***December Snowflakes 2012 Parenting***

[ImSoTired]

Chloe I like the one on the right too. It just looks like she's posing for the camera and really showing off. SO sweet

 

[bbygurl719]

Chloe I like the first one.

 

[toothfairy29]

Does anyone know when you're supposed to lower the matress? Ours has 3 levels and is on the highest but it still seems fairly low. Just wondered if there's a developmental stage that goes with it?

 

[Baby Bell]

Tooth fairy, I think it's when LO can pull themselves up! That's what I was thinking anyway

 

[toothfairy29]

Thanks baby bell. The reason I asked was because Joseph pulled himself up to standing (with me holding him for support) on the bath handle/rail tonight. But that was from sitting. He's no where near sitting himself up or anything like that!

 

[ImSoTired]

Ugg! A perfect day would have at least 30 hours I think....

 

[Baby Bell]

Thanks baby bell. The reason I asked was because Joseph pulled himself up to standing (with me holding him for support) on the bath handle/rail tonight. But that was from sitting. He's no where near sitting himself up or anything like that!

Strong boy

 

[cococobain]

sigh - around 5 times bfing during the day for 6-7 minutes one boob at a time, she wakes twice after going to sleep at 6.30pm during the night so totals 7 times. she just started having one meal a day. won't know until she's weighed Tuesday whether this is enough or not though xx

chloe - aw, I think the first one is "picture perfect" but the second one is adorable too tbh. that's a super cute idea!

Happy half birthday honey.bee/ava hehe, I keep forgetting to check your sigs to see when someone's LO turns 6 months...

toothfairy - Hey, our LO's were born on the same day! Same weight too. Uhh, Joseph wasn't born at 2.35pm was he? Wait, why does my ticker say 5 months 4 weeks and 2 days then? Huh?

IST - Rough day?

 

[toothfairy29]

Coco he was born at 2.21am! So 12 hrs 14 mins older! Happy 6 months to you too!!

 

[Honey.Bee]

Happy 6 months Joseph and Mia!

Ava celebrated her 6 month birthday with a chicken dinner, a fromage frais and some mango and apple purée! She then proceeded to sleep horribly (again) - a perfect example Scooby about not being good at everything!

Tooth - time to lower the mattress for sure! (We did the same yesterday as Ava was pulling herself up)

Well done, Sigh! Awesome progress. Wish I had your strength x

Oh and Chloe - I like both but especially the cheeky one on the right!

 

[sigh]

Chloe - I love them both!! If you're going for a classic portrait in a more traditional frame, I'd put the first one. If it's a more whimsical frame, I'd put the second one (LOVE her expression ).

Tooth - I was also told to lower the mattress to the lowest setting once she is able to pull herself up. Wow he's strong!

Happy 6 months to Joseph, Mia and Ava!

IST - Yes, 30 hour days with 15 hours of sleep would be nice

So we put her in the crib at 8:38 last night and she cried for 3 minutes. She then looked around and kept changing positions until she was comfortable and fell asleep around 8:50. She woke and cried at 3:30 so I went and fed her for 20 minutes and then put her in the crib and she cried for 30 seconds, then fell asleep 10 minutes later. It's 8:23 am right now and she is STILL asleep. She's never slept this late (usually wakes at 6 or earlier). I'm going to try to put her to bed earlier tonight... this is amazing! Such a change from rocking, bouncing, shushing, and then having to tiptoe out of the room because the slightest creak will disturb her. I'm so proud of her and can't believe how awesome she is. I guess it's working so well because she knew how to settle herself (she would do it sometimes after whining in the middle of the night), but she didn't know that she's supposed to do it at the beginning of the night. We altered our bedtime routine now since she still falls asleep nursing. I try to keep her awake but drowsy, then when she's done DH come and sings to her while rocking her. I feel so much better and less anxious at night!

 

[Kelly M]

Sigh, that's awesome! Hope it gets better and better for you.

I hate to read and run but C is waking up so I'll catch up later. Just wanted to update you ladies that his blood tests came back normal! So happy!

 

[toothfairy29]

Great news Kelly and sigh.

Girls I've just spent half hour looking through first month or so of posts on here and all your newborn announcement and photos. I feel quite sentimental! Joseph is 6 months today and it doesn't seem like 2 minutes since we wrote those earlier posts.

I love my 6 month old but I miss my newborn too!!

 

[Honey.Bee]

Oh, I know what you mean, tooth! I found a video I'd taken of Ava at about 6/52. It reduced me to tears she was so cute.....

Sigh - I'm proud of you both. You've BOTH done so well. I'm so glad your hard work is paying off. What do you think the key things are that you've done to get such a change so quickly? I ask because things have deteriorated here again. A month or so ago I could go through our bedtime routine, feed Ava, put her in her cot and she would go to sleep with minimal fuss as long as my hand was on her tummy. Cut to tonight, 90 minutes of crying (both of us) screaming, rolling all over the cot, bashing her head on the side and still not settling until she had been fed until v drowsy and then awake an hour later. I have never had a night she fed less than 3 times - I'd say the average is still 5-6 which I know she doesn't need. She eats so well during the day, we have a bedtime and nap time routine. I just don't really know where to go from here. Looking back a few months I can see there is some progress - she doesn't need to be feeding to fall asleep completely, she will sleep in her cot for part of the night and she goes straight back to sleep after feeding at night but its almost as if she is seeking contact from me whenever she wakes from a sleep cycle. It's draining (as you know). I'm not sure whether to go back to feeding her until drowsy and then transferring to the cot (she's comfortable with this) and then build up again? I just feel lost and as if I am failing her as a Mum. Sorry to vent......

Tooth - I was thinking about you and the finger food. We've been giving Ava more these days because she wants to feed herself. She loves the purées but she keeps grabbing the spoon and wanting to feed herself. Today she ate the same meal as us for her tea (we had a roast chicken dinner - she had bits of chicken, potato and carrot). The first couple of days she tried to feed herself she had mini choking episodes (which didn't bother her) but today she has it sussed - chewing, biting off good sized amounts and swallowing. It was such fun. Why don't you be brave and try putting a couple of bits of food out for Joseph? Keep calm and trust him to learn. Don't put the food in his mouth. Just put it in front of him and let him pick it up when he is ready. He may ignore it, in which case he's not ready but you may be pleasantly surprised! X

 

[Baby Bell]

Oh, I know what you mean, tooth! I found a video I'd taken of Ava at about 6/52. It reduced me to tears she was so cute.....

Sigh - I'm proud of you both. You've BOTH done so well. I'm so glad your hard work is paying off. What do you think the key things are that you've done to get such a change so quickly? I ask because things have deteriorated here again. A month or so ago I could go through our bedtime routine, feed Ava, put her in her cot and she would go to sleep with minimal fuss as long as my hand was on her tummy. Cut to tonight, 90 minutes of crying (both of us) screaming, rolling all over the cot, bashing her head on the side and still not settling until she had been fed until v drowsy and then awake an hour later. I have never had a night she fed less than 3 times - I'd say the average is still 5-6 which I know she doesn't need. She eats so well during the day, we have a bedtime and nap time routine. I just don't really know where to go from here. Looking back a few months I can see there is some progress - she doesn't need to be feeding to fall asleep completely, she will sleep in her cot for part of the night and she goes straight back to sleep after feeding at night but its almost as if she is seeking contact from me whenever she wakes from a sleep cycle. It's draining (as you know). I'm not sure whether to go back to feeding her until drowsy and then transferring to the cot (she's comfortable with this) and then build up again? I just feel lost and as if I am failing her as a Mum. Sorry X

This is Lewis and me exactly! It's getting me so down, I dunno if by continuing to feed him through out the night is making it worse or not. I don't want to deny him a feed and for him to need it My OH and I discussed cc and CIO tonight, whether it be something we would try later down the line.....I can't be doing this when I go back to work. I'm a nurse, and can't afford to make mistakes due to sleep deprivation but at the same time I don't think I could handle Leaving Lewis to cry, I never thought I'd even consider it? But I'm getting desperate.

 

[Honey.Bee]

I know what you mean Baby Bell. I really don't want to go down the CC route but I've been gently working on this for nearly 3 months now..... There is no way I could feel confident to go back to work like this - it would be dangerous. One of the Mum's at our baby group had a go at me this week and said I should have been giving Ava boiled water instead of feeding her at night. She's a know it all though and I take everything she says with a pinch of salt (she's got an opinion on EVERYTHING plus her baby is tiny....) I think part of the reason is that Ava has got used to eating so much (I can hear her belly rumbling) and likes a full tummy to go back to sleep. I try and settle her without a feed but she's always awake again fairly soon after. I wonder if I should maybe work on one feed at a time? Maybe only feed after 12 then after 3, kinda like a milk curfew. Anyone tried this? It's odd because she stops the feed herself now rather than falling asleep with my nipple in her mouth but yet she still wants the frequent feeds....anyone tried a milk curfew or boiled water?

 

[toothfairy29]

Honey just read your posts as I am going to bed. I'll reply fully tomorrow. Really sorry you're stressed. Having bad nights again here too. Wonder week 26?? Perhaps!

Big hugs for now and will reply tomorrow xxx

 

[sigh]

KellyM - GREAT news!!!

Tooth - I know what you mean! I look at pictures and I can't believe she was that small!!

Honey & Baby Bell - So sorry you ladies are going through a hard time. I'm not sure what helped the sudden change but Ellie was sleeping 8-9 hours straight starting around 11 weeks. She would sometimes get up for 1 -2 feeds but would go down pretty easy after that. This only lasted until around the 3 month mark but I'm guessing the fact that she already knew how to go that long without a feeding may have helped? When she repeatedly got up and we were sure she wasn't sick, we did a few things (not sure what helped but I'll list everything). In the beginning I was nursing her everytime she woke and it would end up being a disaster since my supply wasn't that great. As much as I hated bothering DH since he had a long commute to work, He was losing sleep anyways so when she woke I'd send him to get her first. If she was hard to settle or rooting on him, we knew she was hungry and not looking to comfort nurse herself back to sleep. I keep track of all her waking on a cell phone app so I looked at the times she fed and it was usually around 2-4 am (and sometimes an earlier one around 11:30-1). This has come in handy during sleep training because when she woke at 3 yesterday, I knew she was probably hungry. I've also been trying to fill her up before she sleeps. She is currently eating solids 3 times a day, the last one is around 6:30. I nurse her for half an hour after she wakes up from her last nap (around 5:30 ish), then she gets solids around 6:30 or so (She usually eats around an ounce of breastmilk mixed with rice cereal, and then another half an ounce of formula mixed with rice cereal), then she feeds again right before bed time (around 7:30-8) for half an hour again so she's really full when she goes to sleep. I've blacked out her windows with large black bath towels to try to keep her room darker in the morning and monitor the temperature of her room. We also use a sleep sack on her... a plain cotton one on cooler nights and a thin aden and anais sleeping bag on warmer nights (she seems to sleep better with it). I'm not sure how your milk supply is but I've been working to up mine and it is definitely working so I'm sure that's helping too. We also extended her awake time during the day between naps. She was napping every 2 hours, now she's unto 2 1/2 -3 hours.

I've received a few messages asking about what type of sleep training we're doing so I thought I'd just post it. We aren't doing the full cry it out (Where you leave them to cry alone the whole night). We are doing a modified version where you check on them at timed intervals (basically ferber but we changed it a little). I nurse her with the night light on and then give her to DH and he rocks her and sings then says "It's sleepy time. Goodnight my sweetheart, I love you" and puts her down in the crib. The first night we checked on her after 3 minutes, then 5, then 10 for the rest of the checks. When DH went in to check on her he stayed for 1-2 minutes (I think ferber is 30 seconds) and talked/patted/sang and tried to calm her. It didn't really work but we didn't feel right just leaving her to cry and wanted her to know we're still there for her. We decided before hand if she really got upset we'd go and pick her up (even though you aren't supposed to). The weird part is DH was about to go pick her up the first night and she stopped crying. I was really again any type of CIO a few months ago but after becoming an insomniac and reading some of the no cry and gentle methods, I felt that Ellie would cry just as much with those. Our presence in the room would definitely upset her more. I've tried putting her in the crib and shush/patting her before for 45+ mins and she ended up screaming and crying.

Here's a really good post on sleep - has some good info. Hope it helps!! https://community.babycenter.com/post/a5417415/how_to_successfully_teach_a_baby_to_sleep_-_3rd_ed

 

[Kelly M]

Sorry to all having sleep troubles. We are still in the same boat. Sleep training sort of helped but we kind of gave up on it. We share a room with Carter and that has really stalled the progress we could be making. He knows I'm right there and cries for me. Last night was awful, he was up from 2-4 screaming so I broke down and nursed him twice. He ate a lot so maybe growth spurt? Idk. It's hard to know anything with a baby. He's teething but the teeth aren't close to popping up. I'm at my wit's end. He self settles a bit but usually cries even after weeks of sleep training. He still wakes up 3 times on average between the time I go to bed and the time he wakes, sometimes up at 5 am or earlier. We have black out curtains, we don't get him out of bed before 6 am, we have a good routine, he naps wonderfully, and he has a lovey to self settle with. I don't nurse at night anymore (but last night I blew it). I guess we are just waiting for the night he sleeps through. Will it ever happen? I'm beginning to wonder.....

 

[scoobydrlp]

Thanks for the support ladies. Just another small rant about my mom, she keeps feeding Camden "tastes" of solid foods off her finger while we're eating. It drives me CRAZY! I've made it very well know that I'm not going to feed her anything solid but her rice cereal until she's 6 months, and only doing that because of the extra iron it provides since my iron is low and she's EBF. But she's now done it with yogurt, stuffing, and something else too that I can't remember now. I don't know why it makes me so mad, it's not like it's going to hurt Camden to have a taste of things, but I feel like it should be my decision when she does new things. My mom already had her own 3 babies, why can't I do my own thing with mine! I don't say anything when she does it because I know she's not doing it to upset me, and she helps me out a lot on weekends that OH and I have to work, and I don't want her to feel unappreciated or offended. But why can't she just listen to me when I clearly say no table food until 6 months? What's the big rush? Not to mention it grosses me out when other people stick their fingers in my baby's mouth. Ick.

Moving on....

Chloe - both pictures are adorable, but I think I prefer the one on the right. Sooo cute!

Sigh - Camden nurses (or takes breast milk from a bottle) 5-6 times a day. 6 if I have to wake her early to eat before I go to work, 5 if she wakes on her own. She doesn't wake to nurse overnight. Most of the time she has one small meal of rice cereal around dinner time also.

When we went to have Camden's DOC Band adjusted on Friday they said this might be her last week in it, depending on how much her head grows between now and our next appointment on Thursday. Time has just flown by! It will be strange to see her without it.