Arghhh I just spent ages writing a big old reply to everyone, then had to feed Vince and do bedtime routine and I came back and the page had disappeared, along with my reply!
So sorry if this is a little brief for everyone, but...
Sam, so glad Elinor's op went well in the end and that she is stable, sorry to hear you had a bit of a scare though! Will still be thinking of her, really hoping for a quick recovery and for her to get home with you as soon as possible! xxx
MJ, ta for the advice about the fleece liners, I may make some of my own out of the fleece blanket I started cutting up! I like the idea of keeping it dry right next to his skin, although he's not too fussy about wet nappies (but really lets us know about it if he's done a poo in there!) About your leaks, could it be the cotton nappies that are giving you problems? I haven't tried our 5 "back-up" cotton terry squares yet, but I do know that before Vinnie was born, I did an absorbency test on the cotton and bamboo and the bamboo was CONSIDERABLY more absorbent... How many bamboo LLs do you have? And maybe you need to be a bit careful of how you put the wraps on, like joey says: I tend to have to do the velcro sides up about 3 times each to get them centred and well adjusted on his legs!!
Stacey, I wouldn't worry about having big strong boys!! I'm not! Although you may want to double check Lucas's height, because I know that Vince is just on the cusp of "normal range" in the Red Book, and it says if they go outside of the "normal range" to let your doctor know, just in case... I'm sure you just have strong, healthy boys though! That's how little boys should be right? Hehe..
Big
to all who are struggling with nighttimes... I don't have any magical advice, I'm afraid, only that it DOES get better with a bit of time, and all our little ones will reach certain points at different times of course... I was trying to think of everything we've done that seems to have contributed to Vince doing fairly well at nighttimes, and I think these things may have helped:
- When he didn't seem to know the difference between night and day and wanted a feed every 2 hours no matter what, we tried to stretch it out as much as we could during the daytimes and at night we just gave it to him as soon as he was grumbling to try to keep it smooth and quiet and stress-free at nights (LOL with only a little success at first, I'm afraid!)
- When he was really grumbly at nights (especially in moses basket; he really didn't like to sleep in there at all and very rarely settled in it...) we just "gave in" and had him in the bed with us, so that we could all get some sleep. Maybe he sort of learned through that that we were sleeping at night, and that he should be too? Not sure...
- Once he started sleeping in his cot, we made sure we were leaving him to do the actual falling asleep bit on his own: I didn't stay in the room with him, just left him to it (I was lucky as he didn't scream...)
- We noticed that his startle-type arms movements were waking him up and upsetting him all over again, so we swaddle him every night now, which he seems to LOVE (just had a GORGEOUS bedtime routine: Will tell about it at the end of this post...)
- We now bathe him, change him and feed him a nice warm bottle just before bedtime.
And a final bit of advice (though I guess most of you are doing similar things really) Back when Vince was very restless at night, OH and I would split the night in two and take a "shift" each, with one of us getting a solid half-night of sleep at a time in the spare bed... If you don't have a spare bed, maybe an eye mask and ear plugs would work? That way you're not both exhausted in the morning... But we also had a promise that if either of us was getting stressed out, we could wake the other for support. Sometimes just knowing you can do that makes it feel less stressful
try to be a team!
Vici, it's great to hear that Imi is doing well and that you may be close to getting properly settled. Not so great to hear that you've been a bit down
hope you're ok sweetie, I'm sure you are though, you're clearly born to be a mummy and sounds like you are doing just great
I hope you get a bit more of a routine soon, if that's what you'd like
And as for us, we had a lovely day out today to see Grandma and Great-Granny again, and also to see a good friend of mine who I haven't spoken to in aaaages, it was lovely! She adores Vince, which was just fab
I really hate to brag to those of you still having troubles, but we have a really lovely nighttime routine now, I think Vince really enjoys bedtime! Tonight daddy did his bath (I normally do, but have had real nasty pain issues in my arms today and OH insists I stop trying to carry Vince around and let him do it... But you know, I just hate to have to ASK him all the time...
) and after his bath I fed him and winded him and then swaddled him up for bed, and as I was swaddling him on the spare bed next door to his room, he was SOOOO sweet!! He was all alert and super cute-looking tonight with his big dark eyes, and he smiled at me loads!! Looked right in my eyes and gave me big old smiles! IT was just beautiful
those of you who haven't had proper smiles just yet, when your little one looks right into your eyes and gives a proper big smile, just for YOU, it's just amazing... My tummy did a big flip!! He hasn't giggled any more yet, but we're patient on that hehe...
Ooooh, and we had a VERY good night last night: He slept for 8 hours, then another 4, feeds and burps as smooth as silk (
) we feel so lucky
It may be that he goes backwards again, but we are certainly enjoying this while it lasts! And putting him to bed at 8:30 gives us the evenings together, which is really nice actually... Long may it last, fx!!
Sleepy dust for everyone for tonight
hopeyou all have good nights and calm night feeds
Lots of love x x x x
I'm so glad I just went with them in the end, it's lovely to be using them, they're nowhere near as scary as I thought, and he only gets through about 4 nappies a day now (1 pooey) so the laundry isn't overwhelming at all! Yay!
although it will get better for you and hopefully very soon. Rose is starting to go 3 hours at a time some nights, other nights its barely 2 hours and during the day, well forget it! but i think slowly there may be some improvement which we have been waiting for, so hang in there. perhaps it was just a particularly bad night and a one off?
is that normal or is he gonna be a real chubbster soon?? He does feed pretty much most of the day 
