SLEEP IS FOR THE WEEK part 7 -- prop your eyes open with matchsticks here

[MegBusset]

Zzzzzzzzzzzzz...

good night RoRo

Goodnight all. Just wanted to quickly tell you of v.cute play that DD has started. She now breastfeeds her doll. It is the most gorgeous sight. Our cameras broken but when it's fixed I'll try and get a picture.

CM, gorgeous. My DD has just started saying mummy [heart melt moment]

ah, those are nice thoughts. will go to bed on that note

morning all.

cm how cute
ginger how are you? keep missing each other.

have missed lots has skirmish gone into labour?

how's meg's ds?

haven't had time yet to read through all previous posts sorry

another 8pm-7am night for us

was at a dinner party type thing this week and the conversation came round to sleep/babies as per usual. i said ds now sleeping through the night in our bed.

out of 4 other women there, 1 thought it cute, 2 thought eact to their owna dn 1 was horrified
left feelign a bit deflated have to admit

that should have read 2 thought each to their own and 1 was horrifed

Tam, at the end of the day, what honestly does it have to do with them? If you'd lived a 100 years ago no one would bat an eyelid. Ignore them, you're still the queen here.

we love you tam. don't listen to the horrified woman, she will get a bad sleeper next time and have to eat her words.

Another thing, what kind of womon acts horrified at someone elses parenting methods? I'd never feel it my position to outwoodly about how someone brings up their children. Sometimes I might think but I'd never comment. She was rude.

forgot to mention, bad night. I was quite feverish and achy in the night and DD woke screaming for ages and hardly slept so DH had to deal with her and we're all quite knackered today. Poor little love seems to have been poorly constantly recently. That's nursery for you though I guess

Aww thanks girls for your support as always

ginger for your night and poorly household.
It's such a pita going round in circles with illness/teething. ds was sick again last night but not sure if bug still lingering or he ate too much.

dh on his 3rd day off work. he says he actually feels ok but he hasn't had a day sick in about a year so wanted the extra day to lie about at home with me and ds

amber am assuming ds still doing well at night too

right better go ds getting bored hence wrecking the house!

tam youre doing an absolutely fabulous job my darling. ds is sleeping well, he feels loved, nurtured and is enjoying his special time with his mummy and daddy. believe me, that time is gone too soon and before you know it you'll have a 13 year old on your hands, moaning homework is so boring enjoy this time my love. much love and big (((hugs)))

roro, maybe we're twins separated at birth

charlie - that is so cute. please do try to get a photo x

hey ginger- doesnt your heart just melt? dd's calling me mammy dont know why. ds used to call me mommy......i agree, that was rude to at tam

well, our night was good. dd cried out a coupla times, but i put my hand on her back and that was that
8.30 - 7am (no milk)

poppping to feed the ducks and get some bits n pieces before my friend xcomes over at 11am x

Tam I have had a from someone at NCT group about having DS in my bed, but then she put her LO in his own room at 3 weeks and I am pretty about that, but would never have been rude enough to say it! It's just ignorance, ignore 'em.

I was pleased to see that in hospital none of the nurses or paeds batted an eyelid at me sharing a bed with DS, in fact they wheeled the cot out on the first night to give us more room

Anyway he is definitely on the mend, much chirpier, although still a huge snotball and up half the night coughing.

Ginger, we had a poor night as well, between DS's restlessness and CONSTANT feeding and my cough! DH was muttering blackly otday about DS feeding all night and not eating during the day and should I consider night weaning. Any ideas? Perhaps we should try spacing out the feeds a bit, but am reluctant to do so when he's teething and generally grunpy. Not helped by the fact that he is v clingy at the moment and only wants me - clambers up into my lap and gives DH a v fishy look! Suspect he's feeling abit left out as well as sleep-deprived. And I'm abut fed up at being followed out of the house by angry wails when I leave for work (esp as he is cross rather than upset - it's that 'hoe DARE you put me down Mummy' wail).

Sorry for the rant! Tam: like Ginger said, NONE of their business. We think you are fab and a guiding light to our sleep-challenged monsters babies. Co-sleeping obv works for you, DS and your partner so what's to criticise? They'd be absolutely horrified at us: DS wailing for milk if I so much as turn over in bed atm!

Hope all the coughs and colds and flus get better. I have had a doughnut for breakfast which helped a lot. It was FREEZING out this morning - first frosty morning I recall this winter.

Skirmish: any news?

yep tam, i think we've actually cracked it for the moment, he made a few noises in the night but never required us and slept until about 6. the irony is that we're off to Australia in 2 1/2 weeks, so the good sleeping is sure to be short lived!

ginger, sorry you're not well. it's really hard to be a sick parent.

x-post Meg: perhaps we should swap babies so your DS and I can cough together .

Tibs: your night sounds great. Remind me: did you make a conscious effort to night wean? How did you do it?

Tam: DS in a destructive phase as well atm (as well as climbing everywhere). He's also learnt how to throw things (sigh).

ginger for yourpoorly girl. hope she gets better soon

hi amber

Great news re the scan Amber . When do you go to Oz?

meg for ds on the mend. hooray!!

hi ep yes, i did make a conscious decision to cut back following on from amber and meg (before lo poorly). instead of automatically feeding dd when she woke, i'd just cuddle her (had to be wearing clothes tho or she'd try to get to boob!) if that didnt settle her, i'd offer her a bottle of cows milk instead (her 2nd choice to boob)hoping she'd get bored of waking. we've relapsed when shes teething or poorly and i go back to boob, otherwise, i now offer water if she wakes and wont settle.
its hard when they want only you. am sure it will pass tho

Tibs: might give it a go after this bout of teething over. Will have to recruit DH to help though

Do you cut right back or on one feed/section of the night at a time? I was thinking of not feeding till modnight, then 2am etc. etc. Or woul dit be less confusing to just stop alotogether?

EP, it's really hard. i don't think you can night wean without a few a lot of tears. we managed basically by sending in dh all the time. though i'm pretty sure ds wasn't interested in milk, but just a way to get back to sleep. might not be a good time to night wean amongst all the teething/general grizzles though ...

Meg, I'm really glad to hear about the hospital being supportive of co-sleeping. Probably means they see it quite often too.

have fun with the ducks tibs!

EP, we are off on 1 December

I went to Corams Fields on Monday, it was quite good. The drop in play centre they have has billions of toys, and there are some animals over one side, and great play equipment. The only down side is that they are doing some massive renovation in the middle of the park, so quite noisy and a bit of an eye-sore at present! we had fun though.

Amber, that's my instinct. But I think it would help to have A Plan for when this bout of teething is over (and to bear in mind that it will have to be flexible). Sigh. The period of Slack Parenting may be over. Gettin DH on the case a good plan.. Any other tips?

Right. I'm actually off on the 30th November: would you be up to your ears in packing at that point? Ginger: can't remember, do you work Fridays?

for quite a while, i tried not to feed ds more than 4 hourly at night. so i guess we were kind of set up to go down to no feeds at night a little easier than if we were still doing 2 hourly feeds iyswim.

in a way it's hard to go cold turkey, but i think it might yield quicker results and be less confusing in the long run. but i do worry that for the first few nights the LO would be hungry because they hadn't adjusted to taking more food in the day yet.