jennyh

Hey Jenny You ok? Tippee Toes is tomorrow at 10am, think that me and Bess are going but not sure until tomorrow - depends on if she has a nap or not!!! x

Yeah I heard that too, have done the one at the ceramics cafe which was lovely. Might try the goose green centre too. I don't really want to sign up to pre-paid courses yet as she is needing a lot of daytime sleep!

Its really hard, on the one hand she gets great comfort from it, on the other hand i get no sleep as she is going through this stage of demanding it throughout the night. Call me selfish but I just cant exist on 4 hours of broken sleep even if it does make her happy!! Also, she is getting poor sleep as i dont think she ever really enters a deep sleep. I do hope that it is just a phase that passes. Im fearing the nights again! She went down at 7pm and have already been in 3 times to put it back in...I find if I take it out slowly myself and shush her then she often doesnt notice so much, if it falls out then she realises. Dunno, I know you shouldnt really remove prematurely, just knackered myself and need some respite!

yes i believe that there is, something to do with them using it to regulate their breathing. But then not sure how that works if it just falls out anyway. I am happy for her to have it but I just need to know whether this is a phase or will she wake on the hour forever! :)

I think it is just the dummy or perhaps a bit of attention/habit. we're just going to have to get on with it and try and nap between dummy demands!

Thanks Belle. That is my thinking, I like that she has the comfort from it but just need to know there is light at the end of the tunnel if I leave her with it. Have visions of weeks and weeks of having to go in throughout the night. Do you think she will def get to a point where she can keep it in? Sometimes she is fine and will take it and hang onto it for 90 minutes, other times she is more unsettled in the middle of the night and can spit it out 15 times in a row, other times she drops it after 5 mins and can stay asleep for hours without it. Just tired today and felt a bit miserable that this is a new phase and a bit pessimistic about how long it will last! Can I ask - did you find it relatively straight forward to get rid of it when you did?

Hi My 14 week old is seemingly more addicted to her dummy than ever. I was quite happy for her to have it to settle before a sleep from abot 4 weeks and often she refused it when she wasn't fussed. She never has it when she is awake and happy, only when she needs to sleep and I always managed to whip it out as soon as she fell asleep. I'm happy for her to have it but last night we had a horrendous night where suddenly she was waking hourly and only the dummy would settle her, then it would fall out and the whole thing would start again. previously we have had to give it to her a bit in the evening when she woke but never during the night. There is no way that I can manage if i'm going in every 15 minutes to put it back in again, also she cant get into a deep sleep and so is crabby and tired today. Does anyone have experience of their babies becomming more reliant on the dummy and did they grow out of it? did it stop waking them up when it fell out or did it get to a point where they could put it back in themselves? If it isn't going to change then I think I will have to look at how to wean her off it but I don't want to resort to controlled crying yet, but that seems the only option as she cries without it. We have tried sushing and patting her but it doesn't seem to get us anywhere, I am not going to start picking her up to settle her as we have only just started to put her down awake. Im shattered!!! She woke around 6 times in the night, i reckon i'm working on about 4 hours broken sleep. Boo :(

Hi everyone, just to say I did get the private messages so thanks. I'll have a chat on Friday at babyclub and see what happens with the mag, will report back. Reckon there are prob at least 10-15 who are interested. I'll call the number too and see what the deal is and then post a message!

I did an antenatal class in the room above the Mag, we all meet every friday afternoon for a babyclub and so I am planning on asking all the mums there if anyone wants to do it, potentially we could use that space as it would be big enough for 20 or so I reckon.

This is great thank you. I posted a while ago about wanting to do a first aid course so will def be calling!

Absolutely agree!!! Listening for minute changes in their cries is rarely reliable I find!

Good news that you got some support and reassurance and that things are a little better. Both me and my girl have had colds that we keep passing back and forth between us, not easy! Sure she will bounce back to normal soon! It just shows that if in doubt always ask!

great that is what I wanted to know, just for future reference. thanks!

OK, fair enough. That was just my experience, my expressing eventually yielded low results as I discovered lots of lumps and cysts that were blocking my ducts but as I didnt manage to breastfeed successfully I cannot really back up with any science, just anecdotal evidence on what people have said to me. Sure that all will be well and your baby will be back to normal soon HelloSailor.

HI Im not breastfeeding so prob have nothing to back up my post but from my experience of talking to other mums - there have been 2 out of the 7 in my antenatal group who have had similar problems at this age and it was actually down to their supply. Both babies got to a point where they rejected the breast and from my understanding it was because they were struggling to feed easily so got frustrated and upset, if you are not able to express much then perhaps this is the case? Maybe you can look at how to up your supply if it stays this way. Without wanting to be controversial and cause a row as I am sure that you will be able to carry on breastfeeding and it is just a phase...perhaps you would consider giving your baby a bit of formula just to get her strength up, you could always use a finger tube/syringe if you dont want to introduce a bottle teat. At least then you will feel better that you know your baby is getting some nutrition whilst you sort out the feeding issues and deal with any illness etc. Hope she gets better soon.

Hey If I make up a bottle of boiled water for my baby, anyone know how long this water can remain out of the fridge/at room temperature for? Thanks Jenny

Thanks everyone. To be honest I wasnt happy to change from a dream feed to feeding on her demand because the growth spurt did play on my mind. I really just wanted to work out whether she needed the feed or not and I think I have definitely found out that she does! i am very happy to carry on feeding her in the night for as long as she needs it, very used to it now! It just occured to me that I didnt know if she did need it when I was force-feeding so to speak! I think that I am going to start again with the dream feed at 3am as I have been doing, this way I can control how much she has (she wont be so hysterical so can get away with giving her just enough to fill her tummy rather than her guzzling to stop the crying!) then hopefully she will feed better in the morning. Then I might re-address in a while or start trying to cut the amount down if she feeds well during the day. It changes all the time doesnt it!

Forgot to say - she goes between 6pm-11pm and 11pm-4amish so she is comfortable with 5 hours between feeds and can go for 6 hours but I am loathe to disrupt the pattern of feeding during the day by shifting all the timings. Suppose I am being too hopeful to get her stretching feeds at this stage, she is a big 3 month old and very robust and strong so I often think of her as older and bigger than she actually is! The midwife suggested that I introduce water at her 3am dream feed from 15 weeks, i had also considered doing what SuperGolden suggested and reducing the amount of milk but its a minefield!!! :)

I have always used cartons and only just started using powder as her digestion is better and she can take it without having issues! i have plenty of cartons and would be happy to use them if it was easier. Its frustrating because she always used to take the milk at room temperature but then my OH introduced warm milk at bedtime and now she spits out the milk if it isn't warmed! I def want to try and get her used to having it at room temp but not sure when she is screaming in the middle of the night is the right time, then again perhaps you are right, she may just be grateful for it! I just wanted to have it ready without needing to warm it but I think i will have to carry on as I am for the time being as not sure there is an easy option! She is nearly 13 weeks and has a big dream feed at 11, I was giving her another dream feed at 3am but it was starting to interfere with her 7.30am feed as she wouldnt take much on waking. I just want to see whether she is actually hungry at 3am or whether she is just taking it because it is there. She is definitely hungry for it so still needs a night feed but not sure where to go from here!! If I feed her at 4am then she still isnt hungry for her morning feed! You get so far and then end up taking 2 steps back!

Hi all I am trying to phase out the 3am feed so rather than feeding my baby religiously at 3 I am now just waiting to see when she wakes. The problem with this is that she is now waking anywhere from betwen 2.30 and 4.30 and is hungry so she cries. It then takes me a few minutes to get her bottle ready as she will only take milk warm at the moment, cue more crying therefore tricky settling!!!! Does anyone have advice on what I can do to make it easier and stop her from waiting so long? I am thinking of buying some kind of thermos thing that I could keep the whole bottle of water inside then I could just add the powder, or anyone know a really good zip up insulated bag thing?? Excuse my ignorance but she has only just started demanding milk warm and I'm not quite sure the best way to do it. Jenny

Oh I wish I had had the patience to wait without fretting!! I remember so well how anxious I was and however hard I tried to relax and just let it be I couldnt. I had 3 sweeps in a week, the midwife said that it was more effective having a day between each sweep, on the other days I had acupuncture with 3 sessions in total. At my first sweep the midwife said that my cervix was favourable etc and I was 1cm dilated so I dont think that I was that far off anyway to be honest. I did however feel the effects of each acupuncture session, lots of low cramping and the baby kicked a lot. She arrived the day before my induction and I went into labour 1 day after the last acupuncture. I do wonder whether because I had the 3 sweeps and the 3 acupuncture and eaten curry and all the rest I got to the point where I had tried it all and had no more options so just had to grin and bear it, and then she came...albeit with her hands on her head, still not keen on making an entrance! Good luck! Let us know how you get on!

Thanks everyone! Yes we change her before the feed, most necessary due to her protest at being woken for a change! I think we'll try changing her at 11 instead of 3 and see if that helps. As she feeds less from 7pm-7am hopefully she might wee less! Thanks for the offer of the cloth nappy - I might take you up on the offer after I try size 4 and changing the time, we've tried all the brands including all the unrecognisable brands in the pharmacy. Pampers seem to be the noblest bur granted they all seem to have good and bad. I do agree huggies were terrible, really awful! Shes not even 3 months yet but the size 2 is snug so size 3 and 4 it is!!!

Ah its such a pain isnt it!!!?? I might try the active baby ones in case they help, thanks for the advice. Eventually I am going to try and phase out the 3am feed but just want to get her growth spurt out of the way in case it makes everything go wrong in the meantime! When you changed at 11pm did you find there was no leaking? Jenny

Hi I have a bit of a nappy problem and need some advice - my daughter goes to bed around 6.30pm and we put her in a size 3 pampers baby dry nappy. (she is currently around 12 lb 6). At 11pm we give her a dream feed and at 3am I give her another dream feed (we are waiting until after her 12 week growth spurt where we will start leaving her to wake to see how long she can go!). The problem is that her nappy only lasts as long as the 3am feed and even then it is starting to leak. She seems to wee so much that I have to change her which then obviously wakes her up, cue screaming and general wide awakeness. If and when she starts sleeping through the night I dont want to have to wake her just because of a nappy change but otherwise not only are her clothes wet, it goes through her sleeping bag and sheet and I cant be washing these every day! I thought it might be worth perhaps trying her in a size 4 nappy at her bedtime and seeing how long that goes, has anyone else tried this?? SOunds stupid but we have just bought loads of size 3 nappies and I dont want to spend money on a size 4 if it wont work or if it is too big. So, anyone else had this problem, how do your babies get through the night?? Does my girl just have a huge amount of wee!!??? Jenny

saila - your post reads exactly like my experience!!! weeks and weeks of pumping every 3 hours and eventually getting nowhere, 2 weeks of mastitis, a baby with jaundice and no ability to wake up to learn how to latch! To top it all off i found a lump and upon further investigation found large numbers of cysts and lymph nodes that were blocking my milk ducts. Still waiting for biopsy results, if i were still trying to breastfeed i prob wouldn't have found the the lump. I digress...this post isnt about the dramas of breastfeeding!! I think that it is right to say that women who cant breastfeed do feel like failures and therefore people do rally aorund to make them feel better and as a result breastfeeders could feel put out, when really we are all trying our hardest and doing a fab job so should give each other a big pat on the back! i still wish I had breastfed and have massive respect to every mother who does, i am also supremely jealous but need to get over it! Ultimately providing for our babies should be an enjoyable experience whether it be using a bottle or on the breast and no-one should take that experience away by bringing up negativity surrounding a very positive thing!