March 2008:A new thread before they start crawling!

[turtle23]

Thought it was about time....

Somebody save me...is anyone else's LO practising their new-found skills at 530? He was sleeping through, now wakes 130 and 330 before waking up at 530 to shout mamadadawawagagalala for 45 minutes, then claps himself (which is v funn and warrants 5 mins giggles) then starts again with the wawawadada. So tired. How is everyone else doing with nights? Is ff the answer?

don#t think ff is the answer. sounds like dev surge. gg is on all but two feeds FF, and eats 3 HUGE meals per day and still doesn't sleep thru as a rule and if he learns something blisteringly interesting that day i'll have 2-3 nights extra disturbance.

have overall been interested to see how changes in feeding have had no real impact on the nights. though he is sunnier and calmer and naps better in the days

iwanta2nd - i echo merry. DS went through a phase lasting 2 weeks until about a week ago of waking for a 5-6 feed and then talking loudly until 7 or so which was clearly because he was so proud of his talking! he has also been through a mega month of twice a night wakenings. finally calmed down the last 4 nights - coinciding with perfecting his sitting technique (can now sit for a long time as he has learnt to correct his balance pretty well).

DS has received a bottle of formula at night since he was 2 weeks old - partly because i was exhausted with anaemia so wanted to get to bed early and partly because we thought he might sleep better so i could get more rest. i can tell you that it has made not a blind bit of difference - for the past month he has been having 7oz at 11 and then waking at 1/2/3/4/5 as he sees fit.

So i reckon it's true that night wakenings are all related to development, and a bottle of formula doesn't help. i think that is a myth passed down the generations - think when we were born formula did knock babies out for hours, but newer formulas are not so heavy so sleep is more about the baby than what food they are given.

G went through a couple of weeks of 90% sleeping through (7-7, or thereabouts) but this week he's waking again at 4:30 for monster feed. Think for him it's more to do with teething than anything; he's still not rolling/sitting that well. I think he doesn't get quite as good a feed before bed as his teeth bother him the most at that time.

We're still ex BF and no solids yet at 24 weeks. I don't think FF is the answer, although I have a friend who keeps pushing me to FF for that reason. But her daughter still wakes occasionally.... I'm with Merry and HQ - there are so many reasons why they wake in the night. Not that that's much comfort! I feel more knackered now if he's up in the night than I did when he was waking regularly. I've gotten used to an occasional good night's sleep.

Of course, the real answer not too long ago was a healthy drop of gin for baby. Don't know why they bothered wasting it on baby
I keep getting told by the older generation to rub the gums with whiskey to soothe teething but haven't attempted (yet)

My LO has slept through for 3 nights now (maybe 4 but haven't found out yet how he got on with grannie last night)...but i think that's mainly because his teeth are giving him less bother at night now. He is down to about 30ish oz of formula a day from previous 40ish, getting 2-3 meals depending on his mood.

i was a whisky baby! thanks mum. oh well, hasn't done me any harm.

hIc

ok, all given up BF, advice please? i have two feeds left to drop, the waking one (about 6am) and the bedtime one (about 6pm).

which should go next do you reckon? looking for easiest slide out possible. don't want cannonball boobs again!

merry - how quickly do you need to drop the feeds? one of my friends dropped breastfeeding by giving shorter feeds each time and then finishing those feeds off with formula, adding an extra oz each day. it takes longer to drop the feeds than if you drop a full feed at a time, but means you shouldn't suffer so much as your boobs gradually adjust.

I'd give up the bedtime one mb if I were you- then someone else can put him to bed if you want to go out. Also, is morning one snuggly in bed? Gives you a few more minutes lying down?

lol at idea of snuggly time in bed, ds1's idea of that is to bounce on our heads

but good idea about going out-ness...

Iwantasecond - I echo what everyone else has said. My LO is still bf roughly at 7am, 10 am, 2pm, 5pm, 7.30pm, has a FF at 11pm (where he takes anywhere between a measly 2oz to 6oz), and the last few nights has woken up at around 03.30 and 05.30 for a bf. Those times totally vary based on him, but gives an idea, and believe it or not just two feeds between 12am-6am is progress for us!!.

From yesterday I've just started giving him a second portion of solids (still just ice cube size so not very big), and haven't particularly noticed any difference with sleep. I tried him with carrot again this morning but it didn't go down well...sweet potato and mango are definitely winners though.

I'm going to drop the 11am bf for a ff starting tomorrow, and plan is to gradually wind down until only bedtime and wakeup feeds are bf. BF has never gone particularly well for us and now that LO has two teeth and will be 6 mths next week, I feel I've done my bit. I also want to make sure he's settled taking bottles during the day by the time I go back to work in January.

Merry - I would think just from a practical point of view that dropping the 6pm feed next would be easier - just so that you're not up at 6am having to make up a bottle? Not sure which would be best from a boobs points of view though

have never 'made a bottle up' . i lose all sense of greeness when it comes to feeding babies formula. i rip open a carton of readymade with my teeth, squirt it into a dishwashed bottle and serve it room temp. poor kids have no idea what warmed milk tastes like, once bf'ing over. so anyway, it's almost as easy to ff as formula feed.

and OH BOY it is great not getting the norks out in public in the daytime anymore. what a sweaty faff that was.

ff as bf, i meant, obv...

Another one here with early waking. Night before last DS was awake from 2am to 5am. All other mornings recently have been starting at around 5am. Which is ok if I get to bed early enough.
DS is having 4 8oz feeds a day although I have introduced another 3 or 4oz feed late afternoon to ward off waking from hunger later on. Our day goes something like this:-

5am-6.30am bottle
7.30am , large breakfast, porridge or baby weetabix, fruit or yoghurt
9.30 another bottle

12pm lunch and pudding
1pm bottle
4pm small bottle
5pm tea and pudding
6pm bottle.

It's an endless round of feeding, wiping and nappy changing here.

I'm also investigating Follow On Milk in the hope he may sleep later.

I don't like to moan on here about my early mornings as I know I'm very fortunate with him going through. Can't seem to shift his bedtime later though as he gets hysterical with tiredness. Can't seem to get him to have longer naps either, 60mins after 9.30am bottle and 90 mins (or thereabouts) after 1pm bottle.
Just make sure I get to bed early enough I think.

MB, can't help with the dropping bf as it was years since I did it. Dropping the 6pm one sounds sensible though.

And last but not least, won'tbepreggersagain, your posts have filled me with admiration. All power to you, Sister, at this difficult time.

IWant - another baby waking earlier here too! She's taking to solids very slowly so still on the boob for hours every day.

Mine is on three meals a day and feeding every 3 hours from 630 to 630, dreamfeed at 11, then feeding 130 and 330/4. Madness.

Iwant - sounds very similar to what my LO is up to although only 2 meals a day at the moment. she woke to feed every 3 hours last night. am shattered - have had 2 weeks of that having got used to her sleeping through/waking for one feed a night before that for a couple of weeks.

DS has suddenly started rolling frequently, as opposed to his once a week sort of rolling. He has just rolled under his cot! Eeeek...

We're off on holiday to Northumberland tomorrow. Stopping at my parents' tomorrow en route then at a wedding on Saturday - I'm making (still not finished!) the cake and DH is taking the photos - and then off to a cottage by the sea for a week. I'm trying to decide whether I need to purchase waders, given the weather they've been having...

Hope you all have a good week or so

can imagine the cake frenzy at your place hq. i get into one when just doing fairy cakes for kids. let alone wedding ones.

well, gg has been 'talking' ALL day today.
ds1 has been "translating" ALL day today.
except when he has stopped to play one of the THREE (count the fnckers) wind instruments that dh decided to gift the little dervish darling with, just as he has a run of late working so i do the bed/bath alone as well. must have said something to upset the new minted marital harmony recently

Oh dear god, DS has worked out hat being on his knees and hands and rocking gets him forward....please not yet...please not yet...

hq, we stayed in Boulmer for a week last year in Oct and whilw weather wasn't great it was cosy...should be ok by the sea, but the wedding is probably going to be a bit sodden underfoot. Prob not good for the jimmy choos

LO obviously heard me singing his praises by waking me at 3 this morning. Mainly cos mummy was out with the girls last night and daddy put him to bed without giving him any extra food so he was starving.

Schedule now all out of whack and off for a studio portrait session at 11, please let him be all smiley despite the red cheeks and gallons of drool....why won't the front teeth come through, who needs back teeth yet anyway?!

HQ - have a good hol, glad you are still living up to your name.
I'm now in Christening countdown - we don't live near anyone so everyone's got to stay. parents and PIL both at the same time! Yikes! Lots of cooking to do. I've still got the top of our wedding cake, it's a bit yellow but I'm sure it'll be fine!
DD has now got her arms and legs in sync and is crawling. It's scary.

Does anyone fancy going to the Christmas do here
I'm too scared to go on my own

i do mama, i'd love to buddy up with you too. i've always been to pg or too nervous before. will go put name down and date in diary

Oooh, merryberry, that would be fabulous. What should we do? Should we put our names down? I think it's the final sign up thread at the moment. Message me through facebook if you think it would be best not to take over the thread.

Any more takers?