jan 09; dream feeds, sod mummy's needs, shes on her knees...the one where it all starts to get better (hopefully)!

[fourlittlefeet]

here we are; a bit early, but one more task done. tick

Only had time to read again.. DH still got my laptop be back soon.

Well done dog; sounds like your first day home alone has been going well.

Tink I am also thinking about getting a swing - the one that Moose has is about £100 but can get for £65-ish new on ebay. It looks lovely and I think it will really help me out during the day.

Had a lovely morning; fed LO and then went out horse riding for an hour with OH (he runs a trail-riding business) in the sunshine. LO had long, long sleep, but since 4.15pm I've been trying to keep him awake - OH giving him a bath now and then we'll put him down - we realised (thanks to rray's question actually) that he had fallen into a pattern of being awake most of the day, then finally getting sleepy around 4 - which didn't bode well for the evening!

me too at riding. how lovely!

I went for a huge walk round the park, what a gorgeous day! Still feel stressed, but think my bum will be a little skinnier for the walk [hopeful].

missJ i had the projectile poo the other day, also on my dressing gown!

bought LO some lovley little books from early learning centre today. They are 3 for 2 at the moment.

Have got a really good routine going on at the moment. they suggest 4 - 5 hours of sleep during the daytime for a 4-6 week old baby. So Esme wakes at 7am, naps 9-10, 12-2, 4.15-5.15, bath at 6, bed by 7, Waking for a 4am feed. She sometimes doesn't quite make 12 noon and falls asleep about 11.30, but i don't want to be clock watching, so if she yawns more than 3 times in a short period i put her down to sleep. Shes learnt to settle herself on her own now, which is lovely, so i can put her down wide eyed.

OH and i are bit sad, our closest friends are moving for the time being. if you remember OH plays football, and the team mate of his he is closest to, and i too with his wife have been loaned to another club for the time being. You get no notice, they found out this morning, and had to move this afternoon!!

Got horrid cold at the moment, and had funny turn when got up this morning, and threw up....if it wasnt physically impossible (not referring to B.Feeding, more to fact i'd be the virgin mary) i'd say i felt Pregnant again. The memories of morning sickness are STILL fresh!!! Could you imagine that? 2 babies under the age of 1!!!!

missJ i had the projectile poo the other day, also on my dressing gown!

bought LO some lovley little books from early learning centre today. They are 3 for 2 at the moment.

Have got a really good routine going on at the moment. they suggest 4 - 5 hours of sleep during the daytime for a 4-6 week old baby. So Esme wakes at 7am, naps 9-10, 12-2, 4.15-5.15, bath at 6, bed by 7, Waking for a 4am feed. She sometimes doesn't quite make 12 noon and falls asleep about 11.30, but i don't want to be clock watching, so if she yawns more than 3 times in a short period i put her down to sleep. Shes learnt to settle herself on her own now, which is lovely, so i can put her down wide eyed.

OH and i are bit sad, our closest friends are moving for the time being. if you remember OH plays football, and the team mate of his he is closest to, and i too with his wife have been loaned to another club for the time being. You get no notice, they found out this morning, and had to move this afternoon!!

Got horrid cold at the moment, and had funny turn when got up this morning, and threw up....if it wasnt physically impossible (not referring to B.Feeding, more to fact i'd be the virgin mary) i'd say i felt Pregnant again. The memories of morning sickness are STILL fresh!!! Could you imagine that? 2 babies under the age of 1!!!!

Oops didnt mean to post twice!

ray am super at your routine that you and Esme have found - Nye slept from 1.30 - 4.15pm today and not a wink since! We have spent the whole evening trying to settle him, taking in turns. Hopefully this last feed I'm about to give him will do the trick.

And the idea of being able to put him down wide-eyed...!

Maybe it's a girl-boy thing?!

Just bookmarking the new thread.

dp's first day back at work today, but although the morning was a bit confusing having to do some things before he left, ds1 was at childminder's and the day went really quickly. I have a feeling this maternity leave is going to fly by and seem much faster than the first time round - I will have about 5 weeks less anyway.

hkz i have to brag; we got some fresh sea air today. a friend of ours runs an inn on the ocean past Sooke and we go up, have some lunch and go beachcombing. love it.

moosemama lol at dogs... maybe they just have a penchant for the bathroom. 'they don't do anything...' hilarious. constantly starving here too. i have a caesar salad craving lately, with bacon and lots of garlic.

rrayray sorry about your friends. thats fast. ious too at getting DD to sleep on her own. mine still refuses at 12 weeks. i can put her in the sling for late morning nap which is about 2hrs. i can do just about anything and make noise and doesn't disturb her. by 2pm we head out for a walk in the stroller which incorporates a trip to the shop over 3hrs and she sleeps. at 7:30pm we lay down in bed, i feed her, drop off myself, wake up and hope she stays asleep for a couple hours so i can take a bath... which happens sometimes. sometimes i just time a night feed for when DH gets home because she will fall asleep in his arms at night. then i take a bath and scoot to bed quick and tell DH he can't bring her in till she wakes... and no poking the beast. (thats what we call her when she's asleep because she is such an ogre when you wake her by accident).

i fall to sleep while bf in bed but so does DD so i don't worry. we lie o our sides. a few times now i barely even woke up and she found my nipple and shimmied over to latch on perfectly. we do have times where she is so fidgety but appears to be asleep. actually, i'm pretty sure she is. i was a sleep walker and talker. i still talk, mostly laugh, in my sleep but the sleep walking stopped in 1991 when DH and i first moved in together and we got a waterbed. he said he watched me struggle one night in my sleep to get up but i gave up. i haven't done it since.

tinks swings are great!!!

Chefswife- where you are sounds amazing. When dd was tiny we lived on a little island in the south china sea and i pretty much spent the first six months ofv her life walking round it with her [nostalgic emoticon] Its not quite the same for ds as walking round Hackney isn't quite so dreamy, mind you still some good walks round here.

Ray- Congrats on your routine. is it the gina one? We did that, or baby whisperer (can't remember which) with dd and it was great..and she's still a brilliant sleeper to this day Going to attempt to start a routine with ds once he is better.

Missj just adding my envy for going riding too.

Poor DS is still ill, has temperature and isn't feeding much, and has blocked nose and nasty cough. This has been going on since last thursday, taken him to docs twice and going back again today for 6 week check. Its horrible, he's so sleepy and his cry is all weak and moany. He's got it from me spluttering all over him too. I haven't had a cold like this for years, its been bad for over a week and had ear ache for five days now, to top it off I have a blocked duct in my boob cos DS is hardly feeding. Should I just express and massage it?

Hopefully the doc will sort us all out. Its heart breaking watching tiny ds all snuffly and ill, I wish I could take it away for him.

hope that ds gets better soon hkz
bracken has her 6wk check wed i have mine today

Chef Sorry LO is such a light sleeper. Esme would sleep through a elephant coming through the room once she is totally asleep. i don't know if thats her nature, or whether the fact we have banged and crashed around her from day one whether she was sleep or not, so maybe shes just learnt there is lots of noise going on!!!

missJ i've found if Esme is to sleep well at night she needs to have one long nap a day of no more than 2 hours, and 2 short ones of around an hour. It means ALOT of awake time, and sometime she is really snoozy and you can tell she just wants to fall asleep on us, but she seems really happy for the routine, she seems like she sort of knows whats coming next. well her little body seems pretty used to it now as she wakes like clockwork. Have you got Sky? If you have, seriously Try Nye Watching baby first or baby TV. I let Esme watch about 20 mins a day, as she adores the movement shapes, and noises. Plus, it really wears her out to sleep. Also, do you put anything in the water of his bath? On recommendation of a friend i put a few drops of Lavender in her bath.... it makes her skin lovely and extra soft, and makes her real sleepy!

HKZ i've read baby whisperer and Gina fotd, but neither of them suited me/Esme quite right... so i sort of took tips from both of them. As they are quite different in areas (gina says wake them up totally at 10.30pm, whisperer says you need to try and keep them asleep for a dream feed?!)About the duct, my mum said if it happens to me, she was recommended to lay face down in bath so breasts totally in the water and use a COMB on your skin, brushing from the outside of the breast in, all the way round, as hard/soft as is comfortable. Give that a try maybe??

Got to jet, LO has lost interest in baby tv and looking at me Sleepily so better get her down for nap.

ps, missJ For LO's naps at home does he sleep on you/where he is? When i see her sleepy (3 yawns i stick to) i get her into her nursery - Swaddle her, and darken it, so she associates Swaddling and darkness with sleep. Seems to work for us!?

Oh, and hope everyone enjoying sunshine, beautiful here!

Morning,

MissJackson my Finley was farting alot yesterday too and seemed to have some tummy pain! I am not sure if it's thye wind going down to the intestines although i did learn from dd that winding is really important. I used to try and rush it with dd and would end up suffering because she would cry in pain with trapped wind. With Finley it's all wind, wind, winding him...

Moose i am very of you getting into your jeans! I can get them on but can't do them up My legs have gone back to normal (i couldn't believe how much water i carried in my legs.) My tummy is a different story though, i hate it.

givethedogAhomebirth, i had the implant fitted a couple of weeks ago. It didn't hurt when they did it, they give you a local annesetic in the inside of your upper arm, when that's numb they insert it, you feel it going in but it because it's numb it isn't painful. I noticed my breasts felt fuller after, i hate that because i want my little B cups back! About a week later i started bleeding and have been bleeding since. I am hoping this will settle down. They say the bleeding is different for everyone, some don't bleed at all, some get normal cycles and some bleed constantly for ages (i am hoping this isn't me!)

rrrayray very at your dd sleeping frm 7pm to 4am! That sounds like heaven!

I put Finley down between 10 - 10.30pm after giving him a feed and settles well now. He has been going through until 3am but last night it was 1.30am, 3.30am, 5am and then was unsettled until about 7am. Feel like a zombie today! He has been really hungry the last cuople of days having 5oz of milk every 3 hours.

He is a very quiet baby though and doesn't really cry. He hasn't got that dreaded colic like what dd had which is a blessing.

I have been feeling really run down though. I have had a chesty cough for over a month now and have had a sore throat which has gone now, but not nice when you have it. It may be because of the implant but i have had cold symptoms too such as headache, sniffly nose etc plus i have been bleeding for over a week and i feel tired and drained. Even though Finley is quite good at settling down during the night, the broken sleep is catching up on me. I hope all this goes soon.

Hey everyone,
Just had a quick scan through and catch up. Have not been on for ages so have missed quite a lot! been very busy the last few weeks, about 4-5 weeks old DS turned into a lovely contended little boy virtually overnight so has allowed me to get on with things a bit more. Add to that going back to visit parents, investigating childcare for september, having 5 stitches in my hand and a broken computer and you get the picture!
Anyway, Zach is 8 weeks tomorrow and I have my post-natal check and his first injections later today . I too am deciding between the coil and the implant at the moment. DH adament there will be no more, I would secretly love another in a few years time but I understand the practicalities of already having 2 kids in a 2-bed house that we can't sell.
ray Your routine sounds freakily similar to the one that Zach has decided to get himself into. Works wonders for me cos 9-10 is when I do the pre-school run and 4.15-5.15 allows me to cook dinner for DD and often sit and eat with her. I agree the lunchtime sleep is sometimes variable, usually depends on whether he does a big poo whilst asleep (grrrr) or visitors (double grrr). He is just too nosy to have a nap when visitors about and grandparents don't seem to understand that he may be grouchy because THEY are holding him and messing him about when he should be sleeping .
At night he does go down about 7.30 wakes briefly between 3.30-4 for quick feed and I find he settles more comfortably if I change his nappy quickly. Although I still feed him about 9.30 ish in the evening (sometimes a dream feed) probably cos he is a BIG boy, almost doubled his birthweight in 8 weeks

Anyone else having a nightmare trying to sort childcare for when mat leave ends. Not going back till Sept but am failing to find any decent nurseries that take children term-time only. DD always went to childminder when small (she was a tiny 4 months when I went back) so we are used to only paying term-time and all finances are worked out on me looking after kids when I'm on school holidays. Don't really want DS to go to a childminder (they are all packing up round here anyhow) but worried I may have very little choice!

dog afraid I missed your story cos been offline for an age, last I heard you were very late and pissed off. How did it go?

Anyway, glad everyone doing well, would love to join this facebook group and see all the lovely babies, especially now they are all smiley and cute. Let me know how to find it someone!

p.s still struggling to express anything significant, although he has taken the odd bottle of formula in the past week (very grudingly) in my attempts to get him used to a teat. Although, won't have it from DH and only from me (defeats the object somewhat!).

hkz - i had a blocked duct, used hot compresses (nappy with a little boiling water poured in, as hot as i could bear), the bath and frequent massage - it took about 24 hours to go. i didn't express but catherine has a strong suck (to put it mildly), otherwise i would have. hope you can get it sorted, it's pretty sore i know.

dp and i both seem v. coldy today. i hope catherine doesn't get it

hkz, hope both you and your ds are soon on the mend, it sounds awful.

Very admiring of everyone getting babies into a routine at the moment. Of course C is only 4 weeks, and we did evolve a good routine when DS1 was 2-3 months old, but it seems hard to imagine at the moment. Given such a small age gap, I feel I should know more what to expect, but C is a different baby I guess, and also ds1 was mostly bottlefed from a week old.

hi ray, you've got a great routine there! esp the night time routine. are you breastfeeding or bottle feeding? my LO has a feed at 7pm and around 11pm, but still wakes up demanding big feed at around 2-3am! he is now 7 weeks old and has formula feed at night. he takes around 6 oz for his night time feed.

any ideas how i can get him to sleep through??

how did you do it? thanks!

well i went ahead and ordered graco baby delight swing on ebay really cheap

bracken feeds 2 hourly and has 2 ozs she was 6 weeks mon has her 6 wk check tom.
she feeds @ 11pm then goes down for the night then wakes @ 3am and has 1oz then wakes 6-7am

rray you are doing very well
where does esme sleep in the day?!
bracken sleeps in her bouncer or on her mat looking forward 2 getting swing should help.
ms sparkle - sounds like he is having a growth spurt
pth - you are doing well wow 8 weeks already good luck with injections and your appmnt

Yay! DH out for evening and had meeting this afternoon so got computer to myself! I must be the only person on here who is pleased to be left on their own for the day! It won't last of course, once his computer is fixed I'll be back to pleading with him to come in from work early!

We've also hit a bit of a routine, purely by accident rather than design. DS is sleeping through most of the am, fab since I'm usually out at a group or friend's house with DD so get to spend some QT with her. He's sleeping in the afternoon for a couple of hours and then has a long awake spell in the early evening 'til about 8.30pm when he drops for the night. He's also waking about 3am for a short feed and then back to sleep until about 6.30am. I can cope with this, took DD until about 9mo to get down to one night feed.

Those of you struggling with babies not settling etc. DD didn't sleep through until 18mo, not even once. We tried everything, we even went to a sleep clinic!!! Now she sleeps 12-13hrs straight withough fail every night and has done for 8months or so. What did we change?... diddly squat. I have come to the conclusion that some babies are sleepers and some aren't, simple as that. But name me a 15 year old who gets up in the night for a cup of warm milk and a cry before going back to sleep... you'll get there, it just took us more time than others last time and this time we got lucky I think.

I'm also debating contraception, would quite happily send DH for a vasectomy as I don't want any more babies I don't think. It makes me to think that he'll be my last when I look at my little DS but then I remember the relative independence that I re-discovered when DD hit 2 and how wonderful it is to have her as company rather than a baby and realise they'll always be my babies, they just will get a little bigger

i am going on waiting list of the inplant have been given a protesterone only pill for now to take to see how i get on with it
bracken sleeps mostly in the day.
we take her up with us @ 10:50am for her last feed then she goes down