PS Mommy Thread-Newborn to 12 months!

[drk]

Ginger - he''s too cute! Sorry you''re dealing with supply issues too. At least you managed to get a fantastic freezer stash. In hopes of getting there, I bought all sorts of breast milk storage bags. Not going to use them at all at this point as there was nothing extra to store after I ordered them. Bummer.

PG - sounds super cute. Can''t wait till K is doing stuff like that.

Burk - I can only dream of 4lb weight gain. K hasn''t even gained 4 above her birth weight at this point.

Mara - not sure the Brazilian blowout is enough of a reward for the droopy girls, but it''s a start Maybe I deserve something for a push present/slight incontinence present/saggy boob present. Too bad we want to pay off our mortgage before blowing money on other stuff.

AFM - my hair is falling out in masses too. Can''t run fingers through it without more coming out. Big hairballs come off in my comb each morning. I don''t have thick hair to start with, so it''s a sad. Hope I don''t go bald.

K had a worse night last night. She didn''t have an evening nap, just stayed up grumpy to eat again and go to bed at 9:45pm. Then she slept till I woke her at 4am to feed. Unfortunately, it was then starting to get light out, so she thought it was time to get up and started talking away. Totally happy, but man was she noisy when I tried to put her in her bassinet again. DH woke up a few min later and took over, first trying to settle her beside our bed, then taking her to her room where she slept till 9:45am. I think we need to start getting her to bed earlier and getting her up earlier too, or she''ll never get into the morning and afternoon nap pattern. It might have to wait until we get the blackout shades in her room though. DH is happy with the status quo because he likes to sleep in. I guess she must now be drinking enough during the day if she can sleep extended periods like that. Will have to check the weight gain again tomorrow or Thurs to see if we''re doing better or not. DH is stuffing what he can into her during the day.

 

[drk]

Sh!t. Managed to burn one wrist with hot tea at lunch. Have some blisters. How am I going to hold the baby well to feed her now? Ouch.

 

[mtjoya]

Ginger-I love the bebe''s pic! SOOOOO Cute! I luff the jersey by the way!

 

[MonkeyPie]

Ouch drk

I hope your wrist is ok!

 

[vizsla]

yikes DRK! my suggestion: very carefully

ok, sorry this is a totally me-centric post, but i need a smidge bit of advice.

sooooo c did it again.... STTN!

quick recap:
sunday night he didn''t fight going down initially, but was up several times in the night coughing etc. we didn''t let him cry b/c he was under the weather.

monday night he fought going down but slept like a log from 7:15p-10:15p / at which time he had a coughing fit that lasted on and off for about an hour. he would NOT let me put him down - he ended up sleeping with us b/c he was being such a sick stinker. we fed him 2x just to calm him down.

last night he fought going down like a mad man. i gave up after 45mins of trying and decided i was sick of eating a cold dinner, so i took c downstairs while i ate. at 8:00p i made 2oz and repeated our nighttime routine. he didn''t want the bottle, didn''t want to be held, so after another 15 mins of trying to get him into drowsy alert i said ''forget it'' and put him in his crib totally awake (but i knew he was super tired).

he wimpered and cried for 15mins and then slept until 6:00a this morning.

my question is what the heck do i do now? last night was the first time i let him cry to fall asleep initially. do i do that again tonight? was it the later bedtime? what if he wakes up in the middle of the night? do i feed or let him cry then? i know he can go all night now...

mamma''s confused

 

[Dreamer_D]

Viz I think from his behaviour last night in addition to his lack of interest in bottles in the AM prior, it is clear he is not overly hungry in the night. I think he seems realy for you to try using CIO in the middle of the night or if needed before bed! I suspect this is an important juncture because his sleep can go either way as he is learning how to sleep and also learning what he needs to do (how long hard to cry etc) to get what he wants -- closeness with mummy and daddy. I think if you bite the bullet and use CIO as you have been inching towards

you will be happy in a couple of says when he is STTN all the time! Of course, easier said than done, and it sounds like he is doing great! I would just hate to see things get onconsistent over time and he get confused and then you have to undue bad learned habits... not sure that will happen, but it is certainly possible it could happen if things are too wishy washy re: when you will go in and when you don''t.

 

[Bella_mezzo]

Viz-Yay for C sleeping through the night again!!!!!!! Can''t wait to hear how CIO works. it sounds like you both might be ready

 

[Mara]

i agree with dreamer... whatever you do be consistent. you mentioned last nite he fought going down so you took him downstairs with you. i try to never remove him from the crib unless it's for good. if it's bedtime, he flat out does not come out until morning (or unless he needs a nighttime feed which for us is super rare but sometimes happens). i don't want him to think 'oh i cry or am difficult so she takes me out and i get to go hang with mom and dad where i wanna be anyway'.

J is in a fighting to go down phase right now where nothing i do would put him to sleep within 5-10 min ANYWAY (i tried a few times), so i just put him in his crib, give him paci and leave. he goes from playing with his legs to fussing to outright screaming in 10 min. but that is 10min i am not having to be in his room trying fruitlessly to soothe him. so i go back in, soothe him, give him paci, walk out. typically he will fall asleep then, but i might have to repeat it one more time. in the end if it takes him 30min to go to sleep, that is 30 min i didn't need to be in there with him soothing him and 30 min i can be doing something else like eating dinner or getting ready for the next day. i know he's TIRED but for whatever reason his brain wants to go through that play cycle to relax enough to sleep, so i let him 'get it out' and then when he's mentally ready for sleep he will find it.

it is great C is showing the tendency to only cry for 15 min before falling asleep hard.

oh and you mention being confused. GIRL...you should know that's par for the course when it comes to parenthood. C is prob also trying to figure out the 'routine' and what is happening, could be why he is inconsistent. but you can be consistent and teach him what you want. you both are learning this...feeling it out the same way. but i would just say...keep in mind what your end goal is here (him putting himself to sleep consistently and if he wakes at night knowing he can do it again)... and try to work towards that. sure you will have small setbacks but just keep the goal in mind and anytime you do anything, think about 'will this get me closer or further from my goal'. if it's further, then really think about it before doing it.

but YAY for STTN and for C and you guys for letting him CIO for 15 min! that is great progress.

AFM... J has been sleeping pretty much fine for now..consistently waking up 1-2x a night to fuss, I go bink him and roll him on his side and that's that. he is also sleeping on his stomach more and still gets freaked out when he wakes up. i am hoping it will pass soon. he CAN roll, if i walk in and wait he will usually do it but screams the whole time (i'm sure it's scary..waking up in the dark on your face)...but i want him to learn that he can roll himself over and he doesn't need me there.

but this morning he woke up at 5:30am and could not get back to sleep (normally he wakes up at 7am for his feeding)...i figured he was hungry BECAUSE i found out yesterday that my mom and sis have been giving him 5-6oz bottles of formula with just one scoop of powder in there!!! i said no no no 1 scoop for every 2oz!! so poor kid got like 12oz of liquid yesterday with only enough formula for 4oz. last nite i gave him a LOT of food knowing this and hoping to counteract it but i imagine this morning he was starving after 2 days of this. sooo hopefully that will be fixed now. just one more thing in the saga of 'having someone else watch your child' i guess.

drk so sorry about the wrist, hope it heals up soon.

oh and J has been showing interest in taking paci out of mouth and trying to put it back in so hopefully within a week or two he'll learn it and then *I* can STTN again heehe.

 

[vizsla]

thanks ladies!

ha! i know it sounds like i'm being totally inconsistent, so i understand where you are coming from. but when c started getting sick this weekend, he really threw a wrench in the works - DH and i were not comfortable doing any sort of crying etc.
THEN *he* went from going down easily to fighting it. so, yeah i guess we are both learning what is the best solution. this whole thing is new. trial and error - except when it comes to sleep?

ha! for a smidgen more background our actual nighttime routine is exactly the same every night - except now we do it in c's room instead of our bedroom (and i even repeated it last night after i finished my dinner).
it was just so weird because *he* went from being easy peasy to put down initially to fighting it. so that is why we did a little crying at the beginning of the night instead of in the middle of the night when he wakes up. does that make sense? i guess that is where i'm most confused. do i even attempt to get him into drowsy awake tonight or do i just put him down after our book, bottle and cuddle?

ETA: mara this is EXACTLY what c did when he was learning to paci himself.. it's AWESOME now b/c he roots around his crib for his paci another week or 2 and he'll get it.
p.s. OMG about the formula...

 

[phoenixgirl]

Viz, yay!!! As for your questions, my instinct is to try the 8 p.m. bedtime and the CIO. Claire has been difficult to put down recently and I''ve had to let her CIO both for naps and for bedtime. But like you said, when I know she''s just tired and soothing isn''t working anyway, I don''t know what else to do other than to try to get her to fall asleep in my arms and then not wake up when I deposit her in the crib . . . a crap shoot at best, anyway.

I think it''s the teething and some separation anxiety in Claire''s case. She fusses a majority of the time when I try to put her down around the house. She whimpers when I start carrying her upstairs, even if it''s not to put her down. Then she stiffens up and cries when we get near her crib.

Her daycare teacher said I''ve got to "keep her rolling," which I think is good advice. I make sure to play with her and engage her and vary what she''s doing, but I can''t carry her around all day . . . then I won''t be able to get done any of the things that Summer All Year PG needs to accomplish.

BTW, yesterday Claire pooped 6 times. Twice at our playdate at a coffeeshop/play area. And they''re not super duper solid. This is making me seriously question my compunction over hitherto not using cloth diapers now that I''m home. My sister uses cloth now, but my niece poops a lot less frequently and always solid. I asked her if she would feel differently about their ease if my niece pooped like Claire, and she said, "Yes!"

 

[vizsla]

pg - exactly.. i don''t want c to hate his crib his eyes get HUGE when we start walking upstairs too! like ''oh snap.. i''ve got to go in *there* again!''

also c has been doing the tons-o-poo one day, then like nothing the next. i was attributing it to eating more ''solids''. anyhoo, yeah.. i don''t know if i could do 6 poo cloth diapers a day... i''m secretly glad that c''s teacher changes 80% of his diapers

 

[AmberWaves]

Hello everyone, sorry I've been MIA. It's super hectic at work, and Piper has been majorly clingy lately. She's also been skimping on the naps at work, which really makes it hard to do ANY work.

I've realized she's not planning on cutting out any feedings any time soon- I still nurse her about 7 times a day (give or take a feeding), she still wakes up at LEAST once (I can't remember the last time she slept through the night- maybe two months ago?) a night, despite getting plenty of solids a day. At her 7 month weight check (she lost 3 ounces at 6 months) she had gained a pound and an inch, so maybe it's a growth spurt thing? She's crabby lately, too. She goes down for bed usually okay, no real fussing, but still can't deal with waking up on her tummy, even though she's a rolling fool all day. Sigh.

Anyway

Viz: YAY FOR STTN!!!! I am so happy for you!

Everyone, I'm sorry but I'm just so behind I can't even keep up with who is doing what. Just know I'm thinking of all of you guys.

Oh, Mara and Viz: SO jealous you guys can just paci your sons and he's okay. Piper's fingers are her paci and she just does not use them in the middle of the night. While I'm sure her lack of addiction to the paci will be good in the long run, she has a hard time putting herself back to sleep at night. CIO so far isn't my choice yet. I dunno. I'm not tooooo sleep deprived, but it's getting there.

Also: P has taken to a sippy cup really well, considering she has never used a bottle, so that's a good thing, right?

ETA: DRK, OUCH!! Good luck! Sounds painful!

 

[Mara]

viz...what's the end result for C in terms of how you WISH to be putting him down to sleep? is it bottle, book, cuddle, bed? my ideal situ doesn't included me rocking or soothing J to a drowsy state when he incorporates 30 min of lets play with mom and babble to her and push the paci out if she's standing there.

so i just kiss him, put him down, walk out. doesn't always work the way i want it but sometimes it does and eventually it hopefully will be consistent.

personally i'd just do your routine...then try to get him to drowsy but if he is fighting it for longer than 5-10 min, put him down and walk out. you might have to come back in (if you don't want to do hard core CIO at bedtime) to do a little soothing a few times, but i do think it teaches the kids they can be in their own space and alone and be fine, and to 'enjoy' the crib i guess.

i hope J can bink himself soon at night but overall he always goes his 12 hours and if i have to zombie walk into his room for 30 seconds 2x a night i can deal (for now)...!! and i wouldn't want J to do CIO either if he was sick or not feeling well. hopefully C stays healthy so that you can keep going with the sleep training.

oh forgot to mention--random...but yesterday i heard a baby cry at work, like a REAL baby baby. so of course whereas the old me would have been like 'seriously why is that baby here'... the new me aka the MOM had to go find it after hearing it several times. turns out it was a preemie 10 week old girl who is now technically 3.5mo old but in gestational weeks is only about 44 weeks, so if she'd been full term would only be 4 weeks. she was soooo tiny, only 9lbs, but has doubled her weight since coming home, i guess she was born at something like 3-4lbs. it was crazy to see a 3.5mo old that was so tiny, still had small squinty shut eyes and was sooo delicate!!! i know that technically she's not 3.5mo but just thinking of my robust crazy large child at 5mo and comparing them in my head just blew my mind. i don't know why this babe was so early but mom said she was totally healthy and doing great, just so tiny. it made me really grateful that J baked his entire time and came out large and in charge, even though my total ingoramous non-mom self prev thought it'd be so cool if he was out of my body early (duh on me) because i was tired of sharing my space lol!!! pre-mom fail.

eta...amber yeah i have a love/hate rela. with the paci. i never had one so i didn't really want J having one. but G had one and loved it and outgrew it so he has fond memories. J didnt used to take one but now he loves it for 'nighttime'. he really doesn't take one much during the day unless he's in a zoning out situation (like in the stroller in the park where he'll prob nap). and most times he spits it out when he falls asleep but sometimes he keeps it in and it drives me crazy to find it still in his mouth like 2 hours later. i don't want him needing the 'dependence' on it yanno. so i will take it out then. i bink him at night because he 'needs' it to soothe himself back to sleep right now but HOPEFULLY he will grow out of it. it's funny because some people say oh paci is fab, don't worry about it, they will outgrow it, but other people (my mom) are like..he's too dependent on it, you should cut it out cold turkey. it's so hard to know. and J does his fingers during the day too BUT not at night as well, how funny is that?? sometimes i totally wish he'd suck on those instead, at least they are attached!

 

[AmberWaves]

Mara: I was a total paci girl (on a shoelace around my neck, thanks mom), so I was totally thrilled when Piper loved her paci. Until she shunned it at 4 months or so. I was so sad, it always got her to sleep so easily. In the middle of the night she can''t figure out how to soothe herself, and it SUCKS. I mean, she''s 7 months now- SOOTHE YOURSELF!

 

[MonkeyPie]

I know nothing about sleep training, but I am thinking we may have to do it soon. Micah has a tendency to get overtired now, when he used to just be awake all day and happy about it. I have discovered that if I poke a bottle in his mouth he will usually fall asleep after only an ounce, so that works for now. And he doesn''t do it all the time, either, so I have no idea what his pattern is. This baby simply doesn''t have a pattern!

All of you talking about putting the baby down at the same time every night, that seems crazy to me. He USUALLY goes down around 9-ish, but last night it was 8 and he slept until 1:30.

Micah has already all but stopped taking the paci, at all. He''s taken to sucking - rather noisily - on his fist when he gets sleepy, though. He seems to have found his hands at night by himself, and when I lay him back in the crib after feeding him around 1-2am, I can hear him sucking away for a minute or two then silence.

 

[ljmorgan]

drk I wanted to say that I''ve followed your BF/pumping journey and you are so inspiring -- you''ve had a number of challenges along the way but you keep going when many women would have thrown in the towel a long time ago. I just read that you have an LC coming on Friday to address your decreased supply. I''m sure I''ve missed some of your posts, so forgive me if I''m repeating previous discussions, but have you supplemented with lactation teas, herbal supplements, or even domperidone? I don''t have a long standing supply issue so the herbal tea (Mother''s Milk) was enough to boost my production, but there are obviously stronger things to help out. I''ve met with several LCs along my BFing journey and many seemed against production increasing drugs, and just kept repeating to put the baby on the breast as much as possible... not super helpful. How many times a day are you pumping right now?

To you and the other ladies with BF/pumping/supply issues, it DEFINITELY should be easier. It makes no sense that something so "natural" should be so difficult for so many women. Andrew will be 6 weeks old tomorrow and things are just now smoothing out for us. When he was first born he was in the NICU for 10 days, my milk took 6 days to come in, which wasn''t a huge deal because he was on IV nutrition. When they OKed us to begin feeding him, I had a very, very sleepy jaundiced baby who was too tired to latch/eat, plus he didn''t feel hungry because of the IV nutrition/TPN. Plus the NICU is very numbers oriented, and would semi-blackmail me by saying "we''ll remove his IV tomorrow if we see that he''ll eat 40ml." Well guess what, there are no lines on my boobs, so I would give him bottles of pumped milk. We went through bottles, nipple shields, the SNS equipment, the always exhausting pattern of BF/pump/clean pump supplies repeat every 2-3 hours... it was exhausting. I am pretty sure that I cried about breastfeeding every single day for the first four weeks because it was always one issue or another. I kept telling my husband "I had no idea it would be this hard!!"

 

[Mara]

"All of you talking about putting the baby down at the same time every night, that seems crazy to me. He USUALLY goes down around 9-ish, but last night it was 8 and he slept until 1:30. "

____

MP... J would not be consistent at first either, in fact it was so hard to know what the night would be like...but the older he got the more apparent his pattern became to me. We used to put him down around 10pm when he was born. It wasn't really 'down'...it was just 'down for a few hours' right...since they feed so frequently. Then it moved to 9pm when he started sleeping 5-6 hours. I wanted him to sleep up to 12 hours a night without a wake. Not everyone gets there, but most of the people who I wanted to 'emulate' in terms of sleep habits had an early bedtime and their kid would go 10-12 hours without a feed. So we moved him to 8pm... and as he started to get fussy at 7:30, eventually 7:30. Mostly I let his own cues dictate if it was time to 'move' the bedtime, but we have a routine every night so we do the same thing every time at the same time.

Also I am super routine oriented so I love having him on a routine so that I know what my own routine is for example..I def have from 7:30 to 10pm as me time or me and Greg time and I know what I need to get done in there (aka do some work, eat my dinner, watch some TV, pump, then get ready for bed). Our weeks are pretty boring.

Anyway, now J goes down basically between 7 and 7:30 depending on his nap schedule that day (he will def be a crab or passing out on his bottle if he doesn't get his 2 shortish naps) and will sleep pretty consistently (except for the 2 thirty second binks) for 11-12 hours, waking up at 7am for his next feed.

It is hard sometimes to put him down so early since I only see him for those 2 hours a day but I know it's best for him because he just is so much happier with all that sleep. Plus his day naps are so inconsistent and short that I feel like NEEDS his long sleep to be as long as possible.

Anyway all that to say.... if M went down at 8pm last nite, maybe he wants an earlier bedtime, you can try putting him down at 8pm tonite to see if he takes to it. Usually it took J maybe 3-4 nights to 'get' a new bedtime. also I read something about parents who don't want to put their kids down earlier bcause they are afraid they will also wake earlier but a lot of parents say that putting the kid to bed earlier didnt' affect wake up time. It's all experimental.

 

[phoenixgirl]

Lindsey, I missed your announcement on the preggo thread, congratulations!!! You are totally right . . . BFing is just so hard. I'm glad to hear that things have gotten better and that you've had Andrew home for a month. Yay!!!


I'm figuring out Claire's schedule, which is (don't quote on me this; these things change every few days):

Start fussing in 5 o'clock hour -- sometimes we feed her and put her back to bed
Wake up 6:30 to 7:30
nap @3 hours later for 1/2 or 1 hour (start time 9:30 to 10:30)
nap @5 hours after that for 1/2 or 1 hour (start time 3:00 to 4:00)
bed @5 hours after that (around 8 or 9)

We're still BFing 5 or 6 times a day, which I think is a lot, but she has not really taken to a sippy cup (likes it when it's Pedialite, not when it's water) and I'm worried about her fluid intake.

Today we had another play date in a public kids & parents place, and I thought we were golden for her nap schedule, but she woke up on the earlier side and she fell asleep in her stroller on the way home in this really awkward position . . . bad Mommy didn't notice until we were home. At the playdate this nanny kept playing peekaboo with Claire, which was super cute, until she came over, said, "Do you want me to pick you up?" and proceeded to carry Claire all around the place for the better part of 10 minutes. When her kids needed something, she was throwing Claire on her hip and getting this and that. After 5 minutes she came back just to ask Claire's name! Definitely weird. She never asked if I minded. I kind of hoped Claire would start to get Mommy panic just so I could stop feeling nervous/watching out of the corner of my eye, but of course Claire seemed more fussy when I got her back than when she was with the stranger.

I almost wondered if this nanny was hoping to trade her two pre-school aged kids for a singleton baby . . .

 

[drk]

Date: 6/30/2010 2:46:01 PM
Author: *Lindsey*
drk I wanted to say that I've followed your BF/pumping journey and you are so inspiring -- you've had a number of challenges along the way but you keep going when many women would have thrown in the towel a long time ago. I just read that you have an LC coming on Friday to address your decreased supply. I'm sure I've missed some of your posts, so forgive me if I'm repeating previous discussions, but have you supplemented with lactation teas, herbal supplements, or even domperidone? I don't have a long standing supply issue so the herbal tea (Mother's Milk) was enough to boost my production, but there are obviously stronger things to help out. I've met with several LCs along my BFing journey and many seemed against production increasing drugs, and just kept repeating to put the baby on the breast as much as possible... not super helpful. How many times a day are you pumping right now?

To you and the other ladies with BF/pumping/supply issues, it DEFINITELY should be easier. It makes no sense that something so 'natural' should be so difficult for so many women. Andrew will be 6 weeks old tomorrow and things are just now smoothing out for us. When he was first born he was in the NICU for 10 days, my milk took 6 days to come in, which wasn't a huge deal because he was on IV nutrition. When they OKed us to begin feeding him, I had a very, very sleepy jaundiced baby who was too tired to latch/eat, plus he didn't feel hungry because of the IV nutrition/TPN. Plus the NICU is very numbers oriented, and would semi-blackmail me by saying 'we'll remove his IV tomorrow if we see that he'll eat 40ml.' Well guess what, there are no lines on my boobs, so I would give him bottles of pumped milk. We went through bottles, nipple shields, the SNS equipment, the always exhausting pattern of BF/pump/clean pump supplies repeat every 2-3 hours... it was exhausting. I am pretty sure that I cried about breastfeeding every single day for the first four weeks because it was always one issue or another. I kept telling my husband 'I had no idea it would be this hard!!'

I'm going in to the hospital I had K at to see the LCs there, since they've followed us along our rough path. I'm on domperidone max dose (40mg 4 times a day), plus fenugreek and blessed thistle. I've been pumping after every feed since she was 2 weeks old, with a whole two weeks of slacking off to see if she'd make up the difference at the breast if I didn't supplement her. She didn't, so back it was to all the pumping etc. I wonder if those weeks might have started to kill my supply a bit too. I don't know that they'll have much to add to what I'm doing, but I thought it was worth one last-ditch try before I go to mixed feedings. I've added back in an extra middle-of-the-night pumping session to avoid having the long sleep stretches keep further decreasing my supply, but I'm not sure how long I'll be able to keep that up for, since I'm getting pretty tired between working and pumping and being up 1-2 times a night. When I'm at work I pump 7am, 9am, 11am, 1pm, and 3pm, then feed her around 6pm, 9pm and 3am. So 8 times. When I'm just at home, she eats in a more 3h rhythm, and sleeps a long time at night, so she only eats 6 times a day and I pump one extra time. I've tried power pumping, feeding her more often etc, all to no real benefit.

I'm glad things are getting better for you and Andrew. I'd been told after 6 weeks it would get easier, but it just never did for me.

What formulas do you all use? I had one person recommend Similac or Good Start today as being most palatable to a breastfed baby. One of the nurses recommended Enfalac as tasting way better than Similac, with the added benefit of not staining clothes.

The wrist feels a bit better today, though there is one really red patch and a couple little blisters.

PG - weird nanny!

 

[Sha]

drk - sorry to hear about the scalded wrist, but glad that it's feeling better today.

Re: formula - I used SMA Gold with D from 4 months, and then switched to their second stage formula (Promil Gold) at 6 months. Dalila likes it a lot.

Amber - Dalila has been really clingy of late too - wanting to be picked up all the time and crying whenever DH and I are out of sight. I wonder if it's some kind of developmental thingy? I know Piper and D are close in age. She's also been nursing more these last two days, during the day at least I was just about to google 'growth spurts' to see if she might have having one now. And the sleep thing is the same too - still waking up at least 2 times a night - although we've made good progress since letting her CIO this week. IMO, sleep isn't that dependent on food intake during the day (solids etc). I know when I tried to give formula and cereal at 4 months it didn't have any effect on her sleep at all. It seems that some babies just sleep through the night when they're ready to - no matter how much food they get.

Yayyy for a good transition to the sippy cup! Straight from the breast? Wow.

I bought one over the weekend for D. HOpefully she takes to it well.

Where did Mandy go?

I haven't seen her post in a while. Wonder how she and the twins are doing...

 

[taovandel]

I really think being consistent is key to getting a baby to sleep.

We are very consistent with everything (but not so strict that he has meltdowns).

I know he will wake up at a certain time everyday (we actually have to wake him up Monday, Wednesday and Fridays at 7:30 to take him to daycare), 8:30-9:00.

I know he will have a bottle around 9:30.

We know he has his "lunch" at 11:30

Another bottle at 1:30

Another bottle at 5:30

Dinner at 7:30

and Bed by 8:30.

We have been consistent with his schedule from about 2 1/2 months on (Obviously it differed slightly when he was younger).

He has consistently slept through the night since then (with minor moments of craziness after shots/4 months).

I agree with others on here---once he is in his room for bed...he should stay there. I wouldn''t have brought him downstairs with me--it''s giving in. And it''s confusing him and making him think if he cries long enough he can go downstairs where the real fun is.

If you aren''t comfortable with CIO then don''t try it.....be consistent though with whatever you do decide to do.


Amber: I don''t know how you manage to do any work with your baby at work! I had to do it today for 2 hours for a project that normally takes me 20 minutes!

 

[phoenixgirl]

Sha, Mandy has been posting on The Other Site about the World Cup a lot. Or at least, I think so since some of it is not in English.

Cute pictures of the boys dressed up to cheer on their favorite teams . . .

 

[Burk]

drk~Ouch!! Hope your appt. with the LC goes well!

viz~I don''t even think about CIO when my kiddos are sick. Hope tonight went well. FWIW I would put him down without getting him to drowsy since you know he''s able to do it himself.

mara~K does the exact same thing you''re describing J does when going to sleep (naps included). Yesterday it took him 30 minutes to finally go down for a 40 minute nap.

Oh, and the trying to put paci in-K does that too. Unfortunately it also causes him to take the paci out when he really wants it in (aka going to sleep)....so annoying! T was able to get hers in herself around this age so I''m hoping it comes soon because that will make my life easier!

Re bedtime: K is in bed right around 7 every night. After that he turns into super crab! I worked towards 7-7 with both my kids. Now that I have two K''s bedtime is 7 and T''s is 8.

Crap, I have more to respond to but I''m done pumping (my measly 8 ounces...my BFing days are numbered!

) Going to the zoo tomorrow but hopefully can properly catch up during afternoon nap.

 

[Mara]

burk.. yeah J also has discovered he can pull out the paci too, but when he tries to put it back in it's usually crooked or backwards. but hopefully he gets it soon.

re: formula.. we use Baby's Only organic formula with no synthetic DHA/ARA (all the other regular brands have it) and it uses brown rice syrup instead of corn syrup. i buy it in bulk from diapers.com and it's the same price as Similac Sensitive that way. after reading about the DHA/ARA it just made me feel like i wanted to give him something as close to natural as possible. Before that we used Similac Sensitive, and J liked it and it didn't stain his clothes.

PG...you have the funniest stories hehe, i would have been like umm can i have my kid back hee.

Mandy is totally immersed in World Cup'ville!!

And ditto Amber on how do you get any work done with P there..!! J tends to want to always be engaged with something and somethihng like playmat or toys only lasts like 20-30min max.

tonite J surprised me and fell asleep with hardly any fussing even though he pushed paci out 2x. he must have been tired!

OH and we tried sweet potatoes tonite... he LOVE LOVE LOVED them. he ate 3/4 of a baby cube 2oz container and was chowing down like a king. glad i made enough for 3-4 more meals.

welcome Lindsey!! hope BF'ing gets easier!

 

[littlelysser]

Hi ladies!

Hope all is well.

A quick bit of extra information about the TP thievery. They left through our garage door and in doing so, they walked right past our TP stash. My guess is they were walking out, robber 1 says to robber 2, "Hey Jimmy, didn''t your wife tell you to pick up toilet paper? Might as well grab some here." And away went our TP. But I still can''t believe they didn''t leave a single roll. Bastids!

Today was a GORGEOUS day. I''m talking sunny and 70 degrees. Amazing. My parents, my sis and I took C to the zoo for the first time. We were not the only ones who had this idea and the zoo was super duper crazy crowded nuts. SO crowded. We didn''t get to see too many animals for all the people, strollers, etc. But we had a great time!

I''m having so much fun with my little guy.

So, C has a new habit. Playing in the dog bowls. He''s like a little dog bowl seeking missile. I look away for TWO SECONDS and there he is, dipping his hands and splashing in their water and going for what he has decided to be the most fabulous finger food ever - DOG FOOD! He grabs HUGE handfuls of it and tries to get it in his mouth as quickly as he can. I''ve managed to stop him from really chowing on any so far - but he''s a determined little bugger!

Has anyone dealt with this issue before? And what did you do? Of course, he''s too young to discipline, so I just sort of make an "ahh ahh" noise and redirect him...I don''t think there is much else I can do. Suggestions??? Thoughts??

Ginger - Yay for ''cado as the first food! We started C on it and he loves it to this day. Also, adorable pic!

CDT - YAY for No. 2!

PG - That''s great that you are enjoying being home. I NEVER thought I''d be a SAHM, but for now, I am...and I love it. Well, I am slightly bitter when I send my student loan checks in each month...but I''m bitter that I have a law degree that I have NO desire to use...not that I''m home with C. And really, I think it''ll just get to be more fun as they get older. Museums, parks, zoos...so many fun things to do!

Burk - Glad to hear sleep training is going well! K is so cute! Those eyes!!!

MT - So cute!!!!

Tao - Glad the eye is alright!

Mara - Feh to the former friend. And FEH to your issues with J''s care during the day. That is all a bunch of steaming feh, in fact. Oh, and C liked avocados, but wasn''t mad about them until I started mixing them with the smallest amount of banana. It turned them into a creamy delish avocado fabulousness. And the pea-stache is fabulous.

Dr.K - I''m sorry to hear about your continued troubles with BF''ing. Your perseverance is impressive, I''d have thrown in the towel by now for sure! Lots of hugs going your way. Please don''t feel badly - however things work out.

Viz - YAY for supersleeper C! How are you sleeping? I found it took a LONG time for me to even get close to STTN once C started STTN. He''s been doing it since about 10 weeks - and I STILL wake up every night around 4...

Amber - I hope things slow down soon. Are you going to keep bringing P to work once she''s mobile? I would have a tough time doing work and trying to corral the hurricalvin that my son has become... And many sleepy baby vibes going your way!

MP - I know a lot of moms on here, myself included, have used Health Sleep Habits Happy Child as a guide for sleeping. It was definitely helpful. And for the first couple months, it is pretty hard to establish a sleep schedule in terms of specific times. I *believe* that three months is the age when you can start putting them down earlier, but I''m not totally sure. We sort of created a schedule for C and it has worked well. Of course, it appears that I''m like Mara - I like me some schedules. I like that C is in bed by 7:00 most nights and that we have our evenings to veg, eat dinner, watch crap tv...sheesh, written out like that, I sound lame...but I accept my lame-osity.

Sha - Adorable pic of D!

Alright, I''m off to bed.

Oh, and C''s obsession with books continues unabated. He just loves him some books. I bought him an animal ABC book at the zoo and he looked at it the whole way home. He is into reading them aloud now. Of course, it sounds a lot like "badadada maaaamama dobobobo" but, really, those are just details.

 

[sunkist]

Hi Ladies!!!

I''m a lurker these days, I admit. Never enough time to read all I want and respond, just here and there. While I''m here though, I''ll give a quick update! Wes is learning so many new things these days! He got his two bottom teeth in a couple weeks ago! Yesterday he started playing peekaboo with me, he hides behind the kitchen curtains when I have them hanging by his high chair and then peeks out, so adorable! He''s getting close to crawling, but not quite there yet. He needs to get his tummy off the ground and then I know I won''t be able to keep up with him. He wants to crawl so badly!

Lysser-- I just wanted to say as a suggestion for your "dog bowl seeking missile" situation, maybe try just feeding the dogs as much as they need for one meal at a time. I know that means sort of retraining the dogs, they won''t be too keen on that. But if they ate their meal all gone then there wouldn''t be any for C to munch on. Or keep the dog''s dishes in the laundry room/bathroom with door shut or something like that. The water bowl is another story.

Good luck. (Oh, and I totally remember eating the dry cat food out of the cat''s dish when I was little

, haha! it makes me gag to think about it. But that''s what kids do right?? am I alone on this one??? haha)

 

[steph72276]

Hey guys! I''ve been lurking on here too...just not enough time to get caught up and respond to everyone, but I''ve been reading. Just wanted to give Viz a BIG HUGE YEA for C STTN!!!!!!!! That is awesome! Hope everyone else is doing well.

As for us, it has been pretty busy around here with Andrew off from school. We have been swimming in our pool a lot and just getting out and about enjoying his time off. I have been making E baby food. So far he has LOVED oatmeal, bananas, avocado, and sweet potatoes, but HATED peas!

Have a great day everyone!

 

[vizsla]

lindsey - congrats! i had a very tough time BF. cried more about that then anything else.
((hugs)) and huge congrats on your baby boy!!

so sorry i'm only posting about me... i'm super redic busy at work but i have a question.

so last night was

- did our nighttime routine, got c to drowsy awake, put him down, he instantly woke up and started to cry, patted his back for a min or so but he was still crying wanting to be picked up, so i bent down and kissed him, said goodnight and left.

he cried for 35 mins ... i must be getting AF or something b/c i cried right along with him the entire time.

then at 4:30a he woke up and we let him cry again. i had to put a pillow over my head b/c i couldn't take it. he cried about 35 mins.

woke up at 7:00a.

i just happened to be in his room when he woke up and he opened his eyes, looked around and started crying.

this broke my heart.

does he really hate his crib that much? will he wake up and not cry? i swear he hated me today.. was really standoffish.

it gets easier right?

i was so thrown off last night b/c the night before he only cried for 15 mins, and last night he cried for 35 mins... what up with that?

i'm glad he got so much sleep, but it still kills me.

ETA: confession is that i'm loving sleep!... i realized i have done ZERO for myself in so long, my skin looks like crap, my life is a mess... and i need him to sleep so i can do a little "me" focus and clean myself up. i feel very selfish for reverting to CIO.

 

[Mara]

so i know the sweet thing to do would be say.. ''awww viz don''t feel selfish for doing this, you''re a great mom..''...but the tough knock me says... REALLY???? selfish is the last thing you are. actually, selfish to me would be if you decided to not do this and just went in and soothed him or picked him anytime he wanted to because it hurt YOU to hear him crying. because in the long run, you''d be teaching him something that would NOT benefit him as much as learning he can be on his own.

AND even so, if you are a bit selfish sometimes, SO WHAT? i am too. hello, i love and adore my child but hey i am a human being too. and if i had to deal with everything you guys have had to, i''d be DYING for some friggin sleep. so don''t feel bad that you like it because your body needs it just as much as C''s does, except you probably realize it more than he does.

AND no i don''t think he hates his crib at all. that is the mommy guilt in you speaking. J loves his crib, will play in there while i fold clothes or if i put his mobile on he just chills and listens. BUT at night when he wakes up, of course he doesn''t love it! its dark in there, there''s no mom or dad to make funny faces at him, and his paci fell out and his arms are cold. heck i''d be pissed too. OR when he wakes up at 7am, oh heck no he doesn''t love it. he''s starving, he has 12 hours of pee stuck on his penis... i mean really??? why would he be cheery? the mornings he does wake up happy afer his long sleep are rare. he is much happier after i change his diaper and feed him 9oz. then he''s like ''aww ok life is pretty good''...

try not to think of things so emotionally, most times i try to put myself into J''s position sometimes and not in an ''awww'' kind of way but more like a practical--well what could he be thinking or feeling way.

AND 35 min is not that long for CIO. and he fell asleep til 4:30!! that is awesome!! and again til 7. you have made GREAT STRIDES. and yes it gets easier, on both of you.

lastly...some Dr''s think that crying is just a form of communication. the babes don''t really know how to speak, they might babble or make noises but that is their way of saying something to us. we ASSUME as parents with heart strings to pull that they are upset and a lot of times they are, you can tell those cries. but a lot of times J is just laying there doing this weird moany cry thing and i walk in and i realize i startle him because he''s like ''in the zone''... so i wonder gee is that his weird way of soothing himself?

anyway, i know it''s hard to hear him cry....i have said too that i don''t know if i could do hard core CIO unless we HAD to because our house is so tiny i just lay there listening and feeling horrible. BUT i know in the long run that if i had to do it, it''d be BEST for him to learn these things earlier rather than later. i do not want a 2 year old i was having to sleep train. so i can say...viz keep your big girl pants on and keep with it. but i am not in your shoes so it''s WAY easier said than done, i totally admit that. but i will say that i think some type of sleep training is good and that C needs it and i personally think it''s going pretty well for HIM (maybe not you)...and you should stick with it and be consistent for up to 2-3 weeks before you throw in the towel. and big hugs for you guys.

AFM...not much to report other than J keeps rolling on his belly and sleeping on the side of his face, freaking me out every time i go look at him. he slept from 7:30 to 4:30 and then i went in and rolled him over and he rolled back in 5 min and cried.

so G rolled him over again and he slept til 6:45am. he was pretty crabby this morning, but 9oz later he seemed happy.

AND this is the third day this week i have early meetings which make getting up, feeding J and getting myself ready sucky. i am so happy to wfh tomorrow.

 

[Mara]

oh and almost forgot to say... HAPPY BIRTHDAY SOPHIA!!!!!!!!

and Fiery I can''t believe your baby is a year old. great job momma!