Don’t stimulate the baby before bed…

So I did the dream feed at 10pm last night, JP only took 100ml, couldn’t wake him enough to take more.

Get this though, he still woke at 6am??  Not much point doing a dream feed if he’s only going to wake… So do I dream feed tonight?

Today he has had 5 short naps totalling almost 2 1/2 hours.  For the last 3 days I’ve been keeping a record of how many hours JP is sleeping per day and so far it has been 13hrs and 30 mins, 13hrs 20 mins and today 13hrs.   The books say he should be having between 15 and 16 hours per day, so someone better tell him to read the book

JP’s booked in for his 8 week needles (very late considering he is 16 weeks this week) on Thursday and I’m going to ask the GP about putting him on Zoton instead of Losec.  I’m not convinced that the losec is stopping all the discomfort from the reflux.  ME was on Zoton and I noticed a big difference, so we will see what happens.

Tonight JP went down at 6.50pm and then for the first time in I can’t remember how long he woke again at 8pm.  I attempted to pat and resettle, but he often seems more bothered by me being there, so I left him for a bit.  I could hear him grizzling and kind of rhythmically whinging so I waited, and so far it seems he’s put himself back to sleep…

So much for turning over a new leaf…

Not quite true as I have still been sticking to a healthy eating plan.  Not TF but one of put together myself.  Its slowy having some impact so I will stick with it for now.

As for JP (aka Mr Cat Napper).  I am still perservering with the settling.  Its certainly no miracle cure, but at the moment I’m not going to be doing it any other way as in CC (controlled crying)…

For the last two days I’ve been sticking to a strict feeding schedule which is 7.30am, 11.30am, 3.30pm and then usually 6pm before bed at 7pm.  If JP wakes like this morning at 6am, I feed him then top him up at 7.30am to get back to the plan.

I’m going to try the dream feed again tonight to see if it helps him sleep longer in the morning.  The problem with a 6am wake up is that he’s really tired by the time I have to take ME to school.  If he just went till 7am he’d last a bit better.  I’d like to aim for naps at 9ish, 12/1230 ish and then after school.  While he continues to cat nap though I need to put him down everytime he’s tired *argh*

JP’s tired signs don’t seem to be that noticable, not to me anyway.  I rarely see him yawn or rub his eyes.  He does get whingey but thats really the only once I pick up on.

 So today he was up at 6am.  In bed at 8ish, up again at 8.45ish.  Back in bed at 10.45am and back up at 11.15am.  Back down again at 12.40pm back up at 1.30pm.  Had a little nap at school when picking up ME and another nap at 4.20pm ish till 4.40pm ish.

 Tonight JP was so gorgeous after his bottle.  He was gooing and gahing constantly for about 10 minutes.  DH and I couldn’t believe it.  I even phoned my mum so she could hear, it was so gorgeous it brought tears to my eyes.

There was a price to pay though.  I think he got himself a second wind and was very hard to settle tonight.  I took him in to his room at 7pm for a cuddle and put him down.  He whinged a little so I patted him.  He was very restless and fussed all over the place.  I left him for a while after 20 minutes of this and he started crying a lot.  I sent DH in for a bit, cause I felt so drained.  The crying seemed to get worse and of course DH is sitting with him in the rocker which he doesn’t like when settling for bed.  He likes to be over your shoulder with you standing and jiggling him.  

I took him from DH and settled him.  I had to bring him out of his room though to get him to properly stop crying.  Then back to his room for some fussing and patting.  Finally fussed and settled himself at 7.40pm.    

Phew that was trying.  So now I’m here updating.  I found a cool site today with some good tips on settling babies under 6 months, click here.  I’m pretty much doing things this way.

 Anyway positive positive, this to will pass

Turning over a new leaf…

So today is the day I turn my life around.  This last 5 years of babies, death and infertility have led to an unmotivated, overweight, unorganised person.  I don’t like it one bit. 

I was very motivated when we were TTC, I spent hours researching, contacting people for opinions and reading up on the latest treatments.  Now I need to refocus that motivation into getting my life back on track.

I am ordering a book today called ‘The Secret’, click here if you’d like to read more.  You can also see it on Oprah.  A little tip, its pretty cheap on ebay    From what I’ve read and heard people say” its the secret to creating the life you truly want—losing weight, making money, finding love”.  So I will give it a try and let you know what I think.

My next step is to be healthier.  To kick start this I’m going to try The Tony Ferguson weightloss program.  Its a mixture of shakes, low carb (not no carb) and smaller portions.  I’ve read about the diet on the website and visited the forums and it seems very do able.  I can’t get there for a day or two so I’m going to get my body started by not having any breads, potatoes or other basic carbs.  I’ll drink two litres of water per day, and maybe have a protein shake that I have here till I can get to the pharmacy to buy the TF stuff.  I’d like to lose 20 kilos, but will just start off with trying for 10kg’s…

I might try and pop on here each day to say what I will do ‘today’, and what will be good about losing weight, maybe this will help me keep myself focused.

My other major goal right now is to help little JP get into a bit of a day sleep routine.  He is all over the place in the day time.  He will sleep 4 or 5 hours straight one day, then sleep 45 mins x 4 the next.  I have been reading up on some routines tips etc on Save our Sleep .  Like anything I don’t like all Tizzie Hall’s ideas but there are some really good tips.  Like starting the day at the same time everyday no matter what time the last feed was, making baby stay awake for two hours so that he’s ready for a sleep not just a nap (this avoids cat napping).  Apparently when babies first show tired signs they are ready for a nap not a sleep.  Anyway we will see how we go setting a bit of a routine.

Needing to pick up DS1 from school means I can’t follow her exact routine for his age, but after reading some more of her info I think I can probably adjust it a bit for us.

 Anyway thats if for now, hopefully tomorrow I won’t be here saying what a dismal failure everything has been

The pain never goes away…

Yesterday we were on our way home from our week at the Gold Coast and JP started crying and getting restless.  We were only seconds from passing the resting place of our gorgeous girls so I suggested to DH that we pop in for a visit.

I got JP out of the car and headed over to the baby cemetery and I could feel the emotion welling up inside of me.

As I help JP in my arms I cried and cried for out little girls.  Even now as I write this the tears are flowing down my cheeks.  I had not idea that this would happen.  I’ve never thought about what it would be like to take my new baby to the final resting place of our dearly missed daughters.

It never ceases to amaze me how many situations I come across that still have such an emotional impact on my feelings when it comes to ~Paige and Amy~.

I still don’t understand what I was feeling or experiencing.  Was it that this child wouldn’t be here if his sisters had lived?  Was it that I never got to hold ~Paige and Amy~  in my arms as full term babies who would sustain life?  Was my body imagining what it would have felt like to hold our girls close to my breast and have them snuggle in to feel the warmth and protection that my body would provide the?  I don’t know, maybe a little bit of everything. 

ME (DS1) as sweet as ever said “Mummy I miss ~Paige and Amy~”, that little boy truly is a compassionate, loving human being.

Patience, Patience…

This post was actually done around the 20th April.  I saved it thinking that when I published it the orginal date I wrote it on would be posted, instead it has posted the date I published it…  Does that make sense?? 

Last night I started trying to get JP to put himself to sleep on his own.  Although frustrating for me he went really well.  He fussed for almost an hour, but never cried.  He eventually fell asleep all on his own.

Tonight however was another story.  I’m kind of using a cross between ‘The no cry sleep solution’    and ‘Controlled Comforting’ . 

We started out with a feed followed by a little sit in the lounge so he doesn’t go to bed on a full tummy.  When he got whingy we went to his room for a cuddle in the rocker with some soft lullabies playing.  When he started to nod off I popped him in his bed. 

For the next hour he fussed and grizzled on and off, with some crying as well.  When ever he got to crying properly I picked him up and soothed him.  When he got dopey again I popped him back to bed.  I must have done this 7 or 8 times.

Finally after one hour he is asleep.  Now also tonight I’ve decided to try introducing the ‘dream feed’…