Sleep Sense Support Group!

[TennisGal]

Maxbean Definitely agree with HistoryGirls...SS teaches our LOs how to settle themselves back to sleep. It is hard the first few nights, but you can sit there with your LO and it's a great comfort (to you, your OH and your LO) You'll notice a big change quite quickly...and it definitely makes a big change to our LOs. Ask any questions you have at all...

HistoryGirls - when (if!) they are all sleeping well, I think we should keep this thread going with updates on our LOs. I love sharing, and love hearing how everyone is doing! And you better come on here, naps or no naps!! *shakes fist in menacing style*

You did give me a laugh about the tooth thing...I told ALL our family at Christmas that DD would have a tooth 'within weeks'...still no tooth!

 

[PieMistress]

All,

Well we are now into the 3rd night of Kyle being in his own room. He's not sleeping any longer as such but we are sleeping better without his snuffles and not having to worry about waking him up! He's still been waking up for a feed about 11.30pm (might be habitual wakening, not sure ... as it's at the same time every night) but today he went until 6.15 am after this rather than the usual 5am OH put the mobile up on his cot and he happily watched it till I fed him at 6.45am. He then had a sterling 2hr+ nap from 8am to 10am when we had to go out. The rest of his naps we were in town and he only napped 30 mins each time as he was much more interested in other things than sleeping! I prefer him to nap in his cot now as I know he's getting a decent kip

He has however become a very fussy feeder since Friday which i'm hoping is just teething as i'm getting quite upset with him fussy on the boob and not having a good feed He's been crying out in pain quite a bit too during/after feeding.

The cranial osteopath today was quite shocked when she saw the pics of Kyle after his birth and all the bruising from the forceps. She said that one side of his face has been compressed by the forceps which is causing him neck pain and makes him not like facing to the left (could also explain why he cries everytime we put anything over his head?) and his jaw and cheek are out of alignment which could cause dental problems in later life, and can also explain why he's had a few eye weeping problems and also that he's got a wonky smile because of his cheek !!! My beautiful baby boy !!! MWAHHH. I left feeling utterly crap like i'd been a bad mummy for not going to see her sooner. OH has been reassuring me by saying at least we are going now but she said that Kyle is at the upper end of the age specturm to get these issues fixed. OH is very sceptical too about what she has been saying as there is no proof that what they do is any good but TBH I just don't know what to think

Feeling on a bit of a downer about it all!

Anyway!!! All of your weaning sounds like such fun but I don't know how you get anything done with preparing all that food! Can anybody recommend any weaning books? I can't believe Kyle is 16w old on Friday !!

xx

 

[PieMistress]

PS - History : We went sea kayaking around Arisaig a couple of years ago, such a beautiful spot

 

[history_girls]

PM - we did cranial osteopathy at 6, 7 and 8 weeks and it changed our baby! Hold in there it might take a while but I'm a beliver and so is my very sceptical OH! Our osteopath said that we could take her back if she ever got a knock or something so must be possible to do it late on. You are going now and how are you supposed to know it would help? It was only a hv who found me in tears at clinic on my birthday that sat me down and talked through it that I found out about it!

Baby led weaning by Gill Rapley is a good read. I'm doing BLW with proper food and her feeding herself baby porridge and mushed fruit. I sometimes do it when she really likes something and can't get enough of it!

TG - I will join in whatever! Maybe I will try getting year 11 to have a nap after lunch (should be easy) and then post on that! Love the fist waving.... I'm a finger wagger myself!

 

[TennisGal]

PM what a horrid day. DO NOT feel like a bad Mummy, you are a wonderful Mummy - look at him napping, sleeping.
You are getting things sorted, and they will get sorted asap. Just think about that, and nothing else

Sounds like Kyle is teething, apparently (I've read lots about teething!) it can make them cry and fuss when feeding, as it can be painful...this from KellyMom Teething can cause fussy nursing behavior, as some babies experience gum discomfort with sucking. Baby might start to nurse, but then pull off and cry or fuss and not want to nurse anymore. See Teething for more information and tips.

Have you thought about what kind of weaning you want to do? If traditional - Annabel Karmel is fabulous, she has recipes, meal plans, advice etc. If BLW, there is a book I've got by Gill Rapley called 'Baby Led Weaning'. We've started trad, and will introduce BLW with the purees.

 

[history_girls]

PM - it is sooooo beautiful up there it breaks my heart to leave. I think Ardnamurchan is the most wonderful place in the world. Keep trying to convince OH to pack up down here and move there and run a b&b or something.

 

[TennisGal]

What foods has Phoebe tried BLW stylee, HG? We've gone for steamed veggies (sweet pot, parsnip etc) and banana.

Yep, Year 11 sounds like a good bet...if I remember myself back then (can just remember that far!) I seemed to spend a disproportionate amount of time being sleepy!

 

[history_girls]

Phoebe has had:

Roast potato, Roast Parsnip, roast Chicken, Vegetable Lasagne, Spag Bol, Carrots, Baby Corn, Peppers, Tomato, Haggis (holiday treat), sweede, cauliflower, brocolli, mange tout, chicken taken out of the curry before sauce added, bread crust, Venison burger (she stole that from my mum when she wasn't looking), banana, mango and prob more

 

[TennisGal]

That's fan-tastic! Does she have these things cooked differently? Not sure what to do regarding salt etc. Do you just put pieces in front of her?

 

[history_girls]

Well anything that has a high salt I just take her bits out first but today I bought baby stock cubes from boots so she can have casserole.

She has most veg steamed, but tomato and pepper etc... raw.

I put them down in front of her but I eat at the same time and she just tends to copy. Last week if we ate and she didn't she would just grab my plate and steal!

She does tend to drop a lot on the floor much to the delight of the dog who is now getting fat and strangely eating lots of fruit. He would never eat banana before but if she has it he has to have some. Weird dog.

She has gagged a bit (not choked) but is totally fine at dealing with it. I panic a bit but she is always fine. And there was evidence of carrot in her nappy this morning!

 

[TennisGal]

that's great - do you cook spag bol etc from scratch? low salt sauce? I'm going to try and get a bit brave and do more of this...I know DD would enjoy getting stuck in. I get so worried about choking.

oh, solid food nappies are lovely...!! All that fruit and veg!

 

[history_girls]

I do now - I used to jar it! I tend to make two dinners worth for us at a time and freeze one half - that way on bad days I just get it out the freezer warm on hob and all done. The Salt content of the curry sauce we had today was horrendus so she can never have that. I make casseroles from scratch but my MIL does everything from scratch. I think I will ask her to write me a few recipes.

Oh a great food was noodles! She just untangled them one by one!

 

[Arcanegirl]

Hello

Im new to sleepsense and had a read about it after a reccomendation from Foogirl

A bit of background...
We had done controlled crying at 7.5 months as part of weaning from the dummy, from that we had good sleeping. Every once in a while we would have to go back to being strict and putting things back in place but it always worked.

But recently C no longer worked and we had got to a point of Alex would only sleep being held and patted and wouldnt go down in the cot at all unless he was deeply asleep. The last straw was when he woke at 2am and took 40 mins before i could put him down and he would stay asleep.

From then on since CC didnt work, we resorted to crying it out. Weve been doing that for a week now but im still not comfortable doing it.

So where were at now, we have the bedtime routine, not exactly as sleepsense says but its the same one weve been doing for months and months now.
We have bedtime at 7.30-8pm, he gets tired by this time anways, theres no keeping him up when hes tired!
From doing cio we have made it to 3-5 mins at naptimes and 5-10 mins for bedtime.

So going from that i dont think theres much i need to do different, itll only be if he doesnt settle in those times and i need to go in then i have to work on him being okay with me coming in to settle him but leaving again.
For now he gets worked up more if i go in (why cc stopped working).

So yea, thats us

 

[Arcanegirl]

Oh and i forgot my questions lol!

First one, the book says about falling asleep on the bottle. Now alex doesnt fall asleep taking it, he just gets drowsy, so am i okay to keep giving it to him?

And second one, if i do need to go in to comfort him, what do i do about a standing baby? Do i put him down and then settle him or settle him as hes standing and hope he goes himself?

 

[TennisGal]

Hi ArcaneGirl - welcome!

Regarding the standing/sitting thing - Dana (the guru!) says that you should lie your LO back down, saying 'sleepy time', if he gets up...repeat the process five or six times. If this doesn't work, and gets LO more upset, let him continue standing or sitting - but every now and then pat the mattress and ask him to lie down again. According to the guidelines, he will eventually decide lying down is a much better option - especially if he's not forced to lie down (apparently LOs calm much more quickly when they make the decision!)

Regarding the feeding thing...our DD definitely gets sleeping when she's having her bedtime BF, and sometimes falls asleep. I just go with it - and follow her lead. I aim for her to be awake, but sometimes that just doesn't happen. I think if he's drowsy, it should be ok?

Sounds like you'll probably get some great results v. quickly!

History_Girls - love the noodles!! I've been reading the book again, and think that along with purees tomorrow, I may offer some foods that I am eating. Maybe some cheese? I think we'll carry on with mixed weaning, but I'm going to offer DD much more variety throughout the day. I keep forgetting that they can try so much!

 

[Arcanegirl]

Thankyou

If i have to let him keep standing, do i still try and comfort him whilst hes standing (in between convincing him to lie down)?

 

[TennisGal]

Morning to everyone!

Arcane Girl - yes, I think that side of things is the same...how were things last night?

DD is STILL on her four feeds per night! Checked with friend who is guru of these sorts of things, and she said the spurt could go on for a bit longer. I told DD I expected cartwheels at this rate She's on fab form, and woke us up (we did get a lie in) saying Dada over and over, to which I informed DH he MUST get brekkie ready before leaving for work, as she clearly wanted him to do it She did v.well this morning, apple puree and steamed apple. She gummed a bit of bagel, too. Had to check her mouth afterwards, as apparently our LOs store bits of bread in their cheeks a la hamster and can choke later.

Had to do a bit of SS last night, as after midnight feed she was a little bit grumpy, but it lasted just a couple of mins.

 

[PieMistress]

Has anybody emailed Dana with questions and got a reply? After SS agreed I could ask a couple of questions via email rather than telephone I then got an email back saying I should upgrade to the Gold Package!! I had to reply and say that sorry but I cannot afford this and they did agree to answer my questions (there were 3) via email rather than the 'free' 15 minute phone call you get.

Just wondering if anybody else had been in touch with them?

Off to read posts, am loving all the weaning talk!

 

[history_girls]

Morning Ladies

AG - I agree with tennis girl about not forcing him to lie down as that could led to him really not wanting to do it. Sleepsense should work for you especially if you don't like cry it out - you stay with them. Mine hates pu/pd so I never do it now it just winds her up when she dosen't get to stay on me. Does he have a 'nunu'? (a comforter or teddy). Phoebe knows as soon as nunu appears it is sleep time and she puts him on her head (we have an elephant one at night that never leaves her cot for fear of losing it and a rabbit one for the day). Takes a while to establish the link but really works for us.

I would comfort him whilst standing myself and repeat your sleep phrase (our is nighty night time).

TG - i think mixed weaning is best of both really even though I don't do much traditional I had to this morning as she couldn't get enough in quickly enough (pureed mango) so she snogged a chunk in between me shovelling!

Question ladies:

As you know LO slept through night before last without a feed! Last night at 12.30 woke crying, tried to resettle but not having it so I fed her (only took half a feed) then this morning only took half a morning bottle so I'm thinking she finally doesn't need that night feed. How do I go about retraining her that there is no nappy change and feed in the night? I'm guessing it is back to ss but with work looming on monday I'm dreading being up ages in the night!

 

[TennisGal]

That's an interesting one, HG, because I was musing on the same thing myself...just wondering if DD would take any of her growth spurt feeds onwards...and then, what happens when they don't really feed, but it's just habit. I'm not sure, maybe offer her a feed...if she doesn't take it, return her to bed and start the SS thing? We had a tiny bit of that last night, DD had a good feed, got a bit annoyed post feed when she was returned to bed, so we thought she may still be hungry...she just started grabbing my hair and laughing (v.cute, but middle of the night!) so we had to do a bit of SS. Literally, only a few mins - she went back to sleep v.quickly.

I do, however, think we'll have a bit of protestation once the growth spurt is over!

Love the mango! DH and I were chatting about it all this morning, he's as nervous as me - DD licked a bit of Philly light off the bagel, and he got v.worried...(it's not ideal, so we'll be using proper cheese) so he's going to read BLW. We've said we'll Annabel and Gill, and just go with what we're all comfortable with. I guess you get more confident?

PM - I mailed about naps, and got a response on the same day. Hmmm, I mailed the customer support email address? They should definitely be answering your questions, that's agreed!