Babies Born May 1st ~ 15th 2009

He's on the HA gold, I didn't realise there were 2. It doesn't seem to bother him too much when he chucks, sometimes he makes a funny noise before it comes but he doesn't seem to be in pain. It varies each feed but he brings quite a lot up which is why I was worried. I guess if he doesn't seem in pain then it probably is just excess or from drinking too fast. He's definitely putting on weight (already almost 6 kgs at 9 weeks and going into 00 clothing!) so I guess I'll just keep an eye on it.

BK I hope your Reuben is ok!!

Oh and I now finally have done my signature!

Butterflykisses: hope your baby gets well pretty soon!

Kellyc: my kid has taken to chucking his breastmilk. My problem seems to be that his appetite and his stomach are mismatched. He drinks more than he can handle. I lowered his intake by block-feeding; I offer one boob at a time:p He now chucks less. He doesn't seem bothered by it but I don't like cleaning him and myself up after every feed! Also, my kid takes his daynaps all in the swing. Fine with me. I gotta look up if there is any harm in that though.

Rayray: Oscar sounds just like my kid in the chucking department.

Tatoo_Mama: good luck with the housing and it sounds like you and Jade will do really well.

TMTM: Ouchy! Your family sounds lovely, though.

What is this "sleep through the night" everyone is talking about!!! Jonah still feeds every two and a half hours, pretty much round the clock. I just go to bed really early and try to catch enough sleep in-between the feeds. I think he feeds more often at night than during the day -- he can sometimes sleep for three-four hours during the day. I think it might have to do with co-sleeping; I mean, he's sleeping right next to the open bar and that must be pretty tempting:rolleyes: The good thing is that we pretty much dreamfeed through most of it but around 4-5 am every morning he starts getting uncomfortable and starts grunting and turning red. Neither of us gets much peace or sleep until he manages to poop with great fanfare. Then we go back to sleep on good days and stay in bed for a few more hours. In not so good days, I'm up. Of course, he naps shortly thereafter but I can't seem to manage to nap during the day.

I really, really tried swaddling. The kid just does not tolerate it. He also does not like dummies. I wish he did; I sometimes end up as a human dummy to calm him and it becomes tricky to manage it all since I also don't want him overeating.

Sorry if I missed anyone. I have a short break during which I have both hands free so I thought I'd check in. I usually manage to keep up with the reading but not so much with the writing.;)

amazed - not necesarily due to co-s;eepong, some babies take 12 weeks to get thieir circadian rhythm right. Sometimes they can take a little longer.
8 weeks often they will sleep 5-8 hours.

Oscars in bed deciding against having a sleep right now..It hink I will pop him in the meitai and hag out the washing or somthing. Anything to stop DH from complaining I do nothing all day :(

Hi everyone, sorry I have been MIA, I have been trying to keep up but having 3 kids makes you so busy, I feel like I am never at home.

So far it has been a long winter and it feels like we have all had constant cold or gastro bugs. Jack has a nasty cough at the moment and is quite congested but appears to be coping with it OK.

We survived the 8 week needles and (touch wood) he is a fairly good sleeper, I manage to get him down about 9.30pm at night and he goes through to between 6am and 7am, which is when the other boys wake so that is fine.

Tomorrow we are off to get a hip scan, it has been picked up that he has an extra skin fold in his left leg, which can be a sign of hip dysplasia. Am really hoping that it isn't but I guess we will deal with what ever the outcome is.

Glad to hear everyone is going well.

I am going to quote Candice here from her labour - my favourite moment ...

fffaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr rrrrrrkkkk!

Ok feel better now. Sorry had to get that off my chest. Sophia is sick again got way worse last night and today had to have swabs possibly whooping cough or RSV. Dr warned a possible hospital trip tonight if she keeps declining....

oh megs I hear you about the constant illness...

apart from that even though she is unwell I cannot complain - as a healthy bub she has a lovely nature and as a sick one is just as sweet but made of velcro... if that's all I have to contend with (apart from snot, vomit, coughing etc) then I am having a great secind time round. (that's what I keep repeating to myself anyway)

TMTM so glad you and DH both had successful surgery. We aren't going the snip yet - not until we are 100% sure our breeding program is complete. I am loooking into the merina (sp?) what is everyone else considering for contraception?

Sorry I have been reading and keeping up to date posting has just been a challenge.

To those sick or with sick bubs :hug: to those with well bubs fingers crossed they stay well. Keep warm everyone spring is only 8 weeks away!

Nelly, oh no!! I hope she doesn't need to go to hospital. My dd2 had RSV when she was about nine weeks old and it was very, very scary. I hope it isn't whooping cough, either. Re contraception - we'll be back to our rubber friends until dh gets the all clear. I'm not much in the mood these days. Psychologically I am but I freeze up a bit when dh goes anywhere near the business end. He's very patient. It's hard to do anything with a baby a few feet away, and we're so tired...

Megs, I'm sorry you've been battling the bugs too. We've been pretty lucky this winter, just a few colds. I hope that the scan goes well - will you be looking at splints if that's what it is?

Rayray, I'll give your dh a slap for you, if you like. When you've got a new baby, "getting nothing done" is not the same as "doing nothing"!! I'm getting tons done at the moment only because all the kids are home from school and I'm getting them to walk the baby around in his pram while I madly catch up on all the stuff I can't normally do!!!

Amazed, Thomas isn't anywhere near sleeping through, either. On a good night he goes for four hours between feeds, but mostly it is every two hours. What I am grateful for is that he is in bed at 8pm and asleep, doesn't require settling, and when he has gotten iup for his feeds overnight, he just goes straight back to sleep. And he has reliable sleeps during the day as well, which is wonderful. I'm still getting my two hour naps in the arvo when he goes down.

Kelly, yeah if he isn't bothered by the chucking, you shouldn't be either. Thomas vomits very little but it clearly upsets him - I forgot to give him his Gavison the other night, and boy did I regret it! But my eldest dd used to spew everywhere quite happily.

BK, hope Reuben doesn't vomit again! Once dd1 threw up in her bed and I couldn't see what I was doing and when I turned on the light it was all through her hair, in her *ears*, ergh! And she'd eaten zucchini that night!!!!

Tom seems to have really turned a corner this last week. He is smiling so much now and will smile at you to try to get your attention rather than just responding. He is chatting a lot and coos and gahs and gurgles all the time. His crying has really lessened so that he only really cries now when there is something obviously wrong. I can put him on his mat and he'll play happily for half an hour, or he'll sit in his pram and watch me doing whatever I want to do. He settles himself to sleep and is such a sunny little boy - I'm so relieved!! :dance: I know all the books say their crying reaches a peak at six weeks and then slowly declines but the reality makes it feel like it lasts for six months! I've never relaxed and enjoyed any of my babies this much, and I'm just loving it.

Part of me is a bit sad that he is quite clearly not a new baby any more - his head is strong and he is interactive and alert and inquisitive - but it is exciting to see how he is growing up :)

Oh, and I figured out why Clare is soiling her pants. She did it again on the way home frmo her grandparents the other day. She has been really constipated, and gets really backed up, and then it just comes and she can't control it. So I have to try to increase her fibre. She likes fruit but won't eat much in the way of vegetables, so it's a bit hard to get enough fibre into her.

TMTM :rofl: we are talking contraception bcos my ob raised it at 6wk check up.... based on when I had Jake DH gets little or no action until I have weaned and that was nearly 12mths! It's just that there are fewer side effects if the merina is inserted close to the birth.

Well last night we didn't end up at hospital and she was no worse than the prev night so no complaints here.It's cold wet and miserable so the 3 of us are snuggled on the couch watching dvds.

KellyC: I hope the weaning is going ok...I've just had my second bout of mastitis so here's hoping that you manage to wean without getting another bout. It's the pits!

BK: I hope Reuben's sleep is still going well - that's fantastic!

TM: Good to hear about your accommodation situation - hopefully it comes through soon.

TMTM: hope the mouth is feeling ok, and DH is doing ok after the 'snip'!

Amazed: I'm with you re: sleeping through - DS is nowhere near sleeping through - last night he woke 4 (!) times - a couple of 1.5 hour stints and a couple of 2hr stints and a 3 hr stint (ie. this is time between feeds!).

AFM - I'm getting lots of smiles and Max's head control is pretty good - he loves to stand and look around! He's getting to the stage where he's a lot more interactive, so it's definitely worth all of the sleep deprivation for one of those gummy smiles! :)

We've also progressed from the pram to the stroller attachment as he hates lying down...we're constantly having a battle to get him to sleep in his cot during the day and he'll only ever sleep for one sleep cycle (!) - at night it's fine (apart from the regular waking up!) - so I usually put him to sleep in his cot for his nap but when he wakes up, I can't settle him enough to go back down, so I'll usually cuddle him so that he gets more sleep...not an ideal situation, but at least he's getting his sleep. We'll deal with the cuddling once he's hit 12 weeks or so. :) We still haven't quite gotten the hang of self-settling yet either...so lots of rocking to sleep by mum or dad!

The sleeping at night is getting better - slowly - I find that he falls asleep after the first side, so I have to wake him up (ie. change him!) to feed on the second side, so that he won't wake up too early (ie. 1.5-2 hours) - if we feed on both sides we can usually stretch it to 2.5 - 3 hours between feeds. I'm really hoping that he'll sleep for longer between feeds soon...I'm waiting for that magic 12 week mark where 'things get better'. :)

Nelly; lol at least I don't have a man hassling me for sex anymore. Im on the pill and the doc said 'now you will need to be careful for the 1st month til it kicks in' n I was like 'haha don't worry nothing will be happening for a looooong time!!'

I've been reading save our sleep and her feed routine is based on the one in the book, but I dunno about the 'self settling technique'...seems to be put them to bed, let them cry as long as u can take it til u cave in and resettle them or they fall asleep...in the book they make it sound like they will eventually fall asleep but jade just kept getting more and more hysterical and I couldn't take it after about 15 mins...and when I reverted back to her dummy,if it falls out she freaks out but only during day sleeps. At nite she sleeps fine without it, is that wierd or what?

:

---

I've been reading save our sleep and her feed routine is based on the one in the book, but I dunno about the 'self settling technique'...seems to be put them to bed, let them cry as long as u can take it til u cave in and resettle them or they fall asleep...in the book they make it sound like they will eventually fall asleep but jade just kept getting more and more hysterical and I couldn't take it after about 15 mins...and when I reverted back to her dummy,if it falls out she freaks out but only during day sleeps. At nite she sleeps fine without it, is that wierd or what?

---

TM, she probably sleeps more deeply at night and so doesn't need it. I haven't heard of the Save Our Sleep book but it sounds awful if it is just about letting them scream until you can't take it any more!! I'm sure they fall to sleep from exhaustion - at least controlled crying just has you doing it in little increments, and not until they are at least six months old.

We've had brilliant success with the "no cry nap solution" and my instinct was right that once we sorted out Thomas' daytime sleeps, he'd do better at night. It's taken about two weeks but we've really got into a good routine now, and it seems so much easier now to figure out when he is hungry and when he's tired, and when he just needs a cuddle. Today he literally only cried twice, both times when he was overdue to go down for a sleep. And he's more and more often just lying down in his cot or in my bed, and going to sleep. He hardly ever nurses to sleep any more.

His favourite place to sleep though seems to be on Clare's bed - I often lie him down there while I'm helping Clare and Isobel clean up their room. How he sleeps through me growling at them and getting frustrated is beyond me!!

I feel a bit rotten because SIL and BIL have a baby boy who is about ten weeks older than Tom, and he's a bit of a hndful. He's a beautiful baby, very charming and sweet and gorgeous, but constantly on the go and not a good feeder, and never sleeps during the day. He strikes me as an incredibly bright little boy, but he is a lot of hard work. I hate admitting how easy Tom is in comparison!!

Treecy - thanks for asking about me and dh! My mouth is getting better - I actually ate real food tonight - and dh is just fine, just a bit swollen still. I'm glad the sleep is going better for you. What are you doing when he wakes up from one sleep cycle? Do you find he is able to resettle at all? What sort of mood is he in when he wakes up?

We were able to determine that Tom really needs at least a one hour nap in the morning and at least a two hour nap in the aftenoon. So from the time he is showing sleepy signs (not yet at the crying stage, a bit glassy eyed, his arms and legs getting jerky, being less interested in what's going on around him) I will settle him for sleep and until at least that amount of time has gone, we concentrate on keeping him asleep. Last week that meant a lot of resettling, but he seems to have got the hang of getting back to sleep now by himself. Most babies do wake up after one sleep cycle, but their arousal is shallow and they drift back again into something deeper. The trick is to help them learn how to do that.

TMTM: ill hav to get that book. Jade tends to do a lot of what I call 'observing'..wide awake in her swing, not crying at all, just looking around. One minute I look over and she looks fast asleep, the next she's wide awake looking round.

After her 1st feed of the day (usually 6am) she will go back to sleep til 9ish,

then a feed at 10am, sleeps an hour max,

next feed at 2pm, sleeps an hour max,

next feed at 6pm, sleeps 2 hrs max,

Last feed at 930ish and goes down by 1030 and sleeps til 5 or 6am...is this ok?

I was under the impresion that once they fed and played a bit they should sleep solidly til next feed time (e.g. Hav to wake them for a feed)?

Or now that she's a bit older she has more awake time? I dunno how to occupy her she seems to get tired quickly but just will not go to sleep as such.

TMTM - Just getting on super fast (on the way to bed) - just had to take a moment to congratulate you on working out Clare's problem with her toilet training! You must be so relieved to have a solution in sight!

TM - something that might be useful.....when my second baby was little, it took me a really long time to work out why she was awake so much.....eventually I worked out that she was sleeping with her eyes open. the REM should have given it away, but it didn't. Reuben is so much like his sister, and he too sleeps with his eyes open often. People who are not aware start to stimulate him because he is 'looking around'.....until I pounce on them not to stimulate/stir a sleeping baby! So, Reuben sometimes looks like he is awake/asleep/awake/asleep - but in fact he is just sleeping with his eyes open. lol! babies can be so interesting. BTW - your daily routine with Jade looks fantastic! Yes, babies do stay away longer between feeds as they get older.

TMTM - a friend of MIL is a research fellow and paediatric gastroenterologist and sent me a good link on constipation
http://www.pcaa.org.au/

TM: sounds fine. newborns can sleep between feeds but after a month they start having more awake time and by 3 months most babies sleep in longer periods less often.

Not all babies feed-play-sleep either. Milo loosely had a feed-play-feed-sleep pattern.
As long as you and you baby are happy and healthy, then its right for you.

Happy Birthday Rach :dance:

talking daytime sleeps- I have just discovered (yesterday) after having a velcro baby that Sophia sleeps best during the day on her tummy. Seem s to settle her cough and upset tummy with all that mucus.