"Does anyone else not test early" Refugee Club

[iow_bird]

Lovely to see how you are all getting on! Noah is now 16 months, we've been ttc no 3 for 14cycles! Just about to start fostering too, so busy!

 

[Mrs. Eddie]

He is so gorgeous Morebabies! There is a big gap between my youngest brother and the rest of us and we're all still close. I am 12 years older than him and while our relationship is different, (almost more parental than sibling), it is still very good. He was also spoiled rotten by all of us and was always a very "cool" kid as he copied our behaviour, listened to a lot of the same music as us and just acted older in a way. I think my relationship with him has actually helped me be a better Mom to Isla, I bet your daughters will feel the same when they have kids of their own!

The need to start TTC #2 for me is also being driven by my age. I am 33 and font want to be trying to TTC after 35 if possible...Plus, Isla's an amazing little girl. If I could have 10 more like her I would

Iow, nice to hear from you too! Fostering is incredible, good for you!

 

[more babies]

I thought I has posted a while back but i guess maybe I didn't actually hit the post button...

Anyways, Mrs. Eddie it's great to hear positive things about the big age gap because I do feel bad for it in a way.

I hope everyone and their LOs are doing great! We went on a week long camping trip, well we stayed in a cabin at a campground, but Landon did great. He was a little restless but still slept pretty good each night. We took him to the beach and he absolutely loved it and cried when we took him out of the water. Its crazy that a full year has already passed since having him and he is a year old today! He is such an amazing little man

 

[Lotus Womb]

Hi ladies I did not know if you guys were still around. I could not find the original not test early thread or this one lol. So glad you posted. Well DS was a year a few weeks ago and we are on our first cycle NTNP. But I am using OPK but no temping. So currently 2dpo can't belive the time has flown and I am on this path again. I am also 34 and not wanting to hang around so I hope it happens soon.

 

[baby1wanted]

Hi ladies!!! Wow happy birthday to Landon and to your ds lotus and eeeek good luck with the NTNP! We are all good. Rufus is nearly 6 months and is a wonderful little man, so happy. Only issue is sleep or lack of it at the moment. The four month regression hit us hard and we haven't recovered so in a zombie... The newborn days were easy in comparison!! I'm letting him get to end of August then we'll start gentle sleep training and also weaning off the boob. It gives me 2 months to try and get things sorted before I go back to work. So lovely to hear from you, how is everyone else?

 

[baby1wanted]

Oh my goodness iow I just saw your post so sorry I missed it. How are things going with fostering? And any joy TTC? Mrs Eddie do you think you'll be TTC again soon?
DH is fixed on only having ine child for various reasons. I won't ever push him on it but should he change his mind I would go for it again!

 

[more babies]

Lotus it's so great to hear from you. Happy belated birthday to your DS! Also good luck on TTC and hopefully it doesn't take too long.

Baby1 my LO never slept great but it definitely got worse around 5 months. We ended up taking away his pacifier which helped a ton, but I'd still say he didn't sleep good or completely through the night until around 9 months. I let him cry it out to a point. Picking him and trying to calm him would only make things horribly worse. If it did get to a point where I needed to pick him up (I've always gone by how he was crying not the length of time crying) I would bring him out into the living room for 15-20 minutes then try again. He also has a little music player that lights up that hangs on the side of his crib. For the past couple months now he knows how to turn it off and on so now he uses that on his own which is great. If he's not ready to go to sleep he messes around with it and he also turns it on every morning when he wake up. Around 8 months for a couple week he was up in the middle of the night for 1-3 hours every night just wide awake and that was just exhausting but once he got past that he's been sleeping good for the most part. Good luck with your LO and getting him to start sleeping a better.

Hearing about people starting to TTC again makes me a little sad that it's not something I will ever do again but we can't afford another and honestly I'm not sure I would want to go through having an infant again. I've had kids for basically half my entire life right now and at some point I would like time with DH and also for myself. We got the boy we always wanted and never thought we would have. So even though there are parts of it that make me sad and I'm only 29 we are done having anymore.

 

[more babies]

Also I wanted to add about sleeping that I think all kids are different and the same approach doesn't work for all. DD1 slept through the night every single night 12 hours from 6 weeks on. Even if she had a cold she would sleep right through it. DD2 didn't sleep through until 18 months and also took maybe one 30 min nap a day until she started sleeping through and then wouldn't nap at all. She was a nightmare and would be up from 12-5 wide awake every single night. It was horrible and nothing worked, I just had to wait it out. Then once she started sleeping through she slept for 14-16 hours straight all of sudden. DS seems to be a mix of the two. With DD2 though I could be in the room to finally get her to go back to sleep at 5 and with DS if I am anywhere in sight or sound he won't sleep. I basically put him down and run out of the room

 

[baby1wanted]

Thanks morebabies that does help. I'm totally with you on each baby needing their own approach. If I wasn't heading back to work I'd just ride with it and let him do things in his own time. But I work on intensive care and slightly nervous about how I'll cope with the pressure if I'm still only getting 2 hours at a time...
I guess I don't know how he'll respond until I try something. And it's be silly if I didn't and it turns out all he needs is a couple of nights of something! I'm not for crying it out but have to be realistic and accept there'll be some tears I like what you say about responding to types of cry rather than set times, may pinch that off you

 

[more babies]

Funny all this talk about sleep and Landon was very anti going to sleep tonight. Talking about types of cries, 2 minutes after putting him down I knew by the way he was crying I needed to get him. He ended up being up an hour and a half later then normal (full of energy) but after he went to sleep with about 30 seconds of tired crying. Maybe he just didn't want his birthday to end

 

[more babies]

I also wanted to quickly add.. We always put him to sleep awake. In the beginning maybe he was half asleep but he quickly learned to self settle within a couple days and really not much crying at all, more like frustration and missing his pacifier. Also in the beginning, I made sure that he never got over tired. The days he was over tired even a little bit, it took a long time to get him to fall asleep even just for naps. Even still if he's over tired he is up and down and restless for a good amount of time.

 

[baby1wanted]

I also wanted to quickly add.. We always put him to sleep awake. In the beginning maybe he was half asleep but he quickly learned to self settle within a couple days and really not much crying at all, more like frustration and missing his pacifier. Also in the beginning, I made sure that he never got over tired. The days he was over tired even a little bit, it took a long time to get him to fall asleep even just for naps. Even still if he's over tired he is up and down and restless for a good amount of time.

Yes this is one of the big issues.... He used to self settle. Wherever he was when he was tired he'd just suck his thumb and go off. At night he would often fall asleep nursing but because he could also self settle I didn't worry about it! Then literally overnight - I can even tell you the date!! - he stopped sucking his thumb and from then on is completely dependent on boob to go to sleep (except he will go off in car or pram). DH is genuinely upset that he never sleeps on him anymore
I have tried a dummy / paci but it gets spat across the room which I'm kind of glad about as neither DH nor I were keen on him having one...

 

[Noo]

*WAVES!* 10.5 months here. Still not sleeping through the night (won't be for the foreseeable as he wakes 5-8 times a night to eat and still BF and co-sleeping full-time). He took his first steps at 8 months and within 2 weeks was fully walking and very very rarely crawls now he has learnt to stand from sitting! Eek! Went back to work in May! Hope you're all doing well x

 

[baby1wanted]

Hi Noo!! He's looking good! How've you found going back to work? Just read your response on another thread - unless we make big progress I'll be in the same situation - water whilst I'm at work and bf all evening!!

 

[more babies]

It's great to hear from you Noo and you have a very handsome boy there! I can't imagine having a baby that was waking at 8 months. My LO actually just took his first step tonight. My girls both start walking between 13-14 months but my little guy has just been so content with crawling until this past week or so. Hopefully he will be walking soon though.

 

[Mrs. Eddie]

Hey Ladies!

So nice to hear from you all again! I've been mostly online as we've been at the cottage for the past couple of weeks so haven't caught up on th thread yet but was so happy to see that people were posting again

Things here are good! Isla is walking very well (started walking about two months ago) and saying lots of new words and making us laugh with her antics. She's very busy and sassy and we love her to bits!

I start work on Tuesday Thankfully my DH is off with her for another three weeks before we start day care. We've been working on moving her gradually to the day care's schedule and so far it is going well.

I'm still bfing and plan to continue until she's at least 18 months. For the first few months I'm going to pump so she can have one cup of breast milk during the day and will feed her in the am before work and at night. Then eventually we'll take away the day cup of bm and just have day and night feedings. This week we're going to start replacing her afternoon bm feed with homo milk. She really doesn't bf much during the day anymore so hopefully the transition won't be too hard for her.

Anyway, sorry to ramble on. It's great to hear that you ladies and your little ones are doing so well. Anyone starting to think about having another one yet, I've been broody for months

 

[more babies]

Wow a lot of babies walk early. Landon is still going strong crawling and is quite fast at it when he wants to be. Hopefully he will decide to start walking soon though. That stinks about having to go back to work. It's great that you get to have a full year of maternity leave. Around here we get 6 weeks, which is terrible. If I didn't have two older kids already I would definitely be ready to start trying for another one now. Good luck to all those who start trying soon!

Landon has be very clingy this past week or so. I don't mind it much but he's making it impossible to get anything done while he is awake. Having the girls helps because they can entertain him for brief periods. I've definitely gotten use to them being home and it was be an adjustment once they go back to school next month. I'm sure Landon will be missing them as well.

 

[Mrs. Eddie]

Morebabies, I wonder if it's normal for them to go through a clingy phase around this age as Isla has been clingy too. It might also be due to the fact that we've been visiting family for the past two weeks so she's been the centre of attention and constantly entertained by multiple people. She's also teething right now too, so not a happy camper.

And Happy First Birthday Landon, I can't believe he's already a year old!

It does suck to be going back to work as I'm going to miss her so much but I also really like my job so am happy to go back in some ways. I am so grateful that we get a year off here; I'm astounded at how little leave you get in the States.

We're planning on starting full blown TTC late next winter/spring. Right now we're NTNP but still no AF here so playing the waiting game....

 

[Lotus Womb]

Thanks More Babies. I am glad you achieved your goal. It is quite a journey in itself. Mother hood has been one of the most best and rewarding experincongruous of my life.
I give tha nks for everyday with my family.

 

[more babies]

I think Landon is teething as well. His first molars bother him every couple weeks and get red and puffy but haven't come through yet. The best part about clingy phases are I get some cuddles from him. He's not a touchy snugly kid by any means but I've been getting a few here and there lately. He even sat laid back on me, which sounds silly to be excited about but he's always go go go or pushing away so its been nice. My girls were so different, especially DD2, I couldn't get her off of me ever and still can't sometimes

I wish I had the mindset I have now when I had my other two. I think I was a good mother but being so young I don't think I appreciated things the way I do now. Also with Landon I know he will be my last so am trying to get the absolute most out of it.

My current problem is since we went camping for a week and he was up later then normal each night I can't seem to get him to go to sleep earlier then 9:30-10pm. I've tried each night to put him down earlier and he ends up screaming and getting himself all worked up, so I take him out and sure enough around 9:30 he starts getting tired. I think it's having a snowball effect and making him more tired during the day but I even made his nap earlier and that didn't make a difference. Everything is going to have to adjust in a couple weeks anyways when my girls are back at school and sports, so I should probably just go with it. No use in making him upset every night.