April 2008 - the one where Scorpio and Millie show us all the 'through the night' trick

[Scampmum]

Sorry if someone else has already started one - couldn't find it!

Much better night last night, maybe due to gripe water?

Hi anna, and welcome.

Don't have anything to add today, really just saying hi. Hope you all have a lovely weekend. (Hmm, knowing my mn addiction I'll prob be posting again in 5 mins, but hey)

Anna, DS lost quite a lot of weight when first born, but he's back up to the 98th centile now.
Did you have a natural birth or a CS? CS babies apparently weigh more at birth because they gunky stuff isn't squeezed out in the birth canal.

Peachy is def the one to talk to about weight gain, and she will do happily. We're a friendly bunch here and always happy to read our own typing help

I went to the GP today, he has taken me off my pill, seems to thin that is what it is, weirdly I feel a lot better already, and it's only two pills I've not had (I didn't take yesterdays after it was bought up on my other thread).

Also spoke to GP about DD's dyspraxia and have been given a referral to a paediatrician that specialises in this stuff so fingers crossed things are going quite quickly.

VS - i want to ask a weaning question...well when i start weaning (after 6 months) do you still give baby breast like normal? Sorry if thats silly i don't really know. Can you put it in a cup then, or is boob better? I stil lwant to go past 6 months with BF but can't see how it works

just so im clear i do want to feed from breast still but also introduce a cup? is that too confusing, is there any need etc etc

by about 1 i want to be doing just morning and night but dont want to give formula, can oyu go from boob to cows milk (after 1)

It's upto you how you do it, there is no need to introduce a cup but you may feel happier letting them have a drink whilst eating.

It's best to start by giving a normal breastfeed, then their food (are you doing BLW or purees?).

After 6 months you can use cows milk in food, just like with formula fed babies, and after 12months you can feed cows milk as a main source of milk.

Ok thanks. BLW - am too lazy, lol. Plus i like them investigating it all. I expect some things will be mushy like porridge but not much more than that!

I think i like the idea of highchair food & cup, but could BF after they have finished playing/eating.

Ahh, ok BF before.

So diff with bottles, non of this worry but i never want to stop BF now, lol! ever ever ever (thanks! btw)

You'll gradually learn Millies cues for food rather than breast anyway, it's just the breastfeed first when you start, that way they are likely to explore more and be happier iyswim.

Aitchs blog probably explains it better than I do, I know more about why/when to wean and the basics on BLW, but I get lost for hours on there reading about it!

I'm actually really excited that we're half-way to proper food!

i am too, i can't wait for her to sit at the table with us making mess fun

Denny, I didn't take it as a snub, just thought it would be boring to go through stuff like that again but if ppl don't mind that's cool!

Hi Sal!

VS, glad your ds is doing well! I had a natural birth so it's not that. But I have weighed dd before and after having a wee and the weight can differ about 4 oz! (I have scales at home as we were a bit obsessed with her weight for a while...) So, if she had a full bladder when she was weighed at birth, perhaps she shouldn't have been on the 25th at birth... oh well whatever!

She never actually lost weight apart from the first few days, but she put on very very slowly and fell down to the 2nd centile. And she was hungry a lot of the time, I've realised that now and it makes me feel so bad! She used to cry a lot in the evenings especially and we thought she was just cranky... I said "maybe she's hungry again?" Dh: "no she can't be already" Me: "no maybe not..." But luckily my motherly instincts kicked in and after a few weeks I started feeding her ALL THE TIME and after doing that for a while my production went up and she finally got enough milk in her!

Hi Anna welcome. And everyone else.

Anna, my DD1 was really slow to gain weight. Was born on the 25th, dropped to below the 9th and then gradually back up to the 9th and followed it, until we started weaning and boy does she like food! She's now 2 and above the 75th. Don't beat yourself up about the breastfeeding in the early days , instead give yourself a huge pat on the back for keeping going in spite of your rubbish advise.

VS I missed your traumas over the past few days but really glad you're feeling better today.

sagitta why don't you try some white noise in your bedroom if you and Dh are disturbing your LO and vice versa. We have a small electric fan blowing in ours and it drowns out most noises.

I think it was Denny who said that GF suggests keeping your LO awake for 40 mins at the 10 pm feed. I wasn't waking Elena for a feed at 10 (she goes to bed at 6.30) but I started waking her to try and beat the twice nightly wake ups. It didn't work. BUT when I started keeping her awake for 30 mins, she immediately dropped 1 night feed. Now only waking once a night.

Enjoy your weekends all. Elena now nearly 15 LB! Eve was over 6 months before she weighed that!

Elfsmummy, that sounds exactly like my dd! It's good to hear that other ppl have similar experiences, makes me feel a lot better.

Yeah proper food will be good!

Something else I wanted to ask: How & where do you get your babies to sleep during the day?! Ellie sleeps great at night in her moses basket (thank god), but during the day I can hardly ever get her to settle there. She sleeps either in our bed (after feeding her there), in the sling (on me or dh) or in the car seat / push chair. Or sometimes not at all!

Roelof has his "proper" naps in his cot during the day, but sometimes he has a short nap in his bouncy chair (if falling asleep while on it).
He also loves falling asleep in his buggy when we go for a walk, so then I'll leave him in there until he wakes up.

Hi Annamama, nice to meet you! DS is going to grow out of his moses basket very soon, so we're trying to get him used to the cot for his daytime naps - by putting the MB in his cot. He sleeps in it really well for his morning & lunchtime naps but the afternoon ones he rarely sleeps in it - we're either out so he's in the pram, or he doesn't want to be put down so I use the sling or let him nap on me - it's only a short nap anyway and I like the cuddle.

ok, the last few days DS has been awake at 5pm, we've started a bath at 6pm, then fed, he normally falls asleep at the breast at that feed and I try to put him to bed at 7:30. 1st night he woke up screaming, I fed him again and he went down at 8:30. All the other nights he feeds and feeds (eg, tonight he fed from 6:30-7:30 without a break, then started again at 8) and falls asleep and then wakes up as soon as put him down and then finally I feed him again around 9 and he allows me to rock him into a dozy state enough to put him to bed and be asleep at 9:30. It then hasn't mattered whether I've fed him at 11:30-ish or not, he's been waking at 2, then again at 5 and then again 6:30 or if I'm lucky 7:30. I'm not worried about the night waking but I just wondered whether there's anything I can do about the long settling period. Do you think it's possible that he's not getting enough milk during the day and trying to catch up?? I think that he is actually feeding and not just using me as a dummy...Could have a go at trying to get more milk into him earlier (maybe at the morning feeds?) Any other suggestions for getting him to go to sleep properly by 7:30/8? He's normally awake and feeding between 7-8 AM.

Today turned into a great day - I wrote and sent my message for grandpa's funeral, called and spoke to mum, then met up with a really good friend from NZ for a long late lunch. On the way in I got news that my pregnant friend, who I'd seen on Wednesday and had just lent my TENS machine to, gave birth to her baby this morning after a long labour that kicked off in the small hours of yesterday morning. She had a girl, 8 lbs 4 oz, 8 days early (lucky thing, I was 10 days late). I'm so thrilled for her, and can't wait to meet her precious daughter.

have just re-read my post. Do they have another growth spurt around 11 weeks? Just thought my description sounded a bit like what he did at the last one.

Hi Ladybee, gosh you stay up late! Still it was a Friday I suppose!

In MY experience I think that both my babies have got the most unsettled due to overtiredness rather than hunger. DD2 in particular gets beside herself when she's really tired, she doesn't really want to feed and cries at the slightest hair trigger (which is really unlike her as she's pretty placid)

My basic rule of thumb is that she needs to be in bed 1.5 hours after she woke up from her afternoon nap. If she's left any longer she can be impossible to settle, if I time it right she goes into her pram awake and settles herself within 1-2 minutes. In our house this means trying to get her to have a nap some time between 4 and 5 and she's always in bed by 6.30. I also split her bedtime feed around her bath, one side before and one side after as she's usually too tired to feed well after her bath.

It could of course be a growth spurt and you'll know if things haven't settled down in a few days, but I know that with DD2 being awake for over 2.5 hours at that time of day would result in extreme meltdown!

Hi Anna sorry i missed your post- hectic at school tc

i have 4 boys, oungest bas born april 7th (sebastian). he was born 8lb oz, we hope he will hit 10lbs in the next fortnight (better had, its my birthday weighing day and i dont want hv grief lol)

cpunting ds1 who had extra problems aside, all of mine have been born on higher centiles than they end up on, mine seem destined for 2nd or 0.4th centiles!. i'm (very) not small, but dh and hs family are. ds2 and ds3 saw paeds who believed it was genetic. I agree, my mil weighs less tan half what i do! and dh weighed around 9st when we met (a bit less), he's 5ft 10.

I am bf also, i traned in bf in my last job and as there arelergies and asd in my brood i think its important. hv, and partic her assistant have not ben helpful and put pressure on me to ff which i nearly did (clever baby wouldnt have it) however ( and hanent posted this here yet) last tuesday, weighing day, hva agred that ff only an issue if he loses weight. i am happy with that. it took a lot of kicing off and refusing to be public;y weighed to get to that stage though (usually weighed at baby club).

bas is seen as a bit of an odd bod- he's been rolling several weeks now and if arms held can 'stand' supporting own weight which no other baby in baby club ca, despite being yougest.

go with your instincts- its whether they are thriving that counts. dont write ff for ever if they need it medicaly, but unless they do (very unlikely) bf is fabulous and babies, like all humans, vary.

hth

'Peachy is def the one to talk to about weight gain, and she will do happily. We're a friendly bunch here and always happy to read our own typing help'

vs are you saying im a gas bag?

have also emailed a local cranial osteo, because o bas never being put down, but surprisingly its more expensive here- £34 first, £30 after- usually wales mu ch cheaper, esp. bridgend where chap is.

Ladybee - yes, mimi has just finished one, 3 days!!

Hi LadyBee, yeah sling is nice & cuddly! Getting heavy though... Good idea about "practising" sleeping in cot.

Sal, yes Ellie loves falling asleep in buggy too but sometimes I'm too lazy to go for a walk!

Peachy, thanks for sharing your experiences! Formula was suggested to me when she had not put on any weight in a week. I said I wanted to stick with bf and the next week she had put on LOADS and that's when it sort of clicked for us. She is now between 9th & 25th I think. Anyway, she looks and acts healthy so I will try not to obsess about weight anymore. Like my mum said when my sister was too fat (even though she was bf): I'M A MATHS TEACHER, WOULD YOU LIKE ME TO EXPLAIN TO YOU THAT NOT ALL BABIES CAN BE AVERAGE!

About sleeping... wow, everyone seems to have such different routines! (or trying to) What time a baby goes to bed depends on what time you'd like it to wake up in the morning. We go to bed quite late (dh works from home) and we like Ellie to sleep late. So she's normally in be from 9 till 9 roughly. With 2 breaks for feeding. I've tried to put her to bed earlier some nights but she won't have it, I think she's just not tired enough! (Sometimes if I can't get her to sleep during the day she gets overtired and grumpy though.) Oh and a tip to LadyBee, if your ds wakes up in the morning after just 1 1/2 - 2 hours, try just putting a dummy in his mouth and stroke his head and he might go back to sleep for another hour! They're not always hungry when they wake up! (just almost always) Ellie also wants to feed lots in the evening, that's normal I think.

yes anna, mimi feeds for ages in the evening, v common i think. she also goes about half 8 - half 8, but she doesn't feed in the night. she has been going earlier every day; 3 weeks ago it was 10pm...

nasty weather here. dh says it 25c the barsteward. and hes in a suit and i cant see

Alex does major feeds at night before bed as well.
Apparently it's because the hormone that produces milk at this time is lower so the babies feed more to increase it to keep your milk making for night feeds with a longer gap (or something like that anyway).

He has his bath(not every day because he has quite dry skin) at about 7ish, feeds for about half hour, falls asleep, I wake him back up, leave it about half hour, feed til about 9ish, put to bed.

He then either sleeps through til 7am feeds and goes back down til 9am or wakes for a feed at 4/5am and then sleeps til 8am.

Peachy, GREAT NEWS about Bas!!!