Nov 2008 - sleepless nights and exploding poo, dear oh dear now what do we do??

[Dozymare]

Sorry that is soooo crap but we needed a new thread!!!!!

Daisy here is a thread I have just started as Sam has a cold and has hardly eaten for 2 days now. Although he seems ok, I am a bit worried about the lack of milk.

Am of all these lie-ins (apart from yours Vbab ) - me and DH both get up together - not sure why tbh, it is just what we have always done since DS1 was born

Had an ok day today - Dh is really struggling with dealing with DS1's behaviour so I feel like a referee most of the time! It looks like DH is going to be working from home until after Christmas now so looks like I will need my whistle and my red card a lot over the next couple of weeks!!

Dozy I am cooking Xmas dinner for us and MIL - having the traditional turkey etc, MIL makes the Xmas pudding (although I hate it so I usually have a chocolate pudding instead). Am struggling with a starter tbh - any ideas? I need something that takes very little preparing (and preferably no cooking as the oven/hob will be full!)

ceebee - sorry to hear about Sam's cold. Also understand what you mean about being a referee. I dont need to all the time but sometimes I step in before anything starts and then DH kicks off at me syaing things werent going to happen but I feel they would have through my experience.

x-mas - going to mum's for x-mas day dinner after an invite. Normally do our own thing but thought would be an easier option. Dinner will probably be the too many courses and the traditional turkey with trimmings.

QUESTION & ADVICE - Over the last 3/4 days A (5wks on Tues ) has been sleeping a lot in the day even though I do try to wake her. So much so on occasion I have had to try to wake her to feed. At a feed, even if she has woken herself, she only has a small amount and falls asleep compared to previously and there is no waking her. Then you would expect at the last feed, 10-11pm, for her to be starving and want to catch up but she wont wake up! We manage to get a very small/nearly nothing feed down her while asleep. She then wakes once in the night for her feed and gets up again anywhere between 6-7am (once was 5am). The thing is the goal long term is to get her to drop the 10-11pm feed not the early morn 2-4am feed.

So far A today has had the usual amount of feeds but small feeds of 90ml or less with the falling asleep thing. Then at 6pm started screaming really bad due to hunger and had a big feed straight off of 120ml then another 50ml as was still hungry.

Anyone having the same issues with sleeping, feed size and sorting routine and maybe in relation to GF also? HELP

vbab I think they go through peaks and troughs with their feeding and growing so maybe she is just not growing as fast and therefore not needing as much? I would try and get as much as possible into her at 11pm and hope that she misses the middle of the night feed. that would give you a good solid block of sleep then.

or she may have this cold brewing as both mine and ceebees DS's arent feeding terribly well either and have the snuffles.

the sleeping thing; F is usually asleep in the day, with his wakeful period being sometime between 8pm and 1am usually. He'll find his groove eventually

daisy - Thanks. A is snuffly at the moment but better than the last few days. Think its the RSV again.

At what age is it approx that A should be sleeping through? Can remember how old DS was but I know it was at a good age . I also remember that he just took us by surprise one night and didnt wake for his usual middle of the night feed and it went from there. We had been doing GF so it must have worked OR like you say DS found his groove .

vbab sorry A is snuffly again. Dinky is still snuffly and has a bit of a cough from time to time. I do hope it's going to clear up soon.

I think the sleeping through can vary from child to child- mine were certainly quite different.

Dinky's christmas present arrived today- it's an ann claire petit reindeer and is very funny! I was struggling because I really wanted to get her another monkey like pinkyminky (though not pink) but I decided it wasn't fair on DD1, but when I saw the reindeer I couldn't resist, he is soo full of character.

Hope everyone has had a good weekend

hello all, I have been under the radar a bit and only on here sporadically, so just been catching up a bit with the thread.

Tirion is now 10 days old and we seem to be getting on quite well with BF and with coping with not too much sleep, although I suspect the chronic fatigue may set in soon!

I am most impressed with what seems to be a high proportion of you who are doing real nappies. Me and DH thought about it a fair bit but got put off (perhaps too easily?) by the confusing options and the cost being higher than we thought (might have got sums wrong but birth - toddler for the smart nappy system didn't work out much cheaper than disposables. Now I know that's not really the point - but it did add insult (cost) to injury (washing, bleaching, cleaning, drying). I hoped that at leasdt saving the world might also save me in the pocket a bit,. Maybe I am just a lazy sod, but it just seemed like a lot of effort for non-specific gain. But you can probably tell from this post that my leftie liberal middle class guilt over my decision to use disposables is weighing on me!!

My pact with the devil was that I would instead try and get her out of nappies as early as i can instead (and use ecover detergrent on a cool wash for washes!), though would love to hear how you are finding the change and wash cycle with cloth ones. I am not the most organised of people so the idea of hunting around only to find i cant find liners, wraos, inners/outers/hoofers/doofers in the middle of the night is quite frightening.

apols if you already had this discussion way back on the nov thread, but i havent read all of it.

morning RI, good to see you and I hope you are surviving the intial few weeks OK.

With real nappies you just need to be organised, or else make sure you have some backup sposies to hand. We use sposies at night as changes, if needed, are quicker and easier. We will get into cloth for nighttimes when he is sleeping through...if that ever happens!

He was wide awake and grouchy from 11 until 2 last night. I have given birth to a party animal!

I'm off to see the physio later. Wish me luck.AAZZZ mn.[ynmyyftgbvu ]

oops, DD helping to type

morning. After my post last night saying about A's last few days alot of sleeping in the day, not waking no matter what sometimes for feeds and then when feeding in the day having little compared with previous days....

Decided to "wing it" today with her feeds and follow her lead. Trust me I prefer routine and the reassurance it gives for me and A. DS has thrived on routine. Used GF losely with DS and been trying with A but some days more successful than others.

SO far ...
LAST NIGHT 6pm ish - big feed after waking and crying for it then a couple of more ounces.
10/11pm GF feed - SHE WOULD NOT WAKE UP. ME and DH sat like exhausted idiots from when she fell asleep at 8pm until midnight when we were still trying to feed her. While she was asleep only got 2ish ounces in her.
2.30am SHE WOKE UP. Had big feed.
7am SHE WOKE UP. Had nearly a big feed but was a little sick later.
11.30am STILL ASLEEP AND NOT WOKE FOR THE GF 10.30am feed so I have left her to it.

I know and agree with the GF principle of getting a good feed in at 11pm ish to encourage the 2am ish feed to get dropped at some point. But A seems to be doing them the wrong way around.

SHOULD I stick to the basic GF principle or keep winging it and just see what time she would wake in the morning if didnt force the 11pm feed?

Really nervous about winging it as a routine gal. But while I have left her to it managed to get big shop done on my own and general house work.

Vbab dont know what to suggest regarding the feeds but im doing GF lite and H has been very sleepy the past couple of days.

Yesterday he slept till 9:30am then was asleep on/off all day not drinking his usual amounts, it got to the evening and he woke at 9pm had a feed and was asleep by 10pm. Normally he then wakes at 2am then 5am but he woke at 3am then 6:30am which I am really chuffed with. Today hes sleeping alot again but looks much fatter in the face today. Hes 5 weeks today.

Im going with what he wants to do at the moment but still going with GF when I can and when he suddenly stops sleeping so much.

Why not wing it at least for today and just see what she does? I wing it with Zack and for the most part, his feeds are on a schedule now and last night he fed at 10pm, was in bed for 10.30 and next woke at 5am. He also did this a few days ago, with a coulpe of more ropey days in between, but I will be more than happy if this becomes Z's routine.

I am rather annoyed as I only have 1 dose of gaviscon left, Z is due a feed at 1pm and then again at 4 and I couldn't get him into the dr's until 4.40. Maybe I should try and make him wait so that i don't have to deal with inconsolable screaming due to missed meds?

Hi all - not been on for a few day as my mum, step-dad and sister have been here.

vbab as a new GF user one of the things I have found is that you can do a bit of trial and error and if something doesn't work you can start the next day afresh. Also although I am using GF I have to adapt it for M as he doesn't do everything GF says he should, when he should. I think you will know what your LO needs and shouldn't worry about trying a new way with her. If it doesn't work you can always go back to following the GF routine.

Pinkglow our LO's have the same birthday!

For those talking about reuseable nappies we are using a nappy laundry service which we are finding very good - whilst I always wanted to use reuseables I knew I wouldn't want to wash them myself (have a small house and they would take it over) so for £10 a week we get 42 nappies delivered with liners. We are using the bambinex and tots bots ones. Although they are slightly harder work than disposables as you have 3 layers (liner, nappy, wrap) we don't notice as we've been using them since day 1. M has only used 2 disposable nappies since he was born!

We had a tough couple of days with M with him being very grouchy and seeming to take a step backwards at night with him waking at 2am then 5.30am and not having a lunchtime nap (when he's been doing all these things so well before) so last night we tried a split feed at 10pm and 11pm (6oz) and he slept till 4am then had to be woken at 7am. Fingers crossed this continues!!

As the GP's came this weekend DH and I had a lie in (together!!!) on Sunday from 8am -10am which was fantastic then we went to the Royal Albert Hall for the Christmas Carol Concert while the GP's looked after M - it was lovely but wierd and my boobs HURT by the time I got back (having missed 3 feeds!)

Sorry to hear babies are sick again...daisy and ceebee. My Judo Wudo is not too good again too, snotty and coughing, but still eating, though he went from 9.30pm last night till 3am! Woooopeee dooo.

A suggestion regarding feeding when colds are very bad. Mine found it really hard to suck which didn't help their feeding when appetite low anyway...so I expressed and gave in bottles for a few days whilst at their worst. It helped keep them hydrated, kept my boobs from getting engorged/ kept supply up (you can freeze what doesn't get drunk). Athough they still didn't take as much as normal, they took a lot more than if I left them to feed at boob...

Hope everyone gets well soon.

Morning all, just got out of the end of extreme Fin hunger tunnel, the fatty. Soon he will be bigger than me because he will have EATEN me.

Looking at just this page it seems I am not alone.

On the bright side, Merry, I am with you in the Whoopppeeeeeee camp as he did from just before 12 til nearly 6 last night, which in my book almost counts as sleeping through.

Will catch up later but I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO behind on my Xmas shopping that at this rate everyone is getting screenwash and wine gums from the petrol station up the road. So like a big fool, off I go to Meadowhall again, must dash if I am to beat the post-school rush.

Gah.

Love and Xmassy hugs to all and babies, get well soon, little tykes!

PS I have found a local farm shop that sells Xmas pudding icecream and truly, is there anything more I could ask for? Cup runnething over... [sob of pure happiness emoticon]

Z has also been through the sleeping most of the day thing , especially yesterday and today....he has yet to take more than a cat nap on my shoulder, everytime I put him down he wakes up and cries. He is currently crying upstairs while I get myself some lunch. I need to keep myself fed as well as the dreaded 6 week growth spurt should be starting any time now.

I just wish my grumpy butt would go to sleep so I can get a cuppa, maybe tidy up. Perhaps I should take him for a walk as it's nice, but experience tells me he will sleep until we stop.

afternoon all!

sorry to all those whose babies are poorly.
im reading with interest the routines and feeding regime chat!
we are just going with the flow in the hope that Ewan will get into his own routine.
during the day this varies but at night we are roughly feeding at 11pm, getting up once overnight at 4am-5am and then 8am ish.

goodluck saurus with the shopping, i did the last of mine online at the weekend!

E has also been doing a lot of feeding and sleeping over the past couple of days so not sure what's happening there. We've had a couple of difficult evenings - I normally give her a feed at about 10-10.30pm which can go on for an hour or so but she's normally pretty calm and then goes to sleep. The past couple of nights though she's started screaming towards the end of the feed and nothing calms her apart from being walked around. Not sure if it's colic or being overtired Doesn't seem to go on long enough for colic. Have tried winding and changing her but she still screams Today I've had her sleeping in the sling for most of the day whilst I do some work (not as bad as it sounds honest - just sitting at the PC and the money is too good to refuse atm) in the hope that tonight will be better. I'm also following the chat about routines with interest. We still don't have one as things change from day to day! We did have a good bathtime session yesterday - she didn't scream and almost seemed to be enjoying it Until I got her out that is when she started screaming blue murder!
Heartmum Sorry you're still unable to put Z down. It is so wearing, hence my resorting to the sling. It does limit your movements though and there's only so much you can do.
Hope all the poorly babies get well soon.

Well we had a breakthrough last night J went to bed by himself at about 8:45ish and stayed there until 7AM, he fed at 2:30 but only took 2oz so was up again at 4:30 but he didn't spend the whole evening screaming as he has done every night since he was born , DH and I got a whole hour together before bed!
He also will not be put down today, he is napping in his chair at the mo but has only been there 20 mins and is stirring already grr.
Rosa I love the pliko switch but sadly DH will not allow it as there are vv expensive and there are no second hand bargains as yet.
Hi to everyone else

Im taking H into work tomorrow, so will watch all the men in the office run for cover.

Chocorange whats the name of the company which wash your disposibles? I tried to look for a company in our area that did that but couldnt find one - Ive ended up buying the tots bots size one as a result but could be useful when hes in size twos!!

Hi everyone. Just a quick post. J is on 1.5 doses of Gaviscon as it started to fail on Thurs and I to him to the docs on Fri. He's a lot better again now.

He's 5.5 weeks now and last night he fed from 7pm until 4am!!!!! Everytime he fell asleep I put him down for him to start crying within 5 mins and rooting for booby!!!! I hope this is the 6 week growth spurt because it was a nightmare being up with a baby attached to my bazookas all that time!!!

Hope everyone is well.

Oh. Does anyone elses LOs have clicky shoulders / knees. J does and it's starting to concern me. I mentioned it to HV today and she said to tell the GP on Thurs when I have my 6 week check.

hey saurus, just give the ice cream as gifts. sounds yummy. i'll have some too . can't stop eating, it is ridiculous!!

Hi all. Hope those with poorly little ones get well soon :-)
Big post coming up as haven't managed to post for a few days....(apologises in advance)...

CriCri Sounds like E and Plumski are spiritual sisters. She HATES bathtime - we are doing it as little as poss now - she had one this evening though, and whilst she relaxed a little whilst I ladled water over her little body, she started screaming the minute she was out.

The past few days we have had a couple of evening where she just screams and screams and nothing settles her. Colic? How do you know? We always try to wind her, but don't always succeed in getting a burp. Also, sometimes her screams are followed by a huge poo explosion. What can we do to help?

Am also reading on routines with interest. I've been going with flow, but last few days, realised we were getting her off at night later and later (2am one night ) and then sleeping in in the mornings to catch up. Not very GF. As my DH is self-employed this has been possible. But clearly not sensible.
So DH and I have made pact to set alarm for 7am every morning. We started today, and things are better already. She's now asleep, knackered after being traumatised in the bath, whilst we have just eaten a decent meal and i've had a cheeky glass and a half of red wine

Saurus good to see you here girl - good job to baby F for sleeping for almost 6 hours!! Little Plumski did 5 and a half a few nights back, and my boobs were like watermelons!

Re. expressing, since DH started giving Plumski EBM, whilst she does guzzle it down in record time, and normally wants a bit of a suck on the booby afterwards, it really does seem to help her sleep for longer, 4 hours or more. I'm now giving her 5 fluid ounces of expressed stuff.

Still giggling over Dozy and her bottle of pink champagne on Sat night - you do make me laugh! Girl after my own heart! I'm a proper northern boozer myself, much to my DH's annoyance...
Lacks you are such an honest woman discussing previous issues with drinking on here. I have also had times when I felt quite dependent on it, but everything is different now I have LO. My whole world view is different - I feel like I am a new person in some ways. I am already dreading going back to work even though its months away

Any road up - how is obs?? Sorry she couldn't make the Kingston meet-up - am dying to see the pink hair!!

Hana have voted for you in xmas name change comp! Good luck!

Pinkglow the nappy co is called The Hippy Happy Nappy Co and their website is here

Hey all

hope you are good - good to see lots of other's posting......hope al the poorly lO's are feeling better....

monekymargot your post reminds me of me and DH with DS1 - we used to put him to bed at 2am and then start the day at 11am - ridiculous really when you think about it......I reckopn Plumski likes her bath also cries when she comes out!! She loves a good old bath but it is my most stressful time trying to get all 3 of them cleaned up!! I recokon you are slowly comiong around to the idea of some sort of life outside baby - seeing as you are enjoying your wine and dinner so much now. there is nothing wrong in letting the baby sleep whilst you chill out - It keeps me sane!!!!

Poor old Tiger, she has such a noisy wind down routine...DS1 always had baby einstein DVD before bed, DS2 had cbeebies (as that was what DS1 would watch) poor old Tiger gets 2 boisterous brothers playing star wars and fighting!!!!!!!!!!

OBS She sent me a text today, her laptop has a virus - I shall call her tomorrow.

Pinkglow The nappy company is Hippy Happy nappy - However, TK Maxx are selling tots bots fluffles for £25 at the moment....I got some but still researching as no idea what I am doing........daisy pinky and missdee are great for any questions though.

For those that want - coffee and biscuits at mine friday morning???? Would need to be over by 12ish though as Tiger and I are off to Claridges for afternoon tea in the afternoon!!!!!!