Pinny - great news on the extension of mat leave - I'm not going back to work - really didnt' enjoy it that much.
Olive - he just needs a really long cuddle session to get to sleep. Tonight I started at 7 and put him down at 9 BUT I had to leave him in his cot for a few minutes, until he got upset then he settled quickly.
He only goes to sleep on the boob and loves cuddling. Sometimes I wish that DH could put him to sleep. I'm finding it exhausting. Controlled cryign won't work with him because he just escalates his crying and wont settle, just gets hysterical (well for him its hysterical) and the only thing that will settle him is the boob.
I'm to the point where I'm going to strangle the IL's because that is their answer for getting him to settle.
Malyna = ILs can be a pain. I didn't try cc, I did try to stay with J when he woke from a 40min day nap and resettle him into another sleep cycle but it didn't work. I was there, I was comforting him in and out of the cot and he just got more and more worked up. I tried for three afternoon sleeps (three days in a row) and gave up. It wasn't working at all and I decided then to give sleep school a miss (had been thinking long and hard about putting our name down on a waiting list prior to trying the resettling in the cot) because I really don't think it would work for him. Sounds like A is the same.
Have you checked out the comforted sleep section of BB? Kelly has put a few good articles and links in the sticky section. Have a read and either tell your ILs why you're not keen or give them some of the articles to read. You're his mum, you know him best. Tell 'em it would help you more if they just offered support, rather than solutions that you don't think will work. If they've mentioned it once or twice and you haven't taken them up on the suggestion surely that tells them something???
Is he improving over time? Like if you look back to how he was one month ago or two? With J, he has gone backwards and forwards with his sleep - sometimes it's awesome and sometimes it seems like it's crap. I am trying to remind myself that his crap days now, were his typical days a couple of months ago so there has been some progress and I know he can do it, I just have to wait him out through each crap phase. I'm no longer even wishing for him to sleep through, just feeding once overnight instead of three times or more, would be awesome!
I hope you're ok. It must be overwhelming to have to cuddle him to sleep for hours every night.
Kaz - overwhelming is an understatement. I'm not coping at all. Last week when I visited teh MCHN nurse they did the PND test and I'm going backwards fast. I can't remember how many times, I've felt that little rubber band snap and its taken all my willpower to stop myself from just walking out on everything. I sometimes think i was pretty darn crazy to go into motherhood, considering all the crap I've been through in my life and I know I couldn't deal with two children - I'm really fortunate in that Alex is such a calm baby (most of the time). I know I just need to get over it, get my head around just getting used to holding him for 3+ hours a night but it still doesn't stop me from wanting to walk out on everything.
But its all sent to test us and what doesnt' shatter us into little tiny pieces makes us stronger - I just hope that I can hold it together long enough for Alex to get out of this stage and hang in there.
Malyna- sounds like you're having a rough trot. Have you been recommended to a councillor? I'd hate for the PND to get worse so might be worth a thought. As for sleeping I had major issues with Ash and what we did was not exactly controlled crying as I was in the room always and I picked her up if she got hysterical but it did involve a fair amount of crying but at the time it was what I needed as I was spending an hour to get her to sleep in the day for her to sleep only 30mins and I was up at minimum 3 times a night. If you are interested I can PM you but its up to you what you feel comfortable to do, don't feel presured by ILs or anyone. It was really hard the first couple days but it did save my sanity as I was in tears everyday .
Pinny- yay on the extension of mat leave, I have mixed feelings of returning back, mostly I am looking forward to the money but willo miss the girls.
Ali- Thats great she sat so long! Emily only sits long enough to eat a cruskit then she cracks it, always have to make sure I have them packed away for if I want to go have coffee or something.
Still not tooth, the lump I could feel has gone down so they just don't want to pop thru. On the subject crawling she is crawling properly now most of the time, she is getting faster so doing it more. Poor knees on hard floor tho.
We have the christmas lights and our tree up now. I am so excited this year with Ash, I keep having to remind myself real meaning christmas I am getting carried away with santa and all that sorta thing.
Shell - i know how to manage things - having had PTSD for 10years - it's just getting the energy and the space to manage it - I don't have a lot of either at the moment. DH doesn't really look after Alex when I'm around.
Please PM me the details.
Last night - Alex didn't have an afternoon nap, so it took an hour to settle him, but he was up at 7.30 and I had to go to bed with him then, because he just screamed ever time he went into the cot - and he just escalates - there's no inbetween.
gotta go, had my 5 minutes to myself today - he's in the porta cot and complaining.
ILs can be a pain. I didn't try cc, I did try to stay with J when he woke from a 40min day nap and resettle him into another sleep cycle but it didn't work. I was there, I was comforting him in and out of the cot and he just got more and more worked up. I tried for three afternoon sleeps (three days in a row) and gave up. It wasn't working at all and I decided then to give sleep school a miss (had been thinking long and hard about putting our name down on a waiting list prior to trying the resettling in the cot) because I really don't think it would work for him. Sounds like A is the same. 
But you guys can still call me Meg if you want!!!!!
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