'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!!

Thanks for the advice CC. I think we'll end up mixing finger food and spooning tbh. Being a slave to anything i.e refussing to help them because 'the rules' say not too sounds like a lot of pressure to me.

tbh I don't get blw....dd eats what she wants when she turns her head and spits it out she's had enough, so she is deciding what/how much she eats.

I feel a fraud on here with dd still sleeping well (day 9 so far so good ), but I miss catching up, I'm sure that everyones lo's will get better as they approach 6 mths

i mentioned to dh about this blw thing and he said the way we weaned ds1 worked out just fine so why complicate matters. never heard of it when he was little so just seems to be the latest fad...I too would be scared of them choking. took ds1 a while to get used to even very small lumps. but each to their own I say. looking forward to it though - ds1 slept a 10 hour stretch after having his first taste of meat lol!

ds1 has had a chocolate brownie for dessert tonight and seem to have sent him haywire...usually he is fast asleep by now but dh just caught him pushing his buggy around the landing!

exactly - I wouldn't force lo to eat more than they want. i'm a great believer in listening to your body and knowing when you've had enough. yo-yo dieting wrecked my "inner voice" for a while but after giving up dieting completely about 6 years ago my weight has naturally stabilised the only weight gain I've had is when comfort eating through a traumatic time - after losing a baby - and at the moment as kids are driving me crackers.

fortunately the bfeeding is taking care of the extra calories atm

cc - just glancing through posts since earlier today. My ds is a bugger with weaning from bf to ff too! And like you, I worry like crazy that he is not taking enough milk (currently being weaned to solids too). I mix his solids with ff just to keep the intake up but usually end up bf just so I am sure he is getting something in the way of milk. Maybe I will have to take aleaf out of yoru book. Think I will wait till half term when we are doing lots of out and about stuff with dd and do it then .
Sorry, haven't read any more posts, will reply later to others. n'nite all

marls -btw - it really is so lovely to hear you sounding so very positive . Well done you!

we have flu my lo has slept all day so will be up all night great fun

am looking forward to that not

booby - uuuuuurrrrggghhhhhh! Chin up - you will look back on all this one day and laugh (eventually)

btw all. I have started a new thread re: Dominic's reluctance to settle at bedtime. I did one in Sleep and one in Behaviour and Development. I did not ask advice on ehre as we have enough on our plate as it is but if anyone has any sound advice I would love to hear. I have come to really rely on your support/words of wisdom/cyber friendship

btw all. I have started a new thread re: Dominic's reluctance to settle at bedtime. I did one in Sleep and one in Behaviour and Development. I did not ask advice on ehre as we have enough on our plate as it is but if anyone has any sound advice I would love to hear. I have come to really rely on your support/words of wisdom/cyber friendship

she just wone settle full stop but if around bed time i put her on our bed whilst i sit on here she falls to sleep dh seems to think im to attuned to hearing her and dont give her enough time to settle herself back to sleep not sure wat to do really have tried putting her dummy im and getting back in to bed but that only worked for a week am thinking of giving a number 2 milk bottle at bed time rather than a bf

its getting to me now thats all maybe the bigger gro bag and a definate routine from sunday willl work

hi everyone!!
dd went to bed at 6.45, woke at 7.30 and just now at 9pm. yee gods... have resorted to putting her into our bed and sticking boob in mouth both times for quick result. what a cheat!!!

have looked into the blw, think i'll combine the two tho. she likes her baby rice and i must admit i combine it with formula too cruise. oh the shame only joking!! just don't have the time or inclination to express, and to be honest, dd on them pretty much all of the time anyway.....

hi to miabl2 and ginger, have to say, mine missed the magical 5 month mark too, bugger it, maybe she'll hit the magical 6 month mark

booby, hope you're feeling better soon, and manage to get some sleep

has anyone noticed a difference in heaviness of sleep with regard to bf and ff babies? was on another op earlier and made me remember something the bf support worker told me. apparently, bf babies are lighter sleepers than ff. any responses to this? just curious

booby - won't your dd settle either then? Doubt that the formula upgrade would make that much difference tbh. My ds has boob anyway so that wouldn't help me until he is weaned from it

tibsy - I do worry about the total weaning from bf to ff as what will I do when ds wakes? the boob is just soooo handy! Gotta do it though I guess. ds is a bugger for weaning form boob. Just loves it and only takes a couple of oz's of ff so I end up whacking the boob in to top him off! He always roots around for me anyway so bottle feeding is not a pleasure atm. You?

cruise, just read your post after i posted mine. i was in a really good routine of bathing dd at 6pm, bringing her downstairs for a little while until she became sleepy then taking her up to bed. i'd then put her mobile on whilst feeding her then pop her in to bed and hold her hand and stroking her face if she needed it. she cried the first few times i tried it, but it was working really well until she became ill over christmas, then it all went pear shaped.
she's got a cold again, so won't try it again just yet, but will attempt it when better.

tried to offer dd bottle the other night but she refused it point blank. i was refusing boob (we're both stubborn you see!)so she screamed her head off (on and off) for 2 hours - result, stressed baby, mum feeling incredibly guilty WONT be doing that again.
just want to get to the point where i know shes consuming enough calories during the day to feel confident that she isnt waking out of hunger, rather being a cheeky monkey!

Hello, Sorry I dont get on much but im so tired from work and settling 2 dc's that my mumsnet time is limited.

Sorry to see your all still here.

DS isnt being so great either atm, although he isnt very well so is sleeping on the settee by us in the evenings and then were having to cuddle to sleep when we all go to bed and feed during the night.
I hope he settles back in his cot when hes better or my weeks of patting/rubbing etc in his cot would have been wasted.

Cruise- Ive stopped bf DS apart from a 4am feed which is mainly just to get him back to sleep as I can do that laying in bed and leave him sleep next to me.

It is hard to wean them off but you could still bf him for comfort by giving him a bottle 1st and then boob to finish off on if your worried about him not settling at night.

There will soon come a time when if the lo's wake at night you go into the cot hand over a bottle of milk and leave them to it. Cant quite remember when though.

maybe need to do the hard here you go have your dummy and no cuddle or bf til she learns its not an option dont know whether im strong enough tho?

Tibsy - I don't think that's the case ... (We're formula feeding)

Cruise - Thanks. Re: bottles: Can you find the Playtex drop-in system where you live? It's an absolute breeze. Make sure to buy a microwave sterilizer for the bottle pieces, no matter what system you use. Just pour in 7oz water with the dirty pieces, 5 min in micro, and poof. We also used it with DS1 after 3 months.

oops ... think I misread your post re bf to ff. That would be hard, with him looking only for you.

Well, DD sleep is improving however, mine isn't! Last night she fed at 11 and slept til 3.45. I laid her in her cot afterwards, she was wide awake and she chatted and sucked her fingers for 15 minutes. Then the inevitable poo happened so changed her nappy. I then needed the loo. Came back and she chatted away in her cot for another 15 minutes or so but did fall asleep. I however was flippin' wide awake and was just drifting off at 5 when she yelled out so I poked a dummy in but that was me awake again until about 5.30. She was up at 6.30 for a few farts and to start the day.

I think it's time to move her to her own room. Haven't done so far as we've had people stay and have got some friends staying in a couple of weeks so will do it after they've gone but honestly. She starts to sort herself out and I discover insomnia.

Another interesting development is her napping. She's still rubbish and only does 30 min power naps but in the last few days she's refused to nap after waking at about 3 o'clock. (I've tried to get her to take a short nap around 5ish but she's having none of it) Anyway, we end up with a bed time of about 6-6.15 because of it but she's been much easier to settle. And when I say easier I mean no tears. We ALWAYS had tears from the point of her getting dried from her bathtime to going to sleep with multiple wakings until we went to bed. Well, she's settled really well and hasn't done much waking during the evening so not sure what that's all about. I still think that the hour and a half sleep she's getting through the day isn't enough even if she does. (God, I hope I haven't jinxed it)

cruise - what is your thread called?

tibsey - lo def sleeps better after his formula, now he has got used to it he sleeps another 4 hours after his bottle (only did 2 hours after bfeed), however I am convinced he is taking more from the bottle than from me as he is taking 7oz and I can't express more than 4oz from one boob, so he can afford to go 2 feed cycles anyway iykwim. I'm pretty sure I haven't got 7oz in each boob! I can't see how we can get them off night feeds if they are hungry though - I just can't leave a hungry baby to cry...what to do?!?

cruise - ikwym about ff being harder work in the night. am tempted to call it a day with the bfeeding though as he settles so much better with the ff and I know how much he is having etc...also as he doesn't settle well in bed with me any more so I have to get up to feed him anyway

booby - I have to leave lo to cry himself to sleep for naps its awful but he will not sleep in cot any other way, if I stay with him he just gets more stimulated. doesn't take him more than 15 mins and is not full-blown screaming but its still hard

well we had an interesting night last night, ds1 finally went to sleep only to wake up crying at 9.15, would not settle, v unlike him, he's 3 and a good sleeper. eventually dh got him up and he was complaining that his head hurt [worried emoticon] "it hurt! it hurt!". rang the on-call doctor in a panic, she said 3 year olds don't get headaches take him to the walk-in centre in case is meningitus . meanwhile ds1 had gone back to sleep. but dh took him anyway, apparently when he woke up he was chirpy and back to his old self, charming the doctor! they got back at midnight, I stayed up as worried about them. we're pretty sure it was the brownie as it was 70% cocoa chocolate plus cocoa powder - a bit much for his little system perhaps. lo had bfeed at 11.30, bottle at 1am (bless dh for getting up again after only one hour's sleep), bfeed at 5am, woke at 6.50am. so a good night by recent standards but we're all shattered 'cos of ds1!!!

feeling stressed this morning as ds1 has swimming and we have to leave in 10 mins and lo only got to sleep about 20 mins ago. he was so tired though I had to put him down and it was too early to leave for the pool. so hard to get them into a routine when ds1's routine is different every day with pre-school/swimming etc.

Kiera, how can they say LO's don't get headaches, especially as there is so much conflicting advice on what causes them? I get them when I'm dehydrated and surely kids can get dehydrated too. I think they worried you unnecessarily but glad you got reassurance at the hospital. Must have been awful.

Kbaby, meant to say before. My symapthies having to put up with this sleep deprevation and working. Must be hell.

kiera - 'how do you wean lo's off bf to sleep?' It is in 'sleep'

marls thanks for that found the bf sw's comment interesting as ds was ff and slept like a log when he slept but dd (bf) wakes SO easily. wondered if it was to do with innate fight or flight response, you know, for safety when co sleeping?
kbaby, i really feel for you, just about functioning without working!
ginger, pleased to hear lo's sleep improved , sorry to hear yours has gone downhill bloody typical!!
kiera, i am crap, crap, crap at expressing! couldnt get to grips with it at all, i think the most i managed was 5 oz and that was once. of course lo's can get headaches, dehydration a def cause. hope hes feeling better now. have said it before, but i really do feel so feeble moaning about one lo under 5, i sincerely admire those of you with more than one
cruise - my sympathies, had dd in with us last night and she bf every other hour it seemed am sure she was asleep. i love co sleeping, despite lack of space, but just wish she'd sleep longer, we seem to have completely regressed. cant work out whether its 1) teething 2) growth spurt or just restless