Mummies I REALLY need your help

[Shiv52]

What time are you aiming to start the day?  Is that 5am ish feed a NF I take it? 

[Uglybethy]

Ater a 45 minute nap I'd do a usual awake time from the time they woke from the nap and aim for a longer (2hours) nap next one to make up the time lost earlier. because at bed time you need them to have had a reasonable number of hours of daytime sleep.

Given that the feeding overnight is so variable I would do a mixture of eas and aeas, depending on who fed when during the night

Or even aeaeaeas depending on how slowly you need to feed them for the reflux until its controlled!

[babybarr]

What a mess

Last night both boys fed at 6.45pm asleep by 7.30pm.  H woke at 3.30am fed back to sleep then threw up at 6am.  Brought him in with me and he had some more sleep till about 7am.  J slept till 5am - fed, fell back to sleep about 5.45am till 6.45am - he'd been sick too.

Both boys down for nap in cot around 8.40 - I know a bit late but hey - J sick 20mins into nap - dummy in and back to sleep H slept for 30mins and then quite violently sick and now up.  How is this ever going to work if they just throw up all.the.time.

I feel defeated at the first hurdle   H is still a bit stuffy and phelgmy so hoping it's just that.  I guess perhaps next few days just get them used to napping in the cot and just keep everything crossed it gets easier

[Buttonbobs]

Hi Laura ((((hugs))))

At that age, I would have done a full A time with DD after a 45 min nap and that worked well for us to then get a good(ish) second nap.

I think your plan to get them in the cot sounds like a good one, but perhaps focus on one nap per day to begin with so it's not too overwhelming?

xxx

[babybarr]

J slept an hr in the end.  H I gave him a catnap in the hope they may want to sleep later at the same time...

[Shiv52]

How inclined is the cot laura?  That is such a pain about them being sick.  It seems like they want to and would sleep if you could get this vomiting under control. 

[babybarr]

Cots are probably at a 45 degree angle - they're really slanted...

I just can't do this.  I know I need to get them sleeping better during the day even if it's not perfect because none of us can carry on with the constant whining in the afternoons.

[Shiv52]

You are doing it Laura. I am really impressed by your morning.   You are getting there.  Do you think they need to just nap in their swings for a bit until you see the paed even for the first two naps then do early pm before getting O in their cots to try and head off the OT to stop afternoons descending into chaos.  I remember those early evening whinge fests so well and i only had one baby at a time!  I used to literally be waiting at the door to hand the baby straight to DH as he came in from work. 

[babybarr]

I don't know what to do!  The thing is they only nap for 20mins at a time in their swings and if I can't getr them to do much more in their cots what is the point yk?

The most frustrating part is during the night I know they can self settle and go back to sleep so why can't they during the day?

So J has had about an hour after a dummy plug after 30mins and he was sick   H slept about 20mins and also was sick and he wouldn't go back down so he's in his swing although not asleep.  I don't think H is 100% better yet so will just have to do what we can with him I think but he's the one who is better at settling independently!  However I will try and find a slight positive in the fact that at least they went down fairly easily both times...

[babybarr]

So I called the hospital who said I should ring back the first wk in Jan and they may have my appt bkd in by then but she had no idea how long a wait it'd be....  so fed up now.  I don't know whether I should be even bothering to try and get them napping

[Shiv52]

Exactly. It's the small things!! 

I think just keep doing what you are doing Hun. It's early days and they are doing great so far.

Do you use a thickener with their formula? Would that help with the sickness?

[Shiv52]

Posted with you. That is very frustrating. So it'll be at least another month until you see someone? 

I would keep going with the napping. At the very least if they are used to the sequence of getting put down and settling then they will hopefully sleep better once their reflux is under control.

[Buttonbobs]

It sounds like you are getting some longer naps in the cot than in the swing, which is really good work already, and like Shiv has said the mornings are definitely looking better.

I think at this stage (and with it being early days and no paed appointment yet) I would go with the line of least resistance. If you prefer to get them a longer sleep and the cot sleep does that, even if it means they might be sick and you have to clean up all the time, then go with that. If you are finding it even more exhausting to be cleaning up all the time and they are not sleeping that much better in the cot than the swing then why not stick with the swings if they're sick less often that way. Whatever you need to do to get through I think.

I was also going to ask if they are on any thickener, this did at least make a bit of difference to us with the sickness.

[babybarr]

They have Gaviscon which is sort of a thickener I guess?

So we've had a weird day. H ended up sleeping about an hr on and off from 12.50 then slept for about 10mins on school run. J slept 30mins on school run at 3pm. H asleep now 4.30 in swing. I figure the catnap is fine in swing given it'll go at some point.

I think I'm going to try and plod on with naps in the cot for the next couple of wks and see what happens. I'm sure tomorrow I'll be back saying I'm giving up!

[Shiv52]

What are you thinking about A times?  i know its hard to judge with the short naps but i do think things are generally more successful when you are sitting to a fairly set routine to give them a chance to adjust to the A times.  Tracey always said to establish a routine will take at least 4-5 days and with all the puking and the fact there are two of them it likely will take a bit longer. 

I don't know anything about formula or bottles so am a bit useless there but from reading on here do some people find gaviscon not that helpful as a thickener?  Is carobel an option?  Again im only saying that from what i've read on here.  Did i read on another thread the formula they are on is watery?  Or was that one of the previous formulas?

hugs Laura xx You really  are doing great.  Neither of mine self settled or napped in their cots at this age so the fact you've got two of them doing it really is amazing.  I know it likely doesnt feel like it but you are slowly but surely getting there x