i'm glad you said how old Ben is farther down the page cos i couldn't remember exactly (even more )

well we all seem to be getting over our colds finally so i should be able to get them nappies posted tommorrow Floria and also try and sort my new laptop out.

oh i tried lo with a bit of mashed potato earlier, she was quite impressed but doesn't seem that bothered with baby porridge or apple puree, i don't think she's completely ready to be weaned yet.

right i'm off to tidy up as i've got hv coming early tommorrow after all that happened with lo being dropped on her head and ss coming round as she's been on leave and has just come back so she's coming round to check on me sorry for the sporadic post as always!

love to you all xxx

Hi all

j20 - great to hear from you!! Our neighbour's child got in the 1st school as he has a sibling there. The other neighbour who got the good school got in there as the council fill up the schools with siblings, then look to who is nearest. Once the school in full you are then allocated a school that has places available in a purely random way. The woman at the admissions office said they do it in a random way. I can appeal but she said our 1st choice school was full with siblings. Not one child got in there who didn't already have a brother or sister there so she said we would definately not get a place there + we are 18th on the list -basically just over half a class full of children would have to leave before we get a place. NOT GOING TO HAPPEN.

Apparently they built the new schools here and literally any child could go to any school as they wanted to fill the school up asap as they get paid per pupil. SO, you have lots of children from miles away, out of catchment, who got a place there origionally. The out of catchment children have siblings who are automatically offered a place as they have a brother or sister at the scholl even though we live closer. How's that for sense??? I understand a school has to fill up in order to get money but this situation seems stupid to me...

Going to toddler group at the gym today so trying to convince the tired Henry to sleep before so he can be awake. Not happening though as we have to leave a t 10.30 and he's still awake!!

Mrs Fish - Lovely pics, your boys are gorgeous (Do we have the best looking children for an antenatal thread or what!!!)

Alice - Hope you slept better last night!

Hello J2O - good to hear from you honey although sorry you're not sleeping either. No fun is it? Sam liked mashed potato when he rejected everything else too! Hope hv visit goes well...

Muppet that is really irritating about the school. Like you say though just not going to happen. Will you keep him at his private school instead?

Thanks to those who asked - last night was a lot better and the last 3 bottles Adam has had are 6oz so hopefully he's turning the corner on eating bugger all too! Dh did the late feed and then he didn't wake till 3.30. Settled in about 45 mins and woke just after 7! Nice one! Probably be cap tonight but having a decent night makes a lot of difference.