September 08 - New Year PFBs, Last Year BFPs!

[ninja]

Hi - welcome to the new thread!

Thanks Starlight - yes, that's what we're planning. Except A is very stuck in his ways and seems to wake up at the same time regardless of how what time I've eventually fed him the night before. So I'll just end up feeding him at 4am for a month, till he gets used to waking up at 4, then perhaps 5am the following month. Bit concerned that this actually means 3 months of DH pacing round the house from 3am.

carriebo he's in our room at the moment. We're having the windows replaced in his room (it's way too drafty in there) they've been ordered so might be another 8 weeks or so till we can move him into his own room. But yes, am hoping that once he's in his own room he'll be less disturbed by our movements (and I'll find it easier to sleep through his little grumbles, he can self settle sometimes) and able to sleep for longer.

hopefully I think it's great you're filling up your week with activities for T. I'm trying to do the same. Currently have Tuesday full, Weds morning and Friday (which is actually my NCT get together so not sure that counts as a baby activity).

DH went to Dads baby massage yesterday and unfortunately it ended up much the same as when I took A two months ago. A was upset by the other babies crying, got very clingy and refused to be put down for a relaxing massage. Shame...

sleepy vibes obviously take a while to send through the ether, so I'm confident they're going to reach me tonight.

DH says it's my fault that M is waking often at night and that I've got until she's 6 months to fix it. I can see there'll be a lot of lying about nights from now on

She went off to sleep this evening sucking her fingers - so sweet.

hopefully - my dad said the Reader was the best film he'd seen in years.

Saw Frost/Nixon at the baby-screening on Friday. Unfortunately the sudden shouting woke A up and he was Not Happy for the rest of the film, so I missed the climax... also he wet his clothes for the first time in about 6 weeks. The Bumble nappies are so good on him, I forget that the Bumgenius ones always leak, and of course that's what he had. And did I have clean clothes? No, I'd efficiently removed the too-small outfit from the change bag, so only had a vest. So all a bit stressful, especially straining to hear the dialogue - they at least had an induction loop which as usual was crap at amplifying the screen but at least cut out the baby noise. Don't think I'll go again unless it's a mindless action movie!

Apparently the babies were all a lot happier in Slumdog Millionaire as the music meant the noise was more constant and soothing for them. Only dialogue doesn't seem to go down so well with the under-12-month audience!

Just realised next month is my last on full pay and then it's SMP followed by nothing. Aaaah!

A is getting over his second horrible cold of the year. I'm now on my third so I so hope he doesn't get it...

Jeeeeeeeez we have have just had the most ridiculously bad night's sleep we've had since T was about 4 weeks old.
He needed resettling every 10 minutes from 1-2, had a bottle at 3:30, needed resettling every 10-15 mins from 5:30-6:30 till i gave up and held him, hoping he'd calm down, and i've just given in and fed him. Gaaaaaaah. Feel like death warmed up. No idea what was wrong with him, he's going to be so tired and grumpy today.
He's a teensy bit snuffly, but nothing major. he just hates us! We've also stopped swaddling, but we've had two ok nights with no swaddling prior to last night

NC i go down to stat pay this month too - can't believe how quickly it's gone!

Going to see how energetic i feel once i've showered etc and make a decision about the cinema then.

Jeeeeeeeez we have have just had the most ridiculously bad night's sleep we've had since T was about 4 weeks old.
He needed resettling every 10 minutes from 1-2, had a bottle at 3:30, needed resettling every 10-15 mins from 5:30-6:30 till i gave up and held him, hoping he'd calm down, and i've just given in and fed him. Gaaaaaaah. Feel like death warmed up. No idea what was wrong with him, he's going to be so tired and grumpy today.
He's a teensy bit snuffly, but nothing major. he just hates us! We've also stopped swaddling, but we've had two ok nights with no swaddling prior to last night

NC i go down to stat pay this month too - can't believe how quickly it's gone!

Going to see how energetic i feel once i've showered etc and make a decision about the cinema then.

am v jealous of your maternity pay- i had 4wks full pay, 2 at 90%, 6 at half pay and now smp, then i will have 6 wks of nothing. rubbish

had 2 good nights sleep- 7.30-5.30 then 8-6 but followed by 2 not so good (but not terrible) waking at 11ish and 5.30 ish. why is it so random?? ninja dh has similar views to yours, i say to him 'do you really think i want him waking in the night???'

I hope you received some of our sleepy vibes Ninja. I hope you kicked your dp in the balls for that comment!

I have no idea why waking times in the night are so random. Some nights M wakes at 2, others at 5. There's no rhyme or reason to it, so I've given up trying to understand it

Hopefully, we had a terrible night last week, I don't know what caused it and it didn't happen again, so take heart. My suspicions are teeth, but I don't know for defo.

We're off to see my friend today. She's got a nealry 3yo and her 2nd is due in March. I'm so excited for her!

Hmmm.... he has just had a nappy explosion, maybe that accounts for it a bit. He is so infrequent and so uncomfortable when he goes, I'm actually wondering whether to see the doctor about it. Although is has only been 3 days since the last explosion this time! For the last 4 weeks it has only been once a week - Sunday poo day!

Hooray for the poo! I'm not sure the GP can/will be willing to do anything tbh. Keep your fingers crossed that when you start to wean it might help his digestive transit. Although the pay off is their poo starts to become proper poo

forgot to say have done some brave bf ing recently. In my local park (large group teenage boys walked past) and then in my neighbourhood watch meeting the other night! Was expecting it to be in a hall with chairs in rows so I could hide a bit at the back but was in a small rom with chairs in a square! It was mostly older men, not sure they all approved but you couldnt see anything!

Good for you plusone. I think the mum is often more aware than other people. I've had a whole conversation with people before they've realised I'm bf'ing rather than cuddling the baby.

Oh, and a gold star for getting involved in your Neighbourhood watch

plusonemore he also said 'you chose to breastfeed knowing that breastfed babies don't sleep as well so don't complain about being tired!!' - he's oh so sympathetic (he said that pregnancy was self-inflicted like a hangover so i didn't deserve sympathy then either!!)

He basically doesn't like going off to work every day

Hello ladies, I'm afraid there is a big whinge coming...

another truly horrid night chez pacita. Diego woke up to feed three times during the night, and countless others because he lost his dummy.

How do you deal with the dummy issue? He wakes up, the dummy is not there, he screams. The thing is, he had the ability to settle himself, and was waking only once for a nightly feed. What happened?

combined with that, this shingles thing has me wiped out. The blisters properly burn, and nursing on the left side is agony. I'm considering introducing a bottle at night so that I can get a bit of rest and recover, because I do feel run down. As well as the shingles pain, I'm developing a sore throat.

I do realise that I sound like a miserable old cow, so sorry for the rant. I know there are many of us with tough days (and nights). Here go lots of sleep vibes and settling vibes for you all.

Pacita with shingles I think that you have the right to whinge a bit. It's that going backwards that's so hard isn't it?

We had one 4 hour stretch in the night which was better than the last few days, so I feel a bit more refreshed! She finally seems to be recovering from the jabs last Wednesday, this set have really knocked her for six.

The other thing is that at the weekend we tend to be out and about so no undistracting feeds (I ever hopeful that 'tonight will be better'!)

pacita - don't know, but A isn't back to sleeping well despite getting over his cold. Anyone would think he was having yet another growth spurt or something...

Hope you feel better soon - being ill with a baby is Not Fun I've decided!

ninja - thwap your partner for me! I'm sure someone can point you to all the cites saying that formula doesn't help babies sleep longer.

Hopefully I agree it's important to have structure to your day and C and I certainly do alot of activities each week - just watch out that you don't do too much. I've found C needs at least one afternoon (preferably a nearer a full day) where we chill out at home and have simple playtime of a rug on the floor. we spend lots of time talking, playing, laughing and pulling faces and bonding, and she gets decent naps at home at least once a week.

It may only be what C needs of course, but i found that cramming her week made her quite tired and she really benefits from one day of cot naps, rather than car seat or pram. I've dropped one activity we did and now Mondays are free ( of the cinema - my one experience last year did not go well, as ninja will testify to!!)

Oh, and after swearing blind while I was pregnant that C would be in her own room by 3 months, DP and I went to Ikea at w'end and bough a cheap small cot as she's outgrown her basket and the cot in her room is way too big for our bedroom.
Could not stand the thought of her being in her own room just yet, so the one from ikea is great - added bonus that when i go back to work in July, it can be left at MIL for C's daytime naps.

DP and I were quite sad and even videod C waking up today in her basket for the last time

I agree imoscarsmum both my dcs really benefit from having naps in their own beds. We tend to go out most mornings but never do much in the afternoons.

notcitrus I'm also v of your maternity pay. I only got SMP right from the start. Although I did benefit from being a teacher and only officially starting maternity leave on 31st Aug.

pacita you are definitely allowed to winge. I hope you feel better soon, it's awful looking after children when you're ill. I remember the 1st time I wasn't feeling well when ds1 was a baby and crying about the fact that I couldn't phone in sick!

thanks for the star ILTMIMI !

ninja dh also thinks formula will make him sleep better at night despite the fact we have tried it and it doesnt! think star said something bout bm having something special in at night time to make mum and baby sleepy- it certainly works for me!!

pacita poor you, i can only say to you what i say to myself 'its a phase, a growthspurt, tonight will be better' then at least i have hope!! what about forgetting the dummy altogether? then he wont get woken by losing it. ~~~sleep vibes~~~

The Reader - pretty good actually. Didn't think I'd particularly enjoy it at all, but was proved wrong. I even shed a tear or two at the end! (don't know why I'm saying 'even' - I cry at everything, up to and including the Lion King)
Film was a shade long for T, but I just fed him again when he grizzled (sorry Gina!) and he was fine.

T seems to sleep far more heavily in his pram than his cot, interestingly, but that's probably because he's used to having a long nap in his pram every day - I go for a walk every lunch time to make sure I get some air. Now he's a bit more wakeful and can go out during an 'awake' time and not grizzle (think he used to get irritated as the rocking made him drowsy, but he wasn't properly sleepy, iykwim) I'm going to go for the odd walk in an awake time and start giving him his lunchtime nap in his cot. Partly so I can start getting on top of housework, and partly to encourage the self settling - he's getting better, but every opportunity to practice is good!

Pacita you poor thing. Do you have any indication of how long you can expect to be suffering for?

ILTMIMI you're probably right, I just want someone to make T's gut 'better' even though there's probably nothing concrete wrong with it. Probably it will improve when there's more volume going through it. Which isn't very long away! Can't believe we're nearly at 19 weeks! Can't believe I'm still BFing at 19 weeks!

starlight if I didn't like slings, that would have certainly changed my mind

pacita hope you manage to rest a bit..

went to see nurse today about the prolapse, so no running/trampolining/heavy lifting or intense workout, at leat for now... might still get the Davina video and see how hard it is (though my current fitness level means that probably I'll be wiped out after 2 mins anyway!!)

M keeps on having a "through" night followed by a wakey night, just hoping the through nights will be more frequent... but our main problem is the daytime sleep and the fact that she needs to be held uright all the time, so nothing gets done in the house...

ninja I'm still trying to come to terms with the "pregnancy is self inflicted"

Ikwym Starlight. The thing is DD1 was SUCH a bad sleeper (and still has problems getting to sleep) and neither of us want to go through that again. He thinks that M going backwards must be my fault as DD1 did as well. DD1 was also very much a mummy's girl and I think he might blame this a bit on bf. Don't worry, I think he knows what a militant bf I am and nothing will shake me in that.

Sunflower it's not as if I stole his essence and used a turkey baster . He's just jealous!