'Sleep is for the Weak' for anyone with August/Sep 06 DC's

[justJAM]

GM, Cruise and anyone else with LO's born around August/September 06' - this is a support thread for when you have no clue as to why your LO is doing the exact opposite to what they were doing last week and when you are thinking WTF????
Post on here and we shall all compare notes and comfort each other!!

marls - ditto on the mood of ds. He is happy, chatty, contented, smiley, just bloody gorgeous! He is sleeping better - one waking last night and night before (still a demon to get down though...). it makes sucha difference to stress levesl when lo's are happy and rested doesn't it? Long may it continue and may we no longer need this thread in a week or so!!!

ginger - i sympathise re. the moving on to bottles, it aint happening at the mo!! have looked in to trying doidy cups. had a good response from a thread i started. i know what you mean re. dh/p's expected to read minds, i think we forget sometimes that men and women just think differently

quick question anyone - when you put lo down for a sleep, if you nurse/ rock or whatever til they're nearly asleep (drowsy) before you put them into their cot, does that still count as them being awake?

when i was very into ncss and moving through the different stages, we got to the point where i made sure that dd was wide awake. but this was taking an hour sometimes, although she had previously shown signs of being ready for bed.

also any tips for a lo who has decided to cut out her afternoon snooze, to keep her entertained from 2 til 6 (bath time), sometimes, she's just plain grumpy, although most of the time shes such a little smiler

phew, excuse long post...

A good tip,as my lo will wake when put in cot in afternoon,so I put a chill-out tranquil cd on quiet,and it gets her off every time.Last night,same again ,she went down at 8.30 with 6oz bottle,then up at 1.30,in bed,I must've fed her about 8 times throughout the night.I feel like I just keep turning over and swapping her from one boob to the other.So 2day,I feel like a zombie again,and have to entertain my other 2 who have been moaning at me coz they're bored!

ginger,I do sympathise with the bottles,but its so hard when b.f ing is so established.I know I'm not being very helpful,but I read that you need to introduce a bottle at 6 weeks for them to accept it.? maybe you should stick to breast,and you wean lo,it won't be so intense for you

Hey guys, long time since I have been on. Hope all is going ok with everyone, as usual not had time to catch up on all the posts but will read on in a mo.

However, my LO has had TWO nights of almost sleeping through. She has also continued to wake most nights, but better than before. I however, have not had much sleep at all due to tonsilitis, sleep with my mouth open due to blocked nose, sore throat gets even sorer.

Four nights ago, DD woke at 1am for a feed, after going to bed at 7:30pm. She then woke at 6:30am, but I did not feed her until 7:30am. I have a vague recollection that she woke at 3:15am,however, it is so vague that either she was crying since 3:15am until I got her up at 7:30am, or I read the clock wrong. I have no idea which, but it seemed like she slept through so we shall count it as such eh?! So, I thought, tentatively, could this be a break-through...not bloody likely! However night before last she woke 3 times, although last night she woke 5 times.

She has stopped her night crying though, and seems easier to settle (she says nervously) when she wakes, unless she poops through a nappy that daddy did and we have to change her, or she decides to projectile vomit over daddy, me, herself, bedclothes (ours and hers!). Then she is awake for at least an hour (get the idea this has happened to us in the last week?!).

Her day sleeping though - forget it. She took a 10 min power nap this morning after a good milk feed. She then took a 15 min power nap enduced by dp taking her for a drive, which I promptly woke her up from, stupidly thinking dp had put her in bedroom, he had left her in car seat in hallway by living room. Of course, silly me. So when I yelled at him to put kettle on, she was not 10 feet away, and awoke looking startled! She has no time to sleep right now anyway, thats her attitude, too much to do! I don't need sleep. None of us do...right?

Hope no-one has the horrid bug going around...

Marls - ou say your lo is pudgy? was he before? Our LO is not too heavy, always been small, but seems to struggle with weight, not unhealthily so, but when she gets a bit of fat on her legs or chin we are well pleased. Do you reckon if we got her to sleep better she might put on more weight?

Cruisemum1 - I am sorry about your dad. My mum passed away two weeks ago from a terminal illness. I can understand how hard it must be for you. If you ever need to chat...

I went away for a weekend and am glad to read that people are having some successes now!

Marls - what is this babywise and how can I read/get it?!

tibsy - Men just don't understand sometimes!

I'm slowly dying of sleep deprivation.. I'm going to cut out the dream feed and only give it to her when she wakes (even though it means she won't get 4oz that is quite a chunk of her daily intake of 15-18oz).

Just told my DP about babywise...he said 'we are not living in a military camp. hmph', although went 'mmm, really?' when I told him how long your LO is sleeping for!! He does get the need for routine. he would have LO up with him in front of laptop right now if she woke up!!

babywise - I've just googled it. There's a lot of info on it there.

feel like I haven't posted for ages properly! now to catch up....
Tibsy - I am also having trouble switching from bf to ff. ds does take a bottle but continuously roots around looking for boob instead. tbh it is so sweet that I do give in - sometimes . and as I am weaning too I feel it is important he gets milk from somewhere so..... I will make a concerted effort in the next three weeks by which time he'll be 6mths (can hardly believe it!!!) What is your thread title about cups?
GN - I have given up ds napping in his cot for now. He does have around 3.5hrs per day now but sadly these are in his car seat during school run and his buggy which I push around the hosue if I don't need to go out . Another bridge to cross later I guess! You are spot on about these so called experts and their routines - I want one to come to my house and fix things for me - I certainly can't do it!!!
Kiera - I seriously thought I had PND recently as I was weepy every day and overwhelmed. But I am pretty sure it was sleep deprivation. Take heart Kiera. You will be fine....x
Marls - fab that you are doing so well. Long may it continue. Well done
Redbeki - what is the name of the CD you have? Sound like a Godsend!
Pavlov- so sorry about your mum. How devastating when you have just had a baby . I feel for you so much. I sometimes have thoughts about how I would cope without my Mum - even though she lives a distance away. I would crumble. She is my rock - irritating as hell but definitely my rock.
n'nite all
More happy posts tomorrow

way to go, marls'/cruise's los! how old are they again? give us some hope here! lol

ginger - i'm probably stating the obvious here but I assume someone other than you is offering the bottle? my lo has only ever had one from dh and quickly got the hang of it, I wasn't even in the room (I was asleep ). also best to position them so they are on your lap with their back to you not in the usual cradle hold position so they don't root for the breast.

if I have bfed lo to sleep yes he does go down drowsy usually. don't know if that counts as awake or not. he seems to be going down ok for naps though when not had a feed unless he is overtired as he was today. or unless the mood takes him...

off to bed now...dh is going to do the first feed with the formula in the hope that we have a repeat of last night's good sleep but earlier in the night before ds1 gets up!

Cruise / Tibs - BF to FF, me too. my lo takes somewhere between 8-12 oz of FF per day now. It has taken 4 months to do this. I am having to do it as I go back to work in a couple of weeks but it has been really really hard. I have been upset a lot about it as LO has had weight trouble earlier on and I wanted to prove it was not my milk. Today she took 5oz in one go, and then two lots of 2oz, along with my milk too. I am actually a bit upset she is starting to like the bottle, sometimes. For a good few months she wouldn't take the bottle at all, until I got her MAM bottle, awkward, fiddly, more expensive, but the only one she will drink from! Now she will refuse it when she is too tired, poorly or just wanting mummy comfort, but does not drink that much of it...although dont know how much she should be drinking each day...

Good luck with it, any tips let me know.

Mammy, it's on amazon.co.uk - search for Babywise - the book on "up to 8 months."

Pavlov - There's a lot of controversy associated with this book. There are common sense warnings throughout the book, and every part of the plan is meant to be flexible. It's the kind of book you wring out for info you can use and toss the rest. Def worth a read though I think.

Change in DS2's personality & sleep habits is great, and has seemed sudden. But if this continues another week or so, only then would I feel comfortable saying it def worked for us. I am thankful for what we've witnessed the past week, esp his personality.

He'd been getting chubbier ... DS1 was as well, and it peaked at 7 months with him.

Kiera - He was 5 months on Feb 3rd

kiera - mine was 5 mths feb 7th

pavlov,hope its the start of sleeping through with your lo,that is great.I think I'm a long way off my lo sleeping for that many hours.We

live in hope.good luck for rest of week.
ginger- the cd is called tranquil chill out -harmony.I ts one of those cds you get from hippy shops like shared earth etc. Its just really relaxing sounds that people often use for massage and relaxation.

goodness ladies, sounds like everyone's been busy!
redbeki - don't know why i didn't try that before, have got loads of those cd's, i use them at work. sometimes, you can't see the wood for the trees can you? will give it a whirl we're still with you in the 'can't sleep, won't sleep' stakes !!!!
pavlov - good news re. the sleeping. long may it continue so sorry to hear about your mum my mum drives me mad, but i realise how lucky i am. big hugs to you xx p.s. my dd is only a wee one also and i take much delight when she does obtain a bit of chub!!
mammyt - hang on in there sister!!
cruise - it was on breast and bottle and was called 'anyone tried a doidy cup?' very original!! glad to hear you're getting some sleep think i might abandon the bottle, she'll be 6 months on the 27th so am going to try the doidy instead. let you know how it goes
we're both feeling a bit below par, colds, so dd feeding v. frequently, for comfort as much as food....not much sleep. ho hum.
big smiles and much sleep to us all

Well my LO slept pretty bloody well last night. She went to sleep at 8pm, woke at 11pm for what used to be a dream feed, went back to sleep fine, 4:10am for feed, back to sleep. Woke twice but I shooshed her back to sleep, took 5 mins each time, was not fully awake, then woke at 6:30am. I ignored her until 7:00am, fed her, AND she went back to sleep until 8:30am!!! She refused to sleep all morning, and then slept from 1:40pm to 3:30pm!!!

She has cut another tooth, second one in one week. I think her teeth must have been really hurting her, her mood is fantastic.

Also, dont know if it has any bearing, but she has been not wanting pureed food for a while, so instead of forcefeeding her, we starting Baby Led Weaning, two days, coincides with good sleeping. Who knows, possibly a combination of both?

Tibsy / Cruise thanks for the sympathy, mum was a great person, very close to her and am missing her already. Thinking about her now as Lo has two teeth in last week come through, she was going to buy her a pair of shoes (not that she needs them right now!), I told her I would think of her every time we got to a milestone (and of course I think about her all the time anyway). Hope you are feeling better Tibsy.

Marls - I find that with many books, take what suits and ignore what doesn't, finding that with the BLW. Is your LO still sleeping through?

Fingers crossed for another ok night? Hope so, DP is at work tomorrow until late.

PS Tibsy, whats a doidy?

Just looked on internet, my LO likes to drink her water from a magicup so might give this a try, although bottle feeding going 'ok' for the last day...

I tried for months to get my DS to take a bottle and eventually got him to take a MAM bottle too. They are fiddly but once you have the top bit and the teat which is the important bit they actually fit tesco value bottles with the slim neck. I took the top to tesco and tried it on all the bottles they must have thought I was nuts....a lot of people seem to have success with the MAM teat it just looks right if you know what I mean.

Miabl2 - well excellent, i shall go to Tesco's for bottles in future. Thannks for tip . I don't know why she likes the teats either, just gets on great with them. The pink is quite pretty too, I am sure people think I just got them because they were pink and I wanted to look cool!

oooo mine will be 5 months on feb 20th (awaits magical transformation...)

NB re bottles - we do use the tommee tippee closer to nature which might help? mothercare have also just launched only this month the breastflow bottle, babies have to latch and suck like on a breast to get any milk out.

we had a very good night last night - lo slept 8pm till 1am (gasp!!!!), took 7oz formula from dh and then slept till 5.15am!!! the downside was that I was then engorged and had to go downstairs and express the other side, not only this but lo also decided that it was now morning and wouldn't go back to sleep .

This is the first time he has gone more than 2 hours after his bottle of formula. however dh is now ill, he's not good on lack of sleep and I think his one night feed has made him run-down (lightweight! lol), he's had two days off work so far this week. so dh may not be on bottle duty tonight

Thanks for all the tips re: bottles. Will look into them as not sure I can exclusively bf until she's ready to take a cup. Which if I'm honest I've got no idea when is supposed to happen. The more I find out the more I realise I haven't got a clue about this parenting thing. Going to start weaning in a few weeks and I'm fretting already. Looking into this baby led weaning thing which on the surface seems easier but I've got so many questions I think I'll have to start a thread of my own about it. Kiera, think my LO missed the 5 month magical transformation. Sleep still eludes her and she's 22 weeks this week. Last night was a royal pain in the ass. DH woke me and DD with a fine impression of a grunting pig at 2 oclock. She woke at 3 for feed. Was wide awake for ages and lots of chatting and dirty nappy later we went back to sleep at about 4. I woke having a total nightmare at 4.30 and then woke every 40 minutes or so til 7. So it was mostly my fault for not getting any sleep last night!

GN- DD was a nightmare when I weaned her from bf to ff. Some days she wouldn't drink hardly anything, and I got so paranoid she would waste away . Eventually I stuck to my guns and refused to b/f her and after a couple of days she would happily have a bottle. It was difficult but think we through the worst now . We use T/Tippee bottles btw.

As for blw - I tried it she gagged VERY badly and nearly had a heart attack. Have been pureeing like mad since, and have a freezer full of various veggies which she loves. I just give her the odd finger food here & there