* september 2014 mummies! *

[Mackmummy]

Well last night he woke at 11.45 for his booby milk then wouldn't sleep until 4.30! Then woke again at 6.45 for more milk then nodded off about 7.30, woke at 10, more milk and is currently fast asleep and will be for hours now! Ideally I'd catch up on sleep but I need to express as he's drank everything! I did get an hour before he woke at ten though so feel ok now. I'll try the hot water bottle tonight, that's the only one we haven't tried properly. I've got two cribs for him, one rocks one doesn't, one downstairs and one next to our bed, both the same, just won't sleep at night. I read up on cluster feeding and think it might be that, thankfully only lasts the first four weeks! One week to go!

 

[Mummybexee]

cluster feeding goes well past the 4 week mark unfortunatley! growth spurts are even worse i remember the 6 week one...yikes

good luck with teh hot water bottle

 

[BeckyBiscuit]

Sorry to hear you had a rough night Mackmummy. Pippa didn't settle well in her moses basket either night after a couple of really good nights. On the plus side though I have a totally different baby today to yesterday. She's been really alert all morning and feeding well. Dozed off about 12.30 for the first time since we woke up this morning. Even the health visitor was impressed with how alert she was.
Interesting to hear we're all having similar issues with feeling like we're constantly feeding whether we're bf, ff or expressing! x

 

[Applecrumble]

mackmummy and other mums...a couple of new things to try
- A hot water bottle to pre heat the moses basket before putting him in it.
-poddlepod or sleeyhead pillow or clevamama-sleep positioner

 

[vicky78]

let me know?
x

She said not to worry! Ella had 1oz when she was here fell asleep and then an hour later had 2oz then slept for another couple of hours and had 2.5oz! I record what she has so I'm not too worried because she is having 20/24oz a day and putting weight on

 

[julie2475]

Sounds like all the babies are testing us. Eden used to be a great sleeper but is waking every 2-3 hours for a feed
He has obviously recovered well from operation as he is a hungry Horace now and downing 4 to 5 oz he has now increased his weight and is 9lb 9 woohoo so back to over his birth weight now.

Unfortunately he has formed a hernia where they operated on and might well need another operation we just need to keep an eye on things. We have out 6 week check next week , god how time is flying.

Mackmummy I understand how hard it must be doing it all by yourself while hubby away. My oh has been lucky enough to have had 6 weeks off but will be 1 week away every 3 weeks starting next week.
God knows how I am going to cope getting all 3 boys ready in morning and to school on time.

 

[Crackers]

My daughter was very much like how the majority of babies here are.... wouldn't settle except on me, fed small amounts but often, I was at my wit's end! But all I can say is that it DOES get better. Around the 8 week mark she started to naturally sleep less during the day and more at night (days had playtime, nights were dark and quiet). At this point our bubbas don't know the difference between day & night, and that is NORMAL! Also, their tummies are small. So they will take enough milk to satisfy them, but may well be hungry again quite soon after.

Nic - falling asleep on bottle is all very normal hun!

At the moment little Henry is actually sleeping around 5/6 hours during the night, but tends to cluster feed from 5pm- 11pm. I also think a big reason for his longer sleep during the night (praise the Lord!) is where his big sister keeps the house nice and noisy during the day,he must fall into a deeper sleep during the night (had the health visitor yesterday, and she agreed).

Xx

 

[Crackers]

Ooh, can't remember what has been mentioned before, but a few things I do if Henry falls asleep feeding and I know he needs more:

- undo his babygro (warm & toasty means sleepy!)
- change his nappy (definitely wakes him up!)
- lay him flat on changing mat/in cot with no blankets (he likes being swaddled so this wakes him up too)

Once he's woken up a bit he'll usually take another oz or so x

 

[Applecrumble]

Hello ladies...just popping in to say hi..loving the photos and think you all sound like your doing an amazing job. Xxxx

 

[nds]

just an update on my part, we switched to variflow teats and hes happily taking 3oz every 2-3 now. we've even had a few 4oz feeds! but he's not fallen asleep, and where it was taking fourty minutes to feed he's now guzzled it within fifteen, twenty.

so not much difference in the time between feeds, but taking more and not falling asleep.
x

 

[nds]

he's still unsure about the moses, sometimes he'll settle sometimes he won't. he was very unsettled for poor hubby last night. hope he's better tonight for me! had a look at sleepyhead and the reviews are amazing but worried i'm gonna buy it and it won't work, like how ewan the sheep doesn't always work for us. lot of money to spend for what it is but sounds really good.
x

 

[Pixxy]

Looks like it's going to be a rough night with Elara. We've had a lot of visitors today and she has been really fighting sleep and seems to be thirsty.
Usual first lot of milk that comes through my breasts is watery with me and once she's been getting to the thicker stuff she's been fussing. So I switched breasts and same thing happened. So I tried giving her a little boiled water cooled down in a bottle and she settled back on the boob much better.
She hasn't slept for more than half an 45 minutes in total for the past 7 hours. I'm really hoping she's just going to crash out soon so we can relax a little.

On the plus side I finally managed to get the pink Trapper hat that I wanted for her for when the weather cools. Saw one a couple of weeks ago and the shop where I saw them had sold out and haven't restocked. Had someone else pick one up from a different branch.

 

[vicky78]

just an update on my part, we switched to variflow teats and hes happily taking 3oz every 2-3 now. we've even had a few 4oz feeds! but he's not fallen asleep, and where it was taking fourty minutes to feed he's now guzzled it within fifteen, twenty.

so not much difference in the time between feeds, but taking more and not falling asleep.
x

That's good Nic, what bottles do you have!? I might need to look at the teats

 

[nds]

vicky, we're just using tommee tippee closer to nature range.
x

 

[nds]

pixxy, sorry to hear elara's unsettled currently. hope you don't have too rough a night.
x

 

[amylouise1989]

I had the same problem with the Tommee Tippee closer to nature bottles, I ended up binning them in a rage! Went out and bought Dr.Browns (mix of level 1&2 teats) and Philips Advent (Level2 Teat)
Soon as we changed bottles, she completely changed feeding from 2oz right to 4oz!
Hope changing the variflow works for everyone, I've spent a fortune on new bottles - best part of £50! :-/

 

[nds]

yikes!
so far they are working so will stick with them. size 2 was too fast and he projectile vomited his whole feed up when i tried it so thought i'd try these. fingers crossed.

we didn't feed so well last night though, only taking 2oz at his feeds. BUT we are still taking what we need to take daily - he took 30oz in 24hrs for yesterday!
x

 

[vicky78]

yikes!
so far they are working so will stick with them. size 2 was too fast and he projectile vomited his whole feed up when i tried it so thought i'd try these. fingers crossed.

we didn't feed so well last night though, only taking 2oz at his feeds. BUT we are still taking what we need to take daily - he took 30oz in 24hrs for yesterday!
x

We're still only taking 1, 1 1/2, 2oz per feed but getting approx 20-24oz a day so not too bothered, what I would prefer is for her to take more so they are less frequent!

Amy we have the Phillips Avent but I have one tommee tipee that came with the perfect prep and they are both the same, so am putting it down to Ella and the way she prefers to eat, she's obviously a grazer not a guzzler! I'm not about to spend a fortune on more bottles as knowing my luck as soon as she starts taking more we'll need bigger bottles! I have however started using a dummy in between feeds to try and space them out in the hope that she'll take more, watch this space!!!

 

[nds]

same here. really wish he would go longer between, it's a little frustrating, specially at night so i totally sympathise.


we should try the dummy again too, that's how we managed to get from 1 hour to 2 hour gaps.
x

 

[Pixxy]

We're using Tommee Tippee and haven't had a problem. But that could be because Elara is a greedy baby and gulps her milk which is why she's on slow flow otherwise she'd probably have milk coming out her nostrils. She has between 4 oz and 5 oz when she has a bottle, we tend to only use the bottle for when she cluster feeds though so we can keep an eye on how much she's having otherwise she throws it up. She gets breastfed during the day and night then.

She finally settled at 2am, she just would not close her eyes to settle.
When she did fall asleep though she'd wake for a feed, so would have her nappy changed first, fed and fell asleep even while being winded. She only woke twice in the night up until 11am like that so we managed to get some sleep. Hopefully she won't be like that today. I think she was overly stimulated yesterday.

Have you tried different dummies? Someone recommended to me yesterday to try different ones to see which ones Elara prefers. We were using Tomme Tippee ones and she seemed okay with them, but then tried the Asda Little Angels ones and she much prefers them to the Tommee Tippee ones.