May mummies 2009 - a place to keep in touch

[Missy]

By the way, lovely pic Emsy! Your little brood are gorgeous

 

[NatalieW]

She averages about 4-5 hours max during the day and the same if I'm lucky at night. She's tired but she just won't sleep, or when she does she wakes crying after 20 mins or so. She gets quite miserable, probably from lack of sleep which is not nice for her....or me. Has anyone else had this? Does it get better?

I had all of this about four weeks ago!!! It did my head in and got to breaking point. I found that I had to sleep Isobel on her tummy and it worked alot better. She wakes from her sleep during the day about 20-430-40mins into her sleep cycle. I did some research, basically a babies sleep cycle is approx 40-60mins they do all the sleep stuff we do like deep sleep, REM, light sleep, but it takes us 60-90mins to complete and although we wake during light sleep we pull duvet up, turn over and go back to sleep. Babies haven't learnt to self sooth (well some of them!) and send themselves back to the next sleep cycle during the light periods.

Also if you miss the signals that they are tired ie yawning, rubbing face etc you have missed the window of opportunity to get the baby to sleep and if you miss this you then have to wait an hour (that's how long the sleep cycle is) before you can try again. I have also found that Isobel is only a wake about and hour between each cycle, to play eat etc.

What I learnt to do was if she had only 20mins I would go in and help settle her down, Isobel refuses the dummy so I use my little finger, I pat her back in reassurance and she drifts back off to the next sleep cycle. Sometimes I have to do this two / three times - any more than that there is something else wrong. I have to make sure that she has had a min 20/30minutes of sleep each cycle. I will say the first two weeks of doing this was the hardest. It is now much better. She sleeps for 2.5hours in morning, and upto 3.5hours in afternoon and then about 8/10hours at night. I hope some of that helps.

 

[Emsy26]

wow. thats really useful info nataliew, thankyou.

Theo slept in his cot last night, he looked so small in there, I've just ordered a sleep positioner so he stays on his back and it makes them feel as tho they are still being held, just because its such a big space, and he's so used to being enclosed in his moses basket. Hope it works xx

 

[Arcanegirl]

Very uaseful natalieW

Missy, i was also going to suggest putting to sleep on the front. We had to do this with Alex aswell and found he slept better and for longer

 

[Arcanegirl]

She sleeps for 2.5hours in morning, and upto 3.5hours in afternoon and then about 8/10hours at night. I hope some of that helps.

Im glad you said this, i was wondering if Alex was sleeping too much but it sounds just the same as him.

2ish hours in morning, 2.5-3 hours in afternoon and 12 at night.

 

[NatalieW]

I had plenty of time on my hands when she wouldn't sleep anywhere else but on me!!! I found it really interesting.

Babies around this age are meant to sleep between 15-18 hours in 24.

I'm glad she's not the only one sleeping this long in morning!!! Especially as she slept well the night before!

 

[Arcanegirl]

Alex went to bed at 8pm, up at 12am for 45 mins, 5.30am for 45 mins then up at 9am!

 

[NatalieW]

Isobel did something similar.

Bed at 8pm, had to re-settle at 830pm. Dream feed at 10pm. Up at 4am - wake for an hour!!! back to bed at 5am until 830am.

 

[Monkeh]

I'm not even aware of how long Dexter stays awake for at night. It's really not long though. He wakes up, gets boob and we both fall asleep again

Thats the beauty of co-sleeping and breastfeeding - zero effort

 

[NatalieW]

When I was BF I did exactly the same.

 

[Arcanegirl]

Yep i loved doing that, going to sleep whilst feeding.

The night feed i do is before weve even gone to bed so only Rob needs to wake up one

 

[AngieBaby]

Hi Everyone, hope everyone is well. Can you believe how the time has flown since our LOs were born in May??!!

Anyway, an update: Sarah was born on 8th May at 01:40am after I had been induced. She weighed 8lbs then and is now 11lb 7oz. I had 3 epidural attempts and none of them worked and so I had a forceps delivery with only gas & air for pain relief!!! ooouuuucccchhhh!! Still, she was delivered safely and she's absolutely gorgeous and an absolute star (although I am biased, obviously!) so it was all worth it.

I had real problems breastfeeding her to start with as I am large chested to start with and so couldn't position her properly and she wouldn't open her mouth wide enough to latch on correctly - I needed an extra pair of hands and a large cushion and a foot rest to be able to do it and it was a flippin nightmare! The midwives were excellent tho and they helped me each time to feed her and even though I had to give her formula as well as my milk didn't come through for 4 days after the birth and she got jaundice, I did manage to BF her unaided before I left the hospital. I have been BFing for 2 months now but I still give her formula as she's really hungry at 5-6pm and BF isn't enough. She's thriving and I love being a mam!

She has slept well since birth and apart from one night where she screamed for about 4 hours (I rang the hospital midwife and she advised to try a dummy - which worked a treat! and still does settle her to sleep (although she doesn't go to bed with it)) she has slept from her 11pm feed thru to around 5-6am which is great.

I hope all the first-time May Mummies (like me) are enjoying this first experience of motherhood. It's fab! )

 

[bethyb]

at the moment scarlett is going off about 8 and then wakes at about 2 for about 15 mins and then again at about 6 for 15 mins and then we are awake at 8 and she goes back off at about 10 which is when i run round like a mad one doing my cleaning and ironing!!

 

[AngieBaby]

BTW, thanks AG for the message, I'd never have found this page without it!

 

[kmh2009]

does anyone elses LO not wake for a night feed anymore? zach goes to bed at half 8 and sleeps right through until about half 5. he has a feed at ths time then goes back to sleep but thats pretty much morning so i count it as sleeping through.

hes also given up his dummy on his own now. odd

 

[faille]

Violet was sleeping from 7pm - 6/7am without waking for a feed (only having 4 bottles in 24hrs) but when I spoke to my HV about this she was horriefied because of the risk of dehydration for going so long without feeding and said babies this age should be on 6 bottles or at least 5.

So now I'm waking Violet up at 11pm for a small top up bottle which she takes no problem and it makes me feel a lot better that she's getting enough. She obviously wants it as she takes it but if it wasn't offered then she wouldn't wake up for it. It also lets her sleep in longer and now wakes up 7.30/8am not because she's hungry but because she's ready to get up. And thats lovely because I'm waking up to a smiling baby not a crying baby!

 

[snettyb]

I'm so jelous that you guys have babies that are sleeping through, its so not fair Jacob only gets up at 4.20am exactly every morning, its like he has a little alarm clock built into him . Got him weighed today and he is 13lb on the dot, what a chunky little monkey! xx

 

[kmh2009]

Violet was sleeping from 7pm - 6/7am without waking for a feed (only having 4 bottles in 24hrs) but when I spoke to my HV about this she was horriefied because of the risk of dehydration for going so long without feeding and said babies this age should be on 6 bottles or at least 5.

So now I'm waking Violet up at 11pm for a small top up bottle which she takes no problem and it makes me feel a lot better that she's getting enough. She obviously wants it as she takes it but if it wasn't offered then she wouldn't wake up for it. It also lets her sleep in longer and now wakes up 7.30/8am not because she's hungry but because she's ready to get up. And thats lovely because I'm waking up to a smiling baby not a crying baby!

zach has 5 or 6 bottles in the day....so that should be ok yeah?

 

[Arcanegirl]

i think 5/6 is fine. On the carton it says 6 bottles for 2months.

 

[charlieann]

I'm not even aware of how long Dexter stays awake for at night. It's really not long though. He wakes up, gets boob and we both fall asleep again

Thats the beauty of co-sleeping and breastfeeding - zero effort

do you not have to wind him though? ive dragged the cot right up to my bed so i can feed him and put him straight back, but if i dont wind him he's up few hours later rather than sleeping through till morning.