June/ July 05 Mom's Chat

[CaedensMama]

I don't know bj..... Last night Caeden went down at 7:15, I did a dreamfeed at 10:15ish and he slept till 4:30 and I was thrilled, I feel like we are making a little progress - of course 6 or 7 would be ideal, but I think that is pretty good for the moment. I am hoping we get progressively longer over the next couple weeks.

About the dreamfeed - I am struggling with whether to do it or not. DH and I try and be in bed by 9 as he gets up by 5ish or sometimes earlier for work, so it is often easier for me to just get up for a couple hours and occassionally the day by 4:30 or 5, feed Caeden, make DH's lunch and get him off to work and then put Caeden back down and depending on my day's plans good back to bed or get ready.
It is hard to get up after going to bed and sleeping to wake Caeden for a DF at 10:30 or 11 - I have been doing it when we are still up at that time, but I have not been waking myself up to do if we go to bed.
Any opinions.... am I better off long-term to try and do a dream feed and fget him sleeping longer into the morning or letting him get up earlier and not dreamfeeding? Would it be any benefit to dreamfeed earlier - say 9ish?

Other then that we have been having a good couple days - he has been eating more regularly and I have been trying really hard to keep him up for at least an hour between naps. We are still struggling with the 45 minute naps, but about half the time I am getting him back to sleep or he is making it 1 1/2 to 2 hours on his own (like in the sling when we are out or in his carseat - not in the bed :?

[Kayna]

I was so tired and upset that i walked away from him and to my shame punched the door!! I was just so mad, like why won't he sleep??

Well Clair, here we are again. Today I got so frusterated with Avery (I couldn't get her back to sleep after waking up from a 45 min. nap) that I laid her in her crib and went into our bed room and screamed at the top of my lungs then (because I'm a bigger wimp than you) started punching my pillow.  It actually worked to blow that steam off though.  :oops: 

Also, great idea about swaddeling in the car seat. I think that would help Avery sleep in it (as long as it's cool enough  :wink: ) and I may have to give the sheet a try. I haven't seen the miracle blanket but read somewhere about one.

BJ: last night Avery got a dream feed at 10:45pm as well and slept until 4:50am. Like Caeden'sMama I was thrilled with that. I think your little Cait seems to be doing great but I hear ya.......I'm ready for uninterrupted nights.  :cry:

[Critter]

Dream Feed doesn't work out so great for us either.  We usually give a bottle around 10:30 or 11 b/c that's when he's due to eat anyway.  On the off chance that he eats at 7, I'll still give him something at around 11,  just so we don't have to get up and do it at midnight.  He wakes around 3 or 4 usually...

On a side note, today was Luke's first day at daycare for a half day.  I am a teacher and don't officially start until next Wed, but thought this would be a good transition for me and allow me time to set up my classroom since I am in a new school this year.  I bawled my eyes out when I left him.  Then I went to school, was working on a bulletin board and stabbed myself in the palm of the hand with the scissors and had to go to the ER.  No stitches b/c not wide enough, but very deep, and am so glad that I have Vica-profin left from my c-section!! 

Thanks for coming to my pitty party!

[Critter]

Dream Feed doesn't work out so great for us either.  We usually give a bottle around 10:30 or 11 b/c that's when he's due to eat anyway.  On the off chance that he eats at 7, I'll still give him something at around 11,  just so we don't have to get up and do it at midnight.  He wakes around 3 or 4 usually...

On a side note, today was Luke's first day at daycare for a half day.  I am a teacher and don't officially start until next Wed, but thought this would be a good transition for me and allow me time to set up my classroom since I am in a new school this year.  I bawled my eyes out when I left him.  Then I went to school, was working on a bulletin board and stabbed myself in the palm of the hand with the scissors and had to go to the ER.  No stitches b/c not wide enough, but very deep, and am so glad that I have Vica-profin left from my c-section!! 

Thanks for coming to my pitty party!

[rooby-rooby-roo]

so....my dreamfeed isn't going so great, I think.

Cait will eat between 7-8pm and then goes to sleep and then about 10:30 I try to do a dream feed, but she only goes to 2-3 am.....does this sound right?  Last night, I feed her about 10:45ish and she went to 4:19 am.  Am I expecting too much of an almost 8 week old?  I know I shouldn't compare Ry and Cait, but Ry WAS sleeping at 8 weeks...and I dont' see Cait following that same pattern.  Any ideas?  She doesn't wake up at the Df.

bj

A couple of thoughts BJ: So you saw progress last night right, in that she woke at 4.19am rather than 2-3am? The DF takes a while to take effect if you like, they are so used to waking at 2-3am that it can take up to 2 weeks for them to realise they are not hungry at that time and wake later. It sounds like Cait is doing that slowly.

One other thing is that i have always woken my babies for the 'DF' as i have found that to get further through the night they need to be awake for 10 minutes at 10.30-11pm. I literally wake him, do a nappy change, feed him and by the time he has finished feeding he is asleep again and is no trouble to settle.

We had a better night thank God! He went through to 5am again, then was awake at 7am so i fed him and put him down again, and he is still asleep now (9am) YAY!!

He also did his first huge smile at me this morning!! He has been doing small 'smirks' for a week or so, but today was a huge gummy mouth wide open smile!! Makes it worth it (!)

Kayna {{{{HUGS}}}} hon i am right with you!!

[Poppy & Lily]

clair...have you read gina ford at all? i only ask because my dd was a gina ford baby to start with and then i changed over.  reds routine sounds exactly the same as what dd's was?  ie: waking him for 10 mins in DF, split feeds etc....

Sorry hope you don't think i'm being rude or anything, just curious! :oops: 

xx

[Critter]

Ok girls, I need to vent (and cry) a little bit

Trent picked Luke up at the daycare at12:30 and there was a new girl in there that didn't know Trent from Adam...didn't ask for ID or anything and the door that opens up to the street was unlocked.  Plus, yesterday they told me that they would prefer his bottles were premade so that they didn't have to mix them.  I made them this morning and put them in his diaper bag.  THEY LEFT THEM IN THERE ALL DAY!  You can't leave them unrefrigerated for that long or it goes bad.  When they got his first bottle out of his diaper bag at 11 (He'd been there since 7:30!!!!!) they should have seen the second one!!!!  AND FURTHERMORE, THEY SHOULD HAVE POURED IT OUT AND MADE HIM A FRESH ONE!!!

To top it all off, I spent 15 minutes the other day writing his name on all of his bottles and tops...maybe not 15 minutes, but it took a while...and the empty bottle in his bag had big black magic marker "Luke" in ugly handwriting on it when I had already labled the darn things.  I know that's petty, but it just sent me over the edge.

Oh yeah, did I mention that while I was working in my classroom I stabbed myself in the palm of my hand with scissors yesterday and had to go to the ER because of it? 

WAAAAHHHHH!!!

[Kayna]

Oh Amy big hugs. I'm sooo sorry your daycare is NOT doing it's job. I can't imagine how stressed you are in the first place having to leave your lo but then to deal with this as well.  I wish I had some words of wisdom but just know that I'm thinking of you and that awful situation.  :cry:

[rooby-rooby-roo]

clair...have you read gina ford at all? i only ask because my dd was a gina ford baby to start with and then i changed over.  reds routine sounds exactly the same as what dd's was?  ie: waking him for 10 mins in DF, split feeds etc....

Sorry hope you don't think i'm being rude or anything, just curious! :oops: 

xx

You are absolutley right Poppy! I read both when dd was born, and followed EASY until dd was old enough to be on a more regimented routine (about 5 months). Its my way of doing things - reading everything i can and then doing it my way anyway!! Honestly, i think that Gina Ford's book is useful, it is a good routine FOR AN OLDER BABY, but i think the way the book is written really puts a lot of people off (it is very prescriptive). We are on 3 hour easy, with bits of the CLBB mixed in!!

[ry,cait&alex]

Oh Amy, that is horrible!! I am so sorry you are having such a bad time with your daycare!!!  Is there someone there you can address your concerns with?
And how is the hand??


Okay...here is my problem.  For the last two nights I haven't even been able to do DF because the little girl REFUSES TO GO TO SLEEP.  I am about at my wits end.  I have no idea what to do.  Here is what I did last night....thought I was being real smart....evidently not.

Got home about 6:30 from picking up Cait from DH (we have a 45 minute commute from work to home)

Ran her bath, bathed her, did a baby massage with calming lotion, and got her all bundled up in warm jammies and by the time all of this was done, it was now time for her bottle at 7 pm.  I thought great!!!  I will feed her, and then toss her into the crib and spend time with Ry and then do DF at about 9:30/10 ish.   Yeah...best laid plans all for naught.  The child NEVER went to sleep.  She was awake and alert from the time I picked her up at 5:45 until 10pm!!!!!  Now, mind you, she wasn't cranky but for a couple of episodes, but was wide awake.  And what was just as frustrating was that I had been up since 5 am that morning, worked all day (10 hours) came home and then wasn't able to get to bed till after 10 pm AND she got  back up at 2am, had a bottle and then proceeded to stay up AGAIN until 5:30 am!!!!   Please advise me on what I can do, I have got to get some more sleep.  4-6 hours is just not doing it.

bj

[Poppy & Lily]

hi clair...

Thanks for your reply...i was beginning to think i was the only one that has ever read gina ford.. :oops: my friends all think she is too strict and regimental, which in all fairness she is sometimes, but like you i found some of her stuff worked for me and i also mixed the two togeather! and threw a few of my own 'rules' in! :wink:

 

[Poppy & Lily]

hi clair...

Thanks for your reply...i was beginning to think i was the only one that has ever read gina ford.. :oops: my friends all think she is too strict and regimental, which in all fairness she is sometimes, but like you i found some of her stuff worked for me and i also mixed the two togeather! and threw a few of my own 'rules' in! :wink:

 

[rooby-rooby-roo]

OMG bj :shock: What a shocker! Little madam! I only know that the longer Red is awake the harder it is for us to get him to go to sleep. If he is awake longer than 1 hour then we are for it :roll:  In these cases i resort to 'accidental parenting' doing things i know i shouldn't be in order to get him to sleep! Using a binky, rocking, cuddling, patting/shushing. One thing i do is place a light blanket over his eyes, cutting out the visual stimulation helps loads. I know it wouldn't have helped being there with Ry, but i would not have left the room till he was asleep, keeping it all dark, swaddling, stroking head, shushing etc.

How did you play it? Was she with you while you had your evening, or did you stay in her room? How long had she been awake before bedtime, had she napped well during the day? Was she gassy/ hungry at all? I would probably of stuffed her full of very warm milk!!

We are having alternate good days/ bad days over here, some nights he goes through till 5am, others just till 3am! This am it was 3.30am (i fed him), 5.30am (no feed, but woke after just 45 mins :x ) 6.15am (feed, again just slept 45 mins) 7.30am (fed again out of desperation) then he slept till 9.30am, and we got back on our 3hourly routine. These mornings are just killing me!

[ry,cait&alex]

She had been awake for nearly 4 hours!!!  But wasn't really cranky, just not tired.  She had slept most of the day though, and that is because with dh working nights, he has to sleep at some point also.  If I put her in the crib, she is fine for a bit, but then starts screaming bloody murder, and I know her cries which one she is just fussing herself to sleep (not often) and which ones are "no way in hell".  So I ended up picking her back up and rocking, walking, shushing, and patting.  I pretty much gave up and figured she would go to sleep when she felt like it and she did.  I asked dh today to please do some activity time with her today so that I dont' get in this predicament again tonight.  We shall see.  And sometimes she will only take 3 oz and that is it, I can't get her to eat more, but then sometimes she will take all 6 oz.  I swear, she is just all over the place.  You can never predict her....typical woman!!!! :roll:  :lol:   And I did give her Mylicon gas drops just in case that was the problem during one of her "cranky fits".  Guess I try it again tonight.  Wish me luck.  And thanks for the help, I really appreciate it.

bj

[Critter]

BJ,
Welcome to our world!!  I guess our little babes just want to be with their mamas!!!!

The had is better, thanks for asking