Sleep Sense Support Group!

[polaris]

DH was very disappointed with the biscuits - he'd forgotten they aren't sweet...and 'milk and vanilla organic cookies' had got his taste buds ready. They basically taste of not very much to an adult palate! She had a wonderful dinner...carrot puree, pear and apple cooked in cinammon and BM, some roasted courgette, pepper and a bit of pasta. Oh, and an infamous baby biccie (most of which she threw around the place...)

We've just had bath, BF and 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar'

P - how was weaning today? Yes, I think looking back at this thread now...I can see when the actual growth spurt came to an end...and when habit took over, lol

HG - Boy-cat has ended up with many a splat, too. Nothing funnier than seeing a cat in a 'errr, I'm a cat - I don't do being embarrassed' moment! Haha. Good luck with the interviewing...I can't remember much about my interviews, except having to talk at length about previous employment and projects!

Thanks for asking about weaning - we had a GREAT day today! We both had porridge for breakfast - Thomas did fantastic with a pre-loaded spoon but also really enjoyed getting stuck in with his hands after a while. I know it's totally off-topic but here he is getting stuck into his porridge! Then we went out for lunch for SIL's birthday. Thomas sat in the high chair in the restaurant and was absolutely fantastic for the whole meal. I had brought along some rice cakes which he loved but he also tried a few bits and pieces from my plate. I don't think he's really swallowing anything yet, just getting used to new tastes and textures - but it is such fun!! OH's family were really impressed with how much he was enjoying it.

 

[TennisGal]

What a lovely picture - how sweet is Thomas?! Look at him getting stuck into his breakfast!

Whenever DD has a new food, she tends to just try out how it feels...rather than eat much. I love the look of concentration, though, when they get something in their little hand...contemplate it...and then gum it!

Organix do some fabulous baby rice cakes - naturally flavoured. DD has the apple and cinnamon packets, and adores them.

So good that the family all enjoyed it, too. Our family have been captivated by DD weaning - purees and BLW!

 

[polaris]

makes me know that this will work and she will still love me in the morning.

That was/is my exact worry too!

They will still love you in the morning - definitely! And actually in a few days time you might find that they are even more full of smiles after a good night's sleep. I know Thomas is generally much less cranky and a more contented baby since he started sleeping better. Everyone always comments now on how contented he is and what an easy baby he is. Even teething he copes with so much better when he is not tired.

 

[TennisGal]

Bump & Poppy - I know how hard it is. I was saying to DH (after about two mins) 'that's it - let's not bother'...but we reminded ourselves how worried we were that we'd have an accident when DD was sleeping on us. We were so tired, we were petrified we'd fall asleep with her on one of us.

The whole family are better rested...has meant that we have more energy for play...all three of us!

And you know what? The first morning after SS, I got a massive, gummy, HUGE grin!

 

[TennisGal]

Yep, Polaris is right...amazing what a change sleep makes for our LOs

 

[Cattia]

Hey fellow sleepsensers! You know I can hardly keep up with this thread, there are so many posts, it's fabulous! TG happy 7 months! Bet it's gone so fast! HG hope you're feeling better now and congrats on the 1000th post!

Polaris I have heard the 6 month growth spurt is a bad one but that things settle dowa lot afterwards, I hope it doesn't hit you too hard! Could also be teething? I think we might be experiencing a bit of that.

Poppy, Definitley start with nights, naps are SOOO much harder. Stick at it but also don't beat yourself up if you don't do it to the letter, there's always tomorrow night! Your LO will be happy and cheerful when he can sleep better and the frustration of not being able to settle himself will be a thing of the past.

Bumpontherun, I hope things are OK and DD is sleeping soundly!

Well, we had a NIGHTMARE last night! Worst night in ages! I really think she might be teething. She has had green poo for a week, and I thought she had an upset tummy, but my friend told me green poo can be a sign of teething and she has been dribbling and had red cheeks. Last night she woke up at 9.30, wouldn't settle and I fed her, then again at 1.30, winged until 2am so I fed her, woke again at 3am so I fed her AGAIN (was worried she might have tummy ache) then woke up again at 3.30!!!!! I remembered sleepsense (things had been going so well with self settling that I had kind of forgotten it all) and DH managed to settle her using her blankie! Tonight I am going to feed her the first time she wakes up, then if she wakes up again less than three hours later I will be going for the re-settling. Goes to show what happens when you get complacent!

Hope you all have a god night. DH is out so I am going to bed to get some shut eye in case we get a repeat of last night!

 

[polaris]

What a lovely picture - how sweet is Thomas?! Look at him getting stuck into his breakfast!

Whenever DD has a new food, she tends to just try out how it feels...rather than eat much. I love the look of concentration, though, when they get something in their little hand...contemplate it...and then gum it!

Organix do some fabulous baby rice cakes - naturally flavoured. DD has the apple and cinnamon packets, and adores them.

So good that the family all enjoyed it, too. Our family have been captivated by DD weaning - purees and BLW!

I must look out for the Organix stuff, it sounds great. I just got plain tesco no-salt rice cakes - a bit bland for my liking but Thomas seemed pretty happy with them. I was thinking they would be a good alternative to bread/toast for spreading stuff on as I am always horrified by the amount of salt in bread. Yes that look of concentration is fantastic to see - and the facial expressions in reaction to the new tastes/sensations! I was just thinking that Thomas was getting pretty bored with a lot of his toys - now here is a whole new world for him to explore - it's great!

 

[history_girls]

rice cakes is the one thing we haven't had in Phoebe-led-weaning - must get some! I must admit pureed shepherds pie does not look nice but she adored it!

P - do people look at you strangely when you had Thomas proper food? I've had gasps out of people. But when they see her with a tomato they soon stop! i love his bib - we have some like that but no as waterproof looking. where did you get it? or is it in Ireland and I would have a long drive?

Poor you Cattia - SS does say they test the waters after ages of being good! OH had to do ss on DD this morning at 4am. worked a treat.

Poppy7 and bumpontherun - how is it? are they sleeping? remember if they wake to leave it a little bit before going - this was our mistake. the quicker we went up the worse. Normally 5 mins and she was asleep on her own.

 

[polaris]

Well, we had a NIGHTMARE last night! Worst night in ages! I really think she might be teething. She has had green poo for a week, and I thought she had an upset tummy, but my friend told me green poo can be a sign of teething and she has been dribbling and had red cheeks. Last night she woke up at 9.30, wouldn't settle and I fed her, then again at 1.30, winged until 2am so I fed her, woke again at 3am so I fed her AGAIN (was worried she might have tummy ache) then woke up again at 3.30!!!!! I remembered sleepsense (things had been going so well with self settling that I had kind of forgotten it all) and DH managed to settle her using her blankie! Tonight I am going to feed her the first time she wakes up, then if she wakes up again less than three hours later I will be going for the re-settling. Goes to show what happens when you get complacent!

Hope you all have a god night. DH is out so I am going to bed to get some shut eye in case we get a repeat of last night!

Oh no - hopefully it was just a once off - but sounds like a good plan to feed her once and then try to resettle her if she wakes after less than three hours later. I think I should probably be trying to resettle Thomas without feeding if he wakes at 9.30/10 again this evening - he hasn't needed feeding at that time since he was about three months old so I really don't think he needs the feed even if he's starting a growth spurt - I find it SO hard to resettle him without feeding him though, he just sees me and wants milk, the cries get stronger as soon as I go into the room. OH is out this evening so I can't send him - so will probably end up feeding him. I also worry that he might be wanting to feed more because he is fighting off a cold, I have a cold at the moment so I don't really want to stop him feeding if he's possibly coming down with something. Definitely sounds like your LO is teething and maybe that's what's waking her rather than actually needing a feed? Maybe try rubbing her gums or giving her some teething powder/gel when she wakes up during the night to see if that helps?

 

[polaris]

rice cakes is the one thing we haven't had in Phoebe-led-weaning - must get some! I must admit pureed shepherds pie does not look nice but she adored it!

P - do people look at you strangely when you had Thomas proper food? I've had gasps out of people. But when they see her with a tomato they soon stop! i love his bib - we have some like that but no as waterproof looking. where did you get it? or is it in Ireland and I would have a long drive?

Poor you Cattia - SS does say they test the waters after ages of being good! OH had to do ss on DD this morning at 4am. worked a treat.

Poppy7 and bumpontherun - how is it? are they sleeping? remember if they wake to leave it a little bit before going - this was our mistake. the quicker we went up the worse. Normally 5 mins and she was asleep on her own.

Ooh definitely try some rice cakes, they are not really my cup of tea but they are so easy for babies to manage and seem to go down a treat.

The bib is from IKEA. https://www.ikea.com/ie/en/catalog/products/70179754
I think they are a bit expensive but they work brilliantly for messy foods and are actually so waterproof that they pretty much wipe clean afterwards.

Reactions from other people: MIL was a bit shocked today I think and thought we were rushing into it too fast for him - but I pointed out that he's not actually swallowing most of the food yet, just getting used to the feel of it in his mouth and then spitting it out, and she watched him like a hawk for a bit and then agreed that was what he was doing. The restaurant was pretty empty so didn't get any looks from strangers! The waiter thought it was great but I think he might have thought Thomas was a bit older.

I agree about not rushing in if they wake during the night.

 

[history_girls]

Thanks for the bib tip - my mum is off to ikea this weekend as it happens and might get her to get me some! the ones i got from tesco were about 4 quid and they are quite good but sleeves are not backed with waterproof stuff.

I quite like rice cakes so will prob end up eating them.

 

[Poppy7]

Cute photo of Thomas!!! What do you mix with his porridge Polaris? I really want to make Elliott some porridge but I do not have a big breast milk stash and like to save it for emergencies. Elliott has tried the organix rice cakes. he certainly prefers them to normal rice cakes. Hos favourite at the moment is pear, bread, potatoes, brocolli, courgette and chicken. He wasn't too sure on orange - his face was a picture.

Elliott is still sleeping at the moment. Generally consensus is he settles beautifully at night and then it starts an hour or 2 after putting him down. It baffles me as he used to go to bed at 7pm and sleep through until 12-1am. He would then wake up once/very rairly twice before 7am. This was do-able and I was very happy with this. We were very poorly a few weeks ago and obviously he needed more cuddles during this time and it has gone down hill from there. That is when the 1 -2 hour wakings have started. So, I guess I'm so frustrated as he was doing fine before so this means I know he can do it!!!!

 

[TennisGal]

Cattia - sounds to me like Abigail has a tooth en route! Exciting! I hope you have a better night tonight...let us know how you get on, and when that tooth appears Like P says, Teetha has helped DD settle when she's had a teething flare up.

Time has FLOWN, I can't believe it...seven months already!

HG - they have wipe down bibs in Mothercare, too. They don't have sleeves, but are v.useful. DD has a pink fairy one, lol. I think I'll order an Ikea one too (thanks for link, P)

We've had odd looks when doing BLW - when DD was munching at the weekend, we had some 'oh wow' looks, which was lovely.

P - the Organix range is really good. No salt, sugar...all natural. I've actually just started to make bread...just doing a few different flavours (cinammon, herb) and leaving out the salt. I've got a breadmaker, so it's relatively speedy.
There are some good loaves out there with a small amount of salt...but some are v.high, aren't they? M&S have very low salt :thumbsup:

 

[TennisGal]

Poppy - DD was waking for up to five feeds during her growth spurt, and continued a while afterwards...we've just got back on track (one night feed) Elliot will be able to get back in his groove

Funny, DD really isn't keen on potato - she seems to have gone off it. I got a very disapproving 'urghhhhhhhhhh' face!

 

[Poppy7]

Poppy - DD was waking for up to five feeds during her growth spurt, and continued a while afterwards...we've just got back on track (one night feed) Elliot will be able to get back in his groove

You see, this is what I'm afraid of. Maybe he is having a growth spurt??? He is back to feeding like a newborn during the day since being poorly. he rarely goes 3 hours between feeds during the day anymore. What if I'm mis-interpreting him?x

 

[polaris]

Cute photo of Thomas!!! What do you mix with his porridge Polaris? I really want to make Elliott some porridge but I do not have a big breast milk stash and like to save it for emergencies. Elliott has tried the organix rice cakes. he certainly prefers them to normal rice cakes. Hos favourite at the moment is pear, bread, potatoes, brocolli, courgette and chicken. He wasn't too sure on orange - his face was a picture.

Elliott is still sleeping at the moment. Generally consensus is he settles beautifully at night and then it starts an hour or 2 after putting him down. It baffles me as he used to go to bed at 7pm and sleep through until 12-1am. He would then wake up once/very rairly twice before 7am. This was do-able and I was very happy with this. We were very poorly a few weeks ago and obviously he needed more cuddles during this time and it has gone down hill from there. That is when the 1 -2 hour wakings have started. So, I guess I'm so frustrated as he was doing fine before so this means I know he can do it!!!!

Poppy - I just used regular cow's milk to make the porridge. I don't have a huge stash of EBM either and I have read that it is OK to use cow's milk in cooking from 6 months - after all if you are giving yoghurt, cheese, etc. then they are getting dairy anyway. I don't think it's advised to give cow's milk before six months though.

That is so frustrating that he used to sleep pretty well and things got worse instead of better. But I think it is pretty common. Apparently when babies reach about four months their sleep cycles change and the light sleep phase of the sleep cycle becomes more pronounced. This means that the baby is actually partially waking up every 1 or 2 hours at the end of the sleep cycle, apparently this is totally normal and will continue throughout life, we are normally not aware of these partial wakings because we just maybe turn over in bed or move our arm into a more comfortable position and go straight back to sleep. But when babies don't know how to settle themselves back to sleep after these partial wakings they end up fully waking up every hour or two throughout the night. The good news is that once they learn to settle themselves back to sleep the partial wakings aren't a problem anymore - Thomas will sometimes cry out once or twice and then go straight back to sleep - or sometimes he will moan for a couple of minutes before going back to sleep - but generally I only have to go in to him if he needs a feed, the rest of the time he just does it himself.

 

[Bumpontherun]

Poppy7 and bumpontherun - how is it? are they sleeping? remember if they wake to leave it a little bit before going - this was our mistake. the quicker we went up the worse. Normally 5 mins and she was asleep on her own.

She is asleep, she cried for exactly 1 hour down to the minute!!

Thanks to everyone for the support, it is really appreciated.

Poppy7 thanks for calling me brave, I don't feel brave, I feel like a really horrible person. I'm absolutely dreading her waking up, DH will be asleep then with his earplugs in he's got work tomorrow.

Polaris - I love Thomas's all over bib, might get one for me to wear whilst eating and breastfeeding at the same time!

HG - It must be really hard sending your LO to the childminder but she seems to be doing really well anyway

Watching Glee now and eating some chocolate, still feeling a wee bit sick

 

[Poppy7]

Bumpontherun I think you have done brilliantly. I lasted 25 minutes before I started crying earlier and gave in. What is your LO's sleep problems? Does she have a dummy? Elliott self settles beautifully when we put him to bed, it's the excessive night esking that I am trying to rectify!

I hope you have a good night with her.xx

 

[polaris]

Poppy - DD was waking for up to five feeds during her growth spurt, and continued a while afterwards...we've just got back on track (one night feed) Elliot will be able to get back in his groove

You see, this is what I'm afraid of. Maybe he is having a growth spurt??? He is back to feeding like a newborn during the day since being poorly. he rarely goes 3 hours between feeds during the day anymore. What if I'm mis-interpreting him?x

I think even during a growth spurt he shouldn't need to feed every hour through the night - that is definitely excessive in my opinion and is stopping him from getting a decent night's sleep as well as you. Did you say that he normally sleep for a longer stretch up until 1 a.m. and then restless for the rest of the night? If he is feeding every hour then he is probably not taking a huge amount at each feed as your boobs won't have had time to fully refill - it would be much better for both of you if he was having one or two proper night feeds instead of constant snack feeding through the night.

When I first started I promised myself that I would not feed Thomas if it had been less than three hours since his last feed - that I would try to resettle him but if he wasn't settling and it got to three hours from his last feed then I would feed him - so I was only planning on trying to stretch him an extra hour if he woke up after two hours. But what I found was that when I resettled him without feeding he then slept for the rest of the night without looking for a feed at all! If he had been really hungry then there is no way he would have done that. I think if your LO is really hungry he will let you know.

 

[polaris]

Poppy7 and bumpontherun - how is it? are they sleeping? remember if they wake to leave it a little bit before going - this was our mistake. the quicker we went up the worse. Normally 5 mins and she was asleep on her own.

She is asleep, she cried for exactly 1 hour down to the minute!!

Thanks to everyone for the support, it is really appreciated.

Poppy7 thanks for calling me brave, I don't feel brave, I feel like a really horrible person. I'm absolutely dreading her waking up, DH will be asleep then with his earplugs in he's got work tomorrow.

Polaris - I love Thomas's all over bib, might get one for me to wear whilst eating and breastfeeding at the same time!

HG - It must be really hard sending your LO to the childminder but she seems to be doing really well anyway

Watching Glee now and eating some chocolate, still feeling a wee bit sick

Oh you poor thing that is not easy at all. How long does she normally sleep for when she goes down at bedtime? What is your plan when she wakes up? Are you going to feed and then get her to self-settle or are you going to try to resettle her without feeding? Enjoy your chocolate, you deserve it. Hopefully the rest of the night will be easier.