new 'SLEEP IS FOR THE WEAK' thread

[tibsy]

hi ladies, the other one ran out of space, so if no one else starts a new thread, here it is....

Swizzler; saw that about medicines and funnily DD had medised the last two nights and was really bouncing off the walls.That explains it I guess.

Cruise, nights are better than when we originally formed the thread but she is awake on average probably once or twice in the night with difficulty settling after 5.30. That sounds great but a typical example is to go to bed at 11 she wakes at about 1 ish and 4 ish so never really enough time to get any proper sleep.

Last night she was all stuffed up with cold so slept with me all night. She did wake a fair bit but I guess thats ok if you're poorly.

Tibsy, saw your post on a bf thread that you taught your lo to sign milk. How did you go about that? I'm fascinated

am thinking of trying the Tracey Hogg, babywhisperer method....has anyone tried it and had any experiences, good or bad???

Hello all,
After our one good night, we are back to awakenings galore...Oh well, maybe this is nature's way of making sure that we don't have babies too close together!!

Good luck for tonight. Sympathies for your friend bampa.

just a quick one, ginger, re. medised, dd has had it the last 2 nights with same result as your lo. given calpol tonight as cheeks flame red and still full of cold am not optimistic for a good night and feel knackered before i start, ho hum...
with regard to the signing, i went to a talk on it and found it interesting, especially with regard to the frustration element of being a baby and limited means of communication.
i decided that milk was the only one i wanted or needed to introduce so every time i asked if she wanted some milk, i would sign it as well as asking verbally (the sign is rather like the action you would use to milk a cow if you can imagine that! but you can make up your own)
anyway, i would repeat it again as she latched on and started bfing to enable her to associate the action with the sign.
the sign that she makes is obviously not as clear as mine, but she definitely makes an action with her hands, and as i said, if i repeat it back to her, 'would you like some milk?' she beams beautifully, like 'thank god for that, she understands what i want'!!!!
its taken a while, but i do it every time and dp also uses it, when i'm arround of course.

bampa - good luck with ncss, we had some good success b4 christmas, until dd became ill, then it all went pear shaped. havent got back into it as started the gradual retreat, but i dont seem to be doing too well atm with dd poorly again so may dust off ncss for when she improves

maebee i tried bw but didn't commit to it properly so not surprisingly it didn't work for me. NCSS came in the post today though and it looks good so hoping that might be of some help. Ginger. I taught my ds baby sign and at 13 months he can now do milk, please/thankyou, more and sorry(for every time he smacks me in the face )
I worked in a nursery for 2 years and saw how effective baby sign can be. There's no mystery to it you just have to remember to do the sign every time you use the word and by around 9 months they can usually do it back. x

bampa - good luck with ncss, we had some good success b4 christmas, until dd became ill, then it all went pear shaped. havent got back into it as started the gradual retreat, but i dont seem to be doing too well atm with dd poorly again so may dust off ncss for when she improves

sorry tibsy crossed over posts with you there. Sorry your dd is not well. It's a never ending cycle. Discovered the reason for ds bad night last night...a big white molar! must have come through the gum last night bless him.
Hope you have an ok nigt with poor dd

Hi All
I learnt a lot of good tips from NCSS but ended up doing CC at bedtime. The routine and low lights etc all cue her up tho and we only had a small amount of crying. Now if she crys I know she is unhappy about something so go in and pick her up for a wind or feed or cuddle and she then settles back down.

We had a breakthrough last night. As you may know DD always wakes every 45 min/1.5 hours between bedtime at 7ish and 11/midnight, usually for more food. However she had 2 meals for the first time yesterday and slept from 7.30 until 2.45am [jumping for joy emoticon]. She then fed at 5.30 and went back down until 7.30am. So 12 hours and 2 feeds! Keep your fingers crossed she keeps it up! She had a whole banana and rice for breakfast after a huge milk feed and ate a big Lunch - here's hoping!!!

I have been doing the Milk sign since DD was about a week old - a bit young I know but I had seen a programme on tv and the only one I could remember was Milk. Good to know it could be a few months yet - I was wondering if I was making myself look silly for no reason . Anyone know of any websites that are good at explaining the other basic signs? There is a dvd in my Library that I have had on hold forever but I think someone has decided to keep it.

Oh DD showed off at Grandmas today, she had an audience of 2 cousins, 1 aunt, 1 uncle and 2 Grandparents all watching her eat! I think my Mum was thinking - at last I told her she was ready for food weeks ago .

Lots of sleepy thoughts to all.

Bampa and Tibsy, signing sounds briliant. Wish I'd known about that before. Presumably it's too late to start at 6 months?

Not at all ginger. Infact we didn't start signing with the lo's until around 6 months in the nursery (mostly because it was the age they started nursery) and they still picked it up very quickly. Especially as the most used signs are food related. Amazing how quickly a child learns to say more or please when you're holding a box of raisins!

hi all

sorry everyone but we got 11.30pm bottle then sleeping till 5am last night . he's been a bit unsettled at night though - making a few noises but going back to sleep ok - only since starting solids so I guess it is his body getting used to digesting the new foods. tonight he had his solids early afternoon instead and we haven't heard a squeak out of him...

maebee - it's been worth having to get out of bed for lo as I get better long sleep inbetween.

tibsey - lo is obsessed with my mouth also! I remember ds1 doing this too - have the pictures. must be a developmental thing! aaah I'd love to sleep curled up opposite my lo...unfortunately he gets too excited and won't sleep! I cherish the co-sleeping we did when he was a newborn. his first night at home I popped him under my (very voluminous) nightie and we had skin-to-skin contact all night

bampa - thanks for that lovely thought about the nights. it would have been my daughter's birthday this sunday, she would have been 5. she died at 9 days old with no explanation. I'm cuddling my los that bit tighter at the mo'...

ruth - omg a WHOLE banana - will give that a try with lo! we're still on teaspoons here...

I am getting so confused with the weaning, never know whether to bfeed or give solids or at what times - have fed on demand so far so this is befuddling my brain! have been ending up trying to feed lo who isn't interested as too tired or not hungry as has too recently bfed! aaargh!

Kiera - Lots of hugs for you today. The weaning thing - I fed on demand too but worked out she would eat (milk) before and after naps and later in the day she has an extra suck or two. So I added Lunch afer her 2nd nap - around 2pm for one week, now she has breakfast when she gets up for the day. I give the Milk feed as usual and then prepare her food while she has a chill out in her bouncy chair or on the playmat. I suppose if she was not hungry then I would leave it longer but my DD seems ravenous! I will be putting Dinner in after her 3rd nap around 4/5pm. It is difficult if they do not nap regularly but I decided not to fix a time by the clock and it seems to be working better that way. She has been much happier this week and seems to be changing every day, it is like I have pushed fast forward and I just want it to slow down.

Sleep last night was not quite so good but better than average. Although DD woke at 6am for a feed and I put her back down then could not get back to sleep so am on here! She is still asleep now
Hope you all had good nights.

Oh - and have been bitten twice in the night, I think I am raising a vampire

maebee where country are you in? our clocks didn't go forward

kiera huge hug and thoughts with you today x

Kiera, absolutely, big hugs for you today.

Last night was a bit of a mare. All my fault. I gave DD a few chunks of a very slippery avocado to eat at about 5.30 and she just gobbled it. She woke at 10 and didn't go back to sleep until after 1 oclock. Think I gave her stomach ache. Either that or it was a full moon. Anyway, a couple of horrible nappies later and I think we're OK. She fed again at 5 then back to sleep 'til 7is.

I still feed on demand and just add 'meal' times in about an hour or so later. It's really to get her used to sitting and 'eating' rather than actually getting anything down her at the moment.

kiera, huge hugs to you and am sending a few thoughts for your daughter today. fantastic night for you, as always, am very when someones lo sleeps well, but extremely

we, unfortunately had 'hell night' as it shall be dubbed last night, so today i look and feel like the a chuffing zombie
made no difference swapping from medised to calpol, dd was awake from 11.30 to 2.30 crying on and off, despite cuddling and a feed. went to sleep then and woke at 6am for the day. what on earth is going on?
she was as bright as a button too, whilst i, on the other hand look and feel like poo! on the plus side, her cold has much improved so thats good.

doh! i got the clocks thing wrong cos have a spanish calendar!!its not til the 25th they change! sorry everyone.

well, last night was good! he went down with difficultly at 6.30, woke 9.30 for feed, then not til 3.30!! and then up at 6. that might not be everones idea of a good night but it is ours. unfortunately, we had guests 4 dinner and got drunk so have hangovers to ruin our success.

we go to signing classes now too. they are free in many surestart areas...im in leeds where it is really good, lots of free mums and babies stuff, like pilates where you can take your baby! he cant sign yet, but hes only 5 mths, and im hopeful it may make him less frustrated.

ginger, re. the signing, i started it when dd was about 8 weeks i think but as bampa says, you can start it any time.
i have got a lovely book, 'the secret language of babies - the body language of little bodies' by sally and edwin kiester that a friend bought for me when dd was born. only from one of those discount book stores but its great. looks at the 'secret language' of their wriggles, gestures, smiles, coos and cries etc. quite simply written too, so can cope with it with my lack of sleep addled brain.

maebee for a good night. lol at your spanish calendar!!!!

ginger are our dd's psychically linked or something?!! (see my crap night too)!!

Yawn - another unsettled night for us - DS still getting a good sleep in between 6ish and 10ish, but then waking every 1.5 - 2 hours after that. Big feed and nappy change at 10 dissn't make much difference. And he woke up at 5:30, took him into bed with us and he entertained us with singing for a couple of hours .

DH has just taken him out for a walk after his morning nap, so am MNing and running a hot bath. He (DH) tried the sling for the first time yesterday - they look very sweet! DS now likes facing outwards and doesn't sleep but it;s good for tiring him out - will try a lunchtime nap in the cot toay (wish me luck).

I head back to work in a few weeks and am a bit worried about feeding, as I'm still bfing but have got out of the habit of expressing. Only 3 days a week to start with. Anyone else had experience with expressing enough milk for a whole day?

Kiera: thinking of your little girl today {{hug}}

swizzler my best friend used to express enough for a whole day and i'm seeing her today so i'll ask her for any top tips. (nearly typed tits there...now tibsy would never have let me away with that one ...for anyone one remembers the dildo/ditto one liner )anyway...she had a little factory going on with a whole freezer full of bm. In fact when her dd got meningitis at 15m the nurses could not believe the endless supply she was able to bring in for them to feed her and put her recovery down to it.
maebee lol at spanish calendar.
ginger and tibsy for bad nights.
We had a fantastic night. Bed at 8, up at 12 for 5 min, up at 4.45 for 5 min then up at 7.15 for the day. At least I know he can do it.

just a quick post - re weight gain for babies - I read some info an WHO site which has done lots of studues into BF babies, etc and there is a chart for BF babies, how to tell if your baby is drinking enough milk etc.
Babies 6-9 months would expect to put on approx 2oz per week, or there abouts average, so it might be a bit more, or a bit less. This is on the assumption that they are being fed food too, therefore, HV saying that 2oz is not a lot is crap.
I ant do the link thingy, I am trying, so I will post it so that those who get grief from HV can eb reassured that you are doing a grea job as you are and dont feel like you are failing with the BF