Due Dec 2023 - part 6

[Nclktnntt]

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

Weve had another night of it. Little one has reflux too though. Settled 7-9 then awake crying until midnight nothing we did would settle him. Settled until 230 and awake every 30 minutes since. Gave up and got up with him for the day at 5. He only napped 45 mins all day yesterday too.

Oh @Flowers90 that's so difficult! How old is your little one now? Broken sleep is worse than no sleep I think. It's hard because overtired really effects their night sleep but then they're overtired night sleep effects their day and it's a curious circle 😢

With reflux, sounds daft but are you making sure his milk is fully mixed and dissolved? our little one has silent reflux and we found out his is made worse if we don't mix his milk 100% - it looked mixed but wasn't if that makes sense, we have to make sure we mix for at least 2-3 minutes and if there's any bitty pieces as I pour it into the cooler I put it back in the hot flask and do some more mixing before cooling it down. Might help 🤷‍♀️ since doing this we get hardly any sick ups and no upset from them.

I'm guessing by now you've tried every trick in the book but that's one we found ourselves that no one had thought to ask/mention.

Yea we have black out curtains in our room, 🤷🏻‍♀️ she just doesn’t nap for long she been like that since newborn though- awake alot during the day, the not sleeping at night has only been since 4 months, she used to sleep 7-8 hours at night, now lucky if i get 3 hours 🥱 xx

I appear to be pulling an all nighter!

We ended up at the drs yesterday. Baby was doing nothing but crying and arching his back, and being sick. Husband came with me, gp told us it's unheard of for reflux to continue or certainly worsen after 6 months. Reluctantly agreed to us trying gaviscon but said there is no way it's reflux if he keeps in solids...
Well we have a different baby. He was able to lay on the floor and play without being sick, we aren't crawling yet but think that's because he's spent so long being sick as soon as he's on the floor. He had a long nap yesterday afternoon after managing to keep.his milk in, and has slept well overnight. Weve battled it so long but struggling now he's clearly been finding it hard and in pain the last 3-4 weeks. We also have a 4 year old with complex health needs. Hoping it continues to help him

@Flowers90 there's a lady on Instagram you might find interesting who talks all about reflux. Babyrefluxlady is her account.

It's crazy how doctors stick to a tickbox and sheet of paper when the evidence is right infront of them, or if it's not that then it's something else, so what is it. I'm so glad it's helped your little one.

@FlyingHighFlyingLow hoping you get some decent naps to at least try and rest yourself . Fingers crossed tonight is better for you 🤞

Baby slept 8pm - 10:30, 10:45-12:30, 6am-7:30 then dad took over so I could get some bloody sleep 😅

@FlyingHighFlyingLow oh my life! Are they going through a regression you think or mixed their day and night up? But not sleeping in the day either you say 😥?

They spent it babbling away rolling up and down the bed and crawling backwards down it (and getting very pissed off about the backwards part), so I'm saying regression mixed with teething and a cold 😅

Ugh that's a lot to be going on all at the same time, in the warm weather too! I hope it's short lived for you 🤞 Our little one is getting soooo frustrated about the backwards part too 😂 he's starting to figure it out but just not quite there yet - he planks though and does so on the very tip of his big toes, which is much harder than putting his knees down 😂.

He did eventually go forward a bit, but he hasn't worked it out. He kind of scrambles with his arms, pulls his legs in with his forehead pressed against the ground and kind of does a slug 😅 then pushes himself up into plank, repeat 🙈

Sounds just like my dd right before she started crawling, he will be full steam ahead in a few days lol xx

We've been rocking on all 4s today and he has pushed forward and flopped a couple times - not long now till we'll be chasing them around the house 😂

We packed the mammaroo away today .. and LO is rolling around so much now I've had to move any plants off the floor to higher grounds 😂 still haven't brought myself to pack down the beside me bed yet.

Anyone else dealing with LOs digging their nails in and scraping and clenching the fist whilst grabbing your skin? My shoulder feels sunburnt from what feels like tiny razor blades attacking me all day. I've been saying no, and loose please and saying thank you when he does but the urge to chop his fingers off at that very moment is unreal!!! I cannot trim the nails enough, they seem to get sharper when I trim or file them 😢 what do you guys use to trim your little ones nails?

@Nclktnntt yes i have a pincher here, she mostly pinches/scratches my neck when feeding or my side boob lol it bloody hurts sometimes, my older 2 kids (12&14) let her pull their hair -which i keep telling them to stop as it might be cute now, but it won’t be when shes older lol my main issue at the moment is stopping her chasing the cat and pulling his tail, he has been very patient with her last few weeks following him n grabbing him, but yesterday went to swipe her 🤦🏻‍♀️ she wasn’t bothered at all so still keeps trying to get him lol xx

@Avie29 he likes to softly touch our face when his feeding - occasionally swipes when he's lulled us into a false sense of security 😂. When he's overtired, he's also a head butter 🙈 it's obviously a sensory thing, but I don't know how we're going to stop these things if he continues to do them into toddler age.

Went to the docs with the possible suspected allergies today and she has sent for a blood test, is this what happened with you guys? she said needs referred to the paediatric unit and they'll send a date through. She thinks might be gluten so is also testing celiac. I really hope it's not celiac, I know a few people who live with celiac disease and it's a nightmare for them when eating out it doesn't stop them, but they're so restricted with their diets. I'm really hoping it's a mild intolerance rather than a full blown allergy 🤞 will have to wait and see! I asked what would happen if it comes back he does have allergies, she advised would be seen under the paediatric unit from then on.

My LG is 8 months and 4 days. We all fully into teething, separation anxiety and sleep regression 😭🫠 was up from 12.30-3am last night because she wanted a party!! Also her reflux has flared up big time! Just as I was about to wean her off the omeprazole. Won’t be doing that any time soon!!

@Nclktnntt at the moment they don’t realise its hurting, as they grow into toddler they will stop by themselves once they realise they are hurting mummy, my older 4 only pinched me a few times, my second was the worst for it, i had little bruises on my legs where he used to climb up n pinch me lol my youngest son is autistic and was a headbutter when he got upset, had a few black eyes from him lol he grew out of it by the time he was 5.
@99SR i feel you, i was also up from 12:30/1 till 3:30 last night with a little madam thinking its morning and wanting to play, i hadn’t gotten to sleep myself before she woke i thought i might get a bit of extra sleep this morning as she was up so late but nope! Lol bad parenting but thank god for Ben and Hollys little kingdom this morning, seems to be keeping her occupied while i drink as much coffee as possible lol xx

Hello all. Not sure if I have missed this anywhere so apologies if I have.

In Scotland we have an 8 month development check with the health visitor but unsure if this is the same in the rest of the UK.

If any of your children have had their 8 month review, what kind of things did they discuss/assess during the review?

Glad to hear of other people in the same boat with sleep! Especially since everyone else loves to tell you that all these other babies sleep through 🙄 My LO was a decent night sleeper until 4 months and has been pretty bad since then although getting slightly better. For about a full month we were up the entire night with him. Now he sleeps about a 5 hour stretch initially and then he'll either refuse to sleep in the cot at all, or go back down for maybe an hour or two at a time. Been bringing him into bed for the last couple of hours and then he's ready to go at the crack of dawn. The only plus side is that he now naps really well during the day, which he has never done since birth!
Bottom two teeth have pushed through a little bit - anyone know if they'll still hurt until they're fully up? One pushed through last week but is still very short!

Hey 👋 how is everyone getting on? We had a bedroom move around yesterday, moved baby girls cot up to the bed and took the side off so i can now finish bf and just slide her over as she kept waking everytime i moved her to her cot and crying till i picked her up lol first night was successful! Hopefully keeps working, she still wakes every 1/2 hours but atleast its not taking 1/2 hours to get her to sleep in her cot so i guess thats a win lol the poor cat is no longer safe! Lol she follows him around pulling his tail/ears/whiskers, he has been extremely patient but she has had a few swipes lol she can now pull herself up to standing on the sofa so he can’t even get away from her there now lol poor bugger, weve had a week of grumpy baby, but top 2 teeth have now cut, so shes back to cheeky happiness, started clapping- her new favourite thing is making everyone say yaaayyy! When she claps lol apart from tired mummy all going well xx

Hi @Avie29 & everyone! My little man's 8 months already, how is this even possible 😂 his top teeth are starting to come through so we have the unsettled nights to come but at the moment he's sleeping through, occasionally can't resettle himself but mostly ok now.

I think I might be the only person who find it easier now my LO is moving around 😂 other than him destroying everything he can reach and having to baby proof everywhere now - which reminds me, what solutions have you found for the plug sockets? I read somewhere that the ones you plug in arnt safe? But, I'm finding it easier because he can now just follow me, help me clean up 🙃 after food.

I am struggling to work out his food and timings though with weaning. Today was the first day we woke and had breakfast and not milk first so it's all new today 😂

@Nclktnntt im not sure about plug sockets all mine are behind furniture 🤔 and with older kids we lived in houses where the sockets were light switch height so they couldn’t reach them anyway, i remember my mum buying the ones that plug in but my little brother figured out how to pull them out eventually 🤷🏻‍♀️.
I am at a point now of trying her with the odd bottle, but shes not fully taken yet, its awkward as i dont want my milk supply to reduce yet as she still needs booby, but i think switching her to bottle would possibly help her sleep better, we have sorted the crying when going into cot now 👍🏻 so just the OTT waking in the night to sort, never had this issue with my older 4 lol.
8 months already is crazy isn’t it, my eldest son said this morning he doesn’t want Christmas because that means the baby will be growing up haha, i know how he feels lol xx

Found out yesterday that our little man has a cow milk allergy 😳 have the full appointment next week but was at the docs with him for a something else but possibly related to the allergy suspicions which she agreed was linked and she said at a quick glance he's allergic to cows milk and gluten although that looked mild. She didn't have time to go through everything but said we will have to change his milk. Has anyone else experienced this? Did your little one take to the milk? I've read horror stories about the prescribed milks 😥

I suspected a milk allergy at around 3 months old because of his skin, the snottyness, silent reflux symptoms but everything happened so gradual that I wondered if it was an underlying allergy that the symptom's were being masked and not fixing the actual cause. Got told by HV milk allergies show much earlier so won't be that! I'm struggling with weaning because unless it's fruit of veg he seems to react. Haven't tried many meats yet. Need to start introducing more meats and fishes.

@Nclktnntt sorry to hear your liftle one has an allergy! My little boy is CMPA too. We were started on the pepti 1 at 12 weeks and still had symptoms, so once we saw the dietician at about 5 months he was changed to SMA althera and doesn’t mind it at all.

They recommend just doing a straight swap to the new milk to avoid prolonging symptoms but he point blank refused to drink it at first so I did it gradually over a couple of days and it was fine. The milk is quite starchy and bitter though so I was told you could put a drop of vanilla essence in it to take the edge off. I’ve also stopped using it to cook with for him for the same reason and use soya or almond milk instead and find that he enjoys things better using those.

If you’re on TikTok there are a few accounts that post lots of weaning ideas, both proper meals and snacks. I like TheDairyFreeMum. It’s surprising how much is dairy free that you probably already eat yourself!