January 2005 babies

[Pollyanna]

Hi - anyone fancy making up a thread for babies born this month? My dd (child no 4 ) was born on 6th Jan - I have had a rough time so far with feeding (cracked nipples etc) but things have started to improve now (I think). if only I could get her to sleep at night....

Oooh you lucky people. DS still waking at least twice, usually more.

He hardly sleeps at all during the day and I'm frazzled and fed uplooking after him and DD.

What's your secret?

DS (10 weeks) is generally having 3 naps a day (1-2 hours each), usually asleep by 7.30ish, dream feed at 11, then will wake once at any time between 2 and 7. DH does the night feed, whenever it is, with expressed breast milk, so I can now sleep through which has made a big difference. Regardless of when the night feed is, we get him up around 7 otherwise the day goes haywire.

We followed DS's lead for the first 6 weeks i.e. let him sleep when he wanted during the day, but he decided he'd rather stay awake all day and then got very fractious late afternoon and evening. So we started imposing daytime naps to prevent this (using The Baby Whisperer). It can sometimes take 30-45 minutes to persuade him to sleep, but when he does we get a break and he feels better for it, so it's well worth the effort. He does try to get his fist in his mouth for a suck, but sometimes trying to do this and failing will prevent sleep so we're still swaddling him - if he gets an arm out happily we'll leave him to it, if he gets annoyed by it we reswaddle.

To slightly change the subject: if you're breastfeeding do you give both breasts at every feed? And how long does each feed take? I've been doing single-sided feeding, each feed taking up to 45 minutes (though at least 15 minutes of this is comfort sucking). The only times I've done both in one feed have been in a growth spurt when DS started to look a bit confused after 30 minutes as if to say 'Where's the milk, Mum?' I realise with BF there's probably no exact answer - DS seems happy and healthy and is growing and wetting plenty of nappies.

I usually give whichever one feels fullest and if it's not properly emptied by the next feed, I'd give him the same one again so he gets all the hind milk. Left boob is a mega spurter though so when full it sometimes hits him in the back of the throat so have to persevere with that one.

I just feed from one side on each feed.

I don't know what the secret is to sleeping - there is no logic. I can never predict how she will sleep. Artyjoe, on the few occasions phoebe has gone to sleep at 8, she has then woken at 3am too. That is 8 hours - which is her limit (usually she goes to bed at 11 and gets up at 7). I don't know when they are big enough to go for longer than that.

I did the baby whisperer too Schmozer when Phoebe wasn't sleeping at all during the night and all day - she definitely had her day and night mixed up. The baby whisperer's tips really worked. Now I'm just left with a baby with teenage sleep patterns!

Any rolling over yet? Mine is too much of a blob - I don't think she'll roll until she's 6 nonths

I was going one side on each feed until recently but I think my dd is gearing up for solids as she's 14 weeks, and feeding nearly every hour during the day, often both sides.
Up until 9 or 10 weeks she was sleeping 8pm - 4am then feeding and going back off til 7, and then she started waking for a feed at 1/2am ish. So I added a 'dreamfeed'at 10.30pm, which helped for a bit, but now she's taking it AND 2 feeds in the night!! It's been gutting - she didn't wake that much as a newborn! Roll on the baby rice!
She's weighing in ok though, and bright as a button - and I'm not sure that she isn't wearing off all the calories trying to roll over. She can spend 45 mins lying on a rug wriggling her way across the floor, but hasn't yet managed to get further than onto her side.
I haven't cracked the sleeping during the day thing yet either, still sneaking by on a few short naps and then getting screaming at bedtime...

Scuse my ignorance but what's the Baby Whisperer and what does he/she suggest?

Well hello ladies i thought everyone had abondoned the january thread so i didn't bother posting.
About sleeping my DS is being an angel, he goes to bed at 9.30pm and sleeps till 4am, i give him a bottle and he falls straight back to sleep till about 9am! He sleeps every 2-2 1/2 hours during the day aswell, i am very lucky too.

hello! JUst thought I would pop in and say hello to you all! You may remember me from the Jan ante-natal thread, but I had to move onto February as DS decided to keep us waiting!

Hope you're all doing well!

Hello all, I'm new to mumsnet. I have 5 children, dd1 16, ds1 9, ds2 8, ds3 5 and dd2 who was born on the 28 January.
I am finding hard getting back into baby mode after so long but luckily dd2 is an angel, she sleeps from 7.30pm til 6.45am and also sleeps in the afternoon fron 1.30 til 4pm.
She is also almost rolling over from back to front.
The only thing is that she is really, really sick all of the time....I can change her clothes up to 4 times before we have even got out the door to do the school run!!!!!!!and as for the washing!!!
Hope everyone is doing ok and nice to find this thread.

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wonderful, a new thread I can join nice to find this one. Dd was born on 20th Jan, sleeps really well but can be a grumpy madam during the day!! She showsno signs of rolling yet, think she's like her mother - lazy!!!

Hello ladies,

I am a first-time, older, mum who is relatively new to MN.

My ds was born on 31st January - although it was looking like he was going to be a February baby -and as I do not know many other mums with babies, I would really love to join your discussions.

Hello Janie, nice to hear from you. How's your ds doing? My dd is a chunky little monkey, over 16lb now and growing every day! She sleeps really well but can be quite grumpy during the day. Doctors are in the middle of changing her feed to some special medical diet, hoping this will help to cheer the little mite up!!

Hi everyone,
new to this site and thought this was the best place to begin as dd was born on jan 19th (child no.2)Hope people still reading this thread and i'm not too late. Although only 7lb 14oz at birth my dd is now on the 99th percentile of her height and weight charts. Started to wean her this week but she is just rolling the food around her mouth. Not sure whether to continue, try some other food or try again in a week or so. Any ideas? Also she goes to bed at 6p.m. and wakes at 4a.m but just for a cuddle and a drink of water. Then sleeps till about 5:30 when I give her half her milk feed. Despite following many suggestions from a variety of books can't get her to stop waking at 4.a.m. Am going back to work soon and am dreading being woken too early every morning. What can I do?

Hi I am new, how is everyone, my daughter was born on 23rd January and she is still waking up in the night, I am constantly tired and going back to work sonn, any advise would be appreciated

bye x

hi Keljess and Kazoo and everyone else new! I don't really have any advice Kazoo, but have you tried putting your dd down later in the evening? I think that 10 hours sleep is really good at this stage, so if you were putting her down at 8, she wouldn't wake up until 6am? This seems to be the pattern for my daughter. (ie when she goes to bed earlier, she still wakes up 9/10 hours after that). my dd is also on the 99th percentile -she's huge!! I'm trying to resist giving her food at the moment, but don't know how much longer I'll last.

Pollyanna, snap on the large baby! My dd is practically tryingto grab my food off my plate - a hint towards weaning me thinks!

Thanks Pollyanna for the suggestion, have tried keeping her awake until later but she is crying arm and leg off at 5:30 and desperate to be put down for bed by 6. I started to ignore her crying at 4 because realised it wasn't hunger. Quite difficult to do this when ds (18 months) is such a light sleeper am paranoid everytime dd murmurs that she will wake him. Seems to have worked as now she is sleeping until 5 a.m. As regards the food have discovered she was hungry but just hates plain baby rice. She is now happily munching banana, pear and apple.

Dizzymama and Pollyanna as you both have big babies where are you getting good fitting clothes from? Dd is now wearing size 6-9mnths but they are a bit big around the shoulders. Most of her 3-6mnth stuff makes her look like a sausage in a skin. Have to keep putting her in trousers because dresses too tight and seem to ride up when she sits down. Why do shops assume babies have slim arms and legs? I have had to give away a lot of the Adams and Next stuff because they are slim baby size.

kazoo how about moving her bedtime later by 10 mins each day? (I did this in reverse, when my dd wouldn't go to sleep before 1am).

I have to say Kazoo, that my baby won't win any prizes for best dressed baby! she is still squeezed into 3-6 month clothes, but looks ridiculous - luckily they don't have feet, otherwise she wouldn't be able to stretch her legs out! I couldn't find any 6-12 month clothes that weren't summery. There was a thread the other day which suggested not just pink and blue - I ordered some basics from here and they seem to fit fine - ish!

Yes, my dd seems desperate to eat too, and I would start her on solids, except she just had some really bad excema. It didn't seem to hurt my others though, and they all started before 6 months. I'll just have to see how much longer I can put up with the sleepless nights!

Kazoo - Next stuff is beautiful but I too always have to buy her a size larger. I've found that 6-9 months ladybird stuff is on the big side and she could probably get away with 3-6 in that. Matalan is good (very cheap but when they're in it one minute and out the next I don't really mind). M&S fits her well too.HTH

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