Due Dec 2023 - part 6

[Nclktnntt]

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

I'm in the same boat, I'm dairy free and giving gaviscon . He's defo a different baby comparing to before we started either, and nights have got significantly better since taking the gaviscon. However we started gaviscon on week 4 of dairy free so it's hard to tell exactly what's helped what. I'm going to give it maybe another week or so and drink some milk and see what happens, to confirm or deny CMPA (GP recommendation).

Has anyone managed to do the transition from essentially feed to sleep (we BF and she often falls asleep after a feed) or walk in the pram naps to naps in the cot? I just feel like she's very determined to not have cot naps!

@Flowersandfloral not wholly successfully but we aim for one cot nap a day if not out and about.

I don’t need to feed to sleep for naps, but we’re rocking which is just as bad? We finally did one yesterday where I managed to get her down awake and use shushing.

Took a lot of effort, initially rocking before placing and white noise. She only napped for 30 mins and probably took longer to get her down. But hoping we can build up from there.

@Mushroo ooh well done for yesterday's nap!

We monitor her wake windows etc and know she will be ready for a nap around the 2 hour mark. If I pop her in the pram she's asleep before we get out our gate (quite often I'll do a quick 5 mins then she'll sleep in her pram for up to 2 hours!) so I know she is ready for sleeps. But when I put her down in her cot, trying to do the drowsy but awake thing, she might happily lie there for 10 mins I think she must be going down and I have a check and her eyes are wide open and she's smiling or she just starts to cry after being put down. But I've never managed to get her down for a cot nap (did manage a few times with the rocking moses basket). So I always end up trying for about half an hour before I give in and pop her in the pram and boom, fast asleep. I don't know if I'm just too worried about her going past wake windows and then fighting sleep for the rest of the day etc. I know I've built the rod for my own back by doing so many pram naps - but initially and still do to be fair, love getting out and about for the walks!

Just a bit lost on how to encourage the cot naps!

@Flowersandfloral very very similar here. Yesterday was the first time I’ve managed it. The pram is usually our go to!

I thought yesterday we’d gone through the wake window and I was scared of grumpy baby but it was ok - I’d say start the nap routine earlier than you think, and if it back fires you have the pram as back up

@Mushroo we did it!! She managed a nap in her cot after I put her down awake. She made some complaining noises for a few mins then yawned, rolled over and was fast off. This feels like a massive moment for us! Think I just needed the confidence to stick with it 😂

Anyone hitting the 4 month sleep regression?? My LO is 15 weeks on Friday and the past two days she’s napped maximum 30 mins, when she usually goes about 1.5hrs! Then last night was up at 12, 3, 4, 5 and 7 lol tired mumma today!!

That's amazing @Mushroo did you wait for sleep signals or just work off a time for naps? How old is your LO? I'm not sure when to start trying sleep training or how too, our little guy is 11 weeks now, ive tried putting him down having not gone to sleep on us first yet.

@Nclktnntt her wake window is usually about 1 hour 40 so I start winding down at about 1 hour 30, but only if she starts getting a bit cranky / seems sleepy so a bit of both really! She’s 13 weeks this week.

It’s still very very hit and miss but just hoping to build up slowly. She sleeps really well at night (so far…) so I’ll take that!

@99SR yes i think we are! My LO will be 16 weeks on Sunday. He’s really fighting his daytime naps and was up at 1:15, 2:30. 3:30, 5 and 6 last night😩 really restless when he actually managed to sleep too!

Has anyone got the SIlver Cross Eat&Play 4-in-1 high chair?

@FirstMondayInMay thats like my LO! She’s asleep just now but moving around a lot more than usual. Hoping tonight isn’t as bad as last night.

@chloesl1808 no but that’s the one I want!

It looks great to be honest. I love the fact that it can turn into a mini table and chair as I know how handy this is from when my niece was younger.

We've also looked at the tutti bambini one that's a similar style but it's an extra £100! Crazy!

@99SR I'm not sure if it's the regression but my LO is 14 weeks and started rolling over so we've had to take away the love to dream swaddle suit and his sleeps have been awful 😞 Wakes up after 10 mins constantly. He had been been sleeping through the night for the last month 😭 Has anyone else moved out of the swaddle suits? Please tell me it doesn't last long!

We've moved out of the love to dream suits just last week and our daughter continues to sleep through the night thankfully! She has a thick cosy sleeping bag and I also put some mittens/scratch mitts on her so that her hands are covered to still give her the kind of cosy/warmth on her hands that she would have had when her hands were inside her swaddle suit. Not sure if your baby wears mittens but maybe something to try if not?

@chloesl1808 That's a good idea, I'll try that tonight! He has a nice warm sleeping bag too but it seems to be the startle reflex waking him up. But I'll try anything at this rate!

Our room was a bit too warm so I didn't use the mits, but we've had two nights in a row now where LO has slept through without the swaddle. So I think it just took some perseverance and patience. Just updating to give hope to anyone else who experiences this 😂

People whose baby sleeps through now, did they just stop waking or did you stop offering them feeds etc? And are they on breast or bottle?

I still count myself lucky I often just get one feed wake up in the night, but it depends what time that is as to whether she wakes up again for a little feed.

@Flowersandfloral I started giving him a dummy instead when he woke around 2am. Then he'd wake around 6am so I'd feed him then and he'd sleep on for another hour or two. Any time he stirred in the night I'd just give the dummy. Eventually stopped the 6am feed too! Now he sleeps around 10.30-7.30. LO is breastfed

@Flowersandfloral our LO is bottle fed and just started sleeping through. Whenever he woke I always offered the dummy first to see if this settled him, until it no longer did and he was awake so would have a feed, it used to be 2am ish then 5am ish. He now stirs from 2:30am - however he's such a loud sleeper that I think I got more sleep when he woke to feed to be honest. He's had me awake from 2:30 this morning roughly every 30 mins just grunting but not waking up 😂

He goes to bed around 7:30/8pm through to 6:30/7am (now the clocks have changed that's all an hour later). I'm working out if I'll leave it or try to change that back an hour earlier. We normally eat after he's asleep which now is when I start falling asleep 😂

@Flowersandfloral I'm bottle feeding. For me, putting my LO in a swaddle bag made a HUGE difference. Previous to introducing the bag, I'd offer a dummy and had to sing, rock and walk about a lot before LO would eventually fall asleep...and then he'd wake due to reflex 😔 He would also wake for a feed around 2am and again, would spend a lot of time trying to get him back to sleep.
Been using a 'Love to Dream' swaddle bag for roughly the last 4-5 weeks and I usually offer a dummy just as he's getting drowsy. He doesn't properly wake up in the night but he does stir a bit when he's in his active sleep stage before he settles into deep sleep.
The odd time he has opened his eyes I've offered him a dummy and goes back to sleep almost straight away. I also make sure he's had a decent last feed about 30 minutes before going to bed.

Ahhh yes, we started using the love to dream bags too. We've just brought the transition bags now he's getting to big for his other ones.

In the day I don't swaddle or use the bags and unless contact napping, and sometimes then too, we get a 30 min nap max

Thank for your replies @Nclktnntt @Beans1982 @Charlielechat!

My LO is rather strong minded and won't take a dummy or a bottle! She only wants the nip which can be pretty intense. She seems to have settled back to just one wake up about 2am (bedtime is 7pm ish) and then wakes between 6-7am. Sometimes her feeds really aren't very long so I might start to try settling her rather than always offering a feed when she does wake in the night.

Active sleeping can be soooo loud can't it! I'm always convinced she must be awake.

We've now nearly mastered the morning naps in her cot with self settling so I'm really happy about that. I just needed the confidence to keep persevering with it I think!

Guys what do you do when your little one just will not nap! Ours has always fought his naps but occasionally will drift off no problem. I hate the fight, the arching of the back, can't hold him in any position because he just kicks off after a couple seconds. But our little guy was showing signs of being tired, so we calmed, he was relaxed started to close his eyes, realised, the ping - eyes wide open, it's now been an hour and he just will no nap, I've put him down, cuddled, sang, swayed, sat, read his bedtime book, he won't keep the dummy as soon as he gets drowsy he pings it out. I don't know what to do. Maybe it's because I've had a shit time of sleeping lately but I'm really struggling to get him to nap and handling the fact he won't when he's so tired. He starts yawning and just isn't happy being awake. He goes into overtired super quickly. But it's impossible and I'm now worried we're building a bad habit of nap time so it's going to become a negative for him rather than a positive thing.

How do you catch nap time, and what do you do? Do you have a routine? Is it similar to night time? We have a night time routine but that's doesn't go well if we've had a bad day - on a good day, it's a dream!

Sorry for the long post but I'm feeling really lost with it all today. He's 12 weeks now

@Nclktnntt I feel you! My LO doesn't like napping in his snuzpod for any more than 30 minutes and sometimes just won't go down at all. When he doesn't go down I just do a contact nap if I know he hasn't slept much that day. In the last week though he has actually starting napping for 40 minutes or longer (yesterday we got almost 2 hours with no help!!) I use the Huckleberry app which has a premium feature that predicts baby's next nap time based on your baby's other sleeps. I had a free trial and thought it was really useful so I pay the £10 per month now.
I don't do much of a routine for nap times other than sleeping bag and white noise machine on. Sometimes I feed him to sleep, other times just cuddle him with his dummy! I used to spend ages trying to get him back to sleep but it just ended up stressing both of us out so I don't bother anymore!