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

Notsoslim I tried that, but he ether doesn't feed at all (no amount of bottle/breast in the mouth/on the top lip will make him feed) or feeds for 30 seconds and falls back to sleep.

ah i see, thats a shame.oscar did the same for the first few goes but when he got the hang of it he started to drain a 7 oz bottle !
have you tried T in his own room yet, or is that not possible? the reason i ask is oscar was a total nightmare through the whole night until we put him in his own room...it got to the stage where we had to lay there trying not to breathe too loud and god help us if we needed to get up to go to the loo!!! x

So sorry to hear of redundancies - huge sympathies and think it's a rotten thing to do to someone on mat leave. Keep brave and fight for what you deserve.

All pretty good here, tho at mum & baby group yesterday i had to bite my tongue. Mum came in with baby who was 22w and losing weight. Turnd out she'd (baby) been ill, and was now feeding well and sleeping well. Mum was just talking about it (baby had had runs - sounded pretty grim). The comment from our nursery nurse? Wean her early to make sure she gets the 'right sort of calories in her'!!!! .
I mumbled something about carrot calories vs milk calories but what do ya do??!!

hopefully i have no solutions for you but did pick up on something you said - you mention a grobag AND tucking t's arms under the blanket. if you are using grobag and a blanket (assume t also in long-sleevd sleepsuit), could he be too hot? Sorry if that's a bit of a stupid comment but i've found i get too close to c sometimes and can't see wood for trees, IYSWIM.

Imoscarsmum I don;t think so (although have lost all faith in my abilities to know anything!) - it's only a 1 tog bag and he has a sheet and blanket over the top.
Notsoslim I think we might have to give him a shot in his own room - don't want to move him before 6 months, but waking twice an hour is a little ridiculous.

hopefully
i agree give it a go we put oscar in a few weeks a go as it just got silly iykwim.he slept amazingly well straight away i think we all just disturbed each other,but it got so he would make a little noise and i would start literally praying he wouldnt wake up... AGAIN!i also left him for 4/5 mins before resettling as i found he would start to cry, id go to him straight away then he would just stop crying and want me to pick him up! so thought id try not going straight to him and it worked he stopped stirring as often.he now loves his own room, he likes it totally dark and quiet though.
i agree with the person that said if he doesnt wake for a feed at 10 dont offer it.you will probably find he simply starts taking a little more in the day time once he settles in to the new eating routine! x

Hopefully we have had similar problems with Effy. These were mostly solved by putting her in her own room, although she was up three times last night after a midnight feed.

2 other things occur to me Hopefully, may or may not be of any use.

The night that C dropped her dream feed we had decided that day that we wouldn't wake her for dreamfeed and if she woke at silly o'clock then we would just feed her and we would know that she still needed dreamfeed. We did it at weekend so that we could at least not do too much day after.
It did, however, work and she has never woken for dreamfeed since.

When C has her long daytime nap (1-2 hrs), she nearly always wakes halfway through and cries. At first I always rushed to get to her but one day simply could not (on loo ) and by the time I got there, she had gone back to sleep. I now leave her to cry for literally just a few mins - 99% of the time she re-settles herself within 5 mins. If not, I go and get her.
I'm sure it would not do T any harm if you see whether he will re-settle within a few mins or really does need comforting.

Like you, I think I have no clue of what I'm doing (I'm sure we all do, really) but trying different things often works for us. C may be a good night sleeper but she brings her own challenges in other ways, I promise!!

hopefully have you thought about putting T on his tummy to stop his arms from flailing? We have A in a grobag on his tummy precisely because he kept startling himself awake with his arms. Swaddling didn't work as he wanted his arms free. He now tucks his hands under his waist when he's asleep.

becaroo sorry about your sleep issues too. We've just come out of yet another wakeful phase, just getting through the nights one at a time is all I can advise. Maybe teething?

Sorry to hear about redundancies. I'm waiting till the end of the month to find out if I've got a job to go back to. Am technically freelance, as the company only started up at the beginning of last year, so all depends on how business is going as to whether they'll need me back or not.

A still hasn't rolled over. But is beginning to manouevre himself about in the walker, mainly towards to the glaring TV (bad mummy emoticon).

imoscarsmum I call that 'Uncontrolled Crying'

It was a strategy I used with DS1 around six months and once he was in his own room.

He would wake up and cry.
I would lie there praying he'd go back to sleep. Then get up.
I would quickly go to the loo (his feeds took over an hour) and then go downstairs for a quick drink all in preparation for the long feed ahead.

By the time I had come back upstairs and entered his room he was asleep.

DG Baby Starlight tucks her hands behind her head like she's a bloke relaxing on a beach holiday with a beer. It's very funny.

WRT TV. My DS never watched any, and I think it is partly responsible for his speech delay.

We have just had the poo explosion from hell (TMI coming up) - I kid you now, it was ropes of poo, swimming in brocolli soup poo!
I'm hoping that had something to do with the discomfort last night, but we're still going to try a couple of things tonight and see how we get on.

DG I am contemplating putting T on his tummy, but (a) I'm not sure if I'll relax enough to sleep! and (b) he hates being on his tummy while he's awake, so not sure if he'll settle there at night

So sorry to hear about the redundancies ladies how dreadful.

Oh My god Digitalgirl!! Charlotte does exactly the same thing - we put her down on her tummy (have done since got reassurance here and she was around 14 weeks old) and when she's fast asleep she tucks her hands under her tummy. It's so so cute! I remember reading that babies naturally have colder hands and feet than children so that may be why.

No rolling here yet but she has finally found her feet (ie with her hands), so nappy changes are now much more fun!!!

Hopefully C is not keen on being on her tummy while awake but if put down sleepy, loves to sleep on tummy. Maybe try him when he's relaxed and very sleepy - his cheek may go straight to the sheet.

imoscarsmum M does exactly that in the middle of a morning sleep - and I found out like you when I though I have to finish vleaning out the guineas and wash my hands before I got her and then shock horro she was asleep again! She also does it at dream feed time. In the middle of the night it doesn't seem to work (or maybe that's just my perception )

imo A has just found his feet this week too, can't believe I forgot to announce that important milestone (so preoccupied am I with his non-rolling). I wish he also slept through the night like your lo does.

Other amazing feats: He has also discovered the world beyond his cot bars. He now realises he can see me through the bars, whereas before he wouldn't realise I was there until I poked my head over the top of them. The developmental changes seem to be coming thick and fast at the mo.

Someone in RL told me that if your baby bypasses crawling and goes straight to walking then they miss the opportunity to develop a certain part of their brain and will have trouble learning to read and write. Has anyone else ever heard of this?

DG Yes, I have heard it many times, sometimes it is suggested they have trouble reading and writing, sometimes lerning sports, sometimes with maths (spacial awareness). I don't think there is any evidence for any of it.

However, I think there are perceived benefits from learning the skills and coordination to crawl.

digital yes that can get 'retained reflexes'. I know someone who's son didn't crawl and at age 7 he's seeing specialists because he still has the palm grasp reflex, and as a result can't hold a pen properly, and has the wriggly reflex in the lower spine. Apparently stamping their hands on the ground crawling and wriggling is about getting rid of their baby reflexes so crawling is a really important stage. But if your dc skips it, then you can do lots of play on the floor, particularly things like toy cars when they're toddlers to get them to do some crawling then. Mum mum is adamant that crawling is a very important stage but she's not quite sure why, just heard that developmentally they shouldn't skip it! I'm sure you'll hear a million people say 'my dc didn't crawl and they're fine' and I'm sure they're right. Try looking up retained reflexes!

bec I gave ds swede today, hope he's ok! He always has a full milk feed first, so food is just a top up after.

We're not going to do the dreamfeed tonight and see what happens. He took so little last night that I was engorged by morning.

about redundancies. So many companies are going under at the moment

So many typos, dh is out getting our curry and I'm on limited time, sorry!!

Thanks starlight. I guess I'm worried because A loves being walked round the house i.e. we hold his hands while he's standing up and he walks along. I've been trying to leave him lying down as much as possible when playing, but he gets very frustrated and as soon as I pick him up and prop him into a standing position he's all smiles. Hence me dumping him in the walker every now and then.

Wow CarrieBo, I didn't know that. My friends DD didn't crawl and the Nursery Nurse said there was no evidence that they 'should', although I did secretly think it was a little odd.

She is a bit different though. She is 2.5yrs going on 6yrs old. Had all her teeth by 7months and can already read and write her name.

Hello ladies

May I beg your indulgence again??

Well, did a dreamfeed last night at about 10pm. He had 8oz. Slept til 3am then was awake and doing his "ah, oo, ee" routine and blowing raspberries at me. Felt like jumping out of the bedroom window, but instead tol dh to take ds1 (know also awake!) downstairs to the sofabed and had Toby in with me. Little monkey went straight back to sleep til 6am!

So....what do I do? Dont want to get him used to coming in our bed as we already have ds1 in there everynight at some point.....oh bugger.

I have spaced his feeds out a bit more today - ie. 4 hours between feeds instead of the usual 3. (Even though I ff I have always done so on demand - so sometimes he went 2 hours and sometimes 4 between feeds.)
Today so far he has had 2 x 8oz, 1 x 7oz and 1 x 5oz bottle and some rice pudding, chicken and squash and apple puree. His naps have been a nightmare again though....an hour this morning after bing nursed to sleep, 20 mins in the car on the way to the shops and 20 mins in the car on the way to PIL...aarrgh!!!!!

Going to dreamfeed again tonight I think....?????....

Hello ladies

May I beg your indulgence again??

Well, did a dreamfeed last night at about 10pm. He had 8oz. Slept til 3am then was awake and doing his "ah, oo, ee" routine and blowing raspberries at me. Felt like jumping out of the bedroom window, but instead tol dh to take ds1 (know also awake!) downstairs to the sofabed and had Toby in with me. Little monkey went straight back to sleep til 6am!

So....what do I do? Dont want to get him used to coming in our bed as we already have ds1 in there everynight at some point.....oh bugger.

I have spaced his feeds out a bit more today - ie. 4 hours between feeds instead of the usual 3. (Even though I ff I have always done so on demand - so sometimes he went 2 hours and sometimes 4 between feeds.)
Today so far he has had 2 x 8oz, 1 x 7oz and 1 x 5oz bottle and some rice pudding, chicken and squash and apple puree. His naps have been a nightmare again though....an hour this morning after bing nursed to sleep, 20 mins in the car on the way to the shops and 20 mins in the car on the way to PIL...aarrgh!!!!!

Going to dreamfeed again tonight I think....?????....

Sorry...the ribena incident has aflicted my computer mouse in some strange way...

TBH DG I think it's not usual for them to skip crawling. And Carrie has some good suggestions if A does. I go to a million toddler groups (it feels like it) and this one girl is the only one that skipped the crawling stage.

A will have to get to the furniture himself one day in order to haul himself up to walk won't he, so he's going to have to learn some sort of floor shuffling technique.