Due Dec 2023 - part 6

[Nclktnntt]

Follow-on from part 5 heading into delivery and motherhood.

@Cindy1802 my LO screamed with MAM bottles too. She took the TT one the first time we gave it to her. We only gave her a small amount and have built it up over the last few days. I think the closer to nature TT bottles are the same too. We just kept trying different bottles/combinations of formula and/or breast milk to try to work out what the problem was. She doesn't like a dummy either which is why we thought about changing the teat.

Thanks @GL1987 , we'll persevere! He won't take a dummy for us either. Out of interest did you try the Nuk closer to nature bottles? I've seen them mentioned for BF babies too. At least I have a few different ones to try. Wish us luck!

@Cindy1802 how's it going? We didn't try the nuk ones but they were the ones I was going to next, only didn't be Use we already had the TT ones. It's still a little up and down as to how much she takes from the bottle but it's getting better everyday.
Now we have sleep regression to contend with. It's always something 🤦

@GL1987 we tried the Nuk ones yesterday and he didn't hate it as much as the mam... that's progress right?! Going to try the TT ones next. Haven't tried today as he's had his 8 week jabs this morning and he's been so sad and miserable all day poor lad. There really is always something as you say!

Hey all!
how’s everyone getting on?
my LO is 10weeks tomorrow, it’s fine so quickly!
this time last week I would have said that I’d completely cracked this baby business but it has come back to bite me in a big way!
He’s gone from being a happy, funny little baby who only woke up once during the night to being fussy, crying, screaming from 5pm and waking up 3 times a night 😩
I really hope this is a phase. Is there a 10 week growth/ developmental spurt regression type thing?!
dreading this evening already - “witching hour” is almost upon us 🥲

@SMG1992 it’s soo tough but every time I thought I figured something out with my first he changed. Think it went on for most of his first year. I’m sure your wee one will be back to being a more happy settled boy soon.

So far DS2 appears to be a lot more chilled and much better sleeper than his big brother but I’m waiting for it all to change and I’m sure it will soon. He actually slept through the night the other night at just over 9 weeks. DS1 slept through for the first time at 23 months old and still doesn’t reliably at 27 months so I’m enjoying being smug about a baby sleeping while I can.

Hi ladies, I hope all is well.

On another note...Does anyone know more about the maternity pay increase? I know it's going up to hardly nothing at £184.03 per week from April but I've read a lot about a call for it doubling. What are the chances of this and would it happen next financial year? (April 2024)

Your thoughts?

@RG84 is not heard about that, but doubt anything different would come into effect so quickly, it would be one of those by the year x it'll be x I'd imagine. Hope I'm wrong though - I'd be able to stay at home and not return to work after just 3 months if it did.

So here's hoping 🤞

@SMG1992 no advice if it's just a phase but really hoping it is for you - and me when I get there of our little one does that. We had an evening like that a couple nights ago and it was so hard - the trick for our little one to finally go to sleep was my husband held him facing out the way, walking around whilst talking about the issues he'd had at work that day... hours of had him, 10 minutes (if that ) with my husband talking about work and he was gone 😂

He looked like he was going to do it again tonight as I handed him to my husband because I had an online class to attend - within seconds of him mentioning work, little man was asleep 😂 conclusion, talk about really boring stuff in a low voice and he's like 'nope, not worth it, I'm going to sleep'.

@Noname112 definitely enjoy the sleeping well! It makes such a difference to us and the babies!
@Nclktnntt that is so funny about your husband and the baby! I love it!
we had a better day and night yesterday and he seems better this morning already.
ive tried some gripe water and not trying to hold him off in the night so it means we have multiple wake ups for milk but it’s worth it for LO to be content
i’lo try longer periods over night again in a couple of weeks when he’s a bit older

We’ve gone backwards with sleep! We were getting 3/4 hour stretches and this week it’s dropped to 2 hours max so we’re back to splitting the night between me and DH.

It seems whenever I put her in the crib she enters ‘goblin mode’ - squirming, grunting, fussing. This can last for HOURS.

I thought it might be wind, or some kind of reflux, but she’s absolutely fine as soon as you pick her up, and she’s also fine in her pram bassinet laying flat during the evening.

So confusing

Hi ladies - hope you’re all getting on ok! I’ve not been on for a while so this has probably been talked about a few times but is anybody giving their baby any probiotic drops?

im thinking of getting some to try as baby is starting to really struggle with his wind again, even with infacol and gripe water. Are there any you all recommend?

@Mushroo mine is similar. Was doing 2 wakes per night, last night decided to try scratch his eyes out every time he was put in his crib. Was windy though. Hopefully gets better soon as supposedly gets better around 3/4 months. Keeps rubbing his head back and forth smacking it against the side of the crib. Hands supposedly self soothe but instead mine decided to shove them so far in his mouth he gagged and vomited. You think he'd learn but nope!

@FlyingHighFlyingLow yes to the eye gouging, just why?!? How is that a natural reflex, babies are so odd 😂

Doesnt help one of my antenatal friends has a baby one month older and he’s doing 8 hour stretches. I’d kill for 4 hours at this point!

I'm also in the no sleep club, and it's driving me mad seeing people on FB etc asking if they should be worried that their December babies are sleeping through. If you are that lucky please keep it to yourself 🤣 we sometimes do get a 4 hour stretch when we first go to bed (which has only started this week at 9 weeks old) but after that it's every 50mins-90mins.

Mine is 11 weeks and he did do a couple of 3-4 hour stretches since 8 weeks but often sub 2 hours then awake from 4am. It's like he detects when I'm on the edge. He'll wake every 1-2 hours for like 5 days, then right when I think it'll kill me he'll give me a couple of days of longer stretches before reverting 😅

My mum told me to feed on demand during the day making sure he was nice and full and then a big bottle before bed so we’ve been doing that between 11pm and midnight as he doesn’t like going to bed early. We’ve found that’s working well and then gives us 5-7 hour stretches but don’t ask us for when he naps during the day or what his daytime routine is as every day is different so we’ve got bedtime and night time working but then are just going with the flow during the day. On good days he will have some decent naps where I can get on top of chores and other things I need to do but on a bad days it can’t feel like an endless cycle with very little time to do washing etc.

We had a nightmare day with the 8 week jabs. He seemed fine, came back, fed and napped but then woke up and screamed virtually non stop from 4pm to 10pm. It was horrendous, he was so upset and got so hot we stripped him down to his nappy and I think the calpol finally kicked in. He didn’t have a fever, the highest he went was 37.2 but clearly he was hot enough to feel awful and scream so much. He wanted to constantly be held but we had to keep moving as otherwise he would scream more so we took it in turns. Thank goodness he felt better before bedtime as otherwise that would have been even worse. We also experienced our first explosive poo that they warned us about because of the rotavirus vaccine. Hoping we don’t have too many more of them! How did the jabs go for everyone else?

@Vsah22 We also had a bad time after the 8 week jabs! DD ended up with a fever on/off for 48 hours. Calpol would help bring it down initially, but would creep up every 4/5 hours when another dose was due! Thankfully it didn’t last more than a couple of days, but it was definitely a rough time for our little
one.

@Cindy1802 I’m in the same boat with frequent wakes! DD currently waking every 90 minutes on average. If we are lucky we get a 3 hour stretch at the start of the night, but will revert to every 60-90 minutes for the rest of the night. Especially brutal as she is EBF so my husband isn’t much use, and he also poorly at the moment due to a long-term health condition so he would struggle to help anyway. I keep telling myself that babies go through different phases with sleep, and there’s always the chance things can change for the better soon 😁🤞

@Vsah22 we had a similar experience with his jabs, seemed fine for about 2 hours but then screamed for the rest of the day. His crying sounded like he was in real pain, it was awful. But thankfully he woke up the next day and was back to his usual self.

@LittleButtercup same here - baby is EBF so it's all on me. I love BF (my first baby wouldn't take the boob so was delighted when this baby did) but it can really feel isolating and relentless at times too. I get annoyed at my husbands ability to sleep all night, but also just have some time to himself! I feel like I can't even have a cup of tea and a biscuit at night without feeling the pressure of drinking it quickly before baby gets grizzly and needs me. I also wonder if the frequent wake ups and partly due to him being BF, but he won't take a bottle so not much we can do about it anyway!

Sleeping isa hit or a miss for us. The first stretch of sleep is good, usually 5/6 hours but after that she’s awake every 2 hours! She suffers with horrendous wind, so bad it wakes her regularly. Sometimes I can pay her back to sleep, other times she’s up screaming which needs a full resettle!

We've been putting LO to bed with us around 11.30 and he's started sleeping for 5 hour stretches at night now. I breastfeed and he was doing 3 hour stretches before that and think it was because I kept rocking him back to sleep with his dummy when he woke because I knew he didn't need the milk! He was barely napping during the day in his moses basket, just wanted contact naps, so we've moved him upstairs for naps now in his snuzpod with white noise machine and his Love to Dream suit and it seems to have helped. I've been making sure he naps after every hour or 2 of being awake. Trying to make sure he gets a good hour nap at least, if he wakes before that I give him his dummy and rock the snuzpod until he goes back down. In the few hours before his bedtime I let him nap for 30-60 minutes and then keep him awake til bedtime. We had one day this week where his naps were all over the place as he was quite spewy and hadn't pooed, and he woke twice that night. So I do think mastering daytime naps is half the battle! Also would be lost without the dummy 😂 Breastfeeding was very tough without it!

Just a quick update for those still having tough nights - I also tried to resettle every time he woke last night, to make sure he was defo waking for milk and not just for comfort/between sleep cycles. It worked! We got an extra hour before his first feed, an extra 30mins before his 2nd, and 40mins before his morning feed. Give it a go if you haven't already.

I've also ordered a swaddle sack from vinted - he actually really liked being swaddled in the early days which I was just doing the old school way, but I stopped doing it cos he was pulling his arms out as he was waking each time which meant I had to reswaddle etc rather than a quick feed and back down so I thought it was disturbing him more. So hoping the swaddle bag is a good purchase for us.

I don't want to brag, but for the last 2 weeks my daughter has slept 8-9 hours through the night.

She usually falls asleep between 9 and 10 and wakes up at 6 am xx

Long may it last! 😂

@hotpotlover tell me your secrets!

Do you go to bed at 9pm and have her in the next to me?

I really struggle with evenings as she’s supposed to be in the same room as us, and I don’t really want to go to bed at 8pm!