Babies Born April 16th - 30th 2008 #1

[BabyWrangler]

hi all
Ugh Grubi you poor Darling, that sucks that you're in pain!
Is it worth going to a Dr and explaining the situation and getting some panadiene forte or something?
And at the risk of sounding dumb, does something like Bonjella help?
I remember having teeth issues as a child and mum would give me orased gel (its very yummy actually, worth taking just for the flavour!) its very good at numbing site pain.

Over here in the land of dummy removal, Benjamin has done quite well (very proud), woke again at 11:30pm, then after having his dummy for a minute, I took it back and heard nothing til 5am (not bad!), then we re-settled til 6am, then he got hungry (I've since figured out), and needed to keep the dummy til 7:30am (tomorrow I may feed him then put him back to bed), morning sleep needed a couple of returns, then I woke him to take him to the Dr (all clear there, last nights bath episode has been put down to his teething causing sore ears which were agrivated by the water, tonight we kept his head above water and all was well).
Arvo sleep was great, went down at 2:15, after dummy removal, slept til 4:15 then re-settled with dummy (then removed), I woke him at 5 to start the night routine, he finally went to sleep at 7:30pm (would have been 6:15 if I'd let him keep the dummy!), stirred and re-settled himself once, and I just went in before to help him settle, he had his dummy for one minute then I plucked it out, he moved a tad then nothing!

He also impressed me today by falling asleep in the car without crying (which usually resulted in him having the dummy), he was playing with his linkadoos one minute, and the next he was out to it....

[Sharon19270]

alittlegrubi sorry to hear you are in so much pain with your teeth, a normal toothache is bad enough to have to deal with, hope you got in to see your dentist when he came back.
sarah teenagers are awful, they need more entertaining than younger kids as they lose their ability (and want) to role play and just play with toys, they seem to need all the gadgets and gizmo's to keep them occupied.
BabyWrangler sounds like BJ is doing really well with the dummy removal thing, how does it work, do you just let them have it for 1 minute and then take it away? Oliver only really has his for his day sleeps and for when he first goes to bed at night, after his sneaky feed he doesn't have it again then unless I want him to go back to sleep in the early hours of the morning instead of getting up to give him a bottle LOL

Things are hectic around here, my eldest is back living with us (sleeping on mattress in office) the only thing is he sold his car because he blew the head gasket and couldn't be bothered saving to get it fixed so he has no car which means I have to drive him to work at 5am every morning, it is so draining, the other day while I was going to pick Jordan up from school I nearly fell asleep at the wheel, I had one of those 'micro sleeps' and ended up on the other side of the road, lucky for me it was a quiet country road with hardly any other cars, could have been worse though, so while he can, DH has been taking Jordan to school so that I can maybe get another hours sleep in the morning.

My parent's have finally moved to Tasmania, they headed off on Sunday morning, and got there early Tuesday morning, and they can move into their new home on Friday. Even though I didn't really see them much, the fact that they are so far away is quite sad as I won't be able to just 'pop in' for a cuppa anymore.

[alittlegrubi]

Thanks everyone, feeling a bit better today, took my last nurofen 5 and a half hours ago and whilst I still have some dull pain in my cheekbone/jaw it is bareable. I will be taking another one shortly, but I wanted to see if it was easing up or not so I can tell the dentist on Monday.

Sarah I actually told Logan at the start of the day Mummy was in pain and she wasn't going to be very nice today. He was really good for most of the day. Must have been tired as he fell asleep on the lounge an hour earlier than when we usually drag him off to bed. I've also been busy lately with christening details. Check invite background in photos.

Sharon Just as I was starting to get sleep these pains wake me every 4 hours - worse than a baby I hope you get enough sleep and take care of yourself too.

BW I know Greer does the snuffling thing too, but she sleeps on her back and has no dummy, she also does the tongue suck, but I can't suggest anything for BJs special situation, but it sounds like you have everything under control.

Off for my drugs now.

[BabyWrangler]

I had a lightbulb moment, as Oprah would put it....after trying to do the pantley technique thing in BJ's cot...it suddenly clicked as to why you do it in a chair then put him into bed when he's not quite asleep....DUH SHELLEY!
We don't want him associating his dummy with sleep anymore, so why give it to him in is cot....god I'm soooo dumb sometimes!
So from now on, our bed routine has been modified to include cuddles (with dummy) in the chair til he's dopey, take the dummy out as per pantley technique, another minute or two of snuggles, then nice quiet settled boy gets put into bed...I did it tonight, and after 25 minutes (yeah yeah big woop!) not a peep!

We shall see....besides, its a bucket load more comfy from 2-30 til 5-30 in the rocking chair than kneeling on the floor beside the cot!!!

I'll pop back later for personals (least I'll try!)

[sarah_dobbo2]

Evening all,

Just a quick one... Nothing to do with human baby...

Need to rant 'cos when DH gets home I know it all going to be my fault.
I went to farm this afternoon to get some more firewood. Then FIL comes down to tell me he hasn't see my white horse (sookey) for the last few day, and thought it odd that he seen the other but not him. I said I will go up and check on him. Got up there and he is just gotten up and his was limping, he had some rope around his legs which had cut into him. Now this is a bad part and it is my fault, it must have been there for at least 5-7 days. It had cut into his leg bad.

So ran back to car told DD to throw me my mobile out to me. Called vet told her to come ASAP and that I was up in the very far back paddock. And that I would try and get him down to stock yard at the front of the property.
Options:
1. Leave All kids are in car, and walk horse down to stock yard about 1km. Then walk all the way back up the hill to get kids.
2. Drive kids down to stock yard and let them wait there until I catch horses and took sookey down to stock yard.
3. Let DD drive down following us. (She has driven around farm before but never without me in the car.)
4. Had DD walk horse down, but she might get hurt from other horse trying to protect him.
So I took options 3. So I told her to put in 1 and slowly put her foot on the break every now and then. And she was not to over take me, she did a dam good job, it was a open paddock no trees or drops, so they werent in an danager.
Got down to work shed and vet their but keep in mind the other 3 horse decided to run ahead of me, front gate wide open. So I was trying not to spook them, I wanted them to some back so I could run and shut front gate. Then took Sookey down to stock yard, then ran/walked half way back up, as I told DD to wait at the coner of entrance.
Anyway horse has been seen to by a vet, if I knew sooner I would have fixed it. I am not a person who would let an animal suffer intentily. Mind you all the time, FIL is over in another paddock driving tractor. Didn't bother to come over and offer help once. But came down for a stick beak when Vet was there. Just to make sure it wasn't a piece of wire he had left in paddock.
So now I have to change dress every day and keep him in stock yard. Vet said it will heal in about 8-12 weeks and for the next 2 weeks I will have to re-dress it every day then every few week after that, along with given him a needle every day. It will also leave a nasty scar on his leg. Might have to knock him out to have a good look at leg next week
You know what is gong to be the killer. Not the vet bill, the smell of his legs. It's all infected and pussie. It's gross... I was near throwing up today when I smelt it TMI.. Anyway I know DH is going to blame me, as I went to farm on sunday and I didn't bother to check him then. If I had it might not have gotten so bad. I am such an idot. But it's not always easy when I have 3 kids to drag after me to do these things. However that is no excuise.

I'm a bad owner. I bet DH is Deff going to say NO to having chook now.
I feel a little better but guilt is starting to kick in now.

[BabyWrangler]

Well....after more and more diminished sleep, and Benjamin getting festy even when he had the dummy, we have abandoned Operation No More Dummy.
It was becoming harder and harder to settle him in bed, and I was spending up to an hour patting him, which was basically me taking away the dummy, and replacing it with patting....we will just deal with the snuffling and work towards him being in a grobag and not wrapped so he can find the dummy himself....We tried for long enough to realise it wasnt working.

[Tarnee]

BW - I was watching with interest to see if it worked cause we have been thinking about how to get rid of the dummy with Charlotte too. I don't even think I will try.

There was one sleep about a month ago where her dummy had accidentally got stuck in the front loader washing machine and she was completely distraught - no matter what I did she would not settle. Yet, there are other sleeps where she just nods off without it (in the car/pram and in the cot when it has popped out and she has been talking to herself). I figure that she is OK with it - she only uses it to go to sleep so doesn't get around with it in her mouth all the time and it is not like they will be going to school and have a dummy in their mouth!

Charlotte is pretty good usually and I only have to get up at about 3.30am to replace it (even if she has gone to sleep without it). Has been a bit tough the last few weeks cause she has a bad cough and so dummy-return visits have been a bit more frequent.

Don't stress about it - she will grow out of it eventually! I would rather have a quick dummy return to deal with than a lengthy patting routine to do each time like you said.

[BabyWrangler]

Oh Tarnee thats exactly what I said to DH, I would rather go in 50 times to put it back in, than spend 3 HOURS trying to settle him (which ended in patting which I swore and made DH swear we would never make BJ rely on!).
ot was so bad last night before we abandoned it that DH was feeding me my dinner while I tried to settle BJ....not good!

Last night he slept (we got him up for a play in the end after I spent an hour settling him...for a 10minute nap!) from 9:30 til 4:30....oh hang on, I re-settled at 10:00 cause he had a bubble thats right...but still thats a decent stretch....today will be screwed up cause we are out at least til 2pm but I don't care!!!

he's struggling more and more to have his hands out (just cant sleep if they are!) so we'll work towards that...at the moment I'm phasing in the grobag and this morning when I went in, he had loosened the wrap enough to get a still wrapped arm out the arm hole, flapping like a little wing...very cute!

Whilst I do see many good ideas in the NCSS book, and I don't discredit it at all...at this stage, it just didnt work for us....what can I say...BJ is a sucker!

[Sequoia]

Hi everyone on the *other side*!

I do subscribe to this thread to see how you are all going. But I just wanted to say to BW that we are still wrapping and sleeping with a dummy here. Baxter simply will not go to sleep with his arms out, so much so that he even needs his arms tucked down beside him in his pram to have a nap when we are out! He's only fallen asleep twice in his pram with his arms out, a fluke I think.....

I'm not too worried though, he sleeps from 9.00pm til 7.00am with only the occasional dummy return. I'd really like him to be sleeping unwrapped by the time the hot summer arrives.

Anyway, hope you are all going well.

SG
xo

[alittlegrubi]

Sounds to me like the dummy returns are just doing what Dr Sears refers to below:"Infants' sleep cycles are shorter [than adults'], lasting 50 to 60 minutes, so they experience a vulnerable period for nightwaking around every hour or even less. As your baby enters this light sleep, if you lay a comforting hand on your baby's back, sing a soothing lullaby, or just be there next to baby if he is in your bed; you can help him get through this light sleep period without waking."
"Nightwaking has developmental benefits. Sleep researchers believe that babies sleep "smarter" than adults do. They theorize that light sleep helps the brain develop because the brain doesn't rest during REM sleep."
"Between three to six months, expect one or two nightwakings. You will also see the period of deep sleep lengthen. The vulnerable periods for nightwaking decrease and babies are able to enter deep sleep more quickly. This is called sleep maturity."

I liked this bit
"An important fact for you to remember is that your baby's sleep habits are more a reflection of your baby's temperament rather than your style of nighttime parenting. And keep in mind that other parents usually exaggerate how long their baby sleeps, as if this were a badge of good parenting, which it isn't. It's not your fault baby wakes up."

I am struggling with the tug of war I'm having in co-sleep/cot sleep. I find it difficult to put her back to sleep in the cot after her 11.30pm sleep, if I do she seems to wake more often than if she co-sleeps. I know I have to be stronger and deal with the resettling better especially for when I return to work.

Sarah No point in feeling guilty now, what is done is done, hope everything is okay and DH didn't give you too hard a time over it.

Shoegal good to see you poke your nose in. Sounds like Baxter is doing well. How did you go with the eye doctor - or is that in the other thread?

Tarnee I agree on the dummy thing, as long as it isn't an all the time soother, let it be.

GTG and get something achieved for the day.

[Sequoia]

Shoegal good to see you poke your nose in. Sounds like Baxter is doing well. How did you go with the eye doctor - or is that in the other thread?

Eye doctor appts are all fine., thanks for asking Grubi Actually I'll pass on a little trick Baxter's opthalmologist told me about in detecting cataracts in children.

When you take a photo, remove the red eye reduction, if the red eye shows up in both eyes, then there is no probs. But over a few photos and only one eye shows red eye, get it investigated.

I'm hoping to buy a digital SLR soon, is Sarah the photographer of this group?? Any recs? I'm looking at a Nikon.

BTW, I disclosed my real name in the other thread......

I'm Brady
xo

[BabyWrangler]

Wow its nice to have my boyo back!
He's been so much more smiley and happy today, and is sleeping much more deeply, and interestingly, may snuffle his dummy out (we too only ever have it for him in his cot...OR if we are out in the car or pram and its sleep time, he has it then, but if he starts vocalising and playing again, I take it away) but will then settle again and stay asleep.
I'm happy with that!

Brady/Shoe thanks for the tip about red eye....my maternal grandmother was blind at the age of 40, and my brother is legally blind without his contact lenses so eye issues are high on our watch list!

Grubi, you gotta do whats right for you, afterall, its all well and good to insist on Greer being in her cot, but if you then lay awake waiting for the next waking, or missing her, its not achieving much for you is it?
Thats my 2 cents worth anyway!

[Sharon19270]

BabyWrangler oh, well, at least you tried. Oliver doesn't really have his dummy much, he will have it for his day sleeps, and then when he goes to bed at night, after his sneaky feed he doesn't have it at all, and I very rarely have to get up to give it to him so I am happy with how things are for the moment. Oliver also won't sleep with his arms out, and has to be wrapped nice and tight, he also likes the sheets on his cot tucked in nice a tight as well.
Sarah I hope your horse is doing better today, and that DH didn't blame you for what happened, after all, accidents happen.
Shoegal if we are going to be out all day I will also wrap Oliver in his pram for his sleeps too, otherwise they are usually just short 20 min sleeps. Thanks for the tip regarding the red eye and cataracts, I was severely short sighted from the age of 5 and wore glasses/contacts for many years, lucky for me, my DH thought it would be a good idea for me to get laser surgery on my eyes, I have been glasses free now for 4 years and love it, although very occaisionally I will still reach to take my 'non existent' glasses off when I get in the shower, old habits can be hard to break, although I will NEVER be a 20/20 because of my nystagmas (sp?) it is good enough to pass the RTA eyesight test LOL, we are lucky that the bad eyesight only seems to affect the females on both sides of my family, I have to get checked for glaucoma every year as my grandmother had it and my mother is 'developing' it. Oh, and nice to meet you 'Brady'
alittlegrubi I think with the sleeping thing, you need to do what 'works' for you guys, especially when you go back to work and need as much sleep as you can get.

Went to see the community nurse today, there where 4 people in front of me with someone already in with nurse, it was 40 mins before she came out, and then the next person was still in there 40 mins later, I gave up and came home, and will try and go again on either Monday arvo or next Friday.

[sarah_dobbo2]

MORNING ALL,

Horse is doing better, thats. Just needed to very about that.

Wyatt as been unsettled of a night. He is waking up twice a night now, once around 1-2am then again at 4-5am. It's starting to bug me. So will really try and top him up and then put him to bed in his cot tonight. It's now or never if I don't move him over to his cot of a night time. If he still wakes up then DH and I have agreed we need to try some food.

What are people starting there babies on foods???

Well got to run, million this to do, But I will be back later.

Grubi: How are you feeling now? And better? Did you get pain relif?

[alittlegrubi]

Sarah the pain is improving, it's more bearable and only need 1 nurofen every 7-8 hours now, much better than the 4 hour round about of panadol ans nurofen. I didn't get anything with codine as apparently it causes constipation and didn't want it to affect Greer.

BW/Sharon I know what you're saying about what works for me, but I don't want to end up with a 2nd child who refuses to sleep without Mummy. There is a part of me that wants to go back to sleeping with DH, although atm I am so over him too.

I know I said in a previous post that the best thing is to get over it, the fact that DH's are different and always will be and to focus on over aspects of the relationship to help them blossom and get back what was there before the kids came along, but I am finding it really hard to do ATM. Mainly because when he asks "what time are you going to bed?" or "are you going to bed soon?" even though I would be going to bed soon, I feel like he is forcing me to go to bed when the kids do so that he can go out and have a life. Like last night he said "are you going to bed when this (dvd) finishes? It's just that I was going to Jason's for a few beers." I didn't bite at all, but then in the morning he it comes out that he not only went to Jason's (workmate) but also went out to another friends' place afterwards. Just feeling left out. He says he wants to spend time with me, but everything is without me. Then on the otherhand I doubt I'd want to go where he goes. I really must get over it!

Started getting my maternity clothes cleaned out of the wardrobe and photographed ready to ebay, now just to find the time to do the listings. . It was so liberating to actually clean out my wardrobe of all those clothes that no longer fit me. Some I passed on to friends, some went to goodwill and others for ebay. The plan is to clean out the bar/games room and make my space for me to start doing crafty project work and force DH to have the kids every now and then for me to have my time.

I'm finally back to pre-pregnancy number 2 weight, 3 kilos more would be nice. So I'm trying to look after myself. Getting my hair done in a few weeks to inspire me.

Have a grizzler and can't work out what is wrong so GTG.

[BabyWrangler]

Grubi have you tried putting something under (or over, or beside) Greer that smells like you?
We had a little on at child care a couple of years ago that just would not settle without mum, and one day mum left her jumper behind by accident, I put it in the cot with bubby, and we got a 4 hour sleep...from that day on she had a t-shirt that mum slept with in the cot (mum would bring in a fresh one every few days!), eventually she got over it, but it was great for the transition.
I don't know...might be worth a shot?!

Well, my boyo has proven to us that he is a dummy boy through and through, last night he went to bed at 6pm, had a bottle at 11pm, a dummy return at 2am, and 5am, then up at 7.
Back in bed at 8:30, asleep at 8:35, up at 12, in bed at 1:45, asleep at 1:50, up at 3:30, into bed at 5:55, and asleep at 5:59....
If we ever needed proof...today was it!!

Anyway, KFC for tea tonight, so I'm off!

[Zennie]

Evening

Well it has been really busy around here lately. Dh and i decided that Russell was just getting to big for his bassinett so 2 weeks ago we transferred him to his cot in his own room. he had been sleeping in it during the day every few days and also some play time so he has transistioned really well. no problems at all excep for his ability to wwiggle out of his sleeping bag past the safety pilllows spin aruund and stick his legs out through the bars without waking me . hes so quiet and content in the mornings till he gets himself stuck or staarts laughing at his mischief. he is sleeping quite well generally 8:30 - 4:30. spits his dummy out after about 20 min asleep. some nights goes to bed earlier and wakes ( barley) for bottle at 8:30pm. he dost sleep much through the day most i get is a 2 hour stint.

Sarah- i wuld have done the same thing , or have tied the horse to the car if she ewas happy to follow. hope he gets better soon. we started Russell on plain farex and slowely introduced other foods once he got the farex down pat only took a few days.

Grubi - we have always held Russell till he was asleep before putting him to bed . he knows that he sleeps in his own space and dosnt freak out waking up in his cot even though it is in the next room. if he wakes when we put him down and wont resettle we pick him up but generally he just drifts back off. on the note of the dummy, Russell spits, throws, turfs his and most ngihts will drift off without it. i reckon when greer is ready she'll ssstart doing the same thing. have you tried placing a hand on her or somehing to soothe her through the night when shes not really awake.

BW- part of me wants you day sleeps so can get **** done. loll

Anyways night all

[Tarnee]

Morning,

Grubi - congrats on weight-loss!! I am trying hard but not really getting anywhere. I only have about 2kgs to get back to pre-preg weight but then so many more to get to goal weight. The thing is, I know if I don't do it now, it will never happen - I have perfect situation with being home all day to cook/eat healthy and go to gym - just have to make it happen!!

Zennie - yay for such good sleeping!! I find it funny when I hear about babies wiggling around in cot. Charlotte stays absolutely still all night - in the mornings I find her exactly where I left her!

Sarah - glad everything worked out ok!

Hi to everyone else too.

My wrapping dilemma!!!
Charlotte will only sleep soundly if she is wrapped up nice and tight. The last month or so I have been using a cot sheet to wrap her (cause she is too big for the other wraps and always seems to get herself undone in those). I had started to wonder how things were going to go in summer - but thought that if we were still wrapping her, she could probably go to bed in just a singlet and nappy and still get wrapped and have no blankets.

Well, Miss C is definitely teething at the moment and yesterday in Brisbane it was quite warm (mid to high 20s at a guess) and she woke from her lunchtime sleep with a fever of 38.6. So I unwrapped and undressed her and 10 mins later it was 38.8!! I gave her some panadol and she had a lukewarm bath and it came down no worries. Then last night (about 2am), it was back up to 38.3 so I undressed her and gave her some more panadol but in order to get her back to sleep, I had to wrap her. It was nearly impossible for me to get back to sleep knowing that she had a fever and was still wrapped up and possibly just getting hotter. Needless to say, the panadol did the trick and 30 minutes later it was down to 37.2, so I went back to sleep. But I just don't think I am going to be able to keep wrapping her when we have summer & teething to deal with (we don't have air-con in her room).

Any suggestions for ending the wrapping addiction??