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

[kq]

Traci, cues were hard when I first started EASY but after a while it gets easier. It was so much easier when they used to yawn as a sleepy cue! Now yawns are late in the piece.
I do a bit of clock watching but Sam turns his head from side to side, scratches his face or rubs his eyes, refuses to engage or make eye contact and stares into the distance. Also his movements get jerky. He also grizzles if he feels that I am ignoring his cues and when picked up, he burrows his head into my chest. So sweet!   I usually swaddle, sit with him then place him in his cot and leave the room. He usually talks to himself and sometimes does a bit of yelling then goes to sleep. This usually takes 5-10 minutes but if I have put him down too early or late, it takes 20 and this is when I go back in to shush/pat.
Little bear's mum, I bit the bullet and am unswaddling both arms for naps today. It was so humid last night and Sam woke up twice. 1st time he was hungry but 2nd time, I think he was hot (in retrospect) but of course, I just picked him up and fed him. Noticed this morning that he was sweaty! :oops:
Traci, I have started to do the short feeds like Nikki suggested for 4-6 am wakings and they seem to work well. Previously, I would feed at 4 am and then when he wakes for the day. Even if he only feeds for 3-4 minutes, I feel that he is topped up and can last the full 4 hours till the next feed, which he did!   That was how I kept on track!
Good luck Naomi with sleep training with DS.
Poor little Fraser! How miserable for him! Hope he starts to feel better soon.
Take care all,
Karen

[Colesmom]

kq,

I missed Nikki's post about 4-6 am wakings.  So you just do a very short feed and put them back down?  And then start the day like normal at whatever time they wake up?  Maybe I'll try that tonight.

I have only been doing the DF for a week or so.  Previously DS had gone down to bed around 9:30 or 10:00 :shock:   I know, I had no idea what I was doing.  Anyway, I'm wondering if this additional feed is throwing him off.  I might try without the dream feed tonight.  his schedule is messed up a bit now so he'll go down around 7:30 or so...and I'll see when he wakes.  If he wakes up around 2:00 and I give a full feed, I wonder if he'll make it until morning.  Who knows.  If that doesn't work I'll go back to the DF and try the light feed at 4:00.

Thanks again.  Love this thread

[Little Bear's Mum]

Good on you Colesmum! And you to KQ with your successes. I tried giving DS shorter feeds at 4am and he wouldn't have a bar of it. As soon as he was put back in his cot he'd cry really loudly. But once he'd had a full feed he happily went back to sleep. Oh I don't know, it's just all messed up right now. I feel like I'm going backwards. But my new book has arrived and I'm going to turn off the computer (for a little while anyway) and start reading about the No Cry Sleep Solution! Roll on good night sleeps.

[Jayri]

Well just wanted to keep you updated with my two.
NIKKI - thanks for the tip on what page to read, I went through it and highlighted the heck out of it before bed last night.
We have put a nice big comforter on his bed, put more teddies around him and Jayson noticed a body pillow that we never use and wanted it for his bed, it looks so cozy in there that dh wanted to go in there too!!. There was hardly any crying too, he got up for a snack as he was hungry. He did take about an hour to go to sleep, but I was simply happy in the fact that he was in bed and not fussing. It sounded like he was singing to his teddies!
Riley's feeds are also all over the place. We figured on sunday she was ready for solids, but today, she just spat it out. So I think we too are simply going to wait. We may try it once a week on weekends, and see how things go. We have loads of baby food in the cupboard already for her, as we have been buying a little bit here and there.
Traci, I think my dd needed to settle on her own too, I would keep going in if she cried, but after a while I was simply exhausted from all of the back and forth, so I left her and when i just checked on her she was sound asleep on her belly, the first time she has done that. Maybe she needed to find what was comfy for her and not what I thought.
Anyhew, will chat later.
TTFN

[BiancaB]

Good news Naomi!   Glad to hear Jayson settled so well.
Bianca

[Arwyn's mom]

Little Bear's mum... My lo won't have anything to do with short feeds when she wakes between 4:30 & 5:30 either. I tried it once and pulled her off after 5 minutes and she woke up. Then proceeded to be awake for her 1.75 hours before putting herself back to bed. Then of course, her whole schedule was out of whack so... I just feed a full feed and then she always wakes up between 6:30 & 7. Then I top up and she is good for 4 hours. (I know... I didn't give it a chance and tried only once but why wreck a good thing?)

I know what you mean about bothering to have a routine though. Sometimes our day does not even remotely resemble what I want it to be. But, it has made my day more predictable and I like that part.

Traci... Looks like our little ones share a birthday.  My little one woke up consistently at 2 am also when I first started the dreamfeed. She dropped it after about 2 weeks. The first week, I continued to feed her and she shortened the feedings herself. The next week, I just pat/shushed and only broke down and fed her once that week. Now, she usually doesn't wake up. Having said that, last night, she had a great big pee and her diaper leaked so she was very upset. I ended up nursing her back to sleep because I had woken her up to change her diaper and bed and everything! UGH!

Glad to hear that Jayson is having a good night and settling down nicely Naomi. I was wondering about starting solids with Arwyn as well. I am all prepared and have everything but am hesitant. The recommendation by Health Canada is to breastfeed (or formula feed) for 6 months... and Arwyn is not really showing any interest. What signs did you look for to see if Riley was ready? I don't know what to look for so I may be missing them?!

Karen... Arwyn has not been swaddled to bed for a long time. The only drawback I find to this is that she is very mobile in her bed. When I miss her "window" and put her down to early, she flips, rolls, squirms all over the crib before falling asleep. If I hit it bang on, no problem.

It is great to hear what everybody else's day looks and feels like. I think I have experienced one thing or another that all of you have mentioned. Thanks for sharing everybody!

Ankie

[Nikki~Nathan&Danielle]

Colesmom - yes, I only offer a short feed to Danielle if she wakes between 4.30-6am (only because she won't refeed at her 7am waking and then often wants feeding at 9am and then we're all over the show for the rest of the day).  That way she feeds well on wake up and then goes onto a 4hrly cycle after that. 

Naomi, great to hear that Jayson settled well for his sleep last night, how did he go the 2nd night?  Nathan's bed also looks really inviting (sometimes I feel like jumping in there myself if he's not keen on sleeping in it!  :lol: ).  He has so many soft toys and they're arranged all around him and even above the pillow so it stops him headbutting the wall which was a problem with us for a long time until I figured out I could do that. :roll:

Anyone elses babies dropped down to 2 naps a day?  I find on days that Danielle sleeps right up to her 3pm feed she'll then go the distance until her 7pm bedtime with no worries.  But if for some reason she's woken earlier I will pop her down for a catnap, and with the weather getting warmer and the days longer I find we're out walking that time of day again so she'll probably get a little top up nap in before we get home for Nathan's dinner.

Well no more rolling going on here - she only did it the once going from back to tummy, isn't as motivated as what Nathan was but I'm sure she'll be right into it soon enough.

[Colesmom]

Cole was up again from 2:30 until 4 but I didn't feed him (did the DF afterall)  He wasn't crying constantly...would try to settle and be quiet a few minutes then be up again.  So I shush/patted an hour and a half :shock:

Now, if he was hungry, he would definitely let me know, right?  I don't really know his hunger cry but i'm 99% sure he wasn't hungry...especially since he went back to sleep from 4:00-5:45.  At that point I did a light feed (thanks Nikki)...well, not just 3 or 4 minutes...I did one boob-about 8-10 minutes.  He cried a moment when i put him down but I put him on his side (propped in the wedge) and he settled right down until 7am!!!

woo hoo.

also...i think i noticed people writing how their los poos are becoming more infrequent?  is this due to our milk changing?  and i guess their systems changing?  I've thought for the last two night that he had bad gas because he was tooting so much...and he finally had a poop this morning.  had only a tiny one saturday...so it was almost 3 days.  he doesn't cry or anything, so as long as it's not bothering him I guess i shouldn't worry.

Traci

[Erin M]

Wow, this thread does move fast!
Traci - Welcome, sounds like you're headed in the right direction.  I will sometimes let Katie fuss for a bit, or cry for a minute while I'm patting her.  If she gets that very upset sounding cry, I pick her up.  And yes, I have always found that she lets me know when she is hungry!
Judy, I've got everything crossed for you that you get some sleep sometime soon!  Sounds like you're headed there! 
Naomi - Best of luck with Jayson too on that front! 
Nikki - if Katie takes two naps longer than 45 minutes during the day, those are her two naps and I can't persuade her to take another one, regardless of what we do.  If we have one long one and one short one though, she will sometimes take the catnap.  I tend to try for around 2.5 hours awake time these days.  Yesterday she took a 3 hour nap in the morning  :shock:  - she must have been tired from something.

Katie was up last night at 3ish AM - I'm suspecting growth spurt as she is six months today - we'll see.  She's rolling both directions now and making lots and lots of noise.  We've been doing rice cereal for the past two weeks and she finally seems to be getting the hang of it.  As far as readiness, she could hold her head up, no tongue thrust reflex, making chewing motions, so interested in what we eat - I can't nurse her while I'm eating or drinking anything, she just stares at what I'm eating, grabbing for our food, etc.  She was 5.5 months when I started, we've just done rice cereal mixed with breast milk so far, but we are seeing the pediatrician in a week and a few days after that we will most likely start some fruit and maybe oatmeal as well (everyone tells me that's better tasting than the rice cereal).

Hope everyone is well!
-Erin

[Little Bear's Mum]

Okay, I'm going out of my mind due to lack of sleep. I'm not used to this! Help! I brought my ds sleep forward from 6.30pm to 6pm, as I'd read that an earlier bed time usually produces longer sleeps. I think it's totally stuffed up ds sleep at night and made it worse. I was up with him 3 times last night!.So obviously I need to change back to 6.30pm. But I'm wondering if 6.30pm is actually too early for him, should it be 7pm?

A couple of months ago DS used to go to sleep at 6.30pm, sleep until about 2-4am for a feed, then back to sleep until between 5-6am. I introduced DF to try to eliminate early morning but that just delayed early feed to closer to 4am, now he won't feed when he wakes up. Thismorning he woke about 5am, I left him and he went back to sleep until 5.45am, I think . I don't know if he's awake or asleep, but there's no noise. Then I got him up at 6am, feeling really positive about the day and feeds, but he didn't want to feed. So I tried him in his new exersaucer and he didn't like it. Just grizzled the whole time awake, so after an hour I gave up and put him back to bed. He's been asleep an hour. So I'm thinking, maybe he's still tired at 5.45am. But he's wide awake, eyes open, smiling and happy to see me. What's going on?

As DS is going to be 5 months this Sunday, I wonder if I'm expecting too much sleep from him? 12 hours, but he seems to need it as he only lasts up an hour after I get him up. When most other babies seem to be able to do their 2 hour awake time.

Our day goes roughly like this (when on 6.30pm bedtime), can anyone make any suggestions to improve?

E  4.00am(ish) wake and feed
A  5am wake, talk, goes quiet
A  5.45am cry - I go and get him up. Eyes wide, big smiles. Change nappy. Try to feed, not very interested, try again a few more times. May take some
S  7am-7.30am - goes back to bed somewhere between this time.
A  8.00 Wake - try to feed, not usually interested
E  8.30am try to feed, may take small amount
S  9.45 - Put to bed, but may want to feed before going to sleep (lots of crying until fed)
  10.00 - 11. Nap
A  11.00 Wake up
   Hold out feeding until he gets grumpy for food after about an hour,  or else isn't interested sometimes until it's time for bed.
E/S  12.45 - back to cot, wants feed if hasn't fed
S  1.00 -2.30
A  2.30 Wake up
S  3.30pm - may have another 1 hour nap if down after 1 - 1 1/2 hour being awake, otherwise stays awake all afternoon - gets grizzly.
E  4.30pm feed if hasn't already
S  5.00pm if walking in buggy will fall asleep.
5.45 bath
6.10pm feed
6.30pm sleep
9.30pm d/feed

Sorry this is such a mess to read, and I've asked about these things before, but wondering if there's anything else I can do. Or shall I just live with it? I've tried putting him back down at 5.45am but he's not interested.

To make matters worse, we have "daylight savings" here in about 3 weeks time, when all the clocks go forward one hour. My thoughts about this, is at leat his 5am wake ups will become 6am, but going down at night will be 7.30pm not 6.30pm. If he's not adapted to going to sleep 30 mins earlier now, by the looks of things, I won't be able to do much about it when the clocks change either! Aaaggghhhhh!!!!

[Jayri]

Little bears mum- what I do with Riley at night is put her to bed by 7pm or so, give or take a bit. I df her between 11 and midnight, after that she usually goes through till 6am or so. She has been waking at 4am, but that is due to the bad habit if dh snuggling with her on the couch, and I know that has to stop if she is to go completely through the night.
During the day I normally follow her cues, and by now she normally has her day down to EAS, feeds are 3.5 to 4 hrs.
I do have her on oat cereal, seems to make her a little more content.
Her bf didn't seem to stock her up enough, that and she was continuosly eyeing up our food.
For anyone who is thinking of starting solids, but aren't quite sure, what I have done for both of mine is to try a bit every now and then. If they don't like it or spit it out, no big loss, if they look interested, try a bit everyday. Sometimes Riley likes it and sometimes not.
HTH

[Colesmom]

I am really hoping someone can help me. My 5 month old DS wakes up for an hour and a half almost every night (Saturday he didn't-not sure why). It has happened at times from 2:00-3:30, 3:00-4:30, last night was 1:30-3:00. It's not hunger as he tries to settle back but just can't because he's so awake.

We've been having earlier bedtimes for 2 weeks now. Used to put him down around 9:30 or 10:00  and he was chronically overtired for sure! Anyway, two nights ago he went down around 7:15 and woke at 2:30, last night he went down at 6:10 (due to short catnap) and woke at 1:30! He wasn't too loud or needy for a half hour so i left him...then it was shhhh/pat for an hour.

I was confident last night was going to be better because he went down really well for all three naps and started sleeping on his tummy yesterday which he seems to love.

after going back down at 3:00, he woke at 4:00 but settled back down right away...then up at 5:30 to feed, didn't go back down right away (I'm new to putting him down on tummy-not very graceful at it)

Anyway, if anyone has words of advice I'd be very grateful (even just words of encouragement)

i haven't had time to read any posts yet, i'm just so exhausted. 

thanks

Traci

[Erin M]

Traci-
Couldn't tell you for sure, but my guess is he's probably just getting used to his new routine.  If he used to wake at night because he was overtired, he's probably still getting used to the idea of not waking at night.  It really sounds like you are totally headed in the right direction though, so I say keep at it!

Little Bears Mum - how's it going?  Remember, it takes a few days for any sort of changes to occur, so maybe that's what you're going through with bedtime.  What if you delayed trying to feed him until 8AM all together?  Maybe he'd take more of a full feed then instead of the small feeds earlier?  Not sure - seems like if you could get your morning more in order, you'd be in better shape for the rest of the day.  Just a thought...

-Erin

[Arwyn's mom]

Traci -- My lo woke up constantly too for a few days when I changed her bedtime to 7 pm instead of 8 pm. She stopped after 2 nights. My guess is that she needed time to adjust. Hopefully this is the case with Cole. I'm not sure when you changed his bedtime but give it a couple of nights and it may settle down. I no longer go to Arwyn if she is just awake... she woke up crying last night at 12 so I went but she was fussing at 4:30 and I left her (actually, I fell back asleep :oops: ) and she put herself back to sleep. Perhaps Cole needs a chance to see if he can fall back asleep?

Keep your head up... I know, it's hard when sleep deprived but things do get better! 

Little Bear's Mum -- Does your lo take a full feeding at 4 am? Maybe he is not hungry until 8 ish when he is interested in eating. Also, do you have a wind down routine for naps? He may think that eating is the wind down routine and likes to have that comfort before going to bed -- I know my lo loved to nurse to sleep.

Hang in there. The nights do get better after a change in routine. My lo is a slow adapter so I need to give everything at least a week or two. When I moved her bedtime to 7 from 8, she used to get up at 8, only to go back down after 10 minutes. Then she woke frequently for a couple nights. We introduced an 11 pm dreamfeed 4 weeks ago. She has JUST dropped her 4 am feeding for the first time this morning.    Who knows, it may be back tomorrow.

Judy -- Whoo hoo! Congratulations.

[Colesmom]

That's one thing I haven't tried.  Of course, I don't always know if I catch him at first stir because for the first bit he seems content to babble and maybe do some mantra crying...and I'm not sure I hear it.  All the advice so far is that if they are content to leave them.  So I'll try your tactic if it happens tonight...hopefully it will or I'll be in there 1.5 hours where last night it was only 1

Judy-I did give him 30 min. last night to resettle.  I think it is just a matter of him getting used to a routine.  he was on a 3 hour feed sched. until a few days ago and i'm slowly working him up to 4 hours.  He had always taken 45 min. naps unless I held him longer.  He's only just started to go to sleep by himself (after doing pupd/pat shush starting two weeks ago)until then I held him to sleep and put him down.  He also had a paci.  A lot for the little guy to change...so I guess I shouldn't rush it...I'm just so tired.  Not to mention DH has a big exam coming up, has been ill the past few days so i'm trying to keep things quiet for him as well.

I'm working on his nursery environment too.  Bought a grobag yesterday but it's 6-18 months and his head just fits through the hole so I can't use it yet.  Not sure I want to spend the money on the smaller size when he'll outgrow it very soon.  For his nap just now I dressed him a touch warmer just in case he was getting chilled in the A/C.


Thanks again ladies, you are my inspiration!

Traci