Dec 09 - We've found our fingers, we've found our toes, what happens next nobody knows

[Claire236]

Starting new thread before we run out of room. Now to link from the old one. Could be interesting

You're bf aren't you? Don't bf babies sleep patterns go a bit demented at 4-5 months. Not exactly a helpful, detailed response I know. Sorry GS.

Have been a pureeing machine the last few days. We now have apple, pear, plum, squash, sweet potato, sweetcorn, peas, beans, pepper, parsnip & swede in the freezer

GS - Catherine sounds very much like Imogen. She never seems to get the amount of sleep she actually needs. Today between 10 am this morning she has had three 20 minute naps and now she won't settle easily at night again. We had 3 really good days in a row last week - textbook naps and settling well at night and only waking twice to be fed, then it's all gone belly up again.

I went to a weaning session today and after speaking to the people there am going to try bbaby rice tomorrow just once a day to see if that helps with night sleeping. Not planning to do any other foods until nearer 6 months (20 weeks tomorrow) and if it doesn't make any difference or she hates it we're going to leave it.

We're currently blaming it on teething - as when she's put down she tries to chew the mattress even though she isn't hungry when I try to feed her. She also refuses a bottle and just chews on the teat for 30 minutes, then starts to scream like I'm trying to poison her having managed to get about 10 mls out and all down her! I've tried all different bottles and teats, warming the milk, formula, ebm etc... with no luck.

Hmmmmm.... I realise I'm not in any way offering anything helpful here, but for me it's a little reassuring to know others are in the same position as me. I can then tell myself it isn't me doing something wrong...!!!

We're still BF here. I was blaming it on growth spurts and teething but Claire's post got me thinking...

DS stopped putting on weight at this sort of age and the HV's had me give him formula and do mix feeding for a few weeks then we weaned him at about 5 months...I'm wondering if it's all happening again. Maybe 4 months is all my body can sustain a baby for

It'll be a nightmare if it is as Catherine will not take a bottle still. Plus, I really wanted to keep feeding till August so that I don't have the hassle of taking formula and bottles and sterilisers etc away on holiday with us.

I was ready to gove up with DS but I'm really enjoying BFing this time. I hope this isn't the end.

claire i have been pureeing too......trouble is i like the taste of it all myself.... i am a bit mixed up with carrots squash and sweet potato as its all orange!!!! LOL ds is loving his little meals and we have been able to get back to bf rest of time with just one ff at bedtime...... a few weeks ago i had resigned myself to giving up bf as he just was not satisfied. he is loving it and is sleeping well and the 'mealtimes' mean there is more structure to the day. he is only having small meals but i have prepared loads. Am pleased its enabled me to keep bf!! we are still having 4 or 5 feeds a day but not as big feeds as he was having and he has a little food and a bf as pudding!!! I do wish i could have waited as i have read the research but dd was weaned at 15 weeks in hospital and is fine..... think its imp to be careful.....think i will wait a while before i give him a mcdonalds....JOKING LOL.
He doesnt care how smooth the puree is though obv i am not giving him 'lumps'. Am looking forward to 6 months and finger foods and lumpier stuff. dd even gave him his baby rice this morning and she felt very special doing it!!! (baby rice is pants though.....if you dont give them it quick enough it goes runny!!!!)

ds is def cutting a tooth as i can see the white bit with red around it but we will see. he doesnt seem too bothered but is manically chewing everything....got him this fab set from mothercare which has a finger toothbrush.... a gum massager and a baby toothbrush.....the last two have handles so baby can hold them and gnaw away!!!!

GS get some fenugreek and see if you can boost supply to see if it helps or eat cake and see if that helps. also when my period came back my supply dropped and ds was not happy!

Last time I tried fenugreek Catherine started vomiting. As soon as I stopped the Fenugreek, she stopped vomiting. Could have been coincidence I suppose but I blamed the tablets at the time. Might have to try it again and see.

Is the cake just for extra calories? I've been trying to exercise to lose some weight but have gained this week not lost. I only lost 2lbs the week before so I'm not doing very well anything drastic. Haven't really chnaged my diet, just doing the exercise so was hoping it wouldn't affect my supply. Did nothing over the weekend either but that doesn't seem to have helped.

Maybe I'm due a period??

perhaps..... i was so surprised to get one when ds was only 11 weeks and i was exc bf.....but app cos he was sleeping 6 hours plus at night it gave my hormones chance to kick back in. grrrrrr now i just expect it for few days before and first few days of it! cake for calories and mental health purposes LOL.....but the calories can help my hv said. i am now starting to watch what i eat and lost 4lb last week..... i walk a lot with the pram but thats it for exercise..... have done that since he was born though.

talking of periods mine was due last friday but hasnt come yet..... we have been careful...... i cant be.....????!!!1 think its just ,y hormones being all over with nearly stopping bf then picking back up with it...and they can be allover ....right????? (fingers crossed anyway!)

Just read about the 4 month sleep regression - I think that might be what's happening...

I should think your periods will be all over the place while your hormones settle down. BF and sleep depreivation won't help either. I wouldn't worry too much yet sparkly

i am lucky ds sleeps 7.30 till .30 with one or two dummy plug ins. though we have blips!!!!! and i feel worse now i am sleeping more!!!! LOL but yes i have heard of this 4 month sleep thing.

We get from 7.30 till somewhere around midnight then it all seems to go wrong. The other night it was hourly till 5am after the midnight feed!!

I was told to top up DS at this age because his weight was static and it meant the end for BF for us too. HV doesn't seem too bothered this time and suggested I bring Catherine back in 4 weeks. The problem with her is that she is already below the 2nd percentile so I doubt they'll want me to see how it goes for too long before pressuring me to top her up.

She's definitely not sleeping for 15 hours in 24!! I thought it was just because she was sleeping less soundly and DS was waking her but I put her upstairs today and she still only had half an hour. She'll probably get more lseep tomorrow as we'll be out and about with the buggy tomorrow and she always sleeps in that. She had a 3 hour nap once when I brought her inside in the P&T cocoon and put her upstairs in a darkened room. Maybe I can dot hat again. I love that buggy. I couldn't have done that with my old pushchair

Midnight, 2am and 5am last night!!

So glad DS is at pre school this morning. Although I still have to take the car for a service which means dropping it off then walking home and I'm not sure I have the energy today.

Elizabeth definitely hasnt read the book. Since turning 4 months her sleep has gotten loads better! But there is someone out there who doesnt want us to have a good nights sleep. All last night one of the neighbours dogs was howling. ALL BLOODY NIGHT. Im an animal lover but even I wanted to shoot the bloody thing in the face!

I always said I was due a nightmare sleeper this time. DS started doing 12 hour nights at about 10 weeks and never stopped. Catherine's just making up for him

My friends first girl never slept longer than 45 minutes in a stretch ever until she went to a sleep clinic at 18 months old. It could be worse

Going to get Holly weighed on Thursday. She might have just grown in length but she seems 'slimmer' to me. I wonder if her weight is levelling off.

Naps are ok here - sporadic though. This week she had a 3 hour nap from 1pm - 4pm. Sounds nice, but I was worried whether to wake her or not for fear of a bad nights' sleep. I guess she needed it as she slept ok at night. We are still regularly waking for feeds at around 1am and 3am... and then WIDE awake for the day at 6am. Wish she could go back off for even one hour - 7am seems much more friendly.

Had a lovely day out yesterday - we drove in Dad's car to Cromer - had chips with a wooden fork and then icecream, a walk on the beach and pier. Then had a wander around Holt before heading for a pub dinner and drive home. Holly was a very good girl and seemed to really enjoy it.

... then we broke down 2 miles from home. Was so scared with DD in the back of the car but a kindly man brought us home at 11pm - got DD to bed and I went back out with a friend to tow the car back. No idea what's wrong with it... really can't afford to fix it but my Dad is back from his holidays next week. arggghhh.

Finally, we had a breakthrough yesterday. Imogen went to bed as usual at 7 and woke as usual for next feed about 11.30. I've been making her go at least 4 hours between feeds at night using PUPD if she wakes before that. She woke at 2.30 so I got her back to sleep in about 15 minutes, thinking she'd probably thn wake up again v soon, but next time she woke up was just before 6.30 this morning! I've held off the baby rice today in the hope that it isn't a one off and that she might actually sleep through soon... wishful thinking though I think...

GS - does when Catherine wakes at midnight 2 am and 5 am, does she feed every time or just wake and need settling?

Oh, she's always up for a feed hendo.

I've been considering waiting for a long weekend and then getting DH to try to settle her without a feed in the night to get her out of the habit but I daren't do that while she's so close to the bottom of the weight graph as I figure she needs all the food she can get. Plus, because she's not keen on DH at the moment, him getting uo to her would probably just make her cry more.

Maybe I'll try it after we've started weaning and she's getting more calories during the day...

hendo....whats PUPD....not sure i know what that is!!!

Pick up put down. If they cry you pick them up and ssshh/pat them as soon as they stop crying you put them down and just repeat until they stop and stay asleep basically. If they start crying on the down, you still put them all the way down and let go before picking them up again. If you want eery 20 minutes you can leave them cry for 10 minutes (PUPDCD - pick up put down cry down) then start again if necessary.

Went to nursery today & have now got ds2 booked in for his induction & a few mornings the week before I go back to work. Felt really down ever since. Can't believe it's only 5 weeks before I have to leave him. Somehow arranging actual dates & times has made it seem so much more real. He's going to the same nursery as ds1 went to & a few of the staff I know from when he was there assured me that they'll be on hand with tea & a shoulder to cry on if needs be.

Claire. No real advice cause I never had to do it but maybe try to make the most of your last 5 weeks? Must help that it's DS1's old nursery? You know it's a good one and they'll take good care of DS2. He'll be happy there while you're at work I'm sure.

Catherine's got her 3rd set of jabs tomorrow and I'm feeling a bit sick about it already. I hate taking them for jabs and she'll have 3 this time. At least it's the last lot for a little while...

GS - I was worried about ds2 having his third jabs but he was actually fine. If anything better than with the first 2 lots.

Had ds2 weighed yesterday & he's gone from 13lbs 14ozs to 14lbs 10ozs in 3 weeks. He's still just below the 25th centile but he seems settled on that line whereas he had been dropping down the chart. He's a little piglet since we started weaning so certainly no worries on that score.

Dropped one of ds2 evening bottles a few days ago as he was still having bottles at 5pm, 7pm, 9pm then a dreamfeed at 11pm. We now do 5pm, 8pm & an 11pm dreamfeed. The first night he woke up at 2am but he's been fine the last 2 nights. Now if I can just get him to go to sleep straight after the 8pm bottle

Claire - the staff sound lovely there offering you tea and shoulders. It sounds like they will take good care of DS2 for you whilst you're at work. Also good news on the weight chart.

GS - it's horrible taking them for jabs so good luck with that tomorrow. I always held onto the hope it might make her sleep well (but it didn't really!!!).

On the sleep front we've had a second night with one less feed so feeds at 7.30 pm, 12.30 am then 6 am (she woke up at 5.30 though - so I sent in dh to play before work!). It wasn't two nights in a row - we had our usual 11.30 and 4 am feeds that night, but I do now have hope on the sleeping front which will probably keep me going for another week. Ever the optimist me ...