Babies Born October 2007 #16

[~kellie~]

Willow - thats great you got in earlier... I'll be interested to hear what they have to say. I just have to wait for them to give me a call now to see when I can get in. I also found out yesterday that there is a half day stay at one of the public hospitals near here, so might have to investigate that one too

Mo - thats so cute Maddi playing with elmo!

Trish - glad to hear Joel enjoyed kinder

Trish and Willow - can you tell me exactly what you do with this self settling? Do you pick them up as soon as they cry? Or just pat them?

I took Tahlia shopping yesterday and she was cracking it in her pram, so I pulled the baby bjorn out, and within 10 mins she was sleeping in it! It was the 1st time I had used it, I never really felt confident with it before cause her head was always face planted into my chest, but now that she turns her head I think I'll be using it a lot more!

[Willow]

kellie - this is what I do (and I think Trish's settling is very similar). I take him into his room (which is darkened and has Sounds for Silence playing softly), change his nappy and then wrap him. Once i've wrapped him, I pick him up and give him a bit of a cuddle, shhhhh and say to him 'time for sleeping' (or whatever you want to say). I then put him down wide awake, give him his dummy and walk out. He will usually grizzle on and off and depending on how upset he gets I will go in, stroke his forehead, pop his dummy back in if he's lost it and shhhh. Once he settles a bit, I will leave again. I might have to do this a few times. Sometimes i will walk out the first time and he will either have a really short grizzle and go off to sleep or he won't make a sound at all and go straight to sleep. If he is crying, I try to pat him but if that doesn't settle him I will pick him up and give him a cuddle till he settles and then start the process again. I never leave him to cry or to become distressed.

You also need to remember that it's a gradual process. When you first start it will take longer, but the more consistent you are and the more she starts to be comfortable with it, the shorter the settling time. I've seen a big improvement in DS in just a few weeks. It will eventually get to the point where you wrap her, put her down and walk out and that's it. That doesn't usually happen till they are a bit older, maybe 4, 5 months? In the meantime you will probably need to do a bit of settling most of the time, but some babies pick it up quicker than others.

Good luck - it does take some effort and isn't easy at times, but the pay off in the long run is sooooo worth it. In a few months you'll be on easy street while other mums might still be spending a lot of time settling, rocking, patting etc (and I just want to point out please, I'm NOT saying there's anything wrong with that, people have different preferences and ways of settling, but with a toddler too I just don't have time to pat or rock DS to sleep every time.)

[LadyRaven]

Heya all,

Happy bday saffi!!! Hope you had a fantastic day!

Lil monkey is not so little anymore at 7.5kgs I dunno how long he is but he's grown out of all his 000 baby suits with inclosed legs and all his pants are now shorts and his shorts are now undies (nad crunchers lol)!

Opps I started to write this yesterday and went to bed and forgot to post lol. Happy belated bday now Saffi sorry!!

[~Trish~]

Morning all!

Willow - Sorry you had another bad night . How long has it been going on for? I Googled growth spurts and it said they can last up to a week. Maybe he is having one? He could be teething, babies can teeth early. I'm so glad you are going to the sleep school on Monday, it's such great timing. I hope you get some answers.

Kellie - Baby Bjorns are great aren't they! I probably won't use mine for much longer though, Kieran is such a big boof! Re: settling, do you mean resettling or just getting them off to sleep in the first place? When I first put K down I wrap him and give him a little cuddle and give him a dummy. Then I put him in his cot and whisper "good boy" (for some reason he loves it!) and wait with him until he is happy. Sometimes I need to pat him or stroke his forehead until he settles down. When resettling sometimes he only needs his dummy popped back in, other times I can pat him, but sometimes nothing works and I need to pick him up and give him a cuddle and rock him for a while until he gets sleepy again. It is hard work sometimes! But persistance and consistancy is the key to it working.

Kim - Sorry you are sick . I hope you feel better soon . Is it a virus?

Mo - Glad Maddi had a good night for you!

Star - LOL it does seem the days are never ending sometimes! I love it though and wouldn't swap my boys for anything!

Well, we had a great night last night!! Kieran slept uninterupted from 9:45pm to 5am! I fed him and he went straight back to sleep again until 7:30am, ahhhhh... I have my fingers crossed that he keeps it up! I'm pretty sure it was a growth spurt making him wake up, I gave him a bath last night and thought he looked bigger than he did the night before in the bath! He has huge thunder thighs with big rolls of fat.

Have a great day everyone!

[Willow]

When resettling sometimes he only needs his dummy popped back in, other times I can pat him, but sometimes nothing works and I need to pick him up and give him a cuddle and rock him for a while until he gets sleepy again. It is hard work sometimes! But persistance and consistancy is the key to it working

Sorry Kellie, I forgot about this part. When resettling (ie if he wakes after one sleep cycle) i do exactly what Trish has said here.

Trish - he was waking more frequently than normal for about a week, probably since we got back from Adelaide (instead 3-4 hourly it was 2-3 hourly) but was still feeding and settling straight back to sleep, so I though that was a growth spurt. This horrendous waking and not settling business has only been for the last 2 nights. I was hoping it was a one off but he did it again last night. I have NO idea what is going on or what to do. I was hoping he'd start to do longer stretches about now but instead he's gone waaaaay backwards

Well done - Kieren is going great guns!! Hope he settles into sleeping through for you.

[~kellie~]

thanks so much Willow and Trish - thats great advice. I think I knew all along what I needed to do, its just a matter of actually doing it. I tried yesterday with very similar techniques, and in the end I rocked her to sleep cause it was just too hard.

[~Trish~]

Willow - I took so long to write my last post (making brekky for Joel in amongst it) that I didn't see your post to Kellie, well said! I still really wonder if your DS is going through a growth spurt, K had about 3 or 4 nights of unsettledness that finally ended two nights ago. I hope it passes for you soon, you are doing such a great job and it will all pay off for you soon!

Celtic - Wow Ryan's a big boy now! K hasn't worn 000's for ages, he has such a long torso that he pretty much went straight into 00's. I never really got a little baby this time!

ETA - Kellie - I know it is hard work, but it is soooo worth it when one day they just go off to sleep without any help! Mentally prepare yourself for a hard slog at the start and plan to stay home for a few days in a row if you can. Hope you can get into a sleep school soon!

[Rebecca77]

morning all - C and I had an average night. Not too little sleep - but not quite enough!! will live - least i can catch up today.
trish Kittens are going well. all 3 are still with us. mummy cat drinks Caitlyns left over firmula at the end of a bottle - vet said its ok.
Caitlyn hasn't been in 000 for about 2 weeks now. She was 6.28 kg and 60.5 cm long last time i took her to the doc. I don't know if thats long but she looks big to me. she goes to d/c with this baby that is a week younger than her and the other little one is TINY!!! Litte miss C looks like a giant next to her. But miss connie - her group leader - says its good that she has a little bit of padding....if she gets sick and wont eat - she has plenty in reserve! AND THE DOC ISN'T WORRIED ABOUT HER WEIGHT SO IM NOT WORRIED ABOUT IT.
ANYWAY - AM OFF TO FEED cAITLYN. HAVE A GREAT DAY ALL mwah

[Khaleesi]

Maddi is in 000, some of the 000 tops are getting to small for her & she is in 00 onesie's.

I put Maddi to sleep the same way as Trish & Willow. I find the trick to getting her to settle easily is to put her down at the first sign that she is tired, usually she'll settle straight away.
Last week she was being a terror to get to sleep she would cry for ages before exhausting herself to sleep & this is while i was holding her.
I figured i was letting her stay up too long & she became over-tired.

Rebecca-C is a great weight, Maddi was 6.4kg & is a little puddin too

[Willow]

Mo - yep, that's the trick, you gotta pick the right time to put them down. L will usually start grizzling and then I know it's time for bed. He is staying awake for about 1.5 hours since the beginning of the week (used to only cope with 1 hr), but if we get to the 1.5 hour mark and he hasn't grizzled I usually wrap him and put him down anyway.

Re 000s - a friend of mine brought L some really cool sleeveless all in ones from PP, not sure if you've seen the range but it's says 'Rock' and has guitars and drums and stuff all over it? Anyhoo, I loved them (we have the bibs too!) and he wears them all the time. Hadn't worn them for a few weeks and I pulled it out yesterday and put it on him - looked like he was wearing a lycra body suit! He even had man boobs in it My poor little fatty...

[LadyRaven]

Hehe I find making the screen half sized and having a notepad doc open next to the browser page is the only way I can keep up with everyones posts and make sure I say hello to everyone! Hehe.. ok going back to read everything from my 2nd last posting lol..

Leah- how did Amara and Eliza sleep for you last night? Ryan had a 5 minute sleep in his rocker, went to put him to bed and boy did I get told off!! An hour later he was asleep woohoo!! Do you have anyone who could come and take your girls for a night just to give you a break? Do you have a little evaporative cooler or something you could put in their rooms to help cool it down a few degrees?

Becky- how did Southbank go? Did you all have a good time?

Julia- if Ryan has some rumble action but no poo we "go for a run" aka bicycle legs, and I try and get him to drink a bit of water, he doesn't like it but will usually drink some if he has the hiccups and we run his belly and usually within the hour he's filled himself up and smiling away going "guess what I made you mummy hehehe".

Trish- How was the kinder? Did you both like it? How is your back? Oh just read he loved it that's fantastic must be a big relief! There was a girl who started daycare yesterday and she screamed from the moment she got there till the moment her mum came and picked her up. Her mum didn't even stay around just handed them her and the bag then left, I thought she would've stayed to try and calm her a bit but I guess she figured nothing would? Poor thing she's booked in 5 days from Monday onwards I feel sorry for the girls at daycare they looked like they were about to join her for a cry!

Re: 000's, Ryans a stocky little man he's got his daddys baby bod I was a lanky thing lol. Also he's mostly in the suits that do up under their bum but have their legs free he's out of the baby suits now. I got some t-shirts and shorts for him to wear though he seems to be more comfy in them and if we have an opps I can just change his shorts or his t-shirt and if it gets cooler I can put a lil jacket on him, such a stylin' lil man LOL

Viv-yes Amelia came in made a statement and has left the thread re: cath. Ryan is in crawler nappies they put him in infant at daycare but I have the big ones, I got there as they changed him once and when I got home we both fell asleep, when I woke up he'd overflown the nappy (just wee) in only a few hours. Most of his daycare clothes I send him in get changed because of overflow, I keep telling them to use the bigger nappies but oh well hehe. I put a burping mat under ryan at night because he is a drooler he soaks the bed, maybe put one under his bum? They are very cheap a pack of 5 I think is $10 Big W or Target.

Peta- How has Kaylee been? Ryan had I think 3 (one was just a really big lump) in his gum and he screamed as well, but nothing can put my porker off food lol, but took him with me to the dr and they're gone now, the dr said they can come up and down a few times before breaking through so they will go through painful stages and good stages. My mum said nothing worked with me no matter what she gave me and the best thing was just to try and encourage me to sleep through the worst of it as the constant crying tires bubs out. Hope things are getting better and the neurofen works I didn't know you could get baby neurofen will have to go talk to the chemist if/when Ryan gets his 'cranky lumps' again!

Mo- lol re: tickle me elmo that's adorable you'll have to get some pics of it! Also love your ticker pic very cute!

Willow- yay congrats on hitting the 3 month mark! Doesn't time fly I can't believe it's February already!

Rebecca- Maybe they didn't burp her properly? I actually thought they would overfeed Ryan at daycare but they only did it yesterday and that was because the girl was new and didn't know when Ryan hadbeen fed last and he was whingey (wind) so she assumed because he gave her a hicky that he was hungry lol. Maybe she just missed her mum? Ryan sometimes does the leg thing when he's upset not just from wind or anything like that. How was your drinks with the ladies? Hope you had a good time!

Kim- how are you feeling you poor thing? Are you any better this morning?

Nickers- we have been getting nearly daily storms here, it's sunny in the morning then gets really humid, then pelts down, we need the rain out here though we watch the weather website at work and watch the storm move over us and then down to you guys hehe sorry! I went to a GP for a check up instead of the hospital as the hospital said they would forward all their notes to them but nope never happened and now they have misplaced my file! The dr was really peevy at them and said she expects all the notes on her desk Monday or she was going down there personally to complain (shes new there from Sydney and boy is she fiery shes not from Aust and hates our medical system and all the stuff ups *loves* lol). So she is sending me for more tests Mon and Tuesday and I've had blood work done. Everyone must be getting u/s at the moment because the hospital has a week long waiting list and I could only get appointments Mon and Tuesday with her writing "extremely urgent" on them otherwise it's a 2 week wait! I'm having another on my uterus just to make sure but I've stopped bleeding today (so far) and I have one on my gallbladder on Tuesday as I have a rock hard lump about the size of my fist in my chest at the moment if you feel just under my rib the waiting list to get it out is 13months long though. She said the only thing she could suggest is when I want it out (after work is over) to go eat heaps of fatty foods and set off a big attack and call an ambulance and they may get it organised to be removed earlier, sad how they won't help you until you are in pain!

Kellied- yep Ryan gets the cranks in his pram as soon as DP is holding him or he's in the Bjorn he's fine I think maybe it's wind because he sometimes has a little chuck or a few burps but if he's being carried upright he's fine.

Ok well I started this at 9 but then Ryan woke up for a feed, then started to cry for a snooze and then I got bitten by the housework bug so I'm going to post this thing now or I never will! lol

[Astrolady]

New thread time ladies

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