Sept 08: We'll soon be weaning, and of a full nights sleep we're dreaming ......

[ILikeToMoveItMoveIt]

Hello ladies.

Pull up a chair, grab a biscuit and lets start talking about puree vs blw and sleep deprivation

arghhh! I tried doing DD breakfast today for the first time (she has only had tea-time food so far). What a nightmare it was trying to get DS's breakfast, give DD some baby porridge and have her bottle and then get me fed too (plus 4 nappy changes in that time as they both poo-ed just after they had eaten!). I was up at 6:45 and only got my breakfast at 9:15 . I was in the most awful mood until lunchtime. I suppose it can only get easier.

ILTMIMI At the worst time, DS1 fed for 16 hours out of 24 (also mild tongue tie). The HV suggested I was exaggerating so I kept a log.

I was also referred to a dietician, but refused the appoinment

That is why you NEVER see me REALLY whinging about night wakings or feedings with Baby Starlight.

It is also why I have to generally keep away from the sleep threads. When you have a total of 8 hours in 10-20min slots to eat, drink, shower, sleep etc. you have no patience with people who complain that their 8 hours sleep is broken occassionally.

Evening ladies!

Sorry to hear about the lack of sleep and feeding problems - I hope they ease real soon. Also sorry to hear the redundancies, it's pretty crap at the moment but hope things get better soon.

Life has been plodding on nicely here and my life is a whirl of walks and baby clubs. However I am still loving it and not remotely interested in going back to work yet. I have a nursery place for September but I am going back in July, most likely, so have to find some interim care for the timebeing.

We took Erin along to a friend's little boy's 1st birthday and it was soooo cute seeing the little ones scamper around and thinking soon that will be Erin too.

Hope you all have a nice weekend x

Sorry, just realised my post sounded harsh, about lack of broken nights....

I don't mean I don't have sympathy in general, but I do get frustrated when someone posts that their 2 week old sleeps from 7pm til midnight and wakes at 4 for a feed and they themselves can't survive on so little sleep. There seem to be a lot of threads like this.

I don't blame the posters though, just get cross that society has allowed them to think that that is BAD.

iyswim

Move away from the sleep threads Starlight

That must have been a v hard time for you.

Speaking of sleep, Operation No Dream Feed commences tonight, so we'll see how that goes! T's having a fairly restless evening though, so I expect I'll end up feeding him at about the same time anyway.

Oh ILTMIMI I could go on and on. I also had an undiagnosed PPH (a whole other thread), and was VERY low in iron but not told.

However I was given iron tablets that made me so constipated I couldn't poo through my stitches, - so yes overall, it was a hard time.

My baby got formula on day 5 when I went on a feeding strike and just plain refused to lift my head off of the pillow. Mothers aren't supposed to be able to ignore their newborns cry, but I could.

Anyway, somehow we all survived. I ff a few bottles a day for a couple of weeks, but my supply didn't notice because I was still feeding for every waking moment. EBF again at around 3.5 weeks and my lo doubled his weight at 10.

THEN we had the battle with the HVs over his weight gain (but that too, is a whole other thread).

thanks ILTMIMI and Snow Its supposed to be a no cry technique, but els has just spent the last hour crying in my arm before I could put him in his cot, and he was only just awake when I put him down. but I know he'll only sleep for half hour maybe 40 mins before I have to do it all over again.
sorry about the self pittying comment earlier, I've been a bit down this week ever since the physio said that he may be a bit behind in his development, and doing things backwards, like when he goes to grab something he pushes backwards. but these were the co-ordination problems which we knew he could develop. they are fixable which is why we go to physio.

Apparently when I was 1, the longest I'd ever slept in a stretch was 40 minutes. I cried all the time. I'm notorious in my extended family as the 'worst' baby.

So I was really prepared for having a baby to be HARD WORK and don't understand when I say that she goes from 11 to 3, 4 or 5, loads of people pull a sympathetic face as if that's terrible! I think it's great!

Well, that was a rip roaring success. . I spent all of 25 mins in bed, and now i'm feeding him 10 minutes earlier than normal!

Snowlight the thought if constipation and stitches makes me shudder. I lived in fear of it after my tear, and even now do what I can to minimise the possibility.

Well last night was awful, at 10pm after an hour of shush ,pat and pick up put down, he finally went to sleep, I on ly expected it to last 30 mins so when it got to 10.40 I thought we were doing well, then his apnoea alarm went off. well I've never moved so fast in my life. however after getting upstairs and turning the light on there was els looking up at me in his confused just woke up expression, wondering what was going on, then I realised that he'd just wriggled of the bloody thing!
After cleaning our underwear we had a little play with him I fed him then but him back down which took another hour, but he slept for an hour! I thought we're getting somewhere, then it took us 2 hours of the shush patting, and picking up and putting down, and he finally dropped off at 2am so we all went to bed, however he only lasted 40 mins, so we lapsed and I brought him in our bed again where he went to sleep instantly. I'm still going to continue trying this method. even if I don't sleep for a month.

Barnpot well done for persevering - hope you have a better night tonight and he stays down, without the alarm going off!

Well, we were up 7 (or 8, not sure) times between 9pm-5am, 3 of which resulted in feeds. T ended up in the bouncy chair for 2 hours as he just would not stay asleep in his cot. nightmare . Even tried him in bed with us in desperation, but he just woke the microsecond he fell asleep and unlatched.

Oh, should add, he also developed a bit of a cold yesterday, the only symptom of which is a very phlegmy throat. so presumably the phlegmy throat was to blame in part for the many wakings, and also explained why he was happy to relax/drift off if he was feeding, as the constant swallowing cleared it a bit.

Hopefully, sorry to hear about your awful night. When Diego had a cold and it was disturbing his sleep, I put a folded muslin under the mattress, under his head and chest, as being slightly more upright makes it easier for them to breath.

HTH

Here's loads of sleepy vibes for all of you ladies with sleep deprived nights. Fortunately, we are now down to two feeds a night (11 and 3), so it all seems a bit more bearable.

(Just realised that last time I sent out sleep vibes Diego had a growth spurt from hell. Gulp)

Thnks snowlight since i last posted she is grabbing fingers (ours and hers) and toys and shoving them in the general direction of her mouth. I think the tongue poke reflex is going as she is sucking and biting my finger not drooling all over it and pushing it out anymore.

DD has a cold too, I think she is half human / half bogies. We went to my dads today so she was sitting on peoples laps most of the time, so the snot seemed to come out easier .

ex P is slowly driving me insane. He is seriously messing me around when it comes to seeing the kids, he didn't even bother with us last weds, thurs & friday despite living 200yds away . He didn't bother today either. He's digging a big hole for himself as my solicitor has recommended I go to the CSA as he is not being reliable and may stop paying if he's in a bad mood, I tend to agree with her too.

hopefully not sure if you've tried movicol if you get constipated. I prefer it to the stuff with fibre in as it makes your poo softer not just poo more often. I can't beleive I just typed that. I got an awful anal fissure after my first cs due to all the painkillers bunging me up and it still gives me grief now, although it is nearly better . I just eat a bit less when it hurts so I don't poo as much(which explains the major post baby weight loss).

hopefully we've book a book under the top 2 legs of A's cot to put it slightly upright while he's got a cough and cold (which he's thankfully nearly over now)

meglet your exP sounds like a pain in the butt. (was going to write a nastier word but thought I'd better not) Good on you for going to the CSA.

barnpot well done for persevering, you'll probably find that if you keep doing the same thing that the time he is in his own bed gradually gets longer and longer. Its maybe not the fastest way to solve the problem but could be the least stressfull overall.

Last night A didn't wake at 10.30 (how weird that him and T both did the same thing after me and hopefully decided to drop that feed) but instead woke at 12.30 and 3.30 for a feed and 5am for a bit of a moan. That wouldn't have been too bad if I'd gone to bed at a decent time but we had friends round and didn't go to bed till after midnight.
I'm wondering if the extra feeding is due to a combination of:

1. 6 month growth spurt
2. getting appetite back after not eating as much when had cough
3. me not having quite as much milk as he'd like after adjusting to his lack of appetite earlier in week
4. me not having as much milk due to giving him a feed that is normally done by bottle

I don't think the food is giving him a sore tummy as he's not complaining really but this week when I plan to go to 2 meals a day I'll make sure his lunchtime one is the bigger one and any new foods are tried then and at teatime he can have boring easy on the tummy foods like apple.

We went to the rugby today, we were sat in the very front row (unfortunately at the opposite end to where nearly all the tries were scored) and A seemed to love it, he spent ages smiling at all the people in the crowd behind us and watching the bright orange linesman running up and down. DS1 spent the time telling us what numbers the players had on their backs and even naming some them- pretty good as he's not seen them play since Sept. He was a bit of a pain though as he couldn't run about as much as usual because we realised when we got there that we'd forgotten his shoes! Luckily we had the buggy board so he didn't have to walk along the road from the car to the stadium.

put a book. Doh

Well, the cot is propped up, there's some children's vaporiser thing going in the bedroom, T had a bib on with a couple of drips of childrens' olbas oil for a while earlier. I'm hoping it will all contribute to a little bit more sleep tonight!
Also hoping the fact that he's only just deigning to go to bed (got up late today) will mean his first waking will be later, and so on.

Meglet how annoying with your exP, it's great that you're able to be strong and do the sensible thing - talking to solicitor, making sure your DCs are looked after etc.

Do any of you own this?

lol

snowlight hmmmff.. snort! pmsl

evening all, just skimmed read the last few pages... sorry to hear about all the feeding/sleeping/work problems...

here we've seemed to have settled (touch wood) and get decent nights most nights. mum's just left so feeling a bit , especially as the house was getting to look like a decent place...

we tried some mashed potato and carrot the other day as we were having some, but she was just not interested, so won't try again for a while (she was 24wks on friday)

oh, and I've been on Fybogel since 8wks post partum, lactulose was horribly windy

Sorry so many people are having sleep problems. C varies- sometimes wakes a fewtimes but is half asleepsosettles really quickly. Other times gets all perky and smiley and singy, which can disturb dd1, especially if it's around 6am. Then c goes back to sleep leaving me & dd1 awake. Last night she woke every couple of hours, but has yet another horrible cold so that's probably to blame.

She is sooo dribbly, and chews her fingers all day, everything goes in her mouth so i'm hoping she'll be keen on food in a few weeks. Dd1 wouldn't open her mouth forfood at all for ages, and I found it quite stressful

meglet sorry you're having tough time with ex

carrie re Croydon meet up, I'll probably have dd1 as well, unlessit's a pre school morning - haven't got a calendar to check the dates you suggested. Though I have trained her well and she is fairly partial to hanging out in Starbucks as well

Last night was ridiculously bad. Poor little T is so phlegmy and congested (first time he's really been ill). By 2am, when he finally nodded off, he'd only had an hour's sleep, and he proceeded to wake every hour all night. he was also up for an hour at 4am. Luckily DP had him from 2-5, so I got a bit of sleep.

How the hell do you feed with a hooter hider? It looks awful, although I bet you've got one haven't you starlight ?

splish - well done on the Starbucks training!