Newborn - 1 Month, November 2005

Welcome to the Newborn to 1 Month thread for October/November 2005!

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Newborn to 1 Month List - September '05

Forum Name:
State:
Baby's DOB:
Baby's Stats: Weight - Length - Head Circ -
Gender of Baby: Boy / Girl
Baby Name(s):
Baby's Website:
Health Concerns: (e.g. eczema, reflux, colic)
Notes: (e.g. 9 days early, breech etc.)
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Forum Name: Fenella
State: SA
Baby's DOB: 19th October
Baby's Stats: Weight - 3695 Length - 49cm Head Circ - 36cm
Gender of Baby: Girl
Baby Name(s): Tamsin
Baby's Website: none yet
Health Concerns: (e.g. eczema, reflux, colic) none
8 days early
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Forum Name: Canniel (Candice)
State: NSW
Baby's DOB: 22nd October 2005 8:02pm
Baby's Stats: Weight - 8lb 3 Length -52.5cm
Gender of Baby: Boy
Baby Name(s): Brynach Anthony Herbert McLeod
Baby's Website: nil
Health Concerns: none
Notes:
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Forum Name: dee73 (Donella)
State: SA
Baby's DOB: 22nd October 2005
Baby's Stats: 3.85kg (8lb 8oz); 51.5 cm long; 36.1cm head circ.
Gender of Baby: Boy
Baby Name(s): Dylan Jacob
Baby's Website:
Health Concerns: -
Notes: 6 days early
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Forum Name: Bekka
State: QLD
Baby's DOB: 30th October 2005
Baby's Stats: 7lb 2oz - 49.5 cm long; 35 cm head circ.
Gender of Baby: Boy
Baby Name(s): Xavier Jack
Baby's Website:
Health Concerns: -
Notes: 1 day late
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Forum Name: Deancey
State: Vic
Baby's DOB: 31/10/05
Baby's Stats: Weight - 3.9 kilo Length - 51 cm
Gender of Baby: Boy
Baby Name(s): Jordan Bailey
Baby's Website: bubbadean.com.au
Health Concerns: (e.g. eczema, reflux, colic) none
Notes: (e.g. 9 days early, breech etc.) none

Find out what was going on in the last thread found HERE

Love

im first.morning girls,hope you have had some sleep.kazzy your little boy is so cute and has bought back some memories for me with my boys,even now they still come up with the funniest things,we will try to organise something in dec when we are all alowwed to drive again,it would be so lovely to catch up.
love to you all
nikki

Nikki - I'm going to be visiting my parents in Melbourne around Christmas time. (probably from the 22nd to the 29th) I know it's busy time for everyone, but if anyone did want to have a a get-together then that would be great!

We had a fantastic night - Dylan slept for 6 1/2 hours straight!!

Woops - he's awake and hungry again...

hey everyone, sorry I have not been in much, I will try topost more in the november thread..

Quick question, how much does your bubs sleep? Bryn is awake for hours at a time, like 4-5 hours the full time between feeds, and does this several times a day... is this normal??

Hey girls.

Geez I've missed out on heaps. Haven't been doing well. Tristan's being Mr Grumpybum still. Only got 2 hours sleep last night. About 4 hours the night before. Not happy.

We've decided not to get Tristan circumcised. DH hasn't had it done so we don't see why bubs should. Only reason our friends had their son done is because he had a birthmark on his. Poor little man.

I've found a sleeping routine in a back issue of practical parenting. I've decided to trial it from today, it seems to be working so far. See how we go tonight. :crossfingers:

1st month checkup is tomorrow. We''ll see how much he's grown. Can't wait.

I gotta get some sleep while little one's asleep. I really have to catch up. I'll be moving on to next thread tomorrow. but I'll still pop in to see how you guys are going.

Hugs to you and your bubs.................Bonnie

donella,sounds good as dec gets closer we will have a chat girls and see if we can organise someting it would be great to meet you all in person.
canniel,how are you,have not heard fron you in ages,im not sure about the waking time for babies at this age although i must add that my 3 have not had waking times for that long,i would ask your mat health nurse and she might even suggest a few tricks to get bubs into a better sleeping pattern,a bath always works miracles,each child is different,
bonnie my first use to wake every 1-2 hours through the night for almost a year and still woke every 3 hours up till he was 2 and a half.we ended up going to a sleeping hospital for babies in melb called tweedle and it gave us a great start with learning how to settle babies into better sleeping patterns,your bub is still very young so i wouldnt suggest this at this stage but i would mention it to you mat health nurse also as she will be able to suggest ways to settle bubs into a better sleeping pattern also.hugs to you i know how hard it is when you are sleep deprived,well done for sleeping during the day while your little one does
hope i have been of some help girls
nikki

Dylan has a cycle each day which can last from 3 hours to about 6 hours where he just refuses to sleep. The rest of the time he's usually fairly easy to settle though. In his awake time if he's noisy we take him for a walk as it doesn't sound so loud outside! As for baths, it does settle him but he hates being dressed afterwards, so that always gets him upset again.

Donella - We have decided not to get Benjamin done after all. They don't do the bell method here until they are 6 months and I heard from someone else that it can cause the poor unsuspecting child a fair bit of pain. I couldn't put our boy through that. If we had Benjamin in Brisbane, it may have been different. DH doesn't want him done either.

Candice - Benjamin has a lot of "awake time" now. He can be awake for at most 3 hours, before he gets grumpy and you know he needs to sleep, but he refuses to incase you might leave him. Pity the time is usually when DH comes home or when I'm trying to have breakfast. He doesn't like to be put down in this time, otherwise he screams until someone picks him up again.

Melissa

Bonnie - I don't think we will be getting Bryn done either. Hope he lets you get some more sleep soon

Nikki - one thing I have to be glad about is his night time sleeping pattern is great, he wakes at 1 and 5 and thats it.

Dee - I agree with the walk, as soon as you put Bryn in his pram he's out to it.

Well I got a letter in tha mail from the hospital today, telling me that we had been exposed to whooping cough while in hospital and to get Bryn to a doctor asap, so I did and it looks like my little man is showing very early symptoms, so they have put him on a stong dose of antibiotics and we'll see how he goes... No wonder the poor boy has been so restless

Just popping in girls to see how you are going...

Candice - that's terrible about being exposed to whopping cough, I hope he gets better very soon

Bonnie - sorry to hear that you are having little sleep. Just my 2 cents worth is that bubs don't really settle into any sort of sleep routine this early on - I know some don't agree with me but its just what I think. Try anything you can though, if it means you get more sleep but just wanted to let you know that some bubs don't respond well to them.

Hope everyone is well and enjoying their bubs. :)

Hi girls.

Just a quick post today. The routine thing is surprisingly good. It's just the night time that we'll have to master now. We had a bit more sleep. He had sleep time, playtime, wash time and heaps of feeds yesterday and he liked it. Woo Hoo. We'll see how it goes. Got the 4wk check up today. Can't wait to get him out of the house.

Candice - Bummer about the whooping cough. At least they took the time to let you know. He'll be fine.

Nikki - If this sleep routine thing doesn't work, I may have to go to the place in SA where they deal with sleep issues. The only thing is there is a waiting list. Oh well. Will try anything that will work.

Ok. Tristan is asleep. Should go and have a go at sleeping even if it's only for a bit.

Love and hugs.............Bonnie

Bonnie - have you tried playing white noise/static? We have a radio in Dylan's room set to fuzz, and as soon as you turn it on (quite loudly) he settles and then we can put him in his bassinette and rock him off to sleep. It works about 80-90% of the time! We also have the bassinette tilted up as he hates lying flat. At his feed when we want to go to bed we give him 50ml formula, and most nights now we get a 5-6 hour sleep followed by a 2 hour. That works for us!

It's so hard when they won't settle though. My SIL had to go to a 5 day sleep clinic with her 2nd girl, and she behaved beautifully while they were in there but was dreadful again when they went home!

Good luck!

Hi Girls - I haven't been on in while (feels like forever), but you know what it is like with all the visitors and family that drop in when they are gone you feel guilty sitting down as there is so much to do!

Xavier is still sleeping beautifully, only waking up once through the night. He does not really have any awake times yet, but it is normal I think once babies are a couple of weeks old that they have an awake "play" time.

One thing he hates is having his nappy changed or a bath!! He screems!! Very loudly!!

How is everyone elses bodies recovering? I was lucky this time to not have any stitches and just a minor graze and it is amazing how much quicker you recover. Hope all the ladies who had c/s are healing nicely.

I have had the worse "baby blues" ever this time round! Just crying at everything and anything but feeling really bad also. Sometimes I have to get out of bed in the middle of the night and walk around otherwise I feel like I cannot breat becasue I am over come with emotions. Does that make any sence to anyone? It is hard to explain.


Nikki & Donella - I will be in Melbourne then as well visiting hubbys relos, so let me know if you plan anything. We are only there for 5 days but I don't mind disapearing for a while to meet up.

Love to all and your bubbas,
Bek

bek,i would love to here about your other children,how old etc
im so sorry to hear about your baby blues,please monitor them closly,if they continue or get worse make sure you tell your dr as pnd can effect any one of us.i had bad baby blues with my last baby and didnt realise till he was 1 that i had a nasty case of pnd.
does anyone have heart palpitations,i had them during pregnancy and put it down to a side effect of prnancy but they have continued and are worse,i am going for tests on monday but am wondering if they may be anxiety attacks,i feel ok and do get a bit anxious simply because i have a small baby and 2 other children to run around after but they dont stop me getting on with things.
okay for those of you who want to catch up in dec,please give me the dates,especially those of you coming from another state,that you will be available.we will try to book in a date now as it is a very busy time of year,i am thinking an indoor play center might be ideal for those of us who have older children,they also have facilities for mums with small babies so you can feed and change them in appropriate surroundings also great cafe for coffee and lunch,we could try for one near the city or surroundings so it is central for eveyone,so give me your dates girls so i can organise something.
nikki

Bek - look after yourself! Can you dh look after the kids and allow you time to go shopping or get your hair done or something for you? I escape to the shops for an hour every couple of days and it's great.

Nikki - I'll be in Melb from the 23rd to the 28th at this stage (busy on 24,25 obviously!) My family is in Montmorency (20 k NE of city), but I'll have use of Mum's car so can travel anywhere. My mobile no is 0410 687 634 if that helps for you to have it when organising stuff.

Hey guys,

Just thought I would pop in about babies and sleep - another passion of mine! Your babies are only very little. Routines are generally not recommended until 6 months + as little babies aren't born with what they need to understand routine and a sleeping pattern - they find this in their own time, some sooner than others.

On average, based on a study, babies sleep a total of 5 hours overnight (not necessarily in one block) and wake anything upto 9 times a night. It is frustrating waking in the night when you are so sleep deprived I know - I have done it for almost four years! In fact it's quite normal to have a 12 month old who doesn't sleep through or older sometimes. But you see it's the baby's brain and body making the necessary connections it needs to find it's rhythm into sleeping through. Sleeping cues are perfectly fine to follows - learn your baby's tired signs and make a routine from there, put some music on, dim the lights, cuddle... (check out Pinky McKay's 100 Ways to Calm the Crying for lots of great ideas and heaps of info on babies and crying).

I know there are lots of routines out there that professionals have seen to have a negative effect on mums and bubs - for example Pinky McKay is seeing lots of mums distraught because they think they are not bonding with their babies or their babies don't 'love' them. They have been following routines which advocate things like no eye contact at sleep time - so the babies wont give eye contact at all. The Babywise routine has been linked to failure to thrive and dehydration due to scheduled feeding. In another case of an older baby, whenever the boy hurt himself or was upset, he would no longer go to his mother for comfort - he went to his four year old toddler brother instead!!! This is all true. Many stories like this and it's getting worse. The sad thing is so many parents say it works on their little babies, but when babies cry, cortisol floods their little brains, which makes them shut down, not sleep, so they go into a cortisol-induced sleep. This often does not work long term, like the mums who come home from sleep school and back as it used to be. These babies are very smart to fall for that! This is not what they are programmed for.

Listen to your babies ladies and trust the connection you have - give your babies cuddles, enjoy them - because lots of mums also struggle with routines and then say later that they wished that they hadn't been so strict with routines and enjoyed their babies more. They aren't born with the right stuff to sleep like champs and they are so little and tiny to comprehend this stuff, but with your gentle encouragement and support for them to be themselves and develop in their own time with love, they will become confident sleepers.

All those routines out there are written by completely unqualified people - mostly childless nannies who have no training into the medical and psychological effects their routines may have on children. Ironically, now that the first control crried children are older, it's amazing how many of them have sleeping issues as adults...

Check out Pinky's books, Parenting by Heart and 100 Ways to Calm the Crying - you'll get heaps of recommendations on here from those who have read it, they will give you confidence that you can help your baby sleep on your own, gently yet more effectively than short term solutions.

Thanks Kelly - I'm sure that will ease a lot of our anxieties in here! It's sad to hear about babies no longer making eye contact if they are put into a rigid routine... I love the way Dylan looks up at me when he's feeding - it's my favourite thing he does!!

We don't try and follow a routine - just feed him at night and let hime sleep - last night I fed him at 8.30 pm expecting him to wake for another feed after "Maid in Manhatten"(!) but he was still fast asleep so I went to bed and he didn't wake up until 3am!!! Then he settled again from 4am till 8.45! I didn't know a baby could sleep that much in one night, but it was great for us to have a sleep in. I don't expect it will happen again for a while though...

How did everyone else go last night?