August 2008 Globe Trotting Babies - Passports Ready...Where to NEXT?

[TwilightSurfer]

Spain? Scotland? France? Singapore? Canada? MEXICO???

Where shall we do our next meet-up?

All this talk of tv is rather apt. Our lovely 32 inch one (the nicest, most expensive (though not like many ppl get ) one we've ever had) seems to have died. There is sound but no picture. Will plug in again today to see if it was playing silly beggers, but if not we're not sure if it would be better to cut our losses and get a new one or try and get it repaired. It may be the tube and that prob wouldn;t be cheap would it? so we now have a teeny one in living room. We had to squint last night lol.

Hey Oops . We have been having a regular 5ish wake up for a few weeks with the occasional 6ish or 4ish to add variety. I fully expect many more disturbed nights before he gets better at sleeping through, but take heart that it can be done. DS has been a shit sleeper and is 10 months old tomorrow so it's about flipping time

Your poor DD vomiting . Have you tried feeding her more upright, and maybe with ff try winding her halfway through? And 40" of telly what's that all about???? Surely you'll have to sit so far back you'll be in the dining room?

ALBS have you tried wiggling the scart cable to make sure it's stuck in firmly? That has caused a few scratched heads in our house (it's not nits, honest). I'm sure you could get a quote for repair and see how it compares to the price of a new telly. They're still not dirt cheap but compared to when I was a girl they are. Ours was rented, don't think we had our own colour telly till I was well in my teens. My how times have changed

WOO HOO HP!! NICE!

Oops, Reese is doing a little spit-uppy thing lately. Might be similar to what your calling vomit? No reason for it that I can see and only happens once or twice a day maybe. Makes me think she's going through a refluxy developement phase.

It's 11am and I've already been to the playground and back. Sunned in the back yard with DH for a few. Now it's WHAT ARE WE HAVING FOR LUNCH time.

the aunts took whatever leftovers to whatever dish they brought. my eats were nibbled down to the point that i elected not to save what was remaining....with the exception of my banana pudding. other than that i hid a bunch of brownies one of my aunts brought. charles keeps finding them and asking, wtf are these doing here? to help end the confusion i quickly eat the brownies he uncovers and just give him a look.

feeling like a pro today having balanced the checkbook with enough leftover to put into my project account for a rainy day.

reese is a moving machine today. she's all over the place. she'll stand and "think" about taking a step then chickens out. it's too funny.

hi all, unfortunately DS turned into baby possessed again last night. this is the second night on the trot he's done it. he just screams and screams, nothing will consol him. me cuddling him, DP cuddling him, me feeding him, DP giving him water etc etc. I've had some helpful advice from my childless sister..just leave him to cry, up to an hour if that's what it takes. everyone else helpfully telling me that we have to break cycle of giving in and bringing him into our bed. After 2+ hours of screaming until the early hours, my resolve of not bringing him into bed gets weaken and i give in. its all very well of them to offer all this bloody advice but its me who has to get up with him every hour if he's not in our bed and i'm already shattered. I know i have to have a difficult, strong resolve phase before it gets better but i really can't do that at the moment. i haven't had more than one consecutive hour's sleep in a long time. at least when he's in our bed i don't have to wake up fully, he pretty much helps himself now

so for whingey me post, i'm just sick of 'helpful' advice and no actual help. DP said last night (whilst DS in my arms screaming) that this has to stop. That he doesn't want him in our bed past the age of 1 etc etc etc. Told him for that to happen he needs to help. DP really wants to just do the cry it out thing but i know i can't bear to hear him get so upset

argh, maybe tonight will be a good night but its when i start thinking optimistically about him sleeping that i get upset when he doesn't. if i assume he's not going to and he does, its a bonus

has anyone got a wet fish to slap me with?

miamla

DS had three fantastic nights last week (8-2 in his cot, without a wake up).

Yesterday I fed him curry and he was very uppity and didn't sleep well. Not sure if it was the curry, or the fact that I thought that we had cracked it. Ha ha ha.

Anyway. I am going to stop breast feeding at a year (to have a bit of a break before the new one). Not really sure what will happen with DS as I can't let him cry, I feed him to sleep and he ends up in bed with us for some of most nights. But there we go. I'll keep you posted.

Not sure this is meant to help, just kind of letting you know where we are at.

Other things that you probably wouldn't consider are giving him a bottle of formula at night (we started this about a month ago). Mostly he is very unimpressed with it, but sometimes he drinks it, and maybe he sleeps a bit better those nights, although this could be wishful thinking on my part. You could definitely start with a cup of cows milk at bedtime at a year if you want to avoid formula before then - this might help?

DS also has a dummy. He used to use it quite a bit, but now it is pretty much only for when he goes to sleep. Maybe your DS is a bit old to take one now, but might be worth a try?

So, not really helpful here. Sorry, just that sleep is rubbish here too with 2-3 wake ups per night and DS in with us for at least part of each night. But ... something is going to change at 1 year, and so I'll keep you updated.

On the other hand my DH is fantastic. I basically make all the child related decisions and he supports me in them. Also, if I wake up in the middle of the night and Ds is in bed with us, DH will sometimes wake up if I kick him gently and return him to his cot. I probably don't appreciate him enough.

just realised I have given you lots of 'helpful' advice. Sorry.

Sending lots of thoughts instead and sympathy from the other side of the world.

tis ok, 'helpful' advice is different from you girls because i know some are going through the same as us. i appreciate you sharing what's happening with you lwfh, it does help knowing we're not alone!
we have tried him with a dummy and he was having none of it. we've tried giving ebf before bed in a bottle (in the hope of filling him up without him falling asleep before he was done) and didn't make any difference.
DP did the bath/bed routine tonight but DS was awake 30mins later. i've just fed him so i wonder how long he'll sleep for now. he fell asleep on boob and i tried to put him straight down but he was having none of it so i then cuddled/hummed him back to sleep. The problem is that there doesn't seem to be any pattern to it all. On the amazingly good night he had a couple of weeks ago when he did a 5hr stint, i'd fed him to sleep but other times he'll wake up after an hour
sorry, i'm rambling now, just ignore me

Miamla - Sorry to hear DS is having problems sleeping - DD was like that a few weeks ago and it turned out to be 4 teeth trying to come through at once. Nothing we did made her stop screaming and all I could do was hold her sitting up in my lap and let her cry. DH was a pest going on at me to try verious things but in the end he went to the spare room and I just held her until she stopped. Could he be having nightmares? often when LO's start walking/being independant they get nightmares about falling and being away from you. It will pass and if you feel you want to do the controlled crying you will need DH's total support and a BIG glass of gin/wine/beer to get you through the first night.

LWFH - Hi, hows the sickness? easing I hope.

VG, Sazzles, TS - HI

verious? what language is that various of course

hmm, i was wondering if he could be having nightmares. the last 2 or 3 nights he's almost like he's been practising how to scream. He has got a tooth coming through but his screaming didn't stop after calpol. Quite bizzarely, the only thing that calmed him down was walking down the stairs. by the time we got to the bottom and into the living room (dark room, no noise) he'd stopped screaming and fallen asleep. but, by the time i'd got back upstairs again and into his room he'd be screaming again.

oops how's your DD now? has she been sick again?

Miamla I'm with you on the "helpful" advise. With dd1 we got it from every corner. All crap really. She was a terrible sleeper. At 5 she's really only recently started sleeping properly through the night.

Reese on the flip side sleeps well, without a fuss, but only if she's not hungry or teething.

Each child is so very different. You have to do what you feel is best for you and T. F@#$ everyone else!

You might be on to something with the teething issue even if the calpol didn't seem to work. Reese is very fussy in a very odd way just before she breaks a new tooth. Putting her in the jogger for a stroll has worked best. Sometimes I just put her in the jogger and rocker it back and forth to get the same soothing result.

You are doing an excellent job. {{{hugs}}}

On the topic of sleeping....Reese has napped more today than she's ever napped I think. We crashed on the couch while DH & DD1 went for a drive. I moved and she sat up but I could tell she really WASN'T awake. She chatted a big long chat then layed her head back down on me, looking into my eyes. I chatted back to her telling her I was sad her baby days were coming to an end but that I was excited about her new Toddler days that were about to start. She smiled, closed her eyes, rolled over and was out cold again. VERY VERY STRANGE. She's still asleep. Total nap (including the weird wake up) 2 hours SO FAR.

TS that is adorable!

Miamla to echo Sazzles, you are indeed doing a great job and I am always amazed how much energy you seem to have on so little sleep. No advice at all from me - I am also rather sick of wake-ups (2-3 a night) though nothing like what you have been dealing with, but have no plan other than to wait for it to suddenly get better of its own accord - how annoying to have unsolicited suggestions from family... don't hesitate to let off steam here!

Today has been fun, I have been doing a few signs with DD when I remember and today she suddenly started making the milk sign (that lovely udder-squeezing gesture!) when I said 'would you like some milk?'... and then by this afternoon she was making it spontaneously. In my attempt to encourage her I ended up feeding her rather more often than usual! Snacky snacky....

evening ladies,

miamla sorry to hear of the continued wait for longer sleeps. I cannot offer advice as I have no clue what to do and last night ds woke 8 times between 7pm and 6am. I was trying for an early night, going to bed at 8pm but it was not to be. I am still feeding to sleep and bringing ds into bed with us sometimes cos it's what dp and my instincts say he needs. Last night was not teeth, I've settled on wind being the problem. The night before, he slept 9pm to 4am, one of his best ever sleeps - go figure

I spoke to a mother of 2 at the Derby yesterday and she said she ended up doing CC with her eldest at 1 year - so now I think we will do that at 1 year if necessary (it took 2 nights with her dc). People (parents included) have said to let him CIO, I think that's barbaric. However, I'm not back at work yet, so may change my mind then!

sazzles I too do a lot of kissing the back of ds's neck, yum perfect

lwfh your dh sounds wonderful. The good thing about dp losing his job is that we no longer have big arguments in the wee small hours concerning the fact that I need to do something because he has to go to work in the morning

talking of tellys we plan to get rid of ours when our contract runs out in August. That will be interesting

pertelote wow your dd is very advanced - we are doing baby signing here too but no sign of ds even noticing the signs let alone doing them back!