Due May 2024? Part 3

[Sa11yCinnamon]

Just kicking off a new thread, hoping no one else does it at the same time!

@Athena1984 hope all is ok, keep us posted xx

@PeppedUp yes my little one loves to play. We've got her a play gym & just added a few extra toys onto the hangers. She lies and talks to doggy for quite a while, bless her.

@PeppedUp yes my girls been obsessed with her piano play mat for a few weeks now. She loves kicking the piano and she’s started reaching for the hanging toys too 🥰 best thing I’ve bought though is that viral moving crab toy thing, she goes on her tummy time roll and watches him for ages!! She also likes to snuggle with a jellycat lovey that my dad got her. We were out one day and the shop had some jellycat toys, I showed her this lovey and she just smiled and reached out for it so my dad bought it. It’s got to come everywhere with her now and she cuddles it in the pram, so cute!

@PeppedUp My girl really likes her brother's old doughnut rattle. It's got lots of hanging parts on it. My son was never really interested in it but she loves batting and grabbing it.

At 10 weeks, now my boy is starting to use his hands he's become more interested in soft noisy toys. He's enjoyed swaying toys on his rocker chair and play mat for a few weeks. This week he had also started laughing at our floor lamp (I think because it's reflective)!

@PeppedUp I have some really sore nipples now! Seem to be following you. He still thrashes around sometimes and comes off the boob several times in a feed but he does know how to latch properly when he's really hungry and needs to feed. Now I'm sore I'm going to have to be firm about the latch. I hope your balm helps. The posseting seems to be getting better, and is less watery. Wind is still an issue though so hopefully as the latch improves he'll take in less air.

As for toys we only have a couple on the pram but he's started interacting with the rattle one, grasping and pushing it. Looking forward to giving him more objects to interact with.

@Yourowgirl oh no! Mine are slowly getting better - one is totally fine but the other one that is cracked is taking longer to heal. It hurts when he first latches but gets more comfortable quite quickly. I think the balm is helping although I don’t know how much just rubs off.

It’s so cute to read about everyone’s toys. We showed ours a black and white baby book over the weekend and he looked so startled every time we turned the page and then got a massive grin 😁

Morning all! How are you all doing? Isn’t time just flying! Just reading about toys- our little one is still far more interested in us than toys!

How often and for how long is everyone doing tummy time? Any tips?

We do tummy time every day but I’m not really sure how long it’s for. It’s a mixture of lying on my chest, supported by the tummy time pillow and direct on the floor. She loves her it and pushes herself up with her arms now and reaches for things. She keeps rolling off the tummy time pillow though so I think I might need to stop using it.

How’s everyone getting on with sleep? We’ve got a brilliant sleeper, she takes regular naps and sleeps through the night for 10-11 hours….but….all her naps are still contact naps and I have to rock her to sleep before she goes down in her crib at night. She’ll be 16 weeks this week so maybe it’s still too early for her to self settle? I know the contact naps are more a me problem than a her problem because I actually really like them but I do need to do stuff during the day sometimes so I need to be brave and start putting her down in her crib.

We’re doing tummy time with a play gym a couple of times a day until he gets grizzly, which is usually around five minutes I think. I wouldn’t say he’s super interested in toys - we have one in his play gym that he likes staring at but he’s equally interested staring in certain objects around our home if they have interesting patterns to look at. He’s not really reaching for things yet.

In terms of sleep, I think his normal pattern is to go down at 10pm, wake at 5am for a feed, then he snoozes lightly, with regular wakes. My partner usually takes him then so I can get a bit more sleep. Also, he has had never ending sniffles that have led to him also having a 2am waking for the last month or so but he seems to be coming out of that now.

@SarahB88 you sound like you have an amazing sleeper! Have you tried various places for naps? Mine sleeps well in his Stokke newborn chair, the bouncer and the buggy - we only use the crib for night.

In terms of self settling, you might want to keep in mind the four month sleep regression, which could make it more difficult if that hits soon. I never attempted it with my first though so don’t really have any advice beyond that.

We are getting on well here. I don’t do as much tummy time as I should but with 2 others life gets busy and she just has to slot in! She loves going on her play mat and is really close to rolling over onto her front. She does grab at toys and gurgles away which is really cute. She’s also started laughing too.
Sleep wise we have really improved. I can usually get her down for 2 naps morning and afternoon, she normally feeds to sleep and needs a bit of a rock and then goes. Night time she has her once a day bottle around 8 and then I rock to sleep and she’s usually down about 9. Usually wakes for a breastfeed around 2 and then again about 6 but she’s really good at going back down straight away.
Life has been really hard for us lately, I lost my dad at the start of the holidays and she has brought us so much comfort and love in these awful times 💗

Aw @Emmacb82 I’m so sorry to hear about your dad. Sending you love x

@PeppedUp she will occasionally sleep in the pram if I put the rockit on but I’ve never got more than 30mins out of her in that. She fell asleep once in her dock a tot when she was put down drowsy but awake but that was a total fluke! I am totally the problem when it comes to naps 😂 I need to actually just put the effort in of setting her in her crib. But like you say want to see what 4 months brings.

@Emmacb82 so sorry to hear about your father x

I’ve been feeling so emotional today that it’s September already and how fast time is going. I’m just loving every minute so much and it scares me how fast it seems to
slip by. It’s honestly the best time of my life and the best thing I’ve ever done. Soppy but I just feel so lucky and blessed. 🥰

@LondonGirl1992 Marcella HATES tummy time, just like her brother 😂 She much prefers to be held sitting up. She'll just whinge at me if I try lying her on her tummy on the play mat and hold out her arms and legs like a sky diver.

She can now roll onto her side from her back so it's just a matter of time before she goes all the way over 😬

@Emmacb82 Sorry about your dad :(

@SarahB88 Marcie has moved to four 210ml bottles a day and now goes down for the night around 8pm and gets up around 7.30am. Prior to that she'd fall asleep at 8 and then we'd give her another bottle at 11 as she'd wake up when we took her upstairs.

Hey everyone

Just curious about people’s experiences with the four month regression? I think my son may be starting it now. In the last couple of days he’s suddenly gone from napping for hours to around 20 minutes at a time and overnight he seems to be awake a lot although just entertaining himself in the crib. He also seems grumpier.

With my older son, the four-month regression involved constant night wakes and lasted well over a month so I’m not sure if that is coming or if this is as bad as it’s going to get.

I think we might have had it 🤞 I’ve read online that the regression should only last around a week. My daughter wasn’t connecting sleep cycles for her naps, she normally sleeps through the night for about 10-11 hours but she started waking up twice during the night for no apparent reason. Went on for about 8-9 days and I just got her back to sleep in her sleep space without picking her up and that’s her back to long naps during the day and sleeping through the night as of last night and today so will see if it lasts!

My friends with older babies have had a mixed experience, some have had it and some not at all. We’re currently sitting in the car because she’s fallen asleep in her car seat and I don’t want to wake her up because we’ve been working on getting rid of contact naps so this is great progress for her 😂

@PeppedUp We don't seem to have regressions 🤷🏻‍♀️ My son slept through from 12 weeks and just carried on going. Marcie seems to be doing the same. She's 17 weeks now.

@TheBirdintheCave lucky! We’re still experiencing it although I think it is getting better.

@SarahB88 how long did it take you to get her back to sleep in her sleep space and how did you do it? If I catch a rousing early I can get a dummy in (or rock/bounce him depending if he’s in the bouncer/buggy) and send him to sleep. Otherwise it takes lots of work 😣

@PeppedUp never more than a few minutes to get her back to sleep. I just pop the dummy in and sometimes I rock her bed a little bit but normally putting the dummy in does the trick. That’s from eyes wide open to back to sleep.

I’ve actually contacted a sleep consultant for some help though as we just can’t get out of contact naps, if I try and put her down in her bed during the day she’s awake immediately again. I go back to work in January so need to get that sorted so my mums life isn’t taken over by being nap trapped 🙈 the consultant won’t see babies until they’re 24 weeks so we’ve to wait a little while but will just keep going as we are.

We’ve dropped the dream feed now she’s on 210ml bottles. She’ll have her last bottle between 6-6.30pm, asleep by 7.30pm then she’s up between 7-7.30am so night time is great thankfully.

How’s everyone doing?!

@LondonGirl1992 All good here :) It's my birthday today so we went to Brighton for ramen and ice cream and then had pizza for dinner. I am so stuffed! 😂

Marcella did NOT like the part where they brought out my cake as there was a lot of noise ☹️

Happy belated birthday @TheBirdintheCave

Doing well here thanks, baby girl growing nicely, is constantly rolling over onto her front and then moaning 😂 naps and sleep are hit and miss but she’s good at going in her crib at night so I can’t complain really. The boys still adore her 💗 time is just going too quickly

We are doing well thanks. Little one has just learnt to sit up.
She's.decided she doesn't want to roll anymore, she's lazy lol
I thought we'd cracked nighttime, but I'm having a really rough week with her. I saw every hour with her last night 🙃
I hope it passes soon, as I'm running on exhaust fumes.

Time really is flying, I'm now closer to going back to work & I don't like it, haha.

Doing really well here too. Night sleeping is totally nailed, dream feeds dropped and getting a solid 11.5 hours, occasionally the dummy needs popped in. Day sleep is another ball game though, she only contact naps. We have sleep consultant coming to us at the end of October to help with transitioning to day sleep in her own bed so hoping that goes ok.

She’s teething quite badly at the moment and it looks like a front bottom on could break the gum soon 🤞 she’s wanting to roll over but not there yet but her supported sitting is going really well and I don’t think it’ll be too long before she’s sitting on her own.

We also got the final sign off from our HV on her weight as that’s her consistently tracking on the 50th percentile, she’s also now 75th percentile for height!!

@SarahB88 that sounds like a dream!

@Clarkey34 how are your nights going? We had nearly hourly wakes a couple of nights ago. He is desperate to sleep on his tummy - is anyone else experiencing this? I know the advice is to put them back on their back but he just gets frustrated and tries to roll back on his front.

In other news we’re in Spain and survived our first flight as a family of four. Hoping to have an easier experience on the way back - I got priority boarding with the baby which sounded nice in theory but meant I had to go on by myself with hand luggage, folded buggy and sleeping baby.