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

[Erin M]

Just a quick post -
Hayley - we had the bottle battle here for ages as well - we use Dr. Brown's bottles and the milk has to be really warm - close to body temp (I've only ever fed EBM).  I offered the bottle at nearly every feeding for almost two weeks straight - if she refused it I just put it away and gave her the boob.  No stress, no fussing.  (Though I was getting a bit tired of it!)  Finally, she took it and she's been fine ever since with it. 
HTH,
Erin

[sophieandhannah]

Hello again.  Sophie is sleeping, we seem to be somewhat back on schedule today after a day of being completely off.
I have been tring to catch up on this strand...there are so many women here.  It's awesome. 
It sounds like many of you are introducing bottles and maybe having a tough time.  For whatever it's worth, I have been a pumper since day one with Sophie.  She would never latch on.  So it has been Dr. Brown's bottles for us with EBM.  It took me a really long time to get over the fact that I would not be a BF mom.  Very sad.  SO I guess I am offering this up to those of you who are starting bottles to say that any struggle you are experiencing now is worth all those months of breast feeding.   Not to minimize your efforts. :| My husband and I recently looked into the cost of formula, because I am basically getting tired of pumping all the time.  Once we found out how expensive it is, we decided to wait to switch until I go back to work!  I have deemed myself the "cash cow" :lol: Too bad I can't actually make some money instead of just saving it...I could quit my job!
Traci- I had to laugh about the ear wax thing...I am so particular about that too.  The other day we went to a friends and as she was holding Sophie I couldn't believe how much wax I spotted in her ears! Needless to say I attacked it that night in the bath, yes with a Qtip.  I am just really careful not to insert the qtip into the ear canal but just to swab the wax that is already on it's way out. gross eh?
So, I don't want to appear selfish but I am really looking for some advice.  I am wondering if all of you are still doing df, and if not, how did you phase it out? 
Also, who's doing solids already (Sophie is) and how is it going?  How has it afffected your lo's liquid intake? 
I am no longer feeding Sophie during the night, haven't for a few months, but still not sure she's getting neough calories in the day...she is waking several times in the night.  I am starting to think it's just habitual, around 1:30, 3:30, 5:30am but I'm not sure.  I am thinking of trying wake to sleep at least for the 1:30am time...Do you do it for each wake up? that sounds awful.
Funny how much of this comes down to your level of commitment and willingness to lose out on the little bit of sleep you are actually getting (to sacrifice for the hope of more on he future!!)
OK, I'll stop there. 
All you ladies who though YOU were long winded-Ha, ha!  :oops:
Sorry!! As you can see, like I said I am just so happy to be here.
Thanks for listening!

[Jayri]

hannah, so nice to see you on here.
We simply dropped the df, I know others here have been able to drop it by gradually making it earlier and earlier at night.
I commend you on your pumping, I did that with Jay as he would not latch at all, and after a few weeks I was too tired from it that I said no more, but to do it for 6mths, you are up there in the league of Judy for me.
Riley is kinda doing solids, well she is and she is very messy, but it is that way with everyone I guess.
Well I should go for now, dh is home in the day time for the first time in ages.
Take Care everyone.

[Arwyn's mom]

Hi Hannah,

I consistently do the DF and am in the process of dropping it. I have moved it back to 9:30 now. It used to be at 11 pm. She began waking up for it so I moved it back to 10:30... when she began waking for that, I moved it back again... etc. So, now currently at 9:30 pm.

The reason I really stuck to the DF is because I wanted to drop the 2 am waking. I need to know for myself, that she doesn't need food. Basically, it gave me the reassurance to pu/pd and pat/shush without thinking she was hungry.

I have been doing pu/pd and pat/shush to put Arwyn back to sleep each time she wakes up for the past week. She has been able to settle herself before and we continue to work towards this being consistent. She was sort of settling last night but I think due to her 6 month shots, I think she needed some comforting so I fed her. (She also woke at 3:00 which is not her normal time so... I figured, she was hungry as she did not eat very well after her shots.)

Okay... solids... Arwyn has started solids and it has now been almost 3 weeks. Some days, she takes them well, some days, not. It does affect her BF. I am still working on figuring out if I should BF first or offer solids first. Every source, website, book out there has a different view. I am consistently offering the breast at her usual 4 hour rotation and offering solids in between. Sometimes this is thrown off if she wakes from a nap early. HTH, it is still trial and error over here and I apologize if it is vague.

I pulled a muscle doing pu/pd!! I am quite short and even with the rail down in the crib, I need to stretch to reach Arwyn. On Wednesday, my back was sore but I ignored it. Yesterday though, the muscle under my right shoulder blade started to REALLY hurt and by last night, it was keeping me up. (This is the other reason I fed her last night, I couldn't sustain pu/pd any longer due to the pain.)

Sorry I haven't answered anybody else's post... we teachers are in illegal strike action over here so I have been following it very closely.

Have a wonderful Canadian Thanksgiving weekend!

[Nikki~Nathan&Danielle]

Well I'm up for the day.  Yay, Danielle slept from 7pm-6.30am again - woohoo!  Think we've cracked it for now.  Now I better try and get solids going again before we hit another growth spurt.  Boy, were my boobs aching this morning for her to wake up.  Unfortunately NAthan's coming down with a cold so had a particularly bad night for wakings. :roll:   

So those that did struggle with solids and their bubs didn't take to it straight away, how did you go about getting them to eat?  I know I can't really do much if she's just not ready and keeps poking her tongue out... I'm just hoping her 4 feeds a day will sustain her??

I might go buy some rice cereal today - I really wanted to do the fruit/veg thing first and follow the BW plan like I did with Nathan, but she's not been into any of the foods I've tried so far.

Well off for some shopping today, might even check out some fabric for block out curtains since the mornings are going to get light soon.  I'm not brave enough to venture into the city during the week without DH, so we'll time it to leave by 9am so Danielle can have her nap in the car on the way there.

[Olivia's Mommy]

Hannah, I've had Olivia on cereal for about 3 weeks now (breakfast and dinner). At first it didn't seem to affect her liquid intake (formula) and she started sleeping straight through for 12 hours! That lasted almost a week. Then her naps got all wacky and she started taking less formula during the day and waking up more at night (and taking a full feed). I don't know if it was all related or not.

We now seem to have naps back on track, but she's still not taking much liquid during the day (only 10 oz by dinner time yesterday). She did wake up last night, but I knew she wasn't hungry since it had only been 2 hrs since DF. So I changed her diaper, put warmer PJs on her (we had a cold spell last night) and put her back to bed. She slept until 8:00 this morning.

I did try giving her a little less cereal this morning and she took more of her bottle an hour later (almost 5 oz instead of the normal 2-3). But she wasn't interested at all in her next bottle feeding. I've tried giving her the bottle before the cereal, too, and she isn't interested in it then, either.

I read on the feeding forum that some babies drop a feeding at 8 months. Olivia is not even 6 months, but she's already not interested in her "noontime" feeding. I've thought about dropping it, but I want her to still get enough calories during the day. I guess we'll just see if she keeps waking at night. She's off the charts in weight, so I'm not as worried about the nourishment, I just don' t want her to get used to eating at night instead of during the day.

Anyone else having trouble with this? Any suggestions?

[Judy]

Nancy are you giving Olivia her solids before or after her bottle?  My thinking is if you give the bottle first you'll ensure she takes in the liquid calories she needs to sleep all night.  Leaving the solids as an extra only.

Just a thought, but you may already be doing things that way anyway.

[Colesmom]

Hi Hannah.  I'm not much help as I haven't started Cole on solids yet and I don't really DF.  I let Cole wake to feed.

Last night he fed at 5:45pm, 10:10pm and then he woke at 1:40am!  Way too early.  I tried the jiggle Nikki but it didn't work.  I just don't have the stamina in the middle of the night.  Fed him at 2:10 and he went back to sleep until 5:30, played until 5:45.  I would give anything for him to just sleep until 6.  Of course about 3 weeks ago I said I'd be happy if he just went back to sleep after feeds and went until 5:30!  LOL  so I'll try to remember what it was like walking around like a zombie for about 6 weeks before sleep training and be happy with what we have.

MIL here today.  Cole took his bottle!  wahoo, to the spa I go on the 29th.  He didn't take it at first because I put a faster flowing nipple on.  I called from the mall and told MIL where the other nipples were and when I arrived home (just in case he still hadn't fed) he was nearly done.  I had estimated 7 oz. and he took 5.5.  I think he's anywhere between 16-17 lbs.  I wandered around aimlessly for about 2 hours.  Ate some lunch, wandered a bit more.  Really didn't know what to do with myself but I was out, baby free and it felt pretty good. 

We're trying to occupy Cole as this is normally our walking time and he's pretty fussy.  His naps today were 45 min(darn A time too short again), 1:45!!! and 1:00 catnap!  I think he was pretty tired for the last two because he's excited to see grandma

I should go.  Don't want to be rude as she hasn't been here for a couple of months.

Just wanted to say- YAY for Judy, Nikki and Hayley with the good sleeps!

tata ladies.

Traci

[Little Bear's Mum]

Hi everyone, it sounds like some of us have the sleeps mastered and others still having to prop our eyes open with matchsticks. I've got my matchsticks handy!  :shock:

Hannah - good on you for ebm for a bottle all this time! That's amazing. As for the DF I didn't do it, then started and after about a month went cold turkey as all it did was cause more wakings. Since then Daniel's been waking inconsistently in the early hours for feeds. At least I can go to bed early if I want to though. He's been on solids for 2 weeks now, and it's going slowly, he seems to love apple, but not so keen on veges yet, but I'll keep persisting. Do you guys heat your veges for them? Or give them to them room temp? I've wondered if he doesn't like them cold.

Traci - how wonderful that Cole took the bottle. I've decided to go and get another couple of teets to try and offer it to Daniel with EBM once a day and see how we go. If that doesn't work then we'll pick a time and go cold turkey.

Judy, that's great news about the girls sleeping all night. You must be feeling so refreshed in the mornings!

Nikki, excellent news for you too, how about I drop Daniel in to you on the way through to Wellington and you can have a word in his ear about sleeping allnight!! :lol: Have you been doing anything different with Danielle? Did you do PUPD at her night wakings or what?

I did wake to sleep last night (or should I say early thismorning). I set my alarm for 4am and went in. I'm not sure if my alarm and disturbed him, but I have a feeling he was not in fully deep sleep, but I was not going to try again 15-20mins later. So I wriggled him a bit, made sure he made some noises then went back to bed. I think he murmured a bit then I didn't hear from him until 5.45am. Lately it's been 5.10am every day nearly! So, whether it was coincidence or because of W2S he woke at a different time. I'll keep doing it for a week and see what happens. If we have luck there, I'll then do it for his early early waking, if that continues.

Better go, just found out we're having visitors in about 30mins and I need to finish the housework! :oops:

[Olivia's Mommy]

Judy, right now I give solids first, then bottle about an hour after. I've tried the other way around a couple times and it didn't seem to make a difference. I might try it a little more consistently if she doesn't start eating more just by cutting back slightly on the amount of cereal. That seemed to work better today.

At least her naps are getting back on track...whew! I think I can handle anything else, but short naps and night wakings kill me!! I'll keep you posted!

[Nikki~Nathan&Danielle]

Judy, when I have been offering solids it's been about 12.30pm when Nathan's having his lunch, so 1.5hrs after her previous milk feed.  It's like she can't even bear the feel of it on her tongue.  :?  Oh well, I brought her some rice cereal today so will try that tomorrow.

Hayley, I didn't actually do anything different.  I was concerned maybe it was her being on 2 naps and really long afternoon stretch that was affecting nights.  But she's slept through 2 nights now - one with a third nap since she only did 45mins in the middle of the day and one was her usual 2 naps.  I did feed her the minimal amount the night before and put her back to bed within 5mins - but I really wouldn't think only one night of doing that would have made her not bother....who knows.

Lets hope I haven't jinxed myself for blabbing about it. :wink:

[Colesmom]

rats!  I was so excited about Cole's good naps yesterday (45, 1:45, 1:00) that it backfired.

He was up at 3:20 to feed and didn't go back down until 4:20!  He usually eats for 20 min, then takes 10 to settle to sleep.  Since it took 40 to settle to sleep I'm thinking he had about 30 min. too much sleep for naps.  AND that is exactly the extra time he slept. Bizarro I tell you.  He slept 15 min. extra on naps 2 and 3.

So, limiting naps like you today Judy!

yesterday was miserable here...pouring rain.  Thank goodness MIL was here or I'm sure I would have gone nuts.  And today fall is upon us.  I had to put Cole in his fall suit (lightweight snowsuit) for our walk this morning.  He looked so grownup in it though

i'm having another massage today.  yippee!  I'm actually enforcing a 45 min. morning nap so that he'll go down just before my massage so DH can study.  Big exam is next week on the 18th and 20th then we can have our life back.

I MIGHT try rice cereal tomorrow!  wanna see if it helps the night waking.
any quick tips?

Traci

[Erin M]

Katie's got a new tooth on top! - and I think it's an eye tooth - either that or the one next to the front tooth - she's only got that one and one on bottom - how funny.  So much for getting the front ones first!

Traci - for us, cereal had to be mixed with breasmilk and nice and warm.  Mix it really thin at first, don't worry if he spits it all out right back at you.  At least for Katie, it took a few weeks for her to really start being interested in it - and it's only been this past week where she leans forward, opens her mouth, looks for more, etc.  I tried it in the morning originally, about an hour after her morning feed, but had the most initial success with it in the evening.  I just did evening feeds for about a week or two before adding the morning feed...and that's where we still are a month and a half later.  I think I'm going to finally take the plunge this week and add lunch - and try to cut out the dreamfeed in the process.

[Colesmom]

thanks for the help Erin. I'm quit excited to see his reaction!

Judy...who knows with these los sometimes.  I would bet it was the late bedtime.  Could you get DH to commit to only very quiet activities when he gets home.  Save the fun play for weekends or early morning?  Or do the girls just get all wound up regardless?

[Olivia's Mommy]

Judy, what is it with DHs sometimes? When mine gets Olivia ready for bed, he insists on playing coochy-coo with her, tickling her, dancing around with her and chasing the dog around the house with her. Then he'll hand her to me to feed and put to bed. I swear, they just don't get it! At least mine is just one...I can't imagine it with four! My hat's off to you!!!!