MSE Newborn to 1 year Baby Club 1

Clarieloo

Hello everyone. I don't know if some of you remember me from the pg thread. I had Leo on the 26th August so he is 4.5 months old now. We are doing pretty well although he STILL doesn't sleep through the night (well he has done on occasion but those nights are rare). But he's stopped waking for a night feed which is something. The only problem is, at least when he was hungry I fed him and he would go straight back down. Now I have no tools left apart from dummy which doesn't really work with L and he's stopped self settling. I have read about a 4 month sleep regression and wondered if anyone had any knowledge or idea about when it might sort itself out?

Doglover

Hi Claireloo, great to "see" you! Glad to hear you're doing well. I read up about the 4 month sleep regression (how depressing!). My LO had a phase of rolling around and getting stuck. That seemed to be something he largely outgrew within a couple of weeks but still does it sometimes. Can't offer any advice surprise surprise but wanted to sympathise!

Kandboys

fosters1 wrote: »

Im a long time lurker from the pregnancy thread and have just found this one.
Please could someone add me to the list? Aydon was born 04/10/11 and is my first baby. Kandboys, I was due the same day as you (28th) and loved reading and comparing how your pregnancy was going, glad to read of the safe arrival of your little one.

Aww that's lovely thanks so much for that :blushing:

Hope everyone is well - lovely to see so many from the pregnancy thread on here. It's fab!!

Blue_Monkey

Hi ladies!!! How are we all?

I haven't been on MSE for a while - been busy with little Betsy - but something prompted me to come on this evening and I noticed this new thread and thought I'd say hi.

So.... We are doing good. I can't believe she's 4 weeks old today (almost to the minute - she was born at 8.41pm) and OH and are loving it (mostly!) so far. The breastfeeding is going well after a bit of a shaky start, and at the first health visitor visit on Wednesday when she was 3.5 weeks she'd was 8lbs 6oz which I was quite pleased with considering her birth weight was 6lbs 6.5oz, though not sure she should continue putting on almost a pound a week or she'll be a right whopper!

Evenings tend to be "fussy" and we've now bought some gripe water in case the fussiness is due to wind/colic, but we're yet to use it (says to be used from a month old) but it kind of feels like 'cheating' - but if it makes her more comfortable then it'll be worth it I guess.

Most days seem to throw up a new challenge and I'm learning that every day will be different! Until today Betsy seemed to be on 3 hour-ish cycles - up for an hour feeding/changing, then a 2 hour sleep... Then this morning she'd been sleeping for over 3 hours so we woke her (paid the price of letting her sleep too long one day last week) at 10.30am for a feed (also keen to keep my supply on track) and then the little monkey would not go back to sleep for love nor money! She was v sleepy but then every time she'd just drop off she'd wake herself up. She finally fell asleep at about 4pm for an hour or so, fussed and fed, and now has been asleep since about 5.45pm.

Now we're not sure what to do this evening. I'm thinking that we should wake/feed/change her at about 9pm, but am nervous she'll be really cranky. We usually head to bed about that time anyway - just hope it doesn't take hours to settle her again.

In general, she will only sleep at the boob or in a cuddle, and I know she's only little but I am keen to ensure she will eventually be able to sleep on her own. We've got some dummies on standby as I'm pretty sure she comfort sucks a fair bit, but again, we feel it's 'cheating' to give her one...

I'm afraid I haven't had a chance to read back properly, but I noticed someone was doing EASY from the Baby Whisperer. I read the book and in theory it (for the most part) makes sense to me, but I just can't seem to put it into practice. It's more like ESY only for us, or if you include a nappy change as an "A" it would be EAESY but there's now way we seem to be able to go from A to S! If I put her in the bouncer or on the mat, she's then far too awake to consider sleeping and would need to be fed again to sleep... Or is she too little for all that just yet?

Those of you with similar aged babies, I'd love to hear what kind of shape your days take?!

Thanks, chat soon, BM xxx

Winnie_in_Pooh

Kandboys wrote: »

WINNIE!!!!!!!!! I missed you!!!!!!!! How are you doing?!

Haha hiya my lovely! Doing fab thank you - hope you and your little guys are good??

Got a few pages to catch up on so no doubt I'll be back in a minute

alison2020

Doglover I have been googling Ewan the dream sheep. I might have to try him as I felt a bit desperate last night! Think i need to keep the dummy for when Daniel is a little cranky. He normally settles pretty well to sleep, as long as he is swaddled will usually stay asleep for a good while. He is 4 months in a week claireloo and has become challenging at night. Wakes at 3ish and doesn't settle back to sleep well. Maybehe is just too used to getting fed, but when I give him a bottle he is no longer taking a full bottle, just 4 oz or so. Then like yours, he goes back to sleep. He doesn't seem to know how to settle on an empty stomach. If I put the dummy in it drops out after a while and wakes up. I have been following the baby whisperer which is working well for most things, except that. It says to change them onto a 4 hour routine at 4 months by extending the active phase and naps. Not always making it to 4 hours though, but apparently that will help them sleep longer at night? Wondering if Ewan the magic sheep can help with that?????

Blue monkey try swaddling. Baby might be overtired as that's when they start 'jolting' awake just after they drop off to sleep. Swaddling the arms physically stops that 'jolt' reflex.

Winnie_in_Pooh

Think I need to look into this baby whisperer thing, and Ewan the magic sheep! Finn slept for 5 hours once a couple of days ago, but on the whole he wakes every 2 hours *yawn*. I've now entered the state of perpetual tiredness and I swear I'm hallucinating sleep sometimes! He's 13 weeks now and I was hoping he'd start sleeping better once he got through the 12 week growth spurt, but doesn't seem to have happened. I'd love to get him into a bath, feed, bed routine if anyone has any advice?? At the moment he doesn't drop off until 10.30pm at the earliest...

Kandboys

I really don't know how we have got Jacob to sleep through - we haven't done anything different with him than we did with the other 2. I was saying to DH earlier (major touching wood going on here though!!) that Jacob is such an easy baby!! We don't have long periods of crying, he goes to sleep by himself, he's happy to just have a wriggle on his playmat or sit in his bouncy chair and he sleeps through the night.

I always feed him at night in our bedroom in the dark so that he knows that it's night time. In fact, when he has his 7am feed, he goes straight back to sleep as I'm sure he thinks it's still night time because of being dark. I've noticed that when I open the curtains to let some light in as the sun comes up, he starts stirring and wakes. The other day I forgot and he slept until 10. As school starts again tomorrow he can't sleep that long lol!

Doglover

Winnie - I always did the routine but it didn't start working for many weeks. I initially did it to try and help turn the body clock round.

I'll admit something...my LO only sleeps on his front. I used to sit up all night to get him to sleep but at 11 weeks I couldn't do it anymore. We've got a sensor pad which helps ease the worry. Even now when he gets upset it's when he's flipped onto his front and can't get back. He actually ends up sleeping on his side most the time and can roll from front to back and back to front but sometimes he just can't get back onto his front. Obviously I'm not telling anyone to try front sleeping but since admitting it at groups etc I've found tons who do. The HV said it was safer than him sleeping on his front on me because he had more chance of overheating on me.

I know it's not the done thing but it's worked for us and the HV says it's fine now he rolls anyway.

Wonder_Womble

Blue_Monkey wrote: »

In general, she will only sleep at the boob or in a cuddle, and I know she's only little but I am keen to ensure she will eventually be able to sleep on her own. We've got some dummies on standby as I'm pretty sure she comfort sucks a fair bit, but again, we feel it's 'cheating' to give her one...

I'm afraid I haven't had a chance to read back properly, but I noticed someone was doing EASY from the Baby Whisperer. I read the book and in theory it (for the most part) makes sense to me, but I just can't seem to put it into practice. It's more like ESY only for us, or if you include a nappy change as an "A" it would be EAESY but there's now way we seem to be able to go from A to S! If I put her in the bouncer or on the mat, she's then far too awake to consider sleeping and would need to be fed again to sleep... Or is she too little for all that just yet?

Those of you with similar aged babies, I'd love to hear what kind of shape your days take?!

Hey BM!! Great to see you on here :j I'm looking forward to hearing more about your adventures with Betsy!

I just wanted to say that I felt the same way about dummies but they are supposed to reduce the risk of SIDS. Katie is the same about being cuddled or fed to sleep at the mo, my HV said to continue with this as you cannot spoil them at this age. Also someone on the parents club thread recommended I read up on the 4th trimester which suggests for the first 3 months babies need to be cuddled and rocked to ease their transition from the womb.

I'm with you on the EASY plan, I got 2 copies of the Baby Whisperer for Christmas and Katie is the same - Eat, Sleep and You time, although saying that she cries if I put her in the crib so my time has to involve cuddling.

In terms of my days they have no shape or form, each day is different. Friends keep telling me I should have Katie in a routine by now, but as I say every day is different, as is every night. We are just taking things a day at a time and bumbling along