Sleep Sense Support Group!

[hivechild]

TG - I can't imagine how tough of a decision that will be for you to make. I have no intention of stopping BFing anytime soon (6 months today - yay!) and hope to make it well past 1 year. I hope her ear infection clears up soon too. Poor mite.

I'm glad that everyone else has been doing decently. We've been all over the place lately with some truly horrible nights and crabby cranky days, and then occasional good nights...and then today to celebrate his 6 month milestone, Ronan has decided that rather than nap when he went down at 3:40pm this afternoon that he was going to go to bed for the night. It's almost 10pm and he still hasn't stirred. I have no idea how badly this is going to mess him up but I'm anticipating a looooong night once he does stir.

 

[polaris]

TennisGal Poor DD, that ear infection is really dragging on for her, the poor little thing. And what a dilemma about the breastfeeding/TTC. Hopefully the consultant can shed a bit more light on things for you. I don't know what I would do in that situation, it would be so difficult to make a decision on it. I am nowhere near ready to stop breastfeeding either.

Poppy - yay great night's sleep for Elliot!

Hivechild - wow that is a seriously long nap! what time did he finally wake up at? Hopefully he just needed an extra early night due to growth spurt and it won't affect his normal routine too much! Wow 3.40 is early to go to bed for the night though!! Happy six month birthday to Ronan.

Well Thomas slept through again - this time until 6.25 a.m. So he has now slept through Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights this week! I am starting to feel a bit more optimistic that it might continue! And just a couple of weeks ago we were back to two night feeds and I felt like we were moving backwards. There is hope for everyone!

 

[Poppy7]

TG, you have my sympathy too. I also have no idea when I will stop BF'ing.....I keep on extending my target Do let us know how you get on with the consultant.

HC, that is some serious sleeping from Ronan. I echo polaris' question...when did he wake up? Sounds like he us doing some serious growing!

Polaris, Thomas' sleeping through seems to be getting much more consistant which is great news.

Elliott went to a bed a bit later last night as my brother and his girlfriend came over to see us. I went to lay him down after his bath/bed routine at just gone 8pm and he projectile vomited everywhere and there was a lot of it. He seemed fine and was chatting and playing whilst the clean up operation was happening. It was just gone 8.30 when normality resumed and I thought I would offer him more milk as ge had emptied his belly but he refused. I didn't hold out for a great night as I assumed he would wake up hungry. However he slept until 5.30am had a quick feed and them slept until 7.35am. He seems fine this morning so I'm not sure what upset his stomach.xx

 

[PieMistress]

Hi

Hope you are all well! I've just had my last full week with Kyle before going back to work! He has settling in sessions on Monday and Tuesday, our last full day together just the two of us on Wednesday, back to work Thursday (OH looking after him) and then he starts nursery full time on Friday! Can't believe it's gone by so fast

TG - I love BF too! Have had to cut it down to 2 x BFs now as am back to work next week when it will go down to only one I'll keep up the morning feed as long as I can but not sure how my supply will be affected. Let us know how it goes with the consultant. I've not had any sign of AF yet? Am assuming this is normal with BF though - does anybody know when it should be expected to make an appearance? Hope those antibs clear up her ear infection good and proper this time, poor toot.

Polaris - YEY for Thomas sleeping through the night! Whoop what a good boy It's great that he is being more consistent, yippeee!

Hive - wowzer, Ronan staying asleep that long in the afternoon, how did the night go? Happy 6-month birthday too!

Well, night feeds have been dropped for 2 weeks now He was totally ready i'm sure. We just reduced his feeds by 1 minute each night until they were only 4 minutes long then stopped. We only really had one night of protest but it wasn't bad at all (unlike the first time we tried to stop them and he deffo wasn't ready).

He's still moving around in the cot a lot but getting used to it now. We borrowed a video monitor off a friend so we could see when he actually needed us to go in as opposed to just yelling for attention. It's brill! It's so cute watching him sleep and wriggle around. Anyway, he's getting much more used to it now and seems to prefer sleeping on his side/tummy much more.

Kyle has slept through the night the past 3 nights now (well, from 6.30pm until about 5.30am although today he woke up at 5.10am!! too early!). The problem is that he can't stay awake any longer than 6.30pm as has dropped the catnap so needs an early bed and after 11hrs of sleep has had enough and it ready to start the day. 5.30am I can just about cope with but not any earlier! Problem is when he starts nursery I know he will struggle to nap so would love for him to sleep a bit longer in the morning so that he is more able to handle a longer morning but hopefully he will eventually adapt! Could go one way or the other (his overtiredness!).

Despite him waking up at 5.10am I waited until 9am for his nap rather than put him down at 8.15am like I used to ie/ 3hrs after he woke up, to try and keep his nap times consistent and help set his body clock. Is anybody else sticking to the same nap times regardless of wake up time or do you adjust them each day?

We went out for a family lunch for my birthday yesterday and Kyle was so well behaved! He shared my chicken salad and ate everything really well, am so happy we are BLW. I think at nursery he will do a bit of TW and BLW but I don't really mind, we have so much fun at home. He has favourites now and reaches out and squeals when he sees certain things ie/ oatcakes !

He's in nursery from 8.30am - 11am tomorrow for a settling session which will include a nap - ARGHGHGHGHGH! xx

 

[TennisGal]

Ladies thank you so much...I feel a bit less today, and DH and I will feel a lot happier when we've spoken to our specialist...he saw us from a year before DD was born, right through until the day after she was born! We'll see - I think it's all just a bit that the PCOS will come back, as I feel more healthy and great than I have done in ages. It's such an energy sapping thing. I'll let you know how it goes!

PM - AF can appear anytime, and I clarified with the doc a good while ago that it's perfectly normal for her to stay away during BFing, and quite often, for a good while afterwards. Mine is only every two months (and it's only been twice - so could be a fluke!) so not a regular thing...I was just v.excited after SUCH a long period (no pun) without her (and I mean before being pg)

Kyle sounds like he is doing a-mazingly! Go Kyle! Isn't the BLW thing lovely? I like seeing how people give DD little admiring glances, as she tucks into something with relish

Let us know how you get on at the nursery - and big with the BFing thing, I know how you feel. As another aside, one of my bestest buddies is still feeding her son every evening...and it's their only feed, her supply has been fine

Polaris - WELL done, Thomas!! Fabulous sleeping!

HC - we're all in suspense, when did Ronan wake up? The growth spurts are hard, aren't they?

Poppy - poor Elliott, is he ok today? Must have been something that didn't agree with him?

I've just made DD a new batch of cheese, spinach and onion muffins - she loves them - as am indulging ALL her favourites while her ear gets better. These went down v well when we tried them last time.

I was just thinking - this thread must make amazing reading...at the beginning, we were all exhausted, we never slept, our LOs didn't know how to sleep...and look at things now!

Lots of xxx

 

[Cattia]

Evening ladies

TG -What a dilema for you! I hope your speciailist can set things out more clearly for you. Are they really sure it will return or is that just your Dr's 'hunch'? It's a really tricky one. Have you tired any acupuncture? I found it amazing for helping with quite severe PMS that I used to get. I also had one friend who went through IVF as she could not conceieve, got pg then had an early miscarraige, and then when she went to an acupuncturist she was pg naturally within three months and now has a beautiful daughter! It certainly isn't a miracvle cure for everything but might be worth a try?

Hive - we are all on the edge of our seats!

PM - I feel your pain. I have one more week of my summer hols then I am back four days a week. Even thought I went back for three days a week before the summer, I kind of feel as though I am starting all over again and I am so sad about it I am doing three feeds a day at the moment, when I am back at work the afternoon one will be replaced with a FF. When I first went back I pumped that feed but I just can't see how I'll manage it in September with how full on everything is. I will carry on with the morning and evening feeds, hopefully until she is one. We would like to TTC again soon though and so far so sign of AF. I had a kind of weird thing a couple of months back with cramping and some light spotting for a day but nothing since.

Well I have to say I am just SOOOO proud of Abigail! She is 8 months today and is just doing more and more each day! She's trying hard to crawl but has not yet digured out what to do with her legs. She has come down with a really streaming cold and is teethig like crazy, has been off her food and everything. With all that going on I was expecting a horrible night, but she woke for about a minute at about 4.30 and settled herself back down, then didn't wake again until 6.25 this morning! She really is doing amazingly.

I hope you all have a great night again. Sleepydust to everyone

XX

PS: TG I hope the ear infection clears up soon, and I would love the recipe for your muffins!
x

 

[TennisGal]

I was thinking of going to the Kite Clinic for acupuncture the month I found out I was pg with DD! I am going to see our specialist, see what he says...and then think about acupuncture, too. I've heard only positive things...so definitely worth a visit.
All my research shows that it does come-back Maybe, you never know, I could be one of the very lucky ones...and it may just go full stop. Happens for a very, very, very small number of women. Fingers crossed!

I'll PM you the recipe right now

What a star Abigail is - I told DD I was v.proud of her this evening, as she's been doing so well sleeping, with her horrid ear infection (and now she has my cold! I feel so bad!)

 

[hivechild]

Sorry for keeping you all in suspense!

He woke at 10:15ish so a little over 6 1/2 hours after he went down for his nap. I was going to treat it like a night waking but after he took a monster feed he was still quite chipper when usually he's dozy and ready to go right back to sleep. We went to say hello to his daddy and the dog for a little bit and then I decided to go through the rest of his bedtime routine so we went and had a nice relaxing bath, top up feed and then read a few books and he was back asleep by 11:30.


The rest of the night wasn't great but I kind of expected that after sleeping so long through the afternoon and evening. He slept another 3 hour stretch but then woke every 1-1 1/2 hours until we got up for good at 8am. We got back on track with naps throughout the day although they were all short of about 40-50 minutes.

Unfortunately we were having a great afternoon and spending a little time sitting outside with the dog on the lawn when Ronan wanted to get down off my lap and onto the grass. He's done it plenty of times before without incident but this time he rolled into a swarm of ants that had come from who knows where and got bit all over his arms and legs. I feel like such an awful mummy.

Anyway, I brushed off what I could see before running inside and stripping him down because they'd got all in under his clothes Then I got my angry revenge squishing ants while on the phone calling his doctor's office for advice. I gave him some infant tylenol and ran him a luke warm/verging on cool bath with colloidal oatmeal but he got upset and started screaming so I climbed in with him and tried to keep him distracted long enough to have a bit of a soak. After that I just put him in a nappy so I could keep an eye on him for any signs of reaction or hives and slathered topical benadryl on the bites.

With all that done, he didn't seem to show any signs of them bothering him but at his age, it's so hard to tell so I'm not sure I would know if they were. I skipped his late afternoon nap because he often fights it and I didn't want to get him distressed and not know if it was just because he was crabby and didn't want to nap or if the bites were hurting. I kept him up as long as I could without getting into overtired territory and then went up and he had a sleepy feed and a snuggle before I put him down. The bites were looking less angry by then but I'm still so worried that he'll have a reaction or something horrible like that, even though the logical side of me knows that it would have happened by now since it was over 2 hours between when he got bitten and when he went to bed!

I'm exhausted, hubby is off for a boy's night outing and the dog is moping and giving me looks because he didn't get out for a run today. What a weekend!

 

[polaris]

Good morning all.

Bit of an early one for us - we have been awake since 5.15 a.m. - much too early!! Thomas barely ate any dinner last night so I figured he would probably wake up hungry during the night so went in and fed him straight away when he woke in the hopes that he would go back to sleep. He was quite drowsy while I was feeding him and I thought he would drop back off, but then he did his usual 'wait 20 minutes after the feed and then have a big poo' trick by which stage it was well after 6 and we were clearly up for the day. He was obviously still tired and fell asleep in the buggy at about half 8 (had to bring him out for a walk as my patience was wearing a bit thin at that time of the morning).

PM - I do try to keep a regular-ish routine for naps regardless of wake-up time, roughly 9 a.m. and 1.30 p.m. but it could go half an hour or so either way like today. I don't usually let him sleep past 10.30 a.m. or past 4 p.m. to try to avoid it interfering with the next sleep. Sounds like a lovely birthday, meals are such good fun with BLW aren't they? Big hugs for going back to work. I keep having mini panic attacks about going back but I know it's mainly because I don't have anything definite organized yet for childcare (a friend is hopefully going to take him for the times that OH can't cover but have to sit down with her and see if it is definitely happening).

Cattia - wow great sleeping from Abigail. I hope her cold is better soon. It won't be long till she's mobile by the sounds of it. So exciting but so much work. We are still baby-proofing, I am managing to stay one step ahead of Thomas so far (e.g. cleared out the hazards from the dresser cabinets a few days ago and yesterday he worked out how to open them and since then he hasn't stopped climbing into the dresser and pulling everything out of it! - Fun and Games!!)

TennisGal - sounds like the acupuncture could definitely be worth a try. I am a bit of a sceptic with a lot of 'alternative' medicine (e.g. homeopathy) but acupuncture is a bit different because there is quite a lot of scientific evidence that it does actually work for a lot of things. Worth a try anyway. Do let us know what the consultant advises.

Hivechild - oh no, how traumatic with the ants! I would have just been so freaked out, it sounds like you handled it really well. Poor little guy though, that can't have been much fun. I hope the growth spurt is over soon too and that next week is a bit calmer for you both.

 

[bloodbinds]

Well after doing Sleepsense when Bella was around 6 months and it working really well and her sleeping through the night, lately we have slipped into bad habits again She was ill one night and kept being sick so i was running to her every time she made a noise, and then the next night i was worried she would be sick again so was hovering over her and giving her loads of cuddles etc, and then from then on we have gone back to our old ways. Much easier to feed her to sleep than to spent ages trying to get her to sleep etc.

Anyway, enough is enough! So re-started the sleepsense last night and hoping to see some improvement soon...

 

[polaris]

Well after doing Sleepsense when Bella was around 6 months and it working really well and her sleeping through the night, lately we have slipped into bad habits again She was ill one night and kept being sick so i was running to her every time she made a noise, and then the next night i was worried she would be sick again so was hovering over her and giving her loads of cuddles etc, and then from then on we have gone back to our old ways. Much easier to feed her to sleep than to spent ages trying to get her to sleep etc.

Anyway, enough is enough! So re-started the sleepsense last night and hoping to see some improvement soon...

Hi Bloodbinds - I do find that Thomas's sleeping goes up and down a lot, hence why I am still a permanent fixture on this thread, LOL. I know exactly what you mean about taking the easy option from time to time, especially when they've been unwell it's natural to want to give them the comfort. Let us know how Bella gets on, hopefully she will get used to it again quickly since she was sleeping so well before.

 

[Cattia]

Ladies, things were going so well and we have just had our worst night EVER!!!

Abigail just would not settle. She was agitated for her evening BF and when I put her down she screamed and screamed and screamed.We left her for a bit but she got worse so I sat with her for ages but as soon as I walked out she was HYSTERICAL again. In the end I sat in the chair in her room saying 'sleep time Abigail, night night' which ALWAYS works and calms her down, but all she did was scream louder and louder and get more and more worked up, and then she was sick ALL over the place - she threw up her whole dinner all over herself

We had to get her up, strip her bed, put her in the bath, and then I gave her a bottle of formla as I was worried about her waking up hungry. I took her temp which was fine. She drank the entire bottle and then I put her down, she sucked her thumb and fell straight to sleep! I honestly think she got so worked up that she made herself sick. I feel so bad Even though I was there with her I didn't manage to calm her down and she has never been like that before. I don't know whether it's that it was too hot in her room, or that fact that she was over excited before bed as we had people over, or that she had wind, or just that she got worked up into a state. Whatever it is I am dreading tongiht now as she has been sleeping through the past week or so and I hope this is not the start of a downwards spiral. Hopefully she will just sleep the same as always but I'mnot so sure. I hope that a bottle of formula will be enough to stop her waking up hungry, since she had completely emptied her tummy. Poor little thing

I hope everyone else is having a better evening than we are!

 

[polaris]

Ladies, things were going so well and we have just had our worst night EVER!!!

Abigail just would not settle. She was agitated for her evening BF and when I put her down she screamed and screamed and screamed.We left her for a bit but she got worse so I sat with her for ages but as soon as I walked out she was HYSTERICAL again. In the end I sat in the chair in her room saying 'sleep time Abigail, night night' which ALWAYS works and calms her down, but all she did was scream louder and louder and get more and more worked up, and then she was sick ALL over the place - she threw up her whole dinner all over herself

We had to get her up, strip her bed, put her in the bath, and then I gave her a bottle of formla as I was worried about her waking up hungry. I took her temp which was fine. She drank the entire bottle and then I put her down, she sucked her thumb and fell straight to sleep! I honestly think she got so worked up that she made herself sick. I feel so bad Even though I was there with her I didn't manage to calm her down and she has never been like that before. I don't know whether it's that it was too hot in her room, or that fact that she was over excited before bed as we had people over, or that she had wind, or just that she got worked up into a state. Whatever it is I am dreading tongiht now as she has been sleeping through the past week or so and I hope this is not the start of a downwards spiral. Hopefully she will just sleep the same as always but I'mnot so sure. I hope that a bottle of formula will be enough to stop her waking up hungry, since she had completely emptied her tummy. Poor little thing

I hope everyone else is having a better evening than we are!

What a horrible evening. Could it be that her tummy was a bit unsettled anyway or do you think she just got sick because she got so upset? It's SO stressful when they get upset and there is no way of working out what it's about. Didn't you say she was getting a cold though - maybe she was just feeling a bit under the weather, it sounds like she calmed right down after she got sick though and it's good that her temperature is normal. Hope the rest of your night goes more smoothly.

My plans are to get an early night! Not able for these early mornings.

 

[Cattia]

Thanks Polaris. I just feel sooooo bad. I don't know what else I could have done, but she just got so worked up. She has a cold and she is teething and has been off her food for the past week or so. Her room is also the hottest in the house even with the window open and the fan on. She seems to be sleeping OK now. I am sitting here with her new taggie stuffed down my T-shirt to get my smell on it so I can put it in her cot as she was sick all over the one that she normally has. I just want to go and pick her up and cuddle and cuddle her, even though she is sound asleep now. It's going to be really hard if she does this again in the night, as there is no way I can do a night feed now after working so hard to drop them, it just would not be fair on her. Well, fingers crossed it was just a one off. Hope you get a lovely night's sleep

 

[TennisGal]

HC - how awful about the ants! I hate the things. You are the complete opposite of an awful mummy, you are a lovely mummy...and, unfortunately, horrid ants/bees etc get in the way. You know, I can remember sitting on a bee when I was three! And loving the fact my Mummy made it all better

Bloodbinds- we constantly have to tweak and change things around, let us know how you get on. VERY cute piccie of Bella, btw.

Polaris - fingers crossed you have a 'post 6-amer' tomorrow morning. DD gave us a lie in until 6:45, which was much appreciated. You have the 'wait until 20 mins after a feed for a poo' thing and we have the 'have a poo during last spoon of porridge' thing, lol.

Cattia - don't feel bad. DD was sick when we were on hols, she had spent about half an hour bouncing on the bed, and was suddenly sick. I'm sure she was a bit unsettled with the different food...and the huge amount of bouncing! She's probably feeling a little bit unwell, but her lovely Mummy cleaned her, changed her, fed her and settled her. Let us know how your night is. I'll PM you blueberry muffin recipe.

Well, DD has been sleeping ok - she slept in with us for an hour or so this morning, we're all having lots of cuddles, as she's still pulling her ears. I REALLY hope this round of antibios clears it up, poor darling. She gets a bit of a trumpy bum with them, and she looks a bit uncomfortable.

Lots of and sending you all some cyber choc Ripples. We all deserve them.

 

[Cattia]

Yummmmmmmy chocolate ripples! Thanks TG, that has cheered me up

 

[Poppy7]

Hi ya everyone :wave:

It just took me about 10 minutes to find this thread I'm a creature of habit you see!!!

HC - I'm glad you got things back on track after Ronan's mammoth snooze! I hope he is okay after his ant bites. You are not a bad Mummy though I often let Elliott crawl around outside as he loves exploring right now so something simialr could happen to us.

Cattia - Poor, poor Abigail. if only they could talk. As you know Elliott did exactly the same thing to me just before I layed him down the other night. His belly had been gurgling and I put it down to wind. How wrong was I ? I hoep she is okay now.

Polaris - "early night"....I say that to myself every night.....but I always find something to do. Even if it is come on BnB nad catch up on things. I hope Thomas' champion sleeping has continued. Elliott is still hit and miss

Bloodbinds - Hi! :wave: As polaris said we have had some up and downs too. Elliott was poorly and you naturally want to run to their every whim. Sometimes this does have an effect on previous good sleepers but you will soon get Bella back in to the swing of things. when they are poorly though you want to be right there for them so don't worry. How have you got on since starting SS again?

TG - I hope the antibiotics help your DD soon as well. There is nothing worse than an ear infection

Well Elliott's sleeping has been up and down. Still only one night waking which is more than manageable. For two nights he dodn't wake up until 5/6am and then when back to sleep again but the last few nights he has been up at about 2am again, sometimes earlier. To be fair he has gone back down until waking time so I'm happy with him.

These past few days when I have put him in his cot for daytime naps he has wanted to play before sleeping. I know he is tired when I put him down but what he has started doing is so cute. He tries to get up as soon as I put him down so I walk out of the room and tell him sleepy time. I then listen to him on the monitor chatting (no shouting or crying at all) with his teddies and destroying his cot. He then goes quiet, lies himself back down and goes to sleep. The cutest thing about this is when he wakes up, I go upstairs to get him and find out how and where he actually fell asleep! It's usually amongst his teddies, upside down in his cot or in another strange way. He is getting so good at self settling now. I'm so proud of him

I'm expecting him to wake up any minute actually. He has been asleep since 9.45am!! He's a busy growing boy you see

 

[hivechild]

My life is hell right now. I feel like I am dealing with a newborn all over again except that he's a lot more vocal and mobile. I am so exhausted...and off to go deal with my screaming, very awake baby 3 and a half hours after he went to bed, and after napping for an entire 1 hour and 8 minutes the whole day. I love him, I really do.

 

[polaris]

My life is hell right now. I feel like I am dealing with a newborn all over again except that he's a lot more vocal and mobile. I am so exhausted...and off to go deal with my screaming, very awake baby 3 and a half hours after he went to bed, and after napping for an entire 1 hour and 8 minutes the whole day. I love him, I really do.

Six month growth spurt?

 

[polaris]

PieMistress - Good luck with going back to work, it's today isn't it? Let us know how Kyle gets on in nursery.