Any March & April 05 mums/moms want to chat?

[Jayri]

Yippee, Riley went from her df at 11:30pm till 5:45am.What a nice rest I had last night.
Just had to pop on and celebrate.
TTFN

[Nikki~Nathan&Danielle]

Way to go Riley! 

I'll have my own little celebration too - Danielle for the first time since she was about a month old did a long morning nap right up to her 11am feed - woohoo (and perfect timing since I had coffee group at my house today too, I would have been so bummed waiting for her to wake or actually having to wake her early)!  The only difference was that she chatted to herself for half an hour after I put her down which took her up to 2hrs of being awake without getting grumpy, usually she falls asleep straight away.  Maybe it's time to gently stretch out her awake time again and see if we can get through the overtired thing.

[Peach]

Hi Cathy (Carter's Mama)

We're from Northeastern Ontario.  Not so very close to Windsor, but this forum has certainly been a blessing to talk with other March & April/05 moms and hear all their great ideas and advice!

(Sorry for the late reply  :oops:)   

Kara

[Little Bear's Mum]

Wow, it's been ages since I checked this thread, and it's become so long. My ds is now 4 1/2 months, he's 68cm long and last weighed in 2 wks ago at 7.3kgs. I think he's an angel with a bit of spirited in there too, to be honest I haven't done the 'test' in Tracy's book properly, just read the results and compared. LOL.

It's reassuring reading what all your lo's are up to. Especially the ones who AREN'T sleeping through the night. My ds used to sleep from 6.30pm - 6am with his own wake up for a feed about 4am. I found that difficult as come 6am when he woke to start the day he wasn't very hungry. So about 1 month ago I introduced the DF at about 10.30pm. Well, this didn't solve much! He now gets the DF and still wakes most nights for another feed about 2am. Mind you, at least he's hungrier at 6am. I also changed from a 3 hour feed cycle to a 4 hour at this time, I'm wondering if he's just not getting enough during the day, so today I'm trying 3 hourly again.

DS isn't rolling without help yet, but when we help him go from back to tummy he gives us this beautiful big smile as if to say "Did you see that!!!" It's so cute. He is sitting up by himself though. He can sit for about 3 mins or so without our help. We even had him doing it in the bath last night.

Has anyone had a baby that woke too early and you managed to change their wake time? I'd love for ds to wake closer to 7am (sometimes he wakes as early as 5.15am). His times are never the same, even though his bedtime is always the same at 6.30 - 6.45pm. When he does wake, I feed him, change him, have a little play/quiet time, but then he only wants to be awake about an hour. Then he sleeps an hour. So it's not time to eat again. This totally throws any concept of a routine out the window. Even a 3 hour EASY won't work today. I've struggled all along to have a routine in place due to his erratic sleep patterns. I end up often feeding him 30 mins before bedtime. He's usually awake about 1h 45, including 15 mins of feeding. His naps now mostly last 1 - 2 hours.

Sorry this is so long, I would love to tweak a few things and hoping someone has been through something similar and may have some ideas.

[FrasersMum]

Hi Everyone,

Hope you all had a great weekend.  It's great to hear that so many of our LO's are sleeping well at the moment - Frase slept 7.00 pm to 6.30 am Saturday night and 7.00 pm to 5.00 am this morning!   :lol: Got to be happy with that!  Although I couldn't get him to go back to sleep this morning after the 5am wake up - not sure what to do about that - but I really can't complain after getting all that sleep!  But I'm with you Little Bear's Mum - I know we've visited early wake-ups before and so I'll check back through previous pages but if anyone has discovered a great new tip we'd be thrilled to hear it.

What total sleep is everyone's LO getting during the night?  In the book Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, the author recommends an earlier bedtime to prevent early wakings.  Bedtime at our house is 7 - 7.30pm.  I'm not convinced that making it earlier will produce later wake up but would be happy to be proved wrong - anyone??

Fraser rolled a couple of times on Saturday but I wouldn't say is "rolling" yet.  Not too long though I imagine..

Chat soon

[Nikki~Nathan&Danielle]

Well Danielle's nights have improved too and the last few she's slept till 4.30-5am and then back down until 7amish without DF.  Not too sure what to suggest for those with early wakings - I only had them when Nathan hit 10mths old and have struggled on and off for the past 18mths - but the earlier bedtime definitely suits him (7pmish), later bedtime does not fix it (in fact for a while he had a 6pm bedtime to get his night hours up to 11hrs again - he still woke at 5am, but at least he wasn't overtired for the day).

In Tracy's book she says that some babies are just programmed to wake at that time and there's not a lot to do unfortunately...

Danielle's sleeping basically 12hrs give or take 1/2hr every night.

Well her long morning nap was a once off, but that's ok, some days she doesn't have the 2nd catnap if she's woken late like this morning when she woke at 8am.

[Erin M]

Hi all!
Had a visit from my SIL the past week, so haven't had much time to write.  She's 17, it was so nice to have an extra pair of hands and some company!  Katie is rolling from back to tummy quite a bit, but still hasn't mastered the tummy to back.  I hope she does soon because at this point we're rolling her back over all the time.  At least she doesn't do it at night yet!  (And there she goes again onto her tummy...and she's crying...ok, rolled her back over.)

We're doing some rice cereal, which she doesn't seem to mind too much.  Katie goes to bed around 7:30 generally and seems to wake up around 6:30-7:30 - she usually just hangs out in her crib in the morning (I am so NOT a morning person) until DH or I gets her up around 7:30-8. (unless she's upset).  I can get her to take a good long nap in the morning (about 1.5-2 hours) although sometimes it is shorter, but it's rare that she'll nap that long in the afternoon.  Usually with the short afternoon nap I can get her to catnap but if she takes a longer afternoon nap, she won't nap again.  But at least she has mostly left the all day 45 minute naps behind, so I'm not complaining.  She was up at 1:45 and then 2:30 last night when I fed her - growth suport perhaps, getting towards 6 months!  Time flies, doesn't it?

Katie managed to get herself out of early wakeups on her own, not sure what did it for her.  It was a pain though, I agree.
-Erin

[Arwyn's mom]

Hello everyone,

We too, struggle with early morning wakings. My lo gets up between 5:30 & 6:30 am. She has a 7:30-8:00 bedtime and is df at 10:30-11. She is usually STARVING in the morning so I feed her because she will not settle back down to sleep.

This is early but it used to be earlier so I am grateful. She used to wake between 2:30 & 4:30. At my wits end, I extended all her daytime naps to 1.5 hours to ensure she received between 4-4.5 hours of sleep during the day. Also, if she did not nap well in the day, I will move her bedtime up to 7 pm. She treats this as a nap and will wake again at 8 ish but is easily settled back down. Getting enough daytime sleep seems to have helped. I also started to cluster feed in the evening in addition to dreamfeeding.

Good luck and happy sleeps!

[james030405]

James is sleeping from around 7:00/7:30pm and usually sleeps till 2-3am when he needs a feed.  He then sleeps till 8am when he has his feed.  Our days are currently looking like this:-

2-3am:  Feed
8am: Awake feed
8:15am:  Activity
10am:  Sleep
11:30am:  Awake
12pm:  Feed
12:15pm:  Activity
2pm:  Sleep
3:30pm Awake
4pm:  Feed
4:15pm:  Activity
5:00pm;  sleep
6:00pm:  Bath
6:30pm:  Feed
7:00/7:30pm:  Bed

The late afternoon cat nap often depends on how our afternoon sleep went.  Sometimes he doesnt have it.  I have stopped dream feeding as he was still waking around 3am for a feed.

We are rolling from tummy to back but not back yet.  On the change table andin the cot we have also discovered we can pull our legs up into the crawling position and belly flop back onto the matress! :lol: In the bath when he is having a swim on his tummy (I have my arms under his armpits) he pulls his legs up and turns around so he is sitting up, makes bathing a bit tricky now.  We have also discovered the joys of crumpling up a piece of paper, as we found out whilst trying to read the Sunday paper

Havent started solids yet - we are away most of next week, so we will probably start in a few weeks although I think he is ready now. 

Hope everyone is well. 

Lisa - mum to James

[FrasersMum]

Hey Lisa

LOL about the Sunday paper - Fraser thinks that junk mail catalogues are the best books, and TASTY too!!   :lol:  :lol:  :lol:

[Little Bear's Mum]

Hi Lisa

Interesting reading your schedule. I only wish Daniel would sleep until 8am! LOL. How did you stop the dream feed? Did it change the time James was feeding in the early hours? When you did the df did he sleep different hours at night? Or wake earlier in the morning? Just curious, as I'm trying to work out what to do with the df at the moment.

Thanks for the other comments about early wakings, it's reassuring to know there's hope yet!!!

[BiancaB]

Hello Everyone

Well, its been a hectic week for us, but we have moved into our new house and so far having both of mine in the same room is going really well :shock:  I put Si down on our bed at her bedtime 7pm and then transfer her into her cot in her shared room with Ky after her DF at around 10pm..
She has been sleeping through consistently until 6 or 7am so it has worked out well so far. I have to say she is a joy to have around, her smile just melts you and she plays happily for ages while we all bustle around, sometimes I forget she is even there and then I feel so guilty :oops:  Its just that she is not a demanding baby where number 1 makes sure we all know what he needs!!!   I love it when I get those precious moments with her while feeding, just the 2 of us....she really is my little angel
Take care all
Bianca

[Nikki~Nathan&Danielle]

Bianca, hope that your sleeping arrangements work out well - what a great start!  I also feel guilty about Danielle being such an angel and often she'll just play quietly by herself for ages or sit in the chair just watching the world go by - I was saying to a friend yesterday how different she is to Nathan since he was quite demanding as a baby (and still is  :lol: ) and I really have to make a conscious effort to get down with her since she's so happy on her own .

[kq]

Hi all,
Lovely to hear that there is an end in sight to these night wakings although I quite enjoy them..away from the hustle and bustle of the day and just the 2 of us.

Sam is now 4 months and 1 week old. We are on the 3.5 hr routine as he is very hungry after 3.5 hours!! Also can only stay up 1.5 hrs max. He goes to bed at 7 pm. We have 1-2 night wakings..between 1-2 am and then 5.30 am. If we make it past 5 am without waking then it is between 6.30 and 7 am. If he feeds at 5-5.30 am then he goes back to sleep and wakes between 7.30 and 8 am. Anything after 6.30 am, we start our day. The DF did not work for us as he woke (no point calling it DREAM feed) and that made the rest of his night restless. I have stopped clustering him in the evenings as well.

We are still battling 1-2 45 minute naps a day...he starts showing tired signs after only an hour of being up. If I whisk him off to bed, he only needs 45 minutes sleep and is incredibly happy when awake but will not have another nap before his sleep..he is adamant we do EAS and can do AEAS but will NOT do SASE!     I just have to find the magic number and I think it is between 1.25 hours and 1.5 hours but what?!!! Do any of you remember how long your lo could stay up at this age?

Sam is incredibly active and we have the same problem. He is delightful and is a lot of fun! He rolls from tummy to back and once from back to tummy but seems to have forgotten. He reaches and grabs toys on his play gym and giggles.

I am thinking about going back to work and am not that keen yet part of me feels that I need that to be a more balance mum. Oh well, will keep mulling on that one.

Anyway, must dash! It is another beautiful day!
Karen

[Carter'sMama]

It's good to hear from everyone!  Congrats to all of you who's lo's have figured out how to roll over!!!  My DS still won't and he just turned 5 months!!!  Anyone else not doing it yet???  He will however pull himself up to a standing position from sitting.  Weird huh??  I guess they all learn at their own rate. 

  He has continued his early wake ups for the last 4 days in a row.  He wakes screaming at 5:30 - 6:00 and can not be quieted without feeding and even that doesn't always work.  We are not sure if he is having bad dreams or if he is in pain???  Anyone had similar experiences??  He used to always sleeps until 7:30am atleast (since 5 weeks old) so I am not sure what is going on.  Hopefully it will resolve itself in the next couple of days! If any one has any ideas ....