High-Need Baby Support Thread III

[TitaniaP]

Well as I'm awake I thought I'd start thread 3!

The high-need baby thread has been moved from breast & bottle feeding to sleep. In the early days of the thread I think feeding was a significant issue for many of the posters. I think those that post regularly on the thread would now agree that's it's mainly sleep that's the issue.

So if your baby fits the following criteria come and join us for wine, chocolate, coffee and matchsticks as we delight in our active, inquisitive, curious and restless babies or toddlers!

1. Feeds frequently daytime
2. Feeds frequently nighttime
3. Needs to be constantly held
4. Wont sleep alone
5. Hates the car seat/pram
6. Short naps

Oh god. He's howling upstairs. Woke an hour too early for his next feed. DH with him. I just want to go to him :( Poor little man.

Seems to be more intermittent now, his yelling. Please let him sleep, and please let him not hate us in the morning :(

tickle how is your night going so far? As you can see by time of post in up having fed dd, just about to bring her into bed with me for rest of night.

Re the cc i'm quite against it & can deal with night wakings if they stay as they are. Bed at 7, wakes for feed at 10.30, wakes about 1 for I don't know what!! Wakes at 2, I feed her & take her into bed with me in an effort to stop early waking! This never works and is the part of the night I can't really cope with. We get to 3.30-4 and she is so restless and in such a light sleep that i'm awake all that time and have to keep holding, rocking etc. she is wide awake somewhere between 4 and 5 - that is too early, need to change that!

joyful I'm so sorry to hear about your dh. My dp'slast day is going to be 3rd aug so I know how you feel! Can you go back to your job early/ arrange to do more hours or were you a sahm before? I work at a school in a nice area & could see if we could sell hats at Christmas fair - you might make some money that way? What other crafty things could you make? I hope you dh has some luck at the job centre!

Joyful I?m so sorry. It?s awful when you don?t know how you?re going to pay the bills. Been there done that. Something will turn up. You never know what or how it might change your life but something will turn up.

AS I saw you on some of those threads? Twas scary stuff! I?ve had my fingers burned once or twice on such threads and have vowed not to get so involved again. Is not appealing when you?ve had nasty PMs from a ?total nutter?fellow MNer!

tickle if you?re going to persevere then stay strong! It?s hard, but if you?re going to give this a fair crack of the whip you need to stay consistent.

DS1 is really struggling. His ear in still infected so we?ve now got the right antibiotic drops. He can?t have them orally as they?re pretty toxic, by all reports, so if this lot fails (as they probably will) we might have to push for an overnight admission so he can have them via IV. It?s an extreme course of action but unless we get this infection cleared they won?t let him have a hearing aid in that ear. Which is also extreme.

Kids eh. Who?d have them? Oh yes. That?d be me?!

Well, it got to 3am, so I could go and feed him and he slept till 5.50am. I fed him again (I know, naughty me, but he was up for over an hour in the night) and we all just woke up at 7.45am. Oops.

He actually didn't get as upset as I feared he would. He was very upset yes, but he wasn't inconsolable, screaming the house down upset. DH said he fell back to sleep twice but then woke himself up each time a few minutes later. I just hope we're not teaching him that if he hangs on long enough, it'll be time for a feed!

Hoping tonight will be a bit better. I'm so tired. I actually look back at how I felt when we were feeding him every time he woke and I think I feel worse at the moment! At least then his wakes were 10 minutes tops... I know things are bound to get harder before they get easier though.

Thankfully, he's full of smiles this morning...

Hope you are all okay this morning.

Oh look at the time... Excellent 4.30 in a sat morning exactly the time I wanted to get up!!! She is WIDE awake... Oh my god! I've made a cup of tea, milk for her and changed her nappy. She must (I hope desperately) get tired again soon - she was up A LOT in the night as well. First yawn and it's action stations, back to sleep!

In other news... What to watch tomorrow - British grand prix or Wimbledon final? I'm thinking final on laptop, gp on tv!

Hope you're all good.

Zambo God yes, the 4.30am starts, had a fair few of those the last few months. Much sympathy - lots of coffee was the only thing that helped me... Hopefully she will decide that it's actually far too early and have another nice sleep for you.

Well, last night was actually pretty good. Sleep at 7.45pm (due to late afternoon nap) awake at 11pm for a feed, woke again but easily settled with his dummy, woke at 2.40am, DH gave him his dummy and turned him on his side and he was out like a light until 4.50ish. Another feed and back to sleep till 7am.

Hope you're all doing well today ladies.

I got her back to sleep at about 5.30 for 45mins then dp took over so I had another hours sleep.

Going to see the Olympic torch relay today!

Feeling alright ta Joyful. I'm sorry you had a poo night :( Hope you and your bubs have a lovely day with your mum - my mum's coming up from Selsey today to see DS. So looking forward to seeing her. Wish we were heading down her way though, love being by the sea. We're thinking of buying a place near there when we've saved enough money as a deposit.

Zambo We had the torch near us yesterday but it was getting to the town nearest us at about 6pm, and we would've knocked DS's sleep schedule out of whack if we took him :( Plus it was chucking it down anyway. Hope you have a fun time!

Hello folks! Thought I'd stop by and say hello after bumping into Joyful and tickle in the BF'ing section . I'm well behind on the thread I'm afraid, although I've read a little. tickle, hope the sleep training is going ok, and joyful, so sorry to hear about your DHs job situation, that's awful. I really do hope something comes up soon to help you out.

Hello to those who I've not come across before! And hello to everyone else too!

We're doing ok - DS had his birthday last week, and I started back at work this week too. I've managed to get a pretty good flexible working arrangement which means DS only has to be with a childminder two days a week, and the rest of the time is with DP or me. I also have thursdays off and work late shifts from home two days so I get mornings with DS too. Much easier! DS's sleep at the childminder isn't great - nowhere near enough, however he has managed to self settle for the first time in his life! Sleep at home is not too bad these days, naps are good, night times he still wakes 2-3 times but as we're still cosleeping it's generally not too intrusive. Still feed to sleep though!

Hello I'm back! :)

What have I missed?

Just had to say i'm so tired I don't want to be woken again through the night & then be up at 4.30 - it's no fun! Sat night and I'm going to put dd down to sleep, eat dinner & plan to be in bed by 8! Loser!!!

Evening all, hope you had good days :) Was lovely seeing my mum today, I miss her so much. Joyful We are heading down there not next week but the week after for three or four days, perhaps we could grab a coffee/stick of rock\pot of winkles

Blimmin knackered this evening. Went to my step sisters today to see her and her little one. Jesus. I always knew we had different ideas about how to parent, and I'm sure her and her husband think DH and I are too sensitive/soft etc (her hubby is a lot older than her and very old school) but she smacks her baby's hand if he is doing 'something he shouldn't be', shouts at him, dumps him screaming into his cot to calm down... He's eight months old. Honestly, I could cry. At one point, I just took him into my arms and into his nursery to calm him down. She would never hurt him, I know, but this smacking business has really pissed me off. I can totally relate to feelings of no patience and being on a short fuse, but what on earth is an 8 month old baby going to learn from being smacked?

Ugh, sorry for the rant. It was just horrible, poor little thing :( Whoever thought a good way to stop a screaming baby was to shout back at them...

Ha PuddleJumper - so it's just mine that still feeds like a blimmin newborn still at 12 months then?!

tickle :( I'm afraid I couldn't stay in the same house as someone like that for very long - I can't stand seeing babies shouted at for a start :( - I've only recently started telling DD "no" if she's doing something she shouldn't because they just don't understand any younger - so what's the point anyway?

I am so so tired... DD still feeds every 2 hours at night until 4am ish when it's hourly, and doesn't go to sleep till past 8pm. Last night was 10.30 and she was up at 7.30. Tonight she's just gone to sleep. I am too knackered in the evening by the time she has finally gone to sleep to do any school work/marking - how on earth will I cope come September when I'm given a full teaching timetable?

Ooh little I'm a teacher too - going back for the 2 weeks before term ends then back full time in sept - yr1 class with some awful behaviour & severe special needs... It's going to be full on. Dp is looking after dd for a few months as he's been made redundant so at least that will ease the blow a bit! Dreading September though - cant imagine how I will cope with the work load & have any time for dd :(

What year do you teach?

zambooloo - That sounds hard! But it is good that your DP can have your DD, even if it's not for the best of reasons. Hope he finds another job soon. (I'm secondary....)

Puddlejumper I love it when they try to crawl forwards and end up going backwards - always makes me laugh!

Well I'm hiding upstairs to get a bit of DD-free time while DP looks after her - he's been out sailing most of the day, and the bits when he has had her I've been madly doing jobs, so figure I deserve "me-time" for half an hour! I'm hoping she goes to sleep before 10pm tonight - but I doubt she will as we she had an hours nap this afternoon, as well as a 15min cat nap this morning...

WooHoo! She has just fallen asleep.... this is a bit mad this late night baby thing :(

Rock and roll eh little