May 09 - The Sleepless Babies Club, All Dubious Fashions Welcome

[Grumpyoldcaaaaaaaa]

Ladies.

put DS back to bed x2 and i was all cosy and fast asleep too..

morning. Just feedinng H and feeling like i've been on the overnight flight from the US- very jet-lagged.

Fi, I hope DS slept after those 2 wake ups. here, dd1 woke up about 5x. she's here now and says she only woke up once. i wish i could figure out how to stop her yelling out in her sleep.

on the bright side, dd2 and H slept through.

on the funny side, H has really been exploring objects round the room so I have to keep an eye out - already caught her with hair clips in her litte fists, ready to go to the mouth. yesterday, she was in the bedroom with dd1&2 and I was busy putting out laundry. When I went back in a few moments later she was busy pulling out the wet wipes, one by one, all in a big fluffy pile, she was fascinated . guess I'd better be careful what is left lying round.

hope poorly ones are better today and catch up later.

morning younger it was x5 here too.. stopped checking the clock in the end.. and he's still asleep! dh was up for work at 5am G woke up at 6.45am so feeling fairly jet lagged too. going to my friend after dropping ds at pre school for the am. she's having baby #4 by cs a week today and it can't come quick enough as she's trying to cope with pgd.

lol at the wipes G loves our wipes box too.. she'll speed crawl to get it.. which i find v useful when needing to catch her for a bum change!

does anyone use or used one of those clocks that show a smiley face when ok to get up and sad face when too early? been pondering about them for a while but not sure if it'll do anything or be worth the money?

We have the bunny clock, but it hasn't been a success. It took DS about 1 day to learn how to set it so the ears popped up, signalling get-up time. Waste of money here.

llare that's what I was afraid of.. just going to have to stick it out.. please tell me one day i'll be trying to drag him out of bed..

We can be knackered together, fi. I'm struggling to get to sleep at the moment.

Had some bad news last night. My grandmother has been taken into hospital and it doesn't look good. She's 97, and was quite distressed last night. I may be heading down the motorway today once my MOT is done. As usual we left it until the last minute so couldn't go anywhere last night until it was done.

Morning!

llareggub - really sorry to hear about your grandmother, thinking of you.

younger - lol at wipes! A's current favourite find is mud picked off the the wheels of the pushchair

fi - my mum bought DD1 this for Christmas and I think, on the whole, it has improved things slightly. It doesn't do much apart from change colour, goes green when it's morning - currently set to 6.30, that's a lie in! This week we've had a few hiccups, but the general trend is better, iyswim. It seems fairly robust and DD1 hasn't managed to chnage it, although she is only 2.11 and doesn't tend to play with things like that. But I think because there's no rabbit, people, characters etc it's not all that attractive a toy.

Forgot to say, we had another rubbish night too. I really need to do something about this. I am so tempted to move A in with DD1 because then when she wakes for a feed I'd have to go and sit in the room with her rather than fall asleep while I'm feeding her and wake. And I woudn't hear the snotty-pig-snores . We've tried everything - vicks, steam, olbas oil, raising the end cot, raising the humidity but nothing works. She's a bit snotty during the day, but not terrible, but at night it's dreadful. Am I missing something really obvious?

Obviously wasn't concentrating there, was I? I mean that if I feed her in her room, not in my bed, I wouldn't fall asleep holding and wake up later in agony with a fidgety baby lying on me. But then there's the risk of waking DD1.

Remind me please? Who else has a baby and a small child in the same room and how does it work? A is still pretty much fed to sleep so I guess she'd go in her cot after DD1 has settled. Or maybe we should tackle the feeding to sleep as well?

I'm in a mess about the whole sleep thing, it was a disaster with DD1 too and I really hoped it would be better this time.

Morning everyone!

Hope we had some better nights on here.

llare I am so sorry to hear about your grandmother. I really hope you can make it to her today and that everything is ok. Thinking of you and your family.

flip Both my girls are in the same room. E just turned 2 in Nov and S is 9 months (as you know!) I put S in there at 6 months. I always put E to bed and then feed S in my room or the living room with the tv off. That gives E 15 min or so to run around her room or whatever before I go back in with S. It is cute now that E asks for S and won't settle until I bring her in. At first it was interesting as E would climb in S's cot which scared me but now I have changed it around so she can't climb in. There were nights when S would wake E but she was always good about going back to sleep after some water and a tuck in. If it got bad I would bring S into bed with me to feed which would give E time to fall back asleep before I put S back in her cot. It can be interesting but now it is great as they both sleep through the night from 6-6:30 until 7 or even 8am...maybe worth a try for a few weeks. If it doesn't work for now you can always move them again

flip Also meant to say...S always had a hard time falling asleep on her own until I put them in the same room. I always had to feed her to sleep and then slide out of my bed where she would sleep until I moved her when I went to bed. Now however, I feed her and she stays awake. When I put her in her cot I think she likes that E is in there as they 'talk' to each other which is so cute. Neither one of them cry to sleep...I just hear them talking for a few min and then it goes quiet! Also, E used to be a really light sleeper but now she hardly ever wakes up if S cries or talks in the night...I was also terrified of moving them in together as I had images or horror. I have been pleasantly surprised though so I would say it is worth a go

Morning all,

Sorry for the rubbish nights.

I don't want to brag but we were back to a more normal night with no night-time feed but a couple of resettles. I feel a lot more rested today thankfully and a little less snotty.

Thanks for all the advice re London transport. I can't believe that I am so nervous/worried about it - I've travelled around london loads of times, including late at night on my own so I shouldn't really be that stressed. Anyhoo, I have looked at buses and it seems I can get one directly from KC to W'loo, it will probably take a while but probably better than attempting lifts and tubes. I am going to book a train ticket before I chicken out

llare sorry to hear about your GM. Thinking of you.

Fi a colleague of mine swears by the bunny clock but did put it out of reach on a shelf but visible from her dd1's bed.

flip no advice re snotty nights I'm afraid. I can't remember if you are bf or ff but I know some babies can get snotty with ff because of the cows milk proteins.

Also lol at the wipes, A likes playing with nappy nippas

Hope everyone has a lovely day x

Urgh, morning all
younger they do seem to be fascinated by anything but their toys at times don't they? Jake did the same thing with a box of tissues and his face was a picture as he licked them and they stuck to his tongue!

llaregub sorry to hear about your grandmother

Pretty rubbish night here, Jake was coughing on mucous just after we went to bed, and was coughing and unsettled until 4am when he and I got a couple of hours.

He is getting less wheezy though and I'm hopeful that he is getting better. I've been housebound since last Weds and the temptation to eat rubbish and indulge in internet shopping is getting to me

flippin I feel your snot woes! Jake is propped up at almost 45 degrees at night at the moment! He even has 'snotty' nappies from all the slime he is swallowing - bleurgh

cherry - glad Jake is on the mend, hopefully the snot will clear up soon too.

Thanks for the sleep comments. Running - A is still BF, but interesting point about the cow's milk proteins, she quite often has yogurt at tea time, and of course it could be dairy I eat in the BM. Then agaian, it could just be teeth. Who knows?! Babies need some kind of control panel that displays error messages. Useful error message, not Microsoft type error messages - #31 error reported would not be helpful.

Emmab - I'd remembered about your LOs sharing as you'd posted so recently! Sounds really good though, like you say maybe we shold just try and see what happens.

running - be brave! I'll be honest, I still get a bit nervous about taking both the girls to London but it's ok really. Worried this time as it'll be the first time since DD1 has been out of nappies, the thought of trying to find her a toilet isn't fun!

I am back in the land of the living! Can't believe I was pretty much out of action for nearly 2 weeks! It feels good to be better and I apologise for not being able to catch up with everyone's posts. HOpe everyone is ok, from what I have caught up on seems that most of us are ill, tired and have snotty babies! llare really sorry about your grandmother, horrible news and am thinking of you.
M has started to clap! He won't stop though, which is quite sweet, but also tricky at meal times!!! He is very proud of himself. I have noticed his bottom teeth don't seem to be completely opaque, is this normal at these early stages? They are white, but seem a little bit translucent in little patches. Should I be worried and take him to a dentist? His top teeth are also growing in with a bit of a gap is that normal?
Last thing I need to get off my chest and get your wise advice on is: as my MIL is obviously goign through a tough time at the moment my dh and I decided to invite her skiing with us in a couple of weeks. This is our first holiday for ages and ages and we are leaving M with my M&D, it is only 3 nights but the longest we have ever left him for so already quite a big deal for us. Anyway I agreed that we should invite her to give her something to look forward to, but now my h (notice the deliberate lack of a 'd') has told me he has booked us a 'family room'. I am sharing a bedroom with my MIL on the first holiday my husband and I have had for a long time and no Monty to look after. Am I right to be a bit shocked at his total lack of foresight? I wouldn't go on holiday and share a room with my best friend, let alone my neurotic MIL. I don't know what to do, I feel like exploding at his complete idiocy. Am I being precious and unreasonable to feel annoyed at this? There is nothing I can do, the hotel has no other rooms left now. But I am really tempted to say I am not coming. It is going to be stressful enough as I will be missing M, but that was going to be made up for by having a romantic, cosy time with dh. Now that romantic, cosy time is not going to happen I feel like I may as well stay at home and look after M. I am so so so so so crossssssssss!!! What do I do???
Sorry for long ME post, but had to get it off my chest!

HtheH - oh no! I would be absolutely furious. You are totally not being unreasonable about not wanting to go now.

Oh and yay to the clapping!

Morning all.

I'm looking after a friend's son today as well as dd2, so I won't be collecting the dc early from nursery as I have been recently.

Books I've just finished To Kill A Mockingbird and loved it. I can't believe I haven't read it before now. Now I'm reading
The Boleyn Inheritance by Phillipa Gregory. Very good. I'm reading it accompanied by a primary school history text book on The Tudors. . It seems I've only ever learned Social and Economic History of Britain from 1700 onwards.

llarr Hope you get to see your Grandmother.

DD2 has eaten tissues, soil (after practically climbing into the plant pot), and various fragments of unidentified crumbs I've not managed to hoover up in time. She's starting to pull herself up to standing on the bottom stair, loves to stand holding on to furniture, and can speed belly crawl, but not properly crawl. According to MIL none of her children did though. They went straight to walking from belly crawling.

HtheH Yes unthoughtful....I however wouldn't mind too much. Dh still hasn't had the snip

decided to skip playgroup as it's raining so dd's playing together and Harper napping. I still need to get dressed/makeup etc. so of course I'm using my 'freetime' wisely .

llare, so sorry about your grandmother. I hope she's comfortable.

cherry, hope Jake's cough is getting better and you sleep better tonight.

Fi, we've got a bunny clock and it worked in the beginning. now, we've set it for 6.30 which coincides nearly with wake up time so we don't have to put them back in bed to wait for Bunny to 'wake up'... that's always annoying. for us, it's not been a waste of money but not a perfect solution (though, if there is one please tell me).

flippin, like emmab, we put dd2 in with dd1 when she was 7mos and dd1 was 27mos. I'd feed dd2 till drowsy and put her to bed. if she were a bit whingey, I'd sit with dd1 in my room reading a book for the few minutes it took dd2 to fall asleep then we'd tiptoe in to put dd1 to bed. both slept well through the night so didn't wake each other till morning.

this time, with dd1&2's waking probs, we're going to put H in with dd2 (who sleeps much beter than dd1) and put dd1 in the guest room until we solve her waking probs (HV coming next week to discuss advice) then put all 3 in together (!) eventually.

running, happy you had a good night sleep - you deserve it! Can make a huge difference in one's mood.

hi to those I xposted: Dandy, HtheH, Jennster.

not much time as H is waking up and I need to get moving but HtheH, yanbu, I would be incredibly annoyed.

Jennster, to Kill a Mock is my favourite book, I've just re-read it for a book club who unanimously voted it as best book from our 2009 reading list. as you may remember, 'Harper' was a consolation name since we weren't able to use 'Atticus' .

ok, my attention is needed in the real world... sithee later.

younger Dh is a solicitor and was considering putting Atticus somewhere into the name of the parnership. He's such a dude. Dh loves the book. Atticus is the dude, not dh....

younger I can just imagine your Yorkshire/Ohio hybrid accent. Sithee later.